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"All We Like Sheep Have Gone Astray" by Claude King, Sr.
"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" (Isa. 53:6).
Isaiah lived over 700 years before the virgin birth of the Son of God, but he was saved by grace just as believing sinners are saved today. God never has had any other plan of salvation, nor does He at the present time have any other plan of salvation—salvation is by grace, through faith (Eph. 2:8-10). You cannot merit a gift; when anything is given and accepted in exchange for a gift, the "gift" ceases to be a "gift" and becomes a purchased possession. All who have been saved in the past, all who will be saved in the future, and all who are now being saved will be eternally with Jesus and forever praise Him, because salvation is by grace.
God revealed to Isaiah the terrible, depraved, lost condition of mankind, gave him a vision of Christ dying in the stead of condemned sinners, and caused him to write what He had revealed unto him for the benefit of future generations. We know that this Scripture is speaking of Christ because the New Testament says so. When Philip approached the chariot, under the direct command of the Holy Spirit, where the Ethiopian eunuch was sitting, he was reading Isaiah 53:7-8. When the Ethiopian asked Philip for an interpretation of this passage of Scripture, we are told: "Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus" (Acts 8:35). We believe that our text reveals three things; let us carefully look at them.
I. ALL WE LIKE SHEEP HAVE GONE ASTRAY
We believe that this statement reveals the total depravity of mankind. Throughout the Bible you will find many passages of Scripture that divulge this corrupt condition of man by nature. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9). In conjunction with this passage look at another Scripture: "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. 4.23). Here we have the "root" to the sin problem. In these two verses of Scripture, the natural, corrupt, depraved heart is said to produce fruit in accord with its nature! You might want to look at something our Lord Jesus Christ said on the matter (Matt. 12:33-35); "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."
It isn't humanly possible for us to really understand the terrible, corrupt, horrible condition of the depraved nature. The only time we get a true picture of this deplorable, natural condition is when we look at it through the eyes of God as revealed in His Word. We can see man's wicked conduct, or his acts, but we cannot see the depraved heart that motivates the deeds. God's keen eyes pierce right through the outer surface and search the corrupt heart, the real seat of the trouble. "But the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" (I Sam. 16:7).
The dangerous thing about sin is that we understand so little about it, yet every human being is infested with this dreadful disease. Sin is deceitful and hardens the individual (Heb. 3:13), just as a kiln hardens the brick. It also blinds his heart and makes him unprincipled (Eph. 4:18-19). This fact is true even of the best moral man who ever lived, ever will live, or is now living. The reason the good moral man rejects Christ as Saviour, and sets himself up as a good example to follow is because he is deceived and blinded by sin, and cannot see his miserable condition and standing before God. He doesn't believe that he, an honest, law-abiding, morally clean man can possibly be a condemned sinner. Nicodemus is the best Scriptural example that we can possibly think of (John 3:Iff. He did not believe that he, a good religious Pharisee, a teacher in Israel, a ruler of the Jews could be a condemned sinner. Yet, to this man Jesus said: "Ye must be born again" (John 3:3; 5;7).
We often look on sin in a light manner even though God has said: "Fools make a mock of sin" (Prov. 14:9). All we can see is man's behavior, and many times this doesn't look too bad to us. The fact is, what often actually looks good to us is contrary to the will and purpose of God, and is therefore sin. We forget that sin has its allurements, its enticements, and that it produces pleasure that only lasts for a season. We have become so lax that we actually look on the low moral standards of man with approval and make little or no protest. This, of course, just further reveals the depraved nature of mankind.
Isaiah saw the ugliness of the depraved nature. He tells us in Isaiah 53:3: "He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; he was despised, and we esteemed Him not." This is Jesus Christ the Saviour that man treated in this manner; not a criminal, not a murderer, not a sinner, but the Son of God. Ah, my friend, it was at the cross of Calvary that all the vileness, and the ugliness of the depraved nature came out, and raised its corrupt head in rejection of righteousness and holiness.
II. WE HAVE TURNED EVERY ONE TO HIS OWN WAY
Man is not only a sinner by nature, he. is also a sinner by choice. The baby doesn't have to be taught to disobey the parent; it comes natural for him to do so. Some, of course, are more disobedient than others, but they all have the same "root" problem—a nature bent to sin. Man's way in his natural state is a down-ward way. In practice some men are morally better than others—this is true in both sexes and in every age group. However, the nature is the same, and Satan can plant the seed and produce the fruit!
Then, too, mankind is called by the ambitions of life. Fame, social standing, financial success, political power, and the world of pleasure all beckon to him. Many times these things become more important to him than God, His Son and salvation, simply because: "We have turned every one to his own way." The natural man takes the road of least resistance, the road of sin, and in the arena of life he pursues his own desires and fancies, and acts out his true nature.
So without exception God has concluded the whole human race under condemnation, that he might save "by grace . . . through faith" all those who believe or trust His Son as Saviour (Gal. 3:22; Eph. 2:8-10). The final consummation of this condemnation is eternal punishment in Hell for all those who persist in their sin! The condition that we have de. scribed renders mankind unfit for glorification and the joy and happiness of being in the eternal presence of God. Hell is the destiny of all who are unfit for Heaven! However, there is a way of deliverance—God's Son suffered "the just" for "the unjust" that "He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (I Peter 3:18).
III. "THE LORD HATH LAID ON HIM THE INIQUITY OF US ALL"
Here is the sinner's only ray of hope. Someone else has already become his substitute, and paid the price that divine justice demanded. The sinner, and this includes the whole human race, is without strength to save himself. He is corrupt before God, and unlike Him—ungodly and unrighteous—and all of his associates are in the same "boat" and the boat is Hell bound—and no one in the "boat" has any means of purification within himself that will satisfy God, whom he must meet when the "boat ride is over." The "boat" isn't going to be rescued; the only hope of salvation is to be found when the "boat" is deserted, and the deserter flees for refuge into the "ark" of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith—for "the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6). This means that Christ died the death that ungodly sinners deserved to die— the death divine justice assigned to every son of Adam—and all who receive Him as their own personal Saviour are immediately and eternally saved. Every one who fails to trust Him as Saviour will be eternally punished (John 3:18,36). Get out of the "boat" immediately, and get into the "ark" of the Lord Jesus, by repentance toward God and faith in Christ (Acts 20:21).
In Christ's death for the "ungodly" the law was established (Rom. 3:31), and divine justice was satisfied (Isa. 53:10-11). Read these verses until they speak to your heart the message of salvation full and complete In Christ Jesus. "But this man (Christ), after He had offered ONE SACRIFICE FOR SINS FOR EVER, sat down on the right hand of God" (Heb. 10:12). No further sacrifice for sins was necessary, and none is possible (Heb. 10:18). All who want to be accepted by God as sons and daughters "must" enter into Christ's death by faith and trust in Him as Saviour. This is the divine method of salvation, and no other method is acceptable to God.
Eternal life is promised immediately to all who repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:14. 16; John 5:24), If you haven't already believed the message, we diligently urge you to do so immediately. If you have believed the message, go quickly and tell the experience of grace that you have had to as many people as you possibly can, before God calls you home. God has done something wonderful for His redeemed, and they ought to be shouting it from the house tops.
—CLAUDE KING, SR.
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