The Gospel in Isaiah

I spent 20 years in a church before I ever heard the gospel. Do you believe that? It's true. Oh, I had heard versions of it that God loved me and Jesus died for my sins, but I never heard it preached in the full council of God till later in life.

That's pretty sad, isn't it? You know, it's a dry time in our churches when you have to search for a pastor who preaches the full council of God and actually preaches on sin and hell and repentance and regeneration. Most men choose a popular ministry over a penetrating one. But listen, friends, if you love people enough that you will be honest with them and warn them of their great danger of dying in their sins and being cast into hell, you'll love them enough to do so.

There's a story I love to hear that Fance Havner used to tell. Havner told about the time he was a young country preacher, just settled in a small country parish. Well, let me let him tell you the story in his own words.

I have it written down here for you. Here is Fance Havner's story. During my early years, I kept hearing about a former pastor, one Josiah Elliott, who had shepherded the flock during the horse and buggy days.

What a grip that man had on the hearts of those people. Even non-Christians would hold him up as an example of the kind of man they thought a Christian should be. If we had more people like Josiah Elliott, I heard again and again.

I became very anxious to know something of the source of this man's power. Other preachers had followed him, men of greater scholarly and social attainments. But I heard most about Josiah Elliott.

Finally, I went to my oracle, John Brown, a former friend of mine, and I asked him where lay the secret springs of the old preacher's hold on the people. Still strong after these many years, I remember that former Brown thought about it, reflected for a moment as he was want to do, and then remarked simply, he just loved us. You know, that story by Fance Havner's always stuck with me.

And I'm telling you, friends, if a preacher loves you, he will be honest with you and warn you to flee from the wrath to come. He will love you enough. He will love your soul enough to inform you of your duty of repentance and the necessity of a work of grace upon your heart through the supernatural act of regeneration.

He won't candy coat the gospel to make it easier to swallow. Rather, he will give you the oil straight from the can, the bad with the good. An evangelist who says he loves you with his lips but refuses to preach the full counsel of God really just loves himself because he wants to be accepted by man.

So he will preach to please men rather than to preach to convict men of their sins and danger of dying in their sins and going to hell. Today, we will look at the gospel as found in the book of Isaiah. You can turn in your Bibles there now.

Isaiah is a book about how God's love is demonstrated towards sinful man. And I'm going to break down the book of Isaiah into three sections that pertain to the gospel of the son of God. Our first section deals with man's dilemma because of sin.

Our second section deals with God's solution to man's sin problem. And our third section deals with man's responsibility of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You may wish to get your pen and paper handy because I'm going to give us Bible verses all through Isaiah which speak of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Are you ready? The number one man's dilemma because of sin. Isaiah 59 to declares. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hit his face from you that he will not hear.

You see, friends, a man is a sinner who was born with a ruined nature that is bent towards sin. And Job declares man drinks iniquity like water. And here in Isaiah 59 7 we see the same.

Their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts or thoughts of iniquity, wasting and destruction are in their past. That's the picture of man friend born with a rune and depraved nature that hates all things holy and who, because of sin, is separated from a holy God, not only separated, but under the condemnation of that holy God, because man is a rebel who's broken the strict and severe law of God through sin.

And God requires perfection to get to his heaven. And man is not perfect. Man is a sinner, a wretched, rotten, sin loving rebel.

And he cries out. We will not have this man reign over us. He will hug his sins and run his own life the way he wants to, because all we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way. And that's what sin is, friend. It's going our way when we know it isn't God's way.

So we have this picture of man's helplessness apart from God, a man separated from God because of sin. Many people seek to gain heaven through their self-righteousness and good works. But my Bible declares in Isaiah 64 6. But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness are as filthy rags.

And we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Listen, friends, I had to discover that there's absolutely nothing in E.A. Johnston worth saving. All I deserve is hell.

All I am is a recipient of grace. I'm a sinner and I know I need a sin substitute in the person of Jesus Christ. And so do you, friend.

So do you. And if God is going to save you, he's the one who's going to give you saving faith. Salvation is of the Lord.

But that's not so in your day and mine, because the church of today has taken salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of man. You make yourself a Christian today. God's got nothing to do with it.

That's what we believe. But it's not so. Jesus declared in John's gospel, No man can come to me except the father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day.

Now listen to the same thought in Isaiah 43 25, which declares that God is the author of salvation. I, even I, am he that blitheth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins. Now listen, friends, to Isaiah 59 16, which declares the same.

And he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore, his arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousness. It sustained him.

So we see man's dilemma is twofold. He's a guilty rebel before God, a sunken sin, a sunken, the Meyer sin, and he cannot pull himself out on his own. He needs saving faith.

But the thing is, even though God requires faith from a person, only God can give it. Did you hear that, friend? You have to be shut up to God for mercy. You have to realize that you are a sinner, lost and ruined and doomed and damned without saving faith.

You must become a seeker. Only God can help you. You cannot save yourself.

Now have a fight on my hands with that one. The good deacons will come after me after the service and wring my neck. But it's true that you cannot save yourself, friend.

You have to become a beggar for mercy. Salvation is of the Lord. Now look at the second section of the gospel found in the book of Isaiah, and that is God's solution to man's sin problem.

Look at Isaiah 53 6, which states, Oh, we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Well, who is the hymn mentioned here? Why, it's the Lord Jesus Christ, the pearl of great price, our Redeemer, our Savior, our King. It's the Jesus of John 3 16, the Jesus of the Gospels, and Isaiah chapter 53 speaks of this suffering Savior. It's a heartbreaking chapter to read because it speaks of the heartbreak of God over sin and the suffering of the Son of God because of sin, because God sent his beloved son to hang on a bloody cross and die for sin.

Listen to verse seven. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth.

He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb. So he openeth not his mouth. We don't hear much about a crucified Savior today.

Most pastors have gotten out their mop buckets and cleaned up all the blood and gore around Calvary, made it so pristine and pretty that you could sit and have your lunch there. But listen, friends, that cross had Christ's blood all over it. His blood was running down it because of sin.

Your sins, my sins are filthy, wretched sins. Now look at how God brings up preparatory work in a sinner's heart through conviction and compunction, as seen in Isaiah 57 15. For thus sayeth the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy.

I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Contrite means crushed to powder, a work of humiliation upon the heart, preparing the sinner's heart to receive Christ. Now look at the promise of the gospel invitation.

This is found in Isaiah 59 1. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is it heavy that it cannot hear. Listen, friend, when a poor sinner who is convicted of his sins and awakened to his lost condition comes to God for help, God is listening. God is able.

The gospel is for the hungry, the weary and the thirsty. It's not for the proud and self-righteous. Now I want us to look at this third section from Isaiah regarding man's responsibility of repentance and faith.

We see this from the following verses. Isaiah 45 22 states, Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else, so we must look unto him. This was the text that Charles Spurgeon came to Christ under.

He said at that time, I looked and looked until I looked my eyes away. So God says to look unto me. Next we see in Isaiah 55 1 an invitation to come to him.

Oh, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Oh, friends, how wooing are the calls of the gospel. The gospel is truly for the hungry, for the thirsty, for the weary, for those thirsty for Christ.

So we are to look unto him, come unto him. And now in verses 55, six and seven, we are to seek him, call upon him, turn from our sins and turn to Christ Jesus. Listen, seek ye the Lord while he may be found.

Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

And that's what a sinner needs, friends, a pardon for sin. He must come to a sovereign and throw down his shotgun of rebellion and submit to the king of kings. Jesus is Lord.

Listen, friend, Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, and he earned that right by way of a bloody cross. And if you want him savingly, you must come to him there and bow to him. Surrender your all to him, because he gave his all for you.

He held nothing back. How can you hold anything back from him? When you were saved, you were a changed individual. When Jesus was here in his earthly ministry, when he would pass through a town or a village, those who encountered him experienced change.

They became changed individuals. Listen, friends, something happens when you come savingly to Christ. A self is dethroned, and another is enthroned there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Your life is not your own. Your body is not your own. Your money is not your own.

Your time is not your own. He must be a complete master. Listen, friend, I love you enough to be honest with you, even if you don't like what I have to say.

If Jesus is not your Lord, he is not your Savior. I can promise you that. He must reign.

He must reign. But some of you cry out, we will not have this man reign over us. But he must, friend, if you want him for a Savior.

Jesus came to save us from our sins. Jesus never preached a sin in religion. God is holy.

He must have holy followers. For holiness without, no one will see the Lord. That's what my Bible says.

Now we have seen the gospel as it is found in the book of Isaiah. May we be obedient to its demands and comply with it. Praise God for his holy word.