If you turn to John 18, I'll
hopefully keep reminding you. I got the address and the times.
Brother Todd, when he'll be in Yuba-Sutter at the end of the
month, it's the 27th, 28th, and 29th, 7 p.m. on Friday, 4.30
p.m. on Saturday, and 11 a.m. on Sunday. If anybody needs an
address or directions or a place to stay or assistance getting
there, Lord's made you willing and not made you able, get with
me. If you know somebody else, get with me. he'll give there. Sovereign Binding. I hope that's
a title that'll get the subject of this message into us. I have
a whole lot of scriptures for you tonight and about eight sentence
of what I have to say. Our brother Don told a young
pastor one time, he said, you get up on a Wednesday night or
whenever and you read the scriptures. If you have to, if you ain't
got a message, that's your job. He said, if you need to get up
and just read the Psalms, you get up and read the Psalms. Now that
sounds motivational, doesn't it? Doesn't that make you just
grin ear to ear until you're the one that's got to stand up
and just read the Psalms? A little bit different, isn't it? I pray
the Lord's with us. I want you to, I don't think
nobody here takes notes, but if you took notes, I want you
to look for some things in this. I saw some things, and I want
you to be conscious of these things as we go through this.
All the scriptures from Genesis, there's no Old Testament God,
New Testament God. Mankind has their covenants flip-flopped.
They don't know nothing. They wouldn't know the gospel
from a tarantula hawk if it hit them in the head. All the scriptures point to Him. If you've got to bring an abacus,
a calculator, or a thesaurus to come worship God, go find
you another place to worship God. Don't worship a man there.
This is plain. The Lord spoke plainly. And all
these things are tokens for us to point to. They're about Christ.
And all these things that's concerning Him, He fulfilled them. I wouldn't argue for five seconds
to somebody that this is the word of God, that these scriptures
are real, that there is a God and he is on his throne. There's
nine billion people on this earth. Next, this is God's word. His word is proof this is his
word. I can't remember how many, 46
writers over this many continents over this 1,600 years or whatever
it is. I used to have it memorized.
I ought to have it memorized. It fulfills itself, and it's majestic. And that's just the little glimpses
we get. In all this, there's the wickedness
of man. There's man in his deep-seated
religion. He hates God. He'd kill him if
he gets a chance. And in spite of that, the Lord
saved a people. and all that glorifies Him. In that, it's a must and it's
a blaring reality. The Lord's sovereign in all things. That ain't a doctrine, that's
a reality. I remember that when I'm laying
down getting my teeth worked on, when I'm paying my garbage
bill, no matter what. I about got hit in the head with
a tarantula hawk today. That's God's tarantula hawk.
He's on his throne in all things, in every molecule that's ever
moved, in every dust particle, or he ain't God. If you've got
something to do, there's something left up for chance. You ain't
worshiping God, you're worshiping a man-made idol. May look like
him, but that ain't God. and Him governing all things
and ruling all things and all these things work together for
our good and His glory, even the wickedness of man, it pushes
to and provides and shows for that substitutionary work and
the satisfaction. Substitution, satisfaction. We's
the wicked ones, we needed substitution. We're the wicked ones. We can't
satisfy God. And we ain't got two brain cells
to rub together of biblical knowledge to figure God out. He has to
reveal that. And that's his work too. All
in spite of us. I only have three verses here
in my text, but let's look at John 18. We'll begin in verse
one. It says, when Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth
with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden. into the which he entered and
his disciples." You remember us looking at that. Is that repetitive? Is that precious? You know what
that means. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, knew the place where Jesus oft times resorted thither with
his disciples. Judas then having received a
band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees,
400, 700, a bunch, battalion-sized elements, cometh thither with lanterns
and torches and weapons all for one fellow. Jesus, therefore,
knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and
said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am. Judas also, which betrayed him,
stood with them. And as soon as he had said unto them, I am,
they went backward and fell to the ground. Then he asked them
again, whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I've told you
that I am. If therefore you seek me, here's
a command, not a request. Let these go their way, that
the saying might be fulfilled which you spake of them which
thou gave us me, I've lost none. Then Simon Peter, having a sword,
drew it. and smote the high priest's servant
and cut off his right ear. Does that mean Peter was left-handed? There's more precious things
than that. Cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. And said Jesus unto Peter, put
up thy sword into the sheath. cup which my father hath given
me, shall I not drink it?" That's a cup of indignation, a cup of
wrath. Put your sword away, Peter. I'm
on my throne standing right in front of you. Then the band and
the captain and the officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound
him. and led him away to Annas first,
for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, which was the high
priest that same year. Now Caiaphas was he which gave
counsel to the Jews that it was expedient that one should die
for the people. I want to touch on that back
in June of 2020. And I wished I'd have known then,
just I couldn't put it down this week. And Leviticus 8 and Leviticus
14, it was the law of cleansing lepers and Aaron and his sons
being consecrated to work. And there's seven mentions. I
don't know if there's anything to that. There's seven mentions
of taking the blood and touching the right ear. Malchus, that
name means king. Lord healed that man, put his
ear back on him. We have to be made deaf before we can hear.
We have to be made blind before we can see, and blood has to
be applied. That king's about to shed his
blood for those he's given ears to. Verse 12, it says, then the
band, And the captain and officers, all the people, captains, officers.
This is a ecumenical society. This is a homogenized unit. There
is Roman soldiers there. There is Jewish, Pharisees and
religious folks. They found common ground and
they compromised. That was their brothers. That's
their Armenian brothers and their Jewish brothers and their Roman
brothers and their sisters. And you know what they was doing?
They was seeking Jesus. Now what the whole world's still doing
ain't nothing new. Looks good. Sounds good. I've got me a Bible. I was looking for God. You gonna
kill him? Well, no, I'm just gonna make
him do what I want him to do. I'm gonna be in his arm and I'm gonna
tell him he need to start doing some things for me. And the people
might word it a different way. These guys just gonna get him
out of the way. Whole lot of them. Captain, the band, and
the captain, and officers of the Jews. They took Jesus and
bound him. You think it would have made a difference
if it was synthetic material or leather? That's preposterous. The almighty God of glory is
in front of them. He just knocked every one of
them on their hind ends flat on their backs. Took the wind
out of them. Let me put a little piece of
rope around your hands. It's all but comical. Man's foolish. We're fools. But that said there,
and bound him, comma, it's on purpose. I want us to look at
that. And it led him away to Annas first. Turn over to Leviticus
16. Leviticus 16. David had wrote in Psalm 118,
he said, God is the Lord which hath showed us light. Bind the
sacrifice with cords. unto the horns of the altar.
Bind the sacrifice with cords unto the horns of the altar.
He says, Lord, show us that light. Here in Leviticus 16. I'll page off, hold on. Leviticus
16, verse 17. This is a picture of things to
come. It's a prophecy of things to
come. teach us something. It's something
that physically took place, but it's a type to teach us something.
Leviticus 16, verse 17. And there shall be no man in
the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make the
atonement in the holy place, until he come out and have made
atonement for himself and for his household and for all the
congregation of Israel. The Lord's telling them how to
make these sacrifices for these high priests. He says, you've
got to be alone. Dread that wine, press along.
You see that? Verse 18, let's read that together.
And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the Lord,
and make an atonement for it, and shall take the blood of the
bullock and the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the
altar round about. And he shall sprinkle the blood
upon it with his fingers seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow
it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. And when
he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle,
the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat.
And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live
goat and confess over him all the inequities of the children
of Israel. And their transgressions and all their sins put them upon
the head of the goat and shall send him by the hand of a fit
man into the wilderness." That's a whole lot of steps. God's teaching
us how he's putting sin away. He's making them physically walk
out there and go get a sheep and go get a goat, and you're
going to cast lots. While we cast lots, see which one lives,
which one dies, because God's the one that determines the lot.
He's showing us something step by step by step, who he is, what
he's accomplishing, who he is, what Christ and him crucified. And he's the one that bore our
sin, and he's the fit man, and he took it into the wilderness
away. as far as the east is from the west. Verse 22, And the goat
shall bear upon him all their iniquities in the land not inhabited,
and he shall let the goat go in the wilderness. And Aaron
shall come into the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall
put off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the
holy place, and shall leave them there. When this work was done,
did our Lord leave his linen garments somewhere folded neatly
He did, didn't he? And he shall wash his flesh with
water in the holy place and put on his garments and come forth
and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the
people and make atonement for himself and for the people. When
this is done, that's when he's going to make intercession. Our Lord did this thing. Sin
was laid on him. He bore it away. He changed his
garments, sat down at the right hand of the Father, and he ever
lives to make intercession for us. That's not just a lot of
things to do on a Saturday, is it? It's a person. I've heard
a lot this week about salvation's plan. Have you ever heard about
a salvation program? Has that been programmed in your
heads from a young age for 30 some years, 40 years? Salvation
program? That sounds like something you
pick up. It's a pamphlet. A salvation plan? That sounds like something
that could come to a standstill or be upset. How about a salvation
person? That's a better term. That's
something that knows of Savior, isn't it? Turn over to Isaiah 53. The Lord
was hearing Leviticus. This is all pointing to Christ
coming and what he's going to do. Isaiah 53. Here's a picture of
it coming to pass. Isaiah 53 verse 6. Says, all we like sheep have
gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. Yet he opened
not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter. As a sheep before her shears
is done, so he openeth not his mouth. He said, if you want me,
let these go. He didn't say, these are trumped
up charges. You're lying. Why do you want me? Why didn't
he say anything? He's guilty. That guilt was laid
on him. He became me. A fool could try to explain that.
It's so, it's what had to happen. Verse eight, he was taken from
prison and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgressions
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death. Remember that tomb he
was buried with? Rich man, freshly hewn out of
stone, no man ever laid in it. Because he had done no violence,
neither was there any deceit in his mouth. No guile in him.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their inequities. Comma, and they bound him, comma. Those aren't out of words, are
they? We have eternity for our Lord to teach us what these things
are. It's just, it's too much. Where do you start? Where do
you stop? It's just too good. He did that. They didn't go behind
him. He left him. He said, no man, take my life
from me. I have power to let down. I have power to take it
up. Father gave me that commandment. He walked through them. They
kept trying to lay hands. I was thinking about that. They laid hands on
the goat because that was necessary. Sins have to go there. And it's
only four times in Scripture talking about laying hands on
people, when apostles would transfer their apostolic gifts to those
people. And I thought, we laid the hands
on people. Now, our brother moved up to Washington the other day,
and I'm about to put my hands on him, didn't let him go. Somebody
come down, old Timothy come through there preaching, they're going
to put their hands on him. Like, you ain't going nowhere. You're
going to keep telling us this stuff. He allowed these sinful men to
put their hands on him, and he lets us touch him. Come here,
Thomas. You gotta have a sign. Come here.
Put your hand right there. Come on, buddy. I'm whipping
them other ones. You require a sign. You're an
evil and adulterous generation. Get away from me. Come here,
Thomas. You want to see a sign? I love it. That's a picture of
it coming to pass. What's the end state? How does this affect us? Back
to Genesis 22. That's just a lot of facts so
far, isn't it? It's got to apply to me. He is the Savior. He is the one that laid down
his life for the sheep. I need him to lay down his life for
me. Genesis 22, verse 1. And it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham. And
he said, behold, here am I. And he said, take now thy son.
thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the
land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose
up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two
of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed the
wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the
place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
to his young men, abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad
will go yonder and worship and come again to you. And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son.
And he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both
of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and
said, my father. And he said, here am I, my son.
And he said, behold, the fire and the wood Where's the lamb
for a burnt offering? Where's the lamb? Where's the
lamb? When the Lord said, I am, and
700 people fell flat on their back, not one of them said, where's
the lamb? Where's the lamb? Come unto me, all you labor heavy
laden, I'll give you rest. That's what he said, wasn't it? It's a gracious God they're dealing
with. It's a sovereign and a mighty God. The only mighty one ever,
but a gracious God. Where's the lamb? And Abraham
said, verse eight, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for
the burnt offering. So they went both of them together
and they came to a place which God, this gets real good. Look
here at verse nine now, follow with me. And they get a place
with God had told him of and Abraham built an altar there
and he laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son. and laid him upon the altar,
upon the wood. He was bound to it. How'd that
old man bind that strapping 17-year-old boy? Isaac Webber willingly,
didn't he? But why was he bound if he was
willing? It pleased the Lord. He's gonna
willingly be bound in that garden a couple thousand years later.
And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took a knife to slay
his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven
and said, Abraham, Abraham, He said, Here am I. He said, Lay
not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For
now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld
thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket. He walked right past it when
I heard it. When did that ram get there? Before time was. From
eternity past. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Isaac was a beautiful picture
of Christ. And then Isaac's a beautiful
picture of us. He's that ram. He's the lamb. He's the scapegoat
offered for us in our stead, the substitution. And Abraham
called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh. As it is said
to this day in the Mount, the Lord It shall be seen. The Lord will provide. What did
he provide? We're just like Isaac. We were
bound. Did you know that? You didn't
have enough sense to know it before until God showed you,
gave you life and showed you he was bound. We was bound what?
Under the law. Everybody's scared to death of
that law. You hate it because you're full of sin. We're bound
by sin. We can't keep the law. We're bound to a nature. Now
that ain't just an eject button. You tell me somebody don't want
to have no laws over them. Go as fast as you want. Park anywhere
you want to. Go ahead and get groceries and
walk out. You can't go to jail. Anybody do that, we're bound
to a sin nature. We rightfully earned, and Adam,
we rightfully earned by ourselves, and any big fancy word you want
to use to cut it, that's us. We're bound to that. Christ was
bound by love. He was bound by his covenant.
and the Father made and the Holy Spirit before time was, he was
bound by his nature. By the Father's will, which is
his will. That's what he was bound by. This bonding. What happened to
Christ in that garment? Judah's coming and what takes
place over the next day? That's the worst thing that ever
happened on the face of the earth. And that's the greatest thing
that ever happened on the face of the earth. It is. Who did it? We ought to learn
something about God. I pray God teach us. He's sovereign
and he's on his throne. All these things point to Christ.
He's fulfilled every jot and every tittle and we can't even
see all the jots in it and all the tittles because we look through
a glass dimly. It's all about him. He's done every bit of it.
And if we learn anything new, we say amen. And this whole time
he's on his throne in absolutely every way you can slice it. Turn
over to Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two. Peter was preaching. Pretty short
message, too. Didn't take long. Didn't have
any notes, didn't have everybody turn 15 times, and they didn't
sing four or five times before they got up, four or five times
after they had special music, and they were standing and he
was sitting. Didn't look like today in his
short voice to the point. Acts 2, we'll begin in verse
23. Him, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. That's
how all this took place. That's how it was bound. That's
how it was led. Here's the means ye have taken and by wicked hands
have crucified and slain whom God hath raised up, having loosed
the pains of death because it was not possible that he should
be holding of it. Peter goes on, he preaches Christ
from Psalm 16 and Psalm 110 and then down to verse 36. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus
whom you've crucified, both Lord and Christ. He's preaching to these men that
just killed the Lord. He said, you killed him. He's God. Remember
what we just read though? About that lamb in the scripture
reading? Everybody, you're gonna go get
you a lamb. And if it's too much, you take half and split it with
your neighbor. Everybody's gonna have enough lamb. You'll take the
blood and put it on the doorpost. And the whole congregation is
gonna go kill it. It. Not them. There's a whole bunch of lambs.
It. A man preached this one time,
and that's the only way God saved sinners was through preaching. the means that he uses. And he
said, you killed him. I heard that in my ear. It went
through my ear, into my head, all the way down to my heart.
I killed him. Peter says, whom you've crucified,
God's made him both Lord and Christ. This is all his determined
counsel. This is all his foreknowledge.
This is all his love from beforehand. This is gracious. We're the wicked
ones. Now when they heard this, verse
37, they were pricked in their heart. Their hearts burned within
them. It was just heartburn and set
on fire. They were pricked in their heart
and they said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren,
what shall we do? And Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For
the promise is unto you. He's talking enemies, isn't he?
And to your children, and to all that are far off, even as
many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many of the words
that he testified and exhorted, he kept preaching and saying,
save yourselves from this untoward generation, this wicked generation. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto
them about 3,000 souls. I'd say 3,000 people from Peter
preaching for six minutes. Lord did that. He ruled all those
things. You know what David said in Psalm
76? He said, surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. I don't want to qualify everything
in our time, but we need to a little bit so we can wrap our heads
around it. We don't have a speaker of the house in this nation.
You know, that's never happened. We got a governor, you could
write a long list of the bad, wicked things he did. The president's
as crooked as his heathen son ought to be in prison. And people
don't do nothing about it. That's crazy, isn't it? It praises
God. Or he's lying, and he ain't lying,
I'll tell you that right now. We're the liars. He said, surely
the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of the
wrath he'll restrain. this world just exactly as wicked
as it pleases God to glorify Him. That's so. What about them doctors? What about our phones going off
at 225 or whatever it was today? People scared to death about
the most nonsensical things on the face. You sinned against
the Holy God. Somebody's got to tell them. And then turn right back around.
Those that are glad, Peter said, promise is for you, you and your
youngins and the offsprings is just like you. That's good news.
Where's some water? I want to be baptized. There's
water. What about now? Amos 3.6 says
that too. Shall there not be evil in a
city and the Lord hath done it? That's the lamb prophesied to be bound
and to be shed. That's him pictured there in
Isaiah 53. That's the promise. And then
to us in Genesis 22, it's proclaimed by his preachers then and now. The church age is more active
and what we would call alive. There's the biggest revival on
earth in the history of mankind right now. Like how many faithful
gospel pulpits there are that we know, that's just the ones
we know. Lord ain't out of business. The message ain't changed from
Abraham till now. That's what's proclaimed. That's
what has come to pass and he's coming again. That's good news. Back in our text, John 18. Try
to hurry. John 18 verse 12. And the band and the captain
and officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound him and led him
away to Annas first. For he was the father-in-law
of Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. Annas
was the father-in-law of Caiaphas. He used to be the high priest,
and now he kind of still was. They would vote him in. That's
never how it's been biblically. And they said, well, that's just
how we do it. This is how we've always done it. How man does
it's wrong. And they warp everything, and
they say they're doing it according to the Word of God. He ain't
nowhere in the Word of God. The Lord gave high priests, and then
their sons would take over when they died. It's a lifelong appointment. You don't just say, well, you
know, it's time to retire. I want to go someplace warm,
and I'm done with doing this now. No! If God made a high priest,
they were a high priest until they died, and then their sons
took over, and they were a high priest until they died, and then
their sons took over. Unless you're Eli, and God kills
them, and then he appoints another one. And this was just, everybody's
gonna take turns. Will you preach a little bit
and I'll preach a little bit? We'll all just get along and have associate
pastor or associate high priest or whatever. But Annis, they
kind of gave him a ambassadorship position. He had to deal with
the Romans. Well, you're already high priest,
you know how things work. And now you can put this in layman
terms for these Gentiles and you can deal with the Romans
so we can keep them happy so we can stay in business. And
then we can flip-flop next year. And we'll just all move around
and take turns. Nothing's changed. It was from father to son, not
father-in-law to son. Remember the points I told you?
Mankind's wicked, and we think we're doing God a service, and
we think we're steeped in religion when we're being holy on the
outside, and we're just making it up as we go. It's a figment
of our imagination. Bow to God's word. That high priest, that was what
was appointed in that city of refuge. The Lord gave six cities
of refuge. He told Joshua, He said, when
somebody commits manslaughter, you set up these cities and they'll
go to there, the avenger of blood will pursue. But that man's gonna
go in there, he'll go to the gate. Confess all he's done. He'll
go through the way, the door. That's the only one he's gonna
confess to. And he gets to stay in that city safe until the high
priest dies. And when that high priest dies
in that city of refuge, he gets to go home. And everything's
fine. There's no charge to be laid
against him. Do you see that picture coming to pass? In Joshua
20? We flee to Christ, our city of
refuge, and he's our high priest, and he's the gate, he's the way,
he's the door. He ain't gonna die. He lives
forever. I'm getting ahead of myself,
but you start there in Hebrews about halfway through chapter
four and run all the way to the end of chapter seven. That's
telling us nothing but about Christ our high priest. He makes
intercession for us. He's touched the feeling of our
infirmities. We can come boldly to him. Let's look at just a
portion of it. Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4 verse 14. So seeing then that we have a
great high priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the
son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Now that means
stay in your, I was gonna say dialect, that ain't it, denomination.
Might as well be a dialect. It's wrong, wrong way of talking.
Don't hold fast to your profession. He's our profession. Hold fast
to him. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need." He's the high priest, not just
Kangaroo Corps to Annis and KFS and everybody else. It's him.
That whole position in the city of refuge and throughout time
has pointed to him. It's him. They appointed themselves. Men appoint themselves. I can say with a little bit of
confidence, God put me in the ministry. I think he made me
a preacher. I pray that wasn't me doing it. That there's people
lined up to go get themselves ordained by somebody sticking
empty hands in their empty heads. It's a scary thing. Do you know
Christ didn't appoint himself high priest? Turn over one page to Hebrews
chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 5. So also Christ glorified not
himself to be made a high priest. But he said, he that said unto
him, Thou art my son, today have I begotten thee. As he saith
also in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. He was declared. The name said,
you're my son. I've begotten you. He said, you're
my priest. You're my Melchizedek. Christ said, that's right, okay.
Is that your will, Father? Because I'm here to do your will.
Willingly, he said, amen. He agreed to it. And he's high
priest forever. Hebrews 7 verse 23. And they truly were many priests,
all these high priests that pictured him throughout time, because
they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. It was a
lifetime appointment, but they died. But this man. Because he continueth ever hath
an unchangeable priesthood. His doesn't waver. Wherefore
he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
For such an high priest became us. holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who
need not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice,
first for his own sins, and then for the people's. For this he did once when he
offered up himself. For the law maketh men, high
priests, which have infirmity, but the word of the oath, which
was since the law, maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore. Back in our text from John 18. Verse 12. And the band and the
captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound him and
led him away to Annas first, for he was the father-in-law
to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. Now Caiaphas
was he which gave counsel to the Jews that it was expedient
that one man should die for the people. He said that a few chapters
back, didn't he? He said, everybody's going to
believe on this man. He's been doing all these miracles and
they're going to run us out of our cushy jobs. We got it good. We're living high on the hog.
This one man's going to have to die so the rest of this nation
can live. He said that being the high priest
that year, even the Lord, He had to profess the Lord there.
Broke clocks twice a day. I want to caution this. Well,
they say some good stuff. That's dangerous. That pharmacy
issues 90% good medicine. Would you go to that pharmacy?
I wouldn't go to that pharmacy. You'll die. Caiaphas found no fault with
him. That's why he said we got to kill him so we can live They
took him to Annas. He found no blemish. He found
no fault fault in him. Caiaphas found no blemish Then
later on the chapter, they're gonna take him to Pilate and
Pilate's gonna say it out loud. I Find no fault I find no blemish."
That was the order of sacrifice. They would set this male goat
or male sheep, pick one, off to the side for a long time,
and you watched it, and you made sure there was no spot, and you
made sure there was no blemish, and when you was absolutely sure
there wasn't one hair that was wrong on this thing, nothing
was amiss. Then you take it to the high priest, and the high
priest had to examine it. to make sure it was without blemish,
to picture Christ, our high priest and our sacrifice. They went
through those and he was presented blameless. He was presented faultless
so we could be. He was bound and led away and
examined I want to cut somebody's ear
off too. Do you know? He was and found faultless that we will
be made him that we would be examined. By him before we make
entrance in the Holy of Holies that we would be without blemish,
we would be without spot. You know what Jude said? He only
had one chapter. It was a good one. Now unto him
that is able to keep you from falling. I need that. And present you faultless before
the presence of His glory. It's a cold dead letter, doctor. With exceeding joy. He did that
willingly. He suffered the cross willingly.
He let them people bind him, put them cuffs on him and fetters.
Willingly. Laid down his life willingly.
To the only wise God and Savior be glory and majesty and dominion
and power both now and ever. Amen. Amen. I thought of what Paul said there
in Ephesians 5 too. He was talking about a wedding.
Husbands and wives. And at the end of it, he says,
now, this is a great mystery. I'm talking about Christ and
his church. Nevertheless, your husband loved you. I hope some
wives submit yourself to your husband. But he said that he
might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Not even a wrinkle. You know
how many wrinkles I got? I don't even know how many wrinkles
I got. And I'm a young guy. There's only one person with
scars and glory. Think about that. And be on his
hands and on his feet. We want him admired and adored. But that we should be holy and
without blemish. That was the marriage of Christ and his bride. This is him going through the
ceremony, officiating it. I told Cameron and the children,
I said, preached a wedding a long time ago, and I said a couple
weeks ago, I said, I hope I get to preach another wedding. There's
a wedding I know that's coming up. And I said, I think this
weekend I'm gonna preach a wedding. There ain't gonna be nobody there.
Maybe there will be somebody there. Maybe the Lord will reveal
himself to his bride in this room. Wouldn't that be something?
This might happen, huh? Let's pray together. Father, as we look at your word,
How glorious it is. Who's sufficient for these things,
Lord? To enter into such majesty, perfection. Thank you. Thank
you for this salvation. For this lamb slain before time
for a wicked people that didn't deserve anything. His humility
laid out his life for us. Lord, let that mind be in us. Let us dwell on Him. Thank you
for this gospel, this good news. Thank you for the person and
work of our King. And thank you for our brethren
you've did us with. Oh, forgive us. We know your word won't return
void, but we rejoice to see you work. Thank you for the work
you've let us see around this world. Make us praise our Redeemer for
it. It's because of Him we ask it. Amen.