Let's turn together tonight to
Isaiah chapter 53. We've come together, as we do
every Lord's Day evening, specifically to worship our God around the
Lord's table. And our purpose in doing so is
that we remember him who loved us and gave himself for us. And
I have prepared a message to help us in that remembrance this
evening. Isaiah 53, verse 6. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord hath laid upon him
the iniquity of us all. And in this passage of scripture,
the prophet Isaiah speaks representatively for all God's elect. And in this
one verse, He states three things, three great gospel truths that
are experienced, acknowledged, and confessed by every person
born of God. These doctrines are held in common
by all who believe God. I realize they are doctrines,
all three of them, that are commonly denied and repudiated by the
entire religious world around us of every brand and branch
you can imagine. But these things are acknowledged
and confessed by every believer because they are experienced
by every believer. The first is original sin. All we like sheep have gone astray. This is called original sin because
it's the first sin. It's talking about the sin and
fall of our father Adam. We, the whole human race, went
astray in our father Adam from God. The scripture speaks plainly. They are all gone aside. They
are together become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. By one man sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for all have sinned. By one man came death, and Adam
all died. That's original sin. Now this
is the doctrine clearly taught, and you know it well. Our father
Adam was the federal head of the entire human race. When he
sinned against God, we sinned in him. His sin was imputed to
us by God Almighty. Now, folks can argue about that
all they want to. That's just fact. God charged
Adam's sin to us. Not only was his sin imputed
to us, But his sinful nature, his fallen, corrupt, depraved,
spiritually dead nature was imparted to us so that every man or woman
born of Adam is born a sinner in this world. And that brings
us to the second thing in the text, personal depravity. In
Adam, we suffered a great fall and a great loss. We fell from
God's favor into condemnation. We fell from righteous fellowship
with God, access to God, and spiritual life into eternal death,
endless death, except God intervened. We fell from liberty into bondage,
from peace into enmity, from light into darkness. But that's
not all. We are sinners by imputation,
by birth, and by nature. But more than that, we are sinners
by choice all the time. All the time. Our nature is such that we always,
by nature, choose evil and not good. Not occasionally, not most
of the time, all the time. There's nothing but evil in the
imagination of man's heart. Nothing but deceit in the heart
of man by nature. And this is what we mean by total
depravity. We have turned everyone to his
own way. Because the heart of man at birth
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, we are
all estranged from the womb and go astray as soon as we are born
speaking lies. We have turned everyone to his
own way. God's elect are just like all
other people by nature, children of wrath, even as others. That
is to say, men and women under a sense of divine wrath, justly
so, because we continually turn from God. Like sheep, we're foolish
and ignorant. ever straying from the good shepherd
and from the fold of his grace, ever straying from the path of
peace and life, ever turning from that which is good to that
which is evil. Until we are looked up, sought
out, and brought back by the shepherd, we would never return
to the shepherd and bishop of our souls. We've turned everyone
to his own way, that is, to the way of his own choosing. For
some, it is a way of morality, decency, and religious self-righteousness. For others, it is a way of profligacy,
ungodliness, immorality, drunkenness, any kind of perversion imaginable.
But it is all the same way. It is all the same way. Can I
repeat that? It's all the same way. It doesn't
matter, not one speck, as far as your soul is concerned. whether
you walk in this world in a manner that is obnoxious to moral, decent
society, as it's called, or whether you are admired by moral, decent
society, as it's called. Our way is a way of destruction
and misery. Unless God stops you, it'll bring
you to hell. except he had stopped us from
our way, our way would have brought us at last into eternal destruction. None will ever return from his
own way until he is returned by the hand of omnipotent mercy
to Christ the way, the truth, and the life. This is original
sin. All we like sheep have gone astray.
This is our personal depravity. We have turned everyone to his
own way. But there's hope. Our text also
speaks of substitutionary redemption. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Now I want us to focus on that.
Can you grasp this glorious truth? God the Father against whom we
have sinned continually all the days of our lives. God the Father,
whose law we have disregarded and broken, God the Father, whose
holiness we have despised, God the Father, whose dominion we
have rebelled against all the days of our lives, God the Father,
whose justice must be satisfied, has laid on his darling son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, all the sins of his people. The Son of
God was made to be sin for us, that he might be justly punished
for our sins, and we might be justly made the righteousness
of God in him. Our sins have all been laid upon
Christ, by whose death justice has been satisfied, and our sins
forever put away. Let me show you several things
in this statement. Number one, our iniquity itself was laid
upon Christ. Not only was the Lord of glory
punished for sin, he was made to be sin. Not only did Christ
bear the wrath and indignation of God against sin for us, he
was made sin. The Lord God Almighty made His
Son to be sin for us because there was no other way possible
for God to be just and yet justify our souls. Turn to Proverbs 17. This is stated three times in
Scripture. We'll look at just one passage. Proverbs 17. Now understand what I'm saying.
Understand it well. The Lord God Almighty in His
eternal determination to redeem and save us acted entirely freely,
entirely sovereignly. There was nothing in Him that
needed us and nothing in us that called for Him. There was nothing
that moved God to save us except his sovereign will and his infinite
love for us. Nothing in us that could compel
him to redeem and save us. But having once determined to
save us, having once determined to have us as his own, God in
his holiness could not save us at the compromise of his law.
as Darius could not compromise the law of the Medes and Persians
without abandoning his throne. God Almighty cannot abandon his
law without abandoning his throne. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. How then can God be just and
justify the ungodly? A way must be found whereby sin
can be punished to the full satisfaction of justice and yet mercy extended
as if there were no justice in God at all. Look here in Proverbs
17 verse 15. He that justifieth the wicked,
and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination
to God. Did you see that? God says, Bobby
Estes, anybody who justifies you is an abomination to God. And anybody who condemns Christ
is an abomination to God. He that justifies the wicked,
that's us. He that condemns the just, that's
Christ. Both an abomination to God. Now
be sure you understand this. God could not justify his people
unless he found a way to make them righteous. And he could
not punish his son unless he found a way to make him to be
sinned, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
And blessed be his name, he found a way. In eternal mercy, the
Lord God looked upon his son as our substitute, as the land
slain from the foundation of the world, and he says concerning
his people, deliver them from going down to the pit. I have
found a ransom. I have laid help upon one that
is mighty, and the Lord laid on his son the iniquity of us
all. All the sins of God's elect were
gathered together in one huge, hideous, obnoxious load and made
to be Christ's own sins. He was made to be sin for us. Look at two passages. Psalm 40
first. Psalm 40. I keep trying to say this and
I don't know how to say it. I know that imputation is a forensic
or a legal term. I'm aware of that. But there
was more to Christ being made sin than being judicially made
sin. There's more to it than that. No matter what the offense or
the crime that might be charged to me legally, if I voluntarily,
because of my love for my wife, my child, my grandchildren, or
for you, should go before the law and assume your place to
pay your debt, to suffer your punishment, whatever it might
be. It might be painful. It might be embarrassing. It
might be terrible to be looked upon in a way that was not true
concerning me. But there's no way on this earth
that my taking your place before the law is going to break my
heart. That's not going to break my
heart. Assuming your debt is not going to crush my soul. Assuming
liability for your crimes, no matter what the crimes are, will
not in any way cause me inward conflict and trouble. No way
at all. But if somehow the deeds and the character and the heart
of an infamous, hideous, horrid, vile, base human being should
be made mine when I have nothing like him in me. That'll crush
your heart. That'll crush your soul so that
you'll cry with blood falling to the ground, my God. Oh, my
Father. Oh, my Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Somehow, we haven't got close
to getting an understanding of it, and we never will, I don't
suppose. Christ took our sins and made
them His. Look here in Psalm 40, verse
12. The whole psalm is talking about Christ. He's the one who
said, lo, I come to do thy will, O my God. He's the one who said,
I declare thy righteousness in the great congregation. Verse
12 is Christ speaking as well. As he hangs upon the cross as
our substitute, suffering the wrath of God in our room instead,
he says, innumerable evils have compassed me. Mine iniquities, oh, wondrous
substitution. Mine iniquities, all that Don
Fortner is, and all that he's done, and all that he's imagined,
mine iniquities have taken hold upon me. so that I'm not able
to look up there more than the hairs of mine head. Therefore,
my heart faileth me. Psalm 69, verse 5. Again, read the psalm. The whole
psalm is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is Him speaking.
He says in verse 5, O God, Thou knowest my foolishness. My sins are not hid from thee.
You ever been there? You made to know your own sin,
you cry, oh God, you know my foolishness. My sins are not
hid from thee. The son of God, when he was made
to be sin, cries as I substitute, oh God, you know my foolishness. My sins are not hid from thee.
And when it was made to be sin, the Lord God cries awake, O sword,
against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow. Sayeth
the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall
be scattered. And I will turn my hand, I will
turn my hand of mercy upon the little ones. By this means, and
only by this means, the law and justice of God had full satisfaction. and the recovery of our souls
from ruin and destruction was procured. All right, here's the
second thing. Not only was our iniquity actually
laid upon Christ and made to be His, our iniquity really became
His by divine imputation. Speaking as our substitute, the
Son of God said, as we read, my iniquities have taken hold
upon me, my sins are not hid from thee. And yet he never knew
sin. Still he died as the greatest
sinner who ever lived, for he was made to bear all the sins
of all his people at one time. Christ really did bear our sins. just as a surety really is the
debtor, when he willingly assumes the debt of another. When the
Lord Jesus Christ from old eternity gave his bond as our surety in
the covenant of grace, he assumed total responsibility for our
debt, and it was made to be his, imputed to him, made to be charged
to his account, so that from the time the father struck hands
with the son, and the son stood as our surety, The Lord God never
again looked anywhere else for anything except Him. He never
once looked to you for satisfaction. He never once looked to me for
righteousness. He has never once looked to us
for anything. He looks to our substitute for
everything on our behalf. Oh, wondrous mystery! The Lord
Jesus was made to be sin for us. He who knew no sin. And we have been made in exactly
the same way, to exactly the same degree, to exactly the same
fullness, the very righteousness of God in him. So that we stand before God righteous,
as fully righteous as he was said, as fully holy as he was
made to be unholy, as fully accepted as he was abandoned, made to
be the righteousness of God in him. All right, thirdly, it was God who did it. Look back
here at Isaiah 53 verse 10. The Lord hath laid on Him the
iniquity of us all. The triune God agreed in covenant
love to lay all our sins, all the sins of all His elect at
one time upon His Son. Sin, the greatest burden in the
world, the most loathsome thing in the universe, the load that
must have crushed our souls into hell's eternal misery, has been
laid upon the God-man by God's own hand. It pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. This great, almighty, indescribable,
can I say infinite transfer of sin and guilt from guilty sinners
to the guiltless, holy Son of God, and of holiness and righteousness
from the holy Son of God to guilty sinners, was devised by infinite
love, executed by infinite justice, and conveyed to us by infinite
grace. I understand this fourth thing.
The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all, because none
but God could do it. No one lays sin on Christ, the
God-man, except God. Who but God could lay sin on
God? Who but God could punish God
for sin? Who but God could dispose of
sin for the salvation of His people? Religion teaches folks that we
lay our sins on Christ. Rex, we can't lay our hands on
Him, much less our sins. Our sins cannot be laid by us
upon God's Son. Anyone who imagines that his
prayers, or tears, or mournings, or fastings, or confessions,
or even faith lays sin off himself onto Christ imagines vanity. The Lord Jesus Christ has our
sins laid upon him by the hand of God Almighty and by none other. This is God's work, and it was
done by the triune God. When the scripture speaks of
the Lord, the Lord God in the Old Testament, It not only refers
to God as He is revealed in His Son, but it refers to God in
all His holy being in the Trinity of His sacred persons. God the
Father laid our sins on Christ in old eternity, in the covenant
of grace. And God the Father laid our sins
upon Christ for the satisfaction of His own justice when He was
made to be sin for us. God the Son, when He came, to
his hour laid our sins on himself, who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree. That which was most hateful to
him, that which was most loathsome
to him, that which was most hurtful to him, that which was most contrary
to him. He took, like a thirsty man takes
a cup of cold water and drank our iniquity and the
damnation that came with it willingly until he drank it dry because
he loved us. And God the Holy Spirit, when
He reveals Christ to you, lays our sins on Christ. There was
a time when I couldn't see it, and you couldn't either. There
was a time when I could not, not only would I not, but I could
not believe it. I would not and I could not.
And one day, I heard a man standing before a group of men just like
I'm standing before you, talking about Christ being made to be
sin. And God the Holy Spirit, by a
work that only God in heaven can do, caused me to see sin
laid on Christ and declared that sin had been put away. Here's
the fifth thing, and I want you to see it. This is the most soul
comforting truth in all the world. No matter what the trouble is
that I experience, no matter what the heartache, no matter
what the pain, be it outward or inward, be it caused by the
coldness of my own heart or caused by the calamities of time around
me, nothing comforts and sustains my soul like this. The Lord has
laid on Him the iniquity of us all. That means, David Peterson, there
ain't nothing He won't do for me. There's nothing he will withhold
from me. There's nothing he won't give
me. There's nothing he won't sacrifice
for me. All is well. My sin, oh, the
bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the
whole, is nailed to his cross, and I bear it no more. It is
well. It is well with my soul. Blessed are those people who
have this gospel published to them. Blessed are those whose
ears are able to hear this good news. The transfer of sin from
you to Christ is something that must be done. It is something
that's already done. The text does not say the Lord
shall lay the iniquities of us all on Christ. if we'll meet
certain terms and conditions. It says the Lord hath laid on
him the iniquity of us all. Now, what part do we play in
this? None. What part of this depends
on us? None. None at all. By faith We
receive the atonement. By faith, we receive pardon. By faith, we receive justification. But faith doesn't accomplish
anything. Did you hear me? Faith does not put away sin.
Faith does not satisfy justice. Faith does not make atonement.
Faith does not make the blood of Christ effectual. Faith simply
receives what Christ has done by the sacrifice of Himself.
Read Romans chapter 5. By faith in Him we receive the
atonement. A man who is sitting on death
row, let's presume as It's likely to presume right that he's as
guilty as he can be. But the governor has pardoned
him. The governor says, you're pardoned. That means the crime has been
erased, expunged from your record, and you go free. And then somebody
comes and opens the prison door, and he walks out with a pardon
in his pocket. He didn't do anything to get
it. He simply received what was given Him freely. And that's
exactly what faith does. We receive from our God by faith
that which He has freely done for us. When did the Lord do
this? Yes, He applies it at conversion,
but our sins were laid on Christ and put away by Christ long before
we came to believe on Christ. He laid on Him our iniquities
and put our sins away in His eternal decree, for He's the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He executed His
decree laying our sins upon His Son when He hung upon the cursed
tree. And having once put our sins
away by the sacrifice of His darling Son, God Almighty will
never, will never, under any circumstance, for any reason,
to any extent, to any degree, God will never make another transfer
of sin. He will never lay sin to the
charge of his own. Never. Never. Oh, preacher, you can't say that.
That'll cause men to live in licentiousness. Folks who think
that way, that'll give an excuse. But not a man. or a woman who's
been forgiven of all sin. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin. You mean, pastor, that The Lord has put away all our
sins, past, present, and future. And that when we struggle and
fall and falter and we struggle and fall and falter and we struggle
and fall and falter seventy times a day, as you read back there,
you mean He never charges us with sin. You got it. Never. You mean he will never ever for
any reason treat us any the less graciously because of what we
are by nature and because of what we choose to do in our depraved
corrupt beings? Never. These things, John said, I write
to you, and these things I preach to you that you said not. And
if any man say it, nothing changes. We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the
propitiation for our sins. Sixthly, Christ Jesus, our Lord,
the one upon whom sin has been laid, is able to save to the
uttermost all them that come to God by Him. It would be utterly
irrelevant totally insignificant, totally meaningless for me to
stand here and tell you that the Lord laid on David Peterson
the iniquity of us all. He can't do anything about it.
It'd be meaningless for me to tell you the Lord laid on any
angel the iniquity of us all. He couldn't do anything about
it. He upon whom the Lord has laid
the sins of his people is mighty to save. Our hope is in the fact
that our substitute has shoulders broad enough and a back strong
enough to carry the load of our iniquities, the horrid, immense,
indescribable load of our sins, and carry it on his own body,
in his own body, and never stumble beneath the load. He's able to
carry away our sins by the sacrifice of himself. So read this text
one more time. and lay all the stress where
it ought to be laid on one word. The Lord hath laid on him. He says, I have laid help upon
one that is mighty. I've exalted one chosen out of
the people. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. And of him it is written, he
shall not fail. Look who he is. You can study
this out for yourself. I'll just give you the highlights.
Back in chapter 52, verse 13. This one on whom God has laid
our iniquities, he is Jehovah's servant. Not only is he Jehovah's
voluntary servant, down in chapter 53 verse 2, he's a man like us,
he's the root out of dry ground. In verse 3, he is that one who
was despised and rejected, the man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Verses 8 and 9. He's that one
who had done no violence, neither was any deceit found in his mouth.
He's the holy, innocent, righteous substitute. Now look at verse
10. Not only is he Jehovah's servant, not only is he a man
who comes up out of dry ground as a root, out of dry ground,
not only is he one despised and rejected in men, a man of solace
and acquainted with grief. This man, because he is himself
God incarnate, is a successful sovereign savior. Look at verse
10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall, not might, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days. He's
coming out of the grave. And the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his head. He's going to accomplish God's
purpose. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall
be satisfied by his knowledge, by knowledge of what he came
to do, by knowledge of what he has done, by his knowledge shall
my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. And having accomplished our redemption
by the sacrifice of himself, this one on whom the Lord has
laid our iniquities is Jehovah the Sovereign Lord. Look at verse
12. Therefore, therefore, will I
divide him a portion with the great. He shall divide the poor
with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death.
He was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. Here's the most
wonderful, astounding, amazing thing ever performed by God. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. Sin, the most hateful thing in
the world to God. The only thing in the world that
God Almighty abhors. That which is horrible, abominable,
hideous, obnoxious to God. The Lord God made his lovely
son to be. I am amazed, utterly amazed. that God should send his son
into the world in human flesh. I am astounded that God became
a man, that he became a poor man, that he became a suffering
man, that he suffered the horrid death of crucifixion. But when
I read that he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no
sin, I'm astonished. I'm astonished. Oh, amazing grace. Oh, wondrous, matchless, infinite
love. And he did this with a good purpose,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And I don't know which is more
astonishing. Ron Wood Christ was made sin
for us. And we've been made the righteousness
of God in him. And nothing will ever change
it. Nothing. Oh may God make it yours
now, for Christ's sake. Amen.