Thank you, Robin and John. Go
with me to Luke 23 now. Luke 23. Look at one verse with
me. Luke 23. Our Lord is being crucified
and carrying his cross, his own cross, which he tells us to do. He did
everything that he tells us to do. carrying his own cross out
to be crucified on it. And as they, verse 26, as they
led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming
out of the country. He's leaving town, that is. And
on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it, carry it, after
Jesus, that is, follow Him carrying His cross. This is the story
of a man who was apprehended and forced to carry the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was compelled by these men
to carry this cross. And this is the story. This is
my story. This is the story of every single
child of God chosen by Him. who is apprehended by the Holy
Spirit of God through the preaching of the gospel, and laid on them
is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they follow Him. They follow Him. This man, Simon,
amazing. Amazing story of God's providence.
This man named Simon was a stranger here. He's a stranger in Israel. Stranger to the covenant, stranger
to the promises, stranger, doesn't know God, doesn't know Jesus
of Nazareth. He's a thousand miles, almost
a thousand miles from home. He's from Africa. So I believe
he's a dark-skinned African man. He came here. Why did he come
here? Well, the lot is cast into the land. But the whole disposing
there is of the Lord. This man came into town. He has
two sons, Rufus and Alexander. He has these two sons. Maybe
he came to visit them. Maybe he came here on business.
Whatever, in the sovereign providence of God, he came into town at
the exact time when Jesus Christ is coming out of town, outside
the camp, to be crucified. And they laid hold of this man
at this exact moment in time. and put the cross of Christ on
him and he followed Christ all the way to the cross where he
sat at the foot of the cross and heard the words of the Son
of God. I just told you the gospel. He's leaving town. He's on the
way out and this processional came by. He's a bystander. And these soldiers apprehended
him and compelled him and forced him. This is the story. God's
sovereign, compelling grace. Salvation is by command. These
men didn't ask him if he would carry it. They put it on him.
Salvation is compelling, that is, forced, being apprehended. Paul said that, didn't he? Philippians
3. I've been apprehended. Almighty love. We love that song,
don't we? Almighty love arrests that man.
Like old Jacob. The Lord came to Jacob that night.
Jacob's running scared. And He laid hold of him there. Wrestled him to the ground. That
was Mack's favorite story. Mine too. Sovereign, compelling,
constraining, saving grace. You know, God is going to save
His people against their will. If He doesn't violate, that's
what free will preachers say. God won't violate your will.
He better. He better not leave you to your will or you'll be
damned. He better have His way and His will upon you. And here's
what, whoever said it will never forget it. He will save everyone
against their will with their full consent. He makes them willing
in the day of His power. All thy people, Psalm 110 verse
3, shall be willing. When? In the day of thy power,
what's that? Power, the gospel, the word of
God, Christ, and Him crucified is the power of God. This is
the story of how God brings sinners to Christ, confronted with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now consider with me God's amazing
providence in bringing us to Himself, in bringing this man
to this point. As said, the lot is cast in the
lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. As I
said, this man Simon is a thousand miles from home. He's visiting.
He didn't know he was going to be visited. He's there on business. Christ came. His Father's business
did. And His business was to save
sinners. Just like that thief hanging on the cross beside him.
He could have been crucified any other day. He could have
been crucified a week before or a week after. He's crucified
the exact day Christ is hanging on that middle cross. Amazing, isn't it? There's no
such thing as luck, chance. No, no, no, no. God worked all
things after the counsel of His will. His determinate counsel
and foreknowledge purposed before the world began about everything,
about everyone, especially His people. All right, this man happens to
be just so hap, his hap was to be here this day. Mark's gospel
said he was passing by, he was coming out of the country, he's
leaving town. And all of a sudden he finds
himself in the middle of this tumult. You know, we all We all have stories of our lives,
how God brought us to hear the Gospel. You've heard some of
mine. I've heard some of yours. It's amazing then how the Lord
brings us to hear, to Himself, to hear the Gospel. Just amazing. I keep looking back at the things
that brought me to hear the Gospel. And it just amazes me. And there's
so many stories in Scriptures of God bringing his people to
himself, what all he brought them through, Abraham. Abram
was his name, he's not Abraham, he's Abram, okay? He's 75 years
old. He's an idolater, living in the
land of Ur of the Chaldean. Why he chose to leave there,
he and his father and some of them, they did, but they left.
Maybe another famine went, but he did. But it was God that was
calling him out. And his dad died. Remember? His
dad died. And that's when God called old
Abraham. A 75-year-old man called him. He left home. He left his home
and family and job and material things. His father died and all
of this is sad and it's all tough. What's happening? His eternal
good. God's bringing him to himself.
He's got to bring him. He's bringing him to the promised
land. Jacob. He said, I'm the God of Jacob.
Oh, what all God brought Jacob through, to bring him to himself,
to see himself and to see his Lord. Moses. What about Moses? Don't you love the story of Moses? 40 years old, next in line for
Pharaoh's throne, living in Egypt, all the finery of Egypt, all
the wealth of the land. Everything that a human being
could desire, Moses has it. And he's going to assume the
highest position in all the world but God. Going to heap upon him
great riches. How? Going to make him poor.
He's going to see God. He's going to hear Christ at
the burning bush. And you know what Moses is going
to do? Drop it off. Esteeming is done. There's nothing to all this.
What are you going to do? I'm going to follow His people into
wilderness. Oh, Joseph. Don't you love the
story of Joseph? Oh, my. Somebody made a request that
I go through the types in every book of the Old Testament. Go
through a type. That'd be good. What am I going
to leave out in Genesis? There's so many of them. But
Joseph, don't you love that story? Joseph, oh, brutally treated
by his brethren, almost killed by them, put in a pit. Everything
went against him. Everybody's against him. Falsely
accused, thrown in prison for two years. This is awful, isn't
this awful? But God. from the pit to the
throne. God did this to save much people
alive, didn't he? And it was all over, old Joseph
was so glad that God brought him through everything that he
brought him through to bring him to this point. But if there's
one story, and I hope I can tell this in about five minutes, that
underscores God's sovereign providence in the lives of His people and
bringing them to Himself. If there's one that tells it
greater than any other, it's the story of Ruth. Ruth is a Moabite, a heathen
young lady. God brings this woman from Bethlehem
named Naomi, her and her husband, all the way to Moab and kills
her husband. She's a widow. She has two sons. Both of those boys marry these
heathen women, Ruth and Orpah. They marry these women. They
don't know God. Ruth doesn't know God. She's
a Moabite. She's a heathen. She's a heathen.
She's a Methodist. There she sits right there. Their
husbands die. God kills their husbands. Now
we've got three widows. Sad, isn't it? Real sad. We've
got some widows here. It's sad, sad. But back then,
they lose everything. They lose all of their material
things. They have no hope. Now, here's
Ruth. She's no hope without God, without
Christ in this world. Now her husband's gone. Now she's
just poor and needy. But so God sends word, there's
bread in Bethlehem. Bethlehem, of all places. Who's there? Who's born there? The bread. So here they are,
Ruth, Naomi, her poor mother-in-law. And God puts in the heart of
this young girl, Ruth, to follow her back to this land. So your
God will be my God, your people my people. So God brings these two poor,
destitute, needy ladies with nobody and nothing in the world,
brings them all the way back to this land. And here they are,
and Naomi tells her daughter-in-law, says, honey, we've got to have
something to eat. We're starving. We go glean. The law of the land,
the God of this place is merciful. And his purpose, that whoever
goes out and gleans, they can glean whatever's left over. Go
out and glean. So here Ruth goes out to try
to find some scrap. And it just so happened. God's providence put her through
all of this sorrow and sadness and death. Why? To meet her Redeemer. So this man is a black man, a
thousand miles from home, come to visit his boys, their own
business, whatever. So his business is over. Oh,
but God's not. God is not. He came to see who
he came to see. Now he's leaving town. Nothing
left for him here. Oh, yes there is. He's walking
out of town, and it just so happens at this exact moment in time,
this procession comes by, this crowd of people, this tumult,
and he's engulfed in this crowd of people. Maybe he can't even
walk down the street, get out of town, and he has to stand
over the side, and he's a bystander. What's going on here? He doesn't
know. He's going to. He doesn't care. He goes, I'm leaving. I'm out
of here. He will. This was my story. I'm out of
here. No, you're not. You're coming
back. Who is this? What's going on
here? Jesus of Nazareth. Who's that? He's going to know. When I didn't have anything to
do with it, you will. You're going to be right in the
middle of it. I'm going to lay this all on your shoulders. You're
going to be forced to face Jesus Christ. Salvation, you see, is by the
sovereign, compelling mercy, great love, and grace of our
God. His sovereign providence in bringing
us to Christ. Salvation is a confrontation
with Jesus Christ and Him crucified. is to be apprehended by Him and
forced to face the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Who
this is, why He came, what He did. Apprehended by the Spirit
of God through the preaching of the gospel and having a burden
placed on you, only to be lifted in one place. Are you with me? As said, Simon's a stranger.
He's not going to be when this is over. He's going to be fully
vested in all this. There's no such thing as an innocent
bystander to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know that? No such thing
as an innocent bystander. No such thing as an innocent
bystander or someone who's not involved and has no dealings
with the person, the claims, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
No, no, no. Scripture says all things are
naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Have to. forced. Cannot be indifferent. And now God's Word says this,
repent or perish. God's Word says, God commandeth
all men everywhere to repent. And there's nobody innocent. This man wasn't innocent. That
we didn't know who Jesus Christ was. He knew something of the
eternal power and Godhead of God, didn't He? The heavens declared
it. The firmament showeth it. Day
unto day. The providence of God in His
life, all His life, doing everything He did for us. He should have known something
of God and should have been coming here to this place where the
living God is to worship Him. But He's not. He's not interested. Thank God. You see why salvation
is God choosing us. And finally, in this day, he's
confronted with the Lord Jesus Christ. He can't straddle the
fence. He can't do it. Our Lord is literally,
people, our Lord in that message this morning on weep not for
me, but weep for yourselves and your children. Our Lord is literally
about to open up this earth and swallow it up. He really is. Heaven's going to rend the heavens
and come down. That's no fable. Simon Peter
says it's no fable. We beheld His glory, His power,
His glory, His majesty. We've seen His power. We've seen
it. We try to compel men to come
to Christ, don't we? But you know, John, we can't,
can we? I know who can, I know who does, I know who must, the
gospel. So we keep preaching this gospel.
Now salvation is by the irresistible grace of God. We resist the truth,
we all resist the truth. Like those boys back there and
these young ladies sitting here, I sat message after message,
and I wasn't interested, and I had some interest. I could
tell you some things. I could tell you some of the
types of the Bible. I could quote the five points
of Calvinism. I could quote a few scriptures,
and I believed the doctrine, but that's not salvation. Salvation is to be confronted
with Christ and Christ crucified and come to have this burden
of your own sin placed upon you and see in your need of the Lord
Jesus Christ. See your rebellion against him.
No, I wasn't indifferent. I wasn't indifferent. I heard
the message from a child. I was more accountable for the
truth than anybody. I heard it from a child. Just
like some of our children. You know, I have mixed emotions
sometimes about visitors coming here. I want people to hear the
gospel. And they must hear it. And it's
not everywhere. But you know, if they hear it
and reject it, the condemnation is worse. It's worse. As I said, it's the
Lord apprehending His people and making them willing against
their will and calling them by His mighty power, His sovereign
power, but He does say, whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved. And we have not because we ask
not. Young people call. You won't be safe if you don't
call. You won't find the Lord unless you seek Him. But preacher,
I thought, we don't find Him, He finds us. That's right. But
how do you know He's found you? You're looking for Him. You're
calling on Him. It's to be compelled. It's to
be compelled. Yes it is. But I tell you, it
compels us to come. It compels us to come. Come unto
me. Now the first thing that the
Lord did, does, He did to this man here. He laid on him the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me reiterate that. Let me repeat this as firmly
as I can. There's a lot of superstition,
a lot of tradition out there that say that Christ fell under
the load of that cross, that he couldn't carry it, so they
put this cross on this man to help him carry that cross. No,
sir, that's not in the Bible. Catholic building. You'll see
seven stations. It's seven, Mike, seven stations,
little grottoes. Isn't that a fancy word for idol?
Grottoes, where you go in this little, and what you do is you
kneel down and pray. And they're supposed to be the
seven steps of our Lord, seven things He went through before
He was crucified and risen. You go to each one of these.
And one of them, and I went over there one day and looked at them. And
one of them has Him laying on the ground under that cross.
because he couldn't carry it. And so they took it off his shoulder
and put it on his side. That didn't happen. No, sir. Besides, our Lord was carrying
something much heavier than his cross on that ship. No, no, no,
no, no. He didn't need help carrying
that cross. Our Lord did this as a picture, as a show that
every single person saved by the Lord Jesus Christ is going
to take up the cross. The Lord's going to put on them
this burden of Christ and Him crucified, the burden of their
sin. The Lord's going to make them to know that if Christ doesn't
die for us, we will. You're going to feel this burden. You're
going to follow Him all the way to the cross, like Simon here,
and hear His voice and be saved by Him. But no, Christ didn't
fall under the weight of that cross. He did not. But the Lord
had this man bear this cross like our Lord told every single
one in Mark 8. Except you take up your cross. And the next verse, you remember
John, it says it's to lose your life for Christ's sake. Why was
Christ crucified? Christ was crucified. Why did
he go to the cross? He was crucified for the truth's
sake. The gospel is Christ crucified.
Christ is the gospel. He died for the truth's sake,
declaring who he is, who God is, what man is, what salvation
is, or rather who, one way, the blood. Soul that sins shall surely
die. So God made his soul an offering
for sin. made him to be sinned. God laid
on him the iniquity of all of God's people. There's only one
way sin can be pardoned. It's by the blood, the death
of the sinner. Christ made sin. Substitute. God is holy. God will by no means
clear the guilty. Now men don't believe that. God's
people do. They all know that. And so our Lord was crucified
for saying he was the way, the truth, and the life, that no
man cometh unto the Father but by him. He was crucified for
saying man is evil, man is sinful, there's only one way to purge
his iniquity, and I'm going to have to do it, Christ said. One
way. Me be his righteousness, me be his sin offering, me be
his substitute, and God accepting them through me. Not anything
they've done. but only what I have done on
that cross for them. That's the truth. There is no
other truth. That's the truth. That's why
Christ was crucified, at the hands of God and at the hands
of men. They said, you're just a man,
you claim to be God. He is God. It's God come down
to save man. Man can't satisfy, only God can. God can't die, man must. So the
God-man came. That's why Christ died, all right?
The cross is not something we go through, something we suffer. And I don't know when men started
saying this, we must bear our crosses. It's not in the Bible,
crosses. It's not in the Bible. How dare
us say that, liken anything we go through to what Christ did
on the cross. Oh, Paul never said, this is
a cross, I have to bear it. No, he said, God forbid that
I should, glory, save, and the cross of Christ Jesus, my Lord,
by whom the world is crucified unto me and unto the world. He
never once said, I have a cross I have to bear. He never once
said, you have crosses you have to bear. But our Lord said, you
take up your cross. What is my cross? What is your
cross? What is the cross of everyone?
What was the cross of Simon? What cross was he bearing? Christ's
cross. You see what I'm saying? This
ain't doctrine here. This is the glory of Christ. Oh, blessed are they that are
persecuted, Christ said, for my sake. Peter. Our Lord told
Peter, they're going to pick you up. They're going to crucify
you. You're going to be crucified on the cross. Why? For Christ's
sake. Peter never gloried in his own cross. He wouldn't dare
do that. This is the cross. And so they apprehended this
man. He's leaving town. And they laid
hold of him. They laid hold of him. These
soldiers, as I said, they didn't ask him. He's standing there,
and all of a sudden, one of these big burly soldiers, like my fiddle
chef, two of them came, maybe two of them came down, and they
grabbed ahold of old Simon. Wait a minute! Wait a minute!
You're coming with us. And they brought Him up there
and they took the cross off of Christ. Maybe the soldiers thought,
maybe they thought, and Christ was at His weakest point. He
was. They were not too weak to carry
that cross. Maybe they thought, He's going
to die before He gets the cross. We won't have the pleasure of
seeing Him suffer. Let's take it off of Him and let's put it
on His Feather. That was the providence of God. And they put
it on. Christ didn't need his help,
but we need to see this picture. So they laid it on this man's
shoulder named Simon and said, I don't want that. You will carry
this. And they said, you follow that man in front of you. So he did. True story. Who is he? Don't you notice that?
Who is this? It's Jesus of Nazareth. What
did he do? Why was he crucified? He didn't
do anything. There's no fault in him. He went
about doing nothing but good, healing the sick, healing the
blind, and the deaf, and raised the dead, and feeding the thousands.
Well, why is he dying? Everybody hates him. Why? He doesn't know. And all of a sudden, he's got
this burden on his back, following this man. He doesn't know. OK? It's true. But they come to the
Golgotha's Hill, and you know what they do? Somebody takes
that cross off of his back. He's not going to hang on that
cross. They put that cross, that burden, on his back. He's not
going to hang on it. But somebody is. And he felt
the weight of that for some time. Who is that? What's he doing?
Why are they doing this to him? And they pulled that burden off
of his back and they put Christ and nailed his feet and his hands
on a cross and dropped him down in a hole. And here Simon stands
there listening, watching, looking at them. Why is all this happening?
You know what the first thing he heard out of this man's mouth?
You know what the first thing Christ said on Calvary's tree?
Do you? It's what smoked my heart. Father,
forgive them. and know not what they do. And God smote Simon's heart. Smote him, right there. That's
me. Don't know what I'm doing, don't
know where I'm going, didn't know Him. Like the thief on the
cross, right there and there, and the Lord revealed to him
I'm your substitute. I'm your Lord. I'm the King of
kings. I'm your atonement. I'm your redemption. I'm the
one. You don't know whether you're coming or going. You don't know
what all you've done against your God. You weren't interested
in me. You weren't interested in God.
You weren't interested in anything, anyone but yourself. Leaving
town a stranger to the... But you're mine. That's what
Christ has said. You're mine. You belong to me.
I'm doing this for you. I'm a king. I'm going to come
into my kingdom. And you're in this world. You're
going to die in it unless I die for you. The old Simon's heart
was broken. Oh, he had a burden on his back,
all right. It's called sin. And he wore that cross of Christ.
And he stood at the foot of that cross and kneeled. I believe
he's on his knees now. At the foot of that cross, beholding
Christ and Him crucified. Maybe some of Christ's blood
actually fell on him. But it sure was applied to his
soul, wasn't it? Yes, it was. Now he's no more
a stranger. I don't think he went back home.
It doesn't say that he went home. I think he stayed right there with the rest of his disciples.
Go with me to Galatians 6, and if you don't have this memorized,
you should. I'll quote it to you. Let me close this illustration. You remember the story of Pilgrim,
Pilgrim's Progress. I love that story. This is what
happened to old Simon. Now the sovereign mercy and grace
of God. That story of Pilgrim's Progress
has a man. It opens up, begins with a man. It says, there's a man. I saw
a man. Had his face turned away from his home and his family. He's been warned and he's seen,
leaving the city of destruction, the celestial city. He said,
I beheld this man whose face is turned away from his home,
from his land, and he had in his hand a book. He had a book
in his hand and a burden on his back. And he's crying out. Always me, I'm undone. Who can get rid of this burden
of sin, guilt, on my back? And somebody tells him, an evangelist
I believe it was, tells him, there's a wicked gate and it's
right in a narrow way. See that yon wicked gate? Let
your eyes be straight on. Don't look to the right. Don't
look to the left. Look straight on. Go through. Knock when you
get to that gate, and it shall be opened unto you. And when
you go through, keep looking, and you'll see a cross, and you'll
see a man hanging on it. Go all the way to the foot of
that cross. And when you do, that burden will fall off. And
he did. He did. And when he was leaving
town, everybody was mocking him and scoffing at him, and his
family was compelling him to stay there, but someone else
was compelling him to leave. Someone else had compelled him
and put this burden on his back. Someone else had compelled him
to leave and go through that straight and narrow gate, knock
on it, and see that celestial city and come straight to Calvary's
tree where his burden was lifted at Calvary. And this is what happened to
Saul of Tarsus. Now he's named Paul, and he says here in Galatians
6, verse 14, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto
me. I see no beauty in it. I see
nothing but sin. And I unto the world. Now they
want me dead. Now they want me dead for Christ's
sake. Oh, may the Lord compel us all
and lay on us the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and follow
Him. John, you come lead us in singing
number 477.