Why Did Christ Choose Crucifixion?

Appreciate the work and the contribution of those who are in choir and, of course, the special music that we have in the church, the offertory, and so forth. When we kept the Passover on Thursday evening, I thought at the time about my own journey in terms of my spiritual life, because it began 50 years ago. This year, the 50th go-round and the keeping of the Feast of God, I had no remote understanding of Passover compared to what I have been able to learn now. Then, I had no understanding. I certainly didn't understand the days of Unleavened Bread. I had no concept of what it was I was going to eventually be doing fully. But here we are, 2018, and here we are on the first day of Unleavened Bread. We've all put the leavening out, and we've strived to put the sin out of our lives. But I have to ask the question, what is our ultimate goal? And when will we know we're there? You know, we go on year by year, and you know, I look out here and I see some of you getting old.

So what is the goal? And how will we know when we're there? How will we know when we're there? Where are we going with this? You know, if we follow Jesus Christ as we are supposed to, as you know, Mr. Edwards was talking about, about sheep, about lambs, you know, what is the goal?

Over in Job chapter 1, I'm going to read it from the King James Version, but it says, there was a man in the land of us whose name was Job. And that man was perfect. That's what God records here in the Scriptures. That man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And actually, if you read the book of Job, Job is called perfect about three times, I think. You know, in chapter 1 and verse 8, chapter 2 and verse 3, he's called perfect.

I don't know that God would ever say that about me. And I don't know how you feel about yourself, but I don't think we're upright. Turn, if you will, with me to Psalm 37. Psalm 37. Because the Scriptures tell us this, it wants us to really to see the importance of this because it puts it this way. Notice in chapter 37 and verse 37, it says, Mark the blameless man, or as it says here in the New King James, but mark the perfect man in the old King James, and observe the upright.

And so here it says, note or consider the perfect man or the blameless man. I have to ask myself the question, have I really considered the perfect man? Have I known anybody in the church that I could look at and I could say, well, that person is perfect and upright. You know, I don't know about you, but have you seen people like that in the church?

I would ask you to raise your hands, but I might be embarrassed. None of us, you know, might raise our hand with that one. You know, again, we need to note that we need it. The word note means to consider. And, brother, are you working to be the perfect man? And again, how will you know when you're there? So, brother, how do we strive for perfection? Well, I'd like to use the motif of Unleavened Bread to show that is the way to perfection, so that we could be referred to as perfect and upright.

It is a means to perfection, what God has given to us, you know, through these Holy Days, not just Unleavened Bread, but through the Holy Days, it's a means or a way to perfection. You know, if this is our goal, then how do we attain this perfect state? How do we know when we're there, as I've said a couple of times? And we probably think, well, in about a million years, we'll know we're there.

But is that true? Is it going to take a million years before we get to be perfect and upright like Job? Well, you know, Job was a man of like passions, just like we are.

You know, sometimes we wonder, I don't know about you, but sometimes in my own life, I wonder sometimes if I've lost ground, not gained it. You know, I'm not this triumphant person on top of a hill. Boy, I've got the victory now, and I'm pretty near perfection. I'm almost there. If I can get one thing right or another.

So what, brethren, do the days of other than bread have to do with perfection? Well, becoming perfect and upright, right, we know that even though, you know, Job had this put on him as his life, his character, Job had some problems in it. Now, this sermon is not about Job. This sermon is about seeking perfection. You know, is our goal to be perfect? You know, is that our goal in our life, in other words?

And is perfection what we think it is? I think that's the big argument, really. Is perfection what we think it is? I think we look at the life of Job that we may be, turban, that that's not what God's talking about. That's not what God's talking about at all. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 4. You know, the purpose of the church, and here we're gathered here on a very special Holy Day here, the first day of Unleavened Bread. But here in Ephesians chapter 4, it tells, in fact, the purpose of the church, the responsibility of the church at this time, and what we're trying to accomplish and have always been trying to accomplish, as a matter of fact.

And it is the church of God, and it is the ministry of Jesus Christ. But here in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 12, notice here, it speaks of those that were appointed apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers. It is for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. Verse 12 here of Ephesians 4, for the edifying of the body of Christ, so that we were taught, were fed. And it says, till we all come to the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man. There it is. To a perfect man. Every one of us. Not just a few of us that we look to, but every one of us become the perfect and upright individual, just as, in fact, that Job was.

That that is the goal that, in fact, we have. That's what we're seeking. And it says, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So Christ is the acne of that, the fulfillment of that completely, that we become like Jesus Christ. And notice it says, that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. So we're not those who are kind of wishy-washy. The Bible's saying here, kind of jumping from pillar to post when it comes to our understanding.

We've stayed with and stuck with the dozens of years. And we keep pressing forward. That's why I'm here, you know, five decades later. And that's why you're here if you've been around a while, because you are pursuing something. But it says, but speaking of the truth and love, they grow up in all things with Him, who is the head, Christ.

So we're growing up, not into our own head, brethren, but into Christ. Into Christ, we're growing to become like Christ. That's what our goal is, to become like Christ. And that word, perfect, by the way, in the Greek, is the Greek word teleos. And that word means complete, complete. Another word that might be good, that would, you know, be similar, would be mature. You're matured out. As a child becomes an adult, as a boy becomes a man, as a girl becomes a woman.

In other words, no longer girls and boys, but men and women. Complete mentally, morally, and fully matured. Jesus Christ was the role model, brethren, as that perfect man, that we seek to be like. That He's living His life over in us. You know, in the Old Testament, when God referred to Job as perfect, as I read in the New King James, it uses the word blameless.

But the Hebrew word for perfect is from the Greek word tam, or tom, as it's spelled in the Hebrew, or pronounced in the Hebrew, but it's spelled tam, and it means complete. Usually, morally, specifically gentle, dear, undefiled, and upright.

And as I mentioned, the word perfect here in the New Testament usage of it is complete, or of full age, or a man, or a woman. And you know, Jesus Christ, brethren, set the example, He set the standard. Jesus grew all He could grow in the human flesh. Now, sometimes you wonder why in the world that Christ's ministry lasts three and a half years, and why did He live? You know, to the time it was 33 years of age before He was crucified. Have you ever thought about the fact that maybe Christ had grown all He could grow in the human flesh? Because He learned, He grew, He was perfected, He was fully matured in the flesh, as our perfect example. You know that Paul's ministry was the same ministry, of course, we have today, but Paul's ministry, the purpose of his ministry, was to perfect the saints. Let's go to Colossians chapter 1. There's so much in the Bible about this. And so, brethren, the putting out of the leavening in our lives, and the putting out of sin, ultimately is for that purpose, to hone our character, to keep chipping away at those things that are not reflective of the way that Jesus Christ was. It's like you've heard the, you know, how do you carve an elephant out of a rock? Well, what you do is you take a chisel and a hammer, and you knock off everything that doesn't look like an elephant. Very simple. Of course, you and I, if we were to do that, it would look like a mouse would have all done. But the Colossians chapter 1, in verse 27, to them God will to make known, it says, What are the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles? Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, it says, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. That's the goal. Every man, every woman perfect in Jesus Christ.

And it says, To this end I also labor, Paul is saying here, this is what my work is all about, Paul is saying, striving according to his working which works in me mightily.

It's like sometimes you go and you visit with somebody that is brand new and they're studying the Scriptures and you try to guide them a little bit more into the truth. I visited with people all the time where they tell me what the way they're thinking and you can't crack the whip. You got to be a shepherd that is going to lead gently. And that's the way Jesus Christ is. So you slowly try to veer them off and say, this is the way to go. It's like with Apollos, he was taken aside and shown those things that he needed to change and they changed and it became mighty in the church. But all of Paul's ministry was for the purpose of perfecting the saints. The days of the living bread are about perfecting the saints. It's just a means, a way in which that can be done.

And you know, this is the ministry of Christ today. This is what we're doing today. Let's go to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3.

Well, Paul really, really understood these things. He grasped them. And God, thankfully, has recorded them for us so that we would have an understanding today.

Otherwise, we would be in the dark. It has been split through the ages. But Philippians chapter 3 and verse 12, here it's kind of an interesting statement that Paul makes about himself. He says, not that I have already attained. You know, Paul was a humble minister of God. He said, I haven't gotten there. Anybody claims they've gotten there, brethren, who claims to be a minister, you better, you know, run away from them. But it says, or am already perfected. He said, I know I'm not. But I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. He said, God called me for that purpose, and I'm pursuing it. I'm pushing forward. You know, Paul had problems that he grappled with, I'm sure, all of his life.

You know, how else does a man talk about how he says, he says, the things I want to do, I don't do those, but the things, you know, that I don't want to do, that's what I do. And then he said, oh, Richard, man, that I am, who's going to free me from this body of death? And then he talks about Jesus Christ that makes that possible. Paul wouldn't come, he wasn't perfected yet. Well, how do you know when you're there? How do you know when you're there? Apparently, God thought that Job was there. He called him perfect and upright. Let's go to Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5 over here. I'm sorry, Matthew. Sorry, I misspoke myself. But here, in the sermon on the Mount here in Matthew 5, in verse 43, let's notice here what Jesus says, what the perfect man does, the perfect person does. He says, you have heard that it has been said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say, you love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Now, that's hard to do, isn't it? Do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. That's a tall order, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. Because it says he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. You know, we, all of us, put our pants on the same way, don't we? You know, whether you're righteous or you're not in the world. We do lives, obviously, when we come into the church, we change many of the things we do in terms of God's laws, but everybody's got to eat, everybody goes to work. And I'm talking about the fundamental things of life. But it says, for if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. And if you greet your brethren only, what do you, more than others, do not even the tax collectors do that? And then he says, therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. And so that is what the goal is, brethren. That's the mandate that Jesus Christ gave, become perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. You know, when God created Adam, we all know that Adam lacked one thing, that God did not give him. God did not give him his Holy Spirit. He had a spirit and man, but he was never given of the tree of life which symbolized the Holy Spirit. He was the first Adam. Jesus Christ is called the second Adam. And the difference between Christ who was the second Adam is that Jesus Christ had what Adam never had, and he had the Holy Spirit that was given to him very early. In fact, he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and he was absolutely sinless in his life. He was that perfect man. And we know ultimately, he was changed out of this flesh and the spirit. He was the second Adam. The first Adam was earthly. He was of the flesh. He was physical. The second Adam is spiritual, ultimately speaking. And when we become like Christ, we will be a part of the family of God in the very real sense of the Word.

But the goal is to become like the second Adam, so we can have opportunity to be in the family of God. So, brethren, how do we strive to be perfect? Well, first and foremost, brethren, to be perfect, we have to be in full submission to Jesus Christ. We should be surrendered to Jesus Christ. That should have happened when we're baptized, that we fall on the mercy of God, and we submit ourselves and make that promise to Jesus Christ. This is why the Scriptures tell us, brethren, and even the Old Testament, that we should love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our mind. We should really be submissive to God, submissive to Jesus Christ.

You know, Jesus was asked by a lawyer about the law. What was the greatest law? He talked about the two great principles, the two great laws. The first was to love God completely with all of your heart, soul, and mind. And the second was to love your neighbor as yourself. So, Jesus Christ defined, brethren, life, our life, by relationships. How do we relate to one another? And when he talked about becoming perfect, like your Father in heaven is perfect, he talked about how you relate to people and the way they treat you. If they spitefully use you, you know, that you should love them. And no matter what they might do to you, love them. You show that love. You love your neighbor as yourself, as you would want to be loved. And on those two laws hangs everything Jesus Christ said. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians 2.

Of course, first we love God with all of our heart and soul and mind. We put God first, and then we love our neighbor as ourselves. But in 1 Corinthians 5 here, of course, the Corinthian church, I don't know, I'm really very thankful about the Corinthian church. They really made a lot of mistakes. And you know, if they had not made a lot of mistakes, we wouldn't know what not to do. We learned so much from the Corinthians. And, you know, when we see them in the kingdom, God is going to say, we really thank you for all the mistakes you made. But they did set an example for us that where Paul could instruct them, no, this is the way to go. This is what you ought to do. And I, of course, we really appreciate Paul that he had the courage to tell what they were supposed to do. But in 1 Corinthians 5, and we'll go down to verse 6, he says, your glory is not good. They had an egregious sin problem in their midst and they did nothing about it. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump, therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump. Since you truly are unleavened, they had done what we've done. We cleaned our leavening out. They did that. They come to sin that they were committing. And the sin was, of course, that they were too tolerant of sin that was going on publicly in their own congregation. So he said, you know, that since they were unleavened, they should again purge out the old leaven. For indeed, Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast not with old leaven and, of course, permitting adultery in the church, nor were the leaven of malice not hating somebody, not despising somebody, or wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. In other words, purity from the heart, something from the heart. And here Paul was asking them to love their neighbor, truly love their neighbor. And in this case, it was maybe what we would call hard discipline. Being willing to put this individual out that was committing adultery with his own stepmother, which is again unbelievable that it was going on. So this simple instruction, brethren, to keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth shows that we should have total commitment, total conviction, and desiring to live the truth. In other words, we're submissive to God, and by that we exhibit it by full submission to obedience to God's laws and not tolerating sin in our lives, our own personal lives, and frankly also within the church. And in that way, we are submissive as lambs to the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Let's go to John chapter 6. We've heard the expression, we are what we eat.

Well, we are in the church what we eat as well. Remember, there were two trees in the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and most people eat off that tree. That's what they're eating. And there's the tree of life, and that's the tree we ought to be eating off of as God's people. And we become what we eat. The eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you become like the world. If you eat of the tree of light, you become like Jesus Christ. John 6 here, notice in verse 31, Jesus says, Our fathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. And Jesus said to them, Most assured you, I said to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. So Christ was the true bread out of heaven. It gives life to the world.

And it says, Then they said to Him, Lord, give us this bread always. Of course, they wanted to have the bread He had given when He fed the five thousand.

And I'm sure Jesus Christ got a little bit snippy with them sometimes because of their not thinking above the physical level. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger, and he who believes on me shall never thirst.

And so we are to eat that true bread. That manna, in fact, the 11 bread we eat is symbolic of that manna that came down from heaven. So when you took the 11 bread at Passover, you were eating Christ. And when we eat each day of the feast, you know, the 11 bread that we eat, we're eating Christ. I think just from that standpoint, brethren, it's good for us to make sure we do that each day and think about that fact that we're supposed to eat of Jesus Christ. That is, again, what we should do. Let's notice in verse 51 over here.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh which I shall give for the life of the world.

And so as we strive toward perfection, I talk about how 11 breads means toward perfection. It's a means to become perfect. Perfect is God's people. And Christ is that true manna. And when we eat the 11 bread that we eat, brethren, we're eating of Jesus Christ. And the symbolism is quite simple. It's quite elementary to see that we ought to put sin out of our lives by putting the limiting out. And we should bring Jesus Christ into our lives. If we see our faults, you know, Thomas asked Jesus Christ where he was going and how to get there. And we want to know also, don't we, how to get there. Where is Christ going? How do you get there? And Jesus Christ said, and we read this at Pass overnight, John 14, verse 6, He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I'm the way. If you would be perfect, follow Jesus Christ. What did Jesus Christ do? Well, Jesus Christ is that man of the heaven. He kept the Sabbath, didn't he? I mean, who can argue with that? I guess they do. There are people that do, you know, argue with it. But Christ, there's beyond question, kept the Sabbath. He kept the Holy Days. He risked his life, you know, to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And we know he gave his life on Passover, acting out those things that were given to us in a prophetic sense through the Holy Days from ancient times. You know, God rained down manna from heaven or angels' food to ancient Israel to feed them. And, brethren, in this first day of unleavened bread, he rained down Christ as the true manna of bread we should eat for seven days to show us the way to take toward perfection.

What was our Lord like? What was Jesus Christ like? What did he do? We need to know if we're going to follow in his footsteps. It's important for us to know Jesus Christ, and this is why we have the testimony of the servants of God in the early church. This is why in the gospels we have a lot about Jesus and what he did. Now, I'm not going to go through all the scriptures that tell us about Christ. We could be here all day talking about that. But I do want to give you some thumbnails of what Jesus Christ was like. Number one thing that Jesus Christ was like, and we see this very early, we was like 12 years of age. Remember, they had come down to keep the Passover, and they were heading back, and Jesus disappeared. And they found him in the temple, talking to the doctors of law. Number one thing Jesus Christ did, and we see that from a very early age, and I'm sure it was much earlier than 12, he sought to learn. He was a learner. College. You know, how many people through the years have I visited with and others, you know, Mr. Zimmerman and the scriber and many of the elders where you walk into people's homes, even before they came to the church. They were studying the scriptures, and that's how they came to and attained to understand the truth. When God saw that desire in them, but he talked to the doctors of law, and they asked him questions as well. But he was listening, and he was learning. Number two thing that we see about Jesus Christ, if we're going to be like him and be perfected, he resisted temptation when he was challenged by the devil. Remember when he was fasting? You know, Satan was willing to give him all the kingdoms of the earth if he would fall down and worship him. And what did Jesus Christ tell him? Get behind me, Satan. So, brethren, in our lives, are we doing that? Are we resisting on a continual, constant basis the temptations that come our way? Are we praying when we pray? You know, asking that God lead is not in the temptation. In other words, guide is away from it. You know, if you know your human flesh, you know you can't handle temptation. So you want to stay as far away from it as you can. You run from it. I don't know if it was true or not, but I remember one time Dr. Hay was down in Mexico, and somebody came up to him and offered to take him to a young lady, a young signorita. Well, at least, these are Dr. Hay legends. Dr. Hay turned around and ran. I remember when I was in New York with a friend of mine back in, this is way back in Ambassador College days, but I've never been out of Texas or Oklahoma then. I went to New York with a friend. We were walking down the street, heading towards Passover, and some gal said to me, you know, she looked like Mae West, you know, and I, and actually, just, but she was, she made a proposition right there on the street. But I said, no, I don't have time. I'm going to the Passover.

It was experience. That never happened to me before, something like that, but what a shock. So Jesus resisted temptation when he was challenged by Satan, when he was fasting. He kept the law. Matthew 5 verse 17.

It says there, he did not come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill, or to magnify, is what the word fulfill means. You know how it is that people come to upward and think that Jesus came to just keep the law so he could do away with it? Makes no sense, does it? No, he didn't come to do away with it. He just said, in fact, I didn't come to destroy the law of the prophets, but to magnify. So it was no longer to commit adultery. It would be a sin, but to even look upon a woman and lust after it would be a sin. So he broadened the law to make it something that related to what a man thought even in his heart, or a woman would consider in their heart as well. Jesus Christ was humble and meek. He was like a lowly lamb himself. He was a lamb, as we're told in Revelation 13.8, slain from the foundation of the world. He was a lamb. Now, the next time he comes, he's not coming back as a lowly lamb. He's coming back as a powerful king, a conquering king. But he was humble and he was meek. Philippians 2 in verse 5 through 8, I won't turn there, but it says he humbled himself. He came in the form of a man, in the form of a servant.

And we know he came and he died on the stake. He died on the cross for us.

Another thing about Jesus Christ that we can take note of as the manna, as that true bread out of heaven, he came to serve other people. And God, he came to serve. He came to serve and not to be served. That's what he desired to do. And remember, at that first Passover, Jesus took a towel, he took a basin, and he did what the lowliest servant of the house would do. And he washed the feet of all of the disciples, including the one who was going to betray him that very night that would lead to his death. He knew he would die as a result of it. In fact, he had told his disciples that's what was going to happen. But he washed Judas's feet. Like I ask, you know, at the Passover, you know, Thursday evening, I ask, is there anybody here you would not wash their feet?

Well, you ought to go wash that person's feet, if that be the case, you know, because that was the attitude Jesus Christ had.

I don't know about you, but when I go to the Passover, that if I ever, ever had a thought, I didn't want to wash somebody's feet. Usually God worked it out. Those were the very people's feet I wash. In Canada, I've washed 100 feet now. You know, 50 years, 50 times too. I haven't washed any one-legged men, so I got the... I could throw him a curve ball and say, 90-90 feet. So Jesus Christ came to serve, brethren. How about you and me? Who are we serving, and what are we trying to do in serving people? Are we pitching in at church? Are we trying to help people in the church in some way or another, or even other people in the world, for that matter, where we have opportunity? I don't have to prove this to you. Jesus Christ loved people, and He had compassion on people.

He deeply loved people, and God loved us before we loved Him.

Jesus loved us before we loved Him. You know, He thought about us, in fact, nearly 2,000 years ago.

And He said, I want them, Father, to be one as we're one.

And we are included in those that He thought about nearly 2,000 years ago. In His ministry, He often showed great compassion.

Next, another one, is Jesus didn't retaliate against those who sought to hurt Him. He could have, but He didn't seek to retaliate. Let's go to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2 over here. You know, the human nature makes us want to lash out at somebody. Well, if they did something to me, man, I am going to volley something right back over to them. Is that the way the human beings think? That's carnal human nature, to think that way. Rather, it should be, if you volley something and you're trying to attack me, you're not going to get anything back. The only thing you're going to get back is, I'm going to be praying for you. I would think that would be the goal that all of us would have. But in 1 Peter 2 and verse 21, and it says, for to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found, that He did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him, who judges righteously, who Himself bore our sins and His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of our souls. Mr. Nettles, on the Passover night, talked about how Jesus Christ, having been beaten to within an inch of death, He lost so much blood as a result of the scourging that took place because His body was bleeding in so many places because of the cat of nine tails. And the walk alone, with His heart pumping the blood, as you can imagine, He would have bled profusely. Then He was then nailed to the stake. And Jesus Christ, obviously, losing tremendous amount of blood as a result of that. And when He had no strength whatsoever, He had the strength to say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

That's how much strength He had. And it was shortly after that, a soldier pitched his side and the blood gushed out. And He gave up the Spirit and He died. He died for His all. But He didn't retaliate. He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

So Jesus didn't retaliate. If you want to be like Christ, you want to eat that manna, that's what you want to become. That's what we want to become, all of us. He agonized through great and sorrow trials in His life. The night that Jesus Christ gave the Passover, He was arrested. He was beaten. He was shamed. He was spit upon. He had His hair pulled out by the roots.

You know, He had the soldiers make fun of Him.

Then He was crucified. So He agonized, brethren, with great and sorrow trials in His life.

Let's go to Luke 22. Luke 22, again, where He was trying to go to God and talk to God. He spoke to Him three times about what He was about to face. It was not an easy thing for Him, like a big weight lifter with a heavy weight, you know, all these big muscles just throwing it off. It just was easy for Him. You know, He was experiencing human life as we do, the physical life that we have, the pains that go with it. But in Luke 22 here, notice the prayer that was in the garden. In verse 41, and it says He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw. He went away from the apostles, and of course they couldn't keep their eyes open. They were falling asleep along the way that evening. They were very tired and exhausted. And don't you think Jesus Himself was tired and exhausted for that evening? But He knelt down and He prayed. Verse 42, and He said, Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done. And then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, shrinking Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. And then He swept, He swept and became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. There was so much stress, so much agony of what was going to happen that the capillaries and His forehead burst, and the sweat mingled with that blood, you know, dropped down as great drops of blood that the Bible here describes. It says that when He rose from prayer and it come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. And it said, then He said to them, Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation. And boy, they were going to need to be doing a lot of praying down the line. And especially Peter, I think he realized how much prayer he was going to need in his life. So these are the things that Jesus Christ, brethren, this is what He's like. This is what we should be eating of as God's people. He learned through His experiences, brethren, so He could be a faithful high priest. And the Bible says so He could be perfect. He could be perfect. Let's go to 1st chapter 5 of Hebrews over here, quickly if you would turn with me. But in Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 1, Hebrews 5 verse 1, but it says, For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts for men. We know Jesus Christ was that sacrifice for sin for all of us. But in verse 4, And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.

And it says, So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest, but it was he who said to him, You are my son. Today I begotten you. As he has said in another place, you are a priest forever after according to the order of Melchizedek, who in the days of this flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, which we just read about, with vehement cries and tears to him, who was able to save him from death and was heard because of his godly fear, though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered, and having been perfected, those things Christ went through perfected him. And he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him. So what did Christ experience, brethren, perfected him?

So if you've ever gone through a trial that was so hard, that was so difficult, that was so hard to experience, brethren. God is molding and shaping you. He's perfecting you. So he learned through these experiences to be that faithful high priest, and so he was perfected. And though Jesus was sinless, he had to learn perfection, at least from the standpoint of in this life experience, so he could be a faithful and a good high priest. And he is our high priest forever. Well, brethren, how do we know when we have become perfect? How do we know?

You know, we know that Jesus Christ in his own life, you know, experienced this thing, that evidently you and I were to experience. But we're in Matthew chapter 3. Let's notice here in Matthew chapter 3. I talked about how Paul didn't feel like he had attained it.

And I don't think anybody, in fact, has ever said they had attained it, at least in this flesh. But in Matthew chapter 3 and down in verse 13, it says, And when he had been baptized, and Jesus came up immediately from the water, and, behold, the heavens were opened in. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, but a lighting on him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Well, brethren, how is it that we will know that God is pleased with us? Like, we know that God was pleased overall for Job. And certainly Job had his issues, but, and perhaps even better, he was more pleased with him at the end of his life than at the beginning. But the Father was pleased as Jesus Christ began his ministry. Jesus Christ grew rapidly the next three and a half years. He had the trial of the wilderness. We had the, of course, the many other trials in his life and the crucifixion that he went through leading up to his death, to the end of his life. You and me, when we were called after our baptism, we're supposed to be transformed. We're supposed to be changed. Paul said, Don't be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Have a change of mind altogether that you may prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God.

You know, we're not without sin like Jesus was, and the only way that we can remotely please God is through the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Are we availing ourselves of that? Are we asking for God's forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? You know, when God called you and me when we were baptized, brethren, he intended that we become a new creature, a new creation, because it says the old things have passed away and behold, all things have become new. I was thinking, after 50 years, how new am I? How different am I from 50 years ago?

How have I changed? When will we know we've obtained it, brethren? I'll tell you when you'll know when you've obtained it, is when God says to you, well done, because you have been faithful over a few things, I'll make you ruler over many things. So when will you know when you were perfected, brethren? Then you will know, and you and I, then, if our Father says this to us, brethren, we will know, we are perfected, and we're going to enter in to the family of God.