Thaddeus Barnum emphasizes the profound message of Isaiah 53, which foreshadows the gospel of Jesus Christ, revealing our sinful nature and the need for redemption. He warns against the increasing chaos and lawlessness in society, urging believers to shift their focus from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness. Barnum highlights the importance of recognizing Jesus as the solution to our struggles, particularly in a culture overwhelmed by lust and greed. He calls for repentance and a return to the core message of the gospel, which offers true healing and freedom through Christ's sacrifice. Ultimately, he encourages the congregation to prepare for the coming judgment by ensuring their names are written in the book of life.

Almighty God, Almighty Father, we give you all the praise and all the honor and all the glory as we gather together here in the name of your Son. For so great a love and so great a mercy that you would send your only begotten Son, your beloved Son Jesus, that we who believe might not perish but be given access to the tree of life the gift of eternal life. Such abundance, such kindness, we give you all the praise. And so meet with us now here. Holy Spirit, open your word to us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Good morning. We have just listened to the reading of Isaiah 53. This passage of scripture, I would love if your Bibles, if you've got Bibles, if you go to that particular text, but it is so striking to me that here the Holy Spirit speaking through Isaiah would give us the fullness of the gospel message of the New Testament eight centuries before Jesus arrived. It is unthinkable how people can look at this Bible and say it's simply a book written by human author when you see the detail that is given to us in Isaiah 53 of everything proscripted of what would happen come that day of Bethlehem, come that day of Calvary. Here it is preaching the fullness of this new life that is found in Christ here, Old Testament, eight centuries before. It is the perfect diagnostic of our condition and it is the perfect treatment for our soul. What do I mean by that? Well, look for example at Isaiah 53 verse 6. For here you're going to see the words, we all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us have turned to his own way. This is the predicament since the day of Eden and out of the condition of the soul of us. It is the description of the sinful nature and the sinful heart. I would expand it deeper to say it reveals the very heart of the devil himself, his government, his systems, his structure. It's always me at the center, self at the center. Everything spirals in this world around me. So we go our own way. We do what's right in our own eyes because we live in a world where I is at the center, me and self is at the center. Not one generation has ever lived without this being the diagnostic. But I'm going to make my appeal to you because the scriptures make this appeal that as the times come to an end, before the Lord's day, before he comes in glory, there's going to be an increasing sense of lawlessness. There's going to be an increasing sense of this chaos of everybody doing what's right in their own eyes. The only way I can describe it is I've been serving in the pastoral role these many years is that, well some of you might know, probably you don't know, but some of you do know, that next year is the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. I would say to you what a great entrance into a time of permissiveness and sensuality. And it's like in these days everything is increased. Everything is just, it's like we're on a hyper steroid. The only image I have sometimes is it's like this IV has gone into the vein and lust is just pouring down into people's heart and gripping the world. I fear gripping many Christians. And in that lust and greed, everything seems to be built on sensuality, in seductiveness, sexuality, so that what ends up happening is that I'm finding people gripped by this power that's come over, this lust for more. You've got to have more. So many of our young and our old are being captured by all kinds of these images, the way people dress, the way people are. And there's a confusion in our country, confusion over sexuality, confusion over gender. And people are restless, they're discontent, don't know what to do with themselves. And they go to counselors, and they go to secular counselors, but secular counselors cannot give the antidote for this. But here I would suggest to you people find their own antidote. And their own antidote is to self-medicate. That's why so much alcohol is being, so much drinking, we've gone beyond moderation. We're now taking in more and more alcohol, more parties, more drunks, more drinks, drugs, more things to medicate us. Especially with all of this sort of built-up stress that's inside of it, and anxieties reaching pitch levels. We don't know what else to do but try to calm ourselves somehow. This has been the heartache because everybody feels this anxiety. Anxiety and stress, anxiety and stress and confusion, and this desire for more, and not knowing what to do. And then God help us, we turn on the television and you just don't know what's going to happen next. It is like we're back in the 60s, but on hypersteroids. The sense of civil unrest, the sense that don't you feel like somebody's going to get killed soon, something's going to happen soon. You always have this sense that something's really wrong in our culture. And now we're going to talk about politics. Well, I talk about politics. This goes beyond politics. This is the devil working at the end of time, bringing this sensuality, this lust into the souls. What will break us from this power? What will break us from this self at the center? Well, we race to church, but here's the point behind church. We're finding, if you could allow me to say it this way, we're finding sensual church. This is the heartache for me, consumer church. We're finding that people want to come to church. Why? Because we want to hear that I really am at the center, and the gospel that we want to hear is that God is for me. It's about me. And so our preaching, it goes off Jesus. It goes, unless it's about Jesus, what Jesus does for me. Now that I can listen to, but don't spend time with just him. It's not about him. It's about me. It's about me. Listen to me. Think about me. Talk about me. I'll talk about me, and when we're done, you can talk about me. Always that spiral inside. And so the consumer church has risen up. Just like the scripture says, the times will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own passions, their own desires, their own lusts. Talk about me at the center. And that's the passions behind it. That's what's going on in our present day. People are hearing a gospel that's no gospel at all. How do you stop this? How do you break from that power? How do you find freedom that belongs to us in Jesus? How does that happen? I'll tell you how it happens. The prophets rise up and they change the subject. They change the subject. It's not about you at the center. It's about Jesus at the center. It's about the Lord at the center. We change the subject. And that's why I would say to you, John gives us in seven words, literally, the power to break this kind of addiction of this ivy going into our systems. How does he break it? Seven words. He must increase, but I must decrease. He must increase, but I must decrease. Say it again. I'm no longer on center stage. He takes center stage. Now, the person who doesn't want to hear about this will literally glaze over. We want people to talk about us and to relieve our anxieties. We don't want to talk about the dethroning of the idolatry of self and the enthroning of Jesus because it sounds quite hollow. Hollow meaning you mean if I put Jesus first, my anxiety levels will go down, my shame, my guilt, my stress, all these things I am feeling. What if it doesn't work? Well, what if it doesn't work? And then you give me the five things to do. That's always what happens in a good sermon. The five things you're going to have to do. My fear is I'm going to go do them, and I'm still going to be caught in this cycle, still in the grip of the power of the devil over the power of lust and greed, and I'm going to feel the shame and the guilt, and I won't get out of it. What do I do? And so we change the subject, and that's exactly what the Baptist does. That's what the apostles did. The moment that the Baptist reached the shore of Jordan, the first message about Jesus is very important for us to hear because it literally jolts us out of our present time. It jolts us out of our present situation, out of our present circumstances, our present needs, our present needs that so govern everything we think about, and lifts us up. John's first message is he is coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead. He begins to speak of the coming judgment, that the Lord soon to come is coming to judge the living and the dead. Now, this is a stable doctrine literally put deep inside the gospel message. When Peter went to Cornelius's house in his opening address, he said the father has appointed his son to judge the living and the dead. When Paul arrived in Athens, he said the same thing. Therefore, God, having overlooked the times of ignorance, is now declaring to us that all people everywhere should repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, this judge who is coming to judge the living and the dead. Paul in his last epistle, 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1, charging Timothy, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God, in the presence of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, in view of his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be prepared in season and out of season. Confront, rebuke, and exhort with great patience and careful instruction, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. That's where it comes from. They'll want to have their ears tickled. That's where it comes from. Always the sense that there's a day coming in which judgment, the Lord's going to come to judge. Now, this is the problem. You might feel quite detached from that. You might think of this as an academic exercise. Until the spirit of God begins to bring the word of God alive to me, to you, that there's actually a day of judgment for you and for me, that we will be standing. We ourselves will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5 10, we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Each one of us will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, who is to judge the living and the dead when he sits on that great white throne. I'm not going to tire with this subject. Some of you want me to move on. I'm not going to move on. I'm going to take you to the end of the Bible, Revelation chapter 20. Listen to me. If Isaiah, eight centuries before, could hear the Holy Spirit giving the word of the New Testament gospel message, listen to the day that is yet to come and know that the Lord is faithful and true, that what he has said he is going to do. This is the day. It's described in Revelation 20 and verse 11. I saw a great white throne, him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away. No place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. It is called the resurrection of the just and the unjust. All people, all time, forever, on that day, will rise from the dust and stand before the Lord. And the books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one of them, each one, according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. You'll find that same description, 22 verse 12. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. So real is this, that by the time you get to chapter 21 and see the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, the kingdom of God descending, the beauty, the glory, the kingdom yet to come, it is very clear how entrance happens into the kingdom of God. Said in verse 27, 21-27, nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. And suddenly you realize this is not academic. This is not about some doctrine. This is a day that's coming for me. It's coming for you. It's coming for all of us. We are going to stand before the judgment seat of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's going to happen. And the thing about it that is so paralyzing is it's all true. If I am to be judged by what I have done, I have to ask the question, is my name written in the book of life? This is what made the people under the Baptist preaching shake. It's what made them, they didn't come out to hear John, oh he's such a lovely man, well not lovely, kind of weird clothing, but we love him, we love his words, and isn't it wonderful to be part of John's congregation? No, no. They heard John preach and they were rattled in the soul. Why were they rattled? Because the judge is coming and they were not ready. What was John's job? To get them ready. To prepare. How do you prepare? Praise be to the Lord there is a way to prepare. Repent, come down into the waters of baptism. Let the waters wash you inside and out and rise up. And when Jesus comes he will show you how it is that your name will be written forever and eternally in the book, the Lamb's book of life. You'll be rescued out of the lake of fire, rescued out of second death, rescued out of the judgment, and you will enter into the gates and the glories of the kingdom. He will show us. How will he show us, you ask? How will we know these things? Well, I'll tell you what, let's race to the answer by going back to the answer, it's all in Isaiah 53, all of it, every bit of it, it's all here, packed into one beautiful chapter of the Bible. Oh, I wish we could bathe in this for hours. The New Testament does, it quotes Isaiah 53 all the time. And why is it? It's a surprise. Why is it a surprise? Well, I'll tell you why. Isaiah had already seen Messiah's coming. He'd already seen Messiah's coming. He proclaimed it. Isaiah 9, some of you have memorized this, unto us a son, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will rest upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and of the increase of his government and of the kingdom there will be no end. You see, Mighty God is about to come, Mighty God is about to come. This one born to us, Mighty God, and yet when he comes, he comes incognito. He comes disguised, and that's exactly how Isaiah 53 describes this to us. He comes disguised. Look at this in verse 3. No, in verse 2. He had no form or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised. We esteemed him not. Already we're beginning to hear the story of Bethlehem. He's going to come, and nobody's going to know, but some shepherds, some magi, a few people. No, no, it's going to be, it's going to be in disguise. He's going to come among us. He's going to teach. He's going to administer, but people aren't going to recognize him. They're not going to see his glory. They're not going to see his beauty. They're not going to see his majesty, his honor, and so we hear, for example, the wonderful news, 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, for the you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. He has come, he has come to deal with the problem, the problem of the devil and his grip over us, the problem of sin, and that's exactly how it's said. If you continue in Isaiah 53, this is exactly how it's said. You'll find it in verse, in verse 4. Surely he took up our sorrows. He has borne our griefs. He has carried our sorrows. Though we considered him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted, he was pierced for our transgressions. Do you see? This is what he's come to do. He's come to take it up for us. He's come to take up what belongs to us, our iniquities, our sins, our infirmities, our sorrows, our griefs. He's come to take it to himself, to take up our griefs. And so it says he is pierced for our transgressions. He is crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that's due us is upon him. How is it possible? It's possible because of verse 6. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. What does that mean? It's not something derivative of us. We cannot do this. We can't shed the stains of sin, the nature, the things we have done. We can't. We're guilty. We know that we're guilty. We can feel the shame and the guilt inside of us. We can't do anything to get rid of it. Ah, yes, but the Father can. The Father can take it off us. I say it this way because it's normative in gospel to say it this way. It comes off our ledger sheet and onto his ledger sheet. The debt, all of it, comes off of us and onto him, leaving us clean and leaving the burden pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. The Lord lays on him the iniquity of us all. And when it's laid on him, what happens to him? You'll find this in verse 7. He is oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb led to the slaughter, like a sheep before her shearers is silent. He doesn't open his mouth by oppression and judgment. He is taken away. He dies. Our death. This is the wonder of this moment. This is the wonder because this is the point of it on the judgment day when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ and judge for what we have done. What we have done. What we're going to find is what we have done is upon the lamb and there will be joy on judgment day. Why is that? Because we will say the fullness of the gospel that's found here and you'll find it here in verse 5. By his wounds we are healed. This isn't just physical healing, friends, although that is referred to in Matthew. Yes, I will not take you from that, but it is the full healing. It is the full restoration that you and I will be able to enter into the kingdom of God and there will be freedom in the name of Jesus. Why? Because of what the lamb has done. And when that healing comes upon us and we know it, this is why when you watch your football games tonight, I know you all do this, you watch your football games and or maybe yesterday was your important day, whatever, whatever, and people are cheering and all the rest and there's this little lonely figure somewhere in the middle of the crowd saying, John 3 16. Does anybody know John 3 16? Somebody trying to say the story. God so loved us. What did he do? He doesn't want us to die. He doesn't want us to go into the judgment. He would that none would perish. Ah, but that we believing upon his son who has done the work of Isaiah 53, there on the cross of Calvary, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, that we might be set free, that we might know this, this extraordinary gift of healing that comes to the soul. So powerful is this healing that when I make Christians who are truly Christians and are in the power of the addiction of our culture that the devil has done lost in the lusts of our times. And listen to me, there are many Christians, young and old. I cannot believe how young some of them are. I'm so sorry. I can't believe how old some of them are caught in these horrifying sensual addictions that are robbing our people. My friends, if I believe that a nice pretty sermon would do the trick, I would give you one. But I can't. There's nothing about it. We need freedom in Jesus. How is it possible? At the cross of Calvary. So when I hear sermons, it's about God and not the cross. Just general lovely sermons that are just lovely sermons, but they don't give us medication for the soul. Our people need to know the power of the Word of God that lifts up the Son of God, the cross of Calvary in which power can come and the Spirit of God can reign and get that IV lust out of our system and put a new IV of the Spirit of God in us. And we shall know the freedom that belongs to the Christian. For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. This comes from the Spirit. This comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. If I didn't believe this, I wouldn't be in practice. I wouldn't be preaching. I wouldn't be helping. I wouldn't be coming alongside. I believe freedom is possible. And when that freedom comes, there is something that is uncontainable. I don't know how else to say it. It's uncontainable. You know, by his wounds, I've been healed. My name is written in the book of life. And this is why when John presents the next image of Jesus, he presents him as a bridegroom. He presents him and John says, you know, I decrease. He increases. I'm like the bridegroom's best man. I prepare. I do the planning. I do the arranging. I do all the stuff beforehand. But when he comes in the room, it's him. And my joy is to hear his voice and to behold him. Oh yes, John says, I decrease. He increases. Every revival in the church belongs to this conversation. And this is why your hymnadiests, those who write hymnody, rise up and they can only sing of uncontainable praise to the Savior. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise. Well, what are they saying? I only have one. I only have one tongue. If I only had a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise. I had a very dear friend talking with the other day, and we had such a lovely time together. And this dear friend looked at me and said, I've got a request for you. And I want to say this to you. Would you, if I die before you, would you preach my funeral sermon? But, always a but. But this is my request. This is what I charge you to do. Don't talk about me. Don't talk about my legacy. Don't talk about me. I want you to talk. I don't want people leaving that place and saying, oh, what a great man. What a great woman. What a great person. Oh, the legacy. Oh, they're so missed. Oh, the comfort. Oh, the eulogies. So well done. Let them leave with the aroma of Christ. The Savior who has come to redeem and save and rescue. That we're not afraid of the judgment to come. No, no. We long for his appearing. That's why the church in the belly of the church longs for the appearing. That's why we come alongside John the Baptist and agree with John the Baptist. The bridegroom is coming. The Lamb has made ready the marriage. The bride is ready. Blessed are all those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. There is a longing for that day to come. Knowing that it's a day of judgment, a day of wrath. But for those who went through the day of judgment and the day of wrath on the cross of Calvary, it's a day of longing to be with the bridegroom, to see him face to face, to hear the sound of his voice. And we will know he is the resurrection. He is the life. Though our bodies go down to the ground, we are alive in him. And out comes the hymn of our past years. We're going to sing at the end of this service, crown him with many crowns, the Lamb upon his throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem, it drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing of him who died for thee and hail him as thy matchless king throughout all eternity. Crown him the son of God before the world began and ye who tread where he hath trod, crown him the son of man who every grief hath known that wrings the human breast and takes and bears them for his own. That's Isaiah 53. He's taken it upon himself that all in him may rest. O crown him the Lord of life who triumphed over the grave, who rose victorious in the strife for those he came to save. His glory is now we sing, who died and rose on high, who died eternal life to bring and lives that death may die. Oh dear friends, what the Lord has done for this. Check your language. Check your language. Are you talking about me all the time? Me? Me? Me? Are you? Shouldn't we change the pronoun and talk about him? Him? Him? And what he can do in the days that we've been given. That we might no longer live for ourselves, 2 Corinthians 5 says, but live for him who died and rose on our behalf. This is the power that can break us free from the addiction of lust and greed that is everywhere in the culture. Your alcohol won't do it. The drugs won't do it. All the medications won't do it. But the Spirit of God can set us free. Oh dear friends, if this is not a gospel that has power in it, let's all just go home and watch the games. But if this gospel has the power to do this, then as the dear person said that we are worshiping, we are sent out to be the witnesses of Jesus. And we carry a message and a cross and a gospel that can set the people out there in the bondage and grip of the devil free. But if you're not free, how can you set somebody else free? And so I ask you, are you free today? Do you know the graceness and the glory of what it means to have the name, your name, written in the book of life? If you're stuck with that IV in, bring around the people of God to pray and to walk with you until it comes out. And the IV of the Spirit of God comes in. Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise. Father, we pray this true for all of us. A freedom like no other, and hope like no other, that we might walk out of this place not bound by our anxieties, but filled with the peace that passes understanding, found and made real at the cross of Calvary. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.