In this sermon, the preacher tells a story about two brothers. One brother commits a crime and asks for help from the other brother. The guilty brother gives his stained clothes to the innocent brother and asks him to take his place. The innocent brother agrees and takes on the guilt and punishment for his brother's crime. The preacher then relates this story to the crucifixion of Jesus, emphasizing the magnitude and indescribable greatness of Jesus' death and resurrection. The sermon encourages listeners to be captivated by the gospel and to understand the significance of Jesus' sacrifice.

Today, across the whole world, we remember the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus. And I'd like us to have a closer look at his death. But I have to confess to you all that I do not have the words to describe the greatness, the height, the depth, the width, the magnitude of this matter. It's indescribable. I'm sure, for all eternity, we'll be delving into this truth and not ever getting to the end of it. I feel like a small boy standing on the shore of the sea. On the beach, putting his toes into the water, just feeling this little bit of water here when there's this vast ocean in front of me. And I said, Lord, I cannot convey this, but Lord, please work through your Holy Spirit that each one will understand this. There's absolutely nothing to be compared to this, to the greatness of his death and his resurrection. One should forget every other thing, and this thing should take complete control right to the depths of our being of this. The gospel is something great that God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to us. Old and young should be captivated by this. There should be nothing else that means so much to us as this. Let us now read from God's word from Psalm 40, starting from verse six. To eight. And then also verse 12. Sacrifice and offering you did not desire. My ears you have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering you did not require. Then I said, behold, I come in the scroll of the book. It is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God, and your law is written within my heart. Then I said, behold, I come in the scroll of the book. It is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God, and your law is written within my heart. Then I said, behold, I come in the scroll of the book. It is written within my heart. This is verse 12. For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My inequities have overtaken me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart fails me. This here conveys to us something great, which happened between our Lord Jesus Christ and his Father in heaven. Here we are shown a discussion between the Lord Jesus Christ and his Father in heaven. Something which they were discussing, something unbelievable. They were talking about mankind. In fact, talking about you and me. Where God the Father said, what shall we do about this person? What can be done to save him from his sin? And then the Lord Jesus answered, Sacrifice and offering you did not desire. Burnt offering and sin offering you did not require. But my ears you have opened. But my ears you have opened. This is the psalm of David. During his time, there were very many different offerings that were brought in the temple They had burnt offerings, food offerings, sin offerings. If you read about it, you'll be amazed because there were days when thousands of cattle were slaughtered and the blood just flowed. There were days when thousands of cattle were slaughtered and the blood just flowed. If you read about it, you'll be amazed because there were days when thousands of cattle were slaughtered and the blood just flowed. That it was like a river of blood that was flowing. But all that didn't help mankind in his slavery to sin and in his misery. Mankind was lost in a hopeless situation, not knowing where he came from and where he was going to. Mankind was in a hopeless situation like when Samuel said to Saul, God is not interested in your burnt offerings. God wants obedience from you. And the son said to the father, oh God father, you do not wish for burnt offerings and sin offerings because it doesn't help a person. But then he said, but oh father, you've opened my ears. I hear what you're saying. I'm prepared to go. Behold, I come. And the son said to the father, oh God father, you've opened my ears. I hear what you're saying. I'm prepared to go. Behold, I come. Behold, I come. And he goes on to say that in the scroll of the book it is written of me, referring to the scriptures or in today's terms, the Bible. And he says, father, I am prepared. I will go to the earth. I will go down to earth and I will be the living sacrifice which will bring reconciliation between mankind and you. And father, I will go and I'll bring back the one that is lost, that's in the pigsty, that has no hope. I will bring him back and reconcile him to you, father. It is written in the book about me. And I don't have time to go into the scriptures and to point out all the scriptures, but in Isaiah 53 it's written of the lamb that was slain and the blood that flowed and where the father has said, it's written about me, I will go. I will go, father, and I will suffer and I will be crucified and I will go so that these people will be helped. I will go and redeem them. I'll pay the price and atone them. I will go. I will pay the price for them because they are lost, hopelessly lost and they deserve hell and nothing else for all eternity. I will go down to them. I will become like them. I will take upon me even their flesh that I will be as they are. And I will take upon myself their transgressions, their iniquities, and I myself will take it upon me and carry them. Not that an animal has to be sacrificed and die. I will do it myself and give my innocent, my precious blood for them. Is this not something great? It's wonderful. It is glorious. It's amazing. It's amazing how we hear here this discussion between the son and the father and how the son says, I'm prepared. I will go to save them from sin, from the world, and from death, and from hell. From all eternity to all eternity, the son and the father were totally united in one. They were so one that what the one loved, the other loved, and what the one felt, the other felt. God had given him his law, the ten commandments, and all his laws, yet God had told him, do not steal, and yet they stole. Do not tell lies, yet they told lies. Do not be immoral, and they were immoral. The law had failed. And then God said, let them bring sacrifices, that they put their hands on that animal, so that that animal must carry their sin, and that the animal's blood must flow. And God the Father said to the son, I don't know what to do. How can I still help these people, old and young? How can I help the Zulus? How can I help the blacks? How can I help the whites? How can I help the young people, the older people? Whatever I try doesn't seem to help. I've brought calamities upon them, and diseases upon them, yet nothing seems to bring them to their senses, to help them. We see it even today with AIDS. In spite of the disastrous consequences, people continue with immoral lives. And Jesus says, Father, I will go down to earth. He says, I will go. I will be the sacrifice to atone for their sins, that they may be redeemed and saved from their sin. Save them from hell, and win them for heaven. He says, I will go down to earth. I will become one of them, live among them, live like them, and I will take all their troubles and their punishment. I will take upon myself. I carry it. And he even says, Oh God, I will do it gladly because I delight to do your will. There is no sacrifice. No blood of any animal can remove that sin anymore. Because the blood of an animal cannot take away the sin that you have committed and cannot separate you from sin, cannot set you free from sin. One of these boys was a Christian who had committed his life to the Lord. But his brother was not interested. He didn't want to know anything about the gospel. Even when one tried to speak to him, he had a heart that was like rock. He told his brother, look brother, I'm not interested in giving up the world and the girls and all the things of the world. And his brother would plead with him and say, the Heavenly Father is inviting you to come back to Him. He's pleading with you. But all the brother's attempts and his pleading with his brother was in vain. And when the brother looked up, he saw his brother standing there before him, his clothes were full of blood, stained in blood. In those days there was still the death penalty, and this brother, who before had no time for his other brother, didn't want his help or his advice, now suddenly he was there begging him for help. And then he said to him, take off that shirt full of blood, take off all the clothes that are stained in blood. And then he took off his own clothes and he said, you put on my clothes. And he said, the blood that's on your hands, wipe it off onto my hands. Give me that knife and put it into my pocket. And then he said to his brother, now escape, run away quickly. And then he said to his brother, now escape, run away quickly. And he had just left when the police arrived, when they saw him they said, well there you are, we caught you red handed, you the guilty one, you've just killed that person. And this boy didn't respond. He didn't deny it, so they arrested him, took him into the police van and off to jail, locked him up. And he was in prison until he came before the court. And he was asked whether he pleads guilty or not guilty. And he says, well I don't deny it. And so he was convicted and the sentence was the death penalty. As God says, the soul that sins must die. And so he was sentenced to death, to hang. And all this time he never denied having done what his brother had actually done. And he carried the guilt of his brother right to the end. His brother had fled, he was far away by then to hide from the police. And after some time he heard that his brother had been sentenced to death. And that then troubled him and he said, oh my brother, he was innocent, he carried my guilt, he was actually innocent, he died in my place. And eventually he headed back home, he went to the police and inquired about his brother and said, what has happened to my brother, did he really hang, and they said yes, he was guilty. And they said he was caught red handed, he was still full of blood and even the knife with which he had committed the murder was on him. And then he confessed, he said, look it was not my brother. It was not my brother who did it, I actually committed that crime, he was at home reading his bible, praying, I committed that crime. And then he said, oh my brother, it was not my brother who did it, I actually committed that crime, he was at home reading his bible, praying, I committed that crime. And then he said, I will go to the authorities and I will tell them that this has been a mistake, I'm the guilty one, they've killed an innocent person. He went to the police, to the court, and he asked for the records to be checked, and they said, well here, it's all clear, he killed someone. He said he was guilty of murder. But by this time, he was full of regret and sorrow and with tears running down his cheeks, he said, but it was not my brother, I'm the guilty one, I committed that crime. I deserve to die, arrest me, I must hang. Then they said, but the price has been paid already, he paid for your crime. He died for this crime. So you are free because he has paid for your crime. And they let him go, and he said, but I can't go back to my old life, from this day I want to live like my brother lived. He said the life that he lived, I now want to live, what he did I want to do. I'm giving up my old life with the gang and with all the old life that I lived, that I'm giving up, I'm now going to live the life my brother used to live. Now God gave his only begotten son to pay the price of your sin and your guilt. But we can only marvel at what the Father in heaven did, and we can only thank him for it. That he was prepared to send a son with whom he had such wonderful, perfect fellowship and unity. There was nothing and no one he loved more than his only begotten son. He sacrificed him, he sent him to be a stranger in this world. And he sacrificed his only begotten son to save us who were lost in our sin. We cannot compare God's love with anything else, for God loved us while we were still his enemies. He was prepared to leave the glory of heaven and come down to earth, to this filth, this defiled state of mankind, and came to give himself as a sacrifice to save man. He came to shed his own blood to save you, sinner, even his own life. It would break my heart if these words were in vain to you, if they don't touch you and move you. This is something that should move you to the point that you are totally transformed, changed, that you'll never again live the life that you've lived in the past. And when Jesus came down to earth, he was not ignorant of the fact of what was going to happen to him. He knew exactly what was in store for him, what would happen to him because of your sin. He knew that he would have to come here and put on your clothes. He knew that your bloodstained clothes and take the blood off your hands and that he would carry it. He knew that all. For he says, for innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me so that I'm not able to look up. No one has ever and no one will ever suffer like he had to suffer. You can't imagine, even start to imagine what he had to go through. As he says, for innumerable evils have surrounded me. They have seized me. They are bambiles. They are figs. They have seized me. They have seized me. What's taken hold of him? It's the sins which you have committed. It's the sins which you have committed. But it's amazing, he doesn't say that it's so and so's sins or Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Smith's sins. He says it's my sins, my iniquities. He says it's my sins, my iniquities. And he suffered because of all the filth that you have ever done and the sins you did before your conversion and even after. And he says all those things, he takes them upon himself to the point where he says I have committed those sins. And he says I cannot even look up anymore. Can you imagine that Jesus himself takes your sin that you've committed and he doesn't even say you've done it. He says I've done it. It's my sin, he says. All the punishment that you have deserved, everything, he's taken it upon himself but he doesn't even say it's your sin. And he says oh my God that's the sin I've committed. You should have been beaten but he was beaten for you. You should have been punished and carried your sin and thrown into hell but he went and he did it for you. All that came upon the Lord Jesus. That agony he took upon himself which you should have carried. He did. You cannot grasp the love of God and of the Lord Jesus that he was prepared to come and confess that to his father and say it's my sin as if he has committed all those things even though he was innocent. He took everything you've ever done and he took it upon himself and he takes it as if he himself committed it. Then one understands why there's an eternal hell that will burn for millions and billions and trillions and tens of trillions of years if you deny such great grace. Those were sufferings which you cannot imagine. That he identified himself with your sin to the point where he said I have committed that iniquity. That's how he suffered physically, emotionally. He went through all that just for you. You should have been punished and carried your sin and thrown into hell but he went and he did it for you. And he did all that because of you. When the son realized and the father they're all going to church and keeping all those traditions in the church and he said that's not helping anymore and the son said father I will go. And he says it's all those iniquities that have surrounded me taken hold of me it's not his iniquity it's yours. And the Lamb of God did not open his mouth he was prepared to be slain because of you. For your sake. And he says oh God my iniquities have surrounded me caught up with me. Imagine God saying taking your sins and owning them and saying that I have sinned. He hasn't sinned. He's innocent. He's the holy God. Yet he clothed himself with your filth your blood stained clothes he put on. He took it upon himself and he carried it and made it he owned it for you. And if your heart is hard and cold then I say to you who are heading for hell cry to God now lest you cry one day when you really are in hell. And he speaks here of the iniquities that they are more than the hairs of my head therefore my heart fails me. And he says oh God my iniquities have surrounded me caught up with me. And the Lamb of God did not open his mouth he was prepared to be slain because of you. And he carried the sins of the whole world and even though it made him sweat that his sweat drops were like drops of blood yet he said father if I must drink this cup then let it not pass from me then I will drink it for I have agreed that I will do your will. And he doesn't say oh it's the sin of the world it's the other people's sin that I'm carrying no he owns it. He says it's my sin they are more than the hairs of my head. And when he was carrying all those sins he says I cannot look up anymore I cannot see anymore it is black before my eyes. You were cursed because of your sin and he took that curse upon himself. You are the sinner yet he became sin for your sake and because of your sin. Do you see the love of the Son? Let me stop. If you don't see it then you have reason to fast to the end of your life until maybe somehow your eyes will be opened. And you say oh sin is so enjoyable the lusts of the flesh it's so attractive to you you enjoy it. And Jesus who took your sin upon himself and owned them and said they are mine. Remember he is coming again and he will come as judge and then you know where you will end. Let us bow our heads. Let us pray. I cry to you Lord with all my heart. And I pray and say Lord may your coming to this earth your dying and your taking our sins upon yourself and owning them. And Lord may everyone whether he is here or at home even if he is intoxicated may this message get through to him that he will realize what it is about. That this will be the moment when he will make that decision. That he will make that decision once and for all for God. And that he will return home. Amen.