Matthew chapter 1. Hopefully tonight we're going
to stay right here in Matthew. I'll quote quite a bit of Scripture
to you, but you won't have to turn far. And at the end we'll
go back to Isaiah 53. But the Gospel of Matthew begins
with the lineage of Christ, from Abraham all the way to his earthly
father Joseph, the one that raised him. We'll begin there in verse
18, Matthew 1.18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ
was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph,
and that day that meant what we would call an engagement.
They were engaged. Marriage was certain, but it
was an engagement. Before they came together, before they knew
one another, she was found with the child of the Holy Ghost. And Joseph, her husband, being
a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was
minded to put her away privately. That was the only reason for
divorce was if it happened while there was an espousement. It
had to be during the engagement. And Joseph was merciful. He cared for Mary. And he said,
I'm not going to put her away publicly. I'll do it privately
because he cared for her. Verse 20, But while he thought
on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto
him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to
take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in
her is of the Holy Ghost. Christ comes to us so many times
in trial and heavy burden. His first words are, fear not. Fear not to His child. The gospel
comes from the Lord. He speaks peace to our hearts.
He speaks comfort to our hearts. He speaks comfortably to our
hearts in love. And He tells us to fear not.
Now the next verse here, we're told why. Why Joseph wouldn't
fear that one trial, and why we're not to fear any trial for
his. Matthew 1.21. And she shall bring
forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. I want to focus tonight on this
one verse, verse 21, and I want to be very repetitive. I want to repeat myself a whole
lot, and I pray the Lord would just really let us understand
these few words. That the angel of the Lord would
speak comfortably to the hearts of His children and give us understanding
as to what this verse means. We hear it so often, especially
here next month. In December, so many times people
say this verse, but I hope we hear this verse tonight. I hope
we truly understand. That is what the gospel is. It's
a message from the Lord God and it's good news. What's this message
that he sends to us? Jesus shall save his people from
their sins. The first thing we see in this
message from the Lord is that the gospel is concerning Jesus
Christ. The good news, the gospel, is
concerning Christ Jesus our Lord. That's how Paul was going through
Romans on Wednesday nights. Paul began the letter to the
church at Rome. In Romans 1.1 he said, Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto
the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets
in the holy scriptures. This was all declared concerning
his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The gospel is concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ. If we miss that, we miss all
of it. There's no gospel to be found.
It's all about Him. That's what all the prophets
declared the Old Testament. My pastor, you say the Old Testament
is the gospel concealed. Type and picture in the New Testament
is the gospel revealed. Plainly told to us. Plainly explained. It says, Thou shalt call His
name Jesus. His name declares who He is. The word Jesus comes from the
original Greek word Joshua, which is two words put together. I've
never seen this before. I thought it was so beautiful.
Those two words are Jehovah saves. God saves. The Savior. The Christ. Now Christ is not
the Lord Jesus' name, that's His title. He's the Messiah,
He's the Anointed One, the Holy One of God. The good news is
concerning Him. The Gospel is Jesus Christ our
Lord. His name is specific and He came
for a specific purpose. What was that purpose? It says
there in verse 21, and she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt
call his name Jesus for. This is why you're going to call
him that because he shall save. He doesn't want to save. He doesn't
attempt to save. He doesn't make salvation possible.
He shall save. He's going to save somebody.
Absolutely. He's going to be a successful
Savior. Many will say, well, I'm just
hammering these words out. I'm not making a mountain out
of a molehill. The Lord preserved these words for 2,000 years for
us to read tonight. He shall save. The Lord's prophets
throughout the Old Testament, they declared a saving God. They didn't suggest a saving
God. offered up and hope you accepted it. They declared a
saving God. They declared a saving substitute,
a successful mediator. We all know what a mediator is.
If you've got two parties squabbling, a mediator is a go-between. They intercede between two parties
to make amends, don't they? What are these two parties that
Christ is the mediator of? It's God and all those that offended
Him. the holy ruler of heaven and
earth and sinners. Christ is the only mediation
we have to the Father. He's the only one that can be
between us. That's what Paul wrote to Timothy. He said, for
there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man,
Christ Jesus. He's the only go-between. The
Almighty God that sent this gospel message, this good news, did
not simply make salvation possible. He is a God that saves. The angel
that declared this to Joseph declared, Jesus, he shall save. The message of the vast majority
of pulpits in this country and around the world, almost all
of them. As far as we know, all but four
on this side of the nation. They say the Father loves everyone. Jesus died for everyone and the
Holy Ghost is just begging men and women to let God save them. That's the common message. That
is not what saving means. He shall save. I took halfway
around the world to be able to witness something So I can have
an illustration for you tonight. A man was underneath an overpass
and he was shot. And two medics run to get him.
They put him on a gurney, a stretcher. And they picked him up and they
was running back to safety. And on the top of that overpass
was some bad guys. And that man raised up from that
stretcher and was shooting his pistol, giving him cover. I saw
another man, there's a group of men in a vehicle that caught
on fire and they were knocked out and the smoke was getting
to them and we didn't know if they was dead or alive. Might
as well have been dead, they was just dead weight. And a man
ripped the door off of that vehicle, grabbed those men and drugged
them to safety. Now the one on that stretcher,
those two men went and saved him. And all anybody in the town
could talk about was that fellow shooting back at the bad guy.
That's why it stuck with me for 15 years. And the other one,
I don't remember those guys in that vehicle's name. Those ones
that were dead, somebody saved them. And the one that did the
saving was the talk of the town. That's the difference between
helping and saving. Most people talk about a God that wants to
help. The Lord declared from His angel, Christ, He shall save
His people. The Father did not purpose everyone
to be loved before time. He chose a people. Christ did
not die for everyone to be offered salvation. He died for a particular
people. And the Holy Spirit does not
wish and want He's God also. He's God the Holy Spirit. And
His calling is irresistible. Look there at verse 21 again.
And she shall bring forth a son, and I shall call his name Jesus,
for He shall save His people. Not everybody. His people. Salvation
is not universal. God does not love everyone. Ask
Esau. Ask Pharaoh. Ask all those that
He cast aside. Nowhere in this book does it
even suggest that God loves everyone. That's some notions that came
out after the Second World War for altar calls and everything
else, sales tactics. God doesn't love everyone. People
say, well, what about John 3.16? For God so loved the world, He
gave His only begotten Son. That's all of His elect in the
world. That's Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, educated and uneducated,
Africans, Chinese, Americans, Russians, wherever they are throughout
the world. And we know that because Christ prayed His high priestly
prayer. I think if He's praying a high priestly prayer, we probably
ought to pay attention. He said in John 17, I pray for
them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine and I
am glorified in them. That's the ones that bring Him
glory for saving them. That's who Christ prayed for
and that's who He died for, His people. He shall save His people. Now for a moment, let's just
use common logic, earthly logic. If God loved everyone and Christ
died for everyone, then everyone is going to heaven. That's a
normal train of thought for a healthy mind. If he loved everyone and
Christ died for everyone, but people still go to hell, then what does the love of God
and what does the blood of Christ have to do with salvation? It
doesn't have anything to do with it, does it? If salvation is
of man's doing, not of God, then God's love means nothing and
the blood of Christ means nothing. Paul told us in Galatians 5,
Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. And you can take out circumcision
and put in any doing, any work, if that's keeping a Sabbath,
if that's praying extra hard, joining the church, being baptized,
whatever it is. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to the whole law.
If you want to do part of the law, you have to keep all of
it. Christ has become of no effect to you. Whosoever of you are
justified by the law, you are fallen from grace." If it's grace,
it's no more works. He was a little more stern in
Galatians 2. He said, I do not frustrate the grace of God. God's
saving a people, Him choosing a people, putting them in Christ,
the Holy Spirit affectionately calling them and Him preserving
them forever. Paul said, I do not frustrate the grace of God,
for if righteousness comes by the law, it comes by us doing
something, Christ is dead in vain. Is there anyone that Christ died
for that can be lost? Could He die for someone? Did
the Father choose someone? Christ give His blood for them,
the Holy Spirit call them and they could still be lost. There
in John 6, verse 38, it says, For I came down from heaven not
to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this
is the Father's will which hath sent me, that all which He hath
given me I should lose nothing, but raise Him up at the last
day. God said He wasn't going to lose
any. To say that someone that Christ
died for could fall into eternal damnation in any way is to say
that God was a failure. He said he wasn't going to lose
any. Well, he just backslid until he died. He's in hell now. That's to say God failed. Didn't
happen. He shall save His people from
their sins. He will seek and He will save
His people. If your Bible reads something
different other than from their sins, I would recommend strongly
you get you a different Bible. But if a person's saved, then
it's from something. He saved them from their sins.
If someone's drowning in a river, and I saved them, I saved them
from the water. I saved them from what was deadly.
If someone's in a burning building, and I took them out of that burning
building, I saved them from the fire, from the deadly fire. When
Christ saves His people, He saves them from something that is deadly,
sin. Saves us from sin. Some folks
think, well, I'm not a sinner. Well, then you don't have to
worry about it, do you? The Lord didn't come to call the righteous.
He called sinners to repentance. That's who He came to save. You
know, it's a big deal physically in our world if I was to save
someone. from out in the ocean, if a tide
come in and they were drowning, I went and saved them. If I saved
a couple people, probably the papers wouldn't. If I saved somebody
from a burning building, that'd be a big feat. That'd be something
big to talk about. But I could do that. You could
do that. You could do that. Any of us
could do that, couldn't we? As long as we can walk and go
put our hands on somebody, fall backwards. To be saved from our
sin is altogether different. There's only one that can save. One mediator between God and
man. Only one person can save us from
our sins. That's what Paul told Timothy. This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation. That Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. That's who He came to save. People
say, well, I'm not a sinner. I'm sorry. I hope the Lord shows
you you're a sinner. I only hope you have. No sinner
ever has been or ever will be saved by having some preacher
tell them, God loves you. Nobody's ever been saved or will
be saved by them telling them that Christ died for you. God
just wants to save you. It'll do us no good. A person
can get religion and it'll do them no good. The Pharisees,
they were plenty religious, weren't they? And they crucified Christ. I won't help him. A man or woman
dead in sin does not care if God loves them, and he does not
care if Christ died for them. I heard two men talking one time.
One was very religious, the other one didn't believe in God. And he said, oh, God loves you
and Christ died for you. And the other man said, I hate
to hear that. And he said, why? He said, well, somebody I don't
believe in cared for me and died for me. He said, that's a sad
state of affairs, isn't it? God loving somebody and telling
people God loves them and telling people Christ died for them,
flippantly, does no good. We need to tell men and women
that all flesh is grass. There has to be a need for that. We have to need someone to die
for us. We have to need a remedy for our sin before we'll look
to Him. Tell men and women that God in
no ways clears the guilty, that you can't be in the presence
of a holy God unless you're holy as He is holy. We tell them to
repent from their sins, to turn from themselves and their works,
and to look to Christ alone. John the Baptist was the last
of the Old Testament prophets, the one crying in the wilderness.
And he didn't go out in that wilderness, dress up in camel's
hair, and eat locusts and honey to tell people that God was wanting
something. He didn't go out there to tell
all those people that God loved everybody and Christ died for
you and he'd just be tickled pink if you just accept him.
That's not what John the Baptist did, is it? If you let God in
your heart, turn just a couple pages over to Matthew chapter
3. Matthew chapter 3. Here's what
John preached. In those days, verse 1, in those
days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and
saying, repent ye. Repent ye, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand. Now in the scriptures, the word
repentance is used five different ways. And this one means a change
of thought. An old writer from 1800s once
said this, and it stuck with me. Repentance is the pilgrimage
from the mind of the flesh to the mind of Christ. That's the
journey from the way I think, what I want, the way I see things,
to His way. my thoughts to his thoughts,
my desires to his desires. Repent ye, the kingdom of heaven
is at hand." What's the result of that type of preaching? Turn
from what you're doing, quit fighting God, and bow to Him.
What's the result of that? Look in verse 5, Matthew 3, 5. Now come to John the Baptist,
Jerusalem and all of Judea and all the regions round about Jordan
and were baptized of him and Jordan confessing their sins. Now that doesn't mean that all
of Jerusalem, every living soul in Judea and Jordan came to him. That means sinners saved by the
grace of God out of Jerusalem, Judea, and Jordan came. Because there was a bunch of
Pharisees around there too. Those people listening to John, they were
heckling him, questioning him, picking on him. They weren't
all. It wasn't all. It was those that
the Lord called out of those places. John was preaching and
baptizing one day and Christ came to where he was. And he
declared Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of
the world." All those people he'd been preaching to, the person
that he was preaching to walked up and he said, there he is in
human flesh, the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of
the world. And Christ was baptized of John. Why did he have to be
baptized? That's an ordinance, isn't it?
He fulfilled all the law for his people. He fulfilled all
the ordinances too. What if I wasn't able to be baptized?
That thief on the cross wouldn't. The cross was baptized for us.
And He began His earthly ministry. He began preaching after that. What was the message that Christ
preached? John preached, repent ye, turn from man and turn to
God. All flesh is grass. The cross
lives forever. Turn over to Matthew chapter
4, verse 17. Here's what our Master preached.
Matthew 4, 17. And from that time, Jesus began
to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. That's the same thing John said, wasn't it? I pray,
Lord, let me say the same thing. Repent ye, kingdom of God is
at hand. Well, in Mark chapter 1, it says
that Christ said, repent and believe. And then Luke 13 says,
repent or perish. The sinner does not repent and
believe they most certainly will perish. That is my message as
the Lord enables me. Turn from your way of thinking.
Turn from your works. Turn from your law keeping and
look to Christ. If you don't, you'll perish. You'll die. That's the issue
that we have in our day. It's the same as the days gone
by. Back then, 1500s, now, and if
the Lord keeps this place 500 more years. Here's the problem.
It's not that men and women can't understand what that means. It's
that they don't believe it. That's the problem. They'll say,
well, no one's totally depraved. We ain't that bad. We ain't just
plum worthless in his eyes. We're not a full-blown sinner.
We're not graveyard dead. There's a little bit of wiggle
left in us. We're not totally dead. Like that helpless castaway
infant we saw in Ezekiel this morning. That's us. No hope. No comeliness. No worth. Waiting
to be dead. Nothing done for us either. By
our natural birth, we think we have some worth. We think there's
something good about us. Turn from that. Repent from that. Anything we think is good in
us, turn away from. The message of God loving a people
is not an offer. That is our assurance to the
believer. That's not offensive. That's assurance, isn't it? Paul
wrote to us in Romans 8, For I am persuaded that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature. What's included in that? Me. I can't get in the way from what
the Lord's purposed. Nor any other creature shall
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. God loved us and put us in Christ. Nothing can separate us from
it. God loves you, everything's gonna be alright. We like assurance,
don't we? If I'm learning how to fly an
airplane or whatever, I was thinking of Jared learning how to drive
the other day. Somebody just tell you, you're doing good,
it's alright, it's okay, don't worry about that. We need that,
don't we? We like that. If God loves you, everything's
gonna be alright. Everything in this life's gonna
be alright, and especially after this life. But to tell men and
women that God loves them, outside of being made one with Christ,
is to lie to them. Brother Don used to say, that's
a fable. It's a lie. It's a story. That's a blessed
comfort to those that's been given a heart to already repent
and believe. God loves His people and He won't
let them go. The Gospel message is that Christ
came into the world to save sinners. If you're a sinner, that's good
news. said in Luke 19, for the Son
of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. He's
going to seek, He'll find it, and save. Somebody said to me,
I was a real smart aleck as a teenager, there was a comment at that time,
it said, have you found Jesus? I said, He ain't the one lost,
I am. He came to seek and to save those that are lost. How
are we lost? We're lost in sin. We're lost
in our nature. And that's who He came to seek
and save. Sinners. Save us from our sins. He shall save them. Now to many
this doesn't make any sense. That's foolishness, isn't it?
That's repetitive nonsense. Paul told us in 1 Corinthians
1, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But to us, which are saved, it
is the power of God. The cross of Christ is the power
of God displayed to us and acted upon us, for and in us. What's the message of the cross
that we preach? The punishment for sin is death. That's what I am. I deserve death.
Without blood there is no remission of sin and my blood ain't worthy. My blood will take an eternity
of payment. Christ had to go that cross for us. What put Christ
on that cross? The sin of His people that He
was made one with before the foundation of the earth. Not
His sin, but those that he was a substitute for. The message
of the cross is more than just a few words like that. It was
sinners that drove the nails into his hands. That's the one
that acted upon it. Acts 2, 3 says, Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. What man
meant for evil, God meant for good. Cross Jesus the God-man
was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. That's an act of love. Foreknowing
of His people. The Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world to save His people from sin. From our sin. God's message to you and I is
repent. Turn from what we think and look
to Christ. Peter told us in Acts 3, he said,
repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted
out. What is it to blot them out? That's removed as far as
the east is from the west. Gone forever. He said in Acts
8, repent ye therefore of thy wickedness and pray God that
the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. drinking and driving, not chewing
tobacco, not cussing, the thought of your heart, what's inside,
that it may be forgiven thee. We have a heart problem. All
mankind does. It's called sin. It's a hereditary
disease and it's a heart problem. In the days of Noah before the
flood, They had the same heart problem. They're still children
of Adam. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great on
the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually. That was rampant. And the Lord
sent a flood. And those that were outside of
the ark hadn't turned from the world and went into the ark.
He didn't give repentance to the perished. Nothing's changed
in our day. Well, that was Old Testament. That was before the flood. Things
are different now. No, it's not. Ain't no different. Turn over
to Matthew 24. Our Lord's speaking of His return, of that final
judgment. He's also speaking of our judgment,
of whatever our last day may be. When's that? No man knows. I may drop dead before I'm finished
with my notes this evening. He may take me home right now.
or it could be final judgment when he comes back. But in Matthew
24 verse 36, But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no,
not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as in the
days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. For as
in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and
drinking, Marrying and giving in marriage until the day that
Noah entered into the ark and knew not until the flood came
and took them all away So shall also the coming of the Son of
Man be Just as the days of Noah right now people say why our
hearts are just fine Everything's okay. You got to just live your
life. I We'll just go get married, and have a party, and worry about
work next week, and what am I going to eat for dinner? And then judgment
will come, like a thief in the night. We walk through this world
just aimlessly puttering around, worrying about ourselves. Our
hearts are fixed on this earth, and then judgment comes. Why
do we need to repent? We need to turn from our way
to the Lord. Prophet Isaiah told us, we all
like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to His
own way. We need to turn from our own
way to His way. What's the way of God that we
need to turn to? Do we need to follow a man? Find
some guy in a suit that's very eloquent, a great orator? Everybody
likes him? Do we need to follow a systematic
theology? Systematic doctrine or something
like that? Well, them things make sense. That seems pretty
logical. Here's God's way. that we need to turn to. In John
14, 6, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. He is the only way. He is the only truth, and He
is the only life, the only source of life. We must turn from our
way to Christ the way. We must turn from our vain imaginations
of our heart, that's only evil continually, and turn to Christ
the truth. We must turn from our dead works,
our dead religion, our dead thoughts, to Christ the life. That is the
only way sinners will be saved. That's God's message to you and
to me for sinners. That's His message. That's the
Gospel. There in our text in Matthew 1, verse 21, And she
shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. How did Jesus
the Christ save us from our sin? What did that take? The Son of
God entered into an everlasting covenant with the Father for
those people put in Him before time began. And He descended
from His throne on glory, from His majesty to be a man, to be
made like us. Why? He shall save His people
from their sins. My friend used to say that the
infinite became an infant. God Almighty became a baby and
he was wrapped in swaddling clothes and he was laid in a manger.
Why? To save his people from their
sins. He walked this earth despised and rejected of men. A man of
sorrows acquainted with grief. He came into his own and his
own received him not. He was born a Jew. Jews couldn't
stand him. The prophet has honor except
in his own house, right? I wish I could be mindful of
that when I want to throw a pity party. When I get depressed and
thinking I got it rough, God became a man and put up with
this whole world. The only one who actually had
the right to complain never did. The only one who had the power
to change this whole earth, the government, and the environment,
or whatever you think is wrong, the one that had the power to
do it, never changed it. He suffered. Why? He had a people
he had to save. He shall save his people from
their sins. The whole time living absolutely perfectly under God's
holy law, in every jot and tittle, to save his people from their
sins. He went to the cross of Calvary. He was tortured. He
bled and died. That movie was big years ago. People come out there crying.
That ain't going to light a candle to what happened earthly. He
was beaten to where his own mother didn't know him. Marred more
than any man had ever been marred. But that was just on the outside.
Why did he have to do that? To save his people from their
sins. Pilate washed his hands of it. He said, I won't have
anything to do with this. His wife warned him. She said,
this is a just man. Better leave him alone. And Pilate
looked to them crowds and he said, if you want him dead, you
see to it. You got to do it. And the people cried, let his
blood be on us and our children. But it was a Passover. And so
the custom was that a prisoner had to be let go. Well, the only
other one they had was old Barnabas. And he was a murderer. He was
a convicted felon. Had a bunch of convictions against
him. He was no asset to society. And Pilate came to him and they
said, do you want to spare Jesus or do you want to spare Barnabas?
And they said, give us Barnabas. Crucify him. Kill Jesus. I've had people fight me tooth
and toenail over man's got a free will. Can't take that from me. What is the will of man if God
removes his hand from their lives, if he leaves us to our will?
Pilate released Christ to their will, to the will of the people. He said in Mark 15, 15, willing
to content the people, that was their heart's desire, crucify,
kill him. We won't let this man reign over
us. Some say, well, God never would violate man's free will.
You better hope he does. Our will is bound and in bondage
to our nature, our sin nature. It's in bondage to sin. It's
a prisoner of sin, and it's ruled only by sin. unless the Lord
does something for us. How can we repent then and be
saved if our will is bound to sin, to our nature? Christ must
save us from our sin, from what our nature is, from our own will,
from our own heart. He shall save His people. After
the cross, after Christ gave up the ghost, then the Almighty
God in human flesh was laid in a tomb. Three days and three
nights. Why? As we saw this morning,
he bore the full and complete wrath of God for sin that we
are and that we committed. Wave upon wave. Why did he do
that? To save his people from their
sins. At any moment, from the time he was in that manger till
he was in that tomb, 10,000 angels could have come down at his command
Why didn't He have that happen? Because He has come to save His
people from their sins. Christ did for His people what
we could not do for ourselves. He died the just for the unjust. He drank that cup of condemnation
that you and I could not drink. And He cried, it is finished. salvation for his people is finished. He came to save them from their
sins and the payment has been made. When the cross was raised
from the tomb, it was proof that the payment for sin was accepted,
that the sacrifice was accepted. He was the propitiation. He was
the satisfactory blood sacrifice. He crossed our propitiation. Now turn over there back to Isaiah
53 and we'll close. Ezekiel, Song of Solomon, Isaiah. Isaiah 53. If everything we've
looked at isn't just amazing enough, isn't just humbling enough,
there's something more amazing. Something more amazing. Isaiah
53 verse 9. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no
violence, neither was there any deceit in his mouth. He knew
no sin. He bore our sin. Verse 10, Yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. The father was pleased to
bruise Christ. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul for an offering of 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 the travail
of his soul, everything we looked at in Jonah 2 today, and shall
be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. When Christ came and He shall
save His people, when it's done, that saving that He accomplished,
it was found to be satisfactory. The Lord was pleased in it. He
bore our iniquities, and He justified many when He did it. When we
see these things, it's hard for us to enter into, we can keep
that in the forefront of our mind, but that the Lord was pleased
to bruise Him, And he was satisfied. There's no condemnation now,
as sin's been removed, been blotted out. That's the message that
the Lord sent to Joseph. That's the message that the Lord
sends to us. Repent ye, and believe Christ the Word. Turn to Him,
and you won't be ashamed. You'll find satisfaction. You'll
find the Lord is well pleased in Christ your substitute. Amen.
Let's pray together.