Isaiah 53-1, the gospel according
to Isaiah. What a chapter it is, one of
my favorite chapters in the entire Bible, Isaiah 53. When I was a little boy, I think
I was nine years old, one of the ugliest preachers
I've ever seen came to grace Grace Church in Warren. I loved
him dearly. He was a dear friend. V.A. Turner, he talked weird, strange. He preached strange. I remember
as a little boy he had a huge ring on his hand and he would
bang the pulpit this way and my dad's new pulpit was all banged
up after he got through preaching. Sometimes we forget that children
sitting in our services are hearing the gospel and things that they
will never forget are happening as they hear the gospel. I remember
V.A. Turner, his text was Isaiah 53,
verse 1, and his subject was, as mine is this morning, who
has believed our report? Who has believed our report? I can see them in my mind's eye
very clearly. You know, we're hearing a lot
about leaks at high levels of government, government reports,
FBI leaks, government leaks, top secret things illegally happening. Right now, I don't have a lot
of confidence in some of the government programs right now.
But Saturday, in the wee morning hours, I was trying to figure
out why this happened the way it did. In the wee morning hours,
I woke up, and this passage came to my mind. It must have been
about 3 AM. Who has believed our report? And I lay there asking
myself questions. What is the report? Who wrote
the report? Is it a secret report? I would
say this about the report. It wasn't a top secret, it was
the secret. The greatest secret, a mysterious
secret. Something that ought to blow
your mind. What is the report? I thought as I lay there Saturday
morning worshiping that this report was the concentration
of God. It was the one thought of God. It was the purpose of God. You can tell I'm struggling to
describe the report because I'm over my head. And as I came here
today, I thought to myself, you're going to be in waters to swim
in. Most of you know I can't swim, so pray for me. This is
deep stuff we're going to talk about, this report. Colossians
1.26 says, and calls this report, the mystery which hath been hid
from ages and from generations. A mystery. But now is made manifest
to his saints. There's another passage in the
book of Ephesians, Ephesians 3, 9. And to make all men see
what is the fellowship of the mystery. All men who come to know Christ,
this is a mystery revealed, which from the beginning of the world
have been hid in God. From the beginning of the world,
it was hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. Usually when we're talking about
a report, we're talking about a verbal or written report, and
we ask, did you hear the report? Did you read the report? In this case, it would seem that
there was a plurality, at least in my mind, on Saturday morning,
a plurality of reporters, but they were giving one report.
And I thought, Saturday morning, of the Trinity conversation of
Genesis 126. And God said, let us make man
in our image after our likeness. Who hath believed our report? Could it be that this, I'm getting
a little excited now. Could it be that this report
comes from the Trinity? Could it be that this is a God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit report? And has it been a mystery? Is
it that deep and that wide and that high and that broad, this
report? And so I would say to you this
morning that this report is authored by the Triune God. who said,
let us make man in our image after our likeness. So very simply,
the report is authored by God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit. And that alone makes it of the
utmost importance. It is absolutely true. And so I would say God wrote
a book, a report, God wrote a report, here it is, from cover to cover. It's a mysterious thing. The important thing is not the
smallest verse of the Bible. It's not so important that you
know this, but it is important that you really know what this
report is all about. If you want to find out the mind
of God, you've got to have a Bible. The Word of God. Here's what
1 Timothy says. 1 Timothy 3, 16. This was another text that I
remember an old preacher preaching. I went to Zorababish Church.
I was eight years old. And Brother Cummings, preached
from 1 Timothy 3.16. And then I went to Beach Grove
Baptist Church a few weeks later, and he was the visiting evangelist,
and I heard the same text a second time. I was just a kid, but I
remember this one, 1 Timothy 3.16. And without controversy,
great is the mystery. Oh, it's a great mystery. You
may not take it so today, but if you contemplate it just a
little bit, you'll find out it's a great mystery. God was manifest
in the flesh. Oh my God. Somebody always say, Lordy, lordy,
lordy. God was manifest in the flesh. You mean that eternal
God? That one who has always been?
That one who has no beginning, no end? That one who stepped
out of eternity one day and said, let there be light, and it was
so? That God became flesh? That God who is spirit became
flesh? Oh, at the heart of the report
is the message that God is going to invade history. That's the heart of it. Somebody's
coming to earth, not to spy out our
sins, but this mighty God has come to save his people from
their sins. Think about it, God invading
history. And I say to you today, who has
believed God's report? God said in the Old Testament,
I'm coming. That's what he said. Give me
just a few moments to try to unravel this as I did in my mind
at 3 a.m. I thought of Genesis 3.15, right
after that disastrous fall in the Garden of Eden. Do you believe
in the fall of man? Well, you should, because you
is in it. And because of the fall, you
are born a sinner. No, your babies are not going
to sprout any wings, nor is there a halo over their head. They
came out of you, and you were a sinner. Right? They came from you and Daddy,
and both of you are sinners. And thus, so is Junior. He's
a sinner. He or she is a sinner and will
grow up and you won't have to teach him how to steal, how to
lie, how to use crack, how to use heroin, how to commit adultery,
how to fornicate, how to live like hell. You won't have to
set him down and say, now mommy and daddy are gonna teach you
how to do these things. They just come natural. Right after that disastrous fall,
This God said in Genesis 315, I will take care of this. There's
going to be one come from the seed of the woman who shall crush
the serpent's head. Somebody's coming. That's the
message. That's the report of the Bible
and the Old Testament says he's coming. In Luke, Chapter one, verse 35
says, God, the Holy Spirit said to Mary, the Holy Ghost shall
come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow
thee. Therefore also that holy thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Somebody's coming, a God invasion. What hope, what blessings, what
good news, what glad tidings? God is coming to do for us what
we cannot do for ourselves. And then all of the reports in
the Old Testament, the tides and the shadows, that God provides
of himself to be the lamb. I love that one in Genesis 22,
Abraham and Isaac, going up on Mount Moriah, and
Abraham's gonna offer his son up as a sacrifice. They got Isaac
loaded down, they get up there, and Isaac goes to, hey, Dad,
I see the wood, I see the altar, I see we got a fire going here,
but where is the sacrifice? And Abraham said, God will provide
Himself the sacrifice. God Himself the sacrifice. And you know the tides and shadow,
the ram was caught in the thicket. Somebody's coming to be a sacrifice. Oh, it was in tides and shadows
there. But God kept saying, I'm going
to come and save my people. This is the report. Who has believed
the report? Who believes the report? Well,
I want to say real quickly, I do, and I'm so happy about it. The children of Israel in Exodus
3 were in bondage, making bricks out of straw and mud. And they'd
been there 400 years, and they'd been crying out to God. And God
said this to them in Exodus 3, 8, I am come down to deliver. I preached that 50 some years
ago at Brian's home, the Baptist church, first church I pastor.
I am coming down to deliver. You know, when you get old, you
can't remember what happened five minutes ago, but you can
remember what happened 50 years ago. I am come down to deliver. Right now that message just,
I am come down to deliver. And as the story goes there in
the book of Exodus, God said, I'm going to bring you out of
Egyptian bondage. I'm going to bring you out. I'm
going to give you this sign that you're different from the Egyptians.
When you leave, all millions of you leave, not a dog is going
to bark. That you may know that I put
a difference between you and the Egyptians. I know God made
a difference in my life. I know it made a difference in
my life. You know, it's just natural when
millions of people are leaving a dog. It's just natural for
a dog to bark. In fact, the scripture talks
about dumb dogs that won't bark, talking about preachers that
aren't brave enough and skilled enough to preach the gospel.
But dogs bark. I had a puppy when we lived in
Lowe's, Kentucky called Snowball. I can't tell you how many times
Snowball got run over. He was always chasing and barking
at cars and biting their tires. Almost once or twice a week,
we'd go pick up Snowball out of the highway and say, Snowball's
dead. But he had a glorious resurrection. He lived to be an old dog. But
dogs bark. God said, this is the way. Doesn't
God do great things? This is the way you're going
to know that you're my people. A dog's not going to bark when
you leave. I think about all of that commotion.
But before they left, God said, I need to give you the report. And here's part of the report.
I want you to take a male lamb. Don't take any scroungy old male.
Get a young male and put it up for 14 days and make sure that
it's without spot. And then take it and kill it.
Kill the lamb, the male lamb, that's without spot. Oh, I'm
seeing a picture here. Put the blood on the two sides
of the door lintel, and the death angel will pass over you. I'm gonna kill all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt who don't have the blood on the door lintel. But when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. What was God saying in the report?
I'm going to be your sacrifice. I'll be the atoner. I'll be the
propitiation. I'm the redeemer. I'm the savior.
I'm the one that's constituted to save you from your sins. Neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered
into the holies of holies, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. In the Old Testament, I love
the story of Miss Manoah. Miss Manoah was married to Mr. Manoah, and she couldn't have
children. And God promised her a child,
and she gave birth to Samson. She was the mother of Samson.
But you remember, and in the Old Testament, I think this is
so marvelous. It used to bug me as a young preacher, I didn't
understand it. But every once in a while, the angel of the
Lord would come down. The angel of the Lord would come
down and make these wild encounters with people. Like he appeared
to Moses at the burning bush, and the bush just kept burning,
and he said to Moses, take off your shoes, you unholy grass.
It's a great thing to meet up with God Almighty in the person
of Jesus Christ. You're always on the holy ground,
man. Anyway, this angel of the Lord appeared to Miss Manoah. And Miss Manoah went and told
her husband, we're gonna die. We're gonna die for sure because
I just saw God. Manoah didn't believe it. The
angel of the Lord came back. and appeared to them, and both
of them came to the conclusion, we're dead. No man can see the
Lord and live except through a substitute. And you know, God
had them do all these kinds of things. And Ms. Manoa began to
talk to her husband and said, Think about this. Would God have
showed us such wondrous things if he was gonna kill us? I'll
tell you, if God ever takes the scales off of your eyes and lets
you see yourself, get your head out of your belly button and
says, look away, look to me, all ye ends of the earth, for
I'm God and there is none else, look unto me and be saved, trust
me, believe the report, he's not gonna kill you. He visited
you to save you. Isn't that something? And I could
go on and on, but you remember in the book of Zechariah, Joshua
stood before the Lord in filthy garments, and Satan was there
to accuse him. And Satan was accusing him, and
the Bible says the angel of the Lord came. And the angel of the
Lord said, bring forth a change of raiment and put it on him.
Give him a change of raiment, even the righteousness of God.
Is not this a brand angel of the Lord said plucked from the
fire? You know, a piece of charcoal, black and dirty, a hot thing,
undeserving. All this, I'm a brand plucked
from the fire. I don't know about you, but I've
been plucked from the fire. I've been plucked from the fire
by the Lord Jesus Christ. There's so many instances where
God gave us in the Old Testament, gave every indication to the
Old Testament saints. I was reading last night this
passage from Zephaniah. You know where that is. That's
in the Old Testament, back toward the end. And here's what the
Lord said to those folks. The Lord hath taken away thy
judgments. In other words, there's no condemnation
to those that are in Christ Jesus. He hath cast out thine enemies,
Your enemy is destroyed. The King of Israel, even the
Lord, is in the midst of thee. Thou shalt not see evil anymore. In other words, everything's
gonna work for your good, everything in life. In that day it shall
be said to Jerusalem, feared thou not, and to Zion, let not
thy hands be slapped. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. What kind of God do you have,
a mighty God? I mean, can he save you from heroin? Can he
save you from crack? Can he save you from yourself?
Can he save you from church anity and religion? That guy, he's
a mighty God. He will save, listen to this,
this God who is mighty, he will save, not he wants to, he's trying
to, he will save. His name shall be called Jesus.
He didn't come into the world to try to save somebody. He came
and saved somebody from their sin. And the prophet goes on to these
Old Testament saints. He will rest in his love. I love that. He will rest in
his love, not your love. Oh, I love the Lord so much.
That's good. But God isn't resting in your
love. He's resting in his love for you. Herein is love, not
that we love God, but that he first loved us. Don't make much
of your love for God. Make much of God's love for you.
Oh, what a wonder that Jesus found me, right? He will rejoice over thee with
joy. You know, he's tickled to death
about you. This is mine. This is mine. I say this about
my grandkids. I say this about my kids. These
are mine. I say this about this family.
She's mine. With joy, most of the time. A smile on my face. I gotta be honest when
I'm in the pulpit. With a smile on my face. This is one of the
most amazing statements in scripture. He will joy over thee with singing. Can you imagine that? God is
so happy over you, you being His, and what He's done for you. He just breaks out in singing. I tried to think again last night.
What would He say? What would He sing? He wouldn't
sing, how great thou art, or maybe He would. What would God
sing about us? He'd almost have to sing about
himself. Look what I've done. Look at
my workmanship. Look where I found this piece
of clay. Look what I've molded and made
out of this person. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. And here's the amazing thing.
It's one minute till 12. Here's the amazing thing. I was
trying to think how to come to a close about this message. I
mean, how are you going to preach, and God became flesh? That's
what John 1 says. You know, in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and
everything that was created was created by Him, and the Word
became flesh. Eternal, mighty Spirit of God
became flesh and lived among us because He loved us. He came to save us, and He did. Sometimes I just don't know what
I'm saying. That's what you got your head
stuck in your belly button. You're not your self-savior.
Look away to Him. Though your sins be as scarlet,
He's able to make you white as snow. He has justified you. He will surely glorify you. Oh,
but my sins. Stop it! Start singing, what
can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Who has believed our report?
I know, I know some of you are going, I just don't get what
that preacher is so excited about. But some of you are here today
and you, that's the most wondrous thing I have ever heard. That
preacher is saying God became flesh in the person of Jesus
Christ. God is saying that God wrote
a book and it's all about him coming to earth. You know, I
just thought of some passages while the praise team is coming.
In the Gospel of Luke, it says this, you know the Emmaus disciples
were walking along the road after Christ had died and on the tree
and resurrected. And here's what Jesus said to
them when he caught up with them. He's not here. That's what the
angels say. He's risen. Remember how he spoke
unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be
delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the
third day rise again. And they remembered his words.
Then he said unto them, O fools and slow of heart, to believe
all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expanded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. The things concerning himself. You know who wrote Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. That's where he began to expound
the scriptures Moses wrote of me. The Bible is all about me,
Jesus said. You see, this whole report, I
know several books, but the whole report, You're not going to understand
this book by just reading it unless you see somebody's coming.
Somebody's coming. You get over to Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John. Somebody's come. Somebody's come.
Somebody's died. Somebody was buried. Somebody
rose again. You get over in the book of Acts,
somebody went away. Somebody's coming back again to receive
his own. That's what it's all about. This
is the report. Some of you go, well, you know,
if you've heard Pastor Clark, you've heard him. He preaches
the same thing every Sunday. Yes! Same story here on Sunday. You can come next Sunday thinking
it's Mother's Day, but I'm going to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ
and thank God for you. We may have a flower for you,
but we're going to exalt the Lord God of heaven who came into
the world. to save poor sinners. Did he
do something for you today? Have you believed the report? I mean, deep down inside, is
there a joy going on? Something happened to you today.
Something happened to you. I mean, for the first time in
your life, you can say, I see it. I know it's true. I believe
it. That's because the Spirit of
God has taken the message that he always takes, the gospel,
which is the power of God unto salvation, and quickened you
and given you life. Well, I think it was a little
too deep for most people. No, no. If I'd preached on keeping
the Ten Commandments so you could be saved, you would have said,
boy, he's right on, he's right on. No, no. I'm not preaching
what you do, I'm preaching what he did. The awesomeness where
it'll make your chin drop and your eyes pop out and maybe your
hand go up. God came to save me. I hear about North Korea and
all the bombs that may be dropped. We're going to be in World War
Three if this president keeps blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
You know, one of these days, I'm going home. I know that for sure. In my father's
house of many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told
you, I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, there
you may be also. Don't let your heart be troubled. Let's stand together. If you
trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior today, give you opportunity
to confess him. You believe the report, come
and tell us you believe it.