The Radical Christ (All of Life for God)

What sort of man can justify the call to forsake all things to follow him? In today's episode of All of Life for God, Pastor Hensworth Jonas reminds us how Christ's radical person, mission, and message demands a radical response. If this message encourages you, visit HeritageBooks.org/radical to order Pastor Jonas' newest book, Radical Discipleship.

I am pleased to bring you a sermon this morning that I have entitled The Radical Christ. The Radical Christ. And let us go to chapter 9, verse 9, one verse, let us go for chapter 9 and verse 9, I'm reading from the New King James Version, it says, "As Jesus passed on from there." Of course, referring to what you just read earlier with the paralytic. "As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, "Follow me." So he arose and followed him."

Brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen, there is a romantic fascination in every generation with the revolutionary personality, the radical. We tend to gravitate towards the person with the charisma, the eloquence, the courage, and the vision to challenge the status quo and change the trajectory of where things are going. These are the people memorialized on the monuments in every city. We're looking here at the call of Matthew, one of the original disciples of Christ. However, our focus is not on this particular disciple of Christ, but on the one who call him. For even in the call, you can learn about the one who calls.

In this single verse, we have at least three snapshots of the nature of the Christ who calls men and women to be his disciples. What is it about Christ that makes him a radical who revolutionizes the life of his followers? Why is the life of a true Christ follower able to take all the characteristics of one who has been radicalized? In what specific ways can disciples of Christ be considered radicals? What exactly motivates and drives the radicalization of many of Christ's disciples while others remain rather passive and indifferent?

Of course, our contemporary context with Islamist radicalization forces us to define our use of the term. By radical, we do not refer to anything close to the ends of the death cult of the Islamists. We refer to the life-transforming boldness, focus, discipline and outlook of one who is a recipient of the love of Jesus Christ. We speak of radical Christian love and the expect effects of the same. Why is it that many people who profess belief in Christianity and say that they understand the Christianity, do not lives that are radical for Christ? Why are they so often bugged down with small and insignificant matters? Why are they so easily immobilized or sidelined by trivial relational squabbles? Why are they not radical for Christ like the heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews chapter 11? Those heroes lived big lives, noble lives, lives of unparalleled greatness. Could it be that many who possess faith in Christ do not really understand Christ or even Christianity? Could many people be deluded about the essence of the faith, what it is really about?

Listen, from the start, let us make it abundantly clear, that Biblical Christianity is like nothing else. Biblical Christianity is like nothing else. It's like no other thing! Many people imagine that it is basically like other religions. It's a religion, so it's like other religions. However, the whole point for this passage is for us to grapple with the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is saying in effect, "What I bring you, my message, is absolutely unique, absolutely unprecedented, absolutely different. It's totally new! You've never run into anything like this before!"

Everyone who has become a true Biblical Christian has had a sense of being awakened from some kind of sickness. Now, think about it, if you really say you feel like you just woke up. At one point, you saw that you understood Christ, you saw that you understood Christianity, then all of the sudden, a light comes on, you can hear yourselves saying whether out loud or in your thoughts, "Wow, that's radical. This is different." Now, that is the point of the passage. I know when you read this passage, you normally don't see all of that, but you will.

In the Apostle Paul's epistles to the Colossians, Colossians 1:6, he wrote of the Gospel, "Which have come to you as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard it and knew the grace of God in truth." Did you get it? Have you processed that? He basically says that the Gospel began to be a fruit in you on the day you really understood the grace of God in all its truth. He did not say that it was on the day that he's find a card or filled out a form or came down an aisle. He did not even that it was on the day you got baptized, because no one becomes a Biblical Christian by being baptized. Something has to happen on the inside. Something radical has to happen.

Maybe it's time for us to stop asking the wrong questions. We need to stop asking about religious ceremonies and start asking about regenerating change. We need to stop asking about church conveniences and start asking about the covenant that we make a church. We must stop asking about preaching styles and start asking for the substance. We need to stop asking about the relaxed Christ who just wants to make you happy and the radical Christ who is committed to making you holy. These are different.

Our Lord Jesus made the same point in the Parable of Sower in Matthew 15. We know that story. Famous. Famous parable, our Lord tells a story about a sower, a farmer, who goes out and sows seed into his field. Some of them fall on four different kinds of ground. On one part of ground, there is no growth, let's call this the way side. And then there are two other parts of growing where there is temporary growth. One called the stony places, and the other called Among the Thorn. The last part of ground is the good ground and you find permanent, full and solid growth there.

Then our Lord Jesus explains the parable by saying in effect, "The seed is the word of God." That's true Christianity, the true message of Christianity. Now, on the first part of ground, the way side, the reason why it never grows is because the word is rejected. On the second and third plot, stony places, thorns, there is temporary growth. That is because they receive the word without serious consideration. Now, concerning the fourth part of ground, the good ground, let me call back Matthew 13:23, "But he who receives seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces, some hundredfold, some 60, some 30." This is a pretty radical thing. All he's saying is that if you are not seeing this amazing growth, if you're not seeing what he describes in the parable as growth that is 10-fold, 50-fold or 100 or whatever, it is not because you failed to apply the Gospel in a proper and consistent manner. That's not the reason.

The problem is that you never understood it. You didn't get it. You did not and do not get it. It's a problem of understanding not application. Now, let us get to our text passage. I intend to prove to you that what our Lord demonstrates here is that his message, the Gospel, is so radical that it must be considered in a class by itself. It's absolutely and utterly new and different. There was no other teaching or doctrine that can be compared to it in the history of humanity. His message is a total rejection of the religious status quo, the self-righteous spiritual authorities and conventions, it is revolutionary. It is actually designed for those who are desperate. Not for those who think they have it all together. This holy passage tells us that a real Christian is one who has been called. Will somebody say called? Oh my goodness.

All right. So a real Christian is someone who is called, someone who's a disciple, one who has been made utterly new. What is a real Christian? A real Christian is someone who has had the same experience like Matthew. Well, what is Matthew's experience? Look at verse nine again, "As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, "Follow me." So he rose and followed him. That's it! It's as simple as that! A real Christian is one who has had that experience. Listen, you are not a Christian unless you have, like Matthew, experienced a call. You're not a Christian, unless you are aware of having been called. Christianity is not something that you take up. It is something that takes you up! You're called.

The reason why some people like even to put it down is because they took it up. But when it takes you up, it's a love that will not let you go. This is one of the main reason which you can tell whether you are on the right path. You will have a sense of being worked upon. Somebody's working on me. A Christian is someone who's called. What does that mean? First of all, we have to be very careful not to assume that God always works in exactly the same in everyone's life. If we go back to the beginning of the chapter, we will notice a very interesting narrative. We read it earlier in the service. I'm gonna read it again. So he got into a boat, crossed over, and came to his own city. That's verse one of chapter 9.

Then behold, they brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven." And at once, some of the of the scribes said within themselves, "This man blasphemes!" But Jesus knowing their thoughts said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say, "Your sins are forgiven" or to say, "Arise and Walk" But that you may know the the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sin. Then he said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed and go to your house." And he arose and departed to his house. Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God who had given such power to men.

Now, it is very important that you pay close attention to what is happening in this narrative. On the surface, it appears that our Lord Jesus' dealings with the paralytic is totally different from his dealings with Matthew. Doesn't it seem that way? But it's not. As we explain the synoptic Gospels, our big word for Matthew, Mark and Luke, more information is given on this passage in Matthew and Luke than in Mark. The paralytic had a number of friends. And that's always useful when you're paralyzed. He had a number of friends, and we're told in Matthew and Luke that they were trying to get him to the house where Jesus was speaking. And there were so many people around that they couldn't get in. So they went by the roof and they tore up the roof of the house. I wonder what the owner of the house thought. They tore up the roof of the house and they lowered him down in front of Jesus. The paralytic's friends were in hot pursuit of our Lord Jesus. Now, compare that with Matthew.

Matthew was not in hot pursuit of Jesus. Matthew was not looking for Jesus. He was at work. He was a customs officer, a tax collector, at his desk collecting and recording the taxes required by a foreign occupying power. He was not looking for Jesus. Suddenly, somebody shows up in Matthew's office and says, "Follow me!" That isn't expected. He was not looking or praying for this. The Lord just came into his life and gave him an order! "Follow me!" Does our Lord have a different modus operandi for different people? Or does he deal with everyone in the same way? We have to be very careful about standardizing Christian experience. Actually, we shouldn't do it. Some of us come to Christ in a crisis, while others come to Christ within calm reflection, some come to Christ after careful study and investigation, while others come to Christ in a sudden emotional experience. Some people are convinced that it is important to publicly respond in a church meeting by walking up to the front while others see the public profession of faith as believer's baptism.

Clearly, there are variations in expression. However, there are some fundamental commonalities. Let us discuss them on the three headings before us. Okay? One, the radical power of Christ. Two, the radical person of Christ. And three, the radical pull and promise of Christ.

Let's deal with the first one, the radical power of Christ. And we just wanna divide verse nine into three parts, all right? Verse nine begins, "As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office." Stop there. The radical power of Christ. Stay with me, the Lord zeroed in on this customs officers. Matthew was in the crosshairs of Christ's attention. Matthew like every true believer in Christ sensed a power coming into his life from outside, taking charge of his life.

When we're saved, we are not on an exposition of discovery. We're actually being subjected to an invasion. All I need you to hear me. Someone invades your life! You were minding your own business and your life is invaded. You weren't looking for it. It soon becomes clear that the hunter is being hunted, because you thought you were looking for something. But someone was looking for you. It soon becomes clear that there is a higher quest going that eclipses our personal quest in life. We thought that we were searching for God until it becomes clear that it was God who was coming after us. Matthew was in the crosshairs of Christ. The Lord Jesus saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth, at the tax office.

What actually happens in our conversion is that the Lord Jesus just takes charge. That's it. We immediately sense that we're not actually in charge of the spiritual experience, the spiritual pursuit. This is why we speak of being called. We were summoned by an external power. Now, this is quite obvious in Matthew's case. Matthew was minding his own business, and his duties were suddenly interrupted. Well, what about the case of the paralytic? Was the paralytic also drafted? Was the paralytic also summoned? Yes! Yes, he was! Look at it carefully. Please notice that the paralytic was not in hot pursuit of the Jesus that he found. Or you stay with me now, he was in hot pursuit of Jesus, but not the Jesus that he found.

He was looking for another Jesus, a different kind of Jesus. You see, the paralytic was looking for a magician. He was sick and he and his friends had heard of Jesus the miracle worker. That's the Jesus he was looking for. He thought that Jesus was going to heal him. So he came on down with the house of his friends breaking through the roof, down in front of Jesus, and what does Jesus say? "Your sins are forgiven!" What? It's not what he came for! Your sins are forgiven? You see, Jesus is in charge just like with Matthew. He has his own agenda.

The paralytic thought that he was in charge of his own life. But he was dead wrong. Like everyone who is religious, the paralytic thought that he was the one who was seeking Jesus. However, please remember what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 13:11, which is based on Psalms 14:1, 2 and 3, that no sinner really seeks God. Everyone who has ever taken a kind of active spiritual search for the true and living God discovers along the way that the one that they were looking for does not have the identity of the God of the Bible. They were searching for a God that they had personally designed, a figment of their own idolatrous imagination. In our search, we are just like the paralytic who was looking for the miracle worker. But we found out that Jesus is much more.

However, the minutes that we learn of the attributes and identity of the trying revelations of the true living God, we will sense that our former search was a farce. We will sense that we were the object of another search. Yes, we will sense that we were after a post God but the real God was after us. And when he's good and ready, he will just walk here and take over your life. To be called is to experience an alien power at work in your life. If you do not have that sensation, if you do not sense that somebody is after you. If you do not sense that something radical is going on inside of you. If you do not sense anything like this, then it is clear that you're not experiencing real Christianity. With real Christianity, someone takes over your life, and you love it, and there was no turning back. If you have not been truly called, you'll either continue to play little religious games, and you will eventually hold Christianity in contempt.

This is why the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:18, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." When you experience the call, when you get it, you will know that you will never be the same again for necessity is laid upon you! You will know that you really have been arrested by the holy God. Yes, I've been arrested. Oh, yes! You will realize that you've been arrested for you have no interest in resisting this arrest. You actually thank the one who executed the warrant.

You know you have been arrested for you have waived your right to be silent, for now you must shout it from the roof tops. You know you have been arrested for you already have an attorney, an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. You know you have been arrested for the bonds of Christ have proven to be as a light form of slavery. You know you have been arrested for with Christ in the boat, you begin to smile even at the storm. You know you have been arrested for you sense on the inside a joy unspeakable and full of glory.

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First of all, the radical power of Christ. Secondly, the radical person of Christ. Look at the middle part of the verse, "And he said to him follow me." That's all I need. And he said to him what? Follow me. Follow me. Matthew quickly sensed, just like all who experience saving faith in Christ, he quickly sensed that he was being confronted with a person, not just also of intellectual ideas and a mere ethical code, he was being confronted by a person. The Lord Jesus walked into his life, and he said, "Follow me!" He did not say, "Follow them!" He did not say, "Follow him or follow it." He said, "Follow me." The real Jesus Christ is always confrontational and focused on his purpose and person. This is not a narcissistic self-focused ... This is not a disciplined pursuit of a narrow agenda. This is our holy self-centeredness. Oh yes.

Wrath is applied to God as holy wrath. Jealousy is applied to God as a holy jealousy. And here we have a holy self-centeredness. Well, it only makes sense if the answer to men's sins or choices and sinister inheritance is divine atonement, if the answer is atonement, if the answer is a sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, if that's the answer, then the focus must be on the sacrificial lamb. The focus must be on the lamb if it takes a sacrifice to save us. The focus must be on Christ. So he says, "Follow me!" Hmm, he lovingly has always called attention to the only answer to men's sinful condition which is his holy person. Real Christianity is about the radical person of Christ, period. The person.

Listen to Jesus, Matthew 16, verse 13, "Who do men say that I the son of man am?" Or in verse 15, "But who do you say that I am?" It's a radical and holy self-centeredness. Consider the narrative in Acts chapter 9, of our Lord's encounter with a terrorist, who's that terrorist? Saul of Tarsus was going about killing Christians, huh? He appeared to Saul and Saul had been persecuting the church, killing many Christians, but when exactly did he have to say to Saul? He cried out from heaven, our Acts chapter 9 and verse 4, Saul's fall, "Why are you persecuting me?" It's a radical and holy self-centeredness.

There is an unmistakable self-centeredness here, John 8:58, he says, "Before Abraham was," what? "I am." And we know all the ramifications of that going back to Exodus. Or even John 10 and verse 9, "I am the door, if any man enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture." Or John 10:14, which is, "I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep and I'm known by my own." Or John 10:30, "I and my Father are one." Or Matthew 11:27, "All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son will reveal himself." I can keep going, and you will see a holy self-centeredness.

Christ is focused on his person. There is no Christianity without that. Luke chapter 14 and verse 26, it gets pointed, Jesus says, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his mother and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." If you're not focused on him, [inaudible 00:30:06] about family, he says, "You're not saved! You cannot be my disciple! I don't want you!" His person must be our focus. The devotion that Christ demands is so much greater than the devotion you should have for anybody else, including your father and your mother! So much pull that your devotion to your father and mother should look like hate compared to your devotion to Christ.

This is our radical and holy self-centeredness. Now, what does that mean? Listen, if you cannot embrace the radical holy self-centeredness of Christ, you have not embraced Biblical Christianity. It is very clear that the radical centrality of the person of Christ has escaped many who pretend to be interested in Christianity, whether it is a journalist, or a scholar, or a man on the street, most people just want to know what the church is going to do about this, or what the church is going to do about that. They have a long list of issues. Happens to me all the time in Antigua and Barbuda pasture. What is your take of the church's stance on, say, homosexuality, or the use of cannabis, or the growth of human trafficking, or same-sex so-called marriage, or whatever. They wanna know what the church's policy on the movies or the variety of artistic production, they delineate a plethora of issues, and they think these are pressing and urgent, "Pastor, what ... " They push the mic in my face, "What do you think the church's position should be on this or that or the other?"

What are we as Biblical Christians to say to all of this? Well, I would tell you how I answered. I say, "My friend in all due respect, who cares?" You think you heard right. I say, "Who cares?" Yes, you heard right! All of your [inaudible 00:32:19] are trivial concerns if you have not addressed the most crucial question. Okay, then, so you ask, "Well, Pastor, what is that crucial question?" The crucial question is, is Jesus who he said he is? Is Jesus who he said he is? Once you've answered that, you have your answer on all the other questions. That's it!

If the Lord Jesus is who he said he is, then he is the authority on every other issue. He will tell you what to think about homosexuality. He will tell you what to think about cannabis or any kind of drugs, even tell you what to think ... If he is who he said he is, then your opinion, your feelings, your attitude are totally irrelevant. If Jesus is indeed Lord, so you and everyone else will bow.

Listen, all the beats about the various social and political issues are futile until you establish the criteria for deciding on what exactly is the correct path. Where or what is your authority? Are those with the mics always right? Is it a situational ethic? Is it all about trying to make sense of an existential obscenity? Is it about materialism whether dialectical or capitalistic? Where or what is your authority? Biblical Christianity says before we can get to any of that, first things first ... Will somebody say first things first? That's a lot better.

First things first, just who is this Jesus of Nazareth? Just who is he? Who is this person who has the audacity to walk into a man's life and demand that that man abandon his craft, change his world view, reschedule his calendar, realign his relationships, change his ambitions? Just who is this Jesus who just walks into your life and say follow me? This is radical stuff.

It is possible for you to miss the heart of Biblical Christianity, even if you have explored many issues like creation and evolution, all the miracles and healing or whatever. Listen, if the Holy Spirit is really after you, if you're really encountering the real Jesus, what you says to you is follow me! He really means me, not it, or this, or that, or these, or those! He means me. Follow me!

If Jesus is Lord of all the universe, just as he said, then we have to guess what his agenda. His agenda not our own. You know you don't have real Christianity when you have your own agenda. You know it's real Christianity when you abandon your own agenda. Follow him! His agenda becomes your life. He's your creator and your redeemer. Listen, Christianity is about Christ. It's all about Christ. Please do not be embarrassed to worship him for he is the word, the logos, who was in the beginning with God and is very God. Worship him, for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Worship him for he's the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. Worship him for he's the Lily of the Valley. Yeah, the bright and morning star, the fairest of 10,000 to our souls, worship him! For he's altogether lovely and the lover of our souls, worship him! For he is the only potentate, king of kings, and lord of lords! Hallelujah.

So we just seen the radical power of Christ. Then we saw the radical person of Christ. Thirdly and finally, let's look at the radical pull and promise of Christ. The radical pull and promise of Christ. I'm looking at the last threes in the verse, verse 9, where it says, "So he arose and followed him. So he arose and followed him." Look folks, my point here is that there is such a magnetic call to the radical promise of Christ that true believers just get up and follow him. It's magnetic. What do we call it? Irresistible. It's magnetic!

It's a radical call to respond to a radical promise and mission of eternal redemption. It's an essential call just to resist. It seems to be pretty obvious of our Lord Jesus was already acquainted with Matthew. Our Lord called Matthew to a new vocation and new mission in life, it was a radical call. The promise found in this divine person had a magnetic pull, a call to action that was urgent and irresistible. Why ask to make a man get up and resign? And he rose! He saw it. The promise found in this divine person had magnetic pull, a call to action that was urgent and irresistible! The phrase, "So he rose and followed him," is obviously a summary statement. But that's all that's needed. The call was so radical and so compelling that submission seemed like the only responsible and reasonable response.

We know from the prophet Isaiah, many centuries before the first advent that the magnetic pull of the promise Christ would not be the outward trappings of some kind of personality cult. Jesus Christ wasn't some celebrity that pulls you. It was a celebrity that pulls you. The pull of Christ was not that he was handsome. No, no, no. The prophet Isaiah made it abundantly clear that the Christ would not be celebrated, the suffering servant would not be celebrated or welcomed or applauded according to Isaiah 53, the suffering servant, the Christ, was not handsome! He was not some towering personage. He would not have incredible charisma. Centuries later, we'll find out why he would have such a pull, why he would give us sermons and people cannot believe their life and follow him! Why?

Centuries later, the narrative of the passion of Christ and the Gospel had a Roman ruler name Pilate basically mocking and laughing at the Christ with a sarcastic interrogation. If you look at Mark, chapter 15 and verse 2, he asked, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Pilate asks the murderous mob in Mark 15:9, "Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?" He was not appreciating the majesty of Christ, he was mocking him!

Pilate's sarcasm said in effect, "Oh, so this is Jesus, huh? I'm really quite surprised he looked so small, he doesn't look like a king at all." Pilate was not impressed. So what then was the basis of this magnetic and compelling and urgent and radical call to action? Why was the call answered with such urgency in Matthew's case? He just got up and followed him.

An excellent Biblical narrative that is helpful here is the story of Mary and her alabaster box anointment in John chapter 12, verse 1 to 8, "Mary had taken an enormously expensive bottle of perfumed ointment and laid it on the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The other people in the room saw that this act was totally ridiculous. They said in dislike, "Listen, there's nothing against respecting the Lord Jesus and listening to his teaching or supporting his healing, ministry, [inaudible 00:42:01]. This is a bit of [inaudible 00:42:01]. What a waste!" That was their ... We're even told that the thieving Judas Iscariot protested on behalf of the poor whom he claimed would be more appropriate recipients of the money wasted in this act of worship by Mary. Of course, the text reminds us that Iscariot's real concern was finding more opportunity for theft. He was just hopping that the money would be available to him.

Mary has clearly heard a totalitarian call. That's what she heard. That's why she was so extravagant in this act of worship. She heard a totalitarian call that demanded an urgent response. She realized that with Christ, it's actually all or nothing. It's all or nothing. She gave herself to him utterly, just like Matthew when Matthew resigned his job, when he rose and followed him. Now, the Lord defended her and her act of love, he said in John 12, verse 7, "Let her alone! She has kept this for the day of my burial." That appears to be a rather cryptic statement, but it really was our Lord's way of making it clear that Mary perceived that he was going to die for her. She has sensed, as true believers eventually do, that our Lord was radically committed to her. She has to demonstrate and communicate her commitments to him. That's how it works.

When you sense his commitment to you, you will be committed to him. A true sense of the active and passive obedience of Christ on our behalf is enough for us to rise up and follow him. When we get it, you see, often, we don't get it, but when we get it and we have a true sense of his active and passive obedience, we rise up and follow him. And so it was this active and passive obedience. This is the ultimate tugging on any person's heart. The knowledge that Christ kept the law perfectly, having lived the life for us that we should have lived, and then died the ultimate death paying the price for our infinite death of sins for us. The death we should've paid in hell forever.

When we get it, then he lives the perfect life that God requires, for us, giving us the credit for his life. Then he died the death to pay our sins, the death that we should've died and gone to hell forever, he did all of that, and gave us the credit. When we sense how much he has done for us, we realize that we have to give ourselves to him. This is enough to overwhelm our hearts, any heart that has been prepared by the Holy Ghost. This is an urge that makes you get up and follow up! Resign and follow him! Spill your ointment and follow him.

When we truly understand just who it is who's called us, we have to get up, we have to sell everything, we have to pick up our cross, we have to surrender all and follow him. We become confused that it's worth it! Hallelujah! It's worth it to give our all to him when we learn that he has given his all for us. This is when we know that get it.

In Hebrews chapter 10, verse five through seven, we're told that our Lord had entered the call of God the Father in the Covenant of Redemption, it is written there, therefore, when he came into the wild, he said, "Sacrifice and offerings you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me, and burned offerings and sacrifices for sin, you had no pleasure, then I said, "Behold, I have come. In the volume of the book, it was written of me to do your will, O God." Did you get it?

God the Father had called our Lord Jesus, God the Son, and our Lord said in effect, "Here am I, send me." In the Covenant of Redemption, the Lord Jesus agreed to go and pay for the sins of his elect. The point here is that whatever it would cost us to answer that totalitarian call, whatever it would take for us to rise up and follow him without reservation is actually nothing in comparison to what it cost Christ to atone for our sins. His condensation in the incarnation, in his biliation, his emptying of himself is shown. His active and passive obedience demands that we get up with radical commitment to follow him and worship him, because of what he did. We have to get up! It's a magnetic pull. What did he do? Jesus stood between sinners and eternal destruction. What did he do? Jesus took the wrath of divine justice upon himself for us!

What did he do? Jesus endured the most egregious mockery and humiliation for us. What did he do? Jesus volunteered a good measure of subordination to protect our liberation. What did he do? Jesus took what we deserved to give us what only he deserved. Let's be honest. Left to ourselves, we're like a brief mockery just in the face of pain or discomfort or terror, we prefer to take the line of least resistance, we prefer to run away. But when we think of his goodness, and all he's done for us, our soul cry, hallelujah. We now reason, "This is the least that I could do.

I must rise up. I must pick up my cross and follow him! Just sacrifice this lamb, my love." Such magnanimity deserves my surrender, such selflessness deserves my service. With him rightly we affirm, "My life, my love I give to the thee, thou lamb of God who died for me. O may I ever faithful be, my savior and my God. I'll live for him who died for me. How happy then my life shall be? I'll live for him who died for me, my savior and my God."

A great contemporary preacher once said of God the Father, "If our greatest need had been information, God would've sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would've sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would've sent us an economist. If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would've sent us an entertainer. But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a savior." And O, what a savior he is, he is the rock of my salvation. I must give him the glory. [inaudible 00:49:53] that I testify only faintly now I see him with a darkling veil between, what a blessed day is coming when his glory shall be seen. Face to face, I shall behold him! Far beyond the starey sky! Face to face, in all his glory, I shall see him by and by! Amen.

Let us pray. Thank you Lord for your word today. You promised not [inaudible 00:50:45] and we trust you [inaudible 00:50:51] hearing, and hearing by the word God. Save all of us and conform us to the limits of your dear son Jesus in whose Baptist name we pray. Amen.

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