I don't know what they call the
third option in baseball, but that's what I am tonight. So I'm going to need y'all's
help. Let's stand together, open our hymnals to number 232. Number 232. Actually, I think
I'm the fourth. Tom wasn't able to be here. Adam's
sick. Caleb wasn't. Yeah, I'm number
four. Christ our Redeemer died on the
cross, died for the sinner, paid all his due. Sprinkle your soul
with the blood of the Lamb, and I will pass, I will pass over
you. When I see the blood, when I
see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass
over you Chiefest of sinners, Jesus was saved, all he has promised
that he will do. Wash in the fountain, open for
sin, and I will pass, I will pass over you. When I see the
blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will
pass, I will pass over you. ? Judgment is coming, all will
be there ? ? Each one receiving justly his due ? ? Hide in the
saving, send cleansing blood ? ? And I will pass, I will pass
over you ? When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I
see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. ? O great compassion, O boundless
love ? ? O loving kindness, faithful and true ? ? Find peace and shelter
under the blood ? ? And I will pass, I will pass over you, over
you ? When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the
blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Robert. Revelation, excuse me, in chapter
20. Revelation chapter 20. In verse 3, Scripture says that
Satan was cast into the bottomless pit. And a seal was put on him
that he deceived the nations no more till a thousand years
had been fulfilled. And then he would be loosed for
a little season. Verse seven is where we'll pick
up. And when a thousand years are
expired, Satan shall be loosed from his prison. and shall go
out to deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth,
Gog and Magog, to call them to battle, the number of whom is
as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth
of the earth, and they compassed the camp of the saints and the
beloved city. and fire came down from God out
of heaven and consumed them. And the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast
and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night
forever and ever. And I saw a great white throne,
and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
heavens fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and
another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in
the books, every man according to his works. And the sea gave
up the dead that were in it. And death and hell delivered
up the dead that were in them. And they were judged every man
according to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found or
written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Father, we come before you tonight,
Father, knowing that judgment is coming. There will be a day,
Father, when salvation will not be spoken of. There will come
a day when there will be absolutely positively no light. There will
come a day, Father, when all men will stand before you, Father. And on the child of God, When
you look in the book under my name, where the works are, what
you will see is crucified with Christ. Christ is the answer,
Father. He's the only thing, the only
one, the only person, Father, that loved me enough to die for
my sin. that has the authority and the
power, Father, to keep me for an eternity with him, who has
the love to take me through daily life, to bring me to this church,
Father, to join me with other believers, to give me a believing
wife. All of the blessings I have,
Father, come from Christ. Thank you, Father. for the Lord
Jesus Christ, for salvation, for this church, for everything
that there is, because all things were created by him. Watch over
us, Father, and be with Greg as he brings the message. We
ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. O death, where's thy sting? O grave, where's thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
Thanks be to God. We have victory through the Lord
Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the law, conquered death. And you just read about the second
death. That's the second death. That's the death we in Christ
have nothing to fear. Very thankful. Let's stand together. Number 212. Number 212. Nothing
but the blood. ? What can wash away my sin ? ?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? ? What can make me whole again
? ? Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? ? Oh, precious is the
flow ? ? That makes me white as snow ? No other fount I know,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my part in this I see, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. O precious is the flow That makes
me white as snow, ? No other fount I know ? ? Nothing but
the blood of Jesus ? ? Nothing can for sin atone ? ? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus ? ? Not of good that I have done ? ?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? ? All precious is the flow
? ? That makes me white as snow ? ? No other fount I know ? ?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
? Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? ? Oh, precious is the flow
? ? That makes me white as snow ? ? No other fount I know ? ?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? Please be seated. I have a
thing marked in that hymnal right there. I appreciate having time to sit and sing and have someone
else do the leading as I prepare for preaching. So give me a moment to gather
my thoughts Let's open our Bibles together to Judges chapter 12.
Judges chapter 12. I've titled this message Prophet,
Priest, and King. Prophet, Priest, and King. If you and I are to be saved
eternally, if we're to escape that second death, if we're to
know God and to enjoy His glory and His presence and power, we're
going to have to have a prophet. We're going to have to have the
Lord Jesus Christ to be for us the word, the word that was made
flesh and dwelt among us. We're going to have to behold
his glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. And what a prophet we have in him. He not only came
to bring God's word of salvation, but he himself is God's word
of salvation. He is the incarnation of the
word of God. You and I are gonna have to have
a priest if we're to be saved. We cannot approach the throne
of God apart from an advocate, a priest, one who's able to offer
for us an offering that is acceptable to God, one that puts away the
wrath of God's judgment. establishes righteousness for
us. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our great high priest. And this passage tonight will
tell us about who he is as our prophet and as our priest. Thirdly, we need a king. We need
one to reign over us. We need one to restrain us and
subdue us, make us willing and cause us to be subjects and citizens
of his kingdom. One who's got the authority and
the power to establish the law and one who himself kept the
law. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
is presented in the scriptures as prophet, as priest and as
king. And if we're to be saved, that's
what we need. And so I pray tonight the Lord
will open the eyes of our understanding that he will give us faith and
that we will set our affections on Christ and see him as our
prophet, as our priest, and as our king. In Isaiah chapter 32,
33 verse 22, the scripture says, the Lord is our judge. He's the one who makes judgments
about truth. In other words, he is our prophet.
It goes on to say, the Lord is our lawgiver. He's the one who
gave the law, and he's the one who satisfied the demands of
the law. And so as the lawgiver and as
the law keeper, he is our priest. Thirdly, that says the Lord is
our king. Let's turn to that verse together.
I want you to see it in your Bibles. Isaiah chapter 33, verse
22. Isaiah 33, verse 22. The Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The
Lord is our king. He will save us. Isn't that glorious? He is able
to save to the uttermost, and he's not gonna lose one of his
sheep. Such comfort, such hope that we have in knowing that
the Lord Jesus Christ is our judge, he's our lawgiver, and
he's our king, and he will save us. He will save us. He will save us by the gift of
faith, enabling us to rest our hope on Him. We are in Judges
chapter 12, and between verses eight and the rest of that chapter,
down through verse 15, there are three judges that are only
mentioned by name, They are referenced to where they're from, and it
tells us how long they reigned. Unlike Gideon, unlike Jephthah,
unlike Deborah or Barak or Samson, which we're going to get to in
the next chapter, much of their doings are revealed in scripture. We don't know anything about
these three judges as far as what they accomplished. or what
they did or what they were engaged in for these 25 years. But we know this, we know this,
that for 25 years, Israel had peace. And these judges all represent
the Lord Jesus Christ. The first one represents our
Lord as our prophet. The second one represents the
Lord Jesus Christ as our priest. And the third one represents
the Lord Jesus Christ as our king. And so like all the judges
that we've read, these are they which testify of me. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. Beginning with Moses and the
Psalms and the Prophets, he expounded unto them those things concerning
himself. Many other things have been written,
or many other things he did, but these things have been written
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing, you might have life through his name. So,
This book is about Christ, and it's so glorious when we see
in these characters the typical representation of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and we're able to look beyond who they are and see Christ
for who he is. The first judge is Ibsen. Ibsen, translated, means white. We find him in verses eight through
10, and he is from Bethlehem. And he judges for seven years. That's all we know. We know his
name, we know where he's from, and we know how long he reigned. And those three things tell us
something about the Lord Jesus Christ as our prophet or our
judge. The second one is found in verses
11 and 12, and his name is Elon, and Elon translated means mighty. And he is from Zebulun, and he
reigns for 10 years. And those three things that we
learn about Elon tell us something about the Lord Jesus Christ as
our priest. Thirdly, we find in verses 13
through 15, Abdon, And Abdon translated means servant. And the scripture says that he
is a Parathonite or from Parathon. And he reigned eight years. And those three things tell us
something about the Lord Jesus Christ as our King, as our King. When the children of Israel were
without a judge, This verse, this declaration is made several
times in the book of Judges. When they were without a king
and without a judge, the scripture says that each man did what was
right in his own eyes. You and I will be left to our
own devices, our own schemes, our own opinions, if we don't
have a prophet, a priest, and a king. If the Lord Jesus Christ
doesn't reign, if he doesn't intercede for us, and if he doesn't
reveal to us the truth of who God is and who we are and how
it is that God's pleased to save sinners, we will be just like
these people of Israel. We will do what's right in our
own eyes. We need to be safe from ourselves,
don't we? We need to be safe from our own
opinions, from our own devices, from our own thoughts, And the
Lord Jesus Christ has done that. He will save us. The Lord is
our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The
Lord is our king. And he will save us. He will
save us. He will save us from ourselves.
He will save us from our sin. He'll save us from death. He'll
save us from Satan and all the All the things of this world.
Let's look first at Ibsen. Ibsen. Notice in verse eight,
and after him, this was after Jephthah died. We've spent a
few weeks now looking at Jephthah. The Lord raises up a man by the
name of Ibsen of Bethlehem, and he judged Israel. And he had
30 sons and 30 daughters, whom he sent abroad and took in 30
daughters from abroad for his sons. And he judged Israel seven
years." Well, there's one extra thing given to us about Ibsen
and that he had 30 sons. And that is a number that's significant
in the Bible. The priest of the Old Testament
had to be 30 years old before they could serve in the temple.
The Lord Jesus Christ began his public ministry at 30. It is
a picture of the church and its maturity. And notice that he
sends them abroad. He sends his 30 sons abroad to
get to themselves 30 wives and bring them back. And is that
not what the Lord Jesus did with his church? when he told us that
we would be his witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and in
Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the world. And that
even now we are being sent abroad by our Lord to carry the gospel
of his grace to bring to his son his bride. And But let's
look at Ibsen. Ibsen's name translated means
whiteness. White is a picture in the Bible
of holiness. And without holiness, no man
can see God. We have to be sanctified, which
is the same word as holy, and only the Lord can do that. He
has to stand in our stead before God in his perfection and present
himself. The saints in glory. in the book
of Revelation are seen dressed in white robes of righteousness,
which were washed in the blood of the Lamb. They became white
only after they were washed in the blood. And it was our Lord's
blood that came out of that winepress that he treaded the fury of God's
wrath all by himself. and in order that our robes might
be made white and clean in the presence of our God. On the Mount
of Transfiguration, when the veil of the Lord's humanity was
taken away for just a moment, and the radiance of his deity
shine forth, the scripture says, as the noonday sun, whiter than
any fuller could make it. It was the whitest that any man
had ever seen. The purity of his deity and his
glory and his holiness shine forth. And here we have the Lord
Jesus Christ bringing to us the message of God's holy salvation
in the gospel of his grace and the fullness of his glory. We
see him laying down that glory, taking off his crown and receiving
the full fury of God's wrath as God made him to be sin for
us on Calvary's cross. So here we have our prophet,
we have our judge. If we are to be saved, we're
going to have to have the Lord Jesus Christ as our holiness. Scripture says, though your sins
be like scarlet, they shall be made white as snow. There's the
whiteness of Ibsen. The manna which fell from heaven
we know is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ as the bread of
life. Now the word bread in the Bible
doesn't always refer to, usually doesn't refer to like a loaf
of bread or a pita bread or whatever. It refers to food. So the word
bread is just used to describe food of all sorts and all the
sustenance of the flesh and that we have to have food in order
to live. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the bread of life. He's that manna that came down
from heaven. And the scripture says that it was sweet like honey
and white, white. Remember little round wafers,
sweet like honey and white like coriander seed. Now the word
seed in the Bible can also be used for flower or to go to seed. And if you have ever seen coriander,
go to seed. It has bright white flowers and
that's what the manna look like. And it's, again, it points to
the purity and the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The angels
are often seen. You remember the angels that
were sitting on the tomb when Mary and the women came, and
the scripture says, and they were dressed in white apparel.
It's a picture of separation and purity and holiness. The
absence of sin. the perfection of the prophet
of God who came to bring us the word of God. Scripture says in
Ephesians chapter one, verse four, he has chosen us in him
before the foundation of the world that we should be holy,
white, perfect, blameless. Blameless is what the scripture
says, before him. And we're not blameless before
ourselves and we're not blameless before one another. We often
have to, you know, have to apologize and we have to accept the responsibility
of our faults, but before God in Christ, before God in Christ,
chosen in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. What a glorious
hope. That's because we have the Lord
Jesus Christ as our prophet, the one who brought us the message
of salvation, which puts away our sin and makes us holy in
the presence of God. Scripture says, without holiness,
no man will see the Lord. Bible also speaks of being holy
or living a separated life. Let's turn to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter
1. Before I read this, I want to say this. We work to honor
the Lord We labor to live for him from
holiness, not for holiness. Very important distinction. We
labor from holiness, not for holiness, but yet we do labor,
don't we? Look at, 1 Peter 1, look at verse
14. As obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance, but as
he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of
conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. We labor from holiness, not for
holiness. Isbun, our prophet, bringing
us the message of God's salvation, which is the putting away of
our sin and making us holy and acceptable in his sight. Notice where Isbun's from. He's
from Bethlehem. You know, in the Bible, the word
Beth is the word for house. Many of the Jewish synagogues
in our city start with the word Beth and that's the Hebrew for
house. And the rest of that word is
the word for bread. And as again, I say, it's not
just a bread as we call bread, it's food. It's a sustenance
of life. And Bethlehem is the house of
bread. It is the birthplace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, out of which comes the bread of life. He is our
bread. He is our daily bread. This speaks
of him as our prophet. He brings to us the very word
of God. You remember in the book of Ruth
when Imalek, the scripture says that there was a famine in Bethlehem. And you know, I thought about
that. People, you know, there'll be a little disturbance in a
congregation, and some people will just leave. Well, there's
a famine in Bethlehem, and they'll jump out of the frying pan into
the fire. They'll go to Moab, which is
what Emelech did. He should have stayed in Bethlehem.
That's where the bread was. Yeah, maybe there was a period
of time where there was some lack of sustenance, but just
stay with Bethlehem because that's the house of bread. And so he
went and died in Moab. His sons died and Ruth and Naomi
come back and they come back to Bethlehem, don't they? And
they meet Boaz, their kinsman redeemer. And Boaz restores everything
that they lost. Everything they lost and more.
Puts Ruth in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessing. That all happened in Bethlehem. In the book of Micah, the scripture
says, a ruler will come out of Bethlehem. And if you look up
that word ruler in Micah, it means to feed. And so he's not,
it doesn't speak of the Lord Jesus Christ so much as our ruling
king and sovereign. It speaks of him as our shepherd
who feeds his sheep. He takes them to Bethlehem and
he feeds them off of his own body and gives them his own blood
to drink. Lest you accept your drink of
my blood and eat of my body. There's no flesh, there's no
life in you. What does that mean? We're looking
to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. For all our holiness
and all our acceptance before God, all the forgiveness of our
sin, we're looking for His perfect righteousness, His life lived
in perfect obedience to His Father. For all our righteousness before
the Father, we're feeding off of Him. These aren't just doctrinal
truths, this is who He is. This is the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I am the bread of life. I'm that
manna that came down from heaven. This all happened in Bethlehem. Notice also on Ibsen, who was
from Bethlehem, he judged Israel. He had 30 sons and 30 daughters
who he sent abroad, and he judged Israel for seven years. Now we know the significance
of the number seven. We're going to find the first
judge judged seven years, the second judge judged 10 years,
and the third one judged eight years. And then after that, the
children of Israel are going to go back into idolatry and
God's going to have to raise up Samson. to deliver them. 25
years, they had peace from their enemies because God had given
them a faithful judge. And here, this first one, Isbun,
who is from Bethlehem, whose name means white, reigned for
seven years. Now, seven is the number for
rest. God rested on the seventh day
of creation because his work was finished. He saw all that
he had done. And when we go to the book of
Hebrews, we find that the Lord Jesus Christ, the red rest, is
also the word translated Noah, or as we're going to see coming
up, Manoah, the father of Samson's name represents rest. And it's
all about the Sabbath. We were driving here tonight
and we passed the seventh day Adventist religious meeting house and we
were talking about how that's their righteousness because they
think that they're being faithful to the scriptures. They think
they're the only ones that are being faithful in all of Christianity
to worship God on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath. Well,
we know that that was turned to the first day of the week,
that the Sabbath is not a day, it's a person. Hebrews chapter
four, the Sabbath is a person. Christ is our rest. He finished
his work even before the foundation of the world, the scripture says
in Hebrews chapter four. Father, I have finished the work
which thou has given me to do. Seven, seven spirits of God,
The seven churches of Asia Minor. This is the perfect completed
work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the prophet of God who came
in his perfect holiness to make his people holy by the sacrifice
of himself, feeding them his own life as their sustenance
and the bread for their very souls. And he completed it. seven. Seven perfect days. Seven complete perfection. Here we see the Lord Jesus Christ
as our prophet, or as we read in Isaiah chapter 33, as our
judge, the one who has brought the judgment of God, the truth
of God. We have to, we have to have righteous
judgments, don't we? We have to have the truth of
God revealed to us, lest we be left to ourselves and come to
our own conclusions about things. There is a way which seemeth
right unto man. And that way leads to death.
The Lord leads us to ourselves. That's what we'll do. We've got
to have Christ as our prophet. We've got to have him as our
priest. Notice the next judge in verse 11, and after him, Elon,
a Zebulonite, judged Israel, and he judged Israel 10 years.
That's all we know about him. We know his name, we know where
he's from, and we know how long he judged. His name translated
means mighty, means mighty. It means strong. It also is translated
in the Bible to the word ram. And we're reminded of the Lord
Jesus Christ as our priest who offered himself to God through
his sacrifice of himself for the forgiveness of our sin. When
Abraham was taking Isaac up on Mount Moriah, And Isaac said,
Father, here's the fire and here's the wood. Where's the lamb for
the burnt offering? And what did Abraham say? God
will provide himself a sacrifice. He'll provide himself a lamb.
And just as Abraham was raising the knife to slay Isaac on that
altar, the Lord stopped him. Abraham, don't do it. The scripture says, Abraham looked
behind him and he found a ram caught by its horns in a thicket
of thorns. God provided himself a sacrifice. Now that ram is Elam, that's
Christ. That's the strength of, and the
horn in the Bible is always a picture of strength. You know? And the thicket of thorns, is
that not the picture of our sin? The crown of thorns that they
put on our Lord's head and the thorns and thistles that the
earth produces as a result of sin. And our Lord was caught
up in our sin. God made him to be sin for us
on Calvary's cross. He bore all the sins of all of
God's people in his body upon that tree. He had his horns caught
in a thicket. God provided himself a sacrifice. Christ offered himself to his
Father. And here we have the Lord Jesus
Christ as our mighty priest. He is mighty to save. He had
to be strong enough. His shoulders had to be broad
enough, not only to carry the weight of all the sins of all
of God's people, but bear the fury of God's wrath. And only
this Ram could do it. Only this Elam could do it. Only
this mighty man could bear our sins and save us. The Lord is
our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The
Lord is our king and he will save us. He will save us. Oh, what a glorious high priest
we have. Zephaniah chapter three, verse
15 says, the Lord thy God is in the midst of thee and he is
mighty and he will save. He will save. Only he can. Only he has the strength of salvation
in himself. Mighty enough to present himself
as a conquering savior to his father. Mighty and strong enough
to make those who by nature hate him, and speaking of every one
of us, Make those who are at enmity with him and bring them
to his footstool and cause them to be willing in the day of his
power and change their hatred to love so that they beat their
swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning forks and
they bow before him willingly and serve him gladly. That takes
a mighty God. To change the heart of a man?
You know, we can change our thoughts and our appearances and change
a lot of things, change our location, but change your heart? Can't
do that. It takes the power of God to
do that. And the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth. And here we have, if we're gonna
be saved, we need a priest. We need one mighty enough to
offer himself to his father and be acceptable in the sight of
God Almighty. We need one powerful enough to
invade our space and our hearts and our lives and change us,
bring us to himself. That's exactly what we have in
Elon. We need one who is mighty enough
to keep us from falling. keep us faithful. As we grow
in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, we see more and more
of our need for a mighty one to keep us and to love us and
to make keep us loving Him. Notice where Elon is from. He is from Zebulun. Now turn with me in your Bibles
back to Genesis chapter 49. Genesis 49. Jacob is about to die and he's
pronouncing his blessings on each one of his sons. And Zebulun
was one of his sons, one of the sons of Jacob. And here we have
in Genesis chapter 49, at verse 13, Zebulon shall dwell at the
haven of the sea, and he shall be for a haven of ships, and
his border shall be unto Zidon. You see this priestly function
of the Lord Jesus Christ there? The way of the Lord is through
the seas. The scripture says in the book of Revelation, when
we get to glory, there'll be no more sea, there'll be no more
turbulence, no more separation. That's what the sea represents
in the Bible. And here we are in these little ships out in
this turbulent sea, just like the disciples with the Lord Jesus
Christ on the boat with them. And who is this? Who is this man? What manner
of man is this? that he's able to speak to the
wind and speak to the seas and make them cease? Never a man
spake like this man before. Here's the priest of God, a safe
haven, Zebulon, for the ships of the sea that are tossed to
and fro to be able to come into that safe haven and find peace
with God through a priestly ministry and salvation of the Lord Jesus
Christ interceding on their behalf. Oh, little children, I write
these things unto you that you sin not, but if any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father. We have a son of Zebulon. We have a safe haven all along
the coast where ships can come in and rest and find an anchor,
harbor, safety for their soul. Notice that he, Elon, ruled for
10 years. We know what 10's a picture of.
Picture of the law of God, isn't it? First and foremost. We don't
have to worry about having escaped the lion only to meet a bear
at the River Jordan. This is the law that the religious,
this is the reason why the self-righteous religionist will not come to
Christ. And this is the reason why the
pagan irreligious person will not come to Christ. They will
not sacrifice their righteousness. Paul said in Romans chapter 10,
it is my heart's desire for Israel that they be saved, for they
have a zeal for God. They're very zealous, but without
knowledge, they go about trying to establish their own righteousness,
not knowing that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes to the Jew, All the righteous, the truly
righteous, those found in Christ, who have the righteousness of
God imputed to them, charged to them, the looking to Christ
for their righteousness, believe themselves to be unrighteous.
And all the unrighteous, those outside of Christ, believe themselves
to be righteous. That's why they won't come to
Christ. They won't come as a sinner. We were talking about this, Scott,
the door, Christ is the door. The door is open, but only sinners
can pass through. Only sinners can pass through
that door. But the self-righteous, religionists, and the irreligious,
they're all self-righteous. All men outside of Christ are
self-righteous. They believe they have something
to offer God. When the Lord Jesus Christ makes
himself our priest, we know that he's the only one that can intercede
for us. We know that the only difference between Judas and
Peter was, I have prayed for you. It's the only difference.
It wasn't a difference in the two men. They both did the same
thing that night, didn't they? We could say in one sense that
Peter You know, maybe even went further, cursing and denying
the Lord three times. Here's what made the difference.
Be of good cheer, Peter, I prayed for you. I've interceded on your
behalf. 10, picture of the law. The Lord kept him. I mentioned
Ruth earlier and, and, and, and, and Boaz, the kinsman redeemer.
And you remember when Boaz was going to redeem Ruth, purchase
her and Naomi and all that was lost by Elimelech was going to
restore it all. And then some, uh, Boaz went
to Ruth, went to Naomi and said, uh, went to Ruth and said, uh,
there is a kinsman nearer to you than me. and I've got to
reckon with him before I can redeem you. And so Boaz went
out into town and found that kinsman, brought him to the city
gates and gathered 10 elders around, the 10 represents the
law, the 10 commandments, the summary of all the law of God.
And Boaz said to this kinsman redeemer, he says, Naomi has
come back and she needs to be redeemed. She needs all of her
property restored that was lost by her husband. Will you redeem
her? And you remember what he said?
Yeah, I'll redeem her. And Boaz said, in the day in which you
redeem Naomi, you have to take Ruth, the Moabitess, into your
house also. And what did that kinsman redeemer
say? He said, oh no, I can't do that.
If I bring a Moabitess into my house, it will mar my inheritance. The law cannot have a Moabitess
come into their house. And so he looked at Boaz, who's
a picture of Christ, and he said, you redeem her. I can't. The
law can't redeem us. We just mar the law if we try
to, we try to be saved by our law keeping. We just lower the
law down to where we are. And the law said, no, you can't
be redeemed that way. Remember when Absalom was hanging
by his hair from that tree, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross, and David's men came along and they pierced him through,
the scripture says, with 10 spears. And so it was, it was the law
that slew the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on Calvary's cross. It
was God's justice that solved the sins, our law keeping, our
law breaking on him and had no choice but to pour out the full
fury of his wrath. We need a priest. We need one
who kept the law, one who can satisfy the law of God. The scripture says he is the
chiefest among 10,000. By the obedience of one, many
are made righteous. God made him who knew no sin
to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Isbun from Bethlehem served seven
years. That's our prophet. Elan from
Zebulun who served 10 years. That's our priest. And look here. Verse 13, and after him, Abednon,
the son of Hillel, a Pyratheon knight, judged Israel. He had 40 sons and 30, and that
word nephews, perhaps you have it referenced in the margin of
your Bible. I don't know why the translators
put nephews there for the King James. The word in the Hebrew
is sons, sons. It's his grandkids, okay? So he had 40 sons and 30 grandchildren,
and they rode on three score and 10 ascots, and he judged
Israel eight years. Abdon, translated, means servant. servant. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to serve his heavenly father. That's what he said in
Isaiah chapter 42. Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him
and he shall bring judgment unto the Gentiles. He's the servant
of God. love it in exodus chapter 21
you remember when god gave to the israelites that law pertaining
to indentured servants if a man was in debt and the only way
he could pay his debt off was to sell himself as an indentured
servant to another jew another israelite that they made a contract
and they did they served for so many years to pay off his
debt and when that time was up he was free to go but If his
master had given him a wife while he was in servitude, the master
got to keep the wife if he left. And if that wife gave birth to
children, the children stayed behind. But if at the end of
his indentured service, the servant said to his master, I love my
master. I love my wife. I love my children. I will not go out. then the master
would take the servant to the doorpost of the house and drive
an awl through his ear, marking him as a servant for life. The
Lord Jesus Christ is pictured there. I love my father. I love my bride. I love my children. Father, you gave them to me.
I'm not gonna go out and leave them to themselves. bore me through
with an awe on Calvary's cross. Mark me as thy servant for all
eternity." That's the picture here. The servant of the King,
a perfect servant. In John chapter 17, the Lord
Jesus Christ saying prayer to his father said, I have glorified
thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And now father, Glorify thou
me with thine own glory, which we had before the world began. See, the Lord Jesus Christ in
servitude to his father is establishing the glory of God. the reigning
kingship of God Almighty established. And where is he? We see this
even more in where he's from, where Abdon is from. He's from a place called Parathon,
which translated means prince, prince. How oftentimes we read
about the Lord Jesus Christ being a prince. He's called the prince
of life. He's called the prince of peace. In Acts chapter three, when Paul
was preaching on the day of Pentecost, he said, you've killed the prince
of life, which God has raised from the dead. He has authority
over life and over death. Why? Because he's king. In Acts
chapter 5, when Peter is standing before the Sanhedrin, you remember
they recognized them as ignorant and unlend men, but they had
been with Jesus. And Peter says this, he says
before the Sanhedrin, you have killed the Prince and the Savior
of Israel. God has raised him from the dead.
The Lord Jesus Christ reigns sovereign in glory as a king
over his people, over his church, over all men. God has made him
to be Lord over the living and over the dead. You and I need
a king. We need a king to reign over
us. One of the evidences of faith is that we don't raise our fist
to heaven and say, I'm not gonna have that man reign over me.
We say, oh Lord, keep me. Lord, master me. Lord, subdue
me. Lord, make me willing. Make me a loving servant and
subject of you. Lord, I want to be a part of
the kingdom of God. We desire a sovereign over us. And we desire a sovereign who's
able to save. He's got the power to save. Job said in Job chapter 31, verse
37, if I knew where God was, I would declare unto him the
number of my steps. And as a prince, I would go near
unto him. Boy, if that's not a declaration
of self-righteousness, if I knew where God was, I'd walk right
into his throne room as a prince, and I would stand up to his face
and tell him, number my steps, show me exactly what I've done
wrong. Oh, how Job needed to hear the gospel, didn't he? Here's
you and I. Here's where we are in our rebellion
before God. And then Elihu preaches the gospel,
and God speaks, and Job says, oh, behold, I am vile. Oh, I
spoke without knowledge these things I said about God. Here's the good news, brethren.
In the Song of Solomon chapter one, the church is called the
prince's daughter. God has made us to be kings and
priests so that we do have access into the very throne room of
God. We can come with confidence and boldness to the throne of
grace, not with cockiness like Job had and say, you order my
steps, you accuse me, but with confidence that we have a king,
we have a prophet, we have a priest who has gone into the heavens
before us How many years did Abedin serve? By the way, the
word Hillel, that's Abedin's father. You see that in verse
13? That's the same word from which
we get our word hallelujah. And you would recognize the end
of hallelujah as part of Yahweh or God, and Hillel means praise
and hallelujah. is an international word that's
used by every people of every language. It means to praise
God, praise God. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the praise of his father. He has glorified his father as
the prince. And he's been given preeminence
to reign and to rule over all of creation. And he reigned for
eight years. Eight years. What is the number
eight significant of? Well, male babies were circumcised
on the eighth day. And we know from the New Testament
that circumcision is a picture of the new birth. When we're
circumcised in our hearts by the Spirit of God, cutting away
our trust in our flesh. That's what circumcision is a
picture of. We're not hoping in any fleshly means for our
salvation anymore. And so eight is a picture of
the new birth. It's the first day after the
seven. God saved eight persons in Noah's
ark, didn't he? And what was that all about? Starting humanity all over again. It's the newness of life. And here we have the Lord Jesus
Christ as our Prince and as our King, reigning for us and bringing
life in Himself. Prophet, we need God's Word. Priest, We need an intercessor
and one who is able to offer himself to God on our behalf.
King, we need one, the lawgiver. The Lord is our judge. He is
our lawgiver, and he is our king, and he will save us. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word. We pray that you'd bless it now
to the hearts of your people. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. All right, let's stand together. We're gonna sing number 40 in
the Spiral Hymnal, number 40. ? He is Lord ? ? He is Lord ? ?
He has risen from the dead and he is Lord ? ? Every knee shall
bow ? ? Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord ?