Let's open our Bibles to Matthew
27. Matthew 27. It would be good
for us to read this often throughout all the Gospels. Read the crucifixion
of Christ. Have it brought up in our memory
once again. Here in Matthew 27, we'll begin
in verse 24. Matthew 27, 24. When Pilate saw
that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was
made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude,
saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See
ye to it. Then answered all the people
and said, His blood be on us and our children. Then released
Heber Rabbis unto them, 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 a crown
of thorns, they put it upon 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. And
after they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and
put on his own raiment, and led him away to crucify him. And
as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene Simon by name,
him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they were come
unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of the
skull, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall. And
when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified
him. and parted his garments, casting
lots, that it might be fulfilled that which was spoken by the
prophet. They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture
did they cast lots. And sitting down, they watched
him there." They sat and watched, looking at him. And they set
up over his head his accusation, written, This is Jesus, the King
of the Jews, Then there were two thieves crucified with Him,
one on the right hand, the other on the left. And they that passed
by reviled Him, wagging their heads and saying, Thou that destroyest
the temple and build it in three days, save Thyself. Thou be the Son of God, come
down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests
mocking Him with the scribes And elders said, He saved others,
Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel,
let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God, let Him deliver
Him now, if He will have Him. For He said, I am the Son of
God. The thieves also, which were crucified with Him, cast
the same in His teeth. Now, from the sixth hour, there
was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. From noon
until 3 p.m., it was pitch black. 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 called 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 it be. Don't do that. Let us see whether
Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again
with a loud voice, John told us, he said, it is finished.
And he cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. Now how'd that make you feel? To the child of God. You know
when somebody says, every believer thinks this, every believer does
this, I perk up. I listen. To the child of God,
the ones that love our Lord, that He loved first, we're gonna
go through every emotion, Do you know that? We're going to
have sorrow, anger, righteous anger, shame. Why was He on that cross? Because
of me. Because of me. Wonder, amazement. What just happened? Were we allowed
to read out loud again? It amazes me. admiration and glory. We see
everything in that don't we? We experience all that. The preaching
of Christ and Him crucified is not old-fashioned and not out
of date as many say in our day. It's not out of tune with the
modern man or the modern woman. It is needful. and it's wise
to do so. It's needful and it's wise. The
cross of Christ is where the wisdom, the power, and the glory
of our sovereign and holy God is at its clearest. It's on full
display. Paul said, for the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. That's just
words on a page. Foolishness. But unto us which
are saved it is the power of God. He also said there in Galatians,
but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and
I unto this world. Truly seeing what happened on
that cross, I'm crucified to this world. They want nothing
to do with me. Get rid of him. Don't even stone
him, just get rid of him. And this world, by seeing Christ
on that cross, boy, it don't matter, does it? It's dead to
me. I want us to consider four things
in what the cross of Christ shows us. And this is not all inclusive. This is a deep well. I'm only
going to draw one bucket, but I want us to consider four things
that this shows us clearly, across the cross. The first one is it
shows us what is really in men and women, our true nature, what
every man, woman, and child walking the face of this earth truly
is on the inside, what our true nature is. Turn over to Acts
chapter 2. It shows us our real feelings
towards God. towards the character of God,
towards God's law, and towards His love. But we really think
about it. At that cross, God's counsel
and love was at work. Our Redeemer was not just an
innocent bystander. He wasn't some helpless victim
that somebody come and just took him and that wasn't what he wanted
to do, that wasn't what was intended. It was the purpose of God that
put him on that cross. They're in Acts 2, verse 22. Ye men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which
God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. You know who I'm talking about.
You saw Him. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. Who delivered Him? The determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God delivered Him to that cross. Who did the work of it? Ye have
taken. God delivered Him, but ye have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. It was by
the counsel, by the wisdom, the purpose of God and by the foreknowledge
The love of God that Christ was hung on that cross. What a thought. What a mysterious thing to the
natural man. How could we enter into these
things? On purpose, in an act of love and pure holiness, He
put His Son on that cross. He determined it. But man is
the one that put that cross in the ground. Man's the one that
nailed Him to it. We're the one that mocked Him.
Man's the one that whenever He said, I thirst, gave Him vinegar
and gall to drink. Crucifixion, that was the Roman
form of death. The Jewish form of death was
stoning. And they didn't stone Him. They crucified Him. And
stoning, that first rock or two may hit you in the head and knock
you out before you die. I wouldn't call it humane, but
it's better than a long, slow, shameful, painful death of being
on a cross. At least a stoning is quick.
And stoning may only hurt for a little bit. But to declare
that Christ was an outcast from that Jewish race, for them to
declare that He's not our King, and He was an outcast from the
whole human race, Not just those physical born Jews. Every one
of them cried. It says they all cried. Crucify
him. Let him die the worst kind of
death. Not stoning. Crucify him. Someone that does not believe
God. Someone that does not love Christ.
They don't know heaven. Spirit is the love of God. A
lot of people nowadays they think the Bible is fiction. You've
got to look in the fiction section of a bookstore to find it sometimes.
To those people, I want to speak to them for a second. Is there
anything that Christ did that's recorded in His Word on this
earth that warranted death? There ain't a thing. There ain't
a thing. A man that's just a reprobate
that don't even believe that this is a fairy tale would tell
you that's not right. This is hatred. This rejection
is shame. Why would this happen? You see
that man's totally depraved? They all cried. Love or indifference didn't do
this. Love wouldn't say, for man's
love, wouldn't say kill him. Somebody was just indifferent.
I'm a neutral party. It wouldn't say kill him. That's hatred. Hatred said that. Well, those
people that did this, they were bad people. Those were some rough
ends. No, it wouldn't. This didn't
take place on Skid Row. This wasn't in a maximum security
prison full of felons. Those crying out and those that
orchestrated this and performed it, they were soldiers. Upstanding
soldiers. They were political leaders.
These were religious leaders. Not just religious folks, religious
leaders. It was a cream of the crop as
far as man is concerned. And they said, kill him and give
us that felon, that repeat offender Barabbas. We'll take him. It's
just illogical, isn't it? Man doesn't hate his own God,
he hates the God of the Bible. Man doesn't hate his own Lord,
he hates the Living Lord, the true God. Christ said, as he
has seen me, hath seen the Father. And what are those that physically
looked at Him? You're looking at God Almighty in human flesh,
Emmanuel, God with us. He said, you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. And they saw the works that He did. And what
did they cry? Kill Him. Kill Him. The issue between God and men
is not if we lie, like we looked at this morning. It's not if
we lie. It's not if we steal. It's not if we don't just work
real hard. and give to others and be generous. The issue between
us and God is whenever we see God revealed, reveal Himself
and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we reject Him and we say we will
not have this man reign over us. Let His blood be on our hands. We don't want Him. His blood's
just not on Pilate's hands. His blood's just not on those
in attendance that day, or those soldiers. It's on the hands of
every man and woman born of Adam. And our nature, that we're born
into this world, unless God does a work in us, it yells, crucify
Him. Crucify Him. So first off, the
cross shows us what mankind is. We are entity towards God. All
those born of Adam, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, those
people that's filled with religion, the reprobate, the rich ruler
or the peasant. The cross, the cross takes off
that mask that men and women wear and it shows us what we
really are. By our birth, we hate God. That's
how we come into this world. But secondly, this cross shows
us who God is. Turn over to Psalm 19. When the
Lord spoke to Nicodemus, He said, For God so loved the world, all
His people in it, rich and poor, bond and free, Jew and Gentile,
all those sinners. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should
not perish but have everlasting life. Whosoever. That means it could be me. Whosoever. Don always said that. If it said
Kevin Bailey Thacker there, I'd swear it was another Kevin Bailey
Thacker. Whosoever. Look here in Psalm 19, verse
1. The heavens declare the glory
of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth
speech. and not unto not showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language
for their voice is not heard." All of creation declares the
power and the wisdom of God. Every sunrise and every sunset.
The man that can see that is blessed. The Lord's given them
a little bit of knowledge. Whenever it rains, to just sit
back and look at every raindrop that's fallen. They're not landing
by mistake. Our powerful, wise God put those
raindrops exactly where He wanted them. If there's a tornado, that
tornado came just on purpose. It was righteous. It was powerful,
accomplishing exactly what He sent it out to do. If it's a
beautiful, sunny day, we go sit down at the beach, put your toes
in that nice, cool water. What a beautiful day He gave
us. What wisdom, what power. That's just in creation. We get
to view that every day. All of God's law declares how
holy and righteous He is. It is pure. It is holy. It is
right. His law is good. Every bit of
it. His covenant of grace, that declares
His purpose. That's what He's going to do.
He entered into that covenant of grace before time with His
Son for His people. And He said, I purpose that they're
going to be made just like you. Just in your image. And then
we see that incarnation of Christ Jesus the Lord, being born of
a virgin, made like we are, our kin. And we see the love of God
in that. John said, herein is love, not
that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to
be the propitiation for our sins. He sent His Son. But all that,
each of those parts, that's just the beginning. That's only a
part of it. That's only a fragment of it
we get to see. It's not plainly displayed for us so clearly on
that first day of creation. We don't see the full character
of God revealed boldly, plainly to us. On Mount Sinai, when those
thunders and clouds were above Him and the lightning was striking
and the Lord gave that law, It's not plainly shown to us and so
easy to see the full character of God revealed to us. In Bethlehem,
in that manger, when that star lit up the sky, it's hard for
us to see the full character of God revealed to us. But you
and I, we're given a full interpretation of God's character revealed to
us in this one place, at the cross of Calvary. There we see
His wisdom, we see His power, we see His justice, His holiness,
His righteousness, and that we see the love He has for His people. Turn over Romans chapter 5 real
quick. Our Master told us, greater love hath no man than this, that
a man lay down his life for his friends. In my former employment,
that was a mantra. So, to get young men to do things
they probably shouldn't be doing. It's got a, greater love hath
no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,
for his friends. He's the friend of sinners, but
we weren't his friends, were we? Look here in Romans 5 verse
6. For when we were yet without strength, In due time, Christ
died for the ungodly, for scarcely. For a righteous man will one
die, peradventure, for a good man some may even dare to die.
But God commendeth His love towards us in that while we were yet
sinners, while we were screaming killing, enmity with Him, Christ
died for us. John wrote it this way, hereby
perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us. Where's his love displayed in
Christ laying down his life for us? It's on a full spread. We
can't ever look at it all, can we? We see our sin, our depravity
in that cross of Christ, what we are. What we truly are in
our instinct. and our nature. And in that same
cross, we see a holy God satisfied. We see our substitute, that lamb
slain. We see justice and peace kiss
in harmony. That's what the psalmist said,
mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. That's where it happened. God is just and the justifier.
By Christ becoming my surety, by being my substitute, The one
who knew no sin, who never sinned, He was made me. The noun. He was made sin. He took my place
legally and He took my place in full righteousness. Man can't
do that. We can't really enter into it.
It happened. And by doing so, being forsaken
of His Father, bearing that wrath, I was made His righteousness. Holy as He is holy. Him dying
the death of shame and agony, I am made holy, unreprovable,
and without blame before God and love. People get mad at me
because of that. What are you saying? What ain't
you saying? That's what the Lord said, wasn't
it? I'll give you an illustration. I was five years old. And my
dad had started a company and he was doing, I can say these
things a little easier now, he was doing pretty good for the
first time. And so he had to pay his taxes over so often.
Well, he didn't pay enough. And so he was wondering at the
beginning of the year, how am I going to pay my taxes? And
I heard him and mom talking. I said, here's the first good
year we've had, the first year we've been in the black. What
am I going to do? How am I going to pay these taxes? And I couldn't sleep for
two weeks. I was tore to pieces. I was five
years old. You know, he got mad at me. He
said, why are you worried about that? This is none of your concern. I'm your father. I'll take care
of it. How I handle my business ain't none of your business at
all. You just know I'm your dad and I feed you and I provide
for you and I love you. Foolishly, instead of being like
a little child, we try to be like big people. We try to worry
about, we don't want to take bites out of that sandwich we
can't chew. We ain't got teeth yet. We need to drink milk, don't
we? I don't know exactly how all that works. I know what the
Lord says about it. And just as real, however He was made
sin, how I'm made righteous. That's how His people was made
righteous. At that cross of Christ, we see the purpose of all creation. What's the purpose of this earth?
It's to glory and honor the name of God. We see the law fulfilled
and crossed our propitiation, that bloody sacrifice. We see
all the Old Testament scriptures fulfilled. When it said they
cast lots on His garments to fulfill the scriptures, they
didn't read the scriptures and say, oh, it says this, let's
do it. That's what the Lord in His providence allowed them to
take place so His scriptures would be fulfilled. And we see
the wisdom of God in that. How wise. Paul said, we preach
Christ crucified. Under the Jews, a stumbling block,
and under the Greeks, foolishness. But under them which are called,
both Jew and Greek, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of
God. Power and wisdom in that. That's beyond me. That's beyond
me. We see the holiness of God at
Calvary. He spared not His own Son. Why? Because He's holy. He's holy. We see the love of
God towards an unworthy and unable people, putting His Son before
time began. At the cross of Calvary, we see
that the Lord will show mercy to sinners by providing Himself
a Lamb. That's fulfilling the scriptures.
Abraham said, don't worry boy, God will provide himself a lamb. And there himself was hanging
on a cross. So first we see the cross shows
us what mankind is, then we see the cross shows us who God is,
but the cross also declares that the Lord's law is holy. His Law
is holy. It shows us the unbendingness
of His Law, how strict it is, how rigid. The soul that sinneth,
it must surely die. The wages of sin are death. His Word doesn't return to him
void. It will be fulfilled. Many think that the Law of God
is too strict. It's too dogmatic. No, that's
not right. His law is right, His law is
holy, and His law is perfect. If we don't see it that way,
it's because we're not right, we're not holy, and we're not
perfect. We're interpreting it through our eyes, aren't we?
At Kinsman Redeemer, He was related to us, being born of a woman.
And He was willing, willing to redeem us. Willing to go to that
cross, and He must pay the price. He must be able to buy us with
the price of His blood. My blood, I can't do that for
myself. I sure can't do it for somebody
else. It would take an eternity of my dying and that wouldn't
scratch the surface, would it? He was able. He was willing. His blood satisfied the whole
justice of God in perfection. So the cross shows us what mankind
is. It shows us who God is. That His law is holy and perfect.
And the cross shows us the gospel. It shows us the good news that
it's completed. All this working. Everything
that's got to take place, it's finished. It's done. It's completed. Turn over to
Philippians chapter 3 and I'll let you go. At the cross, the
believer's sin nature that could not fulfill the law of a holy
just God we see our salvation in the blood of our Lord. And
if there's nothing to add to it, and there's nothing we can
take away from it, it was accepted of the Father, fully accepted
of Him. These should be good things to
dwell on, wouldn't it? This would be something good
to often look at. Paul said, for I determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
and then seeing the glory of Christ in that. God forbid that
I should glory except save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
by whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world. That
should be our resting place, that it's finished. He completed
it. Philippians 3 verse 7, But what things were gained to
me, all those credentials He had, all those worldly religious
things. But what things were gained to
me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count
all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. For whom I have suffered the
loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win
Christ, and be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, not by my doing, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that
I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, that proof
of acceptance when we have an empty tomb, when He come up out
of the grave, That work that was finished was accepted. That
propitiation was satisfying to the Father. That I may know Him
and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings
being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead. That's to my resurrection. We look to Christ's person, who
He is, who is He? He's God Almighty. We look to His person and we
look to His finished work on the cross at Calvary that we
may know the power of His resurrection, what that actually accomplished,
what it really finished. If He could give us a glimpse
of that. We see the power of His determinate counsel His justice,
His righteousness, and of His redeeming blood that was shed. His blood was shed that we may
know Him, not the facts. How many hours was it? What time
of day was it? Was it dice or was it stones
they cast for His garments? We don't need to know the facts.
We don't need to know the doctrine. We need to know the person that
loved us and gave Himself for us. And that knowing Him, we may
know and look forward to our resurrection in Him. To that
final day. We'll be with Him. Be made like
Him. See Him face to face. The Almighty
God that became a man and was shamed on the cross, lived perfectly
for us and died that death for us. Seven times in the Gospels, Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, the Lord Jesus Christ tells us to watch therefore. Watch therefore. We're to look
for His coming. Not to figure it out and just
be diligent. Be ready, be willing, be waiting.
Knowing that His work of salvation is complete at Calvary's cross,
that the good news is accomplished. The law is fulfilled. The Father
is satisfied. Looking only to Him, we look
for His return. Now that we know Him, we look
for His return. He who is our resurrection. Always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having this in our conscience.
Having our pure minds look on these things. That the life also
of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. Where He is now,
as He is now, if we look to Him alone, we'll
be manifested, we'll be demonstrated, we'll be exhibited in our new
bodies made in His likeness to be in His presence. Wouldn't
that be something? What was the cost of that? Any
sane person doesn't want to go to hell. Any sane person would
prefer to go to heaven I'd rather ride in a luxury vehicle than
a donkey. Anybody would do that. But to
be with Him, to be like Him, the sin's gone, the ability to
sin's gone. To worship Him as we deserve
to worship Him. What was the price of that? God Almighty had
to hang on that cross. Isn't that something? For me. For you. For His people. I hope
we can praise Him for it.