I want us to begin tonight in Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. I want to repeat what you have heard from this pulpit countless times because it is so very, very, very important. This book is a treasure chest full of rich treasures, incomparable treasures, riches worth more than buckets of gold. But it is a treasure chest locked and sealed to every person who doesn't have the key by which it's opened. And the key to the treasure chest is Jesus Christ crucified. The key to the treasure chest is Jesus Christ crucified. This book was not written by God the Holy Spirit to give us a code of morality, though certainly it tells us how to live. It is not written to be a book of history, of prophecy, or of religious dogma. It is written to reveal Jesus Christ and him crucified. Look at what our Lord says in Luke 24. Our Lord is walking along with the disciples on the road to Emmaus and beginning in verse 27 at Moses and all the prophets. Beginning at Moses and all the prophets beginning in Genesis 1 Going through Malachi. No, he did not expound to them every word in those many passages of scripture But he gave them the meaning of the whole book Beginning at Moses and in all the prophets he expounded under them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself The book is all about him, Jesus Christ, the Lord. Verse 44, he said unto them, these are the words which I speak unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled. Now watch this, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms. That's the three divisions of the Old Testament scriptures. the Pentateuch, the first five books of Moses, the first five books of the Old Testament, and the Psalms, all the poetic books, Job, Proverbs Ecclesiastes the song of Solomon Psalms all of those take up the poetic books and the prophets. Those are the divisions of Old Testament Scripture He expanded unto them in all things written in the prophets and Moses in the prophets in the Psalms Concerning me now watch this verse 45 then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. You do not understand the scriptures except you understand how the scriptures speak of Christ the Redeemer. And said unto them, thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins be preached in his name among all nations. So the whole purpose of all the scriptures is to show us the necessity of redemption by Jesus Christ, the necessity of grace and salvation by Jesus Christ, and the blessed accomplishment of that redemption, that salvation, and that grace. Everything recorded in the book of God is recorded to teach us something about Jesus Christ and our redemption and salvation in him. So that all the events of the Old Testament All the miracles of the Old Testament, all the historic writings of the Old Testament, all the things that transpired in the Old Testament are things that were brought to pass by the hand of God's providence purposefully to show us a picture or pictures of our Savior. Everything that happened was brought to pass to show us who Christ is and what Christ did. this word of God as you teach it to your children and you tell Bible stories. I was talking to Diane about this earlier this morning discussing this very subject. You tell Bible stories. Don't just tell the stories. Don't just tell the stories. Don't just relate the miraculous. It doesn't do anyone any good to convince them of miraculous things. Nothing at all. Nothing at all. When I was a boy, What little I went to Sunday school I go to Sunday school I hear Sunday school teachers talk about no one the ark and the creation and I'd hear about Moses in the burning bush and Daniel in the lion's den and all those things that I thought man This is better than Aesop's fables. This is better than Jack London tales. This is something this is something not once not once Did anyone ever? teach anything concerning the person and work of Christ from those stories. Not one time. And I know why. They didn't know that's what the story's about. They didn't know that's the meaning of the scripture. They didn't know that's the intent. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Back in Genesis 1, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was, that is the earth became without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. What a picture that is of our creation by God and our fall in our father Adam. God created the heavens and the earth and something happened. Darkness engulfed the earth. Darkness was upon the face of the earth and the earth became full of chaos without form and void. So it was God created man upright. God created man in his own image after his own likeness. And then we fail and darkness and chaos filled our lives. Some of you here, your lives are full of darkness and chaos. There's nothing in you but darkness and chaos because you're ruined by the fall of our father Adam. That's what sin does for humanity. And then we read that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep. The Spirit of God brooded upon the waters. And as He did, God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God made the earth anew. So it is in the new creation of grace God comes by his spirit through his word Moves upon the heart of a sinner and causes that sinner to have Christ Revealed in him and now he's made a new creature in Jesus Christ the Lord When Adam and Eve sinned against God in the garden God killed innocent victims, lambs, I presume. And he, with the skins of those innocent victims, clothed our parrots before he shoved them out of the garden, and thereby portrayed redemption by Christ, who is the woman seed. Have it, sinners, must have atonement by the sacrifice of the Holy Lamb of God, robed in His righteousness. We have no other way to stand before God and be accepted of Him. Noah went into the ark and Noah brought all the animals that God commanded him to bring into the ark and Noah brought his sons and their wives and his wife into the ark and the Lord shut the man. And when he did, God poured down rain from the heavens and broke up the earth beneath and a flood covered the earth. And as the waters rose and the floods beat down upon the earth, Noah and his family endured all the fury of God's wrath, as did everybody else. But it never touched him. It never touched him because they're in the ark. Christ is the ark. That's what the picture is all about when we read about David and Goliath as a great story but it's more than a story of a young Boy going out to meet a giant with just five stones in the slain is more than that It's a picture of Jesus Christ the Son of God coming into the world to destroy the enemies of God's Israel to destroy Satan and to destroy hell by his death upon the tree by his sacrifice for us putting away our sins and Daniel in the Lion's Den portrays how God's justice can be satisfied only by the law being fulfilled. And over in Exodus chapter 20, I want you to turn there. Exodus 20. God gave his law on Mount Sinai, the Ten Commandments, as it's commonly called. And given those commandments of God, he did not come down on Sinai to give men a code of conduct. Those Ten Commandments were never intended by God to be a code of conduct. First night down at Burnside, I noticed they had a plaque on the wall. Many of you came down and saw the plaque, those Ten Commandments. First night I was there, I said, I recommend that if you're going to have that hanging there, you put another plaque underneath it or over it. John 19.30, it is finished. It is finished. The law was never intended to be a code of conduct for God's people or for unbelieving people. It was intended, it was designed by God, given by God only to the nation of Israel. It was never given to gentiles never given to the gentile world. It was given only to the nation of israel Pointing us to christ the redeemer showing us the necessity of redemption and grace by christ shutting us up to him When the lord god came down on mount sinai at the giving of the law He made this commandment in chapter 19 and verse 12 He said no man is to come to this mount No man is to come to this mount. If you even touch it with your hand, let him be killed. If you even put your hand on this mount, that man is to be killed. When God came down on Sinai's fiery mount, thunders and lightnings and clouds and thick darkness covered the mount. And then the voice of a trumpet blast was heard so loud and sure that all the camp of Israel trembled with fear and quaked before the mount. Now that's a pretty good picture of what happens any time a sinner hears what God's law requires. What God's law requires. People talk about living by the law. No, you don't. No, you don't. No, you don't. God did not give 10 recommendations. He did not give 10 suggestions. He gave 10 commandments. He didn't say do the best you can. He said do this. Do this. God's law says be ye holy for I am holy. God's law says walk before me and be perfect. God's law says it must be perfect to be accepted. God's law says the soul that sinneth it shall die. The law of God reveals holiness, justice, and truth. Any mere sinful man who dares to touch it will die by it. Any sinful man who dares to touch it will die by it. That means, Mark, if you attempt to live before God by your obedience to the law, you're going to hell. Cursive is everyone that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. If you attempt to live before God by your obedience to the law, you're going to hell. God's law shuts us up to Christ. Listen to this. The righteousness of God without the law is manifest being witnessed by the law and prophets. This is the righteousness of God, which is by faith of that is by the faithful obedience of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. So the law was given that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. Back here in Exodus 20, verse 18. No sooner did the Lord God give his law to Moses at Sinai than the children of Israel cried out for an intercessor, a mediator, someone to stand between them and God. All the people saw the thunderings and lightnings and the noise of the trumpet in the mountain smoking. And when the people saw it, they removed and stood far off. And they said to Moses, speak thou with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die. Moses, we can't come to God on that holy hill. We can't come to God in his law. We can't come to God in his purity. We can't come to God in his holiness. We can't come to God in his justice. You go speak to God and come down here and tell us what God says. In that sense, Moses was a representation of Christ, our mediator. That one appointed by God to speak to God on our behalf and speak to us on God's behalf. That one appointed by God to bring us up to God and to bring us and the God in complete, perfect reconciliation. While the people stood afar off in verse 21, Moses drew near under the thick darkness. where God was. And the Lord God began to speak to Moses just after giving the law in terms of hope. So the 10 commandments were given and Moses by this, by giving, by God, by giving this commandment through Moses, these commandments through Moses, the demands of men, perfect righteousness. And by those things shuts men out from himself by his law. And yet he begins immediately to give a bearer of hope. He spoke to Moses about an altar. An altar is a place of worship, a place of sacrifice, a place of atonement, a place of hope. Now I know you hear about altars, folks. used to have mortars benches or altars. They said, come to the altar and get saved. Come to the altar and pray through. Come, come to the altar and rededicate your life. Come to the altar and just, ah, what nonsense? What nonsense? You may as well go to an altar in a Catholic church. You may as well go to an altar at some synagogue somewhere. You may as well go to an altar at some, some, uh, idolatrous temple somewhere. No, no, no. We don't worship God at a physical altar. We worship God at an altar, but his name is Christ the Lord. It reads this way, Hebrews chapter 13. We have an altar, whereof they that serve in the tabernacle have no right to eat. If you come to a physical altar, you can't come to this altar. If you come to this altar, you won't come to a physical altar. That altar is Christ the Lord. He's at the right hand of the majesty on high. He is the altar. He is the mercy seat by whom and in whom we draw near to God. God commanded Moses concerning an altar, a place of sacrifice, and giving the law, he opens this door of hope. He says in verses 22 through 26, Moses, you go down and tell that crowd of terrified sinners, there is a way they can come to me. There is a way they can come to me. If you would come to God, if you would approach God, if you would draw near to God and find acceptance with him, the only way it can be done is through Christ the Redeemer. We must come to God and worship him alone as God. He alone is God, who is sovereign, holy, just, and gracious. You remember in Exodus 33, Moses said, Lord, show me your glory. And the Lord said, all right, I will. I'll take you up in a mountain and put you in the cleft of the rock. And I'll hide you there with my hand, and I'll pass by you, and I'll show you who I am." And he passed by and said, I'm the Lord, the Lord God. He said, I'm God who will by no means clear the guilty. Who will by no means clear the guilty. God who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Now, how can that be? Remember, those are two exact opposite things. God says, I will by no means clear the guilty. And he says, I forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin. He said, I have mercy on whom I will have mercy and compassion on whom I will have compassion. How can that be? And Moses saw the Lord pass by. And I'll tell you what he saw. He saw Christ pass by. And now he understood how God could be just and yet justify the ungodly. He saw how God could both not forgive sin and fully forgive sin. We speak about forgiveness as if it were just pretending things didn't happen. That's not God's forgiveness. The way God forgives sin is by putting it away. The way God forgives sin is by putting it away. And the only way sin can be put away is through the sacrifice of God's own son, Christ, our altar. We must worship God as he is upon the altar that he's made. Look at verse 24. An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me. You, uh, you pile together some dirt. That'll do fine. We want to make it a beautiful ornamental thing covered with gold and silver and jewels of all kinds so it impresses us and impresses me. And you can say, look here at our altar. Oh, look here at our altar. This is something. This is magnificent. This is wonderful. Look what we made. God said, no, you pile some earth together that I've made and make me an altar. Thou shalt sacrifice their own thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings thy sheep thine oxen in all places where I record my name I will come to thee and I will bless thee We must come to God on the altar that he has made that is Christ Jesus the Lord trusting Christ alone contributing nothing ourselves Contributing nothing ourselves the verse 25 If thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone. You just pile some rocks together, pile together some things that I've made. For if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. What? You mean we've got some rocks here and you take a chisel and just knock off the rough edge? You polluted it. you polluted it. If you touch it, you polluted it. God gave a law concerning the Sabbath day. And if a man went out and picked up sticks on the Sabbath day, you got to pick up some sticks. He's to be put to death, stoned to death. Stoned to death. Because he picked up sticks on Saturday? No. No. Because he dared to violate what was represented in that Sabbath day, the rest of God's saints in Christ crucified. The salvation of God's elect in Jesus Christ crucified. God still sends sinners to hell for picking up sticks on the Sabbath day. He still sends sinners to hell for attempting to contribute something to God's salvation in Christ Jesus the Lord. You remember when David brought the ark of God up out of Obed-Edom up to Jerusalem? He's going up there to to build a house for God, a place where God would be worshipped. What could be more honorable? What could be more noble? What could be a greater work? He's made great plans and great sacrifices and he's going up to build a house for God, a place for the altar of God, for the mercy seat. And as they went along, They got the Ark of God on a new oxcarch, and they're pulling it along, and it crosses a ravine. And there was a fellow by the name of Uzzah who saw the Ark of God tip. Just tip a little. It just tipped a little. And Uzzah did what makes good sense. He did what any rational man would do. He said, oh, we can't have the Ark of God in the mud hole. And he reached out and put his hand on the ark. That's all he did. He just put his hand on God's ark and immediately God killed him. God still sends sinners to hell for touching his ark. You see that ark represents Christ the Redeemer. That ark represents the finished work of Christ. That ark is a type of Christ, our propitiation. And if you put your hand to it, you've polluted it, you've defiled it, and God will destroy you for it. We must not attempt to come to God by anything we do. We come to God trusting Christ Jesus alone. And we must not attempt to come to God by degrees. Look at verse 26. Brother Bob Harmon will not mind me telling you this story. I can't remember whether this was my first visit out to Hokumba or not, but I had been preaching for him. Brother Gene Harmon and I were out there preaching, and on the way to services on Sunday morning, Brother Harmon said to me, I'm going to preach before you this morning. And after I get done, if you don't mind, I'd like for you to critique the sermon. I thought, oh, my soul. No, no, please. I got that. But he got it and preached in front of me. And he preached on steps to salvation. And everything he said was heretical. Everything he said was heretical. Now, if he had gotten up and said the sun is pink and causes the earth to get cold, I'd have let that go. Because that doesn't matter. If he had got up and said that men ought to wear long hair and earrings, I'd have probably, well, I might not have. I'd have let that go. I'd have let that go. But he got up and announced nothing but works salvation. Nothing but work salvation. Oh no, talk about saving by grace, but these are the steps. These are the steps you got to go. I turned around and looked at brother Gene Harmon and I said, I'll give you a hundred dollars if you'll preach. I'll just sit here and hold up because I knew I've got to tear to shreds everything this host pastor has said. I've got to do it. That's not being rude. That's being honest with the souls of men. That's not being rude, that's doing what God appointed me to do. And thank God he broke the man's heart, God saved him, and we've been good friends ever since. But the sermon had to be torn down. Look what God says here in Exodus 20, verse 26. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar. And here's the reason, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereof. Now, I don't remember the first time I heard this foolishness, but I've got a feeling that some folks who interpret the Bible have some real problems with perversity. I heard that the reason the Lord didn't allow steps to go up to the altar is so that nobody get under steps and look up your skirt and see your nakedness. That's not what he's talking about. That's not what he's talking about, no. What's he talking about? Do you remember what ham uncovered? when he found Noah in the tent drunk. He went in and said, come here, Sham and Ham. I want to show you what the old man's really like. I've always told you he's a hypocrite. I've always told you he was he was not what he said he was. Look here. And he uncovered his father's nakedness in a drunken stupor. And Sham and Ham went in backwards and covered their father, refusing to look upon his nakedness. When the Lord says, if you climb up by steps to my altar, you show your nakedness, that is, you only expose your sin. You only expose your sin. You can't come to God by degrees. You come to God trusting Christ for everything all at once. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Trusting Him for everything. That means It's not a process you go through. You don't first have to know this and feel this and experience that and go through this. No steps. You come to God right where you are right now without moving a muscle. Don't even move your lips. Just right where you are. Come to God, believing his son. Now, I want us to look at the first statute God gave to Israel after giving the law. Exodus 21 verses 1 through 6. Here the Lord God begins to give his judgments, civil statutes to Israel, statutes by which he portrayed and typified redemption, grace, and salvation by Christ. The very first civil statute given to Israel was a blessed picture of redemption and salvation by Christ the Lord. Exodus 21 verse 1. Now these are the judgments, the statutes, which thou shalt set before them. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve. I suggest you underline that. Six years. And in the seventh year, I believe I'd underline seventh, he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him wife, she shall have born and she shall have born him sons or daughters. The wife and her children shall be her masters and he shall go out by himself. I believe I'd underline that. He'll go out by himself. Verse five. And if the servant shall plainly say, be sure you underline this. I love my master, my wife. and my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges, and he shall also bring him to the door or unto the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awe, and he shall serve him forever. Now this law describes a man who would voluntarily make himself. By no compulsion, except his own will, he would voluntarily make himself a bond slave to his master for life. That man is Christ Jesus, our Lord and our Savior. The servant spoken of here is Christ, our Redeemer in type and in picture. This is Christ, our servant, or Christ, the servant, the servant of God, our Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ, here's the first thing to understand, became Jehovah's servant willingly, voluntarily. He became Jehovah's servant, not for himself. But for us, he stood forth. God's law requires perfection. God's law requires holiness. God's law requires satisfaction. You can't do it. You've broken it. You violated. You're going to hell unless something happens that God alone can do. And Christ steps in and he says, I will be servant to God. Give me your people and I'll make them free. Give me your elect and I'll redeem them. Give me your elect and I'll make them righteous Give me your elect and I will bring them home to glory and as our Lord Jesus Assumed responsibility for us as the surety in the everlasting covenant. He voluntarily Subjected himself to the father's will in all things. So when he came into this world in Psalm 40 before the world began We read about Lord Jesus lifting his hand as the surety, as the servant of Jehovah, and he says, Lo, I come, I come to do thy will, O my God. Hebrews chapter 10 the Apostle writes and tells us as our Lord Jesus enters into his mother's womb and again as he comes out of his mother's womb Breaking the womb as the firstborn he comes forth and says lo I come to do thy will oh my God and the Apostle explains to us by inspiration by the which will We are sanctified made holy and perfect through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. The Lord Jesus promised to do his Father's will. He came here and did his father's will. By the accomplishment of his work as Jehovah's Servant, we now in him are sanctified, made perfectly holy before the Lord God Almighty. This subjection of our Savior to the Father needs to be understood. It is indeed a voluntary thing. If you have some Mormons come to your doorstep, are some Russellites and Jehovah's Witnesses come to your doorstep and you let them in the door. First thing they're going to do is try to show you that since Jesus was obedient to the Father, He cannot really be God. He's got to be something less than God. Well, that's nonsense. When you're reading the Scriptures, as our Savior spoke of himself as the Good Shepherd, And it says, I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He says, other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. He said, I lay down my life. I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my father. Well there, you see, he can't be God because he is commanded to do something by God. His obedience, his subjection to the will of the triune Jehovah was altogether voluntary because of his great love for us. Every now and then, it doesn't happen often, every now and then, every now and then, Shelby has a day that she requires of me. I mean, she needs of me. At least she thinks she needs me. And I will say to her, all right, honey, second Tuesday next week, that's your day. That's your day. And whatever you need, I'll do it. You call them honeydew days. Now, I don't have many of them. Let me tell you a little something about Shelby. Now, I know you can't sense this by looking at her standing beside me. But if I want to, I can whip her. I can still pick her up and throw her across the room. I really can. Now, you might not think that. She's a tough gal, but I can do that. And she can't make me do anything. No need to try. Now, she has ways of persuading me that I enjoy, and that's perfectly all right. But she can't make me do anything I don't want to do. I'm just a little too big for that. And it's not going to happen in my house. But on those honeydew days, if I give her one, she'll have a list before the day starts. They will take you from daylight past midnight and you won't begin to get done. But that day I do what she says. What's next, honey? What's next, honey? Because I voluntarily subject myself to her. You understand that? The fact that our savior is Jehovah's servant. is not an indication that he's less than God. No one but God could do what he came to do. No one but God could satisfy God's righteousness. No one but God could satisfy God's justice. But our Savior came here saying, Lord, I come to do thy will. Oh, my God. And he voluntarily subjected himself to the Father's will, which is the saving of his people. Number two, he served. He served for six years. For six years. The Lord Jesus served. Reckon why the first statute requires that a man who sells himself as a slave is to serve for six years. Six. That's the number of man. Man was created on the sixth day. Six throughout the scriptures represents man. People have this idea concerning Antichrist, he's going to have 666 tattooed on his head, and folks are just terrified by it. That's Antichrist! That's Antichrist! I can't have a telephone number or credit card got 666 on it. Don't be terrified by 666. That's the number of man. It's the number of frustration, failure, and defeat. Antichrist's not going to harm God's elect. Antichrist is not going to harm God's church. Antichrist is not going to harm God's people. This number six then is the number of a man. Our Lord Jesus walked on this earth as a man serving God for six years. That is for the full age of a man. For 33 and a half years he served Jehovah. For 33 and a half years, every day of his life, with every breath of his being, he served the Lord, fulfilling all righteousness, doing the will of God. He said to his mother, don't you know I must be about my father's business? I must be about my father's business while he was here. He said to Peter, he said, he said, don't you know that I've come here to do the will of him that sent me? I've come here for this purpose, not for himself. He served four men. He brought in everlasting righteousness by his perfect obedience unto the Lord Jehovah and did his father's will in all things. He did that as our representative. I say this so often, I'm almost reluctant to repeat myself. And yet I know that this must be repeated because we're so reluctant to believe what God says. When Christ obeyed God as our representative, as Jehovah's servant, we obeyed God in him perfectly. Every child of God, every one of God's elect, every believer perfectly kept God's law. Every believer perfectly fulfilled God's law, every one of them. And when Christ died upon the cursed tree, all God's elect, that is every sinner who looks to Christ alone for acceptance with God, fully satisfied all the fear of God's justice. I was crucified with Christ. Can you get hold of that? When he died, I died. so that God in his holiness cannot justly require any more from me. I've given him perfect obedience and complete satisfaction in the person of his son. Now, understand this thirdly. Had he chosen to do so, Jehovah's servant could have gone out free. He could have gone out free. Even after becoming servant to Jehovah, if this servant wants to go out and leave, he's welcome to leave. He served his six years. Now he can go out free. But if he does so, he must leave behind his wife and his children. Our Savior said to Peter, don't you know that even now I could pray to my father And He would give me more than 12 legions of angels? But then how shall the Scriptures be fulfilled? How can this type of the servant be fulfilled? How can the prophets be fulfilled that require the Son of Man suffer and die? He could have gone out free. But fourthly, oh, bless His holy name, He would not go out free. He refused to. He refused to. And here's the reason given. I love my father. I love my wife. I love my children. The servant would look at his master and he would say in the seventh year, in the year of grace, mercy, In the year of perfection, in the year of finality, he'll say to his master, no, sir, no, sir, I won't go out. I'll be your voluntary bond slave forever. And here's the reason. I love you. And I love my wife and I love my children. I will not go out. And he'd go with his master to the doorpost and his master would take an awe. and run it through his ear, and say, by this you testify to everyone you're my slave forever, always to do my bidding. And he said, put your all right here. Put it right here. I'm yours. Neither turned I away my back. I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, willingly suffering all for us. because of his love for God, the glory of God, and his love for his wife, his family, his children. I wonder if we can find parallels to it anywhere in the scripture. I'll give you two. When Jacob fell in love with Rachel, he made a deal with Laban, her father. He said, I'll serve you seven years for her. And he served seven years for Rachel. Man, she must have been some kind of gal. He served for seven years for Rachel. And I don't know how they did things back in those days, but somehow or another, he was tricked. The wedding dresses must have been something else in those days, because he didn't know who he was marrying. And the next morning when he woke up and turned the covers back, he had married his ugly, homely, Leah. And he was fit to be tied. He went to Laban and said, I bargained for Rachel. And Laban said, well, I couldn't give the younger sister before the older one. He said, serve me for Rachel, too. He said, all right, I'll serve you seven more years. And this is what Scripture said. They seemed to him as but a few days for the love he had for Rachel. Oh, what a picture of our Savior's love. More than that. Adam in the garden, with his eyes wide open, knew what he was doing. Eve was deceived, but not Adam. He knew exactly what he was doing. Rather than lose Eve, rather than be parted from Eve, rather than be separated from Eve, Adam took the forbidden fruit and willingly because of his love for Eve, plunged himself into sin and death and condemnation for Eve. The last Adam, the Lord Jesus, with his eyes wide open, took our sin and made it his own, took our guilt and made it his own. took our shame and made it his own and willingly, voluntarily, because of his love for his people, plunged himself into sin and death and condemnation. I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder How he could love me, a sinner condemned unclean, but he did. And therefore, he became Jehovah's servant. And the Lord God says concerning him, he shall not fail till he has set righteousness and judgment in the earth. One more thing about this servant. The last word of the law. He shall serve forever. Forever. I remember Brother Hubert Montgomery reading back in the office one night years ago that passage in Luke's Gospel where our Lord gave the parable and he said, the master will gird himself in the kingdom of God and serve them. And the old man just wept. He said, that's something. That's something. For eternity, for eternity, the Son of God shall take us by the hand and lead us by fountains of living waters and feed our souls with himself in the glory of Emmanuel's land forever as the servant of God. because of his love for his father and his wife and his children. Oh, thank God for him who served for us and shall possess us forever by his grace. Amen.