Back to Isaiah 53. The title of the message is Sin and its Remedy. This is going to go right along
with Frank's message. I don't think there's anything
more beautiful than a team of horses that pull together. Is
there? We first moved on the farm when
I was just a boy. Dad, before he bought a tractor,
he bought a team of horses and he mowed the hay field with those
team of horses. There's no way he could have
got the job done if one would have went this way and one this
way. But I thought, as Frank was up here, I thought, my, there's
just a team of horses here this morning. Maybe not Clydesdales,
that was Henry and Scott. But nonetheless, a team of horses
pulling in the same direction, same purpose and motive. Isaiah 53, sin and its remedy. I realize that I have one great problem. Now, I've got some problems and
some troubles like you do. We live in the same world. We
have the same life. We experience the same things. But I know this. I have, and
you have, one real problem. I can survive all my other problems.
Whatever comes my way, I can survive it. But I can't survive
this one, sin. I can't put it away. I can't
run away from it. I can't do anything about it
myself. There's only one person that
can put it away, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. We have that
in this chapter. Who can define sin? Frank gave us a great picture
this morning of that river of Hadron. and what it represents
and all that they put in there. But even that still falls short
of it, doesn't it? To try to define something that
is so evil, that is so black, that Almighty God Himself must
come into this world, become a man, be made sin, be tormented,
and then be crucified. There's no word to describe sin. There's no way we can comprehend
the very evilness of it. Even in our repentance, even
when the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, I still have not sweated
drops of blood over it, even in that conviction. I've repented
of it, sorry for it, but I have never fell on my face like my
Lord did when He was made to be sin and sweat great drops
of blood. Who can comprehend that? Who can comprehend the evilness
of it, the destruction of it? Just look at history. Look at
what men have done to each other. Look how they torment, kind of
just conjure up ways to torment each other. And the wars since
the fall has been one after another. I doubt that any, since the fall,
that there has been any time where some war was going on,
some fight was going on, some killing was going on. It's constant. It's constant. All the trouble
we have in this world and in ourselves is rooted in sin. It's rooted in sin. You know,
scientists and philosophers, they can come up with all kinds
of goofy stuff and philosophical stuff, but I'm telling you, here's
the problem. Sin is the problem. It's sin. And we know, because
we've been taught over the years and we are taught
out of the Word of God, how sin came into this world. It says
in Romans 5, 12, by one man, by one man, sin entered this
world. By Adam, sin came into this world
and it passed upon all men. Sin now is inherited. It's inherited. It says in scriptures, and Adam
all died. There in Romans 5. And Adam all
died. It's inherited. We inherit many things from our
parents. When I went to the doctor to
have this surgery, I had to fill out a family history. And as
I'm filling it out, you know, the doctor was asking me, do
you, well the nurse who came in, about my family history,
about, you know, we have heart attacks and what your grandparents
died from. You know, I have grandparents
on my mother's side died from cancer. And on my dad's side
died from heart attacks. All his uncles died, my grandfather
died at 48 of a heart attack. And the rest of his brothers
died except for one around in their 50s, 60s. They were relatively
young. But on my mom's side it's cancer.
So I've got a pretty good idea if I don't die in a car wreck,
about how I'm going to go. Just look at your family history.
I talked to my mother here two or three weeks ago, and about
my grandparents, and she was telling me on my grandmother's
side of the family, they all died of cancer. I thought, I
didn't realize there was so much cancer in the history there.
So, like I said, I've got a pretty good idea of what might get me,
what the Lord might use, because I inherited those genes. That's
what I've inherited. Family history tells us what
we might die from. One thing we don't inherit is
holiness. We do not inherit that. The scripture
says there's none good, no, not one. You cannot inherit what's
not in your family. Not genetically, you can't do
it. And not only do we inherit sin, but now listen, sin is universal. It's something we all have. Yes,
I inherited it and you did too. That's something we all have.
We do not all speak the same language in this world. We do
not all have the same experience in this world, but we all have
the same nature of sin in this world. All of us. We may not understand each other's
language, but we do understand each other's actions, don't we?
A slap in the face means the same thing all across this world.
It means the same thing. Everyone understands that language.
Every nation experiences murder. You think you want to move out
of your neighborhood where it's safer? Where are you going to
go? Where are you going to go? Sooner or later, I know there
are safer neighborhoods, I know that. But sooner or later, it's
going to be in your town, in your neighborhood, in your community.
It'll happen. Sooner or later, it'll happen. You ever see these
programs where somebody's murdered in a neighborhood? And they say,
well, it's been such a quiet neighborhood, and nothing ever
goes on. I saw one here not too long ago.
I said, I never have to lock my doors. Now I do. Sin. Sin, it permeates everywhere,
every person. Every nation experiences murder,
theft. I doubt you can go anywhere in
this world and find a place that doesn't have a lock on a door because of thieves. I had someone
break in my truck two, three weeks ago. Boy, I'd like to find
that guy. A thief. And I live in the same
neighborhood. At least I think I do. But they
got me. They got me. Drunkenness? Drunkenness? Move somewhere where there's
no such thing as drunkenness? Not in this world. I can go on and
on and on with the sin. The sins of the flesh are all
the same no matter where we live in this world. They are all the
same. It says in Romans 3.23, For all have sinned That doesn't mean all in one
country and not in another. That means all over this globe
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All of us have. All of us. Jew and Gentile. The
Jews thought only if Gentiles came short. No, they came short
too. And the effects of sin is universal. There is no place on this earth
where something hasn't died. There's not an inch of ground
you'll ever put your foot on that something has not died,
whether it's an animal, a plant, a person. Something has died
on every square inch of this earth. Something has died on
it. The effect of sin is universal. And then sin is defiling. Turn
over to Isaiah 1. Here's a good picture of it in
Isaiah chapter 1. Look in verse 5 when you get
there. 5 through 6. Why should ye be stricken
any more? Ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the
whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even
unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises
and putrefying, running sores. They have not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mullified with ointment. This is a picture of
us. This is a picture of us in sin. This is what we are by nature. And that's not a good picture,
is it? That's not a very pretty family. That's not a family picture
you're going to put on the wall, is it? No, we wouldn't put that
family picture on the wall. I bet you don't have that on
Facebook. Not that picture. And no way in the world. No way. But that's us. That's
us. That's sin. It's defiling from
the top of the head to the sole of the feet. There's no soundness
in anyone outside of Christ. You believe that? You do if you believe the gospel.
You do if you believe Isaiah 53. When that leper came to our
Lord, he was full of leprosy. He did not come to the Lord and
say, would you heal this spot on my hand? I've got a spot here
on my hand. It's bothering me. No, he was full of leprosy from
head to toe. And that's the way we are with
sin. Full of it. There is not a part of my being
that is not defiled with sin. You can change my environment,
and I'll mess up the environment. The environment, I'm telling
you, the environment did not mess me up. I mess it up. I mess it up. And then sin is
incurable. We've made a lot of advances
in medicine, haven't we? A lot of advances. A lot of diseases
now that just wiped out thousands and thousands of people doesn't
even exist now. Does not even exist. We pretty
much cured it. But the most devastating of all
is sin. And we don't have a cure for
it and cannot come up with one. I know religion tries. But it
fails. Repentance won't put it away.
You know, we do repent. Repentance is a gift of God,
but repentance does not put away sin. I had a woman tell me some
years ago, she said, I repent and I ask God to forgive me,
but I can't get anywhere. I can't seem to get anywhere. And she told me that it just
I just came to me. The scripture says repentance
toward God and what else? Does it stop there? Faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. They go together. You can weep
and cry all day long, but you do not believe on Christ, it's
not going to do you any good. That's not repentance. That's
no more than being sorry that mom and dad caught you. That's
no different. Repentance, true repentance is
always mixed with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. True repentance
is always mixed with this, they shall mourn when they look on
him whom they pierced. That's true repentance. It's
when it's toward God. David said, against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. I've
sinned against God. That's true repentance. Well, let me read you this. Paul says this. I said that sin
is incurable. Look over in Romans 7. I don't
want to miss this point. In Romans 7, Paul is a believer. He's a believer. When he's saying
this, he's a believer. And every one of you who believe
the gospel, you know this is so. You can identify with Paul. You say, well, Paul, I know what
you're talking about. Look at verse 14. For we know
that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do
I not. But what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would
not, I consented to the law that is good. Now then, it is no more
I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me,
and he clarifies it, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good
that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that
I do." This is a saved man speaking. Even after the Lord has saved
us, we still struggle and fight and wrestle with this matter
of sin. We still deal with it until we lay this body in the
ground, and then it's over. It's gone. It will molest us
no more. No more. And then sin is fatal. Turn over to Romans 6. Verse 23, for the wages of sin
is death. Now there's pleasure in sin for
a season. Scripture teaches us that. Men
find pleasure in sin for a season, for a little while. But the end
result, when the season is over with, is death. Eternal death. Eternal death, if it's not dealt
with properly in Christ, it's eternal death. For the wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ. There is no escaping the end
result of sin, is there? There's no escaping it. Everybody in this room knows,
you know, that you've got to die. It's appointed unto men
once to die. Well, why? Why? Because of sin. Now the second
death has no power over the child of God. The second death has
no power. But now that first death, we've
got to deal with it. We've got to lay this body down.
This body has to go into the grave. The old man has to be
buried. He's got to die. Now, if we are not saved from
sin, We shall perish in our sins. That is a sobering truth. If
we're not saved from it, we'll perish in it. One may think that
they have not sinned in such a way or such a manner that it
deserves eternal death. Well, you and I are not the judge
of that, are we? Now, when we become the judge
of that, then all of a sudden, Everything becomes okay. Yeah,
go to prison and see how many guilty people are in there. Everything
has an excuse for it and a reason to do it, and I shouldn't be
punished. God's the judge of that. Anybody
thinks that'd be greatly mistaken, greatly mistaken by one act of
disobedience. That's how holy God is. God is so holy. God is so just
that by one act of disobedience, and that one act, listen, that
one act of disobedience was eating out of a tree that he was told
not to eat out of. Now, I know human logic says
that wasn't that bad. Human logic says, I mean, would
you kick your... Son out of the house written
a fruit you don't like to eat. Don't eat that apple. God is so just that when Adam
did what he was told not to do, he was kicked out. But now listen,
in that one act of disobedience is all the filth and all the
evil of sin. You say, well, that doesn't look
so bad. You know, that was just a, we catalog sin, don't we? I tell you what, if the only
sin that was ever committed was that one little, not little,
but that one act of disobedience and eating that fruit, Christ
would have still had to suffer just as much. He would have still suffered
what he suffered for that one act of disobedience. Thank God that second Adam had
no act of disobedience. No act. All his acts were out
of obedience. Now you and I know, if we know,
if we know what sin is, if I know that I've
got this sin problem, I know I have, I'm not making excuses
for it, I know I have it. A remedy can be found. A remedy. I want you to get this. The greatest
part of getting the remedy, of getting help, is recognizing
you've got a problem and dealing with it and making no excuses
for it. And that's what happens. When we are brought under conviction
by the Holy Spirit of sin, we make no excuses for it and we
deal with it. I've got the problem. It's not
if I wasn't here or if this didn't happen. No. No. If it didn't happen, I'd be looking
for it. If it doesn't come my way, I'll
go its way. I'll find it. That's recognizing
you've got a problem. Now, if you've got a problem,
we've got a remedy. If you've got a sin problem,
we have a remedy. In Isaiah 53, Listen to that. In verse four, He hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteem Him strict and
smitten, if God deflicted. But now listen, verse five, here's
the remedy. He was wounded. Over in the margin
it says, tormented. He was wounded, He was tormented
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Here's the remedy. By his stripes,
we are healed. God could have whipped me all
day with a whip. He could have striked me all
day, and it wouldn't have put away anything, would it? Why
do you think hell is eternal? Because justice can never be
satisfied with me dying. When God takes my place and dies
in my place, when he's made to be a sin for me, when he's made
to be what I am and he dies for it, he becomes guilty in my place,
then justice is satisfied. Justice is satisfied. By his
stripes we are healed. There is healing in the wounds
of his stripes. The heavenly medicine is the
blood of Christ. There is power in the blood.
There is power in the blood to put away all my sins. There is power in the blood to
put away all the sins of all God's people. Power in His blood to put it
away. There is payment. There is payment in the blood
of Christ. I can't pay that sin debt, there's
no way. I keep charging on it. I keep
adding it up. So I just paid it off last night.
Well, what'd you do today? You can't pay it off. You can't
do it. It's one of those compounding
interest in reverse. You can't pay it off. You can't
touch it. You can't scratch it. But His blood, His blood put
away all my sins. They're gone. The debt's been
paid. The law is not knocking on my
door and saying, You owe this. You're summons to court. You've
got to pay this. No, I don't. That's been paid. My brother
paid it. My elder brother paid it. My Lord paid it. It's over. He took our sins away by the
sacrifice of himself and gave us his righteousness or gave
us his health. It's like that leper, took that
leprosy. I tell you what, when he took
that leprosy and he cleansed him, he took it. And that leprosy
got his health. He was made to be sin for us,
he who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Jesus Christ is the cure. He's the remedy for sin. And that truly is the only problem
I've got. Sin. Get that sin issue taken care
of. And I'm telling you, it's home free. It's home free. You get that taken care of. If
you ever have a sin problem, if you have one or ever have
one, Jesus Christ is the cure. He's the cure. Not religion.
A lady told me one time, I'm going to get back in church.
Well, you don't need to do that. I know what she meant by that.
I'm going to go back to church, straighten up. No, you don't need that.
You need Christ. You need Christ. You'd just be
a headache to that church, probably. You need Christ and Him crucified. And then you go, you go and listen
to the gospel, but I tell you what, then you'll understand
and you'll enjoy the company of God's people. Because until
then, you're really going to enjoy it. You'll enjoy it. All
right, Mike.