Well, I want to come back to
Luke's gospel this morning, and we're missing out a bit, but
I'm continuing in chapter 9, and particularly looking at a
phrase in verse 9. But we'll come to that shortly.
There have been many miracles in this gospel account of Luke,
as in the other gospel accounts, different perspectives on the
ministry, the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we have seen some of those miracles. Do you remember a few weeks ago
we were thinking about the centurion's servant? whom he loved. We were
thinking about the widow of Nain, whose son was dead on a funeral
procession and Jesus raised him. We were thinking about when John's
disciples were sent by John to Jesus because they were worried
that this man Jesus was overtaking John the Baptist in terms of
his ministry, and he had a different lifestyle. And John said, you
go and see him. And they went and they saw the
deaf hearing and the blind seeing and the lame walking. We then
saw Simon the Pharisee having his feast in his self-righteousness. And that woman who had nothing,
nothing to plead but the mercy of God, who came and washed his
feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
That woman, broken in humility before the grace of God, before
the revelation of the truth of God concerning this man. And
then we went on to see him teaching. He went everywhere, preaching
and teaching and showing from the scriptures the glad tidings
of the kingdom of God, the glad tidings of salvation accomplished. This is what he came to preach,
this is what the kingdom of God is about. It's the glad tidings. Remember, I keep telling you,
the scriptures are the revelation of the promise of God to his
people. It's not an attempt to persuade
you, although we persuade men, as Paul said, it's a revelation
of the promise of God to his people. And he went everywhere
declaring and proclaiming and showing and preaching the glad
tidings of the kingdom of God. And he told us to take heed when
he'd given that parable of the sower, take heed how you hear. And that's what we saw last time
we looked at this. Then ones that we missed out, there was
a storm on the lake because we've looked at them in other gospels.
There was a storm on the lake and he stilled the storm. He,
this man, spoke to the wind and the waves, peace, be still. was. What manner of man is this,
that even the wind and the waves obey him? And then the one that
I preached on about a year ago, the Gadarene, you know they went
across after the storm to the land of the Gadarenes on the
east side of the Lake of Galilee. And there he found that one,
well there were two actually, in one of the gospel accounts
there were two, possessed of demons, living amongst the tombs,
naked, couldn't be restrained, completely out of their minds
with demon possession. And he saved him. Cast that demon
out, saved him. That man was sat, we read, at
Jesus' feet, clothed and in his right mind. What a state to be. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
does to his people. Clothed and in his right mind.
There was another one that we've missed out, Jairus' daughter.
Read the account at the end of chapter 8 of Jairus' daughter.
And in the middle of that miracle, the woman. The woman bent double
with the issue of blood many, many years. This debilitating
disease that spoke so much of the uncleanness of sin from the
Old Testament law. And she came and she touched
the hem of his garment and was made whole. Who touched me? Who
touched me? There's a great crowd. Everyone's
touching you. Someone touched me. He knew who
it was. And she came forward and confessed. She was the one
who had touched him. And then the disciples were sent
out preaching at the start of chapter nine. Right, as I have
done, you now go, he sends them out, preaching. And we get to
verse seven. Verse seven, let's read these
three verses. Now Herod the Tetrarch, the civil ruler that the Romans
allowed to govern, so that the people felt they still had their
own king, but he wasn't really. The military power, the financial
power was all in the hands of the Roman Empire, but they allowed
the Jews to continue their civil government. This is the smart
way that Nebuchadnezzar did it, and the Persians did it, and
Alexander the Great did it. They didn't destroy the peoples
that they conquered, but they put in place their own people
to govern in the way that they said that they should govern,
and Herod was there at the behest of the Roman Empire to govern
this part of the land. Herod the Tetrarch heard of all
that was done by him, by Jesus, and he was perplexed, because
that it was said of some that John was risen from the dead,
and of some that Elias, Elijah, had appeared, and of others that
one of the old prophets was risen again, because such amazing things
were happening and being seen. And Herod said, John, I have
beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things? And
he desired to see him. Herod heard, and Herod was disturbed. Herod had silenced the preaching
of John the Baptist. There's no more effective way
of silencing a man's preaching than chopping his head off. That's
what Herod did to John the Baptist. He severed his head with an axe
to silence him. Because what John was saying
was about Christ. John was preaching Christ. John
was preaching the judgment of God to come, but salvation in
the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God From the foundation
of the world, the Lamb of God had come into the world to save
his people from their sins. The Lamb of God had come to be
the Passover Lamb for his people, and John preached this. And Herod
didn't want it, because Herod wanted to continue, as all flesh
does by nature, to continue to grasp at its fleshly, worldly
existence. I don't want this. I've got things
I need to do. I want to have my own way with
this, that and the other. And that was Herod. And now he
hears there's one and they're saying John the Baptist is risen
from the dead. And he's disturbed. I've beheaded
him. What's going on? Who is this?
John said about Christ coming. And John didn't just say there's
a man called Christ coming. John said this, I'm sure of this,
John said the Old Testament scriptures that you know that are in the
temple that are there in all the worship that you can go to
the school of Gamaliel and the Pharisees and they'll tell you
all about it those scriptures promise that God will come as
the Messiah of his people to save his people from their sins
and that in him is complete salvation and under him is complete salvation
but outside of him is nothing other than the wrath of God and
John said behold he's come This man, Jesus of Nazareth, who's
going around preaching and proclaiming the glad tidings of the Kingdom
of God and healing and doing all these things that people
cannot deny, you know, People come along who have got some
sham trick and, you know, it's not very long before society
rumbles them and finds out that it's a con and that it isn't
real and that there's some trickery going on. I don't know if you
remember in the 1970s the phenomenon of Uri Geller overtook that I
was teaching at the time. And all the kids were totally
fascinated. Uri Geller would get an ordinary
table fork and rub it between his fingers and the top of it
would flop over. And people would say, oh, wow, we've got some
miracle worker in our midst. It was amazing, the way in which
society, and they come along all the time, don't they? They
can dupe and delude society. But these people were not duped
or deluded in any way. There were too many of them.
The miracles were too powerful. They were overwhelming. They
were nothing like the charismatic rubbish that you might hear of.
Nothing whatsoever. They're just nothing other than
sham. There's not a grain of truth in any of those things
at all. These miracles were amazing. These miracles were overwhelming.
Who is this? He's worried. Herod is worried. John's told me that God is coming. Now, he's here. Behold, the Lamb
of God. John, before I chopped his head
off to silence him, keeps telling me that outside of this man,
and what he's teaching, I'm eternally lost under the condemnation and
just judgment of God. And the only way I can silence
him is to chop his head off. But now, now, I've silenced him,
but here's here's one who sounds like the one he was talking about,
and he's worried. Who is this? Look at it, verse
nine, this is the title of my message, but who is this? Who
is it? Who is it that they're telling
me about? Where can I go to get away from this? Do you remember
Psalm 139? Very poetic, lovely language,
but think of the message of it. Where can I go from his presence?
Where can I hide from the presence of God? Have you thought about
this? Where can you hide from the presence
of God? If I go down into the depths
of hell, I can't hide from Him. If I go to the distant parts
of the earth, I can't hide from Him. He will find me. He found
out Herod. Herod's worried. Who is this?
I can't hide from Him. Maybe you're saying, I'll put
this off to another day, but the message keeps coming. this
is Christ, you must listen to him, hear ye him, you must listen
to him, you must hear what his word is saying. We're living
at the moment in Britain in the season of exams, it's June and
it's examination time in the schools and most of the young
people know what it is to be asked many, many questions. There
are many, many questions and many important questions and
it's important to do as well as you can with these questions
but there's one question that is overwhelmingly more important
than every other question you will ever be asked and it's this
one that Herod asks, who is this? Who is this? It's like that other
question that Christ himself asked of the disciples. What
think ye of Christ? He said to the Pharisees, what
think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Because your
eternal state is revealed by the answer that you give to that
question in your innermost heart. Your eternal state, whether it
be in hell under the just judgment of God, or whether it be in the
bliss of eternal glory, in the purposes of God, having lived
for him and served him. Your eternal state is revealed
by your answer to this question, who is this? Who is this man? Who is it? You see, we can discuss
theology all we want, You know, Cliff and I were encouraged this
week by a program that Melvin Bragg put out which was very,
very good on William Tyndale and the translation of the scriptures,
but I also heard Melvin Bragg on the radio a couple of mornings
later with his discussion program where he gets experts in on prophecy. And the experts, the scholars,
danced around the handbags of prophecy for half an hour, and
at the end of it, all that had been revealed was the darkness
of worldly reasoning, and not the revelation of God. What do
you think is the answer to that question? You see, human wisdom
will not tell you the answer to it. What do you think? Who
is this? Who is this, said Herod, about
Jesus of Nazareth? Now most people today would not
doubt that a man called Jesus of Nazareth existed and had a
powerful influence on the society of his day. Many would say, oh,
he was a good man, he was a good example. Even Islam, which hates
Christianity, even Islam says that Jesus was a prophet of note,
but believers say this, Believers say what Peter said in Matthew
16 and verse 16. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Who do men say I am? Yeah, but
who do you say that? You are the Christ, the Son of
the Living God. It's the mark of true believers.
I mentioned it earlier in the study, 1 John chapter 5, verse
1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ. What does it mean
to say that? It means the same as 1 John chapter
4, the first three verses. Try the spirits, the preachers,
whether they be of God. Is that man preaching with the
Spirit of God upon him because he's bringing the message of
God? What's the message of God? That Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh. Oh, loads of people preach that. No, they don't.
They don't. This is what it means, that the
man, Jesus of Nazareth, who walked this earth 2,000 years ago, is
the one that the Old Testament scripture said must come to save
his people from their sins, in the way he would save his people
from their sins, in particular redemption, in sovereign grace,
being a perfect substitute, in bearing the sins of his people,
to make his people the righteousness of God in him. That's what it
is to preach that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that he
is the one. Is this man, Jesus of Nazareth,
who is this? Herod asked. Is this man the
Messiah? of the Old Testament Scriptures.
This is why it's so important. When Paul was preaching in Acts
17 and verse 3, he was opening the Scriptures and alleging that
Christ must needs have suffered. that the Christ of God had to
come. You know, why would your God come and die a shameful death
on a cross? Paul argued he had to come and
suffer and be risen again from the dead. And that this Jesus,
this is what he preached, this Jesus whom I preached to you,
this Jesus of Nazareth whom I preached to you is Christ. Is the Christ
of the Old Testament Scriptures. Is the Messiah of God. Is God
come as a man. is the Christ foretold by the
Scriptures because as he himself said, the Scriptures, these are
they which speak of me. Every page, there are types,
there are pictures, there are allegories, there's direct unmistakable
prophecy that God in Christ is coming to save his people. Now
of all those Scriptures, what I want to do this morning is
look at Psalm 40 and a couple of verses there And let's say in answer to Herod's
question, this is what the scripture says of the Christ when he comes,
does Jesus of Nazareth measure up to that? Let's try the case,
right? We've got a court of law, let's
try the case in a court of law. It's what the Old Testament Scriptures
said about Messiah when he would come fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth
when he did come. When God becomes man to redeem
his people, what will mark him out from all other men? Look
at verses six to eight of Psalm 40. Sacrifice and offering thou
didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt
offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said
I, Lo, I come. Someone's coming. This is God
speaking. This is the second person of
the Trinity. The Word, who was in the beginning with God and
was God. This is Him speaking. I come.
In the volume of the book, it is written of me. As Isaiah said
in chapter 40, Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God, your
God is coming. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. There are four things here. Sacrifice
will cease when the Messiah comes. He will be Jehovah's voluntary
servant. I come, in the volume of the
book, I delight to do thy will, oh my God, thy law is in my heart.
He will fulfill all scriptural prophecy concerning the Messiah,
because why? In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. The book writes about him! He'll
fulfill prophecy, and he will perfectly do God's will. I delight
to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is written within
my heart. This is the Messiah speaking.
Did Jesus of Nazareth... Who is this, said Herod? Did
he fulfill those things? How would we answer Herod? How
would we answer anybody today asking that question? How does
Jesus of Nazareth measure up to what the Scriptures said of
the Messiah? Psalm 40, verses 6 to 8, those verses say that
when Messiah comes firstly, sacrifice will cease. Sacrifice and offering
thou didst not desire. Mine ears thou hast opened. Burnt
offering and sin offering hast thou not required. What he's
saying is this. When the Messiah comes, Old Testament
Jewish religion will cease. When God's Christ comes as a
man to redeem his people. Did it? Historically it did. there's no question about it.
The veil of the temple when Christ was crucified was torn from top
to bottom. I think the gospel writers would
have really struggled to have sustained that claim unless it
really had happened. When Christ was crucified, that
thick veil of the temple that kept anybody other than the high
priest alone, once a year, with the blood of an acceptable picture
animal sacrifice, only he could go in there, in that way, otherwise
he would be struck dead, as would anybody else, and they would
wait outside in fear and trembling to see whether it had been accepted,
and that veil was torn from top to bottom when Christ died on
the cross. And then, to underline it, in
A.D. 70, the Emperor Tiberius came,
and because of insurrection amongst the Jews, he absolutely flattened
Jerusalem. And he flattened the temple,
and the temple is the only place where the Jewish religion can
sacrifice. Do you know why the Jews don't have animal sacrifices
today? They've got their synagogues,
but why don't they have animal sacrifices? The answer's dead
easy. there isn't a temple. There hasn't
been a temple since A.D. 70. There will not be another
temple. The temple was destroyed. Animal
sacrifice ended. Why? Why? Why did animal sacrifice
end? Because the sacrifice of Christ,
our Passover lamb, had rendered every animal sacrifice redundant. Oh, religious man tried to carry
it on. Unbelieving Jews tried to carry it on. The Pharisees
and the priests tried to carry it on, but only for another 30
years or so, and then God ended it. Religious man would never
stop it, but God stopped it in A.D. 70. God used his instrument,
Tiberius, who was in his hands. Didn't just happen. God raised
him up for that purpose. He destroyed temple worship in
Jerusalem exactly as prophesied, sacrifice and offering that it's
not desired. Daniel chapter 9 verse 27, in
the midst of the week, you know Daniel taught in his prophecy,
it's all about weeks, it's very mysterious, you need to really
work it out, you need to really, we need to listen to some experts,
in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation
to cease. There, Daniel's prophecy, it's
going to happen. When Messiah comes Sacrifice
will cease. Hebrews 10, verses 12, 17, and
18. But this man, who is this? This Jesus of Nazareth. But this
man, after he had offered, won. How many sacrifices were there
in the Old Testament temple? Day of Atonement every year,
Passover every year, daily, weekly sacrifices all the time, continuously,
always, always, always, picturing, looking forward to that which
would save them. But this man, our Lord Jesus
Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down, never to do it again, he sat down, it's finished, on
the right hand of God. I thought the way that hymn put
it, I hadn't seen that before, but the way that hymn put it
earlier on, and I won't be able to find it now, obviously, but,
no there it is, the God and the man, how he fills up his throne. What lovely language to portray
the truth. There is a man in heaven who
is God. The God and the man, how he fills
up his throne. He's there now. He sat down at
the right hand of God. And he says, and their sins and
iniquities, those of his people, I will remember no more. Now,
where remission of these is, sins, there is no more offering
for sin. When Messiah came, sacrifice
and offering ended, because he fulfilled it. He is even the
end of the law. We're going to read next time
in Romans 10 verse 4. He is even the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Every Passover
lamb was but a picture. But Christ is our Passover lamb,
and he is effectually sacrificed for us, for he has paid the sin
debt of his people. When this man comes, sacrifice
and offering in the Old Testament temple will cease. It did, and
it has, and it's never been repeated, because he did it once for all.
Secondly, He will be Jehovah's voluntary servant. That's what
it says. He will come voluntarily. He
will not come under compulsion. He will go to the cross voluntarily. He will suffer that which is
necessary to save His people gladly, voluntarily. For the
joy which was set before Him, He didn't despise the shame.
He set His face as flint couldn't stop him to go to Jerusalem because
there he would go to the cross and he would die and save his
people from their sins, voluntary. Isaiah 42 verses 1 to 4, God
says this, of himself as God the man in Christ, behold my
servant whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, this
is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. I have put my spirit
upon him A dove came down from heaven as a mark of that at his
baptism. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. In other words, he will justify
Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. In other words,
he shall not rebel against the will of God. He will not go screaming
and kicking to the cross. He will go meekly, as a sheep
before his shearers is dumb, as a lamb before the slaughter.
He will go. Isaiah 50, verses 5 to 7. The
Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither
turned away back. This is the Messiah speaking.
This is the Christ speaking prophetically, Isaiah 50. I gave my back to
the smiters, he said. They scourged him in that judgment
hall. on the night before his crucifixion,
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, and they tore out
the hair of his beard. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting." This is the one who went voluntarily to the cross. He says, Jesus says, in John
10 verse 18, No man taketh my life from me. I lay it down of
myself voluntarily. I have power, he said, both to
lay it down and to take it up again, because he is God, voluntarily
doing the will of his Father that he might save his people
from their sins. Hebrews 10, verses 5 to 7, wherefore,
when he, the Messiah, the Christ, when he cometh into the world,
he saith, We just read it in Psalm 40, sacrifice and offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure. Why? Because they didn't satisfy for
sin, they were but pictures of that which would satisfy for
sin. In those things you had no pleasure. Then said I, this
is the Messiah speaking, Lo, I come. In the volume of the
book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. He went to the
garden when he prayed that high priestly prayer in John 17. And
they crossed the brook Kedron, which is the brook full of the
detritus of the sacrifices of the city, a foul-smelling place. They crossed that brook into
the garden. And in the garden He went a distance
to pray and was conscious of the ordeal that was ahead, that
he who knew no sin was to be made sin, the sin of all his
people. In some miraculous creative act,
God drew it all together and loaded it on him, that his people
might be made the righteousness of God in him. And that burden
nearly crushed the man. the man. Remember, he was fully
man. That burden nearly crushed him. He prayed there. He sweat. Have you ever been nervous of
anything? Have you ever had butterflies in the stomach? Has things ever
turned over inside? No man ever. had an anxiety like
this man did at that moment. He sweat, as it were, drops of
blood. So great was the anguish. And
he cried out, if it be possible, my father, that this cup, the
cup of the wrath of God, the judgment of God for the sins
of his people, that dreadful, dreadful cup of the wrath of
God, if it be possible that this can be taken from me. Ah, but
not my will. Not my will. but your will be
done. He came willingly. The Messiah
would be a willing servant. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Not my will, but thine be done. Next point. He will fulfill all
Scripture. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. How does this man measure up? Who is this? asked Herod. Who is this? How
does this man measure up to what the Scriptures say? Now, I don't
know where this list of eight came from, I got it from Don
Faulkner and I don't know whether somebody else had written it
before that, but it's a very good concise list. But let's
see, these are they which speak of me. Eight things, eight ways
in which he will fulfill scripture. There may be more, I don't know,
but these, you know, if you were presenting your case as a barrister
in a court of law, who is this man? Then these things are pretty
powerful arguments. Firstly, the Scripture foretold
the time of his coming. No one knew exactly when but
the Scripture foretold the time. It would be before the end of
civil government in Judah. How do we know? Jacob blessing
his sons back in Genesis 49. You know before he dies he blesses
his sons and in verse 10 he says of Judah, the scepter The symbol
of civil government shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh
come. Shiloh, the Messiah. Messiah
was coming then, back in Genesis, he must come. So there'll be
civil government still in the hands of Judah, but there'll
still be a temple there, it won't yet be destroyed. Haggai chapter
2 verse 9, the glory of this latter house shall be greater
than the former. The former was Solomon's temple,
a glorious building. And the rebuilt temple, we saw
about it, I don't know how long ago, maybe about a year or so
ago when we're looking at Nehemiah and Ezra and Zechariah, when
they were rebuilding the temple, Zerubbabel, you'll remember all
those people. And it said there, the glory of this latter house,
this house that they built, I'm sure it wasn't as glorious as
Solomon's temple to the eye, to see physically. But why would
it be greater? Because God's Messiah would walk
the courts of that temple. And he did. And he came and in
John 2 he cleared those courts of the traders. And he preached
there. And he went there. The timing
was right. Daniel's 70th week. Daniel's
70th week from Daniel 9, 24 to 27 was 453 to 457 years after
that temple was rebuilt by Zerubbabel. Do you know where that takes
us to in history? Give or take a year or two to 33 AD. Do you know what happened then?
It's the year Christ died. He was 33 years old when he died.
It's the year of Christ's death. Messiah, Christ, must come into
the world and live as a man when Jesus of Nazareth did. Could
Jesus of Nazareth be that man? There's another piece of evidence.
Number two, the place where he would be born. The place, Bethlehem
Ephrata. I come from a place called Burton.
Up and down this country there are loads of Burtons. Burton
on Trent, Burton in Lonsdale, Burton Bradstock, there's cold
Burton down in Somerset. There are Burtons all over the
place. If I tell you I come from Burton, you've no idea where
I come from, because I came from Burton in Kendal. That's the
one. Jesus would be born in Bethlehem,
Ephrata. Bethlehem in Judah. Micah chapter
5 verse 2 said it. And that's where he came from.
Not one of the other Bethlehems. There were others. He would come
of the house of David. Psalm 132 verse 11. God promised
David in that psalm that of the fruit of his body Messiah would
come. In Isaiah chapter 11 and verse
1, the root and the branch which is speaking of Christ, the Messiah,
would be of the stem of Jesse, who was the father of David,
of his line. Fourthly, miracles would be performed. When the man who is the Messiah,
God in human flesh, would come, miracles would be performed.
Isaiah 29 verse 18, the deaf and the blind will be healed,
the lame will walk. Isaiah 35, then shall the eyes
of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then
shall the lame man leap as in heart. And Jesus said, go and
tell John, you disciples that have come to me, go and tell
him, the blind are seen. The lame are walking, the deaf
are hearing, the mute are speaking and singing the praises of God.
Number five, he would be a king, but a king in humility, not a
king as the religious world expected, not a king in palaces of gold,
but a king in humility. Zechariah 9 verse 9, how is he
going to come triumphantly into his capital? He's going to come
riding meekly on a donkey, on an ass, the foal of an ass. Matthew
21 verses 1 to 9, you know the account of Palm, we call it Palm
Sunday in the religious calendar, when he came and they got that
colt and they put him on it and the people strew palm branches
on the streets and cried Hosanna to the king. A king in humility. Number six, this Messiah would
come not to reign gloriously as people viewed it in their
perception of what power is, but to suffer and die. Daniel
9 26, when Messiah comes he shall be cut off, but not for himself,
Psalm 22, even the words he would utter on the cross, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? The things that they did to him,
they parted his garments for lots, they cast lots for his
garments. They gave him vinegar to drink,
it's all there in Psalm 22. Isaiah 53, all 12 verses of it,
are about substitutionary suffering for His people, a sacrifice in
the place of His people. But He didn't stay dead. And
the Scriptures said that Messiah wouldn't stay dead, He would
rise from the dead. Psalm 16, verses 9 to 11, Thou wilt not
leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One
to see corruption. Corruption meaning the decay
of death. The moment you or I die, And
we go into the ground, or wherever it be, we start to decay. And
before long, there's nothing other than a skeleton left. But
he didn't suffer corruption. And number eight, he would be,
not just as they put on the cross, the king of the Jews, and as
Pilate said, leave it there, I've said what I've said, king
of the Jews, but king of the Gentiles. Isaiah 49 verse six,
I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles. Look at this
world today. I can't think of a country. I know the true people of God
are very few and far between. I've been so encouraged by our
internet reach to get messages from such distant, far-flung
places on earth where there are people who love the gospel of
God's grace, alike to the Gentiles. That thou mayest be my salvation,
God's salvation, unto the end of the earth. Joel 2.32, whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. There
shall be deliverance in Mount Zion. Remember last week Obadiah?
And in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. Galatians chapter
3, 13 and 14, that the blessing of Abraham, the blessing of Abraham,
accounted unto Abraham for righteousness, believed God, that the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. he will fulfill all Scripture.
Now then, that coat fits Christ, fits Jesus of Nazareth perfectly,
doesn't it? I think it does. Fourthly, and
I must hurry, he will perfectly accomplish God's will. What was
God's will for Messiah? Why would Messiah come? John
6, 39 and 40. And this is the Father's will
which hath sent me, said Jesus. Listen, it's clear, the Scripture
is answering the question. I'm not theorizing about this,
the Scripture's saying it. Do you believe this book? This
is the Father's will which hath sent me. Of all which he hath
given me, I should lose nothing. Of all the people that the Father
gave to the Son before the beginning of time, as Paul tells Timothy,
as he writes to the Ephesians, I should lose nothing, every
single one of them, but should raise it up in resurrection at
the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me. What's God's will? That everyone
which seeth the sun, listen, all of you, listen, anyone out
there listening, that everyone which seeth the sun and believeth
on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the
last day. in his prayer before he goes to the cross to save
those people in time by the sacrifice of himself he says those that
thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is lost he's talking
about the immediate disciples with him in that room he hasn't
lost one of them but the son of perdition Judas that the scripture
might be fulfilled but then on in verse twenty he says neither
pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe
on me through their word. He hasn't lost any of his believing
people. He will not. He will bring all
to glory. How do we know? because he raised
him from the dead. Romans 4.25, he was delivered
for our transgressions and raised for our justification. Acts 17.31,
wherefore he, God, hath given assurance unto all men, that
includes you and me, in that he hath raised him from the dead. Christ is raised from the dead.
Who is this? asked Herod. This is his question.
Clearly, Jesus of Nazareth. This is the case, this is the
finding of the court. Jesus of Nazareth is the promised
Christ Messiah of the Old Testament. Do you agree? Do you agree with
that? You may agree, in your head.
The arguments may have persuaded you. It might even be that you're
like Felix, you know when Paul was before Felix on his way to
Rome and he was being tried before Felix and Felix said to him,
Paul you're almost persuading me to be a Christian. See, perhaps
almost, the words of a man can almost persuade you to be a Christian,
but do you know in your heart This is it. Has God revealed
it? Do you know in your heart? Paul
says in Philippians 3, that I might know him and the power of his
resurrection. Not about him, but that I might
know him. Matthew 16, I'll take you back
there again, verse 16. Who do men say that I am? Well,
some say you're this prophet, some say you're that prophet,
some say... No, never mind them. What do you say? Who do you say
that I am? And Peter replies, you are the
Christ, the son of the living God. That's the testimony. Ah,
blessed are you, Peter, Simon, Bar-Jonas, blessed are you! Because
flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you. I can't reveal this
to you. No other man can reveal this
to you but my Father which is in heaven by his Spirit coming
and quickening and opening your eyes to see the truth of God. Has God revealed that truth of
Christ in your heart? Then you'll say I believe that
Jesus is the Christ and in believing you will have eternal life. Praise God.