The 11th chapter of John, the
11th chapter of John, you know, he was reading a little bit ago
there, Tom, about the name of God. One of the reasons I like
the King James above all others is because he does make that
distinction in there. That word Lord there, you'll
always notice is capitalized, and you'll always know that's
talking about that. that name. And there in that
portion of Exodus where he reveals himself to Moses as I am that
I am that self existing God, he reveals himself as a self
existing God. But it's kind of funny that in
that, that same portion of scripture, he says, he says, I will have
grace or I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
I will have mercy upon whom I'll have mercy. That exact same grammatical
construction that I am that I am is right there. I will be who
I will be is basically what I am that I am means. I'm the self-existing
God. I am who I am. I do what I do. I will be what I will be. If
it's compassion, if it's mercy, if it's grace, if it's wrath,
if it's reprobation, if it's election, I do what I do. Nobody can stop me. And pretty
much the overarching word of all that is sovereign. He's sovereign. And the neat thing about that
is, as you read down to that other portion, where he says,
and this is my memorial to all generations. This is how I want
to be known. You know, most of evangelicalism,
what do they want God to be known as? Mr. Lovey Dovey, you know,
Mr. Ooey Gooey, feel good, make me
feel good, make me blessed, all this stuff, the loving God. But
yet they don't want the wrathful God. They don't want the reprobating
God. They don't want the God that brings calamity and evil.
They don't want the God that decreed that sin would be. They don't want the God that
decreed evil to take place. They don't want that God. They
want the lovey-dovey God. And he declared there to Moses,
and from there to all generations, I am that I am and I will be
who I will be. And this is how I want to be
known. I want to be known as the God who is controlling everything
and can do anything I want to do. Not the one that bows to
your dictates, that becomes the God of your figment of your imagination. But I'm the God that is. And
I think that's very important for us to understand. But with
that being said, God being I am that I am, we learn that in the
Lord Jesus Christ, that all the fullness of that God dwells in
the man, Jesus Christ. He is the living and true God. And a lot of times we kind of
get this separation of God a little bit
further than I think the Bible opens it up, you know? And a
lot of that is programming from Trinitarianism from Catholicism. And I think whenever we find,
we find that at the center of the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Spirit, we find the man, Jesus Christ. Jesus made many
claims. He said that I am the father
of one. The scripture says that he had
all the measure of the Holy Ghost in him. Colossians says that
all the fullness of the Godhead, the Godhead, not the portion
of God, the Godhead, dwelled in him bodily. And so the man,
Jesus Christ, and this great mysterious union between God
and man in one, has been a mystery to us all. Even in the New Testament
times, this revelation of Jesus being the God-man is quite a
mystery. How the fullness of the Godhead
that the heavens of heavens cannot contain and dwells, the man Jesus
Christ. And then from looking at it from
the other direction, looking at man, how in the world could
this man be the true God of the universe. We just don't understand
that. It's hard for us to grasp. But
as I've always said here, a lot of times we may not be able to
comprehend it, but by studying the scriptures and as God gives
us understanding through that, we can apprehend it. We can apprehend
it and say it's true. I may not fully understand it,
but it's true. And so Jesus Christ is that true and living God.
And as we look here in John chapter 11, we see that, and I mentioned
this a few weeks ago as we've come into this portion of the
chapter, that everything from Genesis to Revelation, this revelation
that God has given us in His Word, all speaks of one person. Jesus Christ, speaks of one man,
Jesus Christ, speaks of him as God, speaks of him as man, and
the central work that he came to do was to be a substitute. The covenant of grace before
the foundation of the world was all about the glory of God in
having a people that would be redeemed by a substitute. I don't
wanna make the covenant of grace to be about us, but we were there. We were included in that covenant
of grace. whenever God covenanted together. And again, here's something I'll
just be honest with you. I don't understand eternity time. We're in time. I'm constrained
in time. That's all my mind knows is time and how something could
be done. and come together in eternity.
And it was not, but now it is. It's always been. It's an eternal
covenant. Again, I can't comprehend it. I apprehend it. The Bible
says it's an eternal covenant. So that means this covenant has
always been in place as far as God's decree is concerned. God's
decree has always been since eternity. So God's decree has
always been as long as God has been. And God has been from everlasting
to everlasting. So, you know, go chew on that
for a little while, but. But we see that in that covenant
of grace, the covenant of grace wasn't centralized on us. And we see that through several
places in the scripture when they said, not unto us, O Lord,
but unto you be the glory. Whenever he talked to Moses,
he said, it's not for your sakes that I'm about to act, but for
my sake that I'm about to act. And so all of the covenant of
grace and all of the types, the four shadows, leading up to the
cross of Jesus Christ, everything that Christ did, and then from
then on, the gospel that's being preached about what happened
at the cross, all of that is not about you. It's about Christ. It's about
the glorification of God first and foremost. But brethren, there's
some guys that will run so far on one side, and they will say,
well, it has nothing to do with you, but yet they don't ever
talk about we were there in Him whenever the everlasting covenant
was made. The Bible says in John that the
Father had us first. We were the fathers, thine they
were, and thou gavest them me, to me. See, we belong to the
Father and He gave them to the Son in the everlasting covenant. We have been eternally, vitally
united to Christ and we were there. And a lot of people don't
want to talk about that. whenever Christ died on the cross
as a substitute for us. The scripture says that if you
were in Christ, you died with Him. The scripture says that
you were buried with Him. And the scripture says that we
rose with Him. Now, for those who have been
here for a while, you've heard me talk about this. The term
regeneration is only used two times in the Word of God. We
use that as a theological term to mean the new birth. But that's
not what that term means. We need to quit using the term
regeneration for the new birth. That's not what, if you go to
the Bible, and let's take the Bible's definitions and not theologians'
definitions, the word regeneration is speaking of the work of Christ
and His resurrection. That's who was regenerated. And
we was in Him in the regeneration. So everything centers around
the Lord Jesus Christ, and all the glory is going to the Lord
Jesus Christ, but the work that is bringing the glory to Him
is His substitution. And so we're involved in that.
We become part of that. The Bible says that we become
joint heirs with Him. we become, what is Hebrew? He's
not afraid to call us brothers. Can you imagine that? I in no
way would have ever imagined that this wretched man, Christ,
would call brother. I'm unworthy of that, I don't
deserve that. Many days my mind is definitely
not on him And yet he calls us brothers, and he says he's not
ashamed. It's not like, well, this is
my brother, you know? You know, if you ever had those
family members that, you know, those crazy uncles, yeah, that's
my uncle, you know? You claim him as your uncle,
but you're kind of embarrassed of your, you know, drunk uncle
that, you know, makes a mess of himself at all the family
get-togethers, you know? Now, the Bible says that even though
that we're wretched, vile, blind, naked, Revelation says that we're
blind and naked, wretched, the Bible says that Jesus is not
ashamed to call his brothers. Matter of fact, also in Hebrews,
the Bible says that he said, for the joy that was set before
him that He endured the cross, despising the shame. It was a
joy to Him to go for His brothers and to substitute. So at the
heart of all of what we see in the Scriptures, from Genesis
to Revelation, is the glorifying of God through the substitutionary
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it starts in Genesis. At
the very beginning, we see substitution. Yeah, I think that's a really
good point. And also, I think we need to, in this bond day,
be real specific that it includes all of the Old Testament saints.
Absolutely. And I'd like to just read one
verse in 1 Corinthians 10, 3, and it all brings the same spirit
of the drink, and it brings the same spirit of the rock to follow
them, and that rock is Christ. Absolutely. Absolutely, it's funny, we actually
talked about that verse last week. I was teaching on these
verses last week. We took a break off of John and
I was teaching on some verses here, but yes, they all did.
All the Old Testament is saying it. If you make salvation to
be one thing for one group of people and one thing for another,
you've missed it. It's not the gospel. Every one of those people
were saved, just like we were saved. They were indwelt with
the Holy Spirit, just like we were indwelt with the Holy Spirit.
Now, I will say that the New Testament does make some differences
on as far as there's a different understanding. We have a fuller
understanding. When the Holy Spirit came at
Pentecost, He had empowered the church in a way that they weren't
empowered in the Old Testament. That veil was still there, and
we still see through a glass darkly, but that veil was there
for the purposes that God had for that at that time. And now
it's been opened up more to us now than to them. But the salvation,
the gospel, the way that they are saved is just like us. Every believer, matter of fact,
Jesus, whenever he told Nicodemus, he said, unless a man be born
again, he shall not see the kingdom of God. Unless a man be born
again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. And then he says, the
wind blows wherever it listeth. And he said, so it is with everyone
who is born of the spirit of God. Every person who is ever
born again is born again the exact same way, by the immediate
work of the Holy Spirit alone. alone. A lot of people want to
give credit to a preacher, give credit to reading the gospel,
hearing the gospel as what makes us quickened, but that's not
what makes us quickened. We are not quickened by any preaching. We're not quickened by any gospel.
We're not quickened by anything. We are quickened by the immediate
work of the Holy Spirit alone who makes us alive. He makes
the ground good. And at that point, the soil can
receive the seed and flourish from it. So all this is about
the substitution of Jesus Christ. And that's what we've been looking
at. Matter of fact, let's go ahead and look at our verses here in
John chapter 11 that we've been looking at. Remember again where
we're at in our chapter here. Jesus has raised Lazarus from
the dead. We talked a lot about, man, I
don't know how many weeks we spent on Lazarus and the things
surrounding Lazarus. But after all this took place,
that the glory of God might be seen, okay? why Lazarus died,
why Jesus didn't go right away, why Jesus waited, and whenever
he finally came, he came, why? So that his disciples might believe,
so that those who were there in their house might believe,
and so that God would receive glory. So we learn those things.
And so right on the heels of this, we see In verse 45, that
many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things
which Jesus did believed on him. Okay, so mission accomplished. Everything that God had planned
in Lazarus dying and Jesus waiting was accomplished. And then we
see in verse 46, but some of them went their way to the Pharisees
and told them what things Jesus had done. Then gathered the chief
priests and Pharisees of counsel and said, what do we? For this
man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all
men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away
both our place and nation. I'm going to refrain from going
down the rabbit trail again. And one of them named Caiaphas,
being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know
nothing at all, nor consider it expedient for us that one
man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perisheth
not. And this spake he 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 so we see here that Caiaphas,
ignorant of his own words, but given by God to say, And I have
my thoughts on that. I think more than anything to
show as a condemnation to them that he used them just like he
did with Pharaoh. He brought them up for a reason.
We find that in Acts when it said, by wicked hands, you've
killed him. And all this was by the determined
counsel of God. So he raised these men up for
this purpose. And if he did, he can raise Caiaphas,
an unbeliever, up to still speak the words of God. And so we see
that taking place. But what did he speak? What did
he say? He said, in Michael's translation, he said, he said,
Hey, it's best that there be a substitute and let him die
instead of us. So even Caiaphas prophesied of
the substitution of Jesus Christ. And so we've taken this time
in this portion of our chapter to look at the doctrine of substitution. And we've already mentioned one
thing is we know that Jesus Christ is our substitute. He's the sinner's
hope. He's our only hope. And not to
backtrack what we've already covered, I just wanted to get
into more of what a substitute is. We've talked a little bit
about this, and of course, I got sidetracked on a couple of rabbits
as we started that a few weeks ago, and got my markers out and
all that kind of stuff. And so I'm gonna try to refrain
from that today and keep to my thoughts on what a substitute
is. But the first thing I would like
you to understand or see, if God be willing to give us this
understanding, is who is our substitute? Who is our substitute? Well, the first thing I can tell
you is the Pope is not our substitute. The Baptist Church is not our
substitute. Your mom and your dad is not
your substitute. Grandma and grandpa is not our
substitute. The scriptures tells us that
it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is our substitute. One of the
names that the Bible gives to the Lord Jesus is Emmanuel, God
with us. Our substitute is no mer-man,
not mer-man like a mermaid, but a mer-man. a normal man. He is a God-man. Turn with me, if you would, over
to John chapter 1. I want us to look at a few verses
here. Because I believe that the sinner's
substitute must be a real man. Jesus couldn't come and just
die in the Spirit. He couldn't come and die as the Spirit. To
be a substitute, you have to actually take on that of who
you're substituting for. Man is who sinned against God. It is man who is beholden to
God. It is man who is under the wrath
of God. It is man who has to pay. The Bible says that the wages
of sin is death. The payment for sin is death. So man came under that wage I
need to die. And only a man can pay that.
Okay? It says, in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The
same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by
Him and without Him was not anything made. Now, for all of you guys
that's read my thing on the, and been here whenever we did
the study on the humanity, the human, eternal humanity of Christ,
you know what we're seeing here is Jesus Christ, and we're seeing
the distinctions here made. He is God. As the word, He is
God. But it also makes the distinction
that he was with God. How can he be God and with God
at the same time unless he be the man Jesus Christ? In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. That tells me that the man Jesus
Christ was there. not the spirit Jesus Christ,
the man Jesus Christ. All things were made by him and
without him, not anything was made that was made. Now, you
go to the Apostles' Creed, it says, I believe in God the Father,
maker of heaven and earth, right? That's what it says. Well, is
that what the scriptures say? There is a portion of scripture
that does say that the Father was part of creation, but it
identifies the Father as the Word in flesh. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The Word was made flesh. He took
on flesh. He became human with a human
nature. Not an Adamic nature, with a
human nature. If He would have came with an
Adamic nature, we'd have all been lost. Okay? We'd have continued
to be lost. If He would have came with the
nature of Adam, He would have came with the nature of sin.
But He came in the flesh and He dwelt among us. That's what
Emmanuel means. God with us, right? God with
us. So when Jesus, who had taken
on flesh, came to here, He came to dwell among us. And the Bible
says He was full of grace and truth. Look down to verse 18.
The Bible says, No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared
Him. Who is declared the Father? Jesus
Christ. Now, just a side note here. If you go to modern translations,
they get this wrong. The modern translations, especially
the New American Standard Bible, makes a begotten God in 118. If you read John 118 in the New
American Standard, it reads, No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten God, which
is in the bosom of the Father, hath made him known. So we need to be careful of these
modern translations because they are off on everything that pertains
especially to the Lord Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at
any time. And you say, well, wait a minute.
I thought Jesus was God. We've seen him. Absolutely correct. You just answered your own question
that you were running around in your mind. Jesus is God. And if you've seen Him, you've
seen the Father. Now let me just, and I'm getting
off here. There's nothing mysterious about
that, okay? I don't know why so many people
try to go through so many hoops and things trying to describe
this trinity, and they try to make these great cement distinctions,
concrete distinctions between the Godhead. They wanna make
three distinct people out of the Godhead? When the Bible doesn't
make three distinct applications. Is there a Godhead? Yes. How do we know that one God as
the Father, as the Word, and the Holy Spirit? But let's not
go further than the Scriptures teach us, brethren. Jesus said,
if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Why? Because I am
the physical representation of God. The Father is God, I'm God. I'm just God in the flesh. So
one thing, as far as the substitute is concerned, is there was a
man who is God, and there is God who is man, and that substitution
has to take place that way. Why? Because only man can pay
for man's sin, but only God can endure the full wrath of God.
only God can live perfect to the law, be that perfect sacrifice
to be qualified to be that man that hung on the cross. And since
we're not talking about impartation, we're talking about imputation,
Jesus could be a perfect sacrifice perfect with no sin, perfect
in keeping the law, and still hang on that cross and be considered
completely guilty of every sin that all the elect have ever
committed. See, his sinfulness was not by impartation, like
Don Fortner teaches. His sinfulness was by imputation. It was laid upon him. but let's not get it turned around
on the other end. His righteousness is imputed
to us, not imparted in us. Now granted, his righteousness
sometimes as he sees fit is imparted through us. People get glimpses
and see Christ as he works in us both to will and to do his
good pleasure. whenever He is the one who is doing that in
us, but see, we never can claim that's ours. Just like Paul said,
just like Tom read this morning, Paul served sin in his members,
but in his mind, he served the law of God. Anytime that we do
anything that is the work that God has ordained before the foundation
of the world, it's been because Jesus is doing it in us. So you
see that his substitution goes beyond just at the cross. His substitution was from eternity
as our surety, as the lamb slain before the foundation of the
world, His substitution was in time as He walked this earth
for 33 1�2 years as our representative of keeping the law. And His substitution
was on the cross as our sin-bearer and wrath-taker. He was also
our substitute in the burial and resurrection. And now He
is our substitute as He lives His life in us, as He does, as
He enables. That's why the Bible speaks of
Jesus Christ as He ever lives to intercede for us. When did
Jesus begin? Whenever it says, He ever lives
to intercede for us, a lot of times because of where that Scripture
is found, our minds are going, He's ever living to intercede
for us after He resurrected. But brethren, He ever lived to
intercede for us before the foundation of the world in the everlasting
covenant. He ever lived to intercede for us in all the Old Testament
as He was so gracious and kind to show us by types and foreshadows. He ever lived to intercede for
us as He walked this earth, as He died, as He was buried, and
as He resurrected. Jesus is our substitute as God,
as man. He's our perfect substitute. The Scriptures say in 1 Timothy
3, It says, But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou
oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the
church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the
truth. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory.
It is a great mystery, brethren. It is a mystery how God can be
both God and man. There in Timothy also in chapter
6, verse 14, it says, that thou keep this commandment without
spot, unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus, which in His
times He shall shew, who is the blessed and only potentate. We're
talking about the man, Jesus Christ. We're not talking about
the Word. We're talking about the man, Jesus Christ, who is
the only potentate, the King of kings, the Lord of lords,
who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can
approach unto, who no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be
honor and power everlasting. Amen. Did you see that? Who no
man has seen nor can see, but who are we finding it in? Who
is the Potate? Who is the King of Kings? Who
is the Lord of Lords that no man can see? That no man can
approach? The Lord Jesus Christ. The God-man. God in the flesh. Emmanuel. He
has made it possible that we can approach God. We couldn't
approach God. You remember back in the Old
Testament, also back in Exodus, whenever they came to the mountain,
if anybody touched that mountain, what happened? They died. But guess what? We don't come
to Mount Sinai anymore. The Bible says that we have now
come to Mount Zion. And Christ, when we come to Mount Zion, we
have access to God. The Bible says that we can boldly
come before the throne of grace. We can boldly come before the
throne of God, not because God is just a, uh, cavalier and just
anybody can come if they want to come and you can just boldly
come and he's, oh I'm just so loving and forgiving that I'll
let you come this time. No, no, no, no. We can boldly
come before the throne of grace because of a substitute. Because
any time that we ever come boldly before the throne of grace, it's
only because the man of grace stands to intercede for us. That's the only way we can come.
The sinner's substitute must be a real man. He must be the
infinite God. The substitute must be perfect.
In Leviticus 22 and verse 21, we're reminded of the types and
foreshadows that we see pointing towards the Lord Jesus Christ,
but we see that in this sacrificial system, God set up this to point
and to be indicative of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in doing so,
he told them, he said, in chapter 22, verse 21, it says, And whosoever
offereth the sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord to accomplish
his vow or freewill offering in beefs or sheep, it shall be
perfect to be accepted. There shall be no blemish therein.
Okay, so that lamb, that beef, that it had to be perfect, without
blemish. Matter of fact, in both chapter
21 and 22, the Lord had instructed Moses and Aaron with all this
fundamental stuff that he wanted in the worship of God. And they were not to deviate
from that. And brethren, in the New Testament
church, the Lord has given us some things also in how we should
worship, and we shouldn't deviate from those things. The high priest
himself was to have no defect, no deformity, no blemish of any
kind. The sacrifice was to have no
blemish at all. Now you say, well, what do you
mean about the priest? The priest wasn't to have any defect? He
was supposed to be The priest had a ritual that he had to go
through to purify himself, to sacrifice for himself before
he could go sacrifice for another. He had to be without blemish.
Why? Because the priest represented
Christ, the lamb represented Christ. The mercy seat where
the blood was brought represented Christ. Everything had to be
done to perfection exactly as God had prescribed. If the priest
had no defect but brought a sacrifice with blemish, it wouldn't be
accepted. If the sacrifice was brought
and the sacrifice itself had blemish, it couldn't be accepted. So the purpose of all these ancient
Levitical laws was to declare the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn with me, if you would, over
to Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4. We find here in Hebrews,
apart from Romans, Hebrews is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
work. I kind of think that they're both
written by the same guy, but I don't know. You can enter into a lot of disputation
on that with some folks. Hebrews chapter 4, and down around
14, you have down 14, We see this very thing portrayed
so beautifully for us. Verse 14, seeing then that we
have a great high priest. We have a great high priest. Not great in order, like we've
seen in the Old Testament high priest. Great in godliness. Great in perfection. great inability. He is God. We have a great high
priest that is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the son of God,
let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was at all points tempted like as we, yet without sin,
Okay, you gotta make that clear. Jesus is being tempted and are
being tempted are different temptations. Jesus was tested in all points
as we have been tested. Yet we don't, he didn't have
any sin. There was nothing in him. A wonderful
book that if you want to read an extra biblical book on the
topic of that is Christ Could Not Be Tempted by W.E.Bist. It's
a wonderful book that talks about how the, what we call the impeccability
of Jesus Christ and how Christ was, there was no sin in him.
There was nothing to be tempted. The Bible tells us that we sin
whenever we are tempted, whenever we are drawn away by our own
inward evil desires, right? Well, Jesus didn't have none
of those. So there was no way he could have ever sinned because
there was nothing to tempt inside of him. The temptations came,
but they found nothing in him, as the scripture says. We have
a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of
our infirmities, but was at all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and may find
grace to help in times of need. Look over, if you would, just
a chapter or so at chapter seven. Look down with me, if you would,
down, come down to verse 25. It says, Wherefore He is able
also to save them to the uttermost. Boy, that's going to get a lot
of free willers and Pentecostals upset because their salvation
that they, well, and I'll even talk to the Primitive Baptists,
the Conditionalists, you know, their salvation is in their hand
of their good works. You know? Now He saves to the
uttermost. When the God-man saves, He saves
to the uttermost. He doesn't just save partially.
He doesn't just make salvation possible. He doesn't save you
legally and then leave you here to obey in time for salvation. No, no, no. He saves to the uttermost.
He saves you legally and He saves you experientially. He saves
you before God in position, but He also saves you and is saving
you practically by His life in you. He is saving you to the
uttermost. Wherefore He is able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God Here it is. Oh, well, there you go. We can
come to God. Any man can come to God. We have to come to God
for Him to save us. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Look at that little two words that follow it. By Him. We come
to God by Him. There's no other way that we
can come to God by Him. Jesus said, no man comes to the
Father but by Me. Nobody's approaching, nobody's
coming. There's none that seeketh after God. No, not one. They said, well, what about all
these people that want to be saved? There is none that want to be saved.
You know who are the ones that want to be saved? The ones that
by Him are made to come. He says, Wherefore He is able
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing
He ever liveth to make intercession for them. He ever liveth to make
intercession for them. For such a high priest became
us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens. I'm glad it wasn't Caiaphas. or any of them other guys. It
was the God-man. Look with me just a few verses
down. Chapter 8, verse 1. Now, these things which we have
spoken, this is the sum. We have such a high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven. Brother, our substitute is not
just a mere man. I don't know how many times that
I've heard this in friends and family that I know from where
I come from out of the Southern Baptist and other people like
that. I hear all the time that Jesus,
yes, while he is God, whenever he came here, he laid aside his
deity and lived here only as man, dependent upon the Father
for everything and lived only as man. That's hogwash. He was the God-man. He never ceased being God. He
never ceased exercising His godly ability while all the time He
was man. There is no way that God can
divest Himself of being who He is. God is God. And I can't quit being God. I can't quit being who I am.
I can't lay aside my deity because I am that I am. And so here we see that he is the
high priest who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. We want to make this substitute. We want to make this high priest
the same as sinners. How many people in evangelical
Christianity out there wants God to be like them? They want him to act like them,
react like him, love like them, hate like them, whatever. They want that God to be like
them. They want this Jesus. They don't
want this Jesus. but he is separate from sinners.
Separate in the fact that he is holy and we are not. Separate
in the fact that he is God and we are not. Separate in the fact
that he is not like us. There's nobody like him. Nobody
ever will be like him. Even in our glorified state,
we will not be exactly like him because we will not be God. We
might be like His humanity, but we will not be like Him as far
as God and man. We'll never be like that. And the Bible says He's been
made higher than the heavens. Our substitute is at the right
hand of God, and He is higher than the heavens. Now that's
a lot better than your bail bondsman, huh? Down the street. He makes a good substitute for
you, but he's not the substitute. He is a perfect sacrifice. He's
a lamb without blemish, without spot. 1 Peter 1.18 says, For
as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible
things of silver and gold, or your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, we're not redeemed by those things.
How many people are looking to the beggarly things of tradition
to make them something before God. We walk in this vain conversation
of tradition, tradition, tradition, and it don't get us anywhere.
It don't positionally get us anywhere. It don't experientially
get us anywhere. He says, for as much as you know
that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, but you were redeemed, you can kind of put that in the
parentheses because it goes back to what he's saying, but with
the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last time for you." Is him being the lamb slain before
the foundation of the world just kind of a nice little catchphrase? We like to say, oh, he's the
lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Have you ever really
thought, what does that mean? Why did God give us Scripture
and reveal to us that Jesus stood as the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world, but is now made manifest, showing
Him to be the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world?
I might be wrong on this, and I'm open for correction if any
of you folks would like to bring me to scripture and correct me
on this, but I say that it's there because He was the Lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. Because all of the
spiritual blessings that are given to us in Christ Jesus that
Ephesians chapter one talks about was in Him, in Christ Jesus,
as we were the elect of God, and it was given to us before
the foundation of the world. And the only way, the only way
that God can do that for us is for us to be in a state of grace
because of a lambslain substitute. So it's just not a moniker that
God's given Jesus because of something He was gonna come and
do in time. He came and did in time to show you what was already
true in the heavens, what was already true before the foundation
of the world in eternity. Everything, Timothy tells us
this, in Timothy 1.9, it tells us that all these things that
God called us, called us, and saved us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according as He has purposed,
according to His grace which He has purposed in Christ Jesus
before the foundation of the world. He called us and saved
us before the foundation of the world by that grace which he
purposed, and it was all in Christ Jesus. But it could only be if
he was substituting for us as the God-man before the foundation
of the world. See the word that you can't find
one place. And I'll challenge everyone in here. I'll challenge
everyone in here. Go through your scriptures and find me one
place where the word is the substitute for us. There's not one place
in scripture where the word is the subject. I'm talking about
God, the word, was the substitute. Where God, the word, is the substitute. our surety, where God the Word
had anything to do with the eternal covenant end, His end of redemption. Can't find it. Not one place. Every place in the scripture
that talks about even what God did in eternity before the foundation
of the world refers to the man Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, The surety, you come through here, the great
high priest, all these things, every bit of those refers to
Jesus as God and man. You can't have substitution.
You can't have a surety. You can't have intercession without
Jesus being God and man. And if he was our substitute
and surety in the eternal covenant, if he is the lamb slain before
the foundation of the world, if he stands in our place ever
living to intercede for us before the foundation of the world,
if all of these things that we've looked at is true, then the substitute
has been God-man from all eternity. because only the God-man is the
one who was sent or given, begotten to be the substitute. And so I would disagree with
a lot of brethren that I know, that I hold very dear, love very
much. respect a whole lot and have
helped me a lot, but I firmly will disagree with them whenever
they say that Jesus had no humanity before Mary. That Jesus was not
the God-man before, that he became God-man when he was born in Bethlehem.
If so, that he was not the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world. If so, there was no intercession before the foundation
of the world. If so, there was no covenant
of grace, because who had to come forth in the covenant of
grace and said, I'll go? It was the God-man. It is through the Lord Jesus
Christ and His glorious sacrifice that all of us are justified
from our sin. Couple more verses and we'll stop for today. In
Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13 and verse 38. Well, I'm kind of regretting wearing
this sweater this morning. Acts chapter 13. And if you look
with me down to verse 38, and 39. It says, Be it known
unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that
believe are justified. All that believe are justified,
not will be justified. All that believe are justified
from all things. from which he could not be justified
by the law of... Which he could not be justified
by the law... If he could not be justified
by the law... Are you kind of getting the drift
there? Doesn't the scriptures also tell
us that by the deeds of the law shall no man be justified? So if your hope of positional
salvation or your hope of practical salvation is by keeping the law,
guess what? Verse 39 says, you will not be
justified. Even if, and this is a big if,
we could keep the law. He clearly states, by the deeds
of the law shall no man be, and we a lot of times think that
means, well, it's because we're in, it's impossible for us to
keep the law, which is true. But brethren, he's not saying
it just because it's impossible for us to keep it. He's saying
that's not the grounds on which he will justify. He is not ever
planned to justify anybody on the grounds of works. the plan
to justify was always by the blood and righteousness of Jesus
Christ. That was always the grounds in
the eternal covenant. That's why I believe in eternal
justification. I believe in eternal justification
because the ground in which God justifies men is by the blood
and righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. And although he may not
have actually been on that cross yet, the value, the equity, the
promise, the truthfulness of Christ to say, I'll be their
surety, promises, I'll be their surety. His word is not gonna
fail. I will go to the cross. I will
complete that which the Father has given me. All that the Father
has given me, I will not lose any. His promise is tried and
true and sure and God, bases the legal decision to call us
not guilty, not on anything that we do in time, but upon the surety
who said, I'll go. God doesn't have to wait in time
for Christ to die. God doesn't have to wait, reform
theologian on us to believe. God has declared it from the
beginning, why? Because the land was slain before
the foundation of the world, but has now been made manifest
unto us. In the Lord Jesus Christ, every
believer is a priest with no blemish, no sin. Well, we're
priests. That's one of the cardinal beliefs
of the Baptists. We're priests. Let's see, what
do they call it? The priesthood of the believer.
Does the Bible teach that? I don't know, let's look. Revelation
chapter one. Revelation 1, verses 5 and 6. Revelation 1, verses 5 and 6. And from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness. That's always nice to have, is
a faithful witness. You watch on all these news programs
and you see people, these eyewitnesses out there. Remember whenever
all the stuff was going on up here outside of St. Louis, all these riots, and they
had all these eyewitnesses that said, that guy, don't shoot,
don't shoot. But yet when it all came down
to it, that really didn't work. Those eyewitnesses said, hey,
oh, we've seen him. We were sure. They weren't faithful
witnesses, were they? They weren't faithful witnesses.
But guess what? Jesus Christ is a faithful witness. And the first begotten of the
dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved
us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made
us kings and priests unto God and his Father, To Him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Christ has made us priests with
no blemish. Look with me while you're there
in Revelation over at chapter five and down at verses nine
and 10. Revelation chapter five, verse
nine and 10. And they sung a new song saying,
thou are worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof.
Now I've mentioned this here before. What I understand, have
come to understand of this, what this scroll is, what this book
is, is the eternal decree of God. Jesus is opening up the
eternal decree of God. And so what we see here in Revelation
is that something's gonna happen at a future time during a seven-year
tribulation. This is talking of Jesus over
all the course of time. He has been given the book that
is the decree of God, and he is opening it up, and he is providentially
bringing about all the decree of God here. And I don't have
time to go into why I believe that, but I can if you would
like me to do that at some point. And they sang a new song saying
thou worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof
for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and has
made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on
the earth." Brethren, Jesus, who is our great high priest,
has made us priests with no blemish before God. In Christ's precious
blood atonement, we approach the throne of grace with boldness
because we've been given a perfect standing before God. He was a
perfect sacrifice and his perfect sacrifice made us a perfect priest
before God. and he eternally satisfies the
holy justice of God. Never can God ever come back
on earth. There is none of this double
jeopardy business, okay? As a former Armenian, what I
used to believe is that yes, God died for every sin in the
world except for unbelief. Okay? And so Christ died for
all my sins, but yet God can come back and then, even though
Jesus died for all my sins, He can turn around and throw me
in hell because I didn't receive it. So that's double jeopardy. You know, Christ paid for my
sins and now I'm paying for my sins. No, no, no, no. He has made us eternally perfect
before God. because His holy justice is eternal
and perfect. Now, there's several verses we
could read on that, but we don't have time. So, brethren, to close
this out, it's in, it's by, it's through, it's with Christ, our
substitute, the one who is the perfect priest, the perfect sacrifice
that we meet God's standard of perfection. It isn't about us.
It isn't about anything that we do. All this is to the praise
of the glory of His grace that we have been accepted not in our works, not in our
church, not in our denomination, we've been accepted in a beloved. And that's the only way we're
ever going to be accepted. If you try to get accepted any other
way, you're not going to be accepted. And there ain't no getting accepted. It's a gift. It's a gift of God. All right, let's