of Isaiah 53, All we like sheep have gone astray, We have turned every one to his own way, And the Lord have laid on him the iniquity of us all. This verse gives us a true picture of man's sinful state. It tells us that we have a nature which goes astray and which has gone astray. And this we are conscious of even though we be Christian people. Indeed I suppose that because of our Christian experience we are more aware of it than the people who never give any consideration at all to the word of God. We're so far astray that it ceases to be any concern to them. I suppose the more desire we have that we should not go astray, the more we are likely to be aware of the fact that we have so gone astray. And this is expressed very well in a familiar hymn, in which the words occur, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave, the God I love. Very weighty words indeed, words which we ought to ponder, consider, And because they apply to every one of us, as the best of men and women have assured us from their experience, prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love. You may say, well how is this possible with people who've been born again of the Spirit of God, in whom the power of God has come to reside? of all the endless power of a new life in our Lord Jesus Christ. Surely this is a great contradiction that they are still prone to wonder. And indeed it is a contradiction. And what is there under heaven so contradictory as your nature and mine? Is there any contradiction in this wide world so great as this, so absolutely assured as the conflict that is within it? Between that which is new and that which is old, the new nature and the old nature, warring against each other, as the Apostle says, we cannot do the things that we would. But I suppose that Isaiah is speaking in his prophecy primarily of the world at large. He is speaking of simple humanity. He may have Israel especially in mind, for he was an Israelite and prophesied in the midst of the land of Israel these things. But his words generally are applicable to sinners everywhere and to a world which has gone astray. All we, like she, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. Let us consider these words. as they come to us, first of all, that we've all gone astray like sheep. Secondly, we have turned, every one of us, to his own way. And thirdly, that the Lord has laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. And our first point is, are we like sheep? have gone astray. No clearer declaration of the universal state of sinfulness in which man is found is discoverable in all Holy Scripture than this statement, that all we like sheep have gone astray. You notice that the prophet does not say or we have gone astray. That would be true. But he says, like sheep, there's a special way or manner in which we have gone astray. Our going astray resembles the habits of a certain well-known creature, or we, like sheep, have gone astray. It is a well-known feature of the flocks and the herds, applicable to the animal we know as the sheep, that take the fences away, and where are they? It's astonishing where sheep will travel, especially in the hours of darkness. They never seem to rest during the night time or very little at any rate. People who live in sheep country discover that during the night their gardens have been invaded. Their plants have been devoured. They see traces of sheep everywhere. Yet that's none to be seen at the time of morning light. They are prepared to travel great distances over hills and through the vales so that again in the open sheep country the only way in which the sheep master can identify his own sheep and gain any profit from them is for the periodical round-up And they travel many miles over the hills and through the valleys with their dogs. And all the sheep are rounded up and they're sorted out in the mass by the brand which has been put upon their hinds. And that's the only way they can find their own sheep. They very seldom remain in one place. take the fences down, and where are the sheep? Remove the restraints of God's holy law upon conscience and upon conduct, and where will human society go? We are seeing that only too well in these days in which we live. But more and more in our own beloved the restraints of convention and custom, many of which founded upon the practice and the knowledge of God's holy law. These have been more or less abolished. A few remain, and possibly are likely to do so. But in the name The fences are down, and the sheep are out, and our society is astray. I don't think that anyone would be found, any thinking person in our land today, who would dream of saying otherwise. How important that we who profess and call ourselves Christian, how important that we should have respect, continuing to the word of God, and keep a watchful eye, not only upon our conduct, but upon our consciences, upon the thoughts in our hearts, and the words of our mouth. For once the fences are down, there's no knowing where the sheep will be. where our strange footsteps will take us, or how quickly we will reach forbidden ground. It is a dangerous thing to allow conscience to weaken upon any point of God's law, or try to explain to ourselves for our own moral convenience. How that certain things that used to apply are no longer to weigh with us in the same way. How prone to self-deception are we? The Apostle Paul speaks in the 7th of Romans about the deceitfulness of sin. It's exceeding deceitfulness, it will deceive us. Sin, he says, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. He's speaking of course of his unconverted days, though his unconverted days were very respectable days and very religious days, nonetheless his unconverted days. when he thought he had the mastery of sin. That was the very time when sin had the mastery of him. But he was deceived by the sin which he committed. He was deceived that he was righteous when all the time he was a sinner. He was deceived by his own reading of what the law of God was. He thought he saw reflected in the divine commandment, his own righteousness and credit. He was no hypocrite, as we would hold him to be much more blameworthy than he actually was. He was not simply a man setting out against his conscience to set himself up as righteous, for that is a hypocrite. The name word hypocrite is taken absolutely from the Greek, for it's a Greek word. Its original meaning was an actor who performs on the stage, who pretends he's a king when he's really all the time a beggar, who pretends on the stage he's a righteous man when all the time he's a sinner. who poses as someone whose heroism commends him to the audience. And all the time he may be a craven coward. He's a hypocrite, an actor. And we take our word hypocrite just from that source. It is always well to track down the meaning of our words to their originals. As the poet Coleridge and philosopher once told us, We learn a good deal if we understand the words that we use. But Paul was no hypocrite. He was just deceived, absolutely deceived, by his own defective conscience, a lack of information concerning the nature of sin. I was alive without the law once, he said, but when the commandment really came, the power of light and truth, then sin revived and I died. And sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it slew me. So he found himself in the course of time, no longer the righteous man that he thought he was, but the chief of sinners. This is an awful but very salutary awakening of conscience. How we need to beware, therefore, of the deceitfulness of sin, for is that in our nature, like the which is apt to go astray. May we carry our figure a little further. Shall we point out the aimlessness of a sheep's behaviour? Or we, like sheep, have gone astray. There is an aimlessness about sinful men, about those who have been deceived by sin, or those who are careless on the question of sin. They're not really going anywhere. They may try to tell themselves that they are. But take a look at our modern society. Where is it going? One wonders whether the masses of the people even care where they're going. where they've long since given up any idea of doing anything but simply live their lives in a... describes a sphere or circle and just hope for the best. Or like much of youth, Whether modern youth is very much different in this from youth of former days, I'm not prepared to say. The manifestation may be different, but probably the fundamental facts remain. The aimlessness of youth, no great object to serve, particularly in the moral sphere, not really going anywhere. or being unduly concerned about where we go. Maybe having a career prescribed for us. But there's no essential morality in that. There is no travelling of the soul or of the mind anywhere according to what God has ordained in our creation. There's an aimlessness about human existence. We ask ourselves every morning as we arise from our beds, what is our aim today? Where are we going? What is the object which I serve in this next 24 hours? All we like sheep are aimless. There is in our nature too the readiness to follow. An evil example. How we are seeing that today. Some things which a short time ago, only a few years back, were forbidden, or were not done, or were covered over so that it was not done in public, now permitted by our society. Philosophies and ways of thought questions of family life and all the rest of it, where everybody else is doing it, you see. Who and what are we to stand out against the rest of the world and make ourselves different? There's that about human nature which wants to adapt itself to the latest customs and fashions and never stand upon its own. Never adhere to infallible principles, so that no matter what the rest of the world does, we stay where we are. We dig in our heels and we say we will not move, because this is the way of God and the law of God. How few do that today. The readiness to follow a fashion, an evil example, something once forbidden but now permitted and our conscience rapidly adjusted to a fresh set of circumstances. Times have changed you know. Old fashioned morality and conventions have now gone by the bore. We live in a more enlightened age. We see further than our fathers. Well this is what the masses are saying, what the leaders of thought are saying. Therefore it must be right. Let us adjust all our thinking to the latest fad in convention or custom or instruction or philosophy, whatever it may be. How soon also, dear friends, if you, or if I, present a bad example in anything will others follow us? And we become involved in the sin of the lesser brethren because we have led them astray. How important that Christian men and women should be careful about the example which they show. because others are only too ready to copy, especially if it's a bad example, if it's a doubtful proceeding. There is also the folly of the sheep, the foolishness of their way. There is an unreasonableness and a folly about sin. that men propose to themselves that by this particular mode of conduct they will attain something which is in the back of their mind which will cater to their satisfaction and close their eyes to the fact that it's all folly and that which is not according to the divine law is sin. But there's a fallacy about all our reasoning with ourselves when some sin or desire which is unlawful has taken possession of our mind. I don't suppose there's a man or a woman here this evening, this morning, who cannot bear this out in some stage of their own experience. And then there is the experimentation in sin. which may be associated with the going astray of the character that we possess as sheep. Just as Adam and Eve, our first parents. Let's try it. Let's see what comes of it. God has said thou shalt surely die. But someone else has said thou shalt not surely die. God has got a hidden motive to prevent you from doing this. Or it may not even be God who has said it at all. After all, who is there who believes the law of God and the word of God today? Maybe it isn't true after all. This is what the devil said to our first parents. Yea, have God said it? Have he really said it? Is it God who said it? Is it not something you've just dreamed up yourself? Something which has been imposed upon you from without. Hath God said it? Are these principles really the principles of the divine law? Well, why not try it and see? See what comes of it. Experiment with sin, with disobedience, with going astray. How many people dare, in this particular way, how they presume How they close their mind to facts and experiment with sin. No one can experiment with sin without colossal danger to their own souls. We read in the prophecy of Jeremiah, also, that it is not only the sheep But it is the shepherds. Jeremiah tells us about shepherds who caused the sheep to go astray. He is thinking of course of the priests and false prophets of Israel in his time, who had counseled the people wrongly, who themselves were sinful men, and for their own convenience. And from the alteration of God's religion to somebody which came either from man or devil or from both, they caused the people to go astray. As God said, thou shalt not make to thyself any claim in image, nor the likeness of anything in heaven above, or the earth beneath, or under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to it, nor worship it. say these false shepherds. This of course has another meaning than what is on the surface. It doesn't mean quite what it's saying. After all, if we set up this form of worship with statues and images, they will be means of instruction to the people. After all, people want something to see. God is invisible. Let's present God in some visible form, some attractive form. It will raise our thoughts and make us think of God as He ought to be thought about. This is how the false shepherds spoke in Jeremiah's days. But God said, they cause the people to go astray. And in Jeremiah's lifetime, temple and priesthood and monarchy and nation were destroyed by the judgment of God. Thou shalt not, says the Lord God. He commands how he should be worshipped. We must not invent other forms of worship. We proceed to our next point from the text. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to our own way, his own way. There is in sin a having of our own way, a false and daring claim to independence, that our lives are our own, to do what we like with. and do what we will, but they're not. Our lives are our own, that they might be dedicated, body, soul, and spirit, to him who made us, and by his blood has redeemed. There is a false assumption on the part of many people. We have a right to do as we please. We never asked God to make us. Here we are in this world. We didn't ask to come into this world. And we have a right, therefore, to do as we please. But man's chief end is glorious, and is a means of blessedness and joy to him, as well as praise to Almighty God. And there's no other way by which life can be fulfilled. But in the way of God, Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. But man has gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. The claim to independence, the false claim that we have a right to do as we please with our own time and talents and life, we have not. We shall have to give an account before the judgment seat. O Lord, I knew that thou wast a hard man reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not straw. Therefore, I've just brought myself and my talent back to thee. Now you've got your own. Thou wicked and slothful servant, says the parable, Thou knewest that I was an hard man, reaping where I had not sown, and gathering where I had not strawed. Then thou shouldest given my money to the money changers, that I might have received my own with usury. A slothful servant was bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness. No, no, our own way won't do. We have no right to do as we please. We have no sphere of absolute independence. We are made for one end only, and that is the glory and majesty of God. Has God a right to do this? Well, you try telling God that He hasn't. And in particular, wait till you get to the judgment seat and then tell Him so to His face. Just see whether you can. or whether all simple mankind in that day is speechless before Him. And cannot reply because there we see and know that we've only deceived ourselves and rebelled against Him. Our own way, that is responsible for our resentment at correction None of us like to be put right. None of us enjoy being corrected. And the reason why is because we have turned into our own way. And our own way is the one that we want. There is a resentment of correction, a readiness to break out from the restraints of God's will, and to ignore that will. and from our own way, there is an inability in ourselves to return. Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die? says the voice of God. But this is not an appeal to our ability to save ourselves, but it's a call to repentance founded upon the secret grace and mercy of God. in his universal economy of creation, that secret grace and mercy which awakes us, rouses us to our sinful state and to our eternal peril, and moves us inwardly to return to God. So that any feeling or notion you have now, any influence which breathes in your conscience at this moment, saying, I ought to return, I ought to be different. I know that all this is true. This is the inward persuasion of God. This is the influence and power of His Spirit, awakening, drawing, reproving. Oh, that by that same divine grace we may be impelled to return to Him with all our hearts for his forgiveness and the renewal of his spirit, the pardon of our sins. Is there then such a thing as the forgiveness of sin and deliverance from sin for me in all my sinfulness? Thank God there is, for the third part of our text says, And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. This is a clear declaration. One of the clearest that you will find in the whole of the Bible. That Christ has died on our behalf. That there is a perfect substitution. My sins were laid on him. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. We have spoken about the idle shepherd. as Jeremiah or Ezekiel calls them. We have spoken about those hypocritical shepherds who lead the people astray, but there is a good shepherd who giveth his life for the sheep. There is a shepherd who never loses a case which comes into his hand, who seeks and finds and carries even the lambs in his bosom. Let me remind you what glorious words, so marvelously set to music in the great oratorio. In Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 11, he shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young. This is the great mercy of God to us who have gone astray and so far astray and turned into our own way that we can by no ability of our own or willpower of our own cause ourselves to be what we originally were. We are debtors to mercy alone. of covenant mercy in Christ. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all. And here is a shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, who seeks that he might find his flock, gathering the lambs with his arm, carrying them in his bosom, and gently leading those that are with young. This is the glory of divine grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. That he not only seeks until he finds the sheep that went astray, and when he has found it he rejoices, and all heaven rejoices with him over one sinner that repented and is brought back to the fold. Not only is this the case, but ever afterwards He throws the fence of His mercy around us. We would break out, but we cannot. We would go astray again, but He stops us. There may be an inward resentment that we cannot break out. That is the old nature. But always He brings us back. What am I to do then? Just sit still? and wait for the divine mercy to recover me if I am consciously in a way which is wrong. No, no, this would prove that you're not inside the fence at all. This would prove there's no fence, there's no fold, you're not in any fold, where he and he alone guards the door, the way out and the way in. It means you're still astray, for that is the spirit of those who have never yet been found and brought into the fold by the shepherd. For there is a dual nature in you and in me, that which is from him who controls from within and not from without our conduct and our going, by disposing us to obedience to his law. But when we reach the fence, we dare not cross. His arresting hand is there in front of us. Thou shalt not go. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. Let this be the token that you are his sheep, that you always come back. But when you hear His voice as you do this morning, you come back now. You don't wait till tonight or tomorrow's sun. You come back now because His voice bids you. It is the voice of the Good Shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He leadeth me beside the still waters. The waters of comfort and strength and renewal. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me. I shall fear no evil. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." And so David goes on to declare that goodness and mercy shall follow him all the days of his life and he will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. There is a shepherd who cares for his flock. There is one who watches over every sheep. He sees us in our erring. He sees us when we would go astray. He sees the breaking out of the evil nature which is still within us. And his arresting hand comes. I don't know how he always does it. Sometimes with rebuke. Sometimes by a positive arrest. but by whatever means. Sometimes the sweet voice of the Spirit calling to us through His Word, making us ashamed of what we are and desire us to be what He is, to reflect His image and His glory. Being entranced again by the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, being enraptured once more with what Christ is, In all His grace and glory, we return to the best Beloved and the well Beloved of our souls. This is how He does it, by all and by every means, showing to us that though we are the sheep who went astray, the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Amen.