We who are Southerners have a
rather unique philosophy about the use of language and words. Southern fellows like to stay
in yards. The more adjectives and adverbs and exclamation points,
the better. Our philosophy is a little different
from everybody else's. When it comes to using words,
the philosophy in the South is why I use ten words when fifty
will do. I like things to be colorful.
That's a great philosophy for spinning yarns, telling stories.
But when it comes to teaching, preaching, giving instruction,
whether orally or written, it's a terrible way to do things.
In instruction, it's always best to state things clearly, simply,
with as few words as possible. I recall Several years ago, it's
been a long time ago now, when Brother Mahan's commentaries
first came out, I read a review. One of the bright fellows, he
had some degrees behind his name, and he thought he was being very
critical. He wrote something very close
to this. I can't remember exactly what
it was. He said, Mahan only tells us what the text says. Highest commendation he could
give of it. In fact, as you have read by the man, he has the most
unique gift of any man I know of of just saying what needs
to be said when he's writing something, just crystal clear,
quickly done. But the best example of this
is found in Scripture. Those men who wrote by inspiration
spoke volumes in words and phrases. We have a tremendous example
of this in Luke chapter 9. Verses 18 through 22. Just told
you Bible's open here, and I'm going to show you five things
in these verses of scripture. In these brief, brief words,
there are five tremendous practical lessons, lessons we need to lay
to heart. Verse 18, it came to pass as
he was alone praying, Now this is the first obvious
lesson in the text. Those who undertake great things
for God must spend much time alone with God in prayer. Never was there a man who worked
more feverishly from daylight to dark, from the time he arose
to the time he retired, than the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
Never was there a preacher who was so constantly engaged in
ministering to the souls of men as was our Redeemer. Now remember,
this man, this man that we're talking about here, this one
who had gotten himself alone, pray, is himself God Almighty
in human flesh. And yet this man lived as a man
in perfect faith, as an example of men, and also because he is
a man living in righteousness. As a man, he walked before God,
depending on God as a man by faith, just like any other man,
only he did it perfectly. He was laboring for the glory
of God, for the building of his kingdom, for the saving of his
people, for the accomplishment of his will. And yet this man,
who is God, engaged in private prayer to God constantly. How frequently we read in Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John of our Lord Jesus going aside, going out
into the mountain to pray by himself alone or with a few of
his disciples that they might pray together. We're not told
much about the prayers, not told much about what was said in prayer,
only that he got alone to pray. The pioneer missionary William
Carey, on one occasion in preaching, made this statement. Attempt
great things for God. Expect great things from God. What a challenge. He wouldn't
object if I were to add this to his challenge. If we would
attempt great things for God, and we ought to. I want us as a congregation to
serve him and serve him well. I want for myself as a man to
honor him, to serve him, to do for him to the best of my ability. Attempt great things for God.
Nothing, nothing is too demanding. Nothing is too great. Nothing
requires too much. Nothing is too costly. But if
we would attempt great things for God and expect great things
from God, we must spend time alone with the great God in prayer. I don't even attempt to give
much instruction about this, but there are a few things I
know. I know from this book and I know from my experience. In
all spiritual endeavors, Prayer is the secret to usefulness.
I engage constantly in the work of either studying and preparing
to preach or studying, preparing to write or writing or preaching. I engage in it almost constantly. I've been doing it now since
I was 17 years old. And I am more aware now than
I have ever been that the usefulness of our labors, mine and yours
as a congregation. The usefulness of what we do
in the name of God, for the people of God, for the glory of God,
does not in any way depend on me or you or our abilities, but
rather upon our God's blessing. This message I have prepared
will be profitable to you only if God the Holy Spirit is pleased
to make it profitable to your soul. It will speak to you only
if God the Holy Spirit speaks through the voice of this man
by his word. Otherwise, it will be nothing but so much noise
in the name of religion. So I call on you to pray. Pray. I don't mean by that go through
religious exercises and make your notepad and sit down and
check it off and have your prayer list. I don't mean by that we're
to get together and bombard heaven and twist God's arm, try to get
him in a notion of doing what he's not purposed to do. I do
mean by that, walk before God and consciously seek his face,
his will, and his glory. Pray that you might know how
to pray. We know not what to pray for
as we ought. Now that's just fact. We do not
know what's best for ourselves or anyone else. We don't know
how to pray for people. We don't know how to pray for
ourselves. The very best we can do, our
lusts are so much involved in our prayers. That's just true,
isn't it? We pray for our children, and
I don't suggest that we shouldn't. I pray for your sons and daughters
like I pray for mine. but they're ours. That has a
whole lot to do with it. That has a whole lot to do with
it. And James said, you ask and you have not because you ask
amiss that you may consume it upon your own lust. Prayer has
something to do with seeking God's will and God's glory and
submitting to it. Prayer has something to do with
us getting our hearts in line with God's mind and God's heart. It has something to do with us
getting our wills in line with his will. Pray that God will
teach us how to pray. Pray for one another. Pray for
one another. Tell you what I've discovered.
I've discovered that it's real difficult to spend much time
Talking, criticizing, gossiping about somebody when you pray
for them. It's real difficult to spend much time harboring
resentment when you pray for folks. Pray for one another.
We need to carry one another. Pray for God's guidance and his
blessings upon our labors as a congregation. Pray for the
power and grace of God to attend the ministry of the Word. I ask
that here, for me. for you, for our missionaries,
for our brethren, those that we know intimately, those that
we're closely associated with, and those that we see so seldom,
praying for God's kingdom, for God's people. Mr. Spurgeon once was asked, and
he was a remarkable man. He was mightily used of God in
a generation. He stood out, just stood out.
Thousands and thousands and thousands came to hear him regularly. Someone
asked him, said, to what do you attribute the great success of
your ministry? And without hesitancy, Spurgeon
said, my people pray for me. The secret to usefulness, prayer,
prayer, pray for us, pray for one another. All right, secondly,
look at verse 19. The Lord in verse 18 said, who
say the people that I am? Verse 19, they answering said,
John the Baptist, but some say Elijah, others say one of the
old prophets is risen again. Now here's the lesson. Be sure
you get it. I'm going to spend a little time
here. I want you to get it. Talk and speculation about Christ,
his gospel, and the things of God are snares. by which Satan
destroys the souls of men and women. Talk, speculation, banter
about Christ, his gospel, and the things of God are snares
by which Satan destroys men's souls. Many a man attempts to
cover his ignorance by endless chatter, by debate, by speaking
when he ought to listen, attempting to teach when he needs to learn,
offering dogmatic opinions about things of which he has absolutely
no knowledge. During the days of our Lord's
earthly ministry, if you were to walk up to anyone on the streets
in Jerusalem or around the area and mention the name Jesus of
Nazareth, you would be dead sure to get an opinion from that man
about what he thought of Jesus of Nazareth. Whether he had ever
seen him or not, he had heard of him. And by George, he had
an opinion. He had an opinion. His opinion
might be very dogmatic. You wouldn't have to listen long
to find out what he had to say and what he was thinking. A multitude
of opinions could be heard in those days. Some were just dead
sure. As unbelievable as this is, they
were just dead sure that John the Baptist had raised from the
dead. They were just, others were just confident that Elijah
was walking the streets. He had come down from heaven
and was walking in human flesh again. Or that Jeremiah, one
of the prophets, had been reincarnated. One thing was obvious. This one
thing was obvious. As you read the Gospels and you
read the narratives giving the various accounts of this incident,
this one thing was obvious. No one was oblivious about it. No one ignored him. No one ignored
his doctrine. No one ignored his ministry.
And all were agreed, no matter how wild the speculation, all
were agreed that our Lord was not at all like any other preachers
in town. He was not in the least bit like
the other religious leaders they knew of anywhere. No one ever,
no one ever, ever identified him with the scribes, or the
Pharisees, or the Sadducees. Nobody. What preacher do you listen to?
Well, we sometimes go down there and listen to Brother Pharisee,
and then sometimes we want to go over and hear the intellectual
pursuits of Brother Sadducee, and sometimes we want to go hear
the strict doctrine of the scribes. Well, what about Jesus of Nazareth?
Oh, he ain't one of them. He's not like them. We better
don't stay away from him. Now watch this. Our Lord's doctrine
distinguished him from all other religious people. Read through
the Gospels again. You'll find that the masses,
religious and otherwise, never denied or even challenged certain
things about him. There's certain things they never
denied, they never even challenged. No one ever challenged the morality
of his doctrine. No one ever did. No one ever
challenged the legitimacy of the miracles he performed. No
one even challenged his divine authority. In fact, they were
anxious to take him by force on one occasion and make him
their king. They never knew that he is king,
but they thought they'd make him their king. Not the king
that he proclaimed himself to be, but a political king. The
Jews wanted him to sit on his throne in Palestine and rule
over the world with the Jews sitting on the throne beside
him. He's tired now, boy, we're going to take over. They wanted
him to be their king. They didn't even refuse to acknowledge
him as Christ. Notice I said Christ, not the
Christ. When he asked, who do you say
I am? Peter said, Thou art the Christ. Nobody refused to acknowledge
him as Christ, anointed, savior, deliverer, redeemer. That which
disturbed men in our Lord's day and that which disturbed religious
and irreligious men alike in our day was the exclusive claims
that he made concerning himself. Our Lord Jesus stood before men
and he said, I am the way. I am the light. I am the truth. No man knows God. No man comes
to God. No man walks with God. No man
lives with God but by me. He said I am the door. This is
the only way you can get in. I am the way. This is the only
way you can go. I am the redeemer, the good shepherd, the king,
the son of the living God. Now I stress this. Because we
should never be surprised or at all confused by the fact that
men and women everywhere have very strong outspoken opinions
about Christ and his gospel. Opinions that are as foreign
to holy scripture as hell is to heaven. The fact is, God's
truth disturbs men. Religion doesn't, but God's truth
disturbs men. No one can sit under the ministry
of the gospel for very long and not be affected by it. If the
gospel is plainly preached, and preached in unmistakable terms,
it will cause people to think about something. The religious
folks will get mad as hornets. Believers will rejoice and be
glad. Everybody else will sit there
just as confused as they can be. but they're not going to
be unaffected. If they refuse to bow to God's
revelation, men will conjure up reasons for their rebellion
and unbelief, and they've got lots of them. They will invent
doctrines, theories of their own, speculate about what they
judge to be right and reasonable and fair, and then they will
seek to get folks to follow them. Multitudes spend their lives
this way. ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge
of truth. I meet them everywhere I go. They're always anxious
to hear some new thing. Got a Bible in their hand, carry
concordances with them. They're just, oh, anxious to
talk about scripture, anxious to talk about God, anxious to
talk about Christ, anxious to talk about things. They get a
hold of the things some new doctrine, some new theory, some new thing
that's come down the pike, and they whirl it around like a little
ten-year-old boy running around with a ten-cent sparkler. And
they just run everywhere waving that sparkler until it fizzles
out, and then they go get them another ten-cent sparkler and
run everywhere until that thing fizzles out. Pike is multitudes,
know no more about the things of God than what they've learned
by religious gossip. That's what I call these home
Bible studies and these coffee shop get-togethers where folks
sit down and talk about God and talk about Scripture and offer
opinion. Let me tell you now what this
means to me. I don't give a flip what anything
in this book means to you. And you shouldn't give a flip
either. I don't care what it means to me. I want to know what
it means. What does it mean? What does it say? Don't take
the word of God and treat it like you would a newspaper article.
Don't take the things of God and trample them under your feet.
These are holy things, and they're to be treated as such. Folks
sit around and examine and criticize, and criticize and examine. Everything
they hear or read. Brother Mahan, you know, he's
getting a little weak. Folks don't say these things
much to me, but you'll hear them. Brother said that to me a while
back. Brother Niber, he's too dogmatic. Brother Bell's awful emotional,
isn't he? Brother Fortner, he's just too stern. Somebody said
a while back, a word got back to me, Brother Fortner's beginning
to compromise. The fact is, folks approve of
this and disapprove of that. They say this man's sound and
this man's unsound, this fellow's doctrine, it's not what it ought
to be. They can't make up their minds
about what's true and what's not, what's right and what's
wrong. So they run from place to place, from one place to another,
from one teacher to another, from one thing to another, in
the name of spiritual truth. reaching havoc everywhere they
go. Never contributing anything, anywhere, except havoc and confusion. Year rolls after year, and they're
in exactly the same state. Just as confused as ever, and
just as dogmatic. Talking, criticizing, finding
faults, speculating, tearing down, but never contributing. J.C. Rye put it this way, they
hover like the moth around the things of God, but never settle
down like the bee to feed upon them. You see them, you work
with them. The whole religious world is
this way. They never lay hold of Christ. They just talk about
it. They never set their faces toward heaven. They just talk
about it. They never take up the cross. They never count the
cost. They never become followers of
Christ. They're just religious talkers.
That's all. Now turn with me, if you will,
to 1 Timothy. We will be wise, very wise, to read and heed the
warnings given in Holy Scripture about such people. After exhorting
Timothy to steadfastness in the gospel, Paul gives some strong,
strong warnings. And the warnings he gives, 1
Timothy chapter 6, we'll start there, I want to read several
passages here. The warnings he gives in these passages, now
remember, these are pastoral epistles. These are epistles
where Paul is writing to a pastor who has the responsibility of
caring for local churches. The second epistle of Timothy
was the last letter Paul wrote. He's dealing with critical, vital
issues that need to be addressed. Now, here are the warnings in
1 Timothy 6, verse 3. If any man teach otherwise, and
consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, The
doctrine which is according to true faith. This is why. This is why. Now, you can talk
about it, you can find excuses if you want to. Well, you know,
his heart's right, but his head's wrong. Well, you know, his heart's
in the right place, he's just confused. Well, he's so Paul
said, not Don Paul, not Mahan Paul, not Niagara Paul, not Montgomery
Paul. He said the reason men and women
do not bow to God's truth is they're proud knowing nothing. Wow. And you thought I shot straight. They're proud. They don't know
a frazzling thing. But doting about questions and
strife. What do you think? By the way,
what do you think about this? What does that mean to you? Oh,
I don't know about that. Let me tell you what I think.
Doting about questions and strife about words. Now, I've done a
word study on that one time. Let me tell you what I found
out. Where all comes in the strife, railings, evil surmisings, That's
what all surmisings are about scripture. Evil surmisings. Perverse
disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth. Supposing that gain is godliness,
from such, well pray for them. From such, well try to help them.
From such, meet with them, maybe you've done some good. Just pull
your chair out and walk away. Withdraw yourself. Verse 11. But thou, O man of God, flee
these things. Follow after righteousness, godliness,
faith, love, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith.
Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you're called. Verse 20, O Timothy,
keep that which is committed to your trust. How do you do
that? Avoid profane and vain babblings. and oppositions of science falsely
so called, which some profession have erred concerning faith." Young imaginary theologians especially,
some of them never outgrow it. But, you know, we'd get together
and we'd start talking and discussing things. We'd discuss I mean,
deep things. I remember when I was 17 years
old, I'd go to campus and I'd listen to some of those theologians
who had been there for six months. They were 18 years old. They
were in a shop talking about where Cain got his wife. Wow. Boy, we ought to search that
out. We need to know that. How come? Would you please tell
me how come? One fellow sat around and talked.
I finally got up and left. I thought this fellow was about
to lose his mind. He'd like to take up a gun anytime. He was asking
whether Adam had it able or not. Boy, my, my, my, my, that's deep
stuff. What God intends for us to know,
Lindsay Campbell, is as plainly revealed in this book as the
nose on your face. You don't have to debate about
it. You don't have to argue about it. And all the dotings and questions
and strife about words that men raise are nothing but youthful
lust. Stay away from them. People ask me questions all the
time. Most of them I just, I don't know. And if I ask a second time,
I tell them I'm not interested. And if I ask a third time, I
just don't answer. Just not interested. Not interested. Well, don't leave.
Aren't you interested in things of God? Yeah, I'm not interested
in your things. Aren't you interested in what God teaches? Yes, I'm
not interested in what you teach. I'm interested in this book,
what it says. Look at verse 16, chapter 2, in 2 Timothy. Paul doesn't stop here. He just
keeps on. Shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase
to more ungodliness. That's all they do. Debate is
just the lust of the flesh. Their word eats like a canker,
of whom is Hymenaeus and Pilate, who concern in the faith of earth.
Verse 21, if a man therefore purge himself from these, from
this nonsense and from these promoters of nonsense, He shall
be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, meet for the master's use, prepared
for every good work. Flee youthful lust, follow righteousness,
faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of
a pure heart. What's that talking about? Read
the next line, you'll find out exactly what it's talking about.
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, they just gender strife.
That's all they do. Now look at 2 Timothy 1, or 2
Timothy 3 rather, in verse 1. He warns us of perilous times,
of blasphemers, unthankful, unholy, proud, boasters, covetous fellows,
folks without national affections, folks you can't trust, truth
breakers, false accusers, incontinence, fierce, despisers of those that
are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure. Now look
what he says in verse five. Having a form of godliness, a
form of godliness. A form of faith, a form of religion,
a pretense, a show. But denying the power thereof.
What's the power? We read in 1 Corinthians, didn't
we? The gospel is the power of God to salvage. They have a form
of religion, but they deny the power of God. They deny the gospel. They'll fight you over inspiration.
They'll fight you over the second coming of Christ. They'll fight
you over which position you take. They'll break off fellowship
with you if you don't baptize the right way. But they just
got a form of godliness. They deny the power of it. They
deny the gospel. From such, turn away. Just turn and walk away. But
man, this is my brother. Turn and walk away. It's not
talking about forsaking him as a family member. It's talking
about just don't have anything to do with him or his religion.
Don't give any credibility to it. For of this sort are they
which creep into houses, and lead captive, silly women, laden
with sins, led away with divers' lust." That's another start, but I'll
leave that alone for a minute. Ever learning, ever learning, all
learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, but never learning anything,
never coming to the knowledge of the truth. God's salvation is personally
experienced, personally embraced, personally felt, personally known,
personally possessed, personally cherished. It is not something
to be bantered about over coffee and donuts like politics. It's
more, much, much more than speculation and theory. its life everlasting
in Christ. And this is what our Lord said.
Turn and look at it if you will. John 7, 17. Or you can just listen
and write it down later. John 7, 17. Our Lord Jesus declares, if any man will do God's will,
what is God's will? This is the will of him that
sent me, that you believe on his If any man will do God's
will, if any man will trust Christ, if any man will look to Christ,
if any man will lay his soul on the merits of Christ, if any
man will believe on the Son of God, he shall know the doctrine. And this is what he'll know,
whether it be of God. It doesn't say if any man will
read Gil and Calvin and Spurgeon, he'll know the doctrine. It doesn't
say if any man will read the right theologians, he'll know
the doctrine. It doesn't say if any man will read the right
creeds, he'll know the doctrine. It says if you believe Christ,
if Bobbi Estes believes Christ, if you believe Him, if you trust
Him, lock, stock and barrel, you quit looking to yourself,
you quit trusting yourself, you trust Him, you'll know the doctrine
whether it's of God or not. If it smells like free will,
it is. If it tastes like free grace, it is. It's just that
simple. If it smells like man, it's all
flesh. If it has the sweet savor of
grace, it's all grace. That's exactly right. He'll know
the doctrine. He won't stand in doubt concerning it. He won't
have to debate it. He won't have to question it.
He won't have to run some tentative post trying to find out whether
it's of God. God's will is that we believe on his son. And believing
on his son, we have been and are taught of God, and learn
of God, and know the truth of God. You see, faith. Now this is next to impossible
for this generation to get a hold of. Religious, political, or
otherwise. Nothing these days is positive,
is it? Nothing. Everything. Well, what
do you think? What's your opinion? We can't
be too exclusive. That's too narrow-minded. That's
too dogmatic. Faith is always dogmatic. It
just is. Faith says this is truth. And
in contrary to it, it's a lie. Faith says this is the Christ,
and any other Christ is a false Christ. Faith says this is the
way, and any other way is a blind way. Faith says this is light,
and any other way is darkness. Faith is dogmatic. Religion is
not. Religion is like politics. Religion,
you know, you find which way the fish are swimming and that's
where you go. Religion finds which way the wind is blowing
and that's where you sail. We don't want to be too narrow. Faith walks before God Almighty
with confident, assured knowledge regarding things of God. This
is what the book says, Merle Hart. If you and I are born of
God, we have the mind of Christ. That's what it says. We have
the mind of Christ. God's people believe the same
thing. God's people have the same faith. God's people have the same confidence
we believe in. All right, now let me hurriedly
give you a couple of other things. In verse 20, true saving faith. knows and confesses that the
man, that man, Jesus of Nazareth, is the Christ of God. He said
to them, whom say you that I am? And Peter, oh brother Peter,
he sure takes a shellacking, doesn't he? Everybody jumps on
Peter. Now Peter was at times waffling,
at times erring, at times unbelieving, at times unstable. He was, in
some matters, ignorant. He certainly was far too proud,
far too quick for action, far too quick to speak. But when
all said and done, I'd give my right arm and my left one, too,
to be just like him. He was a remarkable man. He was
a remarkable In the midst of unbelieving religionists, when
the overwhelming tide of religious opinion was rushing the other
way, Peter was confident, loyal, willing to stand alone, and bold
to declare that he believed and loved his Savior. When he told
the Lord Jesus, I'll die with you, he wasn't lying, he was
too proud, but he was telling the truth, he did. When he told
the Lord Jesus, I'll follow you, he wasn't lying, he was too proud.
He had to be brought down a notch or two, but he followed him.
This man was, when he met those soldiers in the garden, he pulled
out, it wasn't a sword. Fishermen don't use to carry
swords. It was the kind of thing you'd use on a boat to clean
fish. He pulled it out and took on
a Roman army, single-handed. He was a remarkable man. And
in the midst of this unbelieving, perverse generation with confusion
everywhere, who do you say I am? Thou art the Christ of God. Wow! What a confession. He said you are the one of whom
the scriptures speak. You're the woman's seed. You're
Abraham's son. You're the Savior of the world.
You're that one in whom all the nations of the earth are blessed.
You're the Christ. You're the Christ who is of God. That is, the Christ who proceeds
from God. The Christ given by God. The Christ who is God standing
right here in front of us. What a statement. Now, fourthly,
in verse 21, have a very strange command. And it teaches us that
there is a time to be silent, as well as the time to speak. There are a lot of people who
imagine that they must run around button-holding everyone they
see, shove a crack in their hand, tell them they're going to hell
right now. And in doing so, they convince themselves now And I'm
clear from your blood, I've done my duty. But there's a time to be quiet,
as well as a time to speak. May God give us wisdom to know
which is which. Our Lord said in verse 21, He
straightly charged them and commanded them to tell no man that thing. What? Peter said, you're the Christ.
the Christ of God. He said, now keep that to yourself.
Don't tell anybody. Don't tell anybody. Don't tell
anybody. For the time present, our Lord
was pleased to make himself known to but a few and hide himself
from the multitudes. Contrary to popular opinion,
he still does. He sends his gospel to some and
refuses to send it to others. He calls some, but not others,
and he does so exactly as he pleases. And there's a lesson
for us here. There's a time for us to speak
to men about the things of God, and a time for us to be silent.
And as you endeavor to be faithful witnesses, you need to remember
this. Our Lord told us not to cast
our pearls before swine. The Lord has said. Sometimes
you'll have occasion to arise and you start to mention something
to myself, I don't want to hear about that. Okay. Okay. And if you want to say,
go on to hell, that's all right. I don't mind. But okay, I'm not
going to force you. I'm not going to take this precious
jewel and throw it out here for you to wallow in the mud. Oh
no, no, no. Ever be ready, ever be willing. ever be prepared to speak for
Christ, regardless of cause or consequence. But don't feel that
you have to answer every man's squabbles, and every man's thoughts,
every man's expressions. I recall some time back, I was
somewhere and somebody said something was just, it was just totally
off the wall. I mean, it is off the wall. And I didn't say anything. I
didn't say anything. And I forgot who it was, he or
she said, why didn't you say anything? I said, what for? He
wasn't talking to me. And he didn't seem inclined to
listen to anything. Why? Well, don't you think you have
to tell men the truth? Yeah. When God opens a door,
when God provides opportunity, when I find some open way of
access to minister to somebody, if God puts them before me, if
God opens them to me, then God opens me to them. Seek to be
led of God. If you would have, or if he would
have you to speak, he'll give you a word in due season, and
he'll make it obvious. Have you ever tried to witness
to folks, try to witness to them about the things of God it's
as obvious, they're not going to listen to you. They're not
the least bit interested. Well, leave it alone. And then
sometimes you'll be sitting in a dentist's office or doctor's
office or sitting in the break room at work or sitting on ball
field and obviously there's somebody there, troubled, perplexed. They start to talk. They start
to open up to you. And God opens the door. Seize
the opportunity. Speak a word and seize it. But
wait on God. Our Lord told his disciples,
don't you tell anybody this. And there was a reason for it.
He didn't want them to know yet. Read the next verse. Say it. Here's
the connection. The Son of Man must suffer many
things and be rejected of the elders and the chief priests
and the scribes and be slain and raised again the third day.
Now here's the last lesson. Our great savior was filled with a loving determination
to suffer and die under the wrath of God as our sin atoning substitute. He set his face like a plant
to go up to Jerusalem. He knew why he did it. He knew why he was here. He knew
what God sent him to do and he would let nothing turn him from
it. There's much more in this verse
than I can give you now, much more than I understand, but these
two things are obvious. Our Lord Jesus died for us because
he wanted to. No man took his life from him.
He laid it down of himself and he raised it up of himself. He
died as our voluntary substitute. But there was a necessity for
his death. He said the son of man must suffer many things at
the hands of the scribes and the Pharisees and the Jews. He
must be put to death. He must rise again the third
day. Because the scriptures must be
fulfilled and he's the one to fulfill. Because the promise
of God must be fulfilled and he is the promise. because of
his covenant engagements, because of God's everlasting purpose,
he must suffer and die. He must suffer and die because
the justice of God must be satisfied. He must suffer and die because
he came here to save us. He didn't have to die. He was
in no way compelled to die. But he died because that's the
only way he could have us. The son of God went yonder to Calvary and laid
down his life according to the purpose of God. And here's the
reason. He loved me. and gave himself for me. Now think about that while you
eat the bread and drink the wine and remember him.