It is a delight always to be
here with you. You are never off my mind or
heart. I pray for you ceaselessly and
thank God for his blessings upon you and for knitting our hearts
together in the blessed fellowship of the gospel. During your conference
in December, your pastor brother Todd asked that each of the preachers
bring a message on the subject, what is the gospel? As I prepared
my message for the conference, I was overwhelmed with the sense
that there is a great, great need for God's servants to address
that question with boldness, dogmatism, and clarity in this
day of religious delusion. There are few people in this
world who know who God is. There are few people in this
world who know who the Lord Jesus Christ is, what he did, and how
God saves sinners by his grace through his son. There are few
people in this world who know the gospel of God's free grace
in Jesus Christ the Lord. I want very much to sound out
in this generation the gospel of God's free grace in Jesus
Christ, our Redeemer. And I want to identify the things
of God with such clarity that they cannot be misunderstood
by those who hear me. So beginning with that message
the Lord gave me for you back in December, I started what I
believe to be a very needful series of messages, a brief series,
but very needful. When I'm finished with the series
and probably another three, maybe four weeks, I intend to start
putting the contents of my notes into a book and offer it to my
publishers. I've called the series, Identifying
the Christ. And that's the title of my message
tonight, Identifying the Christ. If you trust a false Christ,
you're anti-Christ. If you would trust the Christ
of God, you must know who he is. You cannot trust an unknown
savior. The preaching of the gospel is
to make known the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now listen to what God says in this book. Who is a liar? But he that denieth that Jesus
is the Christ. Now let me tell you exactly what
that means. To deny that Jesus is the Christ
is to deny that the man, Jesus of Nazareth, who lived and died
2,000 years ago, actually accomplished Everything God in his word in
the old Testament scriptures said the Christ would accomplish.
He is anti-Christ that denieth the father and the son. And then
John tells us this, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ
is born of God. All who are born of God are those
who believe that Jesus of Nazareth, that man who lived and died 2,000
years ago, actually, effectually fulfilled everything the law
and the prophets said the Christ would fulfill and accomplish.
Now with that in mind, I want you to open your Bibles to the
ninth chapter of the Gospel of Daniel. Daniel chapter nine. My text will be verse 24. And
the title of my message, Identifying the Christ. By the things recorded
in this portion of scripture, given to us by God the Holy Ghost,
by divine inspiration, we're given all that is needed to clearly
identify who Jesus Christ is and to distinguish him from all
imposters. Here is a prophecy concerning
the Christ, the Christ of God, the Messiah, of whom all the
law and the prophets spoke from Genesis through Malachi. Here
are six things God the Holy Ghost tells us the Christ must accomplish. Six things Jehovah's righteous
servant must perform for the salvation of his people. Are
you there? Daniel 9 verse 24. 70 weeks are
determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish
the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation
for iniquity. and to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most
holy. Now just hold your place here,
Daniel 9, and turn back to chapter 3. Before we get to our text,
I want to give you a little bit of overview of the book of Daniel.
This blessed book is so much misunderstood because we have
a mindset, we have been taught by religious folks all our lives
that is all about mysterious prophecy. It is all about the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Back in Daniel chapter
three, Nebuchadnezzar cast Daniel's three companions into a burning
fiery furnace, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. This man, Nebuchadnezzar,
made a huge image of gold and commanded that all the people
in his land at a given signal fall down and worship his image. Anyone who refused to do so,
Nebuchadnezzar said, would be cast into the midst of burning
and fiery furnace, in verse six. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
refused to bow down and worship Nebuchadnezzar's image. And when
the king was told about it, he said, now, fellas, he was furious. He said, I'll give you one more
chance. You're gonna bow down and worship my image or you'll
be cast into the fiery furnace, the burning and fiery furnace.
And Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they said, okay, we're good badness
but we don't have to have a business meeting about this. We're not
gonna take a vote. We're not going to bow down and
worship your image. And Nebuchadnezzar in his fury. had the strongest, mightiest
men in the land to bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and cast
them into the burning and fiery furnace. The furnace was so hot
that it consumed, burned to death the men who cast them into the
furnace. Let's pick up in verse 23, Daniel
3 verse 23. And these three men Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego fell down bound into the midst of the burning
fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king
was astonished. Astonished, that's a good old
English word. We commonly would translate it
in modern translation, astonished. So shocked, it is as if he would
turn to stone. Astonished and rose up in haste
and spake and said to his counselors, did not we cast three men bound
into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the
king, true, O king. He answered and said, lo, I see
four men, loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have
no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near
to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spake and said, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God, come forth
and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
came forth of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors,
and captains, and the king's counselors being gathered together
saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was
a hair of their head singed, neither were their coats chained.
nor the smell of fire had passed on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar
spake and said, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants that
trusted in him and have changed the king's word. God does that,
you know. And yielded their bodies and
that they might not serve nor worship any God except their
own God. Therefore I make a decree that
every people, nation, and language which speak anything amiss against
the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in
pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill, because there
is no other God that can deliver after this sort. As I read this
chapter, I see a beautiful, clear, instructive picture of God's
great salvation. The salvation of poor sinners
by the Lord Jesus Christ, this one who by his sin atoning death
has put away sin and ransomed our souls. He is that one by
whom, in whom and through whom the light of the glory of God
shines into our hearts, giving the knowledge of God and salvation
in him. What a picture we have before
us. There is no other God that can save after this sort. In
exactly the same way as the Lord God delivered Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, he still delivers his own. He became one of us. He suffered all the fury and
fire of God's wrath with his people and for his people. Here
is this one, like the Son of God. I have no doubt that's who
Nebuchadnezzar saw. How he knew that, I do not know.
But Jesus Christ was in the midst of the fiery furnace with Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. And we died with him and he with
us when he suffered all the fury of God's wrath upon Calvary's
cursed hill. The Lord Jesus so thoroughly
saves his people from their sins that not even the smell of hell
is upon them. They didn't even smell like they'd
been in a smoking area. There was no smell of fire upon
them and there was no harm done to them. In fact, Nebuchadnezzar
saw them and the only thing that happened by them being cast into
that burning fiery furnace is the bonds with which they were
tied were burned off. That's all. No harm came to Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. And when they were delivered
from the fiery furnace, they were promoted to the highest
rank in all the region. So it is with God's elect. When
the Lord God our Savior has finished all things, we shall at last
be completely delivered from sin, from death, from hell, from
the law, from the curse, from all things from which we have
been made to suffer by the fall, and there will be no harm done,
no injury, but only good. Now hear me, children of God,
Again, as that's true with regard to all the salvation of God's
people, that's true with regard to every trial and every adversity
and every heartache, God in his providence and grace and wisdom
and goodness brings your way. You will suffer no harm, no injury,
no pain. Only good and benefit when the
trial is over. Did you hear me? No harm, no
injury, no pain. When the trial is over, only
good. So thorough is the deliverance
of our God that his people shall suffer nothing because of sin
and have no regrets when it's over. If you could get that, that'd
be enough chump to go home with tonight. When God's done, we'll
have no regrets. Can you even imagine that? Look
back over all the ages of time. Look back over all your life,
my soul, what regrets I've had. What regrets. But when God's
done, no regret. We'll be delighted that he did
everything exactly as he's done it from creation through the
fall, through the ages of history, in redemption, in grace, in salvation,
in providence, in all the details of our lives, everything he has
done, he has done well. Look at Daniel four. having this
revelation of God's great glory and grace in Christ, in redemption
by divine substitute. Nebuchadnezzar said, I've got
to tell the whole world about this. I've got to tell the whole
world how God revealed himself to me. I've got to show how the
only true God saved me. I've got to tell you who God
is. So we read in verse one of chapter four, Nebuchadnezzar
the king, unto all the people, nations and languages that dwell
in all the earth, peace be multiplied unto you. I thought it good to
show the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward
me. I've been trying to do that now
for 50 years. how we ought to make it our life's business to
publish abroad the goodness and grace of God. We have experienced
at His hand, how great are His signs and how mighty are His
wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom and His dominion is from generation to generation. You
know the story of Nebuchadnezzar. God set out to bring this proud
man down, to humble him, to break him, to make himself known to
him, and he did it. This man Nebuchadnezzar, king
of the mightiest empire the world had ever known to that point.
The mightiest man on the earth suddenly lost his mind. God turned him into a raving
lunatic. He was put out of his kingdom,
driven away from society, and for seven years, He grazed like
a wild beast living in the fields. Then after seven years of lunacy,
God gave Nebuchadnezzar his mind back. He restored him to his
kingdom and Nebuchadnezzar was never the same again. God taught
him what all men and women sooner or later must learn. You will
learn it either in grace or in judgment, but learn it you will.
Here is the confession Nebuchadnezzar made of what God taught him.
Verse 34. At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned
unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored
Him that liveth forever and ever, whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation.
and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
And he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his
hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Verse 37. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar,
praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, all whose works
are truth and his ways judgment. and those that walk in pride,
he is able to abase. Nebuchadnezzar experienced that
and learned that by God's grace. His son, Belshazzar, learned
it by God's judgment. In Daniel 5 and 6, we see Nebuchadnezzar's
son, Belshazzar, he didn't believe God. But he continued in the
proud, sinful ways of the Babylonians, worshiping the works of his own
hands as all men are wont to do. Blaspheming God as he pretends
himself to be mighty and a wise and good man. In chapter five,
God appeared to Belshazzar. He was throwing a huge party. And in his drunken stupor, he
commanded that somebody go get the plates and the cups and the
bowls that his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple of
God in Jerusalem, those things that were dedicated to the worship
and service of God. He said, bring them here. I'll
show you what I think about my father's God. And they continue
with their reveling, using the very instruments of divine worship,
dedicated to God and the house of God. And then suddenly, Belshazzar
saw a hand writing on the wall. That'll sober a fella up. And his knees began to knock.
Hair stood up on the back of his neck and he was terrified,
utterly terrified. And the Lord God Almighty, for
his rebellion and ungodliness, killed him that very night. And
Darius the Median took the kingdom. Darius was already an old man,
62 years old, when he took the kingdom of the Chaldeans. This
Median king promoted Daniel to the highest office in the land
under the king himself. Then in Daniel 6, we're given
another marvelous picture of God's salvation of sinners by
Christ. Darius was being courted by some
of the folks in the land who despised Daniel. They said, Darius,
we suggest something. Why don't you require that any
man who prays to any God except to you, if he does so, he is
to be cast into the den of lions? And guess what? That sounds pretty
good. And they said, make it a law,
law of the Medes and Persians, and write it out and stamp it
with your seal so that it can't be changed. And as soon as the
law was made, Daniel was found praying. Look at verse 25. Then King Darius wrote unto all
the people, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth,
peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree. Darius had spent
the nights trying to find a way to deliver Daniel, but he couldn't
do it without breaking his law. And he broke his law, he violates
his own rule, and he loses authority in his kingdom. And they couldn't
find a way to deliver it, so Daniel's cast into the lion's
den. And Darius got up early the next
morning, and he said, oh Daniel! Is your God able to deliver you?
And Daniel said, don't worry about a thing, King. Everything's
just fine. Everything's just fine. And Darius
took this man Daniel out. And he again promoted Daniel. And he saw here how God delivers
his people. The Lord Jesus Christ bear our
sin in his body over the tree and God fulfilled his law, slaying
sin and at the same time sets the sinner free. And Darius said,
I wanna make the whole world know about this. Look at this,
verse 26. I make a decree that in every
dominion in my kingdom, men tremble in fear before the God of Daniel,
for he is the living God and steadfast forever, and his kingdom,
that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion, even unto the
end of the earth. He delivereth and rescueth, and
he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and earth. who hath
delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. Then in chapter
seven and eight, Daniel tells of prophetic visions he had in
days of that wicked king of Babylon, Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's
son. So terrible were the visions
God gave Daniel that he fainted and was sick for many days. Now concerning those visions,
much speculation has been made. Many books have been written
and many sermons preached. Perhaps it would be wise for
us to do something when we get to these passages like Daniels
7 and 8 and you read about these horns and the little horns and
the horns with eyes and everybody wants to know what all this is.
Wouldn't it be better rather than speculating about things
that God hasn't revealed, to wait until God makes them known
in his providence. It is a snare of Satan. Now listen
to me. It is a snare of Satan that when
you read this book, you look at the scripture, Lot went out
and took a wife. Where'd Lot get his wife? Let's
study that. God didn't tell you. And it doesn't matter. And you
shouldn't care. Well, doesn't that interest you?
No, no. I'm interested in Christ, my
Redeemer. What about you? I'm interested in how God saves
sinners. I'm interested in God's glory,
not Lot and his wife. I'm interested in the, in the
things of, not, not a lot, I'm sorry, excuse me. I'm talking
about Cain took a wife. We're together, we're together. We're not told. You and I must
not be entrapped by Satan seeking to figure out intricacies God
hasn't told us. Let me give you one example,
what I'm saying. Read the second chapter of the book of Joel.
I'll guarantee you no one ever imagined rightly what Joel prophesied. I haven't read the Hebrew commentaries
in ancient times on the book of Joel. I just don't bother
with such things, but I suspect none of them came close. Now,
if you find one that did, please let me know. I suspect none of
them came close, but Peter understood it perfectly. On the day of Pentecost,
When the Lord Jesus, David's son, was seated on David's throne
and he poured out his spirit upon his church, Peter said,
boys, this is what Joel was talking about. No question about it.
And when the Lord God wraps things up, we will understand exactly
what he was talking about. Until then, leave speculation
alone and stick with what's revealed in the book of God. We should
rest always in things concerning our God
and our Savior. And here in these chapters, Daniel
tells us about our Redeemer's kingdom. We ought to be satisfied
with that revelation. We're told that our Lord Jesus
has a kingdom which shall be forever and ever. What more could
be wanted? And yet, even more than that's
given, this kingdom and dominion and the greatness of it shall
be given to the people, the saints of the Messiah, the Most High
God. All right, now let's look at
chapter nine. In this ninth chapter, Daniel
prays. And what a prayer he prayed.
He offered a prayer to God for himself. and for the children
of Israel, confessing the sins of the people, extolling God's
greatness, God's majesty as God and seeking mercy from him. And
then the man Gabriel appeared to Daniel. I don't know for sure
that this is a angelic appearance of Christ Jesus in human form,
but it appears to me to be so. This man Gabriel appeared to
assure Daniel of the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, and
of our Savior's great accomplishments as our Savior at God's appointed
time. Look at verse 20. And while I was speaking and
praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel
and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God, for the
holy mountain of my God, yea, whilst I was speaking in prayer,
even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in division at the beginning,
being caused to fly swiftly, touched me. Now watch this, about
the time of the evening oblation. Three o'clock in the afternoon.
As you read through the Old Testament scriptures, and you read about
the evening sacrifice, the evening oblation, God in his wisdom and
providence and grace fixed it by his law that every day at
three o'clock a sacrifice be made, every day. And there was
one great sacrifice to which he pointed, one great evening
oblation at three o'clock in the afternoon. Our Lord Jesus
Christ cried, it is finished. And he said, father into thy
hands, I commend my spirit and gave up the ghost and redemption
was accomplished. And he informed me, verse 22,
and talked with me and said, oh Daniel, I am now come forth
to give thee skill and understanding. Now watch these next words. At
the beginning of thy supplications, the commandment came forth and
I am come to show thee. not after you had been praying
for a while. At the beginning of your supplications,
the commandment came. You see, God says, before they
call me, I'll answer them. And when God Almighty comes to
us and gives us a heart to seek Him, it is because He is already
preparing us for the grace He is about to give us. He said,
the commandment came to me. And I am come to show thee, for
thou art greatly beloved. Therefore understand the matter
and consider the vision. This is what I'm showing you. 70 weeks are determined upon
thy people. and upon thy holy city, to finish
the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation
for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up
the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Now it
is very interesting to study Daniel 70 weeks and to study
this time appointed by God, given to Daniel in prophecy. Obviously,
he's talking about 70 weeks of years. And when you come to the
end of Daniel's vision here, you come to the very time when
Jesus Christ was born at Bethlehem. At the very time. Did you ever
stop to consider when you read the narratives given in Matthew
and in Luke that all of Jerusalem, all of Israel was a buzz because
everybody was expecting Messiah to appear anytime, even Herod
was. He was, he was, he was aware
of what folks had said. Not everybody trusted him. Not
everybody believed him. There were a few like Simeon
waiting for the consolation of Israel, but everybody who understood
anything about this book said, this is the time Messiah is about
to appear. And when he came, those who believed
were not surprised, but elated. The Lord God sent this prophecy,
or gave this prophecy, and the Lord God told Daniel what this
Messiah, the Christ of God, would accomplish when he came. Now
let's look at it together. There is no other God that can
deliver after this sort. I want you to know who Christ
is, who the Christ of God is. Any imaginary Jesus, Any imaginary
Christ, any imaginary God who does not save after this sort
is a false God, a false Jesus, a false Christ. And if you trust
him, you'll perish in your sins. Let's see what he says. Number
one, Gabriel told Daniel that when the Christ appeared, when
Messiah was cut off, crucified, slain at Jerusalem in the midst
of the 70th week, he would, by the sacrifice of himself, finish
the transgression. Transgression. In this verse
of Scripture, God, the Holy Spirit, inspired Daniel to tell us about
sin using all three words used in Scripture to describe sin.
Transgression, sin, and iniquity. Transgression. You're out with
some buddies hunting, and you come up on a field with a big
gate, got a great big sign that says, no trespassing. You say,
shoot, who's gonna tell me I can't do that? And you just cut the
bolt, and you take the gate down, and you walk across it. That's
transgression. That is the willful, deliberate
breach of God's law. That's the willful assault of
man upon God's being and his character. That's man's willful
rebellion against God. Man standing with his fists clenched
in God's face saying, get out of my way, I'll do what I will. And then he uses the word sins.
Sins referring to all the corruptions of our nature manifest in our
actions. And then he uses the word iniquity,
iniquity. It basically means missing the
mark. When I was a younger man and
I had stronger arms and sharper eyes, I was a good marksman.
I could shoot pretty good. And I could shoot a bow and arrow
pretty good. A good marksman. You draw the bow and you let
fly. Oops, I missed the mark. That's
iniquity. Men, by their deeds of self-righteousness,
seek to do good and think they have done good, but you always
miss the mark. The mark is perfection. The mark
is holiness. The mark is righteousness. Now
look what he says. The Lord Jesus, the Christ of
God, is he who finished the transgression. How is that? Our Lord Jesus bear
our sin in his own body on the tree. And with his own blood,
he purged our sins. He, having put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. Brother Matt just sang about our priest and our sacrifice. The priest of the Old Testament
never sat down in the Holy of Holies. There were no chair in
that place, because their work was never finished, because their
sacrifices could never make an end to transgression. Whatever
sacrifice offered, said there's gotta be another one offered
tomorrow, and another one offered the next day, and another one
offered next year, because the blood of bulls and goats can
never take away sin. But the Jesus Christ of the Nazarene,
the Jesus, the Christ, who is the Christ of God, with one sacrifice,
Put away sin forever by the sacrifice of himself. Second, the Lord
Jesus came here to make an end of sins. You read that and you
think, well, that's saying the same thing, sorta, sorta, but
it's saying much more. Our blessed Savior abolished
the sins of his people when he paid the full price of our ransom
at Calvary Street. so that the Lord God Almighty
beholds no sin in Israel. No iniquity in Jacob. How can that be? I see my sin. You see your sin. God doesn't. God sees everything. God knows
everything. God doesn't see what's not. and
he doesn't know what's never existed. So thoroughly as the
Son of God put away our sins, in Him we have no sin. The book says, 1 John 3, verse
5, in Him is no sin. How do you explain that, Brother
Don? I gave up explaining the most wondrous things in this
book a long time ago. I read it. and I believe it,
and I preach it, and I rejoice in it. Explain it, I can't do
that. But I'm gonna tell you what you
can do. If God says in him is no sin, I know you give this
to somebody to talk to somebody about it tomorrow, you can't
carry that too far. I fully agree. Jonathan, you
can't possibly carry that too far. When you read something spoken
in this book, blessings of God's grace and mercy, you pick it
up and run just as far as your mind's imagination can, and you
won't have begun to commence to get started. In Him is no
sin. He made an end of sin's condemnation. He made an end of sin's curse. He made an end of sin's guilt.
He made an end of sin's judgment. He made an end of sin's death.
He made an end of all sin's consequences. When we stand with Christ in
glory, there'll be no more sorrow. and no more pain, and no more
sickness, and no more death, and no more darkness, because
there'll be no more sin. So thoroughly as the Son of God
put away our sins, that God Almighty will never deal with us any the
less graciously for having sinned. And we will only reap benefits
from the fall and all that we've experienced in this sinful world,
in this body of flesh and sin, we will only reap benefits heaped
upon us by the superabounding grace of God for where sin did
abound, grace did much more abound. No charge can be brought against
us. No curse of the law can reach us. No sentence of the law can
be executed upon us. No punishment can be inflicted
on us. We're entirely, completely saved from all our sins and all
the evil consequences of our sins forever. Now listen to this. David goes in to confess his
sin. That's the matter of your eye
and the hip dot. And this is what it says. Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven. You know what that word means? Blessed is he whose transgression
somebody picked up and took away. That's what forgiveness is. Christ
has picked up our sins and taken them away in his own body on
the tree, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. All right, look at the third
thing Daniel tells us. The Son of God came into this world to
save his people from their sins. by making reconciliation for
iniquity, by making blood atonement for iniquity, by his precious
blood, by the sacrifice of himself, by his sufferings and death,
the law and justice of God are fully satisfied. Full reparation
has been made for the injury done by sin for all our iniquities. The Lord Jesus Christ has made
us new creatures. And if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. And behold, all things are become
new. How come? Because God was in
Christ making reconciliation for iniquity. Because he who
knew no sin, he has made him to be sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. And by the sacrifice of himself,
he's made reconciliation. We use in the scriptures, or
they're used in the scriptures, and we use in describing Christ's
work, several words relating to this. It's the same root word
that means atonement, at one minute. By our Savior's obedience
unto death, all God's elect had been made at one with God. Reconciled to Him. God and man
brought together in perfect reconciliation. Propitiation. Propitiation. You mamas who had babies used
pacifiers. We tried it with faith, she wouldn't
have one. We even put honey on it, she wouldn't have it. You
know what you use a pacifier for? You use a pacifier to shut
the baby up. It's the only reason, just shut
him up. I'm tired of hearing him cry. We'd put honey on that
pacifier stick in her mouth, she'd spit it out. When she got
to the place she wanted one, we wouldn't let her have it.
But she just wouldn't have it. That's the essence of propitiation. Jesus Christ has so thoroughly
satisfied the justice of God on our behalf that God says to
Jacob, fury is not in me. Brandufo, I've known you all
your life. Know you pretty good. Now listen
to me, my friend. Our God never has a reason to
be angry with you. Your wife might, and your children
might, but not God. Not God. How come? Because He
has put away our sins. He's made reconciliation for
all our iniquities, our fighting him, our kicking against his
law, our despising him, our assaults on his very being. Christ made
reconciliation for it all. Read on. Our dear Savior came
here to bring in everlasting righteousness for his people.
to restore that which he took not away, righteousness by which
he magnified the law and made it honorable. Our Savior came
into this world. You remember how it came? As
he comes into his mother's womb, he says, Lord, I come to do thy
will, oh my God. He comes out of his mother's
womb and he says, Lo, I come to do thy will. Oh my God. And we find him in the temple
at Jerusalem when he's 12 years old, disputing with the doctors
of the law. And his parents left and missed
him, went back looking for him. And the Lord Jesus said to his
mother, said, Wisht ye not? I must be about my father's business. I'm here to do my father's will.
So that in the totality of his humanity, from the time he came
to be conceived in the womb of the Virgin by the overshadowing
power of God, the Holy Ghost, he, the man, Christ Jesus, was
obedient to the will and the word and the purpose and the
law of the triune God perfectly. All the way, I've often said,
I thought about it today coming over here, from the womb to the
tomb. That's not right. That's not
right. From the womb through the tomb. He perfectly fulfilled
the will of God for us. Never deviating once. And Delphus
Grubb When he obeyed the will of God, the full age of a man,
he performed perfect righteousness. And you did too. We obeyed God in him. We obeyed
God in him fully, perfectly. And when he died, we died in
him. And when he arose, We arose in
him, and when he took his seat at the right hand of the majesty
on high, we sat down in him, and he has made us the very righteousness
of God by his obedience unto death. There's one more thing,
two more things, real quick. He will seal up division in the
prophecy, that is, Everything that's written from
those words in the beginning in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1
till you get the very last verse of Malachi chapter 4. All the
vision, all the prophecy. You want to know what it's all
about? There he is. There he is. It's all about him.
His person and His work, He fulfills it all. And one more thing, He'll
anoint the most holy. Now if you have one of those
Scofield reference Bibles that has been so messed up you can't
figure out anything it says, the folks have all kinds of notions
about this. They say the Lord Jesus is gonna come again, they're
gonna establish a Jewish priesthood over in Israel, and they're gonna
rebuild the temple, and they're gonna anoint that holy place.
No, no, no, not the most holy place. The most holy people. The Lord Jesus comes, the Holy
One, and anoints the most holy. Who could He be talking about?
He's talking about every one of God's saints. Every one of
God's elect. He comes at the appointed time
of love and pours out His Spirit upon His own. and sprinkles the
conscience from dead works and says, your sin is gone. You're righteous, judgment's
over, I've gone to my father. And he gives you the sweet unction
of the spirit. sealing to you all the blessings
of the covenant, declaring to you that all God promised and
gave His Son, God promised and gave to you in His Son. Because Christ, Jesus, the Nazarene,
He is the Christ of God. Amen.