Alright, brethren, let's turn
to Matthew 27. We'll begin reading in verse
50. Matthew 27, verse 50. Our Lord Jesus Christ is on the
cross. It says, Jesus, when He had cried
again with a loud voice, He said several things on the
cross. But he had just spoken and said, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Darkness has covered the whole
world right now. And then he cried again with
a loud voice. And one of the things he said was, It is finished. And then he said, Father, into
thy hands commend I my spirit. And he yielded, the Scripture
says, verse 50, he yielded up the ghost. No man took his life
from him. He yielded his spirit into the
hands of the Father, willingly. And behold, the veil of the temple
was rent in twain in two from the top to the bottom. And the
earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened. And many bodies of the saints
which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection,
and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when
the centurion and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw
the earthquake and those things that were done, they feared greatly,
saying, truly, this was the Son of God. And many women were there
beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering
unto him, among which was Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother
of James and Joses. and the mother of Zebedee's children.
Her name was Salome. Now, it is an amazing miracle
of God's grace that God Himself came to this earth. God the Son,
the second person of the Trinity, came to where we are. It's an
amazing miracle of His grace that He took upon Him the likeness
of our sinful flesh, conceived in the womb of a virgin, by the
Holy Spirit, came forth spotless and holy, that he walked this
earth and fulfilled the law of God completely, and that he went
to the cross and willingly was made sin, this one who knew no
sin, and that he bore the wrath of God's justice in place of
his people. and that he himself gave up the
ghost and was buried in a tomb. And three days later, that he
rose again. That is an amazing miracle of
God's grace. And by that, he accomplished
another miracle of God's grace. He accomplished the full satisfaction
of the demands of the law towards his people. He completely, thoroughly
fulfilled all righteousness that we could not do. And He thoroughly,
completely put away all the sin and answered to the demands of
justice, suffering the wrath of God and unto death. Eternal separation from God.
Separated from man and separated from God. Completely, thoroughly
left. alone. And by that, he completely,
thoroughly made reconciliation for his people to God. And he
made atonement. He brought his people at one
with God so that God fully is just to justify so that he's
just and the justifier of his people. All that was accomplished
by what Christ finished when he said, it is finished on that
cross. So that there remains absolutely
nothing else to be done by those child, those children for whom
he died whatsoever. God will bring the gospel to
them by those that he's raised up to preach his gospel. And
through that gospel of Christ and Him crucified, the Spirit
of God will enter in, and He will create them anew, and He
will give them an understanding. And they will, by His gifts of
His grace, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of
their souls. And there shall not be one sinner
that Christ everlastingly loved, that He laid down His life for,
that shall perish. Not one. God has never looked
to a sinner to do one thing. Not since the fall of Adam has
God ever looked to a sinner and left anything in a sinner's hand
to accomplish by Himself. God is behind everything. God's
working His work in His people to accomplish His will and His
good pleasure. Well, when our Lord declared
His work finished and He yielded up His Spirit to the Father,
There were some miraculous things that happened right there when
he did that on the cross. The veil rent, the earthquake
and rocks divided. Saints arose from their graves
after his resurrection, after his resurrection. The centurion
and others that had stood there made an amazing statement. And
then not far away viewing all this were those ministers of
Christ, Mary Magdalene and some other women there too. Some people ask, why do we preach
Christ crucified? Paul said, I was determined to
know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why
do we preach Christ crucified? Why don't you preach like the
rest of the preachers in this world today are standing up and
they're preaching about philosophy and about morality and about
what you need to do to keep the law and how you could be a Live
a better life in this world and all those say why aren't you
preaching those things? Why ain't that the focus of your message
and what you're preaching? Because I'm not trying to create
drunks and whores and thieves and robbers. That's why I'm not
trying to create folks who will stick their thumb and their Their
middle finger in God's face and call it holiness while they laugh
and joke and go to hell doing it That's why I'm not doing it
I preach Christ and Him crucified because it's the way that God
works the miracle of His grace in His people. I want you to
see that in these miracles that happen right here when Christ
gave up the ghost on the cross. This is what I want you to get,
that through the gospel of the person of Christ and His finished
work at Calvary, the power and grace of God works miracles in
the elect children of God. Here's the first thing that happened.
The veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom.
The first thing that's going to happen when we preach Christ
and Him crucified is, through the gospel, God is going to reveal
His righteousness. And He's going to reveal that
in His righteousness, in whom? In that person who is His righteousness.
All that He has redeemed has free access into His presence
by what He accomplished. That veil of that temple represented
separation between the sinner and God Himself. Let's turn over
to Hebrews 9. I couldn't really say this any
better or try to paraphrase this. I just thought I'd read this
to you. Let's turn to Hebrews 9 too and let's get an understanding
of what that veil represented. Hebrews 9 verse 2. That was in
the temple. That was in Jerusalem in the
center of religion. There was a veil there in that
temple. Let's read about it. Verse two. There was a tabernacle
made, the first wherein was the candlestick and the table and
the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. That's what that
room was called. And after, the second veil. Now
this is the veil we're talking about in our text. This veil
was a handbreadth wide, they said. It was made out of fine
twine, which means it's doubly wound,
I don't know how many times, but it's threads that couldn't
be ripped in two. This was a huge piece of fabric,
a giant piece of fabric. Well, that veil hung around this
tabernacle which is called the holiest of all. Read it with
me now, verse 3. In that second veil, after it,
there was a tabernacle called the holiest of all. You get the
picture right in the middle of this tabernacle, there's this
veil that goes all the way around and it's in that middle of that
place right there, there is a holy place called the holiest of holies. And it had the golden censer
and the Ark of the Covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein
was the golden pot that had manna and Aaron's rod that budded the
tables of the covenant, and over it the cherubims of glory shadowing
the mercy seat." Now, let me give you just a picture here.
You picture this big golden ark that was in there, and inside
that ark were these items. There was a golden pot that had
manna. Christ is the bread from heaven.
This was that manna that came down from heaven. There was Aaron's
rod that budded, his rod that budded and swallowed up all of
Pharaoh's rods of his magicians. That rod was in there. There
was tables of the covenant, which was the law that was broken.
And over the top of it was cherubims of glory. angels that faced one
another, and they looked down on this mercy seat, and there
was a mercy seat there, a seat of propitiation, a seat of mercy,
a seat of atonement was right there, on top of this, over that
broken law. Now when these things were thus
ordained, verse 6, the priest went always into the first tabernacle,
accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went
the high priest alone. He was not just a regular priest,
he was the high priest. He went in there into that room
alone, into that holiest of holies. He only did it once every year,
not without blood. They couldn't approach that place
without blood because that was the place that God said, I will
meet with you. My presence, the Shekinah glory
will be there. My presence will meet with you
over that mercy seat. And he went in there, not without
blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people.
He had to make atonement to God with this. Now verse 8 says,
the Holy Ghost this signifying. Here's what this meant. This
is what the Holy Ghost is teaching by that. That the way into the
holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle
was yet standing. The way into the holiest of all
had not been made known yet. Now, it was a figure for the
time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices
that could not make him that did the service perfect. Those
priests that went in there and offered those gifts, those sacrifices,
it didn't make the person that they offered them for perfect
as pertaining to the conscience. In other words, there was no
new man made by that blood, no creation of inner man created
by that blood. It didn't do anything pertaining
to the conscience. It stood only in meats and drinks,
and diverse washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until
the time of reformation. But Christ, alright here's what
it meant, here's what that original first tabernacle meant, but Christ
being come a high priest, Christ is the high priest whom that
that manly high priest, typified Christ the high priest. He's
a high priest of good things to come by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands. That is to say, not
of this building. You see, that building was just
a figure to show us a picture, an illustration of something
better. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves. He didn't kill a goat, but by
his own blood. by His own blood. He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. Not once every year, eternal
redemption. Look down at verse 24. For Christ is not entered
into the holy places made with hands, which are figures of the
truth, but into heaven itself. That's what happened here when
Christ yielded up the ghost on the cross. and that veil rent
from top to bottom in that temple. He entered into heaven itself
now to appear in the presence of God for us, nor yet that he
should offer himself often as the high priest entered into
the holy place every year with the blood of others. For then
must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world,
but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. That's what he came
to do. Now look at Hebrews 10.14. 4. So you get what it's saying here.
He entered in the presence of God with his own blood. He obtained eternal redemption.
He didn't enter in to do it often. He did it once. And he did it
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. That's what he came
to do. Now verse 14 says he did it. For by one offering he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. He did it, right
there. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For
after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I'll
make with them. After those days, saith the Lord, I'll put my laws
into their hearts and their minds while I write them. Their sins
and iniquities I'll remember no more. Now where remission
of these is, where these sins are put away, There's no more
offering for sin. Now listen to me. Through the
gospel of Christ and Him crucified, when we're made to behold the
glory of God in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit bearing witness
in our heart, which is just what He said, when that happens, just
like that veil was rent from top to bottom in that holiest
of holies, there's a veil that's on our hearts. by nature. And that veil is split in two
as well. It's removed by the Holy Spirit. Our conscience is purged by the
blood of Christ. Paul said in Corinthians, which
veil is done away in Christ. When it shall turn to the Lord,
the veil shall be taken away. And when the Spirit of God turns
us and makes us seek Christ, the righteousness of God on that
cross, that veil of that heart that's keeping that heart pushing
away and trying to suppress the truth in righteousness, trying
to push it down and ignore it and say, no God. That veil will
be taken away. That veil will be taken away.
And then we see Christ our righteousness, the righteousness of God who
put away sin by the sacrifice of His only begotten Son. That's
what Christ was doing on that cross. He was declaring God just
and the justifier of all who believe. Now the Lord is that
Spirit. And when that Spirit of the Lord enters in, there's
liberty. There's liberty. When the Spirit
draws us to behold Christ, that He can accomplish the full atonement,
that He made full atonement for His people, for you, and He makes
you to see He made full atonement for you. When He makes you to
see He's the mercy seat, He's the propitiation, He's the one
who's the high priest whose blood was shed on that mercy seat over
that broken law. And now, all of that bondage
that you were held under, all of that unbelief, all of that
legalism, And somebody will sit here and say, well, I don't even
believe anything you're saying. I'm not a legalist. You're a liar. You're
a bald-faced liar. You are a legalist worse than
the worst hypocritical holy roller there is. I guarantee you that. I guarantee you that. But this
is the case. When God frees you from that,
you're going to be freed from all the old legal ways of trying
to justify yourself and come to God in your own way. And this is what you find out,
verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness, liberty, freedom to
enter into the holiest. Now remember, we're not talking
about that one made with hands. We're talking about the presence
of God. This is where Christ went. Having boldness to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. By a new and a living
way. Not an old way like that veil
where they had to pull it up and try to crawl underneath it
and go under it and get in there and only the high priest could
go in there. Not that old dead way. but a new and living way,
which He hath consecrated for us through the veil." That is
to say, His flesh. His flesh was broken and rent
just like that veil was broken and rent. And it's through His
broken body that we enter in. And so, having a high priest
over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in
full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." What
did that ringing of that veil, what did it say when that veil
rang from top to bottom? God said, I'm satisfied. God said Christ is the end of
sin. He put it away. God said Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. I'm
satisfied. God said the end of everything
for which that whole old covenant dispensation pictured and typified
is all accomplished right there, right then, right now. And all
that old stuff is decayed and ready to pass away because it's
not worth anything anymore. It was a picture. This is the
very image of the thing, my son. And he said, right there when
that veil split from top to bottom, he said, full atonement is made. My children are at one with me
and I'm at one with them by faith in Christ. when He brings us
to behold Him as our righteousness. That righteousness, we're clothed
in it and we have liberty now to approach God in full assurance
of faith because we are as holy as God is holy. We are as righteous
as God is righteous. We're as accepted as Christ is
accepted in Christ Jesus by what He's accomplished for us. We
come that way not doing anything, believing Him. Now you believe
everything I just said, or do you believe anything I just said?
God's people believe everything I just said. They just said it,
just their hearts overflow with it. That's why we preach Christ
and Him crucified. Therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. And I try to preach this, the
very first message I preach to you, I preach out of Haggai chapter
one. And I preach this very same good
news. I guarantee you. I can go back
and find the notes and show you. I know I did. And I preach it
to you every time I stand in this pulpit. And I'm going to
preach it every time I stand here. If the Lord keeps me and
keeps me by his grace preaching this gospel, I will. Now, here's
the second reason we preach it. Back in our text, Matthew 27. We preach Christ and Him crucified
because it's through this gospel that the Holy Spirit is going
to remove every false refuge of every single elect child of
God. Every one of them. Every single
one of them. Look at verse 51. The second
thing that happened was the earth did quake and the rocks rent. The earth and the rocks are natural
things. They're natural things. And you
and I, because we're born of Adam the first time, we're earthy.
We bear his image, the image of the earthy. His name means
dirt. It's what is named earth. And
we're earthy. And we love all things earthy.
And we think that we're standing on solid ground when we're standing
on the earth. We look to ourselves and we think
we are solid, substantial. We can think like we want to
think, do what we want to do, go where we want to go, and we
can save ourselves. Thank you very much. We don't
need any help doing it. We are dirt. If you want to find out
I wouldn't encourage you to go digging in a graveyard, but if
you want to find out, you can go dig in a graveyard and you'll
find dirt there. That's what you'll find. If they've
been there long enough, you'll find dirt. And that's where you're
going back to, because you and I are dirt. That's what we are.
We're dirt. we're of the earth earthy. And
by nature we love to put all of our confidence in those things
of the earth. But we can never come standing
on the ground of natural things. Not anything you and I have done
ourselves. All of those Foundations of natural
things that we think is good solid ground has all got to be
broken up every bit of it and eventually Whenever God has called
out the last of his elect children This thing that you think is
solid ground right here is going to burn up. It's going up It's
going to be consumed itself and everything in it That's how unstable
this is. The Spirit of God said in Hebrews,
Hebrews 13, He said, I'm going to shake the heavens and the
earth so that everything that can be shaken is going to be
shaken and removed. And the only thing that's going to remain
is what can't be shaken. And that's the kingdom of God.
And it can't be shaken. It can't be removed. Well, the
other thing is, is because our heart is a stone, just like these
rocks were a stone, we harden that heart like an adamant stone.
And this is what scripture says, they make their hearts as an
adamant stone, lest they should hear the law and the words which
the Lord of hosts has sent in his spirit by all the former
prophets. They harden their hearts again
because they just won't listen to it. They won't hear it. If
I, if I, If I don't harden my heart, I might hear something
whereby God will save me. I might hear something whereby
I can be saved by grace rather than by my own filthy works. And the problem is, is man don't
want that. Man don't want God to be God.
Man don't want any part of a God that does all the saving and
gets all the glory. Man just don't want that. The
heart of the stone, this heart of stone can't be taken out by
the man himself. It can't be taken out by the
preacher. It can't be taken out by mom and daddy, and it can't
be taken out by their dearest loved ones. Nobody can take out
this heart of stone. Not even the terrors of God's
judgment will take out this heart of stone. You can rattle. God, when he gave the law, he
shook the whole Mount Sinai. And they ran back and said, we
don't want to go to him. We don't want to have anything
to do with him. And he manifest right there, you've got to have
a mediator to come to me. And he said, Moses, you come.
And Moses was fearing and quaking. He didn't even want to go up.
And he was scared to death too. But as soon as they came back
with that law, it'd make them bow down and say, Lord, we can't
do anything with a God as fierce as you. As soon as He gave them
the law, you know what they said? We'll do it. I told Emma yesterday,
Emma, I said, if I told you, I want to give you a promised
land, Emma, if you can stand flat footed and jump up and touch
that ceiling. I don't expect she can do it.
I know from the beginning she can't do it. I've given her that
law to show her she can't do it. She can't do it. And that's
why he gave the law, that the offense might abound, that our
mouths might be shut up, that it might be a schoolmaster to
drive us to Christ, that we might see that he is the one who fulfilled
it and accomplished everything demanded of God. But they said,
we can jump up, we can do it, we can accomplish it. And that's
what man thinks. But the power and grace of God can take it
out, and it's through this gospel that as this gospel is preached,
and as the Spirit of God begins to turn us to Christ and make
us see Christ, and as the love of God begins to be shed abroad
in the heart, And that voice of God speaks and thunders. And
we begin to see Christ in whom we've pierced. And we begin to
see that that law that we've been putting our confidence in
is not really going to hold up. It begins to break apart. And
all our refuge begins to break apart. And that old stony heart
begins to melt and bust asunder. And this is what God said. He
said, I'll sprinkle clean water upon you. That's this blood of
Christ we're talking about, through the Spirit of God. He said, and
you'll be clean from all your filthiness and from all your
idols. Will I cleanse you in a new heart?
Will I give you in a new spirit? Will I put within you? And I'll
take away the stony heart out of your flesh. I'll take away
that stony heart and I'll give you a heart of flesh. I'll put
my spirit within you and I'll cause you to walk in my statutes
and you'll keep my judgments and do them. That's what God
said. That's why we preach Christ and Him crucified. That's what
He does through this gospel. Here's the third thing. We preach
Christ and His finished work because through the good news
of the finished work, God raises His elect child to life. He creates life where there was
no life. It gives him a newness of life that was not there. Look
at verse 52. And the graves were opened and
many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the
graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and
appeared unto many. Be looking over at Ephesians
chapter two. These were saints who had died,
who had been buried, and they had, they arose bodily after his resurrection,
after Christ arose. Christ arose first. Christ has
preeminence as the firstborn from the dead. He's the head
of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.
He's the forerunner who's entered in for us. He's the preeminent
firstborn from the dead. Now let me tell you a few things
that this literally tells us right here by what happened by
these saints being brought up out of the grave like that. One,
it tells us that through death Christ destroyed him that had
the power of death. He tells us Christ really did
destroy the old serpent. He really did destroy the devil
who had the power of death. Having spoiled principalities
and powers, Paul said, he made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them in it. And he triumphed over them and
made a show of them openly when he raised some from the dead
when he was resurrected, right there at the beginning. It was
a proof of Christ triumphing over death, being the death of
death for each redeemed child of God. Let me read Hosea to
you. Hosea 13, 14 says, I will ransom
them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death.
O death, I will be thy plagues. In other words, O death, I'll
be your death. O grave, I'll be thy destruction. And he says,
repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. In other words, once
I've done this, I never again will turn back from it. I'll
never again go back on it. When I've done this, it's done
for my people. I've accomplished it. I've defeated
death for them. Alright, it stood as a token
of that day when the body of every believer is going to be
raised incorruptible in that last day. He said, thy dead men
shall live together with my dead body shall they rise. And that's
going to come to pass. Just as real as that happened
right there. And those saints rose up out
of the grave in body. A few of them did. But we see
in this also the work that's performed through the preaching
of the gospel, which happens first. The first resurrection
that's got to take place where we quicken together with Christ
to the gospel. Now look here at verse 4, Ephesians
2, 4. We were dead in trespasses and
sins, but God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ by grace are you saved." That parenthesis
is put in there because it's obvious that if this was all
done when you were dead in sins, grace saved you. It's all grace. And He has raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in
the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace
and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Now, quite literally,
when our Lord lived on this earth, we lived. What He did, every
one of His elect children did. He did it for them as their representative. When He died, when He bore the
wrath of God, they bore it. When He died, they died. When
He arose, they arose. So in that sense, they died with
Him right then, rose with Him right then, and were seated with
Him in glory right then. But then also in regeneration,
in the new birth, a sinner who's dead spiritually, as dead as
those men were that were already in those graves, As dead as that. Some of you sitting right here
right now are dead. You're spiritually dead. You
don't hear what I'm saying. You could care less what I'm
saying. And all I hope is that this dynamite will just come
in with full force and bust up that stony heart and give you
life and make you to hear what I'm saying so that you'll understand
this is life or death. This is either going to be a
saver of life unto life for you or a saver of death unto death
for you. You've heard the gospel today. You're going to be responsible
for having heard this gospel today. It's not the same as if
you go and hear one of these hucksters that are just trying
to get your money, or trying to rob you, or do something like
that. You've heard the gospel today, and you're going to be
accountable for hearing it. That's a serious thought, very
serious thought. Well, when he ransomed them,
or when he threw this gospel, He enters in and He gives spiritual
life. He gives a union with Christ.
He makes us to have escaped the pollutions of this world, the
corruptions of this world through lust, creating within us a new
man that's made in righteousness and true holiness. And that new
man is Christ formed in you, the hope of glory, so that you
have a new nature. A believer's got two natures.
He's got a new man, born of the Spirit of God, who delights in
the law of God, who delights to walk after His statutes and
honor Him and obey Him, and he's got an old man of the flesh that's
with him in everything he does, so that sin is mixed with everything
he does. So that everything he wishes
he could do, he doesn't do, and everything he does not want to
do, that's the thing he does. And he hates it. He just hates
it. That's what a believer is. The
warfare really starts when you're born of God. That's when the
warfare starts. And I know that somebody will
hear that and they'll say, well, why would I even want to believe
God? I'm footloose and fancy free right now. I don't have
anything to worry about at all. Because the peace and the joy
of knowing God Almighty and knowing you're under His care and His
provision is better than any warfare we got to endure. Much
better, much better. Paul said this, he said, I'm
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me. That's what I'm talking about, a new man is made. And
it doesn't start, it doesn't stop that we have this new man
just when we hear faith comes by hearing, we hear it, we're
born of God, the Spirit of God, Christ is formed in us. It doesn't
stop then. This new life is continually renewed day by day. It's continually
kept up by Christ Himself through this gospel. That's why we have
to continually hear His Word and read His Word and study His
Word and be continually fed through the Spirit of God in the inner
man. That this is a continual keeping us in the faith and keeping
us alive. He's our life. I was talking
with Brother Marvin Stocker yesterday. We were talking about this. You
know, okay. Everybody take a good deep breath.
Just take it real quick. Hold it. Okay, you just took
one. You don't need another one. You
just took one. You don't need another breath,
do you? How soon do you need another breath? You need another
one, don't you? Christ is the breath in the believer. The Spirit of God is the breath
of the believer, the life of the believer. We don't need to
take one breath and we're done. We've got to be constantly resuscitated,
constantly regenerated, constantly renewed, constantly revived by
Him, just like your heart pumps. We've got to have Him constantly
pumping life into us. All right, here's the fourth
thing. through the gospel of Christ, by His grace, He makes
His child willing to confess Christ. Look at verse 54 of our
text, Matthew 27, 54. Now when the centurion and they
that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake and those
things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly, this
was the Son of God. Did the centurion and those with
him believe? I don't have any idea. I don't have any idea.
But when the Spirit of God makes us see the Lord Jesus Christ. to lay eyes on Him by faith. And He makes us to see those
things that were done. We see Christ made sin who knew
no sin. When we see that Savior on that
cross, whom our sins pierced, and we're made to know that our
own sins pierced Him. And when we see Him on that cross,
and we see the wrath of God He endured, and we're made to know
That's the wrath of God that we deserve. He's taken that in
my room and my stead. When we're made to see and He
bears witness in our souls that He's put away our sin and justified
us and made us righteous and made us accepted of God, when
He turns our foundations upside down and busts our stony heart
and He makes us new and alive by a new man created in us, for
the first time we're going to fear God. We become real little. We come down off our high horse.
We come down off that little pedestal we put ourselves up
on where we were like that little ant, against God. And we see how we are and what
we are before holy God. And we begin to fear Him in true
reverence for God and for His holiness. for God and for His
justice, for God and for His mercy, for God and His love,
for God and His righteousness, for God and that full, complete
redemption He's provided by His Son. We begin to reverence Him
and love Him and want to please Him. And one of the first things
that we do in wanting to please Him is what He says honors Him
the most. He said, confess my son. This
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. You hear Him. And
we brought to cry out and say, truly, that one on Calvary is
the Son of God. That's God come to save my soul. And we see Him, and we know who
He is. And He makes us to where we're no longer ashamed of Him
anymore. Romans 10, 8 says, The words now thee, even in thy mouth
and in thy heart, the word of faith which we preach, that if
you'll confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, Confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved, for with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Man, I love that. With the heart man believes unto
righteousness. Anything else to be added? Nothing.
Righteous. How? I just believe God. And I'm righteous. And with the
mouth, confession is made. unto salvation. Anything else
to be done? Nope. I just confessed to Him. I believe Him. I believe Him. And He makes it where you don't
care if it's your mama that don't believe Him, or it's your daddy
that don't believe Him, or it's your brother or your sister that
don't believe Him, or it's your dearest loved one or friend that
doesn't believe Him, or if everybody around you doesn't believe Him.
It makes you willing to confess him publicly before anybody and
say, I believe him. You may be like Peter, and at
times you may say, I don't know him and deny him. That old man's
with us. It's always with us. But the
general tenor of our walk and of our life from that day forward
will be a confessing of the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness.
That's what God does through the scriptures, through the gospel,
through this holy one who came here and worked this work for
us. That's what he does. And then
fifthly, through this gospel of this glorious person of God
the Son, Christ Jesus, and this work that he finished, the Spirit
of God makes his child a follower and a minister of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You mean He's going to make me
a preacher? He's going to make you a minister of His. No doubt about it. Everyone that
He calls, He does. Here it is, verse 55. And many women were there beholding
afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto
Him, among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James
and Josie, and the mother of Zebedee's children. These were
believers. It was many women besides just
those that are named. It appears to me that in these
women, the weaker vessel, we see the power of God's grace
to make us useful though we be but earthen vessels and ever
so weak. He's able to make us useful in
some capacity in His kingdom. They followed the Lord from Galilee.
You know what that means? They left their country and they
followed Christ all the way to the cross. You know what he said? Remember what we saw? Our young
people saw that when those fellas came and they wanted to see the
Lord, and they said we would see Jesus. And Philip didn't
know what to do about that, because at that time they were wanting
to kill anybody that had anything to do with him. And he went to
Andrew and said, Andrew, what are we ought to do about this?
And they both went to the Lord and told him that these fellas
wanted to see him. And the Lord didn't even act like he heard
them. He didn't even act like he heard what they said at all.
But he answered their heart. He answered Philip's problem
and Andrew's problem. And he said this, verily, verily,
I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone. Do you want to be alone? That's a sad place to be. No
man is an island. Do you want to be alone? Alone. But if it die, it brings forth
much fruit. He that loveth his life shall
lose it. Here's what he meant by that. He that loveth his life
shall lose it. He that hateth his life in this
world shall keep it unto life eternal. And he made this statement. If any man serve me, let him
follow me. You know where he was headed?
Straight to the cross. These ladies followed him. They
followed him. And where I am, There also my
servant shall be. You know where he is now? He's
at the right hand of the Father. You know where his servants are?
They're right there with him. Right there with him. If any
men serve me, him will my Father honor. Now, it says here along
the way they ministered unto him. He makes us ministers unto
Him now, but making us ministers unto His brethren. He says, as
much as you've done it to one of these, at least to my brethren,
you've done it to me. He makes us ministers unto him by doing
whatever we can do to support the gospel and the furtherance
of the gospel. It might be putting those books
on that table back there. It might be helping to take down
that table and set up other tables in here. It may be sweeping the
floor. It may be standing outside and handing out bulletins to
everybody that walks in and showing them how to get up these stairs
and get up here so they'll know where we are. It may be In any number of ways, it may
be somebody that is good at befriending people, or being a friend to
people, and brethren, and speaking encouraging words. Some people
have gifts with that that others don't have. He gifts each person in his body
to be able to minister in some way, in some capacity. And the
names of these mentioned. One of these was Mary Magdalene.
She's the one from whom the Lord cast seven devils. And this reminds
us that those who are forgiven much, love much. They're ready
to follow Him. Now, let's end with Romans 12.1.
Romans 12.1. This is why we preach Christ
and Him crucified. Paul said, I beseech you, therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. And be not conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. These are the miracles of God's
grace that He performs through the gospel of Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. And that's why I am determined
to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Amen.