Luke 22, 52, then Jesus said
unto the chief priests and captains of the temple and the elders
which were come to him, be ye come out as against a thief with
swords and staves. I never really saw this question
this way before, but when we looked at verse 48, where the Lord asked a question
of Judas there, he said, betrayest thou the son of man
with a kiss? I commented on that, that that's
really the same question as Adam, where are you? It's God Almighty asking a sinner
a question, not to get information. Not to learn, but to teach. And this question in verse 52
is the same. He's forcing these religious
authorities to think about what they're doing. Are you coming out here against
someone who's been going around healing sick people? than making
lame people able to walk, cleansing lepers, making blind people able
to see, and even raising the dead for everybody to see now.
It wasn't done in a corner. And declaring the truth of God
in a way that's undeniable. Are you coming to arrest me as
though I was a criminal? The question, as it did in the
Garden of Eden, as it did in the Garden of Gethsemane for
Judas, and as it does here in the Garden of Gethsemane, it
exposes the ridiculous, the blatantly disingenuous nature of this and the hypocrisy
of it. But more than that, it exposes
who the real criminals are. The criminals are the ones doing
the arresting. When God asked Adam, where are
you? The very nature of the question
shouted the terrible truth and forced Adam to acknowledge it.
Why does God have to ask you where you are? God was asking because Adam was
hiding from God behind a bush. Where are you? The man that God created and
blessed with paradise. Think about that. This is the
nature of God and our nature. God made a paradise before he
ever made man. Paradise. And he's prepared.
He said, I go to prepare a place for you. He's prepared paradise
for us. But in the garden, he made a
paradise. And then he made Adam and said, here, this is for you. perfect fellowship with himself. More important than the place
was his place of standing with God. And Adam forfeited all that. His pride had destroyed him.
He had murdered himself with his own sinful pride. And there
was no better way to bring the reality of that to Adam's heart
than to ask this devastating question. You know how I know
there was no better way to do it? Because that's the way God
did it. Where are you declares, look
where you are, does it not? But more than that, it makes
Adam answer for it. A question forces an answer.
You may not answer verbally, but you're going to answer it.
It compels him to own up to the truth of it, the guilt of it. And when the Lord asked Judas
what he did, it accomplished all of that. And it showed Judas
that the Lord knew exactly what was in his black heart. He put
his finger right on it, didn't he? He didn't just say to Judas,
he could have said, Judas, why are you here? Why wasn't Judas here before
when the other 11 came with the Lord? Why are you here now? What are you doing? But he put
his finger right on it, didn't he? Are you betraying the son
of man with a kiss? Is that what you're doing? When the Lord dipped the sop
at the last supper and handed it to Judas, he said to him,
what you do, do quickly. What you're doing, do it quickly.
He let him know all along, didn't he? He's dictating to Judas what
will happen. do it quickly he's commanding
to do it and when when it's done the Lord
asked knowingly what he's doing to show that he'd been expecting
it and may God teach us something
right now when we come to a moment like this when we come to a moment
like this where a question like this needs to be asked of us. When we find ourselves in a terrible
place because of our sinful pride, and we certainly have been in
that place, and we will again if we live long enough, where the question needs to be
asked of us, are you doing that right now?
Is that what you're doing right now? Are you thinking that right
now? Are you going to, is that what
you're gonna say? Or is that what you just said?
These types of questions, they come, don't they? And they come right from the
scriptures. But may we ask ourselves the
question, am I about to do this? Before we make absolute idiots
of ourselves, before we show what wretches we are, Before
we dishonor our Lord, before we hurt those that we love and
that love us, may we ask ourselves, what are we doing? What are we
fixing to do? And may we know up front from
the word of God that whatever we hope to accomplish, Whatever
it is that we hope to accomplish by our proud fleshly manipulations
of things, and our imposing our will upon things, intruding our
obnoxious will where it doesn't belong, whatever we hope to cause
by that, or affect by that, or accomplish by that, it's not
going to stand. Has it ever? It's not going to turn out the
way we think it's going to. The Lord will overrule it, he
will undo it. And he'll either do that in judgment
or in mercy, but he will overrule it. And the only result will
be if he lets us go for a while, we'll end up breaking our own
hearts. We'll expose our own evil and we'll likely hurt people. And I pray we can learn that
here. These questions are fascinating, aren't they? Adam, where are
you? Judas, betrayest thou the son
of man with a kiss? Are you come out against me with
swords and staves? May the Lord teach us by these
questions being asked of others so that he doesn't need to ask
us something like this. Here's the remedy to it. Here's the remedy right here.
If God will just give us grace. Ephesians 5.1, be ye therefore
followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also
has loved us and hath given himself for us and offering in a sacrifice
to God for a sweet smelling sake. walk in love. Adam had every reason to do that,
didn't he? But it wasn't love that made him disobey God. It wasn't love that brought Judas
to the garden. He had every reason to, didn't he? To be a follower,
a true follower of Christ and to walk in love for him and for
his brother. Had every reason to. And when we consider the self-destructive
nature of what these evil men were doing, and of ever doing
anything where the Lord would need to ask us a question like
this, think of Satan with regard to that. Think of this, the self-destructive
nature of it in him, the bruising of the Lord's heel, is what happened
in the garden and at Calvary, but the bruising of the Lord's
heel was the crushing of Satan's head. That's prophesied in Genesis
3, 14. The Lord God said unto the serpent,
because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle,
and above every beast of the field, and upon thy belly shalt
thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life,
and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, And between
thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt
bruise his heel. And that word bruise means to
crush. He's gonna crush your head, the
seed of woman, the Lord Jesus Christ. So what Satan hoped to
accomplish at Calvary, you might say it backfired on him. It always
does. If we're not following God and
walking in his love, it always does. The very event that Satan
meant for evil, God meant it for the ultimate good. And that includes the crushing
of Satan's head. Though our Lord's heel was bruised,
Satan's head was crushed. So look what our Lord said to
them next in verse 53. When I was daily with you in
the temple, you stretched forth no hands against me. But this
is your hour and the power of darkness. You
couldn't touch me before. And the only reason that you
can now is because I'm going to give you a little time. I'm
going to give you an hour. Now, this is after they had all
gotten up out of the dirt from him saying, I am. And because
of the power of his majesty, these soldiers, these armed,
armored soldiers had fallen over backward and he let them get
up. He let them get up. And he said, here you are, look
at you. Are you come out against me with swords and staves? They had been trying, they'd
been wanting to kill him all along, hadn't they? Since he
was a baby. But now he said, this is your
hour. He let them get up and he let
them do what they did after they got up. He let them arrest him. He let them torture him. He let
them spit on him. He let them mock him. Now there
are those that say that God doesn't just allow Things to happen that
he doesn't let anybody do anything and of course We certainly don't
let him do anything. That's for sure But there are
those that say he causes everything and I understand that I'm sure
a lot of people are impressed by The doctrinal dogma of that
but unless you're prepared to say that god forced evil To be
committed by people who would not otherwise have committed
it Then you might want to allow the word allow into your theology
Think about it. That's all I mean by that. He
let them do it. In other words, he didn't force
them to do something they weren't going to do otherwise. That's what let or allow means.
Of course, the Lord is in absolute control of the situation. He
didn't let them do whatever they wanted to do. He let them do
what he knew they wanted to do. He's in absolute control. He
simply used the evil of these men's hearts to accomplish his
purpose, and he calls it their hour. This is your hour. But it's theirs because he gave
it to them. He allowed it. He allowed them
to have an hour. Listen to this verse in Psalm
76 10, because I want us to understand this. There's some doctrine that
needs to be understood here. I don't want us to ever be miss
the forest for the trees, in other words, get into doctrinal
crossing T's and dotting I's and miss Christ, because that's
very easy to do. But I wanna know who he is, don't
you? Who we're dealing with. Psalm 76, 10 says, surely the
wrath of man shall praise thee. Even the evil, the wrath of man,
the anger and wrath and the bad things that they do, it's gonna
result in the praise of God. but the remainder of wrath thou
shalt restrain. In other words, whatever doesn't
serve his purpose, God's not gonna let it happen. But let
me ask you this, what's the opposite of the word restrain? And this is not just a point
of doctrine now, it's important to an understanding of who Christ
is. Remember when Satan presented
himself before the Lord? If you want to look at it, it's
in Job two with me, but I'll read it here. Job chapter two
and verse one. Again, there was a day when the
sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came
also among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord
said unto Satan, from whence comest thou? And Satan answered
the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth and from
walking up and down in it. And the Lord said into Satan,
has thou considered my servant, Job? He asked Satan, where have
you, where are you come from? Knowing exactly what he'd been
doing and where, where he came from. And he said, have you considered
my servant, Job? Knowing that that's why Satan
was there. And just like Judas, betray us, is that why you're
here? Of course, that's why you're
here. Have you considered my servant
Job, that there's none like him in the earth, a perfect and an
upright man, one that feareth God and is cheweth evil or despiseth
evil? And still he holdeth fast his
integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him
without cause." This is the second time that Satan had made a run
at Job, but he knew where he had to come. If he's gonna do
anything to Job, he got to come to Job's God. But listen to what
he said. Satan answered the Lord and said,
skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his
life. The grace of God is stronger
than that, isn't it? Stronger than that. But put forth thine hand now
and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy
face. And the Lord said unto Satan, behold, he is in thine
hand. He's in that hand, but save his
life. You can't kill him. You can touch his flesh. You
can, you can affect his body. You can do whatever you want,
but you're not going to kill him. So now, honestly, would you assess
that as God making Satan a flick Job, or would you say God gave
him permission to do it? That's kind of what it sounded
like to me, didn't it, you? Of course, God is the first cause
of everything. There wouldn't be a Satan. I like what Don Fortner wrote,
and I read recently that Satan is not God's opponent, he's God's
servant. Of course, he opposes him, but
from God's point of view, there's no epic struggle between good
and evil. God does what he wants to do, when he wants to do it,
with whom he wants to do it, and he uses Satan to do it. everybody
and everything else He gave him permission So don't
get all bowed up about the word allow or let that's clearly taught
in the scripture Don't despise the truth that
in the means and in the carrying out of things God gives permission
to That's what happened in our text. He said, this is your hour. We read in another place that
the Lord Jesus was released to their will. And so we learn from
that, don't we? We see what our will is. There's
nothing free about it. When we gave our will an hour,
we nailed God to a cross. and spit on him and laughed at
him while he bled out. That's the will of man. Don't
talk about free will around here. They were doing his purpose,
but it was his purpose in such a way that the evil was theirs,
not his. Acts 2.23, him being delivered,
Christ being delivered, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God. God purposed it from the beginning,
but you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."
That's what he meant simply when he said, this is your hour. He gave it to them by his permission,
according to his eternal purpose, and thank God he did. But it's their hour, it's their sin,
it's their hour, it's their will, it's their evil. and ours by
nature. You have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. Now this is what our Lord said
to Pilate in John 19, 10. Then saith Pilate unto him, speakest
thou not unto me? This is Pilate, the Lord having
been arrested and brought before Pilate. And Pilate said, are
you not gonna answer my questions? Pilate started asking him these
stupid questions. And the Lord didn't answer him
a word. And he said, aren't you, are you not going to speak to
me? Don't you know that I have power to crucify you and I have
power to release you? And Jesus answered, thou couldest
have no power at all against me. He didn't say you don't have
any power against me. But he said, you wouldn't have
any except it were given to you. You know what that word given
there means? To grant or permit. You've been permitted to do the
horrible evil you're about to do. God gave you permission to
do it. You see who we're dealing with
now? And accept it, we're giving thee
from above. The Lord didn't just turn things over to them. When
he's saying this is your hour, he didn't just turn everything
over to them and then everything's up to them. Nothing's ever up
to us. He still completely controlled them during their hour. But what he had not permitted
before, it had been in their hearts to kill him for a long
time. And he had not permitted it, but now he will. It's your hour. The wrath that
before he had restrained, he said, when I was teaching in
the temple, you didn't take me then. You know why they didn't?
His hour had not yet come. You see, it was their hour, but
it was his hour too. But what he had before restrained
when he was teaching in the temple, now he did not restrain because
it served his purpose not to. That's what he does, that's how
he does things. The power of darkness is subservient to his
power. This is your hour and the power
of darkness. You can't say that his power
is the power of darkness, it's not. That's attributing evil
to God and it doesn't say that. The scripture doesn't say that.
It's your hour and the power of darkness. But the power of darkness is
subservient to and utterly controlled by the power of Christ. You have
power because it was given to you from above by him who has all power. Aren't you glad? I've got to
ask you that every once in a while, just to make sure you're glad
about that. Oh boy. Can there be a more comforting
truth? Knowing who he is now. Knowing something of his love
and mercy and grace. It wouldn't be so comforting
otherwise. If I didn't know who he is, then him having all power
wouldn't comfort me like it does. But knowing who he is, he does
all things well. And he delights to show mercy.
He delights to show mercy. So if you tell me that whether
my children, whether those that I love are saved or damned is
up to him, I say, thank God. Thank God. Thank God it's in
his hands. Because he's revealed a little
something to me of who he is. There is evil in this world that
our Lord does not restrain, but he does control it. He perfectly
controls it. He uses it, he manipulates it,
he overrules it for my good and for yours if you're his. And
praise his holy name that he does. He uses evil for good. Joseph said to his brothers,
you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. He could take even my wretched,
evil, sinful nature and deeds and overrule it for his good. There's no greater example of
him overruling evil for good than what our text refers to. For an hour, he was in their
wicked hands. For an hour, they mocked and
tortured him and imposed their will upon him. Make no mistake
about that. That's what they did. But bless God, they accomplished
his will. They imposed their will, but
they accomplished his. He accomplished it by them. They expressed theirs, but his will is done. It's man's will to destroy God's
son, but they were only allowed to
do so because it pleased the Lord to bruise him. In all of this, the Lord Jesus
Christ showed his absolute sovereignty. Isn't that beautiful? I am. And as they're gathering themselves,
he said, you come out against me with swords and staves. This is your hour. And the power of darkness. He displays his irresistible
power. All power is his, and even when
he gives power or authority or ability to somebody else, it's
his to give. And it's him accomplishing his
good purpose in everything that happens. He imposed his free, almighty
will. There's just one free will. God
does what he wants to do, period, and nobody else does. I tell you what else he displayed
here, his perfect obedience unto his father. He was obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Father, not as I will,
but as you will. He came to accomplish what his
father sent him to do. And he did. And then he said it's done. Mark reveals another thing our
Lord said at this time. And think of the importance to
us of this truth when we see this in Mark's account in Mark
14, 48. It says, and Jesus answered and
said unto them, are you come out as against a thief with swords
and with staves to take me? I was daily with you in the temple
teaching and you took me not, but the scriptures must be fulfilled. You know, We have a stake in that, because
these scriptures, God's word is my hope. This being fulfilled
in every jot and tittle is my hope. This book is a gospel. It's good news, and when he says
it's got to happen, it's got to happen just like this, I say
amen, because I'm saved according to this. That's how I know I'm saved,
according to this right here. That's the only way. During this hour of the power
of darkness, all of the Lord's disciples even forsook him and
fled. So think about this with me now.
This is the hour of darkness and we think about these enemies
of the Lord being the force of darkness, you know, Satan and
his minions and all these enemies of the Lord, but there's a little
darkness in his disciples too. The power of darkness, there's
still some darkness in them too. The Lord has delivered us now.
from the power of darkness in this sense. Think about this,
Colossians 112, we give thanks unto the Father, which hath made
us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and
hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Thank God we're saved from the
power, the authority, the rule of darkness. But we are reminded
in this context that there's still darkness in us too. It
was an hour of darkness that we participated in, didn't we? We forsook our Lord. We see ourselves
in that. In Matthew 26, 55, in that same
hour said Jesus to the multitudes, are you come out as against a
thief? with swords and staves for to take me. I sat daily with
you teaching in the temple and you laid no hold on me. But all
this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.
Then all the disciples forsook him and fled." Isn't that sad? What a sad thing, but that was
one of the prophecies that must be fulfilled. I'll smite the
shepherd and the sheep be scattered. Yet though our sin is not excused
by the purpose of God The fact that that was prophesied didn't
excuse the fact that They were cowards They forsook
him And they fled and his prophecy
his truth doesn't excuse our evil either But though Our sin
was not excused By his purpose It is forgiven
by his purpose And by his grace Isaiah 63 1 who is this that
cometh from Edom? with dyed garments from Basra
This that is glorious in his apparel traveling in the greatness
of his strength I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine
apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat? And here comes the answer. I
have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none
with me. Our sin is not excused by the
purpose of God, but all of the sin of his people is put away
by the sacrifice of his son. Hebrews 9, 26, for then must
he often have suffered since the foundation of the world,
if we were still under the old covenant, but now once in the
end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin. by the sacrifice
of himself. He tread the winepress alone. But bless God, though I, he said
I wasn't with him when he did it. But he did it for me though. We are the children of darkness
by nature. Children of wrath and we still
today have darkness in our hearts, but the lord Has taken our darkness
That's one of the things he's saying here when he says the
power of darkness This is not just the hour of
the power of darkness in the sense that some bad people are
going to do some bad things this is the hour in which the lord
is going to take my darkness, and I don't really understand
this, and you don't either, and I don't know anybody that does,
but I know that it doesn't get any darker than being forsaken by the Father. It doesn't get darker than, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And there was darkness over
the earth at that time, to illustrate that, and of course, as part
of the experience of that. And can you imagine? How dark
is it when God shuts everything off? But he took that darkness, for a purpose, Colossians 112,
giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in Latt, who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear son. We just read that a minute
ago, but I wanted to read a little further. In whom we have redemption
through his blood. That, when you're talking about
darkness and light, It's not just physical light and darkness. It's talking about redemption
through his blood. That's what it's talking about. Even the
forgiveness of sins. And this is why the Lord gave
sinners and Satan an hour and the power of darkness. He gave
that power. He said, you'd have no power
at all if I didn't give it to you. but he gave that so that
he might make us by his precious blood meet to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in light. God is light and there's
no darkness in him at all. And so I could have no fellowship
hath light with darkness. I can't ever see God. I can't
ever be with God. I'm all darkness by nature until
the Lord in them. took our darkness upon himself and forgave our sins, redeemed
us with his precious blood. Ephesians 5, 6, let no man deceive
you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath
of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers
with them, for you were at one time darkness, but now you are
light in the Lord." Walk as children of light. Oh, how beautiful that is. First Peter 2.9, you're a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people,
that you should show forth the praises of him who has called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You
see, in order for that to happen, we just read, we were children,
you were at one time darkness, but now you're light. How did
that happen? Our text. Our text in Luke 23, 22. Revelation 21, 23, and the city
had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for
the glory of God did lighten it. What does the glory of God look
like? Have you ever thought about that? You don't have to wonder
about that, because the next phrase is this, the lamb is the
light. The glory of God did lighten
it and the lamb is that light. The Lord Jesus Christ, the express
image of his person and the brightness of the glory of God. The lamb
that was slain, notice it's in the character of a lamb that
he is the light. That's our text again, as a lamb. He was led to the slaughter. The lamb that was slain, he said
in the hour of his being slain for his sheep, he said, this
is your hour in the power of darkness. But because he did, we can see the very light of
God's glory nowhere else but in his face.