I invite you to turn with me
to Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14, and the lesson
is the sword and the shepherd. Let's read together Mark chapter
14, verses 26 through 31. And when they had sung a hymn,
they went out into the Mount of Olives. And Jesus saith unto
them, all ye shall 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'm risen, I'll go before you in Galilee. But Peter said unto
him, although all be offended, yet will not I. And Jesus saith
unto him, Verily I say unto thee, that this day, even in this night,
before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice, three times. But he spake the more vehemently, if I should die with thee, I
will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all,
every last one of them. Now if you will turn with me
to Zephaniah chapter 13. I wanna show you something. I'm gonna show you something
here that we need so badly to learn. I have no doubt, none
whatsoever, that Peter believed in his heart, and so did all
the rest of them, that they would not deny the Lord. They'd walk
with him, they knew him. No reason in him for them to
despise him. They loved him. All of them, all together. And
Peter, when he'd spoken up, he plucked a common note in the
hearts and minds of every one of those disciples. The problem is what they felt
and thought ran contrary to the word of God. Our Lord said, all ye shall be
offended because of me this night, for it is written. Now look here, did I say Zephaniah
or Zachariah? I don't know. Anyway, chapter
13, verse seven. I've got Zachariah written down
here. It says, Awake, O sword, against
my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith
the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered, and I'll turn my hand to the little ones. Now here's what I want you to
see. It is the most common thing in
the world For hearers, when a man comes in, you're sitting there
this morning, you're listening to me talk. It's the most common
thing in the world for hearers to evaluate what they hear by
human logic and misplaced emotion. I used to hear this said all
the time when I was in religion. If I know my heart, that's the
problem, you don't. The heart, our Lord said, is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know
it? You don't know your heart. You know your emotions. You know
your feelings. You know what you think. But
faith isn't born of feelings and human reasoning. Faith cometh
by hearing, hearing by the word of God. We don't know anything
at all except what God tells us. You don't know. You're born
into this world. You've lived in this world. If
you're here this morning and you've never been converted,
you've lived your whole life and don't know anything at all
about your nature. Nothing. You know nothing about
it. You know nothing about God. All
you know is what people have told you. It's the rarest thing in the
world for a man to sit down and go through this book and say,
well, here's God. God's unchangeable. God's sovereign. God's omnipotent. God, he's not like a man. He
doesn't think like a man. He doesn't live like a man. He's
God. Our Lord said, you thought I
was altogether such a one as yourself, but I'll reprove you. I'll show you. I'll show you
who I am. There's none like me, he said,
declaring the end from the beginning from ancient times. We don't
know anything. I know what I think, I know what
I feel. Somebody says, I used to preach,
I was still trying to preach in Arminian circles and I was talking about man's nature
and I said, you know, what you're ignorant of is that you hate
God. Oh my, after church that night, I got attacked. I'm gonna
tell you something, I don't hate God. Based on what? How you feel, what somebody told
you? The Word of God says you do.
Says the carnal mind is enmity against God, hostility, hostile,
not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. How many times have I heard,
told folks what God says about fallen sinners? and just throw
it right back in my face. I'm not a liar. I'm not an idolater. I'm not at war with God. The
Jews said to Christ, we'd be not born of fornication. We have
one God. One Father, even God. That's
our Father. He said, if God was your Father,
you'd love me. I proceeded forth and came from
him. You're of your father's the devil. Well, that didn't run through
with their feelings, did it? Didn't run through with their
emotions. Run contrary. That's why people get angry when
you preach the gospel and stomp out the door, that's why. They're
basing it, they're hearing what they're hearing, but they're
judging what they're hearing based on other things other than
the word of God. Our Lord said, all of you are
gonna be offended tonight because that's what God said you'd do. Not one of them heard him say
that. They all look to that emotion,
look to how they felt, and they said, no, we ain't going to do
that. We ain't going to do that. My soul, this was God come into
the flesh talking to them. And he's pointing them to the
word of God. He said, I didn't come myself,
God sent me. Why do you not understand my
speech? Even because you cannot hear my word. You're of your father the devil.
Faith doesn't strive to maintain harmony with its emotions. I
remember a preacher, very well-known preacher, probably well-known
to this congregation. But he said to Brother Mayhem
one time, he said, you're not consistent with yourself. Brother
Mann said, I ain't trying to be consistent with myself. I'm
trying to be consistent with the word of God. Jesus Christ came into this world
to save sinners. Not what you think a sinner is
or what you feel like a sinner is, but a sinner by God's definition. I'll tell you how you know what
you are. You open this book and read it. None righteous. Oh,
he's not talking about me. Yeah, he is talking about you.
None righteous, none that understandeth, none that seeketh after God,
none good, no, not one. Now here in our text, there's
three things that he sets before us to manifest himself as a great
savior of great sinners. And he was always careful to
lay the foundation of these things in the word of God. And the first
thing he said before us, he said before us a cross section
of humanity out of which chosen sinners are gonna be saved. Here's these 11 disciples. They're fishermen, there was
a doctor. They were a cross section, they
weren't, He just didn't save all intellectuals or he didn't
save all ignorant. He saved a cross-section of humanity. If you read it in the book of
Revelations, he declares it this way. A people out of every nation,
tribe, kindred, tongue, and people in the earth. Think about that. That's a cross-section, isn't
it? He's gonna save some. Not one spot, but a cross section
all over the world. He's gonna take his elect. Objects of his eternal election
and salvation. You can quickly find an example
of self-righteous, self-centered, and self-taught disciples in
this world. You don't have to go very far
at all. But you can only find his disciples. As his electing grace is manifest
in them and to them. That's how you'll find them. The greatness of God's grace
and the glory of the shepherd is revealed in the objects of
those that he saves. Paul said this to the Corinthians.
Now the Greeks were known for wisdom. Still today, the Greeks
are known for wisdom. These intellectuals who don't
know God, they love to get into the New Testament Greek. And
they'll just go on and on and on about what it says in the
Greeks. The problem is the Greeks didn't
know God. That's the problem. Paul said to them, he said, for
you see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh. He's telling the Greeks this,
the Corinthians. You see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and the base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught
things that are. Why? Why would God do that? That no flesh should glory in
his presence, but of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
that according as it is written, this is what it says in the word
of God, that according as it is written, he that gloryeth,
let him glory in the Lord. Now that's a quotation from Jeremiah
9. The sword that had been put to
sleep in the garden until woman's seed should come was now to be
awakened. That's what he said back there
in Zephaniah or Zechariah, whichever it is, I'll figure it out after
the service. He said, awake, O sword. That
sword had been put to sleep. He could have taken that sword
upon Adam's sin and simply destroyed him and Eve, and that would have
been an end to it. He could have just obliterated
this world, but he had a purpose that went beyond that, and that
purpose was to save sinners. And so now, does that mean the
sword will be put to sleep forever? No, it's gonna be awakened and
plunged into the heart of their Redeemer. The death of his disciples was
not necessary, nor did God purpose their death to be with his. His
death is special. But what the word of God did
say is that they'd be scattered. You couldn't have convinced one.
He'd have fucked you in the parking lot over there. They're standing
there arguing with pure wisdom. No ignorance in him whatsoever. And here's these men based on
their feelings, based on their emotions. We're not going to
do that. You think David, after he slew
that giant with that sling, took that sword, whopped his head
off, took it up there and handed it to Saul, you think David ever
thought that he'd commit adultery and murder and all those things?
No way. No way did he think he would
do all that. Now God tells us what we are,
but we get to thinking. Not really me. He's talking about
somebody else. He ain't talking about me. Yeah,
he's talking about you. That's who he's talking about. Three things were born of their
scattering that night. First of all, that God's word
is the only thing we have to show us what we truly are and
what we're capable of doing. Secondly, that they now know
something about the nature of sin. These men were called to
preach. They were apostles. They're going
to be the writers of the New Testament. And God's going to
see to it that they know something about the nature of their sin.
And then thirdly, that in spite of their treachery, in spite
of their unbelief, they all quit. They said, we go fishing. We're
going back to the nets. Had enough of this, I quit. In spite of their treachery and
unbelief, he yet saved them and caused them to be kind and gracious
to others. Sympathetic. Understanding. Understanding. You know, God
has saved, anybody in here that's saved, God saved you in spite
of yourself. Why do we find it so hard to
understand when others are in the same boat? Huh? Why is that? So first of all, God establishes
the greatness of our Savior in the objects of his salvation.
And then secondly, we see here the greatness of our Savior in
the death he died. His death was a public manifestation
of God's wrath toward sin. My sister told me she just didn't
believe a good God would send anybody to hell. And if your gut feeling and religious
persuasion causes you to doubt that God will destroy sinners,
you better take another look at the cross. He bore our sins
in his own body on the tree. What God gonna do to him? He spared not his own son. all that he foreknew, all that
he did predestinate and call and glorify and justify, he died
for. He died for. And the death of
Christ is not like any other death. None of us die to satisfy God's
justice, do we? But he did. He did. None of us die to manifest the
love of God, but his death did. His death was different than
anybody else's death. His death was necessary because
he was appointed as our substitute. He had to die. And apart from his death, no
sinner could ever hope to be saved. The scripture said he
died, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. And his death was voluntary.
You'd be hard pressed to find somebody that'll volunteer to
die. That's what the scripture said. Some, he said some, a very
small minority, might, might give their life for a righteous
man. And some might even die just
for another. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He said, no man taketh my life
from me, I lay it down freely. He didn't die of natural causes. Though he trod the winepress
of God's wrath alone, yet untold multitudes died with him. They
were in union with it. Paul said in Romans 6 verse 8,
now if we be dead with Christ, you mean some died with Christ? All his elect did. Now if we
be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
him. There's just one way for a vile
sinner to be justified by a righteous and holy God, and that's to be
in Christ. He was delivered for our offenses,
raised again for our justification. His death is particular. It says
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. The death of Christ is effectual.
No man, no woman, no boy or girl for whom Christ died will ever
perish. They'll never perish. Hebrews
10 7 tells us in no uncertain terms that the whole of scripture
testifies that the Son of God would come into this world and
accomplish the redemptive will of God. Which will our Lord tells
us in John 6, 39, was that of all which the Father had given
him, he should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day. All those which the Father hath
given me will come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. His death was for a people the
Father chose in him before the world began. And his death is
never even hinted at in the Bible as something that might fail
or be frustrated. His death is never said to be
dependent upon some work of man to be made complete. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. There's no if
or maybe. All the promises of God in Christ
are yea and amen. There are no maybes in there.
There are no ifs in there. His death is propitiatory. It
enables a righteous God to be just in his justification of
us. His death is an act of divine
grace. We have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his
grace. So we see how great a Savior
he is by the objects of his salvation and how great a Savior he is
by the death he died. And then lastly, we see the very
glory of God in him, in the love that he manifested in his suffering
and death. We're told again and again in
the scriptures that the death of Christ is where God's love
is manifested. You wanna know something about
love, learn something about his death. Study his death, you'll
know his love. He loved us, the scripture says,
and gave himself for us. When I think upon myself, even
now, even knowing what I know and seeing what I see, yet I'm
forced to cry with Paul, old wretched man that I am. Oh, you
ever get past that? Bless God, I hope you never do.
Oh, wretched man that I am. Who gonna deliver me from the
body of this dead? I thank God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this. Husbands, love
your wives. But he don't stop there. As Christ
loved the church. How did Christ love the church?
Huh? Freely? Wasn't based on anything
you did. Sacrificially? Give yourself
for her. Particularly? Loving her alone. Graciously? giving her gifts
and evidences of your love. Continuously, till death do you
part. Isn't that what you swore to?
And completely, don't hold anything back. Husbands, love your wives. Love your wife. Well, what if
I have to bear her shame and guilt? What if I have to bear?
I can't foresee what she's gonna do sometime in the future. Am
I just to overlook everything? He did for you. Huh? He did for you. Don't hold anything back. And
I'm gonna tell you something. It's in your love for her but
her love for you will grow, and it'll persevere all the troubles
and trials that come that way. Now let me close with a verse
or two from Titus chapter three, if you wanna turn over there.
Titus chapter three. I'm beginning with verse three. I don't sound right. I hope it
is. I don't know why I can't get
my scriptures wrote down right. It might be Titus 2. Anyway, here's what it says.
For we ourselves also were sometime foolish, disobedient, deceived,
serving divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful
and hating one another. But after that the kindness and
love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he
saved us, By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. Oh, my soul. He loved us. He loved us. How'd I know? He
gave himself for us. He gave himself for us. He didn't just die because he
was worthy of death. He died bearing our sins, our
reproach, our shame, our guilt was all hung on him. All hung on him. Why? Because he loved us. He loved
us. I hope we can learn something
about his great love. Thank you.