Well, good morning and welcome
to our continuing Bible study in the book of Luke. We're in
chapter 24 and dealing with the resurrection. And we began that
series on the resurrection last time we were together. We'll just go there to Luke 24
and we'll read those first few verses. Luke 24, Now upon the first day
of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher,
bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others
with them. And they found the stone rolled
away from the sepulcher, and they entered in, and found not
the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they
were much perplexed thereabout. Behold, two men stood by them
in shining garments, and as they were afraid and bound down their
faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living
among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how He spake to you
when He was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered
into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third
day rise again." And they remembered His words. And we'll continue in our... our lesson there from that point. And today's lesson is regarding
satisfaction. And that will be the main topic
that we look at today. And just to kind of as a part of our introduction has
things we wanted to look at that as we read these Gospels and
the other Gospel accounts, that each one brings a perspective
to the occasion. Each one brings something that
the Spirit wanted to let us know about, and he used each one's
viewpoint as he directed those things to be recorded for us.
And it's no different here with Luke. And so an important thing
for us to maybe keep in mind as we look at this account and
all the gospel records is that, you know, when Jesus was raised,
there wasn't anyone there. No persons. It was just Him,
the Father, and the Holy Spirit. And we know that because it's
written that each one of those entities was the effectual force
in the resurrection. Romans 8.11 says the spirit of
him that raised Jesus from the dead. And Ephesians 1.19 says
the exceeding greatness of his power which he wrought in Christ
when he raised him from the dead. And Jesus himself said in John
chapter 2, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise
it again. And again in John chapter 10
he says, No man takes my life from me. I lay it down to myself.
I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again.
So interesting thing there about the resurrection in that instance. But again, there wasn't anybody
there when those things occurred. And why is that important to
us? Well, that's how God does his
business. It's the same with each one of
his people in whom he begets from above and by whom by his
mighty power he causes to believe. There's no external show for
us. It's a personal thing that he
does with each person. And how that occurs is known
only to God. And that's what he told Nicodemus. He says, so is everyone that's
born of the Spirit. He says, the wind blows where
it listeth. And you hear the sound of it,
but you can't tell from where it comes or where it goes. So
is everyone that is born of the Spirit. It's not really visible,
but the results are evident. And those things are revealed
to us when it pleases God. And you know, Jesus, over and
over, He told His disciples, I'm going to be betrayed, be
killed, buried, raised again the third day. He told that to
them over and over and over again. And yet, they said, yeah, yeah,
yeah. Kind of over the head kind of
a thing. And you know what he said to
them? I have many things to tell you, but you're not yet ready. You're not yet able. So he knows
our frame and he knows when we're at a point where more can be
revealed to us. He knows when we're at a point
when we can just learn more marvelous things about him. And he doesn't rush that, he
doesn't push it, it's all according to his purpose, is what Paul
said. When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, that's
when it happened. So anyway, it's all by His mighty
power and He causes us to believe, and then that same power He uses
to reveal things to us. Previously in our other lesson,
we looked at the purposes and preciseness of the languages.
very early in the morning and what that meant, that it was
the basis and that it was the rising of light. And we connected
those resurrection dots all the way back to Genesis 1 where it's
recorded in the evening and the morning where the first day and
how the Passover was to be killed at even. And in the morning we
have the rising of light and all those things, how they relate
to the resurrection and the gospel. And we learned that at this time
in our text here that it was the preparation. And it was not
only the preparation for the Sabbath that time, but it was
the Sabbath, it was the preparation for the Passover. And we looked
back in Exodus where it said, All leaven will be put away. All leaven will be taken out.
All leaven shall be gotten rid of. And he says in, I think it
was in Exodus 13, 7. There shall not even be leaven
seen with thee." Boy, what a picture of the Gospel. What a picture
of Christ putting away sin. When God looks at you, He won't
even see the leaven that's a picture of sin. won't even see it. No condemnation then to them
who are in Christ, Romans 8.1. So, you know, the New Testament
declaring that Christ indeed, well, in the Old Testament too,
but particularly here, we'll look at some scriptures from
the New Testament, that Christ indeed removed all sin from His
people. And God the Father was satisfied
with the atonement made by His Son. And it wasn't mostly satisfied. You know, you buy something from the store
to do something with and chances are you're going to have to modify
it a little bit to make it work. So you say, well, I was mostly
satisfied with it, but I had to tweak it a little to get it
to work. Well, you know, with God, it wasn't that way with
the atonement. It was complete. It was perfect.
It was completely satisfying, completely satisfactory. And In Ephesians 5, if you turn there
briefly in your Bibles this morning, in Ephesians 5, in verse 25,
we have this recorded, Husbands, love your wives even as Christ
also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might
sanctify it. and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a
glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. That's pretty
descriptive. That's pretty positive. That's
pretty all-inclusive of how sin is dealt with by Christ on the
cross. It's completely removed. It's gone. In the Old Testament,
God the Father says, your sins and iniquities I will remember
no more. I don't see them. That brings us to today's consideration
of the resurrection as recorded by Luke as it relates to the
satisfaction of God. The resurrection demonstrates
God was satisfied with the atonement. not merely satisfied in a small
way or minimally, and in religion today it kind of implies that
more was needed to completely satisfy, that the atonement wasn't
really sufficient and thus requires or allows men to supply some
portion or to add to that insufficiency of it. I know Christ was crucified,
but you need to do this. You need to do that. You need
to comply with this. And that's certainly not what
the scripture says, that he took care of the problem right there
and it was completely taken care of. As we look in Isaiah, we
looked at this a little bit last week, or not week before last,
but if we look back at Isaiah 53, 11, 10 and 11, particularly in verse 11, he,
that's God the Father, shall see the travail of his soul,
of the soul of his son, as he paid the penalty for sin, and
shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
And that term there, satisfied, it's a very precise term, as
we find a lot of times in these Hebrew and Greek words. They're
very precise, and they have a specific meaning, and it means fully sated. It means fully satisfied. It
means more than that. It means over full. Not merely just, yeah, I'm satisfied. It means, I'm so satisfied. I'm
just like, satisfaction is coming out my ears. I'm so satisfied.
That's the implication of that word. And in today's language,
it kind of loses some of that clearness. It loses some of that
meaning that it's more than enough. Satisfaction. In Romans 4.25 it says He was
delivered for our offenses. and raised again for our justification. And this sureness of this resurrection
testifies to the fact of God the Father being totally and
eternally satisfied with the payment, with the substitute
of His Son dying in our place and thereby justifying them.
And it's clearly brought out in type in the Old Testament.
Again, we have Isaiah 53 where it tells us all those things,
and we find in the Psalms and virtually all the scriptures,
as Jesus said, He expounded to them as we find these two later
here in Luke 24, He expounded to themselves to them in all
the scriptures, the things concerning himself, and not just in a few
places. We find in the early part of
our Lord's earthly ministry, we find the same things as He's
bringing this out to the disciples, and He's bringing them out as
they're recorded for the church for us to grow by, and that this was the purpose that
was purposed from the beginning. Death and sin, Him being victorious
over that. Let's look over to Matthew 3
as the Lord kind of begins His earthly ministry, and we'll get
a little glimpse of this. In Matthew 3, verse 13, and this
is recorded in Luke 2 and Luke 3, but Matthew was a little bit
more in detail, so I wanted to examine
that. And John alludes to it, and Mark
as well. But anyway, in Matthew 3.13,
then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John. Remember John the Baptist, who
was to come before the Lord and prepare his ways, as the prophecy
indicated. And John was there baptizing
in Jordan River there. And so Jesus comes to Jordan
unto John to be baptized of him. Well, that was a new kind of
a thing. Well, why? We want to just take
a look at the why did Jesus come all the way from Galilee over
to the Jordan to be baptized from John? It wasn't just a ceremony. The why we find is revealed in
a couple of verses later in verse 15. We'll read that here in just
a second. But it's to fulfill, which means in this word means
to satisfy. It means to cram to the full,
to make replete all that's required and more. So that we'll keep
that in mind as we read further. And it was what Jesus said is
to fulfill all righteousness. It was a type and a figure of
what was to occur shortly in time, though the works were finished
from the foundation of the world, it tells in Hebrew 4.3, a picture
of the gospel. He was a type and a figure of
what was to occur. So let's read this through again. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him. Boy, I
just love that part because John says, I have need to be baptized
of you." He knew what he was. And isn't that
what we always find about people that are born again? They say,
oh man, I had no idea. John forbade him, saying, I have
need to be baptized of thee, and you come to me. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it
becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And when
Jesus, when he was baptized, went straight away out of the
water, and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the
Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him,
and, lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased." Satisfaction, my friends. Satisfaction. To fulfill all righteousness.
To cram it to the full. he shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied." We see then this institution of baptism
then as a type of the gospel and the death, the burial, and
the resurrection. And we have some examples of
that in the New Testament. And Jesus led the way here. He
went down to John and went under. And boy, when you go back to
Jonah and you read that account, oh, I was under. The depths surrounded me. And
we have hymns that say that too, when sea billows roll and all
those things. So we have some examples here
of how that's pictured in the In the New Testament, this institution
of baptism is a type of the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection.
In Romans 6, verse 4, it says, that like, remember we have this
term like, that means it's a type, it's a similitude. Like as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should also
walk in newness of life. Buried with him by baptism into
death, raised in newness of life. And again in Colossians 2.12,
buried with him in baptism, Colossians 2.12, wherein also you are risen
with him through the faith of the operation of God who raised
him from the dead. And again, Peter, this is a good
picture here. And Peter correlates this typology
of the Ark in this case, as a picture of the gospel of Christ and saying
that baptism was a like figure. The ark, of course, being a type
of Christ. And if we went back to Genesis,
we'd see that in Genesis 6, where the ark was built. And that word, it said, Thou
shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. Well, if you look
up that word pitch, it's the same word as atonement. And what a picture of Christ.
And those people that were in the ark, surrounded by atonement,
in and out, saved from the wrath of God. the furious lashing of the wrath
of God and judgment against all those that were outside, but those
that were in the ark, there was no condemnation to those that
are in Christ Jesus. And then he says, baptism, the
like figure, the act itself isn't really efficacious. but in truth
was and is a picture of the gospel, a picture of the substitutionary
offering of the Son by the death in the place of those whom the
Father gave the Son in the covenant of grace. So the death, burial,
and the resurrection demonstrating the satisfaction of the Father
with the atonement by the Son. Now that we've kind of looked
at those key words in there, let's read that in 1 Peter 3.18.
For Christ also hath suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
delivered for our offenses, as it says in Romans, that he might
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened
by the Spirit. By which also he went and preached
unto the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient, when
once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while
the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were
saved by water." Well, if you look at that in a physical sense,
that doesn't really make any sense. Saved by water? The like figure wherein to baptism
doth also now save us, not in the putting away of the filth
of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Well, what does that
mean? What does a good conscience toward God means? How is that
obtained? Well, it's assurance of satisfaction. It means a conscience that's
untainted by self-works. That's what that means. You have
a good conscience, that means you're trusting solely
in His work and His merit. You're not trying to add something
extra to the mixture there. and a conscience untainted by
self-worth. says he's gone into heaven and
is on the right hand of God. Angels and authorities being
made subject unto him. So it would kind of appear that
there must be some understanding of sin, the fall, the immutable
righteousness of God, the absolute need for complete atonement by
the sacrifice of the Son, and the ultimate resulting satisfaction
of God by this atonement for baptism to have any real meaning
to a believer, only by grace. Otherwise, it's just something
you do. It's just something you participate
in. It's just a ceremony, or a lot
of churches use that as an issue. You must be baptized into the
church. It's an initiation ceremony,
really. You know, John the Baptist pointed
out, it was kind of a novel thing there. John's over in Jordan
baptizing, and all the people are coming out to him. So some
of the religious guys came, and we better go in and get in on
some of that. That looks interesting. And what did he say? He said,
generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee the wrath
to come? He says, bring me some evidence
that you understand what this is all about. Bring me some evidence
that you understand something about sin and the fall and the
atonement. Because they said, well, we don't
We're going to go back to Jerusalem and we're going to do these ceremonies
and these works and we're going to keep the law and observe the
Sabbath and the feasts and do all these things that are recorded.
That's what we're going to do. We don't know anything about
this atonement stuff that all these things that we're going
to go back to Jerusalem are types and shadows and pictures of.
They're just things that we do and this would just be another
one of those without this revelation of what it's all about. And kind of going out that trail
a little bit farther, it would follow then that mere sprinkling
could never be a true picture of satisfaction. that baptism for other purposes
such as this membership or initiation or ritual, they actually serve
no efficacious purpose. They're just things that they
have you do. But for a person that's born again from above,
things have been revealed to them by God the Father and the
Spirit and the Son. Huh, it takes on a whole new
meaning. He was raised again for my justification. He came up out of the water and
the Spirit of God landed on him like a dove and a voice from
heaven said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
Not just mostly pleased or a little pleased, well pleased. It means
complete, overwhelming pleased. And he uses the term I am in
there. And I always think that when
you see I am in there, that means I am. It's a gives an it's an
eternal an eternal notation there for
us to pay attention to because he was the lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world. He says, before Abraham was,
I am. Tell them that I am that I am
sent you and all those times that he uses that terminology
to express his eternal nature. He shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. You know, the term resurrection
in the Greek is a compound word that means up. It's two words. One of them
means up and the other was to stand. And the word means it's a reversal. It's the idea of a reversal.
The stasis in that word means it's a When we're in a state of stasis,
we're not moving. We're immobile there, and it
means you're to come up from that. You know, it's significant
in the record of Jesus when He raised Lazarus from the dead. In John 11, 25, concerning that,
he said, I am the resurrection and the life. And he that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. The words of Jesus
here in the narrative of the death of Lazarus in the face
of unbelief, they're very precise and they're very unequivocal.
First, he proclaims his eternal nature in the phrase, I am the
resurrection. His eternal nature is wrapped
up in the fact of his resurrection as a testament to the satisfaction
and righteousness of God the Father regarding the redemption
and salvation of the people whom God gave him in the covenant
of grace. I think of that scripture, I
think it's in Isaiah 8. He says, behold, I and the children
whom thou gave me. I redeemed them all. Every single
one. I didn't lose a single one. Here
they all are. I paid it, and I'm standing here
resurrected to bring you that news. Satisfaction. That satisfaction, as we read
Isaiah, that was recorded some 700 years before the birth of
Emmanuel. You know, and it's a factual
truth that, again, it must be revealed in believers and consequently
is necessary to understand the relationship between the nature
and power of God and the necessity of the resurrection of Christ
as acknowledging that the substitutionary penalty for sins has been paid. It's been made. The sins of His
people actually paid for. And thereby, that's the basis
for the resurrection of the church. He says, because I live, you
shall live too. Satisfaction. And when Jesus
went out of the water, The Spirit of God descended on
him like a devil. I'll probably never read that
again without thinking of that quite the same way. And this
is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Raised in newness of life. You
know, many today and throughout all time, they're under misunderstanding
and error regarding the truths of this. Even in Jesus' time, we'll look at another text over
in Matthew here in just a second, but there were some disingenuous
guys named Sadducees. They were a sect, religious sect,
and they didn't believe in the resurrection. And there's almost nothing changed
over time. You still have people, well,
if you believe in this, then blah, blah, blah. And they give
you some spiel, some test to make you look like an idiot,
they think. So these Sadducees, they come to
Jesus. They were religious scholars
at the time, too. They were the people that were
supposedly new. In unbelief, they knew the Scripture,
and as it tells us in Thessalonians, they knew it in word only and
not in power. and in the Holy Spirit, 1 Thessalonians
1-5. So they pose what they think
is an unanswerable question. It just shows you how much in
contempt they held the Lord Jesus Christ and God. We're smarter
than you. That's what they're saying. We're
smarter than you. Here's a question I don't think
you can answer. They ask him a question about
the resurrection. And, you know, ultimately you find
that the question of unbelief in the one is rooted in the unbelief
in the other. They didn't believe in the resurrection
because they didn't believe in the Messiah. They didn't believe
in God. and they didn't believe him as
a substitute, and that all of that nullified the works of keeping
the law as a basis for a relationship with the God that they in their
minds created and thought of. So let's read this text in Matthew
in chapter 22, starting in verse 23 of Matthew. Matthew 22, 23, the same day
came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him, saying, Master,
Moses said, if a man die and he doesn't have any children,
his brother shall marry his wife and raise up seed unto his brother.
And that's recorded in the Old Testament. You can look that
up. Now, if there were with us seven brethren, And the first,
when he had married a wife, deceased, and having no issue, left his
wife unto his brother. Likewise, the second also, and
the third unto the seventh. And last of all, the woman died
also. Therefore, in the resurrection,
whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all had her."
What are you going to do with that, bud? you err not knowing the Scriptures,
nor the power of God." He said, you've got two things that you
can't overcome of your own self naturally. You don't know the
Scriptures, and you don't know the power of God. For, because
in the resurrection, now he makes a distinguishing line here. They're
talking about things which happened in this world, and then he's
making the transition into the resurrection that they talked
about. He says, for in the resurrection, they neither marry. In the world,
she got married seven times. But in the resurrection, they
neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels
of God in heaven. And so the answer of Jesus points
out the error of applying physical and social rules of this world
to the world to come, which comes only through revelation. And
they didn't have that, so they didn't have either one. The eternal
nature and sureness of the resurrection of Christ for our justification
are bound in His eternal nature, and the sureness of Christ Himself,
and the righteousness of God the Father. The exceeding greatness of His
power. to usward. That's a key word
there. Norm was bringing that out this
morning. He said, this is written to usward. It's not comprehended by unbelievers.
It's just words. But when you're born again and
then you can see the kingdom of God, then it's written to
usward. who believe according to the
working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when
He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right
hand in the heavenly places." You know, many of the Old Testament
scriptures give us a preview of the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ as a successful Redeemer. And beginning in Genesis 1, we
observe that taking place. And the allusion is made as well
in Genesis, further in Genesis chapter 22, when, remember when
Abraham was, the Lord says, take, take thy son, thy only begotten
son and take him up Mount Moriah. And when you get up there, I
want you to offer him as a sacrifice. And he says, okay. And When they
went up there, he took his entourage with him, and they left him at
the base of the mountain. And he says, I and the lad will
go up the mountain and worship, and then we'll return. And he
knew what God had told him to do. He knew. But he says, we will
return. He had some assurance of satisfaction
here. The return explicitly implies
the satisfaction and the resurrection. That was going to be pictured
in this whole narrative. We find that recorded for us
in Hebrews 11, verse 19, where it's recorded for us, accounting
that God was able to raise him up. That's what Abraham said. God was able to raise him up,
even from the dead, whence he also received him in a figure. Isn't that interesting? In a
figure. So what did God say to Abraham
in a figure and in fact? In Genesis 22, 15, the angel
of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time
and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou
hast done this thing and not withheld thy son, thy only son,
that in blessing I will bless thee. and in multiplying I will
multiply these thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand
which is upon the seashore and thy seed shall possess the gates
of his enemies and in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed because thou has obeyed my voice well who
is going to be of his seed in picture and in figure and
in type. In Revelation chapter 7 verse
9 it says, After this I beheld and lo a great multitude, which
no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues,
stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white
robes and palms in their hands. What a picture and a type and
a shadow of what was to come of this satisfaction. We're at
the end of our time here. You could go on to read Job,
Isaiah 26, Daniel, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself.
Jonah, three days, three nights. Psalms, thou will not leave my
soul in hell. Psalm 49, thou will redeem my
soul from the power of the grave. All those Old Testament scriptures
and more that declare this. And Jesus himself saying that
he would be raised from the dead. After I'm risen again, I'll see
you in Galilee. So that's our lesson today on
satisfaction. Hope that was of interest and
value to you. And so until next time, be free
in the resurrection.