Turn to Matthew chapter 20. Matthew chapter 20. I'm just going to deal with verse
17, 18, and 19. Our Lord is drawing near the hour for which He came into the world. The hour for Him to glorify His
Father and for the Father to glorify His Son. The hour, as someone said, the
hour for which all hours were made. The whole purpose from eternity
past to eternity future. It's about to happen right here
in Jerusalem. He has gone up there many times
with His disciples. And this is the third time He
reveals to them what's going to happen. But this time, it's
going to happen. He's going to go up to Jerusalem.
And as I said, they've gone up there many times This is the
time of the Passover. And they have gone up there many
times during that time. But this time, he is the Passover. The Passover lamb this time is
himself. Isaac said to Abraham, he said,
here's the fire and here's the wood. Where is the lamb? And Abraham said, God will provide
himself a lamb. And here he is. Here he is. And he's getting ready to go
up to Jerusalem. And it says in verse 17, and
Jesus going up to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was always up because
it was built on a hill, on purpose. God did that on purpose. Because
the Jerusalem, the spiritual Jerusalem that is, is above.
It's in heaven with the Lord. And Jesus going up to Jerusalem,
He took the twelve disciples with Him. They were always with
Him. You know, the Lord's disciples
are always with Him. Always. And it says He took the
twelve disciples apart in the way. In the way going up to Jerusalem. And I cannot help but think of
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself being the way. Here is the way
instructing them of what is about to take place. And He takes them
apart and He starts to talk to them. And I can just hear Him
say, now, I've told you this before. You know, we hear the
gospel every week, don't we? I've told you this before. Paul
said, for me to preach the same things to you over in Philippians
chapter three, for me to preach the same things to you, to say
the same, to write the same things to you. Again, he said, for me,
it's not grievous and for you, it is safe. The safest thing
that I can do for you and me is to preach the gospel every
week. That's the safest thing that
can be done. And so he takes them apart in the way and he
says that, I've told you this before, I'm telling you this
again, because now it's imminent, now it's about to happen. And he said unto them, he speaks
to them and he speaks to their heart. And what he's letting them know
is that he's going up to Jerusalem on purpose. There's a purpose
in going up to Jerusalem. He's going to go up there and
fulfill the scriptures that were written of Him. That's the reason
I had Doug to read Isaiah 53. That is all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. That is the gospel in a chapter. That is one of those chapters
that you can just read and not make a comment on, and that is
the gospel. He's going up to Jerusalem to
finish the work He was given to do. The work must be finished
in Jerusalem on a tree. He's got to die. In order for
you and me to live, he has to die. A man had to die in my place. A man named Jesus Christ, who
is God, died. There's times that I have to
sit back and get the hustle and bustle of everything away, and
I have to sit down and I think, a man really died for me, a man
named Jesus Christ, a man who is God, was really put to death
for me, executed for me, tormented in my place. The hell that I
deserve, the hell that I should receive, He took it. That really happened. That really
happened. He goes up to fulfill the scriptures. He goes up to finish the work
He was given to do. It's not finished until He dies.
His obedience to God's law is all the way to the point of death. He obeyed it in every jot and
tittle. And then at the end, the soul
that sinneth shall surely die. I have sinned. He's my substitute. He's got to die. He's got to
die. His obedience has to be all the
way to dying. Has to be. Then he's going up
to Jerusalem as the high priest. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
is everything to us. He's the sacrifice. His blood
is the blood of atonement. He's the high priest that offers
a sacrifice. He offered up Himself as a sacrifice
for our sins. Here is the high priest, the
true high priest now. This is the true high priest,
the eternal high priest. This is the Melchizedek. who
has no beginning of days nor end of life." This is the high
priest of God, appointed of God, approved of God, and here he
is going up to Jerusalem to offer up himself as a sacrifice for
our sins. What a sacrifice. He's going to Jerusalem. as the
Passover Lamb. He's called the Passover Lamb
in the New Testament. I believe it's in Corinthians. When John the Baptist looked
at him, he said, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world. This is exactly what he's going
to do, to take away the sin of the world. Now, does that mean
every person in the world sins? No. He's just describing the
ones that he represents. The people that are out of this
world, chosen out of this world, he's gonna die for them. As opposed
to the angels that fell, they have no savior. They have no
savior. I laid in bed last night, thought
for a good while about having no savior. And I thought about
the fallen angels. I thought about Satan. I thought
about they have no savior. And it just struck me what it
would be, what it would be to have no savior. That when I die,
to go before God with no savior. No sacrifice, no blood. that I'm standing there by myself,
dressed in my sins, dealing with God who will by no means clear
the guilty. And that thought just struck
me. They have no Savior. And I thought, my soul, I have
a Savior. I have a Redeemer. And it's God. It's God. The Passover lamb is going to
Jerusalem. And now before he goes, he takes
his disciples aside, he takes them apart for the third time,
and he tells them what's about to happen, because what they
are about to witness is not what they think. And now he's told
them this, this is the third time, but I'm telling you, they
are in for a traumatic experience. The sheep are going to be scattered.
And they are going to see their Lord crucified. When they see Him, it says in
Isaiah, I think it's Isaiah 52, His visage, His appearance was
so marred more than any man. They scourged Him so much He
was unrecognizable. His visage appearance was so
marred more than any man. They're not prepared for that.
I mean, what's about to happen is just, is going to be traumatic
to them. And so what he does, he prepares
them for this experience. He's preparing them. And he says
in verse 20, Behold, that is, listen to me. If you ever say
to your children, now listen to me. Give me your attention. It's hard to get the children's
attention. I mean, it's just like they're
buzzing, you know, they're just so full of thoughts and life,
and it's like, listen to me. That's why he says, listen. We
go up to Jerusalem, and you're going to go with me. You're going
to experience this. You're going to see me crucified.
You're going to go to the cross with me." Now, we'll see a little bit of that
in the next message, whenever John and James' mother says,
I got something I want to ask you. When you come into your
glory, when you come into your kingdom, can James and John sit
on your right hand and on your left hand? And he said, can you
drink the cup that I'm drinking of? And can you be baptized with
the baptism I'm baptized with? And they said, yes. That tells
you they don't understand what's about to happen. They said, yes,
we can. Well, just to give you just a
little brief snippet of next week's message. Yes, in Christ
we drank of that cup. In Christ we drank of that cup.
In Christ we were baptized into his death. We drank of that death. But that's for next week. But
here he says that you're going to go up with me and you're going
to experience something. You're going to see this happen.
You're going to be witnesses. You're going to be eyewitnesses
to my sufferings, to my death, and to my resurrection. You're
going to be witnesses. We have witnesses to this. We
have them written in the Scriptures. That's what John says over 1
John 1. 1 John 1, "...that which was from
the beginning," in verse 1, "...that which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word
of life." We are witnesses to this. The Lord says, you're going
up to Jerusalem with me, and you're going to be a witness
to all that's about to take place. And I thought this this morning,
in a spiritual sense, in a spiritual sense, everyone whom God saves
must make this journey. You've got to go to Calvary.
God has never saved anyone apart from the cross of Christ. You and I have got to go to Calvary
and see in Jesus Christ our substitute. Our death. I've already died. He that believes in me says he'll
never die. But why? Because I have already
died. That's real. I have already died
in Jesus Christ. I've already tasted death in
Him. Now I know this body's gonna
die, but I'm not gonna die. I'm just gonna change bodies.
I'm changing bodies. Everyone whom God saves has got
to make this trip to Calvary. Everyone who goes into God's
presence, they go there by way of the cross of Christ. That's
the journey. You got to go by way of the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm not talking about a piece
of wood. I'm talking about the sufferings and the death and
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Jerusalem,
he said, we go up to Jerusalem, Jerusalem is a special place,
it's the city of the great King. It's the place, now you think
about Jerusalem now. It's the place where the Word
of God is read over this whole earth, however
big this earth is in measurement, and all the people that are on
this earth. and all the places that are on
this earth, and all the places that are called places of worship,
which are not, on this earth. Now think about this. Of all
the places there is, there is only one place God established. And He gave His Word there, He
gave the sacrifice, all the types and all the pictures was right
there at Jerusalem and no place else on this earth. There. It's the city of the great king. It's the place where the word
of God is read. It's the place where the Passover
was offered every year that represented Jesus Christ. Only place on this
earth. The only place. It's a place
where the priesthood was established and performed. It's the only
place. It's a special place. It's a
special place. It's the only place on this earth
where God manifested his name. Now it deteriorated. It deteriorated
to the point where it had to be destroyed. But when it had
to be destroyed, it was time for it to be done away. It was
time to be destroyed because the real has come. All the types,
all the pictures, the priest, the high priest, it was all fulfilled
in Jesus Christ. Don't need that anymore. Don't
need it. Now, we get here a revelation,
here in this verse, of what they call the Passion of Christ. He
said, we've got to go up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief
priest and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to
death." I want you to note here that
our Lord is ready and willing to suffer and die for everyone
he represented. It was not a dread. It was not
a dread, it was not something he's like, well, I have to do
this. No. He did it with enthusiasm. You know, in one place in Mark,
I think it is, but one of the other gospels says, he set his
face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. He's the willing servant, willing
to die, willing to suffer to accomplish the Father's will
and to save a people Like me and you. To save sinners. Willing to do it. Willing to
save a people that hate Him. A people who are by nature children
of wrath. Willing to save them. Willing
to die for their sins. That's like, now this is a poor
example. I've learned about any example
I use is going to be poor compared to the real, the heavenly. It's
tough to find that real example, but you know, it takes somebody
that's been, I mean, just a serial killer, a serial rapist, a serial
everything that comes to sin. And you take a person that hasn't
done any of those things, and that person dies for all their
sins. And that person gets to go free.
And that person's justified. That person's cleared of all
charges. Well, you put that on an infinite level. The Lord Jesus
Christ, who knew no sin, knew no sin, was made to be sent for
us. Took our sins. He bore our sins
in His body on the tree. The innocent lamb took my sins and bore them away. Took them
away. And in Him, I'm justified. And you're justified. If you
believe, you're justified. You're cleared of all charges.
You know. I'm gonna say, you know things
you've done, but my soul, the things God has kept us from doing. He died for that too. Because
that's what I am. He died for who I am. And he's ready to do it. Ready
to die. Willing to do it. He's the Father's
willing servant. In one place He said, I came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give my life
a ransom for many. Our Lord knew exactly what was
going to happen to Him. Nothing took Him by surprise.
He knew who would betray Him. When He said, one of you will
betray Me, and each one said, is it I? Well, He knew which
one it was. He knew exactly what was going
to happen to him, yet he was willing to do it, willing to
go through it. And he said, The Son of Man shall be betrayed,
not by an enemy, but by a supposed friend, one who ate with him. You know the wounds of a friend
are the worst kind, aren't they? You know when Judas betrayed
him, you know the Lord called him friend. He called him friend. Betrayed by a friend, a supposed
friend. And he says here, and they shall
condemn him to death. He's going to go up to Jerusalem
and they're going to mock him and he's going to be condemned
to death. They hated Him without a cause
and they shall condemn Him without a cause. They had no cause to condemn
the Lord Jesus Christ. They had to call people in to
lie on Him. The scripture says He went about
doing good. Everything He did was good. But
they condemned Him to death. His condemnation to death was
mine. It was yours. You see these people go on trial
and they receive the death penalty. And I always think when they
receive a death penalty, I think, wow, that's a death penalty. That's not 10 years in prison.
That's a death penalty. And you watch that clock just
tick, tick, tick right around. And they've got your day set. They've got the exact time set
that you're going to die. As soon as that clock or that
minute hand strikes that second, they execute you. He took my
execution. There was a death penalty on
me. A death penalty on you. My soul,
think about that. You think, man, that guy's got
the death penalty. What did he do to deserve the
death penalty? You have to do the worst of crimes
to receive a death penalty. And a death penalty was on me. When you look at the cross, do
you really realize what it says about you? that such a person
had to die such a death in order for you to go free? What does
the cross say about me? That a death penalty was attached
to me. They condemned him to death. The substitute, listen, the substitute
must substitute all the way to the end. All the way. It can't be he keeps part of
it, then I got to do my part. Ain't no part. There's no part
for me to do. I can't do it. He's got to do
it all. And God used the natural hatred
of men to fulfill his purpose in redemption. And the Gentiles
are gonna have their part in this. It says there in verse
19, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles. Because I'll tell
you why. His death reaches not only to
the Jews that were chosen of him, but the Gentiles that were
chosen of him. Jew and Gentile. When it says
Christ died for the world, that means he didn't just die for
the Jew only, but he also died for Gentiles. People like me
and you. The whole world is guilty of
the death of Christ. And there are going to be men
and women out of this world who are going to be partakers of
the grace of God in the death of Christ. And they're going to mock him.
He can't just go to Jerusalem and die. He's got a, he's got a, there's
a process here. There's a process. He says the
Gentiles will mock him. They took a crown, put it on
his head of thorns, and they drove that down on his head,
and they mocked him as king. Put a robe on him, put a crown
of thorns on him, and they mocked him as king. And then they scourged
him. They scourged him like a slave. They whipped him so bad that
his visage wasn't even recognizable. His person wasn't recognizable. And as if that weren't enough,
they took him and hung him on a cross. That's what you do to
the worst of criminals. To the worst of criminals, you
hang them on a tree. He was despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He's got to suffer. Wounded for
our transgressions, bruised for our inequities, and by his stripes,
we are healed. By his stripes, we are healed. and they gotta crucify him. The
Passover lamb must die. His blood must be shed for the
remission of sins. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins. That's why when I ask the Lord
to forgive me of my sins, I ask the Lord for forgiveness of my
sins with confidence for one reason. The very blood that was
shed on Calvary's tree answers for the sins that I'm asking
forgiveness for. I ask the Lord, just for example,
let's say I ask the Lord, forgive me for stealing something. The
blood answers for that crime. The blood answers for that crime.
Forgive me for lying. The only way God can do that,
He can't just forgive me. That's got to be dealt with.
There it is in the blood. There it is. The blood of Jesus
Christ answers for the sins I ask forgiveness for. And God to be
a just God and now forgive me. I can't give you any better news
than that. I cannot give you any better news than that. Maybe
if we were locked up in prison and we heard that, we might rejoice
a little more. But we're free. We get to go
home, and we get to go to work, and we get to, you know, we're
just free to do this and do that. And to have a real sense and
understanding of what it is to be set free, to set the free,
as it says in Zechariah, I believe it is, to set the prisoner free. To loose them out of the pit. Wherein is no water, it says. The lamb must be slaughtered. He cannot just be laid down on
a gurney and they give him an injection and put him out and
then execute him. No, he's got to be slaughtered. But here's the good news. Here's
the good news. Remember the first time he told
him this, Peter said, no, no, this can't happen. This went
right over his head. This time nobody says anything.
Because I have no doubt this, no doubt this time, this is the
third time, and they realize this is serious. This is serious. This is serious. This is going
to happen. And the third day He shall rise again. Yes, He
must be betrayed. Yes, He must suffer and die.
But He's not going to stay dead. We have a living sacrifice in
Jesus Christ. It's not like I sin and then
a lamb dies and then I sin again and another one dies. No. The
Lamb of God died one time. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified or set apart." He has perfected
us. Do I feel it? No. But I will. I will. I'll experience it in
time. We have in the Lord Jesus Christ
a living sacrifice that stands before the throne of God and
makes intercession for us. We have in Christ an effectual
sacrifice. He put away our sins. We have in Christ a sacrifice
approved and accepted of God on our behalf. Christ's resurrection is proof
that the Father accepted his work of substitution. It is written in Romans that
He was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. It all hinges on Him. This whole
matter of salvation is on Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is alive and well. Remember when he was going up
to be crucified, they were weeping and he stopped and he said, Don't
weep for me. Don't cry for me. Weep for yourselves and for your
children. Weep for yourselves. You're the
ones lost. I'm victorious. He shall not
fail. He knew that. He knew He would
not fail. He knew. He knew He was coming
out of that ground. He knew. And David speaking in
spirit said, You will not leave my soul in hell. He knew that. He knew it. Oh, Jesus Christ is alive and
well. He's seated at the right hand
of God the Father making intercession for transgressors and making
all His enemies His footstool. That's what's going on. Don't
get sidetracked. Don't let the things out in this
world and things that's going on, don't get sidetracked. It's His. It's all been turned
over to Him. All of it. He's making His enemies
His footstool. This is how God saves sinners. Jesus Christ must go up to Jerusalem. He must go up there. He must
be mocked. He must be scourged. He must
be crucified. But He said the third day, I'll
be back. The third day, I'll be back.
I'll rise again. And he is seated at God's right
hand right now, saving, saving all those whom he died for, calling
them out by his gospel. And when that's done, this will
all be wrapped up and over with. And we will forever be with the
Lord. All right.