Well, it's lovely to be here.
And from here on in, I'm heading east, then across the water,
but it's lovely. And I've just appreciated my
time. I've rejoiced to think that the
Lord has raised up fellowships like us out of, well, nothings. and to reveal His glory and His
goodness. I thought I'd just begin by reading,
which is a prayer, but also just a verse that's been with us all
the time. We began, and we had a Bible,
and we had a gospel, and we had a God, and we had a Savior, and
we didn't have anything else, and we didn't know anyone else
in this world. We knew that this is what the
Bible said, and we knew that there were people who believed
these glorious truths in the past, and so we just, what do
you do? You preach, you just preach. But our prayer, and that's my
prayer for you people as well, isn't it? Moses is at that, up
on the mountain, and after all of the horror of what happened
at the bottom of the mountain, Moses, says in Exodus 33 12 and
Moses said unto the Lord see thou sayest unto me bring up
this people and thou has not let me know whom thou will send
with me thou hast said I know thee by name and thou hast also
found grace in my sight this is a prayer of someone who's
found grace in the sight of God Now therefore, I pray thee, if
I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may
know thee, and that I may find grace in thy sight. If you're
a recipient of grace, all you're asking for is more grace, brother
and sister. And I might find grace in thy sight, and consider
that this nation is thy people. And he said, God said, my presence
shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. And then Moses,
this is a prayer that we've said in our church for the last 16
years. If thy presence go not with me,
carry us not up hence. And that's our prayer, isn't
it? That even now as we preach the gospel and as you go on and
we bear witness to the glories of our great and sovereign God,
that he'll go with us and we'll find grace and then we'll call
for more grace. And he will reveal his glory
to us as he's promised and he goes with us. So here we are
in John chapter 18, this extraordinary night Let's begin in verse one. And Jesus spoke these words.
And he went forth, he went forth with his disciples over the brook
Kidron. It says in Psalm 110, he shall
drink of that brook. That brook was the sewer that
all the blood and the offal and all the waste came down from
the temple in Jerusalem and the sacrifices and the Bible says
he drank from that brook. It's a picture, of course, of
him drinking that sin that was pictured in all of those things.
And there was a garden in which he entered and his disciples.
And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place, for oft
times Jesus resorted thither with his disciples. Judas then,
having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests
and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and
weapons. And this is just where I want
to begin. Verse four is glorious, isn't it? Jesus, therefore, knowing
all things that should come upon him, went forth. Knowing all things that should
come upon him, he went forth. This is all the Lord Jesus Christ
leading his people forth. leading his people. He went forth. He went forth. He knew that they were coming.
What an extraordinary night that was. The Lord of glory, sweating
great drops of blood in the garden. The apostles asleep. Everyone
else busy. The angels come from heaven.
The angel came from heaven. Satan had entered Judas earlier
that evening and Judas had joined with those children of the devil
and they were busy in Jerusalem gathering an army together to
plot to kill the Lord of Glory and Jesus went forth, Jesus went
forth. He went forth. This is our great
sovereign God, isn't it? Marching forth before us. I do
love John 12, 26. We keep thinking that we go wandering
around and Jesus comes along and picks up the pieces of our
lives. The opposite is the case, brothers and sisters. He says
in John 12, 26, if any man serve me, let him follow me. And where
I am, there shall also my servant be. He's always going forth, isn't
he? He went forth in eternity. His assurity went forth from
heaven to earth. He says he must be always about
his father's business. He set his face like a flint.
He went forth to Jerusalem determined that this was going to be. The
fulfillment of all of the glorious work of redemption and salvation,
he went forth to Calvary. He went forth from the tomb and
he went forth from glory and he's going forth in this world
now, brothers and sisters, and gathering those sheep of his,
isn't he? Not one will be lost, he'll gather them. And he speaks,
he speaks as he goes forth. They came, they came with weapons. They came With their own man-made
light to capture the light of the world, they came with weapons
to subdue the prince of peace. They came with ropes to bind
the son of God incarnate. And when he says, whom seek thee,
he's not seeking information. God doesn't need to seek information
from us at all, brothers and sisters, isn't he? The Lord Jesus
Christ goes, I love what it says, he went forth and he stood, he
stood between the enemies of God and he stood between them
and his people and that's where he goes and that's where he stands
forth and he's always stood forth there, hasn't he? Judas, in Luke's
account, kissed him, isn't it? It is a sacred night this night,
isn't it? A remarkable night, it's the
Passover night. It's a sacred place, it was the
place of his devotions, it was the place he took his disciples
to be alone with him and alone with God, and Judas betrayed
him with a sacred symbol of a kiss. And yet, as so many in false
religion of all sorts, the Lord Jesus Christ is betrayed with
a kiss. Betrayed with a kiss, may it
never be our portion, brothers and sisters in Christ. Verse
five, and Jesus, they were hymn-seeking and they answered, Jesus of Nazareth,
and Jesus saith unto them, I love the translation that leaves the
he in italics, he says, I am. He says, I am. He's saying, I
am God. He made it absolutely abundantly
clear to all of his enemies and these people for three and a
half years had the opportunity to examine the Lord Jesus Christ
and examine him like a fine tooth comb and we ought to be thankful
because they couldn't find one spot of sin on him except that
he claimed to be God. He came to be the Christ of God.
The sacrifice must be perfect. And these enemies are our friends
in the sense that the wrath of man shall praise him He goes
forth and he just declares, I am. He is the light of the world.
You know the I am's of the scriptures, don't you? He is the good shepherd.
I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth
and the life. I am the true vine. He is the door. He is the bread
of life. He is the one that came down
from heaven. And he told these people in John chapter eight,
unless you believe that I am, Unless you believe that I am
exactly who I say I am, you will die in your sins. That is one
of the most horrifying thoughts in all of the scriptures, that
you will die. People will die in their sins, which means they
die surrounded by the reality of their sin. What a blessed,
blessed thing it is to be a believer, brothers and sisters. We cannot
possibly die in our sin. and listen to what the word and
the power of the voice of God is. We do need to keep remembering
the Lord Jesus Christ is not a victim here. He is in absolute,
complete and utter sovereign control. He wasn't an innocent
victim. He is the perpetrator and the
master and the ruler of all of these events. As soon, verse
six, as soon as he had said unto them, I am, they went backward
and fell to the ground. The Lord of Glory had fallen
on his face in that ground and sweat great drops of blood. And
here, here with his head lifted up and the cup in his hand and
on his way to Calvary as a sovereign reigning substitutionary sacrifice. He is just revealing the fact
that this is all in his hands. Thou has given him power over
all flesh, says God. that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. As Psalm 27 too says, when
the wicked, even mine enemies, my foes, come upon me to eat
up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. What puny creatures man
is in the face of God Almighty. What puny creatures. How dare
they think so highly of themselves. What a, you know. Anyway, he
is the stone rejected by the builders and he's now the head
of the corner. And this stone is a stone that
the Lord's people fall on. We fall on in submission and
adoration, don't we? But on whomsoever, Matthew 21,
44, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. I am the power of the name of
God and the power of the word of God spoken by the very, very
mouth of our great God. They fell backward. The remarkable thing to me is
that they were ever allowed to stand up again. The only possible
reason they were ever allowed to stand up again and bind him
and take him to Caiaphas palace and take him to the cross is
because he absolutely sovereignly gave them every tiny ounce of
power to do so. I am. But I do love his response
in verse seven. He says, and he asked them again,
whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you
that I am. Three times he tells them I am.
I am God almighty. I am in absolute sovereign control
of all of this. I am here standing between you
and my people as God, their savior. But I love what he says. Listen
to our great and glorious intercessor. If therefore you seek me, let
these go their way. Let these go their way. It's a command, isn't it? It's
a command. You let these go their way. He
says, to these representatives of the
law of God. You can have me and you can bind
me and you let these people go. They were all going to be offended
that night. And we know the way, that way for them was going to
be a way of just terrible despair that night. It wasn't. They were
going their way and their flesh was going to be revealed as weak
and frail and all of the pride and even Peter's bravery is going
to be turned into terrible, terrible cowardice in a minute. The way,
the way For them, for that night was a way into darkness and despair
and desperation. For three days they felt the
weight of their promises broken, their hopes dashed. The flesh
is weak. Salvation is all in the hands
of God. He doesn't need our assistance. And his way, of course, is the
way of the cross. Under the law, his way is the
way of the lamb to the slaughter. His way is to magnify the law
of God and to make it honourable. His way is to glorify my father. With a cup bound in his hands,
he's now bound with the sins of all of his scattered sheep.
And he's bound, they bind him. "'That,' he says, "'you can have
me, and these go free.'" That's the gospel, isn't it? You can
have me, and these go free. "'That the saying might be filled,'
which he spake, "'of them which thou gavest me, I have lost none.'" I have lost none. He said it
in his high priestly prayer, while I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name, John 17, 12. That those that
thou gavest me, I have kept and none of them is lost, but the
son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled. All, all,
this is what he did, didn't he? He came. All that the father,
And this is the Father's will. We don't have any question about
the Father's will in the scriptures. This is the Father's will, which
has set me that of all of which he has given me, I should lose
nothing. Not one. He cannot possibly. He cannot have a damaged and
unsatisfactory, unperfect bride. He cannot have a body that is
not perfect. I'll lose nothing but raise it
up again at the last day. I'll lose nothing, I've lost
none of them. In the work of salvation, God
speaks and it is done, brothers and sisters, isn't it? In the
work of salvation, God is the Alpha and the Omega, and if he's
the Alpha and the Omega, he's all the rest of the alphabet
together, so you put it together however you like. He is the beginning
and the end. We are like these disciples,
we are the recipients of the Lord Jesus Christ standing between
us and all that might send us into eternity away from him and
he stands there as a sovereign and says you can have me, you
must have me, you must have me, you must let these go. We mustn't treat lightly the
pain of those disciples. But I love to think of Peter
on that night. So brave. And here he is taking
up a sword. He intended to cut that man's
head off. He wasn't playing games. He was serious about his devotion
to his Lord and his Saviour. And yet in a moment he will flee
and just in a few hours he would be in that court cursing and
swearing and doing everything he possibly could to prove that
he had nothing to do with the Lord of Glory. You can have me
and you let these go. And I just love what Luke says
in verse 22 of 61. He says, the Lord turned and
looked upon Peter. What do you think that look was
like, brothers and sisters? I've heard people say that he
scowled at him and humiliated him. Not a second could that
possibly be the case. He looked with a sense of deep,
deep understanding and love and compassion. He knows we are but
flesh. He knows we are dust. He knew
it was going to happen. Peter's great lament and great
weeping was because of the look of compassion and understanding
on the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. He can't turn his face
away from those he loves. Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Their way is sin, exposed sinners. The Lord's way is the saviour
revealed, the one who stands, stands before us and stands behind
us. and stands in front and stands
before God's holy law. And then verse 12. Then the band
and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound
him. They bound him. The Lord Jesus
Christ is bound. The Lord Jesus Christ is bound
in covenant promises. He's bound in union with his
people. He's bound in the glory of his
father's name. He's bound to his word of promise. He's bound to his bride as a
husband. He's bound in every way. It's
a lovely word, isn't it? He's bound. He's bound by his
love to his father. He's bound by his love to his
bride. He's bound with this cup in his hands and led off to Calvary. He's bound, our great saviour,
he's bound by his name. Remember this morning I said
that this is all, the language here is all language befried
of this of glory, isn't it? Glorify your name, glorify your
son, glorify your people in all of this. and his name, he's bound
by all of his character, isn't he? God cannot deny himself. He's bound by his holiness. He's
bound by his justice. He's bound by his sovereignty.
He's bound by his love and he's bound by his grace. He's bound
by his truth. He's bound by his faithfulness. His faithfulness to his father,
faithfulness to his covenant promises. Our God cannot lie. Don't you love what Titus says?
He cannot lie. We make promises and they're
not worth the air that we breathe so often. The Lord Jesus Christ
makes promises and when he says it's done, he just spoke, and
this universe comes into existence. He speaks and salvation comes
into reality. He speaks a word and the word
becomes flesh and becomes spirit and life in us, doesn't he? He
speaks creatively. When God created the universe,
he said a word and we have reality. That's how God speaks. That's
what he's speaking today, isn't he? That's why all we want to
do is just hear what he says. I just want to hear what he says. I want to hear his sweet voice,
his bound. He's bound. No wonder the apostle
said, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's just one place, isn't it?
He is bound as he takes those sins of his people. He takes
them up to Calvary. He's bound, he's bound to bear
our sins in his own body on the tree. He's bound to pay the ultimate
price of God's holy law. I do love what Isaiah 42 says
of the Lord Jesus Christ at this time. He says, he will magnify
the law and make it honourable. He'll magnify the law. This is all about magnifying
the glory of God. He was bound to the law of God
as our sacrifice. He was bound, as Psalm 118 says,
he bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. He
was going up to Calvary to be the altar, wasn't he? Everything
in the Old Testament scriptures is pointing to this particular
time in this particular moment, every picture, whether it's the
lamb slain in the garden to cover the shame of Adam and Eve, whether
it's Noah's Ark upon which the wrath of God fell on those people
inside the Ark as it did on the rest of the world, and they were
shut in there by God, they were put in there by God and shut
in there by God, and they were protected. The outside of the
Ark was propitiation. The wrath absorbing sacrifice
and inside the ark was propitiation. It was pitched inside and out.
It's a picture of being in the Lord Jesus Christ and all the
wrath of God falling and we being sheltered. He stands between,
doesn't he? He stands between. He will magnify
the law and make it honourable. He will honour. God's holy law
must be honoured perfectly. in every jot and tittle, every
perfect obedience and every perfect fault must be dealt with. The
Lord must be honoured and this is exactly what he's bound to
the law. He gave the law and here he is
the sacrifice under the law. He is the altar, he is the temple,
everything. He is He is the lamb that Isaac
was looking for. We have the fire, we have the
wood, where's the lamb? And the Lord Jesus Christ is
that lamb. And here he is coming forth as
that lamb. I love the sense in which when
the Lord Jesus Christ took that sin and it became his, and God
raised him up and he was cursed. And the fire of God's holy wrath
fell upon him on that altar. And it's fascinating in the Old
Testament in Leviticus chapter nine and second Chronicles, when
they did establish that altar, where did the fire come from?
The fire came down from heaven, brothers and sisters. The fire
came, it was lit from heaven, that altar, and the sacrifice
was burnt up. And in the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the fire came down from heaven on all that sin that
was in him. And the sacrifice consumed the
fire. to the extent that God's holy
law says the sin is gone and it ceases to exist. We keep thinking,
don't we, that justification and all these glorious things
we talk about sort of leave us as sinners and God has sort of
covered the sin somehow. And you have laws as we do there. Your governor can pardon a criminal
for some heinous crime if he showed desire. But the crime's
still there. The man might be free, but the
crime's still there. In the justification of God's
people, because of him taking that sin and that sin being dealt
with perfectly by God's holy justice, the crime is gone, it
ceases to exist. There is no condemnation for
them in Christ Jesus, because there is nothing to condemn them
for. They've been cast as far as the
east is from the west. And it's all in this glorious,
glorious picture here of this substitute. Free, you can let
them go. You can let them go. You can
have me and you let my people go. While I was in Isaiah 42,
I do love what he says. He shall not fail. Don't you
love saying that? He shall not fail. Ever. in anything, he shall not
fail nor be discouraged. This notion that Jesus is wandering
around in heaven, wringing his arms, saying, how am I gonna
get this thing sorted? What is this? You can't get it out of
the box. He shall not fail till he have set judgment on the earth
and the isles shall wait for his law. I figure we're one of
the isles down there. I'm not sure. In Australia. He shall not fail, our great
savior. He stands, he stands bound He
stands bound in love for his bride. He says, I've loved you
everlastingly. And therefore, with loving kindness,
I'll draw you to myself. He's bound. He's bound with the
gift, isn't he? I just love to think of the fact
that before the foundation of the world, God the Father took
a people out of all this humanity, a number which is immense, 10,000
times 10,000 and thousands and thousands. You get your calculator
out, there's a lot of noughts there, brothers and sisters,
but there's one special number in all of those noughts, and
it's the one in front. That makes them all very, very
special indeed. The victory of the Lord Jesus
Christ is immense, brothers and sisters. The sureness of it is
as solid as this world can possibly ever see. We're everlasting love.
And the father gave those people to his son. He gave them to him. What a gift for God the father
to give his son a people. How precious. How precious. And for us, sinners, to be a
part of that gift from God the Father to his Son. For sinners
like us to have him come and stand between us and where we
would fall as we can over and over and over again and hold
us and carry us in his arms like his sheep and carry us to himself
and reveal himself to us. We are the gift of God the Father
to his son, brothers and sisters in Christ. What is going on in
these little fellowships around the world is the most significant
thing that's happening in this universe at the moment. In this
visible universe, the most precious things, all of the glory and
all of the focus of heaven's joy is on little places like
this. We are the apple of his eye.
He loves us everlastingly. He draws us to himself. He's
bound by those lovely promises that he makes that he's going
to present his people holy, spotless, unblameable, unapprovable in
his sight. There's only one sight that matters,
brothers and sisters. I've never seen it in my sight,
but God says that's what he sees. And what God sees is right. What
God sees is true. It's a glorious, glorious gospel
we have to declare, brothers and sisters, isn't it? We have
a successful sovereign saviour. You can have me and you let these
people go. There's a glorious freedom and
a glorious liberty for the children of God, isn't there? A glorious
liberty to walk with him, a glorious liberty to love him, a glorious
liberty to be cared for and carried by him, a glorious delight to
be rebuked by him and for him to say, this is as far as you
can go. and I won't let you go, I can't, I'll hedge you in and
gather you back to myself. Just like these disciples, didn't
they? They had darkness, just like we'll have days of darkness,
and yet the light shone, the light shone, shines above the
darkness. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay any charge, anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession. He's bound by that promise to
intercede for us right now. And he just shows himself in
heaven and his people are secure perfectly. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword,
as is written, for thy sake? We are killed all day long. We
are accounted sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things. We
are more than conquerors. You can have me and you let these
people go free. For I am persuaded, are you persuaded? I love being persuaded by God. I am persuaded that neither death
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God. which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are bound, brothers and sisters. Our lives are hidden with Christ
in God. Bound. May the Lord bless his word to
your hearts and may he be gracious to just continue to fix our eyes
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the author, he's the perfecter,
he's the finisher of faith.