If you look back in Isaiah chapter
13, the title of the message this evening is A Man More Precious
Than Gold. There is one. A Man More Precious
Than Gold. The title comes from verse 12. The Lord says, I will make a
man more precious than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge
of Ophir. Now, that's the key. You can't
understand this chapter until you understand that verse. We'll
come back to it here in a minute. Historically, this chapter speaks
of God's judgment that's coming to the Babylonians. They've conquered
Israel, they're pressing them, and God's sending judgment to
wipe them out, to break their hold upon Israel. But spiritually,
this chapter speaks about God's judgment that's coming against
them. The last day when God judges all men, all men will stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. And it's a burden to speak of
these things. They're very sobering. They can
be frightening. And it's a burden to speak of
these things. But it's necessary. It's necessary
for us. And I pray that by the time we
leave here this evening, it will be a blessing to us. But Isaiah
begins with this burden that I'm speaking of. He says, the
burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amos did see. It is
a burden to preach the gospel. It's a great joy, don't get me
wrong, it is a great joy to preach the gospel, to talk about our
Savior. But it's a burden too. All the prophets talk about the
burden, bearing the burden of the Word. And it's a heavy burden
to bring a message from the Lord. God's message is a message of
judgment against sin. Horrible, total, complete judgment
and punishment of all sin, either in us or in our substitute. But this is God's message from
the Holy God, complete punishment and justice for all sin. And
Isaiah had this burden, the burden of God's message of punishment
for sin outside of Christ, outside of Christ's substitute. And Christ our substitute is
real. We're not talking about fairy
tales and fantasy. We talk about salvation that's
accomplished in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's real. But now
hell is real too. For those who do not believe,
hell is real. It's a real place. And it is
a great burden to know you're preaching to people who are going
to go into eternity. And they're going to go to hell
unless the Lord is merciful and gives them faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. They're going to go to hell unless
they hear the message of Christ. Now, Eric, that's the burden.
That's the burden. Our Lord could be merciful. He
promised he would be. He promised he'd be merciful
to some, but he doesn't have to be merciful. He's not going
to be merciful to all. And whichever it is God does,
whether it's mercy or whether it's judgment, It's going to
be for his glory. This is what Isaiah is telling
in this prophecy here in chapter 13. What the Lord says he's going
to do here is for his glory. Now, let me make this really
clear before we go on. I'm not talking about judgment
and hell and these kinds of things that I'm trying to scare anybody.
I'm not trying to scare anybody into making a decision. These
things are just so. This is plainly stated truths
in God's word. And the burden comes from handling
the Word of God. That burden is too great for
any man. The burden is telling sinners
about Christ. How are you ever going to do
that subject justice? The subject of our Lord Jesus
Christ. How are you going to do that justice? This is the
burden that we have. But we preach. It's a burden.
But we preach. We preach what the Lord's taught
us. We preach what the Lord's enabled us to see, and we leave
the results to him because he promised he's going to save his
elect through the preaching of his word. So we preach because
we're commanded to preach. It's like Isaiah. He had a burden,
but now he's commanded to preach. Look what it says in verse two.
Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain. Exalt the voice
unto them. Shake the hand that they may
go into the gates of the nobles. I have commanded my sanctified
ones. I have also called my mighty ones for my anger, even them
that rejoice in my highness." Now, these sanctified ones the
Lord is speaking of and the mighty ones, this is the Medes and the
Persians. He's calling them to come destroy
this occupying Babylonian army. God is so great. He's so sovereign. God uses his enemies to accomplish
his purpose. Now, if we're going to try to
accomplish something, we get our friends together, right? The
good old boy network and we'll try to, you know, that's how
we're trying to accomplish things. God's softened. He uses his enemies
to accomplish his purpose. He's calling the Medes and the
Persians to come do his bidding. Now, these armies from the heathen
country, when he says they're sanctified ones, it doesn't mean
they're made holy. It means that they've been chosen
by God. to come do his bidding to destroy these armies of Babylon.
And God says, now you lift up the banner. And they'll come. They're going to come serve God
even though they don't know it. Even though they don't know why
they're doing it or what they're doing, they're going to come
when God lifts up the banner. But this is also a picture of
preaching of the gospel. Calling God's true sanctified
ones to come to Christ. Now lift up the banner. Lift
up Christ our banner and don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Lift up Christ as boldly, as
clearly as you can. Lift up Christ. His people will
come. They will. They won't be able
to help it. You call on people to hear the word. You call on
people to hear Christ. I can tell you who will hear
it. God's sanctified ones will hear it. That's who. And you
motion with them. He says, shake the hand. He means
motion to them with your hand. Tell them, come on. Come with
me as I come to Christ. You come worship Christ with
me. Follow us as we go to the Lord. Call on people to come
to Christ so they'll have salvation in Him. That is the only way
to avoid God's wrath against sin that's coming. Just like
this day of God's punishment of the Babylonians. This day
when God sends the Medes and Persians in is coming. It's a
fixed day. It's not just a day that might
happen, you know, at some point in the future. This is a fixed
day. The Medes and Persians are coming.
That day is sure. God has a specific appointed
time for it. Well, that's what it says historically.
But we're talking about God's judgment against sin. And that
day is an appointed day. God has appointed a day, a specific
time when he will judge the world in righteousness. And then that
judgment and that punishment will be completely, fully accomplished. And it won't be done by mighty
men. It won't be done like mighty armies, like the armies of the
Medes and the Persians. It's going to be done by the
Mighty One. The Lord Jesus Christ will be judge and executioner. There will be no appeals to His
judgments. There will be no escaping His punishment. And there's a
warning sound to us. that this judgment's coming.
This is not going to be a complete surprise. There's a warning sound
that's coming. Look at verse 4. The noise of
a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people, a
tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together.
The Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. Now, when
that army started gathering together, it was so large, it could be
heard. You know, shields and their spears
and all these things clanking together and them coming together.
It could be heard. Those were the sounds of the
Lord mustering his army for the battle. It wasn't their army.
It was the Lord's army. They were there because he mustered
them. And you know the sounds of judgment. The sounds of the
end of the earth are heard. They're heard in God's Word.
God told us it's coming. He gave us signs and evidences.
It's coming. Listen to the Word. You hear
it. It's coming. And we have no idea when that
day will be. No idea. I almost quoted Jim. You know, Jim Meadows, he said,
I got no idea. Such a habit to me at home. I
got no idea when that's coming. But it's coming. This is sure.
And the Lord may not come back for a thousand years. He's come
for me before then. He's come for you before then.
That time's coming. This sound is also heard in the
gospel when it's preached. God musters the army of His elect
when the gospel is preached through the sound of the gospel. This
is how God musters His people to safety in Christ. It's through
the preaching of the gospel. You declare Christ, safety is
found through faith in Him. That's the only place of safety.
We're going to see that in just a minute. But when this day comes,
the day of God's judgment, God's wrath, God's wrath is going to
be seen. And these people, he keeps saying,
oh, God's love. God loves everybody. They're
going to be shocked. God's wrath against sin is going
to be seen. It's indignation against sin. That's what he calls it in verse
five. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even
the Lord and the weapons of his indignation to destroy the whole
land. God's indignation against sin
is going to be seen. And how God destroys the whole
land without exception, without mercy. And that day will be a
day of great lamentation. Look at verse 6. These people
I told you, they're going to say God loves everybody. They're
going to be shocked. He says in verse 6, How will
He? For the day of the Lord is at hand. It shall come as a destruction
from the Almighty. Verse 8, they shall be afraid.
Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them. They shall be in
pain as a woman that travaileth. They shall be amazed one at another. Their faces shall be as flames. People will howl at the judgment
for their sin. They'll be weeping and wailing
and gnashing of teeth. That's what our Lord said. Because
this is the judgment of the Almighty. God Himself is coming to carry
out this sentence. And it's sure. And it will be
severe because God's holy. He has indignation against sin. You and I can understand that.
We're sinners. We can tolerate sin. At least
to a certain degree now, we can tolerate sin. God can't. He's holy. This day when it comes,
He's going to show His indignation against sin. And men won't be
able to defend themselves against it. They won't be able to defend
themselves against God's judgment because man's guilty. And he
has no life in him. He has no strength in him. Look
at verse 7. Therefore shall all hands be
faint, and every man's heart shall melt. Men think they've
got strength in themselves until they see God. Then they're weak. All their strength's gone. Men
think they're stout-hearted until they see God. And then their
hearts melt in fear. That's what's going to happen
in this day. Their hearts will melt in fear when they see the
Lord. And how I pray that God, in His
mercy, would let us see that now. If our hearts will melt
within us now at a sight of Him, we can call on Him for mercy.
Not that day. That'll be a day of strict justice
and judgment. And that judgment will be full
and final. Look at verse 9. Behold, the
day of the Lord cometh, cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger,
to lay the land desolate. He shall destroy the sinners
thereof out of it." And look over verse 19. This is how final
and complete this judgment is. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms. This is the greatest kingdom
on earth. The beauty of the Calvary's excellency shall be as when God
overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. This judgment will be so complete
it shall never be inhabited. Neither shall be dwelt in from
generation to generation. Neither shall the Arabian pitch
tent there. Neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
But the wild beasts of the desert shall lie there. Their houses
shall be full of doleful creatures. Owls shall dwell there, and satyrs
shall dance there. And all the wild beasts of the
islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their
pleasant places. And her time is near to come,
and her days shall not be prolonged. When I read that, I got the vision
in my mind. I saw a thing on the History
Channel about Chernobyl. How many years ago it was, you
know, the nuclear disaster. And everybody left. Everybody
left. I mean, it looks like they're
coming back tomorrow in a lot of ways. Or just in a few minutes,
it looks like they just went to the grocery store. Belongings
and everything just laying around. Beds and houses. Boy, it's awful
desolate. Nobody's lived there in all those
years. All the windows are broken. Animals live in the houses. Birds
and deer, they all just live in these people's houses. But
if the world goes long enough, man, go back there and live.
After this judgment of God, you'll never be inhabited again. Complete
and utter destruction. All sin will be punished. Not
one sin will be left unpunished. Not one. All sinners, without
exception, to be destroyed. There'll be nobody left living.
And that punishment will come from a holy anger. It says here
that it's cruel. Men will think it's cruel because
there'll be no mercy mixed with that judgment. The day of mercy
will be over. And that punishment will come
with a fierce, burning anger that finds and destroys every
sin. And in that day, There'll be
no more hope. Look at verse 10. For the stars
of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their
light. The sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon
shall not cause her light to shine. There'll be no comfort
in that day. No comfort of light. The sun,
the moon, the stars won't shine. More than likely, this is talking
literally. The sun, the moon, the stars
won't shine. And the reason I think that's literal is I know of another
day And that was literal. The sun didn't shine. It was
another day of judgment. The day when our Lord was crucified
on Calvary's tree. The sun refused to shine. A dark day of judgment. The sun
did not shine on that day of judgment, and it's not going
to shine on this day of judgment either. There'll be no more hope. Because the light of Christ won't
be preached anymore. The day of preaching, the day
of grace, will be over. There'll be no more hope. And
there is no way of escaping this judgment. Look at verse 13. Therefore
I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of
her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, in the day of
his fierce anger. And it shall be as the chaste
roe, and as a sheep, that no man taketh up. They shall every
man turn to his own people, and flee everyone into his own land.
Everyone that is found shall be thrust through, and everyone
that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. There'll be
no hiding place when God's wrath comes through. He's just going
to take the earth and turn it upside down and shake it. There's
no hiding place. It'll be turned upside down and
everyone found will be brushed through and fall by the sword
of God's justice. Even people we think should be
exempt from the ravages of war because there's no innocent ones.
Look at verse 16. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces
before their eyes. Their houses shall be spoiled,
and their wives ravished. Look at verse 18. Their bows
also shall dash the young men to pieces, and they shall have
no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes shall not spare children.
Now because of what God's Word has to say about babies and children,
we do not believe God's going to send babies to heaven. We
don't believe that at all. That's always the first accusation.
that people cast at you when you tell them you're a Calvinist,
you believe in predestination. They say, oh, you believe God
sends babies to hell. No, absolutely we do not believe
that. And we don't believe that based
on what God's word says. But what this is saying here
is there are no innocent men. There are no innocent sons of
Adam. Our babies, when they're born,
we love them. We think they're cute. We think they're innocent-looking.
And if the ravages of war come through, nobody ought to touch
them, right? Because we think they're innocent. But they're
not. They are no innocent sons of Adam. And this is saying everyone,
everyone who's not in Christ will be punished. Because if
you're in ourselves, outside of Christ, we're guilty. And
just so this is real clear, you won't be able to bribe your way
out of it. And we have that idea in our head because the American
system of justice, those scales are weighed heavily by money.
So just so you know, you can't bribe your way out of God's justice.
Look at verse 17. Behold, I will stir up the Medes
against them, which shall not regard silver. And as for gold,
they shall not delight in it. When those armies came through,
you couldn't offer them silver and gold, not to kill you and
kill your family, not to burn your house down. They didn't
care about it. They didn't care about silver
and gold. They were bloodthirsty. They were out for blood. I point this out because we think,
by nature, we can pay God off with bribes. This is a big part
of the law. This is one of the reasons why
people want to hang on to the tithe. They want to hang on to
the tithe. False preachers want to hang
on to the tithe so they can get money. The person who's not the
false prophet, just a person out there getting taken advantage
of, they want the tithe too. Because in their mind they think
it's a bribe. But no, God's not impressed with
somebody who faithfully pays their tithe. I saw this John,
you saw that special on the men that built America and Rockefeller
and all those fellows. Rockefeller, he had all that
oil and stuff. He was going to this little old
church and he was the janitor of it. Well, that place got wildly
wealthy because to the day he died, he faithfully tied 10%
of everything he had. That's a lot of money. Is God
impressed because somebody faithfully paid their tithes? No! No! If you're under the law,
that's what you're required to do. God's not going to be impressed
with you because you did what you're required to do. You're
just supposed to. Some men think, well, I'll impress
God if I get more than 10%. And we think God will be impressed
by that because we're impressed by that. But God's not impressed. All of it belongs to God anyway.
All of it does. God's not impressed when we give
Him what's already His. If you think you can impress
God with your generosity, think of this. God gave His only begotten
Son for the redemption of His people. Given 15% to impress
God, God gave His Son. The only payment sufficient to
pay for sin is the blood. It's the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We just signed it. It's not silver
and gold. It's the blood, the blood of Christ. And if our sin
has not been put under the blood of Christ, we must suffer the
eternal punishment ourselves. And I'll tell you where the root
of all this is coming from. The root of it is man's unbelief
in self-righteousness. Look back at verse 11. And I'll
punish the world for their evil. and the wicked for their iniquity.
And I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease and will
lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." Now man's great evil
and iniquity, it's not open sin that we get caught up in. We
get caught up in sins of greed and drunkenness and sexual sins
and these kinds of things. And all those things are evil.
Don't get me wrong. But that's not man's great evil.
That's not what's going to send us to hell. Man's great evil. His great iniquity is pride and
arrogance and haughtiness. And you can understand why God
says He hates pride. There is no reason for us to
stand before God proud of anything of His dead, sinful flesh. That's
offensive to God. It's no wonder He hates pride.
And I tell you what pride produces. We get so proud of ourselves.
We will not. We refuse. Because we are so
proud of ourselves, we don't think we need Christ. That's
why we don't come to Christ. It's not all these other open
sins. It's our self-righteousness. It's our pride. I'm too good. I don't need Christ. We're so
arrogant, we think our righteousness is good enough. So I don't need
Christ's righteousness. We're so arrogant we don't think
we need Christ to be our sacrifice. We don't think we need a sacrifice
at all because we don't think we're sinners. That's our arrogance. And we're so arrogant and haughty
about ourselves. Can you imagine how that angers
the Holy One? Surely He's going to punish this
arrogancy and pride. This is full, final, well-deserved
punishment that cannot be escaped. Now, is there hope? It's been
dark. Boys, it's been dark. Dark message. But true, nonetheless. But is
there hope? Yes, there's one. Look at verse
12. I will make a man more precious
than fine gold, even a man in the golden wedge of oprah. The man being spoken of here
is the man Christ Jesus. Now, illustrate Why he's so precious
with this illustration. Single women in our day. I've
got two daughters, single women. You talk to them. Talk to any
single woman. They'll tell you a man is precious. That's what they'll tell you.
A man's precious. Now, roughly half the population
is male, so why do they think a man is so precious? Well, it's
for this reason. There are plenty of adult males
around. But most of them aren't any more mature than a boy. But
a man, now I'm talking about a man who's got the strength
to love his wife. He's got the strength and the
wherewithal to lead her and to protect her and to provide for
her. That man's precious because there's
so few of them. There's so few of them. You boys,
when you grow up, be that man. I mean, ask your fathers to teach
you to be that kind of man now, because it takes a while. It
takes a while to learn. There's so few of them. On this
day of judgment, we just read it. All men will be destroyed. All men! Except this one man. This one man. And that's what
makes him so precious. The man Christ Jesus is so rare. He's precious. He's the only
man. He's the only righteous man.
He's the only holy man. He's the only man God has sent.
Christ is precious. More precious than gold because
He is the only hiding place where you can find mercy. He's the
only place where you can find righteousness. Christ is so precious
because Christ is that one man. He's that one place where the
anger of God stops. And you know why the anger of
God stops at Him? Because the anger's already been
there. It's already been there and exhausted itself on the sin
placed on Christ our substitute. And this is what I want us to
see. This is what I want you to put in your lunch bucket and
take to work tomorrow. Christ is precious. Because He suffered
all this promised punishment that we read about in all these
other verses. Christ has already suffered it as the substitute
for His people. Silver and gold couldn't pay
the price, but He did with His own blood. And as full and final
and inescapable as this punishment is, Christ has already suffered
it all for His people. So they have nothing to fear.
All the punishment their sin deserves has already been poured
out on their substitute. And there's no more punishment
Now, first of all, Isaiah spoke of bearing a burden. The Lord
Jesus Christ bore the burden of the sin of his people, and
he bore that burden away. Just like that scapegoat of old.
They confessed the sins on the head of that goat, and that goat
bore the burden. He bore the guilt of that sin
so far away it was never seen again. Now, that scapegoat did
that in picture. Christ did it in reality. If
He died for you, He bore the burden of your sin away, and
you'll never bear it again. You'll never see the guilt of
it again. He bore the burden away. Second, Isaiah said that
the day of God's judgment is surely coming. Well, the day
that Christ suffered for sin was a sure day. accomplished the salvation of
His people on the day appointed by God. He accomplished the salvation
of the people given to Him by God. That salvation that Christ
accomplished for His people is sure. Just as sure as He is. Now rest in Him. Don't fear all these things.
Christ already born for you. Just rest in Him. Thirdly, Isaiah
told us that people are going to have torment, knowing this
judgment's coming. They don't know when it's coming.
They might be listening for the sound of that army mustering,
but they don't know when it's coming. We don't know when this
day of judgment's coming. We don't know when God's going
to end this in time as we know it. All through his life as a
man, our Lord Jesus Christ had torment. He was a man of sorrows,
acquainted with grief. All the sorrows and the suffering
he went through every day for 33 and a half years. He had torment
knowing that day of punishment was coming. It was drawing ever
closer. And it was a day of punishment
that was coming to him and that punishment would be just. Would
be just. Because he was going to be made
sin. And then he was going to suffer
and die for that sin. That was the torment. the Holy
Son of God, Lord, for the people that He loves, so that you will
never bear that torment. Never. Fourthly, God promised
that when this day of judgment comes, the guilty will howl in
horror. Psalm 22, this is the Psalm of
the cross, what they say is the Psalm our Lord recited as He
hung there on the cross. He howled. He said in Psalm 22,
I cried day and night. He howled when he was being punished
for the sin of his people. He howled, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? He howled that for the comfort
of his people that you will never be forsaken because he was forsaken
for you. He howled, I thirst. He thirsted. Because He took
the thirst of His people. We hunger and thirst after righteousness. He bore that thirst. And we'll
never thirst in Him. We have water of life in Him.
We won't thirst after righteousness in Christ because we're made
to righteousness of God in Him. He thirsted so His people would
never thirst. You know, we thirst. We feel
thirst because there's something lacking in us. Christ suffered. He thirsted. So we'll never lack. And then he howled, it is finished. And he howled that. That sound
of his voice heard through the ages, it is finished, was howled
for the comfort of his people. So we would know without any
doubt the salvation of his people was accomplished. He hung his
head, he gave up the ghost, and salvation was eternally accomplished.
All the sin of his people paid for through his death. There's
nothing left to have. Salvation's finished. It's complete. That's good news. Fifthly, God
promised this judgment would be severe and frightening so
that men's heart would melt. Look at Psalm 22. God promised,
now this day is coming. Men's hearts are going to melt.
There'll be no strength in their hands. Our Savior endured that
for his people. Psalm 22, verse 14. He says, I'm poured out like
water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart's like wax,
his heart melted in him. It has melted in the midst of
my bowels. My strength is dried up. I have no more strength left.
Dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws.
And thou hast brought me into the dust of death. His heart
was poured out like wax. His strength was dried up and
he went into the dust of death so that his people would never
die. He would never suffer that. Then our Lord promised the pangs
of sorrow and judgment will come on people suddenly. Just like
a mother, she suddenly goes into labor and she travails in pain
until that child is born. Look in Isaiah 53. Our Savior endured the pains
of death. He endured all those labor pains
so that his children would be born again, and they'd live eternally,
and they'd never suffer these pains. Isaiah 53, verse 11. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, and he shall be satisfied. He's not going to have any stillborn
children. They're all going to be born with perfect health,
perfect righteousness. He shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities."
Then God promised he's going to send these armies to accomplish
his purpose. He's going to send these armies,
the Medes and the Persians, they're going to destroy the whole land.
All the Babylonian army is going to be pushed out. You know, when
the father entered into judgment with his son, We got a glimpse
of God's holy indignation against sin. The complete destruction,
punishment of sin. We got a glimpse at Calvary of
how God really views sin. We got a glimpse of how horrible
sin is. Because we have a sin nature,
we really don't realize how horrible sin is. But if you go to Calvary,
you'll see how horrible sin is. It must be horrible. Look what
God did to His Son when His Son was made to be sin for His people.
Sin must be horrible. But Christ suffered all of that
through His horrible sacrifice, through the slaughter of Himself. He took all of God's indignation
against that sin. And here's the confidence God's
elect have. If the Father completely totally, finally punished all
of my sin in Christ. All of it, Roy, all of it. Then
there's no more sin left for God to charge me. There's no
more sin left for God to punish me. The Father punished Christ
for all the sin of His people. There's no punishment left for
any of God's elect. There is therefore now no condemnation. to them which are in Christ Jesus.
At Calvary, the Father showed His indignation against sin. He gave even His Son no special
treatment so that the Father could be merciful to sinners
like us. Christ bore it all. That's good
news. 8th God said, in that day of
His fierce anger, the sun is not going to shine. Stars and
the moon won't shine, they'll be dark. I already touched on
this earlier, but it bears repeating. When Christ suffered, God's judgment
against the sin that was laid on Him, the sun didn't shine. The Savior suffered in darkness,
so His people would always have light. Have light in Him. Never be left in darkness. In
Christ we have the light of life. God promised in the day of his
fierce anger, every man found will be thrust through. Every
man. No child of God ever has to worry
about that. Every child of God already has
been thrust through. Look at John chapter 19. Every
child of God already has been thrust through in the person
of our substitute, in the person of our Savior. John chapter 19, verse 30. Jesus, therefore, received the
vinegar. He said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. The Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation
that the body should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath day,
for the Sabbath day was a high day. This was right before the
Passover. They can't have these bodies
hanging there on their high holy day. You know, this is going
to mess everything up. They can't have that. We've got to get them
down from there. This is their motivation. So
they besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, so they'll
die the sooner, you know, and they might be taken away. Then
came the soldiers and break the legs of the other which was crucified
with him. But when they came to the Lord
Jesus, they saw he was dead already. They break not his legs. No need
to break his legs. But one of the soldiers, you
just imagine The violence and the hatred of God in this man's
heart. He had no idea what he was doing.
But look what he did. With a spear, pierced his side. And forthwith there came out
blood and water. That soldier had no idea what
he was doing. But our Savior, when he was pierced
through with that spear, out flowed blood and water. To tell
us one more time, salvation is accomplished. When He said it's
finished, it was finished. Out flowed blood that justified
and water sanctified. That double cure that every child
of God loves. Now can you see from that Christ
is precious? He's more precious than gold.
And in that day, will Christ be precious to you? I ask myself
that question in that day. Will Christ be precious to me?
I can tell you how you know. Is He precious to you now? Is
He? I'm not talking about doctrine.
I'm not talking about the church. I'm not talking about we've always
believed. I mean, is He precious to you? Is hearing the gospel
of Christ Does that make Him more precious to you every time
you hear Him? More precious than gold? Well,
if you see yourself, by God's grace, if you see yourself, and
then you see Christ, He'll be precious to you. And He'll grow
more precious every time you see Him. And if He's precious
to you now, He'll be precious to you in that day. If He's precious
to you now, He'll be precious to you through all eternity.
May God make it so. Let's bow. Our Father, how we thank You for the Lord
Jesus Christ. This One. This One Man who is
more precious than gold. More precious than all the gold
and the silver man has ever found. More precious. His blood is precious. His righteousness is precious. His person, His precious. He
gave Himself for our sins. A gift beyond human language,
beyond human comprehension. Father, I pray that You would
make Your precious Son precious. in the hearts of each one of
us gathered here this evening. Make Him precious to us so that
we cling to Him, look to Him, rest in Him, trust in Him, and
never leave Him. We know that He's precious to
us in an unspeakable act of mercy
and love and grace. Somehow You viewed us precious
in Him first. Father, we're thankful. Pray
for a heart that worships You, thanks You, and praises You as
You ought to be thanked. It's in that precious name, the
name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For the sake of His name we pray. Amen.