Let's turn to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. I want to read
our text, which is verses 43 through 45, specifically verse
44, really. Let's read these verses. Luke 9, 43. And they were all
amazed at the mighty power of God. But while they wondered,
every one, at all things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples,
Let these sayings sink down into your ears. For the Son of Man
shall be delivered into the hands of men. But they understood not
this saying, and it was hid from them that they perceived it not,
and they feared to ask him of that saying." This is not the
first time that our Lord had spoken these words to them. And we'll see in a bit how that
Peter thought to take the Lord aside and to rebuke him and tell
him he shouldn't speak like that. And the Lord rebuked Peter. And
so they saw that. They were humbled by what they
saw. And they were afraid to ask the
Lord about this again, but they didn't understand it. They still
didn't understand it. Now, our Lord had just done a
mighty miracle. He had healed this man's son. And if you remember about it,
it was something that the disciples themselves could not do, even
though they had been given power and authority by Christ to not
only preach the gospel, but to heal the sick. Yet, for some
reason, when they tried to do the same things, they were unable
to do it. And it showed that, wait a minute,
we can't be without Christ. It shows that He is needful. We need Him for all things. Without
Him, we can do nothing. And that was made very evident
and plain there, that this is the Christ. He can do things
that we cannot do, that we have power and authority to do them. Without Christ, it's impossible.
And so anyone that was there, Whether they were friend or foe,
anyone that was there, they were amazed at what they saw. They
wondered at the things which they saw. They thought about
them. They spoke about them to one
another and the disciples. They're hearing these things.
They're seeing the popularity of Christ. His stock is how we
would say. They're seeing his stock rise. It's going up, up, and up. And they're hearing and seeing
these things. And we know that the disciples,
they had an expectation of an earthly Jewish kingdom. They
thought there would be an earthly Jewish kingdom. And Christ knew
what they were thinking, and our Lord was correcting their
thinking. He was preparing them. to know
that the Lord is providing a spiritual eternal kingdom for his people. And so they're seeing these things
and they're getting strengthened in their position. They think
it's coming. It's coming. The King is here.
The Christ is here. And he's going to set up and
establish an earthly kingdom for us. And so our Lord says
in verse 44, let these sayings sink down into your ears. Not what the people were saying,
but what our Lord is about to say. For the Son of Man shall
be delivered into the hands of men. Now turn with me over to
Matthew 17. Matthew 17, this is the companion
scripture, verses 22 and 23. This is the companion scripture
to what we're reading in Luke 9, and Mark captures it in Mark
9. But I wanna read what Matthew
says, 17, verse 22 and 23. This is what he means by the
Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. While
they abode in Galilee, verse 22, Jesus said unto them, the
son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men, and they
shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry. Now, I want to bring three points. I want to give you three points
that we may take away from what our Lord is saying here in these
sayings. Three things. First of all, our
Lord was preparing his disciples for what was coming. He's preparing
them for what was coming. And we may also take from this
preparation. We learn what we need to hear
and know from what is coming, what came to our Lord. Second,
our Lord knew exactly what was coming, and we see him face it
willingly and faithfully. And seeing our Lord, by the grace
and power of our God, we are made willing and faithful to
face the trials and tribulations that our Lord is pleased to bring
upon us. And then third, our Lord knows
exactly what is in the heart of man. He knows exactly what
is in the heart of man and yet he still faithfully went and
laid down his life for sinners like us. All his people are sinners
and he willingly laid down his life for us knowing the heart
of man. So let's begin here with this
first point, being prepared for what's to come. There's a term
in the English language that we know. It's called the blind
side, the blind side. And it refers to that side away
from which we're looking. And if we're looking over here,
this is our blind side. If I'm looking at you, behind
here is my blind side. A person who's blind in their
left eye, this over here would be their blind side. They don't
see what's coming from that direction. That's what it means. And that
term can also be used as one word, and it's a verb then. When
you blindside somebody, it means that you're coming at them from
the side that they're not looking towards. They're not expecting
it. And it's to hit them unexpectedly from the blind side. Well, the blind side of the disciples
was having any idea that the Lord was going to be taken, betrayed,
killed, and rise again the third day. They had no sense that that
was coming whatsoever. All they're seeing and hearing
is the popularity of Christ. They think surely the kingdom
any day now is going to be established. He's going to be the king seated
on his throne. We're going to be seated with
him ruling over the 12 tribes of Israel and conquering the
Gentile nations. This is what they were expecting. And they had no idea. They didn't
hear. They didn't understand the purpose
of Christ in coming into this world was to redeem his people
with his own blood. They were blind to that. It was
their blind side. And so our Lord, being the very
wisdom of God for his people, and our Lord being the good shepherd
of his people, he began to prepare them, to prepare their hearts
Now they wouldn't understand it yet, but they would hear these
things and after his resurrection the spirit would be given and
then all these things would be recalled and remembered by them
and they would understand them rightly. This is what he meant. This is what he was doing. This
is the salvation he was accomplishing. for us who are sinners and cannot
save ourselves. And so they would see the glory
of Christ in all of this, just as you and I see today, looking
back at it, but having his spirit whereby we understand and see
the blessing of Christ, our Savior, and how he cares for us and provides
for us in preparing us for the trials and tribulations that
we are to face and go through. It's not a mystery. The only
time it's a mystery when you're suffering and going through tribulation
is when you're not hearing the word and you're thinking, I thought
everything was supposed to be great and fine and dandy now
that I believed on Christ. And then you begin to go through
trials and difficulties and dark times and hardships that wither
this flesh, that weaken us in our flesh, and cause us to have
no confidence in the flesh that we should find all our strength,
all our comfort, all our hope, all our assurance in the Lord
Jesus Christ rather than what we do and accomplish for ourselves
by our strength. He does that in grace. And so
this was not the first time this had come up. If you're still
in Matthew, look back at chapter 16. Matthew 16, this is closer
to the time when it began, that he began to tell them these things.
Matthew 16 verse 21, from that time forth, began Jesus to show unto his
disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many
things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be
killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him,
and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this
shall not be unto thee. But Christ turned. And Mark says
he looked on his disciples that were all standing there hearing
what Peter was saying, nodding in agreement. He turned and said
unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto
me. For thou savorest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men. And this is Peter,
whom the Lord had just said, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona,
for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee. He had
just confessed, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And he said, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh
and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father, which
is in heaven. Heavenly Father just blessed
thee and revealed this to you. And now Christ is saying, get
thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me because
you're savoring not the things of God, but the things of the
world. And that's us by nature. We savor the things of this world. And it's only by the grace of
God that we are turned from dead things, turned from the corruption
of this world, turned from ourselves unto the true and living God,
and side with Him against ourselves, and see all our need of His grace
and mercy in Christ. And so let us be reminded here
of what the apostles learned in John chapter 15. Let's turn
there. John chapter 15, and you can
put a marker because there's a few verses in this area of
scripture that we'll look at. Because in John 15, this is when
our Lord is speaking to his disciples after the Last Supper and was
going to the cross after that. And he tells them many things
that are a blessing to meditate on and look at and read and consider
and let sink down into our ears, meaning into our hearts. So verse
18, John 15, 18, if the world hate you, ye know that it hated
me before it hated you. Don't we need that? Don't we
need to hear that too? Is that not a comfort to you
that live godly, that is trust Christ for all your righteousness
and depend upon him? If ye were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because ye are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you. This is why trouble comes upon
you. This is why there's difficulties. This is why you're frustrated
when things don't go the way you think they should go. The
Lord's teaching you. He's teaching you. He's drawing
you to himself in grace and in mercy. Remember the word that
I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they
will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying,
they will keep yours also. But all these things will they
do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that
sent me. And so our Lord is preparing
his disciples for the coming betrayal by Judah. He's preparing
them for that betrayal. He's preparing them for the rejection
of Christ by the religious establishment and by the people. And preparing
them that they're going to put Him to death. But that is going
to rise again. He's preparing them. Therefore,
you that hope in the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
you that declare this glorious gospel of what Christ has accomplished
for sinners, and you're so happy and thankful for that, and you're
telling others, thinking, if they just hear it, I know they
would rejoice in this same gospel. I know they would love this.
And yet, they don't. They don't, and you don't understand.
I know you, you're a sinner like me. And look what the Lord has
done for me in his grace and mercy and accomplished for me.
And you tell them the same things that delight your heart, and
they just don't care. They're offended by it. It means
nothing to them. They just set it aside. That's
nice, I'm glad for you, but that means nothing to me. Nothing
to me at all. And what he's saying there is
don't be surprised because this is the heart of man. This is
what all are by nature. This is what you and I are by
nature without the grace of God. We, too, would say, that's great,
and set it aside. The stone that the builders rejected,
we'd reject it, too, right along with them. But by the grace of
God, you see, your eyes see, and your ears hear, and your
heart believes. That's the mercy and the grace
of the Lord. The Apostle John tells us over
in 1 John 2 verse 15-17, Love not the world, neither the things
that are in the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world
passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever." And by the grace of God, he shows that
to us. And he's the one that separates
us from the love of this world, because I can tell you, After
I heard the gospel, I know by nature in this flesh I still
love the world. And it's only by the grace of
God that He shows me the ugliness of my own heart, the heart filled
with the world, and by His grace and mercy separates that. Only by Him, in the new man,
He turns us from the love of the world Through many witherings
and strippings, by his grace and power, by the giving of his
spirit, by his blessed word, making it effectual in our hearts,
does he destroy us in the flesh and wither us in the flesh and
bring us down and humble us in the flesh that we see and hear. Yes, Lord, I see what you're
saying. This world is wicked, and I am wicked, and I need your
grace, Lord. Save me. And he brings us to
cry out to him. And he shows us patiently, kindly,
graciously, long-suffering. He shows us our sin, and he gives
us a heart to say, Lord, I've tried, and I can't. Take it from
me, Lord. Help me. Either give me peace
with it. or take it from me, but I need
your grace. And he does that. And we see
how he kindly, gently, patiently leads us through the valley of
darkness and brings us into the arms of Christ more and more
deeply through his word, by his grace and power. Not by what
we've done, but what he does. And we see it in glory in him
and confess him in it all. And so the Lord's showing us
that We're under two different covenants. We're not under the
same covenant of the world. We were born into the covenant
under the covenant of works. But Christ has come and delivered
us from that covenant and by his blood established us in the
covenant of grace where God may be gracious to you. Where God
is just to forgive you of your sins and to justify you. That is, call you what you are,
what you've been made in Christ, righteous, the very righteousness
of God in Him, to stand before the throne of God, holy God who
knows all and sees all and you ain't getting nothing over on
Him. Yet He says, well done, thou good and faithful servant.
Enter into thy rest prepared for thee from before the foundation
of the world in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we enter in Him. we come in His faithfulness.
And so, yeah, we're under a different covenant. Let these sayings sink
down into your ears, for the Son of Man shall be delivered
into the hands of men for your salvation, for your comfort,
for your peace, for your fellowship with the true and living God,
to know Him, to be delivered from that inheritance of death
into the inheritance of life with the living in Christ Jesus. So consider these things diligently,
he's saying, lay them to your heart that you be not blindsided
by false expectations. Trusting the flesh. Second, on
the back of that notice, our Lord knew exactly what was coming
and we see him face it willingly and faithfully. And so let us
be confident in him seeking that grace, his power, his strength,
As we are shown our weakness, our folly, our faults, our lies,
our unbelief, let us find our all in Christ. So we should expect
trials. We should expect tribulations,
which speaks of our afflictions and hardships and dark times
and sorrows and sufferings. We should expect manifold temptations
that come to try us and touch us where we can be touched, because
the Lord knows you. He knows exactly what to do for
you, because he's made you and prepared you for His grace and
His mercy. So we should expect these things
to try that faith which He's given. It reveals that faith
which He has given unto His people. It's found by these things in
us that His work is in us, that He's done this by His grace and
power. Now turn over to John 16. John 16 verse 32 and 33. Behold, our Lord says, The hour
cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every
man to his own, and shall leave me alone, and yet I am not alone,
because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto
you, that in me ye might have peace, in the world ye shall
have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world. Now there's two things in this
point under this heading of Christ's willingness and faithfulness
that I want to bring forth to you here. First is the willingness
of our Lord. He knew exactly what was waiting
for him on the other side of the brook that night. That was
coming that night when he would be betrayed by Judas and see
all his disciples, his dearest disciples, flee from him. I mean, in fact, he negotiated
their release. He says, you seek for me? I'll
go. Let these, my sheep, my brethren,
go. Let them go. And they were let
go, and they fled from Christ. They fled from them. But he must,
the reason is because he had to, he had a work to do, a work
of redemption that must be done, and by him alone. No man could
lay his hand to what Christ did and say, I had a part in that,
except I sinned. That's the only part that we
had, is what we've done by our own works. We're the cause of
him coming into the world and laying down his life, our own
sin. We fell in at him. We're his people, and we died
in trespasses and sins. And so he had to come, but he
had to do this work alone without the aid of men. But He, as our
faithful High Priest and Mediator, went to the cross faithfully.
bearing the sins of his people as their sacrifice, as the Lamb
of God, to atone for the sins, to put them away once and for
all forever, to satisfy the justice of holy God, which was against
us, and to give us life in himself. And so he did that, brethren.
He did it willingly. No man took his life from him.
He did it willingly for his sheep. John tells us in John 18, verse
1, that he went forth with his disciples over the brook Kidron,
knowing that Judas knew where he would be, and that Judas would
meet him there. And he adds this in verse 4,
after he sees Judas and that band of soldiers coming up with
staves and torches to get him, Jesus, therefore, knowing all
things that should come upon him, went forth. He went forth. There's your king. Knowing what
was coming, he went forth gloriously, triumphantly for you. You and
me that have no righteousness, who have no claim to lay of any
goodness in us, that God should be merciful to us. Your king
went forth triumphantly to face the foe. and to put him down
forever, rising to meet our enemy, going forth to defeat the enemy
that's too mighty for you and I. And then secondly, we see
his faithfulness. When he hung on the cross as
the Lamb of God, and he hung there, he was faithful unto the
Father to the very end. He believed the Father who sent
him out from heaven's glory to do this very work. He trusted
the Father that he would accomplish the work that the Father sent
him to do and that the Father would raise him from the dead,
just like he said. He trusted the Father to keep
his word unto him when he accomplished our redemption. Truly, as John
said in John 13 verse 1, 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. Christ was faithful in his love,
his trust to the Father, and his love to his people. right
up to the very end. He didn't draw back. He didn't
pull back. He was willing and faithful to receive that which
God purposed for him to bear for his people and to do for
us. What a beautiful, wonderful, glorious, mighty God and Savior. That's your champion. That's
your king. That's your husband who gave
his life for you and accomplished redemption. He's wonderful brethren. He is wonderful and glorious
and faithful unto the end. And so a word of encouragement
when you're reading these things in Matthew 17 for example when
he said they he shall be betrayed into the hands of men they shall
kill him notice he always connects it his death to his resurrection
and he shall be raised the third day let that be a comfort to
you who are called by the grace and power of God to lay down
your life, to give up things that your flesh doesn't want
to give up, to trust the Lord, to walk by faith in Him, to serve
your brethren, to love your brethren, to love your God, and to serve
Him. Let that be a comfort to you
that whatever He calls us to, though we lose our life in it,
we shall be raised again. unto an eternal day. This life
is passing away. We see it in our own selves,
how that we wither and fade away and fall away, and all the glory
and beauty thereof just departs from us. And yet, by His grace
and power, we have an eternal inheritance. This is not how
it's always going to be. We have an eternal inheritance,
a place prepared for you. And he said, if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again. I will come again that
you may be with me where I am also. I will not leave you in
the grave just as my father did not leave me in the grave. I
shall raise you up with a new body that shall be joined to
your spirit which shall be with me forever. I will bring you
to myself. And so this brings us to our
third and final point. Isn't it amazing that our Lord,
knowing what man would do against him, he knew it in the height
of his popularity. When everyone's celebrating and
cheering and laying palms down before him, and they're just
amazed and wondering at him, these same people are going to
be the very people that cry out, crucify him, crucify him. We have no king but Caesar. Our Lord came and yet for His
people, knowing that we're of that same stock and that same
breed, we're born of that same corrupt seed in Adam, yet He
came and laid down His life for sinners like you and me, who
have been made to know by His grace and power through the effectual
working of His Word in us by His Spirit, that we're sinners.
That I am corrupt, that I am defiled, that I have no righteousness
of my own. And if God exposed my heart,
you'd all know what a vile sinner I am. And yet he laid down his
life for me and for you that trust him, that believe him.
And so this is what our Lord did. He said, ye must be born
again. And by his grace and power, he gave his life that we should
be born again by the giving of a spirit, by his power, taking
the things of Christ, showing them unto you effectually. taking
the seed of Christ because we're of the seed of Adam and and destroying
that putting that to death with his own body on the tree and
and giving us new life by the seed of Christ the incorruptible
seed of Christ that we are born into that covenant of grace and
have an inheritance in the family of God through our elder brother,
through the very Son of God, the one who loved us and gave
himself for us, even our Lord Jesus Christ. So we see it's
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. Our Lord died and obtained this
salvation. He rose again and gives this
salvation to his people whom he loves and whom he gave his
life for. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. And he went on to say in John
10, 27, and 28, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and
they follow me. That's effectual power, brethren. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
from my hand. Our Lord is speaking to his sheep,
even now, making his word effectual in your heart. causing Christ
to rise in your hearts, the day star rising in your hearts, and
the day dawning in your hearts, seeing and beholding and longing
for that day when you shall stand face to face with your God and
Savior, and He shall welcome you into His arms, blessing you,
keeping you, comforting you forever and ever in Himself. And so brethren,
let these sayings sink down into your ears. For the Son of Man
shall be delivered into the hands of men. First, our Lord prepares
his disciples for what's coming. And he says, don't be fearful.
Don't be afraid. In this world, you shall have
much tribulation. But be of good cheer. I've overcome
the world. And so he prepares us for what's
coming in him because the world hates him and you love him. And
we see his willingness and his faithfulness and we can't do
that. I've tried. I've tried to be strong in the
Lord and failed time and time again, falling flat on my face. But by his grace and power, that's
where I'm made willing. He makes his word effectual so
that, Lord, I can't do it, but I trust you. And that's him.
That's his grace that does that, not my strength, not of this
flesh. That's what he works in you.
That's what he works in you. And then third, our Lord We're
reminded our Lord knows exactly what our hearts are. There's
no point in trying to hide it from Him and pretend that we're
something that we're not. He knows what we are and yet
He still laid down His life for vile sinners like you and me
that we may rejoice in Him and know Him and be drawn to Him
more and more by His grace, not as whippings and beatings in
the law, but by His grace, His love and mercy for us that we
might rejoice in him and worship him in spirit and in truth. I
pray the Lord bless that word to your hearts, brethren. Amen.