Thank you so much, ladies. Go back with me to the book of
Luke now, Luke the 23rd chapter. Who is Jesus Christ? That's a question that needs
to be raised. If our thoughts of the Lord Jesus
Christ are true and accurate, we must think of him in light
of scriptural revelation. Our thoughts of him must come
forth out of the word of God. Our Savior said to the Jews one
day, he said, search the scriptures for in them ye think ye have
eternal life. And these are they which testify
of me. I know this, before there can
be any saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ, there must
be a biblical knowledge of Him. You've got to know who He is.
You can't believe an unrevealed Savior. You can't embrace one
that you don't know anything about. Certain questions need to be
asked. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? Men everywhere talk about Jesus,
right? They talk about him at least
two times a year, at Christmas and at Easter. People write songs about him.
They make movies about him. They write books about him. But
who is he? People speak about him. They'll
even use his name as kind of a byword. But who is he according to the
word of God? Well, he is himself the eternal
God. The Scriptures of both the Old
Testament and the New Testament set that forth. For unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given. He was given so he
existed before he ever came. And his name shall be called,
according to Isaiah, Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God. the mighty God, the everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. He is God over all, blessed forever. He is one of the blessed Trinity. Well, Jim, I wish you would try
to explain the Trinity to us. Brother Mahan said years ago,
he is a fool who denies the Trinity and he is equal a fool who tries
to explain Trinity. You can't explain the Trinity. We believe God in three persons,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Three in one and
one in three. And Jesus, our Savior, the Son
of God, He is as much God as the Father and as the Holy Spirit.
He's the Divine One. It took God Himself to save us. But he's not only God, he's man. Because God himself, being invisible,
God being spirit, he could not satisfy all the
demands of his own law and justice. God can't die. God can't suffer. God can't bleed. God can't agonize. The eternal God is spirit, therefore
those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. So
here's what had to happen. The Son of God had to come down
here and take into union with Himself our humanity. He became man. And yet, the scripture says,
in that man dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Bodily. He's the God-man. He's the mediator. We don't pretend
to understand all the intricacies of that union between God and
man. But we believe by faith we embrace
the doctrine of the true humanity and deity of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and we place all of our hopes for time and eternity, for full
salvation, for the forgiveness of our sins, for imputed righteousness. We place the fullness of our
faith upon Him only. There is no other Savior. Scripture says, being in the
form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form
of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, He humbled himself. How much did he humble himself?
He humbled himself to die. He who is life died. You can't comprehend that, neither
can I. He's the giver of all life. How can that one who is life
itself, who is the full embodiment of all life, whether physical
or spiritual or eternal, How can we comprehend that the one
who is alive died? We can't do that, but I know
this, it was necessary that He die to save us spiritually dead
sinners. And die He did. He died the death
of the cross. But in speaking about His humanity,
There's something else that was absolutely necessary. He had to be the perfect man. He had to be innocent. When the ladies began to sing
that excellent song that they presented to us, which was a
blessing, their first few words of that song was, Behold the
Lamb, the spotless Lamb. That's what I want to talk about
this morning. He is the spotless Lamb. He was the innocent dying
for the guilty. Do you remember in the Old Testament
God laid down very strict rules regarding the sacrifices? And
we'll go all the way back to the Passover. which all of you
are at least somewhat familiar with. When God instructed the
Israelites to take a lamb, a male of the first year. Here's what
the Lord said, without blemish and without spot. It had to be
a perfect lamb. And they had to put it up for
four days to look it over real close. Make sure there's nothing
wrong with that lamb. Because that lamb that they were
going to offer for the firstborn of the household, that lamb pointed
to THE Lamb of God who would be offered up for the household
of God, for the church of our Lord Jesus, And he was going
to be the perfect lamb, and so all those lambs that died on
Passover night in the household of Israel, who were in the land
of Goshen, every lamb had to be without spot and without blemish. And as you go through the Old
Testament, that's always the requirement. Nothing wrong with the Lamb. In the book of Leviticus, as
you read in Leviticus about all the sacrifices that were offered
upon Jewish altars, you read this statement over and over
again without blemish. In fact, Leviticus 22, 21 says
of the sacrifice that was to be offered up, it shall be perfect
to be accepted. And the reason is because every
lamb, every goat, every ox, every bull that died on Jewish altars
pointed to the spotless Lamb of God who would die. And when we get to the New Testament,
the Spirit of God goes to great lengths to establish the innocence
of, the perfection of Jesus of Nazareth. He was the only person
who's ever been born without sin. because he was not born
of the seed of man. He's the seed of woman. He was
conceived in the womb of a virgin. He did not partake of the sinful
nature of Joseph. Joseph was not his father. His father is the heavenly father. The Spirit of God did a work
of power and mercy in the womb of Mary. And our Lord Jesus was
conceived and He had no sin. It's very important to stress
that. A guilty Savior cannot save guilty
sinners. A sinful Redeemer cannot redeem
fellow citizens and fellow sinners. It would take the perfect Lamb
of God to lay down His life, to have power with God, to put
away the sins of those in whose stead He died. Therefore, God
so ordered it. that almost everyone who was
active in putting the Lord Jesus Christ to death should either
directly or indirectly attest to his innocence. Almost every
person, not everyone, But almost everyone who had anything to
do with the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God
arranged for them to say or speak something that would attest to
the perfection of the one who was to die, even the one who betrayed Him. you will remember that Judas
betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver. And then when he saw that the
Lord Jesus was actually going to be crucified, he took the
30 pieces of silver, and you can read about this in Matthew
27, three through five. He took the 30 pieces of silver
and he went back to the Sanhedrin. And he threw it on the floor.
He said, I have betrayed, listen to what he said, innocent blood. Innocent blood. Out of the very
one who betrayed him, who sold him to the enemy, out of his
lips comes this great, marvelous, critical truth. I have betrayed
innocent blood. There were two thieves that died
the same day as did our Savior. One of them continued to mock
the Redeemer throughout his agonies upon the cross of Calvary. One
of them, the Spirit of God touched his heart and he said, we, we suffer our dear reward. But this man,
hath done nothing amiss. That's what he said. He's done
nothing amiss. And those words came from a man
who was guilty. He was a felon. He's dying for
his crimes. He's being rightfully executed
according to the justice, Roman law and justice. And yet from
his lips, he said, this man hath done nothing, nothing amiss. If he had done anything amiss,
that is, if he had missed perfection, he wouldn't be qualified to be
the Savior. And then there was the man who
was in charge of the whole thing, in charge of the crucifixion,
a crusty old Roman soldier, the centurion. He saw the sun darken for three
hours. He heard people, some of the
priests running out of the temple saying, the veil has been rent
in two. And then when the sun began to
shine and the Lord Jesus hung his head and said it is finished
and he gave up the ghost, That centurion said, certainly this
was a righteous man. And then the two judges that
are involved in this. One is Pontius Pilate. He's the Roman judge. And Herod,
he's the Galilean judge. Two governors. In this passage of Scripture
I read, and I didn't read verse 4, but in verse 4, Pilate told
the chief priests and the people, I find no fault in this man. That's verse 4. He said in verse
14, I have found no fault in this man. And then again in verse
22, I have found no cause of death in him. He's the governor. He's the judge. He has the authority
to execute Roman law. And yet he executed a man who
with his own lips he said was innocent. And the other judge is Herod. Because you see, when this man
Pilate, when he heard that the Lord Jesus was from Galilee,
he said, Oh, I can turn this case over to the Galilean judge
or the Galilean governor, who is Herod, who was himself a Jew. And he was very acquainted with
Jewish law, And yet here's what we read about
Herod. Look in verse 15. This is what
Pilate said after saying, I find no fault in this man touching
those things whereof you accuse him. No, nor yet Herod. Herod
didn't either. Because watch the rest of verse
15. For I sent you to him. He's saying to the Jews who brought
the accusations against the Lord Jesus Christ, I sent you to Herod
for you to accuse him of those crimes that were committed in
the Galilean region. And you presented your case to
Herod, and Herod said, I can't find any reason to put him to
death. I find him to be innocent. The
two judges who were involved, one representing the Roman government,
the other one representing the Galilean government, both those
judges, Pilate and Herod said, He's innocent. Do you see how the Holy Spirit
was working to establish the purity and the innocence of our
Lord Jesus Christ. But there was another one. That would be Pilate's wife.
He took the throne to pass judgment and she said, you better leave
this one alone. She said, I've had a dream. You better not pass judgment
on this man. He's innocent. He's innocent. And even the people who demanded
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, they gave no reason for Christ
to be crucified, to be executed. Look what he says. They cried
in verse 21. Look at verse 21. They cried
saying, crucify him, crucify him. This is the general public,
you see. And Pilate said unto them the
third time, he says, why? What evil hath he done? I have
found no cause of death in him. I will therefore chastise him
and let him go. And they were instant with loud
voices requiring that he be crucified, but they gave no reason. They just said, kill him. Said,
why? He hadn't done anything wrong.
In essence, what do you folks have to say? Give me a case in
point where he broke Roman law. You tell me why he deserves to
die. They couldn't give a reason.
And all they could do as a mass, as a mob, all they could do was
continue to shout, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him, crucify
him, but they didn't have a reason. Now, we know it was customary
for the representative of the Roman government to release to
the Jewish people person, a Jew, who was in prison. Because it
was Passover time, and Passover time commemorated that occasion
found back in Exodus chapter 12, which I have alluded to already,
when the imprisoned were released to their freedom due to the death
of the lamb that God had appointed." Well, it's been a custom, it had been
a custom for the Roman governor to either receive word of some
guilty prisoner that he would release to the people, or he
would go and choose for himself which one was to be released.
But the one that was selected was a notable prisoner, a murderer,
a rapist, a thief by the name of Barabbas. He could have chosen anybody
he wanted. He picked the worst one. Because
his thinking was, when I bring this man up here, Barabbas, and
I put him alongside Jesus of Nazareth, here's a murderer,
a rapist, a thief, they'll surely say, release Jesus of Nazareth
and go ahead and kill Barabbas. But that's not what they said.
They said, release Barabbas. Release a murderer back into
society. You want to know how much the
people hated the Lord Jesus Christ? They hated Him so much that they
would rather a murderer, a rapist, a thief be released back into
society to continue his crimes, no doubt, rather than to release
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how the natural man hates
the Son of God. It's very astounding. Of course, the accusers and the
judges And all of these, they were convinced of the innocence
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Spirit of God has seen
to it that his innocence be recorded forever. I tell you, my friends, our Savior
is the perfect Redeemer. And here's what's amazing. All
of the sins of all of His people from Abel and go back even, I
believe, to Adam and Eve, all the way to the end of time when
the last of the Lord's people had been brought to faith in
Christ, and I believe the end will come. All of the sins of
all of God's people were heaped upon the Son of God. Now, in
fact, he was innocent of any crimes of his own, but he was
guilty by imputation. And the word imputation means
that which was charged to him, being charged to another's account. You think of it. The Lord Jesus,
as it were, stepped up for you. You know you're a sinner. Surely
you know that. He stepped up for you in all
of your sinful nature, sinful thought, sinful motive. You know, we talk about sin's
things you do. There's the reason behind the
things that you do. Your motivation, your dreams,
your imagination, your words, your actions, think of all of
your sins were taken off of you and put on Him. And the justice of God said,
somebody's got to die for your sins. And the Lord Jesus Christ
said, I will. I'll take all the wrath of God
that's coming to you because of your sins. And in a very concentrated
period of time of three hours, all of the hell, think of it
now, child of God, think of this, all of the hell that was your
due, that was to be coming to you, all of your hell, was bound
up by the law and justice and holiness of God and thrust into
the heart of the Son of God so that he was guilty of your sins
because they were charged to him. And then the wrath of God was
unleashed on him. And it'll never be unleashed
on you. See, that's the glory of this gospel of substitution
and satisfaction. Somebody had to die for my sins
and thank God it's not going to be me. Because my substitutes already
died for them. He's already suffered all the
hell that I deserve to suffer forever and ever and ever and
ever. And if I just kept on saying
ever and ever and ever, I'd be forever, wouldn't I? But they
were condensed into the soul and heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God turned His back on him. And here's the real man, Christ
Jesus, crying, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And
the reason is because God's holy. And when our sins were charged
to the Savior, justice said, you're going to
die. That's what justice said. Justice
said, I'm going to strike out against you And the fierceness
of the vengeance of God was poured into the heart of the Son of
God. And He died. And He died for us. Here's the perfect Savior. Innocent
in and of Himself, He had to be. And yet all of our sins were
heaped upon Him. And justice dealt with Him in a righteous way. In the only
way that justice can ever deal with sin. Had to kill Him. Had to kill Him. He had to suffer
the penalty for sin. The wages of sin is what? Death. The wages of sin is death,
but, but, thank God for the buts in the Bible, but the gift of
God is eternal life. But that's not the end of that
verse. The gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ,
the perfect Savior. That's who it took and that's
what it took to save us. And if you ask why are we partaking
of the Lord's Supper this morning, it's to remember his death until
he comes again. To rejoice in him who took our
weapon for us. Who died the death that we deserve
to die. In him was no sin, and he did
no sin, but he died for our sins, according to the scriptures.
God punished him. God raised him from the dead.
He sits in heaven. By faith, by faith, I believe
him. I rest my soul upon him. I hang my eternal destiny upon
our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, risen, exalted again. What about you? I hang my soul
on Him. I'm not asking you to know the
fullness of all the doctrines of the Word of God, but I'm telling
you this, you've got to know Him. Because salvation's in the
Lord Jesus Christ. God's perfect, spotless lamb. The men are going to wait upon
you. They're going to serve the bread
first. The bread speaks of the broken
body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Body crucified. It was tortured,
beaten. I tell you, Pilate, he was a
judge, but he wasn't a fair judge, was he? I find no fault in this
man. I'll just beat him. Maybe that'll
satisfy the people. You see, the people in that way
were much like God. Beating him wasn't enough. He had to die. and die he did. And this bread pictures him who
came down from heaven, the bread from heaven. And the wine that
they will then serve represents his own precious blood, shed
for many for the remission of sin. This is for believers, if
you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as is revealed in
the word of God. If this gospel is good news to
you and you rejoice in him, this is for you. This is for you. This is how we remember our Lord
until he comes, our Lord's death, and we're instructed to do this.
May the Lord bless in this next segment of the service. take the bread and distribute
it.