I know some of you follow our
Bible reading calendar week by week. And this morning, a portion
of our reading was Mark chapter 15. When I read this chapter earlier
in the week, one morning, I knew I had to try to preach to you
from it. We think nowhere near as much
or as often as we should about what transpired upon Golgotha's
dark, dark hill 2,000 years ago. And I have no intention of trying
to say anything new or clever. I want simply to call your attention
to some lessons from Calvary. Let's read Mark 15, verses 15
through 39 together. Mark chapter 15, verse 15. Pilate, willing to content the
people, released Barabbas unto them and delivered Jesus when
he had scourged him to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away
into the hall called Praetorium. and they called together the
whole band, and they clothed him with purple, that is, they
found something the color of royalty, a rag somewhere, purple,
and put it over his shoulders, and plaited a crown of thorns,
and shoved it into his head, and began to salute him. Hail,
King of the Jews! and they smote him on the head
with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees,
worshiped him. And when they had mocked him,
they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes
on him, and led him out to crucify him. And they compelled one Simon
Assyrian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father
of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. And they bring him under the
place Golgotha, which is being interpreted the place of a skull. And they gave him to drink wine
mingled with myrrh, but he received it not. And when they had crucified
him, They parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what
every man should take. And it was the third hour, and
they crucified him. And the superscription of his
accusation was written over the king of the Jews. And with him
they crucified two thieves, the one on his right hand and the
other on his left. And the scripture was fulfilled
which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors. And they
that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads and saying,
are thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it again
in three days. Save thyself, come down from
the cross. Likewise also the chief priest,
mocking him, said among themselves, with the scribes, he saved others. Himself he cannot save. Let Christ
the King of Israel descend now from the cross that we may see
and believe. And they that were crucified
with him reviled him. And when the sixth hour was come,
there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus
cried with a loud voice saying, Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani,
which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? And some of them that stood by,
when they heard it, said, behold, he calleth Elias. And one ran
and filled a sponge full of vinegar and put it on a reed and gave
him to drink, saying, let alone, let us see whether Elias will
come and take him down. And Jesus cried with a loud voice
and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was
rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion
which stood over against him saw that he so cried out and
gave up the ghost, he said, truly, this man was the son of God. If the Lord God wants Balaam
to hear his word, he can speak as easily through Balaam's ass
as he can through a man or an angel, and indeed he did. And sometimes in his infinite
sovereignty, our God uses lost unregenerate, spiritually ignorant
men to proclaim the gospel as truthfully and plainly and powerfully
as any inspired prophet. I have no question at all that
Judas Iscariot was as good a preacher as Peter, James, or John. To
hear him preach, you would hear the same thing from him you would
for Peter, James, or John. And yet those men remain as ignorant
of the gospel as ever. They become voices by which God
declares his truth, though they know nothing of the truth. We
have several examples in scripture. You remember in John chapter
11 about Caiaphas, the high priest, who prophesied that year that
the Lord Jesus Christ should suffer, it expedient for him
to suffer, that one man should die and not the whole nation.
And the Spirit of God tells us that Caiaphas did this not because
he was a prophet, not because he knew God, but being the high
priest, God, spoke a word of prophecy by him, declaring that
Christ Jesus should die in the stead of his people as their
substitute. And not only that, but he would
gather together his elect, scattered to the four corners of the earth
by the sacrifice of his son. Pilate held the Lord Jesus out
before this mob. Pimps and priests. religious folks, and whores,
drunks, and great noble women of their great nobility all joined
together and mocked and derided the Son of God, throwing a hellish
party. And Pilate was afraid, and so
he said, behold your king. Jesus of Nazareth, king of the
Jews, behold the man. and they would have none of it.
You remember Balaam, the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth.
It was Balaam, a false prophet who said, God is not a man that
he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent.
It was Balaam, a false prophet who said, God hath not beheld
iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.
Saul, the king of Israel, was a wicked man, but he prophesied
of David and his greatness as the king of Israel. Here in Mark
15, we have several other examples of God speaking glorious gospel
truths by men who themselves did not know God, did not know
the gospel, knew nothing of what they were saying. Repeatedly,
those who mocked the master in their jeers spoke plainly declaring
The man hanging on the tree between these two thieves is the king,
most distinct the king of Israel. Look at verse 39. The centurion
who stood by, he watched it all. He was there from the beginning
to the end. And when the Lord Jesus cried with a loud voice
saying, it is finished. Father into thy hand, I commend
my spirit. The veil of the temple was written
too. The centurion said, truly, this man was the son of God. The one through whom God speaks,
this is my point. The one through whom God speaks
is nothing, preachers, need to learn that, they need to learn
it early, and they need to learn it regularly, the one preaching
to you included. I recall my first class out in
Springfield, Missouri, first day in class, there were about
800 of us in the class, preachers going to school out there, and
the professor in the theology class got up and he looked over
the class and he said, He said, there was an occasion when God
used the jawbone of an ass to slay a thousand Philistines. And he paused and looked us over
pretty good. And he said, it looks to me like
God's still using the jawbones of asses. That puts us just exactly
where we belong. The preacher is nothing. The
man God uses is nothing. He needs to learn it early, learn
it often, learn it regularly. The gospel of Christ, not the
man preaching it, is the power of God unto salvation. Brother Scott Richardson put
it very well. He said, I'm a nobody trying to tell everybody about
somebody who can save anybody. That's a pretty good description
for what a preacher is. There's another example in verse
31, in the angry, bloodthirsty jeering mob. We hear lost religious
leaders of the day joining in hellish revelry. And though they
spoke with hellish hatred for the Son of God, these chief priests
and scribes, these uppity up fellas in the church, spoke the
plain truth of the gospel most clearly. More clearly than most
preachers ever dream of preaching it. Verse 31. Likewise also the
chief priest mocking said among themselves with the scribes,
he saved others himself, he cannot say. He saved others himself, he cannot
say. Because the Lord Jesus came here
to save his people from their sins. because he came to save
us from the wrath of God. He could not save himself from
being made sin for us. He could not save himself from
the wrath of God. I can't tell you with what reluctance. I say God cannot do something,
but there are some things clearly revealed in the scripture that
must be stated. God cannot lie, he is truth. And God, our savior, could not
save himself. From all that we read here in
Mark chapter 15, if he saved us. Bill Raleigh, all this he
did. He could not do otherwise if
he'd save your soul. This is the very essence of the
gospel. See that you understand it clearly. The holy Lord God
could not save sinners apart from the satisfaction of his
law and justice by the sacrifice of his son at Calvary as our
substitute. No, God did not have to save
anyone, he's God. But having chosen to save some,
he cannot save any except in a manner that honors his law
and justice. He set forth his son to be a
propitiation for our sins, to declare his righteousness, that
he might be just and the justifier of all who believe, that he might
be a just God and the Savior. In this 15th chapter of Mark's
gospel, we have the most wondrous, most glorious event. in the history
of the universe. Indeed, what we read here is
the reason God created the world to begin with. This world was
created for the sacrifice of God's son to redeem his people
from their sins, thereby revealing to a created world, men and angels
and devils, the glory of God in the saving of his people.
The sufferings described here would be astonishing, shocking
to behold under any circumstances. The things we see done here,
if we saw them done to any man, would be revolting. But here
is something indescribably astonishing. All that the Lord of glory here
endured, when he was made sin for us, he willingly voluntarily
endured because of his great love for us. Mark read back in
the office the third chapter of Ephesians, Paul's prayer that
we might know the length and breadth and depth and height
of the love of God that passes knowledge. That we might be filled
with the knowledge of that love that passes knowledge. Let us
give our hearts continually to knowing what we can know about
the love of God revealed on Calvary's cursed tree. God commendeth his
love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
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. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us. Now, I want us to
simply observe several things from the passage of scripture
we've read. And as we think upon these things,
let us not forget, not even for a moment, that our sins and the
salvation of our souls were the cause of our Savior's agony.
Our sins, the salvation of our souls were the cause of our Savior's
agony. It was my hell that he endured. It was my death that he died. The blood atonement and the sin
offering he made as my surety. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. He his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should
live unto righteousness. By whose stripes you were healed. Christ also has suffered for
us for sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us
to God being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the
spirit. And let's look at a few things.
Number one, verse 15, here we see the son of God delivered
into the hands of common, of the Roman soldiers as a common
criminal, condemned and crucified. Condemned to death,
death by crucifixion as a common criminal. Verse 50, Pilate, willing
to content the people, released Barabbas, a man who led sedition
and committed murder in the sedition. He released Barabbas unto them
and delivered Jesus when he had scourged him to be crucified. Here is that one before whom
one day soon the whole world must stand in judgment. The great
judge who summons every man must answer at the last day. Judged
of men, sentenced to death, delivered to the executioners to be crucified
as a base, vile criminal. Crucifixion under Roman law reserved
for the basest of men, for the most common of men, for the most
vile of men, for the most obnoxious of criminals. Why did the Son of God subject
Himself to such? It was that He might deliver
us from judgment, from the pit of destruction. from everlasting
death in hell. The Lord Jesus was made sin for
us, judged guilty for us, put to death for us, so that the
believing sinner might never be judged for sin. So that he
might present all the host of God's elect before the presence
of his glory, unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Second, the Lord Jesus, the righteous
one, is here mocked, jeered, insulted, made a laughing stock
before the world. Verse 16, and the soldiers led
him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together
the whole band, and they clothed him with purple. As I said, they
just, They took a rag or a piece of cloth that was purple, had
the color of royalty. They weren't being the least
bit respectful. They just threw something over him so that it
would be a mockery of a king. And they planted a crown of thorns
and they put it on his head. They shoved it into his head.
And they began to salute him. Hail, king of the Jews. And they smote him on the head
with a reed and did spit upon him. and bowing their knees worshiped
him. Can you picture? Can you picture
the scene? And when they had mocked him,
they took off the purple from him and put his own clothes on
him and led him out to crucify him. Verse 29, and they that
passed by railed on him. wagging their heads. You don't expect to see this
from adults, do you? You know, we see it in Washington,
you kind of expect to see it there. But you just don't expect
adults to act like this. Here are grown people, well-educated
people. walking by, wagging their head,
sticking out their tongues, making faces at him. And they railed
on him saying, ah thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in
three days. Save yourself, come down from
the cross. Let's see you act now. Likewise,
also the chief priest. Mocking said among themselves
with the scribes, he saved others, himself he cannot save. Let Christ,
the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see
and believe. And they that were crucified
with him reviled him. The two thieves joined the crowd. They beat him, they spit on him,
they mocked him. and they led him away to crucify
him, and as they did, he became the song of druggards, so that
harlots and holy men and pimps and priests and sots and scribe
joined the hellish rivalry as they nailed him to the tree and
watched him die. Even the other two thieves who
were crucified, one on his right side and one on the left, found
a little comfort for themselves by mocking him. The Son of God was made to be
utterly contemptible by men and for men. He was made to be the
filth of the world, the offscouring of all things. Do you ask why? It was that he might present
you holy and unblamable and unreprovable. that it might present you without
spot, without wrinkle, without sin before God. That it might
present you and me, we who are nothing but vileness, present
us in the beauty of perfect holiness before God. He sunk in humiliation
that we might be raised in triumph. Here's the third thing, verse
24. The Lord Jesus was stripped naked before men, exposed in
open shame to all his enemies. And when they had crucified him,
they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man
should take. I tried to picture in my mind
what the scene was at Calvary. I do not recommend that you have
artwork or any of the idolatrous pictures people have. Any of
them that you have seen, don't come close to describing it.
You wouldn't want it hanging in your living room or over your
dining room table. It was a butcherous, barbaric,
ugly scene. Here hangs a man covered with
human spit. beaten, his body lacerated, bleeding
from head to foot, naked in shame. Why? It was that we who have
no righteousness before God might be clothed with his perfect righteousness,
that we who are naked and shameful, all defiled with sin. might wear
the wedding garments of His grace and sit side by side with God
the Son in linen white garments, perfect righteousness, even the
righteousness of Christ. Here's the fourth thing. The Holy One of God was reckoned
a transgressor, a sinner. because he was made sin. Verse 27, with him they crucified
two thieves, the one on his right hand, the other on his left.
And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, and he was numbered
with the transgressors. He did no sin. He knew no sin. He could not sin. In his mouth
there was no guile. and yet he was numbered with
the transgressors. Why? Because he was made sin
for us. The Holy Lamb of God, God the
Son in our flesh, he who could never sin was made sin for us,
that we who were altogether unholy might be made perfectly holy
forever. He was pronounced guilty, that
we might be pronounced righteous before God. He was made our filth, that we might
be made His cleanness. He was made our unholiness that
we might be made His holiness. He was made our unrighteousness
that we might be made His righteousness. Number five, verse 34. When He
was made sin for us, God the Son was forsaken by His Father. And at the ninth hour, Jesus
cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,
which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? When our Savior was at the apex
of his obedience, When he had come to the crowning work, he
came here to do. When he had come to the final
deed, his father had committed to him as Jehovah's righteous
servant, when he said, lo, I come to do thy will, oh my God. For
33 years, doing the will of God, only doing the will of God, now
he comes to the capstone of it all. and his father abandons
him, turns his back upon him, spreads darkness over the earth,
and the Savior cries, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Why? Because he was made sin,
because the holy God who cannot look upon sin. Abandon his son
now, now. We hear the holy Lord God say
to us who are nothing but sin, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. He was forsaken, that we may
never be forsaken. no matter what. Number six, the Lord of glory was crucified
upon the cursed tree. Verse 22, they bring him to the
place called Golgotha, which is being interpreted the place
of a skull and gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh and he
received it not. And when they crucified him,
they parted his garments and casting lots upon them, what
every man should take. And it was the third hour and
they crucified him. And the superscription of his
accusation was written over the king of the Jews. Death by crucifixion. I already
told you it was reserved for the vilest of men. It had a distinct
mark upon it by the law of God. The law of God says, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. The Jews would have stoned him.
The Jews tried repeatedly to stone him. But our Lord Jesus
must be hanged upon the tree so that he might be identified
particularly as being one under the curse. Cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. And so the Jews were taken captive
by the Romans under the dominion of the Romans. And the Roman
government has the power of execution. So the Jews turn him over to
Pilate and demand that Pilate execute this man for his blasphemy. Can you imagine such a thing
coming to pass under any ordinary circumstances? Captive people
demanding of their captors that they execute a man according
to their law for blasphemy? It never happened except he was
delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of
God to be crucified and slain. Why must he die the painful,
shameful, ignominious, cursed death of the cross? Because he
must be made a curse for us. That we might never be cursed
of God. He was made the curse of God
that we might be blessed of God. He was made a curse that we might
be blessed and be made a blessing. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Being made a curse for us, for
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Listen
to this, verse 37. and Jesus cried with a loud voice
and gave up the ghost. All this he did. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, our substitute, all this he did freely and voluntarily. He laid down his life for us. He breathed out his life. He gave up the ghost. No man
took it from him. He laid down his life as a voluntary
victim to the holy anger and justice of God that we might
live forever by him. He says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my
voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore
doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might
take it again. No man taketh it from me, but
I lay it down in myself. I have power to lay it down and
power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my father. Why? Why? In this was manifested
the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him. He laid down
His life for the sheep, that the sheep might live forever. Because He laid down His life,
He says to His sheep, I give unto you eternal life, and you
shall never perish. One last thing, verse 38. By His blood atonement, by His
death under the curse of God's holy law, the Son of God ripped
open the veil of the temple. The veil of the temple was rent
in twain from the top to the bottom. When justice was satisfied,
when sin was put away, when there was nothing left to separate
God from me, nothing left to separate God
from me, the Lord God Almighty ripped the veil in two. When
the law of God was forever silenced, that which symbolized separation
between a holy God and sinful man was taken away. Why? So that redeemed sinners might
come freely, might come boldly, might come confidently, might
come with the full assurance of faith to God on his throne
and obtain mercy and grace to help in every time of need. The veil was ripped from top
to bottom because justice was satisfied. Sin was put away. There's no condemnation. The
way of access is open. And now What a deep, deep sense
we ought to have of the debt we owe to our Savior. All that we have, all that we
are, all that we hope for must be traced to the doing and dying
of the Son of God for us. By His condemnation, we're acquitted.
By Him being made sin, we're made the righteousness of God.
By His righteousness, we have peace. By His shame, we get glory. By His death, we get life. Thanks
be unto God for His unspeakable gift. How willing, how anxious, how
ready, The God of all grace is to save poor, needy sinners. He sacrificed his son for sinners
because God, our God, delights in mercy. He delights in mercy. What assurance
we ought to have of our Savior's great love for us. of the love
of the triune God for us. God so loved me. God so loved me. I love the fact that it's put
in the past tense. His love fixed on me from everlasting
with no change, with no variation in time is the love with which
he loves me. God so loved me that He gave
His Son for me. Oh my God, how I ought to love Him. My God,
my Savior. He is so devoted to me that He
laid down His life under the most horrid circumstances, in
the most painful death, in the greatest darkness and shame imaginable
in human history, because he's committed to my
everlasting good. My God, teach me to be committed
to your glory in all things. Amen.