In this sermon, the preacher focuses on Isaiah 53:6, which states that all people have gone astray like sheep and turned to their own ways. However, the Lord has laid the iniquity of everyone on Jesus Christ. The preacher emphasizes the importance of accepting what God has done and receiving Jesus Christ as one's personal Savior. He refers to John 1:12, which states that those who receive Jesus are given the power to become children of God. The preacher shares his personal experience of accepting Jesus at a young age and encourages the audience to open their hearts to Jesus and be saved for eternity.

You'll find the text in Isaiah, the 53rd chapter, and the 6th verse. Here you have the gospel in unmistakable terms, the 6th verse of the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. There are three great statements in this verse, and each one is of paramount importance. I want you to look at them one by one very, very carefully as I quote them this morning. Here's the first statement, All we, like sheep, have gone astray. And here's the second statement, We have turned every one to his own way. And here's the third statement, And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now the striking thing about this verse is simply this, that it commences with the word all, and it ends with the word all. You will not find another verse in the entire Bible that commences and ends with the same word. This is the only verse I've been able to find that commences with the same word with which it ends. It starts with the word all, it ends with the word all. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. The first word is all, the last word is all. Therefore every one is included. All those in this great audience here in the People's Church this morning, and all those out there in radio lands, everyone is included. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. Now as I've often said, why didn't the Prophet say all we, like horses, have gone astray? Did you ever stop to think of that? Well the reason is, of course, a horse can find its way home. I don't care where you take it, it knows where it lives, and if you leave it to itself it will find its way home. He doesn't refer it, for instance, to a dog, because a dog can find its way home again. You take a dog almost anywhere away from its home, turn it loose, and it will find its way back home again. So that these different animals can find their way home again, especially a cat. Did you ever try to get rid of a cat? Did you ever take a cat away from home? You can take a cat ten miles away from home, and you can put it in the trunk of your car so that it can't see where it's going. Then you can open the trunk of your car, turn it loose, and if you were to start walking back home again, you would find that the cat would be there before you would be there. The cat can always find its way home again, but there is one animal that can never find its way back, and that animal is the sheep. And that's why the Prophet has used this illustration, and that's why he speaks of a sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray. You take a sheep a little way from its home, out of sight of its home, and then you turn it loose, it will start eating the grass, and it will go on eating, and it will get farther and farther away from home, and it will never find its way back home again. It will stray from its home, it will go from its home. It has lost its way, and it cannot find it again. That's the one animal that has no sense of direction. And that's why the Prophet Isaiah uses the sheep as an illustration. He says all we like sheep have gone astray. And that's why Jesus Christ came from the glory above, came down to this earth of ours, why he gave his life on Calvary's cross, because you and I of ourselves could never have found our way back to God. We went astray, we do not know the way home. Jesus Christ had to come and reveal the way back, and only because he did are we able to find our way to God. In other words, God has to search for us. We do not search for him. Did you ever notice that? Man does not search for God, God searches for man, and in response, man turns to God as the Holy Spirit convicts him, and comes back to the God he has forsaken. And that's why the illustration of the sheep is used. All we like sheep have gone astray. Now how do you know you've gone astray? How do you know that statement is true? How do you know Isaiah wrote the truth when he said all we like sheep have gone astray? Because of the next statement in the verse, we have turned every one, each one of us individually, not a single exception, black and white, old and young, good and bad. All of us, we have turned our own way from the very time we were able to commence walking, from the time we were babies. We turned our own way. We did not turn God's way. Every one of us, we have been going our own way ever since, and we'll continue to go our own way until God himself, by the power of the Holy Spirit, convicts us and intercepts us and turns us back again into his way. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. Now, there are only two ways you can turn. You can either turn God's way, or you can turn your own way, and you've got to make the choice. Are you going to turn God's way, or are you going to turn your own way? There is no other way to turn. Either we turn God's way, or we turn our own way. And God says of the natural man, we have turned our own way. He has turned his own way. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. We have not turned God's way. We have turned our own way. Now, I call this message Man's Ruin and God's Remedy. I've been talking up to the present time about man's ruin. Man has gone astray like a lost sheep. Man is ruined. Man is lost. Man is perishing. Man is turning away from God. Man has turned his back on God. Man is not turning his face toward God. He's turning his back toward God. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. That's true of every man. That's true of every woman. That's true of every boy. That's true of every girl. That's true of every nation on the face of this earth. We have turned our own way. All you have to do is to look into your own life to realize that you have turned your own way, to realize that you have not turned God's way. Look into your own life. Look at the path you have trod. Think of the things you have done. Think of the failures in your life. Think of the sins in your life. You know as well as I do that you have gone your own way. You have not gone God's way. Now, here's God's remedy. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 1900 years ago, God took your sin. God took my sin. He laid our sin on the sinless head of the Lord Jesus Christ, his only begotten son. And as Jesus hung there on the cross of Calvary, 1900 years ago, he bore your sins and he bore my sins in his own body on the tree. He died that you and I might live. He bore the sins of the entire world. The Lord hath laid on him, on the sinless head of the Lord Jesus Christ, on his head, God laid your sins and my sins 1900 years ago. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Every sin you ever committed, every sin of which you are guilty, every sin to which you have ever yielded has been laid upon the sinless head of the Lord Jesus Christ. And 1900 years ago, he bore those sins of yours in his own body on the tree. Suppose I allow this right hand of mine to represent me. Suppose I allow this left hand of mine to represent the Lord Jesus Christ. Suppose I allow this black copy of the Bible to represent my sin. This is what happened 1900 years ago. Here is my sin. It's on me. You can plainly see it there on my right hand. And my sin is upon me. What happens 1900 years ago? The Lord hath laid on him, God transferred my sin from me to the Lord Jesus Christ and laid it on his only begotten son as he hung there on Calvary's cross 1900 years ago. All your sins, every sin that you ever committed was laid on the Lord Jesus Christ because God had to deal with sin before he could save anyone. He had to deal with your sin. He had to deal with my sin before he could offer us salvation in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. There was your sin laid on you. God transported it to Jesus Christ. That's why as Jesus hung on Calvary's cross 1900 years ago, he suddenly cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? In that hour, that hour of darkness, your sins were laid on Jesus Christ and he was bearing in his own body on the tree all the sins that you've ever committed, all the sins that any man has ever committed in all the years that have passed and gone and all the sins that every man, any man will commit in the years to come. They were all laid on Jesus Christ, the sinless one, the one who never had sinned, the one who never had gone astray, the one who had lived only for God because he was a son of God. That's where your sins are. Do you realize that, my friend? Those of you listening in way out there in radio land, in television land, do you realize it? Are you conscious of the fact that your sins have already been laid on the sinless head of the Lord Jesus Christ and that 1,900 years ago, he bore them in his own body on the tree? The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now, before God could forgive, before God could pardon, before God could extend to you his offer of salvation, he had to deal with your sin and he dealt with your sin as Jesus Christ, his son, hung there on Calvary's cross 1,900 years ago in that hour. God dealt with the sins of the entire world as he laid them on the sinless head of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, now, now that God has dealt with your sin, now that God has laid your sin on the Lord Jesus Christ, he can offer you salvation without money and without price because your sin has already been dealt with. Now the question arises, are you going to accept that salvation or are you going to reject that salvation? The vast majority will reject God's salvation. They always have and they always will. The vast majority will reject the salvation of God, but there are those who will accept it. And this morning, as I present the way of salvation, I ask you to open your heart to Jesus Christ and to receive him as your own personal Savior and to accept God's gift of salvation as Jesus Christ bore your sins on Calvary's cross 1,900 years ago. You can accept this salvation. Thousands have, millions have, and they'll be in heaven one of these days. Have you accepted God's salvation? Have you made your decision for Jesus Christ? Do you realize what God did for you 1,900 years ago on Calvary's cross? And have you ever opened your heart to Jesus Christ and received him as your own personal Savior? Has there been a transaction of any kind in your life? You and I never can be saved until we respond to what God has offered, until we respond to what God has done. It's very well for God to deal with your sin, but that isn't sufficient. There has to be a response on your part and you have to open your heart to Jesus Christ and receive him as your own personal Savior. 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. There it is, your sin, my sin. Not on you any longer, not on you anymore, but on Jesus Christ. Now the question is, are you satisfied with what God has done? Will you accept what God has done? Will you receive Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior? And that takes us to the third step and you'll find it in John's Gospel, the first chapter and the twelfth verse. As many as received him, as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. As many as received him. What do you have to do? You have to open that heart of yours and receive Jesus Christ. Here's your heart right now. It's closed and it's closed tight. That's the way it always has been. Because you've never opened it. Now there has to come a moment when you open your heart to Jesus Christ and receive him as your own personal Savior. And when you do that, when you open your heart and receive the Lord Jesus Christ, then God's salvation is real in your heart, in your life. Then you pass out of death and into life. Then Jesus Christ becomes your Savior. Then you're saved for time and for eternity. But you have to make the decision. You have to decide whether you're satisfied or not with what God has done and whether or not you will accept Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior. I did it when I was 16 years of age as many of you know. When I traveled nearly 100 miles to attend the great campaign that was being held by Torrey and Alexander in Massey Hall here in Toronto. At the second to last service I got up out of my seat. I walked down the long aisle of Massey Hall. I shook hands with Dr. R. A. Torrey. I went down to the basement. I bowed my head in my hands as I sat there on a chair among the scores of others who had come down. And there for the first time in my life I opened my heart to Jesus Christ as the tears poured down my cheeks and I received Him as my own personal Savior. It only took a few moments. It has lasted a lifetime. And my friend it's for you this morning if you will open your heart to Jesus Christ and receive Him as your Savior you'll be saved for time and for eternity.