Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to the Gospel according to Mark. Mark chapter 15, and reading from our text, verse 28. Mark chapter 15, verse 28, and the scripture was fulfilled which said, and he was numbered with the transgressors. It is specifically the first clause that I want to base my remarks this afternoon on, and the scripture was fulfilled. Mark 15 and verse 28. there are three things that fulfilled scripture assures us of.

The first is that the Holy Bible, the Holy Scriptures, are indeed the Word of God. When we have in the Psalms written some thousand years before Christ came, prophecies that were exactly fulfilled when Christ suffered, when he came, when we have in Isaiah 750 years before, again these things fulfilled exactly. It bears the stamp that this is not the work of man, is not cunningly devised fables, but is truly the word of God. We know, of course, that there are other ways that we are assured that the Bible is the Word of God.

For one thing, it is a collection of historical books. It is a record that goes right from creation and right through the history of Israel, its formation, right through then to Christ. We have the genealogies in Luke that go right back from Christ right back to Adam and to God. We have the many chapters of names upon names as if the Holy Spirit is emphasizing this is a real history book of a real people really that lived, it is not just all put together by man. You might have thought, why waste many chapters of the Word of God just with lists of names?

But that gives a real validity and stamp as to it being the Word of God. We think of how it testifies itself, that it is the Word of God, that it is by inspiration. And we can get no higher authority than the Word itself, declaring from whence it has come from. We have the witnesses that were first-hand witnesses of Christ's coming, His death, His sufferings, His resurrection, and those witnesses declare what they have seen. And they lived in the time when there were others that could easily have said, well, you've written about this, but that didn't happen, and this didn't happen, but it stood the test of time.

We should be, especially in this world, ready to defend why we believe the Bible to be the infallible, inherent Word of God. In it, it gives a reason for this beautiful world that we live in. It gives a reason why it is marred by sin. It gives an account, a real account, of this creation of God, both the natural creation and also the soul of man and the reason for death and the way of escape from eternal condemnation. We shouldn't, if asked, especially you children, remember this, if you're asked it, University or school, why do you believe the Bible is the Word of God?

Turn around and say, well, mum and dad says it is, and they say, the church it is, and we've always had it. Because if you were to ask any other religion about their holy books, they would say the same thing. So be ready to give an answer, a reason. If the Word of God is not the Word of God, then we have no basis for faith at all. Faith cometh by hearing. hearing by the Word of God. So it is a vital point. When we come to fulfill Scripture, this is also a vital reason that should really strengthen our faith that every Word of God is pure. We can rely on it.

And that's why, of course, we preach, not ourselves, not our own feelings, but we preach the Word of God, because that is what you may rest on, I may rest on for eternity. So that's the first thing, when we think of fulfilled scripture, scripture that is prophetic and then it is fulfilled.

The second thing is that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the eternal son of God. Now we know, of course, that the greatest witness of that is what the Lord said himself, that he would lay down his life and he would take it again, the empty tomb, a risen saviour. But today we're thinking more of his death and his sufferings. And so I hope to look at specific scriptures that were fulfilled when our Lord Jesus Christ suffered at Calvary and perhaps just a mention before in Gethsemane. So every scripture that is fulfilled in Christ, or in Jesus of Nazareth, puts the seal that He is the Messiah, He is the Christ.

And as important as believing that the Word of God is before us, the Holy Bible, so it is vital that we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Remember John at the end of his Gospel, he said that there were many things that Jesus did that could be written. The world could not hold the number of books, but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that in believing he might have life through his name. And so we have in John especially, I think there's some 85 references that Jesus is the Son of God. And if you compare that with the other Gospels, I think Luke comes the nearest with about 14 of them.

John emphasizes this message and he does in his epistles as well. that Jesus is the Son of God. It should remind us how vital that point is for us. Our whole salvation hangs upon that. This was the testimony of the eunuch when asked, of Philip, dost thou believe? If thou believest with all thy heart thou mayest, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. That is a vital testimony.

Well the third point with scripture that is fulfilled is the blessings that come to us through what the Holy Spirit has decided to be something prophesied and then fulfilled. I wonder if we've ever thought, why certain things? Could there not have been other things prophesied? couldn't there not have been other choices made? Of course, you might say naturally, yes, but the Holy Spirit has picked out parts of the life and death and sufferings of our Lord to be prophesied years before, that then when they are fulfilled, it's not just a matter of saying, that is fulfilled, but what are they teaching? What are they setting forth?

And it's that blessing that I especially want to think of this afternoon. I want to look at seven prophecies that were made that were then fulfilled in Christ at Calvary and to think of those blessings that come to us through the truths that those fulfilled prophecies, teachers, and of course at the same time, we have as we look at these, reinforcing that Jesus is the Christ, and that the Word of God is truly the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. So I want to look then at these seven points. I won't name them first, we'll go through them as they come in one by one. Now we read together in the prophecy of Isaiah and the first one I want to think of is the unresisting silent and willing offering of our Lord.

In Isaiah 53 and verse 7 we read he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he openeth not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers he is done, so he openeth not his mouth." Now remember, this of course was where the eunuch was reading, who couldn't tell who was being spoken of, the prophet or some other man. It is the text that Philip took, who began at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus.

So when we come then to the New Testament, we find how the Lord is arrayed firstly before the high priest. And when there is many things that are laid to his charge, he answers nothing. And they say, what is this? Answerest thou nothing to these that witness against thee? And we read, but Jesus held his peace.

So before the high priest there, he is not resisting, he is not striving. And we think how even before that, in the garden of Gethsemane, put up thy sword into its sheath. Thinkest thou not that I could pray, my father, you presently give me 12 legion of angels, 72,000 angels, but how then should these scriptures be fulfilled. And so he comes, willing, to lay down his life, to fulfil his father's will, and it doesn't just stop with the high priest, because we find with Herod, when he's arrived before Herod, then inherit.

So then Pilate first, he asked him after the chief priests had had their say, he says, answerest thou nothing, how many things that they charge against thee? But Jesus, he answered nothing to Pilate. Pilate didn't get anything until it was that he was to testify as to who he was. But Pilate marveled that he held his peace.

It wasn't a natural thing. Man would rise up, they'd try to justify themselves, they'd try to speak, but the Lord knew for whom he stood, he knew for whom he was being arrayed. He was a willing offering. So Herod heard many things of the Lord. He wanted to hear things of him. His curiosity was not satisfied because Herod, he questioned him with many words, but we read again, the fulfillment of this lamb, he answered him nothing.

And we need to really view Our Lord's willingness here to stand in a sinner's place. Pilate, he said, I see no cause of death in him. There was no fault in him. But our Lord knew for whom he stood. And our Lord, in that silence, he was willingly enduring that which was put upon him, and not seeking in any way to resist. And I believe it perfectly sets us the fulfilment of this word.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers, he is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. Sometimes, you know, silence speaks more than words. I believe there's some of us that have proved that. The Lord's answered our prayers by silence. He's taught us things more by silence than by when he's spoken. To some, as he said, be not silent to me. lest if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. Often the Lord's people are troubled when the Lord is silent to them. But here is the Lord who is silent.

Before the chief priests, before Pilate, before Herod, with threefold emphasis, this is that Lamb led to the slaughter. John Baptist, in the beginning of our Lord's ministry, said, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Then we have, secondly, we have the text, we go back again to Isaiah 53 and verse 6 this time. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all.

And with this verse, I want to think of this Christ bearing our sin, numbered with the transgressors. If we go down to verse 12 in Isaiah 53, We read, therefore, will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many. Made intercession for the transgressors. But under this point, I want to emphasize this, how that he bore our sins. as he was put in with us or with transgressors.

And scriptures are very clear of the effect of him bearing sin. In the garden of Gethsemane we find him weighted down, sore amazed, sweating great drops of blood. Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. What was pressing him down?

Before the Lord had to go to judgment and to death, he was to bear his people's sin and bear them away. And there in Gethsemane, I believe that's where the sin of his people were laid upon him, and we can see that evident weight borne upon him. Our text says that the scriptures were fulfilled, which saith he was numbered with the transgressors, numbered with sinners, as if he was one of them. Though He had not sinned or done anything amiss, He was made sin for us, that we might know the redemption that is in Christ, that we might be forgiven our own sins. Christ the sin-bearer. May we view that fulfilled Scripture and be brought to see our sins laid upon him.

It struck me in reading Isaiah 53, how many times that that is emphasized through that prophecy. And where in verse 11, for he shall bear their iniquities, the message again, verse six, had laid on him the iniquity of us all, Again and again, verse 8, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And there the Lord is with transgressors. And there the Lord is bearing that which man cannot see, but which is so evident he can, and feel, and weighs it down, and is not making any effort to get away from.

You know, there's some times when I felt encouraged or helped in this, in that I might be accused by someone of something that is false, something that is wrong, something that perhaps part of me would rise up and justify myself. And then I think this, my friend, what you say is wrong, it's false. But if you really knew me, If you knew my sin, you'd have a lot, lot more to say, and that would be true. And that stops my mouth, because I know what is inside, and God knows that too. I often think of my Lord in that way. He knew the sins of His people that He was bearing.

The third one I want to bring is Christ's righteousness. For this I want to go to some 22, a beautiful, well-known psalm, a prophecy. We hope to come to that perhaps later on as well. And we have in verse 20, sorry, Psalm 22, verse 18. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. It might seem a very insignificant thing, but it is picked up by the apostles, by those that are witnessing, and John especially, John 19, and we had it read to us, I believe, this morning. And we have it in verses 23 and 24.

Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four pants to every soldier apart, and also his coat, how the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said, therefore, among themselves, let us not render, but cast lots for him, whose it shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled which saith, they parted my raiment among them. And for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore these soldiers did.

So John not only says what was done, but identifies this is fulfilling of scripture. And we think of what the scriptures set forth concerning the righteousness of Christ. Righteousness of Christ as a robe, as a covering. What the spouse in the Song of Solomon testifies, I am black, but come lean. And with the people of God, their righteousness is of me. In Jeremiah, we have, this is the name wherewith he shall be called the Lord our righteousness.

And then the church, a few chapters later on, this is the name wherewith she shall be called The Lord our righteousness, the hymn writer, takes it up without us seeing this garments woe, bequeathed in everlasting love, ere time began, designed a royal robe to cover thee. And that is what we need to stand faultless before the throne of God.

Paul, when he was writing to those of his own countrymen, he longed for them to be saved, but he said they were ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness and not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

You and I, we cannot get to heaven by our own works. The scriptures are very clear. that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And whoso offendeth in one point is guilty of all.

And we need to come to the realization of that. Often think of, and we look at in one of the latter points concerning the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. but we need two things. We need not only our sins pardoned and forgiven, but we also need a fitness for heaven. And sometimes I've used the illustration in this way, that if we had a person that was in great debt and great need, they were in poverty, if we came to them and said, we're going to pay all your debt, And we took every one of their debts and we blotted all of those debts out. And then we went our way and said we blessed that person with the forgiveness of all their debts, we paid all of their debts. And someone said to you, well, yeah, but what are they going to live on? Where are they going to live? You paid all their debt, but they're just left with nothing. And that's where we would be if our debts were all paid but nothing else granted. But the Lord gives everything. He gives everything a portion of needs.

And those that believe are given righteousness. And that was the significance of that difference, that garment, that was not to be rent, but was to be whole. A garment is a covering. and is vital for the people of God to have a covering not of their own selves, but a covering of God. It's He instead of me is seen when I approach to God. Their righteousness is of me.

And when we see this fulfilled and this perhaps seemingly insignificant fulfilled scripture, think what is the significance of it? Why has the Holy Spirit marked this one thing out? Has it not a spiritual significance? Is it not pointing to something that is vital for the Church of God, vital for you and I? And may we be really strengthened in that and encouraged in that, that this is a provision also that is set forth at Calvary. We had this morning how all of the blessings, the emphasis of God, the glory of God is all at Calvary.

We must expect then, here is to be a righteousness. And of course, our Lord's whole life, spotless life, And then His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, this is a righteousness that He imputed to His people as if they had fulfilled the law, as if they had paid their own debts, as if they had been as righteous as Him. It is His righteousness. And so may we be encouraged in that full fulfilled scripture.

I want to think then in the fourth place of Christ's intercession for sinners, to go back again to Isaiah 53 and verse 12. We've read it before, but at the end of that verse we read, and made intercession for the transgressors, the Lord making intercession for them. We read also in Luke how that our Lord said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Intercession.

Of late there's been many that misquote that. They say that the Lord was forgiving those that were before him. In our Lord's life, There were those times like the sinner, the woman, he clearly said to her, thy sins are forgiven thee. He did not say that from the cross. He made intercession. He asked his father to forgive them. Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.

And when it came to Pentecost, those that had crucified him, Under Peter's sermon they were quickened in their heart, they were given repentance, they did believe, their prayer was answered for as many as the Father had given Him to redeem. They were forgiven and repented.

It's vital where the Lord gives repentance, it's a mark of forgiveness. Christ, God's forgiveness is not without repentance. And it is the same with God's people. If thy brother sinned against thee, turn against them again and repent. Thou shalt forgive them. Again is needed that repentance. But it wasn't just that as a mark of intercession. You know beforehand, if we think of John 17, We have our Lord praying for his people, his beautiful intercessory prayer. While he is here below, we get a little time of what the Lord is doing above.

He is our advocate with the Father. He says, I will pray the Father and he will give you another comforter which shall abide with you forever. And those ten days later at Pentecost, after He had risen, after He ascended into Heaven, then the Holy Spirit was given a real mark and evidence of that intercession of Bath. A voice is that which speaks for me, Heaven's high court for good. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, appearing in the presence of God for us. But we have another instance of it as well, where even with the dying thief, when he turned and he said to the Lord, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

And his word to him was merrily Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise." A fulfillment of that word, that he should make intercession for sinners. Praying the Father to forgive them and making intercession even for the transgressors, these with him. You and I. need a voice in heaven.

Sometimes we might have on earth where we maybe go to a job interview or we might go to meet a person and we find that someone's gone before us, someone's spoken on our behalf, someone's given us a reference, someone's been mindful of us and we've been thankful of it, there's been an effect in what has happened. And how many times in our lives have we traced that fulfilled, when I put forth my sheep, I go before them. And we notice that the Lord has gone before, opened up doors. He's made a way where there is no way. To find, like Jacob, instead of Esau destroying him, he said, I've seen thy face as the face of an angel. Why? He saw it as an answer to prayer. God had taken away his anger and his wrath.

Many times the Lord makes that intercession and speaks on behalf of his people for their good. You think of Queen Esther. speaking on behalf of her people, later Mordecai, right next to the king, speaking for the good and on behalf of his people. We think of Joseph right next to Pharaoh, speaking for the good of his people, bringing them in, bringing them to the best of the land, all that Joseph was doing for his people. We think of Nehemiah as well, there in the king's court, speaking in Jerusalem, and all the time we have this idea of our Lord as the intercession, making intercession for sinners, not because of anything good in them, but for that which is fulfilling the will of God and the love of God.

I think perhaps Moses is one of the most Beautiful examples of that, when time and again the children of Israel are rebelling, kicking against the Lord and Moses is making intercession and gaining pardon, gaining the favour of God through his intercession.

But in the fifth place, Christ bearing the wrath of God instead of us. Going back to Psalm 22, in the opening, Verses there, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? One of the most clear, a thousand years before Christ, Christ utters those same words from the cross. Evident feeling the hiding of a father's face. Going back to Isaiah would have been prophesied there as well.

In verse 10, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. If we pass over the wrath of God poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ, you pass over really the real sufferings of our Lord on Calvary. And especially on a day like this, thou is right to, of course, remember the physical sufferings and death and pain of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thou shalt see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. What was difference between his sufferings and the sufferings of the thieves? mostly in that which was not seen, what they were not bearing, but Christ was bearing, and the wrath of God that was poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

I often think of this with the illustration of Elijah on Mount Carmel. When there was a test of who was the real God, Baal, or the God of Israel, and there's these two altars, And when Elijah prays and the fire comes down from heaven, does not consume the Israelites, does not consume the idolaters, does not consume even the prophets of Baal, but it consumes the sacrifice, the wood, the altar, the stones, the dust. What a fearful sight that must have been from heaven.

That altar was setting forth the Lord Jesus Christ. You think of Psalm 80, let thy hand be upon the man at thy right hand, the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. When the people saw it, they said, the Lord, he is God, he is God, and they were then willing to destroy the prophets of Baal. But they saw first the wrath of God fall upon that altar. And often think of that when you think of Calvary. We think of our Lord, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The darkness over the earth, the sixth of the ninth hour. There was our Lord, bearing our sin.

God cannot demand twice, payment once. Those for whom Christ died shall not see the wrath of God. How many times through Proverbs, a just balance is of the Lord, and through Ecclesiastes, the Lord emphasising this. Those who say, well Christ just died for an indistinct number that he didn't know, but we shall just believe on him, or he died for the whole world, enough to save the whole world.

He shall see His seed. It is a particular love and a just weight. We wouldn't think of going and paying for everything in a store and then going in the store and only taking half of the goods. You say, well, why did you pay for it all when you haven't taken it all to yourself? But Christ will have the purchase of His pains, every one of them. And we have to remember this because he hath borne the wrath of God in their place.

But then we have in the sixth place, a bone of him shall not be broken. Preservation of his people. In Exodus we read of the Passover. And one of the things that they were to be mindful of is that they, when they offered the Passover, that they did not break a bone thereof.

In Psalm 22, verse 17, we read, I may tell all my bones. And then Psalm 34, verse 20, we have in that Psalm, he keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken. Then when Christ was crucified, because he had laid down his life, because he was dead already, though he is between these two thieves, those soldiers, they do not break his legs. They break the legs of the other two hastening their death. How easy it would have been. to just break his legs, but instead they pierce his side, again fulfilling scripture.

A fulfilling scripture in a remarkable way may be reminded to us, the hearts of all men are in God's hand. They cannot do what the Lord would not have them to do. Those soldiers, they couldn't just decide to do something contrary to scripture. We think of the whole plan of what was done there at Calvary, ye have been taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain. Who have taken?

Him that was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Men, though we are accountable for our own deeds and responsible for them, yet who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not. And so we find the Lord's bones were not broken.

So what is the significance for us? You think of when Adam and Eve were made, when Eve was made especially, that Adam said, this is now bone of my bones. You think of the picture of marriage, the bridegroom and the bride, as if Christ would say to his people, these people are bone of my bones. You think of the picture of Christ as being, as a person, the head and all the members, the very members, and those bones that hold it all together, the skeleton that holds it all together.

Not one of them shall be broken. I think it is a real picture not only of the fulfilling of Scripture, not only of setting the seal that this is the Christ, this is who that was foretold in the prophecies, but also assurance of His dear people, not that they won't have a bone broken. but eternally they will not be destroyed, they will not be lost, they will not be severed from the Lord Jesus Christ who is their Saviour and their Redeemer. Who is He that shall harm you?

He are the people of God. The Lord says that in John 10 that His people are in His hand. No man is able to pluck them out of mine hand. My Father who is greater than I, no man is able to pluck them out of mine hand." And you know those three Hebrew children, they knew that. They knew the Lord would deliver them out of Nebuchadnezzar's hand, either by a miracle which he did, or through death. The Lord said, fear not then, they kill the body, after that nothing more that they can do.

And then we have the last one I bring before you. and that is the blood seed, the remission of sins. In the Passover we have the beautiful word, when I see the blood I will pass over you. All the way through the Old Testament we have the sacrifices and in every one there's mention of the blood. There's that God upon man, whoso shedeth man's blood, by him shall his blood be shed. It is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. And so with the Lord Jesus Christ, where is blood seen?

Well, we had it, especially with the Spear that was thrust into his side, forthwith came out water and blood. But that's not the only place, is it? The garden of Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood. When he was scourged, his back torn, the flowers ploughed deeply upon my back, Psalm 129. Then we have the crown of thorns that he's pressed upon his head, blood again. Then we have the nails in his hand and in his feet. A bloody spectacle indeed.

In every pore, in every part, when I see the blood, we have this morning, if I be lifted up above the earth, as the Lord was lifted up on that cross, they would have seen that bloody spectacle. they would have seen that which fulfilled those Old Testament scriptures that pointed to the blood. And so from the unresisting Lamb of God you see then the blood of that Lamb, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth from all sin. And may we then have a view to these fulfilled scriptures and have them confirm to us the word of God, to have it in the highest esteem and constantly have it rehearsed before us because the world all the time is to pull him down from his excellency. We're not to be ashamed of the words of our Lord. Remember that, dear friends. Heaven and earth shall pass away, my words shall not pass away. Whosoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall my Father be ashamed before the angels.

We need to be reaffirmed that every word of God is pure. We rest our souls, our hope, our all upon what is written, the revealed will of God and what Christ has done. for us. And may we be, also in these fulfilled scriptures, renewed again and again that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Christ, and that we love Him, drawn to Him, trust in Him, lean upon Him. And may we then look at each of those fulfilled things. Why did the Holy Spirit choose that particular aspect to highlight it to be something that was foretold and then fulfilled. It must have a real spiritual significance, something that is for a blessing that flows from Calvary to us and that be a strength and a blessing to ourselves. Well may what we have had this afternoon and this morning be made a blessing to us And may the Lord have all the honour and the glory, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, lifted up, and may we be drawn indeed to Him as we have this morning. May the Lord add His blessing. Amen.