for the blessings he gave us
this past Lord's Day, and we ask that he would again meet
with us as we assemble this evening. As we arrive at the Book of Zechariah,
this is his last vision here in Chapter 6, and I just want
to read a very few verses out of this. Chapter 6, look at verse
9. So, here's this man of God, the
prophet Zachariah, writes, he said, and the word of the Lord
came to me saying, take of them of the captivity, even of Hilda
and Tobijah, and of Judiah, which are come from Babylon. And you come too, thou come the
same day, and go into the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah. Then take silver and gold, and
make crowns, and set them on the head of Joshua, who is the
son of Josedek, the high priest. Speak unto him saying, thus speaketh
the Lord of hosts. And here's what God says. Behold
the man. Behold the man whose name is
the branch. And he shall grow up out of his
place. And he shall build the temple
of the Lord. Even he shall build the temple
of the Lord. And he shall bear the glory.
shall set and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon
his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both. Just draw your attention a couple
of things, go back to verse number 10. Here are three men who came
out of the captivity, and I think these men are like, they're pictures
of the people of God brought out of captivity to the world,
captivity to evil, captivity to Satan. And I think you'll
pick up on the reason I say that because there is a sense in which
each of these three men, their names are our names. Watch this,
verse number 10. Take of the captivity even held
up. His name means one who passes
through this world, a traveler. That's what we're doing. We're
all travelers through this world. And then he says, and Tobiah,
of Tobiah, that means the Lord is good. And that's our name too, and
not only we're traveling through this world, but the Lord is good
to us as we travel. And of Judiah, and that name
means one the Lord has known. The Lord has known us. The scripture
says the Lord knoweth them that are his, and he's known us with
an everlasting love. And then he gets down here to
verse 11, he mentions Joshua, who is the son of Josedek, the
high priest. And this man Joshua, he's a picture
of our Lord Jesus. And here's what Zechariah says,
speak unto him, saying, thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying,
behold the man. Our Lord Jesus is the man Christ
Jesus, and he is the branch. He's often called the branch,
especially in the Old Testament. It says he shall grow up out
of his place. He'll build the temple of the
Lord. He said, I will build my church in the gates of hell.
They won't prevail against it. And you get to verse 13, he gets
the glory for it. All the glory goes to Christ
Jesus the Lord. And he as our high priest shall
rule upon his throne. And he shall be a priest upon
his throne. And then there's mention made
here of a council of peace between them both. That's the father
and the son. And that everlasting council
of peace or covenant of grace was made between the Father and
the Son on the behalf of all of his people. And the reason
I read this tonight is because my subject is Behold the Man. Behold the Man. And we'll get to our text here
in just a little bit, but let's bow our heads and ask God to
bless as we meet together. Lord, it is with reverence and
respect and godly fear that we gather together around this book,
the book of God. We thank you that you have left
an everlasting record of your will, the very mind of God pertaining
to your dealings with men, with people who are sinful, folks
like ourselves. We're not left to grope in the
dark as to the identity of our God. We read that thou art a holy
and righteous and just in all of your ways. You're full of
mercy, love, and grace. You're the one who forgives poor,
sinful creatures. You're the one who makes us to
be righteous through the righteousness of your only begotten son. And oh God, you tell us in this
book about our great neediness. You reveal to us our desperate
condition. And you show us none can help
but God alone. And then, if you're going to
help us, you must do so in a way that honors all of your law and
justice. And so you tell us about the
Lord Jesus Christ. This one of whom Joshua was a
type. This one who is the man, Christ
Jesus. This one who is the high priest.
And who is the king. As the high priest, he wears
the crown of silver. That's the jewel for the priest.
And as our king of kings and lord of lords, he wears the crown
of gold. That rightly belongs to him,
for he is the governor of the nations. And Lord, you have given
to our Lord Jesus, to your only begotten son, this one who is
the the man, the branch you have given to him, the responsibility
of building the temple. Not an earthly temple, not a
temple, a building made of brick and stones and mortar and wood. This is a spiritual temple that
shall be built by the grace of God through the doing and the
dying of the Lord Jesus, unto whom shall go all the glory.
And this one who redeemed us, this one who bought us, who liberated
us, this one who laid down his life
for the sheep, he has ascended back to glory. He has taken his
seat upon the throne of majesty at the right hand of the majesty
on high. And there he rules and he reigns. as our king and as our high priest,
like Melchizedek, the royal priest who intercedes for his people,
who has offered to God the sacrifice that has put away our sins. Lord,
may we tonight and may we every day behold the man. May we see him in the scriptures.
When we open this glorious book, may we be in pursuit of the living
Christ. May we be looking for him. And
may we do as the writer of the Hebrews said, may we consider
him who is the apostle and the high priest of our salvation
and of our souls. Thank you for these who gathered
tonight. Lord, we lift up to you those that are sick, those
that cannot be with us tonight, and of course we're especially
mindful of Brother Wiseman. We're thankful that he has come
home, and thankful for the little bit of progress he's making.
But Lord, we know that he has a great distance to go. Thou art the great physician.
I pray that you'll continue to strengthen him, restore to him
his appetite. I pray that the infection and
the inflammation that has been gotten rid of, I pray that they
will not come back. We ask that you would undergird
him, provide for him. And we're thankful that in, whether
in sickness or in health, All of your children are underneath
the everlasting wings of our great God. Under your wings,
we find refuge and we find protection. We ask for our sister, Pat, that
you would likewise strengthen her. How much we miss her, Lord. And we ask that you would be
especially merciful to her and strengthen her if it be your
will. We give thanks for her and others
of our congregation who aren't able to be in attendance at this
time to hear the word of the Lord. Lord, we're thankful for
the love and the faith that you've given to your children. And even
though we may not be able to be present in the place of worship,
yet you're always present with us. For you have said you'll
never leave us and you'll never forsake us. Lord, we continue
to pray for our pastor, Tim James, that you would maintain his good
health and strengthen him. And we're thankful for the way
you have brought him back from this heart attack. And we pray
that he will continue to heal. We likewise pray for our sister
and Tim and Debbie's daughter, Sarah. Lord, you've been pleased
in your infinite wisdom to send her this acute leukemia, and
we are thankful for the way that she is responding favorably to
the chemotherapy. And we ask that if it would be
your will that this would continue to go in a direction that is
favorable for her health. And we ask it should give her
added strength as these very powerful drugs do their job. Lord, she is in need of special
strength from you. And bless her husband, Chris. Bless the boys. Bless Debbie
as she waits upon her grandsons. And Lord, others of your family
that are sick, that unable to meet in the place of worship.
Lord, bless them and strengthen them. Now we turn our attention
back to that which we have come here to do, to open up the scriptures
and to worship through the reading and the preaching of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus. We ask that you would grant unto
us an understanding of the message for this evening. And Lord, give
unto us grace that we would indeed behold the man, the only man
who is the perfect man, and the only man who is God, the God-man,
Christ Jesus. Oh, to be found in him, having
his righteousness, and standing in him acceptably before thee. So blessed tonight we pray. For
Jesus' sake. Amen. Now, if you would, go back
to the Gospel of John. John. And we'll go, this evening,
we're going to get into chapter 19. And actually, in reading
here, I want to back up to a couple of verses in chapter 18. And
then I'm going to go ahead and read down through verse 7 of
John chapter 19. And our subject is, Behold the
man, and you will see this statement that I just read out of the book
of Zechariah. You'll see it here in the book
of John as well. So I want to begin here in John
18 and 38. And here's where Pontius Pilate
says to the Lord Jesus, what is truth? And when he had said
this, he went out again unto the Jews, and he saith unto them,
I find in him no fault at all, but ye have a custom that I should
release unto you one at the Passover. Will ye therefore that I release
unto you the king of the Jews? And they all cried, they cried,
then cried they all again, saying, not this man, Notice, not this man, but Barabbas. And then John tells us, the Spirit
of God tells us, that now Barabbas was a robber. And then Pilate
therefore took Jesus and scourged him. He beat him. He had him
beat. And the soldiers, they mocked
him by plaiting a crown of thorns. Does that not put you in mind
of the result of the fall? The Lord said that the earth
would bring forth thorns and briars, that sort of thing. And
here they put this crown of thorns on his head, and then they put
on him a purple robe, and then they 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. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns and
the purple robe. Pilate said unto them, Behold
the man. Look at him. Hasn't he had enough? Don't you have any feelings? You see the kind of shape he's
in? How he's bleeding? He was a gory
mess. Behold the man. He's had enough,
hasn't he? That's what Pilate is saying.
Does this satisfy you, in effect? That's what he's saying. No, it didn't satisfy them. Because
the verse six says, and when the chief priest, therefore,
and the officers, when they saw him bleeding, bruised, battered,
blood and spittle on his face, they said, no. We're not satisfied. They cried
out, saying, crucify him, crucify him. And then this man Pilate,
what an unusual statement. Pilate, he saith unto them, well,
take him and crucify him, because I find no fault in him. The Jews answered him, we have
a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself
the son of God. And I'll stop our reading there
with verse seven, and we'll go further in this in our next message. Once again, we see Pilate acknowledging
the innocence of Jesus of Nazareth. But once again, we hear the insistence
of the Jewish authorities. They want him to die. And they
don't want him to die just any death. They want him to die the
most awful death, the most painful death that was known unto men
back in those days, death by crucifixion. You gotta remember,
these Jewish rulers, and the multitudes that followed them
as well, they were absolute ritualists. They were ritualists. They were
caught up in religious rituals and all kinds of ceremonies.
And those things, they cannot coexist with Christ Jesus. And we've got to understand that.
The Lord Jesus will not put up with, he will not coexist with,
he cannot get along with a religion that consists of ritualism and
ceremonies. Because they're opposed to Christ
Jesus. You see, if man can, by ritualism,
by doing religious duties and religious works, if they can
make, if they can, by doing those things, make themselves acceptable
to God, well, what's the need of Christ Jesus even coming into
the world? So when men and women and boys
and girls, whenever they get into religious ritualism and
ceremonialism, they put themselves in opposition against the Lord
Jesus. They are as opposed to each other
as light is to darkness. Because one is the religion of
grace. It's a religion of Christ Jesus.
It's a message of grace. It's a message of hope for the
hopeless. It's a message of mercy for those
who deserve nothing but hell. Whereas ritualism and this ceremonialism
is a work, it's all about works. It's all about what men must
do. And men do things, they do religious deeds, many people,
most people, to be observed by others, to have a good name,
a good reputation among other people. And most people believe
that God takes notice of our religious deeds like with the
Jews, their fastings, their tithings, all of the things that they did,
all the praying. They believed God took notice
of all those things that they did and would reward them with
salvation. That's ritualism. And I say that
cannot coexist with Christ Jesus. Because really, ritualism would
kill Christ Jesus all over again. Even today. It would do away
with Him. Oh, they'll use the name of Jesus,
they'll talk about Christ every once in a while, but if you listen
to the message of the day, That which men are saying from
their pulpits amounts to this. Here's salvation and God has
done all of this wonderful thing for you. He's got a wonderful
plan of salvation for you and all you've got to do is take
advantage of it. And so ultimately it leaves something
for you to do. And the ritualism consists of
perhaps motions when you are in a religious service, crossing
yourself, kneeling, standing, bowing. And you know what? None of those
things have anything to do with true worship. Because true worship
is a matter of the heart. You see, the Jews' religion consisted
of things done outwardly. And our Lord even said to the
Jewish religious leaders, He said, you really clean up the
outside. He said, in fact, you're like
whiting sepulchers. You look really good on the outside. That's their ceremonialism. That's
their ritualism. That's their outward religion. But he said, within, you're full
of dead man's bones. He said, you're in awful shape. You see, religion, true religion,
and religion is not a bad word. It's a Bible word. But real religion,
the religion of God, is a religion based upon the purpose of God,
the grace of God, and the work of the Lord Jesus. And it isn't
dependent upon something we do. Now, will we do some things as
a result of the work of the Spirit of God within us? Well, of course
we will. We'll pray. Listen, if you don't
pray, you don't know God. You don't know God. God's people
pray. God's people read the word of
the Lord. God's people beseech the Lord. God's people attend. God's people
give. God's people do all of these
things, but not to be seen of men and not to make us feel better
about ourselves. And we don't do these things
thinking, well, I'm earning brownie points with God. That's not the
reason we do these things. Surely there's nobody here tonight
who thinks that as a result of you being here tonight, God is
going to look at you and say, you did good tonight. I favor
you even more. Well, no. He favors you in Christ
Jesus. He receives you by His grace.
Now we want to do these things, but we don't do them to be seen
of men. And this is our Lord's accusation
against the Jews. He said that's why they do these
things, to be seen of men. He said they're almsgiving. Read
Matthew chapter six. He said they're almsgivings.
He said this is why you do it, to be seen of men. So people
will say, boy, he's such a charitable person. And that's why the Lord
even said, when you pray, don't be like the Pharisees. Go out
and pray on the street corner. And people walk by and say, my,
what a holy man he is. The Lord said, don't do that.
You're going to seek my Father's face? Go to your closet. In other words, get alone with
God. Because you see, real religion, real communion with the Lord,
real fellowship with God, it isn't done to be observed by
men. It isn't done so that people
will say, wow, they're really a holy person. Real religion,
true spiritual worship, it comes forth from the heart, and it
is for God and for His glory. The Jews didn't know anything
about that. Everything they did was because
of to be men or to soothe their own conscience or to earn some
merit before God. It's like the issue that came
up back in John chapter 18. Look back at verse 28. Then led
they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment, and it
was early, and they themselves went not into the judgment hall,
lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. See, there's a ritualism. There's
a ceremonialism right there. Here's an innocent man. They
knew he performed miracles. He's done nothing but good. He's
not an insurrectionist. He's not trying to stir up trouble
for Rome. And the Jews knew that. But rather than do the right
thing, here's what they're concerned about. Hey, the traditions of
the fathers forbid us going into Pilate's hall. because we'll
touch something that has been touched by Gentiles. In fact,
we might accidentally brush up against one of them dirty dog
Gentiles, and then we'd be prohibited from eating the Passover dinner
tonight. So there's their religion. That's what it consisted of.
We'll kill the Lord of glory. We'll kill the Messiah. But boy,
we sure don't want to be contaminated by Gentiles. See, there it is
in its true colors. And of course, there will be
another religious ritual that will compel them to go to the
governor. Look over in chapter 19. Look
at chapter 19, verse 30. Chapter 19, verse 30. When Jesus,
therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished, it is
accomplished. He bowed his head and gave up
the ghost. The Jews, therefore, because
it was the preparation that the body, they should not remain
upon the cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was
on a high day, because it's the Passover. They besought Pilate
that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken
away. Here they are again. They're killing an innocent man.
Even the governor said, I find no fault in this man. And he
had earlier said, neither did Herod. But these people, they're more concerned with their
ritualism. And so they go to the governor
and say, you got to get them down off the cross, because we
got to get up and go to church tomorrow. Tomorrow's the Sabbath. It's
a high day. And we've got preparation to
make for the religious day. That's what's important to them.
There is a religion that consisted of personal works, observance
of various traditions of the fathers. And it was a useless,
a useless religion. You know, the Apostle Paul spoke
of the erode of the offense of the cross in Galatians chapter
5 and verse 11. I'll tell you, if you preach,
if you stand for salvation by the substitutionary sacrifice
of Christ Jesus and salvation by the pure grace of God, people
will be offended with that message. And here's what the Apostle Paul
says, if I taught circumcision, that is, if I taught salvation
by the deeds of the law, there would be no offense to what I'm
preaching. People wouldn't find any fault
with it. See, men today, the natural man, finds no fault,
no issue with doing things for God thinking that God would be
more pleased with them because of what you did. That comes naturally
to all men. If I do good for God, God will
do good for me. If I do bad things, God will
reward me with bad things. If I do good things, God will
reward me with good things. That's just natural. This is
what the Jews thought. So we'll keep the letter of the
law, and we'll keep the traditions of the Father. Get them down
from the cross. No, we can't go into Pilate's
hall. That's against our religion.
We're very strict in our religion. We have our rules, you know.
We have our laws, you know. And yet all the while, they're
crucifying the Lord of glory. And this is where we've got to
be careful. in our worship. I tell you, any
time you begin to enter or bring into a worship service some ritualism
and even some ceremonies, you get further away from true worship. There's a blessed simplicity
to the gospel and to our worship. And the simpler we can keep things,
the better it is. And not be so structured that we know the routine. We
know what to do. Some movie we were watching not
too long ago, these people were seated on a pew in a Catholic
church. And they're kind of whispering
to one another. And then they'd all stand, because they knew
when to stand. They'd all sit back down, kept on talking. And
then they kneeled, because they knew when to kneel. It's just
ritualism. But that's not us. We don't want
to fall into that kind of habit. No, we're not going to do the
kneeling. And we're not going to do the crossing and that sort
of thing. But it's so easy for us to just do things, because,
well, that's the way we do them. That's the way we've always done
them. And then it becomes thoughtless. It becomes a routine. And we
never want our worship services to become routine. We want them
full of the life of the Spirit of God. We want the presence
of the Lord Jesus. We want to honor Him. We want
the Lord to speak to our hearts. We don't want to just go through
the motions. Well, I know. Okay, we're going
to remain seated. Yeah, I know that. We stand.
First song, we always stand. And if we're not careful, we'll
slip right into ritualism ourselves. And we'll miss the spirit of
worship. I don't think so, Jim. Listen,
a little leavening the whole lump. It takes a little. Just
a little. A little bit of leeway. Give in just a little. Don't
be so insistent on all these things. You know, Jim, if you
wasn't so narrow-minded, we'd probably get along with more
people and more churches. Christianity get more done in
this city. We've got to be very sure we
don't give in to the popular trends of religion. And especially anything related
to the person and work of Christ Jesus. Well, so what does the governor
do? He tries to appease these ritualists. And he brings out the Lord Jesus.
And he looks awful. There's no way we could even
describe how bad he looked. And to me, I can just see Pilate
bringing him out and here he stands before him and our Lord
covered with blood. been beaten, his face is all
swollen, got blood streaming down his face, and it's like,
here's what Pilate said, is he a threat to you? Look at him! Behold the man! Behold the man! Haven't I done enough to him?
Aren't you satisfied? But the religious world is not
satisfied with anything except the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm telling you, they cannot coexist. Because man's religion
is full of self-righteousness. And our Lord won't put up with
that. He always had a kind word, a merciful word for the publicans
and the harlots. Boy, these religious Jews. He said, the publicans and the
harlots will enter into the kingdom of God before you will. That's
what he said. Well, no wonder they're foaming
at the mouth. Because what he did, he exposed
the uselessness of their religion. And so he brings him out, he
brings Jesus out, and he says to him, Behold the man! Behold the man. Isn't that the
whole message of the Word of God? Behold the man. When you read the Scriptures,
always do so with this admonition. Behold the man. Look for him. Behold the man. Our surety in
the covenant of grace. Behold the man, the creator of
all things, for all things were made by him and without him was
nothing made that was made. Behold the man promised from
the beginning, the seed of the woman is coming. That's what
the Lord said. Behold the man in all the Old
Testament sin offerings and transgression offerings. He casts a large shadow
over all the Old Testament sacrifices. They all set forth Him in some
aspect of His saving work of redemption. Behold the man. That's what the prophet Zechariah
said. Behold the man. He's the branch. Behold the man. God the Father
says, Behold the man. For we read in Isaiah chapter
42, He said, Behold My servant. My servant, whom I uphold, mine
elect, in whom my soul delighteth. Behold, behold the man, the unique
man, the God-man. Behold the man, he's the subject
of all of God's preachers. Listen to John the Baptist. Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Behold
the man. Your pilot brings him forth. Take a look at him. Now, you
take a look at him by faith. Can you see him wounded, bruised,
smitten of God, and afflicted? He ought to visit Calvary every
single day. And behold the man. Behold your
substitute. Behold your savior. Behold God's
appointed ransom being paid by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold the man. But let me show
you one other thing. In the word of God, The, our King James translators,
and I appreciate those men, and I believe God used them, I know
God used them, and they did a very accurate job in translating the
scriptures from the original languages. But every once in
a while, in your Bible, you will find
a word that is in italics. which means it wasn't there in
the original, but the translators, in order to bring some degree
of clarity to the passage, put a word in. And this they often
did, and most of the time, it is very, very beneficial. But I want you to look at verse
five again. Then came Jesus forth, wearing
the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate saith unto them,
Behold the man. Now, what do you see there? You
see the man's name, Pilate, is italicized. Correct? That's correct. So you can read
the verse, and leave his name out. Then came Jesus forth, wearing
the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and saith unto them, behold
the man. It's the Lord Jesus who's speaking.
Behold the man. Behold the man whom you say you've
been waiting for, the Messiah. That passage I read from to begin
there in Zechariah chapter six, where it says, behold the man
and the Talmud, which is the Jewish commentary on the Old
Testament says, behold the man that is the Messiah. Behold the
Messiah. And our Lord Jesus says, behold
the man. Behold the man. I'm the one you
say you've been waiting for, that you've been looking for.
I'm the one all of the Old Testament is about. Behold the man who
alone can save, because I'm the Son of God. Behold the man who
will lay down his life for his sheep. That's the way I'll save
them. Behold the man, I came to seek
and to save that which was lost. Behold the man sent by the Father
on a mission of mercy. Behold the man, I've lived a
life of exact obedience to all of the commands of God and all
of the commands of men. I am the true Lamb of God, and
by my obedience I have proved my fitness and my worthiness
to be the sacrificial Lamb. Behold the man, whom you're going
to see to it that I'll be nailed to the cross, but I'll die so
that God can be just and justify the ungodly. Behold the man who
will save sinners by his death. Behold the man, behold me, look
to me. Isn't that what he said in the
book of Isaiah? Look unto me and be ye saved,
all ye ends of the earth. For I am God, there's none else.
Behold the man, behold me. He said, look to me. Look to
me. Behold the man who stands here
before you today. as a loathsome and offensive
man, but someday you will behold my glory when you stand before
me and I will be your judge. Behold the man. I'm the one you
need. I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm
the life. Behold the man dying in the stead
of sinners. The Son of God says in Isaiah
65 in verse 1, I've sought of them that ask not for me, I'm
found of them that sought me not. I said, behold me! Behold
me! On a nation that was not called
by my name. Look unto me. Behold me, he says. Behold me! And be ye saved. all the ends of the earth. And
for the people of God, behold the man. He says to us, behold
me. Behold me in my word. Behold
me throughout the day. Behold me upon your night pillow. Behold me in your thoughts. Behold
me in your heart. Behold me as your savior, as
your guide, as your shepherd. Behold me all the days of your
life. For I assure you, I'm beholding
you. I'm looking upon you. And so
you look to me and be you saved. And when I thought about looking
to Christ Jesus, When I realized what this is saying, it's the
master that said unto them, behold the man. I thought as a child of God,
when we behold him, we should think of the words
that Isaac Watts wrote in the song that we're going to sing
now. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul. my life, my
all. Get your psalm books. Turn to
118. Wait. Hymn number 118.