Let's turn to Luke chapter 18. Luke 18. Just looking at four verses here. This is a passage where our Lord Jesus Christ bears a faithful witness of what he should accomplish for his church, for his people, for these disciples and you that believe what he would accomplish for us at Jerusalem.

And when he says these things, they're not going to understand it. I believe this is the third time where he's telling them these things to prepare them for what is going to come, but they weren't able to bear it. They couldn't understand it at this time. And what he tells them is what he's soon going to suffer at the hand of the Gentiles and at the hand of the Jews, and how that he would be accomplishing in that suffering, he would be accomplishing all that the prophets had written of him. And then he adds that, and this is also in the prophets, that he would rise the third day.

So the first thing we're going to do is seek to understand what it is that our Lord was going to Jerusalem to accomplish, and then we'll see what the disciples, how they just did not understand. What was our Lord going to accomplish at Jerusalem? Well, up to this point, everything that our Lord did was in grace and in mercy. He did much for the people of Israel, and even Gentiles at this time, a few Gentiles.

And what he had done, what he was ministering to them, was he was preaching the gospel to them. He would heal those that were sick and diseased. He revealed the Father unto his disciples, and he taught his disciples that which was new, as opposed to that which is old, and was now ready to pass away.

All things were being made new. Now, Peter writes of this time. He summarizes this time that I just described. Later on, after our Lord's resurrection, in Acts chapter 10, when he was preaching, he said, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. So this is what has been going on up to this point.

And our Lord now is teaching his disciples. We've been seeing in chapter 17, 18, I mean, he's just bringing many examples, many lessons for them that they were going to need that would benefit them in the kingdom of God after his death and resurrection when they would be given the spirit, when they would minister the spirit in the preaching of the gospel. Our Lord is teaching them these things of grace that they would need to know and understand and that they would understand when he gave them his spirit after his resurrection. And so he's preparing them for the commission that he would give them. But now, at this point, our Lord is telling his disciples what is soon going to happen to him, what's going to take place concerning him at Jerusalem.

Let's read these first three verses from verse 31. 31 through 33. Then he took unto him the 12. So this is the 12 disciples. which at this time included Judas, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished. And we're gonna look at some of those things. I'll weave them in as we're going through this. We'll see what a few of the things that the prophets wrote were, but let's first see what our Lord says himself will come to pass. 4, verse 32, He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on. And they shall scourge him, and put him to death, and the third day he shall rise again.

And so, our Lord is describing His rejection by the people of Israel. He's describing his rejection using very specific terms to describe the outworking of their heart's rejection and rebellion of him. They're refusing the salvation of God. And they will accuse him of many things that they might justify themselves for why they're putting him to death.

And they're going to say things and accuse him of things that they might turn him over to the Gentiles to do their dirty work. And the Gentiles will do it. They'll do it unjustly, putting to death a just man unjustly. And so they turn him over to the Gentiles, which in this case here is pictured in the Romans. so that they might crucify him publicly. They're going to crucify our Lord as a criminal in their minds. They're crucifying him as a criminal, one justly deserving of death. And our Lord is going to bear this shameful and humiliating death, but it was not for any crimes or any sins that he had committed. Our Lord is spotless. Our Lord is without blemish. Our Lord has nothing to be ashamed of. He did nothing wrong. He committed no crimes.

And the Jews, the crime that they seem to be accusing him of is insurrection against the Roman government. They're accusing him of insurrection so that the Romans would have to put him to death. They're forcing his hand by that accusation. However, Pilate will try him.

He'll hear our Lord and what he has to say, and he doesn't say anything to deliver himself. And he'll come and says that, well, Luke 23.4 will tell us that he came to the chief priests and to the people saying, I find no fault in him. He's not guilty of insurrection. I find no fault in him of the crimes that you are accusing him of. No fault, no guilt, no sin.

Because any sin, any fault, would be a blemish. It would be sin. It would be a spot. It would be a stain upon him, and that can't be, because he is the fit sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice whom the Father sent to sacrifice himself for the sins of his people, to deliver us from our sin. He himself must be Righteous, perfectly righteous. And so under the law then, so he's the fit sacrifice and also under the law, every high priest of the Jews under the order of Aaron, the Aaronic priesthood there. which is of Levi, and we know our Lord is not of Levi, he's of the tribe of Judah, of which nothing was spoken of the priesthood, because our Lord is after the order of Melchizedek, the priesthood order of Melchizedek, having no beginning and no end. And so, but every Aaronic priesthood, everyone descended from Aram, they had to offer sacrifices, and they would go into the Holy of Holies, and they would sacrifice first for themselves, for the sins of the people.

And they didn't sit down after this. They just kept on doing it year after year and throughout the year because the work was never done. The sins were never put away. The blood of bulls and goats and what they used could not put away sin at all. But those things pictured the Lamb of God. who would come and once and for all put away the sins of God's people forever. It would be done to the satisfaction of God and His law completely.

And so our Lord came into the world and freely offered Himself. unto the Father as the sacrifice of his people. And he did it as a lamb of God to propitiate the wrath of God, to turn the wrath of God, which was justly against you and me for our sin, for our crimes, for our rebellion, for our enmity against God. He put it away by turning the wrath of God against himself and letting us go free without any payment, with us paying Nothing. He paid the debt in full for his people.

And so the scriptures testify of this, what our Lord did in Hebrews 10, 11 and 12, saying every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, just repetition, just over and over and over again, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, and himself sat down forever, sat down on the right hand of God. till his enemies be made his footstool.

And what that means is that the work is done. It's done. It's finished. The sacrifice has been made. It is finished, our Lord said on the cross. There's nothing more to be done. There's nothing you and I need to add. There's nothing that we can add. It's finished by the Lord Jesus Christ once and for all.

When he laid down his life as the Lamb of God for the sins of his people, Sacrificing himself unto the Father to satisfy our debt, he obtained eternal redemption for all his people by the shedding of his blood. It's complete. You that are in Christ are complete in him. He bore the sins of his people to satisfy the just demands of the law, to satisfy the just demands of holy God.

Isaiah 53, verses five and six. I'm just gonna weave in some of these verses which the prophet spoke of. But mind you, it's the whole Bible. The whole, all of scripture is writing of him. As we saw this morning in Exodus chapter three, it's a picture of what our Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished for us. It's all testifying of what he would do and the grace of God that should follow in what he did. But Isaiah 53, 5, and 6, he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." He did that. While we're going astray, dead in trespasses and sins, the Lord laid on him the iniquity of everyone whom the Father gave to the Son before the foundation of the world.

And so this he did for his people willingly, faithfully, gladly, gladly, because there's no other way for us to be saved. If a law could have been given by which we could have justified ourselves and made ourselves righteous before God, the Father would have given it.

But no law could be given, we cannot keep it, We cannot keep, sometimes we can look like we're keeping it, but in our hearts, it's corrupt, it's dead, it's deceitful, we're gloring in ourselves, we're thinking we're something, and we're nothing. We've added nothing to God. Even when we've done that, which is our duty to do, that's all we've done, is that which is our duty to do. We haven't added anything to God or improved our standing before him.

But our Lord came and willingly settled the debt. in full with His own blood and His suffering for us, so that God is just to forgive His people of their sins, to justify His people justly. And thou shalt call His name Jesus, we're told, for He shall save His people from their sins. Matthew 121. And this He did by one offering, one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." Set apart by God unto this very salvation. But our Lord's dying for us involved great suffering. And he did this willingly, but he suffered greatly. It wasn't like he just went and spilled some blood. He suffered greatly for his people.

And he describes his people here in this passage, saying that he would be mocked. He would be mocked. And we see the truth of these words. This is what they did unto him. It's recorded for us in scripture. after they led Christ away, when Judas came with a band of officers from the chief priests to arrest our Lord. As they led him away, we're told in Luke 22, and you can flip over there, Luke 22, verses 63 through 65, it says, and the men that held Jesus mocked him and smote him. And when they blindfolded him, they struck him on the face, meaning they were smacking him. Do you like to be smacked, knowing that there's nothing you can say back to it? Would you want to be humiliated like that? Absolutely not. No one wants that. They struck him on the face and asked him, saying, prophesy, who smote thee? Who smote thee? And many other things blasphemously spake they against him. He knew who smote him. He could have said it. He could have called them out by name.

He could have said anything to deliver himself, but that wasn't his purpose for coming. It wasn't to demonstrate how that he is God in delivering himself. He came for the salvation of his people, and so he remained silent. He remained silent that they would go through with their wicked deed, what they were doing to crucify him. Because in that suffering, in that crucifying of himself, he was sacrificing himself unto the Father to put away our sins, to save us. Instead of saving himself, he saved his people.

And he tells us that he would be spitefully entreated and spit it on. And Matthew tells us they did that very thing. They spit in his face. They smacked him, and they spit in his face, and they mocked him, and they jeered him, and they just carried on in this manner. Now, Isaiah, the prophet, writes in Isaiah 50, verses 6 and 7, saying, this is as Christ speaking, this is our Lord's words in the scriptures, I gave my back to the smiters, and I let them beat me. And my cheeks, to them that plucked off the hair, I hid not my face from shame and spitting." He bore that spitting. And the only one who was with him during this time is the father. His disciples didn't bear this.

He negotiated their release. A picture of our release. from the law, right? When he said, if I'm the one that you seek, then let these go. Because it testifies of what our Lord did for you and for me that believe him. We're set free and he bore the whole shame and the whole wrath of God against himself. For the Lord God will help me, he said, therefore shall I not be confounded, confused as to why this is happening, therefore have I set my face like a flint, meaning he's sharpened, he was looking right at it, willingly, gladly, freely going to do that, like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. And it's such a beautiful picture, you know, our Lord Sometimes there's hard things that we do in this life.

There is some hard labor, some sweaty, hard, difficult labor, things that hurt, things that wound us, things that are very trying and troublesome for us, but the way you go through with it is knowing the joy on the other side. You know what the goal is. If that goal is worth it, you're gonna do it. If that goal ain't worth it, you're not doing it.

Well, our Lord, we're told in Scripture that he saw the joy that was set before him, and so he despised the shame that stood in its way. He just went through with it. It didn't stop him. Knowing what suffering he was to endure, knowing the cross, knowing that he was bearing the sins of his people, to feel that wrath of God against him for his sins.

I mean, when you know when you've done something horrible, and how lost you feel, how wretched you feel in yourself, and you feel, I am condemned and undone. And it feel like what the horrors of hell must feel like in your heart. I can only imagine that that's what our Lord felt for his people in that hour. I mean, I don't know, but it's just, it's a terrible feeling.

And our Lord bore that wrath against himself. And for us, and he endured that knowing the joy of his inheritance, his people, his people, the redemption of his people, to deliver his people from their sins. And so he endured this. He bore that shame. Now, it wasn't just the Jews who treated him that shamefully.

He said, they shall scourge him. They shall scourge the son of man, which means to whip him, to flog him, to whip him with a whip, to lay those stripes, those leather stripes on his back, to tear his flesh, to break his skin, and to bring forth blood thereto. They laid that on him.

And we're told that they did this in John 19.1.

John 19.1 says, then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him. He whipped him, even though he found nothing wrong with him, no crime that he had committed. He didn't even deserve that, and yet he scourged him. And our Lord patiently bore it for his people.

Isaiah 53.7, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." And so, remember, he's enduring that shame, not for any crimes that he committed, but for the joy of his people, for the salvation of his people. And after all that he suffered at the hands of the Jews and the Gentiles then, they led him away to be crucified.

And that's where our God poured out his wrath upon Christ. Our Lord crying, saying these very things, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And that is an awful, empty, horrible feeling. I've felt it many times for my own sin. It's a horrible feeling.

But God doesn't leave us because of Christ. We're not forsaken for Christ's sake. We shall not be forsaken in hell and left in the grave and forsaken in hell for Christ's sake because he obtained eternal redemption for us. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. God hath made Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And so in this work of redemption, we see the great love of God. We see the love of God for his people. Paul makes this comparison for us in Romans 5, 6 through 8, saying, for when we were yet without strength, unable to save ourselves in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.

He died for sinners. Now, scarcely, rarely for a righteous man will one die, yet perventure for a good man, some would even dare to die, right? It's a rare thing. But there have been some that have given their lives for a righteous person or a good person even, right? They've laid down their lives.

But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, worthless, unprofitable sinners, Christ died for us. And 1 John tells us, hereby perceive we. Hereby do we have some understanding of God's love for us. because he laid down his life for us.

And we're told also by that same apostle that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. That is, not only the Jews, He is the Savior also of the Gentiles. His people, both among the Jews and the Gentiles.

Therefore, for this cause, that's why we glory in the cross. That's why we glory in Christ. That's why we speak of Him every time we're here. That's why we preach Christ crucified because that's how God saved his people from their sins. That's how God gives you life and gives you fellowship and reveals himself to you. It's all in and by Christ.

Without that redemption, without his blood being shed for us, there is no satisfaction. There is no friendship with God. There is no reconciliation to God. We bear that wrath ourselves for an eternity in hell, but he did it. And so Paul wrote, 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.

All in Christ. That's where we find our life. That's where we find our joy. That's where we find our hope and our all in him. If that is your hope, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, rejoice, because your flesh has not revealed that to you. It's not because you're better and able to believe that, it's because God has given that to you graciously, given you His Spirit, giving you that light, giving you that deliverance from the bondage, opening your ear, giving you faith, giving you His Spirit, washing you in the blood of Christ, giving you that hope in Him. That's not of the flesh, that is of the spirit of God. Rejoice in him, brethren. That's our boast.

Now, everything that our Lord said to his disciples, the scriptures tell us they weren't able to understand it. Everything he said here, it just went over their heads, so to speak. They didn't hear it, they didn't understand what he was talking about, and they didn't even know to ask him about it. And so it says in verse 34, and they understood none of these things. And this saying was hid from them. Neither knew they the things which were spoken."

And so this here reveals something that's common to every one of us. It's telling us that this flesh is dead. We can't stand in judgment of these disciples. We would be the same way. We are the same way. There's countless people that we preach these things to and their eyes just glaze over and they don't care. It means nothing to them. But what we see here in the disciples is that we're all that same way. We're just ignorant and asleep to these things until the Lord reveals it to us. And it's true of believers even. Even we need these things revealed to us and repeated to us and to come to us with light time and time again.

Romans 8.10, if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. but the spirit is life because of righteousness. So yeah, this body is dead, it's lethargic, it's asleep, it's dead, it's inactive, it's just not adding anything to our salvation, it's not adding anything to our joy, it's not helping at all, it's just a heavy, gross, dead thing being lugged around by us. Now at this time, the disciples, obviously had such a notion of Christ that what he was saying had no place in their understanding of Christ.

They thought, this is great. This is the Christ. We know this is the Christ who was promised to come. It's just taking a little extra time for the people to come around. Surely they're going to believe. Surely the leaders are going to see that he is the Christ. And soon all these things will be behind us and we'll be ruling the world as the Jewish nation. And so they seem to expect that surely everyone would see that this is he of whom Moses and the prophets did write. This is the Messiah.

And so it blinded their understanding, even though he told them several times now that he would suffer, that he would die at Jerusalem, that these shameful things would be done to him, that he would suffer greatly and die and rise again the third day. And so he's telling them, and it seems familiar to us now when we read it, how could they not see it? But then again, how many times have you read the scriptures or sat under the preaching of the word and heard it either for the first time or brand new again when you've forgotten it for years? And the Lord just lays it to your heart sweetly and you say, wow, that's, thank you, Lord. What a blessing, what a rejoicing and a blessing that Christ should do that for me.

And so that's true of us. That's true of us. We know how it works because it happens all the time. Well, that's how it was for them. And how many times do we think a thing is going to go a certain way, and it doesn't, and we're just confused and bewildered and wondering, why is it going the complete opposite of the way that I thought it was going to go? Don't be surprised.

There shall be trials. There shall be sufferings. There shall be afflictions. There shall be difficulties and contrary winds all the time. Paul and Barnabas went back through to the churches saying to them that we must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom of God. You're not entering the kingdom of God apart from tribulation. Various sufferings, various temptations, various trials, various troubles, they come. And though everyone in the world has them, your troubles are sanctified to you because they drive you to Christ. They strip you of vain confidences. They show you your need of Christ and the glory of Christ.

And so he does that. Peter adds to believers that we are kept by the power of God through faith. You're gonna walk by faith. There's gonna be dark days that make you to have no hope, no help it would seem, but all you have is faith. And it's God who gives you those days. It's God who gives you those trials to keep you walking by faith. He's not gonna make you see everything as you think that you should see it. It's just not going to be that way. Otherwise, you'd be walking by sight.

Instead, he says, you're gonna walk by faith, by faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. wherein, he says, ye greatly rejoice, in other words, rejoice in these things, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold or various temptations, various trials of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

You know, I don't know the melting point of gold, but I'd imagine it's very hot. And it's saying that our faith is more precious than gold. In other words, it gets hot, very hot sometimes. Very trying, very difficult trials, but it'll be found. If it's of God, it'll be found. unto the praise of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's because it's not of your faith, it's not of your flesh, it's of his grace.

So they didn't understand what our Lord was saying now when he was saying it, but they would turn over to Luke 24, Luke 24, because this is now on the other side of our Lord's resurrection. And he's gonna hearken back to what he's saying, what we're reading here this morning. Luke 24, verse 44 through 48. And Christ said unto them, verse 44, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me.

Then opened he their understanding. They didn't understand these things, but now he opens their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. What a blessed gift that is when the Lord opens your understanding, when he gives it to you to see these blessed things that all testify and witness that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ and that he is my savior. When you say that, He's my Savior. He loved me and gave Himself for me. That's a blessing when God does that for you, when He reveals the mystery of God to you.

And He said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer. it was necessary for me to suffer these things for you, and to rise from the dead the third day." And so he's saying, I had to do this, I had to suffer, it had to be this way, else you cannot be saved.

And he goes on in verse 47, that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, and ye are witnesses of these things. And so that repentance and remission is to go and to declare this gospel to the people, to turn from dead letter things, to turn from this old way, this form of religion that cannot ever put away sin, Repent of that, return from that, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying. Go and declare this, that God would give repentance to his people, that he would do this, that he would do this glorious thing for his people, because in Christ, in Christ alone, is the forgiveness of sins found. He has done that, brethren. And so that's what they became, witnesses who testified of Christ crucified to the people, right? They became witnesses of that, preaching this gospel message to all to whom the Father had sent his people.

And after our Lord ascended, right? So here he's declaring this thing after his resurrection. Then he ascends up to the Father, where he's seated now at the right hand of the throne of God, waiting till his enemies be made his footstool. And what do they do?

They were given the Holy Spirit and went forth preaching these things with power. with power, the people hearing and believing. Acts 10 39 and 40, when he's standing before Cornelius in his household, says, and we are witnesses of all things, which he did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him, God raised up the third day and showed him openly. They went as witnesses of Christ crucified. preaching these very things of Christ's sufferings and what he accomplished at Jerusalem for his people on the tree, on the cursed tree.

And so we see this, brethren. We need this same birth. We need this same message, the same power, the same forgiveness of God must be accomplished in us. It's only by his grace. We look to him. We hear his word and pray, Lord, save me. Have mercy upon me. Reveal yourself in me, Lord.

Deliver me from this Death and bondage open my ear, give me understanding to hear these things and to believe that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God whom you have sent. And so believe his word, stay upon his word, do not forsake his word, do not turn from the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the very, the only salvation of God unto the end of the world. That's whom he sent. This is his word of salvation. Believe him, brethren. I pray for His grace for you and for me and those that we love because there is no other hope. Amen.