Brother Owen Howard and Brother Trevor Howard | 04-19-2026

Bro Owen Howard - Eph 5:25 As Christ Loved

Bro Trevor Howard - Heb 12:1-2 Looking unto Jesus

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:14

It's good to be here, and um it's been obviously uh a couple of weeks since we have been here, but our prayers are with you all, and it's good to see y'all. Um I am in the fifth chapter of the book of Ephesians. Um I'm interested in starting in around the 25th verse. Suffice it to say, I'm just gonna the subject that I have on my mind is is not obviously that there's a sense of hypocrisy with any man of God that stands up here and tells you about the word of God because we have failed in the word of God. Right? So I think that is true, but the subject that I have on my mind is one in which I am absolutely the wrong person to deliver this message to this congregation, and I'm just gonna make sure we're all on the exact same page. Um, I also there's a little bit of nerves that I have about sharing what I have on my mind in front of my wife. Um, because I want to talk about what Paul bears out here. I'm gonna ask, though, as a church, that we try to refrain from maybe some of the the I think it's easy sometimes for us to make this a little bit humorous, you know, when we can kind of belittle husbands and and and things like that, but I think there's some serious, serious discussions here that Paul is bearing out to this church. I also want to just say, too, that I don't know how God is gonna deliver this as a benefit to each and every one of you because this is something specifically for husbands. But I will say that everyone in this room has a husband. We have the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we have our Heavenly Father, He is our husband, and by virtue of that, I think that this can be applicable to everybody, or especially for those of you that one day will have a husband. These are things that you should be looking for, right? So this is beneficial to every single person, regardless of your gender. Um, but specifically, this is meant for husbands. I'm not gonna read for wives, I don't feel qualified at this time to preach on that, but I want to start in the 25th verse, and I want to read this very slowly. So, first off, he says husbands, calma, right? So he's gonna capture our attention. He says, Husbands, love your wives. He says, Love your wives. Now, it's interesting, right? So the the obviously we all have different versions of what the word love is, and there's love languages, and there's all of those types of things, right? So I I certainly believe that what Paul is saying here is to show them affection, right? To obviously to be patient and gracious with them, and all of these other ways in which we might think about love, to care for them, to say I love you, and to make sure they verbally know that you care and are affectionate for them and to them. Um but if there was any question at all about what Paul meant by what he said, love your wife, he's gonna clarify exactly what he meant by the word love. And this is this is a yoke that's placed upon husbands that is absolutely both marvelous and frightening. Okay? Because this is a level of love that is something that I think should make all of us pause and remember what it means to be a husband to your spouse. Because this is exactly what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did for every single person in this room and for his entire family, whether they will ever hear his name or not. Because he loved them so much, right, that he gave himself for them completely and entirely. Now he says, Husbands, love your wives. How do we do that? Even. You might notice that word even. The word even in this case is an intensifier. What he's going to do is he's now going to clarify, he's going to take what he said when he said, love your wife to a level that perhaps you wouldn't have thought about when you just say love your wife. So he's going to intensify what he's about to say. He says, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Now, when he says the church, there I'm going to submit to you that's the entire elect family of God. Okay? But he says, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Man, that is a monumental burden for us to be able to love. What is he saying here? He's talking about something that is absolutely sacrificial. Right? So many people in the world today believe that marriage is sort of like an investment bank, right? So you put in so that you get out. Right? I'm gonna love my spouse, so I'm gonna do all of these things just so that I can get and pull some things back out, right? We we I think everyone in this room who's ever been married can can arguably say at different points in our marriage, we've been somewhat guilty of that, right? I've been guilty of that. I've come home from work, I've worked all day long, I am absolutely exhausted. My wife has some things that she wants for me to do, and I'm not very happy or satisfied in the doing, right? I don't want to do them, right? Because I have worked all day long and I expect for there to be patience and grace, and I have expectations because I've inputted things, right? What he's done here is he's completely clarified that that is not marriage. And that is not as husbands our what our should be, I'm sorry, our our hard posture in marriage, the way in which we should be responding in marriage. Right? He's saying that it is solely a giving, it is a 100% give it everything. You are to sacrifice yourself for your spouse. That there is not this expectation of a return. No differently than there was an expectation of a return from Jesus Christ. Yes, I want to be clear, there is an expectation that Christ has that for those of us who have been made aware, we should be following after the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But what he's talking about here is Jesus Christ sacrificing his body and his life for our sins on that tree. He's talking about what Jesus Christ did in what is arguably one of the most lonely moments in the entire history, in ever history, of this world, of when Jesus Christ was nailed on that tree for you, for you, for your sins. He did that because he loved you, he sacrificed everything for you. He did that, understanding that there was no way we could ever give a return on that. Right? There's nothing we could ever do. The very picture, the very picture of marriage is old Baptist doctrine, of where it's not an expectation that we can somehow merit this. That's not at all what he's saying. He's saying he just gave himself for us. And that is literally the picture that he has for us. Now, what's what's even crazier to me about this verse, and I'm sorry, maybe that's an inappropriate way of framing it. But when you read it carefully, you might notice he doesn't, it doesn't. Obviously, we can't love Jesus Christ. I'm sorry, we can't love our spouses the way Jesus loves us, right? Can we all agree with that? We can't do that. But he didn't write this in that way, right? He didn't write this as a as a goal, right? Like this is something we should be pursuing. Obviously, that's true. But you might notice in the very language he's saying this as something that you should be able to attain. Now, whether we like it or not, we know that that that is how he has written it. Now, before you get too wild with that, I just want to be very clear. We obviously can't. What is he saying then? Why is he writing it as if this is something we can? Well, um, you might find something very similar if you go to John chapter 8. So if you'll just turn with me, and Trevor, I'm trying to be mindful of this. If you'll go with me to John chapter 8, um, this is, if you ever wanted to know a little trivia here, this is one of my this is my favorite parable. So we're at the very um, or just story account. I don't even know if it really even is a parable. Um, I think it's just an account. Anyway, eight, in the eighth chapter, very start, right, we have this woman taken in adultery. Um, a lot of great things in here. I'm gonna try to be expedient, though. Um so so just to kind of rehash what's going on here, you have a woman who was taken in adultery. Um, she has been seized and she's brought to the temple. Um, and and in the temple, right, Jesus is basically being tried, right? So he's being challenged as to what to do. Uh and so this is the story of when uh when he stoops down on the ground and begins to write things, and then one by one, all of these men begin to leave as they read whatever he has written on the ground. Um, uh, and when they heard it, being convicted of their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last, and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? Alright, this is the part I want. She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Listen to this, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Now, do you think that lady was able to go out from there and be perfectly righteous? I mean, he told her to go and sin no more. Do you think that she left there and was just perfectly righteous and and never sinned again? No. What he's communicating here, and what I believe he's also communicating, Paul is communicating in the fifth chapter, is the power of choice. That's what he's saying. Just like that lady leaving that day, that she has a choice, as each and every one of us do, every single day that God has blessed us to wake up in this world that we live in to make good decisions. And what Paul is saying here is we as husbands have the authority to choose to love our wives, even as Christ loved the church. We will never be able to attain that, and we understand that, but it is something that we ought to be choosing every day is to love our wives. And I will submit to you the best times of me and Danny's marriages. Marriage has always been whenever we have loved one another in that way. Now, yes, if you actually go back up to the 22nd verse, it says, wives submit yourselves to your husband. He's basically going to say a very similar statement, which when you read the two together, if you have A is less than B and B is less than A, at some point you're gonna figure out that A and B are equal. Right? So it is a submission one to another. But the beauty thing here is that doesn't mean that we as husbands should be looking for our spouses to do that. We should be as Christ. That's our picture, is to devote and to love our wives, even as Christ loved the church. I'll close right there. I thank you for your kind attention.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

That was uh profound and um needed for uh for me. I um amen, Brother Owen. I I really appreciated that. And um I ask that you uh please pray for me as I stand before you. Um I I I I stand before you with great fear. Um part of that's some of that's pretty normal, and some of it is a little enhanced today because uh had a new thought come to me um during the prayer that uh I want to uh try and speak on now, and uh it was uh driven home by Brother Owen, who um introduced a thought um that is very interesting to me and it's very important. Uh you're you are uh you hit the nail on the head when you say that um any any um attempt on our part as husbands or wives to do those things in the fifth chapter of Ephesians, uh it must be done in light of our marriage to our Savior Jesus Christ, our heavenly husband. Um we don't really understand, we can't properly understand what it is, what it means to love our wives if we don't look at um our husband Jesus Christ and how he humbled himself. It says that in Philippians chapter 2, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Any attempt as a husband to love my wife must include within it humility. I have to humble myself. I have to put myself aside. Um Jesus Christ expressed the ultimate acts of humility. He laid aside his glory and he condescended. And that's something I have to remind myself as a husband. I want to go to Hebrews chapter 12. Please pray that this would be of the Lord. Hebrews chapter 12. Verse 1. Um I say the Apostle Paul, maybe you disagree, but it was these verses that convince me the Apostle Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. Wherefore seeing, we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. What we read about here are some of the key works of our husband Jesus Christ. In fact, the ultimate act of humility on his part. He not only condescended and came to earth to be a man, but in fact he submitted himself unto death. Surely a husband should be willing to do that for their wife. Um he says, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Now, of course, what he's saying here must be seen in light of what he's just talked about in the 11th chapter, and indeed, really for the whole book of Hebrews, uh, there's a there's a theme in this book, uh no doubt, perhaps several themes. Um but that that 11th chapter is sometimes sometimes referred to as the hall of the faithful, or you can give whatever colorful name you want to it, but he's gonna list out a lot of examples of faith in that 11th chapter. Uh he's gonna list out examples all from the Old Testament. These are not meant to show only New Testament examples of faith. In fact, there's no New Testament examples of faith, I guess, except what we're about to read here in the 12th chapter. But in the 11th chapter, he's gonna talk about Abraham and Moses and uh Isaac and Rahab and all these individuals who are great people of faith. And he doesn't just list their names as if here's uh just a laundry list of a bunch of people. Here's a roster, as it were. He says something that they did. For by faith, Abraham left the Ur of the Chaldees. This is something that he did. He went into a place unknown. He had no idea where he was going. I mean, he he he knew the destination, I suppose. Well, and I I suppose that's not true. He left not knowing where he was gonna go. He didn't know, right? But uh he left uh with uh by faith. This is long before, by the way, that uh uh uh the um the account in Genesis 15, when it says that uh Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Uh some would say that that was the the Genesis, the uh the moment at which uh Abraham was born again, or something of that nature. But you'll find four chapters before that is when he says that by faith Abraham left the Earth of the Chaldees. He did that long before he ever believed God, before he believed the promise that God delivered to him, because God hadn't yet delivered that promise to him. By faith Abraham left. These are things that people have done that he's going to talk about. He'll talk about um uh let me grab. I was gonna get the by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. This is chapter 11, verse 4, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. You see, that sacrifice is not what made him righteous, it was the witness that he had already been made righteous. God testifying of his gifts, and by uh he being dead yet speaketh. Now, these examples of faith are important to the Apostle Paul in laying out what it is he's driving to. He's driving to a point. I think that the point he's ultimately driving to in the book of Hebrews is in chapter 12, in fact, in those verses that we read. He says, You have all these examples of faith in history. He's talking to Jews. Of course, this book is written to Hebrews, and it's written more specifically to Jews who have confessed the name of Jesus Christ. They are active disciples of Jesus Christ, they've been baptized into his church, and yet now they're facing persecution on the part of their own countrymen. Uh other Jews who are have not confessed the name of Jesus Christ, they do not believe in Jesus Christ. They have no interest in believing in the name of Jesus Christ. Uh they are persecuting these Jews. And these Jews, these Christian Jews, are now under pressure to go back under the law, right? Well, let's just forsake these things that we've uh been taught of our Savior Jesus Christ. Let's forsake the truth that we know is uh of the Lord, and let's just go back under the law because this pressure is too much for us too much for us to bear. He'll talk about that in the tenth chapter, too. In the tenth chapter, he says in verse 32, but call to remembrance the former days, in which after ye after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions, partially while ye s partially whilst ye were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so ye used. For ye had compassion on me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. He says, This is what you endured. These people quite literally had their homes ransacked, and everything they had in belonging was taken, uh, was taken from them. And they were under great persecution and pressure to forsake the name of Jesus Christ. And he says, Cast not away your confidence. He's trying to encourage these people and to remind them of all these um these examples that came before, they're not to make you a proud Jew, they're to show us what it means to be a person of faith, to be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. So he goes into that. He talks about that in the 11th chapter, and there's a lot of um examples he lays out here, and there's a lot of examples he doesn't lay out. He talks about that the time would befell would befall us to talk about all these other people. He could talk about David and Samson and all these other individuals that came. He says, but I don't have the time to talk about them today, but suffice it to say, the Old Testament is littered with all manner of examples of faith that are important. I I do have a point I'm I'm driving to. Please bear with me. Um verse 32 in the 11th chapter, and what shall I more say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthai, and of David also and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to fight, flight, the armies of the aliens. They subdued kingdoms. Right? You want to know how it is the problems in America get solved? It's by people of faith, trusting in the Lord, and the Lord will deliver them through it. I don't know what happens in Washington, D.C. next year, the year after, and a hundred years. I don't have to care about that. It does not keep me up at night because I have faith the Lord will bear his people through whatever these uh these trials that might come are. But you'll notice the examples he'll list after this are where people weren't delivered through something, they were delivered from something. Because some of these people that were examples of faith, um, they were slain. And he lists that slaying as an example of their faith. So sometimes the example of faith isn't someone that did something marvelous and grand. It's it's they they stood for the name of Jesus Christ and they were killed for it. And he says, these people are also examples of faith. He's saying, you have these witnesses in the Old Testament. Oh, by the way, you also are compassed apart with these witnesses. You have these people around you. There's any number of people he doesn't name at all in this chapter. He says, You're you're compassed with those. You've seen those examples in your own life. People that trusted in the name of Jesus Christ, and they have taken up their cross and they're bearing it, come what may. He's saying, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about. We have these witnesses around us too. We don't only have to look to Abraham and Isaac and Moses and Noah and Abel. Yes, those are great examples to look at. But we have those examples right here in our own life. And I would say the same to you here today. You, I know, have people in your lives, whether they're passing on now or they're still around, you've you've had examples of faith in your life. And you can look at that and see people who, despite the Of the burden of old age make their way to church. And they come and they try and worship the Lord as best as they can because they're not going to let the feebleness of our bodies get in the way, right? Examples of people who stood for the truth in the face of grace of great adversity. We have these examples in our life. He's saying, now here it comes. Here comes the great example. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight. Not some of them, every weight. You know, some things are not sinful per se. They're just weights. They burden us. My job is not a sinful thing. There's nothing wrong. There's nothing immoral about my job. There's nothing immoral about your jobs. But I can let it become a weight in my life, right? I can take it to such an extent where I put so much time and so much focus on it that I don't put attention and focus on those things which are truly important. My family, my wife, the Word of God. I can allow those things to become a weight in my life that I just carry around with me, and I'm pretending like I have to carry a burden that I don't have to carry. He says, lay aside these weights. He's not saying quit your job. He's saying, stop allowing these things to weigh you down. He says, lay that aside and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Many opinions about what that sin is. I think from the second or third chapter of Hebrews, he starts talking about the sin of unbelief. If there's any sin he's talking about there, it must be the sin of unbelief. It can include everything else we want to include in it, whether there's a particular sin that plagues each and every one of you. The sin of unbelief, I think, is pretty universal. That sin of unbelief is not necessarily talking about I've reached a point in my mind where I don't believe in God. That sin of unbelief is a sin of disobedience. That word unbelief carries the meaning of acting in a way as if I don't believe in God. Have you ever done that? Have you ever acted in a way as if you didn't believe in God and then you just come out of it riddled with guilt? That's what unbelief is. He's not saying you reached a point in your mind where you said, I don't believe in God anymore. I don't think any of us have done that here. Maybe you have, maybe you came back. I don't know. But the point is, is it whether you've said that or not is irrelevant. That sin of unbelief is when you reach a point, it could be in the day, it could be sometime during the week, could be for a year long, doesn't matter. You reach a point in your life where you say, or you act in a way as if you don't believe in God. I think if we're honest with ourselves, we'd all have to claim guilt on that one. But he's saying, lay that aside. You say, Oh, I'm I'm I'm really burdened by what I've done in the past and those times where I didn't act as if I believed in the Lord. He's saying, lay that aside. Don't carry that burden with you anymore, because that burden was paid for truly in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. So he's going to say, we have to run this race as we go. We have to press on into the world, not uh trying to be a part of the world, not trying to get along or to be included or feel to feel to be uh included in the group, but we have to press on. We have to keep going, we have to take care of our families, take care of those things that God has given us responsibility over. We need help during that time, don't we? We need help as we run that race. He says, while you do it, you look to Jesus. We run the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. Here is the ultimate example of faith. I believe the 11th chapter of Hebrews, really all of Hebrews up to this point, but certainly the 11th chapter is driving to this point right here. He's gonna talk about the faith of Jesus Christ, those things that Jesus Christ did by faith. You say that's strange that there would be faith of Jesus Christ. You go read the book of Galatians, you go read the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul is gonna drive home very clearly that Jesus Christ is our ultimate example of faith. In Galatians chapter 2, thereabouts verse 16, the Apostle Paul says, Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. And not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. You see, the faith of Jesus Christ accomplished something. In fact, you go read these examples of faith in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, they accomplished something with that faith, did they not? Maybe it was uh uh uh it emboldened and encouraged those people around them. Uh you read about the uh the acts of Abraham and what he did by faith, he left the Urvicalities, and we can read all that story about Abraham afterwards. A whole nation was built from the loins of Abraham. In fact, a nation that would bless the world. Uh an act of faith has a real world consequence to it. It might be small, it might be large, but it has a real world consequence to it. It also has the role of justification. But he says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Here he is. He is this final finishing example of faith. The penultimate example of faith is right here in Jesus Christ. You say, well, these examples of faith that came in this 11th chapter didn't just come as a list of names. He lists things that these people of faith did. Well, what is it that Jesus Christ by faith did? What is it that he did? You say, well, he healed the sick. And he raised the dead, and he gave sight to the blind. Yes, those are wonderful things. Those are wonderful things, and they're for our learning. But they had a purpose while he was here. You read in John chapter 10 when the Pharisees come back to him to keep bugging him with this same problem, and they say, Tell us plainly if ye be the Christ. Tell us. He says, Stop beating around the bushes, tell us if you're if you're the Christ. And he rebukes them, of course, with his words. He says, I've told you I'm the Christ and ye believe not. He says, The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. So he says, I've told you and you don't believe. I've showed you and you don't believe. And then he tells them why they don't believe. He says, But ye believe not because you're not of my sheep. He doesn't say, you're not my sheep because you believe not. He says, ye believe not because you're not of my sheep. It's very clear. But the point I want from that is this. Uh, those works that he did, those miracles that he performed had a purpose, and they were to bear witness of who he was. It was clear when people saw the miracles, when certainly his children saw the miracles, when his elect saw those miracles, it impacted them. It touched them in some way. Now, whether or not those people took up their cross and followed them is a separate question. But they absolutely had an impact in causing people to believe in the name of Jesus Christ. They said, here he is, here's the Messiah. Again, we don't know what their acts of discipleship or not are after that, but we know this that the works of Jesus Christ, they had a direct impact, not only on the people he performed them on, but on the people that witnessed it. They saw it and they said, He's the Christ. He says, The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But those aren't the acts that he's going to talk about that he did by faith. It's these acts right here in verse 2. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, this final example of faith. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. When we think about what our heavenly husband has done for us, we must look, as we run our race, as we as husbands try and be good to our wives, to love them and to cherish them as we ought. And that's part of our race that we as husbands are going to run. As we run that race, we must look to Jesus, our heavenly husband. And what did he do for us? He endured the cross. You read in um in the Gospels about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and just how painful it was. You say, I can't really understand how painful it was. No, you can't, neither can I. I don't I don't really understand what level of pain he had to endure. Those three hours, those first three hours, when they when man gave them all that they could give him. They gave it their all, trying to destroy this man Jesus Christ. And he would not give up the ghost. He couldn't yet. Because there was a very important part that had to come that last three hours. But he endured such affliction, such pain for our for our sins. He did it for us. In in uh Galatians chapter one, he talks about uh blessed be the our Lord and blessed be the God and Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sin. Brother Owen talked about how he gave himself. He says uh uh that we ought to love our wives, even as Christ so loved the church and gave himself for it. You know the ultimate gift that's ever been given is Jesus Christ. He gave himself for our sins. He gave himself. That is a giving over. That is a complete submission to God. Submitting to God is an act of faith, and Jesus Christ, by faith, submitted himself to God. He set aside his glory, he condescended, and he gave himself to the wrath that was owed you and me. We must think about that when we run our race, when we consider our husband. We must focus on a very narrow set of things. I don't mean that to say that nothing else is important, the other works of Jesus Christ aren't important. Again, they're for our learning and they had a purpose. But the cross is central. We must look at what Jesus Christ did on the cross and understand through the rest of the Bible what's talked about, uh, what it is he did on the cross, that he paid for our sins, that he gave himself that we might live forever with him. And we can make that personal to us. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 2, he says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Now the Apostle Paul is not saying that to the exclusion of all others, as if he loved me but not you. He's just making it personal. And I believe each and every one of you here has the right to make it personal. You can make it personal for you. Jesus Christ died for you. He died for you. And he died for you. And you can make that personal. You see, election is not random. It wasn't a dartboard that God threw darts at and said, There's my elect. He chose you. And he chose you. And that touches me in a way nothing else does. He loved me, and he gave himself for me. That's what our heavenly husband has done. So as we run our race, we look to Jesus, who gave himself for us. It says that he endured the cross, despising the shame. Now, in the ignorance of my youth, I used to think that the shame that's talked about here is kind of the embarrassment of the moment. Right? Well, here he is humiliated in front of everybody. He's being spat on and such. That shame is the shame for sin that he had to endure before a just and holy God. He took on the sins of his people. He was the scapegoat. The scapegoat was that which the Jews, the high priest, would take the sins of the people of Israel, place them on the scapegoat, and then the fit man would lead the scapegoat out into the wilderness, separating the people from their sins. Jesus Christ is that scapegoat. His sin, your sin, was placed on him, and he bore that for you. And to try and understand that, I can't fathom, but we're given a little bit of language in the 22nd Psalm. I want to turn there very quickly. Psalm 22. You might think of this as like the inner dialogue of Jesus Christ when he was on the cross. He says, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It sounds familiar, doesn't it? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? This is how Jesus Christ felt when he was on the cross. This is what he's experiencing inwardly. Now, again, it's words on a page, it's hard for us to really put ourselves in that. But we can get a little bit of understanding from what he says in here. O my God, I cry in the daytime and thou hearest not, and in the night season and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were not confounded. But I am a worm and no man. A reproach of men and despised of the people. That word worm there is not talking about an earthworm. He's not talking about a caterpillar that's going to turn into a beautiful butterfly. He's talking about a maggot worm. That's how he felt. Brother Owen mentioned how he suffered alone for the sins of his people. For when he had by himself purged our sins, he suffered alone. There's a quality of maggot worms in that they tend to drive out every other living thing. They're so disgusting that everything else is driven away and they're alone. They're alone. You see, Jesus Christ felt so vile from your sin and from my sin that he felt alone. Because he was alone. He suffered by himself. By himself he suffered. And for a short time, that father-son relationship that God the Father and God the Son had was set aside, and God did not deal with his son as his son, he dealt with Jesus Christ as a sacrifice. That's a heavy thing to think about. He says, But I am a worm and no man. He didn't even feel like a man, he felt like a worm. If becoming a man was humility enough, as he says in Philippians chapter 2, becoming a worm must have been that much that much more severe. That's how he felt. And he felt that way for you. So when we think about our Savior, Jesus Christ, as we run our race, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. The shame that made him feel like a worm. He did that for me. He gave himself for me, and he gave himself for you. And I'm thankful to know that. I'm thankful to know that Jesus Christ gave himself for me, and he condescended to the ultimate depths necessary to save his people from their sins. He took on the wrath for sin that was owed you and me. You say, Well, this is pretty dark stuff. I don't really like thinking about this. It doesn't warm my heart per se. Well, it ought to warm our hearts to some degree if we know that Jesus Christ took the wrath on that was owed to you and me. You say, but does it get better? Of course it does. He says, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. The Apostle Paul, I lost count. I had to count at some point and it lost me. I've forgotten now, but at least five or six times in this uh letter to the Church of Hebrews, uh excuse me, to the uh five or six times in this letter to the Hebrews, uh he says that Jesus Christ sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, or that he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. That's what he says in the opening letter or the opening language of this letter. And there's a great um significance to that. First of all, to be at the right hand of a king is to have the authority of the king. What the right hand of the king says is authority. That was that's where we get the term right hand man from. They carry authority. So what the right hand man has done carries the authority of the king. What Jesus Christ has done for you carries the authority of the king of heaven, of God the Father. Uh it was his stamp of approval that when he raised his son from the dead and showed one time for all time that Jesus Christ is victorious over death, hell, and the grave. He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. But the uh the the other significance of that is that he sat down. You see, sitting down is indicative of a finished work. He's not standing up there thinking, I really need to go back and finish what I started. He finished it. He finished it and then he sat down. And that's how you know it's done. That's how we with confidence can walk each and every day, looking unto our Savior, knowing that the work has been finished, there remaineth no more offering for sin. We don't need another offering for sin. The one offering that was needed to cleanse his people of their sins was offered. It was accepted, and the Lord is satisfied with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And because he's satisfied, he declared himself just in the salvation of sinners, and we have been declared just by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, he gave us our faith, and he was that final example of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. And we rejoice, knowing that Jesus Christ not only is at the right hand, but that he sat down at the right hand. Because we have confidence. We have confidence now, as he says in Hebrews chapter 10, cast not away your confidence. You know Jesus Christ was set before you as a victorious savior, and you know it to be true. And whatever afflictions come your way, do not cast away your confidence in Jesus Christ. Don't do it. Don't do it, because there is no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved. There is one name by which salvation has come, and that's the name of Jesus Christ. Don't cast your confidence away. Whatever befalls you in this world, don't cast your confidence away. If we lose our jobs or the Washington, D.C. crumbles before us, and we just don't know what's going to happen, it does not matter. Cast not your confidence away. Jesus Christ sits currently at the right hand of the throne of God. He will stand one more time to come back and take his people home. He will come, he'll raise his people, he'll raise everyone from the dead, he'll separate his people from those who are not his. He will change our vile bodies into a glorified, perfect body, and we will live forever with him in heaven. Cast not away your confidence in Jesus Christ. Don't do it. There is no other name whereby you're going to find joy or peace in this world. There's one name. That's the name of Jesus Christ. He endured the cross, he despised the shame. Lord knows he despised it. It was disgusting. It was vile, and he knew what it meant to be separated from his father for a short time. He died. But he was raised again to a glorified body, to a glorified state. He put on his garments again. And he returned to heaven, and he will come back one more time. Not two more times, not three more times, but one more time. And he'll take us home to live with him forever. I look forward to that day. Thank you for your kind attention. And if there's been any benefit in this, please give the Lord all the praise and glory to that.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

So I'm going to just stand here and not be a pretty cool. So let's start with the Lord running for the other time. So we're just going to discuss with a song while we get opportunity to remember anyone.