Today’s Speaker: Eager Avenue Grace Church extends a warm welcome to Pastor Bill Parker. Bill will conduct both the 10:00 am and 11:00 am services today. Pray for him as he delivers God's Word.
Television Broadcast: Our Reign of Grace Television program is being broadcast every Sunday morning on WALB-TV @ 9 AM.
Radio Broadcast: Sunday morning at 10:30 am on Mix 107.7 FM
King David was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write many psalms, some of which are classified by Bible scholars as messianic, meaning that David speaks both of himself literally and of the Lord Jesus Christ typically and prophetically. Psalm 69 is a messianic psalm. When we read verses like Psalm 69:5, which says, “O God, Thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from Thee,” we can easily see how such language applies to David as a sinner saved by the grace of God in Christ. Like all true believers, David confessed that he in himself was a foolish man who had no wisdom but Christ and the Word of God in Christ. He confessed that even as justified by God based on the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ (cf. Psalm 32:1-2; Rom. 4:6-8), in himself he was still a sinful man who, even though not charged with sin by God (Rom. 8:33-34). He knew his sins were not hidden from God’s view (2 Sam. 12:9; Psalm 51:4). But how could these words in any way apply to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Who in Himself is the sinlessly perfect Godman? The answer can only be found in the context of Scripture which reveals from the beginning that God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, was appointed by God the Father in the everlasting covenant of grace to be the Surety and Substitute of His chosen people, having their sins imputed (charged, accounted) to Him, and to die in their place to satisfy the justice of God for them. As one writer stated, “David might truly say this, but not our Lord, unless he refers to our sins imputed and laid to His charge. He was made to be sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21)” (Henry Mahan, With New Testament Eyes, Vol. 2, page 43). “Foolishness” can never be applied to Christ Himself, for He is Himself the very Wisdom of God (Prov. 8:22-36). But it is true that sinful men charged Him with “foolishness” and He bore the “foolishness” of all the sins of His people on the cross (1 Cor. 1:21-27). Jesus Christ was never made a sinner, but He bore in Himself all the guilt and punishment of all the sins of His people imputed to Him. This is how He Himself could truly and rightfully say, “MY sins are not hid from Thee.” Our sins became His sins by imputation.
--- Pastor Bill Parker
WHAT DID OUR SUBSTITUTE DO?
Long before the law was given by Moses, our whole race fell when Adam fell in the Garden of Eden. Adam, a representative man, sinned against God and in him “all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12) This is why “death reigned from Adam to Moses.” But the penalty for sin against God is far more than physical death. Sin cannot be reversed, it must be punished. The penalty God requires for sin is death, a death that will satisfy divine justice. “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4) “For the wages of sin is death...” (Rom. 6:23) That penalty must be paid. It cannot be paid by a sinner but requires the death of a sinless sacrifice. Every picture in the Old Testament sacrifices shows this. Christ, if He be that “one sacrifice for sins forever,” must be such. If He be our Substitute, He must do the one thing God could not do from heaven, He must die. If you think of all that God did, can do and does from heaven, the one thing necessary to our salvation He could not do which is to die in our place. To do this He must become a man, take upon Himself a body and in that perfect body die as the Substitute for His sheep. “I lay down my life for the sheep.” Our death can only be because of our sin. His death as One who knew no sin, is for sin. We are not called upon to try and enter into the depths of His sufferings. How could we who have known nothing but sin enter into the sufferings of Him who never knew sin? No, we are simply called upon to look to His death. To rest in what He accomplished for us as our Substitute. If He died for me the death required for my sin, I don’t have to die. All He suffered, I do not know but I know He suffered all that was due me. My Substitute died in my place and I am a participant in His sufferings not because of what I feel about them but because God in grace views me “in Christ.” When He died for my sin, I died to sin. His death is the source of my life. This is the gospel emphasis: “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” (Romans 8:34) Christ “died for the ungodly.” God commeneth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. We were “justified by His blood.” We were “reconciled to God by the death of His Son.” I don’t expect to ever know the fulness of my Substitute’s sufferings or be able to feel the depth of His agonies. But this I know because God has declared it, Christ my Substitute died in my place! “I need no other argument, I need no other plea, It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me.”
Older
Top
