Good morning. If you would open
your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 26, where our lesson
will be from this morning. Matthew chapter 26. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy, reverent, is your matchless name. Lord, we very carefully,
reverently come into your presence this morning only in our Lord
Jesus Christ, pleading only His obedience is our righteousness,
pleading only His precious blood that cleanses us from all sin,
His precious person, which makes us accepted in thy sight, accepted
in the beloved. Father, we're so thankful. Father,
we've gathered here this morning to worship your matchless name.
We've gathered here to to hear more of our Savior, to worship
Him, exalt and lift up His name. Father, I pray You'd bless us
as we look into Your Word, that You'd mix everything that we
see and hear with eyes of faith, ears of faith, that we might
open Your Word and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust
and rest in Him. Father, I pray You'd bless Your
Word here and other places where your word is being preached this
morning. Father, bless in a mighty and special way. We pray you'd
bless our brother, Eric, as he's preaching in Danville. Father,
give them a special time of worship and bring him and Abby back home
safe to us. Father, we pray for our children's
classes. How we thank you for all these
young ones that you've given to us. And Father, I pray you
bless their teachers, that you'd enable them to rightly divide
the word of truth and bless our children hearing ear, receptive
and believing heart. Use this time, if it could be
thy will, to plant the seeds of faith in their heart. Father,
we dare not forget to pray for those who are sick and in many
various different troubles and trials. Father, we pray that
you'd be with your people, that you'd deliver, that you'd comfort,
that you'd give a special portion of your presence to them. All
these things we ask in that name which is above every name, the
name of Christ our Savior. I titled our lesson this morning,
My Time. I took the title from verse 18,
where the Savior said, go into the city to such a man and say
unto him, the master saith, my time is at hand. Now this time,
the Savior's talking about this hour, is the hour of hours. He calls it my time here. Many
other places he calls it my hour. This hour is the hour of the
sacrifice of sin for God's elect. All of the Old Testament scriptures
pointed forward to this hour. In type and picture, they told
of this hour. All the gospels pointed to this
hour from our Lord's birth as he marched his way, set his face
like a flint to go to Jerusalem, to Calvary. All the gospels tell
how he was pointed to this hour. All the epistles wrote of this
hour told us what the Savior accomplished in this hour. All
of eternity will look back upon this hour. All of eternity will
hinge upon this hour. Where you and I spend eternity
hinges upon this hour. This is the hour the Savior spoke
of often. You remember while the Lord was
praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples fell asleep. He
came back to them and he told them, sleep on, take your rest. The hour has come. The hour. Several times after the Lord
preached, he made the people so mad that they sought to take
him and kill him, but no man could lay hands on him because
his hour was not yet come. Now this is the hour. Now the
Savior says it's come, the hour of his sacrifice for sin. And
this hour is the whole reason he came incarnate. The Lord Jesus
Christ came in the flesh. He was born in the flesh for
this purpose, so he could die for the sins of his people at
the appointed hour. He says, now it's come. In John
12, verse 27, he said, now is my soul troubled. He's troubled
thinking about this hour, thinking about what he would suffer in
this hour. But he said, what shall I say? Shall I say, Father,
save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto
this hour. This is the whole reason I came
to earth for this hour. And there are four things I want
us to see about this time, the Lord's time that has come. I
believe these things will be a blessing. to our souls. Number
one, this time, the Lord's time, was a sovereignly appointed time. This was no accident. This time,
this exact time, was purposed and planned by God from all of
eternity. Look at verse 21. And as they did eat, he said,
verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they
were exceeding sorrowful and began every one of them to say
unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, he
that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray
me. Look over at John chapter six.
The Lord knew exactly, he always knew exactly who it was that
would betray him. The Lord's betrayal was no accident,
not just that he was betrayed, but who would betray him. The
Lord always knew that. He knew that because he's sovereign.
John chapter six, verse 64. But there are some of you that
believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, therefore
said I unto you that no man can come unto me, except it were
given him of my father. Now the Lord knew exactly who
it was that would betray him. But now, the Lord Jesus was not
just merely a fortune teller. He was someone that just could
predict the future. The Lord knew what was gonna
happen in the future because he's sovereign over the future.
He's the one who sovereignly ordained this thing, this thing
of his betrayal, and everything that happens. He sovereignly
ordained that to happen from eternity. Do you know Judas betraying
the Savior was our God's eternal purpose? As horrible as it was,
Judas betraying the Lord, all that was was God's will being
carried out. We read that last week in Psalm
41. David wrote of Ahithophel, but
he was prophesying of Judas, said, my own familiar friend
and whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted
up his heel against me. This was God's eternal purpose
and he made sure we knew it because of this prophecy of Judas. Judas
betraying the Lord was his will, God's will from all of eternity.
And you think nothing could possibly have been more evil. than Judas
betraying the Lord. But when Judas betrayed the Lord,
just like right at this very second, our God was sovereign.
This thing didn't happen against his will. It was God's will being
carried out. And our God is sovereign. And
since he's sovereign, he can bring good out of evil. And God
Almighty brought the best good that could possibly have happened
out of Judas' evil, wicked act. Out of Judas' betrayal, came
the crucifixion of Christ as a sacrifice for his people. God
ordained that from all of eternity so that by that sacrifice the
sin of God's people would be put away and would happen as
a direct result of this evil betrayal of Judas. Now the sovereignty
of God is good, true, sound doctrine. You cannot preach the gospel
without preaching a God who's sovereign. But more than good
doctrine, God's sovereignty is the comfort of the hearts of
God's people. Knowing that our God is sovereign,
he always works his will among the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or
saying to him, what do us now? Nothing that ever happens on
this earth is an accident. Nothing. God sovereignly is ruling
over it and ordained it and that include ever includes every event
that ever happens to you and me. whether we think it's good
or whether we think it's bad, it's God's will being carried
out. God has not changed. He never will change. He never
has changed. God's still carrying out the same purpose he carried
out when Judas betrayed the Savior. He's still carrying out the eternal
redemption of his people. And since our God is sovereign,
absolutely nothing in heaven, earth, or hell can stop God from
doing his will. and it would comfort our hearts
and ease our hearts and enable us to just settle down and endure
these things patiently when things we think are bad or things that
are painful happen to us. You know, our God's suffering
over this. He's gonna bring something good out of it. Now, I may not
see it, I may not, you know, but he's gonna bring something
good out of it. God's working this together to accomplish the
eternal redemption of his people. All right, number two, this time,
our Lord's time, happened at a sovereignly appointed place.
Look at verse 17. On the first day of the feast
of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying unto him,
where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover?
And he said, go into the city to such a man and say unto him,
the master sayeth, my time is at hand. I'll keep the Passover
at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus
had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. And
look over it to Mark chapter 14. Mark gives us a little more
detail about what happened here. It sounds like the disciples
went to this place, went to the city, this place in Jerusalem
where the Lord told them to go and they met a stranger. Look
here at Mark 14 verse 12. And the first day of unleavened
bread, when they killed the Passover, his disciples said unto him,
Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat
the Passover? And he sitteth forth two of his disciples and
saith unto them, go ye into the city, and there shall meet you
a man bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him. And wheresoever he
should go in, say ye to the good men of the house, the master
saith, where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the Passover
with my disciples. And he will show you a large
upper room furnished and prepared, and there make ready for us.
And his disciples went forth and came into the city, and found,
as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover."
Now the writers say, oh, you know, the Lord knew the person,
you know, where he was going to go eat. The disciples knew
it was a well-known person. I'm convinced that's not true,
because the Lord didn't tell them to go if it was you know,
John's house. They'd say, go to John's house.
And he didn't say that. He didn't tell them to go to
somebody's house that they already knew. He didn't call anybody
by name. He said, just go into the city. You'll find a man carrying
a pitcher of water. Wherever he's going, you just follow him
down the street. And when he goes into the house, he's a, this
is a servant. So the servant goes into the
house. You find the good man, the butler, whoever, you know,
over the house. And you ask him, where's the
guest chamber? Because I'm going to eat to Passover there. That seems
pretty bold, doesn't it? To invite yourself to somebody's
house? Just, you know, where's your guest room? I'm gonna use
your guest room tonight. But they did, they went. And
the disciples found not only were they welcome at that house,
the room was already prepared. This man, the good man of the
house, had prepared the guest room for somebody to use when
he didn't even know anybody was coming. Our God sovereignly arranged
that. He sovereignly arranged the place
where this last Passover and the first Lord's table would
be observed. And the point I'm trying to make here is this,
is every event around our Lord's time, around this hour, was sovereignly
appointed. The place, the house where they
would eat this last Passover was divinely appointed by God.
And that's still true about everything. The savior died at the appointed
time at the appointed place on Calvary's hill in the appointed
method. In the appointed method is no
accident that the Lord died at Calvary because that was the
mountain he was to be crucified on that God appointed from all
of eternity. And it's no accident that he
died there on the cross that he was crucified there too. You
know, I suppose they could have chopped his head off, but they
didn't. The Jews' form of capital punishment was stoning. I wonder
why they didn't stone him. The Romans' form of capital punishment
was crucifixion. Well, Pilate didn't want anything
to do with this thing, putting Jesus to death, did he? Why didn't
he just tell the Jews, you go off and do it, I'm not having
anything to do with it. If you want him dead, you stone him. He didn't say
that, did he? Why did they ultimately decide
on crucifying the Savior? Because that was the purpose
of God. God ordained that from all of eternity. Everything they
did in this time, in that hour, everything they did fulfilled
the scriptures. It was just like these men flipped
back to the Old Testament scriptures, just like a play you put on. I remember when I was in high
school, we did plays. The first thing you do is you
get that script and you start reading through the script, see
what you're supposed to do. This script tells you what you're
supposed to do, what you're supposed to say, when you're supposed
to say it. It looks like, to me, they went back to Old Testament
scriptures and just said, well, what's the script? What are we
supposed to do next? What are we supposed to say next? Everything
they did fulfilled the scriptures, including crucifying the Savior
on the cross. In the Law of Moses, Deuteronomy
21, verse 23, it says this. He that is hanged on a tree is
accursed of God. Whoever is hanged on a tree,
crucified on a tree, is accursed of God. The Lord Jesus Christ
died in this sovereignly appointed way, at the sovereignly appointed
place on the cross. This was God's purpose, to show
us that the Lord Jesus Christ bore the curse of sin for his
people, so they'll never bear the effects of that curse. Christ
had redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. That wouldn't have happened if
he was stoned, but it was if he's crucified. That's why he
was crucified. See, all of this is happening
because God's sovereign over the time, the place and the method. And Lord said, now his time has
come and everything's going to happen exactly the way that it's
supposed to happen so that God's elect are saved from their sin.
See, this is not, I mean, again, this is good doctrine. This is
something that's good. We need to be taught this, but
this happened the way that it happened. Understand the truth
of it, but take the comfort of it to your heart. All this happened
exactly the way it had to happen so that your sin could be put
away by the blood of Christ. So that's good doctrine, isn't
it? That comforts your heart. That causes your heart to be
thrilled at trusting Christ as your Savior, doesn't it? All
right, number three. The Savior said, my time has
come. This time was the time. of God's greatest glory. This
is the time of the redemption of God's elect that's been purposed
from all of eternity and now it's gonna happen in time. It's
gonna be accomplished. Now the death of Christ as a
sacrifice for the sin of his people was the will and purpose
of God from all of eternity. This is the way God elected the
Savior and he elected a people to be saved by him. But you know
the purpose of God, the will of God, what God wills to happen
in the future is just as sure as something that's already happened
in the past. It's just as sure. History and future, they're both
the same to God. God lives outside of time. Something
that's already taken place and something that's yet to take
place in the future are the same to God because God's will is
going to happen. God's will and purpose being
carried out is just as sure as something that's already taken
place. That's how sovereign our God is. This is why scripture
says Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
The father has always seen his people in Christ. He's never
seen them outside of Christ, always seen them in Christ. He's
always seen them washed in the blood of Christ. He's always
seen their sin paid for by the blood of Christ. He's always
seen that, purposed that. That's God's purpose. But that
transaction does have to take place in time. And now the Savior
says the time has come for that transaction to take place. And the fact that this transaction
is going to take place is very, very important to you and me.
I mean, we can't be redeemed without it. But there's something
more important going on here than you and me. That's probably something we
need to get through our head. This is always true. There's something
more important going on here than me. And certainly at Calvary's
Cross, there's something more important going on here than
you and me. The Lord Jesus Christ is doing something greater than
taking care of my need. Now He is taking care of my need.
He is taking care of the need of His people, but He's doing
something more important than you and me. He's taking care
of His Father's need. He's satisfying the character
and the nature of his father. He's satisfying the justice of
his father. He's enabling his father to be
just and justifier. He's abling his father to remain
just, to remain holy, to remain God and still justify the ungodly
like you and me. At Calvary, God's greatest glory
was put on display for all of creation to see. Look over at
John chapter 17. I don't know what they're calling
this latest satellite and telescope that they've launched out into
space. Bob and I texted about this last week. The pictures
that thing is sending back are absolutely stunning, aren't they? You just, man's never seen this
before. It's just stunning what our God
has created. I mean, just look at those pictures
in amazement. That, I can't even say pales
in comparison. It's just, there's no comparison
to that, to the glory of God he put on display at Calvary,
his greatest glory. John 17, verse one. These words
spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father,
the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. This is the reason Christ was
going to cross to glorify his father. He says in verse four,
I have glorified thee on the earth. I finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And now, oh father, glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. The father's greatest glory is
his sovereign mercy to sinners. And the only way the father can
remain holy and still show mercy to sinners like you and me is
by putting his son to death. The son must be crucified before
the father can do something for the likes of you and me. Christ
first must do something for the father. He has to satisfy his
father's holiness. He has to satisfy his father's
righteousness and injustice. And that's what the death of
Christ accomplished. The death of Christ accomplished
putting satisfying God's justice. God's justice is satisfied by
the death of the substitute. God's justice is satisfied because
the sin of God's elect was literally and actually made Christ's. He made him sin for his people.
Justice is satisfied because a guilty man died. A guilty man
died. The just God's justice is satisfied. God's righteousness and holiness
is satisfied. Sin has been punished. Sin has
been put away under the blood. That enables God to rightly and
justly show mercy to the likes of us. See, that Christ first
had to do something for the Father, that enabled the Father to do
everything for his people, to redeem them from their sins.
I don't even know if throughout eternity we'll ever fully comprehend
everything that the Savior accomplished in this time, in this hour. He glorified every attribute
Every attribute of God that we will rejoice in and sing about
for all of eternity. All right, here's the fourth
thing. This time was a personal time. Christ's sacrifice at Calvary
was much, much more than a legal transaction. Now, it was a legal
transaction. A legal transaction had to take
place here. There was a debt that had to
be paid. Had to be. The blood had to be
put on the altar before the Lord. It had to be. Sin had to be imputed
to Christ the lamb and the lamb had to die for that sin. Had
to be. God's justice can only be satisfied by the suffering
and death of Christ the substitute. That transaction absolutely had
to take place. Had to. You and I could never
have any confidence of sin or any confidence of salvation without
that transaction taking place. Our sin had to be taken from
us and given to the Savior. He had to suffer and die for
our sin. There's no confidence of salvation
without it. There's no hope of eternal life
without it. That took place, a legal transaction
took place. When God turned the sun out and
darkness covered the earth, oh, that transaction that was taking
place between the Father and the Son. But I'm telling you,
it's a whole lot more than a legal transaction. This was a sacrifice
made for sin in great love for a particular people. Here in
Matthew, the Savior has gathered together the 12. There's no more
great multitude. It's not the 70 that he sent
out preaching and doing miracles and things. He gathered the 12.
those that he called by name together to eat this Passover
together with him. And I'm telling you, he'd been
looking forward to this hour. He'd been looking forward to
it. He'd been, he'd been looking forward to the hour that he would
suffer and die for his people. He talked about it so often.
He'd been looking forward to it because he loved his people. He wanted to see his people redeemed.
He looked forward to the suffering. It troubled his soul, didn't
it? But yet, the book of Hebrews tells us, he looked forward to
a joy, the joy that was set before him. Look at John chapter 13.
He looked forward to that hour, but you know, he also, he looked
forward to this hour, eating this last Passover, observing
the first Lord's table. Our Savior looked forward to
doing that with these 12, these 12 men. And he did it because
he loved them. John 13, verse one. Now, before
the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was
come, that he should depart out of this world under the father,
having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them to
the end. He called these men together
because he loved them. Oh, how he loves his people. The Lord's gathered this people
together today. to hear the gospel, to hear Christ
preached, to worship Him. He's gathered His people together
because He loves them. You think of that. Think of that,
because He loves them. Look back at Luke chapter 22.
Luke 22 verse 15. And he said unto them with desire,
I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. I've desired to eat this Passover
with you, with you. See, this was personal to the
Lord, wasn't it? And this shows us so clearly
the Savior died for a specific people. He died for the people
that the Father gave him to save. And he loves those people. This
is not just, well, the father's giving me this people to save
and I'm going to pay for their sin because that's what my father
wants me to do. Certainly that's part of it. He came to glorify
his father, didn't he? But also because he loves, he
loved them to the end. That's why I went to the Calvary
and was made sin for them. He died for the people that he
loves. Now our minds, our human minds
can't fully comprehend this. the length and the breadth and
the depth of the love of Christ for his people. You think of
the love that caused him to willingly suffer everything he suffered. They didn't take him against
his will. He went willingly. They didn't beat his face against
his will. He gave his face to the smiters. He gave his face to those that
would pluck his beard out. I can't even imagine how much
that would hurt. I mean, he gave his face to that. He didn't turn
away. He gave his back to those that
would rake that cat of nine tails across his back. He laid down
willingly on that hunk of wood and spread his arms out, whether
it was a pole or a T or an X, we don't know, but he willingly,
I bet those Roman soldiers never had an easier time nailing somebody
to a tree. than they did the Lord Jesus.
He laid his hands right where they were supposed to go. He
put his feet, and he didn't try to get away. He gave himself because he loves his people.
Not a nameless mass of people by name. On purpose, he died
for those people. He gave his back to suffer, though.
He gave his face. Oh, because he loves his people.
He loves his people. He could have ended it at any
given moment, couldn't he? He could have called those 12
legions of angels, put a stop to this pain, this suffering,
this humiliation at any moment, but he didn't do it. Because
he loves his people. And his sacrifice is the only
way they can be redeemed. So he gave himself to be sacrificed. See, this was personal. He suffered
for his people by name. Just like the Lord knew who would
believe on him and who would betray him, the Lord knew who
was suffering and dying for him. And he did it for them by name.
I mean, I just, this is beyond comprehension. And I'm telling
you the suffering of Christ is personal to his people too. You
know, I don't like the term, my personal savior. I don't use
the term, I say my personal wife and my personal daughters, you
know, my personal children. If Christ is my Savior, there's
nothing more personal than that. Of course, there's nothing more
personal than being the Savior of your people. This is personal
now to me. Christ died for my sin. I know he died for the sin of
the earth. Many of you, I know he died for your sin, but when
I take the Lord's table, when I think about the Savior, he
died for my, he did this for me on purpose. If the Lord was
only coming to save me, he had to suffer. Everything he suffered,
it couldn't have been any less. Everything he suffered, he would
had to have suffered if he was redeeming only me. Now this is personal to me. I
sure do love him for it. Don't you? If he died for you,
you love him for it. You know, I would, I guess it's just my nature.
I don't know if I should exactly do this, but I would defend the
doctrines that we preach. I would very easily be drawn
into an argument about these doctrines and the truth of these
doctrines and things. But you know, I don't love these
doctrines that makes us different from false religion, different
from people out there just to be different. I love Him. I love Christ who
these doctrines teach. And more than anything, I want
to know Him. I want to trust Him. I want to love Him. I want
to be found in Him. And I want the same for you.
I want you to know Him. I want you to trust Him. I want
you to love Him. I want you to be found in Him.
And that's why I preach only Christ to you, because I want
you to know Him. And nothing could be better for you and me
than knowing Him and believing Him. And nothing could be worse
than dying without knowing Him too. We'll close with these verses. Look back in our text, Matthew
chapter 26, verse 24. Nothing could be worse than dying
without knowing him. The Savior said, the son of man
goeth as it's written of him. This is being done to fulfill
my will. This is being done to fulfill the scriptures. But woe
unto that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It had been
good for that man if he'd not been born. Nothing could be worse
than dying without knowing Christ, could it? But nothing can be
better living and dying knowing him, knowing him. All right,
I hope the Lord bless that to you.