I want you to turn to Luke 23,
and I'm going to begin a series here on Wednesday night, right
up until Easter. I want to talk to you about the
seven sayings of the cross. There are seven sayings of the
cross. You ought to get to know them.
You ought to know them by heart, actually. But tonight, if you
don't, feel free to take notes, write these down. In Luke... chapter 23, beginning
with verse 27. And there followed him a great
company of people and of women, which also beheld and lamented. 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
wounds 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 male factors 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 male factors, 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 raiments. and cast lots. And 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 to drink, and saying,
If thou be the Christ, if thou be the king of the Jews, save
thyself. and a superscription was also
written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrews,
this is the King of the Jews. The Holy Spirit took very, very
special care to quote the seven sayings of Christ from the cross. Some say he may have quoted the
entire 22nd Psalm. That would be a good Psalm for
you to read too. Not one of the four gospels give
all of the seven sayings, so they're not found in order, but
I want to give you the order of the sayings tonight. And I've
read to you the first saying from the cross, Father, forgive
them for they know not what they do. The second saying was to
the thief, today thou shall be with me in paradise. The third
saying while Christ was hanging on the cross, he said to his
mother, woman behold thy son and son behold thy mother. The
fourth, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The fifth was
I thirst. The sixth is that glorious saying,
it is finished, it is accomplished. And then the seventh, into thy
hands I commend my spirit. We're getting close to Easter.
So I will remind you of what took place during these next
few weeks there on Calvary. The greatest fear I have And
speaking on this subject is that of reducing them to doctrine
or theology. These tremendous, awesome words
of our Lord. I want you to, tonight, think
about them. Think about them. Think about
who said them. The Lord God. Jehovah-Jireh. Think of where they were said,
at Calvary. Think of His condition when He
said them, in His agony and suffering, and the accomplishment of our
redemption. He spoke from the throne of Calvary. Think of the issues involved.
You see, this is no theme for argument or debate. This is that
hour about which he spoke when he said, my hour is not yet come. But now he says my hour is come. This is the hour that was determined
from all eternity when he was to bear his people's sin on the
tree of the cross. Often I try to think, when I'm
thinking of the cross, I try to think, I wonder what was the
climate and atmosphere in heaven, as they all watched and looked
over the banisters of that heavenly city as Jesus Christ, God in
human flesh, went to Calvary. Think of the issues that were
involved when you think of the cross. This is no theme for argument
or debate, so we won't get into that. What practical lessons
is there from the first saying of the cross? And this is the
first saying. Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. Can you imagine that? I probably would be cursing you
if you were nailing me to a cross. There's no telling what I might
say. But not our God, not our Savior. And by the way, just
a point here. Do you know that whoever he prayed
for, he never prayed a prayer that
wasn't answered. So whoever this is he was praying for, Father
forgive them, whoever the them was, that prayer was answered. So,
well, Master, it was everybody. No, it wasn't everybody. It was
them. In fact, in John 17, he said,
I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them, which thou hast given me out of the world. So in the
first saying from the cross, he was praying for his elect.
That means if you're a Christian, he prayed for you. Father, forgive
them. And you know what? He never prayed
a prayer that wasn't answered. Never prayed a prayer that God
didn't answer. He was a perfect prayer and always his prayer
were answered. So what practical lessons that
we might learn first of all, from this first saying from the
cross, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Well,
we see in the text instruction concerning the church's work
here on this earth. You and I are to be that concerned
about other people. That's the Christian life. Not
a self-love, but a love for others. Christ came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister. Is that why you're here? I guarantee
you that's why God saved you. Not to be ministered to, not
to be an entitlement person, but to be a person who's ministering
to other people. If you've been saved from crack
or heroin addiction, whatever God has saved you out of, it
wasn't just for you. It was for other people. Maybe
your mother, father, maybe your own children, husband. It was definitely for others.
And God put you in this church to be a minister. You know, I
so often hear, you know, everybody is not in love with this church,
I would say. Everybody doesn't think that
we will succeed here. And we are a bunch of nobodies. I mean, you look at us. But we
are somebodies with our God. We are the very elect of God.
We are the chosen of God. So His churches, when they understand
their work, they too shall perceive that they are not here to gather
to themselves wealth or honor, or to seek any temporal grandeur,
but we are here to unselfishly live, and if need be, die, for
the deliverance of the lost sheep, the elect of God. Do you know,
every day, More than likely, you meet up with somebody that
God chose before the foundation of the world. You don't know
it, they don't have a big E on their forehead, elect. You don't
know who they are, but they're out there and we are sent to
find them. And the way you find the elect
of God, the people of God, is you're telling out the gospel.
You're being kind and gentle and loving and caring. and Tinder. Amen. And you know, one of the
things I think about this, now that I've had a few days of rest,
I think about it every day since I've been home, I think, we ought
to be filling this auditorium. There's enough people around
here that are lost and in their sin, need to hear the gospel.
You're friends, you know enough people. You know at least 20
people you could invite to come to service Sunday. And it might
shock them. And it may shock you, they might
come and hear the gospel. You don't know that. But I do
know that it's our business to exist for the lost sons. of men. Churches are not formed
to maintain ministers. The church's business is not
to provide recreational activity for us to have a youth program,
softball team, or whatever. We're here to seek... Now, you
can use those things. I'm not against a softball team.
You guys ought to be thinking about it, and gals. I mean, we're
getting near softball season, right? We can have a softball
But that's not our purpose, to have simply that we're after
sheep. Lost sheep. And God has lost
sheep. This church structure was not
built so that you and I might pass away our Sundays sitting
comfortably in God's house, soaking up information. Simply not for
that purpose. You don't come to church because
you have nothing better to do. You come to church because you're
excited about hearing the gospel. And who knows, you might get
to witness somebody being regenerated by the Spirit of God and brought
to faith in Jesus Christ. What a glorious time we have
together occasionally here when 35 people profess faith in Christ. What an awesome thing that is.
A church which does not exist to seek the souls of men has
no reason to justify its existence. If we're not seeking the souls
of men here, you know, the Lord has converted us. I want to see
people converted. And, you know, it doesn't mean
that you have to hang out with religious people either. I'd
like to... You know, while I was... I don't
know whether I told this story Sunday, or not, but I'll tell
it again. While I was down in Florida,
you know, actually, there are a lot of wealthy people where
we go. And so three or four of our major
donors are there. And I'm talking about very wealthy
people. I'm talking about multi, multimillionaires. But anyway,
I went over to visit one of our donors. by their pool and in
their place where they live, there's a restaurant that has
a bar in it. And this donor said, don't be
shocked, just hang on to your seat. This donor said to me,
come on in, I want you to, let's go in the bar, I want you to
meet some friends. You know what I did? I went in the bar. And this guy says to me, He was
introducing me to his friends and said, Kent, this friend of
the donor, said, so Kent, what do you do? I said, well, I'm
a pastor. You're a pastor? I was going to say, can I buy you
a drink? I said, you can. I'll have an iced tea. He said,
an iced tea. You don't want any of this white
lemonade? I looked at him and grinned and
I said, I know that's vodka, that's not lemonade. So, I mean,
you'll get a little of that, but I could have been mighty
pious about it. First of all, I'm not going in
the bar. Now, I'm not encouraging you to go in the bar. Be careful. If you're on a diet, don't go
near the bakery. If you have a problem with alcohol,
you probably ought to stay away from it as much as you can, right? So I don't know. Why was I telling
you? Oh. So a lady and her boyfriend
come in. And I began to chat with them
and meet them. And this lady said that, well, they
told her, they said, You know, Kent here, he runs a homeless
center. And she said, oh, you know, I
once kind of helped in a mission work like that. She said, I'm
Jewish. And she looked right at me. She
goes, they don't allow me here. And said, I lived here once,
but they put me out. And you know, I was swallowing
that hook, line, and sinker. And I looked at Bill later on
that day and I said, did you guys really put her out of this
place because she was Jewish? He goes, no, she was just pulling
your leg. She is Jewish. He said, that's
Barbara Walter's daughter. So I got to. I had to have some
influence on Barbara Walters' daughter. You don't know what
kind of influence you'll have. I mean, my iced tea was probably
a witness to something. It was kind of different. But
I wasn't... She was very friendly and very
warm. And I've thought about her. I've prayed for her. The
Lord could save her, you know. She also said to me, you know,
we bought a place just down the road here, street here. She said,
we paid $3 million for it a few months ago. I mean, that's the
kind of people, you know what I mean, that's down there. I'm
not trying to impress you. I'm just saying God has a people
and they are found everywhere. Not just on the streets, they
can be in the bar drinking. Those guys in there were over
$100 million people, every one of them were worth over $100
million. A lot of money. But if you don't
have Christ, you don't have anything. I mean, hey, you can have all
of the money in the world. Don't have joy and peace. So,
live the exciting life. No matter who you meet, where
you meet, somehow or another you're going to be able to be
a witness. And that's why God has converted you. That's true. He's converted you to tell others. I obtain all things for the elect's
sake, that they may obtain the salvation that's in Christ Jesus. I endure all things for the elect's
sake, that they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ
Jesus. Amen. That's true. So wherever you
are, look for those opportunities. And remember this saying from
the cross, Father, forgive them. You want to be like Jesus? I
do. I really do. Be imitators of Christ. I read this a long time ago in
my early ministry. What a shame many have brought
upon Christianity. The world is asking, how is Christ
a lamb when His followers are lions? How can the churches be
doves when they scratch and smite like eagles? Very, very true
saying. You ever been in a church fight?
They're horrible. They're absolutely disgusting. We shouldn't be fighting one
another in here. We ought to be loving and encouraging and
praise to our God. Remember out there in the world? You know, I've heard so many
stories about this was back in the days when crack was like
the number one drug, but I've heard so many stories from people
who've come to the center who said, you know, I met this person
at the crack house and I had money and they didn't and they
told me if I would give them the money, they'd go get us some
crack. I gave them the money and they never came back. What
a friend. Right? Total betrayal. Well, Real quickly
now, what do these words mean? They know not what they do. When
Jesus said that, they know not what they do. It's here at Calvary
that we see the blindness of the human heart. You think about
how blind once you were. I once was blind, and now I see. You ever look back on your blindness
and your addiction? How horrible. How horrible the
blindness and the craziness of it. They were not ignorant of
his crucifixion, but they were ignorant of the enormity of their
crime. God in human flesh nailed to
the cross. The worst sin that could ever
be committed was not your using drugs. The worst sin that's ever
been committed is when God invaded history and came down here to
earth, we nailed Him to the cross. We said, crucify Him. Crucify. We even paid people to say that
in our grandfathers. Crucify. Say crucify. Remember? Have you read your Bible? Where
they bought the witnesses and said, say crucify. And the whole
crowd began to say, crucify Him. Never has humanity committed
a more grievous crime. They know not. They knew not. It was the Lord of glory. Just think about that. They had
no idea it was the Lord of glory. The Apostle Paul said, I was
a blasphemer before and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained
mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief. Some of you in
here tonight are in unbelief, total unbelief. You're totally
ignorant. You have no idea where you came
from, what you're doing here, or where you're going when you
die. You're just ignorant, living life in ignorance. It's true,
isn't it true? Those of us who have our eyes
opened now by the Spirit of God, we can see how crazy I was. Can you say that? How crazy I
was, how blind, what on earth was I thinking? Oh, you're saying
it all about you. All about you. What a scene this
is. His arms have already been stretched
upon the cross, of torture. His hands have been bound to
the wood with ropes. They are now about to pierce
his hands and feet with nails. Surely they have no idea what
they're doing. Even the two thieves from the
cross said, we're up here justly. We deserve what we're getting.
But this man on the middle cross, he's done nothing amiss. He's
done nothing to deserve this. Think about the total Injustice. When the old Puritan said, they
pierced the very hands from which only blessings flowed. They pierced
his hands from which only blessings flowed. And the soldiers, think
about the craziness of this scene. The soldiers are sitting nearby
casting lots for his clothes. while he's being nailed to a...
Can you even imagine the torture of being nailed to a cross? And
then these rough German soldiers, Roman soldiers, are there having
a little dice game to see who gets his clothes. People are
looking on, the rulers are mocking. I thought about it this way.
It's a scene like a lunatic who's just murdered his own mother
and sits laughing and mocking as the blood flows from her wounded
body. I mean, I know that's a little
out there, but can you imagine? The great creator, Jehovah God. Surely they know not what they
do. You know, you and I needed a
mediator, and that's what Christ is. He's our mediator. He's the man between God and
us. A heavenly mediator. You know, this is a religious
age, and everybody believes in the book. I mean, if you're a
conservative, and if you've been around, especially, I think,
Protestant religion, we talk about the book, the blood, and
the blessed hope. It's, I don't know, it's a form
of godliness, I guess, with not much power. But everybody knows
a little Bible. They talk about Christ, the cross,
the blood, all of these things. But I'm confronting you tonight,
and I'm saying to you tonight, this generation does not know
does not know the three critical, crucial, vital things to knowing
God. They just don't. They do not
know. They know the God of their preacher.
I'm positive that you would say, well, our preacher preaches grace. I think you'd say that. You hear
it enough. I think you would say that. But do you know God
for yourself? The Apostle Paul, after 30 years
of preaching in the book of Philippians said, Oh, that I might know him.
You know, there's not a day that passes except I say that to the
Lord. I want to know you. Deeper, stronger,
more intimately. I want to know you. People say, Columbus discovered America.
Nah, America is still being discovered. There's things still being discovered
about this land of ours. Just think how much further you've
got to go in knowing God. Did you rejoice today and that
God is your Savior and Redeemer and prayed for you on the tree
of the cross? The God of their traditions,
you know the Catholic tradition, the God of their mothers, the
God of their customs, but they don't know the God of the Bible,
the eternal, awesome, almighty, sovereign, omnipotent, unapproachable,
incomprehensible, invisible God that dwells in light, that no
man can approach. Religious people are on a familiar
plane with their God. And you can tell by the way they
conduct their talk, their walk, they do not know the eternal
God. They just don't. This religious
crowd knows nothing of sin. They don't smoke, they don't
chew and don't run with girls that do. They're just some of
you. Base your whole religion on things
you don't do. And it's all a lie because you've
done it in thought, word or deed. It really is. I think about what
a liar I have been for so many years in religion. Acting like
I wasn't like all of us are. You ever think about that? You
ever think about yourself in this light? What a big phony
I am. I act like I am so right, but
you're not. You're just like the rest of
us. You're a, in your, there is no good thing. I'm looking
at people in here have had and are having, still living in and
with the most horrendous thoughts. And you're looking at a man just
like you. But there is a difference because
I'm a new man. There is a new man too here.
You may not see a lot of him, but really, I'm all right with
God. I mean, God and I are all right
is what I'm saying. There is no sin for me. There
is no condemnation. There is no judgment for me.
And many of you, I thought about this, Maybe soon I'll talk about
this on a Sunday morning. But you think about the condemnation
most of us live with. You know why? Because we don't
understand this so great salvation. Yeah, you are a stinking, no
good for nothing, never better in your flesh. But on the other
hand, God has born you again and you are a new creature and
that new you never sins. And that old you and that new
you don't like each other at all. They don't like each other. The devil loves your flesh. He's
always accusing you. What an awesome thing it is to
say, you know, on the cross, Jesus prayed for me. He prayed
that I would be forgiven. So I know I am, because His prayer
was truly answered. I have a mediator. I have a lawyer
at the right hand of God. I have an intercessor. You think
about this Christ, who in His earthly ministry, He said to
Simon Peter, who was a lousy Christian, I don't know how he
could be the first pope. I mean, I wouldn't claim Simon
Peter to be my pope. He was cursing like a sailor
when they arrested Jesus. Blank, blank, blank. I never
knew the man. And Jesus had told him, Peter, I have prayed for
you that your faith fail not. And you know what? Peter, before
that rooster crows, You will deny me three times. Don't you know when that rooster
crowed? That was a poor rooster. Cock-a-doodle-doo. But you know
when that rooster crowed, do you know that rooster really
brought a great message? Don't you know Simon Peter's
heart sunk? The man God had played for, the
one that Christ had died for, I prayed for you, Peter, that
your faith fail not. Isaiah 40 says this, All flesh is grass. Brother Barnard
used to say, yours and your mama's. and your good neighbors, and
your uncles, and your aunties, and your preachers, and your
deacons. And I thought I probably shouldn't
say this tonight. Brother Barnard used to say, what's grass good
for? Now, you may have some suggestions
there to Brother Barnard, but this was back in the fifties
Barnard would say this. He said, anybody save grass around
here? And I thought to myself, they're
going to say yes. That's what the flesh is worth.
It's just grass. It's a mess. Your glory, your
goodness, your morality, your piety, all you have to brag on
is like grass. Except this, God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross, right? As you hear the seven
sayings, and especially as we begin this first saying, Father
forgive them. What a display of redeeming love.
What a display. What compassion is seen in this
blessed Redeemer. When man had done his worst,
and with wicked hands, The creature had dared to crucify the Lord
of glory, yet He covers the guilty heads of His murderers with the
shield of His love in order to secure them from the storm of
the deserved wrath of God. You know what you deserved and
I deserved? The wrath of God. I deserved hell. And I know if
you're a Christian in here, You can say, and you do say, that's
true. Because all those little secrets
that you have on the inside of what you've done. But what a glorious thing it
is to know He's got them all covered. Amen? That He's got those sins covered
by His blood. Do not impute to them this murderous
crime that they've committed. Don't charge it to them. Think
about that. Christ desired the blessed of
mercies for the worst of sinners. The old songwriter wrote, Amazing
love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
These were the very ones who had conspired to put Him to death.
Even as He prayed, they were taking away His innocent life. and some of them he had prayed
for. And you know, I rejoiced again, as I thought about it
today, that those people there who were taking his life, he
prayed for some of them who were the elect. And at some point,
maybe before He died, or after He died on the cross, maybe days
before the resurrection, they came to know Him. But I do know
this, He prayed for them, and they came to know Him as Lord
and Savior. Because He prayed for them. Can
you imagine the perfect Son of God when you are on the streets, When you were in the crack house,
when you were shooting up, when you were in bed with your lovers,
totally dishonoring the body that God had given you, Jesus Christ loved you. Isn't
that amazing? And that He had prayed for you
before you ever did all those things. He had already paid the
price of all of your mess. all of your mess, and then wonder
of wonders sent the hound of heaven, finally brought you down
to the end of your own way, and you ended up in a homeless center. Now, here's what I hear from
some of you, or occasionally, and I understand this is the
devil's ploy. You know, Pastor, I would really like to get away
from people saying things that I went to Grace Centers of Hope.
Why? It's the greatest thing that
ever happened to you. You didn't get here by accident. You ought
to say, and then God brought me a mighty long way. He took
me out there off the streets, drunk and a skunk, shooting up,
sleeping with everybody in town, and brought me to a homeless
center. You know, when you're sleeping
on the floor, you can't fall out of bed. It's a good place
to be. God brought you, brought you.
Just think, you could have died a thousand deaths out there.
We used to have a saying around the guys, I don't know whether
they still use it, but I would say to Eugene, who was here 30
years ago, I'd say to Eugene, how'd you make it out there?
Tuck and roll. He'd say, tuck and roll. They
still use that? Tuck and roll. I said, what do
you mean by that? I mean, when they were shooting
at me, I was tucking and rolling. And here you are in God's house.
And here you are with a family. And here you are getting your
children back. There ought to be hallelujahs
rolling in this place every day. To the God of glory who has saved
you by His precious blood and prayed for you on the tree of
the cross. You know, these sayings from
the cross are so wonderful. The second saying that we'll
talk about here in a bit has always been a wonder to me. I've
preached from that text many, many times where the thief said, remember me. What? Remember me? I want you to think
about this. What a miracle your conversion
is. Here's two thieves. I'm getting
ahead of myself here a little bit in my preaching, Two thieves,
both of them were thieves. They deserve to get what they're
getting. And the one thief says to Jesus, if you're really who
you say you are, come down off the cross and save us with you.
And the other thief on the other side says, this man has done
nothing amiss. We're here justly. We deserve
to be here. Now, can you explain that to
me? How did one thief, be so self-centered, while the other
thief, who was just as guilty, said, Lord, Lord, wait a minute,
you're talking about this man on the center cross, being your
Lord, your King? Lord, remember me. How did that
happen? You see, you're a miracle too.
If you have said, Lord, I'm trusting you, If you send me to hell,
I deserve to go to hell. But Lord, I'd be mighty happy
if you'd just remember me. And what a miracle this is. And
Jesus said, today, not tomorrow, not next year, right now, today,
the day thou shall be with me in paradise. You understand you're
paradise headed. Yeah, well, let's go home. but let's go home happy. And
we have a savior and a redeemer and a Lord. People often say this to me.
Well, we really like your church. We really, really, really like
your message. And you know, next year, maybe
we'll come back and visit with you. Now, you know, All I'm saying
to you is, you get a steady diet of what I've preached tonight. And that diet is going to continue
until the Lord takes me out of here or we all go home. That
is Christ and Him alone.