Men have made declarations, or groups of people have made declarations, which is an official, a public, a explicit document that states motivations and intentions and the reason for their actions. Of course, probably the best well-known declaration in our country is that of the Declaration of Independence. It was an official document that summarized the motivation of the 13 colonists and their intent to separate and have independence from Britain. But the Resurrection is also a declaration of the Trinity. It's an official, public, explicit statement of something about God. Now today, as many people perhaps go to church that typically do not, of course that's a good thing, They may be told that the emphasis and the focus of this declaration is themselves. That God loves them. And of course we just sang today and that certainly is true. But today I want to give you five declarations about God as it relates to the resurrection where the focus will be on God. and the declaration will be about God from the prophecy of Isaiah 53 beginning in the 8th verse, a prophecy speaking of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which was yet to come some hundred years or hundreds of years later. Isaiah 53 verse 8, He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of My people was He stricken. And He made His grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death. Because He had done no violence, neither was there any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bear the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Five declarations, if we have time this morning, about God as it relates to the resurrection. The first one is the resurrection declares the value of God. The resurrection declares God's value. What is value? Value is a regard that we have for something because we hold it in high esteem. We may call that value worth. We may call it important. There are thousands of ways each week that the little decisions you make, both small and great, are different elements of worth and value coming together to make decisions in your life. Sometimes it regards money. Is it worth it? Does it have the quality? Is it bright enough? Does it shine? Will it last? Is it cool? Is it soft? Is it hard? Is it durable? Does it work? Does it function? Is it practical? And thousands of other things that come together to decide for you value and worth. Value and worth. When you find something that has value, it is worth it. It's worth your time. It's worth your effort. It's worth your money. What do you do? You desire it. You're pleased with it. And then you go after it. You seek it. Is that not true? Does that not happen in every day of your life, even when it's unconscious and you don't even think about it? From the smallest purchases to the greatest, it's worth it. It has value. Therefore, I want it. I desire it. It gives me pleasure. I will seek it. Where is God placing value in the death, burial, resurrection? Is it me or is it Him? Two words that speak of God's value. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. To bruise means to crush, to shatter, to destroy, to ruin. No one argues that this prophecy is about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Yet, He did no violence. No guile was found in His mouth. Not a single word of guile. Yet, the Lord found pleasure in crushing His Son. Why? Would you? What would it take for you to give your son, your daughter, away, much less to die. Is there enough silver? Is there enough gold? Is there enough money? Is there anything of such value and worth on the planet, in the universe, maybe Yacht-Net discovered, that you could say, yeah, that's worth it? I'm gonna guess you're gonna say no. yet something was worth it to God. Something was worth Him giving His infinite, valuable Son, which gold cannot compare to, silver has no match, there is no money, there is no created substance that could rise to the level of worth and value to equate to the Son of God. Because the Son of God pleased His Father, and yet He bruised Him. Why? because of the reason for the bruising. And what was the reason? He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. A transgression and an iniquity is an infraction of the law. And the law is an expression of the worth of God and the value of God. Isaiah 42 verse 21, the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make it honorable. It, the law, which is an expression of God's pleasure or His righteousness. That's what that text is saying. So when we read Exodus 20, we should have been thinking the value of God, the worth of God. God is pleased with His own righteousness. What are some of the words that we could draw out of the Exodus or Exodus 20, the Decalogue, concerning the value of God? We don't have to go far. We only go to the first command. I am the Lord thy God that brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. What does that mean? What does it mean? To stand in front of him? To be out in front of him? It's an expression of rivalry. A rival. to God's righteousness or what God is pleased in, which is the law to magnify it. There's a rival and God says you may have no rivals. Why? Because He's a jealous God. There's another expression of His regard for himself or his pleasure in the law that speaks about him. I am jealous over what? Over himself. So what does he do in his jealousy? He punishes those that hate him or don't regard him. How many people say, I don't hate God. Do you regard him? Then you hate him. Oh, the definitions the Bible give us that just won't let me escape and come up with my own ideas about God and what he's saying. I'm jealous of those that hate me, I punish those that love me. What's God jealous over? Hate me, love me. He's jealous over Himself. Why? Because there's no value, there's no worth that equates to the glory of God. We talk about the value of God, the Bible calls it glory. Glory. Is there another expression in the Decalogue that would really key us in on what it means to have no rivals? He's jealous, you hate him, you love him. Well, it's the 10th verse, right? Thou shalt not covet. Covetousness is idolatry, Colossians 3. So when God says, have no gods above me because I'm jealous over my glory, to have a God above God means you have something that occupies the place of God, which means you're covetous. What does that mean? It means you found something of worth, of value. You desire it. You want it. You're pleased with it. You go after it in front of God. You go after it above God. You go after it as if it's the supreme worth in the universe. And that is damnable. You're a lawbreaker. Now who here is not a lawbreaker? All have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us have sought out things. All of us have had rivals to God. All of us have wanted things above God and we've sought it. with every ounce of our being. God is well pleased for His righteousness sake, because in that law that He's going to magnify, that He's going to honor, is an expression of God's value for Himself. The love He has for God and the hatred He has for sin. So God's value is measured in the law. He's pleased with righteousness, which means He's going to do something right as it relates to the resurrection. What is He going to do that's right? He's going to bruise His Son. Why is that right? Because Jesus was wounded for our transgressions. He became sin, and when He became sin, it was as if He coveted everything that you have ever wanted, and God laid it on Him. Everything that you've ever wanted, every sin that you've ever committed, which started at the root of your heart and desire, and then expressed itself in words, in actions, in adultery, in stealing, in killing, with words or in actions, all ten commandments. He put it on Christ. And at that moment, God's pleasure in the bruising was God's pleasure in the reason for the bruising, which was the glory of His matchless name. God's also pleased with the outcome of the bruising. Because not only did Jesus bear the penalty for sinners, He got the reward of righteousness. He fulfilled the law. He did exactly in heart and life that the law demanded. And then after God imputed our sins to Him, He raised Him from the dead as a symbolic expression as the reality that He is right. God is pleased because He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And so He paid the penalty. God was pleased with that because it magnified justice justice against the name of God, infraction against the name of God, and then he raised him and he's pleased with the Son because of his obedience, his heart for the glory of God, his willing to go die for the supremacy of God his Father. The mercy of God and the justice of God come together in the cross and God is pleased, not in the event itself, not in the sin that took place and the killing of his son. He's pleased for the reason and the outcome, which is the glorification of His name. Alright, first implication for you. If God was showing His value in His death, burial and resurrection, how should you be showing His value in salvation? We did not stand to reason then that the aim of salvation is for you to display the value and the worth of God by your decisions, by your actions, by your life. Peter remembered, 1 Peter 2, 9 said, You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of peculiar people. Why? That you should show forth the praises of Him who called you out of the darkness into His marvelous light. See, you should show the praises of God, the glory of God, the excellence of God who called you out of darkness into wonderful, amazing, admiring light. That doesn't mean you kind of look at light bulbs and say, this is amazing. The light is the light of the glory of Jesus Christ. You've seen Him, He's glorious. And therefore, your life should be a pursuit of greatest value, which is God, a desire for God, a pleasure in God, a seeking God in a way that expresses His value. Now, I recognize that we fail at that. I recognize we miss that mark, but Jesus didn't, and that's the good news. He didn't miss the mark for you, but are you committed to it through confessing your sin when you don't? Are you committed to it in the kingdom of God? Is that your longing and desire, even when you can say, I've sinned against heaven and thy sight? I'm no more worthy to be called thy son, but Jesus has made me a son of God. Number two. It is a declaration of God's provision. Now where there's provision, there must be need. Or it doesn't fit, does it? If you don't need the provision, you just reject it. It's a declaration of provision. And we look at this in the phrase, He hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. or two Hebrew words, make, to make him means to put, to place, or to lay. Thou shalt make, and then his soul and offering for sins, one Hebrew word that means the guilt and the blame contracted from transgression. We know in the crucifixion, God placed, laid, put on Him the blame and the guilt that we contracted from our own transgression. Where again, the Lord had laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. But isn't it amazing what we try to do with our blame and our guilt? Rather than take it to the cross, we try to ignore it. We try to give it to somebody else. We try to suppress it. You know, sometimes we should feel guilty because we actually, in fact, are guilty. Sometimes we can feel guilt that maybe someone tries to make us experience and it's just not true. But we are guilty. We have sinned. Jesus took the blame and the guilt, and the way that we come into that provision is to need Him and need His forgiveness. And the way forgiveness comes is through repentance and forgiveness. Forgiveness is something you receive, and you receive it by means of repentance toward God. Jesus said in Luke chapter 5, they that are whole need not a physician, or they that are sick, whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I have come not to call the righteous, which is referring to people that are whole or think they're whole, but sinners to repentance. Repentance then, Jesus is connecting with need. Those that are whole don't need. I've come to call sinners to repentance. So repentance is first a need for God and His forgiveness. Do you need that? Is it something you cherish? Something you treasure? Something you value? Something you seek from your Father when you sin again? Through confession and repentance. There's even people today that will try to forgive themselves. They've been taught, perhaps, which is nowhere in the Bible, that you just need to forgive yourselves. Now the problem with that is twofold, maybe more, but one is that it's not in the Bible, and number two, it's confusing the whole basis of forgiveness. If you try to forgive yourself, what you're doing is the wrong person is trying to forgive the person that is wrong. Because both of you are wrong. Forgiveness is a transaction of receiving forgiveness from somebody that you wronged. So you've got a right person and a wrong person. The right person's God, the wrong person's us. Even man to man. There's a right person that didn't do the wrong, and there's the wrong person that wronged the right person. So you receive forgiveness. When you try to forgive yourself, the wrong person, you, is trying to forgive the wrong person. Then that's you. It confuses. And it just turns us in on ourselves and really does nothing with the guilt. There is a real place to take our guilt. There is a real place to take our blame. And it's the one who died to take it on your behalf. Listen to Peter in Acts chapter 5 verse 30, when he talks about the resurrection to the council that had threatened them not to preach in the name of Jesus, yet they did so, obeying God rather than men. Peter would say to the council, The God of our fathers, who raised up Jesus, you have taken and crucified and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand, to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. We are also witnesses of these things, and so also is the Holy Ghost, which God has given to those that obey Him." When they heard that, they were cut to the heart. That's not a good expression. Now in Acts chapter 2 when they heard the same message basically of the crucifixion, you've crucified them, they were pierced in the heart. That's a good thing. The word pierced them and they felt the sorrow of repentance. Acts chapter 5, the word cut them and there was no repentance. Now what is Peter saying there? God raised Jesus from the dead so that He would be a Prince and a Savior, a Ruler and a Rescuer. Here's what the Ruler and the Rescuer gives to His people. He gives repentance and He gives forgiveness. So let's talk about forgiveness. He gives it, that means it's received by us. We receive it, we embrace it, we treasure it. The Savior, the Deliverer, the Rescuer, who has made an offering for sin, He takes your blame, He takes your guilt, and He extends to you forgiveness. He gives it. So Peter says, it's just received. But he also says, it's repentance and forgiveness. Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of walk, a change of thinking about something, namely the Prince, and then that leads to a change of walking, a change of doing. You see, what produces repentance, first of all, is seeing the Prince and the Savior. Acts 26, 18. Paul was sent to open their eyes of the blind, to turn them from darkness to light, the power of Satan, to the power of God, that they may receive the forgiveness of sins. What needs to happen to receive forgiveness? You need to see the Prince and the Savior. Darkness to light, power of Satan, which is darkness, the power of God, which is light. You see, you receive, because when you see Him, you repent and receive the forgiveness of sins. That's what Peter is saying. Now, what is it about the Prince that's connected with the prince, where prince means ruler. And that's the crux of the issue, isn't it? You see, a lot of people will receive forgiveness and say, I'm forgiven, I love forgiveness, but God says, Jesus must be your ruler. Well, that's a different story, isn't it? He's the ruler. That's why you have so many people going around saying they're forgiven, but they've never been under the rule of Christ. And in fact, according to scripture, then they're not forgiven. It's repentance and forgiveness. Receive forgiveness because you've seen the prince, the ruler, and you come under his lordship. Lordship. The aim of the crucifixion is lordship. Prince, savior. The problem is, beloved, with you and me, we want to rule our own lives. Isn't that true? Why do you want to rule your own lives? Because you think you can make yourself happier than Jesus can. Oh, don't argue with me, just read the Word. You think that if you do it your way, make your own decisions, I mean, forgiveness is good, I don't mind coming to church a little bit, but when it comes to six days a week, I'm going to do it my way. And how is Jesus your ruler? 2 Corinthians chapter 5 says that we should no longer live to ourselves, but to Him that died and rose again. What does it mean not to live yourself? You give up the rule of your life. What does it mean to live to Christ? He's the Prince. He's the ruler. You come under His rule. Do you think you can make yourself happier than Him? Really. Do you think you can bring yourself safely to heaven? Do you think you have the wisdom and the knowledge to know really what satisfies the soul? Really? A sinner? You think you know more than the eternal God how to rule your life than Jesus, the eternal God, does? Really? But that's our sinful problem, isn't it? God's declaration of provision, you need forgiveness, and that comes through repentance, which means you must come under the rule of Christ. Yes, you're a sinner. Yes, it's not perfect for us under there because we're not perfect. But yes, He's a Prince and He's a Savior to give what? Repentance. and forgiveness. Have you repented? Have you come under His Lordship? Are you living under the Lordship of Jesus Christ? And before you answer, listen to what Peter identifies as Lordship. We also are His witnesses, so also is the Holy Spirit, which God has given to those that obey the Prince. Interestingly, the word obey is a compound word that takes the word Prince, ruler, and connects it with trust. Trust the ruler. The Holy Spirit was given so you would trust the ruler and submit to his authority. That's how you receive forgiveness. And you keep receiving your fatherly forgiveness from him as you keep repenting, because that's not a one-time thing. Have you seen the value and worth of Christ? Have you come under his authority, his loving, gracious supremacy and said, Jesus knows, Jesus knows. all the way with Him I'll go. A declaration of God's provision. Number three, it's also a declaration of God's victory. It's His victory for us, but it's His victory. Look at the wording. Now this speaks after His death in the prophecy of verse 10. He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Now how does that work out for a dead man? That's not possible. Here we speak of the resurrection of Christ and the effect, the outcome of his death. It's victory in that he shall see his seed. Among the Hebrews, it was a great blessing to see offspring. That's what the word seed means. And to see grandchildren was a great blessing. And that's a great blessing today, isn't it? Jacob in Genesis 48, 11 said to Joseph, Lo, I thought that I would not see your face, and lo, God has showed me your seed. There was his two grandsons. What a joy. I'm not a grandfather yet, but what a joy that would be. He said, well, see my grandchildren. The reality is it doesn't always happen, does it? Maybe you die before you see your grandchildren. Maybe there's problems. Maybe the children don't have children. Whatever reasons in the providence of God. But I want you to see this text. That's not the case. He shall see His seed. He's going to see all of them. He's going to see you. It means He's present, He sees, He knows His offspring. They're His. They belong to Jesus Christ. John 10 verse 16, "...Other sheep I have which are not of this fold..." Sheep would be equivalent to offspring, His children. I have other sheep. They're not part of the Jewish fold. Them also I must bring. I will see them. I will give my life for them. The design and the intent of the death of Christ was to secure His personal seed, His offspring, His sheep, and those alone. victorious, triumphant. He will not be saying on that day, where are the seed, where are the offspring, I thought there were more, I thought I died for more. No, they'll all be present, none lost. It's a declaration of the victory of Christ Jesus our Lord. John chapter 1 verse 12, He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to be called the offspring, the sons of God, even those that believe on His name. which were born, not of the will of man or the will of the flesh, not of blood, but of God. God is going to secure the seed for which Jesus died for because He ransomed them to bring them to God and the Holy Spirit is going to bring them to new birth and bring them to the Christ. That's victory in Jesus Christ. What kind of testimony is it that the ransom couldn't secure the seed? If your child was taken And someone said, I need a ransom. And you said, what is the price? Is it one billion, one trillion? Name it, I'll get it. He said, no. No, I don't want it. What they're saying is, the ransom that you're offering is insufficient, it doesn't have the value. Would God reject the ransom price of His precious Son's blood? No, He received the ransom. He raised Him from the dead to let you know, ransom paid. Will the Holy Spirit not be able to apply the ransom to the souls of the offspring of God? If not, then He's not gonna see the seed, beloved. Can you see that? He is not going to see the offspring if the Holy Spirit can't apply the ransom. But He will, and He's doing so even today. This is a declaration of the victory of God in Christ. But it says also, he shall prolong his days. The word prolong means to extend, to continue. How long has the Savior's days been extended by resurrection? Forever. He shall reign forever and ever and ever. That prolonged victory is yours in Christ. Your days will be forever and ever and ever. Jesus said in John 8, 51, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that keeps my sayings shall never see death. Really? He didn't say you'll never die. He said you'll never see death. The Pharisees interpreted that as taste death. Do we believe Jesus? To keep His saying means to keep what He said about Himself. What did He say? I am the Son of the living God. I am God in the flesh. Do you keep that? Do you believe it? Do you embrace it? Are you abiding in it? Then you won't taste death. You won't taste death. Jesus said in John 5, 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word about me, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life. So death that we experience of the body is not a break in fellowship with God, it's perfected with God. And we go right through death into the presence of God, and we don't even see death. Whatever death is, it doesn't claim us, because the soul is eternal. and it goes right up into the presence of God. Beloved, however mundane, however routine, however difficult your life is right now, there's coming a moment in time where the Lord Jesus Christ is going to bring you out of this world into His presence to live with Him in a prolonged sense, forever. It's just a change from the physical to the spiritual, waiting for the resurrection of the body. He shall prolong His days because He's victorious. The resurrection is a declaration of victory. But it's also, as he says, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. That speaks of a work now after his resurrection. The pleasure of the Lord, verse 10, shall prosper in the hand of his sovereign providence. Prosper means progress, so this is a progressive victory. And the pleasure of the Lord, of course, again, is the praise of the glory of his grace. How does it prosper? Paul is speaking of the resurrection and the work of Christ in his sovereign hand over the church in Ephesians chapter 1 and about the 19th verse where he says this, that we may know what is the greatness of His power to usward who believe. According to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand far above principalities, powers, dominions, and might, and gave Him a name above every name, whether it be a name in heaven or a name in earth. And He has put Him to be head over all things to the church, which is the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. So the resurrection is a declaration of victory for the church of God in that we have a power for us today. That's what Paul is saying. It's a progressive power, meaning it should be progressively expressing itself in your life. What is this power? First, it's a power that includes the scope of everything. He's been made head over the church for all things. His sovereign hand, in which the glory of the Lord is being advanced, is over everything. It's over all dominions. It's over all the earth. That's pretty big. Secondly, it's personal. He's head over all things for the church, right down to you, right down to your life. That's personal. Right down to little small us, right? head over all things to the church. But the aim of Paul saying this, connecting it with the praise of the glory of His grace and the rest of the epistle, is that it's transformative. See, the way the pleasure of the Lord prospers in His hand is not just bringing more people into the kingdom, not just expanding the kingdom over the earth, but also transforming you, transforming me progressively. The victory that Jesus has given us, His aim is that it be a progressive victory of this power that is to us, a transforming power called grace. What does this grace help us do? in our relationships. In the church, Ephesians 4, 16. From whom the whole body fitly joined together. In marriage, Ephesians 5. In family, Ephesians 6. In work, Ephesians 5 and 6. What's Paul saying? You've been given a power by the resurrection of Christ. A victory because Christ has come to you. And through this grace of His presence as He rules over every detail of every relationship of everything you'll ever do. His aim is to give you a power that's transforming you in all your relationships. I wonder if you forgot that in the conflict you had yesterday. I wonder if you forgot all about the power of transforming the things you say and the relationships you're in. I wonder if you forgot that in your marriage this week. I wonder if you lived according to your own rule and you said what you wanted to say and you used your own power to get your own way rather than the victorious, triumphant power of the resurrection progressively that Jesus came to give you. That's what Paul means in Ephesians 1. It is the power to us that believe so that we can be renewed in the spirit of our minds and put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And how does that holiness express itself? Loving God and loving your wife, loving your husband, loving your children, loving your parents, loving your neighbor. You need a power. You need provision. The resurrection is a declaration of provision. The resurrection is a declaration of victory. Today. Right here. Right now. Future, yes. But in the hand of the sovereign Christ, He's bringing every detail. He's bringing everything into your life that He designs to be worked out with this power to grow into His image. What are the implications for us today? Are we aware? Are we receiving? Are we being renewed? Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Number four, it is a declaration of God's love. It is. He does love us. He says so. But even the emphasis in the Bible is not first us, it's always Him. We'll look at this in two expressions. In verse 11, "...he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge, shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities." And in verse 12 he says, he hath poured out his soul unto death. So let's look at the first one, the Declaration of Love. Two things seem to need to take place to justify sinners. Bear his iniquity, or our iniquity, for he shall bear their iniquity. Now that's the one we're most familiar with, but it says by his knowledge he'll justify and bear their iniquity. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. What does that mean? It could mean our knowledge of Him by faith, which is true in the Bible, but I think contextually, the writer's talking about the knowledge of Christ, His knowledge of something. He needs to know something so supremely, so superior, so great, that God receives the ransom, or there'll be no justification of sinners. Listen to Jesus in John 17, verse 26. He said, O righteous Father, The world doth not know you, but I have known thee, I know you. And these have known that you sent me. And I have declared thy name unto them and will declare it, so that the love wherewith you love me may be in them and I in them. Notice what Jesus is saying. He's going to define knowing, and what it means for Him to know God. So He knows God, and out of that knowledge, He declares the name of God, and He will declare it. His whole life was a declaration of knowing God, and in the cross itself, He would declare something about that knowledge of God. Then He says, He declares it, He will declare it, He did declare it, so that His love, God's love for Christ may be in them. What does that mean? So what Christ knows about the Father that motivated Him to declare the name of God was the love of God to Jesus and the fulfillment of that love. That's what He wants you to know. How fulfilling is that? How all satisfying is an eternal love in the light? Nothing obscuring the face of God. Nothing keeping the Son from experiencing the full manifestation of the bright rays of the all-satisfying love of God. Now listen to Jesus again that we said that. I know you, I've declared what I've known about your name, so that they would love you like I experience your love. All-consuming, satisfying. If Jesus did not know God like that, there would be no justification. You know why? Because He would have found that fulfilling love somewhere else. Maybe in creation, maybe in a person, maybe in something else, like we do. That's what makes Him the Son of God. Nothing! No rivals did He have. The love of God to Him was always superior and satisfying, and now He wants you to know it. That's the aim of justification. So what is the center of God's love for you? What is the center of the love of Christ that He wants you to know? It's their love. It's the love of God in loving you that He wants you to know. It's not just God loves you, it's the love of God that He wants you to know. So He comes, He dies, He's in you so that you can know how all satisfying the love of God flowing down to us would be like. He's always known it. Isn't that wonderful? He's just always known it. By His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. But then the expression of love in verse 12, because He hath poured out His soul unto death. The word soul has many different ways it could be expressed. Life, Desire, appetite, will, heart, mind, affections, it just goes on and on. So notice what it says, Jesus poured out all that unto death. There's an expression that athletes use at the final game, maybe the championship, maybe it's the last one, important game, they say, leave it on the floor. And I think what that means is, when you come off the floor, you're just almost dead. There's nothing left. You're just almost dead. There's no energy. There's no, you can't think. It's just, it's all out there on the floor. Now, if you left it all on the floor, you would be dead, and that's what Jesus did. He poured it all out. He left it all, and He died. He poured it out unto death. What was the motivation for Him doing that? Why did He do it? Because He loved you? Yes. But that's not the main motivation. Listen to a familiar text again that frankly I've just passed over so many times and didn't really get what Paul was saying. I think I understand it a little better now in Ephesians 2, 4. This is what he says. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love were with He loved us. Isn't that an odd way to say that? He didn't say, God who is rich in mercy for the love He has for us. He didn't say that because that's not what He meant. For the great love we're with, He loves us. He's pointing back to God. He wants you to know the love of God. The great love with He loved. The great love which God loved. Paul is pointing to God's love. You know how I know that? Because of the next part of the verse. Even when you were dead in sin. Now tell me, what motivates God to love a dead man spiritually? Who doesn't love God, who doesn't care about God, who has no interest in God? No, Paul is saying, rich in mercy for the great love for which he loved. He loved. It's got nothing to do with me, except he assigned it to me. You know, two pieces of paper about, I don't know, four inches long, two inches wide? have the same value. Until you paint one green and put the number 100 on it and put a face on it, now the value goes up. It was a sign. The paper is just the same, but men assigned value. God has assigned value because of His love. He's the emphasis. For the great love of which He loved us. That's like saying, for the great will which He willed, or the great mercy which He was merciful, or the great grace which He was gracious. I've never seen that. Paul is pointing back to God. Even we're dead in sins. I think John 3.16 is doing that. For God so loved the world. Now everybody stops and it's just like world, world, me, me. For God so loved the world that He gave. The emphasis is the love of God. He gave His Son for you. The emphasis is not the world. Now it is the object, but it's an assigned value. The world has no value. When God places His love on a person, their value is not intrinsic. It's assigned in the Lord Jesus Christ who has all the value. All right? So, God is rich in mercy, for the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened together with Christ, for by grace are you saved. Parenthetical expression. And, He's raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places. Now here's the specific motivation of God and His love. Here it is. That, in the ages to come, He might show what is the exceeding riches of His kindness and His grace toward us. See, the motivation of God's love is found in Him, it's not you. And the proof of that is that what He's motivated about His love, He's going to show you, He's going to show you, He's going to demonstrate how all satisfying His kindness and mercy is. How much His love is that valuable to dead people by making them alive in Christ. And in the ages to come, you know what that means? That's a present tense verb, to come. That means now and future. Right now, God's aim is to show you, is to demonstrate how great His love is, not how great you are. If you go that direction, which some Christians do, it's going to get all messed up. Because you're not great. How great His love is, how astounding it is, how amazing it is, He's going to show, He's going to demonstrate for ages and ages to come, starting right now. How wonderful His love is. The declaration of His love in Christ is His love. So what is He going to do in verse 8 to get that going right now? For by grace are you saved through faith. Right now He's saving you. He's transforming you by grace through faith. And the workmanship of the good works is a display of the fruit of His love out of a satisfying experience with Christ that produces fruit. All because of what? The great love for which He loved, He loved, He loved. It's not about you or me, but God has made it to where it includes us because He's assigned value to us with His great, great love. What are the implications of that for you? Do you love Him? That's the result of that, isn't it? When God says He's going to show you the exceeding greatness of His kindness, He doesn't mean for you to be bored. Are you bored? Are you bored with the fault of God in Christ? Does Christianity bore you? Does hearing sermons bore you? I admit I can bore you. That is not hard to do. But if you're bored with God, that only means one thing, one thing alone. Something created has captivated your affections. You're looking at the street lamp and can't see the galaxies of stars above it because you're captivated with a street lamp called creation. And therefore you're bored with God. You either need a new birth or salvation. or you need revival, or you need to turn back to Christ. He's not boring. His love is not boring. He's spectacular. And lastly, it's a declaration of God's inheritance. Isaiah 53 verse 12, Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong. Notice in verse 12 that first God is going to divide him a portion, but then he himself will do the dividing. God never does that with a monarch. Isaiah 45 in Cyrus, when he says what Cyrus is going to do, he says, I'll do it. I'll give this to him. I'll divide it. I'll open the gates for him. I'll make him successful with all earthly monarchs. But here he says, no, he'll do it himself. He's God. He's the equal of God. I will divide him a portion with the great, he shall divide the spoils with the strong. The great and the strong can have two meanings. And I'm not dogmatic on the one I'm going to take. Could be literal monarchs and chiefs of the world. But also can mean innumerable and many, many. Now who are the strong? We read 1 Corinthians chapter 1 again and it's not many mighty, not many noble, Not many wise are called. So the innumerable host, the strong are those strong in faith. That doesn't mean your faith is always strong. You know, when that's said about Abraham, it was a moment when his faith was strong, but you look at the other parts of his life, wasn't so strong, but he had faith. So the strong are made weak. because of the strength of Christ. He's dividing the spoils with His host. It's a declaration of God's inheritance to you. You're joint heirs with Jesus Christ. You're a joint heir, if so be that we suffer with Him. What's Christ's portion? We should ask. I'll divide Him a portion. You know, most of your houses, if you've got more than one child, you have to do portion control at lunch and dinner. Portion control. That's enough. That's enough for everybody to get a portion. What is the portion of Christ? He has inherited everything. All things. Hebrews chapter 1. He owns everything. He inherits the earth. He inherits the universe. All things are His. And now you're a joint heir with Christ. Why? Why should you get a share? An exact share that He has. Everything He owns comes to us. Why? because he had poured out his soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressors, literally took place, and he bare the sin of many, and he made intercession for the transgressors. He interceded even on the cross. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He said to the one, this day shalt thou be with me in paradise. In that moment of death, he was taken into the presence of God and is experiencing now even the inheritance of Christ, which is larger even to come. What's the implication for us concerning the inheritance? Jesus poured out His soul. He gave Himself a ransom. He purchased an inheritance for all those who trust Love Him and obey Him. No, your obedience is not the cause of it, but is certainly the effect that James 2 tells us and throughout the Bible says, obedience, an imperfect obedience, an imperfect faith to a perfect Savior, yet a following Jesus Christ. Have you received the declaration of the resurrection? When Jesus was raised, what did he say? Go everywhere preaching forgiveness and the remission of sins. It's a declaration that is to go far and wide, but it's a declaration in this room right here, right now. Have you received Jesus Christ? Are you walking under his lordship? Is he more valuable than anything, even though we don't always show it? And have you received the forgiveness of sins? If not, we make this declaration that you would do so today if you're so inclined by the knowledge of your sin and the knowledge of the Prince Jesus Christ. Let's pray.