A Man Compelled to Bear the Cross

Go with me now to Matthew 27. We could have chosen Mark's account or Luke's account. They're very similar. But just one verse is our text and title subject. Look at Matthew 27. Let's read verse 29 through 32 again. This is the same account. When they, verse 29, plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and read in his right hand, they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, hail, king of the Jews.

They spit upon him. took the reed, smote him on the head, and after they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him, and they led him away to crucify him. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear his cross, forced him to bear his cross.

The title of this message is A Man Compelled to Bear the Cross. This is recorded three times, not in John's gospel. The Lord said three times, look back at Matthew 10 with me, Matthew 10. This is recorded that this man bore the cross of Christ. Not his own cross, but Christ's cross. You understand? The cross that Simon was bearing was not his own personal cross. This is important. He was bearing the cross of Christ. And the cross which Christ said we must bear is his cross. This is important. Matthew 10, look at verse 32.

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Now, our Lord told every person that believes to be baptized, didn't he? He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. That's the public confession of faith before Christ. He that can and won't is denying him, and our Lord said he will deny that person. Verse 34, think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword.

For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, the daughter against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." In another place, he said, he cannot be my disciple. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, cannot be my disciple. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. I think it's Luke said he cannot be my disciple.

He that findeth his life shall lose it. He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. This is the purpose of this story is not That some man is just walking along and Jesus needed help carrying his cross. He couldn't carry it. So they found this fella and put the cross on him to help him carry his cross, Christ's cross, all the way to Calvary. That's not subtle. That's not subtle. The purpose of this message, the purpose of these verses, one verse in three gospels, is to show us that every single person whom the Lord Jesus Christ saves, He lays hold of them and lays on them the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They will bear His cross. They will confess Him. And they will follow the Lord Jesus Christ and see Him, like Simon, see Him crucified on that cross. They're not gonna be crucified on, he is. Simon didn't hang on his cross, his substitute did. And he's gonna see that, and he's gonna hear everything Christ said from that cross. I believe, I'm just certain the man was saved, just like the centurion at the foot of the cross was saved. I'd love to bring a message soon on that, that soldier saved at the foot of the cross. That's recorded in all four gospels.

But anyway, it is a horrible, horrible lie in false religion that Jesus Christ fell under the weight of that cross. That is not in the Bible. Roman Catholicism, Mindy and I were talking on the way here, is the epitome of evil religion. All false religion is evil. It's all evil, with man's will being free and God wanting to save and can't unless they let him. That's a God who cannot save. That's false religion. What Christ did on the cross was an offer, and you must accept it. That is a lie. That's not in the Bible. Okay?

The cross, and I'll go ahead and tell you, the cross is something that the Lord God from heaven, the God the Father, purposed before the world began. Cursed is he that hangeth on a tree. Purpose for Jesus, his Son, the only begotten Son of the Most High God, who was with the Father in the beginning, called the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And God in infinite wisdom, love, mercy, and grace, and compassion for sinners, not all, but some, many. Purpose that Christ would come to this earth as a substitute for sinners. be made a curse and hang on that cross as a curse.

And on that cross, nail every handwriting of ordinances, the broken law against God's people, nail it to his cross, paid in full. We broke the law, Christ did not, he kept the law. But Christ was being punished for us breaking the law. And to punish the wages of sin is death. And Christ died. the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. He received what we should have. We receive what he should have. Acceptance, entrance into glory.

All right, Christ on that cross became the substitute of sinners, bore their sins in his body on the tree. When he was carrying that cross, he was carrying much more than a piece of wood. He was carrying the weight, the burden, the sins of all of God's people from the beginning to the end of time on his shoulders. He did not fall under that weight. He did not fail. Carrying that piece of wood was nothing compared to the weight that God put on his shoulders. The sin of all of God's people. Scripture says he shall not fail. Isaiah 42. No, no, he's not gonna fail, he's not gonna fall. If he doesn't go all the way to the cross with our sins and hang there and put them away, we will fail and we will fall. It's not a cooperative effort. Where Christ's done all he can, now it's up to you. Now he went so far, now he's gonna lay on you and it's up to you to make it. That is not what this Bible says.

Salvation is by Jesus Christ alone. Hebrews 1 says, when he had by himself purged our sins, went and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, expecting his enemy to be made his footstool. Expecting every single person he died for to be brought to him in glory by the Holy Spirit someday. The cross.

Roman Catholicism has over there, and this is an old superstition, tradition that's been perpetrated for years by that anti-Christ religion. And Southern Baptist is just as anti-Christ. But they've got what they're called the seven stages of the cross. Number one is when the Lord was condemned. And they've got these little grottos, they call them. Grottos. It's an idol. That's what it is. It's a grove, like the scripture says. It's a little box where you go and you pray and you cross yourself on there.

Nowhere in the Bible says cross yourself. We're not to wear a cross. That's not the cross we bear. That's a graven image with the scriptures. It implicitly commands us not to do. And those who wear these crosses, Some may do it in ignorance, but I don't think so. They're taking glory away from our Lord by telling people, look at me, I'm a Christian. Wearing that ornament around your neck proves you don't know what happened on that cross or you'd be ashamed. Taking glory. Look at me. No, no, no, no, no. Don't look at you. You're a good Christian. You're a nothing and a nobody. You deserve to hang on that cross. Look to him alone.

The scriptures forbids us to wear things like that. Or put it on our bumper sticker. It's stealing Christ's glory. Number one, he was condemned. Number two, he takes up the cross. Number three, another little box, you stop it. He falls under that cross the first time. He falls.

That's not in the Bible. Number four, he meets his mother. That's not in the Bible. He was carrying his cross and some women were weeping. It doesn't say he met his mother. He never called her his mother. Did he? No, no, he did not. He never called her mother. Every time he referred to her, he says, woman. Jesus meets his mother on the way. No, he didn't. Number five, Simon helps Jesus carry the cross. That's not why this story is written. He didn't need help.

Number six, someone named Veronica. That name's not in the Bible. Veronica wipes Jesus' face. Where is that in the Bible? It's not there. Number seven, he falls a second time. He can't make it to the cross. He can't make it to Calvary unless somebody helps him. That's the ultimate blasphemy.

That's not why this story's written. This story is written to show us that every single person whom God Almighty saved is going to bear the cross of Christ and follow Him. And how that happens is, this is the story of God's sovereign, electing, apprehending, compelling grace and power in laying hold of an unseeking, unsuspecting, Bystander and confronting them with the Lord Jesus Christ and putting on you the cross of Christ and now follow that man And you will he did That's the story it's the story of how God saves every single human being All right, let's look at Matthew 27 look at verse 32 as they came out And Mark and Luke says he was coming out of town, Simon. They found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, and him they compelled, the word compelled means force, to bear his cross. Didn't ask him, didn't invite him, didn't say would you like to. Luke says they laid hold of him and on him put the cross. Isn't this a picture of salvation? All right, let's take each line. A man. It's a man of Cyrene, a man. He's just a man. Do you know anything about Simon? No, we don't know anything about him. Doesn't tell us anything.

I think it's Mark's gospel. Let's see here. Yeah, Mark's gospel says he's the father of Alexander and Rufus. Rufus, we believe, was one of the 70 disciples sent out by our Lord to preach, and some gill thinks he was a pastor of a church somewhere, maybe.

That'd be wonderful, wouldn't it? To think here this man is, and everything in God's kingdom, everything about you and me and everything is in the purpose of God to bring his people into his kingdom. Everything. There's nothing insignificant in our life.

But he's a man. He's a father. He's a husband, apparently. He's a father. He's a common, ordinary, sinful, unbelieving man. You don't know anything about him. I don't either, but God did. He says they found him. Who did? Who laid on him this cross? Who laid the cross on Christ? Pilate, the Roman soldiers, the Jew, who delivered him up? Who delivered Christ up to be crucified? That's what it said. The reason I read John's gospel is that it no mention of Simon carrying his cross. Like it didn't happen. Why? Because he didn't need his help.

Right? John's gospel is, you know, there are four faces of the beast there in Revelation 4. They represent the four gospels. The last one being the eagle. That's Christ's deity. That's his godhood. And all through, you read it with me, John 19, when Pilate said, don't you know I have power? Hmm.

Our Lord wasn't speaking then, because Isaiah 53 says, as a sheep, a lamb is led before her, shears his dung, he opened not his mouth. But when Pilate said that, I have power, he said, you have no power over me at all, except it be given unto you by me.

Didn't Christ say when he left, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth? Didn't he say that in his prayer to the Father in John 17? As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life, not to as many as led him, to as many as God gave him.

This is the sovereign Christ. Come with a work to do, to finish, by himself, and he did it. He did not need man's help. He didn't then, he does it now. You need his help. You are powerless to be saved. You cannot come. You will not come. You will not believe unless He sovereignly compels you.

Boy, this needs to be preached with authority, with power, from the rooftop, doesn't it? There's another Jesus out there that wants to save you and can't unless you let Him. Another is knocking on your door. He can't get in. That's not in the Bible. That's another Jesus. In Song of Solomon, the story of the Beloved, she was asleep, and she heard the Beloved at the door. She said, there was a hole in the door. There ain't no handle on that door. Christ said, I'm the door. And he stuck his handle through the door, and he left.

And that's a picture of God's people who get dull of hearing and lazy and lose their, leave their first love and lukewarm and all that. And he gives them a reminder. I was here. You're not interested. I'm leaving. You may not find me again. So they seek him with all their heart. They find him. Where do they find him? In the garden. This is just a man. He's just a common, ordinary man, a sinner.

And he's not going to be saved unless the Lord lays hold of him and compels him to see Christ crucified. And you wouldn't be either. None of us will be. Salvation's of the Lord. It's not of man. It's of the Lord. He's a man. A certain man. A chosen man. Where are you getting all this? What do you mean, where am I getting all this? It's all in the Bible. How many times, we rejoice, Vicki, every time we read a certain woman, a certain man.

It's certain that the Lord chose this man by name. He's from Cyrene, where's that? That's Africa. That's North Africa, it's Libya. He's over a thousand miles from home. He's a far off. He's a stranger here. He doesn't know what's going on. How'd they get here? What's he doing here? At this exact moment in time, when Christ is being crucified, and they lay hold of him and put the cross on him. How'd that happen? Isn't he lucky?

This is sovereign purpose. Power. Covenant, order in all things. He's from Africa, he's black, as are all of Christ's beloved. Ask the Shulamite woman. Ask the beloved in Song of Solomon. She said, I'm black, but by his grace I'm comely. Made beautiful through his comeliness. He's a far off, I was gonna read to you, well I am gonna read to you.

Ephesians 2, and never tire of this, you hath he quickened who were dead in trespassing and sin. Wherein time past you walked according to the course of this world, Simon, Raphica, heathen. You were according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in all the children of the disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past. thinking nothing but the lust of the flesh, desires of the flesh and the mind, children of nature, angry at God.

But God, rich in mercy, for his great love were with you, loved us, who? You, who hath chosen of God, elect of God, redeemed by Christ. We were dead in sin, he's quickened us together, made us alive with Christ. How's that? crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, risen with Christ to walk in newness of life. Oh, it's by grace you're saved. He's raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus our Lord. None of us deserve this. Oh, it's by grace you're saved.

And he goes on to say, you were without, remember this he said, that you were without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, no hope, without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who sometime were far off, a maiden I. How? One way. Not your acceptance of him. It's the blood of Christ. He is our peace. He made both one, broke down the middle. He abolished in his flesh the enmity and the law and make two men. He reconciled us to God. He did it all. And here this man's walking along, a stranger, a far off, just a man, a nobody from nowhere, a black man at that. Far off.

Simon by name. What does Simon mean? It means hearing. Very common name. Much of Simon's inscription. Pharisees, fishermen, Africa, Simon everywhere. It means hearing. This is significant. Our Lord said of all men and women, you have ears to hear, but you don't hear. Right? I have ears to hear. I was born with ears. They were a lot better than they are now. But I would, let me qualify that. I think my spiritual hearing is pretty keen. My physical hearing, it's really an advantage now. Sometimes many will be walking along and say, did you hear what they said? No. Not hearing sometimes is bliss.

But men have ears to hear, and they won't hear. That's what our Lord said. He told Isaiah, go. He said they won't hear, so stop their ears up and even further. And they're not going to hear. No one's going to hear this gospel, unless what? The Lord who opened blind eyes and opened deaf ears and raised dead sinners, unless he opens your ear to hear the gospel, you will not hear. You will turn away your ears from the truth. Paul said, have they not heard in Romans 10, yea, verily the stories gone throughout the world, the gospel. Hearing, Simon, he hears, but he's not What's going on here?

He just happened to be coming out of town. Maybe he was visiting his sons, Alexander and Rufus. Maybe he's there on business. He's not there by accident. Neither are you. I love this verse, Proverbs 16, 33. It says, the lot is cast into the land. In other words, what are you going to do? What are we going to do?

But the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Man doesn't have free will. God alone has free will. He worketh all things after the counsel of His will. He says, I will work. Who will let me? Right? It is God that lets us. It is God that wills all things. He's the first cause of all things. Anyone that says man has free will is a liar.

Anybody that believes that about themselves doesn't know why Christ went to the cross. Doesn't know anything about the holy God. Doesn't know anything about sin. Doesn't know about what it means to be dead and trespassing sin. Doesn't know the gospel. Doesn't know God. They're lost. Man doesn't have free will. This man didn't do anything. Nobody asked him to do anything. Everything was done to him. Everything was ordained concerning him. Ordered in all things and sure. God Almighty has told them, apprehend that fella. Lay hold of that fella. Put that cross on him. And that's what he did to you.

Aren't you glad? People say, well, this is what false preachers say. They say, well, God won't violate your will. If he doesn't violate your will, you're gonna go to hell. That's right. Our Lord said that, you will not come unto me, in John 5, didn't it? And he said, no man can. And to say otherwise is to call Jesus Christ a liar. He said, no man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me to, what?

What's that mean? Compel. Force. You mean God forces us? If he doesn't, we won't bow. Old Mephibosheth, you know the story? He's an enemy of David. David had all his brothers killed, sons of Saul. All of them. They're a threat to his throne. And there sits Mephibosheth. He can't come, he's lame. He wouldn't come, he's an enemy.

But David, in great mercy, in a covenant that he made concerning someone he loved for his sake, Jonathan, sent two strong men, captains of David. You know what one captain of David did? He killed 300 men barehanded. Sent two of these fellas down there to fetch Mephibosheth.

Not ask him. Not, would you like to follow us? He can't. He won't. He will not. David said, fetch him. And they went down, didn't ask Mephibosheth anything. They said, you're coming with us. Well, I don't want to. Picked him up. Pick him up and carry, he can't walk. He can't get there.

You can't either unless you're carried. That's Isaiah 46, isn't it? I've carried you, he said, from the womb to your hoary head. I've carried you all the way. He doesn't drop you off. Hope you make it the last, you won't, you'll fall, you'll fail, you'll go back. You're kept by the power of God.

Picked old Mephibosheth, brought him up to David and sat him down right there. When Mephibosheth saw that great king on the throne, in whose hands his breath is and all his ways, who he's an enemy of, he bowed his head. And David said, I've been purposed to have mercy on you. Boy, was he glad he was fetched.

How about you? Apprehend him. Apprehend him. Simon's coming out of town. He's leaving. He hears the tumult. He hears the commotion. He doesn't know what's going on. Maybe he doesn't care. What's going on? There's a crucifixion. Who is it? Jesus. What'd he do? Well, nothing. But he said he was a son of God. Well, it was nothing to Simon. He's leaving town. Right?

And it was nothing to me, nothing. Scripture says here in Lamentations, is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold 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 on behalf of sinners. Is it nothing to you? It was nothing to me.

It's nothing to some sitting right here, I can tell. It's nothing to people when I leave my house every day. I pass by house after house. They're sitting there in the house. They're not gonna go worship God. They're not gonna worship Christ. They could care less if Jesus Christ was crucified. It means nothing to them.

Why does it mean anything to you? Why are you here? You're not here by accident. You're blessed of God to be sitting here this morning. And if you know why Christ came and you believe he did it for you, you're the most blessed person on the top side of this earth. I don't care if you're sick or poor or whatever, you're rich.

He didn't care. He's leaving town. He visited his boys. He's there on business. He's out of here. I'm out of here. No, you're not, buddy. It says they laid hold of him. Two strong soldiers. The Lord had it happen. They laid hold of him. Now, the amazing providence of our Lord bringing this man at this particular time and this particular moment, this day is his salvation. Of all days to visit his boys. He just happened. It just so happened that he's in town this very day when Jesus Christ is passing by to be crucified. And he's leaving, but no, the Lord is going to join him to his son. Amazing providence. Can you look back on your life? That everything in your life was purposed by God to bring you to this particular place to hear the gospel? Can you look back on that? I can. I can look back at so many instances.

The Lord literally threw me off a building 60 feet, landed flat on my back as a boy. Should have killed me and I'd be in hell at this moment because I didn't care about Jesus Christ, but God. There was one way that he stopped my wild career and sent me back home where I would sit back under the gospel again that I didn't care about. But God, I know now, cared about me. Found me. sat me down, let me hear the gospel, had me hear the gospel, opened my blind eyes, opened my deaf ears, let me see Christ and him crucified for me, this rotten, no good, rebellious, prodigal son. He did this for me? Why would he do that for me? Because he did. Because he's great. Because he's merciful. Because he's gracious. And he deserves all, you deserve nothing. He deserves it all.

Amazing providence. If you're a child of God your whole life, yay, long before that, was predestined, ordered in all things, and sure to bring you to the day where you would meet your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in Him crucified. And bear His cross from that day forward. And follow Him. Compelling grace. Luke 23 says they laid hold of Him, on Him.

Would you turn quickly to Luke 14, real quickly, we need to read this. Luke 14, renouncement. That's where you're sinless. But I'm a hell deserving sinner. Justify. And I'm a leper. There's no soundness in me. Clean! You understand that, don't you? The world doesn't understand that.

He didn't spill it. It was poured out. The blood on the mercy seat wasn't spilled. poured carefully, covered. Not one drop fell to the ground. That's a superstition. Not one drop of Christ's blood fell to the ground. Wasted. No, no, no. The blood of Jesus Christ, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross is our salvation. The salvation of all of God's people.

But the cross, and so the cross that Every single one whom the Lord saves, like Simon, is not our troubles and our afflictions and our sorrows. We don't glory in our sorrows. We glory in His sorrows. It's not our crosses. Crosses, plural, is not in the Bible. Do you understand me? And good men in the past are talking about crosses we must bear, speaking of trials and afflictions. No, no, no, no. We cannot compare our sicknesses and afflictions to the cross on which Jesus Christ hung because he's a substitute for sin.

We dare not compare something that happens to us to his cross. That's glorying in our affliction. No, no, no, no. We glory in His affliction. We don't glory in our suffering. We glory in His suffering. The cross we bear is the gospel, the truth. Why was Christ crucified? Not for good work, but for what He said. He wasn't crucified for good works. He was crucified for what he said. He spoke the truth about God, about man, about salvation, about himself. And they said, we will not have this man reign over us. We don't need your life, your death, your imputed right. We don't need that. We've got one.

Crucify him. And if you take up this story, this gospel, this truth, this glory of Christ alone and God alone, if you go out and tell people who God is, what man is, and whose salvation is in Jesus Christ alone, his blood, his righteousness, his sanctification, his redemption, man is nothing, nothing has no part in it, you will be crucified to the world. That's the cross that we're all to bear. When it says, everyone should take up his cross, that's written correctly. Whose cross? His. And in that one place, John, it says, the cross. There's only one cross. There's not many. This is not ours. Listen to me. I close. Simon didn't hang on that cross.

He's going to feel the weight of it. He's going to feel the burden of it. And you and every child of God that God chooses is going to feel the weight of your sin. You're going to feel the burden of your sin. You're going to feel the guilt of your sin. You're going to be weighed down, pressed down, thinking, I'm going to die under this cross.

If anybody would have fallen, it would have been Simon under that cross. But God, Simon didn't hang on that cross. When it got to Calvary, they took that cross off Simon and put Jesus Christ on it. And he hung there for Simon. Simon didn't die on that cross.

Christ did. But wait a minute. Yes, he did. We're crucified with Christ. Yes, we are. Do you think Simon... Now, he's there at the foot of that cross. He bore that cross up. Now, he's there. And he watched them nail Jesus Christ to that cross. And everything's not written in the Bible that Christ said or did. You think maybe he was talking to the Lord? He's right behind him all the way. Sir? Why are you doing this? Why are they doing this? You reckon?

And now he's at the foot of the cross and he hears seven things that come out of the Lord's mouth on that cross. Yes, he did. The first of which is what pierced my heart. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. They just cut me like a knife. You're right. All those years, I cared nothing for Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I didn't know what I was doing against God, against my family, and to myself. I didn't know, but God.

This is my story. God laid on him my iniquity, and bless his holy name, laid on me the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. And I've been following him by his grace, by his compelling, keeping, forcing grace to follow him all these days, and I hope till the day I die. Is that your story? I hope so, more than anything else. I don't think it matters. That's all we know about Simon. That's it. That's the end of the story. He's never mentioned again. Last time we hear of him, he's following Jesus Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Stand with me. I'm going to dismiss this.

A Man Compelled to Bear the Cross

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