Our Confession of Faith

Isaiah 53, you'll open your Bibles
with me. Someone asked Dwight L. Moody this question, is your creed
in print? And he replied, oh yes it is.
Yes it is. You'll find my creed in Isaiah
53, the whole chapter. For in that 53rd chapter of Isaiah, those
12 verses, you have the whole gospel. Let's look at it together. Who hath believed our report? Or who hath believed our message?
It's the message of grace. It's the message of love. It's
the message of mercy. God will be merciful. He said to Moses, I will be merciful. I will be gracious. And this
message which we preach is the message of mercy. It's the message
of God's grace. It's the message of God's love
in Christ. Who hath believed it? And it's
the message of redemption. It's the message of the person
of Christ, His incarnation, His righteousness, His death, His
resurrection, His intercession. He said, I'm come that they might
have life. I'm come into this world that
they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.
This is our message. It's the message of God's mercy.
It's the message of God's mercy in Christ who hath believed it. And then it's a true and faithful
message. This is what Paul said. This
is a true and faithful message. This is a message worthy of acceptation
by all men. Every son of Adam ought to hear
this message. And every son of Adam ought to
receive this message. It's not the message of a man,
it's the message of God. It's called the gospel of God.
It's from God himself. God purposed it. God planned
it. God executed it. God Almighty
sent it. He said, as my Father sent me,
even so send I you. And you go into all this world
and preach this message, this gospel. You go and give this
report. But there's never lived a prophet
who did not mourn and grieve over the fact that men did not
believe him. Not one. In fact, the Lord himself
said, I am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not. Let another come in his own name,
and him you will receive. But I am come in my Father's
name, and you receive me not." Never has. There never has lived
a prophet who has not mourned over the fact that men do not
believe his message. That's what Isaiah opens the
53rd chapter of Isaiah with. Who believes it? Who believes
it? Our Lord came unto his own, and
his own received him not. He was in the world, and the
world received him not. This is condemnation. Light is
coming to this world. Men love darkness rather than
light. They love error rather than truth.
They receive the messengers of Satan more quickly than the messengers
of God. Regrettable, but it's true. And
that's what Isaiah begins this whole chapter with, who believes
me? Who believes me? And then he says, to whom is
the arm of the Lord revealed? Who is this arm of the Lord?
Well, let's turn over to John 12, verse 37, and see if we can
find out who the arm of the Lord is, to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed. Who believes this message? Who
believes this report? Where is that man and that woman
to whom God has revealed by the power of his Spirit, I have not
seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered the heart of
man. the things God has prepared, God has purposed. But the Spirit
of God hath revealed them. Salvation and a knowledge of
God comes by revelation. It must be revealed. It is not
discovered. It is not learned. It is revealed. If our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
their minds, lest the glorious gospel of Christ should shine
unto them, and they should be saved. But God hath revealed
them. He hath revealed his glory in the face of Christ Jesus to
some. Whom do men say that I am? Well,
some say you're a prophet, some say you're John the Baptist,
some say you're this, that, and the other. Whom do you say that
I am? Thou art the Christ. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona.
Flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my Father which
is in heaven. These men have eyes, but they
don't see. They have ears, but they don't hear. They have hearts,
but they don't understand. Blessed are your eyes and blessed
are your ears. They see and they hear, but blessed
God, he revealed it to you. To whom is the arm? The power
of God revealed. The power of God in redemption.
The power of God in grace. To whom is this power, this arm
revealed? His arm is not short that it
cannot save. Read John 12, 37. You notice that little mark beside
verse 37? That's a paragraph. That's beginning
a new subject. Though he had done so many miracles
before them, yet they believed not on him, that the saying of
Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath
believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed.
They did not believe on him, and this fulfills Isaiah's prophecy. To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said
again, He hath blinded their eyes, heartened their hearts,
that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with
their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These
things said Isaiah when he saw His glory and spake of Him. That's what he's talking about
here, talking about Christ. Who hath believed our message
of grace, our message of Christ, our message of redemption? To
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? God sent Philip down to a place
in the desert. Philip didn't know why he was
sent there, but in a few moments a caravan came through and God
said, go join yourself to that caravan. Well, Philip went over
and he was walking beside a chariot. And a man was sitting in the
chariot, a very important man, the treasurer of all of the country
of Ethiopia, the queen of Ethiopia. He'd been to Jerusalem to a religious
holiday, and he was on his way home. And he was reading this
passage right here that I read a moment ago, Isaiah 53. Philip
walked along beside the chariot and heard him read, and he turned
to him and said, Do you understand what you're reading? And the
man looked at him and said, well, how can I except some man show
me? And he invited Philip up into
the chariot, and he opened the door and got in and sat down,
and they started the chariot up, and the important man from
Ethiopia turned to Philip and said, now, who's he talking about? Who's the prophet talking about?
To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? He shall grow up as
a tender plant. He is a root out of dry ground.
He is despised and rejected. He is a man of sorrows. He hath
borne our griefs. He was wounded for our transgressions.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."
Who's he talking about? Well, you turn to Acts chapter
8, and let's see what Philip told him. Acts the 8th chapter,
you need to look at this. Acts 8, verse 35. And it says
here, "...then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same
scripture, preached unto him, Jesus, Jesus." That's who he's
talking about. Who believes this message? Who
believes this report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? Let's see what the report says.
Verse 2, Isaiah 53. He, this Jesus we're talking
about now, this Jesus Christ of Nazareth, he shall grow up
before him as a tender plant. Some of you have gardens planted.
They're already up, but you watched them. I sowed the seed. Every
day or two I'd go out and watch, and I'd walk around. I was anxious
for my beans to come up. I even dug where I thought a
bean might be to see if I could find one of those little... They're
so tender. You wonder how that little tender
leaf with a little tender stem can push that heavy crust of
dirt out of the way and put its head up through the soil. You
want to help it, but you'll kill it. And I kicked away some dirt,
and there it was. There's that little old bean
that germinated, you know, and that little old tender plant
had come out with its leaves, and it was crouched under there
pushing the dirt off. Tender plant. That's what he's
saying here. He shall grow up as a tender plant, low in its
beginning, slow in its growth, liable to be crushed underfoot.
It looks like it'll never amount to anything. Do you ever believe
that that corn will ever be five feet, six feet high? with stalks
an inch and a half in diameter, bearing five or six heavy ears
of corn. Well, you'd never believe it
looking at that little plant, that little tender plant. Look
at that tiny babe in Bethlehem's manger. That little baby that's
just come forth from its mother's womb, and they've salted it and
swaddled it and wrapped it, and there it lies in its mother's
arm. little old bitty tiny baby, so frail, so helpless, so delicate,
so tender, so unpromising. This is the King of Kings. This
is the Lord of Lords. This is the conqueror of Satan. This is the bearer of sin. This
is the preeminent one. This is the Savior of the world. This is God's Messiah. This little
tender, helpless, delicate plant." That's what he's talking about
right there. And then he goes on and says, "...and as a root
out of a dry ground." Out there in the desert, nothing but rocks
and sand, no moisture, no rain. You're walking along and there's
a root that's sticking up. Is there any life in that root,
any strength in that root, any power in that root? That's the
way Christ was. Look at the house of David. The
Messiah was to be from the house of David. The Messiah was to
sit upon the throne of David. The Messiah was to be the King
of the Jews. That's what the Scripture said.
The Messiah was to come forth from that nation of David and
Solomon. Well, what condition was the
house of David in at this time? Almost extinct. Nothing left
but dry ground. Nothing left but ashes. Nobody
paid any attention to the twelve tribes or the tribe of Judah
or the house of David or the throne of Israel. It was a thing
of the past. They were conquered by Rome and
under the heel of Rome and had been there for a long time. The
house of David was less than nothing and yet there springs
up a root. out of that dry ground, the stem
of Jesse's rod, in the midst of human hopelessness and human
ruin. That's what he's talking about
here, that tender plant, that tiny babe, that root out of a
desert land, that root out of a dry ground, that offspring
of David, a house that was in total ruin. But there it stands. There's the root. But he had no form, no comeliness,
he had no majesty. He was born of completely poor
parents. His mother was just a peasant
girl and his father was a carpenter. His father was a man with gnarled,
calloused hands. A man who cut down trees and
sawed them up into lumber and made tables, lived in just a
little shack probably with a dirt floor, no furniture, no education,
no influence. They wore peasant garments. He
had no comeliness. He came from a country, they
said, can anything good come out of that place? A poor country,
a poor cottage, nothing to attract attention to himself in any way. He had no majesty, he had no
form, he had no comeliness, and when we see him, listen to this,
and when we see him at any time during his whole life, there
is no beauty. There is no beauty. Now, the
artist can take his easel and his colors and paints and oils
and try to paint Christ Jesus. and his followers as reputable,
influential, powerful men. But they were not. They were
fishermen. His friends were publicans and sinners and harlots. Everybody
who was anybody turned thumbs down on this man. He was hated
by the rich and the poor. He was hated by the professor
and the profane. He was hated by the common people
and by the ruling class. He had no form, no comeliness,
and no beauty at any time in his life. That men should run
after him and desire him, that's what it says. His background,
why they said, we know who this man is. He's the carpenter. We
know his mother, we know his daddy, we know all his kinfolks.
He never was anything and they never were anything, and he'll
never amount to anything. We know who this is. His nationality, no nation hated
like the Jew. The Romans despised nobody like
they despised the Jews, and this man was a Jew. His followers,
name them. Mary Magdalene, who at one time
possessed seven devils. Peter, the cursing fisherman. James and John, sons of Zebedee,
found on the seashore. Zacchaeus, traitor, publican. Name his followers. None of them
ever amounted to anything in the eyes of anybody. None of
them had any power in his methods. He had no band. He had no army.
He had no power. He had no influence. He had no
friend in the capital. He came preaching. Preaching
his death. Old Brother Barnard said one
time, you mean to tell me, you mean to tell me that that mass
of human flesh, that Jew born in a stable, that Jew who was
raised in a carpenter shop, that Jew whose followers consisted
only of the outcast, that Jew tormented and persecuted by pilot
soldiers, nailed to a cross between two thieves, that that Jew, suffering
such a horrible, agonizing, humiliating death, that Jew, that man died.
You mean to tell me that you believe, you actually believe,
that that's God Almighty? You really believe that? You
really believe that that is God Almighty in human flesh? Looks
like God could have come in a little better representation, doesn't
it? You mean you believe that that
man with no form, no comeliness, no beauty, you mean that's your
Redeemer, that's your Savior, that's your Lord, that's your
God before whom you bow? Yes. No wonder folks don't believe
your message. Nobody but a fool or a Christian
would believe that. Nobody. To whom is the arm of
the Lord? You can see in that shame, you
can see in that suffering, you can see in that sin offering
the wisdom of God and the power and glory of God. You can see
that. You can see in him how God can be just and justify the
ungodly. You can see that. Read on. He is despised. despised, not
admired, despised and rejected of men. We rightly sing, rejected
and despised of men, behold a man of woe, grief his close companion
was through all his life below. He was despised. He said marvel
not my brethren if the world hate you, it hated me. Even his
brethren did not believe on him. He couldn't get a group together
in his own mother's house. His own received him not. They
called him a devil, the prince of devils. They called him a
wine-bibber and a gluttonous man. And at the end of his life,
he did not have standing with him one human being. Even his
disciples turned and ran. And one of them sold him for
the price of a slave, eighteen dollars. When he walked up Calvary's
mountain, they had to get somebody to help him carry his cross.
He didn't have one. Not one. Despised. Rejected. Rejected. All men by nature despise
Him and reject Him. And let me tell you something,
you've had presented to you in your lifetime this admired Jesus
Christ, this revered Jesus Christ, this revealed Jesus Christ. If you had lived then, huh? If you had lived then, if you
were not blessed with living in 1978 with a completed Bible, If you were not blessed with
a completed revelation of all the types and pictures in the
Old Testament, and you had lived there, now think a moment, and
some calloused hand carpenter had walked out of a miserable,
run-down, flea-bitten little village called Nazareth, followed by a bunch of people
who amounted to nothing, Nobody in the group played the guitar
and sang the Rock Island Express or whatever it is. And nobody
in the group was a famous movie star, and nobody in the group
was a governor, and nobody in the group was a politician, and
nobody in the group was named Elvis Presley, and nobody in
the group was a famous preacher, just a bunch of harlots and publicans
and sinners and fishermen in just the same kind of patched
up ragged robes and he came out and said, I'm God Almighty. Look unto me and be ye saved.
Believe on me and be ye saved. I am come that you might have
life. And some ragged prophet by the
name of John the Baptist down by the riverside because he wouldn't
let him in the temple or the synagogue or the chapels or the
churches and he didn't graduate from the seminary and he had
not one degree and he had not approval of one single person
in the government who preached down there by the riverside pointed
at him and said that's the Lamb of God that comes to take away
the sin of the world. Would you believe that? Oh, when
you saw him heal that woman, your next-door neighbor, who
was blind, and she saw, whoopee, I believe that. You've got to
be from God. No man could do the miracles you do except God
be with him. And they followed him because
of the miracles, but he turned and said, I know why you're following
me. You don't believe on me, you believe in the miracles.
And then you went to hear him one day, and you sat around and
listened to him preach about three hours and a half, and you
got hungry and got something to eat. Nobody's got anything
to eat in this crowd. There's 10,000 people here, and nobody's
got a thing to eat. What are we going to do to eat?
And then he took five loaves and two fishes and began to break
them, fed everybody there, and took up about 12 baskets full.
You'd believe him then, wouldn't you? Boy, you'd run along right
behind him because you wouldn't have to work anymore. You could
just follow him and eat fish. and bread. And that's what he
said. I know why you're following me. You did eat of the loaves
and were filled. Go back where you came from.
But you'd follow him. And then one day he said to you,
no man can come to me except my father which sent me drawing.
That would have made you mad. You shut up to God's sovereign
mercy, you shut up to God's sovereign grace. And then you saw him take
him there in the garden and tie ropes around his hands and slap
him on the face and take him down there and those soldiers
spit in his face and slap him with a palm and take off his
robe and whip him with a crown. a cat of nine tails and take
him out there and nail him to a cross and stand below him while
he hangs there in his nakedness and shame and say, now then,
son of God, come on down and we'll believe on you. And even
God wouldn't look at him. The rocks begin to quake and
the mountains begin to roar and the sun wouldn't shine and the
darkness cover the earth. You'd run too, just like all
the rest of them. You wouldn't have believed on him. I wouldn't
either. He said, I don't want anything to do with it. I thought
he was going to raise up a kingdom. I thought he was going to restore
the glory of David. I thought he was going to restore
the wealth of Solomon. I thought he was going to restore
Israel to its dignity. But there he hangs on a cross.
He can't save himself. How can he save others? I'm glad
I didn't live then. I praise God I didn't live then.
I praise God I didn't live then. And you stand off somewhere and
watch him die and they take him down from that cross and wrap
him in a sheet and take him over yonder in a cemetery and bury
him and roll a stone over the door and the Roman government
puts a seal on it and two soldiers outside. He's dead! He's dead! He's dead! You wouldn't believe
it. You'd have been just like old
Peter. He said, When I met that fellow, I was a fisherman, and
I'm going back to fishing. Despised and rejected of me,
and look at it, a man of Saras. Old Spurgeon said he and Sara
could have changed names. Sara, spelled J-E-S-U-S. And the prophet in lamentation
says, Is it nothing to you? All ye that pass by, is it nothing
to you? Behold and see, is there any
sorrow like my sorrow, which is done unto me? Wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger, is there
any sorrow like my sorrow? The lowest of all, followed by
the lowest of all, despised, rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief, deserted, put to shame, humiliated, rejected. Why? Why is all this? Well, verse 4 will tell you.
Because he bore our griefs and our sorrows. And you know what
Matthew called it? Our sicknesses and diseases.
That's what Christ was bearing. When he was born in that stable,
he was being identified with all who are stable-born. When
our Lord Jesus worked with his hands, he was fulfilling the
law that said, By the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread.
When our Lord called out and associated with the lowest of
people, he was making available to every son of Adam his mercy
and his grace. And when our Lord bore the wrath
of men, the spittle from their mouths, the profanity from their
lips, the opposition of devils, the fierce anger of God which
was kindled against him, and the sword of God's justice pierced
in his heart, he was taking my place. He was taking what I deserve. He had no guilt. He had no sin. He had no rebellion. But because
of my guilt and my sin and my rebellion, he had to bear the
shame and the humiliation. More barred than any man, the
Savior's form I see. Was ever sorrow like his endured
on Calvary? O hear that piercing cry! What
can its meaning be? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Oh, it was because our sins on
him by God were laid. He who himself had never sinned,
for sinners sin was made. Therefore let all men know that
God is satisfied, and sinners all who Jesus trusts by God through
him are justified. He was wounded for my transgressions. Wounded in soul and body, wounded
to death, wounded not only with the nails and the spear, but
wounded with the agonies of sin that pierced his soul. Wounded
for my transgression. Bruised like the corn is crushed
in the mill and ground to powder. This is my body, broken and bruised
for you. Chastised, not the tender corrections
of a loving father, but the wrath of justice. in the hands of a
God-taken vengeance on the souls of men. And God, look at verse
5, verse 6, and God, the last line, laid on him. I looked at this for a long time.
Oh, we like sheep, we've gone astray. We've wandered in the
darkness of sin and rebellion and the cesspool of our wicked
imaginations. Oh, how we roll over our tongues
the sweet morsels of rebellion against God. Oh, how we plunge
there into the very pit of iniquity and lie there enjoying it. And
oh, we like sheep have gone astray and God laid on him the iniquity
of us all. It's beyond imagination. It's
impossible for any man to even consider what took place at Calvary. There's no way that you can comprehend
in your broadest imagination or dreams what took place at
Calvary. Take one scene, David's adultery and murder. And how
embarrassed he was when he was found, when the prophet of God
came to him and said, you're the man. How embarrassed. And all the country knew about
it. And David didn't show his face for a long time, I'm sure.
And he hid around and he was embarrassed and he grieved his
heart and broke his spirit and bent his shoulders and he killed
one of his best friends to get out of his embarrassment. Just
take this one sin of one of God's elect and all the humiliation
that he had to endure and all the guilt and the grief and the
shame. and the separation from men,
and how fingers pointed at him, and people shook their heads,
and the enemies of God laughed, just that one sin. Now multiply
that by every believer, and every sin of thought, imagination,
word, deed. And what if they were all exposed
before the eyes of one who knew and understood, and hated it? And that's what happened at Capitol
Hill. God laid on him the iniquity of us all. What an awful mass
of corruption, what an awful mass of shame, what an awful
mass of humiliation at Calvary, God laid on him the iniquity
of us all. And there the justice of God
met in the person of Christ, the guiltiest, the most wicked sinner that ever lived in the
body of Jesus Christ, because God laid on him. He bore our
sins in his body. And God Almighty poured out upon
him his absolute, unchangeable, infinite, eternal
wrath. That's what it says. All we like
sheep had gone astray. We turned every one to his own
way, and God laid on him, God laid on him the iniquity of us
all. Never a path that a believer
will have to walk that Christ hadn't already walked. Never a pain a believer will
ever have to feel that Christ hadn't already felt. Never a sin a believer has ever
committed secretly or openly, by omission or commission, willingly
or unknowingly, that Christ didn't bear. Never a pain, never a tear, never
a sorrow, never a heartache, never a panic you'll ever want,
never an experience you'll ever have, that he hasn't already
tasted death for every man. He drank the very bitter dregs
from the bottom of the cup of God's wrath of accumulated anger,
fierce hatred, the last bitter dreg in the bottom of the cup
from Adam's first thought of sin. Christ drank it all. Is it any wonder that he cried
in Gethsemane's garden, If it be thy will, let this cup pass
from me, nevertheless not my will, but thy will be done? My
soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Is it any wonder
that he cried there on that cross, My God, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? And yet, verse 7, he was oppressed,
he was afflicted, false charges, persecution, hatred, and he opened
not his mouth. It says that twice in that one
verse. Look, he was oppressed, he was afflicted, and yet he
opened not his mouth. He brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
as a sheep before her shearers is done. He opened not his mouth.
I see that little fat sheep with all that white rolling wool. He's so beautiful. It's fat around
his neck and his ears and all along his back and he's proud
of that roly beautiful snow white wool coat that he's grown and
he comes down and walks to his friend the farmer and lies down
and his friend the farmer takes that cutting tool and as close
as he can cut without bringing blood, he shears that limb of
all of his beauty. Our Lord Jesus Christ is brought
before Pilate's soldiers and before Herod's trial and before
Caiaphas, the high priest, to be shorn of his comfort, to be
shorn of his dignity, to be shorn of his honor, to be shorn of
his good name, and then to be shorn of life itself. And he
went there as a sheep before his shearers, his dome. And Herod
said, Pilate said, Are you a king? That's what you said. What is
truth? You've heard what they said,
are you guilty? Answest thou not me, I have the
power to crucify you or let you go. You don't have any power
over me at all, except that we're given you from above. They bind him put him in a chair,
and put a scarlet robe on him, and a crown of thorns on his
head, and a reed in his hand, and put a blindfold on him. Somebody
slapped his face and said, Are you a prophet? They tell me you're
a prophet, that you know everything. Who slapped you? He opened out
his mouth. These scriptures are expressive
not only of the innocence of Christ and his meekness and suffering,
but of his willingness to die. Our Lord came to die. His death
was no accident because it says in verse 10, look at it, it pleased
the Lord, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Now you listen
to me. They came to that garden where
he had been And they roughly took him. They
seized him and bound him. And he says, you came for me. Let these others go. That's a
picture of our salvation right there. When Christ was taken,
we were released. When Christ was bound, our fetters
were broken. When Christ became a captive,
we became a free man. When Christ Jesus was numbered
with the transgressors, the transgressors were set free. Let them go! And they took him down there
to this person and that one and the other and he went through
all this agony and suffering. They striped his back with 39
open wounds and then they took him out to the cross and nailed
him with nails in his hands and feet and hung him there between
heaven and earth in the hot burning sun between two thieves, naked,
and made fun of him and laughed at him and shot out their lips
and brought all kind of charges against him and wagged their
heads, you know, and just had a big time. cast dice for his
garments down there. Let me tell you something. God
Almighty, now listen to me, not only permitted this, He planned
it. He purposed it, and He predestinated
it. You prove that, preacher? Easily.
Acts chapter 2, the first sermon that the apostles preached after
Christ arose from the dead, that's what they told that crowd that
crucified him. Peter had a meeting with that
outfit that nailed him to the cross. He preached to them in Acts chapter
2, verse 22 and 23, and he said, ye men of Israel, I've got something
to say to you, hear me. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you, you saw it, miracles, wonders, signs, which
God did by him, God did it right in the midst of you, you know
that, but him being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by your wicked hands
have crucified him and put him on a cross and slain him. You
did it. God Almighty delivered him into
your hands by his own determinate counsel and foreknowledge. All
right, he's not through. Acts chapter 4, he's preaching
again. And he says in verse 26, he says,
"...the kings of this earth stood up," verse 26, Acts 4, "...and
the rulers were gathered together against the Lord," it's against
God and against his Christ, all sins against God. What they did
to Christ, they were doing to God. And what we do to believers,
we're doing to Christ. That's what Christ said, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? I never laid my hands on you.
Inasmuch as you've done it unto the least of these, you've done
it to me. of a truth, verse 26, "...against
thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and
Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were
gathered together." Hear that mob! Give us Barabbas! Give us
Barabbas! What shall I do with Jesus? Crucify
Him! Crucify Him! Against our Holy
Child Jesus, that whole mob, Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor,
old and young, learned and ignorant, Herod, Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas,
the high priest, the low priest, all were gathered together to
do something, to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before it to be done. It pleased the Lord. I tell you, you need to look
hard at that Scripture. You folks who think that the
life of Christ was just a shot in the dark, the life of Christ
was an adventure, the life of Christ was an enterprise, the
life of Christ was an effort on the part of God to get some
folks to do something, the life of Jesus Christ was purpose,
planned, predestinated, foreordained, foreknown, and directed by God
himself from the cradle to the cross to the grave to the crown. Every moment, he said, the words
that I speak are the words of him that sent me. The works that
I do are the works of him that sent me. I came not to do my
will, but the will of him that sent me. Don't go to the cross
for this purpose came out of this hour. And he prayed before
he went to that cross and said, Father, the hour has come. What
hour? The hour that God purposed and
planned from before the world. He was bruised, yes. He was crushed
and broken in the wheels of God's justice because it pleased the
Lord. Read verse 10. He was bruised.
He was put to grief. The sorrow of his sorrows, beyond
human endurance, he needed help from the Father to even get through
Gethsemane, but it pleased the Lord. His soul was made an offering
for sin, deeper than the mind, deeper than the nerves, deeper
than the body, down to the very soul. He made his soul an offering
for sin. It pleased God. He was given
a promised seed to redeem because it pleased God. His work shall
prosper, his mission fulfilled because it pleased God. He shall
rise from the grave and reign forever because it pleased God.
Verse 11, he shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied
because it pleased God. He shall justify many because
it pleased God. He shall have the preeminence
and divide the spoils with his redeemed ones, because it pleased
God." That's what it says. It pleased God. Here I raise
mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come, and I hope by
thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. I'll tell you this,
now you go out and tell sinners that salvation is all in their
hands, and you let them reach out and grab hold of a false
hope, but you go out and tell sinners that salvation is something
God does for man, and you shut them up to the mercy of God,
and you show them how that God on purpose sent his Son to save
somebody, and if that sinner's got any sense, he'll say, I want
him to be my Savior. And he'll cry with the publican
in the temple, God, will you be merciful to me? Will you be
merciful? He'll cry like the thief on the
cross, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. You're
not going to stay dead. I don't know all about this,
but I see something in it, and you're not going to stay dead,
and I want you to remember me. You come with your proud decisions
and acceptances and duties and service for God and your gifts
and all these things, and he'll turn you away. But if you come
as a poor seeking sinner, like blind Bartimaeus who cried, have
mercy on me, and Jesus stood still. Like the woman with issue
of blood who dared to reach forth just with trembling, weak, feeble
hands. Like the leper who came when
he came down from the mountain, fell on his face and worshipped
him and said, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. And Christ
said, I will be thy whole. Old Brother Barnard told a story
one time that blessed me. He said back when his little
girl was about six or seven or eight years old, one Christmas,
he was spending Christmas at home, and he said he was looking
over some film that he had, Cathedral gospel films of the story of
the crucifixion and And he said his little girl Joanne was sitting
on the floor And he was showing these films on a screen and just
watching them gonna use them in meetings you know and he watched
the film and it showed how that Judas sold him out and Peter
denied him and the soldiers mistreated him and Pilate humiliated him
and the Roman soldiers crucified him He said right in the middle
of it, his little girl came and crawled up in his lap and put
her arms around his neck. And he said, he reached over
and turned the machine off. She started crying. She said,
Daddy, why did they treat the Lord Jesus like that? And he
said, well, honey, I don't know whether you can understand this
or not, but he said, You see, he was bearing my sins. He was being treated like that
because that's what I deserve. You see, I'm a sinner. Everything
they accused him of, I'm guilty. He wasn't, but I am. He was my
representative, you see, and he died for me. He did that so
he would be my Savior. And he said, she was real quiet
for a minute, and then she said, well, Daddy, you reckon he'd
be my Savior too? You reckon he would? I wish you
know, I know we're in the day of God standing outside the door
begging folks to let him in, and Christ has done all he can
do, and that's up to you, and God wants to save you, but you
won't let him, and you take the first step, and God will take
the next one, and you come halfway, God will meet you, and all that
Tommy rot. I wonder if we could become like that little girl,
you know, us 50, 60-year-old people, and realize God doesn't
owe us anything but hell. God doesn't owe us anything but
judgment and wrath. He owes us what He gave His Son.
And I wonder if we could come down to that place of humility
and say, you reckon that, you reckon He'd be my Savior? You
reckon He'd take me in? You reckon He would? I sure hope
so, don't you, John? I hope you'll take me in. Our Father, we thank you for
the gospel. We thank you for Christ, our
substitute. We're grateful that we can say
with faith and confidence, without boasting and without pride, laying
claim to nothing that we have ever done, Christ died for my
sins according to the scriptures. He was wounded for my transgressions,
bruised for my iniquities, and the chastisement of my peace
was upon him. By his stripes I'm healed. Like
all sons of Adam, I've gone astray, but the Lord laid on him all
my iniquity, and it's put away. This is my hope. I receive Christ
as my Lord and Savior. I bow to him. I say, Lord, be
merciful to me, a sinner. Receive me for Christ's sake.
Pardon my sin for Christ's sake. Let the justice of a holy God
be satisfied in the punishment of his holy Son. In his name
we pray.

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