Open my ears that I may, Voices
of truth thou sendest through, And while the waves of fall on
my ear, Everything false will disappear Silently now, I lay
holding Ready, my God, Thy will to see Open my ears, illuminate
Spirit be Thine Open my mouth and let me bear
Let me the warm truth everywhere Open my heart and let me prepare
Love with thy children loves to share Silently now I wait
for Thee Ready, my God, Thy will to do Open my heart, illuminate
Spirit divine Thank you, Gabe. That was a blessing. Let's look with me now at the
Gospel of Luke, chapter 23. Luke 23. We read Isaiah 53, which
is clear prophecy. of Christ and him crucified. The last line of Isaiah 53 says
he made intercession for the transgressors. And here in Luke 23 is the actual
account of our Lord being crucified. And after enduring many hours
of cruel torture, and then be nailed to the cross, that last
thing that Isaiah said of Christ is the first thing he did. He made intercession for the
transgressors. He prayed for the very ones who
tortured him and crucified him, saying in verse 34, Then said
Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. This is what I want us to look
at for a few minutes this morning. God forbid it would just be a
sermon, and I would preach it as such, and you would hear it
as such. touch our hearts with this message. The Lord's sufferings and death,
what the Lord did at Calvary for his people, is the gospel. It is salvation. Christ and him
crucified, the heart, the soul, the crux, the sum, the substance
of the gospel. Christ, our substitute. Christ,
our intercessor. Just like the high priest of
old, you know the story of how the tabernacle and the sacrifices
and so forth. There were three things, basically,
three things necessary. Blood, water, and incense. Those three things. And that's
what we have here. justification, sanctification,
his intercession for his people. We read in Isaiah that he was
wounded for someone else's transgressions. He was for the transgression,
scripture says, of my people, God's people, in their place,
in their stead. And it pleased the Lord, it says,
to bruise him. The Lord made his soul an offering
for sin. The Lord God. Scripture says
he shall bear their iniquities. Scripture says he poured out
his soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressors. He bear the sin, not his own,
but of many, and he made intercession. The last time he made intercession
for these transgressors. This is the gospel. Substitution. Christ died that his people might
live. Christ was bound. During his
suffering, he was bound to loose the prisoners. Christ was forsaken
of God. Remember him crying that on the
cross? He was forsaken of God that his people might never be
forsaken of God. Christ was spared not, was shown
no mercy that God might spare us and show us mercy. Christ
was made sin, he who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. That's why Christ came. This
is why Christ came, to make his soul an offering for sin, to
die that his people would not. That's the gospel. Substitution. That is our salvation. Now, all four gospels give the
account of the Lord's crucifixion at Calvary, descriptions of his
separance. Please stay with me here. The reason being, now the Gospels
do not record every story all the time, all four Gospels. Very
seldom, actually. There will be a story left out
of John that's in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. There will be a story
left out of Matthew that's in Mark, Luke, and John. But this
is in all four Gospels. It's the end. of the gospel. It's the end of each gospel,
where his ascension is the end. But this is at the end, because
this is the sum, the substance. And the sufferings of our Lord,
the actual physical, and we also see something of the inward sufferings,
the spiritual suffering. And the reason, all four gospels
The Lord had them write descriptions, a graphic, somewhat graphic description
of our Lord's torturous death. How could we ever lose sight
of and forget what he went through for his people? How could they? We do, though. But they tell,
all four Gospels tell of his cruel torture. I'm not going
to go into graphic detail about it, just merely tell you what
the Scripture says about it, okay? Because this is His glory.
This is His glory. This is part of His glory. What He endured without thought
nothing of it. Without saying a word. For the
joy set before Him. He endured a night of beatings.
From the time he went into the garden with his disciples, actually
about two nights. But anyway, he endured, after
he was apprehended, after he gave himself, I should say, submitted
himself, he endured a night of beatings. We're not talking about
minor beatings. It says he was buffeted, made
with the pests. And this was at the hands of
the religious leaders. This was first at the hands of the religious
leaders. And they buffeted him, they scourged him. They spit
in his face. And the next day then, he's delivered
to a band of soldiers, to a band of Roman soldiers who made a
sport out of torture. And they also beat him and plucked
his beard out stripped him naked, spit on him, mocked him, bowed
to me and mocked worship and all sorts of other things, many
things not recorded. This went on for a long time.
Then he was bound. He submitted to being bound and
he was dragged, not led, but dragged away roughly. And then
he had a rough-hewn cross, a beam, a wooden beam placed on his already
bleeding, lacerated shoulders, that he was to carry a long distance
up a hill, already weak from the torture he had received.
And then they laid him on that. He submitted to being laid on
that cross, that rough wooden beam, and as they nailed huge
spikes into his hands and his feet, and they took that cross
and dropped it in a three-foot hole so that every joint in his
body is out of joint, and they sat down in the midst of his
agony and pain and watched him and mocked him even then. There are several things seen
in Christ on the cross, several things. The first of which we
see is man's utter, utter, utter depravity, sinfulness and wickedness. I heard some fool years ago,
and his name deserves to be called and be exposed, Rex Humbard. You remember that old fool, that
old false prophet? If you don't remember him, good.
But he, one day in his emotion, his so-called preaching, he was
all tearful and he was talking about the Lord being crucified
and he said with tears running down his face, if I'd have been
there, I'd have stopped it. No, you wouldn't have. None of
us would have. None of us would have. Everybody
got in on this. When Pilate said, what will you
do with Jesus? All the people said, kill him. Don't just kill him, torture
him. Crucifixion was the word. most painful. It was reserved
for the lowest criminals on earth, thieves, murderers, rapists,
robbers, and so forth. That's who hung with him. He
was numbered with the transgressors. That's who he hung there with. The greatest of the great was
numbered with the worst of the worst. And that was by design,
wasn't it? The savior of sinners hung beside
the chief to show forth his great glory and saving the worst. But they couldn't cry it out,
crucifying and so would we have. Our God said this in the very
beginning. In Genesis 6, the Lord looked
down and saw that the imagination of man's thoughts, this is before
and after the flood, that the imagination of man's thoughts
are only evil continually. The Lord said the earth was corrupt,
and it corrupted His way, and it was full of violence. Violence
begets violence. You notice when a tragedy occurs,
when some traumatic, a car crash or something, when people gather
around, it's not to help. People don't rush to the scene
to help, to see if they can be of help. They want to see blood.
How often does the Scripture talk about bloody men? the delight
and the pain and the suffering of their fellow man. They do. You see that today, don't you?
The violence. The earth is filled with violence. It's getting worse and worse.
That's what the Lord said. He said, in the last days, men
shall be lovers of self, lovers of pleasure. And it says, the
violent men, brawlers. Scripture says, Isaiah 59, later quoted in Romans
3, his throat is an open sepulcher. Speech of men, women, even young
people now. It's always been that way. For their mouths are full of
cursing and bitterness, Scripture says. Scripture says destruction
and misery are in their ways. It's what they love. But not
just man's violence against man, man's hatred of his fellow man. But man, Scripture says in Romans
1, he hates God. It's so. That's so. It shocks
people when you say that, doesn't it? But that's what God's Word
said. And that's what we saw at Calvary. That's what we see
at Calvary. God Almighty came to this earth.
Holy, harmless, separate from sinners. Harmless, meaning peaceable,
gentle, good, easy to be intrigued, merciful, kind, gracious, love
personified. And all these people that talked
about love and in the name of God, hated him. Why? Because he exposed them. Exposed them. Because man is
basically Well, that's just so. He exposed them. He hated him,
Scripture says, without a cause. Nowhere is the wickedness of
man, the depravity of man, more clearly seen on Calvary's tree. Are you with me? Nowhere. Man hates God. And when God came, he killed
him. He tried to. And we would have
too. Scripture, we read it, we did
despise all those years that we didn't give God a thought,
didn't give Christ who was crucified, all those years we didn't give
him a thought. We're saying, I despise him. I don't have any
interest. I don't care if he came and died or not. I don't
care. It doesn't matter to me. As far as I'm concerned, it's of
no... That's what we said. That's what we said. And at Calvary we see God's holiness. At Calvary we see God's holiness. Scripture says, God says, who
will by no means clear the guilty. This is not a doctrine, this
is who God is. God who will by no means clear
the guilty. God who will, who must punish sin. Because he loves
righteousness and hates iniquity. Not just the sins, but the sinner. God who made Christ to be sin. God, it was God who put his Son
on Calvary's tree. It was God who made his Son an
offering for sin. It was God who put his soul to
grieve. Though men did what they wanted
to do, they did what God determined before to be done. Men with their
wicked hand, we with our wicked hand, despised, rejected, and
crucified the Lord of glory, but it was God who put His Son
on that cross. Why? Because God is holy. Because
God must punish sin. Because if God is going to have
mercy upon us, He must punish our sin. Either we will have
to pay for it, or a substitute. And that's what God was doing.
God made his soul an offering for sin because God is holy. God is holy. In order for God to be just,
to remain holy, to punish sin, and yet justify declare innocent
the guilty, Christ must die. The innocent for the guilty,
the righteous for the unrighteous must switch places. That's what
he did. That's what he did. Because God
is holy. That's why. That's what we see. Nowhere is
the holiness of God seen more clearly than on Calvary's treasure.
Christ crucified. At Calvary, nowhere is the love
of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God more clearly seen. I do not like to get emotional.
I hate myself for it later, but how could you not? No, God put
his altogether lovely, well-pleasing son to death for unlovely, ungodly,
the very ones that hated him and despised him and rejected
him, the very ones that said, kill him. God put him to death
for those, me. His perfectly obedient son. Would you do that? Would you
sacrifice your only begotten well, that beautiful, charming
little girl that we love so dearly from the bottom of our heart?
Would you sacrifice her for a death row criminal? Would you throw
her to the dogs to do with as they pleased? That's what God
did. Love, we just sang it. Love so
amazing, so divine. Man's my life, my soul, my all,
my soul's best song. The love of God, the love of
God. Oh, man. My, my, my, my. Man wouldn't do that. That's
not the man. That's God. The mercy of God. People, who
would you take the place of? Who would you bear the guilt
and the shame of? You might do it for a righteous
man, for a good man. You might do it for one you love,
but what about one that hates you? God commended his love toward
us, and why would we get sad? For a good man some might die,
for a righteous man, put his son to death and earn the godly,
the wretched, the vile, the miserable, the poor, the rebels, the very
ones who said, we hate you, we don't want you. What mercy? Giving them everything, the grace
of God, sparing the very ones who hated them. Nowhere is the
love of God more clearly seen. This is the love of God. Nowhere
is the mercy of God more clearly seen. Nowhere is the grace, the
gift of God, the wages of sin is there. What we've earned is
death, but the precious gift, the free, unearned, eternal gift
is life. Christ died that we might live. Nowhere is that more clearly
seen than on Calvary's tree. And the scripture, what we see
at Calvary, that a scripture is fulfilled. Oh, how I love to see God's Word
so clearly revealed. Some say that Christ quoted all
the words of Psalm 22 while He was on the cross. See, everything
He said is not written. The world couldn't contain the
books of Scripture. Everything He said and did. Some
say that He quoted the whole Psalm. He could have. He wrote
it. You could have quoted a whole book, but when Christ cried,
My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's Psalm 22.
That's the very first verse. But he says things like this
in Psalm 22, they gaped upon me as ravening lions, roaring
lions. He said, I'm poured out like
water, my bones are out of joint. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd, my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. Remember, he said,
I thirst. He says, dogs have encompassed
me. They surrounded him and wagged their heads, it says. They looked
on me, the wicked enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my
feet. That's Psalm 22, verse 16. It's as if when they were crucifying
the Lord Jesus Christ, Teresa, it's as if someone was standing
over the side, had the book of God open and said, now here's
what we're going to do next. Someone was. God, who was orchestrating
this whole event. God, who purposed this whole
thing. God, who prophesied, who promised the Christ who was to
come, said this is Him, this is what you're to do, that the
Scriptures might be fulfilled. Thus it behooved Christ to suffer
these things that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. And He had
these dogs come to see Him. Now do this, now do that. Men
are not in charge. The Lord reigneth. God reigns. God oversaw this whole thing.
God depurposed this whole thing. And we read there in Isaiah 53,
the very account of Christ's crucifixion. But the scriptures
might be fulfilled. Christ is fulfilling God's word
to show us that this is indeed the word of God, and this is
indeed the Christ whom he promised. And he did indeed do what God
said he would do, and he is indeed where God said he is. And he
will come again just as God said he would the first time, and
will the second time. God's Word has been fulfilled,
is being fulfilled, and shall be fulfilled. But you may know,
this is the Christ. This is the one. Scripture is
fulfilled. And Christ's power and glory.
What do we see at Calvary? Christ's power and his glory. Go back to Luke 23, Christ's
power and glory. Now listen to these verses. I've
read them, but I haven't read them. In other words, it's like
I saw them for the first time. Our Lord was crucified, Scripture
says, in weakness, yet strong. He was taken by man, yet really
he offered himself. You remember the story of Abraham
taking Isaac up on that mountain? Isaac was a young, scrapping
young man about the age of Joseph Parks back then. 19, 20, 21 years old. And he
submitted, he willingly, Isaac willingly submitted to take that
that wood on his back, just like our Lord did. You remember the
last display of his power, Tommy, in the garden they came to take
him? No, you can't take me. No man's
taking my life from me. I lay it down. I willingly submit. And like Isaac submitted to being
bound by his father, Abraham and being laid on that cross,
so did the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the all-powerful Son
of God here. And what I want to show here
is His greatest power was not in exerting His strength, but
with holding it. His greatest power was not in
snuffing out sinners, but in forgiving them. Man can't do this. I'd often
prioritize as big as Tommy. I'd just go around whipping everybody
I saw just because I could. But to be sure, there's somebody
bigger in there. There's somebody bigger. There's
nobody bigger. Nobody more powerful. I love
that old song. He could have called ten thousand
angels. Remember when Peter took out
his penknife? He was going to defend God. That was a noble effort. It was.
And the Lord didn't rebuke him so much. Our Lord said, Peter,
put up your sword. Don't you know? that I could
right now call a legion of angels, 12,000, 12 legions of angels,
144,000 to destroy the world and set it free. I don't even
need them like He made them fall back. I can just with the Word,
my own power, with my own power, just snuff them out. Just right
now, just snuff them out. Listen to it. Proverbs 19. It says this in Proverbs 19. The discretion of a man deferreth
his anger, and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. Listen to it. He that is slow
to anger is better than the mighty. He that ruleth his spirit It
is mightier than he that taketh the whole city. This is power. This is power. To prove his might, his power,
was to withhold it. To forbear, to withhold his anger
and his wrath. The power of his will, the power
of his spirit, the power of his love, the power of his mercy,
the power of his long-suffering. The long-suffering of the Lord
was these people's salvation. The ones who were killing him.
It was of the Lord's mercies that they were not sold at a
moment. It was of the Lord's long-suffering. The Lord's suffering
allowed them to do this to him. Why? Because he waits to be gracious. Because he's ready to pardon.
Because He's going to forgive them. He's not going to snuff
them out. He's going to forgive them. Man,
what power. What glory. That's His glory.
Our salvation. What we see at Calvary is His
power, His glory. We see the depravity of man,
the holiness of God. Power, His glory. Scripture is
fulfilled. This is my salvation. The one
who hung there, what he did there, is my salvation. What he said
there is my salvation. Isaiah wrote, and I'll quote
it again, he made intercession for the transgressors. The Lord
said to Peter, Peter's Satan hath desired thee. And Peter later wrote, he hath
a roaring lion, seeketh him whom he may devour. All of everyone. But you can't have them. Why?
Because they're greater than him. The Lord Jesus Christ said,
Peter, I pray for you. He can't have you because I pray
for you. And he can't have any of his
people. Why? Because Christ intercedes for us. And he ever lives to
make intercession for his people. The salvation of every sinner
is found right here in the words of our Lord Jesus Christ here
on Calvary's Cross. The very first words out of his
mouth are our salvation. This is it. Sister Jeanette,
this is your salvation. Christ crucified, hanging there
as your substitute, said, interceded to the Father, to this Holy Father,
who should have shown wrath, He said, Father, forgive her.
She knoweth not what she doth. He said, Father, forgive them.
They know not. They know not God. They know
not the holiness of God. They know not the justice of
God. They know not that they've offended this God. They don't
know themselves. They don't know their weakness,
their utter helplessness, their sinfulness, their propensity.
They don't know themselves. They don't know the law. They
don't know that they're weighed in the balances and found wanting.
They don't know that. They don't know that. They don't
know the way. They don't know the truth. They
don't know the life. But Christ, by His knowledge,
shall God's righteous servant justify me. He does know God.
He does know them. He does know the way. He is the
way, the truth, and the life. He knows them, so He knoweth
their frame. And this is what He said. They
don't know what they're doing. And that's it. He says, Father,
forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. This verse has a special meaning
to me, no more so than any other, but however, this is the verse which the Lord
himself used to smite me. There was a young rebbe. and young, unbelieving rebbe,
and I was riding a railroad caboose one day, brakeman on a railroad. And for some reason, I was reading
this, I read these words, and it was like God spoke out loud
to me. Father, forgive him. He knows
not what he's doing. smoke me with guilt, shame, sorrow,
and joy. But now, listen, and I recall
that, and I never bring it up to you, you may not have ever
heard me mention that, I don't know, maybe you have, but I don't
look back to that. I don't bring that up all the
time. I'm not trusting that. It was
a wonderful thing. And I do recall it. Everyone can't experience like
that. But I'm not looking back to that.
But I'll tell you what I am looking to. I'm looking to the very same
words I heard then. are my hope. The very same words
that I heard in the beginning that smoked my heart, Father
forgive him, he knows not what he's doing, are my hope and my
plea and all my salvation now. Right now. Didn't David say, Lord, remember
thy word unto thy servant, unto whom thou hast, upon which thou
hast caused me to hope? This was as a laid hold of the
mercy and the grace of God in the beginning. This is what I
laid at Lord. Would you do that for me? Laid hold of this hope
that sat before me, that I'm forgiven of God in spite of my
sin. That Christ crucified because
of my sin, laid hold of that hope, and right now, this is
my hope that I lay hold of. That Christ died for me. And ever lives to make intercession
for this old transgressor. Because I don't feel like I've
changed. He said here, and in closing,
one more time, Father, forgive them that they know not what
they do. He did not say, Father, forgive
them, they didn't mean it. They did too. They did too, they
meant it. They're rebels. And so were we. He didn't say that. And the scripture
says, you with wicked hands have taken, despised and rejected. It doesn't say they don't mean
it. No, he says they know not. Remember when Paul said, I obtained
mercy because I did it ignorantly. Now believe. All men mean it. They do it willfully. And so does God. He willfully
says. He's not willing that one should
perish. They won't. They won't. And he says, oh,
he says, Father, forgive them. Who's he praying for? Who's he
praying for? His people. Remember John 17? He said, I pray not for the world.
If the Lord was praying for every single person on Calvary's tree
here, God always hears it. And every person would have been
saved as a result of this prayer. Every person. If Christ died
and shed his blood for every single human being, every single
human being will be saved. Because it is the blood of God's
Son, Jesus Christ, that we have remission of sin. That maketh
atonement for the soul. Nothing else. And whoever he's interceding
for, Scripture says, he ever lives to intercede for. And the
Father always hears and answers and saves every single person
he prays for and died for. Who's he praying for? His people. For the transgression of my people
was he smitten, Scripture said. You'll see his seed, he said. Christ Jesus, call his name Jesus,
he shall save his people from their sin. Well, but he's praying,
and there are thousands, there are thousands crucifying him
here. He says, Father, forgive them. Thousands. How many? One
thousand. Two thousand. How many are there?
Three thousand? Maybe three thousand. I guarantee
you, there was three thousand. How do you know? Because a little
while later, At Pentecost, the Lord said, Peter, Simon, preach. Don't beg, don't plead, don't
offer, don't ask men to accept Jesus. Preach! Christ, the Lord,
Christ crucified, risen, ascended, seated, exalted, reigning, ruling,
did what God determined to do. Finish the work. Accomplish salvation. Preach. Declare him. Set him
forth. High and lifted up. And I'll
draw them all to me, God said. I'll draw them all. Every single
one that he died for. Every single one Christ prayed
for. Every one. Three thousand. But one back. And they did, buddy. They all
came. They'll all hear my voice. Everyone
I pray for, Christ said, all the children, all whom God hath
given me, shall be saved. Why? Because Christ died. Because Christ interceded. Because Christ ever lived to
intercede for them. Who was He praying for? All of
His people. All of God's people. All the
elect. You're looking at one. I'm looking at one. More than
one. 3,000? Oh, more than that. Just
a little while later, how many was it? 5,000? Later in Acts 4? A little while
later, how many? Like the story of David, he started
out with 400 men. After his all over, all Israel
was gathered to him. This is the will of God. They'll
gather together in one, even in Christ. How does he gather
them? How does God gather His elect?
By setting a pole up with a brazen serpent on it. Christ crucified. And they all look, they all see.
What? Holiness of God. Their sin, the love, the mercy,
the grace of God, the scripture for the Christ who came. Their
salvation. Look unto me and be ye saved.
All the ends of the earth. Who? The one hanging on Calvary's
tree. No. The one seated on the throne
right now, who hung on Calvary's tree. That's how it goes. That's it. Preach, Peter, and
they come. Three thousand, four thousand,
five thousand, four million, a number which no man can number,
as the sands of the sea and the stars of the sky. Why? Because it's one name. Power? Glory? My, my. That's who he died for and that's
who he's praised for. And even now, he ever lives to
make intercession and would to God that he would use this verse
for someone. Father, look at that boy. Look
at that boy. Look at that boy. He's a rebel,
he's selfish, he's hell-bent. Father, forgive him. He knows
not what he did. Look at that young girl. Falling for this,
falling for that, overcome by the world, overcome by her passions,
desires, the world, the sin, her friends, her peers, overcome,
be destroyed. If you don't, Father, forgive
her. She knows not what she did. Father, look at that man. Look
at that woman. Hardened by sin, hardened by the world, bitter,
life a mess, life squandered, life wasted, a total failure
in the gutter. Father, forgive them. They know
not what they do. Look at that believer. Look at that believer falling
right back into the pit from which he was digged. What a fool. Look at him. Cold, hot, lukewarm,
left his first love dead, right back in the pit from which he
was digged. Father, here is our salvation. Father, forgive him. He doesn't know what he's I'm telling you, this is our
salvation, that he ever lives. Salvation is he died, he lives
to make us righteous. He died to justify us. He ever lives to make sure we
come home. We're saved. Oh, what power,
what glory. What an amazing Lord and Savior. Okay, Brother Gabe, you come
with us. Turn to hymn number 175 and
stand together. It's okay