I could have used from the same book, chapter two, verse 21, for you've been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example to follow in his footsteps. Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth, and while being reviled, he did not revile in return, while suffering, he uttered no threats. but kept entrusting himself to the one who judges righteously. And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross. Suffering is part of this age. In the age to come, we are told there'll be no more sorrow, sickness, pain, or death. And we're told that God will wipe every tear from our eye, but not now. And we must understand that suffering is an ordinary part of our life because of sin and death, but obviously because of who Christ himself is. The catechism question for today was, what do you understand by the words, he suffered? As we confess each Lord's day, he suffered and was buried. The Catechism answers that he, at all times that he lived on earth, but especially at the end of his life, sustained in body and soul the wrath of God against the sins of all mankind. That so by his possession, as the only propitiatory sacrifice, he might redeem our body and soul from everlasting damnation, obtain for us the favor of God, righteousness, and eternal life. Christ suffered in his life. As I wrote this morning, if you got the text, he suffered throughout his entire life, but especially in the last week of his life, but not for himself, but on our behalf. But there was a real suffering. It was a real suffering that he partook in, throughout his entire life. And the catechism says, and that that suffering was, that throughout his entire life he was suffering, because he was through entire life experiencing the wrath of God against our sins. Sometimes in our pietism, we think of Jesus suffering on the cross, and of course he did. And we just sang of that in Psalm 22. but as if that's the beginning, middle and end of it. But we're reminded in the book of Hebrews that it was fitting for him through whom are all things and through whom are all things and bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. He will later say in chapter four that he was We have a high priest who was attempted with all things, but without sin, he was tempted in many ways. And in chapter five, in the days of his flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his piety in the days of his flesh. Or as we just read a moment ago, The supplemental reading of chapter two of Peter that Christ suffered and he suffered while suffering and while bearing our sins on his body. And this suffering was part of our redemption, but it was the hallmark of his entire life. So when movies come out, and I do not recommend you see it, I would discourage you from seeing it, but movies like The Passion, and I guess there's now a Passion 2.0 coming out, but please don't go see it. It's wrong. The first one, which I did not see, was based not upon the Bible, but upon medieval Catholic mystic. And much, I'm told, that was in it was clearly not found in the scriptures at all. This won't be any better, but it obviously violates the second commandment to begin with, so whatever. But in our piety, our pietistic view of things, I should say, pietism, I'm not using that term in this context as a compliment, we like to think of Jesus as suffering on the cross, and yet our sin is so great And the sin has so profoundly affected the entire creation. As we're told in Romans chapter eight, the creation itself groans and suffers. That the Holy One who comes into the world and becomes true man suffers under the greatness of our sin his entire life. If he only suffered for the three hours or so that he's on the cross, that would be enough. But we must understand his sufferings was surely greater than for a few hours on one Friday. As Isaiah 53 reminds us that surely he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. And the prophet adds to our shame, and we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. So when we think about Christ, we must always understand there was suffering in his life. And the suffering was because of the wrath of God. And the wrath of God was because of your particular sin, not the sin of the person next to you, not my sin. Although, from my perspective, it is my sin and it is from the person next to you, their sin. but always understand it in terms of you singular, your sin. And I think every time I preach on this, I mention Rembrandt. Again, I'm not an advocate of looking up Rembrandt's art, at least not his religious art, but he was a great artist, wasn't he? A wonderful artist. And he did his part to try to capture biblical themes. And while we would disagree of his painting of Christ, we can at least appreciate The idea is that he tried to communicate, and one in which he paints the rising of Christ on the cross. I've told you, it's this wonderful picture of the cross. It's at about a 45-degree angle, give or take. And the Roman soldiers are lifting him up, having nailed him to the cross. And Rembrandt paints his own picture into the middle of the picture, as if to say, it was my sins, and it was I who raised the cross of Christ. And while we might disagree with painting such a scene as being irreverent, we can at least appreciate the truth that we could paint that same picture and you could put your own face in there because it is for you that Christ died on the cross. It was because of you that he suffered. It's because of our sins that he suffered. And he suffered in both body and soul He suffered because he was grieved. We're told, for example, in the Gospel of John, in John chapter 13, that as the end is drawing near, that he was deeply grieved. And that when his time had come, and he felt his departure was near, He was grieved deeply in his soul. And, but we know he also suffered in his body. He was obviously to hang on a cross was one of the most painful ways of death. Having been nailed to that cross, not just tied, itself would have been painful. And you know, I'm sure, from previous sermons or previous of your own studies that the way a person typically died on a cross was not from the physical afflictions of the nails or whatever, but from suffocation. And if you've ever been in a situation where you had your breathing restricted even for a few seconds, you know how difficult that is, but the whole point hanging them on the cross as they did was so that the lungs would be able to breathe but with great restriction. And as they became more and more tired and were not able to support themselves with whatever little support they could muster as they wearied, it became more and more difficult to breathe until eventually they died of the lack of air. Jesus suffered greatly, but again, why? Because of our sins. Well, why? Because of our sins. Was there not another way? No, because he was a propitiation, a propitiatory sacrifice. As Paul reminds us in Romans and the third chapter, and it tells us this most wonderful verse, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed. For the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness, at the present time so that he would be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. He displayed publicly Christ as a propitiation in his blood. What is the propitiation? Again, as we've rehearsed on many occasions and probably I should be able to wake you up in the middle of the night and ask you what a propitiatory sacrifice it is, and that is it is a bloody, wrathful sacrifice meant to appease the wrath of God. Liberal scholars have been bothered by that word because it sounds so pagan. And it does sound pagan because in one way of understanding it, that's exactly what the sacrifices that you see in pagan religions. You know, you've seen serious movies and some comedies like Joe and the Volcano, if you ever saw that movie with Tom Hanks, where they kind of make a mockery of it. But they will take a young virgin and sacrifice her to appease the volcano god or whoever. And while we look at that and we understand that that is somehow terrible and wicked and pagan and dark and whatever, I believe what it is is actually an expression of the concept that they truly understand who God is and they understand the propitiation, but it's perverted in their fallenness. For example, I've told you on other occasions, the sociologists have gone into the most remote parts of the world, places that have never been exposed to Christianity or the West in any way, and what do they find? Some type of understanding of the Ten Commandments. Corrupted, twisted, confused, because they walk in darkness and their hearts aren't hardened. But we're told by the Apostle Paul in Romans 1 that the law of God has been written upon our minds and hearts as part of our creation. And so you can go to a part of the world which is most remote from any exposure to Christianity and find a concept of the Ten Commandments. You can go into many of the oldest cultures, again, remote from the West or any exposure of Christianity, and find stories concerning a great world flood and God's redeeming through a man or his family that is not unheard of in the most pagan of cultures. And so I suggest to you that the propitiatory sacrifices of the pagan religions, while not Christian at all, and not in any way approved of God is quite possibly an expression of the fact that they do understand at some level the true nature of God and at some level an understanding that goes back as far as Adam himself that there had to be a sacrifice of blood to satisfy the wrath of God. Again, for example, when Adam and Eve sin, Their sin had to be covered. But the fig leaves that man made for himself were not sufficient. But God had to sacrifice an animal to clothe them with clothes. Adam knew from that first sacrifice that blood was required. You see that in the sacrifice problem in the case of Cain and Abel. Cain brought a sacrifice from the ground. Abel brought a sacrifice of blood. And God accepted the one and not the other. So I'm suggesting to you that from the foundations of the earth, all people, and it's been manifested in all the religions of the earth, no matter how corrupt, how far it's drifted, how far it has changed or manipulated the understanding, those propitiatory sacrifices that we view in pagan religions are in some way remotely understood from the holiness of God and what he requires of sin. And so rather than discount Christianity as the liberals do because they say, look, that's such a pagan concept, the liberals ought to shut their mouth and humble themselves before God and understand that unless their sins are covered by a propitiatory sacrifice, they too will perish. God had to provide a propitiatory sacrifice in the blood of Christ, as Paul tells us in Romans chapter three, to demonstrate his own righteousness. Sin isn't a faux pas. Sin isn't merely a little picadillo. The smallest sin deserves an eternity of death. A whole lifetime of sins deserves what? A whole lifetime of eternal death. We know this from our own courts from time to time you hear of somebody who has committed great and evil sin in our society, and he receives 10 life sentences to be served concurrently. Why did they pile up? One life sentence would have been enough, right? But there's something so heinous about this act that the court must give this man 10 life sentences. One sin is worth an eternal life of judgment, What is a hundred sins? Or to put it this way, if you sinned only once a day, right? Once a day, he says, that's a pretty good person. Just one sin a day. Well, that's 365 sins in a year. In 10 years, what's that? 3,650, right? Stop there because you all know I don't do numbers. So what's the next one at another zero? 30,000 through 650 whatever see I'll get mixed up real quickly But if you went before a judge an ordinary judge judge here in Cass County with 650 violations on your rap sheet And he just turned a blind eye and said to you, go in peace, my friend. I know you didn't mean it. You were culturally challenged. Well, maybe they might say this these days. That used to work better before we got some of these judges we have now. But you don't understand what I'm saying. You had 365 violations or 3,650 violations or 30,000 or 30 million. Sooner or later, you understand the only thing that is worthy of the punishment is multiple lifetimes. How much so before an eternal God who is infinite? What I often will use when I talk on these things is the illustration of if somebody ran in here today and pulled a gun and shot me, that would be terrible, or shot one of you, that would be terrible. The police would come out, they would do an investigation, They might pursue who did this, if he got away. But it really wouldn't make much news. It might get on WDAY for a night. But it would quickly pass. But when somebody tries to kill the president, it becomes national and international news, and all the police of different levels and varieties, the FBI and Homeland Security and all those, state and local, they are mobilized. Why? Is the president any more valuable than you? No. The president's a mere man like you or I. But his position is different, isn't it? And by his position, he's of greater value, and so the response is of greater value. Well, pick your favorite politician. You are closer to value to that person than that person is to the value of God. And the smallest sin against an infinitely holy God is worthy of an infinite damnation, the type of fire that the scripture talks about that is never satisfied, never quenched. How about a lifetime of sin? Well, God had to display his righteousness in the propitiation of bloody sacrifice because, as the scripture says, in forbearance, he passed over sins previously committed. See, what happens when you commit a crime and you get away with it? You think you can do it again. What happens when a child disobeys mom and dad and gets away with it? They think they can get, they can get, they can do it again. What's worse is when a child misbehaves right in front of their parents and the parents, having already addressed the situation, you are not to say or do this. And right in front of them the kid does or says this, that they've been told not to. And the parent does nothing to address the issue. It seems like it doesn't matter. And the kid learns, well, I can disobey dad or mom once, and nothing will happen. Twice, nothing's going to happen. Three times, I might hear a loud voice, but I still get away with it. Four times, finally after the fifth time, judgment falls, the kid is disciplined, and the kid looks at mom and dad and says, it's not fair. Little brother Joey, he did the same thing. but only three times, you did it five. There seems to be an injustice. There seems to be a passing over. But what did God say to Adam and Eve? In the day in which you eat of the tree, you will what? Die. And we know biblically they did, in a spiritual sense. And they began to die physically, only the physical death would take some time. But when you sin, and you all do sin, and you sin regularly, you're sinning probably right now, I can say, because you're not loving God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Because I know, I can see, some are even asleep. Some are looking around, who is that? Who is that? So, but you didn't die. You sinned and that doesn't seem to be anything that would happen to you. Well, it must be okay. And God had to demonstrate, no, that one sin, the smallest sin, is worthy of an eternity of death. And because so many years, millennia, had passed from the time of Adam to the time of the cross, it was very easy for sinners like you or I to begin to think it doesn't really matter. I know in my own life, I've pondered this on numerous occasions, where I realize I have just thought or said or done something that I knew to be sinful. Because of the circumstances, I was capable of sitting in a chair and pondering what I had just said, thought, or done, and asked myself, do I feel any different? Does it appear that anything has changed? Do I feel more wicked than I did a minute ago? I feel more vile than I did a moment ago. And in all ways, it seemed that nothing had changed. So then it's easy to put, well, I guess it doesn't really matter, does it? It does. Because it does not go unnoticed. It does not go unaccounted for. And it does not go unreckoned. The smallest sin was large enough to put Christ on the cross. And because in his forbearance he'd passed over sins, as Paul says in Romans 3, it was incumbent upon him to demonstrate his righteousness that even the smallest sin deserves eternal judgment. Not a slap on the hand. Not a grounding or a timeout or a spanking. It deserved death. And so Christ suffered on the cross that God would demonstrate his righteousness, verse 26 of Romans 3, to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time so that he would be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ. He is just. God is the righteous one. All evil will be judged. All unrighteousness will be reconciled. All wickedness will be condemned. All sin will be destroyed. And yet he was able, because he's infinite God, to provide a way in which he could be both just, righteous, holy, and fulfill all righteousness in the condemning of sin, and yet doing so in a way that he could also justify sinners, such as you and me. And that was to lay all of our sins upon Christ. He bore our sins. 1 Peter 2, 24, he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross. He didn't die a general death. I always tell you this. I try to drill this in because it's hard. It slips from our head. He just didn't die a death. He died your death. He died for your sins. He died for your wickedness. If there had been no one else in the world, but you, he still would have been nailed to the cross and lifted. He bore your sins on the cross. And the bearing of those sins, we are told in the passage which you read, he suffered. He truly suffered. Christ suffered for us once and for all that he might deliver us from our sins. And so we must constantly remind ourselves of these things. He suffered for us. He died for us. He was a sacrifice for our sins. Hebrews 10, 12 says, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time. Isn't that amazing? One sacrifice for sins for all time. He sat down at the right hand of God. He perfected for all time those who are sanctified, for all time, once and for all. Again, in the first verse we read in 1 Peter 3, 18, for Christ also died for sins once for all. The just for the unjust, or it would be just legitimately to write the righteous for the unrighteous. so that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh. You don't bring yourself to God. In many churches, they sing goofy songs. Some of you may have been raised on the song, I'm climbing Jacob's ladder, climbing, climbing, climbing Jacob's ladder up to heaven. That song is so wicked. You are not climbing Jacob's ladder. Jesus descended Jacob's ladder to save you. You do not climb Jacob's ladder to save yourself. That's why I call it a goofy song. That was being polite. Remember when we first came here 21 years ago, we used to go down to some camp near Alexandria And they went down there, and the songs they were singing were so troublesome to me, I came back and complained to the other elders. It's not because they were kids' songs or sung loudly and with joy or whatever like that. But they reflected liberal theology. I don't think they knew it. I don't think they were trying to indoctrinate our kids into liberal theology, but they were. I remember this one song. and you shake your hands and stamp your feet, you're gonna feel God in the shaking of your hands and the stamping. I'm going, that comes right out of Schleiermacher. You don't feel God. Christ died for sins once and for all. He will never die again for our sins. If you have a sin that has not been covered, you in heap deep trouble. as Native American for being in trouble. For the scripture says, that having fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again in repentance, since they again would crucify for themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame. Christ will never be crucified again. His one death is either enough or it's not. as in a previous catechism question that had to do with do they truly believe in Christ who seek their salvation in anything else? And the answer was no, because he's either the perfect savior or he's not. Either he, question 30 from Lord's Day 11, Do such then believe that Jesus is the only Savior who seek their salvation and welfare of saints or themselves or anywhere else? The answer, they do not. Though they boast of him in words, yet in deeds they deny Jesus the only deliverer and Savior. For one of these two things must be true. Either Jesus is not a complete Savior or that they, who by true faith receive the Savior, must find all things in him necessary for salvation. Either, as Peter says, when he was just and righteous and holy, he died for unjust men, once and for all, that he might bring us to God, or he did not. Either that once and for all was sufficient, or it was not. He can't be almost a perfect Savior. He can't be almost a complete Savior. or he is not, as I say, and on a little bit of a crass way, and I somewhat apologize for the crassness, it's like pregnancy. Either you are or you are not. There's no halfway pregnancies, no three-quarter pregnancies, no 99.9% pregnancies. You are either pregnant or you are not. In the same absoluteness, or the binariness of it, Christ is either a perfect and complete Savior, or he is not. Either he is the one who's responsible to bring those whom he has saved to God, he died once and for all, just so that he might bring us to God, or he is not that one. Someone else must do it. But the scripture is complete and consistent and harmonious that when Jesus died, he did not die simply to make sinners savable if they would do something. He died in such a way as to render perfectly, infallibly, and unchangeably a host of multitude so large that no man could ever count them to be most certainly and perfectly saved. once and for all. And that's our hope, that's our assurance. Because what's true of your life? We can be all excited today about the things of God, maybe even suppress some of our sinfulness as we sit still for a few hours and go out the back door and probably before you get home you're in an argument in the car and the kids are fighting. You feeling exasperated? I see some chuckles back there that must have happened in one household. Maybe, you know, it's kind of like the family that drives. This is why my wife and I don't drive together. You know, that family drives to church together. Park the car, get out. Yo, how's Jesus doing? Love to see you. Oh, happy Lord's Day. We are all that way. We've all done that. You know what I'm saying. What's true of our lives? You're going to sin today, tomorrow, and the next day. And if you measured your salvation on the basis of how well you are doing at any given moment, you'll have no hope or assurance of salvation. But our assurance doesn't come from how well we do, but how well Christ has done. Our assurance comes from the fact that the just died for the unjust once and for all, that he himself might bring his brethren to the Father. Or as the angel said to Joseph in Matthew 121, she shall bear a son and you shall name him Jesus, for he himself shall save his people from their sins. Praise God that Jesus suffered on the cross, body and soul. once and for all, for the smallest of all possible sins, and for the largest and greatest of all possible sinners, like the Apostle Paul, who says, I am the chief of sinners. The blood of Christ was of such infinite value, the blood of Christ was of such infinite worth, that it could satisfy the infinite wrath of an infinitely holy God, in a way that when the sacrifice is over and Christ says on the cross, it is finished. No truer words were ever spoken. The wrath of God against the sins of his people have been satisfied. And that's where our assurance comes from. Do we believe that the wrath has been removed? Because the wrath of God only comes, God's not a capricious God, he just doesn't get ticked. He's not irish with a temper, right? He doesn't just get mad for no apparent reason. His wrath doesn't come forward for just no reason. It only comes out against sin. Because all sin is against his righteousness and his holiness. And he must punish and destroy all sin. But if sin has been removed, if the guilt of sin has been removed, if the debt for sin has been removed, if the penalty of sin has been paid, then there's nothing that will ever bring forth the wrath of God against the sinner who has received forgiveness of their sins. Never. There may be loving fatherly discipline, Hebrews chapter 11 or 12 rather, but not wrath. As a father, those whom the Lord loves, he chastises. As a father loves his son, disciplines him. Why? Because he hates the son? No, because he loves the son and wants to see the son grow up to be mature and wise. And so God will discipline us, but never pour his wrath on us if we are in Christ. And if you don't understand the difference between discipline and wrath, then I need to preach another sermon because there is a world of difference between the two. One is from a loving father, the other is from a holy judge. So may we even this week ponder the death of Christ on our behalf as we anticipate Good Friday, As we look forward to celebrating the resurrection, Jesus conquered death, and Jesus conquered sin, Jesus satisfied the wrath of God, and we might stand before him, as Paul says in Romans 5, 1, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. No more wrath. Just peace. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that our hope is not in our deeds, but in the deeds of Christ. Our hope is not in our works, but the works of Christ. Our hope is not in our righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ. That he who died, died for sinners such as us. That he might be our savior. Save us from what? Save us from your wrath. Give us ears to hear and hearts to believe. In Christ we pray, amen.