While you're turning to the 53rd
chapter of the Gospel of Isaiah, I want you to listen carefully
to a statement found over here in Revelation chapter 22. He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him
be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. There shall never enter into
heaven anything that is sinful, unclean, defiled in any way. There shall never enter into
heaven anyone who is unclean, sinful, or defiled in any way. Only those who are perfectly
righteous, perfectly holy, perfect before God. How then can we be
judged according to our works and still enter into heaven's
glory. Now the vast majority of the
religious people of this world pervert the scriptures and say
that there will be a judgment where God's going to reward you
if you've been a really good Christian, but if you haven't
been so good, you'll get into heaven by the skin of your teeth.
That's blasphemy. That's nothing but a Baptist
doctrine of purgatory taken right out of Rome. There's no such
thing. The book of God declares it shall be perfect to be accepted. What hope is there then for you?
What hope is there then for me? You'll find the answer in my
text this morning, Isaiah 53 verse six. Here God the Holy
Ghost says, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. That's my subject. That's my
text. And it would suit me well if
God would let me preach from that one text and on that one
subject from now to the day I die. And it would suit you well. if
God would write that one subject and that one text on your hearts
with every breath you take. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. Let's begin in Isaiah 53, verse
one. The prophet raises a question.
Who hath believed our report? and he answers it with another
question. And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? I'll tell you exactly who will
believe the message I'm preaching this moment. All to whom the
arm of the Lord is revealed. If you believe on the Son of
God, it is because God by his grace has revealed his mighty
saving arm to you in the person and work of his darling son. Who hath believed our report
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. When he comes into this world,
He'll come without pomp or pageantry. He won't look like one of the
Pope's cardinals. He won't look like some highfalutin
priest. He will come with humiliation.
He will come with humility as a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. He will appear to be a man altogether
without any strength or without any ability to defend and protect
himself and with no one willing to protect him. He'll grow up
as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. plant garden
and you have just a little tender plant come up, you don't wanna
turn the cattle loose in there, it'll be gone. All you gotta
do is step on it, it's gone. That's how the Savior appears.
And when he's finished his work, he hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him. I know we live in this age
of idolatry when everybody has religious pictures and crosses
hanging around their necks and make all kinds of religious signs
and use religious words, but I promise you if you could get
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ when he was hanging on the cursed
tree, you wouldn't want it hanging over your dining room table.
You wouldn't want to think about it. It looked like some mutilated
animal covered with blood and hair and spit, human excrement
thrown all over him, hanging up. Wouldn't be a pretty picture. Nothing about it to appeal to
you. He is despised and rejected of
men. That's the reason he was crucified.
A man of sorrows from the day he entered this earth to the
day he left it. a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. I like to laugh. I like to tell
stories that make people laugh. I try to do what I can to make
folks at ease, but I enjoy it. I enjoy it. Every time I think
of something that I think might humor someone else that's pleasant
and easy to relate, I make sure I tell the story. And I'm at
the age I sometimes tell them so many times I could just give
you a number and you'd know which one I was talking about. But
I like to do that. Our Lord Jesus never once are
we told laughed while he was in this world. He wept. Never once did we read of him
smiling. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He
never knew anything else. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. That's what men do. Some of you
now are hiding your face from him. Hiding religion or hiding
prophecy, but hiding from God, trying to. Actually, the marginal
translation, I think, is better. The translators gave it to us
for that reason. He hid, as it were, his face
from us. and he was made sin for us. He
cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And God turned
out the lights. And there were three hours of
darkness in this world. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. We thought just like all other
men thought, let him be crucified. We won't have it. Surely he hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. That's
the reason he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Yet
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Now let
me give you exactly what that's saying, Rex. He carried your
grief and your sorrows, my grief and my sorrows, and we lived
all our lives saying that's what he deserved to have. He deserved
to be stricken and smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded. profaned, broken,
stained, defiled, polluted, tormented. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised, made to crumble,
beat to pieces, crushed. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his own way, and
the Lord hath laid, the Lord hath made to meet on him the
iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth
not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression
of my people was he stricken, and he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death. Because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make your soul an offering for sin, That is when
you shall make his soul sin. He shall see his seed. He shall
prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him
a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with
the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. and
he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared the sin of many,
and he made intercession for the transgressors. Now, what do you suppose should
appropriately follow such a passage of Scripture? What word comes to your mind?
having read these 12 verses of inspiration concerning the sacrifice
of God's darling son. I'll guarantee you the next word
didn't come to your mind. Isaiah's next word to us in chapter
54 in verse one, sing! Sing! Sing, what a word, sing. Truly that which we've read makes
glad the heart of every poor sinner who has tasted that the
Lord is gracious. Of every filthy soul that had
been washed in the precious blood of Christ, oh may God the Holy
Ghost be our teacher and show us this hour the wondrous things
here declared. We'll look just at verse 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. In this passage of Holy Scripture,
God's prophet Isaiah speaks as the representative of all God's
elect. In this one verse of Scripture,
he plainly states three things, three basic, fundamental, undeniable
gospel truths that are acknowledged and confessed by every sinner
who is saved by God's grace. They're acknowledged and confessed
by every sinner who is saved by the grace of God. Anyone who
denies any of these three things simply does not know God. These three basic, fundamental,
essential, undeniable gospel revelations are preached by every
preacher who speaks for God. Any preacher who does not preach
these three simple things, any preacher who denies these three
simple things does not know God and does not speak for God. And
if you follow what he says, you'll follow him to hell. Now that
makes these things very important. Number one, original sin. All we like sheep have gone astray. All of us at one time have gone
astray. This is the doctrine of original
sin. It's called original sin because it was the first sin.
We went astray from God in the sin and fall of our father Adam. If you want to look at it with
me, you can turn to two texts. Psalm 14 and verse 3 and Revelation
5 verse 12. If you want to just jot those
down and listen, you can look at them later. Psalm 14 verse
3. The Lord looked down from heaven
and what did he see? They are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. The whole human race all at one
time together turned aside from God and became filthy. How did that happen? Romans 5
verse 12, by one man. sin entered into the world. And
death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have
sinned. I know folks like to make jokes
about things that they won't make jokes about for long. And
folks like to laugh and mock and jeer and blaspheme God and
they laugh about the story about Adam and Eve. You know that Adam
and Eve story. You don't believe that, do you?
Not the way you tell it, but the way God tells it, I did sure
do. By man came death. By man came death. That's all that ever comes from
man. Death, death. In Adam, all die. As the scriptures set forth what
took place in the garden, we understand that the whole human
race sinned in Adam, died in Adam, went astray from God in
Adam, were cursed in Adam, and were lost in Adam. Adam was the
federal head and representative of the entire human race. He
was our federal head and representative, our legal representative, but
he was more than that. He was more than that. We're
told that Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek a long, long, long
time before Levi was ever born. He paid tithes to Melchizedek
in the loins of Abraham. Now Abraham was not his legal
representative. Abraham was not his federal head.
Abraham was his seminal representative. Abraham was his daddy. Many generations
removed, but Levi came from the seed of Abraham. And Adam was
the seminal head of the whole human race. So that everything
Adam did, We did in Adam legally and in reality as our head, both
physically and spiritually. Adam's sin was committed by us
all. When Adam said to God, get out
of my way, you've got no right to be God. You've got no right
to be God. You don't have the right to destroy
Eve. You don't have the right to punish
sin. You don't have the right to determine
good from evil. Get out of my way, I'll be God. That's what every man said in
Adam. And that's what every man says
in rebellion and unbelief. Unbelief is not just a casual,
insignificant, unmeaning thing. Unbelief is man's deliberate
enmity against God. Unbelief is man saying to God,
get out of my way. Get out of my way! Get out of
my way! You have no right to be God. You have no right to judge. You have no right to rule. You
have no right to determine. You have no right to control.
I will be God to me. That's the sin of man. God imputed
Adam's sin to the whole human race because when Adam sinned,
we sinned. I hear folks say all the time,
I don't like that. I don't like, they don't often
say it to me, but they say it about me. I don't like that.
I don't understand that. I don't know how you can say
that. I have a suggestion. If you don't like it, take it
up with God in the day of judgment. Take it up with God, that's the
way it is. That's the way it is. God arranged it that way. God made it that way. When Adam
sinned, we sinned in him. And because we sinned in Him,
Adam's sin was imputed to the whole human race. And his sin
is passed on from one generation to the next, generation after
generation, after generation, after generation, passed on in
our nature. Something happened in Adam in
the garden. He died spiritually. And humanity
died spiritually in the garden. So that man created body, soul,
and spirit, died spiritually. And now man lives body and soul. He comes forth from the womb
speaking lies. Men live like animals, just body
and soul. We see every form of indecency,
decadence, immorality, and just let enough folks practice it,
and everybody say, well, that's all right. That's all right. Well, everybody behaves like
that. What else do you expect? If everybody runs around naked,
it's all right for everybody to run around naked. If everybody
runs around drunk, well, everybody's smoking dope now, how you gonna
keep from doing it? Everybody's taking illegal drugs, how you
gonna keep from doing it? Everybody gets drunk on Saturday
night, how you gonna keep from doing it? It's all right, nothing
wrong with that, because we all live like a pack of wolves. We
all live like animals. That's the nature of man. That's
the nature of man. The wicked go forth from the
womb speaking lies. You don't have to teach them
how. It's the nature. It's called depravity. Depravity. Passed along to all
by natural generation. That's original sin. The second thing. clearly set
forth in the passage is personal depravity. In Adam, we suffered
a great fall and a great loss. We fell from God's favor into
condemnation. We fell from sinlessness into
condemnation and death, corruption and evil. We lost original righteousness. We lost fellowship with God.
We lost access to God and all spiritual life. We fell into
bondage. We fell under the curse of the
law from light into darkness so that man by nature lives in
darkness, nothing but darkness. But that's not all. Being sinners
by nature, By birth, rather, we are sinners by nature, so
that the heart, the heart, the heart of man is
a cesspool of evil, just evil, nothing but evil. Those things
that defile a man come from within, not from without. We have health
food stores all around us and we have health gurus and all
kinds of idiocy. Do you know you'll search this
book in vain to find anyone telling you what to eat? Search it in vain. Well, we don't
defile our bodies. If that's what it is to defile
your body, it'd be in this book. We don't defile the temple of
God. If that's what it is to defile the temple of God, it'd
be in this book. Now, if you want to eat straw, that's just
fine, but don't tell me it's spiritual. Don't tell me it's
godly. Don't tell me it's holy. It just
is. It just is. I recognize some folks cannot
eat some things. I flat like, I started to say
love. Love's the wrong word. But man,
I like real good sweet milk chocolate candy. Do you have any idea how
long it's been since I ate a Milky Way? I might go get me one. You have any idea how long it's
been since I had an Almond Joy bar? Oh, I like those things.
But I'm diabetic, so it's not real smart for me to eat them,
at least not very often. And I kinda stay away from them.
But you can have all you want to, as long as it doesn't bother
you. Just have all you want. And I won't get upset if you
do. But eating them or not eating them has nothing to do with spirituality,
holiness, or godliness. Nothing whatsoever. We are corrupt. Because what's in here? Adultery,
fornication, wrath. Hatred, emulation, strife, variance,
sedition. Every evil thing imaginable. That's what's in your heart and
mine by nature. That's what's in your heart and
mine by nature. Not me, preacher. You're a liar. You're a liar. Not me! You're a liar, and you know it.
You know it. There's not a human being in
this room, not a human being in the world who would like for
his wife or her husband, their son or their daughter, their
mother or their father, you know, everything's going on in their
minds just today. Not one. How come? Because Jimmy Bowman, all that's
in you by nature is sin. That's all. That's all. So God give us grace to get over treating people, human beings,
as if somehow we're better than them. We're not. Not you and not me. We're sinners by nature. and we're centered by personal
choice. That's the doctrine of personal depravity. We've turned
everyone to his own way. Because the heart of man at birth
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, because
we are all estranged from the womb and go astray speaking lies,
because we've done so, we turned everyone to his own way. Some
folks live good, good, good lives. Good in my judgment. Good in
your judgment. I know some people who live remarkable
lives. Remarkable lives. Who don't know
God from a billy goat. I have never read much about
her, but they tell me that woman they called Mother Teresa. I
use the word mother only to identify the name. Man, she must have
been something else. She must have been something
else. Some folks who don't know God live good lives, very moral
lives, very sacrificial lives. Very devoted lives. It doesn't
take knowing God to walk the straight and narrow, as people
call it. It doesn't take knowing God to be gentle and kind and
gracious and loving and giving and sacrificial. It doesn't take
grace God to do that. It just doesn't. And then some
choose another way. They choose profligacy. fornication, drunkenness, immorality,
theft, rioting, because they like it. They like it. But each one turns to his own
way, refusing to walk in the way which is Christ Jesus the
Lord. He chooses the way of destruction
and death. You see, God's elect are just
like all other men and women by nature, ever going astray
from God. We turned everyone to his own
way, and we would keep turning to our own way. Had not the good shepherd looked
us up, sought us out, and turned us to himself. And the fact is,
Merle, even though we have been turned again to the shepherd
and bishop of our souls, we still keep turning to our own way. Is there anyone here who questions
any of what I've said? Have I told you the truth about
you? Thank God there's something else
revealed in the text. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. The Lord, the triune Jehovah,
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. That's called substitutionary
redemption. The triune God against whom we
have sinned, from whom we have strayed, whose law we have broken,
whose justice must be satisfied, has laid on his son all the sins
of all his elect. the Son of God was made sin for
us that he might be justly punished
for sin in the room instead of his people that we who are sinners that we who are nothing but sin
might be made the righteousness of God Our iniquity itself was laid on the Lord Jesus Christ. He was made sin. I have no intention of ever trying
to explain how that was done, but it was real. It was real. If I were an exceedingly
wealthy man, if I had the wealth of our president, Mr. Trump,
and David Peterson had incurred by some means enormous debt,
enormous debt, and I willingly made myself bankrupt, took all
of my wealth, and paid his debt to keep him from suffering the
consequences of not being able to pay it. I would feel it, and
it would cause me some discomfort, but it wouldn't break my heart.
The mere paying of a debt doesn't break somebody's heart. A mere
legal transfer doesn't break the heart. But our Lord Jesus,
as he knelt in Gethsemane, and cried, oh, my father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. As he anticipated being made
sin for us, his heart broke within him, and he said, the reproaches
of them that reproach thee are fallen on me. Reproach hath broken
my heart. And he sweat, as it were, great
drops of blood falling to the ground in the anticipation of
this real transfer of guilt and sin and shame. God's darling son, the holy,
harmless, undefiled lamb of God, the sinless one, the holy one
of heaven, was made sin for us. And when He was made sin for
us, He suffered all the just and righteous fury of an angry,
holy God against sin. God killed His Son. God killed his son. And I'll
tell you why God killed his son. Because he deserved to die. Because he deserved to die. Because he was made sin for us. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. He comes by His grace and makes
us righteous. Made righteous when He cried,
it is finished, when He obtained eternal redemption for us. And
He comes in the power of His grace. And just as we, in the
fall of our father Adam, received Adam's depraved nature, by natural generation. We all like to think we pass
along something good to our sons and daughters. The one thing, Randall, we did
sure pass on to them is sin. Just see it. Just see it. Just see it. But in the new birth, the Lord
Jesus, who is our righteousness, gives heaven born sinners his
nature. Adopted by grace from eternity. but made the sons of God by grace
and regeneration. So that when Christ comes to
save a sinner, he gives him his nature. A new
man created in righteousness and in true holiness. A new nature
that John tells us cannot see it. But preacher, you've just
been telling us all morning that we're nothing but sin and you
all say amen to that fact. Well, you know it so. Well, how
can you say we're made new and cannot sin? That new man in you
is righteousness. That new man in you is Christ. That new man in you is holy. That new man in you is the new
nature created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them. But they're still
in you, that old man. Corruption, sin, Adam. And you wake up every morning
and the two go to war. will never bow. The flesh will
never win. The flesh will never conquer. But it's never at rest. The warfare is never over. It goes on through the day with
every thought. With every movement of your feet,
with every movement of your hands, with every movement of your eyes,
flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh,
so that you can't do the things you would. But Sue, Sue, I'm gonna live
just like I want to. Soon, I'm gonna live just like
I want to. For this flesh must die. This body must go to the grave. And then when the Lord comes,
he'll raise up this body, a holy, spiritual, sinless, incorruptible
body, like unto his resurrection body. Then shall I be satisfied
when I awake in his likeness. You see, this is God's work. Salvation is God's work, altogether
God's work. And this is the result. If any
man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed
away. And behold, all things are become
new. This our Savior did for us all,
for us all. Oh, for a specific people, for
a definite number of people, only for His elect, for us all. Well, how can you say for us
all and only for His elect? For all of us who are His elect.
Let me put it another way. For all who are redeemed by His
blood. For all who are born again by
His Spirit. For all who are called by His
grace. For all who trust Him alone for
the whole of this great salvation. I had people ask me all the time.
I had somebody just recently ask me, how can I know that Christ
died for me? The same way I know my name's
in the book of life. How do you know your name's in
the book of life? Did you ever read it? Did you ever read it? Well, no. How
do you know Christ died for you? The same way I know my name's
in the book of life. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. If you can believe on Christ,
it's cause he died for you. I won't have that. Have it your
way. Have it your way. I will not
believe! Have it your way. But if you
can believe it, if you can believe it, That faith is the gift of
God, the fruit of life, the evidence of salvation by God's grace,
amen. All right, take your Songs of
Grace book and we'll turn to number 54, number 54. For me. Celeste, I don't know this very
well, so you got a good strong voice, you start us off with
it, will you? Number 54, let's stand together. For me his precious blood he
shed, My guilty soul to spare, I see his head.