Our Desperate Situation and God's Provision

Isaiah the Evangelist and the Suffering Servant

0:05 If you have brought your own Bibles with you, I would encourage you to turn with me to the 53rd chapter of the book of the prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 53.

0:22 I shall begin the reading at verse 1 of chapter 53 and conclude with verse 6, Isaiah chapter 53, verses 1 through 6. It says,

1:12 And as one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with him we will be saved.

1:42 And with him we will be saved. And with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

2:00 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 shown to be mercies which will flow from a unique person called in the prophecy of Isaiah, the servant of Jehovah.

3:05 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 they ever came to pass. But not only does Isaiah give us these great details concerning the sufferings of the servant of Jehovah, but he then interprets the significance,

4:15 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, it was given to this man of God to set forth the great details concerning the sufferings, the sufferings of the servant of Jehovah, and then to give us God's own interpretation of those sufferings.

Our Desperate Situation: The Bad News

5:25 Now it is in the midst of this very careful and detailed description of the suffering of the servant of Jehovah that the prophet makes the great statement that will form the focal point of our meditation this evening, Isaiah 53 and verse 6. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one of us to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now in order to think our way through this beautiful, this simple and yet profound statement of the word of God, I want you to notice with me that we have basically two units of thought given to us by the Lord. First of all, there is a description of our desperate situation. There is a description of our desperate situation. In the language, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one of us to his own way, is nothing more or less than a very careful and accurate description of our desperate situation.

6:44 In the language, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one of us to his own way, is nothing more or less than a very careful and accurate description of our desperate situation. Then the second major unit of thought is this wonderful announcement of God's gracious provision. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Or perhaps we might approach the text by saying it first of all conveys some bad news.

7:08 And the bad news concerns you and me. All we like sheep have gone astray, We have turned every one of us to our own way. That's the bad news. But then it's followed by the good news.

7:23 And the good news tells us what God has done and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Or we might say with equal accuracy, this verse contains the indictment of God's holy law. In the light of the claims of the Almighty God with respect to every one of us, His law condemns us. His law consigns us to death and to judgment because we have gone astray like lost sheep.

7:56 We have turned to our own way. But thank God the text also contains a wonderful pronouncement of the gospel. The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Amen.

8:10 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

8:11 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

8:11 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

8:11 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

8:11 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

8:12 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

8:12 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

8:12 Amen. Amen. Amen. The mind of the Spirit in this glorious text, first of all what it says to us in this description of our desperate situation.

Unreasonable Straying: Leaving God and His Law

8:24 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.

8:50 And as a preacher of the gospel, I would be your friend tonight. I would be your best friend. And I cannot be your friend, let alone your best friend, unless I tell you the truth about yourself. And in this text, God has told us the truth about ourselves.

9:11 He has described our desperate situation, and notice, He does so in terms of two basic categories of thought. First of all, a statement about an unreasonable strain. All we like sheep have gone astray. We, every one of us, like a great flock of sheep, have gone away from the side of the One who is our God.

9:42 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 describes our desperate situation under the figure of a great flock of sheep who have left the side of the Lord? the side of their shepherd. Let me suggest that it involves at least two things. First

10:50 of all, we have left the living God as the supreme object of our love and our devotion. When a sheep leaves the side of a shepherd, he leaves the side of that one to which he is to be attached in the deepest bonds of love and devotion. You and I, as creatures made in the image of God, were made to know God. We were made to hold communion with God.

11:25 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 comes under this description, all sheep have gone, and in a very real sense, fulfilled in the garden of Eden. When Adam, our first father, who by divine appointment was constituted the head of the human race,

12:41 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.

13:40 And do you remember the answer of the Lord Jesus? The first and greatest commandment is this. You shall love the Lord thy with all. Now follow closely. And greatest sin anyone can commit.

14:13 Is it murder? All the soul who's sitting here from the youngest to the oldest would dare the living God before you object of love and devotion so that in every circumstance of every day, in every relationship, you're more and more loved. And you're more and more loved. And you're more and more loved. There's not a person here in his right mind who would dare to say that that was your experience. That's why the prophet can say all sheep have

15:35 gone astray. Heavenly Shepherd, whom we each one love with heart, stay from Him as the supreme object of our love and our devotion. And yet so seldom do we think of that as sin. We think of sin in terms of social ills. We think of sins in terms of those things which society may yet frown upon. But, my friend, you will never have an understanding of sin in the light of the Scriptures until you understand by the teaching of the Spirit through the Word. You were made to know God. You were made. God should have the place of unrivaled affection

16:23 in your heart, and failure to give it is to be killed. The greatest and saddest verses in all of the Bible is found in Paul's description of the human race in the third chapter of the epistle to the Romans. When summarizing the condition of all men, both Jew and quoting from the Old Testament, he says this, Romans chapter 3 and verse 10, as it is written, there is righteous not one, there is none. There is verses in all of the most solemn obligations to love him with all

17:33 the heart, mind, have gone astray. But we have not heard the living God is the supreme object of our love and devotion. We have also the law as the supreme object of our love. And I, to obey God, little independent,

18:34 self-determining God, is right in what is wrong. Why? The God who is under his own gracious authority, demanding nothing but what is good and demanding nothing but that which would glorify him, which is why the Scripture says the law of God is holy and spiritual and just and good. It is like the God who gives. It is like the God who gives. It is like the God who gives. It is like the God who gave it. I want you to notice the teaching of Romans chapter 8 and verse 7. Paul did every one of these straying sheep in this very graphic language. Look at it. The carnal disposition of every person

19:25 who has what he was conceived and born with, the person who has never been born of the Spirit of God, the person who has never been wrought upon by the mighty power of God in grace, the carnal mind, now notice the language, is enmity. against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. Now notice the language. The carnal mind, it doesn't say, is at enmity or at warfare with God. It says the carnal mind, the basic disposition of every man, every woman, every boy, every girl, every person who has ever lived upon the face of the earth, apart from the grace of God, it could all be said, it could all be summarized in terms of a clenched fist pointed heavenward. Yes, it's enmity. Look at

20:33 the next part of the verse. For, and say, I, as a God, in which is enmity against God, finds expression at this point. It is not subject to law, rest in his law, the summary of which is given to us in the Ten Commandments. And the greatest that Isaiah was not overstating the case when he said, We like sheep have gone, we like a great flock of sheep have not only left God as the supreme object of love and devotion, but we've left his law as the supreme standard of thought and conduct. The greatest proof is just to bring your life and thought alongside those ten words that God gave upon Mount Sinai, that God, no other gods before me, in the light of who I am, the only true and living God, your maker, your creator, your sustainer,

21:59 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 possessions. You give your zeal and of your heart at the expense of obeying

23:06 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 your mind upon the great realities and that with concentration for a whole day upon who I am, but to hear my word. Use the day for public and private meditation and communion with those who know that they are not dogs or rats or beasts, but are creatures stamped for eternity. What do you do with God's commandment? Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. God's not going to monkey around with my days. I've

24:19 got to run in the afternoon, and I enjoy this, and I enjoy it. I don't care if he does. I'll do my own.

24:37 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.

25:56 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?

Universal Self-Abandonment: Turning to Our Own Way

26:37 Look at the text. It says, oh, my friend, listen to me tonight. Are you prepared that Isaiah was wrong? Are you going to stand up in this building tonight and say, oh, wait a minute, that's his law, friend. Listen.

27:12 Faculty, listen to me. Say that if you are pitifully and pathetically ignorant of your own heart and of the most basic truths of the Word of God. For you have not had the living God as the supreme object of your love and devotion every hour of every day of every year, of your standard of conduct in fortitude and disposition.

27:47 Stray, desperate condition involves a statement of unreasonable strength. For what is there in God that makes Him unworthy of your love and mine? What is discovered something in God that makes Him unworthy of that kind of love?

28:25 Something in God's love of being the relating principle of every thought of our heart and holy and just and good of what is right in relationship to God and the creature's relationship to his fellow creature. From such a God that we should stray from such a law.

29:05 All have gone astray. I'll notice in the second place that this state condition involves not only reasonable straying, but the language of the text moves from this general group description to a very specific individual application. We have turned.

29:38 One of us is old. Concerning and on is true of every one of us. Now notice it does not say we have turned every one of us to drunkenness. If the Bible had said every one of us had turned to drunkenness, you would find and prove the first error that's ever been found and proven in the Bible.

30:06 It simply would not be true. There are sitting in this building men, women, boys and girls who've never been drunk. It doesn't say we've turned everyone to immorality. We've turned everyone to stealing.

30:17 We've turned every one of us to lying or cheating, insensitivity to the poor, covetousness, greed or gossip. There are some of us who by the grace of God have been kept from some of those sins, at least outwardly. But notice what it does say. Look at the text.

30:32 We have turned every one of us.

30:42 The denominator of every single sinner is that he has very jargon as I try to thunder it over the train's horn and that he died on dying.

31:49 That is all who succumb to life in him. That is all who succumb to life in him. That they should know of every great goal of life. The fundamental common denominator of open immorality.

32:35 It may lead to a very moral, upright life. It may lead in some cases to great irreligion and blasphemy and opposition to the church of Christ. It may lead to someone being very to the gospel and to the Lord Jesus and to the people of God. But whatever it leads to the common denominator of every single sinner, there is himself.

33:15 And there's no exception.

33:21 And again, that brings us right to the heart of what sin is. Sin is the creature turning the supreme object of his love, his law, conduct, and turning in upon himself and living life to please himself in terms of his own depraved nature.

33:48 From within, out of the heart. And then he gives the category of sins that are the expression of who are we. And that's the way. And has it ever come home to your heart that this is a description of you?

34:07 Are you prepared to stand up tonight and say, Isaiah would have written that? And that preacher came and preached that text?

34:28 Unless you're prepared to tell Almighty God he's wrong because the prophet was the mouthpiece of God. This is God's about the real situation. Our desperate situation. A situation described in terms of an unreasonable strain, in terms of an unbending self-abandonment, in terms of a self-assertion.

God's Feelings Towards Our Sin

34:52 And you may ask the question, well, how does God feel about all of this? And the Bible's very plain about how God feels about it. On the one hand, his holy anger burns the face of man's rebellion. How do we know it?

35:06 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?

35:42 When men say, Arrrr, that became a light. Cities of the plain see the smoke ascending up when Almighty God sends fire. His creatures made to know it stray from him into hatred, the righteous anger is provoked. So the scripture says God is angry with the wicked every day. Workers of iniquity. But more than that, this has been offended and demands to be satisfied.

36:49 That's why the word of God's first is everyone that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. The wages of sin is death as a just God is committed to uphold his law. And when men break his law, the only way left God is to uphold his law. And if the law breaks, it shall die.

37:16 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.

37:46 It grieved when the Lord Jesus came to the brow of the city of Jerusalem and looked down upon it and realized that in a few short years that city would be absolutely leveled by the advancing armies of Rome until not one stone in the temple would be left on top of another and that mothers with child would be ripped up and babies and infants and teenagers would be destroyed in the carnage and the bloodshed. It says that beholding the city of Jerusalem the people of Israel were and shall be full of righteousness とても to be among all creation and they were a people that went to the house of the Lord and knew that the shooting of the fire was to happen among them and they were killed and they were killed and then they were thrown into the city of Jerusalem and they were hanged

God's Gracious Provision: The Good News

39:15 in the house as we quickly seek to work our way through it. This text not only contains this description of our condition, but thank God, the bad news is followed with the good news. And here it is, notice.

39:36 ...on Him, the iniquity of us all.

39:41 And here we have a state of the gracious provision. Notice several things about that. First of all, notice the author of this provision. Look at it.

40:02 And, in other words, so bless all my sins, there is no hope, but thank God He has intervened. A beautiful parallel to this verse is Ephesians 2, 1-4. In the first three verses of Ephesians, you have that graphic description in differing language, but it's the same thing in essence. You have lived in your trespasses and sins, wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all station in time past, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, that under the wrath and anger we sink into hell,

41:24 under the pure monuments of that whole act of His character. But thank God there is mention of the Lord Himself. Jehovah is called. In this passage, the great vision that meet is the provision in which God,

41:57 the provision of which God... My friend, listen very carefully.

42:05 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.

42:20 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.

43:04 You remember what he did? He ran from Him, but it was God who took the initiative and came to him. And from that incident onward, no sinner is ever rescued. But what God has taken the initiative.

The Method of God's Provision: Substitutionary Sin-Bearing

43:23 And so the author of this provision in grace is God. But now what's the method? Look at the strange language. The method of God's provision is all bound up in this language.

43:34 And the Lord's Jehovah God has made to light on Him, that is the servant of Jehovah, the iniquity of us all. I say that sounds like pretty heavy language. I can't get hold of that. My friend, listen to me.

43:51 You better put your thinking cap on and cry to God the Holy Ghost that you may get hold of this because in this and in this alone is your salvation.

44:01 God's one method for coming to us in our desperation is the method of this verse. What is it?

44:10 Solutionary sin-bearing of the servant of Jehovah. The Lord upon Him, servant of Jehovah, iniquity of us all. That little part is bound up the whole gospel. It tells us, first of all, that God's method with His Son, who is pictured in this passage as the servant of Jehovah.

44:41 Our sin is bound up not in what we do for God to the church of God with what God's salvation and mine are bound up. Not in with what God's Son, servant of Jehovah, God incarnate. And what does He do to Him according to Isaiah? This is what He does to Him.

45:25 Jehovah calls Him. Jehovah calls Him to rest. That's what the word means. Jehovah calls Him to alight, to rest upon Him, the iniquity of us all.

45:36 You see, sin means punishment.

45:45 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.

46:08 He could look out into the face of His contemporaries who were hawking every step He made, listening to every word, watching every action, and He could look them right in the eye and say, which one of you can convince me or convict me of sin? And His worst enemies were silent. He was sinless, not only in the eyes of men, but you remember God Himself spoke from heaven and He said, this is my Son, in whom I am well pleased. Everything about Him...

46:35 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.

47:02 Now surely, He did not make His Son polluted with the defilement of our sin. He did not make His Son chargeable with the commission of our sin. No. What He did was to lay upon His Son the guilt of our sin.

The Bruising of the Father and the Essence of Hell

47:19 Now follow closely. When guilt is upon anyone in the presence of God,

47:26 with that person in justice, He does one thing. He punishes the guilty one. And that's why we read down in this 53rd chapter of Isaiah and we read the language of verse 10. It pleased the Lord,

47:49 thou shalt make... ...for sin.

47:53 ...for sin.

47:53 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!

48:21 That was not the faking to light upon Him. No.

48:37 When our sins were charged to the Son of God, He's the Lord.

48:45 It pleased the Lord. He cried out, God, my...

49:19 That is either sheer nonsense or the most cruel cry ever uttered upon the face of the earth.

49:33 Jesus, mistake me. I can take thee of these poor religious leaders. Father, what they do is make the forsaking of my own disciples in the hour of my need. They have fallen before the weakness of the flesh.

49:55 The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. I can overlook and forgive the folly of my disciples. I can...

50:03 Even the mockery... and the shame...

50:05 and the spittle of these poor religious leaders. This, my son,

50:28 because you are parents of men, you are bearing the sins of all those for whom you willingly consented to become substitute in surety and representative. My son, when in eternity I chose a people in you and gave them to you to be your responsibility on their behalf to become incarnate, on their behalf to under the law and...

50:54 to render perfect obedience to the law and on their behalf to go to that place of execution and bear the penal sanctions of the law.

51:13 ...the Son and bruises him with those powers of separation which is the essence of hell.

51:22 And we cannot... Martin Luther one time was said to have sat for some three hours at his desk concentrating all the...

51:31 of that mighty mind and that sensitive soul upon these words. My God, God, why hast thou forsaken me? And it is said at the end of the three hours he pushed himself back from his desk, threw up his...

52:04 and all our... the divine of dealing was not to wink at it for the Bible says thou art a purer upon iniquity or to simply pass over it.

52:22 It was not to... though there was but one way for God to be God in all the integrity of his holiness and justice and for guilty sinners to be set free.

The Receipt of Salvation: Christ's Death and Resurrection

52:38 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.

53:00 Don't give me everything I deserve. The old saying, spare the...

53:04 spoil the child. We mean, withhold the rod and spoil the child. The scripture says he spared his son. That is, he held not his...

53:17 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.

53:31 Our load was laid on thee. Thou is in the sinner's stead, it's bare all for me. Death and the curse were in our...

53:45 Oh Christ, was full for thee. Tis empty now for me. That bitter cup loved thee. Oh Christ, it woke against thee.

54:06 Thine own bosom was its ward. Friends, that's the...

54:47 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.

55:14 And you know what the receipt is from God almighty? The open tomb in Bethlehem, in Jerusalem. The scripture says he was delivered up for our offense. Offense is rastification.

55:27 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.

55:55 He was a cunt. That indeed as that cunt she shrunk from in the garden had been placed to his lips. And he held it to his lips through those dark hours upon Calvary. The father somehow conveyed to the son that the last drop had been drunk.

56:18 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 death. It was a real death. And then on the third day, God raised him from the dead.

56:45 And you know what God was saying? In full. That you hold on something and all the substitutionary sin bearing of the servant of Jehovah. Now, in closing, you ask me the question and I answer.

What to Do: Seek the Lord and Forsake Your Way

57:19 What do I do in the light of all of this? If I sit here tonight and confess I've never seen myself this way before, drifting through life, kind of a nice, middle-class me tonight than I've been before. I've seen my heart. One of those sheep who've gone astray.

57:45 I have not loved God. I found right here in this same prophet. Listen to him as he speaks to you from chapter 55 in verse six and seven. Seek ye the Lord.

58:13 And he's near. Sing of his word. What you say, in what way shall I seek him? In what way shall I call upon him?

58:22 He says, listen to me and I'll answer you. Let the wicked forsake his way. Uh-uh, there it is again. We've turned into his own for all that you deserve for turning to your own way.

58:50 That way in which you lost, in which your will and your plans and your notions and your ideas and your affirmation willing to deal with the sins of the heart. Forsake the wrong thoughts about God. About sin, about yourself, about salvation, about the world, about possessions, about sex, about money. You've gotta be willing to forsake your thoughts to the thoughts of God. You say, well, what happens if I do that? Well, look again, let Isaiah tell you.

59:49 His words are better than mine. Let him, let him return unto the Lord. You went astray like a sheep. God was not the supreme object of your love and devotion.

60:04 Now turn to him as the supreme object of your love and devotion. Now turn to him as the supreme object of your love and devotion. Now turn to him as the supreme object of your love and devotion. Now turn to him as the supreme object of your love and devotion.

60:09 His son, as your savior and your Lord. Take his law. But if I do, what treatment will I receive from him? Let the prophet answer you.

60:24 Look at his words. Mercy upon him and to our God that is returned to our God. For he will abundantly pardon. You say, Mr. Martin, that doesn't make sense.

60:39 You mean after this whole lifetime of living to myself, going astray like a lost sheep. All about that, so look at the next verse. All about that, so look at the next verse.

61:05 Your thoughts are not devoid of justice. Isn't it wonderful how thoroughly God knows us? He knows all the questions and all the objections you raise. He knows all the questions and all the objections you raise.

61:16 He clears them all the way. Oh my friends, sitting here tonight. Sitting here tonight. may I entreat you as we close to pray for you.

61:22 may I entreat you as we close to pray for you. What is all that God wohled to give you? What is and is God meant in. about God, his son, about your His Son, His kos Scientific process, Is there about God gone.

61:35 deter not gracious and reasonable to ponder consider thus I shallrah Oh my friends. lots of Tolkien May God help you to do that. may God help you to do that exactly the. help you to do exactly.

61:45 you should do. Seek the Lord. It's a little religion. It doesn't say make a decision. It doesn't say go through the motions of a profession of faith. It says seek the Lord with God and His pardon. It says my thoughts are not your thoughts. I'm not like you are.

Embrace the Savior and His Lordship

62:17 I'm God. I have labored in this past hour and five minutes my friends. As best I know how in independence upon the Holy Ghost to open up what I believe is one of the most simple and clear verses in all of the Bible concerning the bad news and the good news. You will never appreciate the good news of the last part of the verse until you take seriously the bad news.

62:50 Have gone to his own way. If you take the bad news seriously and don't listen to the good news it will drive you to despair. So God gives you both that you might be wooed to salvation. And that's why we're here tonight. For one purpose. To be your servants for Christ's sake. To set before you this gospel and to plead with you to embrace the Savior that you might know this salvation. If you sit here as one who says oh yes I'm Christian. My friend are you a Christian in the Bible way? Have you forsaken your way? Or have you been deceived by this teaching you can trust Jesus while still living your own way? You can have him as Savior but not as Lord. Where do you find that in the book? You don't find you forsake your own. A bunch of people

64:16 who names us with their lips in His way and if you're part of that number my friend give up your cheap shallow religion. It may do for now but it won't do for the day of judgment. Vital relationship to God in the person of His dear Son. And I want to reiterate tonight as we have done in other nights. We are not priests.

64:51 Pastor Justly is elders myself. We're preachers. Servants of Christ. Telling you the way of God. You can have direct dealings with God sitting right where you are. But we are His servants and if there are questions that are unresolved in your mind that are a stumbling block. In your seeking the Lord and laying hold of His salvation then it would not be an imposition upon any of us for you to come and to share with us the concern that is a stumbling block to your coming to Christ. And we will do our best by opening the scriptures and praying with you and for you to be of help.

65:27 But my friend no dealings with us are a substitute for having dealings with the Lord. Let us pray.

Prayer and Benediction

65:42 Our Heavenly Father rejoice this night before the blade of the biblical gospel. We thank you that in faithfulness to our souls you have told us the bad news about us. But that in love to us you have announced the good news. Make the simple proclamation of your truth and make it effectual to the salvation of sinners.

66:13 To the confirmation of faith in the hearts of your people. And grant that those who have heard this word in this auditorium those who have heard it in their homes and in their cars by means of the radio. Oh may there be many amongst them who will be drawn to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Seal then your word to our hearts.

66:37 As we leave this building guard us from the kind of idle and senseless chatter that would drive your word from our thoughts. May our conversation be wholesome and edifying. And serve to rivet the truth upon our hearts. May our conversation not be concerning this building your servant or any other circumstances but may it be of your son his salvation and the glory of the gospel. Hear this prayer that together we offer in your presence and may the benediction of that presence rest upon us and abide with us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

67:29 These messages come to you from the Mount Olive Presbyterian Church Tape Library at Post Office Box 142 Mount Olive, Mississippi 39119 USA and are used with the permission of the Second Presbyterian Church in Yazoo City, Mississippi under whose auspices these messages were given.