Embracing Redemption: The Impact of Jesus' Sacrifice | James Kline

I'd like to greet everyone in Jesus' name this morning.

I have tremendously enjoyed being here.

I was really blessed with your devotions, myron, about Jesus being that source of water.

I can't think of anything more refreshing on a hot day than just simply a cold glass of water, preferably with a few ice cubes in it.

So I thought it tied in very well with what I would like to speak on this morning and I'd like to read off, kind of getting this kicked off, one of my favorite songs.

I have a friend, a faithful friend, and Jesus is his name.

He will not leave, he stands by me, my shepherd, he remains.

I have a friend, a mighty friend, and Jesus is his name.

I shall not fear.

He holds me near.

His strength will keep me safe.

His name is true king, lord of creation, ruler without end.

I call him hope, peace, wonderful, savior.

And what joy that Jesus calls me friend.

I have a friend, the kindest friend, and Jesus is his name.

He hears my cry by day or night and wipes my tears away.

His name is true king, lord of creation, ruler without end.

I call him hope, peace, wonderful, savior.

And what joy that Jesus called me friend.

I have a friend, a savior, friend, and Jesus is his name.

He fought for me on Calvary and trampled on the grave.

His name is true king, lord of creation, ruler without end.

I call him hope, peace, wonderful savior, and what joy that Jesus calls me friend.

And again, his name is true king, lord of creation, ruler without end.

I call him hope, peace, wonderful savior, and what joy that Jesus calls me friend.

So this morning I consider it a great privilege to share about my friend.

He's the best friend that I've ever had and this time of Christmas I just would like to share the wonderful gift that God truly gave us and pointing to him throughout the Scripture.

This is going to be a lot of references and a lot of Scripture.

You don't have to turn to everyone or anyone, but it just was so real to me that from the very beginning of God's Word up to the very end, jesus comes forth over and over and over again.

Now I read this little factoid that I don't even know is a factoid because I'm most certainly very far from a mathematician, but someone counted and they said there are over 300 references to Jesus throughout the Bible.

And they did this mathematical figure and said that if only eight of those 300 prophecies and promises would have been fulfilled, that the odds of that being false would be one in the Okay who's a good mathematician?

Something about the power of ten, and then there's a little seventeen up above the ten.

Okay, that's as much as I know.

But they said, if eight, if only eight, of those 300 prophecies were true, then that would be the same odds that if you would take quarters, mind you, a quarter a coin, and you could cover the whole state of Texas to a depth of two and a half feet, and then you would tell a man to go pick out a quarter and for him to pick out the right one would be the odds of this being false.

Now, I don't know about mathematical things.

There are many areas in life where I am not gifted.

I can't think of any more than mathematics.

But I do know that it is the truth, because he lives in my heart.

What a gift God gave us, and we celebrate his birth and that's.

It is just one of my favorite times of the year and I don't think I could help from getting into the Christmas spirit if I tried, and I love that time of the year, but let us remember that Jesus is so much more than a baby and a manger, but he is our crucified Savior and he is risen and, according to the promises in the Scripture, he is at the right hand of God today, interceding for us.

I think the very first reference that I find of Jesus is commonly referred to in Genesis, chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

But I actually believe that it is found in Genesis, chapter 1, in verse 26, where Jesus says Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Now, god wasn't talking to himself, but I believe that that points to Jesus.

And then in Genesis 3, in verse 15, he says I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

Talking to the serpent, talking to Satan.

So we've barely opened up the Bible.

Already we see promises of this coming Savior.

In Micah, chapter 5, in verse 2, we read that this coming Messiah, this Savior, is going to be born in Bethlehem.

Micah 5 · chapter mention

But you, o Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah for you, shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from old, from ancient days.

In Genesis, chapter 49, in verse 10 we see that this coming Savior is going to come from the tribe of Judah.

Genesis 49 · chapter mention

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him, and to him shall be the obedience of all peoples.

I guess this is kind of a continuation of what I shared a couple weeks ago about the promises of God.

These are all promises and we know that they have come true, that they have been fulfilled, but we can be just as certain that those things that have not yet been fulfilled will be.

We can take that to the bank with certainty and with a calm assurance that he is faithful.

In Psalms, chapter 45, verses 6 and 7, we see something to me very, very precious your throne, o God, is forever and ever.

Psalms 45:6

The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.

Therefore, god, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness, beyond your companions and I believe it's in Isaiah 60 or 61 where we read about being anointed with this oil of gladness but his throne, this kingdom that has no end, is going to be anointed and it will be eternal.

Isn't it comforting to think that, no matter how long we will be enjoying the glories of heaven, if we remain faithful, we don't have to worry that a billion years into this thing, the bottom's going to fall out.

It will be forever.

I can't grasp forever.

I can't grasp time with no end, but I believe it.

In Hosea, chapter 11 and verse 1, we read that this coming Messiah would spend time in Egypt.

Hosea 11 · chapter mention

In Psalms 69 and verse 8, he talks about being rejected of his own, his own brothers, and he said he was an alien to his mother's son, this Jesus.

In Jeremiah 31, verse 15, we read about the massacre of these little babies.

Jeremiah 31:15

That happened after Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

In Psalms, chapter 2, verse 7, he is declared to be the Son of God.

Psalms 2:7

The Lord said to me you are my son.

Today I have begotten you, and this is one of the most amazing promises, the most amazing one.

In Zechariah, in verse 11 and verse 12, verse 13, I said to them if it seems good to you, give me my wages.

In chapter 9, where it says rejoice greatly, o daughter of Zion, shout aloud, o daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your king is coming to you and having salvation.

Is he humble and mounted on a donkey, on a coat, the foal of a donkey.

How unlikely could it possibly be that this king, with a kingdom that is eternal, that never has an end, riding into a city on a lowly donkey?

I can't think of anything more implausible to my way of thinking.

And yet these things happened.

I guess the quarters are piling up.

Then he talks about in Zechariah 11, this is what I started in a little prematurely.

But he was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.

This was foretold.

Then I said to them if it seems good to you, give me my wages, but if not, keep them.

And they weighed out my wages, 30 pieces of silver.

Then the Lord said to me throw it to the potter, the lordly price at which I was priced by them.

So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter.

So many of these things happened so many years before they came to pass.

These were promised, these were prophesied In Psalm 35, in verse 19, he tells us how he was hated for no reason.

Let not those rejoice over me who were wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause.

Why did they hate him, the most gentle and meek and mild-mannered person that had probably ever walked the earth.

And yet they hated him, it says, without cause.

And in 2nd of Sechariah 12, it talks about how this coming Messiah would be pierced.

And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.

And I'm not going to turn to this, but I would invite all of you to read Psalms, chapter 22.

Psalms 22 · chapter mention

I would refer to that as somewhat of a sister chapter to Isaiah 53, but it talks about the passion and the agony of our Lord as he was crucified.

Let us ever remember that we have been bought with a price.

In Psalm 109, verse 4, it foretells of His prayer for those who crucified Him In return for my love.

Psalms 109:4

They accuse me, but I give myself to prayer.

I would submit to you that that is a very worthwhile pursuit, for when we feel pursued or betrayed or forsaken, there is no better place to be than with God in prayer.

And it talks about being resurrected.

In Psalms 49, in verse 15, where he says Were God will resurrect my soul from fee old, for he will receive me.

So at that point Jesus knew that God had promised that he would be received.

In Psalms 24, it talks about Him ascending to heaven.

He said Lift up your head O gates, and be lifted up O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads O gates, and lift them up O ancient doors that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The Lord of hosts?

He is the King of glory.

In Psalms 110, he says where he is.

The Lord says to my Lord Sit at my right hand until I make my enemies your footstool.

In Daniel 7, 13, and 14, I saw in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations that this is talking about his return All nations and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Coming back again to this thought of his kingdom being an eternal one.

And now I'd like to kind of get to the crux of what I would share with you, and that is especially.

I would like to finish up in Luke, chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

I may not get to that, but in the entire Old Testament there is no book that we see Jesus more than we see in the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah prophesied from the year 739 to the year 681 before Christ.

That was, remember, I told you I'm not very good at math, but I think that's 58 years that he served in the ministry and prophesied to a wicked nation.

And so what is the overall picture if we get the entire picture of Isaiah?

There's a lot of woe and there's a lot of condemnation, perhaps, but the thing that I get is that our salvation is found only through and in God and in Jesus, and he gives us the most complete picture of any book in the Old Testament, from his birth to his triumphant return.

In Isaiah, chapter 40, verses 3 to 5, says Comfort, comfort my people, says your God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

Isaiah 40:3–5

A voice cries in the wilderness Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low.

The uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord.

So that's his coming.

In Isaiah 7, verse 14, he says the Lord himself will give you a sign.

Isaiah 7:14

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bury sun and shall call his name Emmanuel.

And then I'd like to turn to Isaiah, chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

I'm going to read in verse 2, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death.

Upon them a light has shined.

And then, dropping down into verse 6, one of the most beautiful passages that we can find, for unto us a child is born.

For unto us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace, of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even for evermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

And I'd like to spend just a wee little bit of time here about all these names.

And I think all of us could confess that His name is wonderful, but not just His name, but Jesus.

The very being and the presence of Him in our life is truly wonderful, and I have found Him to be a faithful counselor.

Sometimes you get to points in life where you don't know which way to go, where it seems every way you turn there's no avenue of escape and you just don't know how to go on.

But he is our counselor and certainly we all recognize Him as an everlasting Father, a mighty God, and in my life he has been the Prince of Peace.

You know, my life is not perfect.

I'm probably not hardwired to be a person that has anxiety a lot.

I mean, I guess I would have a fairly calm or easy going disposition by nature, but there are times when things just feel so out of control and he fills us with His peace, knowing that, even though we don't know the outcome or how things will be, but that it's going to be okay and of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.

Some of these things we will not see until we have been translated, after His coming again, but there will be no end of His throne and His peace.

I'm so thankful that my friend is a God of peace.

In Isaiah 61, verse 1-3, he says oh, wow.

Isaiah 61:1–3

And to get the setting of back at a time where Isaiah was in a very dark place, he was living in a wicked society and yet he foretold to comfort who mourn, to give them beauty for ashes and this oil of joy.

I would encourage you and myself to, when things get tough, take a bath in this oil of joy.

Concentrate on the good things in your life.

That is a promise, a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

When we feel heavy and down-laden and burdened and we're done with it all, if we just give praise to God and we can always think of some good thing that he has done for us, we shouldn't be like the guy who was moaning and groaning and his friend told him.

He said you need to count your blessings.

He said well, he would, but he's not good at fractions.

Is that us?

Sometimes we deal in fractions.

When God is dealing with this, what is it?

The power of ten?

That's how he wants to pour out this oil of joy and his blessing on us.

But we have to claim it in faith.

And I would like to turn to Isaiah 53 at this point, and this again, is just.

It's kind of a sad but so beautiful picture of our Savior, of my friend who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as he root out of dry ground.

He has no form or comeliness and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him, wow.

So I believe that if Jesus, our Savior, would come walking in in the form of man right this moment, that we probably wouldn't be thinking of some Hollywood.

Heart frog Said he had no form or comeliness that one might desire to look on him.

There's no beauty.

He is despised and rejected of man.

I think that's one of the saddest passages that we could think of.

I can't imagine that not everyone would want peace, a peace that passes all understanding, and yet he is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him.

He was despised and we did not esteem him.

I trust that that's not talking about us.

I can't imagine a man, for a man is probably not the right term, but if you think of leaving the majesty and the glory of heaven and the presence of God and to end up in a womb, wow, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Yet we esteemed him, stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed.

He was wounded for our transgressions.

So when we raise ourselves up in a righteous indignation against the Jews, the rabbis, the high priests crucifying Jesus, we shouldn't look too far away from ourselves, because he died for us as much as he died for them All.

We, like sheep, have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his fears is silent.

So opened he not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment.

And who will declare his generation?

For he was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgressions of my people, he was stricken.

So my question to you this morning is who will declare his generation?

He's asking that of all of us.

Are we willing to declare Jesus our friend to a lost and dying world?

They need him like they've never needed Jesus before.

He was cut off from the land of the living and he was stricken.

Wow, all that he did for each one of us.

And I believe that so full is his heart of love that he would have done all that if only one person would ever have accepted him as their savior.

That's my friend.

And they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich, at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

He had never done violence, he had never lied.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

He has put him to grief.

When you 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 the labor of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge.

My righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors.

He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

But so today, going to verse 11, here he shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied as Jesus looks down on us, on his friends.

Is his soul satisfied that he was willing to pay the price for us?

Are we giving him our best?

Our friend doesn't deserve any less.

Our Savior doesn't deserve any less.

He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

That he did.

Then he talks in Isaiah, chapter 60, in verses two or three For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people.

Isaiah 60 · chapter mention

But the Lord will arise over you and his glory will be seen upon you.

The Gentile shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Here again, just promising and foretelling of a brighter and better day.

You know God is so good and the older I get, the more precious he becomes to me.

But if there's anyone here today that has not made Jesus your friend, today is not too late.

Today is the acceptable day of salvation.

We still have time, and God has borne the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors that was us and he's still doing that today.

This was not a once and done, and I really did want to read Luke two yet, but I see that my time is up and I think all of you have eyes and ears.

But yeah, so coming into Christmas is just this wonderful time of the year.

It is a good time to remember that we have been bought with a price and that our peace cost our Savior a lot.

Let's pray, heavenly Father, we just come before you.

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for loving us, that Jesus was willing to come to give his life on the cross, that you resurrected him after three days, that we can claim these promises of joy and peace and of receiving counsel.

We ask you for your counsel in your direction and I pray a special blessing on each and everyone here today that you would keep us all in your care and that you would guide us, direct us, that our lives could bring honor and glory to you and to your kingdom, and just pray all these things in Jesus name, amen.