All right, if you want to turn
to the book of John, chapter 8, that's where we're going to
be today. John, chapter 8. I hope you were able to hear
the last couple of sermons that we had because they lay the groundwork
for the rest of this chapter. Actually, several sermons from
this chapter have laid that groundwork. And the scripture that Brad just
read from Psalm 2, it all really goes together, doesn't it? Everything
in God's word goes together. You might forget most of what
you've read or heard, but John Newton said something I think
was very powerful and helpful. At the end of his life, he said,
I have forgotten almost everything I know or have learned. except
these two things, one, that I am a great sinner, and two, that
Christ is a great Savior. Now, by God's grace, He teaches
us that. Every one of God's people know that, and He will not let
them forget it. He will not let us forget it.
And what a blessing that is, in our weakest moment, always
being reminded of our sin. and also at the same time reminded
Christ is the one and only great savior of sinners. And so we
cast ourselves on him. What a blessing that is. Now in John chapter eight, as
we began this chapter, and as you can see in the first 11 verses
of the chapter, it has to do with this woman who was taken
in adultery. And this is the context of the
entire chapter. It's really the context of all
of scripture, but it helps to see it in this light, that this
is the context of the entire chapter here. In this chapter,
first, The enemies of Christ, the enemies of this woman, they
were willing to have her stoned right there in the temple. They were willing to stone a
woman to death in the temple because she was found in the
act of adultery. And they planned this. I'm sure
that they had set this up. There's no doubt it was a trap.
Why were they lying in wait for this? so that they might destroy
Christ. And so they brought her, didn't
bring the man. I'm sure that he was probably
among them, but they wouldn't admit that. And they set her
in the midst while all the people were there. They accused her
to Christ and they put the question to him. Moses commanded us to
stone this woman. She was taken in the very act
of adultery, clearly guilty. She was completely silent. She
had no defense. God's law clearly condemned her. And then they put the question
to him, what do you say? Seemed like a very, an impossible
situation. How could he both magnify the
law and also not destroy this woman, condemn this woman to
death? Well, we learned the solution came by the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. Now this was phenomenal, completely
unexpected that Jesus Christ, who is the son of God, and only
God can forgive sins because our sins are only against God,
that he himself, who is God, would justify this woman in the
presence of her enemies. and that he would challenge them. If you have no sin, then let
you, that person without sin, cast the first stone. And they
were sent out by their own conscience. The conviction in their own conscience
silenced them and drove them from the presence of Christ.
And he didn't speak anything to them except that. So they
were left without a word and they left him who was the savior
of sinners. Notice, they left Him, who was
the Savior of sinners, guilty in their conscience without submitting
to His righteousness. And that's what pride does to
us. It keeps us from Christ, the only one through whom God
is gracious to sinners. Pride, our pride does that. Our
own self-righteousness, our envy and hatred rises up against the
Lord and we find ourselves accusing Him and justifying ourselves
and hiding and going away and plotting and all the things that
go with that. And so that was the context of
what follows. Then Jesus said in verse 12,
he said to them, again, I am the light of the world. He that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life. Now he said this to the Pharisees,
as is clear from the rest of the chapter. They were the ones
who had brought the woman. They went off like a dog, licking
their wounds, and they must have sent back into the temple their
own, some of their own perhaps that were there, or their own
to represent them. They had failed. They couldn't
go back, perhaps in shame. But here they come. They're coming
back with their second attack. And Jesus clearly declares to
them in verse 12 that he is the light of the world. He's the
light of the world. He said, and he that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Now, to follow Christ is to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in John chapter 12 and
verse 46, I am come a light. into the world, that whosoever
believeth on me shall not walk in darkness." So he's the light. He came into the world. Whoever
believes him doesn't walk in darkness. And lay that over verse
12. He said, I'm the light of the
world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness. So we see
that believing Christ is following him. And it says also in verse
12 of John 8, he shall have the light of life. Life comes through
the light of Christ. Remember in 2 Corinthians 4,
he says that the God of this world has blinded the minds of
them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ should shine to them. And then in 2 Corinthians 4,
he says this, let me turn there. He says this wonderful thing
in verse 6. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. So we can see that the gospel
reveals Christ, Christ is the light revealed in the gospel,
and that gospel light comes to us from God, and he gives us
faith, and that faith in Christ is the evidence that we have
the light of life. That's life in us. We couldn't
believe without life. We couldn't believe God because
the natural man, 1 Corinthians 2, does not receive the things
of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him, therefore
he can't know them. And here, the one who is believing
Christ obviously therefore is not just a natural man, but a
spiritual man. He believes, therefore has life,
and that life is the light of life. It comes to us through
the gospel concerning Christ. So that's the context. Christ
justifying a guilty woman who was silenced before the law,
and at the hand of her merciless enemies, the enemies of Christ
who hated him used her as the way to get at him, and they were
silenced and sent out, and Christ then says, I'm the light of the
world. This is the way God makes known His own self. This is the way God makes himself
known to his people. This is the way, the only way
we can see how God can be just and justify the ungodly through
the light of the world, through Christ. Now, it's that context
that we read what follows. All that follows here is about
this issue. The Pharisees have come now with
their second wave of attack. And the Pharisees said to him,
thou barest record of thyself, thy record is not true. Now pull
back into what they've said here and what is about to happen,
what we learned from the woman, from the book of Romans in Romans
7 and in Romans 8. Remember, we are sinners. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. We cannot be justified by our
obedience to God's law. But the law directs us to ourselves
because it requires obedience from us for life. He that does
not keep everything is cursed, but if we keep everything, then
we live. So the law directs us to ourselves.
We try to avoid the curse. by doing what the law says, or
we try to gain life by doing what the law says, and that is
our own personal obedience to what God requires of us. But
the law was given to show us that we're sinners, that we can't
do what God requires, and that we're guilty and we're condemned
by His law. We're under the curse. So it
leaves us helpless and guilty and sinful inside, and we can't
do anything about it. We can't even see the light.
That's the message of Romans. And the conclusion is therefore
that we're guilty, our mouths are stopped by God's own law,
and we've done everything that God said not to do, and we failed
to do everything he said to do. We've completely failed to meet
one of God's requirements. And then into that context, God
reveals his righteousness. And that righteousness is seen
as the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not our own personal
obedience, but his obedience, and his obedience not in any
ordinary way, but a life lived without sin in perfection so
that he could then bear our sins as the sinless sacrifice and
give himself in total sacrifice of blood to God for us. He comes
with our sins before God and he receives the outpouring of
God's wrath upon him for the sins we committed that he took
and bore as his own. That's love. That is love that
does more than the law requires. Never do you read that in the
law, but he understood the spirit of God's heart. He knew what
God required and would be pleased with. He gave himself and it
had to be a gift of love. That's the way the woman was
delivered. And here these men are who will go out from his
presence, out from this provision of God in Christ, who came and
humbled himself so much that he who is God stooped to take
our nature and and serve His Father and fulfill His Father's
will and save us from our sins by giving Himself in obedience
to God and obedience of love that would wash us from our sins
and placate God, remove our sins from us, take away His wrath
and magnify all of His perfections. He did this. And the Pharisees
are saying, you bear record of yourself. You're not true. And it doesn't follow that if
someone speaks of themselves, it's not true, but they wanted
to make that claim, that charge. Jesus, he countered their attacks
in the rest of this chapter. And he countered their attacks,
not just as a man, and this is key to understanding what follows,
but as the Son of God. The one who is God now is speaking
to them who have in their arrogance and their hatred for God, their
self-righteous pride, their desire for the honor that belongs to
Christ only, their complete failure to keep His law, and their hypocritical
lies that they have, and then their deceit to try to darken
the minds of others that it's by the law that we're justified
when in themselves they were unjustified, they were guilty
by that same law, and yet they wanted to use God's law to kill
others, to judge others with it. So they were liars and murderers. They wanted to murder Christ.
They wanted to murder His people. And they lied about their own
obedience. They lied about what God required. They thought, they
claimed that they could do it, that God's holiness was so low
that it stooped to their level, and that they could get on top
of that, and they could honor themselves before God and men,
and God would have to recognize them. And it was all hogwash. It was the result of this inward
sin that's within us. But the Lord Jesus Christ had
spoken to this woman when she was yet a sinner, when she was
guilty, when she had done what the law had forbid, this adulterous
act, and Christ had justified her, not for anything in her,
but freely by His grace through the redemption that He would
accomplish in His blood. So these men now, these men see
all that. Now it's set up for us in this
context. It's put before them. Jesus Christ is evidently set
forth crucified among them. And he justifies this woman.
He declares her to be righteous, not condemned before God's law.
And he who is God did this. So he obviously is taking his
own, the offenses of his people himself upon himself. He who
is God took the offenses of his people and bore them and cleared
them from all of their sins and washed them and then justified
them in his presence. And the Pharisees said, when
he said, and I'm the light, Jesus said, I'm the light of the world.
Whoever believes me, who follows me, doesn't walk in darkness.
He has the light of life. And they say, you bear record
of yourself. Talk about blindness, right?
Talk about stubborn, self-righteous pride. Talk about an assault,
a hostility towards God. That's what this is here. And
Jesus responds. Though I bear record of myself,
yet my record is true. I do bear record of myself. If I didn't, I would be a liar
like you. But because I bear record of
myself and my record is true, here's why. I know where I came
from and whither I go, but you cannot tell whence I come and
whither I go. I came from God the Father. I didn't come from earth. I came
from heaven, from God's own presence. He sent me. He gave me a work
to do, and I will accomplish that work. That work is to save
His people from their sins, and in doing so, to magnify God's
perfection, even in His law for them, so that the righteousness
of the law would be fulfilled in them, and then the Spirit
of God given to them, that righteousness of God's law would be fulfilled
in them, not only for them, but in them, because the life of
Christ in them then would look to and bring to God what Christ
had brought, which fulfilled the law, His own sacrifice. If
Christ fulfilled the law in His obedience of love, taking the
sins of sinners that God had chosen and set His love on from
eternity, if that obedience fulfilled God's law, then those who were
saved by that obedience only come to God by that same obedience. They come by Jesus Christ. He's
the way, and He's the truth, and He's the life, and they come
that way. And so they have the Spirit of
Christ in them. They have, because of His righteousness
for them, been given this life, Christ in them. That's our life,
Christ in us. And by the life of Christ in
us, we look to Christ who died for us and magnified God's perfections
and fulfilled His law. Now that's where the woman stands. But these men, they hold to their
own personal observance of the outward form of the law. They
completely disregard the spirit of the law, which is love to
God. He won't take anything less.
And they use this superficial obedience that they claim to
have, which was not really anything, And now they turn their assault,
their guns, back on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he does to
them... What God does to proud sinners
who refuse the righteousness of God in Christ, he comes to
them as the Son of God now. And he speaks to them as with
the authority of God the Father, whom they trusted was their God,
whom they trusted was their Father, in fact. And so let's go on and
read it here. Jesus answered, though I bear
record of myself, yet my record is true, for I know whence I
came, that's from the Father, God the Father, and whither I
go, back to God the Father. After doing his work, I'm going
to go back to the Father. I'll save my people from their
sins. I will go back in glory, the
glory I had with him before, but you cannot tell whence I
come and whither I go. You're of the earth. I'm of heaven. You're of beneath. I'm from glory. You are of this
sinful, hostile nature. I'm from God. I'm from the Father. You judge after the flesh. Outwardly,
people look at Christ in his physical form. He looked like
everyone else. They could see that. They thought
he's just Joseph's son. How could he say these things?
How could he do these things? Because they were blinded. He
says, you judge after the flesh, I judge no man. He didn't come
into the world, He wasn't sent by the Father to condemn the
world. He came to save. And yet they
accused Him, though He didn't come to condemn them, they wanted
to condemn Him. And he says, and yet, verse 16,
if I judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I and
the Father that sent me. I'm not alone in my judgment,
because I speak as God. And then they go on, he goes
on, it is also written in your law. Notice the weight of what
he says here. It is written in your law that
the testimony of two men is true. The law says that. Every matter,
you have to, if someone is accused of a crime, they can only be
accused and it be valid if it comes by the testimony of two
witnesses, two men. But notice here the weight of
the argument. He's just said he came from,
they didn't know where he came from, but we know he's implying
that he comes from heaven, that he's sent by the Father, because
he said, my Father that sent me, I'm not alone in my judgment.
But notice now, I am one that bear witness of myself, and the
Father that sent me beareth witness of me. Now, if two of us got
together as witnesses, we're on equal grounds as men speaking
against a person, aren't we? Well, I saw him do this. Someone
else says, yes, I saw them too. And now we have two witnesses,
two men against a man. But here, the Son of God and
God the Father are the two witnesses. And so that the weight of the
testimony is infinitely above anything else. So the law allows
two men, but what greater magnitude, what greater weight is carried
in the testimony of the Son of God, who is God, and the Father. That's why in Psalm 2 it says,
why do the heathen rage? Why do the peoples of the earth
imagine a vain thing? They assemble together against
the Lord, Jehovah, and his anointed, Christ. And he that sits in the
heaven shall laugh. You see? They're trying to assail
the Son of God and the Father who sent him and the work God
gave him to do. They're trying to contradict
that and stand on the footing of their own human sinfulness
that failed to keep God's law. So verse 19. Then said they to
him, where is thy father? They could only see in human
terms. There must have been thinking
of Joseph here. Jesus answered, you neither know
me nor my father. If you had known me, you should
have known my father also. You see, this underscores the
fact that He is one with His Father, equal with God the Father. You see how He's coming to them
as the Son of God with His authority as God. He had just shown in
Graphic terms, his salvation as the son of God who came to
bear the sins of his people. And they hold to their own righteousness
and they attack him, the son of God. They're raging against
him. They're going to crucify him. Where's your father? You don't know me. If you knew
me, you would know my father. In other words, you have to know
the father through knowing me. And if you don't know me, you
do not know God. These words make Jesus in the
treasury as he taught in the temple, and no man laid hands
on him, for his hour was not yet come." It's clear from this
verse that the reason he came here was to give himself, according
to the will of God, his hour, the hour of offering himself
to God for our sins. But that hour hadn't come yet.
So he did not give himself into their will to take him and to
bind him and to crucify him. It wasn't time yet. Verse 21,
Then said Jesus again to them, I go my way, and you shall seek
me and shall die in your sins. Whither I go, you cannot come.
Now this is a pronouncement of judgment, isn't it? I'm going
back to the Father. You're going to die in your sins. That's what he's saying here.
And where I'm going, you cannot come. Now this is exactly what
Jesus says in Matthew 7 when those who are on the broad road
to destruction come to Christ in judgment, a future judgment. that is going to happen. And
many, those all on the broad road, will come to Him saying,
Lord, recognize what we did. We did this. It was in your name.
Come on. And He says, no, I am not going
to recognize what you do. You are workers of iniquity.
The only ones who can enter this way in this life and have this
salvation and enter heaven are those who do the will of my Father.
And that will is what Christ is telling us here to do, to
follow Him, to believe on Him. That was the will, God said,
this is the will of Him that sent me that everyone which seeth
the Son and believeth on Him that sent me has everlasting
life. And so He says to them, you can't
come, you're going to die in your sins. He tells those in
that judgment, you who seek Justification from God by what you do and what
you are, are workers of iniquity. Depart from me, I never knew
you. You see, it's the same thing
here. It's a very powerful and sobering judgment. It teaches
us both with the woman as an example and with these as a counter
example that we must flee to Christ. We must believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said to them, When he said,
you can't come, he says, you are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not
of this world. I was not produced in this world
and I have nothing to do with the religion of this world or
the deceit of this world or anything in this world. I said therefore
unto you that you shall die in your sins for if you believe
not that I am, you shall die in your sins. You see that? When
God spoke to Moses before he went to Pharaoh to demand on
God's requirement to Pharaoh, God sent Moses to Pharaoh. He
said, now you tell Pharaoh, let my people go. And so Moses is
very, very concerned. He says, I can't do that. I don't
have, I can't speak. I can't, they're not gonna hear
me. The people of Israel aren't gonna hear me. I have no way
to accomplish what you've given me to do. And God sends him,
he says, and Moses says, who will I tell them? Who will I
tell the people of Israel then? What your name is? And he says,
I am. That's what he said. I am that
I am has sent you unto the Israelites. That's what you're to tell them.
Tell them, I am has sent me to you. And now Jesus tells these
men here, unless you believe that I am, you shall die in your
sins. You see? Moses was going to deliver
Israel out from Pharaoh, the tyrant king, and the bondage
that he required those Israelites to be in at the hands of his
people. Christ was sent by God the Father
to deliver His Israel out of the hand of our sin that ruled
over us as a tyrant and brought us into death. The bondage of
our sin bringing us into death and this was all of course under
the rule of the Prince of Darkness who rules in this world. And
so the Lord Jesus Christ, infinitely greater deliverance than Israel
from Egypt, he delivers his people from their sins. I am, that's
who does. And he comes to them and he tells
them, I am. And yet these men do not believe
him. Just like Israel was told, I
am has sent me to you. And so he says, since you don't
believe me, that I am, The one God sent to deliver his people
from their sins. You will die in your sins. I'm
the way. I'm the truth. I'm the life.
I'm the righteousness of my people. I'm the propitiation to God for
the sins of his people. I'm everything, I'm the covenant,
I'm the surety, I'm the redeemer, I'm the mighty God, the prince
of peace, the king of righteousness. I'm all those things, I am. And
what I am now, I've always been. And what I am now, I always will
be. And they refuse it, therefore
you die in your sins, you have no hope, unless you believe me. In verse 25, then they said to
him, who art thou? Jesus said, Even the same that
I said to you from the beginning, I have many things to say and
to judge of you. But he that sent me is true,
and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of
him. Why does he say this? Because God the Father sent Christ
to There's the Lamb of God to preach the gospel to the Gentile
world. And all those in the Gentile
world saved by that gospel are just like those in the Jewish
world who would have to believe in the same way. He's putting
them on the same foot as helpless, sinful, corrupt Gentiles who
also in their minds are hostile towards God and in their sins
and enslaved to their sins and facing the condemnation of death.
But he came to bear their sins and preach the gospel in order
to bring them out of that bondage and that death. And so he says,
my father sent me to do this, to preach to the world, to speak
to the world, he says. I speak to the world those things
which I have heard of him. Isn't this wonderful? God the
father sent his son into the world to save that world that
he sent his son into. Not every person in the world,
but the people God chose out of the world to redeem them.
Just like not all the Egyptians were saved, but those who were
of Israel were saved. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
here is seen in this. And they understood not that
he spoke to them of the Father. They had never heard, it had
never entered into their hearts, they had never seen it with their
eyes, the things that God prepared for them that love Him." 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. But the Lord Jesus Christ had
prepared it for them. And as I was thinking about these
things, I wanted to give you an example. This is an illustration. You know how preachers give illustrations
to help us understand things. And I always like to use an illustration
that the Lord has given. So I want to use the rest of
our time now to use an illustration of how God has given His Son
in love and Christ has given Himself in love and this is the
reason for our salvation so that it would cause us to trust the
Son of God and cause us to come to the Father who sent Him with
this message and trust Him alone. through Christ. Now this account
is given in Mark chapter 12. You want to turn there in Mark
chapter 12 because here again we see the Pharisees who are
rebuked by Christ and he's going to show them why they are being
rebuked here. In Mark chapter 12, he says in
verse 41, Jesus sat over against the treasury and he beheld how
the people cast money into the treasury and many that were rich
cast in much. We know what this is like. When
you're a little kid, I remember we had little envelopes and we'd
put our offering in it each week. You know, you'd put in something.
Your mom and dad usually gave you the money to put it in the
offering. They were trying to teach us
to give an offering. But it always seemed like a lot
if I put in something on my own money. But, you know, you're
supposed to give, what, 10%. So if I had a dollar and I gave
a dime, that seemed like appropriate amount. So you put it in the
envelope and drop it in the offering. But then other people are putting
in large amounts. And so you think, well, what
good is a dime, right? Well, Jesus was watching people
cast their money into the treasury. And many that were rich cast
in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in
two mites, the smallest, like two pennies. What you do with
pennies nowadays is you pretty much throw them away. They're
not worth anything. You can save up a whole big can of them, they're
still worth maybe a dollar or two, which isn't worth much today. Two mites, which make a farthing. And verse 43, and he called to
him his disciples and he said to them, now these are the disciples,
so this is like us. He's calling us to himself and
he says, verily I say to you that this poor widow has cast
more in than all they which have cast into the treasury. Wow,
how could that be? Well, he says, for all they did
cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all
that she had, even all her living. Now, when the Lord saw these
people casting into the treasury and saw how the rich cast in
much, he brings attention to this woman. In the estimation
of Jesus Christ, this woman's two mites, were worth more than
all of that much that these rich people cast in. So it was of
greater value to him than all the rest of the money. You see
that? Don't you admire this woman?
How could a widow woman, a poor widow woman, cast in everything
she had? What would cause her to do that?
There's only one thing, love. Out of her want, she gave all
that she had, all of her living. Now, when I read scriptures like
this, or like in the Sermon on the Mount, I can't help but think,
the Lord Jesus Christ, our Master, is so good that he would point
this out to the shame of the rich. Because they cast in a
lot, but they had a lot more than they cast in. And this woman,
who had nothing, cast in the very little that she had, and
it was everything that she had. And I also think about the woman,
and I think, oh, if I could just be like that. But I am not like
her, am I? And so I think of a scripture
like Psalm 119, where it says, make me go in the path of thy
commandments. or order my steps in thy word,
and don't let any iniquity have dominion over me." I think like
that. When Jesus says, love your enemies,
or don't resist evil, or judge not that you might not be judged,
I find such a disparity between myself and what the Lord says
to do, don't you? It seems like I'm not just not
quite aligned, but I'm actually opposite to what the Lord says
to do. And then he says this, in my
shame, he says these things about what we ought to be, but then
he adds this in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the poor
in spirit. Now, poor in spirit means someone
who has absolutely nothing spiritually. They're poor in spirit. in their
soul, in their minds, in the way they think about themselves,
I have nothing. My prayers, I can't even think
about them. My faith, I don't even think
about that. Because it's so poor. It's not
even there. I can't find it. That's what
a poor person has. I don't have anything. And so
I identify with that. I have no spiritual savings to
bring. Nothing to put into the treasury.
I'm poor in spirit." And so the Lord sees that. He sees that
his people are bankrupt themselves. They actually have a debt and
no one, not one of them can pay that debt. And yet, in this poverty
condition, I admire this woman, don't you? She seemed rich in
heart, in her spirit. In absolute terms, two mites. What did it amount to? Nothing.
Could you build anything with two mites? You couldn't use that
for anything. Couldn't hire a janitor for two
mites. So really, it didn't amount to anything. And yet, she gave
everything that she had. Everything. Infants are like
that. Children are like that. They
can't do anything to help God's work, can they? They don't have
anything. They can't really speak. They
can't serve. They can't do anything. They're
constantly in need of someone carrying them around. And so
we see that that's the way God's people are. They're babies in
terms of their contribution. They can't do anything. And yet
this woman cast in everything that she had. Now, understand. that in scripture there are often
people who are like this. Remember the woman who fed Elijah,
he told her, first go make me a cake and then make one for
yourself and your son. And Hannah told the Lord, I'm
gonna give you my son Samuel, he's gonna be with you forever,
I have no children, but you gave me this son, I'm gonna return
him to you. Everything she had was wrapped up in her son. and
so many other people in scripture are like that. But mostly this
is the lesson here that I want you to get. And this is why I
tied it in here with John chapter eight. Because if the Lord God
blessed this woman who gave these two mites, I want you to consider
this. How much more will he bless the
emptying out of everything that the son of God had. He was rich,
yet for your sakes, he became poor and gave everything. He obligated himself forever
to his father for his people and poured out his soul in suffering
unto death. He didn't do it out of constraint. He did it willingly in love. Can anyone deserve such love?
No. True love is free and it freely
gives. It looks for nothing before or
after it gives itself. It says in Song of Solomon that
if we attempt to, if someone would give all the
substance of his house for love, it would be utterly despised. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
gives everything in love, and God the Father sent His Son into
the world because He loved the world. The King of heaven, the
Lord of glory, gave everything He had. He gave Himself. He gave Himself. He gave all
of His treasure. He gave everything He had to
His Father for His people. He gave all of His living. We
saw this in the slave in Exodus chapter 21. who said, I love
my master, I love my wife, I love my children, I will not go out
free. And his master takes him to the
door, he puts an awl to his ear, and he bores his ear through
the mark that he was a willing servant of love who would serve
his master forever. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so he laid aside his reputation. He took upon himself the form
of a servant. He was made under the law, obligated
himself to fulfill the righteousness of the law and to bear the sins
of his people who had broken that law. He became obedient
even unto death, the death of the cross. At the hands of wicked
men like those in John 8 who hated and plotted his murder,
he submitted himself to God so that he would suffer at their
hands. And now, because he cast in all
of himself, all of his living, God has set him in glory. I want you to think about this.
In His love, the Lord Jesus, well let's start with God the
Father. In His love, God the Father gave His only begotten
Son. And in His love, Christ gave Himself. And God's love
gave all of that in order that God would give to His people
a place at His table. as his children to constantly
feed on the glories of God in heaven through the Lord Jesus
Christ. God's love did that. And God's
justice looked upon that gift of love for sinners. And God's
justice looked at the other side of the scale, at the blood of
Christ that he shed for us when he bore our sins. And God's justice
looked at that gift of Christ and the reward given to his people. And he said, that's an appropriate
amount. It's an appropriate amount to
give all of heaven to them because Christ gave himself, you see,
This is what the Son of God did in John 8. And these men rise
up in their arrogance and blind hardheartedness trying to overthrow
the Lord of glory. Why do the heathen rage? God
sits on the throne and he sat his son on the throne because
he gave himself for our sins. Blessed are all they that trust
in him. Remember from Psalm 2? Kiss the
son, kiss the son, lest he be angry and you perish when his
wrath is kindled but a little bit. Don't you know we have to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? We can't come to God any other
way. Amen.