John's Gospel chapter 19. I want
to begin reading in verse 28 and finish that chapter. If you
don't have your Bible with you, you'll find one there in a pew.
It looks something like this. So please read along with me
if you don't have your Bible. I'll get you one there in the
pew. John chapter 19, and let's begin reading in verse 28. This
is concerning the crucifixion of our Lord. And after this,
Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the
scripture might be fulfilled, he said, I thirst. Now there
was set a vessel full of vinegar. They filled a sponge with vinegar
and put it upon hyssop and put it to his mouth. When Jesus,
therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished, and
bowed his head and gave up the ghost. The Jews, therefore, because
it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the
cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was an unhigh
Sabbath, besought Pilate that their legs might be broken and
that they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers and broke
the legs of the first and of the other, which were crucified
with him. But when they came to Jesus and
saw that he was dead already, they broke not his legs. But
one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and immediately
there came out blood and water. And he that saw it by a record,
and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true, that
ye might believe. For these things were done, that
the scriptures should be fulfilled, a bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith,
They shall look on him whom they pierced. And after this, Joseph
of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear
of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body
of Jesus. And Pilate gave him leave, and
he came therefore and took the body of Jesus. And there came
also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night,
and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound
weight. Then took they the body of Jesus
and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner
of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was
crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulcher
wherein never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore
because of the Jews' preparation day for the sepulcher was at
hand. My subject this morning that
I want you to think about with me for a few minutes this morning
is in the place where he was crucified. In the place where
he was crucified. Abraham was probably just turned
a hundred years old. And Sarah was 90 years old, and
they had a son by the name of Isaac. He was a promised child. God had promised them in their
old age that they would have a child. He was called the child
of promise. And he was probably around 16
years old when God spoke to Abraham. And God spoke directly to people
back then, to His prophets. He doesn't do that now. We have
His Word. So don't listen for his voice
except you've heard in his word. But he spoke to Abraham and he
said, Abraham, that son I just gave you, I want you to take
him. He's your only begotten son,
the one that you love dearly. I want you to take him to the
land of Moriah, to a mountain that I'll show you of. And I
want you to offer him there as a burnt offering to me. And Abraham
went about three days' journey, and the Lord showed him the mountain
that he was to offer his son upon. And he went up on top of
that mountain, and Isaac noticed they didn't have a sacrifice.
And he said, Father, here we have the fire, we have the wood,
but where is the sacrifice? God won't accept us without a
sacrifice. And Abraham said, My son, God
will provide Himself a lamb for a sacrifice. And just as Abraham
was ready to lower the knife into the heart of his son, God
spoke to him again and said, Don't lay a hand on him. Now
I know that you fear God. And he found a ram in the thicket
there up on top of that mountain. And he took Isaac off of the
altar and offered the ram in his stead. And it was sometime
around 1100 years after this David had sinned against the
Lord, and the chastened hand of the Lord had fallen upon Israel,
upon Jerusalem. And David prayed and sought the
Lord. And he saw the angel with his
sword, and he had slew thousands of the children of Israel. And
David went to a man by the name of Ornan. Ornan owned this mountaintop. Abraham had offered Isaac. He owned it. He had his threshing
floor set there because of the winds that blew on top of that
mountain. And David brought this spot of
land from Ornan and offered a sacrifice there to God that stayed the
judgment of God from the children of Israel. This is the same place
that Solomon built that beautiful temple. Then about 700 years
later, we come to my text. And lo and behold, the same place
that Abraham offered his sacrifice, the same place where the beautiful
temple was built, where blood sacrifices were offered, and
where God manifested his yacanta glory, the same place is in our
text that says, in the place where he was crucified. This
is the same mountain just outside the temple where they led the
Lord Jesus Christ, outside the old city walls of Jerusalem,
and they led Him up a steep hill to the place called Calvary,
the place of a skull, where sin offerings were offered from the
very beginning, offered in the temple, and God manifest His
glory. This is the place. where the
Lord Jesus was crucified. It was in the heart of God all
along. The place, in the place where
He was crucified. And just as God showed it to
Abraham, who had no idea what that place contained. And just
as God revealed it to David, here's where I'm going to build
my temple and sacrifice is going to be offered. It's the same
way today. Historically, we can look back
and know that the church's foundation is laid in the history of man,
there at the cross of Calvary. But you can't know it savingly,
apart from Revelation. Just as God said, go to that
mountain that I will show you of, Mount Calvary is a place
that has to be revealed to our hearts. There is where sin was
punished. There is where reconciliation
was made. There is the gate to heaven,
is it not? In the place where He was crucified. Crucifixion. That's a cruel term and it was
a cruel event. This was the cruelest way a person
could die. It wasn't invented by the Romans.
It was invented long before the Romans got a hold of it and used
it. They were hanging people on trees
in Moses' day. Saul, the king of Israel, the
first king of Israel, had seven sons, and the Bible says they
hang them up for seven days on that tree. It was a cruel way
to die. Of all the ways to die, you did
not want to be crucified. Usually, death came by suffocation. You had your hands raised and
nailed to a cross with spikes. You had your feet nailed to the
timber and you supported your body with your feet. And when
you became so weak that you could not hold your weight up any longer,
the diaphragm came up under your lungs and you suffocated. Usually
they beat you almost to death before they crucified you so
you wouldn't hang very long. They have record of men hanging
for two and three days upon the cross. Our Lord Jesus Christ
suffered crucifixion. He suffered crucifixion. Those two thieves that were crucified
of the Lord Jesus, they break their legs so they couldn't hold
up their weight so they would die quickly. Our Lord Jesus Christ
was on His second day without sleep. He had gone all day, he
had gone all night, and now it was in the evening of that second
day. The high priest had beat him
and mocked him. Pilate and Herod had taken their
soldiers and beat him and shamed him. His beard had been plucked
from his face. The furrows had been laid deep
in his back from the whip of the cat of nine tails. They plowed
up on my back, he said. They made deep their furrows.
I gave my back to the smiters and my cheek to them that plucked
off the hair. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting. He was crucified through weakness. They beat him almost to death
before they laid him out to crucify. The Bible says his vestige was
marred more than any man and his farm more than the sons of
man. He cried out in prophecy, Behold,
and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow that is done
unto me, wherewith God has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. We sing about it, don't we? We
often sing this song, Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, See him
dying on the tree, "'Tis the cross by man rejected, yes, my
soul, "'tis he, tis he. "'Tell me, you who hear him groaning,
"'was there ever grief like his? "'Friends through fear his cause
disowning, "'foes insulting his distress. "'Many of hands were
raised to wound him, "'none would interpose to save, "'but the
deepest stroke that pierced him "'was the stroke that justice
gave. He came to that place, ordained
of God, and there he was crucified. And there he died. In the place
where he was crucified. But here in our text, I want
us to notice some things. And these things that I see here
suggest some things to our thoughts about the place where he was
crucified. And I want you to notice the
first thing is here in verse 41. In the place where he was
crucified, there was a garden. Now, if you ask me what in the
world a garden was doing in the place where they crucified people,
the only answer I would have to give you is God ordained it
to be this way. In the garden where He was crucified,
in the place where He was crucified, there was a garden. And when
you think of a garden, what do you think of? What does that
suggest to your thoughts? Doesn't it suggest fruit? Fruit. The first time we ever read that
this word was used in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 2. where
the Lord God Himself planted a garden eastward in Eden, and
He put the man and woman that He had made in that garden to
dress it. And here's what He said, The Lord God made to grow out
of the ground every tree that was pleasant to the sight and
good for food. God planted that garden with
the intent of that garden producing fruit. And He said to Adam and
Eve, of all the fruit of these trees you may freely eat of. All the trees, it seemed to me
like, produced fruit. There was enough fruit, quality
of fruit, and quantity of fruit, and variety of fruit. Adam and
Eve did not have to leave that garden to have their lives sustained. Healthy lives. Enduring lives. And brothers and sisters, I'm
just saying to you this morning, if God planted a garden and filled
it with fruit, don't you think this garden where our Lord was
crucified suggests that the death of Jesus Christ will indeed produce
fruit? He did not die in vain, did He? There's a garden in the place
where He was crucified. If you need food this morning
to sustain your soul, I'll tell you where you can find it. In
a garden where He was crucified. If you need nourishment for your
spirit this morning, I can tell you where you can find it. And
you don't have to go any place else to get it. And that's Mount
Calvary. My flesh is meat indeed, and
my blood is drink indeed. Everything that you and I need
to nourish us is found here at Calvary. We're going to come
here in a few minutes and celebrate our Lord's death. And He gave
us this for one reason, to remember me by. We should always be going
to the cross, brothers and sisters, glorying in the cross. Obtain
His strength and help from the cross. Have you sinned? Oh, here's
a place of worship. Everything we need is found in
the place where He was crucified, in the garden. Listen to Isaiah
53, 10. When thou shalt make His soul,
then offer Him for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong
His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His
hand. If somebody would ask me this
morning what the Lord purposed in the death of Jesus Christ,
I would answer that simply this way. What's He doing? What's
He been doing now for 2,000 years? You know what He's been doing?
Well, I'll tell you the first thing He did. The first fruit
of His death was His resurrection and His exaltation in heaven. He humbled himself and became
obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God
has highly exalted him. That's icing on the cake, isn't
it? You may make a cake and not have any icing on it, and we
can eat it. But I'm telling you, this cake has some icing on it.
And what's the icing? His resurrection. He is exalted
from the dead. He is at God's right hand to
plead for those who come to God by Him and to save to the uttermost
those who believe on Him. Fruit. John Gill had this to
say about the fruit of Christ's death. He said, by the death
of our Savior, sin was atoned for. Sin has been purged from
the very courts of heaven and from the conscience of every
believing sinner. Gill said this, the law with
all of its strict demands has been fulfilled. The verse that
I just read to you, it's finished. What's finished? Everything that
the law demanded to be done, it's finished. Christ finished
it. Brother Gill said this, justice is satisfied. Reconciliation
has been made. Security from condemnation has
been obtained. There's no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus. Then everlasting righteousness
has been brought in to give to every believing sinner. Death
has been abolished. Some of you are sitting here
this morning. You're the fruit of Christ's labor. You're here
this morning and you've been granted repentance. You're here
this morning and He's given you grace to believe on Him. You're
living and you'll die with a good hope. Why? Because the Lord Jesus
Christ suffered for you. He died for you. And you're the
fruit of His labor. John saw a great number in heaven
that nobody could number of every kindred and tongue and nation.
And the angel said, Who are these people? And John said, I don't
know. How did they get here? And the
angel answered him. Remember? That great number,
that no man can number, that's populated heaven of glorified
humanity. How did they get there? They
washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. If you ask me this morning, If
there's anything that comes out of the death of Christ, I would
answer it this way. Everything that God purposed
comes out of His death. Did it not? If you're here this
morning, I want to be as frank as I can be with this. If you're
here this morning and you say, well, I believe that Jesus Christ
died. I believe that He made atonement. I believe He rose again. But
I'm not for sure if anybody will be saved in the light of that.
I'm not for sure if any good is going to come out of it. It's
all still up in the air. We're waiting to see what man
can do. If you believe that, keep that to yourself, would
you? We don't believe such a thing here. We believe here that when
God saw the travail of his soul, God said, I'm satisfied. And
every elect sinner that God has chosen to life eternal will be
humbled and brought to repentance and brought to faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus made two statements.
He said, all the Father gives to me shall come to me. Then
he went right on in the same message and said, no man can
come to me except my Father which sent me draw him. And in the
death of Christ, the suffrage of Christ, it's amazing that
as soon as we see him hang on this tree, this drawing power
begins. Even in his death, it started. Remember the thief on the cross? Man, he cussed the Lord. Speaking
down to Him. If you're the Christ, why don't
you save yourself and us? If you're the Christ, you say
you're the Son of God. And He was so angry and ready
to die and go to hell. And His heart was opened. God
was drawing this man. He was opening His heart to know
who that was on that middle cross. And He looked over at him. And
He said, Lord, remember Me when You come into Your Kingdom. What
is that? That's the fruit. That's the
garden that was there in the place where He was crucified.
And you've got these two men that we read about and Brother
Larry read about. Joseph of Arimathea. He was a
secret disciple because he feared the Jews. But I'm telling you,
when he saw the Lord lifted up and knew that the Master had
died, you know what he said? I can't be a secret disciple
anymore. I'm coming out. And not only
does he go to Pilate and request the body of the Lord, he goes
and begs that body. He's unashamed and he goes to
the cross and begins to take it down right in front of those
Pharisees and those scribes. And here comes Nicodemus. Remember
Nicodemus? He was a man who came to the
Lord Jesus by night. One of the reasons, because he
was ashamed. And remember what the Lord Jesus
told him? As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And Nicodemus
could not understand that. How can these things be, he said? But here he is with Joseph of
Marmathead. They're taking this body down.
And he sees the Son of God lifted up. And he says, now I understand. Now I know what my Savior meant
when He said, as Moses lifted up the serpent. And I'm telling
you, if Nicodemus never believed before, he believes now. Jesus
was lifted up on the cross of Calvary. And here's the fruit
of it. The fruit of it began even in
His dying hours. A garden. A garden. It's all your hope in the death
of Christ. It's all your hope in the person of Christ. Is He
your salvation? Well, soul, if He is, then you've
got a good hope. That's where real hope is, isn't
it? And I'm telling you this morning, if you're in Christ,
if your heart is fully trusting the Savior, there's no way possible
that you're going to be lost. You've been reconciled to God.
God is not angry with you anymore. And heaven's door is waiting
to receive you. That's the fruit of His labor. And if one of those for whom
Christ suffered and died would ever be lost again, then all
of us could be lost again. Oh, there's the fruit. He accomplished
something in His death, did He not? In the place where He was
crucified, There was a garden. There is something else here
in verse 40 that suggests something to our minds. Look what he said
in verse 40. Then took they the body of Jesus,
and wound it in linen clothes, with spices, as the manner of
the Jews were to bury. Linen clothes. They came here
with linen clothes. They had stripped the Lord Jesus
naked. He hanged naked upon the cross
of Calvary. He didn't have a stitch of clothes
on. He was exposed to shame and nakedness. And when they took
his body down, they wound it in these linen clothes. Now, what does that suggest to
your mind? Doesn't that give you a thought
or two? They wound him in this pure white
linen. And this pure white linen in
the scriptures represents purity. It represents cleanliness, holiness. When God told Moses to make garments
for the priests to wear, He told them to make it out of linen
and He called them the holy garments. They were pure white garments. Here, brothers and sisters, is
a mystery. And I don't want us to err in
this. Here is a mystery. On the cross
of Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took all of the
sins of every elect person and buried those sins in his own
body on the tree. All we let sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way. And God hath laid on
him the iniquity of us all. I had a dear friend of mine tell
me one time he didn't believe that it was possible to transfer
sins. It is impossible for us to do
it, but not for God to do it. And if He leaves our sins on
us, what happens to us? We die. If He takes our sins
from us and puts them on Jesus, then we live. Because when He
takes our sin, He takes our sin and all the consequences. When
you look at the Lord Jesus Christ, what do you see? You see sin. Look at Him hanging on the cross.
What do you see? He took our sins and made them
His very own, the psalmist says. And what did he do? He suffered
the consequences. All you see in Christ when you
look at Him from one direction is sin and guilt and wrath and
death and all the horrible things that belong to you and to me.
I want you to hold this and let me show you that in Psalm chapter
69. Look in Psalm 69. This is a psalm. We call them a messianic psalm
because it's about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about Him. In
Psalms chapter 69 in verse 9, the zeal of thine house has eaten
me up. That's what our Lord said in
John chapter 2 in verse 17. In verse 21, they gave me gall
for my meat, in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. We
just read that, didn't we? This is concerning. This is the
Word of the Lord Jesus Christ. With that in mind, look at verse
5 through verse 7. O God, Thou knowest my foolishness,
and my sins are not hid from Thee. Now, is that Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, talking? It is. Isn't that a mystery? Was he foolish? Why, he is called
the wisdom of God. This word sin means guilt. You know my foolishness and my
guilt is not hid from thee. When he took our sins, brothers
and sisters, he made them his own. And he felt the weight of
them. He felt the guilt of them. And
he calls them his. And then he suffered all the
consequences of it. And look what he said in verse
6. Let not them that wait on Thee, O Lord of hosts, be ashamed
for My sake. Let not those that seek Thee
be confounded for My sake, O God of Israel, because for Thy sake
I have borne reproach. Shame has covered My face." When
you look at the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross of Calvary, you
see Him with your sins. Burn your guilt. Burn your shame. Burn the judgment of God. We
must look at Him that direction. But here is where we must be
careful. We must see Him also in another
direction from another aspect. And that is this. While He took
our sins and bore the consequence of them, He never ceased to be
what He was. Holy. righteous, purity, the
just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. When the Lord
Jesus Christ came down from heaven, the Son of God, and took our
humanity to Himself, He never ceased to be what He was when
He came down from heaven, did He? He was that holy thing. And on the cross of Calvary when
He took the sins of His people and bore all the consequence,
He never ceased to be what He always was. holy, harmless, undefiled,
and separate from sinners. The Bible says that he offered
himself without spot to God. That is the way I see that passage
of the Scripture that says Jesus Christ was made sin who knew
no sin. You look at Him from this direction,
all you see is sin. You look at Him from this direction,
all you see is holiness. That pure and white Wonderful thought, isn't it? Even in His death, the Lord Jesus
Christ was a law keeper. He never had any sins of His
own. He could not sin. All He did, He pleased the Father
in Him. He kept the law from the time
that He was born They circumcised him at eight days old. They offered
a sacrifice because that's what the law required. And now, even
in his death, after he dies, he's still fulfilling the law.
You say, Bruce, what do you mean? Why did they take him down from
the cross? Because it was the Sabbath day coming. The next
day was the Sabbath. And the law said, if a man commit
a crime, And you hang him on the tree, don't leave him overnight. And especially on the Sabbath
day. And you know, it's a very strange thing. The Jews very
seldom practiced this. They left Saul's sons on trees
for seven days. They very seldom practiced this
at all. But when it comes to the death
of Christ, boy, he practiced it. We talk about law keeping. Does
anybody here this morning can say, I keep the law of God perfectly? Here's one who did. Christ did. Lo, I come, in the volume of
the book it's written of me, to do thy will, yea, thy law
is within my heart. The law that said, love the Lord
your God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself.
Do you love your neighbor as yourself? I got a little tie
clip this morning, and it don't have Wayne's name on it. It don't
have Jim's name on it. It's got Bruce Crabtree on it. Who do I love? I love me. I can't
help it. I've got my dear neighbors here
this morning. They can bear witness to this.
They seldom see me. I see myself all the time. I
love myself. And most of the time we're ashamed
of ourselves because we love ourselves. But I'll tell you
one who did love God. From the first breath that he
took from his mother's belly until he said, it's finished.
I'll tell you somebody who loved God with all of his heart and
fulfilled the law to every minute detail. And that's Jesus of Nazareth,
the Son of God. He died and they wrapped him
in this pure white linen. Why? Because he was still pure.
He was holy, harmless, and undefiled. To her was granted that she should
be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen
is the righteousness of saints. The third thing and the last
thing is here in verse 39 and 40, here's something that suggests
some thoughts to our minds. In verse 39, it said this, There
came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus the night,
and brought a mixture of myrrh and of those about an hundred
pound weight. Man, that's a lot, isn't it?
And they took the body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes
with the spices as the manner of the Jews were to bury. They buried King Asa. The Jews
loved him and the Bible says they buried him in his own sepulcher
in Jerusalem and they laid him in the bed of spices filled with
sweet odors and different kinds of fragrances. That was the manner
of the Jews to bury. They wrapped them in these sweet
spices, this aroma. Can you imagine when they had
finished wrapping our Lord in all of those spices and they
put it along the sides and they put it on His head and His feet
and they laid Him there and sealed that sepulcher up. Can you imagine
the sweet aroma that was in that place? When that angel came and
rolled back that stone, the aroma that came out of that place was
so inviting. You know something, brothers
and sisters? The Lord Jesus Christ has taken
the sting away from death. There is no sting there anymore.
There is nothing to be afraid of there anymore. invited those women to come and
see the place where he lay. Go down in that sepulcher. There
is no stench of death there. Only the sweet aroma. There is
nothing there to harm you. Don't be afraid, they told her.
Do you think if there was anything to be afraid of, those angels
would have told those timid women to go down in that grave? There
is nothing there but a sweet smelling savory. And what does
this tell us? This tells us that when the Lord
Jesus Christ offered Himself to God, He was a sweet smelling
aroma. God loved it. That was the most God-like thing
that could ever be done. One man laying his life down
to save others from their sin. And God looked upon His Son and
said, Son, I am overjoyed. My heart is bubbling over. I
love you for what you are doing. You remember when the flood was
over and Noah had landed upon the Mount Ariat and he took those
clean beasts and he just threw them on the altar, cut their
throats and threw them on the altar and set them ablaze. And
God smelled a sweet savor and said, I will never curse again.
And when the Lord Jesus died and took our sins away and reconciled
us to the Father in Heaven, the Father in Heaven said, I'll never
curse again. You know what we are to the Father
in Heaven? We are sweet saver of Christ. You know how God looks upon you,
dear child of God, when you come into His presence to pray and
you seek His face? You think you're ugly? You think
you're guilty before God? I tell you, you're not. You're
beautiful. You're in the image of God's
dear Son who bled and died for you. And you smell just like
Him. The sweet fragrance of Christ
is upon you. Just as if you were walking down
in that tomb and smelling that sweet aroma. Your sweet fragrance
of Christ. Isn't that wonderful? While you
think you're so ugly, you cast contempt upon yourself, here's
the Father looking upon you and saying, you look just like my
son. I am so satisfied with you. I am so pleased with you. Sweet
smelling savor. Something else that this suggests
to our thoughts, though, and that's this, that when they laid the dead
body of our Lord Jesus in the tomb, it took away the sting
out of death. It took the victory out of the
grave. It made death a blessing. I've lived now. The Lord saved
me in 1973. What's that been, 51 years ago? And He's given me grace to understand
the gospel. He's given me grace to believe
it. And you know something? I'm not afraid of dying anymore.
I'm not afraid of death anymore. It's a blessing. You know what
death is? It's the door. It's the entryway
to the physical presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ made
it a blessing. You lay your body down and that
body will never know a thing or feel a thing until the day
of the resurrection when it's made new. Paul said it like this, didn't
he? I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ. Paul,
you're not afraid of dying? No, I'm not afraid of dying. My Savior's died in my stead.
He's took the sting out. A sweet smelling aroma. Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord, that they may rest from their labor. You afraid of dying? Some of
God's children are afraid of death. But it's because of a
weak understanding It's because of weakness of their faith. But
the reality is, if Jesus Christ went down into that tomb and
came out and exalted to heaven, then He left nothing in there
to hurt us. Brother Larry read it to us this
morning when those ladies came to the grave and that angel asked
them, Why are you seeking the living among the dead? He's not here. He's risen. He's at the right hand of our
Father. One last scripture I want you
to turn and we'll close in Hebrews chapter 2. One of the things
that kept me up fearing, especially every night before I went to
sleep, before the Lord saved me, I feared that I was going
to die. And that scared me to death.
And I made all kinds of promises and I lived to break them. Until
the Lord gave me grace to see what Christ had did. And look
here what He says in Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14. For as
much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death He might destroy him that had the power of death, the power
to hold it over our heads, to intimidate us with it. That is
the devil. And deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a faithful and merciful high priest in thanks
pertaining to God to make reconciliations for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to
aid and secure them that are tempted." He took the sting of
death. He took the victory from the
grave. And now you don't have to fear.
Isn't that wonderful? People's a much better preacher
than I am, but they don't have any better gospel than I've got.
It removes fear in only the gospel. If you're here and you're outside
of Christ, you better be afraid. But if you're here and you're
in Christ, we can lay our loved ones down without finally just despairing, because
they have hope. in Jesus our Lord. Father, we
thank you. Thank you for this precious gospel.
Thank you for these words. Thank you for what you've done.
Everywhere in these passages that's been read to us this morning,
we're told that you've finished the work. That the work is done. Now all we do is believe you.
And thank you for grace for doing it. For giving us grace to believe
you. Thank You for this, dear people.
Lord, make Your Word effectual. For Your glory we ask these things.
Amen. 223. See if we can sing this
a cappella, because I don't know if I can sing this too. 223.
Stand with me. And let's sing this together. 223. We may just sing a couple of
hymns, a couple of verses. 223. Arise, my soul, arise. Shake off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my
behalf appears. Before the throne my surety stands,
My name is written on His hands, My name is written on His hands. He ever lives above, for me to
intercede, His all-redeeming love, His precious blood to plead,
His blood atoned for all our race, and sprinkles now the throne
of grace, and sprinkles now the throne of grace. I'd bleed in wounds He bears,
Received on Calvary. They poor effectual prayers,
They strongly plead for me. Forgive him, O forgive, they
cry, Nor let that ransomed sinner die, Nor let that ransomed sinner
die. The Father hears him pray, His
dear anointed One. He cannot turn away the presence
of His Son. His Spirit answers to the blood
and tells me I am born of God, and tells me I am born of God. My God is reconciled, His pardoning
voice I hear, He owns me as His child, I can no longer fear. With confidence I now don't die,
and Father, Abba, Father, cry, and Father, Abba, Father, cry. Brethren, come and pass out the
elements, would you?