Because of Christ our righteousness,
he will not remember the sins of his people anymore. But Hebrews
6 there, verse 10, says, God is not unrighteous to forget
your work and labor of love which you've showed toward his name
and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. And we desire that every one
of you to show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
until the end. That you be not slothful, but
followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. And he gives Abraham the example.
God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater,
he swore by himself, saying, surely blessing I will bless
thee and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, After he had patiently
endured, he obtained a promise. He obtained a promise. Let's
go back now to John 19. John 19. In verse 5, it says, Then came Jesus forth,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. They had wanted Christ to be
crucified. They wanted Barabbas to be released,
and so Pilate had him scourged. They put the crown of thorns
on his head and purple robe on him, mocked him. And so Pilate brings him forth.
And then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple
robe and saith unto them, behold the man. Behold the man. This is such a very important
statement. I agree with Hawker and Matthew
Henry and some others that This farewell could be the word our
Lord spoke rather than Pilate. Pilate is put there by the translators. But we find throughout the scriptures
the Lord Jesus is the one that says, behold me, behold me, look
to me, seek me. And here the command comes, he
said to them, behold the man. Beholding the man, Christ Jesus.
He is the man, Christ Jesus. What does that mean that he's
the man? There is only one man, only one
man that ever was born and lived and died. And please God. of himself entirely without the
help of a mediator, without the need of a savior. He himself
is that one man. Behold, the man. He's the one
man who is perfect. He is the man who God accepts
and who God delights in. He's the man whose perfectly
obedient and completely thoroughly pleased the Father at all times. He's the man, the one man, the
only man by whose righteousness God accepts those who believe
on Him. Behold the man. This is a very
serious passage of Scripture. I do hope the Lord tonight will
enable us. I hope the man the man, sends
the Holy Spirit and enables us to behold him so that from our
heart we might really and truly worship him and hear him and
not cease beholding him, continue beholding him, behold the man. First of all, behold the man
who is God. Behold the man who is God. Now,
this man, Christ Jesus, is no victim. When we read these things
that he endured at the hands of men and under the wrath of
God, we're not looking at someone and feeling sorry for somebody
who's a victim. Our Lord Jesus said, weep not
for me, weep for yourself. He's not a victim. He is God. He's God in full control of everything
that was taking place at this time and throughout time. He's the Creator who is in absolute
sovereign control. Now, this is why the Pharisees'
enmity were raging against Him. It's because He is God. This
is why they were raging against Him. Verse 6, when the chief
priest, therefore, and officer saw Him, They cried out, saying,
Crucify, crucify! Pilate said to them, Take ye
him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered
him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because
he made himself the Son of God. That's what they were angry about,
because he is the Son of God, and he declared it to them. Behold
the man who is God, who is the Son of God. Now this law that
they refer to here is the law that the man gave to them. It's the law that the man, the
Son of God gave to them on Mount Sinai. And what they're referring
to is the law said that if anybody blasphemes God's name, He's to
be stoned to death. Now they weren't too concerned
with the law because they weren't doing what the law said. The
law didn't say crucify him. The law said he had to be stoned. And yet God had decreed that
when the man came into this world they would not have any power
to execute the death penalty, which we've seen they didn't
because the scepter departed from them, the man has come,
the king to whom it belongs, Shiloh, so they can't execute
this death penalty. Now Pilate, Pilate had reservations
and he didn't want, he didn't want to be responsible for crucifying
him. But he also wanted to please
men. He's on the fence. He wants to please men, but he
doesn't want to crucify the Lord. He goes back and forth, back
and forth, back and forth. He goes to them, and he thinks
about crucifying, and he goes back to the Lord, and he doesn't
want to crucify Him. There's an old saying down south
that if you see a turtle on a fence post, a man put him there. If
you see a sinner on a fence, wavering between two opinions,
a man put him there. The Lord's going to bring his
child down to his feet and he's going to stand with Christ. But
Pilate here, seven times he declared he found no fault in the Lord. Seven times. But, and he tried
every effort to thwart this thing of crucifying him. The reason
he scourged him is because he thought this will appease him
and I can release him. He said that in one of the other
Gospels. But it didn't work. Every attempt he made, it did
not work. Why not? Behold the man who is God. That's
why it didn't work. Because way back there in eternity,
the one standing here, with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit,
decreed that he would come forth, and as the man, he would be crucified. Not stoned, he'd be crucified.
And so there's nothing anybody's going to do to stop this from
happening. Pilate's guilty. He's doing what he does with
wicked hands from a wicked heart. The Pharisees, the religious
rulers, they're guilty. And they're not justified in
what they're doing. They're guilty. But God decreed
it. And they're doing what God determined
for to be done. And that's why he could not prevent
this from happening. Behold the man who is the Son
of God." He's ruling everything that's taking place here, and
His will shall be done. His will shall be done. He's
God. He must go to that tree and be
crucified to show how that He has redeemed His people from
the curse of the law by being made a cursed forest, because
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And that's what He's
manifesting. His will shall be done. Look
down at verse 9. He went again into the judgment
hall and he said to Jesus, whence art thou? After he heard them
say, he said he's the son of God. Again Pilate is convicted. He goes in and he asks the Lord
Jesus, whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.
The Lord gave him no answer. Then said Pilate unto him, Speakest
thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have
power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus
answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except
it were given thee from above. The Jews said he made himself
the Son of God. He is the son of God. He's always
been the son of God. He made himself to be born of
a woman. He is the child born, but he's
always been the son. And he's always been God. And it's always been decreed
from the beginning that he would be the son given. He is God. Behold the man who is God. Listen
to Matthew 1.23. We quoted it the other day, but
listen to how the Spirit of God's words did. Behold. Behold. That's what Pilate said. Behold
the man. The Spirit of God spoke to Joseph and said, Behold, a
virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and
they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God
with us. He was in the form of God. He
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He's God. Behold
the man who's God. He made himself of no reputation,
took upon him the form of the servant, and was made in the
likeness of men. That's who this one is. Behold
the man who is God. Now what does that mean for sinners
like us? What does that mean for sinners
like us? Well, everything that comes against
you, you can say what our Lord said right here. Nobody can have
any power against you whatsoever if it wasn't given to them from
above. He's ruling everything at all times, and he's doing
it just for his people. And it also means this. Because
he was made a man, he knows our infirmities. He knows them, but
He's also God able to comfort you, and it also means everything
that He accomplished for His people is finished. It's done,
it's eternal, it's unchangeable, it's as mutable as He is, and
as eternal as He is, and it will be forever. Nothing can be put
to it, nothing can be taken from it. Behold the man who is God. Now, secondly, behold the man
who's perfect. He's the perfect man. He's the
perfect man. He's the one, holy, righteous,
perfect man. He is the image of God in whose
image Adam was created. Now, I know that his body was
not yet made, he had not yet come forth made in the likeness
of men, but he is that perfect man from the very beginning,
from eternity, in the purpose of God, in whose image Adam was
created after. Adam was first, and Christ came
forth as the last Adam. Adam was created as a head and
represented as the pattern after Christ who is the head. But the man we behold here is
not a created man. He's the Lord from heaven. He's
the quickening spirit. He's the one who is perfect and
holy and righteous and able to create a new spirit within these
dead bodies of sinful flesh. He's the man who is the image
of God in whose image the first man, Adam, was made. He's life. He was Adam's life. He's every
believer's life. That's who he is. He's the man,
the last Adam, who is a quickening spirit, the Lord from heaven.
Listen to 1 Corinthians 15.45. The first man, Adam, was made
a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening
spirit. Howbeit that was not first which
is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that
which is spiritual. The first man was natural. This
is the Lord from heaven who is spiritual. The perfect man, the
righteous man, the holy man. The first man's of the earth,
earthy, that's Adam, that's me, that's you. The second man is
the Lord from heaven, that's the Lord Jesus. Holy, perfect,
righteous, the only one, the man, the man, the perfect man,
the righteous man, the holy man. His body was not created yet
in that garden, but he's the man, the seed of woman promised
from the garden. In Genesis 3.15, I'll put enmity
between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. This is him. It shall bruise
thy head, thou shalt bruise his heel. That was said to the devil.
You're going to bruise his heel, but he's going to bruise your
head. This is the seed of woman. Never been done before. Never
a woman had a seed without a man. This was the first time. And
so what did the devil do? Revelation 12, 13 says, when
the dragon, the devil, saw that he was cast into the earth, he
persecuted the woman which brought forth the man. He tried to stop
Christ from being born, but she gave birth to the man. Behold,
the man, the sinless man, the holy man, not like any one of
us, not anything like any one of us. He wouldn't have had to
come. Otherwise, if we could have in
any way pleased God and presented ourselves to God, he wouldn't
have had to come. But he had to come down and take a body
and be the holy, perfect, righteous man. Behold the one man God the
Father has always looked to. He's never looked to you and
me. He's always looked to the man, the one man. He is the one
man. He is the perfection of humanity. He is the one man out of all
humanity that none of the sons of Adam could ever attain to,
the man. He's the man. God's looked to
him. God's put all his trust in him. He entrusted the whole
kingdom to him. He entrusted the government to
him. He is the perfect holy man in whom sinners must be found
if we're going to be accepted of God. Behold the man. Now let's behold him, the man,
in his perfection. Holy, sinless, righteous perfection. Holy from the womb, perfect throughout
his whole life. But let's see it right here in
this text. We see it here in this text.
In verse 1, Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. and the soldiers
plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they
put on him a purple robe and said, Hail, King of the Jews,
and they smote him with their hands. That would have been the
end of me and you. If we'd have been perfectly holy
and righteous up to that point right there, that'd have been
the end of it. Is there anybody here that could have endured
that with absolutely no sin? In perfection, with no sin, not
even a thought. None but the man could have endured
this shame and yet be without sin." Never think sin, never
do sin. No man was perfectly willing,
with a perfect will, to obey God the Father, to obey Him,
to suffer something like that. Even what was to come after this,
the death of the cross. I'm not talking about, you know,
God's put a new will in his people and we're willing. We have a
new will where we want to be found in Christ. And while we're
in this world, we want to do whatever we can for him out of
a love to him and a gratitude to him. And we are willing to
honor him and serve him. And we don't want to bring reproach
on him. But we don't have a perfect will.
You don't have a perfect will. I don't either. He did. He did. If I could get out of suffering,
I would prefer to get out of it. Would you? He willingly did
this. He willingly did this. He obeyed
the Father in everything, even in these unimaginable sufferings,
he was perfectly willing. He was moved by his love for
God, which was a perfect love, and by his perfect love for his
brethren. And so he was perfectly willing
to suffer this. You see, behold the perfect man.
He said, I gave my back to the smiters. Talking about these
men that scourged him. I gave my back to them. Willingly. I gave my cheeks to them that
plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting." I think that spitting in somebody's face is about the
worst thing you can do in any culture. It's about the most
degrading, shameful thing you can do to somebody is spitting
their face. He said, I didn't hide my face from it. We hid
our faces from him. That's us. We hid our faces from
Him. He hid not His face from shame
and spitting. Perfectly willing. The perfect,
holy, righteous man. This man who's God, the perfect
man who's righteous and holy. And then thirdly, behold the
sin bearing, curse bearing man. We behold these physical things
here that Christ bore at the hands of men. And they were painful. They were troubling. They were
a great unimaginable just in the things he bore here. But
when you look at these physical sufferings, behold greater spiritual
things he bore at the hand of God. What men were doing here
was unjust. He's innocent. The only innocent
man that ever walked this earth. Everything they're doing here
is unjust. But what he bore from God was just because he made
him sin for us who know no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Now in these physical sufferings
that he bore at the hands of men, his people behold something
of our sin that he was bearing. You see, we behold something
of the curse Christ bore that we deserve in these things that
he suffered, even the things he suffered at the hands of men.
You get what I'm saying? We behold our own sins. Looking
at these men and what they did, we behold our sins. And what he was made to bear
just at the hands of men, we behold something of the curse
that we deserve. But now what it took to satisfy
justice was more than these men's hands and more it was of God
in what it took to satisfy justice. But I want you to see these things
in what he bore. Now behold our sin and our curse
in the scourging. It said Pilate took Jesus and
he scourged him. He turned him over to these soldiers
and scourging was his cruelest crucifixion. And sometimes people
didn't make it to the crucifixion because they died being scourged.
The method was a whip or a rod. If they used a whip, the Romans
had a whip that had bone in it that they would use or they'd
use a rod. And usually either way they'd
stretch a man out, strip him naked, stretch him out on a rack
and beat him with it, with the rod or the whip. And then when
that whip came across a man's back, it left furrows in his
back just like plow in a field. And Christ is fulfilling the
scripture. The scripture said this in Psalm
129.3, the plowers plowed upon my back, they made long their
furrows. Now, when we look at this, we
see the sin of each elect child for whom he died. The Pharisees
and the scribes and Pilate and the Roman soldiers all have the
same sinful nature and are committing the very same sins that's in
the heart of those Christ saves. Even committed by those Christ
saves. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. That's what we see here. And
everybody involved in doing this to our Lord. The carnal mind's
enmity against God. That's why this is being done
by men to our Lord. The carnal mind's enmity against
God. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery
are in their ways. That's what we see taking place
here. That's my sin. That's your sin. That's the sin
of everybody Christ saves. Right there. That's what our
nature is. Their hatred is our sinful nature. It was, and you
think about this, there was Romans and there were Jews. People get
in an argument over who crucified the Lord. There was Romans and
there was Jews. So if you're a Roman, if you're a Gentile,
or if you're a Jew, these were your fathers. You fit in there
somewhere, and I do too. These were our fathers. And if
we say this, and you've heard men say this, if I'd have lived,
then I wouldn't have done what they did. Pharisees said that
one time. to our Lord. If we'd have lived
in the days of our fathers, we wouldn't have killed the prophets
like our fathers did. And the Lord said, by saying
that, all you're saying is, you're children of your fathers. The
same sin nature that's in them is in you. That's what the Lord
would say. And that's so, we could say, well, I wouldn't have
done what they did if I lived back there. I wouldn't have done
what my fathers did. We're just saying, We came from
them, whether we're Jew or Gentile, and that's our nature. That is
our nature. That's why Christ was bearing
what he was bearing. But behold the man who is the
sin bearer, the curse bearer. These physical scourgings were
painful to him, no doubt about it. But brethren, the scourging
of divine justice was far greater. This was physical, but God's
scourging was a wilt in his very soul. I can't, I won't even,
I don't know, I can't even enter into it. None can. Pilate had him scourged unjustly,
but by making him sin for his people, our Lord made him a curse
justly, justly. And now behold his curse bearing,
the curse bearing man, behold him bearing the curse in his
crown of thorns. Verse 2, the soldiers plaited
a crown of thorns and put it on his head. When Adam sinned,
God pronounced the curse, and this is what He declared, Cursed
is the ground for thy sake, thorns also, and thistles shall it bring
forth to thee. Here they take a crown of thorns
and put it on his head. The man who came to redeem his
people from the curse by being made a curse for us, He had to
be made a curse for us. And here you see him with these
thorns bearing, a picture of him bearing the curse. Bearing
the curse, the thorns of the curse. Behold the sin bearing
man in this robe. Verse two says they put on him
a purple robe. Matthew says it was a scarlet
robe. God calls our sins scarlet, red, like deep crimson purple. Isaiah 118, he said, Come now,
let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be
as scarlet. Our sins are as scarlet like
this robe, this old tattered robe they found. They shall be
white as snow, though they be as scarlet. Though they be red
like crimson, they shall be as wool. Now behold this, the man
who knew no sin, the man who is God, the man who is the perfect
man, who knew no sin, who's righteous, he puts on the sins of God's
elect like this scarlet robe was put on him. He willingly
did that, that he might put on us the snow white robe of his
righteousness. That's what he did. He bore the
sin of his people in his own body on the tree, just like this
purple scarlet robe. And by putting them away, by
putting them completely away, by justifying us before God,
when He brings you to believe on Him, He robes you in the snow-white
garment of His righteousness. I pray that God would make us
behold the man. Behold the man. Behold the man. This is the milk for babes and
this is the meat for those that have been grown a little while.
Because this is the answer. This is how we're humble. This
is how we're raised up out of the dust when we're too low.
This is how we're strengthened when we're totally weak. Everything
we need is in God making us behold the man. Beholding he's God,
beholding he is the perfect man, beholding he is the sin bearer
and the curse bearer who was bearing what we are and what
we deserve. Behold the man who's the king,
they mocked him, verse 3, they said hail king of the Jews and
they smote him with their hands. But he indeed is the king of
the true Jews. Verse 14, Pilate said, Behold
your king, and he is. Behold him. He's risen. Behold
him. He's victorious. He's seated at God's right hand.
He's reigning. He is your king. He's reigning.
He was reigning right then. This was his crowning glorious
moment right here. when He was suffering in the
room instead of His people. This is why God chose Him. This
is why God chose His people. This is why God created the world.
This is why God upheld the world. This is what everything in the
Word of God ever typified and pictured and pointed to. This
is what everything since then has pointed us back to. It's
what Christ accomplished in the place of His people for God and
for His people and He did it. It's finished. He cried it out.
He said it's finished. And He arose to the right hand
of God and He sat down and He's rolling right now, completely. that as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord, by the man who is king." The man who is king. A.W. Pink
said, here then is the gospel of our salvation. Here it is.
The Savior was scourged that we might go free. He was crowned
with thorns that we might be crowned with blessing and glory.
He was clothed with a robe of contempt that we might receive
the robe of righteousness. He was rejected as king that
we might be made kings and priests unto God. So lastly, I want you to behold
the man who is salvation. Behold the man who is salvation.
He's the savior of all who trust him. The savior of all who trust
him. I pray God would make each one
believe on Him right now. Right now. Simply through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is the direct opposite
of anything that is of us. It's a channel. God gives it
and it just looks out of us to Him. And simply through faith,
simply through casting all your care on Him, trusting Him to
care for you, trusting Him to present you to God and keep you
the whole way till you get there. Through faith in Him, God imputes
perfect perfection. That's what He imputes. He imputes
perfection to you. He imputes righteousness to you. There's
no half-righteousness. It's just righteousness, perfect. And God robes us in His righteousness. He declares to us we're complete
in Him. We're accepted of God in the
Beloved. And this is why it's so important
to get this. For there is one God and there
is one Mediator between God and men. You know who it is? The
man. Christ Jesus. Behold the man.
Believe the man. cast all your care into the hands
of the man, Christ Jesus. Believer, when you suffer in
this life, it's to make us behold the man. It's to make us behold
the man. These points I've given you tonight,
you go home and read the epistles. Take the first one, behold the
man who's God. See how far you go in the epistle
before you hear the writer declare Christ is God. You're going to
find it in every one of them, every time. Go through it, see
how far you have to go before you hear him declare that he
is the perfect man, the righteous one, the holy one. They say it
in every one of them. In every one of them, they say
these exact things I'm telling you now over and over and over
and over. And what was the Hebrew writer
doing? He was showing the Hebrews that the things they had suffered
and the great affliction they had endured and what they were
going through was for the Lord to turn them to behold the man
who is our salvation. That's it. That's it. Things don't get more complicated
as you grow up. The milk, you know, in our way,
meat is harder to chew and milk's easier, but with God, it gets
simpler. It gets simpler. You get more focused, and more
focused, and more dependent, and more assured that Christ
is all. So everything he's doing for
us, whenever he scourges you, and he will scourge you, and
he's going to chasten you, Don't think that he just does that
and he gets it over and it doesn't happen again. He's going to do
it from here on. But know this. Whom the Lord
loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Every one of them, every child,
he's going to chasten and he's going to scourge everyone. But our father won't scourge
us and he won't chasten us like he did the man. Because he did
scourge the man this way. He did chasten the man this way.
So we don't have to fear the overflowing scourge of justice
and judgment. He settled it for his people.
The chastisement of our peace, the scourging of our peace was
upon him and with his stripes we are healed. But it's called
scourging because it's painful. It's painful. But don't ever
forget, it's the love of our Heavenly Father. It's the love
of our Heavenly Father. Every child he loves and receives,
he scourges and he chases. But after each chastening, God
always yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness in His child.
He's always going to grow you a little bit. And here's what
it is. Here's how He does it, and here's
what the end of it is. He turns us again to behold the
man. To behold the man. to behold the man who's God.
He makes us know he's got everything in his hand. I'm safe in his
hand. He turns you to behold the man who's the Holy One, the
perfect man to whom God looks and in whom God is well pleased
and he makes you know I can trust him and rest in him because he's
all my hope with God. He's my righteousness. He's the
reason that God chastened me and scared me that I wouldn't
be condemned with the world. He turns you to behold the man
who bore your sin and your curse for you, so that God's chastening
is light, though it may be painful for a while. He sanctifies it to you to behold
the man who is our salvation, in whom we are accepted of God. And in all of it, he makes you
enter in just a little bit more to what he suffered. You're ever
chasing your children, and as you're talking to your children,
and you're trying to, like I would always give it a little time
and let them sit there, and I'd go in and sit down, and I'd try
to have a message to speak to them, a gospel message. of why
I want them to hear, what I want them to hear. But as you're saying
it to them, does God ever discourage you? Does He ever chase you as
you're teaching them? Do you hear God speaking to you
out of your own mouth as you speak to them? And I've often walked out of
the room with tears in my eyes thinking, Why don't I get this? But the Lord does things like
that. And every time He scourges you, chases you, He's turning
you to remember what Christ endured for you. Show you a little bit
better something of this suffering and the trouble that He did for
you. And I tell you, I look back and the things that, something I said to my dear sister
one time and I never experienced what she experienced. I had no
business commenting on it because I didn't know what it was. And
I have apologized to her so many times. I just didn't know. That's why he does it. He makes
you experience things you didn't know, had no business commenting
on. He brings it, turns it right
around, brings it to your doorstep so you can suffer it. And it
just makes you more compassionate, makes you go and say, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I don't want to be that way in
the future. I want to be merciful. I want
to be the one somebody can call and tell me the trouble, and
I'll just say, come here, let me give you a hug. Let me give
you a hug. I can't fix it. I can't change
the providence. We'll have to wait on God to
do that, but I want to give you a hug and comfort you until He
does. It keeps you running after the
man in faith and hope and love until the end. And then one day
soon, he's going to make you behold the man face to face. Face to face. What will it be? You're going to see him as he
is and be conformed to his image and be perfect and worship him
and praise him. forever and ever. And you're
going to look at everything He did for you and everything He
worked in your life and you're going to say, and it couldn't
have been one thing done different. Not one thing. Couldn't have
been done better. Couldn't have been done in more
perfection than how God did it. Do you believe that about your
life? I'm not, I'm not justifying my
sin or your sin or, or, you know, But it's as perfect as it can
be. I see that when I see the man. I do. I pray He make us behold Him.