Let's begin tonight's service by reading scriptures. If you would turn with me to the 143rd Psalm, Psalms 143. We're going to read verse one, and then we're going to skip to verse seven. Here we go. Verse one. Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications. And now I want you to take particular note of this.

It says in thy faithfulness, answer me. I appreciate that there are faithful brethren and that the Lord gives us the ability to be as faithful as we can, but there's only one person's faithfulness that stands out and that we all take our coin from, our lead from, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. give ear to my supplications in thy faithfulness answer me and in thy righteousness now drop down to number seven if you would hear me speedily oh lord my spirit faileth hide not thy face from me lest i be like unto them that go down into the pit cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning for in thee do i trust cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee.

Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies. I flee unto Thee to hide me. Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God. Thy Spirit is good. Lead me into the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O Lord, for Thy name's sake, for Thy righteousness' sake. Bring my soul out of trouble, and of Thy mercy cut off mine enemies and destroy all them. that affect my soul, for I am thy servant."

Tonight, we're going to be looking at the very thing of the sovereignty of our God. In fact, the title for tonight's study is, Sovereignty Displayed. All right, we're going to start off tonight by reading from our text in Matthew chapter 27, verse 33 through 44. And then we'll spend the rest of our evening in the handout.

We don't have a lot, and I've kind of kept them a little bit short these last couple of weeks because I want these certain verses to really set in with us and really kind of resonate with us, and I want to be able to go back to the last week's study, and like our brother Norm Wells says, you go back and you clean the field again, and you come up with more rockets, more rocks, more nuggets, and so that's what I hope that that the Lord gives us the ability to do. So beginning at Matthew 27 verse 33, we read these words, and when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say a place of a 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 watched him there. And set up over his head his accusation written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and the other on the left.

And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads and saying, That thou didst destroy the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also, the chief priests mocking him with the scribes and elders said, he saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God, let him deliver him now. If he will have him, for he said, I am the son of God, The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. And I think we'll spend a little more time looking at those thieves next week. But for tonight, I want to begin in the handout, if you would, the first paragraph of page one.

In this scene at Golgotha, the Holy Spirit shows us a tremendous display of God's glory, His glorious sovereignty in three things. We can clearly see God's sovereignty displayed in the fulfillment of Holy Scripture by men who had no regard for the Scriptures, no regard, yet they did exactly what God had purposed that they would do and said what God had purposed them to say.

Listen to these words from Acts 4 verse 27 through 28 to confirm what I just said there in that first paragraph. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. You see that? You see how the Lord in his word declares that they were all there.

Every one of those Gentiles, every one of those high priests, every single one of the scribes, they were all doing exactly what God had determined before to be done. Listen to Acts 13, 27 through 29. For they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets, which were read every Sabbath day, They have fulfilled in condemning him, and though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher. So the Lord God makes even his son's murderers to be his witnesses. See how everything glorifies God? Everything in creation will glorify our Lord in one way or another. Now, first we read this. It says, They gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall, and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.

That was verse 34. This mixture of flat wine that had gone sour and bitter, mixed with gall, was thought to be medical. A mixture that would prolong one's life, possibly. They thought it would cleanse out the body or the flesh. It was given by the soldiers because according to God's decree by his prophet in Psalms 69 verse 21, where it says, they gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. And these soldiers did exactly what God had purposed them to do.

Page 2. John Gill wrote this. He said, This portion of vinegar with gall was an aggravating circumstance in our Lord's sufferings, being given to him when he had a violent thirst upon him, and was an emblem of the bitter cup of God's wrath he had already tasted of in the garden and was about to drink up.

We also read there, when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. Some say our Lord refused to drink of this mixture because he was determined to suffer the wrath of God for us without any distraction or intoxication of mind. And he refused to drink of it because it would make all to know that he would do nothing to prolong his life, but was willing to die now that his hour had come, the fullness of time had come, and he would now lay down his life according to his word.

We also read in verse 35, and they crucified him and parted his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of by the prophet. They parted my garments among men, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. Now again, we are reminded that the Lord was in total control on this day as in any other day. Folks, our Lord has never not been in control. The wicked soldiers did nothing except what God had long before said that they would do. This parting of our Lord's garments was a fulfillment of the Psalms 22 verse 18, where it said, they part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture.

Also, we see where they were sitting down, they watched him there in verse 36, and after they had scourged him, mocked him, beat him, and crucified him, these hardened men sat down to watch the Lamb of God die. They watched the Son of God, but to their astonishment, there was no wiggle, no squirming, and no dying until he gave up the ghost by his own sovereign will.

Secondly, we see a display of God's sovereign, distinguishing grace in the two thieves crucified with our Lord. And I hope to spend a little more time with that next Friday. But then we read these words, then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and another on the left, verse 38. Now our Lord Jesus was crucified between two thieves, just as the prophet Isaiah declared he must be. He was numbered with the transgressors. That's 53 verse 12.

But let us not forget that one of these thieves was plucked from the burning pit of fire out of the very jaws of hell by God's sovereign grace. Page three. The other was left to suffer the just consequences of his sin. Let it never be forgotten by us that if we are saved. We are saved because God did it.

The only distinction between you and I and the damned in hell is the distinction that grace has made. Listen to these words from 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7. For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as thou hast not received it? Or these words from 1 Corinthians 15, 10. But by grace, by the grace of God, I am what I am. or Romans 9, 16, so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

Thirdly, we see in these verses a great display of God's sovereignty in causing reprobate, unbelieving men to declare his truths, to declare the very essence of the gospel, though they never knew it themselves. It's very possible that it was the testimony of Pilate, the testimony of these wicked, jeering Jews, and the testimony of the mocking chief priests, scribes, and elders that became the instruments by which God taught that elect thief the gospel and brought him to faith in Christ.

Bill and I had a conversation about this one time. He remembered very, very distinctly when he was a kid, Bill Silva, my friend Bill Silva, for those of you who don't know who I'm talking about. We were talking once and he was telling me how a man in the apartment complex where he was living came up and he was gonna scare him in a bush outside of one of the doors, and he was going to jump out and just kind of startle him. And the guy knew that he was there, and he caught Bill, and he began to preach the Word of God to Bill, but that was the only time, and he never really spoke about who the Lord was, and that was the only After that, I guess he'd even gone off and left the religion that he was in, and never gave any signs after that point that he had anything to do with the gospel. But Bill remembered that very point, that this man had pointed him to the Bible and said a couple of truths at that time, even though he went on to live his life without any religion after that point.

So it was interesting that when I was reading about this and putting this together, I thought about Bill and that man who came into his life. You know, Kathy has shared with me over the years that though she was raised in a false religion, There were just enough truths that stuck with her throughout the years that when she heard the truth preached in scriptures, it magnified what she had heard back in those years, even though it came from the false religion.

The Lord didn't save anybody through the preaching of false religion, but that doesn't mean he doesn't teach us the gospel through men who don't know it, just like we're seeing here. that Pilate declared this as Jesus, the King of the Jews. In verse 37, Pilate, by the order of divine providence, this is the second paragraph from the bottom, page three, by divine providence, announced that the crucifixion, that the crucified Jesus Christ is the King of the Jews. And he refused to alter it, even though he was urged to do so by the chief priests and the scribes. This proclamation was made in Hebrew, the language of religion, in Greek, the language of philosophy, and in Latin, the language of science. That was no accident. Brother Don Fortner wrote this about that statement. He said, there is no true religion, no true philosophy, and no true science that does not begin with the acknowledgement and confession that Jesus Christ is King.

The priests, the scribes, the elders, and the people danced in a state of drunkenness around Emmanuel's cross. And in their blasphemy, they spoke the truth of God as distinctly as an inspired apostle." Page 3. Page 4. In verse 40, it says, they jeered.

They said, though thou destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, Though they knew it not, these religious ritualists here proclaim the fact of our Lord's death and resurrection. He destroyed the temple of His body in death, and He raised it up again in three days.

And they mock the Lord, saying, He saved others, Himself He cannot save, in verse 42. Well, that is the very essence of the gospel, is it not? The Son of God died as our substitute. If he would save us, he could not save himself. Those foolish and blind religionists, they did not know what they were proclaiming, that which is Emmanuel's greatest glory. It was because he saved others that he could not save himself.

Were he willing to let chosen sinners perish, he could have easily saved himself, but he bore not only the cruel nails and spear, but the more cruel mockeries, rather than give up his self-imposed task of saving his people by the sacrifice of himself.

They cried out, he trusted in God, verse 43. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a man lived by faith in all things, trusting God his Father. Thus he taught us that the only way we can honor, obey, and live for God in this world is by faith. and by his faith, consummating in his obedience unto death as God the Holy Spirit declares in Galatians 3, 22 through 26, where we read, but the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise of faith of Jesus Christ, I'm sorry, that the promise by faith of, did you catch that? that by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." I remember the first time that verse jumped out at me. I had thought about that, and I had read that verse over and over and over again, and I read it wrong. I kept reading it, by the faith in Jesus Christ. And it's not that, it's the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Then it goes on, it says, but before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up under the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster, for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Therefore, we are justified by His faith. It is not our believing that fulfilled God's covenant promises and brought in that blessed righteousness by which we now stand in before Him in life. The promise is given to all who believe. But the promise was fulfilled and comes to us by faith of Jesus Christ.

It was Christ to whom the promise was made as our surety in the everlasting covenant upon the condition of his obedience unto death as our substitute. Page 5. And it is Christ who obtained the promise by his faithful fulfillment of his covenant promises are surety. Listen to these words from Hebrews 10 verse 5 through 14.

Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not. but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifice for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin, thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.

He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. And every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin. But this man, This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. I was in a conversation this last week with a man, and he said to me, he said, in the day of judgment, And he was referring to 2 Peter, or it might be 1 Peter 2, verses 11, 12, when Peter encourages, he pleads with God's people to abstain from fleshly lust. And this man said that in the last day of judgment, those who are condemned to hell, who were not saved by the blood of Christ will see the glory of God and God's people by what they did on this earth. And I had to stand up at that moment and say, you are absolutely incorrect.

Nobody will see anything in John Reeves that was of any glory to God outside of my belief, which is a gift of God, to believe his son's word. That is the only thing in John Reeves that anybody can say is a glory to God. And you know who's the glory of God? It's the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Jesus Christ is the glory of God. If they look to me and see anything, they will see that Christ died for me, and that's it. Nothing in this flesh that I've ever done on this earth is worthy of God's glory. And that's all there is to that.

That's what we're talking about here. We're talking about the faithful one, the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done for his people. Let's go back to our handout now. Page five, fourth paragraph from the bottom. It is this faith of Jesus Christ that is revealed to us by the, and I should have put in there, the preaching of the gospel. We are shut up to Christ, who is the faith that is now revealed in the gospel. Our faith in Christ is not revealed to us.

It is given to us and worked in us by the mighty operations of God the Holy Spirit. Listen to these words from Ephesians 1, 19-20, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward. See how all the glory goes to Christ? See how it always goes to him who believe according to the working of His mighty power. Our belief is according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places.

Listen to these words from Ephesians 2, verses 8-9, It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." That man who tried to express to me that people would see his works on this earth and see the glory of God in it, he has no idea what true grace is. Grace puts the flesh, we have no confidence in this flesh. Look at these last words of Colossians 1, 12 and 13.

Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life, who have delivered us from the power of darkness and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." Page 6. It is Christ, the faith of Christ, in other words, who is revealed. When God the Holy Spirit comes to chosen, redeemed sinners in the saving power of His omnipotent grace, He convinces them of all that Christ accomplished by His faithful obedience as our substitute. When he reveals Christ's atonement, that the righteousness of God, as is spoken of in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, has been brought in by Christ's obedience and that justice has been satisfied by Christ's blood. That's what we read down there in John 16, verse 8 through 11.

When he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and ye see me no more. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

And the sinner, being convinced of these things, trusts Christ's faithfulness. Again, they taunted our Redeemer, saying, He said, I am the Son of God, verse 43. Modern false religionists choose to ignore this, but these people heard his doctrine plainly. Jesus Christ of Nazareth openly, publicly declared himself to be the Son of God.

That's why they kept trying to kill him. That's why they tried to run him off the cliff. And he had to walk through the midst of them without them being able to see him. That's why they hated him so much. It wasn't what he had done. It wasn't all the good works that he had done. It was his declaration that he was the son of God. And that is who he is.

He is God and man in one glorious person. The God-man, Emmanuel, God with us, our mediator. He was the God-man in Mary's womb, while He lived on the earth in obedience to the Father's will for us, and when He died as our substitute upon the cursed tree. And he is now and forever the God-man exalted to save his redeemed.

Robert Hawker wrote on this portion of Matthew's Gospel, he says, here let us pause over this solemn subject and again look up by faith and behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Methinks we may, as we look up and behold that wondrous sight, contemplate Jesus, as thus with arms extended, inviting his redeemed to come to him, as his arms are stretched forth to embrace them, and while his arms are thus open to receive, his feet are waiting for their coming. And with his head reclining, he looks down with his eyes of love, as welcoming their approach.

And what a thought it is for every true believer in Christ to cherish and never to lose sight of Jesus in all this he hung on the cross, not as a private person, but as the public head of his body, the church. Page 7. For as certain as that you and I were both in the loins of Adam when he transgressed in the garden and were alike implicated in his guilt and punishment, So equally are all the seed of Christ crucified with Christ, and interested in his salvation. For so the character both of justice and grace runs, as we read in Isaiah 45, 25, in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory.

When we think about the crucifixion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, we ought always to remember with deep reverence, gratitude, and praise how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15. The gospel is much more than mere declaration of fact that Christ died. The gospel is a declaration of how he died. The gospel has not been preached until it has been told how that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. Again, Brother Don Fortner wrote, he says, Our Lord Jesus Christ died voluntarily. He was made sin, but his own hand laid our sins upon him.

He was slain by the sword of justice, but His own hand held the sword. When the Word of God asserts that the Lord Jesus Christ was and is triumphant and victorious in His death, the meaning is just this, He shall have that for which He died. His people shall be saved. His Father shall be glorified. He shall be exalted forever.

And I put three sets of verses on the back of page eight, or on page eight on the back of your handout. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. And he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53, 10 through 12. Romans 8, 1 through 3.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. for what the law could not do, and that it was weak in the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.

And then we read in Romans 8, 33 through 34, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Amen.