I marvel at your grace.
Not only do you put up with two
or three stuffy Englishmen, but you're putting up
with English weather now.
And I'm amazed how you're enjoying it.
Nice to get a cool breeze from over
the Atlantic or Canada or wherever it's coming
from.
And it's amazing how, as I move around
your country, there are lots of ladies who
try to scrape acquaintance with the old country,
you know.
One lady was saying that they traced her
ancestors, she told me, back to King John,
the man who lost his jewels in the
wash, if you remember that story.
She said, how far do you go back?
Well, I said, we don't go back all
that far in our family.
We lost all our records in the flood.
And it seems to be quite a bit
of competition about that sort of thing.
Anyway, I think it's great grace on your
part when you show a little fellowship and
friendship with a stuffy old Englishman like me.
Now, you're at liberty to call me old
if you like, but I'm very pleased to
have a fellowship with you, Junior Citizens of
Glory.
I think that's a fine title.
I used to go in each day when
I was with the Pells in Grand Rapids
to the home there that Grace is running.
And I called them the Junior Citizens of
Glory, and I got on very well with
them.
We had a lovely time together.
Now, let's have a lovely time in the
Lord's presence tonight and read his word, first
of all.
And we'll read from Daniel, I think, this
evening.
First of all, chapter 2, verse 31, the
prophecy by Daniel.
This is Daniel speaking to the king about
his dream and the image that he saw.
There, O king, sawest and behold a great
image, this great image, whose brightness with excellence
stood before thee, and the form thereof was
terrible.
This image, this image's head was of fine
gold, his breast and his arms of silver,
his belly and his thighs of brass or
bronze, his legs of iron, his feet part
of iron and part of clay.
And thou sawest till a stone was cut
out without hands, which smote the image upon
his feet, that were of iron and clay,
and break them in pieces.
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass,
the silver, and the gold broken to pieces
together, became like the chaff of the summer
-threshing floors, and the wind carried them away,
that no place was found for them.
And the stone that smote the image became
a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Now verse 44, and in the days of
these kings shall the God of heaven set
up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.
Now chapter 9, verse 1.
In the first year of Darius, the son
of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes,
who was made king over the realm of
the Chaldeans, in the first year of his
reign, I, Daniel, understood by books the number
of the years, whereof the word of the
Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he
would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of
Jerusalem.
And I set my faith unto the Lord,
to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting
and sackcloth and ashes.
And I prayed unto the Lord my God,
and made my confession, and said, O Lord,
the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant
and mercy to them that love him, to
them that keep his commandments, we have sinned,
and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly,
and have rebelled, even by departing from thy
precepts and from thy judgments.
Verse 24.
Gabriel said to Daniel, Seventy weeks are determined,
verse 24, upon thy people, upon thy holy
city, to finish the transgression, to make an
end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity,
and to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal
up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint
the most holy.
Know therefore, and understand, that from the going
forth of the commandment to restore and to
build Jerusalem, and to Messiah the Prince shall
be seven weeks, and three score and two
weeks, the street shall be built again, and
the wall, even in troublous times.
And after three score and two weeks shall
Messiah be cut off, but not for himself,
and the people of the Prince shall come
and shall destroy the city and the sanctuary,
and the end thereof shall be with a
flood, and unto the end of the war
desolations are determined.
And he shall confirm the covenant with many
for one week, and in the midst of
the week he shall cause the sacrifice and
oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of
abominations he shall make it desolate, he shall
make it desolate, even until the consummation, and
that determined shall be poured upon the desolate
all, that is the men of sin.
May the Lord bless to us the reading
from his word.
When Shackleton was on his way to the
South Pole, he made up his mind to
return to a certain base, and to leave
his men at another one.
But he purposed to join them after a
little while, he didn't know how long he
would be away.
So he put Captain Wilde in charge, and
said to him, now Wilde when I return
I want you and the men to be
all ready for us to move straight forward
toward the South Pole.
When eventually he did return, he found everything
just as he wanted it, and everybody ready
to go.
And he was delighted and asked some of
the men why it was they were all
so ready to go.
Well he said, we've been ready ever since
you left you know.
It's Captain Wilde you know.
Every morning he used to wake us up
and say, wake up men, roll up your
sleeping bags for the skipper may be here
today.
And when the skipper eventually came, of course,
all the sleeping bags were rolled up and
they moved forward at once.
It is high time for us to awake
out of sleep, for now is our salvation,
that is the completion of our salvation, the
culmination of our salvation, nearer than when we
believe.
And one of these days the children of
day will be summoned away, and left the
children of night.
We are not of the night, we are
of the day.
And there are so many beautiful details in
1 Thessalonians chapter 5 that we're going to
discuss on another occasion.
Now the subject of all scripture is the
Lord Jesus Christ and his two comings.
Christ in all the scriptures is the title
of Mary Hodgkin's book.
A little bit of women's ministry I suppose
on the shelves of most brethren who are
students of the word.
That is very helpful too.
And the Lord Jesus, of course, in Luke
24, he expounded to them in all the
scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luther did not take the scriptures so literally
that he did not expect to find Christ
everywhere.
He expected to find the Lord Jesus all
through the word, and indeed he found him
there.
Well now if Christ is the subject of
all scripture, the subject of all prophecy is
God vindicating his son, first of all, and
secondly God glorifying his son.
The Lord Jesus Christ, since his death and
resurrection, in the Father's will, has ascended on
high and he's been made very high, given
a name which is above every name, and
at the mention of his name the angelic
hosts bow and worship.
He is now the King of glory, and
his is the glory in heaven today.
But God is yet to vindicate his son
in the earth, and on the earth, at
the place where he was rejected by men,
and crucified and slain.
And where he was crowned with thorns upon
the tree, silent in his agony, he is
going to be crowned with glory.
The whole earth shall be filled with his
glory, as the waters cover the sea.
And Jesus shall reign from the river to
the ends of the earth.
And all the nations and the presidents and
the prime ministers and queens and kings shall
bow down before him.
The nations of the earth shall bring their
glory to Christ.
And at the end of that lovely passage
in Psalm 72 that I'm quoting, or trying
to quote to you, the Psalmist says this,
Amen, Amen, the prayers of David the son
of Jesse are ended.
The double Amen, of course, is significant, but
it only really means that this is the
end of one of the books of Psalm,
because they all end with double Amen.
But he says the prayers of David the
son of Jesse are ended.
Why?
Nothing left to pray for.
He's seen in his vision Christ coming and
dying and living and coming again and reigning
and having the glory in the place where
he was rejected.
His own in his presence praising him.
Israel converted in a day that is the
godly remnant.
All the nations of the earth bringing their
glory to Christ.
Amen, Amen, the prayers of David the son
of Jesse are ended.
So the subject of all prophecy is the
vindication and the glorification of our Lord Jesus
Christ, not only in heaven, which is his
now, but throughout the whole earth and the
whole universe.
And God is going to declare to the
whole universe the glory of Christ and his
wisdom in the church, which is his body.
Now I thought we should go quickly this
evening through this first section of our main
chart.
You see that the main chart here, if
you have eyes, telescopic vision at the back
to see it, is divided into several sections.
This whole chart we call number one, and
this portion we have here is number two.
Then God willing tomorrow we'll be talking about
this present age of grace, the church age
with a new chart here, as our brother
Mr. Willie promised you a few moments ago.
So the Lord Jesus himself is the subject
of all prophecy.
He says I am Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the ending.
And of course when he says that it
doesn't mean that he had a beginning and
that he will have an ending.
He means that he is the beginning and
that he is the eternal one in both
aspects.
Not that he had a beginning.
Now when you read Colossians chapter one, you
will see in verse fifteen, the Lord Jesus
is called the firstborn of every creature.
Now that is not a title of time.
It is a title of dignity.
Not that he was born first.
Far be the thought.
But that he is the firstborn.
He is the preeminent one.
He is number one.
And if you would think that it is
a title of time and that he is
born first, the next verse contradicts that idea.
For the apostle in verse sixteen goes on
to explain that he isn't one of God's
creation who was born first.
But that he is actually God the creator.
For in him, by him and through him
are all things created that have been created.
Creation was for him and in him and
by him and he is the end of
it all.
And Christ is the beginning and the ending.
Not that he has an end.
He is the everlasting father.
The apostle John speaks of him as that
eternal life.
And that eternal life embodied in the person
of God's son is eternal from the past
eternity to the future eternity if we can
talk about eternity that way.
Actually it isn't quite correct to do that.
But we must say something to try to
explain ourselves.
But not only is the Lord Jesus the
Alpha and the Omega, the inference is that
he is from eternity to eternity.
He is the fullness of all eternity and
all time.
He is from the beginning and the end
and is the fullness in the middle as
well.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is the one
all the way through.
Now Dr. Way in his translation of that
verse in Colossians 1 puts it like this.
Not that it pleased the father that in
him should all fullness dwell because the words
the father are not in the original text.
But Dr. Way puts it this way.
All fullness with a capital F was pleased
to dwell in him.
He was the fullness, the pleroma is the
word, the fullness, the completeness, that to which
nothing can be added.
He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily
from eternity to eternity and all in between.
And you are the fullness in him.
For as he is so are you.
And you are of course accepted by God
in him.
Everything now, everything from the beginning, everything in
the future is centered in God's son, the
Alpha and the Omega.
All God's purposes are centered in him.
All man's blessings are centered in him.
All the church's hope is centered in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Now God called Abraham from the Ur of
the Chaldeans to create through him a new
and distinct nation.
The flood had come about, sin had been
eradicated, Nor and his family, Shem, Ham, and
Japheth, were given a new start in life.
But before long, God found there was no
nation for him to choose, no family for
him to choose, so he chose Abraham, called
him from Ur to make through him a
distinct nation.
For his own special possession.
Now he didn't choose Israel because of something
special in them.
But as Deuteronomy says, I think it's chapter
7 and verse 7, he loved them because
he loved them.
He set his love upon them.
They were sinners, but he was loved.
And he loved them in spite of their
sin.
However he called Abraham.
And he made to Abraham special pledges and
promises and covenants.
He told him what he was going to
do through him and through his offspring.
He spoke to them of present and future
blessing.
He made a covenant with Abraham and his
descendants in ten different places in the scripture,
you find the complete details of these promises
and covenants.
The pledge was that God would make through
him a very great nation.
And a very big nation, numerically great.
That God would give to him and his
descendants the land in the Middle East.
From the river of Egypt, that's for now,
to the river Euphrates.
And that God was going to give them
his blessing in spite of themselves.
Because he set his love upon them.
So Israel's blindness is only, in these days,
Israel's blindness now is only until the fullness
of the Gentiles transpires.
Till the end of the times of the
Gentiles.
And it is pretty evident that Israel is
going to come into the blessings that they
haven't come into yet, which God has promised
for them.
The land and the greatness and the blessing.
In Romans chapter 11, verse 25, it plainly
states that the promises of God, the callings
of God, the gifts of God are without
repentance.
He will not go back upon his word,
even if they or we become unfaithful.
God remains faithful and must fulfill that which
he has promised.
You see, after the exodus from Egypt, which
we all know about, and after God giving
to them the law, which came by Moses,
then they had God as their ruler.
There was a theocracy, and they soon got
tired of that.
And they longed for a king like the
nations around them, and God gave them Saul
to be their king.
And still he loved them.
And David, of course, was a man after
God's own heart, who should fulfill all his
will.
And God renewed his covenant to his people
by giving a special pledge to David, similar
to what he had given to Abraham.
Before long, corruption set in, and of course
they were unfaithful to God, their saviour, and
became unfaithful to their king.
And then there was the captivity.
First of all, the ten tribes went into
captivity, as you know, into Assyria.
And then later on, the two tribes went
into Babylon in captivity, when Jerusalem was besieged.
At this stage, I want to point out
the four players, the four parties, the four
groups, who are the players on the stage
of the world.
Israel, we have been mentioning first of all.
They were chosen by God, and loved by
God.
But then they were blinded by Satan, and
they were set aside.
And they are still set aside today.
They rejected Christ, their king and messiah.
And although God has not repented of his
promise to them, he is postponing the fulfillment
of it until a later day.
You see, Jerusalem was taken, and
the people were scattered.
And by the way, Hosea is a very,
portrays for us the book of Hosea, a
very interesting picture and type of Israel in
this way.
Hosea was called upon to marry an adulterous
woman, because God wanted him to enter into
his feelings about his erring, unfaithful people.
God often leaves his servants in difficult ways,
so that they might learn something of his
mind and will, and of his heart of
love.
And the three children that Hosea had by
this woman, were called Jezreel, scattered by God.
That was supposed to be a picture of
Israel, because of their sin being scattered by
God as they are today.
The second child was Lo-Ammi, which means
no compassion.
In the present case, Israel is left by
God.
They are seeing something of the results of
their own sin.
This often happens, of course, during a war.
People will say, they said to me, now
if God is love, why does he allow
such a thing to happen?
Why does he allow such destruction and bloodshed
and slaughter?
Well, God often will allow men to follow
in the course of their own wretchedness and
see the consequences of their own sin.
And the second child was called Lo-Ammi,
which means no compassion.
God was telling his people his love was
turning from them because of their sin.
And the third one was called Lo-Ruhamah,
which means no people of mine.
And God now was turning his people aside
until a later day.
Now Israel's failure in the world, because they
were God's representatives, they were meant to be,
they had the oracles of God, the law
was given to them.
They were to be God's witnesses in the
world, but they failed.
Now there's a lesson we can learn here.
You know with God failure is not final.
With God's ancient people failure is not final.
With God's people today and Park of the
Palms people, failure is not final.
And who hasn't failed in the Christian life
and in the service of God anyway, in
some way or other?
Thank God if we confess our sin he
is faithful and just to forgive us our
sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And a day is coming when Israel is
going to make her confession, following the destruction
of Jerusalem, which is to be.
And the sifting and persecution and judgment of
Israel.
There will be a fountain open for sin
and for uncleanness.
And God will cleanse the remnant that remain
and they will be forgiven and saved in
a day, according to Romans.
But this failure of Israel in the past
has given an opportunity for others to come
into the blessing of God for the time
being and indeed for all eternity.
So the next party shall I say, in
the stage, on the stage of the world,
the next is the Church from Pentecost onwards.
I believe that Pentecost was the beginning of
the Church.
The Church is the habitation of God by
the Spirit.
The Spirit came at Pentecost, there was no
Church therefore before Pentecost.
And the Church is today, as in those
early days, dependent upon the residence of the
Holy Spirit.
There is a day coming when the Spirit
will be taken away, but not before the
Church is taken away.
Now before Pentecost there were Jews and Gentiles
only.
But since Pentecost it is Jew, Gentile and
the Church of God.
And the Church is the fullness of Him
who filleth all in all.
The Lord Jesus, I was trying to explain,
is the fullness from eternity to eternity and
all in between.
And His Church is the fullness in Him
who filleth all in all.
The next party is Christendom on the stage
of the world.
This is the unified religious system which is
abroad in the world today.
It began with Babel and the confusion there.
And it will continue until the tribulation and
the coming and destruction of the Antichrist.
And Noah's sons were Shem and Ham and
Japheth.
And of course, Noah begat Ham, as I
said, and Ham begat Cush, and Cush begat
Nimrod.
And it was Nimrod and his crowd who
belonged to the Ussites who said, come now
and let us make a name for ourselves.
Let us make for us a name.
And it was a kind of religious system
which was leaving God in the background.
And I think this is developing today.
There is a trend to a unification of
a godless system, really, although they name the
name of God.
In the cult Baha'ism, you can belong
to the Baha'i faith if you are
a Hottentot, or a Zulu, or a Roman
Catholic, or a Protestant, or a Jew, or
anything else.
You can belong to the Reverend Nun of
Korea's organization, a religious system.
If you are any kind of a religious
person, and so you can belong to the
World Council of Churches.
And these ideas, including also the Church of
Rome, I'm quite sure, will eventually unify themselves
into a Christendom culminating in the Antichrist and
his doom.
And then of course there are the Gentile
nations.
The times of the Gentiles is the scriptural
phase.
From the time of Nebuchadnezzar, when the Jews
were taken captive to his land, and all
of Daniel's seventy weeks, plus the church age,
I'm quite sure, is the age of the
times of the Gentiles.
And God, from among the Gentile nations in
particular, not exclusively, is calling out today a
people for his name.
And God has a very special purpose for
the Church.
You see, at the beginning of the Gospels,
the emphasis was on the Kingdom.
And you will find that halfway through, the
emphasis shifts, and the Saviour is speaking of
the Church.
The command was, go only to the house
of Israel.
At the beginning, and then at the end
was, go into all the world and preach
the Gospel to every creature.
Now Israel's failure led to their bondage in
Egypt.
Led to the dividing of the ten tribes.
And led to their captivity.
It led to their dividing the ten northern
tribes from the two southern tribes, you know.
But thank God, in a coming day, there
is to be a restoration of the twelve
tribes, or the remnant that is left of
both parties.
According to Ezekiel 37, and many other scriptures
show, that there will be a restoration of
the present lost ten tribes, together with those
that are saved from the two tribes, in
a day which is to come.
Now the release from captivity in Babylon, was
the start of Daniel's seventy weeks.
As we were reading of them in our
scripture portion this evening.
These seventy weeks, that Gabriel told Daniel about,
were really concerning Daniel's own people.
And this is where this image comes in,
you see.
It would have been helpful had we had
time to go into some of these details
about Babylon, and the law, and the tabernacle.
But time forbids, but I think perhaps I
ought to say, that God's presence of old
was known among his people, in the holy
of holies, in the tabernacle that was set
up in their wilderness journeyings, toward the promised
land.
And then eventually at Shiloh in Canaan, before
the temple itself was built by Solomon.
But of course, there was a veil between
the holy place and the holy of holies.
And in the holy of holies, there was
a little box, they carried with them two
boxes in their wilderness journeyings.
One was a box of bones, and the
other was the Ark of the Covenant.
And on top of the Ark of the
Covenant was some gold, a gold plate.
This was the mercy seat.
But over the mercy seat, joined to the
box, were two cherubim, standing antithetically placed, looking
toward one another and downwards.
Inside the box was God's law.
And the children of Israel had broken God's
law.
And the cherubim always speak of justice and
judgment.
A cherubim stood, or the cherubim stood, with
sword in hand to keep the way of
the tree of life.
But there's no sword in the hand of
these cherubim.
By the way, let me get it grammatically,
grammatically correct.
Cherubim is the plural for cherub, as you
all know.
But there's no sword here over the Ark
of the Covenant and in the most holy
place.
Because, you see, on the gold, the blood
of victims newly slain was to be sprinkled.
And there is no sword when the blood
is on the gold.
And there is no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus.
But, you see, it was only the high
priest who went into the holy place, into
the presence of God, the place where God
made his presence known of old, once a
year and not without the blood of victims
newly slain, which he took in for himself
and for the people who had sinned.
In between, by the way, only the sons
of Aaron could get here.
And the sons of Levi here, and so
on.
Outside here was a sort of imaginary line,
the middle wall of petition.
And, of course, Jews would be inside and
Gentiles outside.
And if we Gentiles had been around in
those days, we wouldn't have had a chance
of getting anywhere near the presence of God.
As a matter of fact, on the veil
between the holy place and the most holy
place, were two cherubim woven.
And their wings were outspread and they touched
each side and joined wings in the middle
too.
The whole width of the veil.
And they always speak of justice and judgment
of a holy God.
And virtually what God was saying was this,
keep out, keep out, keep out.
But when the Lord Jesus died and shed
his precious blood, that was enough forever.
Once and for all was his sacrifice made.
So God tore the curtain, the veil, from
top to bottom.
And instead of saying, keep out, he said,
come inside.
And so now we'll all, by one spirit,
have access unto the Father.
What a great privilege and blessing is ours.
I was just tempted to give you that
a little bit on the way through.
But I wanted just to mention, just for
a moment or two, Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
Of this image which Daniel reminded him of
and gave the interpretation of to him.
And as we all know, God was telling
the king through Daniel, and incidentally telling us
too.
That as far as the Gentile powers were
concerned, there would be one, two, three, four
world empires, world rulers.
The head was of gold, and Daniel said
to Nebuchadnezzar, thou art this head of gold.
And he being the head of the Babylonian
world empire.
Then of course there was the breast and
arms of silver, which represented that which should
come.
The world empire of the Medes and Persians.
And Cyrus was the one specially chosen by
God, revealing the sovereignty of God, to bring
judgment to God's people, and to set up
this kingdom at that time.
And of course the next one was, the
thighs were of brass or bronze.
And this was speaking of Alexander the Great's
empire, the Grecian empire.
And then the fourth was the Roman, represented
by the legs of iron.
And the toes were ten of course, they
were iron and clay.
And many of us feel that as far
as we are concerned, we are just about
there now, waiting for a confederacy in the
world, in western Europe in particular, a revival
somewhat of the old Roman empire, geographically, roughly
speaking, of a ten kingdom confederacy.
And then of course Daniel spoke about the
stone which the king saw, being cut out
of the mountains, and coming and forming upon
these ten toes, and upon the image, and
breaking it in pieces.
Now this stone which overcame and broke in
pieces, the ten toes, shall we say, the
ten kingdom confederacy of nations, eventually fills the
whole earth.
And when Christ comes, because this is a
picture of Him, undoubtedly, when Christ comes in
power and great glory, He will conduct the
judgment of the nations, and His glory in
person will fill the whole earth.
And His kingdom according to Daniel chapter 2
and verse 44, will stand forever and ever.
We have a little picture of a temple
here, if it was anything like that.
There were three temples as you know.
The one which Solomon built, which was most
glorious.
The one which Zerubbabel rebuilt on the same
site.
And you read of that in the book
of Ezra.
And the one that Herod built, he started
to build it in B.C. 20.
Still being built when our Lord came to
this earth.
And it was completed in A.D. 60,
only a few years before it was completely
destroyed again in A.D. 70.
When the invasion came from the north, and
the city was besieged, the walls broken down,
the temple burned with fire, and thousands and
thousands of Jews were slain, and the city
flowed with blood.
Just a word or two before I close
about the cross, which is central to the
whole idea.
The cross divides the world.
The cross divides history.
What a purpose God has in the crosswork
of His dear Son.
When we talk about the cross, we are
not referring to a piece of wood, but
the crosswork of Christ.
There is a lovely hymn you sing sometimes,
I cling to the old rugged cross.
But I like the new one which says,
let others who will praise the cross of
the Christ, but the Christ of the cross
is my theme, for though we must cherish
the old rugged cross, tis none but the
Christ can redeem.
And of course the cross appears all the
way through the Old Testament scriptures.
All this is looking forward to the coming
of Christ and His death.
And all that is looking backward to the
cross and what Christ did for the salvation
of the world.
The cross appears in Genesis 3.
The seed of the woman shall bruise Satan's
head.
That's His crosswork.
The cross is foreshadowed in Abel's Lamb, the
accepted sacrifice.
The cross is typified in the judgment of
the flood, and the ark, and those that
survived in it.
And the cross is seen in the picture
of Abraham and Isaac at Mount Moriah, you
will recall.
The cross is seen in Egypt, in the
Lamb that was chosen without blemish for the
salvation of the people from judgment.
And the cross is pictured in the crossing
of the Red Sea.
It is pictured in the tree at Marah.
The children of Israel in their wanderings came
to Marah, and the waters of Marah were
bitter.
But Moses found a tree which God showed
to him and he put it in the
water, and the waters were made sweet, and
the people were saved.
And God showed Christ a tree.
The cross of Calvary.
Thank God for the salvation which is yours
and mine through what He did there at
the cross of Calvary.
The cross is pictured in the smitten rock,
and the life-giving water that was produced
for Moses and the people then.
And the cross is foreshadowed in the Levitical
offerings as we see them in the book
of Leviticus.
And the cross is foreshadowed in the brazen
serpent that Moses erected for the salvation of
the people who were bitten by serpents.
And the cross is called for by Job's
plea for a day's man to stand between
him and his God.
There is one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus, who on the cross
gave Himself a ransom for us.
The cross is portrayed in Psalm 2.
The rulers had taken counsel together against the
Lord and against His anointed.
And the cross is portrayed in Psalm 22.
My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken
me but Thou art holy?
The cross is prophesied in Isaiah 53.
The Lord Jehovah hath laid on Him the
iniquity of us all.
And the cross is prophesied in Zechariah chapter
13 and verse 6.
A Waco sword against my shepherd, against the
man that is my fellow, saith the Lord
of hosts, smite the shepherd.
You say that wasn't Christ and His crosswork,
that was the prophet or some other person.
Impossible!
There is only one person in the universe
who is the fellow of the Lord of
hosts.
And that is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
And that was His crosswork when Jehovah bade
His sword awake, O Christ, at the cross.
It fell on Thee, it smote Thee.
And the cross is inevitable, as seen in
John the Baptist's message, the forerunner of the
Saviour.
Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away
the sin of the world.
The cross is central.
The cross divides all history.
The cross divides the world.
And as a matter of fact, it's quite
possible it divides us here tonight.
On the one side of the cross of
Christ, there was a man dying for his
sin.
And the scripture says the wages of sin
is death.
On the other side there was a man
who was turning to Christ and trusting Him.
And the Word says the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The cross is central.
O mystery of mysteries, of life and death,
the tree, centre of two eternities, which look
with rapt, adoring eyes onward and back to
Thee.
O cross of Christ, where all His pain
and death is our eternal gain.
He hath appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself.
He hath appeared.
What a person to appear.
The Word, the eternal Word was made flesh.
He hath appeared.
What a day when He appeared.
He hath appeared to put away sin.
What a purpose for His appearing.
To put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself.
What a price He paid for your salvation
and mine.
There were three features of divine judgment accomplished
and achieved at the cross of Calvary.
This was God's greatest act of judgment.
When He judged His Son, who became sin
for you and me, that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him.
Now it doesn't say that we become righteous
there.
We are accounted righteous.
It says we become the righteousness of God
in Him.
So that is an imputed righteousness.
And in the same sense He was made
sin only in this sense that our sin
was imputed to Him.
And the word imputation is used in 2
Corinthians 5 in that same context.
And it says He has not imputed their
transgressions to them.
Why?
Because God imputed our transgressions to Him.
And in that sense He was made sin.
I can't possibly see how He could have
actually been made sin itself without thinking of
the context there and at the same time
to die to atone for my sins.
I find a theological difficulty in my mind
there.
Take the context.
The context always explains the meaning of the
text.
And I think you have it there.
He was accounted sin.
And I am accounted the righteousness of God
in Him.
So there were 3 features of divine judgment
accomplished at the cross.
The judgment of the sin of the whole
world potentially and that's the word to use.
The Lord Jesus received that judgment.
So that anybody in any part of the
world whosoever will may find eternal life through
His death.
And there was the judgment of the believer's
sin nature that transpired at the cross.
God judged my own nature when He judged
His Son at Calvary because Christ took with
Him on the cross my own nature.
If you wonder what I can do or
what I am you look at the cross
and I am crucified with Christ and that's
the end of me.
And my own nature was crucified with Him
in the reckoning of God.
In God's estimation what Christ did for me
was done by me.
I have died for my sin in the
divine reckoning because Christ died for my sin.
I have died for my sin and another.
I am crucified with Christ.
And not only the judgment of the believer's
sin nature but the judgment of Satan happened
also at the cross of Calvary.
Thank God!
Ours is the victory over Satan by faith
in the merits of the death of Christ
and the judgment that He bore for us
and the judgment that He gave to Satan
at that time.
That came to Satan at that time.
The Prince of this world is judged.
And Christ when He said that was just
looking a little while ahead to His cross
work at Calvary.
For by dying He slew death and Him
that had the power of death, the devil
to deliver us to our subject bondage.
And now you see for all those who
really believe in Christ the devil is a
defeated foe.
The Lord Jesus said the Holy Spirit when
He comes will convince the world of sin
of righteousness and judgment not judgment to come
don't misquote it of judgment which has come.
The Prince of this world is judged.
It happened at the cross of Calvary.
And thank God the devil is a defeated
foe today for everybody here who believes and
keeps right on believing in the Lord Jesus
and His glorious victory over Satan and His
judgment of the devil.
If Christ is your life then Christ's victory
is your victory too.
We'll read of some in a coming day
in the book of Revelation we read of
them who are going to overcome Satan then.
Do you know how they are going to
overcome Satan then?
By what happened two thousand years ago.
They overcome Him by the blood of the
Lamb.
Every spiritual triumph over Satan since the cross
work of Christ has been through the cross
work of Christ.
And if I'm trusting Him and Christ is
my life Christ's victory at the cross is
my victory too.
There was one dear brother in the middle
of Africa named Samuel.
He hadn't been converted very long and they
were kidding him rather they said Samuel we
hear that you are converted now.
So he said just praise the Lord.
And they said we hear that you are
going to heaven now.
He said just praise the Lord.
And we hear you've got all your sins
forgiven Sam.
He said just praise the Lord.
And we hear that you've got the victory
over the devil Sam.
Oh he said no half a minute now.
That's not quite right.
It isn't that I have the victory the
victory over the devil so much as I
have the victor of the devil living in
my heart.
And that is the way of enjoying his
triumph.
Because the prince of this world is judged.
Well when the Lord Jesus reappears as He
certainly will and the details of this we
are going into in the following nights as
four believers He will come as the bright
and morning star bringing in their new day
with Him.
For the godly remnant of Israel He will
come as the Son of Righteousness with healing
in His wings bringing in their new national
restoration.
For the ungodly He will come as a
thief in the night bringing in their night
of doom and for the nations He will
come as the stone cut out of the
mountains filling the whole earth bringing in their
destruction and Himself to have all the glory
in all the earth as the Lord Jesus
now has all the glory in Emmanuel's land.
Let us pray.
Oh God we worship Thee tonight through Jesus
Christ our Lord we praise Thee for Thy
love and grace to the sons of men
for the wonderful plan of redemption for Thy
dear Son and His mighty work of the
cross we thank Thee that today He lives
by the power of an endless life to
succor and save all who call upon His
name.
We thank Thee that ours is salvation in
Him and ours is the victory in Him.
Give us now in the light of His
second coming to walk before Him in faithfulness
and fear doing His will from the heart
knowing nothing among men say Jesus Christ and
Him crucified until we see His face so
may the all sufficient grace of the Lord
Jesus be with us all until He shall
return Amen.