Turn to Matthew chapter 27. Matthew 27. I titled this message, Crowned with Thorns. Crowned with thorns. I'm going to pick up in verse
26. If you were asked to go back in history, pick up one of the worst acts of human
depravity, Where would you go? Where would you go? I believe
that most people would pick up some war where there was so much
brutality, and that's where they would point
and say, this is probably the worst act of human depravity. But nowhere, nowhere in history do we see
human depravity at its worst than when men cleared their throats
and spit in the face of God. Nowhere. You can pick any war. You can pick anything that you
have heard, know of, and it doesn't compare to this. Because this
is the root of all of it. Hatred of God. I know that this world believes
that it is basically good. It believes that. It believes
it's basically good. But that's because they compare
themselves, Paul said, by themselves, or to themselves. God is the
standard of good, not us. He's the standard of good. His standard is perfection, perfect. But from time to time, from time
to time, God withdraws His hand of restraint, and He lets us
see what human nature is. He lets us see what we are by
nature, and the rest He restrains. We hear sometimes on the news
of some things that are just so unbelievable, and I've heard
people say, I'd never do something like that. If He did not restrain this human
race, there's nothing we would not do. Every believer knows
that. Every believer, everyone whom
God has saved knows they are capable of anything. And if there's
one thing that I am afraid of, It's me. I'm serious. I'm afraid
of myself. If the Lord would pull back His
hand, I'd be afraid of what I would do. I mean that. Now it says in verse 26, Then
released he Barabbas unto them. We looked at this last week.
But they released Barabbas And then they took the Lord Jesus
Christ in his place, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered
him to be crucified. The sinner here goes free, while
the substitute is condemned to die. Did you see that over in
Genesis? God walking in the cool of the
day, not excited, because this thing had been taken care of. And God gave a picture, a type
of the substitute right there in that chapter. Over here, let
me just point back here to Genesis chapter 3. I've got it marked. Let me find the scripture. In
verse 21, unto Adam also and to his wife did
the Lord God make coats of skins. The first blood that was shed
was by God. He killed these animals and then
took their skin and made coats of covering for the nakedness
of Adam and Eve. Right there, substitution. Right
there. Most people can read that and
they'll just slip right past it. But right there, we have substitution. Adam goes out of the garden, but he lives. He lives. God did not kill him right there
on the spot. He deserved it for his disobedience, but he lived
because God killed a substitute. God killed a substitute. and
then cover him. And it says here, and when he
had scourged Jesus, Christ is scourged. He's whipped. We can't even enter into this.
You know, this before us is just, it's holy ground. This truly
is. He was scourged under the Roman
law, not the Jewish law, which was 39 stripes save one. But
the Roman law was whenever they wanted to stop, and they would
beat him, so to speak, within an inch of his life. They beat
him to the point where they thought if we go any further, we won't
have to crucify him. He'll be dead in their minds. His back looked like, I'm sure
it looked like hamburger, raw hamburger, lacerated. It was
lacerated. They took a whip, they didn't
take a cane, they took a whip and they just laid his back wide
open. By his stripes, by those stripes, we are healed. I thought yesterday as I was
looking at this again, here we sit so comfortable. We have it
so comfortable, so nice because of this, because of what happened
to him. This world, even this whole world
benefits from this. It benefits from it because he
has the people in this world that he did this for. And because
they're in this world, this whole world is going to benefit until
he takes them out. So he's scourged under the Roman
law and they lacerate his back from his neck down to his hip. It is laid wide open. And then
the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall.
See, Pilate gave him to the soldiers and said, crucify him. But before
they crucify him, they're going to have some fun. This is fun
to them, because they hate the Jews anyway. So this is fun for
them. See, they had an order from Pilate
to crucify Him. They did not have an order to
mock Him, slap Him, spit on Him, and lacerate Him and do all that
they did. That's human free will at its best. Pilate said, crucify
Him. But they wanted to have some
fun with Him before they before they did it, but all they did
was fulfill the Scriptures. They fulfilled the Word of God.
And I want you to keep in mind as we go down through here, everything
happening to him, to everyone who believes, to everyone of
his children, to everyone whom he'll ever save, this is what
should happen to us. He's taking what actually would
and should happen to us. Well, then it says, Then the
soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and
they gathered unto him, listen, the whole band of soldiers. You
see, this is not just four or five soldiers who are going to
do this. They send out and get all the
soldiers. They get the whole band. They
send out and get all the soldiers in the area and come in here. Let's have at it. This is showtime. This is darkness. This is sin. This is what happened in the
fall. This is what it came to. This
is the results of our sins in the family. We take the Son of
God, and we just have at Him. They don't bow to Him, worship
Him. They slap Him, spit on Him. mocking. You'll see this as we go along.
But all the soldiers in the area came to join in on this fun like
a pack of dogs coming to take part in killing its prey. Turn over to Psalm 22. Psalm
22. Verse 16, For dogs have compassed me, the
assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They surrounded me. The dogs have encompassed me.
They pierced my hands and my feet. He's surrounded by his enemies.
You know, mob mentality is nothing more than human nature on display.
That's what mob mentality is. It's human nature on display.
Men hate God. And I tell you this, men hate
God without any influence from Satan. That's how dead and fallen
we are. That's how sinful, depraved we
are by nature. We don't need any influence from
Satan to hate God now. Not at all. If Satan ceased to
exist, men would still want to kill God. They would still do
it. Now it says here in verse 28,
and they stripped him naked. They took all his clothes off
of him. They put on him a scarlet robe. They stripped him of all
honor. He felt the shame of nakedness. Adam said, I was afraid. I was naked and I was afraid.
He felt the shame of my nakedness before God. He felt it. Adam and Eve were naked and it
did not shame them until after they fell. But after that, they felt it.
They felt it. Well, Christ has felt the shame
of our nakedness before God. Before God. He was stripped of
all dignity. They did their best to humiliate
Him. They put on him a scarlet robe.
They found a scarlet robe. And I'm sure they found an old
stool somewhere and probably brought it there and had him
sit down on it like a king. And put the scarlet robe on him.
And they mocked him as a king. And you know, when they put that
scarlet robe on his back, how painful that had to be on that
lacerated back. But it was fun to the dogs. And they stripped him and they
put this robe on him. That's not enough though. A king
has to have a crown. A king has to have a crown now.
So they went and they plaited. I'm telling you what, they didn't
go back and read Genesis either. They didn't go back and read
and say, well now look, let's see here. They thought, what
can we do here? A king has to have a crown. And
somebody thought, thorns. Thorns, that may have a good
crown. Let's make him a thorny crown. Not realizing that they were
symbolizing the curse. Not realizing, and you who believe,
you and I see this, the curse taken off our heads and put on
His. He bore the curse of our sins. Matthew Henry said this, when
he came to espouse to himself his love, his dove, his undefiled
church, and he quotes from Song of Solomon chapter 5 verse 21,
His hand was filled with dew and his locks with the drops
of the night. He took what belonged to us and
put it on his head. That crown of thorns was on our
head. That curse was on our head and he took it off and put it
on his. A king must have a scepter, so
they make one out of a reed, and they place it in his hand,
and they mock his power. And then they bowed the knee. Mocked submission. Mocked submission. I tell you what, a lot of that's
still going on today. A lot of mock submissions still
going on today. People make like they are submitted
to Him when in fact they are submitted to free will. You just
let something happen to their lives and see them get upset.
Why did God do this? Well, I thought you were submitted
to His Lordship. All it takes is trials to come
along and prove who we are submitted to. That's all it takes. And then they said, hell king
of the Jews! Mock his office as a king of
the Jews. Hell king of an enslaved people. This is our Lord. This is our
substitute. This is our kinsman redeemer
doing this for us. Going through this for us, I
can't find the words to bring this message. I am totally inadequate
to handle what I'm handling this morning. Absolutely. And I want you to notice how
their hatred grew with each insult. In verse 30, and they spit upon
him. You see, it wasn't enough to
mock him as a king. They put the robe on him. They
put a crown of thorn on his head. They put a reed in his hand.
And they mocked him. But that's not enough. They want
to show their contempt. And I know of no other way to
show your contempt for someone than to spit in their face. To
clear your throat and spit right in their face. This is the face
that the angels loved. I can only imagine, I can just
only imagine how astounded the angels were
watching this scene. This is their Lord. This is the
face of the one whom they have loved and worshipped and obeyed
since their creation, the elect angels, the holy angels. And here they are watching Him
go through this. You know, and I know, they were
absolutely astounded at this. Astounded. This is the faith
that His Father loved. This is the Father's Son. That's
amazing. But this is the face that man
hates by nature. Man does not love God. They do
not love Jesus Christ. Not naturally. God has to give
you a new nature to love Christ, to love this face. This is the face where we see the glory of God.
This is the face where we see the glory of God in redemption. This face. This one being slapped. They plucked out his beard, the
scripture says. I mean, I cannot, and there's
just no way to try to get really descriptive with it and even
make it even conceivable of what was going on here. Isaiah said
his visage was so marred more than any man. I'm sure that when
they got done, you could not tell who he was. You could not
tell that was Jesus of Nazareth by looking at him when they got
done with him. But I tell you what, this is
the last face everyone will see. Everyone will see this face. Then they took a reed and they
smote him on the head. They took the reed that they
had put in his hand, took it out of his hand and drew back
and just struck him right on top of the head with it. On that crown of thorns. Drove
that crown of thorns down on his head to show their power
over him. They took that reed and they
smote him with it. You know, that's like taking a scepter
out of a king's hand, striking him on the head with it, and
saying, what do you think now? Where is your power now? They
do, later on here, they say, he saved others. He cannot save
himself. Making fun of his power. Making
fun of his kingship. Just deriding him, mocking. These
are the dogs. These are the lowest servants. Doing this. All this mockery shows the total
ruin of man. It shows what we really
are. Because Pilate, as I said, commanded
him to crucify him. That just wasn't enough. That just wasn't enough. And after they had mocked Him,
after they had got their belly full, they took the robe off
of Him, put His own raiment on Him and led Him away to crucify
Him. And as they came out, they found the man of Cyrene, Simon
by name. Him they compelled to bear His
cross because they had beaten Him so much so severely, they
beat him so severely that he could not make it all the way to Golgotha. I'm sure they put the cross on
him and he carried it as far as he could carry it. So they
took this other man that was standing by. Boy, what a picture. What a picture. And they said,
You help Him bear His cross. You help Him bear this humiliation.
You help Him carry it. Matthew 16, 24, Then said
Jesus unto His disciples, If any man will come after me, let
him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. This is a real picture. Here's
a real picture for us. We have a cross to bear. No one
has ever been saved that did not bear the cross, no one. Hebrews 13, 13, let us go forth
therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. One writer said this, those only
shall reign with him that suffer with him, shall sit with him
in his kingdom that drink of his cup and are baptized with
this baptism. There was one assailant compelled
to help him carry that. We also see here Isaac carrying
the wood for the burnt offering. And then when they were coming
to a place called Golgotha, that's to say a place of a skull, and
no doubt many had been put to death there. That was a place
where they put many prisoners to death. And it's only fitting,
it's only fitting that the death of death should happen there. A stake was driven into the head
of death when Christ was hung on the cross on Galgatha. That was the death of death,
his death. And then if this was not enough,
if all this was not enough, verse 34, they gave him vinegar to
drink mingled with gall, and when he had tasted thereof he
would not drink. Solomon said this, give strong
drink to him that is ready to perish. They would take a mixture
of wine, spiced wine, and they would give it to those who were
being crucified, to deaden their pain, to try to help them mentally,
just kind of mentally put them out so they could deal with it.
They was allowed to do this. Christ was given vinegar and
gull. He wasn't given this spiced wine.
He was given vinegar. and God, which is to show this, that the sin of his people was the root of his bitterness. Drinking that. He only tasted
it, he didn't drink it. I'll tell you why he didn't drink
it, because he is not going to be numbed He's not going to numb
his senses. He's going to taste the full
pain of what you and I deserve. So he only tasted. He didn't
drink it. He just tasted it. That's all.
And then this bitterness also shows the wrath of God. Oh, how bitter. How bitter was
that taste of God's wrath against our sins. And he tasted it. He tasted it fully. Fully. He let no bitter cup go untasted. None. None. And then it says, and they crucified Him. They
parted His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophet, that part of my garments among
them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots." They stripped
him naked again. God's law lays everyone bare
sooner or later. Sooner or later it will lay everyone,
every soul bare. But those in Christ have already
been stripped. We have already been laid bare. That happened at Calvary. And
now we are clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will not be found naked. Because He was. in our place. What's the message here? What's
the message? First of all, we see human depravity. We see what man will do to God
given the opportunity. He will not bow. He will not show love, not even
mercy. You know, there was not one ounce
of mercy shown here. There was not one person in that
whole crowd that stepped forward and said, you know, we shouldn't
be doing this. Enough! Enough! If you were watching
someone being beaten, I mean, just beaten, you would think
you would step forward and say, enough! But not one person in that whole
band of soldiers. Everyone that was in that room,
not one person stepped forward and said, this is enough. They wore themselves out on Him. Nowhere has human depravity been
seen at its worst as this night when it turned on God. This is
the result of the fall. It's the result. And then we
see here the substitute taking the place of the center.
Barabbas, you should be here. Barabbas, you should be here. Now let me tell you something. All of God's Barabbases were
there in Him. I cannot express the importance
of this union that a believer has in Christ. And we had that
union long before we ever believed. The branch is in the vine long
before it ever came out. We were in Christ right here. As you read down through here,
I'm in Him. Those who are brought to faith,
those who believe. I'm in Him. This is happening to me. In my
substitute. Representation is real. Union
is real. It's real. I died in Christ. I was put to
death in Christ. I was stripped in Christ. I was
mocked. I was shamed. It happened to
me in Christ. We see what we should suffer. He was wounded for us. We should
have been wounded. He was shamed for us. He was
mocked for us. He was despised for us. He was condemned for us. He was
stripped for us. He was humiliated for us. He
was crucified for us. He died for us. As Paul Harvey said, next week
we'll see the rest of the story. We'll finish this out next week.
We will see him nailed to the cross for us and risen from the
grave, risen again, delivered for our offenses. but raised
again for our justification.