I want to invite your attention
in your Bible to Lamentations chapter 1. Find Isaiah and then
Jeremiah and then the book of Lamentations. Lamentations chapter
1 verse 12. Many of you are familiar with
this verse. Lamentations chapter 1 verse
12. Is it nothing to you? all ye that pass by. Behold and
see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done
unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his
fierce anger." I want to begin this morning by asking you three
questions. What really happened on Calvary's
cross? What really happened there? The
second question is what happened there, nothing to you? And the
third question is what happened there, everything to you? It'll
be one or the other. It'll be nothing to you or it'll
be everything to you. There's no in between. It's one or the other. So which
is it to you? No doubt this verse, our text
is a prophetical passage of scripture, though it's found in the Old
Testament, it's referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. And in
Acts chapter 10, verse 43, we're told that to Him, that being
the Lord Jesus Christ, give all the prophets witness. We often
say this, and it's a cute little slogan, but it's true nonetheless. This Bible is a hymn book, H-I-M. It's all about hymn. Ever been
of it? Moses wrote of me. All the prophets
give witness to the Lord Jesus Christ, Jeremiah included. They gave witness to the one
who would come and save his people from their sin. In Luke chapter
24, verse 27, it said of the Lord's preaching, and he began
at Moses, the book of Genesis, First five books, beginning at
Moses, and all the prophets, he, the Lord Jesus Christ, expounded
unto them. That's preaching. That's what
we do. We expound God's word. We attempt to. And every now
and then, John, the Lord tells us to get out of the way and
do that. But he expounded unto them those he preached to in
all the scriptures. in all the scriptures, the things
concerning himself. The prophet Jeremiah, having
been given foresight of Christ's sorrow and his suffering and
his agony from the cross, he cries out in our text, behold,
and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is
done unto me. Prophetically, these are the
words of the Lord Jesus. The sufferings and the sorrows
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God on Calvary's cross
is unparalleled to any. No man suffered like he did.
No man. And our text plainly declares
that Christ's sorrow was inflicted upon him. And this is the amazing
thing. This is the glorious thing, Mike.
that it was inflicted upon him in the day of the Lord's fierce
anger. This was inflicted upon him by
his own heavenly father. What our Lord suffered was the
fury, the burning anger, the sore displeasure of the wrath
of God against sin. But it was the sin of his people,
for he had no sin of his own. And there on each side of our
Lord, there are two thieves crucified with him, Christ being in the
middle. And both of those men, two suffered,
but they suffered only what the Roman government had inflicted
upon them. No doubt painful, no doubt great
suffering. But our Lord Jesus, like no other
man before or after, suffered the fierce anger and fury and
sore displeasure of God Almighty, and He did it in the room and
in the stead of His people. That's why his sorrow was not
like any other before or after. While on their perspective crosses,
neither of the two thieves were bearing the fiery wrath and unquenchable
judgment of God, though one of them later would, and one of
them wouldn't. Look over a couple pages to Lamentations
chapter three, verse one. Again, prophetically, the Lord
through Jeremiah the prophet says this in verse one, I am
the man, I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of
his, God's wrath. There's no man or woman alive
today that's ever suffered the wrath of God this way. There
will be some who will, but none that yet have. But here the Lord
Jesus says through the prophet Jeremiah, I am the man. I'm the man. On Calvary's cross,
Christ was the man that had seen and now experienced affliction
by the rod of God's wrath. Isn't that amazing? And his question
is, is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow? Is there any
man, any woman who has suffered like me? And my question to you
and my question to me this morning is, what is that to us? What
is that to us? Is it nothing or is it everything? I want you and me to see in our
mind's eye this morning and again this day to pass by the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I want us to consider what
happened at that cross on Golgotha's Hill. What do we see? What do
we see with our natural physical eyes? And what do we see by divine
revelation? No doubt we see a young man there
who hangs in the middle of the other three or the other two. And our Lord here is only 33
years old, just 33. And yet the last three and a
half years of his life have paid such a toll on him that he no
doubt looks much older. You remember when he said, Abraham
was glad to see my day. And they said, well, you're not
yet 50. He's only 33. And on top of that, his visage, his
appearance is now so marred that no man's face or form have been
more altered than he is. They've made up lies. They hired
false witnesses to testify against him. He who knew no sin, he who
was perfect in every possible way has had his words twisted
and they've sent lawyers to endeavor to trip him up in his speech. They had sought on several occasions
to stone Him. What do men do? Men talk about
their free will. What do men do with God when
He comes to earth as a man? They attempt to kill Him. They
attempt to kill Him. They chose and they released
a murderer. You know, it says in the scriptures,
he was a murderer, Barabbas. And they released Barabbas, crying
to crucify this perfect man in his place. What a picture Barabbas
is of me, by nature a murderer. And yet Christ died for me. Our
Lord had 12 apostles, one of them sold him for 30 pieces of
silver. One of them denied him three
times. All of them forsook him and fled. So why did this perfect man suffer? Why did he die the cruel death
of the cross? Why did his heavenly father turn
his back on him? Why did God forsake him? That
would be a good thing for us to acquaint ourselves with. Now listen, no man or woman can
dismiss the man, Jesus Christ. We just can't do it. You cannot
dismiss him. You've got to make up your mind,
or maybe I should say it different. God's gonna have to reveal to
you the truth about this man one way or another. Does he and
his death mean anything to you? Have you seen that Christ crucified
is your only hope of redemption? And it is, there's one way. And our Lord said, I am the way,
the truth and the life and no man, no woman, nobody, no sinner
can come to the Father, but by me. That's what he said. Now
there was an old custom. And on this day of the crucifixion,
Pilate, who was his supposed judge, took a basin of water,
and in front of the people, he washed his hands. And you've
heard the old saying, and so have I. I wash my hands with
this matter. That's where that comes from.
I want nothing to do with this situation. I want nothing to
do with this person. And that's what Pilate did. He
washed his hands in the matter of Jesus Christ. But that's not
possible. It's not possible, not for pallet,
not for you, not for me. It's impossible to wash your
hands with Christ. Why? Because first and foremost,
he's God. He is the God with whom we have
to do every one of us. And you may think you're washing
your hands. All things are naked and open unto Him. All things
were made by Him. All things were made for Him
and through Him. And God has exalted Him. And
God has given Him a name that's above every name, that at His
name, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that
this man, the God-man, Jesus Christ, is the Lord of all. He's
the Lord of all. Now, there are many who will
not confess Him to be the Lord now, but that doesn't change
the fact that one day, very, very soon, they'll confess Him
to be Lord, and then it'll be too late. You and I, or anyone
else, can wash our hands with this sovereign Lord, and you
can stick your fingers in your ear, but you're still gonna hear
the question, what think ye of Christ? Is there any sorrow like
unto my sorrow? He says, which is done unto me.
And you can cover your eyes, but God is still gonna make you
see that he is the one who has afflicted his son in fierce anger. And the question of the hour
is why? It's amazing how many folks don't
know. It really is. And you know, there's an old
saying, I've heard it all my life, ignorance is bliss. Well, that's not true. Not true. Just because you don't know something
doesn't mean you shouldn't concern yourself with it. And not knowing
is not better than knowing and worrying. What think ye of Christ? It's a matter of life and death.
Everyone is gonna stand before the judgment seat of Christ one
day and give an account of the things that they've done in their
body and their flesh. And sinners need to know that. There are many today who know
something of Christ's crucifixion. My, we've all seen the movies
and the passion plays and oh, they know something about the
resurrection, but few know why. The Lord Jesus Christ died this
horrific death of the cross. Many will tell you that the crucifixion
of Christ was a horrible thing, but they cannot tell you why
it was a wonderful thing. Men and women alike can tell
you what happened on that day on Mount Calvary, but they cannot
tell you why it happened. You need to know. The Jews accused
the Lord of heresy. Their accusation against the
Lord Jesus was that he claimed to be the King of the Jews. Matter
of fact, you remember when Pilate had that inscription, Jesus,
King of the Jews, placed at Christ's head on the cross, the Jewish
leaders went to Pilate and they said, now don't say that. Would
you take that down and put up there that he said that he was
King of the Jews. He's not King of the Jews. He
said he would. And their accusation was just
that, that he was claiming to be the king of the Jews because,
and why they were so upset and got the Romans involved is they
said that he was a threat to Caesar. But the Lord never claimed,
I cannot find it in the scriptures, would the Lord ever claim to
be king of the Jews. He claimed to be God. He claimed
that he and his father were one. He said, if you've seen me, you've
seen the father. Pilate asked the Lord if he was
king of the Jews. After all, that's what they accused
him of. And the Lord in return asked Pilate a question. You
know, he's God, he's got the right to do that. The Lord said,
sayest thou this thing of yourself? Or did others tell you that I
was king? My question this morning to you is, do you see Jesus Christ
as King? Pilate said, am I a Jew? Did
I bring you here? Did I accuse you of these things?
Why, your own nation, your own chief priest, they said these
things of you, not me. Well, I'm washing my hands in
this matter. And the Lord said, my kingdom
is not of this world. It's not. If it were, he said,
my servants would fight that I should not be delivered to
the Jews. Now our Lord's not claiming to be a worldly king. He's declaring to be the king
of kings. He's declaring to be the Lord
of all lords. Pilate said, art thou king then?
And Christ said, you say that I am. He said, to this end, I
was born. Not to be a Jewish king, not
to be a worldly king, I came into the world for one reason,
now we're getting somewhere. What was the reason? Christ said
that I should bear witness of the truth. The truth. Everyone that is of the truth,
he said, hears my voice. Do you hear his voice this morning?
That's who knows why Christ came. Everyone that is of the truth.
As I said a moment ago, Jesus Christ is the way, the way. There is no other way. He is
the truth. There is no other truth. And
He is life. There is no other life. Jesus
Christ is life. And no man comes to the Father,
but by Him. But you can come to the Father
by Him. And that's the question. Is it
nothing to you? He said, nothing to tell you.
This is a faithful saying worthy. It's worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Pallett said, what is truth?
But he didn't wait for the answer. He washed his hands with Christ.
He had no interest in the truth. Do you? Do you have an interest
in the truth or is it nothing to you? You can't wash your hands
with this. You can't do it. One day Pilate
would stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account,
just like you and I are going to. And he thought he had washed
his hands with the Lord, but no one can. And you might think
that you've washed your hands with God's Son, but you haven't. And you might think that ignorance
is bliss, but it's not. Every sinner born of a woman
will have to answer the question, the most important question ever
asked. I'm convinced of it. What do you think of Jesus Christ? Is he everything to you or is
he nothing to you? It's one of the two. Christ's
kingdom's a heavenly kingdom. Christ's kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom. He's dying on the cross here for a specific reason, and
that's to save his people from their sin. That's what Matthew
121 tells us. Thou shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall, he shall save his people from their sin. God the
Son came in the flesh and made himself of no reputation. John
and I were talking this morning. I don't understand that, but
I believe it. And I've often told the folks
here, you at home, that I don't need a God that I can understand.
I just need God. He took on the form of a servant.
Who did? God did. He made himself of no
reputation. And being found in fashion as
a man, he, God himself, humbled himself and became obedient unto
death. Now listen, even the death of
the cross. Is it nothing to you? Or is it
everything? God also hath highly exalted
him and given him a name which is above every name. Why? That
at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. Now, not every knee
will, but every knee should. And every tongue will confess. Not every tongue will, but every
tongue should. Confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord. He's king. He's the king of kings. He's the king of glory. He rules
on a throne in heaven. And he does so to the glory of
God, his father. Now, if you're ever going to
receive life, if you're ever going to be reconciled to this
thrice holy God, you're going to have to have your sin put
away because God won't have anything to do with sin. He can't and
remain holy. You're gonna have to trust in
Christ. You're gonna have to ask yourself
this question, is it nothing to me or is it everything to
me? Because you cannot wash your hands in the matter. You cannot
remain indifferent. Is there any sorrow like unto
Christ's sorrow? Can any suffering be compared
to what he suffered? Do you see that it's the Lord
God who has afflicted the Savior in the day of His fierce anger? And it was fierce, trust me on
that. Why? Because it was my sin and
it was your sin that was put upon Him and the Holy God of
heaven and earth, the creator of heaven and earth, who demands
perfect holiness and righteousness and justice according to His
holy law, demands it. And you and I can't do what He
demands. Therefore, justice is meted out. Why did his father afflict him?
Because of your sin, and because of my sin, the sin that God put
upon him. He who knew no sin was made to
be sin, and he had the sin of all God's people throughout all
time put upon him, charged to him, so much so that he calls
my sin his sin. He said, my iniquities have taken
hold of me. What happened at Calvary? What
happened on the cross of Christ? Well, the first thing I see at
Calvary is that all of it was the ordained will and purpose
of God. What Christ did, God sent Him
to do. And what did He say about it?
It's finished. I did it. What Christ accomplished, God
sent Him to accomplish, and He accomplished it. It's finished. Thou shalt call His name Jesus
for He shall save His people from their sin. And as I pass
by the cross of Christ again this morning in my mind and in
my heart, and I look to the Lord Jesus hanging on the cruel cross,
I see also the Savior's will, His own will fulfilled and accomplished. He said the Son of Man has come
to seek and to save that which is lost. He said, I'm the good
shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life
for the sheep. He said, no man taketh my life
from me. I have power to lay it down and I have the power
to take it again. And as the Lord carried his own
cross to Calvary's Mount, the women that followed him, well,
they weeped and they cried and the Lord Jesus said, weep not
for me. Don't you weep for me. Weep for
yourselves and weep for your children. And you know what? By his grace, I do. I do. He was wounded for our transgressions. He had none of his own. He was
bruised for our inequities. By his stripes, we were healed. No man took his life. He voluntarily
laid it down. Pilate said, why don't you answer
me? Don't you know who I am? I'm somebody. Oh, we think we
are, don't we? He said, I have the power to
crucify you or to let you go. And our Lord told Paul, he said,
you have no power over me except that which was given to you from
above. Yes, it was the Jews and it was
the Romans who with wicked hands took the Lord Jesus and beat
him and scourged him and crucified him. but it was by the determinate
counsel and for knowledge of God. God put behind it all. The chief priests, the scribes,
the elders, the who's who of Jewish religion, they said, well,
he saved others. He cannot save himself. And you
know what? They told the truth, but they
didn't even know it. If he's gonna save the likes
of one like me, friends, he could not save himself. Why? Because he's paying my debt of
sin. The wages of sin is debt. He must die in my room instead
in order for God, that holy God, and his holy law and his holy
justice might be satisfied. No other way God can be appeased.
He died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that being
the Old Testament Scriptures. The Old Testament Scriptures,
as we've already established, is about the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the blood bought covering seen in the skins that covered
Adam and Eve. No doubt to me that that was
a lamb that was killed and the skins were put on. our first
parents. It's Abel's lamb that must die
as a sacrifice and an offering. That's who Christ is. He's the
Passover lamb whose blood God must see on a sinner to pass
over them. It's about him. Remember beginning
in Moses and all the prophets and in the Psalms. They're all
about me, our Lord said. He's that lamb that took Isaac's
place upon the altar of God, and he's the lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of his people in this world. Not the whole
world, but his people in the world. People out of every tongue,
tribe, kindred, all kinds of men, all kinds of sinners. By his own blood, he entered
in once into the holy place and obtained eternal redemption for
us. He obtained it. If you're one of His, He obtained
it. And there's nothing for you to
do. That's what's happening at Calvary.
That's what's taking place on the cross. What's that to you? What's that to you? Is it nothing
or is it everything? What else do we see at Calvary?
We see God's eternal covenant being fulfilled. We see the work
of God finished and accomplished. What do we see at Calvary? We
definitely see the depravity of man. Why? We see that when
the sin of man was put upon Christ, that man's sin is so great that
God himself had to die to put it away. We see that man's heart
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Only
God can know it. And God sent his son to give
us new hearts, make us new creatures. No wonder he told Nicodemus,
you must be born again. If any of us are ever gonna be
saved from our sin, we must be given a new nature, conformed
to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what gives you
hope, isn't it? We see the condemnation of man.
We see that light has come into the world. Christ is the light
of the world. God is light, and in him is no darkness. And men
love darkness rather than light. It's kind of like the person,
I believe, told Brother Mahan one time, said, I've loved Jesus
all my life. And I think he said, that's just
a little too long. No, you haven't. No, you haven't. This is the
condemnation. Men love darkness rather than
light. Why? Because their deeds are
evil. He came unto his own and his
own received him not. They said, we'll have no king
but Caesar. We will not have this man to
rule over us. Give us a murderer instead. Give
us Barabbas, but don't give us Christ. Crucify Him. Crucify. Now, if God gives us eyes to
see, if God's pleased to give us spiritual sight, if God is
pleased to divinely intervene, that's what He's gonna have to
do. He's gonna have to divinely interrupt. We've talked about
that a lot lately. He's gonna have to divinely reveal
some things to us. He's gonna have to give us eyes
to see, ears to hear, hearts to believe. If He does, we're
gonna see first and foremost that we cannot come. We don't
have the ability to come to Christ, that we might have life. Not
unless the Father would send Him and draw us, we will not
come to Christ. Our will is not to come. I'm
not interested in hearing about your free will. I'm just not.
Our will is not free. It's in bondage to our nature
and our sin, and we cannot and we will not come to the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, unless
God draws us, effectually draws us. The most wondrous thing I've
ever heard. Christ bore our sins in His own
body on the tree. God hates all workers of iniquity. God's angry with the wicked every
day. And God punished that sin on the one on whom it was found. And that was our Savior. His
eyes are too pure to behold evil. Mr. Pink once wrote, it's either
perfection or judgment, one or the other. There's no middle
ground. Perfection or judgment. It has
to be perfect to be accepted. God requires that which we cannot
provide, and that's perfection. Matter of fact, we don't know
anything about perfection until God reveals Christ to us. Christ,
if Christ, let me say it this way. If Christ is the object
of God's wrath, then he must be guilty of sin. And people
would get all fired up and I'd say, but he knew no sin, he thought
no sin, he did no sin, he had no sin, I know. He was holy,
he was harmless, he was undefiled. He was made to be sin. Even his enemies said that. Judas
said, I've betrayed innocent blood. Pilate said, I find no
fault in him. That Roman centurion, he said,
certainly, this was a righteous man. The sin of God's elect actually
became His. I don't understand that. I don't
understand imputation and impartation in the fullest sense of the word. I just don't. But I know that
if this sinner has any hope of heaven's glory being reconciled
to God, that Christ has to put away my sin. The gate is narrow, the road
is narrow. Now there's a road that's wide
that leads to destruction, but the way to life is narrow, it's
small. Few there be to find it, the
scripture says, but I wanna find it. But you know what? He found
me. I was the one lost. People say,
I found the Lord Jesus. I didn't know he was lost. He's
not lost, I'm the one that's lost. And God's fierce anger
is on his son. Why? Because he's guilty of sin.
Not sin of his own, but the sin of his people. God laid on them
his sin. The sin of God's elect, or his.
I heard Pastor Tom Harding, I'll get it out in a moment, recently
say, this was not an attemptment, this was an atonement. The question
is, is it nothing to you? What is Christ crucified to you,
really? I want you to search your soul
this morning. What is Jesus Christ to you?
It's to them that perish foolishness, I know that. But unto us which
are saved, it's the power of God. We don't frustrate the grace
of God for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead
in vain. And if you don't need Christ
for righteousness, then he died for no reason. But Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. Do
you believe? As we pass by his cross again
this morning, do you see that it is Christ and him crucified? That that's the means and that's
the cause of salvation? Or is it nothing to you? If you're
not with Him, you're against Him. And the wrath of God abideth
on you. And Jesus Christ is made unto
His people wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
He made unto us that. We're certainly none of those
things in and of ourselves, are we? He was made to be sin for
God's elect so that the elect of God might be made the righteousness
of God in him. And right now, this wretch that
stands before you is as perfectly and wholly righteous and unblameable
and unapprovable in God's sight for one reason only, and that's
because when God looks at me, he sees his son. That's the best
news I ever heard. That's why we call it the gospel,
Doug. This is all my salvation. That's
what David said. This is all my desire. By the
grace of God, it's everything to me. Eric, it is. It's everything
to me. It hadn't always been, but it
is now. By God's grace. I'm growing in the grace and
in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. And it's not by any doing
of my own. Is it everything? Or is it nothing? What is Jesus Christ to you?
What think you of Christ? May God be pleased to make Him
your everything. And I'm gonna tell you something.
If you want Him to be, He will be. Never turn down a needy soul
yet, not once. Lord, help me, hallelujah. Lord,
save me. Took Peter by the hand, didn't
he? He's faithful, he promised.