Gospel—Stephen Rule
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So you turn with me. If you have your Bible with you and you know your way around in it, would you turn with me? Exodus chapter 12. We won't spend too much time there. Tonight, I'd like to introduce the subject that's on my heart.
Exodus chapter 12.
Street a few verses beginning in verse 5.
Your lamb.
Shall be without blemish. Your lamb shall be without blemish. A male of the first year. You shall take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it up until the 14th day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
They shall take the blood and strike it upon the two side posts.
And on the upper doorposts of the houses wherein they shall eat it, they shall eat the flesh, and that night roast with fire an unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, or sadden it all with water, but roast with fire his head with his legs.
And with the pertinence thereof, or with the inwards.
I would like to share with you this evening something very simple. Perhaps it won't cover all the aspects of the gospel, but I speak to ones, I think in the majority, perhaps all of you that have heard many times the facts of the gospel. The burden that's on my heart is this. There's a person that's offered for your acceptance before God is without blemish.
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And there are three aspects that are on my heart tonight, two of which.
Will cover, perhaps in detail, one we won't, but we'll cover just a touch on it. That is his head. We'll just touch on that. The intelligent purposes and plans of God's Lamb.
His legs, the actions, the speech, what shows on the outside of that person.
With the pertinence thereof, the inwards, the affections, what's in his heart.
And the sole burden on my heart this evening is to present to you that person. I believe you know something of his work. I believe you know something of the cross. I believe you know something of the blood that he shed there to put away sin.
If you don't, be very happy to share more later. Perhaps there'll be some time at the end to go through a few of the details. But that's not what's on my heart tonight. It's on my heart tonight. For you is the person, his head, but especially his legs, his actions, what he was like as a person expressed to the eyes of others, and the pertinence there of the inwards, the affections of that person. What was in his heart? What was in his soul?
At the time when he made himself an offering for sin as it's expressed in the word I want to present to that person because just another verse if you would turn over with me to Leviticus chapter one.
Leviticus chapter one. Just want to read 2 verses, verses three and four. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice to the herd, let him offer a male without blemish.
She'll offer it of his own bullish voluntary will, at the door of the Tabernacle, the congregation before the Lord, and he shall put his hands.
Upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him.
And it shall be accepted for him. I want to present to you tonight in a partial way, in a feeble way, but as completely as I can. Then the time ahead of us, this person, because that person is God's lamb, and God has accepted him. God has accepted that sacrifice.
That man, Christ Jesus that suffered on the cross is in heaven tonight. He's accepted at the right hand of God. That person is accepted by God and by so many of us in this room we have the figure that we just read, reached out with our hand and said the full acceptance of this lamb is my acceptance before God. This is God's lamb that we'll look at tonight.
He's my lamb too, and it's the lamb of so many in this room.
But if tonight you can't say that, you have by faith reached out your hand and placed it on the head of that lamb.
If the value of that lamb hasn't been to your soul applied, I want to say to your knight very simply, I'm going to present to you that lamb. But you must reach out and by faith receive that person as your Savior. You must take him as yours. I want you to reach out. And there's so many in this room that want you to reach out with the hand of faith and simply say.
This is God's lamb. This is my lamb.
I want to read one other verse, an introduction in John's Gospel. You know what I'm going to turn to? But I'll read it anyway. John's gospel verse, chapter one.
There's a burden on my heart this evening.
John, chapter one, verse 36.
John the Baptist speaking and it says.
And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. I want you to not just behold him, will behold him together. We'll look on him together, we'll consider him together. But I want you to reach out by faith and receive him as your Lamb, as your Savior, as the one that you need, the one that's the substitute for you.
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Before God.
Don't intend to ask this again, so you don't need to feel comfortable. And I'm asking once tonight to do the following. I want you to think about this for a moment. I'm going to ask you to raise your hand in just a minute. In the past month, somewhere in the last month, we'll say in the month of November.
Have you crossed a bridge? A bridge of any kind? Not a massive bridge across the Mississippi. A bridge across.
Culvert a bridge across.
The Little River, a small stream, an overpass. That's a bridge. Now raise your hand if in the last month you've crossed a bridge. Now, I'd like you to keep your hand in the air for just a moment. Leave it up. You can put it down. If you didn't, talk to the Department of Transportation ahead of time to make sure the bridge you crossed was safe.
Do you have any hands left in this room?
I saw virtually every hand a moment ago, and I think if you knew what the question was, every hand would have enough. There's bridges everywhere when you drive around. Not a single one of you asked for a requisition from the Missouri Department of Transportation, from I dot in Illinois or from the state you're from, and you wanted to look over carefully whether or not there's any stress damage in the bridge you're going to cross. In fact, you never even crossed your mind for most of you to even think of doing such a thing or whether they even have those kinds of documents.
You drove across the bridge either as the driver or as a passenger.
You trusted your life. How many? Well, I'm not going to ask the question. Many of you have crossed the bridge where you could have been plunged to your death. You didn't ask for a document proving that that bridge, built by a bunch of engineers many years ago, perhaps damaged by a semi last week, was still trustworthy.
And yet you're going to face an eternity of forever.
Of forever is ahead of you. We're going to take just a few minutes together to look at the trustworthy of your bridge to the presence of God, forever, the Lamb of God.
You're not going to know everything about him by the time you're done, and you don't need to know everything about him. Every last one of you just about confessed that you put your life in your hands without looking into the reality of whether that's sensible or not.
You simply drove across the bridge.
We're going to take some time to look at that person. You don't need to know everything about him. You just need to know that he came to this world. He entered this world because he loved you. He entered this world because he had a purpose and plan to bring you to heaven with him. But he had to be that perfect without blemish lamb. Let's look first at Luke chapter 23 at his.
Legs, the actions, what was outward and as we do so, I just want to touch on a small number of points that contrast the person you're about to see with you and I.
The contrast the person, because if you present yourself for acceptance before God as you are in your sins, you're going to be presenting the persons that we'll talk about tonight. But if you come in the full acceptance of the person of Christ.
The Lord Jesus, you're going to be coming to be received as he was received.
Because of who he is, Luke chapter 23.
Just read the first few verses.
Enough for the moment. An all multitude of them arose and led him, that is Jesus, unto Pilate. They began to accuse him.
Saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, the forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a king. Pilate asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews? And he answered him and said, Thou sayest it, and said, Pilot to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man.
Little context here.
What are you at your worst?
When you're most likely to say something a little sarcastic.
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Something that's maybe just a little got a little edge to it, something where there's just a little feeling in the voice.
When it goes through the circumstances of this man as he appears before the Judge Pilate, how much sleep did he have the night before?
I don't believe you had a minute.
He was before the Sanhedrin. He was being accused, he was being mistreated, he was being struck in the face.
How much food do you suppose they gave him at the Sanhedrin? What was this breakfast like?
It was found in the Garden of Gethsemane. Where were his friends that went in there with him?
Left by his disciples, abandoned by those that did have a love for him, didn't have the strength to stay with Him without sleep, without food, bound. And then they're saying things about him. They're saying things about him that weren't true.
Where's his answer to this statement? Perverting the nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar? 4 chapters before 3 chapters before this.
He said show me a penny. He said render the Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are Gods. 3 chapters back you can look for it.
What does he say about that here? Nothing.
Doesn't defend himself, doesn't say a word to defend himself. But when he's asked who he is, the legitimate question before Pilate, the Roman governor, Arthur, the king of the Jews, and he answered and said they'll say it.
A beautiful man What a man who would act with perfect dignity in front of an accusation. I'll tell you two stories, and there's a reason for why there are two. Just to draw the contrast. I want to do that several times this evening. To draw the contrast. It's one thing to talk about perfection. Sometimes it helps to see it in the contrast of what we are.
Probably a couple of years into our marriage, we were living. We lived the first eight years of our life in an apartment building.
And the owner of the apartment building was a retired farmer in the area. And then when the area started to build up, he had built some apartment buildings. And so he built the building we were in and he did the maintenance on it. I was off at work and something was wrong, I don't remember what it was with the shower. So he'd come over, my wife was home and he was busy in the shower and.
Somehow the shower head or the tap that he was working on the pipe snapped off inside the wall.
And my wife heard some cursing and some evident.
A lack of appreciation for the event coming from the bathroom.
A moment later, the bathroom door opened and he stepped out. He's going to have to go buy some new things now to do a more extensive repair. And he very he was a professing believer, he very piously said on his way out. Just just a small cross the bear. Just a small cross the bear. And.
He went out to buy the parts.
For a long time that was my favorite example of justice. Kind of funny, little bit hypocritical. But quite a few years later.
I don't have any.
Build their skills. Some of you have many builder skills. I have virtually none. And I was trying to get a curtain rod properly placed in bedroom and I don't remember the exact specifics of it, but I was pushing hard on the the screwdriver and something slipped and I the part broke loose and I had a little hole in my my drywall and I thought.
No, I didn't think, I said I hate this.
Somebody was listening.
They're probably only a couple of years old about a week later.
They're using their little plastic toy bench with a bunch of holes in it. There's a little plastic pegs, you know, a little plastic hammer. You put the little plastic pegs into the little plastic holes with your little plastic hammer.
And they weren't going in, and I happened to be where I heard.
Exact same expression I used.
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Now look at this man.
Could I present myself before God and say take me the way I am?
No, I couldn't. Can you present yourself before God and say take me the way I am? No, you can't. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But what about this man?
He's been accepted before God. Will you receive him as your acceptance before God a little further down in the chapter?
Verse 8.
When Saharan saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad, for he was desirous to see him of a long season.
Because he had heard many things of him, he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him. Any question with him in many words.
But he answered him nothing, and the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him inherited with his men of war sediment, not mocked him and raid him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again the pilot.
You know.
Herod was the son of the Herod that was the.
Ruler when the Lord was born and the ruler when the Lord was born. Here the Gray had built palaces all over the place. You can see there were ruins everywhere. He was called by history Herod the Great because of all of his palace building program, his works, and he built tremendous number of places. He had a beautiful palace down near Jericho and so on. His son.
This Herod here that we're reading about was the same Sensuous man.
Who had been provoked by the dancing of Herodias daughter and had.
Promised half his Kingdom and ended up cutting off the head of John the Baptist. That's the man we're talking about here. Period.
Lord Jesus is before him. He's on trial, we would say, for his life. And here's a man that is a very sensuous person, but what he's looking for is a little bit of excitement, it says. And he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him, just a little miracle. It'd be nice to have something exciting. That's what Herod's looking for, some little miracle.
You know.
When we have the chance to show off, we ever showed off.
Ever put on a display of some of your special capabilities?
You know.
I've cousin, he's a doctor, he's working at the Mayo Clinic. And he told me that there was some research that he'd done and there was a doctor there that was very well known in the medical community. He'd gotten his name on all kinds of papers. He'd had his name published and this particular doctor wouldn't give. My relative was much younger.
Junior member of the staff wouldn't give him the time of day, passed by him the hallway, he'd be greeted, he'd say hello and wouldn't bother to answer. But in this particular occasion our relative had a a paper and I guess the way it works, he wanted some signatures of others on it before it got sent for publication and apparently had been received for publication. So he asked this doctor if he could get his signature.
Oh, the man was quite He paused. They pulled his $200.00 fountain pen out of his pocket and reached over and signed whatever document they need to decide and shared a kind word and went on down the hallway.
When there is a chance to just do a little bit of showing off.
He did it well, you say. I've never done that.
Just a little bit of showing off was a young person and I remember two people. I won't name them. Some of you in here will know both of them. Some of them, you will know them quite well. I won't name them. There are two young people that were perhaps four or five years older than I was. We were going downtown. We're at the train station in Villa Park waiting to catch the train downtown and there wasn't much to do. And so one of them challenged the other to a foot race.
And one of them was very athletic, perhaps 6566, and well known for their athleticism and abilities. The other one was shorter than I am, didn't look particularly athletic, didn't look particularly fast. So the athletic one said sure, and he kind of casually came up to whatever their starting line was, and they got lined up and somebody said go and they took off.
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And they took off and they went as fast as they could. And I remember sitting there and all seeing the the six, six athletic 1 lost by probably 1520 feet wasn't exactly a photo finish.
Do you know what he did?
He did what I think many of us can relate to, He said, well, I wasn't quite ready. My shoes weren't properly tied. I wasn't. The other one said, fine, yeah, let's do it again.
So he very carefully tied his shoes. He very carefully got ready, he arranged for how that signal would be given so he could get off exactly the right moment. And they ran the race again and he lost by 15 or 20 feet. Anything but it's a little finish.
It's not what we are.
Maybe you would never try to win a foot race, maybe your thing is not being an athlete, but have you ever been in a situation?
Not a situation where you're on trial for your life, any situation, and you're willing to try to make people look and be impressed, draw attention to yourself so they would think, wow, she's pretty good at that. She's not. That's impressive.
Can be as something as simple as.
Listening while the food's there on the table at the potluck dinner to hear if there's sufficient number of compliments for the food that we prepared and put there on the table. It can be just about anything where we want to look a little better than the person next to us. Here's a person who could turn water into wine. Here's a person.
Who was and is the Son of God? There's a person who's absolutely perfect.
And when he has a chance to show off and he's on trial for his life, he doesn't say a word.
Doesn't say a word. Heritage had a testimony. Didn't need a testimony. He had John the Baptist. He didn't need another set of words. He'd heard his words and he cut off the head of the messenger.
Lord Jesus, to bring attention to himself as a man, didn't say a word, did nothing to draw attention to himself as a man, nothing.
Let's look a little further down in the chapter verses 33 and 34.
And when they were come to the place which was called Calvary, there they crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand, the other on the left.
Then, then.
Then in that context.
Said Jesus. Father, forgive them, they know not.
What they do, Father, forgive them.
Play no knock what they do.
An amazing man.
What an amazing person.
Crucifixion, as you know, was an act that put someone not only in great physical pain, but presented them to public shame.
Presented this person, this king of this Jews, this man that Pilate didn't find any fault with, this man that Herod didn't find any fault with this man, was being placed for the view of the crowds in public shame. Why were his words? Father forgive, They know not what they do.
An amazing person.
There was a time in my life.
When I was publicly shamed by somebody.
They came to me later that very same day and with others present. They weren't trying to hide it, they said with tears. I'm sorry, I was wrong.
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Took me.
I, I said in front, you know, I said, oh, that's, that's fine, that's OK, you're forgiven. Whatever it was I said at the moment was the appropriate thing to say.
But in my heart, I didn't forgive that person. You know, there's probably a good.
Month or so that went by, and the Lord made me.
Physically sick, couldn't go to the breaking of bread was the first time in my life. Perhaps the second. I guess it was the second time in my life that hadn't been able to go.
And during that time, Lord had to make me in the heart forgive.
What they said wasn't that awful. They didn't do anything other than yell at me in front of others.
Took me, I think, over a month to forgive from the heart.
This man in the presence of total injustice, of hands nailed to a cross, his feet nailed to a cross, he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. That's an expression coming from a perfect heart of love. This man is my lamb. This man is my acceptance before God.
I can't present myself to God for acceptance.
Wouldn't have anything to stand on. I don't know the half of it. You don't know the fraction of it. I told you a couple stories, one of them sufficient. I can't stand for my own personal acceptance before God. But this man stood in my place. Does he stand in your place?
Is he your Lord? Is he your Savior? Is he the one through whom you find acceptance with God? Can you say that you are accepted in the Beloved, accepted before God? One more thing on his actions, the legs here in Luke's gospel.
Turn to verse 43.
And Jesus said unto me, speaking to the thief, barely I said unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
As about the 6th hour there was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour.
The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
Now in this Gospel.
These are the next words recorded after those hours of darkness and when Jesus had cried with a loud voice he said.
Father, to thy hands I commend my spirit. Having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Dresses God before entering those.
Hours of darkness.
He addresses his father. He says father forgive them. Then he goes through three hours.
Immense suffering for sin. I speak to ones who have heard before what those hours of darkness mean. I speak to ones who don't need to be informed as to their facts of what happened in those three hours and how you knew no sin was made.
To be sin for us.
Do you realize that he's the end of those hours? He says father. As he comes out of those hours. What does he say? He says father.
What happened to the Communion? It's been broken.
It goes in in communion. It comes out of him being made sin and taken care of, fully putting away sin.
He's his father, not beautiful.
You've been through a circumstance where you've suffered and you've come out. You're thinking about nothing but yourself.
I have.
He goes into the suffering and he comes out and who is he thinking about? Who's he speaking to? Speaking to his father. So I want to take you to that. What was going on inside? This was what was outside. We've heard the expressions that others could hear. We've looked on what others could look on. Those are his legs, the actions, the work, the walk.
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If you will and you want to connect it, you can look at First Peter 2/22.
He did no sin.
But there's something more than that. There's what was going on inside in his heart during that period of time. There's what he went through as a person during those hours on the cross. That's what was inward. That's the pertinence of the inwards. Those are the affections. Those are the feelings on the inside. I told you a moment ago that I said the right words, but I didn't feel them. We can say the right thing.
We can do the right thing and be rotten on the inside.
The Lord Jesus did the right acts as recorded here. He said the right things as recorded here. He did no sin. But in first John it says in chapter 3 verse five, and then Mr. Darby's translation for those familiar with it. In him sin was not, there was no sin in him.
There's nothing in him, nothing hidden from the eye of man. So God opens it up so that you and I can look at it. Let's turn to Psalm 22.
I challenge you to look at this man.
You cross a bridge with your life depending on it without a second thought.
But he's presented himself to you fully in his word, to be considered.
You know that lamb was kept up for multiple days where it could be inspected. I suppose with the lamb you might look at it and externally it would look OK. But if there was any inward disease, if there was anything on the inside that might express itself over a period of days. So it's kept up for the period of days so that inside could be seen. The inside is seen here in Psalm 22.
And we go.
Go through the fullness of it.
We don't have the.
It's far too much here. It's far too much in the person of the Lord. I just want you to notice a few things and I challenge you to do something when you go home tonight. I'd like you to read who he's talking to from verse one to verse 22.
I'd like you to go through that carefully. I'll point out a few.
Verse one, my God my God Verse two, Oh my God, verse three but thou verse 9 but thou but verse 11 be not far from me addressing the same person.
Verse 18 still talking to God they talking about others. Verse 19 but be not thou. Verse 21 talking the safe same person save me.
22 I will declare thy name.
Look back through it carefully. Not until verse 23 as he talked to anybody but God.
That whole period of time on the cross, going through the absolutely most intense, incredible 3 hours that could ever be.
This man.
Presents himself and all that he is to his God.
He presents himself and all he is, imperfect submission and perfect obedience to his God. And there's nothing but what that God found acceptable. Everything was perfectly acceptable to his God. You know those first. And again, I address those who have heard this word many times before. So you've seen those words. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
And you know when he said them, the recorded in Matthew and the recorded, I believe in Mark.
And you know that he said them the end of those three hours on the cross. But if you ever pause to contrast that with what you are.
And what I am, I'm not pointing you out. I've already given multiple examples of what I am, and I could not be accepted before God as I am. I must be accepted in this person, in this one, in this Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other hope for me and there's no other hope for you. But have you thought about it for even a moment? How do you stack up?
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Suppose.
For a moment that you're doing some work around the house and you've done a pretty good job on something. Perhaps you're a child in the home, perhaps you're an adult. You've done work around the house and it's been nicely done and the person that you did it for will say for a moment that it's your mom and your mom comes along.
And they see the work that you've done and they look it over.
And they just keep right on going, totally ignore it, and all they can talk about is whatever's on their mind at that particular moment.
Sometimes they say that they blew you off. You presented something and totally ignored it.
You feel kind of abandoned a little bit.
Found it hard when meditating on this one even come up with something or to go through anything in my experience that came close to what the Lord Jesus felt on that cross. What an example I just gave is trivial. It's minor, it might not even seem like abandonment, but you'd feel ignored and that's why I chose it.
You feel ignored, You feel like you didn't count. You felt like you didn't matter.
And in the heart, for maybe just a moment, would surge a little bit of irritation.
What does this man do? Who does he talk to? Who does he cry to? He says, my God, my God, what language do people use when they're distancing themselves from someone else? They say my no.
I first noticed it with sports when I was in high school, I guess. And somewhere during my high school years, I noticed that there was one year, may have been more than one, but I don't remember 1, where the University of Illinois football team did quite well that year. And I saw this orange and blue in my high school and I heard a lot of we we're doing well this year. We're doing great this year.
We're, we're, we're going to die, forget. And I don't know whether they went to the Rose Bowl or what. We'll say we're going to the Rose Bowl this year. And a lot of my friends were talking in this language and wearing these clothes. And the next year, as I recall it, it wasn't nearly as good a year for the University of Illinois. And there was a lot less blue and orange around. And I heard words like, boy, they are not doing very well this year.
Boy, they need a new coach. The wheeze were gone, and now it was they.
It's not what happens. Distancing from the failure. We when it's success, they when it's failure, pushing ourselves apart. But what does this man do? He's being made thin. He's in those hours of darkness and he's having my sin laid on him. What does he say?
My God, my God, what an amazing man.
What an amazing person he is.
If you come down a little further or six, well, I'll read from maybe just a little before that.
For the full connection, we'll read from verse 8, from verse, I'm sorry, from verse three to verse 8. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabit us, the praises of Israel, our fathers trusted. In thee they trusted, and now that's delivered them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered and trusted in thee who were not confounded.
But I am a worm and no man. Her approach of men and despised of the people.
All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him, let him deliver him, saying he delighted in him.
And explain by enjoying these verses in just a moment about the Lord Jesus. But I want to tell you another story from high school to create the contrast. Trying to remember being mocked, being made fun of, being laughed at. And this situation occurred over 30 years ago, not to me, but to a friend of mine.
His name is Jim Runkey. I had a physics class with him in high school.
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It's probably our junior year. We had a teacher who was a brilliant man. He told us what his SAT score was and it was above the average four. And I looked it up once. It was above the average necessary to get into any school in this nation.
It was well above the average to get into any school in this nation. It was a very bright man. He was a very sarcastic man. And we had exams, tests that had 30 questions on them and each question had six. It was multiple choice, but there were six options for everyone. And they were deliberately designed to be extremely tricky. And so if you came to that test and you closed your, you know, just covered up the questions and you randomly.
Marked off your answers to the 30 questions at six possible answers to each one. So if you got it one out of every six right, you get about 5 right? And my sarcastic physics teacher, as he returned the papers off and had a little opposite of a I guess he probably viewed it as a word of motivation for his students. It wasn't a word of encouragement, but I remember sitting two seats back.
One row over from Jim as he got his paper back from the teacher.
Held it between his thumb and his forefinger. Jim was sitting on the outside row, so he was twisted around a little bit toward the rest of the class, just waiting for the teacher to come by. Sitting up in his seat. Teacher held his paper between his thumb and his forefinger. He brought it over his desk. He turned toward the class, and he kind of flicked it toward Jim as he said.
A monkey flipping levers could do better than that.
Jim got three or four right. A monkey flipping levers could do better than that.
Well, Jim was pretty good-natured, but I watched him and he kind of, he smiled, he smiled at the teacher. He kind of had a little goofy grin on his face. They splint down this chair a bit. He split around from the Class A little bit and he didn't have anything to say.
He was publicly mocked for his failure.
He was publicly laughed at and he was embarrassed. He wanted to hide.
Now back to this man, Psalm 22.
Challenge you to read the verses again in the quiet of your room, but I believe in verses 3 to 8. Here's what this man was concerned about. He was concerned that God would look bad because a righteous man was suffering without deliverance. He's not there to hide because he feels ashamed before man. He's not there to demand.
That he be looked at in a positive way by others.
In the context, in the totality of the section, in the context of those verses, look at it for yourself. I suggest to you that his concern was answered at the end. It was answered when he was delivered in verse 2122. His concern was answered, but his concern was that God would look bad.
Because a righteous man was suffering, he justifies him in relation to other righteous ones.
In relation to himself, he's concerned for God's honor. He's there in that moment.
Not blushing red.
Not wiggling down to not be seen.
She's there crying out to God that God will vindicate himself.
Verse 12.
Many bulls have compassed me, strong bowls of basin who beset me round.
They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion.
May the Lord Jesus was surrounded. He shares the experience with God. He was surrounded by those that had absolute hatred for him.
But it goes through it all with absolute perfect quietness.
They do want to look at one thing I did not intend to skip over. I'm going to read verses 9:00 to 11:00, and then we'll pass on very briefly to the head.
This is the inwards. This is his feelings expressed, his affections.
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Verses 9:00 to 11:00 But thou art he that took me out of the womb.
Now it's make me hope. When I was upon my mother's breasts, I was cast upon Thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. This is His dependence. He addresses God, I think, in these verses four times, and He depends totally on His God. But I want you to notice it came from the earliest age. You've noticed that before.
It came from when he was the youngest he could possibly be.
I'll tell you one more story. The purpose of the story is to create. The contrast is to create a background that displays the gem. The story may sound cute at first.
But has another side to it.
When I was being potty trained, I don't know what age and I knew better. I guess I had diapers, but I was being whatever process my parents used. I don't know what it was.
And I was being taught how to go to the bathroom properly in the toilet. And my mom was working, as I recall the story. I don't remember, but I heard the story from her many times. She was working, as I remember it, in the kitchen. And I must have been around. And I vanished. And I went into the next room and I went in behind the door.
And she heard.
From behind the door.
She said, Steven, what are you doing? Nothing. Apparently I was old enough to use that word, so I don't know how old I was. I said nothing. I went and hid. I said nothing.
And then the next part was.
Steven, what was that noise I heard?
Bears, Mom Bears.
Kind of ridiculous, isn't it?
You know, Mom told that story when I was a teenager and older, and some of the times she told it because it was a funny story about a little kid. Some of the times she told that story, it was because that little kid hadn't changed very much.
An excuse to cover sin that makes a mother laugh. I don't know if I got punished or not. That wasn't part of the story. What was part of the story was that I was stubborn, that I was hiding my evil, and that I was willing to come up with a flimsy excuse to justify myself. And apparently it too. I thought it was pretty good to say Bears mom. Bears Mom wasn't fooled.
Do you think the eternal God who looks into the bottom of your heart is going to be confused?
If you present yourself to Him in your sins for acceptance.
You think it's going to be funny in that particular moment? Do you think he'll Oh, he hadn't thought of that.
When you present your excuse, Mom didn't say. Oh yes, the bears.
It wasn't the slightest bit confusing to her, and God is not going to be the slightest bit confused if you present yourself for acceptance before Him as you are.
You must come to God in the full value and virtue of this person and his work. You must come to God and be accepted. Have that sacrifice, that Lamb accepted on your behalf, accepted for you. You must receive him and present him to God as your sacrifice and not yourself.
Just want to read one brief.
Spot further along in the psalms related to the head.
You know that in First Corinthians 5 it says. Our Second Corinthians 5/21 it says.
He knew no sin. Here's the head. He knew no sin. Psalm 139.
Just want to read the verses.
Expression of his thoughts, expression of his purposes. There's so many more. There's ones in Ephesians.
I thought perhaps to read to you, but this was more light on my heart because it expresses the thoughts, the intelligence, the purpose of this one, what He sees and what He knows and what His heart is really and along with His thoughts. Psalm 139. Just read from verse 13.
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Thou hast possessed my reins, Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully weighed. Marvellous are thy works not my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from me when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect.
And in my book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee.
You know, if you were honest.
And you could sit down and spend some time to think about it and you were to calculate.
What percentage of your thoughts in the last week have been about this person?
What they've been like.
What the content of them has been?
How much you thanked him for the flat tire, how much you appreciated the food that was got burned, Those little things, those little things that happened that God allows and your response to them. And then compare that with this.
This conclusion of the psalmist, when he thinks about God's thoughts of him, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, Oh God, how great.
How great is the sum of them?
His thoughts toward you are not ones of hatred.
They're not ones of demand. There's not. They're not ones that say, come, bring me this sacrifice. Bring me this bit of work. Do this for me. Do that for me. This thought toward you is only for your blessing. It's only for your good. But your sin must be put away. It must be washed away. You cannot come presenting yourself.
The God you must come presenting the gift that He's given of his Son and his work for you. You must come in the value of that work.
Do you think God, who delights in this person is going to look at you as you are in your sin and say well?
Not the best, but I'll take it.
Not perfect.
But it will have to do.
He says he'll take one lamb that's without blemish, that's perfect in his head, his legs and his inwards Perfect. That one person is his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you receive that one simply as your lamb, as your sacrifice, as your acceptance before God? It's as easy as saying.
Thank you. It's as easy as recognizing that you need him.
And that you appreciate what he's done for you. It's as easy as receiving it. It's as easy as crossing that bridge you've done in the last month without thought. Now you can do it. You don't have to know everything about him. You don't have to know the fullness. You can't. You'll have eternity to learn it.
You just need to know a little bit. You've known a little bit before tonight. You've heard a little bit more tonight. Will you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior?