Father, we do come before you
and we ask, Lord, that you just might speak and minister to our
hearts today. We ask, Father, that the word
of God might be alive unto us and be meet for us this morning. We pray for understanding. Father,
I pray that you would guide my thoughts and guide my lips as
I speak, and I pray that I might not speak in the wisdom of man,
but I might speak in the wisdom of God and in the power of the
Holy Spirit. And Father Lord, I just pray
that the hearers that are here today, that their ears might
be open and that their understanding might be given to know the things
of the Spirit of God as we dive into this portion of scripture
once again. and we look at this great doctrine
of substitution. And Father, I just pray for even
the young people that are here, my children. Lord, I pray that
you might speak and minister to them. I pray, Lord, that you
might be with all of us each and every time we open up this
word. And so, Father, again, we thank you so much for Christ.
We thank you for his life and for his death and for the life
that we now have in him. And it's in his precious name
that we pray. Amen. We're going to be looking at,
uh, uh, looking at, uh, some stuff that we, we we've been
looking so far at substitution. We're in John chapter 10, uh,
or excuse me, John chapter 11. And, uh, we've, uh, we've come
to the place where Caiaphas, the high priest has, uh, made
the prophecy that, uh, It is better that one man die for the
nation than the whole nation perish. And then in verse 51,
it says, and this, he spake not of himself, but being high priest
that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation
and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather
together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad
and we've kind of paused as we do often in our exposition, verse
by verse exposition, we pause often as we come through places
whenever there is a major doctrine that is found within that portion
of scripture and we'll stop and we'll look at that doctrine and
we'll talk about that for a little bit and and see kind of what
all is entailed with that. And here we see the doctrine
of substitution in the prophecy of Caiaphas, that Jesus would
be the substitute. It's better that one man than
the whole. It's better than that one man
perish than the whole. And there's a lot there that,
and even it says here in the scripture, it says he spake,
and this spake he not of himself. This didn't come from Caiaphas'
own intelligence, his own mind, his even, you know, this was
given to him by God speaking through him, even though he was
not necessarily, as far as we know at this point, we don't
know Caiaphas' position with the Lord, whether he is a child
of grace or not. but yet it doesn't matter because
God can speak through anything he chooses to speak through,
even if it's through a donkey. So God spoke here to these people
and said, you know, it's better that one man perish than the
whole. And we learned that that perishing
that Jesus would do was not just for Israel, not just for those
Jews, but for, and it's amazing how the Holy Spirit put this
phrase in here like this, but for all the children of God that
were scattered abroad. They were children of God even
though they had not been brought in. We talked on a call earlier
this week, had a fellowship call, and one of the things we discussed
in that was the doctrine of adoption. We talked about how we've been
adopted of God. Before the foundation of the
world, we were adopted. This man, this Adamic man was
adopted by God. and how the new man or the new
creation, it don't need to be adopted, it's this old man that
needs to be adopted and how God had adopted us and we were called
children of God even before we ever were quickened. and converted
to the gospel. We were already children of God
scattered abroad. And that's why the Bible talks
about we are lost sheep. It's saying the same thing. Children
of God, lost sheep. We were already sheep. We weren't
goats that needed to be transformed into sheep. And see, a lot of
people, for one, they misuse the term regeneration. and put
it to quickening, but they'll use this term, they say, well,
We're all goats, but in regeneration, we become sheep. That's not true,
because if you look at what the Bible teaches about the new birth,
nothing happens to the Adamic man in the quickening. In the
quickening, there is something born from above. There's something
that comes from above, something that is not of this earth. It
is born from above, and it is quickened or made alive. And
that's why I don't like that term regeneration, because again,
there's two places in scripture where that word is used. In both
places, it's referring to the work of Christ, not being born
again or being born from above. The term also in and of itself
is incorrect because to regenerate means to bring back alive. And
when Adam was created, he was not created. as a spiritual alive
person. He was a spiritually dead person
already whenever he was created. He was born with a natural nature.
That which was natural came first and that which was spiritual
came second. And so we just see a whole lot
of problem with that. We see here that these children
were scattered abroad. And so here they are out wherever
they're at, across the face of the earth, scattered abroad.
We see many places in scripture where the Bible teaches that
they're all going to be gathered from every tribe, language, nation,
tongue, all these places. categories from the broadest
down to the very smallest and everything. I believe that there
will be people of God in every dialect of tongue, some from
out of every place where there isn't any place that can say
there was not a child of God. We see places in Acts where the
apostles talked about going into cities and they had confidence
to go in because they knew that God had children in every city.
and everything. That's what gives us confidence
to preach the gospel here and that God will build his church
is because he has people in every city. So in here in Joplin, it
may not look like it, but he does. He's got them scattered
abroad. And in his time, he brings them in. And it isn't by our
efforts. It isn't by our hard work. It
isn't by our labors that he brings them in. He brings them in because
he's the one who is the builder of the church. He is the one
who warns them from above, converts
them by his inward teaching. And then any vocal thing that
comes out of a preacher or out of the word of God or anything
like that is a confirmation of what God's already begun to do
in the heart. And then these people hear that and they believe
it and they find themselves attracted to it. Why are we here today?
We're attracted to the truth. Why aren't we going down the
street to the big church? because we're attracted to the
truth. Why aren't we going to the big church over here? Because
we're attracted to the truth. That child of grace may find
itself in some of these other places, but it won't be long
before they begin to starve. And I think that's one of the
things that we experienced in our family is whenever that happened,
we began to starve because we weren't being spiritually fed.
We weren't hearing the word of God. We didn't have fellowship
with people who believed the word of God. And it just got
harder and harder to stay where we was at. And of course, there
was a lot of things going on as well. We were, you know, we
didn't understand a lot of things about gathering together in the
church and stuff. But anyway, the thing is, is
there's the children of God is scattered abroad. And so we've
looked at, we've looked at what is a substitute. And we've looked
at who our substitute. Last week, we looked at who our
substitute was, and that's the God-man. It can only be the God-man,
not the man, and not just God. It had to be the God-man. And
so we looked at who our substitute was last week. And today, for
what time we have and everything, I would like to look and see
what is the job of the substitute, or what is it that this substitute
come to do? What did that substitute the
God-man? What did he come to do? Did he just willy-nilly come
into the world and then just say, oh, wow, man, a bunch of
people need to be saved. Was there purpose in what he
did? Was it an afterthought? Did Adam mess up something that
God did? And now there is, this plan B
that he's coming to enact and everything. So why did our substitute
come into this world? What was the purpose for that?
Turn with me, if you would, over to John chapter five. Now it's
been quite a while since we've been in John chapter five. And hopefully you kind of still
remember some of the stuff that we talked about and everything.
But I particularly want to go here because we see Jesus telling
about some of his purpose on why he is here. So look with
me at John chapter five, and let's start at verse 17. It says, or actually, let's go
to verse 16, it says, And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus
and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the
Sabbath day. Now you remember what had happened
here. He had healed a man on the Sabbath and those nice religious
theologians that they were, who knew God's word more than anybody
else, they thought it was more important the fact that Jesus
did good to somebody on the Sabbath than doing good on the Sabbath. They were more concerned that
Jesus had broken the Sabbath by healing the man and that this
man was walking and carrying his bed on the Sabbath than there
was for the fact that Jesus had compassion on this man and it
healed him. And so here these great minds
of God's word These great religious people stood before Jesus and
they persecuted Jesus because he had done these things on the
Sabbath. Verse 17, but Jesus answered
them, my father worketh hitherto and I work. Therefore, the Jews
sought the more to kill him because he had not only broken the Sabbath,
but also, or said also that God was his father making himself
equal with God. Now, if you remember back when
we was teaching on these, There's a lot of people out there that
say Jesus never claimed to be God. In the Gospels, you can't
find that. You watch the History Channel
and all these little documentaries about Jesus. A lot of times these... I'm just... these stupid people
that they have on there that talk about Christianity and the
Bible, that they've pulled out of some university somewhere,
they get on here and they say, well, we all know that Jesus
nowhere ever said he was actually God. Well, the Jews thought he
said he was God. I mean, this verse right here,
what he said right there, they understood that to say, he's
God, he's saying that he's God, okay? So anyway, that's a side
note. Verse nine, then answered Jesus
and said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, the son can do
nothing of himself, but what he seeth the father do. For what
things soever he doeth, these also doeth the son likewise.
For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that
himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than these
that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up
the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom
he will. For the Father judges no man,
but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should
honor the Son, even as they honored the Father. He that honoreth
not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth
on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. For as the Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. and have given him authority
to execute judgment also, because he is the son of man. Marvel
not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are
in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that
have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation. I can of my own self
do nothing, as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just. Because
I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which
hath sent me. If I bear witness of myself,
my witness is not true. There is another that beareth
witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witness
of me is true. You sent unto John, and he bare
witness unto the truth. But I received not testimony
from man, but these things I say, that ye might be saved. He was
a burning and a shining light, and ye were willing for a season
to rejoice in his light. But I have a greater witness
than that of John. For the works which the Father
hath given me to finish, The same works that I do bear witness
of me that the father has sent me and the father himself, which
has sent me have borne witness of me. You have neither heard
his voice at any time nor seen his shape and you have not his
word abiding in you. Now there could be a lot to be
said about that right there. You have not his word abiding
in you. Uh. why we don't need man to teach
us because we have his word abiding in us already. For whom he hath
sent he, or him ye believe not, Search the scriptures, for in
them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me. And ye will not come to me that
ye might have life. I receive not honor from men,
but I know you that ye have not the love of God in you. I am
come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not. If another
shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe
which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh
from God only? Do not think that I will accuse
you to the Father? There is one that accuseth you,
even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye
would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if ye believe
not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? Now we see
that whole that whole passage there that Jesus is pointing
to the fact that one of the things that he did is here for is to
do his father's will that was given to him is to do his father's
will. I came not to do my own will,
but to do the will of him that sent me. So Jesus came to do
the will of him that sent me. So the God-man substitute, one
of the purposes for why he is here is to do all the will of
God. Now, brethren, This can, this
can, I can go on a, I can just tell you right now, there is
a thousand rabbit trails that's out there in front of me and
I'm going to try to hit some of them, but to just this phrase
right here, that I have come to do all that the Father had
given me or to do the will of my Father. He's come to do the
whole will of his Father. Everything that God has decreed
to be done, Jesus has come in the flesh as God-man to do all
the will of the Father. And so whatever the God-man came
to do, we must determine in scripture Whether or not did he accomplish
that or is it still left open? What does the Bible say? Did
he do that or did he not do that? Has he done all the will of the
father? If God give to the son all these things and said, here,
this is what I want you to do. Jesus said, he showed me all
the things. He told me all the things that
I was to do. And I only do the things I don't
deviate. I don't do what I want to do.
We found that in the garden of Gethsemane, right? He said, not
as I will, but thy will be done. He said, if it be thy will, take
this cup from me. But he said, but not as I will,
but as thy will. And so we see that Jesus did
not deviate. Now, there's a lot of people
that say, there you go. There's that big separation between
the father and the son, distinct persons, distinct personalities,
distinct beings. I've even heard people call them
distinct beings. So that one is doing this for
the other and the other is doing this for this one. And there's
that distinction there to even the point where Jesus is talking
about, I'm not going to do my will, I want to do his will.
Brethren, we always got to remember, there is no division in God. He is indivisible, unable to
be divided. The Father, the Word, the Holy
Spirit are all one Godhead manifested in the flesh in Christ Jesus. And so the reason Jesus said,
I cannot do my own will, but only of him that sent me, the
only reason that Jesus can say that I don't do, I can do nothing
of my own, I only can do that which the Father, is because
the will is the same. His decree is the same. Everything that Jesus is, is
the same as the Father, because in essence, they are the same.
They are the same in substances. They are the same. And so they
can't have separate wills. Jesus said, I do the will of
my Father. Why? Because to the Jew, they're
looking at God the Father. That's who he was known to them
in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, he was
looked on as God, one. And I've heard the arguments
back and forth on whether they believed in the Trinity or all
this kind of stuff. All I know is they looked at
Jehovah in the Old Testament. And for God to be in the flesh
to them was blasphemy. Unbelievable. And so for Jesus
to say, I've come to do my, not my will, but the will of him
who sent me, was basically to point and tell them, Jehovah,
who you are supposedly believing in, looking to, his will is my
will. I'm doing everything he has told
me to do. Jesus isn't saying we have separate
wills, but I'm just gonna be submissive to a will that's different
than mine and just follow him. That's not what Jesus is saying.
He's saying basically, and that's why the Jews picked up on the
fact that he was saying he was God, is because he's saying the
only way that God's will could be, if he's doing God's will,
he must be God because no one can do that but God. And so Jesus
come to do the will of the father, which is the will of the word,
which is the will of the spirit, And because that's the will of
the Godhead, it is the will of Jesus because Jesus is the manifestation
of the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. Colossians tells
us that. I know a lot of people don't
want to talk about that. They say that's that's making
the Trinity too close, or not talking about the Trinity, I
don't care about those things. I care about what the scripture
says, and the scripture says that he is the image of the invisible
God, that the fullness of all the Godhead dwells in him bodily. And he came to do the will of
the Godhead. And so that was whatever the
will of the Godhead is, Jesus came to do. So the purpose in
why God made a body for God to dwell in and sent that man to
earth in time, He had a will and that will was
to be carried out by him. So before we get into it too
far, let me ask you this. Do you believe that Jesus did
the will of the father? Well, if we're gonna be honest
with the scriptures, we're gonna say yes. If we're gonna be honest
with just common sense, and I say that loosely, Jesus is God, so
yes, he's gonna do God's will. And we also know that Jesus,
the Bible says that God cannot lie. And if God says, I want
to go and do that, then God's going to go and do that. The
Bible also says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and
forever. If he was the surety then, he's
the surety and he will always be. He's not going to change
his mind midstream. That's one of the reasons why
I believe, one of the reasons why I believe of the impeccability
of Jesus Christ. If Jesus could have sinned, that
means he could have changed from being perfect to being sinful.
There's no possibility in that. We also know that if Jesus is
impeccable, he could at any time change his mind and say, you
know what, this intercession thing, I'm done with it. And
we've all lost our salvation. But no, he said, I've come to
do the will of my father. And you say, preacher, I know,
okay, you're kind of drawing out this little simple thing
to something, I mean, yeah, we get it, okay? We get it, he comes
to do the will of father, okay, we got it, move on. I think like
Tom said earlier, sometimes we glaze over things so quick, we
lose the intensity of what it's talking about. The scriptures
has declared that Jesus has come for the sole purpose to do all
the will of the father. And to accomplish that will.
So that God might be glorified. Now let me ask you, if Jesus
accomplished all the will of the father, what room does that
leave for us to make up the slack? There's no slack to make up. What's another thing that our
substitute came to do? Well, turn with me to Luke chapter
19 and verse 10. He came to do the will of his
father. And so we know because Jesus
won't lie and Jesus isn't going to fail on the job. He's going
to do the will of the father, right? Well, look with me here,
Luke chapter 19, verse 10. Let's start at verse nine. Jesus
said unto him, this day is salvation come to this house for so much
as he also is the son of Abraham. For the son of man is come to
seek and to save that which is lost. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which is or was lost. That was lost, not
that is lost. Okay, you know, every word counts. How many times have I said that?
Every word counts. The Holy Spirit has given us
these words in specific forms, in specific ways, with specific
reasons. He says, he has come to seek
and to save that which was lost. Not that is lost, but was lost. Now that would seem to make me
think that the losing is not now, but had taken place in the
past. Something was lost in the past,
But what about all these people that's living now and will be
born from this time forward? Aren't they born and become lost
in their sinfulness? Now he's talking about something
that was lost. Something was lost. And he's
coming to seek and to save that which was lost. That. So, And bear with me, and I may
not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but when he says
that there, to come to seek and to save that which was lost,
that means the lost is a group. And he's come to seek and to
save a particular group, that group, which at some point was lost.
And so they are considered the lost, and they're a particular
lost, and it was something that was lost sometime in the past. Everybody with me on that? Okay,
now how many of us, and I'm guilty of this, and I'm still guilty
of this as today, I'm trying to reform my speaking to be more
biblical at all times, but how many of us also often refer to
anybody that's not saved as the lost? We talk about anybody that's
not a Christian as go out there to all the lost. Okay, well brethren,
the lost refers to the elect. Not to everybody. The reprobate
is never considered. The reprobate is the reprobate,
always the reprobate. And the reprobate was not lost. Because Adam was created natural
and all reprobates are all natural brood beasts. That's all they
are. However, in Adam, The elect was lost into sin and
death. And so the elect are the ones
who are lost. And so as we look at what Jesus
says here, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that
which was lost in Adam. The elect was lost in Adam. And so the elect are the ones
he's coming to seek and to save. So we find that the purpose in
which this God-man substitute has come to substitute is because
for one, he's come to do all the will of the Father and to
seek and to save that which was lost. So I wanna ask you the
question again, did Jesus accomplish that? If
Jesus said, I've come to seek and to save that which was lost,
was it only the lost up to that point? Was it only the lost that
was there in Jerusalem or where he was at during this time period? He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. So whenever Jesus ascended back
into heaven, They're an ax. Was there still salvation to
be done? How many of us here, again, I'm
guilty, I'll raise my hand, continue to talk about they just need
to be saved? If we could just get them saved, if they can just
get saved, they would be saved. Now, there is different uses
of the word saved, and I understand what people are talking about.
They're usually talking about conversion, but we talk about that, but yet
all the children of God scattered abroad, all the lost sheep that
are out there have been saved. They were all saved. They were
saved and called with the holy calling, before the foundation
of the world. But it was manifested in this
time by the appearing of our Lord, Savior Jesus Christ. So they were already saved. He
just came to seek and to save that which was lost. Save them from what? Well, we
know that specifically to save them from sin and from the wrath
to come. By saving them from their sin,
you save them from the wrath to come. And the only way that
you can be saved from the wrath to come is to be saved from your
sin. It goes hand in hand. But he also come here because
the legal aspect of that was already laid in the frameworks
of the eternal covenant before the foundation of the world.
Specifically, he came here to manifest that salvation and to
experientially save them through quickening through the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit. to preserve them to the end.
He came to save them from what they could be without him being
in there, to save them from themselves, to save them from the natural
man, to save them from ignorance of God's word. That salvation
just has many connotations and many meanings and it pervades
through a lot of things. But whenever he came to seek
and to save that which was lost, he came and saved those people,
but it was a manifestation of what had already been as the
lamb slave before the foundation of the world. It was being manifested
unto us now. And so, did he do that? When he ascended back to heaven,
did he seek and save that which was lost? Or does he have to
keep making trips back here for everyone that was born after
he'd said that? after he ascended to heaven. No, he sought and
he found and he saved all that was lost. And now there is a
gathering of the children that is scattered abroad. And so he
did seek and save that which was lost. What's another purpose
for why Jesus came? Well, look at if you would with
me over to Philippians chapter two and verse seven. Now, remember,
don't lose track of what we're talking about. We're talking
about a substitute. And the substitute, the God-man substitute, doing
the will of the Father, the substitute, seeking and saving that which
was lost. A lot of people think that's the preacher's job, seeking
to save that which was lost. A lot of people think that's
every Christian's job is to go out and to seek and save that
which was lost. whose job wasn't to seek and save that which was
lost. It was the substitutes. But look with me, if you would,
at Philippians chapter two, and I tell you what, I've heard the,
well, I've misconstrued this verse a lot, but this these verses
here are worked over by people that it's just amazing how how
far off it gets philippians chapter two let me get out of ephesians
and philippians chapter two and look with me at verse seven It
said, well, matter of fact, let's go up to verse five. It says,
let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Now
we already know from Corinthians that we have the mind of Christ,
right? So we have the mind of Christ. And this is saying let
this mind be in you which is also in you. So that's not something
that we work up. Okay, I don't sit down at home
and I get out my Bible and I start making myself have the mind of
Christ by lots of reading and studying. That doesn't give me
the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ came when
I became spiritual. whenever that natural man who
can perceive and receive nothing of the spirit of God, because
it's spiritual, well, whenever the spiritual can, guess what?
I was given the mind of Christ. And so now we all, if you're
a child of grace, you have the mind of Christ and can know,
you can know Christ, you can know God. Why? Because you have
the mind of him. No one knows the father, but
the son. Why? Because they have the same
mind. Whenever Jesus said, you know,
no one, no, I'm the only one that knows the father and the
father is the only one who knows me. Why? Because they had the
mind of each other. But whenever one is given the
mind of Christ, guess what? We now have the capacity to know
Christ, to know God, the natural man can't do that. And so here
in Philippians, it says, let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal to God. Here again, the modern translations,
just ruin this whole entire, I mean, rip out the complete
meaning of this. That's why there's so much erroneous belief about
the manhood of Jesus Christ is out there because they say that
who being in the form of God thought equality with God is
something that could not be grasped. That's what the modern translations
say. That is totally opposite of what the scripture says. Completely
opposite. And of course, you've heard my
high horse about that before here. He said by verse seven,
but made himself of no reputation. and took upon himself the form
of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being
found in the fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the father. Now here again we see that one
of the things that Jesus came to do was to take upon himself
the form of a servant. The form of a servant. We find
this. We find this also over in Romans
chapter 8 and verse 3. Romans. Chapter 8. At verse 3. It says, for what the
law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God
sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned
sin in the flesh. Now, if you notice there, he
said, he sent his son in the likeness of sinful flesh. He didn't send him in sinful
flesh. Okay, big hairy difference. Okay, big difference. He sent
them in the likeness of sinful flesh, but not in sinful flesh. Another reason why I believe
that Jesus did not get his manhood from Mary. If he would have got
his manhood from Mary, he would have been born of the earth,
earthy. He would have been a natural man. He would have been in sinful flesh. And then we also
find this back in Hebrews chapter two, so turn with me to Hebrews
chapter two. Hebrews chapter two. Verse six, it says, but one in
a certain place testified, saying, what is man that thou art mindful
of him or the son of man that thou visiteth him? Thou madest
him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory
and honor, and didst settle him over thy works of thy hands.
Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he
put all in subjection under him. He left nothing that is not put
under him. But now we see not yet all things
put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. Okay? He was made lower than the angels
for the suffering of death. Not that he took that position
and that he stayed in that position or that he was actually in that
position, but he was made into that position for death. Okay? crowned with glory and
honor that he by the grace of God should taste death for every
man. For it became him for whom are
all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons
unto glory. There it is again, we're already
sons, bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of
their salvation. perfect through sufferings for
both he that sanctified and they who are sanctified are all of
one. It's not a progressive thing.
were sanctified already in him, for which cause he is not ashamed
to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto
my brethren in the midst of the church, will I sing praise unto
thee. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold,
I and the children, which God hath given me. We were already
children when we were given, when we were given in the eternal
covenant, when the father gave to the son, all that the father
gives me shall come to me. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same flesh and blood, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil. Okay, so one
of the purposes that Jesus Christ came as the substitute was to
bring many sons to glory, and that also particularly here,
that through his death, he might destroy him that had power of
death, that is the devil. Now, for some of us of a certain
eschatology persuasion, we would say that the chain was put on
him at the beginning of the thousand
years. and deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people, for in that
he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor
them that are tempted." So here again, we see that the God-man
substitute came and he had a purpose in bringing many sons to glory,
to bring many sons to glory. to destroy him that had power
over death, that is the devil, to put an end of fear to those
who were in bondage. He came in here to be made like
unto his brethren, that he might be a faithful and merciful high
priest, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Now,
we talk about reconciliation, that there still is a ministry
of reconciliation. And that's true. Although we
have been reconciled to God, God and everything that is needed
for his elect to be reconciled to him is done. However, we have
yet to be reconciled in our minds to God. Until we are quickened,
are at enmity against God, we still are opposed to God, we
still are wrathful against God, children of wrath. But in the
quickening, that's whenever we, in our mind,
become reconciled to Him. He's already reconciled to us
by the blood of Jesus Christ, but we have not been reconciled
to Him. We don't know that until that
enmity is removed. We don't know that until we see
the forgiveness of sins and the redemption that was made in the
work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Once that's removed and that
is removed after one has been quickened, and then converted
by the preaching of the gospel. They hear the gospel news that
your sins have been removed, that the wrath of God has been
removed, that reconciliation has been made. Whenever they
hear that with live ears, spiritual ears, hearing ears, that becomes
good news to them and then they are reconciled themselves to
God. They're no longer seeing God
as an enemy. They now see God as a friend, as a father. They see God as Abba and they
cry out to him as Abba Father. And so we see that one of the
purposes of Jesus coming as the God-man substitute is to do this
very thing. Now, let me ask you, Did he leave
without accomplishing what he did? Christ came to redeem a people
for himself to the glory of Christ. In 1 Timothy 1.15, I want to
try to hurry here, so if you want to turn, turn quickly, but
in 1 Timothy 1.15, the scripture says, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. That was his purpose. The God-man
substitute took on flesh, came to the world to save sinners. And now he is ascended back to
the right hand of God. At the cross, Jesus made it very
clear that everything was done. In the prayer that he prayed
to the Father right before his crucifixion, he said, everything
is being accomplished. Everything is done. I've done
all that you told me to do. I've said everything that you
told me to say. I've displayed everything that
you told me to display. I've worked all the miracles
that you told me to do. I've brought all the ones that
you told me to bring. And I'm fixing to go do the very
thing that you told me to go do. All has been accomplished.
Not one thing has been left undone. And so as we see in this. Mission of Jesus to come. We find out that there's really
only one true missionary. And that was Jesus Christ. He
was given the mission to come as the God-man's substitute and
accomplish salvation for all the elect. And he did so. And not one quote-unquote missionary
down here is going to accomplish that fact for him. He's already
accomplished it. He is the faithful missionary.
He is the successful missionary. All others are proclaimers of
the gospel And if so, it happens, maybe partakers in the time in
which they come by conversion into the understanding of their
salvation they already have. But not one of us is out there
saving anybody. Not one of us is out there being
able to convert anybody. Even that conversion only comes
through an understanding that God gives. So the accomplishment
of the mission took place in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Already done. So in order for God in his infinite
holiness to save sinners, to save guilty people, God's son
had to become the sinner substitute. Why, why did it have to happen
that way? And why did he give him the mission
to come do this? Well, first and foremost, the
reason is because God is righteous and righteousness had to be established. In Psalms chapter 9 in verse
8, the Bible says, and he shall judge the world in righteousness,
and he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.
For God to choose one and not the other when both of them were
children of wrath in Adam, for him to remove one out of that
and leave another there and God at the end to judge all mankind
and to judge this one as not guilty and to judge this one
as guilty. He has to establish a righteousness. There has to be a righteousness
established, otherwise God is unrighteous in saving these and
not these. or not saving these and saving
these, he would be unrighteousness. Now, how many of y'all here have
heard people say God's unrighteous for doing election and reprobation? That's unfair of God. That's
not righteous of him. And how many of you heard someone
twist the scriptures and say, well, God's not the respecter
of persons. That has nothing to do with the
election in that aspect. Now he shall judge the world
in righteousness. The only way that God can judge
the world in righteousness is for him to establish a righteousness. And he established that righteousness
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the standard of righteousness.
And Psalm 117 says, for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, his
countenance doth behold the upright. All of us miss that. We miss
that mark of righteousness. And so for God to even save and
elect people, a righteousness has to be established for them
in a way where God can be just and the justifier. And he established
that righteousness in the God man, Jesus Christ, the substitute. And so he said, in my righteousness,
or excuse me, in my justness, I declare that if there is a
suitable substitute who meets all of the qualifications, who
accomplishes all that is needed to satisfy my justice, then that
righteousness will be accounted for them. Substitution. So Jesus was established as the
righteousness, not only before he came manifested in all the
types of foreshadows, he was established as the righteousness. But whenever he walked on this
earth, he established that righteousness in experience. He was the one
who lived the law of God. He fulfilled all the law of God. And so his obedience becomes
our obedience. And so that is how God can justify
the guilty sinner and be righteous in doing so, and be just in doing
so. Righteousness had to be established
and he established that in the Lord Jesus Christ, but also sin
had to be punished. So that's why I say, and we're
coming back around to what we first started talking about last
week, is that it has to be the God man. It has to be God and
man. It can't be just one or the other.
Because God has to have the eternality. God has to have the righteousness. Man has to pay the price. And so sin must be punished.
And so justice must be maintained and satisfied. Christ had to
assume our nature. And he had to have his nature
as God and come into this world to accomplish all that God had
decreed. And by that, he can be both the
just and the justifier. And so to that, we say that the
mission was fulfilled. When he did that, the mission
was fulfilled. The Lord Jesus did exactly what
he came to accomplish. And that's why if you're still
there in Hebrews, you can turn turn with me and I've just got
a couple more verses to read here. We're going to be done.
We see in Hebrews chapter 10 and we're going to start it in
verse 10. Actually, I'm going to start verse one. I'm going
to read out of verse 14, but mainly 10 through 14 is where
we see this. That Jesus did something in his
time that he came here that not only established the righteousness,
not only fulfilled all that was to be fulfilled, not only gathered
all that was to be gathered. And did everything and that in
doing that God was able to justify. The guilty sinner and still be
just look at verse one says for the law, having a shadow of good
things to come and not the very image of the thing. See, that's
why I say even in the Old Testament, Christ's righteousness was established. Those shadows and those types
of foreshadows pointed towards his righteousness. For the law
having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image
of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year continually make the comers there unto perfect.
For then they would not, or for then would they not have ceased
to be offered. because that the worshipers once
purged should have had no more conscience of sin. But in those
sacrifices, there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when
he cometh into the world, he sayeth, sacrifice and offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou preparedest me. and burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou has had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come. The one with the body. Lo, I
come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. I think that's the volume of
the book that he opens in Revelation. In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will, O God. There it is, to do thy
will, O God. Lo, I come to do thy will, O
God. It was written in the book for
me to do, and I'm the only one worthy to open up the book, to
roll it out. to bring it forward. Above, when
he said sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering
for sin, thou wouldest not, neither hath pleasure therein which are
offered by the law. Then said he, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified. through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. Kind of shoots the holes in the
whole progressive sanctification theory, huh? For we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. The offering of the body of Jesus
Christ, the God man being the substitute on the cross brought
our sanctification. Once for all. Now, some people say that that
once for all, of course, it's in italics here in the King James,
meaning that in the Greek text, the for all is not there. They
added that for our understanding what it means there. But some
people take that for all, meaning for all people. But it means
for all time. Once for all time. and every
priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on
the right hand of God." Brethren, that means it was accomplished.
That that plan that was written in the volume of the book, that
record in that book, that plan, that will of God that he came
to do whenever the Bible says here that he offered the one
sacrifices for sin forever, sat down at the right hand of God. If you know anything about the
Old Testament priesthood, those guys never sat down. It was a
day in, day out thing over and over and over again, bloody sacrifice
after bloody. Can you imagine being in that
priesthood? Your clothes are just drenched with blood all
the time, just sacrificing animals all day long, every day, over
and over and over and over and over again. It was a bloody mess.
Have y'all ever slaughtered a cow or a pig and the smell of blood,
just the nasty smell of blood that, and it even kind of, just
in the breathing, gets in your mouth, tastes like copper pennies. Can you imagine the priest over
and over and over and over and over again? But the Bible says that Jesus
offered one sacrifice for sin and forever sat down at the right
hand of God. Why? Because he did not have
to get up and sacrifice again. from henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he hath,"
here it is again, "'perfected forever them that are sanctified.'" So here's his mission, to come
to seek and to save that which was lost. Here's his mission,
to come and to gather in Here's his mission to come and make
atonement. Here's his mission to come and
to save his people. Here's his mission to come and
to do all the will of God. Here's his mission to come and
to complete all that's within the volume of the book, to do
his will. Here's his mission to come and
to offer a one time sacrifice for sins. and in doing so sanctified
and perfected them who he died for, substituted for forever. And so my question again is,
did he accomplish that? Or did all that grand work that
God, before the foundation of the world, decreed in the wisdom
of God, and even so eloquently puts it in this rolled up scroll,
the writing is on the front and on the back, signifying in Hebrew
that it was a legal document. Rolled that thing up, and only
one man is worthy to bring it forth and to accomplish everything
that's in there. Then say, I've come to do your
will, oh God. And to on that cross, hang his
head and say, it is finished. To ascend back to the throne
of heaven, to sit down at the right hand of God and say, all
right, now I just wait for you to do this for me. There is nothing
in here that had anything to do with an ongoing work. Nothing in here had anything
to do with you or me, except the pronouncement of those who
are in Christ Jesus being the recipient. And it being done,
finished, accomplished, counted as good. And so any effort that we make,
whether it's mentally or physically, to try to finish the accomplishment
of what Christ was as the God-man substitute, declared from the
foundation of the world to be for us, came in time to manifest
for us, and now back into eternity ever lives to intercede as that
for us, for us to say, let's get our little grubby hands in
on it, is blasphemy to God. That is why over the years, Arminianism
has ceased to be, oh, it's just a difference of understanding
to outright heresy, blatant heresy. Blasphemy against God that I
can put my hand to the ark like Uzzah and think that it's OK
for me to be like the priest's sons who thought it's OK to offer
strange fire to God. It's not! God has one plan. And in the middle of that one
plan, he has one substitute. And in that one substitute is
only found, not you, not me, not a preacher, not a denomination
or a mission board. He has one man, the God man,
Jesus Christ. And he came on a mission with
a purpose to fulfill something. And the Bible says he fulfilled
it and went back to where he came from. And there he waits
until his appointed time to come again. And so from eternity to
eternity, it's all done. but there's churches on every
corner in this town and all around this country that is telling
people over and over and over again, if you'll just do this,
if you'll just do that, if you'll just do this, if you'll just
do this. And they wonder why we keep telling them and accusing
them of preaching a failed Jesus, preaching a weak Jesus. Brethren,
if you have to do something to get or to do or to be, then Jesus
failed his mission. He failed as being a substitute. He wasn't a full substitute.
He was a partial substitute. He wasn't even a substitute because
in a substitution, someone actually takes the place of another. But
yet you're saying he took my place, but it wasn't enough.
I've got to still do to make up the slack. And that's just not how it works.
That's not how the Bible tells us. It was done and God counted
it as done. But we're going to save that
for next week because in scene also in Hebrews, we'll find out
that his substitution was accepted. It was accepted. And so we don't
wait for man to scour the earth to save men. that Christ has
already done that, and he is bringing them in. He is gathering
in his sheep and children that are scattered abroad. See, man
can go out and do that, and you know what he's gonna do? He's
gonna get a lot of unwanted goats. But whenever we trust that the
Lord do it, As he said he would do it, he will build his church. He will build it. And it will
be built with the lively stones that are lively stones. So we're
kind of thankful that. He's done that. I don't know
about you, brethren, but it takes a lot of peace or gives me a
lot of peace of mind, takes a lot of pressure, especially as a
preacher. I've told you here before, before I understood these
things as a preacher, a lot of pressure on you whenever you
don't see people responding, whenever your altars aren't full,
people making decisions, baptistry being filled every other Sunday
or something. I'm talking and nobody's responding.
I'm talking and nobody's responding. Nobody's getting saved. Nobody's
getting saved. We're not saving people. We're failing that. How many times have you heard
people say, well, this organization wouldn't be here if the church
wasn't failing. What's there to fail? What is
there for the church to fail at doing other than failing to
worship and to proclaim the truth? That's what we're given to do,
is to worship and to proclaim the truth. We're the pillar and
the ground of truth. We provide the truth. We speak
the truth. We proclaim the truth. We preach
the truth. We holler from the rooftops the
truth. But brethren, we can't make a change in anybody's life.
We can't make somebody something that they're not. We can't make
somebody that's supposed to be something to turn into something. We can't do that. But we can
be faithful as he enables us to be worshipers in spirit and
in truth. That's why we gather here today.
Today's not an evangelism conference so that we can get the world
to come in here and to get them all saved. This day and this
time and this gathering is for the people of God to worship
their God, to be edified, to hear the word
of God. It's not here to get people saved.
And so we should never gear our services to try to get people
saved. So often we miss the whole purpose
of all of this. And man unwillingly, or unknowingly,
I should say, is trying to get glory for things
that only God can do. And so may our mind be fixed
upon Christ and Him alone as a successful Savior. If you have to do something and
he wasn't a Savior, a Savior that does not save is not a Savior. You can be in common core math
and understand that, okay? A Savior that is not a one who
saves is not a Savior. So if he did not save you, then
you're not saved and he's not a Savior. So to me, that's simple. but I'm a simple person. Bible
says that he will make his wisdom, or his wisdom will confound the
wisdom of the wise. To us, that's a simple thing,
but to the wisest of the wise, that's the dumbest thing. Therein,
that's why we must have the mind of Christ. All right, I went
way, way over.