Let us turn to that portion that
we read earlier in Mark's Gospel in chapter 15 and I'll read verses
22 and 23. In Mark 15 verses 22 and 23 and
they bring him unto the place Golgotha which is being interpreted
the place of a skull. and they gave him to drink wine
mingled with myrrh but he received it not. Taking then these two
verses for a text this evening want us to consider Golgotha
the place of felt sufferings. They bring him under the place
Golgotha which is being interpreted the place of a skull And they
gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh, but he received it
not. Now, last Lord's Day evening,
being the first Lord's Day of the month, when we observe that
holy ordinance of the Lord's Supper, we considered verses
in the previous chapter, there in chapter 14 and verses 32 to 34, and I sought to speak
on the theme of Gethsemane, the place of soul suffering. That
was our theme last Lord's Day evening, how in the garden we
see Christ in his soul like a great heaving press, the olive press. It was there, of course, at the
foot of the Mount of Olives that the Garden of Gethsemane stood. And doubtless there would have
been such a prayer somewhere in the Garden. And how it represents
to us all that was taking place in the soul of Christ. My soul,
he says, is exceeding sorrowful unto death. And so we thought,
of his soul sufferings there in Gethsemane and really it's
a similar theme that we continue with tonight as we come to the
word that I've just read Golgotha the place of felt sufferings
is something that the Lord is very much feeling and quite deliberately
so they bring him unto the place Golgotha which is being interpreted
the place of a skull and they gave him to drink wine mingled
with myrrh but he received it not. I want us as we look at
these verses then to consider just two headings tonight first
of all the repeated offer that they make with regards to this
drink, and then secondly, the very firm refusal on the part
of the Lord Jesus. The repeated offer and the firm
refusal. First of all, what of the drink
that was offered? Well, we're told here it was
wine mingled with myrrh. wine mingled with myrrh it might
when we read of wine suggest the idea of something that was
sweet but really with the myrrh this would be a sour drink and
a bitter drink in fact in Matthew's account in Matthew 27 we read
of vinegar mingled with gore it must have been vinegary wine
and it was mingled with with gall a very bitter thing and what
was the the reason for this well it's the soldiers who offer it
to him they mocked him it says in Luke's account Luke 23 36
the soldiers also mocked him coming to him and offering him
vinegar And interestingly, what we have there is a present tense
participle when he talks about them coming to him. The idea
is that they kept on coming to him. They didn't just come once,
they were continually coming, and they were repeatedly offering
him this drink. Now why would they do such a
thing? Why was the drink being offered like this? Well, usually
we're told this sort of thing was given in order to stupefy
somewhat the person who was suffering that cruel death of crucifixion. In a sense this was a sort of
drug that would deprive the individual of his sensibility. It's the first thing that's mentioned
here as they arrive at Golgotha. as we see from the juxtaposition
of the two verses that we read as a text. They bring him onto
the place called Gotha, which is being interpreted as the place
of a skull, and they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh. The very first thing that they
do, as soon as they arrive at this place of execution, is to
offer him this drink. And Kalmin makes a comment, the
observation that it was a drug that was suited to make the blood
to flow. In a sense it was given it might
hasten death as it stupefied the person who was thus being
crucified. But what do we read? He would
not drink. He refused it. Again in Matthew's
account it says when he had tasted it. He tasted it and he was aware
what it was that they were offering him to drink and he would not
drink. Oh the Lord Jesus Christ evidently
is a man of deep feelings. As I said at the beginning last
week we were considering something of those sufferings that he felt
as he was there in the garden of Gethsemane and how the sufferings
were reaching into the very depth of his being, how he was suffering
in his soul. We're told how he began to be
sore in his eyes and to be very heavy there in verse 33 of chapter
14. And then in the following verse, he says to those favored
three disciples, my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. He feels, he's a man of very
real feelings, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no disputing
that. And furthermore, we're told that
those sufferings that he felt in the garden were an agony in
his soul. We have that strange statement
in Luke's account being in an agony. He prayed more earnestly
and his sweats was like drops of blood falling to the ground. All what conflicts he was experiencing
then in that human soul. The reality of the human nature
of the Lord Jesus Christ is so evident when we come to consider
all that he has to endure as he comes to make that great sin
atoning sacrifice. What dreadful conflicts rage
within when sweats and bloods force through the skin, says
the hymn writer. Christ's sinless humanity is
a blessed reality to us and we should be thankful for that he
was a real man and he was a man of deep feelings and so we can
understand us in all our feelings we have not a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in
all points tempted like as we are yet without sin we have that
assurance in scripture He would taste death, it says. There in
Hebrews 4.15, he would taste death. He was determined that
he would experience the bitter sufferings that were appointed
to him. And so, he will not take this
cup that is presented to him by the Roman soldiers. He refuses it. He received it
night. Ah, but the cup which my father
hath given me, shall I not drink it, he says? Well, we'll drink
that cup that the father had appointed to him as he comes
to make the great sin atoning sacrifice. They give him this
drink then in order, some way or other, to deaden his senses,
but he will have none of that. But of course, at the same time,
what they're doing is they're mocking him. They're mocking
him. They've already mocked him, these
soldiers, as we saw in the earlier part of the reading. When Pilate
had scourged him, he delivered him to the soldiers to be crucified. Verse 16, the soldiers led him
away into the hall called Praetorium. and they caught together the
whole band and they clothed him with purple and plaited a crown
of thorns and put it about his head and began to salute him,
hail king of the Jews and they smote him on the head with a
reed and they spit upon him and bowing their knees worshipped
him and when they had mocked him they took off the purple
robe from him, put his own clothes on him and led him out to crucify
him. Oh, it's all part and parcel
of his sufferings. Oh, he must suffer at the hands
of men. They spat upon him, it says. And they ridiculed him. And now they come and they taunt
him with this drink. They gave him to drink wine mingled
with myrrh. the activity then of those who
are crucifying the Lord of Glory and the drink that they are offering
to Him. But let us consider the Lord
Jesus in this and His firm refusal. He will not receive this drink. He received it not. Yes, He tastes
of it, He knows what it is, but He refuses it. He is so determined
that he's going to be fully conscious in all of his sufferings. And why must he be so aware? Because he is so active there
upon the cross. It's not that they're taking
his life from him, is it? We know that his death was a
voluntary death, and this is a very important point of doctrine. His death was a voluntary death.
They could not take away his life, he must give his life.
And he says as much, we are familiar with those words in John 10,
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life
that I might take it again. No man taketh it from them. I
lay it down of myself, he says. I have power to lay it down and
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my father. Oh, remember in the covenant
he is that one who is the father's servant. in the Godhead of course
He is equal to the Father He is the eternal Son of God
and together with the Father and the Holy Spirit He is co-equal
as He is co-eternal but in the Covenant He willingly agrees
to become God's servant and so He must as a servant do the commandment
of the Father. And that's what He says with
regards to His death, this commandment have I received of my Father.
The command in that covenant was that He would come and He
would make that great sin-atoning sacrifice on behalf of all those
people that the Father had given to Him. I have power Literally,
I have authority, he says. I have authority to lay my life
down and I have authority to take it again. And therefore,
he must be aware of all that is happening. Now, When it comes
to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ we do divide it usually
into those two parts. We speak of his obedience in
terms of an active obedience in the life that he lives, and
a passive obedience in the death that he dies. And both parts
of that obedience are important, of course. In the obedience of
his life, what is he doing? He is fulfilling all righteousness,
he is honoring the Lord of God, he is magnifying the Lord of
God by his obedience to every one of the commandments and the
statutes and the judgments and the precepts. And he is accomplishing
such a righteousness. And it's that righteousness that
is reckoned to the account of the believing sinner. That is
the great doctrine of justification. It's the righteousness of Christ.
Oh, and Paul's determination to be found in him, he says,
not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. all the active obedience, the
holiness, the righteousness of that sinless life. But then also
he must be obedient unto death because the law requires the
death of the transgressor. The soul that sins must die.
That is the wages of sin, death. That's what the law, the Holy
Lord of God demands, satisfaction. And so, as Christ honors the
law by obedience to every commandment, so He honors it now also in terms
of bearing that dreadful penalty that the law demands, that the
sinner has to pay, the sinner must suffer the just punishment
of all his sins. And so Christ dies, the just. for the unjust and as I said
we tend to speak of his death as his passive obedience but
he's not really passive I think it's a false distinction in many
ways he's not passive in dying he is so active in dying he is
the one who is making the sacrifice so this is why he must be so
self-conscious aware of all that is happening. I know it says
there at the end of 2nd Corinthians that he was crucified through
weakness. Amazing statement, really. He
was crucified through weakness. But it does indicate to us the
reality of his human nature. Although it was a sinless human
nature, it was a real human nature. He was a real man. crucified
through weakness and yet he's one who is sovereign even here
upon the cross we read those words at verse 37 at the end
of his sufferings Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up
the ghost he cries with a loud voice and he gave up the ghost
In Matthew's account, the word that's used is a stronger word
than gave up. It says he yielded up to the
ghost. He delivered his soul to God. He makes his soul an offering
for sin. He is that one who is so sovereign,
yet he is is crucified through weakness. Here we have the mystery,
the mystery of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This one
who is God and this one who is man. And in everything that he
does he is the God-man. He's always God and yet he's
also a real man. and as he comes now to suffer
this death he will feel it he will feel the pain of bearing
in his own person all the sins of his people this is the amazing
thing because he has come to die for them that he might minister
to them and he wants to feel himself to be all together at
one with them he wants to understand them We often refer to those
words in Hebrews 5 concerning him who in the days of his flesh
when he had offered up prayer and supplication with strong
crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death
and was hurt in that he feared though he were a son yet learned
he obedience through the things that he suffered. He is the son
of God and yet he learns obedience as a man through his sufferings.
in order that he might minister to men or the Lord Jesus Christ here
we see something of the the blessed reality then of his human nature
as he will feel all that he is having now to endure as the great
sin atoning substitute. Now Isn't it a truth that Christianity
is really a feeling religion? Christianity is a feeling religion. It has to do with us in all the
totality of our humanity. It has to do not simply with
our spiritual needs. It has to deal with with all
the needs that we have as those who have been created by God
and made in the image of God. As we've said before, God makes
man of the dust of the earth with regards to his body, we
have a physical body. But God has breathed into Adam's
nostrils the very breath of life and he has been made a living
soul and we're all body souls. And there are the different faculties
of the soul, we have an emotional life. And so when he comes to
any experience of the grace of God, it will affect us emotionally,
we'll know certain feelings. Christianity is a feeling religion.
Now, notice, I don't say it is a religion of feelings. There
is a difference, there is a difference to be marked. We do not contend
for a religion simply of feelings. But we say that real religion
is a feeling religion. There's a difference between
those two. When it comes to faith, saving faith, justifying faith,
we recognize the truth that faith is objective. Faith is looking away from ourselves,
isn't it? It's objective in that sense.
It's looking to another. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. I am God and there is none else.
It's that looking away unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of
our faith. It's objective in that sense.
When the Apostle utters those words that we've already referred
to in Philippians 3, his great desire to be found in Christ.
Not having his own righteousness which is of the law, but that
Righteousness, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, is looking
onto the Lord Jesus Christ. All true faith has an object.
It looks to Christ. It centers in Christ. It rests
in Christ. And we thank God for that, the
objectivity of real faith, saving faith. But And it's an important
but. True faith is more than just
an intellectual ascent. It's not just us accepting certain
doctrinal truths that are declared here in Holy Scripture. The great
doctrines of the faith, the doctrine of the person of Christ, the
doctrine of the work of Christ, the doctrine of the atonement,
All these great doctrines, we don't just sort of, as it were,
tick the boxes and say, well yes, we believe this, and we
believe that, and it's just a matter of mental ascent to these doctrines. No, true faith is something more
than that. True faith's the life of God.
Deep in the heart it lies, it lives, it labors on the low,
though damped, it never dies. It affects us in our feelings.
We feel something. We feel something. When the Lord
begins to deal with us we feel something of what we are as sinners.
We feel our complete and utter unworthiness. We know something,
each of us must know something of the conviction of sin. Some
to a greater degree, some to a lesser degree. But we can have
no real understanding of what salvation is unless first of
all we know what it is to feel in some measure that we're lost
souls. and we need to be found and we need to be saved. There is emotion where there
is real religion. It's not a religion simply of
feelings. There's objectivity, yes, but
there's also that subjectivity. There's that that we feel in
the very depths of our souls. It has been rightly observed
a true beginning is a beginning felt. or when the Lord begins
with us we feel something. Isn't that a truth? When born again by the Spirit
of God we're suddenly aware of what we are by nature. It's a
strange paradox really, we're born again by the Spirit of God
but what do we feel? We feel our deadness and our
impotence That's the feeling that we have. And I remember
that quite distinctly, wanting to be saved, wanting to believe,
and yet so unable. O Lord, could I but believe,
then all would easy be. I would, but cannot, Lord, relieve.
My help must come from Thee, in the language of John Newton.
All we feel, you see, we feel our sin, we feel our guilt. And it's not a pleasant experience
when we feel what sin is. It makes us smart in our very
souls, does it not? And those who feel such experiences
as these need a savior who is able to sympathize with them.
a saviour who is able to feel for them. And isn't that what
Paul says? We've already referred to those
words at the end of Hebrews chapter 4. You know, we have not an high
priest which cannot be touched with the feeding of our infirmities.
And I do love the language there, it's so emphatic, that double
negative, isn't it? He doesn't say, we have a high
priest touched with the feeling of our infirmities. No, he emphasizes
it. We have not a high priest which
cannot be touched. Oh, he is most definitely touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. The real human nature. Tempted in all points, like as
we are, yet without sin. He knew nothing of sinful infirmity. He was holy. He was harmless.
He was undefiled. He was separate from sinners.
That very human nature that was joined to the Eternal Son of
God is spoken of, isn't it, there in Luke's account as that holy
thing. That holy thing that was conceived
in the womb of the Virgin Mary and joined to the Eternal Son
of God. nothing of sin and yet the real,
the true human nature. Oh, and thank God for the reality
of that human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is as human
as you or as I. What a comfort it is that such
a person can understand us and feel for us. I've often thought
of that little couplet, and we sing it in the hymn 1095. Isaac Watts says, I love the
incarnate mystery, and there I place my trust. The incarnate
mystery, God manifest in the flesh. And trusting in that,
the importance of that doctrine of the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There is comfort there. all this
comfort when we know that he is truly as human as we are and
that's where we rest that's where faith finds its comfort and so
the Lord Jesus here as he comes to die he will he
will feel all the bitterness of that sin atoning death. He
will taste death. And he tasted for his people
so that they never taste the bitterness of that death that
he tasted. That cup that the father gave
him to drink, did he not drink it all even to the bitter dregs? He drank it to the bitter end.
He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And yet, although the Lord Jesus
Christ is seen here to refuse what the soldiers offer, yet
he's no stoic. He's no stoic. When he comes
to the end, what does he say? Oh, he is very, very much feeling
his dreadful thirst, or that there was some little relief
for him. the language that we have there
in John 19 and verse 28. It says, After this, Jesus, knowing
that all things were now accomplished that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full
of vinegar, and they filled the sponge with vinegar, and put
it upon Hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore
had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. and he
bowed his head and gave up the ghost. He's no stoic, he feels
things here. And what do we see in that? We
see the reality, the reality of the sufferings of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I thirst. I thirst, he cries. How profound is his experience
here how the Lord suffers in a very real sense, in a very
deep sense. Again John Newton says, did Christ
my Lord suffer? Shall I repine how the Lord suffers
in bearing the punishment of sins? Or what fellowship can
there be between this Saviour, this broken-hearted Saviour?
and those who are wholehearted sinners or the sacrifice of God
you see it's a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart
thou will not despise the Lord himself so broken hearted here
as he comes to die, as he comes to bear this terrible death upon
the cross and he can minister now to those broken hearted sinners
he feels for them, he understands them Does he not declare in the course
of his ministry those blessings, those beatitudes that we have
at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount? Who are the blessed
ones? Why, the mourners are blessed. Blessed are they which mourn,
they shall be comforted, he says. He can minister comfort to those
who are mourning over their sins, grieving over all that they feel
of their treatment of a God who has been
so good and so gracious to them. He says, Blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness, they shall be filled. All those
who feel they need a righteousness and they have no righteousness,
their righteousness is but filthy rags. Nor the Lord will satisfy
them. If any man thirst, He says, let
him come unto Me and drink. The Lord ministers to His people.
and we see it as he comes at the end to suffer, he knew thirst
he cries out I thirst, oh are we those who know thirst have
a thirst for that true knowledge, that saving knowledge of this
man of whom we read here in the Gospels the fourfold Gospel and
in each of them such a detailed account of all that he has to
endure at the end the very purpose of His coming into this world.
He comes to suffer, to bleed, to die. And He ministers then
to those who are thirsty, or that who come to Him, and that
who drink here of the wells of that salvation that God has laid
up in the person and work of Christ. But then, as He comes,
to die, and he utters those words at the end, I thirst. In that
we also see something of his great high regard for the Word
of God. We read those words there in
John 19.28, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished.
All that he had undertaken, in terms of the covenant, he had
accomplished. Does he not say in John 17 as
he prays to the Father in his high priestly prayer, I have
glorified you on the earth, I have finished the work that thou gavest
me to do. And then upon the cross of course
he utters those words, he cried with a loud voice it says here
in verse 37, and gave up the ghost. What was the cry with
a loud voice when he uttered in triumph that word, it is finished. And we read it there in John's
account, John, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished,
that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Oh, he says it in order that
the scripture might be fulfilled. You see, in all these sufferings
there must be the fulfillment of all those things that are
written in the scriptures. We have it here, in this 15th
chapter of Mark, verse 28, the scripture was fulfilled, which
says, and he was numbered with the transgressors. So, he is
there in the midst of the crucified thieves. He's numbered with the
transgressors. It says again, in Scripture,
they gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave
me vinegar to drink. All of this, you see, is the
fulfillment of Scripture. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
so conscious that every part, every aspect, every syllable,
of the Old Testament Scriptures concerning himself must have
its accomplishment, must be fulfilled, he knew it. And he is determined
that he will accomplish those things. And this is the real
reason why he is so adamant and so definite in refusing the drink
that the soldiers initially offered to him. Remember the Lord's words
when he speaks to those two on the road to Emmaus. At the end
of Luke, in Luke chapter 24, verse 25, he says unto them,
O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken, ought not Christ to have suffered these things
and to enter into his glory? and beginning at Moses and all
the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the
things concerning himself." Oh, what a blessed discourse this
must have been. Moses, all the prophets. What was the ministry of the
prophets to the Lord and to the testimony? If they speak not
according to this word it is because there's no light in them.
They were the expounders of Moses. And Moses doesn't just give law,
does he? Oh, the law was given by Moses, true. But there's gospel. There's all those Levitical laws. There's all those types and shadows. And beginning at Moses, and then
in all the prophets, he expounds unto them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. And then again, when later he
appears to those who gathered in the upper room. There in that 24th chapter of
Luke, in verse 44, he says to them, Then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them
this. Thus it is written, and thus it behoves Christ to suffer
and to rise from the dead the third day. Oh, the Lord is so
very conscious of all the work that the Father had committed
to Him, all that had been said in the Scriptures, He has such
a regard for the Word of God? Or do we have that regard for
the page of Holy Scripture? Do we believe these things? This
is the important question. Do we believe these things? A
Christian would say, thrive in knowledge of thy Lord against
no Scripture, strive, but take Him at His Word. We have to take
God at His Word concerning the person, the work of our Lord
Jesus Christ. We have to believe these things.
Oh God grant that we might have faith and to discern here something
of Christ in all that he had to endure in all the reality
of that human nature in which he, the eternal Son of God he
suffered, he bled, he died and this is that that we see
at Golgotha there he feels his sufferings they bring him unto
the place Golgotha which is being interpreted the place of a skull
and they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh but he refused
it not but he received it not brother he received it not he
will feel then all that he must endure that he might feelingly
minister to all his people in the midst of all that they experience
of conflicts. Conflicts in our souls, conflicts
in all the events of our lives. So the Lord is that one who is
able to minister to us and to sympathize with us. May the Lord
be pleased to bless his word to us tonight. Amen.