I've got one more message next week, Lord willing, in our journey through Luke. I'll be preaching the power and the glory of the Incarnation on December 25th. And then we're going to begin the year of 2017 by taking a small vacation, a short vacation from our journey through Luke. And we're going to be examining what the Bible teaches about our sanctification. That's going to take us probably to the end of February, where we'll pick back up in Luke in March and finish the remainder of this magnificent gospel story. And then I'll be Lord willing, I'll be preaching through the book of Ruth in the Old Testament. And when finished with that, I'll be preaching through first and second Peter, which should take us through the end of the year, maybe longer. I don't know. There's a lot of theology in Peter. So we won't go very far in any one Sunday. We'll go far in Ruth. One sermon is the first chapter. So it's more narrative but it is inspired and I never preached expositionally through an Old Testament book and I didn't think y'all wanted me to go through Genesis. So we've been nine years in a twenty four chapter book. We're going to try to tackle a shorter book and then we'll go to 1st and 2nd Peter. So we've got some great things coming in 2017. To the glory of God. It is very important that we always remember that God is doing a whole lot more than we know about. At any moment of every day God is doing 10,000 things and we're probably only aware of about three of them. The one true living God of the Bible is very busy sovereignly causing certain things to come about and sovereignly allowing others so that His will and His plan will come to pass exactly as He determined before the world was. There is nothing that happens not only without God knowing about it, but without God either causing it or allowing it. God never sleeps. He never forgets. He doesn't lose His place. He doesn't get tired. God is ever vigilant, always pushing and pulling and raising up and casting down both people and events for one single end so that the fame of His name will be exalted and magnified and cherished and valued more than anything else in all of creation. That is God's passion. That is why God does what He does. God is great and God is the single most beautiful and magnificent and lovely and important being in the universe. And nobody understands that more than God does. And so the very best thing that God can give to us is not a new car. It's not even good health or more possessions. The single best expression of the love of God is that He does whatever He needs to do so that He may give you Himself. John 3.16 is one of the most memorized, quoted, and preached verses in the entire Bible, and it's one of the least understood. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. The word so does not mean This is how much He loved you. That's not what it means. The word so means this is an example of the love of God. That God gave Jesus to die in your place so that you, you will have eternal life. And sin stops all that from happening. And so God, all by Himself, at great cost to Himself, the horrific death of His own Son, forgave and removed our sin. Hallelujah. And that allows God to give you the greatest gift of all, Himself. That is what sovereignty is all about. God doing this all by Himself. That is what salvation is all about. Removing sin so that you and I will have the high honor and the distinct privilege to know God, to love God, and to enjoy Him forever. And that is what love is all about. Radically changing wicked rebels so that they will have both the will and the power to love God who is the greatest commodity in the universe. Oh, how terrible it would be if all that God was interested in was giving us a better life down here. Oh, how base and shallow it would be if all God was interested in was loving us. Oh, how narrow it would be if all God was interested in was to elevate our importance. Oh, how damaging it would be if all God was interested in was our place in heaven. God is interested in God. And that is why God's primary concern, His chief motivating factor as to why He does what He does, is that He is known and feared and adored and wondered after. And in order for that to happen, there must be sinners to save and sinners to damn. You see, there are certain manifestations of God's personal attributes that simply cannot be displayed when God is all by Himself. Before He made the world, before He made light or darkness, before God created the heavens and the earth, all there was, was God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And the three persons of the One God enjoyed perfect harmony, perfect love, perfect unity, and perfect joy among themselves. They were not lonely, as I was taught. He saved you because he was lonely and wanted a family. God's never known loneliness. He has no idea what that is. He's never experienced it. And they didn't lack for anything. And at that time, God possessed both grace and righteousness. But both of those attributes were a part of God's makeup and they were both full and they were both glorious. But God cannot manifest grace or righteousness by Himself. God cannot display His grace to Himself precisely because He doesn't need grace. God cannot display the various outflows of His righteousness like wrath and vengeance and jealousy and retribution by Himself. And so in order for the magnificent glory of God's grace to be displayed requires that there be sinful people who need it. And in order for the glory of the various attributes of God's righteousness to be displayed requires unrepentant sinners to insult and belittle God's glory. And that is why God made man. That's why you're alive. That's why you suck air. That's why your heart's beating. That's why you give birth and bring forth another generation. So that either God's grace or God's righteousness will be displayed upon you. You're either going to magnify the glory of God's grace by being saved and live forever in heaven with Him, or you're going to glorify the magnificence of God's righteousness by refusing to repent and being damned forever in hell. But you're going to glorify God one way or the other. God will get Himself glory on what He made. Yes, He will. That is why He allowed man to fall, so that the glory of God's grace and the glory of God's righteousness would be displayed when He rescued them. Please turn with me to read what the Apostle Paul said about this from Ephesians 1. I'm turning your Bibles to Ephesians 1. Nobody's turning, so I'll wait. It's alright. I've got all day. I want you to see this I want your eyes to be on the word of the living God I know it's on the paper but I still want you to look at this Ephesians one verses three through six The Apostle writes, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him, when? Before the foundation of the world. Why? So that we would be holy and blameless before Him. Now, you all need to know that the verse divisions and the chapter divisions are not inspired. And so this is an example of God's precious Word where they just did a bad job of separating the various verses. The two words at the end of verse 4, in love, belong to verse 5. And that's in the original Greek. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will. to the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. That is the Word of the Lord. Now look again at verse 4. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him. Here the Apostle teaches that the purpose of being chosen was not simply to be forgiven, but so that we would be holy and blameless. We were chosen by God when it was just God. There wasn't anything else. Can you imagine what that was like? No, you can't. It isn't light. It isn't darkness. It isn't either one. It's just God. And when it was just God, He chose you. Before you were born, before you did anything good or bad, so that you would become two things. That you would become holy, meaning you would be set apart. You would be distinct from the unsaved world. That you would be different, not better than the people of the unsaved world, but that you would live your life in counter-intuitiveness to the ways of the world. That you would not be driven by carnal lusts, but you would be led by His Spirit. that she would be His, that she would be set apart for His service, and that she would be blameless, meaning forgiven and made righteous. We were chosen so that we would become holy and be forgiven and made righteous by what God did for us all by Himself. Now look at verses 5 and 6 again. In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will to the praise of the glory of His grace. Paul teaches here that God predestined us to adoption. Meaning that He determined before He created anything that wicked sinners, and the definition of wicked sinners is people who insult God's glory all day long, would become a part of God's family. And you would become a part of God's family for one end, for one reason, to the praise of the glory of His grace. So God's grace has a glory to it. Another word for glory is beauty. Another word for glory is value. Another word for glory is importance. So God's grace has a beauty to it. God's grace has a value attached to it. God's grace has an importance that is assigned to it. So God's grace is beautiful. God's grace is valuable. God's grace is important. God's grace has a glory to it. You see that? And the glory of God's grace is to be praised. Huh? I'm driving down the road with Rhonda. And we go down this road and we turn the corner and there's this beautiful garden on the corner of the street. I mean, breathtaking. And you go, golly! Now that's Alabama English. What would I just do? Well, I'd say, golly! I'm praising the value and the beauty of the garden. You see a sunrise and you go, whoa! When you go, whoa! You're praising the beauty, the importance, the value of the sunrise. When you see anything and you respond to it, You respond in amazement. You respond in wonder. You respond with joy. You respond with something that transforms you. You're never the same. You stood before a waterfall. You stood before the Grand Canyon. You stood and watched in a microscope a subatomic particle. You looked at a supernova. You looked at a human egg divide and become a human being. You looked at the eyelashes. and the fingernails of a newborn baby. You watch a child learn something and you see the light in his eyes as it understands something. And it's a wonder to it. There's an amazement to it. There's a joy to it. There's a praise of it that is praising that. And so the only way that you can praise the glory, the beauty, the importance, the value of God's grace is if God's grace is displayed, if it's shown, if it's manifested. And when you see it manifested, you wonder after that, and you're amazed by it, and you praise. the glory of God's grace. I'm telling you, that is why you were predestined. That you would have the privilege of not being blind to the glory of God's grace. That you would not be indifferent to the glory of God's grace. That you would not be nonchalant or unmoved by the glory of God's grace. But that you would praise the glory of God's grace. In other words, the wondrous glory that shines forth from God's grace testifies to the wisdom and the power and the kindness of God. And God desires that all the nations behold the glory of His grace as it is displayed through the rescuing of unworthy sinners out of every nation, out of every tribe, out of every kindred, out of every people, and out of every tongue. And so they will praise His glory of His grace. And they will praise God. Look what the Lord has done. But in order for that to happen, Jesus has to die. And in order for Jesus to die, He has to stand trial and be found guilty and be put to death, which on the surface is utterly ridiculous. Because Jesus is the only sinless man who ever lived. And so it will be completely impossible for any of these people to find any legitimate guilt in Jesus. And yet if they don't, they will have to let Him go. And Jesus won't die. And the glory of God's grace in rescuing unworthy sinners will never be displayed. And we will never praise the glory of His grace. And God's predestination will go for naught. And so even at this moment when things look like evil is triumphing, God's sovereignty is busy at work to assure that His will is carried out exactly as God determined it would be before He created anything. God is moving passively here to sovereignly allow evil men to not find Jesus innocent, even though He really was. That is because it is God's will that evil triumph at this moment. so that an infinitely greater good will come about. Now, you notice here in verses 63 and 64 that even though before they ever tried him, before they ever found him guilty, they're still beating him. And this is common in the Middle East. This is common this very moment in the Middle East. They do this all the time. In fact, our war against terror and the self-righteous hypocrisy of our own government, where we would not dare torture anybody, We're just subbing it out to the Saudi Arabians because they'll be happy to torture people. We're just subbing it out to the to the other Middle Eastern nations that will be happy to pull fingernails out and to waterboard people all day long and then they get the information they share with us which is why our government is supporting these pagan tyrants who abuse their own people because we're getting information from them through their torture of the people they capture so Don't get uppity about that this is a pure administration and this is an impure administration. War is evil on a good day. War is the epitome of the wickedness of man. And this is what baffles me to no end that why in the world would a woman leave what is best about being a woman, giving birth, to go do what is worst about being a man? kill people in war. Makes no sense to me and I'm against it. I do not celebrate females in combat. And by the way, those of you that have little daughters, they're coming for them very soon to draft them into the military. Understand that's coming. It's never happened in this country before. But it's coming. So you need to be aware of that. It's not a political statement. I'm just trying to show you that in the Middle East they don't mind beating people even before they find them guilty. They've always been that way. They're very rough, violent, abusive people. They think nothing of violence. A car blows up and kills a housewife as she's shopping for groceries. They clean the rubble up and by noon everybody's back in business again. It is a way of life for these people. And it's coming to your neighborhood. It's coming to your city. It's coming to Pittsburgh. It's coming to Detroit. It's coming to Dallas. It's coming to Gulfport. That's going to come. God's hedge of protection is lifted. And we're on our own now because we're our enemy. The enemy of America is not Satan. The enemy of America is not Islam. The enemy of America is God. And if God will not repent, God will judge this country. And he's judging. So we're in for some amazing times. So we need to be praying, don't we? So the evil actions of these evil men is real and it is true, but they are not decisive. Your decisions aren't decisive. Your choices are not decisive. God is decisive. And God's will is decisive. And it is God's will to display the glory of His grace by saving unworthy sinners by what He alone does for them. And the way that this will of God is carried out is by God allowing evil choices and evil actions of evil men to temporarily triumph. In the book of Acts 4, verses 27 and 28, the apostle Peter led the other disciples in prayer as they were being persecuted. And they prayed this way, For truly in this city they 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. Let me rephrase what Peter just said. God's sovereignty was manifested here in allowing evil men to carry out without hindrance the evil that was already in their hearts so they could conduct a phony trial for the express purpose of finding a completely innocent man guilty. And in so doing, the Jews will violate almost every law that God gave them, and the Romans will sin against their own jurisprudence, which at that time was one of the most advanced in the world. So over the next several sermons, I'm going to demonstrate at least three things to you. Number one, Jesus is totally innocent of every charge that these people make against Him. Number two, Jesus will be found guilty by both the Romans and the Jews. And number three, in order to find Jesus guilty, they will condemn themselves. And Jesus is going to have to be very careful during this trial because if He says or does too much, they'll have to let Him go. But Jesus doesn't want to be let go. He doesn't want to continue to live. Much to the dismay of the eleven remaining disciples, Jesus has no intention of prolonging His life. Jesus fully intends to let evil men murder Him. Now it's very important for us to remember why Jesus is so serene here. He didn't start out that way this night, but He's very resigned now to the will of God. It is very important for us to remember how Jesus came to the place of humbling Himself to do God's will so He could die. It is important for us to remember because the way that Jesus came to this place is the very same way that you and I will come to the place of fully surrendering to God's will in our lives. And that is through prayer. Jesus has just spent several hours crying out to God in prayer to the point of sweating blood. and the power to fully surrender to God's will for Him to die for the sins of the world, the ability for Jesus to gladly and joyfully allow Himself to be made sin and to have God depart from Him was gained through this time of serious, deep, and agonizing prayer. Because Jesus is not afraid to die. That wasn't His struggle. His struggle was that by surrendering to God's will, all of the sins of all of God's elect had to be placed on Jesus. And at that moment, God the Father would have to withdraw His presence from Jesus that He and Jesus had enjoyed since before God created the universe. And then God was going to pour the full fury of His righteous anger against those sins on Jesus. And Jesus would literally become a curse. So Jesus will not be found guilty in this trial because He actually is guilty, but simply because it is the Father's will for Him to die. So it is my intention to say that the so-called trial of Jesus Christ is a farce. It is a sad joke, a travesty of justice. Whether you look at this from the standpoint of either Jewish or Roman law, Jesus' accusers don't have a leg to stand on. It is also my intention to say that it is patently dishonest, as is commonly taught today even by Jews all over the world, for anyone to say that Jesus was merely a Jewish rabbi who was found guilty by a jury of his peers and executed for breaking both Jewish and Roman law. That simply isn't true and is an evil rewrite of history that bears no resemblance to the facts as presented in the only record that anybody has of this trial and that is the four gospel accounts. If you're looking for a record of how God created everything out of nothing in six 24-hour periods called day, then you've only got one place to go, and that's the book of Genesis. The story of creation is not a biological story. It's not a scientific story. It's a theological record. And it tells you exactly how He did it. If you want to understand why Jesus was being tried and how He was tried and what went on, you've only got four books to look at, and that's the four gospel records. Now one of the first things we need to understand about this so-called trial is that the outcome of it was a foregone conclusion. The religious hypocrites that initiated this trial already condemned Jesus way before this night. And the only reason they waited this long was to try to develop some kind of strategy as to how they could find Jesus guilty, not if they could find Jesus guilty. So the entire exercise of this trial is demonstrated here for only one reason. For the very same reason these people prayed long drawn out prayers in public. For show. To appease their own guilty conscience. It was not in any way an attempt to discover the truth about Jesus. There was a day in this country when jury trials were an exercise in finding truth. that you could not present opinion you could not present secondary information you couldn't present what you thought you had to present facts and so it was an effort to find truth it was not a the legal profession was designed on purpose in this country to uncover truth. And that whether you're rich or poor, whether you're powerful or have no power at all, that that lady that holds those scales is blindfolded and it doesn't matter who you are. That we are a nation of laws and not a nation of men. That is no longer the case. Which is why people get off on a technicality. It's not an issue of whether they're innocent. It's an issue that you cannot prove their guilt. Beyond a reasonable doubt. So the entire exercise is just simply for show. And this is the same reason many people, even in our day, engage Jesus Christ. Many people who ask questions about Jesus and who conduct research about Jesus and who look for information about Jesus have no intention of honestly seeking the truth about this man so that they might worship and serve Him. No, the bulk of all the examination that is carried out and the questions that are asked in our day about Jesus is simply for one reason. The very same reason that these men put Him on trial. It's just for show. It is a public exercise in hypocrisy to try to assuage their own guilt as to why they simply do not bow before Jesus and obey Him. And the result will be the same as it was for those who actually put Jesus on trial. They are sealing their own doom. You see, there is only one correct response to Jesus Christ. And it's not analysis. It's not research. It's worship. You've got to be careful, preacher. You've got to be careful, Bible teacher, that you're not just studying the Bible. Because then you become a pagan. You become self-righteous. The goal is not to get smart about the Bible. The goal is to worship Jesus Christ. And if you're not worshiping Jesus Christ, your study is a waste of time. Amen. So be careful why you're doing what you're doing. Be careful why you're going to church. Be careful why you're diligent about, I can't do this, I can't do that, I'm holy. It's not so you can be holy. It's so you can praise the glory of His grace. So we need to be careful. You see, we're fallen. We're human. We can mess everything up. We can mess anything up. We can take the sweetest things and make them hideous. We can take the most important things and make them goofy. Quick! We can mess everything up. So we need to make sure we're doing this right. Jesus is not just going to be analyzed. Jesus refused to be researched and studied. No, Jesus demands to be worshipped because He's entitled to be worshipped. Hallelujah. I like that. I'm going to say that more often. Hallelujah. I'm into that. Every Muslim, every Jew, every humanist, every agnostic, every atheist who looks at the inspired and infallible record of the life and the works and the actions and the teachings of Jesus Christ and does not call Him God and adore Him is by definition a liar and a hypocrite. So, do not say that there's not enough data for you to repent and believe because there is. In bushel barrels full. Do not say there's not enough proof or that Jesus didn't perform enough miracles or He didn't speak enough truth. That is hypocrisy at its worst. There's only one reason why people who examine the record do not adore and follow Jesus and that is because they don't want to. And the reason they don't want to is because God has done nothing to cause them to want to and is leaving them to themselves. So there are many things being done at this trial all at once And He did all of this. Jesus, for example, Jesus is gladly surrendering to His Father's will. Jesus is fulfilling several Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. Evil men are being allowed to carry out the evil that is in their hearts, thus dooming them. All this is going on. How about this one? God is bringing an end to the first covenant. All of this is being carried out so that the glory of God's grace will be displayed on the unworthy sinners who are chosen to be saved from before the foundation of the world, and the glory of God's righteousness will be displayed on the unrepentant sinners whom God leads to themselves. Now those of you who have traveled with me on this multi-year journey through the Gospel of Luke have noticed that this Gentile medical doctor named Luke has been very meticulous in gathering data and information about who Jesus is and what Jesus said and what Jesus did during his three-year ministry. The good doctor opened this Gospel record with these words from Luke 1, 1-4. Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught." Now we know that part of Luke compiling an account of the things accomplished among them by Jesus was this multi-year effort where he said he investigated everything carefully from the beginning. And so Luke was commissioned by the Apostle Paul to write it out for you in consecutive order to this guy named Theophilus, who as best as I can determine was a Roman dignitary, perhaps even a high up guy in Caesar's household. And he did all of this so that you, Theophilus, and everybody else who reads this record may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught. And part of that effort was engaging in interviews with remaining eyewitnesses who were there during the birth, life, and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, including Mary, the mother of the Lord. So Luke gives us several testimonies from different witnesses as to the truth about Jesus, including Zacharias and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the kings from the east, Anna and Simeon, several recipients of miracles, John the Baptist, and the other apostles. In addition to these people, Luke also gives us testimony from the angel Gabriel. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of Luke is not a book of superstition written by a religious fanatic, as many people in our day claim, but rather a very well-researched, documented, legal record of the life ministry of Jesus Christ. Luke is a collection of historical facts backed up with credible testimony from several different sources who will all attest to the same thing. Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy concerning the Jewish Messiah. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus is the only Savior of sinners. Jesus is God Almighty in human flesh. Jesus is the temple. Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant. And this goes along with a principle that God gave to the Jews under the Mosaic Law about establishing the truth about very serious matters through the verbal testimony of two or three reliable witnesses. For example, when a person was accused of idolatry, which under the law was punishable by death, there had to be at least two reliable witnesses to his crime before the death penalty could be invoked. But Dr. Luke went far and beyond what was required of him and offered Theophilus and us many more than two or three witnesses. This shows an amazing effort on his part to arrive at facts that could either be repudiated or verified. You've got to remember, when he wrote about the resurrection and he wrote about what Jesus said and did, people who were there were still alive and they could have challenged what Luke wrote. That's not the way that went down. And they didn't. The record is clear. Don't let anybody ever try to snow you on this. The record is crystal clear. The inspired Gospel records went unchallenged except from heretics who didn't believe in Jesus to begin with. About every ten years, you get this revival of the lost books of the Bible. You know what I'm talking about? And Opie and Tom Hanks make another movie, usually written by Dan Brown, who was a heretic. I'm not Tom Hanks. Not Opie. I'm talking about Dan Brown. Well, I guess they could be first cousins to heretics since they voluntarily make the movies that renounce Jesus as being God's son. Yeah, I guess you could include them as heretics. So don't watch these movies. Don't make people millionaires that's undermining the Christ that you love and serve by supporting what they do. But the books weren't lost. Books have never been lost. We know exactly where they are. They were rejected because they're ridiculous. They're silly. They're not even well written. So anybody can make crazy statements like one hand clapping. And people that don't know Jesus say, oh that's so deep. No, it's just nonsense. It's not deep. It's crazy. So that's what the Gnostic books are all about. And so these Gnostic writers forged letters from Paul and wrote things that Paul didn't write. And they wrote the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Thomas, which are crazy books. So they're not lost books. They were rejected because they're spurious books. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, those books, they were readily received and accepted by everybody who saw Jesus do what He did, who heard Jesus say what He said, and who were there when He rose from the dead. And so in order to assure that serious matters would be adjudicated based on truth and not lies or even opinions, God gave Moses very harsh penalties for witnesses who were false. For example, Deuteronomy chapter 19 verses 16 through 20 says this, If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord. before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you." Yeah, this is what they do in England with spurious lawsuits. You bring a lawsuit, and you know there's no basis for it, and you just want money out of somebody because they've got deep pockets, and you lose, you've got to pay them what you wanted out of them. So when you go to court, you better have your ducks in a row or you shouldn't go to court. And that's what this law's taught. Amen to that. And so if a guy was going to be accused of something worthy of death, and the false witnesses rose up against him, they put the false witnesses to death. And suddenly, everybody felt led to tell the truth. It's amazing how that works. And so whatever the penalty was for the guilty party, that same penalty would be administered to the one giving false witness. And of course, this goes back to the eternal divine law that God gave to Moses back in Exodus 20, verse 16, when the Lord God of heaven and earth said, You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. And that means you can't have a subscription to People magazine. That's what it means. You can't read the National Enquirer. You can't. You can't do it. Because that's false witness. Huh? If you didn't see it with your eyes, you didn't hear it with your ears, you can't repeat it. Me and Jody. Now, I mean, that just puts a dent in gossip all over town, don't it? You just can't repeat something. Just because somebody said, did you hear about? I mean, because I know, when Bill Clinton was president, he had relationships with Martians. Because I saw it right there by the checkout counter. It wasn't printed, it wasn't true. You can't repeat what you don't know. Watch what comes out of your mouth. He said, but I read it on the internet. Amen to that. Abraham Lincoln said, be careful what you read on the Internet. It's a direct quote. And this section of God's law where He says you can't bear false witness against God, that's eternal. It wasn't fulfilled in Christ. It's enforced today under the glorious new covenant because God is a God of truth. In fact, this is one area where God Himself is unable to carry out. The Apostle Paul was moved along by God the Holy Spirit to tell Titus, the young pastor of the church on the island of Crete, God cannot lie. So it isn't that God should not lie. It is not even that God does not lie. But the Bible teaches God cannot lie. The God of the Bible is unable to utter falsehoods. So even though God is omnipotent, and is in total control over everything that has been made, God does not possess the ability or the power to think or to act contrary to His own pristine righteousness. And this means that we can trust what God says. Hallelujah. It means that everything that comes out of God's mouth is just that way. It is true, and it is reliable, and it is trustworthy, and you can stake your life on it. You can run your business by it. You can raise your children by it. And that means whatever God says is worthy or deserving of our trust. But here the Jewish rulers didn't follow this divine principle at all but put on a show trial. It was not based in verifiable facts. It was not based in reliable and trustworthy witnesses. It was based in the prejudice and the wickedness of the rulers themselves. Another aspect of both Jewish and Roman law was that all trials had to be public with witnesses who could attest to the fairness and accuracy of the proceedings. I was called to a a trial in Gulfport at the courthouse and they put me on the witness stand and made me swear to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth so help me God and asked me what somebody told me in my office during a counseling session and I said it's none of your business. And he says, I'm command of judges. I'm commanding you. I'm ordering you to testify. I said, you can point your finger at me all day long, hot dog. I'm not going to talk about this. It's none of your business. It's not their business. It's not the jury's business. That's between that person and God. And you put me in jail or do whatever you got to do. I'm not going to tell you. He said, you're dismissed. Because God's law trumps man's law all day long, and a good judge knows that. And he fears that. He respects that. I'll say this again. Another aspect of both Jewish and Roman law was that all trials had to be public with witnesses who could attest to the fairness and accuracy of the proceedings. But the trial of Jesus was secret and was carried out basically at night. Another aspect of both Jewish and Roman law was the issue of self-incrimination. A person cannot incriminate himself, especially about serious crimes where death was the punishment. There must be other witnesses to verify the facts. Yet in Luke 22, verse 71, those in charge of Jesus' trial said, They don't count. The ones putting you on trial don't count. It matters what other people heard Him say before He was put on trial. That's according to both Jewish and Roman law. Now, what exactly did they hear out of Jesus' mouth that made them say this? In verse 70, they asked Jesus, point blank, Are you the Son of God then? And He answered them, Yes, I am. Hallelujah. Now keep in mind that the phrase Son of God meant that Jesus was of the very same substance or essence as God Himself, which in effect made Jesus to be equal with God. And for any mere mortal to say that was the worst sort of blasphemy, punishable by death. But Jesus was in fact God Almighty in human flesh, and so His statement was not blasphemy, but truth. But as far as they were concerned, Jesus had committed horrific blasphemy and should be stoned to death. Yet their own law and the principles that God Himself gave them required that they have other reliable witnesses beside the ones presiding over the trial to testify against Him. And so once again, their hatred for Jesus allowed them to ignore this part of their law. And there are several other aspects of how Jews conducted trials that went to great lengths to assure that impartial justice was actually being carried out that are really amazing. How about this one? Younger judges had to issue their verdict before older judges did. And the reason this was true is because younger men back then respected older men so much that if an older judge pronounced somebody guilty the younger man would feel compelled to pronounce him guilty too out of respect for what the older judge had said. So they made the younger judges speak first and then they went up in age from there. This is just another way that God designed Jewish law to be carried out so that it would be impartial and would be good. Here are some other aspects of how trials were supposed to be conducted. No criminal trial could be held at night. No trial could begin in the afternoon because then they'd have to hurry through it in order to get through before night. The property of the condemned was given to his family. and was not confiscated by the government. If the Sanhedrin voted unanimously for a guilty verdict, then the accused would be set free. Huh? Because the court had demonstrated a lack of mercy. Somebody had to speak up for this guy. And if nobody spoke up for him, they let him go. There was no jurisprudence system like it anywhere in the world. It always erred on the side of mercy. Because these men were taught from the time they were children that God was a God of mercy. And they also knew that the way they conducted trials, especially with the guilty, was a reflection of their own character and morality. And so all trials... See, this is the testimony of a society. Not what you do with the wealthy. but how you treat the poor. It is not how you cater to the powerful. It's how you cater to those who have no voice. A good society hears the cry of widows and orphans, the most helpless within our community, and they do not murder their babies. A good society doesn't do that. They don't kill babies because they've got a mental deficiency. And it's going to be difficult for mothers to raise them. And they're going to have a hard life. They help the mother raise the baby so that the baby can live. How you treat the least among you is the is the testimony of who you are. And everybody that night knew all of this. And yet on that night, every single one of these men violated it all. They absolutely threw every vestige of dignity and truth to the wind and were guilty of conducting a kangaroo court to condemn the most innocent man who ever lived. Now as I told you last week, there's a lot of confusion surrounding the trial of Jesus. And one reason is because the various gospel writers only recorded certain aspects of it. And so as we go through this, we're going to jump back and forth through all four gospel records so we can get the full picture. But I want to try this morning to give you at least a summary of the trial of Jesus, because we only have one more sermon in Luke this year before the message on the incarnation on December 25th. And then we're going to take a short vacation in the beginning of the year. So we need to understand that the trial of Jesus was actually an all night series of several smaller trials. that took place sometime right after midnight until early Friday morning and there are six of these smaller trials three conducted by the Jews and three conducted by the Romans and only one of the of the of the trials by the Romans was in the daylight and the reason the Romans were involved at all is because the Jews were not allowed to carry out the death penalty without Roman approval So first Jesus was brought before Annas, who really wasn't even a high priest. Caiaphas was the high priest at that time. And as we found out last week, Annas used to be the high priest and had probably developed many connections, both political and religious. And so he was really the power behind the power, while Caiaphas was a figurehead and was his son-in-law. And we also found out last week that Annas and Caiaphas' houses were joined in the middle by a common courtyard. And it was in that courtyard where Peter and John were. And it was when Jesus was being moved, standing before Annas and Caiaphas, through this courtyard is where Peter denied that he even knew Jesus and confirmed his denial with a vow. And it was at that moment when the cock crowed and Jesus looked at Peter and Peter was brought under genuine Holy Spirit conviction. And we're going to get into this work. I'm teaching on Sunday nights at five o'clock. What the Bible teaches about conviction, confession, repentance and forgiveness and how that works. There is a false repentance. There's a pseudo sorrow. There's a worldly sorrow, a sorrow after the world that leads to death. And then there's a godly sorrow that leads to repentance. And so we need to understand these things. So just because you're Just because you're upset doesn't mean you actually repented. Although if you truly repent, you're probably going to be upset. So you have to understand the dynamic of how that works. That's why we're studying that on Sunday nights. The. I don't know. Why not? I'll go and say this. I try to make everybody angry, not just a few people. It was the reformers who saw the fallacy of the way the Romans were carrying out church service. Because the Romans didn't emphasize the word. They didn't emphasize prayer. They emphasized the sacraments. And the reformers of the 16th century saw the fallacy of that. And so they're the ones who redesigned the Lord's Day to be the Lord's Day. And so they had Sunday morning service and they had Sunday night service. And then they said that's not enough. So they had a midweek service. And then the Bible because they said the Bible tells us as we see the day approaching we're to assemble more and more and more not less and less and less. And I'm just ashamed of the reformed churches all around that cancel Sunday night. They don't even see the need of having a Sunday night service anymore. Well just be honest and quit calling yourself reformed because you're not. you're might be a good Baptist you might be good Pentecostal but reform churches that name means something I didn't create this they did and I see the value of it so at five o'clock on Sunday nights we'll have church and we we see the need of that and I see the need of it I need to be in the presence of the Lord with my brothers and sisters more often not less often he said you don't understand brother where we got to get up go to work the next day All depends on how valuable Jesus is. And I promise you, I promise you, that you're not going to go to bed at 5 o'clock tonight anyway. Told you I was going to make everybody upset. Y'all have to wait until after I finish to stone me. So Jesus stands before Annas first to have a false criminal charge levied against him sometime after midnight and that didn't take very long. In fact what took more time was the fact that they beat Jesus. That's what took more time than finding him worthy of standing trial. And then from Annas Jesus is sent to Caiaphas and when he comes to Caiaphas he meets with Caiaphas and the entire Sanhedrin who have by this time been assembled which is against the law for them to be assembled at night. and this is still in the middle of the night and then in the morning after they've already had their trial in the darkness violating their own principle they have this mock public trial which is a performance for show to make it look legitimate and they repeat everything they did in the night and that's the first three smaller trials that constitute the Jewish portion of all of this. Then comes the three smaller trials from the Roman side. Back during the night after Jesus stood before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, he's sent over to Pontius Pilate. And from Pilate, Jesus is sent to Herod. And from Herod, he's sent back to Pilate, who finally rules on the death sentence because he's intimidated by the Jews. Now keep in mind, every time he goes to another guy, they're beating the stew out of him. So he's up all night. He's been agonizing in prayer for hours. He's sweating blood. He's absolutely exhausted. And they slap him around. They beat him up every time he stands before another person. And he's the most innocent man who ever lives. And he has the power to blink his eye and eviscerate all of them. And he doesn't. They put a garment over his face and they'd slap him. The male fist, the old iron knuckles that you've heard about, they called that a male fist back then. And the Romans invented it. And they could do more damage with it. And they'd hit him in the face and say, prophesy who hits you if you're a prophet. And they're spitting on him and they're mocking him. Unbelievable. And this is before He goes for His real beating and His crucifixion. This is just during the interrogation part. in all six of these smaller illegal trials that violated every aspect of both Jewish and Roman law took place in just a few hours under the cover of darkness. And then by noon on Friday, Jesus is crucified. And by three o'clock, He is dead. And before sundown, Jesus is buried, and everybody goes home, and everybody involved thinks that's the end of it all, that nobody will ever know, and now they can resume their hypocritical lives with no one the wiser. These men had successfully killed the Prince of Life. And they thought that it was going to be the end of it. And even though these men had acted on their own and had voluntarily chosen to do this wicked deed, the Bible says that what they did was predetermined by God to be done. So even though they did what they wanted to do, God was completely sovereign over their evil choices and actions. Even though these men were fully accountable for the evil that they did, God was the One who had sovereignly allowed Jesus to be killed. Jesus Himself said in John 10, 17 and 18, For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one is taking it away from Me. I lay it down on my own initiative. I have the authority to lay it down and I have the authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my Father, hallelujah, who killed Jesus. Jews didn't. Romans didn't. You and me didn't. God did. God killed Jesus. It pleased the Lord to crush Him. So these men had fulfilled the prophecy that Jesus gave them in John 2.19 when He said, destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up. Why do you say that? So what really happened is that these men had successfully torn down the temple of God. Jesus had told them that if they did this, that three days later He would raise it back up. And so early on Sunday morning, the first day of the week, the Spirit of life from God entered back into Jesus' dead body. And He rose from the dead by the glory of the Father. And everything after that changed. Hallelujah! And all of their hypocrisy and all of their wickedness was brought to light. And now whoever believes may be saved. Glory to God. Now why did Jesus say it like this? Why did He equate Himself with the temple? Now most people read this and they draw the conclusion that Jesus was equating the destruction of the temple with His own death and rebuilding the temple with His resurrection and that would be it. But I think there's a whole lot more here than that and I think it has a connection not only with Jesus, but also with the issue of false witnesses and the way this trial is conducted. And so in order to get this, we need to turn to Acts chapter 6. So go there with me. Acts chapter 6. I want you to read a passage with me. This is Stephen, and he's one of the first deacons in the church. And he's going to preach Jesus, and he's going to pay a price for it, isn't he? This is Acts 6, verses 8-15. And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. But some men from what was called the synagogue of the freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen. But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. This is not his spirit. This is capital S. This is the Holy Spirit. then they secretly induced men to say, quote, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him before the council." So these are false witnesses, isn't it? Huh? And they put forth, look at 13, they put forth what? Forward false witnesses. You see that? And look what the false witnesses said. This man incessantly speaks against the holy place and the law. Hmm? For we have heard him say that this Nazarene Jesus will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us. And fixing their gaze on Him, all who were sitting in the council saw His face like the face of an angel. Hallelujah. Now, there's some questions I need to ask from this passage. And the first comes from verse 14. Read that verse again with me. This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Nazarene Jesus will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us. And the Bible says this is what the false witness has said. Right? Huh? But Jesus said that. It wasn't false. Jesus said that. Peter said that. Paul said that. John said that. Stephen said that. So here's my first question. Did Jesus actually say this? Did Jesus say that He would destroy the temple? The next question is, did Stephen mean the same thing that Jesus meant? Because there's a difference in the way that Jesus and Stephen talked about the destruction of the temple. So why is there a difference? Next, did Dr. Luke agree with what both Jesus and Stephen had said. Dr. Luke wrote Acts and he wrote the Gospel of Luke. And if so, why did he say in verse 13 that the people set up false witnesses to say that Stephen said these things? Because if Stephen and Jesus really said that Jesus would destroy the temple and change the customs of Moses, how were these witnesses false? Now before we tackle these three questions, there's one other just by way of introduction. Namely, does any of this really matter? Is this a vital issue? Should we care about any of this? You always find some weird thing to talk about, Brother Blair. Does this matter? Well, let's find out if it matters. Number one, Stephen died for this truth. That's why they stoned him, because of what they said he said. Number two, the Jewish leaders killed for this truth. So now I want to try to explain something to you. Those of you that want to try to establish a government, a nation, based upon biblical truth. Which fine, let's go for it. But when you do that, understand something. It's no longer an issue of what are you willing to die for. That's the way it is now. What are you willing to die for? How important is Jesus? When you set up a government that governs the people by the Bible, it then becomes an issue of what are you willing to kill for? So be careful. Because if your children sass somebody in public, they've got to take them out and stone them to death. Because the Bible says that. Be careful. So number one, Stephen died for this truth. Number two, the Jewish leaders killed for this truth. And number three, when Luke recorded Stephen's defense in chapter 7, he gives this more space than any other speech or message in the whole book of the Acts, including Peter's sermon in Acts 2. So let's look at this. Number one, did Jesus say that He was going to destroy the temple? Both Matthew 26, 61 and Mark 14, 58 tell us that at Jesus' trial, false witnesses came forward. And these false witnesses said, this man stated, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. That's what the false witnesses are saying that Jesus said. Huh? And when the high priest asked Jesus to make an answer to the charge, Jesus said nothing. But evidently people believed this because both Matthew 27, 40 and Mark 15, 29 tells us that the crowds who passed by the cross while Jesus was dying mocked Him. And here's what they said to Jesus. You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you're the Son of God, come down from the cross. Now the apostle John is the only one who actually recorded what Jesus said. And John chapter 2 tells us that after he had just driven the sellers out of the temple, the Jews asked him in verse 18, what sign do you show us as your authority for doing these things? Huh? What did he do? He made a whip and he kicked their tables over and he drove them out. Now listen to me. Jesus was sinless. So this anger was righteous indignation and it was right. It was holy. He wasn't sinning. And He beat the fire out of them and kicked their tables over. And it was right. Huh? Amen. Y'all believe Jesus was sinless? And He beat the fire out of them and kicked their tables over. And He was sinless. Huh? Why? This is Father's house. My Father's house. I own this house. In my house. Right? And here's what he said. This was his authority. Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. That's what he said. And he's standing in the temple when he said that. Now, I know we're all so spiritual. And we'd all just understand this if we would have been standing. We'd have seen this. Oh, he's talking about himself. And we know that baloney. I wouldn't have picked this up anymore than anybody else did. It took John to give commentary in the next verse, in verse 20. In verse 20, the Jews said, it took 46 years to build this temple, and you're going to raise it up in three days? Yeah, right, Jesus. Sure you are. Right? This is a mocking. And then John in verse 21 says, but he was speaking of the temple of his body. That's the only reason you know what he was talking about. That's cheating. He didn't, John didn't say that at the time this was going on. He said this in the book he wrote about 40 years later. A lot of confusion about this at the time, believe me. Okay, here's the problem though. Jesus never said that he was going to destroy the temple. Jesus said, if you destroy the temple in three days I will raise it back up. The word you is implied here because he's talking to them. Right. OK. Now. Now. You think we got it solved now. No, you don't. Now, since we know from what John tells us that destroying the temple did indeed refer to his death, it is very likely that when Jesus said this, he meant exactly what he was accused of saying. But if that's true, how were these witnesses false? Yet the Bible says that the witnesses that said this were false witnesses. which means they were not telling the truth. So when Jesus said this, did He simply mean that He would die and then rise again? Because if that's all that He meant, why did He say words like that while He was standing in the temple? Because He had to know that most people would take Him to mean the temple building, which would cause people to think exactly what these witnesses were saying. So if you didn't know any better, you'd think Jesus did this on purpose. Nah. Yeah, He did. Yet the Bible says these witnesses were false. I think the answer is that both for those who had ears to hear and for those who thought this through after His resurrection, like Stephen did, Jesus meant when I die, the temple dies. When I am destroyed, The temple is destroyed. This whole old covenant system, with all of these sacrifices and all this blood and the liturgical priesthood, ministering around the holy place where God's presence dwells, all of this ends when I die. You destroy me, and in dying I destroy the temple and everything that it represents. And this is why the curtain in the temple tore in two when Jesus died. It was a token of the utter annihilation of that entire religious system. And since that time, the way into God's presence does not involve Jews going to Jerusalem and entering the temple. It involves God making a way for both Jews and Gentiles to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. And so Jesus Himself was taking the place of everything in the temple. And because Jesus Himself became our one and only High Priest, who lives forever to make intercession for us, the Levitical priesthood was destroyed. And because Jesus offered Himself once for all to make an eternal redemption, all the animal sacrifices of the temple are destroyed. And because Jesus made Himself the mercy seat and made His own blood to be the blood of the new covenant, the glory of God, the old Shekinah glory of the temple, came down and rested on Him and raised Him from the dead. Hallelujah. And Peter said in 1 Peter 1 and 21, God raising from the dead and gave him glory. Hallelujah. Jesus is, as James said in James 2 verse 1, the Lord of glory. And so the temple is no longer the place where you go to see the glory of God. Jesus is. Destroyed and in three days raised up, Jesus is where you go to see the glory of God. And so in killing Jesus, these men destroyed their temple. Because in His death and resurrection, we have a new temple, and a new high priest, and a new sacrifice, and a new access to glory and fellowship with God. So when John the Apostle had a vision of heaven, in the book of Revelation 21, he says this, I saw no temple in it. For the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and the lamp is the Lamb. Hallelujah. So what Jesus meant when He said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up, was that He Himself was taking the place of the temple by dying for sin once for all and by rising from the dead to reign as the everlasting Priest and Lord of glory. So Jesus meant when I die, the entire temple system dies. And when I rise, I am now the temple. I am the sacrifice for sins. I am the priest and the mediator between man and God. I am the presence and the radiance of God's glory. And so when I die, the temple is finished. So my answer to the first question is yes. Jesus said that He would destroy the temple. Number two, did Stephen mean what Jesus meant? when he carried this teaching on into the early church. And the reason I ask this is because Acts chapter 6 verse 14 seems to imply that Stephen was saying that this destruction was still to occur at some point in the future. Yet Jesus had said the destruction would happen immediately and the rebuilding would take place in just three days. So how should we understand this? What Jesus meant was that the basis of the Old Testament sacrificial priestly worship system, which focused on the temple, was destroyed just the moment that He died. And the word destroyed signifies the way that a shadow is destroyed when the reality of light shines on it and takes its place. Jesus removed the very basis of the temple system by laying Himself down as the reality of light that all the shadows were representing. So in that sense, the destruction was completed in one day. And three days later, Jesus rose as the new temple for all who trust in Him. But what Stephen had to deal with was the reality that the dismantling of the system did not happen overnight. It was happening gradually. As I've told you before, for at least 30 years, they were still sacrificing animals after Jesus rose from the dead. They didn't know to stop. They didn't put the pieces together. It took the writer of Hebrews to write what he wrote in about 68 A.D. to finally bring an end to the old way of life. They just couldn't understand what to do. And this was a great struggle during the early days of the church. So what Stephen meant when he said that Jesus will destroy the temple is that just as Jesus had immediately taken away the basis of the old system with His death, so now Jesus will go on to dismantle its practices that were still in operation until it is finally no more. So Stephen and Jesus are in perfect harmony on this great issue. The temple is forever done for. Jesus has destroyed it and will continue to destroy every vestige of it until it is clear to all that He alone is the one and only sacrifice for sins, the one and only High Priest of God, the one and only habitation of the fullness of the glory of God. Number three. agree with Jesus and Stephen? Did Luke understand this? Because he called these witnesses false. Luke 6.13 says the people set up false witnesses to say that Stephen said these things. So in what sense were these witnesses false? The witnesses said here in Acts 6 were accurately reporting what Jesus and Stephen both had said. So how are they false? Was Luke not aware that both Jesus and Stephen had said that Jesus would destroy the temple and change the customs of Moses? No. The evidence from the book of Acts is that Luke knew very well that Jesus was changing the customs of Moses. The customs is not the law in Exodus 20. It's the washing. It's the sacrificial system. It's the dietary laws. All those things. And Luke understood perfectly that Stephen and the others were preaching these kinds of things and telling the Jewish people that the temple system was over, and therefore several customs of Moses belonged to the past. They had served their purpose in making Israel distinct, but now the people of God are no longer just Israel. The new covenant is that people from every tribe, tongue, and nation will trust in Jesus. So what did Luke mean by saying the witnesses were false when they said that Stephen spoke against the temple and the law and that Jesus would destroy the temple and change the customs of Moses? What he meant was that the witnesses were putting a false spin on a true statement. And that was true with the witnesses at Jesus' trial as well. They heard Jesus say things that were true. And they spun it so that it seemed to be something that it was not. Because make no mistake about this, dear friends, it is absolutely true that Stephen, all of the apostles, all of the deacons, all of the elders were preaching and teaching that Jesus would destroy the temple and change some of the customs of Moses. But it is not true that this was, as verse 11 says, blasphemous words against Moses and against God. What the false witnesses did not grasp at all was that the kind of destroying that Jesus was doing was a fulfilling of everything that God and Moses had promised in the law. The forgiveness of sins, a personal priestly advocate with God, the presence and accessibility of His glory. So Stephen was not against Moses. He was not against God. And He wasn't even against the temple and its customs. He understood that they had their place as a forerunner for Jesus. But now that Jesus had come and died and risen from the dead, all of these shadows and types had been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. So Jesus destroyed the temple the way that the rising sun destroys the need for street lights and headlights. He destroyed the temple the way a bright light drives away shadows. If the Messiah is coming down from heaven with forgiveness and advocacy and glory and the light of God shining upon Him, then the first thing that will be seen on the earth is His shadow. And so it was in the sacrifices and priestly service of the old temple. But as the reality of that light gets closer, the shadow becomes smaller. And when the reality of light is here, the shadow is swallowed up entirely and is no more. That does not mean that the reality was against the shadow or that it blasphemed the shadow. No. It fulfilled the shadow. And in that sense, it destroyed it. And so today we have the reality and not the shadow. Jesus Christ has come into the world to forgive sins once for all. To be our mediator forever. And to reveal to us the glory of God. And this is what Stephen died for. And this is why Jesus was on trial. May God help us to see this the way that Dr. Luke saw it. And cherish Jesus as our new temple more than anything in the world. Amen. Let's pray.