As I mentioned this morning,
we need to remember our pastor and his family is our way this
week. Lord will refresh them and renew
them. And we're also we need to remember
that there'll be no services Wednesday evening this week.
We'll meet again next Sunday morning, Lord willing, at our
regular time. And We're fortunate in this church
to have men that can bring the gospel to us when our pastor's
not here. Roger preached this morning,
this evening. Brother Bill Parker's gonna bring
the message. If you've heard Bill preach,
you know he has a zeal for Christ and he has a zeal for the gospel.
And his preaching reflects that zeal. So Bill, you come now and
bring the word to us. What a privilege to be up here.
I appreciate that scripture reading in Romans 5. I might as well
just close my book and go and sit down because that Romans
5 is beautiful, isn't it? The gospel just completely explained
in Romans 5. And then that song at Calvary.
What a wonderful song. William R. Newell wrote that. And let us turn to then Numbers
21. Numbers 21. and start reading in verse 4.
And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea
to encompass the land of Edom. And the soul of the people was
much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against
God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us
up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread,
neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light
bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. And therefore the people came
to Moses and said, we have sinned, for we have spoken against the
Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he may
take away the serpents from among us. And Moses prayed for the
people, and the Lord said to Moses, make thee a fiery serpent,
set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that
is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made
a serpent of brass, put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that
if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of
brass, he lived. He lived. Spurgeon once said,
if I was saved by a simple gospel, then I am bound to preach that
same simple gospel till I die, so that others may be saved by
it. When I cease to preach salvation by faith, in Jesus, he says,
put me in a lunatic asylum, for you may be sure that my mind
is gone. That's a C.H. Spurgeon. God has
given us a simple gospel, a simple gospel for the sinner to hear,
and that is look and live. Look and live, like the song
says. Look and live. Salvation by grace alone, through
faith alone, in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Grace alone, by
faith alone. He said, look unto me and be
saved all the ends of the earth, for I am the Lord and there is
none else. Isaiah had penned that. And the
gospel is despised by man. This gospel that we preach of
look and live by grace through faith, looking upon the Lord
Jesus Christ is despised by man. Man prefers mysteries. He prefers
to look in the Word of God and see codes and enigmas. He likes hard things to do. You know, if you give man a task
to accomplish, something to do, to bring about his own salvation,
then he's happy to do it. It may be knocking on doors to
start false Bible studies with a false Bible, twisted to suit
their own doctrine. It might be baptisms. It might
be walking miles on your knees to accomplish your salvation.
It might be rituals, masses, candles. almsgiving, repetitious
prayers or pilgrimages. It might be law keeping or it
might be obedience to some codes and prayers on your knees three
times a day in a temple to Allah. But see, we're just asked to
look. That's all we're asked to do.
Look and live. And what does it mean? It means
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It means to look, the
look of faith, the faith that the Lord Jesus Christ gives you,
that actually becomes your faith with regeneration. He grants
you that faith, doesn't he? and were to look and believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That look of faith, the Lord
Jesus Christ himself in John 3, 14 through 15 said this, and
as Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish but have eternal life. In order to see him, What do
we need to do? We need to, in order to see him,
we've got to look away from ourselves. We look to Him, we don't look
to ourself. No confidence in self. I have nothing that I can
add to salvation. Just like when Israel was commanded
to construct an altar, we won't turn there, but it's in Exodus
20, if you're taking a note. He says, and if thou wilt make
me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, for
if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. And
that's a good statement and type of salvation because if you add
works to your salvation, you're saying that the blood of Christ
is insufficient to save without something from you. It's Christ
plus works. It would be Christ plus human
ability. would be like that. It would
say, the blood of Christ is not alone sufficient, what he has
done for my salvation, and I have to add something to that to make
it effective for me. It's not of him that willeth,
the Bible says, not of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. See, works are set aside in that
verse. In that verse, you can say that
human will and works are set aside in Romans 9. He said, it's
not of him that willeth, not of him that runneth, but God
that showeth mercy. God, through Isaiah, charged
his people to consider some things. And it's in Isaiah 51, but we
don't want to turn there. He says, look into the rock,
whence ye are hewn, and into the hole of the pit whence ye
are digged. Look unto Abraham your father,
and to Sarah that bear you, for I called him alone. I blessed
him, and I increased him." Isaiah in this scripture is told, or
the people of Israel in this scripture are told to see if
there was anything in the great patriarchs in the past, to see
if God took into account their persons, or their faith, or their
obedience. And you know, unmerited favor
is what God showed to any of the men and women in the Bible
that accomplished anything notable for God. It was through God's
unmerited favor alone. He says, I called him alone. I blessed him. I increased him. So there's nothing good to be
said for us. There's nothing good to be, nothing desirous
or meritorious to be seen in us. All of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags before God. We need the unmerited favor of
God. Left to our own, we're no better
than the worst criminal on death row today. Left to the human
flesh. The heart of man is deceitful
above all things, the Bible says, and is desperately wicked. Desperately
wicked. Who can know it? Jeremiah says. And the law entered to define
and convince us of how far short that we have fallen from the
glory of God, from God's righteous standard, to leave us needful
of a righteousness that we could never produce. A righteousness that only God
could provide. And just like death that was
brought among the Israelites in our scripture here today.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 56, the sting of death
is sin. And the strength of sin is in
the law. The law says perfect obedience
would give you life. Perfect obedience would give
you life. The man that obeyed perfectly
would live through that law, is what the Lord said in Luke
10. But that's utterly impossible. Let's look at a sample. Let's
look at a sample of that. Man says, man says, I love God. God said, my standard is thou
shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul,
all thy might. And then it says, and he adds,
and keep his commandments always. in another place in the Old Testament.
God stated that thou shall have no other gods before me, nothing
that would take your affection and allegiance and love from
God. And what does man do? Man loves
everything more than God. Man loves his pets more than
he loves God. There's no place for God in the
life of sinful man. The Lord summed up the second
part of the commandments when he said, love your neighbor as
yourself. We fail to do that as well. He even went a step
further in Matthew 544 and he says this, but I say unto you,
love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and
persecute you. And you know that we've miserably
fallen from that love your neighbor as yourself. If he amplifies
that and brings the thought of that, that even means your enemies.
Man cannot fulfill the law of God. we fail miserably. One time of covetousness, which
is idolatry, the second and the tenth commandment. One look of
lust, which the Lord said is adultery. Just a look of lust
is adultery. One lie is breaking the command
of false witness, the ninth commandment. One failure to love unconditionally. One guarding of hatred in your
heart is murder, and the failure to obey the sixth commandment.
And if one would say as a young ruler, all these have I kept,
He would have had to keep them perfectly all his life. You see, because God's standard
is perfection. He said, Be perfect as the Lord
in heaven is perfect. Galatians 3, verse 10 says this,
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. And then there's the imputation
of Adam's sin. This is apart from obedience.
This is just the imputation of Adam's sin. We're all separated
from God and inherit spiritual death because we were in Adam
as our federal head. And that's what Brother Streeter,
read today in Romans 5, 12. Wherefore, as one man's sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for all sinned. For all have sinned. And that
word literally, that phrase literally is for all sinned. For all sinned
in Adam. For as in Adam all die, so in
Christ shall all be made alive. When Adam sinned, we all sinned
in Adam. Also think about the inherent
pollution of sin that has been caused. David said, I was shaped
in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. Every son of Adam
has inherited this pollution. Look at these. The Bible says
sin reigned into death. It says, there is not a just
man on earth that doeth good and sinneth not. It says, if
we say that we have not sinned, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. It says the heart of man is deceitful,
as I read, and desperately wicked above all things. It says the
carnal mind is enmity against God. The Bible says that they
that are in the flesh cannot please God. It's not possible
to please God. It says, he goes on, it says,
man is a transgressor from the womb in the book of Isaiah. And the Bible also says the wicked
go astray for the womb and they go astray as soon as they're
born, speaking lies, says David. So John Gill observes in the
body of divinity when David said, behold, I was shapen in iniquity
and a sin my mother conceived me. John Gill observes this on
page 333, he says, When David says, I was shaped
in iniquity and in sin, my mother conceived me. He did not say
my iniquity and my sin. Though it was his being in his
nature, but referring to. sin and iniquity being what is
common to him with the rest of mankind and what attended to
him at the formation of him in the womb. And so before he could commit any
actual sin, he illustrated the original corruption of his nature
in that as soon as his body and his soul were united together,
he was a sinful creature. So in our text, the Israelites
could find no answers looking to self, only death. They had done what was in their
nature to do, to loathe the things of God and to speak against the
Lord and against the leader that he had put over him. They realized
and they confessed their sins. So back in our text, Moses was
commanded to fashion a serpent of brass or bronze, and set it
up on a pole. Lift it high so everyone in the
camp could see it. What do we see in this? We see
three things. Number one, we see the awful
nature of sin. Sin brought separation from God,
spiritual and eternal death, and second death. They died. They were being bitten by the
serpents, they died. And all man is under a spiritual
death, whereas by one man sin entered into the world, and death
by sin. And so, what do we see in this? We see the awful nature
of sin. I like what John Bunyan said
about sin. He said, John Bunyan wrote a poem, and I don't know
if I've got it completely quoted right, but I was trying to remember
it. He said, sin is a monster of such awful mean that to be
hated needs but to be seen. But seen too oft and familiar
with face, what was once hated is then endured and then it is
embraced. Sin will carry you straight to
the lake of fire. Look with me at Revelation chapter
20 and verse 11 through 15. That second death was referred
to that second death. 20 verse 11, and I saw a great white
throne, and him that sat upon it from whose face the earth
and the heaven fled away, for there was found no place for
them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.
And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which
is the book of life. And the dead were judged out
of those things which were written in the books according to their
works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death
and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they
were judged, every man according to their works. Death and hell
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. Look at 21.8. But the fearful,
the unbelieving, look at that word unbelieving, the abominable,
the murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all
liars. shall have their part in the
lake which burneth with fire and brimstone," which is the
second death. There's spiritual death, there's
physical death, and there's the second death. The end of spiritual
death is the second death in the lake of fire. Sin brings
death. They died in the camp. of Israel. Secondly, we see not
only the awful nature of sin, but we see the justice in the
nature of God. God demands a punishment for
sin. He will not compromise and sweep
sin under the rug of eternity just to let you and I into heaven
without a propitiation, without a sacrifice that satisfies His
justice and His holiness. God set Him forth, the Bible
says in Romans 3, as a perpetuation through faith in His blood, a
sacrifice that satisfied the justice and the wrath of God,
a sacrifice that brought two parties together, and also a
place of mercy. It's also used as a place of
mercy, the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, where God could
shed mercy upon the sinner. God will not just sweep sin under
the rug. Someone has to pay. The Lord
Jesus Christ has to pay because that person has to have a righteousness
that God will accept. That person has to be God. You
see, man cannot pay for his own sin. God has to pay for it. The Lord Jesus Christ. I think
Brother Plager says that God cannot die, but man cannot satisfy. To the Lord Jesus Christ is the
answer. The God-man was sent into the
world. Psalm 85, 10. Psalm 85, 10. He was a perfect sacrifice. Look
what it says here in Psalm 85, 10. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Think about that. What a wonderful
scripture is that. Mercy and truth. God's uncompromising
truth and yet mercy. And God's righteousness, God's
perfect righteousness that man has fallen so short of and yet
peace towards man. What a wonderful scripture. Think
of that. Many of the Israelites died. Not all were saved. Do
you realize that God will be completely just and glorified
to either save you or cast you in a lake of fire to burn eternally?
The sinner whom he saves will glorify God for his mercy and
grace, and the sinner in hell will only have himself to blame. And He, by being in hell, will
glorify the justice of God. Because the sinner in hell only
gets justice. He doesn't get injustice. He
gets justice. Those in Christ get mercy. Praise
the Lord. These Israelites were well aware
that the answer of God for their sin was death. That their sin
was against Him, and He will judge it. How do you stand before
God? Isaiah 6 talks about the holiness
of God in such a wonderful vision of Isaiah that had when he had
a vision of the Lord. Why don't we turn there real
quickly, and I don't want to read all of it, but look at Isaiah
6 and verse 1, and let's see what we see in the holiness of
God and the justice and nature of God that demands a sacrifice
for sin. Look at His holiness here. just
as holiness. If I could say that word, justice,
holiness, what a magnificent, what a magnificent theme of the
holiness of God. In fact, this is so magnificent
that Isaiah used three times holy, holy, holy, holy. He used
that for emphasis. He says, in the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and his train filled the temple, and above it stood the
seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
Twain he covered his face, with Twain he covered his feet, and
with Twain he did fly. And one cried to another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the whole house was filled
with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I
am undone. When he saw the Lord, he realized
how undone he was, because I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen
the King. the Lord of hosts. As I said,
Isaiah used repetition for emphasis. Have you realized the holiness
of God? How holy he is? Have you seen the king, the Lord
of hosts? And you've cried out, holy, holy,
holy is the Lord God Almighty. And there's no way that I can
atone for my own sins. There's no way that I, by my
works, can make up A man tries to put himself in a balance,
and he thinks that God will grade on a curve. God will never allow
you into heaven with one sin. You have to have a righteousness
that God will allow enter into his kingdom. And funny thing,
that thief on the cross had that much righteousness. He had a
perfect righteousness. Even though he lived all his
life in sin, at that last hour, when he said, Lord, remember
me when you come into thy kingdom. He had a perfect righteousness.
And Lord said, this day thou shall be with me in paradise.
Have you seen how holy the Lord is? Have you said, woe unto me,
for I am undone, for I am unclean, I am a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes
have seen the king. Thirdly, not only the nature
of sin, not only the justice and the holiness of God, but
we also see the one lifted up, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
lifted upon that cross. As we quoted, so must the Son
of Man be lifted up, John 3 says. Look at that serpent for a minute.
Look at the serpent upon the pole. That was a symbol to the
Israelites that God hates sin and that sin will be judged.
They knew the commandment. to show that a thing was condemned
by setting it upon a pole. In Deuteronomy 21, 23, it said,
For he that is hanged is accursed before God. As we all know, this
brazen serpent was a perfect type of the Lord Jesus Christ
and His sacrifice for our sins on the cross. Charles Spurgeon
stated once, he says, the cross is the danger signal to you.
It warns you that if God spared not his own son, that he will
not spare you. It is the lighthouse set upon
the rocks of sin to warn you that swift and sure destruction
awaits you if you continue to rebel against God. In Proverbs 29.1 it says, he
that being often reproved and hardeneth his heart shall be
suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy. The brazen serpent
showed the coming and the nature of the Savior from sin. He was
made like unto our sinful flesh. He was lifted up as the God-man. Hebrews 10.5, turn to Hebrews
10.5 with me. And you may just stay there because
there's some further references to that. Hebrews 10.5. Further references
in Hebrews 9 and 10. Hebrews 10.5 says, Wherefore,
when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared for me. You
see, he came as bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. The brazen
serpent showed the coming and nature of the Savior from sin.
He was lifted up. He was prophesied all the way
back from the first few chapters in the book of the Bible in Genesis
315. And we all know this verse. There's no use looking there.
But he says, I will put enmity between thee and the woman and
between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head. It
shall deal the death blow to thee. See, he was referring to
Satan when he was speaking in the Garden of Eden. He was referring
to that serpent, the devil, and he says, it, that seed of the
woman, it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Christ was to come as a seed of the woman, which was a very
unnatural expression. Usually it's the seed of the
man, but here's the seed of the woman. And he would crush the serpent's
head. And we see him as a type. in
this illustration, as the one who took our sins in his own
body upon the tree. I like what the Apostle Peter
says in 1 Peter 2, 24, where he says this, and many of you
know this one, who his own self bore our sins in his own body
on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live under righteousness
by whose stripes you were healed. And in our text, in Numbers 21,
verse 9, in the second part of the verse, and it says, And it
came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld
the serpent of brass, he lived. He lived. And what did they see? What did they see when they saw
the serpent of brass? They saw a perfect picture. of
the Lord Jesus Christ who was to come. They saw a perfect picture
of Christ crucified, bearing their curse. They saw the glorious
gospel of Christ of redemption. Galatians 3.13, after we saw
that in Galatians 3.10 they were condemned because they had not
They had not obeyed the whole law. In Galatians 3.13, he says,
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs
upon a tree. You see, he's referring to that
same thing, that Christ was lifted up as a curse, and he bore that
curse of my disobedience, that I disobeyed the law all my life.
And I inherited damnation upon myself and Christ bore that curse
on the cross. Now I exhort you brothers to
look. I want to look at three things.
Let's look. Look at three headings. Look
at the Christ crucified and see who He was. Who was the Christ
crucified? The Lord Jesus Christ from glory. The very Word of God that was
made flesh. In John 1 verse 1, In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Don't believe the Jehovah Witnesses
when they want to have a corrupt translation. They want to say
the Word was a God. No, the Word was God. There is
no article in that Greek, in that verse, the Word was God. And in verse 14, the Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Secondly, I want us to look at
the eternal purpose of his crucifixion, of his crucifixion, the eternal
purpose of him coming into the world. We know he came. We know
he's God. We know he came as a man. And we know that there
was an eternal purpose in his crucifixion. John 12, 32, he
says this, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw
all men unto me." You see, this is the same thing, the same curse. He was lifted up from the earth. This, he said, signifying what
death he should die. If I be lifted up from the earth,
I will draw all unto me. You know that the word men is
inserted there? And he said, And I, and if I
be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all unto me. Who
will he draw unto him? All that the Father had given
him, he said, shall come unto him. All that were of the truth,
as he told Pilate. All the children of God that
were scattered abroad. as that high priest had prophesied
in a chapter before that. Let's look at Titus chapter 1
to see the eternal purpose. We don't use this one that often.
It's such a wonderful verse. Titus 1. We're talking about
the eternal purpose of his coming, the eternal purpose of him being
lifted up, that he would draw his own into himself. Titus chapter
1, look at verses 1 and 2. Paul, the servant of God and
apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect,
and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness.
Look at verse two. And in hope of eternal life,
which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. Who was there? The Father, the
Son, the Holy Spirit. He promised this in Christ. before the world began. If you
look through the New Testament, you'll notice as we, as our pastor
and brother Plager have done those studies of the phrase,
in Christ, in Christ, so many times, all of our blessings were
chosen in Christ. Everything we have is in Christ.
He promised eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is an
eternal purpose for His crucifixion, eternal purpose for His coming.
Our Lord Jesus was set up as the God-man mediator of the surety
of the covenant of peace made between the persons of the Godhead,
and He was given a people. that would be his bride, and
that he would come to earth to redeem and to gather unto himself. In John 17, 2, the Lord says
this, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given unto
him. In Psalm 2, what a wonderful
verse about that same eternal purpose, when he said in verse
6 in Psalm 2, he said, Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill
of Zion. And he says, I will declare the
decree. The Lord said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have
I begotten thee. This eternal day. I have begotten
thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession." God set him up as king over his church,
Zion, and that holy hill representing his church, king over by holy
hill of Zion. And it says, in that eternal
day, he was given his church. when he covenanted to do whatever
it took to pay the redemption price and buy his bride out of
the slave market of sin, to come to earth and destroy the captor
that held us. That's the eternal purpose. of
the Lord Jesus Christ coming was shown to us that he had a
purpose in his coming from before the foundation of the world.
Many verses on that, just innumerable verses on that, and many we quote
here all the time. Number three, I want to look
at Christ's redemption and the victory that was won through
redemption. Think about the type in our original
text. Think about that type of Christ
in the serpent that was hung upon a pole and how close it
is to the story of redemption. God had sent serpents that brought
death to the camp of Israel because of their disobedience. Adam's
disobedience brought death to all mankind. Christ our Lord
came to the earth in the likeness of Adam. The Bible says in the
likeness of sinful flesh and condemned sin in the flesh. And
the brazen serpent was in the likeness of the one who brought
death. You see a serpent brought death
in the camp of Israel and a brazen serpent was the healing. Faith
in that serpent brought healing to them. Just a look, just a
look, because faith was in the Lord Jesus Christ. The likeness
of sinful flesh, he came, condemned sin in the flesh. Christ our
Lord destroyed him that had the power of death. Look at the book
of Hebrews, I know you're holding that place, but turn over to
Hebrews 2, verse 14 and 15. Christ destroyed him that had
the power of death. Hebrews 2.14, for as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and to deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. According to Colossians 2, I
don't know if you have time to turn there, Colossians 2, Christ
our Lord made an open spectacle of the devil and demonic forces
at the cross of Christ. Look at this parallel. He says,
And you being dead in your sins, just like the Israelite, you
being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven all your
trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, that
was against us and that was contrary to us and took it out of the
way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. in it or in himself, in the cross
or in himself as the crucified one in his blood shed for his
own. He made a triumphing over them
in the crucifixion. The one thing he snatched from
Satan and that one weapon was Satan's ability to accuse us
of an unforgiven sin. All sins were forgiven. By him
dying, that was the death of death and the death of Christ,
as John Owen said. The one weapon that Satan had
against us was an accusation of unforgiven sin, and all sins
were forgiven for his people on the cross. He said it is finished,
right? The gospel message that we proclaim
in closing, and we'll still look at a few scriptures in Hebrews.
The gospel message that we proclaim is the only message that the
Spirit uses to save. Illustrated in our text is the
message of a people hopelessly dead in trespasses and sins,
cursed by the fall, and enemies of God. And it's of a people
who hated God at every breath, just like the people of Israel
here. We spoke against God. We spoke against their leader.
Man's nature is to hate God. He thinks he loves God, but he
hates God. So our gospel message is a message of a dead people.
that are cursed and have enmity against God. It's also of a God
who in eternal love chose us even when we had nothing that
would cause him to do so. He gave us to his son as his
bride. It is about our Lord Jesus Christ who is the surety who
took our curse, who died our death at the hand of God's broken
law. And in order to justify us, he
gave us a perfect righteousness. When our Lord was lifted up on
the tree, he said, it is finished. It is finished. He finished the
work his father had given him to do, that work of redemption.
And it's summed up in Hebrews 9 and 10. I told you to hold
your place there. Look at Hebrews 9, 12. Hebrews
9, 12. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place, having," now look at this, having obtained an eternal redemption. What a wonderful phrase is that?
It's his, it's ours because it's his. He obtained it. Hebrews
9.26, look what he says. For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the
world hath he appeared to, to do what? To put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. And then look over at Hebrews
10 and verse 14. For by one offering, he has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. By one offering, he has perfected
forever. Those three phrases, it seems
like they just go one after another. It is a finished work, the work
of our Lord Jesus Christ when he said, it is finished. A gospel
message that we proclaim the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ
shed upon the cross for us unworthy sinners. Praise the Lord. Thank you.