I want to ask you if you would turn to our text in Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27, and we're just going to read the first two verses. I'm going to make a couple of quick comments, and then we're going to turn to the second psalm. Psalm number two.

So at Matthew 27, beginning at verse one, when the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel, they consulted together, they gathered together and they took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. The very ones who God put in their mother's womb are taking counsel, consulting with each other, how to put the Lord Jesus Christ to death. Look at verse two. And when they had bound him, bound him, they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. The first point I want to consider from these first two verses in Matthew 27 is the fact that this is the word of God. Folks, we do not put our trust in the things that we see in creation. nor in the events of this world, unless they are declared in God's Word.

For example, there are signs, and I've shared this with many of you, if you get in an airplane and fly from Sacramento to Dallas-Fort Worth, you fly right over the Grand Canyon. And when you fly over the Grand Canyon, if you're going to Dallas, on the left of the plane, you can look out across the Rockies and you can see how the water would have, in one plateau, run into the next one. as it receded into the depths of the ocean. As the Lord opened up the earth and created the depths of the ocean where all the water would run to, you can see how it would run out and would create this great and magnificent canyon we call the Grand Canyon. Well, that's not what we use to prove the flood.

No, Even though we can see it from the world, it's not what we trust in. What we trust in is that the flood was because God's Word says so. Because His Word says so is how we can trust that the flood was here. And we know we can trust it because all of the prophecies that God has given to us have come to pass according to His Word. How does that relate when the morning was come, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death?

Turn over to the second Psalm with me, if you would. Psalm number two. It's like, how do we interpret Scripture? We interpret Scripture not by the things that we know of this world or by the wisdom of dictionaries and encyclopedias. No, we interpret Scripture with Scripture. How does God use a certain word in other parts of His Word? That's how we interpret. Well, it's the same thing here. Look at this Psalm number 2, if you would, beginning at verse 1.

Why do the heathen, why do the nations heat rage and the people imagine a vain thing. That's what free willism is. It's a vain imagination of man to think that we have power over God, that God has just hung everything out in space and waiting to see what happens next. What a vain and foolish thing, and they rage about these things.

In verse 2, the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, I love that verse. It shows to me that God has a sense of humor. He shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His thwarted pleasure.

Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. Is there any doubt in anyone's mind? The Lord is telling us here about His Son, the Lord Jesus, in verse 7. He says, I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, he says to his son, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings! Be instructed, ye judges of the earth! Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.

And then he closes this psalm with these words, Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. Folks, this is a direct declaration of the event that we were reading about there in Matthew. Matthew 27, verse 1. We can believe it, for it was declared for us by God the Spirit through the psalmist, and then fulfilled in our hearing in Matthew.

Look with me at another clear example over in Luke chapter 4, if you would. Turn over to Luke chapter 4. Look at verse 16, if you would. Luke chapter 4, beginning at verse 16, we read these words, And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on a Sabbath day and stood up for to read. You know, this is a great blessing to me.

As our custom was, we open with the scripture for our Bible studies on Friday night. As our custom is, we sing psalms once a week in the for our Sunday services. As our custom is, we bring the message, the same message in every time we gather, and that message is Christ and Him crucified. His custom was to go into the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up and read.

And there was delivered unto him the book, verse 17, of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, and set at liberty them that are bruised. to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister and sat down, and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, now this is what I want you to hear, this is the fulfillment of scripture.

He was reading from Isaiah and he says, this day, and that book in Isaiah was Isaiah 53, by the way. He was reading about himself. It was just like he was on the road that day with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. What did he do? And beginning in the book of Moses and all the way through the prophets, he expounded in the scriptures the things concerning himself. This day, he says, is this scripture, the very scripture that he read, fulfilled in your ears. What a wondrous thing that God would fulfill everything that he said. Well, what else could he do?

If there was one thing that he said that was not or could not be fulfilled, would he still be God? Would he still be worthy of the worship of his people? No, because the sacrifice that he gave would not have been perfect. It would not have been perfect, and it has to be perfect for it to be acceptable unto God.

Remember, God is holy, folks. He is so holy, he cannot be in the presence of sin. Everything about God the Father must be perfect. And the Son perfectly satisfied the Father's justice. It says in Hebrews chapter 10, by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Look at verse 22, and all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.

And they said, is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, ye will surely say unto me this proverb, physician, heal thyself. That's exactly what they said to him when he hung on the cross. If you be the Christ, save yourself. Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth.

Many widows were in Israel in the day of Elias, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto the Sarepta and a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. Verse 27, and many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha, and the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

And all they that were in the synagogue, when they had heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him out to the brow of the hill, wherein there the city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.

But he, passing through the midst of them went his way. It wasn't his time. This throwing him off the hill there, the cliff, it was not time for them to kill him. He had more things, more of the scriptures had to be fulfilled before he could die. So he passed through the midst of them and went his way.

The word fulfilled is used 57 times in the New Testament in regards to scripture being fulfilled. Now let me give you some verses to consider, and I have them on my own notes. It'd be quicker for me just to read for you. If you want to write them down, I'll give you the numbers. Matthew chapter one, verse 21.

We read these words, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is being interpreted, is God with us." Folks, I don't know about you, but this is the greatest blessing in the world. This is the greatest blessing ever there was, and that is God became flesh. He became one of us, bone of our bones, flesh of our flesh. God with us, Emmanuel. That I just read for you was declared all the way back in Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14. You can write that down and go look at it sometime. I encourage you to do so. It's almost the exact same words.

And then here's another one, again in Matthew chapter 2, verse 23. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled. which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene. And that's a declaration in Isaiah 11, verse 1. Here's another one in the book of Matthew, chapter 4, beginning at verse 12.

Now, when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast in the borders of Zebulun and Nephilim, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, the land of Zebulun and the land of Nephilim, by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which sat in darkness saw great light. And to them which sat in the region in the shadow of death, light is sprung up. And from that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Now, that part about the land of Zebalon and the people that sat in darkness, that was declared back in Isaiah chapter 9, verses 1 and 2. Now, I could go on and on. I just read, what, 1, 2, 3? three different places, and only in the book of Matthew. There's 54 more places where the Lord talks about fulfilling His word in the New Testament. But the point is this, to one who is a child of God, our faith, our trust, is in His word.

Folks, we have no confidence in the flesh. Now that doesn't just mean my flesh. That doesn't mean I don't have any confidence in my flesh. I don't have any confidence in anybody else's flesh either. Except the very one, the Lord Jesus. He who is God in the flesh. We trust in his word. Not in the world's and man's record of it.

The chief priests and the elders, did you notice that they bound the Lord Jesus, they bound Him up and delivered Him into the hands of the Gentiles there in verse 1 of Matthew 27, because the Scriptures must be fulfilled. That's why. Our Lord had prophesied that He must be delivered by the Jews into the hands of the Gentiles, therefore the Jews did what they did because the Scriptures must be fulfilled. Did not the Lord tell His disciples at least three times that I must go up to Jerusalem, that the elders and the priests and the scribes would abuse Him and be slain? And then every time He mentioned what would happen up in Jerusalem, what did He close with? And on the third day, I will rise again.

Here's the good news. Here's the gospel message. Christ's purpose to lay down His life for you and I. For us. For all of His people throughout all time. Norm and I were talking about that. The use of the word... I think it was Norm and I. The use of the word world. That means all of his people throughout all of time, from every tribe, from every nation, from every tongue, all of the folks that he went to that cross for must come to him.

Otherwise he wouldn't have said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, right? Okay, so here's what he says over in Acts chapter 13, or what the Spirit inspired the writer to write in Acts 13, 27 through 29. No, Acts 4, 27 through 28. For of a truth against the Holy Child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." Folks, even the wicked, even the devil is God's devil. He can only do what God allows him to do. Read the book of Job. Very, very clear. You can do this, but you can't do this. And guess what? He couldn't do that, but he could do the other.

Listen to Acts chapter 13 verse 27 through 29. And for they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath day. Now I want to stop there for just a moment. Did you catch what the Lord tells us there?

These men read the same scriptures you and I read, And they read it every day. They were the most loyal people to reading God's word in the entire world. They had all the oracles of God. They had all of the commandments of God. And they thought they were fulfilling those commandments by their own deeds. They had no idea of what the original scriptures talked about when it comes to grace and love and mercy. their rulers, because they knew not the voices of the prophets which were read every Sabbath day.

They had fulfilled them in condemning Him. In their condemning of Christ, they fulfilled all of what the prophets spoke of. And though they found no cause of death in Him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him. They took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher."

Obviously, those wicked men did exactly and only what they wanted to do in their own hearts. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, is what it says in Acts chapter 2 verse 23. Their crimes cannot be excused. The chief priests and the elders, headed by Ananias and Caiaphas, were so intent upon murdering the Lord Jesus that they sat up all night in council in pursuit of their wicked scheme, as it is recorded in Luke chapter 22, verse 66.

But they could do nothing. except that which God had purposed from eternity. Listen to John chapter 19 verses 10-11, Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered. Speaking to this one, Pilate, he said, Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. Therefore, he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

Let us ever remember that it is at the hand of our God that controls all things, even the evil that men do. We read the words in Romans chapter 8 verse 28, for we know that all things, well how do we know that all things are? Because our God rules everything, including the wicked. And everything has a purpose to fulfill our God's, what he has purposed to be. Our Lord does exactly according to His eternal purpose of grace.

Now surely, surely the wrath of man, this is Psalm 76 verse 10, surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. You see the power of God being used. You know in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 5, the Lord inspired Peter to write these words, ye who are kept, by the power of God. When our faith is in our own minds failing us, when our sin is overwhelming us and we have the doubts of God's salvation for us, let us always remember that it is our Lord who is keeping us from falling into eternal death.

It is our Lord who has kept us by the sacrifice of His Son, the sacrifice of His Son that died for His people. Folks, do you understand that? He died for us. You can't kill someone twice. We're already dead in the flesh to what our Lord did on that cross.

We live to the Lord Jesus now. Our lives are to live for Him and praise of Him and glorifying Him as we walk through this world. Now, I'm not saying that we walk in perfection. I'm not saying that we do anything right. But in our hearts, we serve to the good of God. In our souls, in our deepest part of our souls, we serve our Savior. We call Him our God because He calls us His people.

Listen to Romans 11 verse 33. Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. In Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11 we read these words, in whom also, in Christ, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. So in bringing this around to the Gospel, the Good News, we spoke all about these words, about how everything in God's Word we can trust, and all of His promises we can trust.

How do I bring this around to the Good News? To see that there is peace with God. Well, listen to these words. But God. This is Ephesians chapter 2, verse 4. Might be three. I didn't write it down. Isn't that weird? But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins.

This is talking about, we're talking about fulfilling Scripture. This is what Christ came to do, folks. This is what scripture is all about. It's all about Christ coming to this world and satisfying the judgment and the wrath of his father for our sakes.

It's a love letter. The whole Bible is a love letter about God and his people, but God. who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us, made us alive. I love that old word, quickened us. That sounds so good. He has quickened us together with Christ by grace. I'm so happy for that too.

If God gave me what I earned, if God gave me what I merited, if God gave me what I deserve, then I would be in the grave for eternity. But my Savior took all that I deserved, all that I earned, all that I merited, and took that death for me. He hath made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, purposed, that we should walk in them.

Turn over to Romans chapter 4, if you would. Romans chapter 4. Speaking of the promises of God to Abraham, or to you, or to I, or to anyone of his people, all of the promises, the promises, the simple ones, like, like, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Or, or, I shall never leave you nor forsake you. All of the promises. that God has made throughout all the Old Testament.

Do you know that the Lord clothing Adam and Eve in the garden with skins was part of that promise? Adam knew that. He taught Abel. He tried to teach Cain too, but Cain didn't have a heart. not the heart that Abel had, the heart of God, the new heart, Adam taught them that that skin that the Lord covered them with was the covering, the righteous covering of Christ that he covers each and every one of his sinful people with.

Look here at verse 17 of Romans chapter 4. This is God talking about the the promises to Abraham. Verse 17, we read these words, as it is written. Did you catch that? That means that somewhere in the Old Testament, because that's all that was written at this time, somewhere in the Old Testament, this is written exactly about that back in Genesis 17 5, as a matter of fact, I have made thee a father of many nations before him who he believed even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were, who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations." He's talking about Abraham. He believed.

And we're gonna see next how hard it was for him to believe knowing the things that we know of this world. Who against hope, believed in the hope that he might become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken. So shall thy seed be, verse 19. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, Now dead, and when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.

So here he is, he's in a position, everything that we know of this world was against his hope. Yet the very one that I spoke of a minute ago that inspired Peter to write those words here, kept by the power of God, kept Abraham in this very thing. Look at verse 20, he staggered not. at the promises of God through unbelief.

But was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Was his faith super strong? Was it something in Abraham that was strong? No, he was strong in believing Christ. Believing that the one who told him the promise was God Almighty, and when God promises something, nothing will get in the way of stopping. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also." Isn't that wonderful?

I can picture the Lord, you know I've told you this before, as the Lord gathered the brethren there at the table of remembrance in that upper room just hours, just a day or so before the, actually the night before he was going to go to the cross and he thought of John Reeves as he put together that ordinance for us to come to the table of remembrance. I can think of that very same thing here. As he inspired the writer Paul to write these words to the Romans, he thought of John Reeves. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for John Reeves also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.

I'm like that man whose son was healed, or wanted his son to be healed, and the Lord said, if thou believest, and he cried out, Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Verse 25, look at this, who was delivered. This is the fulfillment of all of God's Word right here who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Now look at verse 1 of chapter 5. Therefore, because of all that we just read there about the purpose, the fulfillment, of God's Word because of all that, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus. Oh, I pray that our Lord was able to give you peace tonight through His Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen.