1 Peter 2:21-25

Why would Jesus suffer? (for us) (vs 21)

1. His love for us.

If you in your Bibles tonight, turn to Genesis chapter 40.

Genesis, chapter 40.

And again, picking up from our series on the on the life of Joseph from last year.

And we have several, maybe three more messages to go.

And we preached on Joseph before, but really haven't divided it up quite like I've done on this series.

A little more calling this actually Lessons from the Life of Joseph.

Lessons from the life of Joseph.

So many things that we can learn from his example.

And I'm thankful that as we look at New Testament doctrine, New Testament teaching, that the Bible makes it clear that we have Old Testament to give us examples and illustrations of those New Testament doctrine.

And one of the great doctrines that we studied on Sunday night is that God does care.

God does care.

Cast all your care upon him.

He careth for you.

And we went through that on Wednesday night, this last Sunday night.

I'll mention that again here in a moment.

And so look at chapter 40, verse 1.

And it came to pass after these things that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord, the king of Egypt.

And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers and against the chief of the bakers.

And he put them in ward and the house of.

Of the captain of the guard.

We know that's Potiphar, right?

Potiphar is the captain of the guard.

And into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.

I guess that was just coincidence, wasn't it?

Aren't you glad there's no coincidence with God?

There's no happenstance with God.

God has a plan, a purpose.

Verse 4.

And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them.

And they continued his season in the ward.

And they dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream in one night.

And each man according to his interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison.

Verse 6.

And Joseph came in unto them in the morning and looked upon them, and behold, they were sad.

And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his Lord's house, saying, wherefore look ye so sadly today?

And they said unto him, we have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.

And Joseph said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God?

Tell me them, I pray you, let's spend a little time on verse eight tonight.

There's a lot there to learn.

And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said unto him, in my dream, behold, a vine was before me, and in the vine were three branches.

And it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth, and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes.

And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand.

And I took of the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I caved the cup unto Pharaoh's hand.

Verse 12.

And Joseph said unto him, and this is the interpretation of it, the three branches are three days.

Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place.

And thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup unto his hand after the former manner, when thou wast his butler.

But think on me when it shall be well with thee.

And shew kindness, I pray thee unto me.

And make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of his house.

Of this house.

Verse 15.

And indeed I was stolen away out of the land of Hebrews.

And here also have I done nothing but that should put me into the dungeon.

And when the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream.

And behold, I had three white baskets on my head, and in the utmost basket there was of all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh.

And the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.

And Joseph answered and said, this is the interpretation thereof.

The three baskets are three days.

Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee.

That's not good.

And shall hang thee on a tree that's not good.

And the bird shall eat thy flesh from off of thee.

And that's not good.

Verse 20.

And it came to pass the third day which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants.

And he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants, and restored the cheap butler unto his butlership again.

And he gave the cup unto Pharaoh's hand.

But he hanged the cheap baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.

Yet did not the cheap butler remember Joseph, but forgot him again.

Let's pray.

Lord, bless again the reading of your word.

Bless the message tonight.

Lord, help us again to see the wonderful, wonderful truth that you do care in Jesus name.

Amen.

As we said Sunday night, difficulties are a part of life.

Every one of us face difficulties on a daily basis, and some bigger than others.

John 16.

Jesus said his words.

33, verse 33.

These things have I spoken unto thee, that in this world you shall have tribulation.

But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Jesus said, in this world you shall have tribulation.

And no matter what the TV evangelist may say or some self help guru or some of the modern day preachers would say, well, if you get saved, everything's going to be okay.

The Bible never says that.

The Bible says that God will be with you in your problems and in your difficulties.

He will carry you through those problems and difficulties.

Just as he was with the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, so will he be with us.

But he never promises that all our problems will go away.

And as Christians or as unbelievers, we all face difficulties, all have circumstances that we face every day.

But we can see from here that Joseph believed that God cared.

Joseph believed and had a strong conviction that God cared.

Joseph never lost faith.

We need to be convinced of God's care, that no matter what circumstances we're facing, that God cares for us.

As Joseph never lost faith, so should we never lose faith, we should trust in God's care.

As we said Sunday night, 1st Peter 5:7, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.

That word careth, when it describes what God is doing is singular.

And it is if on the end, which means he's continually caring.

Not for the crowd, not for the world, but he does that as well.

But the individual, each individual, as if you were the only one alive.

He cares for you.

By the way, it's the same thing with John 3:16.

For God so loved the world.

He loves us individually.

We see that as a.

As in the big picture.

And God sees the individual.

God cares for you.

We talked about Sunday night.

How can we cast our care upon him?

Well, we can do that by surrendering and yielding our will to his.

We do that by trusting in him.

We do that by rejoicing.

Rejoice.

What always and again I say rejoice.

Hard to rejoice and be depressed and stressed.

If you're rejoicing and thanking God and then patience, well, that's a hard one for me.

And service.

Serving others brings joy into our life.

Giving to others and being a blessing to others brings about joy and care in our life.

So that was Sunday night.

We think about again, just a slight review.

In chapter 37, we find that Joseph is loved of his Father.

In fact, he is preferred above his brethren, though he's the youngest.

And because of that and the dream that Joseph had.

Remember, Joseph had a dream.

He had a dream of the sun, moon and stars bowing to him.

He had a dream of the sheaths bowing to his sheaf.

And so the brothers were jealous of that.

They thought Joseph was just being prideful and they hated him for it.

And though his father loved him and, and prefer loved him above his brethren, they hated him.

His brothers hated him.

By the way, I want to remind you that when Joseph dreamed those dreams, that was God's word to him in the Old Testament.

As I said to the HCA students this morning in chapel in the Old Testament, the dreams and visions that they would have are God speaking to them directly.

And we know that God spoke to Abraham directly.

And we could name other patriarchs that God spoke to directly, audibly.

And that's the way in which God spoke in the Old Testament wasn't just the written word.

And there was of course Moses written word, but it was God speaking to them or through visions or through dreams.

So my point to that is, and I've said this before, that when Joseph dreamed the dream that should have, you know, got the antennas up, that God had spoke to him and that God's word was true.

And they should have said, well, they should have accepted God's word.

But Jacob, his father rejected it.

His brothers especially rejected it.

So what were the dreams saying?

The dreams were saying to Joseph and to Jacob, his father and family, that one day Joseph would lead the family.

And we know in the Old Testament, in that day and age and in that society that normally the oldest son would lead the family.

But God in the dream to Joseph was saying, no, the oldest isn't going to lead the family.

Joseph's going to lead the family.

But they, the family rejected God's word.

They rejected God's promise.

But Joseph accepted it.

Joseph believed it, and Joseph trusted.

And I'll show you here in a minute why, I mean, very evidently why he did, or at least, at least the results of why he did or the evidence of why he did.

And I love this one when I came across this years ago, by the way, if Jacob, his father had believed the word that was given to Joseph when his brothers came to him, came to dad and said, hey, look, here's the coat of many colors, look at the blood on it.

Your son is dead.

If Jacob would have believed God's word, he would have said, no, he's not.

No, he's not.

God's promised that Joseph's going to lead our family one day.

So he has to be alive because God always keeps his promises.

But because of Jacob's rejection of the, of God's word, we know the story.

He was sad to the point of death.

Chapter 39, we have again, we know that Joseph's brother Sold him into slavery and he's brought down to Egypt and Potiphar purchases him, the captain of the guard.

And there in Potiphar's house, God blesses him.

And, and you know, Potiphar doesn't even know what's on the table.

He doesn't know what he owns.

I mean, Joseph's handling and administrating and stewarding all of his stuff.

And Potiphar's wife made advances to Joseph, tempted Joseph, and Joseph resisted the temptation.

Joseph had a strong conviction concerning biblical purity, but she accused him.

And so Potiphar put him in prison.

And so Joseph went from the pit that his brothers threw him into to Potiphar's house.

And now we pick it up where he's in prison.

He's in some difficult circumstances, faces some difficult circumstances.

He is surrounded by, encompassed by a big problem.

We all face difficult circumstances.

We all face conditions that surround us.

By the way some of those things are out of our control.

Probably were there, you've been there and probably were there today.

Maybe at some point.

Some things we create ourself, some circumstances.

Circumstances the way an event happens or the way the result of event that you have no control over.

Circumstances, maybe they be a social circumstance or maybe it's a financial circumstance or a spiritual circumstance you think about.

And I'm not going to illustrate it tonight by bringing somebody up here, but if I was to bring some men up here and surround me and then they would begin to close in on me, that's being surrounded by your circumstances.

Had some teenagers in here.

We'd illustrate it, see if I could bust out of the circumstances again, the circumstances many times will begin to push in around us, whether it's work or whether it's bills or whether it's family, whether it's church or whether it's friends or health.

I mean, again, you can go through the list.

The circumstances many times surround us and it begins to squeeze us.

We can feel like the circumstances are closing in around us.

How do we keep the faith in those times?

Well, Joseph's a wonderful example, a wonderful example of how to handle circumstances that come into our life.

And if I was just to cut to the chase, which most of you here know, he was able to handle the circumstances because he trusted God.

Let's pray and be dismissed.

What was Joseph's difficult circumstance?

Well, again, context.

Hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused, locked up.

And now he's been there 10 years.

10 years he's been in Egypt.

And then the Bible says, and it came to pass after these things.

Well, that's a lot of these things.

You could probably make a list too, right?

Not probably.

We all could make a list after these things this happened, or after these things this occurrence took place.

But here we have the happenstance of the butler and the baker being thrown into prison with Joseph.

And again, there's no information as to why they were thrown into prison.

I've read a bunch of different commentaries and there's speculation.

You know, maybe they were trying to kill Pharaoh and he found out.

Maybe the baker was the one who eventually found out that maybe he was the spearhead of that and that's why he was killed.

But the Bible doesn't give us any information to that.

By the way, when the Bible doesn't, When the Bible stays silent about something, we ought to be silent about it too.

So be careful about that.

They both dreamed dreams.

But I love verse eight, it said, and he that is, they said unto him, we have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpretation of it.

And Joseph said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God?

Tell me them, I pray you.

I've preached this many, many times.

I have, and so have many of you who've taught in Sunday school class.

One of the great Sunday school lessons with kids and whether you're teaching children's church or whatever the case is.

I don't know how many times I've preached this or at least use it as an illustration.

How many times have I used an illustration?

Probably a thousand times, that Joseph again kept the faith.

That Joseph realized that though his brethren sold him into slavery and did all those things, at the end he says, you know, what, you meant it for evil, but what God meant it for good.

And I always go back to again, that God always has our best interest in mind.

That God works all things together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.

God has a plan and a purpose for everything that comes into our life.

Maybe it's a test, maybe it's a spanking that we need.

By the way, whom the Lord loveth he what chasteneth?

So sometimes it is that, but it is God conforming us.

Romans tells us, conforming us into the image of his son.

He is chipping away at us.

He is burning the dross.

He's burning the impurities off of us.

He's chipping away at that diamond and.

And perfecting us, completing us.

Is the word completing us.

But many times our response to adversity is not a proper biblical response.

We need to Respond as Joseph has responded.

Joseph responded by telling these two men, isn't it God who interprets dreams?

Isn't it God who gives us what and how and what about the dreams?

I mean, it's God who's going to do it.

I'm thankful that Joseph always acknowledged God and gave glory to God.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thine own understanding and all thy ways at what?

Acknowledge him, then he will direct your paths.

You acknowledge God, you give him the glory, you give him the credit.

He'll direct you, he'll guide you.

And that's what he did for Joseph.

He directed and guided him.

Because he trusted God, he kept the faith.

He was confident that God knew and would reveal the answer to these two men.

Listen to this.

Now this is where I want to get to tonight.

Joseph's response to them proved that he still trusted God.

Joseph's response proved that he still trusted God and had faith that his own dream would be fulfilled.

You say, well, preacher, how do you know that?

Pretty easy.

Take the scenario again.

Two men thrown into prison.

There's Joseph in the ward.

He's in the prison.

He is now been given, you know, he's the steward of that prison, taking care of the prison underneath the captain of the guard.

And these two men get thrown in.

And the next morning he comes in, the two men are sad.

He asks them why they're sad.

And they said, well, we both had dreams and there's nobody here to interpret it.

If Joseph had become cynical and if Joseph had become a lot like other Christians and non Christians about God and the circumstances they're in because of these circumstances, he would have said something like this, well, doesn't matter anyway.

Your dreams don't mean nothing anyway.

His response would have been something like, well, I had a dream, but you know, but nothing ever came of it.

Nothing will ever come of your dream.

Don't worry about it.

Wouldn't that have been response?

I mean, again, sold into slavery by his brothers.

He's 17 years old.

Imagine 17 years old and being thrown down in the pit and your brothers pick you out of the pit and they sell you to some idiots.

Now you're on your way to Egypt and you come to the captain of the guard and imagine being that young and going through that.

17.

I was having fun with my Chevrolet truck and dating Tanya and you know, having fun going to school.

He's a slave.

And yet when he's asked, he's in prison.

And yet when he's asked he says, doesn't interpretations belong to God?

I don't know about you, but I've met many people who, who would be like, what I was just illustrating, who would say things like, well, your dreams don't mean anything anyway.

Look what God's done to me.

I had a dream one time, but look where I'm at.

It's foolish to believe.

And really the application tonight would be it's foolish to believe in the promises of God.

That would have been his response.

I'm just saying had he given, given up the faith, had he let his circumstance drag him down.

And his response would have been, well, God doesn't keep his promises.

But that wasn't his response.

His response was very positive.

God interprets dreams.

How many people have you met who you say to them, hey man, I'd love to invite you to church.

Or maybe you're trying to minister to them.

And they say, well, you know, look how my life has turned out.

God hasn't kept his promises to me.

You know, I don't know that God is what he says he really is.

You been there?

You ever talked to somebody like that?

Maybe that's you, maybe you've been there a time or two.

But we need to be careful, don't we?

Joseph trusted God.

In spite of the circumstances.

He was in his unwavering faith.

And his positive response ultimately led to his release and the fulfillment of God's promise to him.

Remember we were studying Caleb and we were studying Joshua, the book of Joshua, and we were reminded of the promise that God gave Caleb and Joshua, that one day they would go in the promised land and God would give them the land that they had promised.

And in fact the land that they had spied out, that Caleb had spied out and Joshua spied out, that God would give them that particular area.

And that's the Hebron area.

And so Caleb finally does come to Joshua and says, hey, remember back when God promised you and he promised me that mountain, the place of the giants, the place, the city of Hebron and that area.

Remember that?

I want the mountain, Caleb said.

I want what God promised to me.

45 years later, God kept his promise.

Aren't you glad the promises of God again are not voided by time?

That God is never early, he's never late, he's always on time.

And that is hard for us.

As I said Sunday night, patience is difficult for me.

Man, I get so frustrated, man, I go through a drive through and I get so frustrated.

The feeling of frustration boils up inside of me when my Kids were little.

Literally whoever was in the back seat, on the side, on the driver's side, I would drive forward and let them take the order.

Like I don't want to take the order through the drive through, Let you know, Caleb or Joshua do it.

Because man, I'd get frustrated.

Number one, I couldn't hear them.

Sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher talking, wa wa wa wa wa wa.

Now they, they.

Most of the drive thru restaurants now have improved that greatly.

But man, back in the day it was absolutely frustrating.

So many times in our circumstances we get frustrated, we get frustrated.

We began to lose faith in our trust in God.

It's good to be reminded that because Joseph did not lose faith, it ultimately led to his release and the fulfillment of the promise that God gave him.

What would have happened had Joseph said well your dreams really don't mean anything.

God didn't you know, God hasn't kept his promise to me.

What if he'd have said that?

He would probably have stayed in prison and, and most likely he would not have seen ultimately the promise fulfilled that God had given him.

Can I get a witness?

Right.

So your response to your circumstance is highly important.

Highly important to what?

To your future.

To your future.

What God can do for you and what God will do for you so many times is dictated by what you do now.

Now I'm thankful there is the grace of God and I'm thankful there are times in which God does not give us what we deserve and he shows us great grace.

And though we are stubborn and stiff necked like the children of Israel, God blessed them anyway, didn't He?

Provided for them, did things for them.

It's an amazing miracle that God would do that for us as well.

But be careful about presupposing on the grace of God and I preached a sermon on that here years ago.

Many times we do that.

We think, well the grace of God will cover it.

You know what?

I'm thankful that we serve a gracious God.

You as a parent.

We're gracious with our kids, aren't we?

We really are.

There is things they really deserve.

We all just knock them out.

Knock them out.

John.

Who's John anyway?

We won't go through that.

Yeah, I mean but we're gracious to our kids.

Sometimes we don't give them what they deserve and many times show mercy to them and I'm thankful our heavenly Father does the same.

But sometimes our kids will get in the habit of pushing us and just supposing that we won't do nothing.

Can I just tell you that God, what you do now affects the future.

Your trust in God and your faith in the promises of God may be contingent upon what God can do for you in the future.

Does that make sense?

And we see that in the life of Joseph, had he not had a very strong conviction concerning the promise that God had given him underneath the circumstances, he would have missed out on the great promise.

By the way, who else would have missed out the then known world?

Because of Joseph, the then known world was saved from starvation.

Isn't that amazing?

Be careful.

We, as Joseph did, should put our trust in God and not lose faith.

And we know the rest of the story.

Again, as we think about, the butler is returned to his position.

The baker dies.

And so the dreams are fulfilled.

But we know that the butler did not remember Joseph.

But that's not the end of the story.

We're not going to go read it.

But again, chapter 41, verses 1 and 10 makes it very clear that God was working on behalf of Joseph.

That God was working behind the scenes.

And things were about to change big time for Joseph.

Three years later, they did change.

Joseph did not lose faith because he was convinced of God's care.

We need to be convinced of God's care.

And when circumstances crowded around us, we need to put our trust in Him.

God's presence is promised in our life.

Hard times come to those in God's will.

And hard times come to those who are out of God's will.

Remember that.

Who told the disciples to get into the ship and go to the other side of Galilee?

Yet they faced a storm.

You can be in God's will and still face storms.

Remember how Jesus came to them in the midst of their storm?

He walked on the Sea of Galilee.

And he'll walk to you in the midst of your storm.

Hard times will come.

Difficult circumstances will come.

And we must be faithful in our conviction and faith.

The circumstances of our life are simply opportunities for God to work in our lives.

The circumstances in our life are simply opportunities for God to reveal our true heart.

And I used both of those illustrations.

Sunday or Sunday night again?

How do we get good tea?

Well, it has to go through the hot process first to get the good stuff, you know.

How does a caterpillar become a butterfly?

Well, it has to break out of the cocoon and you can't help it.

It has to do it itself.

God uses circumstances in our life to shape us and conform us and mold us in the image of His Son.

But it is contingent on our faith, our acceptance and our trust in Him.

God cares for you.

Do you believe that no matter what you may face tonight, whatever you face tomorrow, God cares for you?

He's there in the midst of the storm he's there in the midst of the fire he's there he will carry you.

I could sing lots of songs that illustrate that God is so good and God is so merciful and kind to us.

We must trust in his care.

Let's all stand.

We'll have a verse invitation tonight.

Sing a verse of have thine Own Way Lord, have Thine own way.

Very appropriate in light of the message tonight.

After we pray.

Heavenly Father, again we come to you.

I realize and know that in the audience tonight and maybe those watching online, there are circumstances that we all face.

Maybe there are some here tonight who are truly hurting and in a difficult circumstance.

And I pray God that you would encourage them, strengthen them, give them grace and mercy that you have promised.

And Lord, I pray that we would be convinced, thoroughly convinced that you do care.

Love you and thank you in Jesus name.

Amen.

Aren't you thankful for the power of the cross?

Amen.

Now that I'm on.

So if you want your Bibles turn to First Peter.

We're going to be in and around our theme verse for the year and around this subject of our theme and his steps and looking forward to preaching through and we'll step back next time and preach some of the first chapter of first Peter and then come back to the second chapter of First Peter as we go along.

So again we'll do study really the book of First Peter on Sunday morning for a while and I'm looking forward to that.

And it is really a lot has to do with suffering and how we suffer and how Jesus suffered and how he is again our example that we should follow in his steps not just again about all about suffering, but how we ought to follow in his steps.

And in this case in the context of the verse it is speaking about suffering.

Look at 1st Peter 2:21 for even hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow in his steps.

And there is our theme that ye should follow his steps or in his steps.

Verse 22 who did no sin, speaking of Jesus Christ, who did no sin, neither was any guile.

That word guile for us again means deceit.

There was no deceit found in his mouth.

Who when he was reviled, reviled not again when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree.

That we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed, for ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, again.

Lord, we love youe and we thank youk for the Word.

We thank youk for this word that we have that encourages and strengthens us and also, Lord, directs us how to live.

And I pray, Lord, that we would see again the importance and the love of your substitutionary death, burial and resurrection.

We thank you in Jesus name.

Amen.

Suffering is a part of life, man.

That's a profound statement.

But again, there are kind of.

There are two or three different kinds of suffering.

Suffering can be the consequences of doing wrong.

We do something wrong and there's a consequence to that.

There's some suffering that's going to take place when your child does something wrong.

There should be some consequences of that.

There needs to be some consequences to that.

You know, they throw themselves down at Albertsons in the floor.

Is there Albertsons anymore?

Yeah, they throw themselves down at Albertsons in the grocery store.

They throw themselves and throw a fit.

There should be consequences to that.

The Board of Education, to the seat of understanding.

And those should be consequences.

And nobody's going to like this one because we use this one a lot.

But you know what?

If you are in a motorized vehicle and you see a sign on the road that says 55 or it says 65.

I know I have police officers in the auditorium.

75 in Texas.

That's a suggestion until the lights are behind you, Right?

And then there are consequences to breaking the law.

It's funny how we will speed and then get, you know, pulled over and then we're the one upset when we're the one who broke the law.

We saw it, you know, anyway, we broke the law.

There are consequences to breaking the law.

Sometimes we suffer for things we did not do.

Sometimes we can be accused of wrongdoing and we didn't do it.

I think way back in the crevices of my brain, and I think about a time when my dad, who's in the auditorium, so I had to tell this story correctly, found a lit match that was.

It was no longer lit, but a match that had been lit.

The restroom in the house I grew up in.

So there was three.

There was three.

There were two restrooms, one full size bath, but in my mom and dad's room there was a half bath.

There was just A sink and a toilet.

And my dad found a match that had been lit in that bathroom.

So he began his investigation.

He's definitely an investigator, has the badge and everything.

He started investigating who lit the match in the house, in the back bathroom.

I said, I didn't do it.

My older brother, who's four years older than me, who pastors in Jacksonville, Texas, just a couple hours from here, four years older than me, told my dad that he did not do it, but that I did it.

He said, eric did it, he did it.

Well, of course, who is my dad going to believe?

I'm not putting this all on my dad.

That.

No, my dad believed my older brother.

I'm the one who was the hyperactive ADD kid who got constantly into trouble anyway.

I mean, it was just natural that I was the one who lit the match, put it out, and that was the.

Anyway, the results of that was that I got a humongous spanking.

Board of education, the seat of understanding.

I can.

Actually, that's one of the.

You know, most of the weapons.

I literally have forgotten them.

I don't remember very few of the corporal punishment that my dad dished out.

By the way, just as a side note, because some of you may be new here or you don't know me all that well.

I am so thankful that my dad disciplined us growing up.

I am.

No way was.

I am for what the Bible says when he talks about corporal punishment.

My dad did it the right way 99.999% of the time.

But even my dad can foul up now and again, and he royally fouled up on this one.

He believed my older brother.

I am the one who received a.

A spanking that was beyond the normal for lighting a fire in the house that on the surface is justifiable.

I should have received a spanking that was beyond normal for lighting a fire in the house.

But I didn't do it.

My older brother did it.

He didn't.

And I told my dad I didn't do it.

I said, dad, I didn't do it.

I didn't do it.

I didn't.

As I was receiving the spanking.

And of course, my dad would tell you now, he would say, well, all those other things you did that I never caught you.

There you go.

And you know what?

There he is.

He's amen.

And I totally agree.

I did.

I was.

Man, I was a handful.

Again, I was accused wrongfully.

Sometimes that happens.

And I know, in fact, I have in my notes here, I don't want to make I don't want to be trivial about this.

And I realize there are folks in the room, including myself, who've experienced major, major things in life where I was accused of doing something I did not do.

And I know many of you have been in that same situation.

Realize.

Realize that Christ was guiltless.

Realize that Jesus Christ was sinless.

Understand?

I know you.

We know this.

But it's good to be reminded over and over again that when Christ again went to the cross that he had no sins of his own.

When he stood before the judges and in the court, he was wrongfully accused.

Wrongfully accused.

In fact, he talks about suffering there in verses 18 and 19 and 20.

Look at verse 19.

For this is thank worthy of a man for conscience toward God.

Endure grief and suffering wrongfully, that we are to endure grief and suffering wrongly.

For what?

Look at verse 20.

For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently?

But in other words, if you did wrong, you should receive some buffeting.

But if, when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

No greater example of that than Jesus Christ.

No greater example of someone who again was not guilty and yet suffered so much.

And today I just want to answer once again the why?

Why?

Why would he do that?

Why would he suffer as he suffered?

And the verse tells us verse 21.

For even hereunto are ye called.

Now it's talking about suffering.

There you were called to suffer because Christ also suffered.

What say it for us, for us.

Our last sermon on this subject or our last sermon on the text here I did kind of an overall view this morning.

Again, I want to ask the question, why?

Why did he suffer?

He suffered for us, though he was guiltless.

Though he was not guilty, yet he suffered for us.

Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 21.

Most of you, or a lot of you, know the verse and some of you got to memorize.

For he that is God the Father, made him God the Son, to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made.

The righteousness of God in him, Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, became sin for us.

Understand this morning.

And again, I'm not preaching anything new, and this is some for some of you, very elementary.

But we are sinners.

We are all sinners.

We're sinners by nature.

The word sin or sinners ruffles feathers today.

But can I tell you, it's always ruffled feathers because it brings about feelings of guilt.

We live in a society and in an era of preachers and churches who have put the word sin aside, in fact, some churches and preachers have even removed it and just.

They don't even say the word anymore because it does bring about the feeling of guilt.

Most of the world today, that's so loud and so obnoxious and so ungodly, they don't like the word sin because it brings about the feeling of guilt.

We are not animals because we do have a conscience.

In fact, the proof, one of the greatest proofs that God, that we are created by design is that we have a conscience.

Animals don't have consciences.

And the word sin has been removed from so many places in society, and even in some churches and some preachers have stopped using it in an attempt to silence the conscience.

That way, the conscience isn't stirred up.

That light that's been given to every man, all mankind, that law that's been placed on every heart.

The Bible says when we are confronted with the moral law, the Ten Commandments that Jesus Christ summarized down to one, we'll cover that in a moment.

We are reminded that we are all guilty before God.

Thou shalt not steal.

I was covering this with someone the other day.

I said, it's funny, I meet people who say, well, you know, I don't know that I'm necessarily a sinner.

And I asked him, I said, have you ever stolen anything?

I said, well, no.

No, I haven't.

I've never stolen anything.

And then I just began to name a few things, like.

But when you was a kid, you never took anything that wasn't yours.

You never took the toy or what that wasn't yours.

You never in the grocery store, you know, took the Jolly Rancher and put it in your pocket.

We had a little neighborhood store around the corner from us called Mac's Grocery.

And my mom worked there sometimes, and Ms. Mac and Mr. Mac, who owned it.

And you know, they had those little box.

Used to you.

They had boxes of Jolly Ranchers just sitting out there and all the gum.

And I cannot say that I had not partaken of one now and again, confessing before my dad this morning, that's a little trivial.

Still serious, by the way.

You're stealing from someone, you're taking them.

You're being selfish.

But how many of you have taken, you know, a pencil from work or don't use pencils anymore, do we?

How many?

You know, I'm saying.

I mean, a paperclip, you know, you say, well, that's just trivial.

That's not really?

Stealing.

Yeah, it is stealing.

I'm saying the moral law brings about a stirring of the conscience, and if you're a Christian, it brings about the stirring of the Holy Spirit in your life.

And he says, hey, don't do that.

You know, and so, so many stay away from the Word and stay away from, especially again, the Ten Commandments and these areas.

And I'm so thankful that the Ten Commandments now set in downtown Fort Worth there at the courthouse.

Isn't that amazing?

It's amazing.

That's awesome.

The Bible says for all have sinned, that all are guilty before God, that there has not been one man, one woman who's been born of this world who was not a sinner, selfish by nature, except one.

Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ was born sinless.

He did not have a sinful nature.

Never one time did Jesus Christ have a sinful desire.

Never one time did he perform a sinful deed.

He was sinless in disposition, his nature.

He was selfless in desire and selfless indeed.

But we are selfish by nature.

So what is sin?

Well, it's clearly defined in the Bible.

1 John 3, 4.

John says, Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law.

For sin is a transgression of the law.

Sin is breaking the law.

Well, what is the law?

I know some of you again have heard me repeat this a thousand times, but man, it's good to be reminded.

What is the law of God?

Well, again we think about the Old Testament.

There are 613 laws in the Old Testament.

There were three kind of laws in the Old Testament.

There was the moral law, the civil law, the ceremonial law, and the Ten Commandments.

The moral law.

Jesus Christ took all those laws from the Old Testament and he summarized them down to one.

And it's found in Matthew, chapter seven in verse 12.

And Jesus says this.

He says, therefore, all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do ye even also to them.

For this is all the law and the prophets.

We used to call this the Golden Rule.

And I told you before, in my 8th grade class in public school, the professor, the teacher had that golden rule on the back wall of our classroom.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

That's the law.

We would treat others as we would want to be treated.

Think about it.

If everyone treated everyone in the world as they wanted to, you know, that they would treat themselves as they would treat themselves, what would that do to to the world?

Then we all could really sing Kumbaya, you know, there really would be no war and there really would be no need for police officers or military or if everyone treated everyone as they would want to be treated, that's what we're going to experience in heaven.

Amen.

I'm looking forward to it, aren't you?

What a day that'll be.

Don't get me singing again.

Jesus summarizes it down to one.

What is the law?

If sin's breaking the law, then what is the law?

Well, the law, again, is selflessness.

And when you break the law, it's because we are selfish.

We are selfish and we're selfish by nature.

And then thirdly, what is the penalty for breaking that law?

So when you go down the highway and you see that sign, that suggestion sign on the road, and you don't obey it because you think you know you're going to be okay, and then somebody pulls up behind you that goes, woo, woo, woo, you broke the law.

What is the penalty for that?

Well, depends on the officer and da, da, da, da, sometimes, whatever.

But there is a consequence.

And I'm telling you, the Bible makes it very clear what the consequences of sin is.

It's found in Romans 6, verse 23.

Some of you have it memorized.

Romans 6 and verse 23, for the wages or the penalty of sin is what?

What?

Death.

That's the penalty of sin.

That's the consequences from God for sin, death, separation from God.

But the Bible clearly clarifies that it's more than a separation.

I know there's a big debate right now because of a Famous person on YouTube and other things about is hell really real?

Hell is really real.

There is a fire.

Fire.

There is an eternal fire, a place of eternal fire where those who do not accept Christ as their savior, those who do not receive pardon, those who do not receive forgiveness of their sins will live eternally in a lake of fire.

That's clarified for us in several places, but especially in Revelation, chapter 20 and verse 14.

John the Revelator said that.

He said, in death and hell were cast in the lake of fire.

This is the second death.

The wages of sin is death.

What death is that?

Well, it's separation from God, but it's more than just a separation from God.

And just as real as heaven is, hell is as real as heaven.

And hell is a literal, eternal fire.

And those who do not receive pardon and those who do not receive the forgiveness of sins, and those who do not come to Jesus to receive that pardon will live eternally in a lake of fire.

By the way, I always like to clarify, God's not satisfied by those who are burning in hell.

The Bible says that hell was not intended for human beings, that it was built for the devil and his angels.

But mankind also rebelled.

Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.

Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden.

He took of the fruit willingly.

Eve was deceived.

And because of that willful disobedience, sin has been passed down to all mankind.

That selfish nature and the consequences of that is death.

Well, why should I pay for Adam's sin?

No, no, no, no, no.

You're just as selfish.

I'm just as selfish.

I committed sin this morning.

I'm selfish.

Don't blame it on Adam.

You chose to sin as well.

And because of that sin, the consequences of that is.

Hell is death.

It's death.

But I'm so thankful for the sinless Savior.

Our text, who did no sin.

Neither was any guile found, any deceit found in his mouth.

We have again here the sinless Savior.

God in the flesh.

You see?

Why?

Why did he not sin?

Why could he?

Well, because he could not sin.

He was God in the flesh.

God can't sin.

First Peter 2, 22.

We just read it.

Who did no sin.

Neither was any guile found in his mouth.

Hebrews, chapter 4, and verse 15 says, but was in all points tempted, tested, like we are, yet without sin.

Pontius Pilate, when Jesus stood before him, finally came to the conclusion, he said, what?

I find no fault in him.

The judge that he stood before could find no fault in Jesus Christ.

He had no sins of his own.

He hadn't.

He hadn't committed any crime.

Oh, they tried to, you know, put some things before the judge and had false testimonies.

And he was falsely accused, wrongfully accused, and was beaten and mocked and tortured and suffered.

Why?

For us, that's what the Bible says.

Our text says, for us, the sinless Savior had a sinless record in order that he might die in our place, in order that we might have our sinful record erased and his sinless record put in its place.

It's a doctrine called imputed righteousness, a teaching the Bible teaches over and over and over again.

And we as a church have gone through it many, many times.

All you gotta do is go read Romans chapter 4 and 5 and many other places.

I'm so thankful for the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ that Jesus suffered the death that Jesus suffered and died.

For me, it's the very heart of the gospel.

The gospel is what First Corinthians 15 tells us.

It's the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ lived a sinless life.

He died, he was buried and three days later he rose again from the dead.

And the heart of that, at the heart of that is that he died in our place.

That he died for me.

That he died for my sins.

How can a God remain just?

In other words, how can a God remain fair while justifying sinners?

What does justify mean means to erase their sins, to erase the record of their sins.

Just as if I'd never sinned.

How can he just.

How can a God justify erasing our sins, erasing our sinful record?

We don't like it when judges are soft, do we?

These liberal judges across the nation who let people off.

I mean, some guy tries to assassinate a Supreme Court justice and gets eight years in prison.

That's ludicrous.

The guy should be locked away forever and ever and ever until he rots in jail.

But you have a liberal judge who is soft.

Oh, you know, he's this and she's that.

And I know the law says this, but anyway, I'll go on.

We don't like it when they're soft, do we?

I mean, when they're, let me put it that way, when they're.

Obviously we don't like that when they just let somebody off.

There's sometimes justifiable reasons to being soft or whatever.

But I'm talking about when they are just.

It's crazy, isn't it?

And I could get red faced about it.

Some guy gets in a car drunk.

He chose to drink.

He chose to drink that.

He chose to drink.

He got in a car and he killed three people.

What should happen to that individual?

Involuntary manslaughter.

Really?

I'm just saying we get mad at things like that.

God cannot just let sin, you know, he just can't write it off.

A just God, a fair God.

Sin must be paid for.

It must be paid for.

How can he punish sin and forgive sinners at the same time?

It's very easy.

But God commendeth his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath.

The penalty of sin.

Through him, through Jesus Christ we are saved from the penalty of sin, from the wrath of God upon sin.

Through Jesus Christ, what he did on the cross and his burial and his resurrection, because of the works of Jesus Christ and our trust in him and putting our faith in Him.

Our sins are forgiven because he paid for our sins.

We are forgiven through Him.

He died in our place.

He's a substitute.

He took God's wrath for our sins.

He paid for our sins.

Have you had your sins forgiven?

Have you been saved?

Have you been rescued from the wrath of God that's been placed upon your sins?

I hope today you know Jesus as your Savior.

He came to seek and to save that which is lost.

He shall save his people what from their sins.

Oh, what a savior.

Oh, what a God who would love us enough to send his only begotten Son into the world that we through him might be saved.

He bore our sins.

Verse 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.

He bore our sins.

This is a quote from Isaiah 53 that God laid on him the sins or the iniquity of us all.

All mankind's sins were put upon Him.

Not just the elect, by the way.

All mankind's sins were put upon Him.

He died for all mankind that all men might receive Him.

He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to Him.

I hope you know you're saved.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

God in the flesh, the Creator of all things, the curator of all things, died in your place.

He took the penalty of sin for you.

Amazing, amazing truth.

He died order that we might have victory over the penalty of sin.

And he died in order that we might have the power over sin.

Look at verse 24 again.

It says that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.

Romans chapter six really covers this.

It says, we as Christians, those who've accepted Christ as Savior, those who put their trust in Jesus and Him alone, that we no longer have to yield ourselves as instruments of unrighteousness.

But we've been given the power to live Christian life.

We've been given the power to follow in his steps the Holy Spirit that abides in you, empowers you, gives you the grace to overcome the sin that's in your life.

To overcome the sins that are in your life.

In other words, God's still in the life changing business.

God will change your life.

And God will give you victory over whatever it is that besets you, whatever it is that's holding you back, whatever it is that's dragging you down.

He has given you the power you need by way of the Holy Spirit that now abides in you as a Christian to overcome.

We are overcomers.

We are more than conquerors.

Through him that loved us and gave his life for us.

Being dead to sin, by whose stripes we were healed.

It's because of his suffering, because of the mocking, because of the stripes that he received on his back, because of the awful torture he went through, not just the physical torture.

And we won't cover this this morning, understand?

The Bible says that he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

There were lots of other people who died by way of the cross.

But his cross was unique because he didn't just die there, a physical death that all the others who had followed or all those in the future who would die a death of the cross, but there he suffered relationally in that his father turned his back on him.

The Old Testament describes that when Jesus was on the cross, it was like him being in a skillet with a lid on it, and he was literally frying for us.

He took all of God's wrath for our sins.

The Lord laid on him the iniquity of all, and God poured his wrath upon his Son.

That same verse in Isaiah 53 says, it pleased the Lord to bruise him, the Heavenly Father.

It pleased the Lord to bruise his Son.

Why?

Not because of his Son, but because of what the Son was taking upon himself, the sins of the whole world.

And there Jesus Christ again, once again wonderful truth, gave his life in order that our sins might be forgiven.

He died in my place.

He died the death I should have died.

He suffered for us.

He suffered in our place.

He took our sins that we might escape hell, might have victory and power over sin.

And one day, not only victory over the penalty and power of sin, but one day victory over the presence of sin.

I'm so looking forward to that, aren't you?

First Corinthians 15 describes it.

First Thessalonians describes it, that one day Jesus will return and there'll be a trumpet that sounds, and there'll be a voice of God that says, come up hither, and those who are dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we which are alive and remain will be caught up, raptured up to meet him in the air.

And so shall we ever be with the Lord.

First Corinthians 15 says there's going to be a change, that when the trumpet sounds, there's going to be a change.

And this mortal must put on immortality and we'll be changed.

The Bible says there in a moment of a twinkling of an eye.

The Bible says that when we shall see him, we shall be what, like him?

No more sinful, selfish nature.

It'll be gone.

And we'll live with Christ eternally.

We'll live with him righteously.

What a day that'll be.

Let's all stand, looking forward to the return of Christ again.

I read the back of the book and we win.

And looking forward to that blessed hope.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, what a wonderful truth Again we study this morning about your substitutionary death.

Your vicarious death, Lord, that you suffered and bled and died in order that our sins might be forgiven, that you might rescue us from the penalty of sin.

Lord, help I pray.

If there's someone here or someone listening online who's never accepted you as Savior, they've never put their trust and faith in you and you alone for salvation from the wrath of God that's been placed upon their sins.

May they do so today.

And Lord, may we as Christians again be reminded that we have power over sin.

Through your Holy Spirit and the grace that you've given us and God, may we be dead to sin.

We thank you for that blessed hope and your glorious appearing.

And one day you will return in Jesus name, amen.