Good morning. A couple announcements. Talked
to Frank yesterday, and they're turning around, heading back,
slowly heading back this direction. Sounds like they're having a
good trip. Also, found out that, y'all may
have seen this on the news, but Rock Valley has been hit by just
a tremendous flood. Actually, the levee out there
broke. Flooded most of the town. I think
the governor had even called in helicopters. They were evacuating
people from the rooftops. I know there's a couple families
from the church that actually live there in Rock Valley. Talked to them yesterday. It
sounds like everybody got out okay. The church itself is flooded. The extent of that damage, they
don't know yet because they can't get in to see it. But once they
can do that and see that, have a better idea of what their needs
might be. But Frank had mentioned, just
let everybody know, we'll be taking up an offering at some
point to send out that way. So they've had a time to say
the least. They're encouraged. I talked
to Eric Van Beek, he's the elder out there, and he said, we know. We know these things are in the
Lord's hand and that he'll continue to provide for his people. Open your Bibles to Acts chapter
28. Acts 28. Look at verse 23 and 24, but
before we begin, let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our God and
Father in heaven, we thank you for this day. We thank you for
this opportunity to gather together as a people. Lord, for the privilege
of gathering together to worship. Lord, pray you bless this time
together, Lord. set aside the thoughts and cares
of this world and let us see Christ. Let us see more of our
Savior. Cause us to know and rest in
Him. Lord, we pray for your presence. Lord, we pray for our brethren
out in Rock Valley. Lord, that you would continue
to be with them, be with them in the days to come. Lord, give
them wisdom, strength, encouragement, Lord, bless, protect, and keep
me. Lord, again, what we pray for ourselves here this morning,
we pray for all those who gather together to worship you. Lord,
bless the preaching and hearing of thy word. Continue with us. Forgive us our sins. We ask in
Christ's name. All right, do you have Acts 28?
Look beginning with verse 23. It says, Acts 28 verse 23, when
they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his
lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of
God, persuading them concerning Jesus, concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets
from morning till evening. And some, oh what a glorious
thought, some believed. Some believed the things which
were spoken and some believed not. Now here we read that there
were many that came to Paul. They came to where he was living
this house that he was in, and he preached to them. The company
that came to him, he preached to them. He preached the gospel
to them. And look at these three words in verse 23. It says, he
expounded, he testified, and persuaded them. Now that word
expounded, it means to declare. That's what we do when we preach
the gospel. We declare it. Some men want
these things explained to them. Listen, they're beyond our comprehension. They're beyond our human understanding. We declare. We declare what God's
Word says. He testifies. You know, when
a man testifies something, he gives evidence to prove that
what he's saying is to be believed, that it's believable. We'll see
that in court sometimes. Somebody will come up and they'll
testify. And they're given evidence to prove that what they're saying
is true. Our evidence is from God's Word. It's from what God's Word says.
Now, I tell you, I enjoy reading the commentaries. There's a lot
of things that I dig into those commentaries that sometimes give
us a greater understanding of what it means. But the best commentary
on Scripture is right here. It's Scripture. It's God's Word. That's where the proof comes
from, from the Scriptures. And then we read that He persuaded
them. encourage them. When we come to this gathering,
we gather together as a people. Isn't it just a wonderful thing
to be persuaded concerning God's Word, to be persuaded what God
has done for His people through His Son? He persuaded them. He encouraged them to believe
the truth. He expounded testified and persuaded
them concerning Jesus, concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. So what was Paul's message? Rather, who? That's the question. Who was Paul's message? It was
Christ. Writing to the Corinthians, he
said this, I determine not to know anything among you. Well, we can get out in the weeds
quick, can't we? He said, I determine not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We have but one message, just
one, the Lord Jesus Christ. Right now, if you could slip
back there real quietly and you could stick your ear against
Sabrina's classroom door, it'd be the same message. It'd be
the Lord Jesus Christ. If we tiptoed up the stairs and
through the nursery to terrace class, and you could hold a glass
up there and listen in, I'm just confident you would hear of the
Lord Jesus Christ. One message. Just one message. The Lord Jesus Christ. And the
source of that message, The source of that message is right here. It's God's holy word. Paul spoke
from the law of Moses and from the prophets. That's what he
had. The New Testament scriptures hadn't been written yet, had
they? He had the Old Testament scriptures. So just listen to
a few of these scriptures with me this morning. Luke, you can
turn with me, Luke chapter 24. Luke 24, verse 25. Luke 24, verse 25. Then he said
unto them, who? The Lord Jesus Christ spoke.
He said unto them, O fools and slow of heart to believe, what? all that the prophets have spoken. Turn over to just a page there
to verse 44 of Luke 24. Again, our Lord speaking, he
said this, he said unto them, these are the words which I spake
unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be
fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the
prophets and in the Psalms, about who? Concerning me, concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to John, John chapter five. Look at verse 46. Again, our Lord speaking here. John 5 verse 46, had you believed
Moses, had you believed what Moses wrote, you would have believed
me. Why? Because he wrote of me. Moses wrote of me. But you believe
not his writings. If you don't believe what Moses
said, how are you going to believe my words? Moses wrote of me. And then verse 41 of John 12,
just turn a few more pages there, John 12. These things said Isaiah when
he saw his glory and spake, Spake of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was Paul's message. And he preached from the Old
Testament Scriptures. And that's my prayer this morning. That's my desire this morning.
That the Lord would enable me to bring a message from the book
of Isaiah. Turn with me to Isaiah 53. I want you to just look at one,
Isaiah 53. My hope was to look at this whole
chapter of Isaiah 53, but look at verse six. Verse six of Isaiah
53. I want us to look here. I know
there's many truths in this word, but three truths found in this
verse of Scripture. here in Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53,
six, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone
to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us
all. First, we see here the truth
about man. The truth about man, all we like
sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to our
own way. Second, the truth about Almighty
God. What's it say? The Lord, who
the Lord hath laid on him, the iniquity of us all. And then
third, the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, that one on whom
our iniquity was laid. Let's look at these three truths
together this morning. First, the truth about man. What does God's word say about
man? Not what does man say about man,
Man says this, man says that man has a good heart, that man
just needs to exercise his free will. They paint a pretty rosy
picture of man. I think of how they take these
pictures now. and they can, I don't know what
kind of software they use, but boy, they can dress them up. They could take these bags and
get rid of them out of my eyes. They could do all kind of things
to just make us look a little more presentable anyhow, right?
What is God's word? What do the scriptures say about
man? Right here we read this, that
all we, like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone
to our own way. Right here we read of what we
call original sin. Why is it original? Because it's
the first sin. Adam in the garden. What way
did he choose? He chose his own way, didn't
he? God said this, he gave him and
Eve the garden with one responsibility, to dress it and to keep it. With just one rule, just one
command, don't eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And what did Adam do? Did he
enjoy the garden and obey God? No, in just a short amount of
time, Eve was deceived by Satan. And she took that proof and gave
it to Adam and he took it willingly. He disobeyed, he disobeyed God. Romans 5 19 says this, for by
one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one shall
many be made Righteous we go astray How long does that take? Is it when we turn 11 or 12 or
13? We kind of laugh don't we when
we go astray? It's what man that's what man
says David wrote this in the psalm the wicked are estranged
when from the womb They go astray as soon as they be born. Speaking lies. We seek our own way. There's
a way, scripture says this, there's a way that seems right unto man. What's the end of that way? The
end thereof are the ways of death. And this is the way that we will
choose. Listen to a few of these scriptures.
Truth about who and what we are. There is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. What does man seek? What is it
by nature that we seek? We seek our own way. We seek
our own pleasure, we seek our own comfort, our own glory, our
own will, our own satisfaction, everybody. That's what we do,
we seek our own. What we don't seek, who we don't
seek, is God. They're all, that's what scripture
says, they're all going out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable, There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Christ said this, you have not
the love of God in you. Here's another verse, universal
truth about all men. All, how many? All, all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Well, second, the second truth
here, the truth about Almighty God. It says this, the Lord hath laid
on him. Who did that? Now, those men
at Calvary, they did what their evil hearts desired to do. They
did the same thing that we would have done had we been standing
there, but in doing that, they did the will of God. The Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of Esau. Now this world, it preaches,
it declares a false god, little g, a false god, a weak god, a
failing god, a disappointed god, a god whose hands are tied. Let me ask you, what kind of
God is that? Whose hands are tied? This is
what they preach. They say He has no eyes, but
your eyes. He has no feet, but your feet. He has no hands, but your hands.
That's a lie. That may be true about a false
God, but that's not true about the God with whom we have to
do. That's not true of the God who created the heavens. That's
not true of the God who is sovereign in all things. God, the God of
this Bible, is sovereign. That's what the Word declares.
And He's not dependent on man for anything. Psalm 50 says this,
Every beast of the forest is mine. The cattle upon a thousand
hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains.
The wild beasts of the field are mine." He said this, if I
were hungry, ready, you were on a trip a couple of days ago,
you were hungry. You had to ask a buddy of yours
for a sandwich, didn't you? God's not a beggar. He said,
if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you. Why? The world's mine. Everything that He created it.
The world is mine and the fullness thereof. God's sovereign, God's
holy. Scripture says this, thou art
of pure eyes than to behold evil. He can't even look on iniquity. We drink it like water. God can't
look on iniquity. Sin must be punished. To save his people, sin must
be punished. It must be put away. And this
holy God that we've sinned against, this holy God of whom we've strayed
from, this holy God of whose law we have broken, of whose
justice must be satisfied, this is the God with whom we have
sinned. This is the God that we're gonna
stand before. Almighty God, whose law we broke.
David said this, he said, against thee and thee only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight. God who will by no means clear
the guilty. He destroyed the, remember that
when he looked upon the earth He looked down upon the earth
and all he saw was only evil continue. And what did he do?
He destroyed it. He destroyed this world by a
flood. Those evil cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah, what did he do to them? He turned them to dust. Like they were never even there. Turned them to ashes. In 1st
Chronicles, David, remember that when they were moving the ark?
that they had built a new cart to put the ark on. And they were
hauling it, and the oxen stumbled. And there was a man named Uzzah.
You know, I kind of think about it, I kind of think, what did
that look like? Was Uzzah just, was he just like walking along
that cart? Or was he standing there like
all the other people, just watching that cart go by? And those oxen
stumbled. And he thought the ark was gonna
fall off that wagon. And all he did, all he did was
stuck his hand up there to stable it. That seems like an innocent
thing, doesn't it? He broke God's law and what happened?
God slew him. Right there, right there on the
spot. God is absolutely holy. And he's going to punish Sin. We read that in scripture. The
wages of sin is death. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. Well, last third point. Here
we see, we see the truth about man. We see the truth about God
and we see the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord laid
on him. Him. What did he lay on him? The iniquity of us all. Him. The one on whom all of our
iniquity was laid. The Lord, God the Father, whom
we've sinned against. from whom we've turned, whose
justice must be satisfied, has laid on him the sins of all of
his elect. 1 Peter 2.24 says this, who his
own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we being
dead to sin should live under righteousness by whose stripes
you're hid. were hit by his suffering. Christ bore our sins, the sins
of his people. He bore our sins on the cross. He bore them in his body on the
cross that we might be justified, that we might be pardoned, that
we might be redeemed before Almighty God, and that we being dead to
this world might live righteously and godly. What do we read there? We are as sheep going astray,
walking our own way. But God, by his grace and mercy,
draws his people back to the shepherd, back to the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. This isn't something man does.
False preachers try to get man involved in stuff. Listen, this
is the work of the Father and the Son. And notice this isn't
something that needs done. I hear men talking all the time
about things man needs to do to be saved. What's that say
there? The Lord hath laid on him. He hath laid on him the iniquity
of his soul. He redeemed us from the law being
made a curse for us. He bore our sins. We didn't contribute
anything to that other than sin. He bore our sins. He satisfied
God's justice and executed His gracious will concerning His
people. False religion of this world says do. What does Scripture
say? done, already done. That was the cry of our Lord
at Calvary. It is finished. He delivered
us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the
kingdom of his dear son. Isaiah 53, six, all we like sheep
have gone astray. We've turned everyone to our
own way. and the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Turn back to Acts 28. Acts 28,
look at verse 23 and 24. When they had appointed unto him a day. There came many
into his lodging to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of
God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of
Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening. And some believe. Some believe
the things which were spoken. And some believe not. Paul preached Christ, from the
law and the prophets. Scripture says this, some believe,
some believe. And again, I pray he'd be pleased
to do the same for us, that he had let us see Christ and give
us faith to believe and rest in him. I was thinking about,
remember Philip, Remember when God called Philip to that Ethiopian
eunuch? That eunuch had come back from
some religious gathering, and he was sitting up there in his
chariot, and he was reading the Scriptures. And Almighty God, in His mercy, sent
a preacher to him. And he went up in that chariot,
and he said, Do you understand what you're reading? What did
that eunuch say? How can I, except some man should
guide me? Philip opened, Philip opened
his mouth, and at the same scripture, back there in Isaiah, the same
scripture, and what did he do? He preached unto him the Lord
Jesus Christ. And as they went on their way,
they came to a certain water, and the eunuch said, see, here's
water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said,
If you believe, if you believe with all your heart, thou mayest,
and his answer, I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. He commanded the chariot to stand
still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and
the eunuch, and he baptized a message from God's word, a
message from the scripture that declares truth about man, dead,
trespasses, truth about God, holy, sovereign in all his ways,
and the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. I pray he'd give us faith to
believe. I know not everyone will. And that breaks our heart,
doesn't it? It truly does. What a glorious
thing that some, some believe. All right. God bless you.