Isaiah 53. I want to speak this morning on
the subject of our glorious substitute. Now we make much of the doctrine
of substitution because it is the very essence of the gospel. And by that I mean it is the
very mechanism by which God has redeemed us dealt with our sins
according to justice while at the same time showing mercy and
grace to us. And the doctrine of substitution
is stated clearly by the apostle Peter that Jesus Christ has died
the righteous one in the place of unrighteous ones in order
to bring us to God. Now that's as clear and simple
a statement as you can have of the doctrine of substitution.
Jesus Christ, who did no sin, in whom was no sin, who knew
no sin, was made to be a sin offering for us. He didn't just
offer some offering, he was the offering. He became our substitute,
stood in our place as the guilty one, even though He in Himself
was the righteous one. And He stood in our place as
us, bearing our sins in the presence of God, and bearing the punishment
due to them for this very reason, that He might bring us to God. Now it's true that everybody's
going to be brought to God one way or another. That is, all
men shall come before God and be judged. But when it says bring
us to God, it doesn't merely mean cause us to appear in His
presence, but to actually bring us as those whose sins have been
washed away, whose hearts have been reconciled to Him, who want
to come to Him and have no reason to fear coming to Him. Now imagine
that. Now of all the remarkable things
that the gospel brings to us, and there are many remarkable
things mentioned in the gospel as blessings given to us, is
this not among the most remarkable of them? That we may now come
into the presence of God himself without fear. I don't mean without
reverence, I mean without our knees shaking. Without us wondering
what's gonna happen. We may come to Him, the very
same One who is judge to all the earth. We may come to Him
and call Him Father, and need not fear the frown of a judge
from Him. Why? Because Jesus Christ, by
His substitutionary death, His death in our place, has taken
away all reason for God to be angry with us. Because he took
our place, and now think on this, this is remarkable, because he
took our place, we have gotten his place. Because he took our place as
the guilty before God, suffering judgment, we take his place as
the righteous before God, gaining all the blessings of the righteous.
Now that is substitution. And it's a glorious doctrine.
It's the glory, or there is glory in it, because it's the very
wisdom of God that devised this method to satisfy both his righteousness
and his gracious nature, all with one act. They say, well,
you know, substitution, you've explained that, that sounds pretty
simple. Why would we say that God is so wise for coming up
with it? Well, you know, it is very simple, but men never seem
to be able to come up with it. Men sit and ponder and think
and devise all the means that they can come up with to make
the way to God plain for them. They come up with ways to bring
themselves to God. And yet men never come up with
the idea of substitution. They come up with more complex
things. made up of rules and regulations
and ceremonies, which constantly change according to whoever it
is that's giving them out. When I was in Owensboro as a
pastor, that church was a very, very Catholic town. It was as
Catholic as this one is reformed. And so I, in my associations
with believers, I ran into several. who had been raised as committed
Catholics and the Lord had saved them out of that. But I remember
one of them, a carpenter that I did some work with, talking
about when he was a kid, he was the same age as me, so this would
have been when he was six or seven years old, and they came
out with what became known as Vatican II. Well, what was Vatican
II? Well, that's when all the uppity-ups
of the Catholic religion got together and they changed what
people had to do, that's Catholics, you know. And I remember he told
me, he said, I came home after I learned about that. And I said,
mom, we can eat meat on Friday. And she says, not mom, it was
his grandmother. His grandmother said, we can eat meat on Friday.
She slapped him. I said, why? She says, well, maybe they changed
it, but I'm not changing. You see, religion changes. God
doesn't. The rules of religion change.
The way of God does not change. And so man always comes up with
something complex and changing. God came up with something very
simple and unchanging. Man comes up with something that
doesn't work. Well, where's the wisdom in that? God came up with
something very simple that works. There's the wisdom of God. We
talk of the doctrine of substitution as being a glorious doctrine
because of the very simplicity of it. And there is a glory in this
doctrine because of its great power. So effective was this
work that everyone for whom it was done shall most certainly
be justified from all they could never be justified from in the
law of Moses. Now I believe this, and I don't
believe it because I like to take unpopular positions. I believe
it because there's a great glory in this. The method of substitution
of Jesus Christ taking our place assures us that everyone whose
place he took shall receive his place. The doctrine of substitution
does not merely make possibilities. The doctrine of substitution
or the work of substitution actually accomplish something. I remember Henry saying this
one time, and it was like a thunderbolt out of the sky when I heard it.
I was kind of in one of those dreamy moments. I don't know
if you all have them during sermons, but I certainly did. You know,
my mind would kind of wander around. But the Lord brought
me out of my wandering mental daze there when Henry made this
point. He said, if Christ paid my debt,
I don't owe it. Now, what's more simple than
that? He did not say that Christ earned money on the cross and
I can come and get money from Him with which I go to God and
pay my debt. That's not the way it works.
Jesus Christ took my place and in suffering what I deserved,
He actually paid my debt. I was brought up in free willism
and they said the gospel is a blank check signed in the blood of
Jesus Christ. And this blank check is offered
to you and you can write your name right there where it says,
you know, pay to the order of. And you can write your name in
there and it'll be good for you. And then I learned the gospel
and realized that the gospel of the Lord Jesus is not a blank
check, it's a canceled check. Now I realize with all our electronic
payments now, maybe some of the young people don't even realize
how checks work, but they used to be made out of paper. and
you actually wrote it and you signed it and you handed it to
someone and they put it in their bank and that bank gathered all
the woes up for the day and sent them to a central bank, a federal
bank, and then they would do all the book work that was necessary
and it would get sent to the bank that it was drawn from and
then money would come back. But when it was all done, that
check was cancelled. In other words, the bank on which
it was written had actually paid the required amount Everything
was finished. The transaction was done. And
that canceled check, well, this may sound funny, but it wasn't
good for anything after that. What I mean is you couldn't use
it again. But neither could you deny that the debt had been paid. And from time to time, if you
had a bill somewhere, and you'd go and write him a check, and
you'd pay for it, well, a month would go by, and then you'd get
a past due notice. You know, you think, I paid that. You call
them up and they say, well, we got no record that you paid it.
And so you went to your canceled checks that you got from the
bank, and there it was, you wrote it out to so-and-so, they signed
it on the back, it had been stamped, and you go and you show them
that canceled check, and it was the end of all argument over
whether that debt had been paid. And beloved, the gospel of substitution
is a gospel of a canceled check. And when we believe on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, We do not at that moment become
debt free. Why? Because we were made debt
free way back yonder. Rather, when we believe the gospel,
it's simply because the Holy Spirit has set forth Christ to
us and handed us, as it were, this canceled check to hold in
our possession, to hold in our hearts as a possession. So that
when the accuser of the brethren comes before that and says, you
owe a debt to God, you can say, uh-uh. paid in full. So everybody for whom Christ
made the substitutionary sacrifice, every one of them, is free, is
justified. The debt is paid. And we certainly
wouldn't want to ignore the glory of what this substitutionary
sacrifice accomplished. When it was done, when it was
completed, we were set free. And in time to come, we shall
be brought to God, not only as an act of faith, as we come to
Him pleading the blood of His Son, we shall also be presented
to Him without fault, blameless and full of joy. Now imagine
that. And brethren, all of this was
accomplished by Jesus Christ taking our place. So we make
much of the glory of the doctrine of substitution. But you know
what the greatest glory of the doctrine of substitution is?
The substitute himself. I was thinking about this the
other day. I was sitting right over there in my office and I was working on the
radio broadcast and as his common when I'm doing those kind of
things. You know, my mind wanders even when I'm preaching to myself.
And it wandered into this doctrine of substitution. And I've heard
a lot about it. And I've heard a lot of arguing
going on. And I've heard a lot of contention over it. But one
thing I've noticed is this. Whenever there's contention over
it, it's because they're forgetting the greatest glory of it. And
that's the substitute itself. You know, doctrine is like the
moon. It has no light of its own. It's borrowed light. And even this glorious doctrine
of substitution does not have a light and glory of its own.
But all of its glory comes from the Son of God shining upon it.
And it's His glory that makes it glorious. But I tell you this,
if we could have found someone else who'd have been willing
to go to Calvary and die in our place, what good would it have
done? It wouldn't have worked. Why? Because anyone else who went
to Calvary would have gone there bearing his own sin. And he who
bears his own sin cannot bear the sin of another. The only
thing that makes the doctrine of substitution, the scheme of
substitution, if you will, the only thing that makes it work
is the substitute himself. And so I want to spend a few
minutes talking about the glory of our substitute, the Lord Jesus
Christ. We said that this doctrine is
wise, but Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. He is the wisdom
of the doctrine of substitution. We said that the doctrine of
substitution is a declaration of the power of God, but Jesus
Christ is the power of God. Paul said we preach the gospel,
we preach Christ to the Jew and the Gentile, but to the Jew,
it's foolishness. Excuse me, to the Gentile, it's
foolishness. To the Jew, it's weakness. But
we preach Christ crucified. We preach Christ, the wisdom
and power of God. Jesus Christ is the simplicity
of the doctrine. Oh, how important for us to lay
hold of this. We say the doctrine is simple.
Why? Because it's all in one person. Paul said in 2 Corinthians
11, I fear as the serpent beguiled Eve in the garden, so your mind
should be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ.
It's amazing what people will go off to, what they will be
distracted by, what they'll try to add to the Lord Jesus Christ. But do you know what simplicity
means? The word simple actually means of one thing. I learned
that in chemistry class, believe it or not. Because if you had
a simple solution, it meant you had, and I mean like a water
solution of something there. If you had a simple solution,
it just meant there was only one thing in there. If it had more
than one thing in it, they called it a compound solution. The gospel
is a simple solution because it's made of only one thing,
Jesus Christ. When we say that we determined
to know nothing among you other than Christ and Him crucified,
it's not because we don't have intelligence enough to know something
else. It's not because we could not occupy the time with talking
about other things. It's because no matter where
else we go from that thing, Jesus Christ, we're going away from
the gospel because that's all the gospel is made of. And that
makes sense. We don't hold to the simplicity
which is in Christ just in order that it might look like we're
some kind of valiant defenders of the truth. We hold to the
simplicity of Christ because there ain't nothing else. Everything you add to it ruins
it. And he is the one in whom all
the redeemed become the righteousness of God. We realize that sins
the issue that separates us from God. And that God cannot and
will not have us or tolerate us unless we are righteous. Well, the Bible says in the Lord
shall all Israel be righteous and exalt. And that Lord is nothing
other or no one other than our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the
Lord our righteousness. Now let me speak a little bit
of the glory of the person of our substitute. I said turn to
Isaiah 53 and we're gonna look at a few points from this chapter,
which is one of the most glorious chapter to me, most glorious
chapters in all the scriptures. Setting forth our Lord Jesus
Christ as our substitute. He is called in verse one, the
arm of the Lord, who has believed our message. and to whom has
the arm of the Lord been revealed. Now, whenever God has determined
to do anything in this creation, he has done it by his arm, the
Lord Jesus. In fact, when he created this
creation, he did it by, through, and for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I realize that he did not
exist at that point in time, if we can call it that. He didn't
exist as the man Christ Jesus. He existed as the Word. And later
the Word would be made flesh and dwell among us, but still
it was the same person. The Bible says he spoke and it
was. Who do you think it was that spoke? The Word. Who do you think made everything
that we see? the Word. From creation forward, the works
of God has been carried out by the Lord Jesus Christ. Look for
nothing from the hand of God that is not attached to His arm,
the Lord Jesus. Among Reformed Baptists, and
I use that statement in a sense that not all Reformed Baptists
would claim this, but there came a time when Calvinistic Baptists
began to split into two camps. And the ones that wanted to retain
the Ten Commandments as the rule and guide for Christian living,
they took on the name Reformed Baptists. And then folks like
us, we just kind of took the name Sovereign Grace Baptists.
And the thing is, oh, there were a lot of what would now be called
Sovereign Grace Baptists who were called Reformed Baptists
way back then, they just never changed their name. But nonetheless,
those who retained it purposefully, they would say things like, well,
we take you to Christ for justification, but send you to Moses for sanctification. Let me tell you something plain
as I know how to say it. Moses has nothing for you. He
has nothing you want. The problem's not Moses. I mean, the problem's not in
the law that he declared for God. Not faulting Moses on this,
but he's got nothing for you. Everything God has for you, everything
in his extended hand, is attached to his arm, Christ Jesus. And
if it's not coming from Christ, you don't want it. Believe me,
you don't want it. So look for nothing apart from
Christ. Well, everything God has done,
he has done through Christ. Even though that's true, not
everybody sees this. That's why it says, who's believed
our message? And what is our message? Well,
that God, particularly in the matters of salvation, has accomplished
everything through Christ. That's kind of our message. Well,
who believes that? Well, the one to whom the arm of the Lord's
been revealed. You know, when there are arguments, I mean contentious
arguments on vital points of the gospel, you can pretty much
be certain of this. At least one of the people involved
in the argument has never had the arm of the Lord revealed
to him. I was preaching from this chapter one time in a conference
near here. Over in Hartley. And I made this
statement, I said, you know, People argue about whether or
not God is sovereign. They argue about whether or not
we need to believe that Jesus Christ is sovereign. I said,
and people argue about that until they meet God. They argue about
that until the arm of the Lord is revealed to them. And then
it's over. I tell you, Saul of Tarsus didn't
have any more arguments about who was Lord and who was in control
after he met Christ on the way to Damascus. So long as people
are involved in religion, they'll argue about everything. When
they meet Christ, the arguments stop. That's amazing and it's wonderful.
It makes for such peaceful churches. When the only issue you've got
is Christ, and you keep setting it forward, because it does two
things. It delights the sheep, and it irritates the goats until
they leave of their own accord. It pretty much does that. Churches like to spend a lot
of effort when they're setting them up, trying to figure out
how they're going to do church discipline, which means they want to figure
out, before they even get started, they want to figure out how they're
going to kick people out. Because that's what church discipline
always comes down to. Under what circumstances and by what means
are we going to excommunicate people? Do you know what the
easiest way to excommunicate people is? You keep preaching
the gospel at goats and they get tired of it and they leave.
Now, there are some who will, like goats, just start butting
others and then you have to deal with it. But generally speaking,
you preach the gospel of Christ And the sheep will lie down in
green pastures and have their thirst quenched in still waters.
And the goats will get mad and kick us and then head on out. Because that's not what they
want. Christ is not goat food. It's sheep food. Those to whom Christ has been
revealed, the arm of the Lord has been revealed, for them,
Christ is everywhere. In most of religion, they're
trying to get Christ in as little of it
as they can. And the reason for that is they
want as much as possible of it to be about them. And the only
way that the gospel can be about you is at the expense of it being
about Christ. And they know they've got to
have Christ in there somewhere. And so they mention him once
in a while. I listened to a recorded message
by a local preacher here. I want to know what he was preaching.
I want to know whether or not it was the truth. I waited 15
minutes before he ever even mentioned the Lord Jesus Christ. And then
the only reason was, is he was bragging up his people for their
faith in Christ. He wasn't really talking about
Christ. He was talking about the people's faith. Brethren, if the arm of
the Lord has been revealed to you, if He's opened your eyes
to see Him, He is everywhere, isn't He? You say, I need forgiveness.
Well, there it is. I need righteousness. There it is. I need to be shepherded. There He is. I need light. There He is. I need someone to
rule the universe for me. There he is. I see his hand. I see him as the hand of God
in everything, don't you? Now, I realize because of our
fleshly minds, it may take us a while to realize that, but
we eventually get to it. We realize that Christ is everywhere
and he is the reason for everything. To those to whom the arm of the
Lord has not been revealed, He is nothing more than a slogan,
nothing more than a word or a name we tag at the end of our prayers.
Because we think like it's, you know, it's like some little magical
incantation you say at the end, like abracadabra. We say in the
name of Christ we pray and that kind of puts the power to it,
you know? No. Christ is everything. He's everywhere. He's all there is. As the arm of the Lord, He is
the revelation of the power of God. Look over at Isaiah chapter
59, verse one. Surely the arm of the Lord is
not too short to say. Now, of course, they didn't capitalize
arm. And that's okay. But we realize
that's really not talking as though Jehovah God up there has
an actual arm. His arm is the Lord Jesus. And
the Lord Jesus, well he's not short to save. He isn't lacking. It isn't like Jesus has done
all he can. You must. No. It's Jesus has
done it. He has finished it. He has accomplished
it. It's done. The arm of the Lord is not short
that he cannot save. Now turn back to Isaiah 51 and
look at verse 9. We're saying that Jesus Christ
is the arm of the Lord. He is the revelation of the power
of God. It says here in verse 9, Isaiah
51, Awake! Awake! Clothe yourself with strength,
O arm of the Lord, as in days gone by, as in generations of
old. Was it not you who cut Rahab
to pieces? Now that's using the name Rahab
there for Egypt. It's talking about the native
country of Egypt. And it's talking about how when the Jews were
there and God would redeem them out of Egypt and take them to
their promised land. What did he do? He tore Egypt
up in a succession of ten plagues and disasters. The arm of the
Lord shredded Egypt. Our Lord Jesus did that. Moses
didn't do that. Moses didn't turn the water into
blood. He didn't turn the dust into fleas and flies and things
like that. He did none of that. The Lord
Jesus did that. People say the death angel came
through Egypt. Who do you think that was? That
was the Lord Jesus Christ went through Egypt on Passover night
and killed the firstborn in every household in Egypt. He shredded
Egypt. He said, you cut Rahab to pieces.
who pierced that monster through. Was it not you who dried up the
sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the
depths of the sea, so that the redeemed might cross over? He
shreds Egypt and the people of God come out, and they're walking
across the wilderness, and suddenly they come up to the Red Sea.
And then they turn around and look, and here comes Pharaoh
and his army. And they're all upset. Said,
did you bring us out of Egypt just to get killed out here?
And Moses said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And by the Lord's command, Moses
stretched out his rod over that ocean. And the Lord sent a mighty
wind, it says, and he opened up the sea before them. And it
wasn't muddy on the bottom. It was all dry. They walked across
there, the Bible said, dry shod. Who was it opened up that water? Who is it opened up the Red Sea? The Lord Jesus Christ did that. He is the arm of the Lord. Christ was a supernatural glory.
None of it was evident in his natural appearance. Back in Isaiah 53, it says, he
grew up before him. That is the arm of the Lord grew
up before the Lord like a tender shoot and like a root out of
dry ground. He had humble origins. When our
Lord Jesus Christ was born into the world, he was not born into
the capital of the great empire that day. He wasn't born in Rome. He wasn't even born in the capital
city of Israel. He was born in what we would
call a hamlet, a little out of the way place. And had it not been that the
angels told the shepherds about what was going on there, nobody
else in the world would have known, except Joseph and Mary,
what happened that night that our Lord was born. He came into the world a native
of a nation that had dried up in its political power, but worse
than that, it was dried up spiritually. Among all the leaders of Israel,
there was hardly a one that knew the Lord, and certainly none
among the very top ones. Not the chief priests, not the
high priest, not King Herod, He came in as a root, springing
up like a tender shoot in dry ground. For sure, nobody outside of Israel
gave Him the time of day, and most of those in Israel did not.
He came into His own, and His own received Him not. He was
of humble appearance, and I don't just mean what His face looked
like or anything. It says here, He had no beauty
or majesty to attract us to Him. nothing in his appearance that
we should desire him. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world and you might think that if God was going to send
his son into the world and made him the most handsome man that
ever walked the face of the earth, would have made him strikingly
tall and robust, would have made him look like
the son of God. But he didn't. He looked like
every other Jewish man in Israel that day. There was so little outstanding
in the appearance and courage of the Lord Jesus Christ that
when they wanted to arrest him, they had to hire Judas to point
him out. You know, you look at these pictures
that people draw now, or paint, you know, of Jesus and the disciples,
and you've got twelve men that look like Jews, and one guy that
looks like an Anglo-Saxon with long hair. If that's what our
Lord looked like, you know, Jews would say, look, I don't need
to take you there. Find the guy with the long, straight hair.
That's him. No, the Lord Jesus Christ, there's
nothing special about the way he looked, nothing special about
his manner of speech. That is, he spoke the language
of the day. The only thing that stood out
about him was the authority with which he spoke, and that came
from the inside and came from the truth of what he declared.
He had a humble appearance. There was nothing about Him that
anybody would have said, well, there's the Son of God. In fact, one of the reasons they
crucified Him is because He said He was the Son of God, and they
wouldn't believe Him. And He had a humble manner about
Him. Look at verse 7. He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the
slaughter, And as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he
did not open his mouth. I'm taken back by the humility
and meekness of the Lord. If there was ever a man that
lived that had a right to brag on himself, it was the Lord Jesus. If there was ever a man that
lived who had the right to justify himself from all charges against
him, it was Him. But they charged him with blasphemy.
They charged him with causing an uproar and being a danger
to Rome. And our Lord gave no word of
defense. Now you and me, we get accused
of the slightest thing. We jump to our own defense. Whether or not we have a defense,
we'll jump to it. If they accuse us of something
that's true, we'll try to lie about it, still make a defense.
They spoke perjury against the Lord Jesus Christ, and he stood
there and he took it. He said, he was so meek, he could
actually say he was meek, and there was no pride in him saying
that. He says, come unto me, all you that are weary and heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am me and lowly of heart, and you will find rest
to your soul. I know that we get taken up with
brash and arrogant people every four years. Quite often we elect
the most brash and arrogant person running for president, the one
who makes the biggest promises and brags on himself more than
anybody else. He wins. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Came and set forth the father. And yet, do you not find in that
a great dignity and a great glory beyond anything you've ever seen
in any man? We tend to honor among natural
men those who express some humility and meekness, but none of them
can match that of the Lord Jesus. And there's the glory of His
righteousness. We love to boast of our own righteousness. You
say, well, that'll do that. Well, we learn not to go around
saying I'm righteous, but let somebody accuse us of sin, we'll
jump to our own defense. But in Christ, true righteousness
is actually found. There's a righteousness of his
obedient to God's law. He never did anything contrary
to what had been commanded in the law. After all, it was he
that wrote the law. You realize that? Bible says that God wrote
the law on the tablets of stone with his own finger. Whose finger
do you think that was? It was the finger at the end
of the arm of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ wrote that law,
and he kept it. There's the righteousness Christ
had of being always about his Father's business and finding
his very sustenance in doing the Father's will. Now, I know
some people in this world who, as much as I imagine any person
in this world could be this way, they seem devoted to the Lord
Jesus Christ. devoted to God and His cause
in this world. Never anybody like the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then there's the righteousness
of His nature. Hold your place there in Isaiah 53. And just
look for a second at Galatians chapter 5. Now the text of scripture I want
to read to you is often laid before believers as a pattern
for them to follow. And that's not altogether wrong.
The problem is, anytime we write down a pattern or somebody gives
us a list of things to do or be, we turn it into legalism.
But while what I'm going to read or what we're going to read here
is a list of the characteristics that are to be found in a believer,
more than all of this, it is a description of the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. Verse 22 of Galatians chapter
5. But the fruit of the Spirit is love. Did anybody ever love
like the Lord Jesus Christ did? Having loved His own, He loved
them to the very end. And He didn't mean just the end
of the time. He loved them to the very end of Himself. Joy. Our Lord faced opposition. And it says, and then the Lord
rejoiced and He said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth. that you've hidden these things
from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. We see opposition and we get
down and depressed. Our Lord faced opposition and
rejoiced. Love, joy, peace. The only time we find our Lord
truly troubled, and who wouldn't be troubled at this, is on the
night of Gethsemane as he faced having the sins of an innumerable
host laid to his charge in his work to bear them before the
Father. Now that troubled him, and who wouldn't? It should.
But otherwise, he was a man of peace, patience. It's a good thing for the disciples
I wasn't the Lord, because that wouldn't have lasted three years.
It would have lasted about three days. And I'd say, OK, I had
enough out of you guys. I'm going to find 12 more. Kindness. I think of all that our Lord
did for people. Isn't it amazing? Have you ever
been as good to people? Kind and good as the Lord was?
Goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. Oh, what blessing there is for
us in that word when we realize the Lord is gentle. What if He'd have been harsh
with you? self-control. You know, people like to find
excuses for when they lose control, especially if they lose control
for what they consider to be some religious purpose. And they'll
point to our Lord Jesus Christ when he was in the temple and
he cleansed the temple, cleared out the people selling doves
and selling sacrificial animals and the money changers, cleared
them all out. And they presented as though Christ just kind of
lost it. He went in there and so full of the zeal of the Lord's
house, it just, well, he lost control and just went out. He
didn't lose control. He knew what he was going to
do before he went in there. He was a man of self-control.
He did that because it needed to be done. He wasn't a wild man. Jesus Christ, there is none like
Him. I am so glad that God dealt with
me, not as men deal with one another, but as we see the Lord
Jesus Christ and His character deal with us. And then lastly,
there's the glory of the Lord's success, verse 10. Yet it was
the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And
though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see
his offspring and prolong his days. And the will of the Lord
will prosper in his hand. I want you to think about this.
It starts out saying it's the will of the Lord to crush him
and ends with the will of the Lord will prosper. in his hand. Now, who else in all of creation
could turn being crushed into a success? Somebody, a parent, imagine that
some parent down there sees his kid walk out into the road in
front of oncoming traffic and And love compels them, even though
there is no time. They rush out there and try to
rescue him. And in the process, they're crushed under the vehicle. Well, you might honor the sacrifice. You might honor the love and
selflessness that propelled that parent right out in front of
a speeding vehicle. But you wouldn't call it a success. You would not call being crushed
Prospering. But our Lord was crushed. Our
sins were laid upon Him. And though He Himself did no
wrong, all the wrongs of His people were laid upon Him. And
the Lord God crushed Him under the weight of wrath and judgment.
And the Lord Jesus turned that into prosperity. The will of
the Lord. What is the will of the Lord?
He says in John chapter 6, I have not come to do my own will, but
the will of Him that sent me. And this is His will. That of
all that He has given me, I would lose none, but raise Him up in
the last day. You might count being crushed
in a work of rescue, you might count it to be a success if the
person who was crushed rescuing another, well that one he rescued
actually lived through it. And brethren, that's what happened.
Our Lord took us up in His bosom and He went to the cross and
God crushed Him. But it didn't crush us. He didn't
lose anybody. Just like the ark of Noah. It
went through that storm. Eight people went in. Eight people
came out. The ark didn't lose one, did
they? Not one animal died the whole time. And Jesus Christ
went through the flood of God's wrath and he didn't lose any.
And then he says, and this is the will of him that sent me,
that everyone who hears and believes of them, I would lose nothing,
but raise him up on the last day. Now we honor the Lord that
he undertook this work that the father gave him. But you know,
we got nothing to do with that. We honor him for not losing one,
that the Lord gave him, but there's nothing we do for or against
that, it just is. But he also said, this is the
will of the Father, and this is where it speaks to us. Everyone
that sees the Son and believes on him, he said, I'll not lose
a one of them. Now, you can't know, no way for
you to know whether God gave you to the Son. You can know
that everyone given to the Son, well, none of them shall be lost.
But here's one thing you can know, whether or not you have
looked to him and trusted him. Brethren, if you have, Christ
is not going to lose you because the only reason you believed
in him, because he laid hold of you and anything he lays hold
of, he never lets go of. Substitution is wonderful. The
substitute is wonderfuler. He is all the wonder of substitution. Brethren, sisters, keep your
eyes on Him, and you will never be tempted to go anywhere else. Heavenly Father, bless Your Word
as only You can. In the name of our glorious substitute,
we pray. Amen.