Go with me again to Psalm 145.
Psalm 145, and let's read verse 8. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord
is gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. All right, now turn with me to
John chapter 19. John chapter 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. Pilate therefore went forth again
and said 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. behold the man. I've titled the
message behold the man. I struggled on whether to title
this the Lord is or behold the man. And the reason is because
Psalm 145 verse 8 is a verse that I've been dwelling on for
a few weeks. And it says the Lord is gracious,
compassionate, patient and merciful. But the only reason that it can
be said that the Lord is all of those things is behold the
man. Behold the man. Pilate brought
a man before the people who was covered in blood. As he stood
there He was covered in blood. Wounds and lacerations were opened
up all over him. It is a horrible sight. Horrible,
horribly disfigured is how he stood there. All of his bones
were out of socket, the scripture says. And Pilate said to the people,
Behold the man. Behold the man. Now that is the
message of the gospel. The gospel is so singular. The gospel can be so confusing
to people. Trying to figure out what is
the gospel? What is the truth? This is what
he says. This is what he says. What's
the answer? Here's what God says in his word.
Behold the man. That's the gospel. The gospel
is a declaration of a person. The gospel is not a declaration
of an order of events. The gospel is not a checklist
of do's and don'ts. The gospel is a declaration of
a person. There are two things I want us
to see in that declaration. Number one, that is the same declaration
that the Old Testament cried from Genesis 1 to Malachi 4. It's the same declaration. The message of the New Testament
has not changed from the message of the Old Testament. Not one
bit. There was not one way of salvation
in the Old Testament, and now another way of salvation for
the New Testament. The only hope that any sinner
has is, behold the man. Behold the man. The Old Testament
scriptures, all of them, all of them, declared and described,
they all pointed us to a man. All of the Old Testament scriptures,
everything that was written described a man. It was all talking about
a man. Now just listen to these scriptures,
it's a lot of them. So we're not going to turn to
these. But all of these are from the Old Testament, and just listen
to the Old Testament scriptures describe the man. They all describe
the man. Song of Solomon, verse 5, says,
His head is as the most fine gold. His locks,
his hair, His locks are bushy and black as a raven." Now, this
is God. He's talking about God. His head,
His hair. Psalm 86 says, "'Bow down thine
ear, O Lord.'" He has an ear, two ears. "'Bow down thine ear
and hear me.'" Psalm 34 says, The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. The face of the Lord. Psalm 33 says, Behold, the eye
of the Lord is upon them that fear him. Deuteronomy 8 says, Man doth
not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of God. Psalm 29 says, the voice of the
Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full
of majesty. Exodus 15 says, with the blast
of thy nostrils, the waters were gathered together,
head, face, all of these things. Isaiah 9 says the government
shall be upon his shoulder. Isaiah 50 says I gave my back
to the smiters. First Samuel 13 says concerning
David he is a man after my own heart. Isaiah 52 says the Lord hath
made bare His holy arm. Joshua 4 says that all the people
of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty. Some say He has no hand but your
hands. I think they have the wrong man.
I think they got the wrong man. Song of Solomon 5 says, His legs
are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold. Genesis 3 says, Thou shalt bruise
his heel. Nahum 1 says, The Lord hath his
way in the whirlwind and in the storm, And the clouds are the
dust of his feet. Behold the man. Behold the man. All of the scripture points us
to the only hope of salvation. Behold the man. Now before we
go to the second thing that I want us to see in this, let me show
you the clear Old Testament declaration of the Son of God, the man. Go
with me to Daniel chapter 3. Just after Ezekiel, Daniel chapter
3. Verse 19 says, Then was Nebuchadnezzar
full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Therefore he spake and commanded
that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it
was wont to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty
men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
and to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace. Then these men
were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their
other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning,
fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king's
commandment was urgent, And the furnace exceeding hot, the flame
of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, fell down, bound into the midst of the burning
fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king
was astonished and rose up in haste and spake and said unto
his counselors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst
of the fire? They answered and said unto the
king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see
four men, loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have
no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. That is the only time those four
words appear in the Old Testament Scripture. The Son of God. That's
the only time it's written. The Son of God. But it's the
message on every page. It's the message on every page. And it's clearly declared in
that verse of Scripture right there. Behold the man. Behold the man. Now here's the
second thing I want us to see in that declaration. Behold the
man. Behold the man. Every picture
of idolatry that I've seen. Every imagination of a sinful,
wicked man's heart that has ever been painted of a man who is
supposed to be Jesus Christ. They're all over the place. A
man who is supposed to be Jesus Christ. Those pictures of idolatry
always portray a shrimpy, wimpy man. Always. A soft, sissy of a man. The reason they do is because
that's what they think of him. That's what they think of his
ability. They think he is a frail man who needs their help. That's the basis of all false
religion. He's just a frail man who needs
our help. But the scripture declares, the
picture that the scripture paints is, behold the man. Behold the man. The second part
of this message is, the Lord is. The Lord is. Now turn with me to these. Go
with me to Exodus chapter 15. Exodus chapter 15 verse 2 says,
The Lord is My strength. He's my strength. I'm not his
strength. He's mine. Verse three says the Lord is
a man of war. The Lord is a man of war. Psalm 24 says the Lord is strong
and mighty in battle. He's the captain of the host. This battle that was fought over
our sin, oh, it took quite a man to win that battle. Single-handedly
defeated all our foes. 1 Kings 8 says, the Lord is God. Exodus 18 says, greater than
all gods. The Lord is greater than all
gods. Now wait a minute, who is? The
Lord Jesus Christ is. The Lord Jesus Christ. He's a
man of war. What is the beginning of true
saving wisdom? What is the beginning of true
saving wisdom? The fear of the Lord is. The
fear of the Lord is. Turn with me to Joshua 5. A few
books over. Joshua chapter 5. Joshua 5 verse 13. And it came to pass when Joshua
was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold
there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his
hand. A man was standing there with
his sword drawn in his hand. Who was that man? the Lord Jesus
Christ standing there, Jesus Christ standing there with his
sword drawn in his hand. Verse 13 goes on to say, And
Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or
for our adversaries? And he said, Neither. But as captain of the host of
the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to
the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my
Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's
host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for
the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is a God of gods. And all who behold him have the
same reaction Joshua did when God opens our eyes to behold
the man. The man. Every child of God has
the same reaction. The Lord appeared to Isaiah and
he fell down into the dirt crying, whoa, it's me. The Lord appeared to Saul of
Tarsus, and he fell down into the dirt, crying, Lord, what
would you have me to do? The Lord appeared to John on
the Isle of Patmos, and John fell down into the dirt as a
dead man. The Lord is a just God, a God
who upholds justice. The Lord is angry with the wicked
every day. The Lord is all of these things. First Samuel 2 says, talk no
more so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of
your mouth for the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions
are weighed. It goes on to say the bows of
the mighty men are broken. The Lord killeth. This is who the Lord is. This
is who the Lord is. But go with me again to Psalm
145. Psalm 145 verse 8 says, The Lord is gracious. and full of compassion, slow
to anger, and of great mercy. How can that be? How can that
be? Behold the man. Behold the man. What is the grace of God? We
talk about God's grace, amazing grace. What is the grace of God?
Behold the man. That's God's gift. That's God's kindness. That's
God's favor. What is mercy, really? What is
mercy? Behold the man. He got what I
deserved. Behold the man. Verse 9 says
the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his
works. What does he mean by that? Behold
the man. Verse 17 says the Lord is righteous in all his ways and
holy in all his works. Do we want proof of that? That
the Lord is righteous in all his ways, holy in all his works,
that God is truly just and will punish sin. Do we want proof
of that? Behold the man. God killed his own son. Men think
that God's going to let that slide. You know, God is going
to let that slide. I did this, yeah, but God's going
to let that one slide. Look at what he did to his own
son. We want to see that the Lord
is righteous and holy and just. Behold the man. Behold the man. The gracious compassion of God
sent Christ the man. The patient, tender mercy of
God joined his people to Christ the man. The righteous holiness
of God judged Christ the man. And because of that, verse 18
says, the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him to all
that call upon Him in truth. All that call upon Him in Christ. He said, I'm the truth. All who
come to God in Christ the Son, He's not to them. Go with me
over to Psalm 23. Psalm 23, as we behold the man,
as we behold that bloody sight, that horrible disfigurement,
the cross he bore, the death he died, the separation from
God that he endured in the grave, knowing that all of that was
done so that according to righteousness and according to holiness and
according to justice, He might be gracious. That's what it took
for him to be gracious and compassionate and patient and merciful. Truly beholding the man, we can
say, Psalm 23 verse 1, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Who are we beholding here? We're
beholding our shepherd. We're beholding our savior, our
redeemer, our friend. This is our friend. The Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. I wouldn't do it on my own. Thank
God he made me lie down. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. Everything
in this life and on this earth will crush your soul. You draw
not a God through Christ your Savior, and He will restore your
soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou
art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever." How do you know, David? How do you
know that? How can you say that with such
certainty? Behold the man. Just behold the
man. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow all of God's people, all of us, if we are truly beholding
and clinging to the man. Goodness and mercy. Is it easy
street? No, it's not. But every ounce
of it is goodness. and it's mercy and it will follow
us all the days of our life and then when this life is over we
will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And we're going
to be crying one to another forever. Behold the man. Can you believe
this? Behold the man. David said in
Psalm 27 verse 4, one thing have I desired of the Lord That will I seek after, that
I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. Behold the man, for in the time
of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of
his tabernacle shall he hide me, he'll set me up on a rock.
The Lord is gracious. and full of compassion, slow
to anger, and of great mercy. Behold the man. Okay, let's all
stand together.