Bad News / Good News from God

Introduction: Simple Signposts to the Celestial City and Isaiah 53:6

0:00 Now, as it was announced on Wednesday evening at our prayer meeting, we will continue tonight our brief series of studies in the Word of God under the title of Simple Signpost to the Celestial City. And for the benefit of any who have not been with us in the previous parts of this series, what I am aiming for is very simple and straightforward in this series of studies. I'm attempting to take some of those very simple, clear gospel texts which embody, in a nutshell, the heart and soul of the biblical message, concerning life and salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. And likening those texts to divinely inspired signposts that point us to the way of life and salvation, we have borrowed the term from Bunyan, the term the Celestial City is Bunyan's term for Heaven. And so we are concerned to examine these texts of salvation.

1:19 And so we are concerned to examine these texts of salvation. Which, by the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit, we trust, will accomplish two things. First of all, that they will be owned of God as the very means by which some of you, young and old alike, will actually come to possess the salvation of which they speak. That by the grace of God, you will consider what is upon these.

1:49 That by the grace of God, you will consider what is upon these. And make haste to obey them, and find yourself in that narrow way which leads unto life. And then the second concern is that which ought always to be present in the heart of any pastor, and that is to help equip you who are the people of God, who by the grace of God are on your way to the Celestial City, that you might be better equipped with a work of salvation. that you might be better equipped with a work of salvation.

2:19 And thus far, we've considered four such texts, each of them from the New Testament. However, tonight we're going to consider a simple signpost to the Celestial City taken from the Old Testament. And if you have any familiarity with the Old Testament and its central gospel texts, perhaps some of you have already thought of Genesis 3 and verse 15, that first gospel promise in which God Himself, in the midst of pronouncing a curse upon man for his sin, and upon the devil himself for his part in man's sin, coming in the form of the serpent, God gives that word which is really the seedbed out of which all other gospel texts eventually grows. God says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, and in that enmity there would eventually be a crushing of the head of the serpent, though in the process,

3:48 the heel of the seed of the woman would be bruised. But if that text is the seedbed out of which the other gospel promises grow, than the text we are going to consider tonight is the fullest-blooming gospel flower in all of the Old Testament. I personally do not believe there is any text in all of the Old Testament, in the history of the Holy Scripture, Old Testament in which the very heart, the very essence of the gospel is more clearly and comprehensively expressed than in the text we're going to consider tonight, and perhaps some of you have already had your minds running to that text, or at least making a guess in your minds, I'm referring to Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 6.

4:49 Isaiah 53 and verse 6 is our fifth of the simple signposts to the celestial city, a text in which the prophet, in the midst of these descriptions of the suffering servant of Jehovah, 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. In this text there are two very simple divisions of thought. You children looking at the text should be able to see where the text very naturally divides itself. It begins by talking about us. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way.

The Bad News: Our Desperate Condition in Sin (Isaiah 53:6a)

5:57 And in that first part of the text we have what I am calling the bad news of our desperate condition in sin. It's talking about us, and whenever God talks honestly about us and what we are by nature, what we are by inclination and practice before the grace of God lays hold of us, is indeed bad news. It is sad news. At times it is sordid and base in what it must say, or what it says about us puts us in the light of being sordid and base. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. But then you see the subject of the verse changes in the last part of it.

7:01 Our attention is now directed away from us and to the Lord, to Jehovah and to his servant. And Jehovah hath laid on him, that is his servant, the iniquity. Of us all. And so as surely as the first part of the verse contains the bad news of our desperate condition in sin, the last part of the verse contains the good news of God's gracious provision for sin.

7:40 And so in those two simple headings we have the heart of the message of this text. The bad news of our desperate condition in sin, the good news of God's gracious provision for sin. First of all then, consider what the prophet tells us in setting before us this bad news of our desperate condition in sin. He does so in two ways.

8:18 First of all, he gives us a vivid picture. Of our desperate condition and then he gives us a blunt statement of our desperate condition. First of all, look at the vivid picture he gives of our desperate condition. He says all sheep have gone astray.

8:47 Here he is picturing the entire human race. He is picturing all fellow Israelites. He is picturing human beings. He is picturing humanity like a vast flock of sheep in which every single one of those sheep has gone astray as part of that vast stray flock.

9:17 And by comparing scripture with scripture we know that in the prophet's understanding and in the word of God in its general teaching this is setting forth the bad news of our desperate condition. Now, what about the exact same truth spoken in blunt language by the apostle Paul in Romans 3.23 when he says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Or the truth that he states in Romans 3.10 and following, There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that unrighteous. There is none that unrighteous. There is none that unrighteous.

10:01 There is none that unrighteous. There is none that unrighteous. understandeth there is none that seeketh after God, they have all aside. And by using this vivid picture of our desperate condition, likening it to a vast flock of sheep that has gone astray, the prophet is emphasizing that in our sin we have left the side of our rightful shepherd.

10:33 We have left the presence of the one who has the right to guide us and to govern us. And in leaving him like a flock of sheep that leaves the side of its rightful shepherd, we are exposed to danger, to destitution, and to death itself. Now that's not a very flattering picture of humanity. But flattery.

11:03 Flattery or not, it is reality. All sheep gone astray. And there is no explanation for what man is as we contemplate him with all of his noble faculties and capacities. As we contemplate what we are as men and women and boys and girls that sets us so far in the order of the animal kingdom.

11:37 And yet, we are creatures that can be at one another's throats and man's inhumanity to his fellow man, his heartless, wanton slaughter of his own fellow human beings, his cruelty, his willingness to trample upon his fellow men in order to advance himself and his own desires. How can man be a creature on the one hand that is so cruel to himself and his own desires? How can man be a creature on the one hand that is so cruel to himself and his own desires? How can man be a creature on the one hand that is so god-like in some respects and so much like the devil in other respects?

12:17 Well, the answer is that man is not now what he once was. He was made in the image and the likeness of God. And though he is still the image of God, he is a terribly marred image of God. He has in the vivid picture of this text, he has gone astray.

12:39 He has gone astray from God himself as his rightful shepherd. But the prophet is not content to leave us with the bad news of man's desperate condition in sin, to rest under this vivid picture of our desperate condition. He then follows with a blunt statement of our desperate condition. All we like sheep have gone astray.

The Blunt Statement: Turning to Our Own Way

13:13 That's figurative language. Now the blunt statement. We have turned everyone to his own way. We have, having cast off the object of our supreme devotion, having cast off the law as the regulating, governing principle of our lives, what have we done?

13:50 We have turned into a course of self-determination, of self-will. We have gone, to put it bluntly, into the God business. We've taken upon ourselves to say that I will live for the things that please me, by the standards with which I am comfortable, for the purposes that satisfy me, for the purposes that satisfy me, we have turned every one of us to his own way. And the great common denominator sin of all humanity is not drunkenness, it is not thievery, it is not cursing, it is not blasphemy. There are many who are a part of that vast flock of strange sheep who are not blasphemers, who are not thieves, who are not adulterers, but the common denominator of every one of us is this, we have turned every one of us to his own way. We have turned into a course in which we say, God can do his thing, God can carry out business, I really don't.

15:17 This is why the apostle could describe our natural condition in similar language in 2 Corinthians 5.15 where he writes, and that Christ died for all, that they should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again. He assumes that every single person at one time lived unto self. The goal of life was to please myself.

15:55 Now in some people, the only way they can please themselves is by indulging, passions and appetites that make them openly wicked, profligate. It may make them foul-mouthed, murderous, adult, sickening wrecks of humanity. They may become the very models of refinement and culture. They may go into a way in which they satisfy their appetites for the arts and for music and the finer things of this life and the world, and the world looks upon them as cultured and elevated and lovely people.

16:38 But the common denominator is this. Each one lives according to the standards that he himself has set. According to ends and for purposes which he or she has determined, we have turned every one of us by nature. And so the prophet gives us, this bad, this sad, this doleful news of our desperate condition in sin.

17:19 For if indeed this is our condition under the vivid picture of a vast flock of sheep who've gone astray from their rightful shepherd, from His presence, from communion with Him, submission to Him, and that every single one in that vast flock, has turned to do his own thing, does God sit by passively, indifferent, unconcerned about this going astray, this turning of man to his own? No, God does not sit by as an indifferent spectator. For from the very moment that our first father and mother went astray, went astray, turned to their own way, God has made it very plain that He is deeply concerned and deeply involved in what man, creature does with his rightful rule and government. And God came to our first parents in the garden when they had gone astray, when they had turned to their own way, and God came seeking them as a gracious, inquisitor.

18:43 Adam, where art thou? And God brought them to face the reality of their sin. And though He pronounced judgment mingled with mercy, God gives no impression whatsoever that He is some kind of an indulgent, unprincipled benefactor who will just shower His good gifts upon man regardless of what He does. He is God.

19:12 It is God who gives. And so it's important that we recognize our God who is fire, who is an ardent hope, whose spirit is divine, who is the most powerful, and who is the greatest in all things. But we must also remember that He is very wise in what He does to us, and He does the right thing to us. All things are consistent with what He does to us, and He does the right thing to us.

19:31 In fact, God takes man strange, man's determination to do His own thing so seriously that He blotted out with a flood the entire earth. This is our responsibility, our right to love, Except one family. He said, it grieves me that I ever made man. I'll blot them all out. And he sent a whole generation into hell amidst the floodwaters of that ancient judgment.

20:06 We read later on what he did to two cities or the cities of the plains where people cast off the law of God as regulating particularly their sexual appetites and preferences and became aggressive homosexuals so much so that they seek to vent their perverted appetites upon angels who visit Lot and God. So out of heaven. Upon the cities of the plains because like a vast flock of sheep, they had gone astray. They had turned to their own way.

20:47 They had made known what their sexual preferences were. They were aggressive in propagating them. They were shameless in demonstrating them until God said, I'll be just as shameless in sending hell out of heaven to consume you in my anger. This whole idea that God's not interested is what goes on in men's.

21:09 Bedrooms doesn't stand with the Bible.

21:14 God is interested in God is concerned what goes on in the gay bars and what goes on in bedrooms and what goes on in the backseat of cars. And when we come through the Old Testament, we see again and again, have we not, as we've read the prophets until at times we've said, will we ever be through these doleful messengers of doom? One after another crying out to. Israel calling them back.

21:43 Ewardness on turning to do their own thing. Know when God says all sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one of us to his own way. That's not just neutral information. That's a statement of our desperate condition.

22:06 For in that condition, every one of us by nature is under the wrath of Almighty God. This is why the apostle in Ephesians 2 1 to 3 in what in many ways is an excellent commentary on Isaiah 53 6 a says these words. You did he make alive who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein you once walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the powers of the air of the spirit that now works in the sun. You did he make alive who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein you once walked according to the course of this world according to the course of this world according to the prince of the air of the spirit that now works in the sun.

22:45 Among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh. Listen now. Doing the desires of the flesh. Turn to our own way and own thing.

23:04 And were by nature children of wrath. That is those who were justly and righteously liable to the wrath of all. Even. As.

23:19 The rest.

The Seriousness of the Bad News and the Reality of Hell

23:22 And I want to say by way of application to every child, every young person, every adult in this place tonight. Hear me carefully.

23:31 Until Isaiah's statement of the bad news of our desperate condition in sin. Until Isaiah's statement of the bad news of your condition in sin. Becomes the most. All.

23:52 Absorbing concern in your life. Hear me carefully now. You will never come to a place of safety and salvation. Until you.

24:10 The good news will mean little if anything to you.

24:16 For Jesus said I did not come to call the righteous. That is those who in their own eyes and in their own estimation. In their own mental and emotional assessment of themselves. Feel that everything is all right.

24:31 I did not come righteous. People deceived about their spiritual state and condition before me. But I came to call sinners to repentance. Those who by the word and the spirit.

24:49 Have heard and laid to heart. And feel the pressure and weight of the bad news. Of our desperate condition. In sin.

25:03 And that condition is such. That one of the most sobering. Perhaps the most sobering reality. Outside of contemplating the being of God himself.

25:16 Is revealed in the Bible. And that is. The biblical doctrine. Of hell.

25:25 A place described as outer darkness. Where there is weeping and wailing. And gnashing of teeth. A place prepared for the devil and his angels.

25:36 But a place into which. Every single member of the human race. Part of that. That has gone astray.

25:46 Every single individual who has turned to his own. And has not taken his condition seriously. Has not been brought to the one remedy. Set forth in scripture.

26:00 Every such man. Every single member of the human race. Shall be cast. Into that frightening place.

26:10 And as I walked up these steps tonight. I said oh God. Someday. I'll make my last.

26:19 Trip up those stairs. It may be that tonight is the last time. I'll ever walk out of that prayer room. And up those stairs.

26:26 I have no promise. I'll live to see the light of tomorrow. That I'll breathe tomorrow's air. I have no.

26:34 Promise. But should God let me live. And give me strength to preach into my eighties. There still.

26:42 Will be a last. I'll walk up those stairs. I'll give an account of the stewardship of this night. And I said oh God.

26:57 Help me so to speak to the central issues from this passage. That my hands will be clear from the blood. Of every person in this building. Young or old alike.

27:10 Oh listen to the prophet Isaiah. Who by the guidance of the spirit. Sets before you and me. The bad news of our desperate condition in sin.

27:25 Have you ever taken that to heart. Have you ever laid to heart what God says you are. As part of that vast flock of humanity. That has gone astray.

27:39 As an individual. Who has dared to take the reigns of the government of your life. Into your own hands. Rancing them.

27:49 Out of the hands of deity. And daring to play God. And do your own thing. Oh I plead with you.

27:58 If you've never taken the bad news seriously. Take it seriously tonight. It's as serious. As the banishment from Eden.

28:08 The fire in brimstone. Upon the cities. Of the plain. The bloated bodies.

28:14 Upon the waters of the flood. The horrible tragedies. Connected with the captivity of Israel. And her exile into Babylon.

28:26 My friend. It is serious business to be a sinner.

28:32 Serious business.

28:35 I beg you teenagers.

28:38 Don't go through a lot of your Nintendo games.

28:46 Never spend. A moment seriously reflecting on what it is. To be a human being. Who is a sinner.

28:55 Who has the capacity.

28:58 To live forever in a place called hell. In the company of the devil and his angels.

29:08 One of the curses of all of the modern gimmicks. That are constantly pounding sounds into your ears. And sights into your eyes. That take you from reflection.

29:22 To the world. To the The subject changes. From what we are. To what God has done.

The Good News: God's Gracious Provision for Sin (Isaiah 53:6b)

30:00 Look at the language of the text. And the Lord. That is Jehovah. The eternal.

30:07 I am covenant keeping God. Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. I want you to notice three things about this good news of God's gracious provision for sin. First of all look at the author of it.

30:27 Who is the author of this provision? And the Lord. You see the moment we are talking about provision for sinners. Our attention is drawn.

30:41 On to the activity of God himself. The author of this provision is God himself. And this is the test of all. Does it propose a set of beliefs and practices that turn me inward upon myself.

31:05 To be my own savior. To my fellow men to be co-saviors with me. Or does it turn me complete and soul. Or does it turn me completely and exclusively upward to look for help from God.

31:24 God alone. The religion of the Bible is one that points us in that last direction for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. In the passage that I read from Ephesians after showing parallel bad news of our condition in sin. The transition into destruction.

31:50 Into describing salvation begins with these two words in verse four. But God but in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. The Apostle does a similar thing in Titus three where he's describing what we once were in the horrible sinful state when we were not the Lord's people. And he says again.

32:27 But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. The good news of God's gracious provision for sin begins with emphasizing that the author of that provision is God himself and God alone. But then notice secondly the focus of that provision. It all focuses on the one referred to by the priest.

The Focus of God's Provision: The Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ

32:55 It all focuses on the one referred to by the priest. It all focuses on the one referred to by the priest. It all focuses on the one referred to by the priest. He has the pronoun hymn in the last part of the text.

33:00 He has the pronoun hymn in the last part of the text. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now who is the hymn of this verse. You look back into verse five and you have the pronoun again.

33:17 He was wounded. He was bruised. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. So we don't know who the hymn is there.

33:26 We go back to verse four. He has borne our griefs. He has carried our sorrows. We did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, but we still don't have Him identified.

33:39 And we do the same with verse 3 and verse 2 and verse 1. So we go back into chapter 52, verse 15, verse 14, and then we find Him in verse 13.

33:52 The hymn all from verse 13 to Isaiah 53. He is identified in verse 13. Behold, it is the servant of Jehovah, who according to the Scriptures is Jehovah Himself, come into this world, taking to Himself a true human soul and body. It is none other than Jehovah Jesus.

34:30 And how do we know that in this whole passage the subject is the Lord? The Lord Jesus, not the nation of Israel or some ideal person. Well, we know it from the clear statement given to us in the book of Acts. For if you'll turn there for a moment with me, you'll remember the incident recorded in Acts chapter 8.

34:53 That amazing incident of this Ethiopian eunuch who is going back to the place of his dwelling and his official responsibilities through a desert, and God sends his servant Philip out to meet him. And as he draws near to the chariot, what is this Ethiopian eunuch doing? Acts 8.28 And he was returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading the prophet Isaiah.

35:27 And the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join yourself to this chariot. And Philip ran up to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, Do you understand what you're reading? And he said, How can I, except someone shall guide me? And he besought Philip to come up and sit with him.

35:48 Now the passage of the scripture he was reading was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before her shearer is done, so he opened not his mouth. What is that passage? That's the very next verse in Isaiah 53.

36:09 That's verse 7 and following. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. His generation, who shall declare? For his life is taken from the earth.

36:20 His, his, his, his. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of this, of himself, the prophet is speaking. That's the question of the eunuch. And Philip, Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, preached unto him Jesus.

36:53 Preached unto him Jesus.

36:58 The focus of Isaiah's prophecy here in the 53rd chapter is none other than the suffering servant of Jehovah. And if the focus is upon the suffering servant, then there is an unusual, especially bright spotlight that focuses upon one aspect of the life and ministry of the suffering servant. Look at our text. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.

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

37:36 You see, the author of the provision is surely Jehovah, and the focus of that provision is the substitutionary sin-bearing by the Lord. The condition of Jehovah. The condition met by God. It is met by the substitutionary sin-bearing of the servant of God.

38:07 The Lord hath laid or made to light or strike upon him the iniquity of us all. Look at the previous verse. Here he had already asserted in unmistakable language, he was wounded, E.J. Young suggests that a better rendering of that Hebrew word is pierced through with a surface wound or a critical wound, but a mortal transgressions. He was bruised, E.J. Young suggests again, crushed, broken in pieces, and shattered for our iniquities.

39:04 The chastisement that secures our peace, was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Do you see the language of substitution? In our text it is stated, Jehovah hath made to light upon him the iniquity of us all. That does not mean he charged him with the personal guilt of our sins, no.

39:36 But he as our representative, is charged with all the responsibilities of the guilt of our sin, and when they are laid upon him, what does Jehovah do to him? Look at verse 10. Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.

40:11 It pleased Jehovah to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, when the sins of his people were charged to our Lord Jesus. And as it were, the Lord Jesus stands in the eternal court of spotless justice, before the throne of God, legally liable for the punishment of all of our iniquities. What does God do to his own beloved servant and son?

40:47 The scripture says he bruises him. He puts him to grief. He makes his soul an offering for sin. He pierces him through to death.

41:02 He crushes and breaks him in pieces. Why does he do that to the one of whom he had said, this is my beloved son? In him I am well pleased. The Son himself said, I do always the things that please my Father.

41:23 Why should he bruise him? Why should he pierce him through to death? Why should he wring from his holy soul the bloody sweat of Gethsemane, the shame, the nakedness, the terrors of Golgotha, the darkened heavens, the billows of wrath? Pressuring his soul to cry, my God, my God, why hast thou abandoned me, forsaken me, left me, with no felt sense of your smile of approval?

42:00 My friends, listen carefully. Boys and girls, men and women, young people, hear me. If what Isaiah says is not true, the most cruel joke that ever occurred on this earth, the most sadistic act that ever occurred, was Calvary. That one who had gone about doing good, healing the sick, raising the dead, opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, ministering to the outcast, calling sinners to himself, transforming them by his power, he should be impaled upon an instrument of cruel death.

42:45 And while there, have his soul made of dust, made an offering for sin, that he should be bruised for the iniquities of others. If this is not the answer to what transpired to Jesus of Nazareth, then it is all a cruel sadistic joke. But it is not that. It is the good news of how God can continue to be perfectly just, committed to punish every sin with pure and righteous justice, and at the same time have sinners who deserve to go to hell brought into his presence in that place called in the scriptures, heaven, called by Bunyan the celestial city. And he doesn't stain his justice in the process, for he fully satisfies all the just demands of his law by charging his own son with the punishment due to the sins of his people and bruising him, putting him to grief, making his soul an offering for sin, wounding him for their transgressions, bruising him for their iniquities, and to obtain their peace,

44:13 chastising him. That's the focus of God's provision. For sin, it is the cross of Christ. And what God was doing to God on that cross, what God the Father was doing to God the Son, who, the writer to Hebrews says, through the eternal Spirit offered himself up without spot unto God, the real meaning of the cross to be found, secondary events, events in which we find the soldiers implicated, and the Pharisees and the leaders and the Sanhedrin implicated, no, implicated in the cross as God is implicated. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. It was the Father's activity that brought the cry of dereliction and woe from the soul and lips of the Son of God when he, in the language of Galatians, 3.13, bore the curse of the law for us.

45:30 In the language of 2 Corinthians 5.21, when he who knew no sin was made sin for us. The good news of God's gracious provision for sin in this simple signpost of the celestial city is that God is the author of that provision. The focus of that provision is the substitutionary sin bearing of the servant of Jehovah.

God's Requirements: Seek, Call, Forsake, Return (Isaiah 55)

46:01 And to validate that the Father was fully satisfied with what he did when he bore the sins of his people, he raised him from the dead the third day. And the resurrection is among other things God's receipt that payment has been made in full for all who will come to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in the light of that reality, the good news of God's gracious provision for sin of which the author is God, the focus is the substitutionary sin bearing of the servant of Jehovah, we come thirdly under the good news to answer the question, what does God require of us in the light of that good news against the backdrop of the bad news of our desperate condition in sin? That backdrop overlaid with this marvelous good news of God's provision for sin, what are we to do? Well, we are to know in the language of chapter 55 that God freely, sincerely, earnestly, let me say the word carefully, God passionately, invite you to partake of the blessings of life and salvation,

47:29 forgiveness and pardon, reconciliation to himself, all under the picture of one who's gone out into the marketplace to be a hawker of goods. Oh, everyone that thirsts, come to the waters, and he that hath no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk. Without money and without price, wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies not? Do you really think you can fill that God-shaped hole with feelings that come from the end of your fingers, the end of your lips, at the ends of your sexual organs? Do you think you can fill the aching hole, that God-shaped hole, with the impulses of any nerve and senses? It's impossible. You spend money for that which will never satisfy.

48:40 You spend money for that which can never, never, never answer to your deepest longings. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and you labor for that which satisfies not? The same God who tells us the truth about our condition in the bad news, who sets forth the glorious good news, this is what he now says to us. He reasons with us.

49:13 He says, Come, all the blessings bound in the purchase of my Son upon the cross are there for me without price. And when he makes the invitation, people go on saying, No, no, no, no. I'm going to work to fill the needs of my soul. I'm going to do it this way and that way.

49:35 And God argues. And God enters into passionate pleading and says, Why do you do this? Incline your ear. Come unto me.

49:46 Here in your soul shall be the place of sensual pleasure, intellectual pursuits, social status. God says, Incline your ear. Come unto me. Here in your soul will live.

50:18 And then it's as though someone stops and says, Well, I better heed that gracious invitation based upon God's wonderful provision. I better heed that. I have to admit that everything I've tried to do to quell the horrible accusations of my conscience, it hasn't worked. Every path I've gone down trying to fill that God-shaped hole has left me empty and left me mocked with the gnawing of sin.

50:53 I have no awareness. God made me for something better than this. What shall I do then? God says, All right, I've got your attention.

51:05 Now listen. This is what you do. Verse six. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.

51:13 Call upon him while he's near. Seek him. Call upon him. Have earnest, sincere heart dealings with this very God who's told you the bad news.

51:29 But this very God who's made the marble visions bound up. He says, Seek him individually as you went astray and turned to your own will. Seek him while he may be found. While he may be found.

51:52 When can he be found? He is found when he brings you within the orbit of the kind of preaching you've heard tonight. When the gospel is freely set forth. And Christ is presented before you crucified for sinners in the largeness of his heart and in the plenitude of his grace.

52:13 And while you still have sanity of mind and God has not abandoned you and given you over to judicial hardness of heart in which you could be placed before the very cross itself and fall asleep with indifference. That's what'll happen if God gives you over and gives you up. Seek the Lord while he may be found. And the only while that you are certain of is now.

52:44 Behold now is the day of salvation. Today if you hear his voice harden your heart. Seek the Lord. How do I?

52:59 God says I'll tell you. Call while he's near. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We heard it in the Sunday school hour this morning.

53:13 One of the great promises in the age of the outpoured spirit is the door of mercy has been flung wide. God says call upon the Lord and you shall be saved. But you say well with what disposition and attitude of heart must I seek and call? God says I'll tell you.

53:35 Verse 7. Let the wicked forsake his way. You see the parallel? We've turned everyone to his.

53:43 God says abandon the living. Doing your own thing. Abandon the principle of living unto yourself. Living by your own standards.

53:59 Living to your own ends. Living to yourself. To gratify your own appetites at the expense of the law of God and the glory. Forsake it.

54:13 Turn. Let the wicked forsake his way and let him return unto Jehovah the great and glorious Jehovah Jesus the shepherd and bishop the only rightful shepherd and bishop of our souls return unto him. Nothing here you see about rules and regulations and forms and rituals. It's all personal.

54:41 The sinner in his need. The savior in the plenitude of his grace. You seek the Lord. You call upon him.

54:50 You forsake your way. And the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. Now notice. And as you return you can come humbly but boldly waving his own promise.

God's Abundant Pardon and the Nature of Faith

55:06 He will have mercy upon him. He will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. You say by simply turning from a way that would only take me to hell in the first place. By abandoning a way that is self-destructive and turning to God and pleading for mercy on the grounds of what his suffering servant did God will pardon you. It's good to be true. God says I know it and I anticipated it. So listen.

55:59 Look at verse 8. My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways. Except the Lord.

56:09 As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Expect the gospel to operate on your principles. If someone treated you the way you've treated God showed up on your doorstep and said let's forget the whole business and welcome me back you'd say oh wait a minute we got a lot of issues to sort out first. You'd rub it under their nose for a while.

56:37 Make sure you put them in a halfway house. Make sure they really were serious and meant business. God doesn't deal with us that way. He says you forsake your way and you return unto God in the confidence that he will have mercy upon you and he will abundantly part.

56:58 And he knows every single sin you've committed as a straying sheep and as a self-willed self-centered rebel and he says I don't care. If you will look to my son the suffering servant the servant of Jehovah who vicariously bore the sins of men if you will look to him and trust only in him I welcome you. Don't fix yourself up. Don't try to cut your own chains.

57:30 Come with your chains clanking and say oh God break the chains that I forged when turning to my own way. Don't try to fix up your own spiritual sight. Come with your spiritual blindness and say Lord Jesus give me sight even as did blind Bartimaeus. You see the very essence of repentance and faith is on the one hand you vomit out your sin and then you drink in every free gospel provision.

58:04 In the imagery of this passage you take the wine and the milk of God's free forgiveness and pardon in the Lord Jesus but you can't drink it in to a stomach that is still determined to go on feeding upon the filth and the vile rancid soul destructive stuff of sin. No, you must repent. Forsake your way right down to the patterns of your thoughts for thoughts are the mother of deeds. Let the wicked forsake his way and the thoughts behind them and let him return unto our God for he will abundantly pardon. And what is faith? As I have been wrestling this week with this question Lord how can I make the matter of faith as simple as the Bible makes it without in any way distorting it? And in the course of my reading on the life of John Duncan usually referred to as Rabbi Duncan a very brilliant, godly, unusual man of another generation in Scotland it was Duncan who said with regard to this matter there is nothing but Christ between us and hell and thank God we need nothing else.

59:29 And as I meditated upon that statement I said Lord that's it. What is faith? Faith is saying I will place nothing between myself and hell but Christ and Christ alone. Christ in the uniqueness of his person as the God-man in the sufficiency of his work as the substitutionary sin-bearer I will place all of the weight of my soul upon Christ.

60:05 I'll have one thing between me and hell Christ, Christ alone Christ himself. Then as my mind began to turn over the issue I said now what is an illustration of this? And for some reason I thought of those who do skydiving when they jump out of the plane at 7,000 sometimes even higher when they're going to do various formations there's only one thing that stands between them or many times two things that stand between them and bouncing on the hard earth and their death and that's their main chute and their backup chute. And at a given point when they check their altimeter and know that I must pull my main chute at so many thousand feet they pull it and if for some reason it's snarled and doesn't open they have a backup chute. But my friend faith has no backup chute. It's Christ alone. It is Christ himself.

The Illustration of Skydiving and the Call to Trust Christ Alone

61:08 And we say Lord Jesus I jump out into the ocean of an unknown eternity. I've never been a disembodied man. I've never been a disembodied spirit. I've never been separated from this body.

61:22 Death is a horrible, horrible, abnormal experience but oh God this much I know you have promised that trusting in your Son to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord that in the virtue of his blood and righteousness my disembodied spirit can appear in your holy presence accepted faultless and faith is saying oh God I joyfully place nothing between my soul and hell but Jesus Christ. Now my friend I ask you sitting here tonight is that your posture of soul? Sitting here can you say I place nothing between my hell deserving soul and the hell it deserves but Christ himself and Christ alone. You see you can't do that while you're still determined to go your own way still determined to think your own thoughts Christ can never be trusted in by an impenitent heart but having seen by the grace of God that as part of that flock of sheep

Conclusion: Return to the Shepherd and Overseer of Your Souls

62:49 that has gone astray as an individual who's turned to his own way you've turned into the way of death and destruction and you're ready to forsake that way what will you find when you turn? You'll find a gracious inviting passionate God saying come and welcome and welcome oh everyone who thirsts come to the waters come buy wine and milk without money and without price oh what a blessedly simple sign post of the celestial city do you see it? there it stands inviting every one of us saying all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one of us to his own way have you embraced the reality of that indictment on that sign post? if so then the good news of God's gracious provision has indeed become good news and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all God has taken the initiative and all that he's done focuses upon the substitutionary sin bearing

64:15 of his servant and I believe what scripture says that when Christ died he died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and the third day was raised again from the dead according to the scriptures and God says if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the same Lord is Lord of all and rich unto all that call upon him for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved that's Romans 10 verses 9 to 13 oh may God help you this night to call upon him while he is near seek him while he's near call upon him while he may be found and if you sit here tonight as one who in a sense has relived your own spiritual experience may God renew us all in new measures of single-eyed devotion to the Lord Jesus I close with this passage from 1st Peter

65:43 to show that the use of this text tonight has not been forced or artificial or fanciful for here Peter speaking of the Lord Jesus in 1st Peter chapter 3 chapter 2 calling upon the people of God to take him as their example in suffering for righteousness sake he says in verse 24 of 1st Peter 2 who his own self bore our sins in his body up to the tree that we having died unto sins might live unto righteousness notice by whose stripes you were healed the last words of Isaiah 53 5 the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed all we like sheep have gone astray but now look at Peter's words for you were going astray like sheep Isaiah 53 is still in his mind but now he can put it in the past and say you were going astray like sheep but are now returned unto whom the shepherd and overseer of your souls the one from whom you had wickedly gone astray you've now returned to him

67:11 embraced him as your shepherd to govern you to guide you the good shepherd who laid down his life for you you've committed yourself to him as your bishop your episkopos the one who will look over you and care for you and blessed be God take you even through the valley of the shadow of death and cause his two sheepdogs goodness and mercy to follow you all the days of your life and then take you home at last to be with him oh is it true of you that you were going astray like a sheep but you have now returned to the shepherd and bishop of your souls then with what single-eyed devotion should we love him with what shameless boldness should we confess him before men may God forgive us our wicked embarrassment to speak of such a gracious shepherd and bishop of our souls may those of you who this night of whom it cannot be said you are returned may this be the night when you return go to Christ ye dear children young people older men and women I beg you I beseech you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God

Prayer for the Word's Efficacy and Bold Proclamation

68:40 let us pray our Father how we thank you for these simple signposts that you have left us in the scriptures these portions in which you have distilled the very heart and breath of all that is essential to our life and salvation and we pray that the word preached tonight according to your own promise may not return unto you void but may prosper in that where unto you have sent it and oh God may it be more than a savor of death unto death may it indeed be a savor of life unto life for not a few in this place tonight oh God bring children and young people and teenagers and young adults and those in the prime of life and middle aged and old men and women oh God have dealings across the broad range of the various age and background represented here and may your spirit so own the word that the last day will reveal that that word was not preached in vain hear our cry

70:08 oh merciful and gracious God seal this word to our hearts and those of us who have known its saving power deliver us from sinful timidity loose our tongues to be honest with this generation giddy with the poisonous wine of self esteem and self adulation and self justification may we faithfully tell this generation the bad news of its horrible deflection from your laws its horrible abandonment of you and of your ways may we faithfully tell the bad news but then oh God make us bold to proclaim the wonder and the glory of the good news as well grant our Father in the day of the multiplying self help schemes found within and without the church that Christ crucified for sinners will again be known and loved and preached and heralded abroad not only by your servants whom you've set apart to this task but by your people as they seize opportunities to speak of Christ hear our prayer dismiss us with your blessing watch over us especially

71:35 as we enter this festive season with all of its peculiar temptations as well as its special opportunities for doing good help us oh God that we shall ever be conscious that we have a shepherd and a bishop to whom we are accountable and may we live beneath his eye and under his gracious rod and staff we ask in his worthy name Amen