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Voddie Baucham - Institution of the Lord’s Supper · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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Speaker 1: We've come to Mark chapter 14, and in Mark chapter 14,
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Speaker 1: we have reached verse 22 here in this section where
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Speaker 1: Jesus is spending this evening, this Passover evening, with his disciples.
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Speaker 1: And here in verse 22, it says we're going to
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Speaker 1: look at verse 22 through 25. We need to also
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Speaker 1: encompass verse 26 in here, and you'll see why as
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Speaker 1: we go along, but Read with me here in Mark
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Speaker 1: chapter 14, beginning verse 22. And again, reading from the
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Speaker 1: English Standard Version. And as they were eating, he took
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Speaker 1: bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it
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Speaker 1: to them and said, take, this is my body. And
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Speaker 1: he took a cup. And when he had given thanks,
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Speaker 1: he gave it to them and they all drank of it.
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Speaker 1: And he said to them, this is my blood of
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Speaker 1: the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I
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Speaker 1: say to you, I will not drink again of the
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Speaker 1: fruit of the vine until that day when I drink
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Speaker 1: it new in the kingdom of God. Verse 26. And
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Speaker 1: when they had sung a hymn, they went out to
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Speaker 1: the Mount of Olives. The title of our message this
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Speaker 1: morning is Salvation at the Crossroads. Salvation at the Crossroads.
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Speaker 1: There is a crossroads here. And there are at least
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Speaker 1: four meetings that happen here at the crossroads. At the
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Speaker 1: crossroads here in Jerusalem, two meals meet. At the crossroads
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Speaker 1: here in Jerusalem, two lambs meet. At the crossroads here
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Speaker 1: in Jerusalem, two Adams meet. And finally, at the crossroads
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Speaker 1: here in Jerusalem, two covenants meet. And we see them
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Speaker 1: all gathered together, juxtaposed here. in Mark chapter 14, verses
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Speaker 1: 22 through 26. And here we see salvation at the crossroads.
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Speaker 1: Bridget and I had the privilege of attending a pastor's
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Speaker 1: conference this weekend in Miami, the Miami pastor's conference. And
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Speaker 1: it was unbelievable. It was the first time that we
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Speaker 1: ever got to just go to a pastor's conference and receive,
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Speaker 1: and not have to do anything. And it was incredible.
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Speaker 1: And the theme of that pastor's conference was, what is
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Speaker 1: the gospel? And we got to hear individuals like Ken
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Speaker 1: Jones and Michael Horton and others preach and address this
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Speaker 1: theme of what is the gospel. And you may hear
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Speaker 1: that and say, well, wow, why would that be the theme?
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Speaker 1: Isn't that easy? Don't we all know that? Don't we
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Speaker 1: all understand that? Nothing could be further from the truth.
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Speaker 1: We don't understand the gospel in our day. We don't
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Speaker 1: understand the gospel in our culture. We do not understand
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Speaker 1: salvation in our day and in our culture. Far from it.
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Speaker 1: If there is anything that we need to be concentrating
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Speaker 1: on today, it is that question. What is the gospel?
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Speaker 1: What is salvation? Because the fact of the matter is,
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Speaker 1: we live in an age, we live in a time,
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Speaker 1: and we live in a culture where I would argue
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Speaker 1: that the overwhelming majority of people who will look you
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Speaker 1: in the eye and swear to God that they're going
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Speaker 1: to heaven are absolutely not. Those who would look you
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Speaker 1: in the eye and swear that they've been born again,
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Speaker 1: that they are regenerate people, that they are children of
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Speaker 1: God are absolutely not. Are they convinced? Yes, they're convinced. Yes,
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Speaker 1: they're convinced. Are they sincere? Yes, they are absolutely sincere.
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Speaker 1: They are sincere and they are convinced. But sincere about what?
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Speaker 1: Convinced about what? That's the question. We have seen in
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Speaker 1: our time, in our day, and in our age an
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Speaker 1: erosion of the gospel. But more specifically, we've seen an
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Speaker 1: erosion of theology in general. This message this morning will
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Speaker 1: be a little bit different. There's some things that I
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Speaker 1: want to read for you this morning. You know, I
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Speaker 1: usually don't bring a lot of notes up here. Certainly
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Speaker 1: don't ever bring books up here with me. Usually don't
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Speaker 1: bring any notes at all or any books at all
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Speaker 1: up here with me. But I want you to hear
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Speaker 1: some things this morning. I want you to see the
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Speaker 1: difference in some things this morning. I want you to
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Speaker 1: get a flavor and a taste of what I'm talking
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Speaker 1: about this morning. As it relates to the decline of theology,
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Speaker 1: there's a book that you just need to be familiar with.
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Speaker 1: It's called No Place for Truth. or whatever happened to
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Speaker 1: evangelical theology. It's by David Wells. David Wells is a
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Speaker 1: professor of systematic theology at Gordon-Conwell. And basically he's making
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Speaker 1: an argument here that as a professor of systematic theology,
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Speaker 1: he has seen a decline in interest in theology in general.
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Speaker 1: I saw this in my days in seminary. Nobody wanted
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Speaker 1: to take theology. Everybody wanted the practical stuff. Who are
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Speaker 1: the most popular professors in the seminary? Well, they were
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Speaker 1: the preaching professors and the evangelism professors. and the missions
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Speaker 1: professors who taught church growth. Those were the popular guys.
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Speaker 1: Because what did everybody want? Everybody wanted to learn how
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Speaker 1: to preach to draw a crowd. Everybody wanted to learn
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Speaker 1: how to do evangelism to get people to pray the prayer.
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Speaker 1: And everybody wanted to learn how to plant and grow
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Speaker 1: a church. Nobody was interested in theology. Wells talks about this.
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Speaker 1: And here, even in his introduction, listen to what he says.
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Speaker 1: Many taking the plunge, that is taking his theology course,
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Speaker 1: he talks about the fact that most of the guys
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Speaker 1: leave it until last. They take everything else. And when
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Speaker 1: you got nothing else that you got to take, then
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Speaker 1: you go and you take your theology classes, you suck
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Speaker 1: it up, you know, swallow real hard and just get
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Speaker 1: out and have it done. He says, many who take
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Speaker 1: the plunge seem to imagine that they are simply following
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Speaker 1: a path to success and But the effects of this
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Speaker 1: great change in the evangelical soul are evident in every
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Speaker 1: incoming class in the seminaries, in most publications, in the
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Speaker 1: great majority of churches, and in most of their pastors.
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Speaker 1: It is a change so large and so encompassing that
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Speaker 1: those who dissent from what is happening are easily dismissed
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Speaker 1: as individuals who cannot get along, who want to scruple
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Speaker 1: over what is inconsequential, who are not loyal, and who
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Speaker 1: are in any case quite irrelevant. Despite this, The changes
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Speaker 1: that are now afoot are so pregnant with consequences that
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Speaker 1: it becomes for me a matter of conscience to address them.
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Speaker 1: We are in trouble because of a lack of theology,
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Speaker 1: because of a lack of doctrine. And here's a seminary
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Speaker 1: professor who teaches systematic theology who says the guys who
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Speaker 1: are graduating from our seminaries have been co-opted. They don't
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Speaker 1: get it and they don't want to. And unfortunately, they
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Speaker 1: don't have to. you sit in front of a church
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Speaker 1: and are interviewed as a potential pastor, the last thing
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Speaker 1: you have to worry about is being quizzed on your theology. Amen.
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Speaker 1: That's the last thing you have to worry about. You
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Speaker 1: do not have to worry about hearing words like superlapsarian
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Speaker 1: or infralapsarian. You do not have to worry about hearing
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Speaker 1: words like Augustinian or Calvinistic in your soteriology or Arminian
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Speaker 1: in your soteriology or Amaraldian in your soteriology. You don't
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Speaker 1: have to worry about things like that. Why? Because here's
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Speaker 1: what everybody agrees on. Doctrine divides. Theology is boring. It
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Speaker 1: is unnecessary. Let's just love Jesus and love people. Just
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Speaker 1: go anywhere and that's what you'll hear. Just ride up
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Speaker 1: and down the streets. Just go visit a few places.
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Speaker 1: That's what you'll hear. Just love Jesus. Just love people.
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Speaker 1: Why do we worry about all of these little insignificant things? Really.
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Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question. Even if we decide
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Speaker 1: that we just need to love Jesus and love people.
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Speaker 1: Here are a few questions. Number one, how do you
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Speaker 1: determine that that is of utmost importance without theologizing about it? Secondly,
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Speaker 1: How do you determine who Jesus is apart from theology?
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Speaker 1: How do you determine what an appropriate love of Jesus
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Speaker 1: is apart from theology? How do you determine which people
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Speaker 1: you should love and how you should love those people
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Speaker 1: apart from theology? So even if you want to argue
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Speaker 1: that we ought to just love Jesus and love people,
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Speaker 1: there are five or six theological questions that you've just
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Speaker 1: assumed and jumped over in order to get there. What's
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Speaker 1: the result of this? The result of this non-theological or
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Speaker 1: anti-theological push is quite simply this. Our people are perishing
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Speaker 1: for lack of knowledge. We don't know. We don't know
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Speaker 1: what the gospel is. We don't know what salvation is.
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Speaker 1: We haven't a clue. And as a result, the church
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Speaker 1: has turned the corner. And we have seen in our
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Speaker 1: day dangerous developments. Listen to this. Michael Horton in his
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Speaker 1: book Putting Amazing Back in Grace says this. Grace is
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Speaker 1: the gospel. The extent to which we are unclear about
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Speaker 1: who does what in salvation is the degree to which
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Speaker 1: we will obscure the gospel. Who does what in salvation?
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Speaker 1: Are you saved? Are you really saved? Are you truly saved?
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Speaker 1: Many of the questions that we deal with are the
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Speaker 1: result of people not knowing what salvation is. For example,
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Speaker 1: no matter where I go, we have you know, question
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Speaker 1: and answer period. College campus is notorious for this. Question
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Speaker 1: and answer periods on college campuses. Everybody wants to ask
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Speaker 1: certain questions. And one of the questions that people want
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Speaker 1: to ask is about this issue of people falling away.
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Speaker 1: And if a person comes to Christ, if a person
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Speaker 1: asks Jesus into their heart, if a person receives Jesus
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Speaker 1: as Savior and Lord, if a person, if they do that,
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Speaker 1: and then later on in life they go on a
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Speaker 1: killing spree or on a rampage, what say you about
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Speaker 1: that person? Now what they think they're asking is a
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Speaker 1: question about eternal security, but that's not the question at all.
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Speaker 1: And I don't even go to the answer of that question.
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Speaker 1: Here's where I start when people ask me that. I
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Speaker 1: start with, whoever told you that salvation was about Jesus
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Speaker 1: being asked or invited into your heart? Find me one
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Speaker 1: place in the Bible where anybody invited Jesus into their heart.
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Speaker 1: Find me one place in the Bible where the apostles
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Speaker 1: admonished anyone to invite Jesus into their heart. It doesn't exist.
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Speaker 1: That is not biblical salvation. That's the pollution that we've
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Speaker 1: gotten from the four spiritual laws. Yes, I said that. Yes,
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Speaker 1: I said it out loud. It's a dilution and pollution
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Speaker 1: of the gospel. What do we have, for example, in
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Speaker 1: the four spiritual laws? Listen to the last one, the
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Speaker 1: four spiritual laws. You can receive Christ right now by
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Speaker 1: faith through prayer. And then they say, you know, prayer
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Speaker 1: is just talking to God. God knows your heart and
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Speaker 1: is not so concerned with your words as he is
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Speaker 1: with the attitude of your heart. the following is a
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Speaker 1: suggested prayer. Now, by the way, this is right after
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Speaker 1: they ripped Revelation 3.20, kicking and screaming out of context.
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Speaker 1: You know, Revelation 3.20, behold, I stand at the door
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Speaker 1: and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
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Speaker 1: I will come in to him and I will dine
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Speaker 1: with him and he with me. Revelation 3.20 is written
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Speaker 1: to the church at Laodicea, not to lost people. It
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Speaker 1: was never intended to be a salvation verse. That is
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Speaker 1: an abuse of Scripture. It is an absolute abuse and
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Speaker 1: misuse of Scripture when we use Revelation 3.20 and tell
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Speaker 1: an unbeliever that Jesus is knocking at the door of
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Speaker 1: their heart. It is not so. And right after the
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Speaker 1: four spiritual laws abuses that verse of Scripture, here's what
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Speaker 1: they tell people. You pray this prayer, Lord Jesus, I
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Speaker 1: need you. Thank you for dying on the cross for
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Speaker 1: my sins. I open the door of my life and
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Speaker 1: receive you as my Savior and Lord. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control
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Speaker 1: of the throne of my life. Make me the kind
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Speaker 1: of person you want me to be. Then they say,
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Speaker 1: does this prayer express the desire of your heart? If
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Speaker 1: it does, I invite you to pray this prayer right
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Speaker 1: now and Christ will come into your life as he promised. Listen,
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Speaker 1: you could pray that prayer a hundred times and mean
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Speaker 1: it and go straight to hell when you die. It's
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Speaker 1: not a biblical prayer. It's not a biblical view of salvation.
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Speaker 1: It's not. It's the norm. And a lot of you
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Speaker 1: are very uncomfortable right now because I'm messing with your
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Speaker 1: salvation experience. Because for most of us, if somebody asks
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Speaker 1: us if we're a Christian, what do we go to? Yes,
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Speaker 1: I ask Jesus into my heart. Yes, I invited Jesus
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Speaker 1: into my life. Why? Because that's how we've been taught
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Speaker 1: to define salvation in a culture that has run away
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Speaker 1: from theology. So back on that college campus, when that
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Speaker 1: person says, I know people who've asked Jesus into their
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Speaker 1: heart and now they live like the devil. How do
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Speaker 1: you explain that? Here's how I explain that. They're lost
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Speaker 1: and unconverted. Yes, but they pray the prayer. I don't care.
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Speaker 1: 1 John 2.19, they went out from among us because
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Speaker 1: they were never of us. If they had been of us,
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Speaker 1: they would have remained. But they went out so that
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Speaker 1: it would be shown that they are not all of us.
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Speaker 1: One of the evidences of salvation is you endure to
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Speaker 1: the end. You don't endure, you were never in the camp.
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Speaker 1: That's biblical salvation. That's not modern American easy believism. That's
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Speaker 1: not your best life now. That's not purpose-driven life, but
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Speaker 1: it is biblical. And unfortunately, there's a huge difference between
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Speaker 1: the two. So we don't understand salvation. We don't understand
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Speaker 1: the gospel. And you've got people, I mean, they will
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Speaker 1: come to blows over this. Some of you got relatives
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Speaker 1: like this. You finally got saved for real, truly converted.
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Speaker 1: And all you wanted to do was tell them about
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Speaker 1: coming to this true conversion experience. And all they heard was,
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Speaker 1: you're judging me. You don't know my heart. God knows
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Speaker 1: my heart. Huh, let me see. So what you're telling
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Speaker 1: me is that you have had an experience that has
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Speaker 1: changed the core of your being, but God's not powerful
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Speaker 1: enough to work it to the outside. You can have
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Speaker 1: that God all day every day and twice on Sundays.
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Speaker 1: I don't want it. Because he's not the God of
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Speaker 1: the Bible. That is not salvation. And so we pollute
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Speaker 1: the gospel and pollute salvation And then this works out
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Speaker 1: to a broader sense. Listen to this on mass marketing
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Speaker 1: of the gospel. Listen to this from George Barna in
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Speaker 1: his book, Marketing the Church. It is critical that we
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Speaker 1: keep in mind fundamental principles of Christian communication. The audience,
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Speaker 1: not the message, is sovereign. I want to read that again.
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Speaker 1: The audience, not the message, is sovereign. If our advertising
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Speaker 1: is going to stop people in the midst of hectic
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Speaker 1: schedules and cause them to think about what we're saying,
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Speaker 1: our message has to be adapted to the needs of
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Speaker 1: the audience. When we produce advertising that is based on
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Speaker 1: the take it or leave it proposition rather than on
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Speaker 1: sensitivity and response to people's needs, people will invariably reject
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Speaker 1: our message. The audience is sovereign. The goal is to
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Speaker 1: get them to pray the prayer. And the audience is sovereign.
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Speaker 1: So what do you do? What does Sunday morning look
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Speaker 1: like in your average so-called evangelical church? It looks like
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Speaker 1: a marketing campaign that's all geared toward the close. We
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Speaker 1: got used car salesmen passing as pastors. And the entire presentation,
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Speaker 1: from the choreographed singers... to the wonderful use of video,
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Speaker 1: to the lights, to the drama, to everything else. It's
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Speaker 1: all choreographed perfectly to get you to that point where
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Speaker 1: you feel like your needs have been met and that
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Speaker 1: if you just pray this prayer, you can go from
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Speaker 1: this level of happiness to this level of happiness just
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Speaker 1: like that. Don't believe me? listen to this, from the
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Speaker 1: most popular church growth book ever written. If you go
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Speaker 1: to 10 churches in a 10-mile radius, just take a
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Speaker 1: 10-mile radius around where we are now and just go
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Speaker 1: visit any 10 churches, eight of them will be organized
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Speaker 1: around the principles in the book, The Purpose Driven Church.
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Speaker 1: It is the number one, all-time most popular church growth
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Speaker 1: book out there and everywhere you go you find churches
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Speaker 1: organized around these purposes that are given here in purpose-driven
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Speaker 1: church and classes that are organized you know 101 201
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Speaker 1: 301 401 all this even the terminology it all comes
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Speaker 1: from here but what does rick warren say in purpose-driven
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Speaker 1: church on this issue of evangelism listen and i quote
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Speaker 1: It is my deep conviction that anybody can be one
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Speaker 1: to Christ if you discover the key to his or
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Speaker 1: her heart. That key to each person's heart is unique,
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Speaker 1: so it is sometimes difficult to discover. It may take
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Speaker 1: some time to identify it, but the most likely place
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Speaker 1: to start is with that person's felt needs. This is
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Speaker 1: the approach Jesus used. What are we after? Just pray
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Speaker 1: this prayer. Invite Jesus into your heart. You are the sovereign.
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Speaker 1: It all depends on you. God's done all that he
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Speaker 1: can do. Now you have to do your part. And
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Speaker 1: he's waiting. He's yearning. Can't you just see his arms
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Speaker 1: open wide, begging you to come in? This is the
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Speaker 1: picture that people are painting. Has anybody else ever been there? Amen.
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Speaker 1: But is that the gospel? Is that salvation? It most
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Speaker 1: assuredly is not. Now, I want you to contrast that
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Speaker 1: with a couple of these statements. Listen to this from
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Speaker 1: the Heidelberg Catechism from the 16th century. Question number one
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Speaker 1: of the Heidelberg Catechism. Now, we've been doing the catechism
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Speaker 1: for boys and girls. We've been doing the kiddie catechism,
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Speaker 1: and we're working our way through that, okay? We get
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Speaker 1: through that, and we'll work our way to another catechism eventually.
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Speaker 1: we'll get to heidelberg but in case you're wondering what
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Speaker 1: it would look like if we were doing heidelberg just
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Speaker 1: you know question number one okay okay just just just
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Speaker 1: just question number one remember question number one from the
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Speaker 1: children's catechism who who made you god made me wonderful
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Speaker 1: That's question number one. How about Westminster, the shorter catechism?
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Speaker 1: What is the chief end of man? To glorify God
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Speaker 1: and enjoy him forever. That's question number one. That's great. Wonderful. Heidelberg.
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Speaker 1: Question number one. What is thy only comfort in life
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Speaker 1: and death? That I, with body and soul, both in
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Speaker 1: life and death, am not my own, but belong unto
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Speaker 1: my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who with his precious blood
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Speaker 1: has fully satisfied for all my sins and delivered me
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Speaker 1: from all the power of the devil. And so preserved
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Speaker 1: me without the will of, excuse me, so preserved me
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Speaker 1: that without the will of my heavenly father, not a
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Speaker 1: hair can fall from my head. Yea, that all things
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Speaker 1: must be subservient to my salvation. And therefore by his
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Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life and
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Speaker 1: makes me sincerely willing and ready henceforth to live unto him. Amen. Hallelujah.
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Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. That's question one in the Heidelberg Catechism.
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Speaker 1: That's the basics. The basics of what it means to
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Speaker 1: be a Christian. You ask somebody in our culture, not
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Speaker 1: just anybody, you go find somebody who's superintendent of a
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Speaker 1: Sunday school department somewhere. in the finest church that you
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Speaker 1: know of, and you ask them what salvation is, they
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Speaker 1: will not give you the story of Jesus and the cross.
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Speaker 1: They will give you the story of themselves. The personal
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Speaker 1: pronouns that are used will not be third person singular, he.
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Speaker 1: They will be first person singular, I. Are you a Christian? Yes.
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Speaker 1: I had a terrible life. Then I invited Jesus to
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Speaker 1: come into my life. Now I am happier than I
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Speaker 1: used to be. That's what you hear. That's what you hear. Again,
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Speaker 1: another contrast. Listen to this. Canons of the Synod of Dort. Again,
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Speaker 1: they're just talking about the basics. What is the gospel?
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Speaker 1: What is salvation? What are we talking about here? Listen
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Speaker 1: to this. For This was the sovereign counsel and most
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Speaker 1: gracious will and purpose of God the Father. that the
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Speaker 1: quickening and saving efficacy of the most precious death of
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Speaker 1: his son should extend to all the elect, for bestowing
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Speaker 1: upon them alone the gift of justifying faith, thereby to
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Speaker 1: bring them infallibly to salvation. That is, it was the
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Speaker 1: will of God that Christ, by the blood of the cross,
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Speaker 1: whereby he confirmed the new covenant, should effectually redeem out
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Speaker 1: of every people, tribe, nation, and language, all those and
23:03
Speaker 1: those only, who were from eternity chosen to salvation and
23:07
Speaker 1: given to him by the Father, that he should confer
23:10
Speaker 1: upon them faith, which together with all other saving gifts
23:13
Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit he purchased for them by his death,
23:18
Speaker 1: should purge them from all sin, both original and actual,
23:22
Speaker 1: whether committed before or after believing, and having faithfully preserved
23:27
Speaker 1: them even to the end, should at last bring them
23:30
Speaker 1: free from every spot and blemish to the enjoyment of
23:33
Speaker 1: glory in his own presence forever. Now you run until that.
23:44
Speaker 1: That's what salvation is. Salvation is not you and your
23:49
Speaker 1: sovereignty inviting Jesus into your life. He's the God of
23:54
Speaker 1: the universe. If he wants the door of your life open,
23:57
Speaker 1: he'll kick it in. Amen? He is the savior of
24:07
Speaker 1: God's elect. And he will bring all of them to salvation.
24:13
Speaker 1: Not one of them will perish. Not one of them
24:15
Speaker 1: will be lost. And so here at this crossroads, we
24:20
Speaker 1: see these things. First of all, there's two suppers that
24:24
Speaker 1: meet at this crossroads here in Mark chapter 14. And
24:28
Speaker 1: we understand what's happening here in this new covenant, two suppers.
24:31
Speaker 1: First of all, there is the Passover meal. And secondly,
24:35
Speaker 1: there is the Lord's Supper. These two meet here. Now,
24:38
Speaker 1: there are a lot of evidences here that this was
24:40
Speaker 1: actually the Passover meal, not the least of which is
24:43
Speaker 1: the Passover meal had to be enjoyed in Jerusalem, within
24:46
Speaker 1: the city walls of Jerusalem. Now, after you enjoy the
24:49
Speaker 1: Passover meal in Jerusalem, you could not leave from the
24:54
Speaker 1: greater Jerusalem area. And so they went out to the
24:56
Speaker 1: Mount of Olives. They didn't go over to Bethany. They
24:58
Speaker 1: stayed in the greater Jerusalem area. Next, they were reclining
25:02
Speaker 1: as they ate. Fourthly, they also ate it in the evening.
25:07
Speaker 1: Now in Jewish life, you ate two meals. You ate
25:09
Speaker 1: a breakfast meal early in the morning. And then later
25:13
Speaker 1: on in the early afternoon, you ate your supper. You
25:15
Speaker 1: did not have a meal in the evening. But this
25:19
Speaker 1: meal was enjoyed in the evening, which is further evidence
25:23
Speaker 1: that this was the Passover. Next, it ended with a hymn.
25:26
Speaker 1: Probably Psalm 115, 116, 117, or 118. They sang one
25:31
Speaker 1: of those songs because these were the songs that were
25:34
Speaker 1: dedicated for the Passover. So they chose one of those, 115, 116, 117,
25:38
Speaker 1: or 118, and they sang that before they went out.
25:43
Speaker 1: There was the interpretation of the elements. which also evidences
25:47
Speaker 1: the fact that they were enjoying the Passover. And it
25:50
Speaker 1: was customary to give some money to the poor. You
25:52
Speaker 1: ever wonder when Jesus looks at Judas and says, what
25:55
Speaker 1: you must do, go and do quickly? You ever wonder
25:58
Speaker 1: how come the rest of the apostles didn't just say,
26:01
Speaker 1: he's the one? You ever think about that? That Jesus
26:06
Speaker 1: was basically saying, you know, I'm going to identify for
26:09
Speaker 1: you who the person is. And he looks at Judas
26:12
Speaker 1: and he says, Judas, what you must do, go and
26:15
Speaker 1: do it quickly. You need to go and betray me,
26:18
Speaker 1: go and do it quickly. You would think that at
26:20
Speaker 1: that moment, all of the other disciples would have said,
26:23
Speaker 1: oh no, not Judas. They didn't think anything of it. Why?
26:29
Speaker 1: What you must do, go and do quickly. He's the
26:31
Speaker 1: keeper of the purse. After the meal, you go and
26:33
Speaker 1: give alms to the poor. But you want to make
26:35
Speaker 1: sure that you don't go over into the next day.
26:38
Speaker 1: So you got to hurry up and go do it.
26:39
Speaker 1: What you must do, keeper of the purse, now that
26:42
Speaker 1: we've eaten the Passover meal, go quickly and give money
26:45
Speaker 1: to the poor. Because that's how you consummate this Passover meal.
26:48
Speaker 1: So he looks at Judas and he says, go and
26:50
Speaker 1: complete what we've started here in the Passover meal. What
26:53
Speaker 1: you must do, go now and do quickly. The irony is,
26:58
Speaker 1: Judas is supposed to go and give money to the poor. Instead,
27:01
Speaker 1: he goes and gets his 30 pieces of silver for
27:04
Speaker 1: turning Jesus in. And so here they are at the
27:09
Speaker 1: Passover supper. We understand this from Exodus chapter 12. They
27:14
Speaker 1: gather here at the Passover to remember what God has
27:18
Speaker 1: done in delivering his people from bondage in Egypt. But
27:23
Speaker 1: Jesus institutes another meal here at the Passover. And in
27:26
Speaker 1: our text, he says, they were eating and he took
27:28
Speaker 1: the bread and after blessing it, he broke it and
27:30
Speaker 1: he gave it to them. And he said, take, this
27:32
Speaker 1: is my body. The cup, he says, take, this is
27:35
Speaker 1: the new covenant in my blood. And so the Passover meal,
27:38
Speaker 1: you interpret the elements. And what are those elements? Well,
27:41
Speaker 1: you eat the lamb, you eat the bitter herbs, you
27:43
Speaker 1: eat this sort of fruit puree. And these things all
27:47
Speaker 1: symbolize what happened back then in the Exodus. This is
27:52
Speaker 1: to symbolize the lamb whose blood was put on the
27:55
Speaker 1: doorpost so that we might be saved. This, these bitter herbs,
27:59
Speaker 1: are to symbolize the bitterness of our slavery. This puree
28:03
Speaker 1: here is to symbolize us having to make bricks without straw.
28:07
Speaker 1: All of these things had meaning. They were all interpreted.
28:09
Speaker 1: But Jesus comes to this Passover lamb, to this Passover supper,
28:13
Speaker 1: and he reinterprets the supper. Now, all of a sudden,
28:16
Speaker 1: he says, you've always thought that what was significant here
28:22
Speaker 1: was the bitterness of the slavery. But I'm telling you
28:25
Speaker 1: that this is about my broken body. This is about
28:28
Speaker 1: my blood that was shed for you. So here at
28:31
Speaker 1: the crossroads of salvation, two meals come together. The old meal,
28:36
Speaker 1: which pointed to the deliverance of God's people from Israel,
28:39
Speaker 1: and the new meal, which now points to the deliverance
28:43
Speaker 1: of God's people from their sins. I have a dear
28:46
Speaker 1: friend of mine, and last year at Passover, it was
28:49
Speaker 1: the first opportunity that he ever had to go and
28:51
Speaker 1: enjoy the seder with a Jewish family. And it just
28:55
Speaker 1: ministered to him. It was unbelievable. An unbelievable, powerful experience.
28:59
Speaker 1: And I encourage people, if you've never had that experience,
29:02
Speaker 1: to go and to have that experience. And he came
29:05
Speaker 1: back and his, I mean, his just whole world was
29:07
Speaker 1: messed up. And he was like, Why didn't I know
29:09
Speaker 1: about this? Why didn't I know about those elements there
29:12
Speaker 1: at the table? Why didn't I know about those four
29:14
Speaker 1: cups of wine and that Jesus gives this blessing with
29:17
Speaker 1: the cup and it's probably the third cup and then
29:19
Speaker 1: he doesn't take the fourth cup and symbolically he says
29:21
Speaker 1: he's only going to take that one in the kingdom.
29:23
Speaker 1: Why didn't I know about this? Why wasn't I aware
29:25
Speaker 1: of this? I said, well, probably because you've never been
29:27
Speaker 1: in a church where they practice systematic exposition and nobody
29:30
Speaker 1: ever got around to it. Because when you're looking for
29:31
Speaker 1: people's felt needs... They don't feel like they need to
29:34
Speaker 1: know how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover meal.
29:37
Speaker 1: So if all you're preaching is the felt needs, you're
29:39
Speaker 1: not going to get to something so technical and doctrinal
29:41
Speaker 1: and theological. That's why you've never heard about it before.
29:47
Speaker 1: And he goes, well, I tell you what, every year
29:51
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to find a Jewish family and
29:53
Speaker 1: go and enjoy this meal with them. To which I responded, why?
30:00
Speaker 1: That's a done deal. That was foreshadowing. That meal's been
30:05
Speaker 1: replaced by another. It's great to experience it. It's great
30:09
Speaker 1: to understand what Jesus did. But Jesus didn't die on
30:13
Speaker 1: the cross so that you could go back to old
30:15
Speaker 1: Jewish traditions and perpetuate them. If you can't say amen,
30:20
Speaker 1: you ought to say ouch. It's great that you've experienced that.
30:26
Speaker 1: But we don't go back We go forward. Amen? That's
30:33
Speaker 1: one thing if you're a Jewish person and that's part
30:34
Speaker 1: of your ethnic heritage. Praise the Lord. Go get after it.
30:39
Speaker 1: Do it with your family and interpret Jesus in it
30:41
Speaker 1: every year. Amen? But it's another thing for us to say,
30:47
Speaker 1: for my Christian experience to be full, I just feel
30:52
Speaker 1: like I need to experience the Passover meal every year. No.
30:58
Speaker 1: There is nothing lacking In what Christ has done for us. Nothing.
31:03
Speaker 1: Two meals met here. The Passover meal and the Lord's Supper.
31:09
Speaker 1: And when we gather together each week. We observe the
31:12
Speaker 1: Lord's Supper. And we are looking back at what the
31:15
Speaker 1: Lord has done. And looking forward to that moment of fulfillment.
31:19
Speaker 1: When we will again enjoy this. In the presence of
31:24
Speaker 1: our great Savior. Two meals met here. Next, two lambs
31:32
Speaker 1: met here at the crossroads of salvation. The people would
31:35
Speaker 1: have understood, again from Exodus 12, you go and you
31:38
Speaker 1: get a lamb, a male lamb without spot or blemish.
31:42
Speaker 1: And this lamb was slain and this lamb was consumed.
31:45
Speaker 1: By the way, all of the lamb had to be consumed.
31:47
Speaker 1: No leftovers from Passover. Amen? No leftovers. Why? Because you
31:53
Speaker 1: have to eat it in haste. It symbolizes that last
31:56
Speaker 1: night in Egypt, No leftovers. You're getting out of here.
31:59
Speaker 1: The death angel is going to come and they're going
32:01
Speaker 1: to let you go. No leftovers. Don't pack anything up.
32:04
Speaker 1: Whatever you don't eat, you burn. Okay? The lamb must
32:08
Speaker 1: be consumed. Here they are sitting before the Passover lamb.
32:12
Speaker 1: And we've talked about this before. And all of a sudden,
32:17
Speaker 1: they're realizing the truth of the words that John spoke
32:21
Speaker 1: when he saw Jesus. Behold, the lamb of God who
32:25
Speaker 1: takes away the sins of the world. Here at the
32:30
Speaker 1: crossroads of salvation, two meals are juxtaposed and two lambs
32:37
Speaker 1: are juxtaposed. The very lamb of God is here partaking
32:42
Speaker 1: of this meal of the lamb that symbolizes his own sacrifice.
32:51
Speaker 1: Did Jesus know he had to die? You better believe
32:54
Speaker 1: he did. just like the lamb that he ate that night,
32:58
Speaker 1: had to be completely consumed. He, the very lamb of God,
33:05
Speaker 1: had to offer himself as well as a ransom for many.
33:09
Speaker 1: Listen to this in Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 7.
33:12
Speaker 1: He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened
33:15
Speaker 1: not his mouth like a lamb that is led to
33:17
Speaker 1: the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers
33:20
Speaker 1: is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Listen to
33:23
Speaker 1: this in 1 Peter 1.17. And if you call on
33:26
Speaker 1: him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds,
33:30
Speaker 1: conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
33:35
Speaker 1: knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited
33:41
Speaker 1: from your forefathers. Now, not with perishable things such as
33:45
Speaker 1: silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ,
33:48
Speaker 1: like the lamb of God without blemish or spot. Revelation
33:53
Speaker 1: chapter five. beginning verse 6. And between the throne and
33:58
Speaker 1: the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw
34:00
Speaker 1: a lamb standing as though it had been slain with
34:03
Speaker 1: seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven
34:07
Speaker 1: spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And
34:11
Speaker 1: he went and took the scroll from the right hand
34:15
Speaker 1: of him who was seated on the throne. And when
34:18
Speaker 1: he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and
34:21
Speaker 1: the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding
34:24
Speaker 1: a harp and a golden bowl full of incense, which
34:27
Speaker 1: are the prayers of the saints. Then down in verse 11,
34:31
Speaker 1: then I looked and I heard around the throne and
34:36
Speaker 1: the living creatures and the elders, the voice. of many
34:40
Speaker 1: angels numbering myriad of myriads and thousands of thousands saying
34:44
Speaker 1: with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was
34:47
Speaker 1: slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
34:50
Speaker 1: and honor and glory and blessing. And I heard every
34:53
Speaker 1: creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth
34:55
Speaker 1: and in the sea and all that is in them
34:59
Speaker 1: saying to him who sits on the throne and to
35:01
Speaker 1: the lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might
35:05
Speaker 1: forever and ever. The lamb. The Passover lamb was insufficient.
35:17
Speaker 1: But Christ, the lamb of God, was slain once for all.
35:22
Speaker 1: The just for the unjust in order that he might
35:25
Speaker 1: bring us back to God. Two lambs met that night.
35:32
Speaker 1: One was insufficient. The other was holy and utterly sufficient.
35:38
Speaker 1: So sufficient was the death of this lamb. That if
35:44
Speaker 1: God were to decide tonight that he wanted a billion
35:49
Speaker 1: more people to be numbered among the elect, the lamb
35:52
Speaker 1: would not have to shed one more drop of blood
35:56
Speaker 1: for that extra billion. Not one. Completely and utterly sufficient
36:03
Speaker 1: was the blood of the lamb. Two suppers collided that night.
36:08
Speaker 1: Two lambs collided that night But two Adams also met
36:13
Speaker 1: that night on the crossroads. The first Adam and the
36:17
Speaker 1: second Adam. And two covenants met that night on the crossroads.
36:22
Speaker 1: And here's where I want us to camp out. I
36:23
Speaker 1: want you to understand this. Two main covenants. There are
36:27
Speaker 1: many covenants that we see in scripture. And God is
36:29
Speaker 1: a God of covenants. But there are two main covenants.
36:32
Speaker 1: And all other covenants explain these two covenants. Number one
36:35
Speaker 1: is the covenant of works. The covenant of works is
36:38
Speaker 1: the covenant that God makes with Adam. And it's a
36:40
Speaker 1: very simple covenant. Obey and you will live. Don't obey
36:43
Speaker 1: and you will die. You and all those whom you represent.
36:46
Speaker 1: And Adam was our federal head. And so God creates Adam,
36:50
Speaker 1: perfect and sinless. He bears the imago dei, the very
36:53
Speaker 1: image of God. He is there in the garden. He
36:56
Speaker 1: is tinged in the garden. And even before the law,
36:59
Speaker 1: so to speak, that would come in Exodus and then
37:02
Speaker 1: again in Deuteronomy, God gave Adam a very simple law.
37:05
Speaker 1: All the trees in the garden, you may eat, but
37:08
Speaker 1: from the tree in the center of the garden, Do
37:10
Speaker 1: not eat from the day that you eat of it,
37:13
Speaker 1: you will surely die. And so he has the law
37:15
Speaker 1: of God even there. And here in this covenant of works,
37:18
Speaker 1: it's very simple. Our federal head, Adam, has the opportunity
37:23
Speaker 1: as our representative to achieve the requirements in this covenant
37:28
Speaker 1: of works. But he does not. He falls there in
37:32
Speaker 1: chapter three. Doesn't take long. Amen. End of chapter one,
37:35
Speaker 1: beginning of chapter two, we get this covenant of works.
37:38
Speaker 1: By chapter three, it's gone. It's over. And so no
37:46
Speaker 1: longer is there this covenant of works. Now there is
37:49
Speaker 1: this covenant of grace. That's the new covenant. This covenant
37:58
Speaker 1: of grace. There was failure in the covenant of works,
38:01
Speaker 1: but here's what I want you to understand. Adam was
38:04
Speaker 1: our federal head. So you and I were in Adam
38:08
Speaker 1: when he fell. Because he's our federal head. Let me
38:12
Speaker 1: explain it to you this way. It's hard for us
38:14
Speaker 1: to understand this because of the nature of our government.
38:17
Speaker 1: But understand it from the standpoint of kings. Now, a
38:21
Speaker 1: king is a federal head of his people. Now, as
38:24
Speaker 1: the federal head of his people, a king could do this.
38:27
Speaker 1: I'm the king of one nation. You're the king of
38:30
Speaker 1: another nation. And so you and I, we sit down
38:33
Speaker 1: and we're going to have a talk. Myself and King Declamini,
38:37
Speaker 1: we're going to have a talk. The talk doesn't go well.
38:42
Speaker 1: I look at King Declamini and I say, on behalf
38:45
Speaker 1: of myself and my people, I declare war against you
38:49
Speaker 1: and your people. I haven't even gotten back home to
38:52
Speaker 1: my kingdom yet, but every person who's a citizen of
38:55
Speaker 1: my kingdom is now at war with his kingdom. Why?
38:58
Speaker 1: Because I, as their federal head, just declared war. You
39:02
Speaker 1: see that? Because I'm the federal head. Adam was the
39:06
Speaker 1: federal head of all humanity. So when he fell, all
39:09
Speaker 1: humanity fell. You get that? So all of us are
39:14
Speaker 1: in trouble according to the covenant of works. Every last
39:18
Speaker 1: one of us, we can't get there from here. So
39:22
Speaker 1: God gives us the law. Why does he give us
39:23
Speaker 1: the law? Well, in Galatians, Paul tells us the law
39:26
Speaker 1: is a headmaster. The law is there to teach you. See,
39:30
Speaker 1: you don't come into this world realizing that you can't
39:32
Speaker 1: make it via the covenant of works. So here's the
39:35
Speaker 1: law to remind you that you can't make it. And
39:37
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, there's a law there. Have you
39:39
Speaker 1: ever noticed you never ever in your life want to
39:42
Speaker 1: touch a park bench? You just don't. Except one time,
39:48
Speaker 1: one occasion... where everything in you says touch it. When?
39:52
Speaker 1: When there's a sign on it that says wet paint,
39:54
Speaker 1: do not touch. You never thought about it. And then
40:00
Speaker 1: there's a sign that says wet paint, do not touch.
40:02
Speaker 1: And what do you do? That's what the law does.
40:11
Speaker 1: The law teaches you that you're a sinner. You can't
40:14
Speaker 1: keep the law. And so here, We have the covenant
40:18
Speaker 1: of works. Jesus, however, as the second Adam, accomplishes what
40:28
Speaker 1: the first Adam could not. He fulfills the covenant of works.
40:33
Speaker 1: And here's where a lot of people miss it. They
40:35
Speaker 1: look at the passive obedience of Christ. And in the
40:38
Speaker 1: passive obedience of Christ, they say, well, of course, Jesus
40:40
Speaker 1: died for our sins. Absolutely, Jesus died for our sins
40:45
Speaker 1: so that we could be forgiven. However, there was also
40:48
Speaker 1: the active obedience of Christ. And in the active obedience
40:51
Speaker 1: of Christ, he kept the whole law perfectly, thus fulfilling
40:55
Speaker 1: the requirements of the covenant of works and being the
40:59
Speaker 1: mediator and sacrifice in the covenant of grace as well.
41:05
Speaker 1: Why is it important? This phrase that we hear in Galatians.
41:09
Speaker 1: In the fullness of time, God sent forth his son,
41:13
Speaker 1: born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem
41:16
Speaker 1: those who are under the law. Why did Jesus have
41:19
Speaker 1: to come as a human being, as a man? Why?
41:22
Speaker 1: To fulfill the covenant of works. So that he could
41:26
Speaker 1: therefore and thereby impute to us complete righteousness. So I
41:32
Speaker 1: was in Adam when he failed me. And therefore, I
41:37
Speaker 1: am sinful and unrighteous. According to Ephesians chapter 1, where
41:41
Speaker 1: was I when Christ kept the law? I was in Christ.
41:45
Speaker 1: So guess what that makes me? Righteous. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise
41:50
Speaker 1: the Lord. If I was Pentecostal, I'd be shouting and
41:53
Speaker 1: running all around this building right now. I was in Christ.
41:58
Speaker 1: So his righteousness has been imputed to me. God made
42:01
Speaker 1: him who knew no sin to become sin for us,
42:03
Speaker 1: that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
42:05
Speaker 1: Now let me show you this. A lot of people think, oh,
42:07
Speaker 1: when it comes to the virgin birth, there's no big
42:09
Speaker 1: deal there. We can give up on the doctrine of
42:12
Speaker 1: the virgin birth. No, we cannot. Why? Because had there
42:15
Speaker 1: not been a virgin birth, Jesus would have been born
42:17
Speaker 1: in sin like the rest of us. But in Genesis
42:20
Speaker 1: chapter 3 and verse 15, God says to the serpent,
42:25
Speaker 1: There will be enmity between you and the seed of
42:28
Speaker 1: the woman, not the seed of the man. How ironic
42:32
Speaker 1: is that? How do you talk about people's lineage? The
42:36
Speaker 1: seed of the man. But God says, I will put
42:39
Speaker 1: enmity between you and the seed of the woman. And he,
42:43
Speaker 1: you will bruise his heel, but he will crush your head.
42:47
Speaker 1: So the gospel is preached even way back in Genesis
42:50
Speaker 1: chapter 3 and verse 15. So we have the seed
42:53
Speaker 1: of the woman, Mary, but not the seed of the man, Joseph.
42:57
Speaker 1: So that number one, Jesus can be our representative in
43:01
Speaker 1: two covenants, both the covenant of works and the covenant
43:05
Speaker 1: of grace by virtue of his virgin birth. He also
43:10
Speaker 1: has actively obeyed all of the law and has kept
43:14
Speaker 1: all of the law so that he has complete and
43:17
Speaker 1: utter righteousness under the covenant of works and is thereby
43:21
Speaker 1: our representative there and worthy to be our representative in
43:25
Speaker 1: the covenant of grace. So when you talk about, for example,
43:33
Speaker 1: the perseverance of the saints, It's absolutely ludicrous to think
43:38
Speaker 1: that a person could lose their salvation. Why? Because if
43:42
Speaker 1: you are among the elect, you were in Christ when
43:45
Speaker 1: he kept the law. You were in Christ when he
43:48
Speaker 1: died for sin. You were also in Christ when he
43:50
Speaker 1: was resurrected. And you were in Christ when he ascended.
43:53
Speaker 1: You are now in Christ seated in the heavenly places.
43:58
Speaker 1: You're in Christ. How do you lose that? You can't.
44:04
Speaker 1: You can't. We only think people can lose their salvation
44:08
Speaker 1: because we think wrongly about what salvation is. Salvation is
44:12
Speaker 1: not about what I do inviting Jesus into my life.
44:16
Speaker 1: Salvation is about what God did before I was born,
44:19
Speaker 1: before I was thought of, in electing me and in Christ.
44:24
Speaker 1: Keeping the law on my behalf and in Christ punishing
44:27
Speaker 1: sin on my behalf and in Christ raising me and
44:31
Speaker 1: seating me in heavenly places in Christ. So just like
44:34
Speaker 1: Christ has been raised, I too, because I'm in Christ,
44:38
Speaker 1: shall be raised. It is absolutely inevitable if I'm in Christ.
44:46
Speaker 1: Nothing else is possible if I'm in Christ. It is
44:50
Speaker 1: unreasonable to expect anything else if I'm in Christ. But
44:55
Speaker 1: we have difficulty. Why? Because we, because of what we've
44:58
Speaker 1: been taught by our culture, want to confer salvation on
45:02
Speaker 1: every person who walked an aisle and prayed a prayer.
45:04
Speaker 1: That is not God. That is not Bible. The majority
45:08
Speaker 1: of people who walk aisles and pray prayers have not
45:11
Speaker 1: been converted. They are not saved. Period. They've not been
45:19
Speaker 1: born again. They have it. Salvation is a sovereign work
45:23
Speaker 1: of Almighty God from beginning to end. Listen to this.
45:32
Speaker 1: Romans chapter 5. Turn with me there. I'm turning the
45:38
Speaker 1: wrong way. Romans chapter 5. So don't feel bad if
45:42
Speaker 1: you've ever done that. The preacher just did it. I'm
45:46
Speaker 1: in Mark. I'm turning to the left to get to Romans.
45:49
Speaker 1: Romans chapter 5. Even Abraham. We saw that in Romans
46:03
Speaker 1: chapter 4, by the way. Abraham believed God and it
46:08
Speaker 1: was credited to him as righteousness. So even Abraham was
46:11
Speaker 1: not being held to the covenant of works. The covenant
46:16
Speaker 1: with Abraham was a covenant of grace. Grace. By faith,
46:20
Speaker 1: Abraham was reckoned as righteous. By faith, he was declared
46:25
Speaker 1: righteous by God. By faith, it's always been by faith,
46:28
Speaker 1: always shall be by faith. We had that catechism question
46:32
Speaker 1: earlier about how those who hoped in God were saved
46:36
Speaker 1: before Christ. How were they saved? By looking forward to
46:41
Speaker 1: the work that Christ would accomplish. When he fulfills this
46:44
Speaker 1: covenant of grace, they look forward to that. They were
46:47
Speaker 1: not hoping in the covenant of works. They realized that
46:49
Speaker 1: they couldn't do that. And even Abraham, the father of
46:51
Speaker 1: the faithful, why was he righteous? According to Romans chapter four,
46:57
Speaker 1: it was credited to him. He was declared righteous by faith,
47:02
Speaker 1: by faith. Did God see something in Abraham? No, he's
47:06
Speaker 1: an heir of the Chaldeans. He's a sinner like everybody else.
47:10
Speaker 1: As someone pointed out this weekend, it's very ironic that
47:12
Speaker 1: the first Jew was a Gentile. Amen. Abraham was a Gentile.
47:19
Speaker 1: The Jewish people came from him. He's the first one.
47:22
Speaker 1: There were no Jews before Abraham. He's there. Earn the Chaldeans.
47:26
Speaker 1: He's a Gentile. God makes of him a nation. Why?
47:31
Speaker 1: Because he's better than all the other people? Because there's
47:33
Speaker 1: something in him? Nope. Election. Sovereignty of God. I choose you. Why?
47:41
Speaker 1: Because I'm not running for God. I'm just God. So
47:51
Speaker 1: we see election even there. Look here in Romans chapter 5,
47:53
Speaker 1: beginning verse 12. Therefore, just as sin came into the
47:57
Speaker 1: world through one man, and death through sin, and so
48:00
Speaker 1: death spread to all men because all sinned. For sin
48:03
Speaker 1: indeed was in the world before the law was given,
48:06
Speaker 1: but sin is not counted where there is no law.
48:08
Speaker 1: Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those
48:13
Speaker 1: whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who
48:16
Speaker 1: was a type Of the one who was to come.
48:19
Speaker 1: So he was a type of the one who was
48:20
Speaker 1: to come. There's another Adam who's going to come. Told
48:22
Speaker 1: you there's two Adams who met here. At this meal
48:24
Speaker 1: that night. The first Adam and the second Adam. They
48:27
Speaker 1: meet here. And so in the flesh. We have this
48:32
Speaker 1: idea of the representative of the first Adam. But in keeping.
48:39
Speaker 1: The covenant of works. Satisfying all the righteous requirements of God.
48:45
Speaker 1: We have the second Adam who does not fail. As
48:48
Speaker 1: the first Adam did. And he also is the federal
48:52
Speaker 1: head of all his people. Who? According to him, all
48:56
Speaker 1: those whom the father had given to him. That's referred
49:00
Speaker 1: to as the covenant of redemption between the father and
49:02
Speaker 1: the son. And so here it is. The father makes
49:07
Speaker 1: a covenant with the son. And here's the covenant that
49:08
Speaker 1: the father makes with the son. The son says, I'm
49:11
Speaker 1: going to give you all of these people. You just
49:16
Speaker 1: go die for them and redeem them and they're yours.
49:18
Speaker 1: Every last one of them. All of them. Every last one.
49:25
Speaker 1: So when Christ comes and lays down his life on
49:28
Speaker 1: the cross, he's not laying down his life and sitting
49:33
Speaker 1: there on the cross thinking, oh, I hope somebody gets this.
49:39
Speaker 1: That's the picture of Jesus that's painted in the average
49:41
Speaker 1: church today. He's on the cross going, oh, oh, I
49:44
Speaker 1: hope somebody gets this. Before he hangs his head, he says,
49:52
Speaker 1: my part's done. The rest is up to you. No.
49:56
Speaker 1: Jesus says, tetelestai. It is finished. All of it. It's finished.
50:06
Speaker 1: So what do I do? I just get redeemed. Well,
50:12
Speaker 1: what do I bring? Surely I bring something. You know,
50:17
Speaker 1: Martin Luther actually was asked this question early on in
50:22
Speaker 1: the Reformation. And he formed his response by way of apology.
50:26
Speaker 1: He said, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply
50:29
Speaker 1: that man brings nothing to his salvation experience. He does.
50:34
Speaker 1: He brings sin and guilt. That's it. Well, certainly I
50:42
Speaker 1: bring my faith. No, you bring faith that you borrowed
50:45
Speaker 1: from God. Ephesians chapter two makes that clear. For by
50:50
Speaker 1: grace have you been saved through faith and that not
50:52
Speaker 1: of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not as
50:54
Speaker 1: a result of work so that no one can boast.
50:56
Speaker 1: Even the faith that you place in Jesus Christ was
50:59
Speaker 1: a gift to you from God. And the evidence that
51:03
Speaker 1: you are among the elect is that you have that
51:05
Speaker 1: gift of faith. Amen. Amen. That is why even those
51:10
Speaker 1: who believe in the doctrine of election still preach the
51:14
Speaker 1: gospel and say repent and believe. Well, why would you
51:18
Speaker 1: do that? If they're elect, then they're going to be saved.
51:20
Speaker 1: If they're not elect, they're not going to be saved. Yes,
51:22
Speaker 1: but God has chosen to use the foolishness of preaching.
51:28
Speaker 1: And he calls all men everywhere, repent, believe. Believe. Now
51:36
Speaker 1: I'm aware of the fact that even that is a
51:38
Speaker 1: gift that God gives. But just like the prophet in
51:43
Speaker 1: the valley of dry bones, those of us who proclaim
51:47
Speaker 1: the gospel say, Lord, please cause your wind to blow
51:52
Speaker 1: and make these dry bones live. Jesus is the author
52:00
Speaker 1: and perfecter of our faith. That's the gospel. He's not
52:06
Speaker 1: yearning or begging. He is calling all men everywhere, repent
52:17
Speaker 1: and believe the gospel. He's not trying to find the
52:21
Speaker 1: key to your heart through your felt needs. He's not
52:26
Speaker 1: hoping that he can say just the right thing through
52:30
Speaker 1: the preacher. He is simply making known through the proclamation
52:38
Speaker 1: of the gospel what he himself has known since the
52:42
Speaker 1: foundation of the earth. Listen to this about the covenant
52:48
Speaker 1: of grace. The second London Baptist confession. The 1689 Baptist confession,
52:53
Speaker 1: which is the principal confession of this church. Chapter 7,
52:56
Speaker 1: paragraph 2. Moreover, man, having brought himself under the curse
53:00
Speaker 1: of the law by his fault, It pleased the Lord
53:03
Speaker 1: to make a covenant of grace wherein he freely offers
53:06
Speaker 1: unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of
53:10
Speaker 1: them faith in him that they may be saved and
53:12
Speaker 1: promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto
53:15
Speaker 1: eternal life his Holy Spirit and make them willing and
53:19
Speaker 1: able to believe. I love that. And to make them
53:22
Speaker 1: willing and able to believe. Look at paragraph three. This
53:25
Speaker 1: covenant is revealed in the gospel. First of all, Adam...
53:28
Speaker 1: in the promise of salvation by the seed of a woman,
53:31
Speaker 1: and afterward by farther steps until full discovery thereof was
53:36
Speaker 1: completed in the New Testament. And it is founded in
53:39
Speaker 1: the eternal covenant transaction that was between the father and
53:43
Speaker 1: the son about the redemption of the elect. There's a
53:46
Speaker 1: covenant of redemption. And it is alone by the grace
53:49
Speaker 1: of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam
53:53
Speaker 1: that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality,
53:57
Speaker 1: man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon
54:01
Speaker 1: those terms on which Adam stood in the state of innocency.
54:10
Speaker 1: You can't get there from here. So what happens at
54:18
Speaker 1: the crossroads of salvation? There is the juxtaposition of two meals,
54:27
Speaker 1: one a foreshadowing of the other. There is the juxtaposition
54:30
Speaker 1: of two lambs, one a foreshadowing of the other. There
54:33
Speaker 1: is the juxtaposition of two atoms, one a foreshadowing of
54:37
Speaker 1: the other. And there is the juxtaposition of two covenants,
54:40
Speaker 1: one foreshadowing of the other. And now here in this room,
54:50
Speaker 1: we stand at the crossroads of salvation. And there are
54:56
Speaker 1: two responses. One response is, I'll take my chances. The
55:08
Speaker 1: other response is, I have no chance and I throw
55:12
Speaker 1: myself on the mercy of Almighty God through repentance and
55:17
Speaker 1: faith as the Lord God would grant them. We are
55:23
Speaker 1: always at the crossroads. Here's what this also means. There
55:30
Speaker 1: are some of you who came into this room today
55:34
Speaker 1: and your Christian life consists of beating yourself to death. Why? Why?
55:39
Speaker 1: Because you think you were saved by the covenant of grace,
55:42
Speaker 1: but you're kept by the covenant of works. You don't
55:46
Speaker 1: believe that the blood of Jesus was sufficient to get
55:48
Speaker 1: you all the way through. So you beat yourself to death.
55:53
Speaker 1: And you have lists that you keep. Lists to which
55:57
Speaker 1: you hold yourself. As Michael Horton says, you're like those
56:01
Speaker 1: Pharisees about whom Jesus spoke. You neither mourn nor dance. Amen. Amen.
56:09
Speaker 1: You got neither one. On the one hand, you've turned
56:12
Speaker 1: your back on the law, so you know that you're
56:14
Speaker 1: not supposed to just keep the whole law, but there
56:16
Speaker 1: are little pieces of it that you'd really like to
56:18
Speaker 1: hold yourself to. And so you hold yourself to those
56:20
Speaker 1: little pieces, but you can't even keep those little pieces.
56:23
Speaker 1: So you don't even mourn like you were supposed to,
56:25
Speaker 1: because that's what the law is for. The law is
56:27
Speaker 1: to break you and make you mourn and make you say,
56:30
Speaker 1: I can't do it. So you try to take little
56:32
Speaker 1: pieces of the law that you think you can uphold yourself.
56:36
Speaker 1: So you don't mourn, but you don't dance either. You
56:38
Speaker 1: don't rejoice because there's no liberty. There's no freedom in
56:41
Speaker 1: your life whatsoever. And all you do is walk around
56:45
Speaker 1: holding on to this list. But what does Paul say
56:47
Speaker 1: in Colossians? Jesus took that list and all of the
56:51
Speaker 1: handwriting against you and he nailed it to the cross.
56:54
Speaker 1: How dare you take it back off? But that's what
56:59
Speaker 1: we do. What is wrong with you? What is wrong
57:02
Speaker 1: with me? Jesus says, come to me all you who
57:05
Speaker 1: labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
57:08
Speaker 1: Do you have rest? Then you haven't come to Jesus.
57:16
Speaker 1: You're beating the daylights out of yourself. And you cannot rejoice.
57:20
Speaker 1: You don't even like the gospel of grace. Why? Because
57:23
Speaker 1: you're terrified of the gospel of grace. Oh, no, no, no.
57:27
Speaker 1: Because people will take that for granted. And then they
57:30
Speaker 1: will live any way they want to live. No, if
57:32
Speaker 1: I am in Christ, that cannot be. Turn with me
57:38
Speaker 1: again to Romans. And look at the next chapter. Right
57:45
Speaker 1: after chapter 5. He anticipates that. You get a hold
57:49
Speaker 1: of the covenant of grace and this is what people say.
57:52
Speaker 1: You preach that stuff and all of a sudden, you know,
57:54
Speaker 1: people just live in lawlessness. Chapter 6 of Romans. What
58:00
Speaker 1: shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin
58:03
Speaker 1: that grace may abound? God loves forgiving. I love sinning.
58:10
Speaker 1: Match made in heaven, you know. Is that what we do?
58:15
Speaker 1: Because that's the way people think. If you believe this
58:17
Speaker 1: grace stuff, that's what it's going to lead to. By
58:25
Speaker 1: no means. There's that Greek phrase, me genoita. May it
58:29
Speaker 1: never be. Closest thing to cussing in the whole Bible.
58:33
Speaker 1: That's a strong, strong phrase. May it never be. By
58:37
Speaker 1: no means. Absolutely not. Nothing could be further from the truth.
58:41
Speaker 1: Look at it. How can we who died in sin
58:43
Speaker 1: still live in it or die to sin rather still
58:46
Speaker 1: live in it? Do you not know that all of
58:48
Speaker 1: us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized
58:51
Speaker 1: into his death? We were buried therefore with him by
58:55
Speaker 1: baptism into death in order that just as Christ was
58:58
Speaker 1: raised from the dead by the glory of the father,
59:01
Speaker 1: we too might walk in newness of life. in second
59:10
Speaker 1: corinthians chapter five he puts it this way if any
59:11
Speaker 1: man is in christ he's a new creature old things
59:13
Speaker 1: have passed away new things have come listen if you
59:17
Speaker 1: are still having to make your new creature your old
59:22
Speaker 1: creature act like he's new he's not new He's not new.
59:35
Speaker 1: Is Christ a duty or a delight to you? Which
59:39
Speaker 1: is it? Which is it? For the redeemed, he's a delight.
59:47
Speaker 1: For those trying their best to keep the covenant of works,
59:52
Speaker 1: he's a duty. He's a duty. But why do we
59:57
Speaker 1: live like that? Here's why we live like that. According
1:00:00
Speaker 1: to this old system that we're taught, almost everywhere that
1:00:03
Speaker 1: you go today, remember, the Lord has done as much
1:00:08
Speaker 1: as he can. Now he's waiting and depending on you
1:00:12
Speaker 1: to do your part. So according to that gospel, God
1:00:16
Speaker 1: is impotent to save you. It only follows that he's
1:00:20
Speaker 1: impotent to keep you. It's absolutely logical. If he's not
1:00:30
Speaker 1: powerful enough to save you, he's not powerful enough to
1:00:32
Speaker 1: keep you. So we just live any old kind of way? Nope,
1:00:37
Speaker 1: you can't if you're truly born again. You can't. You can't.
1:00:41
Speaker 1: You're a new creature. You can't live that way. You
1:00:43
Speaker 1: don't want to live that way. You don't delight in
1:00:45
Speaker 1: that anymore. It is him who works in you both
1:00:48
Speaker 1: to will and to do his good pleasure. God will
1:00:51
Speaker 1: change what you want. When you embrace the covenant of grace,
1:00:56
Speaker 1: he will change what you want. He changes who you are.
1:00:59
Speaker 1: And you read his word and you get into his
1:01:01
Speaker 1: word and you find out things in his word. And
1:01:03
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you hate sin just like he
1:01:06
Speaker 1: hates sin. And so it's not, okay, I'm going to
1:01:08
Speaker 1: find a list of things to do and I'm going
1:01:10
Speaker 1: to keep this list. No, you hate sin. You despise sin.
1:01:15
Speaker 1: You love righteousness. You rejoice in righteousness. Do you see this?
1:01:33
Speaker 1: At the crossroads of salvation, there's one meal you can choose.
1:01:37
Speaker 1: Which one are you choosing? You want to go back
1:01:42
Speaker 1: to the Passover? Or you want the Lord's Supper? There's
1:01:48
Speaker 1: two lambs you can choose. You want the lamb that
1:01:51
Speaker 1: you have to sacrifice every year to remind you of
1:01:55
Speaker 1: your guilt that hasn't been taken away? You can have it.
1:02:00
Speaker 1: Or you can have the lamb who died once for
1:02:01
Speaker 1: all To make you righteous in him. Which Adam do
1:02:05
Speaker 1: you want? Do you want the old Adam? And do
1:02:10
Speaker 1: you want to work as hard as you can to
1:02:12
Speaker 1: try to do what he created in sinless perfection couldn't do?
1:02:15
Speaker 1: Or do you want the new Adam? Who did what
1:02:23
Speaker 1: the first Adam could not. And has offered to his
1:02:28
Speaker 1: people as their federal head what the first Adam could
1:02:31
Speaker 1: not offer. You want the old covenant or the new one?
1:02:45
Speaker 1: As you stand at the crossroads of salvation, which side
1:02:50
Speaker 1: are you on? Have you bought the lie from our culture?
1:02:59
Speaker 1: Or have you embraced the gospel of grace? Do you
1:03:03
Speaker 1: get it? More importantly, has it gotten you? Has he
1:03:11
Speaker 1: brought you to that incredible, beautiful place of repentance and
1:03:18
Speaker 1: faith and forgiveness and newness of life? Or are you
1:03:27
Speaker 1: doing the double Adam two-step? Saved by one, kept by
1:03:34
Speaker 1: the other. The gospel has been polluted in our day.
1:03:41
Speaker 1: And as a result of the pollution of the gospel
1:03:43
Speaker 1: in our day, we don't even know how to be Christian.
1:03:47
Speaker 1: Here at the crossroads, there are two ways of looking
1:03:52
Speaker 1: at salvation. Only one of them leads to redemption. Let's pray.