Alright, well join me in Luke
chapter 23 for our Bible study today. Luke 23. And we've been kind
of going step by step as Jesus has been sentenced to be executed,
found faultless by Pilate, sentenced to be executed, marched up the
hill to Golgotha, to Calvary, to be crucified between the two male factors. those that were weeping for them.
He had some final words for them. And our last lesson was, Father,
forgive them in Luke 23-34. And so we'll take up in verse
35 then and read through the portion that we're going to deal
with today. And the people stood beholding,
and the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved
others, let him save himself, if he be the Christ, the chosen
of God. And the soldiers also mocked
him, coming to him and offering him vinegar, and saying, If thou
be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription
also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and
Hebrew, This is the King of the Jews. In my Bible, it's all in
cap letters, so it's a dramatic statement there. And that's our section we're going
to focus on today. And it's interesting, in the
other Gospels, they tried to talk Pilate into saying, don't
write that. Here's what we think you should
write. Write that he said he was the
king of the Jews, not that he is the king of the Jews. And
Pilate said, what I have written, I have written, and I call your
attention back to the Wednesday night message from our pastor
and Esther that what the king wrote could not be reversed.
and focus on that. So anyway, today the lesson is
the accusation. It's called in some places, the
other Gospels it's called, and the accusation was written over
him and the crime for which he was accused. And that was a custom
there when they crucified some criminal or ne'er-do-well, they
would put a sign over him And the reason why, they wouldn't
just crucify somebody just for, and just stick him up there and
they would put a sign over him saying this guy was a robber,
this guy was a murderer, this guy was a usurper, this guy was
an insurrectionist, those kind of things so that, and then people
would be warned Don't do that. If you do that, then this. So
it was the thing that they did. I'm sure those other two thieves
had a sign on their cross that said the crime that they'd been
convicted of and were being executed for. And as Norm, I think Norm pointed
this out in the Wednesday lesson, because he references scripture
in John chapter 19, verse 19. If you would turn there in your
Bibles, please. John 19, 19. And Pilate wrote
a title. and put it on the cross. And
the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And in
my Bible, it's also in cap letters. And in John 19, 20, this title
then read, Many of the Jews, for the place where Jesus was
crucified was nigh to the city, and it was written in Hebrew
and Greek and Latin. And as Norm said, the writing
was not permitted to be changed or reversed, because it goes
on to tell us here in John 19, 21. Then said the chief priests
of the Jews to Pilate, write not the king of the Jews, but
that he said, I'm king of the Jews. And Pilate answered, what
I have written, I have written. He was, God was not going to
allow him to God put it in his mind what he should write, and
directed his hand to write exactly what he wrote, and it could not
be reversed. And so those crimes of the other
two who were crucified would have customarily been written
down and attached to their crosses as a warning to others, you know.
And who knows what, if they had a family member who says, well,
don't write that he was a murderer. say, shoplifter or some minor,
some other lesser crime or something. But, you know, for Jesus, there
really wasn't a physical crime attributed to him. Only the truth of who he was. And spiritually though, and we
have to look at this from a spiritual angle, why he was being crucified
was he shall save his people from their sins. And as we look
at this spiritually through the imputation of grace, the great
exchange, The sins of his people, their crimes against God, were
imputed or charged to him. And spiritually, all the crimes
of all his people of all time were written in that superscription
for which he was paying the ultimate price. His death in their place paid
the penalty that they earned and he became the justifier.
That means he was the one who rendered them innocent. He was
the just and the justifier made them innocent. And so that's
kind of the subject of our lesson today on the accusation and the
spiritual implications of that. So if you turn with me in your
Bibles to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians 2 and beginning
in verse 13. This is just a wonderful Scripture.
And it just so far passes what we can think about it. So, I
encourage you to spend some time in this passage here. In Colossians
2.13, "...and you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision
of your flesh hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven
you all trespasses." So, the first sentence there, dead in
sins and uncircumcision. You know, when Moses circumcised
the people, it was a sign, it was like throwing away the flesh,
a symbol of getting rid of fleshly works. Having forgiven you all trespasses,
in verse 14 here, blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross." So isn't that
just what we just got through reading about in Luke and in
John? The accusation, the superscription
was nailed to the cross and He paid for it. are unto God a sweet savor of
Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. I think
in the NIV it says it's an aroma, you wear an aroma to God of Christ. To the one we're the savor or
the aroma of death unto death and to the other the saver of
life unto life. And who is sufficient for these
things? Well, that's an interesting verse all in itself because religion
thinks that they are sufficient for those things because they're
always trying to get you to do stuff to accomplish the reversal
of that condition. You know the term saver, we are
a sweet saver of Christ unto them that are saved, and to the
one we're the saver of death. It's actually, it's kind of two
forms of the same word there. And in the Greek, this word saver
means, it's the Greek word osme, probably where we get osmosis
from or some modern term, but osme, a fragrance. And it's from the base word ozo,
which means to scent. And normally it's used as an
ill odor. But here it's coupled in one
case, it's coupled with this term sweet. So it says it's an
odor, but it's a sweet odor. but to the one that's a saver
of death. It's an odor that's an ill odor. You know, this term, this base
term, ozo, we find that in John 11, verse 39, where remember
Christ is going to come to Bethany where his pal Lazarus was, but
he stayed for four days. He stayed away. And they said,
you know, Lazarus is pretty sick. You should go there. And he didn't. And finally, he said, okay, we're
going. And they got to Bethany and Lazarus
has died. And he'd been dead for four days. And in verse 39 of John 11, Jesus is about to enter that
tomb. He said, roll back that stone. Take ye away the stone. And Martha, the sister of Lazarus,
said, don't do that. He said, Lord, by this time he
stinks. For he's been dead four days.
What a picture of our condition. Isn't that just what we read?
Dead in your sins, the uncircumcision of your flesh, at the quicken, having forgiven you all trespasses.
That's a metaphor. This thing that happened to Lazarus
certainly happened in a physical sense, but it was a metaphor
for something much deeper. Our condition in death It's a stench. It's a stink. But when Christ entered that
tomb and commanded Him to rise up, that stink was gone. And so, I call your attention
back to verse 14. where it says, let's read verse
13 to you. blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." And that word,
blotting out, that is the most wonderful thing that we could
imagine. That term, blotting out, is very
interesting. in that it's much more than what
we have come to understand about blotting out in modern terms.
You know, you all see those brawny paper towel commercials where
they have the computer sitting there on the table and the clumsy
husband knocks over the glass of something purple or whatever
and it's headed for that, it's gonna ruin whatever it hits and
then they take the paper towel and blot it up real quick before
it has a chance to get there. That's kind of how we think about
blotting out in modern terms. And Webster's Dictionary defines
it as to make obscure, insignificant, or inconsequential. And all of
those are true, but they don't really come close to describing
the act of grace. The Oxford Dictionary. Sometimes
things come out of Oxford that are not good. But in the Oxford
Dictionary, it says to deliberately try to forget an unpleasant memory
or thought. And, you know, that may, the sense of that may make a
person feel relieved for a time, but from a spiritual and legal
sense, it does nothing to mitigate the actual guilt or the actual
problem. You just forget about it. I like
to forget about stuff I did wrong. I don't remember doing that.
It doesn't mean I didn't do it,
but I don't remember it. But in the Greek, and you know,
it's always important that when, you know, a couple thousand years
later we're reading these things and the language has changed
significantly over time, but it's always important that we
understand the writers of the time and what they how they viewed
things and what their understanding was. And that's why the Greek
was, the Lord chose the Greek because it's just so succinct. It's just exact. It's just not
ambiguous at all. It's everything is is cut and
dried with the Greek, and it's very definitive in its terminology. And so the understanding of the
Greeks that were writing the New Testament at this time, in
this case Luke, Dr. Luke, his understanding of blotting
out was infinitely more comprehensive and infinitely more consequential
than what we think about today. It's a compound word, ek, which denotes a point of
origin, the point from which an action or motion proceeds. And we see that connected to
a lot of words that have to do with salvation. And it always
points us to Christ as the point where things start and commence,
like he's the author and finisher of our faith. All those things
are connected to this ek. And then the second part of that
word is alepho, which is a compound of the first letter of the Greek
alphabet, alpha. That's where we alpha bet. So it's an abbreviated form of
alpha signifying a particle of union coupled with this word
laporos. And I point all that out to you
because that means to oil or anoint with perfume. So to those who wrote the New
Testament by the Spirit of God, the blotting out was much more
significant than a mere smearing around until it was not so detectable. And it was much more than a mere
trying not to remember. The detestable thing was gone.
And more than that, in its place, was a most pleasant aroma, a
most pleasant scent, a most pleasant smell. The child of God through
Christ was now pleasing to God and not one molecule of sin was
present and in fact had been obliterated
and all in its place was a sweet savor of Christ, a sweet aroma
of Christ to God. It says there in our text back
in 2 Corinthians 2.15, for we, those that are saved, are unto God a sweet savor."
A sweet aroma of Christ. Isn't that wonderful? All your sin is obliterated and
all he sees is his Son. All he smells is a sweet aroma
of his Son. I like that for me. So this detestable thing is gone,
replaced by a pleasing smell to God through Christ, who was
pleasing to God because, I think in your, there's a couple of
articles there that are really good in your bulletin. One is
called, The Ground of a Sinner's Justification, in that not only
did he die, but he was obedient. Those things that were pleasing
unto God. And then on the back page here,
it's called externalism. Externalism is an important concept
to understand. Now, when people died back in
those days, And largely, that's been eliminated
in our time. Because when someone dies, we
dial this number, and someone comes and takes care of the problem.
And by the time we are intersected with it again, it's entirely
different. But in the old days, If someone
died, you had to deal with it. And what they did was, like Lazarus,
they put him in a tomb, but generally they would put a bunch of things
in there with him for the time that they were in there getting
him prepped, you know, wrapped in the linens and the things
that they, remember Lazarus, he was all wound up in grave
clothes and things. And they would put a bunch of
flowers that smelled good in there with him. They would put
some little pots of perfume around him. But what those things did
was, that was the externalism part of it. They would just mask
the problem. And that's what a lot of religion
does. Now, it just tries to mask the problem with some cover-up
stuff. But it doesn't get rid of the offending problem. It just kind of covers it up.
And it never lasts very long. Pretty soon, you've got to put
some more pots of perfume out. Pretty soon, you've got to put
some more flowers in there. And they only last a couple days,
and then the stink comes back. So it's a never-ending process. that has to be repeated over
and over and over again. And it never works. And so when Christ
takes care of a problem, it's not just covered up. It's not
disguised, but it's totally eliminated. It's gone. And where it once
was, there's now the sweet savor of His Son. You know, the psalmist
wrote in 103.12 that our sins have been removed as far as the
east is from the west. Well, how far is that? You know, I was reading some
things this week and I've kind of been interested in it for
a long time, but I'm too dumb to understand much of it, but
physics. And I was reading an article
on physics and it says, well, in physics you can have a point.
And when a point is extended one way, then you have a line.
And then when it's extended the other way, you have a line. But
it's infinite. They just keep going. And if
you add another line to them, then it becomes a plane and all
those things from geometry that I didn't pay no attention to
50 some years ago. But as far as the east is from
the west is an infinite distance. Those two things are never going
to meet. No matter where you are, the
East is that way, and the West is that way, and they're never
going to intersect. And that's kind of a metaphor
for the Lord putting away our sins. He says, put it away an
infinite distance. In Isaiah chapter 44, verse 22,
we come across this blotting term again. I blotted out as a thick cloud
thy transgressions. Isaiah 44, 22. And as a cloud
thy sins return unto me for I have redeemed thee. It's not, return
unto me so I can redeem you. You are returning to him because
he has redeemed thee. Return unto me, for I have redeemed
thee. Sing, ye, O heavens, for the
Lord hath done it. Shout, ye lower parts of the
earth, and break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every
tree therein, for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and glorified
himself in Israel. You know, that thick cloud, that's
a metaphor that's used quite a while, maybe not entirely a
metaphor. Spiritually a metaphor that we
find often in scripture beginning in the wilderness in Exodus, the Lord was a cloud
by day and a fire by night. And we find the Lord, Norm mentioned,
oh, the Lord got caught up into a cloud when He was resurrected
there. And then in Revelation, for Revelation
1-7, behold, He cometh with clouds in like manner. When the angels
were talking to Him, they said, He's going to come back in like
manner as you have seen Him go. He left in a cloud, coming back
in a cloud. And He's blotted out as a thick
cloud, your sins. So those are connected things. And He says, And they which pierced
Him in all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even
so, Amen. You know, the Old Testament understanding
of this action by God and blotting out It's comparable and is the
root of that New Testament word that we looked at. That's where
that originated from, that it came from. And in the Hebrew,
it meant to rub or stroke, by implication to erase, but also
to smooth with that oil, that perfume that we looked at, with
the result being that the offending thing is utterly wiped away,
obliterated, and it's all been made well. In Genesis, it carries
the understanding of God entirely destroying something. In Exodus,
it describes the activity of God in utterly putting out even
the memory of Amalek from under heaven. They find that in Exodus
17, 14. He's just Gone, nobody will even remember
him. In Exodus 32, there's a good example here where Moses was
pleading because his people were up to their eyebrows in sin and
idolatry. And Moses was pleading with God
about it, and he just felt bad. Some days we wake up in the morning
and we just say, you read the news or whatever, and you just
say, sorry, God. People are nasty. I'm sorry,
God. Well, Moses pleaded with God
in Exodus 32, 32. pleaded with him that he would
forgive the idolatry of the people, and if not, that God would blot
out his name. He says, Blot me, I pray thee,
out of thy book which thou hast written. So he acknowledges a
couple things there. There's a book. It's got names
in it, and God wrote it. And he understood that his name
was in it, just like Jesus said, rejoice not that the devils are
subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
Well, that's Moses here. He says, I know my name is in
that book. He said, man, if you can't find
it in you to forgive these people, blot my name out. And you know,
Paul said the same thing in the New Testament. He says, I would
that I were accursed if if it would mean that my people could
be brought to a saving knowledge of Christ, I'd trade me for that. Of course, that's just our human
nature, lamenting the condition of our families and stuff that
we can't really do anything about, but we save those kind of things. I'd trade me for them if I could,
but we can't do that. If thou will forgive their sins,
and if not blot me, I pray thee out of thy book which thou has
written. You know, in our New Testament rendering, which we
noted therein, Colossians, our sins are not
just removed, but in their place now is something so wonderful,
so pleasing unto God that we just can't fathom it. Much more comprehensive, much
more consequential, much more eternal or infinite than we can
think of. So we see this blotting out of
sins that's talked about in Colossians. He's blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances against us which were all the crimes that we committed
against God. You know, many people say, well,
you know, I didn't really commit any of those crimes. I didn't
murder anybody. I was pretty respectful to my
mom and my dad. Probably not lying right now.
You know what Jesus said? Well, that
guy says, well, I've kept all these commandments from my youth
up. What lack I? So he says something to him that
was unpalatable, offensive. And another time he said, what's
the greatest commandment, Lord? And he says, thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all
thy mind. This is the greatest commandment and in it are contained
all of the commandments. If you can do this one commandment,
you're covered on all the rest. But on the same token, You know,
if we fail in one point, we're guilty of them all. And so there's
no chance for us to do that outside of Christ. We have to depend
on Him to have satisfied that requirement. Every second, every day, thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul."
Okay, anybody that has done that, and you can't just say, well,
I'll start doing that tomorrow. What about yesterday? You know, we just don't measure
up there. And as much as we love Jesus, as much as we love the
Lord, doesn't take too much to distract
us in our human nature. So we just depend on Him to take
care of that. So the blotting out of sins and
transgressions takes care of those things. Paid for, eliminated. He said the handwriting of ordinances
which was against us. The enmity that we were with
God while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. And they
were nailed to the cross. Ephesians says the same thing
in chapter 2, verse 14. For He is our peace, and that's
peace between us and God, not world peace as like some people
are demanding right now. Not peace here, not peace there,
but a peace between God's people and Him because of what Christ
has done. He is our peace who has made
both one. And broken down the middle wall,
a partition between us. Remember that had to do with
the Gentiles could only go so far in the temple. And then there
was a wall there that had the signs on it. Gentiles can go
no farther. And then they could go into the
court of the women and the court of the elders and on up into
the holier places. He abolished in his flesh the
enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make himself between one new man, so making peace, and that
he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby. So He took care of all those
ordinances. On that cross behind Him was
a list of all the sins of all His people of all time paid for. You know, that's when He said,
it is finished. That's a legal accounting term
in that language that meant this account has been settled. It's
finished. The debt has been paid. The creditor
has been satisfied. David said, blot out my transgressions. He knew he needed blotting. Wash me thoroughly from mine
iniquity. Because I acknowledge my transgression
and my sins ever before me. You know, that's something only
a believer says. The unbeliever says, I'm not guilty of much.
And if I am guilty of something, we'll have a talk about that.
When I meet the Lord, I'll just tell Him, you know, that's as
good as I could do. You're just going to have to
be satisfied with it. And His answer is, I'm not satisfied
with that. I even I am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember thy sins. I'll be merciful to their iniquities
and their unrighteousness, their iniquities I'll remember
no more." That's Hebrews just quoting what we just read in
the Old Testament. That's quoted in Hebrews 8 and
10, 17. When God takes care of our iniquities
and obliterates them and replaces them with the sweet smell of
His Son. You remember in John chapter
12, Mary, Took a pound of ointment of spikenard,
very expensive, very costly. And anointed the feet of Jesus
and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with
the odor of his anointment. That sweet smell. And when Jesus exercises mercy,
when He calls one of His own to Him, and the Spirit breathes
into them the breath of light, they have that same sweet smell.
They have that sweet savor of Christ unto God. For we are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ in them that are saved. And you know, to the people that
are not saved, or just that odor. I don't like
that. I don't like nothing to do with it. Well, we're out of time. That's
the end of our lesson for today. Be free because your sins have
been blotted out.