Good evening. Turn back to John
19. And I'm going to read the passage
one more time. John 19, verse one. 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. Pilate, therefore, went forth
again and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that
you may know that I find no fault in him.' Then came Jesus forth,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate saith
unto them, Behold the man. When the chief priests, therefore,
and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify
him. Pilate saith unto 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. When Pilate therefore heard that
saying, he was the more afraid, and went again into the judgment
hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him
no answer. Then saith 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. Therefore he that delivered me
unto thee hath the greater sin. And from thenceforth Pilate sought
to release him. But the Jews cried out, saying,
If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Whosoever
maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. 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 saith unto the Jews,
Behold your king. But they cried out, Away with
him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall
I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, We
have no king but Caesar. 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, and Jesus in the midst."
The title of our message this evening is Behold Our Savior. And before I get into the details,
the word behold is recorded over 1,300 times in the scripture.
And I've often translated it to myself as look and see. or behold, or excuse me, consider. But for this study, I decided
I would actually look the word up, see what it meant. And one particular meaning caught
my eye, and that is to see. In other words, to become acquainted
with by experience, to experience. What a blessing it would be this
evening if our Lord would enable us to become acquainted with
him by experience, each of us personally. In this past week,
we have received word of heartbreak that has come to brothers and
sisters in Christ. One lost a mother. A young couple
in Orlando lost a son, a newborn son. I can imagine, I can to an extent
sympathize with both of these. I have a mother. I have a son. But I have not experienced personally
the loss of either of those. I can't fully enter into what
they are experiencing. I can hear of it. I can understand
it. But my heart hasn't broken like
that. A gospel preacher gets up, as
John the Baptist did, and says, behold the Lamb of God. but he's not able to impart that
experience to anyone that hears him. That takes the power of
God alone. Nevertheless, tonight, I'm going
to say, behold our Savior. In the book of John, Our Lord
recorded some statements concerning himself that begin with the word,
behold. And oh, may he be pleased to
allow us to behold Christ in his glory through these statements. We'll look at six beholds. And
Lord willing, we will see who he is. Behold your king. Our condition, behold the man. Our Lord's eternal purpose, behold
the Lamb of God. The cause behind His purpose,
behold how He loved. Why He is able to save us, behold,
I find no fault in Him. and how he saved us. Behold the
man. We'll start right here in John
19, verse 14. And it was the preparation of
the Passover and about the sixth hour, and Pilate saith unto the
Jews, behold your king. I know a little something about
this, but how many today claim to call Jesus their king? Who say, Jesus is a king. I did. Before I knew him as the
king, he was King Jesus. King Jesus, who was just like
Pilate thought of him, a defeated king, a king who needed my help,
a king who was, in fact, no king at all. He was a figurehead. But I held the power over my
salvation. If I did, I would be saved. If I didn't, I wouldn't be saved. I was king. Who is it that has
redeemed lost, ruined sinners like me? Hold your place here. We'll be right back and go to
Revelation chapter 19. Revelation 19. Verse 11, Revelation 19, 11. And I saw heaven opened, and
behold, a white horse. And he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge
and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that
no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in
heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a
sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and
he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the
winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he
hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of
kings and Lord of lords. Behold your king. Behold your glorious, victorious,
almighty, sovereign king. Back in John 19, Verse 5. Our King beheld us in our condition,
and he came in our likeness. John 19, 5. Then came Jesus forth, wearing
the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate saith unto them,
Behold the man. I've heard this passage read.
I've read this myself many times. And every time, my mind's eye
pictures the same. But it's always with rose-colored
glasses on, so to speak. It's almost impossible to imagine the condition of the man that
was brought forth. Behold the man, Paul recorded,
God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. We cannot grasp how great a statement
that is. that God Almighty would condescend
to come in our likeness. When you picture this scene,
when you see it in your mind's eye, is it as polluted as mine
is? Do you see a scene that has been
made for a Hollywood movie? a man brought forth and maybe
he has a bloody lip. He's got a, of twined grapevines placed around
his head, neatly placed, it's in good condition. May God be pleased to remove
such foolishness from our minds. If we can get a glimpse of what
the man looked like that was brought forth, we might have
a little glimpse as to what our condition is outside of Christ
before God. We are a bloody, swollen, miserable
wretch of a creature. We are encased in our blood and
the blood of others. Behold the man who the night
before, while he prayed, his sweat was, as it were, great
drops of blood that stained his body. When Peter had drawn his
sword and cut off the ear of the servant, this man touched
his ear and healed him. a servant's blood gushing onto
his hand. Before Pilate had him scourged,
before the elders, chief priests, and scribes came together to
try him, the men that held Jesus mocked him and smote him. And these men who smote him were
soldiers who no doubt Had cracked and bleeding hands, it was cold. Peter had warmed himself by their
fire. And these soldiers being out
in the elements all day, every day, I'm sure their hands would
have cracked. And as they hit our Lord with
their hands, their blood would have been mingled with his. This man gave his back to the
smiters and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. He
hid not his face from shame and spitting. As Pilate presents the man whose
visage was so marred more than any man, behold him. What a contrast this man is to
the one In Genesis 127, God created man in his own image. Our sin,
our guilt before God has made us an unrecognizable creature
to that which God created. Yet, we being in such a condition
before God, in our pride, we crown ourselves. We take and
put upon us a robe of purple, declaring ourselves king. Behold the man. Behold me. Words can't express what we are
in God's sight outside of Christ. the absolute defilement we are. I am dead in trespasses and sins. From the sole of my foot, even
unto the head, there is no soundness in it, in me, but wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores. There is no beauty in me that
God should desire me. With such a creature before you,
Where might I find hope? Am I cast out of his sight forever? Turn to John 1. John 1, verse 29. The next day John, seeing Jesus
coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world. Our hope, our confidence, the
confidence that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ proclaims
is God, even when we were dead in sins, determined to save a
host of Adam's descendants by the shed blood of his lamb from
the foundation of the world. Our hope, our rest, our confidence
is salvation is of the Lord. He has chosen, He has purposed,
He has executed, and those for whom He sent His Son to live
for, to die for, and to redeem, He shall call them to Himself
by the preaching of His Word, as we heard this morning. Now
why would God purpose to save such wretched and vile sinners
as we are? Look at what we are. We're traitors
against the just and good God who created us. Thieves, murderers,
adulterers, who at every turn cry against God and say, no,
God, and I'll not have you to reign
over me. Why would God be willing to save
such as we are? Turn to John 11, verse 36. John
11, 36. Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him. Before God spoke the world into
existence, before he formed man of the dust of the ground, he
chose unto himself a people and he set his love upon them. He
formed man perfect, standing before him in a righteousness
that was unstained. But we left our first estate
and our first love in open rebellion, not as a surprise to God, not
out of His sovereign authority, but because He loved His own. And to establish an everlasting
righteousness, God the Father gave those He loved to His Son. The Son, loving His Father and
loving those that were given to Him, so loved them that He
came in their likeness to redeem them. It is His love to us that
compelled Him to come to where we are, to the tomb. As we are in our likeness, to
live as we are under the law, to accomplish that which we cannot,
to keep the law perfectly, and thus obtain that which we
sought, a righteous standing before God. Behold how he loved. Did he accomplish a righteousness
for us? Did he fulfill what he came to
do? Back in John 19. John 19, verse 4. Pilate therefore
therefore went forth again and saith unto them, Behold, I bring
him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in
him." This same Jesus, declared by the court of men to be without
fault, received from God the Father honor and glory when there
came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." As the Passover lamb
was to be separated and examined for any flaw or blemish, our
Lord Jesus Christ walked as a man before the laws of man and God,
and none could lay a charge to his account. Indeed, he is the
spotless Lamb of God. Behold the man who satisfied
the law of God. That he walked perfectly before
God and man only shows what he is. He is righteous. He was righteous before he was
manifested in the flesh. But as a man, those works that
he did in the flesh, he earned righteousness. All of us that
are born of Adam's sin, we earn, but we earn death. The wages
of sin is death. But this man earned righteousness. Having no sin, he has not earned
death. The righteousness he has earned,
though, cannot, simply because he obtained it, do anything for
me. He earned it. It's his. How then
did he save those he loves? Verse 5. Then came Jesus forth,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate saith
unto them, Behold the man." Our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing our
lost condition, remembering His covenant with His Father, those
that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost. He
came in our likeness, fulfilled all righteousness, and was delivered
for our offenses. Behold, the man, so marred, so
bloodied, yet not for any trespass that he has done, but for the
offense of those that he came to redeem, he suffers. He suffers all that agony for
us to find mercy. there was no mercy for him. He who walked in the flesh, healed
many, took away the sickness and disease of so many, could
not take away in one degree the anguish and the pain he now endures. The penalty due my sin must be
paid in full. In his flesh he endured the beatings
in Pilate's hall. Then he is taken and nailed to
the cross and hung as a criminal. It is there on the cross God
the Father made him sin who knew no sin. Being sin, the Father
turned his back on the Son, and my Lord being so closely identified
with me, endured the full wrath of God. He fully experienced
what Isaiah wrote. Your iniquities have separated
between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from
you that he will not hear. The wages of my sin is death. And having fulfilled all the
scriptures, our Lord cries out, it is finished. And he gave up
the ghost. To save wretched, lost sinners,
the Son of God laid down his life. Having died, he carried our sins
far away. On the third day, he took up
his life again, being raised for our justification. Behold the man who saves sinners. Behold our Savior. Behold our
King, who God hath highly exalted and given a name which is above
every name. When the Lord allows us to see
Him rightly and we see more of His glory, how much more do we
behold the man, this sinful, fleshly man, bloody, sinful,
crowned with a curse and robed in self-righteousness? May God
be gracious to me, to you, that we are reminded of what we are,
that we might flee to him for mercy. May we be ever thankful for God's
sovereign purpose of salvation in and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world." Thank God! Behold how He loved! In this was manifested the love
of God toward us because that God sent His only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through Him. He obtained
the righteousness for us which we could not. I find no fault
in him. Behold the man, the only man
to walk in perfect righteousness before God. Behold the man, God
declares, in whom I am well pleased. Behold the man who by himself
purged our sins. Behold the man who humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Behold our Savior. Behold the
Lord Jesus Christ. May God give us the ability to
behold Him personally, experience our salvation, who is Christ
Jesus our Lord. Amen.