Hold your Bibles open if you
would there, Lamentations chapter one, that's gonna be our text
this morning. I've titled the message, Is It
Nothing to You? Verse 12, 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, for what the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. For
the prophet asks, Is it nothing to you? All ye that pass by,
is it nothing to you? Now, first of all, these words
refer to those who personally saw Christ suffering on the cross. They're coming to Jerusalem to
observe the Passover. And as they came to the outside
of the city, there are three men being crucified. They're
the Savior in the middle of them. And they saw him. They saw him
suffering, dying on the cross. And the Lord asked them, is my
suffering nothing to you? What is my suffering to you?
Does my suffering move your heart to make you want to come to Christ? Does it break your heart because
of your sin, seeing why I'm suffering for your sin? Or will you just
rush on by so you can go get your religious ceremony over
and done with? But these words, more importantly,
are spoken to us here. this morning. Every week here,
we get a view of Christ and Him crucified through the preaching
of the gospel. We pass by the cross every single
week. We pass by the suffering and
the blood and the broken body through the preaching of Christ
every single week. And I ask you, what is it to
you? What is it? Is it just a habit? that we have to go to church
on Sunday? Is it a social event? This is
where your friends are, so it's a social event to you. Is it
just a religious duty? Something you have to do, you
know, to make yourself feel better. God expects you to, you know,
get up early on Sunday morning instead of sleeping in and you
go to church. And so God would be happy with
it. Is it a duty to you? I want you to answer this question
in your heart. What does the preaching of Christ and Him crucified
mean to you? What does it mean? Is hearing
that message vital to your soul? Does it feed and strengthen your
soul? Is seeing Christ crucified, is that a comfort to your soul?
Because when you hear that message of Christ crucified, you hear,
boy, that's the only way my sin can be forgiven. The Son of God
had to die. The Son of God had to shed His
blood to put my sin away. That's the only way I can be
forgiven. What is Christ suffering to you? Is it nothing to you? Or is it everything to your soul?
It's one or the other. How can you hear the message
of Christ and Him crucified and not run to Him for mercy and
forgiveness and salvation? Is it nothing to you? Now I wanna
break down the prophet's question in five different ways. Number
one is this. Christ's suffering on the cross
shows us the depths of man's depravity. Now is our depravity,
is that nothing to you? The cross is the clearest display
that there is of man's sin nature. Calvary shows us just how much
man hates God. Pilate, scripture says, turned
Jesus over to their will. and their will was to destroy
him. That's man's will. That's man's sin nature. God's
son came in the flesh, and man hated his nature. All the scribes
and the Pharisees, how they hated his message. And it wasn't good
enough just ignoring. I mean, you hate his message?
Well, don't listen to him. That wasn't good enough. It wasn't
good enough just not to receive Christ when he came into his
own. No, man had to torture him. They had to slaughter God's son
in the most painful, most humiliating way that they could think of
to do it. Man is so simple. One of the 12, one of those in
the Lord's inner circle who was with him and heard him teach,
heard him preach, watched how he conducted himself every day
for three and a half years, betrayed the Lord for the price of a slave. Think of that. Maybe worse yet,
when Judas came to betray him with that mob, he betrayed the
Lord with a kiss. Obviously, the Lord Jesus meant
nothing to Judas, did he? Look over at Matthew chapter
26. Let's look at a few demonstrations of man's depraved nature here. Matthew chapter 26. Matthew 26, verse 59. Now the chief priests and elders
and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to put
him to death, but found none. Yea, though many false witnesses
came, yet found they none. And at the last came two witnesses
and said, this fellow said, I'm able to destroy the temple of
God and to build it in three days. Man is so sinful the religious
leaders of that day, the rulers who are supposed to uphold the
word of God, who are supposed to uphold the truth of the scriptures. They were so dead set on putting
the Lord to death, they sought false witnesses, they sought
people who would lie on Jesus so they could put him to death. And man is so sinful, they found
many people willing to come and lie on him. Many people are willing
to come and lie on the Lord, so he'd be put to death, but
they couldn't get their lies straight. You know, the law said
that two or three witnesses are required to testify of the same
thing. They couldn't even find two witnesses
telling the same lie, yet they still convicted the Lord to death
anyway. Look down at verse 66. What think ye? They answered
and said, he's guilty of death. Then they spit in his face, and
buffeted him, and others smote him with the palms of their hands,
saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ. Who is he that smote
thee? Man is so sinful. When God allowed
man to do what they would to his son, men cleared their throat
and spit in the face of the very Son of God. They blindfolded
him or something, and they beat him. and they mocked him and
said, if you're such a big prophet who knows everything, you tell
us who it was that hit you. Look over the next page, chapter
27, verse 15. Now at the feast, the governor
was want to release into the people a prisoner, whom they
would. They had then a notable prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore,
when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, whom will
ye thy release unto you? Barabbas or Jesus, which is called
Christ. For he knew that for envy they
had delivered him. When he was set down on the judgment seat,
his wife said unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with
that just man? For I have suffered many things this day in a dream
because of him. But the chief priests and elders
persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and
destroy Jesus. Not just kill him, destroy him.
The governor answered and said unto them, Whither of the twain
will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith
unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ?
They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor
said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the
more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could
prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water,
and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent
of the blood of this just person. See ye to it. Then answered all
the people and said, His blood be on us and on our children. Then released Heber Abbas unto
them. And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be
crucified. Now man is so sinful we would
choose to have a known thief and murderer set loose in our
midst, rather than have the Son of God set loose in our midst,
who all through his earthly ministry had done nothing but good, been
nothing but kind to people. And when Pilate asked, why should
he be crucified? What crimes hath he done? You'll
notice the people didn't start listing a bunch of crimes that
the Lord had done. They just cried out loud, we're crucifying.
because there was no charge that they could bring against him.
They just wanted him to be destroyed. That right there is what man
thinks of God. Well now, look down at verse
27. Before I go on, let me say this. Here's the judge of the
whole case, Pilate. He knows a man's guilty of murder. He knows this man's guilty of
insurrection against the government and sets him loose. And he takes
a man that he knows hadn't done anything wrong. And he didn't
just let him go to be crucified, Pilate had him scourged first. That's what man thinks of God.
And then the Roman soldiers get in on that. You see, this hatred
of God. It's not just confined to the
religious world. Now that's where you see it the
most clearly, but it's not just confined to the religious world.
It's in the secular world too. It's everywhere in all the world.
You know why? Because all men by nature, all
men by nature hate God. Verse 27, then the soldiers of
the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered
under him the whole band of soldiers and they stripped him. and put
on him 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. The soldiers,
they tortured and mocked the son of God until they thought
he couldn't take it anymore. The only reason they quit was
they thought, well, he might die now. We don't want him to
have a quick death. We want him to suffer as he's
being crucified. That's the only reason they quit
torturing him and beating. Brother Henry said this so often,
everybody who is anybody turn thumbs down on Jesus. I'll show
you an example of that in verse 39 of this same chapter. And
they that pass by reviled him, wagging their heads. Here they
are fulfilling Jeremiah's prophecy. It's saying, thou that destroyest
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, but 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'll
believe Him. He trusted in God, let Him deliver
Him now, if you'll 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." Man is so sinful, even condemned thieves
and murderers feel superior to the Son of God. and have no shame
and no fear in mocking him, even though they're in the same condemnation.
I mean, these guys are so bad, the society said we can't have
them in our society anymore. They felt superior to the Lord
Jesus. They even went so far as to give
the Lord vinegar to drink when he cried, I thirst. One of the soldiers, after he
was already dead, took his spear and shoved it into the side of
the Savior, just for pure meanness sake. I'm telling you that man's
wickedness run wild. I want you to listen to me. I'm
not talking about the natures, the nature of those men and women
who are at the cross. I'm talking about my nature and
your nature. What's on display here is my
nature and your nature. We're the ones who are guilty
of doing this to the son of God. What's on display is our depravity,
our depravity. What happens at the cross shows
us so clearly we need a savior to save us from our sins. And
here's the son of God, suffering and dying to put away the sin
of his people. The sin of a people who hated
him without a cause. You know as he was suffering,
unimaginable agony. You know what he prayed? Father, forgive them. They know
not what they do. He's suffering and dying to put
away the sin of his people. Is that nothing to you? Do you
not see how he suits your need? Is that nothing to you? How can
that not make you want to run to him for mercy? All right,
here's the second thing. Christ, his suffering, shows
us a just salvation. A just salvation. Now, is that
nothing to you? Look back here in our text, Lamentations
1. At the end of verse 11, he says,
is my sorrow nothing to you? Wherewith the Lord hath afflicted
me in the day of his fierce anger. From above he has sent fire into
my bones and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for
my feet. He hath turned me back. He hath
made me desolate and faint all the day. Look down at verse 15, the Lord
hath trodden underfoot all my mighty men in the midst of me. He hath called an assembly against
me to crush my young men. The Lord hath trodden the virgin,
the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. The Lord's put me
here. For these things I weep, mine eye runneth down with water,
because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. The Father punished the Son and
wouldn't send the comforter to him. The father punished the
son without a hint of mercy, no comfort for his soul. Now
the savior tells us what's happening at the cross. He says, this is
what the Lord is doing to me. This is what God the father is
doing to me, making me suffer more than any man has ever suffered
before sins. The Lord is suffering clear to
his bones. He's suffering clear to his very
soul that he made an offering for sin. Now here's the question. Why would the father cause his
beloved son to suffer like this? Why? Because God's holy justice
demands it. Look at verse 14. The yoke of
my transgressions is bound by his hand. There wreathed and
come up upon my neck. He hath made my strength to fall.
The Lord hath delivered me into their hands, for whom I am not
able to rise up." Now, the son tells us here it's the father
who's making him suffer for the sin of his people. Now, the Lord
Jesus Christ did no sin. Neither was any guile found in
his mouth. He never committed a single sin. Never. Thought,
word, or deed, he never committed a single sin. But here, he says,
I'm suffering for my transgressions. The Father hath yoked my transgressions
about my neck. I'm suffering for my transgressions.
Now, how can that be? How can it be that the Savior
is a sinless sacrifice? Never committed a sin. Even upon
Calvary's tree, after he's made the sacrifice for sin, he never
committed any sin. How is it? that he can say this
is my transgression. How can he call any sin his own? Because the father made him sin.
The father yoked those transgressions upon him. He made him sin for
his people. The father made the son to be
guilty of all of the sin of all of his people. Even though he
never committed a single sin, the father made him guilty. You
see, the salvation of God's elect has to be just and right. The
father could not put an innocent man to death at Calvary. His
holiness wouldn't allow it. His justice would not allow him
to put an innocent man to death. If salvation will be just and
it would be right, God has to put a guilty man to death. That's
the only way justice could be satisfied. You see that, right? Justice can't be satisfied if
an innocent man dies. So you know what the father did?
Now we don't have to understand this because we can't. But this
is what God's people believe. The father made the son guilty. The father did something only
God can do. He made his son to be guilty
of that sin. He took all the black, dark,
horrible mass of the sin of his people and took it off them. put it on his son. And when the
father did that, in his holy justice, he slaughtered his son. He poured the fire of his wrath
into the very bones, into the very soul of his son. The father gave the son absolutely
everything that sin deserved without one hint of mercy. Without
one hint. And when Christ gave up the ghost,
and he died, justice was satisfied. The guilty died and justice was
satisfied. Now in the wisdom of God, man
could never make this up. Man could never devise a way
of salvation like this. In the wisdom of God, God found
a ransom for sin that made it right for him to show mercy to
his sinful people. That's the reason the Savior
could look over at that thief on the cross and tell him, today,
today, shalt thou be with me in paradise. And nobody can deny
that thief's guilty. Nobody can deny that. But Christ
told him today, you're gonna be with me in paradise. You know
why he could say that? Because Christ's suffering and
death took the guilt of that man away and made him fit to
enter into heaven the very moment he closed his eyes in death. That is an amazing sacrifice,
amazing salvation. And you and I today can be just
as confident facing death as that thief was. You can confidently
hang the salvation of your soul on Christ because his salvation
is just and right The death of Christ satisfied God's law and
God's justice for all of his people. And since Christ died,
there's not a single reason God would ever condemn one of his
people. Because Christ was already condemned for us. The very justice
of God demands that you have eternal life. And despite all
your sins and all your failures here on this earth, after the
Lord saved you, you can still never lose your salvation. because
Christ's death satisfied God's justice for you. Now that's a
wonder. I mean, that's a wonder. Is that salvation nothing to
you? I just told you the greatest
story that's ever been told. Is that nothing to you? Doesn't
that make you want to run to Christ and beg him to save you? All right, here's the third thing.
Christ's suffering shows us the love of God for sinners. Has
that love nothing to you? You know, when Adam fell in the
garden, he made all of his race unlovable, didn't he? He made
us the opposite of God. He made us unholy, God's holy.
Adam made us unrighteous, God's righteous. Adam made us unjust,
God is just. Adam made us hateful. God is
love. We're the opposite of God in
every way. Yet Almighty God has the capacity
to love sinners. But now if God's gonna love a
sinner, bring that sinner into his presence. God's holiness
demands that sinner has to be made what God loves. See, God
can't love us as we are in his flesh. He can't love us in our
sin, in our rebellion, in our unholiness. So the father sent
his son to make his people what he loves, holy and righteous. Look at John chapter 15. The
way that the Lord Jesus Christ made his people holy and righteous
is by his suffering and death on the tree. Now who is it that Christ died
for? Did he die for every son of Adam? No, sir. Scripture adamantly
denies that. Christ died for his elect. Those that the Father gave him
to save, that's who he died to save. And he died to save those
people that get ahold of your seeds. Because he loves them. He loves them. The suffering
of Christ on the cross removes every shadow of every doubt.
Christ loves his people. Sinful though they may be. John
15 verse 13. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. The sacrifice of Christ shows
he loves his people with a greater love than we can ever describe.
Look at first John chapter four. The sacrifice of Christ also
shows us this. It shows us how much The father
loves his people. We see the son loves his people,
he sacrificed himself for them. But the father also loves his
people, sinful though they may be. First John four, verse nine. And this was manifested, it was
made obvious, made us see, and this was manifested, the love
of God toward us. Because God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him. Now herein
is love. You wanna know what love is?
Here it is. Not that we love God, but that he loved us. How do you know he loved us?
He sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin. The father loves
his people so much, he slaughtered his son to save them. Now that's
love. That's love. Christ's suffering
on the cross to put away the sin of his people, it shows His
love for an unlovable sinner like you and me. Salvation is
not based on your love for God. It's based on God's love for
you. And he showed that love by slaughtering
his son to put away the sin of his people. Is that nothing to you? Is that
nothing to you? Doesn't that make you want to
run to him? Lord, you died to save sinners. Would you save
a poor sinner like me? All right, here's the fourth
thing. Christ's suffering shows us how can God be gracious to
sinners. Is God's grace nothing to you?
Now, grace is God giving us what we do not deserve. And you know,
every blessing of God's grace all comes to his people as the
result of Christ's suffering and death on the cross. Let me
give you a few examples. Salvation, the salvation of our
sinful souls is by grace alone. And it's grace that comes through
the death of Christ. Titus 2 verse 11 says, for the
grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. It's
the grace of God that brings salvation to men. It's the grace
of God that brings the salvation that Christ purchased on Calvary's
tree and brings it to the heart of God's people. Justifications by Christ alone.
Being justified means being made without sin. Well, the only way
a sinner can be made without sin is by grace, isn't it? By
grace, because Christ died for us. Titus 3 verse 7 says, that
being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. The only way a sinner can receive
this blessing of justification is if Christ died for our sins
and blotted them out with His blood at Calvary. Redemption. That's by grace. Redemption of
our souls can only come to us by God's grace, because we can't
buy it. God's got to give us something we don't deserve, because
we can't buy it. Ephesians 1, 7. In whom we have redemption
through His blood. Through the blood that He shed
on the cross, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of His grace. Redemption from
sin was purchased all at high cost. The blood of God's Son
that brings redemption to us. The only way a sinner can have
a good hope of eternal life is by grace. 2 Thessalonians 2,
16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and given us an
everlasting consolation and a good hope. I tell you so many times
that word hope is an expectation. He's given his people an expectation
of eternal life. He's given his people an expectation
of being with Christ in glory forever. How? By grace. By grace. God gives his people
the life of his son because his son died the death we deserve.
Do you see how gracious God is to sinners? God gives His people
what they don't deserve because Christ purchased it with His
life's blood on Calvary's tree. I'll tell you a mighty good reason
for sinners to run to Christ for salvation is because God
is gracious to sinners. God's gracious to sinners. And
you see God's grace more clearly at the cross than you see at
any other place. What does it mean to you? What
does that mean to your heart? And then last. Christ suffering
shows us how it is. That God can be merciful to sinners. Now God's mercy. Is it nothing
to you? What is it to you? Your mercy
is God not giving us what we do deserve. Now God can be merciful
to his people. He can not give them what they
do deserve. Only by. and through the suffering
of Christ on the cross. See, the only way a holy and
just God could not give us the condemnation and wrath we deserve
is if he gave Christ our substitute, everything that we deserve. That's
the only way God can be merciful to us. His justice must be satisfied. His wrath must be poured out.
The only way God could not pour out his wrath on you is if he
poured it out on Christ, our substitute. Now you think about
what it is we deserve. I don't want God to give me what
I deserve. Do you? Think about what we deserve. We deserve eternal
death. The wages of sin is death. But God can be merciful to his
people and not give them eternal death because he made Christ
die in our place. That's how God can be merciful
to us. We deserve to be condemned for our sin, don't we? But God
will be merciful to his people and he'll not condemn them. You
know why, don't you? because his son was already condemned
in our place. Condemned as our substitute.
The writer to the Hebrews said in Hebrews 8 verse 12, I'll be
merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. Now the only way a holy God can
be merciful to our unrighteousness and the only way a holy God can
not remember our sins and our iniquities is if Christ put our
sin away by His blood, by His sacrifice that He offered to
the Father on Calvary's tree. Now God is rich, rich in mercy
to His people. He'll never give them one blessed
thing they deserve. That's how rich God is in mercy.
But it all came at a cost. It all came at a cost. The cost
of the death of His Son. The slaughter and sacrifice of
His Son. God is rich in mercy to his people
because he already gave Christ everything we deserve. Now that's
mercy. That's mercy. Is that nothing to you? What
does it mean to you? Doesn't seeing how merciful that
God is to sinners, doesn't that make you want to run to him and
say, Lord, be merciful to me. You're merciful to sinners. I'm
a sinner. Lord, be merciful to me. Forgive my sin for Christ's
sake. Oh, I pray that it does. As I
was preparing this message this week, I thought, I've been wanting
for us to observe the Lord's table before Jan and I go away
on our trip next week. And I thought, what a perfect
time after we look at this text to observe the Lord's table.
So that's what we're going to do now. And in case you're wondering,
tell you who this table's for. It's for anybody that trusts
Christ. Anybody who trusts Christ. Do you trust Christ? Then you
take this table, it's for you. All right, Wayne, you may distribute
the bread if you would.