And they stripped him and put
on a scarlet robe. And when they had plaited a crown
of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right
hand. And they bowed the knee before
him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And they spit
upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head. And after
that, They had mocked him. They took the robe off from him
and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him. And as they came out, they found
a man, a Cyrene, named Simon by name, him they compelled to
bear the cross, his cross. And when they come to a place
called Galgatha, that is to say a place of the skull, They gave
him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall. And when he had tasted
thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him and parted
his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments among
them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down,
they washed him there, and set up over his head his accusation,
written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Now you see this
scene, it's an awful scene when you think about it. Horrible
scene, bloody scene. A man just beaten, mocked, ridiculed,
spit on. Crowds walked by him and they
would just hit him. Thirsty and they gave him vinegar
and fixed with golf. And then they crucified him while
they were gambling for his garments down at the foot of the cross.
And then it says in verse 36, and setting down, they watched
him there. Setting down, they watched him there. That's what
I want to talk about. Watched him there. Watched him
there. Our Lord from all eternity, had
his heart set toward that cross. All of history culminates before
the cross looked to the cross. All history since the cross. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
is the main event, the only event that God had. Everything God
views is from the time his son went to that cross and after
he went to that cross. This is God's will, God's purpose.
Everything culminates in that blessed cross. And our Lord from
eternity sent his heart to go to Calvary. You remember Simon
Peter said, no, no, Lord, be as far from you. No, don't, that's
not gonna happen to you. When he said, I must go up to
Jerusalem. I must suffer. I must die at
the hands of sin. For me, and I must. And all Simon
Peter said, oh, no, no, no, no. Suffering to about you, that's
not gonna happen. And our Lord said, get thee behind
me safe. You savor the things of men.
You want to be saved without a cross. You want to be saved
without suffering. You want to be saved without
ever knowing anything about sin. You want to be saved without
God being satisfied. And it ain't going to happen,
Peter. And he sent his heart to go to Calvary. There to finish
and complete and accomplish the will of God. To save his people. To redeem his people. To pay
the debt that his people owe. And here he is. Here he is, the
sinless son of God. Here he is, this immaculately
holy, infinitely holy man. Hanging there, nailed, crucified. The nails, the sound of the nails
was probably still ringing in people's ears as he was nailed
there. And here he's hanging on that
cross. Bloody, a crown of thorns still on his head. Beard had
pieces plucked out of it where they plucked out his beard. And he's hanging there. And all
the wrath of God is coming down on him. The wrath of God is burning
on him. And that's why he says, Father,
if it be possible, if there's any other way, let this come
past from me. Nevertheless, not my will but
thine be done. And there he is. He's suffering
under the wrath of God. Man, he suffered at the hands
of men. But it wasn't the hands of men that bothered him about
his death on the cross. Because he said, Father, forgive
them. They don't know what they're doing. But oh, when He had to
face God, when He had to face His Father, when He had to face
the justice and the wrath and the fire of God Himself that
would burn against His own Son as He hung on that cross. Can
you imagine the agony of soul? It says that He cried, He wept tears,
wept tears that He might be heard in Hebrews 5. And oh, beloved,
what does it all mean? What does it all mean? Oh, what
does it mean, that cross? What does it mean, Him hanging
there? What does it mean, that they put the crown? What is it
all going to happen here? And many, many multitudes were
gathered around that. And all the lookers were a great
crowd around Him. And they took their place at
the foot of the cross. And it says there, they watched
Him there. They watched him there. Can you imagine? I don't want
to, I could go to an execution. I suppose I could for certain
people, certain things that they might've done. But this man,
this man, they admitted it. Pilate said it four times. There's
no fault in this man. There's nothing amiss in this
man. I'll scourge him and let him go. I know that there's nothing
wrong with this man. He's not done anything worthy
of this. But they sat and watched him. Watched him. They probably come from all over. And I mean they come from other
countries. And they watched him. And they're looking at him. They're
looking up at him. They're watching him. In fact, they said at times,
let's see what he's going to say. When he said, Eloi, Eloi,
they said, is that Elijah? They said Elijah's going to come.
They're watching. They're watching to see how he's
going to react to this awful agony. They're going to watch
to see how he reacts. Because they had heard him and
watched him and heard him and saw his miracles. What's this
man going to do now? He saved others, but he can't
save himself. As they watched him there, what
did they see? What did they see when they sat and watched him
there? What did they see? There was a lot of different
classes of people there. A lot of different types of people
there. What did they see when they sat
and watched him there? It says they sat and watched
him sitting down. They walked off here and sat
down on the ground. Sat down. crossed their legs,
leaned back on their elbows, got like this here on their face,
and watched the man suffer. Watched the man ridiculed. Watched
the blood poured out of his hands and his feet and his side. They
sat down to watch this scene. But what did they see? Well,
the Roman soldiers All they saw was a justly condemned Jew who
they had to execute and had no compunction about it whatsoever.
Did not feel any compunction about it. All they saw was a
condemned felon. All they saw was somebody that
they were told to take out and crucify, take out and mistreat,
and do all the things that they were due. And that's all they
saw was a condemned felon. They just saw a man and said
he was there because he was there he must have done something really
bad for the Jews to treat him like this. Must have been really
a mean man for people to cry out against him the way they're
doing. That's all they saw. And you know what the Jews saw? They saw the end of somebody
that claimed to be their Messiah. that came to be when they said,
well, when our king comes, he's going to take care of everything.
He's going to get rid of the Romans. He's going to reign.
He's going to sit on his throne and all the nations are going
to bow down for us. But they never read that thy
king cometh sitting meek and lowly on a colt on the fold of
an ass. They never read that he would
cry and cry not and let his voice be lifted up. They never read
that he said, oh my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? They
never read where he said, I'm a worm and I'm no man. They never
read where he says, my iniquities be more than the hairs of my
head. They never read about the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ,
coming to be a man, meek and lowly. They never read about
Him being a lie to the Gentiles. Oh, they thought all they saw
was a deceiver, an imposter. One who they think betrayed their
own nation. And surely, surely, you know
what he did, the worst thing he did for them? He disturbed
their religion, Gary. He disturbed their religion.
He tore their religious house down all the way around them.
And he said, he said they didn't have no refuge to hide anymore. When he came, he was in there
changing money, selling sacrifices, and just making all kinds of
money, making a mockery. How did it be like us coming
in here and being out there in the foyer and being out in front
of the church? And they got all kinds of stuff
to sell. And when you going in and out buying and selling, Making
money, hand over fist. I'll give you 10 cents for that
little bird. I'll give you cents for that
dove there. So somebody needs it to offer
it for a sacrifice who's poor. And then the poor man comes along,
that costs you a dollar. And our Lord Jesus went in there
and hit him with a scourge. He went in there with the weapon,
young people. Went in there whipping them.
And he said, oh, he started turning over the tables. And their money
was on the tables, all money laying out everywhere. Turned
over the tables, money went to flying. And they said, we can't
have this. We can't have this. And then
when them Pharisees would come around to him, you know, and
start talking about all the religion, how good they was and all that.
You know what our Lord said to them? Oh, you generation of vipers
and serpents, how in the world are you going to escape the damnation
of hell? Oh, you take Moses' law and you
lift it way up here. And you put burdens on men's
backs and men's hearts. And you require people to live
certain ways. And you divide women's houses
and take their social security checks and buy you jets and ride
around in your Mercedes and big long Cadillacs and limousines. And our Lord Jesus says, but
you won't got nothing to do with the judgment of God, the mercy
of God, and the pity of God. You're so minute about your ties. But oh boy, you don't know nothing
about mercy. You don't know nothing about
love. You don't know nothing about grace. And that's what they saw. We
got rid of him. I said, we can go back to our
religion. We'll feel comfortable now. They didn't have no place to
go. And many, many, many, so many, and they do this today.
Many see the cross as nothing more than just an idolatrous
piece of superstition and magic. That's all they see the cross
as. You know how I know that? Because they wear it around their
necks. put it in their ears, hang it around their mirrors
in their cars. I seen a fella the other day,
buried his dog and he made him a great, buried his dog. And
then he built this real fine out of four by four stuff, wheeled
it out and everything, made him a cross about like this, about
that, for his dog! A cross for a dog! Now that's just, you can't get more
superstitious than that. You can't get more pagan than
that. Can you? Oh, and they wear that trinket
around their neck and they feel it wards off evil. Man, when
she was a little girl, she told me, you know, she'd watch every
scary movie, especially vampire movies. And she got her cross
to light up in the night and put it above her bed so the vampire
wouldn't get her. It glowed in the dark. Oh my, she didn't want them vampires
getting her. You know, got her one of them
that glowed in the night. Walked in her room for a minute,
you saw the lights out, she crawled right up above her bed. Oh my. We laugh about it now,
but that's the way it is, boy. I tell you what, you know, they
wear that thing that makes them feel so good about themselves.
They have no idea of what the cross is, what it means. That's
what it means. That would be like somebody,
a son or a daughter, a husband or wife getting killed in a car
wreck and just mangled up and then you have that car put down
and put down and put down and made your military right and
wear that around your neck. The very thing that took their life
and you want to hold that and wear it around your neck? Oh, some folks see the cross
as God's best effort to save sinners. Boy, God's done His best now.
This is it. This is it. This is the best
God. God's done His very best now.
What more could He possibly do? This door's been opened for you
there on the cross. Oh, they see the grief, but they
don't see the glory. And there they are. Oh, listen,
that's what preachers say all the time. God's done His best
now. He put His Son on the cross. Now, what are you going to do
about it? I know exactly what you'll do about it if God don't
do something for you. You'll do just exactly what they did.
You'll just sit down there and watch and twiddle your thumbs
and scratch your ear. And oh, listen, they see the
grief but got the glory. And then they'll say, what can
be glorious about that? What can be glorious about that?
And then there's a man who says, God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. What can be glorious
about that? They see all that grief. They
see all the suffering. They see a man that's to be pitied,
but not to be believed. They see a man that's to be pitied,
but not to be preached. They see a man that they're supposed
to feel sorry for, but never, never, never worship him. And
there hangs a man, what's so glorious about a man hanging
there, so beaten and bruised and bleeding, that he looks more
or less, as the scripture said, he don't even resemble a man,
that looks more like a hideous monster than seeing the glory
of God in him. Seeing God's glory in him.
And I tell you what, there's somebody else that saw something
there too. A whole other group. What do we see? What do we see when we see the
cross? I see something altogether different when I see the cross
in Basel. Don't you? When I see that cross, when I
see thou Lord Jesus and read these things that I just read,
I see all that they did to him, but I see also that it was the
will of God. It was the purpose of God. And
I see all my salvation in that man on that cross and what he
did. All my salvation right there. All of it. And it was all done
before I ever... Salvation was accomplished outside
ourselves. That's all objective. That's
why we don't look to ourselves. We always look outside ourselves. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
After they gave him that gall and vinegar to drink, you know
what the next word out of his mind was? It is finished. Oh my, I see all our salvation. Look over in Luke chapter 2,
just a minute. Look in Luke chapter 2, just
a minute. With me. Let's start at verse 25. And I tell you, that where a
man sees the cross, by faith and God opens his eyes he sees
all of his salvation all of it look what happened here in Luke
2.25 now this is 30 something years before the cross 33 years
before the cross and behold there was a man in Jerusalem whose
name was Simeon. And the same man was just and
devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. Who's the consolation
of Israel? Christ. And the Holy Ghost was
upon him. And it was revealed on him by
the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen
the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into
the temple. the spirit led him into the temple
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for
him after the custom of the law now listen to this then took
him up in his arms and blessed God and said Lord now let us
thy servant depart in peace according to thy word now listen to it
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation that took place yet because he's
seen salvation in a person they saw a man just beaten and bruised
and mangled but boy when we look at it we see salvation we're
like we're like him and then look what he said and then this
is this salvation that you prepared before all the faces of the people.
God prepared this salvation. God prepared this man. And I
see, I say, what do we see? We see all of our salvation,
all of it. All of it, from Alpha to Omega.
And I tell you what, you know what else we see? We see God's
holiness. God's infinite, immaculately
holiness. He's thrice holy. Holy as Father,
Holy Son, and Holy Ghost. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
our God. We see His holiness. God will
not do anything for any man and let down His holiness. Everything,
He has had it. Holiness is His nature. Holiness
is His name and He dwells in the beauty of holiness. And we
see His holiness there. And I tell you something else
we see when He's there. We see justice. Justice. Justice is something that this
generation, this world doesn't know nothing about. They absolutely
know nothing about it. And if they try to execute justice
down there, now everybody goes into a riot and into a tizzy. Justice is justice thrown out
the window. I don't know what you've got
to do to get put in jail for any length of time. I don't know how much You got
to do for some judge to finally say, I'm going to throw you under
the jail. There's no justice from the White
House down to the poor house. Nobody knows nothing about justice.
And nothing works worse than that is people don't care. But God's justice, when he's
looked at his son and he found sin, Justice pulled out his sheath,
set a Waco sword against my fellow, a Waco sword against my shepherd,
and smite him. And oh, and I'll tell you what
else we saw when we saw that. We saw the wrath of God come
down on him. That's why he cried out like he did on the cross.
That's why he was in such agony on the cross. Because God sent
himself against his own son. God himself come against his
own son. You know, Doogie was such a good
child. He was so good in nature. And
if I ever had to whip him, you know what he'd do? He'd go get
the belt and say, here, Dad. And then he'd turn around and say,
you know, it's awful. He'd say, here, Dad. It's hard to whip a youngin'
like that. And you know God loved His Son. And you know what our
Lord Jesus Christ said to His Father? He said, Father, smite,
smite, smite, smite, smite. He knew exactly what He was getting
into. He knew exactly what His Father
was going to do to Him. He knew exactly. He said, It
please the Lord to bruise Him. It pleased the Lord to make His
soul an offering for sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ walked
right into the wrath of God and justice of God and holiness of
God and righteousness of God with all of His being in perfect
obedience. Nothing reserved. But I tell
you what else I see. Not only do I see holiness, wrath
and justice, but I also see love. Oh, what love? What love? God commendeth His love toward
us. Oh, the love of God that gave
His Son. The love of God that caused Christ
to die. The love of our Savior that was
willing to take our place. The love of the Holy Ghost that
He would take the things of Christ and show them unto us. I see
the mercy of God. Mercy. It was mercy. Grace. I see the grace of God.
justice and grace and wrath and mercy truth and justice all met
together and was Reconciled in that blessed man on that cross.
Oh my And I see redemption. I'll tell you this is what we
see we see redemption when he was hanging on that cross He
was paying a debt redeemed us with his own precious
blood. And redemption means this, you
pay the debt to somebody, and then they are free of that debt,
rescued from that debt, released from all obligations, and now
you can go free. And we're free. You know what we owe the Lord
for our salvation? You know what you give Him for
your salvation? But you know what we do? We love
Him. We worship Him. We adore Him. We bless Him. We talk about Him. We enjoy Him. But we can't pay
Him back. We can't love Him enough to pay
Him for the love that He did for us. We can't worship Him
enough for what He did for us. We can't talk about Him enough
for what He did for us. But I'm like, yeah, you're going
to hear the last of it. Oh, listen. And then I see justification. Oh, God said He comes to find
sin on us and He can't. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
was raised for our justification. Where's my justification that
I'm accepted of God? I've said this so many times.
There He sits at right hand of God. What's my justification
that I claim to have no sin? There He sits at God's right
hand. What's my justification that I'll enter into glory because
of Him? There He sits at God's right hand. What's my justification
that God will hear me when I pray? There is sense if God's right
here. What's the justification I believe God will never leave
me, never forsake me? There is sense if God's right
here. Next time the devil accuses you, or you feel like, you know,
you've done something and you feel just a little reserve coming
in the presence of God, you say, there's my justification coming,
Lord, here I come. I'm gonna come anyway. And oh, we see there the forgiveness
of sins. We see the peace, the pardon,
the sanctification, and the glorification. All of our salvation there on
that cross. And I tell you what, as God allows
us to live and allows us to see these things, there's so many,
many, many, many wonders of God's grace. Oh my, so many wonders
of the grace of God. So many wonders of the mercy
of God. there is seen in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And in fact, when you and I get to glory, the evidence of that
cross will still be in His body. You read Revelations 5, and they
saw as a lamb as it had been slain. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
when He went to glory, He went there as a man. He was God. He is God. But he's a man sitting
there right now. He's a man. He did not leave
his, he took his flesh into glory with him. He took what he had
after the cross. That's what he is in glory. And
when we get there, we'll recognize him by the prints
of his name. We'll know him, we'll just know
him like we know him now. But that's what they sang, the
song of redemption. And we'll know we're there because
of Him, but sin will never ever bother us again. Our salvation
will be so wondrous that nothing in this world will ever enter
into. Everything will be made new. The only thing not new there
is the scars in His body. And we'll know we're there because
of Him. Because of Him. And I tell you
what's the main thing you reckon we see on that cross? Of our
Lord Jesus Christ hanging there. I tell you the first thing I
think we all see is this. That when He's hanging there,
He's hanging there for me. For me. Me. For me. He's hanging there and there
he hangs. And he's hanging there for Donald L. Bell Jr. He's hanging there as my substitute. Ain't that the way you see him
as your substitute? God said, come forth and answer
for your sins. Come forth and answer for your
wretchedness. Come forth and answer for your
guilt. Come forth and answer for your enmity. Come forth and
answer for your hatred. Oh, come forth and answer for
all the sins that you've ever done and ever will do. And when
it was about time to come forth, the Lord Jesus Christ said, here
I am. Here I am. And He did that for
all of His children. Take me. Let these go their way if you
want me. Take me. Take me. And oh, God accepted him in our room
instead and in our place. And God was satisfied with him.
And I see him and I know you see him too suffering the wrath
of God in your stead, in my stead. God's wrath will never ever fall
on me. I've told you this before, when
I realized that God was never ever angry with me after I've
seen Christ, that He's not angry with me. I was always trying
to keep on the good side of God and keep God on the good side
of me, and I've done that for years. And you did too, and I
have just no peace in it. But when I saw Him, I'll never
forget that day. We had an old flowery chair,
big old back chair, big old arms on it, and I remember sitting
in that chair and I sat and reading. And I was reading, and I was
reading something about Romans, and it, you know, just like a
lie come down, said, said that, you know, justified by faith,
you know, we have peace with God. Christ bore all your sins,
and so the wrath of God was expended on Him, and God will never, ever
expend the wrath of God on Him again. And I just sat there and
just felt this wonder. And then a little while, I went
like this, Oh, Lord, blessed be Your name. Oh, blessed be
Your name. I ain't never ever felt any,
never entered my mind that the wrath of God would ever be on
me ever again. Oh my, and oh I tell you what,
and I see His glory. You know why we still see Him
there? We see His glory in saving such awful, sinful, vile, wretched,
miserable people and individuals like us. God saved the worst
man that I ever knew in my life when He saved me. And when He saved me, He still
saves the worst man that I know. You're looking at the worst man
that I know, and God saved me. Ain't that something? I see that on the cross. I see
Him doing that. No wonder the Apostle said, I'm
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. who gave himself for me who gave
himself and loved me loved me and gave himself for me and I
tell you what whenever you see that his love for you his death
for you his sin offering for you his sacrifice for you then
I tell you that I know this that you'll never ever A worm, that's
what I am, just an old maggot. An old sorry maggot. And there Christ hung on that
cross. He said, I'm a worm and no man. Because that's what I was. And he so identified with us. The world sees something and
then we see something. Jesus, keep me near the cross. Keep me near the cross. Keep
me looking, keep me believing, keep me trusting. Oh, John Newt
got that song, I beheld one upon that tree, and it absolutely
moved me not. Then he says, then he turned
his languid eyes on me and seems to charge me with his death. And whenever He charges you with
His death, you know what happens then? You go to Him. You go to Him. Do you see Him? I see Him. Love Him. Love Him. Need Him. Gotta have Him. Oh, our Father, the blessed,
blessed Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how gracious. Oh God, blessed be your name.
Allow us to meet here. Wonderful, wonderful gospel.
Blessed gospel and the wonders of your grace, the wonders of
your mercy, the wonders of your love. Oh, the wonders. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, our hearts are lifted up
to Him. Our souls are lifted up. Thanksgiving and praise unto
Him. Thank you for making us accepted
in the Beloved. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for going
there and letting yourself be so humiliated, letting yourself
be so humble, letting yourself be so mistreated, and doing it
so willingly, so lovingly, so caringly, so completely and perfectly,
and finishing and accomplishing our salvation. Thank you, Lord
Jesus, that even now, You sit there at God's right hand, and
as we're worshiping here tonight, and talking about you, and reading
your word, and praying, that you sit there at the right hand
of God, and you see us, and you hear us, and you love us, and
you pray for us, and you preserve us, and you keep us, even now. Even now, Lord, I see you there
in your glory. Oh, you in your glory. Oh, what
glory you dwell in. Oh, bless your name. Oh, what
glory, what glory you dwell in. Father, enable us to honor you
and live to your glory. Please protect us and work your
will out in our lives perfectly in every way. For Christ's sake,
amen. Amen. Let's do a couple of verses
of that 353. I think that's it. I think that's it, 353. No, it's,
what is it? Keep me near the cross. Near
the cross. I thought it's 353. How much?
351. Okay. I only missed it by two. So strong Save the next three verses and
then the course on the last Day Oh, baby Till I reach the golden strand
Just beyond the river Don't get much better than that
in this world. Good night and God bless you. See you Wednesday,
Lord willing.