Matthew chapter 20. And we're going to read from verse
20. Matthew chapter 20 and verse
20. Then came to him the mother of
Zebedee's children, that is, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Then
came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping
him and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto them,
What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that
these my two sons may sit the one on thy right hand and the
other on the left in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said,
Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup
that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall
drink indeed of my cup, and be baptised with the baptism that
I am baptised with. But to sit on my right hand and
on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them
for whom it is prepared of my father. And when the ten heard
it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But
Jesus called them unto him and said, Ye know that the princes
of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are
great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so
among you. But whosoever will be great among
you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant. even as the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading. In the past few weeks we've been
thinking a little bit about what's called the Doctrine of Grace
or the Doctrines of Grace and we've spoken a little bit about
the acronym TULIP and we've seen how tulip gives us a little presentation
of the gospel, each of the letters of that word indicating a particular
piece of doctrina, particular piece of truth. Now we've mentioned
them a number of times in recent weeks so I'm not going to enumerate
them again today but I just want to direct your attention to the
fact that we call these heads that we've been thinking about,
oh I will mention them, the total depravity of all men, the unconditional
election of God, the the limited atonement, the irresistible grace,
and the perseverance of the saints. We call these the doctrine of
grace. And I think some of you have
enjoyed going through these doctrines and setting forth some of the
important aspects of this plan of salvation which God has for
his people. But perhaps someone is thinking,
Why do we need doctrine? Why do we need these things to
be taught to us? Why does it seem to be so difficult
to understand some of these things? Sometimes. What's the purpose
of knowing these things? What's the use of all these words? What's the importance of this
teaching? Well, I'm going to tell you as
simply as I know how, why doctrine matters. Why it's important for
us to hear these things, to receive these things, to learn these
things, and to apply these truths in our daily lives. And the first
thing I'm going to say might surprise you a little bit. You
don't need to know doctrine to be saved. You don't need to know
doctrine to be saved. Don't ever think that you can't
be saved because you don't know enough. That's one of the things
that the devil will tell you. If the devil were to see someone
thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ, someone thinking about
their soul, he would say to them, this isn't for you. Listen to
the words that these people are using. They're too complicated.
They're too difficult. You don't need to start worrying
about all this stuff. Forget it. Go back to sleep and
don't bother about this lot. and sometimes that's what the
devil will say. It's like the birds of the air
come flying in and pick up the good seed after it's been sown
and fly away with it and that good seed of gospel preaching
can't take root in that person's life because the devil has come
in and just stolen it away. So don't imagine that you need
to know a lot of stuff in order to be saved. And don't ever think,
because I don't know enough, God can't save me. The truth
is that salvation is God's free gift. He gives it to people. It's not a case of knowing enough
or doing enough or having enough. God gives it as a gift. Salvation is not something that
you get for passing a test or for doing some sort of multiple
choice and being able to say, yes, you know enough, you can
be saved. The truth is that knowing that
you don't know is the only place that a sinner can begin their
journey of discovery into the truth of the gospel. You need
to know that you don't know. Salvation is an experience. It's a spiritual experience. It's a journey initiated by God
the Holy Spirit. And people still think that there's
something they need to do, some condition that they need to be
in, in order to be saved. I remember speaking to a lady
many years ago, and she said, you know, she said, I would love
to go to church, I would love to be part of a church fellowship,
she said, but I'm just not good enough. and you try to say it's not a
case of being good enough to come to church, it's not a case
of doing something to make yourself fit for this message, for this
gospel. That lady's dead now and I don't
know that she ever found Jesus Christ as her saviour. Rather, Salvation is something
that God gives to us. He opens hearts and minds. That's what we read a little
bit earlier when we were speaking from Acts chapter 17. The people
were laughing at the gospel, they were laughing at the idea
of the resurrection, but not all of them, because the message
entered the hearts and minds of just a few, one or two, and
it came with power, and it came with grace, and it came with
authority, and God saves whomsoever He will. We call that conversion,
and it's a work that is initiated by God the Holy Spirit. He initiates, He begins that
desire after truth. He shows us that there is a righteousness
that we need, that we don't have, that we've got a hole in our
life, that we've got a problem at our heart. And he shows us
that that emptiness needs to be filled. And that's a Holy
Spirit work. That's the first thing. You don't
have to know doctrine in order to be saved. The second thing
is this, God has to rid us of a lot of wrong thinking. That's just the truth. In our
hearts and in our minds, we have got a pile of stuff. that we
have gathered from here, there, and everywhere. Maybe we went
to church when we were young. Maybe we had a friend who was
in one of the sects or one of the denominations, and they said
a few things. And maybe we picked up a book
at a second-hand store, or maybe somebody gave us a Bible as a
gift. Who knows how we've got to where we are today? But I
can tell you this, that like those men and women in Athens,
we are feeling after an unknown God because we cannot in ourselves
know the true God except the Holy Spirit teach us about Him. God has to get rid of a whole
load of rubbish in our lives. You know, it's like building
a new house. You have to knock down the old
and clear the ground before you start the new building. Salvation
isn't a renovation. It's a new creation. You're born
again. It's not something that you can
do on the cheap with some new siding and a can of paint. That's not going to get you fit
for heaven. It's not going to make you ready
for the presence of God. You can't die with a tin of paint
in your hand, trying to make something of yourself that you're
not. And breaking up the ground to
lay a new foundation for this new house, it can be a painful
experience. It can be challenging, it can
be trying. And you could think to yourself,
I want, I've got a vision, I've got a view, I aspire to something,
but this is so hard. This is so much work, this is
so trying, this is so difficult, this breaking up. What is this
all about? And it's only when we begin to
know the truth, in Jesus and realize that God the Holy Spirit
is working in our hearts, working in our life, that there's a continuing
process of the application of grace, that sinners in need learn
to follow Christ. Learn to follow Christ. We're not going to be saved by
our learning, but we are saved to learn about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul repeatedly says in his letters,
in his epistles, in the New Testament epistles that he wrote, he repeatedly
says, I would not have you ignorant brethren, Because ignorance and
this unknown God, that isn't what the Christian experience
is about. The Christian experience is about
learning about Christ. That's the reason why we're here.
That's the reason why we preach. That's the reason why we study.
That's the reason why we labor in the scriptures in order to
fellowship together in these things. Because God has revealed
himself. He has given us a message. He
has shown who this unknown God is. And we learn about the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I am absolutely certain that
if we were to go around the people who are believers in this room
today and ask them about their own personal experience, it would
be different for the number of people that we spoke to. Because
that's the reality. Our approach, our coming is different. We all come the same way, but
we all come in different ways. We all come to Christ, we must
come to Christ, but we are all brought by various circumstances
and providences. You know, some people will read
about the gospel and the Bible and they'll just believe it's
true and it's a very, it seems a very easy and obvious thing
for them to believe in and to trust in. And others will struggle
because they suddenly find themselves under a great big weight of guilt
and sin. And their two experiences will
not be the same. Some people will feel a deep,
deep need of forgiveness. And they will be fearful. And
they will say, I cannot stand before God with these things
on my conscience. I cannot go to the grave with
these things in my mind and they will desire forgiveness. And other people, they might
be looking for meaning. They might be looking for sense,
to try and put things into some sort of context, to try and find
out what this world is all about, what is life all about. And the
experiences of individuals will be different. Some people are
maybe just unhappy. And the Holy Spirit stirs up
that sense of loss and grief and unhappiness. And he says,
this isn't going to do. I need something more. Something
is missing in my life. I need peace with God. Maybe
it's a fear of dying. Maybe it's an emptiness. You
know, it may even be that you can't express what it is that
you feel you need. You just know that there's something
missing. Abraham, in the Old Testament,
he was looking for the Lord Jesus Christ. He was looking for Christ. Do you know how he described
it? He said he was looking for a city which had foundations,
whose builder and maker was God. Now I don't think that there
would be anybody here if I said to you, how was it that you came
to Christ? You would say to me, I was looking
for a city. But that's the point. What are
you looking for? Who are you looking for? And
the Holy Spirit takes the gospel and he opens people's hearts
and he shows them a need and he speaks to them about something
that will satisfy their need. We need the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit to open
our hearts, to show us the way of truth. We cannot by ourselves,
no matter how hard we try, find life and peace with God. It has to be His gift to us. But we can desire it. We can long for it. And that's
what happens when the Holy Spirit starts to stir up an individual. But what often happens after
that is that we as individuals try to please God. And we have lots of start-stop
experiences. Where we say, well, I want to
be a Christian. I want to know peace. I want
to have this life. I want to have these experiences. So I'm going to try and live
better. And I'm going to try and be a better person. And you
know what? I should read my Bible and I
should learn to pray. And I'm going to stop being angry.
And I'm going to look for ways to please God. and we try to ease our guilt
and our fear, and we try to smooth our journey, and that may ease
our conscience for a little bit, but it will not satisfy our soul
because it has come from within ourselves, within our own efforts,
within our own minds, within our own desires. So then we need the Holy Spirit
to teach us about the Saviour. We need to learn about Christ. We need to learn about a Saviour
who is able and willing to help us, who is powerful to save. And that's the reason why when
we preach the gospel, we are preaching about the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're endeavouring to lift up
Christ. We're endeavouring to show Christ
to people in the things that he has done. So when we were
talking about our doctrine over the past few weeks, we were talking
about the things that Christ had done, because we were trying
to show men and women what the Lord Jesus Christ has done and
is able to do with sinners like us. And if the Holy Spirit will tarry
with us and we begin to see Jesus in a new and different way, even
if we begin to see Jesus in a surprising way, a way that we've never seen
Him before. Yeah, we know about the Jesus
of the New Testament, and we know about the stories, and we
know about the words that He used and the things that He said,
and we know about the parables, and we know about the miracles,
and all of those are vitally relevant. I'm not undermining
them at all. This is the story about Jesus,
but the children read these stories. We can all read these stories,
Every man jack of us can take a Bible and read these stories. But the Jesus of history needs
to become the Christ of God. The Jesus on the pages of the
Bible needs to become a living reality to us. That we're not
just following a narrative, a story. but we see these things to be
the very truth of God. Turn with me in your Bibles to
Luke chapter nine, please. Luke chapter nine. I want to
read a couple of verses to you. Lord Jesus Christ was with his
disciples and There had just been the miracle
of the feeding of the 5,000. An amazing miracle. I mean, you
read it and you think, wow, that's something else. 5,000 people,
5,000 men, maybe more people fed by just a few loaves and
fishes. And in verse 18 of Luke chapter
9, the Lord speaks to his disciples. It came to pass, it says there,
As he was alone praying, his disciples were with him, and
he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am? They, that's the disciples, answering
him, said, John the Baptist. But some say Elias or Elijah,
and others say that one of the old prophets is risen again. And he said unto them, but whom
say ye that I am? Peter answering said, the Christ
of God. See, there's a difference here.
Because all the people had some idea about who Jesus was. Everybody
had an opinion about who Jesus was. And some people saw the
miracles and some people heard the teaching and some people
saw the things that he did and knew a little bit about the history,
a little bit about the story or whatever. Who do you say that
I am? Do you know this Jesus as the
Christ of God? The Christ means the anointed
one, the sent one, the one who came to do a job that no one
else could do. That's what the word means. To know the Christ of God is
to know the one who came in order to accomplish the will and purpose
of God, who was dedicated and anointed and set aside to that
great task of salvation and redemption and forgiveness and peace with
God. And the Lord Jesus Christ went
to the cross to accomplish those things. That is why the cross
is so central to our preaching. That is why the cross and Jesus
on the cross is so important when we would know the Christ
of God. The true identity of the Lord
Jesus Christ is not a secret, but it is a revelation. This is what the Bible is talking
about when it says, for example, in Deuteronomy chapter 29 and
verse four, that the Holy Spirit gives a heart to perceive. A heart to perceive. Not everyone
has that. It's a Holy Spirit gift. A heart to perceive. A heart
that understands. A heart that sees and grasps
and knows the true identity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Eyes to
see. Ears to hear. And that's what
Paul is talking about when he says in Ephesians 1, verse 18,
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened. You see things you never saw
before. You hear things in a new way, in a fresh way, in a vital
way, in an understandable way. And what was kind of foggy and
murky, and you kind of knew there was something out there, but
you couldn't lay hold on it, suddenly becomes clear. and we see the Christ of God
in a new and in a real way. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his
calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints. We just want you to know that.
That's what knowing Christ is. And I have to ask, have you learned
who Christ is? Have you learned who Christ is?
Don't tell me he's just the name on the page of your Bible. Don't
tell me it's just history. Do you know who Christ is? Have
you experienced that vital relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know the hope of his calling?
Do you know the freedom and liberty of having a relationship with
God through Jesus Christ? Are you resting in the completeness
of his work upon the cross? Have you tasted something of
that present experience? of trusting and confidence in
what the promises of God are. This is to know, not simply the
Christ of history, but the Christ of God, the Anointed One, the
Saviour of sinners. I touched on a verse last week.
I mentioned it, I think, in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 12. There, the
apostle says, Now we have received the Spirit which is of God. Listen, that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God. We've been given
the Holy Spirit that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. And that's why believers need
doctrine. That's what doctrine is. Doctrine
is simply the things that we have been freely given by God. We need to know the Christ of
God, and we need to know the things that the Christ of God
has brought to us. Doctrine teaches us who Christ
is. Doctrine shows us what Christ
has done. Doctrine applies to our hearts
and to our minds and to our souls and to our spirits the benefits
of what Christ has done. So that it isn't simply just
in our mind as an intellectual thing, but it's in our experience
and it's in our heart as doctrine applies these truths to us. And
God the Holy Spirit applies doctrine in our heart. You know, doctrine isn't just
head knowledge or something that you pick up at a school or a
university or in a book. It's heart comfort given by the
Spirit. It lifts us up when we're downcast. It builds our courage in the
face of the trials and the challenges of this life. You need Christ and you need
to know the doctrine of Christ because that's what enables us
to live in this world. Doctrine is what makes our landing
soft when we fall. Doctrine is what cuts through
the confusion when our circumstances become complicated. Doctrine
is what supplies the Bible proof and opens the divine promises
of God and bestows confidence to us when the devil sows doubts
in our mind, which he will do. Why do we need doctrine? What
is the purpose of doctrine? Doctrine keeps us sane. I'm going
to give you one example. Just one text of Scripture that
we read together. Matthew 20, verse 28, it said, Now you can read that verse and
you can think to yourself, well yes, that's Jesus, and that's
saying that Jesus came to die, and we would be right, and that's
right. That's the wisdom of the scriptures,
that's the teaching. But when we read a verse like
that, seeing Christ as the Christ of God and not just as an historical
character in the history of this world, We can discover that there's
messages in this verse to hold us and to comfort us and to nourish
us and to illuminate and to enlighten our hearts. Who was it that came? It was
the Lord Jesus Christ who came. But see what the Lord Jesus Christ
calls himself. He calls himself the Son of Man.
the Son of Man. So yes, it was the Lord Jesus
Christ that went to the cross. It was the Lord Jesus Christ
that died. That's what the history says. But why did Christ call
himself the Son of Man? Over 40 times in the New Testament,
the Lord Jesus Christ is called the Son of Man. Why? Because
that is telling us that the one who came and went to the cross
was a true man. That he was a true man. that he was flesh and that he
was blood, that he was a perfect man. But that makes this intimate. That joins us together with him. That shows us something of that
personal dimension in that relationship between men and women. That it's
the man Christ Jesus who rises to represent us before the holiness
of God. Everything experienced by the
Lord Jesus Christ was done in him, was felt by him as a man. Everything accomplished by the
Lord Jesus Christ was done and experienced and accomplished
as a human being with us and for us. And that means that we
have a friend. That means that we have a helper
and a comforter. That means that we have one who
is able and fit, who has proved himself worthy to stand for us
in the court of God's justice. who knows the feeling of our
infirmities, who has walked in these paths before us, who has
been tried with the trials that we are tried with, who has felt
the weight and the pressures and the troubles. That's why
we read these Old Testament Psalms and we discover that the Lord
Himself can speak of lions being around Him and men on fire. and
men with teeth like razor blades and fingers like claws and daggers. Why? Because Jesus has already
been here and he's got something that he feels in his own humanity
that we feel also. Why did he come? Well, he came
to serve his people. The Lord Jesus Christ is God,
but he's the God-man. He was entitled to be ministered
to. He was entitled to be served. But this verse is telling us
that he came to serve us. Romans 15 verse 8 says, Now I
say that Jesus Christ was a minister. A minister for the truth of God
to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. The Lord Jesus
Christ came in order to die for his people. The Lord Jesus Christ
came to represent us as one who could stand for us. And here
we see that in these verses, as we begin to unpack them, as
we begin to think about what is being said, the doctrine in
these verses becomes alive. It shows us where these things
join with us. in our need. Join with us in
our humanity. Have something to say to the
particular and peculiar circumstances that apply to you and to me in
our lives in this moment right now. Don't ever be afraid of
doctrine. Don't ever be afraid of the complexities
of Scripture. These things are not here to
intimidate us. They are here to comfort us and
to help us and to teach us something about the loveliness of this
one Jesus Christ who came into the world. The Lord Jesus Christ
himself said, the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many, to pay
the price. to pay that price of redemption. Right there was the doctrine
that we spoke about when we thought about the L in tulip from limited
atonement. He gave his life a ransom for
many. He paid the price. That's what
a ransom is. He took the price, not silver
and gold, says Peter, but his own precious blood. to purchase
the liberty, to purchase the freedom of his people, those
for whom he died. Christ's life was given for many. Many isn't all. By that we learn that that redemption
price was paid for some, but not for all. but all for whom
it was paid must go free as the ransomed people of God. Isaiah 35 verse 10 says, and
the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with
songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. And they shall obtain
joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Why do we need doctrine? Because
doctrine teaches us what Christ has done for us and what we have
been freely given by God. As we so learn Christ, by the
leading of the Holy Spirit, we shall have grace, strength, peace,
comfort, help in our Christian walk, in our daily experiences. We shall have through the understanding
of these truths, through this doctrine of Christ, grace sufficient
for today and hope for the future. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20 says,
Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and
in your spirit, which are God's. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today and encourage us in them. Let me just read a few verses
from a hymn and then we'll be done today. This is a hymn by
Joseph Hart, 723, for those who want to know in the Gadsby selection,
and it says this. Come ye sinners poor and wretched,
weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of pity, joined with power. He is able, he is willing, doubt
no more. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth
is to feel your need of him. This he gives you, tis the spirit's
rising beam. Come ye weary, heavy laden, lost
and ruined by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. Not the righteous, sinners Jesus
came to call. May the Lord bless us and keep
us today. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace. Continue
with us this day and always. Amen.