One thing I want you to see I
want you to be convinced or May God the Holy Spirit convince
you in the depth of your soul that Jesus Christ is is a great
Savior for great sinners. He is a great Savior for great
sinners. I want to convince you of your
sin, the indescribable greatness of your sin, that you may be
compelled by God's grace to seek mercy in Christ, our great Savior. But rather than talking so much
about your sin, I want to talk to you about the greatness of
the Savior, because I'm convinced that it is only by the revelation
of Christ crucified that anyone ever really comes to know anything
about the greatness of their sin. Let's turn together to Mark
chapter 14, verses 26 through 31. Mark chapter 14 and verse
26. When they had sung a hymn, they
went out into the Mount of Olives, and Jesus saith unto them, All
ye," let that sink in, every one of
you, Peter, yes, but also Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, all
of them, all of them, shall be offended because of
me this night. For it is written, I will smite
the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. But after that
I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee. But Peter saith
unto him, Although all shall be offended. I'm reading a little bit between
the lines, but not much. This is what he's saying. I can
imagine Bill or James doing this. I've only been a little suspicious
of them anyhow, but not me. Not me. They may all be offended,
yet will not I. Jesus saith unto him, Verily
I say unto thee, that this day, even in this night, Before the
cock crowed twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. But he spoke
the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not deny
thee in any way. I won't even come close. I won't
even slightly deny you. But don't be too hard on Peter.
Likewise also said they all. What a great Savior Christ is. We see that in this text from
three perspectives. First, from the people he saves.
And then from the punishment he suffered. And finally, from
the perseverance of his love. First, we see the greatness of
our Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior in the people he saves. You see, our blessed Savior knew
exactly what he was getting when he saved us. That sometimes kind
of floats over our heads. He knew exactly what he was getting
when he saved us. My sin often astonishes me. Just as when our Lord said this
to Peter and to the others, they were astonished, they were offended.
And my sin, while I'm convinced of my sin, and while I'm convinced
of the guilt and depravity of my very being, to the very core
of my being, my sin in actuality often astonishes me. But Larry,
it never astonishes my Savior. He knew exactly what He was doing.
The Lord Jesus knew when He chose me. He knew long before He saved
me what a vile, fickle, wretch of a man I would be. He knew
before He saved me that I would constantly be in need of His
grace, constantly in need of His forgiveness. Just in case
you might be wondering, he knew the same thing about you. He
knew what we were before he saved us. And we see this clearly exemplified
in our text. Our Lord knew beforehand what
these disciples were going to do. He knew the weaknesses, sins,
and infirmities of these twelve men. And yet he told them plainly
what they were going to do, and when he did, we see here that
he never even considered Casting them out, turning them out, turning
away from them, forsaking them. He told them how they would be
offended by him, how they would deny him and forsake him. Their
pride was offended when they heard it. They didn't even really
believe. None of them really believed
they were really capable of such things. Isn't that astonishing? It's astonishing that they didn't
really believe they were capable of doing such a thing. Peter
said, not me. Lord, they may all forsake you,
but not me. If I die with you, I'll not forsake
you. I'll not come close to forsaking
you. I'll not be offended by you, not in the least. And so
said they all. And yet our Lord's knowledge
of these poor disciples and what they would be and do didn't prevent
him from choosing them, didn't prevent him from saving them,
didn't prevent him from making them his disciples, it didn't
even prevent him from making them the chief preachers in his
church and kingdom. He chose these fellows and said,
you'll be my apostles, you'll be my messengers, you'll be the
ones by whom I will cause my spirit to speak through you to
record the very word of God infallibly explaining to men what I taught
while I was on this earth. You'll be mine. You see, his
knowledge of what poor disciples we would be didn't prevent him
from choosing us either. Our Lord loved us and chose us. Though he knew he would get no
love in return from us, except he created. Though he knew we
would never choose him, except he calls us by his irresistible
grace to choose him. Our Lord Jesus loved us, though
he knew that so long as we lived in this world, our love for him
at best would be an alloyed love. The Son of God chose us, as he
did his disciples, to be his intimate friends and companions. Though he knew long beforehand
exactly what kind of friends we would be. With such a charitable, gracious,
forbearing Savior. Children of God, how charitable,
how gracious, how forbearing we ought to be. Hold your hands
here and mark and turn back to Ephesians chapter 4 for a moment. We ought never conclude that
a person has no grace, or that someone does not know the Lord
Jesus Christ because we perceive that he or she has many weaknesses
and corruptions about them. I keep saying this, I keep repeating
it, and I recognize that people, they don't hear. They just don't
hear. And preachers are the worst of
the lot for this. Preachers are the worst of the lot. I recall
some time ago, I was in a preacher's house, of course he's not a preacher
anymore and I'm thankful, but he and his wife were talking
about somebody in the congregation. I'd known him for years. I said,
well, if she's saved, my dog's saved. That preacher and his
wife, long since flew the coop, never had any interest in anything.
We don't have the ability to discern wheat from tares. We don't have the ability to
discern sheep from goats. Don't ever imagine you do. Not ever. Now obviously, somebody
who doesn't believe the gospel of God's grace, doesn't know
the Lord Jesus Christ, they're not his sheep and they're not
born of his spirit. But for those who profess faith
in Christ and the gospel of God's free grace, you and I ought to
be most lenient and most charitable. If we perceive weaknesses in
a brother, we ought to do what we can to strengthen him. If
we perceive a sister has fallen, we ought to do what we can to
pick her up. If we perceive that one of God's children has displayed
some character common to us all that's evil, we ought to be gracious
and forgiving. Look at what Paul says in Ephesians
4, verse 32. And he's talking about grieving the Spirit. He says, be ye kind one to another. This is one of my favorite text
descriptions, one of the most tender texts. Be ye kind one
to another. Sometimes we get thinking, well,
I shouldn't do this, shouldn't do that. Oh, it's always good
to be kind. That'd be all right. Well, they
don't cost much. Be kind one to another, tender-hearted. Tender-hearted. Tenderly affected
by one another. That means, Larry, when you weep,
I weep with you. When you rejoice, I rejoice with you. When you
hurt, I hurt. When you're happy, I'm happy. That's what it's all
about. Tender-hearted one toward another. Forgiving one another. Forgiving one another. Well,
I'll forgive them if they ask. Aren't you glad Christ doesn't
wait? Now, I'll forgive him if he grovels.
Aren't you glad the Lord doesn't demand that of you? Forgive freely
as you've been forgiven. Forgive incessantly as you are
incessantly forgiven. Even as God, for Christ's sake,
hath forgiven you. And be ye followers of God. In
other words, imitate him. Imitate him. To be a follower
of God in this context, Rex is not talking about dressing funny
and walking funny. He's talking about being kind,
tenderhearted, and forgiving. That's what he's talking about.
J.C. Ryle made this observation. He
said, The Church of Christ is little better than a great hospital.
We ourselves are all more or less weak and all daily need
the skillful treatment of the heavenly physician. but there
will be no complete cures until the resurrection day. We need
to remember that. Our Lord's greatness as a Savior
is seen first of all in the people he saves. You see your calling
brethren, have it not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world and things which are
despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring
to naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory at
his presence. Merle Hart, the greatness of
Christ, is seen in the fact that he saves folks like you and me.
He came to save sinners. He came to save sinners. But
notice in verse 27 that our Lord's greatness as our Savior is also
seen in the punishment He suffered. And Jesus said unto them, All
ye shall be offended because of me this night. Now look at
the next sentence. For it is written, it is written in Zechariah
13, 7. Turn back there. Zechariah 13,
7, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be stabbed. Now, this quotation, taken directly
from Zechariah 13, 7, is a prophecy concerning the death of our Lord
Jesus Christ and the sure results of his death. Here in Zechariah
13, 7, the prophet speaks as the mouthpiece of God himself,
who says, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the
man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. smite the
shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn
mine hand upon the little ones." In order to redeem and save us,
the Son of God assumed our nature. He became a man. He took our
sins in His own body and bore them in His own body on the tree.
and there suffered voluntarily all the fullness of God's infinite
wrath to the full satisfaction of his justice for our sins that
were imputed to him. Now look at this text line by
line. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd. The Lord Jesus Christ
here is described as Jehovah's Shepherd. They're the words of
God the Father concerning His Son as our Mediator. He calls
the God-Man, My Shepherd, because He was chosen, appointed, called
of God, and trusted by God as our Shepherd before the world
began. He is that One to whom the Father looks for satisfaction
as a Shepherd, on whom the Lord God has laid the iniquity of
all His sheep. The Lord Jesus, as the shepherd
appointed by God for his sheep, is the one totally responsible
for the sheep. Oh, I tell you, I find great
satisfaction and comfort here. The Lord Jesus Christ has assumed
total responsibility for the salvation and present, temporal,
and eternal welfare of his sheep. That means, Bob Pontzer, if you're
one of God's elect, If you're one of Christ's sheep, if you're
one of those who believes the Son of God, one of those given
to Him before the world began, Christ is responsible for you.
God the Father looks not to you for anything, but to His Son,
the Shepherd. All right, now look at it. Those
words awake, O sword. Speak of the violent death of
our Lord Jesus Christ as our shepherd and our substitute.
They speak of the glittering sword of divine justice which
was drawn out against him. And when he was made to be sin
for us, that sword that was unsheathed in the hands of an angry God
was never put up, but rather was buried to the hilt in the
heart of the Son of God. Awake, O sword. The word calls
for the sword to awake because it appeared to sleep. It appeared
to have been asleep for a long time. When Adam sinned in the
garden, God's sword was calling for justice, but it seemed to
sleep. Back in eternity, before the
world began, when the Lord Jesus agreed to become our surety and
to swallow the sword of God's justice in His own heart, it
had been a long time since He agreed to it. Been a long time
since the promise was first given. that the Lord God would cause
his son to be stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. And so
the Lord says, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd. Now look
at the next line. Against the man that is my fellow,
saith the Lord of hosts. You see, in order to save us,
That one who is our Redeemer, that one who bears our sin, that
one who suffers the wrath of God for us must himself be a
man. You and I, Skip, are men. We sinned against God. And a
man must be punished. The blood of an animal won't
do. The blood of thousands of animals won't do. That one who
suffered must be a man. But he must be more than a man. He must be the holy man who is
himself God Almighty. Look at the next line. The man
that is my fellow. My fellow. You, in some kind
of a men's fraternity, and men are called fellows. We are fellow
members of this fraternity, or we are fellow members of this
organization. We're fellow members of this
group of people. Because here we are all looked
upon as equal. one equal to the other. And the
Lord God says concerning this man, who is himself God incarnate
Jesus Christ, he is my fellow, for this man is God. You see, in order for Jesus Christ
to be a Savior, In order for him to be a redeemer, in order
for him to satisfy the glittering sword of God's justice against
our sin, he must be himself God of infinite value, of infinite
merit, so that the sufferings of this man are satisfactory
to God's holy justice and law. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite
the shepherd. God the Father gives the order. Because a holy, just and true
God must punish sin. Will you hear me? God's going
to punish your sin. God's going to punish your sin.
He's going to punish your sin. He can't do otherwise. Article
in Friday's paper here, folks said preachers will quit talking
about hell, not this one. Not this one. God Almighty will
send you to hell. The only thing he can do with
you, either send you to hell or save you, only two. Only two. He'll punish your sins in you,
Bill Raleigh, or he'll punish them in a substitute. One of
the two. He says, smite the shepherd. Justice demanded. When God's
own darling son was made to be sin, justice demanded that he
be smitten. Blessed be his name since he
is smitten for me. Bobby, we shall not be smitten
by God. Now look at the next line. And
the sheep shall be scattered. This is what our Lord said to
his disciples. Now, fellas, y'all gonna forsake me? Every one of
you. Because the prophet said, smite
the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. And it came to
pass. Matthew put it this way. Then
Jesus said unto them, all ye shall be offended because of
me this night, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd and
the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. And all
this was done that the scriptures and the prophets might be fulfilled.
Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. Oh, I can't tell you how thankful
I am. This text in Zechariah 13 7 does
not end with that word. The sheep shall be scattered.
It doesn't stop there. Read on. And, and, I will turn
my hand upon the little ones. He says, I will, I will turn
my hand upon these little ones who are scattered when the shepherds
But it includes more than turning his hand to gather these disciples,
turning his hand to gather these disciples back to himself. He's
talking about all those sheep for whom the shepherd was smitten.
Let me show you. Look in verse 8 of Zechariah
13. And it shall come to pass that
in all the land, in all the earth, saith the Lord God, two parts
therein shall be cut off and die. But the third shall be left. God always deals with remnants.
There is a remnant according to the election of grace. Oh,
maybe you're included in that remnant. Now, this is what he
says about that remnant, the third that's left. Verse nine.
And I will bring the third part through the fire. You'll never
come to Christ except through the fire. And I'll refine them
as silver is refined. You're going to pass through
some burning. You're going to go through some trouble. And I will try this, like gold
is tried. But when I get done, when I get
done, they shall call on my name. This has been my prayer for my
daughter since before she came into this world. This is my prayer
for you. This is my prayer for our granddaughter.
Been my prayer for her since before she came into this world.
Lord God, whatever it takes, no matter how painful to me or
to you, whatever it takes, just bring them home. That's all.
Just bring him home. And when he turns his head, before
he gets done, he said, James George is going to call on me.
And I'm going to hear it. And he shall say, the Lord God
says, I will say it is my people. And before I get done, they're
going to look at me and say, the Lord is my God. In other words,
Every sheep for whom the shepherd was smitten shall at last by
the hand of God's mercy be turned to him. Are you beginning to see something
of the greatness of our Savior? Here's a third thing. We see
his greatness in the perseverance of his love. Go back to Mark
14. I'll say nothing about the perseverance
of our Savior's love for us through all the stages of time and all
the stages of our rebellion and ungodliness. Let me just remind
you of the perseverance of His mercy, love, and grace to His
erring, fallen, sinful people. Oh, what comfort I find here.
Our Savior doesn't cast us off or forsake us because of our
faults. our failures and our sins. He knows what we are. He remembereth
our frame, Mark. He knows we're just dust. Just
dust. A man takes a wife, for better
or for worse, and then after they've been married some time,
this man who loves his wife finds that she's beginning to show
lots of indications that her beauty is fading. She's developing
deformities and she's beginning to show lots of things that,
to the eyes of others, make her unappealing. But he loves her. He doesn't even think about casting
at all. He loves her. The thought of
casting her, no, he loves her. But our Savior took us with all our deformities, all
our ugliness, and all our corruption, right in his face, and loves
us forever. Forever. Forever. He is merciful and a compassionate
high It is his glory to pass over iniquity, transgression,
and sin. It is the glory of God to conceal
it. The same proverb says it's the
glory of a king to investigate a matter, the glory of a king
to find out truth. Mr. Starr in his investigation,
call it, say what you want to concerning it, in his appointed
office, it is his honor, it is his honor in the name of the
law to search out truth. It's his honor to do so. Listen
to me, in the name of grace, it is the glory of God to conceal
a matter, cover it up, hide it, put it out of view. Our Lord
Jesus knew what we were before he saved us, still he saved us. He knew what we would be after
he saved us, but still he saved us. And he cannot be induced
for any reason, by anyone, by anything, at any time to forsake
us. Can you get a hold of that? This
is called salvation by grace. And I'm telling you that Jesus
Christ, in His free grace, is a great Savior to great sinners. Oh, come to Him now. Believe
Him now. Trust Him now and live forever. Pastor, would the Lord Jesus
save me? Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, but would
he forgive my sin? Oh yeah, yeah. But you don't
know what I've done. No, but I'm telling you, this
Savior has taken me and he put away all my sin. And he turned
his head toward me and calls me to call on him. And calling
on him, he says, This is my people. I look at him with confidence
and declare, this is my God. Amen.