Isaiah 53:6

Introduction and Encouragement

0:01 Now, before we turn to the reading and preaching of the Word of God, I do want to seize this final opportunity that I have to face you, many of my brothers and sisters, who are old acquaintances that we have had the joy of renewing fellowship with during this visit. Many of you new acquaintances. It is always a tremendous encouragement to meet one and another who come up to me and say, Pastor Martin, we've not met, but...

0:34 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 paths of Biblical, faith and life and worship and ministry. And though we go back exhausted, this has been like a triple marathon of preaching over the past ten days, we go back renewed and refreshed in the inner man in terms of what our eyes have seen and our ears have heard. And be assured that as I report to our own people and to that circle of churches with which we have our most intimate, intimate ties of fellowship back on the East Coast, that there will be much joy amongst God's people

Thanksgiving and Introduction to Isaiah 53

2:00 and there will be intensified prayer that God will continue and expand the work of his grace in your midst in the days to come. And finally, I do want to express sincere thanks for the many tokens of love and affection shown to my wife and to me, the homes opened, the tables served, the spread, the transportation given, all of these acts of kindness. We simply remind those of you who have been involved in them of the words of the Lord Jesus, that not a cup of cold water given in his name shall fail of its reward. And now will you open your Bibles with me to the same prophecy, but two chapters earlier, the same prophecy from which, Pastor Blackburn read that of the prophet Isaiah and chapter 53, this very well-known chapter in which we have an account of the suffering of the servant of Jehovah given in such details that one would think Isaiah the prophet had been an eyewitness of the very events recorded in the latter chapters of each of the gospel writers. In fact, this is a true story.

3:28 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.

3:57 But to her surprise, he was reading from this famous chapter of the suffering servant of Jehovah and eventually was brought to faith in Israel's Messiah. And we're going to consider a text in this passage that is of peculiar benefit to us for this simple reason, that while the whole of the Bible is God's written revelation, that while the whole of the Bible is God's written revelation, that while the whole of the Bible is God's written revelation, that while the whole of the Bible is God's written revelation, concerning the things that you and I must know, believe and experience in order to be fit to live, ready to die and prepared to go to judgment, God has given to us within the Bible some succinct summary statements which capture the very heart of the message of the entire Word of God. which capture the very heart of the message of the entire Word of God. 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. And that text is Isaiah 53 and verse 6, and that text is Isaiah 53 and verse 6,

The Bad News: Our Desperate Condition in Sin

5:24 where the prophet declares, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Within the compass of this brief text, God has set before us two very clear basic units of thought, Within the compass of this brief text, God has set before us two very clear basic units of thought, Within the compass of this brief text, God has set before us two very clear basic units of thought, and I want with the help of God to expound them as simply, as clearly, as passionately as God will enable me to do so. And those two units of thought are these. We have first of all the bad news of our desperate condition in sin. We have first of all the bad news of our desperate condition in sin. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one of us to his own way.

6:28 That is a statement of the bad news of our desperate condition in sin. And then it is followed by what I am calling the good news of God's gracious provision for sin. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

6:54 So we have the bad news followed by the good news, and you see even the order in which these things are set before us, follows the order of God's gracious dealings with the hearts of men. For until you and I have heard, received, and acutely felt the pain of the bad news of our desperate condition, and acutely felt the pain of the bad news of our desperate condition, and acutely felt the pain of the bad news of our desperate condition, in sin, we will never appreciate and will never receive with faith and with joy the good news of God's gracious provision for sin. Seek to stuff your ears to the bad news and you forfeit forever any delightful reception of the good news. Take seriously and lay to heart the magnitude of the bad news of your desperate condition in sin and then indeed the good news of God's gracious provision for sin will be the best of news you have ever heard.

The Vivid Picture of Sin: Straying Sheep

8:14 And with all of your heart and soul you will embrace it. Following then the very track cut for us by the text itself, think with me as we contemplate what the prophet sets before us as the bad news of our desperate condition in sin. And he does so in two ways. First of all, he gives us the vivid picture.

8:44 The vivid picture of our desperate condition in sin and that in turn is followed by what I am calling a blunt pronouncement of our desperate condition in sin. So we have a vivid picture and a blunt pronouncement. Look first of all at the vivid picture of our desperate condition in sin.

9:14 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, protection, and guidance of his name. He is taking thearis cold just like the others. But he is also taking it in a very bold manner.

10:13 He is taking it in a very bold manner. He is taking it in a very bold manner. He is taking it its rightful shepherd. He views all of humanity as one vast flock of sheep that has strayed away from the presence, the protection, and the guidance of its rightful shepherd. And as such, all of these sheep are exposed to danger and even destruction. Predatory animals can consume them. Thieves can take them to themselves. And when the prophet declared all we, like a vast flock of sheep, have gone astray, he was setting out a vivid picture of our desperate condition.

11:05 Amen. In sin. And if you were to ask the question, well, in this straying, from what have we strayed? Well, the scriptures answer that question very clearly. We have strayed, first of all, from God himself as the object of our supreme desire and our supreme delight. The scriptures make it clear that man was made in the image of God. With the capacity to know and to hold delightful communion with God. And when the scriptures tell us that man, and only man, was made in the image of God, at the heart of what it means to be an image-bearer of God was this capacity that man had, in contrast to all

12:00 of the other creatures which God had made, personally to know and to hold delightful communion with God. And when the scriptures tell us that man, and only man, was made in the image of God, at the heart of what it means to be an image-bearer of God, at the heart of what it means to be an image-bearer of God, at the heart of what it means to be a living God, that man was made in the image of God. The most beautiful animal made by the creative word of God could not consciously reflect upon its beauty and say, thank you, God, for making me the beautiful creature that you have made me. Or were it a creature that was to crawl upon the earth, or one whose wings would split the air, regardless of whether it was a creature that was to crawl upon the of its assigned place in the purpose of God.

12:38 It had no capacity, consciously, knowingly, to hold communion with God its Creator. But man was made that he would have this communion with his God and that he would find in his God his supreme desire and his supreme delight. And you remember when our Lord Jesus was asked, what is the first and the greatest commandment? He answered, quoting from the Old Testament, the first and great commandment is this, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And the second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And when the prophet says, all we like sheep have gone astray, he is setting forth this reality that the whole mass of humanity has gone astray from its God as the supreme object of its desire and its delight. Some of the saddest words to be found anywhere in the Bible are found in Paul's description of universal sinfulness in Romans chapter 3, verses 10, to 18, and he begins with these words,

14:05 as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Now here are the sad words. There is none that understands.

14:18 There is none that seeks after God. None after God.

The Blunt Pronouncement of Sin: Turning to Our Own Way

14:33 All angels and cherubim and seraphim made with a capacity consciously to know, and hold fellowship with, and appreciate the wonder and the glory and the majesty and the beauty of God, and yet there is none that seeks after God. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have strayed from God Himself as the object of our supreme desire and delight, and further, we have strayed from the law of God as the governing rule of our lives. For when sheep stray from their rightful shepherd, they not only leave the place of communion with the shepherd, the place of interaction with the shepherd, they leave the place of the government of the shepherd. They get beyond His staff and His crook and the instrument by which He, the one who guides them, and the prophet, is likening all of humanity to a vast flock of sheep, that in its straying has not only strayed from God Himself as the object of supreme desire and delight, but have strayed from the law of God

16:01 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. In other words, every one of us by nature is one big clenched fist in the face of God.

17:06 The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject. It is subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be.

17:19 So then they that are in the flesh cannot flatter in statement. I'm sure the man north in the crystal palace not too far from here would not look approvingly upon my telling you. Even you, dear children, you were born with a clenched fist in God's face.

17:47 The carnal mind is enmity. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be.

18:00 There is no human force or power that can change that. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. But that straying is not just an innocent ambling away.

18:20 Here and there from the norms of God. It is a deliberate, resolute, determined abandonment of God's law as the rule of our lives. And all we need to do is take those ten words spoken not by Moses, but by the mouth of God upon Sinai. Written by the finger of God in tables of stone.

18:46 Placed in the ark of God in the immediate presence of God. And in the presence of the God before whom all things are naked and open. We bring our hearts and our thoughts and our motives and our desires and our words and our deeds. Before those ten words of God then we see indeed the prophet is telling the truth.

19:12 We have gone astray like a vast flock of sheep. Not only from God himself as the object of our supplication. And from not only supreme desire and delight. But for the law of God as the governing rule of our lives.

19:29 He said you shall have no other gods before me and we by nature make a God of everything and anything we can put our affections upon. He says we are to worship him only as he commands. And man continually invests his own instruments of worship. God says, you shall honor my name and we take it lightly God says you shall remember my day to keep it holy and we say who is the Lord to say that he shall have a day holy unto himself and he says honor my instituted framework of government children obey your parents honor your father and your mother and we say who is he who is she who are they to tell me what to do God says regard and respect the sanctity of human life regard and respect the sanctity of the marriage union of sexual relations the sanctity of possessions and truth and the sanctity of the heart and when we bring ourselves to those ten words of God that touch the full spectrum of our thought and motives

20:55 and desires and deeds we say surely the prophet was not indulging in rhetorical overkill when he said all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one of us to his own way and this is why the scripture says by the law comes the knowledge of sin that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful yes this is bad news this is bad news of our desperate condition in sin set before us first of all in this vivid picture of a vast flock of sheep going astray but then notice in the second place how the bad news of our desperate condition is not merely set before us in a vivid picture it is set before us in a blunt pronouncement a blunt pronouncement of our desperate condition look at it in your own bibles with your own eyes it says all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned

22:18 to him which could not be more simple we have turned

22:34 every one of us to his own way here's a blunt statement and pronouncement of our desperate condition notice it doesn't say we have turned every one of us to this or that particular sin it doesn't say we have turned every one of us to drunkenness we have turned every one of us to swearing we have turned every one of us to cheating we have turned every one of us to thievery we have turned every one of us to blasphemy that simply would not be true there would be some who could rise up and say no I have been honest to a dime and to a penny in all of my dealings with my fellow men I have not knowingly stolen a cent from any human being on the face of the earth but it does say we have turned every one of us to his own way in other words every one of us has chosen to go into the God business and run the show we have turned every one of us to his own way what's a way a way is a pattern of life a way is a course of action we say of someone well I don't like the way he does things what we mean is we don't like the course or

24:03 pattern in which the person acts and the text we have turned every one of us to his own way we have said I am going to mark out the path for my life and live it by the standards that I choose I don't care whether or not God has said thou shalt or thou shalt not I don't care whether God has marked out a path I'm going to do my own going to do my thing and that's that is true of every single one of us by nature the prophet said we have turned what we have described by the prophet is underscored in the language of the great apostle Paul in the New Testament chapter 5 of 2nd Corinthians and I ask you to look for a moment at this parallel passage here the apostle declares in 2nd Corinthians 5 verses 14-20 and following for the love of Christ constrains us because with us judge that

25:31 one died for all therefore all died and that he died for all that they that live now follow closely what it says that they that live should no longer long to themselves but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again he said he says Christ died so that all for whom he died when they received the virtue of the death that he died will no longer live to themselves clearly teaching that until the power of death of Christ has entered a man's life he's living unto himself you see that in the case died through his death should no longer live unto self but up to that moment each and every one lives unto himself he makes himself his own God he's gone into the God business oh yes God says you shall not steal but if it pleases me to take the possession of another I'll take it God says you shall not bear false witness but if it spares my hide to lie about my brother or sister

27:00 and say they did it when I really did it then I'm prepared to lie what are you doing you're going your own way you're saying God's way marked out by God's law is not going to regulate my life God says thou shalt not commit adultery and you say I don't care what God says I like her she likes me we make out in bed well in the sheets who is God to stick his nose under our sheets I'll tell you who he is he's the God who made you and will roast you in hell if you go on living in your fornicating adulterating life and don't repent this is serious business all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way so that the rule for us is I will live in terms of what I want when I want it why I want it and I'll pursue it now the question is this our text tells us something of our desperate condition in sin by a vivid picture all we like sheep by a blunt assertion we have turned to his own way

28:25 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 Eden and when the generation soon became so cumulatively wicked that God says it's grieved me I even made man God says I'll blot out the entire human race saving one family Noah and his family and the bloated bodies upon the heaving billows of the flood are a witness to how God looks upon man the creature saying I'll cast off God

29:54 as my supreme object of desire and delight and I'll do my own thing and Sodom and Gomorrah and the judgments of God throughout human history are a witness that God does not take sin lightly the soul that sins it shall die the wages of sin is death and I ask you before we leave this first part of our text that sets before us the bad news of our desperate condition in sin I want to ask you a very simple personal pointed question will you regard yourself as sitting right here next to me eighteen inches between our noses and my eyes looking into yours and I ask you this question have you not your mother father brother sister the guy behind you the woman the woman to the left to you your husband no no no have you you my friend sitting there looking into my eyes my eyes into yours in the presence of God have you ever felt the reality of your desperate condition in sin simple question but I want to ask it have you

31:23 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 have you ever felt you notice I didn't say have you ever admitted you're a sinner I've only met one person in all of my life that wouldn't admit he was a sinner only one people tell you oh yeah none of us is perfect I'm a sinner sure you're a sinner I'm a sinner we're all sinners sort of like the measles when it hits a 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

32:51 no it is your individual case of rebellion against almighty God you as part of that flock with your spiritual feet you went astray from God as your supreme object of desire and delight you with your feet went astray from his law as the governing principle of your life you with your heart and your carnal mind have purposed to do your own thing to live unto yourself and it's only when sin becomes to you the burning all consuming disruptive reality that you will ever take seriously the gospel of the grace of God there's some of you sitting here tonight you know what it is to have the issues of guys and gals and face and form and grades and promotions and salaries and benefits you know what it is to have those issues burning issues that you think about you plan about you scheme about but you've never spent thirty seconds of serious intent thought about what it is to be a sinner before God your maker my friend every one of us will take our

The Good News: God's Gracious Provision for Sin

34:21 desperate condition seriously in this life while the door of mercy is open or in the day of judgment when the door of mercy is shut but take your desperate condition in sin seriously you shall and you you shall you shall and if that's all I had to preach I don't know that I could go on preaching but blessed be God the whole of the Bible as well as this text takes us on from the bad news of our desperate condition in sin to the good news of God's gracious provision for sin notice the emphasis of the text as long as the prophet is talking about us it's nothing but bad news all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one of us to his own way but when he's going to give us good news the emphasis now shifts from what we've done to what God has done notice and the Lord has laid on him

35:49 the iniquity of us all I want you to note two basic things about the good news of God's gracious provision for sin first of all note with me the author of this provision for sin look at your Bibles who is the author of this provision and the Lord the Hebrew word Yahweh Jehovah the great I am that I am the one who declares I am I will be that I will be the great God of total self-sufficiency the God of gracious self-revelation of covenantal faithfulness and grace and the Lord has done something the author of this provision for sin is the Lord himself God has come forth as the offended party to do something on behalf of the offenders and that's the great emphasis of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation when Adam and Eve sinned what did they do they ran to hide from God but the scripture says the Lord God came in the cool of the evening and God sought out man Adam

37:16 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 into describing God's mercy with these 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 by I was almost going to say steal but don't steal but what a marvelous exposition of this truth but God

38:45 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 start with an arrow that begins on earth with man reaching up to heaven or does it start with an arrow coming out of heaven reaching down to man all saving religion begins and ends in God false religion begins and ends in man and our text as it sets forth the good news of God's gracious provision for sin first of all underscores the author of this provision and the Lord it is God himself who has come forth to do something for man in his sin but then notice secondly and this is the heart of our study tonight the focus of this provision for sin

The Focus of Provision: Christ's Substitutionary Sin-Bearing

40:14 what is the focus of it look at the language of the text and the Lord has laid or made to light or made to strike upon him the iniquity of us all the author is God but the activity has to do with something that God does with one who is set before us in this pronoun him the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all and who is the him we go back to verse five and we can't identify him we say simply read he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes but who is the him who is the he we go back to verse four and we get no more light he has borne our griefs yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of God verse three he was despised verse two he grew up before him but pray tell Isaiah who is and you work back through chapter fifty three back to chapter fifty two and verse thirteen and there you have the proper noun there is the one

41:43 concerning whom all the pronoun behold attention behold servant it is the servant of Jehovah who is the focus of this entire service section and when we come to verse six and read the Lord has laid on him it is Jehovah doing something with respect to the servant of Jehovah that constitutes the good news of God's provision for sin and what is he doing to his servant the language says Jehovah has laid on him or made to light or rest or some Hebraists suggest a better translation made to strike upon him the iniquity of us all the focus of this provision for sin simply stated is this the substitutionary sin bearing of the servant of Jehovah God's provision for us in our sin is bound up in the

43:12 substitutionary sin bearing of the servant of Jehovah and what is this laying upon him or making to light upon him our iniquities well it is nothing less than almighty God is the sovereign righteous judge of the universe legally crediting his son with the sins of all of those whom he represented by willing covenantal engagement to be their substitute and surety and representative and what the prophet is saying is this that in that capacity the servant of Jehovah has the sins of his people laid upon him and when they are laid upon him charged to his account Jehovah comes forth dressed in robes of the judge of the universe he sets his day in court and he beholds his servant charged with the guilt of the sins of his people and he deals with him in strict justice unmitigated with mercy

44:41 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 understood God's provision for sin if all you see is the wickedness of the chief priest and the religious leaders who stir up a mob and seek to incite them to make up stories and bear false witness and none of them can even agree if all you see is the Lord Jesus the object of their lying taunts you've never understood the cross of Christ you never understood God's provision for sin if all you've

46:10 ever seen is those who made that crown of thorns and put it on his head and pressed it down and the blood burst forth as those sharp thorns pierced his holy brow if all you've seen is the cruelty of those who blindfolded him and then struck him and cuffed him and said ha ha if you're what you claim to be who prophesied prophesied who has struck you then will believe on you if all you see is the ribald heartless cruelty of the soldiers who mock him who taunt him who beat him who scourge him you've never understood God's provision for sin if all you see is the activity of those who stretch out his arms and set the nails and pound them through his flesh hits him upon the cross and hang him up between earth and heaven and then the taunting and the mocking that continues and you say how sad it is how grievous how horrible how unfair that he who healed the sick and raised the dead gave back infants to their mothers from the dead who touched the eyes of the blind how wretched and tragic it's a horrible scene the worst act of cruelty ever committed on God's earth my friend

47:39 if that's all you see when you read the account of the death of Christ you don't understand the good news of God's provision for sin hear me carefully 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 look at our text and Jehovah has done something it is the activity of Jehovah that is in focus look at it again in verse ten yet it pleased Jehovah the Lord to bruise him he has put him to grief but I thought it was the chief priest and the religious leaders that put him to grief I thought it was the soldiers and the mocking jeering crowd but the prophet says Jehovah has put him to grief it pleased Jehovah to bruise him what's he talking about this is what he's talking about he is saying that in the mystery of the cross of Christ when his suffering 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

49:08 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 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 it says he began to be sore amazed and what was it that caused this tremendous paroxysm of soul this disruption this volcanic

50:37 agony that caused him to fall to the ground and the Greek in Mark's gospel is emphatic he was like a man staggering and falling and staggering and falling again and in the focus of all of that was this thing called the cup oh my father if this cup cannot pass away except I drink it not my will but thine be done if it be possible take this cup from me what was this cup what was it it was nothing less than the cup full to the brim with the pure holy undiluted wrath of God against the sins of those who had gone astray like sheep who had turned to their own way and every deed and thought and word and disposition and attitude and desire that was the cumulative outflow of going astray like sheep turning to their own way all of that of all of his people is credited to his son and the full wrath of God for those sins is in that cup and when

52:05 our Lord sees that cup he says oh my father if possible let it pass Jesus would have been guilty of impiety had he said cup no big deal I'm the son of God I'm being upheld by my father he had said to me in the covenant engagements of eternity my son whom I uphold no big deal it would have been impiety not to shrink before the cup and he did shrink but then he said not my will but thine be done not thy will be done upon me but thy will be done by me if the only way for the cup of the human to wrath of God against all the sins of all of his people of all ages if the only way the cup can be drained is for him to take it to his lips and to drink and to drink and to drink and to drink until the last bitter drop is gone he said father thy will be done I will and when he went to the cross according to our very chapter and men did their worst it says as a lamb before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth when the chief priest accused him

53:35 he doesn't say to them all leaders of Israel why do you lie against me why do you stir up the rabble mob to concoct these false charges and hurl them in my face as a lamb before her shearers he was dumb and even pilot in all of his wickedness the scripture says he knew that for envy they had delivered him he knew all their charges were trumped up charges but what caused him to marvel it says pilot marvel that he was silent because pilot knew all their accusations were a bunch of bunkum he knew and yet Jesus is utterly silent and it says all his disciples forsook him and fled and there's no word that comes from the son of God oh my disciples my disciples you whom I've nurtured and loved in these years of intimate fellowship why have you abandoned me in my hour of need no word when even his disciples forsake him no word when the Roman soldiers no doubt amidst their mockery and amidst their foul soldiers language impale him upon the cross but the scripture tells us that there was darkness over the whole land from the sixth hour till

55:05 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 the heavens were silent no answer was forthcoming do you know the answer

56:33 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 law being made a curse for us 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

58:02 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 inherent glory as God and they were smitten and fell to the ground our Lord then is saying in essence look I'm in control not you and when they got up off their faces came back to their senses he gave himself up to be bound carried off from one puppet court to another Hugh Martin makes this perceptive observation in the theater of the activities on earth that men could see with their eyes had you kids been awake that night and stood by mom and dad and gone from the high priest's place over to Pilate and then up to Herod and back to Pilate from the very moment he is apprehended

59:30 in Gethsemane until he bows his head after he cries Tetelestai it has been accomplished father into thy hands I commend my spirit from the very moment of Gethsemane till he bows his head in death in the theater of human activity Jesus appeared in one , capacity in one perspective in one visible representation only that of a guilty felon had you showed up in Jerusalem that night and you didn't know what was going on and you happened to see the crowd taking this man bound with his hands behind him and perhaps cords of fire had you seen him to a certain place and you fell in behind the crowd had you known nothing of what preceded or who was involved and you followed all the events from his apprehension to his appearance before the high priest and Herod and Pilate you would have said this is a guilty criminal a violator of the law one whom the law has finally

60:59 seized upon and upon whom it is venting its rightful hand of justice and Hugh Martin says God so ordered those events that in all that the human eye could see Christ appears only as a guilty criminal that we might understand that what we could see and hear and observe in the phenomenal realm in the physical visible realm was representative of what was truly being enacted in the invisible spiritual realm where God sits in court where the books of God are set where the throne of God is planted God is making it plain 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 that's the only good news

62:28 there is like you and me the good news is not let's all kind of get our collective optimism together and hope that though God took sin seriously in Eden God took sin seriously in the days of the flood and Sodom and Gomorrah in the judgment upon national Israel though God took sin seriously here there somehow God won't take sin so seriously with respect to me and to us 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 than pure justice it would be his well beloved son but Romans 8 32 says he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all that is God's provision for our

63:57 sin a crucified savior on whom Jehovah lays the sins of all who will ever say well how can we be sure that when the cup was drunk there wasn't at least one or two drops in there that comprised my sin Jesus cried it is finished the tense of that verb means something has come to completion and it remains in the state the last cry of Jesus is the resurrection is God's Amen it is finished and that's not just human logic Romans 4 25 said he was delivered up for our offenses raised for our justification that's God's gracious provision for sinners I don't know how to make even a promise of salvation but I don't know how to do anything with

Call to Repentance and Faith

65:24 a total sin I don't know how to make a promise of salvation I don't know how 3, 6 tonight. I don't know if anyone else needed to hear about his desperate condition in sin and your gracious provision for sin, but God, I know it is exactly what I needed to hear. And you may be saying now, well, what do I do? In the light of this, I see it. I'm part of that flock of sheep that has gone astray. I'm one of those who's turned to his own way. I see that's my condition. And I see as I've never seen before the meaning of the cross of Christ. But what do I do? I close by turning you to the very passage

66:21 with which the pastor opened the service tonight, Isaiah 55. And God answers you in very clear words in verse 6 and following. Here's what you're to do. Seek the Lord while he may be found.

66:40 What Lord? The very Jehovah who laid upon the servant of Jehovah the sins of men. Seek this God. This God now can be favorable to sinners without in any way ceasing to be righteous and holy. He can be both just and the justifier of those who believe in his son. He has made a way to preserve the integrity of all of his character and still rescue you from the sin. And never forget it. God's maintenance of his character is more important than you getting out of hell. And God would not deliver one soul from hell if the price he had to pay was to stain his own holy perfect character. But he's found a way that far from staining

67:32 his character, he displays it in all its glory. His love, his righteousness, his justice, his holiness, all of his attributes. Seek the Lord when? While he may be found. When is that? Right now. Today is the day of salvation. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart. Seek the Lord. Have dealings with God now. Call upon him while he is near. He is near in the preaching of his word. God will never be nearer this side of the second coming. To any sinner than he is in the preaching of his word. The word of faith, Paul says, that we preach is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. What are you to do? Seek

68:27 the Lord. Call upon him. But you say, in what way shall I seek him? And how shall I call upon him? Look at verse 7. Let the wicked forsake his way. Ah, we're back to that way business again.

68:45 God says, stop it. You've been calling me. Stop it. And don't do it half-heartedly. Forsake your way. Abandon your way. Your way of running your own life, setting your own standards for right and wrong and virtue and sin. Stop it. Let the wicked forsake his way. And the unrighteous man, his thoughts. Stop making a God of your brain. With respect to what is truth and what is error, what is right, what is wrong. How can man be right with God? You abandon your thoughts and bring them subject to God's thoughts in holy scripture. Seek the Lord. That is, seek him in the way of repentance. And look, look at the promise. Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our

69:45 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 for six months. Then I'll see if I'll welcome you. God is

70:42 not like us. My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are my ways your ways. 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. And thank God we need nothing else but nothing less. We'll do. Thank God there is nothing between us and hell. We need nothing else but nothing less. We'll do. Some of you dear young men and women reared in godly Christian homes,

71:51 catechized in your Bibles, read to you and memorized and wonderfully restrained from the sins of the neighbor's kids and all the rest. But oh dear children, listen, listen, listen. 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. And he welcomes children who are sinners. He welcomes teenagers who are sinners. He welcomes old, hardened, sour, bitter sinners.

72:32 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 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 almost you persuade me to be a Christian. Almost a Christian. Almost. Not quite. Almost persuaded by what is right. Almost. Just. Almost.

73:57 What a mistake. How can you dawdle? Your soul is at stake. Almost escaped from judgment and wrath. Almost you would joy on the only straight path. Almost. Almost. Almost. Almost.

74:12 Almost. Almost. Almost. Almost. Almost you've taste of the bliss of his will, almost won't say it. You condemn you kill. Christ, he has come. The price has been paid. He lived in perfection to death. He obeyed salvation redemption the way he has paid. God can forgive you and you can be saved. What here is keeping you? What makes you stay? Stay not just almost, but go all the way.

74:56 What sin is worth the torture of hell? For earthly treasure would heaven you sell? Would you for friends in this fickle world out into darkness forever be hurled? Would you for seconds of trifling fun be damned forever without anyone? Almost persuaded, thus stayed the king.

75:26 A grimace. Agrippa was lost over some little thing. Left out in darkness, in agony great. Almost just, almost. But now, it's too late.

75:43 How can you linger? How can you wait? How can you dare risk that horrible fate? All we, like sheep, have gone astray.

75:59 How can you wait? How can you dare risk that horrible fate? All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one of us to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

76:13 There are many of you whom no doubt I shall never see again until the day of judgment. But in that day, you'll not be able to point your finger at me and say, Preacher, you didn't tell me the truth about myself or the truth about Jesus. But in that day, you'll not be able to point your finger at me and say, Preacher, you didn't tell me the truth about yourself or the truth about Jesus. But in that day, you'll not be able to point your finger at me and say, Preacher, you didn't tell me the truth about myself or the truth about Jesus.

76:36 But I want to leave myself, my hands are clean of your blood. But I don't want simply to leave California on this trip with clean hands. I want to leave with full hands, to take some sinners to heaven with me. Oh, go to Christ. He stands ready, graciously inviting. Come, and I will, and will receive.

77:12 Let us pray.

77:20 Our Father, how we thank you for your holy word. We thank you for the glorious gospel of your beloved Son. And we pray that the Holy Spirit will take the truth preached this night and, oh, that he would make it effectual in many hearts, that many would mark this night as the night when they did indeed see by the work of the Spirit what they were, as straying sheep, as self-centered rebels, and beholding your glory in the face of Christ, this night laid hold of you and your salvation. We thank you for your people and pray that as they have heard again the old, old story, may their hearts burn within them with gratitude and love and renewed zeal to tell about, to abroad this glorious message of all that you have done in the suffering servant of Jehovah. Thank you for the privilege of meeting in this way and may your Spirit seal the word to our hearts. We plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.