Alas, and did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? Was it for crimes that I had
done? He groaned upon the tree. Amazing pity! and grace unknown,
and love beyond decree. Well might the sun in darkness
hide, and shut his glories in, when God, the mighty Maker, died
for this poor sinner's sin. Yonder amazing sight I the incarnate
Son of God, dying on a cursed tree and shedding his own blood. Around that bloody Roman tree,
the angels pressed with strong desire that amazing, wondrous
sight to see. the Lord of Life expire. Around that bloody Roman tree,
the angels pressed with strong desire, that amazing, wondrous
sight to see, the Lord of Life expire. What a subject I undertake
tonight. It's the subject of all subjects. It's the sight of all sights. Blessed is the man who has seen
it. It's the truth of all truths. Happy is the man who has learned
it. It's the hope and the only hope
of all hope. And blessed is the man who has
embraced it. the death of all deaths, the
death of Christ. Now, in the darkest hour of Adam's
fall, the Lord God told him about this hour. He told him that the
seed of the serpent would bruise the feet or the heel of the seed
of the woman. And then he demonstrated this
death to Adam in slaying the lamb, or animal, and covering
Adam's nakedness with the skin of that innocent victim. And
then the first martyr of faith, Abel, died because of his faith
in one thing. the blood of Christ, the death
of Christ. Abel sealed his testimony with
his blood, and his testimony was, I believe the Lamb of God
died for our sins. And when God would deliver Israel
after 400 years of captivity, through the plague of all plagues,
he set forth in that plague one grand truth, when I see the blood
I'll pass over you. Whose blood? His blood. What
blood? The blood of God himself. And
in Abraham's greatest trial, among all the trials through
which God brought him, in Abraham's greatest test of faith, the Lord
brought him face to face with one grand and glorious truth,
the death of a substitute. As he laid his son Isaac upon
that altar and raised the knife to slay him, the Lord God spake
from heaven, and was not this the very trial of all trials
in this man's life? With a heavy heart, with a broken
spirit, as he stood with the knife above the chest of his
only son, and God spake and said, Do thy son no harm. And Abraham
looked over in the thicket, and there was a ram caught by the
horns. And God said, Take the boy off the altar, and put the
ram in his place, and shed his blood. And Abraham saw the day
of Christ's death right then. He rejoiced to see it, and he
named the place, God will provide himself a lamb. God will provide
himself a lamb. And when Moses and Elijah, and
I want you to turn to Luke 9, when Moses and Elijah made their
only visit to this earth after both of them had gone to glory,
when Moses and Elijah, Moses representing the prophets and
Elijah, Moses representing the law and Elijah the prophets,
when they made their only visit to this earth, in the day that
our Lord was transfigured, and they stood and talked to him,
these two great and mighty men, one representing the law, one
the prophets, came back to this earth, sent by God, in the day
that our Lord was transfigured before the very eyes of the disciples,
and they chose as their subject of conversation the death of
Christ. They talked of only the death
of Christ. In Luke 9, verse 28, And it came
to pass, about an eight days after these sayings, he took
Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.
And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered,
and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there
talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elijah. Moses
and Elijah, think of who appeared in glory, and spake of his death,
and they spake of his decease," his death, which he should accomplish
at Jerusalem. And when the Lord God gave two
ordinances to his church, and as far as I can determine, only
two. Ordinances to be observed, ordinances
to be kept as long as there is a church on this He gave them
two, and both of those ordinances speak of the death of his Son.
Baptism is a confession of our identification with Christ in
his death, in his burial, in his resurrection. And when he
prepared the Lord's table and delivered it to his disciples,
as Paul the Apostle wrote, what I have received of the Lord I
deliver unto you. At the Lord, the same night in
which he was betrayed, took bread, and he said, as he break and
blessed it, This is my body broken for you. And as he handed them
the wine in the cup to drink it, he said, This wine is a new
covenant or testament in my blood which is shed for you. This do
ye, as often as you do it, in remembrance of me, in my death
till I come. And when the apostle Paul summed
up his gospel, and there's no more glorious apostle and no
greater preacher, but when he summed up his gospel, it was,
I preach Christ and him crucified. I am determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And my friends,
turn where you will in this blessed book. Turn where you will, and
you'll find a platform on which to preach. the death of Christ. I've chosen tonight to turn to
Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. And once again, if
we can, if we can, visit Calvary. Oh, to be enabled
of God. Oh, to be enabled of the Holy
Spirit, to be done with this world and all of its connections
and all of its corruption and all of its troubles and all of
its burdens, and just in the Spirit visit Calvary, and once
again look unto the face of him who loved us and gave himself
for us. It says here in Isaiah 53, verse
4, Surely, surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, 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're healed. All we, like sheep,
have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers is
done, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked, died between two thieves, and with the rich, buried in
the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea in his death. Though, because
as though he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his
mouth, yet," verse 10. And we have here the cause of
his death. We have here in verse 10 the
reason for his death. We have here in verse 10 the
consequences of his death. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. There's the cause of his death.
It pleased the Lord to bruise him. He put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, there's the reason for his death. And
here is the consequences or results. He shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. Now, first of all, the cause
of his death. It says here, it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He put him to grief. Now, the
man who reads the Bible as mere history, The man who reads the
Bible merely as a religious story, he traces the death of Christ
to the act of men. Some of you may be here in the
congregation who feel this way, that the Roman leaders put Christ
to death, that the Jewish plotters put Christ to death, or the mob
put Christ to death. We say suicide, a man killed
himself. Homicide, he killed another.
Deicide, man killed God. And in a sense, there is a truth
in that. Turn, if you will, to the Book
of Acts. In the Book of Acts, chapter
2, there is a sense in which the responsibility of the death
of Christ lies at the door of the human race. There's a sense
in which the death of Christ lies at the door of the human
race. It is our responsibility. Our
responsibility. Verse 36 of Acts 2 says this,
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God
hath made that same Jesus, watch it now, whom you crucified. Whom
you crucified. You crucified. You crucified. Now turn to the book of Acts
chapter 4. in the book of Acts 4. It says here in Acts 4 that
these people ganged up on Christ. In Acts 4, verse 26, the kings
of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together
against the Lord and against his Christ. That was their own
will and their own doings. They did it themselves. of a truth against our holy child,
Jesus, such forces were arrayed as these. Herod, Pontius Pilate,
the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together. The responsibility of the death
of Christ lies as much at our door as if God had no part in
it." That's true. Yet, Acts 3, verse 10, it pleased
the Lord to bruise it. Now, I said the man who reads
the Bible as a book of history or a book of religious history
or religious doctrine, he'll trace the death of Christ to
the hands of men, the Roman soldiers, the mob, or the Jewish leaders.
But he who reads the Bible, now listen to me, he who reads the
Bible with an eye of faith, knowing that Almighty God is the first
cause of all things, knowing that beside him there is none
else, that Almighty God has decreed all things from the beginning,
and he doeth his will in the armies of heaven and among the
inhabitants of this earth. And he who reads the Bible with
an eye of faith to God does not release man from his awful guilt.
Now, the head of responsibility of denying and rejecting Christ,
it says in chapter 53, verse 2, he says, when we see him,
verse 2, the latter part, there is no beauty that we should design,
we despise him and we reject him. We despise him and we reject
him. The last line in verse 3 says
he was despised and we esteemed him not. That heavy responsibility
rests upon us and our hands are red with the blood of the Son
of God. We crucified Christ. The old pilot stood before that
multitude and called for a pan of water, and he stood there
and washed his hands and wrung them out and dried them on a
towel, and he said, I'm free from the blood of this man you
see to it. It's not that easy. It's not that easy. And I'll
tell you this, we can't look into the secret counsels of God
and deliver ourselves from that responsibility. And we cannot
even fall back on the sovereignty of God and deliver ourselves
of that responsibility. Man did what he wanted to do,
what he willed to do, what his wicked heart devised to do. And
we are responsible and we are guilty of murdering the Son of
God. It pleased the Lord, Debrewson.
Yet it pleased the Lord, Debrewson. Now, four things I want you to
see under this one head. His death was decreed from all
eternity in the covenant of God's grace. Turn to Revelation 13.
Revelation 13. And I'm not skipping around through
the Bible, picking out ten verses. I'm saying that this is a truth
that's taught all the way through the scriptures. The Almighty
God before he made the world, the Almighty God before he made
man and put him on this earth, the Almighty God before man ever
fell and ever sinned and ever entered into the darkness of
evil, God determined and decreed to have a people to populate
heaven after the image and likeness of his beloved son. And knowing
that man would fall, Christ Jesus' death was not an afterthought.
Christ Jesus' death was a foreordained forethought. Look at Revelation 13, verse
8. And all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain. That's Christ, isn't it? The
Lamb slain. The book of the Lamb slain in
Revelation is Christ. And he was the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. So I'm saying that when Jesus
Christ died on the cross, yes, he was delivered by men, by Judas,
into the hands of the soldiers, and by the soldiers into the
hands of Pilate, and by Pilate into the hands of the mob, and
by the mob into the hands of the Roman soldiers, all of whom
had a part in his execution. And all of it, they did what
God determined before to be done. Can you take that? Can you take that? That's so.
That's so. Because God decreed it from all
eternity. Now, secondly, this book of God,
and this is the book of God, and if you leave this book, you
just go to fantasy, imagination, speculation. If you dare leave
this book when you're studying any subject, who God is, what
we are, who Christ is, how men are redeemed, when you're studying
any subject related to spiritual truth and the kingdom of God,
when you leave this book, you're on sandy soil. You're in quicksands
where you are. You're on speculation, human
thought, logic and wisdom, and it leads to destruction. There
is a way that seems right unto men, and the end always is destruction. So all the way through this book
of God, his death is prophesied. Where, when, and how, and for
whom? All the way through this book.
Turn to Hebrews 10, and listen to this, Hebrews 10. I'm not
preaching Baptist doctrine, I'm not preaching Calvinism. I'm
just preaching what the Word says about the death of Christ.
This is our subject, the death of death, the death of death. And it pleased the Lord to bruise
it. It pleased God. David, they said,
where's your God? He's in the heaven. What's he
like? He hath done what it pleased. And it pleased God to bruise
it. God uses me. God lets men do what they devise
and decree. And in so doing, they carry out
the will of God. Even the wrath of man will praise
him. It's not just when you do good
that you carry out the ultimate, eternal will of God. God will be glorified in the
salvation of sinners, and his justice will be glorified in
the damnation of sinners. And it's not just when you do
well that you do the ultimate, eternal will of God. Judas did the will of God when
he sold the Lord. It was for God's ultimate eternal
glory. And yet he was responsible for
every step he took and every plot that he plotted and that
fatal kiss on the cheeks of his master. That's exactly right. Even the devil, God's devil,
He only exists in this world and in this universe by God's
permission. That's exactly right. Well, preacher,
you sound like God is sovereign over all things. I sure hope
I do, because I'm making a real stab at it. Yes, sir. Hebrews 10, verse 8, listen to
this. Hebrews 10, verse 8, I'm saying
that the book of God prophesies his death. He says in verse 8
of Hebrews 10 above when he said, "...sacrifice, and offering,
and burnt offerings, and offering for sin, thou wouldst not, neither
had any pleasure thereof which offered by the law." These offerings
in the tabernacle under the law never satisfied God's justice
and righteousness and holiness. They were but types of Christ.
And God had no pleasure in the blood of an animal to atone for
the sin of a man. Then said I, then said he, Christ,
lo, I come, I come to do thy will. Whose will? Thy will. I come incarnate, I come in obedience
and righteousness, I come in suffering and death, I come in
burial and resurrection to do thy sovereign, eternal will,
O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
Whose will? God's will. I come to do thy
will. In the volume of the book it
is written of me, I come to do thy will, O God. Then in Luke 24, turn over to
Luke 24 and listen to the words of our Lord as he spoke to his
disciples after his resurrection. In Luke 24, verse 44, he says
to them, these are the words which I have spoken to you while
I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which
are written in the law of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy, In the Prophets, Major and Minor, in the Psalms
concerning me, then opened he their understanding, that they
might understand the Scriptures. And he said, Thus it is written,
and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead
the third day, that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
That's what the book said. It's written of me. And then
God sent his Son to the earth to die. Somebody seems to intimate
that Christ came to this earth in the hopes of reforming it.
No, he came to redeem it. He didn't come to reform it,
he came to redeem it. He came to redeem it. As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. that whosoever believeth on him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world
that he sent his only begotten Son," the hymn writer wrote this,
"'twas not to make Jehovah's love toward his people flame
that Jesus from the throne above a suffering man became. T'was
not the death which he endured, nor all the pain he bore. that
God's eternal love procured, for God was love before. Christ didn't come to enable
God to love us, he came because God did love us. Christ didn't
come to get God in a good humor toward his people, God loved
his people and gave his Son. For God so loved the world, he
gave his Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. that while God used the means,
the human means, and he used the wicked, and he used the righteous,
and he used the rebellious, and he used the believer, but he
uses every human as an instrument to accomplish his divine will
in the death of his son, which was planned from all eternity,
which was prophesied and pictured in the book Everything about
the death of Christ is in the Old Testament. From the time
that his brethren didn't believe on him, his disciples sold him
out and forsook him. They plucked out his beard. They
sold him for 30 pieces of silver. They nailed him to a Roman tree
and pierced his hands and his feet. He died between two thieves. They pierced his side. All of
this they cast lots for his garment. They shot out their lips and
wagged their heads and said, he trusted in God, let's see
if God will have him. He cried from the cross, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Every act, every event, every
word, everything that took place at Calvary is written right here
in the Old Testament, hundreds of years before he died. It was the will of God that sent
Christ to the earth, it was the will of God that sent Christ
to the cross, it was the will of God that sent Christ to the
grave, and it's the will of God that exalted him and seated him
at the Father's right hand. Let me share another hymn with
you. Keep silence, all you created
things, and wait your Master's nod. My soul stands trembling
while I sing of the glories of my God. Life, death, and hell
and worlds unknown hang on his sovereign decree. He sits on
no precarious throne, nor borrowers leave to be. His providence unfolds
the book and makes his counsel shine. Each opening page and
every stroke just fulfills his wise design. I believe that. And I believe it more now at
57 than I did at 27. I believe that God Almighty is
absolutely, immutably, unconditionally, infinitely, everlastingly sovereign
in all that he does. Nothing happens by chance or
by accident. Everything that happens fulfills
the will of my Lord. That's exactly right. The will
of my Lord. If men are saved, it's by an
act of God's will and not an act of theirs. We're saved by the free will
of God. He chose us in Christ. He loved us in Christ. He redeemed
us in Christ. He called us in Christ. He accepted
us in Christ. He glorified us in Christ. And
when Christ comes again, he's going to make us like Christ.
If men go to hell, the responsibility will be all theirs from beginning
to end. If men go to heaven, the responsibility
will be all God's from beginning to end. You say, explain that.
I ain't in the explaining business. I'm in the preaching business.
I just know it's so. Let God be God and every man
a liar. You know what the word says?
Let God be God. And I tell you, that's where you begin your theology,
that's where you begin your spiritual understanding, that's where you
begin your road to glory, that's where you begin your pursuit
of God, is when you come to recognize that God gives no account of
any of his matters to his creatures. And we bow, we shut our mouths,
we put our hand on our mouths and we say, speak Lord, I hear
you and I believe you. Let God be God. That's what they're
going to do throughout eternity is glorify God. And men who do
not learn that song here, you can be certain they won't learn
it there. Now, here's the second thing,
turn back to the text. I hope I've made that. I've tried
to be as plain as I can be, without stuttering or stammering or apologizing
in any shape, form or fashion for God. Somebody said one time
to me years ago, said, You're going to give an account for
what you preach. Yes, sir. And I'm willing to
stand right now before God's throne and say, Lord, I said
on the earth from your word that you're God. 100 percent God,
absolute God, eternal God, infinite, immutable God. And I told men
that you did what you pleased, when you pleased, with whom you
pleased. That's what I want to give an account for. I want to. I do not want to be guilty of
compromising the glory of God. I wish that I could preach God
in His might and majesty and power like Paul preached it I'd
like it ought to be preached. I'll never be able to, but I'd
sure like to. I'd like to have men just tremble
in their pews. I'd like to have men's hair turn
white as snow. I'd like to have people break
out in cold sweat. I'd like to have people scream
for mercy to keep God from sending them to hell. I'd like to have
that kind of effect, preaching the glory and power of God. to
see the Lord in his glory. Here's the second thing about
this text, verse 10. Please God to bruise him. Oh,
the awful, awesome, fearful power and presence of God. Just speak. Stop your breath right now. Mine,
too. He put him to grief. God bruised
him. God put him to grief. The middle
of that verse now, here's the reason for his death. shall make his soul an offering
for sin." Now, listen to me. We dwell more on the physical
sufferings of Christ, and that's understandable because we live
in this realm of the physical, of the flesh. And I know that
we probably dread physical pain much more than we dread spiritual,
mental agony and suffering. But the sufferings of Christ,
his physical sufferings, horrible as they were, indescribable as
they were, they said his visions were so marred he didn't look
like a man. And yet I say that the physical
sufferings of Christ were nothing compared with the dreadful, painful,
awful soul agony of Christ. That's right. You can start in
the Garden of Gethsemane before they laid a hand on him. in starting
the garden of Gethsemane before they ever spit upon him or plucked
out his beard or lacerated his back with a scourging. And there
he is on his face before the Father with the awful guilt of
all our sins, of all generations, of all believers, flooding in
upon his soul, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And Gethsemane
is a preview of his soul agony. And he cried, my father, my soul
is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. And the scripture said
he sweat as it were great drops of blood. The Lord's agony, you
see, because of his extreme holiness, our guilt and sin and corruption
made his soul agony over his sins to be of infinite proportion. And actually, I believe this,
that our Lord was not asking to avoid the cross. That's an impossibility. He said,
if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me. He talked to his
disciples about, are you able to drink of the cup that I drink
of? No, you're not. Men will inhale
similarly, but not completely. When he said, let this cup, what
cup? That very time he was in Gethsemane's
garden, he said, I'm going to die right here if something's
not done. I'm going to die right here.
There ain't going to be any cross. This body, this human, this human
that's holding the nature of God within a human, frail human
body, subject to every trial and temptation, tear and agony,
this human body is not going to make it out of this garden,
because I'm going to die right here under the awful grief, grief. They come in and tell a wife,
your husband's been killed, and grief just so fills her that
she faints. The body can't stand a joke.
They talk about an automobile accident and the baby's killed
and the mother went into shock. What was that? That's grief.
That's emotional agony. She's not hurting physically. But her mind and body can't take
the shock, the joke, and what our Lord is doing in the Garden
of Gethsemane with the blood dripping out of his pores, it's
the severe soul agony of seeing upon that holy person! And he
said, I'm going to die! And the Lord sent angels to minister
to him. That's exactly right. And I'm
telling you this, it says here, it pleased God to bruise him
and put him to grief. Men didn't have anything to do
with this right here. God made his soul an offering
for sin. God actually. And only God can
do that. But Jesus Christ was the greatest
sinner that ever lived. The greatest sinner that ever
lived. In himself he had no sin. He knew no sin. He committed
no sin. But he bore in his body all our
sins. All the sins of all the believers
of all generations were laid on him. And that made the greatest,
the most corrupt mass of sin that's ever been
accumulated. Adolf Hitler was a Sunday school
teacher compared to what was laid on Christ. That's exactly
right. compared to what was laid on
Christ. And that sin, God made his soul. You say, how could
one man bear so much because of who that man is? He bore an
infinite hell, an infinite wrath of an infinite God for all the
sins of his people in that one sacrifice. He made his soul.
And it's not, you see, you can't incorporate salvation in just
blood flowing from his veins. Yes, he died physically, but
he died under the judgment and wrath of God for our sins in
that his soul was separated from God. That's hell. That's hell
personified. That's hell embodied. It's when
God turned his back and Christ screamed. Mike never complained
one time. Never opened his mouth when all
the false accusations and all these things were hurled at him.
Never opened his mouth. But when the Father, and no martyr ever
experienced this. God was with every martyr that
died, but one. And he wasn't a martyr, he was
a Savior. And he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? And he died alone. And God made
his soul an offering for sin. Christ, and here's the reason
for his death here. His soul was made an offering
for sin in the sense of a substitute. God purposed to have a people.
But if such a word can be used, justice tied his hands. I hate
to even use that, but for us to understand it, I will. God
decreed to save a people, but justice said it ain't no way.
That's exactly it. Justice prevented it. shall not the judge of the earth
do right? God will by no means clear the
guilty. How can God be just and justify the ungodly? Justice
says men must die. Love says, but God must save. Righteousness says if he does,
man's got to have a perfect holiness. Wisdom says Christ can do it.
Christ can do it. Christ can do it. And that's
what it's all about. He made his soul an offering
for Don't fear them that kill the body, after they have no
more that they can do. Fear him who is able to cast
you body and soul into hell. Let me tell you something about
hell. Everybody is hollering about
the fire and shoveling the coal and all that stuff. I don't know.
Somebody asked me the other day, do you believe in literal fire
and hell? Not specially. Not specially. That's not what
we've got to fear anyway. You know what hell is? Number
one, hell is separation from God. It doesn't matter whether
you've got fire or ice down there, it's separation from God. And
that means from everything that's holy, love, pure, truth, light,
life, and everything. That's what hell is. And secondly,
hell is truth realized too late. That's what hell is. Abraham
said to the rich man, remember, remember, remember. Just spend
eternity remembering. And then I'll tell you something
else about hell. Hell is suffering. The rich man says, I'm tormented.
Suffering, soul suffering, physical suffering, all kinds of suffering. Just suffering, suffering, suffering. I'm tormented. And no relief,
and no release. You know, here, when you suffer,
you can get a pain pill, or you can get a shot, or you can get
somebody to come and comfort you. When your soul is in agony,
somebody can come and say, it'll be all right tomorrow. It won't
be all right tomorrow. It won't be all right the next
day. It won't be all right the next day. It's just eternal agony. I'll tell you something else
about hell. It's unfulfilled desire. He that's filthy, let
him be filthy still. He that's unrighteous, let him
be unrighteous still. The man's got his bottle to quiet
his shakes. He won't have his bottle inhaled,
but he'll have his thirst. You see what I'm saying? The
drug addict has his drugs to soothe his wants. He won't have
his drugs inhaled, but he'll have his wants. There won't be
any change. That's what hell is. Hell is the wrath of God, it's
separation from God, it's the darkness and death of no God. And this is where Christ was,
this soul of Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ went into
hell, the Apostle's Creed said he descended into hell. No, not
literally, not literally, in the fact that he went to That
hell that the scripture talks about, I shall not leave my soul
in hell, means the grave, that scripture does. But Christ took
our hell. And hell is not a place anyway,
it's a condition. Somebody go out and say, well,
the preacher said hell wasn't a literal place. I didn't say
that either. I said, but the essence of hell
is a condition. And wherever it is, it doesn't
matter. And whether it's flame or not, it doesn't matter. It's
just going to be a condition separated from God. And our Lord
bore that. He bore that. He bore that hell.
Now, what's the last thing? The cause of his death, verse
10, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He put him to grave. The
reason for his death, and I shall make your soul an offering for
sin. An offering to whom? To God. The offering was before
the Lord. You've studied the priestly work
and this, it was before the Lord. The lamb was slain before the
Lord. The bullet before the Lord. The atonement before the Lord.
Everything to satisfy and to gratify the holiness of God for
those whom he represented. This is what the preachers aren't
saying today. They're telling folks, just believe,
just accept. Accept what? You can't accept
what you don't understand. You can't believe what you hadn't
even heard. And this thing, the Lord Jesus
Christ, was a legal work. It was a work that he performed
on purpose. deliberately toward God to reconcile
us in order that God might be just and justify us, that God
might even look upon us or call our names or receive us or accept
us. The Lord had to do something
about the law. He had to do something about justice. He had to do something
about righteousness. And He had to do it in reality,
not just in word, not just He can't create righteousness like
He did the world by speaking. He's got to fulfill righteousness
and fulfill justice. And that's what he did. Now, the consequences, it says
here quickly, he shall see his seed. You know what seed are.
Somebody said men have sons and daughters by life. Christ had
his by death. Men die and see their seed no
more. Christ dies and lives and sees
them forevermore. I tell you this, he saw his seed
from all eternity. He saw him. And then our Lord
saw his seed when he left heaven and came to this earth. He came
down here and said, for this cause came out of this earth.
And he saw his seed when he hung there on that cross. And he saw
them when they died, when he died. And by his death, they
were born. He shall see his seed. Now, you
can get general redemption out of that, you're a whale of a
lot better than I am at it. He shall see his seed. His seed. Now, the second thing, he shall
prolong his days. When he died, he did not end
his life. He could not be held a prisoner
either by the nails or by the tomb. He lives forever. He shall prolong his days. On
and on and on. And he said, because I live,
you live. He lives to die no more. See, I've told you this,
and I hope I can tell you again, that he that believeth on the
Son will never die. I'll never die. I'll never die,
because I've already died. And God can't kill me twice.
You see, I died in Christ, and I'll always live. You see what
I'm saying? I'll never die. This body's going to sleep, but
I'll never die. Now the man for whom Christ didn't
die, he's going to die, he's going to die eternally, but I
live eternally because the death is over! It's over! See what
I'm saying? That's what Christ did for us,
actually. And then the last line says,
and the pleasure of the Lord, and the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper, shall be accomplished, where? In His hand. That's where
it all is. It's in His hand. In His hand. yonder amazing sight I see, the
incarnate Son of God dying on a cursed tree and shedding His
own blood. And around that bloody Roman
tree, the angels pressed with strong desire that amazing, wondrous
sight to see. The Lord of life expired. Yes, sir. That's what happened.
And when He died, I died. To die no more.