Turn with me now to Luke 23. Luke chapter 23. As I mentioned to you when we
started the Bible study, we are looking at one subject today. for all three of our services. And that subject is the seven
sayings of our Lord from the cross, the seven statements that
he made while he was hanging on the cross. And in each one
of these statements, he declared in his own words who he was and
what he was doing on that cross. And I believe, I just was talking
to a brother about this. This is holy ground. You know,
the Lord met with Moses in the burning bush and he said, take
your shoes off. You're standing on holy ground.
Come down a little lower. This is holy ground. We are on
holy ground right here. This is a wonderful place to
be. I'm so glad we're here today. What our Lord said in the statements
that he made, we see the office he was holding and we see his
accomplishment in that office. And for our Bible study a moment
ago, we looked at his first statement and who he declared himself to
be in his first statement. After all the railing, All the
mocking, all the hatred, all the rebellion, all of that sin
was committed against him. The first thing our Lord said
from the cross was Luke 23 verse 34. Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do. Thank God we had a mediator. Thank God. Now just imagine What
if God had not provided a mediator? Where would we be? What would
be the case for us? Had God, the all-knowing, almighty,
in eternity past before any of this was, had he not provided
a mediator, where would we be? Thank God we have a mediator,
Christ our mediator. There is one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. That's who he was.
That's what he declared himself to be on the cross of Calvary,
our mediator. All right, we'll move on to his
second saying. And again, as I mentioned to
you in the Bible study, this is believed to be the order that
he said them in. This is the timeline of his statements. Here's the second thing he said.
Look at verse 39 right here, Luke 23, verse 39. And one of the malefactors, which
were hanged, railed on him, saying, if thou be Christ, save thyself
and us. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
received the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done
nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me, when thou comest into thy kingdom. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. Verse 43, and Jesus said unto
him, verily, truly, truth, I say unto thee, today shalt thou be
with me in paradise. You know what he said right there?
You said it. I'm the king. I am the king. I am the king of
the kingdom. Is it not amazing to realize
that the one who mediated for us before the throne was the king himself? Is that
not amazing? We needed a mediator between
us and the throne. And do you know who mediated
for us? To the throne itself. The king
did. That makes me want to smile and
go home. The king did. That was the king. The one who was born king. Where is he that is born king? The king of kings. That was the
office he was holding. That's the office that Jesus
Christ was holding while he hung on the cross. He hung there as
king. The king himself was the one
who mediated for us before the throne. Look with me at Luke
chapter 1. Luke 1 verse 26. And in the sixth month the angel
Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth
to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the
house of David and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel
came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored,
the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast
in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. For the angel
said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with
God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth
a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and
shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God shall
give unto him the throne of his father David. and he shall reign
over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall
be no end. He was born king. He died king. He arose king. He ascended king and he sat down
on his throne king. To the Son, He said, Thy throne,
O God, is forever and ever. That's who He declared Himself
to be while He hung on the cross. He was the King, securing His
kingdom. That's who He was. That's what He was doing on the
cross of Calvary, securing His kingdom. Turn over to John 19. John 19 verse 13 says, When Pilate therefore heard that
saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment
seat in a place that is called the pavement, but in the Hebrew,
Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of
the Passover and about the sixth hour. And he said unto the Jews,
behold, your king. Behold your King. He was hanging
there as King. Look at verse 19. And Pilate
wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was Jesus
of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Matthew 27 says it was
his accusation. You remember it is worded that
way. His accusation written was. That's the only thing they could
think of. That was the only thing they could come up with to accuse
him of. He's the king and Caesar doesn't
like it. That's his accusation. Verse
20 right here, this title then read, many of the Jews for the
place where Jesus was crucified was not to the city. And it was
written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin. Then said the chief priest
of the Jews to Pilate, write not the king of the Jews, but
that he said, I am the king of the Jews. Pilate answered, what
I have written, I have written. He's the king. He's the king. Now unto the king eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God be honor and glory forever and
ever. Amen. Father, forgive them. Mediator, today shalt thou be
with me in my kingdom of paradise. King. Now here's the third statement
he made. Right here in John 19, look at
verse 25. Now there stood by the cross
of Jesus his mother, And his mother's sister, Mary, the wife
of Cleopas. And his mother's name was Mary.
And this was probably her sister-in-law or her cousin. They used to call
all family members brethren. They would call them brothers
and sisters. There weren't two children named Mary in the same
family. But it says, there stood by the
cross of Jesus, his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the
wife of Cleopas and Mary Magdalene, three Marys right here. When
Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple standing by
whom he loved, and that's John, the apostle John. He said unto
his mother, woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple,
behold thy mother. And from that hour, that disciple
took her unto his own home. In that statement, he declared
to us that he is our provider. He's our provider. Even in his deep moment of agony,
he still provided for the needs of his own. He had provided Mary's spiritual
need, her eternal need. Mary's confession, you know,
we read it, I don't know when, recently, Wednesday night or,
I don't know. But Mary's confession was that
God was her savior. My heart rejoices in God, my
savior. Her confession was that he was
her hope and he was her mercy and her grace and her covenant
promise. She gave great evidence that
He had provided her spiritual need, but He even provided all
of her physical need. And He didn't just do that for
Mary because she was His earthly speaking mother. He didn't call
her mother. He called her woman. What He did for her, He does
for all of His people. From the cross, He declared,
I'm the shepherd. I'm the shepherd of the sheep.
I am the good shepherd of the sheep. I will provide for my
own. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not want. I have been young and now I'm
old and I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging
bread, spiritual or physical. John 13 one says, having loved
his own, which were in the world. Associating that right here with
Mary causes me to enter into it like I haven't
before. Having loved his own which were in the world. Why
are they in the world? He loved them to the end. Our shepherd,
our provider, that's who he was and that's what he was doing.
Our provider was providing. Nowhere is that more clearly
pictured than in Genesis 22. Look with me at Genesis 22. Such a glorious story here. In this story, Abraham's son
Isaac is a picture of Christ. He is a picture of Christ, but
there's a greater picture of Christ in this story. Look at
verse one. It says, and it came to pass
after these things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him,
Abraham. And he said, behold, here I am.
And he said, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou
lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him
there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I
will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in
the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young
men with him, and Isaac his son, and claved the wood for the burnt
offering, and rose up and went unto the place of which God had
told him. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
unto his young men, abide ye here with the ass, and I and
the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son.
And he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both
of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father, and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, my son.
And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the
lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. God will provide. The provider will provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together
and they came to the place which God had told him of. And Abraham
built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac
his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched
forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel
of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham,
Abraham. And he said, here am I. And he
said, lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything
unto him. For now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from
me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket
by his horn, a ram wearing a crown of thorns. And Abraham went and
took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the
stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide. As it
is said to this day in the Mount of the Lord, it shall be seen. Abraham said, the Lord my God
will provide. And on the cross of Calvary,
he did. He did provide. Our mediator,
our king, our provider. He did provide. Who was hanging
there and what did he do? Who was hanging there? Our mediator.
What did he do? He mediated. Our king, what did
he do? He was establishing and securing
his kingdom. Our provider, what did he do?
He provided. He provided, and He did it in
this way, okay? What we just read right there
in Genesis 22, this leads us into our Lord's fourth statement.
Go with me to Matthew 27. Matthew 27 verse 45 says, Now from the sixth hour there
was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about
the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani. That is to say, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there
when they heard that said, this man calleth for Elias. And straightway
one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and
put it on a reed and gave him to drink. The rest said, let
be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. My God,
my God. in him saying, My God, why hast
thou forsaken me? He was declaring that he held
the office of our substitute. That's who he was. He was our
substitute. That's what he was accomplishing
on the cross. Substitution with his people. Not substitution with every soul
on earth, but substitution with every soul that his father made
him to be the substitute for. Just like when Abraham offered
that ram in the stead of his son. Christ was the substitute for
his people. Go with me to 2 Corinthians 5.
2 Corinthians 5. Verse 17, it says, therefore, If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit or to know that God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of
reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for
Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's
stead be you reconciled to God for he hath made him to be sin
for us. That is the substitutionary work
of our substitute. He was made to be sin for us. Made to be sin for us. It goes
on to say who knew no sin. He never knew any sin, He never
committed any sin, but He was made to be sin. Who knew no sin,
that we might be made to be the righteousness of God in Him.
He took the place of us, that we might be able to take the
place of Him. I don't know which is more unfathomable
to me. I don't know which one is more
unfathomable to me. He took the place of us. that we might be able to take
the place of him. First Peter two says he bore
our sin in his own body on the tree. And he did that so we could
bear his righteousness in our own body in glory with him. He was our mediator. He was our
king. He was our provider. He was our
substitute. That's what he declared himself
to be. That's what he declared himself to be. And we're going
to pause right there for just a minute. All right, everybody,
go get some lunch. Go get a nap. And we'll come back here in just
a little bit. And we'll look at the last three statements
the Lord made. All right, Brother Eddie, you come.