Bibles to 1 Timothy, and we're
going to not really be there today, but remember that's sort
of where we are, so we're going to show another segue into today's
sermon. 1 Timothy. In this teaching, we
found that Paul is taking great care to make sure that young Timothy
is reminded of the things that he's already been taught. To
make sure that he realizes the gravity of his calling and the
severity of disunity. And also to be equipped very
clearly and practically with the theology, with the teaching,
with the doctrine, with the biblical, what we would call biblical knowledge.
It's not what Paul would have called it, but the biblical knowledge
of what the church is and how the church should live and how
the elder, overseer, pastor, shepherds, teachers, whatever
you want to call them, are called and required to mitigate and
handle all these things. In the latter part of chapter
three, He says in verse 14, I hope to come to you soon, but I am
writing these things so that if I delay, you may know how
one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of
the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. Great
indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. He was manifest
in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed
among the nations, believed on in the world, and taken up in
glory. So here is where we've been. We've segued, we've leapt
out of the pages of this. I'm gonna continue to do that
in the weeks to come to look at what the beautiful church
of Jesus Christ really is and what she ought to be. Because
that's exactly what Paul's teaching the elders, myself included,
to understand, to know, and to instruct. So we are here in the
Lord's presence today, together as his people, the body of Christ,
so that we may be instructed on how we ought to live according
to the gospel. Which includes what the gospel
is, as we've seen that little poem there. This mystery of godliness
is not a mystery anymore. It's manifest. It's displayed
to us. Jesus Christ has been shown and by the Spirit of God
He has taught His people through the pages of the New Testament
Scripture what the gospel is, who the gospel is, and to whom
the gospel was sent. Now, in verse 1 of chapter 4, we see an extreme change of focus. Not that there's a new message
to be dealt with, but now Paul is getting to the gravity of
what's truly happening. And I see this happening every
single day. But he says, now the Spirit, you see what he's
saying there? God Almighty is saying, God has said, God continues
to instruct. As Brother Armando read this
morning, I find it interesting how Paul would approach Philemon
and he would say, I have in Christ the authority to command you,
but I choose to appeal to you. And see, that's what shepherds
do. They appeal for the sake of Christ, the instruction, because
the word of God commands you. But ultimately, at the end of
the day, the elders of the church are responsible and will be held
accountable if they permit tomfoolery and sinfulness and things of
that nature to run amok, to destroy the fabric of the body of Christ
and disunity. So there are times where we have
to say, according to the scriptures, this will stop. Remember last
week, I talked about the rule of if it doesn't, we just decapitate
people. And that's a joke. I've got no
hate mail from that yet. But he says, now the Spirit expressly
says that in later times, that's now and then, some will depart
from the faith. How do they do that? By devoting
themselves to deceitful spirits, to the teaching of demons. And
let me tell you how many times this text has been applied to
me. I stopped counting. through the insincerity of liars
whose consciences are seared. Example, verse 3. We're not going
to really go through this, but this is the sentiment through
which I want to speak this morning. who forbid marriage, require
abstinent from certain foods that God created to be received
thankfully by those who believe and know the gospel of grace.
For everything created by, or know the truth, for everything
created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received
with thanksgiving for it has been made, set apart, it has
been made holy by the word of God in prayer.
And then he commands Timothy, if you put these things before
the brothers, you will be a good slave of Christ, being trained
in the words of the faith, the definite article there, the faith,
the set of doctrines and teachings, and of the good doctrine, the
teaching, the instruction that you have followed. And then he
gives Timothy commands and instructions who will likewise do the same
thing. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather, train yourself, Timothy,
in godliness. For while bodily training is
of some value, some of us have learned that, godliness is of
value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life
and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and
deserving of full acceptance. Verse 10, for to this end we
work and strive because we have our hopes set on the living God,
who is the Savior of all people, particularly, especially of those
who believe. Command these things. Let no
one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example
in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I
come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture,
to the exhortation of the body, to the teaching. Do not neglect
the gift you have which was given you by prophecy when the council
of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things. Deeply
immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. Keep
a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this
for by doing you will both save yourself and your hearers. And
that's not about redemption. That's about destruction. That's
about depression. It's about disaster. It's about
division. But we're not there. I'm gonna
be there soon. It might be January, but we're gonna be there. And
this speaks to me because it's commanded of the elders, so there's
a lot there that I have to personally manage and mitigate. And beloved,
I am not in the best of places. I'm not. Things are great, better,
a lot better than they were, but I'm still in the best of
places. The war over our thoughts and minds is constantly raging. And I'd love to say that I walk
in the Spirit constantly. But I don't. And neither do you. And that is one of the reasons
that we must be disciplined to come together on the Lord's day
that we may receive the means of grace through which we are
instructed and encouraged and delighted to walk in a manner
worthy of the gospel. Today, I want to talk about this
gospel and I want to answer the question about what Christ accomplished
on the cross. Why? The mystery of godliness. The reality of Jesus Christ coming
into the world. See, a lot of people think that
Christmas message, joy to the world, the Lord has come, let
earth receive their king. Oh, Jesus has come. Yay, it's
good news. It's not good news. That's not
the good report. That's the good report coming
into the world, but the good report is about the death of Jesus.
Not that Jesus was born. Is it a part of it? Yes, but
ultimately the efficacy, that means the thing that works, the
reason the gospel actually satisfies the wrath of God, propitiates
for His people, pays for 100% full and done at the cross, the
sins of the elect is because He came into the world. He came
into the world to die. He didn't come into the world
to rule the world, transform the world, to modify the behavior
of the world. to create nations and politicians
for His sake in the world except for their destruction. He came
to the world to die. He was vindicated by the spirit.
He did not stay dead. He rose from the dead because
he was not sinful in his humanity. He was truly and perfectly human.
And he was completely righteous in his humanity, just as he is
the righteousness of God in his divinity, the eternal God coming
into the world that he created through the womb of a woman that
he created, who, by the way, is not a virgin after he was
born. And she married her husband.
I've had that argument this week. Mary had other children, but
only one divinely given by the Spirit, and that is the person
of Jesus Christ, the body of the Lord God Almighty. He came
into the world that He created through a person He created,
into a body that He created for Himself to save a people that
He created for His own name. And angels look into these things.
You see 1 Peter, and was proclaimed among the
nations, the proclamation of His coming and His living and
His dying and His being raised to life. Vindicated, He is the
immortal, perfect, pure righteousness of God in human flesh who has
taken the sins of His people on Himself and He proclaimed
from the cross, it is finished. And in and on the world, in the
world he was believed on, in the world, then taken up in glory,
witnessed by hundreds of people. And we await him today. You see,
in the mire of our circumstances, in the mundane of this ridiculous
economy and political environment and everything else that's going
on, in the vitriol reality of what our interconnectivity has
brought to society and relationships, it is so easy to sit there and
go, I wonder if this is a bunch of hogwash. because we look at that which
is seen rather than that which is unseen. But God spoke to the prophet
Isaiah in chapter 53. You know the words, right? Specifically
starting in verse 5. He promised, but he was pierced
for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. He By His wounds, we are healed. And upon Him was the judgment,
was the wrath, was the punishment that brought us peace. And like
sheep, we have all gone astray. We've all wringed our hands.
We've all run away. We've all, as Paul would write
in Romans 3, And the venom of snakes on our lips, our mouths
are like open graves. We curse and we kill and we destroy. We vindicate ourselves. It feels
so delicious to get somebody back until it's done. And then it is a bitter poison
that roots the rot of our conscience. We have all turned, everyone,
to our own way. And the Lord, listen to that,
in Isaiah 53, we have all turned to our own way. Very few people
want to get all up in arms about the fact that Jesus Christ was
born into the world historically. Very few people even want to
get up in arms about the fact that He was divine or that He
was the Son of God. People want to get up in arms
when they hear that He alone is the righteousness of His people.
People want to fight because they want an anchor to stand
on. They want something to tether their hope to in such a way that
they have attached the harness and the sails to the chute that's
soaring them into glory. And they go, look what I did.
I found it and I strapped it on and I was bold. But do you
know what salvation is? When we are on fire and dead
and decayed, God reaches in the depths of the abyss and snatches
us out into the kingdom of life. That is the gospel. What have
we done? Nothing. Our believing does not
effectuate the death of Jesus Christ. Jesus was crushed to
destroy, not sin generally, but sin specifically. According to
the Bible, Jesus' death was for a specific people, and everyone
for whom he died, their sins are no more. And the Lord has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all, Isaiah 6, 53, 6. Let's go so much scripture. We
might not get out of here till one o'clock. It's all I know
to do. My mind isn't, my mind isn't
able to extrapolate very well at this moment. So the Bible
must do that which it was intended to do. 2 Corinthians chapter
5, you can turn there starting at verse 11. We hear Paul teaching
this extremely frustrating sinful little group of folks, not a
little group, but they were just messing everything up and Paul
writes to them and they write back and said, all's well, and
then Chloe goes, y'all lying, so Chloe writes to Paul and Chloe's
tattletales and said, these people, a bunch of knuckleheads, they
are lying to you, Paul, so Paul writes 1 Corinthians that we
know and basically says, I'm coming down here with a stick
and I'm gonna beat the dog mess out of all y'all like a bunch of bad
puppies But I don't want to do that.
I'm just going to call you babies. I'm going to teach you how to
grow up. Do this, do this, do this, do this. And then the second
letter, he writes to them an extremely gospel-centered encouragement. Not just in the fact that God
had established through his command peace and unity and purity. All those things we heard in
1 Timothy chapter 4 just a minute ago. But he established a reality
that there's always going to be reconciliation for those who
are in Christ. In this world! Because the Word
of God compels us. So Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 writes
these words, verse 11, Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord,
we persuade others. But what we are is known to God,
and I hope it is also known to your conscience. We are not commending
ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us so
that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward
appearance, and that includes any form of expression or outward
appearance, and not about what is in the heart. Verse 13, for
if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in our
right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls
us. See, the movies have destroyed
that text. That's not about exorcism, you know, it's about the work
of God, the spirit in the hearts of his people. What is the love
of Christ, the gospel, his giving of himself to save us perfectly
and finished? Why? Verse 14, for the love of
Christ controls us because we have concluded this, this is
the emphasis, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all that those
who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who
for their sake died and was raised. Now we've been learning about
that over the last umpteen weeks. Verse 16, from now on, therefore,
we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once
regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus
no longer. Verse 17, 18, 19, extreme emphasis. Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is dead,
has passed away. Behold, look here, the new is
alive, has come. All this is from God, who through
Christ, past tense, reconciled us to Himself and gave us now
the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling
the world to himself, not counting, how does he do that, not counting
their trespass against them, and entrusting to us the message
of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors
for Christ. God making his appeal through
us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, beloved, be reconciled
to God. For our sake he made him to be
sin who knew no sin, so that in him we would be, and I'm just
going to put that in the proper form, the righteousness of God. It's not a hope. We just don't
read things a little bit complex anymore in syntax. We might become
the righteous, but we are the righteousness of God. Keep your mind there and think
about Ephesians 5, 25, 26 and 27. Husbands, love your wife as Christ
loved the church and gave himself up for her. Emphasis, 26. Why
did he do? What did he do? That he might
sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with
the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor,
that means without spot, without wrinkle, or any such thing, that
she might be holy and without blemish. We know Hebrews 7, 9,
I'm gonna get there, 10, and other places like that teach
that as well. So what are these two passages? What does 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, these ten verses and then those three verses of Ephesians
5 show us? And of course the four verses
of Isaiah 53. It shows us that the work of
Christ in His death did something. It accomplished something. And
whether you saw it or not, whether you heard it or not, what it
did is it actually Judicially, spiritually, realistically, literally
paid for the guilt of the sins of His people once and for all.
It's not a hypothetical. The death of Christ did not create
a bank account or a bag of forgiveness that's available. The love of
God is not available to all. That's nonsense. The Bible doesn't
teach that. It might be an inference, but if it is an inference, it's
an inference that's come through culture. It's not an inference
that's come through scripture. It's a bunch of pretext. What's
that mean? People picking verses and sentences and word combinations
that make it sound right, rather than reading the whole letter
of 1 Corinthians and building their argument on the context
of what Paul is trying to teach, or what James is trying to teach,
or what John or Luke or Matthew or any of the other apostles
might have to teach. We don't pick a sentence out and create
an entire teaching out of it. That sentence has a context. I was in a public place this
past Friday. And some of the help sitting
in there were talking trash. And I could hear all of it. And
I'm sitting there going, I know they're not talking about the
people that just walked out. And they were. And then the phone
rang, and they talked about that person. And I'm sitting there
going, people are listening out here. So I went on Facebook.
I put, someone is always listening. And I love it. Because as a thinker,
you know what happened is I went and took and put out there and
the context in which you read that depends on how you responded
to it. NSA, big brother, not in this
house, I'm off the grid, you know. So they got that mindset.
Some took it as the Heavenly Father is always attentive to
our needs, which is true. Someone is always listening.
I took it as I can hear y'all talking trash about people. Stop!
This is terrible. Some even reached out and said,
I'm glad you listened. Can we talk? So there's always a context. And the context of scripture
must be together or we'll misunderstand the point. Beloved, don't take my word for
it. Sit down and read two or three letters and get to the
point. If we have to go to a Google search or to a log off software
or to a dictionary or to a commentary to figure out what we think something's
being said according to the scripture, we are not learning it. We are
recapitulating, parroting someone else's idea. And unless we're in academics
and have to do that for the sake of what we're studying, it's
a very poor and dangerous practice of the church. Very dangerous. For if a man is not alive today
to teach you his points, he's not worthy of listening to, except
in a vacuum. You see what I'm saying? Well,
who agrees with me? Well, let's just look over the
last 5,000 years and see. That's great. Enjoy it. Well,
look at these idiots over here that disagree with me. See, that's
how we do it. That's the context in which we put it. Well, here
are the heretics. Here are the orthodox folks. And then those
guys are saying, we're the orthodox folks. They're the heretics.
Doctrines of demons. So when it comes to the death
of Christ, there is only one right established expression
of what it accomplished and that is found in the whole counsel
of God's Word. And if you understand how to
read the Bible, how do you understand how to read the Bible? Just do
it. Just read it. Don't do like me. My family liked
to read books through the years and I'm like, what's going on?
What are they talking about? So I'll go read the last chapter
of the book. Yeah, I know how it ends. That's my context. I don't want the journey, I just
want the CliffsNotes. That's the world we live in.
We want the CliffsNotes. Give me the theological answer. Give
me the quick card in the back of the book. I think most of
us, if we were, and I know this because for years, a lot of guys
carried around study, what are those things called? Study Bibles. You had to actually pay a bag
fee when you took them on an airplane. Sorry, sir, that's
gonna cost you 20 bucks. I mean, literally, gave them
away at conferences, these big old fat study Bibles that weighed
about 14 pounds. And there was a ton of them in
the, airport because they weigh too much. You've got to take
this book out. Your luggage is too heavy. But we would much
rather just have the footnotes that are scripture and all of
the answers. Who wants the math textbook when
the teacher's addendum in the back gives us the A? That's not the way to work. And
beloved, there's power in hearing the Word of God read to you. The scripture in the New Testament,
I'm going to go through a lot of scriptures. As a matter of fact, I have 27 verses. This
is rapid though, you know, I talk fast. I don't want to see any,
we're not auctioning anything up here, so just get ready. But there are three or four specific
things in our English translation that we see that apostles use
in relation to the work of Christ. They use the word blood a lot,
you know, If you find some of the cults around here, they're
like, well they removed the word blood. The word blood, the word
body, the word death, the word person, and the word cross, the
reality of all these things, they all mean the exact same
thing. They're metaphors for the sacrificial
death of Jesus. I don't want to get into Leviticus.
I don't want to go to Deuteronomy. I don't want to get into all
these things. I've done some time in Genesis 1-3. We know, we understand the wages
of sin. We understand that God in His
perfect righteousness and justice must punish wickedness and evil
and rebellion. You know, the philosophers and
what, well, is he maniacal? Is he mean? You know, what's
going on? No, we're going to take it at face value and understand
just very simply that we've been taught by God that we deserve
the righteous wrath and anger and justice of God Almighty.
But in his sovereign electing grace, he created the world in
order to create a people for himself. to establish his righteousness
in himself by giving his son in place of his people, a substitution. You would be shocked at the number
of historical figures, even in the present day, who stomp their
feet against Jesus being a punishment, a substitute punishment. They stomp their feet at it.
Why? Because then he is no longer their righteousness. They have
done something to obtain something that Jesus offered. Beloved,
that's hogwash. It's a false gospel. We don't
teach people a false gospel. We teach people the true gospel. Scripture says in Romans 3, 25,
God put forth Christ. He put him forth as propitiation. Propitiation. That means to satisfy
His own wrath through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His
justice. How did He do that? By passing over former sins,
forbearing former sins. The present day, He's the just
and the justifier of all who rest and trust in Christ. So in those areas, the word body,
blood, death, person, cross, etc., they all mean the sacrificial
death of Christ. Listen to the contextual evidence. And don't take my word for it,
go back in and listen to all of it. Go back in and read and
listen. That's a new word, I'm gonna
get a t-shirt, listen. So we read and listen. Don't let me
forget that, that's a good idea. It's not, but anyway. John 12,
24, you don't have to go here, it's gonna be a shotgun blast. Christ is telling about seeds
having to fall into the ground in order to produce life. That's
a picture of himself. He must die in order for us to
live. His death produced life. It didn't make life possible.
It didn't make life available. It didn't make life hopeful.
Hope and wish are two different things. A hope is what you are
certain of. A wish is a hope it works out. See how we use
the words interchangeably? We've ruined language. 1 Corinthians
15, 3, Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture. 2 Corinthians 5, we were just there.
He died for those who no longer live for themselves but those
who died for them and were raised again. We are dead. I'm going
to go back to that text in a minute in 2 Corinthians 5. Romans 5,
6, while we were powerless, while we were still sinners, Christ
died for in the place of the ungodly. Verse 8, while we were
still sinners, Christ died for us. Verse 9 of Romans 5, we have
been justified. That means we have been counted
righteous. How? By His blood. By His blood. Why the blood? The blood is proof
of death. The water and the blood ran out.
Look at the imagery there. Look at the imagery there in
1 John. While we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Romans 5.10.
I know these aren't necessarily in order. I just pasted them
in as I could because I knew it would take me four hours to flip
through all this. Romans 7. Through Christ's body, He died. We have died to the law through
the body of Christ. It means it no longer has power
over us to condemn us and put us in prison. If the president
or the governor or whoever decides that all those who are under
the law and are in the jails and in the prisons, they decide
that that particular law is no longer something that is going
to bind people, then they have to let them all out. There's nothing the law cannot
bind the believer. The law cannot bind the elect
in justice because Jesus Christ has taken In our flesh, in our
nature, are we bound? Absolutely. Can we learn from
it? You betcha. But obeying it will
not get us any closer to the righteousness of God than digging
a hole and putting our face in it. Peter has a lot to say. Chapter
1, verse 2, verses 18 and 19. The sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus, which is a picture of his death and the fulfillment
of the prophecy of the prophets and of God. We know that the
blood of bulls and goats did not satisfy. The scripture Peter
talks about being his precious blood that we redeemed from our
empty, vain lives through the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
Jesus, according to 1 Peter 2.24, He bore our sins in His body
on the tree in order that we might die to sin and live to
righteousness. The book of Ephesians. Ephesians
1-7, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
our sins. Ephesians 2, we once who were
far away have been brought near. How? Hey, y'all, come on. No. Don't y'all want to get out
of here? No. We've been brought near by
the blood of Christ, the death of Jesus. When I taught Ephesians
and Hebrews to my high school class over what about three or
four year period, it seems I'd always use the podium and talked
about how if Christ is here, if righteousness is at the top
of it, And underneath the podium is the totality of all the nations
of the world throughout all of history. And you see that the
Jews hovered around the top of the underside, but they still
weren't on top. And everybody else was far away.
And the blood of Jesus goes over the ledge of debauchery, over
the ledge of death, over the ledge of being dead in our sins
and our minds and covers the elect of God and are snatched
up over the crevice, snatched up over the cliff, pulled out
of the abyss and put into the light of Christ. The death of
Christ accomplished that. It purchased them. When one comes to believe that
that accomplished work is something that they trust and know, Jesus doesn't dip into his bag
of blood and sprinkle them. Their sins have been forgiven
in the death of Christ. Theological philosophy, philosophical
theology. has put burdens on our minds
and bodies and faith in such a way that we've lost the simplicity
of how a child should embrace the reality of the gospel. God the Spirit gives faith as
a child. I trust Him. I know. We've been brought near by the
blood of Jesus. We're no longer foreigners, but
we are citizens of the household of God. Ephesians 2.16 says God
has reconciled both those who were hovering under the edge
and those who were far away, Jew and Gentile, both how? By the death of Christ through
the cross, having put to death the enmity through the death
of Jesus Christ. In Colossians Paul says God was
pleased, how is it? To reconcile all things to himself
having made peace by the blood of the cross of Christ. Verse
22 in that same chapter 1 of Colossians is that we have been reconciled
by the body of Jesus, by the flesh of Jesus. And it's Paul
using that same language he uses in Ephesians 5 to present you
blameless, to present you perfect and unblemished and holy in his
sight. Colossians 2, 14 and 15 says that God cancelled the law,
the debt, the indictment. He cancelled the indictment. through the death of Jesus Christ. We go to the book of Hebrews,
we can just read the whole thing, but we see Jesus crowned. It says in chapter 2, verses
9 and 10, that it was fitting for God in bringing many sons
to glory to perfect the author of their salvation. through His
pain and suffering. What does that mean? It's a completed. It doesn't mean that Jesus got
better. It means that it was completed. I've been writing some books
through the years, and I've lost some of them. They're unfinished. When I finally get to the point
of writing and finishing them, editing them, they'll be perfected.
They're finished. It's done. Okay, there we go.
It's a poor example, but Jesus, He finished the work. Destroying
what? The one who has the power of
death, the enemy. And freeing those who were enslaved by death. Hebrews 2.14. Hebrews 9. Christ
entered into the holy places, leaving what? His blood. With
the blood of bulls and goats and doves and flour. Yes, if
you were poor and you didn't have the money to buy an animal
or to bring an animal, you could bring flour and they'd sprinkle
flour over the holy of holies in your stay. It was a sign. It was a symbol. It was an act
of obedience. It was a religious rite where
you walked in. You knew that the priest would
take that which represented your household and would sprinkle
it over the mercy seat of God. The cherubims whose angel, whose
wings in that statue covered the top of the Ark of the Covenant.
And inside that Ark was the law of God that condemned all humanity.
And the only way that God wouldn't open that box and kill everybody
who touched it is that the blood of a perfect sacrifice would
have to represent something else. Beloved, if Jesus Christ's death,
His blood, the cross, and His life and body did not represent
the elect of God, we are damned where we sit. And we are not. The blood of Christ will cleanse
our consciences, from the things and the acts
and the thoughts that lead to death, including unbelief. The scripture says that he is
the mediator, Hebrews 9.15, of the new covenant, that by the
means of his death, he became the ransom to free his people.
From what? From their sins under the first
covenant. Unto what? The promise of eternal life. Scripture teaches, Hebrews 10.10
says, that we've been made holy through
the offering of the body of Christ once and for all. 1 John 1.7,
by the blood of Jesus, His Son, it cleanses us from all unrighteousness. In the last book of the Bible,
John's revelation, no S. It was one revelation, not two. Apocalypse means revealed. The
things that Jesus showed him, he wrote down to encourage the
saints. In the very first chapter, in
verse 5, the scripture says that Christ loved us and freed us
from our sins by His blood. Holy, worthy, worthy, worthy
is the Lamb to take the scroll. Worthy is the Lamb to take the
scroll, which is the oracle of God, the proclamation of God,
that He would send the seed of the woman And through the seed of the woman,
he would crush the head of the serpent. He would undo the curse
of death for his people. Worthy are you, O Lamb of God,
to take the scroll, to open it, to read it, and to be the propitiation,
to be the wrath bearer for your people. Worthy are you, O Lamb,
that was slain before the foundations of the world. Did Jesus die before
He was incarnated? No. But God is eternal. He does
not exist in the proximity of time and He is not bound to that
which He created. It would be like your car telling
you where to go and when to get up. Sorry you can't breathe right
now because we've got to go to the store. I'm going to shut
off your lungs until we get there. Worthy is the Lamb. By the blood of the Lamb of God,
every nation, every tongue, every tribe, every people, the world
will be saved through the Lamb of God. But it does not mean
every single person It means all those for whom he died from
all nations, tongues, and tribes. And the context proves that.
If you want to go to First Peter, you want to go to all these other
places, and Timothy and all, and you want to spend some time,
I've probably got six hours of podcasts on those very things
grammatically. I don't want to go through it
again. I'm trying to erase that stuff. But just read it. Let the Word
of God teach you. The question now is, we have
established very clearly, not only in context, but also in
many, many little pretexts and proof texts, that Jesus died
and accomplished redemption. He accomplished forgiveness.
His death satisfied the wrath of God. Now the next question
is very obvious. We've already answered it, but
for whom? In Matthew 1, Jesus is talking to the people, and
he says what? I mean, if you haven't read Matthew
or Luke in a while, you ought to do it. It's hard for me to
read it. I embrace it and I love it, but it burdens
me so much that I get emotional over the hearing of it because
the brass, bold condemnation of the Pharisees is just awful.
So I have such tenderness toward people who are wrong and act
sinful. Because they're acting just like the condemned. And
we aren't the condemned, Paul would say. So therefore, live
in a manner worthy of the gospel. You've been called to life. Live
in a manner worthy. We don't get up every day and fear that
our Father's going to kick us in a mud hole because we're not
going to live right. We know we're not going to live
right, so we strive to live according to the gospel of grace and be
forgiven. It's not a burden, it's a blessing,
it's a praiseworthy existence. In Matthew 1, verse 21, Jesus
says, She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus,
for He will save, which is Yeshua, Yahweh saves is what the name
means, God saves, for He will save His people from their sins. John 6, and this is where you get the
evangel. You go to the Gospels. You get the polishing and the
exposition of that teaching of this gospel truth and the lives
of God's people through the letters, the correction, the training,
the rebuke, the encouragement, the exhortation, the admonishment,
which is basically listen up with a little bit of a warning.
And in John 6, what does Jesus do? He says, I came to save those
who the Father gives me. All that the Father gives me
will come to me, and all that come to me I will never cast
away, but I will raise them up. He was vindicated by the Spirit
through the resurrection of the dead. He finished the work of
redemption. It's a done deal. Salvation is accomplished, and
it is applied only to the people for whom He died, the elect of
God. And it is applied by grace, grace
alone, the death of Christ. The reason you do not come to
me is because you do not belong to me, Jesus says. The reason
that you cannot come to me is because you are not of my fold.
There are others who are of my fold. They are sheep that have
yet to come to know me, but I will find them. I will find them and
I will send you Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter. James, I will send you to the
far reaches of the world, and y'all are going to stay over
here in Palestine, but I'm going to get another one, the one that
hates you unto death. His name's Saul of Tarsus, and
I'm going to bring him into the fold, and I'm going to let him
go over there to Asia, and I'm going to let him go to Spain,
and I'm going to let him go to Rome, and I'm going to let him go to
America. You know, he didn't come to America, but the message did.
That was dangerous. I'm sorry. You read the book. The message came, but Paul didn't,
and Jesus didn't either. For those of you who don't get
that joke, it's not funny. But Jesus is like, you'll do greater
works than me, than this, by proclaiming the works that I've
accomplished, you see. And more and more and more, we'll
see. In John 10, Jesus says, the shepherd,
the good shepherd, I am the good shepherd. The metaphor is not
just for us to figure out. He explains it. He says, I am
the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life
down for his sheep, not for the goats, not for the wolves. The
wolves come in to seek and destroy. The wolves come in to try to
burden you, to tell you that you're not a sheep, to tell you
that you don't have the right knowledge, to tell you that you're not good
enough, to tell you that you're not living rightly. The wolves come in and
try to bind you up because when the wolf binds you up, he owns
you. And Paul's going to get there
in 1 Timothy. He gets upset about the wolves when he's right in
1 Timothy and he gets to 2 Timothy, it's even more. Jesus got upset
about wolves. He said, it would be better for
them never to be conceived in their mother's womb and be born
into the world. He said, it would be better for
those who cause a sheep to stumble in their faith to have a millstone
tied around their neck and to be thrown in the deepest cavern
of the sea than to face the wrath of God. Beloved, this is not a joke.
The gospel is not a joke. The gospel is not some, you know,
Americanized rendition of spirituality that makes us feel good about
ourselves. The gospel is about the face of God being revealed
to a people that He made to reveal Himself through by sending His
Son to save them. Jesus says in John 15 that He
has made His people His friends. that he's laying down his life
for his friends. In Acts chapter 20, it teaches
that the gospel, the death of Christ was for the church. And
Ephesians 5 teaches us that it is for his bride. I want you
to think about the emphasis of marriage. Marriage is a union
between a man and a woman forever. It's not about all the perks
and privileges of the world today and the tax exemptions and all
the other stuff to be able to say, look at our kids. Those
are just extra benefits of living in the world and society in which
we live. But marriage in and of itself is a picture of the
gospel. It is not easy. It is not going to be always
a bed of roses that lets you lay on the thorns. But, you know,
it's going to be a depiction of Christ in the church. And if anybody in a marriage
steps out of that marriage and does something they shouldn't or abuses someone. It's as if,
if it displays Christ, it's as if Christ were to abuse His people. And what wolves and legalists
and false professors and perfectionists do is that they come along and
they say, the work of Christ is sufficient. Hallelujah. Oh,
wait a minute, but not for you. So the only way they can get
around that logically is to know some divine truth that's been
given them by the Spirit of God directly that someone in their
face is an absolute reprobate. Because otherwise it's just a
circular idiocy. Of saying something that they
can't know, but they say they know. That they can't know, but
they say they know. Oh, so God had to speak to you
personally. That doesn't happen. outside
of the reading of the word. And don't take my word for it.
Jesus is not about multiple brides. Jesus is not about, well, the
Old Testament had multiple wives. That doesn't mean that it was
right. When did historical narrative
become prescriptive? Actually, wisdom says don't do
that. Wisdom says look at history and
do the opposite. Those who are chosen in Christ. Now go back up. Go back up to Ephesians 5. I'll start there and bring that
emphasis to light. Husbands. Andros. Head. Something's the head. In our culture it means it's
the boss. Was Jesus the boss in his earthly ministry? It's
a trick question. Was he the boss? The answer is
no. Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus
stomp his feet and root himself as the authority. He always points
to the Father. Father, I do not speak of my
own accord, but I speak that which the Father is speaking.
I do not do this of my own will, but the Father who sent me, I
do what He's doing. You see the works of God, now
I do the works of God. You hear the words of God, now
I am the word of God. I do these things that the Father
may be glorified." And then in the moment before his arrest,
he says some things in his prayer. He says, Father, glorify yourself
and glorify the Son. Reveal me for who I am. And in his death, listen to this,
in his death he became the husband of his bride. In his submission
to die, he became the head. that He might set her apart. Who? His wife, His bride. Not
everybody. Not every person in the world.
There's nowhere, nowhere, not one place in the Bible that teaches
the hypothetical idea that the gospel is available to all. Are we to preach it to all? Yes.
But that's why evangelism since the 18th century has just
been debauchery. I know that's hyperbole, but
it's been ridiculous. Because there's some sense in
which we as people have gotten creative to try to get people
to respond and react and do something according to the gospel. So instead
of God saving a people who gather together and grow in grace according
to the prescription of scripture, we've done a real good job of
taking Christ on the cross and His finished work out of it.
And in an attempt to justify our own insecurities about sovereignty,
we've established this tether to the Phineism and the Grahamisms
and all the other isms and bisms and tisms around the world. And
all these historical monikers, especially in the United States,
where every cult that exists in the world comes from. Because
that's what the Constitution allows. Freedom of religion. Thank God. We lose sight of the fact that we are inundated or infiltrated
or poisoned to such a degree as 21st century people in our
evangelism. Our gospel, even in the best
of circles, is always, always has the, you ever swept a concrete
slab? I mean, my garage has been there
for nine and a half years. And I still sweep concrete dust
up. And I'm like, well, I'm not going to breathe this. You go
inside and you got white powder all around your nose. And that's
with a mask on. That's the gospel problems in
the church of America today, especially in reform circles
or sovereign grace circles. We've become one of the biggest
cult-like people holistically of anybody. Because we hate everybody,
we're grumpy, we fuss and complain. God bless America, Jesus is my
joy. I mean, you know. Well, I'm going to find another
Jesus. How about this one? But the elect of God will not
stay with another Jesus. They will come to the true Christ.
But beloved, we have a responsibility not to be inundated. We need
to recognize there's dust in our nose. And we don't even know
it. So listen. Pay attention. Be
discerning. Be critical of your own thinking.
For once, realize that humility recognizes the lack of it. To say I'm humble proves you're
not. The humblest of person thinks
themselves extremely arrogant. Christ gave himself up for her
bride that he might set her apart. Not in a harem. Not as a property. Our world is messed up. I mean,
I could segue into a whole bunch of stuff here. He cleansed her
by dying. by the body that was crushed
and the water that flushed out through the asphyxiation process
of crucifixion and the blood that spilled out washed us. And God the Father who put him
on the cross took pleasure in that. Not my words, the scripture.
He took pleasure in the spilling of the fluids of life from the
side of His Son who had died. Why? Because of His own purpose,
He chose to display Himself through the love for His people, for whom Christ Why would he
do such a thing that he might present the church to himself
in splendor? How many of us would not even
get up off the couch to help our neighbor, much less lay down
our lives to help our enemies? And that's not an indictment,
because we're not Christ. We're not the Christ. Even if
we did, it wouldn't do anything. that the wife, that the bride
might be holy and without blemish. I don't know about you, but I've yet to meet anybody,
husband, wife, kid, grandma, grandpa, auntie, uncle, auntie,
uncle, however you want to say it, ever, who was without blemish. Even the most perfect of infants
are problematic. And some of them are just ugly.
Be honest. But yet here we stand without
blemish because of the death of our Savior. It's done. It wasn't what you and I did
to accomplish that, to apply that to our lives. God has done
that. How? Back to 1 Corinthians. I mean, 2 Corinthians 5. Quickly,
I know I'm almost done. That's the what, that's the who,
now the how. See, I don't do outlines, they
just sort of come to me when I'm finished. That's what an editor's for.
2 Corinthians 5, verse 14, latter
part of it says, we have concluded this, that one, Jesus the Christ
has died for all. Now who's he talking to? The
church. All of us, Christ has died for
all of us. Therefore, all have died. Y'all,
I'm so glad. I'm not as smart as I used to
think I was. Because this text has I have
opined in my personal hammock over this many, many times through
the years. What is it that Paul is trying
to say? This is deep. It's not deep. It's pretty simple.
Jesus Christ, as a substitute, represented the elect of God.
We, as sinners, deserve the wrath of God justly, in holiness, righteousness,
and justice. And so when Jesus died, we died
with Him. We paid, the debt of our sin
has been paid by Jesus. It's as if we died. Ah, just
as satisfied. But wait a minute, the substitute
wasn't guilty of the offense. He's alive again. Well, if we
died with Him, we raise with Him. So when Jesus took on our sin,
we got His righteousness. It's just that simple. It's just that simple. The old
has passed away. That's the gentle way of saying
someone has died. Uncle T, I had an uncle, he passed
away. My dad called me, Uncle T passed. He didn't mean pass the exit,
pass the driveway, passed. Grandparents, other family members,
they've passed. passed out of life into death. Except in the Gospel, we pass
out of death into life. So the old has passed away. We
have died in Christ. Christ's death is effectual for
us and is mutually representative of us as a people, individually
and collectively. And look, behold! It's like magicians. We love that word. Behold! There's
nothing in my hands and now poof, here's a banana. World hunger
solved. Behold, the new has come. Now see, false gospel representations
would say the new is your changed life. The new is you no longer
say ugly dude words. You no longer think ugly dude
thoughts. Yes, you do. Anybody can grow and mature in
their behavior. Unbelievers, atheists. It's funny,
all the atheists that I have as acquaintances, so-called friends,
you know, I hate to say they're my friends because, oh my God,
I have atheist friends. I have atheist professors in
seminary. It's because you can teach it,
right? It doesn't mean you believe it. And none of them were pagans
from the point of view of what we would think pagans are. They
didn't have horns coming out of their heads. They didn't sacrifice
cats on Fridays. They didn't walk around blaspheming. Until they said, I don't believe
the Bible is true, but it's a fantastic piece of literature. You wouldn't
have known. Some of you know people like
that you may have thought were your brother or sister in the
faith for years, and then finally they go, I never really believed
this. Really? So it's not about what
we present. Is what we present important?
Absolutely, because it identifies our Savior with what we do. It's
like my father always telling us, boy, your word and your name,
don't mess my name up. And he was harder on me than
the other ones, Don't mess my name up. Behold, the new has come. We
are alive. We've been reconciled to God
through the death of Jesus Christ. Beloved, this is a finished work. The New Testament establishes
and affirms the effectual accomplishment of the body and the blood and
the cross and the death of Christ for the elect. It is a done deal. We call this theologically limited
atonement. Atonement meaning to be made
at one. Atonement in the Old Testament
to satisfy wrath and to pay for sins. Particular redemption. The salvation
of a particular people. Beloved, it is a subtle darkness
that creeps into our midst. And if we are the buttress of
the truth, if we believe that God has vindicated His glory
through the death and the resurrection of His Son to save a people for
Himself, then we must hold fast to that, not with bigotry, but
certainly with prejudice. Not against others or other ideas,
but in the sense that we are going to hold fast to the truth
with humility and with hope and with love and with gentleness
and with respect, knowing that if it were not for the power
of the grace of God for us, we would have never seen it to begin
with. And because we now see it, we
know that 2,000 years ago when Christ said it was finished,
He meant for us. So we are done. We stand redeemed. And this is the work of Christ
on the cross. And this is the baby steps of the of the reality
of it. But there's so much more that
we could talk about justice and justification and adoption, all
these things. But ultimately, our sins are
forgiven through the death of Jesus. Let us rejoice in that. Let us be at peace in that. and make sure that that truth
empowers us to live accordingly with the people around us. Let's
pray. We thank you, Father, for the
truth of the gospel, Lord, for using my mouth and the lack of
my mind to portray the words of your Word. Your Word is faithful. You are faithful. Your Word does
not return to you without calls and work. It is always active
and living and breathing. And so, Father, for that, I am
so thankful that I am not anything but an instrument to speak that
which you are doing. And the power is all yours. So,
Lord, let us be a people that manifest your power to teach
us who we are and what you've done for the sake of Christ.
We pray. Amen.