Yeah, I will. Yeah, so we got to do it. Got it. We're going to begin our second
service, singing out of the soft back, number 131. Blessed we are to hear the Gospel,
131. It's to the tune of Come Thou Fount. Blessed we are to hear the gospel
of God's grace in Jesus Christ. Blessed to have one of His servants
open His Word in our midst. Holy Father, grant Your power
to the man who speaks for You. Holy Spirit, as we hear Him,
let us now our Savior view. By the Gospel-wakened sinners,
give them life and faith, O Christ. Yet if I can comfort your sins,
visit us, O blessed Christ. We prove and revive you by the
preaching of the Word. Draw our hearts in sweet communion
to Yourself, beloved Lord. Thank you. Our second hymn will
be number 121, Go to Christ. 121. Is your heart all full of sin? Is your mind corrupt within? Do you seek God's just decree
that you die eternally? Go then now to God's own Son. By Him all salvation's done. Does the bleeding sacrifice accent
all your sin and vice? Does the cross your heart condemn? Do you cry, wretched I am? Jump into the cleansing flood
made of Jesus' holy blood. Righteous judgment on Christ
fell Saving all his own from hell Sins of scarlet crimson
dye Are forgiven eternally For the one who in Christ trusts
God forgives, for God is just Why then do you hesitate? He'll forgive, why do you wait? All his promises are sure. Rest in Christ, you'll be secure. None who trust the crucified
ever find their soul denied. Thank you. You may be seated.
Good morning. I'll be reading this morning out of
Mark chapter 14. We're going to be picking up
in verses 53 and going through 65. Mark 14, 53 through 65. And they led Jesus away to the
high priest, and with him were assembled all the chief priests,
the elders, and the scribes. But Peter followed him at a distance,
right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he sat with
the servants, and warmed himself at the fire. Now the chief priests
and all the council sought testimony against Jesus to put him to death,
but found none. and many bore false witness against
him, but their testimonies did not agree. Then some rose up
and bore false witness against him, saying, We heard him say,
I will destroy the temple made with hands, and within three
days I will build another made without hands. But not even then
did their testimonies agree. And the high priest stood up
in the midst and asked Jesus, saying, Do you answer nothing? What is it these men testify
against you? But he kept silent and answered nothing. Again the
high priest asked him, saying, Are you the Christ, the Son of
the Blessed? Jesus said, I am, and you will
see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and
coming with the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his
clothes and said, what further need do we have of witness? You
have heard the blasphemy, what do you think? And they all condemned
him to be deserving of death. Then some began to spit on him
and to blindfold him and to beat him and to say to him, prophecy. And the officers struck him with
the palms of their hands. Lord, we're thankful this morning,
Lord. You've brought us and assembled us once again together, Lord. Please give us hearts to hear
this morning and eyes to hear, Lord. We pray you'd bless your
servant, our pastor this morning, Lord, with the words to say,
Lord, to preach to your son. We pray for him and his family,
Lord, that you would comfort them, Lord, everything they face,
and every member, Lord, that we don't even know what their
struggles are, Lord. You look after them. And we pray that
you'd give us hearts this next hour just to focus on your son.
In your name we pray, amen. Alright, we're going to be in
Mark 14, what our brother just read. Mark 14, verse 53 through
65. And as we just heard, these verses
contain the trial of Christ by the council, the Sanhedrin, and
the council of the Jews. And so, when Christ went with
the soldiers, when he went peacefully with the soldiers, this was the
will of the Father for him and he was willing to do it, and
he went with those soldiers, we're told in verse 53, they
led Jesus away to the high priest and with him were assembled all
the chief priests and the elders and the scribes, and I believe
it was Hawker, Robert Hawker, who noted that this is what the
law prescribed be done. If any man killed a lamb, or
a goat, or a sheep, or a bullock, if he shed blood, he was to take
that slain animal to the priest. Otherwise, he's guilty of bloodshed.
And so that's what they were doing. They had slain Christ
in their heart for hatred already. And they were bringing him to
the high priest. And so we see that. that picture
there. Now these chief priests and these
elders and scribes, they sought witness against Christ. He's
on trial, but they were seeking witness against him. They weren't
trying him to see if he was innocent or to see if he really was the
Christ. They were bringing up witnesses
that they might feel justified in their condemnation and hatred
of him and to put him to death. And if ever there was a time
that we saw where We are not to put our confidence or trust
in the princes of men. Certainly, this is one such time. This is the height of man. This
is what man himself does and seeks to do. And so this group
of self-righteous men are gathered there together, except maybe
if Joseph of Arimathea was there and perhaps Nicodemus. They ignored
the witness of Jesus Christ. They ignored all the witness
of Jesus Christ, the testimony that they had before Him of His
life, even when He told them the truth of who He was. They
ignored that truth. And instead of bowing before
God their Creator and saying, Lord, forgive me, what are we
doing? Instead of bowing before Him,
they delivered him up to the Gentiles to be crucified on a
cross. Now this morning I want us to
see the glorious witness that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ
sent of God. Alright, we've been given a witness
that this is indeed the Christ and that's our title, The Witness
of Christ. And first we'll look at who is
this Jesus of Nazareth? Who is this Jesus of Nazareth
according to the scriptures? And then we'll look at six witnesses,
six witnesses. Alright, so regarding this Jesus
of Nazareth, we're told in verse 55, and the chief priests and
all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death
and found none. I can't say what all these men
heard or didn't hear. I can't say necessarily whether
they witnessed any of Christ's miracles or not. But these rulers,
they definitely envied Christ. They hated Christ and they envied
Him. And they knew what was said of
Him, even if they didn't personally hear. any of his messages to
the people. Some of them there did, I'm sure,
but even if they didn't hear personally, they knew what was
being said about him, and they had heard of the miracles that
he did, but they didn't believe. They didn't believe Christ. And
in John 3, 1 and 2, the reason why I know that they heard it
is because we are told that a man of the Pharisees, in John 3,
1, a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night,
and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God. For no man can do these miracles
that thou doest, except God be with him. And so those men knew,
there's definitely some that knew and saw the miracles and
considered only God can do these things. This man must be sent
of God, a teacher of God for this purpose. And we know, because
we see in various synagogues and places where people were
healed, those people would be rebuked by the priests there
and the elders there saying, there's six days for you to be
healed. Why do you come on a Sabbath
day? Well, they came because they
knew Christ was there. And that's such a beautiful picture.
They knew that if Christ was there, He would heal them. They need only ask, Lord, save
me, forgive me. And that's how gracious He is.
You need only ask, and He is more than willing to save all
that come to Him, seeking mercy, having no righteousness of their
own. He's a gracious, merciful Savior. But these men here, they were
looking for man's testimony. They didn't care what God's testimony
was. They were looking for man's testimony because they wanted
to put Him to death. They wanted to condemn him. So
they brought in anyone that was willing to come up there and
testify. Look at verses 56 through 59
with me. Mark 14. For many bear false witness against
him, but their witness agreed not together. And there arose
certain and bear false witness against him, saying, We heard
him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands,
and within three days I will build another made without hands. But neither so did their witness
agree together. Well, of course it didn't. They
were twisting his words. They didn't even know what he
said. They were just drawing up whatever they could vaguely
remember that he said to make him look bad. And, you know,
it's just like in our day. Many people, you hear people,
you talk to people, you see what they write on websites and what
they say, and they don't believe Christ. And yet they'll quote
the scripture, usually out of context, but they'll quote scriptures
or they'll use their worldly arguments to justify their hatred
of Christ and why they don't believe. They don't care what
the truth is, they've already made up their mind, they have
their opinion, and so they too condemn Christ. Just like they did even back
then. But let's look at what Christ
did say in John 2. Go to turn to John 2 verse 19. John 2, 19, our Lord says, well,
Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, destroy
this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up. He didn't
say he'd destroy the temple. He said, you'll destroy the temple.
And he told them, you destroy this temple, and I will raise
it up in three days. Now, just like all of us, before
we have the Spirit, and those who have not the Spirit." Just
like those without the Spirit, all they hear are Christ's words
in the flesh. All they hear is the voice of
a man, the words of a man, words of flesh, and so it means nothing
to them. And that's what they heard here
in John 2. John 2, verse 20. Then said the
Jews, 40 and six years was this temple I'm building, and wilt
thou rear it up in three days? but he spake of the temple of
his body. He was speaking of heavenly things,
spiritual things. That's why we need the spirit
because naturally all we hear is with an ear of flesh. We don't
hear the truth. We don't hear what God is teaching
us and what he's saying. We only hear it in the flesh
how we want to hear it and then condemn Christ. and then say,
that's not truth. So they didn't understand these
things, but we read in verse 22, when therefore Christ was
risen from the dead, his disciples, his disciples remembered that
he had said this unto them, and they believed the scripture and
the word which Jesus had said to them. Then they heard it,
because they heard it at first with just an ear of flesh. They
didn't understand until he opened their understanding. that they
might understand the scriptures. What it says in Luke 24, verse
45. We need Christ to open our understanding,
even we who have the Spirit, because as we saw this morning,
it begins as just a little grain mustard seed of faith, and the
Lord grows us. So we grow in our knowledge and
understanding, and we remember what Christ said, and he teaches
us and grows us in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. We don't know all things. We're
children. We're children who don't know
and children who are utterly dependent upon God our Father
to be merciful and gracious to us. And we have difficulties
and struggles that humble us and remind us of our ever-growing
need of His mercy and grace. And that's a good thing. It's
a good thing for us to be reminded of that and to see our need of
Christ. Because these Jews, if they had
just depended upon God, if they had had Christ there to say,
we need to know, are you the Christ? Are you Him? Lord, help us to see, help us
to understand, that they had sought Him for mercy and came
humbly to Him, asking, Lord, show me, please show me the truth. He says, all who seek Him with
all the heart, all who have nothing, nothing to give Him, nothing
to offer, no promises, just, Lord, help me, have mercy on
me, Lord. Help me, Lord. Forgive me. Deliver
me from my sin. Help me. Deliver me from this
bondage. Save me as you save all your people, in mercy and
in grace. Lord, deliver me. If they had
sought him that way, he would have revealed himself to them.
But of course we know, had the princes of this world known who
he was, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. but according
to the determinant and purpose of God, he was delivered and
was crucified and did shed his blood and die to put away the
sins of his people. All right, now naturally, we're
all dead sinners, full of sin, full of natural wisdom, full
of our self-righteousness and our goodness and what we think
of ourselves, having our opinions of ourselves and others. And
naturally, we don't even know the truth if it smacks us right
in the face. And they had the truth standing
right there, and they smacked him in the face. They didn't
bow to him, they treated him shamefully. Now understand first,
this Jesus of Nazareth is the promised seed of the woman. He's
the promised seed of the woman. What do I mean by that? That
goes back to the Garden of Eden. When man sinned and rebelled
against his God, and God came, and pronounce judgment on the
law breakers and what would happen to them, he gave a promise concerning
his son, concerning a male child that would come and crush the
serpent's head. This is that promised child.
This is the promised child of God who would be born of the
seed of woman. Not born of the seed of Adam,
but born of woman conceived in her womb by the Holy Ghost so
that he isn't corrupted with the seed of man. That's why he
was born and conceived of a virgin birth. That's why God did that.
All right, now second, he's the Son of God come in the flesh. And the reason why the Son of
God came down and took upon him our flesh, we're told in the
scriptures, this is from Hebrews 2.14, for as much then as the
children, And when it says children, he's talking about you that are
loved of God from all eternity, chosen of God and put into Christ
before you did any good or any evil. He chose a people and gave
them to Christ. Well, because the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might, and this is a
definite might, he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil, and deliver them, ransom them, who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. So that Christ had to come in
the flesh. that the sins of his people might
be laid upon him. A body hast thou prepared me. You've given me this body to
fulfill your will in putting away the sins of all them whom
you've given to me to make satisfaction when he died in our place as
our substitute to put away once and for all forever the sins
of his people and to break He cancelled that power of sin and
the devil and all that evil of the body of sin. He destroyed
that for his people and he delivered them out from that kingdom of
darkness and placed them safe in his kingdom of light and in
the fellowship with God our Father through Jesus Christ the Son. Now third, Christ really did
accomplish all that was written of him by the prophets and contained
in the scriptures. Now what I want to do next is
give you six witnesses, these six witnesses that the Father
gives to his people that we may know that this Jesus of Nazareth,
born of Mary, is indeed the Christ sent of God. This is the Christ
sent of God that was promised to save his people. Now, this
gathering together of chief priests and elders and scribes, they
had up to this point three witnesses. They were given three witnesses,
and we'll see those first. And by the time it was all over,
they had a fourth witness. You actually have six witnesses,
because you have all that they have. and you have a couple more
given to us. So we're going to look at these
six witnesses that, as Luke would say when he wrote to Theophilus,
the Gospel of Luke, he said, that thou mightest know the certainty
of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. Every one
of you here has been instructed. You've all heard this before.
I see all your faces. I know your faces. You've all
heard it. but that you may know the certainty of the things wherein
you've been instructed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now let's
look at these six witnesses. So here's this ignorant group
of self-righteous men who claim they didn't know the witness
of Christ. They didn't know what he had done. They didn't know
what he said, and so they're looking for witnesses. And so
the high priest stands up in verse 60 and 61. He stood up in the midst and
asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? What is it which
these witness against thee? But Christ held his peace and
answered nothing." Because there's nothing to answer. There's nothing
to respond to. It was all lies. They didn't
even hear the truth. They didn't know what he was
saying, and so he didn't open his mouth to respond to them
in any way. But according to Peter, when
we look at Peter and what the account of him in Acts 10, and
you can turn to Acts 10, we're going to look over the next couple
of minutes at a couple passages from Acts 10 and then we'll go
somewhere else, but just keep your finger or a little ribbon
there or a piece of paper. But in Acts 10, Peter's talking
to Cornelius. He's been called to go to Cornelius's
house and he's declaring to him the truth and he's reminding
Cornelius. He even says that word I say
ye know. Cornelius is a Gentile living
around the area where Christ ministered in Israel there and
he says you know it which was published throughout all of Judea
and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached."
Now when John came forth, this was in the very beginning, the
earliest stages of Christ's ministry, earthly ministry. Even six months
prior, John the Baptist began to minister. And Peter is saying
this was published throughout all of Judea from the very beginning. So these men heard. They did
have a witness. They knew about John the Baptist.
Our Lord speaks to this, so hold your place there in Acts 10,
and let's go over to John 5. We'll be looking at a couple
verses between these two, so don't lose them. So John 5, 33
and 34. Here our Lord, He's speaking
to the Jews, and He says, Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness
unto the truth. You came and you had questions
for this guy, for John the Baptist, and he gave you an answer. He
testified to the truth of who he is and what he's doing, why
he's come. So you have that testimony. And
he says, but I receive not testimony from man, but these things say
I, or I say, that ye might be saved. So Christ is saying to
these Jews, These Jews who were arguing with him and didn't hear
him and didn't believe him, but he says, very kindly, I'm pointing
out to you this witness that you already have in John Baptist. And I'm saying this that you
might be saved. I'm being merciful. I'm being
very kind. I'm reminding you of the witness
you have. You have a witness in John the
Baptist. And what John the Baptist is, I spoke of him. They had the
witness there of John the Baptist so that they could know him.
And so you see what a difference it is in seeing Christ who says,
I tell you these things that you might be saved. Whereas in
the trial, they're saying things and they're bringing witnesses
forth that they might condemn him. Not to save him, they wanted
to condemn him and kill him. Very different, the heart of
man from the mercy and the kindness we see in our Savior. All right,
now second, our Lord had the witness of God the Father, which
was testified to by the power and the works displayed in His
miracles, because no man has ever could or has ever since
done what He did, what He's done. Look at John 5, 36. He goes on saying, but I have
greater witness than that of John, for the works which the
Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do bear
witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. So Christ had the
witness of John the Baptist, who was coming in the same spirit
according to what Isaiah and Malachi had written of him. He
came to prepare the way and Christ had the miracles which he did
in healing people, giving sight to the blind, loosening the tongue
of the dumb, opening the ear of the deaf, healing the paralytics
and those that were lame. He raised people from the dead.
He healed them of their sicknesses. He stilled the winds and the
rain and the storms and the sea and the waves. He did all these
miracles and yet they didn't believe. And so what we see though
is that they had those two witnesses and still didn't believe. But
anybody who sought the Lord, anybody who wanted to know the
truth, God would send them a messenger. God would send them the Gospel.
He'll bring the Gospel to whosoever seeks Him to know the truth about
Him. For example, we're looking also
in Acts 10. Over in Acts 10, who's Peter
talking to? Cornelius. was praying. Praying just to know the Lord.
Praying that he might know him and be pleasing to the Lord.
And the Lord told him, you need to send for Peter. Simon Peter. And he's over here in this town.
Send for him there and he'll come to you. And that was not
an easy thing for Peter, a Jew, to go to a Gentile and to enter
into his house, because that's sinful for the Jews. That's wickedness
for them. And so that was a hard thing,
but the Lord showed him, go to him. I'm sending you to this
Gentile. You go and you teach him the gospel. You teach him
what I've shown to you. And he says in Acts 10 38, and
he's declaring to him how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good and
healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with
him. So we see God's not concealing
the gospel. He's not concealing the gospel.
It's the revelation that man's heart is so wicked and so hard,
so unbelieving, so uncaring, so undesirous to know the truth
of God. But if you desire to know the
truth of God, if you need His righteousness and you want to
know Him, you seek Him with all your heart and He will reveal
Christ to you. He'll reveal Christ to you that
you may know Him. Alright, third witness. All men
have the Scriptures. They all had the Scriptures.
You can get a Bible. All men had the Scriptures. They
had the Scriptures there and they had the prophets. They saw
what was written concerning Christ. They had it right there. Look
back in John 5, 39. John 5, 39. Christ continues
speaking to these Jews and he says, search the scriptures. For in them you think you have
eternal life. Search them. You have them and
you think that you have eternal life in these things, right?
Showing dead religion. You think that by your study
of the scriptures that you know the truth. But let me tell you
something. They are they which testify of me, Christ, who is
salvation. And that's what he's telling
them. Search that witness that you have, and it's bearing witness
of me. And I am salvation for all who
come to me seeking mercy and forgiveness. And so he's telling
them the prophets, they spoke of his coming. And the prophets
declare the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow."
The sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
That's from 1 Peter 1 11. But what we see, what we now
know, is that they were testifying that he would be rejected of
his people, that he would be crucified, put to death because
they hated him and they despised him. But he was put to death
to put away the sins of his people, to shed his blood, to make atonement
for the sins of the people, that we should have life in Him. And how do we have life in Him?
By the power of His resurrection. So that when He was raised from
the dead, we too have the assurance that we shall be raised from
the dead even now to walk in newness of life by His Spirit. Alright, so they had that witness
as well. We have another witness. They
didn't have this witness at that time, but you do. You have the
benefit of this witness. That witness is the apostles. We have the witness of all that
great cloud of witness of all these men and women who believed
Christ and have gone before us laying down their blood, testifying
and proving and showing that this indeed is the Christ. So
sure are we that we give our lives for him, believing him.
But the apostles themselves, he tells us, look over at Acts
10, 39. Acts 10, 39. And Peter says, to Cornelius, and we are witnesses. We are witnesses of all things
which he did, which Christ did, both in the land of the Jews
and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. And so
these men and the women with them, they were witnesses of
Christ's resurrection. Look at verses 40 and 41 there,
Acts 10, 40. Him, God raised up the third
day and showed him openly, not to all people, but unto witnesses
chosen before God, even to us who did eat and drink with him
after he rose from the dead. He's not a spirit. He was raised
physically in his body, raised again. God gave him life so that
we know we too shall be raised with a new body. In that resurrection
day, that's when we will receive a new body after the image and
likeness of Christ's body. Right now, we have this by faith,
and we have the promise of the Spirit, which is actually the
fifth witness. We have the witness of the Holy
Ghost, whom God gives to his people in a manifest way. In a manifest way, right? We
know that the Spirit is working in us before we believe, but
after we believe, he manifests that we are his people. This
is from Ephesians 1.13. I'll read it. You can go there
if you want. we're just going to come back to John 5 if you
want to let go of Acts, but Ephesians 1 13 says, In whom ye also trusted,
after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed
with that Holy Spirit of promise. Now, the reason why we believe
and are sealed is because of Christ's glorious, blessed work
on the cross. When he came and was crucified,
he was put to death bearing the sins of his people and took our
old man of flesh and crucified that flesh, nailed it to his
cross, died with him, put it away once and for all forever
so that now, being dead in Adam, we are born again in Jesus Christ. It has no bearing on our life
and existence before God. We stand in Jesus Christ, born
again by His spiritual seed. And so God, having loved us,
committed us, gave us to Christ, and now, because of His work,
we are sanctified, meaning the Holy Spirit, in the time of His
love, separates us, ensures that we shall come under the sound
and the power of the Gospel, hearing that, He gives us an
open ear, an ear of faith to hear that word and believe it,
that righteous fruit of faith, not of this flesh from Adam,
but of the new man which Christ has created in us because He
obtained eternal life, He obtained that power when He was crucified
and rose again, so that it's a promise, it's a certainty that
we shall be brought under the Gospel and hear it, all for whom
He died. you will hear it. You may not
hear it today, you might be sitting here hearing it, but in the day
of his power, you shall hear it in the spirit and believe. That's his promise. And you can
rest in the promise of God because he doesn't lie. He's not a liar.
He's truthful and he tells the truth. And so, when you believe,
that little tiny, wispy, weak little faith, even if it is,
some strong, some weak, But when you believe, God seals you with
His Holy Spirit, so that you shall continue now to walk by
the Spirit, walk in faith, growing in the grace and the knowledge
of what Christ has done for you. And you'll grow, you'll be grown
of His work, of His power, by His Spirit. because that's what
he obtained when he died and rose again. And I know this is,
we know that it's a spiritual birth because we have an example
in John 5, 40 of those who have not the Spirit. When they hear
Christ speak, he says, and ye will not believe me that ye might
have life. And so that we see and understand
and know, wow, this is the power of God because A natural man
has no interest in Christ. Blah. This is boring. Who cares? They despise Him. They hate Him.
They don't care that He's dead. They don't care that He was crucified.
They don't care what He did or didn't do. It means nothing to
them. And they will not. If you don't
have the Spirit, you won't believe. And the reason why isn't because
God is preventing you. It's because it reveals the hardness
of our hearts naturally now. We have no part in the inheritance
of Christ. Word is dead, we are standing
in Adam, dead in trespasses and sins, without the Spirit. But
when God determines to be merciful and gracious to whom He gives
His Spirit, they hear, and they bear righteous fruit, born in
them of their husband which is the faith of God. And then all
the other righteous fruits come from Him as well in us. So listen,
God has given us sufficient witness. We've heard five witnesses so
far. He's given us sufficient witness concerning His Son. The question is, are you a sinner
in need of grace? Because all His saved children
are sinners. desperate for his grace and mercy.
We have no righteousness of our own. We all depend upon him. We all stink before the blessed
living God, but in Christ we're We smell like Esau to Isaac in
Christ. It's a blessing. God is pleased,
well pleased with all his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. So,
either you believe on Christ and look to Him and are covered
by His blood, or you're saying, nope, my works are sufficient. I know one day I'll stand before
God, but my works are all right. My works are fine and they'll
speak well for me, just like the Pharisees, just like those
priests and those elders and those scribes. And they regret
that, I'm sure, to this day, unless God gave some of them
mercy. Now we read in Mark 14, 61. At
the end there, again the high priest asked him and said unto
him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? Now here's
the sixth witness, and Jesus said, I am. I am. I am and ye shall see the
Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power. In other words,
I shall be sitting on the throne of God. I shall be seated at
my Father's right hand. ruling and reigning and implementing
the will of my father on earth and in heaven. I will do this
and he is pleased with me and I shall be raised to do that
and you shall see me coming in the clouds of heaven." So there's
the sixth witness that we have. Christ himself testifies, I am
the Son of God. I am the Christ promised of God
to put away the sins of all my people. All who need me, all
who seek me for mercy, shall find rest before your souls."
And when Caiaphas heard this, when he heard it, he didn't bow
before God. He didn't say, My God, my Lord,
forgive me, have mercy on me. No, he didn't. Instead, we read
in verse 63, The high priest rent his clothes, and saith,
What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy,
and what think ye? And they all condemned him to
be guilty of death. And some began to spit on him
and to cover or blindfold his face and to buffet him and to
say unto him, prophesy. And the servants did strike him
with the palms of their hands. They smacked him in the face
and spit upon him. So the question is, what will
you do? Do you believe Christ? Do you
believe that this is, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the
promised seed of the woman, sent to take away the sins of his
people? Or, like these Jews, do you spit
on them? Spit on them, smack them, and
say, I don't believe that. That doesn't mean nothing to
me. Christ is coming again, and when he comes again, this time
it shall be without sin. It shall be without humility.
It'll be in great power and glory, And all those who love his appearing
he shall receive unto himself, because they are his trophies
of grace. And all those who despise and
hate and reject him shall have a miserable and terrible day
in that day. I pray the Lord would make you
to see your need of him, would make you to know him and desire
him and to seek him with all the heart and say, Lord, forgive
me. for spitting on you and smacking
you to this day, have mercy on me. Save me, Lord. Forgive me. Put away my sins. Please don't
hold those sins against me. Put me in Christ. Cover me with
His blood. Lord, have mercy upon me. And just as all who came to Christ
seeking healing and forgiveness. Every one of them found forgiveness
with Christ. Every one of them. He never turned
one sinner away. And so it is today, all who come
to Him, confessing their need of Christ, shall find mercy. And His power which has given
you that grace, from that very hour He will seal you with the
Holy Ghost so that you shall grow in Him and know Him. So
you that believe, rest in Rest in Christ. The final passage
I'm going to read is from 1 John 1, 1-4. 1 John 1, 1-4. This is the testimony that we
have of these men. The Apostle John was there, both
before he was crucified and after he rose again. And here's his
testimony. 1 John 1, verses 1-4. And he
says, that which was from the beginning. He's talking about
the Son of God, the eternal Son of God, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and
our hands have handled of the word of life. For the life was
manifested and we have seen it. And bear witness and show unto
you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
unto us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with
us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with
his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto
you, that your joy may be full. So will you have a joyful end
when Christ comes or will your end be miserable like all those
who hate and despise Him and want nothing to do with Him?
I pray that you hear it. Like our Savior said, these things
I say that ye might be saved. I don't say these things to condemn
you. I say these things that you hear it and believe on the
name of the Son of God. Trust Him. Believe Him. He's
not playing games with you. He's not jerking you around.
He's a faithful, merciful Savior to all who come to Him, seeking
Him for mercy. Believe Him, call upon Him, and
He'll save your soul. All right, I pray the Lord will
bless that. We're gonna close this in prayer, and then we'll
pass out the elements. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank You, Father. We thank You for Your great salvation. for your mercy and kindness,
Lord, to sinners who have nothing to give to you, no good works. In fact, our deeds are evil and
wicked in your sight. All that is of the flesh is unprofitable
and of no value. But Lord, we believe you concerning
your Son, Jesus Christ. Have mercy upon us, Lord. Have
mercy upon every sinner here. Who needs Your grace, Lord, cause
us to hear. Give us an open ear, give us
faith, Lord, that we may see Jesus and believe upon Him. And,
Lord, deliver us from the bondage and the corruption of sin, and
stand us in Christ Jesus, who stood in our place and gave His
life, shedding His blood, to put away our sins forever, that
we might stand before You, our Holy God, perfect, spotless,
unblameable, we may serve you all the rest of the days of our
life. Lord, have mercy. Father, we thank you for this
blessed message, for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the promise
of salvation in Him. We pray that you indeed put it
in our hearts and cause it to rise up and come forth from our
tongues, confessing that Christ Jesus indeed is our salvation,
trusting the promise that all who believe on you shall find
remission of sins. We pray this in Christ's name,
our Lord and Savior. Amen. All right, brethren. Scott and Levi, if you would
please pass out the elements. And then Scott, if you would
say a prayer before you pass it out. Yeah. Father, we come to you thankful
today that you sent your son to save all who believe. And Father, we ask that you give
us the heart to believe and the heart to seek after you. We won't
do it on our own. Father, we ask that you lead
us, lead us to Christ. Let us see him when he speaks
to us. And Father, we ask that you watch over and care for us.
And we're just so thankful to have a place to come to worship
and for a pastor. And Father, we just ask that
you continue to have the our group grow and have more and
more people hear the gospel. Father, we ask this in Christ's
name. I'm going to read from Mark 14. It's one of my favorite passages
on the Lord's Supper. And I'm going to start actually
in Mark 14, verse 27, where the Lord tells His disciples, and
He says this to us. He says, All ye shall be offended
because of me this night. For it is written, I will smite
the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. But after that
I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee." And we see
a picture there just of our sin, of our fickleness and foolishness
and inability to do anything that is good or right, except
the Lord keep us. And he promises, though we come
forth in Adam offended in Christ, and we don't believe until the
Lord in power goes before us, and His resurrection power goes
before us, and He draws us, and He meets us, and He calls us
to Himself and restores us in Himself, in His life. And then
up in verse 22 it says, and as they did eat, now believe in
Christ, we take this bread and we drink this wine. He said,
as they did eat, Jesus took bread and blessed and break it, and
gave to them and said, take eat, this is my body. And he took
the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and
they all drank of it. And he said unto them, This is
my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. Verily
I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine
until that day that I drink it anew in the kingdom of God. And when they had sung a hymn,
they went out into the Mount of Olives. So when you take this
bread and wine, remember what Christ did in laying down His
life. how that he became poor, that
you might be rich in him and have an inheritance in him. So
bless God as we take of this. And then after about a minute,
brother, if you come up. For closing him, we'll be out
of the softback, number 105, he surrendered all, 105. All for me Christ did surrender,
All for me He freely gave. Only one made sin for sinners,
By His death my soul He saved. He surrendered all, He surrendered
all, All to be my blessed Savior,
He surrendered all. Coming from His throne in heaven,
Jesus laid His glory by. Thus the sinner is forgiven and
shall soon be glorified. He surrendered all. He surrendered all. All to be my blessed Savior,
He surrendered all. Injured death, Christ did surrender,
Even death upon a cross. All to save the worst offender,
Mind the gain, His all the loss. He surrendered all. He surrendered all. All to be my blessed Savior,
He surrendered all. At the cross, the Father's pleasure
prospered well in Jesus' hands. Now He's honored without measure,
so the Father's will demands. He surrendered all. He surrendered all. All to be my blessed Savior,
He surrendered all.