Beloved Radio, friends, we greet you in the precious and the altogether lovely name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. We welcome you to the continued study of God's Holy Word and the particular theme that we are following, some of the glories and the greatness of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, concerning the person of the Son of God. We would repeat the text, that we have based our messages upon in this present series. Coming from the lips of the Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter twenty-two and verse forty-two, with no apology for the repetition, but needful in our own hearts we believe to have the repetition of these words from the lips of the Savior. When on the occasion before even his enemies, he challenged them with this question, and He challenges you, and He challenges me. What think ye of Christ? We've had the precious privilege of considering some of the blessed truth relating to His person. We have touched upon His pre-existence, how that blessed Son of God, who became flesh upon the earth, pre-existed in a by-God eternity, co-equal with the Father, co-equal with the Son of God, co-equal with the Spirit of God, co-equal and co-eternal in the Blessed Trinity. We touched upon His great incarnation, that He was very God and very man, coming into this scene of earth to effect our redemption by taking upon Him the form of our humanity. We come now to one of the greatest themes and perhaps a very fundamental theme of the Gospel, in regard to his atoning death. Yes, we cannot deny, why did the Son of God take upon him a human body? The importance of the death of Christ is now before us as we continue and consider his atoning death. Let me please quote, first of all, the precious words of the beloved Apostle Paul, written to the Corinthians, Chapter fifteen, verses three and four, when he declared unto them, and he declares unto us the gospel. I declared unto you the gospel, 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. In our present series of studies this week, We shall emphasize the importance of the death of Christ. For contrary to the existence of all other men, the death of Christ, even beyond his earthly life, the death of Christ is of supreme importance because of many evidences which we desire to touch. First of all, looking at the word of God in his perspective, and the perspective of it from the beginning to the end, But going back to the early days of the Bible, first of all, here is one very important evidence regarding the death of Christ. His death is foretold both in Old Testament types and also in the prophecies of Scripture. Please let me repeat that again. It covers from Genesis through Malachi the fact that the death of Christ was foretold both in type and also in prophecy. We can begin at Genesis chapter three. We thus are able to trace the scarlet cord of redemption through the whole Bible. But let me just mention a few of the types which I'm sure that many of our believing friends will realize and recognize. We think of Genesis chapter four in verse four. We're able The second man to be born into the human family offered a sacrifice that was more acceptable to God than the sacrifice of Cain. Abel brought a lamb according to the specifying demand of God. We think of Abraham on the mountain of Mariah when thus at the command of God and in obedience to God's request and command. He thus endeavoured to offer his son Isaac upon the altar, as God had commanded. We know from the story that God at the last moment intervened, and thus gave the ram, called in the thicket, to be the substitution for Isaac. But thereupon Mount Moriah, even the sacrifice of Abraham, giving up his son Isaac, is so typical of the father above, giving his own son and leading him to the Mount of Calvary to be crucified for you and me. Then you have the sacrifices of the patriarchs. You can go down the line, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and so on. And you find them offering, upon the altar, a sacrifice for their approach to God. And what shall we say of Exodus chapter twelve? The Passover lamb in the land of Egypt. where God delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage and tyranny, as well as from death and judgment, when the angel of the Lord passed over that night long ago and slew the firstborn of all in Egypt. That Passover lamb in Egypt, what a type of the Lamb of God. Then what shall we say when we come to the nation of Israel and follow the Levitical sacrifices that are in the book of Leviticus' names? from the burnt offering, down even to the trespass offering, and other offerings by the prophets, by Samuel, by David the king, by Elijah in his day, by Hezekiah another king, and the offerings of others throughout the history of the people of Israel in the Old Testament. All those offerings, my beloved friend, they pointed to the one great offering which was to be made by the Son of God, coming the flesh even our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we repeat his death was foretold in the types of the Old Testament from Genesis even through Malachi but then on the other hand in relation to the Old Testament we have prophecies declaring the betrayal and the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ you can go to Psalm forty one and there in the forty first Psalm You have a type of the betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is re-quoted in the book of Acts, chapter one in verse sixteen. But, oh, what shall we say more than that, greater than that? What are the prophecies concerning his crucifixion? Please let me quote or refer particularly to two great prophecies in the Old Testament relative to the crucifixion of Christ foretold. The first, that psalm of the cross, the twenty-second psalm, beginning with those words, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Reiterated by the Lord Jesus in his experience of calvary in the darkness of that scene. What shall we also say of what we believers call the crucifixion chapter of the Old Testament in Isaiah chapter fifty-three? Isaiah four prophesied his death. And we think of the words when he said, 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. All we like sheep have gone astray. We turn every one to his own way. Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Yes, these are two great prophecies, foretelling the death of the Lord Jesus. Ah, not only did David the prophet, Isaiah the prophet, but even Daniel the prophet, in Daniel nine and verse twenty-six, declared the Messiah would be cut off out of the land of the living. What shall we think of Zechariah? Foretelling that Christ would be sold for thirty pieces of silver, as you may read in Zechariah eleven. verses twelve and thirteen and we well know that Matthew records the fulfillment of that when Judas betrayed his blessed Lord whom he should have loved but whom unfortunately he rejected for thirty pieces of silver yes did not Zechariah also in chapter thirteen and verse seven prophesy from the very words of the living God above that he would smite the shepherd and with a rod the shepherd would be smitten, and the sheep would be scattered. And what should we follow on in chapter thirteen of Zechariah to recognize there was the opening of a fountain for sin and for uncleanness? Please let me summarize. The importance of the death of Christ foretold in this particular way in the Old Testament, my beloved, the type the shadows, the sacrifices of the Old Testament from Abel on and going down even to the end of the Old Testament economy. They all portrayed and foreshadowed the coming of the death and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, as we think of the direct prophecies relating to his crucifixion, telling us he would be crucified. We think of Psalm twenty-two in me and speak of it very briefly again. I commend the reading of Psalm twenty-two. Please let me give you the setting of that Psalm. Beautifully set in the word of God. You've got three Psalms of the very precious. Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four. Psalm twenty-two can be called the Psalm of the Cross. Psalm twenty-three, the Psalm of the Crook. Psalm twenty-four, the Psalm of the Crown. And each of them portray the shepherd, the good shepherd giving his life in Psalm twenty-two for the sheep. In Psalm twenty-three, the great shepherd in resurrection, caring and leading his sheep. And in Psalm twenty-four, the chief shepherd, coming in glory when he will be magnified as the glorified shepherd. when he comes back as the chief shepherd. Then the prophecies of Isaiah, the prophecy of Daniel, the prophecies of Zechariah. Beloved, the Old Testament is replete with all that portrays and foretells the coming of Christ to die. Beloved, may you be reminded, may I be reminded, when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, Did not the death of the Savior astonish his own disciples? They would not conceive that he would die, but did he not very faithfully tell them again and again the Son of Man must die? So we say in our opening theme about his atoning death, it was foretold in type and in prophecy from the Word of God in the Old Testament. My friend, do you believe it? What do you think of him? And his atoning death. Father, may the Holy Spirit, who alone can make precious, real the blessed Savior of sinners, thy dearly beloved Son, we marvel at him who was pre-existent and who became incarnate in human flesh, sin upon, going to the cross. But help us indeed to enter into the fact, great is the teaching of his atoning death. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.