Let's turn to Isaiah 53. We'll
suspend our James study for one week and look at one verse in
Isaiah 53. Looking into the book of Isaiah
some, I ran across this verse, of course, next in our study
and felt that we needed to linger here for a while. One verse, verse 6. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray. We have turned every one to his
own way. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Here's our part in salvation
and God's part. We do the sinning, He does the
saving. We are the problem, He is the
solution. We are needy, and He supplied
our need. This is a very telling verse
in so many ways. All we like sheep have gone astray. Why do sheep stray? Because they're
sheep. That's why. Why do sinners sin? Because they're sinners. Do you realize how few people
believe that in this world? It's the nature of the sheep
to stray. He must be hedged in or he will
stray. And they don't sit there and
decide, will I stray today? Do I feel like straying today
or will I stay in the fold? No, they just stray. You take
the fence down, they're goners. They just do. He didn't say all
we, like sheep sometimes do, have gone astray. Sheep stray. And we, we run from
God. We go away from God. We sin. We go our own way. We do what
we will and not what God has commanded. That's what we do.
Because of what we are. God said to Satan, have you considered
my servant Job? He hasn't strayed. And Satan said to the Lord, no
wonder he hasn't strayed. You've got him hedged about. David, all through this book,
We're taught that sin is our nature. We stray because we're
like sheep. We are strong-willed. We go our
own way. We do what we want to do. David
said, behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me. A sheep was born a sheep, and
therefore it strays. Job asked in 14.4 of the Book
of Job, who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? And
he answers his own question with two words, not one, not one. No, then Paul said in Romans
8.7, the carnal mind, that's our mind by nature, we're carnal,
we're of the earth earthy, we're carnal creatures. And the carnal
mind is enmity against God. That word enmity includes hatred
and rebellion and opposition. It's enmity against God for it
is not subject to the law of God. It is not submissive to
the law of God. Neither indeed can be. And Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 13,
23, And I'm gonna paraphrase, but you turn there later, you
jot that down and look and see if this isn't what he said. He
said, you're not ever gonna do anything good until a leopard
changes his spots. When a leopard decides, I don't
want these funny looking spots anymore, I think I'll have some
stripes, then you'll do something good. That's what he said. All
we, like sheep, have gone astray. And then our going astray is
further described as turning and going our own way. That's
what we do like sheep. We go astray. What is astray?
My way. That's what astray is. My way. It's away from God. If God lets
me go, I'm a goner. I did it my way. There's a classic
for you. In other words, our evil nature
has produced an evil will which expresses itself in evil actions. That's what the book teaches.
God said in Isaiah 55, 8, my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord. There's God's
way and there's our way. And in the Garden of Eden, God
said, we're going to do this my way. You shall eat and you
shall not eat. And Adam eventually said, no,
I'll do it my way. I'll eat what I want to eat.
You see the simple truth taught here. All we like sheep, we've
turned everyone to our own way. And this has played out every
day ever since by everybody in everything. We'll just use religion as a
prime example. God said, go and preach the gospel. Preach what I said. Preach what
I preached. And whosoever believes, I'll
save. And whosoever doesn't believe
this gospel, I'll damn them. And religion said, no, we're
going to do this thing our way. We're going to get people saved,
whoever we want to be saved. We're going to get them saved.
We're not going to leave this thing up to God. It's going to
be up to man and his will. You see what I'm talking about?
We've turned to our own way. I'm just using religious things
as an example here. We'll exercise our free will.
We'll make a golden calf. We're tired of waiting on God.
We'll preach something a little more palatable and we'll get
some things done. This faith thing of God giving
faith to sinners, mixing faith with the gospel, it's too uncertain. We're going to establish a series
of actions that a person can do that will determine whether
they're saved or not. Coming down an aisle, repeating
a universal sinner's prayer of some kind, joining a church,
for example. In this, as in all things, man
has turned every one to his own way. Now, God's preachers will
preach the truth because He's given them a new
nature and because He hedges them in, because they still have
the heart of a sheep, too, don't they? When God calls us His sheep,
He's not complimenting us. Sheep are ignorant, stupid, foolish,
self-destructive, stinky creatures. And that's what we are. Now look
at the rest of this verse. 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. Now, first of all, this describes
further what our way is. He talks about our way and takes
it one more step in this definition. And then he tells what God did
about it. There's one word here that describes
what it means to go astray from God. What it means for a sinner
to go his own way. You know what you call that?
Iniquity. It's called sin. Your way is
not God's way. And everything but God's way
is sin. It's iniquity. It's transgression. its rebellion. When God says
this way and we go that way, that's called iniquity. And no
iniquity goes unpunished. No iniquity goes unpunished. Iniquity equals hell for somebody,
either the sinner or his substitute. And what God did for us, what
he did for the us in this verse, his people, his elect described
in the previous verses as those who by his stripes are healed.
And you described using this one word in our text here in
verse six, us. What he did for us is he put
our iniquity on his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord
Jesus Christ bore our iniquities and the punishment that they
deserve. Is that simple enough language? He bore our iniquities. And this explains verses four
and five. Look back at verses four and
five. The Lord bruised him. He suffered in our place. Verse
four, surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
This is the result of our sin. This is the consequences of our
sin. He bore the consequences, grief, sorrow. He was stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. That's what our sin deserves.
He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities
and the chastisement of our peace. That's punishment. To be chastised
is to be punished. That's what my sin deserves.
And it will be punished. And with His stripes, with His
stripes, we are healed. Why did he bear our griefs? Why
did he carry our sorrows? Why was he wounded for my transgressions
and bruised for my iniquities? How does that happen? How can
that be? If they were my iniquities, why
am not I chastised for them? Why do I not suffer for them?
Why do I not feel the grief of them? Because our iniquities
were laid on him. And so the grief goes with it.
The sorrow goes with it. The chastisement goes with it.
You see how it explains it? So simple, so simple. And yet
in these vital, basic, fundamental gospel truths is where we go
astray. That's what we will not tolerate
by nature. We go our own way. We'll do something
ourselves to be saved. We'll recommend ourselves to
God by some decision or some work that we do, some way of
life that we live. No. There's just one way God
has ever saved a sinner. That's by taking your sin, which
is everything you do. Your righteousnesses are filthy
rags in God's sight. Your goodness is sin. And he
lays it on his son, the sinner's substitute. And he bears the
sin and the punishment of it. The sin and the consequences
for your sin, my sin. Now, I trust God to have done
that in the right way. Don't you? I trust God to take
my sin off of me and put it on His Son in a way that's consistent
with His holiness and all of His other attributes. Do you?
Or do you feel like you need to take up for God in this, you
know, and defend His right to do this? Some people feel like
that. I trust Him to do it. I don't
need to speculate as to how God might have gotten away with this.
Gotten away in quotes. Do you feel like you need to?
When folks try to go beyond the Word of God and talk about how
God could or could not have righteously accomplished this, it's as though
that they feel like they need to defend God's right to do it.
I don't feel that need. I believe that's what He did.
He did what He said and He did it in the right way. I just believe
He did. because I know who he is. I trust him to lay my sins on
his son in such a way that his holiness is not compromised.
I trust him to do it in such a way that neither the father
nor the son are diminished in any way. He is the eternal immutable
God. And he was when he did this,
and he was after he did it. He always has been, and he always
will be. I'm not smart enough to figure
it out. Are you? So I'll trust him. I'll trust
him. He did it the right way. Now,
all right, maybe you're still thinking, well, Chris, I don't
understand. How did he bear your griefs? What actually happened
there on that cross? Well, I will mention this. I'll
say this. Some stop short of what the scriptures
say, contending that our sins were only imputed to Christ,
only imputed to him. That's not what the verse said.
It says that God laid our iniquity on him. To impute means to give
the credit for or reckon to be. It doesn't say He just gave Him
the credit for our sins. It says He put them on Him. It's
different, isn't it? It's different. And the trouble
with this is that it has God reckoning something to be that
is not. If God reckons something to be,
then it is. This has God acting as though
something were true. God doesn't do that. If Christ
is going to bear the credit for my sin, if He's going to get
the credit for it, if it's going to be imputed to Him, then He's
going to have to actually bear my sin. Do you see that? That's what the verse says. He
bore my sin. He's not just saying He bore
the punishment of my sin. He already said that. He said
that He bore my griefs and my sorrows and my chastisement.
That's what my sin deserves. Now He's saying, The reason he
did that is because my iniquity was put on him. That's another
matter. And also to say that my sin was
only imputed to him, that he was only given the credit for
it, It doesn't express the language of Scripture which says He bore
our iniquities. Verse 11 of our text in 53. He
laid on Him the iniquity of us all, verse 6. And in verse 11,
He bore our iniquities. This is more than just bearing
the punishment of them. He bore them. Galatians 3.13
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. How did
he do that? Being made a curse for us. Just God giving him the credit
for my sin doesn't express that, does it? It doesn't express that.
He was made a curse for me. How then did Christ bear my iniquities? What does it mean? that my iniquities
were laid on him and the punishment of them on him. Let me give you
a threefold answer to that question this morning. First of all, number
one, he did it in such a way that I do not bear them anymore. Is that too complicated? That's
pretty plain, isn't it? He bore them and now I don't.
I don't. Romans 8.1, there is therefore
now. What do you mean now? Now that
God sent his son to do what the law couldn't do. Now that Christ
has died for my sins. Now that God has taken my iniquities
and put them on his son, there is no condemnation to those who
are in him. None. God sent his son to do
what the law could not do for me because I'm a sinner and I'm
saved because of what he did. Not because he made it possible
for me to be saved and then I did something. Because of what he
did, I'm saved. He bore my sins in such a way
that I do not bear them. Turn to Colossians chapter one. This is so clear in the Scripture. Colossians chapter 1 and verse
19. In what sense did He bear our iniquities? That's the question we're answering.
What happened on the cross? What does it mean that He bore
my iniquities and all of the consequences of them? Look at
verse 19 of Colossians 1, for it pleased the father that in
him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him, that is by Christ, to reconcile
all things unto himself by him, by Christ, I say, whether they
be things in earth or things in heaven, and you, if you're one of the us in our
text in Isaiah, You that were at one time alienated and enemies. What do we say? The natural mind
is enmity. You're God's enemy. Alienated?
Went our own way. Went our own way. In your mind,
by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. Again, there's
your part in it and his part in it. Your part in it is that
you hate him and you're alienated from him. His part is he reconciled
you. He did it. He did it. He didn't
make it available. He didn't make it possible for
you to be reconciled. He reconciled you. How did he
do it? In the body of his flesh through death. That's how he
did it. He hung on a cross and died for
my sins. Why did he do it? And what happened
when he did it? To present you holy and unblameable. and unreprovable in God's sight. Do you have any idea what that
means? Me neither. I know it's good. I know that
he bore my iniquities in such a way that now I don't have any. In the sight of God, I don't
have any. In the sight of God, where it counts. I don't care
how you see me that much. God sees me in his son. And because
His Son bore my iniquities, I don't have any anymore." Is that clear? That's the answer to the question.
What happened there on the cross? He bore them in such a way that
I don't. And that's just the plain truth.
Secondly, He did it in such a way that when He died for them, when
He bore the consequences of them, God the Father was fully satisfied. fully satisfied. He bore them
in a satisfactory way. Listen to Hebrews 9.28. So Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of many. There's the same
phrase again. Not just to bear the consequences,
not just to get the credit for them, not just for God to say,
well, He's not bearing them, but I'm going to act as though
He were. That's not what God does. He bore them. Whatever
that is, He bore them. And he offered, Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him,
shall he appear the second time without sin. Wait a minute, my
iniquities were taken and laid on him, but when he comes back,
he's gonna be without sin too. Where'd they go? They're gone.
He bore them in such a way that God is satisfied. The wrath of
God was poured out upon him and extinguished. on my Savior, on
my substitute. He bore all of the penalty of
my sin. And God said, enough. I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. He bore my hell.
He bore all my griefs and sorrows, my chastisement, what I deserve
from God for my sins. Christ bore it. And he bore it
in such a way that God said, I'm satisfied. I'm well pleased.
Does that answer your question? I don't bear them. He no longer
bears them, they're gone. They're plum gone, they're forever
gone. My sins are gone. Let me clarify by saying this
another way. Not only did He take them from me and lay my
sins on Him, but the Lord Jesus dealt with them there on Calvary
in such a way that they are utterly put away. God said they're behind
my back, wherever that is. Can you explain that to me? God
don't have a back. There is no behind God's back.
That's where my sins are. As far as the east is from the
west. Well, you can't calculate that, Chris. You just keep going
opposite directions and never stop. That's right. That's how
far my sins are removed from me. They're gone. They're gone. Thirdly, and here's one that
you probably hadn't thought of in a while. And I hadn't either.
I'll be honest with you. And most people have never realized. He bore my iniquities in such
a way that He bought the right to do with me what He will. He already had that right as
the Creator. But the Lord Jesus Christ also,
listen to this, He also as a man, as a human being, He bought the
right to do with His own what He will. In Romans 14, 9 it says
this, For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived,
that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. That's spiritually dead and living.
I'll tell you this, if you feel like arguing about what happened
on Calvary instead of just taking the word of God as it is, you
do that. If that makes you happy. But
I'll tell you this, Because of what happened there on the cross,
the Lord Jesus Christ will either save you or he will dump you
in hell. And nobody can question his right
to do it. He's your Lord. You can bow or
you can not bow. You can worship him or you can
run from him, but he is your Lord. Well, Chris, what's he going
to do with you? I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. Before the Lord Jesus Christ
did this thing that Isaiah describes of bearing my iniquities, as
he was going to the cross to do that, he stopped in Gethsemane. And I believe there my sins were
laid on him. He said my soul is exceeding
sorrowful even unto death. I believe he began to bear the
weight of my iniquity there in the garden. and took that burden
to Calvary from there. But as he was there in the garden,
he made it clear what he wanted as a reward for laying down his life, for obeying
the father. He said, therefore, doth my father
love me because I lay down my life for the sheep. And he told
the father in John 17, 24 what he wanted as a reward. for bearing my iniquities. He
said this, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given
me be with me where I am. Why? That they may behold my
glory. You want to know what heaven
is? We can talk about pearly gates
and streets of gold. Those things have meaning. We
see that in the word of God, don't we? But all that tells you is that
the things that are worth something here are just building materials there.
They're just paving stones. What's worth something is to
be with Him and to gaze upon His glory. That's heaven. Paul said, I have a desire to
depart and to be with Christ. Which is a whole lot better than
this. This is pretty good, isn't it? This is good. The Lord has
blessed us to worship together. He's given us a family, the family
of God to worship with. Isn't that a blessing? Everything
in this life. He said, do all to the glory
of God. Can you do that? As you go to work and as you
go home and as you deal with your family and have relationships
with people, do you give a thought for God at all? Is it for His
glory or is it for yourself? Have you gone your own way? If
it's for Him, then everything in this life, it's a blessing,
isn't it? It's a joy. It's a privilege. to live in
this world for him. But I'll tell you this, he said,
as he was going to bear my iniquity, he said, I will, that these ones
whose iniquity I'm bearing be with me, and that they may behold
my glory. And Paul said, that's a whole
lot better than this. That's a lot better. And we look forward
to that day. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. Is that good enough for you?
Or does God need to explain himself further? That's enough for me. And we sang it a while ago. It
is enough that he died. Paul said in Romans 8, it is
Christ that died. That tells me right there everything
I need to know about what's going to happen to me as a result of
it. If it's Christ that died, if the Lamb of God shed his blood
for my sin, then I'm going to be all right. He did so. If it's God that did it, then
I know he did so in such a way. It's victory for me. It's salvation
for me. He did it in such a way that
I do not bear them anymore. There is no condemnation. I am
holy and unblameable and unreprovable in the sight of God. And then he satisfied, secondly,
the justice of God. He did it in such a way that
God said, I'm satisfied. How do you pay an infinite debt
with priceless blood? That's how. With priceless blood. And that's what he did. And then
He did so in such a way. He obeyed the Father. And He's
Lord of dead and living. He can save you because of what
He did there. God did something for Himself
on Calvary, didn't He? And because His soul was made
an offering for my sin, God can say to me, Come, enter into the joys of
thy Lord. Come thou good and faithful servant. He can look upon me with favor
and love and mercy. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. It either is enough or it's not. Do you trust him? Do you trust that God the Father
laid your sins on Him in such a way that you don't bear them,
you don't have any sin, and in such a way that God is satisfied
for your sin, for your sin, and that He's Lord of both the dead
and the living? Let's bow in prayer.