Thank you, Brother James. Open
your Bibles to the book of Luke. And I'd like you to go to chapter
9. Luke chapter 9. Nearly 2,000 years ago, very early in a morning, on a
morning, when it was still dark, a group of soldiers, which were
led by a man by the name of Judas Iscariot, they went to a garden
to arrest Jesus of Nazareth. It was our Lord who initiated
the meeting because He saw them coming and He said, who are you
looking for? He knew who they were in search
of. He knew their motivation. He
knew their reason for being there. He knew what Judas had done.
You see, actually all of this he had ordained before the world
began. But he asked them, who are you
looking for? Who are you searching for? They
said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. And they all fell
back. They got up and dusted themselves
off. And he said, who are you looking
for? They said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, if you seek me, let these go their way. Let his disciples go their way. That's what he was saying because
there was no way that they could take the Savior and also take
his followers. See, our Lord Jesus It cannot
be that he would die and his people die too. That can't be. That just can't be. You know, one of the hymn writers
said, twice payment God will not demand. First at my bleeding
surety's hand and then again at mine. And when the Savior
stepped forward to die in the stead of his people, He said,
no, you let my people go. And all of his people, not just
those immediate disciples, but all of his people were free.
Free to go. Free to live forever. To glorify
him because he was taken. Well, they took him upon his
arrest, they took him immediately to a group of religious people who
had gathered together in the house of the high priest of Israel. They accused him of sedition. They accused him of saying that
he was the son of God. Some of the leading religious
men of his day, they spit in his face and they blindfolded
him and slapped him. And then from that group, they
took him to the temple, and he stood before the Sanhedrin. That's the highest court in Israel. Then from there, they took him
to Pilate. And he said, I find no fault
in this man. But there were more accusations
brought against him. From there they took him to Herod,
who questioned him, and the Lord Jesus gave him no reply, didn't
even answer him, whereupon he was treated with utter contempt. They found an old purple robe. They stripped him of his clothing
and put that old purple robe on him, mocking him as a king. Then that man Herod, he sent
him back to Pilate. Pilate called for the leaders
of religion and their followers, and they all came together. They
assembled themselves, and he said, I'm going to scourge you. I'm going to beat him, and then
I'll release him." But that wasn't good enough for
them. They wanted him to be killed. That's put him out of business
altogether. You know, false religion, and
they were religious people. They were very sincere, they
were very dedicated, very zealous. False religion absolutely despises
the Son of God. They always have and they always
will. I'm talking about the Son of
God, Christ Jesus, as He's revealed in the Word. The natural man
hates Him. And the religions of this world,
they hate Him too. And all together they say, we
will not have this man rule over us. It's his reign we don't want. We don't like his reign. And
he says he's the son of God. Thereby he says he's equal with
God. We don't believe that. We don't
believe that. They said he says he's the Messiah. Well, we believe when Messiah
comes, he's going to be a great earthly leader. And he's going
to send all the Romans back to where they came from. And he's
going to bring Israel back to their glory days of David and
Solomon. So we don't want this man. We
don't want him. What shall I do with Jesus who
is called the Christ? Pilate said, and they said crucify
him. We want him to die the most awful,
the most painful, the most ignominious death known to man. That's what
we want done with him. We want to see him suffer. We want to see him agonize. We want to see him bleed on the
cross. And we're going to sit and watch
him. And we're going to watch him until he breathes his last
breath. till we know for sure He's dead. And then we'll be finished with
Jesus of Nazareth forever. And so, Hilat, though he found
no fault in Jesus of Nazareth, he bowed to the will of the people.
Oh, he ceremonially washed his hands. He said, I'm pure from
the blood of this innocent man. But he still got the Savior's
blood on his hands to this day. He's still guilty. And so they
took the Lord Jesus Christ, they laid a cross on his back, and
off he went to Calvary, to Golgotha. Along the way, a man was summoned
to take the cross. Some people say he stumbled.
The Bible doesn't say he stumbled. beneath the weight of the cross.
It was just that the soldiers were concerned that he might
die before they had an opportunity to crucify him. And so one Simon
of Cyrene, he was compelled to carry the cross and he did. They got to Golgotha's brow and
they laid that cross down on the ground and then the Savior
laid down upon it And they drove nails, Roman spikes, through
his blessed hands. And they drove spike, they drove
a spike through his feet. And then they hoisted that cross
up and dropped it into a hole in the ground. And all of his
bones were immediately out of joint. Not a bone was broken,
but his bones were out of joint. Before that, they had crowned
him with thorns. shoved a reed in his hand before
this, mocked him as the king. We bow before the king of the
Jews, they mocked him. And then they crucified him.
And one place in the scriptures it says, and sitting there they
watched him. They just watched him. What ruthless
people. What hateful, mean, nasty people. But oh my soul, that's all of
us by nature. Do you know that? That's us.
You know who killed the Lord Jesus? Certainly we did. We did. We killed Him. And it's our sins that caused
Him to die. I know and I'm going to show
you God Almighty brought about His death because God purposed
His death. But that doesn't relieve man
of the responsibility of what they did. Of what we did. He came to this world that he
made and the world received him not. You say, but if he had come
today, look at all these Bible-believing people out here. We got lots
and lots of Bibles. Everybody would receive him today.
It wouldn't be any different today than it was 2,000 years
ago. Because that which they despise today is the same thing
they despised 2,000 years ago, the sovereign reign of Jesus
Christ the Lord. They hated Him then, they still
hate Him now. Who are those that are in opposition
to the Son of God? I know that the wicked, the out
and out wicked, the non-church goers, they are vile in their
own way, but those who outwardly speak against the gospel of grace,
those who avidly speak up, free willism, And those who say, we
don't believe in this sovereignty business, we don't believe in
election, we don't believe in particular redemption, we believe
man's got an all-powerful free will. Who is it that says that?
It's religion. It's religion that's in opposition
to the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. It hasn't changed. I know cultures have changed
and in some ways times have changed, but man hasn't changed. We're
still as rotten to the core as we've always been. We're no better
today than they were 2,000 years ago. Man's always been rotten. Man's always been sinful. Man's
always been wicked and it takes the sovereign grace of God to
save him today just like it did 2,000 years ago. Nothing's changed
in that regard. And if our Lord Jesus had chosen
in His sovereign will and purpose of grace, if He had chosen to
come in 2015, He would have met the same kind of reception that
He met 2,000 years ago when He did come. And everybody, all
the religious leaders, all of organized religion would say,
down with this guy! We won't have him rule over us.
We're doing just fine without him. We don't need him. We have our will. We have our
works. We have our good deeds. We have
our charities. We have our contributions. We're
doing just fine without him. No thank you. Go back to where
you came from. That's what they said to a degree
when he came the first time, but their attitude was worse
than that. It wasn't go back to where you came from, and it
wasn't live and let live. It says, they said, let's kill
him. Let's kill him. What shall I do with Jesus who
is called the Christ? Let's kill him! That's what we
insist on. We will settle for nothing less
than his death. And they did kill him. They did
kill him. They had released a murderer,
Barabbas. Barabbas was his substitute.
And I don't know whether Barabbas knew anything about the gospel
of grace or not. But I do know one thing about
Barabbas. I would draw this conclusion
when he walked away a free man and he looked back and he saw
Jesus of Nazareth down on that cross, I guarantee you he said
in his heart, he's taken my place. That man died in my place. I
don't know whether God saved him or not. I don't know whether
God showed him grace or not. And nobody else knows that either.
Right? Nobody else knows that either.
But I do know this. There's an illustration of substitution. That is an illustration of substitution. So our Lord died. Before He died,
as they mocked Him, all of a sudden, God Almighty put out the Son. It got pitch black. And that
lasted for three hours. And oh my soul, during those
three hours, something happened. Something happened on that cross.
A great transaction. God the Father did business with
God the Son. This is that time of redemption. This is the time of the payment
of the ransom price. The law of God held all of God's
elect captive, just like the law of God holds all men captive. The law of God has tried us and
found us to be guilty, and therefore deserving of death for the wages
of sin is death. Our Lord Jesus Christ died. He died. But God dealt with Him before
His death, during those three hours of darkness, in such a
fashion that He had never dealt with Him before and He'll never
deal with Him that way again. That was one time. Once, once
He died. Once He suffered. Once He agonized. Once He put away sin. By one
sacrifice He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. And
God blotted out the lie. He said, nobody is going to see
this. As God bruised His Son, as God laid stripes on His soul,
I know men treated Him awfully. Oh, it was a terrible beating
that they gave Him. And you can read some of the
gruesome descriptions of how the Roman cat of nine tails just
ripped the flesh of a man and just dug into their entrails
and exposed their organs. And it's just absolutely awful. And that happened to our Lord.
But that wasn't the soul of His sufferings, you see. It was that
His soul suffered as the Father bruised Him for our sins. God whipped Him. Oh my soul,
God wounded Him in His heart, in His soul, and in His spirit. God forsook him. And the Savior
said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? One time in
all the world, God forsook God. Explain that to me, you cannot. Martin Luther was said to be
studying that passage in Psalm 22, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? And he said his secretary overheard
him say, How can God forsake God? And he closed his Bible. He said, I can't understand this. And nobody else can either, Martin
Luther. Nobody knows much about what
happened during those three hours of darkness. Except this. He paid the price. He paid the
price. He whipped him. The wrath of
God fell on him. The sun started shining again,
and the Lord Jesus Christ He said, it's finished. He cried
out, it is finished. Redemption is finished. Reconciliation
is finished. This transaction is finished.
That which I came into the world to do, to finish the work that
the Father gave me to do, it's finished. And he bowed his head
and gave up the ghost willingly. We read this morning. He said,
nobody takes my life from me. I have the power to lay it down.
I got the power to take it again. And He, at that moment, laid
down His life. The willing sacrifice for sin. God's justice demanded death
and got it. Say, but how could the death
of one man do so much good? How could it save so many millions
of people, all of God's elect of all ages? How could one man's
death do that? Because of who that man was!
He's not a mere mortal man, he's the God-man! God over all, blessed
forever, the Son of God, the Son of Man, joined together,
never to be separated. And He died, and He sealed our
pardon with His blood. Hallelujah. It's done. Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. Zechariah chapter 13 says the
sword of divine justice was awakened against Him. God the Father said, it's time.
And he pulled out his sword. He unsheathed his sword of righteous
indignation, which ought to have been thrust into our hearts.
We ought to have felt that sword forever and ever. But he felt
it for us. The great shepherd of the sheep. He died. And here in Luke chapter 9, let
me read a verse to you. Let me read a verse to you here
in Luke chapter 9. In fact, I'm going to read just
a few verses beginning in verse 18. He had just fed 5,000 men. Luke chapter 9. He had just fed
5,000 men. And by the way, to give you some
idea, Luke chapter 9, this is about 18 months into our Lord's
public ministry. He's about halfway through. When
you get to Luke chapter 9, He's just about halfway through with
His public ministry. He feeds 5,000 men plus women
and children. So it could have been 15, 20,
25,000 people that He fed with these five loaves and two fishes. Well, then after that, verse
18, Luke 9, 18, and it came to pass as he was alone praying,
he went from there and he went out to pray. His disciples were
with him. And he asked them saying, who
say the people that I am? They answering said, John the
Baptist. But some say, Elias. And others say that one of the
old prophets is risen again. He said unto them, but whom say
ye that I am? Peter answering said, the Christ
of God. That's who you are. You're the
Messiah. You're the sent one. You're the Son of God. You're
the promised one. And he straightly charged them
and commanded them to tell no man that thing. He told them
not to spread the word on this lest the enemies be provoked
and they try to hasten his death. His hour was fixed and it's not
the time yet. It's not the time yet. And he
charged him not to tell any man because there'd be a lot of people
who would say, oh, this is the Messiah and somebody who can
feed 10 to 15, 20,000 people with five fishes and two loaves,
this Messiah, why, he's the one who can liberate us from our
bondage. So the Savior said, don't even
tell anybody. Don't even tell anybody. Now
watch verse 22 say, the Son of Man must suffer many things. and be rejected of the elders
and the chief priests and scribes, and be slain, be killed, and
be raised again the third day. He must be. He must be. Now here's my subject. I'll give
it to you quickly. Why did Jesus Christ have to
die? Why did Jesus Christ have to
die? He says the Son of Man must suffer
many things. Why? That's the question. Why? Why? That he did die, we
have an abundance of proof. History records that one named
Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. But regardless of what history
says, we have the word of God. Whatever men may say or may not
say, whatever men may state or may not state, whatever the history
books may record or may not record, we don't need what they say because
we have the inerrant, inspired Word of the living God on this. And we need nothing more. God's Word is all we need. And the Word of God tells us
that He died. And the Word of God tells us why he died. Let me give you these reasons
real quick. Number one, he died to fulfill
the eternal purpose of God. Go over to Acts chapter 2, and
these are verses you're familiar with. But oh, they're so precious. We never weary of reading these
Acts chapter 2. Why did he die? Why did he suffer? Why did he bleed? Why did he
die? Well, number one, he died to
fulfill the eternal purpose of God. His death was no accident. His death was not the result
of a series of unfortunate events. His death was not because of
an uncontrollable mob. Why, God always has control over
everybody and everything. Why did He die? He died to fulfill
God's eternal purpose. God determined He would die.
Look in Acts chapter 2 and verse 22. Peter is preaching. Acts
2, 22. Day of Pentecost. Ye men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by Him in the midst of you as you yourselves also know Him
being delivered Him being given over to, given over to the crowd,
given over to the mob, given over to Pilate, given over to
die, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and
slain whom God has raised up. And God raised Him up because
He did the work that God gave Him to do, and He had put away
the sins of His people, And He had brought in everlasting righteousness,
just like Daniel said in chapter 9, which I read to begin the
service this evening. But He died on purpose. On purpose. Look at chapter 4 of Acts in
verse 27. Chapter 4 in verse 27. These are when the people of
God were let go. Verse 27, Acts 4, For of a truth
against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both
Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of
Israel were gathered together. What a mob that is! What a group
that is! What an unruly, rebel-rousing
crowd that is! They were all gathered together.
Why were they gathered together? Verse 28, For to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. When was it
determined before? Way before God ever made the
world. It was determined in old eternity. In other words, this has always
been God's determination, the death of His Son. You see, Mount
Calvary and the death of our Lord Jesus, that's not just man
doing what he wants to do, though man did what he wanted to do.
But this is God's sovereign will at work. Because God purposed for His
Son to die. In Luke 22, 22, the Savior said,
the Son of Man goeth forth as it was determined. As it was
determined. He suffered, He bled, and He
died on purpose. According to the will of God.
After all, He's the Lamb who was slain before the foundation
of the world. God ordained His death. God appointed
His death. God determined His death. God
decreed His death. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20 and
21, we read of the blood of the everlasting covenant. He died
because he was ordained in the covenant. All things were ordered
and sure in that covenant and all of our salvation is in that
covenant. That's why David in 2 Samuel
23, he rejoiced in that covenant. He said, this is all my salvation
way back yonder in that covenant of grace. You know anything about
that covenant? If you don't know anything about
that covenant, well, you need to learn. Because it will absolutely
thrill your soul. when the blessed Trinity entered
into a contract with each other for the salvation of a multitude
of sinners that no man can number. When God chose in sovereign grace
to save, He chose how He was going to save, He chose who the
Savior would be, and He chose those that the Savior would save.
And He gave them to the Savior. And the Savior says, I promise,
I pledge myself I'll be the shepherd and I'll lay down my life for
the sheep. He died to fulfill the eternal
purpose of God. And you talk to religious people
today and you'll find out they don't even know anything about
God's eternal purpose. Isn't that a shame? What's being
said from the pulpits today? Absolutely nothing. Just a bunch
of trash coming out of pulpits today. Few and far between are
those pulpits that are filled with men who boldly set forth
God's eternal purpose of grace. Most Baptist churches today,
you're just ashamed of them. Just ashamed of them. You go
back and look at some of the Baptists of old, and you see
how they stood for sovereign grace. And you go talk to the
average Baptist today and say, y'all believe in sovereign grace
at your church? They say, uh, what's that? What, you don't even know what
sovereign means? The root word of sovereign is
reign. We mean God reigns in grace. They say, well, we believe in
man's free will. You know, the fault lies behind
the pulpit, doesn't it? That's where the fault lies.
And of course, that doesn't excuse the people in the pews, because
they got a Bible. Got a Bible. I know there are
organizations, especially one organization is known for distributing
Bibles today. Here's what I find. I find that
there is no shortage of Bibles. There's a shortage of people
who are interested in knowing what the Bible's about. And there's
a shortage of people who understand the message of the Bible, that
it's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. They don't know that. And what
they need, they don't need more Bibles. Usually every household's
got four or five Bibles and they got a family Bible sitting on
the table with marriage licenses in it and records of deaths and
burials and all that kind of stuff. What they need is the
Lord God of glory to send them a preacher so they'll understand
the Word of God. There are bibles galore. You
can go to the dollar store and buy the Word of God for a dollar. That's astounding. Buy God's
Word for a dollar. But you still got to be made
to understand it. Because you're not going to...
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit. They're
foolishness to him. foolishness to Him. In fact,
what we're doing tonight, it's foolishness to the natural man.
The preaching of the gospel is to them that perish foolishness.
But unto us who are saved, this is the power of God. It's the
power of God. It's the wisdom of God. He died,
Christ died to fulfill the eternal purpose of God. Secondly, He
died to fulfill the Old Testament Scriptures. Go back to Matthew
26, let me show you this, Matthew 26. Matthew chapter 26, look at verse
47. While he yet spake, Matthew 26,
47. And while he yet spake, lo, Judas,
one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with
swords and staves from the chief priests and the elders of the
people. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying,
Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same as he, hold him fast. And
forthwith he came to Jesus and said, Hail, Master, and kissed
him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend,
Wherefore art thou come? Then came they and laid hands
on Jesus and took him. And behold, one of them, which
were with Jesus, stretched out his hand, drew his sword, and
struck a servant of the high priest and smote off his ear.
Then said Jesus unto him, Put your sword up. For all they that
take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thankest thou that
I cannot now pray to my father and he shall presently give me
more than twelve legion of angels? You ever heard that song? He
could have called ten thousand angels. He could have, but he
didn't. And I say he could have, really
he couldn't have. He couldn't have because it wasn't
ordained for him to call on the angels to come and minister him
then. But look at verse 54. But how
then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be? In that same hour said Jesus
to the multitudes, Are you come out as against a thief with swords
and staves? For to take me, I sat daily with
you teaching in the temple, and you laid no hold on me. But all
this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook
him and fled." He died to fulfill Old Testament Scriptures. And
I could go just virtually book by book in the Old Testament.
Starting off with the book of Genesis, he's the seed of the
woman. Just go right all the way through
to Malachi. The Old Testament scriptures
were saying somebody's coming and he's going to die. Isaiah
chapter 53, his wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our
iniquities. And you read Isaiah chapter 53,
and as you read it, you think, this reads like it's already
taken place. This has already happened. And
those words were written hundreds of years before the Lord Jesus
died. He died to fulfill Old Testament scriptures. It was
written of him. It was spoken of him that he would die. Thirdly,
quickly, he died so God could be free to justify the ungodly. Look at Romans chapter 3. Romans
chapter 3. We had someone visit with us
several weeks ago and she attends a a faithful sovereign grace
ministry. And her pastor told her, she
said, if you, she told me this, she said, my pastor said, if
you listen to Jim Byrd, you're going to always hear substitution
and satisfaction. Well, I hope so. And I'll tell
you, that's, whenever you listen to any preacher That's what you
want to hear, substitution and satisfaction. Christ took my
place and in doing so he satisfied the justice of God. If we don't
say that, we haven't said what we're supposed to say. Well,
what's the use in being up here if you don't brag on Jesus Christ
and what He's already accomplished? We're just wasting our time just
going through our religious rites and ceremonies and duties if
we don't preach the gospel of God's grace. And I tell the men
back there a little bit ago, I pray for God's preachers. I
pray for men who preach the gospel wherever they are and whoever
they are. And whatever their motivation,
like the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 1, he said, one preaches
Christ for this reason, another preaches Christ for another reason.
He said, I just rejoice when Christ is preached. And I rejoice
when the gospel of God's free grace is preached. No matter
who preaches it, I pray for men as they preach that God will
bless His Word, and guess what? He will. He will bless His Word. That's our duty. That's our responsibility. to tell sinners how God can be
just and justify the ungodly. Look here in Romans chapter 3,
verse 24. Being justified freely. Romans
3, 24. Justified freely. The word is
dorion. Dorion. Brother J.D. Butler, he introduced me to that
word dorion years ago. He and I became good friends
and I preached his funeral here two or three years ago. He said,
do you know what that word freely means? And I said, well, I think
I do. But if you knew J.D., you'd just
listen to what he had to say. And I said, what does it mean,
Brother J.D.? He said, it means without a cause.
Without a cause. And the word is dorion. It's
like they said of the they said concerning Christ Jesus, or the
Savior said concerning those who hated Him. He said, they
hated me without a cause, without a reason. There's no reason.
And when it came to us being justified, us being declared
righteous by God, and nobody can declare us to be justified
but God. He justified us freely for no
reason in us. Dorion, freely. There is nothing
in us, nothing we had done, was doing or will ever do to cause
God, to give God a reason to justify us, to declare us righteous. We are justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom
God set forth to be a propitiation, to be a mercy seat. through faith
in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God. Christ died so God would
be free to justify sinners, not by compromising His law, which
God could never do. but by honoring His law in the
death of His Son, who was the substitute for His people, and
who satisfied divine justice for every single one of the sheep
that the Father entrusted to Him in the covenant of grace.
Substitution and satisfaction. He died so God would be just
and justify the ungodly. Why did He die? I'll give you
these quickly. The rest of these, number four,
Christ died for our sins, 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4. He had no sins of
his own, but he took our sins. He died because of our sins and
he died for our sins. You and I and our defilement,
we're not fit for the presence of God. We're not fit. We can't be accepted as we are.
But in a way that only God Almighty could do. All of the sins of
all of his people were charged to the safe. Laid to his account. And God
held him answerable for the debt. And in due time, he paid the
debt. And Jesus paid it all. And when
He died for us, He established righteousness. And that righteousness, in the
same way that our sins were made His, His righteousness is made
ours by imputation. Oh, glorious truth of imputation. He got my sins. I got His righteousness. All my debt put to His account.
All His righteousness put to my account. For He, God the Father,
hath made Him, God the Son, to be sin for us, who knew no sin. Why did He do that? That we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. In Him. Who is He? He's the Lord our
righteousness. He died for our sins. And number
five, he died that he might be Lord of all. If you're taking
notes, Romans 14, 9 is a reference on this. He died that he might
be the Lord. He's already the Lord of glory
being God Almighty. But God Almighty humbled himself
and joined his deity to humanity. And he died, the son of man died
on the cross and he earned the right to be the Lord. And he
is the Lord. God has made this same Jesus
whom you crucified, Peter said, both Lord and Christ. He's the Lord. He doesn't want
to be your Lord. He's not asking you to let Him
be the Lord. That's about the most foolish
thing I've ever heard in my life. Won't you let Jesus be your Lord?
Well, He already is. He already is. By the grace of
God we bow the knee to Him and we confess that He is the Lord
and we love His Lordship. We love His sovereign reign.
He died that He might be Lord of all. Then Christ died to bring
all His people to God. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 18. He died the just for the unjust
to bring us to God. And He is bringing us all. He
is bringing those many sons to glory. And then the last one,
I'll give this one to you quickly. He died that we should live unto
righteousness. And I'm going to get you to look
at this one. 1 Peter 2, 24. And I'll quit. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 24. Who his own self bare our sins
in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, You
mean we are dead to sins? Yeah, and sin is dead to us.
Well, how come? Because Christ died for our sins.
That's why. So we being dead to sins, we
should live under righteousness. We now live. We live under righteousness. And who is our righteousness?
Somebody is our righteousness. How utterly amazing that a man
on earth is declared just before God on the basis of another man
in glory who stands in his stead, who is the Lord our righteousness.
Where is my righteousness? I'm looking within, looking for
a righteousness. Well, you look in vain. You just
look till the proverbial cows come home, and you're not going
to see any good in there. I'll tell you where your righteousness
is. Your righteousness is seated at the right hand of God Almighty,
and His name is the Lord our righteousness. The Lord our righteousness. He died for us, and we come together
tonight to remember His death till He comes again. Let's sing
a song before we take the Lord's Supper.