Alright, brethren, John chapter
19. It says in verse 38, and after this, Joseph of Arimathea being a disciple
of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, saw Pilate that
he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him leave,
he gave permission to take the body of our Lord. And he came
therefore and he 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 sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. And there
lay they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day,
for the sepulchre was nigh at hand. Joseph of Arimathea and
Nicodemus, we're told here, have been disciples of the Lord, but
secretly, secretly for fear of the Jews. But now they're secret
disciples no more. They've seen our Lord crucified
And they came forth publicly, confessing faith in Christ. They
came to Pilate, begging the body of the Lord Jesus. They went
out and gave our Lord's precious body a proper burial. How was
their faith given? How was their faith strengthened
to do this, to identify with Christ and His people? It's in
that opening word there, after this. They beheld the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. They beheld Him by God-given
faith. They beheld the Lord Jesus and
Him crucified. You know, the Spirit of God makes
us behold Christ crucified. He gives us life. And He makes
you behold our Lord Jesus Christ crucified, the person, the Lord
Jesus, what He accomplished for His people. And that's how our Lord brings
us to believe on Him. That's how He brings us to truly
cast all our care on Him. And this is how He grows us. in the grace and knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ. He keeps you beholding Christ
and Him crucified. He keeps you beholding Christ
and Him crucified. This is foolishness to unbelievers.
Paul said that in 1 Corinthians 1. But to you that believe Christ
crucified is the power of God. This is what the Lord blesses
to bless your heart, and this is how He grows us in faith,
in love, in every grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord,
beholding Him more and more. Now our text here begins with
the word after this, so that means there's something here
it states that came before this. I want to look at that, and then
I want to look secondly after this. what they did after this. And then we'll end with the effect
of them beholding Christ. Now, it begins here and it says,
and after this. And it states something that
went before this. It says, and after this, Joseph
of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear
of the Jews." This was already so, it says there. He was a disciple of Christ,
but secretly for fear of the Jews. And then verse 39 says,
and there came also Nicodemus. This is so of both of them. He's
the one that at first came to Jesus by night. So let's consider
where they were before this. Before they beheld Christ and
Him crucified. Before they beheld Christ and
Him crucified, these men, both of them were wealthy. Both of
them were wealthy. They were rich in temporal goods,
temporal riches, but they were rich in another kind of way as
well. Both were in the Pharisees' religion. Both of these men were. Both
were members of the Sanhedrin, the great council. Joseph is
said to be a counselor who was held in honor, an honorable counselor. He was probably a priest that
sat on the council of priests in the Sanhedrin. And Nicodemus
was a ruler of the Jews. Now before this, both men gave
some indication they were Christ's disciples. Both of them did. But they were secret about it.
Concerning Joseph, Luke tells us that the same had not consented
to the counsel and deed of them. When they consented together
to put Christ to death, Joseph didn't consent to that. He wasn't
in agreement with them to pursue that. And then you recall back
in John 7 when the Pharisees sought to kill the Lord Jesus,
Nicodemus spoke up and said, let's give them a hearing. let's
give them a hearing." And they were very offended at that. But before they beheld Christ
crucified, before our Lord went to the cross, neither one of
these men publicly confessed Christ because they were fearful
of the Jews. I've heard some things where
men are pretty rough on Joseph and Nicodemus. But you know,
they had witnessed the enmity of the Pharisees toward the Lord
Jesus. They had heard them speak and
they had witnessed that enmity they had toward the Lord Jesus. They sought to put the Lord Jesus
to death. These men knew this. that carnal
minds enmity against God, and they had experienced this. They
saw the Pharisees threaten anybody that confessed Christ. They threatened
to put them out of the synagogue. And to be put out of the synagogue,
that was even more than just not being allowed to come to
the synagogue. It was near about to lose your citizenship, to
be shunned and to be rejected by the whole society. You remember how the Pharisees
reacted when the Lord healed that blind man and they called
his parents in and they ended up thrusting him out. They even
sought to put Lazarus to death because when the Lord had raised
Lazarus, many people believed on the Lord because of the Lord
raising him. So they won't even put Lazarus
to death. They bound themselves with an oath to put Christ to
death. And Joseph and Nicodemus had
experienced that. Before beholding Christ crucified,
it says they were disciples of Christ. When it says there in
Nicodemus also, I take that to mean him as well. They were disciples
of Christ, but they were secret about it. They were weak in faith
at best. They had temporal and religious
riches, and they were fearful of men. That was stronger than
the faith they had. They were afraid of being rejected
by men. They were afraid of losing their
status. They were afraid of losing riches, both temporal and their
religious riches. The Lord Jesus said that it's
impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
It's impossible. Now there are some, there are
not many, Not many noble, not many wise men, not many rich
men are called. But there are some, but there
are not many. But our Lord said, it's easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into
the kingdom. Temporal riches are good when
God blesses the heart to use them for Christ and for His cause. But with temporal riches there
comes a whole lot of temptation and men usually are very fearful
of losing those riches and have to do whatever they can to hang
on to them. But the worst riches of all are religious riches,
religious riches, the honors and applause of men Now, without
a doubt, their failure to confess Christ, their failure to publicly
confess Christ was their weakness. It was just their unbelief, their
fear of men, their doubts, it was all their weakness. But don't forget, brethren, the
Lord's apostles Now we know they believed on Christ. We know they
believed the Lord Jesus. They followed Him. They walked
with Him. They identified with Him. But they had the same struggle. Before Christ was crucified,
they had the same struggle with unbelief and fearful of men. and doubts and all those sorts
of things, they suffered the same thing before Christ was
crucified. They tried, remember when they
tried to stop the Lord from going to Lazarus' tomb, from going
to Bethany? They said, the Jews of late sought
you, you going to go there again? They were fearful of men. Before
Christ went to the cross and was crucified, Peter tried to
stop Him from going to the cross. The Lord said, get behind me,
Satan. He looked at Peter and said that.
Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offence unto me.
Thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that
be of men. But after the Lord was crucified,
after the Lord suffered the cross, and He revealed Himself to them,
He strengthened their faith. He strengthened their faith.
The Lord grew them in love and in every grace after they beheld
Him crucified and what He accomplished by His crucifixion. After the
Lord was crucified and He revealed to them in a greater light what
He accomplished for His people, that gave them boldness. That
gave Peter Paul to stand up and preach the gospel on the day
of Pentecost. That was after he beheld the
Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's beholding Christ and Him
crucified that the Lord strengthens faith in His child. It's beholding
Him. Let me just read that over there
in 1 Corinthians. Hold on one second. Listen. Now to them which are
called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and
the wisdom of God. This is what we see in Christ
and Him crucified. This is how it's pleased God
to save. This is how it pleased him to
save. He's chosen foolish things and weak things and base things,
but it's to confound the wise and to confound the things that
are mighty and things that are despised. That's what God's chosen
so that no flesh glories in His presence. And the only way we're
going to be brought not to glory in our flesh in any way, whether
it be unbelief, doubts, fears, all these things, Weak faith
is complicated faith. That's what makes it weak. Look
into a lot of different things. Strong faith is single, looking
only to the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's strong
faith. Knowing He's all, He's in full
control of everything taking place and He's promised and He
will not fail. Strong faith is being single,
having that single affection of the inner man set on the Lord
Jesus Christ and knowing He is my salvation. Now, it's true
that this unbelief and this fear of man and the weakness and sin,
that's just our weakness, that's just our flesh. We're not blaming
God for that, that's of us, that's all that is. It's our weakness,
but it also speaks to Christ's greatness. It speaks to our Lord
Jesus' greatness. He said in Matthew 12, 20, it
said, A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall
he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. The Lord
Jesus Christ knows them that are his. He knows. He's known
his people from before the foundation of the world. And our Lord Jesus
knew Nicodemus. He knew Joseph. He knew all his
apostles, all his disciples. He knows them that are his. And
he's faithful to his people, even when we're not faithful
to him. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot
deny himself. He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. They shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And he said, No
man can come to me, except my Father which is in heaven draw
him. Except he draw him, and I will raise him up at the last
day. The Lord gave you and me faith before we publicly confessed
Christ. There was a point when he gave
you faith and you believed him, but you had not yet confessed
him publicly. And were you not full of doubts
and fears and all the same things we see in them? And then after we've believed
on the Lord Jesus, after we've identified with Him, after we've
united with His people, we still suffer the same. We still suffer
unbelief and doubts and fears and all sorts of weakness. How
many times have you had somebody speak to you at your job, at
school, or out in your community, or wherever, and there was a
perfectly open door for you to bear witness of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you didn't do it. for whatever, it might hurt my
job, whatever. We come forth with grave clothes,
just like Lazarus came from that tomb. And we're going to be all our
life our Lord making us to behold Him crucified, accomplishing
the redemption of His people. And that's how He's going to
grow us in grace. That's how He's going to grow
us in grace. It's going to be through a knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Him increasing you in a knowledge
of Him and having your faith and your heart set on Him only. That's how He's going to do it.
But Christ shall not fail, it said, a bruised reed shall he
not break, a smoking flask shall he not quench, listen now, till
he send forth judgment unto victory. Remember what John said, let
me read this from 1 John 4. He said, whatsoever is born of
God overcometh the world, and this is the victory, that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? That's who's going to overcome.
The victory is through faith. Now, you know what Joseph means?
His name means adding, adding. And Nicodemus' name means conqueror. It's comprised of two words,
niko meaning victory, And demis meaning the people. And the Lord
makes his people, he makes us more than conquerors through
him that loved us. more than conquers through Him
that loved us. He makes His people the victorious
people. He does it by making us behold
Him and what He's accomplished and bringing us to believe on
Him and growing us in that sure certain faith knowing that He
is all our salvation. and He's going to make you overcome.
It's not that your faith's going to overcome, it's Him whom your
faith lays hold of that's going to make you overcome. He already
has overcome the world. This was His promise to us when
He said, you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have
overcome the world. That means everyone that's His
shall overcome the world because He's going to keep you believing
Him and He'll bring you through by faith. Anytime Christ adds
anybody to his church in time. Joseph means adding. And just,
you know, there's quite a few Josephs in the scripture. And
the Lord saved them. Anytime he adds somebody in time,
visibly, to his church, it was because he added them in eternity
by divine election, by his grace. And the way He adds us to His
church is by bringing us through the Spirit to behold Christ in
Him crucified to see that He is all our righteousness. He
is our sanctification. He is the full redemption of
His people. He made wisdom to you and that's
how you're brought to believe in the first hour. And then when
He adds to the child He's already called, it's by making you find
your all in Him. It's by beholding Christ and
Him crucified. That's why this thing begins
after this. Here's what happened. It looked
back to what was the case before this, then it said, now after
this. Now let's see what happened after this. Verse 38. And after this, Joseph of Arimathea
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. After this, after they beheld
Christ crucified. After, not just beholding it
with these eyes, but they beheld by faith, they heard with spiritual
ears, they saw with spiritual eyes, they had hearts that believed
by the Spirit of God. They had experienced what the
Lord told Nicodemus must happen. You must be born again of the
Spirit of God. And the Lord made them see the
Lord Jesus Christ. I'm sure that Joseph and Nicodemus
being rulers, I'm sure they were there when They arrested the
Lord and when they tried Him and when they crucified Him,
they were there. They heard our Lord Jesus Christ
make those seven sayings from the cross. They were made to
know, they were among those. Can you imagine if you're sitting
there and you haven't come out and spoken up and objected to
this and you're there, that means you're just a willing participant
in it because you haven't spoken up and been identified with Christ. And they hear Him say from the
cross, Father forgive them, they know not what they do. He was
speaking of them. That was some of His elect He
was laying down His life for. They heard that and they were
made to hear that in their heart. They heard the people say He
saved others, Himself He cannot save. That's substitution. He could not save himself if
he was going to save his people. They heard our Lord Jesus. They
read the inscription that said, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of
the Jews. And they believed that. They
believed that. And they heard our Lord Jesus
cry out, It is finished. The veil is split from top to
bottom, declaring it's finished, the law is fulfilled. Every type
and shadow, there he is right there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
They experienced the earthquake. All of these things, but just
seeing those things by the natural eye didn't save anybody that
just saw them with natural eyes and heard it with natural ears.
But they had been given faith and they heard it and saw it
through faith. Made all the difference. And
after this, they publicly identified with the Lord Jesus and His people.
They came bearing the body of the Lord Jesus from Pilate. One
of the other writers said Joseph went boldly to Pilate and he
craved the Lord's body. This is what the Lord does. This
is what the Lord does. This is what the Lord keeps doing
in his people. He keeps making you crave the
Lord's body. He keeps making you beg for the
Lord's body. You've got to have... Our Lord
said, eats my flesh and drinks my blood." He makes you spiritually
beg for His body and crave His body. Behold, when Christ is
crucified, He's going to turn His child from a rich man to
a beggar. It's going to make you start
begging. And it's going to make you beg to have the Lord Jesus
Christ, to be found in Christ and His righteousness alone.
And you just keep begging. He keeps you begging. He keeps
you begging. The more you see Him, the more
you want to see Him and the more you need Him. It turns you from
seeking temporal riches to being a poor beggar seeking spiritual
riches in Christ. It turns you from seeking man's
honor and being fearful of men to seeking that honor that comes
from God our Father for those that rest everything in His precious
Son. Nicodemus came also, it says
in verse 39, 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. He had come by night that first
time, but now he's beheld Christ and Him crucified. He sees something
of what Christ has accomplished. That death was life to him. His eternal life was in that
death of our substitute, who died in the room instead of his
people. And now, instead of coming by night, he comes in the broad
daylight to our Lord Jesus Christ. He heard the Lord speak of the
serpent lifted up in the wilderness. When He first came that night,
our Lord said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
on Him should not perish but have eternal life. And Nicodemus
saw, I'm the one that's been bitten by the serpent. I'm the
one who has the venom flowing through my veins, and I'm guilty,
and sin has ruined my nature. And the Lord made him see that
Christ Jesus, high and lifted up on the cross, made sin, He
who knew no sin, made the thing that was killing Him and His
people, made sin for us, and bearing the justice of God in
our room instead, and putting away all the sin and all the
curse of His people, accomplishing redemption for His people. He
saw the Lord Jesus Christ. And now he understood fully what
our Lord was saying when he said, as Moses lifted up that serpent,
so must I be lifted up. And he believed Him. And now
he comes to Christ fully out in the open and he doesn't care
who knows it. He doesn't care who knows it.
With that look, with that look, he was healed. I think he believed the Lord
already, but I know this, whatever it was that was keeping him from
publicly identifying with Christ, with that look, he was healed
of it. It came to him. It came to him. It's beholding
Christ crucified, beholding Him accomplishing the redemption
of His people. I hope you don't ever get past that. I hope you
don't ever get one wick past wanting to behold Christ and
Him crucified. Bear that sin away on the cross.
That's how He gives faith and sustains faith and grows faith,
to see Him put it all away. That's what breaks your heart.
That's what makes you mourn. That's what makes you cry out
for supplication and beg God. That's what he said, I will pour
upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced. Yeah, look upon me. Nicodemus
and Joseph said they saw it's my sins that pierced him. I wasn't
the Roman soldier that went up there with a spear and stabbed
him, but it was me that pierced him. And every time the Lord's
humbling us, every time that He's breaking our hearts, every
time He's correcting us, every time He's chasing us, or just
making us to rejoice and grow, whatever it is He's doing spiritually
for His child, It's Him making us behold Christ whom we pierced. And they'll mourn for Him. They'll
mourn for Him. That's what true mourning is.
Mourning for Him. What I've done to Him. as one mourns for his only son.
There'll be in bitterness for him as one that's in bitterness
for his firstborn. The Lord Jesus is the wisdom
and power of God. That's what Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's the power
of God, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. For it's written, the just shall live by faith. The
preaching of Christ crucified is the means, the power of God
and the salvation of them that believe, because it's the Spirit
of God makes us behold Christ, who is the wisdom and power of
God. That's the only thing that'll strengthen us inwardly. That's
the only way our flesh will be subdued. I thought my brother
Scott was reading that scripture. I thought of the scripture Sunday
when we was looking at David asking God, enlarge my heart
and I'll run after your commandment. The only way your hearts will
be enlarged is when you see Christ is fully all in all. And every time you see Him, your
heart's enlarged. That's what gives you boldness. That's what brings you out of
that strait and out of that that narrow hindrance. Every time they would
want to, you can just picture them, every time they want to
publicly confess Christ, here comes one of these mean Pharisees
and they're just scared to death to do it. They're just tightened
and restricted and they can't, they can't enlarge enough, they
can't confess Him. They're going to offend these
men and they're going to get in trouble if they do. But when the Lord
made them see what He accomplished for them. Their heart was enlarged
and they weren't afraid of men anymore. Their earthly riches
weren't their riches anymore. They needed the spiritual riches
found only in Christ. And you know, brethren, He makes
us behold Christ on the cross and He emboldens us to trust
Him in the face of afflictions. Remember when Paul was put into
prison and all the trial he went through and the trouble and there's
a lot of brethren that had turned their back on him and all that,
but he said this. He said, many of the brethren
in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold
to speak the Word without fear. The Lord used that and blessed
that trial to the hearts of many to see Christ in a wax bowl. Joseph went there boldly to Pilate
after he beheld Christ crucified them. They were willing not only
to leave their vain religion, they were willing to risk their
lives. Pilate could have killed them.
He just put our Savior to death. He could have killed them. Or
the Sanhedrin could have killed them. They knew that. We are
not talking about this is serious, serious persecution. They just
witnessed the Lord of Glory crucified by these men. And those Pharisees
hated Christ. And now Joseph and Nicodemus
knows they are going to bear that now. They are going to bear
that hatred from them. Brethren, fears are converted
to boldness by beholding Christ and Him crucified through faith.
The trial of our faith is to make us look again to Christ
on the cross, and that's how God's going to increase faith.
The fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in
the Lord shall be safe. Shall be safe. Now here's the
effect. We'll end with this. The Lord's
able to turn the very thing that was a hindrance to us into a
help. The very thing that was a hindrance.
He uses it to turn whatever needs to be turned,
men or whatever, to be a help to us. The Lord used Joseph and
Nicodemus' status. These men were rich. On the council
of the Sanhedrin, they were known by Pilate. And that once was
a hindrance to them, but now the Lord used it to make Pilate
receive them. Joseph was able to walk right
in there to Pilate, and Pilate granted him his petition. The
very thing that hindered them has now helped them. Now you
picture these two rich men. I've read men talk about their
servants. They had servants. I don't know
that that's so. The Scripture just says they
did it. Maybe some of the women were there, but the apostles
worked there. It was Joseph and Nicodemus.
They go out there to this hill, this place of the skull, where
there's just... that's what it was. And there
the Lord Jesus hangs. And it's out there near the city
and everybody can see it and there's probably still crowds
around there. And they go out there on that
hill and however they did it, they took our Lord's lifeless
body down off that cross in front of everybody. These
were men that before were afraid to be identified with Christ
and now they don't care. And they gave his body an honorable
burial Now these men used their riches
for Christ. It says in verse 39, Nicodemus
brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound
weight. And then they took the body of Jesus and wound it in
linen clothes with the spices as the manner of the Jews is
to bury. I don't know about this. The box of ointment Mary brought
was a box of ointment and it was a year's wages. Nicodemus brought a hundred pound
weight. This is a man who knows something
of the unsearchable riches of Christ. This is a man that knows
something about the value of being accepted of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is a man that values more
than anything else. That was nothing to him to go
spend the money to buy that that he needed because this one that
he's buying it for just enriched him for all eternity. With eternal
life. With completion. Righteousness. And they wrapped our Lord's body
in white linen because through faith they understood He had
robed them in linen. The linen of His righteousness.
Revelation 19.8 says, To the church was granted that she should
be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen
is the righteousness of the saints. It was granted to her. Given
to her. And the Lord honored them both.
He honored both these men. Not only by recording their name
in Scripture right here so we can read what they did, but also
He used them to fulfill the Scriptures. Verse 41, Now in the place where
He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre
wherein never man yet lay. That was the fulfillment of the
figure of Adam. Christ, the last Adam. Adam was
a figure of Him. In the first garden, Adam sinned
and plunged his sin to death, and in this garden the Lord conquered
death, brought in everlasting righteousness for his people.
And then it's the fulfillment of the type of the red heifer.
Numbers 19, 9 said, a man that's clean shall gather up the ashes
of the heifer. This is after it's been burned.
Christ had suffered the cross already. He'll gather up the
ashes of the heifer, lay them up without the camp in a clean
place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children
of Israel for a water of separation. It's a purification for sin.
Christ is a clean man. He made Joseph every whit clean. He made Nicodemus every whit
clean. Before, if you touched a dead body, ceremonially, God
said you were unclean. You could touch this dead body
all you wanted to and you're not going to be unclean. It's
through the blood of our Lord Jesus that they were made completely,
totally, forever clean. So they're clean men, made clean
by Christ, and they come and bring him and laid him in a sepulcher,
brand new. Joseph had a brand new sepulcher.
That's probably his garden. Rich men had gardens outside
the city. And he had this sepulcher there, and nobody ever laid in
it, never been a dead body in it, else it would have been unclean.
He brings him out there and puts him in that new, brand new tomb
in the rock, covered it over with a stone. That's the law
of the red heifer fulfilled. Christ is the one, and now He's
laid up in heaven at the right hand of God in the clean place.
Go to Him for purification from sin. If you believe Him, if He's
purified your heart through faith, then you're ever clean. You only
need to have your feet washed. Go to Him. He's the one that
washes our feet. It's through faith. It's through
beholding Him like we're talking about right here, right now.
Paul told the Corinthians, I'm determined to know nothing among
you, but Christ can crucify. But he had to stop giving them
the meat and turn around and say, you're carnal. Now let me
deal with this carnal stuff so you can get back to hearing Christ
the meat. This is the fulfillment of Isaiah
53. Two rich sinners who've been
made righteous by Christ are burying the body of our Lord
in a grave. Isaiah 53, 9, He made His grave
with the wicked and with the rich in His death, because He
had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.
Fulfillment of Scripture. The Lord used these two men.
He fulfilled the Scripture, but He let them be a part of it.
They believed Him. Here's one last thing, one last
detail. I like this and I hope, I think
it will bless your heart too. The Lord's death guarantees God
shall never lay charge to anybody that believes on His Son. Guarantees he'll never lay charge
to one. Verse 42 says, "...there laid
they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day,
for the sepulcher was nigh at hand." Now they're not afraid
anymore of the Jews. They believe the Lord. They believed on Christ their
Sabbath. But our Lord arranged everything in providence so that
where he was crucified and where that new tomb was that Joseph
had bought was very close to the cross so they could get him
in that tomb before they broke that Sabbath so they could not
be condemned by the Pharisees. That's our Lord. He that spared
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall
He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who is He that condemns? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather that's risen again, who's even
at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
Trust the Lord. He's justified His people and
He'll protect you. It's by Him making us behold
Him crucified for us, having justified us from all our sins,
that our hearts are purified through faith. That He sanctifies
your heart through faith. And that's how our prophet, priest,
and king keeps growing us in love, and grace, and mercy, and
every faith, and every grace He gives. Regeneration and renewal
is beholding Christ and Him crucified. Every new bedding of the soul
is through Aaron's rod that budded, the gospel of Christ. If there's anybody attempting
to be a secret disciple and you need him to strengthen you in
faith or mortify the flesh or whatever, Christ said that serpent was
lifted up on a pole And those that looked to that serpent were
healed. That's the gospel. Look to Christ. Look to Christ and Him crucified.
And He will heal you. Whatever it is you need healed
of. Confess Him openly. Identify with His people. He's
the pearl of great price. His riches are unsearchable.
And having Christ, we have all. We have all. Amen.