In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the significance of a pivotal moment in history when Jesus came into the world. This moment, symbolized by Jesus' crucifixion, brought about a profound change that impacted everything. The preacher describes the intense focus and concentration of Jesus as he endured immense pain and suffering. Throughout his journey, Jesus experienced the loss of his disciples, friends, and even his own mother, symbolizing the stripping away of everything. The sermon concludes with the anticipation of a new beginning and the coronation of a new creation on Venus.

It is good to be back with you, and I do want to share on this topic of the baptism. That's the way I chose to introduce it. Not just the baptism in the Spirit, but not wider, but more focused than that. I would say that very often Bible words don't have definitions. The best place to understand a Bible word is not necessarily to go to a Bible dictionary. The best way to understand Bible words is actually just to read the Bible and discover how that word was used, and see what memories that must have kind of brought back to the people who first heard these things. There's a verse in Scripture here that I'm going to turn to. You can turn to it while I'm talking if you like. It's 2 Corinthians, in chapter 8. Thank you. And it's verse 9. Well, one of the things I was saying was that, as far as I know, maybe you can correct me if you think I'm wrong, as far as I know, there was only one time when the Lord spoke of baptism in this particular way. He was referring to his death on the cross, and he was referring to something he'd longed to do. He wanted to cast fire on the earth. He had things he wanted to do, and he said he was straightened, he was restrained. He couldn't do with freedom what he wanted to do until this thing was fulfilled. I have a baptism, he said, to be baptized with, and I am straightened until, and this is what I stated also instead, until it is finished. Because that immediately links us through with the time when Jesus said it is finished. He referred to his death on the cross as a baptism. He referred to it as being baptized with a baptism. And I was saying last night that when the Bible doubles up words like that, it really intensifies it. A baptism to be baptized with. For example, I didn't use this illustration last night, but in the letter of James, when it speaks in your English Bible of the righteous man praying fervently, it actually says he prays in his praise. That's the Hebrew way of intensifying it. It's the ultimate way of doing something. Jesus referred to his death as a baptism. And I was saying last night just something of the implications of that thing that he was saying. I'm going to read this verse here from 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 9, because I think this will, it will serve as a little platform for a little kind of a text, a launching pad for tonight. You know, he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. It has absolutely nothing at all to do with what people sometimes call the prosperity gospel, and the idea that because Jesus suffered this, we can now kind of prosper in all kinds of ways. Maybe you've not come across this but there's a sort of a theology in some circles that if you have a little bit of faith, you will have a little car and a little house and a little bank balance. And if you have a moderate amount of faith, you'll have a moderate car and a moderate house and a moderate bank balance. And if you have great faith, you'll have the greatest car and the greatest house and the greatest bank balance. and on that basis, Jesus must have had no faith at all because he had no car and no house and no bank balance, which just shows what a nonsense the whole thing is. When it speaks here of the Lord Jesus making his rich, it says that the reason that he was able to make his rich was because he became poor. Now we're getting close to Christmas and people immediately begin to think about the babe in the manger, but that was just the beginning of his poverty. That was the beginning when he turned aside briefly from all the rights and glories of being God and emptied himself and became a real human being like you and me, but without sin. This was not God dressed up as a man, this was not God pretending to be a man, this was not 50% God and 50% man, this was God becoming 100% man in the person of Jesus Christ and that is amazing. It really is amazing what he did, but that was only the beginning of his poverty. You come towards the cross, it's almost as though everything is stripped away from him stage by stage. His disciples, his friends, the ones who have been with him most comfortingly and he looked to them for fellowship, for companionship when he was in regard of Gethsemane and they fall asleep and he's losing them and then the arrest party comes and he loses them even more and they fly in all kinds of directions and then he comes across and he gives away his mother and he gives away John and they strip everything from him, they strip his clothes from him, they strip his dignity from him and he is now poor. But even this isn't the poverty that it's speaking about here, because if you think about it you'll understand that when it says that he was rich it's obviously talking about a time before he came into this world. So what was his riches? What was the currency of his riches? What was he rich in before he became a man? He was rich in his relationship with his father, he was rich in fellowship with God, he was rich in this intimate relationship and he spoke of it when he was upon the earth and he said I am my father of one and he said this amazing thing he said I am in my father and my father in me. And on the cross that was stripped away too. And there came this point in time that Bible students call the cry of delirium. Have you ever seen a dead house that's abandoned, empty, ruined? That's what happened on the cross, it was the cry of delirium when his father abandoned him and he became poor and he refers to that as his baptism. The time when everything was taken from him, the time when he entered into this absolute separation from his father and became poor so that through that poverty you and I might become rich. Well now we've got the currency that we're working in, now that we're not working in cars and houses and bank balances, now we know what we mean when we talk about riches. What kind of riches did he make possible for you? The same riches that he left behind in fellowship with his father, infancy, communion, this is what he died to make possible. We were having a little conversation, we've had one or two, spent most of the couple of days I've been here so far answering odd questions and then one came up today that I hadn't heard expressed in quite that way and then it wasn't a question from someone here, it was a question from someone else who was saying well if Jesus was God and knew everything that was going to happen and knew that he came from God and went to God and knew that the end was certain from the beginning and that he was Alpha and Omega then really his death on the cross was not of any real significance because he knew it was going to last for a short while, it was just a space wasn't it and really you could go through anything can't you if you know that it's not going to be very long. What do you think about that? I've never had that question asked me before but it provoked me to come to this package here and I want to have a little more of a look at what the Lord Jesus experienced for us on the cross and if you turn with me first of all to Mark's gospel and we'll go to the Garden of Gethsemane at Mark chapter 14 and I'm sure you know this passage of scripture well so I'm not going to introduce it to you except that I'm going to let the Lord Jesus introduce it to you because there are things here which don't have definitions but they have histories there are things that are said here and if you know what they're connected to you actually know what he was thinking about. You know that when Jesus died on the cross it was as though God brought down a veil on nature and for the three hours of his separation from his father no eye saw what he was experiencing they heard the sound of his voice coming out of the darkness but it was pitch black no one saw what he went through but if you look at some other parts of the scriptures you begin to get a clue as to what he went through and one of them is here in the Garden of Gethsemane this is Mark chapter 14. In verse 26 it says when they had sung a hymn they went out into the mount of olives and Jesus said to them all of you shall be caused to stumble because of me this night for it is written I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered and after I'm risen I will go before you into Galilee. I want you to remember that little phrase I will smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered and I want to show you now what was in the mind of the Lord Jesus. Turn with me to Zechariah that's the second last book in the Old Testament and turn to chapter 13. Chapter 13 there are some amazing verses of scripture in Zechariah really quite amazing verses verses which when Zechariah I think when Zechariah gave these prophecies at times he must have been baffled as to what the significance was of the things that he was saying. Let me give you a little illustration we go go back a little bit and if you look at chapter 6 of Zechariah look at this one for example you won't understand unless you know the background of this very well but so you'll pick up you'll pick up the atmosphere all right in verse 12 he's talking about someone who is the high priest and then he had to speak to him saying thus speaks the Lord of hosts saying behold the man whose name is the branch and he shall grow up out of his place and he shall build the temple of the Lord so Zechariah is giving a prophecy about someone who's going to be a temple builder now Zechariah thinks he is talking about a man called Zerubbabel and he is but he isn't only talking about Zerubbabel he's actually talking about another temple builder Jesus said destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise the earth he wasn't thinking of the temple in Jerusalem he was thinking of the temple of his own body but Jesus is a temple builder there he goes he says this even he shall build the temple of the Lord remember he's just saying upon this rock I will build my church and he shall bear the glory and he shall sit and rule on his throne and he shall be a priest upon his throne and the council of peace shall be between I'm not going to explain all this but in the middle of verse 13 you may notice that it talks about a throne and someone sitting and ruling on a throne can you see that now if you look at verse 11 the words in verse 11 it looks as though he's talking about a high priest whose name is Joshua the son of Joseph all right now this is why I say that Zechariah's prophecies must have baffled you bewildered you because high priests don't sit on thrones in fact there's a chorus that you probably sing and recently sing in reading which says come bless the Lord all you servants of the Lord you sing this who stand why not in the house of all the priests stood there was nowhere for them to sit the temple wasn't um a church um it wasn't a meeting room like the one that you have here it was really a mobile palace it was where God lived that was what the tabernacle was and the firmament was going to the temple and the priest had nowhere to stand and the picture of them standing is of the servants of a great king who stand because they're ready to do his bidding whatever he says to do they're ready so they stand so they stand to worship the Lord but this one here speaks about the priest who sits on a throne and he rules now the people who do the ruling are kings and God had very carefully explained to the people of Israel that there were going to be two tribes in Israel a tribe from Judah from which they would have their kings who would sit on thrones and rule and a tribe from Levi from which they would have their priests who would stand and minister to the and if you're a priest you couldn't be a king and if you're a king you couldn't be a priest the two must be kept absolutely separate and in fact one of Israel's king decided he would bring them together and he would act like a priest and the wrath of God struck him with leprosy and he had to be put in a house building in the temple in the palatine quarantine for the rest of his reign his son acted as a regent God would make plain to these people so plain he'd spelled it out so carefully your kings are going to sit on thrones and they will reign and they will come from Judah and your priests are going to stand to minister to me and they'll come from Levi and here you've got a man a Jew a man who knew all this and he's prophesying about someone who's going to sit on a throne look at verse 13 he will sit and rule upon his throne and he shall be a priest upon his throne now has Zechariah got this wrong because priests don't have thrones and he got this wrong way back in the old testament there's a curious character who appears from nowhere and vanishes almost as quickly his name is Melchizedek Melchizedek is the king of a place called Salem but more than that he is the priest of the most high God he is the only person in the history of the bible who is a king priest who is both a king and a priest at the same time and he appears for about three verses in genesis chapter 13 and he vanishes and apparently nobody ever thought about him again until a thousand years later when David begins to compose a song and the spirit of God begins to lead him and he finds himself saying you are a priest forever of the kind that Melchizedek was now why would David say this a thousand years and no mention and suddenly Melchizedek is back on the agenda and then he locked the agenda for another thousand years nobody gave another thought for Melchizedek for another thousand years until the writers of Hebrews comes along and writes two chapters about him what is all this the reason that Melchizedek is so key is because he is the bible's picture of a king priest a king who sits upon the throne and rules like a priest now kings were the people who were responsible for lord and order they ruled like kings and if you did the wrong thing you got to know about it fairly sharpish priests had to minister and their business was reconciliation and forgiveness but apparently there's going to be someone according to Zechariah who would reign like a king with all the power all the authority of a king but he would sit upon his throne like a priest using his power not to punish but to reconcile and forgive isn't this an amazing prophecy it's amazing because it runs right against the flow of everything that this man's ancestors have believed for about 800 years they've been told day in day out that there were kings and priests to be separate and here this you know it said from the new testament that some of these old testament saints when they gave these prophecies they searched diligently and they inquired they talked to god and they said lord what's that all about because of my peculiar sense of humor i often imagine this scene i imagine him getting home and mrs zechariah is talking to him and saying what are you on about moses says they're going to be separate david says they're going to be separate and you say there's going to be a king sitting on a throne working like a priest what are you talking about and zechariah would have had to have said i don't know upon whom this will happen these priests these prophets thought god is for what they meant and god said to them you're not speaking for yourself you're speaking of a grace that will come to a people that will come it's amazing do you know what that means it actually means and you have to say this with humility and genuine humility it actually means that you can understand the prophecy of zechariah better than zechariah could that's what it means it means you have an opportunity you have the potential to understand this prophecy more fully than zechariah did okay go a couple more chapters into zechariah and find another remarkable i'm going to pass the bit where he talks about 30 pieces of silver um i'm going to come to this bit in chapter 13 and we won't try and tie it down too much to the events of the day as you know but you here he begins to talk about someone in his prophecy and in verse 6 he says and one shall say to him what are these wounds in thine hands then he shall answer those with which i was wounded in the house of my friends what's what's this talking about who is this who's going to be wounded in his hands in the heart of his friends let me tell you another remarkable prophecy by a man who was a king this is david in psalm 22 he wrote a psalm which begins with the words my god my god why hast thou forsaken me and some people say well this is a psalm of david and jesus quoted it they say on the cross that's what they say but if you read psalm 22 you'll find some amazing statements in it it's supposed to be a testimony but you'll find statements in it like this one it says they pierced my hands and my feet now that's not david's testimony david's hands and feet were never pierced so whose testimony is this that we've got in psalm 22 because we'll read on a little bit later it'll say they cast lots for my garments that's not david's testimony whose testimony is that you know whose testimony is that that's the testimony of jesus that's why the new testament says that the testimony of jesus is the spirit of prophecy these old testament saints heard something in their spirit which was a testimony which wasn't their own discovery it wasn't their own reasoning it wasn't the bible knowledge that they'd used to come to certain doctrinal conclusions some things spoke in their spirit and they didn't understand the significance of it they spoke it out and we are left with these things here in the scriptures and they come up in the most amazing place and you get them you think what's this about well this one here what are these wounds in mine hands verse six then he shall say those with which i was wounded in the house of my friends and then verse seventh of this awake a sword against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow said the lord of hosts smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered and i will turn my hands upon the little one now when jesus and his disciples were moving towards the the garden of gethsemane they sang to him and jesus quoted these words that the shepherd would be struck and the sheep would be smitten who is the shepherd jesus is the shepherd that's not a difficult question who is the smiter who is the one who strikes the shepherd awake a sword against my shepherd and the man that is my fellow says the lord of hosts it's god who is going to strike the shepherd it's god who is going to strike the shepherd and he calls him my shepherd and then he says this can you see this in verse seven he says against the man who is my fellow my companion now here we've got another thing how what's zechariah into this time because zechariah was a contemporary with isaiah and isaiah was prophesying that beside me there is no god says the lord who is like unto the lord he has no equal he has no companion he is god alone and here zechariah says i can hear god speaking and it's the lord of hosts speaking and he says i am going to strike my shepherd the one who is my companion and the sheep will be scattered these are extraordinary prophecies they're prophecies that run right opposite to the belief of the people that were giving them zechariah believed there was no one like the lord that he was unique our the lord our god is one god that's what zechariah believed he was a good jew but he had a prophecy here in which the one god speaks of my companion my fellow the one who is beside me when i said there's no one besides him they're really amazing prophecies i will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered you begin now maybe to understand why in gethsemane the events that the lord jesus christ begins to see it's almost as though in gethsemane the shadow of the cross the shout the cross casts its shadow into gethsemane and jesus sees with a greater realization than he has ever seen in his life we were saying this today and i'll say that maybe the benefit to some other people when the lord came on our earth and lived as a human being he lived like a real human being he he lived like you and me are intended to live in absolute dependence upon god although he was god he chose to use not his powers of god but to live his life upon the earth as a man there's a little illustration of that in the story of the temptation when satan comes and says if you are the son of god use your powers for your own benefit if you are the son of god command these stones that they become bread and jesus said it's written man not god man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of god satan wanted jesus to behave like god and jesus said i am here to behave like man i'm here to behave be be absolutely dependent upon my father and because of that although as god he would have had all knowledge from the beginning to the end alpha and omega as a human being on the earth he only had what his father revealed to him and his father revealed things to him progressively and he saw things progressively and became a point in the garden of gethsemane where things came into focus and he was terrified i'm using my word carefully when he saw the full implication of what was going to take place on the cross he was terrified it wasn't just going to be the animosity of an evil world it wasn't just going to be some conflict with satan or with the jewish authorities it was his father who was going to strike him it was his father who would unsheathe his sword and attack the one who was his shepherd they say i don't know whether this is true or whether we've got any kind of child psychologists here but they say that it's um it's really traumatic for babies when they begin to cut their teeth because the place where they experience comfort and warmth and sustenance and where they enjoy fellowship with mum has to stay with their mouth which for so long for them has been a source of such wonderful comfort and satisfaction suddenly erupts into a place of pain and distress i don't know whether that's true russian humane it is when naomi came back from the land of noah she said i'm saying this you won't all understand the significance of this but somehow they said this is naomi which really means pleasant and she said don't call me pleasant she said call me mara which means bitter she said the almighty has afflicted me the almighty is one of those titles which is a it really means god in in the way he makes full provision for us it's the god who cares for us who wraps it in his arms and feeds us it's the god who is all sufficient and the god who had been her sustenance her comfort she felt as though he had turned against her she'd gone away full and she'd come back empty when job had his experiences the thing that caused job more pain than anything else what he said the arrows of the almighty have afflicted me the thing that hurt him most was they thought god was doing this thing now god wasn't doing the joke thing and he wasn't doing the naomi thing but he was going to do the shepherd thing it really was going to be the father who would have shielded and smite the son and it begins to set the mood for this passage here in mark chapter 14 verse 27 i'm back in mark 14 27 now and jesus said to them and you shall all be offended because of me this night for it's written i will smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered but after i'm risen i'll go before you to galilee it's peter i like peter um peter said unto him although all shall be offended yet will not i and jesus said unto him verily i say to thee that this day even this night before the cock crow twice thou shalt deny me thrice and peter spoke them all vehemently if i should die with thee i will not deny thee anyways likewise also said they all and they came to a place which was named gethsemane the place of the olive press that's what it means and he said to his disciples sit here while i shall pray and he takes with him peter and james and john and began to be sore amazed and to me very heavy and he said unto them my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death carry ye here and watch these words he began this is my old english version here he began to be sore amazed very heavy exceeding sorrowful unto death these are words that have been discovered in ancient greek manuscripts to describe the condition that people are having nervous breakdowns when people are so distressed they hardly know what to do with themselves when they are so heavy that they are crushed under the burden and they can't think straight and there are words here that are used to describe the response of the lord jesus he's spoken these words about it being the sword that would smite the shepherd he's now coming to the place of gethsemane and he begins to pray and as things come into clearer and clearer focus he becomes more and more distressed more and more agitated so restless broken disturbed distressed in his spirit but luke tells us that even as he prayed his sweat was like great drops of blood and this isn't the cross this is only the shadow of the cross this isn't him bearing sin and separation from god this is him contemplating bearing sin and separation from god this is the prospect that is almost crushing him and he begins to pray verse 35 he went forward a little and fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass from him all his life had been heading towards this hour and now that he sees it in all its fullness as god reveals all the intensity of what this will mean he now prays but if possible he may be spared from the hour and the reason that this is in several of the gospels of course but the reason i've come to mark gospel is because of this and he said abba father it looks as though when the lord jesus prayed normally he addressed his father as abba my father it it doesn't mean daddy in a childish sense but it does mean daddy in a sense of intimacy and meanness this is this is the companion of the lord of hosts this is his fellow this is the one who it says in the proverbs was daily my delight this is the one who had what it says of the lord jesus that from eternity to eternity thou art god and from an eternity in the past he had enjoyed a broken fellowship with his father and he addressed him here as abba father it looks as though whenever he prayed that was the pattern of it he referred to him as father abba my father except on one solitary occasion that we have recorded in the scripture and in his prayer he didn't call him father my father he said my god why has that to say to me he still acknowledged him as god still submitted himself to him but the sense of fellowship is broken the sense of nearness is broken at that point in time he is god awesome god awful god in all his power and righteous anger against sin he is god still god but not my father at that point in time but here is my father all things are possible to me take away this cup from me nevertheless not what i will but what thou wilt and that tells us i'm getting matthew's gospel in particular that jesus when he's prayed these words he then goes back to the disciples and finds them asleep and wakes them and asks them to watch for one more hour then he goes back to this place a little distance from them and he prays again and matthew says he prays again using the same words he comes back to the same point in time and then his experience he sees the same same clear picture this thing in focus of what must be if he takes the cup that the father has for him and he prays again if it's possible let this hour pass from me if it's possible not to drink this cup let it be said but nevertheless not my will but thy will and three times he does this i don't think he's praying through women said that we might kind of pray the same thing until we are absolutely convinced that it's answered because in that sense he what he didn't ever pray through because the cup was never taken from him it was given to him this is him bringing his will absolutely into line with this awful revelation that he has now seen of what it means to be the savior of the world of what the cost is going to be of what it means to become poor so that we might become rich i said last night that there was this word baptism remember this thing that he's now seeing in prospect at another place he spoke of it as a baptism with which he must be that time i said last night that although in your english bible you wouldn't find the word baptism in the old testament in the bible that many people used in jesus's day which was a greek translation of the old testament the word baptism is there on two separate occasions and he's a really obscure passage of scripture that i can almost guarantee you've never heard anyone preach on in your whole life um so with nicholai hx21 you've heard people preach on this come and tell me the first part of israel is a very heavy book it's full of impending judgments and threats and vengeance and woe with burdens that come upon isaiah as i was a prophet god was revealing his mind to him and as isaiah saw these things the heaviness of what he saw comes upon him so he calls these things a burden you know what a burden is it's something that weighs you down and these things that isaiah began to see weighed him down and there's one of them here in chapter 21 where he begins to see what's going to happen to babylon now babylon potentially is one of the main enemies of judah at this time it was a threat to them but isaiah begins to see something happening it's almost as though he's an eyewitness in the spirit of something that's going to take place and as he sees it the effect on is really quite amazing here is isaiah chapter 21 the burden of the desert of the sea if you look very quickly over to verse 9 right in the middle you'll see a little phrase babylon is poor and that's how we know babylon is talking to him back to this one the burden of the desert of the sea as whirlwinds in the south pass through so it comes from the desert from a terrible land a grievous vision is declared unto me the treacherous dealer deals treacherously in the spoiler spoils god oh even besiege your media all the signs that are divine made to cease now i don't know what i saw i don't know what events passed by in his imagination and his spirit as god showed him but i didn't know his result the result of looking at him he says because of what i've seen my wings are filled with pain pangs have taken hold on me as the pangs of a woman that travels you know i don't want to embarrass anybody and i really will be very discreet but i have been my we've had seven children my wife and myself and i have been present at the birth of each one of them i never felt more helpless and useless in my whole life and there was absolutely nothing i could do to contribute to what was taking place and what is taking place is every every muscle of this woman's being is concentrated on one thing with an intensity that's almost unbelievable i've probably still got the school marks in my hands where i was holding hands and had nails dug in now please don't be frightened by all this god will give you dying grace for the dying hour and i hope i'm not reminding any of you mums that kind of things that you've almost forgotten either um but the point i want to make is this it is a time of a tremendous focus and intensity when something is going to take place and there's no turning back you you can't go part way through this and say no i don't like this um i've changed my mind uh we'll adopt you can't you can't you can't do it it's um something is happening and it's all focused in and every part of the body with an awful concentration is fixed on this well i find the man he doesn't understand any of these things but he's experiencing it there's such pain in him that the only way that he can express it is he says it's it's it's like it's like what happens to the woman my loins are filled with pain pains have taken hold on me as the pains of a woman that travel i would bow down at the hearing of it he's heard this word about what's going to happen whether or not i it's so affected him he said i was dismayed at it and then he said this in verse four my heart panted and then he says that really means that it gasped and then he says fearfulness affrighted me and here's the interesting thing that in the greek bible where you have got fearfulness affrighted me it says terror baptized me that's what it says in the greek bible that was really like the authorised version of the terror baptized me this event that isaiah experienced by proxy in the spirit that he saw that had such a terrible effect upon him he said it was a baptism it was overwhelming they used to use the word baptism when they spoke of a shifting overwhelming storm when it was absolutely destroyed when there was no hope of rescue when the whole thing was absolutely swamped and there was no way out of it and he says here terror affrighted me the night of my pleasure the eternity of fear then he talks about other things and he goes on to talk about a threshing floor and corn on my floor and i'm not going to go into all the details but i just want to say this that what isaiah experienced as it were almost second hand by seeing that was going to take place on babylon and had this terrifying effect upon him where he was terrified by what he saw happening to somebody else jesus saw it happening to him himself and he was terrified this is his baptism into which he enters let me um show you a verse from hebrews verse chapter five he's uh he's one of those chapters all about that mysterious person i'll read from verse five so also christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest but he that said to him thou art my son today have i begotten thee also says in another place thou art a priest forever after the order of malchus that's verse six and then it refers the lord jesus has said this who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was hurt in that he feared and though he was a son yet learned he by obedience by the things which he suffered and being made perfect he became the author of eternal salvation and to all them that obey him because he became poor he became a treasure from which everybody else might become rich on the cross not afterwards in hades on the cross it was all achieved on the cross it was finished on the cross come with me to psalm 22 i'm really kind of chasing you around your bible tonight and um i thought i might have moved on a bit more than where we are but i feel we should just linger here for a little bit longer he's psalm 32 and we've made reference to this and i said that um this is the song that begins with these words my god my god why have you out mistaken me and many people say that jesus was quoting these words on the cross and i say david was quoting these words that he heard in the spirit he heard jesus on the cross and the words are captured in his spirit and he writes them down and if you look at the psalm you've got in front of you now psalm 32 and if you were to look from verse 1 right down to verse 21 you find that this this really is a terrible song it gets worse the more you go on the the mood becomes heavier and darker more desolate more abandoned well let me read it oh my god not abba father now but my god my god why hast thou forsaken me why art thou so far from helping me from the words of my roaring oh my god i cry in the daytime but thou hear us not remember that phrase thou hear us not and in the night season and the not siren but thou art holy jesus had become the sin bearer he was carrying the sin of the whole world he had become baptized into your condition and mine to such a degree that paul said he became sin he who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of god in him he'd become one with our condition he'd been baptized into it and at that point he knows why the father has separated from him because he is holy and jesus has become the embodiment of sin oh thou are holy oh thou that inhabit us the praises of israel our fathers trusted in thee they trusted and they delivered them they cried unto thee and they were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confound look at verse six and remember who it is that's saying this i am a worm this is the son of god this is the lord of glory it gets worse the more you go on the the mood becomes heavier and darker more desolate more abandoned well let me read it oh my god not abba father now but my god my god why hast thou forsaken me why have thou so far from helping me from the words of my roaring oh my god i cry in the daytime but thou hear us not remember that phrase thou hear us not and in the night season and the not siren but thou art holy jesus had become the sin barrier he was carrying the sin of the whole world he had become baptized into your condition and mine to such a degree that paul said he became sin he who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of god in him he'd become one with our condition he'd been baptized into it and at that point he knows why the father has separated from him because he is holy and jesus has become the embodiment of sin oh thou are holy oh thou that inhabit us the praises of israel our fathers trusted in thee they trusted and now they deliver them they cried unto thee and they were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confound look at verse six and remember who it is that's saying this i am a worm this is the son of god this is the lord of glory this is the only man who ever walked on our earth so with what god intended and meant to me god created adam he said let's make him our likeness of our image and he was briefly but then the image was spoiled but the spoiled image was passed on to the next generation and the next generation and you and i have never seen a real man we've always seen something that's just a very poor copy of a spoiled real man i don't know whether you read c.s lewis not just the non-fiction books but his science fiction stuff he wrote three books and they're quite interesting to read although the last one is a bit heavy and the the first one is about a man who goes from birth to mars and venus and the second one is about a man who goes from earth to venus and the man who goes from earth to venus arrives there just at the time of venus's creation when god is creating a sort of eden on venus and it's amazing beautiful writing amazing but the events that took place on the earth began to take place on pagan and they have their own tempter and their adam and eve and this earth man who was there becomes part of this whole process of what's happening and i won't kind of spoil the story we'll just cut straight to the end because when they get to the end this man whose name happens to be ransom and this man has been part of god's answer for this creation on venus and at the end of it he is exhausted by the battles he's gone um and you come to the point which is the time when the the new adam and eve on venus very solemnness um that the new avenue on venus comes to the time of their coronation when all the creation on venus come to pay their allegiance and to um just to be there this wonderful new beginning of this new creation and it's a real it's an amazing spectacle and it's full of henry rejoicing and music and all the rest of it and ransom the man from earth is is on his face down in the dust and they want to pick him up because they want him to share in all this glory is going on and seattle has put this amazing little sentence in the words in the mouth of ransom and ransom says please don't lift me up i've never seen a real man and a real woman i've spent all my life in shadows the broken image you and i have never seen a real man we spent our life in shadows the broken images we've never seen what god intended man to be for there was just one man who could say i do always those things that please him there was one man of whom god could say this is my beloved son in whom i want to be just one man and this one man who pleased him and who walked perfectly in the way of god all his life came to a point on the cross where he becomes our sin bearer and this is his expression i am a world and no man i'm a reproach of men despite that the people all they see me laugh with a scorn they shoot out the lips they shake their heads saying he trusted on the lord that he would like and deliver him seeing he delighted in him but now are he that took me out of the womb that is make me hope when i was upon my mother's breasts i was cast upon me from the womb now ought my god from my mother's belly be not far from me for trouble is near and there's none to help many bowls have compassed me strong bowls of vation have beset me around they gates upon me with their mouths as a ravening as a roaring lion i'm caught up like water no more bones are adjoined my heart is like wax it's melted in the midst of my bowels my strength is dried up like a pot shard my tongue cleaneth to my jaws and that has brought me into the dust of death this is the one that the bible calls the prince of life you have brought me he says into the dust of death for dogs have compassed me the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me they pierced my hands and my feet that's the testimony of jesus the spirit of prophecy and they count all my bones they look and stare upon me they part my garments and lumber them cap lots upon my vesture but be not now far from me oh lord oh my strength haste thee to help me deliver my soul from the sword say a prayer deliver my soul from the sword there were no swords on the cross nails and spears but no swords what's this prayer awake oh sword against my shepherd my companion deliver me he cries here from the sword the thine only one from the power of the dog save me from the lion's mouth you know when the lion ends up in scripture who goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour this is his prayer as he has become one without sin as he has become baptized into what you and i are this is his prayer and it's dark dark and darker it's heavy it's brooding it's like an impending thunderstorm it gets worse as you go through the passage and then suddenly almost without any warning and it's halfway through a verse and if you've got a new king's james version they're even wiser because they split the verse for you because this is how it should start off the next that begins god as it goes halfway through verse 21 he says the first one says save me from the lion's mouth and the next bit should be like this thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorn while he was still impaled upon the cross god has heard him he has heard this one who was terrified at the prospect but who said his face like a flint and went through it this one who had paid the penalty had been heard while he was still on the horns of the unicorn and all the power of our sin was bruising and breaking him and then suddenly it's just it's like it's like the fresh day after the storm the rest of this psalm is amazing you couldn't expect everything more in contrast it goes on in the midst i will declare my name to my brethren in the midst of the congregation i will praise thee ye that fear the lord praise him or ye seated jacob glorify him and it goes on my praise shall be the 25 and of thee and the great congregation it's wonderful it's wonderful something happened on the cross that changed everything something happened there was this moment in time it was it was the crux it was the corner of history it was the point in time that jesus had come into the world to keep a rendezvous with it was this hour that he kept on saying my hour has not yet come my hour has not yet come it was the cup that he had come to drink and he drank and he was heard that's bible language for saying the thing that god wanted him to do was done and that came from the cross this wonderful cry it is finished and it was he had been baptized with the baptism that he would be baptized so that he could do now that that he wanted to do and suddenly out of all this gloom and dark come these wonderful pictures of the church there's no mention of the church in psalm 22 up to this point no mention of joy or praise or victory no mention of praising of god none of it but suddenly from this moment everything is changed you know says paul the grace of our lord jesus christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich i'm going to save the other side of the baptism until tomorrow one thing i was saying last night is the reason i'm concentrating on the cross is for this reason on the cross jesus was baptized into our condition he became one with it he became united with it he shared it so completely that he was inseparable from it he shared it so completely that paul says he became sin he who knew no sin that's how identified he was with it that's how totally he became the sin bearer he was baptized into our death and it's essential that we understand what his death is because his death brought an end to the power of sin his death brought a release from all the things that bound the human race it broke the enemy's power it broke all the ancient hereditary powers it broke everything it brought in a brand new beginning and it's important because he was baptized into our death so that you and i can be baptized into his so that from his poverty you can become rich so that everything he achieved on the cross you can have a share and begin to know it for yourself he became what you were so that you could became what he was not in his godhead that is unique but in a relationship with god which is really quite amazing and i'll i'll show you how amazing it is very briefly i'm going to stop now but look at um john chapter 17 um john chapter 17 just the last bit of it when he prayed like this and then this prayer was heard too um we read from verse 23 i in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and thus love them even as thou hast loved me and then he says this father i will this is chapter 17 of the last will of testament of jesus christ this is his will when we're coming here tonight we were talking about some the covenant so don't we don't have heard this story about covenants apparently you ought to but i live in up here but apparently there was a time when the covenants were forbidden to have christian meetings in the way that they wanted to have them they weren't able to meet in their buildings so they had these conventicles when they met in the woods and the valleys and all that it was a very messy time of time to make a coming it was a time when there was a scottish king on the english throne who wanted all the scots to become good chosen england people and it was all very complex and messy but part of the consequence was that you had english redcoats up here who were not allowing scottish christians to worship god in the way that they wanted to and they caught a young woman who was on the way to one of these illegal meetings and she had a bible in her arm it was under a cloak and she didn't know what to do and they began to question her and she didn't want to tell lies they asked her where she was going she didn't want to tell lies but she didn't want to get her brothers and sisters into trouble either and she sent up one of these brief arrow prayers to the lord and god gave her something to say and she said please don't stop me our elder brother has died and we're going to read the will oh it's here here's the will our elder brother has died and this is the will this is what he has bequeathed to us i will father verse 24 i will that they also whom thou hast given me may be with me where i am that they may behold my glory which thou givest me and then look what he says here thou lovest me before the foundation of the world so that's how much and how long the father has loved the son and he says this oh righteous father the world has not known thee but i have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me and i have declared my name unto them and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them now he's just told us about the love with which father has loved the son it's a love from before the foundation of the world how much does the father love the son well he says here i've declared to them my name and will declare it so that the love wherewith thou has loved me may be in them and i in them this is his will and testament this is what he died to make possible this is him becoming poor so that we through his poverty might become rich the baptism not just in the way that we know it of into parts but the baptism is one of the key ways that the scriptures speak of an amazing thing that's taken place where god made himself what we are in order to invest us with the riches of that that he give for our sakes let's pray