This past week, I listened to
a message that I downloaded from the internet. There's a lot of
preachers there on sermonaudio.com. I believe that this particular
message was advertised. The title caught my eye. It's
called, The Purpose Driven Christ. Now, it caught my eye, first
of all, because it was an obvious jab at the very popular religious
book out today called The Purpose Driven Life. This book is one
of many religious books out there so characteristic of modern Christian
religion. It's all about us and the idea
that we have some special purpose to fulfill. It makes people feel
good as though they are important. It's someone said that modern
Christianity today sounds a lot like a singer, an opera singer
getting ready for a performance. It's all me, me, me, me, me.
That purpose driven life, at least as much of it as I understand,
is a very me, me, me type book. But I like this purpose driven
Christ. It caught my eye, the title. So I downloaded and made
a copy of it and listened to it the other day, driving to
an insulation job. The message was preached on Christmas
Day in 2005. If you'll remember that year,
Christmas fell on Sunday. And the basic theme of the message
was this, why did Christ come? Why did he come at all? And the
preacher, the manner in which he expressed that theme caught
my mind. He said words to this effect.
Many say, at this time of year, Jesus is the reason for the season. But I ask, what's the reason
for Jesus? You know, that's an awfully good
question. Now, Jesus is the reason for
the season is a fine phrase. There's nothing wrong with it.
He is the reason that we celebrate Christmas, even though it's Rather
certain he wasn't born that time of year, but it doesn't matter
when we celebrate it. It's a fine thing to celebrate it. That's
what you want to do. And it's good to remember at
that time of year that it was indeed the birth of the Lord
Jesus Christ that provided the occasion for the celebration.
It seems as though our culture is trying to do everything they
can to stamp the name of Jesus Christ out of any public exposure
at all. As though we must meet quietly
in our basements and whisper the name of Christ, otherwise
someone might hear it and be offended. Well, it's good to
remember that Jesus is the reason for the season, but it'll do
little good to recognize that if we don't understand what's
the reason for Jesus in the first place. Why did he come? There
is a purpose behind the coming of the Son of God into this world.
He came here for a reason. And the Bible tells us the reason
he came. In fact, you could say that the
greatest part of the message of the scripture is an answer
to that question, why did Jesus Christ come? His arrival was
no accident. Neither was his work some serendipitous
event, just something that kind of happened and turned out for
good. We weren't expecting it. It wasn't on the agenda, but
it happened and it kind of turned out good. No, that's not how
it was. In fact, the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the central event of all history. Our word crisis, at least I've
been told this, I believe it to be true, our word crisis comes
from a Greek word meaning the turning point, the pivot point. And our Lord said, now is the
judgment of this world. And that word translated judgment
there is the one that has been turned into crisis. He's saying
now is the crisis of this world. Now is the turning point. I think
it's very appropriate that we divide all dates at B.C. and A.D. Before Christ and in
the year of our Lord, because it does mark a dividing line,
so to speak. It is the event of history on
which the whole history of the world turns. The history of the
world is nothing but vanity and uselessness apart from that event.
That's what the book of Ecclesiastes is teaching. He says, I look
out on the world, and if you just look out on the world and
see the things that happen in the world, well, it's a worthless
thing. It's a vain cycle that goes on
and on and on for no apparent reason. And friends, if we come
into this world and live our lives and die like the animals,
And there is no purpose. There is no reason. In fact,
if we come into this world and we die, that is, all men die
without redemption, die in their sins and live an eternal existence
under the wrath of God, it seems to me that the whole thing is
pointless. The only reason for getting up
in the morning is because Jesus Christ came. The only reason
to take joy in the birth of a child is because Jesus Christ came.
The only reason to have hope at the tomb of a loved one is
because Jesus Christ came. The only reason to do anything
is because Jesus Christ came. If He didn't come, no matter
what we do, it amounts to nothing. If He didn't come, if He didn't
redeem His people, What we're doing this morning is an utter
waste of time. It's a lie and will bring no
good about it. If you don't know any other event
of history, know this one. And we don't just mean his birth,
but his entire appearance into this world and all he did while
he was here until he went back to the right hand of the Father. Know what happened, learn what
happened, and learn why it happened, and what that means to you. Jesus Christ came into this world
with an assignment, and knowing that assignment is a benefit
to our soul. So why did Christ come into this
world? Well, the first, I got several, several places in the
scripture we're going to look at that describe the reason for
Jesus, the reason for our Lord coming into this world. Hebrews
chapter 10, verse 5. Therefore, when Christ came into
the world, he said, sacrifice an offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me. With burnt offerings and sin
offerings, you were not pleased. Now, what's that declaration?
Christ comes into the world, and His coming into the world
declares this, that all that had been going on under that
old covenant had not pleased God, had not brought about any
real eternal benefit. Even though God had commanded
it, even though it was God's covenant of His design, of His
giving, and it required every point of it, yet nothing good,
that is, nothing eternally good, came of it. How many thousands
or millions of lambs were sacrificed there, and bulls, and all that? I mean, the temple, the tabernacle
and the temple after that, just awash with blood. Death on every
side, and yet nobody's sins were ever put away. And the proof
of it is this, they didn't quit doing it. You see, once a job
is successful, you quit. Once it accomplishes the purpose
for which it was designed, You hang up your tools, you turn
out the lights, and it's done. But by the law, nothing and nobody
was made perfect. And therefore, day after day,
through a liturgy, and year after year in that liturgy, they went
through that old covenant, lamb upon lamb, bull upon bull, goat
upon goat, priest upon priest, And not one sin was ever removed. Then I said, verse 7, all blessed
words of the Savior. Then I said, here I am. Here I am. He comes into this
world and though he does not, when he comes here as a babe,
he doesn't even know how to talk. So to speak, he says, here I
am. Here I am. Who? Who is it that says, here
I am? The one that the law had been
pointing to all along. It said the law was a shadow
of things that were coming. Imagine standing inside of a
room or a house, you know, and outside it's sunny, and you're
looking out the door, and here comes a shadow. It's a form of a man. And you
see it. What does that tell you? That
tells you somebody's coming. Somebody's on the way. And all
those lambs pointed to Christ. That priest pointed to Christ.
That temple pointed to Christ. It was a shadow saying, somebody's
coming, somebody's coming. And finally, he got here and
said, here I am. Here I am. In the volume of the
book it's written of me. All those things written before
time were for our help, our encouragement, our instruction. The Old Testament's a book about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, God save us from being like
those Pharisees who searched the Scriptures, for in them they
thought they had eternal life, and yet the Scriptures were the
things that spoke of Christ, and they wouldn't come to Him.
They were so enamored of the shadow, they didn't have an eye
for the reality. And when the reality showed up,
they got upset because the reality displaced the shadow. They wanted
their Sabbath days. They didn't like it that the
real Sabbath showed up. They wanted their righteousness.
They didn't like it that real righteousness showed up. They wanted their place. They
didn't like it that the only one who deserves any place showed
up. Nothing will get Antichrist more
angry and upset than the presence of Christ. He said, here I am. And they said, you're not going
to stay. We're going to get rid of you. But he said, oh no, here
I am in the volume of the book it is written of me. I come to
do your will. Jesus Christ came here with an
agenda. He came here with an assignment. He didn't come here with any
uncertainty about what he would do. He did not land here on a
venture, on some kind of expedition or scouting endeavor. He came
in knowing the problem. He came in knowing how to fix
it. He came in with the word of his Father and the command
of his God. And he said, I've come to do God's will. How often have we worried ourselves
over, I just want to do God's will. It's already been done. It's already been accomplished. We've read about God's will for
us. God's purpose for us. Don't worry
about it. It'll happen. Concern yourself. Occupy your mind with God's will
for Christ. His purpose for Christ. For therein
is the salvation of God's people. God's purpose for you will take
care of itself. You don't even have to know what
it is for it to happen. So if I just knew what God's
will for my life was, don't worry. He knows what it is. He'll see
to it it happens. Learn what God's will for Christ is. And
see how Christ fulfilled it. He said, I've come to do your
will, O God. He did not come with His own
agenda. Look over here in John chapter 6. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, being
the Son of God and Son of Man, He had the right to do whatever
He wanted to do. And it would not have been sin
for Him to design His own agenda and carry it out. It wouldn't
have been. That will which He came to do
was the will of His Father, and He voluntarily agreed to do it. There was no obligation on Him
to do it. That's why he could say, when
they tried to rescue him from the chief priest who came to
arrest him, and they pulled out the swords and said, put the
swords away. Don't you realize if I wanted to, I could call
and my father would send legions of angels. All I got to do is
say the word. Our Lord could do whatever he
wanted to do. But hear what he says about his
work. He says in John 6.38, For I have come down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but to do the will of Him who sent me. Now, our Lord is not saying that
He had any disagreement with the Father's will. He's just
saying this will didn't originate with me. I'm not doing it because
I invented it. This is the invention of my Father
who sent me. And I've come here to carry out
His will. He was sent and sent with a task.
And this task or assignment that he was given was to make a way
for the gracious will of God to come to pass. Turn back here
to John chapter 3. You know, God's will and condemnation,
nothing had to be done for that to come to pass. The world was condemned. And
no intervention was necessary to bring that condemnation to
pass. Look at John chapter 3 verse
17. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn
the world. Why? Because the world was already
condemned. For the whole world to go to
hell required absolutely nothing on the part of Christ. For all of us, to perish in our
sins required no action on God's part. We were already going that
way. It was salvation that required
intervention. The last part of verse 17 says
this, that God sent His Son into the world to save the world through
Him. Now, not everybody in it, but
He's saving humankind. Just like God saved humankind
by putting Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives
in the ark. He saved humankind. He saved
the world by saving those eight souls. And so the Lord saved
the world by saving His chosen ones out of the world. The world
of humanity will not perish because God has chosen a people out of
the mass of fallen humanity to save them. Now, it wouldn't have...
Wouldn't have required an intervention on his part for them to be condemned.
They were condemned already. It required intervention. It
required God extending His arm out to save them. God had predestinated
His chosen people to be like the Lord Jesus. Did that from
all eternity. But God's justice demanded that
those chosen ones perish. Now, let's be careful here. I've
heard people say, well, God's beholding to justice. That doesn't
really tell it exactly right. Justice is not some concept outside
of God that God must bow to. God doesn't bow to anything.
Just let's get that in our mind. God doesn't bow to anything. Justice is not outside of God.
It is God or God is just. And so we talk about his need
to satisfy justice. It's not justice outside of him
he needs to satisfy. It's his own sense of justice. God cannot be unjust because
he's a just God. And so we here have the conflict
set up between God's eternal purpose of good towards his people
and God's just condemnation of those same people. How are we
going to resolve that conflict? Well, we aren't, but God did
by the sacrifice of Christ. And it was through that sacrifice
that both demands of God could be met, that His eternal purpose
of good for His chosen ones could be brought to fruition, and His
just demand for their punishment could be satisfied. Christ came
to accomplish That will. The eternal will of good for
His people. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
didn't come here to make God willing to save us and do us
good. He came here to make God able
to do it consistently with His own nature. That's what in Romans
3 it says. It says that God presented Christ,
set him forth as a sacrifice for sin in order that he might
be just and the justifier of them which believe in Christ. Now, he could have been just
with them without Christ, but then his mercy would not have
found expression. He could have been merciful to
them without Christ. But then his justice would have
been unsatisfied. But Christ came to make a way
so that God could be just and justifier, just and gracious. Or as Isaiah puts it, a just
God and the Savior. That's what the Lord came to
do. And our Lord was so wrapped up in this purpose, in this will,
that He says in John 4, 34, It is My food to do the will of
Him who sent Me. It was His very life force, His
very life sustenance, was to accomplish this. He says, I have
a baptism to be baptized with, and I am in straits until it
gets done. You ever had a job to do and
you just You're kind of stressed until it gets done. I've got
to get this done. I've got to do it. It's a difficult job,
and I will not turn back from it, and I want to get with it.
And that's what our Lord is saying. He said, I've got a job to do.
I've got suffering to undergo, a baptism to be baptized with,
and I am eager to get to the work and get it done. In this
work, Christ was a stunning success. In Isaiah 53.10, it says that
the will of Jehovah prospered in his hand. That which appeared
to the world to be his greatest defeat turned out to be his greatest
accomplishment. He's the only man in the world
to ever accomplish death. It says there, when Moses and
Elijah met with him on the Mount of Transfiguration, that they
spoke to him of the death that he would accomplish at Jerusalem. Whoever thought of death as an
accomplishment, our Lord said, it is accomplished. The same word that was used when
Moses and Elijah talked to him about the death he would accomplish,
that he would finish, that he would perfect. It is finished. Oh, he did well. And everything
that was intended by his death happened. Every sinner that Christ came
to redeem has indeed been redeemed. In John chapter 6, verse 39, we read this. And this is the will. Now, he's
just said, I've come to do the will of him who sent me. He says,
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none
of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last
day. It is a waste of effort to get
all exercised over differences of theology just because they're
differences of theology. To get mad at this denomination
or that denomination because they don't believe what we believe.
That's a worthless endeavor. Here is what's important. that the honor of Christ be maintained. And there is a doctrine popularly
believed, which is such a great dishonor to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it goes this way, that Jesus
Christ came into this world with the full intention of saving
everybody. And he gave it everything he
had. He did all he could to save every
single man, woman, and child in this world. But in the end,
Not many of them are going to be saved. I tell you this, the Pharisees
didn't insult him any more than that. They didn't disgrace the
Lord. What they said is, you're a big
failure. Well, you've got to understand,
preacher, you know, it's up to, it's up to us. Well, if it's
up to us, it's going to be a complete failure. It was up to us in the
garden. And see what happened there?
It was up to us on Mount Sinai. See what happened there? The gospel is the gospel for
this very reason. The gospel is good news for this
very reason. It's all up to Christ. And He
did a good job. Oh, every wicked soul put into
His hands by the Father's gracious will. He took them in His bosom
and He went to earth with them. He lived for them. He died for
them. He ascended for them. He intercedes
for them. And every last one of them will
be with Him. And don't bring dishonor on the
Lord Jesus Christ by acting like somebody His blood was shed for
is going to have to pay for his sins in the end. No, sir. God's not unjust. Jesus Christ
is not a failure. The Spirit of God is not so careless
with the blood of Christ that he won't see to it. It finds
application on everyone for whom it was shed. Oh, blessed be the
name of Christ. Here's why they say, worthy art
thou. They don't cry, worthy art thou,
for you made redemption possible for us. They say, worthy art
thou, for thou hast redeemed us. You have redeemed us by your
blood out of every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation. Oh, there's
the reason God's people praise Christ. Because He actually did
something. And He was a success where we
were a failure. That's what He came for. That's
what He did. And He did it well. He also came to destroy the devil's
work. 1 John 3, it says that Christ
has appeared to destroy the work of the devil. The devil, by lying,
brought the human race into ignorance and alienation from God. The
Lord Jesus Christ, by telling the truth, brought wisdom and
grace to the sons of men. It amazes me when you look at
the fall of man. Here's Adam and Eve. Evidently, every evening, God
would appear. The voice of God walked in the
garden. That doesn't mean that just some
disembodied voice floated through the garden. God appeared to them
evidently in a human-like form, and fellowship with them and
talk with them and opened up his heart to them and fellowship
with them. What a blessed thing! Their pastor was the Lord Jesus
Christ. But they sinned. The devil came
in there and his voice was heard. And he brought in a lie. And
they believed the lie rather than the truth, and they followed
the lie rather than the truth. And it's just amazing how quickly
they went from intimate knowledge of God to total ignorance about
Him. They got so stupid in a flash,
they got so stupid, they thought they could hide from Him. Oh,
I hear God! Here, hide behind this bush! You say, yeah, we don't do anything
that silly. We've tried to hide behind our own righteousness.
We sewed our little fig leaf aprons. God won't find my sin. Why, when
I was a little one, they brought me to church, and the preacher
sprinkled me with some water and brought me into the covenant.
I'm okay. Oh, no, you're going to go to hell. You see, I've
got this apron on that when I was a grown-up, I made a profession
of faith, and the preacher dumped me all the way under the water.
Well, your fig leaf apron is no better than the other one.
But you'll understand, I go to church, I read my Bible, I pray
every day. And lips that touch mine will
never touch mine. We're just as stupid by nature. The devil brought ignorance,
Christ brought truth and understanding. Why do you think it is that you
understand that all those works that you once trusted in are
worthless? Who told you that? You didn't
preach it. I said it, but God told it to
you. He's the only one that can teach
you. I may have mouthed the words, but it's God that made you understand
it. It's Christ. He brings truth
to the heart and destroys that deceiving work of Satan. And
that ignorance brought alienation from God. And Christ brings us
back into the favor of God. The devil brought bondage. Christ
sets us at liberty. Look over here at Hebrews chapter
2. The devil brought bondage. All
people think that if they follow the ways of the devil, now they
don't know it's the devil, but you know, if they hear his message
and they think that message will bring them freedom, all it does
is bring bondage. It says in verse 14 of Hebrews
10, since the children have flesh and blood, he, that is the Lord
Jesus, he too shared in their humanity. So that by his death
he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the
devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery
by their fear of death. Now what is the power of death? Does he mean by this that the
devil's got the power to kill? No. He can't do anything that
God won't let him. Here's what the power of death
is. The power of death is the ability to rule people by the
fear of death. And what makes us afraid of death? Well, it's the unknown. No, that's
not what makes us afraid of death. It's the known that makes us
afraid of death. It's the known that it's appointed,
and a man wants to die. And after that, the judgment.
We know it. And the death is not the fearful part. It's the
after that that's so fearful to us. And we don't want to go
into that after that because of our sin. We know that that
sin's got to be paid for. We know that so long as we live,
our lives may not be real good, but they're better than hell. And therefore, the devil binds
people to his false religion. He says to them, you better quit
this sin or you'll go to hell. And so people get real busy and
work hard to try to quit this sin. And they seem to get a little
handle on that. So he got this one over here
too. And then this one over here. And by the way, by the way, you've
got to do this and you've got to do that. And I would suppose that nearly
everyone here knows exactly what I'm talking about. You've been
in that bondage. You know what it's like to live
your lives guided by the fear of God's judgment. And the Lord Jesus Christ comes
and sets us free from that fear. So I'm still kind of afraid of
death. Yeah, your flesh is probably going to do that. But let me
ask you, if you look in your heart, you look in your spirit,
if God said to you this day, you can come home with me today
if you want to, what would you say from your heart? Even so,
let me go, Lord Jesus. Your heart doesn't fear to meet
God. Your flesh keeps accusing Not
your heart. Not that spiritual inner man
who sees Christ and understands that through Him, we have been
set free from all those sins that make us fear to die. My sister, Bernice, shortly before
she left this world, said, I don't. She says, I'm a little afraid
of the process. I'm a little afraid of dying,
but I'm not afraid of being dead. Why? He who holds the power of
death has been destroyed. You see, Satan, and this kind
of takes us to our next point, the devil accuses and Christ
removes guilt. Look over here at Revelation
12. the devils involved in sin and
all that kind of stuff. But that's not really the worst
kind of bondage. That is, it's not the most destructive
kind of bondage. The bondage that Satan has the
power of, that actually causes people to perish, is his ability
to bind them to self-righteous religion. And he does that by
accusing them all the time. And it says here in Revelation
chapter 12, verse 9, that great dragon was hurled down. That ancient serpent called the
devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled
to the earth and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice
in heaven say, Now have come salvation and the power and the
kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser
of our brothers, who accuses them before God day and night,
has been hurled down. What does Satan do that causes
us so much trouble? First, he tempts us to sin, works
to cause us to fall in sin, and then, just like that little bratty
brother, runs to our Heavenly Father and says, You see what
he did? He's a sinner. You've got to
send him to hell. And he says it to God, and he says it in
your heart. But that accuser, he's been hurled down. He's been
thrown out. He has no place in that court
anymore. He cannot bring our sins in the
presence of God because Christ is in the presence of God. Every time he tries, his mouth
is shut. Every time he enters into the
court of heaven, He's trying to make accusation. His mouth
is silenced. For Christ is there. Our defense
attorney. Our advocate with the Father.
And no sooner does an accusation of our sin come into the presence
of God, Christ said, I took care of that. It's gone. It's not
there. It doesn't exist anymore. And Satan's hurled out once more.
You'd think he'd learn. But he's as ignorant as we were,
and he keeps trying. But isn't it good to know he's
been destroyed? You want to see a picture of that? We won't turn
there, but you turn to John chapter 8, that woman taken in adultery. And those Pharisees, those other
leaders, they brought her there and they threw her down, and
they begin to make accusation. And that word accusation there
is the same word as here. And these are who our Lord called
the children of the devil. He called those first. He says,
you're of your father, the devil. And these children of the devil
came and did what their father bid them do, which was to accuse
this child of God in the presence of her God. Now, she didn't yet
know she was a child of God, nor that this man was her God.
She didn't know it yet. That didn't change the fact.
And they hurled her down there, and they began to make accusation.
And our Lord, as it were, hurled them out of His presence, drove
them away. And when they were gone, He says,
Woman, where are your accusers? Doesn't anybody condemn you?
She said, No, Lord. He said, Well, then neither do
I. Now go and send on them. And every one of us was like
that woman, hurled down in the presence of our God, accused
of all our sins, and rightly so. But our Lord Jesus Christ,
by His coming, has hurled them out, has put them away. And He says in our hearts, by
the preaching of the gospel, where are your accusers? They're gone, Lord. For then
neither do I condemn you." Oh, he came to undo the devil's
work. He came to do away with sin.
I'll just click these last two off quickly. Hebrews 9 verse
26. It says, then Christ would have
had to suffer many times. This is Hebrews 9, 26. Christ
would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the
world. But now he has appeared once
for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Oh, wouldn't you like to be able
to do away with your sin? I mean, just get rid of it. Well, you can't. But if you're
in him, he already got rid of it. been done away with. It's
gone. You may remember it. It may lie
somewhat upon your conscience. But it's gone. It's only a shadow. It's not real anymore. He did away with it. He buried
it in the depths of the sea. He cast it behind his back. He
has separated you from your sins as far as the east is from the
west. And I'm glad he said east and
west instead of north and south. Because no matter how far you
go east, you never end up west. You know, if you go north far
enough, you'll end up starting to go south. No matter how far you
go east, you're always going east. And God has separated us from
our sins. Isn't that a blessed truth? That's what Jesus Christ
did. He did away with sin. And then he came into the world
to save sinners. Paul said, and he just couldn't
get enough of this, this is a faithful saint and worthy to be accepted
by all, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Well, did he come to save me?
Well, are you a sinner? Well, I've done some, no. I'm
not asking you if you've done some bad things. Are you a sinner?
I mean, is that who you are and what you are? If you really own yourself, if
you've been given the grace to honestly own yourself as a sinner
in the sight of God, worthy of His condemnation, then here's
the blessed truth. Jesus Christ came to the world
to save you. You say, well, everybody's a sinner. Well, I don't know
about that. Ask them. Ask them. Most people think that there's
some righteousness in them. And on the account of that little
righteousness that they worked up or accomplished or tried to
do or whatever, God will cut them some slack in the end. But
a sinner is a man with no righteousness. And Jesus Christ came to the
world to save every last person like that. Are you devoid of
good? Have you nothing to bring before
God to make an argument with Him? as to why he should save
you and show you his good. If you're devoid of any argument
on yours, I've got one to give you. It's Christ himself. Please
Him. Argue Him. But you're a great
sinner, yes, but Christ is a great Savior. But you're utterly wicked,
yes, but He is infinitely righteous. But you never paid for your sins,
yes, but He did pay for sins. You're worthless. Yes, but he's
worthy. Always go back to him. Always
make the argument him. And then peace will come to your
soul. But the moment you let yourself sneak into the argument, God will strike down that argument
and say, guilty. But so long as by the grace of
God, your hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus' blood and righteousness,
then he will say, not guilty.