Message 67 - By Leroy Surface
“IF”
Introduction
No one wants an “iffy” salvation. We need to
know with absolute certainty that we are saved.
We need to understand what salvation is and what we are saved from. We need to know who it is that saves us and
what He did to save us. Eternity is too
long, Heaven is too sweet, and Hell is too hot for it to be otherwise. Many people have been led to believe that if
they have ever repeated a sinner’s prayer and believed that Jesus is the Son of
God, they are saved and cannot miss heaven when they die. Vast multitudes believe that the children of
God are still sinners who “sin every day”
but God forgives them when they pray.
Many others believe they have already been forgiven for every sin they
will ever commit, so there is no need to repent when they pray. Everyone seeks security in what they believe,
often not even caring if it is the truth or not. The atheist seeks security in believing there
is no God and this present life is all there is. We who “believe
in God” understand that the “security”
of the atheist is no security at all, because he will stand before God at the
judgment regardless of what he believed in this life. Many “believers,”
however, do not believe they will stand before God to be judged. The apostle Paul tells us otherwise:
Romans 14:10-12: “But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou
set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord,
every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every
one of us shall give account of himself to God.”
II Corinthians 5:10:
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every
one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done,
whether it be good or bad.”
The prophet Isaiah warns us of the day of
God’s judgment:
Isaiah 33:14: “The sinners in
Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us
shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting
burnings?”
When Isaiah prophesies of Zion in his day,
he is also speaking of the church in our day.
Many famous personalities have built great religious empires while
telling the people that sin doesn’t matter because Jesus died to forgive us “once for all.” But, what if they are wrong? In fact, they are wrong! I received an “open vision” from the Lord almost fifty years ago (September,
1966). I saw the events of the end of
the world as described in the sixth seal of John’s revelation. I saw people running to the rocks and
mountains to hide and crying “fall on us,
and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the
throne and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Revelation 6:16). It seemed
in the vision as if the entire world was on fire when the scene changed and I
saw the “Great White Throne Judgment.” We
are told that no one but the ungodly will appear at that judgment. That may be so, but everyone I saw stand
before God that day expected to be received.
Two angels brought them one by one before the throne. I watched as each one of them did the same
thing; they raised their arms and lifted their hands to worship God when
suddenly their countenances turned to faces of terror as they screamed, “There’s blood on my hands! There’s blood on
my hands.” They were held
accountable for the blood of others that were lost because of them. Those that I saw were professing
Christians. I saw preachers; pastors,
teachers and evangelists that had not given the truth of Christ to the
people. Multitudes of souls that Christ
died for were lost because these ministers had led them to believe that sin
didn’t matter, because Jesus “took the
penalty” for our sin. The “truth of Christ” is that God sent Him
into the world to “make an end of sins,
make reconciliation for iniquity,” and “bring
in everlasting righteousness” (Daniel
9:24-25) when He died for our sin on the cross at Calvary. Daniel
9:26 tells us that He was “cut off,
but not for Himself,” (Daniel
9:24-26) through His death on the cross.
It was there that He “made an end
of sins” for everyone who will “believe
the truth” and “trust in Christ”
who did it. Christ came into the world
as the “Lamb of God” to “take away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). God’s “lamb”
was not punished; He was the perfect sacrifice to take away sin from all who
trust in Him. Hebrews 9:26 speaks this of Christ, the Lamb of God; “…now once in the end of the world hath he
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” This is what He did through His death on the
cross.
Not only did I see ministers stand guilty
before God with the blood of lost souls on their hands, I also saw many who
were the parents of lost children that could have been saved had they seen a
reality in the home. This part of the
vision is so hard to tell because I do know many godly men and women who have
children that are rebellious and lost through no fault of the parents. Let those parents be intercessors for their
children, but never their enablers. I
wrote a message about why the children of Christians are so often lost; a
message I have never published. I titled
it “Funeral Theology; Why the Church
loses its Children.” I may never
publish that message unless I hear from the Lord to do so, but it was something
I had to write for my own understanding.
Paul tells us that the “trumpet”
must give a “certain sound” (I Corinthians 14:8). “For if
the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” It is when the gospel we preach gives an “uncertain sound” that our children
perish.
Something very humorous happened in our
church recently that perfectly illustrates what I am trying to say about “funeral theology.” We have a little girl in our church, about
six years of age, who is very loving and friendly to everyone she meets. She went to an elderly lady after one service
and started a conversation. She said, “You’re old.” The kind lady said, “Yes darling, I am getting old.”
The child continued, “…but you are
pretty,” to which the lady smiled and said, “Why thank you, darling. You are
also very pretty.” Perhaps the
conversation should have ended there, but the little girl had one more
compliment to give; “You will look real
nice when you are dead.”
The word “flabbergasted” comes to mind.
Where did this little girl get such an idea? The answer became obvious; she got it at a
funeral. Small children retain almost
everything they hear even when we think they are not paying attention. It is common when viewing the body of the
departed at a funeral to say, “She
(or he) looks really nice.” I’ve said it and you have said it. No problem, but it answers why a small child
would think it to be a compliment to tell an elderly lady, “You will look real nice when you are dead.”
What else do our children hear at
funerals? Funeral theology is invariably
different than living theology. We teach
our little children not to sin. We
define sin, and tell them that sinners go to a “bad place.” Then we take
them to the funeral of a person that did everything we told our children not to
do, and they hear that they are “in a
better place,” because “Jesus took
their penalty,” or maybe they whispered “God
help me” with their final breath. The child goes home hearing an “uncertain sound,” and everything we
have told them to the contrary is lost to the child because in the final
analysis, they hear that “everybody goes
to a better place when they die.”
That simply is not so. I have
determined and I know the gospel I will preach at funerals. It is the same gospel I preach everywhere I
go and in everything I write. I will
tell them “Who Christ is, what He came
into the world to do, and that He did it through His death on the cross,”
and that it will be manifested in everyone who believes it and puts their trust
in Christ. I will never tell any person
at any time in any place that Christ came to “take our penalty,” or to “suffer
our punishment.” Christ died for us
to “take away our sin,” and those who
trust in Him have it no more.
In the vision of people standing before God
with the blood of lost souls on their hands, the one who sat on the throne did
not say a word to them because they were condemned by the blood that dripped from their hands. I watched as one by one the angels led them
behind the throne as they continued screaming, “…blood on my hands.” I did
not see the lake of fire, but I saw the amber smoke that arose from behind the
throne. The apostle John said, “And whosoever was not found written in the
book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15).
Those who teach the children of God that “we are all sinners, but we will never be
judged” will be very surprised in the day they stand before God to give
answer for the doctrines they have taught.
The greatest wrath will be upon those false teachers, but those who have
believed them and have followed their “pernicious
ways (II Peter 2:2)” will be very afraid as they approach
the judgment bar. Jesus has already told
us what He will say to them in that day; “…depart
from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew
7:23). The prophet Isaiah says, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will
have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7).
If
Ye keep In Memory What I Preached
I Corinthians 15:1-4:
“Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and
wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have
believed in vain. For I delivered unto
you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the
third day according to the scriptures.”
What did the apostle Paul preach? If you could know for certain what Paul
preached, believe it and stand upon it, you would know for certain that you are
saved. Knowing what the apostle preached
is not as easy as it may seem, however.
Paul brought the gospel to the Galatians when they first converted to
Christ, but hardly a dozen years had passed before they had moved away from
Christ to trust in circumcision and the Law of Moses. When he wrote his epistle to them, he came
straight to the point of his letter; “I
marvel that ye are so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that
trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let
him be accursed. As we said before, so
say I now again, If any man preach any
other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed”
(Galatians 1:6-9). We can be assured that Peter, John, and the
other apostles believed and preached the same gospel that Paul preached, but
none laid it out as clearly as he. Yet
today the simple truth that Paul, Peter, and John preached has been buried
under centuries of rubbish given to us by the traditions and doctrines of men
who were nothing more than Middle Age
philosophers guising themselves to be theologians and ministers of Christ (Middle Age - The period of European
history from about A.D. 500 to about A.D. 1500; Merriam-Webster
Dictionary).
The apostle Paul tells us exactly what he
preached; “I delivered unto you first of
all that which I also received, how the Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” Notice the words “according to the scriptures.”
As twenty first century believers, we study the gospel accounts of
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to discover the events of the day Jesus was
crucified. These are not the “scriptures” that Paul had in mind when
he told us that Christ “died for our sins
according to the scriptures.” Paul did not see the sufferings of Jesus
first hand. Everything he knew about
that day, he received from either Peter or one of the other eyewitnesses. Even if he had a written account of that day,
he would not have considered it to be scripture. The only “scriptures” the believers in the first century knew anything about
were the writings of Moses and the prophets.
These are what Paul speaks of when he says, “Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures.”
Jesus told the Jews of His generation, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think
ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might
have life” (John 5:39-40). To prove by the scriptures that Jesus was “The Christ” before His death and
resurrection would have been very difficult indeed. Jesus pointed to the witness of John the
Baptist (“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” John 1:29), the witness
of the Father (“This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased” Matthew
3:17), and the witness of the
miraculous works He did (John 14:10-11). All these things are proof enough for us,
because we are “believers,” but they
were nothing more than hearsay (circumstantial evidence) to the unbelieving Jew
in their generation. We believe that
Jesus is the “Seed of the Woman” whom
God promised would “bruise the head of
the serpent” (Genesis 3:15), but
how could that be proven before the fact of His death and resurrection, which
was “according to the scriptures?” We
believe that Jesus is the sacrificial lamb that Abraham spoke of in Genesis 22:1-14 and confirmed by John
the Baptist in John 1:29, but again,
how do we prove it? Isaiah prophesied of
a virgin who would conceive and bring forth a son whose name she would call “Immanuel,” which means “God with us.” We believe that Jesus is “God with us” (the Son of God) who was born to a virgin (Mary), but
how can we prove this without His death on the cross and His resurrection the
third day? The angel Gabriel came from
God to the prophet Daniel to tell him of one called “The Christ” (the Messiah), who would come into the world “to finish the transgression, to make an end
of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness.” He would be the fulfillment of every vision or prophecy of
a redeemer that was given from the beginning of time, thus He would “seal up the vision and prophecy,” and
He would be “anointed,” by God, “The Most Holy.” Gabriel told Daniel the
exact year “The Christ” would appear,
which happened to be the same year the Holy Ghost came upon Jesus when He came
to John’s baptism. We believe that Jesus
of Nazareth is “The Christ,” but how
can we prove it by the scriptures?
Jesus chose twelve of His disciples to be
His apostles, those whom He would send into the entire world with the
gospel. The day before Jesus suffered
and died on the cross, He had His last “Passover
Supper” with them. They had followed Him everywhere He went for over three
years. They had heard His words, seen
His miracles, and witnessed His life, yet for all this, they were in complete
disarray. Consider this; before the
night was over, one of His “trusted
apostles” (Judas) would betray Him to those enemies who sought to kill
Him. Another, one of His “inner circle” (Peter) would deny that
he ever knew Him, and he would do it three times with an oath and cursing. One of the twelve (Philip) believed that
Jesus of Nazareth was the son of Joseph (compare John 1:45 with John 14:8-9),
and another doubted that He was the Son of God and refused to believe He was
resurrected on the third day (Thomas).
John 1:45: “Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto
him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write,
Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
John 14:8: “Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth
us. Jesus saith unto him, ‘Have I been so long time with you, and yet
hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath
seen the Father; and how sayest thou then,
Shew us the Father?’”
John 20:25: “The
other disciples therefore said unto him (Thomas), We have seen the
Lord. But he said unto them, Except I
shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the
print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Jesus spent hours teaching and instructing
the twelve at the last supper. After He
finished, the disciples said to Him, “Lo,
now speakest thou plainly, and speakest
no proverb. Now are we sure that thou
knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest
forth from God” (John 16:29-30). It is amazing that even among the chosen
twelve there were those who still questioned in their hearts who Jesus
was. Jesus’ response to their “profession of faith” could not have
cheered them. In fact, He questioned
their faith, asking, “Do ye now believe?”
(John 16:31). Such was the condition of His chosen apostles
the night before Jesus suffered and died to “take
away the sin of the world.” Jesus’
words to them proved to be true; “Behold,
the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his
own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is
with me” (John 16:32). Before the night was over, the “chosen twelve” had all forsaken Him.
The
Resurrection
Romans 1:3-4: “Concerning
his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to
the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power,
according to the spirit of holiness, by
the resurrection from the dead.”
In the night of despair, it is hard to
believe on the basis of hearsay or circumstantial evidence. It was easy to believe when they saw Him
commanding the winds and the waves, cleansing lepers, causing the blind to see
and the lame to walk and raising Lazarus from the dead. Surely this is “The Christ.” Even
Nicodemus, the master of the Jews told Jesus, “No man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him” (John 3:2). In the night of despair, however, as they see
Jesus taken, beaten, mocked, and condemned to death, it is different; how could
this man be “The Christ, the Son of
God.” Three days after the
crucifixion of Jesus, two of His disciples walked with the resurrected Jesus
and did not know Him. Their despair
blinded them as they talked about the “death”
of the “prophet from Nazareth.” They said, “...we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel”
(Luke 24:21). They were walking and talking with the
resurrected Jesus, but they did not know Him.
After a while, Jesus spoke to them as recorded in Luke 24:25-27, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all
that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter
into his glory? And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto
them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Jesus did not tell them that He was Jesus,
raised from the dead, nor did He tell them that He was “The Christ.” Instead, He
taught them from the scriptures of the prophets all the things concerning
Christ, “Who He is, what He came into the
world to do, and that He did it through ‘suffering these things’.” They still did not know that it was Jesus who
taught them until He entered their house to eat with them. When He took the bread and broke it and
blessed it, their eyes were opened to see that He was Jesus, the Christ, the
Son of God, proven to be so “by the
resurrection from the dead.”
According
to the Scriptures
I Corinthians 15:3: “For
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures.”
We know the manner of Jesus’ death on a
cross because of the record of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John. We believe that He died for our
sins through the teachings of the apostles Paul, Peter, and John. The apostle
Paul tells us in our text that the gospel He preached is “How that Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures.” The manner of His death, however, was described to
perfection by David a thousand years before Jesus was born to Mary. The purpose of His death is revealed by the
prophet Isaiah almost seven hundred years before Jesus, and the purpose of His
coming into the world is shown by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel over
five hundred years before Jesus. The
result of His death and resurrection is foreseen by almost every prophet of the
Old Testament. Peter identifies that
wonderful result as “the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that followed” (I
Peter 1:11).
Suppose for a minute that you were a Jewish
bystander who witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus. You had heard of Him from some who believed
in Him that He did wonderful works, healing the sick and meeting the needs of
the people. On the other hand, you knew
of the animosity that existed between Him and the chief priests and the
Pharisees, which according to your tradition and understanding were holy men of
God. You heard that one of His chosen
twelve had betrayed Him and that one of those closest to Him had denied Him
with an oath and cursing. You know that
the highest court among the Jews had tried Him and found Him guilty of
blasphemy because he had confessed under oath that He is “the Christ, the Son of God.”
It is with mixed feelings that you watch the proceedings, and hear the
words of the mockers. You hear the
mocking words of those who pass by saying, “If
thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:40). “Likewise also the chief priests mocking
him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot
save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we
will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he
said, I am the Son of God” (Matthew
27:41-43). Some of their mocking
begins to make sense to you. If he is
the Son of God, why doesn’t God save Him?
Why doesn’t he call for the angels of heaven to deliver him if he is in
fact the Son of God? None of it makes
sense to you. You watch as the Roman
soldiers divide his clothes among themselves, and cast lots for his vesture
(overcoat). After three hours of this,
you hear him lift up his voice and cry aloud in the Chaldean language, “My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” What does all this mean? Did he think that God would save him? Did he call for the angels, and they did not
come? Has God Himself rejected this
man? The only reasonable answer you can
find any peace with is that this Jesus of Nazareth must be everything his
enemies said he is, and that God Himself is punishing him. After all, the Law of Moses said that
everyone who is hanged on a tree is “accursed”
(Deuteronomy 21:22-23; Galatians 3:13). With that thought, you go your way, still
shocked by the things you have seen and heard.
Less than a week has passed, and there is a
rumor spreading through Jerusalem that the body of Jesus is missing. The soldiers claim that the disciples stole
the body, but the disciples are saying that God has raised Him from the
dead. Some even claim to have seen Him,
but no one believes their report because it is too extraordinary. Even so, the happenings in Jerusalem are
troubling to you. Several weeks pass,
during which you spend much time studying Moses and the prophets, trying to get
this Jesus of Nazareth out of your thinking.
Then one day it happens. You have
been reading the Psalms of David and you come to the twenty second Psalm, which
begins with the words, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
(Psalms 22:1). You are shocked by a
memory and a realization. Jesus of
Nazareth, the one you thought was a blasphemer and a deceiver, had spoken those
exact words from the cross. You read a
little further and see these words which were written by David a thousand years
before, “I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the
people. All they that see me laugh me to
scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the
LORD that he would deliver him:
let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him” (Psalms 22:6-8). Again, you
are shocked by the memory of Jesus on the cross. You remember hearing almost those exact words
from the mockers; “He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him”(Matthew
27:43). Reading further, you come to
Psalm 22:16; “Dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me….” Being a Jew, you have lived your entire life
under the oppression of the Romans in Jerusalem. You have privately spoken of all Gentiles as
being “dogs” many times. You easily see that David was speaking of the
Roman soldiers that were given the charge to crucify Jesus that day. But wait!
What is this at the end of the verse; “…they
pierced my hands and my feet.” It is not likely that the two thieves were
nailed to their crosses, as nails were only used in what seemed to be
extraordinary cases. Crucifixion is
death by suffocation, not by bleeding, so the norm was to tie the offender to
the cross where they would remain for days until their legs could no longer
support their weight, and they could no longer get their breath. The soldiers broke the legs of the thieves in
deference to the Jews so they would die quickly and not remain on the cross
during Passover, which was the next day.
They found that Jesus was already dead, so they did not break His
legs. Reading these words, “they pierced my hands and my feet,” you
remember the agony you saw in the face of Jesus while they nailed his hands and
feet to the cross. Unusual at the time,
but David had foretold it a thousand years before. Only two verses later, you are amazed to
read, “They part my garments among them,
and cast lots upon my vesture” (Psalms
22:18). You had watched the soldiers
do exactly that. You have understood
from your Jewish heritage that David was a prophet. How is it that He described the death of
Jesus of Nazareth so perfectly a thousand years before Jesus was even born?
Still there is confusion in your mind. If Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, the Son
of God, why did God allow these things to happen to Him at the hands of
sinners? You have always believed that “The Christ,” when He came, would do the
things the angel Gabriel revealed to Daniel; He would “make an end of sins” and “bring
in everlasting righteousness.” You
were also taught to believe that he would deliver the nation of Israel from the
bondage of Rome and establish the kingdom of God in Jerusalem. None of these things have happened that you
can see; in fact, Rome is strengthening its grip on the nation, and the vilest
of men are rejoicing in the death of Jesus.
In your studies, however, you come to the prophet Isaiah. You notice that Isaiah said in chapter seven,
verse fourteen that a “virgin” would
conceive and bring forth a son. She
would call his name “Immanuel” which
means “God with us.” You are well aware of the “claims” that Jesus of Nazareth was in
fact born to a virgin. You read more
about this “Immanuel” in Isaiah 9:6-7; “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The
mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of
his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the
throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with
judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of
hosts will perform this.” You understand that this could only be speaking
of “the Christ” who was to come, but
according to Isaiah He must also be “The
Son of God.” How could this be
speaking of Jesus of Nazareth whom you witnessed the death of personally? In the eleventh chapter you read the words
of Isaiah, “There shall come forth a
rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the
spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; And shall make him of quick
understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he
shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing
of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with
equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod
of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his
loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins” (Isaiah 11:1-5). You have
been taught from childhood that these words were speaking of “The Messiah, the Christ,” who would be
the “son of David.” You find it impossible to reconcile these
prophecies to one another, much less to Jesus of Nazareth, so confusion remains
in your heart and mind. Then one day
your study brings you to Isaiah 52:13-15
where you read these words. “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled,
and be very high.” By this time you
understand that this one called “my
servant” is your Messiah, the Christ who would come into the world. This fits your image of Him; “He shall be exalted and extolled, and be
very high.” No way can this be Jesus
of Nazareth whom you saw crucified. Then
the next verse, which seems to contradict everything you have ever heard about
your Messiah when He would come; “As many
were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men”
(Isaiah 52:14). The scene of Calvary, which you have tried to
erase from your mind, returns vividly; you witnessed firsthand the back of
Jesus which had been plowed so deeply by the lashes of the Roman scourge that
it was nothing more than a bloody mass of torn flesh. You had seen his face (visage) after the
soldiers had beaten the three inch thorns of the “crown of thorns” down into the flesh of His brow. Both his eyes and his face were black from
the internal bleeding, and his entire body covered with bruises and blood. Suddenly, you see Jesus in the words of
Isaiah; “His visage (face) was so marred more that any man, and His
form (body) more than the sons of
men.” You were witness to that awful
reality.
Isaiah 52:15: “So shall he sprinkle many nations; the
kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall
they consider.”
Is it possible that it is through the
sufferings and death of Christ, God would “sprinkle
(cleanse and purify)” those who believe
and trust in Him? This seems to be what
the words “so shall He sprinkle many
nations” say. As you continue into
the fifty third chapter of Isaiah, you are suddenly considering things you have
never heard taught in the synagogues as you read the prophet Isaiah’s
words.
Isaiah 53:1-2: “Who
hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a
tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor
comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should
desire him.”
The Jews were taught that their Messiah
would come into his glory as a great deliverer to establish his worldwide
kingdom in Jerusalem. Certainly, to be “king of the Jews,” he would be born to
royalty, reared in a palace, educated by the greatest of scholars, and trained
in all the techniques of war. Jesus of
Nazareth was born in a stable, slept in a manger, grew up in a carpenter’s
house, and had no “higher education.” Where was the “beauty” that any should “desire
him.”
Isaiah 53:3-4: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man
of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised,
and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and
carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted.”
Thousands of the poor, the sick, the
oppressed, and the sinners found great beauty in Jesus of Nazareth, but by the
ruling class in the synagogues and especially in the temple at Jerusalem He was
despised and rejected. Certainly he was
a “man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief.” The apostle Matthew tells us that Jesus fulfilled the words “He hath born our griefs (infirmities), and carried our sorrows (sicknesses)” when he healed the sick and delivered
those who were oppressed of the devil (Matthew
8:16-17). What a contradiction this
presents. For over three years Jesus had
“went about doing good, and healing all
that were oppressed of the devil” (Acts
10:38). He had healed the sick, gave
sight to the blind, caused the lame to walk, cleansed the lepers, delivered the
oppressed, and raised the dead; “yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of
God, and afflicted.” The words “we
did esteem him stricken, smitten of God” actually mean, “We thought he was being punished by God.”
The contradiction is that they believed God was punishing Jesus of Nazareth who
had done nothing but good. All of his
works were the “works of God,” yet
the people believed that God was punishing him.
Notice Jesus’ words to the Jews when they took up stones to stone him in
John 10:31-32; “Many good works have I shewed you from my
Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?”
Why does the church today, twenty six
hundred years after Isaiah wrote these words, and almost two thousand years
after Christ died for us, still believe that God “punished” Jesus on the cross?
Jesus was punished by the Sanhedrin court; He was punished by the chief
priests and Pharisees; His punishment was carried out by the Roman soldiers,
but it was not God who “punished Him.”
Jesus became “accursed” on the cross,
but not by God. It was the Law of Moses
that said, “Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree” (Galatians 3:13), and it was the Law of Moses that cursed
Jesus. God, rather than “curse” His Son, abolished the Law of
Moses, and “nailed it to His cross” (Colossians 2:14), thus we are delivered
from the Law of Moses.
Isaiah 53:5: “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 are healed.”
The word “but,” though not found in the Hebrew text, is used to say “contrariwise.” Look at the word “for” which was translated from the
Hebrew word “min minnı̂y minney,” which means “from” or “out of.” It is “out
of our transgressions” that He was “wounded.” Literally, the prophet says in verses
four and five, “We thought He was being punished by God;
to the contrary it was because of our transgressions that He was wounded, and
because of our iniquities that He was bruised.” He
was not “punished;” He was “offered as a sacrifice” to take our sin
away.
The Will of God in the Death of His Son
Hebrews 10:4-7: “For it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he
saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared
me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then
said I, Lo, I come … to do thy will, O God.”
While we go to
great lengths to prove that God did not punish His Son, nor did Christ suffer
to take the “penalty” for our sin, we
clearly see that Jesus’ death on the cross was the will of God, and there is no
contradiction in that knowledge. The
text above establishes several things we should understand. First, the blood of animal sacrifices
that had been offered for thousands of years could not “take away sins.” Second,
when Christ, the creator of all things” (John 1:1-3) came into the world,
He said to God who sent Him, “Sacrifice
and offering thou wouldest not….” Animal sacrifices, though required by God
Himself when they were first offered by Adam and Eve’s son Able, and later by
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had come to be despised by God under the Law of
Moses.
Amos 5:21-24: “I hate, I despise your feast
days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your
meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings
of your fat beasts. Take thou away from
me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and
righteousness as a mighty stream.”
Isaiah 66:3: “He that killeth
an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a
lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth
an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he
blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.”
Jeremiah 7:21-24: “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the
God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat
flesh. For I spake not unto your
fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of
Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: But this thing commanded I
them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people:
and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto
you. But they hearkened not, nor
inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward,
and not forward.”
Third, when Christ came into the world,
He said to the Father, “but a body hast
thou prepared me.” That tiny body
which was formed in the womb of Mary was prepared for one purpose, and one
purpose only; that “body” was
prepared for Christ to be offered as the only sacrifice in all eternity that
could “take away sin.” Fourth, He said, “I come to do thy will, O God.”
It is true that Jesus lived a sinless life in His body of flesh, but
that did nothing for us because the “will
of God” concerning the “body” of
Jesus Christ was something more. It is
not true, as many teach, that Jesus’ “sinless
life” is “imputed to us.” That teaching is a flagrant lie that permits
those who believe it to live all the days of their life in sin, believing that
God can see only the perfect righteousness of Jesus when He looks at them. The apostle Paul tells us otherwise. In Hebrews 4:13, he says of God, “Neither is there any creature that is not
manifest in his sight: but all things are
naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”
Hebrews 10:10: “By the which will we
are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
There are FOUR
THINGS we should see in this single verse of scripture. First, the death of Jesus Christ on
the cross at Calvary was definitely the will of God. Peter says He was “delivered (into the
hands of sinners and unbelievers) by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23).
Years later, the apostle Paul tells the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia
about the sufferings and death of Jesus.
“And though they found no cause of
death in him, yet desired they
Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was
written of him (see Psalms 22
and Isaiah 53), they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre” (Acts 13:28-29). It was the will of God that His only begotten
Son should suffer the death of the cross.
Second, “By the which will we are sanctified….” The apostle Paul writes in I Thessalonians
4:3, “This is the will of God, even your sanctification….” It
is the same “Paul” who writes in this verse that “we are
sanctified” by the will of God that was accomplished in the body of
Jesus Christ on the cross. It is a positive statement; he did not say, “We
can be sanctified” or “We shall be sanctified,” but “We are
sanctified.” Our sanctification is
finished on the cross with Christ, and those who see and believe that simple
truth are sanctified without their works as they trust in Christ. Those who believe otherwise will never be
sanctified.
Third, “…we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ….” The words I have
boldfaced prove two things. One,
the death of Jesus on the cross was an “offering
(sacrifice)” and not a
punishment. He did not “take our
penalty,” He “took our sin,” and
thus “we are sanctified,” which
according to the Strong’s Concordance and Greek dictionary means “made holy.” Two, Jesus was “offered” by the will of God and not by the will of man.
Fourth, “…we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Million of innocent lambs had been offered over a
period of four thousand years, and none could “take away sin,” but Christ Jesus offered one sacrifice forever
which was sufficient to sanctify as many as would ever believe the truth that
He died for our sanctification as well as for our justification.
Hebrews 13:12: “Wherefore Jesus also, that
he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.”
This simple verse tells us in only seventeen words everything we need
to know about the death of Jesus on the cross.
It answers the questions of “who, what, where, why, and how.”
Who? “…Jesus…”
What? “…suffered
(and died)…”
Where? “…without (outside) the gate.”
Why? “…that He might sanctify the people…”
How? “…with His own blood…”
According to the
scriptures, the sanctification of the people was the purpose for which God sent
Christ into the world. It is the reason
that God “gave His only begotten Son
(John 3:16),” and the “purpose” for which the Son of God was
willing to die on the cross.
If Ye Continue in the Faith
In I
Corinthians 15:2 the apostle Paul gives us full assurance of salvation, “…if ye keep in memory what I preached unto
you, unless (lest) ye have believed in vain.” In this he
lets it be known that the gospel of Jesus Christ as it was revealed to Paul is
absolutely necessary to salvation. In his letter to the Colossians, the apostle
gives another necessary “if” to our
salvation;
Colossians 1:21-23: “And you, that were sometime alienated and
enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to
present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye
continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel….”
Jesus Christ is
the “hope of the gospel.” Just four verses later, Paul tells us that “Christ in you” is “the hope of glory.” Those
who are moved away from Christ are lost, because no one can “keep themselves from falling” who do
not continue in Christ. The apostle John
tells us in I John 3:5-6, “Ye know
that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not.” This is what the apostles believed and
preached. It is what we must “keep in memory,” and not be “moved away from” if we are to be
accepted in the day that we stand before Him.
We cannot “keep ourselves,”
which presents the necessity of “abiding
in Christ” who will keep us. Jude
closes his short letter with these words, “Now
unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy….”
As the Scripture Hath Said
John 7:37-39: “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and
cried, saying, If any man thirst,
let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. (But this spake he of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive:….)
Jesus gave a
wonderful promise to those who would “believe
upon Him;” out of their belly would flow “rivers of living water.” This was a promise to the believer that they
would be “filled” with the Holy
Ghost, and the Spirit would flow out of them as “rivers of living water.”
There was one qualification, however, as it were, another “if.”
Jesus gave the promise to those who “believe
on… (Him) as the scripture hath
said.” Rightly dividing the word
of truth, the “promise” is not simply
made to those who “believe in Jesus,”
but to those who “believe… (on
or in him) as the scripture
hath said.”
Over five hundred
years before Jesus was born to Mary, God sent the angel Gabriel to the prophet
Daniel to tell of the coming of Christ into the world and what He would come to
do. Gabriel gave the exact year that He
would appear in ministry, and that He would be “cut off, but (though) not
for Himself,” just three and a
half years later in the middle of the final “week”
of the prophecy. This is the only
prophecy of the Old Testament that speaks of Christ as “the Messiah.” This four
verse prophecy, found in Daniel 9:24-27, is the only place in the Old
Testament that “the Messiah (Christ)” is mentioned. According to the scripture, Daniel 9:24,
Christ would come “to finish the
transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make
reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.”
The “most Holy” was anointed when the Holy
Ghost descended upon Jesus of Nazareth at John’s baptism, and the Father spoke
from heaven saying, “This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased.” In
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, every vision and prophecy of redemption,
reconciliation, and restoration for the people would be fulfilled, thus “sealing up the vision and prophecy.” It is in “fulfilling”
the vision and prophecy that He would “finish
the transgression, make and end of sins, make reconciliation for iniquity, and
bring everlasting righteousness.” It
is almost universally believed by those who profess Jesus Christ that He “made reconciliation for iniquity” when
He died on the cross. Why not believe
the entire truth; that it was on the cross that he “finished the transgression, made an end of sins, and brought in
everlasting righteousness?” The scriptures tell us that is what He came to
do, and, they verify that is what He did through His death on the cross. Everything He came into the world to “do” was accomplished on that cross when
Jesus said “it is finished.” It is those who “believe on him as the scripture hath said” (and “trust in
Him who did it”) that are made partakers of Christ. It is these who will be “filled with the Holy Ghost;”
with “rivers of living water” flowing
out of them.
The Holy Ghost
has never at any time been poured upon sinners.
Neither will the Spirit ever come upon the self righteous. Cornelius was a “holy man of God” when the Holy Ghost fell upon him, but only
fifteen minutes earlier he did not even know how to be saved. Peter explained that God “purified his heart by faith” and “gave him the Holy Ghost even as we” (Acts 15:8-9). God did not send the Holy Ghost to the high
priest or to the Sanhedrin court. The
self righteous scribes and Pharisees did not receive the Spirit, but Peter, who
only fifty days before had denied with an oath and cursing that he ever knew
Jesus, did receive the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. What made the difference in Peter that God
would fill him with His Spirit and anoint him so mightily? The “difference”
was the “blood of Christ” which was
shed in the death of Jesus. It is the “blood of Christ” that is sufficient to “take away the sin of the world (John
1:29),” to “make an end of sins” (as He did in Peter), and “bring in everlasting righteousness” as
a “gift of righteousness (Romans
5:17)” to everyone who will
“believe the gospel” and trust in Him.
It was the sanctifying blood of Jesus, the Christ, that purified Peter’s
heart the moment he made a full surrender to Him. Certainly it will do the same for you.
Message 67 - By Leroy Surface - “IF”
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