God's Glory in the Accomplishment of Salvation #2

Review: Defining God's Glory and Man's Desperate Need

0:02 Now those of you who were with us last evening will know that tonight is really the last half of last night's sermon and then half of what would have been tonight's sermon. But as we began to study the scriptures together, the Lord was pleased to enlarge our hearts and to give us a little glimpse of the glory of himself against the backdrop of our own desperate need. And for those who were not with us, I should just say that the subject matter assigned to me for my two messages in this special and very wonderful week of celebration is the rather lengthy title, The Glory of God in the Accomplishment and in the Application of Redemption. And what I attempted to do last night in the space of about an hour and five or ten minutes, was two things. Number one, to give you a working definition of the key words in that theme. There's no use talking about the glory of God in the accomplishment and the application of redemption if those words mean nothing to us.

1:15 And what we saw from the scriptures was that the glory of God is nothing more or less than the outshining of God's perfection. God's glory is to his person. What the rays and beams of the sun are to the sun. And so we are concerned in these nights to fix our attention upon the glory of God, the outshining of God's perfection, particularly in his work of redemption.

1:49 That means his work of grace and power in delivering sinners from sin and its consequences through the payment of a price. And we're going to consider that mighty work in two aspects. Its accomplishment and its application. Its accomplishment is what God did in the life history of Jesus of Nazareth, the son of God.

2:18 Its application is what God does in the life history of a sinner. From the time he lays hold of that sinner, calls him into his state, his grace, all the way to the point where he glorifies that sinner at the last day. And so we are concerned to understand from scripture how God's glory, God's perfection, shine out of his work in the life history of Jesus, in procuring, securing, redemption for people, and in the life history of the sinner. And then the second thing I attempted to do was to give you an accurate picture of the backdrop of God's work of redemption accomplished and applied. I used the imagery of the diamond that shines most brilliantly against the dark backdrop of black velvet. And unless we see the dark backdrop of man's prudence, we will never appreciate the glory of God in his redemption. And we saw our condition under four headings.

3:38 It's the condition that I described from the scriptures as the frightening reality of human guilt. Our guilt is like a vast, dark, present cloud hanging over our heads, waiting to break upon us and press us into hell. Our guilt is like a vast, dark, present cloud hanging over our heads, waiting to break upon us and press us into hell. Our terrible, sinful state can be likened to a sickening reality of our human defilement.

4:08 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And then it is to be seen in the withering reality of human bondage. Who so commits sin, Jesus said, is the very slave of sin. And then the humbling reality of spiritual death.

4:27 You have been made alive, who were dead in your trespasses and in your sins. And we will never appreciate the brightness of the outshining of God's glory in redemption of conflict in a plight unless we are taught by the word and the spirit just how bad we are. For God's redemption is designed not for people who just have a little kink, For God's redemption is designed not for people who just have a little kink, or wrinkle in their humanity, it's designed for people under real guilt, with real defilement, with real bondage, and real death. And if we would seek on slowly in delivering us out of that guilt, out of that defilement, out of that bondage, and out of that death, then we must take seriously what the Scripture tells us. Well, then, someone may ask if we move on into our study tonight, why in the world be excited about the glory of God in the first place? Aren't there a lot of other things that we ought to be more concerned about? Well, I want to introduce our study tonight by saying very simply, if you're not

The Necessity of Delight in God's Glory

5:46 fascinated and turned on and captivated by the glory of God, heaven would be hell to you. You say, prove that from the Bible. All right, I'll do that. Turn to Revelation 21, and verse 22 tells us, as John has a vision of what heaven is like, I saw no temple therein, John 21, 22, I'm sorry, Revelation 21, 22, I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb are the temple therein.

6:26 And the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb, and the nation shall walk amidst the light thereof. Walk in the light of what? In the light of that which is the light of heaven, and what is the light of heaven? The glory of God.

6:57 The only light needed in heaven is the outshining of the protections of God. That's what's going to lighten heaven, and there'll be no night. That will be the joy of all the redeemed in heaven, is to behold God's glory and the glory of the Lamb. And if you have no delight in beholding that glory now, there's no proof that death will make any change if you have any delight to behold it in that place.

God's Glory in Redemption Accomplished: The Brightest Display

7:27 So now, having put that brief review behind us, and I hope convinced you of how important is the subject, now we come to consider tonight, in a very condensed form, the glory of God in redemption accomplished. That will be our first test. And secondly, the glory of God in redemption applied. Now remember what we're concerned to do. We want to discover what perfection is. The glory of God shines out from that work that God did in the life history of Jesus. Well, in a real sense, the work of Christ for sinners forms the brightest display of God's glory ever made in the universe. God displayed His glory in the original creation.

8:22 The heavens declare the glory of God. He displayed the outshining of His glory. 구요 His power, of His goodness, of His love. But the greatest display of God's glory ever made in the universe was made in the person and work of Christ and in particular in His work of dying upon the cross. Every attribute of God finds its clearest and most moving and powerful accelerated creation forever. In this new salvation, where Yeshua over era is now, king of nations, spy of all nations… every subordinate brother our God of our day of truth, is our king upon whom we have come, our king of kingdom and transcendent children. And Christ is the king of kings. We see in Jesus Jesus who will be Corinthians of Israel, powerful expressions in the midst of the blood and the torment and the agony and the blackened heavens of Golgotha. There the brightest displays of God's glory that has ever been made were

9:13 made. We might think of the glory of his love in determining to redeem an innumerable company of hell-deserving sinners. We might contemplate the glory of that love. God so loved the world, a world of rebels, guilty, defiled, polluted, found, dead, sinners, that which would make God want to wreck as he looked upon us. But he so loved that he was determined to spend his only begotten son for such. Sinners as he determined in eternity he would save by his grace. We might meditate upon the glory of his love in redemption accomplished. We might meditate upon the glory of his wisdom in ever conceiving such a plan. Think of the wisdom that was needed to resolve this problem.

The Glory of God's Justice in Christ's Obedience

10:18 A holy God made man and said to man, you're accountable. If you disobey me and break my law, I must punish you. Because I'm God, I keep my word. I will not clear the guilty. I will punish sin. Man, the sinner, is found in his sin, dead in his sin, chained to his sin. Can he help himself? No. God is holy. Can he simply turn his back and say, well, I didn't see it? Can he simply blink man's sin away? No. That would say he's got this.

10:52 Well, how? How can something be done to rescue man, the sinner, without shaming the honor of God who is holy and just and righteous? And that's the problem that God's wisdom is on. The wisdom of God went to work and conceived the inconceivable. One of the persons of the Godhead. It is determined that one of the persons of the Godhead. It is determined that one of the persons of the Godhead shall become a man without in any way relinquishing anything that he is his God. He would take to himself a human soul and a human body. And the offended God would send one of the persons of the Godhead to take our humanity. And in that humanity to live and to die, to satisfy all the demands

11:51 of justice, that God might be a just God. That God might still pardon sinners and then send another person of the Godhead to open the blind sinner's eyes, to snap his chains, to give him a new heart. Oh, what wisdom is displayed in the gospel. And we might meditate on it, but I don't have time to. But what I want to do tonight is I want us to meditate on just one beam of glory that shines in the accomplishments of redemption. Not the glory of his love, though that's there. Not the glory of his wisdom, though that's there. For Christ is called the wisdom of God, and in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. But I want us to focus on the most neglected aspect of God's

12:43 glory in the accomplishments of redemption. And you know what it is? It is the glory of his justice. We're going to meditate for the next fifteen or twenty minutes.

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13:29 that every single segment of the human race is under sin, all humanity is under condemnation, now he's going to begin to expound the gospel, God's answer to the problem of human sin. And when he does, we pick up the reading at Romans 3.23, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace, notice now, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God sets forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to show his righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime in the forbearance of God, for the show. Knowing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season, that he might himself be just and the justifier of him that has faith in Jesus. Now I don't have time, and it would be impossible to break it down to the place where the children could grasp this closely wreathed thread of thought,

14:53 but surely this much is clear to the youngest of you children, that when Paul starts to expound the gospel, he says the gospel of redemption in Jesus Christ has to do with God finding a way to justify sinners and still be just himself. You see that? That he might be just and the justifier of him that has faith in Jesus. The heart of the gospel is the revelation, the revelation of the glory of God's justice.

15:30 God does not rub out his justice in order to save sinners. He magnifies his justice in the salvation of sinners. Now think of the problem. God is the judge of the world.

15:49 Man as his creature. God says, Obey me and you will be blessed. Disobey me and you will suffer the consequences of death. We saw last night that in Adam we all sinned.

16:07 We've added to that original sin our own personal sins, and we are guilty. And yet God is determined that out of the human race he will take a vast multitude whom no man can number, out of every kindred tribe and tongue and nation, and he will forgive them. He will redeem them. He will make them his own.

16:29 But now how is he going to do it? How can he do it in such a way that every last drop and tittle of his law will have its full demand met, and yet the sinner go free? We've sinned thousands and thousands of times. How can God punish those sins and still not send us all to hell?

16:55 How can he be a just God and punish sin, and yet accept and forgive sinners? Can he simply wave his hand? No. Because his justice would be crying out, O God, the sinner must be punished.

17:11 You said the wages of sin is death. You will by no means clear the guilty. You are to arise and to look upon iniquity. So what does God do?

17:22 In infinite love and dispute, God sends his only begotten Son. And what does he do? Turn to Galatians chapter 4 for the answer. In Galatians chapter 4, the Lord Jesus, the eternal Son of God who came from heaven, taking to himself in Mary's womb a true human soul and a true human spirit, ever continuing what he always had been, God of God, but now taking something he never had before, a true humanity.

18:01 And in the mystery of the person of Jesus, the two distinct natures in the one person, in Mary's womb, there is a real human baby. At the time when a baby's birth has the signs of the fuddling of life, Mary with excitement ran to Joseph out in the carpenter's shop and said, Joseph, Joseph, I felt white. And as his tummy began to swell and the little baby Jesus would poke an elbow and kick and do a flip-flop, he'd say, Joseph, Joseph, come and see it. I think it's his elbow.

18:36 I think it's his foot. God, God, God encased in the womb of a little peasant girl in Judea. And yet, that God is taking a real humanity. And when he's brought forth, don't believe that sister's fondness says, the cattle are lowing, the poor babe awake, but the little pure Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.

19:01 That's a lot of baloney. When the cows woke him up, he cried, like any baby. He was a real baby who cried like any baby. And think of, think of the God who had the wisdom enough to design the universe.

19:22 He had to learn his people, learn his people alphabet, alleth, faith, innu, alleth, e, z, zayin, hate, death, your cost. Yes, he had to learn his alphabet, had to learn how to tie his sandals. He had to learn everything you and I have to learn. He was a real human being.

19:43 And yet, this was God. This was God. This was man. God and man in one person.

19:48 And what was the condition in which he came? Galatians chapter four tells us, look at it. Galatians chapter four tells us, look at it. Galatians four and verse four.

19:57 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, a true humanity, born under the law. That's the key phrase. Who gave the law to man that said this do and you shall live? This fail to do and you shall die?

20:22 It was God who gave the law. Now God in the person of Jesus puts himself under the law. He obligates himself to keep the Ten Commandments perfectly. In addition to that, he obligates himself to keep all of the Mosaic law, all of the directives given by God through Moses.

20:47 He was made under the law. Think of it now. From the first time Jesus could sing, and Mary said to him, no, Jesus, you must not touch that. Never once did he look over his shoulder and when she wasn't looking, reached out and touched it.

21:05 Never once. Never once. Never once when she'd take some fresh cookies and said, now, Jesus, we're having company tonight, and we're sitting before the company. Don't you touch them.

21:16 And she went out in the backyard to hang up the clothes and never once did Jesus look around and see those cookies and have his mouth watered and take even a piece off one of them in disobedience to his mommy Mary. Never once. Never once. And from Scripture it's evident he became part of a large family as Mary and Joseph had other children.

21:37 Never once did he ever pull his sister's hair and say, yeah, yeah, got you backwards, you got even. Never once. Never once. As a little boy, never once did he tell a lie.

21:51 When he was out playing with the kids, he fell down and scraped his knee. He came in in pride and bled like any ordinary kid, but never once did he ever turn around and stick his tongue out at a kid and say, I'll get even with you. Think of it. Think of it.

22:07 Growing up in a large family, I'm one of ten, and we were reared for the most part in a six-room house until my dad and I built a two-room addition when the last couple ones came along. And all of the tension that can come, never once did Jesus speak a mean word. Never once did he do a selfish thing in that poor home where perhaps food was limited. Never once did he reach into the dish first and take more than what was his food.

22:34 He was born under that law that demanded perfect love to God and perfect love to his fellow man. Never once did he live through any day as a little boy and on into pre-puberty and on into his teenage years. Never once did he allow any person or thing to take the place in his heart belonging only to his father. He loved his father with his whole heart, mind and soul and strength every day of his boyhood, every day of his pre-puberty, every day of his early manhood.

23:10 And when he saw the other kids around him beginning to fill their hearts with the idols of popularity, when he saw them beginning to fill their hearts with the idol of the pursuit of things and pleasure, never once did one little square centimeter in the heart of Jesus allow anything to rob that heart of perfect love to his father. Every Sabbath day that came he kept God's special day wholly unto the Lord, not trudgingly. He delighted in the special privileges of that day. Never once did he ever take the name of his father in vain.

23:53 He kept those first four commandments perfectly every moment of every day, every hour, every week, every year, all the way through infancy, pre-puberty, teenage, young manhood. Never once, never once did he dishonor father and mother. Never once did he think a lustful, saucy Jesus was not a sexless man. He was a true man.

24:19 He wasn't a eunuch. Never once did he think a lustful thought. Never once did he make an impure gesture, a suggestive action. Never once did he touch forbidden flesh.

24:33 Never once did he take anyone's possessions that were not his. Never once did he keep back anything that was owed to another. Never once did he ever speak a word that even adjusted the truth one degree from death. He never bore a false witness.

24:53 Never once was there a covetous thought in his heart. He could see a kid on the block that had a brand new wife, and he didn't look out his window and drool in his heart with covetousness and envy. Never once he was made under the law, and he kept that law so perfectly that when he became a full grown man at age thirty, he stood in the Jordan waters to be baptized. And what did the Father say out of heaven?

25:23 This is my beloved Son in whom I am one. Well, please, think of it. In a sense, the Father was giving Jesus a report card for the first thirty years of his life. And he said straight A pluses.

25:44 This is my Son, my beloved one. He's come to manhood, and now he's going to embark upon his mission publicly and visibly as the savior of sinners. He undergoes a sinner's ordinance, baptism, to identify himself with sinners. And the Father speaks out of heaven and says, This my Son, made under my law, has perfectly, completely, continually kept my law.

26:14 Every breath, every motion, every action, every word, every deed, I am well pleased with him completely. The eye of God that can see down to the last atom of a man's soul showered the soul of Jesus and couldn't find an atom of sin. Not an atom of thought or desire. He was completely pleased with him.

26:43 Made under the law, he perfectly kept that law until he was ready to be launched into his ministry. Now, when he was launched into his ministry, what did he say? Read the Gospels and you see. He faced tremendous demands upon him.

27:02 We read, and I'm preaching through the Gospel of Mark to my own people, and I've been amazed at the selfless, energetic abandonment of Jesus to the work of the Father. He's found up early in the morning praying Mark 1.35. After he's been up healing until well after sundown the night before, he starts off on a vacation with the disciples and says, let's come apart and rest a while.

27:29 And by the time they get across the lake, a crowd meets them, and what does Jesus do? He comes forth and ministers to them. And all the pressures made upon him, never once did he get irritated and say, I'm tired of all these demands. I can't act it anymore.

27:46 And then he had a bunch of disciples who were really spiritually sick in the beginning. I mean, they were sick. But, oh, how he was patient. And though he had to rebuke them and admonish them, never was there a peevish anger.

28:03 Never was there a carnal irritation. Never once. And all the way through, his selfless preaching and teaching and healing and guiding and counseling the disciples, he comes near to the end of his earthly ministry. And he can say in John 17, Father, I've finished the work you gave me to do.

28:27 I do always the things that please my cause. You say, Pastor Martin, you just got carried away talking about Jesus and forgot your subject. No, I didn't. I'm right on track, friends.

28:40 I'm right on track. Right on track. I know right where I'm going. Stay with me.

28:44 We're going to consider the glory of God and the glory of God's justice in the accomplishment of redemption. And what am I doing? I'm trying to describe to you what it means that Jesus was a real man made under God's law. And in that real humanity as a boy, a young man, a man, a full-grown man, he perfectly kept that law.

29:08 Every single demand of it, every single prohibition of it, in all its length and breadth and depth, Jesus fully kept that law. And then, having fully kept that law in his life so that he has in himself a perfect righteousness worked out by his obedience, the time now comes when in a very special way he's going to take the punishment for those who didn't do what he did. He's going to take the punishment for those who didn't keep the law and who are they? The people who fell in Adam, who have added to our original sin, our own personal sins, and have a mountain of guilt. The time is coming when though through all of his life there is a sense in which he was the sin-bearer, John 1.29, behold the Lamb, who is bearing, present tense, who is bearing away the sin of the world. It comes to a concentrated focus when he walks into that place called the Garden of Gethsemane.

The Glory of God's Justice in Christ's Suffering: Gethsemane and the Cross

30:20 And what does the Scripture tell us when he enters that garden? The Scripture tells us he began to be sorrowful and very heavy. A new weight began to press in upon the soul of Jesus when he entered into the Garden of Gethsemane. Turn, please, in your Bibles, with me to Matthew 26 and verse 36.

30:55 Then cometh Jesus with them to a place called Gethsemane and saith to his disciples, Sit here while I go yonder and pray. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and sore or deeply troubled or agitated. You see what's happening? Something new is being pressed in upon the soul of Jesus.

31:21 He begins to enter a realm of trouble and sorrow that is unique and new and intense. And now he describes it, verse 38. Then he said unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. He said, I feel a grief and a sorrow that is, as it were, a very sore of death.

31:51 I feel an exceeding sorrow even unto death. And then what does he do? It says he turns to the three and says, Abide here and watch with me. And it says he went forward a little and fell on his face.

32:09 Don't believe that picture of Gethsemane. And so Jesus with his well-arranged robe and his well-arranged beard and the serene look in his hands upon a rock and a sweet, peaceful look up into the heavens in a halo that's full of heresy. Something was so crushing him that he fell on his face. It didn't say he got down and kneeled.

32:39 He straightened out his robe. You ever see anybody fall flat on their face when they stumble over something? That's what happens. He fell.

32:49 And Mark uses the tense of the verse that gives the picture that he would continually fall. He was stumbling like a drunk, my son. Something was overtaking him and pressing him with such grief that he falls to his face, not to his knees, flat upon his face on the cold dampness of the night ground in Gethsemane. What in the world is going on?

33:19 Read on. And he prayed, saying, My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said, Peter, could you not watch with me one hour?

33:41 Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again, a second time he went away and prayed, saying, My father, if this cannot pass away except I drink it, it, referring back to the cup, you see, the cup is the whole secret to Gethsemane. If it be possible, let the cup pass.

34:08 He goes back and prays again, if this cannot pass, if this cup cannot pass, except I drink it, thy will be done. He came and found them sleeping for their eyes were heavy, and he prayed a third time, saying the same words. What words? If this cup cannot pass away except I drink it, not my will, but thine be done.

34:36 What was it that caused you to stagger like a drunk man? What was it that caused you to say, I feel a sorrow, even the sorrows of death pressing in upon me? The answer is, it's all bound up in the cup, the cup, the cup, the cup, the cup. And what was there in the garden?

34:58 Was there a big chalice hanging down from heaven on a string? No. The cup was an image of what the Father was now presenting to the Son. Do you know what the Father was presenting to the Son?

35:11 As surely as when I hold this glass, I look upon it and think of what it contains, I present to my lips pure drinkable water. Jesus saw the Father holding out a cup to his lips, but that cup was not full of pure water, the point is this. That cup was full of the fury and the wrath and the anger of God against the sins of the people for whom Christ was about to die. And as the Lord Jesus was standing under the shadow of Calvary there in Gethsemane, the cup that the Father put before him was that cup filled to the brim with the anger and fury and unmixed wrath of God against the sins of every man, woman, boy or girl who would ever be redeemed out of every kindred and tribe and tongue and nation. When Jesus, who comes from heaven knowing that he came, that one day he would drink that cup, then the cup is actually put before him. And he looks into it and he considers, what would it mean for me to drink that cup,

36:38 drink every last drop, so that the wrath of God against the sins of his people and mine will be completely drained? What will it mean? When he contemplated that, I must taste the hell that they deserve. I must feel the forsakenness that they would feel in hell forever.

37:01 I must feel the fury of my Father's angry face. I must feel the wrath of his holy law waiting upon me. He contemplated it. Hear me now, hear me now.

37:16 He was so fearful of his Father's wrath that he said, Father, if there's any other way, it is possible that that cup can be emptied, emptied somewhere, out in some far galaxy. If it can be emptied in some other way, oh, my Father, if it's possible, may it not have to be emptied in here. May I not have to drink it, nevertheless. Not my will, but yours in time.

37:49 He comes back and he prays, the second time. Luke tells him, and he was in such an agony that he sweat, as it were, three drops of blood. There was such agony chasing that cup. Wet droplets of sweat that may have been mingled with these bloods or so congealed that they were like blood drops.

38:15 It's not certain what the text means, but this much is clear. God wasn't playing games with Jesus, and Jesus wasn't playing games with God. And then he says, oh, my Father, a third time, if there's no other way for the cup to pass, not my will, but yours in time. Now notice, from that point on, as you read the gospel, shortly after, the soldiers come, and Jesus says, will you see me?

38:49 Jesus of Nazareth, he says, I am he. And he lets a little bit of his glory shine forth, and the soldiers fall flat on their face. He's saying, if I go with you, you don't take me, I go voluntarily. Then they get up off their faces, he says, whom do you seek?

39:07 Jesus! He says, now take me. And from that point on, until his death, Jesus appears in one posture only, one only, that of a guilty, condemned criminal. Read your gospels carefully.

39:24 He's bound as a criminal. He's taken as a criminal to stand before the high priest, to stand before Herod, to stand before Pilate. Then a cross is put on his shoulders. Then it's taken off and put on another man.

39:35 And then his hands are impaled upon it. And he's hung up upon an instrument of Roman execution so that if you were a visitor in Jerusalem and walked outside the city wall, you would have seen him in one position only. A huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge. A filthy criminal condemned to die!

40:13 Why was he in that posture? Why the posture of a criminal from the moment he says, not my will but yours be done, he takes the posture of a criminal. I'll tell you why, That's exactly what he became. A criminal. A criminal. Charged not with one crime, not with two, not with three, not with ten, not with a hundred, but with the billions of the crimes of all of his people. Charged. Charged. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, he was made to be sin for us. Peter says he carried our sins up to the grave. He went from Pilate to

41:02 Herod and Pilate and to the cross in the posture of a criminal in the eyes of men. But Paul listened as a true criminal in the court of God. In God's court, not the pollution or the commission of our sins were charged. But the guilt of all those sins were charged to him. When he went to that cross, he hung upon it. You remember, he didn't complain when the disciples took him. He didn't complain when they mocked him and taunted him and said, hey, hot shot, Savior. Show your stuff. Come

41:48 down from the cross. Then you'll believe on your sins. Hey, daughters, do it for yourselves. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't complain. He didn't laid as a lamb before her seerage's dumb. She didn't open his mouth. But then do you remember what happened? Around high noon, when the sun was bright at its peak in Palestine, all of a sudden it became midnight at noon.

42:10 God took a dark cloud. God took a dark shade of veil. He swept it over the heavens, and it became black as midnight at noon. And from noon to three o'clock, that whole area was plunged into the terrible darkness of hell itself.

42:31 Then, toward the end of those three hours, now Jesus complained. But who did he complain to? Not the disciples, not the scribes, not the Pharisees, not the Roman soldiers, not even the criminals on either side of him who were mocking him. But the first complaint he made was to his father.

42:52 My God! My God! What was happening behind the veil of that dark cloud in the spiritual realm? The cup was now at Jesus' lips, full of the fury of God's wrath unmixed with mercy.

43:24 And Jesus opened his mouth and began to drink and drink. And the father tipped the cup as progressively he emptied it. And the son...

43:35 And the son drank and swallowed and drank and drank until he drank into the deepest recesses of his soul the very essence of the pains of hell, which is the darkness of abandonment by God, until, feeling the fires of hell in his holy soul, he could contain the anguish no longer. And he cried, My God! My God! Why have you forsaken?

44:13 God didn't answer out of heaven. The answer's clear. My son, you agreed to do my will. It is my will that you drink the cup, that you drink the cup.

44:28 My son, though I've never loved you more than I love you now, because you are obeying me even unto death, though I've never loved you more than I love you now, my son, in your position as the substitute and representative of all you came to save, my son, if there to be saved, the cup must be empty. If there's one drop left in it, that drop will be poured out in a day of judgment, and they will not hear the word, Come, you blessed of my father! And so the father, while never loving the son more in his person, may I say it reverently, he hated him with pure, pure and perfect hatred in his position as our substitute. My friend, you see why sin's so serious. You see why the Bible says fools make a mark of sin. It's your pride, your lust, your envy, your idolatry, your attachment to the world, your love of the acceptance of your peers more than the acceptance of God, your thievery, your cheating, your lying, your coveting.

45:46 My sin caused that cup to be filled. My sin caused him to stagger and fall like a trunk man in Gethsemane. My sin caused him to cry, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now the question is this.

46:08 If the father loved the son, why in God's name did he subject him to all of this? I'll tell you why. It's the only way he could still be just and justify sinners.

46:25 Oh, the glory of God's justice. Beating from the cross,

46:33 you who think of sin but lightly,

46:39 you who think of sin but lightly, here is guilt, may estimate. See the son, the son of God, forsaken, plunged in the darkness, agonizing in hell upon the cross. And tell me if you can say, Oh, it's just a little sin. Everybody does it.

47:03 Oh, it's just an innocent sin. Behold, the immolated, marred, dying, excruciatingly cruel death of the cross, our blessed Savior. But then you remember, in a way that we don't know, the survivable silence, and it's good to be content with God's silences. Somehow the father conveyed to the son when the cup was emptied, because he drank, and he drank, and he drank, and he drank, and he drank, until it said, he cried with a loud voice.

47:47 You see, he wasn't expiring in death. He had conquered death, and his shout of triumph was heard. And the shout of triumph was given to us in one Greek word, tetelestai. And what it means is, it has been and remains accomplished.

48:05 And what was accomplished? The cup was empty. And when Jesus saw it empty, he saw the Father throw it away. And when he saw the Father throw it away, the cup full of his wrath against the sins of his people, Jesus said, it's finished.

48:25 All the hell they deserve, I've taken. All the wrath they deserve, I've swallowed it. Now, Father, throw the cup away. My work of suffering is done.

48:34 It is finished. Into thy hands, Father, not my God now, he sees the smile of the Father's face again. And may I say it reverently, there was two more inches in the Father's smile, because Jesus said, therefore, doth my face, and my face, and my face, and my face, my face, my face, my face, my face, my face, my face, my face, my face, my face, my face, my face, my face. There for doth my Father love me?

48:59 Because I lay down my life, the love of the Father, the love of delight in the Son was increased with every step of obedience. And when that last and great step was taken, the Father's delight in Christ reached its apex. It had never risen to a higher height. And then he says, Father, whose face I see with joy, into thy hands, I commit my prayer.

The Resurrection: God's Amen to Finished Justice

49:26 question is, can we really be certain the cup is empty and thrown away? Yes. Because on the third day he rose from the dead. And you look at Romans 4.25 now and see what it says. Romans 4.25. What does it say? Look at it. Romans chapter 4 and verse 25. Speaking of Jesus who was delivered up for our trespasses, was raised for our justification. The resurrection among other things was God's amen to Jesus' last cry. It is finished. For wise and good purposes we don't have to go into now. It was the Father's will to wait three days to

50:16 say amen. But the resurrection was the Father's amen. It is finished. Now what do we have? We have a God who can be perfectly just. Who can continue to say the wages of sin is death. The soul that sinned a bit shall die. I will by no means clear the guilty. God can continue to say that and mean that. And yet take guilty sinners like you and me and say forgiveness, pardon, justify, accept it. On what basis? Not some wussy, nebulous, indistinct idea. Oh, God, forgive me. I will forgive you. I will forgive you. I will forgive you. I will forgive you. I will forgive you. I will forgive you. If that's what you think the gospel is, my friend, you're on your way to hell as blind and dead in sin is my hot majorversely. This whole notion of God is love is all pushy-mushy and he'll just… No, no. God is just. Every breach of his law He will meet with vengeance.

51:13 If you're ever to get to heaven, you better know how He met your sin in vengeance. Or you'll meet it in the day of judgment. But thank God my day of judgment came at present. at Calvary. My damnation was meted out at Calvary in my substance. All the glory of God's justice in the accomplishment of redemption. Now do you see what 1 John 1, 9 means? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and what? Just, righteous to forgive. Wait a minute.

51:57 I thought when I sinned, justice was against me. Outside of Christ it is. But when I sin and I look to Christ, justice is for me. There for me my Savior stands, shows his wounds and spreads his hands. And when the sinner says, O Father, I've sinned, what am I supposed to do to punish my sin? For Jesus Christ's sake, magnify your justice. In forgiving the sin already paid for by your Son. And I'm speaking figuratively now. The Lord Jesus takes my case into his hands and says, Father, how can you deny that plea? Look at my wounds. Father, look at the prints in my hands. Look at the prints in my side.

52:49 Father, remember my cry. Remember the cup. Remember the cup I drained. The cup I exhausted.

52:59 The cup. The cup I threw out into the vast abyss of nothingness. And the Father says, Son, how can I turn aside such a plea? I delightfully, joyfully forgive the sinner who confesses his sin. The glory of God's justice in the cross of Jesus Christ, in the accomplishment of redemption. Well, in just the few minutes that remain, let me just give you some fuel for meditation. That's all I can do. I've just about preached myself into exhaustion, so I'll give you a little fuel for future meditation. What glory of God is seen when he applies that salvation? Can you say it reverently? Jesus could have done all of that, and unless the God who determined that he do that, determined to apply its benefits, it would all be for naught. The same God who purposed and planned and executed the redemption accomplished is the God who plans and executes redemption applied. And my friend,

God's Glory in Redemption Applied: Covenant Faithfulness and Manifold Grace

54:12 he does it for exactly the same sinners. You see, it takes the whole trinity to save one sinner. But the whole trinity is committed not to save one sinner, but a company which no man can number. And it's those sinners whose sins were in the cup by God's determinedness, determination, and sovereign electing grace. It was those sins in the cup and the wrath of those sins that Jesus drained. So when we turn to the matter of how does this salvation actually come upon sinners, redemption applies. Let me again give you these three lines of brief meditation. Behold the glory in the accomplishment, now the application of redemption.

55:01 Behold the glory of God's covenant faithfulness. In applying that salvation. And you say, Pastor Martin, what do you mean by covenant faithfulness? Just this. Follow closely now. The Father made some wonderful promises to the Son. He promised the Son that if he would take the place of those who had been marked out to be the heirs of salvation, live the life they should have lived under the law, die the death their sins deserved under the curse of a broken law, that he would do that for them. The Father would give him a vast seed. He would give him the nations for his inheritance. He would give him a bride. He would give him many sons who would be brought

55:48 to glory. I'm quoting scripture if you don't recognize it. All that scripture. Don't have time to turn to them. Isaiah 53 is one of the best passages. It says that because he was willing to pour out his soul unto death, he shall see of the travail of his soul. He was satisfied. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. Here's the glory of redemption applied. The glory of God's faithfulness. God made a promise to Christ that all for whom he died would actually enjoy every bit of the salvation he died to procure for them. And God is so faithful to his Son that every sinner who ever gets saved is saved by grace as far as the sinner is concerned. But it's by debt and right as far as Christ is concerned. I say it reverently, the Father put himself in debt to the Son, that if the Son would take upon himself the obligations of his people, live the life they should have lived in a real human condition, die the death

56:58 they should die, that he would see to it that they would each one be called, justified, sanctified, and saved. And if the Son would take upon himself the obligations of his people, that he would be called, justified, kept, and preserved, and glorified, so that the application of salvation is all of grace to us the sinners, but it's all of debt to Christ the Son. Isn't that a glorious thought? Oh, how certain is salvation. No wonder Jesus said, other sheep I have, them also I must bring. There was no doubt about it. He would fulfill every demand. And he knew the Father would be faithful. This is what 1 Corinthians 1, 9 is talking about. God is faithful, Paul says, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son. How does God's faithfulness lie behind my actually receiving salvation? It's his faithfulness to Christ. His faithfulness to the promises made to his Son has never slung

58:03 them back. You see, what long and unworthy views of salvation. We have heard how he's been cheating. Little tiddies to a rock beat about the man of Galilee and the teacher, and all this other silly claptrap. My friend, these themes are worthy of the most majestic expressions in praise, prose, poetry, music, but not brought down to the jungle beats of wild-looking animals. God has mercy on their souls. Behold God's covenant faithfulness. We could say behold his power, but I just want to trace in briefly, behold his manifold grace in the application of salvation. What does he do for us? He gives

The Manifold Grace of Applied Salvation: From Prison to Sonship

59:00 us everything we've forfeited by sin. And what is calling, regeneration, adoption, justification, sanctification, preservation, glorification? What are all those things? They are God's answer in grace.

59:15 In part, it's the sinner on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus, of everything man lost by the fall. God restores it all back, plus some more. Plus some more. Remember our illustration last night? We had our young friend down in the jail over here. He's not in jail tonight. He's over against the wall. He was in jail down here last night. And we talked about the man who puts up the veil. He pays the price for the man's release, but then he's not released until the jailer goes and opens the jail, and then he's released. And he's not released until the jailer goes and opens the jail, and then he's released. And he's not released until the jailer goes and opens the jail, and then he's released. And he goes and opens the jail, and then he's released. And then he's released.

59:46 And so they said, you know what happened? Jesus is paid the price, but when God the Holy Spirit comes to let us out of the prison, you know how he finds us? Stroking our chains, saying, get away from me, I love to hear. Yeah? Yeah? And we looked at the jailer and say, you are my enemy, get away from me. You are going to spoil all my fun. I love the jail. I love my sins. That's right. So what does he have to do? He's got to restore the mental sanity. Oh my goodness. faith and wisdom. That's what he's got to do. He's got to restore the He's got to change our hard attitude to the jailer. That's regeneration. He opens our eyes to see that our chains are not blessings. They're curses.

60:28 He opens our eyes to see that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost do not entreat us and command us to come to Christ because they want to spoil our fun and ruin life, but because they want to deliver us from that which is our destruction. So what does God have to do? Put forth an act of power to open our eyes and open our ears and give us spiritual sanity until we joyfully walk out of the prison. Thine eyes effuse the quickening light.

60:55 The dungeon flame was light. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose, went forth, a little like the devil, because I believe in eternal security.

61:07 No, I rose, went forth, and what? Followed me. That's calling, regeneration. With its repentance and faith, it follows.

61:15 And it puts you in the path of sanctification, becoming more and more like Jesus. And all the while, you have the status of a justified and adopted sinner. What justification? God puts to your record the perfect life of Jesus, and God takes away from your record all the damnation you deserve on the basis of the death of Jesus.

61:34 Think of it. That perfect life as a little boy, as a teenager, as a man. That perfect record has to put to my account. The Father says to me in heaven, that's my son in whom I'm wealthy.

61:47 Amen. Because he sees me in the righteousness of his son. And all the things I committed, they were paid for in the death of his son. But then he does more than that.

61:58 That's just making me an accepted citizen. Then he says, look, I want something better for you. I'll make you my son, Galatians 4.6.

62:05 He gives us the status of son. He not only takes us as disinherited citizens and says, come back into the kingdom as obedient, law-abiding citizens, but I want you to come to my very heart and to my bosom as my son. Because that's what Adam was. He was the son of God.

62:22 He's called that in Genesis. He became a disinherited son. In redemption, we become the sons of God through faith and Christ. And then God says, I don't like what I see in you.

62:32 You've got too much of Adam in your attitudes, your perspectives on life, the way you react to things. Now I've got to make you like my son in heaven. I'll take you as my son. I'll adopt you.

62:43 Now I'm going to go to work to make you like my son. So he gives us a new heart, puts his spirit within us, and then he begins to conform us to his son. And when he's all done, you know what the Bible says, Jesus will be hallelujah. He's going to be the firstborn among many brethren.

62:59 He's going to sit as it were with his family and say, oh my father, don't they all look like me? Don't they look like me, father? And the father's going to say, yes, son, every one of them. Every one of them.

63:11 Right down to a glorified father. A father with no weariness, no back pain, no tears, no sign, no cancers, no degenerative diseases, and a soul that doesn't have a gram of remaining skin. Thinking it should go through a whole day and never once have a mean, jealous, filthy, selfish thought. The love sees it perfectly as we've always learned to yearn for loving but never to.

63:43 I pray when God's done with us, we're going to be the cause of amazing, amazing things. They're going to fold their wings and put their hands over their mouths and cry this one day.

63:57 My friends, that salvation applies. That salvation applies. And let me prove you a man, son. You need to get the whole thing and you ain't got nothing.

64:08 You get it all and you don't get nothing.

Salvation Found Only In Christ

64:13 You have to die to purchase the whole thing for everyone for whom he died and the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit works in grace and power to apply the whole thing and nothing at all. And you know where it all is? It isn't in the church. It isn't in your decision.

64:30 It's not in yourself. I'll close with 1 Corinthians 1.30. This is where it's found.

64:37 Here's where it is.

64:40 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30.

64:45 If you're to have this salvation accomplished by Christ, applied by the Father and the Spirit and the Son, where are you going to get it? Well, look where the Corinthians got it. 1 Corinthians 1.30.

64:58 1 Corinthians 1.30. But of them, that is by God's working, are you in Christ Jesus who was made unto us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and what? Redemption.

65:19 You want this redemption in everything that's in it? It's all in Christ. And the only way to have it is to get into Christ. And how do you get into Christ?

65:27 You've got to go to Christ. You've got to get out of Adam.

65:31 You're either in Adam or in Christ. And there's only one way to get into Christ. And listen to me now as I pray. In a few hours, God willing, I'll be on a plane back to New Jersey to preach to my people.

65:42 And if I never see you again until the door is opened, I want you to hear my last words. Listen, listen, boys, girls, men and women.

65:51 I'm not talking to you because I'm a preacher and a half. I'm talking to you because I love you. And I love my God and I love your soul. Listen to me. Listen to me.

66:00 There's only one place to get it. It's not in you. So you don't get it by fixing yourself up. It's not in the church.

66:07 You don't get it by walking down the aisle and shaking the priest's hand and being received into the church. It's not in a ritual. It's in Christ. And there's only one way to get into Christ.

66:20 You've got to get out of Adam. From God's standpoint, you get out of Adam and he by his spirit gives you eyes to see yourself for what you are, a lost sin. Gives you a heart. You forsake your sin and flee to Christ.

66:33 From God's standpoint, you get into Christ by his mighty work of regenerating grace. From your standpoint, you get into Christ when you divorce your sin, divorce the world, divorce yourself from yourself and throw yourself upon Jesus Christ locked, stuck, and barrowed to be his for time and eternity. No fine print, no conditions, no qualifications, Lord Jesus. I throw myself upon you as my own.

67:00 In hope of salvation, I give myself to you as my sovereign and my Lord and my God. I give myself up to you to love you and serve you. How shall I see you face to face? That's the only way you get into Christ.

A Solemn Warning and Exhortation

67:16 Are you in Christ? Do you want to be salvation, bad enough to get it, or are you in Christ? If you don't, you don't want to die. And what you're saying is, I'll face my own touch, full of my own sin, full of the fury of God.

67:30 Listen, friends. If God, Jesus Christ, if the God man faced that touch and it almost killed him, if God couldn't face the touch without sin, what in God's name will you do when you face your touch? Full of your sin, you little creature, little worm of the dust, little spider. When God in Christ finishes the touch, he tumbles like a drunken man.

68:03 He prays, he's possible, he'll take the cup away. What will you do, little creature of the dust who crosses in your nostrils and you face the touch full of your sin? Before you stomp out of here tonight, sitting on the high horse of your crowd of self-righteous, sin-loving, world-loving, sinful worms, you better take note, my friend, Almighty God is serious about sin. You're God in Gethsemane and it's powerful tonight.

68:33 You better get serious about sin, about Christ. You give yourself no rest until you know you're in him. And in him, then you have all of the retentions that he accomplished on the cross and by his open truth and by his sitting at the right hand of the sitting at the right hand of the Father in whom you will have applied to you. Now, those sins he gives us on the threshold all along the way that he gives us until in the last day he glorifies us.

69:05 I don't care if I'm far as a fool 50 years. There's something in Jesus he's going to brag about what he did in me before all the others. He's going to brag not about me but about what he did in me. I can bear a few people saying, that's crazy, those are like a bad man phoned at the mouth dressed like a whore.

69:25 It's crazy. I don't care what they say. I can tear up.

69:33 We're dealing with reality on this board. You can say what you want and you go out of here and curse me. And the authority won't change what Jesus is going to say to me and not for me. He's going to say, look, this is one of mine.

69:47 I died for him. And in my time I opened his blinded eyes and I changed his heart and I turned his will and he repented and believed. And he was united to me by the bond of faith and the indwelling of his spirit. And I kept him by my grave so he had a cinderbox of remains to him that could have broken out and consumed him.

70:08 My grave kept it for two and my grave brought him all along the way and through my grave perfected his spirit and gave him a new body and look at what I've done for him. What do you think of my work in him? You want to mock him out now? While I say to you sinner depart from me into everlasting fire proud self-righteous sinner?

70:29 I stand there to Christ over these people. We're dealing with eternal reality. You're just a children. Let me say something very funny to you.

70:40 You watch MTV and video watchers and I guarantee you'll never get furious about yourself or anything. There's nothing more calculated to turn your mind off heaven and hell and God and sin than to watch that fucker come right out of the pit of hell without a help. All the chances upon the bizarre the foolish illicit sex the high the distorted the grotesque you mock my words you get put on that set and you may never think of thinking you're a serious part of our heavenly house until you're in that mess.

71:20 And I've waved my words carefully and I've watched enough of it to know well what I say that I might be able to speak to the fallacy underneath.

71:30 Don't make your model punk rocket. Do you mourn the donkeys who spread their legs for any old guy to come along like an animal and poop? Don't model yourself after that slut.

71:44 Take out of your model some godly Christian women in this church who carry themselves with modesty and Christian grace and beauty and say Lord Jesus make you like them. Help me to know their faith. Love their faith and go to heaven with their faith.

72:01 You guys don't make your model the mumbling Stallone with his bulging biceps and cut toes that can't even talk a decent straight sentence but can just go around with his rippling muscles and his big guns and blow people to pieces. Don't make your model Stallone model. Try this self-centered man married divorced living like the animals of most of the people in Hollywood so much in your model. Find men in this church that are real men who work hard who love their wives who love your kids enough to romp you on your buns when you need it and call you about Jesus and carry you to church and say God help me to know Jesus like Mr.

72:45 So-and-so does and then Lord take me to the same heaven they're going to or you can expose it in this world without the faith of a child who loves too much to let you go without one may God help you to remember these words may God remind you those two for real and may Christ be present and some of you older people you sit there you got a glassy look in your eyes I wonder if you understand one thing I said you been in church all your life but I

73:27 think you sit there now with a death wish Lord take me home if your pain about it can be so good what will it be like to see you amen even so come Lord Jesus oh God on heaven me Father how we thank you for your glory revealed in redemption accomplished and redemption applied and oh how we please that your spirit was brewed over this congregation these precious young men and women teenagers young adults men and women in the tigre and crime of their life and gray heads and old men and women all caused by your spirit revealed the glory of Christ in these salvations and draw many this night to keep your faith may the blessing of the spirit rest upon the word of Jesus to our good and to your praise for Jesus day complete amen