Wounds (Isaiah 1, 53)

Let's read, please, in the first chapter of Isaiah. The first chapter of Isaiah, there's a few verses here, and then we'll read a few more in the New Testament. The book of Isaiah, chapter 1, we'll begin reading here at verse 4. Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 4. A sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors.

They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They have gone away backward.

Why should ye be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. The whole heart faint.

From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. We're thankful for all those that are here in the meeting with us this evening.

If you are here and you are in a moral person, and that is something that has affected your conscience, we are glad you're here. If you're a person that has done many bad things in your life and you recognize it, we're glad you're here. If you have done many things against the God of heaven and you understand it in your own soul, we are glad you're here.

But really what I want to speak about this evening is this, is there are so many people in this world this evening and they do not understand their spiritual condition before God. And likely the majority of people that are here are not immoral people or godless people in that sense. You know something of the Word of God.

In some sense you might have a fear of God. But maybe you are saying really before God I'm not that bad of a person. Or maybe you've never discovered the awfulness of your sin before God.

That's what I'd like to consider with you this evening. I'd like to take a divine look at men and women in their spiritual condition. God is speaking here, He's speaking to a people that did not understand their condition before Him.

Like so many people in the world today, they simply do not understand their spiritual condition before a holy God. What we are going to consider as this are our people who might have an outward appearance of being right before God. But through the divine examination, what is discovered is this, is that they are not right before God, but that they are sinners through and through.

Consider this people here and God sends His messenger Isaiah to them because they simply do not understand that they have a problem. Before a person can ever be saved or will be saved, they are going to have to see themselves, you are going to have to see yourself as God sees you. The problem is this, is we look at ourselves and we judge that we are okay.

But what we find here is not men judging men or men examining other men, but this is God looking down on you. And this is what God declares about you. And maybe you haven't come to understand this in your life as of yet.

But friend, the need is this, before you will ever be in God's heaven, you have to discover you are not fit to be there. You have to understand the awfulness of your problem. How sad it is for people who have a serious problem and they never find it out until it's too late.

You wouldn't say it was very wise for a person to go to the doctor and to be told they have a serious problem and yet go away and say, I don't believe it and I don't want to hear about it. You find out that you have a serious problem and you are going to do everything possible to make it right. Yet so many people, this is not where they want to come to in their life, to understand, to come into agreement with God of what they really are.

And you might be dressed well. And you might have an outward appearance that all is well. But here is God's defining examination of this people who did not understand at all their condition before Him.

God had blessed them in so many ways. And they were like ungrateful and rebellious children that turned their back against Him. We read here in verse 5. The end of the verse says, The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint.

From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been clothed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. This is how God sees men and women in their sin.

You soon understand that it's not a pretty picture. It's not something pleasant. It's not something that we would like to say, You know, this is what I am.

But this is where we have to come to before God. It says from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it. Unfortunately there are people and they try and say this, I'm not really a bad person.

Maybe I've done some things that are wrong. But for the most part I haven't done what so many other people have done. But friend, listen to this.

God says there is nothing sound. There is nothing right. There is nothing in your life that is not affected by sin.

There is nothing good in men and women that are still in their sins, in their natural condition. Some people would say, you know, I've made a few mistakes. But really for the most part maybe there is someone that is here this evening.

In all the things you hear on the news, in all the awful things that other people do, you'd like to think I'm not like them. What we fail to understand is the awfulness of our sin before God. As God looks down on sin, here it is, here is a picture.

As God as it were, He makes it plain. That there is nothing sound in us. There is nothing, naturally speaking, good in us.

It says from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is nothing whole, nothing sound in it. But wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores. What an awful description.

You think of a wound that's infected. You think of a wound that is not healing but it's actually decaying, it's actually getting worse. It's infected.

And it's oozing. And you say it's awful, it's awful. No.

You know that's what God says about our sin, it's awful. And it's awful in His holy eyes. And what God says is this, and it's not getting any better.

Wounds and bruises and open sores that are oozing. And there's no medicine applied. There's no bandaging up.

There's no healing at all. But it's actually getting worse and worse. Maybe in your life it's only been a few lies that have been said.

Maybe disobeying your parents. Maybe these things like this. But you know as time goes on, sin has a chance to mature and to grow and to fester.

And God looks down on His people and He wants to make plain to them their spiritual condition and their spiritual need. And yet they don't want to hear it. And sadly there's a lot of people and they don't want to hear what the Bible says because they don't want to hear about their sin.

But it's when a person discovers their need, the awfulness of their sin, the consequence of sin, that they're going to flee to the Savior. The Lord Jesus Himself said, those that are whole, those that are healthy, they do not seek a doctor. The fact of the matter is that we're all sick with sin.

There's not a person here that is okay in the eyes of God. God says there's a problem. But what we find is this, God wants to reveal this problem to His people so that they might flee to Him for forgiveness.

So that they might seek Him and find the forgiveness that He offers and salvation. And that is what we find in this book. But first of all He has to show them the problem.

And might God show you tonight your problem before Him? That you are a sinner before God. That you have offended a holy God. That your life is not pleasing to God.

You die as you are, you will be expelled from the presence of God forever. The awfulness of our sin before the eyes of a holy God. And yet in this very same chapter, He says, come now and let us reason together.

Though your sin. Here it is. Here's the problem.

And we might try and say, you know, I'm all right. And yet God, He is the one that gives the divine examination. And He says, it's all wrong.

But listen, there's a remedy. But you need to understand the problem of your sin. Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sin.

It's when a person discovers the awfulness of their sin, that they can come to appreciate the forgiveness of sins that God offers. But we're so good at making things look good. We're so good at having an outward appearance.

And I'm going to take a few minutes to look in the New Testament at men who are experts at this. Let's go over to the Gospel of Matthew as the Lord Jesus speaks of the Pharisees. Let's go to Matthew chapter 23, please.

And we'll read at verse 25. Matthew chapter 23, verse 25. This is the Lord Jesus speaking to the most religious people of the day.

It says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye may clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but within you are full of extortion and excess, or that is, robbery and there's a lack of self-control. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like unto whited supplicants, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but within are full of dead men's bones of all uncleanness.

Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. So here is a people. And the presentation that they make is this.

That all is well. These men acted in such a distinct way from all others. They thought that they could separate themselves from the sinners of the world, and the uncleanness, the defilement of the world.

And they were very zealous in their lives and what they did. But here is the problem. We could have read back in the Old Testament, in the book of Samuel.

1 Samuel chapter 16. God is speaking to the prophet Samuel as he goes to anoint a new king over the nation of Israel. This is what God tells Samuel.

Look not on his countenance, speaking of the oldest brother of David, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. Listen to what it says. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth.

You got that? The Lord seeth not as man seeth. It's not about how you and I see each other. It's not about how you see yourself.

Because man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. God looks right down inside. And what does God see? He sees an awful, sinful heart.

The heart is deceitful and is desperately wicked. The Bible says who can know it? I, God, I am the one that searches the heart. You see, we cannot deceive God.

Maybe you have deceived yourself. To try and say that I am okay. But God looks down and he sees you for who you are.

And here are these men. And their outward appearance was impeccable. It was spotless.

These religious men that were looked up to. The Lord Jesus says you want to know what the reality is? They have an outward appearance, but inside they're rotten. They're full of sin.

They're full of sin before God. Friend, you cannot deceive God. Because God sees what you are and he sees your heart.

And he sees the sin of it. Far better to recognize as the prophet Isaiah tried to tell the people. We are all as an unclean thing.

We are not fit for God's holy heaven because of our sin. We are not fit. You are not fit.

We could take the time, but my time is gone. The Lord Jesus speaks of these people. What they do is like this.

He says it's like taking a plate, a bowl. And cleaning the outside and leaving the inside dirty. He says it's like a sepulcher that's white.

That's all fixed up on the outside. But inside it's just full of dead men's bones. The Lord Jesus speaks of these people.

And their hearts that are full of sin. And we read in chapter 15. That out of the heart proceed the evil thoughts.

Murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man. And all these things were inside of these men.

And likely many of these things are in your heart. Before the eyes of God you are unclean. The picture that God paints is not a pretty picture.

It's not a pretty scene. The condition of men and women in their sins. I'd like to go back to the book of Isaiah briefly before I sit down.

Let's read in Isaiah chapter 52 please. Isaiah chapter 52 and we'll read verse 14. Isaiah 52 verse 14.

As many were astonished at thee. His visage was so marred more than any man. And his form more than the sons of men.

Chapter 53 verse 5 says. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes we are healed. 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. He was oppressed and he was afflicted.

Yet he opened not his mouth. He has brought us a lamb to the slaughter. As a sheep before his shearers is dumb.

So he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. Who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living.

For the transgression of my people was he stricken. He made his grave with the wicked. And with the rich in his death.

Because he had done no violence. Neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed.

He shall prolong his days. And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. And he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.

The book of Isaiah begins with an awfully unpleasant scene. The spiritual condition of men and women. Wounds and bruises and putrefying swords.

But here is another awful scene. It's not a glamorous scene. For those of us who understand and appreciate the sufferings of the Lord Jesus.

We'd have to say it's something that is bittersweet. Because again we read of wounds. And bruises.

And affliction. And suffering. But this is not what sin has caused in a sinner.

But this is what sin is doing to the sinless son of God. We read of our sin. And the awfulness of it before the eyes of God.

As an open wound. But we read in this chapter of a man who was wounded. But not for sins of his own.

We read of a man who was bruised. But not for guilt of his own. That you might come to appreciate this evening.

That there was a man who was marred more than any man. And yet he had never sinned. Listen to what happened that day.

Outside of the city of Jerusalem. As the son of God is taken by sinful man. He is beaten.

He is bruised. He gave his back to the smiters. His body to those that would beat him.

He was pierced through his hands and his feet. And his head was crowned with an awful crown of thorns. And men would abuse him in the most awful way they could imagine.

But not only that. I want you to consider for a moment that verse that says, The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Because that day as the son of God suffered.

He suffered not only the cruelty of man. But the sword of God would pierce his soul. That the stroke of God's wrath would fall upon him.

Listen to the words. That he was wounded. He was pierced.

As God's judgment would fall on his sinless soul. As he would know God's wrath. Though he had never sinned.

He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity. The punishment so that we might have peace was laid upon him.

And with his stripe. The stroke of God's judgment that would fall upon his soul. What a scene.

Though we read that he had never sinned. He had done no violence. Neither was there any deceit in his mouth.

And yet he was so marred more than any man. You come to appreciate this evening. The reason that God's son would suffer this.

Was because of your sin. I appreciate it was because of my sin. The awfulness of my sin in the sight of God.

And here is a remedy. He was wounded. He was bruised.

He is the one who would suffer as the innocent lamb of God. To put my sin away. Men would look upon him and they would despise him.

They would hate him. But again in the eyes of God. The divine inspection of God is this.

That God is so satisfied because a sacrifice for sin has been made. A remedy for the problem of our sin. That guilt and sin can be taken away.

Because someone else has suffered what sin deserved. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ did. My time is gone.

Friend please consider this this evening. That before the eyes of God your sin is as an open sore. Wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.

And it's not getting any better. But we have read of a man who was innocent. Who was perfect and pure.

And he was wounded. And he was bruised. But he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement, the punishment that we might have peace was upon him. And with his stripe.

With the stroke of God's judgment that fell upon him. We are healed. That is what you need if you're ever going to be in God's heaven.

To be healed of the problem of your sin. To be made right in the eyes of God. Trust the Savior tonight and rejoice in what he has done.