to you through verse 15 of John
chapter 19. As Brother Joe mentioned, we
have several people who are sick, and it's good to see Ben back there.
Any late word on your dad, Ben? The last word I got was that,
of course, he's been diagnosed with a mass. on his brain, and he has been
sent to Ohio State University Hospital. Have they decided when
they're going to operate, or? Okay, that has not been decided,
but as I understand, three days of radiation, and then surgery,
and then post-op, and the doctors feel very good about the outcome
of this. And we do pray for him. He hasn't been feeling well and
certainly been having some severe headaches. And so yesterday,
he was taken to the hospital. And they immediately, the doctor
here, after reading some results of tests, made arrangements for
him to go to OSU. And so we hope and pray that
God will grant unto him healing. And none of us know what the
Lord's purpose is for us. We ask, first of all, that through
this God will be glorified and that the Lord would grant grace
to Scott and Tommy and Ben. Susan and the rest of the family
members that as they go through this, what 1 Peter 1 calls fiery
trials. And they ultimately come from
God. And he has to make them to work
together for our good and he indeed does that for his people
and we rejoice in that. And then James's sister, Cora,
is down here at King's Daughters. She is one of the mothers of
our congregation. Was she 95? Is that correct? Okay, I know she reminds you
she's your elder, but she was put in the hospital this
morning, I think she's doing a little bit better, and so we
hope that she continues to improve. And then, of course, continue
to remember Brother Clarence, and also Pat. Carolee is scheduled for hip
replacement on Saturday, and we ask the Lord that all will
go well there. And also Lita's husband, Alan. Has he had his surgery yet? That's
what I was thinking. It's in the morning, I think.
And that's in Lexington, if I'm not mistaken. Very serious eye
surgery. And we asked the Lord to undergird
for him and indeed to give him an interest in the gospel as
well. And then, of course, remember
Sarah, and Brother Tim, and others of the people of God who are
suffering, and God in His mysterious providence, He sends these afflictions
to the righteous and the wicked. Remember, imagine prayer, that
things will go good with her, She is in need of a valve, a
new heart valve. And she also is one of our, the
elderly mothers of the church. I think she's 96. Be 96 this
year. And so we hope that if it be the
Lord's will that she can endure this and it's a risky surgery as I understand. But these things are in the hands
of God, and we're so thankful that they are. With all of us
who are the Lord's people, we know who knows best, and we know
who has infinite wisdom, and he has ordained the end from
the beginning, and all of the things in between. He works things
out according to his good and wise purpose and for the good
of his dear people, his children. And of course, remember our upcoming
Bible conference, the 8th through the 10th of November. And we'll look forward to hearing
our three different preachers as they come. to minister the
gospel to us. Now, let's look into the word
of God. Let me read to you from the gospel
of John, chapter 19. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus
and scourged him. And the soldiers, they plaited
a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, and they put on
him a purple robe and said, Hail, King of the Jews. And then they
smote him with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again
and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you that
ye may know that I find no fault in him. I'm sure Pilate at that
point He thought that if they see how badly beaten Jesus was
and he had been scourged and beaten in his face, sure his
face was swollen. He was bloodied. He was gory. It was a gruesome sight. This man, Pilate, felt that the
Jews would look on him and pity him and then say, well, release
him. He's had enough. But that wasn't the case. We
continue reading in verse five. And then Jesus came forth wearing
the crown of thorns and the purple robe and Pilate saith unto them,
behold the man. Here he is. And when the chief priests, therefore,
and officers, when they saw him, they cried out, saying, crucify
him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, take
ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered
him, we have a law. By our law, he ought to die. because he made himself the Son
of God." And then that statement seemed to trouble Pilate when
they said he made himself the Son of God. When he heard that,
he was the more afraid. After all, his wife had already
warned him it had nothing to do with this righteous man, this
just man. And now he's the more afraid,
and he went again into the judgment hall, and he saith unto Jesus,
Whence art thou? Where did you come from? But Jesus gave him no answer. He didn't deserve an answer.
He had not listened to the Savior up to this point. He had paid
no attention to what the Master had to say. Our Lord Jesus had
instructed his disciples, don't cast your pearls before swine.
Those who won't listen, those who refuse to acknowledge your
message, who won't pay any attention to the truth that you speak,
he said, just stop setting those pearls, those valuable truths
before them. And that was the case with this
man, Padler. He didn't listen to the Lord
Jesus. Even when he had asked earlier in chapter 18, Pilate
said, what is truth? He didn't even stick around for
an answer. So the Lord's just, he's not gonna answer him now,
not to this question. Where'd you come from? Jesus
gave him no answer. Verse 10, then Pilate saith unto
him, speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have
power to crucify thee? I have power to release thee,
and the word power there is I have the authority. In other words,
he's saying your life is in my hands. Don't you understand that?
Your life is in the balance here, and it's up to me as to what
will be done with you. In verse 11, Jesus answers. Thou
couldest have no power, no authority at all against me, except it
were given thee from above. God gave him this authority. God put him in office and God
gave him this power to execute our Lord Jesus, to have him executed. Because all power comes from
God. After all, the death of the Lord
Jesus was ordained from old eternity. He had to die in order to save
his people from their sin. But watch this next statement. Therefore he that delivered me
unto thee hath the greater sin. The word delivered in other places
is translated betrayed, betrayed. And here's what I see, and I'm
not going to get into this in the message, so I wanted to give
it to you as I read this scripture. Here's what I see in verse 11.
I see the absolute sovereignty and authority of God. And I see
the reality of the responsibility of men. Our Lord Jesus was ordained to
die. He had to die. If we're gonna
be saved, if we're going to have life, he must lay down his life
in our stead. Because the wages of sin is death.
And you know that verse in Romans chapter six in verse 23, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
After all, the scripture says in Revelation 13 verse nine,
he's the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world.
ordered by God. And at the same time, while we
understand this is all the unfolding of the purpose of God, never
forget, whatever the purpose of God is, we have a responsibility
to God. I cannot peer into His secrets,
into the secret mysteries of His will. I cannot do that and
you cannot do that. We just go by the scriptures
and we go as God leads us, and we're responsible to always do
the right thing. Judas did the wrong thing. In
fact, the Savior said of Judas, it'd been better if he had never
been born. That's what he said concerning
him. And our Lord had ordained all of this. The mystery of God's absolute
sovereignty and our responsibility to God. Don't you worry about
the purpose of God. It will be fulfilled. It will
come to pass. Here's what you better concern
yourself with is your responsibility to God because you answer to
Him. You answer to Him for all that
you are and for all that you do. Well, verse number 12, from thenceforth
Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, if thou
let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Whosoever maketh
himself a king speaketh against Caesar. Now verse 13, when Pilate
therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, And he
sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the
pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation
of the Passover. And about the sixth hour, and
he saith unto the Jews, behold your king. And that just lit
them up. He didn't say that. He didn't
say that over in verse five. He said, behold the man. But
now he says, behold your king. And this just, oh, it just infuriated
them. Their anger is now at a fever
pitch. But they cried out, away with
him. Away with him, crucify him. And Pilate said unto them, shall
I crucify your king? And the chief priests answered,
we have no king but Caesar. This is religion gone mad. That's
what this is. False religion. This is what
we see in this passage. Well, let's see God's face. Then we'll get into the message
for this evening. Our Father, now we seek to gain
an understanding of this humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
absolutely astounded when we read of the things that our Lord
Jesus endured, of his sufferings, and yet these All of his sufferings
under death were prophesied in the Old Testament. For those
Old Testament writers wrote of the sufferings of Messiah and
the glory that should follow. Indeed, our Lord Jesus, he has
gone to the crown. But first of all, there was before
him the cross. There were all of the agonies
that you had appointed for him in order that He be the substitute
and the sacrifice and the savior of your people. And all that
he suffered, we know, were painful sufferings. He suffered the very
penalty of sin, the wages of our sin. They are indeed seen
in the death of our Lord Jesus. And as we consider our subject
for this evening, and how we beseech you, O God, that you
would send your Holy Spirit to enable both the preacher and
the hearers that we may gain a greater appreciation of all
that our Master suffered in our room and stood in place. Thank
you, O God, for such a Savior. Thank you for such a marvelous
salvation this redemption that was obtained
by the death of the Son of God. We have gathered tonight to worship,
to thank you, to bless you. We so appreciate the revelation
of the very truth of the gospel to our hearts. And now as we
dig into the subject for the hour, we ask that you would direct
our thoughts And may we come to a greater understanding of
how low our Savior stooped in order to save us from our sins. Bless these that we've mentioned. Oh, how we love them. But Lord,
you love your people far more than we do. And on top of that,
you know what's best for your children. And so we commit the
care to your loved ones, oh God unto you. Do with them and do
with us as you will, because we know that whatever you do
with us, it will work together for our good. And very soon,
our lives upon this wilderness earth will come to an end and
we shall see our Savior face to face. So keep us ever looking
unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. In his
name I pray and ask these things. Amen. This evening from John chapter
19, I want to see if I can bring you a message on what I would
call the humiliation of the Lord, the humiliation of the Lord. Here's the Son of God. This is
the one whose name is Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He stands before an
earthly governor. A governor who is going to pronounce
judgment upon him. He's pronouncing judgment upon
the only man that God's approved of. The only man that God has
ever said, this is my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased. This is the one whom angels worship. This is the one who spoke all
things into existence because we read that all things were
made by him and without him was not anything made. that was made. But these earthly rulers, and
specifically in the context of the passage, these religious
rulers, these vile religionists, they were all opposed to Jesus
of Nazareth. And indeed, his entire life upon
this earth was one of humiliation and lowliness. Let me just give you a few things
to kind of stir your mind up to the lowliness of our Lord.
How far he stooped in this great humiliation. Consider his conception. His conception. And I want you
to, with reference to this, I want you to go to an Old Testament
passage with me. Would you go to the book of 1
Kings, 1 Kings chapter 8, if you would. The book of 1 Kings
chapter 8. And I'll go ahead and set the
table for you as to what this is all about. Here is Solomon. at the dedication of the temple. You know, David, his father,
could not build the temple because he was a man of war. He had bloody hands and God enabled
him and led him to gather all the materials for the building
of the temple, but it wasn't for David to build the temple,
it was for Solomon. And in this, Solomon is a picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is building the spiritual temple
of God, made up of, as it says in 1 Peter 2, lively stones.
Stones that God has gone out into the quarry of mankind and
God has dug each of us out by His free and sovereign grace.
And He shapes us and He forms us and He puts us in the temple.
And this is the temple that Solomon was building. It was a picture
of that. He sets forth our Lord Jesus
in several ways. And here is Solomon. at the dedication
of the temple, and this is his prayer to the Lord in the presence
of all the people. And for sake of the time that
we have, drop down to verse 26, 26 of 1 Kings chapter eight. And now, O God of Israel, let
thy word, I pray thee, be verified which thou spakest unto thy servant
David my father. But will God indeed dwell on
the earth? What a powerful question. But
will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and
heavens of heavens cannot contain thee. Did you hear that? Behold,
the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much
less this house that I have builded. Will God indeed dwell on the
earth? Yes, He will. And though the
heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, He will be
contained in the womb of a virgin. What about that? The heaven of heavens can't contain. The Bible talks about three heavens. And in the vastness of the heavens
of God's creation, all of that together cannot contain, cannot
hold the presence of God. And yet God will be pleased to
dwell on this earth in the womb of a virgin. in the womb of a
virgin. Now here in this passage of scripture,
he talks about God cannot be contained in a temple, in a building. We know that temples built for
idols, they can contain those. Those buildings can contain idols,
but the Lord is so immense. The Lord is so infinite that
he cannot be confined to a building. and he cannot be comprehended
by man. He is omnipresent, but he was
confined to a virgin's womb. Ever since man's fall, Everybody
born into this world as a result of a union of a man and a woman
are born of corruptible seed. Corruptible seed. That's the
reason we're born dying. We're dying people. But our Lord
Jesus, he was born of incorruptible seed. He was born by the power
of the Holy Spirit who overshadowed a young virgin. He was conceived
in the womb of Mary. And in that, we see a tremendous
stoop from heaven's immense glory, endless creation. God who cannot
be bound by time or space. Think of that. God who cannot
be bound by time or space. He leaves heaven's glory. And he inhabits a virgin's womb. A virgin's womb. My, how humbling
was that. and then consider His birth,
the lowliness of His birth, the humiliation of His birth. He who is the Creator, the One
who made Mary, the One who chose Mary to be
the vehicle through which He would enter into this world. He gave Mary life. He gave her
physical life. He gave her spiritual life. She was one of those chosen unto
salvation before the world began. She was one of those for whom
He came into this world to live and die as her representative
and her substitute. He made her. He gave her spiritual
life. He gave her eternal life. He
gave her everlasting life. After all, all life originates
with Him. He said, I am the way, the truth,
the life, the life. She's His creation. And yet the creator chooses this
creature as the vehicle through which he will come to this world
and the one upon whom he will be dependent for his physical
existence. My goodness, what humiliation
is that? What a stoop. It's like going
from the highest to the lowest. And in Hebrews, the second chapter,
it says that he was made lower than the angels. Lower than the
angels. And the angels must have stood
aghast at this. What is this that is happening? And in 1 Peter chapter one, we
read that the angels desire to look into this salvation, this
redemption. They can't comprehend it. Oh,
they have witnessed many things, but their Creator, in the bliss,
in the serenity of His majesty, their Creator stoops and He's
formed in the womb of a virgin. And then He's born. An infant, who is the infinite
of days. How can this be? And therefore,
some have said he could not have been God. But the Bible says
he was. And this is where, when it comes
to the scriptures, cast aside all human logic and reasoning. No matter what somebody's mind
tells them or their brain tries to reason out and figure out,
that which God says lives and abides forever, and man's thoughts
will perish with him. The God who is rich in grace,
the God who is rich in all of his creation, He chooses this
poor creature. And through this woman, through
this virgin, he will enter into this world. And we know she was
poor because when she went to offer a sacrifice for her own
purification according to the law of Moses, she didn't have
a bullock to offer. She didn't have a goat to offer. She offered a couple of birds,
a couple of doves or pigeons. And yet she is carrying herself
in her arms that one who had been born eight days old. He's named Jesus. And at her
time when she was to be purified by sacrifice, she brings these
two fowl of the air, Say, couldn't he bring a lamb? No, she held the lamb in her
arms. There he was in her, he's the
lamb of God. That's what John, that's how
John referred to him. Behold the lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. And she held him in her arms. And then behold his humiliation
in his infancy. He was laid in a feed trough
in a stable, a home for animals. No room for them in the inn.
He who is the creator and the sustainer, the eternal son of
God. He was confined not only to a
stable to be born there, but to dwell in a body that God had
prepared him, a body God ordained for him from old eternity. Our
Savior said that in Hebrews chapter 10, a body thou hast prepared
me. And that's quoting Psalm 40. The one who feeds all living
things, the one upon whom all of creation depends for its existence. depends on his mother's milk
to give him nourishment and strength that he might grow in wisdom
and in stature. He who owns the cattle on a thousand
hills enters into this world as a poor
baby. This is the word who spoke everything
into existence. But when he was born, like all
babies, he didn't come forth from the womb speaking. He grew
up root out of dry ground. That's how Isaiah described him.
Nothing desirable about him. And I would take from that passage
in Isaiah chapter 53 Even growing up, he wasn't a particularly
handsome young man. There was no beauty about him
that we would desire him, is what Isaiah says. Though there was in his innermost
being the very majesty of God, the glory of God, Yet that's
all veiled by this human flesh to which he had forevermore joined
himself. And people looked at him as a
little boy growing up. And they said, you know, he's
got a pretty high IQ. He's a pretty smart little boy.
But there was no halo around his head. There was no glory
about him that anybody said, this is the Messiah. No, it wasn't
like that. He just grew up like other little
boys. That's part of his humiliation.
And then he was circumcised when he was eight days old. And he
was named just like any other child. Eight days old. That's when they got their name
official. He was eight days old. And he begins his life, therefore,
with being wounded and shedding a few drops of blood, just an
indication of what was sure to follow. And that was done in
obedience to the law of God. Look with me over in Galatians
chapter 4. Turn to Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter four, look
at verse four. When the fullness of the time
was come, when the fullness, when the completeness of the
time was come, God sent forth his son. We didn't send for him,
God sent him forth. We didn't ask for him, God commissioned
him. He came because God ordained
for him to come. God sent him for God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son. God sent forth
his son made of a woman, made under a law, made under the law,
made under parental law. He obeyed Mary and he obeyed
his What do you want to call him? Stepfather Joseph? He obeyed
them, never sassed them, never talked back. Whatever they said,
he did because he's made under the law. He was made under the
civil law. That's the reason he said in
Matthew chapter six, to honor the law. That's the reason he
says in Romans, he says to honor those that have the authority
over you. Because that's what he did. That's what he did. He said the powers that be are
ordained of God. Don't you believe, don't you
know that over there in John chapter 19, well he could have
smitten Pilate dead just with a thought. He could have killed
him. and all the members of the Sanhedrin,
those that despised Him, those that hated Him. He could have
sent them out into eternal damnation had it been His will. But He
took it all. He did in His sufferings and
then in His death what He told us to do, resist not evilly. Don't hate your enemies. He said,
if they smite you on the right cheek, turn the other one. That's
what he did. That's what he did. He never fussed about the government. He never questioned what they
did. Simon Peter said, shall we pay
taxes? They said, yeah. Yeah, cast your hook in the sea
and pull out a fish. And he said, you'll find enough
money to pay your tribute and mine too. He said, render to
Caesar the things that are Caesar's. We got bigger things to be concerned
about than the government. Don't fuss about the government,
the powers that be ordained of God. We need to be totally concerned
with the Lord and His glory and the gospel and believing Him
and resting in Him and living a life that's honoring to Him. And He was made unto... Divine law. Divine law. He said, I always do those things
that please him. He's made under the ceremonial
law. That's why he was circumcised.
And you know what he says? Go over here to verse chapter
five. Look at chapter five. This is Paul writing. He says, Stand fast, chapter five, verse
one. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke, the servitude of bondage. Behold, I appall
saying to you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit
you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, he's deader to do the whole law. You
see, the Jews, and I don't have time to develop this fully, but
where did circumcision, where does that come from? It came
from the promise of the covenant that God gave to Abraham. But
the Jews, they said, they tied it in with the law of Moses. It's not in the law of Moses.
It's in the covenant of promise God gave to Abraham. And the
reason God gave that to them was generation after generation
would remember, the seed of the woman is coming. He's coming. And then when our Lord Jesus
Christ came, then that ended the circumcision and all the
ceremonial laws that they were to be in obedience to. But the
Jews took circumcision, they tied it to, they affixed it to
the law of Moses, and so they said in a passage like Acts chapter
15, except you be circumcised, you're not really saved. That's
what they said. And of course, you know, Paul,
he got all upset about that. He really quarreled with them
over that thing. Because here's what the Judaizers
were saying, listen, you've got to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, but you've also got to obey the ceremonial law. Wait
a minute, that ended with our Lord Jesus Christ's death. All
of those things, the ceremonial laws of sacrifices and offerings,
they all pointed to our Lord Jesus, including circumcision,
which was a picture of the wounding of the heart. That's why Paul
says in the book of Romans, He stresses that circumcision, not
of the flesh, but of the Spirit. The Spirit of God wounds us over
our guilt, our sinfulness before God. But the Jews said, no, you've
got to be circumcised. And they made a law out of it,
and they tied it to Moses' law, which was altogether wrong. It
wasn't in Moses' law. It was a promise of God to Abraham,
a promise of grace, looking forward to the one who was going to come
and redeem his people by the shedding of his blood. But here's
our Lord Jesus. He submits to circumcision. Now watch this, verse 3. For
I testify again to every man that is circumcised, he is a
debtor to do the whole law. And our Lord Jesus Christ was.
When he was eight days old, he bound himself, as it were, to
do the whole law and obey that law every jot and tittle he did. And then he died under the penalty
of it because we had broken God's law and we had to die. Look at his humiliation. He who
made the law was made under the law to redeem
those that were under the law. Well, what about, you wanna see
another aspect of his humiliation? What about his temptation? In all of his temptations, he
was assaulted by the devil, the devil that God in the trinity
of his persons had cast out of heaven. When Lucifer sought to rebel
against the Lord, commit treason against God, and he led one third
of the angels in rebellion against God, Christ the Son of God and
the Father and the Holy Spirit said, get out of heaven, get
out of here. And he had to go. He had to go. The very devil that he had sentenced
to eternal condemnation in the lake of fire confronts him in
the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. And our Lord stood
in his perfect humanity before that vile, slithering serpent. And he listened to his temptations. And this perfect man, he stood. He stood in obedience to God. Whereas the first man, Adam,
failed. This man didn't fail. He can't
fail. He's the son of God. He faced the ugliness of the
evil one. And he stood there toe to toe
with him and battled him as it were. Do your best, oh evil one. You'll never get this one to
fail because he's the son of God. And then consider his humiliation
during his public ministry. Over and over again, we see he
was despised and rejected of men. The Lord over all, the God
of creation, the man Christ Jesus, he had manifested his authority
over demons, over death, over diseases. He did so much good
for people. He lived his public life in a
merciful way to the fallen and to the sinful, and yet the religious
folks ridiculed him. Among them, he had a horrible
reputation. They lied on him. They accused him of blasphemy.
They even accused him of being in league with Beelzebub. Oh, can you imagine that? He who is the Holy One, He who
is the servant of Jehovah. God called him in Isaiah 53,
my righteous servant. And the Jewish leader said, he
is in cahoots with Beelzebub, the evil one. He lived as an outcast. As an
outcast. Everyone in organized religion
despised him. Had no use for him. No use for
him whatsoever. And they mocked him. They mocked
him. You know, in the Old Testament,
it was prophesied of Messiah, he would occupy three offices,
prophet, priest, and king. And they mocked him as prophet,
when they were beating him and smiting him,
they blindfolded him. Luke tells us this, they blindfolded
him and then they'd slap him and they said, you're a prophet?
Prophesized unto us who did it. What a mockery. And he stood
there and took it. And they mocked him as priest.
They said, he saved others, himself he can't save. And they really
mocked him as king. Oh, they wanted an earthly king,
but when they found out his kingdom was not of this world, his was
a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom of grace, a kingdom of salvation,
a kingdom of mercy, a kingdom in which he rules and reigns
with a scepter of love, with a scepter of sovereign grace. They said, we won't have this
man rule over us. They mocked him as prophet, priest,
and king. And then see his humiliation
in the garden. Can you comprehend this? He sweat,
as it were, great drops of blood. He sweat as it were great drops
of blood. And in His betrayal and in His
arrest, He's captured and bound. He's bound. Can you imagine God
being confined? God being bound? God being tied
up? As easily as Samson broke the
fetters that they tried to bind him, it'd be much easier for
our Lord Jesus, but nothing to him, to break the bounds that
held him, the ropes that held him. But he didn't liberate himself. He came to liberate us. He came
to save us. We who've been bound by sin and
bound by Satan and bound by evil and bound by the law of God that
held us guilty. Our Lord Jesus came to break
the bind, the bounds that bind us. He came to set the prisoners
free and that's what he did. And then standing before the
religious court Oh, how they humiliated him.
I was reading once again today, and I'll go quickly, in Matthew
26. One by one, the members of the
Sanhedrin. Imagine in your minds, if you
can, the most religious men in Israel. Men who'd been to Bible
college, men who'd been to seminaries. They learned from the rabbis.
And one by one, they stepped in front of Jesus of Nazareth
and spit in his face. The ultimate indignity shone
to that man. What do you men think of Jesus
of Nazareth? Let me stand in front of him
and I'll show you what I think of him. And one by one, they
spit in his face. And then they hit him. They hit
him. They punched him. Can you imagine
that? Can you imagine a group of church
people? And they get so out of control
and so mad and so upset with Jesus of Nazareth, with God in
the flesh, whom they did not believe? and they spit in his
face and then they hit him. They ball up their fists and
hit him. Rabbi after rabbi, chief priest
after chief priest, we'll beat him, beat him, beat him. That's
what we want to do with him. And then when he's all bloodied
and his face is swollen and he looks horrible, they said, that's
not enough. We want him to die. Well, you talk about humiliation.
This is beyond our comprehension, I'm telling you. We have no idea
of how low he stooped. But he did all of this, you see,
in order to save us. To save us from our sins. And
here he stands before Pilate. This is a part of his humiliation,
too. The king of kings standing before
a vile, ungodly governor of this part of the world. He's already
been cast aside by Herod. Now Pilate has him beaten. He
said, I don't find any fault in him, but I'll have him scourged
anyway. And they pulled out that cat
of nine tails and they beat him, ripping his flesh. He said in
Isaiah, I gave my back to the smiters and my face to those
that plucked out my beard. Pulled out his beard. They showed him no mercy whatsoever. What does the natural man think
of Jesus of Nazareth? Crucify him, crucify him. That's what we say. But through all of this, the
purpose of God is being worked out. Because this God-man, Jesus
of Nazareth, He must lay down His life. They're not gonna take
His life from Him. Don't misunderstand, through
all of this, He's still the Lord of glory. He is still orchestrating
all that's happening, even in the blows that hit His face.
And the spittle that covered Him, I can't imagine. And yet he stood there and he
took it. But that wasn't the worst of
it. It was the blows that divine
justice dealt to him. That made him to be our savior.
So that we read, with his stripes, we were healed. Oh, thank God for the humiliation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we shall see even more
next Wednesday, he must be crucified because
the way to the crown is by the cross. And since he suffered, bled,
and died for us, We shall reign with Him in glory. Now, what
shall we render to the Lord for all of His benefits to us? Let me love Him with a fervent
love. Let me think upon Him. Let me
meditate upon His goodness to me. Let me deeply ponder how
that the Lord Jesus Christ was so humiliated in my stead. And I know it's for all of his
people, but you've got to narrow this down. You can think of a
bunch of unnamed people, but this was for you. Because he
would have had to have suffered just as much to save one. as he did to save a bunch of
people. This was for me. Lord, why did
you endure all of this? And the answer comes back, to
save you, to redeem you, to reconcile you. Oh, love beyond comprehension. the love of Christ Jesus for
us. Well, let's sing a closing song. Let's go to number 11. Number
11, when all thy mercies, oh my God, consider the mercies
of God.