great things he did. In verse six, we read where the
Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians
against him, how they might destroy him. Now this was very early
in the Lord's public ministry. Before he had called the 12 disciples,
already they were wanting to kill him. We've seen the last
few weeks how this was the fifth consecutive confrontation with
the Lord. They first confronted him over
the fact that he said he could do what only God could do, forgive
sins. That made him mad. And then they
criticized him for eating and drinking with publicans and sinners.
Something's wrong with this. There's something immoral about
this. This is seemingly okay in sin. And then they were upset
with the fact that the disciples of the Pharisees and John were
more spiritual than his disciples. They spent more time fasting
and more time praying. And what comes to my mind is,
how do you know? How do you know? It's pretty
obvious, isn't it? had accused his disciples of breaking the
Sabbath. And the last thing he did was
heal somebody on the Sabbath and made them look like idiots
for objecting to it. And they were so angry that they
wanted to kill him over that. They took counsel to destroy
him. Verse seven, but Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to
the sea. And a great multitude from Galilee
followed him, and from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from
Idumea, and from beyond Jordan, and they about tired and sighed
in a great multitude. When they had heard what great
things he did, came unto him. Now that is what caught my attention. When they heard what great things
he did, They came unto Him. And this represents the act or
the motion of spiritual life coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. They came unto Him. And this was after they heard
the great things He did. Not before that, but after that. The scripture says they came
unto him. Now, I wish I could speak as
I ought to about this thing of coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the act of spiritual life. This is what people who
have spiritual life do, and they do it all the time. It's not
a one-time thing. They come to him over and over
and over the same way they came the first time. You see, coming
to Christ is the evidence of election. Listen to the scripture,
John 6, 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. You wanna know whether or not
you're one of the elect? You're coming to Christ right
now is all you have. That's what God's elect do. Coming to Christ is the act of
faith. Listen to this scripture from
John chapter six, verse 35. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Now, coming and believing are
the same thing. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, You see, if you come to Christ, you're not gonna be
looking for anything else. You're gonna be satisfied to be saved
by him. You won't be looking for something
else. He that believeth on me, he that relieth on me, that person
who relies on me is all they have in salvation. He shall never
thirst. To come to Christ is to believe
on Christ. To believe on Christ is to come
to Christ. And it's more than believing
the truthfulness of certain propositions, although that's included. It's
coming to a person. That's what I'm doing. I'm coming to a real living person,
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love that hymn we sing,
but I've changed part of the words. You know where it says,
just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for
me. I don't come to Christ pleading, well, your blood was shed for
me, but I do come pleading the shed blood of Calvary. Just as
I am, without one plea, but the shed blood of Calvary, and that
thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I am. Just as I am and
waiting not to rid my soul of one dark spot. Oh, what a hymn. That's something a believer is
always doing. They're coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And you come to him for everything.
Now, what do I mean by that? You come to him for everything.
Well, I mean, you don't come to him so much with faith, but
you come to him for faith. You don't come to him with repentance
and say, look, I've repented. You need to, no, that's kind
of coming by way of entitlement. You don't come with repentance,
you come for repentance. You come to him for everything
or you don't come at all. That is the way you come to Christ. You come not like that leopard
did. Lord, if you will, you can make me repent. Clean. I love what Peter said in 1 Peter
2, verse four, to whom coming. To whom coming. Now that is the
most descriptive definition of faith and what
a believer does all the time. To whom coming. I'm coming to
him right now. Have mercy on me. Lord, if you
will, you can make me clean. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. Lord, save me. To whom? Coming. But before they came,
there was something that happened. They heard. They heard. They heard. Faith cometh by what? Hearing. And you know what you're
doing when you're hearing? You're listening. You're listening
to what's being said. Faith cometh by hearing, they
heard. You can't believe what you've
never heard and you can't come to Christ if you've not heard
the great things he did. And this is very important. Zero
in right now. It's not the great things he
will do if you fill in the blank. It's not the great things he
offers you if you the great things he did. I hear preachers talk about the
free offer of the gospel. I hear that language a lot. Let me say this, the gospel is
not an offer. It's not an offer. It's not something that's up
for your acceptance or rejection. The blood wasn't for you to accept
or reject. The blood's for God. That he
might have a way to be just and justify somebody ungodly like
me or you. That's the blood for him. And
God doesn't offer you. I'm offering you salvation. I'm
offering you the forgiveness of sins. It's up to you to accept
it or reject it. But I'm making this offer. That
is not the gospel. That is a message that makes
salvation conditioned upon something you do. Ultimately, it's a message
of salvation by works. The gospel is not an offer. The
gospel is an accomplishment. It is what he did, not what he
will do if I do something. It's what he did. The gospel is in these words,
it is finished. Is that gospel to you? It's finished. It's finished. Now, I realize that there are
scriptures that sound very inviting, and I'm thankful for those. I
love it when the Lord says, come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He that cometh to me,
I will in no wise cast out. Come, let us reason together. As though your sins be as scarlet,
I'll make them white. There are a lot of scriptures
like that. I'm thankful for those scriptures, but that doesn't
take away from the fact that he's not offering something. If my salvation is dependent
upon me doing anything, if my salvation is dependent upon my
faith, or my repentance, or my holy living, I have no hope. It was when they heard the great
things that he did, they came to him. You remember what the
Lord told the man who was possessed by demons, and he healed and
clothed them, and he wanted to go with the Lord back across
the lake, and he said, you go home to your friends and tell
them what great things the Lord hath done for thee. That's our
message, isn't it? The great things the Lord hath
done for thee. How ridiculous and blasphemous
are these religious bargains? Why don't you accept Jesus Christ
as the Lord of your life and let him in? Open your heart to
him. Accept him as your personal savior
and make him the Lord of your life. If you know him, you'll
stop that foolishness. Now listen to me. Christ saved
me. He didn't make me savable. He
didn't offer salvation to me. He saved me. Hebrews 1.3 says,
when he had by himself, I love that phrase by himself. I mean,
God didn't have anything to do with this. When he had by himself
purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty
on high. The only contribution I made
to my salvation was my sin. That's it, somebody once said
this, I did the sin, he did the saving. I like that. They heard
the great things he did. Now, the word did, means to make
or to do. It's the Greek word. I guess
it's pronounced polio. Maybe not. I think it's always
funny. I've had people correct me on
how to pronounce certain Greek words. And I think, well, how
do you know? I mean, it's a dead language. People haven't spoken
for centuries, you know, and well, okay, I mean, but let's
just call it polio. It means to do or to make. to do or to make. It's what He
made, the great things He made, and the great things He did. Let me give you some words that
King James used to translate this same word, which is found
579 times in the New Testament. Appoint, bring forth, caused. I like that, the great things
He caused. executed, fulfilled, ordained, performed, provided,
purposed, secured. That's a good word, isn't it?
The great things He did and may the Lord allow us to hear with
hearing ears that only He gives. You know, me and you can't even
hear unless he's pleased to give us hearing ears. May the Lord
enable us to hear with hearing ears right now the great things
that he did. I want to be brief, but every
one of these words are so glorious. First, here's the first thing
I want to talk about. He loved us. And this is talking about his
elect. This is not talking about all men without exception. This
is talking about those the father gave him, those he died for. I need to bring that out because
it makes it meaningless if I don't. If I say he loved us, all men
without exception, and some of us go to hell, his love didn't
do much good, did it? but he loved us. I don't know
of a hymn that means more to me than the hymn when we sing,
I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus, the Nazarene, and wonder
how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. And how did he love us? He said,
as the father hath loved me so, Have I loved you? Now, there's
no way we can understand that. How did the Father love him?
He loved him perfectly. He loved him as one who was altogether
lovely. I mean, the Father's love to
the sudden wasn't unconditional love. God loved me unconditionally. Well, if he can love me unconditionally,
he can quit loving me unconditionally. That's not the point. God's love,
Conditional, conditioned on how beautiful Christ is, how perfect
Christ is, how lovely His Son is. He sees His Son and He's
so pleased. Oh, He's so pleased. Everything
about His Son is perfect. Well, as the Father hath loved
me, so have I loved you. Jeremiah 31.3, Behold, I have
loved you with an everlasting love. A love that never had a
beginning, never had a starting point, was in eternity. It flows from this eternal union
with Christ that every believer has. Behold, I've loved you with
an everlasting, eternal love. And before time began, talking
about the great things he did. This eternal love is what Paul
meant when he said whom he did foreknow. That doesn't simply
mean he knew who you were. Adam knew his wife, Eve. That's what that word means,
an intimate relationship of love. whom he did foreknow, them he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. Now,
something else that took place before time began, he loved me
before time began, but before time began, here's a great thing
he did. He stood as the seerity of every single one of his people.
Now, what does that mean? But he said to his father the
same thing that Judas said to his father concerning Benjamin.
The Lord gives us that beautiful picture of the surety ship of
Christ in Genesis 43. He's called the surety of a better
covenant in Hebrews. But Judith said to his father,
I will be surety for him of my hand, shall that require him,
if I bring him not back to thee and set him before thee, let
me bear the blame forever. And that's what he says as a
surety for every one of his people. Now listen to what that means.
That means he took complete responsibility for my salvation before time
began. Now here's what is equally amazing. He loved me, became my surety,
and before time began, he actually accomplished my salvation. It's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Revelation 13, 8, the lamb having
been slain before time began, he actually accomplished my salvation. Hebrews 4, 3 says the works were
finished from the foundation of the world. Do I understand all this? Of
course not. I can't understand eternity,
but the Bible speaks of eternity. He became the author of eternal
salvation. We read of an eternal inheritance,
eternal redemption, eternal judgment. Everything God does is eternal. He's the one who inhabits eternity. He's not bound to time and space
like me and you are. He is eternal. Listen to this
scripture. 2 Timothy 1.9, He saved us. You can look this up if you want,
if you don't already know, but I'm gonna quote it. 2 Timothy
1.9, He saved us and He called us. Note the order. What came first? He saved us. He saved us and He called us. with a holy calling, oh, what
a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which were given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Everything you have, my dear
friend, was given you in Christ Jesus before the world began. You know, anything short of this
is not worthy of God, is it? It's just not worthy of God.
This is who God is. And everything he does is eternal. The great things he did, well
he saved us before the foundation of the world. And then we have
this thing called time when he created the universe. It's one
of the great things he did. He created the universe. All
things were made by him and for him. And he is before all things
and by him all things consist. by whom also he made the world. You don't know him if you don't
know him as creator. He is the creator. It was he who said, let us make
man in our own image. He's the creator. Now let me
tell you something else after this creation of the great things
he did. He controls everything. That's
great, isn't it? And it's not hard. How many times? I'd forget. It's not even hard
for him to control everything. You know, when the fall took
place, the fall of our first parents, the first act in time
that we read of after the creation, you know why it took place? His
purpose. His purpose. Everything that
happens is His purpose. I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace. I create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. Beloved, I love it that way.
I don't want it to be any other way. I rejoice in this. This
is the Son of God. The king's heart and everybody
else's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water,
he turneth it whither so ever he will. He doeth according to
his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest
thou? Is that talking about the father or the son? Yes. Yes. Whatsoever the Lord please that
did he. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to his purpose. 1 Timothy 3, 16. Great is the mystery of godliness. And here's a great thing he did.
God was manifest in the flesh. The eternal God became a man. Before His conception in the
womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit, He wasn't flesh. He wasn't a man. He was spirit. And when He became flesh, He
became man. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. God became a man. God lived in
a womb for nine months. God was born the same way you
and I were born. He had all the limitations of
the flesh. He still does. There's a man
in glory right now. He's a man. He humbled himself
and became man. What a great thing! Who can understand
that? Who can grasp that God became
man? I love what Thomas said to him
after he said, reach either your finger and put it in my side.
He said, my Lord and my God. And here's what he did in the
flesh. He kept God's law perfectly. He never sinned. We believe that, but we don't
even know what that would be like. He said, which of you can convince
me of sin? Y'all reckon you'd have a hard
time convincing me of sin? Stay around me five seconds, it won't
be difficult. But which of you? He said, I
do always those things that please the Father. And concerning the
perfect righteousness that he worked out, think about this.
He said, John the Baptist, when John the Baptist came and he
was gonna have him baptized, John the Baptist said, something's
wrong with this picture. I need to be baptized today. He said,
suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us. Us. He wasn't just talking about
John the Baptist. That was the same us as if God
be for us. Who shall be against us? At us
is every one of God's people. Thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. When he fulfilled all righteousness,
I did too. And that's a great thing, isn't
it? That's a glorious thing. He fulfilled all righteousness. That's the righteousness that
every believer is justified by. That's my personal righteousness
before God. If you want to know the truth about me, I mean the
real truth, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you'll find
out me. When he fulfilled that righteousness,
that's my personal righteousness before God. That's a great thing.
Oh, the great things he did. And what about the greatness
of his death? The fact that he could die in
the first place is way beyond anything I can get a hold of.
"'Tis mystery all, the immortal dies," Wesley said in that great
hymn. Why is there death? Only one
reason for death, sin. Sin. When he died, he didn't
die as an innocent victim. He died as guilty. You see, the
sins of God's elect became his sins. God is just. It would be unjust for God to
punish Christ if he's innocent. No, the sins of God. God can
do this. Only God can do this. He can
take my sins and make them the sins of his son. And he can take
the perfect righteousness of his son and give it to me. It's called substitution. And Christ Jesus actually satisfied
God. That's what his blood did. Something
me or you could never do. The reason hell is eternal is
because there's never satisfaction. God can never say, well, that's
enough. Payment's been made. There's only one time God's ever
been satisfied. That's by what his son did. When he said, it is finished,
God said, I am satisfied. And I want you to think about
this. That means believer, I can say this to every believer here,
he's completely satisfied with you. Let me repeat that. He's completely satisfied with
you. He sees you as perfectly holy
in his sight. Holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in his sight. The greatness of his death, the
complete salvation of his people, justification, redemption, reconciliation,
sanctification, all by one offering. I'm talking about his death.
By one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. It's not Jesus paid a half, the
other half I owe. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. John
19 30, it is finished. He died. He died. That's how
that can be. I don't know, but he did. The God man died. God can't die. Man can't satisfy. The God man did both. He died
and he satisfied. God is now satisfied with everybody
he died for. Now he lay in the grave three
days. What was going on during that
time, I have no idea. Don't even have a clue. But I know this,
his body never saw corruption. His body never began to decay. like me or you would. After three
days, we'd be smelling bad. Not him. What was going on during
those three days? I have no idea. Don't even have
a clue. I've tried to think about it.
I don't know. But I know this. The moment he died, complete
satisfaction was made. And the moment he died, all of
God's people were justified. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. Now he there, he lays there three
days in the grave. And I love to think about this.
Nobody but the father saw it. He opened his eyes. He'd actually
been dead. And he opened his eyes. He's
not dead anymore. He's risen from the dead. What
a great thing, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
after his resurrection, he spent 40 days giving instructions to
his disciples. You know what he did after that?
I love thinking about this. I think of the greatness of this,
him ascending after 40 days. Think of him ascending back to
his father on a cloud. His disciples just, They didn't know what to say.
And the angel said, you men of Galilee, why are you staring
at this? This same Jesus who you see being
taken from you shall in like manner return again. His ascension. Now here's something I love to
think of. The great things he did. What
about his intercession? That's going on right now. Turn
with me to 1 John chapter two. Verse one. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that you sin not. Now back up to verse eight of
chapter one. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And that's talking about a sinful
nature. The word sin there is a noun.
It's not an action. It's a noun. That's what you
are. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the
truth is not in us. We've lost all credibility. If
we confess our sins. And let me remind you to confess
your sins is to take sides with God against yourself. It doesn't
mean you confess every one of them individually. You don't
know them all. And if you did, there's not enough
time in the day. You know that's not what that
means. It means you agree with God. You take sides with God
against yourself. If we confess, if we speak the
same thing God says, that's what the word means. To confess is
to speak the same thing. If we speak the same thing God
says regarding our sin, I'm guilty. Guilty. Guilty. if we confess
our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive
our sins. Not simply merciful and gracious,
but faithful. It's what he determined to do.
And just, he does it in a way that honors his justice. And
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Verse 10, if we say we've not
sinned, and they're the words of verb. They're the words of
verb. You know what that means? If
I say, well, I didn't sin there. Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did. If we say we've not sinned, someone
says, I have a clear conscience about that. No, you have a seared
conscience. Your conscience is no good, or
you wouldn't be saying something like that. If we say we have not sinned,
we make him a liar, because he says we have. And his word is
not in us. My little children, these things
write unto you that you sin not. How does that fit? He says, all
we do is sin, every action, and we always have a sinful nature,
and I'm writing this to you so you won't sin. Let me tell you
why. Sin's never okay. Sin's never acceptable at any
time, under any circumstance. Sin is evil. Look what sin did
to the Son of God. How God hates sin. And these things write I unto
you that you sin not. Now look in the second sentence,
and if any man sin, that word is just as often translated when. When you did. when you do. Ain't no doubt about that. When
you do. We have an advocate. This is speaking of the intercession
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have an advocate with the
Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous. He's not a corrupt lawyer. He's
not a corrupt advocate. He's Jesus Christ, the righteous. And I love to think of our advocate.
Our advocate is the son of the judge. And our advocate is one
who's never lost a case. And our advocate makes us plead
guilty and causes us to be justified. What an advocate. We have an
advocate with the father. We had that advocate before the
sin, during the sin, and after the sin. We always have this
advocate. It's not like when I repeat a
scene, he says, well, let him off again. I know he did it 40,000
times, but no, he just shows the father his hands and feet.
And that's all that has to be said. We have an advocate with
the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he's the propitiation.
The sin removing sacrifice is what that means. It's the propitiation
for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of
the whole world. Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor,
bond and free. Hebrews 7.25 says, wherefore
he is able to save them to the uttermost. that come unto God
by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us. Now, the last great thing I wanna
mention is something that hadn't happened yet, but it's still
already happened to the purpose of God, his return, the greatness
of his return. When he comes as a thief in the
night, it's gonna be like lightning shining in the sky and everybody's
gonna know who it is. I love thinking about that. People
who hate him now, they're gonna find out, uh-oh, Uh-oh. He is the King. He is the Lord
of glory. And you know what? There's gonna
be some people, such as the brightness and the glory of His coming,
that when they see Him, they're gonna be perfectly conformed
to His image. Because they're gonna see Him
as He is. Not as He was, as He is. And if either you and I ever
get a sight of that, that's so powerful, it will perfectly conform
us to his image. The great things he did, he loved
us, he became our surety, he created the universe, he became
a man, he lived a perfect life, he accomplished salvation by
his death, he was raised from the dead, ascended back into
glory, makes intercession for his people, and he's gonna return. Now, Come to him. Come to him right now. Come to
him. He said, him that cometh to me,
I will in no wise, for no reason whatsoever cast out. If you come,
he will receive. There's never been anybody who
ever came that got turned away. He promises that, and I love
the way he says this. There's no reason I'll cast you
out. No reason, but am I too sinful? No, you come, you will
be received. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
great things he did. How we thank you for his excellency
and glory and the accomplishments of his life, his death, his resurrection. How we thank you for the Lord
Jesus Christ. Lord, he truly is altogether
lovely. In his name we pray, amen.