Him beautifully sung, truly. My Jesus hath done all things
well. Let's turn together tonight to
Luke chapter 22. We'll begin reading at verse
31. Luke 22 and verse 31. The Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath
desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I
have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And when thou
art converted, strengthen thy brethren.' And he said unto him,
Lord, I am ready to go with thee both into prison and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter,
the cock shall not crow this day, before thou shalt thrice
deny that thou knowest me. And he said unto them, When I
sent you without purse and script and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said nothing. Then said
he unto them, But now, he that hath purse, let him take it,
and likewise his script. And he that hath no sword, let
him sell his garment, and buy one. For I say unto you, that
this that is written must yet be accomplished in me. And he
was reckoned among the transgressors, for the things concerning me
have an end. And they said, Lord, behold,
here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is
enough. He said you didn't hear what
I was talking about. Kind of like what James just
read in Mark 14. Go ahead and lay down and take
some rest. It's enough. We'll let that be enough for
now. Now there are many, many things in this passage of Scripture
which need constant remembrance by us. We need to think on them,
remember them, and continually ask God the Holy Spirit to remind
us in our hearts that they are so. Certainly, our Lord Jesus
here shows us plainly that our soul's great enemy, the prince
of darkness, he whom the Holy Spirit calls a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour, that one who is described by John
as the accuser of the brethren, Satan. constantly seeks the destruction
of our souls. He constantly seeks the destruction
of our souls. And he is a foe against whom we have no power.
None whatsoever. You see, God's people in this
world, you and I, saved by His grace, redeemed by the blood
of Christ. We are a people horribly weak
and sinful. The strongest of God's saints
are utter weakness. The most faithful are full of
unbelief. The most loyal are terribly possessed
with self-serving disloyalty. That includes you and me. Peter is a striking example. There was not a more loyal man
among the twelve than Peter. There was not a man more quick
to stand in the way of the master and put himself in harm's way
for the cause of Christ than Peter. In the garden, when the
soldiers came, Peter took out his sword. It wasn't a sword,
it was just a fisherman's knife. These fellows didn't walk around
carrying swords as we think of the word sword. He took out his
fisherman's knife and was willing to take on a Roman garrison single-handed. Don't forget the kind of man
he was, but left to himself. before a young woman, he trembles
and quakes and denies the Master. Certainly, that fact alone ought
to make us aware, constantly aware, that the great and only
security of our souls from our adversary, the devil, is Christ. His power, His grace, His sacrifice,
His mediation, His intercession. Simon, Simon, Satan has desired
to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed
for you. What a word of grace. And learn
this too, When God's elect fall, and God's
elect fall, you and me, some in God's providence
are permitted to fall in a horribly outward manner so that others
behold the fall, as was the case with Peter. But all fall. The righteous fall seven times
a day. That is, they fall continually
through the day. When the righteous fall, the
Lord raises them up. When God's elect fall, they shall
be converted. They shall be returned by almighty
grace to the shepherd and bishop of their souls. The Lord Jesus
says to Peter, when thou art converted, strengthened thy brethren."
We who experience God's grace ought to take great care to help
one another, especially counting it our privilege and our honor
to help those who are fallen like ourselves. Paul said, Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, now that
word Ye which are spiritual is not talking about things the
way people think about it. Boy, he's such a spiritual man.
He's such a holy man. No. You who live and walk in
the Spirit, sinners believing on the Son of God, ye which are
spiritual, restore such in one, and restore him. Strengthen your
brethren in the spirit of meekness, understanding that you are just
like him, lest you also be tempted. And thereby, he says, bear ye
one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. And
our Lord Jesus here teaches us that we ought always to devote
everything to him. We ought always, while we live
in this world, to use every reasonable means at our disposal for our
Master's glory, the service of His kingdom, and the health of
His people. In verses 35 and 36, He said
to them, when I sent you out without purse, you remember He
sent the disciples out first and told them not to take any
money, not to take any provision for themselves? I sent you without
purse and script and shoes. Liked ye anything?" They said,
nothing, nothing. And then he said, but now he
that hath the purse, let him take it. And likewise his script. And he that hath no sword, let
him sell his garment and buy one. He who has no means to protect
his own, Let him take care that he does. Now, these words are
not to be understood literally. I have read a good many things
over the years, folks, who've And when people have an agenda,
they can figure a way to make this book agree with their agenda.
And they try to use the message to, please, turn it off wherever
it is. They try to use the agenda to
make this, our Lord's words here, being a promotion of military
warfare and such as that, of men going to arms and such as
that. That's not what it's saying. Our Lord is here using a proverbial
statement. He's saying Until He comes again,
we must make a diligent use of everything God has given us,
and we are not to expect miracles to be performed for us, miracles
by which we will be saved from trouble and saved from labor
and toil in the world. We are not to expect bread to
fall from heaven and fill our mouths if we refuse to work for
it. Remember Paul said, if a man
will not work, Neither let him eat. He said don't encourage
bums in the kingdom of God. Don't encourage folks to be lazy
and negligent. I was talking to a friend yesterday,
a very dear friend, and he's a man that I greatly admire,
a young man. And he was talking about trying
to arrange his work schedule so that he could spend more time
studying and all those things, not have to work quite as much.
And I said to him, I said, now listen, listen. If God Almighty
has given you a family to care for, you take care of your family. And you fit yourself, your life
around things so that you make whatever sacrifices are needed
to take care of your family. Work hard. You ought to be the
best employee wherever you work. And you ought to strive to succeed
for the glory of God at what you do for Christ's sake. Not
for yourself, but for Christ's sake. and then study and seek
His face and worship Him. That's your responsibility. We
must never expect that God's going to just open the heavens
and feed us and clothe us. Folks say, well, I don't need
to worry about how my children are going to do this or how they're
going to get that. I don't need to concern myself with that. You don't need
to worry about it, but it's your responsibility. and you must
yourself take care of those responsibilities. We ought not to expect difficulties
and enemies to be overcome if we refuse to take pains to deal
with those things ourselves. J. C. Ryle's statements concerning
this I think are just absolutely astounding. Ryle wrote, We shall
do well to lay to heart our Lord's words in this place. and to act
habitually on the principle they contain. Let us labor and toil
and give and speak and act and write for Christ as if all depended
on our exertions. You do what's necessary, do whatever's
necessary as you seek to serve Christ in this world using what
God puts in your hand for that purpose. And yet let us never
forget that success depends entirely upon God's blessings. Now I say
that to Bob Duff and I say that to Don Ford. Let's devote ourselves
and what God has put in our hands and trusted to our care for the
cause of our Redeemer. And devote ourselves to the furtherance
of the gospel as a body of believers in this place Diligently, just
as thoroughly as if the building of God's kingdom entirely depended
upon our labors. And yet, never imagining that
anything depends on us. Understanding always that what
we do is less than vanity unless God is pleased to bless it. I
often write to folks several times in a week, usually. And
one way or another, after closing the correspondence, I ask, pray
for us. God has given us countless opportunities,
opening doors around the world for the furtherance of the gospel.
And our hands are full with the work he's put into them. But
our labor, our most diligent labor, is utter vanity. except he bless it and will prove
worthless. Expect success not by your purse
or sword or script. To do so is self-righteousness
and pride. But to expect success without
purse and sword and script is presumption and fanaticism. To expect God to bless idleness
and useless loitering is presumption. It's presumption. I try my best
to tell preachers, young and old, because lots of the old
ones need to hear it, devote yourself to the work of the gospel. Men spend their days and their
nights doing things, just entertaining themselves and playing games
and just lazy, just lazy, and refuse to study and refuse to
prepare for the preaching of the gospel. And then stand up
and expect God to bless the work in His pride and presumption
of highest order. No, sir. No, sir. That's not
serving our Redeemer. Doesn't matter who the man is,
this one included. No, sir. We ought to do like
Jacob did when he went to meet his brother Esau. Remember what
he did? He was scared to death to meet
him. I mean, he was terrified at the prospect of meeting him.
But God had promised he'd be with him. Yes, he had. He's still
terrified. Well, didn't he believe God? Yes, he did, but he was
still terrified. Well, God promised that nothing was going to hurt
him. Yes, he did, but Jacob was still terrified. And he went
out to meet Esau and used every means at his disposal to prevent
anything from causing Esau to be upset with him any longer,
but rather to conciliate him. And when Jacob had done everything
he could think of, now remember this fella, if there was anybody
who could think of ways to get around difficulties, Jacob was
the man. He did everything within his power. And then he spent
the night wrestling with God, pleading with God to stand in
his room and in his stand. All those are important lessons.
Let's lay them to heart. But I want us to look tonight
specifically at verse 27 for just a few minutes, or verse
37. The Lord Jesus says here, I say unto you that this that is written must yet be accomplished
in me. And he was reckoned among the
transgressors. For the things concerning me
have an end. For the things concerning me,
all things concerning me, are about to come to their end. First, our Lord Jesus says This
that is written must yet be accomplished. Now the scriptures often speak
of things that must be done. Our Lord Jesus, you'll remember
in John 3, said to Nicodemus, ye must be born again. And I
take that because Nicodemus stood as representative of all God's
elect. He must be born again. And I'm
certain that that's accurate because in John 19 we're told
that when our Lord Jesus had been crucified, Nicodemus came
with Joseph of Arimathea to beg the body of the Lord Jesus from
Pilate. He was not born again on that
occasion when he came to Jesus by night. But our Lord said ye
must be born again. And so it is concerning all God's
elect. They must be born again. It is so because God's decree
demands it. It is so because God's love demands
it. to suggest the idea that somehow
a man or a woman who is loved of God and chosen of God and
redeemed by the blood of Christ might not be born again, is to
declare that the purpose of God is meaningless, the love of God
is useless, the grace of God is powerless, and the word of
God cannot be believed. If God can't be trusted, to save
the people he has loved with everlasting love, you sure can't
trust him with anything else. He can't be trusted with anything.
What do we do? Praying for sinners, seeking
their salvation. We labor and pray as though the
whole thing depended on us, knowing full well that nothing does.
and being confident that the word that is going forth out
of his mouth will not return to him void, it will accomplish
that which he pleases, it will prosper in that whereunto he
sends it, and his own he will give life at the appointed time
of his love. Ye must be born again. We read
in John chapter 4, our Lord Jesus is walking on this earth and
the Spirit of God says, must needs go through Samaria. Well, why is that? What could compel him who made
the earth and the heavens and all things in them? What could
compel him so that now he must go through Samaria? And the word
means absolutely binding. It's vital. It behooves him. He is constrained to go through
Samaria. What can possibly compel him
to do so? There is a chosen sinner whom
he's come to redeem, whom he loved with an everlasting love,
for whom the time of love has come, who's going down to Jacob's
well to get some water. And now he must go and call her
by his grace. Hear me, children of God. For
every chosen redeemed sinner, there is an appointed time of
love. And the Savior must come to the
sinner at the time of his love. I try my best in dealing with
my family and with yours, in dealing with men and women who
come here and hear the gospel, dealing with folks who go through
trauma and difficulty. I try my best to deal honestly
with the souls of men. I'm not going to do anything
if God helps me, God gives me wisdom. I'm not going to do anything
to talk anybody into a religious profession. I'm not going to
do it. Well, how do you expect sinners
to be saved? Expect God to save them. And when God saves them, they
know it. When God saves them, when God speaks peace to them,
they know it. When God reveals himself in them,
they know it. He must needs go through Samaria
because there's a sinner for whom the time of love has come. Oh, may he be pleased now in
his wise and good providence to come here and make himself
known to sinners. But here our Lord Jesus speaks
about his death upon the cursed tree. And he tells us in this
passage here in Luke 22, 37, of the absolute necessity of
his death, his sin-atoning death, as our sin atoning substitute
and sacrifice. This that is written must. There's that word again. Must. A stronger word he could not
have chosen. Must. There's no escaping it. There's
no other way. Must. It's binding. It's vital. It's constrained. It's compelling. that this that
is written must yet be accomplished in me. And he was reckoned among
the transgressors. You'll find the passage in Isaiah
chapter 53 in verse 12 if you want to look at it. You'll remember
this is the passage that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading
when the Lord sent Philip to it. He was coming up from Jerusalem.
He'd been down there to a big religious meeting. He went down
there empty and came back empty, and he's reading Isaiah 53. And
Philip came to the eunuch's chariot being brought there by the Spirit
of God and heard him reading aloud Isaiah 53. And he said,
Do you understand what you're reading? He said, How can I,
except some man showed me? He said, Scoot over, I'll show
you. And he showed him. Now, our Lord Jesus, that man
who is God, refers to this passage. Isaiah 53 verse 12. Therefore,
therefore, because of all that's written in this chapter concerning
this blessed sacrifice, therefore will I divide him a portion with
the grape. I'll put everything in his hands.
And he shall divide the spoil with the straw, because he hath
poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the
transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession
for the transgressors. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, came into this world on an errand of mercy. He had
a mission to accomplish, a covenant to fulfill. And our Lord Jesus
placed himself under bondage as our voluntary surety in that
covenant of grace before the world began. And he comes now
to the time appointed of him, the time set before the world
began, which he calls the crisis of the world. Now is the judgment
of this world. Now, this is the turning point
of history. This is the apex of time, the
hour when he must be crucified. And he says, this that's written
of me must yet be accomplished in me. The death of our Savior
was not an accident. It was not an afterthought with
God. It was not that God saw what the Jews were
going to do and wouldn't let Jesus be their king, so he came
up with plan B just like that and said, well, I'll kill him
instead. What stupidity such a notion is, and yet there are
whole theological religious systems built on that kind of stupidity.
Our Savior's death was according to the purpose and will and design
and work of God Almighty. But why must he die? These things must be accomplished. There's no escaping them. Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass friendly. Nevertheless not
as I will, for I will be done. This is necessary. This is necessary. Why? What necessity can be laid
upon Him? Now, there's no question. There
was no necessity for Him to save anyone. There was no necessity. Nothing compelled God, nothing
outside Himself, to have mercy upon any of Adam's fallen race.
There's no necessity for God to show grace, to be gracious,
to be merciful to anyone. But having chosen to save some,
having willed the salvation of some, having loved his own with
everlasting love, if God would save any, there is no way for
him to save even one, except upon the basis of justice satisfied
by the sacrifice of his darling son. Listen carefully to your
pastor while you turn into Romans chapter 3. There have been many, many faithful
men, good men, who in an attempt to defend God's sovereignty,
Just sort of ignore what the scriptures teach and force the
scriptures to say what they want them to say. You can't say that
anything, that God has to do anything a certain way. No, but
God can. And when God does, we bow to
it. If God purposed to do so, and please understand, I understand
how silly the thought is, but if God purposed to do so, He
could calls a jackass to preach the gospel to you just as he
calls Balaam's ass to speak to him while he went in his way,
if that were his purpose. But it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. That means the preaching of the
gospel is necessary to the salvation of men's souls. Oh, but what
if people live where the gospel is not preached? I think God
can take care of that. What if people live in a heathen
land with heathen people? God can raise up kingdoms and
tear them down overnight. And He does. And He does. And when we say that God only
saves sinners through the sacrifice of His Son, it is not a declaration
that this is what God just sovereignly chose to do, though that's true.
But to suggest that God in His sovereignty might have saved
them in some other way is to portray a horrible caricature
of Almighty God. Why would He sacrifice His Son
for nothing? Oh, He wanted to show us He loved
them. He loved us. You know, my grandchildren know
that I love them and I've never suffered anything for them. Maybe
a little sleep, a few sleepless nights, nothing else. That lady
knows I love her, but I've never sacrificed my life for her. God
can show his love without sacrificing his son. He wants us to know
how much he loves us. What nonsense. She knows full
well I'd die for her like that. She knows it. I don't have to
die for her to prove that. Well, what was the necessity
for Christ's death? He must die under the penalty
of God's law, numbered and reckoned among the transgressors, if he
would save us, because justice must be satisfied. Now, there
are many things that could be said. He must die as our substitute
that the scriptures might be fulfilled. He must die as our
substitute in order to fulfill God's eternal purpose. He must
die as our substitute in order to satisfy all his covenant engagements,
yes. But that which is the great necessity
of his death is God's justice. God will not forgive sin until
sin is punished to the full satisfaction of justice. in strict accordance
with perfect righteousness and utterly taken away. Holiness
won't allow it. Holiness won't allow it. Look
here in Romans chapter 3, verse 24. We are justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. To
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that have
passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say it
this time, his righteousness, now look at this, that he might
be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.
The Lord God speaks to us in Isaiah 45, 20 and says, come
to me. Assemble before me. Gather here.
For I am a just God and a Savior. A just God and a Savior. I wondered, and I had this horrible
perplexity in my soul when I came to have some understanding of
my sin as a young man. How could God save me? not knowing anything really about
the sins of men, I could understand God forgiving
your sin. I could understand God forgiving
the sin of someone like my sister. You talk about growing up under
a dark, dark cloud. My older sister, I don't think
she ever did anything wrong all her life. At least none that
folks knew about. And I was expected to behave
like that. I could understand how God could forgive her sin. But not mine. Sins of my heart. My corruption. My hatred of Him. And of everything representing
Him. I couldn't understand. until I saw the Son of God bearing
my sin in His own body on the tree, and heard that which is
written in the book of God, He who knew no sin. He has made
sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
When I heard Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
listen now, being made a curse for us. Now, I see how God can
do it. Here is a man who is himself
God Almighty. That means he is a man of infinite
worth. That means that he is a man of
infinite, infinite power, a man of infinite, infinite merit,
who has made sin, this man who is God, until God pours out all
the fury of his wrath upon him, and he suffers in one tremendous
day, a day of darkness and day of horror, suffers all the wrath
of God. Until wrath is no more. I guess there's something barbaric
about me. I like to watch boxing. I used to enjoy boxing when I
was younger. And fellows who go at it, when they really go
at it, They literally spent all their strength and energy. Just
spent. When I was in school, I've been
in some wrestling matches. If I'd have had to go out on
that mat for another minute, I could not have picked myself
up. I was spent in my strength. Will you hear me? God spent His
justice on His sword. He spit it all. And as I heard
him who was made curse for us cry, it is finished. For the
first time in my life, I understood how God could forgive my sins.
Because he is a sacrifice worthy of God's acceptance and God's
approval. And with his own blood, he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Now, justice is satisfied. Now what does that mean? Look
at the last line of verse 37. Our Lord Jesus said, This must
yet be accomplished. He was reckoned among the transgressors. He was reckoned one of them.
He was numbered with the transgressors. He made his grave with the wicked
in his death. Now look at the next word. For. Now here's the explanation of
that. The things concerning me have an end. that word end. It is as though the Lord were
saying this, everything decreed, everything purposed, everything
written concerning me has a specific design, a specific goal, a specific
intent, a conclusion, a termination, a predestined result, a finality. When He who knew no sin was made
sin for us, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree,
made a curse for us, when He had suffered all the fullness
of God's wrath and all the terror of God's justice as our substitute,
our blessed Savior cried, It is finished. said, Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit. And he bowed his head like a
reverent servant, who has now finished all the work trusted
to his hands, and he gave up the ghost. What a word. At that moment,
when he gave up the ghost, all things decreed and written of
him All things predestined concerning the result of his work, all things
he came here to perform, all things for which the Father trusted
him as our surety in the covenant of grace, had their conclusion,
their termination, and their end. Now let me be very specific. You can look at the scriptures
later, and I urge you to do so. all the requirements of his covenant
engagements, everything he agreed to do. A surety puts himself
in bond, and he is in bondage until his suretyship is performed. Everything the surety bound himself
to do by the honor of his word before the world began was ended. All this has an end. All the
shadows, types, promises, prophecies of all the Old Testament scriptures.
All those things beginning back yonder in Genesis. going through
all the books of the law, going through all the historic books,
all those things relating to the priesthood and the tabernacle
and the sacrifices and the temple, all the ordinances of divine
service, all the events of Old Testament history, all those
prophecies and promises. When our Lord Jesus said, and
it's finished, that's the period to Him. That's their fulfillment. That's their accomplishment.
That's their termination. That's their end. The law of
God, All of it ended right there. It ended right there. Christ
is the E-N-D of the law. What does that mean? That means
He's the terminating point of it. He's the finishing of it. He's the accomplishment of it.
He's the goal of it. He's the conservation of it.
He's the fulfillment of it. He's the end of the law to everyone
that believes it. All the fury All the wrath, all
the vengeance of divine justice was ended for him and for his
people when he with one tremendous draft of love drank damnation
dry. Ended. When God the Holy Spirit
comes to a chosen sinner, redeemed by the blood of Christ, he convinces
the sinner of judgment. Finished. God said, fury is not in me,
I spend it on my son. And our sin, turn over to 1 Peter
chapter 1, chapter 4, let me show you this. Our sin, our guilt
before God, ended. It ended back yonder, when he
said it's finished. He blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And here in
1 Peter chapter 4, for as much then as Christ hath
suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with
the same mind. Now watch this, for he that hath
suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin." Well,
that's talking about Christ, isn't it? It sure is. And Rex Bartley, I'm one with
him. I was crucified with Christ.
How about you? I suffered the wrath of God with
Christ. Did you? God poured out on me
all the fury and terror of his justice when he poured out all
the fury and terror of his justice on his darling son. And when God said it's enough,
he was talking about me and he was talking to me. I have suffered
Everything, now listen to me, God help you to hear me. I have
suffered everything. God's justice can demand of a
world in hell forever in the sacrifice of his son. And there
is therefore now no condemnation to this sin. Because Christ took
my sin away. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away. Your sins are pardoned and you
are free. They're all taken away. Brother Don, how can you be confident
of that? I trust Him and my faith in Him
is what He purchased for me when He died as my substitute. Oh
may He give you faith in Him and cause you this hour to see
that He has made an end of all things written of Him for your
soul's everlasting good. Amen.