Good morning. We're going to
be reversing our order this morning in that I'm going to bring the
message from our study in Corinthians, the second hour, and we're going
to look at our Lord's third saying from the cross, the first hour.
So if you'll turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 19. John chapter 19. Our meeting is scheduled for
two weeks, is that right? 24th, 25th, and 26th. I think
that's two weeks from this weekend. And so I hope that you'll remember
to pray for Joe and for Gabe as they prepare the messages
that the Lord would have us to hear. Invite your friends. Sometimes people will come to
a special meeting that wouldn't come to normal Sunday services. So this is a good opportunity
to bring someone that you've had on your heart or been praying
for. And I know there's a lot of our brethren from other churches
around the country that are going to be here. So that will be a
blessing to be able to fellowship with them. I look forward to
that. We ended up taking 12 of our
folks over to Sarasota Thursday night, and Don Fortner was over
there preaching for that group, and we were very encouraged to
be there. I think they were encouraged.
I know they were. They've shared with me since then how happy
they were that we came over. And starting next month in February,
they'll be here for our meeting in January, and then starting
next month in February, we'll start going over on a regular
basis and having services over there. So hopefully, over time,
everybody will want to go over and share in that experience. So we'll be announcing it whenever
we go, and anybody that would like to join us certainly would
be welcome to do that. All right. One other announcement. If you all remember, last year
I asked that the ladies particularly,
but the men also, not wear perfume. We have a brother who's coming
from another church who's highly allergic to all chemical smells.
And so I think he'll be here probably in the next week or
two and be here for a month. So if you could be remembering
that, I mean, he can detect it in a room if one person has perfume
on, and he can't be in that room. So he would just have to stand
outside. And if you could remember that and just forego the chemicals
for the next month or six weeks, I'm sure he'd appreciate that.
He's not asked me to ask you that, but I know him, and I know
how how terrible that is for him, so. Okay, let's ask the Lord to bless
His word to our hearts. Our merciful, gracious, heavenly
Father, What a great joy it is to be able to come before your
throne of grace and call you our Father, which art in heaven. Truly, Father, thou art holy. And we ask, Lord, that you would
be pleased now to make yourself known in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ to our hearts. We pray that you would send your
precious and powerful Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our understanding,
to tender our hearts, to give to us the gift of faith, to cause
your word to be alive and effectual to our hearts. Father, how we
do pray that you would bless us with our presence here in
this place this day. We pray, Father, for Joe and
for Gabe as they preach this morning, and we pray for them
as they prepare the messages that you would have them to preach
here. We pray for ourselves that you
would give us ears to hear. We pray for our loved ones and
for our friends and for our brethren that will be visiting from other
places. We ask, Lord, that you would give to our Our fellowship,
a revival of spirit, cause us, Lord, to be drawn to you. Bless your word to our hearts. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Last Sunday we looked at the
first of the seven sayings that are mentioned in the scriptures
that Christ said from the cross. You remember the first one was,
Father forgive them for they know not what they do. And the Father did forgive them. He gave them the opportunity
to hear the gospel just a couple of weeks after that. And though
they were told that they did this in ignorance, they were
smitten to the heart and said, men, what must we do? And Peter
preached Christ and 3,000 of them were saved that day. The second of the sayings that
our Lord made from the cross we looked at Wednesday night
when the Lord told that thief, the one thief on his right side,
when he asked him Lord remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom and our Lord said today thou shalt be with me in paradise
there's one one name we know we don't know his name actually
but one person we know for sure is in glory is that that dying
thief who had no opportunity to earn any favor with God His
hands were nailed to a cross. He couldn't do any good works.
His feet were nailed to a cross. He couldn't stand before God
or do any work, walk straight, walk before God. He couldn't
turn over a new leaf and change his life and make resolutions.
He was dying. And yet the Lord was merciful
to open his heart, cause him to cry out and affirm to him
his salvation based purely on what the Lord Jesus Christ was
doing there on the cross as his representative and as his Savior.
What a glorious picture of salvation that is. Until we see ourselves
with our hands nailed to the cross of Christ. Paul said, I
am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet it's
not I, but it's Christ that liveth in me. The life that I now live,
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and died
for me. I love that picture of the prophet
in the Old Testament where he takes the child who has died,
he goes up into the upper room, and the scripture says he lays
prostrate over the child, hand to hand, feet to feet, mouth
to mouth, and breathes life back into that lifeless child. A picture
of what Christ has done for us on the cross. Our hands are nailed. We can't perform works that would
earn us any favor with God. Our feet are nailed to the cross. Our salvation is not determined
by how straight we walk. We're not in a position of turning
over a new leaf. We need a new life. And that's
something only the Lord can speak. That's only something He can
give. Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Oh, how we need
for him to speak that word of assurance to our hearts. And
now the third of these seven sayings I want us to address
this morning. John chapter 19, verse 25. Now there stood by the cross
of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister. Mary the wife of Cleophas. Now it's very unlikely that there
would be two sisters with the same first name. Probably this
would be Mary's sister-in-law, Joseph's sister, who would be
referred to as her sister in the scriptures. So we have Joseph,
who is obviously deceased, Mary, Joseph's sister, and Mary the
wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. all these Marys standing at the
foot of the cross. Mary's name meaning bitterness
and that was the experience that these women were having in their
hearts as they watched Christ die on that cruel cross. I look
at the next verse, verse 26. When Jesus therefore saw his
mother and the disciple standing by him whom he loved. Now, you know who that is. John,
that's how John refers to himself in all of his writings. He doesn't
refer to himself with his own name. He refers to himself as
the disciple whom Jesus loved. And John, of all the disciples,
demonstrated the love of Christ in his heart. What affection
John had. He's the one, you remember at
the Last Supper, who laid his head on the breast of Christ? And he's the one who speaks so
much of the love of God when he writes in 1st John. when he
speaks of God being love, and here he is now with Mary, the
mother of Christ, standing at the foot of the cross, and the
Lord said unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. And he saith
to the disciple, behold thy mother. And from that hour, that disciple
took her into his own home. The first thing we see here in
this saying of Christ from the cross is the realization that
the Lord Jesus Christ came to fulfill all righteousness. That's what he came to do. Christ
himself is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
John, suffer to be so for now, for this is necessary, this has
to be done, speaking of his baptism, in order to fulfill all righteousness. That's what Christ came to do.
Now, in the law of God, we have the first four commandments given
relating to man's relationship with God. and the last six of
the commandments relating to man's relationship with man.
What is the first of the last six commandments? Where does man's relationship
with man begin? What is the fifth of the 10 commandments? Honor thy father and thy mother. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
six. Our Lord is demonstrating in
these words from the cross His fulfilling of the law of God. In that in His dying breath with
everything else that's going on, with the redemption of mankind
being accomplished. the redemption of God's elect
being accomplished, the Lord Jesus Christ fulfills the law
in honoring his mother. Look at Ephesians chapter 6,
children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. honor
thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with
promise, and look at verse three, parents and young people alike,
I want you to pay special attention to this, that it may be well
with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth. Let me ask you a question. If
you went into the local jail or a prison, And you did a survey
of all the individuals that were there. What character flaw do
you suppose would be most prevalent among those who are in jail? One character flaw that would
be most prevalent of all the young people that end up in prison
and end up in jail? of respect for authority. Lack of respect for authority. The children are going to be
children. Oh, it's bound up in the heart of a child. Foolishness
is, isn't it? And they're going to forget things,
and they're going to be influenced by their peers, and they're going
to do things they ought not to do. And we need to be patient
with them. We need to discipline them. Spare the rod, you spoil the
child, but we need to pick our battles carefully too, don't
we? You don't want to go to war over something that's just a
normal childish behavior. Correct it and try to direct
them properly, but there's one thing that ought not to be tolerated, and that's rebellion. That's
a lack of respect. That's what children need to
learn more quickly. They don't need to be built up
in their self-esteem. They're children of their father
Adam. They're your children. They've
already got enough self-esteem. They've already got enough interest
in themselves. What they need to learn, and
you know the problem is when you discipline a child for bad
behavior, and then that child rebels against that discipline,
then the rebellion becomes the problem, not the bad behavior. Look at Ephesians chapter 6 again.
That it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on
the earth. If I was you, I wouldn't tolerate disrespect
from my child. I just wouldn't do it. I'd stay
on top of that from the time they were very, very small. Because
once they learn rebellion against authority, then the door is wide
open. They have no respect for God. They have no respect for the
police. They have no respect for laws. They have no respect
for their employers. It begins, you see, the fifth
commandment. This matter of our relationship
with one another. It's not by mistake that the
Lord made the first of those last six commandments. Children,
obey your parents. Honor thy father and thy mother.
And that honor doesn't just stop when we become adults, does it?
Our Lord is honoring his mother here in the fulfilling of that
law. You say, well, you know, my parent
is not honorable. My parent is not a believer. They don't... Think about it
like this. Here we have the perfect, sinless
son of God honoring his mother, who is a
sinner. Now if the Lord Jesus Christ
could stoop to honor his mother, ought we not to honor our parents,
treat them with respect, show them deference? It's just, it's
right in the sight of God. And that's, and you know, out
of all the things that our Lord could have said from the cross,
here's the third of those words that he speaks. And this word
woman is not a word of disrespect. It's just an acknowledgment of
who she is. She was a woman. He says, woman,
behold thy son. The second thing we see in this,
not only is our Lord fulfilling all righteousness and keeping
the law perfectly as our righteousness before God, but we also see that
he's fulfilling prophecy. You remember when Joseph and
Mary took the Lord Jesus Christ to the temple to have him circumcised
and Simeon who was the priest in the temple, he saw the Lord
Jesus Christ and God spoke to his heart and he said, this is
the consolation of Israel, the one whom we've been waiting for
and the rise and the fall of many is in his hand. And then
at the end of that prophecy, he said to Mary, yet a sword
shall pass through thy soul. And Mary now is having that experience,
isn't she? She's standing there at the foot
of the cross, experiencing the grief of seeing that one that
once lied on her breast, and that one that she taught to walk
and to talk and to care for, and the one who honored her so
perfectly all of his life, now suffering such a cruel death
on Calvary's cross. Scripture says in Revelation
chapter 19 that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. You remember also in Luke chapter
2, when the shepherds came, to the stable where our Lord
was born and tells Mary and Joseph the things that the angels had
said to them. And the scripture says in Luke
chapter 2, and they all wondered at this thing, this prophecy
that was made about this child. They stood in amazement that
angels would come and make such a declaration that a Savior was
born. But then the scripture says,
but Mary kept these things in her heart and pondered them. She knew who the Lord Jesus Christ
was. You know, if there was ever a
doubt in anybody else's mind, If there was ever a doubt in
Joseph's mind, if there was ever a doubt in anybody else's mind,
there was never a doubt. Mary knew she had never been
with a man. She knew that that child had
been conceived of the Holy Spirit. She knew who he was. She had watched his perfect behavior. I mean, you talk about having
a favored child. Can you imagine the relationship that Mary had? with our Lord as she watched
him interact with his brothers and sisters as she watched him
work as she watched him live out his life in perfection and
now here she is standing there experiencing the fulfillment
of prophecy Acts chapter 10 verse 43 says to him to the Lord Jesus
Christ gave all the prophets witness This entire book is prophecy
about Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the fulfillment of that prophecy. And we see here on the cross
as our Lord speaks to his mother, not only the fulfillment of the
law, but we see the fulfillment of prophecy as well. The third thing we see in our
Lord speaking to Mary and John in such a way is that it shows
us, it shows us who the believer's family really is. Now I don't
suppose there's two people in all of scripture that's described
in the Word of God that had more affection for the Lord Jesus
Christ than Mary and John. I mean they, they love the Lord
with such, with such depth of affection that, and the Lord
puts these two believers together. And the script, what we read,
and from that hour Mary went home with John. Which explains
in John chapter 20, you remember when Mary Magdalene went to the
tomb and found that the Lord was gone and she ran back and
told the disciples and the scripture says in John chapter 20 that
Peter and John ran to the tomb. John outran Peter. probably younger
and more fit perhaps, but he got there first and peered into
the tomb, but he was afraid to go in. Peter in his impetuous
way just bursted right into the tomb and saw the linen cloths
lying there and they didn't know what had happened. They still
didn't understand what the Lord had taught them about the resurrection.
But the scripture says in John chapter 20 that from there Peter
and John went back to their own home. Why is that? Why is that in there? Well, where
was Mary? Where was Mary? We just read
that Mary was in John's home from that very hour she went
home with John. Who did John have on his mind
to tell about the resurrection of Christ more than Mary? John ran straight back to Mary
to tell her that Christ had risen. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
13. Matthew chapter 13. This declaration of our Lord
is a fulfillment of prophecy, it's a fulfillment of the law,
but it also tells believers who their family really is. Who their family really is. Contrary to what the Catholic
Church teaches, Mary did not live out her life as a virgin.
she had other children. And to deny that is to deny the
clear teaching of scripture. We don't have to preserve the
virginity of Mary in order to hold her up as some co-redemptrix
of the human race. She was a sinner just like you
and I, and she was in need of Christ as her Savior just as
much as you or I are. John chapter 13 makes that clear.
Look at verse 55. This is what our Lord's enemies
had to say about Him. in verse 55 of Matthew chapter
13, is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called
Mary? And his brethren James and Joseph
and Simon and Judas and his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence
then hath this man all these things? Well, we know your family. We know where you're from. We
know your mother. We know your brothers and sisters.
You're not the Christ. You're just a carpenter. Now look at John chapter 7 at
verse 1. After these things, Jesus walked
in Galilee, for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews
sought to kill him. Now the Jews' feast of the tabernacle
was at hand. His brethren, the same ones spoken
of in the passage we just read in Matthew chapter 13, his brothers,
they had seen the miracles that he had performed. And they thought,
we've got a celebrity in the family. Look at the number of
people that are following after him. Let's put him out there
in public. And look what they said. His
brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence and go into
Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest.
For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself
seeketh to be known openly. If you want to be known openly,
perform your miracles openly. Don't do them in secret. We've
seen your power. Go out and show it to the world.
Our family will be somebody. If thou do these things, show
thyself to the world. Look at verse 5. For neither
did his brethren believe in him. Mary had other children. No question
about it. The problem is they weren't believers.
And that's the reason why the Lord Jesus Christ said to John,
behold thy mother. And from that hour she went home
to be with John. What is the Lord telling us?
What every believer knows is true. And that is that their
real family, their real family is not their blood family. Their
real family is their spiritual family, their church. Those they're
able to fellowship with in the gospel are their real brothers
and sisters and mothers and fathers. Fourthly, this statement of our
Lord shows his compassion for those who suffer. Now, the sacrifice
of Christ on Calvary's cross was not only the purpose of our
Lord's life, but it was the purpose for which the world was made. Why did God make the world? Why
did he make man? Why? Why are we here? Why are
we here? God made man in order to demonstrate
his glory. The glory of God is the chief
end of all things. The glory of God is the chief
end of everything that God purposed to do. Not our comfort, but His
glory. And so God created people in
order to redeem them so that he might show forth his glory
to them and create unto himself children that would be just like
the Lord Jesus Christ, all for his glory. People say, well,
is there a God and what is the purpose of man? You know there's
a God. Everybody knows there's a God. And if there is a God,
then the chief end of man is to worship him. to glorify Him
and to enjoy Him forever. That's man's chief end. That's
the purpose. And that was being accomplished
here on the cross. For there could be no glory to
God. There could be no redemption
of sinners. There could be no enjoying of God. apart from man
being forgiven. And so what we see here on Calvary's
cross is a culmination of everything that God purposed, not only in
the life of Christ, but in the creation of the world, and in
the creation of mankind is being accomplished right here on the
cross. This is the crux of the matter. The cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the crossroad of everything. Everything that's
anything is being demonstrated here in the sacrifice that the
Lord Jesus Christ is making of himself on Calvary's cross. It
is everything. Everything. And yet with so much
at stake, with so much at stake, we find the Lord Jesus Christ
showing compassion towards his mother who is suffering greatly. Towards one individual who is
suffering. A sword shall pass through thy
soul, Simeon said. Mary, I remind you, did not have
months to prepare for this experience. It wasn't as if the Lord had
been arrested and thrown into prison and the appeals of the
court have drug on and on for months or weeks or days or years. No. just a couple of days before
the crowd was hailing him as king this all happened over the
period of one night the day before the Lord was meeting with his
disciples the evening before the Lord was meeting with his
disciples celebrating the Passover meal There was no indication
that he would be arrested, dragged through a mock trial, flogged
and scourged and placed a crown of thorns on and put on a Roman's
cross just in a matter of hours. What a shock to Mary that this
night and day brought into her life. And yet We see no hysterical emotions,
no wild outcry of grief, no uncontrolled anguish. The scripture says she
stood there and she watched in unbroken silence. She heard the crowds mocking.
She heard the thieves taunting our Lord. She heard the priest
scoffing him, and the soldiers callously occupied in the dividing
of his possessions. She saw it all. She saw the child
that she had birthed into this world, bleeding and suffering
in untold anguish. We don't find her having lost
control. We don't find her crouched on
the ground. We see her standing, beholding
it all with a broken heart. And our Lord, with everything
that was at stake, had compassion for her and provided for her
in that time of need. I pray that whatever the Lord
has ordained for us, that we'll suffer, we'll suffer the trials
that he's ordained for us with such grace. That he'll give us
the ability to trust him in whatever troubles we have to go through
in this life. And I know But if he does that,
he will provide the comfort for his children in the same way
that he provided for his mother. We see in this story a special,
special love that these two had for Christ. And I think that's
especially demonstrated, as I mentioned a moment ago in John chapter
20, when Peter and John left the tomb, the scripture says
they went to their own house. John couldn't wait to get home
and tell Mary that the Lord had risen. He told the rest of the
disciples, you will be offended of me and you will be scattered. And they did, even Peter said,
Lord, they may, they may forsake you, but not me. Oh, what pride. Pride does proceed at the fall,
doesn't it? Peter, in his pride, thought,
I'm not going to forsake you. I'll be there by your side. Who
is the one that forsook him with cursings? Peter. Peter. Why did Peter do that?
Because the Lord took his hand off of Peter. That's what he
said. The Lord told Peter, Satan has
asked to sift you. And I'm going to remove my restraining
grace from you and allow you to be under the control of Satan. The Lord had already said to
Peter to get thee behind me, Satan. Satan's already getting
a foothold in your life, Peter, and I'm going to let him have
his way until he shows you your weakness. And in seeing your
weakness, you'll acknowledge your dependence upon me. They were all offended. Every
single one of them. It's interesting that the word
offense in the Bible is the word from which we get our word scandalized
from. They were ashamed to be by the
Lord. They were scandalized by what
was happening. Have you ever been offended by
Christ? Have you ever failed to stand by His side because
everybody else thought that the gospel was scandalous and rather
than standing for Christ, you did what Peter and all the other
disciples did, fled from Him, didn't defend Him, didn't stand
there at His cross? Sure you have. Sure you have. I know you have. I've done it. To our shame, We've done exactly
what Peter's did, and the Lord, I trust, will use that weakness
to show us our need for Him. Paul said, when I am weak, then
I am strong. His power is His grace and His
power is shown forth in my weakness. But the Lord had given to Mary
and to John a special affection that caused them to be there. And that's the only thing that
will keep us from being scandalized by the gospel. The only thing
that will cause us to be faithful to Christ, as John and Mary were,
is the love of Christ in our hearts. It's the love of Christ
that constraineth us, and we're only able to love Him as we are
able to see His love for us. so all that the Lord would demonstrate
his love toward us and cause us to return to our first love
and give us through the power of love the grace to stand for
him. The last thing that we see from
these words of our Lord toward his mother and towards John is
that the death of Christ changed the way in which Mary would relate
to the Lord Jesus Christ forevermore. Forevermore. Up till now she
was known as his mother. Now she would be known as his
child. Paul said in 2nd Corinthians
chapter 5 verse 16, henceforth know we him not after the flesh. We knew him after the flesh,
but not anymore. Now he's ascended into glory.
And now our relationship with Christ is a spiritual relationship.
And he is our king, and our God, and our savior. even as he was
for Mary." Our Lord's last words. Precious
words, aren't they? Woman, behold thy son. And then
he said to his disciple, behold thy mother. Let's take a break.