276 – DOC – GOD IS NEVER LATE
July 19, 1964
Pastor Henry F. Kulp
Romans 5: 6 – 11 “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”
As we study the fifth chapter of Romans, we can’t help but get the feeling that we are constantly mounting a golden stairway of truth, reaching higher and higher in the realms of the Grace of God. This stairway of truth has a solid foundation of having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. So, the first great effect of having believed in Jesus Christ is to have the sensation of peace. This comes by a new relationship with God. Notice, in Vs. 6 He calls us a very ugly name—ungodly, and then in vs. 10 an astounding statement is made—we were enemies—Ungodly, and enemies of God. The normal relationship with God, is not peace, but war. It is not friendship, but enmity.
1/ You have heard, well—meaning, people ask, have you made your peace with God? Peace is not a reward; it is a gift. Peace is not made by us, but it was made once for all by Christ Who made peace by the blood of His Cross.
2/ Many people do not understand peace. The world cannot understand peace, because it never has it. Peace is not pleasure, peace is not amusement, peace is not fun. Peace is spiritual life, received from Jesus Christ the moment we trust Him as our sin-sacrifice. All of this is ours by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
3/ But does not this give us a license to go and live anyway we want? How many people bring this up. No of course not. We do not say we are saved by faith and then live any way we want. This is ridiculous. Let me show you something that may bring out the difference. There has always been a truth about the child of God in every dispensation. None of us live without sin, but this is not an excuse to go out the grovel in sin.
II Peter 2: 22 “But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”
Here we have the dog and the sow. The dog will get rid of the thing that made him sick, but when he feels better, he’ll go back to it again. This is what a true child of God should not do. Then the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. The sow was only washed. If the sow had been made a sheep, it would never have gone back in the mire. That is the real difference here. A sow and a sheep can walk together in the pasture side by side, and they both may fall into a mud hole or a ditch. The difference is how they act when they get into this ditch or mud-hole. The sow will enjoy wallowing in the same mire. And this is the element the sow likes. It loves to get into mud, dig and root around. But the sheep, if it falls into a ditch or a mud hole will try to get out, because it doesn’t like the mud. The sheep likes the pasture. That is the difference, the sow wants the mud, but the sheep wants the pasture. If you get a hold of a man who says, I believe in Jesus Christ, and he just loves the mud and mire and muck of sin, and he revels in it, and he just is happy in it—I doubt if that man has ever been saved. He is not one of the Lord’s. Salvation is by faith, and when you are saved, you have peace with God, and you have a new nature. You can fall into sin, you can fall into the mud hole, but you will not really be happy there—you will be tormented there, you will be in agony there—you will want God’s pasture. Sure, I’ve fallen into sin, I’ve made mistakes, but I’ve never been happy in them, I’ve always been miserable.
4/ Now, let us notice the 6th vs., “for when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly” Notice that mankind is without strength. Being without strength doesn’t mean weak, it means you haven’t any strength at all, it means you are helpless, it means you cannot lift a finger to save yourself.
5/ Now notice, in due time. In due time means the appointed time, or the right historical moment. Did you ever notice that God has a plan? He has a plan in everything He is doing. Nothing just happens by chance. That is why the believer’s life, the word, lucky, does not find an appropriate place. We are not lucky under any circumstance. So, I believe the best translation of this should be, Christ died at the appointed time. Christ died at the set time.
6/ I wonder, if as you study Scripture, you have ever noticed, that Christ’s death is according to the plan and it has a time element in it?
Revelations 13: 8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain form the foundation of the world.
Here we read that Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In other words, in ages past, it was decided that Christ would die. Long before man was created and put into the Garden of Eden. Long before this earth was created, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit devised this wonderful plan of salvation and a time was set for His crucifixion.
Then notice Galatians 4: 4, 5 “But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.” Here you have a plan and here you have a time element.
Acts 2: 22, 23. “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:”
Here we read that Christ being delivered by the determined council and foreknowledge of God—that means the definite plan of God. In ages past God had a plan, His Son was to die, and of course, there was a special time set.
7/ Let me show you something about this plan, and about the set time. Let us notice the day and the time that Jesus Christ was crucified.
John 19: 30, 31 “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. 31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”
For that Sabbath Day was a high day. High day? What does that mean? It wasn’t the Saturday Sabbath at all, it was another Sabbath. Notice, the day when Jesus Christ was crucified, we are told, was the preparation that is the day of preparation for the Passover Feast. It was the 14th day of Nisan. (Nigh-san) which is the first month of the Jewish calendar. On this day of this month every family in the nation had to kill a Passover Lamb and prepare it for eating in the evening.
The story is told to us in Exodus 12: 18 “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.”
When Jesus Christ died, the Jewish nation had been observing this annual Passover feast for over 1,500 years. Every year on the 14th day of this month each family would kill its Passover Lamb in mid-afternoon. Then the Lamb would be roasted whole with fire and eaten that night with bitter herbs in memory of that night when the children of Israel came out of Egypt. Remember, the Jewish Day began at sundown. At sun-down would begin the 15th day of this month, and then the Passover Lamb would be eaten, so they were on the 14th day of this month, approaching the 15th day which is a high Sabbath. This was a prophecy concerning the death of Jesus Christ. He was to die at the very appointed time for the slaying of the Passover Lambs throughout the nation. He could not die on the wrong day, but at the right day at the very minute. Remember, they tried to kill him at other times, but it didn’t work, because this was not according to God’s plan. It was not the appointed day. When Jesus Christ first preached at Galilee, after having been filled with the Spirit, the people were filled with wrath, and they rose up and thrust Him out of the city, and led Him unto the brow of the hill whereupon their city was built that they might cast Him headlong over the hill.
Luke 4: 28, 29 “And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.”
If they had succeeded, if Christ had died there, He would not have been the Saviour, God’s program would have been of no value, because this was not the day for Him to die.
8/ Then the wicked Pharisees and Sadducees sought to stone Him to death, as they did stone Stephen a little later on. In fact, they wanted to stone Jesus nothing would have pleased them better than if they could have accused Him of blasphemy and crushed Him under the weight of cruel stones. John 8: 59. “Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.” If one stone here had fractured His skull, or broken a rib, or any bones, then Jesus Christ would not have been the Son of God. He would not have been suffering under the right program. But it says that Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them and so passed by. They were not successful. But when the appointed time came, on this 14th day of the first month of the Jewish calendar, the preparation day, He died even as the children of Israel were killing the lambs for the Passover. He died at the right time, and the right place.
9/ But let us go back and read the plan God had. We have a revealing of this plan in the first Passover.
Exodus 12: 8, 9. “And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.”
Tonight, they were to eat the flesh of that lamb, and it was with the purtenance, and that means the organs were to be left in, the whole thing was to be roasted with fire, the entire lamb. Notice, God says, you are not to eat it raw. Do you think there was any danger that they would eat the lamb raw? Of course, they had been for many years, slaves down in Egypt. They were nothing more than heathen--they knew nothing about the Lord. They probably knew about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, but they had no written word, they had no prophet, they had no history. They were probably not much removed from a heathen nation, and the Lord said, eat not of it raw. But there is a deeper meaning than that in it. I think it is this. I think it is this. Remember this Lamb is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God says, eat it not raw, but roast it with fire. Fire is a picture of judgement. And the Lord Jesus Christ passed through the fires of judgement for us when He was on the cross. It was on the cross where the Lord Jesus Christ was judged for our sins, and punished with the fore of God’s wrath, and here He is a type of the Lamb, roasted with fire. God said, eat not of it before the fire is applied. That means that Christ before He suffered on the cross was not able to save. The Christ of the four Gospels, who healed, and helped and raised the dead, was not able to save, because He had not suffered the wrath, the fire of God’s judgement.
10/ Exodus 12: 10 “And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.”
Let us notice something else here, and ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning, that which remaineth of it until the morning, ye shall burn with fire. That is remarkable, that the Lord said, this Passover Lamb is to die, and ye are to take the blood from it, and sprinkle it for your safety on the door lintel and eat it for your strength and sustenance, but do not leave of it until the morning, it must disappear entirely. Did you ever notice how quickly they buried the Lord Jesus Christ after He died? Most people have a little bit of service of some kind at death—even the Jews of those days did—they had some kind of a funeral service, but not for the Lord Jesus Christ. They took Him off the cross, and put Him in the brave as soon as possible, it was all over. Let nothing of it remain until the morning. Perhaps within an hour they went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus, and Pilate said, yes. They took Him down and wrapped Him in linen. They took Him to the tomb and rolled the stone. All was according to plan as it was prophesied and given to the nation Israel.
11/ There is a very definite time schedule in Daniel.
Daniel 9: 24 “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, 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.”
Daniel had some knowledge of the plan of god, and he prayed and asked for more. God sent the angel Gabriel who gave him a divine revelation, and this divine revelation is very interesting. 70 weeks are determined upon they people. The word, here translated weeks, is a time word, and it refers to a period of seven years. We use decade for a period of ten years. But here it is a period of seven years. First of all, notice the word, determined. These weeks are determined, they are set and fixed, nothing can change it. Israel used to speak of seven years as a week.
Genesis 29: 26, 27. “And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfill her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.”
You will recall here that Jacob, who had been working for Laban, his uncle, falls in love with Rachel the daughter of Laban. He made a bargain with Laban that he was to work seven years, and at the end of seven years he would receive Rachel as his wife. But the scheming Laban had other plans, so when the wedding day came, he gave Leah, the sister of Rachel to be the wife of Jacob instead of Rachel for whom he had been laboring, and so he comes to Jacob and he makes another bargain. He says why don’t you continuing working another seven years for me here, and I’ll give you Rachel immediately to be your wife, because he said, in our country, you cannot give the younger before the firstborn. Now notice the 27th vs. fulfill her week—seven years and here is a striking example that a period of seven years is called a week. Now he says, first of all 70 weeks, that is 490 years, and then it is to finish the transgression and make the end of sins. That means when Christ died on Calvary.
12/ Then notice, the total of 70 X 7 years is divided into three periods. Two of these periods are 7 X 7’s, or 49 years, and 62 X 7, or 434. These figures together make 69 X 7 or 483 years. But this leaves 7 years to be accounted for—if we look at the list of things to be accomplished before the 490 years are finished, we immediately see that some prophecy has not yet been fulfilled, but God said to Daniel, start counting years from the issuance of the degree to rebuild Jerusalem, and after 490 years of trouble the street and the wall will be rebuilt—then continue counting, after 483 years the Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself. What a statement! Here is the clear declaration of God that the Messiah would die and His death would be for others, not for Himself. It was to be vicarious, it was to be a substitutionary atonement. Evidence shows that this decree was issued in Babylon one spring time, and proof is given to us very clearly that Jesus Christ died on the cross 483 years later, to the very time marked down by the decree. The prophecy was fulfilled to the last detail. In the fullness of time, at the appointed time, at this special time in history, Jesus Christ died.
Oh, how wonderful the Word of God is down to its last detail…God is never late!
AMEN
Ref: 07/19/1964/ KULP – 276 – GOD IS NEVER LATE / June 5, 2020
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