Good morning, everyone. Good
to see you here. If you would, be turning in your Bibles to
1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'm going to begin a series of
messages today that I've titled, The Gospel According to the Scriptures. And I've borrowed the language,
of course, from verses 3 and 4 of 1 Corinthians 15. And that
will be the central passage that we'll be referring to throughout
this series. This first message or part one
will deal with the death of Christ or how that Christ died according
to the scriptures. But I want to spend a little
time to begin with just introducing this series as a whole. And to
begin with, I want us all to be reminded of the importance
of this subject, the gospel. And I'm referring now to that
very specific message found in God's word that sets forth God's
one way of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that all
who consider themselves of the Christian faith, they will profess
that they believe the gospel of Christ. But the scripture
is full of admonitions and of warnings that we be not deceived. And it's full of examples of
how most who come in the name of Christ, presuming to believe
what they would call the gospel of Christ, they actually deny
the true doctrine of Christ. That is, the gospel according
to the scriptures. Perhaps unwittingly, but nonetheless,
that's the truth. Many of these are aware of the
importance of the gospel. There's a widespread awareness
of the words in Christ's great commission that he gave to his
disciples as recorded in Mark 16. There, right after instructing
them to go into all the world and to preach the gospel to every
creature, he continues in the next verse, verse 16, saying,
he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. but he that believeth
not." He that believeth what? The gospel that he told them
to go preach into all the world. He that believeth not the gospel,
he said, shall be damned. So men and women recognize the
importance of this message called the gospel. But what most fail
to recognize is that their gospel That is, their understanding
of what they think is the gospel, how they presume sinners are
saved. While it may bear a close resemblance
to the acts of Christ, the historical facts concerning Christ, it actually
bears very little resemblance to the vital truths of God's
gospel, the gospel according to the scriptures. The Scriptures
warn us to beware of those who would deceive us. It speaks of
the spirit of Antichrist that was prevalent even in the early
church, we read. We're warned that those, to beware
of those who come in the name of Christ but deny the doctrine
thereof, to beware of false prophets Christ referred to them as wolves
in sheep's clothing. It says in the scripture that
there are those whose message would deceive even the very elect
of God if that were possible. but it's not for the elect of
God or those who God chose to salvation in Christ who purchased
for them the very enlightenment of the truth of the gospel, of
how God saves sinners, all according to the scripture. And you know,
whenever we speak of this subject of the importance of getting
this right, of understanding the gospel right, I'm reminded
of the parable there the words of Christ in the Sermon on the
Mount in Matthew 7. It speaks of those preachers
who face the final judgment. There in Matthew 7, beginning
in verse 21, he says, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth
the will of my Father which is in heaven. And as you know from
having studied this in the past, that's speaking of the very specific
will of believing the gospel, that is, looking to Christ alone
for all our salvation. Many, he says, will say to me
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name,
preached in the name of Christ? And in thy name have cast out
devils. And in thy name done many wonderful
works. Many believe that this is referring
to miracles that only God could have enabled and empowered these
men to do. And yet look what Christ says
of them. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me. Not ye that work
many wonderful works, but ye that work iniquity. He calls
it sin. You see, obviously, these men
presumed to be trusting in a Christ, but it was a counterfeit. So
it's imperative that sinners be brought from blindness, spiritual
darkness, to the light of the gospel. that we can embrace,
not the way that seems right to us, but God's way of salvation,
the very gospel according to the scriptures. So before we
go any further, let's consider our text for today. Follow with
me in 1 Corinthians 15 and we'll begin reading in verse one. Paul
here in the letter to the Corinthians continues writing, moreover brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which
also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are
saved." You see how important this gospel is? He says it's
the gospel by which you're saved, referring here to that part of
salvation, of their regeneration, their conversion, their enlightenment
to the truth of the gospel. You see, it's God's means of
calling the elect unto himself, his sheep. It's, as Paul said,
it's the power of God unto salvation. He says, by which also ye are
saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye
have believed in vain. Paul is saying, he's saying,
It's the gospel by which you're saved unless your faith is exposed
to have been some mere mental agreement or some temporary fancy
with the notions of the doctrine. But you see, that would not be
the faith that is the gift of God, for God preserves his people
in the faith. They have a mediator and someone
who intercedes for them even now, the very one who died for
their sins. But look at verse three, he said,
for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received. How? That Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Now, I want
you to underline in your Bible, or at least in your mind's eye,
those words or phrases that you see underlined on the screen.
First, in verse 3, underline the word, how. And in verses
3 and 4, underline that phrase, according to the Scriptures. We know that in the day that
Paul wrote this epistle, that the only Scriptures they had
were the Old Testament Scriptures. But make no mistake, therein
in the Old Testament, we have set forth in picture and in type
as well as in clear prophecy the truth of the gospel of how
that Christ would die, be buried, and rise again. I want you to
consider that for a moment as we contemplate the gospel in
the Old Testament. Jesus told the Jews as recorded
in John chapter 5. Now remember when Jesus walked
on this earth they did not have the New Testament scriptures,
only the Old Testament at that time. The Jews, in this context
of John 5, they desired to persecute and slay Christ. They considered
him to be against the preaching of Moses. He was a lawbreaker
in their minds, for he had just healed on the Sabbath. And in
John 5, 39, he tells them, search the scriptures. Literally, that's
interpreted, you do search the scriptures, for in them ye think
ye have eternal life. They are they which testify of
me, he says, the one you're wanting to slay and persecute. He's telling
them the Old Testament scriptures testified of him. And a few verses
down in that same chapter, verse 45, he continues and says to
them, do not think that I'll accuse you to the Father. There's
one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. You see, they
were believing that they stood okay right with God by their
keeping of the law of Moses. And he's saying, oh no, For had
you believed Moses, you'd have believed me. He wrote of me."
That law, the New Testament tells us, was the schoolmaster, to
point them to Christ, to show them the impossibility of their
salvation by their law-keeping. After the resurrection, when
he made his appearance on the road to Emmaus, Christ said to
those gathered there in Luke 24, verse 25, then he said unto
them, O fools and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets
have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into his glory? They didn't recognize
who they were talking to at that moment. And then it says, and
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he explained unto them
in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. You see,
the subject of the Bible is the Lord Jesus Christ. As a preacher,
we all heard some in the past put it, I believe, in an excellent
series of messages. He said, it's a hymn book, H-I-M. He called a series that he did
there, he called it the History of Redemption, and he used what
I think was an appropriate play on the word history. He said
it's his story, and Christ is indeed the subject of all the
scriptures, Old Testament and New Testament alike. Well, later
in that same chapter, Luke 24, Christ appeared again to his
disciples. And there in verse 44, we read,
and he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto
you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled
which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets
and in the Psalms, look, concerning me. And look at verse 45, then
opened he their understanding that they might understand the
scriptures. and said unto them, thus it is
written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer. That word behooved
means it was absolutely necessary that Christ suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day. So we see here that the Old Testament
scriptures concern Christ. They concern the necessity of
his suffering and death and subsequent resurrection. And notice that
it takes a miraculous enlightenment It takes an opening of their
understanding. Listen, it took that for even
these who had walked with the Lord Jesus Christ here all this
time in his earthly ministry to understand the gospel of how
he died according to the scriptures. It's not because it didn't take
a miraculous opening of their understanding because it's difficult.
No, the scripture is clear. The gospel is a simple message.
We're commanded to come to him in childlike faith. No, it's
because of our spiritual blindness and darkness, which we all enter
into this world in that state. And so I pray for any who hear
this message today, if your understanding has not yet been opened, that
God will so bless you, even now through the preaching of this
gospel message. Well, as I've already pointed out, the entire
Bible, the Old Testament, New Testament alike, they point sinners
to Christ, to the gospel that sets forth Christ person. And
Christ's work is the sole ground or basis of a sinner's salvation.
Now think about that. God is a God of truth. He does
not change. If you agree that this book is
the inspired word of God, then you know that the Old Testament
and the New Testament cannot stand in contradiction to one
another. There's a harmony of truth. So what we have today
that they didn't have when Paul wrote this to the Corinthians
is we have more light on the subject by virtue of the New
Testament. Listen, including the New Testament's commentary
on the Old Testament. So as we consider now the truth
of the gospel according to the scriptures, we're wise to consider
the entire counsel of God to ensure it's his gospel according
to the whole counsel of God. So we won't limit our consideration
to the Old Testament, but we will look at it from the standpoint
of these that Paul was writing to, as we will certainly consider
the Old Testament scriptures. We will seek though, and you
should seek to understand from the scriptures, the gospel that
you might embrace it. How Christ died for sins according
to the scripture. Now, I want you to notice again
that it's not merely the fact that Christ died and buried and
rose again. In the King James translation
it says, but how that he died. The significance of that actually
is found in that phrase, according to the scriptures. According
to the scriptures refers to the fact that it's found in this
book, but the scriptures also explain not just the circumstances
of his death, of his burial, and his resurrection, but the
significance of it. What was accomplished thereby.
You see, as I mentioned, most who call themselves Christians,
they're in agreement on the reality of the facts of Christ's death,
of his burial, his resurrection, of the virgin birth, of all the
miracles he performed. But sadly, most give evidence
of not having yet had their understandings open to the how or the significance
of what was accomplished. The Scriptures do set forth,
they do prove the reality of the facts of redemptive history. All of redemptive history converging
there at the cross of Calvary some 2,000 years ago. They believe
that Christ did, many believe, most do, and the Scriptures prove
that, that he did in fact die on the cross according to the
Scriptures. The death of the Messiah was plainly foretold
and pointed out in prophecy. Most notably, perhaps, in the
22nd Psalm, some refer to that as the Psalm of the Cross. And
we're gonna look at that Psalm in more detail in a few moments,
but if you have time on your own and study that entire chapter,
you'll see that the description foretold was by Christ himself. That Psalm is Christ himself
speaking prophetically of his own suffering and death, his
humiliation. And there in that psalm he comments on the dislocation
of his bones or the fever that would be upon him as was often
the case for those who were crucified. In particular, it mentions the
piercing of his hands and his feet. And of course, as we study
the New Testament, the account of all of that, the historical
account, proves that it was this Jesus of Nazareth, as recorded
herein, who perfectly fulfilled all of these very specific prophecies,
not just in Psalm 22, but throughout the Old Testament, concerning
the circumstances of his death. We have vivid pictures and types
in the Old Testament historical accounts. And we have in type
in the ceremonial law under the terms of the old covenant that
was given unto the Jews, we have a picture of how Christ died
according to the scriptures. For example, we know from New
Testament testimony concerning the Old Testament that Christ
is called the mercy seat as we heard during the 10 o'clock hour.
That is the propitiation, same word. that which would appease
God's wrath by way of satisfaction. Just as he's typified by the
mercy seat we read of in the Old Testament, that sat atop
the Ark of the Covenant, covering the broken law, the tablets of
law held within. We know that Christ is the Ark,
as in Noah's Ark, Noah's refuge from God's wrath against sin
in the flood, typifying Christ, our Ark, as a refuge for sinners
who are saved eternally from God's just wrath. He was typified
by the lifting up of the brazen serpent by Moses in the wilderness,
and you know that phrase, lifting up from the earth, is used by
Christ himself in John 3 to describe the death he would die. Point
is, we can go on and on to prove that the circumstances, from
the circumstances, that the Christ who died on the cross according
to the New Testament Scriptures, is indeed the promised Messiah
pictured and foretold, prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures.
But listen, since the vital issue of the Gospel is how that Christ
died, was buried, and rose again according to the Scriptures,
I'm going to spend now the rest of today and in the messages
that follow in this series dealing not with the circumstances at
least not in great detail, but rather the significance of Christ's
person and work. And let's just cut to the chase
regarding the significance of Christ's death on the cross.
We need to understand why it was God's purpose, His pleasure,
why it was the will of Christ that Christ should take into
union with His deity, humanity, become incarnate and walk on
this earth, to suffer and die. For these, the everlasting objects
of their great love, well let's be clear, we know that the chief
design, the reason God does all things, ultimately is for his
glory. But the reason that he should come and die and suffer
were their sins and their transgressions, to make satisfaction for them,
to save them from their sins. So it was not for any sin of
his own that he died. He never committed any sin. He
died for the sins of others, his sheep. As we're about to
see, the scripture's clear. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our sins.
He was stricken for the transgressions of his people. And as 1 Corinthians
15 teaches, he died for their sins according to the scriptures.
So be turning to Isaiah chapter 53. We're going to be looking
at several verses found in this Old Testament prophecy, a prophecy
which clearly sets forth the sole ground or basis for the
salvation of sinners. And first, I want you to consider
that his death was for sins. from the same scriptures now
that were available to those in Corinth, to who Paul wrote,
we read in Isaiah 53, 5, but he was wounded for our transgressions,
our crossing the line, our sin. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. He died for sins. Now listen, we're talking about
the almighty God, the God-man, who can If unless he can fail
and he cannot fail for if he could fail, he is not God. We
know that if he died for sin, then the just penalty due unto
those sins had to be paid in full. He didn't come up a few
dollars short. leaving you the sinner to try
to pick up the rest of the tab by your act of faith, or your
accepting Jesus, or your walking an aisle, or your baptism, or
your praying, or your studying the Bible, or you just fill in
the blank. No, he got the job done. He died for sin. Skip down to verse 10. There
we read, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him
to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for what?
For sin. You see, he didn't die just as
an example. He died for sin. He shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul, and it shall be
satisfied. And by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their what?
Iniquities. their inequity, their sin, as
measured against the equity of the holy law and justice of God,
that which He required. They, we, all fall short. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, of the perfect compliance that's required by
a holy God with His revealed will. Now it says here, He bore
that away. He bared their inequities. Now back in 1 Corinthians 15,
Paul is telling the brethren there in Corinth that the gospel
sets forth not that he just died for sins, he said, but that he
died for our sins. He had referred to them as brethren
in verse 1 of that chapter. He died for the sins of a people
then who are brought to believe on him. So herein we see that
he died for sins as a substitute. He died for the sins of others.
Look again now in Isaiah 53. We're going to keep looking at
these verses with a different emphasis each time. But now let's
begin back in verse 4 and note the repeated use there of the
personal pronoun our. There we read, surely he hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Likewise, in Daniel
chapter nine, there's a prophecy concerning the coming Messiah
and the accomplishment of his death. And I'm going to have
you refer to that in detail a little bit more later. But first I want
you to just consider this opening phrase of verse 26. It reads,
and after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off,
speaking of the death he would die, but not for himself. He died as a substitute. I know
that these are basic gospel principles to many of you, but you know,
it doesn't hurt to be reminded again and again, this is important.
This is so important. So today I want you to consider
three aspects of the kind of substitute the Lord Jesus Christ
is, according to the scriptures. And first, I want you to consider
that he was a sinless substitute. He was a sinless sacrifice, a
sinless servant. Under the terms of the Old Covenant,
we see a beautiful picture of Christ as one who was without
sin in the prescribed choice of animal sacrifices. commanded
to bring an unblemished, innocent lamb to sacrifice to the altar. And that shedding of blood pictured
so well the lamb of God, as John the Baptist referred to him,
who came to take away the sins of the world. That is, not just
those Jews who had the privilege of the pictures and types under
the old covenant, but from every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation,
the Lamb of God who would come, and that Lamb would be the only
man to ever walk on the face of this earth without sin. You see, that's what God's holy
justice required, a sinless sacrifice. I want you to consider now these
New Testament scriptures. First Peter 118, for as much
as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things
as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by
tradition from your fathers, but you were redeemed with the
precious blood of Christ, look, as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. Second Corinthians 5.21, which
we so often refer to that grand truth, for he, God the Father,
hath made him, speaking of God the Son, to be sin for us. Now this one he made to be sin
for us, who was he? He was the one who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He was a sinless
substitute and he did not contract sin within himself. He did not
become contaminated with sin, but rather he was made sin by
God's gracious judicial imputation of it to him. That means the
charging of the demerit of the sins of a people to his account
so that he could pay the penalty due unto them. And he did all
of that to produce the one perfect righteousness. That is the satisfaction
rendered to God's justice by his obedience unto death. A satisfaction
that was absolutely necessary for God to justify what would
be otherwise hell-deserving sinners. Now, these sinners, these saved
sinners, They're still sinners. But you see, they have a righteousness
that they could not and did not produce. You see the beauty of
2 Corinthians 5.21? He died for sins that he had
no part in producing. That they might possess a righteousness
that they have no part in producing. The very righteousness of God,
the merits of Christ, is imputed or charged to their account.
to be in that number, what a blessing. Now that truth, the truth of
imputation, it glorifies God, for only thereby can God be just
and still save sinners. It exalts Christ, it gives Him
all the preeminence, and it excludes all grounds of boasting in those
He saves. There's nothing left for them
to do to close the deal, you see. Christ did it all. He was
a sinless substitute. They find not within them a righteousness. Their righteousness, as John
Bunyan said, it resides right now at the right hand of the
Father. But it's real, and it's theirs. It's so real that he
died for imputed sin. He was a sinless substitute.
Secondly, he was a suffering substitute. Look with me again
in Isaiah 53, again at verses 10 and 11. We read, yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him, he hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make
his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. He shall see, what, of the travail of his soul, and
shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
This travail, that speaks of his suffering. It says there,
his soul was made an offering for sin. Now, I want us to contemplate
that this morning. I want you to consider how this
was equivalent to an eternal death or the sufferings in hell
that all would deserve had he not died for some. Now, we've
got two parties in play here, and they're certainly different.
On the one hand, we think of the eternal destruction of sinners. We're considering the just desserts
before a holy God of fallen finite creatures. Yet the one spoken
of here as a suffering substitute is the infinite creator, the
God-man. And there are two aspects that
you might consider as we contemplate the horror of eternal death. One is the punishment of being
eternally separated from or deprived of the presence of God and all
that that means. Think of the long-suffering even
now, the common graces that all individuals enjoy and that God
just doesn't snuff us out. No, He's got some of His sheep
who are yet to come to know Him. So we have the aspect of separation
or loss when we consider eternal destruction. The other aspect
of the punishment of eternal death is the everlasting sense
or experience of the wrath of God. And that's expressed in
the scripture by the phrase everlasting fire. Now, I want you to consider
that as the suffering substitute for a people, Christ actually
experienced and endured the wrath of God poured out upon him all
according to the descriptions found in the Old Testament concerning
the suffering that he would endure. You might want to look these
up when you have time at home, but God's wrath, it says, was
poured out like fire upon him. That's the way it's described
in Psalm 89. And in that Psalm of the Cross I mentioned, Psalm
22. It says that Christ's heart melted like wax within him under
this wrath. In Psalm 18, it tells us, listen
to this phrase, the sorrows of hell compassed him about. Now, I'm not describing this
suffering to invoke your humane sympathy toward Christ and his
suffering. Rather, I'm doing it to show you the majesty of
what took place there, to show you the significance In his suffering,
the death of the cross as a substitute for people, you see, he actually
endured for them not only the equivalent of hell and everlasting
separation from God that, listen, absent his intervention, they
would justly experience, but he actually provided for them
what all the suffering in hell could never have accomplished.
You see, the punishment of hell lies not in the fact that it's
eternal. It is eternal. It's an everlasting
separation because finite creatures, fallen humanity, can never pay
the infinite debt that's owed to satisfy the travesty of sin
against an infinitely holy and just God. You see, before our
holy God, the demerit of sin demands the extraction of an
infinite penalty. It took the blood of a God-man.
And since finite creatures such as we all are, we cannot deliver
this satisfaction, listen, nor can we bear the infinite punishment
that is justly due unto our sin, then banishment from God is eternal.
But those who are so, who experience that eternal death, they never
pay down the debt which the infinite holy justice of almighty God
demands. But oh, what this suffering substitute
did accomplish, you see. He bore the whole demerit that
was due, not unto just for my sin, but the sin of all his people. The scriptures call it a multitude
that no man can number. All those whose sins were charged
to him, and he did it all at once on the cross of Calvary.
And being an infinite person, the scripture calls him Emmanuel,
God with us. He was made like unto us, made
under the law that he could redeem them which were under the law.
Being such, he made full satisfaction. He abundantly paid the debt that
an eternity of our suffering in hell could have never paid
for us. It reminds me of Romans 5.20 where we read, but where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And lastly, I want
you to consider that this substitute was a successful Savior. He was a successful substitute,
that makes him a Savior. Consider again with me Isaiah
53.11. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. That's God the Father is satisfied. He goes on, he says, by his knowledge,
that is, by what Christ came to know, what he experienced,
shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. Now, who does this indicate he
would justify? That is, who's he going to declare
not guilty before the holy justice of God? It's the many whose iniquities
he bore. Can't you see? All for whom Christ
died, they shall be saved, because he satisfied justice in their
room and in their stead. As their eternal surety having
agreed to take on their debt, as their representative and as
their substitute, satisfaction was indeed made. You see, salvation
is a matter of God's law and justice, justice to which satisfaction
must be rendered. For any sinner to be reconciled
and accepted into the presence of a holy God. Now, that satisfaction,
that's what righteousness is. It's that perfect satisfaction,
both in precept and penalty. It's the obedience unto death
before God's law, whereby, and he did so, you see, for sinners.
So not only did it have to be satisfied in precept, not only
did we need this sinless substitute, but we had to have one who suffered
because a debt had to be paid for he did that not for himself
but for a people. God graciously imputes the very
righteousness of Christ to the account of everyone for whom
it was rendered. in the same way that their sins
were imputed to Christ, that he might establish what we'll
see in the scriptures in a moment, what's called an everlasting
righteousness. And it's one of infinite value
that he establishes for them. In that psalm of the cross, I
mentioned Psalm 22, Christ is speaking prophetically there,
as I said, of the death he would die, of his humiliation and his
suffering. And in the opening of that psalm,
he uses the very words that he would actually use in time while
hanging on the cross at Calvary when he says, My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Now that's speaking of that judicial
separation, that banishment from the present, so to speak. He
experienced, due to God's wrath, His just wrath against sin. But
you know, the why, as we've been taught before in that sentence,
it actually means wherefore, or because, for this purpose. In other words, Christ, He knew
exactly why He was dying. Down in verse three, he tells
us the purpose of God's wrath being upon him. He said it was
for this purpose when he says, but thou art holy. Here he is,
he's crying out under the burden of God's wrath in full knowledge
that he is forsaken in the sense that is meant here, justly by
the Father because he is holy. And because He, the God-man,
must endure the punishment of death, due unto sin, for God
to be just and still save those whose sins Christ bore away. You see, a real penalty had to
be paid. Christ wasn't just some example
of great love. A real penalty was paid. He was
and He is a successful substitute, and that makes Him a Savior as
the angel told Joseph, he shall save his people from their sins.
I had mentioned earlier the prophecy of Christ's accomplished death
in Daniel 9. There in verse 24 we read 70
weeks, and most of you know those are not literal weeks, but weeks
of years. Most think that's the period
between Malachi and Matthew, that dark period, until John
the Baptist came on the scene and heralded the coming of the
Messiah who would perfect or end the Old Covenant. He says,
70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy
city, and look at these phrases, to finish the transgression,
to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity,
and to bring in what an everlasting righteousness, and to seal up
the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. This
finishing of the transgressions, that means it's been put away.
We heard in the 10 o'clock hour the reference to Romans 10, 4,
I believe it is, where it says, Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. That word end there is the same
word, the finishing of it. It's what Christ cried out on
the cross when he said, it is finished. God's holy justice
has been satisfied all according to the scriptures as he seals
it all up. The prophecy now, the old covenant,
all that it pointed to having been fulfilled by his finished
work on the cross. Now when you consider the language
there, those phrases, it can no way leave you with the notion
that he, Christ, in his death on the cross simply made salvation
possible. if you'd now do your part, if
you'd invite him in your heart or receive him or you fill in
the blank. No, it says here he made an end
of sins. He finished the transgression.
His substitutionary work was indeed successful. So in summary,
as we've seen, the gospel we're commanded to believe unto salvation,
it sets forth how that Christ died for sins, but not all sins. He died for the sins of a people
as a substitute. As he told the believers at Corinth,
he died for our sins, those who were believers, in belief of
God's gospel. You see, that as a consequence
of what their substitute had purchased for them. And don't
get that backwards. That cause and effect is a critical,
critical thing for you to understand. So they are in turn, by virtue
of Christ's death on the cross for them, given life by God's
Spirit that would cause them to trust in Christ alone for
all of their salvation. That based solely on the righteousness
that He established in His obedience unto death. He died as a substitute
for the sins of a people. And according to the Scriptures,
as we've seen, He was a sinless substitute. He was a suffering
substitute. And that means he was a successful
substitute, a savior. Well, what a glorious gospel
that the Lord Jesus Christ is a substitute for people. He died
for their sins all according to the scriptures. So to quote
a favorite passage of mine from Proverbs 3, trust in the Lord
with all thine heart and lean not into thine own understanding.
Oh, that God would open the understanding of some. You see, no, seek to
be saved according to the way of scripture, the way of the
gospel. He says, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall
direct thy paths. Well, first and foremost, acknowledge
him in the way of salvation, the way of God's gospel that
would have us look to Christ, to look to his finished work
alone, his dying for the sins of his sheep. Seek salvation
God's way in accordance with the scripture, and you shall
find him, and he will direct your paths. You know, Christ
said in John 6, 37, all that the Father giveth me, they shall
come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. What a Savior, flee to him.