I wanted to look very briefly
before we come to the Lord's Supper at the two things, the
robes of royalty of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 2 of chapter
19, Pilate took the Lord Jesus and he scourged him. which meant
that he was, for many people, at the point of death, given
how ferocious the beatings were. It may well have been that bones
and internal organs were exposed. And then it says in verse 2,
And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head,
and they put on him a purple robe, and said, Hail, King of
the Jews, and smote him with their hands. The Lord promised
in John chapter 12, that he says, and I, John 12, 32, and I, if
I be lifted up from the earth, will draw Men is in italics and it's best,
like nearly all the italicised words in our translations, best
to be left out. If I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all unto me. I want us to contemplate the drawing power of the Lord
Jesus Christ seen in him being robed in these robes of royalty. And I want us to remember of
course that the Lord Jesus Christ came to this place from Gethsemane's
garden he sweat great drops of blood,
and the scriptures say it stained all his raiment. And so he went
to these places of judgment before men, whether they be religious
or political like Pilate and powerful like Pilate, he went
to those places already wearing the emblem of what it is for
him to have that cup in his hand and to drink the cup. of the
sins of all his people. And he in his death and in his
lifting up, he allures, he draws his bride to himself. I love what Hosea says. Speaking of Hosea and Goma, the
Lord speaks of restoring someone who is as lost as Goma was. Goma was lost willfully, willingly,
wickedly and from the very nature of her birth. But I love what
the Lord said about how he draws his people to himself. He says,
Therefore behold, Hosea 2, verse 14, I will allure her and bring
her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her. The command
of God's people to, the command of God to his servants is you
speak comfortably to Jerusalem. You tell them their warfare is
over. You tell them that everything was finished in the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. all of my righteousness all of
my redemption and all of my sanctification all all that i owe god god looks
to his son for and finds him delightful god has made the lord
jesus christ unto us first corinthians 1 30 Wisdom? He's all my wisdom. I don't have
any wisdom. I don't want to have any wisdom
of my own. I want Him to be my wisdom. And He's all of my righteousness. He's all of my righteousness.
And I don't have any other righteousness other than Him, His. And therefore,
because He's all of my righteousness, I've got no, there's no way in
the world I can lose my righteousness. And there's no way in the world
my righteousness can be stained. because he is all my righteousness
and he sits on the throne of heaven. He's all my sanctification. All of it. And he's all of my redemption. The Lord Jesus Christ allures
his bride to himself and he speaks sweetly to her. These are the
The songs of Zion that come triumphantly from the lips of God's children
as they think upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love what Zephaniah says in
verse 14 of Zephaniah 3. Sing, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O Israel, and be glad
and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The
Lord hath taken away thy judgments. He hath cast out thine enemy.
The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee. thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day, it shall be said
to Jerusalem, fear not, and to Zion, let not thine hands be
slack. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. He will save, He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. What an amazing work our Lord
Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary. What an amazing and
I want us to sort of contemplate how we are drawn to him. We are bought with a price and
we are made, I love what Ephesians 2.13 says. I pray that the Lord
writes it on our hearts. But he says in Ephesians 2.13
that we were sometimes far off. But now in Christ Jesus, you,
ye who were sometimes afar off, I don't know about you, I find
myself afar off a lot of the time. And I find myself a long
way from where I'd like to be. And I found myself, I found myself
that way so much of my life. But listen to what the promise
of God, we are made nigh by the blood of Christ. He draws us
to Him in communion and in union, and He draws His bride to Himself. And this is what was going on
in all of these events, wasn't it? He was bearing in His own
body all of our sins. What separates us from God? Sins. What separates us from each other? What separates us from sweet
fellowship with each other? sin and unbelief, isn't it? And he, having put away all of
that sin, having paid the price for all of our unbelief and all
of our rebellion and all of our natural hatred of God being God,
he draws us to himself. He allures his bride. He is the
king of griefs. No one ever suffered like this
man suffered. and he's not wanting our pity.
He's wanting and he will have the worship of all of his people.
He's the king of Greece, he's the king of souls, and he's the
king by divine right. He's the king by the right of
creation, but he's the king by right of conquest. He comes and he shows his beloved,
his hands and his side, and what are his first words to them?
Peace. Peace. His words speak peace
to us. Having loved his own, which were
in the world, he loved them to the end. And here is our Lord
Jesus Christ crowned, crowned with that crown of thorns. And
it seems from the Gospel accounts it may well be so that he wore
it all the way to the cross of Calvary. and they certainly didn't
put it on his head to honour him. It was the crown, as Genesis
3 says, it's the crown that is emblematic of the curse. And
when he was lifted up on the cross it says, Christ hath redeemed us, Galatians
3.13, from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Cursed is everyone. He was crowned
with the sorrows of the curse and he bore it to Calvary. and
he suffered and died alone, he trod the winepress alone. And
yet, Paul speaks on behalf of all of the children of God. I am crucified, Galatians 2.20,
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. Isn't that an amazing verse of
scripture? Let me read it again. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faithfulness of the Son
of God. I can't look to anything in myself,
I have to look to Him. I live by the faithfulness. And
here's the Lord Jesus Christ as we see in John 19. He's faithful
unto death. Faithful. That's the level of
faithfulness that God requires of man. And that's what he finds
in his glorious Son. And that's love, isn't it? This
is all for love of his bride. To allure his bride to himself. To show his bride how much he
loved her. This notion that God loves everyone
And yet his love can't save them and his love can't bring them
to himself. And his love is so weak that
eventually he will have to punish them in hell forever for their
wicked rebellion against him. That's not the sort of love I
want to be loved with. I want a love that's powerful.
Solomon says the love of Christ is stronger than death. He draws his people. Behold your king coming forth
to conquer all of our great enemies of sin, of unbelief, of self-righteousness
and self-salvation. And in this particular way he's
come to reveal himself as the conqueror. He's the conqueror
of the hearts and the lives of his people and he wins the conquest
by his love. He's not arrayed as a man of
war. There's no sword on his thigh. There's no bow in his hand. There's no shield. There's no
fiery threats fall from his wounded lips. Nor does he speak with flattering words. He's unarmed
and yet victorious. He's silent and yet he conquers. This is a king conquering. This is a king reigning and ruling. His shame is his armour. His sufferings are his battle
axe. Our great enemies, sin and Satan
and the world, is all exposed and all dealt with. No wonder
the Apostle Paul said, God forbid that I should glory, that I should
have confidence in, that I should boast in, saved in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto
me, and I to the world. Christ, the man of sorrows, subdues
and wins the hearts of his people. Christ the judge, and he really
will be judged, he alarms, but it's Christ the man of sorrows
that draws his people to himself. Well, I'll be lifted up, I'll
draw all men to myself. The crown of thorns. has royal
power in it to compel his people to bow and to adore. He had a scepter in his hand,
a reed, and that scepter in his hand, in that bloodied hand,
it breaks hearts better than a rod of iron or the scepter
of the kings of men. He draws his people, he's promised
to do his drawing. It's the robe of mockery. commands
more than all Caesar's imperial might. Behold your king, arobed
as he is in this state, going to the place of death for his
bride, in love for her. Love declared and love captivates. I do just love reading the prayer
in John 17. I hope and pray I never tire
of it, but it is just amazing the thoughts that were in the
heart of the Lord Jesus Christ as he went to Gethsemane's garden
and took that cup that the Father gave him and it was bound to
him. It was there bound to him and
all of his sufferings were the sufferings that were bound up
in that cup that he drank. And on Calvary's tree he took
that cup and he drank it dry completely dry. All of the sins
of all of God's people have been perfectly and completely and
utterly and finally punished to the satisfaction of the holy
justice of God Almighty. And they're gone. God says that
they are gone. And if sin that separates us
from our God, then the sin-bearing substitute has this amazing power
to draw us to himself, to draw us. Listen to his prayer for
us. Neither pray I for these alone,
John 17, 20, but also for them which shall believe. He's speaking as a king in his
prayer. He's not saying they might believe.
There's some possibilities of that. They will believe. and
they'll believe on Him, they will rest all of the hope of
all of their salvation on Him, through the Word that's preached,
through their Word, that, and listen to this, that they all
may be one. As thou, Father, art in me and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us, one in God, one
in the Father, one in the Son, If you can wrap your tiny little
brain around that, then all the best to you. I can't wrap my
tiny, but I can rejoice in it. I can rejoice that this is the
singing he has over his people, that they're united to him. If
there is no sin, then there is perfect communion between them
and a holy God. And it's a communion in love. that they may be one, as thou,
Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in
us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest
me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, how close? Near, so very near to God, nearer
I cannot be. because in the person of his
dear son i am as near as he dear so very dear to god dearer i
cannot be because in the person of his dear son i am as dear
as he i in them and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect
in one, and that the world may know that Thou hast sent me and
hast loved them as Thou hast loved me. Father, I will that
they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me, for Thou
lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father,
the world has not known Thee, But I have known thee, and these
have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto
them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." We're drawn to
him. in His words and on the cross
and in His resurrection glory. And we're drawn to Him in love.
We're drawn to Him in adoration. We're drawn to Him in submission
to Him. We bow and we kiss the sun and
we rejoice that this son wore a crown of thorns and we could
never wear a crown of thorns. There can be no curse upon the
children of God. This king was robed in a royal
robe of this world in mockery and now he has the robe and all
of the saints of God are robed in the very righteousness of
God. Listen to what Revelation 19
verse 8 says. And to her was granted, not that
she earned it, it was given, that she should be arrayed in
fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness
of the saints. It is their very righteousness.
He was mocked. He was mocked. by these things,
and he had a scepter, the scepter of the reed in his hand has more
power than all the rods of men. What crowns the worship of heaven? and peace and union and eternally
so. What crowns all of the new creation
is love and peace and communion and rest. And we will be declaring
it is finished again and again and again for all eternity. Nothing
ever enters to defile. I'm drawn to a saviour who does
all that, and does it all alone, and just says, come to me, come
unto me, all ye who are weary and heavenly laden, and you will
find rest for your souls. I can rest my eternal soul in
the glorious finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold
the Lamb, behold your King. Behold him in his humility, humiliation. Behold him in his blood as his
blood fell to this earth. There was no one faithful like
him. There's one alone remedy for
all the darkness of this world. There's one alone remedy for
all the darkness that we so often feel within ourselves, and that's
just the preaching of Christ crucified. Preaching the King,
preaching the man, preaching the glorious reign that he must
have, not just over Satan and sin and all of the enemies that
stood opposed to him and mocked him, but reigning over us. reigning and ruling a heart of
stone is melted by the blood of the lamb satan's venom has
one antidote the blood of the lamb christ was a king as they
beat him and marred his face more than any other man. Christ
was a king when they ploughed his back with a scourge. Christ
was a king when they nailed him to a cross. If he was a king
then, what sort of a king is he now? Just the same king, reigning
and ruling. Can he lose any of his sheep?
Can he fail? Can he be discouraged in any
way at all? Our God reigns. He reigns in humility. He reigns in his suffering. He reigns. May he reign in our
hearts and may the blessed spirit come and take that blood These
people cried out, his blood be on us. That's the cry of the
enemies of Christ, but it's the cry of the children of God. Let
his blood wash me clean. Exactly as he said it was going
to do. Let him do as he had said. Behold your king. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we pray that we would find ourselves drawn
again and again as we contemplate the things of this world and
the things of our lives, Heavenly Father, we would be caused again
and again to contemplate all things in the light of our glorious
King who reigns and rules over all the events of all humanity,
who has power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as you have given him. We praise you, Heavenly
Father, for the blood of your dear and precious Son. We praise
you, our Father, for the glory of holiness revealed in him suffering
as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. as
the substitute for his people, as one with them eternally, infinitely,
one with them in love, and sometime soon, one with all of them in
glory, never to end. Heavenly Father, you just command
us to believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to call
upon his name. And we pray, Heavenly Father,
that in doing so we might eat that Bread which is in remembrance
of a broken body, and that blood which is in remembrance of all
that blood was shed, that we might proclaim as one the Lord's
death until he come. Come Lord Jesus, come Lord Jesus,
reign and rule in our hearts and lives for your glory. For
we pray in your precious name. Amen.