Sermon: The Lord Was Pleased to Crush Him

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If you would, open your Bibles to the Gospel according to Matthew 27. Chapter 27.

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Gospel according to Matthew chapter 27. Starting in verse 45.

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Hear now the word of the living and the true God. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

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And at about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying... That is, my

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God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, this man is calling

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Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine... and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.

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But the others said, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

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And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

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And the earth shook and the rocks were split. As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together as his people.

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Lord, thank you for the gift of your word. Thank you for the gift of grace and mercy that we have in Christ.

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Lord Jesus, thank you for your righteousness. Thank you, Lord, for being counted among the rebels.

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Thank you, Lord, for being pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities.

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I pray today, Lord God, that you'd bless your church and the world with the proclamation of your word. Please speak and guide by your spirit.

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Lord, let the preacher be forgotten and the truth be buried into our hearts.

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In Jesus' name, amen. So, we're in the Kingdom of God series, an expositional study through the gospel.

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According to Matthew, we're almost finished with this spectacular piece of revelation from God.

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These are the words of God. And we're in this portion, the crucifixion of our

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Savior, the death of the Son of Man, this moment that Jesus had been prophesying to them about, telling them this is coming, that he was going to go to Jerusalem.

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He'd be killed and then he would rise again three days later. And in this moment, if you've been with us through this study, you know that we've talked about the fact that Matthew is keenly aware of what's going on in the life and ministry of the

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Lord Jesus. He knows that Old Testament revelation and he's constantly pointing to it.

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Sometimes it's overtly. He is explicitly saying this was to fulfill what was written by the prophet

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Isaiah. And he quotes from the Old Testament revelation. What's happening with Jesus, as I've said so many times before, is not a novelty.

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This is what the scriptures had taught beforehand. And now you're seeing its fulfillment. But the way that Matthew does this moment is spectacular.

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Because if you've been singing the Psalms, if you've been in the Jewish hymnal, being raised in it, then you know in this moment that Matthew is pointing you to the fact that, see, that cry of dereliction,

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Psalm, that Psalm of dereliction, that was ultimately about Jesus. You may have found, and I said this last time, you may have found in that Psalm intersections with your own life in terms of things that you have felt and that weight and that dereliction yourself.

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And you sang that to God and you meant it. But in reality, that was Jesus, the perfect Adam.

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He was going to be the actual substance of that, the fulfillment of all of that. So in Matthew 27, you see in the crucifixion that dereliction,

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Jesus is crying out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's a glorious moment.

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But again, Matthew knows that this is tethered to the Old Testament revelation. It's not novelty. Here's what's important as we talk today about what's underneath this moment.

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It's not a novelty. These concepts, these truths were carried to us by God through His Spirit, through inspired authors throughout history.

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This is God's story now being summed up in this moment. And in order for this to not simply be what they thought it was in terms of the

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Roman soldiers who were killing Jesus, just some man being called a criminal and dying on a cross, in order for it not just to be the death of a person, we have to understand what did

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God say needed to take place for us to have reconciliation and peace with Him?

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We have to understand God's character. We have to understand what is God like. And then we have to understand what's wrong with us.

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Why is this necessary? So what, the veil is torn. So what, the lights go out and the earth turns dark in the middle of the day.

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So what, there's an earthquake. So what, someone dies. What does it all mean?

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We have to ask deeper questions, and I think it's vitally important for us because believe it or not, the assumption when you walk into a

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Christian community, when you walk into a fellowship of believers who hold to this as the word of the living

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God, the assumption is often, well, yeah, Jesus is dying for the sins of His people. He's being counted as the rebel.

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He is being counted as the guilty one. And we get Christ's righteousness. But believe it or not, people often try to deny that.

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And it makes sense, by the way, I'll just say at the front as we talk about penal substitutionary atonement, that Christ was actually punished for the sins of His people.

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It makes sense that man -made religion would want to do away with penal substitutionary atonement, those concepts.

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Now, Pastor James mentioned that in church history, you've heard me say before, church history is a glorious mess.

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You see, you know, great moments, peaks of glory, and you see your heroes saying amazing things that are totally consistent with the word of God.

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But you also see moments of total face -plants and ways that they are clearly contradicting the revelation.

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I think God wants me to read something on this page because it keeps flipping back. We'll see.

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Oh, no, okay, okay. That's weird. Okay, we'll put that down. Now, if it goes now, then, okay.

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It's a, there's air conditioning here, don't worry. This isn't a Pentecostal church, calm down. You see glorious messes in church history.

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And you do see in church history pastors and Christians and theologians, historians, whatever you want to point to, you'll see moments where they're saying amazing things about the crucifixion, the death, the redemption that we have in Christ, the atonement, that are totally consistent with the scriptures.

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And you see other ways where they're saying things that are not really consistent with the scriptures. And other ways where maybe somebody is emphasizing an aspect of the atonement of Christ that maybe others don't.

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Yes, this, what we're talking about with the crucifixion of the Son of Man and the redemption that we have in Jesus is this glorious, amazing thing that is multifaceted.

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But, understand this, it has core truths that can't be denied.

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If you deny those core truths, whatever else is true in all the amazing facets of the atonement of Christ, if you deny the core, you lose the gospel.

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If you deny the core, you lose eternal life. And it makes sense to me that man -made religion would try to do away with penal substitutionary atonement.

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Why? Because if you have Jesus, listen, on the cross, dying for the sins of God's people, being counted as the guilty one, receiving in himself the just penalty that God's people deserve.

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If you've got that, and Jesus says, it is finished, and the veil tears from top to bottom, allowing access to our

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Father. If it's a once -for -all sacrifice, then man -made religion and all its concepts of sort of, you know, attaining a righteousness in myself that can be acceptable to God and all those things, all of it just falls by the wayside.

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It's meaningless. It's totally meaningless. Because if he truly takes my guilt, my sin, my condemnation, and if I receive as a gift this righteousness that Paul says is from God, from above, from God, through faith in Jesus, if I get his righteousness, and he takes my guilt and shame, and all my sin is dealt with, well, then that means

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Romans 5, Romans 5, 1 is true. Therefore, having been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God.

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There's no more room for all of the bootleg gospels that men conjure up.

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There's no more room. I understand why Roman Catholicism would try to destroy this concept of the imputation of my sin to Christ and Christ's imputation to me.

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I understand why. Because if what the text says about the death of the Son of Man is true, if what

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Paul says in Romans 3 and 4 is true about me getting righteousness apart from works, and Christ being the propitiation, the diversion of wrath in my place, then there's no more need for Rome's corrupt system.

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There's no more room for the treasury of merit. There's no more room for any of those concepts because I have eternal life through faith in Jesus.

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I don't need it mediated to me through the church, through cooperation with these different sacraments, and hoping that I have cooperated just enough to where there's no more sin, real serious sin, left to be dealt with and I have righteousness.

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This is vital. It's very, very important. That veil, the text says, has been torn.

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Now, remember this. In this moment, we have the fulfillment of all that God said was going to take place in Mashiach, in the

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Messiah. Here it is right before us. And God is not only dealing with things that are deeply spiritual truths and deep spiritual things in the heavens, but He's actually allowing all those truths to be exposed in this physical world.

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You have the world itself shaking. You have the world itself going dark in the middle of the day so that the stars are shining.

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You have the world itself displaying that moment of peace and being accomplished in Christ.

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You have the veil, the thing that separates the people of God from the holiest place being torn so that we have access to our

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Father. It's done. It's finished. You know what's amazing, too, about this truth is the world goes dark that day.

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Creation is signaling what's going on. Jesus is the light of the world. He's the light of the world.

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In that moment where He dies this death on behalf of His people, the lights go out.

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The world is filled with darkness when the light of the world dies for the sins of His people. It's a glorious truth.

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It's an amazing moment. And I want to just say to you, and I think in eternity, for all eternity, we'll be rejoicing more and more and more in this moment that's before us than we can possibly comprehend even now.

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But we need to talk about this concept of penal substitutionary atonement. Christ is the substitute.

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He is in our place. He is dying a death that we deserve. The Bible, we know, says the wages of sin is what?

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And He's substitute for us. He's in our place. But this concept of penal, this concept of actual punishment is denied by so many.

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And in just one sermon today, I can't interact with all the different concepts. I would just rather give you a more positive presentation of what does the

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Bible say was taking place in the life and ministry and death and resurrection of Jesus? What's the

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Bible say? This is the revelation of God. This is truly, first and foremost, the ancient record of the

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Church. Amen? Yes. It's inspired literature, but it is the ancient record of the Church from the mouth of God.

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What does the Bible say took place in this moment? Why is it important that the veil is ripped and Jesus says it's finished and all of that?

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I think we need to go to the Word of God to say, what is it consistently taught regarding atonement and propitiation and substitution?

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And so the first place I think we need to start is the very beginning of the

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Bible. If you go to Genesis chapter 3, go there, Genesis chapter 3, you'll see in the story of our first parents and the fall and the curse and everything else that occurs there, in Genesis 3, 15,

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God starts to tell us the story of the Messiah. So Jesus and this promise is at the very beginning of your

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Bible, Genesis. Genesis 3, 15, famous section of scripture. It says,

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I will put enmity between you and the woman. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring,

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Satan, and her offspring. He, he, shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

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There's someone specific in me who is in my mind here, as soon as the fall occurs, God is promising what he's going to do to bring redemption.

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There is a he coming who will bruise the head of the serpent. That is to say, he'll deliver the mortal blow to the serpent.

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A head wound is a head crushing, but he'll be bruised on his heel in the process of delivering the mortal blow.

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To the woman, he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing. In pain, you shall bring forth children.

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Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you. Feminists hate that.

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And to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which

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I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

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Thorns and thistles that shall bring forth for you. And you shall eat the plants of the field.

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By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken.

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For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. We know this section.

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If you've been in Christ for even a short period of time, hopefully you've got to Genesis chapter 3.

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But it says thorns. We talked about that, right? The thorn, the crown of thorns that's on Jesus' head as he's dying for the sins of his people, delivering that mortal blow to our great enemy.

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He's wearing on his head the very sign of the fall, thorns. And then it says in verse 20,

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The man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

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It's a question, a very important one. We know that God promised that in the day they eat of it, what will happen?

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And we know there is the concept in Scripture of spiritual death. We are dead in our sins and trespasses,

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Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, by nature children of wrath. We know that's there, there's spiritual death and alienation from God.

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But we need to ask the question, in this moment where sin and curse and fall, all this enters and God promises

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Mashiach, he's coming. Who dies that day? Physically.

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It wasn't Adam and Eve. Now there's something it says here. People just pass right over it.

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Adam and Eve are naked and not ashamed. And then in this moment, sin and curse and fall enter.

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And then it says, what about God? And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and did what to them?

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Clothed them. He covered them in the skins of what? An animal.

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So actually, who gives the first sacrifice for the sins of God's people?

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Who gives it? God. What died that day? The substitute. That day,

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Adam and Eve had their nakedness and shame covered and they were clothed in the skins of an animal.

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That means that day an animal died. Adam and Eve, perhaps they saw it.

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Perhaps they watched this grotesque thing happen. There was blood atonement that day.

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The shedding of blood, something died that day. And Adam and Eve then went from being naked and of course exposed, hiding themselves from God to now

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God himself provides the sacrifice, the substitute. And what does he do? He covers

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Adam and Eve in the skin of the substitutes. It's a glorious, rudimentary, very, very basic explanation to Adam and Eve of what was going to be accomplished with Jesus.

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But highlight this important thing, is that when sin enters into the world, the thing that died that day was a substitute.

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Blood was shed, something died, but it wasn't just that the thing died.

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God covers Adam and Eve. Their nakedness, their shame, their hiding.

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He covers them in the skin of the animal. So you can already see at the most basic level, substitution, blood atonement, death for sin is a consequence.

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And you can already see what? That this substitute's skin covers the unrighteous.

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What more do you need? That's substitution, that's atonement, that's sin, consequence, and I receive the benefits of the substitutes.

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I'm covered in the skin of the substitute. This is the whole concept that flows throughout the scriptures.

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Particularly the New Testament as it's expressed by the inspired apostles, is that we have us hiding in Christ, our substitutes.

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Him taking the curse and the penalty. Him dying for the sins of His people. And us receiving, credited,

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His righteousness. That's the whole story. It's the first three chapters of the

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Word of God. That's the summary of it all. So what's taking place with that veil being torn?

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That. What's taking place with Jesus being crucified? That. What's taking place with Him giving

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His life and crying out, it's finished? That's what's taking place. How come you and I have this unfettered access to our

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Father now? How come we have no condemnation? How come we have peace with God? How come we're declared righteous?

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It's not because something in us, to any degree. It's because of the substitutes.

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It's because of the righteous one. It's because He atoned for my sin and I am covered in His righteousness.

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How can I stand as a sinner, as someone the Bible says is wicked and ungodly?

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How can I stand before a holy God when I am, in fact, not holy, wicked and ungodly?

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How? Because I'm standing before a holy God with the righteousness of another. That's the

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Gospel. That's at the heart of the Gospel. That's how God brings peace between sinners.

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And again, man -made religion cannot conceive of this.

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Why? Because that is too much of a gift. That is too gracious. That is too

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God -ward. That is too much to God's glory. There's not enough of me in this story.

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It's the Gospel of grace. And it's all to God's glory. And that's why man -made religion hates those concepts.

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Because man always tries to find some way, some way for man to share

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God's glory. But that's not how this story goes. You all know as you move further, we're not going to exhaust this today, but we need to talk about what does the

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Bible say is taking place with the death of the Messiah. Of course, you know the story of the

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Passover. Yes? The Passover lamb. Again, the

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Jews are receiving, the people of God are receiving revelation from God over an extended period of time.

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It's not an information dump all at once. The people of God are walking with God, receiving revelation.

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And God is giving them more and more and more to the fulfillment, which is Jesus. But we know, of course, as they're enslaved, they're in bondage to Egypt, God comes in to rescue.

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Let my people go. We know about the plagues that come into Egypt to display God's power over the gods of Egypt and God's power over Pharaoh.

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And then God says, let my people go. And then finally God promises that moment of judgment where His wrath is going to come over Egypt and He is going to destroy the firstborn.

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Now watch. How do the people of God avoid this wrath?

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How do the people of God avoid this particular powerful judgment? How do they get out from under all of this?

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Because believe it or not, if you were a Jew in that day and your entire neighborhood, your family members, your friends who were all

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Jewish, they all heard God say, do this to avoid it. If you were out there getting yourselves prepared,

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Passover lamb, got to eat the whole thing, it's got to have no spot, no blemish. And so that takes some work to find the right one.

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Oh, by the way, don't break its bones, don't do that. And as everyone's out there putting the blood over the doorpost and lentil, they're doing all of that.

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If there was a Jewish person who heard what must be done, and they were just sort of like chilling on their patio, watching everybody do this.

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Everybody could have asked the question, hey, did you hear the word? You might want to hurry up because you're going to need a lamb.

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No spot, no blemish. I'm not sure, maybe anywhere left. I hope you have one and don't break its bones and blood, it's got to go over your door because the wrath of God, the judgment of God is coming tonight.

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If that person had said, nah, no thanks, I don't really believe it.

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You really believe this superstition? You really believe this hocus -pocus? You believe this is going to happen? Believe me, if that person didn't have the blood of that lamb over their doorpost, they would have lost their son.

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So all of these people that are doing this, listen, they are recognizing the judgment is about to fall over Egypt.

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I'm told by God that I need this thing to die and have its blood shed.

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And it has to be without spot and blemish and there can't be any broken bones and that blood better be covering my house so that the judgment of God will pass over my house on account of the blood of the lamb.

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That's substitute. That's something dying so that the judgment of God is diverted from me.

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So that it passes over me. All of these concepts are rooted in the beginning of the

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Bible, all foundational. The Passover, bloodshed, no spot, no blemish.

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God's judgment passing over me on account of the blood of the lamb. And of course, we know

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John the Baptist, when Jesus enters, what does John the Baptist say about Jesus? Who's before him? He says what?

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Behold the lamb of God, who does what? Who takes away the sin of the world.

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He knows who Jesus is. That concept is important to them. He's not just a sweet little lamb.

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The lamb died for the sins of God's people. The lamb died as a substitute.

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So when we talk about penal, substitutionary atonement, when people try to deny that, there's so much they have to contend with in Scripture that just teaches it over and over and over.

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You can move, of course, to Leviticus. Do that with me. Go to Leviticus.

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I want you guys to see this text. So often people just pass up Leviticus numbers in Deuteronomy, and we shouldn't.

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It is the Word of God, the same as the Gospel of John. Amen? It is. God gives us so much truth, so much application of justice and righteousness here.

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But here's a famous section that you need to be aware of when you talk about penal, substitutionary atonement.

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What did God lay down for the people of God long before Jesus accomplished

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His redemption for His people on that cross? Very important. What did God say is occurring with atonement?

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What were they supposed to rehearse to teach them to get ready for the big day?

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What were they rehearsing for? Leviticus 16. The Lord spoke to Moses. After the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the

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Lord and died. And the Lord said to Moses, tell Aaron, your brother, not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die.

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Holy, holy place, holiest place, veil. Make sure you tell Aaron not to just come wandering in there so he doesn't die.

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Moses is like, make sure I announce that to him. We're going to have lunch later, and I will make sure he knows that.

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Hey, by the way, if you don't want to die, don't go walking in there just willy nilly. Why? It's the holiest place.

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It symbolizes the very presence of God. God is holy. You're not. You've got sin to deal with. There's a veil, by the way.

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Make sure you see that. Make sure you respect that veil, because that's the holiest place. It's the very presence of God where the sacrifice and the offering is made.

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Don't go wandering in there. I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat but in this way,

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Aaron shall come into the holy place with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burn offering.

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He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body. And he shall tie the linen sash around his waist and wear the linen turban.

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These are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burn offering.

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Aaron shall offer for the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house.

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Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the

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Lord and the other lot for Azazel. Now, this in particular is very important.

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Pay close attention to what God says about these two goats.

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And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering.

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But the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it.

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And it may be sent away into the wilderness. Into the wilderness.

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So, the text goes on, explains more of the detail of how this is supposed to take place. By the way, when you see the word atonement think reconciliation.

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Think reconciliation. When you see that word atonement. But the description goes on and on.

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But I want you to hear this in verse 20. And when he has made an end of atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat.

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And Aaron shall, listen to this, lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel and all their transgressions, all their sins.

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And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness.

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The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area.

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And he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. So, they're told, rehearse like this.

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Here's a problem. It's going to be set up with a temple. You're going to have all of this stuff displaying, teaching the people of God what's really going on.

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You've got the veil, the holiest place. You've got to do all this ritual. Make sure that you're ritually clean.

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Make sure that you have the sin offering for yourself. And then there's these two goats. There is a lot cast.

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Which one is going to die? And which one is going to have the sins of God's people confessed onto it? So, what do the people of God see?

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They see death for sin. This substitute is dying for you.

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The problem is, Scripture teaches us, the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin.

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Why? Because a bull and a goat is not a person. It's not in the image of God. And so, all they're doing now is they're practicing.

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But they're practicing in a bloody, deadly way. Something is dying. It's blood is shed.

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And it's because you're guilty. It's just a reminder of sins continually. It's happening over and over again.

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There's just a constant reminder. It's happening over and over. And there's a goat. I'm not a goat. And this isn't going to work, ultimately.

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But I see it. I see the blood. And it's dying because I'm the guilty one. And I can't get access to my father because something's in the way.

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But I've got to have a mediator, someone to represent me, that goes in there and offers the sacrifice. And then the amazing moment of the live goats, where this moment happens where the hands of the priest are placed onto this goat.

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Now, can you imagine being the people of God in that day? And the priest is laying his hand on the goat, both hands.

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He's pressing his hand onto this other goat. One died that day. Blood is shed.

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And he's saying the sins of the people onto the goat. So you're the people of God. And he's confessing.

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And he's hands on that goat, pressing down. And he's confessing your guilt and shame onto the substitute.

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And then after your guilt and shame is confessed onto this goat, that scapegoat is then led away from the people of God.

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And we all watch as the sins that were confessed onto this substitute, we watch our sins disappear from us as far as the east is from the west.

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It disappears off into the distance. So we recognize atonement is made. There's a death for sin.

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The wages of sin is death. There has to be a death. But now I get this portrayal of, oh, my sin, my guilt and shame is going that way, away from me, onto the sacrifice.

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And now I'm watching this thing disappear over the horizon with my guilt and shame.

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Now, there are stories, traditions about, well, wait. What did they do with that goat?

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Like, sin's confessed onto the goat. It disappears. Can you imagine that thing just being let go in the wilderness and it comes running back the next day?

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Everyone's running away from the goat. Like, don't let it touch me. There's some stories about it was led off of a cliff, sort of a thing.

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Or just make sure that this thing never came back. So the kids are going to be like, oh, that's because the concept is my sins were transferred to that substitute.

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And now it's gone. It's gone. That was the portrayal. So that's what takes place according to the word of God.

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Before Jesus ever comes, dies for the sins of his people, this is what's laid down in the word of God.

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And yet people want to deny penal substitutionary atonement, that Jesus was our substitute, and that he received the penalty due to us.

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Let's say it, the wrath of the Father. The just judge has wrath.

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He is the God of justice. And so where does that go? Did it go to Christ? That cry of dereliction, can

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I say this real fast? Very important. I agree, some people take this too far. James has talked about this in terms of all the amazing sermons about the

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God, the Father, turning his back on Jesus in this moment. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I get that.

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People can, I think, try to overcome some of the mystery within the

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Trinity and what takes place, because we're creatures, and they'll just go way too far. I understand that.

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But you know what? When Jesus said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Do you believe him?

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That's the cry of dereliction. Was he lying? Isn't there something in that moment where the suffering servant there in that cry of dereliction is actually consistent with what

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God says must take place, with the atonement, with the substitutes? Something is very, very true there in terms of the experience of Christ and him receiving our penalty.

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But, and this is, I think, when I hear people deny penal substitutionary atonement, I think to myself, what more would you need to see than,

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I mean, there's so many texts, but what more would you need to see than something that was laid down long before Jesus even came?

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Isaiah 53, are we really questioning whether God the Father actually poured out his justice, wrath, penalty in our place on the

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Son? Are we questioning that? Because Isaiah said it long before Jesus came. I want you to go there.

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Isaiah 53, if we want to understand this moment in Matthew 27 of what is actually occurring and allowing for that veil to be ripped from top to bottom, we need to understand what the

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Word of God, the revelation of God said about the Messiah about 700 years before Jesus came.

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So I'll remind you again, if you're new to the Bible, what you're reading right now is something that was written down long before Jesus came, centuries before Jesus came.

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And here's what it says in 53, verse 4. I want you to hear the

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Word of God related to what's taking place with the Messiah. Here it is. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

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Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions.

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He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

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And with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.

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We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

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So when someone denies that Jesus received the wrath of the Father, the justice of God, and the place of God's people, we need to ask the question, well then what is the prophet of God giving to us here through inspired revelation?

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What is this? It actually says that he was pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities.

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Question, how does that relate to God? In every way.

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He's being crushed because our iniquities deserve crushing. But who deserves it really?

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Who? This is where you can answer. You. Me. I deserve to be pierced.

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I deserve to be crushed. I deserve the judgment of God to fall on me, but it passed over me and was given to the

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Son. And so he receives the penalty that's due to me. That's what the text says long before Jesus come.

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This isn't an invention of the Reformation. This isn't an invention of Protestantism.

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This is the word of God long before Jesus comes saying that he actually is that substitute.

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And it says, The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

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So there it is again. It's all over the New Testament. My guilt, my shame counted to him.

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The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. It's right there. Here it is again, verse 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent.

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So he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for his generation who considered that he was cut off.

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That's a word used elsewhere to describe a violent death.

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He was cut off out of the land of the living. Here it is. Stricken for the transgression of my people.

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So he was stricken for the transgression of God's people. How do we ever get the idea that we can deny penal substitutionary atonement?

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It says here in the text of God's inspired word, it says he was stricken for the transgression of God's people.

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He was stricken for the transgression of my people. And they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man and his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.

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So there he is. He's the righteous one. He's not really guilty, but he's being pierced. He's being crushed.

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He's being stricken on account of the people of God. And here it is, powerful. It's on the front of your bulletin.

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Here it is, ready? Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. Some translations say the

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Lord was pleased to crush him. So question, if we're going to deny penal substitutionary atonement and the

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Father is actually punishing Jesus as the substitute in place of his people, then what do we do with a text like this that so clearly says, so vividly says, that it is

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Yahweh who is pleased to crush Jesus. Now, are there mysteries here and aspects to this that are incomprehensible?

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You had better believe it. Do I understand as a creature with a three -pound brain the mind of the eternal, limitless

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God? Do I have a comprehensive understanding of the Trinity and the glory of the

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Trinity? No, but I'll tell you what, I do know what God has revealed. He says this.

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He says that it was his pleasure, his will, to crush the Son for me.

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Now, I'm going to just say this, that concept in itself is a bit incomprehensible because here's what

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Jesus says about the Father, is that he shared the glory of the Father with the Father before the world ever was, that there was the

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Father and Son in delighting, perfect fellowship and relationship, harmonious for all eternity.

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Forever ago, and I can't even conceive of that, neither can you, forever and ever and ever and ever ago, the

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Father and Son and Spirit in perfect, harmonious fellowship forever, and that the Father chooses the people who hate him in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world, that Jesus is the

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Lamb slain, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, and that Jesus condescends, he becomes obedient even to death, and he goes voluntarily for the sins of his people.

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He says, no one takes my life from me, I lay it down of my own accord. This is this beautiful, amazing, powerful harmony between the

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Father and the Son, and there's this perfect union and fellowship, and the Father says, this is the

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Son of my love, he's pleased in him, and this says he was pleased to crush him.

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Don't ask me to make perfect sense of that as a creature, because all I've got to say is that's divine, that's

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God. Because I love my kids, and I love you.

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And yes, the shepherd is supposed to lay his life down for the sheep and all the rest, but I gotta tell you, I love my kids, and I love my sons.

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And I couldn't give up any of my sons for any one of you. And I hope every father in here feels that way.

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Right? That they're the most important thing, your children are the most important thing. And I don't understand this in terms of a creature,

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I don't get it, that kind of love is so far beyond my ability to comprehend, that the

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Father loves me, the sinner, so much, that he was pleased to crush

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Jesus for me. Be willing to say that's an incomprehensible divine truth.

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It's true, I believe it, but wow, what a God. What a

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God. And here's what it says more, listen, it says, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He, he, he, the

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Lord, has put him to grief. We're gonna question whether God is actually putting

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Jesus in this place, counted as the guilty one, when it says that the

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Lord's pleasure was to crush him, and that he, the Lord, put Jesus to grief.

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When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days.

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The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. I think that's clearly testimony to the resurrection, because right before this, he's cut off out of the land of the living, and then he sees his offspring, then he prolongs his days.

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But here it is, out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.

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By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

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There's the great exchange. There's that sweet victory, there's that great exchange of us being counted righteous, and him bearing our iniquities.

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That's what the revelation of God says. You don't need Luther, you don't need Calvin, Zwingli, you don't need

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Sproul, you don't need James White, you don't need any of the heroes during the time of the Reformation as we're pointing people back to the word of God to tell you any of this.

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You know what you need? You need Isaiah the prophet. You need him. You need to ground yourself in what

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God says about how he brings about salvation, and he accounts the people of God to be righteous apart from their works on the basis of the righteous one who bears our sin, our shame, and our guilt.

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Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death, and, here it is again, was numbered with the transgressors.

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He's numbered with the transgressors. But wait a minute, he's the righteous one. How is that possible? There's no deceit in his mouth, yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.

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Brothers and sisters, if we lose these truths about penal substitutionary atonement, we lose the beauty and the benefits of the gospel.

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It's good news. Amen, yes? It's not good news when someone tells me, yeah, Jesus did that, but it's not enough.

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It's up to you. It's up to you to cooperate. It's up to you to receive this infusion of grace and to make yourself somewhat more righteous through obedience, to somehow work your way down a path to maybe, maybe, maybe someday you have peace with God.

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That's not the gospel the apostles preached. You see, the apostle Peter preaches it like this.

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You have an inheritance that's incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven for you.

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And it says that we are kept by the power of God. That is the gospel of the apostles.

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That's the ancient record of the church speaking. You see, Jesus gives a different story than man -made religion in terms of what he's actually accomplishing for his people.

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He says, John 5, 24, That's what

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Jesus preached. So is that you? Have you heard his voice? Do you believe, brothers and sisters?

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Do you believe? Yes? If that's true of you, if you truly trust in Christ, then what

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God says is that you have eternal life today. You have it. You will not die, ultimately.

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You have eternal life, and you've passed out of judgment into life. That's the gospel. Why anybody would abandon that truth?

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Why anybody would abandon that truth for some bootleg gospel that brings no peace with God? I don't care how much

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Christian language you use. Every gospel that robs Jesus of his glory of what's being accomplished here deserves its place in hell.

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Because this is the gospel. This is worth losing everything over. Next, let's move on.

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Out of Isaiah 53. Now, we have to be careful. There's always room for showing somebody a text as a proof.

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Right? You have to do that. In other words, well, what does God say there? You have to say, okay, well, in this text he says this. There is room for giving somebody a text as proof.

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But what do we know? We need to make sure that when we're giving somebody a text as proof, it's in context.

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It's what God consistently says. Amen? Yes? The danger of proof texting, what that generally means, is somebody has a pre -commitment over here to some system or some belief, and they go running through the

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Bible trying to find a verse that looks like it says that. That's dangerous. Don't ever do that. Put that to death.

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However, the word of God says a lot about the atonement, a lot about propitiation, a lot about Christ as substitute.

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Here's some. And you can check these. They're in context. 1 Peter 2 .24 says,

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He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

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By his wounds you've been healed. Where'd he get that from? That's Peter. Where'd he get that from?

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Isaiah. Leviticus 17 .11, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

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The wages of sin is death. It's the giving of life. Just know this. When you see the blood, the blood, the blood, we're talking about the life given.

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So that's when you see that, that's what that's pointing to. It's signaling the life is given. Hebrews 9 .12,

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He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

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Eternal redemption. Not temporary. Not ceasefire. Eternal redemption.

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It's the it is finished kind of redemption. Hebrews 9 .22, Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

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This is beautiful. This next one, one of my favorites.

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Revelation 5 .9, And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

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By his blood, he ransomed people for God from, out of, every tribe and language and people and nation.

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This room displays that glory right now. Amen? Yes? Look at all that's taking place right here in this room.

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All the tribes, tongues, people and nations represented here who love Jesus, unified in his body.

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Isaiah 53, But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was a chastisement that brought us peace.

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And with his stripes we are healed. 1 Peter 3 .18, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous.

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There's the substitution. That he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but being made alive in the spirit.

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Romans 5 .6, For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

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For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.

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But God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

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Since therefore we have now been, past tense, justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God?

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This is what the Bible teaches. It's the revelation of God. If I'm justified, if I have peace, if I'm reconciled, if I'm saved as a child of God, and if I'm saved from the wrath of God, question, where did it go?

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If I'm saved as a child of God, from the wrath of God, then here's the question, where did it go?

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Where'd the wrath of God go, if I don't get it? Another one, 1

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John 4 .10, In this is love, not that we have loved

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God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

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We talked about that word, propitiation, helesterion. The Greek word is the appeasement of wrath.

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It's the full satisfaction of wrath. So Jesus is that for our sins. He is that appeasement of wrath, that full satisfaction of wrath for our sins.

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That's what the text says. One more, 2 Corinthians 5 .21, this one, put in your hearts.

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If you don't know this yet by heart, put it in your hearts. It says, For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

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He made him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God. There's that great exchange again.

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There's a charging of sin and the charging of righteousness to me. There is that passing, that glorious sweet exchange.

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So, I want to talk just briefly about how the apostles clearly interpreted the work of Christ that took place with that veil being torn and all that takes place in the death of Christ.

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So do this quickly. Go to Romans chapter 3 and 4 because you need to have this in your hearts and minds, especially as you give the gospel to the average person on the street, the unbeliever, or to those who are ensnared in false man -made religious systems that even borrow

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Christian terminology. When the Apostle Paul is explaining the gospel in Romans 3, we know and won't do it now, but he gives that catena of verses from the

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Old Testament that shows there's none righteous, not one, none who seeks for God. It's very bad.

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No fear of God before their eyes. It's an indictment upon Jew and Gentile. We're all sinners. And as it moves forward,

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Paul's trying to make the point the law can justify nobody. It never could do so. And so here's what he says about Jesus and what was accomplished by Him.

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In Romans 3, 24 it says, And are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

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God put forth as a propitiation by His blood. What's that mean,

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His blood? His death. What He accomplished in His death. So here's that word again, propitiation. The Apostles are using this.

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It means something. That is the full satisfaction of wrath. And it says

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God puts forward Jesus as a propitiation by His blood to be received by works.

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Nope. What's it say? Faith. To be received by faith.

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This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance

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He passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just.

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What's that mean? An actual just judge. Why? Because He's dealing with sins. How? Through the propitiation that's accomplished in Jesus.

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The wrath is appeased and God is just because we have a substitute who's receiving it all, who gives

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His blood so that we can be justified, declared righteous in Jesus.

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So that He might be the just and the justifier, the one who has faith in Jesus. But here's what I want you to see in terms of what do the

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Apostles understand about what takes place in this great exchange. I'm going to read it to you.

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Romans 4, 1 says, What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

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For what does the Scripture say? Here's the quotation. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

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There's that word. We talk about the word legitimi, the word of crediting, charging up somebody's account.

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So Abraham is counted to him, he believes God, it's counted to him as righteousness.

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Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted, credited as a gift, but as is due.

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And to the one who does not work, but believes, here it is, in him, listen closely, who justifies the ungodly.

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There it is again. How does he do it? How does a holy God declare righteous the ungodly person?

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So many people in history, so many cult leaders, and so many people who propagate false gospels cannot conceive of this.

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Wait, who's doing what now? He is justifying, declaring righteous the wicked.

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How? Propitiation, substitution, crediting righteousness.

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His faith is counted as righteousness, just as David, and here it is, also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom

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God credits or counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

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Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. So we have forgiveness not being counted as guilty,

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God not holding my sin against me, and a positive crediting of righteousness to me.

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And David, Paul says, he speaks exactly of the same thing. That displays the benefits of what is accomplished by Jesus on the cross.

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That's what the ancient record of the church teaches. That's what the Word of God says. Now, man -made religion can't conceive of these beautiful truths because they can't have

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Jesus, again, counted as guilty. They can't have the atonement accomplishing eternal redemption.

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They can't have it finished. And they can't have us, the sinners, counted or credited a foreign righteousness.

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Man -made religion can't conceive of it because no matter what the system is, it's always the same story.

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It's always the same story in essence is that somehow something's wrong in us.

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We're broken. We're sinful. We fall short in whatever way to describe it. And you've got the

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God that we've offended or gods that we've offended. And the way to sort of bridge that gap and make that come together again is through cooperation and obedience and ritual and all the rest.

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And if I'm good enough, one day this God or gods can look into my life and see me and maybe

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I've got just enough to be accepted, hopefully. That subverts the whole concept of justice in terms of I'm really guilty and it better be dealt with.

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The man -made religion can't deal with that. We have that with Christ. And it also denies the glory of what

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Christ accomplishes. I want to be hiding in His righteousness. That's what I want.

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If you know your heart and you know your mind and you know your life, listen to me now, please, come back. If you know your heart and your mind and your life, just in the last three days, you should know that with a holy

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God, any violation of His law means you're guilty of the entire thing.

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And if you think of your life over the last three days, just your thought life, how you've engaged with others, how you've not worshipped

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God or loved God or loved neighbor, then you know you need a foreign righteousness.

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You need a righteousness that is perfect and is not going to be found in you and it won't be found in me, not in your past, not in your present, and not in your future.

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I want to be found hiding in Jesus. That's where life is. That's where peace with God is.

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Man -made religion can't give you that. Now, I mentioned, you know, even a religion that affirms the

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Trinity, like Roman Catholicism, that has become so perverse in its doctrine of salvation and the righteousness of Christ and all that needs to take place for me to have peace with God.

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Even with an affirmation of Christ as God in the flesh and dying for sins and rising again from the dead, they distort the gospel, borrow biblical terminology,

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Christian terminology, but they've gone through so much doctrinal development, clear doctrinal development over time and added so much to the faith that you have concepts like even the treasury of merits.

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In Scripture you have what? He's pierced through for our transgressions. We're counted as righteous because He justifies the many as He bears our iniquities.

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You've got all that Paul says here. All the Scripture says about the glories of the atonement. And so Rome begins to add things like the treasury of merit, the idea that, you know,

01:00:00

Jesus, His atonement and His bloodshed is so valuable that if Jesus had dropped a single drop of blood, that would be enough to forgive the sins of the entire world.

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But because Jesus bled copious amounts of blood, there's sort of this extra merit that Jesus provided, like a single drop would have done it all.

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But there's actually now, because there's copious amounts of blood, there's this sort of treasury of extra merit.

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It's just sort of like a storehouse in a way of extra merit. But it's not just Jesus' merit in there.

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No, Mary. Mary also. You see, she lived a life that was so righteous that she also has extra merit, sort of extra righteousness that goes into this treasury.

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It's, you know, Jesus' merit and it's Mary's merit and then also the saints, you know. Some of them lived such righteous lives that they had sort of extra left over, right?

01:01:00

They had sort of more to give away. And so it all goes into this treasury. And you know, how you get access to that is, well, the church will sort of bring that out to you.

01:01:10

But there's got to be cooperation in some way. And whatever way they decide to ultimately say it comes to you, you have to, you know, get it through them.

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And it's this treasury of merit. And there's Jesus in there and it's Mary's in there and the saints in there.

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What is that? It's a perversion of the goodness of the gospel. It's a perversion of the atonement, what the

01:01:32

Bible says about the atonement. It's a perversion of the benefits that Paul says clearly we get from Christ and his propitiation.

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He takes the wrath of God. He appeases the wrath of God. He's counted as the guilty one.

01:01:47

And I get his righteousness. What a perversion also of the glory due only to Christ to try to mix into some treasury others' quote -unquote merit.

01:02:01

I don't need any of that because I have Christ's. I have Christ's perfect righteousness.

01:02:08

There are so many ways that man -made religion tries to pervert this. And what we need is the gospel.

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What we need is a perfect Savior. And we have one in Jesus. What he gives is once for all. It's eternal redemption.

01:02:22

It's found nowhere else. But what's interesting and you've, again, I'll say it again, you look at church history, it's, what do

01:02:29

I call it? A glorious what? A glorious mess. A glorious mess. And wouldn't you know it, church history is a glorious mess, glorious and ew, mess, because it's filled with fallible, sinful human beings.

01:02:46

Uninspired people tend to make mistakes. Amen? Yes? And so you're going to see giants of the faith, heroes saying amazing things.

01:02:54

Praise God, that sounds like what Jesus says. That sounds like what Paul says. Praise God, praise God for those defenders of the truth.

01:03:01

But you also see the face plants. But you have these truths taught throughout not only

01:03:07

Scripture but also church history in some pretty grand ways. So if you love church history, you should love the truths about penal substitutionary atonement.

01:03:17

I'll just give you a couple examples. These are more just for encouragement and fun. Eusebius of Caesarea, he was, in his writing, he was quoting from something you just read.

01:03:27

He was quoting from Isaiah 53 .5 and he was commenting on Isaiah 53 .5.

01:03:33

It was the text we were just in. So, very early on, we have Isaiah 53 .5 being quoted from early

01:03:40

Christian and he's commenting on Isaiah 53 .5. Here's what he says, quote, In this, he was pierced through for our transgressions.

01:03:50

In this, he shows that Christ, being apart from all sin, will receive the sins of men on himself.

01:04:01

And therefore, he will suffer the penalty of sinners and will be pained on their behalf and not on his own.

01:04:15

What's that sound like? Penal substitutionary atonement. He's punished for the sins of God's people and he's actually not guilty.

01:04:25

It's for them. In the epistle to Diognetus, it says, In his mercy, he took upon himself our sins.

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He himself gave up his own son as a ransom for us, the holy one for the lawless, the guiltless for the guilty, the just for the unjust, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal.

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For what else but his righteousness could have covered our sins? In whom was it possible for us, the lawless and ungodly, to be justified except in the

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Son of God alone? I think he was probably just reading Romans 3 and 4 before he wrote this, right? Oh, the sweet exchange!

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Oh, the incomprehensible work of God! Oh, the unexpected blessings that the sinfulness of many should be hidden in one righteous person while the righteousness of one should justify many sinners.

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How do you like that? That sweet exchange. Athanasius, one of my favorites, the patron saint of post -millennialism, he says,

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He is the life of all, and he it is that as a sheep yielded his body to death as a substitute for the salvation of all, even though the

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Jews believe it not. That's on the incarnation of the Word. Another one from Athanasius.

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He was commenting on Psalm 22 and 69. Psalm 22 we read. It's right there in Matthew 27.

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It's quoted from there. That dereliction psalm, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

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They pierce my hands and my feet. They wag the heads. They cast lots at the foot of the cross.

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All that. Here's Athanasius commenting on those sections. He says,

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Thou hast made the wrath rest upon me. Says the one, and the other adds,

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I paid them things I never took. For he did not die as being himself liable to death.

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He suffered for us. And, Athanasius now, bore in himself the wrath that was the penalty for our transgression.

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Even as Isaiah says, He bore our weaknesses. This divine truth of the atonement, the propitiation, the substitution of Jesus, the wrath of God given to him, diverted from me, is not only shouted to us from the beginning of the

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Bible to the end of the Bible, it is throughout church history in glorious moments.

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In moments like this, where you have Christians in history who are clearly, simply, reading their

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Bibles. And that's where their hope was found. Why is this important? Here's why.

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Because what I have in Jesus, what I have in Jesus is an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven for me.

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What I have in Jesus is the gift of eternal life. What I am in Jesus as a person who's received his mercy and his grace.

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What's happened to me is I've passed out of death into life. What Jesus says about me is that I'll lose none of them.

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I will lose none of them. What Jesus says about his people is he says, I know my sheep.

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And they know me. I give them eternal life. And he says that they are in his hands.

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And nothing can snatch them out of his hand.

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That is the glory of the Gospel. Abandon those truths at your own eternal peril.

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This is the glory of the Messiah. This is the hope we have in Jesus Christ. Is it true that there are people under the hearing of the

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Gospel that make false professions of faith and fall away? Is that true?

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Yeah, there's warnings about it in the Bible. There are people in this room, unfortunately, who are false professors.

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Maybe even at the moment, you are. You have a head knowledge of Jesus. You acquiesce to certain truths about Jesus.

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But you've never turned to Christ as Savior for your sins. You've never turned to Christ as Lord.

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You've never come to die and rise again with Christ. Maybe you're comfortable with Christian culture. Maybe this is just a really satisfying community to be in.

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It's safe. There's so much love here. And there's so much support and hospitality. It really is amazing.

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It really is. Maybe that's why you're here. Maybe you've been under the hearing of the Gospel your entire life, and you're a false professor.

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Is it possible to be a false professor? Never actually to have eternal life and to fall away?

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Yeah, John mentions that. He says, what about them? He says, they went out from us in order to show they were never really of us.

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Because here's the thing, if you truly trust in Christ, you really are a believer.

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You have that living faith that James talks about, not the dead one, not the mere said one, but actual faith.

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And you know what we have, according to Jesus? Eternal life. You'll never be lost.

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Jesus says it's the will of the Father that he loses none of you. And why is that? How can that be actually accomplished?

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Because this is this glorious harmony of the Trinity, of the Father choosing a people in Jesus Christ, Jesus condescending and actually laying his life down for them.

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And he says it's finished. And the Holy Spirit of God comes to apply that eternal redemption in the people of God.

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Oh, and by the way, that's not to your glory in any degree in terms of you coming to Jesus. Because the Bible actually says that faith itself is a gift of God.

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You weren't seeking God. He was seeking you. The Bible says that God grants repentance.

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So from beginning to end, who gets the glory for this kind of redemption? The triune

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God. Not you. If that's offensive to you, I think you're still dead. Dead spiritually.

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If the sovereignty of God and all glory being given to God in salvation is something that rubs you the wrong way because you feel like I must have a part in this,

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I've got to have a part to play in this, I've got to have a part where it's somewhat sort of me and my obedience and cooperation, you're dead because you don't know how sinful you truly are and how holy

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God truly is. You need a perfect righteousness. And it's only found in Jesus. And when you get it, and when you get it, you have it forever.

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And it's all to God's glory. And every saint of God says, yes, that's the only righteousness

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I want. That is the peace that I want. And I want all glory to go to God. I want none of it for myself.

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The believer who knows Jesus and knows their sin, they know the consequences of sin, when you ask someone like, hey, how come you're going to be in heaven one day?

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How come you have peace with God? The believer just points, because of him, because of that redemption, because of what he did in my place for me.

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Man -made religion can't touch that. Mormonism can't touch that. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society can't touch that.

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Roman Catholicism can't touch that. Man -made religion can't conceive of this glorious gospel.

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It is a gift by his grace through the redemption that's in Jesus Christ. My call to you is this.

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Does that sound beautiful to you? Does that sound glorious to you? Do you want that salvation?

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Then turn to Christ and live. If you turn to Christ, you will find him to be a perfect, eternal

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Savior who will never lose you. And that's my hope. Let's pray. Thank you,

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Lord Jesus, for your death, for your life, for your forgiveness, for the peace that we have only in you.

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I do pray for anyone in this room or under the hearing of my voice who hears this message,

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I pray for your grace in their lives. I pray that you'd open the eyes of the blind, give hearing to deaf people, give life where there is death, and by your grace and mercy, raise the dead to life.

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I pray, Lord, that if anyone has heard this message, that they would find

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Christ to be that perfect Savior, that they would turn to him and live. Lord, allow us to never lose our grip on the truths surrounding the atonement and what

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Christ actually purchased for us. In Jesus' name, amen. I've mentioned,