The story in Exodus, turn to
John 18 with me, John 18. The story in Exodus is the same
story in John. Same story in every book. That's
how God brings out his people by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus
Christ is that Lamb, the Lamb of God. Like Abraham said to
Isaac, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for Barnabas. God provides himself a lamb to
make him just and justifier. God provides. He's the one that
gives. God provides himself the lamb. God was in Christ reconciling
the world of his people under himself. John the Baptist begins
this book of John by preaching, Behold the Lamb of God. And in the end here of this book,
we see the Lamb of God being led to the slaughter. The end of time is going to see,
we're going to see a Lamb as it had been slain, seated on
the throne. Christ is that Lamb slain. And
the Scriptures even said He was a Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. To the end of time, and all in
between, we see a Lamb. A Lamb. And now it begins. And chapter 18 is the beginning
of our Lord's crucifixion. This is why I came. This is what
everything in history points to. Every word in this Bible,
every book points to this event. The purpose of everything is
right here. Right here. It begins. The binding
of the sacrifice and leading him to the slaughter. All the
suffering. Christ kept telling his disciples
that Christ must suffer. He said, I must suffer. Scriptures
all declare it. That Christ came to suffer. He kept telling them this. And
every job, every title, every type, every symbol, every ceremony,
every sacrifice, every offering was fulfilled in Jesus Christ
being crucified. The gospel is good news. Whenever
I say the word, I should smile. You ought to smile when you hear
it. It's good news. Good news of a full, free, given
to you. Eternal, that means you can't
mess it up, redemption, and it's by Christ. That's the good news. But it begins, this story begins
with betrayal, denial, sadness, sorrow, and horror. It's a horrible
scene. We've got to see the horror before
we appreciate the good news. You understand? Before there's good, there's
evil. The reason He came, because of evil, put away evil. Before
there's joy, there's sorrow. Before there's victory, there's
horror. Horror. Betrayal. Denial. Sorrow, horror. Because of sin, this is why.
Sin entered this world. Judas betrayed our Lord. He sold Him. Do you know that
Adam and Eve did the same thing? That Satan offered them that they
would be as gods and so they just Forget God, we'll be God. Betrayed Him. Our Lord said in
Mark 13, Brother shall rise against brother and cause his brother
to be put to death. Oh, we're the truth. Sorrow. Sorrow. Our Lord said in chapter
16, He said the world will rejoice over my death. And the world
today wishes Jesus Christ had never been born. They'd like
to never hear about it again. They'd like to never hear anything
from the Bible again about this holy just God and death and sin.
I don't want to hear any more of that. The world would rejoice
if they thought it was all fake. They rejoiced when Christ was
slain. They mocked, they jeered, they
cheered when he was slain. But there was horror among His
people, the women at the foot of the cross that loved Him.
Surely the angels were looking on in horror. Don't you know
that? The fallen angels, or that is,
the unfallen, the holy angels that were there in the beginning
when God created man. Before that, they watched The
fallen angels, God in anger and wrath, cast them down and put
them in chains, forever cast out of the presence of God. They
saw that. They watched in horror as God
did that. And then they watched in the garden, this man, this
beautiful man and woman creating the image of God. They watched
as God allowed Satan to come into that garden and
began to tempt them and lie to this woman. Surely the angels
watched in horror, John, as Eve, without her husband, went to
talk to that deceiver. Don't you know, they could have
said something. Is this a harmless lunch or supper
or meeting with somebody that hates God? There's no such thing. Just draw away your heart from
God. No harmless, no harmless meeting
like that. They watched in horror. Don't
talk to them. She did. And they watched them
eat that fruit in horror. And surely they thought, God's only. He's going to come
down on them like He did the angels. He's going to cast them
out. And then they watched. As the
Son of God came down in a bodily appearance, the Word of God came
walking in the cool of the day in the garden and walked up and
began to speak to them. Got them out from behind that
bush to naked center and began to speak to them. What have you
done, Eve? And the serpent, I'm going to
crush your head. Adam, you're going to sweat your
brow, you're going to toil, you're going to suffer. Eve, you're
going to suffer and childbearing. But, I'm sending the woman to
save. The Holy Son of God is coming.
And they watched Adam and Eve, as we said earlier, they watched
in horror as the Lord Himself took that precious lamb and shed
its precious blood and skinned that lamb and covered their naked
bodies with that lamb. Horror. It's got to be horror
before you appreciate the good news. It's got to be. Or else what
Christ endured on the cross means nothing. Now these men have come to bind
the Lord. The gospel is two things. The gospel is substitution and
satisfaction. The gospel is substitution. Up
in verse 8, our Lord said, He asked them who they sought. Whom seek ye? And they said,
Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I told you, I am. You notice the word he is in
italics. Does everybody know this? That
if it's in italics, it means it was not in the original. And
it was added by the translator. Do you know that? That's important. Because he shouldn't be there,
should he? He said, I am. We're looking
for Jesus of Nazareth. I am. That's the word, name of
God. And then he said in verse 8,
if therefore you seek me, let these go their way. He's not
asking them. He's not asking them. If it's me you're looking for,
would you please let the... That's a command, John. The Lord, see,
has given commandment to save His people. None can be lost. That the Scriptures might be
fulfilled of all them which Thou gavest me, I have lost none. He prayed in John 17, as Thou
has given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal,
eternal life. I mean, it doesn't end. to as
many as thou hast given him. And he said, those thou gavest
me I have kept. And those he gave him Christ
was going to the cross to pay the penalty for their sin. And
their sin is going to be gone. Paid for. In full. And so he
says by command to these people who were coming to take him and
them. It's guilt by association. It's
righteousness by association. That's something we ought to
consider. He said, if you seek me, let these go their way. And not ask them, just tell them.
And they did. We're going to see here how that
Simon Peter came swinging a sword, and everybody saw it, and they
didn't take him. You'd have thought all hell had
broke loose in that garden, wouldn't you? A whole melee, a fight that
broke out, everybody getting their swords out in a great big
fight. No, it didn't happen. It did happen. Our Lord's in
control of this whole scene. All flesh, if you seek me. And he says this to the law.
If you seek me, let these go. He says this to Satan, if you
seek me, let these go. Isn't this wonderful? Substitution. When Abraham found that ram in
the thicket, It says he laid hold of him and
he offered that ram in the stead of, instead of Isaac. That's salvation. That's the
gospel, that in a word. Substitution. Satisfaction. God's law. The soul that sinneth. God's justice. The soul that
sinneth shall surely die. was satisfied by Jesus Christ. He kept it, and he paid for our
breaking of it. And by his satisfaction, we're
made righteous. And by him being made sin, our
sins are paid. God accepted the sacrifice. Satisfied. He shall see the travail of his
soul and be what? Satisfied. How about you? I'm
satisfied that the blood of Jesus, I'm convinced, I'm persuaded
that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, put away my sin. Isn't that something? Now surely
the angels, as they watched the first angels fallen being cast
out, as they watched Adam and Eve defy God tempted by Satan,
fall to that temptation, plunge the human race into sin. Surely, as the angels watched
them grab their Lord, this whole mob came and laid hold of Jesus
Christ. And they're going to take him
and spit in his face. and beat him to an unrecognizable
pulp, and jerk his beard out, and slap him, and brutalize him,
and mock him, and bow the knee, and stick horns on his head,
and mock, and jeer, and laugh, and surely the angels are thinking,
He's going to call us. We're going to wipe them out.
He could have called. That's what our Lord said to
Peter. Don't you know I could call ten,
twelve legions of angels that come right now. Right now. Surely they watched this. Surely. And they watched in wonder. In
horror. You can't appreciate the gospel
unless there's some fear. Unless there's some horror. Unless
there's some sadness. Unless there's some sorrow. Unless
there's sin. No remedy for it but one. You
see? Now, all of this was preordained. All of this was foreordained.
All of this was purposed by God. Every single thing that happened
to our Lord Jesus Christ was purposed, fulfilled as Scripture.
Everything. Our Lord Jesus Christ, though
He was bound, though He was nailed to the cross, He's controlling
this whole scene. He's the Lord. He never ceased
to be Lord even when they bound Him. He never ceased to be Lord
when He's hanging on the tree. It's amazing. He's glorifying the Father. He's
glorifying the Word. He's glorifying Himself, the
Holy Spirit. Look at this. I love this. Simon,
verse 10, having a sword, drew it and smote the high priest's
servant and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malthus.
apprehend our Lord and take Him. Simon Peter, who loved his Lord,
and he earlier said, I will lay down my life for thee, didn't
he? And he meant that, and he would have. Right now, if the
Lord hadn't spared his life right there, he would have died at
the hands of his mom. And he took out a sword, brother,
and he's going to defend his Lord. I want to do that. Don't
you? I endeavored to do that in preaching
against all these fakes and phonies. But he took out that sword, and
buddy, he's aiming at everybody, isn't he? Isn't he? He doesn't care who he hits.
Who did he hit? Who the Lord told him to hit.
The Lord directed his sword. Now this is amazing. Simon Peter
pulled out that sword and started swinging. And he hit one man. He cut off his right ear. All
four Gospels say this. He's the servant of the high
priest. And he cut off his ear. Shed his blood. His ear. His
ear fell to the ground. And it tells his name. Malchus. Why? I'm going to tell you why. Look down in verse 13. It says,
They led him away to Annas first. He was father-in-law to Caiaphas,
which was a high priest. There were two high priests.
Two high priests. John, you brought this up too,
didn't you? Oh no. There's never been but one high
priest. There's these fake and these
phony men in front of whom the Lord is standing. The great high
priest is standing in front of them. And they don't acknowledge
him. They don't believe he is. They spit in his face. This is the... Christ is the... You know, Moses said there's
a prophet coming. That prophet, capital P. Christ is that prophet. The end all problem. That priest,
capital P. And that King, capital King,
King of Kings, this name Malchus means King. His name means King. So servant of the high priest
is only one high priest and you better serve him. And so Peter
took out a sword. God had him take that sword and
aim it at the servant of the high priest named King at his
ear and cut it off. Do you believe that every single
blow of a sword or a hammer or a knife or every bullet that
flies through the air, God directs it? Do you believe that? It must
be so, brothers and sisters. It must be so. Thou only makest
me to dwell in safety. God's the Savior of all mankind,
especially them that believe. He saves a lot of those hurtling
cars, or death traps, six feet from one another, 70 or 80 miles
an hour. Millions, billions, flown by,
by, by, by, by, by. Very few wrecked. That's God
keeping people alive. Is it good driving? Let's ask
one of these truck drivers. God, mercy, grace, goodness of
God. Tender mercies of God over all
his work. God directs every sword and every
bullet. My brother died. He went to Vietnam. In eight days, he was dead. Who
did it? The Viet Cong? No, God did. God directed that mortar shell
to kill my brother. He said, I kill. And he could
have had this man's head off. He could have allowed Simon Peter
to cut his head off. That would have been fitting,
wouldn't it? For this man who thinks he's a king. You see the
significance here? Man thinks he's a king. Man thinks
he's a sovereign. Man thinks he's a priest. Man
thinks he serves God. You know what's going to have
to happen? A sword of God, the sword of His Word come down on
you. I believe, you know, they cut
off his right ear in Exodus 29, all through Leviticus, seven
times I believe it, seven times. Seven? Seven times it talks about
the blood of that lamb being applied to the high priest's
ear, right ear. There's some significance here.
I'm not fully aware of what it is. I'm trying. But anyway, all
four Gospels is right here. It's right here. And all through
the Leviticus and Exodus, it says that the blood of that lamb
was to be applied to the right ear of Aaron and his sons. The high priest, the only servant
of the high priest were his sons. All things are purged by blood,
everything. In Hebrews, the blood is applied to the thumb, the
foot, the right ear of God's people. I believe that the Lord saved
this man Malchus. He healed him, didn't he? Right
there before everybody. This man takes a sword out. Whack!
Knocks his ear off. And that man is screaming in
his ear. Blood is flowing from his head.
He can't hear. He's lost his hearing. He can't
hear anything. And the Lord Jesus Christ reaches
down on the ground and takes his ear and attaches it to his
head. And now he can hear. The Lord touched him. Blood was
shed. Now he can hear. Now he's healed. If there's one man in that garden
that believed, I believe it's him. Maybe not then, but later
on, maybe at the foot of the cross. I believe this man like
that soldier at the foot of the cross. Maybe he was the one who
took the sword and rammed his side and got blood on him, Christ's
blood on him. After he saw Christ crucified
and died, he said, surely this is the Son of God. Like that soldier that parted
the garment. So that soldier got that garment
without seam and he put it on to try it on and immediately
he thought, this smells wonderful. This garment smells like him. What have I done? He reckoned. Is this all accident? Is this
all chance? Any significance to this? This is the Lord who made the
ear. And He cut off this man's ear
to reattach it. You've got to be deaf before
you hear. You've got to be blind before
you see. You've got to be killed before
you're made alive. And a sword is what's going to
do it. I really do believe the Lord
saved this man later. Well, our Lord said to Simon
Peter, put up thy sword into the sheath. He said that in all
four Gospels. Now listen to me, you Franklin
Countians. I walk around town, I see men
with a gun on their belt. None of you ever walk in this
building with one on your belt. I went to a church, a grace church,
and a young man had a gun on his belt. I thought if I was
a pastor, buddy, I'd tell him, you get that off of there. Smith and Wesson does not defend
us. Jesus Christ does. You take up
the sword, you're going to die by the sword. That's what the
scripture says. If you depend on and trust in a gun or these
things, You don't believe the Lord. You don't. Yeah, a man's
got to defend himself. Defend your family. Don't defend
yourself. Turn the other cheek. Know what
he said? Defend your family. David did.
Fine. But that's not what's keeping
you or your family alive. Jesus Christ is. And you ought
to thank him to high heaven. My dad never owned a gun. I'm
not preaching against guns. Not at all. Deer have to be killed. Turkey, I love turkey. If you've
got any, bring it to me, I'll eat it. No, no, no, no, no. I'm
not going to campaign against guns, this and that. Not doing
it at all. I'm just trying to tell you that
guns don't save us because God does. Christ does. My dad never
owned a gun. He's never been in our house. Our house was never vandalized.
Nobody ever broke in. In fact, one day I went over
to their house and they were both in their 80s and 90s. Dad
can't hear anything. An explosion could happen and
he couldn't hear it. And I believe it happened when they were there,
but somebody obviously kicked the front door in. Broke the
jam of the door. The jam was broken. The lock
was busted. Maybe some drug craze, you know,
they know old people live, they know where they live and they're
looking for their drugs. They busted that door wide open.
I came over. I saw it. Well, I fixed the door
jam. And they didn't, nobody went
in and nobody stole anything. Nobody was hurt. No harm was
done. I fixed the jam, fixed the lock
and all that. There's no deadbolt on it. They
didn't put a deadbolt on it. Well, I didn't. Okay. Nine times
out of ten, I go to check on my mother. The door, the front
door is unlocked. And now her hearing is gone.
She can't hear a thing. Who is the Savior? Put up your sword. Don't you
know that I'm defending you? Come on now, trust the Lord. Us guys aren't as tough as we
think we are. Somebody bigger and faster than us can kill us
dead. That's right. But it's the Lord. Put up your
sword. And then he says in verse 11,
the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? The cup, oh my, how much is spoken
of in the scriptures. Oh my. The cup, this is the cup
of God's wrath. In Isaiah 51, he talks about
God's wrath, wringing out the cup of his wrath upon many people. But he says to his people, the
cup shall be removed from you. The cup of wrath, I will not
give it to you. Well, who did he give it to?
Christ came to take that cup of wrath and drink it dry. Sin, the cup of sin, all the
sins, all of God's people, the sin of God's people that's in
us, indwelling sin, sins we have committed, sins we do commit,
sins we will commit, sin, and my cup runneth over. How about
yours? Well, Christ took that cup. He
took that sin in his body on the tree and drank it dry. He tasted the dregs. You know, I've drunk some awful
things. I'll just tell you, every morning
I drink a little vinegar. They tell me it's going to make
me live longer. I don't know why I drink it,
but I do. But I tell you what, what it does make me think, every
time I drink it, every time I drink it, I think of Christ drinking
that vinegar on Calvary Street. So, brother, that's why I keep
doing it. I need to be reminded. I advise
you all to drink it, not to live longer, but to think on Christ. But I've drunk some terrible
thing, and that's terrible, vinegar. They gave him vinegar to drink.
But worse than that is our God put sin on him. There's no sin
in him. And God put sin in him, on him,
all over him. Psalm 116 says, I'll take the
cup of salvation. John and God the Father said,
will you drink this cup? The son said, I'll take it. Isn't
that amazing? Now look at this. The band and the captain and
officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound Him. I don't know what they used,
probably leather, leather thongs, you know, leather. to bind his hands, probably behind
his back. That's bad enough, painful enough. But they bound him, this band,
this captain and officers of the Jews, they took and they
bound him, this band, banded together, bound by the hatred
they had for Christ and the truth. Like Psalm 2, let us cast these
cords asunder, they said. And this band came to bind the
Lord Jesus Christ and cast away his band, his followers. Before this, a band of people
came and tried to make him king. That seems real good, doesn't
it? It seems real noble, a whole
band of people gathered together to make him king. They were going
to make him king. He would not let them make him
king. He passed through the midst of them. Why? Nobody makes him
king but God. He was king before the world
began, and he'll be king when it ends, and all in between. But this ban came. Now this ban
comes for him to bind him. They want to put down this king
of the Jews. They want to put away his band of disciples forever. And they took Jesus. They laid
hold of Jesus, the man, and bound him. Now, our Lord said before all
this, He said, No man taketh my life from me. I lay it down
myself, didn't I? But they took him. Who let them
take him? He did. And they bound him. Could those cords hold him? They bound him. That's not what
bound him. It was an oath. It was a covenant
that bound him. It was love. It was blood that
bound him. There's a story over in Judges
of a man named Samson. You ever read that? Most have.
His name means sunlight. He was the Savior of God's people.
God raised Him up. He was born of a barren woman. Alright? God raised Samson, sunlight
up, in a time of darkness. There was no king in Israel,
judges. And God raised up His Savior
named Samson, stronger than anybody. He would set forth parables and
riddles and nobody could understand what He was saying. Well, one
time, He agreed to being bound. They came and said, we need to
bind you. He said, OK. He let them bind
him. And just to show them, this is
not what's over there. And nothing they could put around
him could bind him. But in the end, It says
that he slew more enemy in his death than he did his life. God
had him bound. It was God that bound him, and
he can't get away. This was God's purpose. It was
God's will, Samson, to die to save his people, to kill the
enemy with his own death. And God had him bound, and He
can't break it. He can't break it. And our Lord
came, bound by an oath, bound by a covenant that He and the
Father made. It wasn't men that bound Him. It was God. It was Himself. It was His covenant. Bound by
the Father. Delivered up. Who delivered Him
up? Judas? No, the Father delivered Him
up for His people. Now look at this. It says they
led him away. The title of this message is
Christ Bound and Led Away. So they bound him. No, they didn't.
God did. And they led him away. They led him away. Where did
they lead him to? Slaughter. They go slaughter
him. In pretense, we're going to read
how that they said to Pilate, you judge him. We can't kill
him ourselves. Is that judgment? They determined
to kill him. They did what God determined
for them. But in Isaiah 53 that Brother John read to us, the
Scripture says he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. As a
sheep before her shearers is done, so he opened not his mouth.
He was taken from prison. Well, who did this? He was wounded,
bruised by the Father. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He had put him to grieve. He made his soul an offering
for sin. And when he sees that, he's going to be satisfied. And
he was led away, led away to his own death. Willingly. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I lay it down. The Father has given me this
power. And this is glory, isn't it? Greater love. This is his
love. This is his mercy. This is his
grace. This is his glory. Greater love hath no man than
him. And he laid down his life. And he stood, they took him in
there and they beat him. And it says he opened not his
mouth. As a sheep before a sheep, they
led him away. What led Christ to come to this
earth? For what reason could he possibly
come to this earth? What would lead him to do such
a thing? Would you go down in the cesspool
to rescue maggots? He did. He came. It was love,
it was mercy, it was grace that led Him to come to the planet
Earth. It was love and mercy and grace
that led Him to Calvary's tree to be smitten, wounded, stricken
by our tragedy. Praise His holy name. Okay. Let John come. Number 232.