JESUS MY SUBSTITUTE
By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D
Jesus
took my Place on the Cross. He died for me. I was guilty as charged. I should
have suffered, bled, and died, but Jesus God’s Son became my substitute! For
six hours the weight of the entire world’s sins was laid upon Jesus of
Nazareth. He paid for all the sins of the world, past, present, and future! Through His vicarious death and glorious
resurrection, He purchased Eternal Life for us all!
When the ‘Hammer of God’s Judgment’
fell on Golgotha, JESUS took the blow so that we could go free! He is our Substitute.
He had us in mind when He left Heaven to fulfill God ‘s Plan of Salvation for mankind!
We were on His mind when He was defamed, ridiculed, rejected, and judged as an enemy
of the Jewish nation and the Roman Empire!
When they scourged Him with the cruel
cat-of-nine-tails whip that ripped open his back it was for the healing of all
our infirmities, sicknesses and diseases!
In His weakened condition, He carried the
cross made for Barabbas. He thought about the freedom He was bringing to
Adam’s fallen race! As He hung naked on that rugged CROSS outside Jerusalem’s City
walls, He prayed for those who blasphemed Him and those who drove the spikes
into His hands and feet.
The
King of Glory wore a crown of 2 ½ inch long Arabian thorns. Instead of driving
Him insane, He purchased our peace! The thief hanging next to Him on the cross believed
and made a confession of faith. God’s great mercy and love liberated forever
a lost world! Never again will such a transaction occur, God dying for
man! All glory and praise to the Lamb of God, forever and ever!
WE ARE
BOUGHT WITH A PRICE!
St. Paul stated: “According as He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us Accepted in the Beloved.” (Eph. 1: 4-7)
“I
am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me?” (Gal. 2:20)
This is our testimony: My body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit. He lives in me and I live in Him. I am hidden with Christ in God and am
therefore secure: "What? Know ye not that that your body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
“For
ye are BOUGHT with a price, therefore glorify God in your body, and in your
spirit, which are God’s? (1 Cor. 6: 19,20); “For He hath said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee.” (Heb.13:5). In the original, Jesus used a double
imperative which reads: “I will never, no never leave
thee. I will never, no never forsake thee.”
Jesus
said: “… And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” (Matt.
28:20). The word alway is a term of distance, while the
word always is a term of time. He promises to be with us
all the way, right to the end of our journey!
HE IS OUR GREAT
PHYSICIAN!
The Bible says : “Fear thou
not; for I am with the: Be not dismayed,
for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will
uphold thee with the right hand of my righteous.” (Is. 41: 10)
“No weapon that is formed against me
shall prosper and every tongue that rises against me in judgment, I shall condemn.
This is the heritage of God’s children and it is all because of His
righteousness! (Is. 54: 17)
He promised: “I am the Lord that healeth
thee.” (Ex. 15: 26); “And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall bless
thy bread and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.”
(Ex.23: 25)
“Because
thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High thy habitation;
There shall NO EVIL befall thee, neither shall any PLAGUE
come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee
to keep thee in all thy ways.
“He
shall call upon Me and I shall answer him: I will be with him in trouble. I will
deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation.”
(Ps. 91:9-16)
By
God’s grace alone, I am bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, therefore I am
well, because there is no sickness or disease in His bones or His flesh.
(Eph. 5: 30). There shall no EVIL befall me, neither shall any plague
come nigh unto thy dwelling. (Ps. 91:10)
St. John was the only apostle not to be martyred
and lived to be 94 years of age. He stated: “Ye are of God little children, and
have overcome them (evil spirits), because Greater is He (Christ)
that is in you than he (Satan) that is in the world.
“In this
was manifested the LOVE of God toward us because that God sent His only
begotten Son into the world, that we might LIVE through Him. Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the
propitiation (satisfaction, expiation) for our sins.
“No man hath seen God at any time. If we
love one another, God dwelleth in us and His love is perfected in us. Hereby
know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath
given us of His Spirit.” (1 John 4:4-13).
WHY WE
NEED THE HOLY SPIRIT!
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s
life is proof that God lives within him!
St. John declares God’s amazing love to us all. He states that God dwells
in every believer. It is the Holy Spirit who draws and urges us to receive Jesus
Christ as our Lord and Saviour, and to worship His Father Who sent Him!
“And we have seen and do testify that the
Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in Him, and he in God. And we have known
and believed the love that God hath to us.
“God
is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is
our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because
as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4: 14-17)
We are indwelt by the Blessed Holy Spirit,
who births in us the Lord Jesus Christ and destroys fear, sickness, and disease.
He takes charge of our lives as we read His Word, pray, and worship Him!
“There is no fear in love, but perfect
love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made
perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4: 18,19)
The Holy Scriptures teach the prevenient
grace of God, meaning that before we wanted Him, He wanted us. The Holy
Spirit searches for souls whom He knows will respond to His embrace. He gets whom
He needs, like Saul of Tarsus. Old-time Preachers called Him, the ‘Hound of
Heaven’. He knew that we would respond so He kept knocking until we answered,
“Yes.”
NOAH WALKED
WITH GOD!
Adam’s sin of high treason destroyed the bond
between the Creator and His creation! His treachery spawned rebellion, fear, and
death. In His mercy God provided a way of escape through the sacrificial system,
the death of a lamb to provide blood to cover their sins and skins to
cover their bodies!
Adam’s transgression was so deadly and
sin so contagious that within 1,600 years, the world had become a cesspool of unrighteousness.
To preserve the pure bloodline of the coming Messiah, God ordered Noah to build
an ark. He and his three sons built the ark while he preached and warned of the
approaching flood!
The
Holy Bible records: “God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him
at His heart.
“And
the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the
earth…But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord…Noah was a
just man and perfect (upright) in his generations, and Noah walked with
God.
“The earth also was corrupt before God, and
the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold,
it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God
said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled
with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” (Gen.
6: 5-8. 11-13)
THE SEED
OF THE WOMAN!
After Adam’s treacherous sin in the Garden
of Eden, God delivered a prophecy to Satan. It was fulfilled when Jesus Christ
- true God from eternity and true man by His virgin birth – gave His life on
the CROSS, as God’s paschal Lamb for the sins of the world and arose victorious
over death, Hades and Satan!
“And I will put enmity between thee (the
serpent) and the woman, and between thy seed (Satan’s kingdom)
and Her SEED (Christ). It (He) shall bruise (crush)
thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” (Gen. 3: 15)
In His great mercy, God waited for sinners
to REPENT and return to Him, but they rejected the pleadings of the Holy Spirit
through Noah’s preaching.
The entire population had corrupted themselves
and refused God’s grace, until there was only one righteous family left to carry
the godly line of the Messiah. That family was that of Noah!
ABRAHAM
HEARD GOD’S VOICE!
God calls those that will obey Him. He reached into the pagan world
for a dedicated man who would to be the leader of ‘His Chosen People’. The
Holy Bible records: “Now the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of the country,
and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew
thee:
“In the same day, the Lord made a covenant
with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the River of Egypt
unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” (Gen. 15: 1,17, 18).
Notice: The land was given to the Jewish people through Abraham who became the
Father of the Jews through his son Isaac!
Abraham had waited 25 years for a son and heir
to carry forward the ‘Seed of the woman’. It seemed hopeless. Both he
and Sarah were old and she was barren: “And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear
thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac; and I will establish My
covenant with him for an everlasting Covenant and with his seed after him.” (Gen.17:
19,21)
God
chose Abraham and Sarah through which the ‘seed of the woman’
was preserved and carried to David and finally to Mary,
the mother of Jesus!
Our God is a Miracle God, and nothing is
too hard for Him. His message to Sarah was: “Is anything too hard for the
Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of
life.” (Gen. 18:14). He kept His word and when Sarah was 90 and Abraham
100 years of age, Isaac was born! If Sarah had not conceived and birthed sons,
the bloodline of the Messiah would have been finished.
God’s prophecy to Satan about the Messiah
was fulfilled perfectly and therefore Satan is an “eternally doomed
despot”. Messiah JESUS crushed Satan’s HEAD on the CROSS!
St. Paul stated: “Forasmuch then as the
children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself (Jesus) took part of
the same; that through Death He might Destroy him
who has the power of death, that is the Devil; And Deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Heb.
2:14,15)
CHRIST’S
VICTORY, SATAN’S
DEFEAT AND OUR LIBERTY!
“And you, being dead in your sins and the
uncirumcision of your flesh hath He quickened (made alive) together with
Him, having forgiven you all trespasses: Blotting out the handwriting of
ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of
the way, nailing it to His Cross;
“And having spoiled principalities and
powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Col. 2: 13-15)
It has been said, “The Mills of God grind
slowly.” Until the time of Abraham,
God’s people were saved through keeping the Law, following many strict dietary and
ritualistic ceremonies, which pointed to Christ. There was however, the
guilt, shame and unrest, because the works of the flesh cannot
please God or bring closure and cleansing!
St. Paul explains: “Therefore by the deeds
of the laws shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the
knowledge of sin. For all have sinned and come short of the glory; being
justified freely by His grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His
righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of
God;
“To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness
that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
(Rom. 3:20-26)
BEHOLD
THE LAMB OF GOD!
There were 1767 years or eighteen generations
between Abraham and Christ. There had not been any overt signs except with
words of the Prophets like Isaiah foretelling the coming of Christ. Then, the excitement
of the birth of John the Baptist and the Virgin birth of Jesus were ripples
showing that the time was drawing near.
Then came the announcement from the Prophet
John the Baptist: “Behold, The Lamb of God which taketh away then sins of
the world…” (John 1: 29).
Here is a
marvelous truth: John the Baptist’s reason for being born was to introduce
Jesus Christ to the Jewish nation and to the world:
“There was a man sent from God, whose name
was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all
men through Him might believe. He was not that light but was sent to bear witness
of that Light.” (John 1: 6-8)
“He
said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the Way of
the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias… 1
baptize with water: but there standeth One
among you, whom ye know not; He it is who coming after me is before me,
whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.” (John 1: 23-27)
What does that mean to us? We who have
been saved through His vicarious death and shed blood for us all, have a duty
to make our precious Saviour known to as many as possible. His Gospel must be front
and centre in our lives so that others may also hear and live!
IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD!
The Bible says: “In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the
beginning with God. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him. He came
unto His own and His own received Him not.
“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.” (John 1: 1-3, 10, 11, 14)
St.
Paul wrote: “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.
“Wherefore as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned. Therefore, as by the offence of One Judgment came upon all men to Condemnation;
even so by the Righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto Justification
of life.
“For as by One man’s disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of ONE many shall be made righteous:
That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto Eternal Life.” (Rom. 5: 10-21)
ADAM’S SINS IMPUTED TO US!
The Bible says: “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 sicknesses (heb. kholee) and carried our pains
(heb. makob); yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and
afflicted.
“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. All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the
iniquity of us all.” (Is. 53: 3-6)
“When the even shall come, they brought unto
Him many that were possessed with devils: and He cast out the spirits with His
Word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was
spoke by Elaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare our
sicknesses.” (Matt. 8: 16, 17)
“Who His own Self bare our Sins in His
body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: By
Whose stripes ye were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
BY HIMSELF: PURGED OUR SINS!
“God who at
sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom
He Hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds;
“Who
being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person, and
upholding all things by the Word of His Power, when He had By Himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
High: Being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they.” (Heb. 1:1-4)
Our Lord did not help from an angel or a
prophet to purge our sins. He did it all by Himself. He doesn’t need any help
from the Virgin Mary, the pope of Rome or a high mass to purge our sins. He did
it all by Himself! The precious blood that flowed from His hands,
feet, side, head and back was sufficient!
The Gospel message of God’s divine
love in forgiveness of sins, healing of sickness, disease and pain, as well as protection,
prosperity and Life Eternal has come to us through the shed blood of Jesu Christ
alone!
Jesus Christ said: “I Am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and
which is to come, the Almighty. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet.
“And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the
first and the last: I am He that liveth and was dead; and behold I am alive for
evermore. Amen; and have the keys of Hell and of death.” (Rev. 1: 8, 17, 18)
The last prophetic words in the Holy Bible
were spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. That is important because God the
Father appointed Him heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds. He
was the One who began the work of creation and finished it!
By Himself, Jesus Christ purged our sins when He willingly laid
down His life to redeem us through His vicarious death and glorious resurrection
from the dead!
BY HIS
OWN BLOOD!
“But Christ being come an high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building:
Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by His own Blood, He entered in once into the Holy
Place, having obtained eternal Redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the
purifying of the flesh:
“How much more shall the Blood
of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge
your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God?” (Heb. 9: 11-14)
“And almost all things are by the law purges with blood: and
without shedding of blood in no remission. It was therefore necessary that
the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the
heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
“For
Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands which are the
figures of the true; but into HEAVEN itself, now to appear in the Presence of
God for us; nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the
high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the Blood of others;
“For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world:
but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the SACRIFICE
of Himself…So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many…” (Heb.
9: 24-28)
WORTHY IS THE LAMB!
“And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne
and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a LAMB as it had
been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of
God sent forth into all the earth. And He came and took the book out of the
hand of Him that sat upon the Throne.
“And when He had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders
fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden viols full
of incense, which ae the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying,
“Thou
art WORTHY to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: For Thou wast SLAIN,
and hast Redeemed us to God by Thy BLOOD out of every kindred and tongue and people,
and nation. And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign
on the earth.
“And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne
and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times
ten thousand and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, WORTHY IS
THE LAMB that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength,
and honour, and glory, and blessing.
“And every creature which is in Heaven, and on the earth, and such as
are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour,
and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty
elders fell down and worshipped Him that liveth forever and ever.” (Rev.5:
6-14)
AMAZING
MIRACLE IN EDMONTON, 1972
On October 26, 1969 we
opened the doors of the Edmonton Revival Centre and for the next
many years tremendous revival continued there and later in the new Faith
Cathedral. The leaders of Edmonton’s Pentecostal Ministerial reported to
Rev. Keith Driver that they believed that 6,000 souls had been saved in our
church in first four years of our ministry and new converts were joining many
of their assemblies.
Great miracles were happening regularly as
the revival services grew in intensity. In 1972, a Jewish man named Moshe
Weinberger arrived from Winnipeg. We gave him lodging and one night he opened
his heart to me.
He had
been captured by the Nazis and forced to load box cars with Jewish men, women,
and children for extermination in Buchenwald. As American Troops were pushing
forward, the Nazi guards fled. He was locked in a box car with nearly a hundred
others, when the Americans arrived. Many were near death and others had died
for lack of water and ventilation. The
medics put him on intervenes and saved his life. He showed me the infamous number
that Nazis had burned into his upper arm.
He immigrated to Canada and had attended a
revival meeting at the ‘Indian Church’ in Winnipeg operated by a Native
Lady. After being born again he helped her in the Mission and eventually
they were married. Then he divulged why had come to Edmonton. The Nazis had taken away his manhood and he had married a
woman 15 years his senior.
He had heard about Christ doing
miracles and He asked if it could be possible to receive a miracle
from Jesus, to restore his manhood.
GOD GRANTED A SPECIAL MIRACLE!
I asked him to prepare for a miracle and
when the right moment arrived, I would pray for him. One evening, I prayed for Mrs.
Johnson, a native lady from Prince Albert, SK who had undergone surgery to
remove her left lung and ribs. As I prayed, you could observe her left shoulder
lifting as God gave her a new lung. Immediately, she could breathe normally,
and a volume of praise went up to Jesus the Healer!
I asked Muriel Heppner who was on the
organ, to take Mrs. Johnson into a private area beside the platform and investigate
if she now had two lungs and ribs. In a few minutes they returned rejoicing and
shouting that it was so.
Immediately, I laid my hands on Moshe and
prayed: “Heavenly Father, I ask for the demonstration of Thy mighty power
in making this man whole from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet.
Give him what he needs dear Lord, for Thy honour and glory. This I ask in the
precious Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”
We
didn’t use catchers in those days, and suddenly he slipped out of my hands and fell
back full length on the floor. The meeting continued and great and wonderful things
happened for God’s glory. At nine o’clock
the next morning I was coming to my office and Moshe was standing outside, holding
two suitcases. It was snowing a little and
he had his collar turned up.
I asked, “Are you going home?” He replied,
“Yes, I’m going home.” I asked, “Did you get your miracle?” He
said, “I’m going home.” I said, “Moshe,
don’t play games with me. Did you get a miracle last night?”
He
smiled largely and said, “Yes, I got my miracle and that is why I am going
home.” We stayed in touch, and he and his wife sent us $10 a month to
help with our radio program.
Two years later, I was conducting a tent
crusade in Winnipeg. One evening as I was walking from my trailer to the tent,
I met them near the entrance. I said, “Good evening, Brother and Sister Weinberger.”
Moshe smilingly said, “Good evening, Brother Solbrekken.”
His wife said, “Brother Max, I
must talk to you alone.” She said, “Pray for Moshe.” I
said, “I prayed for him and he said that he got a miracle!” She answered,
“That is the problem. He’s got too much!” I said, “Sister
Weinburger, that is not my department. You will have to ask God about that.”
And I turned and walked into the tent for the evening service.”
TO GOD BE THE
GLORY!
After God had supernaturally protected Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego from the burning fiery furnace, King Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed: “How
great are His signs! And how mighty are His wonders! His Kingdom is
an everlasting Kingdom and His dominion is from generation to generation.”
(Dan. 4:3)
The
Bible says: “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which,
if they should be written everyone, I suppose that even the world itself could
not contain the books that should be written. Amen.” (John 21: 25).
This, undoubtedly, refers to the libraries
of the then known world. Interestingly, the two largest categories in the US
Library of Congress are the Civil War and Jesus of Nazareth!
Jesus said: “Ye
shall know the truth and the truth shall make you Free.” (John 8: 32). During
Governor Pontius Pilate interview with Jesus of Nazareth, our Saviour stated: “…To
this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should
bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the Truth heareth My voice. Pilate
sayeth unto Him, what is Truth?” (John 18:37,38)
JESUS CHRIST said: “I am the Way, the
Truth and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” (John 14:6)
Amen.
MIGHTILY BLESSED OF GOD!
Mr. & Mrs. Moshe Weinberger, 1974
