120. Wednesday after Quinquagesima Sunday.
Great is the mercy of the Lord upon us. God, make us to know it. Amen.
Isaiah 53, 6-9. 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. 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. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and 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. And 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.
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The human race is like a flock of sheep which are being torn and scattered in all directions by a wolf in the midst of them. In the ears of the proud this statement is offensive. What! are they to be called sheep; sheep gone astray? Nonsense! They are not sheep; they are lions. However, this is the devil’s cunning, that they are ignorant of his existence, and do not know their own pitiable condition and need. Pride and blindness are his work. Many are blind to the fact that humanity is torn asunder, and that they turn every one to his own way. And they do not feel that this is a terribly evil power, a foreign force, which is come into the human world. O, that this blindness might pass away, that each of us might see his error! — To let the devil in among us, into our hearts, was a mortal sin on our part; for we had the power to resist him; and in thereafter doing evil, as we all have done, we are guilty of a damnable iniquity. We are wretched, but it is our own fault; and we have done nothing save to stray farther and farther from the right path. — Then God gave us his Son for a Savior; he became the shepherd of the wretched sheep, and took upon himself the punishment for our transgressions. He is assailed by all the hosts of hell, and is the target of all the darts of death. He was called to account for all the sin of the world. He is called to account, and pays the debt; and we are absolved from the liability. See how the Lamb of God was sheared! Look at him as he was scourged; see him on his way to Calvary; see him on the cross. But he goes to his death with perfect patience. He has not gone astray, but was put to grief for our transgressions. As his life is blameless, his suffering is quiet and holy; he lives and dies in perfect obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. Thus he becomes the spiritual father of a regenerated humanity. The branch of the root of David is cut down and re-planted, and we are grafted into him. Christ dies, and lives again; baptized into him we have died and been quickened with him; and thus his Israel is a countless multitude. Atonement has been made for our iniquities, our sins are put away, and eternal righteousness is come. He that believes is a member of the body of Christ, and lives a new and holy life in him.
Lord Jesus, give us the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that we may have sincere faith in thee, experience thy holy life in our heart, and come no more into the power of the devil. When we go astray do thou at once bring us back into the fold, and keep us with thee for evermore. Amen.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray
In ruin’s fatal road;
On him were our transgressions laid;
He bore the mighty load.
He died to bear the guilt of men,
That sin might be forgiven;
He lives to bless them and defend,
And plead their cause in heaven.