Isaiah 53:6
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Good evening. I'm going to take a little liberty to just say, to sit and hear. and be able to join in. the prayers of this congregation. Thank you. It is an unbelievable privilege. Oh. The power of it is... palpable. So we have a beautiful...
gospel verse tonight because it sums up the whole gospel. It's a Bible verse I meant to say. Holt sums up the whole gospel in a single verse. Oh I'm not going to be able to enhance it. So we'll just take it a Look at a couple facets of it. It's Isaiah 53.6. It's already been mentioned. It's on the front of your bulletin. It's at page 6. 14 of your pew Bibles. Here it is. All we like sheep have gone astray.
we have turned Everyone. To his own way. And the Lord has laid on him. the iniquity. of us all. If you're here tonight, you came with a friend by chance, or we have a few children with us. um Let me begin simply by saying, if you're kind of trying to sort out Christianity... which surely you are, It's not a...
It's not something that just comes natural to us. Oh We begin Tonight's verse was something I think it's very easy to understand. where it says, all Oh We, like sheep have gone astray. every one of us We want our own way. uh Don't you find it true? that you want. your own way. I want my own way. Melissa's sitting back there. You can just ask her.
She sees it Many, many times a day. Oh... That's the human way. We all want our own way. uh So if that's the way all humans are, what's wrong with that? That's the way everybody is. But you notice it says we've turned. we've turned to want our own way. What have we turned from? We've turned from God's way.
We've turned from. the what the but God who made us. And everything that's important to us. We've turned from his way. uh, That's rebellion. And I don't know if you've had experiences, I'm sure you have, but if any come to your mind where... You did something... that you thought you could do because you thought nobody was watching.
Mom and dad weren't watching, maybe your teachers weren't watching. Your friends weren't watching, your spouse wasn't watching, You thought nobody was watching. You felt free to do it. I can tell you I've done that many times. uh, I won't waste our time thinking of all the things that come to my mind immediately about when I thought my parents didn't know what I was doing. Some of them involved Max Stiles sitting over there, many more of them with my brother. uh but That is never God's experience.
He is always watching. He always knows. And these things build up, they build up, they build up, they build up. And the worst part of them is not what we have done. but it's what it says to God about what we think of him. We think he doesn't matter. - Oh. We think he doesn't see. We think he's stupid. We think he has no power.
It's an insult to him. That's our iniquity. That's the source... of all the bad things. that we do. We don't think... We treat him like he's not there. That's why what we talked about this morning... is so important. That's why the offer...
that Jesus Christ makes. To us. cannot be ignored. I just want to beg by, if you don't know Jesus Christ, if you've not already turned over your life to him, Think. Pray. Ask. Him to help you. to wake you up, to give you eyes to see.
because Complete failure. versus complete success depend upon that. Most of us in this room, you're at You're in church on Sunday night on a beautiful day. Oh. It's because you already know Jesus Christ. So, Let's look at what these verses say. Let's look at what these verses say. to us. The phrase all here, uh, It's actually a little different than what I thought the awe was referring to.
because We have portions of the Bible, and we know it's true in the Bible. that every human being. all people. have turned from God. That's the status of the human race. But this is actually not in this particular verse in Isaiah 53. It's not referring to the great lost mass of humanity. It's actually referring to the people of God.
And the reason we know that is the way it's used in the end of the verse. It begins with all, like sheep have gone astray. We've all turned everyone to his own way. But the Lord has laid on him... the iniquity of us all. Now, as was pointed out this morning powerfully, That's not true. of every human being. that the Lord has laid. the iniquity of every human being.
on Jesus Christ. As was pointed out, there were two thieves on the cross. Only the one who who who said, Jesus... I deserve to be hanging on this cross. Remember me. That's all you have to do. is look to Jesus and say, remember me. I want to be in your kingdom. I want to turn from doing my own way.
The thief did that. And what did he hear? today You will be with me in paradise. The other thief didn't do that. He did what we do when we don't. haven't turned to Christ, he mocked him. He... He did not hear today you're going to be with me in paradise. he went directly to hell. Thank you. So this all... actually refers to us.
And we know that in our minds, don't we? We know that... We are the same as the rest of lost humanity. but I'll have to speak from my experience, and believe me, I had plenty of evidence that I was part of Lost to Humanity. But, you know, I started to get cleaned up. became a Christian, I won't... We've got children in the room. I won't go over the things I left behind. Praise God. We hope they won't have that kind of testimony.
better that than none. uh, but The point being, Even I. could start looking down on other people. could start acting like uh, I'm better than some. But you know, in the workplace and out in the community, I run into people who are who do not know Jesus Christ, either have no religion whatsoever or they're Jewish or they're Muslim or they're Mormons. They're better people than me.
They're more honest. sometimes more kind, Now, That may be a sad fact. It is a sad fact. Graceless people. Nevertheless, with what's called the common grace, just their family background, their history. They're better than me. But you know, it's not contrary to the Bible. Dave Russell, the founder of Southeast Christian, used to be on the radio all the time, maybe still is a great preacher. uh particularly for 15, 20 minutes was all they gave him.
uh would like to say, you know, the church and the mafia are the only two organizations where you have to admit you're bad to get into them. So it's not contrary to the Bible. But nevertheless... We're capable of looking down on other people. We need to stop it. It ain't true. we're not better than other people. So that's one takeaway we can have from the awe.
that Jesus... has had the iniquity their iniquities laid on it. Thank you. Oh A couple quick things that are kind of... Well, actually, I've already used my first one. We can't look down at other people. Another thing to think about is when we face criticism. uh Pastors face a lot of criticism. Some of it's in their face. Most of it's on their back. But... All Christians were going to face criticism.
And by golly, I mean, some of it's unfair. But isn't it true... that if we're coming, or even unfair criticism, We're probably not as bad as the people. We're probably worse than they think we are. uh So... I think it's kind of freeing. to know that Hey. Maybe what you say isn't true, but they're probably worse. I'm not standing on my own. uh, morality.
I'm not spanning on my own abilities. I'm trusting in Jesus Christ. He's not my crutch. He's my wheelchair. He's my wheelchair. That's why the second part of this verse is so wonderful. Amen. And the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. I looked up the Hebrew word because I don't know any Hebrew for iniquity. It's bent. twisted, warped, kinda crooked.
That's the origin of that word. Oh Thank you. In the context of Isaiah 53, 6. uh We're not crooked. because we do crooked things. We do crooked things because we're crooked. Because there's something wrong in us. We want what we want, not what God wants. uh, "and it's this inward crookedness Our iniquities. that was lifted off of us.
And put on to Jesus Christ on the cross. The transaction is really summarized in 2 Corinthians 5.21. For our sake he made him to be sinned. who knew no sin. so that we might become the righteousness of God. Amen. Jesus didn't just take our punishment... He took our sins.
and There's a verse that I think captures this result. It's Hebrews 10, 14. It's page 1007 in your book. in your pew bibles you may want to pick that up and look at it i would never have believed this if i didn't read it myself Hebrews 10, 14. Page 1007 in your pew Bible. For by a single offering, that's Christ's death on the cross... He has...
Thank you. *sniff* perfected Perfect it. For all time. those who are being... Sanctify it. If you know Jesus Christ, you sit here tonight. perfected for all time. That's what it means when God laid onto Jesus.
all of our iniquity. Do you feel perfected tonight? No? I certainly don't. I don't feel that way. I've got sins I'm struggling with. I'm sure you do. I hope you do, because if you're not struggling, you're just falling for them. Oh But those... That struggle with our sins, it makes us feel everything but perfect, right? I felt a lot more perfect when I was lost.
Because it didn't have the Holy Spirit. on me all the time. Plus, the devil didn't get anything out of accusing me. He was hoping I wouldn't find out. Oh. Amen. But this is confirmation. Not a contradiction that the Lord has laid on him. the iniquity of us all. So do you ever feel I just feel too ashamed of what I've done today to pray. I feel too ashamed.
To come to church tonight. today. I feel too ashamed to witness. I feel too ashamed to take communion. Well, you ain't taking communion and praying on your own name anyway. Right? We're coming in Jesus' name. And we stand before a father who because of what he has done... has made us perfect. forever. That's not because of what we've done.
That's because of what happened in about 33 AD in Palestine. - When the Son of God had our iniquity laid on him. I Regardless of how we feel. Let's rejoice in that because it sure is the world true. Let's pray. Amen. Thank you. Our Lord God. I'd like to take some liberty tonight.
And pray that you would fill this place up on Sunday night. Thank you. And that we would be on your door with the... requests just like we've already heard. to advance your kingdom. in the way you want to. and the way That you will, if we'll ask you, Help us, Lord God, to... Believe what you say about us.
instead of what our... all. The world tells us. Our conscience may tell us. - Oh. And even... the truth that is our sins. Help us turn from them on the power. of the truth of your Word. That you have made us perfect. In your eyes because of what you did through your son. and draw any who do not know you, the children among us.
friends who may have come with someone else. To your Son. so that they can worship him together forever. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.