Our dear Heavenly Father, we
thank you that you've given to us this, your word about our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whom you sent into this world
to accomplish your will, which he did, and all that he said
and did, and all that he suffered and died. And we thank you, Lord,
that you raised him from the dead to prove that he actually
did fulfill your will, and that in that fulfillment, our salvation
lies. Help us to see as we look through
these scriptures this morning, to see our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, to see our great need of Him, to see your eternal and
sovereign will to save your people from their sins, and to see His
willingness to go to the cross for His people, to suffer and
die in their place, that they might live eternally with Him. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
In John chapter 18, We're going to start here in verse 1, and
I'm going to read through long ways, so just pay attention. As I do, I'll make some comments,
and we'll see how this goes. John chapter 18, sorry. When
Jesus had spoken these words, his words to his disciples, as
he was walking from that upper room to the Garden of Gethsemane,
He went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, or Kedron,
I'm not sure how to pronounce it, where was a garden, called
the Garden of Gethsemane, into the which he entered and his
disciples. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, knew the place, for Jesus oft times resorted thither with
his disciples. Judas had already gone out to
betray him and was now bringing back with him this band of men.
Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the
chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns
and torches and weapons. They came with the light of this
world to take the light of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ,
by force, even though he was there willingly. Verse 4, Jesus
therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went
forth and said to them, Whom seek ye? Don't pass over that
too quickly. It says he knew all things that
should come upon him. How is it that the Lord Jesus
knew all things that should come upon Him? Well, because as God,
He knew them, but also as man, He knew them because God revealed
them to Him. In the Old Testament, prophets
were given an understanding of what was going to happen by the
Spirit of God. The Lord of glory, God the Father,
gave to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in our nature as man,
an understanding of all that should come upon Him. And so
the fact that He knew all things that were coming upon Him meant
that He didn't do this without an understanding of what was
coming upon Him. He did it willingly. He didn't
resist. It was actually His will, which
we find out here in verse 5. Listen to this. When He asked
them, Whom seek ye? They answered, Him, Jesus of
Nazareth. Jesus said to them, I am. And Judas also, which betrayed
Him, stood with them. now he was on the other side.
As soon then as he said to them, I am, they went backward and
fell to the ground. Now I don't know how many men
were here, but it says there was, in Matthew it gives you
count, and what from all I can understand, there were probably
about 500 men. They all went backward and fell
to the ground when he spoke this one thing to him, I am. Then
asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you
that I am. Now listen to the way the Lord
speaks here. He's not speaking as one who is a captive. One who's been taken against
his will. He's speaking as one who has
all power and all understanding of what's coming upon him. When
he said, I am, they all fell backward. He easily could have
walked away. They didn't need the weapons
and the clubs and the swords. So now he gives them a commandment.
He says, "...if therefore you seek me, let these go their way,
that the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake of them, which
thou gavest me, have I lost none." Jesus told, he commanded these
soldiers who came to get him, let these go their way. You've come for me, then let
these go their way." And he said that so that it might be fulfilled,
which he had just prayed in John 17, 12. Those that you have given
me, I've lost none. The Lord Jesus doesn't lose any
that God has given him. Now this is very important. The
Lord Jesus Christ will not lose one of those God has given him. Not one. We're going to keep
reading here, though. Verse 10. Then Simon Peter, having a sword,
drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right
ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Then said Jesus to Peter, put
up thy sword into the sheath, the cup which my father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? Peter was trying to keep the
men from taking Jesus, but Jesus was offering himself willingly.
And so he tells Peter, put up your sword. Peter took his sword
and put it back in whatever sheath he had. Because the sword of
God's justice was about to be sheathed in our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. Zechariah 13, 7. And so he was
going to have that done. And these men came with swords.
They didn't need swords. If he wasn't going willingly,
swords wouldn't have helped. But since he went willingly,
they didn't need the swords and the clubs. Then the band and
the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound Him.
They didn't need to bind Him, but they bound Him in order that
the Scripture might be fulfilled. And they led Him away to Annas
first, for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, which was a high
priest that same year. Now Caiaphas was he which had
given counsel to the Jews that it was expedient that one man
should die for the people. Remember Caiaphas in John 11,
47, he said to the, they were having a struggle, they were
deciding, what can we do? Because all of the people are
going after Christ. And the Romans are going to come
and take away our nation. And he spoke up and he says,
you guys don't know anything at all. It's expedient for us
that one man should die for the people. And so that's what that's
referring to here. He didn't know what he was saying,
but he was speaking God's will. one man to die for the people.
Verse 15, And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple.
That disciple was known to the high priest, and went in with
Jesus into the palace of the high priest. That disciple, by
the way, would have been John. But Peter stood at the door without,
then went out that other disciple, which was known unto the high
priest, and spake to her that kept the door, and brought in
Peter. Then saith the damsel that kept the door to Peter,
Art not thou also one of this man's disciples? He said, I am
not. And the servants and officers
stood there, who had made a fire of coals, for it was cold, and
they warmed themselves, and Peter stood with them and warmed himself.
The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples and of his doctrine.
So this is the first interrogation that they make. This is the high
priest. He's called the high priest because he was truly the
high priest. He was Annas, the father-in-law
to Caiaphas, who was then the sitting high priest. So there
was really like two high priests at the time. High priest always
kept that office until he died. Annas hadn't died, so Caiaphas
was made high priest at the same time. It was a strange thing
that happened there. Verse 20, Jesus answered him,
he answered Annas, I speak openly, I speak openly to the world,
I ever taught in the synagogue and in the temple, whether the
Jews always resort, and in secret have I said nothing. The high
priest asked Jesus about his doctrine and about his disciples.
He was looking for something to accuse Jesus to give him a
basis for putting him to death. That was the plan. So he was
trying to trap him in his words. But in Deuteronomy 17.6 it says,
if a man is accused of a crime to death, you're not to accept
Any testimony against that man except in the mouth of two or
three witnesses. It required two or three witnesses
to put a man to death. And yet the high priest, against
his own law, which he knew, is asking Jesus to incriminate himself. 21. Why askest thou me? Jesus said, Ask them which heard
me. That was what he should have done. What I have said to them
I'm sorry, asked them which heard me what I have said to them.
Behold, they know what I said. And when he had thus spoken,
one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm
of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest? So Jesus
answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil.
But if well, why smitest thou me? Now this is exactly what's
going to happen throughout the entire account here. The Lord
Jesus Christ is going to be treated by men according to unjust rules. And that's the first thing we
should see here. Throughout this it's very easy to see. The way that
these men treat Christ is the most unjust thing that could
ever have happened. He was the one man who never
did anything wrong. In John 8, verse 46, He asked
His enemies, He said, "...which of you convinces Me of sin?"
Not one. His own enemies couldn't find
him to have done anything wrong. And now he's going to be interrogated
by Annas, by Caiaphas, by Pilate, and by Herod. None of them could
find anything wrong with him. These were the ones who were
looking for something. They were his enemies. And they
actually tried to find people. And they tried to incriminate
him with his own words. And that's important too. There are several
themes throughout here. One of the questions you need
to ask as we read through this is why did God give us these
details about the death, the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus
Christ? Why? Why would He do that? Why didn't
He just simply say Christ died for us? That would have been
enough to teach the truth of it. But here He's going to He's
going to give us all these details. And the first one we see here
is that not only... Remember what Jesus prayed in
the garden? He said, but thine be done." That's the first thing
to note. First thing that Jesus said,
not my will, but thy will be done. He's speaking to his Father.
Whatever happened here was by the will of God. And whatever
happened here to Jesus, He did it voluntarily, willingly. Those two things run throughout
this. He wasn't forced. He gave his life. He says in
John 10, 18, he says, No man takes my life from me. I lay
it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and
I have power to take it again. No one else could say that. No
man could say that. No angel could say that. Only
he who is both God and man could say that. And so he asked this
high priest, this man who hit him, when he responded right,
he responded properly according to the God's word, this man smacks
him. And he asked him, why are you
smiting me? Now Annas had sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high
priest. And that's recorded in Matthew
26. And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. They said therefore
to him, to Simon Peter, Art not thou also one of his disciples?
He denied it and said, I am not. One of the servants of the high
priest, being his kinsman, whose ear Peter cut off, said, did
not I see thee in the garden with him? Peter then denied again
and immediately the cock crew. In other words, what happened
here was exactly according to what Jesus said. Before the cock
crows twice, you're going to deny me three times. Then they
led Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment." Now, it
isn't recorded in John because it's recorded in Matthew, Mark,
and Luke what Caiaphas said to Jesus. And we'll talk about that
more another time. But now they lead him to Pilate
into the judgment. And it was early. And they themselves
went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled,
but that they might eat the Passover. It was during the night that
Annas first, and then Caiaphas, interrogated Jesus. They led
him out of the garden at night, and they interrogated him at
night, and now the morning is beginning to dawn. And they're
all warming themselves around this fire. Pilate then went out
to them and said, and they brought Jesus to Pilate, get this. And
he went out to them and he said to the Jews, what accusation
bring ye against this man? What are you accusing him of?
What did they say? They answered and said to him,
if he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him
up to thee. A malefactor is an evildoer. They didn't give any
evidence. They just said, if he weren't
an evil man, we wouldn't have delivered him to you. Just take
our word for it. He's worthy to die. In other
words, they had no evidence. They were like little kids. They were just screaming at him. Verse 31, Then said Pilate to
them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The
Jews therefore said to him, It is not lawful for us to put any
man to death. Now, it was true the Romans wouldn't
let them put any man to death. But what they're saying here,
by saying it's not lawful for us to put any man to death, yet
they in their heart wanted to put him to death. And they did,
by proxy, require Pilate to put him to death. So what they did
was against their own law. And they condemned themselves
by this statement. Verse 32. that the saying of
Jesus might be fulfilled which he spake signifying what death
he should die. The death he should die is the
death of crucifixion. The death on the cross. He had
spoken this before and now it's coming to pass according to his
word. Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again and called
Jesus and said to him, Art thou the king of the Jews? Now this
is a question. He's asking him this because
he's told by the Jews, not here, but in the other gospel accounts,
he claims to be a king. And if he's a king, then he's
against Caesar. So Pilate asked him, Are you
the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou
this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? That's
a reasonable question. Are you speaking this? Are you
asking this question because you want the answer? Because
you thought of it or did someone tell you that? He's going to
answer the question, but first he asks that. Because the Lord
always does that when he speaks to us. He always arrests our
conscience to show us what we're really thinking. Pilate answered,
Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief
priest have delivered thee to me. What hast thou done? And
now Jesus answers his question. My kingdom is not of this world. If he has a kingdom, he's a king,
isn't he? He had asked him, are you a king of the Jews? He said,
my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered
to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence. Not of this world. My kingdom is not of this world.
The people over which I'm a king are also not of this world. Pilate therefore said to him,
Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that
I am a king. Now that's the way it's worded
here, but it's really, he's affirming, yes, what you said is true, I
am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into
the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone
that is of the truth heareth my voice. He's the King, and
He's the King of Truth. The King of Righteousness, it
says in Hebrews 7. The King of Peace. The King of
Glory. The Prince of Life. The Just
One. The Holy One of God. Verse 38,
Pilate said to Him, What is Truth? I'm not sure exactly why Pilate
asked Him that question. He was sitting in the place of
judgment. And he asks, what is truth? How could you be a judge
if you don't know the truth? What a mockery of justice and
the position this man held by his own admission. And then he
goes on, he says, and when he had said this, he went out again
and said to the Jews, listen. He said to them, I find in him
no fault at all. Now that's what Pilate said to
the Jews. They knew that. But you have a custom, he tells
the Jews, that I should release to you one at the Passover. Will
you therefore that I release unto you the king of the Jews?
Then cried they all again, saying, No, not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber and
murderer, I think, it says in another place. Chapter 19. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus
and scourged him. He beat him. He had him. He didn't
do it himself. He had the soldiers. And how
did they do that? They would strip him of their clothes, tie
him to a post, and whip him. But he had just said he had no
fault. Why was he beating him? So he, right there, is acting
unjustly. And the soldiers plaited a crown
of thorns and put it on his head. And they put on him a purple
robe to mock him. And said, Hail, King of the Jews!
And they smote him with their hands. These are the soldiers
now. They had already done this when
Caiaphas interrogated Jesus. And Caiaphas got to that point
where he was so frustrated he couldn't find anything wrong
with him. He says, I adjure you by the living God, tell me if
you are... are the Christ," and he says,
"...are the Son of God. Are you the Son of God?" And
Jesus said, "...I am. And you shall soon see the Son
of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds
of glory." And when he said that, Caiaphas ripped his clothes and
he got all indignant and he says, he's blaspheming, he's speaking
against God. But he was speaking the truth.
He was speaking the truth. And so now Pilate, he gives them,
and then, oh, when he did that, when Caiaphas did that, then
they spit in his face. They spit in his face, the highest
form of insult, right in his face, looking him in the face,
spit right in his face. And then they blindfolded him,
and they smacked him with their hands. They hit him. And they
said, prophesy to us, who hit you? And Pilate therefore went
therefore again, and said to them, Behold, I bring him forth
to you, that you may know that I find no fault in him. The second
time he said this. Why did you beat him then? And
came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple
robe. And Pilate said to them, Behold
the man. When the chief priest therefore
and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him! Crucify
him! Pilate said to them, take ye
him, and crucify him. I find no fault in him. Now,
I want you to understand when you're reading these things.
I've thought about this a long time. There's three things going
on here. And we're going to continue reading
this. But there's three things going on here, first of all.
First of all, we see in all this that everything that happened
here was according to God's will. And that's an amazing thing,
isn't it? It's very amazing. The Lord Jesus, as I said, in
the garden, He prayed, "'Not My will, but Thine be done.'
If this is Your will, then not My will, but Thine be done."
He submitted Himself to the will of God. Acts 2.23 says, Him,
Christ, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and
slain." The first thing you see here is that everything that
happened was according to the will of God. According to God's
eternal purpose. How did God know that these men
were going to do this? Because he knew it beforehand.
God knows all things beforehand. Known unto God are all his works
from the foundation of the world. Acts 15, 18. He wrote it in Scripture. God couldn't have written, had
it written in Scripture, had it not already been known to
God. But how was it that God knew they would do all these
things in Scripture? He wrote it. How did he know this? Because
everything that happens is not only known to God, but is determined
by God. They took him according to the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Determinate counsel means
it's God's will in the Godhead. He determined this to happen
beforehand and it couldn't not happen. It had to happen this
way. So that's the first thing. This
all is done according to the will of God. And the second thing
we see here. That everything that was done
here was done according to the will of wicked men. God gave
the Lord Jesus Christ into the hands of wicked men. So that
they could do whatever was in their hearts. So we see two things
here. The revelation of God's purpose
from eternity. What was in his heart. And the
revelation of what's in our heart, what we see here being unfolded
in this crowd. And this mob that takes Jesus
and cruelly and mercilessly kills Him unjustly. Admittedly doing
what was wrong. That's what we see in sinful
man. And the third thing I want you
to see here. is that everything that happened here was done according
to God's purpose for the salvation of His people who are in the
need of those who were God's enemies and their sins condemned
them before God and yet the Lord Jesus Christ stood in their place
and answered God's justice for them. Don't forget Barabbas here. Wasn't Barabbas guilty? He says
he was a robber. He was condemned. They were actually
going to kill him. They were going to put him on
a cross and crucify Barabbas. What happened? The Jews cried
for Jesus to be crucified instead of Barabbas. And that's just
one example of all the things said here, of what you see over
and over. It was the will of God that Christ
be crucified. It was the will of God that Barabbas
be let go. It was the will of the evil men
that Barabbas be let go, a robber. They desired a robber instead
of the Son of God. That shows their evil. And yet,
for Barabbas, who was guilty and condemned to die on the cross,
someone who was innocent took his place and died on the cross
for him. And that's what I say, the three
things we see here. The will of God, the will of
man, and the salvation of his people by a substitute. And so
when these men in verse 6, chapter 19, verse 6, cry out, crucify
him! Crucify him! What are they doing?
They're declaring the will of God and the will of man. in order that the Lord Jesus
Christ save His people by that will, the will of God for them. It was by the determinate counsel
and for knowledge of God that the Lord Jesus Christ should
stand before God with the burden of all of the sins of all of
His people. and own those sins as his own
and be crucified for them. Because the cross was the place
of crucifixion and the cross was the place of cursing. Galatians
3.13 says it this way, that the Lord Jesus Christ was cursed
for us according to the law. He bore the curse of God. Let
me turn there and read it to you. According to the will of
God, He died for His people under the curse that we might be delivered
from that curse. Listen to this, Galatians 3.13.
He says, "...Christ hath redeemed us..." from the curse of the law being
made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Why was he crucified? Because
the cross was a place of cursing. The Old Testament said, Cursed
is everyone who hangs on a tree. It was God's will that he be
cursed for his people. And by doing that, what does
it say here? He hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law. God's will that by the cursing
of Christ, He would receive a ransom from Christ in payment for the
crimes, the debt of our sins we couldn't pay. Which God demanded
that there be a payment for. And the Lord Jesus Christ, in
the place of his people, stood and bore that curse. That's why
they cried, crucify him! That's why Barabbas was let go.
That's why they did all that they did. They admitted he was
innocent. And they admitted also that he
had to die. Verse 7 of John chapter 19. The Jews answered him, We have
a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself
the Son of God." We have a law, and by our law he ought to die.
Isn't that what we just read? Throughout the law of Moses,
throughout the prophets in the Old Testament, and throughout
the Psalms, all of the Old Testament, it had one thing that it was
speaking of. Jesus said it in Hebrews chapter
10. He says, "...in the volume of
the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God." And that
will was to give himself in sacrifice in the place of his people, in
order to fulfill God's will, to bring them to God. And he
will not lose one of them. Not one of them will go unsaved
for whom he died. And then verse 8, it says, "...when
Pilate therefore heard that, that he was the Son of God, that
saying that they said, he was the more afraid. And he went
again into the judgment hall, and he saith to Jesus, Whence
art thou?" Where are you from, in other words? But Jesus gave
him no answer. He had already told him. My kingdom
is not of this world. Then said Pilate to him, Speakest
thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have
power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Now listen
to these words. Verse 11. Jesus answered, Thou
couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given
thee from above. In other words, the power you
have over me, the authority you have to sentence me and send
me to crucifixion, is given to you from God. And you couldn't
have any of it unless God gave it to you. Don't you see in that
the will of God? And then he says, therefore he
that hath delivered me to thee hath a greater sin. And from thenceforth Pilate sought
to release him. He wanted to. This is interesting. Pilate was a wimp. He really
was, wasn't he? Don't you identify with him?
Because you want to do one thing, but you end up doing something
else. You know what's right, but you do what's wrong. just
like Pilate. He was compelled by another force
more powerful than his conscience, which compelled him to try to
please the Jews, and to stay in line with the government he
was in, and to actually get rid of this problem. So he sought
to release him, but the Jews cried out saying, if you release
this man, If you let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Whosoever maketh himself a king
speaks against Caesar. If you're a friend of this world,
you can't let him go. You've got to put him to death.
That's the will of man. But it was the will of God that
he die at the hands of sinful men. Verse 13. When Pilate therefore
heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the
judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement, but in
the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of
the Passover. And about the sixth hour, the sixth hour of the day would
have been noon. And he saith unto the Jews, Behold your king!
They cried out, Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him! He
was their king, really, wasn't he? He's the king of glory. That
means he's a king of... In his hand is our very breath
and life. He holds all of our ways in his
hands. Pilate said to him, Shall I crucify your king? The chief
priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. The chief priests
of the Jews, they said, We have no king but Caesar. Were they
speaking the truth? That's true. They were only paying
allegiance to Caesar. They were not giving their allegiance
to the King of Glory. Then Pilate delivered him therefore
unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and they
led him away." Now he had been up all night. He had been sweating
great drops of blood in the garden. At 6 a.m. he appeared before
the high priest. Actually through the night he
was with the high priest. Then later at 6 a.m. I can't remember exactly,
but here it is noon. A long time had expired. And
now they led him away to be crucified. And He, bearing His cross, went
forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called
in the Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him and two other
with Him on either side, one and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate
wrote a title and put it on the cross, and the writing was this,
Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This title then read,
many of the Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was
near to the city and it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin
for everyone to see. They came to Jerusalem and there
were a ton of people in Jerusalem in those days because of the
Passover. And they all came by in Hebrew, Greek and Latin and
they read, this is Jesus, King of the Jews. Was Jesus King of
the Jews? Well certainly, he had rule over
the nation of Israel. He had power over them. In that
sense, you can say he was king. But he's especially king to those
whom God gave to him. Those the Lord would save. They're
the ones who own him as king and they're called in scripture
the true Israel of God. So even in this thing that was
written over the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, we see the fulfillment
of scripture. He is the King of the Lord's
people, those for whom He died. Verse 21, Then said the chief
priest of the Jews to Pilate, Write not the King of the Jews,
but that he said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, What
I have written, I have written. He was fed up with them at this
point. Then the soldiers, it's almost like he gained a little
victory. A little tiny victory. It's like I heard a story. This
guy, some thugs catch him in the alley and he has a nice new
car. They tell him, you stand here.
They drew a circle. You stand there, right in that
circle. They go over there and they beat up his car. And he's
standing there smiling. They come back, why are you smiling?
It's because all the time you were over there beating my car,
I stepped out of that circle. He had a little victory here,
but it was according to the will of God that he write this. He's
the king of the Jews. Verse 23. Then the soldiers,
when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four
parts to every soldier apart, and also his coat. Now the coat
was woven, was without seam, woven from the top throughout.
No seams. Why would it be mentioned that
his coat had no seams? Because it was woven from the
top throughout. Because all these things are
teaching us the will of God, the evil of men, and the salvation
of His people. Here His robe that the Lord Jesus
had was stripped from Him in order that we might be clothed
in His righteousness. And His righteousness has no
flaws in it. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
5. I want you to see this. Why was the Lord Jesus, the one
who was innocent by the profession of these evil men, why was he
crucified? This answers it. This is the
will of God. This is the purpose, the eternal
purpose of God, that this happened. Listen to this. 2 Corinthians
5 and verse 21. For he, God, hath made him sin
for us who knew no sin. The one who knew no sin was made
sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. In him. There's so much in that
verse. This is teaching us why the Lord
Jesus Christ died. If you were to put a title over
everything we read here, that title would have to be this.
The Atonement. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. The Atonement. What does Atonement
mean? This is what Christ was doing here. He offered himself
willingly. Who did he offer himself to?
To men? Did he say, now I'm going to die here so that you feel
sorry for me, and come to me, and you look upon me, and so
that you turn from your sins. Was that the reason? No! It was
in order that he might offer himself to God with our sins,
an innocent, perfect sacrifice, without blemish, and bear those
sins. In His body, under the wrath
of God, that God's justice against sin might be fulfilled and satisfied. That God's will from eternity
to put away our sins by the sacrifice of His Son might be fulfilled. And when He did that, the wrong
that our sins were to God were taken away. God, in his own law,
found full and complete satisfaction. And God smelled, as from a sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ, a sweet smelling savor. Satisfaction
to justice. And not only satisfaction to
justice, but the full release of God's grace towards his people
to give them The righteousness that He earned by His obedience
unto death. He made Him sin for us. He who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. His clothes were
woven. His garment was woven from the
top throughout. Isaiah 61.10 says it this way. I'll read this to you. You don't
have to turn there. If you want to, you can. Isaiah
61.10 If you read the Bible, these
three things are given throughout. God's will. Our wickedness, Christ
atoning death to save His people from their sins. Isaiah 61 10
says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be
joyful in my God, for He hath clothed me with the garments
of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness. That's what we're talking about
here. The robe of righteousness. Christ was, His clothes were
taken from Him as He bore our sins that we might be clothed.
He who was the judge of all was made the convicted, the one,
the criminal for His people. Let me read this also to you
in Isaiah 53. This is what the Old Testament, this is God's
scripture, telling us what Christ would do, what He did in these
things. What He did was a success. He
says this. Surely, in verse 4, He had borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken
and smitten of God and afflicted. We considered Him, yeah, God's
chastising Him for something that He did. But He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And the chastisement, you know
what a chastisement is. That's a whipping of our peace
was upon Him. And with His stripes we are healed. That's what the Lord is doing
here. So they parted as raiment, and for my vesture they did cast
lots, back in John 19. These things therefore the soldiers
did, because it was written." Everything, if you read and you
count the places in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, of all
the places it says, why did this happen? It always says this,
that it might be fulfilled. That what was written might be
fulfilled. That the scripture might be fulfilled, over and
over again. I think I counted four times.
In Matthew 26, just that one chapter. And here it is again. It keeps mentioning it. Why? Because the Jews thought Jesus
came to be king over their nation. And then when they learned that
he didn't just come for that, they wanted to make him a king
and he wouldn't let them. They got mad and those who followed
him thought they were going to get something political and earthly
out of his ministry. And when they saw that they couldn't
get that, they were mad at him. but is written in Scripture to
show that God's will was never for Him to be king on earth over
the Jews. It was always God's will from
Scripture and from eternity that the Lord Jesus Christ would come
into this earth, the Son of God, He who is God in His nature,
would humble himself and take on the nature of his people,
that in that nature, as man, he might stand as their head,
covenant head, and answer God all for them. That's what he
was doing. It was written. It was written. So that's what we see here. And
I want you to see that. That these things were done in
order to fulfill scripture. The will of God. They were done
in order that we might be saved. But in all these things we see
our own sinfulness. Now, look at Acts chapter...
I'll take you to Acts chapter 13. I won't keep you too long,
so I'll close with this. Look at Acts chapter 13. I told you that these three things
are there. God's will. Man's will and his wickedness.
Don't you see the evil? This is the one time when God
let men do whatever they wanted to. And what did they do? They
took the prince of life and put him to death. They humiliated
and mocked the king of glory. They murdered the just one. These
are the words of scripture. Acts chapter 13. Paul is preaching. He takes everything that we just
read, all that was recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
and he condenses it into a little tiny sermon. And he gives them
the background and the context, and I won't read it all from
verse 14, but he tells them about the history of the Jews. And
then he tells them about how God sent John. And then he says,
look at verse 26, he says, This is Paul preaching to these
men here. Children of the stock of Abraham, these who were descendants
of Abraham, the Jews. He says, "...and whosoever among
you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent."
Now, if you were just to be there, standing there when Jesus was
being beaten, spit upon, and vilified, and crucified, you
would have wondered, what is this all about? But God reveals
what it was all about here. He says, "...to you is the word
of the salvation sent." Verse 27, "...for they that dwell at
Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor
yet the voices of the prophets, which they read every Sabbath
day..." This is verse 27. "...they have fulfilled them
in condemning Him." They didn't know the Scriptures. They didn't
know Christ when He came. He came into the world. The world
was made by Him, but the world knew Him not. And so what did
they do? Since they didn't know Him or
the Scriptures, Isaiah 53 and all the other verses throughout
the Old Testament that speak of the death of Christ, they
actually fulfilled those Scriptures when they acted in their wickedness
against the Lord Jesus Christ. They were fulfilling the will
of God. That's what it says here. They didn't know Him, they didn't
know the Scriptures, and yet they fulfilled the Scriptures
in condemning Him. God's will is always done. Even
when we do what we want to do, God is using our wickedness to
accomplish His will. And in this case, they were making
themselves guilty by what they did. 28. Acts 13.28, And though
they found no cause of death in him, we read that several
times, yet they desired Pilate that he should be slain. And
when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took
him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher. They killed
him. According to what we just read. But God raised Him from
the dead. And He was seen many days of
them which came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are
His witnesses to the people. So the disciples came from Galilee
to Jerusalem. They were His witnesses. Verse
32. And we declare to you glad tidings. Now, you were the ones who crucified
him. And we're declaring to you, glad tidings, how that the promise
which was made to the fathers, God fulfilled the same to us,
their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it
is also written in the second psalm. This is what it says there. Thou art my son, this day have
I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised
him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption,
he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of
David. Before Christ died, God promised he was going to raise
him from the dead. And then we're going to keep
reading here. Verse 35, "...therefore he saith also in another psalm,
Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption." He didn't
corrupt in the grave. Verse 36, "...for David, king
David, after he had served his own generation by the will of
God, fell on sleep and was laid unto his fathers and saw corruption.
But he whom God raised again saw no corruption." Now, this
is very important. Look at verse 38 and 39. Here
these Jews are. He's preaching to them. Some
of them are Gentiles. Paul is preaching to them about the Lord
Jesus Christ and His death and His resurrection. And he says,
"...be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." That's
the message. That's the message God is preaching
through the crucifixion. The forgiveness of sins. Yes,
it was by the will of God. Yes, you were wicked in doing
it. The Lord God had a purpose in it. The forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins. How
does that come? Why would He have Christ crucified in order
that He might preach the forgiveness of sins? Because God is just. And God cannot forgive sins unless
there is a just compensation made to God. And Christ is the
one who paid the ransom. Who paid that God might be reconciled
to us in His justice. And we, our sins, might be taken
from us. and that we might be cleansed
and washed from our sins. This is the most amazing news
in all the world, isn't it? The forgiveness of sins. Isn't
that our problem? Isn't that why we're here? To
hear the message about the forgiveness of sins? That's why I'm here. I want to know with God I stand
forgiven, don't you? In Psalm 130 it says, There is
forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. We have a holy
and respect and awe of God because He saw our plight like Barabbas. He delivered us from the prison
of our sins and tells us, look to Christ. God laid iniquity
on Him. Do you see that He came to die
for sinners? Look to Him. He's the only one
God accepts. He's the one God received obedience
from. We have no obedience. All we
have is our sins. God tells us, look to me, look
unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth. Isaiah 45,
22. But here he says in verse 39,
And by him all that believe are justified from all things from
which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. All who
believe. How do I know that the Lord died
for me? How do I know that what he did
on the cross actually took my sins and paid for them too? Because
when the Lord preaches His message of the forgiveness of sins in
Christ, God also attends that message in your heart with faith. He gives you faith to look at
Christ and see there, there's my answer to God. When God demands
from me an answer in judgment and in my conscience now, I flee
to Christ and I say, Lord, it is Christ that died and that's
all my answer. That's all I have. And that's
faith. A persuasion that God has sacrificed
His Son and received from Him all that He requires from me.
And finding that to be all my life and going to Him and taking
by faith and living upon Him. Living upon Him in faith. That's
what it means. All who believe are justified
from all things which you could not be justified by the law of
Moses. To be justified means that God
has looked upon you and found you to have perfectly, completely
fulfilled His law in every way. And He declares you to be righteous.
That's called justification. And God looks at His Son, having
received full payment from Him and all the obedience in His
life and death. And He looks at His people. He
says, My people were in Him He is the righteousness of God by
what He did. And He imputes what Christ did
to them. And He receives them as Him.
That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So He says, all
that believe are justified. Because when we believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, we're saying God's justice is so high and
holy, He could not receive satisfaction from sin from any but His own
Son. And He had to lay that sin on Him and receive the full payment
for it too. And so we see in Christ the fulfillment of all
that God requires. And we see the vile hatred and
envy and wickedness of all that man is. And we see how God saves
His people in spite of their sin, in spite of their wimpiness,
in spite of their unbelief, in spite of all that I am. And He
points us to Christ and He says, there, there is your salvation.
And by faith he gives me a heart to say, that's it, Lord, you
made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, he who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God. And so he says in verse
40, Paul says in a sermon, he warns them, he says, beware.
Beware therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in
the prophets. Behold you despisers and wonders
and perish, for I work in your day. A work which you shall in
no wise believe, though a man declare it to you." The Jews
who crucified him were the same kind of Jews that were listening
to Paul. And Paul says, if you hear the reason why God did this,
if you hear about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did, and if
you hear your own guilt in doing that, and you turn away in unbelief,
or disregarded in indifference, he says, you're a despiser. Beware. You will perish, because God
has received His Son. And to remain in unbelief and
not bowing to Christ, as the thief on the cross did, Lord,
Lord, he called Him Lord, remember me. To not do that is to despise
the Lord Jesus Christ in His death. May God give us grace
to see and believe Him. Let's pray.