Luke chapter 22. Luke 22, all
of the Gospel of Luke, all of the Bible, all of eternity past
is leading up to this point, Christ's crucifixion. It's all leading up to this.
Before I wrote anything down, I looked at these verses a long
time with a mixture of Sadness, anger, shame, and amazement. Look at verses 63 through 55,
Luke 22, 63. The men that held Jesus mocked
him and smoked him. And then when they had blindfolded
him, they struck him on the face and asked him, taunted him, saying,
prophesy. Who is it that smoked thee? And
many other things blasphemously spake they against him. Man mocking God, that's what
we're seeing here. Man still does. I did. You did. If there was a time
when you had no interest in God and Christ, you mocked him. Man
mocking God. To mock means to ridicule. It
means to make fun of. It means to belittle. It means
to scoff at. Every use of God's name by mankind
that's not in reverence and fear and thanksgiving and worship
is mocking God. Ridicule. Belittling God. To use His name in any way that's
not in reverence and fear and worship is to belittle God. In Matthew and Mark's Gospel,
it says that while they were doing this, they spit in his
face. That's the most disgusting thing
you can do to a human being, is to show your utter contempt
and disgust for him. As said, and I saw it in your
face just now, sorrow, anger, shame, amazement that God allowed
man to do this to his son, that Christ willingly endured this,
patiently took it. Scripture says, for the joy set
before endured it. Nowhere is the character of God
and Christ and man more clearly seen than at Calvary. I remember
saying, well, it was in Arkansas, I was trying to talk about the
fear of the Lord, and I remember telling them that all the years
I've tried, I can't really declare the fear of God, what it means
to fear God. And yet, it occurred to me that
nowhere is the fear of God more clearly seen than at Calvary. Nowhere is the character of God
more clearly seen, the character of man, more clearly seen than
at Calvary. The holy, righteous sovereign
King of the universe, the maker, the creator of the universe,
the pure, lovely, loving, merciful, gracious, kind, pitiful Lord
came to this earth to save. And man spit in His face. Scripture says grace poured from
his lips. At one time he used spittle from
his mouth to heal a man. The only thing that came out
of his mouth was grace and mercy and healing. And what came out
of man's mouth? Poison of asps under his lips. Grace came from our Lord's mouth. What comes out of man's mouth
is disgrace. And that God would purpose to
save, to love such despicable creatures as this is beyond our
comprehension. That God the Father loved his
lovely darling son so much, the apple of his eye, the joy and
rejoice of his soul, his heart, throughout eternity past, before
there ever was a world or anything, that he would send him to this
earth to do what he did, to have done to him what we did, is beyond
comprehension. that Christ would endure this,
that Christ would endure a lifetime of suffering. We talked Wednesday
about our Lord choosing how long he would live and the life that
he would live, and his friends, publicans and senators, the way
he would die. He chose to live here on this
earth, which is amazing. He chose to live a short time.
But the life he chose to live was a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief his whole lifetime, from the time he was born to
the time he died. He was a despised and rejected
man. He chose that, willingly endured
that. That's beyond our understanding,
beyond comprehension. Love so amazing, Scripture says,
so divine, demands my soul's best song. Loudest prayer. Because his love far exceeds
our understanding of love. He didn't do this for his friends.
He didn't do this for his family. Well, they would be, but he did
it for his enemy. Herein is love, not that we love
God, John said, but that he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation. Big word, it means a bloody sacrifice. And, oh, the faith our Lord Jesus
Christ revealed and displayed. He committed Himself, we saw
in Peter, when He was reviled, He reviled not again. This is
the highest test of character. This is the greatest display
of true manhood, when He could have wiped out every human being. and would stand there patiently
and allow worms. He stood before Satan, whom he
himself grabbed hold of and cast down from heaven like a dog and
put him on a chain and allowed Satan to taunt him, to tempt
him, to say what he said, all the blasphemy, to allow man to
do what he did and say what he said. the greatest display of
self-control ever. We lose it. No. It doesn't take
much for us to lose it, lose our control. Total control of himself. You
remember in Luke 21 where he said, we talked about what all
would happen to them. He said, in your patience possess
ye your souls. That is, the trial of our faith
work with patience and patience of spirit. That is, possess our
soul, commit our soul to Him who judges righteously, and just
take what is sent your way knowing it is God that sent it. That's
what Christ did. Still, for them, the sinful creatures,
to malign him and say blasphemous things about him. He cast out
devils by Beelzebub. Nothing is further from the truth.
Nothing could be further from the truth. It's the opposite.
Man does that. Not the Son of God. Not the Son
of Man. And for him to allow them to
say such things to him and be in total possession of himself.
Proverbs says, it's greater than a man that wins a city. A man
that controlled his own temper and wrath. Our God is slow to
anger, slow to wrath, of great mercy and compassion. Amazing. I don't want us to feel
sorry for Him. He said that when He was on His
way here in our text, on His way to the cross, He turned to
those women that were weeping and said, don't weep for me.
And I don't want us to weep for him, I want us to stand amazed
in his presence and just marvel and worship him for doing what
he did. But why is he doing it? Why is he enduring this? Why
is he allowing people to mock him? Because that's what I deserve. That's what we deserve. He's
our substitute. As said, the nature of man, the
nature of God, It's saying clearly there, His holiness, His righteousness,
what God did to Christ. He will by no means clear the
guilty and Christ was made sin and God would not spare Him. God can't forsake a righteous
man. That's what David said, didn't He? Christ was made sin,
John. And this shows the holiness of
God. The justice of God. He spared Him not. The wrath
and judgment of God. And in the love of God, that
God would send His Son to do this, that Christ would willingly,
for the joy set before Him, for such love to such unlovely creatures,
do what He did, willingly, even joyfully. Think nothing of the
shame, Scripture says. Thought nothing of the shame.
Thought nothing to be put to shame, to hang naked and be scoffed and mocked and
jeered. Why? Because He loved His people so
much. Would you do it for your children?
Probably. It would still be a horrible
thing. And the nature of man is seen
here. The nature of man. God took his hand off of man. God took his hand off of man
at the cross. delivered his son to their will.
That's what it says in another gospel. It says that Pilate,
I think it was, said, what will you do with Jesus? He stood before
the crowd. It was Herod, Pontius Pilate,
the Jews, the Gentiles, the religious, the non-religious. It was everybody. It was a huge crowd. Thousands
and thousands of people. You know, the more bloodshed
there is, the more commotion that goes on, the more it attracts
people. And when the leader stood before everybody, said, what
will you do with Jesus? What did they say? They cried
with one cry, crucified. Delivered to their will. Thousands
of men, women, and children were in on this. Yes. Religious people. Verse 63, the men that hailed
Jesus mocked him and smoked him. Who were these? These were the,
verse 66, the chief priests, scribes, religious people. This
was a crowd of good, church-going, moral people. There ain't no
such thing, is there? By nature. Religious people. Good, moral, sweet, kind men
and women, fathers, mothers, neighbors. The true nature of man is revealed
when God came to this earth and declared who He was, why He came,
what man is, and how a man is saved, one way. Sovereign, electing,
mercy and grace through one man. Not anything we could possibly
do. It's all for naught. Only what
Jesus Christ... And God came down here to declare
that, what did man say? We won't have this. We won't
have this. Now, brothers and sisters, it
says in verse 63, the men that hailed him mocked him and smote
him. All who do not worship God today
mock him. All who reject his word, all
who reject his truth, all who refuse to worship the Lord, all
who refuse his way and prefer their way, all who refuse to
bow their head, to bend their knee, to give thanks unto God.
It's a reasonable service, just a reasonable service. All who
refuse to give all the glory to God and his Son for everything. All or any who are not interested
in God or the Son of God, mock Him and blaspheme His holy name. If they could, they'd spit in
His face. That's spitting in His face. All that passed by,
I'd say, it's nothing to them. Nothing. Doesn't matter to me. I don't care if He came, I don't
care if He lived, I don't care if He died. That's the same as
spitting in His face. And so they mocked Him. And man
mocks him still. But you know what the scripture
says? God is not mocked. God is not mocked. Man's mocking
himself. You know that? Man's doing this
to himself. Our Lord said every knee will
bow, every tongue will confess. These men in this story, the
soldiers, they mockingly bowed their knee. They will. They did. They did. Do you know how that must have
haunted them and still haunts them right now that they did
that? And such were some of you. But
God. I say this with such shame, but
that you might know how merciful God is to your pastor, to your
preacher. I told my friend when I was about
20 years old that I could disprove everything my father preached
all his life. I mocked him. I said there's nothing to it. But God. Brother, I'm going to say that
until the day I die. Put this on my tombstone, will
you? And he, but God, is rich in mercy for his great love. For if he loved that old blasphemer,
that's what John Newton called himself all his days, the old
blasphemer. Saul of Tarsus, that's what he
said, I blessed him and he's not fit to be called, I blasphemed
him, but God. Verse 63, let's look at these
verses now. The men that held Jesus mocked
Him. Who held Him? Who held Him? No, He allowed
them to lay hold of Him. You remember the story of Uzzah
touching the Ark of God? You remember what God did to
him? Uzzah? That story of Uzzah? The Ark
was on an ox cart, which it shouldn't have been. He was on an ox cart,
and Uzzah, one of the sons of a priest, thought, that ark needs
my help. It's going to fall. And he laid,
just touched the ark. God killed him, right there.
As a sign, as a fearful sign to show that God doesn't need
your help. You don't hold him up. He holds
you up. Don't touch the art. Don't touch
the sacrifice. Don't lay a hand on his sacrifice. And yet here he is. Here's the
ark of God. And men laid hold of it. Not
in salvation. Not in faith. You know, we lay
hold of him. We lay hold of him. These men held him, not in amazement,
not in worship, not like Mary. Where did Mary hold him? At his
feet. When she found out, she knew who he was, she bowed at
his feet, laid down at his feet, and just held his feet and kissed
his feet. Oh, how beautiful are the feet
of them. Very glad tidings. She thought it unworthy of her
to rise above his feet. She wanted to be under his feet,
at his footstool. She held those feet and kissed
those feet. I'm not worthy to look him in the face. If I just
touch the hem of his garment, if I just stay right here at
his feet, like a dog, I'd be happy. These men held him, you
know. You got him? I got him. Let's
take him. And they smote him. Slapped him. You know, man sports himself
against God. Look at verse 64. They blindfolded
him. They struck him on the face.
They asked him or jeered, taunted him, saying, prophesied. Can you hear it in their voices?
Prophesied. You there, you're a prophet.
Who smoked you? Hmm. You know, this was all at
nighttime. Verse 66 says, as soon as it
was day. This was at nighttime. That's
when man's evil comes out the greatest. Man thinks he does
things under the cover of darkness. No, it's all light to God. There's
no light, no dark, nothing hidden that God doesn't see. His eyes
behold, His eyelids try, nothing said. And there's nothing that's
said and done that won't be brought to light, won't be brought out,
no secrets that won't be revealed on that day, Christ said. Let
God speak. by virtue of what Christ was
doing here, covered. He's covered all our darkness,
and all our secrets, and all our sins, and all our words,
and all our mockery, and all our blasphemy, and all our sins,
covered by the one that they smoked, covered. Man sports himself against God.
Yeah, we have time. Let's go to Judges 16. Maybe
you don't... The book of Judges, go there.
This is a type of story of Christ crucified. Maybe you've never seen it. The
story of Samson. Look at it, Judges 16. If you've
never seen this, you will rejoice. But man talks and tempts and
tries the great God in whose hands our breath is and all our
ways. The God who upholds all things
by the Word of His power, the God who set up and holds up the
pillars of the earth. The story of Samson, look at
verse 21. The Philistines took him, put out his eyes. Judges
16, 21. The Philistines took him, put out his eyes like they
blindfolded our Lord. brought him down to Gaza, bound
him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house.
That's a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. See that? They
blindfolded him. They bound him. What is holding
him? What's holding this strongest
man on earth here? They tried to bind Samson at
one time. They couldn't. They couldn't
do it. They tried to catch Christ at a time. They couldn't. And
now he's bound and he's in the prison house. Read on. The hair
of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. And the
lords of Philistine gathered together and offered a great
sacrifice unto Dagon, their god, and they rejoiced and said, Our
god delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands. That's what the
Pharisees and the scribes and all of them were saying. Look,
we've got him. Verse 24, the people saw him,
they praised their God, said, Our God hath delivered in our
hands the enemy, the destroyer of our country. No, it's the
opposite. It's the opposite. God had delivered
him up for us all. Who did God deliver Samson? Why
did God deliver Samson into the hand of the Philistine? To save
his people. It came to pass, verse 25, their
hearts were merry. They said, Call for Samson. Let's
make sport of him. Let's make fun of him. And they set him, verse 26, between
the pillars of the building in which they were sitting, mocking,
sporting. You know the story, don't you? Verse 26, Samson said to
a lad who held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the
pillars whereon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them. Put
me between the two pillars." And there he stood. And they're all mocking him,
and laughing, and supporting him. You know what's going to
happen? This whole place is coming down on their heads. In verse 27, the house was full
of men and women. Like at our Lord's trial, a roof
of 3,000 men, well, 3,000, imagine that, 3,000. Why did it say 3,000?
How many people were saved at Pentecost? And they made sports. And Samson,
verse 28, said, called on the Lord. Oh, our Lord hung on Calvary's
tree. He called on the name of the
Lord, didn't he? Father, forgive them. They know
not what they've done. Verse 28, O Lord, remember me,
I pray Thee, strengthen me, I pray Thee, only this once, O God,
that I may at once be avenged of the flesh stains from my two
eyes. Our Lord is going to, at Calvary Street, destroy the enemy. Verse 30, let me die. With the
Philistines, he bowed himself with all his might, and the house
fell on the Lord upon all the people. So the dead which he
slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. And so God delivered his people
through Samson that day. What a picture of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Go back to our text. You know what Samson's name means?
Sunlight. Do you not see, John, the light
of the glory of God in the face of the sun? He who holds up the
pillars of the earth. He who men held, actually, he
held them in his hands. And yet, his great work on Calvary
destroyed the enemy and saved his people. Go back to our text.
Now it says, many of the things, verse 65, they blasphemously
spoke against him. And that's mankind, isn't it?
And such were some of you but God. Brothers and sisters, we
need to give thanks today if we give thanks today. Do you
hear me? We need to give thanks if we're
here to give thanks. There was a time we didn't. Give
thanks if you give thanks, if you do. Worship Him if you're
here to worship Him. Do you hear me? if you rejoice. You understand? There was a time
I saw no beauty in him that I should desire him. Oh, rejoice if you
desire him. If you can say like David, one
thing have I desired of the Lord, and that's what I'll seek after.
You know why you say that? Because when he said, seek ye
my face, you said, thy face I seek. Oh, rejoice with fear and trembling
if you rejoice with fear and trembling. Verse 66, they spake against
him. Oh, who's on the Lord's side? They were against him. Verse
66, it said as it was day, the elders, chief priests, scribes
came together. This was done at night by the
religious. It says they came together and
they led him into their council. You know how many times Scripture
talks about man's council. In Psalm 62, I think it is, yeah,
it says they only consult. to cast him down from His Excellency,
the light and lies, that's religion. Listen to Psalm 83 verse 1, Thine
enemies, verse 2, Thine enemies, they make a tumult. They that
hate thee lift up the head. They've taken crafty counsel
against thy people. They've consulted against thy
people. They've come, they say, come
let us cut them off from being a nation. They've consulted together
with one consent, they're confederate against him. That's most of religion. Under the name of God, under
the guise of glory, glorifying God. No, it's for man's glory.
Why? How do you know that? Let a man
come in his own name and him you will receive. In verse 67, they said, Art thou
the Christ? Tell us. Tell us. Remember John 10? They said,
If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. What did he say? I told
you. And you believe not. Why? Because you're not my sheep.
As I said, my sheep hear my voice. They know who I am. There are
millions and millions of people. I guess right now some kind of
Jehovah Witness or Mormon time or whatever, they come to your
door yet? They've been in our neighborhood
like flies all over the place. I guess it's their time or whatever. They go house to house to do
what? And they say it's in the name
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. No. They're not here for the glory
of God. They're here for their organization, for their domination,
for their glory, to make proselytes to their religion. Not doing
it for the glory of God. Because you stand and start talking
about who God is and who Christ is? No, we don't believe that.
When you stand and tell them that Jesus Christ is God, and
if you don't believe that He is, you'll die in your sin. I
told a couple of them, I said, you're of your father the devil.
God's not your father. If he were, you'd love his son.
You'd worship his son. You'd know who his son was. You'd
know he's the Christ. It shocked them, just like it
did these scribes and these Pharisees. It shocked them. Our Lord said,
you're of your father the devil. Oh, no, God's the father of all
mankind. No, he's not. He's the father
of his people. All that love Him love His glory.
All that love Him know who He is. He's the Christ. He's the
Son of God. He's God manifesting the flesh.
And here's what He said in verse 68, I'll ask you something. If
I ask you, you will not answer me, nor let me go. Man makes
demands of God. Man thinks God ought to answer
his every question, prove himself to man, doesn't he? Man thinks
God ought to prove himself to God. The heavens declare your
glory. The firmament showeth his handiwork.
Day unto day others speak. Everything declares his eternal
power in God. Man is without excuse, yet these
pinhead little worms, like a worm crawling through your yard and
shaking your spit and saying, I don't believe who you are,
I don't believe you own this place. Prove it! Okay? I'm done with that. That's what he's going to do
someday. I remember one time we were standing
down here after a message on Wednesday or Sunday, I forget
when. And lo and behold, there was a worm on the carpet. A little
red wiggling worm. By the way, maggot is the term
for man because maggots just eat dead flesh. Red worms are
cleaner than that. They don't eat dead meat. No,
they don't. But maggots do. That's what the
term worm means for man. Dead flesh. But anyway, this
little red worm, wiggly worm, was standing there and one of
the men started to step on us. Oh! Don't do that. We're going
to have mercy. I reached down and picked him
up. I put him up there. I elevated him. I exalted him. I put him on that pulpit and
said, that's us. That's us. He's in God's house.
Whoever comes to God's house gets mercy. Gets elevated. Gets exalted. No, don't smash
that farm. He's seeking mercy. Man taunts God, mocks God, demands
things of God. After Job and his friends did
all their talking, And God said this, gird up your
loins, and I'm going to ask you a question. You know what the
first thing God said was? Who is this that darkeneth counsel
by words of that knowledge? Who's doing all this talking? And Job said, And that's what God says to man,
collectively. Who's doing all this talking?
That's why the scripture says, God is in heaven, we're on earth,
let your words be few. Oh, but not man, not this worm,
this maggot called man, mocks God. God's not mocked. He's not
mocked. He said, you won't answer me.
You won't. God's Word so clearly exposes
and reveals and demands of man an answer man won't answer. Hereafter, verse 69, you're going
to see the Son of Man sit on the right hand of the power of
God. They laughed and scoffed and
mocked and moaned. In fact, it made them mad. They
ripped their garments. Oh, brothers and sisters, if
you see who He is, if you see Him like Stephen did, standing,
sitting, and standing on the right hand of the majesty, the
power of God, if you do, salvation has come to your soul. They said, Are you the Son of
God? He said unto them, You say that I am. Notice he never did. Tell us
who you are. I told you. Are you the son of
God? You said it. Look at chapter
23, verse 3. Pilate asked him, Art thou the
king of the Jews? He said, Thou sayest it. In other
words, your own mouth condemning you right now. Have you ever
thought about this? I know you have. That men don't
mock a myth. Do you hear anybody cussing,
Zeus be damned? Well, Pluto damage. Men don't mock myths. Men don't
talk about myths. They don't even call the names
of the fictitious. No, they don't. Well, why does
man use God's name? Why is it that man can't help
himself using God's name? That right there proves that
God is. Proves it. His name? He's in the mouth,
in the heart. His law is written on the heart. His glory is seated in the heavens.
Men and women everywhere cannot get God out of their lives. They can't say anything with
an oath without using the name of God. And God is going to hold
every single human being accountable. We didn't know you were God.
Yes, you did. You said it every day. You use my name every day. And once again, but God, and
so did you, so did we. Are you the Son of God? You know
what we say? I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of the Most High God. My Lord, my King, and my God,
I say with Thomas, as I bow my knee in my heart, my Lord and
my God. And I will have it so. I'd love
to have it so. Don't you? There was a time when
he didn't. And they said in verse 71, What
need have we of any further witnesses? We ourselves have heard of his
own mouth. That's right. You see how God is mocking them?
Everything they said is going to come back to haunt them. We've
heard him with our own mouth. That's right. I mean, we've heard
him with our own ears. We've heard his own mouth. We
heard him. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. And you said it. And you used it now. I told you one time about a dear
brother who was a foreman of a body shop in Ashland. I was a young believer. And he kind of took me under
his wing, helped me learn a little bit about working on cars. And he was a godly man. He loved
the Lord. He feared God. And he told me
about this. He said, Some of the men in his
shop were standing around just having a big old time, you know,
and they were using God's name. God, it is God. And he said,
I couldn't take it anymore. And he said, I walked over to
him and I said, man, do you know, if you stay out of hell, it's
going to be by calling on that name that you're blaspheming
right now. You better right now quit cursing his name and start
calling on his name. He said it was like pouring cold
water all over everything. People can laugh and talk and
use God's name. It's amazing. It's amazing. The
fearlessness. The mockery of man, how he uses
God's name without a thought. Little children. It's amazing.
That tells me, proves to me that we're in the very last of the
last days. God is lifting his hands off of everyone. It's just
out of society. So that men can mock him in such
a way. Oh, bless God if you bless his
name. Bless God if you fear his name.
Bless God if you love his name and exalt him. Okay.