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The-Lamb-That-Was-Slaughtered · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: If you brought a Bible with you today, you will
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Speaker 1: want to locate the writing of Isaiah the Prophet, chapter
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Speaker 1: fifty three. Mark that place with your finger, and you
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Speaker 1: may wish to put the outline of the message today
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Speaker 1: back at Genesis chapter twenty two, where we will begin
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Speaker 1: in a few moments, but the reading will be from
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Speaker 1: Isaiah fifty three, beginning at verse three down through verse seven.
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Speaker 1: Join with others today as we stand together in honor
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Speaker 1: of God's word and in respect for his truth. As
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Speaker 1: recorded in Isaiah fifty three, verse three, he was despised
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Speaker 1: and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted
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Speaker 1: with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face.
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Speaker 1: He was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely
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Speaker 1: our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried.
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Speaker 1: Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
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Speaker 1: But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was
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Speaker 1: crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well being
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Speaker 1: fell upon him, And by his scourging we are healed.
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Speaker 1: All of us, like sheep have gone astray. Each of
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Speaker 1: us has turned to his own way, But the Lord
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Speaker 1: has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.
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Speaker 1: He was oppressed and he was afflicted, Yet he did
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Speaker 1: not open his mouth, like a lamb that is led
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Speaker 1: to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before
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Speaker 1: its sharers. So he did not open his mouth. Because
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Speaker 1: this section of scripture speaks of our Savior, we desire
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Speaker 1: today that he be honored and magnified. As we live
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Speaker 1: out the truth of what we have just read, you
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Speaker 1: may be seated. The privilege of giving is truly a privilege,
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Speaker 1: and it is reserved for those who know the Lord
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Speaker 1: Jesus as savior. This is not a time when a
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Speaker 1: church goes begging. This is not an offering because God
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Speaker 1: has any needs. It is an act of worship where
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Speaker 1: we his children give first ourselves and then from what
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Speaker 1: He has already provided. Understand that if you are here
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Speaker 1: today as our guest, and you've never met Christ as
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Speaker 1: your own personal Lord and savior, please feel no obligation
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Speaker 1: to give. Your need is to receive God's gift. Who
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Speaker 1: is Jesus Christ, the one of whom the prophet wrote,
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Speaker 1: and the one who was nailed to a cross where
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Speaker 1: he paid the complete penalty for your sins. So as
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Speaker 1: God's people today give this may be your choice opportunity
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Speaker 1: which you may not have again, for not one of
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Speaker 1: us knows how long we will live to receive the
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Speaker 1: Lord Jesus as your savior. Abow with me for prayer.
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Speaker 1: Please thank you, our Father, that your son is our savior,
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Speaker 1: and that he, like a shepherd, leads us. And because
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Speaker 1: we are only sheep, we tend to go our own way.
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Speaker 1: We've read of that, but we we knew before we
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Speaker 1: read it that this is true. All we, like sheep,
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Speaker 1: have gone astray. We have turned each one of us
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Speaker 1: to his own way. Thank you for laying all of
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Speaker 1: our iniquity on another. For we could never have paid
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Speaker 1: our own way into heaven. Thank you that Jesus paid
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Speaker 1: it all, and we rest in his finished work. This
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Speaker 1: day we worship our Savior, Jesus Christ. We magnify his name,
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Speaker 1: we meet around his word, we sing his songs. We
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Speaker 1: would glorify his name, whether by life or by death.
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Speaker 1: Today there are many who hurt. They grieve, They live
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Speaker 1: with sorrows that have been brought on by this earth's catastrope.
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Speaker 1: Fees and heart aches and brokenness. I pray, Lord, that
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Speaker 1: you will bring comfort and hope and reassurance from what
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Speaker 1: is declared this day. There are those who have lost
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Speaker 1: their way and attempting to find their way back to you.
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Speaker 1: They have come to this house of worship. I pray
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Speaker 1: that you will guide very clearly as they discover the
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Speaker 1: path that leads to peace through faith in your son.
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Speaker 1: Some come this day rejoicing. Your hand has been good
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Speaker 1: to them, and you provided abundantly, And we with them
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Speaker 1: rejoice and are grateful for your provision. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: those whom you have healed, Thank you for those whom
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Speaker 1: you have given new hope. Thank you for those who
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Speaker 1: celebrate births of new babies, and those who grieve the
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Speaker 1: loss of loved ones and family. We pray that you
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Speaker 1: would meet the deepest needs of our lives this day
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Speaker 1: and reduce us all in our awareness to that of
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Speaker 1: a lamb, a needy, dependent lamb, that we might see
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Speaker 1: ourselves as we really are, wholly in need of what
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Speaker 1: you provide. Now, Lord, as you our Savior, lead us
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Speaker 1: guide in this offering, be glorified in it and through it,
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Speaker 1: as we give first ourselves and now our gifts in
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Speaker 1: the name of the Savior Jesus we pray, And everyone said, amen,
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Speaker 1: Well you think of a lamb. You don't think of
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Speaker 1: something powerful or mighty or strong or all that impressive,
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Speaker 1: do you. For example, if you were the campaign manager
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Speaker 1: of the one running for president, I doubt that your
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Speaker 1: motto would be vote for our man. He is a
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Speaker 1: real lamb as a leader, a real lamb. And this
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Speaker 1: isn't an interesting When they come up with names for cars,
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Speaker 1: you will never see one called a lamb. Think of them.
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Speaker 1: How about the Cadillac lamb? It just doesn't work, does it.
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Speaker 1: Or a Hummer lamb is not right, it's not what
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Speaker 1: you'd expect. I even thought about some of the ball
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Speaker 1: team names that come to mind. We have the Lions,
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Speaker 1: don't we And and there's the LSU Tigers. That's another one.
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Speaker 1: And you've got I hate to say this because I'll
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Speaker 1: get a response with the Aggies and that's another group
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Speaker 1: that we have to put up with. But I the
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Speaker 1: Broncos in Denver and the Vikings Minnesota. But you'll never
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Speaker 1: read of the New York Lambs. Just not gonna be there.
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Speaker 1: You'll have giants, but you won't have a Lambs. Why
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Speaker 1: because it's not very impressive, it's not very significant. Surely,
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Speaker 1: surely the thought of a lamb did not impress the
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Speaker 1: shakers and movers of the first century in the Middle East.
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Speaker 1: I mean, there certainly were some type a individuals who
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Speaker 1: got word of this man who was taking Galilee by storm.
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Speaker 1: I mean, people were being swept into his teaching, and
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Speaker 1: they were following him by the thousands, and then word
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Speaker 1: gets back to someone's headquarters and they and they hear,
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Speaker 1: did you hear that? He's known as the lamb? The lamb?
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Speaker 1: You sang the words to the song, and it's my
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Speaker 1: favorite part of the song. We sang. Who would have
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Speaker 1: thought that a lamb could rescue the souls of men?
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Speaker 1: Why would the songwriter put that in there? Because you
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Speaker 1: don't think of lambs as rescuing anyone. You rescue lambs.
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Speaker 1: Lambs don't rescue you, unless, of course, the lamb is
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Speaker 1: the lamb of God. That was all of this in
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Speaker 1: my mind that led me to open my concordance. Now
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Speaker 1: there's a word concordance. If you're a serious student of
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Speaker 1: the Bible, you need to have in your library a concordance,
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Speaker 1: which is an alphabetical listing of all the words in
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Speaker 1: the Bible and scripture reference providing where they are mentioned.
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Speaker 1: And I got my concordance on my desk, and I
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Speaker 1: turned to Lamb, and I was amazed how many references
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Speaker 1: there were to this little animal. I mean, you would
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Speaker 1: think it plays a role that no other animal and
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Speaker 1: scripture plays. In fact, it does. One of the early
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Speaker 1: references to Lamb is found in Genesis chapter twenty two.
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Speaker 1: If you've not yet turned there, please open your bible
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Speaker 1: to that twenty second chapter. It is a tender, touching
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Speaker 1: story of a father who was told to take the
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Speaker 1: life of his son. We have to pause at that
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Speaker 1: moment and believe what we just heard. Every time I
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Speaker 1: read Genesis twenty two, I'm taken aback by Abraham's obedience.
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Speaker 1: Look at the command from God verse one. It came
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Speaker 1: about after these things that God tested Abraham and said
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Speaker 1: to him, Abraham, and he said, here am I. He said,
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Speaker 1: take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac,
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Speaker 1: go to the land of Mariah and offer him there
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Speaker 1: as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of
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Speaker 1: which I will tell you, yes, you read that correctly.
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Speaker 1: Abraham is an aging aging father. The son is born
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Speaker 1: to the family late in life, and many years have
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Speaker 1: passed since the birth, and Isaac is now a young adult.
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Speaker 1: We know that because he carries the firewood up the
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Speaker 1: mountain for the altar to be built. Look at verse six.
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Speaker 1: Abraham took the wood of the bird offering and laid
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Speaker 1: it on Isaac, his son. When I was growing up
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Speaker 1: in Sunday school, I remember seeing pictures of Abraham and Isaac,
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Speaker 1: and Isaac was just a little lad. But little boys
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Speaker 1: can't carry firewood, certainly not up the side of a mountain.
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Speaker 1: This is a grown man. Isaac is smart enough to
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Speaker 1: realize that in his hand is that which will be
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Speaker 1: the makings of an altar. In his father's hand is
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Speaker 1: the torch, that which will set fire to the altar.
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Speaker 1: So his question makes sense. He says to his father
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Speaker 1: verse seven, My father, he said, here am I, And
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Speaker 1: he said, behold the fire and the wood. Where is
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Speaker 1: the lamb for the burnt offering? Of course you would
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Speaker 1: wonder where's the lamb? Isaac doesn't know the story. Isaac
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Speaker 1: is living it out. Father. We have the wood, we
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Speaker 1: have the torch. We're going to build an altar. Where's
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Speaker 1: the where's the sacrificial lamb? I love Abraham's response, God
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Speaker 1: will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering
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Speaker 1: my son. So the two of them walked on together.
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Speaker 1: You know what is all so impressive. There was no
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Speaker 1: wrestling match at the top of the mountain. There was
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Speaker 1: no fight. Not only do we admire the obedience of Abraham,
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Speaker 1: but the submission of Isaac to lie down on the
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Speaker 1: altar to be bound and his father to take the knife.
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Speaker 1: He would have cut his throat had God not intervened.
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Speaker 1: So it is with lambs. So it has always been
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Speaker 1: thank goodness, the Lord intervened and Isaac lived on. But
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Speaker 1: it was a test of Isaac's of Abraham's faith in
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Speaker 1: his God. If you trace the word further, you'll come
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Speaker 1: to Exodus chapter twelve. Turn there next Exodus twelve. We've
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Speaker 1: come all the way to the days of Moses and
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Speaker 1: the time in which the Hebrews are living under the
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Speaker 1: authority of the Egyptians, and God is about to lead
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Speaker 1: them into what is known now as the Exodus, and
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Speaker 1: he's preparing them for the departure out of the land.
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Speaker 1: They've lived there for over four hundred years, and the
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Speaker 1: Lord now gives them instruction on how to prepare for
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Speaker 1: the departure from the land, and to go into and
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Speaker 1: toward the land to promise. Exodus twelve three. These are
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Speaker 1: the Lord's words to Moses, speak to the Congregation of Israel, saying,
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Speaker 1: on the tenth of this month, they are each one
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Speaker 1: to take a lamb for themselves. Look at that. Each
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Speaker 1: family is to take a lamb for themselves according to
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Speaker 1: their father's households, a lamb for each household. Verse five.
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Speaker 1: Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old.
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Speaker 1: You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
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Speaker 1: You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the
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Speaker 1: same month. Than the whole is asembly of the Congregation
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Speaker 1: of Israel is to kill it at twilight. That would
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Speaker 1: be the night they would be exiting from the land
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Speaker 1: of Egypt. But you're to keep it there and have
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Speaker 1: it ready. Verse seven. Moreover, they shall take some of
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Speaker 1: the blood and put it on the two doorposts on
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Speaker 1: the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
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Speaker 1: They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire.
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Speaker 1: They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
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Speaker 1: Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at
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Speaker 1: all with water, but rather roasted with fire verse eleven.
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Speaker 1: Now you shall eat it in this manner, with your
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Speaker 1: loins girded, your sandals on your feet, your staff in
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Speaker 1: your hand. You shall eat it in haste. Why it
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Speaker 1: is the Lord's pass over. You who know the story
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Speaker 1: know that. Well, let's read it verse twelve. I will
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Speaker 1: go through the land of Egypt on that night and
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Speaker 1: will strike down all the first born in the land
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Speaker 1: of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the
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Speaker 1: gods of Egypt. I will execute judgment. I am the Lord.
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Speaker 1: The blood shall be assigned for you on the houses.
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Speaker 1: So when the death Angel passed over, that's where the
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Speaker 1: word comes from. When the death Angel passed over, as
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Speaker 1: the blood was seen, he would leave the house and
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Speaker 1: leave it untouched. But if there was no blood on
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Speaker 1: the door, then the angel would enter and the life
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Speaker 1: of the firstborn would be taken. This was what it
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Speaker 1: took to break the back of Pharaoh. Finally, Pharaoh says
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Speaker 1: to the Israelites, let the people go. He says to Moses,
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Speaker 1: go go be on your way. But the lamb the
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Speaker 1: land was an essential part of the Exodus strategy. We
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Speaker 1: could look at Leviticus twenty three or Exodus twenty nine,
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Speaker 1: or other sections. Merrill Tenney, in his work Encyclopedia of
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Speaker 1: the Bible, writes this the lamb was the principal animal
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Speaker 1: of sacrifice among the Jews, being the offering each morning
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Speaker 1: and each evening in the Mosaic system, and especially on
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Speaker 1: the Sabbath. Also, the lamb was sacrifice on special days
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Speaker 1: of religious significance. Lambs represented innocence and gentleness to this day.
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Speaker 1: To this day, the presence of blood is still seen
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Speaker 1: as significant in the household of the Orthodox Jews. It
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Speaker 1: begins here in Exodus chapter twelve, and it carries all
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Speaker 1: the way through their festivals and their feasts and their
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Speaker 1: holy days. But what the Jew doesn't realize is that
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Speaker 1: when the Savior came, he became our passover turned from
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Speaker 1: here to First Corinthians, chapter five. From the Old Testament,
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Speaker 1: we find the significance of the passover here in the
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Speaker 1: letter to the Corinthians. First Corinthians five, Beginning at verse six,
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Speaker 1: Paul is writing the people of corinth and he's urging
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Speaker 1: them to clean up their lives. They were a people
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Speaker 1: who danced near the edge of disobedience. They were what
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Speaker 1: we might call a fast culture, and because of that
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Speaker 1: Paul had to rein them in, and one of the
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Speaker 1: ways of doing it was to remind them of the
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Speaker 1: importance of getting rid of the leven. In the scriptural days,
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Speaker 1: levin was a symbol. It was a word representing sin.
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Speaker 1: Look at how Paul uses it in First Corinthians five,
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Speaker 1: verse six. Your boasting is not good. They had been
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Speaker 1: boasting about how how full of grace they were, when
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Speaker 1: in fact it was license. He said, that's not good.
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Speaker 1: Do you not know that a little leaven leven's the
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Speaker 1: whole lump of dough. Do you not realize that when
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Speaker 1: you put just a little leaven, the dough will all rise.
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Speaker 1: It's not just a little part of it. And it's
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Speaker 1: a picture of sin, A little bit of sin, and
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Speaker 1: the life is contaminated. It was illustrated to me at
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Speaker 1: one time a pin and a balloon. How many pins
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Speaker 1: does it take to burst a balloon? One pin and
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Speaker 1: the whole balloon bursts the presence of sin, and the
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Speaker 1: life is on its way to becoming shattered. So he says,
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Speaker 1: clean up your life. A little bit of leven. Leven's
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Speaker 1: the whole lump. When I was taking Greek from doctor
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Speaker 1: Stan Tussaint years ago, in my days at seminary, he
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Speaker 1: told the funny story of one of his students earlier
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Speaker 1: than when I was a student of his. He said,
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Speaker 1: the student could not get that translated, the leaven leavens
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Speaker 1: the whole lump of dough. And he said he finally,
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Speaker 1: in an exasperated moment, simply said, well, a little dad
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Speaker 1: will do you. That seemed to say it for him.
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Speaker 1: That's true with sin, just a little dab, and it's
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Speaker 1: amazing what it does. So a thought reap an act,
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Speaker 1: So an act reap a habit, So a habit reap
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Speaker 1: your characters, So your character reap your destiny. That's Paul's
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Speaker 1: concern here, And so he now turns to the picture
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Speaker 1: of Christ, the land Christ the Passover. Verse seven. Clean
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Speaker 1: out the old eleven, so that you may be a
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Speaker 1: new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened, meaning
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Speaker 1: in your position you are as righteous as the Son
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Speaker 1: of God is righteous. So in your life you must
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Speaker 1: be as well. For Christ. Here it is Christ our
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Speaker 1: passover has also been sacrificed. Isn't that a marvelous statement?
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Speaker 1: We no longer come to an altar and slice the
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Speaker 1: throat of an animal and the blood pours out, as
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Speaker 1: happened day after day after day on Jewish altars. We
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Speaker 1: come to our Savior, who is our passover, and in him,
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Speaker 1: In him forgiveness is found. In him alone, there is
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Speaker 1: purpose and reason to go on with our lives. The Christ,
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Speaker 1: our Passover, has been sacrificed. Let me add this, He
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Speaker 1: never needs to be sacrificed again. It is called a
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Speaker 1: finished work. Christ said while hanging on the cross, to
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Speaker 1: tell us die the very word he used. It has
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Speaker 1: been finished, it has been completed, it is done, paid for,
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Speaker 1: paid in full. At that moment, the lamb of God
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Speaker 1: took care of that which had forever plagued humanity, past, present,
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Speaker 1: and future, the sins of humanity taking care of now.
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Speaker 1: This isn't an afterthought with God. This is part of
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Speaker 1: the plan since the foundations of the world. In fact,
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Speaker 1: Isaiah chapter fifty three prophesied of it way back seven
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Speaker 1: hundred years b c. This is one of the clearest
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Speaker 1: and longest of all the predictions or if you will,
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Speaker 1: prophecies in the scriptures. What is interesting about prophecy is
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Speaker 1: that frequently you will find prophecies not only declared in scripture,
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Speaker 1: but fulfilled in scriptural times. Here's the case. In point,
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Speaker 1: Isaiah writes of the lamb who was to be slaughtered,
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Speaker 1: picturing the coming Messiah. So Isaiah is looking ahead seven
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Speaker 1: hundred years or so for the coming of Messiah. And
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Speaker 1: please observe how he describes the scene. You would think
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Speaker 1: he was an eye witness, though he wrote seven centuries
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Speaker 1: before the fact, Verse three of Isaiah fifty three. He
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Speaker 1: was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows
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Speaker 1: and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men
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Speaker 1: hide their face. He was despised, and we did not
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Speaker 1: esteem him. It's a picture of shunning. Shunning have nothing
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Speaker 1: to do with him, discount his importance. They hide their
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Speaker 1: face from him. You do that when you are shunning
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Speaker 1: another individual. You turn away from them, You discount their presence,
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Speaker 1: their lives, You shun them, you do not esteem them.
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Speaker 1: And that's the picture here. And then with that in mind,
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Speaker 1: Isaiah goes further to describe the price that was paid.
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Speaker 1: Surely our griefs he himself bore. Our sorrows he carried.
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Speaker 1: And yet even in that day yet to come. We
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Speaker 1: esteem him stricken and smitten of God and afflicted. He
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Speaker 1: got what he had coming. How many of those standing
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Speaker 1: around the cross saw that as simply a man getting
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Speaker 1: his just desserts. Any man who claims that he's God blasphemes,
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Speaker 1: and a blasphemer needs to be put to death. That's
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Speaker 1: first century thinking, and they did not realize. That's why
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Speaker 1: Jesus said, while on the cross, Father, forgive them. They
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Speaker 1: don't know what they're doing. But look at verse five.
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Speaker 1: He was pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities.
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Speaker 1: The chastening for our well being fell on him, and
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Speaker 1: by his scourging we are healed. This is one of
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Speaker 1: the classic verses on the substitutionary death of Christ. Look
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Speaker 1: at it closely. Our iniquities, our sin, our transgressions fell
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Speaker 1: on him. He took our place, He entered into it
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Speaker 1: as if it were his own. Paul wrote later, he
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Speaker 1: who knew no sin, became sin for us that we
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Speaker 1: might be made the righteousness of God in him and
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Speaker 1: in him alone. That's why Jesus could say, I am
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Speaker 1: the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes
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Speaker 1: to the Father, but through me. No other death would
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Speaker 1: pay our debt to God. No other lamb would be qualified.
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Speaker 1: For all the others are spotted and blemished. He is
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Speaker 1: the spotless lamb. Scripture makes that clear. Three states he
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Speaker 1: knew no sin, had no sin, did no sin. The
26:04
Speaker 1: spotless lamb of God took our place? And why did
26:08
Speaker 1: we need that? Verse six probably the best statement of
26:13
Speaker 1: depravity in all the Old Testament. Look at the whole picture.
26:19
Speaker 1: All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, and now
26:23
Speaker 1: the individual individualizes it. Each of us has turned to
26:30
Speaker 1: his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity
26:34
Speaker 1: of us all to fall on him. Jay Alick Motuur
26:44
Speaker 1: writes this, the picture of straying sheep summarizes all our
26:50
Speaker 1: inadequacy and all our errandcy of nature. We all and
26:59
Speaker 1: each express both common culpability and individual responsibility. We cannot
27:07
Speaker 1: blame the herd instinct, even though we all alike are implicated.
27:15
Speaker 1: Each sin of every sinner would be like a separate
27:19
Speaker 1: wound in the heart of this man of sorrows hanging
27:25
Speaker 1: on the cross. He bore all our sins get this past,
27:33
Speaker 1: present future. The complete payment for sin was made for
27:41
Speaker 1: those of us who have gone astray, who have turned
27:46
Speaker 1: to our own way. And then, as if to drive
27:49
Speaker 1: the point finally home, yet again verse seven. He was oppressed,
27:54
Speaker 1: he was afflicted, Yet he did not open his mouth.
27:57
Speaker 1: Here's the word again, like a lamb led to slaughter. Lambs,
28:08
Speaker 1: when going to slaughter, go with blind compliance, regardless of
28:12
Speaker 1: the destination. They go where they're led. The servant's savior, however,
28:20
Speaker 1: goes with knowing submission. He knew when he came that
28:24
Speaker 1: he came to this earth to die maligned, mistreated, misunderstood.
28:32
Speaker 1: We read here like a sheep that is silent before
28:36
Speaker 1: its shearers. He did not open his mouth. I don't
28:39
Speaker 1: know if you remember seeing the passion of the Christ.
28:43
Speaker 1: If you did, you will never forget the scene. I
28:46
Speaker 1: know I won't. In fact, there were times in that
28:49
Speaker 1: film sitting right beside Cynthia, and I noticed she too,
28:54
Speaker 1: both of us had to just look down. You could
28:57
Speaker 1: hardly bear what you were witnessing in the scourging. But
29:03
Speaker 1: what stood out to me is the silence of this
29:09
Speaker 1: lamb of God. Doesn't burst forth with cursing, doesn't scream
29:15
Speaker 1: out words of retaliation. He took it. They punched him
29:21
Speaker 1: with their fists, they put the crown of foreigns on him.
29:24
Speaker 1: They nailed his hands and feet with Roman spikes. And
29:29
Speaker 1: his words come full of forgiveness. And finally it is
29:36
Speaker 1: finished seven hundred years before Christ Isaiah writes of it.
29:44
Speaker 1: Now that makes the words of John John Chapter one,
29:47
Speaker 1: verse twenty nine all the more eloquent. Remember, Isaiah is
29:52
Speaker 1: looking ahead, looking forward. Now John looks at the one
29:58
Speaker 1: who has come. He is looking into the face of
30:02
Speaker 1: the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. And having said, there is
30:10
Speaker 1: one who comes after me verse twenty seven, John one
30:14
Speaker 1: the thong of who sandals I'm not worthy to untie.
30:18
Speaker 1: These things took place in Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where
30:23
Speaker 1: John was baptizing, And the next day twenty nine, he
30:26
Speaker 1: saw Jesus coming, and he said, look, the Lamb of God,
30:35
Speaker 1: who takes away the sins of the world. This is
30:42
Speaker 1: he on behalf of whom I said, after me comes
30:46
Speaker 1: a man who has a higher rank than I, for
30:49
Speaker 1: he existed before me. I love the statement that John makes.
30:58
Speaker 1: He must increase what I must decrease. Of course, in
31:05
Speaker 1: the presence of the Lamb, you realize there is no
31:12
Speaker 1: one else. All that significant. Now we have moved from
31:19
Speaker 1: seven hundred BC to about twenty five twenty six eighty
31:24
Speaker 1: twenty five twenty six, Jesus is beginning his ministry. Let's
31:29
Speaker 1: move ahead to write around sixty five eighty sixty five.
31:34
Speaker 1: First Peter, Chapter one, First last stop off. I promise,
31:40
Speaker 1: I know some of you are thinking, my fingers getting
31:42
Speaker 1: tired one thing to another. Well, if it was all
31:45
Speaker 1: in one section, i'd leave us there, but it's not.
31:48
Speaker 1: I didn't write it, I just read it. Teach from it.
31:51
Speaker 1: First Peter, Chapter one. Love this verse of scripture, knowing
31:56
Speaker 1: that you were not verse eighteen, that you were not
31:59
Speaker 1: redeemed with perishable things like silver and gold from your
32:04
Speaker 1: feudal way of life. Constantly in this culture, constantly there's
32:09
Speaker 1: the emphasis on money. I guarantee you you tune into
32:13
Speaker 1: the news anytime through this day, and it won't be
32:17
Speaker 1: two hours. It'll probably be less, for you'll hear something
32:19
Speaker 1: mentioned about money, money, investment, money, money. It's been constant
32:25
Speaker 1: theme in these recent weeks. We're not redeemed with filthy lucre.
32:30
Speaker 1: We're not redeemed with dollars and cents. If you had
32:34
Speaker 1: multiple billions of dollars, by the way you used to
32:36
Speaker 1: have it. You don't have it now. But regardless of
32:41
Speaker 1: the amount, you could not pay your way into heaven.
32:44
Speaker 1: That's the whole point. You're not redeemed that way verse nineteen.
32:50
Speaker 1: Then how are we redeemed from the precious blood as
32:56
Speaker 1: of a lamb? There it is again, unblemished and spotless,
33:05
Speaker 1: the blood of Christ. During his lifetime, wa chris Well
33:12
Speaker 1: would often include in his way of life the writing
33:18
Speaker 1: of a number of books. And my library is filled
33:22
Speaker 1: with most of what doctor chris Well wrote. I pulled
33:25
Speaker 1: the book he wrote on First Peter off my shelf
33:30
Speaker 1: just this past week, and when I got to verses
33:32
Speaker 1: eighteen and nineteen, I found myself in a wonderful place
33:38
Speaker 1: to read listen to chris Well's words. It is easy
33:42
Speaker 1: to fall into the habit of preaching about the Gospel,
33:45
Speaker 1: but not the Gospel itself. However, when we speak on
33:50
Speaker 1: and expound a text like ours, meaning the ones verses
33:55
Speaker 1: I just read, we are brought back to the heart
33:57
Speaker 1: of the gospel message of Christ. This is one way
34:01
Speaker 1: of discovering whether the message is of God or of men.
34:07
Speaker 1: In so many areas of the modern liberal Christian world,
34:11
Speaker 1: the preaching of the blood is offensive. I have been
34:15
Speaker 1: in churches where hymns on the blood have been purged
34:20
Speaker 1: from all the hymn books. And the liberal theologian looks
34:26
Speaker 1: upon a text such as ours as a religion of
34:30
Speaker 1: the butcher's shop. But the presentation of the whole revelation
34:36
Speaker 1: of God in the scriptures is ever the same. There
34:40
Speaker 1: is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood.
34:47
Speaker 1: From the beginning of Genesis to the Book of the Revelation,
34:53
Speaker 1: the Gospel's story is that Christ has come into the
34:57
Speaker 1: world to die for our sins, according to the scriptures,
35:01
Speaker 1: and then I love it. The chris Will often would
35:04
Speaker 1: do this. He quotes from the Great Gospel song What
35:07
Speaker 1: can wash away my sin? Answer that nothing but the
35:11
Speaker 1: blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing
35:14
Speaker 1: but the blood of Jesus, Oh precious, is the flow
35:18
Speaker 1: that makes us white as snow. No other fountain I
35:21
Speaker 1: know nothing but the blood of Jesus. That isn't the
35:25
Speaker 1: religion from the butcher's shop. That's from the very heart
35:29
Speaker 1: of the Gospel, that comes from the Lord himself. My son,
35:34
Speaker 1: you are to go and just as Isaac was to
35:37
Speaker 1: be offered up by Abraham. So the sun was offered
35:42
Speaker 1: up for our sins and exact in the exact plan
35:46
Speaker 1: and unfolding of the plan of salvation for us. You
35:50
Speaker 1: maybe have been reared in a culture where the blood
35:53
Speaker 1: was not mentioned. Certainly in this day in which we live,
35:57
Speaker 1: it is becoming less and less a thing of importance
36:01
Speaker 1: that if you have been in that culture, you have
36:03
Speaker 1: missed the point of the Savior's death. Without the giving,
36:08
Speaker 1: the shedding, the pouring out of the blood, there is
36:11
Speaker 1: no forgiveness of our sins. That's not theology of the
36:16
Speaker 1: butcher shop. That's the theology of the Biblical record. It
36:21
Speaker 1: takes the blood to wash away the sins of the world. It,
36:28
Speaker 1: as one man put it so well, it is the
36:30
Speaker 1: greatest detergent ever known to humanity. It continues to wash
36:35
Speaker 1: away sin. The reason you have forgiveness is because of
36:40
Speaker 1: the blood of Christ that was poured out on that
36:45
Speaker 1: cross to redeem you from a slave market you could
36:51
Speaker 1: never from which you could never redeem yourself. Isaiah looked ahead,
36:55
Speaker 1: John looked at. Peter looks back. And his concern is
37:00
Speaker 1: that we live lives in light of that, lives of
37:04
Speaker 1: purity see verse seventeen. Look here, knowing are at seventeen.
37:08
Speaker 1: If you address as Father, the one who impartially judges
37:12
Speaker 1: according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during
37:18
Speaker 1: the time of your stay on earth. His emphasis is
37:22
Speaker 1: that we be holy as our God is holy, and
37:25
Speaker 1: that's up in verses fifteen and sixteen. Now this reminds
37:32
Speaker 1: me of something that Cynthia and I witnessed a number
37:35
Speaker 1: of years ago. Where we lived at the time, there
37:39
Speaker 1: was a track that went around a large football field.
37:44
Speaker 1: It was a community college in that town, and we
37:48
Speaker 1: would go there to do our early morning walks and
37:50
Speaker 1: to solve life's problems. As we went around together. And
37:54
Speaker 1: we would on the way from our home to that
37:58
Speaker 1: track where we walked around over and over again, there
38:03
Speaker 1: was a there was a pen of animals. The community
38:07
Speaker 1: college had a course that they taught, and in it
38:10
Speaker 1: there was the rearing of the raising of animals, and
38:14
Speaker 1: among them was a little small flock of sheep. And
38:18
Speaker 1: it was fun as we would go by there from
38:20
Speaker 1: one day to the next to look at those animals,
38:24
Speaker 1: and I was sort of taken by one, and she
38:27
Speaker 1: was just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and I realized,
38:32
Speaker 1: this is a you who is heavy with young and
38:40
Speaker 1: before the just as the six months ran their course,
38:44
Speaker 1: she delivered this little lamb. And I never wanted to
38:49
Speaker 1: crawl over a fence so much at all my life
38:52
Speaker 1: as when I began to see that little thing as
38:54
Speaker 1: it started to grow up, little wobbly legs and a
38:56
Speaker 1: little soft It.
38:57
Speaker 2: Makes you guddle up with it, right, this little lamb
39:02
Speaker 2: and this this big old you lamb just kind of
39:07
Speaker 2: pushing her around.
39:08
Speaker 1: I'd say, go easy on the lamb there, watch out
39:11
Speaker 1: for that little lamb. I watched this site, and it
39:19
Speaker 1: reminded me that the Lord knew what he was doing
39:23
Speaker 1: when he called us sheep. What you got to know
39:27
Speaker 1: is as cute and cuddly and soft as the little
39:30
Speaker 1: lamb was, those other sheep are really a mess. I mean,
39:34
Speaker 1: if you've ever looked at the south end of a
39:36
Speaker 1: northbound sheep, you realize right away what a mess they
39:40
Speaker 1: make of themselves. And and here here in the midst
39:44
Speaker 1: of all of these sheep, which is just so much
39:47
Speaker 1: like all of us, is this little lamb. This a
39:51
Speaker 1: little helpless lamb. There are lamb like qualities that we are.
39:56
Speaker 1: We would do well to be reminded of h our Savior,
40:01
Speaker 1: God's Lamb gave himself for us. And in light of
40:07
Speaker 1: what we have seen, I want to suggest four qualities
40:12
Speaker 1: worth emulating that stem from what I thought of as
40:16
Speaker 1: I looked at this little lamb. First is a life
40:21
Speaker 1: of dependence. A life of dependence in our day of independence,
40:31
Speaker 1: it's good to be reminded that we we can't make
40:35
Speaker 1: it on our own, That little lamb could no more
40:38
Speaker 1: make it on its own than a little tiny baby
40:44
Speaker 1: can make it on its own. We are dependent individuals.
40:51
Speaker 1: We're dependent on our God for defense. We're dependent on
40:55
Speaker 1: him for strength, for healing, for hope. A life of
41:03
Speaker 1: dependence is to mark God's people. It's a great time
41:07
Speaker 1: for me to pause and ask you, do you really
41:13
Speaker 1: depend on God? Do you really lean on him? Trust
41:20
Speaker 1: in the Lord with all your heart, Lean not on
41:23
Speaker 1: your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge Him. You'll
41:30
Speaker 1: make your paths straight. I spoke at the Seminary Now
41:35
Speaker 1: Seminary this past week, and I told him the thing
41:38
Speaker 1: I feared for them. Among the most things I feared
41:41
Speaker 1: would be a ministry of quick success. That's a danger
41:50
Speaker 1: young in the work of God. And finding your learning
41:55
Speaker 1: and knowing the success you become men dependent, self sustaining,
42:03
Speaker 1: and even if you're not careful, self important. I warned them,
42:07
Speaker 1: and I today warn all of us about conceit self
42:13
Speaker 1: serving tendency to make it on our own. We really
42:19
Speaker 1: live lives of dependent. The second thing I see in
42:23
Speaker 1: the lamb is the assurance of approachability. Approachability. Perhaps it
42:32
Speaker 1: was that which first attracted the men to their savior
42:37
Speaker 1: when he said, follow me. I'll make you fishers of men.
42:41
Speaker 1: I don't know the last time you've thought about it,
42:43
Speaker 1: but these men left their careers, some of them established careers,
42:48
Speaker 1: and a few of them rather lucrative careers, and they
42:53
Speaker 1: set it aside, and they've followed him who won them
43:00
Speaker 1: over by his winsomeness. He was approachable, remember his own
43:07
Speaker 1: words telling us of his temperament. Come to me, I
43:10
Speaker 1: am gentle and I'm humble. Part you who are growing
43:17
Speaker 1: stronger in the faith, and you're learning your way around.
43:20
Speaker 1: You're becoming more capable and adept and spiritual things. Be
43:25
Speaker 1: careful not to intimidate those who don't know their way.
43:30
Speaker 1: Be careful about throwing your weight around because of your
43:35
Speaker 1: great knowledge or your growing awareness of spiritual truth. One
43:42
Speaker 1: of the qualities I've always loved about great teachers is
43:45
Speaker 1: a spirit of approachability, a willingness to take their time
43:51
Speaker 1: as we had reached. There are exceptions, by the way,
43:56
Speaker 1: there are exceptions. In my last year Dallas Seminary, we
44:03
Speaker 1: went through a tough time. Cynthy knows where I'm going
44:06
Speaker 1: with this. We had come to the middle of the
44:08
Speaker 1: semester and the beginning of the last semester in the
44:13
Speaker 1: Master's program, there was what was called the seating of
44:16
Speaker 1: the seniors. I don't know if the seminary still does that,
44:19
Speaker 1: but we did it then, and it was one of
44:21
Speaker 1: the few times that you really felt great about it.
44:24
Speaker 1: First of all, you thought, I'm gonna make it, and
44:27
Speaker 1: so that's encouraging thing right there. But you also are
44:30
Speaker 1: honored in that they introduce you and you walk down
44:33
Speaker 1: the aisle at Chaffer Chapel and you sit down and
44:36
Speaker 1: you all once your classes in place, applause. How's that sound.
44:40
Speaker 1: That's a brand new sound. And so that's all part
44:43
Speaker 1: of it. However, the previous weekend we had a man
44:46
Speaker 1: who was drunk hit our car full on and totaled
44:50
Speaker 1: our car. And we had already lost a baby through
44:54
Speaker 1: this miscarriage that I had mentioned earlier, and so we
44:59
Speaker 1: were sad about Cynthia was now pregnant and carrying what
45:04
Speaker 1: would be our second child, our oldest. The only one
45:08
Speaker 1: we had with at that time was our son Kurt,
45:11
Speaker 1: and he was standing up in the front seat. Remember
45:14
Speaker 1: the days when there were no seat belts, remember that,
45:17
Speaker 1: I mean, you just like rockets when you hit something.
45:20
Speaker 1: And that little guy went foo right into the windshield
45:23
Speaker 1: and broke his jaw. So Cynthia's injured and begins to
45:28
Speaker 1: hemorrhag and we think we're going to lose our baby.
45:30
Speaker 1: And her mother is got cancer and she's dying with
45:35
Speaker 1: cancer and would soon be gone. And it was just
45:37
Speaker 1: a terrible time. And how would we ever get our son? Fiked?
45:42
Speaker 1: What am I going to do for a car? And
45:44
Speaker 1: we didn't have any money and we had to go
45:47
Speaker 1: back to school and we were at the bottom. And
45:53
Speaker 1: I remember when I got back on campus, it's absolutely
45:57
Speaker 1: true story. I remember thinking, if I could just find
46:00
Speaker 1: one professor, just one of these guys, if I could
46:06
Speaker 1: just talk with him for ten or fifteen minutes, I
46:09
Speaker 1: could make it. And it was late in the evening,
46:14
Speaker 1: and I walked along. I remember walking along the hallway
46:17
Speaker 1: and looking under the door for a light, because their
46:20
Speaker 1: offices were all in a row here, and I saw
46:22
Speaker 1: a light. I didn't even bother to see what name
46:27
Speaker 1: and what I'm not going to tell you I've rarely shared.
46:35
Speaker 1: The profit is no longer a part of the faculty,
46:37
Speaker 1: I might add, but back then he wasn't. He cut
46:41
Speaker 1: the door open a little bit. Yes, what do you want?
46:44
Speaker 1: That's a nice start. I got tears, I said, doctor,
46:50
Speaker 1: so and so I would let what do you want?
46:56
Speaker 1: And I said, well, I am. I said, you know,
47:00
Speaker 1: I'm very busy tonight preparing for tomorrow's class. Tell me
47:03
Speaker 1: what you want, and I said I don't want anything
47:05
Speaker 1: from you. He closed the door. That was it, and
47:16
Speaker 1: I remember walking away and walking out into the night.
47:22
Speaker 1: I didn't know if we're going to be able to
47:23
Speaker 1: keep our baby or lose another one. I didn't know
47:27
Speaker 1: if I'd ever get out of school, and I needed
47:31
Speaker 1: somebody approachable. There's more of the story, but time doesn't
47:37
Speaker 1: allow me to tell it. But let me just stop
47:39
Speaker 1: right here and say, someday you're going to hear a
47:43
Speaker 1: knock at your door, and somebody who may not mean
47:48
Speaker 1: all that much to you, or may not seem all
47:50
Speaker 1: that significant, will need you. Take time. Think of yourself
48:03
Speaker 1: as a lamb, not a lion. Jesus said, I am
48:09
Speaker 1: meek and humbled in heart. Take time. Maybe one of
48:14
Speaker 1: your own children, maybe one of your grandchildren, the assurance
48:23
Speaker 1: of approachability. Third would be a heart of innocence, A
48:31
Speaker 1: heart of innocence. That's the absence of duplicity and deceit.
48:38
Speaker 1: A heart of innocence. Really, that's a naivete toward wickedness.
48:44
Speaker 1: That's unusual in our day, isn't it. I loved it
48:47
Speaker 1: when my granddaughter shared with me. She's in college right now,
48:53
Speaker 1: and she told me of what happened in the chapel,
48:57
Speaker 1: said the president of the school had stood before the
49:00
Speaker 1: students and said, today we'll just sort of have an
49:02
Speaker 1: open forum and we'll just take your questions and whatever
49:06
Speaker 1: question I'll be glad to answer if I can. And
49:09
Speaker 1: if it's an inappropriate question I can't answer, I won't answer.
49:14
Speaker 1: But if even if it's personal, I'd like to answer.
49:16
Speaker 1: And so one of the students ask a wonderful question,
49:19
Speaker 1: as I recall as one of the young ladies. And
49:22
Speaker 1: she said to the President, She said, sir, what concerns
49:28
Speaker 1: you the most about us as students? Not a great question,
49:34
Speaker 1: and my granddaughter said. The President stood there for about
49:38
Speaker 1: thirty seconds of silence thinking. He said, I think it's
49:43
Speaker 1: the growing absence of innocence, and so many of your lives.
49:50
Speaker 1: You can't know how concerned I am that you live
49:53
Speaker 1: your life almost naive toward wickedness. But right now, with
50:00
Speaker 1: the punch of a key on a computer, you can
50:04
Speaker 1: enter into a filthy world, just instantly access it. And
50:10
Speaker 1: some of you can live lives of hypocrisy, and some
50:15
Speaker 1: of you are. I'm concerned about the absence of innocence.
50:20
Speaker 1: That's why I mentioned here the heart of innocence, your
50:23
Speaker 1: God as holy, may we be known as holy unto
50:28
Speaker 1: the Lord. Fourth, Finally, the spirit of sacrifice. The lamb
50:34
Speaker 1: in the first century existed for one main reason, to
50:37
Speaker 1: be sacrificed. We just saw that. Paul said in his
50:41
Speaker 1: life towards the end, I am poured out as a drink,
50:45
Speaker 1: offering two Timothy four six. I've fought a good fight
50:50
Speaker 1: the course, I've finished faith, I've kept Where are you
50:53
Speaker 1: in that list? Life of dependence, the assurance of approachability,
50:59
Speaker 1: a heart of innocence, spirit of sacrifice. The Godly Robert
51:06
Speaker 1: Murray McShane was once quoted as he's had written, it's
51:12
Speaker 1: not great talent God blesses so much as great likeness
51:18
Speaker 1: to Jesus. Let's a bow together, will you please? Maybe
51:27
Speaker 1: you've never trusted in the lamb. This is such a
51:30
Speaker 1: marvelous moment for you to do that. We don't beg people,
51:34
Speaker 1: or plead with people, or try to manipulate you to
51:38
Speaker 1: do something you're not ready to do. We respect your
51:43
Speaker 1: right to think it through. But haven't you heard enough
51:46
Speaker 1: to learn that you have wandered far from the one
51:50
Speaker 1: who made you, and the only way back is to
51:54
Speaker 1: come through the cross. Because the lamb was slaughtered, your
52:02
Speaker 1: opportunity for knowing God is open and available to you.
52:07
Speaker 1: Trust him now. Lord. In this fast world and this culture,
52:15
Speaker 1: we are aware every one of us is the great
52:19
Speaker 1: temptation of faking it, looking one way but living another.
52:27
Speaker 1: Talking about innocence, but it's not experiencing it. Guard us,
52:32
Speaker 1: our father, and cleanse us as we come to you
52:40
Speaker 1: like little lambs, dependent on you for life and for
52:44
Speaker 1: defense and for a purpose. To go on. Now, Lord
52:52
Speaker 1: dismiss us with the reassurance that you have provided the
52:57
Speaker 1: way and the hope. And here from us today as
53:01
Speaker 1: we tell you how grateful we are. In the name
53:05
Speaker 1: of the Savior, the Lamb of God, we pray everyone
53:10
Speaker 1: said amen. The preceding message, The Lamb that was Slaughtered,
53:18
Speaker 1: was copyrighted in two thousand and eight, and the sound
53:20
Speaker 1: recording was copyrighted in two thousand and nine by Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
53:25
Speaker 1: All rights are reserved worldwide.