Take your Bibles now and turn
with me to Matthew 26. I won't read for you the first
13 verses, but I'm just going to speak on
the first two or three. We've come now to the last three
chapters of Matthew's Gospel. And the Lord's drawing near now
to the close of His prophetic ministry. And he's about to embark
on his priestly ministry. J.C. Ryle said this, he said,
hitherto we have read of his sayings and doings. Now we're
about to read of his sufferings and his death. And that's what
these last three chapters are all about. So let's read now
these first 13 verses of the chapter together. And it came
to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, He said unto
His disciples, You know that after two days is the feast of
the Passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified. Then assembled together the chief
priests and the scribes, and the elders of the people unto
the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and
consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him. But they said, now you remember
what I just read to you. The Lord said in two days is
the Passover, and you are going to betray me. Now listen to what
they met there and consulted that they might take Jesus by
subtlety and kill Him, but they said, not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among
the people. Now when Jesus was in Bethany
in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having
an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his
head as he sat at me. But when his disciples saw it,
they had indignation, saying, to what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have
been sold for much and given to the poor. When Jesus understood
it, he said unto them, why trouble ye the woman? For she hath wrought
a good work upon me. For you have the poor always
with you, but me you have not always. For in that she hath
poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily
I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the
whole world, there shall also this that this woman hath done
be told for memorial unto her. Now, the person and work of our
Lord Jesus Christ is the theme of Holy Scripture. In Acts 10,
verse 43, Peter said to Him, Give all the prophets witness
that through His name, whosoever believeth in Him shall have remission
of sins. And the Old Testament Scriptures
are not just kept to provide us with the account of creation. They do that. They do give us
the account of creation. But that's not why they were
written. And the Old Testament speaks of the history. It recounts the history of Israel. But that's not why it was written.
And the Old Testament gives moral instruction. Our Lord and His
apostles both said that these things happened unto them for
examples for us. So they do give moral instruction,
but that's not why they're written. That's not their theme. The theme
of the Old Testament Scriptures is the coming Redeemer, the Christ
of God, and the mediator of God's everlasting covenant of grace.
There's no other way to verify that this man Jesus is the Christ
except by the Old Testament Scriptures. You take away them and everything
else is just speculation. Well, you know, he did a lot
of wonderful things, and he did mighty works, and he did miracles. So did Elijah. So did Elisha. So did Moses. How do I know that
Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God? How do I know that? The
only way to verify that is the Old Testament scripture. Not
just any man could claim to be the Christ. He must come from
the house and lineage of David. Because that's how God said he
would come. He's going to be the root of
Jesse. The seed of David. He must come from the house and
lineage of David. He must be born in Bethlehem
of Judea. He couldn't be born anywhere
else and be the Christ of God. He had to be born in Bethlehem
of Judea. His life must be sought to be
destroyed by Herod and a lot of the babies in Israel die.
It had to be because that is what the Scripture said would
happen. A forerunner must precede him. He must be baptized. He must go into the land of Zebulon
and Nephilim by the way of the sea to the Gentile people who
sat in darkness. Everything about His coming,
His birth, His life, His death and His resurrection and His
victorious reign and glory is foretold in the Old Testament
Scriptures. He went here that the Scriptures
might be fulfilled. He said this that the Scriptures
might be fulfilled. They challenged Him that the
Scriptures might be fulfilled. Over and over and over you read
that phrase all through the Gospel. And Peter said this on the day
of Pentecost, this is that. They said, what's going on? We're
hearing every man speak in his own tongue. All of these foreigners,
you imagine a crowd of men and women, and some of them are Spanish,
and some are German, and some are Italian, and some are English,
and they're all gathered there together, and all of a sudden
everybody's speaking And you understand exactly what
to say. You know what Peter said about
that? They said, what's going on? He said, this is what Joel
was talking about in the Old Testament. You see what I'm saying? The
Old Testament Scriptures. Our Lord said in two days, the
Son of Man is going to be betrayed. How come? Because the Old Testament
Scriptures said He would. They said He would. Yes, men did what they wanted
to do. Always somebody wants to argue
for man. Men did exactly what they wanted
to do. And yes, men plotted and planned
the death of Christ. And yes, men and rulers took
counsel together exactly the way God said they would in Psalm
2. But when everything was said and done, according to Acts 2.23,
Jesus Christ was delivered into their hands by the determinate
counsel of God. That's what it says. Every one of them together, Jew
and Gentile, old and young, educated and uneducated, religious and
heathen, Acts 4.28, They all assemble together to do what
God's hand and God's counsel determined before to be done. My friend, Jesus Christ is God
come into the flesh. This is very God of very God. This is not just another reformer. This is not just another prophet.
He was a prophet. This is not just another priest.
He was a priest. This is not just another king.
He is a king. But He is the Prophet, and the
Priest, and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is God
come into the flesh. And as the God-Man, He had a
perfect knowledge of all things, past, present, and future. He
knew why He was there, and He knew what He came to accomplish.
He knew what each day held. Today, He said, I must need to
go through Samaria. Why not yesterday? Why not the
day after? Why not take the day off? Because
he knew what lay. He knew what each day held, and
exactly how it would manifest the glory of God in him. And
there's nothing iffy. If you ever get hold of this,
if you ever see yourself helpless and hopeless before God, and
you get a hold of this sovereignty of Christ engaged to save your
soul, then it'll mean something to you. It'll mean something
to you. All of a sudden you'll discover
there's nothing iffy. There's nothing iffy in these
verses. He tells them without reservation
that in exactly two days when the Feast of the Passover would
commence, He'd be betrayed into the hands of the Jews to be crucified. Now I want you to think just
for a minute of the unlikelihood of such a declaration. The Lord
said in two days He said, you know that this is the day of
the Passover. You know that. You know it's
coming. And on that day, I'm going to be betrayed. I'm going
to be betrayed. Then the Jews took counsel how
they might kill him by subtlety. And what did they say? We're
not going to do this on the feast day. We're not going to do this
on the Passover. God said they would. God said
they would. But you think of the unlikelihood.
of this declaration. Think of the loose ends and the
possibilities and the councils and decisions and arguments and
agreements and national judgments. There were two countries involved
in this thing. And courts and a thousand other
things that must be fulfilled in perfect order for this to
take place as he said it would. You think of it. And add to that
that the high priest and high council decided not to do it
on the day the Lord said they would. And yet his betrayal, being against
their will, he'd bring it to pass with their full consent. This is exactly what they decided
to do. It says in Luke 23, verse 25,
that Pilate delivered Jesus to their will. They did exactly
what they willed to do. Now let me tell you something.
The God of our salvation has left nothing to chance, nothing
to circumstance in the salvation of His elect. These things are
ordered. If they weren't ordered, then
you'd have reason to worry. You'd have reason to fret. You
could never have any assurance of peace. Something could happen
to separate you. But what did our Lord say? None
of these things, not past or present, not things past or things
to come, not life nor death nor any other creature is going to
separate you from the love of God in Christ. You can't say
that unless you have total 100% control over all things. He leaves nothing to chance and
circumstance in the salvation of His elect. Everything in time
and eternity. like the cogs in a great machine,
are working together in perfect harmony for their good in God's
glory. And believers know this. They
know this. And they rejoice in it. Yes,
these things that happen to us hurt us. Yes, we feel pain. Yes,
when we're sick, we're weary and weak. Paul said on one occasion
that he was just past anything, past anything that man could
hope for. But the inheritance that we have
received and which we've obtained, we have because we're predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. The scripture said of his own
will begat he us with the word of truth, of his will, his will. He said we are predestinated
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself
according to the good pleasure of his will. It says, God worketh
in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And how
does He tell us to pray? He said, don't say tomorrow we'll
go here and do this or that, say this or that, but say if
the Lord will, we'll do this, and we'll say that, and we'll
go here, and we'll go there. And I tell you, the leper knew
this. The leper knew this. Here's the application of this
to salvation. Here's a leper. He couldn't do
anything for himself. He was eat up. His disease was
in him, working its way out of him. He was covered with leprosy
and had no hope. And that man came and threw himself
prostrate at the feet of Christ. And what did he say? I made my
decision. Now anyway, he said, I joined
the church. I've turned over a new leaf,
and I ain't what he said. He came and threw himself prostrate
at the feet of Christ, and he said, if you will, you can make
me whole. You can make me whole. Are you saying that God's to
blame for the death of the wicked? No, sir, I'm not. But what I
am saying is that as fallen vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,
He endures them with much long-suffering and uses them as He sees fit
to the time of their execution. Years ago, we used to go down
to Florida. My sister lived down there. And
when you passed through the state of Georgia, you'd see these men
in striped uniforms, black and white striped uniforms out there,
and they had chains on their legs. The chain gang. That was the chain gang. And
we've seen them there for years until some folks decided it was
a violation of their human rights and they quit making them do
that. But my friend, when you commit a felony crime, you forfeit
your rights. And when you committed a crime
against God, you forfeit your rights. We don't have any rights
before God. We don't come to God pleading
our rights. And this world forfeited its
rights in their father Adam, and in their own character and
actions, and by their own choice and decisions. And mankind, though
it's totally unaware of it, is not in a vacuum, and he's not
running around free to do what he will. But he's condemned and
held in chains of darkness, and God will use him as he sees fit.
Salvation is not the rights of men being exercised, but the
act of sovereign mercy and the free gift of God. And this whole
unconverted world is God's chain gang, accomplishing His sovereign
will in the redemption of His elect. That's exactly what He's
talking about here. This is the application He's
making. He said in two days the feast of the Passover will be
here. And the Son of Man will be betrayed to be crucified. And men can take counsel together,
and they did. And they can talk and plot and
plan what they want to do, and they did. And they can reason
things out and take a majority vote and get the consensus of
the majority, and they did. They voted on it. When everything's
finished and done, what they reasoned and plotted and planned
All that they will accomplish is to manifest the will of the
sovereign God of glory. That's exactly what you're going
to do. Now, this Passover was the most solemn feast of the
Jews. It was kept in commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt
and to remind them of the Passover lamb whose blood was on the post
of the doors and above on the lintel. And the fulfillment of
these holy days was upon them. This was the man who was about
to fulfill that day. This was the Lamb of God that
was about to be slain for them. He must go to that cross. He
must be betrayed. He must be crucified so that
God may see the blood and pass over them, and so that God can
be just and justify all that believe. The Scriptures, that's
what I want you to see this morning. The Scriptures must be fulfilled. And I don't just want you to
see it here, but I want this point to be established in your
heart so that you can see it in other things. When He said,
Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel, and he that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth
not shall be damned. That's just as certain as this
two days. Just as certain. And you can
take that and apply it toward everything that He says in the
Scriptures. The Scriptures must be fulfilled.
The will of God must be done. It must be done. Nobody is going
to resist the will of God. God is going to have His way
in all things. Isn't that what David said? Our God is in the heavens. What
is He like? He has done whatsoever He pleased. The will of God shall be done
and the justice of God shall be satisfied. The gospel, my
friend, is not some silly, sympathetic pleading of men for somebody
to let God have His way. And it's not the pleas of men
for somebody to accept what Christ did and make it effectual. It's
the declaration of the accomplished redemption of God's elect by
the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ according to
the will of God. That's what it is. That's what
this declaration is. the declaration of the free and
sovereign grace of God in Christ. It is the accomplishing of the
unchangeable, irresistible will of God in the salvation of chosen
sinners. And that's what our Lord is telling
His disciples. He said in two days, two days,
this is going to begin. This is going to begin. God help
us to see his sovereign hand of mercy.