Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? That's the question I want to
confront you with today. Life's greatest question is,
what must I do to be saved? And God's only answer is believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Here is a question that I confront
you with this morning. I've been giving the same report
that's found here in Isaiah 53 for 39 years now to this church,
over and over and over again, the same report. My report never
changes because it's not mine, it's God's report. This morning, I want to give
the same report. With a little different swing,
I'm going to confront you. Do you believe the report? And
I'm going to want an answer from you who have never said Yes,
I believe the report. I'm determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. There is nothing
else. He's the way, the truth, and the life. And no man comes
to the Father except he comes through Jesus Christ. As I prepared
my notes last night, My mind went back to my childhood at
Grace Baptist Church, 7107 Rivard Street in Warren, Michigan. And on a Sunday morning service
in 1960, we had a man there by the name of V.A. Turner. I hesitate
to say this in case the listening, watching audience, probably the
ugliest man I've ever seen in my life. But a powerful preacher of the
gospel. And I was just a boy then. Strange how God brings things
back from our childhood. how many things we can remember. And especially I remember so
many services in the house of God where this report was given
and God honored the report. It was a powerful service. VA
Turner was preaching. He was so slow in his delivery
and his voice was odd, but his message was so true. And over
again, over and over again, he would say to those of us who
were sitting in the audience, have you believed the report?
And boy, he was so serious. And I was so glad to be able
to answer as just a young child, I believe that report. And I
wanna ask you today, have you believed the report? This is
a most serious matter. In fact, it's a life and death
matter. It's a heaven and hell issue. Where will you spend eternity?
Heaven or hell? There is a hell. There is a heaven. It all depends
on your answer to this report. I mean, if you can say from the
very depths of your soul, yes, I believe the report. Let's look
at the report. And I'm going to say this to
you, and I mean this, at any point while I'm speaking, if you can
say yes, I'm talking about those of you who have never confessed
Jesus Christ as your savior, at any point, You can say enthusiastically
and with joy in your heart and maybe tears running down your
face, I believe the report. Today, I want to confess Jesus
Christ as Savior. I want you while I'm preaching
just to, I don't know, come up and sit down somewhere. Sit up
here on the steps if you want, or there's a couple of chairs
along here, or you can just stand here while I finish. May the
Holy Spirit of God open your blind eyes today. And grant you faith in Christ. In so doing, in believing and
confessing Christ, we'll all know that to you, The arm of
the Lord has been extended. You see, the truth is, by the
time you come to faith in Christ, God has already done a work in
you. The arm of the Lord. The arm of the Lord. The apostle
Paul in the Ephesians letter, said, you believe according to
the working of his mighty power. Just think about this. You came up here, perhaps today,
dead in your sins. And while you were sitting there,
or maybe you were already made alive and your sins were troubling
you, you know that you have fallen short of the glory of God. And you today, having been troubled
by that, hear the report. And by the way, the report is
such good news. The report tells us that we're
all sinners, that we are just really a mess. In fact, none of us have been Christians
from birth. A man once told me, I've been
a Christian all my life. I said, that's too long. There's a time and a place where
God in this life regenerates by his sovereign power, dead
people, and gives them life. And I'm so excited to be here
today because I might see that miracle. I might actually behold
someone who's been out there using heroin or somebody here
for the first time, you came here with your child and heard
the gospel. You've been hearing the gospel,
your child's over at Grace Centers. a 30-year-old child or 25-year-old
child, but mom and dad are here today. And you've been Catholic,
Methodist, Presbyterian, but you've never confessed faith
in Jesus Christ. You've never come to believe
on him. This could be the morning when church people and heroine
people and harlot people, self-righteous people come to know Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior. Wouldn't that be a great thing? You see, when people confess
faith in Christ, I know that the arm of the Lord has been
extended. I know it was not this church
in the inner city or this preacher. I know that God's Holy Spirit
has regenerated and given life to a man or woman who was dead
in sins and trespasses. or a little man and a little
woman. Think about how awesome it would be, especially for those
of you whose life has been totally wrecked through addiction, for
your child to be in our Sunday school classes or sitting here
listening to me preach and come to know Christ as a seven-year-old,
a little lady, a little man. I don't believe children can
be saved. Well, you believe children can
be lost? If children know they're lost,
they're a great candidate for salvation. And God has fixed
it in such a way that it really is simple. It's simple in this
sense, when God exerts his power, whether you're eight or 80, and
you come to faith in Christ, it's the work of God. And what
an awesome thing it is. So when we read in scripture,
the right arm of God or the right hand of God. It's talking about
power. Don't you love to see powerful
events and powerful things? There's nothing more powerful
than this. For God to take some old raw bone nobody and born
them again and watch their life blossom. One of the great joys
of being a pastor, and I say this to you, is to look across
this auditorium as your pastor today and think, I can point
out at least 200 people here that I know 39 years ago, we would never have dreamed of
you being here. But here you are smiling and
lifting your hands to what a beautiful name it is. What an awesome name
it is. Here's what the scripture says.
Think about this. If you're sitting back there in the back trying
to hide, you don't want anybody to know that the spirit of God
is doing a work in your heart. We will know because eventually
you will confess it. Jesus said this in John, no man
can come to me except the father which has sent me draw him. I'm
positive that somebody here this morning is being drawn to Jesus
Christ by the Holy Spirit. You know, all truth is revealed
truth. How are you gonna believe this
report? And what a ridiculous report it is to the human mind.
I noticed Greg preached my sermon in his prayer. I thought he's
taken all my stuff and already used it. But what an awesome
report it is that God has come down to earth. And there was
nothing extraordinary about this Jesus. In fact, back in the days
of Jesus, there were many Joshua's, many Jesus by that name. And people, the report says that
he grew up before us as a tender plant. He was like a root out
of a dry ground, nothing flashy about this person that you could
tell. He had no form nor comeliness,
the report says in verse two. And when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him. I mean, he wasn't a muscle
guy like Butch. There was nothing extraordinary
that you could see. Look at verse three. In fact, just the opposite we
felt about him. He's despised and rejected of
men. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we,
we hid as it were our faces from him. I can remember as a young child
sitting in Grace Church, and I always sat to the left. And
as I got older, I kept going back a few rows till finally
I was in the back. But I can remember sitting there
as a young kid saying, if I ever get out of here, I'm never coming
back. I was so lost. I felt under such condemnation. I didn't know that God was already
drawing me, that God had already quickened me. So if you're here
today and you go, I'm such a sinner, I don't belong here, I'm not
coming back. Maybe you're here and you've
noticed, maybe you've said that and here you are again, sitting
right here. I'm not going back, but here
you are. because of the drawing power of the Spirit of God. Yes,
I saw that hand go up. I'm here listening to the report
again. In fact, we thought the things
that happened to Jesus were happening because there was something wrong
with him. In fact, that's what the report says. We despised
him. We esteemed him not. Look at
verse four. But it wasn't the problem with
him, the problem was with us. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken and
smitten of God and afflicted because of something that he
did. We thought, this is kind of the way we think, oh, that's
happening to him because he hasn't been living right. Lots of things
happen in this life are not the punishment of God. I thought about Ed Gray being
sick, a man of God who served God for 80 years, started thrift
stores all over this country that have blessed rescue missions,
and there he is, possibly eat up with cancer. God's not punishing
him. God's probably preparing to take
him home. converted him a long time ago,
regenerated him, and now is going to use this to take him out of
here, absent from the body, present with the Lord. Don't be judging
people because you see something happening in their life that
you don't understand. That's what they said about the
Lord. He's being crucified and rejected. God's punishing him
because of something he's done. You see, what you need to understand
today is what happened at the cross was because of what you've
done. to take the scales off your eyes,
to turn you inside out and show you that you are a sinner who
needs a savior. If there's any two things that
are taught in Isaiah 53, which you remember Philip and the eunuch,
their experience that Greg referred to in his prayer, that eunuch
was reading Isaiah 53 and said, who's this talking about? And
the Bible says that Philip opened the scripture and preached unto
him Jesus. I call this the gospel according
to Isaiah, Isaiah 53, the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, we
were blind and could not see the glorious beauty of Jesus
Christ. I wonder if there's someone here
today, you see it. You say, well, pastor, it just
doesn't seem like there ought to be something, lightning ought
to be flashing. No, I'm just asking you, do you
believe the report that you are a sinner and that Jesus Christ
came into the world to save you on the tree of the cross? I wonder, what are you waiting
for? The stairs are empty. Say, well,
pastor, it's so, you know, I'm a very bashful person. Let me
tell you this. The power that brought Jesus
Christ out of the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea is the same power
that gives us spiritual life. Bashful or not bashful. I confess
Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. We thought him to be smitten
and afflicted by God for his own transgressions. But verse
five said this, but he was wounded. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities
and the chastisement of our peace was upon him. How are you going
to ever have any peace? As long as you have to live with
what you've done, what you've thought and what you said. the
chastisement of our peace. You see, every sin and every
disobedience must receive a just recompense of reward. I was thinking
in the midnight hours last night about how our churches have drifted
so far. God bless you, honey. From the message That's the way God does it. Amen. No big deal as far as... Here's the message. The Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now I know some of
you old time Baptists are having a little problem with this, but
get over yourself. We haven't sung the invitation
song yet, but that's okay. People can get saved when the
spirit of God regenerates, right? Amen. God bless you. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. That's the heart of what Isaiah
says. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. You see, sin has
to be paid for. And what happened on the cross
was God took out his black snake whip of justice. and began to
beat his own son, to punish his own son, that he might be just
and justifier of the ungodly. What a sweet words substitution
is, that Christ took my place, that he died in my stead and
in my room and suffered my hell and therefore there is no condemnation
to those that are in Christ Jesus. I ask the Lord, please keep me
under control so I have enough voice to finish here. And here's
what the scripture says. Think about this. Here's what
Isaiah says. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. Shall be satisfied. Who's satisfied? God is satisfied. Satisfied with
what? Satisfied with Jesus paying the
sin debt. God was satisfied. You see, a
satisfactory justice was rendered. That's why Jesus could say from
the tree of life, it's finished. It's accomplished. It's done. He has paid the debt. And in the 11th verse, the report
goes something like this. By his knowledge, he shall justify
many. for he shall bear their iniquities.
That's what the whole chapter keeps saying over and over and
over again. He is a substitute. He is the
propitiation. He is the appeasing factor for
the justice and the holiness of God, and God is satisfied. When it's time for me to die
and stand before God's judgment throne, the songwriter wrote,
will I stand in Christ complete or will I stand alone? I know
there are some of you here still today. Right now, while I'm speaking,
you're thinking about all of the mess you've made, all of
the condemnation that you're under, that your debt has not
been paid, you figure. You don't know how that happens, but you're trusting Jesus Christ.
Thank you, my brother. Think about it. Just think about
what God has blessed us to be in this service. One, two, three,
four, five. You know what's happening in
heaven right now? They're rejoicing because folks
are confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Now, let me ask this. Let me
ask you this. I see, I recognize all of these
that have come forward. They're our own. I'm looking
for some slimy church person. I mean, you've been in church
all your life, but you've never come to know Jesus Christ until
today. Today you see that Jesus is the
Savior, that He is Lord and Savior of poor sinners. And you're casting
all your care on Him. Maybe for years you've gone to
church. I know people that say this to
me and they've gone all their life and they're still attending
the same place. Church is so boring. Isn't religion
boring? Doing the same things over and
over and never seeing miracles of God, a transformation, a God
who's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you
ask or think, that kind of God. You know, I said to the Lord
today, just give me enough voice to
tell the report one more time. God's honored it and blessed
it. Look what's happening here. You know, I'm going to this thrift
store convention, but I'm not gonna talk about thrift stores.
I'm going to talk about the blood of Christ and the power of God. I'm going to tell him what God
has done here. And my subject is really going to be how to
raise millions of dollars. And they're going to be so shocked
when I tell them, give glory to God. Chief in the man is to glorify
God. I'm so thankful for you, ladies and gentlemen. And there's
some guy back here. You're hiding from me today.
I can't believe that pastor asked me to step out in front of all
those people. Well, maybe I'm not talking to
you. I'm talking to that person who's sitting back there right
now, who's saying something like this under the power of God.
I need to do this. I want to do this. But I'm scared
to do this. I'm waiting for you. I'm waiting
on you. We're waiting. Amen. It's just 11.52. You have eight
more minutes. Some of you brave, hairy-chested
guys. who've wallowed in the stables
of sin, and you know you're black as all hell on the inside, and
you need the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse you and to wash you
white as snow. He's able to do that. I don't
care what you've done in life. There's power in the blood of
Christ. Wonder, working power. Amen. All right. I want us to stand. We're going
to sing. If you need a little music to confess Christ, we'll
give you that. Stay right here. Don't leave,
will you? Stay right here. I want to pray for you before
we go. I just would believe that there's probably someone here
going like this. Man, I'm going to leave here. I'm going to walk out of here. Just a few more minutes, Pastor.
Just a few more minutes. Amen. I was waiting on you. I don't know whether it happens
that way. It happens just this way. Faith in Jesus Christ, trusting
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. All right, are we ready
up here?