I'm going to be in Lamentations
chapter 1 Lamentations chapter 1 Of course we know most of the time this is interpreted
matter of fact as I kind of looked Went and seen a few commentaries just to kind
of see what other men's thoughts was on some of this stuff here. As I say often, I think we need
to find Christ in everything. Even Christ said that all of
the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets, and all the Old
Testament was all written about Him. Everything in the Scripture
is to point to Christ, right? And while there's other things
that's talked about within the scripture, I think that a lot
of these things are all pointing and looking at Christ. Most of
the commentary people that I read on these passages here all pointed
towards that this is specifically speaking about the church. And
I can definitely see that that can be applied. Some of the things
that we read here in Lamentations can definitely be applied to
the church. However, I want to maybe present
a little different angle on this because the church is basically
the body and Christ is the head. We are in Christ Jesus, therefore
that which Christ substitute for one. But we see
because we are in Christ, we also experience the things that
Christ experienced. Whenever Christ obeyed on our
behalf, we obeyed. So whenever the head obeyed,
the whole body obeyed in Him. Whenever Christ died, the whole
body died in Him. Whenever Christ was resurrected,
the whole body was resurrected because we were in Him, right?
Jesus also mentioned on several occasions that whenever, that
because He was afflicted, because He was scorned, because He was
persecuted, that we also, His body would receive ridicule and
scorn, scoffing, persecution. So we see that because we are
in Christ, and of course we look on the other thing, because we
are in Christ at the head, Jesus is considered the Israel of God,
but yet we're considered the Israel of God, right? Why? Because
we are in Him. Jesus is considered the Son of
God, but yet we are sons of God. Why? Because we are in Him, we
are His seed. So therefore we are sons of God.
Jesus was the one who received the inheritance, but yet we are,
What does the Bible say? We're co-heirs with Jesus. We're
co-inheritors of all the blessings that was bestowed upon Christ. They're also bestowed upon us.
So all the blessings are yea and amen in Christ. And we receive
those blessings because we are in Him, that eternal vital union.
And so therefore, we see that there is this tangible relationship
between Christ as our head And us, there is this true vision of a whole body, one man
being fitly put together in all of his parts and all of his members
known within him. All of this together is Christ
Jesus and his people. And so we see this inseparable
union. So therefore, whenever we come to Lamentations, physically
and timely, this was speaking of Jerusalem and the Israelites
back in those days, right? The things that were to happen
to them, the captivity, the persecution, the enemies that would come against
them, all the things that we've seen that happened to Israel
during those times. But yet we also see this as a
picture of the church in a spiritual way. We see it as a picture of
the church. But brother, I would press even
a little bit further and say this is speaking of Christ Jesus
and therefore since it's speaking of Christ Jesus that also includes
us. It speaks of Jerusalem in these
passages but Jesus himself is the true Jerusalem and as we
have looked in the times past we've seen that the imagery or
the or the symbology that we see throughout scripture that
Jerusalem, the holy city, is often referred to as Zion, is
often referred to as that holy city. And as we look through
scripture, we see that that is always usually the reference
of that temple or that building, that place where God resides,
and the lively stones that make up this city, that makes up this
building, that makes up this tabernacle, the walls around
the city, all these things are imagery that are pointing to
the people of God. And of course Christ being the
head of that and his people in him. These are metaphors that
Jesus used, that the apostles used. He used a city, he used
a body, he used a tabernacle or a temple and everything, but
he was speaking of him and his people together and him making
up this thing. So whenever we look back into
the Old Testament and we begin to read some of these things,
we can begin to see if we're looking through spiritual understanding
of these things, we begin to see how this speaks of the Lord
Jesus Christ in particular, and then us in Him also. But let's
start reading in verse 12, and I want to read down to verse
13. It says, Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold
and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Now I've
just asked the question, can we actually say that about anybody
else except the Lord Jesus? To be honest. Has anybody ever
had a sorrow like unto his sorrow? I don't think there ever has
been. I mean, we truly have a lot of sorrow that we face in this
lifetime, but has anybody faced the sorrow, especially if you
go to the New Testament and you read that night in Gethsemane
where Jesus went before the Father in prayer and the agony and the
heart that was spilled out there before God. And whenever he,
the Bible says that he prayed and whenever he did, I mean,
he sweat droplets of blood, you know, that he was so, this prayer
before God was so intense, knowing that what he was about to experience,
not only the physical nature of what he was about to experience,
with all the beatings and the floggings and the eventual crucifixion
and things like that. But the very fact that his father
would forsake him and that God would turn and would put all
the weight and wrath of God upon him for the sins of his people.
I mean, this was something that overflowed in the grief of the
heart of our Lord And so his sorrow was like no sorrow that
we've ever had. Whenever a family member dies,
we feel great sorrow. But that sorrow subsides after
a little time. And it's never to the degree
like Christ, who is God, who has never been separated at all,
felt whenever he was forsaken of God. And whenever he became
sin upon the cross, not literally a sinner, but whenever he took,
he became sin for us, he became our substitute, he took on all
of our sin and therefore all the wrath of God fell upon him.
What great sorrow that was. That's why the Bible calls him
man of sorrow. We sing this song, man of sorrows, what a name.
He truly is a man of sorrows. And so whenever I look at this
verse, I see, I can't help but see the Lord. What does it say? Is it nothing to you, ye, all
ye that pass by? We remember at the crucifixion
on the cross, the Bible talked about those who would pass by
and rail at Him, pass by and mock Him, spit on Him, make fun
of Him and all that kind of stuff. It says, is it nothing to you,
all ye that pass by? What a question that is. And
I hope I don't get too scattered here, but it's so profound The
question that here we see a picture, if we're looking at Christ in
view here, we see a picture of God himself on the cross dying
for sinners. The holy God, the one who is
perfect, who is righteous, who has never sinned, the one who
has created all things. The Bible says that Christ Jesus
is the creator of all things, that by him all things were made.
And for him all things were made. Not only was he the creator of
all things, But everything that He created was created for Him
and for His purpose. But yet here He is, humbled Himself
as a servant, took on flesh, the God who is invisible, and
the Bible says that the heaven of heavens can't contain, took
on flesh and confined all of the Godhead in one man's body. and then subjected himself. The
Bible says that he did this willingly. I have a few verses I want to
look at here, but the Bible says that he subjected himself willingly to all the accusations, to all
the mocking, to all the beating, to all the blasphemy, to all
the pain that he endured, and then submitted himself willingly
to the wrath of God on our behalf And he says here, is it nothing
to you? Can you imagine that? Walking in front of Christ in
this situation and seeing Him and what all He was doing and
realizing all that was transpiring in this work. And it says, is
it nothing to you? What's going on here? Is it nothing
to you that all ye that pass by, behold and see if there be
any sorrow like unto my sorrow. which is done unto me wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of fierce anger." Listen,
none of us has experienced the fierce anger of God fully. And
thankfully, for the child of grace, we never will. As we just
sung in that hymn before we began here, we're never going to. God has kept us secure. God has
delivered us from any wrath. He has not appointed us unto
wrath. And so what a blessing that is that we will never, ever,
ever experience the affliction of God's fierce anger. Yet Christ
has on our behalf. He says, from above hath He sent
fire into my bones and it prevaileth against them. He has spread a
net for my feet. He hath turned me back. He hath made me desolate and
faint all the day. Now look at verse 14, it says,
the yoke of my transgressions is bound by His hand. They are
wreathed and come upon my neck. He hath made my strength to fall. The Lord hath delivered me into
their hands for whom I am not able to rise up. So we look at
this picture of Christ on the cross and the affliction of God upon the wrath of God
upon the sin that Christ was bearing for His people and all
the enemies of God and all the ones who came against Him that
brought forth this crucifixion and the punishment that was coming
from God Himself. And we look at this like someone
who is helpless. We see, and again, this is where my mind
goes to, this is God. At any time he could have just,
he didn't even have to say a word, he could have just went and sniffed
his nose and everything would have obliterated into nothing.
You know, we've all watched the Avengers movie where Thanos snapped
his finger and everybody started to dissolve into one. God doesn't
even have to do that, you know. He just can think. He can speak a syllable and everything
becomes nothing again. And here He is subjecting Himself,
allowing, so to speak, if you'll allow me that word, allowing
His very creation to torture Him, to put Him on a cross. But
even more than that, He went to that cross, despising the
shame, but went there with joy in His heart, do so. Now, we
see this as of a man afflicted. We see this as one caught in
a snare. That's what it means whenever
it says they cast a net for my feet. Someone who's been caught
in a snare, taken, brought back and been afflicted, okay? And he says that he has been delivered to
these people and that he is not able to rise up. Now that doesn't
mean that he doesn't have the power to overcome that. We know
that the Bible says that he is very capable that if he would
have called any kind of angels to come, he could have called
angels. There's that song, he could have
called 10,000 angels. He could have called angels to
come and deliver him. He could have stopped in the
middle of all that and said, this is it, I'm not gonna do
this. Now we say that God's purposed
that so therefore it's never going to happen but God in His
determination could have chose not to do any of that stuff.
Matter of fact God could have in His determination in the middle
of all that could have decided to show His full force wrath
and at that point destroyed everything. But He didn't. And so the question
is asking, here we have Christ doing all this, but for what
purpose? But for what purpose? Why has
Christ come to do this? Why has Christ come to do this?
And the question at the beginning of it all that continues to intrigue
me is, what is it, why do you pass by And look, and this is nothing
to you, who in the world is found in that question? Who is he talking
about that would dare or even just out of pure sympathy pass
by and think nothing about what's going on here? Are there anybody
that's like that today? I mean, we know that what happened
on the cross is the most paramount thing in all of history. Backward
history and forward history. That's the paramount thing that
God has done in this creation in time. Now there's going to
be an exaltation after time is over with that that is ultimately
going to be the paramount thing. But I'm talking about in our
time on earth here before the consummation of all things. And that is the cross of Jesus
Christ. The angels themselves. They all
look to this as something that is of extreme importance. Turn
with me if you would to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1. Look with me, if you would, down
to verses 11 and 12. I'll start reading verse 10,
kind of in this little context. It says, of which salvation the
prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of
the grace that should come unto you, searching what, or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify. when it testified beforehand
of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow."
Now he's talking about the Old Testament prophets and preachers
that we're talking about who have been given by the Spirit
of Christ, have been taught the Gospel. Now they weren't taught
it in its fullness and its clarity like we have it today, but they
were taught the Gospel in the Old Testament. We know that to
be a fact. This isn't the only place in Scripture that teaches
that. But yet we see that they were testifying to them the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow. If you don't believe
me, just go read Psalms 22. It's a very clear and vivid picture
of Christ and what was going to happen. But it says in verse
12, it says, unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves
but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported
unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven Which things the angels desire
to look into? So even the very angels of God
are interested in and take notice of the work of Christ and His
sufferings. They desire to look into what
is this thing that this God that we surround His throne crying,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is
full of His glory. has condescended into flesh,
and not only has he done that, which is already just an unbelievable
thing that God has taken on flesh, but yet he subjected himself
to all of this that's going on in what we term his sufferings.
The angels are intent on that. They're not just passing by and
think nothing of it. They are intently looking in
and desiring to know about these things. We know that all the
people of God, all of His preachers, this is an important thing to
them. Turn with me if you would to Isaiah. The angels think it's
an important thing. They are looking into it. Preachers,
they're called, raised up by God to proclaim these things.
In Isaiah chapter 6, this is the passage I was making reference
to just a second ago. Isaiah chapter 6, look at verse
1. It says, In the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, we know
that to be Jesus Christ, high and lifted up, and His train
filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim,
each one had six wings, and twain he covered his face, and with
twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one
cried unto the other, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. And the post
of the door moved, and the voice of him that cried, and the house
was filled with smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I
am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen
the king, the Lord of hosts, Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hands, which he had taken
from the tongs off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth
and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then
said I, Here am I, send me." So we see here that the heart
of the preacher is always to go and to proclaim what he has
what he has heard, what he knows of this King, this Lord of Lords,
this Holy One, and specifically as it pertains to his sufferings. Look in Galatians chapter 6. Look with me if you would, down
at verse 14. It says, but God forbid that
I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. So Paul,
here as he ends this letter to the Galatians, he said, God forbid
that I should glory in anything except Christ and Him crucified. What is the center point of not
only the vision, but also the center point of all of what Paul
preached about. Well, he preached about a lot
of things, but it all had to do and pertain to Christ and
Him crucified. You know, we have people that
preach on a lot of different things. And like I said, we was
talking about this before we came on live and everything.
You know, there's a lot of things that the Scripture teaches which
is all true and is all important and is just as much relevant
for anything as everything else in the Scriptures. But the whole
of Scripture is about the Gospel. It's particularly about the work
of Christ on behalf of His people and saving a people for Himself. That is the paramount thing of
the Word of God is the vision, the view, if you want to call
it the spectacle of Christ taking on flesh for His people and being
put to death and experiencing the wrath of God and dying on
their behalf. And so that is what should fuel
and flood our preaching and it was. We don't just pass by and
think nothing of it and move on and talk about other things.
And I know churches and been in churches that all they do
is they talk, there's churches that talk, and you can watch,
turn on TV, and I think people know what I'm talking about.
I don't think I need to exasperate this much, but people know what
I'm talking about. You turn on the TV or the radio and what
do you hear most of the time people talking about? Most of
the time you're hearing men talk about health and wealth, the
prosperity preachers. You know, with your faith, you
can make yourself where you're never sick, and you'll never
die, and you'll never be poor again. You know? That if you
just have enough faith, you can do all this stuff. Yet, one by
one, all their faith teachers are dropping off, getting sick,
getting cancer, getting all this kind of stuff. Yet, you know,
here they are, you know, telling you that if you'll just give
me $1,000, it's gonna cure you. Well, why don't they give $1,000
to the other evangelist that's saying that on the other channel?
and it didn't well. I mean, what? Anyway, I digress. So, we hear out there all these
things. People talk about that. They
talk about prophecy. There's some of those preachers
on there and I remember back when I was an Armenian, I would
watch stuff on TV and even at that time, you know, I didn't
believe in health and wealth and prosperity preachers and
prophecy, but I would listen to this prophecy. preachers and
I would listen to them and all their elaborate things and newspaper
theology and all this kind of stuff and I'd just listen to
this intricate web of stuff and it was just like, man. And that's
all they talked about. What was the guy's name? Him
and his wife that used to, Van Impey. Their whole entire program
wasn't preaching the gospel. It was all about the end times. It was all about prophecy, you
know. And they deal with just prophecy,
prophecy, prophecy, prophecy. And there's healers, healers,
healers, healers. Wealth, wealth, wealth, wealth.
But yet you come into the sovereign grace circles and sometimes all
you hear is predestination, predestination, predestination. And I think that's
very important. And I preach about predestination quite a
bit here. But predestination a lot of times goes hand in hand
with the gospel. Because the predestination of
God While I believe He is predestined to all events, the predestination
of God is the predestination of a people to be saved. A predestination
of a work of salvation. He has predestinated us to the
adoption of sons. He has predestinated us to be
saved. And so, predestination, election,
The gospel all go hand in hand. That's why you can't preach the
gospel if you're not preaching predestination and election.
People say, well, can you not just, you know, I was once asked
that, you know, well, can you preach all these things without
having to preach election and predestination? No, you can't.
You cannot preach the gospel without preaching predestination
and election. There is no gospel without that. Can I preach Jesus Christ? death,
burial, and resurrection? Absolutely. I can preach that
all the day long. But if you don't preach what
that has accomplished and why it has accomplished that, predestination
and election is cut out of the Bible. But it's in there. So
we have to preach that. That is part of why the death,
burial, and resurrection. That's why Paul, whenever he
wrote about preaching in the gospel how that Christ died according
to the scriptures, was buried, and was raised according to the
scriptures. And everybody goes, there you go, there's the gospel.
All you have to believe and all you have to teach and preach
to preach the gospel is that Christ died, that He was buried,
and that He was rose again. If you believe that He died,
was buried, and was raised again, then you are saved and then you
are believing the Orthodox gospel and everything like that. But
what did Paul say? How he died according to the Scriptures.
How he was raised according to the Scriptures. Why did Paul
add that little tidbit in there? Because there was a purpose for
which Christ died. There was a purpose for why Christ
was resurrected from the dead. See, Christ could have died for
his people. They laid that body in the grave. And that glorified man, that
glorified Christ could have went right back to the Father and
just went back to the throne and go back to his normal business
of being God. But why was it that he raised
him up? I mean, it was to die for them,
right? He had to die for them. It was
by the shedding of blood that there was remission of sin. It
is by His blood that we are justified. But why was there a raising up? Why did the raising up part have
to take place? Why is that part of the Gospel?
Why is that so important as part of the Gospel? Well, first and
foremost is it's the validity of what Christ did in His dying. If you don't have the resurrection,
then we see that Christ continually dies. He's continually dead. He ceases to exist. And therefore,
He no longer has the right to live. But God said He was satisfied
with everything that Christ did. Therefore, there has no need
for continual death. and so He raised up Christ. It
also reveals that He is the Christ. It reveals that He has power
over death and hell because the Bible says that He raised Himself
up. Now I know the Bible also says that the Father raised Him
up and that He was raised up by the Spirit of God. So you
have the Father, you have the Spirit, and you have the Word
of God raising Himself up that shows me that God is a unity
of one in Christ Jesus. That all the Godhead is considered
doing the work, the whole Godhead. Why? Because God is one. I don't
mean to go on and on about that, but we make too much out of separation
of the Godhead than we do of the oneness of the Godhead. We
try to separate God more than what the Bible separates, and
instead of looking at him in a more unified way, as the Bible
portrays him. He is one God, and He works in
that capacity as Father, Word, and Holy Spirit in that Godhead,
and that Godhead is in Christ Jesus. So whenever it talks about
all these works of everything, that's God doing that work. Anyway,
so we see God raising Him up, but it's according to the Scripture.
See, if we don't have the death, the burial, the resurrection
according to the Scriptures, then we don't have the Gospel.
If all it is is just death, burial, and resurrection, Lazarus had
that. Lazarus had a death, he had a
burial, and he had a resurrection. But Lazarus can't save nothing.
Lazarus couldn't even save himself because Lazarus died again. So
there was something different about death, burial, and resurrection. The death had a purpose, and
it had a specific people who it was intended for because there
was an effect that was to come from the death. And then there
was a burial that took place because Christ said that if you
destroy this body in three days I will raise it again and that
as Noah was Jonah was three days in the belly of the whale, so
shall the Son of Man be three days in the heart of the earth
or in the belly of the earth. He was three days buried and
then on that morning he was resurrected according to the scripture. The
Bible says that he was not to see death and to stay in death
and that there was going to be something that was going to take
place out of this. The Bible says that we are justified in
His resurrection. How are we justified in His resurrection? Well, God raising Him from the
grave is the justification or is the sign or is the symbol
that God has accepted what God in Christ has done on our behalf. He resurrected Him And therefore,
Christ being resurrected, we were resurrected. We were resurrected
to life in Christ Jesus. He was the first fruits and then
we are the ones to follow after Him. If He has been resurrected,
we also are going to be resurrected. Our hope is in the resurrection.
So therefore, His resurrection was also effectual in the fact
that because Christ was resurrected, that is also a sign and a justification
and a hope for all those who are in him, that if the head
is resurrected, the whole body is going to be resurrected with
the head. So the according to the scriptures
is the preaching of everything else that entails the death,
burial and resurrection. That's why Paul put that in there,
according to the scriptures. Therefore, you can't preach the
gospel unless you preach the purpose and the reason and the
effectualness of why Christ died, why Christ was buried, and why
Christ was resurrected. What happened? Was that just
to put a plan in motion? Was that to make salvation available? To make salvation a possibility?
But it's up to you to believe, receive, repent, turn, whatever. Is salvation just made possible
by Christ's death, burial, and resurrection? Or is, as we keep
saying, is it an efficacious thing? That was one of the things
we were talking about. There is a reason why Christ
is said to have died for all men, and there is a tie back
to the atonement. We were talking about this, we
had a conversation with a gentleman this week, and that was one of
the things. How is Christ the Savior of all men? Does that
mean in every man head for head? And we were discussing with this
man about how, let's talk about all kinds of men. Jew, not just
for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles. And that we know for
a fact, the Bible clearly says there's some that God has condemned,
ordained to condemnation. There's some that God has made
a, a vessel of dishonor, some that
he has hidden the gospel from so that they will not be converted.
So we know for a fact that the Bible teaches that God didn't
intend for everybody to be saved. So therefore the all men cannot
mean all men head for head because of the clear statements of scripture
that God has ordained some not to be saved. But the all men
is included of Jew and Gentile, rich, poor, kings, paupers, all
kinds of men. But the other reason that it
can't mean all men is because the very work of Christ in His
death, His burial, and His resurrection is the effectual nature of it.
That it actually secured a legal work and a legal standing before
God. That's why it can't mean all
men, because if there's anybody in hell, then that means that
God is an unjust God, that means that Christ did not fulfill the
covenant, and He did lose some that the Father had given Him,
and that His atonement was not effectual. The word atonement
means to make one. He made one between God and the
sinner. He brought them together and
made atonement, appeasement. That word means appeasement.
He appeased the wrath of God. He turned away God's wrath. So if you are in the atonement
of Jesus Christ, then you have been shielded away from God's
wrath. You have been removed from God's
wrath. You have been delivered from
wrath. So if anybody is been died for
by Christ, then they have been atoned for. And if they've been
atoned for, that means there is no more wrath. That's why
we say that Christ's work is effectual. That Christ's work
had an actual securing of things other than just a home in heaven
at the end of the day. We just sung about being at home
in a mansion whenever we get done with this lifetime. and
everything. That's a wonderful thing, but
listen, there's more to it than that. It is the fact that a sinner
is justified and imputed righteousness, therefore a holy God only sees
righteousness, but he's looking at the sinner. He's looking at
a man guilty. He's looking at a man who is
worthy of death, worthy of hell, worthy of damnation, but yet
he doesn't exert that upon them because all he sees is our righteousness,
which is in our head. He sees our head. So the death,
the burial, and the resurrection, this that Christ was experiencing
on the cross, where all this affliction all this turmoil,
all this suffering, all this stuff that he was seeing, and
he's saying to those people there, is this nothing to you? You who
pass by. I mean, truly, you would think
that they wouldn't just pass by, that they would, as some
of the apostles, or one of the apostles, and some of the women,
which is very telling to me in some regards, that all those
men fled away except for John, Yet all those women, they didn't
have no problem going down there and staying with them, you know.
All the men took, took tell and ran. But John, the one whom Jesus
loved, he was there. But anyway, they stood there
until it was over, watched it all, took it all in and seen
what all had taken place. experienced everything that Christ
had done on their behalf. And so I'm thinking to myself,
that question that is asked, what is it? How can you just
pass by and then become nothing to you? And I think over and
over and over again to myself, the preachers that are out there,
that to them, that the gospel is just something to pass by.
Death, burial, resurrection and then we have to do something.
It's all about conditions. We move from the act to now it's
yours. And the paramount of preaching
today is what you do. Whether it's to get it or whether
it's to keep it. You just pass by what's happening
and that's nothing to you. But what's paramount is what
you now have to do. What Christ has done is nothing,
but what you have to do is paramount. We talked a few weeks ago how
everything is turned on its head, that everything centers on free
will in most of the preaching today. That is what's paramount. Everything comes back to, and
listen, I would say that even among the sovereign grace, a
lot of sovereign grace preaching. There are still a lot of people
who speak sovereign grace out of one side of their mouth, but
are still preaching free will out of the other sides of their
mouth. They say, yes, we believe predestination, we believe election,
but over here, oh, we have man's responsibility, man's duty, and
there is a condition. If you don't repent, if you don't
believe, if you don't persevere, then all those things, all that's
gone. that man can't be justified until
he believes. So God is sitting there waiting,
waiting for the person to believe upon Him. Christ has done all
that He could do. Christ has paid all that He could
pay. The blood has been shed. The life has been spent and resurrected
and gone back to heaven. Everything has been done on His
end, but yet you can't be justified until you come to terms with
that and believe upon Him, trust in Him. Oh, you can't be born
again, or you can't be born again and you can't be justified until
you repent of all your sins. If that's the case, then I'll
never be saved. Because I can't repent of all my sins. I continue
to come back to them. I continue in sin. Sin is a transgression
of the law. If you've offended in one, you've
offended in them all. To try to keep the law of God
is to sin. And therefore, there is no repentance. There is no true repentance of
sin, but there is a repentance of theology. There is a repentance
of doctrine. There is a repentance of justification. There is a repentance of righteousness. There is a repenting of wrong
thinking about how all of that is procured for us. I don't have to do all this.
I don't have to do this. I don't have to do that. I don't
have to do that. Why? The one who died was buried and resurrected.
Every bit of that did that for us. That's why all the secondary
preaching things come into play about death, burial, and resurrection. That is why whenever we look
at this and we see that, what is it to you that is going on
here? Is it nothing to you? These preachers
that just pass by the effectual work of Christ and what it did
and lays the conditions back upon men are as if the people
at the very cross had just walked by, shouted their thanks, kept
on going. But as we see here to the preacher
of God, this is the paramount thing. I pray that the Lord would
continue to keep me in the gospel of Jesus Christ and that you
as the ones who are coming to worship and to listen, that that
is the food that you're hungry for and not the food of all the
peripheral, of all the other things, of all the duties, of
all the busyness of religion, but you want to hear. You know,
I grew up and I heard it from a lot of people and I used to
feel it my same way. Man, I want to hear, you know,
tell me what I need to do. You know, I want to hear, I want
to hear, I want to hear sermons on practical living. You know,
yeah, doctrine is important, But you can only have so much
doctrinal preaching, you know? Well, doctrinal preaching is
basically preaching, teaching. That's what the word doctrine
means. It's just teaching. Teaching on a variety of subjects
or whatever. But what people are saying when
they say that is we want to just tell us how it is. Just tell
us how we ought to live. Tell us what we ought to do.
Get down to the brass tacks. What is this all about? What
do I need to do to make sure that God's happy with me still?
What do I need to do to make sure that I'm accepted with God
and that God is continuing to be happy with me and that I'm
not displeasing Him and that I might be a help to others? I see these guys on Facebook
a lot of times and I don't know, I might have a wrong thought
about this, I don't mean to get off too far on this, but somehow
this just kind of directs me in the wrong direction. Plastering
up for everybody, for a general thing, How may I pray for you
today? Who are you, the Pope? You my
priest? I mean, I understand that we
ought to pray for one another. I'm not negating that or running
that down at all. But who am I to go before everybody
else and say, come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden,
and I will pray for you. I'll make my request known unto
God on your behalf. Now, if the Lord puts it upon
my heart as he did with the Apostle Paul, hey, I continually remember,
go before the Lord on your behalf. You know, he's saying I am praying
for you, but I've never seen anywhere in the scripture where
Paul says, hey, you have anything you want me to pray for you about?
I don't even know how I got off
on that. But the fact remains is that this is something that
is on the preacher's heart. We see the preacher is continually
desiring this and I pray the Lord continues me in that as
well that I don't get off on side issues. Look if you go to
Galatians or 1 Corinthians 2 I've gotten way off of the thought
process that I had for this morning but bear with me and I pray that
I am following what the Spirit wants. We definitely know it's
the will of God or it wouldn't be happening 1 Corinthians chapter
2 and verse 2 Paul said, for I determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So we see again,
that's the determination and the main content that the cross
of Jesus Christ and His sufferings is not something that is just
something to pass by. It was the main focus of the
apostles. But we see that the child of
grace's thoughts are the same way, not just the preacher's.
In Galatians 2, I guess we probably should have read that while we
were back there again. In Galatians chapter 2, in verse 20, it says, For I am crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for
me. See, the heart of Paul was this
union with Christ and Him crucified. I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life that I now live in
this flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. We find in 1 John chapter 3,
verse 16, writes this, hereby perceive
we the love of God because He laid down His life for us and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. So the love
of God, we see that that is the love of God. To the child of
grace, the preaching of the cross, the preaching of the sufferings
of Christ, the things of what Christ did on our behalf, His
substitutionary work, those are the signs of the love of God.
If you want to preach the love of God, Don't preach inclusiveness
of everybody and death of Christ for everybody. Preach the love
of God in the fact that he had a son that he sent to die and
that there was an effectual work that was actually completed.
The Bible says you shall call his name Jesus for he shall save
his people from their sins. He said that all that the Father
has given me shall come to me and I will no wise cast out. He said that I will not lose
any that you have given me. I have not lost any. So we see
the determination of Christ in completing the work, and in completing
the work, there was an inheritance given Him. And that inheritance
is all that the covenant promised. So there is a fulfillment of
this covenant because of the work of Jesus Christ. That is
why everyone for whom Christ died will be saved, not one exempted. Therefore, if any be in hell,
it was because they were not in the covenant. They were not
part of the ones for whom Christ died. Otherwise, they would have
been saved. That's why that's important.
That's why we don't take the cavalier, is it nothing to you,
you who pass by? It is something to us. Why? Because
it is everything to us. The work of Christ on the cross
and His sufferings is not just a man who suffered because the
Jews didn't like Him, because He spoke too much truth and people
don't like the truth, so you've got to kill them. All that's
true, but that ain't the main point. The main point is this
man subjected himself, who was the God of all, subjected himself
Because of what? We see here, love. Because of
God's love. He subjected himself to this. A dying love. In Revelation chapter
5. Look at Revelation chapter 5. Look with me if you would at
verse 9. It said, and they sung a new
song saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open
the seals thereof. And thou was slain and hast redeemed us to
God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people
and nation. That's where the all men comes
in, right there. You want to know when the Bible says that
He died for the world? And that He died for all men? Or He was the Savior of all men?
That's the context that we're talking about. That He has redeemed
a people out of, not all of, but out of every kindred and
tongue and people and nation. Therefore, that's why He can
say that He is the Savior of the world, not just for the Jews,
but for Jews and Gentiles. And not just for Gentiles in
a broad sense, but Gentiles specifically out of every kindred and tongue
and people and nation. Therefore, all the world is represented
in the elect of God. Therefore, when Christ died,
he died for those out of every... And notice the term. Why is he
being praised here, brethren? Thou art worthy for thou wast
slain and hast, past tense, redeemed us to God. What was the outcome
of his being slain and redemption? Redeeming us to God out of every
kindred, tongue, people, nation. Effectual, whenever I say the
word effectual, efficacious, that's it, that's it. The effect
is that we have been redeemed, we have been redeemed out of,
and we've been justified, we've been
sanctified, we've been glorified. That's the effect of the cross. So it is something, not just
something to pass by, Not just something to add to your daily
devotion and go on about everything. No, it's the center of everything.
It's the center of our preaching. It's the center of our worship.
It's the center of our daily life. Listen, we just read about
it. Paul said, that I live, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who died for me. It was the work of Christ's death
on our behalf that becomes effectual, not only in what we receive in
a legal way, but what we receive in an experiential way. I experience
the life and the work of Christ in me because of the effectualness
of His death, burial, and resurrection. In John chapter 10, I'll end
with this. John chapter 10. Look with me if you would. down to verse 14. It says, I am the good shepherd. Now that's not Mike speaking,
that's Jesus speaking. I'm not a good shepherd. I'm
a shepherd at all. I am the good shepherd and I
know my sheep. and have known of mine. I know
them. And guess what? They know him. Why do they know him? Why do
they know him? Well, number one, because he
is their shepherd. But they also know him because
the Bible says that they all shall know God because they are
all taught of God. They weren't taught by the underling,
the hireling. They weren't taught by the Assistant
shepherd, the under-shepherd, as sometimes they call us preachers,
the under-shepherd. No, they were taught by the good
shepherd. They were taught by God. You
will know more of your neighbor, say, here is God, for they shall
all know him. You have no need that any man
should teach you. Why? Because the anointing that
has been given to you from above and resides in you and abides
on you, it shall teach you. The Holy Spirit that I will give
you, it will lead you into all truth, and it will teach you
all things. They shall all be taught of God. I am a good shepherd,
and I know my sheep, and I'm known of mine. As the Father
knoweth me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. There it is. And other sheep
I have which are not of this fold. Now, what's he talking
about? Well, here he is speaking to predominantly a Jewish crowd. To this Jewish crowd had a Jewish
notion that salvation was only a Jewish salvation and that these
Jews who had the Jewish notion of a Jewish only salvation was
completely bewildered whenever a Jew came and taught them that
salvation was for others and not just them. They were astounded
at that, even though it was clear in the Old Testament that this
was to happen. They were astonished. What are
you talking about? Wait a minute. You mean Gentiles are going to
be included in this? And Jesus here, even before his
death, is very clear to them. I have other sheep that are not
of this fold. And he says, them also I must
bring. See, it is apparent that Jesus
has a command to not only save the Jew, but to also save and
bring the Gentile. That there are sheep of the Jews,
but there are also sheep of the Gentiles. And as we've seen in
Revelation, out of not all of Israel and not all of Gentile,
But out of Jew and Gentile, he said, I have sheep in both places. They are sheep, already sheep. And you notice here, he said,
I have sheep that are not of this. Then I must bring it. It's
a it's a thing that is not happening yet. Right. It's something that's
not happening yet, because primarily the gospel has gone to the Jews,
been within Israel and is kept here in Jerusalem and Israel.
OK. But yet it's fixing to expand out past Jerusalem to Samaria
and to the other parts of the world. It's not just for the
Jew, but also to the Gentile, to the Jew and the Greek. And
Jesus here is saying this is something that is imperative.
This is something I have to do. Why is it something I have to
do? Because of what we're fixing to see here. And they shall hear my voice
and there shall be one fold and one shepherd, but they shall.
They shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold. That
is Jesus promising the fact that the Jew sheep and the Gentile
sheep are all going to come. He already said that in John
chapter six, they shall all come. They are all going to come and
they're going to come and they're not going to be a Jewish fold
and a Gentile fold working against each other or even working in
tandem with this separation between them. where the Jews have a little
bit more elevation because they're my chosen people, and the Gentiles
are just the ones that we've grafted in to the chosen people. No, no, no, no. The chosen one
is Christ, and all of them are grafted into Him. The Gentiles
are grafted in, but they're grafted in to the root, which is Christ.
And the Jew, which is in there, is in there only because they
are in Christ. All of us are branches, but we're
not divine. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my
voice. There shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth
my Father love me. Here it goes back to this love
again. Therefore doth my Father love me. Why? Because I lay down
my life that I might take it up again. You don't think the
suffering of Christ is central to everything? The love of God
is displayed because Christ laid down His life. For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son. The love of God
to the people of God is tied to the fact and displayed in
the act of Christ dying. Is it nothing to you who pass
by? The works and the sufferings
of Christ and all of what they procured all of what they efficaciously
brought about. Verse 18, no man take it from
me, but I lay it down of myself. See, Jesus went willingly. He
did this on his own. The Bible said, I believe it
was in, was it Isaiah, maybe it was in Isaiah 50 or 53, that
talks about that he had set his face like a flint He says, but I lay it down on
myself. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it again. And here it says, this commandment
have I received of my father. This commandment came from God.
The mediator received the commandment that he would go and that he
would procure everything that God had purposed in the redemption
of a people. So if we want to talk about the
plan of salvation, well the plan of salvation included every detail
of saving everyone for whom that plan was made for. And that Christ
was the one who was to guarantee that because it was the command
of God that none should be lost, that everyone would hear His
voice, that everyone would come and follow Him, and that everyone
whether Jew or Gentile, make up the one fold that He went
as the Great Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, He went and laid down
His life for, He died for all of them so that they would come
to Him. So whenever I go back to Lamentations
and I see this man that's on the cross, and I see that he
is sitting there suffering these things for those people, and
the question is asked, You who pass by, is this nothing to you? You who preach, is this nothing
to you? These things that you think that
we who are preaching election and predestination, sovereignty
of God, all these things, is it nothing to you that Christ
actually secured all the salvation of His people? And because of
that, He actually became the Savior of His people? A savior is one who saves. If
he didn't save, if he died for somebody to save them, but yet
does not save them, then he is not a savior because he didn't
save them. What he did didn't do anything to save them. They
did something that caused that salvation to be enacted. They become their own saviors.
You see why we're so adamant against free will, against free
choice, decisionism, gospel regeneration? were adamantly opposed to those
things because it cuts at the very heart of the Gospel, which
is Christ is the successful Savior of His people. That it was the
purpose of God, that it was the work of God, the act of God,
the fulfillment and finished transaction between the Godhead,
and that all that had happened actually caused a salvation for
those for whom He died. And everything entailed in that
salvation, whether it was the eternal legal aspect of it, or
whether it was the timely experiential aspect of it. You can't divide
salvation into two kinds. Salvation, eternal and experiential. Because everything that happened
on the cross of Jesus Christ procured everything eternal and
experiential. Without the work of Jesus Christ,
nothing in the experience is going to happen. Without the
work of Jesus Christ, nothing in the eternal is going to happen.
It's the very center point. You can't preach the gospel without
preaching the gospel according to the scriptures. And the gospel
according to the scriptures isn't something that we just pass by
and say, well, we're going to keep it simple. Christ died,
buried, and if you just believe that, that's enough of the gospel
to be saved. Well, for one, the gospel preaching doesn't save
anybody, and what you're believing about that gospel doesn't actually
save you. It just reveals whether or not
you've been converted and are a believer or not. If you're
not believing all the things of this gospel, as far as it
pertains to imputed righteousness, sovereign grace, predestination,
election, and all those things, it just shows that God has not
yet revealed those things to you if you are one of His. Because
believing those things don't make you saved. but it is of utmost importance.
It is a finished work. Jesus Christ himself on the cross
said it is finished. He didn't say to be concluded.
We often watch TV programs and man, you get to watching those
things, you know, we may be watching a cop show or a murder mystery
or something like that and all of a sudden it gets to this intent
point and you're wondering, well, who's finally going to show what's
going to happen, what's going to happen? And all of a sudden
then you see down at the bottom of your screen, to be continued. And you're like, oh man, gotta
wait another week. Well, now we don't have to wait
another week. We got streaming services. We just have to wait
another few minutes. But when growing up as a kid,
a lot of these kids don't really understand. You had to wait another
week for the program to come on. Now you just click to the
next episode. But it said to be continued.
Well, that's how a lot of people are preaching the gospel. Jesus
did it all, did it all, did it all here, did it all here. And
then all of a sudden, boom, he goes back to heaven to be continued.
Something that you have to do. Now he finished it. It is finished.
He did everything. And there is a result for everything
that he did. Therefore, we shouldn't walk
by, pass by. Matter of fact, we should stop
and gaze. We should stop and take it in. We should stop and
rejoice. Let our heart be sorrowful for
the very fact that we want to keep on walking. We should look
and gaze and glorify and rejoice in what? The sufferings of our
Lord and Savior. We rejoice in the sufferings
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because we know that that
is the very center point of all things. The center point of all
preaching. The center point of all experience.
The center point of all salvation. The center point of all of creation.
The center point of all eternity is going to be on the crucified
lamb who is redeemed. Remember Revelation
5. Remember? Just a quick remembrance
before we close. We just read it. Revelation 5.
What was being sung? What was being worshipped? What
was being proclaimed there at the throne? Thou art worthy for
thou was slain and hath redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred, tongue, and people and nation and has made us unto
our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth.
That's what we rejoice in. We didn't say, you know, that
thou art worthy for thou has made us well. Thou art worthy
because you made me rich. Thou art worthy because you give
me all this, that and the other. Thou art worthy because you give
me a great ministry, a big church, Lots of followers. That my YouTube
channel had 9,000 hits this month. You know? Now, I'm not saying
we're all prone to looking at that stuff. I ain't saying that.
I don't look at the analytics on that to see where we're at
and how many people are watching and that sort of stuff. Curiosity
gets all of us, right? The flesh wants to see. I pray
that I don't revel in that, but most of the time when I look
at it, I'm amazed that People weren't even listening. But it's
not about that. Worthy is the lamb who was slain.
The whole worship around the throne of God is over the work
of the one who most everybody else just passed by and it's
nothing to them. But to us, it is our life. It is who we are. That is why we make such a big
deal about it. That's why we seclude ourselves
from other people and other worship places that are worshiping another
Jesus with another gospel. That's why we don't hold hands
with everybody. We're not ecumenical. That's
why we're sectarian. That's why we are so distinctive
in who we fellowship with and who we don't fellowship with,
who we have come preaching our services and who we don't, who
we won't go be a part of, things like that. Why? Because we know
that those messages are contradictory messages and those Jesuses are
totally different Jesus. One is a Jesus who successfully
did all the saving. The other one is one who just
tries to make it possible. And yet, at the end of everything,
he has lost people that he died for. See, that's why it's so
detrimental to us. That's why it's so important
to us. Because we don't just pass by and it's nothing to us. It's everything to us. All right, does anybody have
any questions or any comments or any corrections or another
aspect or view that you'd like to... All right. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you again for
the day and we thank you for your mercy and grace. We thank
you for the cross of Jesus Christ. We thank you for all that He
has done for us, not just the death, burial, and resurrection.
Why all that is so important. We thank you for your life that
you lived on our behalf. We thank you for your intercession
for us, even now. Everything about who you are,
Father, we are so thankful. And we know that because of it,
we live, we move, we have a being. But more than that, we are eternally
given life. It isn't just life in this world,
but we are given life eternal. We are given to be able to experience
communion with you. We are able to be with you forever
and ever. That we are given a righteousness
that we never, ever could have procured for ourself. And so
Father, we are truly thankful for that. I'm thankful for these
brothers and sisters that are here today. I pray, Lord, that
they've been encouraged, they've been edified, those listening.
I pray for that, Lord. I pray that these things that
I've spoken have been of the truth and that they've not been
of my own invention. They have truly been of truth
and that there has been an exaltation of Jesus Christ and not the preacher,
not the church, not whatever. I just pray, Lord, that truly
Christ has been exalted in everything today. We ask, Lord, that you
might keep us faithful to these things. Our flesh does want to
walk by and pass by as if it was nothing. But yet the inward
man is completely drawn to what Christ has done on our behalf.
We live off that. That is our bread. Jesus said
that his flesh is the bread that came down from heaven and that
he give that flesh for our benefit, that that is our food. That if
you eat of my flesh and you drink of my blood, then you have communion
with me. And we know that that's not to
be a literal thing, that that is speaking symbolically of the
work of Jesus Christ and giving his body for us shedding his
blood on our behalf that we partake of that and that becomes our
spiritual livelihood and sustenance as we look at those things and
that causes us to rejoice and it encourages us and builds us
up in the holy faith. So we thank you for all that
you've done for us. Pray that you give safety to everyone as
they go home this week wherever you have them and whatever you
have them involved in or we pray that you just might given to
them the blessing that you would give them, that you would help
them, that you'd give them words to speak as they minister to
others. Lord, that you would just let them experience Christ
in their morning and evening or daily or however, whenever
it is that they go into your word and they study, Lord, may
that be a rejoicing in their heart and in their soul as they
look into your word. Again, we thank you so much,
and we ask you to bless this time and bless this day, and
it's in your Son's precious name that we pray. Amen.