That's one of the hymns I want
sung at my funeral. That and Come Thou Fount. I never
grow tired of hearing those. I distinctly remember that being
one of Brother Bill Clark's favorite songs. The last time he was here, the last time we saw him, We
sang that hymn, and I remember him commenting on that. Do you remember that? And his
old, his Irish accent, particularly like that verse that talks about,
he said, till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to send
them over. Matthew 27, go over there with
me, Matthew 27, we've been We've been in this chapter looking
at the Lord Jesus Christ's crucifixion. The Lord is being crucified.
Christ crucified. What is this all about? Why is
He here? That's what, when Pilate said,
what hath He done? We need to ask the same question. Well, in verse 39 here, we're
going to look at just this one verse. It says in verse 39, and
they that passed by reviled him, mocked him, wagging their heads. Anybody ever done that to you? Wagging their head. Shaking their
head. They that passed by. When the
Lord was crucified, it was a national event. No one was ignorant of
what was going on here. We talked about that man from
Cyrene, Simon. He was a thousand miles away,
but when he came into town, he was confronted with this. Because
the whole world, as some of them said, has gone after him. what
was going on. What's going on here? This man
that's hanging on this tree, being crucified, what has he
done? What's his crimes? And this thing of Christ being
crucified, what we've come to, this story, is the sum and substance
of the gospel. Truth. The heart and soul of
salvation. The Old Testament, all of the
Old Testament, all of the symbols, the stories, the types, the prophecies,
all point to this one event, this time, right here. All point
to it. The Old Testament said this is
what we all culminate in, pointing to. That's the end of all of
this. And then the epistles and everything
in the future, or everything in the epistles. And now look
back to that. We're looking back at this. This
is what we're doing. We're looking back, studying
this. What's going on here? Our Lord
Jesus Christ once made this statement. He said, What shall I say? Father, deliver me from this
that is going to be crucified. What shall I say? Deliver me
from this, He said, for this cause. came I into the world. This is why I came, Christ said,
to be crucified. And 1 Corinthians 15 talks about
the gospel, says this is the gospel, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures prophesied. It all points to this. Why? Why
was Christ crucified? Now, listen carefully. The first
thing is because God is holy. You don't see the love of God
first. That's not the first thing you learn when looking at Christ
crucified. That's not what you first see.
God is killing this man hanging on this tree. God's killing him.
That's what Scripture said. Please the Lord to bruise him,
to kill him. Making his soul an offering,
Isaiah said. God is killing this man. Why?
God is holy. God is just. He said, I will
by no means clear the guilty. That's what God said. That's
the God of the Bible. God is angry. Please stay with
me. This is what it's all about.
I never preach another message. This is it. May not. You may not hear it. Another
message. God is angry. That's what the scripture says.
Scripture said God is angry with the wicked every day. It doesn't
say he loves them. It says he's angry. God is holy. I said God is holy.
And sin is a wretched disease that is in us. came into this planet by one
man's sin entered into the world. So death passed upon all men
for all that all have sinned. Sin is a wretched disease like
leprosy. Scriptures talks about sin like
leprosy, doesn't it? Uses leprosy as an emblem of
a type of sin. Leprosy always got worse and
worse and worse. It is a fatal disease. It always
got worse and worse and worse until that person, that flesh,
you were unable to be around it. It's just awful. From the
sole of the feet to the top of the head, that person, there's
no sound in the center. That's what God said in Isaiah
1 about all people. That's what it says. All have
sinned. leprosy, called sin in them.
In Genesis chapter 6, one of the brethren read this yesterday
in a meeting of the Drudeetes, and it says, God looked down,
Genesis 6, he saw that the imagination of man's heart was only evil
continually, and it repented God that he made man, and he
said, I'm going to destroy him. Sin is like rabies. First bitten, it doesn't show
itself too much, but if something's not done, you'll go crazy and
it'll kill you. Right? There's an old story.
Brother Barnard used to tell this story about a father who
had a young child with a dog that they dearly loved named
Shep. Family pet named Shep. Must have been a shepherd of
some kind. And a little kid came in one day and said, Daddy, something's
wrong with Chef. I went out to pet him and he
growled at me. And he said, and Daddy, he said
he's foaming at the mouth. And his dad, little child's dad,
knew immediately and he walked up over the mantel of the fireplace
and grabbed his shotgun, grabbed it down. The little kid horrified.
He said, Dad, what are you doing? He broke it open and put those
shells in it. He said, Son, I've got to kill
Shep. Shep's gone mad. If I don't kill
Shep, Shep's going to kill you. See, sin is always fatal. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. It's not just religion. This
is the truth. And this death it talks about
is eternal. Separation from God. God whose
life. God whose love. God whose grace. God whose mercy, kindness, goodness,
gentleness. Separation from all that. For
the worm dieth not. Sin. God is holy. God is righteous. Scripture says
the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. That's his character. Scripture says he hateth iniquity.
God is just. God is just. That means he will
punish sin. He must. He must. God must punish sin, must put
it away like old shit. Got to do something about it. My daughter works in surgery, and she'll tell you that most
people, most complications do not arise from surgery itself,
but infection. Infection. Most people die not
from the surgery itself, but from infection. And the chief
killer is one little germ. There's one little germ, and
if it gets in, it's killed many people. Now is it wrong for that surgeon
to demand a sterile environment, huh? He must. Got to get rid of this. It will kill you. Sin permeated
this earth. It's killing us all. So one way to deal with it. God
is just. He must punish sin. He must.
Turn back to Lamentations 1. Lamentations 1 that we read. God is holy. God is just. God
is angry. The whole world basically knows
one verse. John 3.16. For God so loved the
world. Very few people know the last
verse in that chapter. Verse 36, or the two verses from
that, verse 18. Very few people know those verses.
But the last verse says, He that believeth not the Son, the wrath
of God abides upon him. Not the love. Yes, God loves
some, but not all. The wrath of God abides upon
some. He can't have both. God can't love you and the wrath
of God abide upon you, can it? No. The wrath of God abides upon
some. John 3, 36. Romans 1.18 says the wrath of
God is clearly revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness
and sin. Doesn't it? The wrath of God. Men don't see it. People don't
see that. Preachers, these hucksters, these liars, these deceivers,
they won't tell people that because they don't believe it. They don't
believe God is holy and just and angry. They don't believe
He's angry. I don't believe he's a God of
wrath. That's what Amalekiah said. Where's the God of judgment? That's what Elijah said. Where's
the God of wrath and judgment? God is holy. Death is proof. Death is proof God is holy. Death is proof God is angry.
Destruction is proof God is holy. God is angry. Isn't it? You don't
destroy things you love. The flood is proof. The flood,
the original flood that destroyed the whole world full of people,
except for eight people, the flood is proof that God is angry. I've just quoted it to you. The
ark is proof that God is love to some, not all. The ark is proof that God is
merciful. The ark is proof that some find
grace in the eyes of God. The ark is proof of the sovereign
mercy and love and grace of God upon some. They didn't deserve
it. It was quickly evident after the flood, wasn't an old ham,
they sure didn't deserve it. Noah didn't deserve it. Noah was a sinner and Noah found
grace. Where? Where was the mercy of
God? Where was the love of God? Where
was the grace of God? Where was the goodness of God
seen? It's in an ark. And Romans 8.39 says the love
of God is in Christ Jesus. Christ and Him crucified. Of
which that ark is an emblem, a symbol. That ark bore the wrath,
the flood, The overflowing scourge of God's wrath against an unbelieving,
a sinful world, but those that were in it, they didn't feel
a drop of rain. Not one drop. There is therefore
now no condemnation, not one, to them that are in Christ Jesus.
They didn't feel a drop of rain. Some of you are smiling. Why? Because the ark got it all. Noah's Ark is a picture of Christ
crucified. Christ. Christ is the Holy One. Lamentations 1 there, he said
in verse 12, the last part of that verse says, the Lord hath
afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger. You see that? Anger. This man, whoever is speaking
here in Lamentations, God is angry with him. And God is killing
him. God's afflicting him. God's punishing
him. And whoever that man was hanging
on that tree, Scripture says, Peter stood up that day before
all and he said, you with wicked hands have taken and crucified
him, but you did what God determined before to be done. Isaiah prophesied
long before he said, the Lord hath put him to grief. The Lord
bruised him. God's killing this man. Why?
For his own sin? No. He had none. Christ is holy. Christ is harmless. Christ is
separate from sinners. Scripture says undefiled. Not
like us. He's the righteous one. Christ
is unblameable. Unreprovable in God's sight.
Without spot. Without blemish. No sin in him. Nothing to deserve this. The
wages of sin is death. He has no sin. He earned acceptance,
love. He earned it. He's the righteous
one. He's the holy one. He's the perfect
one. Scripture says he's an altogether lovely one. God looked at him
and he said, I'm well pleased. He's lovely. God who is holy
said, here's a holy man. I love holy things. I love this
man. Well pleased for his righteousness.
Peter got up that day and the first words out of his mouth
to that The crowd was, this is a man approved of God. Well pleased. A perfect man. And therefore,
a perfect sacrifice. A perfect substitute. Well, he
hangs on this cross. He's been killed by God for sin.
Why? Not his own. The reason the Son of God hangs
on the cross is not, as I said, not because men put Him there,
but because God put Him there. And Scripture says God hath made
Him to be sin. Scripture says God hath laid
on Him iniquity, a substitute. Who did He do this for? Everybody? No. His people. That's what the announcement
was when He was born. It said, Call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins by being their substitute. His
people, whom He said that the Father had given Him. All which
Thou hast given Me, I will lose nothing. Save them. And in a minute we're going to
see how you know who they are. God hath made him to be sin for
them. God hath laid on him their iniquity. God hath made Christ
their substitute. Look at verse 12. Now here's
what our text there in Matthew, and here it says, Is it nothing
to you, all ye that pass by? All ye that pass by. When our Lord was hanging on
that tree, many, many people passed by. Some, it says, sat
down there in Matthew 27, sat down to watch Him there. But
many passed by. There was not room to see, it
was a big crowd. But many passed by. It was like
sport. Out of curiosity, they would
pass by. Many. Thousands upon thousands.
And ten thousands. That's right. It was like sport.
They passed by. And here in Lamentations it says,
Is it nothing to you, O ye that pass by? Behold, and see, stop,
think, consider what this is. That pass by. Would you turn
with me to Romans 10. Romans 10. Scriptures always speaks in language
like this. It came to pass. It came to pass. It came. to pass. All of us come into this world.
The child is about to be born. A child has been born. Other
children are about to be born by the will of God, by the grace
of God. We pray, born. That child will
come and the years are like a vapor. Life is like a vapor. And it
will come and it will pass. Until and unless the Lord returns,
that child will grow old and frail, like Brother William did,
and will put their body in a casket and then pass away. Just like
that. My child is now a mother. Just
like that. It seems like we should be going
to the hospital for you to give birth, maybe, doesn't it? Just
like that. It came to pass. We all come and we pass. The
Lord Jesus Christ came and lived 33 years. He came to pass. He came to do something. He did
it. Passed. It came to pass. Everyone on
this earth comes to pass. We're passing through. We're
born, we live, we die. Everything, everyone on this
earth is passing through. And everyone, listen to me, everyone
on this earth has been or will be confronted with this, like
all these people back then. They were all there. And everyone
in this earth will be confronted with this, Christ crucified. That's right. Look at Romans
10. There's no getting around this. Verse 16, Paul says, "...they
have not all obeyed the gospel." Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed
our report? So then faith cometh by hearing,
hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard?
Verily, yes, verily, their sound," what's that? Sound of the gospel,
who Christ is, went into all the earth, and their words unto
the end of the world. Doesn't he say that? Whose words? The prophets. Somebody is coming. Who? The
crucified one. The substitute. Savior. The Redeemer. The Lamb of God is coming. Have
they not all heard? Verily. Now, Paul wrote this
2,000 years ago before the day of mass communication, right?
Before airwaves. There were airwaves. But God doesn't need airwaves. Had they not all heard? Yes,
they had. And back there in Lamentations,
that's way before Paul too. He says, Nothing to you, all
you that pass by. All have been confronted with
this One who came, the Lord Jesus Christ. And all will respond.
You cannot remain indifferent. You cannot. No one is indifferent. You remember old Pilate tried
to be, didn't he? Old Pilate said, I'm innocent.
Oh, you've already said he was a just one. Your wife even warned you. You
heard him speak. You heard him. You heard him.
You can't be innocent here. You can't be indifferent here.
You can't wash your hands of this thing. You're in it. You're either for him or you're
against him. He either died for you or he didn't. That's right. You can't be indifferent. It's impossible. Something of
this magnitude. You know, back during the Civil
War, that war affected the whole known country, didn't it? Didn't
it? Brother Roy, eventually, I mean,
out West, they knew what was going on. Lots of people went
out West to escape it, you know. There were people living then,
out West. And they heard about it. It affected
the whole country, north, south, east, and west. Well, there were
states like the Commonwealth of Kentucky, you know, that tried
to remain neutral at the time. I remember what old Brother Worthington
said to me, that Brother Terry Worthington, the old son of the
Confederates, I was down visiting him in Georgia, And he's a Civil
War buff, and he had books all over, and I said, Brother Terry,
I've never been interested in the Civil War. And he said in
his slow drawl, he said, where are you from? I said, well, Kentucky. He said,
well. He said, they weren't interested
in when it was being fought. Kentucky tried to remain neutral.
Remember at first, we're not in on this. We're not getting
in on this until it converged on them. You're in it. And then they went with the South
for a while. And then they went with the North
for a while. But they were in it. No way of
getting out. The World War II. World War II
is a world war. All of Europe, everything was
under attack. People were dying. thousands,
millions of people dying. The United States said, well,
we're not in it. This doesn't affect us. Until
the bombs dropped. Wait a minute. It does affect
us, doesn't it? You can't remain indifferent.
This affects everybody. You can't remain indifferent,
can you? When we preach Christ crucified,
listen, when we preach, I'm preaching right now, I'm not asking anybody
for a decision. We never do that. We never try
to get a response. No, sir. No, sir. We don't have an altar call.
That fellow rebuked me the other day because apparently I didn't
give an altar call. I didn't give people a chance. No, sir, we don't do that. We're
not told to do that. God said, like to Moses, to the
people that were bitten with that serpent, you know, that
were dying, He said, make a serpent of brass and put it on a pole.
He said, Moses, put it on a pole, and here's what you do. Just
lift it up. Just lift it up. That's all you
do. Don't beg, don't plead, don't
say, would you all please, don't offer them, don't bribe them,
don't do anything, just lift it up. Just stand there. Here it is. John 3, 14, which old brother
Barnes said, now here's the gospel. Not verse 16, verse 14. As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. Christ crucified. Now, whosoever
believeth in him should not perish. Death, substitute. Lift him up. Don't bribe, don't beg, don't
plead, just lift him up. I'll draw him. Christ said, if
I be lifted up, I'll draw my men to myself. Didn't he, Sam? Isn't that what he said? Just
declare it. Ezekiel, declare it. Go to those
dry bones and just say, Behold thy God. Declare it. Just declare Christ. Declare
the truth. My people will be willing in
the day of my power. Stand back. Can these bones live,
Ezekiel? And here's what people argue.
How are you going to get people to come if you don't do this,
if you don't do that? Well, you know, if I'm trying
to get people to come, Brother Roy, if I'm going to get people
to come, that's what I'd do. I'd bribe them. If I'm doing
it, you understand me? If I'm going to get people, this
is the way I would do it. I'm a man. This is the way I'd
do it. Sammy, would you come up here a minute? Come here.
I've got $20 for you. I ain't kidding. Come here. I'm serious. That's yours. Don't
give it back. All right? Anybody else? Anybody
else? Huh? Don't come. But now see, if I'm
going to do it, if I'm going to get you to come, that's what
I'm going to have to do. Are you with me? But I'm not doing it. Salvation is not up to me. Are
you with me? It's of the Lord. And God says, I will say to the
north wind, Come! Just lift it up. Just declare
you're God. Just declare me. Isn't that what
He says? Preach Christ high and lifted
up. And watch Him come. Who? My people. Shall be willing
in the day of my power. Psalm 110 verse 3. How are you going to get them
to come? I can't. How's God going to? This is how. Now does it make sense? Sammy, I'll be borrowing $20
off you." We don't bribe people. God brings them. God brings them. We preach Christ, not asking
for a decision here, not asking for a decision. And you know, man's already made
one. Here's the thing about it. Man's already made a decision.
Have they not all heard? Yes. And they've made their decision.
Honestly, folks, when I grew up, young man, you know, before
I was, you know, I made my decision. I'm not interested. Huh? Isn't that the natural decision
of every man born and every young person when the gospel is preached?
I'm not interested. All you that pass by, see they
all are confronted with this. What's their first response?
What is man's response? His natural response? I'm not
interested. I went 20 years. Won't you come to church? Oh,
man, I'm not interested. No. Wagonhead. Is that you, Sam? Cherry? I'm not interested. Is
it nothing to you? No, it's nothing to me. I'm not interested. Well, and you're forced. God,
you know, God leads captivity captive. He makes you a captive
audience. We better hope that God brings
people. We can't, can we? We try and
we try. We better hope he does. Well, he does. And he makes them
a captive audience. And most of the time when somebody
comes and hears it for the first time, they wish they hadn't come. Honestly. You start saying things,
strange doctrine that they've never heard before. It's just
true doctrine. It's just Bible doctrine. It's just old, old
doctrine which they've all gotten away from. The old pattern. And so old, it's strange now.
It's just that God is God, you know. They've heard so long that you
must let God be God. They actually believe in that.
They've heard so long that you must let Him be Lord and Savior.
They actually believe in that. They've heard so long and how
much God loves everybody and all this is the devil's work
to actually believe in that. So strange when a man stands
up and says, God says, I kill Deuteronomy 32, 39. I make a
lie. I wound. I make sick. I heal.
I the Lord do all these things. I create peace. Isaiah 45, 7.
I make evil. I create evil. Isaiah 45, 7.
The Lord has said these things. I do all these things. I'm angry. God hated thought workers of
iniquity. Where is that written? It's strange because men that
are hirelings don't preach it, because you can't get a hearing
that way. You can't get a hearing that way. God does. Every one of his people,
that's what they want to hear. And they're going to be thankful. So fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Everyone whom God saves, He makes them first fear
Him. To this man will I look, God
said. He that is poor and of a contrite heart and trembleth
at my word. God is holy. God is just. God
is angry. No, no, I don't believe that.
Believe God. You're in danger of the judgment.
Noah said that to his generation. Noah said that for 120 years.
Noah said judgments come. Oh no, no, no, Noah. Nobody believes
like that. God is love. God wouldn't do
that. Prove it, Noah. Ah, wagging their head. Don't
believe that. Your only hope, get up, stand
up, preach God, your only hope is that God Almighty purposed
before the world began to show you mercy, that God Almighty
chose you, that God Almighty elected you. Yeah, He has an
elect. That's what He said more than 27 times in the New Testament. If He said it once, you better
believe it. God has an elect. If you're one of His elect, then
you're accepted and a beloved. Christ is the only one God approves
of. He doesn't approve of you. In your flesh dwells no good
thing, no good thing, nothing lovable about you. Nothing in
you to make God accept. Nothing in you at all, if one
person ever lived that God's pleased with, that he accept.
And they say, no, no, no, I don't believe that. I'm worth saving.
I'm worth loving. God ought to save me. Ought to
give me a chance to be saved. He can get great things out of
me. That's everybody's response,
isn't it? Isn't it, Brother Henry, isn't it? And that's your response
when you first heard the truth. Here's this man, this substitute. I'm holy, I'm just. And I'm going
to kill him. And that's you. That's what I
ought to do to you. I'm going to kill him in your place. This is your substitute. I don't
believe that. I don't believe God's that holy.
I don't believe I'm that bad. I don't believe God's that just.
I believe He just forgives. That's all. Just forgives. That's the natural response.
Is it nothing to you? No, nothing. John 19. Go over there and I'm
going to close with this. John chapter 19. John 19. John 19. You know the verses in Ephesians
2. Many of you, your favorite verses
are in Ephesians 2. Don't you, Mike? Don't you love
that chapter? It says, And you who were dead
in trespassing sin. Dead. Children of wrath, even as others.
Walking according to the course of this world. Prince of the
power of the air. Children of wrath, even as others. Despisers,
hating this truth. And you, dead. Gospel preached? I don't believe that. And you. Hath he quickened? Says, and you. In verse 4 of
Ephesians 2 says, but God. There's salvation in two words.
But God. Here's a response of every single
person when I hear it. Is it nothing to you? Nothing
but God. For his great love were with
he loved you. Who? We'll see. Look at this. John 19. Look at this. John 19
verse 25. All right. Now they're stood
by the cross of Jesus, his mother and his mother's sister, Mary. Mary, his supposed earthly mother,
and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Cleopatra, and Mary
Magdalene. Mary, don't you love your name
right now? There's a Mary in here. Mary,
these three women. Well, when Jesus therefore saw
his mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved. There stands John. See, there was a time, this man
named John, just an old fisherman, just an old fisherman. The Lord Jesus Christ had been
walking the planet 30 years. Everybody had heard of him. And
this John and his brother named James were fishermen. It was
their life. They were in their daddy's business,
fishing business. They loved fishing. It was their
life. They weren't religious. Oh, they probably went to the
synagogue on the Sabbath, you know, it's what every good Jew
does. And they went with their daddy, you know, and did their
little, I started to say, hey, O Mary, they didn't do that.
But they went through the motions of religion, you know, but they
weren't, they didn't know God. Somebody said, have you heard
of that Jesus of Nazareth? Somebody says he's a Christ.
Nah, not interested. But God. One day passed by. Yes, God manifest
in the flesh. Jesus Christ is His name. Emmanuel,
God with us. He passed by. A lot of boats
out there, weren't there, Brother John? A lot of boats. A lot of
boats in a fishing village. And this Lord and this God, this
Christ passed by their boat and looked directly out at these
two certain men, James and John, and said, follow me. And from then on, somebody would
say, is it anything to you? He's everything to me. Not until then. He chose them. Here John stands, okay? A lot
of people passing by, John stops. A lot of people passing by, John
stops. He says, I'm staying right here. A lot of people wagging their heads
as they go by. Nah, I don't like him. John has his bow. You know
it then. A lot of people just curious.
John's concerned. Greatly concerned. Oh, my. He's
not leaving. A lot of people out there out of
sport just to watch. John's there to worship. Who
made the difference? A lot of people wagging their
head. John's hanging his head. John believes. John worships.
John loves the Lord. John loves this one hanging here.
Why? Why does John love this man hanging
here? Why? Because God first loved
him. That's why. And everyone God loves shall
pass by a while, but eventually he'll say, You're stopping right here, and
this is where you're staying. You're going to stand right here
from then on, Teresa, and stand amazed in the presence of Jesus
of Nazarene and wonder how He could love you, a sinner condemned
unclaimed. And from that day forward, far
from being nothing to you, He will be all and in all. And you will say, and you do
say, you can have it all. This is all I want. How? Why? Who? The sovereign mercy
and grace and love of God Almighty. The disciple whom Jesus loved. Is it nothing to you? If it is, smile. God loves you. Alright, let's sing in closing
number 452. I stand amazed. We've got to stand while we sing
it.