Thank you, Brother James, for
that. I'm never weary of hearing him
sing that song or any of the songs that he sings. I always
appreciate the ability God has given him and the longevity that
God has given him that still at, what, 95 years of age, be a blessing to us in music
and just in Him being with us and around us. That's a great
blessing too. So we appreciate it. Let's go
back to Isaiah chapter 53. I want to focus in on one verse
of scripture and really kind of one, phrase out of one verse
here, and it is in chapter 53 in verse 8. All the rest of this
is rich beyond description. This is indeed a gold mine, a
treasure chest full of the Savior and of his agonies that he suffered
in order to save his people. And all that he did, he prospered. He could not fail, as I said
this morning. And the very purpose of God,
God's purpose of salvation, God's purpose of redemption was successful
in the mighty hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. But notice with
me verse 8. He was taken from prison. and
from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? And here's the phrase I want
to work on. For he was cut off out of the
land of the living. And here's the reason for the
transgression of my people was he stricken. Our Lord Jesus was
cut off from the land of the living. That expression, cut
off, means divided from the living. He was separated from those who
were living. He died, in other words. And
the reason he died, according to the scripture, was because
of the transgression of his people. That's why he was stricken. That's
why he was smitten of God. That's why it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. That's why the Lord put him to
grief. His soul was made an offering
for sin. Not for his own sins, he had
none, but for sins that were charged to him, imputed to him
is a good Bible word, imputation. Just as Adam's sin was imputed
to us, charged to us, reckoned to us, and our sins were imputed,
charged to, reckoned to our Lord Jesus when he died upon the cross
of Calvary, even so his righteousness, the righteousness established
by our Savior has been charged to, reckoned to, imputed to the
accounts of all of his people. were made the righteousness of
God in him. He was cut off from the land
of the living. The Sanhedrin judged him and
found him to be unworthy of living any longer in this world. Can you imagine such a thing?
Here's that one who is the very prince of life. Here's the one
who spoke all things into existence. Here's the one who entered into
this world and went about doing good and healing people. He healed all sorts of people
of all sorts of diseases. He raised the dead. There never
lived in this world, there never walked in this world a man anywhere
close to the glorious Savior, the Son of God. And he did nothing,
did nothing except fulfill the will of God. And the Sanhedrin
said, he's not worthy to live even a day longer. In fact, they
didn't even want him to die at Passover time, because too many
people were in Jerusalem during Passover, hundreds of thousands
of people, and they knew he had assembled quite a following.
But they could wait no longer. He, in their estimation, did
not deserve to live even one more day, and he was cut off
out of the land of the living. And that expression, cut off,
it indicates violence. This was not a peaceful death.
It was not a bloodless death. This was not a quiet death with
friends and family gathered round. This was a death at the hands
of wicked men who despised him. Make no mistake about it, if
he had come in our generation in this day, he would have received
the same kind of hateful reception today as he did 2,000 years ago
when he came. And those who would raise the
greatest ruckus of Him coming would be the religious people,
the leaders of religion, just like it was 2,000 years ago when
He came. And God had mercy on us. Had
He come in our generation, we would have seen no beauty about
Him either. And our hands would have been
raised against Him. And our voice is raised in opposition
to Him, apart from the grace of God. And make no mistake about
it, the only reason you're a friend to the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace, the only reason you love the way God saves sinners
through the doing and the dying of the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, The only reason you are indeed a child of God is because
of what God did for you, not because of what you did for God.
Now this is all of grace, and works have nothing to do with
it. Thank God, God's ordained us to good works. He's purposed
them. But works don't go before us
in the glory. They follow after us as evidence
of the fact that we love the Lord Jesus Christ. But those
who were in authority said, He must be cut off from the land
of the living. But not only did they insist
that He be cut off from the land of the living, Our holy God insisted
that he be cut off from the land of the living. What after all is the penalty
for sin? Is it not death? Did not the Lord say to our first
father, Adam, in the day you eat thereof, thou shalt surely
die. Has not God repeatedly said in
his word that this is the penalty for sin, death, to be cut off? And not only cut off physically,
but cut off eternally, apart from a substitute dying in our
stead. And when our Lord Jesus in the
covenant of grace agreed, and this was an everlasting covenant,
I realized that. When He stepped forward and said,
Father, hold me accountable for all of these that you give me
in covenant grace, He was saying, I am willing to be cut off because
of the transgressions of my people. that will be charged to my account. He was cut off out of the land
of the living by God himself. I was speaking with Brother Ron
Trayvon a few days ago, and I was telling him while we were away,
I was reading an excerpt from a book that a fellow had written
and I haven't read the book, have no desire to read it. But
I was reading a little bit of it from the internet and the
book is entitled, Did God Kill Jesus? And this fellow who was
critiquing the book said that he used to believe that God did
kill Jesus. But he said this book opened
his eyes that God didn't have anything to do with it. Well, his eyes weren't opened. His eyes were blinded. Because
if you read God's Word, you will find this. Yes, God used the
Romans. Yes, God used Herod. Yes, God used a man by the name
of Pontius Pilate. And yes, God used the Sanhedrin
who insisted that Christ be cut off from the land of the living.
But make no mistake about it. It was God the Father who sent
him to the cross. It was God the Father who made
his soul an offering for sin. It's God the Father who poured
out upon him all of the wrath that all of his people would
have endured forever and ever and ever. It's God who carried
this out. This is a penal substitutionary
death. Penal means a penalty. Our Lord
Jesus did not die as an example. He died as the penalty for sin. He died as the Savior of the
people in whose stead He laid down His life. And God the Father
appointed that hour when He would be cut off from the land of the
living. What's it going to cost to save
us? What will that price be? The
Son of God must be cut off, severed, violently separated from the
living. God's going to kill him. God's
going to kill him. I had a viewer who took issue
with me over my phraseology that God killed Jesus and that God
kills people. Well, the Bible says, and I just
sent a few verses of Scripture, the Lord says, I kill and I make
alive. You want to know who killed Jesus?
You want to know who dealt with Him in the most severest way
that could be possibly heaped upon a man? Our holy God did. And He did it to save us. It was in this way His justice
was satisfied. What must be done to Jesus of
Nazareth? I know the Jewish religious crowd,
when Pilate said, it's a tradition that I release a prisoner to
you here at Passover time, shall I release to you Barabbas or
Jesus? They said, release Barabbas.
He said, what then shall I do with Jesus who is called the
Christ? And they said, crucify Him, kill
Him. Let Him be cut off from the land
of the living. He's not worthy to live another
day. We want Him dead. And Christ died. The Scripture
says in 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4, Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. And He was buried, and the third
day He was raised again according to the Scriptures. Our Lord Jesus
was cut off from the land of the living. Though there was
no cause of death found in Him, Pilate said, I find no fault
with this man." And yet he washed his hands, or he endeavored to
wash his hands of the blood of this innocent man. And the Jews
said, well his blood be on us and on our children. And that
happened. And God wiped out thousands upon
thousands of them in 70 AD. In Jerusalem, when the Romans
came in and they leveled that place, that temple, our Lord
said, was left unto them desolate. God forsook it. They had a religion,
but it was a godless religion. It was a Christless religion.
It was a graceless religion. And God said, I'm going to do
away with all of it. and he sent the Roman army in
there and there wasn't left standing one stone upon another of that
temple. Our Lord Jesus was cut off. Why? Well, the answer is given here. For, or the word is because,
of the transgression of my people was he smitten. I'll tell you
why he was cut off. for your transgressions, for
my transgressions. What's it gonna take to save
us? The darling Son of God, ever the delight of the Father, who came into this world and
lived to do the Father's will. The only perfect man, the only
perfectly righteous man to ever walk on the face of this earth,
he had to be cut off from the land of the living because of the transgression
of God's people. We didn't become the people of
God when we believed the gospel. I'm thankful we were gifted with
faith to believe the gospel, but we didn't become the people
of God then. Actually, we were brought to
believe on Him because we were already the people of God. We
were already the sons of God. We were already the offspring
of Jehovah. We were already the beloved of
His heart. We're already the chosen ones
of grace. We were already those that the
Son of God had pledged Himself to be our surety, to be our substitute,
to be our Savior. He loved us with an everlasting
love. James just sang about the love
of God. Oh, how rich, how full, how free,
how everlasting. It was for the transgression
of the people that God loved, that Christ loved, that he was
cut off out of the land of the living. Cut off for his people. Be it known unto all men and
women who will listen to the word of God, God has a people. God has a people out of every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. He chose them in eternal election
to be His very own. Let the naysayers argue and fuss
and raise all kind of hell about that doctrine, but it is gloriously
true. The Lord has His people. And
our Lord Jesus came into the world to save His people. And
the angel said to Joseph, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for
he shall save his people. His people, and his people are
the Father's people. And the Father's people are the
Spirit's people. He shall save his people from
their sins. And that's exactly what he came
to do, and that's exactly what he did. He saved his people from
their sin. He can't be frustrated. This
is a gospel of prosperity, the prosperity of the Son of God.
He prospers in whatever he does. Does he set out to create the
world? Oh yes. Did he do it? Of course
he did. Did he set out to save his elect? Of course he did. He can't fail.
He saved all of his children. He died because of our transgressions. These are his people given to
him in covenant love by the Father. And so he announced to those
Jews in John chapter six, all that the Father giveth me shall
come to me. And a lot of those people that
were out there, they wouldn't believe him. He said, but all that the Father
giveth me, now they'll come to me. And when they come to me, I'm
not gonna cast them out. I'm gonna say, welcome. Welcome. Oh, yes. Our Lord has a people
and for those people and their transgressions, He was cut off
out of the land of the living. When I read this and read it
over and over again, I couldn't help but think of a passage in
Daniel chapter nine. And I would like for you to go
there with me in Daniel chapter nine. And I want to read, before I
read the entire context, I want to read the one verse that kind
of ties this together so you'll see where I'm going. Daniel nine
and verse 26. And after threescore and two
weeks shall Messiah be cut off. That's what we're talking about. But not for himself. Not for himself. Not because of his sins, but
for the transgression of his people. That's why he was stricken. Let me show you this context.
Go back up to verse 20. Daniel has been praying for the
deliverance of Israel from Babylonian bondage, from their captivity.
And this is what had concerned him and been praying about it.
Look at verse 20. And whilst I was speaking and
praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel
and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the
holy mountain of my God. Yea, whilst I was speaking in
prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision
at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about
the time of the evening oblation or sacrifice. So about three
o'clock in the afternoon, the time when the lamb, had they
still been in Jerusalem, still were able to offer the oblations
or the offerings of the sacrifice, about the time of that evening,
Lamb laid being smitten for the sins of the people. Now, first
of all, who is this Gabriel? And if you look it up, it means
the man of God. In fact, Daniel, he doesn't say
the angel Gabriel. He doesn't say the archangel
Gabriel. He says in verse 21, even the
man, Gabriel, literally the man of God, Gabriel. The meaning is the one who stands
in the presence of God. I do believe he's more than a
created angel, this Gabriel. especially since Daniel referred
to him as the man Gabriel, it seems to me like this is the
man Christ Jesus in pre-incarnate form. He often appeared to the
saints of God and to others in the Old Testament, took upon
himself a body so that people could see him, and he spoke to
them and dealt with them. And I don't want to be too dogmatic
here, but in Luke chapter 1 and verse 19, Zacharias, you remember
Zacharias, he's the father of John the Baptist. He was doubtful
of the message of Gabriel, that his wife Elizabeth would have
a child in her old age. And in Luke 119, Gabriel, having
come to Zacharias, said this, I am Gabriel that stand in the
presence of God and am sent to speak unto thee and to show thee
these glad tidings. Now all the created angels of
God, they bow in the presence of God, but there's something
about Gabriel, he's different. He's the man who stands in the
presence of God. You remember the Ark of the Covenant?
We studied the Ark of the Covenant, the various pieces of furniture
of the tabernacle, and in the Holy of Holies, on the Ark of
the Covenant was the lid, the mercy seat, and over the mercy
seat were two cherubims that faced each other with their faces
looking toward the Ark of the Covenant, toward the mercy seat.
They were bowed in the presence of God. Angels bow in the presence
of God. They don't stand before God,
but Gabriel does. And I don't want to be, as I
said, too dogmatic here, but I believe this is our Savior. And you're welcome to disagree
with me, and I don't mind that at all. But before you criticize
my interpretation of this, remember this, our mission in studying
the Word of God is to always be looking for the Savior. I'm
not gonna make any apology about that. I'm looking for him and
I see him here. Maybe you don't see him. But
I see him here because he's the revealer of secrets to Daniel. And he's the revealer of secrets
to Zacharias in Luke chapter one. And he's the revealer of
secrets to Mary, also in Luke chapter one. As he told her that
she would give birth to that Holy One, the Son of God. He's the revealer of secrets.
Now here's what Daniel has been praying about. Daniel has been
praying about the liberation of the release of the captives
from Babylonian captivity and and the Lord Gabriel I believe
Gabriel was the Lord. Gabriel tells him they're gonna
be released from their captivity. But Gabriel then gave him more
than Daniel asked for because Daniel receives a lesson in the
spiritual release of the bondages, the bondage of the captives of
sin and death. And Gabriel defines for him the
gospel of grace. He reveals it to him. And that's
our Lord Jesus. Is he not the revealer of the
secrets of God to us? Do we not read in Matthew chapter
11, no man knoweth the father, but the son, and he to whom the
son will reveal him? You can't know God apart from
the revealing grace of the man who stands in the presence of
God, even our Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke chapter 24, when our
Lord met with those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, He opened
their understanding. He opened the Scriptures to them.
He broke them open like an alabaster box full of precious ointment. And suddenly they rejoiced in
the Old Testament Scriptures as the Savior broke open the
hidden secrets of the Old Testament to them that revealed Him and
His work of redemption. And then we next see him in Luke
chapter 24, making himself known to the disciples. He passed through
the walls and appeared in the room where they were, said, do
you have anything to eat? They gave him a piece of fish,
broad fish. And he did the same thing for
them because he's the revealer of the secrets, the hidden things
of God. And if you're ever to know the
gospel, You who are watching, if you're
ever to know how God can be just and justify the ungodly, I know
who's got to reveal that to you. The man who stands in the presence
of God, even our Lord Jesus Christ. And here Gabriel reveals to Daniel
Messiah's work and his mission. Gabriel gives to Daniel understanding
of the way sinners are delivered from a greater captivity than
the captivity of Babylon or the captivity of Rome He shows how sinners are delivered
from the captivity of Satan and sin and death Notice in verse 22 and he informed me. That's what
Christ does. He informs us. He talked with
me, he said, and said, oh Daniel, I've now come forth to give thee
skill and understanding. You see, I don't believe that
a regular angel is permitted to give us skill and understanding
of spiritual things. Only God can do that. Nobody
else can reveal to you the truth of how God saves sinners. A man
can't do it. A created angel can't do it.
But the man who stands in the very presence of God, eye to
eye with God, he alone can do that. He can show you what nobody else
can possibly ever show you. He can open your eyes to the
truth. He can give you eyes to see and
ears to hear and a new heart as He takes away from you the
heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh. He says in verse 23, at the beginning
of thy supplications, the commandments came forth and I've come to show
you, I've come to manifest truth to you. That word show, S-H-E-W
means manifest. Well, why will these things be
made known to Daniel? Oh, he tells him, for thou art
greatly beloved. Thou art greatly beloved. Because
I've loved you with an everlasting love. That's the reason I've
come to open your eyes to the truth. Therefore, understand. Understand
the matter. and consider the vision, oh, that God would speak to our
hearts and say, understand the matter now. I tell you what, if He ever teaches
us, we will be well taught, well taught. He says in verse 24, I'll go
quickly, 70 weeks or 70 weeks of years, 490 years are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city. Number one, to finish
the transgression. He gives six things here. Several specific things are stated
with reference to Messiah. He'll come and finish the transgression. Finish means to shut up, as in
a bag, and then to dispose of it. That's what our Lord Jesus
did with our transgressions. He shut them up in a bag. You
know what he did with them? Cast them in the deepest part
of the sea. He threw them behind God's back. He finished them. He finished
the transgression. Transgression means rebellion.
We've rebelled against God's law. All of our rebellions, He
bagged them all up. He shut them up and threw them
away. Secondly, and to make an end of sins. To make an end of
sins. That is, He consumed our sins
entirely. Our Lord Jesus came in the flesh
to make an end of sins. He didn't come to try to do it,
to endeavor to do it, to make it possible for you to finish
the work off by your faith. No, He came to make an end of
sins. Messiah did. And our sins, get
a hold of this, were absolutely consumed by the cross death of
our Lord Jesus Christ. consumed. Yes, our Savior abolished the
sins of His people forever when He paid the full price for our
ransom. He made an end of sin's condemnation. He made an end of sin's curse. He made an end of sin's judgment. He made an end of sin's consequence. He made an end of sin's guilt. He made an end of sin's death. He made an end of all of our
sins, past, present, and future. He made an end of them. He consumed them entirely. I have related this to you before,
but I used to sit under preaching where they'd say, You better
live right, you children of God, you Christians, you better live
right. Because one of these days when you get to heaven, God's
going to put your life on a projector and project it on a big screen
for everybody to see. See all your sins, all your transgressions,
all your iniquities. You don't want to be embarrassed. You want to have more crowns,
don't you? More rewards, don't you? Be obedient. You want to have to face that.
Let me tell you something. First of all, for all the crowns
and trophies, we have Christ Jesus. God can't give you any
more than Him. And every child of God is blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And secondly, our Lord Jesus
made an end of sins. He consumed them. They're not
on the record books of God. When He opens the book of life,
All He sees is our name and our Savior's name at the head of
the list. The Lord our righteousness. That's
all He sees. In Numbers we read, the Lord
hath not beheld sins or iniquities in any of His people. Oh, you preach like that. The
Lord's people going out here to live like the devil. No, they
won't. God's people not looking for
an excuse to sin, live like a bunch of hellions. That's foolish,
that's stupid talk. People say things like that who
don't understand the grace of God. Lord done all this for me, put
an end to my sin. I want to honor Him in my life,
don't you? I want to honor Him in my words,
in my conduct, in my attitude, in my motives. Tell you, he came to make an
end of sin. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? That's what the scripture says.
It's God that justified me. It's God who declared me to be
righteous. You mean one of these days he's
gonna say, well now wait a minute, you're not really righteous. No, he won't say that. I weep over my sin and you do
yours. And I want to walk in this world
in a manner consistent with the character of a child of God.
But I am not worried that my heavenly father will beat the
fire out of me if I walk, if I get out of line. Now he disciplines,
I know that. He chastises, I know that. But
he does it in love because we need it. Our Lord made an end of our sins. And then it says, Messiah will
do this. He will make reconciliation for
iniquity. The idea is a propitiation for
our inequities. Whenever you see that word iniquity
or iniquities, think of the word inequities. We're not equal to
righteousness. We're not equal to it. We fall
far short of perfection of righteousness. But our Lord Jesus has made reconciliation
for iniquity. He satisfied justice. He made
atonement for our iniquities. He repaired the breach against
God. He made everything right. and nothing is required of you.
In fact, if you try to do something to kind of help out the situation,
you're in trouble, in trouble. Our Lord Jesus made reparation
to God by his death. He says in Messiah, and to bring
in everlasting righteousness. That's what he did. He restored
that which he took not away. He brought in everlasting righteousness. He magnified the law and made
it honorable. He brought in righteousness by
his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. He bestows
this righteousness by marvelous grace. He imputes it to the accounts
of his people. And he gives us faith to receive
that righteousness and be so thankful for it. You see, this
righteousness is a robe that will never wear out. The virtue of this righteousness
will continue forever. It's a perfect righteousness
because it's the righteousness of God. And he says further to
seal up the vision and the prophecy. to seal it up. He affixed a seal
to the prophecy of God. What is the seal? How did he
seal all this up? With his blood, that's how he
did it. He affixed the seal to it. How
do you know you're saved forever? How do you know that he brought
in everlasting righteousness? How do you know he finished the
transgressions? How do you know he made an end
of sin? Because I see he sealed it all
with his precious blood. That's what it took. That's what
he did. And he says here, to seal up
the vision and the prophecy, all the prophecies in the Old
Testament portraying Messiah, His sacrifice, His death, He
fulfilled it all. And then quickly, to anoint the
most holy. You know, Christ ransomed ones,
His elect, His church, poor, ruined, wretched, sinners like
you and me. Do you know what God calls us? The most holy. We're the most holy. I tell you Jim, I'm anything
but holy. Well now wait a minute. Wait
a minute. Gabriel the man who stands in
God's presence. He says, Christ did all of this
to anoint with the Spirit of God the most holy, that's you
and me. Well, I'm not holy. Yes, you are. You are in Christ. Who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, that's holiness. and redemption. Paul says in Hebrews, follow
peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord. There are no degrees of holiness.
Holiness has nothing to do with what you wear, what you eat,
what your conduct is, has nothing to do with those things. We're
sanctified in, through, and by Christ Jesus. He is my holiness. and he is my righteousness. Well,
how's all this gonna happen? Verse 25, know therefore and
understand. Remember, this is still Gabriel.
I want you to know this, Daniel. I want you to understand that
from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem
unto the Messiah and the prince shall be seven weeks and threescore
and two weeks the streets shall be built again and the wall even
in troublesome times and after threescore and two weeks shall
Messiah be cut off. Ah, there it is. How's all this going to be accomplished?
Messiah's got to be cut off. Got to die a violent death at
the hands of wicked men and at the hands of a holy God. And the people of the prince
that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary in
70 A.D. and the end thereof shall be
with a flood unto the end of the war of desolations are determined
and he shall confirm the covenant, he shall finish the covenant
with many for a week. What covenant is that? That's
the covenant of grace. Yonder at Calvary's cross, over
2,000 years ago, what was happening there? The confirming of the
covenant. That's what that was. the sealing
of the covenant. This is the covenant of God being
brought to pass by the blood of the great shepherd
of the sheep, the Lord Jesus Christ. As Isaiah says, he was cut off
out of the land of the living. Let me give you one more thing. These words, used in Isaiah 53
and used also here in Daniel chapter nine, cut off. They can
also be translated cut down, cut down. In fact, that's exactly
how they're used in a passage. I wouldn't ask you to turn to
it. It's in 2 Kings 6. Elisha was a teacher of young
preachers, young prophets that came to him and said, listen,
the place where we live and where we're instructed is too small.
He said, well, make a bigger place.
That makes sense. Build you a bigger place. And
so the scripture says, and when they came to the Jordan, they
cut down wood. Same expression as cut off, they
cut down wood. The cutting down of the trees
was to build a larger house for the preachers to live in and
meet in. And it was a deliberate action. It was on purpose. It was intentional. We talked
to Larry about cutting down trees. He's cut down more than we could
probably number. That don't happen by accident,
does it? That's intentional. You go after it. I remember when
Nancy's daddy, he and I'd go out, have the chainsaw cut down
trees. He'd go through, and the ones
he wanted cut down, he'd mark with a can of red paint, put
an X on it. We'll cut that down. And in that sense, cut it off
from the land of the living of the rest of the trees. It's destined
to die. Our Lord Jesus had to be cut
down. And I want you to turn one more
passage with me, that's Psalm 1. I want you to turn to Psalm
1. See, our Lord Jesus, He was cut
down on purpose. There's nothing accidental about
the death of our Lord Jesus. It wasn't a bunch of unfortunate
events that led to that. That was intentional. That was
purpose before God ever made the world. In fact, God made
the world for that to happen, to save His people from their
sins. It all happened on purpose. Psalm
1, there can be some application to the people of God here of
that I'm sure. And that is the typical interpretation
of Psalm 1. But there is but one man of whom
this is absolutely true. And it's not you, and it's not
me. It's that man who stands in the
presence of God. And when you read, especially
these first three verses and the last verse of Psalm 1, you
should be thinking about the man, Christ Jesus. Blessed is
the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth
in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth
he meditate day and night." Do you do that? Is there anybody
here who delights in the law of God day and night all the
time? Well, I'll answer for all of
us, no! That's impossible. You can make some distant application
to us from this psalm, but the psalm is not about us. It's about
that one who was cut down. Look at verse three. And he shall
be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. That's Christ
the Lord. He's the tree of life. And he bringeth forth his fruit
in his season. But unlike other trees, in order
for him to bring forth fruit, he had to be cut down. This is a tree that had to fall.
I mean, God had to take the ax to him. He had to be cut down intentionally,
on purpose. God felled him. God smote him. God wounded him. And as a result
of him being cut down, he brings forth his fruit in his season. Oh, how much fruit the death
of our Lord Jesus Christ resulted in. And his leaf will never wither. Because you see, yes, He was
cut down, but He arose. And His leaves don't wither.
There is no corruption in Him. Read Acts chapter 2 again. His body didn't corrupt. He was brought back to life because
He accomplished redemption. His leaf also shall not wither.
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. He is the tree of life who was
cut down. God cut him down. And then God raised him again.
And as a result, our Lord Jesus is bearing fruit Several of His fruit are here
this evening. No doubt, several are watching.
And this is a fruit from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. All because the great Savior
was cut off out of the land of the living because of the transgression
of His people. Oh, how we rejoice in Him. and
how we love Him because He first loved us. For our final hymn
this evening, turn to number 166.