Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. Those who have no understanding
of their own depravity often indulge their carnal desires
for revenge and justice. A good dose of revenge is good
for the soul of a reprobate man, as he imagines, and gives him
something to glory in as he favorably compares his own righteousness
to those more wicked than himself. However, the man in whom the
Spirit of God dwells, who is well acquainted with the wickedness
of his own heart, must sit in silent wonder as he considers
the mercy of God, which has kept him from destruction. He cannot
condemn the justice of God's law, for he has been brought
to bow and confess to the righteousness of those rules, even though they
cut him to the very heart and reveal to him the utter inability
that he has of ever keeping them. He is quite certain that he is
deserving of destruction according to those precepts, yet he cannot
help but love the one who gave them. He must say with Job of
old, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. Those who are
the objects of God's mercy are well acquainted with the words
of our Lord. But go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have
mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance. Was it not that he came to call
sinners to repentance, we would surely have perished in our sin.
Though we are saddened on the one hand to see one of our fellow
men tasting the dregs of the cup of wrath which he has willingly
drunk, we are at the same time reminded by this example of justice
carried out, of the one who drank that bitter cup in our behalf
that we might be forever set free from the curse of the law.
When the Lord Jesus Christ became a sin offering for us, He first
of all suffered willingly. Most condemned men would do everything
in their power to escape the just recompense of their deeds.
Yet the Lord Jesus, having the power to lay down His life as
well as take it up again, chose to suffer for His elect's sake.
Yea, He even gladly embraced His Father's will, and for the
joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.
He did exactly what He intended to do, which was to be the sin
bearer of those whose sons which were given to Him before the
foundation of the world, that He might present them faultless
before His Father's throne. When the Lord Jesus Christ became
a sin offering for us, He suffered justly. He committed no crimes
of His own, who did no sin, neither was gall found in His mouth.
He was as innocent as a lamb without spot or blemish. Yet
He suffered the death of a justly condemned man. For He hath made
Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. He was never tainted with the
corruption of our sin in His person in any way, even to the
fact that His dead body was not laid in a tomb wherein a dead
body had ever lain. Yet He was judicially determined
to die a sinner's death, because our sin was imputed, that is,
laid to His account to Him. Make no mistake here, when he
trod the winepress of God's wrath in our behalf, he did so under
the full weight and condemnation of our sin, as a guilty man worthy
of the death to which he was brought. To declare, I say, at
this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. He will not at all
acquit the wicked. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
judged and executed because He became our substitute and paid
our sin debt. When the Lord Jesus Christ became
a sin offering for us, He suffered completely. When we take the
Lord's Supper, we eat the bread to remember His body which was
broken for us. Yet we read, for these things
were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of
Him shall not be broken. Not one of his bones were broken,
but his body was. This means that he literally
died completely. There was no life in his body
when it was laid in the garden tomb. Those nerves which sensed
a woman touched the hem of his garment now lay silent and still. Those hands which healed the
sick and gave sight to the blind were limp by his side. For three
days his body lay in that darkness, but upon the morning of the third
day, he who willingly died, willingly raised himself from the dead
and became the first fruits of them that sleep. In the same
fashion, he shall raise the lifeless bodies of his elect in the final
day. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? Do you live each day with the
expectation of seeing him who died for sinners? Is he your
hope? Is he your faith? For a free
CD containing 15 of these radio broadcasts, send an email to
forthepoor at windstream.net.