Matthew 16, then charged his
disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the
Christ. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. Then
Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee,
Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said
to Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou art an offense
unto me. For thou savourest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men. Then said Jesus to
his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his
life shall lose it. And whosoever will lose his life
for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if
he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of
Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and
then He shall reward every man according to his works. Verily
I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not
taste of death till they shall see the Son of Man coming in
His kingdom. There are several points to be
made in this scripture, and I'm not going to give you an overview
of them right now. Well, maybe I will. The first
one is in verse 20, Jesus charged His disciples... not to make
him known until after he was raised from the dead." He doesn't
use those words here, that after he was raised from the dead,
but that is what happened. He made his disciples keep quiet
about who he was, Jesus the Christ, until after the resurrection.
And then secondly, in verse 21, we see that Jesus must go to
Jerusalem and suffer many things. And that is where we're going
to spend most of our time, looking at that. The Lord Jesus Christ
must go to Jerusalem and suffer. What a thought that is, that
Christ, who is God and man, must do anything. But then, I also
want to see that the Lord Jesus rebuked Peter. And this was the
man who had just given this commending, that Christ commended him for
his confession. And then, fourthly, the Lord tells all who would
follow Him what we must do. And a couple of other things
at the end here, if we get to it, that our Lord brings attention
to the time when He would come again in the glory of His Father.
And finally, that some standing there would not see death until
they saw the Kingdom of God. So we want to look at these things.
And I've entitled this message, What Christ Must Do and What
We Must Do. Two things here. First of all,
I want to give by way of introduction that all Scripture is designed
to make the Lord Jesus Christ appear glorious to His people
in their salvation." Now, we have to firmly grasp that, because
this is why, when we look into the Scripture, this is what I
personally do, is, Lord, make Yourself known to me. Make Yourself
glorious, because unless You do, I won't see myself in the
proper light. I won't see my need for You.
I won't have thoughts of God that are high enough. I never
do, but really I can't see anything unless I see the Lord Jesus Christ
in His glory, in His salvation of His people. So that's the
first thing. When God is pleased to make Him known to us, giving
us eyes of faith to see and rest in Him, then we admire Him. Then
we rejoice, then we love Him, then our hearts go out to Him
in prayer and thanksgiving. For His great love and grace
and wisdom and power and faithfulness, that He would save a sinful man,
save to the uttermost, save me in spite of all that I am with
no help from me. When we see this from scripture,
then our hearts are softened. Then we come, because until we
see that God has done everything for us in Christ, We're always
going to come trying to provide something to make Him accept
us. Or take confidence in something
we've done. But when we come as sinners and see that Christ
is all, then we admire Him. And so this scripture is, in
all scriptures, given to us to teach us this. And then in verse
21, I want to emphasize this, because the Scripture does here,
and it's emphasized throughout Scripture, is that it was necessary
that Christ make atonement for His people. Now, that's a strong
word to say that it was necessary. We think, well, maybe God could
have done it a different way. Maybe God didn't have to save
His people at all. But I want to show you from Scripture
that it was actually necessary that this could happen. The Lord
Jesus uses the word here, He must. He must go to Jerusalem. He must suffer. Now when you
think about that in itself, just let that settle into your mind
for a little while. Why must He, with whom nothing
is impossible, why must He go to Jerusalem? Why must He do
this? And I hope that you will see this, that this is something
that is glorious. The Lord is great in what He's
done for us here. And the second thing I want to
see here, as we cover this in our sermon, is that that we must
do something. We must own Christ in His atoning
work on the cross as everything in our salvation. And owning
Him, identifying ourselves with Him, taking up our cross, we
must, as He told Peter here, we must deny ourselves as He
has denied Himself. So we'll focus on those things
first, and then as we get into this further, We'll see some
more things as the time would allow. So first of all, I want
to look here, first of all, that Jesus charged his disciples to
make him known that he was indeed, so they would not make him known
that he was indeed the Christ. Until the Lord finished the will
of God, until the Lord Jesus Christ actually accomplished
all that God gave him to do, Until he satisfied God's justice. Until he took away the sins of
his people. Until he destroyed the works
of the devil. Until then, he would not ascend
to heaven. He would not be glorified. He
would not receive gifts from men. He would not send his spirit. He would not build his church
through the ministry of the apostles preaching. Their preaching of
his finished work. He would do none of those things
until he finished our atonement. Our atonement with God. And until
He accomplished our salvation, He could not and would not be
exalted again as the Son of Man on the throne of glory. And so
God has said this throughout Scripture that He would exalt
His Son. Psalm 2, Psalm 89, Psalm 110.
We could just name Scriptures and I won't turn to them right
now, but we'll get to some of them later. But the Lord Jesus
Christ charged His disciples not to make Him known as Christ,
even though sometimes when He would heal this person or that
one, they would tell others. And we saw throughout the New
Testament that people recognized Him to be the Christ, but it
was not broadly made known until He went to the cross and finished
the work God gave Him to do. And even in His high priestly
prayer, if you remember, in John 17, He says, Father, glorify
Thy Son. that thy son may also glorify
thee." And he explains what he meant by that, that he should
give eternal life to as many as God had given him. That was
the way in which Christ would glorify his Father. And on the
completion of that, then he says, give me back the glory I had
with thee before the world was. And that's the glory that he
received as the Son of God and Son of Man on completion of our
salvation. But the second thing we see here
in verse 20, verse 21 rather, is that from this time forth
Jesus began to show His disciples how that He must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders, the chief priests, the
scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day. No
doubt you understand that when Jesus says He must suffer, He
must be killed, and He must rise again the third day, He's speaking
about a work that He would do, which God gave Him to do, to
save His people from their sins. Isn't that what His name is?
His name shall be called Jesus. For what? For He shall try to
save His people from their sins? No. That He might make it possible
to save His people from their sins? No. That He would save
His people from their sins. When our Lord Jesus Christ went
to the cross, He offered Himself to God. He made a propitiation. He made remission of our sins
by His own blood. And this is what he's speaking
about here. But isn't it amazing that God determined at the hands
of the most religious in the world to crucify His own Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And why is it that Jesus said
here, He must do this? He must do this? And I think
there's at least six reasons. And I'm sure there's... The Scripture
really... All of Scripture is about this,
isn't it? This is the subject of Scripture.
I was thinking about this the other day. A lot of times people
open the Bible to find information, answers to questions, to prove
this or that, to establish a doctrine here or there. But isn't it amazing
that God gives all of Scripture about His Son and the salvation
that He would accomplish by Him? Isn't it amazing that what we
look for in Scripture, often times, it has nothing to do with
the message of Scripture? And God brings His message about
His Son from the beginning to the end of this book. And so,
it's not surprising when we look in Scripture that we see things
that we don't expect, but I've listed at least six reasons here
why this must be. And the first one I want you
to turn to is in Mark chapter 14. Mark 14 gives us actually two
of those reasons, at least two. There's overlap between these,
and I'm not trying to separate these in order just to make a
sermon, but I see these here, and I want you to be I want you to admire and reverence
God that He would do this. Mark chapter 14 in verse 1443,
"...and immediately, while He yet spake, comes Judas, one of
the twelve, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves,
from the chief priests and scribes and the elders." This is what
Jesus was speaking about to His disciples. I must go, I must
suffer at the hands of these religious rulers. And he that
betrayed him, that's Judas, had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever
I shall kiss, that same as he, take him, and lead him away safely. And as soon as he was come, he
goeth straightway to him, Judas came to Jesus, and saith to him,
Master, Master, and kissed him. And they laid their hands on
him, and took him. And one of them, and this would
have been Peter, that stood by drew a sword and smote a servant
of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus answered and
said to them, Are you come out as against a thief with swords
and with staves to take me? I was daily with you in the temple
teaching and you took me not. But the scripture must be fulfilled. And they all forsook him and
fled, and they followed him a certain..." Okay, that's not the verse I
wanted to cover there, so let's just keep that there. Here, the
Lord Jesus Christ is saying that Scripture must be fulfilled. That's the first thing. Why must
Jesus go to the cross? Because Scripture must be fulfilled.
But can you or I fulfill Scripture? Do you ever go about your daily
life and say, I'm going to do this, I'm going to wash the dishes
and do this task that I might fulfill Scripture? Of course
not. But the Lord Jesus Christ, in all that He did, did all in
order to fulfill Scripture. I find that, in itself, amazing.
That a man, who, of course, is the Son of God, would act out
and fulfill Scripture. But this is what he did. In fact,
not only did he do things to fulfill Scripture, but he laid
aside all self-regard and self-interest, self-desires, and things that
would give him ease. in order to fulfill scripture.
In other words, he bore the full cost to himself personally in
order to do what God had written in his word. He is the word of
God. He is the living word. The written
word is about him. It says in Hebrews 1 that in
these last days God has spoken by him. But not only is he the
source of scripture, the living word, but he himself fulfilled
it in time. He fulfilled scripture. And this
is throughout. You can look it up in the New Testament. All
the places where it says the scripture must be fulfilled.
Must be fulfilled. Jesus said that the scripture
cannot be broken. It cannot. Heaven and earth may
pass away, he said in Matthew 5, but my words shall never pass
away. So that's the first reason. Scripture
must be fulfilled. Look at John chapter 19. We're going to look at a lot
of scriptures today about this. John chapter 19, it's familiar.
He says in verse 28, After this, Jesus, knowing that all things
were now accomplished, All things were now accomplished. That means
they were completed. He had done them. That the scripture
might be fulfilled said, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full
of vinegar and they filled the sponge with vinegar and put it
upon hyssop and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had
received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed
his head and gave up the ghost. from the very moment he came
into the world, even when he was coming into the world. Remember
what he said? In Psalm 40 and Hebrews 10 it
is quoted, "...sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but
a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God."
To do thy will, O God, Scripture must be fulfilled. And the second
thing is that it must be because it's the will of God. And God's will must be done. Sometimes we think about God
in in ways that aren't really true. It's just natural for us
to think of that. I remember as a child, one of
the first things I heard about God was that He was never born,
but He always was. I'll never forget the wonder.
I still can't comprehend that. Everything on the earth has a
beginning. And yet God had no beginning.
And that just blew my senses. I didn't know what to think about
that. How could it be? And so we're lost in wonder.
But there's a lot of things about God we just don't understand.
It has to be revealed to us. One of the things we naturally
think about God is that God is who He is, and there's some kind
of a measure outside of God by which we can determine whether
or not what He does is right, is just, should be, ought to
be, will be, and those kinds of things. We think about, well,
there's a possibility that it didn't have to take place because,
and then we consider what God would do. But this is entirely
wrong thinking. God is the truth. Psalm 31.5
says, Lord God of truth. And Jesus said, I am the truth.
He also said in John 17.17, Thy word is truth. Everything about
God is the truth. He himself embodies, he is in
his essence, the truth. The will of God is part of him. It can't be anything, what he
thinks and what he does is justice. We can't measure God by these
other standards. So whatever God wills is what
will be done. And you can see this in Isaiah,
if you turn there. Isaiah chapter 46. Look at this, Isaiah 46. Just
a couple words here I want to take out of this verse, but you
can read it later in your own time. Actually, we'll read from
verse 9 through 11. God says in Isaiah 46 verse 9,
"...remember the former things of old, for I am God and there
is none else." I am God and there is none like me. "...declaring
the end from the beginning." That means, at the beginning,
before there ever was, I declare the end. And guess what? Nothing in between can fail.
And from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying,
listen these are important words. My counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. This is the will of God. And
then a little later on in verse 11 he says, calling a ravenous
bird from the east, the man that executes my counsel from a far
country. He's speaking here about the
destruction he's bringing by a wicked king. Then he says,
Yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass. I have
purposed it, I will also do it. What a powerful statement that
is. Now look at Hebrews chapter 6. The will of God required the
Lord Jesus Christ to make atonement for the sins of his people. The
will of God. The scripture foretold it and
the will of God required it. The scripture really is a revelation
of the will of God that He says. Hebrews chapter 6, He says in
verse 16, Men verily swear by the greater. And an oath for confirmation
is to them an end of all strife. That's what men do. I swear by... and they name something they
consider greater. I swear by... and you hear this
even in the courtroom. Do you solemnly swear to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Put your
hand on the Bible. I don't know if they still do
that nowadays. Maybe they just say raise your hand. What's the point of
that? Anyway, that's what men do. Verse 17, wherein God... willing more abundantly to show
unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath." You see what that says? That word,
big word there, immutability. What does that word mean? It
means it cannot change. It cannot not be done. His counsel
shall stand. He shall do all of his pleasure. Christ must die. He must make
atonement. He must finish The atonement
that He was sent to make. And He did that when He went
to the cross. It must be done. Look back at
Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 10. It says in Hebrews
2.10, "...for it became Him." for whom are all things, and
by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the
captain of their salvation perfect through suffering." The words,
it became him. It was something that was right
for God to do. It was the right thing for God
to do. Therefore, God did it. He did His will. His will. Look
at Ephesians chapter 1. His will. I love to think about
the fact that God's will is eternal and it must be done." Ephesians
chapter 1 and verse 11, it says that the believers, "...in whom
also we have obtained," the Lord Jesus Christ is the one whom,
"...in whom," the Lord Jesus Christ, "...we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of Him."
who works all things after the counsel of His own will." What
does God do? Whatever God does, it's according
to the counsel of His own will. God acts according to His will. And His will will not fail. His
counsel shall stand, and He will do all of His pleasure. And remember
in Acts 15-18, When James told the people there, he said, "...known
unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world."
Everything God is going to do, He already knows it from the
foundation of the world. And His will is what He does.
So therefore His will also is eternal, like He is. There was
never a time when God's will wasn't His will. start to think
about things and then made it his purpose to do it and then
there wasn't a sequential everything is present with God in eternity
at all times he sees the end from the beginning and he calls
those things which be not as though they were because it's
done in heaven remember how Jesus taught us to pray father Our
Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." What? Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. Not only is God's will eternal
and immutable, it can't change, it must be done. And God will
do His own will. But He tells us to pray that
His will that is already done in His purpose in heaven will
be done on earth. And that's a phenomenal thing,
isn't it? Now, let's stop for a moment here and let's pause
and think about what is happening here in Matthew chapter 26. Because
the Lord Jesus Christ says, the Son of Man must, He must go to
Jerusalem. He must suffer at the hands of
the elders and the chief priests and the scribes. And He must
be killed. He must rise again. And we've already seen that this
must be at least because of Scripture. And it's because it's the will
of God. And we're going to look at a lot more scriptures. But
I want you to think about this now. Christ was sent to save his people
from their sins. God is only constrained by his
will. He doesn't act because others
influence him to act. Remember what he told Moses?
I am that I am. What I am today is what I have
always been. What I will be is what I am now.
There's never a change in God. He doesn't learn. He doesn't
grow greater or less. His will doesn't change. He is
and He does what He does. But think about this. Without
any influence except His own will, God Himself purposed to
save sinners by the death of His Son. What can we say about
that? What a great God we have. That
He would do this and it would become a necessity. for our Lord
Jesus Christ to do this. And I want you to think about
that. And as we look at this, the third thing is this, that
it was necessary because Jesus Christ must do His Father's will. Jesus Christ must do His Father's
will. He must. And I want you to look
at several scriptures with me. I've already mentioned one. Look
at Luke chapter 2. I'm just going to take you through
about 8 or 9 real quickly here so you can see these. Luke chapter
2 verse 49. He already spoke when He comes
into the world, "...a body thou hast prepared Me, I come to do
thy will, O God." But here in verse 49 of Luke 2 He says, "...and
Jesus said to Mary and Joseph, How is it that you sought Me?"
He's 12 years old. And he was in the temple. Wist
you not that I must be about my father's business? I must
be about my father's business. And then turn to John chapter
4. This was a necessity. It was
laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ by His Father. But when we think
about that, we always think about, well, my dad made me go out and
paint the house. I didn't really want to, but
I had to do it. And I did it, yeah, but if I hadn't have done
it, consequences would have followed. Nothing like that at all occurred
when the Lord Jesus Christ said, I must be about my Father's business. Remember, I quoted from Hebrews
chapter 10, but let me tell you what it also says in Psalm 40.
He says, Thy law is within my heart. The will of the Father
wasn't something that was new and unacquainted to the Lord
Jesus Christ. This was something that was inherently
part of Him. It was in Him. It is what He
wanted. More than anything, more than
life itself. And so he says here in John chapter
4 in verse 34. The disciples came back after
he had been talking to the woman in the well of Samaria. And Jesus
said to them in verse 34, My meat, this is how I live. This is what sustains me. Is
to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work. Now, Christ must suffer because
He wanted to and He would not be deterred. There was nothing,
everything in His nature, everything in His own personal will and
His desire. The purpose for which He came
was to complete, to finish the will of God in our salvation.
Now, again, step back and reflect on this. If it was the will of
God Almighty, the Sovereign of the Universe, and the will of
the Son to accomplish and complete our salvation, isn't that amazing
grace? And isn't it amazing? That he
could not fail. God himself says, my counsel
shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. God's
counsel was so immutable that he says the immutability of his
counsel. Based on that, our salvation
cannot fail. Because it's in Christ our Lord.
But let's look further in John chapter 5. John chapter 5, just
a chapter over in verse 36, the same things are said. He says
in verse 36, I have greater witness than that of John. They were
looking for something to give him, you know, something more
substantial. And Jesus says, I have greater
witness than that of John for the works which the Father has
given me to finish. The same works that I do bear
witness of me that the Father has sent me. So you look at Him
and you say, who is He? Well, this is the Lord Jesus
Christ because God gave Him the task of saving His people from
their sins. Remember, we just had this back
in the first few verses of Matthew 16. Jesus told the Sadducees
and the Pharisees, He says, the only sign that's going to be
given this generation is the sign of the prophet Jonah. that
God would send His Son to save a condemned people by a substitute,
by His will, by His command, through the resurrection of Him
from the dead, to go to preach to them and save them. That's
the message of Jonah. But here in John chapter 6 and
verse 38, he says, The Lord Jesus says, I came down from heaven
not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. It
doesn't mean that his will was different than his father's.
It just means that he came as a servant. He came as a servant. He says in Isaiah 49, Behold
my servant. He calls the Lord Jesus his servant.
And what is a servant? In Philippians 2 he says the
same thing. He who did not think at robbery to be made equal with
God made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of
a servant. What is the form of a servant?
Everything that a servant is, that's what Christ was when He
was on the earth. He came to serve. And what does a servant
do? Well, a servant does whatever
his master wants him to do. His life is not his own. A servant
lays down his life. Body and soul belongs to his
master. He can't eat or sleep or do anything
until his master gives him release to do that. In fact, if I want
to ride my horse over this muddy ditch, lay your life down there
right now. I want to ride over you. That's what a servant does
to his master. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
a servant to His Father. And it was in His heart to do
this. Look at Exodus chapter 21. I want you to see this. Not
only was it a service, but it was a willing, voluntary service
out of love in His heart. Exodus chapter 21, He says in
verse 2, If you buy a Hebrew servant six years he shall serve,
and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. So you
bought him, in seven years you've got to let him go. If he came
in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married,
then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given
him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife
and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out
by himself. But if the servant shall plainly
say, Now here our Lord Jesus Christ speaks in fulfillment
of this scripture, out of His own heart. God the Father has
given Him a wife, has given Him children. He is a willing servant.
He came in that role. He subjected Himself to it, willingly,
voluntarily. And if He shall plainly say,
after the end of His service, I love my Master. My wife and
my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring
him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the
door, to the door post. And his master shall bore his
ear through with an awl. And he shall serve him forever.
This is our Lord Jesus Christ. Why must he go to the cross?
Because it was his father's will. And he laid his life down in
love to his father. I love my master. In love to
his wife. I love my wife. I love my children. I love everything about my master.
It's my greatest delight to serve my father. That was in his heart. From eternity. And then look
at John, back in the book of John again, because it's prolific
through the book of John, this theme of why Christ must come. Look at John chapter 12. In verse 23 of John chapter 12,
Jesus answered them saying, the hour has come. That the Son of
Man should be glorified. The hour was the hour of the
cross. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. This was a
necessity, wasn't it? How could the corn of wheat avoid
being alone? It must fall into the ground
and die. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth
his life shall lose it. And he that hates his life in
this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve
me, let him follow me. And where I am, there shall also
my servant be. If any man serve me, him will
my father honor. Now is my soul troubled, and
what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, for this cause came I unto
this hour. Father, glorify thy name. You
see why the Lord Jesus did all that he did? To give glory to
his Father. And what does it mean to give
glory? Does it mean that he makes his Father glorious? Well, it
means that he reveals to us. He makes known to us. Who He
is, and what He has done, and all that's about Him, He makes
known the heart of His Father to us. And what is that heart?
His will was to save His people, to glorify His Son in doing so,
and to bring them to Himself. It became Him, the Father, for
whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many
sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation, perfect through
suffering, to bring them to glory. And then he says, Father, glorify
thy name. Then came there a voice from
heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.
The people, therefore, that stood by heard it, said that it thundered,
and others said an angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said,
This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is
the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all unto me. All the Father gave to Him, He
will draw to Him. This is why He came. This is
why He died. Look at John 14, another verse. The last verse of John chapter
14. He says in verse 30, Hereafter I will not talk much with you,
for the Prince of this world comes and has nothing in Me.
Satan found nothing in Christ by which he could tempt Him or
condemn Him. Nothing. But that the world may
know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment,
even so I do. Arise, let us go hence." That's
why He came. He came to do His Father's will,
to go to the cross. Look at John 17. Verse 4, John 17, verse 4, I
have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And he speaks here as the Son
of God, doesn't he? Father, glorify thy Son. As the
Son of God, he says, I have finished the work. There was no possibility
that His word could fail. He could speak as if it were
done, even though when He cried from the cross, it is finished.
That's when it was actually done. He could speak as if it were
done because it could not fail. He could not fail. Isaiah 42
verse 4 says He could not fail. He cannot fail. So for those
reasons, the Lord Jesus Christ must... Go to Jerusalem. Must suffer. Must die. It was
His will. He loved His people. Paul says,
the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Why was
it the will of the Son to do this? He loved His Father. He
loved His wife. He loved His children. He loved
the church and gave Himself for it. And His love could not... be held back. Paul says in 2
Corinthians 5, he says, the love of Christ constrains us. That
same love that constrains Paul to preach the gospel, constrained
Christ to give his life. It's the same thing. And so,
that's what he's speaking about here. That's the must. He must.
And there's many other things we could look at here. Let me
just mention a couple in passing. for time's sake. Not only was
it the Scripture and God's will, the Father, but it was the Son,
the will of the Son, but it was also because God must fulfill
His everlasting covenant. David said in 2 Samuel 23 verse
5, "...he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure, which is all my salvation and all my
desire." In Psalm 89 verse 3 and verse 35, God swore with an oath
to David that His Son would sit on His throne. And He's speaking
about Christ. In Psalm 110 verse 4, He says, "...the Lord swear
thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." The
Lord Jesus Christ, God made him a high priest after the order
of Melchizedek by an oath he swore. And it's the same one
who was his son that he swore to. In verse 1 of Psalm 110 he
says that, he said, I've lost my memory. Look at
Psalm 110. Just real quickly here. Psalm
110. The Lord, now it's coming back
to me. The Lord said unto my Lord. Remember that? And who
was speaking when that psalm was written? David, as a prophet. The Lord said unto my Lord. He's speaking about his son,
because his son would sit on his throne. And he says, The
Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make
thine enemies thy footstool. Psalm 110 is one of the most
quoted Old Testament scriptures in the New Testament. It's amazing.
Who is the Lord that said this? Jehovah, God the Father. Who
did He speak it to? David's son and David's Lord,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what did He say? You're going
to sit on my right hand on the throne of heaven. And you're
going to sit there and you're going to reign as God and man. Reigning on the throne of heaven
with all the glory of His Father. That must be, because God said
it. And then he goes on, he says in verse 4, "...the Lord has
sworn and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek." Jesus Christ was made a high priest
by the oath of God. And he was made an eternal high
priest. without beginning of days, without
end of life. And what is it that priests do?
It says in Hebrews 8.3 that every priest, every high priest, must,
of necessity, offer gifts and sacrifices. What then must the
Lord Jesus Christ do if He is a high priest? He must offer
Himself to God. For His people. He must. He must fulfill this everlasting
covenant. God spoke it later in Hebrews
chapter 8. And He speaks it throughout the
Old Testament and the New. This covenant God made. He says
in Isaiah 53, I will give you the sure mercies of David. The
everlasting covenant I'll make with you. Look at Micah chapter
7. Just a few verses on the everlasting covenant, because I don't want
to wear you out. But Micah chapter 7, he says in verse 18, Who is a God like unto thee,
that pardoneth iniquity, and passes by the transgression of
the remnant of his heritage? What is the remnant of God's
heritage? It's that little bit that God reserved. The Lord redeemed a remnant. He redeemed His people. They're
called a remnant here. These are the ones God chose
in eternal election for whom Christ died on Calvary. To whom
the Spirit of God is sent and raises them from the dead and
gives them faith and life in Christ. He says, Because He delights in mercy,
He will turn again. He will have compassion upon
us. He will subdue our iniquities. And that will cast all their
sins into the depths of the sea. Just as Pharaoh and his armies
were cast into the Red Sea, God used that as a foreshadowing
of what Christ would do. God would, in Christ, destroy
our enemy, our sins, our iniquities, and bury them under the judgment
of His wrath. In verse 20, Thou wilt perform
the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which Thou hast sworn
unto our fathers from the days of old. And this is picked up
in Luke chapter 1, And I would have you turn there, Luke chapter
1. Zacharias is speaking now in prophecy. Remember he was
John the Baptist's father. He was a priest. God spoke through
him, he says in Luke chapter 1 verse 68, "...Blessed be the
Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
and he has raised up a horn, a mighty strong one, a horn of
salvation for us in the house of his servant David." That's
Christ. And he spake, as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets,
which have been since the world began, that we should be saved
from our enemies, our iniquities, Satan, the death, all the enemies
that we have, and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform
the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant. And now look at Matthew chapter
26. How would God fulfill this Holy
Covenant? How would He do that? Matthew
26. He says here, in verse 26, as
they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and break
it, and gave it to His disciples, and He said, Eat. This is my body. Not that the
bread was actually his body. He was obviously there and the
bread was here. He wasn't in the bread. But the
bread signified his body because the bread was broken. And by
our mouth we eat bread and live. So by faith we live on Christ
crucified. Take it. Eat it. This is my body. And he took the cup, and gave
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it. And
then listen to these words in verse 28, for this, "...is my
blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission
of sins." The blood of the everlasting covenant. Hebrews 13.20. That's
what Christ did when he shed his blood. Is there something
magical about blood? No. It's not the chemistry of
blood. It's not like it's because some
kind of a mysterious thing. The life is in the blood. Without the shedding of blood,
without the offering up of the sacrifice of the Son of God,
there is no remission of sins. That's why the blood was necessary.
That's what established, that's what brought to pass, that's
what fulfilled and put into force the everlasting covenant was
the blood of Christ. Because He finished the work
and God's covenant must be fulfilled. It was promised of old. It was
contracted together between God the Father and God the Son on
behalf of His people in eternity. And it's called a testament here.
Because a testament is a will. And the ones who receive the
benefits of that will, they are the ones who receive the inheritance. They had no part in making that
will. We contributed nothing to it. But the one who makes
the will, in order for that will to be put into force, must die.
And so Christ shed His blood to put into force, which for
Him was an agreement with His Father, contracting to offer
Himself, to satisfy God's justice, to honor His law and proclaim
His glory, and to bring many sons to glory as the surety of
His people. But also to give to us this inheritance,
the kingdom of God, everlasting life, the sons of God. To make
us God's sons and to bring us to God. This is why the Lord
Jesus Christ must die. Our salvation required it. His
love demanded it. God's everlasting covenant secured
it. And the Lord Jesus Christ, by
a voluntary will, would not be deterred. When Peter said to
him, Lord, don't do this. Peter actually said, Lord, pity
yourself. Pity yourself. You don't want
to do this. And that's when Jesus turned to him and said, He rebuked him. He said, get
thee behind me, Satan. What do you mean, pity myself?
That was the furthest thing from his mind. To think in regard
of his own life, he came to give himself. As you think about this,
we never have met anyone on this earth who thinks only of others. The Lord Jesus Christ thought
only of others. He came, and he served, and he
gave himself, and it gave him his greatest delight. That was
his heart. That was his whole being. And
so He says in these verses in Matthew 26, He says, if you try
to hold on to your life, you're going to lose it. But you need
to deny yourself and take up your cross daily and follow Me.
Do as I did. Let this mind be in you which
also was in Christ Jesus. He gave Himself for His Father.
He gave Himself for His people and He saved them by doing so.
He fulfilled Scripture and He fulfilled the everlasting covenant.
What grace is this, O my soul? And so we could go on and on,
but we've run out of time, so I'm going to bring this to a
close. When the Lord says, take up your cross daily and follow
Him, what's He talking about? I know sometimes we think, well,
I've got a cross, you know, I've got this pain. And it's just
a cross to me. Every day I have to carry this
cross. That's not the cross He was talking about. Or I have
a cross, my family, you know, they treat me unfairly. They
don't listen to me. That's a cross. No, that's not
the cross He was talking about. What is the cross? It's His cross. When we take up His cross, we
identify ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death. And
I'll give you two examples. The thief, remember him? Everybody,
everybody is mocking and spitting and making fun and bringing humiliation
on our Lord Jesus Christ. And he voluntarily subjects himself
to it. And the thief, he says, Lord,
remember me when you come into your kingdom. Everybody else
couldn't see it, but here he is, Lord. Remember me when you
come. Where? Into your kingdom. The king of glory. When you come,
you're going to die, you're going to rise again, and you're going
to be seated on heaven's throne and come into your kingdom. When
you do, remember me. And what did Jesus say? Today.
It's going to happen. And it's going to happen today.
Because when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, He fulfilled
the will of God, and He ascended to His Father. In spirit, he
offered himself to God. In his body, he laid in the tomb.
And then he rose again, and body and soul, he ascended to glory
and sat down on the right hand of God." And then remember what
Paul says in Galatians 6.14? God forbid that I should glory,
boast in anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Which
was an offense. Offense to men. It wasn't like,
oh yeah, I've got to hang it around my neck. No, the cross
is an offense. Why is the cross an offense?
Because the cross says, this is what you would do if God turned
His Son over to your will. And it says that God required
His Son to die and His Son only could provide Him a righteousness
by which God can accept you. God can't accept anything from
you. He only accepts His Son. If He could accept anything from
you, why did He crucify His Son? The Lord Jesus Christ must die.
And that cross is an offense to men because it says everything
that you think you need to do to make yourself acceptable to
God is rubbish. It's filthy rags. And everything
you think you've done in order to make yourself pleasing to
God also is filthy rags. There's only one God accepts.
It's His Son. And if He accepts you, it's in
His Son. Look to Him. Trust Him only. Realize that
here, when we look at these scriptures, this is our salvation. Simeon
holds up Jesus as a baby in his arms. He says, Lord, let me now
depart in peace. Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation. And Paul says, I count everything
but loss, but to know Him, to be found in Him. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the Lord
Jesus Christ. Thank you for this eternal will,
your covenant, scripture, the heart of our Savior that he would
give himself so freely and so fully and so finish the work
of our redemption. That he actually and really obtained
everlasting redemption for us. that he purged our sins, that
he made us holy to God, he perfected us by his one offering. Words
can't describe it. We pray that you'd give us heart
to believe it, faith to believe. Lord, we pray that you would
be with us now. and give us grace to walk in the light of your
word in our hearts. We would love the Lord Jesus.
We would say, yes, this is my salvation. He is all my glory,
all my strength. And we would identify with Him.
And we wouldn't pity ourselves, though it cost us our life. In
Jesus' name we pray, amen.