Well, it's good to see old friends,
old friends, and new friends. Most of you know, I guess, that
my wifey, I lost my wifey, and it hurts. And this is my first
conference that I've been to since I lost her, one of those
triggers, you know. But I was laying last night and
crying, and I thought about the old friends that I'd see today,
I saw yesterday, and I was so confident. I am so happy to be
here. There's no place in this earth
that I'd rather be than right here this morning. So thank the
Lord for that. Thank the Lord for your pastor
and Vicki. And I want you to turn your Bibles, if you would,
this morning to a passage of scripture that I want us to look
at in Isaiah chapter 38. I want to read just a verse and
then I want us to go back and see some things about King Hezekiah
in Isaiah chapter 38. I wanted to read this chapter but
let's just look at it as we go. Isaiah chapter 38 and look in
verse 17. Behold for peace. I had great
bitterness. But thou hast, in love to my
soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast
cast all my sins behind thy back." And I want you to think with
me on this this morning, in love to my soul, in love to my soul. All the Savior's did for us is
because He loved us. He loved our soul. But to get
some history and maybe deepen the meaning of what Hezekiah
was talking about here this morning, I want us to go back to verse
1. In those days was Hezekiah sick
unto death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son
of Amos, came unto him and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord,
set thy house in order. for thou shalt die and not live. In those days, and it takes us
back to chapter 36 and chapter 37, there was a great king, Shunasherib. He was the king of Assyria. He
was probably one of the most powerful kings in the world at
that time. And he had a wicked, mean, vicious
general. Rev Shaka. And they had overtaken
nations, they had killed and enslaved countries, used women
for sex slaves, put the young men in slavery, killed the old
men, and they came here to Jerusalem and encamped around about this
small city of Jerusalem. And he sent his general to intimidate
the Jews so they would come out and surrender to him and be hauled
off into captivity. And he was a very vulgar man,
Reb Shackle was. And the Jews didn't want to surrender.
They knew what was coming. He said, if you'll surrender,
I'll haul you off and I'll give you corn and wine and you'll
have it made. But they knew what was coming.
They would be enslaved. The women would be mistreated
and raped. And Reb Shack has said, if you
don't surrender to me, and here's how vulgar he was, he said, you're
going to eat your own dung and drink your own piss. That's what
the Bible said about it. And he sent this letter blaspheming
God, the God of heaven. Don't let Hezekiah tempt you
to trust in the Lord God. I've destroyed all of these other
gods and I'll destroy him. And he blasphemed the God of
heaven. And he wrote a letter to that
end. Hezekiah took the letter and he went up to the temple
of God. And he laid the letter out before the face of the Lord.
And here's the way he addressed the Lord. Oh Lord of hosts, in
chapter 37 and verse 15, Oh Lord of hosts, Lord of many, God of
a great army, God of Israel, the covenant God, that dwells
between the cherubim, the redeeming God. The cherubim was those angels
overshadowed in the blood-sprinkled mercy sea. You are redeeming
God. You're God alone. You're unique.
You're supreme, you're the eternal, and nobody's like you. Of all the kingdoms of this earth,
and you have made heaven and earth, you're the creator. What
a way to address God! Can you imagine the fear that
gripped this king? And yet, it's almost like he's
on vacation. He takes the letter and he lays
it before the Lord and he says, Lord, here's who you are. And
I know for a fact that this king has destroyed nations and he's
ground their idols into powder and cast it into the fire. But
they were just idols. Here's who you are. And Isaiah came and said, I've
got a message to you from the Lord. And he says, here's the
message that's sent to you from the Lord, Hezekiah. this king
is not going to set a foot in this city. He's not going to
shoot an arrow in here. He's not going to build an embankment
against it. I will protect this city myself.
And the king that's blaspheming me, I will take care of him. King Shennasherib went back home
After the angel of the Lord had went out into his camp and slew
185,000 of his men. You can talk big. You can talk
big. Men can brag, can't they? But
all God has to do is touch his enemies and they're gone. It's
no difficulty at all for God to destroy his enemies. Just
speak the word, just say it. And they're dead, they're gone.
Old men lift their voices to heaven. I've done this and I've
done that and yet all God does is just touch them and they're
gone. 80, 185,000. Shenneshire went
back home, was praying to his idols and his two sons killed
him. Oh brothers and sisters, that's the God we have. Let the
world do what it wants to do, let God's enemies do what they
want to do, but in His own time and in His own way, He'll deal
with His enemies. But that's where we come now
to our text. In those days, just as Hezekiah
was filled with confidence and peace, just as the Jews were
ready to shout in the streets. In those days, Hezekiah was sick
unto death. Isn't it amazing? And I think
this is the first lesson we should learn from this experience of
this man. The Lord's people suffer, and
usually their heartaches comes one after another. Somebody said
life is too short and heartaches are too many to be too much of
a lapsed time between them. We go from one heartache and
we're ready to rejoice and then what happens? Here comes another
one. It's always that way with the Lord's people. Brother Scott
used to say, the Lord's people are either going into trouble,
they're in the midst of trouble, or they're going out of trouble.
But it's trouble, trouble, trouble, isn't it? When our Lord Jesus
came to this earth, he spent 40 days and 40 nights tempted
of the devil. The devil's wrath tempted him. Go up on the temple and jump
off and God will protect you. Tempting him to kill himself. 40 days and 40 nights. He left
the desert and went out to his own town where he was raised
in Nazareth, and instead of them receiving him, what did they
attempt to do? Cast him over the brow of the
hill. Our Lord had no rest while he was here. One trouble into
another, and brothers and sisters, you and I shouldn't expect anything
else. One trouble after another. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous. It's that way with the early
church. You read through the book of Acts. And the persecution
started from Saul of Tarshish. The Lord converted Saul of Tarshish.
The churches had rest, but just for a day. King Herod rose up
and imprisoned Peter, killed James with a sword, and trouble
started again. Trouble, trouble, trouble with
God's people. Haven't you found that to be
so? You get through one affliction, one heartache, and here comes
another one. Life is a pit, isn't it? Life
is a pit. We can learn something else here
from this man. Look in verse 2. In those days
he was sick unto death. And the Lord said, set your house
in order, you shall die and not live. Then Hezekiah turned his
face towards the wall and prayed unto the Lord and said, remember
now, O Lord, I beseech thee, have walked before thee in truth
and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good
in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. He wasn't
telling the Lord, I'm so righteous and good. Our text that I read
to you said, you've put my sin away. You've forgiven all my
sin. He was just telling the Lord, you've worked in my heart,
you've given me a heart to be honest with you, and I've been
honest. That's all he was saying. In verse 4, then came the word
of the Lord to Isaiah saying, go and tell Hezekiah, thus saith
the Lord, the God of David, thy father, I have heard thy prayer,
I have seen thy tears, behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen
years, and I will deliver thee in this city out of the hand
of the king of Assyria, and I will defend the city. What is it that
we should do When our hearts are troubled, we should pray. What a good time to seek the
Lord when we're troubled. I never could understand people
when they got in trouble, they quit coming to the worship. What
a perfect time. We used to sing the old song,
when my heart is broken up with a bitter woeful cup, Then's the
time to go to Christ all along when we're in trouble. Trouble,
trouble, trouble, and what's the best thing we can do? Let
our troubles quicken us to pray, to seek the Lord. That's what
this man did. And he turned his face to the
wall. I don't know if he had company
and he wanted to be alone, but he turned his face to the wall.
He turned his face to the corner. He wanted to get away from everybody
and everything around him that was hindering him from getting
along with the Lord. It reminds us, does it not, of
the closet the Lord told us to get into when we pray. When you
pray, enter into your closet. When I was My wife and I bought
an old house several years ago and it had one closet underneath
the stairway. And it just had room. If you
wanted to get in there, you had to take everything out. You got
in there and just enough room to scrounge in there. A closet. When we get into our closets,
there's just enough room for us. The husband has to leave
his wife outside. The wife has to leave her husband
outside. We take ourselves, ourselves
only, to the Lord. No room for anything else. Pray
to your Father which is in secret. That's what this man did. He
wanted to get along with the Lord. And then what did he say? Shut the door. Shut the door. Oh, isn't it wonderful? to spend
some time with the Lord when you're in trouble. And He answers
your prayer. Isn't it difficult? It's difficult
to come up here and pray. Marvin, it's difficult. But boy,
to get along with the Lord in prayer. Just you and Him seeking
His face. And sometimes it seems like everything's
against us when we pray. Can you imagine the prophet of
the Lord coming and saying, set your house in order, for you
shall die. That's what the Lord's telling
you, you shall die. What grounds would he have to
pray? What's he going to say? I mean,
it seems so definite, didn't it? You shall die. I don't understand the Lord in
these matters. There's things in you that seem
sometimes to shut us out. But you know what happens when
we think there's no hope for us. The trouble is too great.
You know the best thing we can do is lay hold of the Lord anyway. Go to Him and say, Lord, I don't
understand, but I'm seeking for mercy. I'm seeking Your face. Is there any way that You can
have mercy upon me? Didn't seem like it, did it?
That Canaanite woman that came to the Lord Jesus, there's no
way that most of us would have hung on to the Lord and not let
Him go. She was a Gentile woman, her daughter was grievously vexed
with the devil, and she said, Lord, have mercy upon me. And
what did He say? Nothing. Heaven was silent to
that woman. And she just kept on, Lord, have
mercy upon me. And then the apostles turned
on her and said, would you send this woman away? She's worrying
us. And what did she say? Lord, have
mercy upon me. Have mercy upon me. Then, boy,
he made this statement, and you talk about a heart-wrenching
statement. He said, Woman, I'm not even
sent to you. My Father has sent me to the
Jews, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Wouldn't that
have been awful? What did she do? She's like, Oh, Jacob, I'm
not going to let you go. I need you. Nobody else can help
me. Help me, Lord, have mercy upon
me. And he said, Woman, it's not
right for me to take my bread and cast it to you dogs. And
she said, Truth, Lord, I am a dog. I am a dog. But the dogs eat
of the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table. Oh, she
got along with him, didn't she? And he heard her prayer and answered
her prayer. Woman, great is your faith. Be
it unto you. Here's what I would encourage
you to do this morning. I don't care if you're here and
you know the Lord, and your heart's heavy, and you may be not heavy
this morning, but it'll be soon. You're here this morning and
you don't know the Lord, here's what I would encourage you to
do. Against all odds, seek the Lord. You have access to God
the Father through Jesus Christ the Lord. He's seated between
the cherubim. He's seated on a mercy seat.
And I don't care where you're at this morning, get along with
Him and seek His face. He can help you. He can help
you. He can deliver you. That's what
He did for this man, wasn't it? I've heard your prayers. I've
heard your prayers, I've seen your tears, I'm going to put
them in my bottle." And this man was so doubtful
and so fearful about it all, he said, he said, can you give
me a sign that you've heard me? And he did in verse 8. And behold,
I will bring again the shadow of the degrees which is gone
down in the sun to Olivea as ten degrees backwards. So the
sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it had gone down."
Isn't that amazing? Some of these fellows that study
times and the stars and everything, they said there's a gap. They
found a gap that this has really happened. The sun went backwards. Ten degrees. And what does this
tell us? It tells us that prayer, answered
prayer, is a miracle. He said, how can I know? How
can I know that you've heard me? He said, I'm going to perform
a miracle. I'm going to do a miracle just to let you know. Brothers
and sisters, every sincere, every prayer of faith, that's poured
out of your heart to the Lord, He hears that prayer, and He'll
answer that prayer, and it's just as much a miracle today
as it was then. Every sigh, He hears it. Every
tear, He sees it. And He answers in His own way.
And I'm telling you, it's a miracle. Prayer is a miracle. He may not
answer the way we want Him to, but He'll answer the way that
will honor Him and will be for your good. There's been some of the greatest
saints in this world and they prayed and the Lord didn't answer
them like they wanted to be answered. But the way He answered them
was best for them and for His glory. Remember Moses when he
said, Lord, let me go see the land of Canaan. And God said,
don't say anything else to me about this because you're not
going. You're not going into the land of Canaan. So he took
him up on the mountain and he showed him the land of Canaan.
But he didn't go in there. But what did the Lord give him?
Something better. Can you imagine how that man
wanted to go see the land? And he just poured out his soul,
Lord, please let me go see that. The land of milk and honey. I
want to see those grapes. I want to see those cities that
are walled up to heaven." The Lord said, no, but I'm going
to bring you up here with me and show you the Father's house.
I'm going to show you my throne. Don't you think that was better
than seeing the land of Canaan? If Moses had went in with the
children of Israel to the land of Canaan, he'd have been grieved
to death. That wasn't a land of rest. That
was a land of battles and bloodshed. The Lord gave him something better.
He may not give you what you're asking for, but if your heart
has sincerely sought Him, He'll give you what's best for you.
The Apostle Paul had this thorn in the flesh. You out here in
the country, Doug, you know why it is to get a thorn in your
flesh. When I was a kid, we went barefooted most of the year,
especially in the summertime. I've got thorns, been stung with
bees on the bottom of my feet. I know what it is to have a thorn
in your foot. And it gets festered up and you
can't walk on it. Every time you take a step, you're
reminded of it. Paul had a thorn in his flesh,
and it was bothering him. It was tormenting him. A messenger
of Satan debuffed him. He said, Lord, would you remove
this? The Lord didn't say anything. He went and prayed again, Lord,
Jesus, remove this. He didn't say a thing. He prayed
the third time, Lord, please remove this thorn. And what did
Christ say to him? No. but I'll give you something
better. I've got something different
for you. Something you'd never dreamed to ask me. I'll give
you grace. You ever felt his grace? I remember
one night I thought, boy, I'll wind up in the emergency room
before this night is over. You ever spend a night like that?
I ain't gonna make it through this night. I'm just gonna let
him give me something to knock me out, you know. And I turned
my heart towards heaven. I said, Lord Jesus, I need your
grace. And man, the strength that filled
my spirit and my heart. He didn't remove Paul's thorn,
but he gave him something better. Seek His face is what I'm saying. And He may not give you what
you think you need, but if your prayer is a prayer of faith to
Him, then He'll give you what's best for you and what will glorify
His blessed name. I jotted down a few scriptures.
You're about a day of trouble. And what such invitations that
you and I have call upon me in the day of trouble. Isn't that
a wonderful invitation? And here's the promise, I will
deliver you and you shall glorify me. The Lord hear thee in the
day of trouble. The God of Jacob defend thee. In the day of trouble will I
call upon the Lord, and He will answer me. And boy, we have a
good example in this man, don't we? He turned his face to the
wall, and he sought the Lord, and the Lord heard him, and added
15 years on to his life. So pray. If I had one thing to
encourage you here this morning, there is a living God in heaven. the triune God, the redeeming
God, the sovereign God. And He's a God who hears and
answers prayer. Seek His face. Something else we see quickly
about this man, here in verses 10 through verse 14, a true believer
can have some apprehensions about dying. He can look upon it as
a sad day in his life, even fearful. I said in the cutting off of
my days that I shall go to the gates of death, of the grave. I am depraved of the remainder
of my years. I said I shall not see the Lord,
even the Lord in the land of the living. I shall behold him
no more, man no more, whether it happens to the world. My age
is departed and is removed from me as the shepherd's tent. I
have cut off like a weaver my life. He shall cut me off with
pining sickness. From day even to night will thou
make an end of me. I reckon till morning that as
a lion, so shall he break all my bones. From day even to night
will thou make an end of me. Like a crane or a swallow, so
did I chatter. I did mourn as a dove. My eyes
fell with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed. Undertake for me. We read the
Apostle Paul's statement sometime, I have a desire to depart to
be with Christ, which is far better. And we think all believers
have that same burning desire. And that all fear of death and
all anxiety about dying is taken away. But brothers and sisters,
that's not always true. Here was a man who was 37 years
old. He had no son to take his place
on the throne. And he said, Lord, I don't want
to die. I want to live. I don't want to face death right
now, especially. And he was filled with anxiety
and was oppressed about it. We had a man in our congregation,
Jim Wilson. He got cancer and beat it. About four years later, I got
a call from him and he said, can you meet me down here at
a restaurant? I said, sure. And when I saw him, I knew something
was wrong. His countenance was falling.
He was sad and tears had filled his eyes. And he said, the cancer's
back and there's no hope. And that man was shaken in the
low bottom of his soul. It took him days to come to grips
with the fact that I'm dying. You may be a true believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ. You may be a regenerated person.
You may love the Lord and long to be with Him. But God did not
make us to die. I don't want to die this morning,
do you? I don't want to die this morning. Sometimes believers
face death and but it startles them. Don't be so shaken when
you think about death, if there's still a degree of fear and anxiety
about it. This man faced that. One man
told Spurgeon one time, he said, he said, I want you to pray for
me. Spurgeon said, what's wrong, dear brother? And he said, I
don't have dying grace. And Spurgeon said, are you dying? He said,
no. And he said, you don't need dying
grace. You need living grace. I guess
when it comes time to die, the Lord will give us dying grace.
But I'm telling you this, there may be some anxiety and fear
about it. Remember Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress when hopeful and Christian
was crossing the river of death, the celestial city was on the
other side, and they were ready to go into the river of death
and they asked the angel that was standing there, is it deep? Is the river deep? He said, you'll
find it deep or shallow according to your faith in the Lord of
the place. And boy, they started crossing
the river and Christian went down. Hopeful was trying to get
his head above the water. He said, oh, he said, I ain't
going to make it. I can't see him. I can't see
him. Hopeful said, I see him. He's waiting for us up on the
hill. And Christian came back up. Death is an awful thing,
isn't it? Oh my goodness, it's an awful
thing, brothers and sisters, to die. You're going out into
eternity from which you shall never return. And this man said,
I'm oppressed, the Lord undertake for me. Then we come to our text. The
Lord delivered this man. through all of this and out of
all of this. And then we come to our text and here's what he
said, Behold, for peace I had great bitterness. You can look
up the commentators on this and they said of all the verses in
the Old Testament, probably this is one of the most difficult
verses to translate out of the Hebrew into English. Because
it has so many different ways the Hebrew says it. And for instance,
here in verse 17, they translated this bitterness and peace. For
peace, I had great bitterness. I had peace, but it turned into
bitterness. Our bitterness came upon my peace. Our bitterness became my salvation. But he said, there's something
that delivered me from my bitterness. The cause of me being bitter. I don't know if it was the bitterness
that came upon him when the city was surrounded. I don't know
if it was the bitterness of facing death. I don't know, but something
made his soul bitter. And then he said, You delivered
me from my bitterness. And what was it? Thou hast in
love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption. And the commentators tells us
this about this in love to my soul. And this is amazing as
I read this. Listen to what they say, the
way this should be translated or could be translated. Because
of your love to my soul, you delivered me from the pit. That's
good, ain't it? That's good. Why in the world
did the Lord Jesus Christ leave heaven and come down to this
earth? And you won't find anything that it's attributed to but love. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. What was the motive for God giving
us His jewel, His darling, the love of His heart to His people? Oh my goodness. Paul said, He
loved me. That's why he gave himself for
me. Another one said it should be
translated like this. Thou hast in love to my soul. Thou hast loved my soul when
it was in the pit. That's true, isn't it? Oh, Paul
said you, you were, look at you. You were children of wrath by
nature. You are walking the course of
this world ready to die forever, but God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love will be loved us even when we were dead in
sins. God just didn't start loving
His people when He saved them. He loved them when they were
dead in their sins. He loved them before they had
a being. Spurgeon asked one old lady in
his congregation, said, do you believe the Lord loved you before
you were born? And she said, oh, dear Spurgeon, if he hadn't
loved me before I was born, he could never love me after I was
born. Can you imagine when you were dead in your sins, when
you were God's enemy, when you had nothing in your heart but
hatred towards him, that he loved you then? Isn't that amazing? When I was in the pit, Another
one said it should be translated like this, In love to my soul,
you kept me from going down into the pit to die there. Oh yes,
when Adam fell, all God's children fell in him. All the elect fell
in him. But love said, I'm not going
to leave them there. They're not going to die there
for all eternity. I'm going to deliver them from
the pit. And another said it should be translated like this,
Thou hast been lovingly attached to me from the pit. Thou hast in love to my soul
delivered it from the pit. Another one said this, Thy love
has gone down into the pit and drawn me out. I love that one
more than any other. Oh, Jesus Christ is the love
of God, is He not? And what did he do to redeem
us? He went down in the pit. Sometimes you read this word
pit in the scripture, just look it up and it can be an awful
thing. We don't think of the time that
Joseph's brethren threw him down in the pit. We forget what was
down in that pit. What could have been in there?
I know when I was a kid, we had pits we threw a trash in. If
an animal died, we threw him in the pit. What was in the pit? Can you imagine some stinking
possums that had died? They were laying there and they
bloated and they stink and they threw Joseph down in there on
a dead bloated possum. Can you imagine the stink of
that? The Bible talks about a pit, a murdery pit. They threw Jeremiah
down in a pit that he couldn't stand in. He kept going down
up to his armpits in a miry pit where there was no standing.
Can you imagine being in that kind of a pit? The Bible talks
about a pit wherein there's no water. And brothers and sisters, when
you and I look back on our life, what is it but a pit? This world
is a dry, stinking pit. And how many times do we fall
into it and have to be delivered out of it? But to deliver us
out of it, love went down into the pit Himself. Love came down
from Heaven. Love incarnate, the Holy Son
of God. The thing that amazes me that
I cannot get my hands around. The Bible says He was made sin
for us. What in the world could that
mean? That He was made a curse for us. He was put in the pit of corruption,
the stinking pit of corruption. All you were, dear child of God,
He was made. It wasn't enough for Jesus Christ
just to die. I earnestly believe in the transference
of sin. I think Jesus Christ took more
than just the punishment for our sins. I think he took the
sins themselves. All we lack sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way and God has laid on him. That's reality. One dear brother
told me, he said, it's impossible to transfer sins. It's impossible
for you to do it. But it's not impossible for God. And He bore our sins, David,
in His own body, where? On the tree. And what was that
tree? I'm telling you, it was a pit
of corruption. What an awful pit. And His soul
was crushed down into that pit. Love came down into the pit to
deliver me. He loved me and gave himself
for me. And it's there where our sins were
born in a most awful way. And it's there where the ransom
was made. And it's there where the foundation
of our experience to being delivered from this pit was laid there
on Calvary's tree when the Son of God went to the pit. himself. When you look back over your
life, dear child of God, where the Lord brought you from, out
of the kingdom of darkness, the death, the spiritual death that
you were in, that pit of corruption, and all the way that He has brought
you, every step of the way, every little deliverance, every big
deliverance in your eyes, attributed to this one thing, His love. His love. Never take credit for
anything. Never exalt yourself in your
deliverance. He's brought you every step of
the way and you can only attribute it to His love. His love did
it. His love chose you before time. His love redeemed you, He called
you out of darkness because He loved you, and He's kept you
to this very day in love to your soul. I'm amazed that anybody
can love me. I don't know what it was, I guess
it was I loved my wife so much that sometimes I doubted her
love for me. And she was always having to
reassure me, I love you, I love you. And she died, and I felt in some
awful doubt, did she really love me? And I found three letters. The very day that I was feeling
so much anxiety about it, I found three letters that she had written
me, expressing how deeply she loved me. and was thanking God
that I had given, that He had given me to her. You know what this is? You know
what this is? It's letters. You ever doubt
Christ's love for you? Go read this letter. He's left
you all these letters saying, I love you, Marvin Stoniker.
Lord, I'm so miserable. I'm so sick. I'm so sinful. I love you, Marvin Stoniker.
Ain't nothing gonna separate you from my love. No oppression,
no life, no death. Time and eternity will never
separate you from my love. I love you and that's why I've
done everything for you. In love to my soul. And I tell you there's nothing
to win your heart like that. Don't hang the law of Moses over
the children of God's head to try to motivate them. It's love
that constrains you. And if love won't do it, you're
beyond help or hope. Don't love break your heart.
It breaks your bones, doesn't it? A lot of things I don't want
to do. I just don't have a will to do
it until I remember His love. I'll go, Lord. You're my send
me. If you love me that much, then I'll do it. I'll do it.
Lord bless you. Thank you, John. What an honor and a privilege
it is to be here. I'm not just saying that, it
really is. John, you've been such an encouragement
to me in the ministry. I love you and your wife, Vicki.
You're special. And Bruce. My, my, I've never heard that
man preach when he didn't preach to my heart. And that's what
I need. God's people have great need,
don't they? That's who the Lord saves, those
who have need. We have need of a physician,
and he's the great physician. Christ is. Turn with me this
morning, if you would, to 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. Verse 18, if you
would, please. 1 Peter 3 verse 18. Peter writes here, for Christ,
that's the subject of all true preaching, Jesus Christ. Our message is Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. also have once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being
put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." I suppose
that pretty much the whole world gives mental assent to the truth
that Jesus Christ was born into this world over 2,000 years ago. Most everyone acknowledges that
a man named Jesus was crucified on a cross at a place called
Mount Calvary. Even our calendar divides time
by the coming of the Lord Jesus into the world. The letters BC
stands for everything that happened in time before Christ came, and
the letters AD Anno Domini simply means the year of the Lord, any
year after the birth of Christ, and we speak of specific times
and events and histories as they pertain to the Lord Jesus Christ. As one said before, all history
is his story. So true. The Bible itself, the
Holy Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, declares and sets
forth the birth, the life, the death, and the resurrection of
the God-man, Christ Jesus. It's referred to in every book
of the Old Testament. The Scriptures say, to him give
all the prophets witness. It's truly a hymn book, H-I-M,
we say that, but it's so true. To him gave all the prophets
witness, meaning that all the Old Testament prophets spoke
of the Lord Jesus. The Old Testament informs us
that a savior is coming. The gospel narratives reveal
to us that he's come. The epistles let us know that
he's coming again. It's a book about him. So in
short, the Bible is about Jesus Christ, and yet so few people
ever see him. the all-in-all that a sinner
needs. And as widespread and as popular
as this general knowledge of Christ is, very few know why
the Lord Jesus came into the world and died on the cross. And with
that said, I want to ask you in the beginning two obvious
questions. The first is, why did Jesus Christ
come into the world? Paul very plainly and simply
tells us, he says, this is a faithful saying, and a faithful saying
it is. And it's worthy of all acceptation, everyone should
accept this as truth, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
do what? To save sinners. To save sinners. Oh, that's good news, the sinners.
He came to save sinners. the Apostle Paul said, of whom
I am chief. And that's a pretty cut and dry
answer, isn't it? He came to save sinners. That's
why he came. Yet it'd take a lifetime to expound
the subject. Yes, the reason Christ came into
the world was to save sinners, but how Christ saved sinners
is Answered in the second question I have for you, why did Jesus
Christ die on the cross? Every true child of God knows
from the study of scripture, the revelation of God, that it
was God the Father's will and purpose that Christ died on Calvary's
cross. But why? You know, it's crucial
to know. It's a faithful, trustworthy
saying, Paul said. It's worthy of all our acceptance. Christ came in the world to save
sinners. God ordained and decreed and purposed for Christ to die. But why? Most everyone can quote
John 3.16, as Bruce did a moment ago, and all who can have their
opinion as to who Christ died for. Some will tell you it was
for the world, everybody. Some will tell you it was for
his people in the world. But few know why, the why of
John 3, 14, which reads, and as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And if Christ must die on the
cruel cross of Calvary, then we certainly need to know why
he must. And few people do. That's the
sad thing. Most people living in the world
today don't know why, don't care why, and the majority of others
have been misinformed as to why. Many who profess to believe say,
oh, I believe that Jesus died on the cross. Most everybody
does. Most everybody believes that
Jesus died on the cross. They'll tell you so. I believe
that Jesus died on the cross. But why? Why did Christ die on
the cross? That's something that many don't
know. Now let me ask you another question.
What comes to your mind when you hear the word cross? Is it a piece of wood with a
beam across it? Is it an ornament that somebody
hangs on a wall? Is it a piece of jewelry that
you wear around your neck or put in your ear or wear around
your wrist? Webster's dictionary defines
a cross as an emblem of Christianity, but boy, Webster sure got that
one wrong. It's a symbol of religion, no doubt. But in our day, it
doesn't at all represent Christianity. A couple of years ago, we had
our pool pit refinished, actually, just painted. And I asked the
man, can you take that small cross off the front of it? It
came that way. We kept plants in front of it
all the time. And he looked at me so strangely,
like, why would you want to do that? Why would you want to take
the cross off of the pulpit? I asked him if he had any children. He said, yeah, I have two daughters.
And I said, if someone murdered your daughter with a knife, would
you hang an emblem of that knife on your wall or around your neck
or on a pulpit? And he shook his head. I don't
know if he understood or not. But he responded, absolutely
not. Friends, there's no salvation
in the piece of wood on which the Lord Jesus hung. Salvation
is accomplished by the one who hung on that cross. Salvation
is in a person. And that person is the God-man
himself. God became a man. He came into
this world. It's a faithful saying. It's
worthy of our acceptation. He came in the world to save
sinners. Are you a sinner? If you are,
this is the best news you've ever heard. I rejoiced in every
word that man said. Why? Because I'm a sinner and
I need to hear how Christ died for sinners. Why did Christ die?
Salvation is accomplished by him who loved us and gave himself
for us. You know, besides that, many
times in the scriptures when the word cross is mentioned,
it's not even talking about the piece of wood on which our Lord
hung. When the Lord Jesus said, take up your cross and follow
me, he wasn't referring to us going out and cutting down a
tree and making it into a cross and carrying it on our back.
You know, there was a man by the name of Arthur Blessed, a
self-professed traveling preacher who's known for carrying a cross,
and I'm sure you've probably seen his pictures. He's known
for carrying a cross from California to Washington, D.C. And you can
look him up in a Wikipedia or on the internet or whatever,
and he's now, his notoriety is that he's carried this cross
in most every country and nation. But do you know what it got him?
Probably nothing but a bad back. Because there's no salvation
in a cross, only in the one who hung upon it. Nothing effectual
about the piece of wood upon which Christ died or one like
it. Salvation is of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvations of the
Lord. And I've gotten to where I say
this about every message, but I love to say it because it's
true. You know what follows that in Scripture, Jonah 2.9? Salvations
of the Lord, period. Nothing else to say about it.
Salvations of the Lord. We put a period at the end of
the sentence because That's all that needs to be said concerning
that. Salvation's of the Lord and salvation is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Nowhere else. That's why he's
our message. That's why he himself is the
gospel. In the beginning was the Word,
the Word was with God. Jesus Christ is the Word and
he's God. salvations of the Lord. Many
times in the Bible, when it mentions the word cross, it's talking
about, as Bruce said, afflictions and reproaches and persecutions
and even death itself. Every child of God has a cross
to bear. Our own particular afflictions
appointed by God. And we should cheerfully take them
up. patiently bear them for Christ's sake. We're to submit to these
things. We're to bear them and we're
to follow the Lord Jesus Christ carrying them. Time and time
again, the Lord said, if any man will come after me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Our Lord
told that rich young ruler that. One thing thou likest, he said,
go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and take up your cross
and follow me." Now look at our text again here in 1 Peter 3,
18. I want to quickly and briefly as I can
give you five things that Jesus, five reasons that Jesus Christ
died on the cross, right from this verse. Let's read the verse
together again. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, but just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. So the first reason we see as
to why Christ died on the cross is that he suffered for our sins. Sins got to be dealt with. Sin
can't just be swept under a rug. Sins got to be dealt with. Christ
died for the sins of his people. He had no sins of his own, the
scripture is very clear. He knew no sin. He was made sin. Why? That I might be saved, that
I might be redeemed, that I might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. This is not a difficult message.
It's impossible to believe apart from God's divine intervention,
but it's not a hard message, is it? I'm a sinner. God says it has
to be perfect to be accepted. How can this sinner be made perfect?
One way, one way only. Christ took my sin and gave me
his righteousness. We call it substitution, and
that's what it is. He was made sin for his people. Some 800, 700 years before our
Lord died on Calvary's cross, Isaiah wrote, he was wounded
for our transgressions, and he was bruised for our iniquities. Who? The whole world? No, his
people. those that he set his affection on before time ever
was, those that he loved, he foreknew, and predestinated,
and called, and justified, and will one day glorify. When Peter
preached on the day of Pentecost, he accused those responsible
of crucifying the Lord of glory, but the scriptures tell us very
plainly that it was behind it all was the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God. Christ died according to the
will and purpose of God. God willed for him to die. Why? To put away your sin and to put
away mine if we belong to him. God's holy justice demands death. We're dealing with a just and
holy God. People talk a lot about the love
of God. I love the love of God, but God
is first and foremost holy. This is a holy Bible. His angels
are holy. His men of old are called holy
men of God. God is first and foremost holy.
And God's holy justice demands perfection and it demands death.
That sends wages. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sins, what about
it? It shall die. Holy justice demands
it. And when men preach about Christ's
death, they speak of the crown of thorns painfully pushed in
the Lord's brow. As Bruce mentioned a moment ago,
if you've ever been pricked by a thorn of a rose, it really
hurts. But can you imagine a crown of
them pressed into your brow?" I can't. Men talk about the scourging
of Christ's back, that cat of nine tails, chips of bone tied
into the end of the leather whip, dug into his flesh. Men speak
of the nails driven into his hands and his feet and the soldier's
dirty spear that was pierced into his side. And his visage
was so marred that he didn't even resemble a man. But friends,
all Christ's physical suffering don't even begin to compare with
the suffering of his soul. Christ's very soul was made an
offering for sin. He suffered great agony within
his soul. He said, my soul is exceeding
sorrowful. That's why he sweat as it were,
great drops of blood that fell to the ground in Gethsemane's
garden. All the sins of all his people throughout all time was
put on him. Oh, the suffering of soul. He
who had been one with the Father from eternity past is now being
separated by God because of the sin of his people. What suffering
of soul that must have been. Who can fathom it? Christ suffered
separation from his Father. He suffered for our sins. He
suffered for our transgressions. But did you notice here that
he suffered only once? Because it was God in the flesh
who suffered. For Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many. He was offered once, one time
only, Hebrews 9, 28. It was by one offering that he
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Once was enough. When God himself dies to put
away your sin, once is enough. Christ said it's finished. God
the Father said, I'm satisfied. It's enough. Why did Christ die
on the cross? Well, we know, to suffer for
the sins that his people should have suffered for. He bore our
sins in his own body on the tree. Why did Christ die on the cruel
cross? Well, we see the second reason from the next statement
in our text. On the cross, Christ hung to
die the just for the unjust. First, he suffered for the sins
of his people, and secondly, he died the just for the unjust.
Our Lord and Savior is the just one. He's the only just one. And we are the unjust. Only one
who is just can make the unjust just. And I'm not trying to be
clever there with words, that's the truth. Only one who is just
and holy and perfectly righteous can die for such unjust, unrighteous,
unholy, depraved sinners like we are. Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse
20 says, for there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good
and sinneth not. So God became one. And that, dear friends, is the
gospel. In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law. Why? To redeem them that were
under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons
and daughters. The justice of God says sin must
be punished. God can by no means clear the
guilty. He's too holy, too righteous. His justice won't permit it.
God cannot be just and set us free without our sins being justly
paid for. Punishments must be meted out. But if the just one takes our
place, his ransom God will accept. He can be just and justify because
he's a just God and a Savior. No wonder when Brother Ed Parker
passed into glory, he repeated that word time and time again.
I've heard Tommy and Johnny both talk about ransom, he said. Bruce,
you mentioned it. What a beautiful word, ransom. That word means payment, paid for the release of a prisoner,
ransom. Synonyms for the word are payoff,
payment, freedom, deliverance, rescue, redemption, restoration. That's what ransom is. Restoration
from sin that held us captive. He kept God's law perfectly.
He fully satisfied God's holy justice. Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law. How? By being made a curse for
us. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
upon a tree. That's why Christ hung on the
cross. The third reason that Christ died on the cross is that
he died that he might bring us to God. Oh, I love to think about
that. I love to think about that shepherd
going out and finding that one lost sheep, and he didn't say,
okay, come on, you know, like we do at all, come on, let's
go, you know. No, what'd he do? He picked him up, put him on
his shoulder, and carried him all the way back to his foal.
That's what the Lord does for his sheep, his people. That he might bring us to God.
Jesus Christ, our substitute, our sacrifice, our savior, made
us acceptable. We are accepted one way and one
way only in Christ, the beloved. In Jesus Christ, the wretched
and depraved sinner is made holy, unblameable. Boy, I like that
word, above blame. Unreprovable, above reproof.
And it's only in Christ the Beloved. In Christ Jesus, that's what
we're made. His death had to do with God's
justice. His death had to do with the
holiness of God. And his death enabled God, and
it doesn't even sound right to say that, but it's true, it enabled
God to be both just and justifier. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. Why? Because he was God. He made himself of no reputation.
In a world where men go to great lengths to build a reputation,
God in the flesh made himself of no reputation. He took upon
himself the likeness of sinful flesh, and he died in the flesh
and for sin, and that being his people's sin. He condemned sin
in the flesh. That's why we are dead to sin. That's why sin no longer has
dominion over us. You know, in the tabernacle,
as you well know, there were two sections. One was called
the Holy Place and the other was called the Holy of Holies. Everything in the tabernacle
pictured Christ. In the holy place, there was
that candlestick, and what a picture that is of the light that God
gave, that light, Christ who is the light in the life of his
people. And then there was the showbread, that picture's the
Lord Jesus who is the bread that came down from heaven, that bread
in which we partake of and we never hunger, and that water
from the rock that we freely drink of that causes us to never
thirst again. That's all talking about him.
Then there was the burning of incense, oh, Christ is a sweet-smelling
fragrance unto God the Father. Then there was that veil between
the two sections, a veil, some say four to five inches thick,
I don't know, but it was from wall to wall, it was from ceiling
to floor, and behind that veil, the Holy of Holies, where the
Ark of the Covenant was, and in that Ark was the Ten Commandments,
and over that broken law was the Mercy Seat. And only the
high priest was selected to represent the people and only he could
enter into the holiest of holy. Once a year with a blood sacrifice
that he offered not only for the people but for himself also.
But here's what we rejoice in, that Jesus Christ is THE great
high priest. And He's also the sacrifice,
the Lamb that was slain. And when He died on the cross,
that veil was torn in two. And the scriptures tell us, for
Christ being a high priest of good things to come, not by the
blood of lambs, but by His own blood, He entered into that holy
place. Not the holy place made with
hands, no. Not the one in the temple, but
the one in heaven itself. The one in the presence of God,
and he's obtained eternal redemption for us. And by that one offering,
he perfected forever them that are sanctified. The veil is removed
And we can come boldly into the throne of grace to find help
in time of need. He's our mercy seat. He's our
sacrifice. He's our high priest. He's our
advocate. He's our everything. And he's
able to keep us from falling. Oh, we fall, we fall, we fall. He's able to keep us from falling
and he's able to present us what? Faultless. That's another one
of those words we don't know much about. And then that immediately
brings us to the fourth reason for Christ's crucifixion on the
Roman cross. Christ had to be put to death
in the flesh. You see that there in verse 18?
He had to die on the cross as a man. Only a man could redeem
fallen men and women. There is one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. God could not die,
man could not redeem, but the God-man could do both, and both
he did. He died and he redeemed. God
had to become a man to redeem man. And there are two words
in particular that are always associated with the flesh and
that's the word sin and death. By one man, sin entered into
the world and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men because all have sinned. They just go hand in hand. Sin,
death, death and sin. So here we are this morning,
we're present here in the flesh. And the scriptures are very clear
that it's appointed unto men once to die and after this the
judgment. And after this judgment, what are we going to do? Are
we going to go out and face God in our own righteousness? We better not. We better not. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many, and to them that look for him shall
he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Hebrews 10, 27 and 28. When our
Lord returns, dear friends, it will not be as a sacrifice for
sin because his people will be without sin. And when our Lord
returns, when we see Him, and I love to think about this, we
shall be just like Him. Doesn't even sound right to say
it, does it? Why? Because God foreknew and God
predestinated. What did He predestinate? That
His people be conformed to His Son, conformed to Christ, His
image. Will they be? Oh, there's no
way they can't be. Paul goes on to tell us that
those whom Christ foreknew, He predestinated. Those whom He
predestinates, He calls. And those whom He calls, He justifies. And those He justifies, He glorifies. And again, we see that salvation
is of the Lord. That's why nothing can separate
us from the love of God. Nothing. Nothing. And all these
things, we're more than conquerors. That's why. No one can lay anything
to our charge. It's God that justifies. No one
can condemn us. It's Christ that died and rose
again. My hope of redemption is not
in anything that I do for God. I get so tired of hearing people
in religion talking about all they do for God. That's not the
issue. You can't do anything for God
that God will accept. It's what Christ has done for
us. Why did Jesus Christ die on Calvary's
cross? To suffer once for our sins,
to die the just for the unjust. In order to bring us to God,
he had to be put to death in the flesh. So I suppose the most
important question in all the world is this, what think ye
of Christ? That's it. When it's all narrowed
down and it's all That's the issue. What do you think of Jesus
Christ? That's the message that we preach. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And that brings me to the fifth reason that our Lord died on
the cross. Look at verse 18 one more time. That He might be quickened by
the Spirit. And by that blessed truth, we're
made alive in Him. Christ had to die for us to live.
Christ had to die to satisfy God's holy justice. He had to
die to conquer death. He had to die to pay sin's wages.
Christ had to be made sin for us in order to justify us and
give us his perfect righteousness. And because he lives, we live. We die with him, being baptized
in his death, we're buried with him so that we might rise with
him. And praise God, we live because he lives. And that is
what's so beautiful about our union with Christ. Everything
that belongs to him belongs to us. That's why we call it the
gospel. Best news that any sinner ever
heard. Well, may God be pleased with
these words to save the lost and comfort his people. That's what we want to do in
our preaching, comfort God's people, God's sheep. I want to
comfort you. I've been so comforted. Well,
I'd drive for hours and go through a hurricane to hear what I heard. May God be pleased for his glory
and our good and for Christ's sake. Thank you, Brother John.