Go with me, if you would, back
to Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians five, I pray that our
God will make this to be a blessing. Let's read from verse 25 to verse
30. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that
He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the Word, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. What I want us to enter into
tonight is the great care that we received from the Lord Jesus
Christ in being members of his body. The great care that we
have received by being members of his body. I want us to enter into the fact
that the suffering that he endured spared us from the suffering
we would have had to endure. And He accomplished that by us
being vitally joined together with Him. Members of His bones,
as the end of verse 30 words it. God's people have been pictured
that way since there have been people on this earth. All the
way back to Adam and Eve, The union of God's people with Christ
has been pictured in being bone of His bones. That's what has
been stated concerning God's people. That's the picture, bone
of His bones. Go with me if you would to Genesis
chapter 2. Genesis 2, this is a picture
of Christ and His bride. And it says in verse 21, The Lord God caused a deep sleep
to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and
closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God
had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man.
And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because
she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall
be one flesh. He said, she is bone of my bones. That's how joined together with
me. She is bone of my bones. And what a glorious picture that
is because in being bone of his bones, For him to love her is for him
to love himself. For him to love her is for him
to love his own self. It's the same thing. It's the
same great love. We all can enter into what it
is to love ourselves, can't we? We can enter into that. And it's
the same love that Christ has for his church. The same way
that we, a man, loves himself, that's the love he has for her. That's what Ephesians 5 just
told us. It said, Christ loved his own
bride as he loved himself. It said, no man hates himself
but nourishes himself and cherishes himself. And it said that's exactly
what the Lord Jesus Christ did for his bride. He loved her and
nourished her and cherished her. Why? Because she was bone of
his bones. That picture started with Adam
and Eve and it was carried all throughout the scripture. With
this distinction about it, okay, that picture of His bones. It is carried all throughout
the Scripture with this glorious particular distinction about
it. Turn with me if you would to Exodus chapter 12. Exodus 12, this is where verse
one, the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt
saying, this month shall be unto you the beginning of months.
It shall be the first month of the year to you. "'Speak ye unto
all the congregation of Israel, "'saying in the 10th day of this
month, "'they shall take to them every man a lamb, "'according
to the house of their fathers, "'a lamb for in house. "'And
if the household be too little for the lamb, "'let him and his
neighbor next unto his house, "'take it according to the number
of souls. "'Every man according to his
eating "'shall make your count for the lamb, Your lamb shall
be without blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take
it out from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep
it up until the 14th day of the same month, and the whole assembly
of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
And they shall take up the blood and strike it on the two side
posts and on the upper door post of the house, wherein they shall
eat it. Verse 13 says, and the blood
shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will
pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy
you when I smite the land of Egypt. This is a picture of Christ,
the lamb of God, the substitute sacrifice for the sins of God's
people. God pictured here, he will die
in your place. When I see that blood has already
been here, I'll be satisfied and I'll pass over you. And as a picture of this, he
said, you will slay this lamb. Your sins will be the reason
for this lamb's death. And you will slay this lamb and
you will divide this lamb And you will roast this lamb, but
He said make sure of this one thing. Make sure of this one
thing. All of that will happen with
the distinction of this one thing. Look at verse 46. He said, In one house shall it
be eaten. Thou shalt not carry forth aught
of the flesh abroad out of the house. Neither shall you break
a bone thereof." Don't do it. He said, in this
sacrifice make sure you don't break one bone. Numbers chapter
9 says the same thing. Turn a couple of books over to
Numbers chapter 9. Numbers 9 verse 11, it says, the 14th day of the second month
at even they shall keep it and eat it with unleavened bread
and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it until
the morning, nor break any bone of it. According to all the ordinances
of the Passover, they shall keep it." He said, don't leave any
of it and don't break one bone. That was the prophecy of all
the Old Testament concerning the accomplishment of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Turn over to Psalm 34. Psalm 34, verse 19, it says, Many are the
afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivereth him out
of them all. Now watch verse 20. He keepeth
all his bones. Not one of them is broken. He keepeth all his bones. Not
one is broken. Look at Psalm 35 verse 10. It
says, All my bones shall say, Lord,
who is like unto thee? Which deliverest the poor from
him that is too strong for him? Yea, the poor and the needy from
him that spoileth him. Who is like unto thee? That was
the prophecy concerning what Christ would accomplish on the
cross of Calvary for His people. Now here's the question. Did
He accomplish it? That was the prophecy. all through
the Old Testament. Did He accomplish it? That's
the question. Let's find out. Follow me through
a few scriptures here. I know you've been following
me, but now let's find out if He accomplished this. Look at
Psalm 22. This is our Lord on the cross. Psalm 22, verse 1, He cried,
My God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me? Verse 16, he said,
for dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have
enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my
feet. I may tell all my bones. They look and stare upon me. I can tell all my bones that
my enemies are looking on me as I suffer before them. And
all my bones are looking upon me. All of my bones are staring
upon me, seeing that they pierced my hands and my feet. They pierced
my hands and my feet. Turn to Isaiah 50. The heading at the top of my
page says, Christ's Patient Suffering. This is Christ's suffering and
this is Christ speaking. Isaiah 50 verse five. The Lord God hath opened mine
ear. He said, my father said to me,
this is the work I want you to do. This is the work I'm giving
you to do to stand in the place of suffering for our people.
Verse five, the Lord God hath opened mine ear and I was not
rebellious, neither turned away back. He said, I delighted to
do his will. So verse six, he said, I gave
my back to the smiters. I gave my back to the smiters."
We hear that and we think of him being struck over the back
with a rod or a whip or the different torture devices that they had
back then. And that sounds bad. That sounds very bad. But I did
a little historical research on what the practice of the Romans
was in doing that. And you can do that too sometime
if you want to. It was so gruesome, I don't want
to tell you what it was. It was so gruesome, I was reading
it and it just, it made me literally sick at my stomach. They said
it looked like a plowed farmer's field, talking about a man's
black back, looked like a plowed farmer's field when they were
done. They went into just great detail describing it. After reading what I read, when
they say that most people did not survive that beating to make
it to the cross, that when you'd hear about them scourging This
was the beating that they gave, and it says, most people never
made it past that beating to even get to the cross. And after
reading what I read, I don't see how they could. I honestly
don't. It was awful. It was so awful. Verse six, he said, I gave my
back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the
hair. That just means Just ripping it out. He went on to say, I hid not
my face from shame and spitting. What does it do to you inside
to think of them taking turns, whole bands, whole armies of
soldiers taking turns, spitting in the face of our God, our Lord
and our Savior? That just crushed me. I got to
really thinking about this and it just crushed me. Look at Isaiah
52. Verse 14, it says, As many were astonished
at thee, his visage was so marred, more than any man, and His form
more than the sons of men." Everyone who looked at Him as He hung
on that cross was astonished. And I, you know, I went back
and forth on whether or not I was going to tell you this because
I have no proof of this. You can take this with a grain
of salt, okay? I was reading historical accounts.
As you read John Gill, he quotes a man named Josephus a lot. And
he was not a religious man at all, but he was a historian who
wrote historical records from that day. Just recorded accounts. And I read that someone read
a historical account. I didn't see it. But apparently
it is in the ancient writings recorded that when they brought
Mary to those three crosses, she looked up and said, Which
one is he? I don't know if that's true or
not. But based on everything that this is saying, that wouldn't
surprise me at all. He was so marred. He was so... No living human
being has ever been more mangled and disfigured than he was. I just can't imagine how difficult
it was to even look on him. He was unrecognizable. And here's
the thing about it, that's just what God allowed men to do to
Him. That's only what men did to Him. It can't be described what God
did to Him. That's what He let man do in
His wrath. We could never fathom what God
did in His wrath. This physical illustration is a depiction of a spiritual illustration
of God angrily dealing with our sin. It's indescribable. It's absolutely
what happened to this man. Come see a man. What happened
to this man is indescribable. It's indescribable. Turn with
me to Matthew 27. Matthew 27 verse 26, then released he Barabbas unto
them. Pilate released Barabbas. And
when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall
and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped
him. and put on him a scarlet robe.
And when they had plaited, that means made, twisted, formed a
crown of thorns, they put it on his head. And they didn't
just set it there. They pressed those thorns into
his head. and a reed in his right hand,
and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail,
King of the Jews. And they spit upon him and took
the reed and smote him on the head." They took that rod and... And then the next soldier would
grab it. Can you imagine? Mark's account words it this
way. Look at Mark 14. Mark 14 verse 63, it says, then
the high priest rent his clothes and said, what need we any further
witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy.
What thank you. And they all condemned him to
be guilty of death. And some began to spit on him
and to cover his face. They blindfolded him. They began
to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him. That word buffet means to violently
strike with the fist. And to say unto him, prophesy. Tell us which one hit you. And the servants did strike him
with the palms of their hands. That's what the high priest and
the religious Sanhedrin did to him. That's what the religious
folks did to him. Then, chapter 15 says, Pilate
released Barabbas, chapter 15, verse 15, and turned the Lord
over to the soldiers to beat him. The religious folks beat
him. And then, chapter 15, verse 15,
so Pilate, willing to contend the people, released Barabbas
unto them and deliver Jesus when he had scourged him to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away
into the hall called Praetorium, and they called 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 did spit upon him and bowing their knees, worshiped
him. And when they had mocked him,
they took off the purple from Him and put His own clothes on
Him and led Him out to crucify Him. Now turn to John 19. Verse 1 says, Then Pilate therefore
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. Verse 16 says, then delivered
he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus
and led him away. And he bearing his cross went
forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called
in the Hebrew Golgotha, where they crucified him. and two other
with him on either side, one in Jesus in the midst. Verse
28 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 a 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. The Jews, therefore, because
it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the
cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was a high day,
Besought Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they
might be taken away. Then came the soldiers and break
the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified
with him. But when they came to Jesus and
saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs. But
one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith
came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it bare record,
and his record is true, and he knoweth that he sayeth true,
that you might believe. For these things were done that
the scripture should be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken. He gave his back to be mutilated. He gave his head to be stabbed. He gave his head to be beaten.
He gave his head to be ripped apart and spit in. He gave his
hands and his feet to be punctured. He gave his side to be pierced,
but he said, you will not touch one of my bones. You're not touching
my bone. You can have everything else,
but you're not touching my bones. And they didn't. In the destruction
of himself, he kept all of his bones. None of them were broken. Not one was broken. Now going
back to the beginning of this, who were His bones? Every chosen recipient of the
love of God. Every soul that the Father placed
in and joined to Christ. Every soul that God the Father
made to be bone of His bones. How can I know if I'm one of
them? I will see his brokenness as
being my unbrokenness. I will see his destruction as
being what spared me from all destruction. I will see his suffering
as being the very thing that kept me safe. His receiving of
wrath being my receiving of peace. That's what it is to discern
the Lord's body. That's what it is. 1 Corinthians
11 tells us not to observe this table unless we have been given
the ability to discern the Lord's body. Well, that's what it is
to discern the Lord's body. It's to see Him suffering at
all. being the very thing that kept
me from suffering at all. I was spared in Him. I was spared
in Him. Because I was made to be bone
of His bones, I wasn't broken. What's your hope? It's this right
here. Because the Father made me to be bone of His bones, I
wasn't broken. If God has revealed that to us,
And let's give him thanks for that by remembering him and everything
he bore for us and everything he suffered for us in observing
this table. This is what we're doing. We're
remembering what he went through for us and we're giving him thanks
for it. So let's do that together. I've
asked two men to come read from Psalm 40. And while they read,
let's realize that these are the words of our Lord from the
cross, okay? Brother Obie, you come.