I'll turn back with me in your
Bible subject on chapter 18. Don't you love the absolute sovereignty
and the majesty of our God? I just love to think of how wonderfully
sovereign He is. I love to think that in His sovereignty
He always is perfectly honourable to the word that he has caused
to be written, the word of comfort, the word that declares who he
is and the word that declares who we are. And we love to think
again and again of the majesty of our great God and Saviour,
that He has power over all flesh. And here is this great God and
Saviour being led, being taken and being bound. Isaiah 53.7 says, He was oppressed
and afflicted. Oppressed and afflicted. Yet he openeth not his mouth,
he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as the sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. The lamb is selected,
the lamb is brought, and the lamb is examined to see if there's
any spot or blemish on it. If you were to bring a sacrifice
in the days of the Old Testament, you were to bring that sacrifice
unto the Lord, but you were to bring it unto the priest. You
can read about it in Leviticus 7. You bring it and offer it
to the Lord, and if you didn't bring it and offer it to the
Lord, then that man was to be cut off from all of Israel. The lamb was examined. The lamb
was examined. in the most minute detail. These people that these Jewish
leaders are talking about had sent spies to watch Jesus like
a hawk for three and a half years. They'd gone all the way up to
where John the Baptist was baptising and they're asking John the Baptist
to see the Messiah. You can read about it in John
Chapter 1. And all the way through, everywhere there is this confrontation
between the Lord and these people and all the time they're examining
Him and they're examining Him. And yet it's the Lord who is
examining them. We all must stand before Him. Last week I spoke about Peter
and I wanted us to be comforted by the fact that the Lord in
His sovereign mercy both allowed Peter to fall as far as Peter
fell and then to restore Peter with tears of sorrow and tears
repentance what a picture what a picture
we have in Peter and what a picture we have you know what the Lord
does of the glorious grace of God that he is able to rescue
and redeem and to protect someone as fickle and frail as Peter.
I remember some old preacher saying, are there any sinners
in the house today? Are there any Peters in the house
today? Are there any who have fallen
in their own way and by their own deeds? The whole church is
brought to see again and again and again the absolute weakness
and frailty of man. What are you going to preach
to comfort these people? Isaiah chapter 40. You go and
preach to these people and what do you say? What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and the goodliness
thereof is as the flower of the grass. The grass withereth, and
the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. The Lord Jesus Christ was living
out in wonderful, wonderful open exposure all of the promises
of God Almighty. And he did it as an us. He came to this earth that he
might have a bride with him forever. The bound Christ, to go back
to Peter, one thing that I neglected to say last week is that we often
think of the look of the Lord Jesus Christ to Peter. And people
who are caught up in religion would automatically think that
the Lord looked upon him with contempt for his blasphemy and
his deceitfulness and his duplicity and his cowardice. The bound Christ in love, in compassion, and in
understanding. Our great God was bound. In binding him in John 18.12, in
binding him they were already declaring him as guilty, which
is what they were. Everything about the religion
of man when it's exposed to the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ
is exposed to be a sham and a hypocrisy and a show to please the flesh
of men. That flesh that is all but grass,
it rises itself up and it thinks it's something incredibly special
until it comes into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
were already treating him as guilty. But this binding has
wonderful significance in the scriptures, doesn't it? Isaac
was bound by Abraham. He was bound as a willing sacrifice. He gave his hands to be bound
by those people. The people who bound him were
the ones that fell to the ground when he declared that he is God
Almighty. And you bind in the Old Testament,
you bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. What
bound Christ? Men bound him, but he was bound
by much, much stronger cords than that, wasn't he? Go back
to John Chapter 17. I think it's so important that
we read John 17 in light of these verses that are here before us.
But in John 17, what bound the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Father, this hour has come, finally this hour for which this world
was created, this hour for which I came has come. Glorify thy
Son, that thy Son may also glorify thee. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. He was bound to the glory of
God Almighty. He was bound to the glory of
His Father. He was bound to all the promises
of God. He was bound to the covenant
of God, wasn't he? Which covenant was he bound to?
He was bound to the Mosaic covenant. Someone had to keep the law of
God. Someone had to keep it in heart
and soul. Someone had to keep it spiritually. Someone had to keep it in love. Someone had to keep it perfectly.
Someone had to keep it to God's standard of holiness, not man's
standard of holiness. He kept the law perfectly and
he was bound by that eternal covenant of grace and love. He was bound, he was bound to
his bride forever. The bride that the Father had
given him in love. He was bound as the messenger
of this covenant. I love what Malachi says if you
turn back to that last book in the Old Testament. It's a glorious
description of our Lord's coming. He says, behold, verse 1 of chapter
3, behold, I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way
before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his
temple, even the messenger of the covenant. When he comes,
he's coming as a messenger of the covenant. He's coming as
one who declares the covenant. He's coming as one who is the
covenant. Whom you delight in, behold,
he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the
day of his coming? Who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire
and full of soap. He shall sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver. And he shall purify the sons
of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer
unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. He's coming suddenly. He's coming suddenly. And who may abide the day He's
coming? God is bound. Our Saviour is
bound. There are things that God cannot
do. And we ought to be thankful that
there are things that God cannot do. God cannot lie. It's impossible for God to lie. People talk about free will.
God's will is bound. The Lord Jesus Christ is bound.
It is impossible for God to deny His character. It's impossible
for God to operate in any way which brings any dishonor to
His holy character. and who he is. It's impossible
for God to dishonor his son. It's impossible for God to dishonor
his name. Don't you love it, Isaiah 42
declares, says the Lord Jesus Christ, he shall not fail. It's impossible for God to fail. He shall not be discouraged. He will magnify the Lord and
he will make it honorable. He's bound. One of the things I discovered
in my reading during this week was to contemplate that when
he was bound, he was bound and taken back over the brook Kidron. He was bound as he went from
the garden In that garden he took that cup from his father,
the cup of all the sins of all of his people. You know what else comes back from
across the Kidron? The first fruits. The first fruits
that are gathered on the day of Pentecost are gathered from
the fields of Kidron, and the fields of Kidron are fertilized
by the effluent from the Kidron stream. I love what the Lord
Jesus Christ says in John 12, 24. He says, The grain of wheat
must, except the corn of wheat, fall into the ground and die,
it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. Our Lord Jesus Christ brings
forth much fruit as he comes across that Kidron, doesn't he? And seven weeks after these events
there will be the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit and 3,000
people will be saved over one day. as men were gathering the
harvest of the firstfruits, the Lord Jesus Christ is gathering
his harvest of himself. Don't you love the fact that
he was bound by cords of love? That's what he says in John 17,
isn't it? This religious world talks about
the love of God, the love of God, the love of God. If someone
asked the average person that sits in the most pews in the
world today what is the chief characteristic of God, they would
talk about the love of God. The love of God can't be divorced
from all the other glorious attributes of God. When God loves, He loves
unfailingly. He loves faithfully. He loves
in line with all of the promises that He's made. He loves them. I love how that Upper Room discourse
begins with love, doesn't it? Having love, verse 1 of chapter
13, Having loved his own which are
in the world, he loved them to the end. And before he goes across
the book of Kidron he says, And I have declared thy name, and
I will declare it, that the love whereith thou hast loved me may
be in them, and I in them. It encapsulates all of what our
Lord Jesus Christ is doing. He is bound with cords of love. eternal love. He bound himself
on purpose by covenant. He bound himself by promise.
He bound himself by infinite, unchangeable love. He came to that cross with those
people bound to him in love. And he was bound with our bonds. We sinned against God, and that
sin against God incurred the sentence of infinite, infallible,
holy justice. And now that sentence must fall. Why? Because of his union with
them. He's bound in union with his
people. Eternal union. We ought to have
been bound, but Christ was bound instead of us. And when he goes across that
brook, those glorious words that we've looked at in the past,
ring in the ears of all God's people forever. You can have
me. You can have me. But you let these people go. You can have me, but let them
go. Christ was bound that we might
be free. Christ was made a curse for us
that he might become a blessing to us. Christ was made sin for
us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
And when he died, we lived. We live. I wonder, I wonder how
sad it is that we so often lose sight of the fact that the Gospel
is good news. It's the good news of the joy
of our God Almighty, for the joy set before Him. It's the
good news of our God who is satisfied. He shall see the suffering of
His soul, the travail of His soul, and He'll be satisfied. Does the gospel come to you as
good news? I wish it came to me more often
as good news. So often we think, well here
we are, all these things that I'm obligated to do. And Christianity,
true Christianity, is being set free by the Lord Jesus Christ. I can remember where I was and
I can remember how the Lord used the verse in Romans chapter 4
to just impact me in the most remarkable way. It speaks of
Abraham's justification in Romans 4 The Holy Spirit has led to
give the examples of Abraham and David, but listen to what
verse 4 says. Now to him that worketh, this
is verse 4, is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him, this is a verse that
I just, the Lord burned it into my heart and soul. but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted
by God for righteousness. That was one of the verses the
Lord used powerfully in my life to set me free. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the great emancipator, isn't he? Does Christianity feel
like freedom? It's for freedom that Christ came
to set us free. Christ has set us free. We're not to go back into bondage.
If we think of his being bound, we're not to go back into bondage.
We're not to yield ourselves to a yoke of bondage again. We
have and we are bound as He is bound to us. We want to be bound
to Him. I love the thought of being bound
to Him. I love the thought of Him being
bound to us. The sweet love of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was led away, He was bound,
He was taken, He was bound and He was led away. He was led away
as the willing Lamb of God. They thought they were leading
Him, but in all things our God is absolutely sovereign. I love
what Paul says, I mean Peter says on the days after Pentecost
when in Acts chapter 4 he says in verse 27, for a truth against
thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both Herod and
Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel were
gathered together, listen to what he describes, all of this
enmity against the Lord Jesus Christ, for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. Don't you love that? In the most
extraordinary circumstances, when God the Son was being crucified,
this is all exactly as God determines, every last little bit of it.
The binding of his Son, the willing sacrifice bound with cause to
the horns of the altar. And they led him away to Annas
first, for he was the father-in-law to Caiaphas. Now Caiaphas, verse
14, was he which gave counsel to the Jews that it was expedient
that one man should die for the people. It was expedient, that
means profitable. It's profitable for us. It's
profitable for their designs, it's profitable for their purposes,
it's profitable to further their earthly rule. They didn't realize
that it was expedient and proper for God's designs and purposes
and to further His glorious spiritual rule now seen in His earthly
rule. Listen to what they were concerned
about. It's profitable. If you go back to John 11 you'll
see the words that were put by God into the mouth of Caiaphas. The king's heart's in the Lord's
hands, he steers it however he will. Balaam was the epitome
of a false prophet and yet he was led by God to pronounce the
most glorious truths about our great God and Saviour and our
salvation in Him. It was expedient. Verse 45 of
John 11. This is after the raising of
Laras. And many Jews which came to Mary had seen the things which
Jesus did and believed on him. But some of them went their ways. That's an awful place to be,
isn't it? Going your own way. They went
their ways to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had
done. Then gathered the chief priests
and the Pharisees, a council of Sanhedrin gathered and said,
What do we? For this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all
men will believe on him. And listen to what their fear
was. And the Romans shall come and
take away both our place and nation. Our place and our nation. Whose place was it? Whose place
was it to appoint the high priest? It was a political appointment
in those days. They bought and sold and there
was huge wealth to be made by being the high priest. Our place. God had a high priest and he
was the high priest standing before them. Our place and our
nation. Whose nation was it? How did
that nation come into existence? The self-righteous religion of
men begins with man, establishes a place for men in their own
esteem in this world and particularly in religion. and it gathers together
a nation, and it's completely and utterly blind to the realities
of how they even got there physically. How did that nation come into
existence? Stephen told them, and what was
the result of Stephen telling them? You're hard-hearted, uncircumcised,
in heart, and you always have been. You're stiff-necked, uncircumcised
in hearts and ears, and you do always resist the Holy Ghost,
as your fathers did also. When they heard these things,
they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed their teeth, and
they killed him. They stoned him, and Stephen looks up to
heaven, and what's he see? Who does he see in heaven? He
sees the Lord Jesus Christ standing, to welcome his child home. Stephen didn't die that day,
did he? A body died. A body was stoned. Stephen went. from the glory of the presence
of the Lord here to the glory of the presence of the Lord there
and no longer with a flesh to interfere with the wonderful
communion. May the Lord add his blessing
to those words and we'll have a break and come back a bit earlier
and look again at our Lord on this journey to the cross of
Calvary.