Good morning. Can we stand and
turn to hymn number 15, please? 15. Hymn number 15. Brethren, we have meant to worship
and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray with all your power
while we try to preach the word? All of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, pray, and holy manna
will be showered all around. Brethren, see poor sinners round
you Slumbering on the brink of woe Death is coming, hell is
moving Can you bear to let them go? ? Seen our fathers and our
mothers ? ? And our children sinking down ? ? Brethren praying,
holy manna will be showered ? Sisters, will you join and help
us? Moses' sister hated him. Will you help the trembling mourners
who are struggling hard with sin? Tell them all about the
Savior. Tell them that He will be found. Sisters pray and holy men await. Let us love our God supremely
Let us love each other too Let us love and pray for sinners
Till our God makes all things new Then he'll call us home to
heaven At his table we'll sit down Christ will gird himself
and serve us With sweet manna all around Thank you. We turned hymn number 272. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. Rock I stand, all other ground
is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness veils His lovely
face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
gale, My anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid
rock I stand All other ground is sinking sand All other ground
is sinking sand His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood When all around my soul gives
way Heaven is all my hope and stay On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. When He shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in Him be found, Dressed in His righteousness
of love, Faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. We turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
13. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and have not charity I am become as a
sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the
gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains
and have not charity, I'm nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and although I give my body to be burned and
have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth
long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own, it is not easily provoked, thinketh no
evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth
all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all
things. Charity never faileth, but whether
there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues,
they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy
in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that
which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake
as a child. I understood as a child. I thought
as a child. But when I became a man, I put
away childish things. For now we see through a glass,
darkly. But then face to face, now I
know in part. But then shall I know even, as
also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope,
charity, these three. But the greatest of these is
charity. Heavenly Father, we come to you
this morning and we thank you for this day, Lord. We thank
you for Brother Cody for bringing him here. We thank you for your
word, Lord. We ask that you would keep us
looking to you every day. We ask that you would watch over
those that are sick of this congregation. We ask that you would remember
Brother Bill and Sister Fran and the others that are sick,
Lord. Lord, what seemeth good to you, Lord, let us submit to
that in every way. Lord, we thank you for our families,
and we ask that you be with them, Lord. We ask that you'd open
their ears and give them a need for you, Lord. Only you can do
it. Lord, we ask that you'd keep
us, Lord, because without you, we'd fall away. Lord, we thank
you. Thank you so much for this building
and for the out in the middle of nowhere, Lord, that you brought
your word to, Lord, for a small amount of people. We ask that
you bring those that don't know you, Lord. Be pleased. We ask all these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Can we stand? No. Hymn number 449. Turn to that. To God be the glory. Great things he hath done. So loved he. ? In the world that
He gave us His Son. ? ? Who healed in His life an
atonement for sin, ? ? And opened the life gate that all may go
in. ? praise the lord let the earth
hear his praise Let the people rejoice, O come
to the Father, through Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory,
great things He hath done. O perfect redemption, the purchase
of God To every believer, the promise of God The vilest offender,
who He leaves that moment from Jesus
a pardon receives. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Oh come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, and give him the glory, great things in Great things He hath taught us,
great things He hath done, and great are rejoicing through Jesus
the Son. But pure and higher and greater
will be Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done. Can we stand and sing the hymn of
the day? 249. In slippery places are some
who set their hope In what they do Not of works,
not what they have done Will ever bring salvation true The Lord set me in a large place. He set my feet upon the rock. He made himself my height. For the joy set before our Lord
Did our Savior endure the cross That He, by death, the living, His salvation set me free. On high he is at the Father's
right hand. My hope is set in Christ on high,
my Redeemer, God's perfect Lamb. Thank you. We have Brother Cody Henson here
today, and I'm thankful that he's here.
I'm very nervous this morning, but Brother Cody, you come on
and bring the Lord's message. Good morning. If you will turn with me in your
Bibles to Luke chapter 23. Brother Gabe and the Brethren in Kingsport
send their love and greetings. Luke 18, I'm sorry, Luke 23 verse
18. Luke 23, 18. And they cried out all at once,
saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas, who
for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder was
cast into prison. Pilate therefore, willing to
release Jesus, spake again to them, but they cried, saying,
Crucify him, crucify him. And he said unto them the third
time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of
death in him. I will therefore chastise him,
and let him go. And they were instant with loud
voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices
of them and of the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence
that it should be as they required. And he released unto them him
that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they
had desired. But he delivered Jesus to their
will. And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon,
a Cyrenian, coming out of the country. And on him they laid
the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. And there followed
him a great company of people and of women, which also bewailed
and lamented him. But Jesus turning unto them said,
daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves
and for your children. For behold, the days are coming,
in the which they shall say, blessed are the barren and the
wombs that never bear, and the paps which never gave suck. Then
shall they begin to say to the mountains, fall on us, And to
the hills cover us, for if they do these things in a green tree,
what shall be done in the dry? And there were also two other
malefactors led with him to be put to death. And when they were
come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified
him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other
on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do, and they parted his
raiment and cast lots." I want to go to Calvary this morning.
If the Lord enables us to truly go to Calvary this morning, we're
going to see a couple things. One, we're going to see our sin
and our wretchedness. And two, we're going to see how
that God, in His free, sovereign mercy and grace, has delivered
His people from that very sin. I want to focus on our Lord's
prayer right here. Father, forgive them. Father,
forgive them. For they know not what they do.
Why did our Lord pray this? Why did He pray this? Was it
in hopes that maybe they would just stop crucifying him or that
the pain wouldn't be as bad? You recall in the Garden of Gethsemane,
he prayed to his father, if it be possible, let this cut pass
from me. But he knew it wasn't possible.
The father always hears him pray, but it wasn't possible. It had
to happen. For this cause, he said, I came
into the world to bear witness unto the truth, the truth of
how God is holy and must punish sin, even when found on his beloved
son in whom he's well pleased. The truth of how God must punish
sin and the truth of how God can be both just and justify
ungodly sinners like us. Here at the cross, mercy and
truth met together. Here at the cross, righteousness
and peace kissed each other. On the cross, our Lord Jesus
Christ fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies and scriptures. Do you know the whole Old Testament
is pointing to this moment? Every single one. They all declared
the Messiah to come and die for the sins of God's chosen people. Our Lord is hanging here, we
read it, between two malefactors, two thieves, two convicted criminals. And He's hanging right there
between them. And that too we read, prophesied of in Isaiah
chapter 53, numbered among the transgressors, made intercession.
He made intercession for many, many transgressors. Now, why
did our Lord pray this? Anybody can acknowledge God is
love, but unfortunately most people err not knowing the scriptures
and just assume God loves them because God is love. He loves
everyone. No. No, He doesn't love everyone.
He makes it very clear in His Word whom He loves. He wasn't
here praying for forgiveness for everyone. No, we're going
to see it's a very particular people for whom He prayed. It's
a very Precious, chosen, and precious because they were chosen
in him. A precious, chosen, particular
people for whom he laid down his life. He said, I lay down
my life for the sheep. He said, there's gonna be some
goats on my left hand and some sheep on my right hand. The goats
are gonna perish, the sheep have a kingdom prepared for them.
Our Lord said in John 17, He told us who He prayed for, not
the world, but for those whom the Father gave Him. He said,
they're thine, thine are mine, all mine are thine. This is not bad news, okay? We
just read the will of the people. Did you read that with me? Where
the people, they, it's not that some of them wanted the Lord
Jesus And some of them didn't. None of them wanted him. None
of them wanted him. Nobody wanted him. He's despised
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
We hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised. What'd we do? We esteemed him,
not all of us. We all cried away with this man.
You know, it seems like Pilate was fighting a good cause and
was determined to release him. No, you just give it a minute.
He'll cave to the will of the people, just like we all will. We all will. None of us wanted
him. But in spite of our sin, he was
there on purpose to save somebody. He was there in mercy and grace
to save a people. Call His name, Jesus, for He
shall save His people from their sins. Aren't you thankful for
that? I'm telling you, there's some verses I just love, and
that's one of them. That's not even the whole verse,
just part of it. Well, how's He gonna save them? How's He
gonna save them? Again, anybody will acknowledge,
well, Jesus died, and there you go. Just accept Him, receive
Him, If you will, take him. I'm telling you, we need to see
this. They cried repeatedly, crucify
him, crucify him. Everybody thinks he's just there
wanting to be accepted, wanting to be received and let in and
won't you let him? Our will is against him. Do we see that? I really, we
need to see that. Well, I love Jesus, clearly. the Jesus of our imagination
maybe, but not the Lord Jesus Christ who came down from heaven
and who's ascended back on it. Hi. Look here. How's he gonna
save a sinner like me? Look right here, verse 35, where
we left off. And the people stood beholding, and the rulers also
with them derided him, saying, now let me point this out. Where
it says the people and the rulers, these are religious people, okay? These are the scribes and the
Pharisees, the chief priests, the elders. These are the good
Christian people, all right? We need to know that. Now read
it here with me. The people stood beholding, and
the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others,
let him save himself, if he be 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. They did not believe on him. They did not believe him to be
the Christ, the chosen of God. They did not. They hated him. Can you not clearly see it? Oh. And yet, with the terrible, mocking
words that they just spoke, unbeknownst to them, they declared how God
saves His people. It was in Christ, not coming
down. It was in Christ. It says, Pilate
delivered Jesus to the will of the people. The Lord Jesus delivered
Himself according to His own will. We're going to read that
here in a little bit, too. You see, it was God's will coming
to pass, all right? And how He saves His people is
by not saving Himself. That's how He saved His people.
You see, they thought, that's what we just read, well coming
down will prove Him to be the Christ, the King. No, it was
dying. If they knew the scriptures,
if they knew how the scriptures all pointed to this very moment,
if they knew the scriptures declared substitution and satisfaction
in the Lord Jesus Christ, not saving himself, perhaps then
they would have known that it was by dying this death that
proved he's the very Christ, the chosen of God. Zechariah
12 verse 10 says, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. What did we just read? And the
people stood beholding. They looked at him. As they crucified
him, they looked at him whom they pierced. Again, Isaiah 53,
what does it say? It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He had to die. That's why I was
here. What was the purpose of our Lord's
prayer? He longed for the forgiveness of his people, all those whom
the Father chose in him and gave to him, committed to him in his
care and his trust. His prayer, his confident expectation
was that we would be forgiven as a result of his death. That's why he prayed, Father,
forgive them so that we shall be forgiven. Simple as that. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust. Why? For what reason? It goes
on to say that he might bring us to God. We who, our sin had
separated us from God. We who were aliens from God,
without God, without Christ in this world. Strangers from God,
the covenant. that he might bring us to him. Being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit, he prayed for God to forgive
his people because he died in their place. He earned, he purchased
with his own spotless precious blood their eternal forgiveness.
And that's why he prayed for them. Now, that's the purpose
of his prayer. Now I want to consider the power
of his prayer, okay? Upon first glance, it doesn't
seem to have been very powerful. Look at verse 34 again. That
didn't stop them. No, they kept doing exactly what they wanted
to do. They just proceeded to strip him, to mockingly hail
him, to put on him garments worthy of a king in
their eyes, mockingly hailing him, cast lots for his garments, and here in just a moment they're
going to brutally torture and crucify him, but I want to say
this several times today, it was all done precisely according
to the scriptures as it is written. to every finite detail, all according
to the scriptures. And we would be utter fools to
think that our Lord's death or that His prayer was anything
less than absolutely powerful and effectual in accomplishing
its purpose completely. We read in James 5, 16 that the
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And certainly
that can be true of God's people. We're commanded to pray. The
Lord hears his people pray. Oh, but how much more is that
true of our Lord, the righteous man, the only one. There's none
righteous, no, not one. Oh, but he is. None good but
God. He's the one. He's the righteous
man. He's the very righteousness of
God. He's the Lord our righteousness. And his prayer for forgiveness
for his bride was absolutely going to avail much. You think about this. People
will say things like, let God and God wants and God tried.
What God wants, God has. What God desires, He already
possesses. If there's somebody here today
who does not believe on Christ, who is one of God's sheep, I
got news for you, you're going to believe on Christ. It's just
a matter of time. Because if God purposed for you
to hear His voice and believe on Him and call out to Him, you're
going to. It's not up to you. It wasn't
up to me. God has His way. God has His
way. The clouds are just the dust
at His feet, you know that? God does whatever He's pleased to
do. Now, his prayer is going to be
effectual, alright? You want to see that? You want
to see the effects of his prayer for forgiveness here? You want
to see it? Look at verse 38. And a superscription
also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and
Hebrew. This is the king of the Jews.
And again, they did this to mock him. But verse 39 says, And one
of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him. saying,
if thou be Christ, save thyself and us. He just said the same
thing the religious leader said. If you're Christ, save yourself
and us. We're in trouble too, just go ahead and save us while
you're at it. But he didn't believe on him. But look here, verse
40, but the other thief answering rebuked him, saying, does not
thou fear God, seeing that thou art in the same condemnation,
and we indeed justly For we receive the due reward of our deeds. And I'll tell you this, what
these men deserved is exactly what you and I deserve. We're
no different. If anything, we're just worse.
But look at the end of the verse right there, the end of verse
41. But this man, speaking of Christ, he hath done nothing
amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Does that not
encourage you? Does that not comfort you on
this Sunday morning? Whatever you're going through,
does that not bless your heart? Now Matthew and Mark, in their accounts,
they tell us something that Luke did not tell us. And that is
that both of these thieves were mocking the Lord. Both of them
were deriding Him, railing on Him, casting the same in His
teeth. Both of them were. Well, why the change? What happened? I'll tell you
what happened because this is what God declares in His Word
happens. Faith came to that man. Faith came by hearing. What did he hear? I don't know
what all he heard. I wasn't there. But I have a
hunch that he heard One thing he heard was surely our Lord's
prayer that he just prayed. He was hanging there right beside
him. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He
heard that. Heard that precious prayer. Our
Lord had seven sayings from the cross. I'm not gonna read them
all to you, but perhaps he heard all seven. I don't know. But
I know this, he heard. It's not so much what he heard
as much as who it was he heard. He heard the Lord. Where it said there that the
people stood beholding, in verse 35, he beheld the King, the King
of the Jews. He beheld His King, His King,
the Christ, the Chosen of God, the Son of the Living God, God
Himself. You know, many stood there beholding
In fact, as our Lord walked this earth, many beheld Him as a man. Many beheld Him with eyes of
flesh, just like you and I behold each other. But oh, how few beheld Him with
eyes of faith. By God's grace, that thief, that
convicted, guilty, worthless thief, by God's grace, beheld
the King of glory in all His glory. When we see Christ on
the cross, we don't see a poor, pitiful man. We see the mighty
God who was in the midst of them, saving His people. Do you understand
that? We see God in His might and His
power and His strength and His majesty on the cross. That's
who hung on the cross. Not someone who needed help,
not someone who needs and hopes that we'll have something to
do with him. No, that's God Almighty. That's God Almighty hanging on
the cross. That's God Almighty who revealed himself in his dying
moments to this thief. That's the goodness of our God,
brethren. That right there is the goodness of our God that
leads sinners like you and me to repentance. To stop trusting
in our sinful selves and trust only in Him. Look how selfless
He is. Look how holy and just and right
He is. Look how merciful. Today you'll
be with me in paradise. You're dying a brutal death too,
but you're gonna be with me. That's okay. You know, brethren,
the end is coming. But it's okay. We find out someone's
dying with an incurable disease. We're all dying with an incurable
disease. Sin. But when we find out something
specifically that's about to take one of our loved ones, it
breaks our heart. But we don't sorrow like them
that have no hope. God forbid we sorrow as one that
has no hope. Oh, if he enables us to look
to Christ, look unto him and be saved. That thief, he saw
the Lord. He saw the Lord. That's what
Simon Peter saw when the Lord revealed himself to him. He saw
the Lord. Depart from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. Why would you
have anything to do with me? You know, when our Lord said
that to this thief, we don't read his response. What good
would it do? What are you going to do with
God? No, what's God going to do with me? If He in His grace and mercy
and love says, today you'll be with me in paradise, oh, may
we rest in Him and praise His name forever. That's what that
thief's doing today. The one never-ending day of eternity,
he's sounding his Savior's praises. And I pray we too will be there,
right there alongside Him, praising the Lord's name. Today you'll be with me in paradise.
Our Lord who has a kingdom, His kingdom is not like a kingdom
of this world. It's an everlasting kingdom. His dominion is from
generation to generation to generation. There's no end. No end to His
kingdom. And I love this too. This thief
right here was not the only one at Calvary, whom our Lord saved. He's the only one we read about
like this, right here. But turn to Acts chapter 2. Talk about a great encouragement,
you'll find it right here, Acts chapter 2. Acts 2, look with me at verse
14. But Peter, standing up with the
eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea,
and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken
to my words. For these are not drunken, as
ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. I'll
go down to verse 21. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Ye
men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you, by miracles and wonders and signs, which
God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know,
him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because
it was not possible that he should be holding of it. Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost,
stood up and boldly declared, Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
He said, you crucified him. What that's telling me is these
are some of the very religious leaders, remember they're at
a worship service here, this is the sermon at Pentecost, the
day of Pentecost. These were people that actually crucified
our Lord, okay? And Peter told them, you crucified
him, but he was delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God, not Pilate. No, he was delivered
by God. He was sent by God. He is God.
God did this. Look down at verse 32. This Jesus
hath God raised up. whereof we all are witnesses."
Verse 36, therefore, here's the conclusion, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus
whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they
heard this, they were pricked in their heart. and said unto
Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what
shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost for the promise is unto you and to your children
and to all that are far off even as many as the Lord our God shall
call these men who crucified the Lord." They heard Jesus Christ
crucified preached, and they were pricked in their heart.
They heard. They heard. They didn't just
hear Peter. They heard the Lord speaking through Peter, and they
believed not just what Peter had to say. They believed the
Lord. They believed on the Lord, on the name of the Lord. Why? Why did they believe? You see
what verse 39 said? The end of the verse, as many
as the Lord our God shall call. Verse 39 started with the promise
is unto you and to your children. The promise is unto as many as
the Lord our God shall call. That's why they heard and believed.
Because God promised to save them. God promised to call them. And in time, according to the
means God gives, they heard the preaching of the Word. They were
pricked in their heart. They heard. They believed. God
worked repentance in them. That's what Peter said, repent
and be baptized. They called upon the name of the Lord. And
it was all God's doing. What did they do? They just crucified
God. That's it. What did we do? Just
crucified the Lord. That's it. What'd you do to save
yourself? I crucified the Lord of glory.
If I'm gonna be saved, it's gonna be by his mercy. According to
his mercy, he saved us, not by our works. We don't work righteousness. Righteousness is a person, and
we need righteousness to save us. We need Christ to save us.
Who's this promise of salvation for? Who's the Lord our God gonna
call? I love this verse, 1 Thessalonians
5, 9. God appointed some people to
obtain salvation. by the Lord Jesus Christ, appointed
to obtain everything, eternal life, salvation. Those for whom
our Lord prayed, Father, forgive them. Those are the ones. Those
are the ones whom God shall call. Those for whom Christ died, those
for whom he prayed. Look right here, verse 41. Then
they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same
day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. Is that not amazing? Every time
I read this, it just astonishes me more every time I read this. You know, we preach week in and week out and sometimes wonder, you know, when's
the Lord going to save somebody? Is he still speaking through
his words? Is it still pleasing the Lord by the foolishness of
preaching to save his people, call them out of darkness into
his marvelous light to reveal Christ to them? One message. Our Lord spoke life
and faith into 3,000 people. Isn't that amazing to you? Does
that not show us the power of God? It wasn't Peter's power.
Peter was just the earthen vessel the Lord used to declare Christ. Lastly, we saw the purpose of
our Lord's prayer, the power of His prayer. Do we see the
power of His prayer? Father, forgive them. He forgave
the very ones that nailed Him to the cross. spat in his face,
put the crown of thorns on his head. He forgave them. And brethren, he can forgive
us too, if he will. It doesn't depend on my will
or yours, but his. May we fall down on our feet
and beg him for mercy. The glory of this prayer, and
I pray that this might prick our hearts, turn over to Mark
chapter 15. Mark 15. Mark 15, verse 16. It's the same account. And the soldiers
led him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together
the whole band, and they clothed him with purple and plaited a
crown of thorns and put it about his head and began to salute
him, Hail, King of the Jews. And they smote him on the head
with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees,
worshipped him. And when they had mocked him,
they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes
on him, and they let him out to crucify him." Does that not make you tremble,
reading how these men physically mocked God? There are not words to describe
just how disgusting and repulsive this is. God is not mocked. God will have
the final say. He has the only say. And yet,
as our substitute, as the God-man, our Lord, willingly endured that. the pretending, making a mockery
out of worshiping Him. You know what? You know what
eternity is? You know what heaven is? Worshiping Him. And what they did right here
is they mockingly worshiped Him. Hail, King of the Jews. Just
read it. And yet our Lord, He had just made all these men fall
back to the ground as dead men. Don't forget that. That's the
power of our Lord here. And yet he's letting them mock
him. I would hate to see someone I
love be mocked. I can't stand the thought of
someone mocking my children or my wife. This is God who knew
no sin. There's no guile found in his
mouth. He never did one thing wrong. He never did one thing
for the wrong reason. And look what we did to him. He opened not His mouth. He didn't stop it. He let it
take place. Do you know why? because he stood guilty and condemned
in our place. That's why he came. That's why
he endured that. That's why he went to the cross
with his face set like a flint. From his youth, he was about
his father's business. He endured the cross, despising
the shame for the joy It was His joy to endure that humiliation
for us. Can you imagine? Our Lord prayed for us. That's
what this message is about. Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do. He prayed that for us while enduring unimaginable,
unfathomable pain and suffering like we'll never have to know
because He suffered it for us. Isaiah tells us that his visage,
his appearance, was marred more than any man. He was disfigured,
unrecognizable. Again, God. We think that's just absolutely
awful when it's a sinful person. And it is. This is God we're
talking about. Turn with me to, I want to show
you this one verse. Lamentations chapter one. And I want us to think about
this. I know we were not alive yet. I know we were not here
physically when our Lord was being crucified. I know that.
I'm 30 years old. This happened a long time ago.
But I pray we can honestly see ourselves in the men who were
there, in those that stood there mocking Him and spitting upon
Him and crucifying Him. If we were afforded the opportunity,
if you will, we would have been the ones there doing it. I'm
telling you, if God convicts us of our sin, we will believe
that. We know it to be true, okay? And while we did this to
Him, He prayed for us. That's why I'm bringing this
message. Because it's so convicting to
know what I did to him, and yet it's all my hope to know what
he did for me in spite of me." Look here, Lamentations 1 verse
12. Is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by? and see if there be any sorrow
like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord
hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. As we behold
Calvary this morning, let me ask us this question. Is it nothing to us? All we that
are passing by right now beholding our Lord's suffering, is it nothing
to us? Let's make sure we behold Him.
Let's make sure we see and consider if there's any sorrow like unto
His sorrow. Now note, not that men did unto
Him. Did you read it? Look at it. Wherewith the Lord hath afflicted
me. in the day of his fierce anger,
as if the torture of men wasn't enough, as if the hatred of sinful
man wasn't enough, the Lord God Almighty afflicted him in fierce anger. We take sin so lightly. I know
I do. Just think nothing of it. Just
drink it like water. That's why Christ suffered the
death he did, was for sin, for sinners. Oh, I pray that it's
not nothing to us. I pray this is everything to
us. I pray this is all our hope. Oh, God forbid we walk out these
doors and it be nothing to us. God forbid we leave this world
with Christ being less than everything to us. Oh, Christ is all, brethren. He endured this awful suffering
for sinners like us. Oh, may we trust in him. Now,
here's the most glorious part of all this, when I think about
this. Truly realizing who it was that Christ was praying for. You know, I saw it was a thief
that was mocking Him. I saw it was some soldiers and
chief priests, religious people that made a mockery of Him and
crucified Him. I see that. But do we see ourselves? Do we see ourselves for what
we really are? Do we know who we are? Sinners
against holy God. When our Lord was there on the
cross, He did not pray for Himself. He prayed for His children. The Father gave to Him the ungodly.
Christ died for the ungodly. Is that us? Is that you? In the context, Some of those
men whom he saved, they had said this, we have no king but Caesar. No? You know, to me, that's pretty
equivalent to when someone says, won't you make Jesus king? God made him king, and we're
gonna bow to him. Every knee's gonna bow, every
tongue is going to confess. Again, you know how I know that?
Because God said it. It's final. May we bow to him
now. May we come to him and beg for
mercy now. I've preached on this here before. I don't want any of us to be
crying for mercy from the pits of hell like that rich man. Because
I can assure you, if we're in hell, that's exactly what we're
gonna be doing forever. And we're not gonna receive it.
May God enable you and me both to cry for mercy right now. I
have children, and I cherish every day I get to spend with
them. I want many things for them, but I'm telling you, nothing,
nothing in their life, nothing about them matters except this. Are they in Christ? Are they
going to leave this world clinging to Christ, looking only to Christ? Nothing else matters. They could
be rich, they could be poor. They could be healthy, they could
be like Mephibosheth. I'd rather them be Mephibosheth.
than be healthy and rich and die perishing with their riches.
And the same is true for us, brethren. Oh, may we know Christ. He prayed for those who cried,
crucify him, crucify him. He prayed for those who literally
pierced him through and who pierced him through with
many sorrows, the sin for which he died. He died for those who
wanted nothing more than to silence Him once and for all. Let's put
an end to this man, Jesus, this King. Let's silence Him. That
is the exact person for whom He died. May we see ourselves,
honestly, and may we see Him. Oh, may we see Him. Praise be
to our God. Praise God for His grace that
is greater than all our sin. All my sin. I need grace that's
greater than all my sin. It's the only kind of grace that's
gonna do anything for me, and it's the only kind of grace there
is. Great grace. Marvelous, infinite, matchless
grace, freely bestowed on all whom God causes to believe. Believe on Christ. Now, I'll
close with this. As was the case with Joseph. You remember Joseph? How his
brothers hated him. He was the loved son of their
father. Jacob loved Joseph made that special coat for Joseph.
They hated him and they were gonna just kill him That's what
you do when you hate someone you just kill him if we don't
kill him physically we kill him in our heart What they did they sold him sold
him for a little bit of money let their fuck trick their father
into thinking he was dead violently killed and yet They ultimately
found themselves at his feet, begging for mercy. That's right. It's a glorious picture, brethren.
What they meant for evil, and they meant evil, God meant for
good. What we meant for evil, our God
meant for our eternal good. Sovereign grace prevailed. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. It always does. Oh, we have every
reason, brethren, to trust our Lord. He prayed as he was about
to give up the ghost, dying for the sins of sinners like you
and me. Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. I pray that that prayer might
be for you and me. Lord, forgive us. Forgive us. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we
thank you so much for your word. We know that by nature we're
just blind to it. We don't believe it. We don't perceive it. We don't
need it. But dear God, you've caused your people to hear it,
to truly hear it, to rejoice in every word that you've written
for us. to look to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to rest
in Him, trust in Him, hang our eternal souls on Him and Him
alone. Please, please speak these words to our hearts. Prick our
hearts like you did those men at the day of Pentecost. Prick
our hearts with the knowledge of the sin that we are and the
wonderful, gracious, loving, merciful God you are. Please
save us for Christ's sake. Please forgive us of all our
sin. We rejoice in your grace that is so great, so great. Lord, shed that grace upon us.
Bless us and keep us, save our children, save all your people,
and enable us to rejoice forevermore in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's
in his glorious, holy name we pray, amen. Thank you, Brother Cody, and
we'll meet again at 6 o'clock this evening. Thank you.