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.