Well, good morning. If you would
open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14, before we begin,
let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent is your matchless name. Father, we bow before you
reverently, and thankfully, so thankful to be able to come into
the presence of the thrice holy God confidently, knowing that
we'll be accepted in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, because
of who he is and what he's accomplished for his people, that we can come
before you and offer our praise, our thanksgiving, to bring our
cares and desires and worries before you, knowing that we'll
be heard for Christ's sake. Father, we're so thankful. How
can we even begin to thank you for a savior who provides a full,
free, perfect salvation for his people? For a sinful people who
deserve nothing but your wrath, but because of his obedience
and because of his perfect sacrifice, your people have been saved from
all of their sin. And Father, we thank you. No
one but But God Almighty could have contrived such a wise, perfect,
and gracious salvation. And Father, we thank you. And
it is our earnest desire this morning that Father, you would
enable us to worship you in spirit and in truth. Send your spirit
upon us. Father, give me of your spirit
that I might rightly divide the word of truth and preach your
gospel in the power of your spirit. And be with your people, Father,
give us a hearing ear, a believing heart, and apply your word to
our hearts that we may be enabled to worship you. And what we ask
for ourselves, Father, we ask for your people, wherever they're
meeting together today, Father, bless for your great namesake.
Make your name shine forth in this dark, dark day in which
we live. Father, it's our constant plea
that you would show us your glory. the redemptive glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Father it's in his name, for
his sake and his glory we pray, amen. Now I've titled the lesson
this morning, A Perfect Savior and Imperfect Faith. This is
something that every believer is familiar with. Every believer
lives this and understands this, a perfect savior and imperfect
faith. And the first thing I want us
to see is this, that our Savior forgives perfectly. Our lesson
begins in Mark 14, verse 26. And when they had sung in hymn,
they went out into the Mount of Olives. And Jesus saith unto
them, all ye should be offended because of me this night. For
it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall
be scattered. But after that I am risen, I will go before
you into Galilee. Now, our Lord Jesus knew everything
that's getting ready to happen in these coming hours, in this
hour of hours. He knew that he had been betrayed.
He knew that the mob would come being led by Judas to take him.
He knew how the Jews would despitefully use him and the mock trial that
they would put him through. He already knew about his dealings
with Pilate, that Pilate would condemn him. He knew the treatment
that he would have at the hands of the Roman soldiers. And he
knew full well the suffering that he would suffer as he hung
and died on the cross. And he knew all of this because
he is the very one that ordained for all of this to happen. He
says here, it is written. It was written in the Old Testament
scriptures telling us what's gonna happen so we wouldn't be
surprised when it happens so that we could look and see This
is the Christ, he's fulfilling all these Old Testament pictures
and prophecies of the Messiah. Our Savior knew what was gonna
happen. He knew how all these disciples
who had been so close to him, been with him these three and
a half years, he knew they were all gonna just abandon him. And he forgave him anyway. before
he even went to the cross, he forgave them. And he could forgive
them because he refused to do anything to avoid suffering for
their sins. He wasn't hiding, he was going
to the cross willingly to put away the sin of his people. That's
how he could forgive them, before he even went to the cross. And
he told his disciples, all of you, every last one of you is
gonna be offended because of me tonight. And that word offended
means to cause to trip and fall. It means to cause to begin to
doubt, to distrust. And I'll tell you why this was
such a stumbling block, the Savior's, his suffering, his humiliation,
why all this was such a stumbling block to the disciples is despite
the fact how many times the Lord told him he's gonna suffer and
die, rise again the third day, they still expected him to go
to Jerusalem in glory. They still expected him to set
up an earthly kingdom and have all of this glory. And when they
saw this bloody suffering, they saw this hatred and the humiliation
of their master, they began to doubt. They stumbled over this. If you look at Romans chapter
nine, the disciples didn't realize
it at that moment when the Lord made this statement to them,
but that's a very frightening statement to hear. that you're
going to be offended because of me tonight. Because that is
the very thing that said of unbelievers. Romans nine verse 30. What should we say then that
the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness have
attained to righteousness, even the righteousness, which is a
faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness
has not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Why? because they sought it not by
faith, but as it were, by the works of the law, for they stumbled
at that stumbling stone. As it is written, behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Now, whosoever believes
on Christ shall not be ashamed, but the unbeliever is gonna stumble
over him. They're gonna be offended by
this bloody, bloody gospel. They're gonna be offended by
what it says about them. If this is what the Son of God
had to suffer to put away sin, what does that say about you
and me? What does that say about our sin? How sinful and how rotten
we are? They stumbled at that stumbling
stone. That's unbelievers, he's talking
about there. Well, these are believers. These men who are
with the Lord, now we know that they're believers, but even believers
act like unbelievers sometimes, don't they? but they didn't fall away from
Christ. And every believer here could say the same thing. There's
times I have stumbled on my soul. I've stumbled, I've embarrassed
myself, I've embarrassed the Lord, I've embarrassed his people,
just such a stumble. But the difference between the
unbeliever and the believer is this, the believer won't fall
away from Christ because God won't let him. And the Lord knew
what his disciples were gonna do. That's why he told them before
they did it. He knew that they would all abandon him. He knew
that they would leave him all alone. No one was ever as alone
as our Savior on Calvary's tree. Nobody's ever as alone as he
was. And for people who have been
truly alone, we have some idea. what that suffering was. He was
all alone. He knew the disciples. Peter
would claim, I don't even know the man. I've never heard of
him. I don't know him. All the rest of them were afraid
to be associated with him. They just ran away. So shameful. But the Lord still
didn't cast him out. He forgave them before they even
did it. The Lord knew the suffering. of the sin debt, what that is
required to put away the sin of his elect, he knew what it
would cost him. And he suffered and died for
them anyway. All of their sin is sin against him, and he forgave
them anyway by suffering and dying in their place. And he
also knew about the fickle, weak faith of his people. He knew before he saved us, how
weak that we'd be. No, he's given his people faith. I can truly, honestly say, this
is a fact, I believe Christ, I trust him. But I can also tell
you this, this is equally as true, I'm ashamed of how little
I actually trust him. What just little thing can happen
to cause us to stumble, to cause us to doubt? The Lord knew that. And he chose his people anyway.
He suffered and died for them anyway. He forgave them before
he even went to the cross. And in spite of our weak faith
has never one time cast out one of his children because he forgives
sin perfectly. And here's why he can forgive
sin perfectly. Our savior is the perfect sacrifice. Verse 27 says that Jesus said
unto them, all ye should be offended because of me this night for
it's written, I'll smite the shepherd and the sheep should
be scattered. The savior is going to be smitten. And I tell you
why he's going to be smitten because it is the only way God's
elect can be saved. The father, before he created
anything, chose the people to save. He knew their sin. He knew that they would fall
in Adam. He knew that they would be dead
in Adam. He knew the sin that they would commit, the horrible,
filthy sin, the sin that they are, he knew their sin nature,
and he chose to save them anyway. But now if they're gonna be saved,
something's got to be done with their sins. God's holy, God cannot
sweep their sin under the rug. Somebody's got to pay for that
sin. And the son agreed that he would come in the flesh and
he'd pay for the sin of all those people that the father gave him
to save. And the way that he's gonna save his people from their
sin is to be smitten. he must be smitten with the rod
of God's justice. The only way that the father
can be, can be honored is if both justice and mercy are satisfied
by the same sacrifice. God would lose his honor if he
said, well, I've got this, this people that I'm going to say,
but I'm going to ignore their sin. And these people over here,
well, I'm going to send them to hell because of their sin. Well, that's not just, That's
not just, just these over here, I'm gonna pretend I didn't see
their sin. That wouldn't be just, the father
would lose his honor if he did that. But if the sin of his people
has been fully, completely punished by the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ, then the father is right to show mercy to his
people. And that's what the sacrifice
of Christ is all about. This is the will, the eternal
will of the son. just like it's the eternal will
of the Father, the eternal will of the Holy Spirit. Our Savior
was so concerned about honoring his Father, he refused not to
go to the cross. And he loved his people so much,
he refused not to go to the cross. He was willingly made sin for
them and then smitten by the hand of his Father with the rod
of justice so that his people would be saved perfectly, completely,
that they would be saved in justice. And the father, he's the one
that spoke the son. He's the one that executed justice
and judgment upon his son. If you look back at Zechariah
chapter 13, next to last book of the Old Testament, this is
the passage that our savior is quoting here in Zechariah chapter
13. Verse one, in that day there
should be a fountain open to the house of David and to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. There's
gonna be a fountain of blood opened to wash away the sin and
the uncleanness of God's people. And if you look in verse six,
here's how he's gonna do it. And one shall say unto him, what
are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, those with
which I was wounded in the house of my friends. his friends, his
countrymen, the people that he came in the flesh, he came unto
his own, his own received him not, they're the ones that did
all these things to his body, that beat him and lacerated his
back, that thrust the crown of thorns on his head, that drove
the nails through his hands and through his feet. Our Savior came to save sinful
men. Let's just set Jew and Gentile aside for a minute. He came to
save sinful men from every country, from every walk of life, from
every type of person, Jew and Gentile alike, and both Jew and
Gentile combined to torturing and killing. He said, I received
these in the house of my friends from the people that I came to
save. But here's where his real sufferings
happen, verse seven. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd
and against the man that is my fellow, sayeth the Lord of hosts,
smite the shepherd and the sheep should be scattered. And I'll
turn my hand upon the little ones. Now he says here, awake,
O sword. Well, the sword of God's justice
was never asleep. You know, it was never inactive,
but he tells it awake. because now is the time for this
sword to be used. Against my fellow, saith the
Lord of hosts, this is the father taking that sword of justice
and plunging it into the heart of my fellow, the one who's just
like me, my son, father, son, and Holy Spirit, they're all
one. Awake, O sword, and smite the shepherd. Smite him so that
he is put to death. Smite him with justice because
this is what God's justice demands. When Christ was made sin for
his people, he must be punished. He must be punished fully, completely. He must receive everything that
the sin of his people deserves. It's not like, well, the father's
punishing him even though he's not really guilty. That would
be unjust too, wouldn't it? That would be unjust for the
father to tell the sword of justice awake, I'm going to plunge you
into the heart of my fellow and the heart of my son if his son
was not guilty. When Christ was made sin, he
was made guilty of every sin of all of his people, even though
he never committed a sin. He never committed one of them,
but he was made guilty. And when the father punished
him, sin was fully punished. And because the Lord Jesus knew
no sin, he did no sin, even though he was made sin, he was never
made a sinner, he never thought about sin, he never wanted to
commit a sin, he's a sinless sacrifice. Because he knew no
sin, his perfect blood, his sinless blood, the only sinless blood
that ever flowed on this planet was shed to pay for all of the
sin of all of God's elect in just one sacrifice. Perfect salvation. Now, it was a violent death. It was a painful death. I mean,
the violence that our Lord suffered in his body with the hands of
the Jews, the hands of the Romans, the violence, being crucified
and mocked. I mean, the blood and the gore
and the, I mean, just the cold hearted violence of this. But
I tell you where his most, the height of his suffering happened.
It was in his soul, in his heart. When that sword of justice was
in the hand of an angry God, the father plunged that sword
into the heart of his fellow, into his soul. This is his soul
suffering. He made his soul an offering
for sin. Now you can never doubt that
God is holy. I mean, we tell people that they
don't know about the gospel, they don't know the Lord. Now
God's holy. The way that you know for sure God is strictly,
absolutely holy is when sin was found on his son, look what he
did to him. He did not spare his son. He did not spare that
sword of justice. He didn't just cut him with it. He didn't just kind of stab at
him a little bit. He plunged it into him. He suffered everything
that sin deserves because the Father's holy. He's just, he
must punish sin. And in that suffering, he provided
a perfect salvation for his people. A salvation that can never be
lost. Then the third thing I see is
this. Our Savior is the perfect shepherd. You see this at the
end of verse seven in Zechariah 13? Smite the shepherd and the
sheep shall be scattered. I'm glad that that's a colon
there, not a period. And I will turn mine hand upon
the little ones. When the shepherd is smitten,
the sheep will absolutely scatter. And that's exactly what happened,
wasn't it? Because of their fear, because of their weak faith,
they scattered. I mean, they just left him all
alone. They're all gonna swear, Lord,
I'll die with you. Oh no, I won't deny you, I'll
die with you. And the moment he was taken,
fear gripped him and they deserted him. I mean, they ran like scared
jackrabbits. And the Savior allowed himself
to be taken to go suffer for him anyway. Matter of fact, our
Savior himself opened the door for them to be scattered. He
said, it's me you want. Let these go their way. Because he forgave him, before
he even suffered and died for him, he was going to the cross
to put their sin away. And he suffered. I mean, our
shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He's my shepherd. And our shepherd was smitten. The shepherd died so that the
sheep would live. His people are scattered. When
our Savior suffered and died for our sin, now you think about
this. We're so ashamed. We ran away
from him to leave him to suffer alone. And he says, and after
I suffer, after I die, after the sheep are scattered, I'm
gonna turn my hand back upon my little ones. not to crush
them, not to discipline them, but to gather them to him in
love and mercy and grace, because he's put their sin away, because
he loves them. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
great shepherd of the sheep, and he will not lose even one,
not one little lamb that he shed his blood for. He'll not lose
one of them. He'll go to any length to go
find one out there lost in the wilderness, lost in the mountains,
lost and wandering away from him, to bring them back into
the fold so that they'll be one fold and one shepherd. And he'll
always be the good shepherd of the sheep to his people. He'll
always feed his people in the green pastures of his word. He'll
always lead them beside the deep waters, the still, cool waters
to be able to drink from and have our souls refreshed He'll
always comfort his people with his presence in their heart.
He'll always keep his people safe from their enemies. And
a bigger feat is to keep us safe from ourselves. I'm my own worst
enemy. Are you? I don't know about you,
but I know me. I am my own worst enemy. Our
shepherd keeps his people safe even from their own selves. He'll
always keep them safe in his hand because he's the perfect
shepherd. And then our Savior, fourthly,
is perfectly successful. Verse 28, back in our text, he
says, but after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee. Now our Savior knew he would
suffer and die because this is his will, but this is what he
also knew. He's going to rise again. There
was never the first bit of doubt in his mind that his sacrifice
would be successful. He's going to rise again because
when he's made sin for his people and he takes their sin, all of
it, all of their sin away from them into his own body upon the
tree. And he's going to put it away by his sacrifice. His blood is going to pay the
debt. His blood is going to wash his people from the filth of
their sin. And he knew that would be successful because before
he suffers and dies, he says, I'm gonna rise again. I mean,
that's something else he frequently told his disciples. I'm gonna
suffer and die and three days later, I'm gonna rise again.
I'm gonna rise again because my sacrifice is gonna put away
all the sin of my people. They'll be completely and utterly
saved from their sin. And he knew it would be so because
he's gonna put their sin away by his blood. And where there
is no sin, there can't be any death. He must rise again because
he's gonna put away all of the sin of his people. And when he
rises again, he says, I'll appear to you. You're gonna see me. And sure enough, they did. They
saw him in the flesh. They saw him rise. I mean, it
seemed almost too good to be true. As many times as the Savior
told them, in three days, I'm gonna rise again. And three days
after he died, they first hear, the Lord's risen, I've seen him. And they doubted. But they saw him. Even Thomas
saw him, didn't he? Oh, he said, I'm not gonna believe
till I thrust my finger into those prints in his hands. I
shoved my hand in his side, I'll not believe. Boy, he saw and
he believed, didn't he? And you who believe, you've seen
him too. Now it's with the eye of faith,
not a physical sight, but with the eye of faith. But with the
eye of faith, you've seen him. You see, this is how my sin can
be put away. This is how God can save me. It's the only way he can save
me. Christ must be made sin. He must take my sin away from
me and make it his. He's got to suffer and die to
put it away. And the proof that his sacrifice
justified me is he rose from the dead because sin is gone. I see that with the eye of faith. I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever
about this at all. All of God's elect will appear
with Christ in glory because it's impossible for them to be
condemned, utterly impossible. because Christ was already condemned
for them. His salvation is a perfect success. All of the people, that innumerable
host of people that the father gave to the son to save, he completely
and utterly saved them. He's the perfect savior who provides
a perfect salvation for his people. Is there one person in this room
that doubts that so? Is there? Every believer will,
I mean, just absolutely stake everything on that. Christ is
the perfect savior, and he's provided a perfect salvation
for his people, even for me. You believe that. Now, you believe
that, don't you? You believe that, you know that
to be true as much as you know anything at all, don't you? But here's the fifth thing. the
believer's imperfect faith. Verse 29, and Peter said unto
him, although also be offended. Yeah, well, not I. I mean, I
know these people will be offended, but I can see that John and James,
I mean, they ain't no Count Andrew. They'll be, but not me. And Jesus
said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, that this day, even in
this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.
But he spake them more vehemently. He just, he's arguing with the
Lord. If I should die with thee, I'll do not deny thee. And any
wise, likewise also, said they all. Now Peter's the spokesman
here. And you know, Peter gets blamed
for a lot of stuff, because he's the spokesman. He said what everybody
else really thought. But don't forget this. Likewise
said they all. Every one of them said the same
thing that Peter said. I'll not deny you. I mean, I know this.
I'll not deny you. I'll die with you. And you know
why? They all said the same thing
and they really believed it. They're so full of pride. They're
so full of self assurance. Their hearts are full of pride
and self-righteousness, and these men are believers. And I know
that they're believers. Now, they had weak faith, but
I know they're believers. Because the same one who stood
here in the face of the Lord and argued more vehemently, saying,
no, I won't deny you, I'll suffer and die with you, is the same
one who said, Lord, we believe and are sure thou art the Christ.
You're the Son of the living God. We know this, we believe
this. Peter and all the rest of them
are believers, but this is just what an example of weak faith. Peter's, I mean, he's so, all
of them, they're so bold and very soon they're all going to
be scattered. They're going to deny that they even know the
Lord, but it had to be so. You had
to be so, had to be. Three men are going to be crucified
that day. Our Lord on the middle cross,
two thieves, one on his right hand and one on his left. You
know why one of them wasn't Peter? Why there even wasn't a fourth
cross and Peter died with the Lord. You know why? Because if
he did, we'd attribute some salvation to Peter, wouldn't we? any of
the other apostles, you know, that would suffer and die with
the Lord. If Peter was crucified upside
down on this day, instead of later on at the end of his life,
while we'd attribute some salvation to Peter, Peter helped the Lord,
you know. Christ must suffer alone so that we know he accomplished
salvation by himself. It's all of Christ. And I tell you why I recognize
weak faith in these men. Because it's in me. I see it
so clearly in me, and I feel for them. I mean, I'm glad that
so many of my thoughts and words are not recorded in scripture
for everybody to see. You know, look at this weak faith.
Look what a bad example, you know, of a believer this is.
But the Lord allowed this to be recorded so that when we see
it in ourselves, we recognize it and know this thing of pride
and self-assurance that I can do this myself has got to be
constantly put down in us, got to be constantly put down in
us. And this is a painful and shameful thing for these disciples
to go through. I mean, what a painful thing.
They stand in the face of the Lord and argue, no, I won't desert
you, I won't deny you. And then they do. I mean, Peter
had to think the Lord's done with me. Don't you reckon? I
mean, it's so painful and so humbling, but it's necessary. Peter and all the rest of the
apostles never would have known the faithfulness of our Lord.
They never would have known His love. They never would have known
how sweet the forgiveness of sin is. They never would have
known anything of the sweetness and the power and the confidence
that it gives us to be saved by God's grace. If they hadn't
experienced this painful, humbling experience. And after having
gone through this painful and humbling experience, later on,
It enabled him to be very bold in preaching, didn't it? I mean,
as we're going through the book of Acts in our Sunday morning
messages, I mean, Peter, bold, isn't he? There's no punches
held back. I mean, he is, I mean, bold in
his preaching. And you know what else you see
in Peter? A compassion. a compassion for fallen sinners.
This is why Peter is one of the reasons he's so adamant. There
will be no compromise on this matter of the death, the burial,
the resurrection of Christ. There'll be no compromise on
this matter of salvation by grace because this is the only message
that will save a sinner. It's the only message that will
comfort the heart of a sinner. It's the only message that will
comfort the heart of a believer. after we've embarrassed ourselves
and stumbled and fell. And Peter wouldn't be able to
have compassion like that until he went through this other, this
painful and humbling experience. A perfect savior, but imperfect
faith, which is why one of the people that believers love to
quote the most, most often is that father who said, Lord, I
believe. Help thou mine unbelief. All
right. I hope that'll be a blessing
to you.