Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the book of
Isaiah, the prophecy of Isaiah in the Old Testament, chapter
53. Many of you may be familiar with
this chapter that begins, who hath believed our report and
to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? This is definitely,
and we know this from the New Testament commentary, that this
is a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the whole construction
of this prophecy that's covered in the whole book of Isaiah 53
actually begins back in Isaiah 52, the last three verses of
that chapter. As you know, the Bible was not originally written
in chapters and verses. I'm glad we have it in that form.
But what you have here is a prophecy of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. And today I'm gonna focus on
one verse in Isaiah 53, verse six. Isaiah 53, verse six, and
the title of the message is The Way That Only God Could Make. The way that only God could make. And of course, we're gonna be
talking about the way of salvation. God's way of salvation. And verse
6 of Isaiah 53 says, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have
turned everyone to his own way. Now that's man's devised ways
of salvation, which are all ways of death. They're wrong. But
here's God's way summed up in this last sentence of Isaiah
53 verse 6, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us
all. The Lord, the Lord God, Jehovah,
the God of grace, the God of salvation, hath laid on Him,
who's the Him there? That's Christ, God the Son incarnate,
the second person of the Trinity, who was made flesh and dwelt
among us. God in human flesh without sin. Jehovah, the Lord, hath made
Him, hath laid on Him And in 2 Corinthians 5.21 it says, hath
made him, but here it said, laid on him the iniquity. That is
one of the common words that describes sin. There's many words,
and I'll go by that, talk about that in a minute. Laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Now that's God's way of salvation. And we're gonna talk about that.
Now, as we know, as I said, this chapter, is a definite, we know
from the New Testament common area, there's so many quotations
in the New Testament from these words here in Isaiah 53 that
apply directly to Christ. And one of the most prominent
ones that I think of is in Acts chapter eight, where we read
the story of Philip the evangelist being led by the spirit out to
the backside of the desert to preach the gospel to an Ethiopian
treasurer known as the Ethiopian eunuch, who had been to Jerusalem
to worship and went away empty, but he had gotten a copy of the
scroll of Isaiah, and we don't know what all he had, but he
had the scrolls of the Bible, which tells you back then he
was a rich man, because those scrolls, you just couldn't go
up and pick one up. They weren't giving them out
in motel rooms or anything like that. And he was reading from
this chapter, he was reading the portion that comes right
after verse six. It says where it talks about
Christ being oppressed and afflicted, open not his mouth. And I'm sure
he was reading the whole book of Isaiah and the whole chapter
here, but Philip went to him and heard him reading that part.
And it said, Philip asked him, do you understand what you're
reading? And the Ethiopian said, well, how can I understand it
except some man show me. Somebody who knows what this
is talking about. And Philip began at that exact
same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. That's what Acts chapter
eight says. He preached Christ. Now the name
Jesus means salvation. Matthew 121, his name shall be
called Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. So
that's what Philip was talking about. And he preached unto that
Ethiopian and the Lord saved that man and then Philip baptized
him. So that's one of the many examples
of quotations from this chapter. But here in verse six, and let's
focus in on this, the way that only God could make, and there
are basically two ideas set forth here that show us that man's
way, man cannot save himself, man cannot find his own way unto
God, Well, we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone
to his own way. And the Bible speaks much about
that, the ways of man. If you think about it, you go
all the way back to the Garden of Eden when Adam fell. His way of hiding his nakedness,
his shame, was to sew fig leaf aprons together to hide themselves. But that's not good enough. That's
just a cover over. See, you can't just cover over
sin. You just can't hide it from people. That's hypocrisy. God looks on
the heart. And Adam's way, which is man's
way, was a wrong way. It represents the way of man's
efforts. Man tries to save himself, and
I'm talking about mankind, tries to save himself by his works. He thinks he can earn his way
into God's favor. And then you see the example
of Cain and Abel. Cain brought the works of his
hands to please God and it didn't please God at all because that's
not the way of salvation, that's a way of death. The book of Proverbs
in two times in chapter 14 and chapter 16 says, there is a way
that seemeth right unto a man, it's the ways of death. The Lord
Jesus Christ called this way man's way. He called it the broad
way that leads to destruction. And he told his disciples, he
is the only way, Christ is the only way. He is the way, the
truth and the life. And so that's what this is talking
about, that all we like sheep have gone astray. But now I wanna
point out something here. The prophet here has in mind
only the sheep. And why did I say that? Well,
you know the Bible, I've heard people say that the Bible is
a book of unity. Well, we gotta qualify that because
in actuality, when it comes to as it applies to the world, the
Bible is not a book of unity. The Bible is a book of great
division. And it always divides this world
up into two different groups of people. There are those who are condemned
in their sins to whom God imputes sin. And there are those who
are justified to whom God imputes the righteousness of Christ.
There are unbelievers and there are believers. And we could go
on and on with the different ways. The way of Abel, that refers
to believers. The way of Cain refers to unbelievers,
two different groups. And there's a great, vast division
between those two groups. There's no unity there. You see,
there's no unity between an unbeliever and a believer. Now, we can talk
about the brotherhood of man as far as our condition here
on Earth. But as far as a spiritual relationship
with God, there is no general brotherhood of man. Christ made
this point in Matthew chapter 12 when he was teaching and preaching
and his mother Mary and his half brothers came to talk to him.
And they came into him and they said, now your mother and your
brothers out here, they want to talk to you. And he made this point
there. He said, who is my mother? Who is my brother? Who are my
brethren? He said, them that do the will
of my father. You see, all who believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ are part of a spiritual brotherhood of which
unbelievers are no part of. So we just can't go around saying,
well, we're all brothers in the Lord. We're not all brothers
in the Lord. If you're an unbeliever, you're not my brother or my sister.
If you're a believer, a sinner saved by grace, you're my brother
in Christ. You're my sister in Christ. But
there's a great division there. Psalm 1 makes that point. There's a great division. There's
the ungodly and then there's the godly. Who are the ungodly? That's man by nature, fallen
in his sins, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. And the
godly are sinners saved by grace, who have been born again and
brought to faith in Christ. Well, one of the divisions that
the Lord himself made, especially as he talked about the judgment,
and you can read this in Matthew chapter 25, he talked about in
that last day, the day of judgment, he's going to separate the sheep
from the goats. Now, who are the sheep and who
are the goats? Well, it's very simple now. The
sheep are the elect of God. Those whom God chose before the
foundation of the world and gave to Christ. And we'll see that
in just a moment now. Their names are written in the
Lamb's book of life. And who is the Lamb? That's Christ.
And they are those whom God had given to Christ and made Him
their surety. And that's what this is saying
here in Isaiah 53, 6, when he says, the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. That's not all without exception. Because if your iniquity has
been laid on Christ, then you will be saved. This is talking
about the sheep, God's sheep, Christ's sheep. And the sheep
are those whom God justified, having imputed or charged or
laid their sins on Christ, and imputed his righteousness to
them, they are those whom Christ redeemed on the cross. The good
shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Okay, and they are those
who in time will be brought under the preaching of the gospel and
be born again and brought to faith in Christ. They'll hear
his voice. My sheep will hear my voice,
Christ said. Now the goats, they are those who live and die in
unbelief. live and die in condemnation.
The Bible puts it this way, die in their sins. In other words,
their sins are not paid for. Their sins are not washed away.
They have no righteousness before God. They're the goats. Now they
can be religious. That's why Christ talks about
separating the sheep from the goats. That's why he talks about
false Christians who appear outwardly to be Christians. Wolves in sheep's
clothing, that kind of thing. In other words, when you separate
the sheep from the goats, when you think about this in your
mind, you can't just say, well, no, the goats are all the immoral
people of the world, as we judge immorality, and the sheep are
all the religious or moral people. No, no, that's not how you do
it. You see, it all has to do with
how they stand in relation to Christ. Do I believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ? Well, that's who he's talking
about here. He says in verse six, all we
like sheep have gone astray, We have turned everyone to his
own way. Now that's a great description of the sin and depravity of all
of us by nature. You see, we've all gone astray. Everybody has gone, everybody
who fell in, you, somebody says, well, is that talking about everybody
without exception? Well, it's talking, it's not talking about
the elect angels. It's not talking about Christ
himself. It's talking about every one of us who fell when Adam
fell. Now, who is that? Well, that's
all of us by nature. We fell when Adam fell. The Bible
says that. Sin entered the world by this
one man, Adam, and death passed upon all because all have sinned.
So, we fell in Adam, and he says, we've gone astray, we went astray
in the fall, ruined by the fall, the scripture says, or we say,
and the scripture teaches. And then it says, we have turned
everyone to his own way. We don't know the way that God
has provided by his son. We're ignorant, we're in the
darkness of deception. That's why the Bible describes
it in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 3, when he talks about those
whom the God of this world have blinded the minds of them who
believe not, lest the light of the glory of God shine unto them.
So that's a man by nature, and we've chosen various ways to
God, which are all wrong. We've all gone his own way. Now
that describes all of us by nature, but the prophet has in mind the
lost sheep here. God's elect. And how do you know
that? Because he says next, and the Lord hath laid on him, laid
on Christ, the iniquity of us all. The only ones upon whom
God laid iniquity on Christ, that's the sheep. How do you
know that? Because the Bible teaches that
Christ died for the sheep. And that's who he's talking about.
But let me say a little bit more about this. Look back at it.
Isaiah 53, six, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned
everyone to his own way. Now think about this. You know,
a lost sheep is about as dumb an animal as you can get. He
cannot find his way back home. He does not know who his master
is. He's lost. And if left to himself, he'll
stay lost. And he's in danger. And so the
only way the lost sheep is going to be saved is for the shepherd
to come and get that sheep, pick him up, put him on his shoulders
and bring him back to the fold. And so there's no hope for a
lost sheep in himself. It says, we've gone astray. That means we don't know the
way, we're out there searching. People today in various religions,
there's several things that people get caught up in today that take
them away from the truth of the scripture. Even in religion,
even amongst those who call themselves Christians, there's a movement
today that some people call progressive Christianity. And my understanding
of what most people consider as progressive Christianity is
this, that there are many ways to God. But my friend, that's
heresy. The Bible teaches there's only
one way to God. And it's the way that only God
can accomplish. Something only God can do. And
it's the way of His grace, it's the way of Christ. It's the way
of Christ's righteousness, accomplished by His death. And so you get
into the point of relativism. People today, they don't believe
that there's any absolute truth. In other words, they might look
and say, well, now what was true for Isaiah is not necessarily
true for us today. Well, when it comes to economics
and politics and mechanics and science and medicine, that may
be true. But when it comes to the way of salvation, There's
only been one way in the history of man, and that's the way of
grace. What's true for Isaiah is true
for me in that sense. People get into pluralism. Well,
we're all going, like people say, well, we've got different
ways to go, but we're all right. You've got denominationalism.
I hear people all the time, and you may have said this yourself,
but I want you to think about something. I hear people say,
well, I believe there's saved people in every denomination.
Now, hold on now. What if the denomination adheres
to and promotes doctrines that deny God, that deny Christ? Do you know there are whole denominations
that call themselves Christian, who adhere to and promote doctrines,
teachings that deny the God of this Bible? that deny the Christ
of this book? Now I will say this, there may
be some lost sheep in every denomination, I don't know. But they're lost
and they need to be found. They need to come to Christ.
They need to come out from among those who deny Christ and join
with those who believe in Christ. And they will be if they're lost
sheep. Christ will bring them. And so you have that kind of
thing. But don't get caught up in those modern ways of thinking.
They deny the scriptures. There's only one way, and it's
the way only God can make. And what way is it? Well, it's
not the way of work salvation. Do you know, when it says everyone
has gone his own way, you know Isaiah, in his day, he was preaching
and prophesying to a very religious group of people. Now we know,
for example, if a person's way is the way of human immorality,
human irresponsibility, we know that's not a way to God. You're
not gonna get to God by going out and murdering people and
stealing and taking drugs and abusing things. We know in our
conscience, our natural conscience, even the fallen conscience can
know the difference there. Romans chapter two teaches that.
But the ways that man is deceived by is the ways of religion. And
so you have people who are devotees in religion, who are devout in
religion, who are pious in their religion, sincere and zealous,
charitable, all these things, but it's all in a way that denies
the way that only God can make, the way of His grace, the way
of Christ. You take all the religions of the world, they promote morality,
human morality, as humans judge morality. But they're all false
ways if they're not the one way that only God can make, the way
of Christ. Now, what is God's way? Well,
it's summarized in this phrase in Isaiah 53, six, and the Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now, what does that
mean? Well, literally, it means that
the Lord had made all the iniquity of all of his people to meet
on Christ. Now, how did that happen? How
did the Lord lay on him the iniquity of us all? Now again, he's talking
about the lost sheep. Well, first of all, God laid
this iniquity on him by a legal act of imputation. God charged
the sin debt of all his sheep, all the elect, to the account
of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says it this
way, God made him sin, made him to be sin. Christ was made the
surety of all whom God chose before the foundation of the
world and gave to him. And so Christ became legally
responsible and accountable for their sin debt. And he willingly
took that upon himself. And so then he became legally
accountable and responsible to pay that sin debt. He had to
pay me. And what was the payment? Suffering
unto death. That's why the scripture says,
look back at verse four of Isaiah 53. Surely he hath borne our
griefs. Now this is the second way that
the iniquity was laid on him. First of all, by a legal act
of imputation, Christ was made guilty. not because of any sin
in him or any sin that he did. He knew no sin. He did no sin.
He was the perfect lamb, spotless lamb of God. And so when he went
to the cross to die for the sins of his sheep, he was an innocent
victim as far as sin within, but the sins of his people were
laid to his charge so that God justly condemned him for those
sins. And he willingly took that upon
himself. And it says, surely he hath borne
our griefs, he carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, afflicted. Verse five, he was wounded for
our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement
of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed.
You see that? That's talking about Christ dying
on the cross, suffering unto death for the sins of his people
as the surety and substitute of his sheep. Now, secondly,
those iniquities were laid on him in that he suffered the consequences
of sin imputed to him. He had to suffer. First of all,
think about it this way. He had to keep the law. He was
made under the law. He had to keep it perfectly.
Every jot and tittle, he said in Matthew five. And then he
had to suffer unto death. He became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Because the wages of sin is death. And he agreed before the foundation
of the world to pay that wage of death for the sins of his
sheep, all whom the father had given him, as they were imputed,
charged to him. And he suffered unto death. The
Bible says in verse 14 of chapter 52, as many as were astonished
at thee, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form
more than the sons of men. He suffered greatly unto death
to pay the sin debt. And so the Lord laid on him the
iniquity of us all. Well, how can the death of Christ
be the salvation of his sheep? Well, his death was the final
full payment of all the sins of his sheep laid to his charge,
and the payment was made in full, and the proof of that was he
didn't stay dead, he was raised from the dead because righteousness
had been established. And it's his righteousness that's
imputed, charged to his people, And out of that comes life for
them. And that's why Christ said in John 10 and verse 11, the
good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. And he even brought in the Gentiles
in this. God has a people among the Gentiles.
He said, other sheep I have that are not of this foe, them I also
must bring. He said, my sheep hear my voice
and they follow me. You see, he knows who his sheep
are. He knew for whom he died. He
didn't make a blanket pardon just hoping that someone would
accept him. No. He said in John 6, 37, all
that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. And this is the will of
him that is his father that gave him his people. He said that
of all which he had given me, I should lose nothing, but raise
it up again at the last day. This is the way only God made.
It's the way of suffering unto death by the sinless substitute,
Christ. It's the way of the cross. It's
the way of the blood. It's the way of righteousness
because He established the only righteousness whereby God could
justify sinners like us. Our sins imputed to Christ, His
righteousness imputed to His people. It's why Paul wrote in
Romans 4.6 and quoting David, blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness without works. That's the way that only
God can make. It's called the righteousness
of God in Romans 1.16 and 17. That's the gospel. And that's the way only God can
make. And so it's by the righteousness of Christ imputed that his sheep
are justified in his sight, forgiven of their sins and declared righteous.
And it's because of that righteousness imputed that God gives them life
through Christ by the Holy Spirit in the new birth and brings them
to know the master, to know the shepherd. And so Christ is the
good shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. He's the great
shepherd who raised from the dead. He's the chief shepherd
and bishop of their souls who oversees them, keeps them, and
will bring them unto glory. That's the way that only God
could make. Every other way is a way of death.
So seek, seek the Lord. That's what the message is here.
Don't be content in your own way. Your own way is a wrong
way. Seek the way that only God could make. That's the way of
His grace in Christ. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.