Jack Jurgens's Ministry Library

Eight Days that Changed the World – Easter

Would you turn, please, to Matthew chapter 28, Matthew chapter 28, and we’ll read at, verse 1. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow, And for fear of him, the keepers did shake and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and behold, he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall ye see him, lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, and did run, to bring his disciples’ word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail, or rejoice. And they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid. Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me. Now, one more reading, please, in 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15.

And verse 1, 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 1. 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. That is, unless you believe something that was not true. 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, that is the proof that he died, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and that he was seen, that is the proof that he rose. He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve, after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that he was seen of James, than of all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles that am not meet to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.

Some years ago, a very good friend of mine, Bill Brescia, was taking home from the meeting two gentlemen from Nepali. They were attending the meetings in Newington, and on the way, they were amicably discussing Christianity and Buddhism, and just in a friendly way, talking about the differences. And at some point, Bill reminded them of the distinctive truth of Christianity, that Christ rose from the dead. He was talking to the man in the front the man in the back of course was listening, and when they got to the house and Bill stopped the car the man in the back leaned forward and he touched his friend on the shoulder and he said to him, daju that is in nepali that would be friend or brother daju.

This changes everything this resurrection this changes everything we need to think about this. Yes, it does change everything. He rose from the dead. He is alive. And one of the distinctive facts of Christianity is that the Lord Jesus, the man who died at Calvary, is alive. Now, I’ve looked forward to preaching this message all week, and I’m so thankful that the Lord is allowing me to be able to speak to you about the greatest of all days in the history of the world. There was never…

Never a day like this. From Eden’s garden onward, death had reigned as king, ruling cruelly over the human race, defeating all of our meager defenses, conquering every mortal man and woman, the wisest, the greatest, the strongest, nothing mattered. No one escaped its clutches. Death reigned as king until this glorious Sunday morning, when the Lord Jesus, the Prince of life, rose from the dead, never to die again. This is why Charles Wesley asked in the hymn that you just sang, Where, O Death, Is Now Thy Sting? It’s very interesting that he never put the hallelujahs at the end of the verse, but it was a printer who was going to print the hymn and just felt that needed something to go with the tune that he knew, and so he added those words, and And that distinctive mark is what has made that hymn so popular, the repetition of that wonderful word, alleluia, or praise to God. Because Christ lives, because Christ is alive, the death of death itself is assured. It’s going to die one day.

As John Donne said, death be not proud, and talked about death dying. All of that is because the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. He has brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel. Now, on April the 9th, 1944, during World War II, Allied troops in Italy were in a stalemate with the Germans during what was called the Battle of Anzio. That would stretch for 136 days, I believe.

But there was one day, just one day, where a temporary, short-lived peace was over the whole battlefield. Very similar to the famous World War I Christmas truce, that on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the troops wouldn’t fight each other. But this was April. This was not Christmas. This was Easter. Loudspeakers were put up, and there were messages and hymns all down the line, for a fair distance with no fighting, all because it was Easter Sunday. I think it makes us ask once again, what is it about this man?

Jesus Christ, that causes people to think killing is wrong. Humans are worth something. They’re not just items to be eliminated. Because whether it was his birth, that truce at Christmastime, or his resurrection after dying at Easter, peace reigned even temporarily. He is the Prince of Peace, and he’s got to bring peace to this entire world. Just remember, he was a carpenter from Nazareth, and without question, he is the most significant person who ever walked this planet. Now, the word unique can’t have modifiers or qualifiers. Something can’t be very unique or greatly unique. It’s either unique or it isn’t. However, considering tonight’s topic, if there are punctilious linguists here tonight who are going to grab me at the back and say, you should never have said that, I’m going to apologize ahead of time. I want to just tell you that this is gloriously unique. Never before in the history of the race, never had anything like this taken place. I don’t know if you noticed the precision with what Brother Zudema prayed when he spoke about the Lord Jesus rising from the dead in a way that no one else will. Millions of people are going to rise from the dead. Millions of people are going to rise from the dead to meet Christ and be with him. Millions of people will rise from the dead to stand in the judgment, just one man.

Raised himself from the dead by his own power. And that is the person we’re looking at tonight, the Lord Jesus. On that Sunday morning, an angel came down from heaven, rolled away the massive stone that was sealing the sepulcher.

Did you notice what Matthew said? Did you notice that the angel sat on the stone? Sat on the stone. Now, God has given us abilities that are from God. Human beings are the only ones who cry out of emotion. Others can cry. Animals can cry. They can shed tears. But human beings are the only ones who have the ability to cry when their emotions are touched. Where’d that come from? From God.

We have a sense of humor, at least some of us do. Where’d that come from? From God. So I have no doubt in my mind that angels have been given things by God. And I wonder if one of them is a sense of humor. Because here’s Rome sealing the tomb, setting the guards, boasting about its military might and power. And an angel comes down and it’s almost as if he flicks the stone aside. And then he sits on it, mocking all of the supposed authority and power of Rome. He sits on the stone. He does roll the stone away, not to let the Lord Jesus out. He had already come through the stone walls. He rolled the stone away to let the disciples in to see that the Lord Jesus was alive from the dead. Now, there are a number of times where we read in the Bible of things that the Lord Jesus had to do.

And the word that is used is must. For instance, John 3 says the Son of Man must be lifted up, must go to the cross, must be lifted up. 1 Corinthians 15 says he must reign. He must reign. Nothing is going to change that. That’s God’s purpose, that Christ must reign. But chronologically, in the middle of those two is the verse that tells us that he must rise. He could not be held by death. He could not be forced to stay in that tomb. And so I want you to think, please, about this wonderful fact, this resurrection, and the great meaning that it has to you and to me today. Let’s consider, first of all, the power, the might and power of his resurrection.

There are Bible passages that tell us he was raised by God. In fact, one verse says he was raised by the glory of the Father, raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. There are other verses that tell us he was raised by the Holy Spirit. And we read about his being raised by the Spirit of holiness. And then there are Bible passages that tell us that the Lord Jesus raised himself from the dead. He had power to take his life back. Now, you will understand that the only way that the Lord Jesus could ever raise himself from the dead is if he was still alive after he died. In other words, a corpse can’t do anything. But there is life after death. And when the Lord Jesus died.

His spirit went to be with his father in heaven. The ascension has to do with his bodily returning to heaven. But he was in paradise and he welcomed that malefactor the moment that he died. He welcomed him to paradise. But the Lord Jesus is the one who raised himself from the dead. Remember Moses and Elijah appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration? Where did they come from? They’d both died centuries before. Where did Moses and Elijah come from? They’d come from paradise. Do you remember in the Old Testament when Samuel comes up and appears to Saul and tell Saul that he’s going to die the next day. Where had Samuel come from? He had come from paradise.

Because when a person dies, that’s not the end. Remember in chapter 16 of Luke, the Lord Jesus tells us about a man named Lazarus who died. And he tells us about Lazarus on the other side, in eternity, in paradise, being comforted.

With Abraham, with the great men of the nation, a beggar now linked with honor, with the head of the nation. He was still living. This is why the two classes in Matthew chapter 25 are seen to go away, one into everlasting life and the other into everlasting punishment. You and I are on the way to eternity and death is not going to be the end. I sometimes read, I don’t know how it strikes you, but I sometimes read about people committing suicide. In fact, I don’t know if I mentioned this here, but I was in Canada having meetings and one of the Christians asked me if I would visit someone who was scheduled to die the next day. When people want to hide the real purpose of what they’re doing, they usually use cute names. And the cute name that Canada is using is MAID, just like somebody would come to your house and straighten things up and clean up and dust and MAID, MAID. But MAID stands for Medical Assistance in Dying. It’s how to put people to death who want to die. It’s coming into this country as well. But right now it is in Canada. Thousands of people have been just quietly put to death. And this man, Bruce, was going to die the next day. And we had just that one chance to visit with him. We couldn’t be heard to argue with him or to try to change his mind.

And I’ll tell you some other time about how the conversation went, but you know how horrible that is to be looking into the eyes of a person who was going to die and to know that that man is going to be in eternity forever?

You will be forever in either heaven or hell. And the resurrection of Christ proves to us that there is life beyond the grave. So please understand your eternal destiny is the most important issue in your life. It is the paramount. It is the number one thing you need to take care of. Don’t make a mistake about eternity.

If you have to make a mistake, make a mistake about the house you buy or the neighborhood you live in or the car you drive. Don’t make a mistake about eternity because that’s forever. Make sure that Christ is your savior and that you are going to be in heaven when life is done. And the only way to know that for sure is from the word of God. Do you notice who saw the Lord Jesus? After his resurrection, the Lord Jesus remained on earth for 40 more days. Now his spirit has come from paradise. His body united. Has come out of the tomb. He is alive, carrying in his body mortal wounds, not scars, mortal wounds, but alive with power in a glorified, deathless body. He appeared to individuals like Peter, his disciple. He appeared to pairs like the two on the road to Emmaus. He appeared to large groups like the 500 mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15.

He appeared to his unbelieving family member, his half-brother James. And after he appeared to James, James became a devoted follower of the risen Christ. He appeared to his arch enemy later on, Saul of Tarsus. And when Saul met the Lord Jesus alive from the dead, Saul turned on a dime. And suddenly the man who hated Christ, hated Christians, hated the gospel, becomes the foremost gospel preacher, not only of his day, but maybe of all time because he had seen the risen Christ. Now you have to answer this question.

Were all those hundreds of people in all these different places, all stricken with the same hallucination, all imagining somehow that they had seen somebody and it was all just a, just something of their imagination. As far as, as James may be concerned, and certainly Saul of Tarsus is concerned, the last thing they wanted to see or imagine would be a risen Christ. Saul wanted to cripple this Christian thing right in the grave so that it would, it would never go further, but they saw, they saw Christ alive for 40 days. He visited with them. I read about a situation that took place in Alabama in, 1963, a 14 year old African-American girl. Her name was Addie, Addie Mae Collins. She was one of four African-American girls who were murdered by white racists. Her family buried her in a cemetery in Birmingham, Alabama. That was 1963.

They visited frequently, for years. They’d bring flowers. They would pray. They wanted to honor Addie Mae cut down so short in life. 35 years later In 1998 They decided to disinter her remains And to give her, A better burial Better cemetery in which to be buried, And that’s when the shock took place When they dug up the grave There was no body Addie Mae was not there Now there were a lot of explanations As to just what might have happened.

The most thought that what happened was she was buried in some other spot in the cemetery and the gravestone was placed in the wrong spot. A grave with no body. Do you know what nobody ever suggested? Nobody ever suggested that Addie Mae Collins had risen from the dead. Because as somebody said, an empty grave does not a resurrection prove. Just because the grave was empty. Nobody was saying she must have risen from the dead. The disciples didn’t insist and preach and believe and die for an empty sepulcher. They didn’t believe the Lord Jesus was alive from the dead because the sepulcher was empty. They believed he was alive from the dead because they saw him. They ate with him. They talked with him. They heard him. They listened to his teaching again after he had died. And that’s the wonderful fact that they knew that he was alive. Do you ever stop and think why? Why is there no other first century Jew who has millions of people following him? Why, for instance, isn’t there a John the Baptist movement? He was a great man. He was martyred. He was killed by Herod. Why are there no John the Baptizers?

Why of all those first century figures, including the Roman emperors, many of whom claim deity, said they were gods, they’re all gone. There’s nobody worshiping Julius Caesar. He never claimed he was a god. There’s nobody worshiping Augustus or Nero, Claudius.

Because they all died and they’re gone. But there was one man who died and raised himself from the dead by the power of God. And that is the man who challenges you tonight. What are you going to do with that Savior who died and rose again? Paul says he died for our sins according to the scriptures. So then think about the meaning and the purpose of that resurrection. This is the greatest miracle of all time, and it is the most significant moment in all of history. So you could well ask, what does a first century historical event have to do with you in the 21st century? Well, first of all, the resurrection of Christ was a response from God. Hebrews chapter 5 says that the Lord Jesus was heard.

He was heard when he was praying to be saved out of death. That reminds us he wasn’t praying to be saved from dying. He was leaving himself in the hand of God to allow God to raise him from the dead. And in that sense, it was the father who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. And it was a response from God to the Lord Jesus and to what this world had done to him. It was a ratification, if you will. It was a refutation. It was a rebuke to a world that had denied Christ when God raised him from the dead. Romans chapter one says that he was marked out as the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. The word that’s used there is the word that we get our English word horizon from. God drew, if you will, the horizons and said, here, this is the one who is the son of God. And the proof of it is he is alive from the dead. he has shattered death and brought life to human beings. And it is the declaration of who he is. The world had turned against him. That’s symbolized by the fact that above his head on the cross, it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. The disciples would pray that the entire society, Gentiles, Herod, Pilate, the Jewish people had all turned against him. They desired a murderer to be granted unto them, Barabbas. And they slew the prince of life.

But God raised him from the dead to show that he was God’s son. Now, I would like to ask you tonight, just on which side of this divide are you? Here’s the divide. He that believes on the son has everlasting life.

He that does not believe the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Which side are you on?

Just here now, tonight in this meeting. He that believes on the son has everlasting life. Do you have a moment in your life when you trusted Christ, when you believed on the Lord Jesus and you received eternal life? Or not having a moment like that. He that believeth not the son. God says you will never see heaven. You will never see life. And his wrath is on you. You need to switch sides. You need to be a person who comes to Christ and trusts him. The resurrection of Christ was also a receipt. It was God’s way, God’s way of showing that what Christ did on the cross was enough. When the Lord Jesus was about to dismiss his spirit and die, he announced those wonderful words, it is finished, paid in full. When God raised his son from the dead, God was saying amen to that wonderful truth, that Christ was raised from the dead to show that we have become justified. Let me quote you the words. He was delivered for our offenses, our sins, and he was raised again on account of our justification. To make that very simple, Christ died for our sins. That’s why he died. His resurrection has made it possible for guilty sinners.

To be declared right with God, cleared of every charge against them, which is the idea behind the word justification. Let me just make that simple by explaining to you what it means to me as a sinner who has trusted Christ. This means that the God against whom I have sinned.

Is satisfied with what Jesus did for me on the cross. God is not asking me to make further payment. He’s not asking me to add to what the Lord Jesus did as if I could somehow increase the value of what he accomplished. What this means to me is that the Savior who carried my sins on the cross is now in heaven where sin can’t enter. Then it means that he put my sins away. God put them on him on the cross, but now he rose from the dead and went back to heaven. Sin, as I said, can’t enter heaven. So where are my sins? He blotted them out, to use a good old Testament phrase. He blotted them out. He erased them. They’re gone all because he died for me. And because of this, and these, these are the truths which are at the heart and soul of the gospel. Because of this, salvation can be and is offered to everyone freely.

If you didn’t bring your wallet or your purse or your pocketbook to the meeting tonight, we would never know the difference. There’s not gonna be any collections. We have received the gospel freely and we wanna give it to you freely. And if I could just give you one verse from the Bible, it would help you see what I’m trying to say. In the book of Revelation, the invitation is given. Whoever will, whoever wants it, let him take the water of life freely. So it’s global. Whoever will, anybody. So anybody in the meeting tonight can have salvation. Whoever will. And anybody in the meeting can have salvation free of charge. Whoever will, let him take the fountain, take the water of life freely. It is a gift on God’s part that will cost you nothing because it cost Christ everything. It’s being offered to everyone, so it is being offered to you. Do you have a moment when you have taken that gift? And if not, please tell me, why would you not take it tonight?

If God is offering you salvation tonight, free of charge, if God is offering you eternal life now as a gift, please tell me, why would you not take it? Why would you go home without him? Why would you go home still running the risk of losing your soul and dying and perishing forever? Because this salvation is being offered to whosoever will. Somebody has said, the people who go to heaven are the whosoever wills and the people who go to hell are the whosoever won’ts. They will not come to Christ. They will not take the water of life freely. The famous missionary, James Hudson Taylor, when he would tell his testimony, he would freely admit this, that as a teenager, if he was given a gospel tract, he remembered that very often they started with a story and then you got halfway into the tract and all of a sudden they began to preach. They began to apply the story. So he said, I’ll read the story and when I get to the middle, I’ll just stop. But as he read the tract, just one phrase caught his attention. Before he knew it, he was reading the whole tract. The phrase that caught his attention was, the finished work of Christ. The finished work of Christ. And he thought to himself, why does the author say that? Not the cross, not the death of Christ. The finished work of Christ. What does that mean?

And pretty soon he was delving into the scriptures to try to understand what that meant. And as a young teenager, I think he was just about 16 years of age, he realized that the finished work of Christ meant Christ did everything that was needed for James to be saved. Christ did everything that was needed for you to be saved. Why will you, why will you go home without salvation when God is offering that to you? tonight. One more thing before I close. The resurrection was a reminder, a reminder. In other words, God took one moment in the history of this world and said, here, look at what I’m doing and let this remind you of something. Because when the apostle wrote to Christians and said that Christ was raised again for our justification. He was saying, in effect, the resurrection of Christ means you will never come into judgment because he was raised for your justification. You will never come into judgment. Now that same man was preaching one day in the city of Athens, in the country of Greece, and this is what he said. God commands.

All men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness.

Whereof he has given assurance to everybody in that he raised Christ from the dead. Now that’s a lengthy quotation. Let me just try to break it down very simply. Paul is saying to them, God is commanding that you repent because there’s a day of judgment coming. And the proof that there’s a day of judgment coming is that God raised the judge from the dead, his son. So do you see that the same event in history, this wonderful, this historical event, the resurrection of Christ, says to people who believe in him, you will never come into judgment. And the same event says to people who reject Christ, you will be brought into judgment at the great white throne. That’s why you don’t want to go another day without trusting this savior who died and rose again. And wonderfully, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is going to have a glorious impact on this entire world. Because he rose from the dead, he’s coming back. He’s going to be the one who will reign over this planet. He’s going to get rid of injustice. He’s going to get rid of poverty. He’s going to get rid of crime. He’s going to get rid of sickness. He is going to bring this poor, tear-filled, sin-soaked world into a golden age in which he will reign as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and all his people will be with him.

And if you never trust him, you’re going to miss all of that, and you’ll miss heaven forever, because he that does not believe on the Son shall not see life.

I couldn’t tell you any greater news. I could not tell you any more significant news than that Christ is alive, that he rose from the dead, that he can be your savior tonight if you will trust him. And I’m gonna close with the Bible’s simple statement about how you can be saved. There was a man who asked two preachers the same question and the two preachers, answered in unison because there could be no other answer given. When the man said, what must I do to be saved? They said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That’s what they told the jailer. That’s what God is telling you tonight. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, this risen Christ who has defeated death. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

Eight Days that Changed the World – Saturday

I’d like to ask you to turn, please, to, John chapter 19, and we’re going to break in at verse 28. John 19 and verse 28. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. 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.

Then came the soldiers and break the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs. But one of the soldiers with the spear pierced his side, And forthwith came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it bear record, and his record is true. And he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken. And again, another scripture saith, they shall look on him whom they pierced. And after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate, that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. And in the garden, a new sepulcher, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid day Jesus therefore, because of the Jews’ preparation day for the sepulcher was nigh at hand.

I think it is easy to overlook the importance of this week’s penultimate day, since it seems as though it’s a valley sandwiched between two Everests. After all, it’s situated between the two greatest days in the history of the world, the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross, and then his glorious resurrection on the Sunday morning. Nonetheless, there are important truths to discuss, which I hope that God will enable me to do. It’d be valuable for us to grasp at least these three things. I want you to think, first of all, about Christ’s sepulcher, that tomb, his sepulcher, and the fulfilled prophecy. And then we want to look at Rome’s seal. They put a seal across the door there. We want to think about Rome’s seal and the displayed authority, what that meant and what happened with that seal. And then finally, Israel’s Sabbath and the spiritual reality.

That sepulchre, which was carved out by a man named Joseph of Arimathea, was there for the Lord Jesus to use. There were many prophecies fulfilled at the birth of the Lord Jesus. There were many prophecies fulfilled during his life when the Savior was here. However, when you come to what we’re looking at, There are events surrounding his death when Jewish officials and Roman soldiers unwittingly, and in some cases, therefore unintentionally, fulfilled Old Testament prophecies in their mistreatment of the Lord Jesus. In other words, there were enemies who did things without even realizing they were fulfilling prophecy that God had stated centuries before. John specifically detailed the fulfillment of some of those prophecies, he recorded first that the soldiers gave the Lord Jesus vinegar to drink. That was an event foretold in Psalm 69. He said that the soldier.

The soldiers did not break even one of his bones. They broke the bones, the legs actually of the two malefactors, but Christ was already dead. So they did not break one of his bones. And that was a fulfillment of Psalm 34 and verse 20. Then we read that one of the soldiers plunged a spear into the side of the Savior, likely piercing the pericardium sack around his heart because John said he saw blood and water coming out. And that was foretold by Zechariah in his prophecy in chapter 12. Now, remember, please, these were enemies of the Lord Jesus. The last thing they wanted to do was to fulfill prophecy about Christ. Their intent was to harm him and to give him pain, not to fulfill prophecies that would prove that he was the Messiah. But all four divinely inspired biographies of the Lord Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, record an event that was prophesied almost 800 years before the Lord came into the world. And that was something that was done by a man who was a believer. We read about him. His name is Joseph of Arimathea. He was a wealthy man and he had a tomb already prepared, one that had never been used for a burial.

And incredibly, Pilate agreed to give this body to Joseph. Now, the government’s intent, what the government would have done would have been to take all three bodies down. They would have thrown them into a cart. The cart would have made its way out the south gate of Jerusalem to a place called the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom. It was a place where fires were burning down in the valley. They never went out. It was the city’s incinerator, and they would have thrown the body of the Lord Jesus together with the two malefactors into that valley to be burned. But that didn’t happen. That didn’t happen because centuries before, a prophecy had been uttered that they would make his grave with the wicked. That’s what they intended, but it was with the rich in his death. It was a rich man who made a sepulcher and prophecy was fulfilled when the Lord Jesus was placed in there. In other words, once the Lord Jesus said, it is finished, and that soldier pierced his side, when the Lord Jesus died, no sinful man touched his body again. And two believers, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, brought the clothes, the cloth to be wound, and the spices, and they buried the Lord Jesus. Prophecy fulfilled.

Also of great significance was the strident demand by the Jewish authorities, that the bodies be taken down before the Sabbath. Now, please understand that when people were crucified, sometimes they were left hanging on a cross for days, if not weeks. It would be a terrible sight. But because of this feast that was coming, the Jewish leaders, the very ones who demanded that Christ be killed, they go to Pilate and they demand that the bodies be taken down. They didn’t want the bodies hanging there on the Sabbath.

As a result, what the Lord Jesus prophesied was fulfilled because his enemies made a demand. The Lord Jesus said that he would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. To us, with the Lord Jesus being killed on Friday, placed in a tomb Friday evening, he’s there all day Saturday, and then he rises from the dead Sunday morning, to us, that sounds like a little more than 36 hours, but not to the Jews, because in Jewish reckoning, any part of a day was counted in the equation. So because the Lord Jesus was placed in the tomb Friday evening, before the sun went down and the Sabbath began, he was there Friday. Then he was there all day Saturday. And because he was there part of Sunday, rising early Sunday morning to the Jews, that is three days, not 36 hours. But please notice that was only possible because the enemies of the Lord Jesus, not knowing they were fulfilling prophecy, demanded of Pilate that his body be taken down. Now, let’s stop a minute. Because in all of this, there is a clear message to us today. And I want you please to get this message. Do you know what it is?

The Bible is not just a book. It is the book. It is the book inspired by God. Its batting average is a thousand. It has never missed. When God says something is going to happen, it happens when God says it will take place. This book is unique from every other book in the world. And it demands, it commands our attention because it is obviously a book that can only have come from God. That may be why Nikola Tesla’s mother said to him, He said, my mother taught me to seek all truth in the Bible. If you’re searching for God, if you want to be sure you’ll be in heaven when your life is done, if you want to have peace, please go to the Bible. That is where you’ll find God’s remedy for your sins. Many people, particularly those who have known the gospel for years, make the same mistake that I made as a teenager.

We fail to understand the important place that the Bible, the word of God, holds in the salvation of men and women. You see, I imagined that I, if I ever became saved, this is how I thought, if I ever became saved, I would know it because I would feel a burden roll away from my back, or I would feel very happy, or something, some feeling would indicate to me that that was salvation. And I was wrong. The only way that I know I’m going to be in heaven is because the Bible tells me. The same Bible, the same book that told me I was going to hell and I had never seen hell, the same book that told me I was going to hell and I needed to be saved, is the same book that told me Christ died to save me from hell, that Christ died for my sins so that I would not have to be in the lake of fire forever. And when a human being turns away from all his own ideas and his feelings and simply rests in the word of God, he is resting on a foundation that will never be shaken. John wrote to the Christians in 1 John 5 and verse 13, and he says, These things I write to you who believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know.

That you may know that you have eternal life. How did they know? What were the things he wrote? Just back up from what he’s saying, because he does that often. He’ll say some things and then he’ll say, this is why I’m writing you this. When you back up from what he said, do you know what he’s talking about? He’s talking about God bearing witness. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a courtroom.

But if you have, then you know a witness gets called. steps into the box, promises that he will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And then he gives his witness and he says to you, yes, I saw the accident. Yes. He was driving the white car. Yes. And he hidt his, he’s giving his witness. And then if you’re in the jury, you have to decide, is this credible? Do I believe this person? Is this, do I accept this witness. Now, John says, and this is an amazing thing, God has given his witness. He’s witnessed to two things. He has witnessed to the fact that he gave his son to die for you and me. That’s his witness. And he has witnessed that he gives eternal life to every person who trusts his son. That’s God’s witness.

And John says, the person who doesn’t believe God’s witness is calling God a liar. So I would like to ask you, do you believe what God has said? Do you believe that God gave his son for you? Do you believe that by trusting Christ, you can have eternal life? That’s God’s witness. That’s God’s testimony. That’s what God is giving to you so that you could trust tonight. But I want you to think about Rome’s seal and the authority that was displayed by it. Once Joseph and Nicodemus were finished preparing the Lord’s body, they laid it in the sepulcher that he had carved, that he had hewn out of a rock, and they rolled a stone to close the mouth of this cave. Stones that sealed sepulchers weighed between one and two tons, and it was generally constructed so that there was like a ramp going down to the opening, and the stone could then more easily be rolled into place. Gravity would help you roll the stone into place. It wasn’t so easy to roll it back, but it was easier to roll it into place. So the stone was rolled into place. The sepulcher was sealed by that stone. And then these two Jewish men left to observe the Jewish Sabbath. But the tomb was sealed in another way. Those enemies of the Lord Jesus, they went to Pilate and they said, we’re afraid. We’re afraid.

We’re afraid about this thing about a resurrection and that the disciples could steal his body. It’s interesting, isn’t it, that the followers of the Lord Jesus and the foes of the Lord Jesus, the foes of the Lord Jesus seem to know more than the followers. The followers that followed Christ, the followers of the Lord Jesus were afraid for their life. And the foes of the Lord Jesus were afraid that he would rise from the dead. So they say to Rome, just seal it. Put the official seal across there. And that official seal says, keep out under order of death. In other words, you break this seal and you will die. And then Pilate stationed soldiers there. And these were men of war. They were trained in killing people. They would have been very happy, very happy to slaughter anybody who tried to open that sepulcher and break that seal. You know, in some ways, when I think of that seal, the government sealing that stone. It just reminds me that still today, the world, it just wants to bury Christ and his gospel and.

It’s okay the babe in the manger is okay, but a living savior who tells you that you need to be born again, who says that he had to die to save you from your sins, the world isn’t very much interested in that. And so whether it’s paganism or it’s religions of today, constantly what people want to do is just bury the gospel and be done with it.

And this too has a message for us today.

Because in this whole world, there are just two classes of people. And everybody in this meeting is in one of these two classes. I will tell you what the classes are, and then you will have to find out from God which class you are in. The first class is people who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and they have everlasting life. They are people who have a day in their life when they personally trusted Christ, they received him as Savior, and they were given as a gift from God, they were given eternal life. That’s one class. The second class is people who don’t have a day like that. They have never personally trusted Christ as Savior. They do not have eternal life. And what the Bible says is the wrath of God is abiding on them, and they won’t see heaven if they die. So two classes, people who have everlasting life, people who do not. This has nothing to do with religion. This has nothing to do with whether you’ve been baptized. This has everything to do with whether Christ is your personal Savior. Do you have a day?

In your life, when you turn from your sins and you personally trusted Christ, have you a day like that? You have every right to point the finger back at me and say, okay, Mr. Preacher, do you have a day like that? Yes, thank God, by the grace of God, I do. On a July night in 1966, I realized I was going to hell.

And at about quarter to 10 that night, I found out that Jesus died for me and that that was enough to take me to heaven if I would take him as my savior. That’s the night that I trusted him. And for the last 50 plus years, he has been by my side every step of the way. I have never seen his back. He has never deserted me or forsaken me. I have failed him countless times. He has never failed me once. That’s the savior that God wants you to trust tonight. And if you do, the Bible says you will have everlasting life. When I was a boy growing up, I heard preachers tell a story, an illustration in their preaching, and I heard a lot of versions of it. So I did my best to go back to the source so that I had my facts clearly. So the source was a preacher named F.W. Borum. He is a man that is quoted constantly by many Christian writers of his day and afterward. And the man that he was talking about and that I heard preachers talk about was a man named Edwin Rushworth. Edwin Rushworth was what used to be called a skeptic. That is, he didn’t even know if there was a God. He certainly didn’t believe the Bible, and he didn’t believe in the Lord Jesus.

But at some point, Mr. Rushworth decided he would read the Bible. What’s this all about that the Christians are all talking about? So, he began to read the Bible. Now I’m going to give you the source information. As he was reading the Bible, he looked up at his wife and he said to her, if this book is right,

We are all wrong. Got that? If this book is right, we are all wrong. He continued to read it. His comment to her a few days later was, If this book is right, we are lost. We are lost. Continued searching, but now not just out of curiosity, but with a deep interest. And he looked up at her one day and he said, if this book is right, we can, we can become saved. And he kept reading until he found Christ as his savior. If the Bible is right, where are you going to be when you die?

If the Bible is right, where would you be Easter morning if you died Saturday night? If the Bible is right, are you on your way to heaven or on your way to hell?

I can tell you the Bible is right, and I can tell you that if you trust that Bible, then you’ll be right, and you’ll be on the road to heaven as well. Finally, I want you to consider Israel’s Sabbath and the spiritual reality that God wants us to understand. Now, in the law of Moses, this has to do with Jewish people. In the law of Moses, the Sabbath was given to Israel and they were to observe it every week, every Saturday. No slavish work was to be done. They were to, in one sense, it was to be a time when they stopped working, but it was more, it was more than a day of rest and inactivity because on the Sabbath, they were to be thinking of at least two great works that God had done in the past. The first had to do with God’s life-giving work in creation.

In Genesis, it said that God, on the seventh day, God rested. It doesn’t mean he was tired or weary and he had to sort of back off. What it means is his work was finished. He saw that, this is what it says, he saw that everything was good. That is, everything was ordered by the creator in such a way to reach the goal appointed by that creator and to enjoy the purpose of its existence. Everything was good. Everything was doing what it was supposed to be. The engine of creation was just humming along. So God was done creating.

So on this Sabbath now that we’re looking at, this Saturday in the life of the Lord Jesus, Christ rested because his work was finished. His work was done completely and perfectly. Remember that anticipating Calvary, the Lord Jesus said to God, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do. And the work that God gave him to do was to die and provide salvation for every human being. And the Lord Jesus did that.

That’s why he said, it is finished. Not I am finished. He was going to rise again on the Sunday morning, but it is finished. He had finished the work God gave him to do. He had finished it mightily, marvelously, and miraculously. It was done. Any human being, any human being in the world tonight can go to heaven, can be saved, can have his or her sins forgiven because Christ finished the work. So he rested. Additionally, Christ rested on the Sabbath Because his death, had brought a new creation God created the worlds And then he rested when his work was done, Christ brought about a new creation And then rested in that tomb, In fact, in that new creation 2 Corinthians chapter 5 says That the moment that a person is saved That human being becomes a new creation. Old things are passed away All things have become new Suddenly that person has eternal life, has a new life, is linked with God. And when Christ had finished the work, just as God rested when his creation work was finished, Christ rested when his work was done to produce a new creation and to produce eternal life for sinners. So when they rested on the Sabbath day, when the Jews rested, they were to remember that God rested because he had completed the work of creation. Thank you.

But there was something else they were called on to remember. And you’ll find it in the book of Deuteronomy 5, when God said that they were to remember that they were slaves in the land of Egypt, and that God redeemed them and brought them out, and therefore they were to keep the Sabbath. So on that Sabbath day, they were to remember what they were. They had been helpless, dying slaves, oppressed by a cruel overlord who was determined to work them to death. And you and I, as sinners, when we come into the world, we also are enslaved by sin and are manipulated by a cruel enemy called the devil. And before the Lord Jesus came, our situation was just as hopeless and we were just as helpless. And Christ came to redeem you, to rescue you, to set you free. It was going to cost him his life. It was going to cost him his blood, but he would shed it at Calvary and he would lay down his life so that you could be saved. I’m sure everybody here knows the hymn, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. John Newton was the author. If you ever get to Olney, England.

You will see that just across from the desk at which he sat. So when he would be sitting there composing his messages for Sunday or for the midweek meeting, he’d be looking right across at a text that he had had made for him. It was actually two Bible verses brought together into one text hanging over the fireplace in his study. The two verses were one from Isaiah, one from Deuteronomy. The one from Isaiah said, since thou was precious in my sight, thou has been honorable. And then it just goes seamlessly into the next verse. But thou will remember that thou was the slave in the land of Egypt. He never wanted to forget that the Lord redeemed him, saved him by amazing grace. Can you look back? Can you look back?

To a day in your life when Jesus Christ saved you from your sins. Can you look back to a day when a whole new life started for you? Just like one book closing and another book opening, and your life started all over again because the Lord Jesus had redeemed you. Can you look back to a moment in your life when you were saved? They were not only to remember what they were, but they were to remember what God did, that God delivered them from their bondage. He smashed the greatest military and economic power of the day, and he set them free. And today, right now, that’s exactly what God is doing. He’s rescuing people from the grip of Satan. He is rescuing them from the chains of sin. He is setting people free. And when Paul wrote to the Christians at a place called Colossae. He said that they had been translated. They had been carried over from the kingdom of darkness. That’s the devil’s kingdom. From the kingdom of darkness. And they had been carried over and placed into the kingdom of God’s son. That happened to me on July the 10th, 1966. Has it ever happened to you? God wanted them to remember what it cost.

He wanted them to remember.

That it cost blood to set them free. So I hope I can say this in a reverent way. What if we could all just now, just in mind, what if we could all just come, to that sepulcher? If we could all somehow just look in on that Saturday into that sepulcher, and you will see what it cost God to save you. you will see the silent form, of the creator, the son of God, the prince of life in a place of death the one person who never had to die and yet he died for all the sinners who have to die so that you could have life, And when you look there, you will see what it cost God, to be able to offer you.

Salvation is a gift. Thank God tomorrow night’s subject is going to remind us that that burial was only temporary, that the Lord Jesus shattered the power of death, that he arose from the tomb, that they had to roll the stone away so that the disciples could get in, not to let the Lord Jesus out. He had already risen. But the message to us today is this. It incorporates all that I’m trying to tell you. Here’s the message from God. Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. He was buried and he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures. And he was seen by hundreds of people who saw the risen living Christ. He has this savior, the Lord Jesus. He has entirely and eternally satisfied God about the problem of sin. If you trust him tonight.

Your greatest problem will be solved right now. You’ll have everlasting life. You’ll be on the way to heaven. Your sins will be forgiven. And you will never perish in hell and the lake of fire. Now, I don’t know why anybody would not want to know that. And that is what God is offering to you. So let me just close by giving you the Bible’s simple statement about salvation. Here is what the Bible says. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Thank you so much for your attention.

Eight Days that Changed the World – Good Friday

Now we’re going to read in Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27. And I should have announced or would rather do it now than later. There is a supper here at six o’clock tomorrow night, followed by a gospel meeting. And then the final meeting of this series, the wonderful resurrection night. If the Lord has not come, that is what we’ll be considering on Sunday evening. Matthew chapter 27, look at verse 26.

Then released he, this is Pilate, then released he Barabbas unto them. And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. Now that word band is the Greek word for a Roman cohort. That’s not a word that we use often. The Roman army had 28 legions. There were 28 legions in the Roman army and each legion comprised 10 cohorts. And each cohort was made up of approximately 500 men. So what Matthew was saying is that the whole cohort, hundreds of men were in the barracks that day. We don’t know how many came out to mock the savior, but he might’ve been surrounded by hundreds of leering soldiers in what they were doing. Verse 28, they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews.

And they spit upon him, and took the reed and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his cross. Please notice there is no mention of the Lord Jesus stumbling under the cross or unable to carry the cross.

I think actually that the Romans wanted the Lord Jesus to be more visible to the multitude so that they could see what Rome did to the supposed king of the Jews. Verse 34, they gave him, again, when they come to the place called Golgotha, that is to say a place of a skull, verse 34, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall. And when he had tasted, thereof he would not drink. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down, they watched him there, and set up over his head his accusation written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Now one more reading, please in the book of Romans, chapter 5.

Romans chapter 5 and verse 6.

Romans 5 and verse 6, For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely, that is hardly, for a righteous man will one die. Yet peradventure, perhaps for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Now, the topic this evening is of immense and incomparable importance, and I hope God will bless to you the scriptures that we read and the truths that we’re going to consider. If somebody has come to the meeting tonight searching for salvation, trying to find out how to be saved, then by the grace of God, I can say that you have come to the right place at the right time, because tonight is all about Christ and his cross, and that is equivalent to my saying it is all about what he has done for you and the salvation that he is offering to you tonight. On July 24th, 1969, the then president of the United States, President Richard Nixon, expressed his opinion of the successful mission of Apollo 11. It was a mission which included the first moonwalk. This is what he said to the astronauts. This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the creation. This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the creation.

Now, my gracious audience will allow me to differ with the late president. Laying aside for a moment how far reaching, of course, were the effects of creation, without which there would be no earth, or the flood of Noah’s day, where the future of humanity hinged on the survival of just eight people. There are two events that without exception have had an impact on every mortal human being, every mortal member of the human race. Those events are what happened in Genesis chapter three and what happened at Calvary. And both of those events are linked with two men, Adam and the Lord Jesus.

And the Lord Jesus. It is significant that in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus is called the last Adam, and he is called the second man. Those are significant titles, because when the Bible says he is the second man, it is telling us that if you shuffle through all of humanity from Adam to Christ, everybody was the same. Everybody was a sinner. And then you come to the second man, the one man who was different from all others, the Lord Jesus. But when the Bible calls him the last Adam. That’s a look ahead. And it’s telling us there will never be another head of the human race. Everybody is either linked with Adam or with Christ, either with that first Adam or with the Lord Jesus, the last Adam. In Genesis 3, Adam disobeyed God. He rebelled against the Lord. And as a result, he imparted to each of us, every one of us, and every human being a sinful nature that we obtain at our conception. As the head of the human race, Adam dragged his entire human family into ruin, rendering us helpless, helpless to save ourselves, consigning us to an eternal banishment from God. And all of that was because he just did what he wanted to do rather than listen to God.

But the second man, the last Adam, is the one we’re going to consider tonight. And the Lord Jesus came into the world to save sinners, not to do his own will, but to do the will of his father by sacrificing himself so that by laying down his life, you could have eternal life. So that by shedding his blood, your many sins could be washed away.

He, the Lord Jesus, lifts everyone who trusts him. Adam dragged his whole family down into the ruin and catastrophe of sin. The Lord Jesus lifts everyone who trusts him into the position of being forever a child of God. Now, we have looked at very important events all through this remarkable week.

But what transpired on what we call Good Friday is of monumental importance for the universe, for this world, for every woman and man and girl and boy, and consequently for you. Good Friday, it is thought perhaps comes etymologically, comes from the idea of God’s Friday or God Friday, and then eventually merged into the idea of Good Friday. There is so much that we could have looked at and we’re going to have to overlook for the sake of time, because your time is valuable. We could have thought about the suicide of Judas, the traitor, the betrayer. We could have looked at the five or six trials that the Lord Jesus endured. We could have considered the choice of the murderous Barabbas instead of the Lord Jesus. We could think about Christ’s gentle care for his mother, even while he was enduring the absolutely excruciating pains of crucifixion. We could think about the salvation of the malefactor who was hanged beside the Lord. We could look at Christ’s seven sayings from the cross. You’ll understand that all of those things are vitally important.

But considering the time, there are two broad topics that we want to look at on this Good Friday night. I want you to think about what the Lord Jesus suffered from sinners and then what the Lord Jesus suffered for sinners. Just those two things. What he suffered from us and what he suffered for us. Here is what he suffered from us.

It was vicious, vicious. There was a cruel, sadistic, venomous character to the scorn and mockery that Christ endured. They mocked him as a prophet. They put a blindfold around his eyes, his head, and then a man slapped him. And then another slapped him. And at each slap, they asked, If you’re a prophet, prophesy, who’s slapping you? What’s my name? And they mocked his being a prophet. They mocked him as a king. They arrayed him in a gorgeous robe.

They placed a crown of thorns on his head. They put a stick in his hand like a royal, like a crude scepter. They spat in his face. They beat the thorns deeply into his brow and then bowing in front of him. Sometimes when I read it, I think of the choice of words. Is it Mark that just simply says they worshiped him? They worshiped him. Not that they mockingly worshiped him. Not that they faked worshiping him. Of course it was that. But just the bluntness of it.

These brutal soldiers bowing before this thorn-crowned man, and using words like you would hear Sunday mornings if you came to the breaking of bread and listen, using language about how worthy he was and how much they loved him and how he deserved to be honored. They worshiped him in a pretense of adoration. They mocked him as the Savior. They surrounded him at the cross and said, he saved others. If he’s the Savior, let’s see him save himself. If he’d be the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross and we will believe. Now, the apostle Peter describes the grace, the dignity, the forbearance with which the Lord Jesus endured all of this. Peter says, when Christ was reviled, he reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. I read once somebody said, the Lord Jesus had never been slow of speech when it came to blessing others.

If a guilty sinner came to the Lord Jesus, there was no hesitation to want to bless that person. It was in his heart.

But he didn’t offer a single word in his own defense. So when the Bible says, never man spake like this man, the writer said, we can add, never man was silent like this man with all that he was enduring. It was vicious, but it was also violent. There were elements to their treatment of the Lord Jesus that seem absent from their treatment of the two malefactors and perhaps from all others. For instance, in the house of the high priest, he was slapped repeatedly. I’ve often wondered how that first slap, just that first, slap across the face of the Son of God must have made God the Father feel. That never happened up in heaven. It’s hard for us to grasp eternity. but from eternal ages, nobody ever laid a hand on the Lord Jesus.

We have no record. We have no record. As far as I can recollect, we have no record of anybody ever slapping the Lord Jesus or beating the Lord Jesus prior to his allowing himself to be turned over to them. There were occasions where they tried to lay hands on him to grab him.

But this was a slap that must have echoed through heaven itself because here for the first time ever a creature, a mere man described as one of the officers who stood by, a mere creature actually struck the creator, the son of God. In the palace of Herod, the men of war gathered around the Lord Jesus. Now, remember Pilate said to those howling leaders demanding in Christ’s death, he said, I sent you to Herod. So they trailed him.

When Pilate sent the Lord Jesus to Herod, it wasn’t just the Lord Jesus being taken by a couple of soldiers. The mob followed him and they’re bursting into Herod’s palace. Here were these chief priests saying, he’s got to die. He must die. And we read Herod with his men of war, set him at naught. But the word nought means nothing. They treated the son of the most high God, the Lord of countless angelic beings, as though he were worthless, as though he were beneath their dignity and beneath their position. And there is no expositor I have ever read, no commentary I have ever looked at that has been able to fully explain the awfulness of those words. They set him at nought. I used to work for Philadelphia Electric.

And there were times when I would walk home.

And on one occasion, I passed a bank. It was on the corner. And so both parts, of the building were window displays. And this was a particular anniversary of something connected with the Second World War. And there were a number of pictures. I will never forget one of them. It was of a man who, to all intents and to all appearances, was an Hasidic Jew. He had the hat on, the curls, the long beard, dressed in black. He was surrounded by Nazi soldiers, and some of them looked like SS men. They were armed. You could see from where his garments had been pulled, you could see what was going on.

They were mocking this man. They were going to kill him. But before they shot him, they wanted to make sure he knew that they absolutely, disdained him, detested him, despised him. And you know the thing that struck me? He stood there in the middle of this, circle of leering men. He just stood there, dignified, looking straight ahead, unresisting. Made me think of what Isaiah spoke about the Lord Jesus. And then suddenly I realized the difference. We sang it in the hymn, brother Zudema gave out. That man in the middle of those Nazi soldiers was absolutely helpless. They were armed. He was not. They were powerful and young. He was old.

But when Herod with his men of war set Jesus at naught, battalions of angels could have come if he called, but he didn’t. In the Praetorian courtyard, he was turned over to the Roman soldiers for added abuse and savagery. He was already condemned to die. He was already going to be taken to Calvary, but Matthew and Mark record that the whole band was there. Every soldier present in the barracks that day to join in the cruelty they would heap on the Savior. Secular history tells us that one of the things they did, the game that they played with these helpless victims, was that they would form a circle around them, just as I was talking to you about that Hasidic Jew. They would form a circle around them, and one of the soldiers would grab the prisoner and was allowed one punch, just one, and he would punch the prisoner that would knock him across to the other side of the circle where another soldier would turn the man around. He was allowed one punch. He would, by that punch, be sending the prisoner into the arms of another soldier who would turn him around, and on it would go. And the objective of the game was to say, who could do the most harm with just one punch?

Do you remember Isaiah’s words? That he was disfigured beyond recognition as a man. They pummeled the Lord Jesus. Then in an act of sheer barbarity, they scourged him. Unlike our concept of simple whippings, the Roman scourge was a whip with pieces of bone and metal attached to the ends of the cords. It was called the flagellum or the phlegrum at times. And there were occasions when they would have a hook at the end, and those whips were known as the scorpion because it’s the concept of those hooks biting into the flesh. And when the man handling that would pull back, of course, it would rip the flesh from the person. So they would take the prisoner and they would tie him to a post. He would be bent over so that his entire back all the way down to the waist would be exposed.

And the man who was wielding that phlegm or flagellum, he could kill a man right there, never have him alive to take to a cross, if he wished. He could lay organs open and tear them apart. And of course, the centurion who was in charge, he would signal to the lictor, That’s enough and make the scourging stop because they want a crucifixion. They don’t want the man to die there. Now, please remember the Jewish law.

Restricted the punishment to 39 stripes, 39 times a person whipped.

Roman law had no restriction. And it wasn’t the Jews who scourged Christ. It was the Romans. All of that he endured in silence. Isaiah wrote, he has brought us a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers as dumb. So he opened not his mouth. Now, most depictions or even considerations of what the Lord Jesus suffered, stop right there with what we have just discussed. If you’ve watched any movies depicting Calvary, that’s as far as they can go. And what I’ve told you is terrible. My words have been pathetic attempts to tell you a little of what he suffered. What the Lord Jesus endured from humans.

Was just a drop. In the immeasurable ocean of pain and suffering, he would later undergo on the cross when he was bearing our sins. Now, please, I’m gonna call on my audience. It is vital that you grasp the truths we are now going to look at. And I have asked God to help me make them unmistakably clear to you as we consider what the Lord Jesus suffered for sinners, what he suffered for you. We need to understand, first of all, that it was voluntary. Voluntary. It was decided. That’s a very poor word. I don’t know any other word to use. It was decided by the Trinity that it would be the Son of God, not the Father, not the Holy Spirit, but it would be the Son of God who would become one of us and would sacrifice his life to redeem fallen’s humanity. Failing to grasp that fact.

That the triune God, always working in unity, that the triune God had determined, that it would be the Son of God. When people fail to grasp that, they imagine that God has been unfair by punishing an innocent person for guilty people. But remember, please, this was Christ’s creation. His creatures had been ruined by sin. His creation had been attacked by Satan. So the Lord Jesus chose to come and undo the works of the devil, providing salvation for every human being so that an offer of salvation could be extended to you. And by his death, he would lay the foundation on which God eventually is going to expel sin from an entire new universe, all because of what the Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross. Now the Old Testament gives us wonderful pictures to help us understand. Let me just run some of them past you very quickly. Think about Judah. He was one of Jacob’s sons. And Judah begs this Egyptian premier, who was actually his brother, Joseph. He begs him to be a substitute, to take the place of Benjamin so that if one of these sons of Jacob have to go into prison and be held there, Judah says, let it be me.

Think about Moses going up the mountain the next day after Israel had worshiped the golden calf, and saying to God, if somebody has to be blotted out from living, if somebody has to be removed from the planet and die because of this sin, let it be me. He’s offering himself instead of the nation. Think of Boaz outside the city gates at Bethlehem, paying the full and complete price to redeem Ruth. Those are pictures, those are cameos of what the Lord Jesus would accomplish at Calvary. And the most telling picture of all, likely, think about Abraham and Isaac, father and son, going to the altar together. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his only son, confident that God would raise him from the dead. Isaac was willing to be bound to the altar, confident that his father would do the right thing. It foreshadowed the truth expressed by the Savior in John chapter three, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. I’m looking at some of you tonight and I can see the glazed look on your face. You’ve heard these verses so many times. You’ve heard this truth countless times.

I wish I could just impress on you tonight how incredible, how absolutely astounding, are the facts that we’re looking at tonight. God’s love for the world led him to give his son. Christ’s love for your soul, for you, led him to give his life.

And he did it voluntarily. Some years ago, there was a man in California, worked in an aerospace plant in Burbank. And he got a call to come in earlier to replace someone who was not well or, whatever the case was, wouldn’t come in. So I’ll just give you his first name. He was a 44-year-old man. His first name was John.

He’s on a train that he shouldn’t have been on. He wouldn’t have normally been on that train. It was a double-decker. He went to the upper deck. It was very early. Settled back. Fell asleep, trying to get some sleep before his train stop arrived. And the next thing he knows…

He’s flat on his stomach. He’s pressed down by debris. He can’t get up. He can hardly move. There’s something wet dripping on him, and when he puts his hand up to see what it is, it’s his blood. The train had crashed. It was a January day. Eleven people died. Two of the eleven who died were right where he was, right in his car. John is pinned down, bleeding. Trapped. He said later, he began to sing a hymn. I don’t know the hymn, but I can understand the words. Why me, Lord? Whatever that hymn is, he’s singing as he’s trapped under that debris, bleeding, and thinking he’s going to die. And with that thought in his mind and the blood on his hand. He dipped into the blood again. And then on the twisted chair back that was in front of him, he lifted his hand and he wrote this, I, and then instead of the word love, he made the usual symbol of a heart. I love my kids. I love Leslie. That’s his wife. and in a short time he passed out.

Rescuers eventually reached where he was on that train. And as they were prying the debris off of him to free him, he was unconscious. One of the men spotted the seat back with that message. Now, what he said is, I knew one thing. I knew that once we got him out of here, I had to get that seat. I had to get that to his family. Before they even were able to do that, Leslie, his wife, saw a picture of it.

I love my kids. I love Leslie. And she said, Hallmark, you know the card company? Hallmark is never going to top this. Never, never going to top this. Where would you find a card? Written in his own blood, how much he loved his family. If you look at Calvary, you will see a message written in the most precious blood ever shed on this planet. And its message is that God loves you and Christ died for you. Do not miss that message. Do not overlook that phenomenal truth that Christ came to save you. And the way the apostle Paul put it, as we read, is God displayed his love toward us. He put it out there for you to see. In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now that leads us to the truth that since the Lord Jesus suffered for sins as a substitute, that is in my place, it was also, if I could use a big theological word, it was also vicarious. That is, it was on my behalf. It was for my benefit. Look back at those scenes again.

After all the mockery, they laid the horizontal piece of the Roman cross, that ponderous patibulum, they laid that on his back. He made his way out of Jerusalem’s north gate to the place of execution. Eventually, they impressed a man named Simon the Cyrenian to carry the cross. As I say, I think they did that so that everyone could see what the king of the Jews looked like after Rome had beaten him and crowned him. The place of execution outside the walls was called Calvary. That’s from the Latin word for skull. And the word Golgotha, the name Golgotha, is from the Aramaic for skull. Therefore, it was called the place of a skull. And for.

Six hours from the third to the ninth hour, 9 a.m. To 3 p.m. our time, six interminable, seemingly never-ending hours, the Creator hung on a cross to save you from hell. Maybe you’ve heard Christians sing these words, what He endured, no tongue can tell to save our souls from death and hell.

The kind of death he died centuries before God had singled it out and said it’s the death of the curse. The person who hangs on a tree is dying the death of the curse. And he died that kind of a death to deal with this monstrous thing that’s in your heart and is threatening to kill you and destroy you forever. Christ died for our sins.

That involved God’s charging Christ with the sins of guilty sinners. That’s why I say when man was done, God did something that no man could do. He laid my sins on the Savior. Isaiah put it this way. He said, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He added words like this. He said that he was stricken for the transgression of others, that his soul would become an offering for sin, that he would bear or carry the sins of many. Zechariah, the prophet, spoke of an ancient sword being drawn by God, and in the hand of omnipotence, in one awful, incredible stroke of divine judgment, the sword would pierce the heart of the Lord Jesus.

And he would suffer to save you, suffer so that your sins could be paid for. And the Bible just expresses it so simply. I can’t improve on it. Listen to what it says. Christ died for our sins. All that he went through was so that you could go home tonight with every sin forgiven. Because when he charged Christ with my sins on the cross, God then punished Jesus in my place. See, I know that my sins were put on him. Because God’s word says that. I know that there were my iniquities for which he was bruised. I know that because God’s word says that.

So allow me to ask you, each of you here tonight.

Was he wounded for you? Was he bruised for you? On the cross, when he was dying for my sins, did he die for yours? His suffering, his stripes have healed me. Are they enough to heal you? Only one other topic this week. Only one other topic this week. Easter Sunday topic equals in importance what we are considering tonight. So please allow me to be crystal clear. If it seems somewhat repetitious, please listen. The death of Christ on that cross was a substitutionary death. I know he took my place. Jesus died instead of me. or as Paul so succinctly put it, the son of God loved me and he gave himself for me. Years ago, preachers had a wonderful phrase they used to explain what happened at Calvary and they called it the marvelous exchange, the marvelous exchange, Jesus instead of me.

And one of those delightful little books about assembly preachers and workers, if you ever happen to read the Donald Ross book, you’ll find out that as a young man in a place called Inchdown, Scotland, he was deeply troubled about his sins. He was 15 years of age. And he was reading the gospel, searching for salvation. And he found himself reading John 18, the Garden of Gethsemane. And he got down to verse eight. The band had come armed, ready to capture Christ. And the Lord Jesus stood between them and his disciples. And he said, if you seek me, let these go their way. The disciples run. And the Lord Jesus allows himself to be bound and led away. And the thought just came into this man’s mind, Mr. Ross’s mind. He’s 15 years of age. He thought to himself, Jesus, Jesus took their place. He’s bound and they go free.

And it dawned on him that that is exactly what happened at Calvary, that Jesus took Donald Ross’s place and Donald Ross goes free. Well, I’m thankful that I know he took my place and I go free. So would you ask yourself in the quiet of your own mind and heart, just this question, did Jesus do anything for you?

Did Jesus do anything for you, when he died on the cross?

I’m going to just take a couple more minutes and tell you his death was a sufficient payment. He fully accomplished the work. He said it is finished. He has provided salvation for everyone. There is enough in what Christ did at Calvary to save every human being who ever lived. Therefore, I can tell you it’s enough to save you tonight if you will simply come and trust him. Let go of any other idea about how to be saved and simply turn to the Lord Jesus and he will save you. Now, I can’t close this meeting tonight without telling you that the hymn at the beginning of the meeting was written by a man who was not saved. Not when he started the hymn.

He was just, to give you his own words He said, I was a profane man, I drank a lot He meant if anybody needed a savior, I needed a savior His name was Ray Overholt He was, playing in a band in a dance hall in Battle Creek, Michigan When he started to write this song, And I was struck by his words, he said I couldn’t write a song and not know the man I was writing about. I didn’t know much about the Bible. I didn’t know much about Jesus. I thought, I better find out about him if I’m going to write about him. So he said, I opened the Bible. I began to read the portion of scripture that describes Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he said he could send 12 legions of angels. He said, at that time, I didn’t realize 12 legions of angels was far more than 10,000. But he said, I thought he could have called 10,000 angels would be a good title. So he said, I wrote the first verse. He was a sinner. He wrote the first verse. He said, I threw it in my guitar case.

And while I was trying to find out who this man Jesus was and writing the rest of the song, I was saved. People need to remember the power Jesus has as the son of God. He was so powerful, he could have cried out for 10,000 angels, but he stayed on the cross alone, alone at Calvary. And if you ever find out, what Jesus did for you at Calvary, I think you’ll find yourself often singing with deep appreciation. Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan. Oh, the grace that brought it down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary. I can’t say it any better than the Bible’s simple, clear statement to get home with you tonight. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

Eight Days that Changed the World – Maundy Thursday

Would you turn, please, to John chapter 13, and verse 1. Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. Look down the chapter to verse 21.

When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was a leaning on Jesus, one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.

He then lying on Jesus’ breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. Now, a sap was just a piece of bread that was pulled from the loaf and often would be dipped in wine and then would be extended as a token of affection or honor at a supper like this. So the Lord Jesus says, He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop, Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him, for some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast, or that he should give something to the poor. He then, having received the sop went immediately out, and it was night. Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. Now this is called.

Maundy Thursday, which is an unusual word. Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum, which is a command and edict. And the verse we’re going to read now is why this Thursday is often called Maundy Thursday. Verse 34, a new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that she also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have loved one toward, another. So that mandate, that command was the statement of the Lord Jesus that his disciples are to love one another. Now, each night as the days of the week have passed, we have been drawing nearer to the epical events of the weekend. The topics of tonight’s meeting, as I’m sure you know, will culminate in the arrest of the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Knowing what lay ahead of him, the Lord Jesus was gently preparing the disciples for his absence, for his departure. His death on the cross was going to be a shock to them. And so in that upper room, when Judas had gone out, the Lord Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper and then explained to them so many wonderful truths. And the words that he spoke in that upper room are poignant and tender. In fact, I would consider them not only some of the most.

Poignant words in the Bible, but maybe in all of literature, as the Lord Jesus was addressing these men that he loved so dearly, and yet men that he was going to be leaving. Now, how incredibly important were the events of this day, this Thursday? In fact, nearly one-sixth, one-sixth of the four gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is occupied with the account of the 24 hours from the upper room where we read to the Savior’s burial. There is no day in all of Bible history that is narrated with such fullness as this day. Somebody has estimated that if we possess the record of the Lord’s life, written with the same detail as the record of these last days, that that record would occupy 180 volumes as large as your entire Bible. So these are incredibly important days. Just allow me briefly to sum them up and just think with you very quickly about what took place. In that upper room in Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus observed the Passover with all 12 of his disciples. They were all Jews. He observed the Passover with them all. Displaying grace and humility, the Lord Jesus washed the feet of each of the disciples. No one offered to wash his feet. He washed theirs, and that includes Judas the betrayer. During the Passover supper.

The Lord identified Judas as the traitor. Judas then left the room to complete his awful treachery. And then the Lord Jesus, the Passover having finished, the Lord Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. Now, this was now just not with 12, but with the 11. Judas was gone. He is not a saved person. But now for the believers there, those 11 men, he instituted the Lord’s Supper consisting of bread and wine. Following that, the Savior commenced what has been called the upper room discourse. And what he said to those 11 men, as I have mentioned, is incredibly touching. They apparently knew nothing of what was coming. He knew everything that was coming.

That discourse may have continued because after they sang a hymn, they made their way out to the Garden of Gethsemane, a garden that the Lord Jesus often visited. And it may be that the discussion such as the vine, when he discussed that in chapter 15, all that may have taken place on the way to the garden. It was in that garden that the Lord Jesus offered his fervent cries to his father. And it was to that garden that Judas led the band of armed men to capture him. So a month of meetings could not deal with all of the historic happenings of just this Thursday. But tonight is gonna be all about the Lord Jesus. And so I wanna consider with you, first of all, His amazing grace, His wonderful love, and His precious blood.

What amazing grace is displayed in his giving that sop to Judas. During the Passover supper, the Lord told the disciples that one would betray him. Now, you know, they didn’t sit at tables on chairs as we do. They reclined at a table. So there is a table set with food. And from what I have seen from people who have been to the Middle East, it may be almost U-shaped. And then there would be couches radiating out from the tables and the person who was nearest to the couch where the Lord Jesus was reclining was John. And that is why when the Lord Jesus says, one of you shall betray me, Peter, who would perhaps have been positioned further away, beckons or motions to John, ask him of whom it is he speaking. And that is why John simply says to the Lord Jesus, who is it? Now, what was so confusing to the disciples was, number one, they had no idea that Judas was a traitor. The Lord Jesus knew that. He knew that from years before. He actually chose Judas, knowing Judas was a traitor, and he put into his band.

A man who for three and a half years would watch the perfect life of the Lord Jesus. If you have any failures. You don’t want people around who can see those failures, but the Lord Jesus was perfect that he allowed a man to be in his company who would actually sell him for 30 pieces of silver. But the sop also was a confusing thing because that was a token of esteem. That was a sign of affection. I’m told that sometimes at the Passover supper, what the father would do would be dip that sop in his drink and he would give it to his oldest son, to the heir. It was supposed to be a mark of love and affection and honor and esteem. And now when the Lord Jesus dips the sop, he gives it to Judas. Now notice, please, it is when Judas took that sop that Satan entered into Judas’s heart.

That sop was a secret message from the Lord Jesus to Judas. He was saying, in effect, Judas, it’s not too late. If you turn now, I can save you. When hypocritically, Judas takes the sop, the die was cast. He was still maintaining the mask. He was still going on with his hypocrisy. He was still going to pretend to be a disciple, but he intended fully to sell the Lord Jesus, as in fact, he had already done. He takes the sop, Satan enters into his heart, and the Lord Jesus, knowing now that Judas is beyond hope, says to him, what you’re going to do, do it quickly. Judas leaves, and the reason why the Lord Jesus wanted that Satan-possessed man to be out of that room was because he cherished, he treasured these moments, with these men that he loved and that he had taught for three plus years. And he was treasuring all these last moments with them before he would be taken to Calvary. I can say.

Authoritatively that I only know of two men who are linked with Satan possession. Many people have been demon-possessed.

But I only know, I only know of two men that are linked with satanic possession. Judas, Satan entered into him. The devil did not leave this task to an inferior demon to carry this out. This was the hand-picked work of the devil to make sure that Christ would be murdered. Satan entered into him. And it seems that in a coming day, the man that is called the beast, this coming world ruler that is depicted in Revelation chapter 13, verses 1 to 8, that he as well will be indwelt by Satan. But I just think about the grace that the Lord Jesus showed to this man. Remember now, Judas had sold him. The price that was agreed with the chief priest was 30 pieces of silver. Now, 30 pieces of silver was the price that was levied if a man had a servant, and another man’s ox hurt that servant so that that servant was killed or that servant could no longer work. Then what was imposed on that man who had caused the damage was 30 pieces of silver to make up for the wounding of a slave.

When they got their heads together, the leaders of the people and Judas decided, that that would be a suitable price. The same money that would be paid for a dead or a dying slave, 30 pieces of silver. And yet here, the Lord Jesus reaches out one more time to Judas to reach him before he makes this terrible mistake. So before I just leave this point, I want you to think two significant things about Judas. The first is that he was a hypocrite. He was pretending to be something he was not. The man that we’re talking about tonight, the Lord Jesus, he is the truth. He is the truth. So while Judas was living a lie, he was selling, he was betraying. He was a traitor to the person who is truth embodied. In Genesis chapter three.

There was a willing abdication. I said the other night that it is only the Bible that gives us a logical explanation for why human beings like you and me are capable of such marvelous acts of selflessness and kindness and altruism and creativity and goodness, and yet at the same time are capable of such acts of selfishness and bitterness and envy and sin. And the reason is that we were made in the likeness of God, and then something came in to ruin that. And so we have vestiges, if you will, of what we should be with the terrible effects of sin so obvious in our life. Now, in Genesis 3, that is where it happened. And Adam willingly abdicated his throne. He believed the devil’s lie.

And he gave up his freedom and his crown and his kingdom into the hands of Satan. Whatever Satan had whispered in Judas’s ear months, if not years before had been a similar lie. And sadly, Judas believed the lie and turned from the truth. Now, the only reason I’m wasting your valuable time on this is that still today in the 21st century, with a thousand lies and enticements, the devil labors to turn humans away from God. He whispers into the ears of people that God is unkind, that God is unfair, that God is something to stay away from, that if you want to know God at all, wait till you’re dying. If you want to know anything about Christ, just wait till your deathbed. Don’t get involved with him now. There are countless lies that the devil whispers into the ears, into the hearts and minds of human beings to turn them away from God. So I would like to ask you tonight, whom do you believe? Do you believe the devil who was a liar from the beginning.

Or do you believe the man who is truth embodied, the Lord Jesus? You know, there’s a wonderful statement about God and the Lord Jesus is God, he’s deity. There’s a wonderful statement about God made by Paul when he’s writing to Titus. And he just simply says, God who cannot lie. God who cannot lie. I don’t want to lie, but tragically, I have the ability to lie. God has no capacity for lying. It’s not part of his makeup. He cannot lie when he speaks. It is always true. And so you are left with either accepting truth from God or swallowing the lies of the devil. In the Palazzo Spada in Rome, the famous 17th century architect Francesco Borromini, has something that still is there to this day. It is called Borromini’s.

Corridor, I believe is the name. And it’s an optical illusion. And if you stand looking into that corridor, it’s actually outside of a building and you’re looking with walls on either side and you’re looking into this corridor. He has created this optical illusion that makes this, I think it’s about 20 feet, makes it look like it’s 65 feet long. And it distorts a statue that’s at the far end of it. And it’s all just an illusion. And for many years, there was a sign above that statue at the far end that said, the world’s grandeur is nothing but an illusion. The world’s grandeur is nothing but an illusion. And yet, sadly, many people are mesmerized by the illusion of success, of pleasure, of wealth, of fame, and of a thousand other things, and they have neglected the most important thing in their life, and that is their eternal well-being. Could I challenge you tonight? Could I ask you tonight, have you made any preparation for where you’re going to be when you die?

If you were going to travel to Disney World, you’d be making preparation. You’d be checking your flights. You’d be checking the prices. You’d be checking the costs of the tickets. You’d be planning where you’re going to stay. You’d be deeply involved to make sure that that one week, perhaps, that you have is just going to be perfect. You’re going to make sure you take care of everything so you plan it all out. You try to think ahead of what problems there might be. You want to pack the things you’ll need for one week.

My friend, you’re going to be in eternity forever. Whether you believe that or not, that’s what God says. You’re going to be in eternity for endless ages. Don’t you think it would be wise for you to make sure that when you leave this world and you go out into eternity, that you will be in heaven with God and not in hell? I would suggest to you with the example of the Lord’s parables, using that concept of wisdom and folly, I would suggest to you that the highest wisdom of a human being.

Is to look ahead and to prepare for that eternity and to be saved, to have Christ as your savior. One more thing about Judas, he was a thief as well as a hypocrite. He worked it out that he would be the treasurer for the disciples. And when anybody ever gave the disciples any money to buy food or something like that, Judas would put it in the bag. But when no one was looking, he’d be taking it from the bag. and he’d be using it for himself. Now, remember, please, that the Lord Jesus was constantly giving, giving, giving food to people, giving health to people. He gives eternal life to those who trust him. He said to the woman at the well in John chapter four, if you knew the gift of God, if you knew who it is that’s talking to you, you would have asked of me and I would have given you living water. He was constantly doing that through his life. And then he gave his life at Calvary, and now alive from the dead, he gives eternal life to everyone who trusts him. And yet in contrast to that, Judas was taking, constantly taking. So I’m going to say again, it was marvelous grace on the Lord’s part to offer Judas the possibility of forgiveness, even at that late stage, that late hour.

And that same grace is offering you salvation tonight. Right here and now. Has nothing to do with the supposed importance of the speaker. I’m just a normal person like you. But whenever the scriptures are read and the gospel is preached, God is giving a bona fide offer of salvation, of eternal life, of forgiveness to everybody who hears it. So you’re getting the offer of a lifetime because it’s coming from God and you could have eternal life.

You know, when Paul thought about how he was saved, he used to be called Saul from the town of Tarsus. When Paul thought about how he was saved, here’s how he described it. He said, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was exceeding abundant. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ just overabounded. He knew how bad a sinner he was, but he was saying God’s grace was even greater. Do you remember, of course, when Peter was talking in Acts chapter 15, he’s talking about Jews and Gentiles. And this is what he said. We believe that by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We will be saved even as they, that there were not two ways of salvation, that by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, Peter was saying Jews can be saved and so can Gentiles. So by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, you could go home tonight with every one of your sins forgiven. If you trust the Savior, because His grace is amazing. But think with me, please, about His wonderful love. It’s described here in John 13 as being love to the end, and it has been translated to the uttermost, to the uttermost. You know, whenever I read John 13 and 1, I am reminded of a very fascinating missionary book I read when I was a teenager. The missionary’s name was Henry Martin. And he was a missionary to what was called at that time, Persia, that is Iran today, much in the news.

And he hired a Muslim translator to help him translate. And what they started on was the gospel of John. Now, you must understand that this translator had never read the Bible before. So he’s reading John chapter one and making his way through the gospels. And he’s reading about the Lord Jesus and these disciples. And they got to John chapter 13. And as they were talking about this verse and how it should be worded, and the translator looked at it carefully, he looked up at Mr. Martin and he just simply said with a tone of awe in his voice, he said, how much he loved these men, how much he loved these men to the uttermost. I’m glad that I am one of his own that he loved and that he loved me to the uttermost by giving his life for me at Calvary. I hope you’ll come tonight to understand how much he loves you, because think of how expressive, how expressive the display of that love was.

It’s a cross. Tomorrow night, if the Lord hasn’t come, we’ll be looking at what happened on what is called Good Friday. I think the Germans have a word for it that is much different. They call it something that would be translated mournful Friday. What a Friday it was. Do you know that on that cross, God was displaying how much he loves you. On that cross, the Lord Jesus was displaying how much he loves you. He became a man. He became a man so that he could die. God cannot die.

God cannot die. So God became a man in order that he could die. And that is an incredible fact. His name is Immanuel, God with us. He’s not a distant, faraway God. He came here. He was with us here. And he wants to be your savior tonight. He willingly sacrificed his life, willingly sacrificed his life. There were no plots, no scheme, No ruse could have successfully ensnared him. No one could have killed him. He said, I have power to lay my life down. I have power to take it again. No one takes my life from me. I’ve received this commandment from my father. He wasn’t mortal in the sense that he had to die. Only that he could die if he chose to. That’s a vast difference. You see, I have to die. The Lord doesn’t come. I will die. If someone were to burst into the hall tonight and figure that the first person who should be taken out is the man on the platform, if he’s got a good aim, I will die. But no one could somehow secretly kill the Lord Jesus. He was not mortal in the sense that he had to die. The amazing thing is that the Prince of Life.

Was willing to come down here and enter into this awful experience called death. He did that willingly so that the one who never had to die died, so that we who had to die could live. And he’s offering eternal life to you tonight. If you know things about ancient history, they’re really not sure if this is completely as widespread as they often say, but if you’ve ever heard about the whipping boy, that, if a prince was young and he misbehaved, the prince doesn’t get punished. There’s no corporal punishment against an heir to the throne. There would be a whipping boy. There would be an associate who would take the boy’s punishment so that the prince does the wrong thing. He gets off free. And then this poor sap who has to take his place, he gets punished instead. He didn’t do anything wrong, but he gets punished instead. Why? Because the prince is an important man, see, or is going to be an important person.

Then you come to the Bible and you come to the gospel and God has turned that completely on its head. And we, we, guilty sinners who deserve nothing but judgment, the king, the king dies for us. The prince, who never did anything wrong, takes the place of guilty sinners and dies on a cross. Because you see, his death was by means of crucifixion. That was an agonizing, excruciating death marked by pain and anguish. But he endured it, and he endured its awful curse, and he endured the agony of bearing my sins in his own body on the tree so that I could live. I don’t know what you will hear, tomorrow. I don’t know what you will hear in the days ahead.

But I can tell you this, you will never hear anything more important than the fact that Christ died for your sins on the cross. You will never hear anything more significant. You will never hear anything that will have greater implications for you than the message that the Son of God loved you and died for you on a cross at Calvary. It was an act of selfless bravery. It was an act of willing self-sacrifice displayed to the full so that the apostle Paul put it this way in such a personal manner. The son of God loved me and he gave himself for me. Think of how extensive, how extensive the results of that love are because the provision that the Lord Jesus made is for the world. He didn’t make it for Christians. He didn’t make it for people who live in a certain part of this world. He didn’t make it for a favored ethnicity.

The Lord Jesus said in John chapter three, God didn’t send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Again, he said in John chapter 12, I didn’t come to judge the world. I came to save the world. In John chapter six, he said that he was the bread of God. He had come down from heaven to give life to the world. You see that this is unlimited in its scope, that it’s taking everybody in, that what the Lord Jesus did at Calvary was sufficient for the entire globe, for the entire race, for every human being.

We think that people are great when they perhaps have had an impact on their generation, but, There are a select group of people throughout history who have had an impact on their generation and in some cases, every generation to follow.

There’s only one man, who had an impact on his generation. Every generation to follow.

And every generation that was before him. because his work was known to God, from creation itself, from before creation. And before the Lord Jesus even came, it was his coming, it was his eventual and certain death on the cross that was allowing God to save people like Abraham, and Moses and David and people in that what we call the Old Testament times. And he has come to provide life for the world. He provides deliverance from sin. John wrote that Christ is the propitiation, the payment for our sins and not for ours alone, but for the whole world. So whether it is life that you’re seeking or salvation that you’re seeking or forgiveness that you’re seeking or deliverance from sin, think of how extensive this salvation is, that he did something that is provided for the entire world. A native from the country of Belize in South America once described to me a poison tree.

She said, even the powder of it, if people walk underneath it and there’s any kind of breeze, even the powder from the tree causes a painful rash. And that the only remedy for that poison tree, the only remedy is the tree, and I’m going to do my best to pronounce it the way she did it. She called it the Gumbolimbo tree. And she said, and this is what I found remarkable. She said, wherever you find that poison tree.

All you need to do is look around because very close to it, there is always a gumbolimbo tree. So that wherever you find the problem, right near it is the solution. You go this whole world wide and what you will find are hearts breaking, families being ripped apart, homes being destroyed. You’ll see the terrible effects of sin in the lives of countless men and women, what it has done to our nation, what it has done to our world. But wherever you find sin, the true pandemic, wherever you find sin, you will find this wonderful cure made available to the whole world that Christ is the Savior, the Bible says, for the world. If you’re in this world, then he’s the Savior God has appointed for you. I hope that you’ll trust him tonight and leave this meeting with salvation. Finally, I want you to think about Christ’s precious blood. I didn’t take the time to read with you the event that took place on this Thursday night in that upper room, but when Judas went out, the Lord Jesus took a cup of wine from the table and he said, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for the remission of sins.

Peter, who was at that table, picked this adjective led by the Spirit of God, and he said, you are redeemed with the precious, precious blood of Christ. You know, when they kept the Passover, they looked back to what happened centuries before when God brought them out of Egypt. If you come here Sunday morning at about 10 o’clock and you come through the doors, You’ll see a table. This is if the Savior has not returned. You’ll see a table with a loaf of bread and a cup of wine. And Jews, when they keep the Passover, look back to that night when they were delivered from Egypt. Christians, when they observe the Lord’s Supper that he instituted, we look back to Calvary and to what Jesus did on the cross, and we look forward to the moment when we’ll see him because he’s coming again. But I want you just to think in the closing moments of the meeting about that precious blood. Think of how many sinners Christ died for.

Think of how many sinners he shed his blood for. Here’s the Bible’s description. It says he gave himself a ransom for all. Now, when you think about the millions of people who are living, who have lived and may yet live, please understand that for each one of those individual people, Jesus gave himself at Calvary, shed his blood and promises this gift of salvation if they will simply trust him. His work on the cross embraced the entire human race without distinction, without exception. He tasted death for everyone. That includes you. You can get in on the good of this. You can come into the blessings of what he did at Calvary, because just think of how valuable that blood is, how precious that blood is when it was shed for every human being. Think of how many sins Christ died for.

The night that God made me aware of my sins, I felt it was a crushing burden. I’m not trying to exaggerate to you. I just remember stumbling out of the gospel meeting and thinking, my sins are taking me to hell. What am I going to do? Where am I going to be in eternity? How can I be saved? Those were just my sins. Everybody here has sins. Maybe you have less sins than I do, but everybody in the world has sins. Think about the ponderous burden, the immeasurable, the incomprehensible number of sins that were charged to the Lord Jesus at Calvary. And for every one of those sins, he had to shed his precious blood. Now, this is what casts light on what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Lord Jesus was not balking at dying He wasn’t somehow now After this is the very purpose he came He’s not somehow now saying Is there any other way except my dying.

What was happening in the Garden of Gethsemane was the eternally holy Son of God contemplating what was about to happen in just hours. Not a cross, not nails, not the thorns, not the scourging, not the beating, not the spitting, no. That the eternally holy Son of God, for the first time in his experience was going to come into actual contact with sin. God would lay those sins on him and then punish the Lord Jesus as if they were his sins. And I want you to think of how precious his blood must be if they can cleanse the sins of every sinner. How greatly, how infinitely, how terribly he suffered so that sinners could be set free. How wonderfully, how gloriously, how magnificently he has triumphed so that you could have the forgiveness of sins tonight. You could be saved. You could go home having everlasting life. But finally, I want you to think about how many sinners.

Are going to be in heaven because of the precious blood of Christ. So I think of how many sinners he died for, the entire race. I think of how many sins his blood can cleanse, every sin. But then I find what the book of Revelation describes as the number of people, who are going to be in heaven. And here’s the description. From every kindred and tongue and people and nation.

An unnumbered crowd that cannot be, John couldn’t number them as he looked at the vast throng of people that he is prophetically seeing around the throne of God and of the Lamb. Billions upon billions of people who in their life here trusted the Lord Jesus, either looked forward to his coming that he would come and die, or like us, looking back to the fact that he has come and he has died. Heaven filled with men and women from every part of the globe. But of course, the question just right now here in Midland Park is, will you be there? Will you be there? There’ll be people there from India. There’ll be people there from Africa. There’ll be people there from Canada. There’ll be people there from the United States. If I ran down a list of all of the countries in the world, to be people from every nation. What a tragedy if you’re not there. What an unutterable tragedy when you think of all that the Lord Jesus did to make it possible so that you could be there, that he shed his blood, that he sacrificed his life, that he died, so that you could have eternal life. Please, could I urge you, before you put your head on your pillow tonight, make sure that Christ is your Savior and that heaven is your eternal home.

Eight Days that Changed the World – Wednesday

Would you turn, please, first to the gospel written by Luke and chapter 21. Luke chapter 21. Look down at verse 37. And in the daytime, he was teaching in the temple. And at night, he went out and abode in the mount that is called the Mount of Olives. And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple for to hear him. So this seems to be the Savior’s custom, not staying the evening in Jerusalem, but each day going out at night, at evening to Bethany, to the Mount of Olives. Now, I want to read about two events that did not happen on the Wednesday, but are linked with Bethany. So look at chapter 24, please, in this book, Luke chapter 24, and verse 50.

And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. So you get the picture that the Lord Jesus in the process of blessing them. So with his hands up raised in the proverbial token of blessing from the high priest of Israel, as he’s pronouncing a blessing on the disciples, he is majestically lifted up from them and is taken up into heaven. Verse 52 says, they worshiped him. That’s a remarkable statement. They worshiped Christ and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. You remember that before this, when Jews wanted to worship, they had to go to Jerusalem to worship, but that’s all gone now. They’re worshiping right there on that mount. They worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem. Verse 53 says they were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen. Our final readings will be in John, please, in chapter 11. John chapter 11.

And look down at verse 18, John 11 and verse 18. Now, Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs off. And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him. But Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now, whatsoever thou would ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection of the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whoso liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. I’ll skip down, please, to verse 32. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.

Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him. And some of them said, Could not this man which opened the eyes of the blind have caused that even this man should not have died? Jesus therefore again groaning in himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe that thou shouldst see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes, And his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, loose him and let him go. Now, in the rest of the chapter, we discover that as a result of this miracle, opposition to the Lord Jesus is going to climax, and they’re going to be determined finally to do away with him. But if you just look down, please, to the opening of chapter 12, just those first three verses .

Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Now, just to give you the time frame, this is something that would have happened on the Saturday of Palm Sunday weekend. So, this has already taken place. We’re just reading things that are related to Bethany. This would have happened on the Saturday, six days before the Passover. Verse three, then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.

Tonight, we’re going to consider how the Lord Jesus spent the Wednesday of his last week before his death. This day is variously called Spy Wednesday because of Judas’s behavior, Great Wednesday or Good Wednesday. While we know where the Lord Jesus was, we know absolutely nothing about what happened on Wednesday. That is why I’ve read to you about Bethany, because this is what the Lord Jesus loved. To leave the criticism and the hatred and the plotting of Jerusalem and to go down to a village where he was wholeheartedly welcomed by people who loved him. So that is what we’re going to be looking at this night. Wednesday of this week is like a quiet oasis or maybe more exactly like being in the eye of a storm. It’s a calm, wonderful day where he enjoys a day of quiet repose and of interaction with those dear friends. Bethany is on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives. That is the farthest side from Jerusalem. And that 15 furlongs means it’s just about two miles from Jerusalem. And each day, each evening, the Lord Jesus would go out to Bethany with the disciples, and then in the morning would come back to Jerusalem. And now Tuesday, he has done that, as we noted last evening. And now on the Wednesday, we find him staying in Bethlehem, in Bethany.

That is called the village of Lazarus. I’m going to do my best here at this Arabic pronunciation. It is El Arouza Yah, or at times it is called Bethania instead of our Bethany. There were three much loved friends of the Savior who lived there. You know their names, Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus. And they lived in a home that was always open to him. And the Lord Jesus loved to be there. Now that Wednesday in the Savior’s life was a dramatic change. From every other day this week. In some ways, it was a dramatic change from every other day in his three plus years of public ministry. He seemed to be constantly serving others, constantly healing, constantly meeting needs, constantly preaching and speaking. But on this day, while we read of mornings when he rose early to pray, and we read of nights when he patiently answered the questions of seekers on this day, there is like a veil of secrecy over it. Because it was just this one day with people that he loved and that loved him, where he was enjoying their company. And so I want you just to think with me about what must have been in his mind.

Because he was the only one who knew what was coming. The disciples did not. No one else understood that there was a storm into which he was going to descend at a place called Calvary and where he was going to lay down his life. He knew everything. They knew nothing, but he knew exactly who the man was that would slap him, the man who was called an officer that stood by. He knew the name of the centurion who would oversee his crucifixion. He knew the name of each of the soldiers who would pound the nails into his hands and feet. He knew everything. They knew nothing.

And this day, the Savior who was about on Thursday to enter into the storm of hatred is enjoying being with those he loves. So what I want to notice with you is, first of all, going to Bethany, which is what the Lord Jesus did apparently every day of the week, going to Bethany, and then finally leaving from Bethany as he did more than 40 days after his resurrection. We just read in Luke chapter 21 that the Lord left the city at evening and went to Bethany. Apparently, he never spent a night in the city until the evening of his capture in the Garden of Gethsemane. So to grasp a fuller picture, it will help us to look at these past scenes, because Bethany was a place of rest. Though the Lord Jesus was the creator, the eternal son of the father, he was also a man. He was a man with sinless, unclouded emotions. And we can only imagine the joy he had at being with his friends. Bethany was a place of respect. Bethany was a place of love. Whenever he arrived in Bethany, his friends welcomed him, particularly Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. Bethany was a place of resurrection.

It’s here that he had displayed his power. You remember that in his public ministry, the first public miracle that he did was at a wedding. And his last public miracle was at a funeral. And the power that he displayed outside his friend’s sepulcher at Bethany must be considered his greatest miracle, raising a man who had been dead for four days. Such was his love for that family in Bethany that he raised Lazarus. Notice this, please. He raised Lazarus, even though he knew that that would be the trigger. That would be what would accelerate the purposes of those wicked people up in Jerusalem to reject him and to put him to death. John 11 and 35, of course, that shortest verse in the Bible gives us a glimpse into his heart when it says that Jesus wept. But Bethany was also a place of revelation, wasn’t it? Because the raising of Lazarus had manifested or displayed his glory. So just now focus with me for a moment on these three friends of his. Lazarus experienced his life-giving work. Lazarus was dead, and the Lord Jesus gave him life. So Lazarus experienced his life-giving work. But you see, as to our spiritual condition, the Bible says this about us, that we are dead in our sins.

Obviously, I’m the only one up here tonight, but when I’m speaking in the gospel, it often amazes me that I can see people who are saved and see reactions on their faces and where they are touched and where things are resonating with them and where they are responding. And right beside them could be somebody, a son or a daughter or a friend who is not saved. And it’s all a blank. It’s all as if there’s nothing important being said at all. It is because prior to a person’s conversion.

We are spiritually unresponsive, like a dead person, callous, like a corpse, no response to the things of God because a person does not have eternal life. And the Bible says that that life that you need is called eternal life, that we were dead in trespasses and sins, and that the moment that a person turns to the Lord Jesus and receives Christ, he receives eternal life. You remember that one of the descriptions of the Lord Jesus is that he is the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. And you remember in his epistle, John says, this is the eternal life. And so receiving Christ brings to a human being eternal life. But prior to that, we are dead in our sins.

It is only the Bible that explains to us the great puzzle why human beings can be marked by such intelligence, creativity, and heights of altruism, and yet at the same time be guilty of such depths of selfishness and violence and brutality. How is that possible? We’re not talking about two different kinds of human beings. We’re not talking about some people that are really cruel and some people that are really kind, but as Solzhenitsyn said, we see evil in every heart, every one of us. It is because we were made in the image of God, but sin came in and destroyed that link with the living God and we are dead in our sins. It is the Bible and only the Bible that provides the logical and correct answer with what is wrong with us. Sin has rendered you and me as dead and lifeless and unresponsive as Lazarus in his tomb. But Lazarus was helpless as well, wasn’t he?

What could he do to reverse his condition? What could Lazarus do to give himself life? The human race has accomplished some remarkable things. The ship just took off right now to go to the moon. So the human race has done some remarkable things. But when you come to the Bible, there is a list of things that we can’t do. Allow me just to mention a couple of them. The Bible says we can’t redeem ourselves. The Bible says that we can’t please God. Psalm 22 says we can’t keep alive our own souls. And we are reminded that we cannot go to heaven if we die in our sins. The Christian author Lee Strobel tells about two times that he was in grave danger. He was just a boy, just about the age of you fellas here on the front row. And there was a fire in his basement in the house where he lived. And he was down there.

And as the smoke began to thicken, He was becoming disoriented. He was starting to choke. He couldn’t see where the stairs were. And he said, all of a sudden, there was a faint light that flashed from above. And he heard a voice, is anybody down here? And it was a policeman. And he said, he could never have gotten out of that basement if that man hadn’t come. And he said, the policeman was right there. And he said, I stumbled over to him. and that man took me in his arms and he brought me out of that fire. I was helpless, he said. I would have perished. I needed somebody to come and deliver me from that death. But I’ll give you his words because he said there was another time. And he said, I was as helpless as that. I faced my sins, I could not save myself and I found out that Christ could and would if I trusted him. So as helpless as a dead man lying in his sepulcher, that’s the picture of us spiritually. I’m going to stop for a moment because I don’t want that to go over the head of those who are younger here.

When I sat listening to the gospel, as a little boy, I was absolutely certain I knew how to be saved. And I was absolutely certain that it had something to do with me. I knew Jesus had died for me, but I kind of figured out that what God was waiting was for me to do something to make that good for me. He was watching me and I was supposed to take the right steps or do the right thing or say the right words. I didn’t know what it was, but I was certain that I had something to do with my salvation. And I remember the night when I understood that I was absolutely helpless. And the picture of that man lying in his sepulcher is a wonderful illustration, of how absolutely helpless we are. But one more thing, Lazarus was hopeless. Take the Lord Jesus out of the picture, and there’s no hope for Lazarus. He’s not coming back. His sisters aren’t going to joyfully wrap their arms around him and walk home with him and ask him what paradise was like. It’s hopeless. The only one who could meet his dire need was the Lord Jesus. His sisters loved him, but they weren’t going to be able to do anything. Apart from the Savior.

Lazarus’ condition was hopeless. Do you know that that is a word used about you and me? That in Ephesians chapter two, Paul says that we were without God and without Christ and without hope, hopeless in the world. And so again, when we look at this man, we are reminded of how hopeless the condition is. What happens, what happens when a sinner meets Christ is as dramatic a change, if not more so, as when the Lord Jesus said, Lazarus come forth and a dead man came out of his sepulcher. It is the savior who imparts new life to a sinner. And when that new life comes into a human being, that person’s life is changed. One man was preaching in the open air before he was saved. He had been an alcoholic and he was preaching now the gospel and talking about, the grace of God, saving somebody like him. And a passerby just stopped for a moment and to heckle the man, he shouted out, you’re dreaming. And the man’s little girl was there. And she said, that’s my dad.

And if he’s dreaming, please don’t wake him up because the change has been just wonderful. See, don’t wake him up. You know what she meant? She knew the nights he would stumble home drunk and violent. She knew how the money was being spent on drink. She knew what the family was going through. And then she saw what God had done, what Christ had done, what new life had done. And she said, if he’s dreaming, please don’t wake him up. Don’t wake him up. There is a change comes into the life of a human being when that person receives Christ, that eternal life. Do you have a moment like that? Do you have a moment like that? Are you still on the broad way? Are you still dead in your sins? Are you still in danger of perishing? Or is there a moment in your life when just as the Lord Jesus spoke life to Lazarus, he brought eternal life to you.

I want you to think about Martha because Martha heard his soul-assuring words. When we think about Martha, we’re thinking about what the Lord Jesus said. It was to Martha that the Lord Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whoso lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? You see, it is his word that brings life. Remember now, Martha stood outside of the sepulcher of her brother and watched and listened to the Lord Jesus bring her brother back to life.

With his word. Nothing else. His spoken word. See, you have to understand that when it comes to us, the highest authority that we can reach is that when a man speaks, people carry out what he commands. So if a king says, have him to prison, he doesn’t suddenly disappear here and then materialize in a prison cell. No, the word has to be carried out by other human beings. That’s the highest authority we have.

There’s an authority higher than that. Do you know what it is? That when God speaks, it happens. He doesn’t need somebody to carry out what he’s saying. And so here, a dead man is brought back to life. Let me ask you, what would you have used? What would you have used to bring Lazarus back to life? If they rolled away the stone and you were standing out there and Martha and Mary said, please bring my brother back to life, what would you have done? You couldn’t have done a thing. But all the Lord Jesus needs to do is speak the word because that’s the authority and power of his word. You and I, we live in a world of death. And yet the Lord Jesus tells us how we can have life. This is what he said. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hears my word and believes God that sent me has everlasting life, shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death unto life. He was stressing the importance of hearing his word. Do you remember on one occasion when he said, he that has ears to hear, let him hear.

He that has ears to hear. Not everybody seems to have ears to hear. The Lord Jesus is talking about people who are searching for truth. They have ears to hear. And centuries ago, Isaiah the prophet said, hear, listen, hear, and your soul will live. There is a way that you can listen to God tonight. There is a way that you can listen to the gospel tonight. That will bring life to your soul. There was a man named Dawson Trotman. He would become very famous for his gospel work, but as a young man, he was just a lost sinner.

But he saw, when he was a young teenager, he saw a contest for memorizing Bible verses. And it challenged him. So he began to memorize Bible verses just to win the contest. And years later, not many, many years later, but years later, he was walking down the street. And into his mind came a verse he had memorized. I just quoted it for you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hears my word and believes God that sent me has everlasting life. And he thought to himself, I have no idea. I have no idea what everlasting life is. And he just actually spoke out to God. And he said, God, I don’t know what it is, but I want it. I want to have it.

And the spirit of God brought another Bible verse into his mind that he had memorized. As many as receive Christ, to them he gives the power to become the sons of God. And right there on that sidewalk, Dawson Trotman trusted Christ. He received him because the Bible was saying, receive him and you will have everlasting life. You’ll be born again. You will be a child of God. In other words, it was the word of God, just the authority and power of the word of God that brought life to Dawson Trotman, that brought life to Lazarus. And that will bring life to you. And of course, the words of Christ brought joy. We don’t only live in a world of death. We live in a world of sorrow.

The word of Christ filled the hearts of these people with joy. His word turned a grief-filled funeral in John chapter 11 into a joyous celebration in John chapter 12. Joy is an integral part of Christianity. Let me repeat that. Joy is part and parcel of this wonderful gospel and Christianity. That’s why the angels announced that they were bringing good tidings of great, joy, which shall be to all people. That’s why David described the joy of God’s salvation. And when a sinner is saved, God rejoices. The Lord Jesus rejoices. Heaven rejoices. The sinner who is saved rejoices. And saved people who hear about it rejoice because Christianity brings joy to the heart of a sinner who trusts the Lord Jesus. But of course, we live in a world marked by hopelessness, and I want you to notice that Christ’s words brought hope. The words to Martha assured her of a future resurrection and of hope for the present as well. And people who know the Lord Jesus, and some of them are sitting all around you tonight.

People who know the Lord Jesus are not looking out with bleak despair at a world that seems to be plunging into deeper and deeper problems. We are aware that the Lord Jesus is coming and that we are going to be in heaven with him forever. And amidst the world’s darkening skies and troubled seas, the assurance of a home in heaven anchors our souls as we realize that the coming of the Lord is drawing near. It’s his word. It’s his word that brought hope into that situation.

But notice, please, Lazarus had another sister, Mary. And Mary recognized the heart-captivating worth of the Lord Jesus. And in that house in Bethany, we read that Lazarus sat with the Lord, conversing with him. It would have been wonderful to eavesdrop on that conversation, wouldn’t it? A man who had just come back from heaven and a man who had left heaven to die on a cross. They were discussing. Martha was serving, but Mary showed her appreciation for him by bringing that ointment and anointing him. Now, all of that and all that I’m telling you is in stark contrast to how he was viewed and treated in Jerusalem. What a contrast between what the religious leaders in the city thought of him, and a village that loved the Lord Jesus and welcomed him. There’s a contrast.

Between heaven and earth, because heaven has received them, as we’ll note in just a moment, and earth has still rejected them. They can have a ton of religions and religious holidays and festivals and all of that, but the one thing the world really does not want, the world really does not want is Christ. But in Bethany, he was welcomed. So all of this presents us with these questions. Have you, Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you experienced his life-giving work where you’ve rested on Calvary, on what Jesus did on the cross and you received everlasting life? Have you taken in his soul-assuring word and the reason why you know you will be in heaven and not in hell is because of the word of Christ? Have you come to understand his worth because he is the savior who can give you eternal life, who can assure you of a place in heaven, who can fill your life here with joy and meaning and significance. And so I would say how wise for a human being to trust such a Savior.

Finally, and very briefly, I want you to skip ahead in thought probably about 43 days from what we have just been talking about. And I want you to look at the Savior’s return to heaven. He left from Bethany. He led them out as far as to Bethany. And while he blessed them, he was parted from them. So it reminds us of his unique place. The Lord Jesus is on his father’s throne. His father is going to give the Savior his own throne in Jerusalem. But just now he is on his father’s throne. And as the disciples preached, the heavens must receive him. They had to receive him back in heaven. It was the absolute right thing for the Savior. Earth rejected him and continues to do so. Heaven has received him and enthroned him and will eternally honor him. So once more, please allow me to ask you, which of those two attitudes is yours?

Are you like heaven? You’ve received Christ. You’ve honored him. Or are you like this world that has cast him out and put him on a cross? There’s no middle ground. There’s no middle ground. By the time the meeting is done this evening, you will either have received Christ and the eternal life he gives, or once more, you will have rejected him. And that, of course, is in your hands. But heaven received him. And it reminds us of his unique power. The word of God says that the Lord Jesus is able to save to the uttermost. And it says he is able to subdue all things. And you are either going to experience his power, his ability to save, or his ability to subdue. People who trust him, they realize his ability to save. He’s become their savior. People who still resist God and rebel against God and refuse the Lord Jesus, will one day learn about his power to subdue. But how much he wishes to save you, this is why he came. This is why he died. This is why he’s sending the message of salvation to you. This was the whole purpose.

Behind his coming from heaven. The father sent the son to be the savior of the world and Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. So let me ask you the question that the Lord asked Martha on that memorable day.

The Lord Jesus went to the cross to die for sinners. He said, it is finished, and he bowed his head. He was buried, and on the third day he rose again, and he is able to save any sinner who will trust in him. Believest thou this? Do you believe that? Do you believe on Christ? Do you believe in the Savior? Will you trust him today by trusting his word? That’s how a sinner receives Christ. He receives the word of Christ. And if you’ll do that tonight, here’s God’s promise. Here’s the Savior’s promise. Here’s the Bible’s promise. The person who comes to me, the Lord Jesus said, I will in no wise cast out. If you are willing to receive Christ tonight, he will receive you and you will go home saved for eternity. Thank you for listening.

Eight Days that Changed the World – Tuesday

Matthew chapter 21. Let’s break in at verse 33. Matthew 21 and verse 33. The Lord Jesus is the speaker. Hear another parable. There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about and digged a winepress in it and built a tower and let it out to husbandmen and went into a far country. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants more than the first, and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.

Jesus saith unto them, did you never read in the scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, It is interesting that that’s the plural word. There is a previous parable in which the Lord Jesus .

By presenting simple facts, caused these enemies to pronounce their own verdict of being guilty. Now, in this parable, he actually got them to pass sentence by what he said. They realized that the parables were spoken about them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude because they took him for a prophet.

Now, that was a lengthy reading, but if you will bear with it. I want to read the parable in the next chapter. Chapter 22. Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready, come unto the marriage. But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise. And the remnant took his servants and entreated them spitefully and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth, and he sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all, as many as they found both bad and good, and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment.

And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen.

Now we’re looking at the Tuesday in the last week of the Lord Jesus prior to Calvary, and so much took place on this day in the Lord’s life that it is impossible to consider even a quarter of the significant events. To any gospel preacher, today’s topics provide something of an embarrassment of riches. There’s so much that we could look at, and I hardly knew what to emphasize from such a wealth of information that the Word of God provides to us. Just understand that in the Lord’s incredibly busy life. This was an incredibly busy day. It was a day filled with teaching, including the third of his public discourses. The first, you know, is the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five to seven. The second was the Sermon by the Sea in Matthew chapter 13. And this day in chapters 24 and 25, what is called the Olivet Discourse was delivered because the Lord spoke much of it in proximity to the Mount of Olives. But a lot more took place on this day.

This is the day that he explained about the fig tree’s barrenness as they passed it in the morning, coming back from Bethany to Jerusalem. This is the day that he told the parable of the two sons that we didn’t read, the parable about the heir of the vineyard that we did read, and the parable about the marriage supper. This is the day when he faced verbal attacks from Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians. And by the way, this was the very time, tomorrow is the Passover, as you know, this is the very time when Israel would be examining the lamb to make sure that it was without blemish and without spot. And this is the period where the Lord Jesus presents himself to the rulers in Jerusalem, and they do everything they can to try to find some blemish, and they are unable to do it. This is the day that he asked the all-important question, what think ye of Christ? This is the day that he pronounced solemn woes on the hypocritical leaders. In chapter 23, he called attention to the widow’s two mites. He gave, as I said, the lengthy Olivet at this course. And then finally, in the evening, he went out to Bethany.

With an eye to how short the time is for this meeting and realizing how important your time is. I’ve chosen just three things to look at. And if we don’t have time to finish them, I will make sure that I finish on time, if not earlier. They’re easily remembered. I’m not a fan of alliteration, but it does help me to remember these when I think about the three topics that we want to look at. I want you to think about the master’s son. In chapter 21. He sent his son to the husbandman. I want you to think about the marriage supper in chapter 22, where the Lord Jesus presents the gospel and salvation under the imagery of a huge feast, a supper being given by a king for his son because of a marriage. And then I want you to think about the mighty sovereign in chapter 25, and I did not take the time to read those verses.

So here is the parable then about this vineyard and in telling this parable the lord jesus presents himself as the beloved son of the father being sent it is interesting to me that in the previous parable he used the same thing the idea of a son in that case two sons to speak about us, and you remember those two sons a father comes to his first son and he says to him go work today in my vineyard, and the boy is openly defiant. And he says, I will not go. He goes to the second son, go work today in my vineyard. And the son says, sure, I’ll go.

Now, at that point, neither of them intended to go. The boy who was defying his father fully intended to not go. The boy that said so glibly to his father, sure, I’ll go, fully intended not to go. We know that when the Lord Jesus concludes the parable and he says that that one son repented, he repented, he changed his mind and he went. But the Lord Jesus doesn’t say that the other son repented and didn’t go because he never intended to go. So the Lord Jesus was showing us something that again and again, he reminded us about. And that is while we all sin differently, we are all sinners. And when you look at these two boys, there’s only one thing that made a difference. This boy is saying, sure, dad, I’ll do what you want me to do and never intends to do it. This son is defying his father verbally. I will not go. But in the final analysis, the only difference between those two boys was that one repented and one did not. Now, it is the Lord Jesus who reminded us about the importance of repentance. He said, except you repent, you will perish. Those are fairly blunt words. If you do not repent, you will perish.

The disciples and the apostles preach the same thing. Paul says, I preach repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith in Christ is the only way that a human being can be saved. Do you have a moment in your life when you repented, when your mind was changed? I don’t think I will ever forget the night, as long as reason is working, the night that God brought me to repentance. I came into a gospel meeting like this. I had no thought in my mind about being saved. I had no intention of getting salvation. Mr. Tommy Thompson from Alaska was speaking that night. I have no idea what he spoke on. I have no idea any verses he quoted. I do not know his points. All I know is that at some point in that meeting, the word of God changed my mind.

The word of God in the hand of the spirit of God changed my mind. When I came into that meeting, my thoughts were one thing. When I left the meeting, what I thought about myself, what I thought about life, what I thought about sin, what I thought about the importance of salvation, all of that had changed, within the space of less than an hour as my mind had been changed by the truth of the word of God. Instead of my thinking that life’s purpose was to have all the fun possible, I was just a teenager, but instead of thinking that, I realized that life had one great, overwhelming, all-important purpose to it, that in that lifetime.

I obtained the remedy for my sins so that instead of perishing, I could be with God in heaven. Instead of imagining that I was not as bad as others, I left the meeting realizing that I was a sinner moving every moment relentlessly and inexorably to an eternal judgment in hell and the lake of fire. It’s God that changed my mind about that. Instead of my thinking that salvation was something to be looked for and sought for later in life, I left that meeting with just one thought in my mind. Oh God, how can I get salvation tonight? How can I be sure? Where am I going to be in eternity if I don’t find Christ tonight? So I would like to ask you again, is there a time in your life when you were turned? Because we all think wrong to begin with.

Every one of us thinks wrong to begin with. And there has to be a moment where the word of God changes your mind and turns you to God and to Christ. But in this parable, when the Lord Jesus speaks about the master’s son, our attention is turned to Christ. To his majesty, because he is, in the parable, he’s presented as the father’s unique son.

Here are the words, having yet therefore one son. So the father, the owner of the vineyard has just one son. Similarly, although God has many children, although God has many sons and daughters, he only has one unique son, his eternal son, the Lord Jesus. No new person came into existence when Christ was incarnated, conceived, and born. No new person came into existence because he had existed eternally, but a new human being came into existence. And the Lord Jesus came in order to provide the remedy for our sins. You notice, please, that in the parable, this one son, this unique son, is described as being the well-beloved of his father. Remember how John chapter three ends? Verse 35 tells us the father loves the son and has put everything into his hand. Again and again, the Lord Jesus spoke about this. He reminded the disciples that the father had loved them before the foundation of the world. And he used those words in prayer to his father. This is the son that God loved. And just as the owner of the vineyard sent his son into a scene of danger and violence.

God sent his son into a world of murderous malice and violence. Notice, please, then Christ’s mission. The language of the parable is that the father sent his son, last of all, to these violent workers. They had beaten servants. They had killed some servants who had been sent. Last of all, he sends his son.

Do you know that in the past, God used prophets? He spoke through human beings?

But then there came a moment where angels announced to shepherds at Bethlehem, until you was born this day in the city of David, not a prophet, not a mere messenger, until you was born this day in the city of David, a Savior, Christ the Lord, and God’s Son had come into the world. And he came into a world that was teeming with violence and opposition to heaven’s rule. He came into a world that had been commandeered and was controlled by Satan. He came into a world that was roiling and seething with animosity and with hatred against God. And yet into that world he came. Just as that son goes into a vineyard where there are men who are going to murder him, the Lord Jesus came into a world that hated him. He is the one who said, they hated me without a cause. They hated me without a cause. Not enough just to ignore him or neglect him or even to reject him, but to actually feel hatred in human hearts because the Lord Jesus was the light. He was the perfect one. And his life and his words were a constant rebuke to sinners. Notice that in the parable, the father, this is wishful thinking, the father says, they will reverence my son. This was the thinking of the father in the parable because he was just a man like you and I, you and me. But God knew everything that was going to happen when he sent his son.

That’s what elevates this whole message of the gospel of everything else you could ever hear. God willingly sending his son to die. Christ obediently, willingly coming into the world to die for that very purpose and to do so for you.

All of that accomplished at Calvary in these words, come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours. When they said, let us kill him, they knew who he was. This is the heir. I wonder if there’s some intimation in there that the leaders of the Jews knew exactly who this was.

But they had no desire for a Messiah like this. this is the heir. Come, let us kill him. I think the Lord Jesus is laying bare for us the sinfulness of the human heart, because it is showing what we did to the Lord Jesus is showing what human beings would do to God if they could just reach him. We would pull him from his throne if we could, but we couldn’t reach him. So the hatred of sinful men lashed out at the lord jesus this is the heir come let us kill him but notice please their logic, if they killed him the inheritance will be ours you see greed and envy and self-will were involved, in the murder of the lord jesus because they did not want him to upset their position of power. So now let me sum up for you, because this is extremely important. This is Christ’s meaning in this parable. The Lord Jesus knew that he was going to die. That’s the very purpose he had in coming. When a baby is born, the parents’ hopes are that the child will live. There’s one person who came into the world who never had to die, never had to die. He was not mortal in the sense of having to die.

He only accepted the ability to die if he chose to. And they determined to murder him. In the parable, neither the father nor the son would have been involved if they knew that the son was going to be killed. But God knew. God knew what would happen to the Lord Jesus. But he so loved the world that he was sacrificing his only son so that sinners could be saved. Christ knew. And he gave himself at Calvary so that you could be saved from your sins, so that you would not have to go to hell and to the lake of fire. He willingly allowed himself to be nailed to the cross and he willingly laid down his life. On a May day in the year 2008, In Louisiana.

A young woman took her children to meet her former boyfriend, father of the children, at a park. According to the East Baton Rouge police, that former husband and his new girlfriend lured that woman and her children into the bushes. There are children here. I’m trying to be very careful. He had brought with him a baseball bat and a knife, and he used those implements to kill his former girlfriend. He used the knife against a four-year-old daughter named Lindsay, his daughter, a three-year-old son named Juan. And then they just ignored, they left the seven-month-old baby, Robin. They left them to die.

Seven-month-old Robin did not die. She did not die because four-year-old Lindsay did not die. Her father had missed the jugular. She was hurt, but not mortally. Somehow she was able to stop her bleeding. She was terrified. She picked up her little baby brother, held him, all night. in those bushes where there were venomous snakes. The report was even wild cats were known to be in that park, that little girl, four-year-old girl, huddling in the dark, holding on to her baby brother. In the morning, when it was light, she stumbled out of those bushes holding that baby in her arms. And there were park workers who saw and ran over to them and actually thought that they had been burned. Both of them had almost their whole bodies were red from the bites that they had taken from the insects through the night. They were rushed to the hospital.

And Lindsay refused to go to sleep after they were cared for. She refused to go to sleep until they brought Robin and put Robin into her arms and her bed. It was Lindsay’s testimony, the information that she gave the police, that led to the arrest of her murderer.

She was released from the hospital in time for the funeral of her mother and her other sibling. I’m going to read you the account. Lindsay went to the funeral with a white scarf, hiding her neck wound. The reporter said it was a wound so bravely borne because at some level, this child’s love for her tiny sibling outweighed her terror and her pain. Got that? Her love for her sibling outweighed her terror. Four-year-old girl going through that, her terror and her pain. That’s without question, remarkable love. But it reminds me that at Calvary, the Savior’s love for you outweighed all the terror and the pain that was involved with crucifixion. Nothing, nothing would stop him. Nothing would deter him. Nothing would keep him from laying down his life in order to save you. No one could turn him aside from that purpose. I don’t know what you think about him. I don’t know what you have done with such astounding love.

But I’m so glad that I found out he loved me and that I personally, I personally took him as my savior. Gospel preaching doesn’t involve getting people to subscribe to some facts. It’s not a matter that we’re trying to get you to agree to this and to this and to this. Gospel preaching presents to dying, perishing sinners a savior. Take him, trust him, accept him, and he’ll save you. Fail to do that and you will lose your soul forever. You’ll perish. But that is where the lines are drawn. This is what the gospel is all about, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That is, he came to save you. In the parable, the death of the son resulted in judgment on the murderers. Here’s a difference. There is a day when judgment is coming, but just right now, the death of God’s son enables God to offer forgiveness to you. So that you will not have to come into that judgment. Remember his words at Calvary, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.

And do you remember what happened when he uttered that prayer? There was a thief beside him who trusted him. The soldiers who crucified him, at least it says not only the centurion, but they that were with him said, this is the son of God. This was a righteous man. He’s offering forgiveness to you tonight so that you will not come into the judgment. Somebody caught it, I think, so memorably in a poem when he said, praying for sinners while in such woe, no one but Jesus ever loved so. This is the Savior who died to save you.

With all my heart, I wish I could just exhort you and urge you to trust him tonight, to take him as your Savior. But very quickly, I want you to think about that marriage supper, chapter 22, because if the former parable and topic remind us what God has done for you, why he did it and the price he paid, then this parable, the parable of the marriage supper, focuses on you and raises the question as to what you are going to do with the vast provision that God has made for you. And so the Lord Jesus confronts us with that concept of full provision because he tells us it’s a banquet hosted by a king. So this is a feast provided by someone who has unlimited resources. This is not someone saying, come to the wedding and you can go home with a sandwich. This is a king. This is unlimited resources. This is the picture of tables groaning with the provision. He talks about his fatlings being killed, all the mighty provision being gathered for this supper. It is the Lord Jesus’ way of conveying to you how rich, how bountiful, how abundant is the salvation he’s offering to you. Whether you’ll accept it or not, it’s there.

Billions have been saved by it. There’s room for you tonight at this wonderful banquet feast. There’s a chair for you if you will have it. It’s a king, a king who has provided this feast. But notice the banquet was for his son, the prince. So now we understand it was a banquet where no expense was spared. Now it’s not just a matter that the king has unlimited resources, but it’s his son whom he loves. And he wants to shower on him all of the visible affection that he has. And this is a mighty feast. The gospel message tells us that God is so completely, thrilled with what Christ accomplished that because of Christ, God will save you.

I’ll tell you one thing about salvation that got changed in my thinking. I thought the day would come if I was ever saved, that I would do what I was supposed to do. And then when God saw that, he would say, okay, now I can save you. John wrote to the Christians and he said, your sins are forgiven you for Christ’s sake, for Christ’s sake. It had nothing to do with me. It had everything to do with Christ. And the moment that I took Christ as my Savior, I came into the good of this limitless provision that he made at Calvary. And he’s willing to forgive you tonight. See, the banquet was fully provisioned and it was available. The king’s message, listen to the tenses he used. I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fatlings are killed. Everything is ready. Come. Come. Isn’t that the meaning of the Lord’s words at Calvary when he said, it is finished? Wasn’t he saying that everything was prepared, everything was provided, and now the invitation to you is just to come? And then we focus on the foolish reaction of the people.

It shows us the insanity of sin when they say, when it says they would not come. Sin makes fools of people. I hope you understand that. Sin can take the most intelligent person and turn them into an absolute fool. God expressed it this way in the Old Testament. He said, all you who hate me love death. It’s a mark of insanity when a person loves death and wants to die, god is saying a person who hates god is on a course of insane self-destruction, all they that hate me love death here are these people how foolish, how foolish it was here was a provision offered them freely a king for his son there was so much that they could have enjoyed that night That day, if they had just come, but they refused to take the invitation. So allow me please to stop right now at 8.07 here, Tuesday night, Midland Park Gospel Hall, and ask you, what are you going to do tonight, here, now, in this meeting? What are you going to do with God’s invitations?

You understand there’s only one of two choices. You can say, I’m coming. I’m accepting that invitation. I’m coming to Christ. Or you can do what these people did and not come, refuse the invitation. They would not come. Notice, please, they made light of it. They were treating this invitation as if it were of no importance at all, that their life and what they were doing was more important than this king’s wedding feast for his son. And what a description of 21st century Americans. Making light of eternal things, treating as of no significance the most important issue in life. Is that what you’re doing tonight? Then we find that others actually murdered the messengers, slew them. And then the Lord Jesus is going to tell us about the judgment that will fall on them. But please just notice the preparation. The Lord Jesus describes those who do come. He calls them good and bad. There are people who would never have been in that marriage supper, never have been in that marriage supper, except for a thing called grace.

Grace. They wouldn’t have any gifts to bring. They couldn’t have contributed to the feast. Had there been a cover charge to get in, that would have been beyond their means. And the only reason they are there is because the Lord Jesus is telling you, that no matter who you are and no matter what you’ve done, If you turn from your sins and turn to him tonight, he will save you. I’m going to just change the wording. This is such an old conversation. I’m just going to change some of the words to make it more sensible to us today. This is from the third century. And there was an opponent of Christianity who was having a conversation with a very well-known Christian teacher. And this is what he said. When most teachers go forth to teach They cry, come to me You who are clean and worthy And they are followed by the highest caliber of people available But your master, Jesus, your master cries Come to me, you who are down and beaten by life And so he accumulates around him The worst of humanity.

The christian responded to him and said yes, They are the refuse of humanity, but Jesus does not leave them that way. They come to him and out of material that you would have thrown away as useless, Christ fashions men, giving them back their self-respect, enabling them to stand on their feet and look up to God. They were cowed, cringing, broken things, but the son of God set them free. Will you allow me to repeat it? This is the Savior’s way of saying, no matter what your past is, no matter what you have done or not done, come tonight.

He will receive you if you come as a sinner to the Lord Jesus. In the parable, the guest’s condition and sense of need is what caused them to respond. The wedding’s fully attended. Everybody’s there. They’ve received the garment that the king has provided for them, and now they’re ready to step into the presence of the king. Do you remember how often the Bible uses this idea? Remember Amos saying, prepare to meet thy God. Matthew chapter 25, the Lord Jesus said that when he returns, those who are prepared, those who are ready, will go with him. Listen to the language of Zacharias when he speaks about the birth of his son who would be John the baptizer, and he said that his preaching of repentance would make ready, would prepare a people for the Lord. You need to be prepared. You need to be ready to meet God. If you died now the way you are, you wouldn’t stand a chance of getting into heaven. You’d be lost forever. But you can be prepared tonight. You can be made ready. Just as Adam and Eve discarded their fig leaf aprons and received the coat that God had made for them. Just as Isaiah said, God has clothed me with the garments of salvation. Just let the prodigal son receive the best robe. Just as in Zechariah 3, the filthy garments are taken away from a man and God says, I’ve taken away your sin and they clothed them with new raiment. God can take away your sin tonight.

And make you ready to meet God. Sometimes, I know this is wrong, sometimes in a gospel meeting I almost feel like asking for a raising of hands. You know, is there anybody here who does not want to go to hell? Is there anybody here? I’m not asking you to raise your hand, but I wish flags would go up in your mind, in your brain as you’re listening tonight. Is there anybody here who wants to be sure before you step back out into that world, that if this were your last night on earth, that Wednesday, if God spares us and we meet together here, that we will have the assurance that you have gone to be with Christ and not that you have lost your soul forever. Here’s what God says, and I’m going to just close with these words. He says, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation.

Eight Days that Changed the World – Monday

Thank you very much for coming tonight. I am delighted I could be here, but I’m very thankful that you are here as well. I hope that God will bless His Word to you as we read it together. Would you turn, please, to the gospel written by Mark? And we’re going to read in Mark chapter 11. Mark chapter 11.

We’re going to read at verse 12, but if you notice the end of the previous verse, it speaks about the eventide coming and the Lord Jesus going out to Bethany. So now verse 12 says, on the morrow, so that of course was Palm Sunday, when the Lord Jesus rode.

Into the city of Jerusalem and looked around about the temple, went out to Bethany Sunday evening, now on the morrow, so this is Monday, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came if happily he might find anything thereon. And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. And his disciples heard it. And they come to Jerusalem, and Jesus went into the temple and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? But ye have made it a den of thieves. And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy him, for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. And when even was come, he went out of the city. Now, one more reading, please, in John chapter 14.

John chapter 14 and verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. Now that is an amazing statement. He is claiming equality of reliance and dependability with his father. Earlier in Matthew chapter 16, he said to Simon Peter, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father, which is in heaven, and I say unto you. He was putting himself on an equality of revelation. With the father. Here, it is the dependability of his word. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go, ye know, and the way ye know. Now, remember, please, he has told them repeatedly that he was going back to the Father.

We would think he’s speaking about heaven, but the way he put it was he was returning to the Father, and that the way by which he would return to the Father would be by death, by crucifixion, that he would go up to Jerusalem, that the chief priests would put him into the hands of the Romans, that he would be crucified, and he would rise from the dead. So he has told them this, and now he’s pointing out they should know where he is going and the way he is going. That is what elicits now this wonderful gospel statement when Thomas says unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. If no man cometh unto the Father, because that is where he was going, unto the Father, but by me.

We’re going to look this evening at some of the things that took place on the day after the Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem. Apparently, each evening from Palm Sunday up to and including Wednesday, the Lord Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and stayed for the night in the nearby village of Bethany. It is noteworthy that the only night that the Lord Jesus, that we have on record that the Lord Jesus spent in Jerusalem, was the night in which he was a captive when he was betrayed by Judas and was being held for trials by the high priest’s father-in-law and then by the high priest. So this Monday morning, we find the Lord Jesus and his 12 disciples returning from Bethany to the city of Jerusalem. Now, as you likely know, our English word hypocrite comes from the stage, comes from the idea of mask wearing, where people would put a mask on and would pretend to be something or someone they were not.

What is going to happen here in the events we’re going to look at is going to be the clash between the all-seeing, all-knowing son of, God and the hypocritical leaders who were mask wearing, who were pretending to be serving God and were actually merely serving themselves. That’s one reason why I read to you about that barren fig tree, because the leafy but barren fig tree, the condition actually was picturing what was happening in that city, that there were people with a lot of show, the way the Lord Jesus put it, that they were drawing near to God with their lips, but their heart was far from him. They did not have the reality of God’s salvation in their heart. Now, apart from the description the Lord Jesus gives us in Luke chapter 16 of what the rich man says when he is in hell, there are only two occasions I know of where the Lord Jesus used the words, my father’s house.

My father’s house. Both of them are in the gospel of John. He said, in his first cleansing of the temple, he said, take these things hence, make not my father’s house a house of merchandise. And then where we read in chapter 14, he’s speaking of heaven. And he says, in my father’s house, there are many dwelling places. So I want you to think about the contrast between the father’s house up there and what the Lord Jesus found in his father’s house down here. There was a contrast in the conditions because here’s what we learn about the temple. In the very place where the name of God was to be honored, conditions had sunk so low as you read about what’s going on that God’s very presence was dishonored. Now, Roman drachmas, the coinage that was in use in the Roman Empire and therefore was in the land of Israel. It had the image of Caesar on it. But Jews could not use that money to pay the temple tax or to pay what they owed to the government. So what would happen is they would come to Jerusalem with their Roman coins and there would be.

Vendors who had set up shop outside the temple and people would trade in their Roman coins to get the coins that were legal for the temple collection. I hope you never, I hope you never have to exchange money at an airport because if you do, you’re going to find that what gets added on to the supposed money you’re getting back or you’re giving to them is a payment. And it’s a pretty stiff payment where they decide what they’re going to add to the exchange rate. That is what was happening here. On the 25th day of the month Adar, so that’s about 18 or 19 days before the Passover, tax officers set up business in the part of the temple that was called the Court of the Gentiles. People would come there and they would exchange their money or they would buy the offerings instead of doing what God said, picking it out of their flock, looking it over, bringing it up to Jerusalem. They would just simply take some money with them, go up to Jerusalem. It was a very easy, convenient way of practicing their religion. I’m going to suggest to you that we are very prone to that.

And that all around us, and I’m not excluding us, but all around us, there is a tendency to do what comes easy rather than what is what God says. And what they were doing was a very convenient, easy way of supposedly serving God. But it seems to me that in it all, the sacredness of the presence of God was forgotten. This meant, of course, that they were also defrauding God’s people, because as I say, they were usurers, and the temple market was like a farmer’s market that would be set up at these specific times.

Was a place of money-making for the leaders. One of the phrases that secular history uses is calls it the bazaar of the sons of Annas, that is the father-in-law of the high priest. So this was a source of great wealth and income to the leaders. When the Lord Jesus overturns these tables and chases these people. And by the way, he never used the scourge against any of the humans, chases people out of the temple, makes the herds go out, cleans the temple, cleanses the temple. He’s actually shutting down a money-making conduit that is going to cause these leaders to just have further anger against the righteous son of God. Many 21st century Americans similarly live as though God has no place in their life. I’m not going to accuse you, but I’m going to challenge you. Do you live as if there is no God?

Do you live as if there is no God? I see that when I’m home with my family that I love very much. I see that on display constantly. Because there are two in my home that live as if there is no God. I never see them speaking to God. They never indicate anything of thanksgiving for the food that they get. Those are my daughter’s two golden retrievers. They have absolutely no consciousness or interest in a supreme being. And while you may laugh at that, please just reflect for a moment that there are many people you know, and there may be some in the meeting tonight, and that’s exactly how they live.

No consciousness of God, no reality of the goodness of God that has provided for them and met their needs and blessed them to live in a country like this with such freedom. That’s what was happening here. And as a result of the faulty practice of Judaism, they were disobeying God’s word. Convenience and compromise were evident in everything that was going on here. So just to sum it all up, in the Father’s house down here, apparently God was forgotten, reverence was scarce, devotion was scant, and corruption was rife. Do you remember that in John chapter two, when the Lord Jesus cleansed the temple the first time. He said, make not my father’s house a house of merchandise.

When we come to this second cleansing, he uses stronger language, doesn’t he? That they have made it a den of robbers. Because the moment that a person turns away from the word of God and doesn’t listen to what God says as far as how to get to heaven, all of a sudden things will worsen and they’ll get further away from the truth. And that was exactly what was happening here in the father’s house down here. More than half a century ago, let me emphasize that, more than 50 years ago, the Christian writer A.W. Tozer said this, more than 50 years ago.

In many churches, Christianity has been watered down until the solution is so weak that if it were poison, it would not hurt anyone. And if it were medicine, it would not cure anyone. He is talking about how the moment that we go by our own ideas when it comes to how to be saved, how to get to heaven, how to worship God, how to serve God, we are going to get further and further and further from the truth. And what was originally a house of merchandise when in the hands of these people had now become a den of robbers who were stealing from God and from God’s people. So I would like to ask you just to reflect on whether what you are trusting in to get to the Father’s house up there is what the Bible says is the way of salvation. Because what a contrast. And I think that then when you think about heaven, what a difference between the Father’s house up there and what the Lord Jesus found in his father’s house down here. Here’s what the Bible says about the father’s house up there. There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiles or works abomination or makes a lie, but those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. That’s pretty sweeping, isn’t it?

There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiles or works abomination or makes a lie, but those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Please remember, heaven is God’s country. Not yours, not mine. We can’t tell God what should get into heaven or who should enter heaven.

We can only find out from God how we can get there. And here is the verse from the word of God reminding us that heaven is a place where sin will never enter. It’s reminding us about the holiness of God. There was a very poetic way that one Old Testament prophet put it. He said that God was a purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Now God sees everything that happens in our world. But what the prophet is saying is God is so holy that sin cannot be allowed to stay in his presence. Heaven has no sin about it.

God is holy. Scholars tell us that at the root of that idea, at the basis of that concept is that God is other than us. He’s not like you and me. He’s not like anybody you have ever met. There’s no part of him that is sin. There’s no part of him that fights temptation. There’s no part of him that is marked by darkness. And when believers, and some of them were the finest people that ever lived, when believers discovered what God was like, the effect on them was profound. And I would suggest to every one of us here, speaker included, that if we got a glimpse from the word of God of what God was really like.

We would move with far greater reverence in the presence of God. Listen to what Isaiah said. He saw what God was like. He’d been trying to serve God. You know what he said? Woe is me. I’m undone. I’m a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. I’ve seen the King, the Lord of hosts. He was trembling in the presence of God. Job saw what God was like, and he confessed to God, I’ve heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now I see what God is like. And he said, I repent in dust and ashes. Daniel saw what God was like. And he said, my, my, my inners, I had no strength and my inner comeliness was turned to corruption. I felt like I was nothing but a seething mass of corruption in the presence of this holy being.

John saw the risen Christ and realized what he was like. John said, I fell at his feet as dead.

Interesting, isn’t it, that the Lord Jesus presents himself as the one who was dead and is alive and is alive forevermore. And John says, when I saw him, I fell like one who was dead before this living one. Peter saw what he was like. And as he watched those fish leaping into the nets after a completely fruitless night of fishing, and as he realized that the man who could see fish in the depth of the sea could see sin in his heart, But Peter got down on his knees on a fishing boat and said, depart from me. I’m a sinful man, Lord. Depart, leave me. Those are some of the finest people have ever lived. Then they realized what God was like. There’s a place where sin will never enter. That is heaven. If you’re going to be there, then there has to be a moment where you and your sins part company, where your sins are removed by what we were singing about, the fountain that Immanuel opened at Calvary that cleanses sin. At the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., there was a large wooden altar from a synagogue that was vandalized by Nazi soldiers.

You can see hatchet marks or perhaps knife marks trying to obliterate the words, but they were carved there so that people who were in front of it and people who may have been reading the Torah from behind it would never forget. And the words were, the words are, know before whom you stand. Realize, know the one that you’re standing before. It was to remind them that they were standing before God. Now, my dear friends, you don’t have to deal with me or what I think of you or what the gospel hall thinks or your friends. But there was a very significant statement about your creator and it says he’s the god with whom you have to do, and at the end of every life there is a meeting between you and god and what the bible calls the day of judgment at the great white throne but understand as somebody has said that when you meet god there, one of two things one of two things, is going to be in force for you that day, there will be perfect justice.

Or there will be perfect mercy. There will be perfect justice. God will not overlook one sin, perfect justice. There will be perfect mercy. God will never punish sin that has already been forgiven. One of those two things. And if you’re going to face mercy in that day, then you need to come to Christ tonight to be sure that your sins are taken away. But you remember the verse I quoted from the book of Revelation also reminds us that not only is God holy and not only is heaven holy, there shall in no wise enter in, but the verse tells us about the people who will enter in and gives us this wonderful description of people who are saved.

The ones who will enter in are people whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. The Lamb’s book of life.

It could have been called the book of the Lord Jesus Christ. It could have been called God’s book. It could have been called the Creator’s book, but it’s called the Lamb’s book of life. Because everyone who was going to be in heaven has been redeemed by the blood of the lamb. There’s a moment in the life of every person is going to be in heaven when that man, that woman, that person’s sins were washed away by the blood of Christ. That what Christ did at Calvary paid for the sins of that person. Please challenge your own thinking. Has there ever been a moment in your life where you came to understand what happened at Calvary and the value of the precious blood that Christ shed. It is the Lamb’s book, but it is the Lamb’s book of life because it’s bringing together two very, very important and wonderful gospel truths. Not only redemption because it’s the Lamb’s book, but a new birth, regeneration, because it is the Lamb’s book of life. His sacrifice at Calvary was made so that sins could be washed away. The laying down of his life, his life, was so that you could have life, new life, eternal life, and what he calls being born again.

And he’s offering that to you tonight. And the wonderful thing is he’s offering it to you as a gift, which is why the Bible says, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That’s what the Bible says. It’s not of works that people are saved. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should brag. He’s offering that to you as a gift. Five years ago this month, March the 9th, 2021, there was a man speeding, southbound on I-275 in the Tampa area of Florida. The trouble was he was not only speeding, but he was speeding southbound on the northbound lanes. And a police officer was alerted to that and raced onto the highway, was able to place himself before that car came. And as that car was going to bear down on other passenger cars, this patrol officer, Jesse Madsen, drove his car in between.

It was a frightful crash. And that police officer was killed.

Saving people who would have been killed. He left three children behind, a wife and three children. And here is the statement made by a representative from the Police Benevolent Association. He said, last night, he put himself in between a car and a civilian. And he knew the sacrifice he was making, and he knew the risk and he chose to do it anyway. Please listen to me. At Calvary, the Lord Jesus did not merely know the risk. It wasn’t that he was contemplating what might have happened. He knew everything that was going to happen. He knew what would take place. He knew that it would cost him his life and he chose to do it anyway. And the Bible tells us why. It’s unmistakable. The Bible says, right there, God was displaying his love to you, in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Right there, Christ was displaying his love for you. And Paul came to understand it when he said, the son of God loved me and he gave himself for me. Did he give himself for you?

Did he give himself for you? Has that death, has that death brought any blessing into your life when it has been the source of peace and joy and forgiveness and eternal life and a home in heaven? All because he died on the cross. I hope that you will come into a knowledge of Christ’s work at Calvary. There’s another contrast. It’s a contrast as to the cleansing required. The temple needed to be cleansed. People had soiled it with their irreverence and their mercantilism. They had defiled it with their behavior. And so the temple needed to be cleansed of these greedy, money-making merchants and robbers.

But when you come to heaven, it’s not the place that needs to be cleansed. It’s the people. If you’re going to be in heaven, you need to be cleansed from your sins. You need, as I have said, you need to have your sins washed away. And so a saved person has been washed from his sins by the precious blood of Christ. Psalm 51, David the psalmist cried this. He said, wash me throughly from my iniquities, cleanse me from my sin. In the New Testament, John said the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s son, cleanses us from all sin.

John records that in Revelation chapter seven, there is an innumerable throng around the throne of God and the lamb. And they are there because they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Isaiah, quoting God says, come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. John himself said in Revelation chapter one, to him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. This is something that you desperately, urgently, vitally need. You cannot get into heaven with your sins. You need to be cleansed from your sins by the blood of Christ. You know, we’re told, I’m no scientist in any definition of the word, but I’ve been told.

That snowflakes really aren’t pure, that there is a nuclei of something that collects moisture around it. And that when we look at the snowflake, it seems just pure and white. But that if you looked at it under a microscope, you’d be able to detect, in many cases, that there was something not white and clean at the center of it.

You come to Christ tonight and He will wash you throughly from your sins, inside and out, cleansing you, making you ready for the presence of God, assuring you of a home in heaven so that you will be able to stand before God without one sin condemning you, all because Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. Another description is that a saved person has been redeemed in the sense of being set free. The bondage is over. The person has been redeemed, and he has, I’ll quote you the words, he has redemption through Christ’s blood, even the forgiveness of sins. And again, if you turn to the book of Revelation, you’ll find people in heaven, and this is their language, that Christ was slain and he redeemed us to God by his blood. I hope that the repetition of what I’m telling you will impress on you that if you’re going to be in heaven, you need to be cleansed from your sins. You may not think you have a lot of sins. You may not think your sins are all that serious. God says they are. And God says you need to be cleansed from your sins.

I had a relative, cousin of my wife’s, and I knew that he had had some medical examinations underway. And when I saw him one Lord’s day, I said, how are you feeling? How are you doing? Now, listen carefully to what he said.

I feel fine.

He said, if the doctors hadn’t told me I was sick, I wouldn’t know I was sick. I just have to trust them about this because I don’t feel anything. What he did not feel killed him. What he did not fear, feel, took him away from his wife and children and killed him very young in life. That cancer that he didn’t feel. But he said, I just have to trust the doctors, the experts. You may not feel that you are a sinner, but please listen to the expert. His name is God. And he tells us that the heart of every one of us is deceitful above everything. And it is incurably wicked. And that the only way you could ever be in that father’s house up there is if you are cleansed from your sins by the precious blood of Christ. Let me just close by pointing out to you that Jerusalem’s temple had come up with a place of convenient worship. It was just being treated like ordinary property. In fact, people were taking shortcuts through the city by cutting through the temple area. And the Lord Jesus stopped them because it was his father’s house. Heaven is going to be a place of constant and eternal worship. There is going to be a glorious sight that’s going to lead to a joyful song. Here is what people who are cleansed from their sins and go to the father’s house up there. Here is what they’re going to see.

His servants shall serve him and they shall see his face. Think of the joy you feel when you are away for a long time and then you come home to a family that loves you and that you love after a long separation. Think of the joy that was pictured in Luke 15 between the father and the son who had returned from the far off country. There is great joy lying ahead. Let me speak to the Christians for just a moment. There is great joy lying ahead for every saved person. We’re going to actually see the man who died for us. We’re going to be there. Remember that when the disciples saw him, they were filled with wonder. As they looked at a man with mortal wounds in his hands and feet inside, who was alive and would never die again. And when we get to heaven, you see right now, Christians.

We read about Bethlehem and Capernaum and Gethsemane and Jerusalem and Calvary. And we think of what amazing grace and love brought the Savior from up there all the way down to these places of wretched poverty and indescribable pain. But I’ve often thought that when we save people, when we get to heaven and we see what heaven is really like, We will wonder that he was ever willing to leave, that he was ever willing to part with all of that for sinners like us. And every fresh sight of that once wounded Savior alive from the dead will draw fresh gratitude and thanksgiving and worship from our hearts. I’m going to leave most of the names out of this. This is going online, and we live in days when you need to be careful. But in 2008, a man was standing on, a bridge over the Thames River, intending to jump.

A perfect stranger, I’ll tell you his name, his name was Mike. A perfect stranger walked up to him and said this to him. Let me give you his words first. He said, I was unwell at the time. I had just been diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression. I was actually in the hospital and I ran away from the hospital intending to take my life. I got to the bridge. I stepped onto the edge of the bridge. And then suddenly from out of nowhere, this guy approached me and just started talking to me. He was saying things to me like, please don’t do this, mate. Please, please don’t do this. Let’s just go for a coffee. Let’s just talk it over. And the man on the bridge said, at first, I tried to ignore him. I just wanted to block him out. I just wanted to jump and go through with it and get it over, be done with this life. But he was persistent. He was very understanding, very kind. And then he said to me, you can get through this. You can recover. He said, I had never thought of that. And Mike talked this would-be suicide back off the edge and onto the bridge. Police, ambulances came, and there was a crowd around this would-be suicide, and Mike just slipped away.

The man who was going to jump said he didn’t give an opportunity for me to thank him. So he ended up creating, some of the younger ones here will understand this. It’s a little beyond me. He ended up creating a hashtag find Mike Twitter campaign to find the man who saved his life. I’m telling you all of that just to tell you this. He said, if I find Mike, I know what I’m going to say. I plan to say thank you. Ultimately, I just want to really extend my gratitude for what he did that day. He didn’t need to stop. He didn’t need to talk to me, but he was determined not to let me jump. And that’s just incredible. That’s just an amazing act of human kindness. The Lord Jesus didn’t need to come. The Lord Jesus didn’t need to die. He had no sins of his own. The Lord Jesus did not need to die for me.

Or for you. And yet here is the message of the Bible. When we were helpless, when we were without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And I think I’m speaking for everybody here who is already saved, that like this man knowing what he’s going to say to Mike, I think some of us know what we would like to try to say to the Lord Jesus when we meet him. Maybe the words of a very old hymn would express it. Thank thee, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank thee, Lord, for making me whole. Thank thee, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation, so full, so free. We’re going to be in that heaven. We’re going to be with that Savior. We’re going to see the one who died for us. We want you to be there. God wants you to be there. He’s sending the message to you because he wants you to be cleansed from your sins, to join us on the way to heaven, to be sure in this uncertain, unsure world, to be sure based on the foundation of God’s unshakable book, that you have a home in the Father’s house, and that when the Lord comes or when your life is done, that instead of being in hell for your sins and in the lake of fire forever, that you will be in what the Lord Jesus calls, my Father’s house. Shall we pray?

Eight Days that Changed the World – Palm Sunday

I’d like to read with you in Mark chapter 11, Mark chapter 11, and verse, 7, Mark 11, and verse 7. And they brought the colt to Jesus and cast their garments on him and he sat upon him and many spread their garments in the way and others cut down branches off the trees and strawed them in the way, and they that went before and they that followed cried saying Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord blessed be the kingdom of our father David that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And Jesus entered into Jerusalem and into the temple. And when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve. Now, Luke records some other details to this event. So if you’ll turn, please, to Luke chapter 19 for our final reading. Luke chapter 19.

And we’ll look at verse 37, Luke chapter 19 and verse 37. And when he was come nigh even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the King, that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you, that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the day shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

So I’m sure we are all aware that this is called Palm Sunday because of the palms that were laid in the path of the Lord Jesus as he entered into the city. It is no exaggeration to speak about this period as eight days that changed the world. This was and is the most important week in the history of the world because it is the most important week in the history of the greatest person who ever lived, the Lord Jesus. We’re going to be looking then at just what happened. At Christmas, we reflect on his coming into the world, his advent, and the fact that he became one of us, and rightly so, to think about the wonder of his birth and of his life coming. But that birth, that coming, was with a view to what we’re looking at this week. And so now we’re going to be looking at the purpose for his coming was to go to the cross. And this is the first step. This week leads to that purpose. This is the first step in the movements that are going to take him to Calvary, where he will die, that men and women might be saved. Now, you will notice that although the Lord Jesus had visited Jerusalem previously, apparently he had always done so on foot. This visit was different. He did not walk into Jerusalem. He rode on a colt.

It was fulfilling a prophecy 500 years before by a prophet named Zacharias. I’ll read you his words. He said, rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon a colt. The people themselves unknowingly fulfilled exactly what Zachariah prophesied. The Lord Jesus comes on a colt. He is combining meekness and majesty. He enters the capital city. It is a triumphal entry. It was his last appeal to Jerusalem to receive him and to recognize him as its rightful king. So there are two elements to this wonderful prophecy that were fulfilled, fulfilled as far as how he would come and then what they would say. And those two things happen just as God said they would. Now we’re confronted with a number of topics that we could look at, but I wanna respect your time. And we’re just gonna take one, but there are four major ones that seem to appeal to me. Let me just mention them to you.

There’s first of all, the years that the prophet Daniel decreed would lead to this event. Then there were the tears that the Savior shed over the city as we read together from Luke chapter 19. Then there were the cheers of the multitude, what they said when he arrived and what they were thinking. And then finally, the fears the leaders felt when they saw the welcome that Christ was receiving. This rankled them that he was not telling them to be quiet. So allow me to just hurry over the three of them and then we’ll just focus on one for this meeting tonight.

Hundreds of years before this event, the prophet Daniel gave one of the most amazing prophecies in our Bible. It is, as far as I know, the only prophecy that has a date given. The actual time involved is stated in the prophecy. Many Bible scholars have shown that Daniel’s prophecy pointed to the very time, when the Lord Jesus would present himself to the people by riding into Jerusalem. To state it briefly, Daniel was told by the angel that from a moment that an edict would be issued to rebuild Jerusalem, 483 years later, the Messiah would come. That’s exactly what I have read to you here. Amazingly, the time between that decree, that is between March the 14th, 445 BC, and the April day when the Lord Jesus entered into Jerusalem is not only 483 years, but is exactly as Daniel’s prophecy indicated, 173,880 days after what the prophecy said was the starting point.

173,880 days later, the Lord Jesus rode into Jerusalem. It’s called Palm Sunday, not palm monday, not palm friday or saturday it had to be this day and please understand that there’s not another person in the history of the world who could fulfill this prophecy, on this day just the lord jesus christ the cheers of the multitude.

Mark records that as the Savior approached the city, the multitudes went before and those that followed cried, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. Now we’ve heard a lot about Hosanna today and the cry of Hosanna, as we have already been reminded, literally means save now or, oh, save us now. It may be that the salvation that they were thinking of was a salvation from Roman rule and to be set free. And sometimes, I’m not gonna say this is what is in the mind of my audience, but sometimes when people think about the gospel and about knowing Christ and they hear the Christian word saved, what they’re thinking is, I would like to be saved from my problems. I would like to be saved from this illness that is bothering me. I would like to be saved from this financial difficulty. But what the Bible is presenting is salvation from sin, salvation for eternity, salvation to deliver a person from going down into hell and allow that person to live forever with God in his home. And this is the salvation the Lord Jesus came to give. When the crowd uttered this cry.

The multitude saying, Hosanna, save us now, the King has come. The leaders of the people felt great fear. Now, a short time before this triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus had raised from the dead a man named Lazarus. A lot of people had witnessed that miracle. And it had convinced the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin as it’s called, it convinced the Jewish leaders that they had to do away with this Messiah, with the Lord Jesus because they feared an uprising. They feared that Rome, what they said, would take away our place. We would no longer be the bosses here and they would take away our nation. And so they decided that what they would do would be to get rid of the Lord Jesus. Now, before I leave all those points, could I just point out something to you? There were times in the life of the Lord Jesus where he did something that left the people awestruck and they were convinced he was the Messiah and they wanted to crown him. John chapter six, they wanted to announce he was the king. Every other time, the Lord Jesus turned away from them.

When he would heal people, he would often say something like this, tell no one. His own physical brothers said to him, nobody does what you’re doing and doesn’t want to be heard and known. Go up to Jerusalem and let people see what you’re doing. Time and time again, the Lord Jesus, refused their accolades, refused the crown they wanted to give him, but not this day. This was one day different because this was the day and he knew it was the day that Daniel had prophesied, the day that Zachariah had spoken, the day that the king was to come. And so unlike any other time when he had gone into Jerusalem, this time he presented himself as the king. But I have read to you about his tears.

And that’s what I want to focus on tonight, because I want you to think about the Lord Jesus and how much he loves you and the compassion that he felt. We’re watching his love for this city that is going to murder him. And it reminds me of the steadfast love of the Lord Jesus for sinners, for you tonight, whoever you are, irrespective of how you have treated him in the past or whatever your sins may be, the Lord Jesus cares for your eternal well-being. Sometimes people imagine that in order to approach God, what we need to do is we need to go through people who once were down here like us, and they’re saints, and they’re up there, and so we can appeal to them. Peter, John, Mary, the Lord’s mother, we can go to them because they really care for us, and then they can speak to God or they can speak to the Lord Jesus. Now, if you don’t remember anything else from the meeting tonight, would you please tuck this away in the ROM part of your brain where it stays permanently? Nobody is more concerned about your happiness and eternal wellbeing than is God and his son. If God had his way, you’d go home tonight from this meeting saved. You go home tonight knowing that you have eternal life. That’s what God wishes. But notice these tears. They were not tears of self-pity.

The Lord Jesus had left heaven to save these people. And he came knowing that they would reject him. But he doesn’t cry as though he’s crying for himself, all I’ve done and all I’ve tried, and yet they’re rejecting me. These are not tears of self-pity. Notice, please, there were not tears of anger and frustration at the people’s blindness and their eventual condemnation of him, despite all he had sacrificed.

Sometimes a Christian can feel anger. He’s trying to help somebody, trying to present the gospel to them. And I can remember times when I have been roundly cursed in language that I would never repeat on a platform or off a platform. And sometimes you feel a bit of anger inside. The Lord Jesus never felt that. He’s not crying tears of anger and frustration that the people would not receive him. These were tears of sorrow and compassion as he thought about the awful destruction that lay ahead for this people and the city that he loved. So we’re going to look then at the Savior and the city and think about a compassionate Savior. This is a passage where we see him weeping. There is a Greek word, as you know, the New Testament was written in Greek. There is a Greek word for compassion that occurs 14 times in the New Testament, that is from Matthew to Revelation. And every time it is used either about the Lord Jesus or by the Lord Jesus in a parable where he’s speaking of himself. It’s as though the spirit of God set this word aside and said, this word will only be used for the son of God, compassion. Do you ever feel compassion?

Have you ever felt compassion? You break the word down and you see come is with and passion is feeling. So compassion is to feel with other people what they’re going through. And sometimes our compassion is based on the fact that whether we’re thinking of it actually or it’s just subconsciously, we realize that could be me.

My child could have died. My spouse could have died. I could be facing cancer. That could be me. And so we feel compassion. The compassion the Lord Jesus felt was not because he ever was or ever could be in the same position of us as sinners. The compassion the Lord Jesus felt was because that’s who he is. That’s his heart. That’s his concern for us. Dr. Parks mentioned to me a friend of mine who visited Israel. He said he was amazed when he got there, actually. He was amazed to see the distances that the Lord Jesus crossed to reach one soul. You see, the world thinks in huge numbers. And I really don’t know the names of everyone in the building tonight.

But the Lord Jesus does. And he has a personal, individual interest in everybody that’s here tonight. He personally wants you to be saved. He personally, individually wants your soul to be delivered from sin. And so compassion. There are times in his life, again and again, where we see that. I just want to very quickly go over some with you so you’ll understand what I’m trying to convey to you about the Savior and his love for you. There was a time when he looked out over the multitude and he saw them as sheep without a shepherd. Now, sheep without a shepherd are in great need and in great danger. And it says that when the Lord Jesus saw them, he had compassion. He had compassion. Being likened to sheep is not a very complimentary thing because sheep are easily led astray and they are quickly lost. I’ve tried to compile some stories of dogs that found their way home. It still amazes me that some of them have crossed hundreds of miles, hundreds of miles and come back to the house where they were lost from, sometimes lost in a car while they were driving and not even lost from the home. And yet a dog can find his way back. But God says that we are like sheep who have gone astray.

And he says, all we like sheep have gone astray. There’s something global about this. No one could come into the meeting tonight that this doesn’t fit because the Bible says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We are all like wandering sheep who have strayed away from the one who loves us, from the one who can protect us, and from the one who can meet our deepest need. Do you remember in the Old Testament, David was a shepherd. There were times when he had to rescue a sheep from a lion or from a bear He was a shepherd and he cared for his sheep.

But in the Bible’s most famous Old Testament chapter, [David] says, I have a shepherd. I have a shepherd who cares for me. I have a shepherd who protects me. I have a shepherd who meets my needs. And he says, it is the Lord who is my shepherd. Every one of us are like helpless sheep when it comes to death, when it comes to eternity, when it comes to our sin. But there was a shepherd who calls himself the good shepherd. And in John chapter 10, where he takes that title, I am the good shepherd. He says, the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. So at Calvary, the Lord Jesus, the good shepherd died. He gave his life so that you could have life. And then in the rest of the chapter, he says, and I give my sheep eternal life. So at Calvary, he gave himself. And then those who trust him, to them he gives everlasting life, eternal life. But you notice that the statement of Isaiah goes on to say, we have turned everyone to his own way. Now, there’s something very personal about that because we don’t all sin the same way.

My sins may be completely different from your sins. And so it’s pointless for me to think I don’t do what you do. So therefore I’m better because each of us is lost. Each of us has turned to our own way. Each of us needs this shepherd. Each of us has gone astray from God. The good shepherd has come to give his life. In another passage, the Lord Jesus presents himself as a great physician. And we hear of times when he saw a man who was dying with the disease of leprosy and he had compassion on him and he healed him. Other times he saw a man afflicted with demonic power that had taken control of his life and the Lord Jesus had compassion on him. And he has compassion for sinners. He wants to save you tonight. He wants to deliver you from your sins. This is the reason. We’re tracing tonight his journey into the city of Jerusalem. But the reason why he journeyed from heaven down here to go to a cross was because of your deep need and his compassion for you. I sometimes thought, suppose he wasn’t interested in coming.

What would you and I have done? Do you think any of us could have suggested to God, would you please send your son to die so that I could live? I think we should be very thankful that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Now, please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. I’m not saying that sin is a disease. I am saying that God often talks about diseases to help us understand what sin does inside of us, our spiritual life. I’m glad that the COVID days are in the past. I hope they never return. But in August of 2020, there was an article that told about a bizarre result of COVID-19. That coronavirus pandemic caused a boom, For plastic surgeons.

One plastic surgeon suggested two reasons, One was guesswork He guessed that with people having so much spare time on their hands That if they could, they were allowed to go to a medical office and have work done on them that they had the time to do it. But the other is based on fact, because this is what people told one of the plastic surgeons and a number of people agreed. Zoom meetings. Zoom meetings.

People were having Zoom meetings for work, for business, for other reasons. And they didn’t like how they looked. They didn’t like what they were seeing. And so it drove them to the doctor because they didn’t like the way they looked. If you come to this book and you listen to what God says about your sins and my sins, This book will drive you to the Lord Jesus. It will drive you to the great physician because you’ll come to understand that you need desperately, urgently to be delivered from your sins. That is the Savior’s compassion for sinners. He had compassion on a young man, as I said, that was held by Satan’s power. He had compassion in many other instances, but I just want to focus finally on what he said in Luke chapter 10. It is arguably the Savior’s most famous parable. We call it the parable of the Good Samaritan. And the Lord Jesus is speaking about himself. And he speaks about a hated man who goes out of his way, to rescue somebody who hated him.

And to save his life. And the way he expresses it is that the Samaritan, as he journeyed, saw that beaten, dying man by the side of the road, and he had compassion on him. And he went to him, and he cared for his wounds, and he picked him up, and he brought him to a hotel, and he sat with him, nursing him back to health, paying for his future care, all this for somebody that hated him. Charles Spurgeon, a great gospel preacher of a previous century, said, imagine if you had a neighbor who hated you. Imagine this neighbor threw things at your children, often tried to hurt you or your house, cursed you in public, made your life miserable. And imagine you come home from work one day and you happen to see smoke and fire. And when you come around there, you see it’s not your home. It’s the home of this neighbor who hates you.

Mr. Spurgeon said, if you saw him, this man who hated you, if you saw him at the third floor window with the flames behind him. And you thought to yourself, I need to save that man. And as you started to head into the house, the man looked down at you and cursed you and told you to go away and leave him alone. And then when you got up to the third floor to rescue him, he fought off all of your attempts to save him.

How would you feel? Because there’s somebody that you may be treating just like that. Somebody who knows that you are in grave, eternal danger. And he came all the way from heaven because of compassion. And he came to save you. And sometimes we fight against him and we try to keep him at arm’s length and we want nothing to do with him. And all the time, he’s trying to save you from your sins and save you so that you can be in heaven forever with him. The savior marked by compassion. It was the very well-known preacher, David Jeremiah, who said this.

Our problem isn’t political and it can’t be solved by political means. It is not legal and all the laws in the world can’t solve it. It’s not educational. If everyone had a doctorate, we’d still have a corrupted culture. It’s not financial. If everyone were a millionaire, we’d still be in trouble. It’s not enough to turn over a new leaf, pass a new law, elect a new president, or create a new slogan. Our problem is our heart. We are sinners. And what we need spiritually is a new heart, or as the Lord Jesus so memorably put it, you must be born again. You need to have this moment in your life where you trust Christ and you receive eternal life. And apart from that, the Lord Jesus said, except the person is born again, and he cannot see the kingdom of God. This is not something new. The new birth is not something invented by televangelists or people preaching on radio. The new birth is what the Lord Jesus spoke about.

This is the month of March. Not all that long ago, people were celebrating the life of St. Patrick. Allow me to give you a statement from the Confessions of St. Patrick. This is what he wrote. I am greatly a debtor to God who has bestowed his grace so largely upon me that multitudes were born again to God through my preaching. The Irish, who had never had the knowledge of God and worshipped only idols, have lately become the people of the Lord and are called sons of God. He was seeing people born again. Do you have just one birthday?

I only know one person who has three birthdays. She’s in heaven now. Queen Elizabeth had an actual day when she was born. She had a public birthday that was celebrated by her nation. And she had a second birth when she trusted Christ. Most people have one birth. Everybody who’s going to be in heaven has two. How many birthdays do you have? See, I could tell you the day that I was born.

And I can tell you the day that I was born again. And if I didn’t have that second birthday, I’d curse forever that first birthday because I would have missed heaven forever. So please understand the compassion of the Savior. He not only wept, but he wished that they knew the time of opportunity. They were ignoring or refusing this wonderful visitation. And so we see his heart wish for the salvation of these people who were turning against him. This is in the New Testament and it is in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, God said, I have no pleasure in the death of a person who’s not ready to meet me. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. I take pleasure when a wicked turns from his way and he lives. And then God says, turn, why will you die? Because God wanted people to be saved. In the New Testament, we’re reminded, God desires all to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. This is what God wants for you. And when I see the Savior looking over that city and weeping over that city, it is because what he longed for them, he saw what was coming, and what he longed for them was their salvation. When Paul wrote to the Christians in what we have in 1 Timothy chapter 2, he told them to pray for kings and for everybody in authority.

And he based it on this fact. God desires all to be saved. So pray for kings and for all that are in authority because God desires all to be saved. And as has so often been pointed out, the person who was the king or in authority, was the wicked, vile, violent man, Nero. And yet Paul says to the Christians, pray for him because God wants all to be saved. And then further on, he uses the word and he says, to make that possible, the Lord Jesus gave himself a ransom for all on behalf of everybody. And then he says, God has sent me out to preach to all, to preach to the nations, not just to the people of Israel, but to preach to the nations because God desires all to be saved. So please, will you understand me when I tell you, nobody loves you more or cares more deeply for your eternal wellbeing and welfare, than the person who left heaven to die on a cross because he loved you and had compassion on your soul. But of course, the Lord Jesus in weeping over this city now reminds us of a condemned city.

What a privilege it is, what a privilege it is to have salvation offered. And he had offered salvation to this people. Do you remember the city of Capernaum where he had preached? He said it was exalted in privilege, but tragically they were turning away from him. Now we live in a country that has been greatly privileged by God, greatly privileged. Gospel, work, the Bible, the fact that Christianity is so common in our country, the country has been greatly privileged.

Midland Park has been greatly privileged. There’s a place where week by week, the message of salvation is proclaimed. You have been greatly privileged in your life. You’re here, you’re alive. God has spared you, allowing you to hear his word and understand what he wants for you is salvation. Now that city was turning away from its privilege. They were letting it slip right by. What are you doing with this blessing from God that you are alive here tonight hearing a message that tells you that God wants you to be saved? And yet the Lord Jesus had to mourn that they did not know the time of their visitation. They didn’t understand Daniel’s prophecy.

They didn’t know what was happening that day. He said, if you had known, notice what he says, if you had known even you in this your day, this was it. Daniel had told what the Messiah was gonna do when he came. He gave a list of six things, how their sins would be dealt with and put away. This was the day if they had just received him. But they didn’t know the time of their visitation. He was willing to save them. They were unwilling to be saved.

And I don’t know how much of their history you know, but in less than 40 years, what the Lord Jesus said took place. Four Roman legions under Vespasian’s son Titus, surrounded the city of Jerusalem, and basically leveled the temple and much of the city. Hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of Jews were murdered. They say that almost every tree surrounding the city of Jerusalem turned into a cross as they were crucified by the Romans who were fed up with their rebellion against the Roman government. And the Lord Jesus saw that coming and longed that instead they would have turned to him and trusted him. Do you know what he said? Like a mother hen gathers her brood under her wings to protect them. I would have protected you. I would have gathered you. I would have saved you. And then he adds these terrible words, but you would not. See, I would have, he said, but you would not. So here’s a city that the Lord Jesus wanted to save, but they didn’t want him to save them.

There’s a Savior tonight who wants to save you, here, right now, to save you. Is it possible that there’s somebody here who doesn’t want to be saved and is allowing the opportunity to pass by? Here is what the Savior is saying, because He is offering you eternal life based on the sacrifice of His life at Calvary. And He says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word and believes God that sent me.

Has everlasting life. That’s the new birth. Has everlasting life. Shall not come into condemnation, not come into judgment, but is passed from death, to life. You are being offered the greatest blessing that a human being can ever have. Here tonight, the Lord Jesus is offering you eternal life. He is offering to bring you from a position of death to life, and he is offering to assure you that you will never be brought into judgment before God. He’s the only one who can promise that because he’s the judge. And he’s offering to settle things right now tonight so that you will be saved for eternity. Thank you for listening. But what we really hope is that when you think about the Lord Jesus coming into that city of Jerusalem, you will remember, that he is the Savior with compassion and love for guilty, perishing sinners, and he wants to save you tonight. Shall we pray?

Women in John’s gospel

[0:00] Now, again, a very, very warm invitation and appreciation for all who have taken time to come, and also a very genuine expression of thanks to the assembly for your kindness in inviting me to be with you these four nights. I often think the responsibility of a man who comes to preach the word of God to the people of God is to leave you better than I found you. That’s a very, very high standard. I trust there’s been something of Christ and something in the ministry that has been a help in some way to all. Now, John’s Gospel, chapter 20.

[0:43] This is, of course, the resurrection morning, and verse number one tells us that the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene early while it was yet dark. Again, he’s using physical conditions to give us some type of insight into spiritual conditions, unto the sepulcher, and saw the stone rolled away. Of course, then she runs, and Simon Peter and John come. Drop down to verse number 11. They leave, but Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher, seeth two angels in white sitting, one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She said unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, I know not where they have laid him. When she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, but knew him not, that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni, which is to say teacher or master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not. I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren. Saying to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. And Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.

[2:06] We trust God will add his blessing to the public reading of his word, and we’ll make mention of other scriptures as well. Now I mentioned, I think, in the first night, but if I didn’t, I’ll mention it now, that the resurrection appearances of the Lord Jesus can be placed alongside Psalm number 23. We have at least five of those here in this section. For example, we have someone whose cup is running over with joy as the Lord Jesus Christ reveals himself to Mary Magdalene. My cup runneth over. Then when he appears to Thomas, or rather appears to the Twelve, he…

[2:40] It uses the, or it doesn’t use, but it fulfills the expression found in Psalm number 23, waters of rest, fear not. He calms them, brings them beside waters of rest to enjoy peace and rest despite all of the worry and concern. Then, of course, he deals with Thomas and we see he restores my soul. We mentioned as well, when you come to chapter number 21, you have the Lord preparing a table before his disciples in the presence of all his enemies.

[3:08] Bread and fish already prepared by him for their enjoyment, for their nourishment. They had gone out for fish. He had bread and fish. They would have had to clean them and cook them. He had everything ready already. So he’s showing he can do far better for us than we can do for ourselves if we allow him. So he prepares a table. Then, of course, you have the Lord Jesus saying, follow thou me. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. And also you would see him telling Peter and John, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? There he’s reminding us of a home in heaven. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Now, if you add to that, very quickly your mind can run through these. Luke 24, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, two walking under the shadow of death on the road to Emmaus. Remember as well in Matthew 28, thy rod and thy staff. Lo, all authority is given unto me. that’s the rod of authority. I am with you always. That’s the staff to comfort and protect. So we have all of the teaching of Psalm 23 contained in the resurrection appearances of the Lord Jesus. Now, that’s not just a nice way of looking at them, but keep in mind, what he is displaying is what he is doing right now at God’s right hand as our shepherd.

[4:22] The Lord Jesus has many offices. He is our great high priest. He’s our advocate. He’s our friend, but he’s our shepherd. And so as our great shepherd, he is still caring for us in the very same way all of these appearances

[4:37] reveal him to be caring for his own. So just to mention that as far as that is concerned. Mention as well, to show us the unity of the word of God, which is a tremendous thing to note, the link with Genesis and John. Now we had mentioned many, many links with Adam, the side of the Lord Jesus Christ being riven, Adam’s side being opened to provide a bride, the Lord Jesus Christ having a seamless garment, Adam having a garment with many seams, all of that. But I want you to think, first of all, of this. What we come to in John chapter 20, where we read is a garden and a woman and a gardener. So that’s John 20. That’s Genesis chapter three. A garden, a woman, and a gardener. But it’s so different in this garden. This woman is loyal. This woman is faithful. This woman does not seek in any way to undermine leadership. And she willingly bows to the one who is her Lord. And so we see the wonderful contrast with the Gospel of John, and rather with Genesis, and the picture of the garden. I want to just send in my remarks about three things.

[5:50] Mary Magdalene, her history, her heart, and her honor. So it would be very easy to remember her history, her heart, and her honor. As far as her history is concerned, we know three things. She was demon-possessed, she was delivered, and she from that moment on became a devoted follower and servant of the Lord Jesus. Now, we read that she had seven demons. The Lord Jesus cast out of her seven demons. Now, we have no idea and can’t speculate what form that demon possession took. In some instances, demon possession, for example, was marked by the ability to be a seer, a foreteller of the future. Acts chapter 16, and the woman who was delivered by Paul on that occasion, she had brought her masters much gain by her soothsaying. So demon possession there led to the ability to foretell the future. But then, of course, you have the madman of Gadara who was possessed by legion, and he didn’t foretell the future. He literally destroyed himself and everyone else he could find. So the violent as well as the prophetic or prognosticators, whatever it may be, demon possession took different forms in different individuals.

[7:04] It’s interesting that the very first place we find Mary Magdalene mentioned is in Acts chapter two. She was among the women who ministered unto him. She appears suddenly out of nowhere. However, just suggesting, just suggesting to you that the woman at the end of chapter seven, who comes in and to Simon the Pharisee’s house and anoints his feet, watches them with her tears, kisses them, anoints them with oil. I wonder, could that have been Mary Magdalene in her appreciation for the Lord Jesus? From that moment on, she’s going to devotedly follow him and minister to him. But that’s as far as we know of her history. And we can possibly suggest that she was the woman of chapter 7. And then, of course, we see her in Luke chapter 8 as the one devoted, serving the Lord Jesus. She was delivered. We’re not told exactly when she was delivered. We know she was satanically oppressed. We know that she was demon-possessed. And while none of us likely were demon-possessed, although some of my parents may have thought so.

[8:06] You’ll understand that all of us have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness, from the authority of darkness into the kingdom of the son of his love. So we’ve all had a deliverance. We’ve all been delivered from satanic power. One of the great aspects of redemption, Luke at Colossians chapter one tells us, giving thanks unto the father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who has delivered us from the authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the son of his love. So one aspect of redemption is that we have been transferred out of one kingdom into another. We’ve crossed the line never to go back. So we are reminded just like Mary, we have all been delivered. She then began to serve. So I want to talk to you then about her devotion. She ministered. Prior to the cross, all we know is that she and other women ministered of their substance to the Lord. They enabled the Lord and his disciples to carry on their ministry and enabled the Lord Jesus to serve others and carry on as he did as we read of him in the Gospels. But then the next place we find her standing at the cross, identified with the cross, standing there with likely three other women and John. The disciples had fled.

[9:20] Some had cowered in fear. Here are women standing by the cross, devoted to a crucified Savior. We next find her following the body to the tomb. Interesting, the cortege that followed Christ. It’s interesting that the most despicable people on earth usually have a half dozen or a dozen people following their burial. The Lord Jesus had Nicodemus, Joseph, and two women. That was the funeral person that he had. In devotion, she’s there following the body. Then we’re told that she watched where the body was laid. She knew exactly where the tomb was. So there’d be no, all of this is of course to give credence and to give validity to her account of the resurrection. She knew the tomb he was in and we find her then first at the tomb in the morning, more devoted than the disciples, more concerned than the disciples. We don’t know. She came with women who brought spices and ointments.

[10:20] But she gave her all. One of the great examples of devotion in the Old Testament is a man named Jonathan. Everything he had, his royal robe, his sword, his bow, everything laid at the feet of David when he came up out of the Valley of Elah as a victor. His right to the throne, that was his kingly robe. His skill and ability, his bow and his sword, everything laid at David’s feet to be used by him. Here is a woman, and she is giving everything over for him for his glory and honor, her history. Something about her heart.

[10:56] As I mentioned already, in her devotion, she is first to the tomb. Before the disciples, before others, she comes to the tomb and finds the stone rolled away. Now, this woman was so occupied with Christ. She sees two angels. They don’t attract her attention. I mean, most of us, if we knew we were looking at angels, we’d have a great conversation. Not this woman. Something is greater than angels. Something is more important than angels. She wants to find the Christ, my Lord.

[11:28] She comes and again we’ve mentioned in contrast to Eve she’s faithful she’s devoted she’s sincere she owns him as her Lord. There are five individuals in scripture who call the Lord Jesus Christ my Lord. Only five, interesting where they you have David in the Old Testament right before Christ David ever came the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand so before ever he came, David owned him as Lord, my Lord. The next one, of course, is Elizabeth to Mary with the babe in the womb. Allow me to use the term reverently, the fetus growing in the womb. From whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord comes? So she owned the babe in the womb was her Lord. Then you’ve got Mary here, assuming him dead. She still thinks he is dead. And she’s owning the one who is dead is my Lord. Then you have Thomas at the end of this chapter my Lord and my God seeing him in resurrection and of course the fifth one is the Apostle Paul, he counts all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. So before his birth at his birth, at his conception in the womb, as he is thinking he is dead in resurrection, in glory all of these individuals own his absolute supremacy and lordship My Lord. So we see her devotion, a heart that was occupied with Christ.

[12:58] He is moving here as the great high priest.

[13:04] You know what the first words the Lord Jesus Christ ever spoke in resurrection glory? We read them here. Woman, why weepest thou? A resurrected, glorified saint, interested, concerned with the tears of a woman in the garden.

[13:27] I said that the link with Psalm 23 is not accidental. It’s giving us some insight into what our shepherd is like right now. He’s interested in the tears of his people. He’s interested in the grief and the sorrows and the burdens and the cares, the tragedies and the unexplained issues of life that cause us to wonder at times. All of that comes for his attention, his concern, his care. Woman, why weepest thou? Imagine one resurrected in glory and honor, now just caring for a widow, rather a woman and her tears on this occasion. Three great statements punctuate the epistle to the Hebrews relative to the priesthood of Christ. He is able to sympathize. He is able to succor. He is able to save.

[14:16] Now, sometimes he saves us out of the trial. If he doesn’t do that, he may sucker us in the trial, giving us strength and grace. If he doesn’t do that, he sympathizes with us in the trial. So we have a high priest. You have a high priest. You have someone at God’s right hand who cares, who is able to sympathize, able to succor, able to save from every trial. So we’re reminded here of this high priest and his care and his suitability for every need. Of course, Hebrews reminds us that in the days of his flesh, he offered up strong cryings and tears. He knew what it was to endure trial. He knew what it was to shed tears. He knew what it was to face tremendous suffering, tremendous disdain, reproach, and shame. All of that he knew that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest. So we’re reminded here, we’re getting a glimpse and insight into his high priestly ministry in his dealings with Mary here in the garden.

[15:19] Think of the concern she expressed. Now, we don’t know anything about Mary’s physical appearance, physical stature, but she tells the man she thinks is the gardener, tell me where you’ve laid him and I’ll take him, I’ll carry him away. She’s not thinking of herself, not thinking of her limitations, such is her devotion to Christ. She overlooks all of her own limitations, all of her physical inability. She’s just set on trying to be able to serve and honor the Lord Jesus Christ in the way she could.

[15:50] Let me talk to you about her honor. We see her heart, absolutely devoted to Christ. Heart devotion to what she felt, what she knew was a dead Christ, a crucified dead Christ in it somewhere, his body lying somewhere else. She didn’t care. He was still her Lord and she still was devoted, still loved and still cared and would serve him any way she could. So it’s a challenge to us in our devotion. But then I want you to think about her honor that was given to her. Now, here’s where we come to what we’ve been mainly dealing with this week, the Lord Jesus changing relationships.

[16:31] Remember that he changed the relationship with his mother from a natural to a spiritual relationship, changed the relationship with the woman at the well from an unsatisfying relationship to a satisfying relationship. Six husbands or five husbands, one man, never satisfied, water of life will satisfy her now forever. The woman at the taken in adultery in chapter eight, the Lord Jesus Christ said, they’re go and sin no more. So he brought her into a sanctified relationship.

[17:00] And we’ve skipped over the two sisters, Mary and Martha, who thought if he had just been here, he could have saved their brother from death. He is going to show them he’s far greater than that, able to bring him out from the tomb, able to raise him from the dead. And then of course there is the supper, In the home, and Mary takes the pound of ointment and spikenard and anoints his feet, kisses them and so on, wipes them, all of that. So the Lord Jesus Christ there is shown to be more worthy than her brother. She could have used that ointment for her brother at his burial. More worthy than herself. She could have used it for herself. But she has saved it for the Lord Jesus, who is significant and special in her life. Then at the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ, again, the sixth woman is his mother again, Mary, at the cross. And the relationship he had with her, caring for her, likely responsible for her well-being, if indeed Joseph had died and she was a widow, now that’s going to be exchanged and given over to John to care for, and she will have a very supportive and secure relationship for the rest of her life with John. Let me just mention one thing about that before we leave John. And just as a help to younger believers, these are small indications of the absolute inspiration of Scripture.

[18:15] If I were John and I got Mary home in the home and we’re sitting out over a cup of tea or whatever, we’re drinking together. First thing I would ask Mary is, what was it like raising a perfect child? What was it like having a child that never disobeyed? Having a child that never said no? Having a child that never got its anger up? What was it like having a child like that? I know some of you have had those and it’s to your credit, the Lord bless you. But I think I would have asked Mary all those questions. And yet, John never records one detail about the life of the Lord Jesus prior to what we have in John chapter 1. Of course, he tells us of eternal being, but he never goes into any details about his childhood. Luke does that. John doesn’t. So the Spirit of God was controlling what he was writing, evidently and very, very definitely. So those are things that help us appreciate the very, very definite character and of inspiration in the Word of God. So let me talk to you then about her honor. First of all, her perception. She thought he was the gardener. Again, I’ve linked this with Genesis 3, but more than that, there is a sense in which he is the gardener of our souls.

[19:30] Both Isaiah and Jeremiah speak about our souls being like watered gardens, full of fragrance rare, we sing. He is the gardener who knows how to pull weeds. Now, the first thing he’s going to do is pull the weeds of ignorance. The disciples knew not, they didn’t believe yet. He’s going to have to deal with that weed. Here, he’s going to deal with another weed altogether, the need of needless worry and watching, the weed of unbelief, the weed of arrogance in Thomas, the weed of self-centeredness in Peter. He’s pulling weeds constantly. You remember the lovely illustration, Proverbs 24. Where he says he learned a lesson. He went by the field of the slothful and was overrun with weeds. The wall was broken down. The weeds were growing.

[20:22] That garden needed a wall, first of all, because what was outside the wall had come inside the garden now because the wall had gone down. So it needed the wall rebuilt. It needed watering. It needed weeding. It needed working. Reminds us, if your soul and my soul is going to be a well-watered garden, there needs to be a wall.

[20:43] Limits, separation. There needs to be watering. The Spirit of God needs to be work done, pulling weeds and recognizing what is hindering growth, what is contrary to God. Would you like your soul really to be a garden for God, fragrant, giving him pleasure, giving him delight as the fruit of the spirit is developed in our lives and all of that? So we’re reminded of that here. He is the gardener of our souls and he is able to indeed produce well-watered gardens by those who submit to him. So he was a gardener and he’s gonna pull weeds and all of the incidences that follow here in John 20 and in John chapter 21. As well, just notice with me as well that the Lord Jesus was standing and she didn’t recognize him. Now that’s interesting because in John’s gospel, we mentioned last evening, postures of the Lord Jesus. Wherever the Lord Jesus is found standing, he’s not recognized. Go back to chapter one. There stands one among you whom you know not. Okay? Okay, chapter 21, the Lord Jesus standing on the shore. The disciples knew not it was Jesus.

[21:53] Everywhere he’s standing, he’s not recognized, unknown. Here again, he’s not recognized. She was so overwhelmed with her grief. Now, whether it was that or just the fact that her eyes were holden for a moment that she couldn’t recognize him, perhaps her grief was overcoming her. And we learn a lesson.

[22:10] She did not recognize him until she turned from her grief. Now many times when we are in trial we get so occupied with our grief and our problems we fail to turn. You recall that Abraham turned to find the ram caught in the thicket, the Lord Jesus turned to look upon Peter when Peter was denying him in the high priest’s court. But different individuals had to turn. Moses had to turn aside and see this sight, the burning bush. We become so occupied, so obsessed with different things. Sometimes our problems, our grief, wondering why has the Lord done this? Why this trial? Why this burden? Why do I have it? We fail to turn and see the Lord is there all the time. He’s with us. So we’re reminded here that she didn’t recognize him at first, and she had to turn to see him. Certainly this woman was not spot on doctrinally but she was head of the class as far as devotion was concerned her heart was there. So I want to talk to you then about this new relationship that she is going to be charged with.

[23:25] The Lord Jesus Christ tells her, touch me not, don’t detain me. Now, it’s not the idea that he didn’t want to be touched because you recall later on, he says, touch me and see. A spirit hath not flesh and bone as you see me have. So it isn’t that there was something going with this touching her. She wanted to detain him. She wanted to keep him in the same relationship she had while he was here alive on earth prior to the cross. I want you just to be the same. Do you know that we are infinitely blessed by the fact that Christ has ascended and gone back to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. There has become infinite blessing to us. Put another way, we are far superiorly blessed by a risen ascended Christ than if he were here with us on earth today. If he had stayed on earth, I should say. If he had stayed on earth, never ascended, never occupied his place at God’s right hand, we would be much the poorer for it in all of the life that we enjoy now. There are four times in the epistle to Hebrews where we are reminded of a risen, seated, enthroned Christ.

[24:36] Interesting that Hebrews only once mentions his resurrection. Chapter 13, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep. It’s the only mention of resurrection, but his ascension, his glory, his enthronement, four different times. What is interesting is this. In all of those different times he ushered himself in. That means he on his own volition, walked into the throne room of God and sat himself down at God’s right hand.

[25:08] None of us would go into the Oval Office and sit ourselves down, right? I mean, first of all, if I’ve ever had an invitation, we do so very hesitantly, very gingerly, very apologetic. The Lord Jesus just walks right into heaven, into the throne room of heaven, sat himself down at God’s right hand, owned by God. So just mention these four different times. Chapter 1 of Hebrews. You recall how Hebrews begins. When he had by himself made purgation for sin, he sat down at the right hand of God from henceforth and so on.

[25:41] Hebrews chapter one tells us, first of all, here is the sovereign fit to reign. He sat himself down at God’s right hand. He has God’s final word, God’s finished work, the one who created the world. Now he comes and sits down at God’s right hand. He is fit to reign. He is the one who will one day take the authority, the reins of government and rule this world for God. He’s fit. Then you come to chapter number six, or rather chapter number eight, and we find he has sat down. This is the chief thing I want to tell you, Paul says. Here’s the chief principle I want to leave with you. We have such a high priest sat down on the right hand of the majesty of the throne on high. What’s he dealing with there? The covenant and all the blessings we have. Every blessing we have is guaranteed by the fact there is a man who was here, went to a cross, was buried, rose again, ascendedis at God’s right hand, and his presence there is the absolute guarantee that God is going to fulfill every part of his promises to us and all the covenant blessings. Now, I know covenant made with Israel, primarily we have come into the spiritual blessings of that covenant and all those blessings are guaranteed to us. From their sins and iniquities, I’ll remember no more. A new heart I will give them. We’ve come into the good of that now, the spiritual blessing of it, all because he has ascended and seated at God’s right hand enthroned there.

[26:59] Chapter 10 tells us that he sat down, not the idea never to rise again, but sat down forever at God’s right hand. The idea that he never will rise up to do that work of salvation again tells us the work is finished, a completed work, an exceptional high priest, the eternal rest he gives, efficacious sacrifice. So the man at God’s right hand who is seated on the throne, he’s there as proof the work is done, that your salvation and mine is complete. Nothing can ever touch it. Hebrews speaks of an eternal salvation, an eternal redemption, an eternal inheritance, an eternal covenant.

[27:37] You can’t get much more than that. All because he is seated at God’s right hand. And then in chapter 12, that chapter that complements chapter 11 of the long list of heroes of faith, reminded of Lord Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of a life of faith, who now has endured the cross, despised the shame, sat down at God’s right hand. What’s he telling us there?

[28:01] All the heroes of Hebrews 11, great men, lovely, and women as well. But there’s one who eclipsed them all. Not a moment of faith, not an act of faith, but a life of faith, constantly. He willingly endured the cross. Now, when it says he despised the shame, it’s not that he hated it. He thought little of it. Despising the shame is the idea of not counting it very, very much because of what would come from it. Because he was able to sit down at God’s right hand, God is reminding us there is compensation for a life of faithfulness. There is compensation for faithfulness and suffering and being faithful to the will of God. He has sat down at God’s right hand, the perfect example of a life of faith, the prospect that enabled him, the price he paid, all of that there. He is the one who sits at God’s right hand. Because of that, now Hebrews opens up to us other things as well. Chapter 10, having therefore brethren boldness for an entrance into the holiness by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh. Because the Lord Jesus Christ took flesh into heaven inside the veil the veil is not the flesh the veil is that tabernacle separating separation he took flesh within the veil a real man in heaven that means you and i can move freely in the sanctuary above.

[29:21] I know we lose sight of it. I lose sight of it. I’m sure you do as well. But when you bow your knee by your bedside, or when you gather together on the Lord’s Day morning, you are not remembering the Lord here in this hall in Midland Park. This is not our sanctuary. Our sanctuary is in heaven.

[29:40] It’s because he’s there that’s become our sanctuary. I have to confess to you, I had an electrician. This is a long before my son-in-law was able to do these things. He was looking at our hall and looking at something that had to be fixed. And he says, let me see your sanctuary. And I should have told them, our sanctuary. I can’t show you it. It’s above. It’s not here. But you understand. I knew what he meant. But anyway, when you bow your knees, you are actually in the presence of God. Now, I know we can hardly begin to grasp the reality of that. We become so accustomed just going through the motions. But when you bow your knee, you are in the presence of your father because he has made it possible for us to enter because he brought flesh, a man in heaven. So a man in heaven has given me absolute freedom to move within the presence of God. A man in heaven taking a body into heaven assures my future. He brought a body into heaven. He’s gonna bring other bodies into heaven someday. All of that is assured by a living man in heaven who’s there now for us. But come back with me now to what the Lord Jesus Christ says. In chapter 10, there as he speaks, or rather in chapter 20, as he speaks to Mary, he says, touch me not, I have not yet ascended to my father. Go to my father, go to my brethren, I ascend to my father and your father, my God and your God.

[31:06] The Lord Jesus Christ gives Mary Magdalene the honor of being an apostle to the apostles. She has a message to bring to them. Now, we may not think this message is so great. I would take it this is the first time the Lord Jesus Christ clearly indicates, the fatherhood of God for all believers. Now, I know he spoke, for example, in the Sermon on the Mount, other places, you know, your father in heaven knows you have need of these things. More of a general idea. And of course, when you come to the nation of Israel, no one in Israel ever spoke of God as my father. He was a father of the nation. No one ever spoke of him as being my father. But the unique relationship that now exists between believers and God in heaven, ushered in by the resurrection and ascension of Christ. I ascend to my father and your father. As a result of my ascension, spirit of God will come, gifts poured out, but also this, this wonderful relationship individually. My father, your father, my God, your God. So let me just mention a few things. The fatherhood of God, I enjoy an established relationship. I enjoy an established relationship with the Father in heaven.

[32:17] He’s given me the spirit of sonship. We’ve been indwelt by the spirit of his son. John writes, truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And then Jude reminds us we’re sanctified by the father. So here’s a relationship I’m able to enjoy all because Christ has ascended and he has announced, don’t detain me. Our relationship is gonna be different now. It’s no longer a relationship of a servant and someone you serve, but I am now going to ascend into heaven and you will have a totally new relationship with divine persons. You will have a father personal interest in you, a personal father. So he established a relationship that I enjoy. Think of the enjoyment of the blessings that we have because he is our father. He is our father. Now you can, it’s hard to begin yet enumerating them. Just mention a few, for example. First of all, Ephesians three and one, Ephesians one and three rather, who’s blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. Now, don’t gloss over that too quickly. What that is actually saying is that because of Christ and his relationship established now as our father, he is able to bless us with every blessing, the infinite heart of God, the infinite wisdom of God could ever give to human beings.

[33:37] That means no big surprises when you get to heaven. God has given us every blessing he can give us. Now, we haven’t entered into them all yet. We don’t appreciate them all yet. We don’t live in the good of them all yet. But he’s given us every blessing he could possibly give. Nothing’s been held back. Nothing is somehow in reserve if we’re good boys and good girls. Remember that we stand on God’s mercy and grace every step of life. Never do we merit anything. And so we’re reminded then of the enjoyment of the blessings we have. 2 Corinthians 6, recall after Paul enjoins the believers, come out from among them, be separate, touch not the unclean thing and all the unequal yokes that he speaks of there. Then God says, I will be a father unto them. They will be my sons and daughters. What’s he saying?

[34:21] Anything that an individual sacrifices out of devotion and faithfulness to God, God will compensate, compensate. Now it doesn’t mean he’ll compensate in the same currency that you lost. For example, you may give up a lucrative position in a job somewhere so that you can be close to an assembly. You can be a help in the assembly. You may give up a promotion because it’s going to take too much of your time and you want to give more of your time to the Lord. It doesn’t mean the Lord’s going to give you money as a compensation, but he will compensate. It may be with opening truth to you. It may be opening doors of usefulness for you, whatever it may be. God will always compensate. So we’re reminded there, he will be a father unto you and you will be my sons and daughters. Then again, 2 Thessalonians chapter two, reminds us he has loved us with an everlasting love and as well through consolation and good hope. 1 Peter has begun to sing unto a living hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead. So you go on and on. The relationship that’s established, the enjoyment of blessings that we have, the experience of liberty. Paul reminds us that in one spirit, we both have access to the Father. Access to the Father. I don’t even have access to the mayor of my town, much less the governor or the president, okay? We’ve got access to the father, liberty to enter because of Christ because of an enthroned living man in heaven of course.

[35:48] Giving thanks unto the Father who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Our Father, the fatherhood of God, embraces the fact he has made us absolutely fit for his presence eternally.

[36:03] No apology, no brushing up needed, nothing needed to change us other than the right transformation at the rapture. But you’ll understand, we are already fit for God’s presence. He’s made us meet. So the fatherhood of God has brought us tremendous blessings. The ascendancy and enthronement of Christ has brought us incredible blessings. Think of all that comes to us because Christ is enthroned. Remember he said that he could not send the Holy Spirit unless he went himself and ascended. Ephesians chapter four reminds us, as a risen head, as the glorified head of the church, he’s received gifts to give. So your very ability, your usefulness for God, whatever little role God has given each of us to do is fruit of the ascended Christ, of the glorified ascended Christ. God has enthroned him, given him the highest place above. So we’re reminded then of all of this, this new relationship we have with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. But as well, along with the fact that he says, detain me not, I’ve not yet ascended, which he had to do to my Father and your Father, my God and your God, there’s the implication here of a new brotherhood being formed. Now he’s made that clear earlier in chapter 17, but also here now he’s reinforcing it. You will be brothers and sisters together. My God and your God, my Father, your Father, or you’re part of a family. So that brings me then to family responsibilities.

[37:22] This new relationship imposes responsibility and obligations upon me. Over 34 times, I think that’s a pretty accurate number.

[37:35] Over 34 times there are one another statements in the New Testament. Fourteen of them are love one another. Four in John, the Gospel of John, in the upper room, the remainder, I think, in John’s epistles. Love one another. That’s not the only one. We are told to provoke one another. Now, some of us are very good at that, but the literal meaning is to stir each other up to good works and to encourage each other. So we are to provoke one another. We are to exhort one another, comfort one another, edify one another, honor one another, serve one another. So I have tremendous obligation to every believer with whom I have a relationship. So now, how are you doing with loving one another? You say, well, people don’t love me. The amazing thing about love is love never looks for love.

[38:30] Love is always unidirectional, at least the agape love of God. And the love that we’re enjoying to have, always in a new direction, always something that goes out, never looking for anything in return. So the moment I say no one loves me, I am really showing that I fail to love. I’m looking for something rather than willing to give. So how are you doing with loving one another? That means that we mentioned that already, seeking each other’s blessing, seeking each other’s welfare, seeking to advance each other’s spiritual life. What about edifying one another? What about edifying one another?

[39:04] Ever, maybe I guess I’m mainly talking now to older believers, ever hone in on a young family, a young couple, or even a young believer unmarried? And how can I help? How can I encourage them? How can I strengthen them? They are living in a world that those of us who are now retired and older have no idea what it’s like. The things that were hardly spoken about in school at cafeteria tables, whispered about, are now the subject of open conversation and boasting. Who scored this weekend? Okay. And what new drug are you using? Just normal conversation. Part of the everyday subject matter in school. They are faced with temptation beyond explanation. They are faced with sexual temptation, moral temptation, drug temptation, alcohol temptation. All of that is just rampant, open, obvious in all of the schools. Now, I know if you go to a Christian school, homeschooled, you’re preserved in some measure. Not totally, but in some measure.

[40:18] They are facing tremendous pressure. Young people need encouragement, need edification, need to be helped in their Christian life. And they don’t get that just coming and listening to sermons like I’m giving you. They need personal one-on-one attention. So edifying others, being a help to them, exhorting one another, encouraging one another. The ministry of encouragement is something desperately needed. We all need encouragement because everything is so discouraging. Life is discouraging. Our own personal lives can get very discouraging at times. Family life can be discouraging.

[40:53] So anyone here interested in taking up the ministry of encouragement, not flattery, not a matter of flattering people, not a matter of saying what’s not true, not a matter of giving trophies to everybody who plays in the game. There are still winners, there are still losers, but there is the ability to try to encourage with words that lift people up instead of dragging them down. The apostle Paul, perhaps the greatest evangelist ever lived, he needed encouragement. And he says about a man named Onesiphorus, He was like a breath of fresh air to me. He sought me out very diligently. The stench and squalor of the prison in Rome, not in his hired house, but when he was imprisoned in Rome, in the Mamertine prison.

[41:39] Its filth, its conditions were legendary, yet he sought them out. Had there was no directory to find them, he would have to go from hole to hole, literally, they were in holes in the ground, hole to hole to find the apostle Paul. And he encouraged them in some way. Tremendous ministry to be able to make an encouragement of the people of God. And on and on you could go with all that is required, all that is mentioned of loving one another and so on. So we all have a responsibility. Part of what the Lord Jesus Christ revealed and his ascension. Part of the new relationship he’s establishing with Mary Magdalene is the fact that she now will have a heavenly father who will care for her individually, but as well, she has a brotherhood, a family that needs to be attended to. And each one of us have a responsibility, one to the other, to be a help and encouragement in our spiritual lives. Mary Magdalene, relationship changed. A relationship that we have come into the good of as well. We have a gardener who cares for our souls. We have a shepherd who cares for us as well. We have a Lord whom we worship. All of that. And we have one who has linked us with a father and with one another so that we might serve and honor him in our lives. Trust God will bless his word and encourage us all in light of the divine truth we have looked at. Shall we pray?

Women in John’s gospel

[0:00] Now, thank you for being here, especially after last night. Appreciate all who have taken time to come. Now, we’re reading together in John’s Gospel, Chapter 8. Gospel of John, Chapter 8. Whenever we sing that hymn, I’m reminded of the incident told of the author of that hymn, Robert Robinson. He penned that hymn as a young man. Later in life, he was riding in a carriage, and a young woman was sitting across from him, actually singing it quietly to herself.

[0:34] And he had to confess. He was the author of that hymn, and he wished he was still in the spiritual condition he was when that hymn was written.

[0:43] So we’re reminded how quickly, how easily any of us can stray. A man that could write words like that easily, moving away from his joy in Christ and his salvation. Very solemn. John chapter 8, verse number 2. Early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and the people came unto him, and he sat down and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. When they had set her in the midst, they say to him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. So when they had continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out, one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said to her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? And she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Just drop down to the very end of the chapter.

[2:05] Verse number 57, Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old. Hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, passing through the midst, and so passed by. Now we trust God will add blessing to the public reading of his word. As you know by now, we’re looking at the Lord Jesus encountering women in the Gospel of John seven different times. We only have time for four of them, but seven different times he encounters women and he changes their relationships. Here we see he will change the relationship of this woman from that of her sin to that of sanctity or righteousness. Go and sin no more. A life free of overt sin that had marked her to this point in time. The time that this occurred is interesting. It’s not divorced from chapter seven. Actually, chapter seven ends in chapter three with the Lord Jesus going to the Mount of Olives. In chapter 8, he comes early in the morning to the temple. What is significant, and this is right after the Feast of Tabernacles, a time of great joy, a time of great pleasure, a time of great rejoicing in God. It should have been marked by the knowledge of the Lord covering the earth.

[3:24] Picture the millennial reign of Christ is in the idea of the Feast of Tabernacles. And yet, we see the very opposite, their blindness and their refusal of the light. So the timing is significant.

[3:36] The place is significant, the treasury. We didn’t read it, but down in verse number 20, we find that these things took place in the treasury. Now, John, in a very masterful way, uses both locations and conditions to express something of spiritual need. For example, later on, the Lord Jesus will be walking in Solomon’s porch in this winter, and you see the coldness of the people of God, of the nation of Israel, towards him. Here, he’s in the treasury, and you learn the bankruptcy of the nation. They have nothing to offer.

[4:07] Likewise, he will use conditions such as, it was yet dark. Morning had not yet come. It was cold. It was night. Judas went out, and it was night, and so on. So he uses conditions and times and so forth to not only communicate literal fact, but also to give us a sense of the spiritual condition of the nation and those around him. So we have the treasury then and their bankruptcy. When I read this, I think about another woman in the Old Testament taken in adultery. Her name was Tamar. And she actually was with child by Judah because of his failure to fulfill his promise. And she is brought out, ready to be stoned. And Judah has to own, she is more righteous than I. I’m the one that really has failed. Here, this woman is before the Lord Jesus Christ. No such confession is made that she is more righteous than he, but rather he is more righteous than she. But yet in mercy and grace, brings about this wonderful occasion of forgiveness.

[5:06] Also, we mentioned the types.

[5:10] The Lord Jesus Christ in chapter six replaces the manna. Chapter seven, he replaces the water. Chapter eight, he replaces the light. Israel had manna, had water, had light for the journey. The Lord Jesus here fulfills all those types in his presentation to the nation in chapter six, chapter seven, and chapter eight. Likewise, we see, we mentioned already, the Lord Jesus replaces everything and everyone. Chapter four, we mentioned last night, art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well? Chapter eight here ends with he’s greater than Abraham. Chapter 9 there are 13 mentions of Moses up to chapter number 9 and in chapter number 9 they make their final allegiance to Moses plain we be Moses disciple as for this man we know not when he is and therefore from there that point on Moses is no longer mentioned he is greater than Moses he eclipses all of Israel’s great men Israel’s heroes and so on. So all of that is seen here. I want to just speak to you then about three things my thoughts will all be centered around three things. The guilt of the woman,

[6:13] the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the goal of salvation. Very simple. So we have the guilt of the woman.

[6:22] Can’t be contested. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, unmatched. And then finally, the goal that God has in salvation. Go and sin no more. I should mention, though, first of all, just a word about the genuineness of this account. Now, if you take time to read commentaries, you’ll find that a large number will say this is not really in the original text. There were some versions, that manuscripts, where they tore these pages out because they did not like what they contained. Others say they were not part of the original text. Others say they were. So there’s a bit of a controversy over the genuineness of what we have here in John chapter 8. I think when there’s a question, you have to ask yourself, does it fit? And to me, it seems to fit perfectly. The character of Christ, the message he’s given, the truth about light that he’s going to unfold in the verses that follow. So I would say that this fits with the grace and truth of chapter one and the light of the world that we have as well here in chapter number eight. So I would vote for the genuineness of this passage. Some were so concerned with it that it seemed to give license to sin, seemed to as though the Lord Jesus was playing very, very fast and loose with adultery and so on. But I think we see here, as we come to it, we’ll see why and how the Lord Jesus Christ could righteously forgive this woman. So then, just a look at the story together, the guilt of the woman.

[7:50] This was very likely a contrived case. Obviously, they’re trying to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ, and we’ll see what that meant and why.

[7:58] When they came to the Lord Jesus with this woman, the Lord Jesus Christ put in what in their eyes was a dilemma. If he said to stone her, as Moses in the law said, he would be going against Roman authority. You recall when they brought the Lord Jesus Christ to Pilate, the Pilate said, take him and judge him according to your law. They said, it is not lawful for us to put any man to death. Capital punishment had been taken away from the Jews, and now it was only the power of Rome could do that. So if the Lord Jesus Christ said to stone her to agree with Moses, he was going against Rome. If on the other hand, he forgave her or turned her over to Rome, he was going against Moses. So they thought they had him in the tightest possible place. How’s he going to get out of this? How’s he possibly going to find a way to get out of this dilemma? Then secondly, of course, he was full of grace and truth. Was he going to show grace to this woman or carry out truth? One of them was going to have to be sacrificed or compromised, at least so they thought. So they had the Lord Jesus Christ in a dilemma, trying to discredit him, trying to cause him to either be contrary to Moses or be contrary to Rome. They would have something to accuse him with. So here they are with the Lord Jesus Christ and this woman. She’s caught in the very act of adultery, their callousness, their insensitivity to sin, seen here.

[9:23] We see as well that her mouth is shut. The Lord Jesus is going to shut their mouths. His is the only mouth that can be opened in righteousness and in true grace. We’ll see that as we come through this story.

[9:35] Her accusers, the woman is seen here, her accusers are here. The light shines upon their consciences, right? He’s the light of the world. I’m just going to develop that in the rest of the chapter. The light of Christ shines upon their conscience, and they go out one by one as a result of their guilty consciences. Of course, it’s often asked, where was the man who perpetrated this sin? He deserved to be stoned as well, but they just brought the woman in their callousness and their hardness and their cruelty, just brought her.

[10:09] The Lord himself was the only one standing here who was free of guilt, free of any accusation to be laid against him. So we have then the woman and her guilt. I want to speak then of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice where he was. He was seated in the temple.

[10:25] Now, a very useful, a very profitable study would be to look at the postures of the Lord Jesus in the gospel of John. Recall how Psalm number one begins. The blessed man who walks not of the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. And John is going to emphasize all three of those postures throughout his gospel. The Lord Jesus will be seen standing in different places. He will be seen walking in different places. He will be seen sitting in different places. And as far as the places he sits in, he’s never marked by scorn or cynicism or callousness or hardness. You recall, he sat thus on the well in chapter four. We didn’t draw attention to that. But in chapter four, he sat thus on the well, confronting a woman who was laden with her own sin and failure. Then in chapter six, he sits upon the mountainside and he’s testing his disciples as to the crowd and giving them something to eat. And of course, was it Andrew’s overwhelmed with his sense of need, the scantiness of provision. We only have five loaves and two small fishes. And was it Philip who said, the crowd is so great. One was occupied with how great the need, the other how scanty the resources. And the Lord Jesus Christ says, just make the men sit down. No criticism, no sense of belittling them for their lack of faith. He just sits quietly in grace and kindness and meets the need. Again, here he’s sitting as well in the temple. When you come to chapter 12.

[11:53] He’s sitting at the table with Martha and Lazarus and Mary. The anointing occurs. Later in the chapter, he’s seen sitting upon the beast as he rides into the city, meek and lowly. No arrogance, no sense of entitlement, just coming meek and lowly to the people. Chapter 13, he’s sitting in the upper room, washing the disciples’ feet. And when he’d taken his garments and sat down again, he said, know you what I have done. Every place you see him sitting, it’s marked by grace, by meekness, by goodness, by gentleness, by a lack of scorn and belittling others. So gracious in every way, the Lord Jesus seated here. And so we see him now in the temple, seated, and to him come then these individuals. Then we see him stooping. Now, you may have your own ideas, just a suggestion. As I mentioned, a lot of his postures are symbolic and stooping might to us suggest his stooping grace. He’s stooping, but it also could be his total indifference to their callous accusations against this woman. Could be as well. He stoops, twice he stoops, twice he stands, twice he speaks. But as well, I think he was sensitive to the shame of this woman.

[13:08] The Lord Jesus Christ moved here as a man of sorrows. What I mean by that is not just that he felt sorrow for what occurred to him.

[13:17] Psalm 119, somewhere halfway down, it says, rivers of water run down my eyes because they keep not thy commandments. That just meant that this godly man of Psalm 119 was so in touch with God that sin bothered him. When he saw sin, when he saw the effects of sin, the fruit of sin, all that sin caused, tears ran down his eyes. The Lord Jesus Christ was a man of sorrows. He moved in a scene where everything, everything was contrary to him. Men were rebelling against God. Men were denying God. Men were belittling God. Men were living their lives of sinfulness and selfishness. The temple became a place of merchandise. The sacrifices became ritualistic. The priesthood became debased. The chief priest was appointed by the Roman emperor, no longer by heredity. Everything was out of kilter, and he moved through this world. It must have been a veil of tears for him as he moved here, as he had to see and experience and come firsthand. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a situation. I was, when this goes way back during the Vietnam War, I was drafted. I was a conscientious objector sent to work in Trenton State Prison. Prison life is hard to describe. It is humanity reduced to its lowest level. It is every man for himself. It is a place where wickedness thrives.

[14:44] One day, things were so bad there, the immorality and everything else. When I left that day, it was like I was breathing. I went outside and I just had to breathe just to get away from all of that, all the sin that was around me. That’s not being proud and self-righteous, just that it was so evident and so oppressive. Now, that was just a little picture of what life was like every day for the Lord Jesus. He was sensitive to sin. He never wanted to expose and shame anyone. He came to forgive sin. And so the Lord Jesus Christ here acts as though he does not see them, hear them, pay attention to them. He stoops silently. One of the great needs we have is being sensitive to sin.

[15:30] There’s an ordinance in the Old Testament, Numbers chapter 19. You rarely hear it preached on. It’s called the ordinance of the red heifer. Very different from all the other sacrifices. The red heifer was a, the ordinance of the red heifer concerned people who had been exposed to death. So if you were in a house, in a tent and someone died by your side, you were defiled. You needed to be cleansed with the ashes of the red heifer. If you were walking along the way and accidentally came near a grave and touched the grave in some way, you were defiled. If you touched a bone, you were defiled. Any contact with death in any form meant defilement. Now remember, defilement is not sin. All sin defiles, but not all defilement is sin. For the simple reason, you couldn’t help if someone died by your side. Sin always involves an act of my will. So I didn’t will that person to die by my side, but yet they did. And I have to be sensitive to the fact that I’ve come in contact with death. What is that teaching me? Teach me I need to be sensitive to the fruit of sin all around me. That death was the result of sin in the world. Not my fault not my doing I didn’t cause that person that I but I’m defiled because I’ve been in contact with that.

[16:48] I think I used to be more sensitive to sin than I am now. We get so accustomed to the Lord’s name taken in vain, the off-color jokes, the cursing, the swearing, the recounting of evil. Just give you one example of how guilty I am. So in my practice, I recall a gentleman who seemed to act very, very effeminate. And I was feeling uncomfortable, feeling that he was probably someone in an illicit relationship with another male. And one day he came in and told me he had spent the weekend with his girlfriend at a resort, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Really? That’s just as sinful. Just as sinful. But I had become so desensitized to that because of the awfulness of the other that I just thought that’s a relief to hear that. We have become desensitized to sin. The Lord Jesus Christ never became desensitized to sin. And the reason he wants us to be sensitive to sin is if we become insensitive to sin, we can easily fall into sin.

[18:01] Insensitivity to all the sin around us can make us targets for sin ourselves. So we’re reminded of that here in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we have the Lord Jesus Christ writing as a scribe. Now, many and imaginative are the answers to what he wrote, all the way from writing the law to writing their sins. We don’t know what he wrote, but we do know this. He took his finger and he wrote in the ground.

[18:31] You recall that once before, the finger of God wrote in tables of stone, a law written with the finger of God. You recall again another occasion where in Daniel chapter 5 is it, the fingers of a man’s hand wrote upon the wall. So you have the law, you have the condemnation, you have grace. The Lord Jesus writing with his finger on the ground. Love to think of how interesting it is. This is the only time in scripture we read of the Lord Jesus Christ writing. And we have no idea what he wrote. And yet he has left us a tremendous legacy, even though he never wrote a book, even though he never wrote commandments. Here’s the only time he wrote that we read of in all the word of God. So we have the Lord Jesus Christ writing here, displaying grace likely, writing with the finger of God. Then you have the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. He that is without sin among you let him cast the first stone. To have first cast a stone according to the mosaic law deuteronomy the witnesses the accusers were to be the ones who cast the first stones at the individual. Now the Lord Jesus Christ shines his light upon their conscience they go out one by one and there’s no accuser left no accuser left.

[19:54] And the Lord Jesus Christ then turns to the woman and says, go and sin no more. So let me speak to you about her forgiveness, her forgiveness. We have the guilt of the woman established beyond question. We have the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ seen, now going to express herself in forgiveness. Why could the Lord Jesus Christ forgive her sin? Why could he say to her, go and sin no more? Why was that not a violation of the Mosaic law, a violation of the moral code? How could he do that and maintain his righteousness, his holiness while showing this grace? Number one, the law required the accuser to be the first to cast stones. Where are those accusers? There were none. So no accusers, no stoning. Case dismissed. But secondly, and more importantly, the Lord Jesus Christ would bear the punishment for her sin in just a few short months upon a cross himself.

[20:47] So the one who would bear the punishment for her sin had full liberty to forgive her sin. Same with each of us. That which marked us in our unsaved days, worthy of judgment, worthy of condemnation, worthy of eternal banishment. He bore that punishment for us at Calvary. So he can say, go and sin no more. Neither do I condemn thee. He was not condoning her sin, not bypassing her sin. The very fact that he said, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more, tells us he recognized it as sin, but he was going to pay for that sin. And now he’s going to change her life altogether.

[21:27] So we see her forgiveness. We see now her future.

[21:33] Go and sin no more. So I want to speak to you now about the goal of salvation. What is God’s goal in your life? Actually, there are many, but really they kind of come together in many ways into one thing altogether. One problem we have in our English Bible, and if you knew Greek, it’s not a problem, but there are words that are different in our English language that are almost identical in the original language. For example, the word for righteousness and justification. They both are literally the same root same same words virtually because when god justifies a man he declares him to be righteous so justification and righteousness are almost identical in the original language. Likewise the word sanctification and holiness come from the very same root just a little different spelling on the end of the words and so they are they’re similar sanctification and holiness. Sanctified, set apart for God, set apart as uniquely belonging to God, as holy as well. So we see then this great truth. So let me talk to you then about what is the definition of holiness.

[22:44] If you grew up when I grew up, this is no judgment on others. Holiness meant what you didn’t do, okay you didn’t go to the bars you didn’t go to nightclubs you didn’t go to the casinos didn’t get involved in immorality. All the things you didn’t do. You didn’t wear colored shirts on Sunday you only wore a white shirt, okay? We go down the long list of do’s and don’ts but that’s but holiness is not what you don’t do. Holiness is what you do do. Holiness is what you are and what you do.

[23:17] When heaven opened and said, this is my beloved son on whom I have found all my pleasure, God wasn’t interested in what he, I shouldn’t say God, God was not praising him for what he did not do. God was delighted with what he did do and what he was. So holiness is a matter of what you are and what you do. So anything that is according to the will of God is actually holiness. That may sound strange. I’m sure that those of you with small children never think that taking care of your family is a mark of holiness. That’s the will of God for you. A man who loves his wife as he ought to, that’s a mark of holiness. He’s obeying the word of God. He’s in the will of God. He’s carrying out the word of God. So holiness really is linked with what you do do that is in the will of God and the development of character. The character that is like Christ-like in every way. So holiness then, first of all, it’s a purpose I recognize. It’s a purpose I recognize.

[24:16] God eternally, now this is, to me, I was thinking of this today, kind of overwhelming. God eternally desired a people and people who would be fit for his presence and fit for fellowship with him. And he had to make us holy to do that. Had to make us holy. There could be nothing in us that is contrary to the character of God. Nothing in us that will somehow rebel against the nature of God. So that God in his grace, we read of it in Ephesians chapter one, chosen before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. So God’s great purpose is, he wanted a people absolutely fit for his company and his presence. That occurred at conversion.

[25:01] Now, we have to separate a couple of things. We are holy and without blame before him in love right now. We are being made holy day by day. And finally, at the end, in transformation, we will be absolutely perfected and like the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. So God’s great purpose, a purpose I recognize. It’s a position I enjoy, a position that I enjoy right now. Hebrews chapter 10, by one offering hath he perfected forever them that are sanctified. In the sight of God, you could not be more holy positionally than you are right now. Now, some people get very confused with positional versus practical truth. Position means where I am by grace, where I am by grace. God has made me absolutely holy in his sight. One of the great expressions that fills the epistle of Ephesians and elsewhere as well, but especially in Ephesians is the expression in Christ, in Christ. What does it mean to be in Christ? To be accepted in the beloved. That means when God looks at me, he doesn’t see me anymore. He sees Christ.

[26:13] We are in sphere, if you can think of that expression. We are encircled by Christ. So from whatever angle God looks at me, he sees Christ. We are accepted in the beloved. God only sees Christ. So my standing, the position I now enjoy, is one of absolute fitness for the presence of God, absolute fitness for God and fellowship with him. So we have that then, a position I enjoy. But then it’s a practice that I have to pursue. That’s the practical part of it. Yes, I’m positionally holy, but God wants me to develop holiness, developing holiness in the fear of God. We’ll talk about that from 1 Peter 1 in a moment, but I want to just mention as well, it’s a perfection that I anticipate coming in a coming day. Ephesians 5, the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for us that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present us to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. His grace will eventually elevate us to a position of absolute perfection, absolute perfection. So then how do we pursue this great theme of holiness in our life? How do we become like this woman, go and sin no more? The entire Godhead is available to you for developing holiness in your life. First of all, we are reminded

[27:40] of the Spirit of God who has come to indwell us. Galatians chapter 5 reminds us that we have the Holy Spirit within and his goal is to develop holiness in my life. The Spirit lusteth against the flesh, the flesh is against the Spirit, and so on. So there are that ninefold fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, faith. That ninefold fruit of the Spirit is his goal to produce in my life. Now, it’s obvious, isn’t it? That ninefold fruit of the spirit is the character of Christ reproduced in me. That’s what marked him. That’s what should mark me as well. So the spirit of God has come to reside within. As I mentioned last evening, the indwelling spirit of God is one of the greatest results of Calvary, that God is able to have his Holy Spirit indwell us to produce the character he wants to see developed in each of us. So the spirit of God indwelling first of all is vital. Galatians chapter five reminds us they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the lust thereof and now we walk in the spirit. You may say, I don’t remember crucifying the flesh. Crucifixion is a judgment. You might say, my flesh is still alive yes it is still alive but crucifixion is we judge the flesh. You know when you did that.

[28:59] You did it when you got saved. You recognized my flesh can do nothing at all to warrant salvation. I can’t merit salvation by my good deeds, by my prayers, by my believing, by my, no. Nothing like, so in a sense, when we gave up trying to get saved on our own, we literally judged our flesh. It can do nothing. It’s useless in this great matter of salvation. They that are Christ have crucified the flesh and the lust of it. Now we are called upon to walk in the spirit. Now that sounds mysterious. What does it mean to walk in the spirit? I mean, I wake up in the morning, I go to work, I go to school. What does it mean to walk in the spirit?

[29:35] If you read Galatians chapter five carefully, walking in the spirit just means this, the word of God controls my life. The word of God controls my life. It’s not a mystery. It’s not some saintly walk that only a few believers can attain to. It is the norm that God expects for every believer. In fact, when you come to 1 Peter 1, we are reminded holiness is not an option. Be ye holy is a mandate, a command. Be ye holy for I am holy, says God. So we have the indwelling spirit first of all. Then we’re reminded in John chapter 15, abiding in Christ, abiding in the vine. What does it produce? It produces the life of the vine and the branch and the vine is Christ. So when you come to John 15, it’s not a matter of whether or not you’re seeing people saved, seeing people added to the assembly. No, no, that’s not the fruit. The fruit is the character of Christ, the character of the vine reproducing the branches. And we all have the ability then to abide in the vine and with the result that we bring forth fruit, Christ-likeness and character, holiness in our lives. Let me ask you to turn to John 15 for one, just to clarify one thing.

[30:57] We’re going to break in at verse number 7, of John 15.

[31:09] If ye abide in me John 15 and 7 and my words abide in you you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit so shall you become or be my disciples. Now that is not a name it and claim it type of promise. What is the meaning what’s the significance of what the Lord Jesus Christ says here, if ye abide in me and my words abide in you you know what happens when you allow the word of God to abide in you and you focus your vision upon Christ? You become acutely aware of how unlike him you are.

[31:46] That drives me to God. And my desire, my prayer is not for a new Cadillac or Mercedes or a tropical vacation. My prayer is, I’d like to be more like your son. I’d like to be more like him. So we have this promise here. As we dwell in him and become aware of our deficiencies, our unlikeness to Christ, he says, you shall ask what you will, it shall be done unto you. So coming to God and actually asking, I’d like to be more like your son. Now, I have to say ahead of time, It’s a very costly prayer to make because some of the things that make us most like Christ are some of the most painful things in life, some of the most difficult trials to endure. So don’t make that request casually. Recognize it could be a costly thing to pray. But then it says, herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit. To put it another way, my Father’s glorified when you become more and more like me. So shall you become my disciples. You’ll become like a disciple is likeness. Likeness to Christ. You’re going to become like me by praying and asking this great request. So feeding upon the word of God, abiding in Christ leads to likeness to Christ.

[32:57] Robert Moffat was a missionary, a Scottish missionary to South Africa about 200 years ago, 1816, he went to South Africa. He was there for over 50 years. Actually, one of the side things I mentioned is he was there 12 years before he saw a single convert, but that’s not what I want to mention. On one occasion, the tribal chief’s dog got into Robert Moffat’s Bible and began chewing away at it.

[33:23] And the tribal chief came to Robert Moffat angry and irate. You let my dog eat your Bible. He said, my dog was a great hunting dog. He’s never going to be the same. Everybody who gets into that Bible, it changes them.

[33:39] I don’t know if it changed the dog, but that was his concern. Into this book, reading this book, living in the good of this book, looking at Christ in this book changes lives. So we’re reminded here then, we have the indwelling spirit. We have the abiding in Christ. But then we have one other thing as well, at least several other things.

[33:59] 2 Peter 1 tells us God has given us three things. He’s given us, number one, like precious faith, obtained precious faith. Number two, all things that pertain to life and godliness. Number three, exceeding great and precious promises. Why? That by these we might become partakers of a divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, making us holy. God has given us life. He’s given us his word. He’s given us exceeding great and precious promises. It’s as though God says, I’m giving you everything I can give you. I’ve given you everything I could possibly give you. And by these, you might become partakers of a divine nature. So God supplies all of these things. Now he says in 2 Peter chapter one, give diligence, give diligence. He says, there’s several dangers you face. Number one is bad memories. You’ve forgotten you were purged from your old sins. You’ve forgotten all that. Number two are blind eyes. You can’t see ahead. You don’t see ahead. So bad memories, blind eyes, he says you’re going to be barren right now. If you want to develop holiness in life, it will not come by accident. It won’t come just by a normal course of living. Won’t come by coming and going to meetings. Peter says you’ve got to give diligence to it. Make it a matter of a priority in your life.

[35:20] Earlier, in his first epistle, Peter pens these words, you are not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold from the vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ. Now we put all the emphasis in that verse on the precious blood of Christ, and rightly so. But just back up a few words, from the vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers. Now we don’t use the word vain in that sense, but what it really means is empty. empty life. So in your unsaved days, in my unsaved days, we had empty lives, nothing for God, nothing for eternity. I often think, you know, you’ve got the Steve Jobs, you’ve got the MVPs for the Super Bowl, you’ve got the actors and actresses, you’ve got the great names in entertainment world, and you’ve got all the heroes. If they’re not saved, when life is done, they have nothing to be remembered for for all eternity.

[36:23] You won’t be speaking in eternity about who was the MVP of the Super Bowl of 2024 or 2025. You won’t be talking in eternity about who got the Oscar in 2025. None of that will be meaningful at all. Lives are empty. Do you realize what God has done in saving you? He has enabled you to have something in your life for him, able to have some meaning in life. Instead of having an empty life, frivolous, running after all the fads and fashions of the day, being occupied with all the emptiness that people occupy themselves with. You actually can have a life that has value and has meaning to present to him back at the judgment seat of Christ. That doesn’t mean you’ll be a missionary or a preacher, elder. Just living your life in the will of God, raising your family, being the wife, being the husband, being the boss, being the employee, whatever it may be, doing that according to the will of God is holiness. And brings fruit and glory to God in your life. So we’re reminded then of the tremendous reality of being able to have a life that has value and has meaning and has character. Not only that, as far as holiness is concerned, the cost, the cost should give us diligence. For God to enable me to become holy in any measure took nothing less than everything Christ did at Calvary, everything.

[37:51] Redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. As of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Redeemed from a vain, empty life. From a sinful life. We are redeemed from our vices. We are redeemed from being vassals of Satan. We are redeemed from the vanity of life. All of that. Redemption is a tremendous subject. Tremendous facets to it. All that’s involved. But always remember it costs precious blood. We might be redeemed. And for you and I to be able to develop any measure of holiness in our lives, took the blood of Christ.

[38:25] The challenge. It begins in our minds. Now, we’re familiar with Romans chapter 12, verses one and two. We hear them, and rightly so, messages of consecration. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Mind. How does that happen? How does your mind get transformed?

[38:59] Now, I’m privileged like very, very few of you here are. I’m retired. So I can sit in my man cave all day with my computer and my books and have a lovely time. You have to work. You’re exposed to the billboards and their ads, radio and its things the internet and all of its suggestive things and and by the end of the day you’re you you sometimes feel polluted. You begin to think the way the world thinks. Well maybe i do deserve that new vacation maybe i do deserve that you know the billboards you need you deserve you should have and so on everybody’s got it you need to get it. And you begin to think like the world thinks. How do you how do you reset how do you go back to a reset back to the manufacturer’s reset? Through this book. That’s how your mind is renewed, by reading the word of God. So there is no substitute for the word of God in terms of developing holiness of life.

[39:56] So coming to this book, recognizing its value and allowing it to control my thinking, my values, to think the way God thinks, not the way the world thinks. We live in a secular society that bombards us, that floods us with its values, with its interests, with its estimations of things, and we become overwhelmed at times. The word of God is what is used as a reset, that our minds might be kept pure and kept in sync with heaven and its value system, not our world’s value system. So let me mention one other thing, if I can, from 1 Peter 1.

[40:41] Consistency with our position. If you call him father, who without respect of persons judges and according to every man, pass the time of your sojourn, be holy for I am holy. So if he’s your father, then you should be like him and you should pass the time of your sojourn here in fear. Now that expression, pass the time of your sojourn here in fear, does not mean I am afraid that if I do something that is not holy, God is going to punish me. That is not the fear of God. The fear of God is a desire to please him. It’s not a fear of what God does to me. It’s what I have done to God. I have grieved him. We can’t speak of God being disappointed because God knows everything. So you only disappoint someone who expects a different end. But if I use it in a human sense, you’ll understand. I’ve disappointed God. I haven’t been faithful. I haven’t done what I ought to have done. The fear of God then is a longing to only do what pleases God. So all of these strands come together to develop holiness in my life. The spirit of God indwelling.

[41:49] Excuse me, abiding in the vine, the precious promises of God in this book, reading this book to reset my mind and enable me to live as I ought to live. Now, what’s so important about living a holy life? Go and sin no more, he told the woman. What’s so important about living a holy life? Well, number one, it pleases God. Nothing else that pleases God, but there’s more to it than that. Maybe it’s best to read it. Come to 2 Peter, where I’m referring to.

[42:23] Now, in the first few verses, the verses one through verse number four, he takes up those three things we mentioned, the like precious fate, exceeding great and precious promises, all things pertain to life and Godliness. Then he goes to giving to all diligence, verse five, adding to our, developing our character. But come down now to verse 10. Wherefore, the rather brethren give diligence, to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fail. For so an entrance shall be administered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, as far as the making your calling and election sure, I just mentioned this offhand. It’s rather displaying the reality of your salvation to others. But what he’s saying here is this. The character you develop, give diligence. The character you develop is going to determine the entrance you have into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, Peter, of course, is the one individual who was expecting to die and not looking for the rapture. Everybody else since then has been looking for the rapture. But Peter, the Lord had told him, Peter, you’re going to die. What you wouldn’t do as a young man, you’ll do as an old man. So Peter knew he was going to die. So Peter never preached about the rapture. Always speak for the Lord’s coming to earth and the setting up of his kingdom and his glory and all of that. Now he says, a day is coming when you’re gonna enter that kingdom.

[43:47] And he says, the way in which you resemble Christ now will determine how you can represent him then.

[43:54] We are gonna be a kingdom of priests. We are gonna represent Christ eternally to the entire universe. I don’t know how it’s gonna go, what nature will take, how it will play out. I don’t know, but as a kingdom of priests will display Christ to the universe for all eternity. Now he says, your place, your role in that coming kingdom will be determined by how much like Christ you are right now. First Peter, second Peter chapter one has nothing to do with what you do, has everything to do with what you are, what character you’ve developed, how Christ-like you are in behavior, in your character. So he says, the measure in which you resemble Christ now will determine how you can represent him then. So this business of going in for holiness is not just a matter of impressing the Christians, not just a matter even of developing a better character and being free from bad habits. Christ-likeness has eternal recompense, eternal compensation. We are here to develop Christ-like character that is going to be on display for all eternity. So it is worth going in for. In effect, when you were saved, the morning you were saved, the afternoon you were saved, the night you were saved, the Lord Jesus said to you, go and sin no more. But not just a negative thing. Now we are called upon, be holy for I am holy, said the Lord. Trust God, will bless his word, challenge us, encourage us, that we might be more like his son. Shall we pray?