Our dear Heavenly Father, we
thank You that You have given to us Your own Word, and that
Your Word speaks to us of Your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. We thank You especially that
this is all of our salvation. What we read here in Your Word
tells us what our condition is, and what Your goodness is, and
tells us how we can be right with You And we thank you, Lord,
we pray that you would give us right now, at this time, understanding
hearts. We might see with eyes of faith
the Lord Jesus Christ. We might understand ourselves
to be great sinners in need of him. And help us, dear Lord,
to come to him with this God-given faith and trust him with all
that we are and have, knowing that all that we need from you
is found in him. So be with us, dear Lord, we
pray, as we look into your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Now we're going to, we're in
the middle of Matthew 26, the chapter, so I don't have time
really to give you a complete overview here, but we're right
in the middle of the arrest of the Lord Jesus. The soldiers
came and arrested Him. He was in the garden of Gethsemane.
He was with his disciples in the garden. He took Peter, James,
and John, and he prayed. He took them separate from the
other eleven, the rest of the eleven, the other eight. And
then he himself moved away from them a ways, and he prayed. If
you remember three times what he prayed, he prayed to his father. The first time he prayed he said,
Father, if it be possible that this cup pass from me, then then,
and I'm going to find the verse, it says in verse 39, "'O my Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not
as I will, but as Thou wilt.'" And he prayed three times that
the Lord, if his father, might remove this cup from him, but
he always prayed in every case that whatever God's will, that's
what he wanted most of all. And then he gets up from prayer
and he comes back to his disciples who were asleep at this time,
And he tells them the soldiers are coming, Judas who betrayed
him was coming. And at that time, during his
prayers, we see him in agony. He was in a sweat. It says that
his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. He
described what he was feeling at that time to his disciples.
He says, "...my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death."
So, even before anyone touched him, he was suffering. Because
he was suffering in his soul. But after his prayer, he rose
from that. It seemed as if he was in perfect peace, because
he knew that what he was about to do... was God's will, and
His Father's will, and He knew that He would do it, trusting
His Father no matter what came upon Him, and He would actually
accomplish what He came to do, which is to save His people from
their sins. So He tells His disciples they're
coming, Judas comes, if you remember last week, and He kisses him.
He looks him there in the face and kisses him, even though he
saw the Lord Jesus there and gave him that kiss. It didn't
turn Judas' heart. He didn't feel remorse at that
time for what he was doing, that he was betraying his friend,
the Lord of Glory. And yet when Peter, if you remember,
after he denied Jesus, Jesus simply looked at Peter and Peter
wept bitterly. So you can see the effect of
God's grace on Peter and you can see the lack of it there
in Judas. The Lord left him to suffer for his sins. But then
it says that the soldiers came and they came with swords and
clubs. It's called staves here in verse
47, to arrest him. And then it's just surprising,
isn't it? That the Lord was arrested with
clubs and swords. The Lord of Glory, the One who
is the Prince of Life, the Prince of Peace, was arrested and taken. Now they bound Him, and then
they took Him. But He wasn't forced. This is one of the things I want
you to understand clearly from this. That when the Lord Jesus
came, when the soldiers came to arrest Him, they didn't force
Him. Even though they bound him, he
went willingly. Remember what it says in John
chapter 18, that when they came, he asked them, who do you seek?
And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am. And when he
spoke that to them, they went backward and fell to the ground
because of his word. And so he demonstrated by that
he had complete authority and power over them. And yet they
came and took him. And he said the second time in
John 18, he said, Who do you seek? After they fell back. And
they came back and they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And he said,
If you seek me, then let these go their way. And these that
he was speaking about were his disciples. And so we see in that
that the Lord had complete control over all things during this process.
Yet he submitted to it. And so you want to ask the question,
why? Why did the Lord so willingly
go? Why was he so submissive to these men who were obviously
wicked in their ways? So, let's look on a little bit
further, just in a summary again. Peter, remember he drew out his
sword and swung it and chopped off the ear of the high priest's
servant. Jesus stretched his hand out and restored his ear
back as it was. And Jesus told Peter to put his
sword away. In verse 53, Jesus told Peter,
don't you know that I can now pray to my Father and He shall
presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? See, He has
control here. He has complete control. If He
wanted to get out of it, He could easily have gotten out of it.
Not only could He have gotten out of it as the Son of God,
He had power over everything, but as the Son of Man. He had
God's approval, God's anointing. He could have asked the angels.
He said, even if I asked my Father, He would send these twelve legions
of angels, the servants of God. They would do His bidding. But
he didn't. He didn't ask. He didn't prevent
the soldiers from taking him. In fact, remember, he told Judas
at his betrayal, he says, what you're doing, do quickly. So
it was all willing on his part. And then we're going to pick
it up in verse 54. He says, but how then shall the
scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be? This is key. What Jesus did here must be.
Why must it be? Well, first of all, because it
was foretold in Scripture. And Scripture is God's Word.
If God says it, if God says a thing, then it has to happen. In Romans
chapter 4 it says, God is the God who calls those things which
be not as though they were. He calls things that we don't
see, things that are not yet, as though they are. And it comes
into being. That's the way He created the
world. God spoke and it was done. And then in verse 55 it says,
"...in that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are you come
out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I
sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and you laid no hold
on me." In other words, you don't need swords and staves to take
me, do you? If I go willingly, you don't
need the swords and staves. If unwillingly, then you wouldn't
be able to control me with swords and staves. And besides all that,
I would sit daily in the temple openly. If you wanted to take
me, you could come where it was open and do it there. But you
come now in the night. You come under the cover of hypocrisy
and deceit in order to take me in treachery. And so he exposes
their sin. But in verse 56 he says, "...but
all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.
Then all the disciples forsook him and fled." It's important
that we see that when the Lord Jesus gave Himself to God for
His people, for their sins, that the disciples didn't help Him.
They didn't contribute anything. They all forsook Him and fled.
And not only did they not contribute, but they deserted Him. They abandoned Him. They forsook
Him and they fled. They were afraid for their lives.
But that was according to what the Scriptures had said in Zechariah
13, 7. "...smite the shepherd, and the
sheep shall be scattered." And now in verse 57 it says, "...and
they that had laid hold on Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas the
high priest." where the scribes and the elders were assembled.
So the men who came to get Jesus were the soldiers sent by the
high priest. And now these soldiers, a large company of soldiers and
others who were with them with clubs. They came and they brought
Jesus to the high priest, who at that time was Caiaphas. He
was the high priest. I was reading something that
said his name actually means to vomit out of his mouth. So
here's a man, it's a really gross name to have, wouldn't it be
a name like that? But it fits him exactly to a T because what
he did and what he said here, we'll see. But Peter followed
him afar off to the high priest's palace and went in and sat with
the servants to see the end. Now, Peter, remember Jesus told
Peter, you're going to deny me tonight. The very night Peter
swore up and down, I will not, even if I die with you, I will
not deny you. And Peter now follows Jesus from
afar. into the high priest's palace.
John had to let him in. He knew John is not mentioned
here, but it is in the book of John. John knew the maid that
was there and the maid let him in. And so Peter went in. It says he went in to see the
end. Now Peter sat with the servants. He didn't go in there to defend
Jesus. He went in there to conceal himself among the servants. And
you know what happened later. Now, the chief priests and elders
and all the council sought false witness against Jesus. It's interesting
that they sought false witness against Jesus. It's clear that
their intentions were not to produce, not to have a just trial. They were seeking false witnesses.
against him. They had already decided the
case. You might ask the question, well, why then did they even
hold a trial? It's not really a trial. And
we'll see this in a second. I'll take you to a couple of
verses. But they sought false witnesses, but they found none.
Verse 60. Yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they
none. At the last came two false witnesses.
They finally found two false witnesses who seemed to agree
with one another. Because in the law it required that in order
to condemn someone you had to have two or three witnesses.
So they sought some, under the color of doing a just judgment. Now these were the religious
leaders. They couldn't actually put Jesus
to death. They were the chief priests,
the high priests, the council, the elders, the scribes. These
were the Sanhedrin. These were the men who had the
rule in the Jewish church in those days. And so you can see that this
was the very best of what religion could produce. the very best
that religion could produce, just like it is in our day. The
very best that religion produces is what you see described here.
Hypocrisy, deceit, and murder were in their hearts. So they
sought these two false witnesses. It says in the other account
in the book of John that these two false witnesses said that
Jesus said, I will destroy the temple of God and build it again
in three days. But Jesus never said that. He
said, you destroy this temple, meaning his body, and I will
raise it up again in three days. Not build it, but raise it up
again. But when the high priests sought counsel against Jesus,
they had already decided the case. If you look back at the
book of John, in John chapter 11, it's interesting that this
happened. Remember Lazarus was raised from
the dead? the brother of Mary and Martha. In John chapter 11
and verse 47, it says, "...then gathered..." This is long before
this arrest took place. "...then gathered the chief priests
and the Pharisees a council, and they said, What do we? For
this man doeth many miracles. If we let him alone, all men
will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take away
both our place and nation." Their concern was that the people loved
Jesus. They loved to hear what He had
to say, and they were following Him in multitudes. He was healing
them. He was raising the dead. And the Jews who were in charge
here, they were worried that the people would swing towards
Him. He had already publicly exposed
their hypocrisy. And the Romans were going to
come and take away their nation. They were going to lose their
position. That was their total concern. Envy and hatred and
a fear of loss of their position and status. In verse 49, "...and
one of them named Caiaphas," here he is again, "...being the
high priest that same year, said this, You know nothing at all."
Here these 70 men or so are giving counsel among each other, and
they've been talking and clamoring back and forth, and Caiaphas
says, "...you know nothing at all, nor consider that it is
expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and
that the whole nation perish not." Now what Caiaphas said
here, he said, with an intent of killing Jesus. You know nothing
at all. You don't even consider that
it's expedient for us that one man should die for the people
and that the whole nation perish not. He was looking for a way,
an excuse, to put Jesus to death. But it says in verse 51, God
explains it here, He says, "...this He spake, not of Himself, but
being High Priest that year, He prophesied that Jesus should
die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but also
that He should gather together in one the children of God that
were scattered abroad." So even though Caiaphas spoke those words,
and spoke them with murderous intent, God overruled what he
wanted. Caiaphas wanted to kill Jesus
for his own ends, but it was actually God's will that led
him to say that, and he spoke God's words. And this is, but
his intent was only evil. It was only a murderous intent. In Acts chapter 7, I'll read
this, what Stephen said in his sermon, Acts chapter 7. He says, In verse 52, which of the prophets
have not your fathers? This is Stephen talking to the
Jews who were going to stone him. He said, which of the prophets
have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which
showed before of the coming of the just one, that's Jesus, and
of whom you have now been, listen, betrayers and murderers. Jesus wasn't tried in a just
trial. They were, it was a murder. Christ's
death was a murder, according to Stephen. And then in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, verse 8, it says that they crucified the Lord of Glory. And in Acts 3, verse 15, you
killed the Prince of Life. So Caiaphas wanted Jesus put
to death in order that he might keep his nation, keep his position,
keep his status as High Priest. And that the Jews' religion can
just keep going on, just like it was before. But Jesus had
exposed them. And the people were listening
to him. God was saving many of them. And so he was afraid. So
they wanted to put Jesus to death. They plotted to do it. It was
a murder. That's why they sought false witnesses. In order that
they might justly, somehow, under the color of justice, murder
the Lord Jesus Christ. So that was their intent. But
what was God's intent? Well, in Acts chapter 2, it tells
us what God's intent was. He says in Acts chapter 2, even
though this was their intentions, He said, And Peter was talking
to them after Jesus rose from the dead. He said, "...you men
of Israel," in verse 22, "...hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth,
a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs,
which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves know."
Listen, "...him being delivered "...by the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God you have taken, and by wicked hands
have crucified and slain, whom God raised up, having loosed
the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
be holden by it." So it was these men's intent to kill Jesus, and
they did. They murdered Him. That was in
their heart. But it was God's intent to deliver Him up. What
was the purpose? Why did God have Him delivered
up? It was in order to save his people from their sins. This
whole thing, when we look at this, when we read these words
here in Matthew 26 and 27, we see a very detailed explanation
of what happened to the Lord Jesus Christ when they took Him,
accused Him falsely, spit on Him, beat Him, crucified Him,
and thought they were done with Him. It gives a very detailed
account. But God gives the reason why
all of this occurred. And what is that reason? He gave
Himself for His people. The Lord Jesus Christ, His life
was not taken from Him. He gave it up, and He gave it
up to God in order to save His people. I'll read this in John
chapter 10. He says, Jesus says, No man takes
my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power
to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my Father. I lay down my life for the sheep."
That's what Jesus said. I lay down my life for the sheep.
Why? Why do the men seem to have power
over me? Because it was God's will. Jesus
asked three times if it be possible, if there's any other way. Any
other way to do what? Any other way to achieve God's
purpose, then let it come some other way. But there was no other
way. Why did Jesus die? Because it was the will of God.
Why was it the will of God? In order that He might save His
people from their sins. In order that He might glorify
His Son. In order that He might make known
His own glory and His justice and His grace. His justice against
our sins and His grace and mercy to sinners. This is why the Lord
Jesus was put to death. By the will of God, that God
might make known, might satisfy His justice and in grace save
His people from their sins. The death of Christ was a substitution. He gave Himself for us. It was
willing. God accepted it as a sacrifice
for His people. And in accepting Him and His
sacrifice in blood for us, For those who believe on Him, then
all of our sins were placed on Him. They were put on Him there.
He paid for them, and they are no more. And that's what the
death of Jesus was about. It was about what the Lord of
glory was doing for those who were sinners. Now, in all of
this, and I'll read on further. In all of this, I want you to
see a couple of things. First, notice that in every case here,
there is nothing in men. Nothing in the high priests,
or the elders, or the scribes, or the Pharisees, or even the
disciples, or even Peter. Nothing we can find here admirable. No qualities here in men. We see the nature of mankind
here. This is the nature of all mankind.
What can we say when we read this account of what happened
here, where they took Jesus by treachery, by a betrayal. They
took Him at night with clubs and swords when He was willing
to go. And they laid hands on Him. And then, we're going to
read it here a second, how they treated Him after they found
false witnesses. It says here in verse 63, Verse
62, "...the high priest arose and said, Answerest thou nothing?
What is it that these witness against thee?" These false witnesses. Jesus didn't say anything to
him. He wouldn't respond. He wouldn't dignify the high
priest inquisition with a response. But Jesus held his peace. He
didn't say anything. Was it because he didn't have
anything to say? Was it because what they said
couldn't be spoken against? Of course not. Remember, every
time Jesus talked to the these men in the past, He silenced
them. And they went out, they came
with their best arguments against Him, and He always silenced them.
But now, they are accusing Him falsely, and He doesn't even
answer. He holds His peace. And the high
priest answered. He was very mad. He said to Him,
I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us whether Thou
be the Christ, the Son of God. He's like, I ask you, if you
have any respect for God, then speak the truth. I'm going to
ask you this. Tell us whether you're the son of God or not.
Now listen to Jesus' answer. And Jesus said to him, Thou hast
said, in Mark chapter 14, he says, I am, I am, just like you
said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter
you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of
power and coming in the clouds of heaven. The high priest asked
him, are you the Son of God? He said, I am. But then he added
this, but hereafter you shall see the Son of Man. Who is the
Son of Man? Who's the son of man? The son of man is the Lord
Jesus. He's the one that... You see,
Jesus is both God and man. He had to be man in order to
save his people from their sins. God gave him a body. Why? In
order that he might, in that body, as man, stand for his people
as a substitute and bear all their iniquities and pay for
them too. And so, When He would finish doing that, He said, after
this you'll see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of
power. The Son of Man is the one who is going to sit in judgment
over these men one day at the end of time. And over all men.
But now they sit in judgment over Him. When He sits in judgment,
it will be according to truth. When they sat in judgment, it
was according to lies and deceit. So here He sits and stands before
them in judgment in their court of falsehood, He who is the truth,
in order that He might answer God so that we might stand before
God in truth. Do you see that? The Lord Jesus,
when He gave Himself for our sins, He answered God's justice. The men were doing it with an
evil, murderous intent. But He was doing it, He was doing
it in order to offer Himself to God. When He was suffering
here at the hands of men, He wasn't suffering so that they
could offer Him to God. He was giving Himself into their
hands in order to offer Himself to God. And you might wonder,
well, but these men were wicked. Why would God take the hands
of wicked men and treat this man who had done nothing wrong
with such hatred and cruelty and envy? Because it says later,
as soon as Jesus told this to the high priest, he rent his
clothes and he says, you've spoken blasphemy. What further need
have we of witnesses? Behold, now we have heard this
blasphemy. And then the high priest asked the council, what
do you think? And they answered and said he's
guilty of death. Why? Because he spoke the truth
about who he was. I'm the son of God and the son
of man. And so what did they do? Then they spit in his face
and buffeted him. And others smote him with the
palms of their hands. So immediately you can see these
men are treating him with the most disgusting shame that they
could do. They spit in his face looking
at him. Acting as if he's weak and helpless
and spitting in his face. The one whose face is the face
of the Son of God. They're spitting in His face.
The one who, one day they will stand before and be the judge
of all, and they spit in His face. And why did this happen? Why did God allow these men to
treat this One who is holy and just and good and only did good
to men? Why did God allow them to treat Him this way? For this
fundamental reason. Because all that Jesus suffered,
all that He went through, was done to Him exactly in proportion
to God's justice against His people for their sins. Against
us who sinned. There's an old song that says,
I crucified thee. I denied thee. It was for me
that the Lord Jesus was crucified. And so, when God speaks this
way and does this with His Son, it's because He's delivering
Him up to death. I'm going to read to you a couple
of scriptures in the Old Testament. Look at Isaiah 53. He says this. And this is in Isaiah 53. It's
well known. You probably have heard it before. He says, "...surely
He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Yet we did
esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He
was wounded for our transgressions." He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." Do you see what
he's saying here? It's all because of what we had done against God.
When we offend someone, we have to bring, in order for us to
be friends with them again, we have to bring back something
that will make up for the wrong we've done. But we couldn't bring
back anything. So the Lord brought it, and he
brought it on his son. He was wounded for our transgressions
and bruised for our iniquities. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. Our own way. We've all gone our own way. And
the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth." You see,
that's exactly what he did here in Matthew 26. He didn't answer.
He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from
prison and from judgment. Taken from judgment. They didn't
judge him justly. And who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken." So you can see it there. It's
all because of what we had done. He suffered shame because we
deserved. We had made ourselves shameful
before God. He suffered the reproach of men
because we deserved God to unleash our enemies against us for our
sin. And this is called substitution.
This is why the gospel is good news to sinners. Sinners who
are guilty. Sinners who are condemned by
God justly. Sinners like me. Sinners like
you. The Lord Jesus Christ, the one
who knew no sin and did no sin, God made him to be sin for us. In order that he might save us
from our sins. And he did what he came to do.
He actually saves his people from their sins. And so you see
this. You see the substitution. And
you see here what men do. You see the wickedness of men.
Sin is what we are. Sin is what we do. And you see
that here. When men were given by God, when
they were allowed to do whatever was in their heart, what did
they do? What did the best of men do? They murdered the Son
of God unjustly. They accused Him. They hated
Him. It was for envy. And they did all this in order
that God's will might be fulfilled and Christ would suffer the vengeance
of eternal justice in His own body and soul for His people
and for their sins. That's why they spit in His face.
That's why they hit Him. That's why He was treated with
injustice in His own person that He might suffer the justice of
God for our sins. He stood before these false accusers
that we might stand before the judge of all. He stood before
them with our sins that we might stand before God in His righteousness. He was made a shame and a reproach
among men that we might stand in His glory before God. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ
did. And there's nothing here that's more glorious than His
sufferings. When we think about God, when
we think about God's glory, what is the thing you think of? What
attracts attention, what attracts your attention to God and to
the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it not Christ's humility? that He would so give Himself
in submission to the will of God, even at the hands of these
angry, murderous men, in order to have His people? Isn't it
the love of Christ that He would so love His people, He would,
even when they denied Him, and turn from Him? that He would
stand patiently and endure all the will of God for them and
save them. This is the glory of our Savior. We see here the
glory of Christ in His weakness. It was a willing weakness, and
it was a voluntary giving of Himself. He offered Himself to
God. Let me read to you one verse here, and we will close. Hebrews
chapter 9. I want to read this to you. And the book of Hebrews is an
explanation of the Old Testament. It tells us how God fulfilled
the Old Testament in the New. And so I'm going to jump right
in the middle here in Hebrews chapter 9 and verse Verse 14
it says, and verse 13 it says, "...if the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifyeth
to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without
spot to God. Jesus' life wasn't taken from
Him. He offered Himself. He didn't offer Himself to man.
Christ didn't offer Himself to us. He didn't say, look what
I've done, don't you feel sorry for me? That had nothing to do
with the death of Christ. He didn't say, look what I've
done. Don't you feel love so that you will turn from your
sins and come to me? That's not why he offered himself. He offered
himself to make satisfaction to God for the sins of his people. It was a just offering. He received
in Himself the compensation of the punishment our sins deserve.
It was an offering. And then in verse 24, the same
chapter. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true. In the Old Testament they entered into a temple, or I mean
a sanctuary, the place where they offered the animal sacrifices. He said Christ is not entered
into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures
of the true. but into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God for us. He himself who was offered appears
there for us. He who was sacrificed, who gave
himself that way. He says, Nor yet that he should
offer himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy
place every year with the blood of others. For then must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once in
the end of the world hath he appeared. To do what? To put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed
unto men once to die. That's the way it is for us,
isn't it? We die once. And then what? After this, the
judgment. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
That's the message of the gospel. He who was offered, offered himself. He offered himself to God. He
offered himself for the sins of his people. And in his offering,
by his offering, he made satisfaction to God for those sins. He took
them away. God's wrath is removed. Peace
is made between God and sinners for whom Christ died. And those
for whom Christ died are given faith to believe Him. So when
they hear the gospel, the good news of the gospel, it becomes
to them the best news they've ever heard. All their sins before
God that they can never take away or make any satisfaction
to God for are completely removed and answered in Christ by His
death on the cross. And when God sees His Son, when
He sees the blood of His Son, He looks upon Him and He receives
Him. He receives all for whom He died
because of Him. What God thinks of His people
is what He thinks of His Son. And what He thinks of His Son
is what He thinks of His people. He received Him from the dead.
He justified all for whom Christ died. It's by His blood that
we're justified, without sin, made righteous before God, entirely
outside of ourselves, by the Lord Jesus Christ in His death.
That's the gospel. It's what Christ did, where He
is now, sitting on the right hand of God, ruling. And He will
return. And when He does, He won't come as a Savior. He'll
come as a judge. To judge all those who stand
in their own sins. Who stand to answer God for themselves.
But we have one answer. What is our answer before God?
What will you answer when you stand before God in judgment?
What can you say? How can you give an account?
What one thing can you say? I remember asking someone who
came to my door that question. And he said, well, I guess the
Lord will have to consider my good works that outweigh my bad
works. I said, that is not going to help. God will not take that
answer as a valid answer. He will not accept that answer.
The only answer that you and I have before God is this answer.
It's the answer Christ gave. If Christ's blood didn't answer
for my sins then, then it won't answer for them in judgment.
It won't answer in my conscience now. But if Christ paid for my
sins, then the Spirit of God takes what He did, shows it to
me, and by faith applies it to my conscience so that I can come
to God knowing that in Christ I've been forgiven all my sins,
and all of my obedience has been provided by the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for your goodness to us, that you would so give your Son,
and you would afflict his soul, in order that your justice might
be completely satisfied. And you would do it out of love
and grace found in yourself for your people, not because of something
found in us. Not once do you look for anything
in us. It's entirely because of your goodness and your grace.
You receive from your Son all you required from us. And you
tell us, look to Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and so we pray, Lord, give us this faith we need to do what
you've told us to do. We can do nothing without you,
and we know we need all that you have told us the Lord Jesus
Christ has done for sinners. We are nothing but sin in ourselves,
but we see in the Lord Jesus nothing but righteousness, nothing
but what pleases you. And we thank You, Lord, that
He, You have lifted Him up and made Him the Savior of Your people,
and now He's exalted, and we can come to Him, who is judge
of all, as our Savior, and find a refuge in Him. Help us, Lord,
to come at all times for this grace we need, to live and to
know You. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.