Series: Isaiah
Title: Straying Sheep and our Shepherd
Text: Isaiah 53: 6
Date: November 24, 2013
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Our text is Isaiah 53:6. We have here, Straying
Sheep and Our Shepherd (title)
Proposition:
Believer, God has laid on Christ the iniquity of all God’s elect, including
every sin of every individual child of God, therefore by Christ bearing our
iniquity away, we are alive to serve him forever!
I. FIRST, A GENERAL CONFESSION TRUE OF ALL
GOD’S ELECT, WHICH WE CONFESS TO BE TRUE OF US ALL TOGETHER--“ALL WE like sheep
have gone astray”
The
ones making this confession are Christ’s sheep—the elect of God. Christ said, “I
lay down my life for the sheep.” (Jn 10: 15) Those God chose unto salvation in
Christ before the foundation of the world are Christ’s sheep. The elect only
are the sheep. Christ laid down his life only for the sheep. Only those who are
the sheep will honestly make this confession about ourselves—“ALL WE like sheep HAVE GONE ASTRAY.”
In the
beginning, in the garden, we were the sheep of God, of Christ our Shepherd. Christ
our God was our Shepherd, even then. Peter said, 1 Peter 2:25, “For ye were as
sheep going astray; but are now RETURNED unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your
souls.” That means we were with him before.
The garden with God as our God was our green pasture: we had Light, Life,
Fellowship, Communion with God because God our Shepherd was all of those things
to us.
The law
of God was the hedge around our green pasture.
Adam’s good, his safety, was to stay near to God, to obey God. To stray
from God, to disobey God, meant certain death for him and for all those who
would come from him—you and me.
Therefore,
when Adam transgressed that one law in the garden, in him, ALL WE broke through
the hedge, ALL WE like sheep, went astray. Therefore in Adam, ALL WE died. We
were severed from God our Life and from God our Light.
Romans 5: 12: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all
have sinned:
What a
proper comparison to describe us as sheep—we are dumb like sheep, in constant
need of a shepherd like sheep. Spurgeon said, “Sheep are dishonored by the
comparison.”
Someone
might say, “Well, if Christ was our Shepherd even then, why did he allow us to
stray?” According to God’s determinate counsel and foreordination, according to
his eternal purpose, God our Shepherd allowed us to stray. First, to show us what
we are if left to ourselves—we need a Shepherd to keep us. Secondly, it was to manifest his glory in our
salvation. God was not to blame for our straying, only we are to blame,
Ecclesiastes 7:29: Lo, this only have I found, that God
hath made man upright; but THEY have sought out many inventions.
So our
text says that all are guilty—there are no exceptions—this is the general
confession of all Christ’s sheep--“ALL
WE, like sheep, HAVE GONE ASTRAY” Is there not one among all Christ’s sheep
that is good. God said, Psalm 14:3: They
are all gone aside, they are ALL TOGETHER become filthy: there is none that
doeth good, no, not one.
II. SECONDLY, IT GETS PERSONAL. HERE IS A
PERSONAL CONFESSION WHICH EACH INDIVIDUAL ELECT CHILD OF GOD SAYS OF OURSELVES,
PERSONALLY,--“We have turned every ONE to HIS OWN way”
As soon
as we were born of Adam’s corrupt seed, we each, individually, personally, turned every one to his own way.
Psalms 58:3: The wicked are estranged from the womb: THEY go ASTRAY as soon as THEY
be born, speaking lies.
Each of
us, every one, chose “a way”, which personally seemed right to us.
Proverbs 14:12: There is a way which seemeth right unto a
man,
You
chose a way that seemed right to you, I chose a way that seemed right to me, another
chose a way that seemed right to him. There are as many different, individual
false ways, as there are sinners.
One chose
a way called “immoral sin.” One resolved within himself, “I only have so long
on this earth so it seemeth right to me that I should kick up my hills and live
my life in immoral decadence all my days.” And there are as many different ways
to indulge in this path as there are sinners in this world—each chooses his own
way.
Another
man chose the way of “moral sin.” There are as many different ways to indulge
in this way as there are sinners, as well. For instance, one chose a life of
morality. He hopes his good will out weight his bad. He had no concept that God is holy, that he
is guilty and that God will be no means
clear the guilty
Another
chose a way that seemed right to him--“his personal decision for the god of his
imagination.” The way that seemeth right to this man was to “let his powerless
god have his way and to save him.” This
man is his own god. He trusts in his own will. He has no idea that God is absolutely
sovereign to do as he pleases and is just to do so with us for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God
Illustration: Sheep will stray away from their shepherd but they
cannot discern the way back so they will not return of themselves. In that regard,
sheep are dumber than an ox or an ass. We, like sheep, are just that dumb. Of
our own will, we went astray from God but we will not, of our own will, return
to God. A sinner has no spiritual discernment, so of his own will, a sinner
will not return to God. God said,
Isaiah 1:3: The ox
knoweth his owner, and the ass
his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not
consider.
Furthermore,
Christ said our unbelief is sin. To say a
man can, of his own will return to God, is to say he can put away his own sin. God
says it cannot be done. Christ “knowing
us”, intimately, becoming one with us in the new birth as a husband his bride,
is how we are born of God, made willing in the day of his power and
irresistibly drawn to Christ in faith.
John 10: 27: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and
they follow me: 28: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
So in
the end, Christ will say to the man trusting in his own will, “Depart from me,
ye worker of iniquity, I never KNEW you.”
Another
chose a way called “keeping the law—self-justification”, self-sanctification.” The
law given at Mt. Sinai—including the ten commandments—were given to show God’s
people our sins, not for us to attempt to justify or sanctify ourselves by the
law.
Romans 3; 19: Now we know that what things soever the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world may become guilty before God. 20: Therefore by the deeds of
the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the
knowledge of sin.
Galatians 3:3: Are ye so foolish? having begun in the
Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
So in
the end this man will try to enter not wearing the wedding garment—Christ our
Righteousness. There are many more ways men chose but you get the point, “we have turned every one to his own way”
Yet,
when you take each individual sinner’s personal way, God says together they are
all “the ways of death.”
Proverbs 14:12: There is a way which seemeth right unto a
man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Christ
Jesus said, “I am THE WAY!” There is only one Way.
John 5: 39: Search the scriptures; for in them ye think
ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 40: And ye will
not come to me, that ye might have life.
This is
what each individual child of God confesses about ourselves personally. We have turned every one to his own way. The
sinner who will not confess this to be true about himself is dead in his sins,
without the word of God abiding in him.
1 John 1: 10: If we say that we have not sinned, we make
him a liar, and his word is not in us.
III. SO GOD, IN GREAT GRACE AND MERCY TOWARD
HIS ELECT, DID THIS GREAT THING—THIS IS THE GOSPEL ITSELF--“The LORD hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Together,
all we like sheep have gone astray and the LORD laid on Christ the iniquity of
all his elect sheep. Individually, personally, we have turned every one to his
own way; and the LORD laid on Christ the individual, personal iniquity of each
one of his elect sheep.
First,
notice who did this—“the LORD hath…” It
means the triune God hath and it means Christ who is the fullness of the
Godhead bodily willingly did this. Think of that! Repentance and faith does not
do this—“the LORD hath.” This is not done when the believer is called out of darkness
into his marvelous light—“the LORD hath.” This is not something done
repeatedly—“the LORD hath”. It was done once and the work is finished.
Secondly,
notice who the substitute is taking the place of God’s elect—“The LORD hath laid on him”—on Christ. Christ
Jesus is the Substitute Lamb that God himself provided for all God’s elect and
for each elect child individually. The first head and representative of God’s
elect was a man, the last head and representative was a man.
1 Corinthians 15:21: For since by man came death, by man
came also the resurrection of the dead.
Now,
see what was laid on our Substitute—“the
LORD hath laid on him the iniquity.” What does it say and what does it not
say? It says, “The Lord laid on him the
iniquity." Punishment followed,
but not before the iniquity itself was laid on him. When God says, he laid on
him the iniquity, then that is what God did. The Holy Spirit does not say, it were as if the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity. It says, “the LORD
hath laid on him the iniquity.” To
bear the iniquity of God’s elect in his own body unto death is the very purpose
for which God gave the Son of God a human body.
Hebrews 10: 4: For it is not possible that the blood of
bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5: Wherefore when he cometh into the
world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou
prepared me: 6: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no
pleasure. 7: Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written
of me,) to do thy will, O God.
Hebrews 2: 9: But we see Jesus, who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and
honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every [chosen child
of God.] 10: For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all
things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings. 11: For both he that sanctifieth and they
who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call
them brethren,…
Next,
note whose iniquity was laid on him?—“the
LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Of course this means all the sheep, the elect of God, those ordained
to eternal life by God the Father.
Christ Jesus,
the GodMan, never committed transgression.
He came into this world to fulfill the law, and he fulfilled the whole
law. Christ Jesus as a man, made under
the law, was examined by the law and found just.
Isaiah 42: 21: The LORD is well pleased for his
righteousness’ sake;
But he
came into this earth to “magnify the law, and make it honourable” for his
people (Is 42: 21)—that God might be just and the Justifier of him that
believes in Jesus. (Rom 3: 26)
Therefore,
when the hour was come, being the only righteous One—without spot and without
blemish—Christ Jesus was the only one fit Lamb to bear the sins of his people.
1 Peter 3:18: For Christ also hath once suffered for
sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
So he
willingly gave his body, as the substitute Lamb, to bear the iniquity of his
people and thus justly bear our judgment—the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all.
2 Corinthians 5:21: For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Men
say, it means he was made a “sin offering” for us. Indeed, he did make his soul an offering for
sin. But the word “sin” is the antithesis to the word “righteousness”. If you
make that word to be “sin offering” then the antithesis is destroyed. It means
what it says, “he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
1 Peter 2:24: Who his own self bare our sins in his own
body on the tree,…
Galatians 3:13: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that
hangeth on a tree:
God did
not merely count him to have died for his people, Christ had to die for his
people. And for God to be just to pour out judgment upon him, God did not only
impute sin to him, God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin.
Brethren,
do not miss the blessing of this truth, because of the smoke screens of Satan—your
iniquity became Christ as truly as it was yours—not yours only but the iniquity
of every chosen child of God. Each way
we each chose, altogether were the ways of death. The ways we called just and
righteous did not equate with God’s definition of justice and righteousness—but
was iniquity. The ways we called holy did not equate with God’s definition of
holiness—but was iniquity. And all our iniquities can all be traced back to one
transgression in the garden—the sin, the iniquity of Adam. So the LORD hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all. Of
Adam’s iniquity and of all our iniquities personally—all made one mass & laid
it on Christ.
Take
all our various ways—compare them to a number of paths that no man can number
because God’s elect make a number no man can number. Picture all our ways—criss-crossing this globe, innumerable inequities—sins
of every kind and every degree of every elect child of God past, present and
future of all our sins past, present and future. The LORD brought all our ways
to converge from the north, south, east and west into one giant mass of
iniquity and made it converge and meet upon one—Christ Jesus our Substitute—the
LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Picture
a tall mountain. Behold, coming down the side of that mountain streams from every
direction. All those streams flow down
to converge into one giant stream, and it all dumps into one lake at the bottom
of the mountain. All those streams are the iniquities of us all—all God’s elect
past, present and future—all of our personally iniquities. The LORD made all
the personal iniquities of every elect child of God to converge into one giant river
of iniquity and the whole load to dump upon our sinless Substitute--the LORD
hath laid on him THE INIQUITY of us all.
Under
the Old Testament—in the type—and it was only a type not the express image—but
in the type we read,
Leviticus 16:21: And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon
the head of the live goat, and confess
over him all the iniquities of
the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting
them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a
fit man into the wilderness: 22: And the goat shall bear upon him all
their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the
wilderness.
More expressly
than that which Aaron did only ceremonially upon the scape goat, Christ Jesus
our great High Priest, who is himself the LORD, laid on him the iniquity of all
his elect people. All the iniquities of the children of
Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins did he put upon his own
head—and he owned them to be his own. Being the only fit man who himself could
took our sins away, Christ bore upon him all our iniquities unto a land not inhabited—v8:
“he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the
transgression of my people was he stricken.” v5: “He was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities”. V8:…for the transgression
of my people was he stricken”.
Now
brethren, by his stripes we are healed! God raised him from dead declaring
before the whole earth—justice is satisfied: propitiation has been made. God is
Just and the justifier of all who believe on Jesus Christ the Lord (Romans 3:
25-27.)
Jeremiah 50:20: In those days, and in that time, saith
the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none;
and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom
I reserve.
Christ
our Shepherd came looking of rus and gathered us and made us born-again of
incorruptible Seed by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. He
taught us this good news and made us willing to believe him and to abide in
him. Why? He did so that we might not
henceforth live unto ourselves but unto him.
1 Peter 2:24: Who his own self bare our sins in his own
body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto Righteousness: [that
we should live unto the LORD our Righteousness] by Whose stripes ye were healed.
25: For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now RETURNED unto the Shepherd
and Bishop of your souls.”
Luke 1:74: That he would grant unto us, that we being
delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, 75: In holiness
and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
Believer,
Christ was not made a sinner, he was made sin. And thus by his cross-work, and
by his work in our hearts, we are not merely made holy and righteous, but we
are made “holiness and righteousness,” “created anew in righteousness and true
holiness,” even "the righteousness and holiness of God."
Psalm
32: 1: «A Psalm of David, Maschil.» Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2: Blessed
is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, AND in whose spirit
there is no guile.
In our
spirit we have been made as he is—that is why we serve him in the new man
without fear. And one day in our body and spirit we shall be perfectly conformed
to his image. He saved us that we should
serve him all the days of our life. Believer, how long are the days of our
life? The flesh is grass. It shall wither and die. But the word of the Lord—by which your new
man is alive—liveth and abideth FOREVER! We shall serve him from now until
forever!
Brethren,
live your life reverencing God but not fearing God, do so in thankful
adoration, praising him that he hath laid on our Shepherd the iniquity of all
us straying sheep!
Amen!