Let's go back to that scripture
he read to us in Luke 23. This evening, I want us again
to visit the cross of our Lord Jesus. we can never revisit that place
too much. The scripture before us in Luke
23 we're very familiar with and yet we love to visit again
this portion of scripture and various scriptures such as in
Matthew or Mark and also in the Gospel according to John. This
is the old story of the Lord Jesus and his sacrificial love
for his people. This is where the Savior gave
his life in the stead of the guilty. This is where he shed
his life's blood that we would be free. I read again to you
Luke 23, 46. And when Jesus had cried with
a loud voice, he said, Father into thy hands I command my spirit. That word means I deposit. my spirit." He gave up the ghost, the scripture
says. He gave his soul as one who would
make a deposit of their most valuable treasures into a safe
deposit box, for instance. As I read this and looked at
that word, into thy hands I commend my spirit. I thought, well, first
of all, the Savior is saying, Father, I have done the work
that you gave me to do, and therefore I know that you will keep my
soul safe. We read in the second chapter
of the book of Acts that our Lord Jesus, He's being spoken
of there. It's taken from over in the Psalms
where the Master said, thou will not leave my soul in the place
of the dead. But our Lord Jesus, He did go
to the place of the dead. He went to paradise. He didn't
go to suffer in the flames of hell, all of his suffering he
endured while on the cross. And so he is saying to the Father,
I yield to you my soul and my spirit, and I know you will keep
me safe. I'm going to be with you. And
indeed, he had already indicated to the thief who believed him,
that the thief would be with him someday in this walled garden. That's what the word here, paradise,
means. A walled garden. He said, that's
where you'll be. You'll be with me. And that's
where our Savior's soul went. But I think this word also means,
this word command, to deposit. He, as it were, deposited himself
as that valuable purchase or heist for our redemption. He's the one who bought us. He
didn't buy heaven for us. He didn't buy salvation for us. He didn't buy the grace of God
for us. God was gracious to us before
the world began. He didn't buy God's love for
us for the reason He came into this world was because God loved
His people. What then did He buy? What was
this deposit for? What did He fully expect to receive
as a just and a fair compensation? Those for whom He died. those
for whom He died. And He redeemed us, the scripture
says, by His blood. I realize this is a day in which
most so-called churches avoid the use of the word blood. It
is very ordinary. It's common for preachers in
churches and theologians in Bible colleges and seminaries, music
writers, hymn writers as they write the lyrics. It's usual
for them to say as little as they can say about the blood
if they ever mention it. Some of the newer translations,
or I should say, transliterations of the Bible, they just leave
the word blood out when it is in reference to the Lord Jesus
Christ. It seems that some have become
so educated, so cultured, and so refined that to speak about
the blood is considered improper. unsophisticated and unrefined, but not in those churches and
not from the pulpits that are occupied by God's preachers.
Because we know that that which is the very basis of our redemption
price is the blood of the Lord Jesus, our Savior. I think about
Rahab over in the book of Joshua. Rahab, the harlot, when the two
spies came through, Joshua sent them into the city of Jericho
to spy out the city. And this woman, Rahab, she was
a professional harlot. She was the one who provided
lodging and protection for these men while they were in Jericho
and before they left. She said, now, I want you to
give me your word that when you and your leaders, your nation,
when you take over our city, I want you to give me your word
you'll spare me. I know your God is God indeed.
Your God is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And your
God has ordained that you have this city and have this entire
land. And you give me your word when
you come through that you'll let me live, let my family live. I said, well, here's what you
do, because it's hard to recognize I tell you, when the battle is
raging and whatever kind of fight we're going to have, they said,
when we come into Jericho, you better make a real indication
of which house is yours. And they said, you let down a
scarlet rope outside your window, and we'll know. That's the one
that will be passed over. That's the one where there will
be no death. That's the one that will know
those are the friends of Israel right there. And I'll tell you
that scarlet rope or scarlet thread, it just goes through
the Bible, doesn't it? Because it does indeed picture
the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ That scarlet thread, it's
the blood of our Savior. It binds all of these 66 books
together. It unifies the Word of God. Everything written upon the pages
of inspiration, it is always the blood. It's the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. God told Moses, the blood shall
be for you a token. God said to Moses and to Israel
when they were in Egypt, He said, when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. That day when the high priest
went into the Holy of Holies on that day of atonement, that
great day, that great day of honoring God, that day of worship,
that day of atonement when the high priest went into the Holy
of Holies, he dared not go in without blood. He went out to
the brazen altar, he offered the sacrifice unto God, He captured
the blood in a basin. He goes back into the Holy of
Holies with a bunch of hyssop and He faces eastward and He
sprinkles on the mercy seat that blood. He sprinkles it seven
times. That's a perfect covering. A
perfect covering inside the Ark of the Covenant is the Law of
God. Underneath that lid is the Ark
of God which Israel had broken. They had violated God's law,
but oh, the mercy seat with the blood. There's the blood over
the mercy seat. Oh, without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins. Our Lord Jesus, when He instituted
the Lord's Supper, He took the cup of wine in His hand. He held
it before the disciples. He said, this, this is the blood
of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission
of sins. So I want us to go again with
our blessed Savior to this awful scene of sin and wickedness and
woe. And yet it is a blessed and wonderful
picture and scene of mercy and love and grace outside the city
of Jerusalem. As we go back to the cross, as
we study the message tonight, as we listen to this, the subject
is at the cross. As we go to the cross, we have
a We have a scene before us that we've witnessed many times before. As we visited this in the scriptures,
we see three crosses. We see three accused and convicted
felons. We see soldiers. And thus far,
This scene is no different from any other public execution back
in those days outside the walls of Jerusalem. But this execution
is unlike any other execution before or since. For at this execution, there's
not one preacher, as in a chaplain, Oftentimes at an execution there
is present a chaplain. But at this execution there are
lots of preachers. Oh, lots of preachers, lots of
rabbis, lots of theology professors, lots of priests, many Pharisees,
many Sadducees, many of the scribes, multitudes of these religious big wheels of Israel. There they sat and they get a
seat and they watch this public execution. As we approach that
place of death, we look out and we see multitudes are also there. This is unlike any other execution
before or since. Many, many people there. There
are women there and they're weeping. Our Lord had already passed by
them and said, don't weep for me, weep for yourselves. He was specifically, I believe,
what he had in mind was what would happen in 70 AD when the
Roman Emperor Titus would come through Jerusalem and there would
not be left one stone of the temple standing upon another
stone. hundreds and hundreds of people
would be slaughtered. He said, weep for yourself. But
He said, don't weep for me. You need not weep for the Savior.
Because this One who is Jesus of Nazareth, He is totally in
charge of this situation. He is not dying by man's decree. He is dying by God's decree.
Oh, I know men wanted to kill Him and men were doing what they
wanted to do, what they desired to do, what their wills drove
them to do. And I would say if there's ever
an indication, if there's ever an example, I should say, or
an illustration in the Word of God of the responsibility of
men and the absolute sovereignty of God, it is at the cross. Because at the cross, men were
doing exactly, exactly what they wanted to do. Nobody coerced
them. Nobody forced them. God did not
make them do this. This was not something they did
against their wills. They willingly They willingly
put Jesus of Nazareth to death. And at the same time, God's sovereign
will and purpose was being carried out. I know both of those facts
are true. Peter said over in Acts the second
chapter, when he began to preach on that day of Pentecost, he
said, you with your wicked hands, you killed the Lord of glory.
You did it. But then he said, God foreordained
it. God purposed it. Go back a page or two to Luke
chapter 22. Look at verse 22. Luke chapter
22. In verse number 22. In fact,
in verse number 21, this is after our Lord had instituted the Lord's
Supper. This is the end of the Passover
feast. He said, But behold, the hand
of Him that betrayeth Me is with Me, with Me on the table. Then He says in verse 22, And
truly, truly the Son of Man Goeth as it was determined. It was
already determined. Everything about this is already
determined. Why? The Bible says He's the
Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. He says, truly. That's just another
word for verily. And we know that our Lord often
used that word verily when He was going to make a statement,
a monumental fact and truth, something to really be remembered,
something to grab hold of. He says, and verily and truly
the Son of Man goeth as it was determined, as it was marked
out. but woe unto that man by whom
he's betrayed." Judas. Judas. Oh, he had a covetous
heart. He was the one who carried the
money bag for our Lord and His disciples to meet whatever expenses
they had and to buy whatever food that they needed as the
opportunity arose. People contributed to our master's
ministry, contributed to the disciples, and they had to have
one who was appointed to kind of look over the money and keep
the money safe and make sure they had enough, so on and so
forth. And Judas was the one. He was
considered by all the apostles to be trustworthy. He was very
reliable. In fact, nobody ever suspected
that Judas would be a traitor. In John chapter 13, when the
Lord Jesus told the disciples, He said, one of you is going
to betray Me. Nobody looked at Judas and said, I bet it's that
one. No, nobody suspected him. He
was above reproach as far as the eyes of men were concerned.
But deep down in His heart, He was a covetous man. He loved
money. He loved money more than He loved
the Savior. That was His problem. His God
was His money. His God wasn't the Lord Jesus. He didn't worship the Lord Jesus.
He worshipped gold and silver. That's what He worshipped. And
this was exposed. Our Lord exposed him for what
he was. He's a traitor. He's a traitor. And what he did, he did because
he just craved money. I've got to have more money.
I've got to have more silver. Oh, 30 pieces of silver. If I
could just get some more silver. I'm paying my bank account, I'll
have a good retirement, Judas is thinking. When I get out of
the ministry, I'll have a good retirement, he's thinking. Then it dawned on him what he
had done, and he went back in to those guys that he had made
the blood deal with, and he said, I don't want your money. I have
betrayed innocent blood. I don't want your money." And
they said, we don't want it. We'll buy a graveyard with it,
a pauper's field. And he went running out and he
hung himself and the rope he was hanging on, it broke and
he fell down and dashed his entrails out. He did exactly what He wanted
to do and yet God Almighty was over all of it. And it happened
just like God ordained it. Now both of those things are
true. You can't deny that. Go to 1 Peter chapter 1. Look
at 1 Peter chapter 1. There is just no way to get around
this now. I said, Preacher, I just can't,
as we say, I can't wrap my mind around this. Well, you're not
able to wrap your mind around the things of God, God Himself,
the mind of God, and the wisdom of God, and the omniscience of
God, and the purpose of God, and the will of God. You're not
commanded to wrap your mind around it, you're just commanded to
believe. Just believe. Believe, God ordained
this. And believe man in his ugliness,
and man in his vengeance, and man in his wrath, and man in
his venom, and man in his hatred. They did exactly what they wanted
to do. Judas did what he wanted to do. Look at this, 1 Peter chapter
1. Look at verse 18. For as much as you know, 1 Peter 1.18, that you were not
redeemed with corruptible things, silver, gold, while those were
the most valuable things back then, valuable still today. Received
from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your
fathers, but what were you redeemed? Redeemed. What is redeemed? Bought
back. Bought back. Bought back from what? Bought
back from God's love. We fell into sin. The law of
God arrested us. The law of God's got a valid,
a valid accusation against us. You have broken me. You've broken
my law. And the law of God has laid hold
on us and put us in prison and shut the door and locked it.
And the law said you're not getting out until every farthing is paid. That's what the law of God said.
You're not getting out. You can go ahead and try to be
good and turn over a new leaf. You can quit doing some bad habits
and start doing some good habits. But the law of God says, I've
got you, I'll keep you till somebody pays your debt. It's got a just hold on us, doesn't
it? The law is just and fair and right. Lawbreakers must be
punished! That's what the Law of God says.
And you know yourself, people who are decent say, that's absolutely
right. Amen. Lawbreakers need to be
punished. Well, what have we done? We've
rebelled against God. We killed the Son of God. What
do you think we've got coming to us? I'll tell you what the
penalty for sin is. Death. Death is the penalty for
sin. Somebody is going to have to
die in order for us to be redeemed. Bought back. Bought back. We are redeemed with what? The
precious blood of Christ. The precious blood of Christ.
Watch it. Asapha Lamb. What did John say? Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. Abraham and Isaac going up on
the mountain to worship. Isaac said, Father, here's the
fire, here's the knife, here's the wood. Where's the Lamb? Abraham
said, My son, God will provide Himself a Lamb. Where's the Lamb? Here's the Lamb right here. He's
the Lamb without blemish and without spot. Watch it now, don't
stop reading because that's not the end of the verse, that's
not the end of the statement rather. Who verily, there's that
word again, truly, truly, it's a fact. who verily was foreordained
before the foundation of the world." He existed before the
foundation of the world and something was ordained before the foundation
of the world concerning Him and those for whom He would live
and die. What was foreordained? That He
would redeem these people. This wasn't something new that
God put into motion when we started the New Testament or even when
Adam fell. God doesn't react. We react to
God. But God doesn't react to us. This matter of our salvation
and redemption by the blood of the Lord Jesus, while this was
purposed way back before God ever made anything, Even before
Adam ever fell into sin, the Lamb of God was already full
ordained, predestinated to die a violent death. He is the Lamb
who was slaughtered. All we like sheep have gone astray. Every one of us, we've gone our
own way. And the Lord has laid on Him,
the scapegoat, the Lamb of God, the iniquity of us all. He's
led as a lamb to the slaughter. That's what the Scriptures say.
He's the Lamb of God, meek and holy and perfect and innocent.
He's led to the slaughter. Why? Because God purposed it. I know men did what they wanted
to do, but back behind it all is a sovereign, holy, all-purposing
God whose will was being carried out to the infinite degree. Nothing that ever happened at
Calvary, or anywhere else for that matter, is independent. of the will and
purpose of God. That's our God for of Him and
through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Oh, I see at the cross, I see
these women who are weeping. I see a broken hearted mother. Mary, most commentators believe
Joseph has died, probably been dead several years. Mary, the mother of Jesus of
Nazareth. She's standing there and standing
beside of her is one of our Lord's disciples, who referred to himself
as that disciple whom Jesus loved. That's a sweet title, isn't it?
The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved. There's John standing there beside
Mary. And the rest of the disciples,
I don't know where they are. You say, what happened to them?
Well, of course, Simon Peter, he denied Him three times and
now he's all embarrassed and he's broken hearted. I don't
know about the other disciples. They're not around. They forsook
Him. And I was thinking about it this
morning. I believe God had it to be that
way because it's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence
in men. Oh, those great disciples! Oh, Simon Peter was visiting
Nancy at the doctor's appointment that day, talking to the doctor
about things that happened, and then Easter, of course, and he
said, did I believe Simon Peter ever visited Rome? And I said,
absolutely not. You know, things of that, but
everybody brags on Simon Peter and the rest of the disciples.
Where are they? Where are they? You see, Don't ever lose sight
of this. Even the men that God inspired
to write the Word of God. He inspired. What does inspiration
mean? God breathed. God breathed. What is the Word of God? It's
the breath of God. It's the breath of God. This
came from God. This came from God. And God in His inspired Word
shows us that even our Lord's disciples, they are just sinners
saved by grace. That's all they were. Except
for Judas, he was a devil. He was never saved. Don't think
his saving lost his salvation. No. No. He was never one of the
Lord's in his heart. He was never one of the Lord's
sheep. The shepherd didn't come for him. He's a devil. He's a devil. He was of his father,
the devil. And those who are of their father,
the devil, they'll never be of their father, God. God will never
be their father because you don't cease to be a child of the devil
and then become a child of God. Isn't that right? See, it's like if you're a goat,
you're never going to be a sheep. And a sheep's never going to
be a goat. Lost sheep and found sheep. Lost sheep and found sheep. What
I'm trying to say is that all of this happened. And our brother
read to us this beautiful passage of Scripture from Luke chapter
23. All of this is according to the
will and the purpose of God. See, the natural man, he beholds,
he sees, he sees the crowd, he sees the soldiers, he sees the
three crosses, they see the form of three bloodied men. They see
all the things that the natural eye sees. But the spiritual eye
sees the purpose of God at work. And the natural man sees this
is due to the covenant of God. Go to Hebrews chapter 11. Look
at Hebrews chapter 11. Thinking about this blood. Not
Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 13. Sorry, Hebrews chapter 13. We're focusing in on this blood at
the cross. at the cross. And you know, let me say this,
over in Galatians chapter 6 when the Apostle Paul said, I glory
in the cross of Christ. He's not talking about a wooden
beam. He didn't glory in a piece of
wood. He didn't glory in a tree that
our Lord died on that had a cross beam attached to it. He gloried
in the doctrine of the cross, which is substitution and satisfaction. That's what He gloried. He gloried
in the one who died on the cross. Look here. Hebrews chapter 13,
verse 20. And the writer of the book, whoever
it was, the Apostle Paul or some other writer, I don't know. The
Spirit of God wrote it. The Spirit of God breathed it.
We know that. Now, the God of peace. I'm so
thankful He's the God of peace. I tell you, to some people He's
the God of war. He's the God of vengeance. Over there in Exodus chapter
15, when the Israelites are celebrating the defeat of the Egyptians,
they talked about the Lord is a man of war. He's a man of war. And he is a man of war to his
enemies. You don't want to be his enemy. You don't want to
be God's enemy. To his friends, to his friends,
to those who believe him, to those that were given to Christ
Jesus in covenant grace before the world began. He's a God of
peace. He got nothing but peace for
us. It's a gospel of peace. Christ is the Prince of peace. Who made peace with us by the
blood of His cross. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead Our Lord Jesus Christ. That brought again
from the dead our Lord Jesus. Who is our Lord Jesus? Well,
He's that great shepherd of the sheep. He's the good shepherd
who laid down His life for the sheep. He's the great shepherd
who came back from the grave. Peter says He is the chief shepherd
who's coming again. And even now He's the seeking
Shepherd of the lost sheep. That great Shepherd of the sheep
through the blood of the everlasting covenant. That blood that was
shed was the blood of a covenant. And that's a covenant made God
the Father and God the Son. God the Son representing all
His people. And the Father made a covenant
with His Son. It's called the everlasting covenant.
And in that covenant, the Son of God said, I'll live and die
for my people and my blood will be the blood that seals the covenant. And it did. And he says now,
the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of
the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work
to do His will. Working in you. Oh Lord, work
in us. He did a work for us and we need
Him to do a work in us. And bless His name, it says in
the book of Philippians, He who hath begun a work in you will
do what? He'll finish it to the day of
Jesus Christ. working in you that which is
well, pleasing in His sight. Watch it always through Jesus
Christ. To whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. I'll quit there. I'm going to pick this back up.
I'm going to pick up this theme at the cross next Wednesday night,
the Lord willing. Well, let's sing a closing song. Jesus paid it all. Number 125. If you need a psalm
book, number 125. Jesus paid it all. Stand together.