Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number six in the hardback timbrel.
Hymn number six, Come Thou Almighty King. Let's all stand together.
Number six. Come Thou Almighty King, help
us Thy name to sing, help us to praise. Father, all-glorious,
O'er all victorious, come and reign over us, Ancient of days. ? Come thou incarnate word ?
? Gird on thy mighty sword ? ? Our prayer attend ? ? Come and thy
people bless ? ? And give thy word success ? ? Spirit of holiness
on us descend ? ? Come Holy Comforter ? ? Thy sacred witness bear ? In
this glad hour ? Thou who almighty art ? Thou rule in every heart
? And ne'er from us depart ? Spirit of power ? To the great one in
three ? Eternal praises be ? Hence evermore ? His sovereign majesty
? May we in glory see ? And to eternity love and adore Please be seated. Good morning. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to Mark chapter 15, Mark chapter 15. Well, I can't believe it. We
have less than a week before we begin our meeting this Friday
night, six o'clock. And by this time next week, we'll
be finishing up. So it came quickly and it will
pass quickly. Our hope and prayer is that the
Lord will be pleased to bless Angus and Chris and Todd with
messages that will speak to our hearts and exalt Christ that
he'll be pleased to bless us with ears to hear. That's our
prayer. And I want us to pray to that end this morning. Also, we will have some of ASCA. We're having services this Wednesday
night, yes. We will have services this Wednesday
night. But next Wednesday night, after
the meeting, we will not have our regular Wednesday night service. Most of you know Bruce Crabtree.
Bruce's wife, Jo, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, and she's
going in for surgery this coming Wednesday. So the Lord enables
you to pray for her and Bruce. I know they will greatly appreciate
that. So let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our services this morning, and then prepare our hearts for
next weekend. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
that once again, in your sovereign grace, you have been pleased
and merciful to bring us here to this place. We thank you for
the promise that you've given us to inhabit the praise of your
people, to walk among the candlesticks, to manifest your glory and your
grace where your people gather together. Lord, we ask that you
would enable us to speak with clarity and with conviction and
with compassion. And we ask that you would enable
us to hear, hear from you that the voice of a man would not
be heard to the heart, but Lord, the voice of God would draw us
into thy presence and that you would speak through your word
to reveal to us your glory. We pray for Joe and we ask Lord
that you would direct the hands of the surgeons and Lord we pray
for healing. We know that that is certainly
within your power. We ask Lord that you would give
her and Bruce and the family members grace and mercy in their
time of need. We pray for Angus and for Chris
and for Todd. Ask Lord that you would burden
their hearts with messages that we need to hear. We ask for those that will be
here, particularly next weekend, visitors and strangers to your
grace and ask Lord that you would pour out your spirit and power
and that you'd be pleased to draw your lost sheep to yourself.
We pray that for our young people and for our children, Lord, that
have been sitting under the gospel. We ask that you would be merciful
to their souls and call them to yourself. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. I've titled this message, A View
from the Top. A View from the Top. And I feel
like in some ways we've been climbing Mount Everest in our
study of the Gospel of Mark. And now here in Chapter 15, we
have come to the summit of the mountain. We've stopped at base
camps many times along the way and we've looked up to the summit
But now we're actually there. We're there at the pinnacle of
all time and eternity. The Latin word for cross is the
word crux, and we often refer to something being the crux of
the matter. And the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the crux of the matter. The problem with being on the
top of Mount Everest is that the air sometimes is thin and
sometimes the view is obscured by clouds and we certainly cannot
begin to see and to understand everything that the Lord has
done from the top of the world. But we believe that this matter
of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ is the reason for
everything. It is the reason for everything. It is the pinnacle moment not
only in time but also in eternity. Significant things have happened
in the life of man in this world nothing to be compared to the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is more important than any
effect that a world war has had on the history of man. It's more
important than any invention has had on the history of man.
Oh, it's certainly more important than what the world calls the
Big Bang. This is the reason for everything. The reason that God made the
world was for the cross. The cross wasn't made for man,
man was made for the cross. The cross is the cause and purpose
of everything. Everything. And now the Lord
has brought us to that place where we're able to see at least
in part what it is that God is all about. This is what God's
about. Psalm 115 verse 1, not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us. This life is not about you. It's
not about me. But unto thy name, unto thy name,
and his name is most glorified in what he did on Calvary's cross. The glory of God is most glorified
at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the crux of the
matter in every regard. Paul said in preaching, I profess,
now they're probably not a greater intellect that that lived than
the Apostle Paul. And yet he said, I profess to
know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Any other knowledge that I have
of anything else pales in significance. It is insignificant compared
to the cross. of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
cross of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 18. For the preaching of the cross,
and though we've arrived at the summit of the mountain, as I
said, we've paused hopefully every time we've spoken and pointed
to the top of that mountain. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness. What is the significance of the
cross to the natural man? Why would I want to spend my
life and my time and energy thinking about something that took place
2,000 years ago? But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. If the cross is not preached,
God's power in saving is not going to be exercised. It's not going to be experienced.
Christ must be lifted up in order for us to be saved. And as the
serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so was the Lord Jesus
Christ lifted up, suspended between heaven and earth, suffering the
full wrath of God's justice. in order to bring his people
to God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and I will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. That's what Paul was talking
about when he said, I profess to know nothing, all the things
that I've learned in life, all the education, all the accomplishments. He said, I do count them but
dung that I might win Christ. They are foolishness. And the
more prolific the information world becomes, the more foolish
we realize how it is. You know, we live in a world
where information is at our fingertips on any imaginable subject. And yet, when we're confronted
with the word of God and we're caused to see the significance
of the cross, we come to conclude that all of that is nothing more
than trivia. trivia. God makes foolish the
wisdom of the wise and the prudent of the world. He makes to be
foolish in the hearts of his people when he reveals Christ
and his cross. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Verse 20. Where is the disputer
of this world? Let the Let the pseudo-intellectuals
and the pseudo-religious debate their theories all they want. To the child of God who has seen
Christ and seen what God has accomplished on Calvary's cross,
it's all foolishness. It's all of no consequence. Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? Has God made to you the philosophies
and the religions of this world to be foolish? Foolish. Do we not join Elijah on Mount
Carmel actually making fun of the gods of this world? The world said, you can't do
that. You've got to respect everybody's, I don't respect foolishness.
There's no reason to respect foolishness. Not when God's shown
you the truth. For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. You know all the philosophers
that are studied to this day, God raised up in the third century
B.C.? All of them. All the Greek philosophers,
the Eastern philosophers, they all were contemporaries in the
3rd century BC. And we're still studying their
views of life and truth. And God says, I've made foolish
the wisdom of the world. Man by wisdom, by worldly wisdom,
he sought after God. He was seeking after purpose.
He was seeking after truth. but by worldly wisdom he found
not God. He pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. That's what we're doing. Why
do more people not come to hear the preaching of the gospel?
Because to them it's foolishness. Why would you make such an effort
to be here? Because to you it is the salvation
of your soul. It's your only hope. You've stepped
aside for a few moments from the foolishness of this world
to hear the truth. And the truth puts everything
in this world in perspective, doesn't it? Standing on the top
of the world, you can see everything in its relationship to the highest
mountain that there is. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching, verse 21, to save them that believe. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the Word of God. How will they believe unless
they hear? How can they hear unless they
have a preacher? What did that Ethiopian say?
When Philip asked him, understand this what thou readest, how can
I unless a man should guide me? One beggar telling other beggars
where to find bread. One man that God has called out
to spend time in his word to just simply declare what God
has said to his people. For after, I'm sorry, verse 22,
for the Jews require a sign. Now the Jews represent the religious.
The religious are always looking after a sign. The Greeks, those are the irreligious,
they're looking after worldly wisdom. They're looking after
philosophy and understanding science and all those things. We preach Christ crucified unto
the Jew a stumbling block. The stone which the builders
rejected has become the head of the corner. The Lord Jesus
Christ is that rock that is higher than I. Upon this rock, what
rock, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. I will
build my church and the gates of hell shall not be able to
prevail against it. The Lord Jesus Christ and his
church are the reason for everything, everything. But unto them that are called,
God calls his people some out of religion and some out of irreligious
life. He calls some Jews, he calls
some Greeks, but they all are called by the same message. They
all hear the same thing, Christ. That's what they hear. Christ. Who he is and what he's done
in order to save sinners. The power of God and the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than man.
For you see your calling brethren? Do you see how this applies to
you? How that not many of you were
wise men after the flesh? Not many of you have your multiple
PhDs and have achieved some level of notoriety in the world. Not many
of you have written books that men rejoice over. No, no. Not many
are mighty. Not many noble are called. Now
aren't you glad the Lord said not many? Not many. Because that means that if God's
elect do by God's providence become notable in the world,
if God's elect do by God's providence become noble in the world, if
they do become successful in the world, that's not going to
hinder the Lord from bringing them. But God, and here's the truth,
Regardless of what your success is in this world, here's the
truth God has made foolish, or God has chosen the foolish things
of the world. Lord, all my, that's what Paul
meant when he said, when he said, forgetting those things which
are behind, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high
calling in Christ Jesus. and do count them but dung that
I might win Christ. All my successes, all my failures,
anything relating to me that I've done or haven't done or
failed to do, I do count them but dung. God has chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things that are mighty and the
base things of the world and the things that are despised
have God chosen, yea, the things that are not to bring to naught
the things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence. We are the true circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and that's the only way to worship
God. Spirit of God is the only one that can enable you to worship.
Worship is a matter of the heart and that's a work of the Spirit
of God. We are the true circumcision, worship God in the Spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus. That's what it is to worship
God, it's to rejoice in Christ and to have no confidence whatsoever
in the flesh, in the flesh. Now, that's what was accomplished.
at the cross and that's God's declaration to us as to the importance,
the significance, the centrality, the essential element of the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing else compares to it.
Nothing else. Everything God has done and everything
he will do leads up to and points to the cross of Christ. Turn with me to Mark chapter
15. Verse 33, and when the sixth hour was come, now the reckoning
of time in the Jews world was to begin time with the sunrise. And so sunrise would be around
six in the morning, so the sixth hour would be at noon. The Lord
has been on the cross since the third hour. So he was nailed
to the cross, the third hour, nine o'clock in the morning,
now at noon, the middle of the day, God sends a great darkness,
a great darkness. You know, if you go back to Exodus,
the 10 plagues that God sent against Egypt, bringing the children
of Israel out, the ninth plague, the scripture says, the one right
before the death angel came, which was the 10th plague, the
ninth plague was a darkness that lasted three days, and the scripture
calls it a darkness that could be felt. that no man, and the
scripture even says that no man could see another man. It was
so dark. You've been in a place, you've
been down in a cave or something where you put your hand in front
of your face and you can't, and you feel it. You feel the darkness. You don't know, you're afraid
to take a step, afraid that you'll fall off of or stumble on something
or bump into something. That's what the scripture says
that darkness was like. And then right after that darkness,
came the light of the gospel in the sacrifice of the Paschal
Lamb when its blood was shed and put on the doorposts and
the lintels of the houses and God said when I see that blood
I'll pass by you. Before the blood could be effectual
darkness had to come. And before you and I experience
anything about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ God's going
to send a darkness into your heart that can be felt. darkness
that can be felt. You're going to come to realize,
Lord, I'm a dead man. I'm a hell deserving sinner and
if you don't have mercy upon me I have nothing to hope for
but eternal separation and darkness from God. That darkness grips
our hearts and we realize I've got to have Christ. I've got
no place else to go. So now the 12th, the sixth hour,
12 o'clock noon, the Lord sends a darkness over the whole land
for three hours, three days in Egypt, three hours here on the
cross. And the Lord's ordaining all
the events of his death on Calvary's cross, even as he's ordained
all the events of your life and my life, all the events of history,
but here it all comes to its pinnacle. What's the significance
of the ninth hour? Well, the ninth hour was the
evening sacrifice. This is happening on Friday. When is the Sabbath? The Sabbath
begins at sundown. That's why there was such a hurry
by Joseph of Arimathea to run to Pilate and to crave, the scripture
says, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ and to get him off the
cross and into the grave before sun went down because they couldn't
do it once the Sabbath started. But what happened at three o'clock
in the afternoon on the day before the Sabbath? The killing of the
Passover lamb. So while the Lord Jesus Christ
is crying, Elio, Elio, lava sabachthani, which being translated is my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? and crying unto the father
it is finished father into the hands I commend my spirit the
priest is over there in the temple making the sacrifice for the
Passover and as soon as he gave up the
ghost the bail that the priest would go into to put the blood
offering on the on the on the mercy seat where God said, here
I will meet with you, that veil, which was blue on the top and
red on the bottom, and when you mix blue and red, what do you
get? Purple. And that veil, the scripture tells us, is the body
of Christ. and the blue representing his
deity and the red representing his humanity and you mix the
two together and you've got the God-man. And that veil was rent
from top to bottom. God tore it. And the scripture
goes on to say that not a few of the priest believed. They saw the darkness. They felt
the darkness. They saw the veil rent and God
put it in their hearts to believe on that lamb who had just laid
down his life for his sheep. All the events of the world took
place right there on Calvary's cross. All the attributes of God. Men
would say, I want to know God. You're going to know God best. by looking at him on the cross. You'll know more about his glory
by looking at the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. You'll know
more about his grace by looking at the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross. You'll know more of his love. You'll know more of his
justice. when God poured out His wrath
on His only begotten Son, satisfying the demands of God's holy justice.
All the attributes, all the characteristics of God are most illustrated,
they're most depicted on the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The ninth hour, verse 34, Jesus
cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which
being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Oh, we could go to Psalm 22 and
read that whole Psalm. And it just, it describes in
great detail what the Lord Jesus Christ was going to suffer on
Calvary's cross. This is where all of eternity
comes together. 2,000 years ago. And faith is believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Believe in what? Read on in this
chapter and we will, we'll get to these verses. You remember
when the women who went to the tomb on Sunday morning to anoint,
they couldn't anoint the body on Friday because they had to
get it in the tomb as quickly as they could before the Sabbath
began. And so the women, as the sun was coming up on Sunday morning,
as soon as the Sabbath was over, they ran to the tomb to anoint
the body. And they met there an angel.
And the angel told him, are you looking for Jesus of Nazareth?
He's not here. He's risen. He's risen. And the scripture said they were
so afraid that they didn't speak to a single person. They ran
back to where the disciples were, and they told the disciples,
and the disciples didn't believe them. And then after that, disciples
came from Emmaus and said, we walked with him. He broke bread
with us. He's alive. And they didn't believe him.
They didn't believe him. And when the Lord appeared, he
rebuked them for their unbelief. Just like he did for Thomas,
when he said to Thomas, Thomas, it's good that you believe, but
blessed are those who have not seen. You and I have not seen
with our physical eyes. We've not put our hands into
his side. All we have is the inspired word
of God to believe a testimony of an event that took place 2,000
years ago. And if God doesn't give us faith,
we'll be just like those disciples. I don't believe that. Not that
report. I've got to see it for myself
to believe it. And the world says, seeing is
believing. And the child of God knows that
believing is seeing. Believing is seeing. Oh God,
give me faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and what he
accomplished on Calvary's cross. Some of them that stood back,
that's the verse 35. Some of them that stood by when
they heard it said, behold, he calleth Elias, Elijah. He's calling for Elijah. The
prophecies were that Elijah who was caught up into heaven, you
remember he didn't die physically like everybody else. He rode
a chariot into heaven and the prophecy was that this Elijah
will come again as the forerunner and the Lord Jesus Christ makes
it crystal clear that John the Baptist was the fulfillment of
that prophecy. that he was Elijah who came in
order to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus Christ. So now,
knowing that this prophecy about Elijah was in the scriptures,
they're thinking, well, maybe he's calling on Elijah. Maybe
Elijah's going to come first, like the scripture says he's
going to, and then he'll deliver him. Now, let me remind you,
the Lord Jesus Christ said, I've got 12 legions of angels waiting
for me to just say the word. Taking these nails out of my
hand and coming off of this cross, that's nothing. I've raised men
from the dead, which is a greater miracle. And you saw that and
didn't believe it. When they saw the resurrection
of Lazarus, who had been dead and in the grave for three days,
they ran back to Jerusalem and told them, and the scripture
says they didn't believe it. they had all the evidence testimony
upon testimony that we saw him come out of the grave and they
wouldn't believe it and now they're saying well let's see if he's
gonna come down then come off that cross then we'll believe
you no they wouldn't no they wouldn't the truth is here's
the truth now get this listen to this very carefully If a man
or a woman who leaves this world without Christ and goes to hell
came back from hell and sat here in our presence this morning,
they would not believe the gospel unless God had mercy on them. No man by his natural intellect
or by his reasoning or by his experiences or by the evidence
that's given to his physical eyes is going to believe the
gospel. Believing the gospel is a miracle
of grace in the heart. Nicodemus, you've got to be born
again. You've got to be born of the Spirit. That which is
of the flesh is flesh and the flesh profiteth nothing. But now they're saying, let's
see if Elijah is going to come. And if Elijah comes and he comes
off that cross, then we'll believe. No, they wouldn't. No, they wouldn't. They had been given plenty of
evidence. Verse 35, verse 36, and one ran
and filled a sponge full of vinegar and put it on a reed and gave
it to him to drink saying, Let alone, let us see whether Elijah
will come to take him down. They obviously touched the sponge
to our Lord's lips in order to fulfill that prophecy. They gave
me bitterness of gall, but he didn't drink it. He didn't drink
it. And one of these men says, no,
take it away. Amazing how many times God uses
the, the decisions of the enemies of God to accomplish his purpose.
Take it away. Let's see if Elijah's gonna come.
Take him down. Jesus cried with a loud voice
and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was
rent in twain from top to bottom. And when the centurion That was
the commander over the Roman soldiers that had been assigned
to execute the Lord and these other two men. When the centurion,
which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost, You see
men on the cross, now this centurion is going to be called before
Pilate and when Joseph of Arimathea goes to Pilate and says we want
to take his body off the cross and get it in the tomb before
sunset and Pilate couldn't believe that he was already dead. Crucifixion
was a form of torture and people would live days on the cross
before they actually expired. And one of the ways the person
on the cross would extend their life would be by pushing themselves
up because they would naturally slump on the cross and the lungs
would begin to fill up with fluid and it was hard to breathe and
they would push themselves up in order to get another breath
of air. That's why the two thieves had to have their legs broken
and when they came to Christ he had already died. And Pilate
couldn't believe that he had died so soon. How is it that
he died so soon? Because it was ordained of God
for him to die at the precise moment of the ninth hour that
that paschal lamb was being sacrificed in the temple. That's why he's
dead. He gave up the ghost. He didn't struggle to live. He
wasn't fighting for another breath. He knew exactly when he was going
to die. And he gave up his life. And
the centurion saw it. They called in the centurion,
Pilate did, and said, is it true as he did? Yes, it's true. It's
true. And this centurion's confession,
truly, truly of a certainty, I am now convinced in watching
this man die that this was none other than the son of God. might God give us the faith of
the centurion. Let's take a break. Okay.