One verse, verse 26 of Luke 23. It's too wonderful a picture
to look away from quickly. We had in the previous lesson
from this passage in Luke 23 here, the story of a man for
whom Christ bore the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ bore the
cross that was made for Barabbas. And here a man named Simon bears
the cross that belongs to Christ. And let me just say this at the
outset, that this cross was always the Lord Jesus Christ's. Men made it in order to put Barabbas
on it, but God made it for his son. We say it was made for Barabbas
because Barabbas was the one condemned to die that day. And
he would have hung there and he would have deserved it. He would have deserved it. And
we all deserve that cross. Because you see, that cross was
more than just punishment for murder and robbery, although If you want to put a fine point
on it, our sin is murder of God and robbery of God's glory. We all deserve that cross though,
because we don't just deserve to die in a horrible way physically,
which that certainly was. But the eternal wrath of God
Almighty was poured out on that cross, on whoever hung on that
cross. And that's where I should have been. That's what we deserve, eternal wrath. But Christ Jesus took the place
of all of his elect there under the wrath of God for our sins. First Peter 3.18, Christ also
hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, the
just in the place of the unjust. The righteous in the place of
sinners, the spotless lamb in the place of vile, evil, hell-deserving
wretches that he might bring us to God. That's the reason
he did it. You reckon he brought anybody
to God when he did it? Being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the spirit. And so Barabbas represents all
for whom Christ died. I don't know for sure that Barabbas
was one of the ones for whom Christ died. Are you? You know anybody that's sure
about that? I don't know. In a physical, earthly sense,
he died in his place, but that's not salvation. If you ask me what I think, I
think he probably was, but I don't know that. But I know that he
represents everybody for whom Christ died. He suffered and died in our place.
He took our cross in that sense. But here is one taking his cross. Matthew's account called it his
cross. Doesn't say that here, but it does in the book of Matthew.
Christ's cross, and in the truest sense, it could only ever be
his cross. It was his cross when Barabbas
was supposed to hang on it, and nobody thought it would be otherwise.
It was his cross when Simon was carrying it. It was his cross before the foundation
of the world. It could only ever be his cross. There's that terrible song. I
think it's in our book. I don't know. I've seen it in
hymn books. Must Jesus bear the cross alone? It's one of those tear jerkers,
you know. The song says no, but of course
the answer is yes. Of course he must. You're going
to help him bear his cross, really? If anybody's going to be saved,
he must. And this is where it is important
to make a distinction. Christ bore our cross in the
sense that he is our substitute under the wrath of God for our
sin. He took our place, the just in
the place of the unjust, so that we could come, that he might
bring us to God, that we might have fellowship with God. He died for our sins according
to the scripture. Simon bearing Christ's cross
is not the same thing. It is not a reciprocation of
that. Christ in the bearing of that cross accomplished everything
for us. Simon bearing Christ's cross
was not Simon doing anything for Christ. Christ still had
to suffer and die alone under the wrath of God for the sins
of all of his sheep, and nothing changed that. It was not a cooperative
effort. It was not reciprocal. Simon
bearing Christ's cross was also Christ doing something for Simon. And so as Barabbas represents
us and Christ taking our place on Calvary for our sin under
the wrath of God, Simon pictures us by his grace, identifying with the Savior,
being made conformable under his death, being included by
God in the fellowship of his sufferings. It's his sufferings,
but we have fellowship in that by bearing a cross. His cross. He did that for us, you see,
because we bear his cross also. Listen to Hebrews 13, 12. Wherefore
Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood,
suffered without the gate. He bore the cross for a time.
John tells us that Christ bore that cross too. And apparently
Simon was called upon to carry it after that part of the way. But Jesus suffered that he might
sanctify the people with his own blood. Simon didn't get in
on that. Simon didn't have anything to
do with that. Christ suffered without the gate in order to
make somebody holy. And he did it with his own blood.
He made peace with God for sinners. He is elect by the blood of his
cross. But then he said this, let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp. not bearing sins, but bearing
his reproach. You see the difference? All we're
doing when we do that, when we bear the crawl, we bear his crawl,
all we're doing is we're saying, he is my salvation. His cross is my sin offering. He on that cross is my sin offering.
That righteous, holy blood that was shed there is my righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ himself,
we're bearing his reproach for we have here no continuing city. We go without the camp with him
because we don't, this ain't where we live anyway. Where do
we live? With him. He's our home. Christ crucified is where we
live. We don't have any place to live
here in this world, do we? But we seek one to come. And
I'll tell you this, we go without the gate bearing his reproach
now, we want to be with him now, and one of these days we're really
going to be with him. That's what that says. But what about
the reproach? You know, he counted the shame
as nothing. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him despised the shame. That means he counted it a small
thing to suffer in my place and die. It wasn't a small thing,
but he counted it as, it was the joy, it was joy that
was set before him. as horrible as that is, and you
think, well, nobody likes to be reproached. Well, that's probably
true, but to bear the reproach of Christ, we do that without regret, do
we not? The disciples rejoiced because
they were counted worthy to suffer for his sake. You remember that
when they beat him for preaching the gospel? It says they rejoiced. because they were counted worthy
by God to suffer for him. We have no continuing city here.
Let's go without the camp. Let's go forth therefore. Here's
the key words there. What's all this about going without
the camp and bearing his reproach unto him? Let us go forth therefore
unto him. Ever since the Lord revealed
us who he is, that defines everything about us unto him. Unto him be
glory, unto him be my steps, my works, my everything, my voice,
unto him. And think about what he said,
the reason that Paul gives us for bearing his reproach, because
we don't have any place to live here. Because of Christ, this
can never be my home. Isn't that what Paul said also
in Galatians 6.14? Listen to this. God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. Let
us go forth unto him without the camp, outside of this world. This world is dead to me and
I'm dead to this world because of him and what he did for me. In and by Christ crucified, not
only do we get our sins washed away in his precious blood, but
we get to identify with him in that. Carrying his cross in this sense
is not us cooperating in or reciprocating for his cross work. It is our
honor, our privilege, our very glory to do that. This is how
we glory in Christ crucified, by gladly identifying with him
in his death and resurrection. And think of what it means to
be What that means, what Christ
and Him crucified and glorying in Him and identifying with Him.
Think about what that means to a sinner. A sinner now, a sinner. There's
not any of us worth shooting, but by the grace of God, a sinner
will gladly walk away from this world and everything and everybody
in it in order to take this cross up and go to Him. Go sell everything that you have
and give it to the poor and come follow me. I can't do that, but
some can. You know why? Well, some just
know better. Some are just more spiritual. No, it's by his grace
through faith, Moses chose the reproach of Christ as greater
riches than the treasures of this world. But that's what it means to us,
everything. If anybody that knows who he
is would sell everything they have in a minute. The disciples
right after that said, Lord, we've left all and followed you.
And he taught them, you haven't left anything. We know that,
don't we? He said, nobody has left anything
for me, but he will receive a hundred fold in this life and in that
to come. Think about what this cross is. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not a cross, not a Roman cross
or any cross that anybody ever made that people doubt. The cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. that cross. Think about what
it is for a minute. Why would Paul say, God forbid
that I should ever glory, rejoice in, boast in, delight in anybody
or anything else except Christ and what he did on that cross?
Why would he make such a monumental statement as that? Well, as we've said so many times,
I think I just said it just a few minutes ago in our Bible class,
Christ crucified is the point of everything. It's the point
of everything. If you're going to glory, what
are you going to glory in? Once you've seen him and what he did
for you. Time and eternity revolve around
the cross. Everything that happened before
the cross was because of the cross. And everything that has happened
since the cross was and is because of the cross. You know why people
are gonna go to hell? Because of the cross. You know why sinners are saved?
Because of the cross. You know why God's glorified
forever? Because of the cross. And what takes place outside
of time? What's going on? We live, we
inhabit time. What's going on outside of time?
God inhabited eternity. What's going on there? What's
the occupation of eternity? Worthy is the lamb that was slain.
We just read that a while ago too. Worthy is the lamb. They're all worshiping the lamb.
Christ crucified. The lamb that's on the throne.
In Revelation, John said, I looked and in the midst of the throne
was a lamb as it had been slain. That's what's going on. It's not a piece of wood. It's
not a piece of jewelry. That's not it. If you had the
actual wood, if you had a piece of wood from that cross that
still had the blood stains on it, from the Son of God, if it
still had the blood, if you had that piece of wood, it still
had the bloodstains on there. Old and faded now, but you could
see the bloodstain on there. You know what you ought to do?
Burn it. Get rid of it. Get rid of it. You should burn
it. It has no value. That's not the
cross. We've missed it if we think it
is. We've missed Him. Do you remember what King Hezekiah
did and what he said? I guess we better turn there.
Look at 2 Kings chapter 18. I'm not speculating about what
you ought to do with it. Well, maybe God would want us
to put it in a case and let everybody look at it. No, no, I'm not speculating
about it. 2 Kings 18 one. Now it came to pass in the third
year of Hosea, son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah, the
son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. Hezekiah. He's an amazing,
you ought to study Hezekiah sometime. 20 and five years old was he
when he began to reign, and he reigned 20 and nine years in
Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Abby,
the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father
did. He removed the high places that break the images and cut
down the groves, the places where they worship false idols. He
tore it all up and removed it and break in pieces the brazen
serpent that Moses had made. He broke it in pieces, he destroyed
it. You know why? For unto those
days, the children of Israel did burn incense to it. God told Moses, raise that serpent
up on a pole, a serpent of brass. And when the children of Israel
who've been bitten by those fiery serpents, when they just look
at it, they'll live. The poison is gone. And the Lord
Jesus said to Nicodemus, all those years later, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth on him should have everlasting life.
And they made an idol out of that thing. You know what would
happen if people had a piece of the cross from Israel somewhere
and they, you know, oh, look, we found it. It's still got some
blood, a little blood stain on there. What a holy artifact that
is. They'd start worshiping it, wouldn't they? They'd worship
it. If you found a piece of the ark,
they'll worship it, any kind of a relic. If somebody drops
an ice cream cone on the sidewalk and it melts into the shape of
what they think Jesus's head looked like, they'll worship
it. They'll put a piece of glass over it. They've done it. And so Hezekiah, doing that which
was right in the sight of the Lord. He said, what in the world
are you doing? He broke it in pieces. And look at it. He said,
for those days they burned into it. And he called it Nahushtan.
You know what that means? A piece of brass. That's all
it is. It would just be a piece of wood.
We're not gonna worship that piece of that log that's out
in the ditch over here. We wouldn't worship that piece.
We're gonna worship the son of God by God's grace who gave himself
for sinners. That's the cross. God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross. Don't make a piece of
jewelry out of it. Don't make an idol out of anything
and call it the cross. It's not the cross. Christ crucified
is the cross. Nahushtan, and look at what it
says, Nick. He trusted in the Lord God of it. He didn't trust
a piece of brass or a piece of wood. He trusted God. And God
said, there's my son, hear him. So that after him was none like
him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.
Wow. I tell you what, If God's gonna
brag on a sinner, you know why that's gonna happen? Because
it's Christ being glorified. God honors faith and honors his
son. That's what he does. Oh, may
it be so of all of us. He didn't worship an idol. He
didn't worship a piece of brass. He despised the very idea of
that. He broke it into pieces. Like Moses took that golden calf
and ground it into powder and made him drink it. He trusted in God Almighty. Christ crucified is our glory. Christ crucified is not just
our glory, he's God's glory too. He's the glory of God. This is
the definition of love that he gave himself for us. That's the
definition of what love is. You cannot define love any better
than that. When God says, here's love, here's
love. And he said, when Christ was
made the propitiation for my sin, there's love. That's love. God's love. And the greatest of all of God's
graces is love. The greatest is love. This defines
the sin of man. The cross defines the sin of
man. This is the condemnation. This is man's will. This defines the grace of God.
You know what grace is, what it looks like? Grace is not God
doing his best for you. Grace is God doing everything
for you on a cross. You see what this cross is? This
is not something the Lord Jesus needs help with. It ain't about
that. He didn't need help with it.
This is not something, this is something you need to be identified
with. That's what happened. And that's
the carrying of it by us. We take it upon ourselves gladly.
It means reproach, bring it. It means the wrath of man. It
means men gnashing their teeth at us like they did at him, bring
it. Now, listen to me now, this is
important. Us taking up the cross far from
being something that we do for God, the very truth and message
of the cross is all that we do is sin. That's why the cross,
there's nothing you can do. Who then can be saved? With men
it's impossible, but with God, all things are possible. How
is it possible with God? Calvary. The cross says that all of our
efforts to please God are vanity. Hence the cross. That's what
we're saying when we take it up. Far from being some kind
of a cooperation with him or a help or some kind of a thing
we're doing for God. It says we can't do anything
for God. That's what the cross says. That's
what we've taken up. The cross is us killing the son
of God. We take that up. We own that. when we take up his cross. And
the cross is salvation by Christ alone. Grace alone, through faith
alone, by Christ alone, in Christ alone, as revealed in the scriptures
alone. Christ alone. We take that up. That's the message of the cross,
isn't it? that salvation is of the Lord.
The cross is God satisfied, and my sin put away by Christ's precious
blood, and only by that. We own that, the cross is offensive
to man, but we do not want the offense to cease, because it's
our home. Listen to what Paul said, Galatians
5, one, stand fast therefore, turn over there with me, I think
I'm almost through, well, maybe not. We might continue this tonight. But listen, look at Galatians
5.1. I think I will continue this tonight. It's easy to be wearied, isn't
it, in the flesh and not here. We have to be honest with ourselves,
don't we? It sounds bad to say, boy, we just can't, our flesh
gets weary and we can't listen. If you're honest about it though,
Why would you go beyond that and then not hear anything? That's
not gonna help anybody, right? So we have to be aware of that.
Galatians 5.1, stand fast therefore in the liberty, the freedom. What happened to Barabbas? Freedom,
where with Christ hath made us free. And don't be entangled
again with the yoke of bondage, Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if you be circumcised, and you know that represents keeping
of the law. He's gonna say that in a minute. Remember me saying
this right now because we're gonna read that in a minute.
But if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. You're
on your own before God. That's what that means. You're
on your own before God. It's unthinkable. For I testify
again to you that to every man that is circumcised, that he
is a debtor to do the whole law. If you keep one aspect of the
law and think that that gives you favor with God in somehow,
maybe people say, well, I've come to church this morning.
A lot of people didn't come. Look at that guy mowing his yard
over there. He don't, you know, I'm glad I'm not like him. You
know, like the Pharisee. I came to church this morning.
You're on your own before God. If you came to church to score
points with God, you're on your own. You're a debtor to do all
of the law of God, and you're in big trouble is what that means. Oh my. Christ shall profit you
nothing. What a horrible thought. Look at verse four, Christ is
become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you. What did he
mean by being circumcised? Whosoever of you are justified
by the law. That's what he means. You're
circumcised, the Jews were proud of that. Look at us, it separates
us from everybody. Those uncircumcised Gentiles,
look at them. We have the favor of God. Look
at his, Because we do, we keep the law.
We're religious. We clean the outside of the cup. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you're fallen from grace. That doesn't mean you
had God's grace once and now don't have it anymore. It means
you're on a footing of law without grace. Christ is of no profit
or effect unto you. Now think about that. Jesus died
for everybody. No, not according to that. We
see that in the positive sense all through the scripture. He
said, I laid down my life for my sheep. You're not my sheep. You don't
believe me because you're not my sheep. But also in the negative
sense. Look at that. He just said, Christ
didn't do anything for you. He's become of no effect unto
you. He's no prophet. His death did nothing for you
if you're justified by the law. you're fallen from grace for
we through the spirit by God's grace those who haven't fallen
from great those who are under the not under the law but under
grace we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified
we're justified by grace through faith in Christ For in Jesus Christ, neither
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. If you have
perfect righteousness in Christ, what difference does it make
whether you've been circumcised or not? Perfect righteousness is perfect
righteousness, and Christ is that righteousness. It doesn't matter what you've
done or haven't done. It's hard to get away from that,
isn't it? Boy, we've just got to do this, we've got to do that.
I know it's by grace, but we. There is no but we. If you're justified by the law,
you're falling from grace. And you know what? If you're
justified by grace, you're not under the law. You just not. We wait for the hope of the righteousness
by faith for in Christ Jesus, Circumcision, uncircumcision,
but faith, faith in Him now, that connects us to Christ. Abraham
believed God and in the sight of God, he was righteous. That
availed something. But notice this, it's faith which
worketh by love. Faith does. Well, wait a minute. I thought you said it's not about
what we do or don't do. No, well, it's not. Salvation
is not. But those who have faith in Christ,
they do things, but not by the law. Not in order to please God. If Christ is your righteousness,
what are you gonna do to please God? Faith doesn't work like
that. Faith works by love. Why do you
do what you do, believer? I love him. By his grace, I hate what he
hates. Isn't that what he said about Jonah? And then he says this on a personal
note to them. He said, you did run well. You
understood that when I preached it to you. But who did hinder
you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh
not of him that calleth you, A little leaven, leaveneth the
whole lot. Remember what he called the leaven
of the Pharisees, their doctrine. But he said this, I have confidence
in you through the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded,
but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever
he be. And I, brethren, if I preach circumcision, this is why I read
all of that, so we know what he means by circumcision. It's
you standing before God and thinking that you're favorable and acceptable
in the sight of God by anything that you do or don't do. Paul
said, if I preach that, how come I'm being persecuted? People
love to hear that. Name it, if he'd have given you
some great thing to do, you'd have done it. What you don't
like is not doing anything. What you don't like is bound
to God and His grace. The only thing sinners hate worse
than God's law is His grace. We're self-destructive wretches,
aren't we, by nature? If I yet preach circumcision,
if I preach justification by the law, I wouldn't suffer persecution
because then is the offense of the cross ceased. You see what the offense of the
cross is then? It's the truth that everything
you are and everything you do, the very best you'll ever have
done, will do, are doing, is done in the sight of God. And
your only hope is the son of God and his precious Sanatani
blood and the grace of God, which puts you in him and makes him unto you righteousness
and sanctification and everything that you need.
We gladly, by his grace, bear and conform to the offense of
his cross. When we preach the cross, we
become an offense because we tell sinners there's nothing
they can do to be saved. With men, it's impossible. When we confess that, we're taking
up the cross, because that's what the cross preaches. How
did we come to the place of carrying this cross? I may go ahead and
try to, I don't know when we'll look
at the rest of this, but I want to close with this. How in the
world did you, are you carrying the cross? Have you taken up
his cross and are following him this morning? How did that happen? Would you agree with me, first
of all, that God Almighty orchestrated every detail of every event surrounding
this cross in an earthly, physical sense? Everything that has to
do, most of it was prophesied in detail centuries before it
ever happened. Millennia before it ever happened. All was prophesied. It was that
the scriptures might be fulfilled. How many times did he say that
on his way to the cross? And it says that concerning the
things that he spoke from the cross. All was in fulfillment of the
scriptures. And let's ask it this way. What did God purpose
and do that resulted in this man, Simon, a Cyrenian? Somebody
said that's in North Africa. What's he doing there? Listen to this. How did he come
to carry the cross? And how did you? Matthew 27,
32, as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name,
him they compelled to bear his cross. He was found. In the providence and grace of
God, a man from North Africa was found to bear the cross of
the Savior. Luke 23, 26, and as they led
him away, that's the Lord, 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. That's our text. They laid hold
of him. He was found and laid hold of. Mark 15, 20, and when they had
mocked him, They took off the purple from him and put his own
clothes on him and led him out to crucify him. And they compel
one Simon, a Cyrenian who passed by, coming out of the country,
the father of Alexander and Rufus. I wonder why the Lord tells us
who his children were. Maybe because they're his children. to bear his cross. And they bring him unto the place
called God, which is being interpreted, the place of the skull. If you have taken up the cross
of the Savior this morning and are following him, it's because
you were found and you were laid hold of And you were compelled. It's not us helping him out.
It's something he did for us. And we'll praise him for it forever.
Let's pray.