That is truly one of the great
hymns in our book, isn't it? When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the King of Glory died. That's what we're looking at
this morning. Read with me again Matthew 27.
Well, not again. We'll read it for the first time. Matthew 27. Matthew 27, read with me, verses
35 through 37. And they crucified him and parted
his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled, which
was spoken by the prophet, which we read there in Psalm 22, saying,
They parted my garments among them, and upon my gesture did
they cast lots. And sitting down, they watched
him there, and set up over his head his
accusation. This is Jesus, the King of the
Jews. Now, this is not a message which
will elicit kind comments. It's not meant for that purpose. But this is meant to evoke serious
thought. It's a beautiful day today, isn't
it? The sun is shining. It's fitting that we look at
this dark day. Scripture says in verse 45, it
was dark from the sixth hour till the ninth hour. from 12
o'clock noon until 3 o'clock, dark. It's fitting, I believe,
on this beautiful day that we look at this terrible, dark day
that our Lord was crucified. Our Lord said this earlier. He
said, At a time when you think not, so shall the Son of Man appear.
Noah, I thought about Noah and his They were sitting in that
ark seven days after it was finished. The ark was finished, the work
was finished, and they sat in that ark when the sun was shining. Not one drop of rain had fallen,
but they believed God who said it was. And they sat in that
ark when the sun was shining. A beautiful day like this, as
many passed by. and scoffed and mocked and surely
said things like this. Where's the promise of this reign
you're talking about, this judgment? We don't believe in a God like
that. And then it came suddenly. Our
Lord said they didn't know it when it came.
It came sudden and swift destruction. And Noah's Ark is a picture,
a beautiful type of Christ crucified. That ark bore all the wrath and
judgment of God, didn't it? Which was in the form of rain,
which killed all the inhabitants of the earth, but those in the
ark. All those inside the ark, the
love of God was upon them. The mercy of God, the grace of
God, they were saved from that overflowing scourge of God's
wrath. But everybody, every single person
outside that ark, which is a picture of Christ, Every single one.
He that had not the ark perished. And it was a beautiful day like
this. And this story, the message of
Christ and Him crucified, is the heart and soul of the gospel.
It is the sum and substance of the whole Bible. The essence
of our religion. The religion, true religion.
Scripture talks about true religion, the religion of God, the Bible. You know, the religion of God
is a bloody religion. It really is. Listen carefully. From the Garden of Eden, which
was paradise, and again, that was a beautiful day, wasn't it?
A day in paradise. Another day in paradise when man rebelled against God.
And then the Lord, I believe it was the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself, who walked in that garden and right in front of two, the
man and the woman, much to their horror. I had never seen this before.
I had no idea what was going on. Much to their horror, the
Lord God took a lamb, an innocent lamb, a beautiful, beautiful,
lovely lamb. and took that lamp and slit its
throat, right in front of their eye,
to their horror. They'd never seen blood before. And all that blood. And they
watched that living, beautiful creature, innocent, didn't do
anything to deserve this, but they had. And they watched this
innocent, beautiful creature finally kick until it kicked
no more and it was dead. Terrible. Do we have to go through
that? And then from that point on,
rivers of blood were shed. Oceans of blood were shed. God was the first to shed it. And he commanded it. Why? Why? Because it all points to
this. Everyone knows Lamb. All of that
point, that Lamb, that first Lamb in the garden, the innocent
dying for the guilty, bloodshed because of their sin, is a picture
of Christ. It all points to the Lamb of
God that was to come 4,000 years later. The innocent, altogether lovely
son of God, who didn't deserve this, but God. It pleased God to bruise him,
to kill him, make his soul an offering for sin. Horrible, isn't
it? Horrible and glorious. Terrible
and beautiful. Fearful and wonderful. And blood,
bright red crimson, poured out of that beautiful creature and
he died. And from there on, rivers of blood, all because of sin. It's all about sin. And it all
culminates in this terrible, this is the worst, this right
here, this is the worst scene ever. Right here. What happened
to the Lord Jesus Christ? It wasn't simply at man's will. William, it wasn't at all. God
was doing this to his son. It had something to do with sin.
You know, and man, God allowed man, directed man, however you
want to say it, God, to shed the blood of his son. But do you know, you remember
when they said, let his blood be upon us and our children.
Remember that? Do you know because of that, God sheds the blood
of man. Listen to it. Listen. I'll read
to you from Revelation 14. This is just a word. This is
in the end. It says, The angel thrust in
his sickle into the earth, gathered the vine of the earth, cast it
into the great winepress of the wrath of God, and the winepress
was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress
up to the horse's bridles. Man's blood. Listen, listen, I'm just reading
God's Word. Over in Revelation 16, verse 6, the Lord said, They
have shed the blood of saints. They have shed the blood of prophets.
I will give them blood to drink. They're worthy. It's terrible, isn't it? There's
a lot of bloodshed, isn't it? Wars and rumors of war. Hasn't
there? This was worse. This was worse. And this is what God holds everyone
accountable for. You know that statement, Patrick,
when they said, let his blood be upon us and our children.
That will either make you guilty or set you free. You're either going to be held
responsible and pay for that crime from now on, or be absolved
of all crimes. And you understand, don't you?
Our blessed are you understand? You pray that, don't you, Brother
Patrick? Let his blood be on my wife and
I and my two daughters. If you understand that, you're
so blessed. But it says here in our text, Matthew 27, It's
a terrible scene. And they were doing, man was
doing what he wanted to do. That's what Peter preached at
Pentecost didn't he? He said, you with wicked hands
have taken and crucified the Lord of the Lord. Who? All. We. Had we been there, we'd have
done it. Everybody was in on it. And they did it for sport. Look
at verse In our text it says, sitting down, verse 36, they
watched him there. They watched him there. The irony of that struck me. They sat and watched him. You
know, the world even now, then and now, the world mostly is
watchers, observing, curiosity seekers, looking on as entertainment. Religion is mere entertainment.
But to a chosen few, to a chosen few whom God Almighty reveals
to them who this is hanging there and why He's hanging there, to
a chosen few, they're looking unto Him. They're not watching,
looking at Him as entertainment and not bloodthirsty and all
that. They're looking unto Him. They're looking past and then
His suffering. I hesitate to even deal with
this passage. I used to, and I don't know any better. I felt reading that. Did you
read that in Psalm 22 with me? But unto a chosen few who are
enabled by God to not just watch in mere curiosity, but actually
see and look. The difference between watching
and looking. Salvation is the difference. Look unto me, Isaiah 45 says,
and be ye saved. The look upon Christ crucified
as the scapegoat, as the sin offering, as the substitute, as the serpent on the pole. And come away glorying as we
sang. Do you understand what you sung? Forbid it, Lord, that I should
boast, saving the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. what he did,
who's there, what he was doing. It's not a piece of wood. That's
idolatry. We don't cherish an old rugged
cross. No, no, that's idolatry. The
Lord plainly said don't make any graven images like that.
You don't make an image of the thing that killed our Lord. But
you worship the one who died there. You worship the one who
hung on that cross. We glory in the Christ of the
cross, not the cross, the wood, the piece, the instrument. No,
no, no, no, no. And to glory in the cross of Christ is to
glory in what He did. That's so great a work. We read
there in Psalm 22, the very last verse says they're going to know
that He did this. This is what He did for His people. Well, all things, after our Lord
rose from the grave, you remember, he preached to two of the disciples
on the road to Emmaus. You remember that? Oh, I would
love to have heard that message. I believe we will someday by
him. And no man spake like he did.
But he said to them, Ought not Christ to have suffered? and
enter into His glory. It says, beginning at Moses and
the Psalms and the Prophets, He expounded unto them the things
concerning Himself. Surely He preached from Psalm
22. But all things must be fulfilled
that are written of Him. Everything in Scripture. We read
that. Were you amazed when you read with me Psalm 22? Were you
amazed? Look at verse 27 of Matthew 27. Said the soldiers of the governor
took Jesus under the common hall, gathered the whole band. They
got this whole band of these professional Roman soldiers.
This is where we learned our soldiering, Brother Lee. We learned
it from the Romans. They were ruthless. They were
masters at the art of torture. They were ruthless, had no respect for human life or dignity
at all. They were masters at this. And
they gathered together these bulls, these bully fellas, strong
bulls of motion, Psalm 22 says. And we're going to reduce this
fella. That's what they were doing.
We're going to reduce him to it. And that's what they mostly
did to everybody they got a hold of. Reduced him to whimpering
little puppies. Not this man. You know, we could stop right
there and preach a while, couldn't we? Not this man. You ain't dealing
with any man. You ain't never seen a man yet. You think you're a man, you strong
bull of Bashan? So the Lord was even glorious
in his suffering. Until Pilate, who saw many suffer
at his hands, many strong men reduced to whimpering little
puppies, until Pilate could only say, Behold the man, until Pilate
was shivering watching this man. Man burns before a man, beaten
to a pulp, yet Pilate is trembling before him. Who is this? But these strong bulls of Bashan,
dogs of war, Psalm 22 says, dogs have compassed me. Dogs are bloodthirsty
creatures, aren't they? That's what dogs are, carnivorous
animals, bloodthirsty. They encompassed me. Dogs have
surrounded me. Dogs, they say, come from, I
don't believe this, but they say, come from wild dogs, you
know, which are carnivorous, bloodthirsty creatures. They
surround their enemy like the wolf. They surround the helpless,
the weak, the sick, and surround them, and they kill them. And
that's what these dogs did. Surrounded. And they gathered
to mock Him and torture Him. Bloody men. Verse 28. Look at
this. And they stripped Him. Stripped
Him naked. I mean, they stripped Him naked.
You know all these depictions of Jesus Christ hanging on the
cross? They take away from His glory. Not only are they graven
images, Not only is there not a description of Christ in the
scripture, so if you make one, it's a graven image. It's not
him. There's not a physical description of Jesus Christ in the scripture.
And God plainly says it over and over again, don't make one. He keeps saying that over and
over again. He calls it the abominable thing. The abominable thing in
Deuteronomy. That's an abominable thing. God is spirit. And he didn't
look anything like they depicted. He didn't have long hair. It's
a shame for a man to have long hair. He did not have long hair.
They say he was a Nazirite. No, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. He wasn't a blue-eyed
Caucasian. He was a brown-skinned Jew with
dark, curly hair. Not pleasant to look at. Not
beautiful. The one that most white Caucasians would have nothing
to do with. Right? Like that old brown-skinned
tent in the wilderness, right? That tabernacle in the wilderness? There isn't any beauty in that.
It's an old brown, badger-skinned tent. Our Lord was a brown-skinned
man. Well, they stripped him. And what did they put on him?
A red robe. Why? Deborah, you studied the tabernacle,
didn't you? What was the second covering
of the tabernacle? A red goat skin. Did anybody catch that? The second
covering. He's got to fulfill the Scriptures.
This is the tabernacle of God among man. They stripped that
robe. Well, let's put something on
him. Got a blue robe? No, we've got a red one over here. Put
it on him. The ram. That's what it is. Ram skin dyed
red. Who is this? John, this is Abraham
and Isaac's ram called the picket. Look at it. He's red. This is
a substitute. This one's going to die instead
of Isaac's. Ramskin. They put this red robe
on him. See, it wasn't by accident. It's
as if somebody was standing over the side. It's as if somebody
was standing over the side, now here's what we're to do next.
Amazing, isn't it? You did what God determined before
to be done, Peter preached that day. He has not helped us. You
are not taking His life. You are not in charge here. You
are not killing Him. God is. No man takes my life
from me, he said. I lay it down. I submit to it. I am doing this under God. When
thou makest His soul an offering for sin, These were pawns in
God's hand. They were doing what they wanted
to do. They were doing what their wicked hearts wanted to do, what
their free will decided to do. They were doing what God determined
before to be done. This is the God of the Bible.
This is the Christ of the Scripture. This is the gospel of our salvation. That right there is the Lamb.
Put a red robe on Him. And look at verse 29. And they
stripped him. I started to say these depictions
of Jesus Christ, they always show a little loincloth around
him, don't they? He was naked. He was naked. You couldn't put
that picture on display, but you could. He was naked. See,
that takes away from his glory, Dan, if you don't show him naked. But you know he thought nothing
of that. You and I would be horribly ashamed. What makes us ashamed
to be naked? Adam and Eve in the garden before they sinned,
they weren't ashamed. What brought shame? Sin. He didn't have sin. He looked on the human body as
just a creation under the pure And I've never thought about
this, Jerry, but under the pure, all things are pure. He was pure. He hung naked. Scripture says
who thought nothing of it, thought nothing of the shame. Hebrews
12. He despised the shame. But he hung naked. They thought
to his shame, but really to his glory. And it says they plaited a crown
of thorns and put it upon his head. They plaited a crown of
thorns and put it on his head as a mock crown. Why did this
happen? Well, who is this? And this is
what they mocked him as. This is the thing they mocked
him at from the beginning all the way through until finally
they put his accusation. Did you notice that when they
gave his accusation? They said, here's a thief. He's
a murderer. He's a rapist. They put his accusation
on there. And over here is another thief.
They put his accusation, his crimes he's guilty of. He's a
robber. He's a thief. He's a murderer.
He's a scoundrel. What about this man? He's the
king! We can't find any fault in it. What are you accusing
us? He's king. And that's on his head. It's
been above his head from that day forward. I can't preach this
but to shout it. King accusation. Fact. That's great evidence to say
so. But that's what they mocked him. So a king has to have a
crown, doesn't he? And these cruel fellows thought, what do
we use? Let's use something. Let's find
something, an emblem of a crown. There's a briar bush, a thorny
bush. Get you some gloves on and go
over there and make us a crown. A king has to have a crown. So
they took this crown. And people, I'm not trying to
make this graphic, not at all. So that tends to make people
feel sorry for him. I'm not doing that. Like that
blasphemous, idolatrous movie, The Passion. I'm not doing that
at all. I'm just telling you the fact
here. And you're going to see the glory in this. You're going
to see the glory. I've never seen this, why they
got thorns. But they got a thorny crown.
They made this crown and they didn't just place it on his head,
did they? And then, why did I do that? Why? Listen and wonder. In the garden, man was a little
king. Yeah, well, God created man a
little lower than the angel. But he had dominion over the
earth, didn't he? God brought the animals whom
he reigned over. Reigned, his little king, told
him to name them. He had dominion over the fowls
of the air. Psalm 8 tells us that. Made a little lower than
the angel, but he was a little king. Okay, when he sinned, what
happened? What's the first thing that God
says sprang up? Thorns. He said, because of your
sin? Thorns. The earth is cursed. First thing he said was, curse
it as a ground for your sake. Curse it as the ground. Little
king, I'm the king. And you've tried to usurp me.
You're not the king. I'm the king. And now, curse
it as the ground and thorns is the first thing you're going
to do. I believe Adam walked out of the garden and... a thorn,
a thistle or something. So here comes the second Adam.
Here comes the second Adam, the Lord of glory. He's not earthly,
but he's the Lord of glory. Here he comes. He is king. But
he's got to be made a curse for his people. He's got to be made
a curse. What crown can he wear to show
us he's been made a curse? And what's the sting? You know,
the sting, the prick of death, the sting, what pierces us through
with sorrow and death and all that. Imagine he removed it. He removed it. He himself took
it. Oh, don't you marvel at the Lord's
amazing... Oh, my thorns, He made a curse,
so His crown of glory, emblem of our sin, He wore it. Crown of thorns. He bore the
consequences of our sin. Thorns were the consequences
of our sin. He wore it as a crown. As a crown. I'm burying it. Away. Then it took a read. What do
we do next? Let's get a reed. A king needs
a scepter. Every king has a scepter which
he reigns with. You've seen kings of old, you
know, they've dubbed thee this, I've dubbed thee that, I say
this, so let it be written, so let it be done. You know, you
see old Ewell Brenner with his scepter, Pharaoh, you know, the
scepter. Well, so they got him a little
scepter. Verse 29, a reed in his right hand. A reed in his
right hand. And they put it in his right
hand. A scepter for a king. And they says they smote him
with it, verse 30. They took that reed, spit on
his face. Took that reed and smote him on the head. On the cheeks where they smote
him. Because Micah 5.1 says, they shall smite the judge of
the earth with a rod on the cheek. And he who in Revelation says
will take a reed, and measure the city, the length and the
breadth thereof. Oh, he does have a scepter. He
does reign. And the scepter, Scripture says,
of righteousness is the scepter of his kingdom, which he dubs
people, whoever he will. Doesn't it? I dub thee. I say
you're justified. Oh yeah, that's what a king does.
He gets his scepter. And whatever he pleases, he does
it with a scepter. And in comes this Pharisee and
this publican. Oh, this publican, you know,
he did all in this Pharisee. He looks like he ought to deserve
it. And the king says, righteous. Here comes a woman caught in
the act of adultery, cast at his feet, guilty as charged. All these other innocent people
charging her with all these crimes and all these sins. What does
the king judge say? The judge of the earth. The judge
says, Guiltless. Justified. Wait a minute, you
can't do that. I just did. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? Christ
died. And he puts that on whom he will,
doesn't he? Blood is applied to whom he will, just as his
righteousness. Huh? We're talking about a king
here. This is what we're building up
this case. We're talking about a king here. He's reigning right
now in all of this. They're mocking him. And the
whole world right now is watching all this. They love to put on
these pageants and plagues, and they come so you feel sorry for
Jesus. You remember they did that when he was carrying his
cross. You remember that? They started crying for him.
The women, the devout women started crying and said, weep not for
me. Didn't they? Huh? Oh, weep for
me. Weep for yourselves and your
children. Oh, this is not helpless. Some
helpless fellow, a martyr. Isn't he getting great glory
even now? Great glory. He's fulfilling
scripture. Fulfilling scripture after scripture.
It must be fulfilled. Is this the Christ we're waiting
on? Yes. How do you know? He's fulfilling it all. Every
type, jot, tittle, symbol of the Old Testament is being fulfilled
right before our eyes. They put a ring in his hand.
And it said, Hey, O King of the Jews. And they spit on him. And
look at that. And after that, they mocked him. They took the
robe off him and put his own raiment on him. Oh, what a picture
that is, huh? Christ, when he came to this
earth, veiled himself in human flesh, didn't he? That wasn't
his first form. That wasn't his first form. That
wasn't the first garment he wore. He had a glorified body. He left
that. He took that off. Well, no, he
didn't take it off. He didn't take it off. He covered it in
human flesh, the likeness of sinful flesh, but he didn't have
sin. He came down here, and one day he took three of them up
on the mountain and just opened his robe. They knew who He was. And from
that day forward, they were telling me who He was, who He is, who
He really is. Not like you think He is. This
is not Jesus who you think it is. This is God. You saw Him
with handling. John said, What? Well, when He came, He put on
this robe. But when His work was finished,
He put back on His original garment. That's what He's in now. That's
what he's in now, that's what he's wearing now, just like they
did here. Oh, my. But anyway, they, verse
32, they found a man, and oh, I hope you'll come out Wednesday
night that I saw something in this. We're going to see something
together that's just going to just, you might jump a few. This man here, this bystander,
this fellow is walking along, minding his own business. He's
come from out of town. He's a thousand miles away, dammit.
He's a thousand miles from home. He's walking by, and all of a
sudden, somebody grabs him. I'm not going to tell you the
rest. But they put this cross on him. And that's another story. In verse 33, they came to a place
called Golgotha. That is to say, a place of the
skull. Calvary's tree. And verse 34, they gave him vinegar
to drink, mingle with God. Because that's what the Scripture
says. Psalm 69 said it would. In my
thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Gave him vinegar to drink. What about vinegar? Vinegar is
rather bitter, isn't it? Bitter has a sting to it. Scripture talks about man being
in a gall of bitterness. You know, man is right now, he's
drinking the gall and the bitterness of his own sin. People are drinking
that in. This world is drinking its own death. And man is and shall be forced
to drink the gall and bitterness of his own sin, yet Christ, to
substitute for his people, tasted it. He tasted it. He drank the cup
of God's wrath completely, emptied it. But this gall, this bitterness,
he tasted it. And that's all we're going to
have to do. See, he's our substitute. Raleigh's our substitute. He
tasted it, he would not drink it. And we taste it, don't we? As he is so are we. We taste
it. We taste the bitterness. We better hope God makes everything
with bitter herbs and a little sting to it. But we don't have
to drink it. We don't have to drink it. Bitter
is the, what's the song? Bitter is the bud, but sweet
will be the flower. And they parted his garments, verse 35,
they crucified him. They parted his garments, casting
lots that it might be fulfilled. We read that, didn't we? Psalm
22, 18. They parted my garments among
them, and upon my besture did they cast lots. The lots were cast. Here these
soldiers were sitting and they decided one of us needs to get
this robe. Well, let's rip it. Let's tear
it in pieces and each one of us can have it. No, don't do
that. No, no, no, let's don't do that.
Let's not rend the garment. Let's leave it complete. So this
garment he wore was without seeing. That's an emblem of Christ perfect.
Whatever is a seam in your clothing is liable to be ripped, to tear,
to rend, to leave you naked. There was no seam in his garment.
He wore a seamless robe. Is that significant? There's no seam in his character.
He's without sin. There's nothing in him. Satan
came, nothing in it to rend and tear him. Attempted. Nothing. Parted. Well,
they parted his garments. They cast lots. These soldiers
decided, we'll cast lots. We'll draw straws and see who
gets this seamless garment. Let's see who gets to wear. Are
you with me? Come on, now. Come on, now. We're
going to draw lots here and see who gets to wear this beautiful,
this lovely, this complete garment and cover themselves with this
garment. Let's draw straws here. The lot is cast in the lap. Okay,
who got it? I do. It's yours. Put it on him. I've never seen this verse before.
Over in Isaiah 34, it says, The Spirit of the Lord has cast the
lot for them. We get to wear His righteousness.
That robe, who's going to get it? The Lord. Cast the lock. Sherry Anderson gets to wear
it. She doesn't deserve it. Those
men don't know who doesn't deserve that robe, do they? Who gets
it? The whole disposing thereof is
of the Lord. Well, I've got to conclude. Verse 36, they sat down and they
watched him. They watched him, the sport,
out of curiosity. They didn't really know who he
is or why he was there. They didn't know. But to all of God's people, those of you who know whom he's
chosen to reveal himself to, to know and believe me and understand
that I am he, you know, don't you? John said, God has given
us an understanding that we might know Him that is true, huh? You
know who He is, don't you? You know why He's hanging there,
don't you? He said in Isaiah 45, see, these people are just
looking at Him, watching Him. But He said, Surely shall one
say of Me, this One who looks unto Me, I am God. That is not Him. Look unto Me
and be ye saved. We see Him as our scapegoat,
don't we? Our substitute, our sin offering. The Lord, our King,
like that old thief on the cross. He was crucified between two
thieves, wasn't he? Why? He was numbered with a transgression. Made his grave with a wicked.
Scripture said that. But you know, that thief, one
of those thieves saw his glory, didn't he? One of those thieves, one was
watching him. The other one was looking to
him. You see the difference? That's the difference. That's
the difference. One was watching him. Save us. Get us down from here. The other
one was looking to him. Save me. You're coming into your
kingdom. He looked beyond the veil, right
into the Holy of Holies. Your Lord. You're not hanging
there because they hung you there. And if you'll save me, I won't
perish. Well, it says here in our text, it says, and those
two thieves, one on the right hand. Which thief did the Lord
say? Which hand? Right hand. Why? Because he said in Matthew 25,
in that last day, all the sheep shall be gathered on his right
hand. Come ye, blessed of my Father, into the kingdom. There
ain't one coincidence in scripture all o'er death. Right hand. Right hand. Two thieves. Two
thieves. Well, in verse 37, they said
this is the king of the Jews. This is Jesus, the King of the
Jews. And I close by reading this.
He is indeed King, that they were mocking when they said that.
They were mocking Him. They put that over His head in
derision. They put over His head what they wanted to put over,
didn't they? Remember Pilate? The people said, don't put that,
but He said He is. Remember that? They said, don't
put that there, but He said He is. Somebody divinely constrained
him, didn't they? Somebody said, you will write
what I tell you to write. And Pilate said, what is written
is written. What? Victim. They did it in
mockery, scoffing, mocking. Say he said he was king. He's
not king lest we say he's king. He's not king lest we let him
be our king. No! You know what no means, don't
you? He is king. Nobody makes him king. Never
has, never will. He is king. And I'm sorry, if
somebody's not going to get excited, I am. Okay? How could this bother someone
who really loved his glory? Can we shout this from the roof?
He is king. It's blasphemy to say you make
him so. It's blasphemy. This other Jesus is another God.
He's an abomination to God. This Jesus, he's King. And it
says, and I quote, Look unto me and be ye saved. I am God,
there is none else. I have sworn by myself the word
has gone out of my mouth in righteousness. and shall not return unto me,
every knee shall bow." They were doing it in mockery.
They were doing it in derision, Samuel, but they were bowing. And every tongue confessed, what? King. And he that sitteth in the heavens
laughs. until all someday will be gathered
and standing before Him, the King. See, salvation is right
now to know, to see who He is. And have God, and we're going
to look at this Wednesday, have God apprehend you, put you under
a great burden, and bow that knee. I mean, we won't bow it
unless God causes us to bow. And it confesses he's Lord to
the glory of God the Father. Christ and him crucified. His
glory. Okay, let's sing in closing that
great hymn number, what number? I wrote it down. 27. 127. 127. Hallelujah. That
means praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. What a Savior. Thank you.