Mark 1539 this morning. Whenever the word of God is read,
the Lord often will impress one particular
thought upon me. I think it's got a lot to do
with the fact that my mind is so limited. One thing, if I can
get one thing, that's doing pretty good. And as our brother read
that passage there with so much, so much in it, it struck me more than it ever
has how that our Lord said, as the Father hath loved me, as God Almighty loves His only begotten Son. That's how I love you. It's not every day that I hear
the Master say to me, I love you, but I heard it just then.
I love you. That's about the best thing I
could hear. Mark 1539, just a verse or two this morning. Mark 1539, and when the centurion
which stood over against him saw that he so cried out and
gave up the ghost, he said, truly, this man was the Son of God. That's what I want to talk to
you about this morning, the Son of God truly. Now what was the cry that prompted
this centurion to say what he did? It says that when he saw
that he so cried out, he cried something. in verse 34 we saw
that in our previous study we saw what he cried there and how
that many it says misunderstood what he said so he was calling
for help you know from Elijah but not everybody misunderstood
him apparently but this was not the cry that's referred to in
our verse in verse 37 we're told that he cried with a loud voice
again just prior to giving up the ghost, just prior to breathing
out his spirit. But we're not told here what
he cried. Whatever it was, along with all the other things that
happened in that hour, this man, this one man was caused
at least to say this truly, this man, This man wasn't just a man. He's God the Son. And notice first, before we talk
about that cry, that our Lord gave up the ghost. Now men may use that phrase,
but if they do use it with regard to anybody else other than the
Lord Jesus Christ, they misuse it. They use it wrongly. The Lord Jesus Christ gave up
his spirit. This is a willful act of purpose. This is God's son doing what
he said that he would do, laying down his life. We don't do that. When Job said the Lord gave and
the Lord hath taken away. Among other things, he was talking
about his children, the lives of his children. The Lord took
them away. He gave life and he took away
life. And that's his prerogative to
do that. We don't give up our lives. The Lord has appointed unto us
once to die. Now there may be some sense in
which you could say people gave their lives for this or that
or the other thing. But our life is not ours to give.
It's a gift from the master. And he's the only one that can
give it and take it. And he, he said, I lay down my life and
I'll take it up again. And that's true with all life.
He does that with all life. He takes and he gives. But what
happened on the cross was that Christ gave his life. He gave up the ghost. As I said, it wasn't taken from
him. Let's read where he said that. John 10, 14. I am the good shepherd, and I
know my sheep, and am known of mine. John 10,
14. I'm the good shepherd. I know
my sheep, and my sheep know me. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the
sheep. The other sheep I have which
are not of this foal, them also I must bring. His sheep for all
time, past, present, and future, when he spoke this. I must bring
them, and here's how that's gonna happen. They're gonna hear my
voice. You may just hear my voice this morning. You might hear
his voice. If you do, you'll come to him.
You'll follow him. If you just hear my voice, And
you won't get much out of that. But he speaks through the voice
of a man. He said, I must bring them. Not
I'm doing my best to get them to come. I'm going to bring them.
I've got to bring them and I'm going to bring them. And he said,
I'm not going to lose any of them. I'm going to bring them. All of my sheep, I'm going to
bring them. and there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. Therefore doth my father love
me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me. Who killed Jesus Christ? Nobody, he said. He said nobody. Nobody takes my life from me. I have power. He said, no man
takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have authority
to do that. I don't have that authority,
my Lord does. The Lord Jesus Christ alone has
that authority. I have power to lay it down and
I have power to take it again. And this commandment have I received
of my father. So he gave up the ghost. So we
know that our Lord cried as he was giving up the ghost. In verse
37 we see that in our text. And because we have the testimony
of John also, concerning this same event, we know what he cried.
In John 19, 30, it refers to that. It says, when Jesus therefore
had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. In the
original Greek that he spoke there, it was one word. And it
means perfect. It means done, finished, accomplished,
complete, perfect. He spoke one word. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. He bowed his head. His head didn't
drop when he died. He bowed it deliberately and
willingly gave his spirit for me. He did it for me. And as he did, as he bowed his
head, as he gave himself, he said, this is the fulfillment
of everything. That's what we talked about in
the Bible class this morning. The cause of everything, the
purpose of everything, the goal of everything is Christ and what
he did for sinners. And he said, that's complete
now, that's perfect now, it's accomplished. The work that the father gave
him to do was finished. What was that work? To redeem
his people. He said, I came into the world
to save sinners. That's what my father sent me
to do. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. Finished. Everybody he came into
this world to save, he said, they're saved. As he bowed his
head and gave up his spirit, he said, it's done, that's accomplished. They're saved. I came to save
them, they're saved. He came to glorify his father
also. Isn't that what he said in his high priestly prayer,
John chapter 17? Father, glorify thou me, the
hour has come that I may glorify thee. Finished. All of the glory of God is seen
in the face of the crucified Redeemer. Crucified and living
Redeemer. God's glory is seen right there.
Perfect. Perfect. He came into this world to live
for us as our righteousness. and to die for us as our sin
offering, the perfect work of salvation was finished, accomplished
perfectly by the Son of God. And he declared it so as he gave
up his spirit. He said, Father, into thy hands,
I commend my spirit. Finished before you ever respond
to it. Finished before you even knew
about it. Finished without your cooperation. Finished for you
if you're one of his sheep, which he said he laid down his life
for. He said, I laid down my life for my sheep and they ain't
ever gonna perish. Finished for you if you're one
of the ones that the Father gave him. He finished it before you
were born. And then one day he told you
about it through a preacher. That's called the gospel. And
when you heard about it, you said, I found him. I found him. I found the Christ. I found hope. I found life. I found him. The one that found
me a long time ago. Think about what all is included
in what this centurion said. What all is he saying when he
says truly this man was the son of God. You can't say that without
saying this truly God sent his son into this world. This man
right here before us on this cross. God sent his son. Great is the
mystery of godliness God was manifest. Right here in the flesh. Our hands have handled the word
of life, his apostle said. God really did that. He sent
his son into this world and because he did, we know what love is. You know
without that there's no love. You don't know what love is if
you don't Believe on Christ having come into, listen to it. Herein
is love. This is what love is. Not that
we love God. That's what they're singing about
in religious so-called church. Oh how we love him. But here's
love. If you wanna know what love is,
forget about your love. Even your best love, your love for
God. That's the best it gets from man, is to love God. But
that's not love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and sent his son. You can't say truly this man
is the son of God without saying God sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. That's what this is that we're
beholding here. This is God sending his son into
the world. Why did he do it? To be the sin
offering for his people. And you can't say what this man
said. Surely this man was the Son of God without saying this.
Truly, God's Son died. The most profound things, they get past us, don't they? Truly, God's Son And the scriptures tell us why. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. He died to bear our sins away
as God's scapegoat, our scapegoat. He died to put away our sins
by the sacrifice of himself. He died to redeem us From our
sin, truly God's son, there he is, truly this man, this dying
man was the son of God. This is not just some religious
martyr on a cross. This is the son of God dying.
This is something so much greater than that. The most important
aspect of what happened that day Everybody know, well, Jesus
died on the cross. What's the gospel? What's the
death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ? The most important
aspect of what happened that day, what makes all of it what
it is, is who it is that died. Truly, this man, this dying man,
is God's son. There's not a whole lot of talk
in religion about that. Who it is that died? If God died,
why in the world would that happen? Why would God give himself? Well, as we said, the scriptures
and religion says, well, Jesus died, Jesus died. Jesus who? There are a lot of Jesuses. Who
are you talking about? This is the son of God giving
himself for sinners. If God the Son died to put away
sin, then sin is put away. That's why it's important, that's
one of the reasons it's important for us to understand who it is
that died. Because if we know who it is,
then we know that whatever he came to do is done just like
he said it was. Perfect, complete, accomplished,
finished. If I say that, I do a job that
somebody sent me to do, and I say, it's perfect. Well, but if this
man truly was the son of God, and he says it's perfect, and
he tells me what I'm doing here is dying for your sin, then my
sins are died for, they're put away. He died to put away sin. How do I know it's finished?
Because truly, this man was the son of God. That's how I know. And you can't say it without saying
this too. Truly, he was exactly who he claimed to be. That's
who he said he was. He said, I'm God the son. He said that God the Father had
sent him to do a specific work. and that everything that he did
was the father's business. I must be about my father's business. That's what he came to do. He said, I and my father are
one. Is that true? The centurion said
it was. He said, if you've seen me, you've
seen my father. Is that the truth? The centurion
said it was. This is, this man's who he said
he was. He's God's son. And I'll tell you this, you know
what that means? If he was telling the truth about
himself, then he was telling the truth every time he spoke.
Every claim that he made is true. Because if he's the Son of God,
if he's, you know, he said, I can give life to whomsoever I will.
Well, there's no way that can be true unless you're the Son
of God. Well, he was, truly. He said, I give life, in John
5, 21, to whoever I will, whoever I want to have life, they'll
have it, because I say so. He said, come to me and I'll
give it to you. Come to me. He said that he had
power on earth to forgive sins. He had the authority to declare
sins forgiven and it's done. And you know what they said about
that? Nobody can do that but God. If he's who he says he is, then
he can do what he said he could do. He said that he died for his
sheep. We read part of that while ago in John chapter 10. That
whole chapter is about that. He said, I laid down my life
for my sheep. And he said, they therefore will never perish.
And he told many who were listening to him there that day, he said,
you don't believe on me. And the reason that you don't
is because you're not my sheep. I died for my sheep. And you're
not one of them. That's why you don't believe
me. You know who that was that said
that? It was the Son of God. Truly. Now, if he was the Son of God,
if that claim that he made was true, And every claim that he
made then is true, because if he's God the Son, he can do it.
He can do what he says he'll do. And I'll tell you what else
he said. And if he is God's Son, then
this is true too. John 6, 63, it is the spirit
that quickeneth the flesh, profits nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit and they are life. He said, I come in the Father. What I have heard and learned
of my Father, that's what I say. Truly, when he spoke, it was
the word of God. If he's the son of God, then
he spoke the word of God. And very few gave any credibility
to what he said. And you know something? That's
still true. I'm talking about what he said
now, not what they say, what he said. Very few give any credibility
to what he said, but when he said it, it was God speaking. The reason that he was able to
speak with authority and not as the scribes is because truly
he was the son of God. That's how God speaks, with authority,
because he is the authority. when he said you know they said
you know what they said about him they said when he cast out
devils and did these miracles and particularly when he cast
devils out of people they said he casts out devils by the devil he's working for Satan you remember
that Matthew chapter 12 and do you remember what he said to
them when they said that Matthew 12 28 he said if I cast out devils by Beelzebub, as you say, then
by whom do your children cast them out? And then he said this,
that if I cast out devils by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is standing
right in front of you. The kingdom of God is coming
to you. Truly, he was the son of God.
And truly, when he spoke, it was God speaking. It was the
word of God. And I'll tell you this, you can't
say what this centurion did without saying this. Truly, we just killed
God's son. We just killed the prince of
life. Well, wait a minute, Chris. A
while ago, you said nobody killed him. That's true in the sense
that he laid down his life, he gave up the ghost, he willingly
gave himself an offering for sin. But as far as the guilt
of it is concerned, what this picture that we have here is
the Lord Jesus Christ taking his restraint. Do you know what you would do if God, if you truly did have
a free will? You know what you'd do? You'd
kill God. That's as free as our will has
ever been, right there, except in the garden. And it still wasn't free. It
was by God's design and ordination. We did what God's hand and counsel
determined before to be done. But we did the will of our evil,
wicked, foul hearts that day. It says in the scripture that
Pilate delivered them up Him up Christ to their will and that
is a statement upon every one of us That's an indictment upon
every one of us When our will was done with regard to the Son
of God. We murdered him You know in his in his vow and hateful
away as we could possibly think of to do that And that's what
happened here. You can't say truly. This was
the Son of God without saying we just nailed God's Son to a
cross and Turn to Acts chapter 2. This is the gospel now. The apostle Peter preaching the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Acts. Verse 36
of chapter 2. He said, therefore Let all the house of Israel know
assuredly without a doubt because God said it that God hath made
that same Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. That essentially
is what the centurion said in it. Truly this man was the son
of God. That's what Peter's preaching.
It was it was God the son that came into this world. The one
that you crucify. Now, verse 37, now when they heard
this, they were pricked, they were stabbed in their heart.
Their heart was pierced, is what that said. And they said to Peter
and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall
we do? That's the cry of despair, and
what are you gonna do about that? Religion talks about our good
outweighing our bad, How are you going to outweigh
that? You killed God. What are you going to do about that? And Peter said unto them, repent. Repent. Now I want to read the
whole thing that he said and make a point here. Peter said
unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name
of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, and you shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost, for the promise is unto you, the
gospel is to you and to your children, and all them that are
far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, and
whom he did predestinate, them he also called. The gospel is to them people,
the ones in Romans chapter eight, who God knew from eternity. The
opposite of what he said to those who boasted of their good works
in that last day. He said, Lord, look at our wonderful
works. He said, I never knew you. But there are some that
he did. And they're not boasting about
their works if they know him. He said, I knew you. and I predestinated
everything about you. I predestinated you and everything
about you. I predetermined it. I appointed
you, as our Bible class lesson again said this morning, I appointed
you to salvation. And I called you. I named you
is what the word is there. And whom he called, them he also
justified. In whom he justified them, he
also glorified. He does all of those things for
all of his people. That's the gospel. And Peter
said here, the promise is unto you, everyone that the Lord will
call. And that's the promise now. That
Christ. There's none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. You killed
the prince of life, but you were just doing what God's hand and
counsel determined before to be done for the purpose of saving
his people from their sins. Why did he die? We talked about
a while ago. He died for our sins according to the scriptures.
He died the just for in place of as substitute for the unjust. Why? That he might bring us to
God. That's why he died. And now they
said what What are we gonna do? And Peter said, repent and be
baptized. And you might think, well, wait
a minute, Peter forgot to say believe. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. The word repent
means to change your mind about everything that matters. You
got to change your mind about what you are before God. Oh,
I'm a sinner, you know, I've done some bad things. That's
not what a sinner is. It's not a person that's done some bad
things. It's a bad person. Well, they're not a bad person. Yes, they are. Doesn't matter
who you're talking about. Yes, they are. I am, you are,
our children are, our parents are. A sinner is an evil person. Not just somebody that does some
bad things. That's why we do bad things. Because we're vile,
we're wicked, we're evil. We got to change our minds about
that. We got to believe. You know how you change your
mind about that? You believe what God said. Peter
didn't forget to say believe. That word repent, it's the same
thing. To change your mind about what
you are is to believe what God said about what you are. To change
your mind about who God is. We will not have this man to
reign over us. You better get to changing that. You better
bow. You have to change your mind
about that. He's the sovereign. He's Lord. He's the one in authority. He's the one calling the shots.
Not you, not me. We got to change our mind about
who God is. We got to change our mind about
how God can be just, can stay God and justify sinners. He can't
just see you walk down an aisle and make a decision and say,
oh, well, I'm gonna save that person. He can't reward anything
you do because everything you do is evil. We've got to change
our mind about what happened at Calvary. That wasn't God's
best effort. That wasn't Christ dying to give
us another chance to do the right thing. That was the Son of God
truly giving himself for his people and saving them, redeeming
them, washing their sins away. Making atonement for them. Obtaining
eternal redemption for them. You see what I'm saying? Repentance.
Changing your mind is to believe. You change your mind from your
preconceived notions about yourself, about God, about how He saves
sinners. You've got to change your mind
from your preconceived notions to what? A change implies from
and to. What are you changing your mind
to? I believe God. Abraham believed
God, and God said, you're righteous. It was imputed to him for righteousness,
because by faith, we don't have our righteousness, but Christ's. By faith, we are united unto
him, and he is our righteousness. That's why it was counted to
him for righteousness. God considered him righteous
in his son, Jesus Christ. So he said, repent. And then
let everybody know, show forth his death in baptism. Everybody that's interested,
say this. I'm a new creature. I'm his now. I don't think like
I used to. By his grace, I don't. Repent
and be baptized. You remember that old blind fellow
in John chapter 9, what the Lord asked him? Let's turn over there, John 9,
35. Jesus heard that they had cast
this man out. And when he had found him. Our
Lord had healed the man of his blindness made him able to see.
And everybody knew that he had been blinded and now he could
see in the course to the religious authorities got involved and
started grilling him about how it happened and all of this and
he said this Jesus of Nazareth I was blind and Jesus of Nazareth
came along and now I'm able to see. It's because of him. He
made me see. And they said, this man's a sinner. They confessed that he's a sinner.
He said, I don't know anything about that. I just know that
I was blind and now, because of him, I'm able to see. That's
what I know. I'm not a theologian. I don't know anything about that.
I just know, I know why I can see. And so they cast him out
of the church because he wouldn't admit that that Jesus Christ
is a sinner. And when they did, the Lord found
him. You want to be in the church? Or you want to be with him? To be in his true church and to be with him are not mutually
exclusive. But you can be in a church and
not be with him. But when the established so-called
religious organization cast him out, the Lord found him. And when he had, he said unto
him, do you believe on the Son of God? Do you believe on the
Son? And he answered and said, who
is he, Lord? That I might believe on him. He didn't know much before, but
he's fixing to know everything there is to know. Still not gonna
be a theologian, still not gonna be able to answer a lot of religious
questions, but he's gonna know everything there is to know. Who is he, Lord? Well, that centurion
said, there he is right there. This man on this cross is the
son of God. Truly, that's him right there.
But this man said, who is he, Lord, that I might believe on
him? And Jesus said unto him, thou hast both seen him, and
it is he that talketh with thee. What's significant about the
fact that he's seen him? Well, what's significant about
that is that just a little while before that, he wasn't seeing
anything. And what a beautiful gospel picture that is. Once
you see him, you see everything. The first thing he opened his
eyes, he came seeing. He saw the Son of God, and then
to see him is to see everything, and now that's happening spiritually
in this part of the text. Thou hast both seen him, and
he's referring not just to when his physical eyes were opened,
But the Lord's making that happen spiritually for him right here.
You've seen him and he's speaking with you. Salvation's a person. We're still learning that together,
aren't we? Salvation is this man. Surely this man is the Son
of God. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Who is he? Well, have you seen
him? Has he spoken to you? Do you
know who he is? Well, this man said, Lord, I
believe. The Lord said, you've seen him,
and sure enough, he had, not just with these eyes. He was
able to say, I believe. And he worshiped him. That's
what everybody does who sees him. They worship him. Truly Truly this sovereign Life-giving Almighty lamb This sacrifice for sin He sent
his son to be the propitiation for our sin this forgiver of
sins. He said I have authority to do
that This finisher of salvation for
his sheep. This one who by himself purged
our sins. This one who loved me enough
to give himself for me. Truly this is the Son of God. Do you believe on the Son of
God? John said these are written that
you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and
that believing you might have life through his name. So we
declare what he has written because it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching Christ in him crucified to save them that believe. That's
my prayer for all of us this morning. May God reveal his Son
to us and in us by his grace. Because to know Him is life.
Let's pray.