Let us open our Bibles today
to Luke chapter 23. Luke chapter 23, and I want to begin
my reading in verse 20 and read through verse 34. Pilate therefore, willing to
release Jesus, spake again to them. But they cried, saying,
crucify him, crucify him. And he said unto them the third
time, why, what evil hath he done? I found no cause of death
in him. I will therefore chastise him
and let him go. And they were instant with loud
voices requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices
of them and of the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence
that it should be as they required. And he released unto them him
that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they
had desired, but he delivered Jesus to their will. And as they
led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming
out of the country. and on him they laid the cross
that he might bear it after Jesus. And there followed him a great
company of people and of women, which also bewailed and lamented
him. But Jesus turning unto them said,
daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves
and for your children. For behold, the days are coming
in the which they shall say, blessed are the barren and the
wombs that never bear, and the paps which never gave suck. Then
shall they begin to say to the mountains, fall on us, and to
the hills, cover us. For if they do these things in
a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? And there were also
two other malefactors led with him to be put to death. And when
they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they
crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the
other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive
them for they know not what they do. and they parted his raiment
and cast lots. I'm sure that there are many
reasons why God ordained that his son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
should die, should give his life by crucifixion. But one of those
reasons may be because crucifixion was death that took a long time. Our Lord himself was on the cross
for six hours, and that was a fast death. He had the power himself
to dismiss his spirit, but usually men who were crucified might
stay on the cross for days, two or three days before they expired. I'm sure that one of the reasons
that God ordained that he be crucified was that it would take
a while, and that during that time he might speak that the
Lord Jesus Christ from the cross, that he might speak. Now, in
the four gospel narratives, we have what men have called the
Lord's seven sayings from the cross. And this one that we read
here in the last text was his first saying, Father, forgive
them for they know not what they do. Let me say a few words from
the verses that we read where Pilate gave sentence that it
should be as they required. Pilate was his civil judge, and
he confessed here that he found no fault in the Lord Jesus Christ. He acknowledged his innocence,
but at the same time, he delivered him. What kind of justice was
this? Find no fault in him. But yet
he delivered him over to their will, so much for the free will
of man. so much for the free will that
so many people are so decided for. Man, it's almost as if most
people believe that when Adam fell, that his will was not affected. No, the heart of man is made
up, my friends, of the volition as well as knowledge and affection. And just as man's affection fell
and his knowledge fell, so did his will. And men come into this
world, their will is bound by their nature, if nothing else,
an evil nature. And the Pilate delivered our
Lord over to their will, just like I said, so much for free
will. The will of the people was to
put him to death by crucifixion. And as they left the judgment
hall, we read this, they came out and they found a man by the
name of Simon to help the Lord Jesus Christ carry his cross. And this just further shows the
hatred, the hatred that these people had for the Savior, because
the reason they wanted someone to help him carry the cross was
they were afraid that he might expire on the way to Calvary. He had been beaten and mistreated
all through the night, his body had, and they wanted to have
a big party and mock him while he was hanging there, suffering,
bleeding, and dying. And they were afraid if they
didn't ask someone to help him carry the cross, they'd miss
out on the fun. How depraved is man? How wicked are men and women? And you and I are all included. There's not a difference. There's not any difference. The
scripture says, for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. And we know that anything any
other man has done that we're capable of having done the same
thing or doing the same thing. Yes, the evil of men is demonstrated
here in so many different ways. But along the way to Calvary,
and there was a great crowd who followed. And in the company,
there were some women who the scripture here says, bewailed
and lamented him. Now these were not paid mourners. They did have those that they
paid to come when there was death or something like that and mourn,
but these were not paid mourners. These were women in the crowd
who did grieve for the Lord Jesus Christ, for the way he was being
treated. Some of them maybe had been healed
by him. And if they themselves had not
experienced physical healing by him, they knew someone who
had been healed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe they knew someone
out of whom the Lord had cast demons, because we know that
he did this for three years, over three years. He went about
doing good, the scripture says, healing all, of all manner of
diseases. But our Lord heard them as they
were lamenting, and he turned around. If you notice in verse
28, but Jesus turning unto them said, daughters of Jerusalem,
weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. When he asked them or told them
not to weep for him, he knew The Lord Jesus Christ knew what
he would accomplish by his death, that in just a few hours, God's
purpose would be fulfilled, that God's justice would be satisfied,
that God's law would be honored by a man, the God-man, and that
his people would be saved by his sacrifice. You know, on the
Mount of Transfiguration, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they all record
that, but I've always been so impressed with the way Luke spoke
about those two men, Elijah and Moses, who appeared there with
him. Look back, if you will, here
in Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9 and verse 31. who, that refers to Moses and
Elias, appeared in glory. And what did they speak of? They
spake of his decease. I believe that's the word exodus,
actually. They spoke of his exodus, his
decease out of this world, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. I've never thought of anybody
accomplishing anything by their death, have you? But the Lord
Jesus Christ did. I heard a preacher not too long
ago, he made the statement that the longest obituary he's ever
read, he was asked to preach the funeral of this man and he
said, I read that obituary, it was so long, it was three pages.
He said, I didn't know. He said, I had no idea the man
was so important. But he said there was only one
person who turned up at his funeral. That's something, wasn't it?
Oh, he wrote his own obituary, I'm sure. And he had the money
to have it published in the paper and all of the things that he
had accomplished. But only one person showed up
at his funeral. No one accomplished anything
like the Lord Jesus Christ did by his death. God's law that
we had dishonored by our disobedience was fully honored. God's justice
that required satisfaction was satisfied. Yes, and God's people,
God's chosen people, those that he has loved with an everlasting
love, their redemption was accomplished. His bride, the bride of the Lord
Jesus Christ, given to him in old eternity, and he loved, he
loved her with a perfect love, and yet in her representative
head, Adam, she fell into sin. But now, by his death, she is
recovered from her fall. Yes, he knew, weep not for me,
he knew what his death would accomplish. There was certainly
nothing wrong with them showing sadness and crying and weeping. But what was taking place when
considered in the right way is not a cause of sorrow. But he
did tell them that they should weep for themselves and their
children. He had revealed to them, if you
look back a few chapters, chapter 19, the Lord had revealed to
them what was coming and did come within 40 years of this
time. Chapter 19, verse 41. And when he was come near, that
is near to Jerusalem, He beheld the city and wept over it, saying,
if thou hadst known even thou, at least in this thy day the
things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from
thine eyes. For the day shall come upon thee,
that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass
thee round, and keep thee in on every side. and shall lay
thee even with the ground. He saw what was weep for yourselves,
daughters of Jerusalem. He knew what was going to happen
to the city, how it would be leveled in AD 70. And notice
here in chapter 19, it speaks about the children, that their
children would suffer. shall lay thee even with the
ground and thy children within thee. Now here, on his way to
Calvary, when he turned and spoke to these women, he said, weep
not for me, but weep for yourselves. He knew what was coming. And
he mentioned, and one writer pointed this out, our Lord spoke
of two things that men generally do not want. Men generally want
to have children. They want to leave a posterity. They want their name to continue
in this world. But our Lord said, no, the day
is coming when people will count those blessed who never had any
children, those wombs that never bore a child, those paps that
never gave suck to a child. They're going to say those are
the blessed people. Why? Because of the suffering,
it was so intense in Jerusalem. It was so intense that we know
from the historian Josephus that a woman actually bore her own
son, her baby. I mean, the hunger. was so intense
there, the suffering. And that text, our Lord said,
they're going to lay this city even, and your children are going
to suffer. And as a parent, you parents
here today, you know how difficult, how sad it would be to see your
baby, your child crying for milk or crying for food, and there
being none. Our Lord said, don't weep for
me. Weep for yourselves. Oh, the sadness that was coming
upon these people for their rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We forget sometimes that there's
a hell. We think about heaven a lot.
We love to think about that in the streets of gold and seeing
the Lord Jesus Christ. But my friends, we know there's
a hell too. And men who leave this world
without knowing Christ, without being in union with Christ, are
going to spend eternity alienated, estranged from God's suffering,
the wrath of God. Weep for yourselves, he said.
Oh, the sorrow that was going to come. And a second thing,
he said, that men are going to do, they're going to do something
that no one wants, and that is to be buried alive. We heard on the news this past
week, someone here in Houston, a worker down in a trench, and
sides caved in on him. And before, before his Men that
were working there with him could get him out. He was gone. Nobody wants to be buried alive. But our Lord said, they're going
to pray. Follow us. They're going to cry to the rocks
and the mountains. Follow us. Cover us. Hide us from the wrath of the
Lamb. Yes, an awful time was coming
upon Jerusalem. And that's just a glance of what
is going to happen when the Lord Jesus Christ returns again, or
when a person leaves this world. Our Lord said, notice these words,
if they do this to a grain tree, verse 31, for if they do these
things in a grain tree, He was a green tree. He's referring
to himself as a green tree. A green tree is full of life,
isn't it? A green tree is full of sap. And the Lord Jesus Christ, He
is life. He said, I am the way, the truth
and the life. And not only that, but John said
in John chapter one in verse 14, and the word became flesh
and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory full. A green tree
full of grace and truth. If they do this to a green tree,
what he was experiencing. Now the word they, I wonder if
that refers to the Roman soldiers. Could well be. If the Roman soldiers,
our Lord had never done any harm to any of the Roman soldiers.
He had never spoken sedition against the government of Rome
or anything like that. If they do this to a green tree,
can you imagine what they're gonna do to it dry? And it was
the Roman soldiers, of course, who destroyed Jerusalem in days
to come. Now they reached Golgotha. Calvary,
it says here in our text, the margin says, the place of a skull. And they nailed his hands and
his feet to the cross and then set it upright. And his cross
was set between two malefactors, that is robbers, two robbers. This was, of course, to identify
him as the long-promised Redeemer. Keep your places here, but let's
go back to the book of Isaiah, chapter 53. Isaiah, chapter 53. Who hath believed our report? And
to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up
before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no farm nor comeliness,
and when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire
him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it
were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely, he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and
the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed,
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears
is done, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison
and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living. For he was cut off out of the
land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see a seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Now look at this verse and see if this is not what we have in
our text this morning. The Lord Jesus Christ crucified
between two malfactors. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great and he shall divide the small with the
strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death and he
was numbered with the transgressors. And he bared the sin of many
and made intercession for the transgressors. Notice those last
three things. He was numbered with the transgressors. He's crucified between two thieves,
two transgressors. He was bearing the sin of many.
The Lord was born sinless and lived a sinless life. The scripture's
very plain and very clear. He did no sin, he knew no sin,
he had no sin. And yet as the passage here that
we read, verse six, tells us the Lord made to meet on him
the iniquity of us all. And it says here he bared the
sin of many. and made intercession for the
transgressors. Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. I have three things I want to
say about those words. First of all, the compassion
of our great high priest, his compassion. In Hebrews chapter 5, where the
apostle is showing what the law required about high priests,
he said, he must be a man who has compassion on the ignorant
and them that are out of the way. The Lord Jesus Christ here
shows the compassion that he had, for they knew not what they
did. He asked for forgiveness, at
least many of them. Many of them were ignorant of
what they were doing, and they were all certainly out of the
way. They did not know that Jesus
was the Messiah. They'd been taught to expect
a Messiah that would come in in great power, much pomp and
circumstance, like I think about our president, you know, when
he goes to a town They fly those limousines in ahead of him and
all those that go with him and all. Here's the king of kings
and the Lord of lords and he comes into this world and he's
like a root out of a dry ground. No farm nor comeliness. Oh, they'd
been taught to expect such a great person to be king over Israel. Deliver them from Rome. And here
he comes. And when he came into Jerusalem
riding on the foal of an ass, a donkey, yet the stone, he said,
if the children didn't cry, blessed is he that cometh in the name
of the Lord. And the Pharisees said, don't
you realize what they're saying? And our Lord said, listen, if
they didn't say it, the very stones would cry out. You say,
can stones cry? They can if God wants them to. They sure can. And this was God's
king who came into Jerusalem, but now he's on the cross. He's
dying in the stead of his people, and he makes intercession. I
see the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. The reason they did
not know what they were doing was because the Pharisees and
the lawyers The lawyers were not like we think of lawyers
today. These lawyers were men who studied
the scriptures. They could tell you how many
consonants were in one book and all of that. I mean, they knew
what the middle scripture of the Old Testament was. And it's
like people today who know so much about the Bible, but do
not know the message of the Bible. Do not know that the Bible The
word of God is given to reveal Christ. Our Lord said, woe unto
you lawyers, for you've taken away the key of knowledge. And the key of knowledge is the
Bible, the word of God, and the key to the Bible is Christ. If a person can read this book
over and over and yes, preach from it and do many things, know
much about it, but not know that the scripture is given to reveal
Christ. That's the reason they didn't
know what they were doing. Father, forgive them. Why? Because
they were following blind guides. Have you ever had a blind guide?
I'm talking about in a place here in the country. We did one time, my wife and
I. We visited the capital in Austin.
And they told us just to wait over there at a certain place
and a guide will come in just a little bit and give you a guide
of the capital. And so we went over there and
waited. And sure enough, here comes this young lady and she's
blind. And she's our guide. But you
know, she knew that capital. I mean, she knew how many steps
to go this way, where the elevator was. She knew that capital ever
so good. But the problem with these blind
guides that our Lord spoke about, they didn't know the way. They
thought the way was by works, not by grace. They thought the way was just
because you're born an Israelite, that means you're okay. No, you're
not okay. You're guilty of sin and you
need a sacrifice, you need a savior. They were blind guides of the
blind. Yes, I see his compassion first
of all and then I see his intercession. Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do. And this reminds us that ignorance
is not an excuse. It's not an excuse for sin. Well,
I didn't know. That's not an excuse. We know
that so because in the law of God, God gave sacrifices to be
performed for those that did something out of ignorance. For
instance, in Numbers chapter 15 and verse 27, the law said,
if any soul sin through ignorance, then shall he bring a she-goat
of the first year for a sin offering. And in Leviticus 5, if a soul
commit a trespass and sin through ignorance in the holy things
of the Lord, then he shall bring for his trespass unto the Lord
around for a trespass offering. When we read that, the holy things,
in the holy things of the Lord, what would we consider our holy
things? Well, I believe we would think
about our worship, don't you? Like we're doing right here today.
We think about when we pray. I would think certainly about
when I'm preaching. We think about when we're giving.
Yes, because of who we are in all of these things, we need
a sacrifice to cleanse us. Our tears need tears, my friends. Our repentance needs repentance. Sure. I'm so thankful today that
we have a great high priest, aren't you? Whoever liveth to
make intercession for all who come unto God by him. And right
now, as we're in this place, and we have thoughts going this
way and that way, and what we're gonna do when we leave here,
and we've got all kinds of distractions, and we're supposed to be worshiping
God. We need a priest. We need a priest
to intercede for us in everything we do. Amen? Amen. Thank God we have one. The third thing I see is the
Father's answer to this high priest's prayer. Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. Did the Father hear
his prayer? You know he did. He always heard
his prayer. Always. Did he answer his prayer? Yes, he did. On the day of Pentecost,
when Peter stood with the other 10 disciples, apostles, and preached
the gospel, 3,000 souls, 3,000 souls were forgiven, were saved
on that day, added to the church. Yes. Let me point these two things
out in closing. First of all, the cleansing power
of the blood of Jesus. Could anyone commit a more wicked
sin than taking a hammer and nailing those nails through the
hands of Christ? Could anyone be more guilty than
say, ah, you saved others. Come down from the cross and
we will believe you. All the taunting. Could anyone
be more guilty of sin than those around that cross? But my friends,
the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed, even those who are guilty of
the boat. And I don't, wonderful thing
about preaching the gospel is, as long as a person has breath,
there's hope. I don't care how deep, how fallen
into sin a person might have been, maybe, The blood of Jesus
Christ is more powerful, more powerful to cleanse, to wash
white as snow, to forgive every, every sin. Oh, isn't that something? The power in the blood of Jesus. There's power, power, wonder-working
power in the blood of Jesus. And the second thing is, is Christ
is our example. We see his compassion. What about
ours? What about mine? Peter wrote
this in his first letter. He said, finally, be you all
of one mind, having compassion one of another. Love its brethren. Be pitiful and courteous. Compassion on our brothers and
sisters in Christ. When someone falls, when someone
falls, and we do 100 times, all of us, have compassion. Have compassion on that person.
It's him today, maybe me tomorrow. Compassion. And intercession. All of us know people who won't
pray for themselves, don't we? We all know people. They won't
pray for themselves. They won't call upon God. Let's
call upon God for them. Those people that our Lord prayed
for, they weren't praying. He prayed for them. And third,
the example of faith. He believed God. That's the reason
he asked. Father, forgive them. but they
know not what they do. He prayed in faith, believing,
and his prayer was answered. I pray that the Lord would bless
this message to all of us here this morning.