Let's open our Bibles again to
John chapter 19. It may or may not be the right attitude
of mine, but I feel very careful, even some apprehension
about speaking from this passage. Wherever we preach, from anywhere
in God's Word, we preach Christ crucified. But this seems to be holy ground,
seems to be high ground, ground we tread very carefully upon. The account of the suffering
of our Lord. We'll be looking at some different aspects of
this the next few weeks, and I hope we enter this very carefully. Dale, how many times have you
heard the account of the crucifixion of our Lord? I hope we never,
ever, ever read these passages lightly. Oh, I've heard that
before. Let's be careful. I've got four
questions this morning. I've titled the message four
questions about the cross. There are countless many questions
and observations we could make about the cross. We spend a lifetime
preaching it and don't scratch the surface. But I want to confine
myself this morning to four questions and four answers about the cross
from our text. My first question is this, what
is the cross? What do we mean when we talk
about the cross? Almost always when we speak of
the cross, we're not talking about the piece of wood on which
the Savior was crucified. There are times that when we
speak of the cross, it does refer to that piece of wood. Verse
17 here in our text is one of them. And he bearing his cross
went forth into a place called the place of the skull. That
is referring to the piece of wood on which the Savior was
crucified. But that piece of wood has Absolutely
no religious significance whatsoever. The Word of God never refers
to any saving power, any healing power, any power of any kind
found in that piece of wood. As a matter of fact, the Lord
has prevented men from ever finding it. I'm sure it's long gone,
decayed, whatever, you know, but men never found, used that
piece of wood for this purpose. If we did, we'd make an idol
out of it. If we found it, I promise you, we would make an idol of
it. The proof of it is Israel. We got the same nature as they
did. Remember that brazen serpent lifted up in the wilderness?
You know what they did with that later on? They saved it, and
eventually they made an idol to it. They burned incense to
it. Now, that brazen serpent is a picture. of God's saving
power to his people. You remember the story that people
murmured against God and God sent those fiery serpents to
the people there in the wilderness. Everyone was being bitten and
people were dying by the thousands because the bite of this fiery
serpent is always fatal. But in his mercy, God provided
a remedy. God told Moses, Moses, you make
a serpent out of brass, just like those fiery serpents. You
put it up on a pole, and you lift it up, and you tell the
people, look, whoever looks will live. Sure enough, whoever looked
at that serpent lifted up, lived, didn't they? I want you to look
at 2 Kings chapter 18. That picture of Christ, that
brazen serpent, human nature being what it is, they made an
idol out of it. You wouldn't think they would,
but that's what they did. 2 Kings chapter 18, verse 4. This is when Hezekiah
became king in Israel. And he removed the high places.
He broke the images, the idols. He cut down the groves. The groves
is where they always worshiped idols. And look what else he
did. He break in pieces the brazen
serpent that Moses had made. For unto those days the children
of Israel did burn incense to it. And Hezekiah called it Nahushkin. He called it a piece of brass.
All that is is a worthless piece of brass. And that is the very
reason that we don't have crosses anywhere. We don't have a cross
on a building outside. We don't have crosses in here. We don't
have crosses hanging around our neck because those are idols. Everywhere you see a cross, a
symbol of the cross, it's an idol. That's all it is. When
we speak of the gospel, the offense of the cross, we're not talking
about people being offended by that symbol of the cross that
our Lord was crucified on. They're not offended by a replica
of the cross. They're not offended by it, they
love it. They made an idol out of it. But to a believer, to
someone who knows Christ, someone for whom Christ suffered on that
cross, a replica of that cross is offensive to a believer because
that is the symbol of the torture and the death of our beloved
Savior. This is what he must suffer in
order to save a sinner like me. I'll give you an illustration.
Suppose Jan and I are walking down the street one day, and
a mugger, got a big knife, jumps out in front of us. Well, I get
between that mugger and Jan, and I tell her, you run, run
to safety. Being a man I am, I'm gonna take that mugger on,
you know, barehanded. Well, sure enough, he used that
knife. He kills me. He guts me. He dismembers me.
I mean, it's horrible. Now, on my part, that was an
act of love protecting my wife, wasn't it? Later on, they catch
that fella. They put him in jail. I know
Janet well enough to know this. She would never want a replica
of that knife in her house. She wouldn't want it. She wouldn't
want to see it. She wouldn't have it. She wouldn't need it. She would need a replica of that
knife to remind her of my love for her. It's in her heart. It's in her heart. That knife
would be offensive to her. The same thing holds true to
you who believe the gospel. A symbol or a replica of that
cross is offensive to you. You don't need it to remind you
that the Lord was crucified for you. His love's in your heart. The blood of his sacrifice has
been applied to your heart. You don't need a replica to remind
you. So when we preach the cross, we're not talking about the piece
of wood. We're preaching what Christ accomplished
on the cross. We're preaching the atonement
that Christ accomplished on the cross for his people. He put
their sin away. That's what he accomplished.
He brought in everlasting righteousness. When we preach the cross, we're
preaching Christ's love for his people that compelled him to
go suffer and die on that cross for his people. When we preach
the cross, we're preaching man as he is, and we're preaching
God as he is. We're preaching Christ as he
is. We're preaching man as he is. Man is so sinful, the only
way his sin can be put away is the death of the Son of God on
that cursed cross. The only way his sin can be put
away. We're also preaching God as he is. When we preach the
cross, what Christ accomplished on the cross, we're preaching
God as both just and justifier. God didn't ignore the sin of
His people. He just. He fully punished the sin of
His people in Christ our substitute, enabling Him to be the justifier
of sinners. And we preach the cross, we're
preaching Christ as He is. We're not preaching a man who's
a failure, who tried to save sinners. We're preaching the
successful, victorious Savior who did actually accomplish what
He came to do. He accomplished on that cross
the salvation, the justification of His people. That's what we
mean when we talk about the cross. Here's my second question. Who
is it that died on that middle cross? Well, first of all, the
King died. In verse 14, at the end of verse
14, Pilate told those Jews, behold your king. In verse 19, Pilate
wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was Jesus
of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. This is the king who's
dying. Now the Lord Jesus is king. He was born king. He lived as
king. And in this text, we read of
his suffering and his dying as king. Christ is king by divine
right. He's the son of God, so he's
king. He's the rightful king. Christ
is king by creation. All things were created by him
and for him. Without him, nothing consists,
nothing. And he's the head of all things. He's the head of the church.
He's the firstborn from the dead. He's the king of every creature.
He's the firstborn of every creature. He's the king. He's king by creation. Look at Romans chapter 14. Christ
is king by purchase. He bought his kingship with his
precious blood offered at the cross. Romans 14 verse 9. For to this end, for this reason,
Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord,
King, both of the dead and the living." He's King by purchase.
Christ is King by the appointment of God the Father. I have set
my King on my holy hill of Zion. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
down at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Christ is King. And when I say Christ is King,
I mean all men, all of us. We're under his authority. Christ
has absolute control over everything that ever happens to us. Everything.
He alone decides if we're saved or we're damned. He's king. And
we have no control in the matter whatsoever because he's king.
Not us. Him. Now we can beg for mercy. We should beg for mercy. A sinner
ought to be begging for mercy, shouldn't he? We can beg for
mercy. But we have no control over whether we get mercy or
we don't. That's up to the King. Christ is the King and that's
who's dying on this cross. Second, who's dying on this cross? I tell you, God's sacrifice for
sin that was promised all throughout scripture is the one dying on
this cross. The man dying on the cross is
God's sacrifice for sin. He's a sacrifice God appointed.
This man has always been God's lamb who will take away the sin
of the world. God never did intend for man
to be saved by keeping the law. The law was always given to point
man to this Christ, to this man on this cross who did keep the
law for his people. God never intended for men to
be saved through the ceremonies. Here right now, boy, this time
of the Passover, this is the highest, most, you know, sacred
ceremony of them all. God never intended for men to
be saved by keeping these ceremonies. The ceremonies were always given
to point us to Christ so we'd recognize God's Lamb when He
appeared, fulfilling all the ceremonies. Everything, taking
place at the cross, is taking place to fulfill God's Word. This isn't happening because
men decided to do these things. This is God's will happening.
Look at Acts chapter 2. All this is happening because
this is the eternal purpose of God that's revealed in His Word. This is happening because this
is how God said He's going to save His people. In Acts 2 verse
23, Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of who? Of God. You have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. All this is happening by whose
will? By God's will. This isn't man's will. This is
God's will. Pilate showed that over and over and over again.
He wanted to set the Lord free. He wanted nothing to do with
this. If he couldn't set the Lord free, at the very least
he wanted to turn him over to the Jews. Because he didn't want
to be responsible for what happened to him. But he couldn't let him
go, could he? And he couldn't turn him over
to the Jews. Because Pilate's will is not being done here.
The will of the king is being done. This is God's eternal purpose. This is not what is written that
Pilate turned the Lord over to the Jews. If he had turned the
Lord over to the Jews, you know what they would have done to
him? They would have stoned him. And the sacrifice can't die that
way. Look in Deuteronomy chapter 21. Here's why Pilate couldn't
turn the Lord over to the Jews, because it's written. Deuteronomy 21, verse 23. Well, look at verse 22. And if a man
have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death,
thou shalt hang him on a tree. His body shall not remain all
night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that
day. For he that is hanged is accursed of God." That's why
Christ died on a cross. That's why he couldn't be stoned,
because he that is hanged on a tree is accursed of God, counted
accursed by God. That's why the Lord had to be
crucified. He couldn't be stoned, that the prophecy in Deuteronomy
21, 23 would be fulfilled. The Jews cried, we have no king
but Caesar. You know why they cried that?
The Jews hated Caesar. They hated being under the boot
of Rome. Why did they cry, we've got no
king but Caesar? There's one king they hate worse
than Caesar, it's Christ. And they cried that to fulfill
Jacob's prophecy when he was dying. In Genesis 49, the scepter
should not depart from Judah to Shiloh come. Shiloh came. The scepter departed from Judah.
The chief priest even said it. We don't have a king in Judah
anymore. Caesar's our king. The scepter
departed from Judah. They led our Lord away in verse
16. They didn't drive him, they led
him. You know why? To fulfill Isaiah 53 7. He's brought as
a lamb to the slaughter and he opened not his mouth. He went
willingly. They led our Lord away, outside
the city. They didn't take Him in the city,
they led Him outside the city. Why? To fulfill the prophecy
in Leviticus 16, 27. That the bodies of the bullock
and the goat that's offered for the sin offering, they're not
burned in the camp, they're burned outside the camp. They took our
Lord outside the camp to fulfill the scriptures. Our Lord bore
His own cross. fulfilling the scriptures, fulfilling
the picture of the substitute in Genesis 22. Isaac put that
wood for the burnt offer on his back and carried it up the mount.
Could be the same mount our Lord carries across. Our Lord was
crucified between two thieves, fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah
53, 12. He was numbered with the transgressors,
counted with the transgressors. The soldiers parted his garments
and cast lots for his vesture, fulfilling the prophecy. Psalm
22, 18. That's why they did it. The Savior
cried, I thirst, not just because he was thirsty to fulfill the
prophecy. Psalm 69, 21. In my thirst, they
gave me vinegar to drink. They chose vinegar to give him
to drink when he cried, I thirst to fulfill the scriptures. The
soldier who came at The next, you know, at the end of that
day, he didn't break the leg bones of our Lord. Now, he did
the thieves on either side, but he didn't break the leg bones
of our Lord to fulfill the prophecy of the Passover lamb. You can't
break a bone of the Passover lamb. But that soldier did pierce
his side. He didn't need to pierce his
side to kill him. He saw he was already dead. Just out of meanness, he
pierced his side with a spear. You know why? To fulfill the
prophecy of Zechariah 12, 9. they shall look on him whom they
pierced and mourned. His body was taken down before
nightfall to fulfill the prophecy we read in Deuteronomy 21, 23.
That body can't remain on the tree overnight, so they took
it down. And you know where they took that dead body? To a rich
man's tomb to fulfill the prophecy in Isaiah 53, 9. He made his
grave with the rich in his death. Now these men, both Jew and Gentile,
had absolutely no regard for the scripture. The scripture
was the furthest thing from their mind once they got their hands
on the body of our Lord Jesus. When we go back and read the
account, it was like they took the scriptures for their script.
You know, you've been in a play, you got a script. This person
says this, then this person says this, then this person does,
they took it for a script. So what should we do next? Okay,
we're gonna part his garments. We're gonna cast lots. Well,
you better don't break his legs, but pierce him, because this
is what it says. It's like they took the scripture and said,
well, we got to do this, because it's what it says. Why'd they
do that? This is the will of God, because
this sacrifice is the sacrifice of God's Lamb that will put away
the sin of His elect. Look in Acts chapter 2 again.
Even the resurrection of our Lord happened the way it did
to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies. Exodus 2 verse 24. This is the one Peter said, you
with wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God raised up. having loosed the pains of death,
because it is not possible that he should be holden of it. For
David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before
my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.
Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad, moreover
also my flesh shall rest in hope. Because thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see
corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life, thou
shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Amen, and brethren,
let me speak freely unto you of the patriarch David. He is
both dead and buried in his sepulchers with us unto this day. Therefore,
being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath
to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh,
he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing this
before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell, neither his flesh did seek corruption, this
Jesus, hath God raised up whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore,
being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed
forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended
into the heavens, but he saith himself the Lord, saying unto
my Lord, Sit thou in my right hand, until I make thy foes thy
footstool. Therefore let all the house of
Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom
you crucified and He raised, both Lord and Christ. And look
over 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This is exactly what we preach.
This is what Peter did. This is what we preach when we
preach the cross. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel. which I preached unto you, which
also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you
are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless
you believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, and He was buried, and that He
rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. All human
history has been for this moment when Christ died on the cross
as God's sacrifice for sin that he promised and prophesied throughout
all the scriptures. Here's my third question. Why
did Christ die? Why must he die? Christ died
because the will of the king was happening. He wasn't driven. He was led to the slaughter.
because he was going there willingly. This is his will being accomplished. Well, if Christ is the king,
how can the king die? Isn't he defeated? Doesn't he
lose his kingdom if he dies? Not at all. No, this is the king
gaining the victory by his death. Now, back when they had kings
who were real kings, Not only did a king, he got to rule, he
did get to boss everybody around, but he had to do exactly what
he said. But a good king was also a defender of his people.
A good king defended his people by fighting for them, by leading
the army out and fighting for his people and defending them,
defeating their enemies for them. That's what's happening here.
When we read of the death of King Christ, that's what he's
doing. He's gone to battle to defeat the enemies of his people.
Now, if he had an earthly kingdom, he would have fought an earthly
battle, wouldn't he? That's what he told Pilate in verse 36 of
John chapter 18. My kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight
that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom
is not from his. My kingdom is not from here.
It's not an earthly kingdom. If it was, you'd be destroyed. But I don't have an earthly kingdom.
Christ has a spiritual kingdom. And what's going on here at the
cross is a spiritual warfare. This is a spiritual battle with
spiritual enemies. Satan is being defeated, fulfilling
one of the very first prophecies of the Savior. The seed of woman
is going to crush Satan's head. No, Satan, you'll bruise his
heel, but he's going to crush your head. And he's going to
do that, not by living, but by dying as a sacrifice for sin,
as a substitute, freeing his people from the curse of sin,
from the power of sin, from the power of Satan. He won the battle
by dying. And Christ the King has subjects. He has a kingdom and he has subjects
that live in his kingdom. He's not going to live to win
the victory for them. He's going to die to obtain their
salvation. He's going to die to make them
righteous. He's going to die to put their
sins away and give them everlasting life so they'll never die. The
accusation, the charge of death that this is what said he's worthy
of death was written and put over his cross. Jesus of Nazareth,
the King of the Jews. And that was written in the three
main languages of the world. It was written in Hebrew and
Greek and Latin. To show us Christ is suffering
and dying for a people. He has some people out of every
nation on earth and He is the King of everyone in every nation
on earth. Christ the King is dying to win
the victory for His elect and put their sin away. But now second,
why did Christ die? He died because He's bearing
the sin and the curse of His people. An innocent man did not
die, a guilty man died. God made him to be sin for his
people and he put a guilty man to death because that is the
only way the sin of God's elect can be put away. Our sin is so
horrible. We think sin's a little white
lie. I mean, you know, we just don't think sin's that bad because
sin is what we are. Corruption is all we are. We
don't have any concept how horrible sin is. But sin is so horrible,
the stain of sin is so deep, the only way sin can be cleansed,
the only way that stain can be blotted out is by the blood of
God's only son that he shed at Calvary. He shed on that cross
as he died as a substitute for sin. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. So why did Christ die? He died
because men demanded it and because God required it. Men demanded
the death of Christ. They cried away with Him, crucifying
Him over and over again. We've got no king but Caesar.
We don't want him. Give us Brabus. put him to death, destroy him.
Men demanded the death of Christ. What further proof do we have
of our sin nature? What further proof do you need?
Men demanded the death of Christ, the perfect holy son of God,
because we're so wicked and vile. Men demanded the death of Christ.
And God required it. God required the death of his
son. The justice of God required The
death of Christ because Christ was made guilty for the sin of
his people. That's what we have pictured
in our text. What did they do with our Lord Jesus? They stripped
him naked. You know why they did that? Because
that's what man became when Adam fell. When Adam ate that fruit,
what happened? First thing that happened, Adam
and Eve realized they were naked. When Adam fell, all men became
spiritually naked because Adam's our federal head. You know, notice
this. Eve ate the fruit first, didn't
she? She went and gave it to her husband. She said, this is
good. This is good. Eat this. She didn't know she was naked
when she ate the fruit. Eve became naked. She realized
she was naked when? When Adam ate the fruit. Because
Adam's her federal head, just like your federal head. We became
naked. before God when Adam fell. When
Adam rebelled, all men became naked. Christ came as our substitute
and he died naked, showing us I'm bearing the sin of my people.
I'm bearing the curse of sin of my people. He was made sin
and he bore all that sin. He bore the shame of that sin.
He bore the punishment of that sin. He bore the corruption of
that sin away through his sacrifice and his death. When Adam fell,
this is the difference between God and man. When Adam fell,
what did God do? He kicked Adam out of the garden,
didn't he? Adam, you're naked, get out of my garden. But as
he was going, what did God do? He clothed Adam and Eve with
the skin of an animal. The second Adam came, what did
man do to him? Stripped him naked. Did just the exact opposite.
Showing us this is how God's gonna clothe his people. Christ
is going to suffer our nakedness and he's going to clothe his
people in his righteousness. They stripped our Lord naked.
There he stands. He carried his cross to the place
where he'd be crucified. They stripped him naked. And
they get his clothes together, you know, get him in a pile,
you know, and he's standing there waiting to be crucified naked. The only thing he's wearing is
a crown of thorns. He stood there. wearing that
crown of thorns, showing us he's bearing the curse of his people.
All the curse of sin of his people has been placed on the head of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Thorns only grew when God cursed
the ground for Adam's sake. Those thorns are a symbol of
the curse and Christ wore a crown of them, showing us he's bearing
the curse of his people away. God required his death because
he was made a curse. Christ also showed us he bore
the curse of his people away when he carried his cross. He
carried that heavy cross on his beaten, bloodied, open wound
of a back. They put that cross on his back
and made him carry it. Now the Romans made a person
carry the cross to show everybody this person's guilty and they're
worthy of death. That's what Christ was doing
when he bore that cross. He bore the curse of the sin
of His people away. He carried His cross, showing
He was made a curse when the Father made Him guilty of the
iniquity of us all. The cross is a symbol of the
curse. We read that earlier, cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. So Christ died, man demanded
it, and God's justice required that He die as a sacrifice for
sin. Christ was made sin for His people,
And He bore their curse. He bore their sin as far away
from them as the East is from the West. So that's what the
cross is. It's what Christ accomplished.
That's who died. God's sacrifice for sin died. Why did He die? God's justice
required it. Here's my fourth question. What
is the result of the cross? Look at verse 23 in our text.
First, there's a work done for us. as the result of the cross
as a work of righteousness done for God's people. Verse 23, Then
the soldiers, when they crucified Jesus, took his garments, and
made four parts, to every soldier a part, and also his coat. Now
the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They
said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast
lots for it, whose it shall be. that the scripture might be fulfilled.
Psalm 22, they departed my reign, and among them, and from my vesture,
they did cast lots. These things, therefore, because
the scripture said, because it was written, therefore the soldiers
did exactly what the scriptures were written. The soldiers stripped
our Lord naked. They set his clothes aside. They're
gonna pick through those things later. Then they laid our Lord
down on the ground on top of that cross, and they nailed him. They nailed his hands and his
feet to that cursed piece of wood. They picked it up. They dropped it down in the hole.
They sat there and watched him suffer for a while. And then
they began to pick through his clothes. This is part of the
executioner's pay. They get the clothes of the victim,
you know. And they divided his clothes
into four piles. Each of them had a pile. But
they held back that coat. They didn't put that coat in
one of the piles. His outer garment. Now this must have been the most
expensive piece of clothing our Lord owned. Someone undoubtedly
gave it to him. It was an expensive piece of
clothing. A great piece of workmanship
went into this thing. It was woven all in one piece.
And the soldiers figured, you know, this thing's pretty expensive.
And even if it's not too expensive, I mean, if we tear it in four
pieces, all we're going to have are four rags. There's no seams
in it. We can't tear it at a seam. So, let's play rock, paper, scissors
for it. You know, let's roll dice or,
you know, whatever, you know, odd man out, you know, whoever
gets it. They cast lots for it. Now, we've seen this, or they
thought they were just being smart, didn't they? But what
they were really doing is fulfilling the scriptures to show us their
will wasn't being done here. This is God's sacrifice. Now,
this coat. They didn't tear it. They didn't
rend it. They kept it whole. This coat is a picture of Christ's
perfect robe of righteousness. It's the righteousness that he
earned, the righteousness that he wove for his people. This
coat, John said, was woven from the top throughout. That's the
righteousness of God's elect. It's the righteousness of Christ.
It came from the top down, woven from the top down. And it's woven
throughout. It's perfect, absolutely perfect. It cannot be rendered, can't
be torn in two. And the righteousness of Christ
is the righteousness of all of his people. Just one soldier
got that coat. You who believe, every one of
you, wear a picture of that coat. The perfect righteousness of
Christ. It's the righteousness that makes
us accepted. Not acceptable. Accepted in his
righteousness. I tell you, if Christ is not
our righteousness, we'll never have any. We can't earn it. We
can't do anything to earn it or get it. Righteousness must
be imputed to us. That's what's happening here.
If Christ is our righteousness, we are perfectly righteous. It's the white raiment. This
righteousness is the white raiment that the saints wear in glory.
They're righteous and holy. Now the righteousness of Christ.
Is not only legally imputed to us, it is. But it's not just
a coat we get to put over. Cover our sin. You invite a big
black stain on my shirt. Y'all couldn't see it. My coat
covers it. We wear the righteousness of
Christ is not covering the blackness and corruption of our sins. The
righteousness of Christ is also imparted to his people, cleansing
us from all sin, not making us like we're righteous, making
his people actually righteous. This coat cannot be torn. It's
the righteousness of Christ. It's also the gospel of Christ.
It's woven from the top throughout. It came from the top down. It
came from God down. So we can't change it. The gospel
can never be divided. We don't take this part that
we like and cast out this part that we don't like. We don't
take this part that we understand and cast out this part we don't
understand. We take the whole gospel. Faith believes the whole
gospel. We take the whole Christ. We
take Christ to be our prophet to tell us about God. We take
Christ to be our priest to offer the only sacrifice for sin. we
take Christ as our King to rule and to reign over us. We take
the whole gospel, the gospel of man's total depravity. I believe
that man cannot be saved unless God does all the saving because
man can't do anything to contribute to his salvation. We take the
gospel of man's depravity. We take the gospel of God's unconditional
election of his people. I believe the gospel, God's God.
And He chose who to save, He had to, because nobody would
have chosen to be saved by Him. He had to do the choosing. And
He chose His people without them meeting a single condition, because
they couldn't meet any. So God chose them anyway. We
take the gospel of the limited atonement of Christ. Now Christ's
atonement, His sacrifice, is not limited in His power of who
it can save. He saves the chief of sinners,
the worst of sinners. The Atonement of Christ is limited
in its scope. When Christ died, He didn't die
to make salvation possible for somebody. Christ died to accomplish
the salvation of the people that the Father gave Him from all
of eternity. And those people, and only those
people, shall be saved because Christ died for them. When we
believe the Gospel, we take The whole gospel. We believe the
gospel of the irresistible call of God to the Holy Spirit. We
don't try to manufacture results. Just preach the word. Just preach
the gospel. The Holy Spirit will call out
his sheep. You can bank on it. We take the gospel of the perseverance
of the saints. Christ doesn't save us and we've
got to keep ourselves the rest of the time. We can't save ourselves
and Mike, we can't keep ourselves. Salvation is of the Lord from
beginning to end. Christ is the whole Savior that
the sinner needs. That's the result of Christ dying
on the cross. But it doesn't end there. There's
a work done for us. But secondly, there's a work
done in us. When Christ saves a sinner, that
sinner will confess Christ. He'll identify with Christ. He'll
follow Christ. In verse 17, our text, And he,
bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the Place
of the Skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha. Now look
back at Matthew chapter 27. Matthew is going to shed a little
more light on this for us. Matthew 27 verse 32. And as they
came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon
by name. Him they compelled to bear his
cross." Now how does any of that picture any work done for us
or any confession of Christ? Look back a few pages of Matthew
16, I'll show you. Matthew 16, verse 24. Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me." Now our cross, a believer's cross,
it's not a burden that we bear. My cross to bear is not a bad
bag. The believer's only cross is the cross of Christ. What
our Lord's teaching us here is that a believer publicly confesses
the Christ of He publicly confesses his belief in the message of
the cross. This is the only way God could
save a sinner like me. But now look back in our text.
Here's the other part of the work done in us. The result of
the death of Christ on the cross. This is absolutely necessary.
It's the new birth. A believer, because Christ died
for you on the cross, a believer is going to be born into a new
family, into the family of God, and we're going to take care
of one another. We're going to watch out for one another, be there
for one another. Verse 25, now there stood by
the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister. I told
you this is her sister-in-law, this is Joseph's sister, Mary,
the wife of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore
saw his mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved, that's
He saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then saith he
to the disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour, that disciple
took her into his own home. Now our Savior was not hanging
there in bloody agony, telling his mother, Behold me your son. You know she was fulfilling the
scripture. Her heart was pierced through.
But that's not what he was telling her. He wasn't saying behold
your son suffering here. If he meant that, do you know
what he said? Behold your savior. That's not what he said. He wasn't
referring to himself, he was referring to John. The death
of Christ on the cross severs all earthly ties. That's why
he doesn't say mother behold your son. That tie has been severed. She's been his mother, but now
that tie is severed. Now, this does not mean that
our earthly family is unimportant to us. Absolutely not. Of course
they're important to us. We love them, we pray for them,
of course. God's church is not a cult. Of
course our family's important to us. Who else is gonna pray
for them? Who else is gonna love them?
You know, a child only a mother could love. What our Savior's
doing here, he's not saying his earthly family's unimportant,
is it? He's supplying the need for his mother. So he's not saying
our earthly family's not important. But what he is teaching us is
this. A believer has a closer spiritual tie with our spiritual
family. That's what Mary and John experienced. The relationship we have here
with our family, it's our earthly family. It's special. I love
my earthly family. But that thing's just temporary.
Now that relationship's temporary. I love my dad more than any man
I've ever known. I don't have a relationship with
him anymore. It's a temporary relationship. The relationship
we have with our Savior is eternal. And the relationship we have
with our brothers and sisters is eternal. Look around you. These are the folks you're going
to spend eternity with. Take care of them. They're your family.
What our Lord meant was, Mary, you look on John as your son
now. And John, you look on Mary as
your mother now. Now at this time, more than likely,
Joseph was dead. I don't know when he died, but
from whenever he died to right now, our Lord must have been
providing for his mother. Firstborn son, makes sense, right?
Now our Lord's dying. Mary's got no one to provide
for her. No social security, nothing like that. So our Lord,
Jehovah Jireh, provided for his mother. John's a poor fisherman
who's not fishing anymore. How in this world is he going
to supply the need for another mouth to feed? Jehovah Jireh,
the Lord, provided. John counted it an honor to take
this widow into his home and provide for her like his own
mother. See, they had a close relationship.
I know they did. Our Savior kept the law to the
end. He honored his mother. He provided
for her, didn't he? What a Savior. What a Son He
provided for. And brethren, that's what we're
to do for each other. We're to take care of one another. It
may not always work this way because we're still in the flesh,
but I'm telling you this is the way the family of God's to work.
The family of God is your family. were to pay close attention to
one another. Take care of one another. If
someone's in a need, fill it. Don't worry about how you're
going to do it. God's going to provide. You take
care of one another. Watch out for one another. Here,
this seals the deal. We know Mary had other natural
children, don't we? Our Lord had brothers and sisters. Who did our Lord give charge
of? His mother. Not Mary's other natural children. to John, her
spiritual brother, her spiritual son. Now we're to do the same
for one another. Take care of one another. Watch
out for one another. Pray for one another. You're
never going to have a better family than the one God gave
you, the one that's redeemed, purchased by the blood of His
cross. That blood is the blood of our
family. It's been sprinkled on every
heart of one of God's children. We're blood family. Take care
of one another. All right, let's bow and pray. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank you for the Lord
Jesus Christ, the sacrifice for sin, God's sacrifice for sin. That is fully, completely successful. What confidence and joy and assurance
we have in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, cleansed from all
sin in the blood of his sacrifice, made completely righteous in
his righteousness, given eternal life so that we can never die
because Christ, our substitute, died for us. Father, we're thankful. I pray, Father, that you would
today and each time we meet in the future, continue to bless
the gospel of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. To your glory,
and to your praise, and for the good of your people, we pray.