Our Desperate Situation and God's Provision

Driving home: The gospel is not merely the announcement that Christ died, but it is the announcement that Christ died for our sins.

Martin compares Isaiah to an evangelist because he proclaims the good news of God's saving mercy in Jesus Christ, particularly through the Servant of Jehovah, much like a New Testament evangelist.

Many who have studied the book of the prophecy of Isaiah have called Isaiah the evangelist of the Old Testament, and they have done this for good reasons. An evangelist is basically one who proclaims or announces the evangel, that is, the good news of God's saving mercy in Jesus Christ. And when one takes in hand the book of the prophecy of Isaiah, one is struck again and again with some of the richest statements of the mercy and kindness of God to sinners to be found anywhere in all of the word of God. Furthermore, those announcements of God's mercy and kindness to sinners are again and again...

2:00 - 3:05 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The gospel is not merely the announcement that Christ died, but it is the announcement that Christ died for our sins.

Martin notes that Isaiah describes the Servant's sufferings with such detail that it seems like an eyewitness account, yet he wrote 800 years before the events, highlighting the prophetic wonder.

And it is that servant of Jehovah who is the subject of this portion of the word of God which has been read in your hearing. And in this particular section, the prophet Isaiah is describing the sufferings of the servant of Jehovah with the details of an eyewitness. As one reads the entire chapter that was read in your hearing, there is in that chapter such a collection of details concerning the sufferings of Jehovah that you think surely this must be an eyewitness who actually became a servant of Jehovah. And yet the wonder of it is, he described these events no fewer than 800 years before the...

3:05 - 4:15 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The gospel is not merely the announcement that Christ died, but it is the announcement that Christ died for our sins.

Martin clarifies that the gospel is not just that Christ died, but that 'Christ died for our sins,' emphasizing the interpretive significance Isaiah provides for the Servant's sufferings.

as only one could do, whose eyes spiritually were opened to understand the true spiritual significance of the sufferings that he already described. Because, you see, the gospel is not simply an announcement concerning the details of the sufferings of the servant of Jehovah, but it also involves God's meaning in terms of the sufferings of the servant of Jehovah. The gospel is not merely the announcement that Christ died, but it is the announcement that Christ died for our sins. And so it is proper to think of Isaiah the prophet as Isaiah the evangelist, because as no other Old Testament prophet...

4:15 - 5:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Listen to the truth about yourself, even if it is unflattering, because it comes from God and is for your good.

Martin quotes McShane: 'That man is your best friend who tells you the most truth about yourself,' using it to justify his role in telling the difficult truth about humanity's desperate situation.

You see, the Bible is not a flattering book. The Bible tells us precisely what we are. It tells us precisely what is wrong with us. But as Robert Murray McShane said, a godly Scottish preacher of another generation, That man is your best friend who tells you the most truth about yourself.

8:24 - 8:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Listen to the truth about yourself, even if it is unflattering, because it comes from God and is for your good.

The phrase 'all we like sheep have gone astray' is explained as a flock of sheep leaving their shepherd, exposing themselves to danger by departing from their protector and the path of safety.

We have gone out of the path that is marked for us as the shepherd. We have exposed ourselves to the danger of defenseless sheep who are away from the side of the shepherd who is their great protector, and out of the path which always results in their safety and in their well-being. One man who has studied for years and very carefully the Hebrew language suggests, that a good translation of this would be, like a flock of sheep that has lost its shepherd, all of us has gone astray. Now what does that mean in concrete terms? All we like sheep have gone astray. What does it mean when the prophet ...

9:42 - 10:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine your life to see if you have truly loved God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, acknowledging your failure to do so.

The fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden is presented as the original fulfillment of humanity's straying from God as the supreme object of love and devotion.

The thing that sets us apart from every one of God's creatures except the angels, all of the brute creation, the dogs, the cows, the cats, our precious little parakeets and the other pet animals we may have, that which makes us qualitatively different, is the fact that you and I were made with the capacity to know God, and were made in such a way that our true meaning in life could only be discovered as God himself was the supreme object of our love and our devotion. And the moment any creature made in the image of God was made made this God as the supreme object of his love and devotion, he c...

11:25 - 12:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine your life to see if you have truly loved God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, acknowledging your failure to do so.

Martin references the account in Matthew 22 where a Jewish leader asks Jesus about the greatest commandment, setting up the discussion of loving God supremely.

to God, book of the forbidden fruit, the scripture says, in Adam, and from the time we walk of sheep who have gone astray. from the living God as the supreme object of love and devotion. Let me ask you a simple question as you sit here this evening. What is the first and greatest commandment of all the commandments of God? Some of you are well enough acquainted with your Bibles to know the answer to that question. A certain Jewish religious leader once asked that question of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's recorded in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 22. And he said, Teacher and greatest commandment.

12:41 - 13:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Bring your life and thoughts alongside the Ten Commandments to see how you have strayed from God's standard of thought and conduct.

Martin explains that breaking the first commandment isn't just carving an idol, but making possessions or other things the object of one's zeal and heart, at the expense of obeying God.

your benefactor, worship no other God but me, and worship me every day, every moment. We show our enmity against God by setting our affection upon a thousand other things and making those things our gods. Paul says in Colossians, covetousness, the grasping after things is idolatry. How does a man break the first commandment? When he goes out into the woods and cuts down a tree and brings it home and carves it into a little garden, sets it on the mantle of his fireplace in his middle-class home and bows down and does some mumbo-jumbo and worships it? No, no. He shows his idolatry in terms of po...

21:59 - 23:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Bring your life and thoughts alongside the Ten Commandments to see how you have strayed from God's standard of thought and conduct.

The Sabbath commandment is explained as God's provision for humans, who are made to know and commune with Him, to set aside a day for spiritual focus, unlike animals.

God. That's your God, and you're an idolater. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. I've structured life in such a way that there will be six days to fulfill your legitimate task and to accomplish the labor necessary to sustain your life and to provide for others, but I claim, for myself, in a peculiar way, one day in seven, that on that day you're not a dog, you're not a cat, you're not a cow. You were made to know me, made to love me, made to hold communion with me, and in my goodness, I've given you one day in seven that you may draw aside from your normal, mundane responsibilities. Set you...

23:06 - 24:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Bring your life and thoughts alongside the Ten Commandments to see how you have strayed from God's standard of thought and conduct.

Martin uses the example of adultery, explaining that Jesus' teaching extends the commandment to include lustful thoughts, showing how easily God's standard is broken.

That's exactly what Isaiah meant when he said, all we like sheep. We've gone astray from God's standard of thought and conduct. God says, thou shalt not commit adultery, and in that commandment, according to the Lord Jesus, God forbids not just the act, but the very thought of lust and the heart, sexual gratification, but the legitimate object, and that is our own wives or husbands within the sacred confines of the marriage bond. Every time allows his eyes to glance over the glossy photographs of unprincipled women who pose for play.

24:37 - 25:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Bring your life and thoughts alongside the Ten Commandments to see how you have strayed from God's standard of thought and conduct.

He illustrates straying from God's standard by describing a child's grumbling and mumbling about parental requests, showing an inward rebellion against authority.

And thy mother's just requirements from asking you to make your bed before you go to school in the morning, taking out the garbage, drying the dishes. It doesn't matter what it is. And inwardly, you grumble and stitch and mumble. You see what you're showing? You're one of those sheep who's gone astray. You're one of those sheep who has turned aside from God's as the supreme standard of and of conduct. He could go right through every one of the Ten Commandments and show that Isaiah is telling the truth. Now, who has done this?

25:56 - 26:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin describes God's response to human sin, encompassing His holy anger, His demand for justice to uphold His law, and His pained and grieved holy love as His creatures depart…

Martin recounts the expulsion of Adam from Eden, the global flood, and the destruction of the cities of the plain with fire, as historical examples of God's holy anger against man's rebellion.

Turn to the early chapters of Genesis and we see that sad, sad picture of God getting Adam from the garden because of sin. A few chapters later, we see the whole face of the earth covered with water. And we see upon the face of the water the bloated bodies of infants and young people and adults, all who have been blood that God sent upon the world of the ungodly, sparing only one man and his family. You want to know how God feels when men turn to their own way?

35:06 - 35:42 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin describes God's response to human sin, encompassing His holy anger, His demand for justice to uphold His law, and His pained and grieved holy love as His creatures depart…

Martin references Genesis 6, where God was grieved that He had made man, and Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, to illustrate God's pained and grieved love when His creatures depart from Him.

His holy anger stirred and his holy justice stirred. But his holy love is pained and grieved as he sees the creature departing from him. You read some of the saddest verses in all of the Bible in Genesis 6 when God beholds the whole race turning aside into the most advanced forms of sin that brought the flood upon the entire world. It says that it grieved that he had made man.

37:16 - 37:46 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon transitions to the 'good news' of God's gracious provision, emphasizing that only God Himself, Jehovah, is the author of salvation, taking the initiative to rescue…

Martin offers a 'good rule of thumb' for judging religious systems: if they start and end with man, with only a 'little bit of God sandwiched in between,' they are likely false, as true salvation must begin with God.

Do you want to have a good rule of thumb by which to judge any religious system as to whether or not it's true? Here's a good rule of thumb. It's not exhaustive, but it's pretty accurate. Here's a good rule of thumb.

42:05 - 42:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon transitions to the 'good news' of God's gracious provision, emphasizing that only God Himself, Jehovah, is the author of salvation, taking the initiative to rescue…

Adam running from God after sin, but God taking the initiative to come to him, is used to illustrate that no sinner is ever rescued without God's initiative.

Whatever that religious system says about how does he have to start with man and have a little bit of God sandwiched in between, and end with man. You see, the doctrine of the Bible is that our condition can only be met by the intervention and the activity of Almighty God. And that's the truth from Genesis to Revelation. When Adam sinned, he could do only one thing with reference to God.

42:20 - 43:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains God's method of salvation: the Lord laid upon His sinless Son, the Servant of Jehovah, the guilt of 'the iniquity of us all,' not making Him polluted but charging…

Martin uses a microphone to represent the Servant of Jehovah, Jesus, who was holy and sinless, to then explain how sin was laid upon Him.

Punishment is like He is born this way. Liken this microphone to my right. Servant of Jehovah, the Lord Jesus. The scripture says of Him that He was holy, He was harmless, He was undefiled, He was separate from sinners.

45:45 - 46:08 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains God's method of salvation: the Lord laid upon His sinless Son, the Servant of Jehovah, the guilt of 'the iniquity of us all,' not making Him polluted but charging…

Martin uses a handkerchief to represent the sins of all who believe, explaining that the Father laid these sins upon His Son, the Servant of Jehovah.

Now follow closely. This verse says, Jehovah, His Father, in the mystery of the Trinity, the Father made or to light upon Him. That handkerchief is the sins of all those who believe upon Him. This verse says that the Father made to light and to bear upon His Son, the servant of Jehovah, the sin of us all.

46:35 - 47:02 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon delves into the profound mystery of God punishing His Son for our guilt, explaining that the 'bruising' meant the Father's forsaking and the powers of separation, which…

Martin contrasts the taunts of the scribes and Pharisees at the cross with the true 'bruising' of Christ, which was the Father's forsaking Him due to the weight of sin.

In other words, my friend, in a mystery that we can never fathom, when God the sins of men laid upon Him. And what did that bruising mean? Did it mean simply that the Father permitted the scribes and the Pharisees to stand around His cross and to taunt Him and to mock Him and say, Ha! Ha! You saved others!

47:53 - 48:21 Read in full sermon

Driving home: ...the Son and bruises him with those powers of separation which is the essence of hell.

Martin recounts a story of Martin Luther meditating for three hours on Christ's cry 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?', illustrating the profound depth of Christ's suffering.

And we cannot... Martin Luther one time was said to have sat for some three hours at his desk concentrating all the...

51:22 - 51:31 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin highlights that God 'spared not his son' and that Christ's cry 'It is finished' and His resurrection serve as God's receipt, proving that the debt for sin was paid in full…

Martin explains 'spared not his son' by relating it to the common understanding of 'sparing' someone from deserved punishment, emphasizing that God did not withhold His holy anger from Christ.

And that was for God the Son, to become their substitute and to bear the bruising of the Father. That's why Paul could say in Romans 8, 32, he that spared not his son. Now you kids understand what that means. When you ask someone to spare you, you'd mean, don't give me all that's coming to me.

52:38 - 53:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin highlights that God 'spared not his son' and that Christ's cry 'It is finished' and His resurrection serve as God's receipt, proving that the debt for sin was paid in full…

Martin quotes a hymn to powerfully convey the substitutionary nature of Christ's suffering, where He bore our load, the curse, and the bitter cup.

holy anger upon his son. In the language of a hymn that I wish were in our hymn books, but it isn't. This is the heart of the gospel. Oh Christ, what burdens bowed thy head.

53:17 - 53:31 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And when it was, the Lord Jesus could, with a hand of loving obedience, push the cup from his lips and say in triumph, first of all, I'll leave my son in the grave long enough to prove to everyone. It wasn't just half a …

Martin compares Christ's death and resurrection to a receipt for an outstanding bill, proving that the debt for sin has been paid in full.

To brood in the death of that one. And God's given a receipt. It's a wonderful thing to have a receipt on an outstanding bill. That when the bill collector comes, very humbly of course, you just say, sir, made in full.

54:47 - 55:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And when it was, the Lord Jesus could, with a hand of loving obedience, push the cup from his lips and say in triumph, first of all, I'll leave my son in the grave long enough to prove to everyone. It wasn't just half a …

Christ's last words on the cross, 'It is finished,' are presented as the triumphant declaration that the cup of God's wrath, which He shrank from in Gethsemane, had been fully drunk.

What were the last words of Jesus from the cross? Do you remember? The last words were these. It, it's one word in the original.

55:27 - 55:55 Read in full sermon