It honestly and truly is my honor
to be here. I'm very thankful. It's been
a while. The last time I was supposed
to be here, I was robbed of the opportunity to see you because
the air conditioner went out. So I'm very glad our air conditioner
is working and we can meet together. If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Mark chapter 14. As you're turning, if you've
never led to singing, you don't understand how Mark felt to lead
to singing. Boy, I appreciate it. Because
you're the first person a preacher looks for when he comes in the
door is song leader. And the first person a song leader
is looking for is a piano player. So all eyes are on the piano
player. It tells you how important she is. But Mark, you did a great
job. I appreciate it, my friend. Now,
before we get into our text, it's going to begin at verse
26. But I just want to bring you up to speed. what's happened
right before this event, this conversation the Lord has with
his disciples. The Lord has just been in a room
alone with his disciples and together they observed the last
Passover. Now, as they were, were eating
that lamb and they were eating the bitter herbs and the things
that they do with that, uh, with the Passover, I'm confident that
they weren't silent. And I'm also confident they weren't
talking about the scores down to Colosseum this past week.
I just bet you that the Lord was talking to them about this
Passover. I'm sure that all of Israel had
forgotten any real significance in this Passover. It was just
a ceremony that they did. But the Lord could have explained
that lamb that was taken was a substitute. for a specific
person in that home, just one, the firstborn and only for the
firstborn. And how that lamb's body being
roast with fire is a picture of what he's going to suffer
soon. This is what it takes to put our sin away. And it's got
to be the suffering and the death of a sinless, perfect sacrifice.
They talk to them about the blood being applied to the doorpost
and how the blood must be applied to the hearts of his people.
I mean, can you, I mean, we love the Lord's table and you know,
we frequently think about the Passover before you observe the
Lord's table. I mean, wouldn't it have been
so special to be eating that Passover that night, the last
one, with the Savior taking and explaining these things to you,
talking to you about himself and these things. And then he
instituted the very first Lord's table. And they partook of the
first Lord's table, probably not yet really fully understanding
what the Lord was saying. I mean, I think the disciples
are still shocked when they see the Lord taken and crucified.
But you know how we feel after we observe the Lord's table,
what a special time of worship it is to take that bread and
to eat it, that precious sinless body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And to take that wine and drink it, a picture of his perfect
sinless blood that put away the sin of his people. We would have
no remission of sin without the blood of Christ. What a wonderful
thing. And we just, everybody's just
always upbeat and just, it's just such a blessing. Can you
imagine being the first one where the Lord instituted it, where
the Lord broke the bread and gave it, where the Lord took
the wine and oh my, And you'd think now the disciples are on
a spiritual high. Now, I understand that they really
probably weren't because like I said, they did not yet fully
understand what our Lord was getting ready to suffer and why
he was getting ready to do it. Now, they were going to understand
it fully later, but what a precious, precious opportunity that they
had that night to hear Christ, the teacher, teach Christ the
lesson. I mean, what a, what a blessing
that they had. Now we're going to pick up in
verse 26. This is what happened immediately before this now.
Mark 14 verse 26. And when they had signed him,
they went out into the Mount of Olives. And Jesus sayeth unto
them, all ye should be offended because of me this night for
it's written, I'll smite the shepherd and the sheep shall
be scattered. But after that I'm risen, I will
go before you into Galilee. Now, I've titled the message
tonight, A Perfect Savior, An Imperfect Faith. And the first
thing I see here is this. The Savior forgives perfectly. He forgives the sins of His people
perfectly. Now, He knew everything that
was getting ready to happen. This is his hour, the hour of
hours, the hour that he talked about to his disciples so often.
He was getting ready for all these events to happen, and he
knew everything that was going to happen to him. You know why? Because he ordained it. It's not because he looked down
through time and saw, oh, this is what's going to happen, so
now I know what's going to happen to me. Everything that was getting
ready to happen to him was his will being carried out. He knew
that Judas had already betrayed him. I mean, you think of Judas.
He went and betrayed the Lord, and then came to observe the
Passover with the Lord. I mean, mm-mm-mm. And the Lord
still let him at the table, didn't he? He knew. He ordained Judas to
be the one to betray him. He knew Judas was gonna lead
that mob out to take him in the garden. He knew that they were
all coming, you know, trying to look so scary with their pitchforks
and their lanterns and all these things. He knew they were coming.
He knew that one of his inner circles, one of the 12 that were
around him was going to betray him with a kiss. He knew that
because he ordained for that day. He wrote about it happening
in the Old Testament, gave us, spelled out exactly what Judas
was going to do. He knew how the Jews would treat
him. and his mock trial and all the ways that they would abuse
him and lie on him and, oh, the things that they did to him.
He knew what Pilate would do with him. He knew his dealings,
you know, with Pilate. He knew he was going to have
to put Pilate in his place. He said, you have no power over me at all except
to forgive me from above. But it was given to Pilate to
deliver Jesus over into their hands, to crucify them. He knew
what the Roman soldiers would do to him. He knew how they would
lacerate his back with a cat of nine tails. And, you know,
frequently a person would die from being scourged like that
with a cat of nine tails. It just rips all the skin off
and flesh off your back and your inner organs, you know, fall
out your back. People die from this. He knew
he would be scourged. He knew how they would beat him
and pluck out his beard and spit on his face. He knew that they
bow the knee and give him a, you know, an old red carpet to
wear as a robe, and a reed in his hand, and how they'd mock
him, bowing the knee to him, hail Jesus, King of the Jews.
He knew how they would nail him to the cross. And they'd pick
that cross up, and they'd thump it down in the hole prepared
for him, and his whole body would rack with pain, and there he'd
be, naked between heaven and earth for all to see. The Savior
knew exactly what was going to happen. Even now, as we look
in hindsight, we don't fully understand what our Lord understood. He knew the depths of his soul
suffering, that he was going to suffer for the sin of his
people. And he knew all this was going to happen because he
ordained it. He said, it's written. You can
find all of these things written in the Old Testament so that
you know for sure this was God's eternal will. And this was his
will for him to suffer this horrible, humiliating, painful soul suffering. But he refused to do anything
to avoid it. He went to it willingly. And
he also knew what his disciples would do when they came to take
him. Our Lord said, you all be offended because of me this night. That word means to cause to trip
and fall. you may are going to trip and
fall because of me, because you're ashamed of me tonight. It also
means to begin to cause, to begin to distrust. You're going to
be offended. You're going to start to, you
know, you can begin to distrust and you know why they began to
distrust, why they, they tripped and fell at the, at the suffering
and the treatment of our savior is because they're still expecting
a glorious earthly kingdom. They're not expecting a bloody
sacrifice. They're not expecting that this is how God's going
to establish his church. It's not by creating a big giant
rule over all the earth in Jerusalem. It's by the blood of his son.
And if you look at Romans chapter nine, I'll show you what a scary
statement this is. This is a very frightening statement
for a believer to hear that you'll be offended because of me this
night, because this is the way unbelievers are described. Romans
chapter 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,
hath 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. They wanted to have their own
works of the law, not trust Christ by faith. And they stumbled at
that same word, stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it's written,
behold, I lay in Zion, a stumbling stone and a rock of offense.
And whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. This is
the way unbelievers are described as someone who stumbles at that
stumbling stone, who sees Christ as a rock of offense. And our
savior is telling the disciples, you're going to act that way
tonight. Let me ask you this. Can a believer
act like an unbeliever sometimes? Oh my, we sure can. But here's
the, here is God's grace. And this is what the grace and
the purpose and the secure salvation that Christ is getting ready
to go purchase for his people. Every one of the disciples stumbled,
but they didn't fall. They didn't fall. They didn't
fall away from Christ. When Christ told Peter, you remember
he told Peter, Satan has desire to sift you as wheat, but I've
prayed for you. And this is what the Savior said
he prayed specifically, that your faith fail not. Not that
Peter, you don't stumble, not that you don't suffer this humiliation
and this stumbling, but that your faith fail not. You're going
to stumble, but your faith won't fail because I prayed for you,
because it's faith that I've given you. You're not going to
fall away like the unbeliever will, because of my grace, what
I've purchased for you at the cross, where I'm getting ready
to go. But the Lord knew what the disciples, what they would
all do. He knew they would all abandon
him, that he'd be left all alone, not a friend in sight. I mean,
I would think if you're being suffered, you know, mistreatment
by a big crowd or something, if you could look out there and
see a friendly face, you know, I mean, there'd be some encouragement,
you know, somebody's with me, somebody at least cares what
I'm going through. the disciples were nowhere to be found. I mean,
they just ran away like scared jackrabbits. They were scared
to be associated with this man, Jesus of Nazareth, and the Lord
knew they would. And he still didn't cast them
out. He still didn't cast them out. And the same thing goes
for all of God's people. Before time began, before creation,
when the Father elected a people, and gave those people to his
son to save, the son knew who those people are. He knew their
sin. He knew their rebellion. He knew
that they would fall away in Adam. And he knew there was one
way that debt could be paid. It's by his blood, by his bloody
agony, his death and his blood. That's what it's going to take
to pay the sin debt of his people. And when Adam fell, they spent
the next 4,000 years doing nothing but sinning against God. And
the son came to save him anyway. He didn't cast him out. He said,
well, Peter, if I don't go to the cross, how's this going to
be fulfilled? I've got to go, Peter. This is
the only way the people that I love can be redeemed. And the
Lord also knows the weak fickle faith of his people, what we're
living with right now, and unfortunately, the weak, fickle faith that we'll
show in the future. The Lord knew that. He knows
what we'll be like. And do you know what? He forgave
them. He forgave us before he even
went to the cross. He forgives perfectly. Now we know in a little bit,
he's going to be able to forgive perfectly because of his, his
sacrifice, his blood. But even before he went to the
cross, he forgave his people, their sin, their weak, fickle
faith. He forgave them. And here's why
he can forgive them. The second thing I see here is
this, the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ is a perfect sacrifice. He says in verse 27, Jesus said
unto them, all ye shall be offended because of me this night. For
it's written, I'll smite the shepherd and the sheep should
be scattered. But after that I'm risen, I'll go before you
into Galilee. The Lord knew that he must be
smitten that night. And I know he's worried about
the, He, he, he understands he's worried about the physical pain
of the smiting that he'll suffer at the hands of his creatures.
But I tell you what he is the most concerned about. He's going
to be smitten by the rod of justice that's in the hand of his father,
the father that loves him from eternity. He has daily been the
delight of his father. He's no nothing but, but perfect
love and acceptance with his father. And he knows on this
night, his father is going to pick up the sword of justice
and plunge it into his very soul, into his very heart. This is
what it must take. This is what it takes to put
sin away. Justice has to be satisfied. The sin of God's people must
be paid for before God can show mercy to them. And our savior
knows, The only way his people can be saved from their sin is
if he suffers being made sin for them. And then the father
smiting him with a rod of his justice for the sin of his people,
sin that became his. Like I say, I, I know that he
is, uh, he can't help, but I don't worry is the right word, whatever
it calls, you're looking for His physical sufferings. But
I'm telling you, it's His soul sufferings. That's where business
is being done at the cross. And I can show you that. Look
back into Zechariah chapter 13. Our Lord said it's written, well,
here it's written, Zechariah 13, that it's the Father that's
going to smite the Son. Zechariah 13, next to the last
book in the Old Testament, verse 1. And that day there should be
a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. Now you know that
fountain is the fountain of Christ's blood. And if you look over at
verse seven, here's how that fountain is opened. Verse six,
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. Those Jews that he came unto
his own, his own received him not, they put those wounds in
his hands, in his feet, in his side, didn't they? That was his
fleshly wounds. But now look what he talks about,
verse seven. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite
the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn
my hand upon the little ones. The one who smoked the Savior
with that sword of justice is the Father. He calls Him my fellow. Father and Son, Holy Spirit,
they're one, but still it's the Father that thrusts that sword
of justice into the heart of His fellow. And the Father's
holy. And even when sin was found on
His only begotten Son, the Father spoke audibly from heaven and
said, I'm well pleased with Him. You hear Him. What is it that
made the father, the in turn, the sword of justice, wake it
up. Now it's time for the sword of
justice to be used and plunged into the heart of his very own
son. What would make the father do
that? I really, truly don't think that
there's anything any of my children could do that I'd kill him for
it. I mean, I just, I, I cannot imagine the situation. I might
would turn them over to the hands of justice, but that wouldn't
be executed by old daddy. The father turned that sword
upon his son in unmitigated wrath and fury without the slightest
drop of mercy and grace just because he loved his son because
his son had been made sin and the father dealt with him. He
dealt with him for that sin because justice demands sin must be punished. And when our Lord Jesus Christ,
who did no sin, who knew no sin, he wasn't even acquainted with
any sin. When his blood was shed, that
perfect blood put away all of the sin of all of God's elect. He did it in one sacrifice. You and me suffering in eternity
in hell wouldn't pay for one of our sins. but in roughly three,
three and a half hours, because of who it was that suffered and
died, because of whose blood he shed, he put away all of the
sin of all of his elect. If Christ died for you, get a
hold of this now, you can't perish. It's impossible for you to be
condemned, impossible. The same justice that demanded
our Savior die, is the very same justice of God that demands your
salvation and your ultimate glorification because justice was satisfied
in death of your substitute. God must save his people. He must, and he must bring every
last one of them to glory with him. But now that was accomplished
by violent, painful death. This is the sword of justice
in the hand of an angry God. He used men to deal with his
body, so we have some picture, some outward picture to give
us the slightest clue what's going on in his soul. But it's
that sword in the hand of the angry God that was thrust into
the heart of his fellow and put him to death. Now you can never
doubt that God is holy. He's holy and he proved it by
even when sin was found on his beloved son, he put him to death
for it. Justice must be carried out before
God can be merciful, before he can save his people. And that
salvation is a perfect salvation. Well, the third thing is this,
Christ our Savior is the perfect shepherd. If you look here at
the end of verse seven in Zechariah 13, smite the shepherd and the
sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon the
little ones." When the shepherd is smitten, that's exactly what's
going to happen. The sheep are scattered, aren't
they? The disciples just run like scared jackrabbits, and
they're hiding because they're full of fear. They don't want
to happen to me what they're seeing happen to him. They're
so full of fear. They believe Christ, but it's
awful weak faith. It's sure not making them stand
with him, is it? No, they're running away. The
Savior knew it was going to happen. And when it did, and He watched
it happen with His own two eyes, and you remember what happened
before they ran away? That mob came and took Him, and
the Lord said, you know, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus
of Nazareth. He said, I am. They all fell over backwards,
and they picked themselves up again, and, you know, I'd like
to think that was me. I'd have just left, you know.
I don't want any more to do with this. Apparently they all stayed
there, and whom seek ye? Jesus of Nazareth, I am." And
he did make them fall over backward that time. But then he said,
it's me you see. Let these go their way. He even
opened the door for them to run away. He watched them run away. After swearing, they wouldn't
do it. And he went to Calvary Street to put their sin away
anyway. I mean, is this sounding like the Savior you want to trust?
Is this the Savior you want to save you? The Savior says he's
going to suffer. He's going to die to put away
the sin of his people. They'll be scattered while he's
suffering. But then he says, I'm going to turn my hand back
on my little ones. Not to smite them, not to crush
them, not to just trick them up and shake the ever-living
daylights out of them and teach them a lesson. I'm going to put
my hand back on them. and gather them back to me."
You see, our Savior is the Good Shepherd, and He'll not lose
one sheep for whom He died. Not one. He'll go to any length.
Leave the 99 and go find that one out there that's lost. He's
going to go until He finds it and brings it back. You think
that sheep is stubborn, so stubborn that it'll never come, it'll
never bow, it'll never ask for forgiveness, it's going to keep
going the wrong way. Well, I don't know if I can say it this way,
our shepherd's more stubborn. He's going to find that sheep
because he bought it. He bought it with his blood and
he's going to bring it home to be with him. And if you're one
of those sheep, I know there's things going to happen in this
life that scare us half to death, that causes pain and suffering.
All the things that our Savior is gonna be pleased to bring
all of us through in some way or another. But your story's
gonna end up awakening in glory, opening your eyes to see the
face of the Savior right in front of you. He won't lose you because
he shed his blood to have you. Our shepherd's gonna gather his
sheep. He's gonna feed them. He's going
to feed them in the green pastures of His Word. He's going to lead
them to drink from the cool, still, deep waters. He's going
to comfort their hearts with their presence. He'll keep them
safe from their enemies, and more importantly, keep them safe
from themselves. I mean, my biggest fear is, Lord, let me do what
I want to do. Keep me safe from myself. He's going to keep them
safe in His hand, and they'll always be safe, because our Savior
is the perfect shepherd. And then our Savior has perfect
success. Look back with me at Mark 14. In verse 28, he says, but after
I'm risen, I'll go before you into Galilee. Now the Savior,
he already knew he's going to suffer and die, but he also knew,
he's told his disciples many times after three days, I'm going
to rise again and I'm going to come into Galilee and I'm going
to see you. Now, why did he tell them that?
Because he knew his sacrifice would be effectual. He knew his
sin would put away, his blood would put away the sin of his
people. He knew it. There's no doubt about it. He's
going to be made sin, but he's going to rise again because there's
no sin left. You see, it's sin that causes
death. And where there's no sin, there can't be any death. Christ
died for sin, for the sin of his people, but he rose again
because that sin's gone. His blood made it to not exist
anymore, so He could not stay dead. And He told His disciples,
I'm going to rise and I'm going to appear to you. And sure enough,
in three days He did. I don't know how many times the
Lord told His disciples, I'm going to die, and three days
later I'm going to rise from the dead. And here the disciples
are all gathered together, hiding in fear after the Lord's crucifixion.
After his death and his burial, they're all hiding there in fear.
And somebody comes and tells them, I saw the Lord. I talked
to him. I saw the Lord. You think it
would occur to somebody to count to three and say, you know, the
Lord said he's going to do it. Instead, they didn't believe
him. That's weak faith. Now, it's faith, but it's weak
faith. And they ended up seeing him,
didn't they? They saw the Lord, and he talked with them. You
and I see Him too. We see Him with the eye of faith.
I see Him just as clearly as I see you in the flesh. In faith,
I see the Lord Jesus Christ. When I look at Him, I see how
it is God could save a wretch like me and still be just. I
see. I see the glory of God's wisdom
in Christ. I see the glory of His grace
and His truth. It's all in Christ. I see that.
It's our perfect savior who has a perfect salvation. He's a perfect
shepherd. And you'd think he'd be believed
perfectly. Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you think
that? Oh, I want to, but unfortunately
that's not, that's not, uh, the believer's experience is it?
Here's the last thing. It's the believer's imperfect
faith. Verse 29, and Peter said unto him, although all shall
be offended, yet will not I. I can see these fellows, they're
weak, they're gonna, well, not me. And Jesus saith unto him,
Verily I say unto thee, that this day, even this night, before
the caught crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he spake
the more vehemently. He's doubling down on his argument
with the Lord. If I should die with thee, I
will not deny thee in any wise, likewise said they all." Now,
Peter's the spokesperson, but they all said the same thing,
and you and I would have said the same thing if we were there
too. If we were one of the 12, we all would have said it, because
this is the experience of a believer. We're so full of pride, and we're
so full of self-assurance that the Lord's got to knock that
out of us just Constantly, we're so full of pride. And this is
after seeing the Savior. This is after believing. These
men are believers. Now, it's weak faith, but it's
real faith. Peter's also the one that said,
oh, Lord, we believe and are sure of thou to Christ. You're
the Son of the living God. You have the words of life. To
whom will we go? We're not going anywhere but
you. It's so said they all. I mean, these men had genuine
faith in Christ. But it was weak, wasn't it? They're
so weak that they'll soon be scattered. They'll soon be denying
that they even know the man. But you know, as shameful as
that is, do you know what it had to be? It had to be that
way, that the Savior was left completely alone without any
friends. Peter was willing to die for
the Lord, and I have absolutely no doubt he meant it when he
said that he would die with the Lord. And when it came time for
him to be martyred, The historians tell us that Peter was crucified
upside down. Well, what if that night Peter
had left the Lord? He's going to stay by the Lord's
side. And they take the Lord and crucify him. And then they
get ready to crucify Peter. And Peter said, I'm not worthy
to die like my Lord is dying. You crucify me upside down. And
they'd have put Peter upside down beside the Lord. Everyone
would say Peter helped the Lord in redeeming his people from
their sin. They had to run away. They had
to. As shameful as it is, they had
to do it so that we would know salvation is in Christ and Christ
alone. And we're to believe him. And
when I say these men had weak faith, please understand I'm
not being hard on them. The only reason I recognize weak
faith in them is because I see it in me. And it's shameful,
isn't it? And it's just something that
the Lord's constantly got to do to put this out of us. He
just got to take the starch out of us. We got to quit being so
proud and so confident that we can handle anything on our own.
That's got to be taken out of us. And it's painful and it's
humiliating, but it's good for us. Do you know the disciples
and us, by reading this and seeing it by faith, would never have
known the faithfulness and the love of Christ. And we never
would have known the sweetness of His pardon of sin. We never would have known it
unless we first go through this process of being humiliated first. And it also, later on, gave them
very much boldness in preaching. After they went through this
experience, Boy, they are not going to compromise now, are
they? I mean, you're going to put them
to death before they compromise on the resurrection of Christ.
They're not going to compromise because they learned something
through this, and you and I do too. We go through the same things.
Now, I have a little thing at home that tells me how long I've
been preaching, so I hope I haven't been preaching too long, but
I'm going on because I want to give you this before we go home. Because I really, I want you
to, you who believe Christ, to leave comforted and assured in
looking to Christ and trusting him. Now, there's no excuse for weak
faith. I mean, those of you who know me, you know I'm not making
any excuse for weak faith whatsoever, beginning with me. It's shameful. But that being said, Don't look
to your faith and the strength of your faith to find comfort
of salvation, to find comfort of acceptance with God, because
our faith is not worth looking at. And our faith is not what
saves, it's Christ that saves. And when I see my sin and I see
my faith is so imperfect, I mean so imperfect that I think it's
non-existent. The one and only comfort is this,
we have a perfect savior. We are not faithful, but he is. And our salvation is dependent
upon the faith of Christ. The faith of Christ to do everything
that it takes to save our sinful souls. And I assure you, he has
done that for his people. And I want you to look at three
scriptures in closing. So this is something you can
take with you. Second, or I'm sorry, First Thessalonians.
First Thessalonians, chapter five. We had an old elder in
Ashland, Cecil Roach, and he would say, this is something
you can put in your lunch bucket and take to work with you tomorrow.
Now you take this with you to cause you to look to Christ and
have some assurance for your soul. First Thessalonians five,
verse 23. and the God of very peace, sanctify
you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's why you can be confident
that will happen. Faithful is he that calleth you. He'll also do it. He's faithful. Look over at a second Thessalonians
chapter three. 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 13. I'm sorry, verse 1. I got ahead
of myself there. Verse 1, 2 Thessalonians 3, verse
1. Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord
may have free course and be glorified, even as it is with you, and that
we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men. For all men have
not faith, but the Lord is faithful. and he's the one that shall establish
you and keep you from evil. All right. One more. Second Timothy,
second Timothy chapter two. Here's our verse 13. Second Timothy two 13. If we
believe not, aren't you ashamed to say you
found yourself there? If we believe not, like I said, I feel like
my faith's not weak. It feels like it's non-existent. I'm so discouraged and so much
despair. If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. And that is the comfort and assurance
of our salvation, that he's faithful, that he's faithful. And we'll have a whole lot more
pleasant trip through this veil of tears if the Lord will let
us look to him and increase our faith in him. I hope he will.
All right, I thank you all for having me.