WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.040 --> 00:00:05.880 Well, today we’re returning to our study in Mark chapter 9. 2 00:00:05.880 --> 00:00:14.840 In the past month, we’ve been focusing on the Advent, contemplating the incarnation of Christ, the fullness of God in human form. 3 00:00:14.840 --> 00:00:25.500 We’ve been considering the purpose of Christ’s coming to earth in human form, and the implications of this union of God and man in the person of Christ. 4 00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:41.660 Today, as we return to our study in Mark, what we find is a passage that is perfectly fit for the Advent season, because in it, Christ plainly states His purpose in coming to earth, which is to live, to die, and to be resurrected. 5 00:00:41.660 --> 00:00:51.800 So in our study of this passage this morning, we will consider Christ’s statement of His purpose and rehearse again the basic truths of the gospel message. 6 00:00:51.800 --> 00:01:00.040 Primarily, we will be seeing three things in this passage: First, we will see the purpose of Christ plainly stated. 7 00:01:00.040 --> 00:01:04.780 Second, we will see the response of the disciples to the purpose of Christ. 8 00:01:04.780 --> 00:01:11.360 And third, we will see the purpose of Christ manifested in us. 9 00:01:11.360 --> 00:01:15.280 So let’s read this passage beginning in verse 30. 10 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:22.380 Mark chapter 9, verses 30 through 37. 11 00:01:22.380 --> 00:01:40.780 From there they went out and began to go through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know about it, for He was teaching His disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.” 12 00:01:40.780 --> 00:01:45.580 But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him. 13 00:01:45.580 --> 00:01:53.320 They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 14 00:01:53.320 --> 00:02:01.240 But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest. 15 00:02:01.240 --> 00:02:11.180 Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” 16 00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:29.220 Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever receives one child like this in my name receives me; and whoever receives me does not receive me, but Him who sent me.” 17 00:02:29.220 --> 00:02:31.560 Let’s pray. 18 00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:39.800 Father, we come to you in the name of Christ, and we ask that you would grant us insight by your Spirit into the truth of your word. 19 00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:46.220 Let us see Christ clearly, and let us see His purpose on earth and His purpose in us. 20 00:02:46.220 --> 00:02:48.140 We pray this in His name. 21 00:02:48.140 --> 00:02:50.820 Amen. 22 00:02:50.820 --> 00:02:56.320 In this passage, Christ plainly states His purpose in coming to earth. 23 00:02:56.320 --> 00:02:59.660 We might say His purpose or we might say His mission. 24 00:02:59.660 --> 00:03:05.860 He came to earth taking on the form of human flesh to accomplish a specific purpose. 25 00:03:05.860 --> 00:03:08.840 We can put that purpose in a very brief phrase. 26 00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:12.440 He came to earth to justify the ungodly. 27 00:03:12.440 --> 00:03:17.380 What Christ states in this passage are the basic truths of the gospel message. 28 00:03:17.380 --> 00:03:23.460 In context, the fullness of the gospel is contained in just verse 31. 29 00:03:23.460 --> 00:03:30.660 It’s plain for us to see now, and it was plain enough for the disciples when He first spoke it. 30 00:03:30.660 --> 00:03:39.440 In last week’s sermon, we heard about the union of the nature of God and the nature of man in the person of Christ. 31 00:03:39.440 --> 00:03:50.740 And we heard about how this was designed in order to resolve our terrible predicament before God, that because of our sin, we are alienated from God. 32 00:03:50.740 --> 00:04:00.360 Today, we will begin by reminding ourselves of the three pillars of the gospel: the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ. 33 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:04.180 Without any one of those three, our salvation would not be possible. 34 00:04:04.180 --> 00:04:09.720 Only through those three can God justify the ungodly. 35 00:04:09.720 --> 00:04:21.520 In verse 30, as the appointed time for Christ’s death is approaching, Christ takes the disciples out of the way in order to teach them privately about His purpose. 36 00:04:21.520 --> 00:04:26.180 They’re traveling through Galilee and on the road to Capernaum. 37 00:04:26.180 --> 00:04:34.800 In verse 31, Christ tells His disciples, The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill Him. 38 00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:39.600 And when He has been killed, He will rise three days later. 39 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:44.540 Every moment in the life of Christ was to fulfill His purpose. 40 00:04:44.540 --> 00:05:06.980 From His first breath of life to His last gasp in death, Christ suffered to accomplish His purpose, to fulfill the law in perfect righteousness, to endure the eternal judgment of God and pay an infinite debt of sin, to drink the cup of God’s wrath in death, and then to be raised by the power of the Spirit in resurrection. 41 00:05:06.980 --> 00:05:09.260 Christ was born to die. 42 00:05:09.260 --> 00:05:15.340 The cross was always the centerpiece of God’s providential plan from eternity past. 43 00:05:15.340 --> 00:05:34.900 The Apostle Peter says in Acts chapter 4, Truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur. 44 00:05:34.900 --> 00:05:39.300 The cross was always the centerpiece of God’s plan. 45 00:05:39.300 --> 00:06:10.000 From the moment God first spoke light into existence, to the moment Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, to the moment Abraham raised a knife to slay his only son, and later Moses was given the tablets of commandments and the unveiling of the law of God, to the moment the baby Jesus first cried in a stable, to the moment He last cried out in death, the cross was the point, the purpose, and the end of God’s eternal plan. 46 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.460 In death, Christ atoned for sin. 47 00:06:13.460 --> 00:06:28.220 We are told that He is the propitiation for sin, meaning that His sacrifice was the payment for a debt that is infinitely wide and infinitely deep and would take an infinity of eternities for one sinner to pay. 48 00:06:28.220 --> 00:06:32.020 Think for a moment about the debt that you have accrued. 49 00:06:32.020 --> 00:06:40.700 In James, we are told that whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all. 50 00:06:40.700 --> 00:06:52.860 One failure to keep one commandment is effectively equal to a violation of all commandments, because an eternal condemnation results from just one sin. 51 00:06:52.860 --> 00:06:56.780 And do you know what sin James was talking about in this context? 52 00:06:56.780 --> 00:07:00.220 Not murder, not adultery, not even lying. 53 00:07:00.220 --> 00:07:06.400 James was talking about the sin of partiality, showing favor to one person over another. 54 00:07:06.400 --> 00:07:20.760 He was saying, if one morning a homeless man happened to visit us at our church, and he was completely impoverished, and he hasn’t bathed in weeks, and maybe he talks too loudly, and he has nothing to offer. 55 00:07:20.760 --> 00:07:41.880 And on the same morning, the governor of Virginia visits our church, and you put the governor of Virginia in the front pew and you hide the homeless man away in the back because you don’t want to be associated with his poverty and you’re embarrassed by him, you have committed a sin that is deserving of eternal condemnation. 56 00:07:41.880 --> 00:07:43.960 You have violated the whole law. 57 00:07:43.960 --> 00:07:53.640 James says, Did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 58 00:07:53.640 --> 00:07:55.620 But it’s not just this. 59 00:07:55.620 --> 00:08:01.420 Christ said in Matthew 5, You have heard that the ancients were told, “You shall not murder.” 60 00:08:01.420 --> 00:08:06.180 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother is guilty before the court. 61 00:08:06.180 --> 00:08:12.000 In other words, we are judged not only by the sins of our actions, but also by the sins of our hearts. 62 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:27.080 Even if you did not act on your partiality, if only you felt it in your heart and thought it in your mind, if only in your imagination and your emotions you entertained a thought of partiality, you were just as guilty. 63 00:08:27.080 --> 00:08:30.480 Guilty of one sin, guilty of the whole law. 64 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:32.480 But still, it’s more than this. 65 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:41.640 Christ said that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength. 66 00:08:41.640 --> 00:08:46.540 And that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. 67 00:08:46.540 --> 00:08:49.740 Even this morning, have you perfectly kept these commandments? 68 00:08:49.740 --> 00:08:56.360 Have you in every second of your day so far esteemed God perfectly in your heart and mind? 69 00:08:56.360 --> 00:09:02.080 Or have you given your mind to lesser things, or perhaps to anxiety and to worry? 70 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:04.900 Have you ever been anxious or worried? 71 00:09:04.900 --> 00:09:11.960 Anxiety and worry are terrible sins because they are a tight-fisted denial in your heart of the true nature of God. 72 00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:15.020 All anxiety is rooted in heresy. 73 00:09:15.020 --> 00:09:17.840 Paul writes in Philippians, Be anxious for nothing. 74 00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:20.780 This is not a suggestion, it’s a commandment. 75 00:09:20.780 --> 00:09:28.820 Anxiety is your heart telling you that God is either not in control, or that He is not good, or that He does not love you or care for you. 76 00:09:28.820 --> 00:09:38.700 If you have been anxious or if you are anxious now, you have and are committing a sin of outright rebellion against God that merits repentance on your knees. 77 00:09:38.700 --> 00:09:49.160 Are you beginning to get the picture, that everything wrapped up in us and the nature of our flesh is at enmity with God, at war with the Spirit, and at odds with the law? 78 00:09:49.160 --> 00:09:52.980 Every moment of our lives is tainted and unclean. 79 00:09:52.980 --> 00:10:05.480 Imagine every second that you have shown partiality, every second that you have been angry, every second that you did not esteem God perfectly in your heart and mind, every second that you have felt anxiety. 80 00:10:05.480 --> 00:10:17.040 Every one of those seconds are sins against a perfectly holy God, a violation of His righteous law, and every instant of failure deserves eternal condemnation and judgment. 81 00:10:17.040 --> 00:10:35.000 And if there’s any part of you that does not believe that just one instant of anxiety or partiality or anger could be deserving of eternal punishment, that is because our vision of God is not large enough and we do not see His true nature, and that in itself is to fall short of the glory of God. 82 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:39.540 How many thousands and millions of infinite debts have we accrued? 83 00:10:39.540 --> 00:10:42.100 To pay them off is an impossibility. 84 00:10:42.100 --> 00:10:45.860 It would take an infinity of eternities. 85 00:10:45.860 --> 00:10:48.060 This is why Christ was born to die. 86 00:10:48.060 --> 00:10:55.760 This is why He says here in verse 31, The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill Him. 87 00:10:55.760 --> 00:11:02.080 His purpose was to be sacrificed by the hands of men as instruments of the wrath of God. 88 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:24.820 And the hands of those who crucified Christ were not just the hands of the Roman executioners, not only the hands of Judas who embraced Him in treachery, not only the hands of Pontius Pilate who tried to wash them in vain, and not only the hands of the Jews who raised their fists in condemnation of Him, but the hands that crucified Christ are yours and mine. 89 00:11:24.820 --> 00:11:39.400 In Acts chapter 2, preaching to the Jews in Jerusalem, the apostle Peter says, Christ, who is delivered over by the predetermined plan of God, you nailed to the cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 90 00:11:39.400 --> 00:11:45.800 And again in chapter 4, Peter says, Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, you crucified. 91 00:11:45.800 --> 00:12:00.480 The culpability for the death of Christ falls not only on the one or two Roman soldiers who hammered the nails into His wrists, but on every sinner whose sin made His death necessary. 92 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:10.280 What nailed Christ to the cross was sin, specific individual sins of every sinner who He died to redeem. 93 00:12:10.280 --> 00:12:17.960 Like the modern hymn says, what held Christ to the cross was my sin until the payment was accomplished. 94 00:12:17.960 --> 00:12:32.460 Paul writes in Colossians 2, Christ cancelled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 95 00:12:32.460 --> 00:12:35.380 Now consider for a moment the last part of that verse. 96 00:12:35.380 --> 00:12:46.840 What Christ accomplished on the cross is the nailing of our debt, literally nailing the receipt of our sin debt to the cross in complete and final payment. 97 00:12:46.840 --> 00:12:56.900 Through His death, God can justify the ungodly, not because He overlooks our sin, but because the wages of our sin have been fully paid. 98 00:12:56.900 --> 00:13:00.340 On the cross, Christ declared, It is finished. 99 00:13:00.340 --> 00:13:02.480 There is not one sin forgotten. 100 00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:04.580 There is not one debt unpaid. 101 00:13:04.580 --> 00:13:12.140 In the words of one preacher, on the cross, Christ drank damnation dry. 102 00:13:12.140 --> 00:13:20.700 Paul writes in Romans chapter 5, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 103 00:13:20.700 --> 00:13:25.220 The terrible predicament of our alienation with God is ended. 104 00:13:25.220 --> 00:13:32.500 In Romans chapter 8, Paul continues, Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 105 00:13:32.500 --> 00:13:41.860 Christ was born to die, to pay in full our debt of sin and purchase our justification and forgiveness. 106 00:13:41.860 --> 00:13:44.340 But Christ was also born to live. 107 00:13:44.340 --> 00:13:52.320 It was His purpose on earth to live in perfect obedience to the law and to fulfill its righteous requirement. 108 00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:57.120 It would not be sufficient to die a perfect death and atone for all sin. 109 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:01.980 That would erase the debt of sin and leave redeemed sinners with a blank slate. 110 00:14:01.980 --> 00:14:05.900 But a blank slate is not sufficient to enter the kingdom of God. 111 00:14:05.900 --> 00:14:12.800 What is demanded of us is the righteous requirement of the law, to be holy even as God is holy. 112 00:14:12.800 --> 00:14:19.880 What we are unable to do in even one second of our lives, Christ accomplished in every second of His. 113 00:14:19.880 --> 00:14:27.640 There was not a moment or a second of His life that He did not love the Lord with all His heart, mind, soul, and strength. 114 00:14:27.640 --> 00:14:31.780 There was not a moment that He was not acting in perfect love for His people. 115 00:14:31.780 --> 00:14:36.460 There was not a second that He was not submitting in obedience to the will of the Father. 116 00:14:36.460 --> 00:14:40.320 He lived, breathed, and died the will of the Father. 117 00:14:40.320 --> 00:15:02.920 Returning to Romans 8, Paul continues, For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending His only Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 118 00:15:02.920 --> 00:15:14.300 The righteous requirement of the law demands an impossibility from us, that we be perfect, that we live out not only a sinless life, but a fully righteous one. 119 00:15:14.300 --> 00:15:21.020 But as we’ve seen, every second of our lives has been tainted by a failure to keep the law. 120 00:15:21.020 --> 00:15:32.360 To achieve our salvation, it was necessary not only for Christ to pay our debt of sin in His death, but to fulfill the law in perfect obedience in His life. 121 00:15:32.360 --> 00:15:41.240 Christ was born to live in perfect fulfillment of the law so that His righteousness could be granted to us. 122 00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:45.720 But Christ was born not only to live and die, but finally to be resurrected. 123 00:15:45.720 --> 00:15:49.000 A dead Christ would not suffice to save the world. 124 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:55.280 A dead Christ would leave the world still in bondage to sin and smitten by the final enemy. 125 00:15:55.280 --> 00:16:01.340 But the true Christ is not a dead one, because His glory requires victory over the grave. 126 00:16:01.340 --> 00:16:04.380 Christ is alive to be victory for us. 127 00:16:04.380 --> 00:16:06.520 He is the sacrifice that lives. 128 00:16:06.520 --> 00:16:12.600 He is the lamb that destroyed the altar after rinsing it with His blood. 129 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:16.500 His blood was the last blood that needed to bleed. 130 00:16:16.500 --> 00:16:26.880 By paying the full wages of our sin, Christ broke the bands of death, and by the power of the Spirit, He was raised again in life and is seated at the right hand of God. 131 00:16:26.880 --> 00:16:37.440 In His perfect life, His perfect death, and His perfect resurrection, Christ righteously justifies the ungodly by imputing His righteousness to us. 132 00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:42.180 As Paul writes, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 133 00:16:42.180 --> 00:16:53.960 There is no need for you to wait or to clean yourself up or to be any holier before you approach the throne of grace and accept the free gift of forgiveness and salvation. 134 00:16:53.960 --> 00:17:03.380 About the justification of the ungodly, Charles Spurgeon writes this: The sinner is the gospel’s reason for existence. 135 00:17:03.380 --> 00:17:14.960 You to whom this word now comes, if you are undeserving, ill-deserving, hell-deserving, you are the sort of person for whom the gospel is ordained and arranged and proclaimed. 136 00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:16.900 Come in all your disability. 137 00:17:16.900 --> 00:17:20.880 Come to your heavenly Father in all your sin and sinfulness. 138 00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:27.980 Come to Jesus just as you are, leprous, filthy, naked, neither fit to live nor fit to die. 139 00:17:27.980 --> 00:17:31.720 Come that you are the very sweepings of creation. 140 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:34.820 Come though you hardly dare to hope for anything but death. 141 00:17:34.820 --> 00:17:40.260 Come though despair is brooding over you, pressing upon your bosom like a horrible nightmare. 142 00:17:40.260 --> 00:17:44.480 Come and ask the Lord to justify another ungodly one. 143 00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:45.940 Why should He not? 144 00:17:45.940 --> 00:17:50.720 Come, for this great mercy of God is meant for such as you. 145 00:17:50.720 --> 00:17:53.920 God justifies the ungodly. 146 00:17:53.920 --> 00:17:57.840 This is the purpose of Christ, as He states it in verse 31. 147 00:17:57.840 --> 00:18:06.620 The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and He will be killed, and on the third day He will rise again. 148 00:18:06.620 --> 00:18:12.340 Now quickly note four things about Christ’s statement in this verse. 149 00:18:12.340 --> 00:18:15.440 First, verse 31, the Son of Man. 150 00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:20.880 The Son of Man is a title of divinity and a prophecy of the kingship of Christ. 151 00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:24.940 This is the prophecy as it’s written in Daniel chapter 7. 152 00:18:24.940 --> 00:18:33.080 Behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. 153 00:18:33.080 --> 00:18:41.460 And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. 154 00:18:41.460 --> 00:18:49.120 His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. 155 00:18:49.120 --> 00:18:52.480 The Son of Man is the fullness of God in human form. 156 00:18:52.480 --> 00:19:00.500 The Son of Man is the human Jesus who has dominion over all creation, over all men from every tribe and tongue. 157 00:19:00.500 --> 00:19:12.400 Moreover, seven chapters earlier in Mark chapter 2, when Jesus heals the paralytic man, He says, The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. 158 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:19.960 The Son of Man is the title of the ruler of all creation and the redeemer of mankind. 159 00:19:19.960 --> 00:19:25.740 Second, again verse 31, this Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. 160 00:19:25.740 --> 00:19:30.520 The deliverance is not by the hands of men, but into the hands of men. 161 00:19:30.520 --> 00:19:32.880 The deliverance is by the hand of God. 162 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:39.420 As we’ve seen before in Acts chapter 2, Christ was delivered over by the predetermined plan of God. 163 00:19:39.420 --> 00:19:47.660 John chapter 10, Christ says, For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. 164 00:19:47.660 --> 00:19:51.960 No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. 165 00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:55.920 I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. 166 00:19:55.920 --> 00:19:59.360 This commandment I received from my Father. 167 00:19:59.360 --> 00:20:09.120 The Son of Man was delivered over to the hands of men by His own initiative and in obedience to the will of the Father, not by human cunning or strength. 168 00:20:09.120 --> 00:20:17.300 The deliverance of the Son of Man into the hands of ungodly men was the predetermined plan of the Father from eternity past. 169 00:20:17.300 --> 00:20:25.100 It was the divine conspiracy between the Father and the Son, and the divine intention in the creation of all things. 170 00:20:25.100 --> 00:20:33.840 John chapter 1, All things came into being through Him, the Son, and apart from the Son, nothing came into being that has come into being. 171 00:20:33.840 --> 00:20:39.240 All creation came into being by the Son, through the Son, and for the Son. 172 00:20:39.240 --> 00:20:46.280 And the crux of the matter is this moment of deliverance, where the Son of Man is handed over into the hands of men. 173 00:20:46.280 --> 00:21:04.980 And when we say that something is the crux of the matter, that something is the crucial point, those words crux and crucial come from the words crucifix or crucifixion , which mean the cross, because the ancient writers who formulated our language understood that the cross is the centerpiece of all things. 174 00:21:04.980 --> 00:21:21.680 It is the centerpiece and the turning point in the history of man, and it is the centerpiece and the turning point in the history of salvation, when the Son of Man takes on human form and His appointed time comes to be delivered into the very hands of those He came to save. 175 00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:27.400 The deliverance of the Son of Man is by the predetermined plan of God. 176 00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:34.140 Third, again in verse 31, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of men to be killed. 177 00:21:34.140 --> 00:21:40.220 The deliverance, according to the predetermined plan of God, was for the purpose of Christ’s death. 178 00:21:40.220 --> 00:21:46.840 The purpose of Christ’s death was to appease the wrath of God and become a ransom for His people. 179 00:21:46.840 --> 00:21:58.360 In just the next chapter, Mark chapter 10, Christ says, The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. 180 00:21:58.360 --> 00:22:04.160 The Son of Man is delivered over to be killed, and the crux of the matter is the crux itself. 181 00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:08.940 As we have seen, in His death He nailed our debt of sin to the cross. 182 00:22:08.940 --> 00:22:17.720 Isaiah 53, He justifies the many, He bore our iniquities, He bore the sins of the many and interceded for us, the transgressors. 183 00:22:17.720 --> 00:22:22.780 He was pierced for our transgressions, and by His scourging we are healed. 184 00:22:22.780 --> 00:22:31.760 The Son of Man is delivered over to become the sacrifice that justifies us and purchases our forgiveness. 185 00:22:31.760 --> 00:22:39.420 Fourth, still in verse 31, after He is killed, the Son of Man rises from the dead on the third day. 186 00:22:39.420 --> 00:22:45.020 The Son of Man laid down His life, and then the Son of Man took it up again. 187 00:22:45.020 --> 00:22:49.760 Christ’s resurrection from the grave is His victory over death. 188 00:22:49.760 --> 00:22:55.660 He could not be contained by a tomb, or as the hymn says, “Death in vain forbade Him rise.” 189 00:22:55.660 --> 00:23:03.400 The wages of sin is death, and the penalty for our infinite debt of sin is infinite death. 190 00:23:03.400 --> 00:23:07.200 This Christ endured, and the wages of sin were paid. 191 00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:10.320 Death had no lasting power once defeated. 192 00:23:10.320 --> 00:23:14.940 Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, Death is swallowed up in victory. 193 00:23:14.940 --> 00:23:16.620 O death, where is your victory? 194 00:23:16.620 --> 00:23:18.480 O death, where is your sting? 195 00:23:18.480 --> 00:23:27.760 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 196 00:23:27.760 --> 00:23:31.560 Because we have failed the law, the consequence is death. 197 00:23:31.560 --> 00:23:41.400 Because Christ fulfilled the law and paid the wages of our sin, He has achieved our forgiveness, obtained our righteousness, and purchased our freedom. 198 00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:47.020 Like Christ, whose death was only temporary, our death will only be temporary. 199 00:23:47.020 --> 00:23:49.440 Death is no longer a curse of sin. 200 00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:54.520 It is a direct gateway into the everlasting presence of Christ in glory. 201 00:23:54.520 --> 00:23:59.620 In His resurrection, the Son of Man defeated the power of death. 202 00:23:59.620 --> 00:24:06.000 Moreover, in His resurrection, the Son of Man was glorified and coronated as king over all. 203 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:14.060 Matthew chapter 28, the resurrected Christ appears to His disciples and says, All authority has been given to me. 204 00:24:14.060 --> 00:24:31.460 Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 1, When God the Father raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 205 00:24:31.460 --> 00:24:43.060 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. 206 00:24:43.060 --> 00:24:59.920 This is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Daniel chapter 7, when the Son of Man comes before the Ancient of Days and is given dominion, glory, and a kingdom so that all peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. 207 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:06.700 In this one verse, the full purpose of Christ is stated plainly and comprehensively. 208 00:25:06.700 --> 00:25:08.940 The Son of Man is the King of all. 209 00:25:08.940 --> 00:25:11.940 He is delivered by the predetermined plan of God. 210 00:25:11.940 --> 00:25:14.420 He is killed by those He came to save. 211 00:25:14.420 --> 00:25:16.600 He pays the penalty for our sin. 212 00:25:16.600 --> 00:25:21.660 He rises from the dead, achieving victory over death. 213 00:25:21.660 --> 00:25:29.060 Now in the next verse, verse 32, we see the disciples’ response to the statement of Christ. 214 00:25:29.060 --> 00:25:34.660 How would you respond if you heard this extraordinary statement about the purpose of Christ? 215 00:25:34.660 --> 00:25:52.760 If you comprehend the fullness of His purpose, that He achieved righteousness in His life, forgiveness for sin in His death, and victory over death and eternal life in His resurrection, how could your response be anything but enlightenment, encouragement, and joy? 216 00:25:52.760 --> 00:25:55.560 But the disciples had no comprehension. 217 00:25:55.560 --> 00:26:05.740 Mark chapter 9, verse 32, says that they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him. 218 00:26:05.740 --> 00:26:11.540 In Matthew chapter 17, we are told that they were deeply grieved. 219 00:26:11.540 --> 00:26:22.200 In Luke chapter 9, we are told that they did not understand because it was concealed from them so that they would not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask. 220 00:26:22.200 --> 00:26:29.980 The response of the disciples to the statement of Christ was fear, grief, and blindness. 221 00:26:29.980 --> 00:26:34.880 Now this was not the first time that Christ had explained His purpose to His disciples. 222 00:26:34.880 --> 00:26:50.060 You might remember, just in the preceding chapter, how Christ began to teach His disciples that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 223 00:26:50.060 --> 00:26:54.300 And it says in chapter 8 that He was stating the matter plainly. 224 00:26:54.300 --> 00:26:59.660 And we know that in that instance, the disciples rationally understood everything He was saying. 225 00:26:59.660 --> 00:27:02.320 Peter understood well enough to make an argument against Him. 226 00:27:02.320 --> 00:27:04.940 Scripture says rebuking Christ. 227 00:27:04.940 --> 00:27:06.500 Why? 228 00:27:06.500 --> 00:27:11.820 Because the purpose of Christ did not agree with the disciples’ concept of who He was supposed to be. 229 00:27:11.820 --> 00:27:16.280 The purpose of Christ did not conform to their theory of the Messiah. 230 00:27:16.280 --> 00:27:20.900 In their theory, the Messiah would liberate them from political tyranny on earth. 231 00:27:20.900 --> 00:27:27.540 But the purpose of Christ was to be publicly shamed and executed in the indignity of a common criminal. 232 00:27:27.540 --> 00:27:29.060 How would that be victory? 233 00:27:29.060 --> 00:27:31.600 How could death be liberation? 234 00:27:31.600 --> 00:27:33.420 The disciples couldn’t understand. 235 00:27:33.420 --> 00:27:41.060 They were blind to the true meaning of His purpose, and thus they were afraid and deeply grieved. 236 00:27:41.060 --> 00:27:45.540 Now, it’s important to say that they would certainly come to understand in time. 237 00:27:45.540 --> 00:27:48.920 You remember the passage we just read in Acts chapter 2. 238 00:27:48.920 --> 00:27:57.420 It was the apostle Peter who would preach that it was the predetermined plan of God for Christ to be delivered over to be killed. 239 00:27:57.420 --> 00:28:08.540 But for the time being, Peter and the other disciples are blind, and according to Luke, this is also the divine intention of Christ, to veil the full truth of His purpose. 240 00:28:08.540 --> 00:28:26.560 Now, the reason for this veiling might be a mystery, but we do know that this is consistent with the workings of providence, that out of mercy, God does not reveal the fullness of truth at certain times, but allows His children to come gradually to a complete apprehension of the truth. 241 00:28:26.560 --> 00:28:35.400 Otherwise, our hearts might be hardened against it, or we might receive the truth in a state that is unworthy or unprepared to handle it. 242 00:28:35.400 --> 00:28:49.320 This is why God first gave His people the law, not to condemn us, but to tutor us, as Paul writes in Galatians, to teach us the depth of our sin and our desperation for a savior. 243 00:28:49.320 --> 00:28:56.480 Only in the fullness of time did He shine the light of Christ in the ignorance of man’s darkened heart. 244 00:28:56.480 --> 00:29:05.960 We can also note that a rational understanding of the gospel is a necessary but insufficient condition for the saving knowledge of Christ. 245 00:29:05.960 --> 00:29:11.640 Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can the eyes of your hearts be enlightened to the truth. 246 00:29:11.640 --> 00:29:15.080 We will consider more about the working of the Spirit in a moment. 247 00:29:15.080 --> 00:29:22.700 But for now, think about the irony of the disciples’ blindness. 248 00:29:22.700 --> 00:29:27.860 Consider how much they had seen and witnessed of Christ up until this point. 249 00:29:27.860 --> 00:29:35.060 All the proofs and evidences of His divinity, of His sovereignty, His love, and His righteousness. 250 00:29:35.060 --> 00:29:41.380 Remember how in Mark chapter 4, they witnessed Christ rebuke the wind and still the storm. 251 00:29:41.380 --> 00:29:44.440 They saw His sovereignty over the elements of nature. 252 00:29:44.440 --> 00:29:55.000 In chapter 5, they witnessed Him cast out the legion of demons, and at the demons’ own plea, out of mercy, He spared them and drove them into a herd of pigs. 253 00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:01.060 The disciples then witnessed Him heal multitudes of people from incurable, lifelong diseases. 254 00:30:01.060 --> 00:30:08.520 In chapter 6, they experienced the very power of His name as He granted them authority to cast out demons. 255 00:30:08.520 --> 00:30:12.580 They witnessed Him feed 5,000 people with only a few loaves and fish. 256 00:30:12.580 --> 00:30:18.720 They saw Him walk on water and once again command a raging storm to cease. 257 00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:27.360 In our current chapter, in chapter 9, three of them went up with Christ to the mountaintop and saw Christ in His divine glory transfigured. 258 00:30:27.360 --> 00:30:33.020 And they heard the voice of God declare, This is my beloved Son, listen to Him. 259 00:30:33.020 --> 00:30:40.140 And back again in the valley, the twelve witnessed Christ cast out a demon that they themselves had no power to command. 260 00:30:40.140 --> 00:30:46.700 They had witnessed His power, His divinity, His sovereignty, His mercy, His righteousness. 261 00:30:46.700 --> 00:30:56.620 In contrast, they had experienced their impotence, their weakness, their fear of death, their littleness of faith, and their shame of sin. 262 00:30:56.620 --> 00:31:07.280 So after all of this, and after Christ plainly states His purpose, what is it that the disciples begin to discuss? 263 00:31:07.280 --> 00:31:14.640 They’re walking on the road to Capernaum and the disciples begin arguing with each other over which of them will be the greatest. 264 00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:19.260 Who among them will be second in command, seated at the right hand of Christ? 265 00:31:19.260 --> 00:31:24.200 Which of them will have earned the greatest honor and authority in the kingdom to come? 266 00:31:24.200 --> 00:31:28.440 Which of them will Christ appoint as leader and His chosen favorite? 267 00:31:28.440 --> 00:31:31.180 Maybe they compared evidences. 268 00:31:31.180 --> 00:31:37.520 Perhaps Peter, James, and John pointed to the fact that they were the chosen three to accompany Him to the mountaintop. 269 00:31:37.520 --> 00:31:43.120 Maybe they alluded to the fact that they had seen things that Christ forbade them from telling the others. 270 00:31:43.120 --> 00:31:49.580 Maybe they boasted about a secret knowledge the others were not privileged to know. 271 00:31:49.580 --> 00:32:02.900 We don’t know exactly what they presented as evidence or the full nature of their argument, but we do know that when at last they arrived in Capernaum and Christ asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 272 00:32:02.900 --> 00:32:06.320 they fell silent in shame. 273 00:32:06.320 --> 00:32:11.060 There, Christ had been discussing His coming death and humiliation. 274 00:32:11.060 --> 00:32:16.260 Here, the disciples were discussing their exaltation and glory in the eyes of men. 275 00:32:16.260 --> 00:32:22.220 How could the conversation possibly have moved from the one subject to the other? 276 00:32:22.220 --> 00:32:27.000 Now, to add to the irony, remember what had just preceded Christ’s statement. 277 00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:38.240 The demon-possessed boy had been presented to the disciples to be cast out, and the disciples had miserably failed and stood there being ridiculed and mocked by the crowd and the Pharisees. 278 00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:44.740 They must have been humiliated within an inch of their life, maybe even despairing of the power of the name of Christ. 279 00:32:44.740 --> 00:32:47.480 Suddenly, it was no longer working. 280 00:32:47.480 --> 00:32:54.960 Only Christ, when at last He appeared, could command the demon to be cast out. 281 00:32:54.960 --> 00:33:00.140 And you remember the father’s statement, I do believe; help my unbelief. 282 00:33:00.140 --> 00:33:07.180 And the disciples turned to Christ and asked Him, “Why could you drive out the demon and we could not?” 283 00:33:07.180 --> 00:33:10.500 Why was the father’s statement not the disciples’? 284 00:33:10.500 --> 00:33:20.580 Why was the disciples’ conversation on the road to Capernaum not one of amazement at the power of Christ and a renewed confidence in His purpose? 285 00:33:20.580 --> 00:33:29.280 Even if they couldn’t understand the full truth of His statement, why were they not still humbled and marveling at the divine nature of Christ? 286 00:33:29.280 --> 00:33:36.920 Why were they not saying, “I don’t understand, but I do believe, help my unbelief”? 287 00:33:36.920 --> 00:33:48.360 What is manifestly true is that when we lose sight of the crux of the matter, when we cease to see the cross at the center of all things, we fall into one of two mires. 288 00:33:48.360 --> 00:33:56.280 Either we fall into the mire of abject despair and fear, or we fall into the mire of hubris and arrogance. 289 00:33:56.280 --> 00:34:05.780 Either we lose hope and become slaves to worry and anxiety, or we consider ourselves self-sufficient and we trust our own strength. 290 00:34:05.780 --> 00:34:12.700 The disciples, blind to the full reality of the cross and the purpose of Christ, fall into both. 291 00:34:12.700 --> 00:34:15.280 First, they are deeply grieved and afraid. 292 00:34:15.280 --> 00:34:20.180 Next, they are exalting themselves in hubris and arrogance. 293 00:34:20.180 --> 00:34:25.760 Now, to entertain a bit more speculation, maybe their conversation went something like this. 294 00:34:25.760 --> 00:34:29.800 One of them says, “What could Jesus possibly have meant by that?” 295 00:34:29.800 --> 00:34:35.700 Another says, “I don’t know, but you know Jesus, always speaking in riddles and parables.” 296 00:34:35.700 --> 00:34:41.100 The first one says, “But what did He mean by delivered into the hands of men and killed?” 297 00:34:41.100 --> 00:34:46.630 Another says, “I don’t know, what did He mean by the kingdom of God is like a seed thrown in the soil? 298 00:34:46.630 --> 00:34:48.540 He’ll probably explain when we get there.” 299 00:34:48.540 --> 00:34:52.400 Another adds, “Well, whatever He meant, He can’t die. 300 00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:55.100 I mean, He is the Messiah after all. 301 00:34:55.100 --> 00:34:58.080 He will certainly defeat the Romans and establish His kingdom. 302 00:34:58.080 --> 00:35:02.000 And when He does, I have a feeling He’ll be putting one of us second in command.” 303 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:07.380 And another says, “And I suppose you think you’re the one.” 304 00:35:07.380 --> 00:35:08.420 So it begins. 305 00:35:08.420 --> 00:35:10.620 The debate ensues. 306 00:35:10.620 --> 00:35:18.020 Now, all of that is speculation and just a fictional conversation, but the real one could not have been any less absurd. 307 00:35:18.020 --> 00:35:22.680 In His omniscience, Christ knew precisely what they had been discussing. 308 00:35:22.680 --> 00:35:28.160 And like any good teacher, He asks a question in Socratic and rhetorical fashion. 309 00:35:28.160 --> 00:35:30.260 “What were you discussing on the way?” 310 00:35:30.260 --> 00:35:35.100 He already knows the answer, but He makes them confess to their shame. 311 00:35:35.100 --> 00:35:41.660 One theologian says that when Christ sits down, He assumes the posture of teacher. 312 00:35:41.660 --> 00:35:46.200 He calls the disciples to Himself and He answers their debate. 313 00:35:46.200 --> 00:35:52.060 “If you want to be first,” He says, “you will be last of all and servant of all.” 314 00:35:52.060 --> 00:36:08.060 In the next chapter, Mark chapter 10, when this question of who will be the greatest is posed to Christ again, Christ says, Whoever wishes to be great shall become the servant of all, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 315 00:36:08.060 --> 00:36:15.540 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. 316 00:36:15.540 --> 00:36:19.240 Now here in this chapter, He illustrates His point. 317 00:36:19.240 --> 00:36:34.400 He takes a child and sets the child in His lap, and He says, Whoever receives one child like this in my name receives me; and whoever receives me does not receive me, but Him who sent me. 318 00:36:34.400 --> 00:36:38.020 The point is something along the lines of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. 319 00:36:38.020 --> 00:36:41.740 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 320 00:36:41.740 --> 00:36:44.480 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 321 00:36:44.480 --> 00:36:48.540 The kingdom of heaven belongs to the meek of heart and the poor in spirit. 322 00:36:48.540 --> 00:36:53.060 Not in self-exaltation and merit can the kingdom be won. 323 00:36:53.060 --> 00:36:59.400 Only in the acknowledgement of one’s total powerlessness and sin can anyone receive Christ. 324 00:36:59.400 --> 00:37:10.420 Christ elaborates on this in the next chapter when He says, Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all. 325 00:37:10.420 --> 00:37:17.080 What does it mean to receive the kingdom of God like a child? 326 00:37:17.080 --> 00:37:25.440 Unfortunately, too often we take this to mean receiving the truth of the gospel in the naivete and gullibility of a child. 327 00:37:25.440 --> 00:37:28.120 Blind faith, in other words. 328 00:37:28.120 --> 00:37:40.300 In the past few sermons, we’ve heard about the pathetic caricature of belief that is flaunted in the Christmas season, when we are told to believe even though there is nothing to believe and no reason to believe. 329 00:37:40.300 --> 00:37:47.780 Believe in the Christmas spirit, believe in goodwill to men, believe in empty traditions, believe for the sake of believing. 330 00:37:47.780 --> 00:37:53.020 Of course, belief must be a rational, evidence-based belief in the truth. 331 00:37:53.020 --> 00:37:58.600 But as we’ve seen in the disciples, a rational belief is itself not sufficient. 332 00:37:58.600 --> 00:38:07.540 Rationality cannot bring any thinking human to a saving knowledge of the truth or a full apprehension of Christ. 333 00:38:07.540 --> 00:38:12.900 Receiving the kingdom of God like a child is not a metaphor and it’s not a parable. 334 00:38:12.900 --> 00:38:15.160 It’s not even really an illustration. 335 00:38:15.160 --> 00:38:17.800 It is the reality of our condition. 336 00:38:17.800 --> 00:38:22.600 We are children in weakness and impotence and helplessness. 337 00:38:22.600 --> 00:38:30.460 This is one picture, one example of what we are as children, from Ezekiel chapter 16. 338 00:38:30.460 --> 00:38:39.120 Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem, “Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite, your father an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 339 00:38:39.120 --> 00:38:49.620 As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. 340 00:38:49.620 --> 00:38:54.480 No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you. 341 00:38:54.480 --> 00:39:00.220 Rather you were thrown out into the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born. 342 00:39:00.220 --> 00:39:08.040 When I, the Lord, passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ 343 00:39:08.040 --> 00:39:13.920 Yes, I said to you while you were squirming in your blood, ‘Live!'” 344 00:39:13.920 --> 00:39:23.640 We are children born in a long legacy of sin, helpless and powerless, wailing in our weakness and squirming in the blood of our iniquity. 345 00:39:23.640 --> 00:39:26.060 We cannot do anything for ourselves. 346 00:39:26.060 --> 00:39:27.660 We cannot save ourselves. 347 00:39:27.660 --> 00:39:29.280 We cannot help ourselves. 348 00:39:29.280 --> 00:39:35.680 Only if God has pity on us and in His mercy tells us to live, can we live. 349 00:39:35.680 --> 00:39:42.060 There is no conversation between squirming infants in a nursery about who among them is the greatest. 350 00:39:42.060 --> 00:39:45.400 We are helpless to do anything. 351 00:39:45.400 --> 00:39:57.500 Paul writes in Ephesians 2, You are dead in your trespasses and sins, but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He has loved us, made us alive together with Christ. 352 00:39:57.500 --> 00:39:59.620 By grace you have been saved. 353 00:39:59.620 --> 00:40:03.700 He saw us squirming in our blood and said, live. 354 00:40:03.700 --> 00:40:09.760 Even our belief is not an effort of our strength or an achievement of our rational minds. 355 00:40:09.760 --> 00:40:15.220 It is the Spirit of God bringing us to life and clothing us with righteousness. 356 00:40:15.220 --> 00:40:23.500 Later in Ezekiel chapter 36, God says, I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. 357 00:40:23.500 --> 00:40:30.060 It is the Spirit of God that grants insight into the truth of Christ and enlightens the eyes of our hearts. 358 00:40:30.060 --> 00:40:32.600 We can do nothing apart from the Spirit of God. 359 00:40:32.600 --> 00:40:34.500 We cannot do one good work. 360 00:40:34.500 --> 00:40:36.400 We cannot not sin. 361 00:40:36.400 --> 00:40:38.120 We cannot even believe. 362 00:40:38.120 --> 00:40:53.020 Only if the Spirit, acting in mercy, makes us walk in His statutes, breathes life into our dead bones, and tells us to live, can we live. 363 00:40:53.020 --> 00:41:05.100 Now, tomorrow happens to be New Year’s Day, and it’s the point in time where a lot of people make resolutions to better their lives, or at least to get rid of the bad habits that they’ve developed over the course of the year. 364 00:41:05.100 --> 00:41:16.060 They tend to approach the new year with a kind of superstitious motivation, thinking that they can start again with a blank slate and if they put enough effort in, they can improve their lives. 365 00:41:16.060 --> 00:41:25.180 Now, there’s nothing wrong with making resolutions or committing yourself to a personal covenant, either to achieve greater piety or stewardship. 366 00:41:25.180 --> 00:41:29.720 Even the theologian Jonathan Edwards wrote a series of resolutions. 367 00:41:29.720 --> 00:41:37.220 But the truth is that apart from the mercy of God, we cannot do anything, and all ambition and effort is useless. 368 00:41:37.220 --> 00:41:39.760 I’m not talking about just spiritual things. 369 00:41:39.760 --> 00:41:40.920 I’m talking about anything. 370 00:41:40.920 --> 00:41:47.380 We cannot walk, we cannot breathe, we cannot will our hearts to beat apart from the mercy of God. 371 00:41:47.380 --> 00:42:06.020 The truth is we are as powerless and as helpless as the demon-possessed boy earlier in the passage, who foamed at the mouth and seized on the ground and threw himself into the fire and sea to destroy himself, because we are also possessed by a nature, the flesh, which is at war against the Spirit. 372 00:42:06.020 --> 00:42:12.620 I’m not saying you shouldn’t try harder to improve or to be more ambitious in your good works. 373 00:42:12.620 --> 00:42:17.940 This has nothing to do with antinomianism or legalism, whether you should try or not. 374 00:42:17.940 --> 00:42:19.680 I’m not saying you shouldn’t try. 375 00:42:19.680 --> 00:42:24.400 I’m saying you cannot , not in yourself and not in your own strength. 376 00:42:24.400 --> 00:42:30.980 Zechariah 4:6, Not by power nor by might, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. 377 00:42:30.980 --> 00:42:33.840 We are completely at the mercy of God. 378 00:42:33.840 --> 00:42:45.480 Whether we fall into ruin or are made prosperous, whether we die or whether we live, whether we do a good work or fall again into bad habits, we are completely and utterly at the mercy of God. 379 00:42:45.480 --> 00:42:50.040 And what Christ says of the demon-possessed boy is also true of us. 380 00:42:50.040 --> 00:42:54.420 This kind cannot be delivered by anything but prayer. 381 00:42:54.420 --> 00:42:59.700 The trouble is, you can’t even pray unless the Spirit moves you. 382 00:42:59.700 --> 00:43:02.420 You are totally at His mercy. 383 00:43:02.420 --> 00:43:09.200 So as the author of Hebrews writes, remember what it says, Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. 384 00:43:09.200 --> 00:43:14.740 If by mercy you are moved to pray, pray for deliverance and pray for mercy. 385 00:43:14.740 --> 00:43:16.660 Go into the new year on your knees. 386 00:43:16.660 --> 00:43:19.060 Otherwise, you will fall into one of the two mires. 387 00:43:19.060 --> 00:43:29.360 You will either go into the new year in anxiety and despair, or you will go into the new year exalting yourself in hubris and ambition and blind like the disciples. 388 00:43:29.360 --> 00:43:34.480 The Spirit moves most powerfully through the Word of God and Scripture. 389 00:43:34.480 --> 00:43:37.960 So turn to the words of God as breathed by the Holy Spirit. 390 00:43:37.960 --> 00:43:45.820 Read the Word, pray the Word, preach the Word, and keep your eyes fixed on the crux of the matter, on the cross of Christ. 391 00:43:45.820 --> 00:43:50.780 Preach to yourself the purpose of Christ on earth and the purpose of Christ in your hearts. 392 00:43:50.780 --> 00:43:58.840 Rehearse the statement of Christ’s purpose as He says it in this verse, Mark 9:31. 393 00:43:58.840 --> 00:44:02.120 The Son of Man is the King of all and the ruler of all creation. 394 00:44:02.120 --> 00:44:05.280 He was delivered by the predetermined plan of God. 395 00:44:05.280 --> 00:44:08.240 He was killed by the hands of those He came to save. 396 00:44:08.240 --> 00:44:10.820 He paid the penalty for our sin. 397 00:44:10.820 --> 00:44:15.060 He rose from the dead and achieved victory over death. 398 00:44:15.060 --> 00:44:35.940 And now He is seated at the right hand of God, and by the power of His Spirit, being rich in mercy, He has made us alive by grace and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 399 00:44:35.940 --> 00:44:42.500 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. 400 00:44:42.500 --> 00:44:45.720 Let’s pray. 401 00:44:45.720 --> 00:44:58.120 Father, we ask that you would grant us insight into your truth, that you would not veil from us the purpose of Christ, but that you would manifest your Spirit in our lives and let us see His glory. 402 00:44:58.120 --> 00:45:05.080 We thank you for the justification and forgiveness He achieved in His life and His death and resurrection. 403 00:45:05.080 --> 00:45:08.380 We trust Him and we pray in His name. 404 00:45:08.380 --> 00:45:10.380 Amen.