I'm reading to you from the book of Acts in chapter 2, and we're looking at verse 22 to 24. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know, Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it." Now it's truly amazing what God can do with a man who is filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter was an example and point. Everything came together for Peter on the day of Pentecost when Jesus was taken away to trial before he was crucified, not even two months before this time of his preaching, Peter stood in the courtyard of the high priest, and he was being questioned by one of the servant girls as to whether or not he had been with Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I neither know nor understand what you are saying. And being further questioned a little later about whether he was one of Jesus' disciples, he began to curse and to swear and to say, I don't know this man. that you're speaking of. And now here, less than two months later, we find Peter able to stand up in front of 3,000 or more people, and we assume that there were even more than that there that day, and to preach to them by the power of the Holy Spirit and to so convince them of the truth that they were able to come to Christ, to come to faith in Jesus Christ that very day And at that very time, see the power of the Holy Spirit, how much it's needed in preaching. The difference between that day that he denied the Lord and the day of Pentecost was the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, he had been restored by the Lord Jesus. He had been spoken to by the Lord Jesus and asked, do you love me, Peter? And he asserted to the Lord Jesus, yes. I love you, you know that I love you, but it was more than that. And it's more than that for you and I as well. You and I may know truth, the truth of the Bible and the truth of the gospel, but you and I need power. We need the power of the Holy Spirit and we need to pray for that power when we attempt to share the gospel with people around us. And yet we also need truth. We need the truth that we're going to discuss here this morning. Now Peter began the sermon that we're looking at by saying, these men, that is the apostles and the others of the brethren who are gathered there with them, they're not drunk, as you might suspect, but rather it's the Holy Spirit. It's only the third hour of the day. These men are not up drinking. Now you see the crowd thought that they were three sheets to the wind, And actually, they had experienced the wind of the Holy Spirit coming as a mighty rushing wind, and it drew the attention of all the people that day to what Peter was saying. There were some of those listening who thought that these men who were filled with the Spirit were drunk, but actually they were speaking in tongues, and they had received the gift of the Holy Spirit, that extraordinary gift to be able to share the gospel in the language and the dialect of all those people who had gathered in Jerusalem that day. Well, I'd like to speak to you this morning about what Peter focused on when he preached to them this sermon. He focused on Jesus. He didn't focus on himself. He didn't even focus on the power of the Holy Spirit, although he'll speak of it later in verse 33. He focused on Christ, and he preached the gospel of Christ to the multitude. But he focused on the gospel of Christ in a very particular way. The way that he began preaching Christ was to preach about God the Father, was to preach about God the Father's attestation of Jesus Christ. He preached about God the Father and God the Spirit and the work that they were doing in relation to what the Lord Jesus did in relation to his death and his life and his resurrection. And so that's how we're going to approach this text this morning. We want to look first of all at God's attestation of Christ, verse 22. Then we'll look secondly at God's predetermined purpose in relation to Christ, verse 23, and then we'll look thirdly at God loosing the pains of death, the pains of the Lord Jesus Christ in His death, verse 24. First of all, Peter preached about God's attestation of Christ. Here's what Peter says, Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. You see, the Lord Jesus was a man attested by God to the Jews of his day. And he was attested in a particular way. He was attested by Jesus doing miracles. God doing these miracles through the Lord Jesus. God the Father appointing Jesus to do the particular miracles that he did. The word attested means to give official authorization, or approval of, or to provide with credentials. And that's what the miracles did. They gave Jesus the credentials, as it were, that the Jews needed to have and to know so that they would receive the truth of the gospel that day. And the truth of the gospel in our day needs to be attested as well by miracles, that is the miracles of the conversion of the people who hear it. That is the word of God. The gospel is attested with the power of the Holy Spirit. That's a miracle in itself, by the way, beloved. It's not that we ever take these things for granted, but when Jesus ascended on high, he gave gifts to men. He gave gifts to men to preach. But yet even those who are given gifts, and they're gifts of the Holy Spirit, they still need the power of the Holy Spirit in order to make the Word powerful and plain to people so that they'll receive it. That they just won't hear it as words and then walk away from it and not pay any attention to it. That's what we need today. But Peter, What Peter was doing here, he was setting forth God's Son to all men as his Christ. He sent his Son into the world. The Christ means the sent one. He sent him as the Jewish Messiah, the promised one. He set him forth, Peter did, more specifically to Israel as their Messiah, the one whom they had crucified. the one whom they had rejected. We're going to see this as we go through this sermon further. But the Lord Jesus was the God-man, and His ability to do miracles was inherently within Himself. He was God the Son, and He had this ability to do miracles. But you and I need to understand that Jesus did not do His miracles on His own initiative. or at his own will or whim. He did them as he was commanded by the Father specifically to do them at a certain time and a certain place to certain people. Now there were certainly multitudes of people that he performed miracles on, and yet not one of them was done without the Father's attestation, his approval. And we need to see that here this morning. miracles and wonders and signs were done by God through the Lord Jesus. Now if you'll turn over with me to John chapter 5 and verse 31 you'll see the importance of this in terms of your believing in Jesus and not in some other religious man or teacher for your salvation. John chapter 5 and verse 31 You see, there were witnesses to Jesus' claims of being sent from God. And Jesus says here in John 5 and verse 31, if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of me, and I know that the witness that he witnesses of me is true. You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved. He says, John was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light, but I have a greater witness than John's. For the works which the Father has given me to finish, the very works that the Father has given me to finish, the very works I do bear witness of me that the Father has sent me. You see, the works that Jesus is speaking of are his miraculous, works. This is proved by turning over to John chapter 9. If you would turn over to John chapter 9 and we'll look at verse 4. Jesus is about to heal a man who had been blind from his birth and Jesus says to his disciples, I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work. He's talking about his coming death and that he needed to work these works so that people would believe in him. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And when he said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and he said to him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam. which translated means sent. So he went and washed and came back seeing. Now notice that Jesus calls this miraculous healing one of the works of him who sent me. He attested to his being sent from God, but the work that he did was also attesting this miraculous work. The blind man himself, after he was healed, wanted to become Jesus' disciple, and he was reviled by the unbelieving Pharisees. And if you look over at verse 28, it says, then they reviled him And they said, You are His disciple, but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't know where he's from. And the man answered and said to them, Why, this is a marvelous thing. that you don't know where he's from, yet he opened my eyes. Now we know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, he hears him. Since the world began, it has not been heard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. You see, this is God's attesting. to both believing and unbelieving men that He sent His Son into the world. Now look over at John chapter 10 and verse 22. John chapter 10 and verse 22, it says, Now it was the feast of the dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter, and Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, How long will You keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear my voice. and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. And Jesus answered them, Many good works I have shown you from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me? And the Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy. And because you, being a man, make yourself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, you are gods? If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, you are blaspheming? Because I said, I am the Son of God. If I do not do the works of my Father, watch this, do not believe me. But if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him. Now let me apply what we've been studying here in this way. One of the major reasons that any person comes to know the Lord Jesus Christ is because they have heard of the miracles and the signs that He did. They knew that he was a good man. He went about doing good, but he also went about healing people of their diseases, miraculously. He cast out demons from people. He raised the dead. And all of these things, I'm saying, these were to attest Jesus as being the Christ, the only Savior of sinners, the only Savior of the world. Now, you need to believe that with all of your heart. And when you're sharing the gospel, dear believer, with others around you, you need to reaffirm this truth to the one you're sharing with, even if they've heard it before. That no other man had the power to do what Jesus Christ did in his miracles. No other man could raise the dead Mohammed could not raise the dead, and Buddha could not raise the dead, and all of the false gods of the Hindus could not raise the dead. But Jesus Christ raised the dead, and he opened the eyes of one who was born blind. Not from the beginning of the world does the man say he was born blind. Has it been seen something like this is done? And you and I need to, with all of our heart, differentiate Jesus from all the other prophets and teachers in this world so that we can share with other people the truth that I've just given to you here this morning. We need to believe it with all of our heart. Faith in Christ's miracles, I'm saying, is related to your coming to have faith in Him. There's a connection. It's when people see you who have been changed by the Spirit of God, having believed in the gospel, that people begin to question what's happened to you. Why is it that you're different? Why aren't you doing the things that you used to do in sin? Why is it you are repenting of your sins day by day? Why is it you repented and turned away from your worldly pursuit of pleasures and wealth and position and fame and so many worldly things? Why did you turn away from these things? It was because of the power of God in my life came and changed my sinful heart and turned me away from it. Do you see? That's how we share with people. We can't just simply share with them the gospel and just simply give them a tract and then expect that somehow they're going to understand that unless they see a change in us. But they do see a change in us because it's the greatest of Christ's miracles, regeneration. Greater than all the miracles of healing is the gift of regeneration where God turns the human heart to behold the glory of Jesus Christ and to embrace Him. Think of it, dear believer, how did the Lord turn your heart when you were so much against Him? It was a miracle of divine grace. You see, there are still miracles today, not these extraordinary ones that we talk about here this morning of the healing and raising the dead, all these things that were spoken of in the early church in which people so covet today. But the greatest of the miracles is the regeneration of the human heart. Won't you see that? The truth is what Jesus said in John 4, 48. This is what he said. Unless you see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe. That's what he said. Oh, will you not see that believing in the miracles of Jesus is the beginning of saving faith when it's coupled with the gospel? Do you see that? Believing in miracles that God could change me. A person who has been a sinner all of my life. Someone who didn't care a thing for God. Someone who didn't care for God's commandments and broke all of them. And yet the Lord can come to you. in the gospel and save you from your sins. When you believe Jesus' works, you're believing the testimony of the Father in and through His works. There are some people who claim to be Christians who do not believe in the miracles of Jesus. Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of our country, a great man and a great statesman, did not believe in the miracles of Jesus. He published a gospel. He published a New Testament. But he took all the miracles out. You see, it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to raise the dead heart and to open the blind eyes so that you can see the truth concerning your need of saving grace and the Lord Jesus Christ. No one should ever do such an unbelieving thing as Thomas Jefferson did, but he did. Why? Because he didn't believe in miracles. He didn't believe in miracles. You and I must believe in miracles as Christians, because we are a walking, living miracle of the grace of Almighty God. Even your faith in God and Christ is a miracle itself of His grace. God giving you faith and upholding your faith, Christ interceding and praying for your faith, so it will not fail. That's the glory of Christ. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, but that word must be accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now secondly, Peter preached about God's predetermined purpose in relation to Christ. He preached about God's predetermined purpose. You don't usually hear anything about God's predetermined purpose in the preaching of the gospel today. But may I remind you that the Apostle Peter was not afraid of the doctrine of election or predestination. He was not. He put it right up in front in 1 Peter, in his letter of 1 Peter. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God. The Apostle Paul was not afraid of the doctrines of grace. He said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great, great mercies. Bless us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And what was the first blessing that he puts out in front? We've been chosen before the foundation of the world that we might believe in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Chosen before the foundation. of the world. Now this subject of the decrees and the counsels of God is very troubling to many people and I want to try to address it here this morning. Is God really this sovereign that he ordains the acts not only of righteous men but also of sinful men? Look at verse 23 of our text. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. That was according to the predetermined plan or the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. It says here, and I'm asking this question, is God really this sovereign that he ordains the acts not only of righteous men but also of sinful men? And the answer is that he does indeed purpose and ordain them but without any sin on his part. I know that it's hard for you to understand that, but it is so. The Bible declares that it is so. God is purer of eyes than to behold iniquity. It says in the Bible, God cannot look upon sin. In fact, He is so great and wise in His eternal counsels that He did and He does purpose to bring good out of evil, the evil acts of men, and does so, overruling the wickedness of men, causing the wrath of men to praise Him, overruling all those evil things you meant it for evil," Joseph says to his brothers about their selling him down to Egypt, but God meant it for good. The same thing with the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. The next time you're tempted to disbelieve the doctrine of God's eternal decrees, take a look at this verse. Christ was delivered up by God the Father to be mistreated, cruelly scourged, unjustly tried, blasphemously mocked, and nailed to a tree. That was God's determined purpose, that this happen to the Lord Jesus Christ. And not that it would just happen to happen, but that it was determined by God that it would happen. Do you see that? That's what's being said here in the text. So the purpose was the salvation of all of God's elect people. That's why he foreordained these things. The reason that God's determined purpose was this way was because God foreordained it. Foreordination is not just God's looking down the corridors of time, which He is able to do, and seeing everything that men can do or that they possibly could do or would do because God has that power and is able to do that. It's not just that. But his foreordination is looking down through the corridors of time and realizing that no one would be saved that he sent Jesus. Do you see that? No one would be saved if God had not sent Jesus. And so it had to be a purposed, deliberate plan of God the Father in conjunction with God the Son before the foundation of the world and the councils of eternity that Jesus would die. And Jesus, the Lord Jesus, very willingly agreed to the conditions of the covenant of grace whereby you and I are saved and sit here glorying in the salvation which has been given to us so freely when we first believed. That's what happened. God did this wonderful thing in the councils of eternity. God knew what the Jewish leaders and the people should do with His Son, and He knew what they would do with His Son. And God the Father also knew what He would do with his Son." Now I hope that you can see that, that all things are working according to the counsel of God's will, and for believers, that all things work together for good to those who are called, to those who are chosen by God, to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I hope that you can see that this morning. that you can understand that, because when you preach the gospel to other people, you need to be able to tell them what I'm telling you here this morning, that it was no mere accident that the Lord Jesus went to the cross. It was by deliberate purpose that God the Father sent His Son into the world and brought about all the events in regard to the wicked men who had all this enmity, all this hostility, all this envy in their heart against the Lord Jesus, and who would not receive Him as their promised Messiah, even though He told them plainly that it was so. They would not believe. But I'm saying that no man will believe without this predetermined purpose of God taking place. In Acts chapter 15, verse 18, it says, Known unto God from eternity are all His works. Known unto God from eternity are all of His works. Not some of them, but all of them. That's what it means when it talks about the counsels of God. There's a purpose with God. There is a plan with God. for the salvation of God's elect. There is a purpose and a plan which you need not be afraid of because it does no violence to the supposed free will of man. Man is free. And you need to understand that. But he's also responsible. But God is also free. And God will also do everything according to his predetermined purpose. God purposes to use the acts of these wicked men to accomplish a far higher purpose than any man could have ever foreseen. Did those men understand what they were doing that day when they crucified the Lord Jesus? They thought that they did. But what was being accomplished that day was the salvation. of all of God's elect people. Do you see that? God using the hands of wicked men, lawless men, religious men who thought they were crucifying our Lord Jesus Christ because he was a blasphemer as I just read to you a few minutes ago. God overruled all that. and used those wicked acts of those wicked men to accomplish his determined purpose to save a people for himself. Nothing could be a greater wickedness on their part and nothing could be a greater blessedness on God's part than to do such a thing. God knows all the hearts of all the men and what they're capable of and what they'll do under every circumstance and every situation with grace or apart from His giving grace. And in His eternal purpose, He orders all things after the counsel of His will. Now I want you to turn with me over to Matthew chapter 21 and verse 33. Matthew chapter 21 and verse 33. And here you'll see God's predetermined purpose in regard to what theologians call His decorative, decretive will and His preceptive will. His decorative will is the outworking of His predetermined purpose. His preceptive will is that He has commanded all men what they should do in the Bible. Here's what it says here in Matthew chapter 21. And verse 33, Jesus says, here another parable. There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower. And he planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it and dug a wine press in it. And he built a tower and he leased it to vine dressers and went into a far country. And when the vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the vine dressers that they might receive its fruit. And the vine dressers took his servants They beat one, killed one, and stoned another. And again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. And then last of all, he sent his son to them, saying, they will respect, he sent his son to them, saying, they will respect, or as it is in the old King James, they will reverence my son. But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance. So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers? They said to him, he will destroy those wicked men miserably and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons. And Jesus said to them, have you never read in the scriptures The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." Now you can see here that God's decorative will, His will of purpose, was that Israel was the nation from which His Christ would come. and to which he be sent. And God the Father is the landowner. Israel is his vineyard. The leaders of Israel are the vinedressers. And God's expectation, according to his preceptive will of his law, which he had given to them, was that they would give him the proceeds of his investment. They would bring forth spiritual fruits that were related to the word of God which was given to them. They would live by faith in God and his promises which they were not doing. Instead they were binding men up under the law and not showing them and teaching them about grace. Why? Because they didn't have grace themselves. They were not of Christ's sheep in that passage that I read to you just a few minutes ago. But when the vintage time drew near, after a long time of giving them time to bring forth these fruits, it says, he sent his servants to them to receive the fruit. These are the Old Testament prophets. And instead of treating them with respect, it says, they beat one and stoned another and killed another. And last of all, he says, he sent his son. Now, who is he talking about? He's talking about himself. This is before his crucifixion and he's talking about himself and he's telling the very men who are intending on crucifying him that they're gonna crucify him and they even know the reason why they will be destroyed later on, they and their nation, if they didn't repent after the resurrection of Jesus. Now I call that God's determined purpose. That's his decorative will, not one thing moved. Jesus had to pray in the garden of Gethsemane. He was a man. This man, by the predetermined plan of God, was crucified by you, he says. But you see it, don't you? That he had to pray in the garden. He had to say, Father, if possible, this cup would be taken from me, yet not my will but yours be done. Was all that determined to? Yes, it was. Why? To show us that Jesus was a man of like nature to ours. And beloved, when you're speaking the gospel to other people around you, you need to believe this with all of your heart, that Jesus was a man of like nature with ours, yet without sin. Tell them, dear ones, when you meet people who need Christ, tell them about the sinless Savior. Tell them about the one who, sweat as it were, great drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane because he was in such agony about what he was going to be bearing in terms of the sins of the world being laid upon him. Tell them that it's the Lord Jesus who is the Savior of the world. But tell them that it was God's predetermined plan that it be so. 1 Peter Chapter 1, verse 20, Peter says, He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who believe, who through Him believe in God. He's spoken of in Revelation 13, 8, as the Lamb slain from the foundation. of the world. And that's how He was seen by God the Father in terms of His purpose. It was God's determined purpose to deliver up Christ to the cross. But you say to me, what about the free will of man? If God brought these things about in the way that you say, how could He do it without controlling the will of those who did these evil things and thus become the author of sin? Do you see it? How could God judge people for their sins if this all falls out according to His predetermined will and purpose? Doesn't that make God the author of sin? How could God judge them when He wills to use them and their wicked acts? The truth of the matter is that men are free to do what they desire to do. And yet God is still sovereign. in his purposes to bring good out of their evil and also to judge them for their sins. It says in the book of Proverbs, or in Ecclesiastes, chapter eight, verse four, in the word of the king, there is power and who will say to him, what are you doing? But it also says in Proverbs chapter 21, verse one, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord and he turns it whether so ever he wishes. That's how he does it. In other words, the king is free. In the word of the king, there's power. The king is doing exactly what he wants to do. And yet the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. And he turns it, whichever way he wants. Do you see how sovereign God is? You and I need to see this. Why? Because people will then come to fear God as they ought. that God is not a wimpy God. God is not a God who certain things are in His control and then all the rest of it's out of control. No, no, no. God is in perfect control. The question is, will you respond to it? Will you respond to the gospel that He's given? Will you respond to His predetermined plan? and foreknowledge that Christ be crucified for you the sinner. Will you respond to it? You see you're free and yet God is sovereign. You can't come to him without grace and yet you must come to him. You must come, and you'll never be able to tell the difference. That's why it's such a foolish thing when people wait for feelings to come to Christ. Christ has been crucified. Come, O sinner. Come and behold what God has done for you, His mighty works. Come and take Christ as your Savior, so your heart can be changed, and you'll be a different person altogether. And you love the Lord, and love to walk in His ways, and love to follow Him. You see, that's what the Lord's looking for. I want you to turn with me over to Luke chapter 22 and verse 21. Now here the Lord Jesus has just instituted the Lord's Supper. And the disciples have partaken of it. But one of them, Judas, was intending to betray him. And Jesus says, in verse 21 of Luke chapter 22, he says, But behold, the hand of my betrayer is with me on the table, and truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined. There's the same word that Peter uses in the book of Acts. But woe to that man! by whom he is betrayed." Now here you can see that Judas is violating God's will of precept. He's not loving the Lord Jesus, he's betraying the Lord Jesus. And you say to me, well, because it's according to God's predetermined plan, then Judas isn't responsible for his sin. Ah, yes he is. Because Jesus says, woe to that man! who betrayed Him. In other words, Judas is going to be punished in hell forever because he betrayed the Lord Jesus. He did that of his own will and purpose and determination in accordance with his own sinful heart and his sinful mind, his covetousness, that he would betray his Lord for 30 pieces of silver. But God the Father's purpose in determining it was to bring the Lord Jesus into the position where He could make His soul and offering for sin. Do you see that? That's what God was doing. Isaiah 53.10, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. It pleased the Lord to bruise him, to crush him, it says in the margin. And he has put him to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin. then he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand." In other words, all these good things of salvation were going to come because of the predetermined plan of God to bring Jesus to the cross through the betrayal that would come through one of the closest of his disciples. He shall see the labor or the travail of his soul and be satisfied. It says there in Isaiah 53. By his knowledge my servant, my righteous servant, that is Jesus, shall justify the many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Now these sufferings at the hands of sinful men, they were the cup that the Father gave to the Lord Jesus to drink, and these wicked men, having Jesus be crucified, were the very instruments in the hand of a loving Heavenly Father to nail Him to the cross so that He would bear the sins of all of His people, His elect people, in a propitiation. Do you know what that word means? A wrath-removing sacrifice where God's justice is satisfied. Christ is our propitiation. to the Father. The wrath of the men that crucified Jesus praises God who used the worst and most malicious and criminal deed in all of history to save His people from their sins. That's what God the Father did. And God transferred the punishment of your sins to Jesus at the cross if you believe in Him. Do you see it? God transferred the punishment of your sins to Jesus at the cross. When you believe in Him now, so many thousands of years later, it's all based upon God's predetermined plan of what He did at the cross. That your sins were laid at Jesus on the cross, in accordance with this predetermined plan. And for Peter to preach these things was most necessary, for it shows us that we are not saved by our own will. our own decision to come to Jesus. We are saved because of the purpose of God in mercy towards us. Do you see that? Through the preaching of the gospel, which you are free to believe. And I preach freely to you. I preach it promiscuously. I preach it to all of you. I have no idea who the elect of God are. But I preach to you the gospel because, and I preach as a part of it, that it's God's predetermined plan that Christ should go to the cross because it was, otherwise you wouldn't be saved. And the beauty and the glory of it is that we are saved by God's determined purpose to give us grace on the basis of Christ's sufferings. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord The Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 1, verses 8 to 10, Don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Now lastly, and hear me in this, Peter preached about God's loosing the death pains of Christ in verse 24, whom God raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held by it. What a glorious verse. It's one of the verses I thought of so much after I was first saved. One of the verses that convinced me to be baptized was this verse here. And I hope you see why God loosed the pains of death for Christ and raised Him from the dead and crowned Him with glory and honor. It was because His Son perfectly fulfilled all righteousness in God's sight. He satisfied all of God's justice. And the wages of sin is death, you see. But Jesus was perfectly sinless. Jesus didn't deserve to die. Jesus could die as a righteous man in our place because He had no sin of His own. There was no punishment that would come to Jesus, but Jesus voluntarily took the punishment of our sins upon Himself. And so that's why death could not hold Him. Death could not hold our Lord Jesus, and the only reason that Jesus died was to pay the punishment for our sins. That's the only reason that Jesus died, and so death really could not hold Him. Death had no claim over him. The death he died was to die to sin once for all, and it was on our behalf. And so death was scratching its head. It was the death of death and the death of Christ. Death scratched its head and said, I can't do anything here. This is a picture of God's perfect justice. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Father's wrath and justice is all satisfied by Christ's righteousness and his sufferings. How could death ever hold such a man as our Lord Jesus Christ? You see, and listen to me here as I close this sermon, there were sufferings, there were sufferings, something more than the physical sufferings that the Lord Jesus experienced on the cross that day so long ago at Calvary. He was put to death by the hands of wicked men, but he had all the wrath of God laid upon him at the same time. That's how great our Lord Jesus was. The physical sufferings were only a part of the wrath of God. It was the sufferings of his soul. that were made an offering for sin. That is the soul of Jesus was tormented in this way that he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Do you see that? It was the sorrows that when he was in the garden of Gethsemane and he was sweating as it were great drops of blood, he said, my soul is so troubled. And what shall I say? God saved me from this hour. Father saved me from this. But no, this cannot be. I must drink this cup. I must drink this cup. Why? Because it was determined? Yes. But because he was willing? Very much so. That's why death could not hold him. Death could not hold the Lord Jesus Christ. These pains of death that the Father loosed him from the Word and the original for pains is Odin. Odin. And it relates to the pains of sorrow and travail, the pains of a woman in childbirth. And this is surely what Jesus spoke about to his disciples before he went to the cross in John 16, 20. He said, Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice, and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. He says, a woman when she's in labor has sorrow because her hour has come. But as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore, you will now have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice and your joy no one will take away from you. So the joy I'm saying, which the Lord Jesus had on the day of his resurrection of the dead was that he had no more sorrows to bear on your behalf and mine. The sorrows of hell and of death and of trouble and of grief and the Father's wrath and anger all that was taken away in the resurrection and Jesus was crowned with glory and honor. And you see this is the same joy that you and I have here this morning if we believe in Jesus Christ. our joy no one can take away from us. Because Jesus' sorrows on the cross were his travail in childbirth, that is, to see that we would be born again, to see that we would have true and lasting and everlasting joy because of his sufferings. Do you see that? That's what happened to him on the cross, even more than the suffering at the hands of wicked men. It was the sufferings of his soul that were made an offering for sin. Oh, what a glorious thing. And my dear friends, this is the joy that you realize here today and here this morning when you realize, when you believe in Jesus, that he raises you from the dead spiritually. And you will never die in your spirit and your soul when you believe in Jesus. Your soul will never die. Your body will die because of sin someday. But in the resurrection, you'll even get that back. that glorious body. But I'm saying rejoice this morning that your soul has been set free and that your soul has been loosed from the bonds of death because Jesus was loosed from the bonds and the pain of death. Forevermore, he said, I'm alive forevermore and you are alive forevermore when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you and we rejoice forevermore that you have given us this great salvation through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for Peter's preaching in the way that he did that day so long ago. And thank you that it was accompanied with power, and we pray that this would be accompanied with power. Dear Lord, to the hearts of each listener, that we would see that the miracle is in our heart when we believe in Jesus, of our being raised from the dead spiritually, And then we will see that it's the predetermined plan that brought our Lord Jesus to the cross and which brings us to salvation. And then we would also be able to rejoice greatly at the loosing of the pains of death, the sorrows. Oh, those sorrows that the tormented and damned in hell shall experience for all of eternity, but that we shall never experience because you are faithful. and you have done to Christ what rightly belonged to us. Give us grace to understand these things better and to share these truths with others around us. In Jesus' blessed name, amen.