The Lord willing, tonight, if
the Lord will enable me to do so, I have a message for you
on a very unusual subject, but a message with a very unusual
command. My subject will be the naked
preacher. You can read the passage in Isaiah
chapter 20. With that in mind, turn with
me if you will to the book of Luke again, chapter 23. On the northern side of Jerusalem,
a few hundred feet from the Damascus gate, there was a singular dismal
hill. It would appear an insignificant
mound of dirt. But this bleak, dismal hill is
the most important, most significant place in all the world. Indeed,
that which transpired on this dark hill is the reason God made
the world. It is the place called Calvary. Ever, ever memorable and dear
to the believer's heart is the place Calvary. May God the Holy Ghost give wings
to our souls and enable us now to fly away to that wonderful,
wondrous place for a little while this morning. Luke 23, verse
33, And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary,
there they crucified him, and the one on his right hand and
the other on his left. When they will come to the place,
not just any place would do, they must come to this specific
place, the place called Calvary. It was at this place, Golgotha,
the place of the skull, just little more than a garbage dump
outside Jerusalem. At this place, The Son of God,
the God-man must suffer and die. We're told that our Lord Jesus
set his face like a flint to go up to Jerusalem. And when
he did, he knew exactly what he was doing. He knew exactly
where he was going. He knew exactly what would happen
there. But to Calvary, he was determined
to go. To Calvary, he must go. He said,
what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy
name. Satan tried to stop him. He tried
to take his life in the wilderness. The Jews tried on many occasions
to kill him. The devil tried to destroy him
in Gethsemane, but his hour was not yet come. He escaped from
the hands of wicked men and escaped from the hands of Satan repeatedly
and saying, my hour is not yet come. Because he had not yet
come to the place, the place which is called Calvary. But
now he has come to that place. The Jews, I imagine, thought
that they had dragged him as a helpless victim to the place
of his execution. And as is portrayed by men, because
men commonly think this way, it looks as though he was dragged
as a helpless victim by the hands of men. But in reality, the Lord
of glory led the procession. As the sovereign king, he led
the whole procession of the Jews, the Pharisees, the scribes, the
Sadducees, and the Roman soldiers. He led them as a king out to
this place of conquest. God, the eternal son, had purposed
from eternity to come to this place. This was the object, the
desire, the purpose of his heart before the worlds were made.
It could truthfully be said that the great purpose for which God
created this world, the great purpose for which he who came
in the flesh made all things, was that in the fullness of time
he might come to this place. Our Redeemer from old eternity
set his mind, fixed his eyes on this place. Fixed his eyes
on this place like a laser beam. I remember when I first was trying
to learn to drive one of these zero-turn mowers. When you first
get on them, you're likely to make some mistakes, and I did.
I went around in circles, went crooked, finally hit a tree out
here. Larry Brown sitting on the back porch. He was a brand-new
mower and had a rack on it, and I'm sitting with the wheels up
in the air like this. And when I got down there, he said, get
your eyes on that fence post out there, and don't take them
off of it, and just keep going. And that's the secret. You don't
look where you've been. You don't look right here. You
look there. And you move just as straight
as it can be. When you move this way or that way, it's because
your eyes went to one side or the other. Before the world was,
our Redeemer set his eyes on this place. And he never looked
to the left or to the right. In my mind's eye, I can see him
marching steadily from old eternity through the ages of time to this
place where he would make for himself an everlasting and a
glorious name, the place called Calvary, where he would show
himself God, our Savior. The Lord God, he said, hath opened
mine ear. And I was not rebellious, neither
turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters,
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face
from shame and spitting, for the Lord God will help me. Therefore
shall I not be confounded. Therefore I have set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. Our Lord Jesus was on his way
to Calvary. when he stood forth as our surety
in the covenant of grace before the world was made and said,
I will redeem my people. I will save my people. I will justify my people. I will bring my people home to
God. He stopped by the gates of Eden
on his way to Calvary. and there made a sacrifice in
skins to picture for Adam and Eve that which he would do by
which he would undo all the ruin of Satan and crush the serpent's
head. He paused to make a covenant
with Noah. foretelling that which he would
fulfill in the covenant of grace, making a promise that his wrath
of water floods would never again engulf the earth, saying to Noah,
I will save my people. And so he proceeds. He was on
his way to Calvary. When he stopped at Egypt and
by the power of his mighty arm and by the price of blood, the
blood of an innocent Passover lamb brought Israel out of Egyptian
bondage, he was on his way to Calvary. when he came into this
world, as he breaks his mother's womb and says, lo, I come to
do thy will, oh my God, by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all,
as our Lord walked through this earth. when he was just a boy
sitting in the synagogue teaching the elders. And his mother and
dad missed him. And she rebuked him when they
found him. He said to his mother, wish you
not, I must be about my father's business. One day on his way
to Calvary, he's going down the Jericho Road into Jericho. And
he paused. Scripture says, Jesus stood still. There the son stood still. He paused to hear the cry of
a blind beggar named Bartimaeus and to give him sight. And on
the way out, he paused again to give life eternal to a publican
by the name of Zacchaeus. Our Lord Jesus was marching steadily
to Calvary. when he stopped in Samaria at
Jacob's well and sat down there to give eternal life to a harlot
by the omnipotence of his grace. He was on his way to Calvary
when he stopped for a little while on the Mount of Transfiguration
to talk to Moses and Elijah about the Exodus, about the death he
should accomplish at Jerusalem. This was always in his heart,
always in his mind's eye. This is why he came into the
world, that he might die upon the cursed tree just outside
the gates in Jerusalem. I want us to come then once more
to Calvary, not to the physical mound, Honestly, if I could find
exactly where it was and I had the right to do it, I'd find
somebody with a bulldozer and mow it down. If I could find
the tomb where the Lord was buried, I'd find somebody with a bulldozer
and shove it in. We have no regard for what men
call holy places. The ground in Jerusalem is just
dirt, just like the ground here. This soil's a little bit richer,
a little bit better. I suggest you farm this ground. There's
no such place as a holy place on this earth. This building
is not a holy building. This pulpit is not a holy desk. These things are set aside for
holy purposes. But this is just a building,
this is just a pulpit. But we would come to Calvary
spiritually. And we would observe what transpired
in the death of that man upon the cursed tree spiritually,
not placing any papal significance, any idolatrous superstitious
significance to any material place, but only to that which
transpired there and that which is taught there by our God. Well, do I remember my first
visit to Calvary's Hill? I thank God I remember it well. I came as a guilty, heavy laden
sinner with a burden of blackness and crime and shame and guilt
on my back, crushing me to hell. Terrified of God's judgment. Terrified of everlasting damnation. And immediately, looking on him
who died on the curse tree, the burden rolled off my back. into the abyss of divine forgetfulness. And I left that place singing. Mercy there was great, and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. I had just one reason for bringing
this message. I want to hold before you the
wonders of Calvary, and you being overwhelmed by the mercy, love,
and grace revealed in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
you who know our God to worship him, to give yourselves again
to him, to consecrate yourselves afresh to him. And I want you
who know him not to be overwhelmed by his grace. and sweetly forced
to trust my Savior. Oh, may God do that in these
next few minutes and we will go home or go to heaven rejoicing,
whatever God's purpose is. Let me raise and answer some
questions very simply. I have no desire, honestly, no
desire to deal with speculative things. I have no desire, no
interest in trying to deal with what men call deep things. I want simply to observe here.
that which is meaningful to God and meaningful to your soul.
And I want to speak with utmost simplicity about the most wondrous,
profound things in the universe. Here's my first question. Who
was there? You come to Calvary. Who do you
see there? To be sure, there were multitudes
gathered around the hideous sites. It was the sport and entertainment
of depraved minds in those days to watch the agonies of dying
men. Wicked men of every rank were
there. The self-righteous Pharisee joined in sport with a Roman
soldier. Refined, educated men joined with uncouth men of the
streets in their diabolical amusement. Housewives and harlots danced
together around the cross. Women and children joined in
hellish concert with the songs of drunkards. What a strange
sight. But these aren't the people that
concern me now. There were some people whom we might expect to
see here at Calvary who just weren't there. They weren't there. Where were those disciples? who
had boasted just the day before, we've left all and followed you.
Where are they now? Where are those chosen 12 apostles
who had walked with Christ throughout his earthly ministry for three
and a half years? They're not around anywhere.
Where was the bold, boastful Peter who said, I'll never leave
you nor forsake you? Where were the thousands who
profited by our Lord's miracles. Where were our saviors near kinsmen? They were not there. They were
not there. Some gathered a little later,
but none were there. None were there. Teaching us how fickle, how frail, how unsteady. how sinful we are who are God's. Let alone others. I'm talking
about these apostles, men who are true believers, those disciples,
true believers, those followers of our Redeemer, true believers.
Where were they? weakness, faintness of heart,
unbelief, and dismay. They weren't around. As our Lord
had prophesied, so it came to pass. I have trodden the winepress
alone, and of the people was none with me. Reproach hath broken
mine heart, and I'm full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity,
but there was none, for comforters but I found none. Others were
there we might not have expected to be there. There was a man
there by the name of Simon, a Cyrenian, who carried the Savior's cross.
And our Lord Jesus went forth to suffer without the gate, fulfilling
the typical red heifer sacrifice in the Old Testament. This man
Simon was compelled Compelled, the scriptures put it just that
way, compelled to bear the cross, following the Savior up to the
place of sacrifice. What a message that is. The Lord
God used a bloodthirsty mob of lost religionists and Roman pagans
to gather one of his elect to the Savior. That's something. There's no indication at all
that this man Simon knew the Lord beforehand. No indication
at all that he knew the Lord Jesus before the Roman soldiers
and the religious self-righteous Pharisees compelled him to carry
his cross. Carrying the cross he saw and
observed the very things the dying thief saw and observed
on Calvary's hill. And he was either then or sometime
later, converted by God's grace. We know that because he, his
wife, and two of his sons, Alexander and Rufus, were all people of
note in the early church. Paul mentions them in the 16th
chapter of Romans. Simon's name means hearkening
and obedience. None are fit to bear, and none
will bear the cross of Christ, except those who hearken to his
voice, and are obedient to his call, made willing in the day
of his power. If God saves you, and you hearken
to his voice this day, if this day you come to Christ, it will
be because the Lord God has exercised his saving power, causing you
to obey his voice. Again, I repeat, Simon was compelled
to bear the Savior's cross. And if we would be his disciples,
if we would be followers of God, if we would be believers, if
we would be the children of God, we must take up our cross and
follow him. There's no salvation apart from
taking up your cross deliberately. Deliberately taking up the cross
and following the Savior. But no man will ever do that.
The cross is too offensive to our flesh. The cross too contrary
to our will. the cross to obnoxious to our
nature. No man will ever take up his
cross and follow Christ except as he is compelled by irresistible
grace to take up the cross and follow him. there were some devoted
believing women there too, women who followed the Lord Jesus to
this place. Matthew tells us of many women
there watching from a distance. Three of them are there, specifically
three women whose names are mentioned named Mary. Mary, the Savior's
mother was there. She kept in her mind, in her
memory, all the things that were spoken concerning him from the
time that the wise men came to worship him through the days
of his life. Every word she kept it in her
mind and now she's there watching as her God, the son who came
forth from her womb, dies in her stead as her substitute. Mary, the mother of James and
John Zebedee's sons was there. She had her faults as did James
and John, desiring that they should have the chief place in
the Savior's kingdom just a day before this. But she's with him
in the end. And Mary Magdalene. Those who
are forgiven much, love much. Mary Magdalene is she out of
whom the Lord had cast seven devils, a vile woman of ill repute,
a saint of God, made so by his free grace. And the triune God
was there. That's the most important thing.
All three persons in the Holy Trinity, all three persons, Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, All three persons in the one Godhead, our
great God, have from everlasting been engaged together in the
work of our salvation. All three are now engaged in
the work of our salvation. and all three shall be engaged
in the saving of our souls until at last its complete and resurrection
glory. All three, Father, Son and Holy
Ghost. were involved in the covenant
of grace before the world began. All three, Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost were involved in the creation of the world for God's elect.
All three were present when the Lord Jesus came forth from his
mother's womb. All three showed themselves at
his baptism. All three were present in redemption
as well. God the Father was there sacrificing
His only begotten well-beloved Son. God the Son was there obeying
His Father as Jehovah's willing righteous servant. God the Spirit
was there strengthening and sustaining our Redeemer in His sacred humanity
as He bore Jehovah's holy infinite wrath. I'll tell you somebody
else who was there. God's elect were there. Hear me, my brother. David Burge,
you were there. Hear me, my sister. Do you hear
me? As Ruth Wall, you were there.
God's elect were there. There in the person of the man
who dies. Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. We were there, represented by
Him. You see, our Savior did not die
as a private person, but as a representative public person. He suffered and
died as the surety and the substitute of God's elect. All that He endured
on that day, He endured for us. The shame that He bore was my
shame. The guilt he bore was my guilt. The sin he bore was my sin. The wrath he endured was my wrath. The death he died was my death. I died in him. Turn to Galatians
chapter two for just a minute, Galatians two. Salvation is altogether by grace. Grace that flows to needy sinners
through the blood of our crucified substitute. Luke 2, verse 19. The Apostle Paul has been showing
us that salvation is by grace alone, without works of any kind. He asserts that a man is justified,
is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Then in verse 19, he makes an
astonishing assertion. I, through the law, am dead to
the law that I might live unto God. How can that be? I, through the law, dead to the
law that I might live unto God." How can a person be dead to the
law? Only when he is dead. No other way. Only when he is
dead. Somebody commits mass murder
and then commits suicide, case is over. Law's got nothing else
to say. The books are closed. Somebody
commits some horrible crime and the police kill him and attempts
to arrest him, books are closed. He's dead to the law, no matter
what he's done. He's D-E-A-D, dead. That's exactly, Bill Raleigh,
how you and I are dead to the law. How is that? When Christ died, we died. The law executed its furious
wrath to the full satisfaction of justice. When Christ was dead,
the law was satisfied. And when Christ was dead, you
and I who are gods in him were dead, put to death. Look at verse
20. This is exactly what the apostle
was inspired to tell us. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. and the life which I now live
in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. Literally the first statement
of this verse is in the past tense. It would be more accurately
translated, I have been once and for all with finality crucified
with Christ. He's not talking about a process
of dying. He's not talking about we are
presently dying. He's talking about what took
place at Calvary 2,000 years ago. I have been at one time with
one stroke of the sword of God's justice with fidelity put to
death. It's over. I'm dead to the law.
Then he speaks of that which is presently true of all who
are believers, all who are born of God in the blessed experience
of grace. Oh, hear me now. Hear me now,
if this minute, if this minute, oh God do this, if this minute
God gives you faith in his dear son, I mean right now, right
now, if God gives you faith in Christ Jesus the Lord, being
born of God, you can speak with confidence saying, nevertheless
I live. I'm dead to the law, but I'm
alive. I'm alive because God the Holy
Ghost has given me life by his omnipotent, almighty, irresistible
grace. He didn't come and ask me if
I wanted life. He didn't come and offer me life. He came and
gave me life. As Lord God brought at him that
lump of clay that he had made a magnificent image of, just
a pile of dirt, made him to look like a perfect specimen of a
man. But there he is, just a pile of dirt. And God breathed into
his nostrils and Adam became a living soul. So God the Holy
Spirit is the breath of God, the breath of God. And sinners
redeemed by the blood of Christ, chosen by God from eternity,
are made to live when God the Holy Ghost breathes himself into
fallen, ruined, doomed, damned, dead sinners, and the sinner
lives. And then the apostle goes on
to say, yet, yet, this new life in Christ is not me. He's not
I. I'm not talking about Sola Tarsus.
I'm not talking about Adam. I'm not talking about that sinful
mass of humanity that spent his life in rebellion to God. No,
no, I'm not talking about that thing that's of the devil. Not
I, but rather Christ liveth in me. He told the Colossians, that
the hope of glory is Christ in us. Christ in us, not Christ
in the covenant, not Christ walking on the earth, not Christ on the
cross, not Christ in the tomb, not even Christ in glory. Christ
in you is the hope of glory. Now this is what that means,
two things, two things, hear me now. Until Christ is living
in you, you have no reason to expect anything but everlasting
damnation from God. Until Christ takes up residence
in you, you have no reason to even be suspicious that God might
love you. That ought to set you trembling. Until Christ It takes up residence
in you. You have no reason to suspect
anything except the wrath of God abides on you. And there's not one thing you
can do about it. And not one thing I can do about
it. And not one thing any man can
do about it. But God can. God can. God can. With God, nothing's impossible.
Who then can be saved? With man. Nobody. With God, nothing's
impossible. Christ comes in, and sinners have life. And you
know that Christ is in you when all of a sudden, you find yourself
believing Him, trusting Him. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou
hast sent. Salvation. Salvation. Would to God, would
to God I can get the ear of this generation. And since I don't
have their ear, oh, may God give me your ear. Salvation is nothing
less than the life of God in the soul of man. It is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Imagine that. We are made partakers
of divine nature, and we are people in whom Christ lives,
the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me now lives
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith, by the faithfulness, the merit
and efficacy of the faithful obedience of the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. Why did He do this? Why did He do this? He did this because He loved
us. Hereby perceive we the love of
God. Oh, the love that drew salvation's
plan. Oh, the grace that brought it
down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God
did span at Calvary. Hereby perceive we, this is how
sinners are made to know the love of God, because he loved
us and gave himself for us. Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins, the justice satisfying, the wrath appeasing, the sin
atoning, the sin removing sacrifice for our sins by which God is
well pleased. Oh, may God graciously give you
faith in his dear son, and calls you and me to live day after
day after day after day every day of our lives at Calvary with
our Redeemer, walking constantly in the memory with thanksgiving
to Him for His great sacrifice for us. Would to God, Rex, our
minds might never be moved to anything else. Oh, what a life that would be.
Would to God, our minds and our hearts might never be moved from
Calvary and him who there redeemed man. Amen.