Matthew chapter 14, we're going
to look at the first 13 verses. Before we do, though, I want
to open with a word of prayer. Father, we pray that you would
give us grace now as we look into your Word, that you yourself
would speak to us in our heart concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Bear witness of your Son to us,
dear Lord. Give voice to your Word. Plant
it within us. Help us to see your mercy and
your grace and your wisdom and your power. In light, in the
contrast of all of our deep and horrible and shameful sin. We
pray, Lord, that you would exalt your Son in our eyes today. We
would see how great your salvation is. Give us grace, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Before we start reading in Matthew 14, I want to give you just a
brief survey of the chapters that came before in Matthew 11
and 12 and 13. Now you know we've been together
on these chapters for a while, so I'm not going to go back and
go through the details. But if you look at Matthew 11
again, what you'll see there is that it opens with Jesus commending
the ministry of John the Baptist. And he does that in order to
underscore the importance of his own ministry, and the significance
of that point in history, which was more significant, I think,
than any point in history, when the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord
of Glory, came from heaven, took the nature of a man, and walked
on this earth, And the Kingdom of Heaven was actually come,
all the Old Testament, represented by John, was announcing His coming. Announcing the fulfillment that
was about to take place in His death on the cross. And by the
judgment of Satan, He was cast out of Heaven, and His people
were gathered in, and the Spirit of God was sent into their hearts.
That was the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. That is the coming
of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew
6, 10, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is
in heaven. And so you see that at the beginning
of Matthew 11. And then in Matthew 11, the latter part, you see
the rejection of Christ and John by the scribes and the Pharisees,
the Jews of that time. They were like children in the
marketplace. They couldn't be satisfied. It didn't matter if
John spoke to them in harsh tones about repenting and the wrath
to come. It didn't matter that he pointed to Christ, the Lamb
of God. And it didn't matter to them that Christ came speaking
in joyous, melodic tones to ruined, lost sinners about what He was
going to do. They rejected Him. And Jesus
compares their rejection to Sodom and Gomorrah and Tyre and Sidon.
And He says that their unbelief would receive a greater condemnation
in the Day of Judgment than the idolatry of Tyre and Sidon and
the immorality of Sodom and Gomorrah. That's a big statement. It shows
the evil of unbelief and the wickedness of it. And then he
goes on in the latter part of Matthew 11 to call sinners to
himself when he says, coming to me all you who labor and are
heavy laden, I will give you rest. And then in Matthew chapter
12, the Lord is showing Himself as the Lord of the Sabbath. He's
the Lord of the Sabbath because He's the Lord of creation. He
finished creation. He established the seventh day
as the Sabbath day in order to remind men that God Himself had
completed His work in six days. And that He was going to complete
it in salvation. And He reminded them of that
Sabbath in the law. He told them to remember that.
He told them to remember their deliverance from Egypt. He told
them to remember that the rest they were about to enter into
Canaan was to teach them the conquest of Christ over our enemies
in order to give us that eternal inheritance in heaven and in
glory. He's the Lord of the Sabbath.
And He's the Lord of the Sabbath because He gives rest to His
people. And because He governs what the
Sabbath means and He actually fulfilled it. But then we see
the unbelief again arise in the Scribes and Pharisees because
they didn't understand the Sabbath. They condemned the guiltless.
And they didn't understand that God gave the Sabbath in order
to teach His mercy to sinners, in order to give mercy to sinners
in the Lord Jesus Christ, in His full, complete salvation,
which He would accomplish. And then in Matthew chapter 12
we see the unbelief taking an even darker downward course because
the scribes and Pharisees actually blasphemed the Spirit of God
by claiming what Christ did, casting out devils, was the work
of Satan. And Jesus said for that sin there
was no forgiveness. And so, then later in Matthew
chapter 12, he compares Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum to
the Queen of Sheba and to the men of Nineveh. The Queen of
Sheba sought after the wisdom of Solomon. The men of Nineveh
repented at the preaching of Jonah. And Jesus said, "...greater
than Solomon is here." Jonah's sign is the only sign that would
be given to that generation. But those cities, Chorazin, Bethsaida,
and Capernaum were going to be under greater judgment because
of their unbelief. And so you see the build-up from
Matthew 11, 12, and 13 of the unbelief of the Jews and the
rejection of Christ. And then in Matthew 13, Jesus
gives seven parables about the Kingdom of Heaven to divulge
the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. But He does it in
a way that hides it from those who don't believe, from those
who rejected Him. And He does it on the side to
His disciples. He explains to them those mysteries,
and to us, in mercy. And then at the end of chapter
13, we saw that His own countrymen rejected Him. Again, unbelief
is resurfacing here. Now what we see in chapter 14
is where we are. We see what I've entitled this
sermon to be the cruelty of unbelief and the victory of faith. The
cruelty of unbelief and the victory of faith. Let's read together
Matthew 14, verses 1-13. He says, And at that time Herod
the tea-trark heard of the fame of Jesus. And said unto his servants,
This is John the Baptist. He is risen from the dead. And
therefore mighty works to show forth themselves in him. For
Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in
prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife." Herod
had married his brother's wife. He was living in adultery with
her. Well, he had married her in adultery,
and now he's living with her as his wife. And then in verse
4 it says, For John had said to Herod, It is not lawful for
thee to have her. John was faithfully proclaiming
to Herod what God said. He was a prophet. God sent him
for that purpose and he was faithful to his calling. Verse 5, And
when he would, that's Herod, when he would have put him to
death, John, he feared the multitude because they counted him as a
prophet. But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias
danced before them and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised
with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. And she said,
being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John
Baptist's head in a charger. That's a plate. And the king
was sorry, nevertheless, for his oath's sake, and them which
sat with him at meet. He commanded it to be given her,
and he sent and beheaded John in prison. And his head was brought
in a charger and given to the damsel, and she brought it to
her mother. And the disciples came and took
up the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus." And when
Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert
place. And when the people had heard thereof, they followed
him on foot out of the cities. And Jesus went forth and saw
a great multitude, and he was moved with compassion toward
them, and he healed their sick." This is an account of the savage
cruelty of a king. His job was to stand, to sit
in the seat of judgment. Under God's government, He appoints
men to the role of civil government, to do what God has told them
to do in His Word, which is to protect people from evil, to
punish evildoers, and sometimes to reward the good. But here was Herod who was acting
in a way that was entirely backwards to the office that he was in.
He was the king. He had a lot of power. And he
acted in this way that's incomprehensibly cruel. He cut off the head of
God's greatest prophet up to this point in time. The greatest
prophet, Jesus said, whoever lived up to that point in time.
He put him in prison to silence him. just so he wouldn't tell
him that what he was doing was wrong. And then eventually, he
cut off his head in prison. So I want to look at this with
you. It's a sad tale. You wonder, where is the gospel
in all this? But I want to look at it, and
I've entitled the message, as I said, The Cruelty of Unbelief
and the Victory of Faith. Another title I thought to add
to this so you can kind of lead into that in your thinking is,
what to say to John Baptist's family. What would you say to
the family of John the Baptist? Because that's the question that
I was asking myself as I was reading through this. What do
you say? So there's five things I want to point out here. The
first thing is the conscience of wicked men torments them.
And you see that here in Herod's sake. We're going to look at
that in verse 1-4. He says here in the first case, that at that
time Herod heard of the fame of Jesus and he said to his servants,
this is John the Baptist. He's risen from the dead and
therefore mighty works to show forth themselves in him. Because
Herod had laid hold on John and bound him and put him in prison
for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. So what you see
in this first case is that Herod thought to silence John, if he
could just keep him quiet, then he wouldn't be there to nag him.
It wasn't nagging. It was just telling him what
God said. But men don't want the truth. We want to suppress
it. It says in John 3 that we don't come to the light. All
who hate the light don't come to the light, lest their deeds
are reproved. So Herod was trying to put out
the light. He was trying to quiet the Word
of God against himself. So he put John in prison. He
didn't fear God, but he feared the people. He would have just
killed John, mercilessly. But his fear of the people, because
they thought John was a prophet, kept him from killing John. And
that shows that he was a man of complete unprinciple, without
fear of God, fearing the people, supposed to be ruling in the
fear of God, but he didn't. He wasn't just because he was
going to kill a man for speaking God's truth. Now this isn't new,
this happened throughout history. But when you see it in the context
of the unbelief of the Jews, and then this man who was a complete
Gentile, and his cruelty, you see how unbelief goes from bad
to worse. Jesus said how bad it was. It
was worse than the sins of Tyre and Sidon and Sodom and Gomorrah. And Bethsaida and Chorazin and
Capernaum were going to receive greater judgment. Because they
didn't do what the men of Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba did. And
we see his own countrymen didn't believe in him, even though they
knew his works were mighty and heard his words and knew that
they were wise words. They knew he was sent from God,
but they held it down and rejected it. And so here's a man who now
also is holding down the truth. You see how people do, how they
respond to the truth of the gospel? They don't want it. They don't
like what it says. And so they try to silence it. And so Herod
thought to silence John. He could have lived as he pleased,
he thought, if he could just quiet God's servants. But his
conscience actually afflicted him, and you don't know that
until you see his response. When he heard about Jesus, he
said, this must be John, risen from the dead. That's why these
mighty works show forth themselves. John never did a miracle. But
since I killed him and put him to death, now God's brought him
back to haunt me. And now he's doing these mighty
works. And so he was thinking, I could have put him to silence,
but his conscience was tormenting him. And I think that this is
what hell is. Hell is a raw conscience. God
leaves us to our conscience to realize what we've done. And
to realize that it's wrong and to have no relief from that conscience. And so Herod, even though he
was king and could do what he wanted, couldn't get out of his
conscience tormenting him. And this is the way God has seen
to it to afflict men even though they think that they can get
out of it. But the other thing I want you to see here is that... Well, first of all, this conscience
thing. Think about it. God uses the conscience, our
conscience, to teach us things, to correct us, to even afflict
us. Whether we're the king or the
slave. And it doesn't matter whether you're the king or the
slave. Our conscience is still there and God uses it to speak
to us. But remember what happened here in this account
in chapter 14. It says that this girl, Herodias'
daughter, we don't know the girl's name, but the daughter of this
woman that Herod had taken from his brother, Philip, and married,
her daughter was dancing. She was called in to dance. And
think about what happened here. Here's a young girl who's dancing
before a king. And the king is very pleased
with her dancing. It reminds me of what goes on
a lot nowadays. The world expects young women
to dress up in a certain way, to act in a way that pleases
the world. And when the world is pleased
by that, then the girls feel some sense of accomplishment
and satisfaction and success. But she danced for Herod and
she had an evil heart. Because what did she do? She
had been instructed by her mother beforehand, when he asks you
for what you want, ask for John Baptist's head on a plate, on
a charger. I think that's what a charger
is, just a big fancy plate. Can you imagine how gruesome
that is? A young girl dressed up in all the tinsel and her
natural beauty and her talents to please even a king, to move
this man who was so self... focus that all he could think
about was a dancing young girl instead of a prophet of God and
the murder he was about to commit. Those things didn't bother him.
So he was fully gratified by his self-pursuits. And so this
young woman was. She had an outward appearance
and talents that made her look good. But inwardly, she was a
wicked and evil girl. And so you see how that God,
that even outward beauty masks an evil heart. And so we think
about that. But her mother was worse than
her. She's the one who because John had accused her and her
new husband of committing adultery in this marriage. She's the one
that was willing to kill just to have John silenced. And she even got her daughter
to dance in order to get the king to do what she wanted. She
wasn't stupid. She was like Jezebel in the Old
Testament. She was ready to do anything to kill the Lord's prophet. But the king was the worst of
all. And you see all these things in the beheading of John the
Baptist in prison. You may succeed in the eyes of
the world. It does not mean you succeed
in God's eyes. Above all things, we should fear
man's praise. If men praise you, beware. Evil
men do not speak well of faithful prophets. The praise of man is
a snare, and what men highly esteem is an abomination to God. And that's what the scripture
says in Luke 16. So, see a beautiful woman, but
see in her heart this latent evil, undiscovered to our natural
eye, made public for all to see, and here's this man, this evil
king, He thinks he's quieted John the Baptist, but notice,
here in scripture, God lays it bare. God's word is like a hammer. God's word is like a sword. It's
like a light. It discovers the inward thoughts
of the man. And God's word has laid him bare.
And that's what it says in Numbers, I think it's around 32. He says,
be sure your sin will find you out. And so we need to flee to
Christ. We need to find our refuge from
our sin in the Lord Jesus Christ. But now John is dead. And Herod
thought the matter was put to rest. But it wasn't put to rest. John is dead. And Herod thinks
he's won the day. But he hasn't won the day. Because
what you see is that... Even though Herod seems to have
won here, John is actually the winner. And you don't see that
necessarily in this text. But I want you to think about
this with me, because this savage cruelty of the king and his adulterous
wife and her daughter, joining together against God's prophet
is the dark backdrop on the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's
a man who, for his own convenience, killed a prophet. A man who was
willing to give half his kingdom to a silly, senseless, dressed-up,
dancing girl. And yet, he didn't even give
a second thought to murdering God's prophet. That dark backdrop
of a man serving himself against what the Lord Jesus Christ did.
When His disciples came to Him and told Him of John's beheading,
they took His body and buried John. But Jesus went out to a
desert place. The people followed Him. What
did He do? He taught them. He healed them. He had compassion. The Lord Jesus Christ saw the
people in their hunger, the hunger of their body, and had compassion
on them. And I think about that because
what we see in Scripture in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He
says and what He does, we see the very heart of God. We see
it in the gospel. We can't see it in the law so
much, do you? When you read God's law, what
do you find there? You find commandments to do this,
or commandments not to do that. And you focus on what you think
those things mean, and maybe you even try to analyze it. But
you can't really know the heart of God in those things, can you?
But when you see how the Lord Jesus Christ acted, especially
against the backdrop of those who knew Him, grew up with Him,
and rejected him and all the unbelief and the accusations
against him and this wicked king killing his faithful servant
John. And the Lord Jesus Christ goes
out and he sees the multitude hungry, sick, and he looks on
them and he has compassion on them. See, this is our Lord Jesus
Christ. He has compassion on those who
are ignorant and out of the way. We don't have a high priest who
can't be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. But in all
points, He was tempted like as we are, yet without sin. And
so He's our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who has compassion
on us. And that's the reason we're saved.
He says in 1 Peter 5, 7, "...casting all your care upon Him, for He
careth for you." Can you think about that? The Eternal God humbles
Himself. It says in Psalm 113, 6, that
the Lord God of Heaven humbles Himself to behold His creation
in heaven and earth. To even look on it, God has to
humble Himself. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
walks among men, and as God, has the compassion on their hunger,
and sees to their needs, and heals their bodies, casting all
your cares upon Him, for He careth for you. He doesn't care for
us for what He finds in us, but only because His heart is big.
That's the only reason. And so we see that. But I want
to look now with you at why was John killed? John was put in
prison. Remember back in Matthew 11?
And we looked at that then. Why did God allow this prophet
to be killed so brutally? He was a faithful prophet. It
wasn't like God had him killed because of his sin, was it? Remember what God said to Abraham
in Genesis 15? He said to him, you're going
to go to the grave in a good old age. He did. He was 175 when he finally died. And he had his son Isaac through
Sarah, but he also had other children later. He was rich.
He didn't receive the promise while he was on the earth of
eternal inheritance, but he looked forward to it. And he lived in
tents on earth, but he walked with God 175 years and God gave
him a full life and then he died. But why John? John was maybe
33, 4, 5 years old when he died. Remember what Simeon, that old
man, did when he was in Luke chapter 2, when he was looking
for the Lord's Christ? And God showed him, you're not
going to die. He's an old man now, his face
wrinkled, his hair white, and leaning upon his staff maybe,
waiting to see the Lord's Christ. And God showed him, you're not
going to die until you see Him. And when Mary brought him to
the temple, he held him in his arms. And he said, Now let your
servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. What an amazing thing. To depart
in peace. But John didn't depart in peace.
He departed in violence. In savage cruelty. How could
this be? Why would God do that? Have you
ever wondered about that? What do you say to someone's
family when something like that happens? You know what we usually say,
and it's okay to say this, is that I don't know why God does
that. I don't know. But I know what
He does is right. And that's good. That's good to say that.
Whatever God does is right. I don't know why God had John
killed. Not specifically. This part of
the Bible doesn't reveal it to us. But throughout Scripture,
God does give us information about this. And He doesn't do
it just a little. He does it throughout Scripture. And the
first thing I want you to consider with me is that it's in God's
will. It's in God's will. He has determined
this. That His people... suffer in
this life. That's God's will. Now, it's
good for us to know that, isn't it? If God didn't tell us that,
and we suffered, what would we think? Well, I'm suffering because
God is getting after me for the sin that I've committed. I know
I'm guilty. I know He's going to do these
things to me because I'm guilty. And look at all this suffering.
I must not be pleasing to Him at all. I have no favor in His
eyes. And what hope do I have in constantly looking with despair
on our life because of that? If God didn't say that His people
suffered, then we would think that, wouldn't we? And if we're
trying to do the will of God according to the love we have
for the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet men persecute us. Or we suffer
loss of property, or loss of loved ones, or even loss of health
and life. What would we think? We must
be all wrong here. God's not blessing it. And the enemies of God would
say, see, how could God be with you? Look, you're suffering.
God wouldn't let this happen to those that He loves. But remember
what they said when Jesus hung on the cross? He trusted in the
Lord that he would save him. Let him deliver him now, seeing
he trusted in him. If you really are God's Christ,
if you really are the Son of God, then let God deliver you. You trusted in him. If you trusted
in him and he truly loves and is pleased with you, then He
will deliver you." That's what they said when He was on the
cross. Psalm 22 verse 8. It says He trusted in Jehovah. He rolled Himself upon His Father
in trust. Job said it this way. Though
He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Job suffered, didn't he?
Was it because of his sin? No. God told Satan, look at my
servant Job. There's none like him on the
earth. A just man. He eschews evil. He hates evil. And he's righteous. And Satan
said, just let me at him and he will curse God and die. No,
he didn't. He didn't. He didn't curse God. But God had him suffer, didn't
He? The Lord Jesus Christ suffered on the cross, and there was nothing
in Him, nothing wrong. Well, we know His suffering was
for His people, so we could say, well, Christ suffered for His
people, but what about God's people? And so I want you to
think about this with me for a little while, because it is
meant for our faith that's meant for our hope and our walk in
this world to be comforted and to see the greatness of the Lord
Jesus Christ in all of our sufferings. The first thing I notice is that
people suffer in the world because of physical affliction. And I
mentioned Job. Remember him? Job, he had no
sin that God was punishing him for. He just let the devil take
away his goods, take away his health, in order that God would
show his His grace towards Job after that and other lessons.
But Job patiently believed God. He walked with God in patient
faith. Looking to God to deliver him.
Looking for God to do whatever he wanted. And remember Lazarus?
He was sick. His sisters Mary and Martha sent
to Jesus. And it says Jesus loved Martha
and Mary and their brother Lazarus. So Lazarus was clearly loved
by Christ. Why did He let him get sick?
Why did He even let him die? Jesus said it was for the glory
of God. It was for the glory of God. Why? So that Christ could
be known as the resurrection and the life in the raising of
Lazarus. So people suffer because of physical
afflictions. And their afflictions, when my
mom was dying I wondered, It becomes more acute to us when
someone we love suffers, doesn't it? You see a loved one suffering
at the end of their life, and they might live a long time,
and they can't get out of bed. And you think, well, why would
the Lord allow them to spend this time of their life? Why
doesn't He just take them to glory? Right away. Or let them
die in peace right away. Or something like that. But God
has His purpose. Our life is not our life. It's the Lord's. Whether we live,
we live unto the Lord. And whether we die, we are the
Lord's. Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's. Our
life is not our own. In fact, God gives us this life
in order to glorify Himself out of this life. And the way he
does that is through faith. And we're going to look at that
in a minute here. But the other reason God's people suffer in this world
is because of persecution. And this is throughout scripture.
Remember Abel, the very first man on earth who was murdered?
Why was he killed? Why did Cain kill him? Because
Cain's works were evil and his brothers were righteous. 1 John
3.12. And what about Joseph? Remember his brothers? They sold
him into slavery. He suffered for years, first
as a slave, then in prison. But in God's mercy, He raised
Him to the throne, exalted Him in order that He, by His exaltation,
could save His people. And that's exactly what happened
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It was God's predeterminate will
that Christ suffer to save His people, even though we are the
ones who rejected Him. Even though He suffered for us
and was exalted in order to save us, that was God's will for us. And then remember Stephen, he
was put to death and so God's people suffered. Daniel suffered
for sins, but none of these men suffered because of their sins.
And then the third thing I see is that men suffer, Christians
suffer I should say, believers suffer, because in this world
we have The presence of our sins with us. The guilt of our sin. Our past sins, our present sins,
and our future sins. It bothers us. It brings us down,
doesn't it? And the indwelling sin. We know
we have a sin nature, and that bothers us. That's what happened
to Peter. Remember Peter? He denied the
Lord. And what happened afterwards? He went out and wept bitterly.
He suffered because of remaining sin in him. Because of his unbelief. He was a believer. He was a saved
man. And yet he suffered because of
his sin. And then remember Paul in Romans 7. He says, I can't
even do the things I want to do. And the things I don't want
to do, that's what I do. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who
shall deliver me? You can see him trying to reach
inside, down his neck, pull out this evil man inside of him,
so that he might fling him to the earth and destroy him. But
God didn't deliver him. Why? Not in this life. Why? Because
God wants us to walk by faith. He wants us to walk in this life
depending on His naked, bare Word, His promise, what He has
said about what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. And so you see,
that's the life of the believer. We suffer in some ways like everyone
else, but because of the new life within us, our suffering
for sin and our suffering because of our love for Christ becomes
more of a problem. And, you know, it says in Psalm,
I think it's 72, where Asaph, or one of the psalmists was writing,
he says, I looked at the wicked and they didn't have any bands
in their debt. They seem like they're living large and getting
whatever they go after. And they have no conscience.
There's no problem with them. And then I wonder, what good
is it for me to serve God? And then he says, Maybe we ought
to even look at that. He says, I was as a beast before
thee. When I went into the tabernacle
of God, I learned their end. Let me see if I can find it here
real quickly. I don't know if it's Psalm 72.
Maybe it's a different Psalm. Didn't plan to do this, but there
it is. Ah, yes, 73. Just go ahead and read this.
He says, verse 1, "...truly God is good to Israel..." Do I have
the right one? Oh yes. "...God is good to Israel,
even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me..." My feet
were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped, for I was
envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no bands in their death, but their strength is
firm. They are not in trouble as other
men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride
compasseth them about as a chain, violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness,
They have more than heart could wish. You see this person is
so... He's taken in so much pleasure
that his eyes are popping out of his head. It's quite a picture,
isn't it? They are corrupt and speak wickedly
concerning oppression. They speak loftily. That's what
Herod did, didn't he? They set their mouth against
the heavens and their tongue walketh through the earth. That's
a picture of an arrogant, proud, God-hating, unbelieving man in
his natural state. Verse 10, "...therefore his people
return hither, and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them."
And they say, how does God know? And is their knowledge in the
Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly
who prosper in the world. They increase in riches, verily.
Now this is the psalmist. Asaph says, "...verily I have
cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning.
If I say, I will speak thus, behold, I should offend against
the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this,
it was too painful for me. Until I went into the sanctuary
of God, then understood I their end. Surely thou did set them
in slippery places. Thou castest them down to destruction. How are they brought into desolation,
as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors? As a dream,
when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt
despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved, and
I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I, and ignorant
I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless, I am continually
with thee, that hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt
guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee." You see how the psalmist is expressing
the affliction that goes on in the heart of God's people? The
world doesn't feel that struggle between the old nature and the
new nature. The world doesn't see this world
as an unattractive and loathsome thing. Lot vexed his soul day
to day because of the filthy conversation of the behavior
of the wicked in Sodom and Gomorrah. And that's what, that affliction
comes to God's people, and the Lord delivers them from it. So
that was a bit of an aside, but I wanted to look at that with
you. There's basically three reasons I see why God's people
suffer in this world. And the first one is that of
indwelling and remaining sin. Turn to Romans chapter 8 with
me. Indwelling and remaining sin. Because in Romans chapter
8, God deals with, He gives us comfort and instruction in all
of these cases, in all three of these areas, in our suffering. What is this that God says about
the suffering because of our remaining sin, our indwelling
sin, even the guilt of our past sins, and the fear of future
sins? Will I continue to believe the
Lord Jesus Christ? Will I truly walk with Him? Will
I be found in Him at that last day? Those fears come upon us,
don't they? And so God has given us this
comfort. Look at Romans chapter 8. He says in verse 28. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose." So right at the outset, God says,
God has a purpose for His people. And He calls His people according
to that purpose. And those who are called according
to His purpose love Him. And God has so arranged everything
in the world that it is all working for their good. The fall of Adam
worked for our good. Because in Adam we all fell,
but in Christ we're all made alive. In Adam we stood by the
obedience of one man. And that man was finite. That
man was prone to sin. He was capable of sinning. But
in Christ we stand with all the fulfillment of the law. We stand
in Christ with all of our sins having been the satisfaction
made for all of our sins. In Christ we have been resurrected. In Christ we now sit in glory. In Christ we're accepted by God.
In Christ God looks upon us and says, He's well pleased with
us because of His Son. He receives us in His Son and
as His Son. And so that's what he's saying
here. All things work together for good to them that love God.
We love Him because He first loved us. Not in order to get
something from God. Everything we need has already
been worked out and provided in Christ. That makes us love
Him. That God would love us for no
reason found in ourselves, but for His own big heart of goodness
and love in Christ. That causes us to love Him. And that alone, free grace alone,
causes us to love the Lord Jesus Christ. And God says that everything,
all of the physical, the circumstantial things in life, the evil and
the good, are all working together like an orchestra in order to
bring about good for His people. It doesn't matter what it is.
Whether it be loss of limb, or loss of life, or loss of loved
ones, or loss of mind. God's working it to our good.
Can you believe that God's that big? Can you believe that God
is big enough, and His heart is big enough, and His right
arm strong enough, and His wisdom so infinite that He can't do
wrong? that He could work every minute
detail in our life, even those things in which we were opposing
our salvation, God is using that to our good. Of course, the first
thing that the accusers of God would say at this point in His
gospel would say, well then, we can do what we want. We can
whip it up. We can have our own way. But
the heart of the child of God is exactly the opposite. If God
is this good, then He can deliver me from my sin. And He is big
enough and His grace is great enough that He has power even
over this wicked heart of mine. And so He's working all things
to good for His purpose. That purpose He has to bring
us to glory. And He says in the next verse
what that is. Verse 29 of Romans 8, "...for whom He did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son." What was the purpose? To
be conformed to the image of His Son. To be made like Christ. What could be more glorious than
that? When God looks upon His people, 1 John 3, verse 1, He
says, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed
upon us that we should be called the sons of God. And it does
not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He
shall appear, we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is. The way we're conformed to the
image of His Son is by looking to His Son. Looking to His Son
and the salvation He worked out for His people. How He laid His
life down for them. How He gave everything He had
in order to have them. In order to save them from their
sins. Their sins which they invited
in to that Because of their pride and their lust and their ignorance
and their unbelief, He sees those sins as their enemies. He looks
beyond our fault and sees our need and He puts Himself, inserts
Himself between God's justice and wrath and our sin. And He
removes our sin from us and then He establishes for us everlasting
righteousness in Himself. And He loves us and continues
to love us. He says here in verse 29, "...those He foreknew, He
predestined for no means to set His love on beforehand." It doesn't
mean He looks down the eons of times and says, Ah, I see Joe
there. And I made Joe from the dirt,
and I gave Joe a mind, and I gave him a free will, and I've got
to look now to see what He's going to do with that free will
so I can decide whether or not I love him. Have you ever heard
of anything so foolish, so ignorant, so willfully ignorant of the
sovereignty and the almighty power of God, that men would
make up a doctrine that would say that God looked to see what
we were going to do, so He could decide what He was going to do? To even say that sounds like,
what kind of a twisted, warped mind would create that kind of
a doctrine? But you know what? It's in the
expository dictionary of one of the most used theologians
of all time. I don't know his first name.
His last name was Vines. He says this about this word.
He says, God's foreknowledge, we have to recognize man's free
will. And he knew what man would do.
It's like, what are you talking about? Have you even thought
about the ludicracy of that statement? That makes no sense. It seems
foolish. You had to twist your mind around
that axle in order to even come up with that idea. But that's
what men think. In their willful unbelief, men create these fantastical,
foolish doctrines about God foreknows because they can't let go of
the fact That man is not in control. They can't let go of the fact
that God is sovereign. Only He is good. And they cannot
accept the fact that unless God intervenes in man's life and
saves him in spite of himself, that man will justly go to hell. They can't accept that. They
can't accept the fact that they're not in the driver's seat. They
can't exercise their free will and say, I accept Jesus and therefore
God is going to do something for them. They think that God
is waiting for us to do something. That is not the case. God's grace
does it all or He does nothing. If salvation is of us, then God
is going to leave us. to our own ways, and we'll perish
in those ways. But God's salvation brings everything,
provides everything. So, foreknowledge is God setting
His love on His people before the world began. Predestination
means He set the final destination for them, and all of the steps
necessary to get them to that destination. It's just like when
the UPS guys deliver a package to the door. They have this route
mapped out. It's the destination. It's your
package to your door. And they know how they're going
to get them there. To take the most efficient route. God did
that for His people. A perfect route for each one
of us to conform us to the image of His Son. That He might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Verse 30. Moreover whom He did
predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called, them He also
justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. Do you see who's acting in all
these cases? It's God. Do you see who did the predestinating? Who did the calling? Who did
the justifying? Who did the glorifying? It's
the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. And what he's saying here
in verse 30 is that if God, if you find yourself believing Christ,
then you can look back through that faith to see the work of
the Spirit of God giving you new life, a resurrected soul. And why did He do that? Because
Christ redeemed you. And why did He redeem you? Because
God chose you. And why did God choose you? Because
He loved you. And He predestined all the steps.
And if you see that, and you see Christ, then God says, there's
no possibility but that you will end up in glory, conformed to
His image. It's a chain that can't be broken. Because every link in the chain
is a link of God's own making. All these things. And so, that's
why He concludes with this huge statement in verse 31. He says,
what shall we then say to these things? Now, if we had some part
in it, we would have to say things like, well, I'm glad I was born
to that family, or to that nation, or that I had brown hair, or
that I had this strong tenacity to hold on and do these things. We could start thinking of ourselves,
that's the way we always do. But no, God, He says, what shall
we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Notice, He's talking to this
frail, weak, trembling soul facing their execution, facing a mortal
disease, facing the terror of the night and their sins and
all these things. And he speaks to them and he
says, if God be for you, Who can be against you? Well, what
about my sin? Some people would read chapter
8 of Romans and say, well, he's saying all these things, but
surely our sin is going to separate us from God. No! That's exactly
what he's not saying here. Look what he says in verse 32.
He that spared not his own son... But delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Our sin isn't a problem. Why?
Because he delivered up his son with our sin and made full satisfaction
for our sins in the death and the punishment of his son. If
sin was a problem, He wouldn't have said in verse 1, there is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Sin isn't a problem. Christ has dealt with it. But
we can't believe it, can we? It's too good. We've got to think,
there's got to be some reason why God loves me. I can't figure
out why He would love... You know, we start looking around.
Maybe when I get old I'll be lovable. I wasn't lovable when
I was young. Or maybe when I was a baby I
was cute and lovable. No, it's not that. Of course
those things are foolish. God's love is only found in God.
God's purpose is only found in God. There is nothing that we
do that changes God. God's goodness doesn't depend
on our goodness. His faithfulness doesn't depend
on our faith. His strength doesn't depend on
our weakness. His holiness doesn't depend on
our righteousness. His salvation doesn't depend
on our sin. It depends on Christ. And so
he says here in verse 32, "...he that spared not his own son."
Now, take all of creation. If God could have put away our
sin by creating a world, or worlds, or an infinite number of worlds,
and then destroying those worlds in order to put away our sin,
do you think he would have killed his own son? All of creation doesn't amount
to any comparable measure to the Son of God. God gave everything. He emptied heaven when He gave
His Son. He gave the love of His heart,
the admiration of eternity, the worship of all of heaven and
earth, He gave His Son. And He says here, think about
it. Weak, helpless, persecuted, suffering
Christian. If God gave His Son, there is
nothing in heaven and earth that He will not give to His people
with Him. And so He says in verse 33, "...who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifieth." What is sin? It's transgression
of God's law. If God justifies, then who can
say we've transgressed God's law? It's His law. He justified
us. His own justice has said He's
righteous because of Christ. It's God that justifies. His
elect were never condemned outside of Christ. I mean, in Christ.
Never in Christ were they ever condemned. They were justified
from eternity. The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, God looked at His Son. He foreordained that His
precious blood would be shed to redeem His people. And in
eternity, that blood, at God's purpose and His will, was shed.
It wasn't actually shed then. It was shed in time. But because
God decreed it, there was no possibility that it wouldn't
be shed. And there was no possibility that God wouldn't receive it.
And there was no possibility that He wouldn't justify His
people. So His people from eternity were justified in the heart and
mind of God. And that's why He could love
them with an everlasting love in Christ. Justified, verse 34,
the greatest verse, I think, in all of Scripture. Who is He
that condemneth? Who? Find Him! The answer comes
to us in glorious, glorious conquest. It is Christ that died. It's
Christ that died. It's Christ that died. What do you say to your conscience?
It's Christ that died. What do you say to the devil?
It's Christ that died. What do you say to God's law?
It's Christ that died. The law foreshadowed His coming. The law said that in Christ all
of the sins of all of His people would be put away. And all the
prophets from the beginning of the world have testified to this.
To the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow.
Because He would actually put away sins by the sacrifice of
Himself. It's Christ that died. What will
you say in judgment? It's Christ that died. What do
you say in your conscience? It's Christ that died. His person
is so glorious, His life is so holy, and His offering is so
great that if the Lord Jesus Christ died, there's no possibility
that our sins could condemn us. Not before God, not by His law,
not by the devil. He was cast out of heaven when
the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross. And not in our conscience,
because God sprinkles by His Spirit on our hearts. He sprinkles
in faith the blood of Christ. So we're persuaded that it's
Christ that died. And look, not just that, there's
three more reasons here. He says he rather that he's risen
again. If Christ is risen from the dead, then God himself has
received full satisfaction and his law demands his justification. He was risen because he was justified
in all of his people, justified in him. He's risen, he says,
not just risen. But seated at the right hand
of God, who is even at the right hand of God, the one who died
now reigns in glory. The testator who had to die in
order for the inheritance to be given to the ones designated
in that everlasting covenant. He is now alive again and reigns
in glory as the Almighty God. in order to ensure that everything
in life and time and eternity is brought together and worked
out and ensures the gift of what He earned is given to them, even
eternal life, sonship, being conformed to His image. And then
notice, that's not all, but He also makes intercession for us.
The Lord Jesus Christ, with all of the authority of God and all
of the of the compassion and the acquaintance
as man. Those two things put together,
He presents the everlasting merits of His blood and righteousness
in heaven. There He is, there He sits, the
Lamb slain, and His hands bearing the marks, and His feet the marks,
and God has received Him from the dead. And there He is, and
as He sits there in heaven, on God's right hand, His purpose
is for His people, and His presence there is for them, that God would
bring them to Himself, to glory. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather that's risen again
who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession
for us. And then he says this in verse 35. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? The love of Christ. Don't think
about your own love. The love of Christ. He directs
our attention outside of ourselves to Christ who died, Christ who
rose, Christ who reigns, and Christ who intercedes in the
love of Christ. And then he asks all the questions.
Shall tribulation, any trouble in life, tribulation of any kind,
No. These are questions, the obvious
answer is no. None of these things can separate
us from the love of Christ. Or distress. Distress means,
I don't know what to do. I can't see the way out. I have
no way of escape from my trouble. Shall that separate us from the
love of Christ? Or persecution. Or famine. Or nakedness. Or peril. That means danger,
terrorists or any other danger. Or sword. Herod killed John the
Baptist. Verse 36, notice, from the word
of God, he speaks from Psalm 44.22, he says, As it is written,
For thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted
as sheep for the slaughter. Isn't that amazing? And you still
wonder, why would God do that? Why would God have his people
be like sheep for the slaughter? Do you ever wonder about those
things? Why would God allow the ones that He loved, the ones
whose sins He put away in the Lord Jesus Christ, why would
He allow them to go through pain and suffering, even persecution
and death at the hands of the wicked in this world? Well, He
says in verse 37, know this, in all these things we are more
than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death nor life I worry more about life than
death, don't you? Neither death nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, doesn't matter
who the president is, nor things to come." Sometimes you think,
well, yeah, I know about something about the past, and I know about
the terribleness of the present, but what about the future? What
if God somehow changes the rules? No! He says, the future! Nothing
in the future either! can separate us from the love
of God." Then he says, "...nor height," that means anything
in heaven, "...nor depth," anything in hell or on earth, "...nor
any other creature," that means anything in all of God's created
universe, "...shall be able to separate us from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Now, If God gives
you eyes to see this, your shoulders just relax and you just think,
oh, how could God be so good that all of my salvation, my
eternal destiny, has been already determined and put in place in
the events of my life No matter how bad they are, are all working
for my good to bring me into conformance to the image of God's
Son. To bring me to glory. To show me His face. And to be
with Him and give me all things. But I don't see it. I do not
see it. The sword is coming. The guillotine.
My head is on the chopping block. And then our life is gone. And yet it's true. God is glorified. God is glorified when His people,
out of weakness, look to Christ and He delivers them. And they
glorify Him for it. That's the principle. Psalm 5015,
"...call upon Me in the day of trouble." I will deliver you,
and thou shalt glorify me." That's the principle. All of these things
happen. Why was Stephen persecuted and
died? In order to spread the gospel throughout the world.
God used Stephen's death to take the gospel to... Why was Paul
put in prison? To bring the gospel. Why did
Paul suffer all these things? For the sake of the church and
for the glory of his Savior. Why did Job suffer? In order
to show God to be just and right. And why did Lazarus die? In order to show the glory of
Christ. All these things teach us the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And what greater joy could there
be than that we would be, as the Lord Jesus Christ, we would
suffer in weakness and shame, and yet, like Him, roll ourselves
upon the Lord, trusting Him. It says in Isaiah 26.3, thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee."
Why? Because he trusteth in thee. Stand still, Moses told the Israelites
in Exodus 14, 13, and see the salvation of the Lord. That's
what God tells us. Stand still. Be patient in faith. Look to Christ. You're going
to be more than conquerors through him that loveth us. Let's pray.
Father, thank you that all of the things in life are to bring
us to you. You've ordered it so. You've
taught us from your word. As sinners, we can look to the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God, laid his life down, and
took our sin, and bore our curse, and rose from the dead in glorious
triumph, and now reigns with all the authority of God. and
all the power of God, and all the love of God, knowing what
we are, and He can have compassion on us, on those who are out of the way,
the ignorant. And Lord, we pray that You would
so do that in our lives. Teach us to walk with the heart
of a lion in this life. And when we face the danger of
our life, say with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, You can
throw us in the fire, and our Lord can deliver us, but if He
doesn't, we're not going to serve that idol. Lord, give us this
grace in our heart. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.