All right, morning. We're gonna
return to our study in Mark. Let's go to Mark 14, and we're
just gonna look at verses 27 through 31 this morning. And
we'll take up this contemplation of our great Savior who died
for a people that are great sinners. Our title is Remember Him. Remember Him, and we'll have
three divisions. We'll look first at His people,
and then we'll see His punishment, and then His perseverance. Alright,
so let's begin now with His people. Of all people that are most horrified
to see what sinners person is, none are more horrified than
what a believer sees in himself. We discover what sinners we are
and are reminded of what sinners we are. Now, the vain religionist
The one who is self-righteous and confident in themselves might
think that's a strange thing to say about a believer, but
it's only because, they would only say that because they're
blind to their own sin. And that's how we all are. Every
one of us is blind to our sin and blind to the offense that
we are to God until the Lord God reveals it to us and makes
that known to us what sinners we are. And so, the child of
God, those whom God loves, has set his love upon and is calling
them to himself, they learn their need of this great Savior. They
learn their need of the Savior, and they learn that it's God
who has mercy upon them. It's God who is gracious to them
apart from their works, apart from what they do. So that it's
not by something we do that saves us and earns favor with God,
but that God's favor and grace to sinners is found in himself. It's found in Christ, because
he's the one who sent Christ for this very purpose. While we are amazed as we sink
low in ourselves and see what sinners we are, what's really
amazing is that Christ knows what we are. He knows how low
we go, and He knows what we are as sinners in ourselves, and
yet He still loves His people. He still came and laid down His
life for His people knowing, full well knowing, what we are. And that's what we see a glimpse
of in this passage today. Because we see that Christ told
them, he tells them exactly what they're going to do. If you look
there at verse 27, Mark 14, 27, it begins, with Jesus saith unto
them, all ye shall be offended because of me this night. And what happened? Their pride
was offended. They were offended that Christ
would even say this about them. They consider themselves to be
such great disciples, such faithful followers, even as our brother
read from John 6 where they said, Lord, to whom shall we go? We are assured that you are the
Christ and that you alone have the words of eternal life. Where
are we going to go? there in John 6, and then here
we come to this point, and Christ tells them, you're all going
to be offended in me this night. And so in verse 29, Mark 14,
29, but Peter said unto him, oh, the wall shall be offended,
yet will not I. But the Lord tells him, verily,
I say unto thee, Peter, that this day, even in this night,
before the cock crowed twice, thou shalt deny me thrice, or
three times. And so Peter responds again,
if I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. And
likewise also said they all. They all said the same thing.
We're not going to forsake you, Lord. We're not going to abandon
you. Don't speak like that. So we
see here in the example that we have before us that it's hard
for disciples to hear of what they are. Some get pricked in
their pride, pricked so that they're angry because they think,
well how can you say that about me? I'm no great sinner like
that, that I'm gonna abandon and forsake my Lord, and it's
hard for us to see what we are. because the Lord's going to reveal
to us, to his people, he's going to make it known what we are
in and of ourselves. But when we hear it and receive
it, when we see it and showing us in the scriptures that it's
not because of us that he loves us. It's not because of anything
in us that earns our favor with God. When we hear it and see
it, it does humble us. It humbles our pride and it brings
us low so that our anger is subdued. We're brought to see, what am
I getting angry about? This is the Lord tells me, and
I see it, I see what I am, and so we have nothing to be proud
of, and nothing to get angry about in ourselves. And so, what
we see there is, what's amazing is that even though this is what
we are, how weak and unbelieving we are in ourselves, yet the
amazing thing is that Christ still loves us. that He still
loves this ungodly people that we are. And so, nothing the disciples
do or did, and nothing we do or did, has changed His mind. Nothing's changed His mind. He
still came, nonetheless, knowing what we are, He still came to
this earth in the flesh, working perfect righteousness, and willingly
going to the cross to lay down His life for this ungodly people
that we are in ourselves. So that's a beautiful thing to
see how he's the one that gives us life, he's the one that chooses
us, he's the one that reveals himself to us. Not because we
first chose him, not because we first earned this favor of
God. And so what we see from the scriptures
is that life begins with the Savior. Life begins with Him. It doesn't begin with us. Much
of religion teaches that life begins with you, the sinner,
when you believe Christ, when you have faith. That's when God
gives you life. That's when God makes you born
again. But that's not what the scriptures teach. The scriptures
teach that life begins with Him. With Him, not with us. Paul writes in Ephesians 4, verse
24, he says, and that ye put on the
new man. And what he's saying there is
that you walk in the Spirit. He's given you the Spirit and
he's revealed himself in you. And so put on the new man, walk
in the Spirit, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness. So that's where we believe God. That's where we are faithful
and trust Him. It's in that new man which Christ
created in us, which He's formed in you, that new man which is
created in holiness and righteousness. That's His work. That's not the
work of the flesh. We're regenerated by the Holy
Spirit. And so, this new man in us, this
Spirit, where we walk in the Spirit, by the Spirit, is a creation,
it's a work wrought in the sinner by the Lord Jesus Christ for
His glory, for His praise, and for His honor. And then in John
1, verses 12 and 13, it says, but as many as received Him,
but as many as have received Him, verse 12, To them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on
his name." Okay then, in light of what I just said, that it
begins with Christ, how did we believe on his name? How did
we come to believe that this is the Christ and that I'm a
sinner who cannot save himself? How do we believe that? It tells
us in verse 13, John 1, 13, which were born, right, you must be
born again, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So we're born, that new man is
created in us, whereby we believe. And that's how we receive him,
and he gives us a manifestation, a witness of the Holy Spirit
in us whereby we believe, we receive Him, and we walk now
in that new man. We walk by the Spirit according
to the power of God. That's what he's saying. He's
given them power to become, to be evidently the sons of God,
the sons and the daughters of God. It's all worked in us by
the Lord. All right? And then 1 John 4.10
says, herein is love. Not that we loved God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. And so life begins with Christ. It begins with our God's purpose
in eternity, in the covenant of grace. It all begins. He's
the fountain of life, not us. It's not us. It's not this flesh
that's the fountain of life. It's the Lord, our God. while
it's humbling for us to discover what sinners we are, it's truly
amazing to see the love of Christ for us. And that leads us to
another point here. where the Apostle John writes
in 1 John 4.11, saying, Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought
also to love one another. Right? Because that's just what
the Lord is teaching us. That if he loved us in this way,
that's how we're to love our brethren. That's how we're to
walk with them. If God is forbearing to us, then
we ought to be forbearing with one another. If God's forgiven
us, then we ought to forgive one another. And so Paul writes
on this, that sweet verse in Ephesians 4, 32, where he says,
be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, be soft in the heart,
willing to take the wrong, forgiving one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. And then he tells us in
the next verse, be ye followers of God, right? Do what God has
done for you, be ye followers of God, as dear children, as
dear children. And he writes that because obviously
we still have this flesh, we still say and do foolish things
that hurt one another, and therefore, he says, be forgiving, be tender
toward one another, be patient and forbearing with one another,
because we need to do that, because we're going to ascend and offend
one another, sadly, but true, it will happen. So the point
here in this first point about the Lord's people is that we
ourselves are sinners, we have nothing to boast in, we have
no righteousness of our own or to recommend us to our God, yet
behold, He loved us. He loves us and laid down His
life for this people. Okay, so let's move on to our
next point now, which is His punishment. Having just gone
through the last point, we see by nature that we're ungodly
sinners. Christ died for people that are
ungodly sinners. But what we really see here as
we go on, as we venture on into this, is the greatness of our
Savior, to know that He didn't just save an ungodly people,
but how He saved that ungodly people. that he came and as their
substitute bore their punishment, bore the punishment that the
people deserve. That begins to really show not
only did he save an ungodly people, but he saved them by dying in
their place, by bearing the sins and the punishment which we ourselves
deserve to have. Look at verse 27, Mark 14, 27. And Jesus saith unto them, 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."
Alright, so Christ, what we understand is that the Son of God was, they
agreed in the covenant of grace that Christ, or that the Son
of God would come to this earth. And that he would take upon him
this flesh. the likeness of our flesh, this
flesh, yet without sin. He wasn't a sinner, he did no
sin, he came and he's perfect, so that he might be a fit substitute,
fit to bear our place, to stand in our place and suffer under
the wrath of God for his people. so that he's the promised Lamb
of God. That's why he's called the Lamb
of God, because he would come as the sacrifice provided by
God to put away forever the sins of his people. And so he did
that. He bore the sin of his people
in his body and went up there to the cross to put away that
sin of his people. Peter writes it this way, saying
in 1 Peter 2, verse 22 through 24, he said, of Christ who did no sin, neither
was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled
not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously,
who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose
stripes ye were healed. And again, that's making known
to us that we were in Christ, when Christ fulfilled all righteousness,
and when he went to the cross, he bore the wrath, and we being
in him, that's where we suffered under the wrath of God, in Christ.
We've borne the wrath of God, and our sins are put away. And
so that now, as the scriptures say, that he died unto sin once,
he made one sacrifice once and died unto sin, to put it away
for his people, so we now too have died to sin. Right? So we live in the new man. walking
in the new man, looking to Christ, trusting Him, and don't love
our sin, don't want to walk in sin, don't want to do those things
which led to our Savior coming in our place and dying on the
cross. So we live in Him by His Spirit
so that we might know Him who is true, Him who is righteous,
standing before Him, trusting and believing His Son, believing
the Savior, because we are healed, because He's done that work to
save us. So Christ was made sin for us
in order to make us righteous, so that now we, through Christ,
have gained entrance unto the Father, holy, unblameable, unreprovable
in the sight of God. That's what Christ has accomplished
for us. He says in 2 Corinthians 5 21,
for God hath made Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So he's done all
that work for us. All right, now, Christ, he's
quoting here, in this passage of Matthew 14, 27, he quotes
Zechariah 13. Zechariah 13, verse seven. So
turn there to Zechariah. So if you can find the beginning
of Matthew, you go back to the next book in the Old, the last
book in the Old Testament is Malachi, and the one just before that
is Zechariah. So it's Zechariah, Malachi, and
then Matthew. So Zechariah 13. and verse 7,
and this is where the Lord's quoting from, this prophecy concerning
himself. We read, Awake, O sword, against
my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith
the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered, and I will turn mine hand upon the little
ones. Alright, so let's break this
this verse down, this prophecy concerning us and Christ. He says a Waco sword, now if
you die by a sword, that's a violent death. If you're dying by a sword,
that's a violent death, and that's exactly what our Savior did. He died a violent death. We know
in the flesh, he was taken by the Romans, and he was beaten
and spit upon and mocked cruelly, and then they brought him to
the cross, and brought him to the place where they crucified
him, rather, and they nailed him to the tree, his hands and
his feet, and they, you know, being whipped and beaten, and
there he died a violent death. but he died willingly, giving
up the ghost, because the real violence of it wasn't so much
the flesh, but that he died under the wrath of holy God. He died the punishment that was
our due, the punishment that we earned for ourselves and our
debt of righteousness that we owe to God. So, awake, O sword,
against my shepherd. And so this one died a violent
death, and the fact that he calls him a shepherd means that you
that believe on him, he died as your protector. He as a shepherd
gave up his life for the sheep. And that's a beautiful picture
that the shepherd, Christ, who did nothing wrong, who's perfect,
he died as your protector to put away your sins, to protect
you from the wrath of God. that you and I who believe in
him have earned by our own works, by our sin, by our hearts, and
our wickedness in us, your protector. It says, Awake, O sword, against
my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow. Sayeth the
Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd. And so here we begin to see how
this is all the work of our God for us, that he sent his son
as the mediator to make peace between us who believe, us and
holy God, to put away the enmity and to reconcile us once and
for all to the Father. And because we see there that
it's God himself who gave the order to smite him. to put him
to death. Our God said, smite the shepherd. Smite him. Put him to death.
And so that was all done for us. And so you see the beauty
of our God and His mercy and grace and forgiveness for us
ungodly sinners who don't deserve this mercy. And yet He's brought
this. He's done this and brought this,
the knowledge of what He's done for you to you so that you might
know Him. and rejoice in what God has done
for his people and his son. All right, now verse 7, continuing
on, says, And the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn
mine hand upon the little ones. And here he begins to tell us
what that means. It says, verse 8, It shall come
to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein
shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be left therein. And so here in this passage,
what the Lord is showing us is that he sent his son, but there's
a people, a people who he's done this work for. There's a remnant. Two thirds were cut off and don't
believe, and yet there's a third, a smaller part that's a remnant
that God chose and elected in eternity apart from their works,
apart from their choosing, apart from any good or evil in them,
knowing what we are, yet he chose a people gave them to Christ
as his bride, to be his people, to know him, and to be made one
with him. And it says, verse 9, Zechariah
13, 9, And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will
refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is
tried. They shall call on my name, and
I will hear them, I will say it is my people and they shall
say the Lord is my God." And so that all occurred for us in
Christ. We went through the fire of judgment.
The proving was the proving in Christ. And so that because of
Christ, because we are refined in Him and are made His, Now
we experience this, right? We go through trials and are
proved, but it's done. The work is done and we shall
be made to endure to the end, looking to him and trusting in
him because of the perfect work that Christ our Savior accomplished
for us on our behalf and for our good. So this is the work
of the grace of our God as a result of Christ. carrying us, bearing
us to put away our sin and having obtained eternal redemption for
us when he died on the cross under the punishment of God.
He satisfied the justice of God perfectly so that God is no longer
angry with us and wanting something more from us or needing something
more. It's done in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see there that
he's a great savior. not only did he die for a sinful
people, but he died in their place, bearing their punishment
to put away that sin. So we see now his people and
we see his punishment that which he endured to make them his own. All right, now let's continue
on to the third and final point, his perseverance, his perseverance. In the midst of our Lord telling
the disciples what they would do, how they would forsake him
and abandon him, and that he would die in their place, in
the midst of them getting offended and upset that he would say these
things, he actually goes on and gives them a promise. He gives
them a promise, and he says in verse 28, back in Mark 14, 28,
he says, after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee."
And so, this is a promise of their restoration, a promise
that he's going to gather them back together again to himself. You see that? Even knowing all
this, even in the midst of their pride, in the midst of their
arrogancy, he gives his people a promise, and he's following
through on that promise. And so, it seems, though, that
when he said this, they didn't even really hear it. None laid
it to their heart and none remembered it until the Holy Spirit brought
it back to Mark's memory. And we understand that because
in our flesh we're so slow to hear and we're so slow to believe
all that the Lord has said. Just as the disciples were slow
when Mary came and told them, the Lord is risen, just as he
said. and they were slow to receive
it until the Lord appeared to them and made it known to them.
So, what I wanted to do as we, as we, you know, came, you know,
we're going to take the Lord's Supper today. You that believe
are going to take the Lord's Supper and, you know, I know
that that We think of ourselves as sinners. We see what the Lord
makes known to us, what sinners we are, and sometimes that makes
us struggle and stumble to take of the Lord's Supper. And as
the Lord reveals your sin to you, by all means confess it.
By all means confess it to the Lord. Confess it to Him. and
believe Him, trust Him. Trust Him that He's put it away
so that don't stumble looking at your sin, because when won't
you find sin in yourself? When really, if you're honest,
when wouldn't you find sin in yourself? So don't let that stop
you. But you that believe Him, that
know that He's the Savior, trust Him and take take the Lord's
Supper believing Him, because He's the one who said, this do
in remembrance of me. You're remembering Him because
you're a great sinner. I'm a great sinner, but He's
a great Savior. He's a great Savior. So we do,
we take this in remembrance of Him. And so the question we ask
ourselves, if you're going to take it is, do I love the Lord?
Do I love Him? Is He the Lord, is He the Savior
God sent to put away my sins? Yes, then take. Take the bread
and the wine, remembering Him, believing Him. If you don't love
Him, if He's not your Savior, if you're not following Him,
like you have no desire, what I mean by that is you have no
desire to follow Him, then don't take of it. It's not anything
where the Lord imparts grace to you, throw it. Grace is only
imparted to us through Christ, and that's known to us that He's
shown us grace because we believe and we follow Him. We trust Him,
not perfectly in ourselves. This flesh is still weak and
full of faults and full of sin, but we have hope. We follow after having hope that,
yes, He's my Savior. He has saved me and put away
my sins. So take the bread and the wine,
remembering because we see here in this passage what the disciples
were like. We see ourselves in these disciples
who are proud and think highly of themselves so often, thinking
that we won't fall, and yet the Lord shows us time and time how
we in ourselves do fall, and how weak we are, and how insufficient
we are, and how unworthy we are. And yet Christ is a great Savior.
He did this work knowing what we are, and he put away the sin
of his people perfectly and completely and says, come, remember me. Remember me, remember what I've
done for you. Take the bread and the wine, remembering. And so, this is a picture of
Christ's persevering love for us. He promises to go before
us. He says, I'll be there in Galilee.
I'll be there and we'll gather you together to me again. I'll
restore you again in faith and in love joy and in hope in myself. Not because of anything in you,
but because of my great love for you, my people. Psalm 103
verse 14 says, he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we
are dust. He knows what we are. He knows
that we're not sufficient in ourselves to save ourselves.
And he does not change. He is Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday and today and forever. So, as we gather now to take
the bread and the wine, take it remembering Him, remembering
Him. Remember the faithfulness of
Christ our Savior, who's a great Savior for great sinners such
as us. So, I pray the Lord will comfort
your hearts as we take now the bread and the wine, remembering
Him, remembering Him. All right, so let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your great love in your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord,
that you've provided your Son as the propitiation to put away
the sins of your people. Lord, that we ourselves are ungodly
sinners who have done nothing worthy of your love and nothing
to earn your favor. We thank you for your son, Jesus
Christ. We thank you, Lord, for revealing
him to us, for making known to us this gospel, making known
to us our need of Christ, and that he is the sufficient Savior,
who is the successful Savior, who accomplished the redemption
of his people through the death of himself and the shedding of
his blood. Lord, we pray for this people, asking that you
remember us, Lord. that you show your kindness to
us in putting away our sin, Lord, in giving us faith and growing
us in patience and in experience and in hope for what you've done
for us, and that you shall keep us to the end. We pray, Lord,
that you would bless this people. Be kind to us, Lord. We know that you are so kind
in your son, Lord. Help us to see and to bear witness
of your work and your spirit in us. We pray this in Christ's
name, our Lord and Savior. Amen. All right, brethren. We're going
to take the Lord's Supper. So remember, this is Don't feel
any obligation to take it, you that are seeking the Lord or
don't believe Him, but if you do believe Him, if you know you're
a sinner, by all means, take of the Lord's Supper. That's
why He gives it, for us to remember what a great Savior He is and that it's not because of
us. It's not because of us, it's
because of Him that we have knowledge and have entered into this grace.
of our God. So, by all means, it's for believers
who trust Him. All right. Let's have Levi and... Let's do Carl. Would you two
hand out the bread and the wine? Thank you, Father, for bringing
us here once again, Lord. And thank you for the example
we're given today, Lord, of not looking to our faith but the
object that doesn't change, Lord. In your name we pray. Amen.