I had planned, as I announced
Sunday morning, to preach to you this evening from Exodus
34 on the shining of Moses' face. But after I finished preaching
here Sunday evening, every telephone call I've had, every discussion
I've had, I think without exception, except with Shelby, has been
about something else, and has taken my mind again to this blessed,
blessed passage in Isaiah 53. Turn there if you will. Isaiah
53. Here the prophet of God speaks
of the glorious, redeeming work of our Lord Jesus Christ. He
speaks of it as that which was already done in his day, because
that which is done in time, God did in eternity. He speaks of
that which was yet to be done as the result of his work, because
that which Christ did for us in eternity and did for us at
Calvary, he does for us in the blessed experience of his grace.
My subject this evening is iniquity laid on our substitute. iniquity laid on our substitute. Let's begin reading at verse
one. Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Those who believe the report
of the gospel are those to whom God reveals his arm, all of them
and no one else. For he, the Lord Jesus, God's
darling son, the Messiah, shall grow up before him in his humanity
as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no
form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him, nothing about his physical
appearance, nothing at all about him that would calls anyone to
look at him and pay him any attention. Verse 3, he is despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows, of agony, of trouble, of malady,
of grief, and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were,
our faces from him. He was despised. and we esteemed
him not. We esteemed him smitten of God
and afflicted, but he was wounded, profaned, broken, stained, defiled,
polluted, tormented. That's how that word wounded
is translated in scripture. He was wounded, profaned, polluted,
tormented, defiled, broken, stained for our transgressions. He was
bruised, made to crumble, crushed, beat to pieces 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 have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him, 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?
The psalmist says, a seed shall serve him. And he shall be counted
to the Lord for a generation. This young Jew, 33 years old,
cut off out of the land of the living, having no wife and no
family. Who shall declare his generation?
A seed shall serve him. There is a generation that shall
be counted to him. They're called God's elect, a
holy nation. 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. This one who was numbered with
the transgressors, he was stricken and afflicted and beaten and
crushed and slaughtered for a particular people. For the transgressions
of my people was he stricken. Verse 9. 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, though he knew no sin, though he could not sin, though he did
not sin, though he is without sin, yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. Pleased God to bruise him. Pleased
God to crush to death his son? The word might better be read,
it's satisfied. It's satisfied. God takes no
pleasure in the death of the wicked and it certainly took
no pleasure in the sense of being made happy by the death of his
son. But God finds no satisfaction
in the death of the wicked. Bless God he did find satisfaction
in the death of his son. God slaughtered his son when
he was made sin for us. And God said, that's enough.
That's enough. Justice cannot demand more. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. Now if I forget to tell
you again, mark it somewhere if you're taking notes, somewhere
in the margin of your Bible, somewhere in your notes, everywhere
in the scriptures where you read sin offering or offering for
sin. Everywhere in scripture, no exception. The word is sin. Thou shalt make his soul sin. when thou shalt make his soul
sin. Paul, writing by divine inspiration
in 2 Corinthians 5 21, says that God has made him sin for us who
knew no sin. Here the Spirit of God says something
that states that a little more strongly, a little more emphatically,
when thou shalt make his soul sin. What an astounding statement.
When that happens, he shall see his seed. He shall prologue his days. He's
going to see his seed justified and sanctified. He's going to
see his seed righteous before him, and he's going to live again.
For he shall rise from the dead, being justified in the Spirit
and the pleasure the goodwill of our God shall prosper in his
hand. He, this one who has made sin
for us, our Lord Jesus, the one who dies in our stead, shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. The best
commentary I've ever heard or read on that, I heard a Welchman
Preaching from Galatians chapter 6 verse 14 about glorying in
the cross when I was 19 years old She and I had been
married very long a fellow named Tommy Lawrence They brought him
to Piedmont to be a professor for a little while. He didn't
last long not teaching things like this He said the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ shall never be discovered a miscarriage The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
shall never be discovered in miscarriage. All for whom he
suffered the travail of birth in his death shall have life
by his death. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge, by his knowledge
of what he's done, by his knowledge of for whom he did it. By his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, the many
for whom he died, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore
will I 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 did bear
the sin of many. And made intercession for the
transgressors. We read one more word. Verse
1, chapter 54. Sing. Sing. Oh, God teach you to know what
we have just read. And you will leave here singing
in your heart to the Lord. May God, the Holy Spirit be our
teacher now. Let's look back at verse 6. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord had laid on him,
laid upon him, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord God almighty,
father, son, and Holy Spirit, the triune Jehovah, hath laid
on Jesus Christ, the God-man, mediator, our surety and substitute,
the iniquity of us all. Now, here are three gospel truths
plainly declared that all believers experience and all believers
acknowledge and confess. These are things that God, the
Holy Spirit, teaches to every sinner who is born of God. Every
sinner saved by God's grace is made to know these things. First,
original sin. All we like sheep have gone astray. We call it the doctrine of original
sin because it's the first sin of man. It was the sin of the
race in our father Adam. When Adam sinned, we sinned in
him. We died when he died. We were condemned when he was
condemned. This is what the scriptures teach
about original sin. By man came death. I've looked at that for a good
while this afternoon when I was preparing this message. Paul
says, by man came death. That's the only thing that has
ever come by man. Death. Just death. Death. In Adam, all die. Adam, by God's arrangement, by
God's decree, by God's ordinance, was the representative and federal
head of the whole human race. But he said, well, I don't like
that. Take it up with God. That's the way it is. That's
the way it is. And you haven't done any better
on your own. Adam was the representative of the whole race. His sin was
imputed to all men. So that when he sinned, we sinned
in him representatively by virtue of our union with him and by
virtue of our representation by him. And his sin is imparted
to all men by birth, by natural generation. So that every person
born in this world is born with Adam's corrupt, depraved human
nature. I don't know why that requires
proof to anybody. I don't have a clue why that
requires proof to anybody. You surely don't believe that everybody's
born sinners. Can you imagine thinking otherwise? Surely you
who know yourselves don't think otherwise. What else are you? Just sin. Surely you who live
with a man or live with a woman don't think otherwise. Sin, that's
what we are. Surely you who have raised sons
or daughters don't think otherwise. What mother ever had to teach
her son to lie? What father ever had to teach
his daughter not to be selfish or proud or vain? Sin is what
we are. We're born with Adam's depraved
nature. The heart of all men by nature
is deceitful and desperately wicked. The heart of all men
contains in itself. That is to say, every human being
in this world, in his heart, has all the root of all evil
that has ever been in this world. We were just discussing back
in the office a little bit ago the cannibalism that still exist
in some of the remote parts of New Guinea, perhaps other places.
And Brother Rex said, it's hard to believe cannibalism still
goes on in our day. And I said, it is until you read
tomorrow's paper. And I was mistaken too, until
you acknowledge what's in here. Oh, Brother Don, I'm not like
that. Oh, yes, you are. Oh, yes, you are. I wouldn't
do things other men do. Oh, yes, you would if God doesn't
prevent it. God doesn't prevent it. Second,
we see here not only the teaching of scripture with regard to original
sin, but of that which I've already touched on, our personal depravity.
In Adam, we suffered a great fall and a great loss. We fell
from God's favor into disfavor. We fell from life into death.
We fell from liberty into bondage and into condemnation. But more
than that, we all are sinners by continual, deliberate, personal
choice. Every one of us, every one of
us. This is what the book says. All we like sheep. have gone
astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. We've turned everyone to his
own way. We all went astray from the womb,
speaking lies with our fists shoved in God's face, and each
one turned to his own way. God's elect, like all other men
by nature, are ever straying from God. Going astray from the
good shepherd and will never return to the shepherds fold
until the good shepherd looks us up Seeks us out finds us and
brings us to himself and to his fold That's the only way you
will ever turn to God is if he turns you The only way you will
ever come to God is if he brings you The only way you will ever
follow Christ is if he leads you to himself. We are turned
to our own way. Some of us turn to the way of
self-righteous morality. Some turn to the way of profligacy
and rebellion. Some turn to the way of religious
uprightness and self-righteousness. Each one, however, turns to his
own way. Turns to the way that suits him.
turns to the way that he thinks will profit him, turns to the
way that he chooses for himself, but none will ever turn to Christ
the way. But there's a third thing taught
here, and that's what I want to talk about this evening, and
that's substitutionary redemption. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. In recent months particularly,
I have tried to come at this from every angle I can imagine.
I spent the last couple of days writing concerning this subject
and preparing this message. God, speak now by your servant
that which is contained in these blessed words. The Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all. according to Old Testament law,
was to take his hands and lay his hands on the head of the
Passover lamb and lay his hands on the head of the scapegoat,
and thereby showing a picture of a transfer, a transfer of
sin from the sinner to the sinner's sacrifice and from the sinner
to the scapegoat, showing how that God both punishes sin and
sets the sinner free. and the sinner himself is required
to lay his hands upon the sacrifice, thereby confessing that this
is how God saves sinners. But that was just a picture,
a picture of God's doing, a picture of God's work. The Lord God,
Isaiah said, hath laid on his Son the iniquity of us all. Can you imagine that? Can you
grasp this? God the Father against whom we
have sinned, from whom we have strayed, whose law we have broken,
whose justice we have violated, whose law and justice must be
satisfied, has laid on his darling son all the sins of all his elect. The Son of God was made sin for
us so that God might make us the righteousness of God in him. Now let me show you several things
here. I won't be long. I want to make
Five or six, maybe seven statements that go to the heart of what's
being taught in this chapter. Number one, our iniquity was
laid on Christ. The iniquity itself was laid
upon the Lord Jesus. Not only did the Lord of Glory
bear the punishment for our sins, He was made sin. He not only
bore the wrath and indignation of God against sin, He was made
sin. The Son of God was made sin for
us because there is no other way whereby God in justice could
forgive sin and save his elect. There was no other way by which
God could discharge his people of their iniquity, transgression,
and sin. God couldn't save you until he
did something for himself. He couldn't redeem you until
he did something for himself. He couldn't justify you until
he did something for himself. His justice must be satisfied. Sin must be punished or it can
never be forgiven. God's eternal determination to
redeem his elect was a matter of grace alone, free grace alone. God was not in any way obliged
to show mercy to anyone. I have often heard people say
God is love and he needed somebody to show his love to. There was
a there was a great vacuum in God that needed to be filled.
And so he chose to save sinners. No, there wasn't any vacuum in
God that you feel. The triune God dwelt together
in ineffable glory without you from eternity. God's great mercy
was that which inspired and caused him to be gracious to sinners,
but he didn't have to be gracious to anyone. However, having chosen,
having determined to save sinners, there's only one way you can
do it. It's got to be consistent with his character. God cannot
do that which is contrary to his own nature. For example,
God cannot lie. If you say God can't do something,
you better have a reason for saying it. God cannot lie. How
can you say God cannot lie? Because God's truth. God cannot
be darkness because God is light. God cannot save sinners apart
from the satisfying of justice, because God Almighty has said,
the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Because God is just, He's
righteous and true. In Isaiah 45, He calls to people
and He says, assemble yourselves, gather you who pray to a God
that cannot save. Come near, look here at me. And
behold, a just God and a Savior. And He calls for sinners to behold
Him, a just God and a Savior, by looking on His crucified Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Proverbs 17, verse 15.
Proverbs 17, verse 15. Let me show you a Scripture text,
verifying what I'm saying to you. Once God determined to redeem
and save and elect people, He could only do it by the satisfaction
of justice, by making Christ sin for us. If righteousness
could be had in some other way, Christ died for nothing. That's
what Paul said in Galatians 2.21. Here in Proverbs 17.15. He that
justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just. You
see that? Proverbs 17.15. He that justifieth
the wicked And he that condemneth the just, even they both are
an abomination to the Lord. He that justifieth the wicked.
God just simply says, you're just, you're justified. That's
an abomination. On the other hand, if God should
say to his holy son, you're condemned, that's an abomination. The only
way God could be just and the justifier is for God to make
his son sin, punishing his son as our substitute for our sins
that are made his, and making us the righteousness of God in
him. God Almighty could not justify
his people until he found a way to do so in his son. Therefore,
he says concerning his elect, when he found a way in covenant
mercy to redeem and justify his people, deliver him from going
down to the pit. For I have found a ransom. All the sins of God's elect were
gathered together and laid on, made to meet on Christ and became
His. How do you explain that, Brother
Don? I don't have any idea how that can be explained. It's mysterious
beyond explanation. It's beyond understanding. It's
beyond the understanding of our puny brains. How could he who
knew no sin and did no sin, he who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
and separate from sinners be made sin? Only by God doing it. That's all. Only by God doing
it. He made him sin. Let me show
you a couple of passages of scripture and remind you what our Lord
says. Turn to Psalm 40. Psalm 40. This is a psalm all about our
Savior. He said, lo, I come in the volume
of the book it's written of me to do thy will, O God. Paul quotes
from this psalm in Hebrews chapter 10 and tells us by inspiration
this is all about our Savior. Now listen to what our Savior
says in Psalm 40 verse 12. Innumerable evils. have compassed
me about, mine iniquities." My God, can that be so? Can that
be so? Mine iniquities, he says. Mine
iniquities. But he did no sin. He knew no
sin. Oh, but bless God, he was made
sin. My iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I'm not
able to look up. They're more than the hairs of
my head. Therefore, my heart faileth me. Look in Psalm 69,
verse five. Again, obviously, the Psalm is
Christ Jesus, our Lord speaking. Psalm 69, verse five. Oh, God,
thou knowest my foolishness. My perversity is the word. And
my sins are not hid from thee. And when God made his son sin
for us, he cried awake, O sword, against one that is my fellow,
smite and slay the shepherd. And justice was thereby satisfied. Here's the second thing. Our iniquity really did become
our Savior's iniquity. became his. Became his. Somebody said, well, it was just
the paying of a debt. No, it's more than that. Hear
him in Gethsemane. Oh, my father, if it be possible,
he cried three times. His heart breaks and he breaks
out in a sweat of blood falling to the ground. If it be possible,
Let this cup pass from me. He said, Reproach hath broken
mine heart. That's not paying a debt. No,
no. Oh, no. There's more here than
words can express, but it's more than the payment of a debt. The
debt really became his and the sin really became his. Else he could not have been punished
for our sins. Let's see if I can illustrate
it. Long time ago, several years ago, we were still living out
in Junction City. We rented it from George Greider.
He died several years ago. He owned the furniture store
right next door to us. And one day he told me about a fella
that he'd done business with for years. Man, he'd always paid
his debts, always taken care of things. And his son and his
wife built a new house. And they wanted to get furniture
for the house. And he said, George, would you
let my son have the credit to furnish the house? Now, this
is a long time ago. George said, I'll let him have
$10,000 worth of furniture. $10,000 worth of furniture. That's
a lot of furniture. And because the father said he'd,
he said the boy would be good for it. And he said he paid his
bills every month, came right along, paid his bills. And one
day after a few months, the father came back and he said, George,
tell you what I'd like for you to do if you would. He said,
my boy's been paying his bill all right, hasn't he? He said,
yes, he has. Every month, right on time. He said, take the rest
of his debt and make it mine. Just take it off the ledger and
put it over here under my name. Now, George couldn't do that.
No law in the land would allow him to do that. It couldn't happen,
except that the man himself take the debt and make it his own.
And George said, well, sure, if that's what you want. And
so he transferred the whole thing. George said, Preacher, you know
what that man did? He didn't even go home. He went right straight
from this store downtown to the courthouse and filed bankruptcy.
And do you know what I could do? I said, no. He said, nothing. Nothing. I couldn't do it. The law would not allow me even
to pick up the phone and call him and say, Joe, would you pretty
please consider paying a little bit of this? Because the man
no longer owed the debt as far as law is concerned. His father
made the debt his own. Oh, hear me, children. Our Savior
made our sin his own. Christ gave his bond as our surety
in the covenant of grace. And God the Father, having accepted
Christ as our surety, cannot look for payment from us if he
will have payment for sin, if he will have satisfaction. It
must be had from his only darling son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, he made him sin for
us. Payment God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding shirt, his
hand, and then again at mine. Number three. God did it. And it is the Lord
God himself, the triune Jehovah, who alone did it. Look at verse
10. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. This great, mighty transfer
of sin. from the center to the center
surety was sought in eternity by infinite love, conceived in
infinite wisdom. It was that which was ordained
by infinite grace and executed by an infinite mystery. mysteriously,
wondrously. It's called the mystery of redemption. The mystery of redemption. The
wondrous wisdom of God in redemption. This is that which God alone
has done. And I stress this by making this
fourth statement. No one else could. No one else
could. None but God could make Christ
said. I hear preachers talking about you making Christ be this,
that, or the other. People vainly imagine that you
make Christ your Lord or you make Christ to be sinned by choosing
to have him as your substitute. You can't lay sin on Christ.
You can't even lay your hands on him. You can't touch him.
None but God could make his son to be sin for us. Our faith in
Him doesn't make Christ our sin substitute, our sin to be on
our substitute. Our trust in Him doesn't transfer
sin from us to Him. That can't be done. Only God
can do it. God the Son laid sin on Himself
when He, His own self, bear our sin in His own body on the tree. God, the father laid sin on his
son and made to meet on him all the iniquities of all his elect
for all time when he poured out his wrath upon his son and turned
to John 16. Let me show you this. John chapter
16. God, the Holy Spirit. When he
gives the sinner life and faith in Christ by the sweet revelation
of the gospel, lays sin on Jesus Christ, God's darling son, our
substitute. I have here a booklet I've carried
for years. Because I heard a story a long
time ago about a man sitting on a train who always carried
a booklet just like this. And he'd open it up and look
at it, shake his head. and turn to the next page and
look at it and smile. And then he'd turn to this page
and he'd look at it and say, bless God. And the fellow said,
I'm just getting a little curious. After a while, folks began to
ask, what are you reading? He said, oh, it's a book that
doesn't have any words on it, but it tells me the story, most
wonderful story I ever heard. He said, you see that black?
That's me. That's what I am by nature. That's
what I am just seeing. Black, corrupt, defiled. You see that red? That's the
precious blood of God's Son, Jesus Christ, my Lord. By which
he washed away all my sins. See that white? That's me in
Christ the Lord. holy, without blame, without
sin. He has washed my sins away. Look here in John 16. This is
what God the Holy Spirit does when he gives the sinner faith.
When he has come, He will reprove, convince the world, God's elect,
everywhere in the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of
judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness,
because I finished my work. I go to the Father. And of judgment,
because the prince of this world is judged. Number five. This is the most
comforting delightful thing in all the world. Why anyone would
choose to make this a subject of controversy and debate, why
anyone would choose to see this in any other light, I cannot
begin to grasp. The transfer of sin from you
to Christ is something that's already done. I say to you who believe on God's
side. Now something needs to be done.
Now something ought to be done. Now something that's going to
be done. Now something that must be done. It's already done. In
Romans chapter 10. The prophet quotes from Deuteronomy
said, faith doesn't say who shall descend from heaven to bring
Christ down from above or who shall descend into the deep,
that is to send Christ to hell. Faith says it's already done.
The word is neither even in thy heart and in thy mouth. If thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in
thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved. Faith speaks of that which is done. The gospel reveals
that which is done. Redemption is accomplished. When
Christ said, it is finished, the work was done. Fully done
as God himself would have it. Accomplished in Jesus Christ
our Redeemer. Nothing either great or small,
nothing sin or no. Jesus did it, did it all long,
long ago. Oh, now blessed is the man to
whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Hear this as well. He upon whom
sin was laid is mighty to save. The Lord hath laid on Him. Him. Thou hast laid help upon
one that is mighty. Thou hast exalted one chosen
out of the people. The Lord hath laid on Him the
iniquity of us all. Do you know who He is, Bob? He's
Jehovah's servant. Do you know what God says about
His servant in Isaiah 42, 4? He shall not fail. He is able to save to the uttermost
all them that come to God by Him, because He lives to make
intercession for us. Who is this him? He is the sovereign
Lord seated on his throne, who possesses all flesh and power
over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as the father
has given him. That one by whom all gods have
been redeemed. He shall justify them in the
work of his grace, sprinkling his blood on their consciences,
speaking peace to their hearts. And he did it for somebody special. Somebody particular. Somebody
distinct. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. I wonder if that includes me.
Us all. Who is that? Well, that's God's
elect. Who is that? That's the Lord's people. Who
is that? That's the Lord's sheep. Who are numbered among those
who are called us all? Every sinner who believes on
the Son of God, every sinner who trusts Jesus Christ the Lord,
every sinner who rests his soul on the crucified Christ, that's
he for whom the Lord laid our iniquities, that's he whose iniquities
the Lord laid on his Son. The Lord had laid on him the
iniquity of us all. And bless his name, my sin that
he laid on his son, he will never lay on me. He will never lay
it on me. I don't think I told you this,
but Dan Parks sent out an email a couple of weeks ago, told a
story, true story. His father, as you may remember,
was my pastor when I was ordained. Shelby and I attended church
where his father was pastor for the better part of a couple of
years, and a fine man. I thought the world of him still
do, Brother E.W. Parks. Moose wrote an email and
described the worst beating he ever had in his life, the worst
one he ever had in his life. He said, one time I was out with
my mother and daddy, and I did something I wasn't supposed to.
Told me, son, I'll punish you when we get home. And Brother
Parks, kind of like Brother Fortner, Brother Parks said to his son,
I'll punish you when you get home. That meant you're going to get it.
Just don't even talking about it when you get home. You may
as well get prepared because pain's coming. And Moose said,
when we walked home, I knew I was in for it. He said, my daddy
told me to stretch out across the piano bench. And as I stretched
out across the piano bench and grabbed hold of the legs, He
said, my daddy said to me, now son, I want you to know this
is going to hurt me a whole lot worse than it hurts you. And
Moose said, yeah. He didn't really say that, but
that's what he said inside. Yeah. And then his daddy pulled his
belt out of his pants, wrapped it around his fist, and his daddy
proceeded to beat his own body mercilessly. That's what God, my Savior, did
for me. That's what God, our Savior,
did for us. Amen.