Verse 53 of Luke chapter 22. This is when they had come to
arrest the Lord. Look in verse 47. And while he
yet spake, behold, a multitude. And he that was called Judas,
one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus
to kiss him. Now this was when the Lord was
being arrested. And he says in verse 53, When
I was daily with you in the temple, you stretched forth no hands
against me, but this is your hour and the power of darkness. I've entitled this message, This
Is Your Hour. Let's look at Matthew's account
of this for just a moment. Matthew chapter 26. Verse 47, And while he at spake,
lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude,
with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders
of the people. Now he that betrayed him gave
him a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, the same as he,
hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus,
and said, Hail, Master, and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him,
Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands
on Jesus, and took him. And behold, one of them, we know
it was Peter, which was with Jesus, stretched out his hand,
and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest,
and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put
up again thy sword into a sheath. For all they that take the sword
shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now
pray to my Father? and he shall presently give me
more than twelve legion of angels. But how then shall the scriptures
be fulfilled that thus it must be?" Everything that's taking
place must be. Verse 55, in the same hour said
Jesus to the multitudes, Are you come out against a thief
with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you
teaching you in the temple, and you laid no hands on me. But
all this was done, everything that took place was done that
the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all
the disciples forsook him and fled. Now everything that was
done was done that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Every event that took place was
done that God's will and God's purpose would be done. Now I
love thinking about that. God is in control. He's in control
of me and He's in control of you and His will is always done. I love the way the Lord says,
thus it must be. Now when this crowd came to arrest
Christ, it was done out of malice, hatred, envy, jealousy, and spite. They were acting freely and uncoerced. And yet they were only fulfilling
God's will. Do you know that God is completely
sovereign over the free actions of men? And He's completely sovereign
over the evil actions of men. He's in absolute control. These
men who came to arrest Christ, these men with evil intentions
and hatred in their hearts, doing what they wanted to do, All they
were doing was fulfilling God's purpose and God's will. Let me show you this from the
scriptures. Would you turn with me to Acts chapter 2? Verse 22. This is Peter preaching
on the day of Pentecost. He says, Ye men of Israel, hear
these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know,
him being delivered by what? The determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God. You have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. Now why was he delivered? Because
it was God's will. It was God's counsel. It was
God's purpose. When those men came to the Lord
to arrest him, why did they do it? Because God willed for that
to take place. Are they responsible for their
evil actions? Absolutely. Absolutely. You've taken the
wicked hands of crucified and slain, but they weren't doing
anything less than God's purpose. Look in Acts chapter 4. Verse 26, the kings of the earth
stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the
Lord and against his Christ for the truth against thy holy child
Jesus whom thou has anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. Now when they arrested the Lord
Jesus God's hand and counsel had determined before for this
to be done. When they drove the nails through
his hands and feet, God's determined counsel and foreknowledge and
will had determined before for it to be done. What was happening
was God's will was taking place. And do you know that God's will
always takes place? To say that God is sovereign
is to say that God is God. Now, what is meant by God being
sovereign? That's a term people use. God
is sovereign. What does that mean? Well, first of all, it
means He's got a will. He's got a purpose. And because
He is omnipotent, all-powerful, He has the power to make His
will come to pass. Everything that was going on
in the crucifixion, in the arrest of the Lord Jesus Christ, was
God's will being done. God has the right. He's God. He's got the right to make His
will come to pass. And He didn't have to answer
me or you about what He's doing. Why are you doing that? None
of your business. You see, God is God. He giveth no account
of his matters. None can stay his hand, or say
unto him, What doest thou? Give an account as to why you're
doing this. He's God. And do you know that He always,
He always makes His will come to pass. Whatsoever the Lord
pleased, that did He. And so what's going on when the
Lord is being arrested is God's will being done. And I love the
way John's account gives this detail, and we considered this
several times. But when they came to arrest
him, he said, Whom seek ye? They said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I am. And what happened? They all went
backwards and fell to the ground. And the Lord was letting them
know, at this time, I'm no victim. I'm in control of this, not you.
This is my will being done. Have you ever wondered when right
after that Peter took a sword and cut the guy's ear off, tried
to take his head off, why they didn't kill him instantly? I
can tell you why. Because these men at this time
were scared to death. The Lord had knocked them backwards, and
I'm sure they were just frozen to the ground until he let them
get up. And they saw they're dealing with almighty power.
They were afraid to do anything with Peter at this time, because
they saw something of the greatness and the glory of Jesus Christ. He was in control of everything. Now, we read that all this took
place that the scriptures, might be fulfilled. Now let me remind
you this is a supernatural book that we're looking at. It claims
to be the very Word of God and the scriptures being fulfilled
is God's will being fulfilled. You know I love the way The Scripture
saith to Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee
up. Now wait a minute. Scripture didn't say that. God
said it. The Bible hadn't been written yet. When the Scripture
says it, God says it. The authority of this book, everything
that took place with the Lord, took place that the Scriptures
might be fulfilled. And I think of the respect the
Lord Jesus gave to the Scriptures when Satan came and tempted him. He could have done anything to
the devil. He's almighty. He's God. He could have tortured
the devil. He could have blotted him out
of existence. But how did he answer the devil? How did he
answer the devil? It is written. It is written. It is written. Now that's the authority the
Lord Jesus sees the Scriptures. It is written. Now look what the Lord says back
in our text in Luke chapter 22. Then Jesus said unto the chief
priests, verse 52, and the captains of the temple and the elders
which were come to him, Be ye come out against a thief, with
swords and clubs? When I was daily with you in
the temple, you stretched forth no hands against me. But this
is your hour. This is your hour. Now this is
the same hour that the Lord called my hour. Remember how there would
be death attempts against him and he'd leave them because he
said, my hour has not yet come. Remember when he said, Father,
save me from this hour. This is the hour he came, the
hour to die. This was his purpose for coming.
But yet he says to these people at this time, now this is your
hour and the power of darkness, this time of my death, this time
of my arrest, this time of what's going on now. I'm in control
of it. Let me show you how much, hold
your finger there and turn to John chapter 19 for a moment. Verse 6, When the chief priests,
therefore, and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify
him! Crucify him! Pilate said unto them, Take ye
him, and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered
him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because
he made himself the Son of God. When Pilate, therefore, heard
that, saying, He was the more afraid, and he went again unto
the judgment hall, and said unto Jesus, When shalt thou? But Jesus
gave him no answer. Then said Pilate unto him, Speakest
thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have
power to crucify thee, and I have power to release thee? Jesus
answered, Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except
it were given thee from above. Now at all times our Lord lets
everyone know I'm in complete control of this situation. You couldn't have any power at
all over me, except it be given thee from above. Yet he says
to these people, at this time, this is your hour and the power
of darkness. He calls that same hour, the
hour for which he came, your hour. Now this is the time in
God's sovereign purpose where all restraint was taken away
and men were allowed to do what they wanted to do. Now do you realize that if God
left you to yourself and took away all restraint and let you
do exactly what you wanted to do, you, and I'm including myself
in that group, would be as bad as Satan himself. This is your hour. This is when I'm going to let
men do what they want to do. Look in Luke chapter 23, verse 22, And he said unto them
the third time, Why? What evil hath he done? I have
found no cause of death in him. I will therefore chastise him,
and let him go. And they were instant with loud
voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices
of them and of the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence
that it should be as they required. And he released unto them him
that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, Barabbas,
whom they had desired. But he delivered Jesus. What? their will. And what was their will? To put
Him to death. Now listen to me real carefully. Me and you, and everybody else, really are evil. Do you believe that about yourself? Me and you. And everybody else. If God took away the restraints
and left us to ourselves, we would put to death the holy,
harmless Son of God and put ourselves in his place. And this was said early in the
scripture, Genesis chapter 6 verse 5, and God saw the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now that is God's testimony about
me and you. And the cross of Christ is the
proof of that. How bad are you? Don't look within.
Don't look at the problems in your life. Don't look at the
sins you've committed. They're not going to give you
the true picture. The true picture of the state of your heart is
seen in the cross. When the Lord took away the restraints,
look what men did. Now this hour is called your
hour and the power of darkness. He says to these people who were
crucifying him, this is your hour. You're being left to yourself. You're doing what you want to
do. And this is the power of darkness. Now Satan, the prince
of darkness, was behind all of this. You remember how Satan
entered into Judas. Remember that? He entered into
Judas. And then Judas did all of his
business. Now, Satan was behind all this
in his attempt to destroy Christ, but I love thinking about this. Satan is God's devil on God's
chain doing God's will. And he can't do anything but
that. He's God's puppet performing God's will. Now he hated Christ. He had malice for Christ. He
thought he was destroying Christ at this time. And yet this is
the time when Christ was crushing his head. And he was doing neither
more nor less than performing what God had already determined
to be done. Now Satan's a powerful being. But what is that in comparison
to omnipotence? God's devil on God's chain doing
God's will. And this is your hour and the
power of darkness. And I think of the darkness of
this time. You assume the light would go
out in heaven. And darkness would cover the
face of the earth. A darkness that, oh, who knows
how dark it was. You couldn't see anything when
God turned the lights out, when Christ was hanging from the cross.
But the power of darkness began right here, where the Lord said,
this is your hour and the power of darkness. Now, both Matthew
and Mark's account give us a detail that Luke leaves out at this
time, all. the disciples, forsook him and fled. Every single one of them, Peter,
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Andrew, James the son of Alphaeus,
Matthew, Thomas, Thaddeus, Simon the Canaanite, every single one
of these disciples at this hour forsook the Lord. And he was
left all alone. You see, disciples are very weak. They're very weak. Do you not
know that you will forsake the Lord if he doesn't preserve you?
Do you not know that for sure? That all he's got to do is leave
you alone. You'll leave him. You'll run. You'll deny you even
know him, just like Peter did. All the disciples forsook him
and fled. Now, during the Lord's last sermon, I guess, in John 13 through
16 to his disciples, he ended up with these words after the
disciples listened to him. They said, now we're sure that
you're the Christ. Now we believe what you're saying. He said,
do you now believe? The time is coming and now is
when every one of you will be scattered and leave me alone. They were talking big. But they
were soon enough going to leave him alone. Now, why is all this? Well, it's what the scripture
said would take place. Isaiah 63, 5, I looked and there
was none to help. I've trodden the winepress alone
of the people, there were none with me. Now, this is a reminder
to us that he did everything in salvation. Now, picture this. Those men
that he'd communed with, those men that he'd taught, those men
that he'd loved, those men that he'd made himself known to, what
did they do? Every one of them left him. They
forsook him. And he was left all alone. And
what this reminds us of is that he worked out salvation by himself. How much did you help? in your
salvation. How much aid did you give? What
assistance did you give? What contribution did you make?
Hebrews 1, 3 says, when he had by himself purged our sins. No help for me and you. He sat
down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Now, he did
all of this while we were in hiding. All the disciples forsook him
and fled. And he's soon going to feel the
full weight of being forsaken by his father. Why? Because he's
a sinner's substitute. But he says to these people,
this is your hour, and this is the power of darkness. And I
think of the darkness that took place. We don't have scriptural
information as to what took place with Satan and Christ at the
time of his death, but I don't have any doubt that Satan was
tempting him at this time. So you're the Son of God. Prove
it. Come down from the cross. I believe you're the Son of Mary,
but I don't believe you're the Son of God. You wouldn't be in
a predicament like this if you were. I can imagine all the things
Satan was saying to him at this time. All of this without the
Father's help, being forsaken by God, I think of that song
we sing, stricken, smitten, and afflicted. See him dying on the
tree. Tis the Christ my man rejected. O my soul, tis he, tis he. Now,
at this time, he let men do whatever it was they wanted to do. And
they nailed him to a cross. And the Lord said, this is your
hour. And this is the power of darkness. Darkness. Now I want to bring you to another
scene. It's called light. Light. Turn with me for a moment
to Colossians chapter 1. Now out of this darkness, out of this horrible darkness,
when the Son of God is hated so much that the creatures nail
the Creator to a tree in hatred and malice, wanting Him to be
out of it. In this darkness comes light. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of the darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Are you there in Colossians 1? I'd like to read verse 11, strengthened with all
might. according to his glorious power
and to all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness, giving thanks
unto the Father, who hath made us meet fit to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in light." The saints in light. Now, you know what that's talking
about? That's talking about the saints who are in heaven right
now. You know where they're in? They're in light. And I want
you to think about this throng, this great group, the saints
in light. Not in darkness, but in light.
They're sinless. They have white robes. They're
singing the praises of the Lamb. The saints in light. People in heaven right now who
don't have any sin, any unbelief, they stand perfect in Christ
Jesus. Now what about these? Look what Paul says. Who are
these people? Well, they're people who, in
verse 12, give thanks unto the Father. You know what that means? It means they give God all the
credit. They gave thanks unto the Father. We're bound to thank
God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Now, the saints
and like give thanks to the Father. They don't thank their free will.
They don't thank any man. They give thanks to the Father
who made them fit. Notice how it says in verse 12,
giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet. Now, he's not talking about the
people in heaven right now. He's talking about us down here.
He's made us meet, us folks down here. He's made us meet fit to
be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. Now, right now, because of the
darkness the Lord went through, possess, every believer possesses
all that's needed right now for me to be a partaker of that great
heavenly choir singing the praises of the Lamb right now. Right
now there's nothing that's needed. There's nothing that needs to
be added to me. There's nothing I have to have in order to be
a part of that great choir. The inheritance of the saints
in light. Now what is that light? What
is that light? I love that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. Would you remember that woman
who was taken in adultery in the very act? There wasn't any
question regarding her guilt. She was taken in the very act. And the Pharisees caught her. drug her in before the Lord,
perhaps undressed or half-dressed, and said, Master, Teacher, this
woman was caught in adultery, taken in the very act. Now Moses
in the law says that such should be stoned. But what do you say? And I love what the Lord did. He stooped down and started writing
on the ground, the scripture says, as though he heard them
not. Are you listening to us? No. He stooped down and wrote on
the ground as though he heard them not. Now, here's where these
fellas were at. They thought we've got the Lord
in an unwinnable situation. This woman's being caught, and
she's guilty. And if the Lord says, let her
go, where's your respect for God's law? Because God's law
said stone her. If he says stone her, we can say, well, you talk
about how merciful and gracious you are towards sinners. Where's
that? They thought they got him in
an O-M situation, and I love the way he answered them. He
said, he that's without sin among you. And I have no doubt he was talking
about this sin. Not just sin in a general way,
but this sin. He that's without sin among you,
let him cast the first stone at her. And beginning at the eldest to
the youngest, they put down their head and walked away. their conscience, not God the
Holy Spirit, their conscience convicting them. They knew, we're
being hypocrites, we've done this. Now if the Holy Spirit
would have convicted them, where would they have gone? They would
have gone to Christ, wouldn't they? But no, they went away. And the Lord
watched them walk away, and he said to that woman, woman, where
are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She
said, No man, Lord. And he said, Neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. Now why didn't
he condemn her? Because there was nothing there
to condemn her for, because of what he was doing for her. And
then he said in the very next verse, I am the light of the
world. Now when we're talking about
the inheritance of the saints in light, this great group delivered
from darkness, saved because of the darkness the Lord went
through. They're there for this one reason. Christ made them
fit. Now right now, I have all that,
I have all I'm ever going to have. You know I'm not any more
holy than I am right now. You say, that doesn't sound too
good. Well, it's because you don't
understand if that's the case. I have the righteousness of Christ.
I only know it by faith. I only know it by faith, but
I'm not going to get any more holy. I'm not going to get any
more righteous. It's called justification. That's what the Bible is all
about. That's what this book is about. How God can be just. absolutely holy and righteous,
and yet justify somebody that's guilty and sinful. Now, like
I said in Sunday school, if a human judge would say, after somebody
committed a crime, well, I'm loving, I'm going to forgive
you, we'd get rid of that judge. We'd get rid of him. He needs
to punish the guilty. That would be unjust. But God
has found a way to be just, and yet justify somebody like me. Now that's what the gospel is
all about. Because of the darkness the Lord went through. And what
was that darkness? He said, now is your hour in the power of
darkness. Men were left to what they wanted to do. They killed
the Son of God. The Son of God was in control
of it. It was His will being done. And what did He do in that
time of darkness? He drank the cup of God's wrath
Dry. He drank the cup of our sins
dry. He put them away so that I have
no guilt. Justification. If I'm justified,
that means I stand before God without sin, without iniquity. Perfect in God's sight. And even
when I'm saying that, while I'm saying to you, do you really
believe that? Do you really believe that you're perfect in God's
sight without sin? Perfectly righteous? Yes, I do. And I do because what Christ
did accomplished that. When he said, it is finished,
all my sin was taken away. And now I have everything that's
needed. Right now. It's not something
I'm looking for. I have everything that's needed
right now because of what Christ did for me to be a partaker of
the inheritance of the saints in light. Carla, your mother's experiencing
that right now. The inheritance of the saints
in light. But you know, she didn't get
anything new there. She just dropped her flesh. And
now it's part of the inheritance of the saints in light. Now, here's what I want to end
with. Christ said, now is your hour
and the power of darkness. And this is that time when He
experienced all the experience, beginning in Gethsemane, the
wrath of God, the putting away of sins, the Satan's temptations
and cruel insinuations, and the darkness of his disciples leaving
him alone, and him accomplishing salvation as the sinner's substitute.
Yet he says, now is your hour in the power of darkness, but
out of that darkness comes the light as to how God can accept
me. Now dare I believe that Jesus
Christ did this for me? Dare I believe that Jesus Christ
did this for me? Now let me say The Lord Jesus
Christ came for his people. Not everybody. His intention
was never to save everybody. If his intention was to save
everybody, everybody would be saved. He's God. He's incapable
of failure. His intention was to save his
people. Now shall I call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sin. He said, I came
down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him
that sent me. And this is the Father's will which sent me,
that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but
raise it up again at the last day. Christ's intention was to
save his people, the elect of God, those the Father gave him
before time began. Now, dare I, dare I, as sinful
and weak as I am. Dare I believe that he did this
for me? The Ethiopian eunuch asked the
same question. After he heard Philip preach
the gospel from Isaiah chapter 53, he said, What hinders me from being baptized? I want to know. Is there a reason
why I shouldn't? I can think of all kinds of reasons
in myself. Is there a reason why I shouldn't
be baptized? If there is a reason, I want
to know. What hinders me from being baptized? And Philip answered him with
a very clear answer. If you believe with all your heart, you may. What is the requirement for baptism? Believe. Now, here is the Enoch's answer. He said, I believe. First, I'm going to say what
he didn't say. I believe that Christ died for me. He didn't
say that. I believe that my sins are forgiven. He didn't say that.
I believe that I'm one of the elect. He didn't say that. I
believe that I've been born again. He didn't say that. What did
he say? And this is what faith is. So
you listen real carefully. He said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Faith is not believing you're
saved. Faith is believing He's the Savior,
the Son of God, the one who cannot fail. Do you believe that Jesus
Christ is God the Son? Do you believe He's God? Do you
believe He's the Creator? Do you believe that He's able
to save you with no help from you? I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. Dare I believe that what He did,
He did for me? Do you believe He's the Son of
God? Do you believe He's God the Son? Then beloved, He died
for you. And you are fit right now to
be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. All because of what He went through
in what He called your hour and the power of darkness. Don't
you just admire the Lord how He's in control of everything?
Even then He's controlling it all because He's God. May the Lord create faith in
each one of us. Let's pray together.