In our regular study, we've come
to chapter 52 in Isaiah. But I wanted to jump ahead this
evening. And I think as we look through
chapter 52, we'll see how connected it is to chapter 53. And usually
when we look at, when we quote from Isaiah 53, one of the most
quoted passages, chapters in all of scripture, But it's important
that we see chapter 52 with it. And so as we'll look at this
one verse in Isaiah 53 tonight, and then we'll think about, as
we're going through chapter 52, how it relates to this. And I just want us to see tonight,
as we talked about this morning, the simplicity that's in Christ.
This is the simple gospel. Isaiah 53 and verse six, all
we like sheep, Have gone astray. That's what we talked about this
morning. That one sheep, he's gone. Notice the word gone. That's telling. Gone. Not coming back. But God did something about it.
We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. Now, this is our part in salvation
and God's part. We do the sinning and He does
the saving. We are the problem, He is the
solution. We're needy and He's the supplying
of our need. We're dumb and self-destructive
and he is wise and gracious. Why do sheep go astray? Because they're sheep. Well that's just over simplistic
isn't it? No. That's kind of deep if you think
about it. That's why they go astray. They're
sheep. This teaches something that very
few people understand. They go astray because they're...
Why do sinners sin? Because they're sinners. Very
few people understand that. People believe that they sin
because of bad influences or because of difficult situations
that give them no choice, that have a have a bad influence on
them also in some way. We do evil because we are evil. That's the simple truth taught
here. All we like sheep have gone astray. And sheep go astray because they're
sheep. It's our nature. It's the nature
of a sheep to stray. He's got to be hedged in somehow
or he's going to be gone. We are gone it says. A sheep
doesn't lay around thinking, shall I stray today? Shall I
just stay here or shall I stray? They don't sit there and make
a decision about that. They just do. You take the fence
down, they're gone. They don't have to think about
it. Now sinners are a little bit higher in mental capacity
than an actual sheep. And so we're capable of planning
evil. We actually are able to devise
mischief. But even when we're not doing
that, we're sinning. That's the point here. Even when
we're not planning something or premeditating some kind of
horrible thing, we're sinning. It's just what we do. It's what
we do. We sin because we're sinners.
You see how simply the Lord teaches us that? All of our thoughts
are only evil continually. Our tongues are set on fire of
hell. Our feet are swift to shed blood. We do evil with both hands
earnestly. It's our nature to run from God,
to go our own way, to wander from God. For a sheep to wander
from the shepherd is death. That's why he uses sheep as an
example. Now there is a type of sheep that's wild and can survive on
its own. And then there's a type of sheep
that can't. Guess which one you are? We're not going to make it without
a shepherd. God said to Satan in Job 1, 8
through 10, have you considered my servant Job? There's nobody
like him. He's an upright man and he fears
me and he hates what I hate. And you remember what Satan said
in response? No wonder he's upright and fears
you. You've hedged him about on every
side. And he has. Thank God for that hedge. Even
when God took everything else from Job, that hedge was still
there, wasn't it? Psalm 51 5 behold I was shapen
in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Psalm 58 3
the wicked are estranged from the womb they go astray that's
what our text is we've all gone astray we've wandered astray
when does that happen from the womb as soon as we're born speaking
lies Jeremiah 13 23 can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard
his spots Then may you also do good that are accustomed to do
evil All we like sheep have gone astray
we're just doing what it's our nature to do which is sin And then our sinfulness is described
a little bit further in the text we have turned everyone to our
own way. That's what it is to go astray.
To go astray from God and His way, Christ being the way, is
to go our own way. That's why we go astray. Away from God, away from life,
love and protection and care and comfort and everything good,
we go away from that. To go astray is to go out of
the way. My way is not God's way. My way
is self-righteousness. It's self, it's self-everything
isn't it? Self-righteousness, self-interest, self-promotion,
self-serving, self. That's my way. Our evil nature
includes an evil will. That's what we, when we say my
way, I'm going to go my way, that's us, that's what we call
a free will. Our will is depraved and evil. Our evil nature involves an evil
will that expresses itself in evil thoughts, words, and actions. Not complicated. God said in Isaiah 55.8, my thoughts
are not your thoughts. And that word thoughts there
is devices or purposes. You see how that applies to our
tech? We've gone everyone to our own way. And it's not God's
way. And your ways are not my ways. The word ways there in Isaiah
55a means direction, manner, course of life, moral character. We're not like God. Our thoughts
are not like God's. Our ways are not like God's.
In the Garden of Eden, God said we're going to do things my way.
And what was our response to that? Eventually, after some
period of time, Adam said, I'm going to do what I want to do.
God's way wasn't unclear. It wasn't out of confusion that
he did it. It was out of rebellion. We do everything. Everybody does
everything. It's been that way ever since.
Everybody does everything their own way all the time. You've
heard me say this before and I won't explain it again, but
you remember the truth of this. Everybody always does exactly
what they want to do. Given the circumstances, that's
what you're going to do. And that either aligns with what
God said or it don't. And if he hasn't saved you, it
won't. But everybody's doing exactly
what they... Has that ever been more evident than now in this
world at this time? In religion. God has said, go
to his preachers, his people, go preach the gospel to every
creature, and whoever believes it, I'll save them, and whoever
doesn't, I'll damn them. And man says, well, we'll do
this our way. Instead of waiting on God, instead of this just
being up to God, now we're going to make it up to man. We're going
to say God's done his best, but now it's up to you. Instead of
God saving people or damning people, it's your decision. will
establish a series of things that man can do to qualify them
so that we can get them saved. They use that language. Let's
get them saved. If we can get them to walk down
an aisle and repeat some kind of prepackaged prayer and answer
a few questions right, we will pronounce them saved. We'll have
control over this. This thing of waiting on God
to do that, this matter of God giving sinners faith and changing
their minds and giving them a new heart without any manipulation
or control on our part, it's just too uncertain. We've got
to set this up where we can get people saved. When they preach what people
want to hear, it doesn't produce the results they want. So what
do they do? They have to shame them and threaten
them and bribe them and coerce them to do what they want them
to do. Because the false gospel of man's free will, salvation
by man's decision and will, is not going to change anybody. You may have seen very recently
in the news where the Pope just approved an official change to
the Lord's Prayer in Scripture. Boy, I'm glad he did that. I
would have thought, you know, that God could just say what
he wanted to say and that was that. If he hadn't told us, you
know, better. And as you've heard me say, no
doubt, more than once. It permeates everything from
religion to morality. That which God says is an abomination. Man doesn't just defy God in
it now. Man's not satisfied just quietly
ignoring what God says about things like that. They want to
throw a parade. Let's have a parade and let's
celebrate it. And if you don't get in on it,
you're a hater. You're despicable. You're shameful
if you don't get in on it. You know, I kind of like to mind
my own business about other people's sin is between them and God,
isn't it? It's between them and God. But I'm a little bit like
King David. King David, when he saw the wretchedness
and evil of man, he said, Lord, how long are you going to let
this go on? Do you ever feel like that? I'm
kind of ready for God to shut the party down, aren't you? Just
turn out the lights. The party's over. In Genesis 127, God created man
in his own image. In the image of God created he
him. Male and female created he them. That seems simple to
me, doesn't it? Only man could mess that up. It never has seemed to me to
be that hard to tell the difference between male and female. I see
that what God says is true. But man refuses even in the most
basic of matters to bow to God. He will not bow. He will not
glorify him as God. That's what all of this is. It's
just a man's refusal to glorify God. They don't misunderstand
what God said. There's no confusion about that.
Our thoughts and ways are so far from His that when He came
down here doing good, always, only, everywhere good, we not
only had no use for Him, we could not tolerate Him. We despised
him and rejected him and humiliated and shamed him and murdered him
in the most horrible way we could come up with. That's how far we are from God. And God's people are no better
now. God's preachers are going to tell you the truth. And you
know why? Because God's given him a new
nature. And he's hedged them in. He's given us a new nature
but he's still got to hedge us in because we still have the
old one too. He brings us into the sheepfold
and keeps us. Keeps his people from the evil
that's in their heart. When he calls us sheep, now he's
not complimenting us. I'm glad to be one of his sheep.
Because the alternative is not being one of his sheep. But he's not complimenting us
when he calls us his sheep. Sheep are dumb. They're self-destructive. They're utterly dependent. And
to be honest, they stink. They don't smell good. And all
of those things Describe us in other places of
the scripture to to the Lord. We're repulsive by nature But
what does God do about it, what's God's part? Well before we talk
about that the last part of the verse describes a Little bit
further what it is now We've all gone our own way It starts
out, let's see, we go back to verse 6. All we like sheep have
gone astray. Well what does that mean? Well
we go our way instead of God's way. Well what is that? It's
iniquity. That's what it is. You see that
in the last part. He's laid on him our iniquity.
That's what it is to go our way. To go astray from God. In that
word, you look up that word iniquity, it means guilt, depravity, perversity. There's a word that we reserve
for the most horrible wretches among us. If you call somebody
a pervert, that's about as bad as it gets, isn't it? That's
what we are. And we don't know the half of
it until God shows us what iniquity is. And even then, we can only
see it a little bit. Iniquity must and shall be punished. That's why God does with it what
he does with it. Because it's got to be punished.
And if he's going to save you, then he's got to do this. But our text teaches that all
Iniquity must be punished. And that's why he laid it on
his son, that he might pour out his wrath against our iniquity
and yet spare us. All the word of God teaches this,
iniquity, and we talk about this so much that it gets to the point
where we just want to be blunt about it, don't we? Iniquity
equals hell for somebody. That's just as blunt as I can
be about it. If there's iniquity somewhere, somebody's going to
hell for it. That's what it means. And what
did God do about it? Well, I'll tell you this, what
it means, what he did about it means that I'm not the one going
to hell for it. That's what it means. Because he took my iniquity and
laid it on his son. If he took my iniquity, you see,
then he must take my hell too. And that's what he did. All of
the wrath of God against my sin. That's described in verse 5. The word wounded there in verse
5 means to be pierced through. Wounded can mean a lot of things. Tamara got wounded recently.
Or it can mean this. He was pierced all the way through. The sword of God's justice was
plunged to the hilt into the breast of my Savior.
And it went all the way through him. And the word bruised means crushed.
And I still don't know what it means, but that helps. That's
it. That helps. He was utterly crushed under
the weight of God's wrath for my sin. There's no way I can
even pretend to know what that is. There's no way I can describe
it. How can I describe suffering that I don't understand, that
I don't even know? And I don't know how God can
do that except to say that He's God. If the sin is mine, then why
am I not punished for it? And the only answer is what God
has revealed. The reason that I'm not punished
for it is because it was laid on Him. It was laid on Him. And we can try to inquire further
into that, but I'll tell you this, if you try to go any further
than that, you better get it from here and not here. I want to be real clear about
that tonight now. What does it mean for God to lay my sin on
him? I believe I know when it happened.
I believe it happened in Gethsemane. When he sweat great drops of
blood and he said my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto
death. There's only one thing that causes
sorrow like that and that's sin. And he didn't have any of his
own. So I believe he began to bear mine there. Don't you think
so? And he bore it all the way to the cross and he put it away
there. But God laid on him my sin. How does that happen? I
don't know. I just know what God says about
it. I know something about it. I know what God has revealed. Now listen, in an effort to explain
this and say well the sin, it had to become his sin. or it
wouldn't be right for God to punish him for it. And I know
that it says in 2 Corinthians 5.21, God the Father hath made
him, Christ, God's son, to be sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. I know that Christ
owned my sin as his sin. We see that in the Psalms. He
talked of it as if it were his own sin. I know that he owned
it. I know that my sin was imputed
to him. I know that that just means to give the credit for.
He was charged with my sin legally. And that's why he had to pay.
And I know in some sense also now that he experienced my sin.
I know that. Him bearing my sins in his own
body on the tree is more than just a legal transaction. Doesn't
it sound like it to you? The reason it sounds like that
is because that's how God said it. If it had just been a legal
matter, God could have made that clear, don't you imagine? But
1 Peter 2.24, He bore my sins in His own body on that tree. That doesn't sound like God describing,
just charging my sin to Christ. He experienced my sin somehow
or another. But what does it mean that He
was made sin? Whatever it means must be consistent
with our text. I'm pretty sure he's describing
the same thing, aren't you? When he says he laid my iniquities
on him. I think he's describing the same
thing. He hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God. Look at verses 4 and 5 in our text in Isaiah 53. Whatever
it means he was made sin, it has to be consistent with this.
Scripture doesn't rule out scripture. Scripture sheds light on scripture.
Isn't that right? One doesn't rule out the other
one. Listen to it. 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."
Now how is that right? Well, we're going to talk about
that a little bit. How is it right? He was wounded for our
transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. Whatever it means that he was
made sin, or whatever it means that our iniquity was laid on
him, all of this is talking about the same thing. It's talking
about Christ bearing our sins. And this is God describing to
us what there's no way we can ever comprehend. I don't understand
how God can be three persons. I don't understand how God can
be a man. Do you? I don't understand a
lot of things that I believe. And I sure don't understand this. All of this is God revealing
to us what we can know, what is possible for us to know about
how our sins were dealt with. And you know Paul was satisfied
describing it this way. he said Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures is that complicated? Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures now that means everything
that God wrote reveals that but notice the way
he characterized it he died for our sins according to the scriptures. And I've heard people say, you
know, that the only way for it to be right, for God to
punish Christ for my sin is for Him to actually become something
that He was not before. He's the eternal Son of God.
Now think about this. Does that explain it away? For
Christ to become something, to become evil Himself in some way. That's the only way God can punish
him for sin? Well, I got a question then after
that. Why was it okay for God to make him evil? It doesn't
explain it, does it? It doesn't clear it up to say,
well, the only way for God... God can't punish him unless he
becomes the evil itself. Well, how is it fair and right
and just for him to become the evil when he didn't commit any?
It doesn't explain it away. That don't cut it for me. Here's
what it comes down to. We're going to have to trust
God to have done this in such a way that it was consistent
with his justice and his holy character to take my sin and
don't ever be confused about whose sin it was. Don't ever
be confused about whose sin it was. Between my Savior and I,
there's only one of us that ever sinned, and it wasn't him. Why was it right for God to make
him sin? I don't know. And don't misunderstand me. I'm
not questioning what God did. I'm questioning man's ability
to explain it and to understand it. It's right because God did
it. That's why it's right. God punished his son for my sin. That's what it says, doesn't
it? He was pierced through for my transgressions. It doesn't
say he was pierced through for what used to be my transgressions.
He was punished for my sin. Christ died for our sins according
to the scripture. Don't ever be confused about
that. How is that right? That's God's
business. I know this. It's not right because you figured
it out and justified God in it. I'll tell you that. It's right
because He did it and because He said so. Now we must trust
God to have taken our sins and put them on his son. And I don't
fully understand what that means, except I know this, it means
I don't have any now. I get that, don't you? I don't
have any anymore. And he did that consistent with
his justice, with his holiness. But don't ever be confused about
who sinned, and don't ever be confused about something else.
In our effort to understand what he did for us, let's not go beyond
what is revealed and miss this. It is his holy, sinless character
as God's eternal, spotless lamb that made his sacrifice successful. Now you think about this with
me for a little while. 1 Peter 3.18, For Christ also hath once
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring
us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by
the Spirit. Now look, that's so deep I can
never understand it, but at the same time, that's pretty clear,
isn't it? The just for the unjust. That's substitution. Listen again to 2 Corinthians
5.21. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin. Everywhere it talks about this
in the scripture, it's careful to speak of the sinless nature
of God's spotless Lamb. You know why? Because there's
no salvation apart from who He is. And He is the eternal, immutable,
holy Lamb of God. That's why this works. If He
lays my sin on you, that don't help me. You got to lay it on
His sinless Son, His Holy Lamb. That's why his sacrifice is successful,
and we must always stress this. Listen to 1 Peter 1.18, for as
much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb. Can you quote the rest of it?
Without blemish and without spot. That's my Savior. What did Christ offer unto God
that was enough for God to be satisfied and to justify me,
to accept me, to receive me? What did Christ offer to Him?
He didn't offer my sin that became His sin. He offered Himself. It is the sinless son of God
that satisfied God. Is that not right? Now, it's the most wonderful
thing that ever happened. Don't misunderstand me. That
he took my place, that he took my sin, that he bore my sin and
its punishment and put it away. We're going to be singing about
that from now on. But you know how we're going to sing about
it? Worthy is the lamb that was slain. Worthy is the Holy Lamb, the
spotless Lamb without blemish. It was His precious blood that
was enough, that was priceless enough to wash my sin away, to
redeem me for all of my iniquity now. And we're going to sing
about that forever, that He died for me as the wonder of wonders.
But what makes His death on Calvary the event around which all of
time and eternity revolve? is who it is that died. The most
important word in our text tonight. You know what it is? Him. The Lord has laid on Him. His eternal, immutable, Holy,
spotless, without blemish, well beloved, only begotten Son. He
laid on Him my iniquity. And now I stand before God without
sin. That's my Savior and that's my
hope.