of our existence from Adam on
down, all the problems that we have, all the troubles, all the
wars and fightings and sicknesses, everything evil, everything bad,
is really caused and can be traced to one little three-letter word. Sin. S-I-N. Years and years ago, I don't
remember who preached this, but we had the union conferences
here at 13th Street. One of the preachers was talking
about a fellow who asked him, he said, what exactly do I need
to be saved from? And you know, people give a lot
of answers to that. Obviously, we, in this morning's
message, talked about the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man
in hell, and Lazarus in heaven. Certainly, we need to be saved
from hell. Eternal damnation. Eternal punishment. Some would say, well, we need
to be saved from ourselves. And that's true. We have to be
saved from ourselves. We have to be saved from Satan. But really it can all be summed
up in just this way. We must be saved from sin. And of course the Bible presents
one way of salvation from sin. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ and Him crucified and risen again. That's why He said,
I am the way and the truth and the life and no man cometh unto
the Father but by Me. when he was named by God, that
angel told him, told Joseph, he said, his name shall be called
Jesus, which literally means Jehovah Savior, our God, our
Savior. For his name shall be called
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. And so we understand that the
message of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is that there is
a remedy, the remedy, only remedy in salvation from sin, Jesus
Christ. And on the negative, that any
person born of Adam, any sinner born of Adam, and that's all
of us by nature, if we don't have Christ, then sin will literally
make an end of us. It'll make an end of us. It'll
finish us off. That's what I'm going to talk
about tonight. The title of the message is The Tragic End of
Sin. The Tragic End of Sin. We see
it here in the life of a man named Saul, King Saul. We've
been studying the life of David, David as a type of Christ, the
King of Israel. who is a type of Christ who is
the King of Kings, and David as an example of a sinner saved
by the grace of God. He's not a perfect man by any
stretch of the imagination. He simply can take on the title
that all of us who know Christ can take on. I'm a sinner saved
by the grace of God. We sing that hymn sometimes,
only a sinner saved by grace. And I tell you what, that only
is a good only. Because that's all we're only going to be. Right? That's right. Sinners saved by
the grace of God. We won't be perfect in ourselves
until we go to glory. And we're made in His likeness.
David said, I'll be satisfied. When? When I awaken my likeness. Not right now. I'm satisfied
with Christ now, aren't you? Because He's my all in all. But I'm not satisfied with old
Bill up here. That ain't stretching the imagination.
And I'd really be kind of afraid if I ever got satisfied with
him. How about you? You see, Christ is our all. But
this is a tragic story, Saul, King Saul. Saul, you can say
so many things about him. He, in one sense, you could say
he's a type of Adam. He's a type of Adam in a sense.
You know, it says here in verse one of chapter 31, the Philistines
fought against Israel. The Philistines represent everything
that sin represents, idolatry, disobedience, no regard for God
or the things of God or the word of God. And they fought against
God's people, Israel. And it says, and the men of Israel
fled from before the Philistines. What a sad state of affairs for
God's people under the old covenant. They fled from before the Philistines. We don't have to plead from sin.
All we have to do is plead Christ. Now, we're to plead from all
that would cause us to sin and all that would take us away from
disobedience. But we don't have to fear the
defeat of sin to be conquered because Christ conquered sin.
But here you see this sad state of affairs in the state of Israel
because of a king who was disobedient, an unbelieving king. an unbelieving
king. It says that the men of Israel
fell down slain. They were wounded in Mount Gilboa.
And the Philistines, look at verse 2, the Philistines followed
hard upon Saul and upon his son. And the Philistines slew Jonathan.
We know who Jonathan was. Jonathan was, according to the
pledge, he was the next in line for the throne of Israel. But
he relinquished his right because of his love for David. And mainly,
we see, because of his love for Christ, who would come through
David. And he recognized that David
would be king, and he would. And then he mentions two other
sons of Saul, Abinadab and Melchizedek. We don't know much about them,
but we don't, the Bible doesn't say anything about them. We know
that if Jonathan and these two other boys lived, we know Jonathan
would have willingly submitted to the word and the way and the
will of God and bowed to David as king. We don't know about
these two other boys, probably not. We know that's not human
nature, is it? It's not human nature to bow
to God's way. If we bow to God's way, it's
by the power of God and the salvation, by his spirit who brings us down
and makes us willing in the day of God's power. It says in verse
3, the battle went sore against Saul and the archers hit him.
And he was sore wounded of the heart. We see here God's justice
against sin. Sin can never... He used these
heathen Philistines to punish Saul and all who were with Saul.
Verse 4, Then said Saul unto his armor bearer. Now listen
to how Saul, how far down he went in his own self-pity, in
his own sin. Now this is, that's what this
is. And he said unto his armor-bearer, draw thy sword and thrust me
through therewith, just kill me, just kill me. And he said, lest these uncircumcised
come and thrust me through and abuse me. But his armor-bearer
would not, for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and
fell upon it." He committed suicide, the tragic end of sin. not everybody
commits the physical act of suicide, but I'll tell you something.
When you, when we, I'll include myself here, when we who are
sinners hear from God's word that Christ is the only way of
salvation from sin, that his blood alone can wash away my
sin, that his righteousness alone can give me an eternal, complete,
right standing before a holy God. And if we walk out in disregard
and unbelief and reject that message, we are in essence committing
suicide. Did you know that? We may not
think we are. We may not know that we are.
In fact, we don't because we're not in our right mind spiritually
if we walk away from that message of grace in unbelief. That's
right. I'm telling you, Christ is the
only way. You know, when I finish that
parable of the rich man, that's the message of that parable,
really. It's not a message to describe
this, and he's telling people that the message of this book,
the message of Moses and the prophet and what we have today
in the New Testament, is the message of salvation from sin
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're to hear it. We have
a more sure word of prophecy than anything that we could ever
imagine. Think about what Saul himself
witnessed. Think about what David witnessed.
Think about what all the Old Testament people witnessed. And
yet we have the greatest miracle, the greatest miracle that God
has ever given the human race. And it's right here in my hand.
I believe that. That is the testimony of his
word. of salvation from sin in and
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is better, listen, this
right here, this is better than if we had stood on the shores
of the Red Sea and watched it part. This is better than if
we had stood there and saw the pillar of fire and the pillar
of the cloud. This is better than if we had
stood outside the temple wherein was the Shekinah glory of God
This is better than the walls of Jericho coming down. This
word right here. Because this testifies of the
greatest miracle and that is the crucifixion of Christ for
our sins. His satisfaction to God's justice.
And what we need to understand when we look at a man like Saul
is it wasn't just an issue of his ego or anything like it.
This is what he's rejecting. that God is going to bring the
Messiah through this nation. And as God revealed, we'll see
this in just a moment, through the tribe of Judah, through a
king. Kings will come out of you, he
said to Abraham. And then he identified those
kings as the tribe of Judah. And Saul was rejecting every
bit of that. He was rejecting the gospel.
And it brought him down to such a state that he committed suicide. What a tragic end of sin. Look
at verse 5. He says, when his armor bearer
saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword and died
with him. So Saul died and his three sons
and his armor bearer and all his men that same day together.
That's what I meant when I said Saul was sort of like a picture
of Adam there. Not only did Saul die, but everybody
who supported him died. Everybody who was with him, everybody
who was identified with him died. And these were the mighty men
of Israel. They weren't like the weak and
the helpless and the indebted ones that went to David. Picture
of Christ who saved sinners, the worst of the lot, the publicans,
the harlots, sinners, but saw everyone who was identified with
him died with him. You see, in Adam all die. That's what 1 Corinthians 15
says. Sin entered the world by one man, Adam, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men for all sin. We sinned in Adam. And we're
born into this world in the flesh, in fallen human nature, dead
in trespasses and sins. And if God doesn't intervene
with the remedy, the only remedy, Christ, then we'll perish just
like Saul. Maybe not in the exact same way,
is it? We will perish without Christ. Verse 7 says, When the
men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley, and
they that were on the other side of Jordan, saw that the men of
Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook
the cities and fled, and the Philistines came and dwelt in
them. So the Philistines took over.
You see, where Christ is not present, what rules, what resides
in that heart? Nothing but sin. You know, in
John chapter 16, where it speaks of the work of the Holy Spirit
in the new birth, Christ spoke of it as a conviction, a convincing. The Holy Spirit comes, he said,
and he will convince God's people all over the world, he says,
first of all, of sin because they believe not on me. And what
he means by that is this, that he convinces us that without
Christ, all we are All we think, all we say, and all we do is
sin. You believe that? I do. My friend,
without Christ, there's nothing in God's sight that can be said
of good about it. Now, men may say things good
about it, but God won't. In God's sight, there's none
good, no, not one. There's none righteous, no, not
one. And man at his best state is
altogether vanity. Without Christ, the best man
or woman that has ever lived or ever will live is nothing
but sin in the sight of God. You say that is extreme. Well,
sin is an extreme disease. It is a deadly disease. Sin leads
to death. And that is what is happening
here. These Philistines, they occupied the cities that God's
people should occupy. They take over. It came to pass
on the morrow when the Philistines came to strip the slain that
they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount Gilboa."
Listen to what they did to Saul. They decimated him. He says,
"...and they cut off his head and stripped off his armor. They
sent him to the land of the Philistines round about to publish it in
the house of their idols and among the people, and they put
his armor in the house of Ashtaroth." That was the Philistine idol,
the idol god of the Philistines. And they fastened his body to
the wall of Bethlehem. What an end. You know what's
really happening here. You notice it says, they published
it in the house of their idols and among the people. Here's
a prime example of a man who gave the enemies of God occasion
to blaspheme. Who do you think they said? We
defeated Israel, the people of God. We've defeated their God.
Their God is no God. And so they attributed Saul's
death and their victory to their idol, Astaroth. Our God is greater
than Israel's God. That's what they say. That is
the result of sin. Sad to say, King Saul, the people's
choice, is standing out here in his death as a prime example
of an unregenerate unbeliever, disobedient, destined to be defeated. It goes on to say in verse 11,
when the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead heard of that which the Philistines
had done to Saul, all the valiant men rose, and went all night,
and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the
wall of Bethshem, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there.
And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh,
and fasted seven days." Now, that's sorrow. That's what that
fasting represents, sorrow. That's what sin leads to, sorrow,
defeat, and death. And so here we see Saul representing
all who refuse to trust in the Lord, all who lean to their own
understanding, all who seek their own way instead of God's way.
He's a prime example of what John said in John chapter 3 and
verse 36. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see light, but the wrath of God abideth on him. He that believeth not shall be
damned. The Bible says, except you repent,
you shall what? Perish. Saul perished. Saul was a prime example of one
who spent his life walking, thinking, living, and acting in the flesh,
and bringing forth fruit unto death. And here's his death. But it's not just a physical
death. It's an eternal death. Well, what is death? What is
sin? Think about it. Here's the first thing that's
got to be sealed in our minds. Death is the just punishment
for sin. I want you to turn to Genesis
chapter 2. This is not new. You know that. It's as old as
the garden. You know what happened in the
garden. God set man, Adam, in the garden and gave him dominion
over all the things of the world. He had that dominion from God.
It was God-given. It wasn't usurped. It wasn't
stolen from God, as it were. It was given to him. But God
said, I have dominion over you, Adam. I'm the creator. You're
the creature. And that's going to be represented
by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which represents
God's sovereign right to set the standard of what's right
and what's wrong. what's good and what's evil,
what's righteous and what is sin. That's God's law. And then
in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 16, look at it, he says, The
Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Literally, that means dying,
thou shalt die. We can talk about spiritual death. We can talk about legal death.
That's condemnation. Man on death row, you might say. The sentence has been passed.
He's on death row. And we can talk about physical
death, too, because dying thou shalt die. The process started
right there. And we live with that every day.
We see the effects of it every day. Every day. Well, we know
what happened. Look over in Chapter 3 when man
fell. The serpent came unto the woman,
verse 4, and he told her, he said, you shall not surely die.
What's he doing? He's calling God a liar. Same
thing happened when Saul said that David shall not be king.
Now, you know, Saul had times of legal repentance. There were
times that he gave up and he said, well, David, you will be
on the throne, but he didn't last. And so he's calling God
a liar. He's identifying with Satan.
He's identifying with Adam in the fall. And it says in verse
5, look at it, Genesis 3. For God doth know that in the
day you reach thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you
shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And what I believe
he's talking about there is that he's telling them that you'll
be on the same plane with God. You can set your own standards.
of what's good and what's evil. You can be your own master. You
see, man doesn't have the capacity to determine good and evil. Here's
what happens when man takes it upon himself to determine or
to judge or to set the standard of good and evil. You can read
about it in the book of Judges. In fact, the last chapter of
the book of Judges, it says this, every man did what was right
in his own eyes. So, in other words, if I'm the
one who sets the standard of good and evil, and you're the
one who sets the standard, we're going to have a different standard. And it's going to be
way lower than God's standard. And this is what Satan's saying,
when you eat of this tree, when you disobey God, you're not going
to die. God's a liar, he's saying. And
you'll be as God. You'll be able to set your own
standard. You'll be that funny. What a
liar. Who is the liar? Satan is. And
of course, he ate, and Adam ate, and man fell. Verse 7, it says,
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they
were naked. That's the shamaness of being exposed to their own
standard. And they sewed fig leaves together,
representing man's works in the flesh, man's efforts to cover
his own nakedness, made themselves aprons. And it wouldn't work. And you know right after that,
God revealed the only way of salvation in the woman's seed,
which is Christ. And he established the great
and grand and glorious picture of salvation from sin by the
blood of Christ when he threw animals and made them coats of
skin over there in verse 21. And that was God's way. But you
know, right after that comes along I want you to listen to
the language of this. You know what happened with Cain
and Abel. Abel came seeking acceptance before God, God's way, by the
blood of the Lamb, which was a picture of Christ, the Lamb
of God, which beareth away the sin of the world. Abel, just
like every Old Testament saint, had that promissory note from
God that their sins were forgiven and they were justified based
on the blood and righteousness of the one who was to come in
the future. And when they came with the blood of the lamb, the
blood of the animal, they were saying, I'm a sinner, I have
no hope of salvation from my sin except God's way by grace
through the promised Messiah, the anointed one, the Christ.
And that was faith. God-given faith. Born again,
just like you and I are born again. By the Spirit of God.
Abel, just like Cain, was born dead in trespasses and sins.
Connected with his father, Adam, not only physically, but spiritually. But he was born again by the
Spirit of God. But what did Cain do? Well, he
brought the fruit of the grain. He brought what he worked for.
He brought his effort. His work, his deeds, probably
the best that he had, probably the best of the crowd, and he
sought acceptance before God, and he was turned away. God will
not accept man's efforts. By deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified. Well, listen to what the Lord
said under Canaan. It says in verse 5 of Genesis
4. It says, but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And notice there it's connected
with the offering. Back up in verse 4, Abel, he
also brought the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof,
and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. There's
no division between Abel and the offering here. You see, we
must be united to Christ. We must be represented by Christ.
Well, if he didn't have any respect, under Cain and his offering,
and it says, Cain was very wroth, that means he was very angry,
and his countenance fell. And it says in verse 6, The Lord
said unto Cain, Why art thou angry? Why are you wroth? And
why is thy countenance fallen? Now listen to this, verse 7,
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? In other words,
If you do well, God will accept you. And if thou doest not well,
sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and
thou shalt rule over him." Now, what is he talking about there?
Well, what is it to do well? Well, to do what Abel did, come
as a sinner seeking mercy from God by the blood of the He's
not telling Cain, well if you do well there, if you work hard
enough, and maybe Cain you've got a second rate crop or something
like that. That's not what he's saying at all. He's saying Cain,
if you do well, what is it? Come like Abel. Come as a sinner
seeking mercy. That's the only remedy for sin.
What Saul rejected when he rejected David, just like people today
when they reject Christ. And he said there, he said, if
thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. Now, the picture,
according to the original language here, is this. It's like a wild,
hungry animal, like a lion sitting outside your door just waiting
to devour you. And unto thee shall be his desire. In other words, he's going to
fulfill his desire on you, this wild, hungry lion. And it says, and thou shalt rule
over him. Literally, he's gonna rule over
you. Sin will rule over you. Without Christ, sin will rule
over you. See, that's the picture there.
So here it is. If you don't come pleading the
blood of Christ, sin is like a hungry lion outside your door
just waiting to finish you off. Just waiting to make an end of
you. Just waiting to take you down and devour you. Why is that? Because the wages of sin is death.
The wages of sin is death. What does the scripture say?
We read in Galatians chapter 6 this morning about, Be not
deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap. You sow to the flesh, like Cain,
what are you going to reap? Death, the result of sin. You
sow to the Spirit, by the grace of God, like Abel, what are you
going to reap? You're going to reap grace, you're going to reap
life everlasting. The Bible says it, the soul that
sinneth, it shall what? Die. It shall die. It says let no man, look back
over at James that I read at the beginning. Listen to this,
this is the same kind of language here, James chapter 1. Look back
over there. Now think about Saul when you
read this. He said let no man say, verse 13, when he's tempted,
I'm tempted of God. Now what is he talking about?
Temptation to evil. Temptation to sin. Now God does
test his people, but it's not a temptation to evil. These tests
are tests of faith. They don't create faith, they
reveal faith. But here he's talking about temptation to evil. He
said for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he
any man with evil. But every man is tempted when
he's drawn away of his own lust and in time, just like Saul.
His own lust, he wanted that done. He wanted to be exalted
in Israel. And so look at verse 15. But
when lust, these unlawful desires, sin hath conceived, it bringeth
forth sin. And sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth sin. In other words, sin, when it's
finished, when it reaches its goal, if sin is allowed to reach
its goal, what's the result? Death. Just like Saul. In his case, sin was allowed
to reach its goal, and it finished him off. And that's the story
of man by nature. That's the story of man on his
own. That's the story of the best men in the world trying
to save themselves by their work. That's the story of man without
Christ. But now here's the second thing,
you know, as we conclude 1 Samuel there. And sometimes these book divisions
kind of. Kind of lead. People to a wrong
conclusion because. You say, well, we're finished
with that book, and then 2 Samuel's about something entirely different.
It really just kind of flows right on. In fact, the story's
not over. Now, the story's over for Saul.
But the story's not over, because if we conclude 1 Samuel with
the darkness of Saul's tragic death because of sin, we want
to begin 2 Samuel with the rise of David. and his eventual establishment
as king of all Israel. And that's a picture of Christ
who suffered all the consequences of sin for his people and arose
victorious over sin, over Satan, over the curse of the law. And
so what do we see? Christ, the only way of salvation
from sin and death. And it was necessary that Saul
and his family be removed from the throne of Israel. That was
necessary. David had to be king. I mentioned this earlier. Back
over in Genesis chapter 49, in verse 10, when Jacob was pronouncing
the blessings upon his son on his deathbed, when he turned
to Judah, his son Judah, and he pronounced the blessings upon
Judah, in verse 10 of Genesis 49, here's what he said. He said,
the scepter, now what's a scepter? That's the king's staff. That's
a symbol of the kingship and the judgment and the authority
and the sovereignty of the king. And he says, the scepter shall
not depart from where? Benjamin? No. That's the tribe
Saul was from. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come. What's Shiloh? That means peace.
Who's the king of peace? Who's the prince of peace? Who's
the one who makes peace? Christ. And unto him shall the
gathering of the people meet. They're going to come to him.
That's talking about the calling of his sheep, his people, Jew
and Gentile, all over the world will come unto him. Him here
is David in national Israel, but ultimately it's Christ. Eternally
it's Christ. Spiritually it's Christ. Remember
he mentioned Jonathan there in the last chapter. Jonathan realized
that. But his father Saul refused to
bow to God's word. Turn to Daniel chapter 9 with
me. The book of Daniel chapter 9,
the prophecy of Daniel. What we learn in this one passage
is that all of this history that we've studied about David, about
Saul. Of course, we've gone over the
books of Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and some of the other
Old Testament books. I remember when I first got up
here, we studied through the book of Ruth. All of it, every
bit of it. All of this history, all of this
providence is aimed at revealing the glory of the person on finished
work of Christ as the only way of salvation from sin. Look at
verse 24. I'm not going to read this whole
passage. But this is a prophecy of crime. And I'm not going to
give you a Hebrew math lesson either. Starts out 70 weeks. A lot of people go to town with
that. It doesn't mean literal weeks. It's weeks of years. End up being around 490 to 500
years. That's what he's talking about. And he's talking about, basically,
the time in between the Testament. You think about this. What we
would say Malachi to Matthew. The scholars call that the 400
to 500 years of darkness. Because there's no revelation
from God during that time. It was during that time that
Israel, as a nation, got further and further and further away
from the Word of God. It was a time that Israel as
a nation was conquered. They were conquered by three
different empires, including Alexander the Great, the Grecian
Empire, and then the Roman Empire. It was a time when they restarted,
when Herod restarted building the temple, the Temple of Herod. It was a time when the Pharisees
and the Sadducees rose up as a sect of Judaism. It was a time
when the Sadducees took over the priesthood and it became
a political hard part of corruption rather than a real valid picture
of Christ our high priest. Just like politics today. That temple, when Christ arrived
on earth, that temple was just as corrupt politically and religiously
as any Washington or any capital in this world. That's the way
it was. And so during that 500 years,
and this is what he's talking about the 70 weeks are determined,
verse 24. Somebody said, well, where's
there any bright light out of this thing? You know, where's
there any hope? Because it just seems like it's just nothing
but a, just a conglomeration of sin and darkness and corruption. Well, listen, listen to this
now. He says, 70 weeks are determined by holy city to do what? Number one, to finish the transgression. Finish the transgression. What
is the transgression? That's disobedience to the law
of God. You see, Saul's transgression finished him. Now at the end
of this 70 weeks, somebody's going to finish the transgression.
That's what I need. How about you? And then he says,
to make an end of sin. You see that? Sin made an end
of Saul. Sin's going to make an end of
everyone without the remedy. But at the end of this time,
somebody's going to make an end of sin. That's what I need. How about you? to make reconciliation
for iniquity. You see, iniquity separates sinners
from God, separates man from God. There's got to be a reconciliation. Somebody's going to make reconciliation.
That's what I need. And he says, and to bring in
everlasting righteousness, you see, for transgression to be
finished, for sin to be made an end of, and for reconciliation
to be made, righteousness has to be established. And you can't, you don't have
it and I don't have it by nature or by practice. None righteous,
no not one. So somebody's going to establish
righteousness. And then he says, and to seal
up the vision and the prophecy. What that means is that everything
that was spoken, everything that was revealed, and everything
that was prophesied is going to be finished, finalized, completed,
and sealed up by what this person does. And then he says, and to
anoint the most holy. Where is he? So he says in verse
25, know therefore and understand that from the going forth of
the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah,
the prince. Now, when was the commandment
to restore and to build Jerusalem? What do you remember when we
went through the book of Nehemiah and read about the walls of Jerusalem
and the gates? That's the time. That's the time
when the commandment was given to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
Right then. When they came out of the Babylonian
captivity, they brought back out of that captivity, you remember
Nehemiah and Zerubbabel and Ezra? They rebuilt the temple, Christ
our prophet, priest, and king. From that time unto the Messiah,
the prince. You know how long that was? About
490 years. Almost 500 years. Seventy weeks,
I determine. And he says, Messiah the Prince
shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks, the streets shall
be built again, the wall even in troublous times. And verse
26, and after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut
off. Now, if you want to do the math,
you can, but basically that's talking about the time of Christ
here on this earth up until his crucifixion and where he was
cut off. You remember Isaiah, when he
saw the Lord high and lifted up, he said, I'm a man of unclean
lips. He also made this thing, he said,
I'm cut off. I'm separated from God. When did that happen to
the Messiah? He hung on that cross and he
said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? What's he doing
on that cross? He's bearing our sin. He's taking
our iniquity and our transgression, and he's finishing it off. He's
paying the debt to God's law and justice. He's establishing
righteousness right there in history, doing all that we need
so that sin won't make an end of us, and we end up like Saul. And he says, he shall be cut
off. Now, listen to this. He said, verse 26, he shall be
cut off, but not for himself. He wasn't dying for himself.
You know what he was doing? He was dying for his sheep. Somebody
said, well, he had to die for himself. No, sir, but not for
himself. He died for his sheep. He said,
the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. He was made
sin, Christ, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. He says and the people of the
prince that shall come shall destroy the city in the sanctuary
and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end
of the war Desolations are determined and he shall confirm the covenant
with many That's speaking. I believe of the destruction
of jerusalem Which will be the calling of the gentiles? He will
confirm the covenant with many for one week and in the midst
of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to
cease Remember when the veil was written to from top to bottom
that's over You don't need to sacrifice animals. I remember
when one fella was hearing Henry preach on TV, and Henry was preaching,
this fella had took it upon himself to read the Bible, start with
Genesis, and he never read it before, never heard the gospel,
and he just began reading from Genesis, and he got over to Exodus
and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, and he told his
wife, he said, you know, according to this book, we ought to be
sacrificing lambs. Well, you know, that's the only
logical conclusion you come to through that. Then you heard
Henry preach on TV the sermon from John 1, verse 29, Behold,
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. And he said, that Lamb is Christ.
All those lambs that were slain under that old covenant law,
they pictured Christ. It's been fulfilled. And now
the sacrifice and the oblation has ceased. And for the overspreading
of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation,
that's the fulfillment, and that determined shall be poured upon
the desolate." God is going to have a people. Christ made an
end of sin. It could be said that Saul represents
man seeking salvation by his works, that's death. David represents
man seeking salvation by grace in Christ. That's life. Saul was a self-made man at sin. David was the creation of God. That's life. Let me read one
more verse and I'll close. Over in 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians
15 and verse 55. We've read this quite a bit,
it's normally read at funerals. But listen to what he says here. He says, O death, where is thy
sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Now, listen to verse
56. He says, The sting of death is
sin. In other words, the power of
death is because of sin. If there were no sin, there would
be no death. But he says the strength of sin
is the law. In other words, the power of
sin to condemn a sinner is because the law of God demands it. Back over in Romans chapter 5,
he made this statement, where there is no law, sin is not imputed. In other words, if there were
no law, sin could not be charged to you or to me. If there was
no law, it would be anarchy. But because God is God and he's
just and he is law, where sin is committed, it must be charged,
it must be imputed. So he says the strength of sin
is the law. So how are we going to get out
from under this thing of sin, this condemnation of sin? I tell
you, the law has to be satisfied. The law has to be satisfied in
precept and penalty. Every jot and tittle has to be
kept, and every transgression has to be paid for. Now, who's
going to do that? Not Saul in the pledge, not even
David, a sinner saved by grace, but the greater son of David,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We studied this this morning.
For Christ, Romans 10, for Christ is the end of the law. He's the
finishing of the law, the fulfillment of the law, for righteousness.
to everyone that believes. My friend, don't let sin make
a tragic end to you. Run to Christ. Serve Him, worship
Him, trust Him in all things for all salvation from sin. All right. Let's sing as a closing
hymn, hymn number 431. I love to tell the story. 431.