Morning, everybody. If you want,
turn to your text, it's going to be Judges chapter 11. Judges chapter 11. Paul in 1 Corinthians 2 verse
2, when he was addressing the Corinthians, he said this. He
says, For I determined not to know anything among you, saved
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why would Paul make that statement?
It's not like Paul didn't have a whole lot of wisdom. He knew
a whole lot of things. This was the man that the Lord
directly brought up from the third heaven. He taught him directly
the gospel. And while I'm sure there are
many things that, I know this, when we look at this book, we
believe, we see it's written there, but we don't truly understand.
And the concept of eternity, everything the Lord does, he
does eternally. There is no beginning, there is no end with him. All
things are now. That's wonderful. I don't truly
believe that. I believe it. I don't truly understand it.
But Paul, I think, knew some of these things. And yet, with
all that wisdom, with all that understanding, he says this,
I know one thing, and I've got one thing to say, and it's Jesus
Christ and him crucified. Now, why would he say that? Why?
Well, first off, because of the necessity. The only message that's
going to do a man any good is this message, Jesus Christ and
him crucified, who he is, what he did and who he did it for.
There's a necessity in this. It's the only thing that's going
to do a man any good, a sinner any good. Also, there's an agency
in this, an agency. Our life is so very short. It's
like an hourglass. You're familiar with an hourglass.
An hourglass has a finite amount of sand in it. You flip that
thing over, and it starts draining from the top to the bottom. And
when that last grain of sand runs out, it's over. Time's up.
And our lives are just like that. There's a finite amount of sand
in the glass. When we're born, you flip that thing over, and
it's draining out day by day. And we don't know when a man's
last breath is. And so Paul's saying here, when I come across
a man, there's an exigency in this. I got one thing to say
to him. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I said all that
to say this, this story in Judges chapter 11, it focuses on a man
named Jephthah. Jephthah, he's a judge over Israel. And this story is a beautiful
story of who the Lord is, who Christ is, and what He did, what
He accomplished, and who He accomplished it for. And I want us to look
at this story. We're just gonna go verse by verse. I'm gonna
read a chunk. We're gonna talk about it. It's 40 verses. It's
two ways. But with no other intent that we might see a beautiful
picture of Christ we may hear the Gospel preached, that's it.
So look down at verse 1, it says, Now Jephthah the Gileadite
was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a harlot, and
Gilead begat Jephthah. And Gilead's wife bare him sons,
and his wife's sons grew up. And they thrust out Jephthah,
and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house,
for thou art the son of a strange woman." Now we get a three-fold
description of Jephthah right here in the first two verses.
The first thing it says is he's a mighty man of valor. That title
is given to several men throughout the scripture, all sinful, evil,
wicked men. But there is one man who can
hold this title, and he holds it completely. absolutely completely. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
This speaks of a courageous man, a powerful man, a man who cannot
fail, who can do what no other man can do. And that's the Lord
Jesus Christ for his people. He did what no other man could
do. Now, what am I talking about here? What power, what strength
am I talking about? Turn over to Romans chapter eight. This
is going to be the only scripture I ask you to turn to. Romans chapter 8, if you look
at verse 3, remember we're talking about Christ, our mighty man
of valor. Romans 8 verse 3 says this, for what the law could
not do in that it was weak through the flesh. Now where is the weakness
there? Is it with the law? No, there's nothing wrong with
God's holy law. God's holy law is perfect. There's nothing wrong
with the law. The weakness lies here, me and you, that we cannot
keep it. And the law was never given as
a mechanism of salvation. The law does one thing, it exposes
sin. That's it. But keep on reading. For what
the law could not do, and it was weak through the flesh, God
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh. Now, listen to that language.
Think about that statement for a minute. What condemned me and
you before the law? was our sin. Our sin condemned
us before the Law. But this Man, being made in the
likeness of sinful flesh, came to this world, and He condemned
that which condemned us. That which rested in our body,
our sin, that condemned us before the Law, He took and He put it
in His body. He bore our sins, the sins of
His elect, in His body on the tree. Having suffering and died,
He put those sins away." And now the effects are listed in
verse 4, look, that the righteousness of the Law was might be fulfilled
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Now, because of what he did,
because he condemned sin in his own flesh, the law looks over
him, and he looks over everyone he died for, and it says this,
I'm fulfilled. You lack absolutely nothing, I find absolutely no
fault in you. This is the power, this man,
our mighty man of valor, he had this power, the sin which condemned
us, he condemned the sin, and he put it away. Second thing
we know about this man, he was a son of a harlot. Jephthah was.
His mother was a prostitute. And I'm in no way insinuating
that our Lord's mother, Mary, was a prostitute. But you know
what she was? She was a sinner. And he loved her very, very much.
Our Lord did. And if you think about it, there
actually was a prostitute in the Lord's lineage that I can
remember. It's Rahab. Rahab the harlot. But none of
that's the point. The point is this. It's our Lord's
love and his benevolence and his caring for sinners. lived
on this earth the Pharisees threw many, many accusations at him.
But this one sticks, and I love this accusation, this man is
the friend of publicans and sinners. And we're going to talk more
about that in a minute. And the last thing we get about Jephthah
is that he was rejected by his brethren. He was thrust out of
his father's house by his brethren. How does that relate to our Lord?
John 1, verse 10 and 11 says, he was in the world, and the
world was made by him and the world knew him not. He came unto
his own, and his own received him not. Our Lord Jesus Christ
was born to his typical people, the Jews. And those Jews rejected
him, and ultimately put him to death. But understand what they
were doing. They were working as a representative,
a representative of all men. Our Lord Jesus Christ was born
a man, a man unto men. And when he was born unto men,
we rejected him. We thrust him out, and we murdered
him, because it is in our nature to do that, to hate God, to reject
him. And if there's an attribute of
our Lord that men hate more than anything else, that the flesh
hates more than anything else, what do you think it might be? On the cross, Pilate wrote a
superscription. Remember what it said? Jesus
of Nazareth, King of the Jews. And what did the Jews say? Take
that down. We hate that. We will not have
this man to rule over us. Make it say he says he's king.
And Pilate, wanting to play the middle man, said, no, what I've
written, I've written. But no, it is his absolute sovereignty
in all things. All things concerning this earth, concerning every
man, concerning every happenstance. It's all just his will playing
out, and his sovereignty in salvation. Hated by the natural man. But
I want to say this, particularly about election. If any man ever
preaches election to you, and it sounds like a gate designed
to keep people out, it's wrong. It's not a gate. This is the
way the world looks at the sovereignty of God and salvation. This is
the way the world looks at election. As if there's a gate up, the
sovereignty of God, and men are beating on that gate, begging
for mercy, begging that the Lord would accept them. And that gate
stands there and says, no, not you. I just didn't choose you.
It's false. Here's the picture. It's not
a gate. It is a loving, sovereign, almighty arm. that reaches out
to a man when he is blaspheming the name of God, running away
from him, saying, I want absolutely nothing to do with you, he reaches
out and he says, not you. And he grabs him. He says, you're
coming with me. See, I've loved you with an everlasting
love, and that means you're coming with me. And that man comes.
He has absolutely no other choice. This is the way the Lord works.
He wants no other choice when it comes to Christ. That's the
sovereignty of God and salvation. The thing that the natural man
hates, the world hates about his character, it's what we love.
Because we know if he wouldn't have reached out and grabbed
us, we never would have come to him. All right. Look at verse 3 of
your text. We'll read down to verse 11.
Then Jephthah fled from his brethren. dwelt in the land of Tob, and
there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with
him. And it came to pass, in the process
of time, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.
And it was so that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel,
the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land
of Tob. And they said unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that
we may fight with the children of Ammon. And Jephthah said unto
the elders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me, and expel me out
of my father's house? And why are ye coming unto me
now, when ye are in distress? And the elders of Gilead said
unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou
mayest go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon,
and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. And Jephthah
said unto the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to
fight against the children of Ammon, and the Lord deliver them
before me, shall I be your head? And the elders of Gilead said
unto Jephthah, The Lord be witness between us, if we do not so according
to thy words. Jephthah went with the elders
of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them.
And Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord in Mitzvah."
Now I told you we were going to come back to this topic. It's
our Lord's love and His benevolence to sinners and it's seen nowhere
greater than in verse 3. Let's read it again. Then Jephthah
fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob, and there
were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him. This man
was thrust out of his house, he fled from his father's house,
and he gathered himself to vain men. And that word gathered is
very interesting. It seems to imply that these men gathered
themselves to Jephthah, but that's not the case. That word means
these men were idle. They were unmoving. They were
happy where they were at. Jephthah gathered himself to
these men. Jephthah came to these men where they were at. Jephthah
gathered himself to them. And don't miss their description
here, vain men. You know what the word means?
It means empty, and wicked, and worthless. This is not our Lord
Jesus Christ. He comes to us where we're at
in all our sin, and all our depravity, having no interest in Him whatsoever,
and He saved us. Now, this point is reinforced
in verse six. And then said unto Jephthah,
come and be our captain. may fight with the children of
Ammon." Now they want Jephthah to be their captain, they hated
him before, but now they want him to rule over them, to lead
them. This happened to somebody else. And you guys are familiar
with the Scripture, Todd uses it all the time, so I'm just
going to read it to you. But this happened to David. David is a type of
Christ. Let me read this to you, it's
1 Samuel 22. And everyone that was in distress, and everyone
that was in debt, everyone that was discontented gathered themselves
unto Him." Speaking of David, we're talking about Christ. And
He became a captain over them. And there were with Him about
400 men. This is a three-fold description
of who the Lord has mercy on. This is His elect people. How
do you know you're one of these people? It's very simple. Number
one, distressed. What does it mean to be distressed?
What type of distress am I talking about? The distress you find
yourself in when you find that you're a sinful, evil man in
the hands of a sovereign God who whose demand, the only thing
he will accept is absolute holiness and perfection. That type of
distress. If you look down at verse 7,
Jephthah talks about it. And Jephthah said unto the elders
of Gilead, did not ye hate me? And expel me out of my father's
house? And why are you coming to me now when you are in distress? You see they hated Jephthah before,
they had no love for him, now they love Jephthah. they thought
that Jephthah was subordinate to them. That they were up here
and Jephthah was down here. Now they're saying you have to
be our captain. You must rule over us. You must be our leader.
They saw absolutely no ability or capability in Jephthah before.
Now they're saying the only person who can win this battle, who
can win this fight is you. You have to rule over us. You
have to fight. You have to be the one who does this because
none of us are capable. It's amazing how the Lord works. He
takes a man who absolutely hates Him. He's dead and trespasses
and sins. He's born that way. And He reveals Christ to him,
and brings life into him. And the Lord hates that man,
or He loves that man that He used to hate. And He thought
that He was over this man, that God was subordinate to Him, and
He could control him, and He finds Himself in the hands of a sovereign.
But He's so happy to be there. He saw no capability in Christ
before, but now He knows if He doesn't do all the work, I'm
done. If I have to add something along
the way, there's no hope for me. That's it. The three-fold description is
this, distressed, in debt. In debt's very simple. It means
you can't come up with the goods. You can't meet the demands of
God, holiness, perfection, righteousness. You can't come up with goods.
You can't add in any way. And in debt, I'm sorry, and discontented. Discontented with what? Discontented
with anything but Christ alone. The message of false religion,
salvation by works. There's something you need to
do to make the work of Christ work for you. That gives you
no peace, it gives you no hope. There's only one message that
gives you any type of contentment, any type of peace, and that's
it is finished. It's all done, just rest. I'll
tell you what, if you meet that description, distressed, in debt,
and discontented, discontented with anything but Christ alone,
rest assured, you're one of these men that the Lord has gathered
himself to. Look at verse 8, here's a three-fold
description of what everybody who wants when they come to Christ.
And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn
again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight
against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the
inhabitants of Gilead. See if you can get it on this.
This is what every believer wants, Lord go with me, go with me. I don't care where we go as long
as you go with me. That's it. Here's a song, the
lyrics to which I find a blessing. While blessed with a sense of
his love, a palace a toy would appear in prisons would palaces
prove if Jesus would dwell with me there. Now I'm going to take
it a step further. I don't want to just be blessed
with a sense of his love. I want to have his love and I want to
know it. Not only do I want to have a sense of his guardianship
over me, I want to have it and I want to know it. If I have
that and I know that, Lord, I don't care where we go as long as you
go with me. That's fine. Fight for us. Something has to be done about
my sin. Somebody has to fight this battle. Somebody has to
put this down, my sin, and do battle with them, and I can't
do it. You have to do it. Fight for us. Be with us and
fight for us and be our head. Be our head. He is the head and
we are the body. Don't you want union with the
Lord Jesus Christ? Because if I have union with Christ, that
means everywhere he's been, I've been. Wherever he's at right
now, that's where I'm at right now. That means, truly, when
he walked the paths of righteousness on this earth, when he kept God's
holy law perfectly, that means I did too in him. It really is
mine. That means when he died, bearing
my sins, bearing me in him, that means that's when I was punished.
The punishment has already been carried out. Now the law stands
fulfilled because there's nothing left to bring up. All the sin
has been put away. And when he was raised from the
dead, I was raised again in him. Because, once again, there's
nothing left to condemn me for. All right, verses 12 through
27 of this chapter deal with Jephthah taking a shot at diplomacy.
It's 15 verses here, and I'm going to spare you the pain and
suffering of listening to me read 15 verses, so I'm just going to tell you
about it, right? So Jephthah goes to the king of the Ammonites.
He sends a messenger, and he says this. He's like, okay, what
seems to be the problem? What's going on here? And the
king of the Ammonites, I'm paraphrasing, says this. He's like, about 300
years ago, your people and my people did battle. You whipped
us in the battle, and when you did, you took our lands. And
we've decided 300 years later we want these lands back." Now
Jephthah has kind of a three-fold rebuttal to this, the greatest
of which, he says, is, listen, that battle you're talking about,
we didn't pick the fight with you, right? You picked the fight
with us, and you lost fair and square. But I want you to look
at verses 23 and 24 and see what Jephthah has to say about it. says, "'So now the Lord God of
Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people
Israel. And shouldst thou possess it?
Will not thou possess that which Chemosh thy God giveth thee to
possess? So whomsoever the Lord our God shall drive out from
before us, then will he possess.'" What he's saying here is this,
he's saying those lands that you want back they're ours and
here's the reason that they're ours it's because our God gave
them to us. He gave us the victory in the battle. When He gave us
the victory in the battle, He gave us your lands. And you know
what? Because He gave them to us, it's ours. Here's my point.
What your God gives you truly is yours. Now we've talked about
a few things. The very righteousness of Jesus
Christ. If you're a believer right now, that's yours. That's
real. And nobody can take that from
you because your God gave it to you. The forgiveness of sins. It was
earned by Jesus Christ on your behalf. And you know what? Because
your God gave it to you, No one can take that from you. It's
eternal. It's everlasting. It's not going
away. Sonship. Sonship with God. You've been
adopted. You've been adopted and since your God gave you that,
it's yours. Nobody can take it from you.
But what else does the scripture say about what he gives? I'll
give you a few things here. James 4, 6 says, but he giveth
more grace. By grace you are saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. We were
saved by grace. We didn't earn anything. We didn't
deserve anything but damnation. Yet we were saved by grace. But
it doesn't stop there. It says he giveth more grace.
It's like a flowing river with white water. It super abounds,
this grace. How am I going to get through
whatever happens tomorrow? What's going to happen tomorrow? Who
knows? What's going to happen and how am I going to deal with
it? He's going to give more grace. How am I going to persevere all
the way to end in faith? He's going to give more grace.
How am I going to die with some sort of confidence? He's going
to give more grace. You see, He giveth more grace.
For everything that comes up, there's always more and more
and more, and the fountain never runs dry. Ephesians 2.8, I'm
sorry. John 10.27 says, My sheep hear
my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto
them eternal life. And if you're a believer, you
have eternal life. That's a life that didn't have a beginning,
and it's not going to have an end. A life that has always been
hid in Jesus Christ, always connected to His life. And you know, we
don't know much about that life right now. We see just a little
bit of it. The fact that you have faith
is the evidence that you have that life. But there's going
to come a day we're going to put down this flesh, this old
man, and we're going to wake up in the presence of our Savior
being conformed to His image, and we're going to live this
eternal life with Him. Job 34, 29 says this, and I found
this a blessing. It says, when he giveth quietness,
who then can make trouble? The world seems to be in some
bit of chaos right now as far as what everybody perceives,
right? It's not. It's simply our Lord doing what
He's going to do. Everything's happening according
to His sovereign will. his purposes, but when he's done accomplishing
his purposes through all these things that are happening, you
know what's going to happen? He's going to give quietness. And
no man's going to be able to make trouble with that. It's
like the disciples in the ship, the Lord was at the bottom of
the ship and the waves were kicking up in the wind. And they went and they
woke the Lord up and they said, don't you care that we're perishing?
The Lord stood up and he said, peace, be still. And you know
what? That water turned to glass and
nobody made trouble with it. This is also the quietness He
gives all of His people. Your peace has been made with
God. See, on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ made your peace
with God, and now there is quietness. There's no reason for the Father
to be angry with you because the sin that separated you from
your God has been taken away. And now there's quietness. There's
peace. There's rest. And you know what?
Nobody can make trouble with that. There's nobody who can
bring up a past sin and be like, no, I saw him do this. No, that's
a paid for sin. That debt has been put away.
What else you got? Well, I saw this. No, what else you got?
That's been paid for. You see, nobody can make trouble
with that quietness, that peace with God because it's already
been taken care of. Isaiah 4 verse 29 says this,
he giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might,
he increases strength. Speaking of Jacob, Hosea 12.3
says, He took his brother by the heel and the womb, and by
his strength he had power with God. Jacob was an inconsistent
man, he was a sinful man, he was a wicked man, and we can
all identify with him. But the Lord gave him this one
strength. He gave him this one power, and it was the power to
cling. When they brought Esau out of the womb, you know who
came out too? Jacob. He was clinging to his brother's
heel. Later on in life, Jacob would be terrified that Esau
was going to come kill him. And a man wrestled with Jacob all
night long, the man Christ Jesus. And as the day broke, the Lord
said, Turn me loose, the day breaketh. And what did he say?
What did Jacob do? He said, I will not let you go
until you bless me. And he clung to Christ. He had
one strength. He had one power his entire life,
completely God-given, the power to cling. And this is what he
gives all his people. He gives it freely, this power
to cling, to cling to Christ to the very end of our days. Back in your text verse 28, this
is the last part of the story. Howbeit the king of the children
of Ammon hearken not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent
him. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah as he passed
over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mitzvah of Gilead,
and from Mitzvah of Gilead he passed over unto the children
of Ammon. And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and he said,
If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon in my hands,
then it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth through the doors
of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children
of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up
for a burnt offering. So Jephthah passed over unto
the children of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered
them into his hands. And he smote them from Aor, even
to the outcome to Minoth, even twenty cities and under the plain
of the vineyards with a very great slaughter. Thus the children
of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. And Jephthah
came to Mitzpah unto his house, and behold his daughter came
out to meet him with timbrels and with dances, and she was
his only child. Beside her he had neither son
nor daughter. And it came to pass when he saw her that he
ran his clothes and said, Alas, my daughter, brought me very
low, and thou art one of them that trouble me, for I have opened
my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back.' She said unto him,
My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to
me according to that which is proceeded out of thy mouth. Forasmuch
as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even
the children of Ammon." And she said unto her father, let this
thing be done for me. Let me alone two months, that I may
go up and down upon the mountains and bewail my virginity, I and
my fellows. And he said, go. And he sent
her away for two months. And she went with her companions
and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And it came to
pass at the end of the months that she returned unto her father,
who did with her according to his vow, which he had vowed.
And she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel
that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter
of Jephthah, the Gileadite, four days in a year. That's dark,
isn't it? Let's talk about Jephthah's vow
for a second. Is this something you and I should
seek to replicate? It's a simple question. Should we be making
vows to the Lord? James 5.12 says this, but above
all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither
by earth, Neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea,
and your nay be nay, lest you fall into commendation. So no,
don't make any vows unto the Lord. Folks, if you want something,
bring it before the Lord, asking Christ's name, fully understanding
that if you don't get it, it's not good for you. That's it.
Don't bow any vows. Here's the other thing, right
on the surface. Don't kill your children. It's a shame I have to say that,
But here's what men do with this word. They find something they
want to do, and they justify their actions by finding some
story in here that seems to justify it. So let's be very clear. Don't
vow a vow to the Lord, and don't kill your children. Now, let's
get on to the gospel significance here. This vow between Jephthah
and the Lord is an illustration of the covenant of grace. the
eternal covenant that was made between God the Father and God
the Son before the world began. This is where God the Father
entrusted his Son with what was most precious to him, his elect.
And the Lord Jesus Christ agreed to be the surety. The Father
said, I'm gonna look to you. I'm gonna look to you for everything
I require of them, and I'm not gonna look to them for anything.
And I'm gonna hold you 100% accountable for bringing them back to me
without a scratch. That's what this is talking about.
That's what this type is. And I'm gonna give you four different
observations here. Number one, I want you to notice the permanence
of this vow. Jephthah looked at his daughter and he said,
I cannot go back. See, this covenant of grace is
a permanent covenant. Why? Number one, because it was
eternally purposed. This covenant was made between
the Father and the Son in the eternities, and God, the Godhead
itself, is immutable, which means he cannot change. I was telling
you beforehand, those things we believe we don't really understand.
Whatever he's purposed before time began already is. And since
this was eternally purposed and he is immutable, he cannot change,
this covenant had to be carried out. Second thing, he cannot
go back because if the father was unwilling to sacrifice the
son or the son was unwilling to sacrifice himself, Christ
would have lost his bride and the father would have lost his
children. See, there can be no mercy unless there is justice.
And there can never be mercy at the expense of justice. Somebody
had to die. It was either going to be us
or it was going to be Christ. But if they were unwilling to
go through with this, we would have been lost. Three, they could
not go back because it would have proved the collective Godhead
to be a failure. It would mean that God the Father
could have loved someone and willed their salvation but wouldn't
have had the gumption and wherewithal to follow through with it. That
would mean that the love of God and the will of God is worthless.
And folks, it never is and it cannot be. I want you to notice the pain
this caused Jephthah. Now I want you to envision this for a second.
So Jephthah's riding high off his victory, right? Just beat
the Ammonites. He's coming home. And as he's
coming home, he walks towards his front door, right? He's going
to kick his shoes off, maybe get something to drink, something
to eat. And when he does, as he's just about to walk through
the door, his daughter walks out. And what do you think the
first thing he remembers is? His vow. I'll sacrifice the first
thing that walks out my door to me when I come back from the
victory. Now he gets a little reprieve, right, a little reprieve,
and all of a sudden his world is crushed. And you think about
the maddening darkness he would have experienced in that moment,
thinking, Lord, anybody else, take me, anything else, anybody
else, this is my only child. Don't take her, take anything
else, whatever you want from me, take it, but not her. Think
about just the crushing feeling he would have had. That gives
us just a little glimpse of the horror God the Father experienced
in sacrificing his own son. Now, we love our children, but
we love them imperfectly. We love them in part. God the
Father loves the Son with all the love he has. All the love
God has is in his Son, and he loves him perfectly. And this
is just a small glimpse of the horror he experienced in dropping
down his wrath upon his Son. We think of the Godhead as emotionless,
and yet we're made in the likeness of God. And therefore, why do
you experience happiness? Because it's an emotion of God.
Why sadness? Because it's an emotion of God.
Now, it's different. He has holy emotions, perfect
emotions, and yet he's a God of emotion. Think of the sorrow
he experienced in pouring out his wrath upon his son. But notice
this. He stayed true to his character. He was no respecter of persons.
When he found sin on his only begotten son, this is his sense
of justice. He would not spare him. This is my favorite part. Notice
the willingness of Jephthah's daughter. She would have known
exactly what he meant when he said sacrifice. Imagine the tears
streaming down his face. He's probably trying not to vomit
it in his mouth as he's going through this, trying to explain
to her, I've vowed a vow to the Lord, and now I've got to kill
you. I have to sacrifice you. And
here's what that means. That means he was going to bind
her, that he was going to slit her throat, and he was going
to carve her body up into quarters and put it on an altar, and he
was going to stand there as the fire consumed her. Now, she would
have known what this meant, to be sacrificed. And what would
you expect? You reply, how could you do this?
Don't you love me? You'd expect her to run away, to scream, what's
this guy talking about? Something like that. Without
the slightest glimpse of fear, and without a second's hesitation,
completely unflappable, Jephthah's daughter does this. She said,
you vow to vow to the Lord? Do it. Immediate. Immediate willingness. Now that speaks of our Lord Jesus
Christ. I don't want to be flippant or blasphemous when I say this,
but when the Lord Jesus Christ entered this covenant with His
Father, He knew exactly what He was getting Himself into,
the pain He would experience. Over a few-hour period, He would
experience an eternity in hell, times 10,000s and 10,000s and
1,000s and 1,000s. He would see something and He
would have something He had never had before, His Father's frown,
His Father's disapproval. It would all pour down on Him
in just a couple hour period. And this is our mighty man of
valor. That in the face of all that,
the Father says, are you going to do it? Do it. Do it. Completely willing, completely
instant in this thing. Folks, what love for us. What love for
sinners that He would be willing to endure something like this
so willingly. Isaiah 53.10 says, Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise Him. That seems to be a contrast,
doesn't it? It pleased the Lord there, is what it says, even
though in the midst of all this horror and all this darkness, it pleased
the Lord of Brusen. Why? Because on the cross, the
glory of God was being exposed. It was being gotten. Because
the justice of God was being carried out. Because the elect
were being saved. But this, it pleased the father
of Brusen because he could take it. else could take it. Nobody else could deliver. Only
one mighty man of valor could deliver. Only one mighty man
of valor could return God's people to Himself without a scratch
on them. And this man could. But I want you to think about
this. The Lord told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. And they go
up on the hill and Isaac is there on the altar. And Abraham is
just about to plunge that knife into his neck. And the angel
comes out and says, Abraham, Abraham, and has to say it twice
because Abraham is so intent on doing this. He had already
done it in his mind. Why was he so intent on that?
Why did he have peace with that? It's for this reason. It's because
he knew the Lord was going to raise Isaac from the dead. He
knew that that boy, that many nations were going to come out
of him. And he knew the Lord was going to raise him from again.
This is going to be terrible, but I'm going to see him again. It
pleased the Father to bruise Christ because he knew, I'm going
to raise him from the dead. He's going to suffer. He's going
to bear all that sin in His body. He's going to suffer. He's going
to die. But He's going to completely put the sin away. You know what
that means? It means it's only just for me to raise Him from
the dead. I'll see Him again. See it pleased the Father to
bruise Him. This is the note I want to end
on. Notice the trustworthiness of Jephthah's daughter. Now before,
Jephthah said, I've got to sacrifice you. And she says, do it. Instant. Now she says this. She said,
give me two months. Give me two months to boil my
virginity with my friends and I'll come back and you do to
me as you said you would. And then Jephthah's instant at
this point. He says, go. I'm sure there was somebody standing
there that said, Jephthah, you sure that's a good idea? Because
she knows what you're going to do to her when she comes back.
Aren't you afraid she's going to leave, she's going to try to flee, something
like that? Jephthah says, no, no. She's always good to her
word. I know in exactly two months,
the very day to the very hour to the very second, she's going
to be right back here and she's going to do exactly what she
said she was going to do. You see, Jephthah trusted his
daughter completely. Ephesians 1 verse 12 says this,
that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted
in Christ. Now, who first trusted in Jesus
Christ? God the Father did, and he trusted
him completely. And why wouldn't he trust him?
You can always put your trust in someone who cannot fail and
always keeps their word. And if God the Father was willing
to entrust his son with that which was most precious to him,
his people, how much more should we be willing to trust Jesus
Christ, who cannot fail and who is always good to his word? Come on to me. All ye who labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. All right, folks,
I'm going to leave you there.