Good morning. If you care, open
your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 27, where we'll be studying
this morning. Matthew chapter 27. Before we
begin, let's bow before the Lord together in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you
this morning, a thankful people. How thankful we are that out
of your goodness to your people, you've given us this another
opportunity to meet together with our brothers and sisters
and to worship you, to praise and magnify the name of our Lord
and Savior. Father, I pray you'd send your
spirit upon us this morning, enable us to worship. Father,
I beg of you that you give me a special portion of your spirit
to be able to rightly divide the word of truth and to speak
comfortably to the hearts of your people, to be able to to
preach Christ, point sinners to Christ with a heart of love
and faith for Christ and caring for people, that we might be
able to see the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. Father, give your people
a special portion of your Spirit. We might be able to hear, enter
in by faith to the things of our Lord Jesus Christ that we
hear, to believe Him more, to love Him more, to trust Him more,
Father, what a blessing that you've given us to have a place
of public worship where we can meet together and worship. And
Father, I pray you'd protect it for many years to come, if
it could be possible until you return, that this would be a
place where sinners can come and hear the Savior, where your
sheep can come and be fed in the green pastures of your Word.
Father, we thank you for the children that you've given to
us, and I pray you'd bless them especially in this hour, that
you'd bless our teachers with a word, a lesson for our children
and father that you'd take this time to plant the seeds of faith
in their hearts, that you might cause it to grow to faith in
our Lord Jesus Christ in thy time. Father, for those who are
sick and afflicted, we pray for them. We pray your hand of healing.
We pray your hand of direction and especially father, your presence
of comfort, that you comfort their hearts, that you give them
a fulfillment of your promise, that your grace is sufficient,
that you give them grace sufficient for the hour. Father, we pray
for our country and our world at this time in such a dark,
dark day in which we live. Father, I pray that you would
show us your glory through the preaching of Christ, your glory
and the redemption of your people, No matter how dark the day, you're
still in the business of saving your people, calling out your
people. Father, give us a revival in
the land, a refreshing of the gospel, going forth in power
for your glory and to bless the hearts of your people, we pray.
All these things we ask in that name which is above every name,
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. All right, I've titled
our lesson this morning, What We See at the Cross. I took my
title from Matthew 27 verse 36 and sitting down, they watched
him there. Now I have a pretty good idea
what those self-righteous, spiritually dead religious people saw at
the cross. I got a pretty good idea. But
my question to you and me this morning is we sit and we look
at him there. We look at Christ on the cross
by faith. What is it that we see? What
is it that we see? Now, if the Lord will enable
us to see it, the whole of the gospel is on display at the cross. Every attribute of God and every
attribute of the character of man is seen more clearly at the
cross than anywhere else. At the cross, the whole purpose
of God concerning the salvation of his people is on display. At Calvary, this is what we see
happen. The eternal counsel of God is being carried out. Now,
we don't have time to cover all the eternal counsel and purpose
of God in one sitting. We don't have time to do that
in a lifetime, do we? But I want to give you four things from
our text that I see by faith this morning as we look at the
cross. And the first thing I see is this. I see the nature of
man. Now the whole sinful nature of
man is summed up best with this statement. It's our hatred of
God. Yes, man is sinful. Yes, man
does things that are wrong. Yes, man cannot do anything to
please God. Those things are all true about
our sinful nature. But this most clearly defines
the nature of man. Man by nature hates God Almighty. Now, I grant you we don't hate
the God of our imagination. You know, if we made up a God,
we made him up in such a way that we love him, didn't we?
Otherwise, we wouldn't have made him up. But man by nature hates
God as he is. Hates God as he's been pleased
to reveal himself in the scriptures. And you don't see that anywhere
more clearly than you see it at Calvary. See, this has been
man's problem from the moment Adam fell. We don't want God
ruling over us. That was Adam's problem, and
it's our problem to this day. But God does rule over us. He
does. And man hates him for it. We
don't want somebody to rule over us. We don't want to bow. We
don't want to have to bow and worship to God. We don't want
to have to be dependent upon God. Just like our father Adam,
the desire of our nature is to get rid of God. Be our own God,
make up our own rules. And you see man's hatred of God
more clearly at Calvary than you see it anywhere else. Look
at verse 27. Then the soldiers of the governor
took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole
band of soldiers. Now the whole band of soldiers,
I don't know how many soldiers that was, but the whole band
of them gathered together like they needed that whole band of
soldiers to guard one man. You know why they all got together?
Because every last one of them wanted in on this one. There
were other crucifixions, eh, maybe they went there, maybe
they didn't. They all went to this one because they all wanted
in on it. Because of man's hatred of God. Look at verse 28. And they stripped
him and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had plaited
a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his
right hand. And they bowed the knee before
him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And they spit
upon him. And they took the reed and smote
him on the head. And after that, they mocked him.
They took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him
and led him away to crucify him. Now, this whole band of soldiers,
they stripped the Lord naked. They did it to make him ashamed.
Now, they had no idea what they were doing. They had no idea
that they're giving us a spiritual picture. This is the sinner's
substitute, being stripped of his righteousness, being stripped
naked and put in a position of shame before his father so that
he could make his people righteous. They weren't interested in that.
They had no idea why they were doing it. They just did it to
shame the Lord. And the reason that they shamed
him the most was as king. This is the way that they mocked
him as king. They mocked him as king because
that's the reason man hates God the most, as king. They mocked
him, they put this this scarlet robe was probably just like an
old rug. Maybe it was an old tattered
soldier's outer garment or something. They put that on him like that
was the royal robes of the king. And they put a reed in his hand
as the scepter. You know why they chose a reed?
Because the reed didn't have any strength to it. And that's
the way they viewed him as king. That's what they're trying to
make him see as king. You have no real authority. There's no
strength in your authority. They made a crown out of thorns
and shoved it on his head and blood, you know, started running
down and they mocked him as king. They said, look at the king.
What a king. Does that look like a king to you? And then they
spit on him. They spit on him to show their
utter contempt of Christ, the sovereign king. And they led
him away then to crucify him because they hated him as king.
That was the charge they wrote over his cross. This is the reason
he deserves to die. He's king. Look at verse 37. And they set up over his head,
his accusation written. This is why he deserves to die.
This is Jesus, the king of the Jews. And that's what Pilate
wrote. And the chief priest said, no, say he's right. He said,
he's the king of the Jews. And Pilate said, no, but I've
written, I've written. This is the king of the Jews. That's
why they That's why they hated him so much. That's a clear display
of man's sin nature, our hatred of Christ. All right, the second
thing I see is this. I see Christ, the willing sacrifice. Now this whole band of soldiers
gathered together to mock the Lord and to take him to be crucified. But you know, even that whole
band of soldiers couldn't have held our Lord against his will. Now,
he could have walked away from them just as easily as he did
so many other times. The only reason that band of
soldiers was able to mock our Lord and mistreat Him the way
that they did and take Him and nail Him to a piece of wood is
Christ went willingly. That's the only reason. He's
brought as a lamb to the slaughter. As a sheep before her shears
is done, so He openeth not His mouth. He never tried to get
away. If He wanted to, He would have. And he went there willingly. Look at verse 34. They gave him
vinegar to drink mixed with gall. And when he had tasted thereof,
he would not drink. Now this vinegar mixed with gall,
what it is, it's old wine. It's probably cheap wine and
it's turned bitter. So it tastes just like vinegar.
There's no good taste left to it at all. And they mixed it
with gall. And from the best I can find
that some sort of bitter herb that they mixed in there. And
they give this to people who are being crucified to kind of
confuse the mind and make the pain easier to endure. Also,
it was given because it was meant to prolong the life, to prolong
the agony of the one suffering and dying so the people watching
could have fun longer. And they put that up to the Savior's
lips and he refused to drink it because he would not have
anything dull his pain. He was both willing and he was
determined to suffer the full wrath of God against the sin
of his people because he was determined to save them from
condemnation. And the only way his people could
be saved from condemnation is if the Savior drank the cup of
God's wrath dry. Even the very, the dregs of it.
He suffered it all. He endured it all. He tasted
it all without anything to dull the pain, without any hint of
mercy from his father. He did that so that his people
would be saved. He wasn't forced to suffer all
that for his people. He did it willingly because he
loves his people. He loves his people. Now that's
amazing. Amazing grace that he would do
that for people like you and me. The third thing I see at the
cross is the purpose of God being carried out, the eternal purpose
of God. Now, these men, they did everything
that their wicked hearts wanted to do for the men, the Jews that
took him and the Sanhedrin that tried him and Pilate and the
soldiers. They all did exactly what they
wanted to do, exactly what they chose to do. But you know what
they ended up doing? They ended up carrying out God's
will that had been prophesied for over 4,000 years. And they
carried it out to a T. They accomplished God's will.
That's what Peter preached on the day of Pentecost in Acts
chapter two. And oh, what a day that was. But that's what he
preached. You men took the Lord of glory
and crucified him. You know what you did? You accomplished
God's eternal will and purpose. See, everything that these men
did, everything fulfilled the scriptures. It's like they just
went back to the Old Testament scriptures like it's a script
in a play. Say, what should we do next?
What should we do next? What are we supposed to say next? Let's
not get anything out of order. You know why they did it that
way? Everything happened just like God said it would happen
starting 4,000 years ago to show us they're not accomplishing
their will. They're accomplishing the eternal
will of God in the redemption of his people. Do you know why
that whole band of soldiers got together to mock and torture
our Lord and none of them was missing? It was to fulfill the
prophecy in Psalm 22. Many bulls have compassed me.
Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me
with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. For dogs
have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have
enclosed me. That whole band got together
and just with their biting and devouring like dogs and enclosed
the Lord because that was the will of God and they accomplished
it. Do you know why they made the Savior a crown of thorns?
Why didn't they use some other material? We were playing a game
the what night? Friday night. Remember that paper
crown? That probably looked kind of silly. You know, somebody
in the game gets to wear this paper crown. That's not a king. Kings don't wear paper crown.
Why did they just make him a paper crown? They could have mocked
him with a paper crown, couldn't they? Why did they make him a
crown of thorns? They did that to show us that
the Savior was taking the curse of sin away from his people.
Where's the first time we read of thorns in scripture? Where's
the first time thorns appeared in God's creation? It was after
Adam fell and the ground was cursed for his sake. And Lord
told him thorns and thistles are going to grow in your crops
and make it hard for you. Thorns are the result of the
curse of sin. They put that crown of thorns
on the head of our Savior to show us he's carrying away the
curse of sin for his people by being made a curse for them.
You know why they spit on the Savior? I know to them, it was
just to show their hatred of Christ the King. This is what
I think of you as Christ the King. They spit on him. That's
why they thought they did it. But actually, they did it to
fulfill the scriptures. And in fulfilling the scriptures,
they showed us everything that's happening here at the cross is
God's will being carried out. Isaiah 50 verse 6. I gave my
back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the
hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting. When they tried
to shame him and they spit on him, he didn't try to hide his
face from them. He took that shame because he's bearing the
shame of the sin of his people. Look at verse 34. They gave him
vinegar to drink mixed with gall. And when he tasted thereof, he
would not drink. Now, why did they give him vinegar mixed with
gall? I mean, he was so thirsty. Why didn't they give him water?
Why didn't they give him something else to drink? Well, I know it
was their meanness. I understand that. They were
trying to prolong his agony. But really the reason that they
did it was to fulfill God's will. To fulfill the prophecy, Psalm
69, verse 21. They gave me also gall for my
meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. You know,
you'd think one of these members of the Sanhedrin, one of these
scribes, who every day of his life, I guess with the exception
of the Sabbath day, transcribed the scriptures, hand wrote out
the scriptures. They read a line and wrote a
line, read a line. You'd think somewhere in their
mind it would cross. You know, I remember that. I
remember David wrote that in a song. Something's going on.
It never crossed their mind. They were fulfilling the will
of God. Verse 35, and they crucified him. and 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
did they cast lots." Now, why did they cast lots? They rolled
dice or they picked straws or something. Why did they do that?
Why did they have some sort of game of chance to part his garments
among them? Why didn't the most senior guy
just say, boys, I'm taking it all? Why didn't somebody say,
okay, well, I'm taking this and I'll give you this and I'll give
you this. Why did they cast lots? Why did they have this game of
chance to decide who would get the Lord's clothes? To show us
they are fulfilling the will of God. David prophesied in Psalm
22, verse 18, they parted my garments among them and cast
lots upon my vesture. All they were doing was fulfilling
the will of God. Verse 38, Then were there two thieves crucified
with him, one on the right hand and another on the left. Now,
why did they crucify the Lord between two thieves? Why didn't
they crucify the Lord alone? We've seen their hatred of him
as the king. Why didn't they crucify him alone
so he'd be the sole attraction? So all the attention would be
focused on him. All the hatred could be focused
on him. Why these two criminals, one
on either side of him? Why wouldn't the Lord put on
the left and the two thieves on the right? I mean, even the
order that they were put, the Lord in the middle, why did they
do that? To fulfill the scriptures. Isaiah 53 verse 12, he was numbered
with the transgressors. Now the Lord was innocent personally
of ever committing any sin. He never sinned, did he? These
two men, they sinned. I mean, they sin so badly. Other sinful, rotten men said,
the only thing we can do to these fellows is put them to death.
We've got to get them out of our society. They're the transgressors. Our Savior was numbered with
them. You know why he was numbered
with them? He was bearing the iniquity of his people. He was
even bearing the iniquity of one of those things. What? Verse 39. And they that pass
by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, thou that
destroys the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the son of God, come
down from the cross. Likewise, also the chief priests
mocking him with the scribes and elders said, he saved others,
himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel,
let him now come down from the cross and we'll believe him.
No, they wouldn't have. He trusted in God, let him deliver
him now, if you'll have him, for he said, I'm the son of God.
The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the
same in his teeth. You know, they cast the same
in his teeth because they said, you come down from the cross and
take us down with you. You know, all this was self-serving on
their part. Now, these exact words that they
used, they could have mocked the Lord of many other things.
Why these words? Why these exact words? It was
to fulfill the scriptures and show us what's happening at the
cross is not man accomplishing his will. It's God accomplishing
his will. Everything had to happen just
exactly this way so that God's people would be saved from their
sin. Psalm 22 verse 7. All they that see me laugh me
to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They shake the head saying
he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver
him. seeing he delighted in him. They
said exactly what David said they'd say, what, at least 2000
years prior to this to show us this is God's will being carried
out. And you know, the Savior did trust in the Father, didn't
he? He did trust in the Lord. He trusted that the Father would
do what he said he'd do, what he promised he would do in the
covenant of grace. The Father promised. I'll save
a people. I'll accept the people. You take
their sin away from them. You make them righteous by your
obedience, by your sacrifice. I'll accept them. So the Savior
trusted the father and stayed on the cross till the transaction
was done. He stayed there on the cross suffering because he
had faith. He trusted his father would do
what he promised he'd do. He stayed there to save his people
from their sins. And what they said here in verse
42, he saved others himself. He cannot save. I'm telling you
true words were never spoken. He saved others himself. He cannot
say the savior could not save himself by coming down from the
cross. He couldn't. Now it's not that
he liked the power to do it. He certainly had the power to
do it. The savior could not save himself. if he's gonna fulfill
his father's will. The Savior could not save himself
and come down from the cross if he's gonna do what he promised
to do in the covenant of grace and take the sin of his people.
He couldn't do it. If he came down from the cross, he'd break
his word to his father. The Savior could not save himself
if he was gonna save his people. Now, the guilty must die. The Savior had been made guilty
of the sin of his people So he died. He did not save himself. He died to save his people from
their sin. See, we're saved by the faith
of Christ. Yes, we receive salvation by
faith in Christ, but our salvation is accomplished by the faith
of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ to do everything it took
to put away the sin of his people. It's the faithfulness of Christ
to do everything that it took to satisfy his father's justice,
to satisfy his father's holy wrath against sin so that his
people would be saved. We're saved by the faith of Christ,
the faithfulness of Christ to do everything he promised he
would do. And he did it. He would not save
himself. Now look at verse 46. In about
the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani. That is to say, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Now you know why this savior
made this loud cry. This cry has echoed through the
ages. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Now why did he cry that? To let
us know the father's will is being carried out here. The father,
forsook the son at Calvary. The father and the son are one. Yet the father forsook his son
at Calvary because his son had been made sin. Now the father's
presence was still felt, wasn't it? His wrath was still felt,
his justice was still felt, but the father took his loving presence
away from his son and he gave his son all of the wrath, all
of the punishment that the sin of his people deserved. forsook
his son and plunged the sword of justice into his fellow, into
the heart of his very son. You know why the father did that?
So that he will never, ever, ever, ever have reason to forsake
his people. I know sometimes we feel forsaken,
don't we? Sometimes we pray and the heavens
are brass. Sometimes we can't feel the father's
presence with us. I'm telling you this, if Christ
died for us, the Father will never, ever, ever forsake his
people. Ever. Because he forsook his
son, our substitute. At Calvary, the Savior accomplished
the eternal will of God in the redemption of his people. Brethren, it's done. This is
such good news. That's a good point of doctrine.
Christ fulfilled the eternal will and purpose of God. Oh,
that's good news. If Christ finished it, this dead
sinner doesn't have to do one thing to finish it. He finished
it for him. Isn't that good news? All right,
here's the fourth thing I see. I see a new and living way opened
for sinners to come to God. Verse 50. Jesus, when he had
cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold,
the veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom,
and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves
were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into
the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now the moment that the
Lord gave up the ghost, That thick veil, and you may remember
the veil we studied, it's about that thick, about four fingers
thick. And it hung loosely between separating
the holy place from the holy of holies. And from what they
say, you know, the way it hung loosely, even if somebody came
in there on a horse and tried to chop it with a sword, they
couldn't have done it. It was too thickly woven and
hung loosely. Nothing man-made could have cut
that thing, torn that thing. But the very moment that the
Savior gave up the ghost, that veil was rent in two from top
to bottom. It couldn't be put back together. Now before that
happened, only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies
once a year on the Day of Atonement, bringing the blood of the sacrifice. But now, anybody can go in there. Before, Before Christ died, well
that veil hung in there. Nobody knew what was back there.
Nobody could satisfy their curiosity and see what was back there.
The only person that ever saw it was the high priest once a
year. Now, anybody can go in there. I like this. The veil wasn't
rent from side to side. So that a tall sinner like Dan
couldn't go in there, but a short sinner like me could. It was
torn top to bottom. The way is wide open. Anybody
now can come into the presence of God, where the glory of God
dwelt above the merciless. Now anybody can come. Let me
show you that Hebrews chapter 12. This is a new and living
way. Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter
10. Verse 18. Now where remission of these
is, there's no more offering for sin. Having therefore brethren
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he had consecrated for us through the
veil. That is to say his flesh. See this thing is not a veil
made of linen, it's his flesh. This is not a picture, it's the
person. And having a high priest over the house of God, let us
draw near. with a true heart and full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water. And let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised."
See, now we don't come through a legal ceremony, through a veiled
linen. We come through the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. through his blood, through his
sacrifice, through his person. This is a new way, as opposed
to the old way of the law. And it's a living way. It's a
way that gives life. That's why all these people were
raised from the dead, the saints that slept or arose. God's given
life to his people. See, the way of Christ is a life-giving
way. The way of the law was death,
wasn't it? Well, that Old Testament high priest, when he went into
that Holy of Holies, he was concerned. Well, you better do everything
just right, God said, or I'll kill you. There's no fear in
coming to Christ. No fear at all. Come to Him for
life. He accepts sinners. In closing,
let me give you one thing. We'll take all of this and apply
it to our hearts directly. Verse 32. And as they came out,
they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to
bear his cross. This man, Simon, was a disciple
of the Lord, and they found him and this disciple of the Lord
carried the cross because the Lord physically could not carry
it at that time. And here's the picture. If you
and I would be saved, we must take up the cross of Christ.
We must take up his cross. Now, I know that there's a lot of things
went through everybody's head right there, and there's a lot
of false things out there about what taking up your cross means.
Here's primarily what it means. is to say, is to confess, is
to believe that everything I see here in the cross, everything
that the cross says about man, that's true of me. Everything
that the cross says about Christ, that's true. That's true to me.
He's the savior of sinners. I need him. Everything that the
cross says about the eternal will and purpose of God, I'm
taking that and say that's true about me. If God didn't choose
to save me before He created anything, Jonathan, He sure didn't
do it after. This has to be the eternal will
and purpose of God, because none of it can be dependent on me.
It all has to be dependent upon Christ. The cross says that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the successful Savior of sinners. He gives life
to His people because He died for them. When I take up His
cross, this is why I'm saying, the only hope I have of life
is Christ died for me. Just taking up that cross, just
saying all these things are true about me. I believe Christ. I trust Christ. I rest in Him.
He's my Savior, and my King. All right, I hope the Lord will
bless that too.