your attention back to Isaiah,
the 53rd chapter, what many call the Gospel according to Isaiah.
But if you read the Old Testament from Genesis through Malachi,
that is all the Gospel according to the Law and the Prophets.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him, that is, Jesus Christ,
the iniquity of us all, Isaiah 53, 6. Most of you are familiar
with this portion of Scripture. And it has been said, and rightly
so, that the gospel has not been preached if imputation, substitution,
and satisfaction have not been clearly declared. Well, they
are all declared in this particular portion of Scripture. And this
passage of Scripture is found in a glorious proclamation of
the person, the purpose, and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
that He accomplished here on this earth. Beginning back at
chapter 52 and verse 7 and ending it here in chapter 53 and really
chapter 54 goes on to declare what God has done and then in
chapter 55 declares that if you are interested in these things,
to come to the water freely and drink whole every one that thirsteth. But in Isaiah chapter 52 and
verse 7, it says, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet
of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth
good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation. And this is that publishing
peace, that publishing good tidings of good things, that publishing
salvation is summed up in the next word. Say to the church,
to Zion, Thy God reigneth. And if you are a child of God,
there can't be no better news than that truth right there.
Thy God reigneth. It ends in the last verse of
chapter 53 here that we'll look at in a little bit. And it's
all about one singular thing. If you read beginning with chapter
52 and verse 7 all the way through this chapter, you'll find it's
about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That very thing that Paul declared
that He was determined to know nothing among you, say, Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Now, this passage here, Isaiah
chapter 53 and verse 6, is not only core doctrinal truth, but
it is one of those passages that confront us with our condition
as we are born into this world as sons and daughters of Adam. And it also declares the absolute
necessity of a sovereign work of redemption being accomplished
for us. This is a very important passage.
This is the gospel, and that it is the gospel is without question. Turn over to Romans, just for
a moment, Romans chapter 10. Paul here uses this passage of
scripture to declare what it is to hear the gospel and believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, he uses it to declare
the gospel. In Romans chapter 10 verse 13
and 14 it says, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? How then shall they believe in
him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? That is a pretty exclusive list there. of how
it is what's got to take place before you ever call upon the
name of the Lord. And how shall they preach except
they be sent? You're going to have to hear
from someone God sent, you're going to have to hear the gospel
before you believe, and you're going to have to believe before
you call. And you're not going to know
anything about Christ apart from the gospel being preached to
you. It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And you know me, you
who do know me, know that I'm not exalting me. I'm nothing. When I'm gone, somebody else
will stand up here and do what I'm doing. Hopefully, he'll declare
the gospel of God's grace. But God has ordained that poor
sinners come to a knowledge of Christ by some other wretched,
vile, poor sinner, telling them what God has done for them. That's
how God has ordained it's going to happen, and that's how it's
going to happen. There's not going to be a lightning bolt
from heaven. There's not going to be a bluebird landing on your
shoulder and telling you you're saved. You're going to hear the
gospel, or you're going to perish. It's that simple. It's that simple.
Paul teaches the necessity of hearing the gospel. Look at verse
15, ìAnd how shall they preach, except they be sent, as it is
written,î that we just read in Isaiah 52, 7, ìHow beautiful
is the feat of them that preach the gospel of Pete, and bring
good tidings of good things! But they not all obeyed the gospel,
For Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed our report, or believed
our doctrine, which we find in the first words of Isaiah chapter
53. So what we're talking about here is the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now we see here in our text,
it says that the Lord has laid the iniquity of us all on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Who are the us all that are spoken
of? It's not a universal generic
treatise on universal redemption. It is a declaration of who Christ
died for. He died for us all. Now, who
are the us all? I'd like to know. I want to be
in that group for sure. Who are they? How are they described? Verse 4, they're described this
way. Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. The us all are those for whom
Christ is born to their griefs and carry their sorrows. In verse
5 it says, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was
bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes. It doesn't say we can be. We
might be. Somebody by the death of Jesus
Christ was saved, healed according to this. Now whoever they were
they make up this us all and then in verses 10 through 12
it says yet it pleased the Lord to Bruce him He hath put him
to grief, that is, the Lord was satisfied to put Christ to death
when he put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering
for sin. And we see there it was not the
physical sufferings of Christ that saved us. The physical sufferings
of Christ accomplished two things. First, they accomplished the
knowledge of how men feel about God by nature. The only time God ever let men
touch Him They beat the Lord out of Him. They ripped Him apart. They've hung Him on a tree. That's
how that man feels about God. I know that people think, well,
I just love Jesus. Well, if you really met who He
was, if you really knew Him, you'd know that before you met
Him, you hated Him. The natural mind is empty against
God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Please God to bruise him on behalf
of his people when he made his soul an offering for sin. It
says, he shall see his seed. Do you reckon the Lord knows
who are his? His seed, those that come from him, those that
proceed from him, those that proceed from his life, this church,
this body, his bride. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Very
important little word there. It doesn't say he shall see the
travail of his soul. It says he shall see of it. Of
it. What is travail? You women know
what travail is. If you've had babies, you know
what travail is, don't you? It's birth pains. And it's horrible
pains. It's horrible pains. I saw Debbie
having one when she gave birth to Sarah and I told her to roll
back in the room. I just couldn't take it and I wasn't even feeling
the pain. Horrible pain. Travail! What makes travail worthwhile? What makes travail satisfying?
To bring forth a child. To bring forth life. That's what
makes travail satisfying. You will never find a mother
who miscarries. or had a stillborn child, saying
this was a satisfying experience. It never will be. And neither
was it with Christ. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, the product of that which is accomplished by the
travail of his soul, and he shall be satisfied. Why? By his knowledge,
and the word there is skill, shall my righteous servant justify
many, for he shall bear that many's iniquities. He shall bear
their iniquities. He shall save his people from
their sins. That's why we call him Jesus.
In verse 12, Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he has
poured out his soul to death. He was numbered with the transgressors
and he bared the sins of many and made intercession for the
transgressors. That's who the us are. That's who they are. And I'll tell you what, that's
a most fortunate group of people. A most fortunate group of people. Every one of these and only these
are included in the phrase us all. This book is a book. This book has text and context. And text without context is pretext. So you don't understand the us
all unless you find it out in this chapter who they are. Our
text is the truth about us and the truth about what our blessed
Savior did for us. And when I say us, I'm talking
about those He died for. Those He died for. You say, well,
He died for everybody. Not according to Scripture. Well,
I don't believe that part of the Scripture. Then you don't
believe any part of it. It's either all true or it ain't none of it true.
A fellow told me one time, he didn't believe that when I said
Christ didn't die for everybody. I said, well, that's what the
Bible said. He died for his sheep. He laid down his life for his
sheep. Then he goes on to say, the sheep are the ones that hear
his voice and follow him. Those who were given to him by the
Father before the world began. He said, well, I don't believe
that. I said, what else in the Bible don't you believe? What else don't you believe?
You get to choose what's right and what's wrong, what's to be
believed and what's not. Of course you don't. This is
God's Word. It's not a matter of opinion.
In fact, to opine on this Word is to be a heretic. Because the
root word of heresy is opinion in the original language. Our
text is the truth about us and about what God has done for us.
The truth about us all. for whom Christ died. All whom
Christ redeemed is that we are by nature, choice, and practice
totally depraved. Totally depraved. That means that nobody in here
is any different by nature than anybody else on the top side
of the earth. You think there's some difference between you and
Osama bin Laden? If it is, it's the grace of God
that made the difference. There ain't no difference naturally.
He's a son of Adam just like you are. Just like you are. We are totally depraved. Now that does not mean that we
plumb the depths of how truly vile we are. It means that our
corruption is far worse than we are willing to admit or even
can comprehend. We don't know how bad we could
be. But I tell you this, don't mistake God's restraining sovereign
power over you as if it were your righteousness. It ain't.
The only reason you're not in the depths of utter ruin and
acting like what's really on the inside of you, the only reason
that is, is because God's restrained you. Thank God He has. Thank God He has. We don't have
any idea what we're truly capable of and we really do not want
to know what we're truly capable of. What I know of my depravity
is more than I can even begin to talk about. I don't want to
talk about it. I certainly ain't going to tell you. I wouldn't
even tell my wife. The only person I feel safe telling
is Christ. Because He knows already. He knows already. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have gone astray. And this
is what is referred to as the doctrine of original sin. Original
sin. It's called original sin because
it's the first sin. The first sin. Rebellion against
God. It's called original sin because
it is the origin of sin. It's the origin of sin. It's
called original sin because it is the sin that we are all guilty
of as we are born into this world. We all went astray from God when
Adam went astray in the Garden of Eden. And all of Adam's seed
received a guilty sentence for what Adam did. You're guilty
of Adam's sin. what Adam did. You're guilty
of it. He said, well, I wasn't there. It's called imputation. Being charged with sin. Look over at Romans chapter 5
just for a moment. Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter
5 and verse 12 it says, For as by one man sin entered the world,
and death by sin. That's what happens to sin. It
brings about death. So death. passed upon all men. And it says here in the English
translation, for that all have sinned. That's not really a good
translation. The original translation is,
in whom all sinned. In whom all sinned. So Bill, you sinned against God
when you ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. You did that. That's how God
sees it, and how God sees it is exactly how it is. You say,
well, I don't much like that idea of me being counted guilty
for something somebody else did. Well, do you like the idea of
being counted righteous because of something somebody else did?
I like that idea. I'm fine with imputation, to
be quite honest with you. I like that a lot. Adam was the federal head and
representative of all humanity. He's our father. Deb and I were
talking about this the other day, about people who spend a
lot of time doing lineage, and my brother is one of those guys
who really likes genealogy and all that stuff. I know my genealogy. I know who my father is, and
he was a rebel against God. Scott Rich used to say, my great-great-great-grandfather was a man. My great-great-great-great-grandfather
was dirt. And my great-great-great-great-grandfather
was nothing. That's my lineage. That's my
heritage. I'm a son of Adam, and so were
you. Adam's sin was imputed, charged
to all humanity, all whom he represented. Adam's depraved
nature was passed on to all his seed by natural regeneration. All who came from Adam are guilty
of Adam's sin, rebellion, and disobedience against God. And
this is not only doctrinal. This is experiential, isn't it?
This is experiential and personal. It's a darkness that every child
of God feels and is embarrassed by. That's in our own bosoms
and in our own hearts. We have turned everyone to his
own way. To his own way. In Adam we suffered
a great fall. How far, how great was the fall,
it was so great it broke our necks and we died. We died. We fell into sinfulness. We fell
from favor of God to condemnation by God. You are not born into
this world on probation. You are born into this world
condemned, on death row and awaiting sentence and your only hope is
that somehow Someone will commute that sentence by dying in your
room instead and deliver you from the prison that you're born
in and the bondage you're born in. And if that don't happen,
you're going to stay right where you are. You'll never change
because you can't. Can the Ethiopian change the
color of his skin? Can the leopard change his spots?
Then how can you, who are accustomed to doing evil, do good? We fell
from sinlessness to sinfulness. We fell from innocence to depravity. We lost the possibility, all
possibility of human righteousness. We lost all possibility of fellowship
with God, access to God. Life was gone. We died spiritually. We fell from life to death, from
freedom to bondage, from peace to enmity, and from light to
darkness. That's not all. We are sinners
by amputation and by birth. That's clear in the Word of God.
We just read it in Romans chapter 5 that we are sinners by amputation. If we went on down to verse 19
of that same text, we'd say, by the disobedience of one, the
many were made sinners. The many were made sinners. But
in Psalm 51, In verse 5, it declares that as soon as we come forth
from the womb, we speak lies. We're liars. As soon as we step
forth from the womb. You say, well, that just doesn't
sit right with me. I'm sorry. I didn't say it. It's the Word of God. We are
conceived in iniquity. We're not born holy and then
we fall, we're born condemned and wretched and vile and unclean. And if we live long enough, we'll
prove that to be the case. Matthew 15 says our problem is
not what we take in our bodies. You know, that's what everybody
likes to think. They think we want to put sin in a box or a bottle
or on the internet or somewhere other than where it's really
at. Sin, our problem is we can take anything. We can take poison
into our body and kill our bodies, but it will not defile us. Because
it's not what goes in the body that defiles the body, it's what
comes out of the heart, what proceeds out of the heart of
man that defiles the man. We got a heart problem. Our heart
is blacker than a thousand midnights down in the cypress swamp. We
are depraved in our heart. That which comes from our heart
is of no value. I know the popular phrase is,
won't you let Jesus come into your heart? Listen, if you know
anything about your heart, you wouldn't dare invite Jesus into
it. And you don't do that anyway. That's an invention of men. We
are also sinners by personal choice, by affinity. by inclination. This is our realized depravity. Our heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked of all things who can know it. Man is like those that
were the same as they were before the flood when the imaginations
of the heart was evil continually, continually. We are all estranged
from the womb as soon as we are born, speaking lies. We have
turned everyone to his own way. There's no difference. God's
elect are the same as other men by nature. They're always going
astray until the Spirit of Christ tracked
us down, sought us out, and carried us back. All we are able to do
and all we are inclined to do is just stray. We're a bunch
of strays, a bunch of strays. We had neither will nor ability
to return to our God. How far did man fall from God?
So far he couldn't get back. God had to come and get him.
The Good Shepherd had to seek him out and pick him up on his
shoulders and bring him home, or else he'd have stayed out
in the wilderness. Whether it is the way of the wild extravagance
in this world, the way of moral dignity and philanthropy, or
the way of self-righteous religion, It's always a way that seemeth
right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Whatever
the way is. Whatever your way is. If it ain't
Christ, destruction and misery follow it. Destruction and misery
follow our way. No one will ever return from
his own way. It's not in him. Not in man to
direct his step. said the Scripture. Christ the
Good Shepherd must leave those ninety-nine self-righteous folks
who don't need no repentance and go out into the wilderness
seeking that one lost sheep. And by Almighty efficacious grace
and sovereign omnipotence, find us and put us on His mighty shoulders
and bring us home or else we all will perish. What do you
have to do to go to hell and be born into this world? That's it. Barney, you say, you go to hell
if you can, and you will if you can. The only thing going to
stop you is the sovereign grace of Almighty God. Christ said,
I'm the way, the truth, and the life. All we like sheep have
gone astray. We turned everyone to his own
way. My way or thy way. That's what
we think. My own way. My way is right.
My way is right. We all believe that. We wouldn't
get so mad at people who don't do it our way. Isn't that right? Thank God the story doesn't end
here with these words. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way. There is more said here. It says, And the Lord, Jehovah
God, hath laid on Him, Jesus Christ, iniquity of us all. Laid on it. I want you to pause
for a moment and try to wrap your mind around this magnificent
truth. I've been preaching over 30 years
and I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it. I'll be honest
with you when I read that. I'm still overwhelmed by the
fact that God the Father, against whom we sin, from whom we strayed,
whose laws we have broken, whose justice must be satisfied, has
laid upon Jesus Christ, his dear Son, all the sins of all his
people. Look at verse 8. He was taken
from prison and from judgment. 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? The transgression
of my people. The Son of God was made to be
sin for us. Ponder that if you will, if you
can. All the sins of all God's people
were made to meet on the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? That we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. He who knew no sin was made to
be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. 1 Corinthians 5.21 And though this truth has captivated
my mind since God gave me ears to hear it, I confess that when
I think of it, when I am able to ponder it, I stand and utter
awe of the fact of it. Not only was the Lord of glory
punished for my sin, He was made to be my sin. Made to be my sin. Not only did Christ bear the
wrath and indignation of God Almighty that was due my sin,
He was made to be my sin. The Son of God was made to be
sin for us because there is no possible way in the world for
God's elect to be discharged of their sins but for Christ
to be made sin for them. Whatever the reason for such
grace resides in the secret counsels of divine purpose and divine
will. This act that God performed,
and it was an act performed between God and His Son in those three
hours of darkness, finished off with the capstone of Christ freely
giving up His life in order that the law might be satisfied. There
was nothing in us or about us to compel such
favor from God. If you think in your warped imagination
that maybe somewhere along the line you might have done something
right and deserve the favor of God, you've missed it altogether.
This unmerited favor is the grace of God. If He graces you, it's
because you can't deserve it, you don't deserve it, and you
never will deserve it. Nothing you do can compel God
to show you grace. Likewise, there is nothing about
us, in us, or of us that can prevent Him from showing grace.
And I'm so glad about that. He can't be prevented. If He
set His grace upon you, you're going to be graced, highly graced
and fully graced, if He set His grace upon you. Grace is not
an offer. I know men like to talk like that. God's grace is
out here in this kind of big gigantic, anemic pool of kindness,
and you just have to come along and stick your straw in and suck
a little bit up when you want to. No. Listen. Every time grace
is used in Scripture, somebody is graced. It's never used as
an offer. Grace is not an offer. It's a
sovereign benefaction. I will be merciful unto whom
I will be merciful. I will be gracious unto whom
I will be gracious, saith the Lord as He declared His glory.
However, once God has made this eternal determination to save
His elect, whenever He made that, He could only do it on the basis
that His justice be satisfied. God is not going to save you
because He likes you. God is going to save you or has
redeemed you because somehow His holy law and righteous justice
has been satisfied, completely satiated. Justice can only be
satisfied, the law can only be kept one way. How do you keep
the law? How do you keep the law? Well,
you be good. The law doesn't have anything
to do with you being good, it has something to do with you being
bad. The law declares what you are. The law declares the penalty
for what you are. The law declares the sentence
for what you are. The law didn't tell you to be good. The law
was written because down at the bottom of that mountain, when
those laws were written, those people were doing those things
those laws were written about. They were building a golden calf when
God was telling Moses, write this down. Thou shalt have no
other gods before me, and thou shalt not make any graven image
of anything. What were they doing down at the bottom? They were
having another god before God, and they were making a graven image of
a golden calf. The law defines sin. Well, how do you keep the
law? Three letters. A three letter word. Very simple
now. You can write this down. You can put it in your pipe and
smoke it. You can put it as a model one you want. Here is how you
and I and anybody else, everyone keeps the law. You die. Because you're a sinner. And
the soul that sinneth it shall die. That's how the law is kept.
That's how Christ kept it. That's how he did it. So he lived
perfectly. He wasn't keeping the law. The
law didn't have anything to do with him. The law has nothing to do
with the righteous man. He was perfect. The law looked him up
one side and down the other and found no fault in him. The law
couldn't say he's a sinner because he wasn't one. But what did the
law require? That if I'm to be redeemed, Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, must die. And it must be accounted
as my death. in order for God to set me free.
Justice must be satisfied. And listen, once justice is satisfied,
there is no more payment for sin. Justice cannot twice demand
payment at my bleeding surety's hand and then again at mine.
This whole world's religion is nothing but an unjust treatise
a treatise about how unjust God is because they have God loving
people from their birth right up to their death and then hating
them and putting them in hell. They have Jesus Christ dying
and paying for their sins and then they have to pay for them
themselves. No, if the debt has been paid, nobody owes anything. That's just it. The law is kept
and justified when its penalty is fully exacted And when Jesus
Christ came out on the other side of punishment that was due
our sin, when God rolled up His sleeves and pummeled Him, when
God poured out His wrath on Jesus Christ, that's the punishment
for our sin. He came out on the other side alive, because He
said, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Then, that
the Scriptures might be fulfilled, He took the vinegar, and He cried,
It is finished! And he gave up the ghost. Why
did he give up the ghost? Why did he die? He had already
been punished for our sin because the law is not satisfied by punishment. The law is satisfied by death. And Jesus Christ died. Hell is
eternal because our death is insufficient to satisfy justice.
So we just keep on being punished forever. One man said hell is
God getting what he can from man. Pretty close. Pretty close. Only Christ, the
Lamb of God, could accomplish such an efficacious death. And
He did so when He was made sin for us. Made sin for us. God looked upon Christ as the
surety of His elect in the covenant of grace and said, Deliver Him
from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom. When the
Lord laid on Him the iniquities of us all, All the sins of all
the elect were gathered together in one huge, hideous, obnoxious
pile of putrefaction and were made to meet on the perfect Lamb
of God. He was made to be sin for us and was punished and died in
our place. If you read the Scriptures, you'll
find those Psalms where it pictures Christ speaking about this incident. He called those sins His own.
He said, mine iniquities cover me. I'll tell you what, you want
association? You want identification? Jesus
Christ so identified with us that when He was made to be sin
for us, He called them His sins. I am a worm and no man, he said
in Psalm 22. Though our Lord never sinned.
We don't even have any idea what that means. I try to think about
it today once in a while. That's so beyond our comprehension. We are not able to perceive even
the slightest notion of what that means. To not sin? I can't
preach without sinning. I can't pray without sinning.
I can't praise God without sinning. I can't thank God without sinning.
I sin all the time. All I do is sin and I'm a sinner.
That's what sinners do. So when I think of one who walked
this earth for thirty-three and a half years and never sinned,
I can't imagine what that is really. But he never sinned. Jesus Christ never did. He never
knew sin. He was separate from sinners.
He was the spotless Lamb of God. and whatever the meaning of sin,
whatever the depth of corruption is involved in that word sin,
our Lord freely, voluntary, was made to be for His people. He bore our sins in His body
on the tree, saith the Scripture. Christ really did bear all our
sin. Just as the surety is really
a debtor, when He willingly puts Himself
in the room instead of another, so Christ was really made seen. Now this transaction was not
man's doing, it was God's doing. This was God doing business with
God about and for His people and for Himself. Jesus Christ
first offered Himself to the Father as the perfect sacrifice
in order to satisfy law and justice. Before God will ever do something
for you, He did something for Himself on Calvary Street. This transaction is God's doing,
conceived by infinite wisdom, brought by infinite love, ordained
in infinite grace, and executed by infinite justice. The Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Sin, the greatest
burden in the world, the most loathsome thing in the universe,
the awesome weight that drives worlds down to the regions of
the damned. Sin that must surely have crushed
our soul in hell's eternal mystery, our sin. was laid upon the God-man
by God's own hand. This was not an accident. There was no second-hand plan
here because a whole lot of other stuff God tried didn't work. It was not hope invested in the
affirmative will of depraved humanity. This was God's business. And this is how God's known.
You want to know God? Don't look out here and say,
I think that I shall never see His poem as lovely as a tree. You know, I know God made these
things. You know what that does? It leaves
you without excuse, according to Romans chapter 1. Look at
God in nature. That's not how you know God.
You might see Him there and see clearly that He's powerful. But
you can't know Him there. Look at what John 17 just warned.
Hold your place in Isaiah 53. You want to know how you know
How do you know God? And it's absolutely imperative
that you do. Because knowing God is eternal life. You don't
know God, you don't have it. Well, I was raised in a church,
bullet for you. I was raised by Christian parents.
I'm real proud for you. God don't have any grandchildren.
Understand that. He only has children. In John
chapter 17, the high priest in the prayer of our Lord, listen
to what he says, because this is important. These words spake
Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven. He's talking about
the words that he spake in verses 13 through 16, when he gave his
disciples instructions about what the world was going to be
like when he wasn't with them physically. And then after he
did that, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, The hour
has come, the hour of destiny, the hour of His death. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son
may glorify thee. Now what glorifies the Father
and the Son? What glory will God give the
Son, that the Son may glorify the Father? This is it, as thou
hast given Him power over all flesh, authority over all flesh,
that He might give eternal life to as many as God has given Him.
That's how you're going to know Christ. This is how Christ glorified
God. Now listen, if everyone whom
God gave to Christ does not have eternal life, that is not going
to glorify God. Because it says, Glorify thy
son, that thy son may glorify thee, as thou hast given him
power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him, whoever those many are. If they do not have
eternal life, Christ did not glorify the Father, the Father
will not glorify the Son. And it's in that capacity, this
wondrous transaction, that Christ glorifies the Father and the
Son by giving eternal life to as many as God has given Him,
that we know God. And this is eternal life, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. This is eternal life. Do you
know God? Do you know God? Who else but God? the sovereign could ever conceive
of such a thing as deity standing in the place of sinners. Suffering and dying for sinners. Why, if you thought it up, God
would have to kill you for blasphemy. Because He said it's an abomination
to Him for the just to be in prison and the guilty to go free. He said it's an abomination.
And yet, here we have it. Here we have it. God punishing
the innocent. And the guilty going free. And
yet, that's not the case. Because God punished the guilty. Because He made His Son to be
sin for us. And once our sin was removed
from us, we were righteous. And so he let the innocent go
free. God always does what's right. You can count on that. You can count on that. Micah
says, Who is a God like unto our God, that pardoneth iniquity,
that covers the transgression of his people? What kind of God
is that? Who else but God could lay sin
upon God? I certainly couldn't do it. Who
else but God could punish God for sin? Who but God could dispose
of sin for the salvation of His people. Some think that we lay
our sins upon Christ. That's the modern vernacular.
It sounds good. It looks good to the public. People like to
come down front and throw the cigarettes on the altar. I will lay it on the altar. There
ain't no altar in the church. Ain't nothing down here except
some silk flowers. And I'm telling you, they can't
do you no good. You can't even make tea out of them, because
they're still flowering. It ain't going to do you no good. There ain't no altar in the church.
It's the old-fashioned altar. We get at the old-fashioned altar,
grab a box of Clarence and cry all over the place. Oh, how sweet
that sounds. How lovely. Everybody come down
in front, moan and groan, feel better about themselves. Let
me tell you something. The last altar was two thousand
years ago on Calvary's tree when Jesus Christ, the Son of the
Living God, was made to be sin for His people and offered Himself
a sacrifice for sin. That's the last one. Well, I'm
going to make an altar out of a stump. Go ahead if you want
to. I hope you don't get termites. You don't lay anything on God.
You don't lay your sin on an altar. This transaction that was the
redemption of all God's people, man wasn't even involved in it.
Not in that great transaction. That was between God and His
Son. To lay iniquity upon Christ is
the work of Jehovah God alone. And the Lord Jehovah laid on
Him the iniquity of us all. Blessed are those who have ears
to hear the good news. The transfer of sin from Christ
or from you to Christ is not something that must be done.
It is something that has already been done. The Lord hath laid
on Him the iniquity of us all. And that was said many, many
centuries before Christ was born. So this is an eternal thing with
God. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
It doesn't say, The Lord shall lay the iniquities of us all
upon Christ, if we will meet certain conditions and terms.
It says, The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. It's
a done deal. The old hymn says, Tis done! The great transaction's done! I am the Lord's and he is mine.
It's done. How many letters does your religion
have? Mine has four. How many does
yours have? Some people's religion only have
two. D.O. Do. Mine has four. D.O.N.A. Done. Done. The Lord has done it. There's nothing for you to do.
Faith believes and rejoices in what Christ has done, not what
He's going to do. Nothing can undo what God has
done. If He hath burst you into His
kingdom, you can't ever be unborn, or deborn, or whatever. Faith believes Christ, and there
is not a moment in time or a condition possible in which God will transfer
sin back to Christ, or back from Christ to His people. John says we don't fear the judgment.
We don't fear the judgment because as Christ is, so are we in the
world, 1 John 4, 17. Sin, once laid upon the scapegoat,
is carried away into the land of forgetfulness, never to be
seen again. That's why Paul could say, Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather is risen again, is even at the right hand of the Father,
making intercession for us. Listen, if you can be charged
with sin on any level, any sin, anytime, anywhere, you are not
going to be with God in glory. You are going to perish in hell
because that is where you belong. When Christ said it is finished,
the word there He uses is perfect. That is the word he used in Hebrews
chapter 10 when he said, He hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified by one offering. Who Christ is declares that His
work is a complete success. He hath laid on Him the iniquity
of us, on Him. History is a hymn book. This
is a hymn book, H-I-M, hymn, all over. He shall not fail nor
be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth, Isaiah
said, speaking of men in Isaiah 42. Who is He? In Isaiah 53 and
52 and verse 13, He is Jehovah's servant. Jehovah's servant. Look
at verse 13 of chapter 52. Behold, My servant shall deal
prudently. And that word there is actually
a double repetition of the word prudent. And it really means,
my servant shall succeed successfully. That pretty well covers it, don't
it? He shall succeed successfully,
or prosper, prosperously. He shall be exalted and extolled
and very high, this servant of the Most High God. He's a root
out of dry ground in verse 2 of chapter 53. For he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground.
There wasn't nothing left but desert and dry hard clay. In David's line, Joseph and Mary
both were poor. David's line was altogether just
about defunct. Out of that dry ground proceeded
the King of kings and the Lord of lords, born by the Holy Spirit
in a virgin's womb. He is the despised and rejected
man of sorrows. Verse 3 says, He was despised
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised
and we esteemed him not. He was the innocent holy substitute. In verses 8 and 9, You can read it. He was a successful
Savior in verses 10 and 11. We just read that. He is the
sovereign Lord in verse 12. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. God was determined to have a
people as pure and as holy and clear and righteous as Himself. Just like His Son, He determined
all His people to be conformed to the image of His Son. in whom
to show forth the glory of His grace. If you read Ephesians
chapter 1, you find one phrase repeated over and over again
by the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Verses
1-14. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. Of His grace. That means you
are out of the equation, folks. You cannot take any credit for
yourself. And if you're a child of God, you don't want to. You
despise the thought of taking credit for your sin. My salvation,
my redemption, happened 2,000 years ago when Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, was made to be sin for us, when God made Him
to be sin. When the Lord laid on Him the
iniquity of us all, us all who had gone our own way, us all
who were like sheep had gone astray. all of his people and
they were saved because he shall see of the travail of his soul
and shall be satisfied. What has God done for his people?
Everything necessary for them to be in a right and acceptable
standing with him. What have you done? I'm glad I don't see a show of
hands because you ain't done nothing and neither have I. Oh,
what God has done. You say, well, how do I know
I'm in it? How do I know I'm one of them
must-alls? Do you want it? Is it your desire? Where did you get that from?
You weren't born with it, was you? No, you come forth in the
womb telling lies as soon as you're born. You weren't born
with that desire. God has given it to you. If you have that desire, it's
because God's given it to you. That's a sign of life. Spiritual
life. I pray God will awaken your soul
and mine to the beauty and the glory of what God has done by
His Son Jesus Christ for His people. Because that's all that
matters in this world. If you don't believe that, you
stick around. Hang around. You'll find out. It's all that
matters in this world. Father, bless us for understanding
and praying in Christ's name.