But I'm sure thankful that she's
making the effort. Y'all please pray for her. Always
remember her in front of her and Gary. Now I want to read
verse 4 down through verse 9 again. Isaiah 50 verse 4 through 9. The Lord God hath given me the
tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season
to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning,
he waketh mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath
opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away
back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked
off the hair. I hid not my face from shame,
it is fitting. For the Lord God will help me,
and therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore I have
set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me.
Who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who is
mine adversary? Let him come nearer to me. Behold,
the Lord God will help me. Who is he that shall condemn
me? Lo, they shall all wax old as a garment. The malt shall
eat them up." The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one here speaking. It's obvious. I gave my back,
I gave my back, the Lord hath opened mine ear. God gave me
the tongue of the learned, that I should speak a word of season
to them that are weary. Gave my back to the smiters,
my cheek to them that plucked off the beard, my face to spitting
and shame. These have to be the words, and
these are 700 years. These words were spoken 700 years
before the Lord Jesus ever came into the world. But that's Him
talking. That's Christ talking. That's
Him talking about what He is going to go through, what He
would endure. And you see here, beloved, it's obvious to those
who know the Scriptures that this is the Lord Jesus speaking
here. And why would we think it strange that Christ would
speak of himself 700 years, even, you know, Isaiah 53 is. How many
times will you find the Lord who speaks of himself? And also,
particularly in the Psalms and Isaiah. But here you find him. Why would we think it strange
that he would speak 700 years before he came here in the first
person? Well, he declared the end from
the beginning. He was the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He knew exactly why he came into
this world, knew exactly what he was going to go through, and
knew exactly what would happen to him. In fact, over in John
19, verse 28, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished
according to the Scriptures, cried, It is finished. He says,
you know, everything's done that should be done. Everything's
worked that should be worked. Everything, every I's been dotted,
every T's been crossed, every dot and till's been fulfilled.
Knowing that all things are now accomplished according to the
Scriptures, He said it's finished. And He died. He died. And I hope that God will enable
me to speak of some things from here today about our Lord Jesus
Christ. And they come through his lips.
And let's look first of all about his wisdom. Here's the situation. Here's Israel. They're complaining
about their God leaving them alone. And God says, Oh, your
own iniquities is what brought you in this condition. And I
came, there was nobody to save. Nobody to answer. And my hand's
not short that it cannot save. And neither is my arm short that
it cannot redeem or deliver. And then he goes down here and
says, this is how I'm going to save. This is how I'm going to
save these people that can't save themselves. And the first
thing he says here, the Lord hath given me the tongue of the
learned, that I should know how to speak a season, a word in
season, to the weary, to him that is weary. First of all,
we see his wisdom. The Lord hath given me the tongue
of the learned. That means the tongue of one
who has been taught. I have learned. I am a wise man. God hath given me. God, He says
here, the Lord hath given me this tongue. The Lord hath taught
me. The Lord hath showed me. And
I tell you what, and He knows how, and then because He is so
wise, and He has been taught of God, that He knows how to
sustain. to sustain and uphold and give
strength and encouragement to him that is weary. Let me show
you now. Look over here in Colossians
with me just a moment. Colossians chapter 2. I want
you to see that this is Christ as the wisdom of God. How many
times do we find out where it says Christ is the power and
the wisdom of God? And all the wisdom of God dwells
in our Lord Jesus Christ. All the treasures of wisdom dwells
in Him. And you know, when our Lord was
just a child, twelve years old, He sat with all the learned men,
all the doctors, and all the scribes, and all the wise men.
Well, He was just twelve years old, and the Scripture says He
reasoned with them, and they were astonished. Astonished at
His learning. Astonished at His wisdom. And
He was twelve years old. And these were the smartest men
of His day. These were men versed in the
Scriptures, taught in the Scriptures, that taught everybody else, and
went up in front of the congregations, got up in the synagogues, and
taught people from the Word of God. And a 12-year-old, Christ
when he was just 12, confounded them. And they stood astonished
at what God was doing with him. I get astonished at how smart
some people are when they're so young. But our Lord Jesus
confounded the best and the brightest of his day. But look here in
Colossians 2 and verse 2. That their hearts might be comforted,
being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance
of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of
the Father and of Christ. Now watch this. In whom are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All the wisdom of
God's in me, and all the knowledge you ever need right here. That's
what he's saying. Treasures of wisdom. Treasures
of knowledge. That's why you go through Proverbs,
and how many times did it say, seek ye wisdom, and in wisdom
get understanding. He says it over and over and
over, and I constantly pray for that about preaching. Give me
wisdom, O Lord, for your Word. Understanding of your Word. And
so beloved in our Lord Jesus, let me show you one other in
John chapter 8. He says, He has taught me. That's
what he says. He has given me the tongue of
the learned. He has taught me. God has taught
me. Give me this tongue, this ability, this gift, this glorious
power of wisdom and taught me. John 8, 26, look what it says. I have many things to say and
to judge of you, but he that sent me is true, and I speak
to the world those things which I have heard of him. The things,
now watch it now, they understood not that he spake of them of
the Father. Then Jesus said unto them, When ye have lifted up
the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am, and I do nothing
of myself, but now watch it now, but as my Father hath taught
me, I speak these things. God gave him that time to answer,
to listen. And that's why they said when
they come to get him one time to take him and bring him to
the Pharisees, they was getting ready to get him, and he says,
oh, they come back and said, why haven't you brought him? I'd never heard anybody speak
like that man. We went to get him and he started talking, he
started preaching, he started teaching and we were just mesmerized. Such power, such wisdom, such
grace, such glory come out of his lips. We couldn't take it.
He said nobody ever spake like that man before and so they couldn't
get him. And beloved, back over here in
Isaiah 50, he's the very wisdom of God. And look what it says,
that I should know how to speak a word in season. That word means
to sustain, to uphold. And His word, how many times
does His word sustain the weary? How many times does He come and
give us a word in season? How many times does He come and
drop down a word just right at the exact time we needed it?
How many times has He used somebody to say something back when we
needed Him? Or when we were weary and down
and confused and didn't know which way to turn, or we were
just discouraged and nobody knew about Him. God come along, and
He comes through Christ, and He gives us His blessed Word.
And I tell you, the weary and the faint, and He's done this
for all of His people? And he's going to do it. You
know how many people's God in the world right now? And how
many are weary? How many are faint? She's weary,
I know, with her sickness. And you get weary, I know, with
your thunder-burdened husbands and wives. You get weary with
life. You get weary with your temptations. You get weary with your flesh. You get weary with your thoughts. You get weary with your depression. You get weary with your discouragement. And you get weary with your coldness
and your lack of intensity and love and devotion to Christ.
You get weary with these things. But does not Christ come and
lift us up and speak a word to us and seize us? Oh my, I'll give you an illustration. Paul was on that ship. They had
been raining and storming for over two weeks. They didn't see
the stars, they didn't see the sun, just dark, dark, dark, dark
storms. Everybody thought, well, we're
all going to die. Paul stood up one day, after over two weeks,
and he says, Men and brethren, listen to me! God said He's going
to save everybody on this boat. You're a fool, no? God said He's
going to save everybody. They gave up all hope of ever
being saved. Watch Scripture in Acts 27. They gave up all
hope of being saved. And then there's this little
old bitty fellow. He stood up in the midst of all them. He
says, I'm telling you, everybody on this boat is going to be saved.
He said, how do you know that? He says, God appeared to me and
told me that He's going to save all of us. We're going to lose
the boat. We're going to lose everything on the boat, but every one of
us is going to be saved. And sirs, I believe God. God gave Him a season, a word
just right time, and gave everybody else a word in season. That's
right. When you give up all hope, the Word comes. And oh, beloved,
and oh, listen now, look down here again with me now. Look
in verse 5 of Isaiah 50. Not only do we see Christ, His
wisdom, He's been taught, He's got the tongue of the learned,
knows how to give us a word in season. Lord, we're weary. The
Lord God hath opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither
turned away my back." His obedience. Not only see his wisdom, but
look at his obedience. The Lord God hath opened my ear,
I was not rebellious, neither did I turn away back. I never
went back from what you sent me to do. Ain't that what he's
talking about here? And he says, the Lord God hath
opened my ear. You know what that means? That don't mean that
he gave him that ability to hear. If you keep Isaiah 50 and look
with me in Exodus 21, I'll show you exactly what I mean. He has
opened my ear in Exodus 21, in verse 5. You know, that's why our Lord
Jesus Christ said, He hath opened mine ear. Our Lord Jesus voluntarily
became beholden servant, voluntarily came into this world. He says,
I delight to do thy will. Lord, it's written in the volume
of the book of me. I come and I delight to do thy will. And
look what it says here in Isaiah 21, talking about the servants. You know, if you have a Hebrew
servant, he serves six years, he goes out. It says in verse
3, if he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If
he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his
master hath given him a wife, and she hath borne him sons or
daughters, the wife and children shall be her masters, and he
shall go out by himself. But now listen, and if the servant
shall say plainly, I love my master, my wife and my children,
I will not go out free. I don't want to be free. Then
his master, And he says, I love them. I love my master. I love
my wife. I love my children. I love those
that God's given to me. I'll not go out free. I don't
want to be a free man. Then his master shall bring him
unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the
door, or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear
through with it all, and he shall serve him forever. And that's
what he's talking about on the Word of Jesus Christ. He hath
opened my ear. In the Psalms it said, He did
my error. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, I will not go out free. Why will I not go out free? I
love my Master. I love my Father. I do always
those things that please Him. I love my children. I love my
wife. We're the bride of Christ and
He will not go free until we go free. I love my children. We're the children of God and
He will not go free without us. When He goes free, we go free. Ain't that right? And he says,
I was not rebellious. Oh my! There's not one of us
here that's not got rebellion in us, born in us, bred in us. We've got it in us, oh my goodness,
somebody tells us something's wrong with us, we rebel against
it. Somebody rebukes us, we rebel against it. Things don't go our
way, we rebel against it. It's just in our nature. But
it was in Christ's nature, he never once had a feeling of rebellion. Never once had a thought of rebellion.
Never once had an intimation of rebellion. Oh, I was not rebellious. And oh, you know, and there's
so many ways, and so many peoples were rebellious too. First of
all, he was not rebellious to his parents. There's not a person
in this building that hasn't rebelled against their parents.
More than once, more times than you can count, with Christ, our
Lord Jesus, as a child, until he was grown, until he went to
the cross, he never, ever rebelled against his parents. He was perfectly
obedient to his mother and his daddy. You know that? And not only that,
but he was perfectly obedient to the law, civil law, the law
of the land of that particular day. He was perfectly obedient
to the civil law. That's why they come to him and
say, you know, should we pay tribute to Caesar or not? And
he says, show me a coin. They showed him a coin and said,
who's superscriptures on that coin? They said, well, that's
Caesar. He said, well, you take and give Caesar what's his, and
you give to God what's his. Huh? Caesar gets his, we'll give
to God what's his. And he was perfectly obedient
to the civil law. And here's the thing that we
got to understand and got to get. God's law, it said, love
me with all your heart. Love your neighbor as yourself.
On those laws, that whole thing hangs on those two. Do you love
God? With all your heart, all your
soul, all your mind, all your strength, that's what God said.
That covers the whole man, everything inside and out. And then He says,
love your neighbor just like you love you. Oh, my. Well, you know what Christ
did? He did that very thing. He loved His Father. Oh, He loved
His God. He loved His God to where He
done everything that Father, the God of heaven and earth required
of Him. He loved. And you're talking
about loving. Not only did He love His neighbor
as Himself. The Scripture says God committed
His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. When we were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. All of them. That's why he died. He loved
even his enemies. Not only did he love his neighbor,
but he loved his enemies. He gave gifts unto the rebellious. Gave gifts unto the captives.
Oh, beloved, he was obedient to God's law. And there's two
ways that you got to render obedience to God's law. Now listen to me.
First of all, you've got to keep its precepts. Love God, love
your neighbor. Everything hinges on those two
things. If you love your neighbor, you're not going to lie to him.
You're not going to cheat him. You're not going to be covetous
of him. You're not going to commit adultery against him. You're
not going to do any of those things. You're not going to lie.
And if you love God, you're going to love everybody else. You're
going to treat everybody like you should. That's the precepts.
You've got to keep them. And I mean, you just can't approve
of them and say, well, I think they're good. You just can't
say, well, yes, that's true. I mean, beloved, you've got to
do it. If you don't do it, then here's the second point of the
law. You've got to suffer its consequences. Do or die. Ain't that right? Everyone who
continues not in all things written in the book of the law, what's
it going to say about them? Cursed shall they be. He that keepeth
not the law dies. You've got to suffer its penalty.
Just like in this world today, you break the law, you suffer
its penalty. Is that not right? What would
we be without law? And I know it's as weak as water
nowadays. I understand that. But I'm telling
you, if you break the law, you suffer its penalty. Is that not
right? Jail, whatever's necessary. And that's
what Christ did. He kept all of his precepts,
and because we broke them, And we didn't obey it. He obeyed
it for us. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. To him that believeth. And then,
beloved, Christ was made a curse for us. Why was He made a curse?
Because we didn't obey the law. We were under the curse. Christ
became a curse for us and suffered the penalty of death in our room
instead. Don't you see? So He fulfilled
it both ways. Obeyed it, and suffered its consequences. And all beloved, and he suffered
for his people willingly. Herein doeth my Father love me.
I lay down my life for the sheep. And he suffered freely. Nobody
made him do it. He suffered fully. He suffered
completely. He became obedient even unto
death. And when he got in Gethsemane,
he prayed. And his sweat became as great,
dropped to blood. He got up and went a little farther,
and he fell down again. And he says, Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will,
but Thy will be done. And oh, beloved, look what it
says here again in verse 5. Not only was I not rebellious,
I was obedient. He opened mine ear. I love my
Master and I do what He wants with me. I neither turned away
back. Look back there in verse 7 here. In the middle of the verse it
says, I have set my face like a flint. I didn't turn away back. I set my face as a flint. You know, I got one objective.
I got one goal. I got one purpose. And that's
to finish the work which the Father hath given me to do. And I'm going to do it. Well,
they hate me without a cause. I'm going to do it. I'm a man
of grief and sorrow. I'm going to do it. They're going
to take you and crucify you. I'm going to do it. You're going
to be judged as a sinner in the sight of God with your people's
sin on you. I'm going to do it. They're going to come to get
you with those 500 people. I'm going to face it. You're going to be numbered with
the transgressor. I'm going to do it. I'm not turning back. There's a blue man people that
turn back all the time. People walk away and leave the
gospel, walk away from church, walk away from a thousand responsibilities
they have. But our Lord Jesus Christ said,
I'll not turn back. I'll set my face like a flint
and I'm going to do it. Whatever the consequences and
cost to me, I'm going to do it. And he did the work until he
cried out the last cry with his last breath on the cross, and
he done it with strength and power, and said, It is finished! Yes, sir. Amen. And he didn't
turn away until he was done. And then look at his suffering
here in verse 6. I gave my back to the smiters. Oh my, how often did they smite
him? They scorched him with thirty-nine stripes. They took that cat of
nine tails, and they had glass in it, rocks in it, bones tied
in the end of those things, and whipped him until his back, you
could see the ribs and the bones in his back. They scorched him. Scorched him. Oh, he said, I
gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the
hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. And it says
here, you notice he says, I gave. I gave it. I gave it. He said, nobody made me do a
thing. They would, you know, when that
500 men came out after him with swords and clubs and everything,
they said, we're looking, he said, who are you looking for?
Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. And they fell backwards on the
ground. Do you think he didn't have power to tell them? He says,
power says, don't you know I've got power to let you go, power
to crucify you? And our Lord Jesus says, you've
got no power. You don't have a bit of power.
You don't have no authority. You don't have nothing except
my Father give it from heaven. I'm standing here because this
is my Father's will. This is what I've come to do.
I'm here. I'm giving myself to this. You're
not doing nothing. You're as powerless as an ant.
You're as powerless as a worm. And, oh, beloved, He gave. They didn't force any suffering
on Him. He gave Himself to it. He gave
Himself to man to suffer. And, oh, man shamefully entreated
Him. Man shamefully hurt Him. And,
oh, beloved, look over here with me in Matthew 26. Let me show
you a couple of that. And here's the thing about the
suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's who that suffers. You know,
they're talking about this woman over in Iran and how they gave
her a hundred lashes and they're going to stone her to death because
she's been convicted of adultery. She does spend five years in
prison. And people just in an uproar
about that. That's wrong. They shouldn't
do her that way. But she's a sinner. She ain't got no marriage. She
ain't got no work. No more than men. You've got
any merit. Men, you've got any worth. But the Lord Jesus Christ
was God. He was holy. He was infinitely
holy. He had no sin. He was perfect
and pure and sinless and holy and harmless. There was no need
for Him to suffer, except He gave Himself to it. And look
what it says there now. And oh, beloved, he gave himself
to God and willingly let God suffer. He suffered from God.
But look what it says here in verse 66 of Matthew 26. Oh, they said, what think ye?
Oh, they put him on some kind of a trial here and hired false
witnesses. And they answered that he's guilty
of death. He's guilty of death. Now watch
this. I hid not my face from spitting. Then did they spit in his face
and buffeted him. Just slapped and pulled and tugged
at his face and his hair. And others smote him with the
palm of their hands. It wasn't just one or two people.
There's a bunch of people around him doing this thing. They watched
somebody slap him. They said, well, I'll slap him
too. That's like, you know, you see somebody in trouble and somebody
gets on, and everybody jumps on them. Because they can get
by with it. They think, well, they get that
mob in town. And one would grab his cheeks and another would
walk up and just, well, if he can do it, I can do it. This
guy said nothing. He's not resisting. He's not
even flinching. He's not even drawing back. He's
standing here, taking this, and that's nothing going on with
him. He's taking it. And then get back. I had knocked my face. And they
plucked at his beard. You know pulling out your beard.
I have a little granddaughter in there. She'll grab me sometimes
and she'll pull herself up. She'll get ahold of these hairs
right up here and I'll holler. I'll say, oh, it hurts so bad. But you imagine. And the Lord
Jesus, they get His beard, you know. Pluck it here, pluck it
there. And when you pluck out somebody's
beard, you know how painful it is. And you know all Jews, you
know, had beards. And they'd pluck on it, pull
on it, tug on it, and just laugh. It says they had him in derision.
They mocked at him. They scoffed at him. And they'd
just laugh about it. So he gave himself to God to
suffer. Gave himself to man to suffer.
And he gave his cheeks. Look here in verse 26 of Matthew
26. Matthew 27, excuse me, Matthew
27, 26, I'm sorry. Matthew 27, 26. It says here
in verse 26, Then released he Barabbas unto them. Pilate did. And listen now, and when he had
scourged Jesus, that's where he gave his back
to the smithers. Scourged. Get your Bible dictionary. Get your, get your, uh, uh, uh,
advised New Testament expository dictionary and look up that word
scourge to see what it means. He scourged Jesus and he delivered
him to be crucified. And look down verse thirty. And they spit upon him. And took
the reed, smote him on the head. Spit on him. Now won't you see
this over in Job 30. You got to see this. You just
got to see this. Job chapter 30. I hit him right
in my face. Somebody spit on me, I'm going
to do like that. Somebody go to hit me, I'm going
to do like that. It's just natural for us to do
that. But our Lord Jesus Christ says, I gave my back to the slaves. I gave my cheeks to them that
plucked off the beard. I gave my face to spit and shame. Look in verse 9. Job 30 verse
9. And now I am their song, and
yeah, I am their byword. They abhor me. They flee far
from me and spare not to spit in my face. And you know something,
a person cannot show more contempt, more hatred, more anger towards
you than to spit in your face. And that's the way I did our
Master. And he gave himself to it. Gave himself to it. Alright, back over here in Isaiah
50, let me show you something else. Let me show you something else.
Verse 7. Look at his confidence. I hid
not my face from shame and spitting. My cheeks to them plucked off
the hair. I gave him of that. I was obedient. I have the tongue
of the learned. I have the wisdom. God gave me
the wisdom. I gave my ear to him. I was obedient
to him. And then look at his confidence.
Therefore the Lord God will help me. Therefore shall I not be
confounded. That's why I set my face like
a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. What does he
mean here? The Lord God's going to be my
help, my strength. I shall not be confounded. I'm
not going to be, you know, even though I'm going through this
myself and I gave myself to this, I'm not alone. He says, My Father's
always with me. And look over here in Isaiah
49.8. Let me show you what I mean. This is his confidence as a man. This is his confidence as a man
in the promises that God made to him. You know, our Lord Jesus
Christ, He went to the cross with the promises of God. He
came into this world with the promises of God. He went to the
cross and the grave with the promises of God. I promise to
give you a people. I promise this to save you people.
I promise to put their sins away. I promise My justice will be
satisfied when you die. I promise that my law will be
honored and magnified. I promise that when you go to
the grave, I promise that I'll not leave your soul in hell.
I promise that you'll not see corruption. I promise I'll bring
you again from the dead. I promise that I'll set you in
my own right hand with all power. I promise you those things. And
so as a man, our Lord Jesus Christ looked at those things. Look
what he says there in verse 8. Now this is God speaking to Christ
now. Thus saith the Lord in an acceptable time. God speaking
to His Son. Have I heard thee? And in a day
of salvation have I helped thee. I will preserve thee and give
thee for a covenant of the people to establish the earth and cause
to inherit the desolate heritage. Is that so? Desolate heritage. He said, I'm going to cause you
to inherit it. This is His confidence as a man.
Though shamefully used, he wasn't brought to shame. His face was
set as a flint. He wasn't as a flint. The Scripture
says, who for the joy that was set before him despised the shame,
regarded as nothing. Who for the joy that was set
before him despised the shame and endured the cross. And, O
beloved, whoever needed more help than him, Who ever needed
more health than our Lord Jesus Christ? The scripture says He
was crucified in weakness. Crucified in weakness. But yet
there was no one more confident of getting health than our Lord
Jesus Christ did from His Father. It says in Luke 22 that they
said the angels came and ministered unto Him. And then look what it says here,
and also look at his testimony. Oh my, look at his testimony. Oh, he's confident, the Lord's
going to help me. And because the Lord helped him, he's never
going to leave us. Never going to leave us. Look
what he says, his testimony now, in verse 8. He is near that justifies
me. Who can tend with me? Oh my,
he said, I'm not old. What he's saying is this, that
God my Father is near to him and all his soldiers on earth.
God was with him from the cradle, from the womb, all the way to
the cross, to the grave, to set him at his own right hand. God
the Father was near to him in his humiliation, to his taking
on him flesh. God was with him and justified
his whole life. Now what do I mean by that? There's
a lot of people that ridicule the Lord Jesus Christ. A lot
of people just make fun of the Lord Jesus. A lot of people make
fun of folks that's got true religion. They mock them. Make fun of them. Especially
when you preach a successful Savior. One who has all power. One who actually saves. One who
actually redeems. One whose blood actually put
away sin. Not this weak-kneed Mealy-mouthed, peanut thing that
they call a Savior, who has to knock on your heart's door, who
has to get out on your knees and shed so many tears and pray
through and all that, that He can't save you unless you let
Him. Not that one! Nobody's ashamed of Him. Nobody
helps Him. But oh, God justified our Lord
Jesus' whole life. He says, you know, everything
he'd done, he says, my father bears witness. My father bears
witness. My father worketh here too. My,
my father are warned. And justified his ministry. Everything
he'd done, justified it by the miracles that he'd done, by the
salvation that he gave, by the lepers that he cleaned, by the
eyes that he opened. And even justified it before
his enemies. Yes, sir. Answer me not a word! Are you the king of the Jews?
You say that I am, but I said I'll tell you one thing. Next
time you see me, you'll see me coming in power and glory. Next
time you look at me, you're looking at me now in weakness, and you
think you've got all the power, you've got all the authority.
Next time you look at me, you'll see me coming in power and glory. And oh, beloved, and then he
justified him from all the sins of his people that were upon
him. How do we know that He justified Him from all of our sins that
were upon Him? God raised Him from the dead.
Delivered for our sins. Raised for our justification.
And how do we know God justified Him? Because He ascended to the
right hand of God and sat down at the right hand. After He by
Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the
Majesty on high. Paul said, Great is the mystery
of Godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit justified everything
Christ did. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself. And watch what he says here.
In verse 8 again, he said, Who will contend with me? Who's going
to come and say, God justify me, the Holy Spirit justify me,
and I'm raised from the dead. Sins have been put away. Who's
going to come contend with me? Who will come? Ain't that what
he says there? Who's my insurance? Where's the
man at? Where's the person at that can
answer me? God, God going to contend with
me? No, I've honored him. I've satisfied him. I've kept
his word. I've obeyed Him perfectly. Will
the law come? No, no, I've fulfilled it. It can't condemn me anymore.
I've satisfied it. Justice can't come get me no
more. I've done suffered the penalty of the law. I've done
spent my time in prison, and I'm free. I tell you, I'm not going to
contend with Him. Oh, no, I'm thankful for Him.
Then look what He says here. Quick, let us stand together.
Let us stand together. What's he mean there? He's talking
to us now. Talking to us. Who's us standing with him? With
all these things he says, he has identified himself with us. Who's my adversary? Let's stand
together. He has identified Himself with
us. Here, He's our substitute. Here, He's the one who done everything
that He did here, He did for us. And beloved, I tell you,
we stand or fall together with Christ. We stand or fall with our sacrifice. If our sacrifice satisfied God,
then God's satisfied with Him. And if He did it for me, then
He's satisfied with me. If Christ pleases the Father,
and I believe Christ, and I trust Christ, then the Father's pleased
with me. And our Lord Jesus Christ has
stand here together with me. If we don't go up into the presence
of the Father, we'll stand right here with me. Let's go! Who's
going to contend with me? It's God that justifies me. Who's
going to condemn me? It's Christ that died. Let's stand together with Him.
Oh, listen, He's in now. Who's going to condemn Him? He's
not in the place of condemnation now. And neither are we. He bore our sins. Now we stand
in the place of justification. He's justified before God. He
bore our sins and God raised Him from the dead for our justification.
The Holy Spirit justified Him. And oh, and I tell you what,
if we were condemned with Christ, judged in Christ, we were justified
in Christ. Ain't that what it says? It said
in verse 9, here, Behold, the Lord God will help me. That's
why it says, Beloved, there is therefore now, right now, no
condemnation to them that are in Christ. And he said, Behold,
the Lord God, who is he that shall condemn me? When we stand
with Christ, who can condemn us? Where can we be judged? Who can find fault with us? And that's all that matters in
this world, standing with Christ. Standing in Christ. Being one
with Christ. We were one in Christ when He
came into this world. He came into this world not for
Himself, but for us. Stood as our representative.
And as we are one in Christ, what He did, we did. The Scripture
says when He is crucified, Paul said, I was crucified with Him.
When He was planted in the grave, we were planted together in His
likeness. When He's raised together, we'll be raised together in His
likeness. As we were crucified with Him, He was raised up together
with Him, and He said we sat together with Him right now at
the right hand of God. That's what it says. Huh? He's
accepted. You know? We're accepted. Where
at? In the Beloved. Oh, what a blessed Savior. What
a wonderful, wonderful Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessed God. What
a gospel. What a gospel.