to be in where it's nice and
warm and comfortable and dry. And we are thankful we can meet
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you would, open your
Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter number 15. And I'll read a few
verses here from the first epistle of the of the Apostle Paul to
the church at Corinth. And we'll go to chapter 15. And
this is the resurrection chapter, and you will, of course, recognize
this as being that. And I'm going to begin reading
in verse 19 of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. will break into the body of the
end of the letter, toward the end of the letter here at verse
19. If in this life only we have
a hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from
the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. What was the firstfruits? Well,
the firstfruits with the Jews, that was the promise of more
that was to come. And our Lord Jesus, when he was
raised from the dead, that is the guarantee or be other resurrections
even of our bodies. And so we read in verse 19, for since by man
came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive. But every man in his own order,
Christ the firstfruits. Afterward they that are Christ
at his coming. And then come the end, when he
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when
he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power,
for he must reign "'till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
"'The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. "'For he
hath put all things under his feet. "'But when he saith all
things are put under him, "'it is manifest that he is accepted
"'which did put all things under him.'" That is the lone exception
is God the Father. And when all things shall be
subdued unto him, then shall the Son himself also be subject
unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all
in all. And we'll stop our reading there
in the 28th verse. May I remind you to change your
clocks this weekend. That hour of sleep that you lost
back a few months ago, you can pick it up again, gain that hour
back this coming weekend. Also, remember the food sheets, the sign-up sheets
that are on the table before me, and you take care of those
things as well. Let's bow our heads together. Our Father which art in heaven,
Thou who art the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, We may speak the same way to you
and say you're our father. Not that we are your sons by
everlasting generation as is the son of God, but we've been
birthed into your family and we live by that incorruptible
seed of your own word that lives and abides forever. We thank
you, O God, for the life that you have given us in Christ,
for the spiritual liveliness that we have that enables us,
therefore, to breathe unto you in prayer that causes us to see marvelous
things in the book of God. It enables us, this life enables
us to hear the voice of the gospel. And this life that you have given
us, Lord, has caused our hearts to beat with love for the Lord
Jesus Christ. We thank you for all that you
have done and all that you are doing and all that you shall
yet do for us unworthy sinners. Lord, we come to you tonight
to ask of you various petitions, and we especially are mindful
of the sick ones of our group And Lord, we lift them up to
you and ask that it would, would you do with them in a merciful
way, take care of them. We're thankful that you will
and you do that. And Lord, you know our desires
for these who mean so much to us. You would heal them, those
who are facing upcoming surgeries. We ask that you would give them
strength and grace for the difficulties that lie ahead for them. And we're thankful that you have
said to us in your book that you will never leave us and you'll
never forsake us. that we may with boldness say,
the Lord is my helper. I'll not be afraid of anybody
or anything. And as we specifically come to
the service this evening, we ask for the presence of your
spirit. Dear Father, you have said to
us that if we being evil know how to give good gifts to our
children. And much more shall our Heavenly
Father know how to give good gifts to those who ask of Him. Lord, we ask You tonight, all
of us who are Your children, we ask that You would give us
the gift of understanding Your Word Give us the gift of spiritual
appreciation. Give us the gift to worship. And dear Father, give us the
gift of all gifts, the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, that
we might know him and the great power of his resurrection. May we know him individually
as our Savior, as our Redeemer, as the one who bought us, as
the one who put all of our sins away, as the one who brought
in for us everlasting righteousness. And so, Lord, we beseech you, out of our neediness, Would you
bless us out of your fullness? And out of our poor poverty,
would you enrich us according to the riches, the infinite riches
of your grace in Christ Jesus? Bless these who have come this
evening and those who are watching. By way of the internet, I pray
that this service will indeed redound to the glory of our God,
and may it work for the good of your children. These things
we ask in the name of our Savior, and for his sake, amen. If you would, go with me to the
book of John, chapter one, John chapter one for the benefit of
those who are watching and then also for the benefit of those
of you who are here this evening. Next Wednesday evening we will
not meet together because we'll be getting ready for our Bible
conference and we have several services, eight services beginning
the evening of Friday. And we'll end the morning of
the Lord's Day. And so we'll be coming out to
worship several times, eight times, eight services. And so we'll let you stay home
and kind of gather your strength and your ability to rest up a
little bit and then be ready for our conference next Friday
evening at 7. Well, this last Lord's Day, I
endeavored to open up to you at least the first three verses
of John chapter 1 as we embarked upon the subject of the suitable
Savior. And as we discovered this past
Sunday, in order to rescue us, he had to be suitable to God
as God, and he had to be suitable to God as man. And then this evening, we want
to consider the fact that he must be suitable to us. And we ask that the Lord would
give us some understanding of the subject
and faith and the one who is our savior, the one who redeemed
us by his blood. We know that this matter, the
salvation of sinners, is of paramount greatness or importance to our
God. Let's put it this way. His very
glory is involved in this. The Lord has set out to save
a people from all different nations, a multitude of people. that He's
loved with an everlasting love, that He sent His Son to redeem
with His precious blood, and He sends His Spirit to regenerate
us and give us the twin gifts of repentance toward God, and
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives us life, and God is
preserving us all the way through our earthly pilgrimage unto that
day when we reach the end of our salvation, the goal of our
salvation, which is to be perfect in the Lord Jesus, that is, body
and in soul. Now in this matter of God's salvation,
every aspect of God, every attribute of God, every perfection of God
must be honored and must be magnified. Now certainly, there's no opposition
among the perfections of God pertaining to our salvation. It isn't like one attribute of
God says, They must be damned, and then the other one says,
oh, they must be redeemed, they must be saved, as though the
attributes of God were in opposition to one another, because there
is no opposition within the heart or the mind of God. God, He has
set out from old eternity to redeem a people, to save a people. And all of His attributes, all
of His perfections, all of the wonderful qualities of God are
all active and all involved in the salvation of sinners. Now,
this salvation has got to magnify and exalt God in every single
facet of his glorious infinite being. We know that all of our
sinfulness is very much opposed to God, and all of our iniquities
have got to be punished. And yet God has, he has purpose
to save a multitude of Adam's race. It's a very puzzling thing
to us as to how, and of course the question is raised in the
book of Job of how then can man be justified with God? And it
leaves us absolutely puzzled. We could never come up with the
answer as to how God could be just and justify folks like you
and me. In fact, if all the great great
minds of this world were asked, if all of the angels were asked,
alright, how can this be? God who is holy, God who is righteous,
God who is just, how can it be that he would embrace ugly, vile,
rebellious, enemies against him, and yet not violate his own holiness,
his own righteousness, and his own justice that demands death
for sin. And if all the wisest men of
the world who have ever lived, if all of the angels with all
of their superior intelligence, if all of them together were
asked, how can this ever be brought to pass? Nobody could ever come
up with the answer. Nobody. God Himself He found the way,
and this was not a dilemma to God. This was something that
was found in the very mind and heart of God from all eternity. God has always purposed to save
His people through His Son, the Lord Jesus. He has always determined
that His Son would come to this earth and He would obey the law
of God, He would suffer, He would bleed, He would die, and He would
be raised again for our justification. This was not a dilemma to God. This did not puzzle God in any
way because God is infinitely more intelligent than all of
His angels and all of His created beings all put together. But
it did require that something happen that had never happened
before, something most unusual. One who was equal with God in
every way would have to come to this earth to settle the issue. There's a beautiful illustration
of this in the book of Daniel, chapter six, and you don't have
to go there. It's the story of Daniel and
the lion's den. And you know the story pretty
well, I'm sure, especially as I refresh your memory just a
little bit. You know, the king was Darius,
or specifically, correctly, Darius. He was the king. And he found
Daniel to be just a a man of great integrity and honesty and
he kept promoting him in the kingdom to where finally there
were 120 princes within the kingdom and then there were three presidents
and Daniel, he was appointed to be one of the three presidents
and then he surpassed the other two and he was put in charge
of the other two presidents and all the 120 princes. And he was a man greatly beloved
and respected by the king. But those other men, the other
122, the 120 princes and the two other presidents, they were
very jealous of Daniel and so they sought to bring him down.
And so they kind of conspired against him, and they decided,
this is how we'll do it. And so they went to the king,
and they said to King Darius, listen, you're a great king. You're marvelous. And everybody
needs to know this. Everybody needs to know what
a magnificent ruler you are. Listen, this is what we have
come up with. Why don't you pass a law that
for 30 days nobody can ask any petition of any God or any man? Except for you, King. For 30
days. And if they do, you'll put them
in the lion's den. Because you're so great, we want
everybody to honor only you. And that just fed his ego. And
he said, that's a good idea. And he just signed it into law,
the law of the Medes and the Persians that could not be changed,
it could not be altered. And of course, these men were
up to no good. Well, word went out and Daniel,
of course, he faced Jerusalem three times a day and prayed.
Why'd he face Jerusalem? That's the city of peace. That's
the city to which the Messiah is coming. The Son of David. He's the King. He's coming. And
Daniel is looking toward that great city that's the city of
God. And he unashamedly just prayed
three times a day. And so they saw him and they
go to the King and they said, King Darius, they said, well,
you know, Did you pass that law? Yes, I did. Well, I tell you,
somebody has broken that law. He said, who is it? And they
said, Daniel. And then his countenance fell. And they said, now remember,
King, you gave your word. You signed it into law. It's
a law that cannot be altered. And the scripture says the King
He worried about this. He wondered, how can I deliver
Daniel? And he studied it to the going
down of the sun. He couldn't find an answer. That
was his dilemma. That was his dilemma. How can
I honor law and yet save, spare, and deliver this one whom I think
so much of? And he studied it, and he looked
at it from every angle, and he finally said, it cannot be done. And he commanded Daniel to be
put into the lion's den. Then he said, roll a stone in
front of it. and go ahead and seal it with
my signet. Seal it. And that night he was
so troubled he couldn't even sleep. And they sent musicians
to him. He said, no, I don't want to
even hear any music. It doesn't soothe my heart. They
said, well, let me fix you something to eat. He said, no, I can't
even eat. Just leave me alone. Early in
the morning, He goes to the mouth of the lion's den. He said, oh, oh Daniel, Daniel,
is thy God whom thou servest continually able to deliver thee? And he waited and hoped and prayed
for an answer. And then a voice came back and
said, oh king, live forever. My God has delivered me. He has delivered me. You see,
what that king could not do, and what no man could do, that
is find a way to reconcile justice and love. and grace. That which He couldn't
do, God did. God's done that. And He's done
it in the person and through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's the one who came into
this world to honor God, to satisfy God, and then to save us from
our sins. He was the acceptable and the
suitable sacrifice to God. And He was the suitable Savior
that we needed. Only He could do this. Not all of the angels, not all
of the good men who've ever lived, not any of the apostles, only
one who is equal with God and yet bone of our bone and flesh
of our flesh could bring this about, the Lord Jesus Christ. God found the way whereby He
maintained the integrity of His law and justice, and He spared
hell-deserving sinners through Christ and His obedience unto
death. Now, as I said this past Lord's
Day, we considered the fact that He was suitable to God. And He was suitable to God, first
of all, because He is God. As we read the first three verses,
three things that, and I didn't put it this way on the Lord's
Day, but I'll put it this way tonight, three things are immediately
obvious from verses one, two, and three. That is, number one,
the preexistence of the Word. In the beginning was the Word. In the beginning was and ever
had been the Word. That's his pre-existence. Secondly,
his co-existence with God. And the Word was and ever had
been with God. He was right alongside with God
the Father and God the Spirit. And thirdly, here is his self-existence. He was and ever had been Self-existing God. Nobody made Him. Nobody created
Him. He has existed in His self-existence
from all eternity. One with God. United to the Father. United to the Spirit. One God
forever. That's our Lord Jesus Christ.
and he was suitable to God because he's God. Because he's God. Listen, if God is going to save
sinners and if he's going to do, and the only way he could
do that is through one appointed by him, then the one appointed
by him must be in every single way equal to God himself. And our Lord Jesus is. And secondly,
he was suitable to God as man. He was the man, according to
Acts chapter two and verse 22, the man approved of God. He was
not an ordinary man. He was not a common man. He was
a real man. He was a real man. Even after
His resurrection when He appeared to His disciples, He said, touch
me and see a spirit, a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you
see me have. I'm a real man. And He was. He was real from His infancy. He was real and we went this
past Sunday evening. I tried to go through a little
bit of His life, the reality of His boyhood and of His manhood. As He grew, as He matured in
stature and in wisdom and in favor with men and with God. He's a real man. But He's more
than a man because He's the sinless man. Only the sinless man could
do business with God. He must be God and he must be
the sinless man. In order to be the sinless man,
he must enter into this world in a unique way. He could not
be born as a result of a union of Joseph and Mary. He could
not be and then be our Savior. He would then be contaminated
with Adam's guilt. So he was born in the womb of
a virgin by the power of the Holy Ghost. And he was himself
sinless. And he goes all the way through
his life, he was sinless. That's why no corruption could
come to him. Even after when he died, there
was no corruption that could come to his body. Why not? There
was nothing there to corrupt it. When Satan came to Him, and our
Lord Jesus mentioned this, He said, He found nothing in me,
doesn't find anything to work with. Now if Satan comes to any
of us, and I doubt that Satan himself has ever come to any
of us, he sent a third string waterboy to come. Just a demon,
a little bitty demon is enough to topple us. But when demons
come to us, they find lots with which they can work. They find
an evil nature, a sinful nature. Even though we're born of God
now, even though we have, as some say, a new nature, call
it what you will, we have the life of God in the soul, but
we are still sinful people. And when the evil one sends a
demon to tempt us. He finds lots to work with, but
our Lord Jesus said, Satan is coming to me. He's found nothing
with which to work. There's nothing in me that responds
to him. He has nothing to work with.
He was the perfect man. And he lived in this world without
sin in exact obedience to God. In fact, The book of 1 Peter
chapter 2 says, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his
mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered,
he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. And our Lord Jesus was the high
priest who needed not offer a sacrifice first for Himself and then for
the sins of the people. He was not an unclean Jew. He was Himself the spotless sacrifice. He was not, He could not be contaminated
with our sin. He could touch a leper, but He
didn't get leprosy. He could touch somebody who was
sick, but he didn't become defiled. And he could lay his hands upon
somebody who was sinful, and that sinfulness was not contagious
to him. He's the perfect son of God. He was God's fit, representative
man. And as such, he qualified to
be our Savior because he is acceptable and he is one who satisfied all
of God's demands. He is the Redeemer who was suitable
to God. God approved of him. He approved
of him as God and he approved of him as man. But then this
redeemer must also be suitable to those that he would save from
their sins. And so we read here in John chapter
one in verse 14. John chapter one verse 14, and
the word was made flesh. The word, the logos, this one
who is from eternity. The word was made flesh and dwelt,
he tabernacled among us. And the word dwelt does indeed
mean tabernacled. And John says, And we beheld
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. Among the Jews in the Old Testament,
there was nowhere, you get to the book of Exodus, and God gave
to Moses all of the instructions pertaining to the building of
the erecting of the tabernacle. And when that tabernacle was
built, when it was laid out, there was nowhere more glorious
than the tabernacle itself, which indicated to them, there is the
presence of God. In fact, look with me in Exodus
chapter 29. Look at Exodus chapter 29. And I'll begin at verse 38. Chapter
29 and verse 38. And what we're working on here
is the word he dwelt among us and the word is he tabernacled
among us. And that immediately puts us
in mind of that Old Testament tabernacle. Look at chapter 29. And verse 38, are you there?
Sure you are, I don't hear any more pages turning. Now this
is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar, two lambs of
the first year, day by day continually. One in the morning, one in the
evening, right? One at nine, one at three. Every single day, two lambs must
die. The one lamb thou shalt offer
in the morning, and the other lamb thou shalt offer at evening. And with the one lamb a tenth
deal of flour, mingled with the fourth part of an hen of beaten
oil, and the fourth part of an hen of wine for a drink offering. And the other lamb thou shalt
offer at evening, and shalt do thereto according to the meat
offering, of the morning, and according to the drink offering
thereof, for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the
Lord. This shall be a continual burnt
offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation before the Lord, where I will meet you to
speak there unto thee. And God says, and there I will
meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified
by my glory. And I will sanctify the tabernacle
of the congregation and the altar, and I will sanctify also both
Aaron and his sons to minister to me in the priest's office.
God says, there's my glory. That's the glory of Israel. What
was the glory of Israel? The presence of God. God said,
I will dwell at that tent. Not in the tent of Moses, not
in the tent of Aaron, not in the tents of the 70 elders of
Israel. I will dwell there at one tent,
the tabernacle. And there I will manifest, I
will reveal my glory. And so then we go right back
to John chapter one and pay attention to the words of John the apostle. And he says concerning this one
who tabernacled in the flesh, John said, and we beheld his,
what's the word? Glory. We beheld his glory. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? He is the glory of God. That's who he is. He's the glory
of God. And he's suitable, therefore,
to be our savior. You see, it's like Israel. They
had God in their midst. They had God with them. The tabernacle
was a tent to which men would go and commune with God. It was
the place where God came manifestly to fellowship with men. And if
you would worship God, if you would honor God, if you would
commune with God, you had to go to the tabernacle, and there
you would behold His glory, that Shekinah glory that came out
from the holy of holies, off the mercy seat. And I'll tell you, God manifests
His glory in Christ Jesus. He's our Savior. And John is,
he's what John is telling us. We had the glory of God right
with us. And John writes this, of course,
after our Lord Jesus had ascended, after he had gone back to heaven.
And John says, we beheld his glory. And indeed, John, he saw the
glory of the Son of God by faith, but he also saw that glory on
the Mount of Transfiguration, didn't he? In fact, Peter said
the same thing in 2 Peter chapter 1. They saw his glory. Therefore, this one is suitable
to be our Savior, for he's the glory of God. And yet, he's one of us. He's
one with us. Joe read to us in the book of
Hebrews chapter 2. And there he speaks of us as
being his brethren. His brethren. You know what that
makes him? Our brother. He's our brother. I see you men here this evening.
I'm so thankful for you. Brother? Brother? Brother? I go around the room. Brother?
Brother? Brother? Brother? And the Lord Jesus,
our Savior, looks at us and He says, Brother? Brother? We're the same family. The same
family. Do you remember what He said
to Mary? When he said, don't touch me
or really stop clinging to me, I go to my God and your God. We have the same God, he said.
To my Father and your Father. We have the same Father. We're
brethren. We're brothers. What do you know
about that? We're brothers. See, it's not
a shame to call us brothers. And then he says, not only does
he call us brothers, he calls us children in that passage you
read. He calls us children. Well, how
can he be both our brother and our father? Because he calls
us brethren and then he calls us children. Well, he's our brother
in that he was born into this world, as I said, born of our
bone and flesh of our flesh, but he's also our father. He's
the everlasting father and the prince of peace, Isaiah chapter
nine and verse six. He's both our father and our
brother. Oh yes, oh yes. He's suitable
for us. He's the suitable savior for
the needs of his people. After all, He joined Himself
to our flesh. To our flesh. He never ceased
to be all that He was. No, not for one moment did He
cease to be God. Philippians chapter 2, He thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. It wasn't robbery for Him
to say, I'm the Son of God with power. That's not robbery. He's not taking a title that
he doesn't own, that he has no right to. He has every right
to that. But he humbled himself. He became a servant. And as a servant, he fulfilled
the law of God. And he lived up to every stipulation
that we can ever live up to. He's suitable to us. He's suitable in that He did
what no man could ever do. He conquered the devil. He conquered
the devil. He stood toe-to-toe, eye-to-eye
with the devil, and the devil had to back off. He had to back
off. And Pontius Pilate answers for
all, even the enemies of our Lord Jesus. I find no fault in
this man. That's right. You're not going
to find any fault in him. You'll find fault in me. But
you're not going to find any fault in my Savior. He did what no man has ever done.
He conquered the devil. And then, He did what no other
man's ever done. He never sinned. He never sinned. He's perfect in every way. We sin multiple times every day. There's no question about that.
There's no debate about that. But He never sinned once. Not
as a little boy, never talked back to Mary or his legal father,
Joseph. Never had an evil thought. Never
was rebellious against the Father's will. Never called into question
the Father's intentions toward him. And he did what no other man
could do. He bore the awful weight of our
sin Himself, this God-man. Nobody can comprehend this. All of the sins, all of the transgressions,
all of the iniquities, of all of the elect of God, of all of
the ages, And they were all heaped upon this mighty man, Christ
Jesus. In fact, in Psalm 89, God says,
I have laid help upon one who is mighty. Well, that's the only
one he can lay help upon. He can't lay any help upon us,
because we can't help anybody. I can't help you, and you can't
help me. But he said, I've laid help upon
one who's mighty. And we read he's mighty to save
because of who he is. He's the God man, the God man. And as such, he lived and died. This God man died. He said, Jim,
you shouldn't say that God died. Paul did in Acts chapter 20. God purchased the church with
His own blood. That's the blood of God, the
God-man. That's His blood. That's His
death. That's His sacrifice. That's
what it took to settle the issue. And nothing less would do. And He did what no man could
ever do. He took His life back again. He raised himself by his own
power. He said in John 10, he said,
I have the power to lay down my life. I have the power to
take it again. And he laid it down. Nobody took it from him.
He just said, it's finished into thy hands. I commend my spirit,
laid his head, laid his chin on his chest and dismissed his
spirit. He died according to his own
will. And then when it had been well established that he really
died, he then took his life again. Nobody else could do that. Lazarus
couldn't raise himself. The widow's son couldn't raise
himself. That little girl who died couldn't
raise herself. No dead person has the power
to raise himself, but this dead man did. He raised Himself. He's suitable to save us. He's
suitable to raise us, you see. He's suitable to give us spiritual
power, to give us spiritual life. He's able to quicken us. He's suitable to all of our needs.
And He's suitable to stay right with us. all through life by
His Spirit. He stays right with us. He's
not going to forsake you. He's not going to leave you. When my mother and my father
forsake me, would that ever happen? Well, it might. You don't know. But the Lord will bear you up.
Now, He's not going to forsake you. And you may lose friends, you
may lose the love and admiration of family members when you come
out and say, I love Christ Jesus. I love the grace of God and salvation
by the darling Son of God. You may lose friends and you
may lose family members who say, like Job's wife, why don't you
just curse God and die? He's bringing all these rough
things to pass in your life. I'll tell you one who'll never
leave you. This suitable Savior, ah, He
never will. And one of these days, that's already been determined,
He's going to say, it's time for you to come home. And this
suitable Savior will send angels to you and they will gather your
soul and take you into the arms of the waiting God-man, Christ
Jesus. And you will say to Him, Oh,
what a suitable Savior you are for me. For me. And I'll sing your praises forever
and ever, O mighty Lamb of God. And you'll join in singing with
all the saints, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, who has
redeemed us to God by thy blood. And they'll be singing, salvation
to our God and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And you'll
just step into glory and say, I know that song. And you just
start singing right with them. You'll never miss a word and
never miss a beat. Oh, He's suitable to God, and He's suitable to us. Bless
His wonderful name. Amen. Let's sing 468.