The Bad News and Good News

Thank you, brother. Can I turn to Isaiah chapter 53,

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

please? Isaiah chapter 53 And we're

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

going to read from the verse one and we'll read to the end of a

chapter, Isaiah chapter 53. I have no doubt it will be a

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

familiar reading to most of you. Galloward here, but maybe you're

hearing it for the first time. And this is one of the most

blessed passages in the Word of God.

Isaiah chapter 53, commencing our reading at the verse one.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

And once again we have a question asked here.

Questions were asked earlier on in the first of the gospel

songs. Well, here are some more

questions in the first verse. Who hath believed our report,

and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

For He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root

out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness

in. When we shall see him, there is

no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and

acquainted with grief. And we had, as it were, our

faces from Him. He was despised, and we esteemed

him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs,

carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,

smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our

transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.

The justice meant of our peace was upon him, and with His

stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone

astray. We have turned everyone to his

own way, and the Lord hath led on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his

mouth. He has brought us a lamb to the

slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so we

openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and

from judgement. And who shall declare his

generation? Or he was cut off out of the

land of the living? For the transgression of my

people was he stricken, and He made his grave with the wicked

and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence,

neither was any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased the Lord

to bruise him. He hath put him to grief.

When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.

He shall see his seed, 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

by his knowledge. Shall my righteous servant

justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore will I divide him apportion with the great, and he

shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured

out his soul unto death, And he was numbered with the

transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made

intercession for the transgressors.

Amen. Indeed, that God will bless the

public reading of His word. Let's seek his face, please,

just for a little moment in prayer.

Our Heavenly Father, we rejoice in the gathering in this church

tonight. The people have come together.

We have come primarily to worship Thee, for Thou art God,

and beside Thee there is no other.

We have come also, Lord, because this meeting has been designated

as a gospel meeting already, Lord, the gospel has been

proclaimed and so on, and in the reading of Thy Word and I, they

are has come. Blessed are for the preaching of

the Word of God. What a burden, Lord, lies upon

the preacher's heart tonight. What a great responsibility.

But think of the apostle who was compelled to cry out and say,

who is sufficient for these things?

A necessity was laid upon him. Indeed.

He said, Woe, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.

But we thank you for our our sufficiency is of God.

We're not left in our own Lord for this matter.

We can look to heaven for help. Bless, I word, each and every

heart goered here. Thou knowest those who are yet

unsaved. We want them to get saved.

We want them to be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

I mean, there's some among us, banks that cold of heart

wandering away from the Lord, half in and half out as far as

the world is concerned. Oh, we want to see them

restored. And that there be among your

people tonight a little reviving even in the midst of the years.

Lord, in the midst of the years make known.

Give me the power that I need in Jesus name, Amen, Amen.

And to words of verse 6 that we want to look at tonight right

there in the very heart of this chapter 53.

It says all we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord have led

on him the iniquity, the sin of us all.

For anyone who is acquainted with their Bible both in the Old

and in the New Testament, Isaiah chapter 53 is perhaps one of the

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

easiest passages to interpret. The Lord in our verse Here verse

6 is God the follower and the hymn the masculine were there in

the same verse is a reference to God the Son.

And our interpretation here is confirmed in Acts chapter 8 when

Acts 8 · chapter mention

the New Testament where we read of a man called Philip the

Evangelist. He met up with an Ethiopian man

who was sitting in his chariot reading this very passage, this

very passage. And Philip the Evangelist drew

near and he took the initiative. He says, do you understand what

you're reading? And the man says, well, really I

don't, you know, I'm wondering here of whom is the prophet

speaking? Is he speaking about himself or

is he speaking about someone else?

And the Bible says of Philip the Evangelist beginning at the same

Scripture. He did what I'm going to do

tonight. He preached on the hymn Jesus.

We need to remember that it might not just been as clear at

that time to the original writers.

In first Peter chapter 1, the Bible talks about the prophets

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

enquiring diligently concerning this salvation.

It would seem to indicate to us that they didn't have all the

light that we would have. They.

Maybe they were wondering of whom is this prophet speaking?

But they testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the

glory that should follow, and certainly Isaiah and his friends

away back in those days, they had enough light in them to be

saved. The Spirit of Christ was in

them. But many of the details that we

take for granted now that we are familiar with in our age was

maybe at best somewhat hazy to them.

There's a little hymn in her hymn book.

It was written by Horatio, Horatio Bonner, Scottish

Presbyterian minister, way back in the 19th century.

And the second verse goes like this.

It says, rejoice and be glad. There's sunshine at last.

The clouds have departed and the shadows are past.

Now that's not a little happy song in this sense, not a little

song you might sing in a children's meeting.

The sun is shining in the sky. Do da, do da de No, What he

means is there is sunshine at last, The clouds, that is, and

the shadows, the Old Testament shadows, the types and shadows,

things that were hidden perhaps to the people wondering what did

they mean? He says they're now gone and

we've got the full light, the sunshine of the full revelation

of Scripture. We are no longer looking at an

incomplete jigsaw, but all the pieces that we need at this

moment are in place. We have the full light of

revelation and when we come to Isaiah chapter 53 written some

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

what was it 500 years, maybe 700 years, whatever there before the

birth of Christ. We are now reading it in 2025 in

the historical light of the cross of Calvary.

Isaiah gave us a prophecy. The four Gospel writers,

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John gave us the history.

The rest of the New Testament gives us the theology or the

light and the load, the application.

And maybe you're saying as we gather here tonight, well, what

does this tax mean to me? What benefit can I gain from

this tax I'm putting to you tonight?

I hope to prove to you that it should mean everything to you

here. I say here, and your soul shall

live. Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 6

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

deals with a fundamental problem.

A fundamental problem. You say I have enough problems

in my life. You might have, but here's a

fundamental 1 and you need to attend to this one first.

Let's look at the text. First of all, number one, with

three points tonight. Number one, we have this

problem, this fundamental problem, faithfully stated,

faithfully stated. What is it?

In a few simple words, it just says all we like sheep have gone

astray. Back in Isaiah chapter 30 and

Isaiah 30 · chapter mention

verse 10, as Isaiah, who wrote these words was ministering to

the people, he was visited by a delegation and they tried to

limit and to control his preaching.

That's never a good thing, you know, unless the preacher's out

of order. But Isaiah wasn't.

He was speaking by the inspiration of the Spirit of God

and back in chapter 30 and verse 10, this delegation of the great

and the mighty, they came to him and they said, look, we're not

trying to stop you from preaching.

Well, you know what's common, don't you?

After that, they always try and soften the blow.

It's like when you go into the get your little Jag and down in

the clinic. Well, don't then put that nice

little bit of cotton wool on you and then rub the skin just that

little bit. Well, you know what's coming

after that. And that's what these men did.

They're saying to them in the fact, look, we don't want the

limit You're you're preaching, but there's always going to be a

but here, isn't there prophecy. Preach on the US smooth thing,

she can almost hear them say, can't you?

The smooth things? Give us things that are

palatable. Give us things that truths that

are, yes, true, but they're not so upsetting.

You've been laying it on thick and fast, Isaiah.

Can you not ease back a little? But Isaiah didn't play their

little game. If they wanted to heap to

themselves, as the Bible says men in the last days will do,

false teachers who would cater only for their lusts and for

their itching ears. Then Isaiah says, men, you're

going to have to look elsewhere. I cannot cater to your desires

and your wants. You need to hear, Isaiah says,

the things that I am preaching to you.

And this problem, when it is faithfully stated, isn't

palatable to the Sinner. It's not what he wants to hear.

You know, taste has never been the bottom line in any court

case. We don't swear.

If we are called to go to court and we stand up in the witness

box, we'll put our hand in the Bible.

We might even hold it up. Or those who don't believe the

Bible can bring their own religious book, or they can just

put up their right hand there. It's an indication that they are

swearing. It's a very solemn thing, of

course, to swear to bring an oath, but we don't swear in a

court case to provide what is tasty.

We're not there to entertain the jury.

We're not there to entertain the judge.

No, we put our hand in God's Word and we swear to tell the

truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

And so it is when we come to preach the Word, we come to deal

with a problem here. We must look at it fairly and

squarely. It's not as a tasty tonight.

That's not the issue. There's our men and our pulpit

to cater for that, if that's what you want.

But in a pulpit like this, we must deal with that which is

written, the words of truth. Look at those words gone astray.

This is the problem. All we, like sheep, have gone

astray. And these words, of course, need

a point of reference in order to have a fact.

Because once you start to look at this, your first question,

the logical question is going to be from what standard have we

gone astray? From what path have we wondered

if I make a, a, a spelling mistake as well as you and I, I

write you a letter and you come back to me and say, well, you,

you spelt that word wrong. Well, we're going to have to.

I mean, I might say, well, fair enough, no big deal, is it?

But supposing I was on a fighting form and I would say,

well, no, I think you've got it wrong.

Well, what will we do? We would head probably to the

Oxford English Dictionary, wouldn't we?

We would go to the great authority and we would see who

had spelt it wrong. And here the matter relates to

sin. The word, their inequities, is

just another one of those myriad words for sin.

And the point of reference is binding upon us all because when

we step outside, first of all, the will of God, you step out of

the will of God and you step into sin.

And God in heaven, who sits on his throne of justice and

holiness is the sole arbiter of what is good and what is bad.

This is absolute truth. This is not something that is

negotiable. I, I, I say to you tonight,

ignore the chattering classes. Ask yourself, what does God, my

Creator, my judge? What does God require of me?

The will of God is clearly expressed in the law that bears

his name. The law of God is summarily

expressed in the 10 commandments, and those are very

important things to be acquainted with.

Here is the will of God. And if we stray like sheep from

these commandments, then this is inequity, because the Bible says

by the law is the knowledge of sin, because that's what sin is.

It is a transgressing of the law of God.

Now that word astray is a very expressive word, the Hebrew

language in which it was originally written, this very

expressive language. And we have the authorised

Version, which is a very expressive version of this very

expressive language, and it's translated elsewhere.

This word astray is used over in Psalm 107, verse 4, concerning

Psalms 107:4

the children of Israel in the desert for 40 years.

What did they do in the desert? They wandered.

All we like sheep have wandered away.

It's used over in second Kings chapter 21 and verse 9

2 Kings 21 · chapter mention

concerning a wicked man called Manasseh and it says of Manasseh

that he seduced the children of Israel to do wickedly.

Our words are are used and again in this Old Testament that the

word is translated elsewhere will not look at them all by the

word erred, erred. It's translated by the word

deceived. It's translated by the word

dissembled. And there's not one of those

words that you would wish upon yourself.

You're setting out on a journey. You don't want to be wandering.

You don't want to be deceived. You don't want to be dissembled,

set in total disarray, because when you have a strange sheep,

you have a lost sheep. And the famous parable that

Jesus told the word in Matthew 18, of course, bringing us into

the New Testament and Matthew 18 had talked about the sheep going

astray. And Luke 15, the same parable,

the word is that the sheep was lost, and it means to be lost

from fellowship with God. Again, the language of Ephesians

4 and 18 concerning an unsaved man, he is alienated, alienated

from God. He is alienated from God.

He's alienated from the favour of God.

He's out of kilter with God. The Bible says the wrath of a

sin hating God lies heavy upon the Sinner.

Sin is the just precursor of wrath.

The soul that sinneth wanders heirs, is dissembled out of the

way. The wages of sinner's death.

You'll notice there that it's universal.

We're still in our first point. It's universal in its scope.

Who does it apply to? All.

All. No exceptions.

The only exception, of course, was Christ Himself, the sinless

Son of God. But for the rest of us, born of

a natural generation, we have all gone astray, every one of

us. This is the problem here that is

faithfully stated. But notice again, as we look at

the passage #2 we have the problem here.

Further studied. It goes a little deeper.

He drills down a little bit more.

It says all we like sheep have gone astray.

Notice the middle part. We have turned everyone to his

own way. We ask the question, who is

responsible for the spiritual lostness?

We've always got to put the blame, don't we?

Somewhere. And we start to dig a little

deeper here. Well, how did this happen?

Who's to blame for this? Where does the buck stop?

As one of the old American presidents, he put it on his

desk. The bus, the the book.

The book stops here. Where does it stop in this

matter? Can we blame our first follower,

Adam? You see, we're all related

tonight. You're my relatives because if

you trace your family tree back and I trace my family tree back,

we're going to go back probably through job path.

I'd imagine being all on this side of the world.

We're going to go back the Adam and our first foer sinned

against God, and he must spare part of the blame for what is

happening today, because it says by one man, by Adam, sin entered

into the world, He opened the door, he let it in, and death

has passed upon all men. Can we blame our fower, Adam?

Yes, to a point. Can we blame the devil, the

devil's, the tempter, the seducer, The seducer?

We've used that word already. Yes, to a point.

Because he has blinded the minds of them that believe not.

Can we blame our words? Yes, to a point.

Wicked man, it says in Jeremiah 32 caused Judah to sin.

And maybe we can start looking for a scapegoat tonight.

We look in our family. You say all of you only knew the

family on which I grew up in or maybe we can look to our friends

and said I fell in with the wrong company.

These were boys I went to school with.

I ran around with them. If I hadn't had them, I would

have been so lonely on me own and they they led me in the sin

We can blame maybe even government policies and send

they're pumping us stuff out others morning, noon and night

and it's had an influence upon me in educational trends.

These are all small points. Tonight, they're all small

points. They're like those little fig

leaves sewn together to cover the nakedness of sending Adam

and sitting even sent as sinning Eve.

Because our text very firmly and very justly puts the blame where

it squarely belongs. You can bring all these other

things into play if you want. Don't forget, other people face

that as well. The Bible says we have turned

everyone to our own way. What we did, we did willingly.

Our wills are sinfully perverse. They're free.

Yes. Do you believe in the free will

of man? Yes.

In this sense, we call it the free agency of man.

We're not puppets, we're not puppets, we're not being moved

around, we're not blocks of wood, we're not ottomans.

So we're free, but at the same time and in a different

relationship, we're also bound. We're bound in sin.

That man that commits sin, the Bible says, is the servant, or

as it can be translated as a stronger translated, the slave

of sin. And man is a willing slave.

He sells himself in the spiritual slavery.

He is a rebel and a willing rebel.

And it's that that makes us fully accountable and therefore

justly punishable for our sins. The Lord stops in and he says

you did what you did freely. You did what you did because you

wanted to do it. You love the darkness rather

than the light because your deeds are evil.

When Adam sinned in the garden, he had thought he could hide.

Big garden, big trees got a way out of sight of the Lord's, we

thought. And God just came into the

garden. And he says Adam where art I

where art I. Of course, it was God's business

to summons Adam to appear. Things were never going to be

the same again. The fellowship was broken.

He was out of kilter with God. He was now an enemy of God and

God summoned him and Adam stepped out from behind the tree

with his little fig leaves and was answerable to God.

You remember Cain, it was Adam's son, his first born son, and he

wasn't in the garden. He, the Bible says he's in the

field with Abel, his brother. Abel's a righteous man.

Abel loves the Lord. He's a converted Sinner.

Cain is a wicked person and they have a little.

It says they talked in the field.

I have to dig deeper into that someday.

I would say they argued in the field.

I can see Abel. They're arguing for the blood

theology. You've got to come key in the

way of the blood. I came by the lamb.

I was accepted with God. You brought the fruit of the

ground. Yes, it looks so pretty, your

little flowers and your little vegetables, but God rejected

them. Why not come God's way?

And old Cain, the wicked, carnal, ratchet Cain rose up.

And you know what he did? He slew his brother.

And then God says to him, Cain, what hast thou done?

It's not that God didn't know, but he's dragging the confession

of guilt out of the mouth of Cain and going a lot further

than a sinning flower had ever done.

Because the case gets worse and worse and worse.

Cain checked God, he tried to deny his responsibility.

He says, am I my brother's keeper?

I really have to give an account.

And you know, that's the great mistake which people make.

We try and plead that we are innocent and the Bible says we

are guilty. There's a tendency today, it's

the problem of the age, to view our sins using the wrong set of

lands. And that's why and that's how

and that's when we go astray. There is a way that seemeth

right onto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death.

Man allows himself to be LED astray by his own wicked and

deceitful heart. Jeremiah 17 verse 9 is a

Jeremiah 17:9

fundamental verse. Never get away from at the heart

of man. Deceitful, deceitful, above all

things, desperately wicked. Who can know it?

That's why the Bible says that that man who trusts in his own

heart is a fool because he's trusting in a heart that is

deceitful. A deceitful heart was like a

deceitful friend. Many a man went into business

with a partner. He felt he could trust that man.

He felt they could do business together and the partner in

business was thieving money off him.

He was safe in a little way. He was presenting one set of

books when he had another. And the man says, I was

deceived. I never thought, well, the

deceiver is in your own heart. Heart of man by nature is wicked

above all things, desperately wicked.

The question, the challenges are, who can know it?

Who can Plumb the depths of the wickedness of his own heart?

And that's why the Word of God is necessary.

When you have the Word of God as your guide, you're thinking

straight. You're going to see things as

they really are. Let me tell you what the Bible

says about your way. It's a hard way.

You want to throw the Bible aside, say it's not for me.

It's a hard way. The way of the transgressor is

hard. That's what the book says.

It is a hopeless way. Oh, you say, but I am on the

side in the majority. There's many in my Rd.

Yes, it's called the Broad Rd. There's a name on it that's

called the Broad Rd. Where does it lead?

Leads to destruction. It's a hopeless Rd.

The problem further studied. Thirdly and lastly, here we have

the problem finally solved, the problem finally solved.

It's a human problem, but it has a supernatural answer.

It's not resolved to do better. And somebody taking you aside

and says, son, you know you need to pull up your socks.

That used to be the phrase one to pull up your socks.

You need to catch yourself on. It's not somebody taking you

aside and saying nothing. Let me let me show you here how

how you can deliver yourself. It's not clean up your life.

It's not men broken fences. That's here in our text.

Even though all we like sheep have gone astray, we're lost.

We have turned everyone to our own way.

We are responsible for our own condition.

Here's a message of the gospel the Lord laid on him, the Lord

Jesus, the iniquity of us all. And in one stroke it recognises

how sinful, how guilty and how hopeless we are.

And if you haven't had that realisation yet, that hasn't

come home to your heart by the conviction of the Spirit of God,

then then it's highly unlikely that this great Calvary truth

will benefit you that much. Because the Bible says it's not

those that are whole, that is healthy who need the physician.

Not that any of us are, but many people think, well, there's

nothing wrong with me. This gospel that you preach,

take it to the slums, take it to the where the drug addicts are.

Take it to the, the pubs when they're, they're falling out,

getting out and tripping over. And they, they're, they're

hooked. And they say, but it's not for

somebody upright like me. Well, if you think like that,

you don't need the physician. But it's the sick, the people

who realise their lost estate. It's not the healthy Jesus came

to call. Not the righteous, not the

righteous, but sinners Jesus will receive.

The only physician who can heal your sin sick soul is the very

God whom you spend your life rebelling against, not an

ignorance. God is not an ignorance of who

you are. He is not an ignorance of what

you have done. You may think, no, I saw you,

but with full knowledge. But He knows the end from the

beginning. With full knowledge, the Father

sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

The Good Shepherd came, and what did the Good Shepherd do?

He laid down his life for the sheep.

God the Father LED on him the iniquity of us all.

He sent them to the cross as our sin bearer and our great sin

bearer. The Good Shepherd came and He

went willingly to the cross. He went like the Lamb to the

slaughter. The sheep before her heirs was

done. He opened not his mouth.

The old hymn writer says he could have called 10,000 angels

to destroy the world and set him free, but he didn't do it.

They came for him and there's the disciples with them.

Peter grabs the sword. He's going.

Peter's going to fight. Peter's going to go down dying.

Peter has already said all men forsake yell, not forsake you.

Peter's wheedling the sword around like a madman and our

Lord's still in control and he says let these ones go, let

these men go, let these sheep go because it says in the book,

you're going to smite the shepherd.

The Good Shepherd gave us life for the sheep and they're in the

Calvary Centre cross. And that emblem of suffering and

shame, Christ bore our guilt. He was wounded.

It was our transgressions, He was bruised, It was our

iniquities. The chastisement of our peace

was led on Him by His stripes. Our we heedy bore our guilt.

He took my sins and my sorrows, and He made them His very own.

He bore the burden to Calvary. He suffered and he died alone.

He silenced in that. He satisfied the just demands of

the divine law, the laws clamouring rightly for our

destruction. Jesus silenced the law because

he said, let all the wrath fall in me.

That's why he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Because the wrath of a sin hating God was poured out in him

and he's secured. I don't believe he only

provided. That's true, but it doesn't go

the whole way. Let's go the whole way tonight.

He's secured salvation for his people.

That's why he cried it as finished.

The lost sheep was out in the mountains, wild and bare.

The Good Shepherd went out to look for it.

The parable that Jesus told. How long did he look?

Till we find it? Till we find it?

And he's looking for you tonight, Lost sheep.

Do you not hear his call? He's Westerling, as it were, for

you. He, he, he's shouting for you.

He wants you to hear his voice. He wants you to respond to his

message. You need to be saved.

Your excuses don't work when you make an excuse for your sin.

You're only multiplying your sin.

You're only adding another sin to this great mountain debt that

you have. The Bible tells you what you

need to do. You need to repent and believe

the gospel. That was the message of John the

Baptist. Very simple, very plain, very

understandable. Repent.

That means do AU turn, because if you're on the wrong Rd, you

need to do AU term. You need to get back round into

the right way. Repent and believe the gospel.

Call in the name of the Lord. The book is very clear in this

matter. All the simplicity of it all,

the wonder of it all. Whosoever that covers the all

who have sinned, whosoever shall call in the name of the Lord,

shall be saved. You can go home rejoicing

tonight that your sins have been forgiven, this great problem

finally solved and solved for eternity.

If you come as a Sinner to Jesus, May God draw you and

bring you to Himself.