In Matthew 27, verse 32, it says,
and as they came out, that is as they were coming out from
Pilate's hall, taking Christ, he was carrying his cross, they
led him away to crucify him, that's what verse 31 says. And
as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. and Him they compelled to bear
His cross." Now, you've probably seen scenes of this in movies
and all that. We don't know exactly what was
going on. We know that Christ was suffering
so terribly in all of this. And as they came out, they were
going to lead Him to Golgotha to be crucified. They found this
man. It's very likely this man was
a follower of Christ, a disciple. That might be why they laid hold
on him. That's really what it means.
They compelled him to bear the cross for Christ. We've got in the scripture that
this man, Simon, he was the father of Alexander and Rufus, who were,
as I put in your lesson, men of note among the first Christians.
And you can read about that in Mark 15, 21, and I think some
reference to it in Romans 16, 13. So I feel pretty confident
that this Simon of Cyrene was a sinner saved by grace, a believer. And why did the soldiers do this? you know, wasn't out of compassion
because... Several commentators say they
thought they might be robbed of the sentence. He was sentenced
to be crucified. They didn't want him to die before
that, so they compelled this man to bear the cross for him.
But as I put in your lesson, in this, our God was ruling and
overruling to teach us spiritual lessons. And I thought about
this, like Simon did physically, all who will follow Christ by
God-given faith, the Bible says we have to take up our cross
and follow him. You can read about that in Luke
14, I've got a reference there. And I thought about Hebrews 13,
I referenced that last week, where it says that they took
Christ outside the gate, outside the camp, because they didn't,
these religious, high-minded, self-righteous, proud Pharisees
and Sadducees, the elders and all of that, they felt like,
they thought him to be unworthy to be crucified in their holy
city. So they took him outside and
to a place of cursedness, which I'll talk about here in just
a minute. But when we believe in Christ, when we're brought
to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works, we literally and
metaphorically and literally follow him outside the camp of
false religion. We separate ourselves from all
that is not true concerning who God is, who Christ is, who we
are, how God saves sinners. Our gospel separates us and we
live by that gospel. I was thinking about that for
next week when I preach for Brother Wormack and the congregation
there. You've got three themes for each message. I'll preach
three times. The gospel defined and then the gospel preached,
the necessary preaching the gospel, and then living by the gospel.
And that's what we do when God brings us to a saving knowledge
of Christ and brings us into submission to his way of salvation
based on the righteousness of Christ. You remember Paul wrote
about that in Romans 10. He talked about the Jews who
followed after righteousness, they were seeking to be righteous
before God, but they didn't achieve that because they sought it not
by faith, but as it were, by works of the law. And I always
make sure people understand this, to seek righteousness by faith
does not mean that God takes our believing, our faith, in
the place of righteousness. There's nothing that can substitute
for righteousness, and righteousness is the perfection of the law
and justice of God that can only be found in Christ. So to seek
righteousness by faith is to seek it and find it and rest
in it in Christ. That's what that means. The justified
shall live by faith. What does that mean? That means
we live looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
I think a lot of people have the idea that it's the power
of their faith, their believing, that saves them and keeps them
saved, but it's not. It's the power of God in Christ. And that's where our faith is.
Does that make sense to you? Our faith is not in our faith.
I've heard people say that, you know. You get to the point, you
say, well, do I believe enough? Well, if you believe in Christ,
that's enough, because he's enough. But now we have our moments of
doubt, fear, and I can imagine going through the trials and
the sicknesses of this life, the
opposition we have from the world. And sometimes it'll bring us,
we get to feeling sorry for ourselves and we think, Lord, are you really
there? Why am I going through this?
And you know, over in Hebrews 12, when it talks about the chastisements
that the Lord gives to his children, understand that chastisement
is not punishment for sin. Chastisement is God teaching
us and part of his preserving us. And I love that passage where
it says that no chastisement, when we're going through it,
it doesn't feel good, And I always feel like I don't really measure
up in all my thoughts and how I act, but it's afterward, he
says, we come to that, God brings us to that peaceable fruit of
righteousness. In other words, on the other
side of that trial, we come out looking to Christ and resting
in Christ and believing in Christ even more. Thank you, Lord, for
saving my soul. So that's what I'm talking about. So we go outside the camp, as
Hebrews 13, 13 says, bearing his reproach. Remember he told
his disciples in John 15, marvel not if the world hates you. It
hated me before it hated you. You're his disciple. So we took
up our cross, denying ourselves, following him. We have to be
compelled by grace to do that because it's so contrary to our
flesh. It's only by the grace of God. Well, look at verses
33 and 34. When they were come unto a place called Golgotha,
that is to say a place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink,
mingled with gall, and when he had tasted thereof, he would
not drink. Now, Golgotha's the name of the
place. It's just another name for Calvary.
This is Mount Calvary. Here is the crux of redemptive
history. right here, in time. What God
purposed before time, in his sovereign will and good pleasure,
as he chose his people, gave them to Christ, Christ agreed
to be our surety, our substitute, and I think those are words that
we need to list and make sure we understand. Christ is the
representative of a people, a specific people. He calls them his sheep,
he calls them his church, they're the elect of God. As our representative,
he is our surety, which means the debt of our sins were charged
to him, imputed to him. He is our substitute. In order
to pay that debt, this is what's happening here. He had to become
man, God manifest in the flesh. God cannot die, but this man
who is God did die, and that's why he took on a sinless humanity. He was the sinless God-man. Impeccable. Could not sin. No possibility of him sinning.
Because the law had to be kept. Perfectly. So he's our substitute. He took my place under the law. Galatians 4 talks about that. Galatians 4, in the fullness
of the time, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, that's
his humanity. God sent forth his son, that's
his deity. his eternality, his immutability,
made of a woman, that's his sinless humanity, and he says made under
the law. He was responsible to the law
of God. And think about that, isn't that
something? He's the embodiment of the law of God. He wrote the
law on tablets of stone with his finger, but not just the
Ten Commandments, it's the whole law of God. He was made under
it to redeem them that were under the law. So he's our surety,
he's our substitute, that's what he's doing, going to the cross
for his people, and he's our redeemer. That's the third word,
redeemer. What does that mean? He paid
the price. Justice was satisfied. And that's
the insurance, the security of the salvation of all for whom
he died and was buried and arose again the third day. He's our
redeemer. And then he's our intercessor.
He ascended unto glory. After his resurrection, he ascended
unto glory and sat down at the right hand of God ever living
to make intercession for his people. He stands between the
Father and his people so that we are eternally, securely accepted
of God in Christ. We stand before God not in merits
or works of our own. But we stand before God in Christ,
washed in His blood. We're going to sing that song,
you know, the power in the blood. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood. And that blood is His righteousness.
They're the same thing. We often say the blood and righteousness
of Christ, but they're really the same thing. Because his blood
is his death, his obedience unto death equals the perfect righteousness
that's imputed, charged, accounted to us. And if that has been accounted
to you or me, at some point in time, as our intercessor, he
sends forth his spirit to bring us from spiritual death to spiritual
life in the new birth. So he's our intercessor. And
then he's our preserver. He's our preserve. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. And
what have I committed unto him? My whole salvation is committed
to Christ. Not committed to me. Now I am
committed. Some of you may think you need
to be committed. But I'm committed to him. Because I have no other
place to go, no other one to go. I'm committed to you as a
pastor to preach to you the truth, but my salvation is not in your
hands. Your salvation is not in my hands.
It's in Christ. And that's comfortable and that's
peaceful right there. So here we are at Golgotha. This
Golgotha, it's called a place of a skull because this was a
place of slaughter. People who were stoned to death
or crucified, it's said they were simply covered over with
a little dirt out there. So in a matter of time, skulls
and bones were everywhere. So they called it a place of
the skull. And it was considered a place for those who were cursed
to die. And of course we see in Galatians
3.13 how that God's grace and our salvation as Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for
us. It's written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. And that's what happened. Christ
was actually cursed by the Father for his people to remove the
curse of the law. And what is that curse? It's
death. It's hell. It's all the consequences and
punishments that sin can bring. Well, Christ was himself made
a curse for us, not because he was a sinner now. Not because
he was made to be a sinner, not because he was sinful in himself,
but because he bore our sins in his body on the tree. So in
a human body, God manifest in that body, he bore our sins to
the cross. And that's the crux of redemptive
history, right there. Everything in God's purpose and
plan before then looked forward to Christ crucified and risen
from the dead. And everything since then looks
back upon Christ crucified and risen from the dead. He is our
message. Paul said, I strive not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Well it says here they gave him
vinegar to drink mingled with gall. And I read several commentators
on this. It said this vinegar was flat
wine that had gone sour and bitter mixed with gall. They generally thought that that
was a mixture that would prolong a person's life. And it says
when he tasted thereof he would not drink it. Christ refused
to drink this wine mingled with gall because this is what many
commentators say. He was determined to suffer the
full wrath of God for us without any distraction or any intoxication. He suffered unto death and nothing
was gonna relieve that suffering. Y'all been in pain, haven't you? Well, give me that pill. Give
me something to cause this pain to go. Well, he wasn't gonna
do that. So he refused to drink of it because it would make all,
if it would prolong his life, it wasn't gonna happen. He was
willing to die and his hour, the fullness of the time, as
Paul wrote in Galatians 3, for it had come. And also this drink
given by the soldiers was prophesied. In Psalm 69, 21, I've got that
in your lesson, it says, this is Christ speaking, David speaking
as a type of Christ, prophesying of the future. Psalm 69, 21 says,
they gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave
me vinegar to drink. So all these little details worked
out, ordained by God. And they didn't give him this
for compassion or anything, they're just doing exactly what God ordained
for them to do. You read about that in Acts 4
and Acts 13. So, as one writer said, the Lord
God makes even his son's murderers to be his witnesses because they're
fulfilling the scripture. Now they didn't know it, and
they wouldn't believe it. But I put a line in here by Dr.
John Gill, the old Baptist minister, In England, it says, this potion
of vinegar with gall was an aggravating circumstance in our Lord's suffering,
being given him when he had a violent thirst upon him. You remember
he said, I thirst, when he was on the cross. And was an emblem
of the bitter cup of God's wrath he had already tasted of in the
garden, and was about to drink up. Drink to the dregs. Shall
I not drink it? You remember this cup. Well look
at verses 35 and 36. It says, and they crucified him.
That's where I got the title from. They crucified him. And always think when you see
stuff, words like that, it pleased the father to bruise him, to
crush him. So again, they're unwittingly
doing the will of God because this was for the salvation of
his people. Now they did it out of the sinfulness and hatred
of their heart. but God meant it for good to
save much people alive. Go back to old Joseph's words
in Genesis 50. Well it says, they parted his
garments, casting lots. That it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by the prophet, they parted my garments among them
and upon my vesture they did cast lots. And so, quoting from
the scriptures, Psalm 22, you know that's the psalm of the
cross. Remember how it starts out, that psalm in Psalm 22,
one, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? One down there
in verse 18, it says, they parted my garments among them and cast
lots upon my vesture. So again, we're reminded that
this was prophesied. God's in total control here. Here it is, He crucified Him. What God, the Father, and the
Son, and the Spirit, and the everlasting covenant of grace
made before time and earth began, here it is. His obedience unto
death, even the death of the cross, and that's the establishment
of the very righteousness that you and I, if we're believers,
if we're sinners saved by grace, stand before God and plead. Remember
what Paul said in Philippians 3, that I may know him and the
power of his resurrection, that I may be found in him, not having
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is
through the faith or the faithfulness of Christ, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith. It's imputed to us, and then
by the power of the Spirit, we receive it in our own minds and
hearts by God-given faith. So here it all is in verse 36. I've got that twice there, but
it says, and sitting down they watched him there. I've got a reference in my Bible,
I didn't put this in your lesson, to a verse over in Lamentations
chapter one. And Lamentations is right after
the book of Jeremiah. I'll just go over and read that
verse to you. Lamentations chapter one. I heard
a message on this so many years ago that was a great message. And it has to do with, when we
see these things in scripture, what is it really that we do
see? This is Lamentations 1 and verse 12. And it goes something
like this, it says, is it nothing to you, all 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. And they applied that verse to
Christ on the cross. And here in verse 36 of our lesson,
sitting down they watched him there. What did they see? What
did these soldiers see? What did the Pharisees? Well,
they saw what they thought was a blasphemer. Now we're going
to talk about this when I get back, not next week, but the
week after. Lord willing, we'll talk about
it. He was crucified between two
thieves, and they called him a malefactor. That was a criminal.
If you're a malefactor, you're a criminal. Well, that's what
they saw. They saw a man cursed of God
because they thought he was a blasphemer. That's what the Pharisees saw.
They thought he was One who denied the true and living God. The
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's what they saw. And Isaiah,
I put here, nowhere in scripture do the words of Isaiah ring more
true. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were,
our faces from him. Didn't even want to look at him.
He was despised and we esteemed him not. That's what they saw. That's what we all see by nature.
And understand that now, as I talk about them and their unbelief,
we don't have anything to boast in. Because if we see anything
else, and that's what I wanna talk about now, what do we who
know the truth see? Well, if we see the following,
it's only by the grace of God. Isn't it right? When I talk about
the thieves on the cross, you know how they both started out
reviling him, and then all of a sudden one thief changes. And
I often tell people, I say, what made the difference there? Why
did that one thief on the right stop cursing and reviling Christ
and start pleading and begging him for mercy? Was it because
he was a better thief than the other thief? The answer's no. It's the grace of God that made
the difference. And so what we see when we look
to Christ on the cross, we see our whole salvation and all blessings
and benefits of God's grace settled and accomplished by our Lord. We see the glory of God. Do you
realize that Christ going through that death, In all of that, every
attribute of God is revealed, working consistently together
to do what? To save us from our sins. He
is the glory of God. If you ever find a book, I think
Arthur Pink wrote a book called The Attributes of God, and you
see all those attributes. Nowhere on earth do you ever
see all the attributes of God working together as you do here
on the cross. And that's all, somebody said,
well, it was in the Holy of Holies, it was there in type and picture,
yes. And it's summarized in God being both a just God and a savior. How can a sinner be justified
before God? Well, right here's the answer.
And that's what we see, it's the blood of the crucified Lord. satisfying justice for our sins,
paying our debt, working out perfect righteousness. This is
the ground upon which God is just to justify the ungodly. And there's the answer to the
eternal question. How can a sinful man be justified
before a holy God? And here we see righteousness
in which we stand before God and find acceptance as completed
by Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. Well, one more
verse, verse 37. And they set up over his head
his accusation, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. They viewed
his claim as being king, the Messiah, actually, the true king,
as a crime. And they put it over, that's
what they did, they put the crime they were accused of over there.
and it's what contained the sum and substance of what he was
accused of being and the Pharisees, they thought that was false.
In fact, in another passage, they pled with Pilate to take
that down because they thought it was a mockery and Pilate said
let it stand and so that you see a testimony of God Almighty
there that what they accused him of because they thought he
was a liar and a blasphemer, that's what he truly is. He's
the king of kings and the lord of lords. He's our savior, he's
our king, he rules and reigns to dispose over all things for
the glory of his father and the salvation of his people. Okay.