The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 23.
The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 23. As said before, this chapter,
as well as the whole book, the whole Bible, leads to Calvary,
where Christ would be lifted up, crucified for His people. Christ, the King, King of Kings. King of the Jews would ascend
a cross. A cross was an emblem of shame,
but our Lord made it glorious, didn't he? A cross was meant
for the lowest, for the vilest. An emblem of shame. But our Lord
showed His greatest glory was when He ascended the cross. And He did it willingly. No one
put Him on the cross but the Father. And He willingly went
up on that cross. He was lifted up. That's what
the Scripture says. That's part of the reason why
He died the death that He did. Because He was lifted above the
earth on the cross for all to see. He's above everyone. The One that's doing this is
above us all. And what He did is beyond us
all. He made that cross, as it were,
a throne. A throne. A bloody, splintery piece
of wood, an old tree. You remember the two trees in
the garden? One was a tree of life. I have to believe that
represents Him. Christ and Him crucified. That cross where He ascended,
He made it a throne where He put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. He did it all by Himself. Where
God crowned Him, as it were, with a crown of thorns which
were His greatest glory. Second Adam. Second Adam. Thorns. He took these thorns
with Him. He put away sin. He defeated sin, death, and hell
on Calvary's tree. Crushed the serpent's head right
there on Calvary's tree. It's true. He made it a throne. Calvary's tree crushed the serpent's
power. Chained him. Accomplished the redemption of
God's people. And he was buried, and then from
that throne, that earthly tree, he ascended far above. Heavens, where he sat down and
where he sits right now on a throne. A lamb, as it had been a lamb. A throne, expected. He's reigning
and ruling. Sitting on that throne right
now, reigning and ruling over Everything and everyone. To this end, Christ both died
and rose and revived that He might be Lord of the dead and
the living. None of us live to ourselves.
We all live or die unto the Lord because He died to this end.
God gave Him a name above every name. Lord. King of the universe. He owns it all. He reigns and
rules over God. And that's where He sits. On
that throne. Expecting His enemies to be made
His footstool. His people fall at his feet.
Now, it was as king that he was born. He came into this world. It was as king that man rejected
him. Look at it. Verses 1 through
3. The whole multitude of them arose and led him unto Pilate.
Who did? Everyone did. The whole crowd.
Everybody did. They all said it in unison. We have no king but Caesar. We
will not have this man reign over us, didn't we? That's mankind
in general. That was me. That was you. There was a time when you had
no interest in God, no interest in Christ. Or if you did, it
was nominal at best. But you had not yet vowed to
and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. You had not seen His
glory. You had not seen that you were in His hand. You had
not repented of your sin. And the vast majority of the
world still is without repentance. Do not bow, do not see that God
reigns, that Christ reigns. Do not see it. They're not thankful,
they do not acknowledge Him as God, not repentant to give Him
the glory. Do not care that Christ came.
They're the same as the people back then said, killing. That's
so. They did not, did not want anyone
to reign over them. That was Satan in the heavens. That was Satan, I will be king.
That was Adam in the garden, I will be king. And Eve. And
that's man, whenever someone talks about free will, what they're
saying is, I'll be my own king. I am in charge of my destiny.
I am. I will. That's what man says.
No, God says, I am. I will. And he said in Psalm 2, I will
declare the decree. He said, I have set my king on
my holy hill of Zion, king of the Jews. Now kiss the sun, he said. It was this king, they rejected
him. Look at verse 2. They began to accuse him. This
was his accusation. They accused him of being what
he was. This fellow perverts the nation.
Oh no, no, no, no. The nation's already perverted.
He's come to convert. Forbidding to give tribute to
Caesar. That's just not so, is it? He told them to. saying that he himself is Christ
the King. Well, before that, they kept
saying, if you be the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told
you. Do you believe now? You're not my sheep. As I said
to you, my sheep here, my boy, they know who I am. Christ, not
a king. They say he's Christ a king.
Oh, he's not a king. He's the king of kings. And Pilate asked him, verse 3,
Pilate asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews? Interestingly,
amazingly, providentially, the only time the word king is capitalized
is when they said it of him. Not in front of David's name,
not in front of Nebuchadnezzar's name, not in front of Caesar's
name. God had the Spirit of God write
this down. Capitalize this when you say
it, because he's the king of the Jews. And Satan asked him,
art thou the king of the Jews? And he answered him. Oh my, just can't imagine what
his voice must have been like. standing before this puppet ruler,
this petty governor, this pawn in his hands, this fellow who
was Herod's wife when it trembled, standing in perfect repose, regal
repose, dignity, honor, his head held high, eyes as a flame of
fire, voice as the sound of many waters said, thou sayest. Try to imagine that. You said
it. Now you're accountable for it. Because that's who I am. That's
who He is. And we've brought this up before.
Why do men and women and young people use God's name like they
do? Why don't they use any other name? Why don't they use fictitious
names? Why do they use God's name? He's holding every person accountable
that doesn't fear His name. They've heard it, and they've
rejected it. But God, and such were some of
you. That was me. All right, let me
tell you about the king. That's what David wrote in Psalm
45. My heart's indicting it couldn't matter. I'm speaking things concerning
the king. My pen is the tongue of a ready
writer. I'm speaking things concerning the king. A king today is an
unknown thing. Nobody, there are no kings on
this earth. There are figureheads over in,
what, Denmark and some two-bit place, you know, and they're
going to put a crown on, I don't know, Charles, William, one of
them, I don't know. It doesn't matter. They're not
going to be a king. There's going to be all this pomp and show
and they're going to lead him down through there and everybody's
just going to love it. And call him your majesty. He
has no majesty at all. Zero. And they're going to put him on a
petty little throne, you know. Interesting. In Revelation, the
throne is mentioned more than any other place, okay? There's
no description of the throne. None. It doesn't say anything
what the throne looked like. Nowhere. It describes Him who
sat on it. that he looked like a sardine
stone, a jasper stone. It doesn't describe the throne.
Over in 1 Kings, it talks about Solomon's throne and the lions
and all that, which is a picture of Christ. Thoughts of ivory
covered with gold, but not of his throne. Why? Because the
heavens, he sits on the circle of the earth. There's no real
throne that he sits on. The heavens can't contain him.
Okay? Besides, nobody's going to be
looking at that throne. That's why the streets are gold.
People die for gold now. We're going to walk on it then.
Why? Take no notice of it. Look at
him. Him. No description of the throne,
but just him that sat on it. A king is an unknown thing. A kingdom is unknown today. A king, true sovereignty, is
only the thing of fables and fairy tales today. True sovereignty. You know, true sovereign, that's
what the word king means. King means A king means an absolute
sovereign ruler. Absolute means it's one, only,
no other. He's the only one. Nobody else
has any control, any word, any say over anything. That's an
absolute sovereign ruler. Okay? And there were men like
that. David, at that time, was the
most powerful man on earth. He was a sovereign king. Whatever
he said went. Whatever he willed, he did. Whoever
he accepted was accepted. Whoever he rejected was rejected.
He killed, he made alive. He wounded, he accepted. Whatever
David said. Solomon next to him. Kings are
not elected. You don't vote on kings, they're
born that way. Alright? Our God, our Lord Jesus
Christ is King. Absolute Sovereign Ruler and
Controller over all things. His Word goes. Whatever He says,
He does. Whatever He says, everyone else
does. And no one has any say about
it. I heard a preacher one time preaching on the potter and the
clay. He said, clay has no say. Shall the pot say to the potter,
you can't do this? I just did. It's His Word. Some of you are smiling.
Why? You love that He reigns like this. And I love that you
do. His Word goes. His will, He worketh
all things. A king does what he will. Why
did you do that, king? Because I did. Right? And if he's a good king,
if he's a loving, kind and gracious and merciful king, you know what
the people said about David? They said, whatever he did pleased
them. They loved him so much. Whatever
the king did pleased the people. He said, we're going to fast. And they said, OK, we'll do it.
That's his subject, and that's the last point in my message.
But a king does as he will. He has his way. The king has
his way. We're going to do things my way. Right? That's what the King said. When the Lord looked down from
heaven right before He destroyed the world with a flood, He said
the whole earth had corrupted His way. And full of violence,
bloody violence. Not worth living. Creatures. Isn't that now? What is His way? This is His way. There is no
other way. Christ is the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Him. He's like Joseph. Pharaoh said
of Joseph, if you want anything, go to Him. If you need mercy,
you're going to go to Him. He's next in line to me. He's
on the throne. I put Him on the throne. That's
what God said of Christ. He is your Lord. You don't make
Him that. I did. He's your Lord. Bow. Submit. He's kind. He's merciful. He's gracious. A king has absolute reign and
rule. He has a kingdom. You know there
is a kingdom and you can't see it. We can't see it. Men can't
see it. They can't see the king. They
can't see his reign. His people do. We see his hand
and everything. His people do. They see it everywhere.
They see his absolute reign and rule and everything. Down to
the hairs on their heads. He has all power. Power over
heaven and earth. People. All people are His. A king and a kingdom. They're
the king's servants. They're the king's subject. That's
a king. They're His people. They don't
exist for themselves. They exist to serve the king
and his kingdom. Are you with me? See, this is
like a fable today. We don't know anything about
it. Simon Peter said, we have not devised, cunningly devised,
fable. This is no cunningly devised
fable when we made known unto you his majesty. We were eyewitnesses. Thomas,
when he was all over, hit his knees. Then he said, my Lord
and my God, my King. All people. And it's all for
His glory. You know that? A kingdom is for
the glory of the King. For the glory of the King. And
as I said, a king is not elected. He's born that way. But our Lord,
the Lord Jesus Christ, even before He was born, He was King. He
didn't become King when He came into this world. No, He was King
long before that. Listen to this. And I have so
many Scriptures. Who is sufficient for this? I'm
talking about the King. That little peanut popper preacher. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord. I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a King
shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and justice in the earth. You know, there's no justice.
There's no judgment in the earth. Yes, there is. And Jesus Christ
is it. In his days, Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely. That's what a king does. Takes
care of his people, provides for his people, watches over
his people, protects his people. And his name, this is his name
whereby he shall be called Jehovah Sidkenu. Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our
righteous. That's who He is. He was King
long before He came. But when He was born into this
world, you know what they said? You know what the angels heralded? You know what the wise men said?
Where is He? Where is He that is born King? And oh, who was it? Herod. It was Herod. I'm king. No, you're not either. The king has come. And he's born. Where is he? They said. We're
looking for the king. And Herod said, well, you find
him, you bring me word, I'll bow to him too. You will bow. You will. Every day shall. They
came looking for the king. You know, when they found him,
where was he? In a barn. In a stable. The Son of the Most High God.
The King of the Universe. Born in a cow stall. A manger. What's a manger? That's
a place where sheep eat. Why did He do that? Because He
was born King of the Jews. Oh, He was King of angels. Oh,
He was King of devils. Oh, He was King of the world.
King of everything. He came to save the Jews. Who were they? The poorest, the
most worthless people on earth. But they were God's people. He
was born King. And I was going to go to Matthew,
I was going to go to Isaiah. A child is born, a son is given. Call His name Wonderful Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father of His reign. There's
no end. His government, there's no end.
He's the King. Born King. He lived though. I do want you to turn to Hebrews
chapter 1. Born a king, but born in poverty. He lived as a son, lived as a
subject of a king, and born as a pauper. The richest, most glorious,
high potentate of heaven and earth lived a pauper's life. Born a pauper. Look at Hebrews
chapter 1. Oh, how glorious is the book
of Hebrews. Chapter 1, verse 8. Here's what
God says. Thy unto the Son, he saith, thy
throne, O God, is for ever and ever a scepter of righteousness. It's a scepter of that kingdom. Kings held scepters, didn't they? They held this thing in their
hand. Remember Ahasuerus? You remember Esther? He held
out the golden scepter of acceptance. He holds a scepter of righteousness.
It's His Kingdom. God gave it all to Him. Christ. He's the King. When Christ came,
what did He come preaching? What was the first thing out
of the mouth of the King who came? Repent, for the Kingdom
of Heaven is at hand. Meaning, the King is here. The King is here. Look at Hebrews
2 verse 14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of the devil, that is, of death, that is the devil,
and deliver them. Remember then, who through fear
of death for all their lifetime, subject to bondage. And it goes
on to talk about our faithful high priest who came to live
as a pauper, live as a man, born of a woman, made under the law
to redeem them under the law. Look at chapter 3, verse 6. Christ as a Son over His own
house, whose house are we if we hold fast to the confidence
and rejoice in the hope firm to the end. And one more, Hebrews
5. Look at verse 8, 5, verse 7. In the days of his flesh, he
offered up prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears
unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard
in that he feared. Though he were a son, though
he were king before he came here, Yet learned he obedience by the
things he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the author
of eternal salvation unto all them that call and all them that
obey him." King of the Jews. He lived as a son. He lived as
a subject to his own law, to the Father. He lived as a pauper,
the poorest. He was in disguise. He veiled
himself. He robed himself in flesh. The
king took off his royal garment and came to this earth veiled
in human flesh and none can see who he was except those whom
he revealed himself to. I once heard a true story of
a king, a sovereign in olden days who purposed to release
a prisoner And he disguised himself, supposed to be a true story,
he disguised himself and went into one of his own prisons,
prison house. Okay, he disguised himself as
one of the prisoners. He was numbered with all those
malefactors. He became like one of them, okay? And he was talking to various
ones of these prisoners. And one would say, I don't deserve
to be here, I was framed. It was my upbringing. Another
one said, it was my upbringing. And this one and that one and
the other one, they blamed it on this and they blamed it on
that. Until finally the king found one poor fellow sitting
in the corner with his head in his hands, weeping. And he came
up to that poor fellow who was weeping. And he said, what's
wrong? He said, I'm here because I deserve
to be here. He said, I'm here because I killed
a man. And I did it in vengeance and
malice and wrath. I did it because I wanted to.
And now I'm so ashamed of it. I'm here because I'm supposed
to be. And I ought to be here. And he said, I am scheduled to
die on tomorrow. He said, and I deserve to die.
But I sure would like to have mercy. And the king said, Then he took
off his disguise. He said, I'm the king. He said,
you're coming with me, free. You don't belong with all these
innocent people. I have a purpose to be kind to
you and merciful and gracious. And that's our Lord. He came.
He said, I didn't come to call the righteous. I came to call
sinners to repentance. And every sinner, every guilty
sinner, that deserves to die, he says, he won't die. He won't die. So our Lord then
Himself died as a malefactor. He lived as a pauper, as a son,
as a subject under His own law, second Adam from above, and He
died as a malefactor. I was going to Isaiah 53. He
was numbered with the transgressors. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. We rejected it. We despised and
rejected it, but surely, Yes, surely, He's the surety. Surely,
He hath borne our sorrow. Surely, He hath borne our grief.
By His stripes we're healed. Do you see that? And surely will
one say after they see what He's done for them, surely shall one
say, and the Lord have our righteousness and salvation. Numbered with the malefactors,
our Lord became sin on Calvary's tree, and God killed Him. in
our place, God's people. Jews. Who killed him? The Jews
did. He came to his own. He was a Jew and he came to his
own. His own received it not. Why
has happened to the Jews what has happened all these years?
There's so many minorities in so many countries that bemoan
how they've been treated. None have been treated like the
Jews. No race of people ever in the history of the world has
gone through what the Jews have gone through. Look it up. You
know that slaughter of the Jews at the Holocaust? That's the
tip of the iceberg. Go all the way back to Pharaoh.
Pharaoh said, kill them all. All the babies, kill them all.
When Christ was born, kill them all. Right? And all along it went.
Why? Because they rejected the Christ. They rejected the Christ. But
He came to save the Jews. Isn't that amazing? Amazing. Now he arose after he
died as a malefactor. He arose and ascended to the
throne in heaven where he sits right now as king and ever lives. King, reigning, ruling, king
of kings and lord of lords, especially of the Jews. Now this brings
us to this question. Who are the Jews? Okay? Stay with me. Stay with me. I've got a timer right here.
I'm not going to keep you. I hope we could just sit here
all day and listen to this with rapt attention. Who are the Jews? Who did he come to save? Who
is he king of? He's king of the Jews over there.
He said, it's not our king. Don't you love when he was crucified,
Pilate wrote over his head, this is Jesus of Nazareth, the king
of the Jews. They said, don't write that.
He said, I've written it. Take that down. He said, nobody's
going to take that down. And he wrote it in every language.
Why? Why did God have that petty king,
pauper, ruler, pilot right there? Because that's who He is. The
King. Not only of the Jews, but of
the Gentiles. You know, when Peter preached
at Pentecost, he stood up that day and you know what he preached?
Or who? Christ the King! He said, you
men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified,
You've taken with wicked hands and crucified the Lord of glory,
whom God purposed before. God purposed before this to be
done. He said, and now God hath put that same Jesus whom you
crucified, made Him your King, Lord and Lord and King of kings,
sitting right now on the throne, and your life is in His hands. And Simon Peter sat down. No invitation needed. No bribing, no begging. God struck
fear in their heart. Fear of who? The fear of the
Lord. The fear of the King. Like he said in Psalm 2, kiss
the Son. Just come to Him, bow at His
feet. He's a merciful, gracious, kind, loving Lord and King of
kings. He'll accept all who bow to Him,
all who call upon Him, all who repent, all who ask for mercy.
The King of Israel, He's merciful. King of the Jews. Who is a Jew? Paul said he's not one outwardly,
but inwardly. Circumcision is not made with
hands, but of the heart. It's God's work. It's something
that God does on the heart. And Paul said it in Philippians
3, we're the true circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit.
Can you quote the rest of it? Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. Now, that's the marks of God's
Jews. Circumcision of the heart. The
Jews. Now listen to this. Our Lord
is King of the Jews. Our Lord reigns over His people. He reigns over all, but especially
His people. Listen for your comfort. Listen
for your comfort. The Lord reigns over you. The
Lord rules over you. The Lord controls everything
about you. As said, even to the hairs that
fall out of your head. Yes! The Lord takes care of everything
about you. He controls you. He provides for you. He careth
for you. He provides everything for you.
In the days of David, here's one of them. David the king fought
all his life. David fought all his life. From
the time he was 16 that faced Goliath, as our Lord did Satan,
to the day he was 70 years old, he fought battles. He himself
was taken up for dead, wounded. What a picture of Christ he is.
David fought every one of God's people's enemies, and he conquered
them. Every single one of them. All
right? Then he, on his deathbed, and
if you want to hear this Wednesday night, I'll preach from it. 1
Kings 1, where David didn't abdicate, but he put the crown and the
throne on Solomon. He put Solomon on the throne.
He bowed to the sun. David said, you're king now. And you know in the days of Solomon,
the son of David, not one arrow flew through the air. Not one
battle. Not one war. It was peace for
40 years. What a picture that is. Christ
is both in it. David and the son of David. It
says every man dwelt under his own vine and fig tree. Peace
and joy and prosperity and everything. And I know who was at Solomon's
table like David, Mephibosheth. He made sure old Mephibosheth
was taken care of every day, all his life. That's our king. It's our king. He reigns and
rules over us. He is our King. We're His people.
He's our Lord. We're His subjects. He's our
Shepherd. He's our Shepherd. We're His sheep. He's the Master.
We're His disciples. He's our Father. We're His children.
He's our Husband. We're the Bride. And He takes
care. And I was going to go to the
Song of Solomon and just tell you how much He cares for the
Bride. How much He loves the Bride. How much She loves Him.
What do you think about all that? About Him? What I've been saying?
So He reigns over them, but He reigns in them. He rules and
reigns in them. Christ in you, the hope of the
Lord. God's people loved to have it so. Whereas there was a time
when they said, I will, I will, I will. And then He does this
work. The King's arrows are sharp in the hearts of His enemy. And
He makes you from an enemy to a friend. From a foe to a beloved. And He pierces that old hard
heart and makes you willing in the day of His power, makes your
knee bow and your tongue confess, and makes you glad in the heart.
Say, I want this man to reign over me. I need this man to reign
over me. I love that He reigns over me.
I don't want any reign. I don't want any control. I can't
do anything. He's my King. Is that you? Is that you? You must be a Jew. He's the King of the Jew. He
reigns over them, and He reigns and rules among them. He lives
among them. He said, I'll never leave you.
He's the shepherd. He never leaves the sheep. He
said, I'll never leave you. Can you turn one more scripture
in closing, if you like it? Revelation chapter 19. Revelation
19. Just one more, okay? One more. This is wonderful. I've tried to talk about the
King. Revelation 19, where do you begin
here? Well, it says in verse 6, I heard,
as it were, a voice of a great multitude, a voice of many waters,
a voice of mighty thunder, and said, Hallelujah, for the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth. Oh, let us be glad. Are you glad
our God reigns? And rejoice. Give honor to Him. The marriage of the Lamb is come. And His wife hath made herself
ready. You know, this is like a marriage
supper. This is like the rehearsal dinner.
You know that? This is the rehearsal dinner.
You ever been part of a rehearsal dinner? My daughter, when her
marriage came, it was a joyous thing. I loved her husband. I
love her. Everybody did and that's why they were there. We had a
rehearsal dinner and man, I enjoyed it. This is the rehearsal dinner. Verse 8, To her was granted she
would be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. Fine linen is
the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write this
down. Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage
supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are
the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet. to worship
him. Who? The angel, the preacher.
He said, don't do that. I'm thy fellow servants of thy
brethren and have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. The testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I saw heaven open from the
hold of a white horse. He that sat upon him was called
faithful and true. And in righteousness he doth
judge and make war. His eyes as a flame of fire,
and on his head many crowns. He had a name written that no
man knew but he himself, clothed with a vesture dipped in blood.
His name is called the Word of God. The armies which were in
heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in linen white
and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a
sharp sword, that he should smite the nation, 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. Brother John will come and sing
a closing hymn about the King.