All so very good hymns, all of
them. The subject is Christ Crucified. You know, I thought to the world
these are slow, dragging, morose, sad, melancholy hymns and they'd
rather have some joy and excitement. The story of Christ crucified.
You know, you can't sing those hymns really with a smile on
your face, though you can rejoice in your heart if you know who
Christ is and why He came. Feel like He did it for you.
You can rejoice, yet you're still full of sorrow, aren't you? Grave
and solemn. I can't preach this message with
a smile on my face, what our Lord went through. Beware of
smiling preachers. Beware of them. The story of
Christ crucified is the sum and substance of this whole book. The whole Old Testament, every
single type and symbol and ceremony and law and every single thing
in the Old Testament is written concerning Christ's crucifixion. All four Gospels lead up to this
hour that we're finally hearing when Christ was crucified. All
four Gospels. It's the cause for which Scripture
was written and Christ said it's the cause for which he came to
this earth to be crucified. Then the epistles recounted all. The epistles apply it all. And
the Revelation goes over it again. And everyone in glory in the
Revelation. Everyone is singing of Him who
loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. Turn to the lamb that's been
slain. Everyone in heaven is right now Singing, not those
songs, but the similar. Song of the Lamb, Song of Moses,
Song of Redemption, the blood, the Lamb's blood. But they're
doing it with joy and rejoicing and great happiness. So it's paradox, really. Paul
said this, Paul, the greatest of the apostles, he said, I determined
not to know anything among you, not to be taken up with, not
to preach, not to write about, not to study anything, anything
on earth among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Consider that. Again, in another place, he said,
God forbid, that I should glory in anything save in the cross
of my Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he said. Now brethren, when he talks about
the cross, he's not talking about that piece of wood that Christ
hung on, that rotted and was gone forever and is not to be
resurrected in worship. And these idols that people wear
around their neck, it's blasphemy, it's idolatry. Anyone who knows
anything about the offense of the cross, anyone who really
knows anything about what Jesus Christ did on that cross would
in no way wear one around their neck. They certainly wouldn't
make jewelry out of it and an adornment out of it and decor. Franklin Heights over there has
a designer cross on their sign like a business logo. green and
blue in a nice pretty shape. You can't possibly know what
Jesus Christ did on that cross and do that. Not possible. The offense of
the cross, what went on there? Why Christ hung on the cross?
You wear it as decor? He's the only one. He carried
his own cross. It's a great honor to him. But the offense of the cross
is, everything is seen at the cross, the holiness of God, the
justice of God, the righteousness of God, the wrath of God, is
seen at the cross. The love of God, the mercy of
God, the grace of God, where is it all seen? In one person
hanging there. This thing was between God the
Father and God the Son. And the lives of everyone God
purposed to save was hanging, hanging in the balance on the
shoulders of that nail at a sure place. Christ. It's all up to Him. All
up to Him. And what He went through. on
the cross. I can't preach this as it should,
and you can't hear it as we ought to hear it. I can't. I've never preached this as it
should be preached. No man has. No man can. Who is
sufficient to do that? I have never heard a man preach
the gospel with the praise and thanksgiving and the appreciation
that I should have. Don't you all feel guilty? Don't
you feel guilty that you're not more touched by what Christ did
on Calvary Street? That you could possibly be sidetracked
by anything but what he's done. That you could possibly glory
in anything you've ever done or anything anybody else has
done. It fills you full of shame, doesn't
it? The more I look at this, the
more I study this, the more unfit I feel to declare this. And the more guilt, as I said,
the more guilt I feel for not being filled with fear, sorrow,
horror, joy, and wonder and praise. We ought to sing these hymns.
If this really entered into our hearts, we'd sing these hymns
from the top of our lungs, wouldn't we? O sacred head wounded, when
I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count with love, and poor contempt on all
my pride, and every single all-human pride. Contempt. I come far short of preaching
this cross of Christ as I should, singing these hymns, hearing
it. Let's just look at it. Okay? Let's just look at it. John 18, look at this verse,
verse 38. John 18, 38. Remember, Pilate
stood before him and said, What is truth? He's not interested
in the truth. The truth was standing in front
of him. And when he said this, he went out again. That's the
way men approach the gospel, isn't it? They do. And the gospel is preached and
they reject it and they leave. And then he said unto the Jews,
I find in him no fault at all. He went out there and spoke to
the Jews and said, I find no fault in him at all. Then why
are you judging him? Why don't you believe him? Why
aren't you on your knees right now, worshiping him, hanging
on his word? Why? That's a good question to
ask mankind, isn't it? There's no fault in him. You
can't find any fault and no blame. He's never done anything but
good. God's been nothing but merciful and gracious and kind
to every single human being. Why aren't you on your knees
bowing before Him? Like Pharaoh, his heart's
hurting. God hasn't broken His heart. If you hit your knees,
if you confess with your mouth and with your heart, you believe
on this crucified Christ, thank God. Thank God to high heaven. from the bottom of your heart
to the highest heaven. Thank you. Thank you. No problem. He said, You have
a custom I should release unto you one at the Passover. Will
ye therefore I release unto you the King, the King of the Jews? And they all cried. Every one
of them. Every one of them cried. Not
this man. This man. Barabbas. Give us Barabbas. All four Gospels said cry out,
give us Barabbas. Who was Barabbas? It says he
was a robber, a thief, a murderer. He committed insurrection against
the government. He had an uprising against the
government. He was a rebel, a thief, a robber,
and a murderer. He committed murder. Maybe some
Roman soldier. And it's uprising. All mankind
are thieves and robbers and murderers. You know that? Say, I've never
committed murder. Yes, you have. When all those
years you ignored Jesus Christ, didn't care if he lived or died,
you were one of those at the cross saying, crucify. And you
rejected God and never gave God a thought and fed you and clothed
you and did all these, kept you and saved you on very numerous
occasions and you didn't thank God for it? You're saying God
doesn't exist and I don't care. And when God came to this earth,
man, what he did? They killed him. But man is a
thief and a robber and man steals. To be a thief is you steal, you
take from someone something that doesn't belong to you. And man
in all his pride, he steals God's glory. What do we have we have
not received? Everything we have was borrowed.
Everything we have, God gave us. And to take pride in anything
we know or are or do is to steal God's glory. To not give God
all the glory and the honor for everything is to steal from Him. Rob Him. And our Lord said, the
worst ones were these false prophets and all that. All that came before
me, He said in John 10, are thieves and robbers. Come in the name
of God, pretending to do what they do in the name of God. Oh,
how we love Jesus. But it's money that they love.
It's their fame and their glory and their honor that they love,
Christ said. Why did sepulchers, He said?
Because they're all a bunch of thieves and robbers. Stealing
what doesn't belong to them. And that's for rabbits. And I
think about man today. Man esteems highly all these
celebrities and all these sports stars and all these politicians.
They're all a bunch of corrupt individuals. Sunday, this is
the Lord's Day. How many of these athletes and
these people are worshiping God right now? Zero! And they wouldn't give you the
time of day if you came up to them. Thieves and robbers, stealing
what didn't belong to them. And then the holy, spotless Son
of the Most High God, with no fault, holy, pure, harmless,
separate from sinners, went about doing everything He said was
true. Not one lie came out of His mouth.
Not one. Everything, you could believe
Him. You could trust Him. He was totally,
100% trustworthy. A friend that's sticking closer
than a brother. Judas sold him for money, came and
kissed him on the cheek. Master. Mankind is a thief and a robber. And that's who men choose over... In one of the other Gospels it
says that Pilate delivered them to their will. Will you have Jesus or will you
have Barabbas? Barabbas. That's the will of
man. He's corrupt, he's depraved.
He's a thief and a robber. Then in chapter 19, it says Pilate
took Jesus and scourged him. Most people didn't live through
a Roman soldier scourging. It was 39, 40 stripes saved one. They were real merciful. They
didn't want to do too many, so they counted. And he had 39 to
keep from one over 40. But they took whips. And me graphically
describing this, it won't do a thing to heart. It won't. But this is the fact.
They would take a whip. Cat of nine tails, and they'd
tie pieces of bone or glass on the end of those leather thongs.
And they took great pleasure, those Roman soldiers loved inflicting
torture and pain on human beings. And they would just laugh and
just rip a man's back to shreds. And Pilate says, I find no fault
in him. Whip him. We read in Isaiah 53. We read in Isaiah 53 that says
chastisement. Pilate said, I'll chastise him.
For what? Chastisement is punishment, correction
in it, for wrongdoing. You already said he did no fault,
and here you're going to chastise him. But who had him do this? Who was it that had Pilate do
this and let these Roman soldiers do it? You know, our Lord said,
no man takes my life from me. Long before this. In fact, every
single thing that's happening right here, it's as if somebody's
standing over the side reading the Bible saying, we're supposed
to do this next. Someone is. The one who's being
whipped is controlling the whole scene. The one in bonds and chains
is actually the judge of the one standing judging him. It
pleased God to bruise him, Isaiah 53 says. This was the Lord God
said, whip him. The Lord God said, all these
people that give me no thought deserve to be punished, deserve
to be whipped within an inch of their life. But God, sent
his son down here and said, no, I'm going to have my son take
the place of some, not all, but some of these guilty sons. That's what we need to... I'm
not even entering into it as I want to or need to. This is
what we need to see, that Christ is a substitute for his people
here. Men aren't doing this to him. They're doing as they will, but
they're doing what God determined before to be done. They're doing
what God said to do to God's Son in our place. The place of God's people. Pilate
said, scourge him. I find no fault in it, but scourge
him. But then why is he scourged? The chastisement of our beast. With his stripes, we're healed. God laid on him my iniquity. I can't fathom Brother Stephen. I love this man. Everybody loves
Brother Stephen. We love this man. Can you fathom it? If you've done something wrong
or some hardened criminal, them taking him out and beating him
and punching him and kicking him and spitting in his face
and all that. And he didn't do it. He didn't
do it. But he stands there silent and
takes it. Willingly. Passively. He was a pretty big man. He could
put up a fight, couldn't he? Our Lord said, I could send twelve
legions of angels. And I always think of the angel,
I always think of this, the angels watching this scene not knowing,
they don't know, they don't know why he's doing this. Watching
this scene of them whip the Lord of glory and thinking, why isn't
he calling us? Why? Because he is us. He's us. He didn't open his mouth. Why? Because what the law said,
it said to them under the law that every mouth may be stopped.
If we stand before the judgment seat of God someday and God says,
give an account of yourself, we'll have to put our mouth down.
I have nothing to say. I'm guilty on all charges. And
so Christ, in our stead, the stead of God's people, mind you,
not every human being. If Christ died for every human
being, every human being would be saved. Why? Because it's the
blood of Jesus Christ that puts them in sin. If God loves every
single person, then their love forever, because His love never
fails. Any other gospel that says any difference is a false
gospel. It's blasphemy to say that God
loves everybody. That makes the love of God nothing.
It makes the will of man everything. Those that say Christ died, that
woman on the program right before me, Jesus loves you and Jesus
died for you. Well, if He died for you, you're
saved. Because the blood of Christ is the power of God, the salvation
of God's people, it's the glory of God. But to say that Jesus
died for everybody is to cast the blood of Jesus Christ underfoot
for everybody to trample on it. It's a worthless thing. And to
say it's my decision that makes it. There's nothing more blasphemous. Is there? There's nothing more
blasphemous. And it angers me to think about
it. Our Lord is enduring the wrath and hell of God on this
cross for His people. Nothing less than what Jesus
Christ suffered on this cross will save one single thing. Nothing
more, nothing less than what Jesus Christ did by Himself on
Calvary's tree. The soldiers plaited a crown
of thorns, verse 2. They enjoyed inflicting pain
and torture, so they plaited a crown of thorns. I'm sure they
wore leather gloves to keep from piercing their own hands. And
they plaited this crown of thorns, and they didn't just place it
on his head, they stuck it on his head. Have you ever had a
splinter? Have you ever had a thorn? Every
single person in here has. It's painful, isn't it? The tiniest,
smallest splinter can give you great grief, can't it? They planted
a full crown of thorns and shoved it on his head. And he wore that
for the next six hours. Why? Why? God said, take those thorns
and put it on his head. Why, John Davis? Why? I can smile now because this
is the most glorious. We just sang that love so amazing,
House of Gold. It says, no richer crown was
worn than that crown of thorn, nor can thorns compose so rich
a crown. The greatest crown ever worn
by any king was the crown of thorns that Jesus Christ wore.
Why did he wear those thorns? Because when man in the garden
sinned against God, ungrateful, unthankful, had it all, it wasn't
enough. They wanted to be like God. And
shook their fist in the face of God and said, we'll be God. God said after that, thorns. Because of your sin, I'm going
to send thorns and thistles. Cursed is the ground for your
sin. Everything you touch and everything you do is going to
bring you pain and suffering. Why? Sin. So Christ, the second
Adam came. The second Adam came. It says
He bore our griefs. He carried our sorrows. The chastisement
of our peace was laid on Him. And God crowned Him the second
Adam with all the thorns, all the troubles and trials and griefs
and sorrows and the guilt and the sin of all of God's people
was placed on His blessed head. Here were this in honor, in glory. No crown composed was so rich
as that crown of thorns. His glory, His honor. They meant
it in shame. God said, this is His glory.
And by that crown and by His death, He took away all thorns. Someday, no thorns. There's not
going to be any more pain or suffering or sorrow because of
Christ's pain and suffering and sorrow. That's the only reason. Then they put a purple robe on
Him. Verse 2. Purple robe. Why? And he wore
this robe up until they stripped him completely naked and hung
him on the cross. Somebody got that purple robe. One of the
soldiers, Cass Watts, a Scripture citizen. Oh my, I wrote down
so many Scriptures. It says he was hated and despised. Isaiah 53, sold for 30 pieces
of silver. Zechariah 11, betrayed by a friend. Psalm 41, false witnesses against
him. Psalm 119, and on and on it goes.
Psalm 22, they did everything they did to him.
Drank vinegar. But this robe, somebody found
a purple robe and they put it on him and began to say, Hail,
King of the Jews. And they smote him with their
hand. This purple robe in the Old Testament, and we'll eventually,
God willing, look at it. From Exodus all the way through
the end, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, every single curtain
of the tabernacle had purple in it. Every single cloth and
curtain surrounding, covering, every door, every curtain Every
adornment had blue, purple, and scarlet. Every single one. The veil, the thing that separated
God and man, the veil was woven from top to bottom with cherubim,
with angels, in blue, in purple, and in gold. What's that? What is this purple?
Royalty. Kings wear purple. Royalty. That veil. Christ tore the veil
of the temple when he died. We're going to see that. The
veil of the temple was ripped from top to bottom. God's the
one that ripped it. And by making a way into the
Holy of Holies. How? By Christ himself. He is the way. He's the one. So they put this
purple robe on him. And they smote him with their
hands. Verse 3, smote him with their hands. Who smote him? Who smote him? Verse 4, it says,
Pilate went forth again and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him
forth to you. Who brought him forth? Who sent
him forth? Turn with me to Lamentations.
Lamentations chapter 1. Who did this? Man? Pilot? No. God did that. Jeremiah, right
after Jeremiah, the book of Lamentations. Look at chapter 1. Oh, my. Oh, how we need to behold Him. Jeremiah 1, verse 12. He said, Is it nothing to you,
O ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger." Go
to chapter 3, Lamentations 3, verse 1. I am the man. I am the man, Christ says, that
hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath, God's wrath. He
hath led me, brought me into darkness. Not in the light. Surely against me is he turned. He turneth his hand against me
all the day. Verse 7. He hath hedged me about,
I cannot get out. He hath made my chains heavy.
Who put him in bond? God did. Look at verse 12. He bent his bow and set me as
a mark for the arrow, his justice. He hath caused the arrow, his
quiver to enter into my range. I was a derision to all my people,
their song all the day, but it was God who filled me with bitterness,
made me drunken with wormwood." It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Why? Because it pleased the Lord to
make us His people. Now go back to our text again. So all this was done in accordance
with God's Word. for the glory of Christ and done
by the hand of God. My, my, my, my, my. Look at verse
6. No, verse 5. John 19, verse 5. Then came Jesus forth, wearing
the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said unto everybody, Behold the man. Pilate had seen many men stand
before him and endure suffering and torture. He had never seen
a man endure what he did, never utter a word, never cry out for
mercy, never cry a tear, endure it all. Resolutely, steadfastly,
firmly, with such strength, as if he deserved it. He said,
Behold the man. He never beheld a man like that.
And oh that we would behold the man. This is the man. He said that in lamentation.
I'm the man. I'm the man. That God did this
to for the sake of his people. And when the chief priests Therefore,
when the officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him!
Crucify him! Pilate said, And if you take
him, take ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him.
The Jews answered, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die,
because he made himself the Son of God. Man's judgment is way
backward in them. His understanding is darkened
in them. This is the only man who ever lived who was innocent
according to the law of God. This is the only man who ever
lived who kept the law of God perfectly. And they said, we
have a law. No, you got it wrong. It's not
your law, it's God's law. And he's totally innocent of
it, and you're all guilty. I love the story of that woman
taken in the act of adultery, don't you? One of my favorite
stories in Scripture. She was taken and caught in the
act. Everybody knew she was guilty
and they brought her, all these lawyers, all these Pharisees,
brought this woman and cast her at the feet of Jesus Christ.
The only one, the only one that could forgive her. The only one
that could justify her, exonerate her. Only one. And they brought
her in thinking he's going to condemn her. And they brought
her in and said, the law says She's to be stoned. That's what
the law said. That's what the law said. And
the one whom they brought her to wrote it. He wrote it. All right? And they
said, the law says she's to be stoned. What do you say? He said,
not guilty. But you are. Every one of you. He didn't say that, but he started
writing on the ground. And by the time he was finished,
every single accuser of that woman was guilty as charged and
left that room trembling, guilty as charged. And one person in
that room with the Lord Jesus Christ, he raised her up and
said, where are your accusers? Where are your accusers? She
looked up. I can't find them. He said, neither
do I. The judge said, not guilty. We have a law, and the law saith
he should die. He made himself to be the son
of God. No, no he didn't. He's always been the son of God.
He was the son of God before he came. He's the son of God
now, then, and he's the son of God now. You're the one that's
broken in love. You're just a son of Adam. You're
just a sinner. And you make yourselves to be
what you're not. And the law says to you, die. Do you understand
that? We do, don't we, Sister Sally?
Oh, we do. Why? Because God chose us to
show us. First thing He does to a sinner
is show them how guilty they are before the law of God. And
then He points their eyes. It's a schoolmaster. Like that
woman. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. She knew it. Everybody knew it.
But Christ stooped down where she was and lifted her up and
spoke peace to her heart. He said, I forgive you. I justify
you. See, he's going to the cross.
This was before he went to the cross. He's going to the cross
to be paid for. every one of her sins to pay
for her adultery, He's going to bear her guilt in His body
on the tree. And when He does that, if He
bears your guilt, it's gone. You understand? If Christ bore
your sins and nailed the ordinances against you to the cross, they're
gone. And when we stand before God
someday, there's nothing there to condemn us. No accusers. Nothing on our record. Brother
Stephen, a clean slate. He did. He did it all. He did
it all. Well, this is all about Christ
crucified. All of that. And it's all to
the praise of the glory of His grace. That's why Paul said,
God forbid that I should preach, that I should talk about, that
I should think about, that I should glory in anything or anyone save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Have we seen just a glimpse,
just a little bit of what He meant by that? I hope so. Okay,
Brother John, you come.