Mark chapter 15. I'm going to
read several verses here. And straightway in the morning,
this is in chapter 15 verse 1, the chief priests held a consultation
with the elders and scribes and the whole council and bound Jesus
and carried Him away and delivered Him to Pilate. And Pilate asked
Him, Art Thou the King of the Jews? And He, answering, said
unto him, Thou sayest it. And the chief priests accused
Him of many things, but He answered nothing. And Pilate asked Him
again, saying, Answerest Thou nothing? Behold, how many things
they witness against Thee! But Jesus yet answered nothing,
so that Pilate marveled. Now at the feast, Pilate released
unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. And there was one
named Barabbas, which lay bound with them, that had made insurrection
with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. And a multitude,
crying aloud, began to desire him to do as he had ever done
unto them. But Pilate answered them, saying,
Will ye that I therefore release unto you the king of the Jews,
For he knew that the chief priest had delivered him for envy. But
the chief priest moved the people that he should rather release
Barabbas unto them. And Pilate answered and said
again unto them, What will ye then that I should do unto him
whom you call king of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify
him. Of course there you see the substitution
right there. The innocent was going to be
guilty, and the guilty, which we are from birth, was set free. Now you think about this. Now
this is the chief priest. These are the religious folk
of the day. Desired, and again I brought
this up before, if you've got little children, This was really
interesting. They desired that he would release
one who was a rebel against society and who committed murder. To
release in their midst. The hatred of God and his gospel
knows no bounds. It knows no bounds. Then Pilate
said unto them, why, what evil has he done? And they cried out,
the more exceedingly, crucify him. So Pilate, willing to content
the people, released Barabbas unto them and delivered Jesus,
and he had scourged him to be crucified. And the soldiers led
him away into the hall called Petorium, and they called together
the whole band. And they clothed him with purple,
and plaited a crown of thorns, and put it about 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, worshipped him. And when they had mocked him,
they took off the purple from him, and put on his own clothes
on him, and led him out to crucify him. And they compelled one Simon
of Cyrene, who passed by coming out of the country, the father
of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. And they bring him
into the place, Galgatha, which is being interpreted, the place
of the 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 a superscription of His accusation
was written over the King of the Jews." What I want to look at particularly
and specifically is verse 23. Verse 23, they gave him to drink
wine mingled with myrrh, but he received it not. An incidental
passage, perhaps. It doesn't look like there's
much there. But just let that right there
sink into your psyche. Just mull it over, mull it over,
and mull it over. Christ must suffer. He must suffer
physically, mentally, and most importantly, spiritually. His soul was in agony. And some
say, and I can't remember, but in this passage, and the corresponding
passages, you have over a hundred prophecies being fulfilled. That's how important, that's
how all of the Old Testament and the Law and the Prophets,
they were pointing to this time in history that was happening
right here. So many scriptures were fulfilled
at the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I thought about this
in your Bible class, talking about free will, God let, permitted, allowed man
to touch his son one time. And what did they do? They slaughtered
him. What would we have done? It's
easy to say, yeah, but me, I wouldn't have done that. We would have
been like the thief on the cross, casting the same in his teeth.
They slaughtered him. And I read this passage, they
spit on him, mocked him, crown of thorns on his head. Let's
just look at some of the passages that leads up to this point,
that all point forward to this. In Genesis 3, I believe the first
mention, Genesis 3, verses 14-15, And
the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this,
deceived Adam and Eve, thou art cursed above all cattle and every
beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go,
and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. I will put
enmity between thee and the woman. and between thy seed and her
seed." That's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall bruise
your head, you'll bruise His heel. He got His fangs in His
heel, but the Lord Jesus Christ, He crushed, absolutely crushed
the head of the serpent. We talked about that in John. Satan, he's on a leash. He can't do anything. without
permission. Psalms 22. Psalms 22. And I'm just reading to you the passages
from Scripture that declare and point so clearly to the Lord
Jesus Christ and His sufferings that He would undergo. And then
I want to go back to our text and look at just two things.
Psalms 22, let's just read a little bit here. My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? The cries of Christ on the cross. Why art thou so far from helping
me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the
daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and
am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praise of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee,
they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto
thee and were delivered, they trusted in thee, and we're not
confounded. But I am a worm and no man, a
reproach of men, and despise of the people. All they that
see me laugh me to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake
the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver
him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in Him." And that's
exactly what was said. How do you read this? Do you
read it with an eye to David or with an eye to Christ? as
he agonized both physically and most importantly spiritually
of the agony of soul for the justice of God and for the sins
of his people. Isaiah 53. We could have spent years just
looking at these passages. Isaiah 53, verse 11, God shall
see the travail of His Son's soul and shall be satisfied. By His knowledge shall My righteous
servant justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. That's what was happening on
the cross. He was bearing the iniquities of all the elect throughout
all time. Trevail, that word is to toil,
to severely toil, wearisome, troublesome. And there was no
soul agony like our Lord's agony upon the cross. John chapter
12. John chapter 12 and verse 27. Now is my soul troubled, Christ
says, and what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour,
but for this cause came I into this hour. I'm not going to step
aside. I'm not going to dodge the bullet.
I'm not going to turn my back on wrath, I'm going to meet it.
For this hour came I into the world." And he says in another
place, he had a baptism to be baptized with and he was straightened,
he was affixed until he accomplished that. Acts chapter 3, in verse 18. But those things
which God before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets,
that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled." Not only
did He suffer, but He fulfilled and entered in righteousness. Hebrews chapter 2. And verse 9, But we see Jesus,
who is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace
of God, should taste death for every man. Hebrews chapter 12
and verse 2. looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. He's not like those old
priests who could never sit down. There was never a bench, there
was never a chair in the ten of meetings, the tabernacle,
either place. They could never sit down. Why?
Because the work's never done. And man couldn't do the work.
When Christ did it, he sat down. And this is why He's hanging
on the cross. And lastly, Revelation 5, for
our text that we're going to look at this morning. Revelation
5, verse 6, And I beheld, and lo, in the
midst of the throne of the four beasts, in the midst of the elders,
stood a Lamb, as it had been slain, as it had been slain,
without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. He suffered in death and endured
the cross, endured the shame, endured the contradiction of
sinners against himself. Back to our text. They gave him to drink wine mingled
with myrrh, but he received it not." He said, well, he did receive
it. He was offered twice. Now look at verse 36 of the same
chapter. And one ran as he was calling
to his father and filled a sponge full of vinegar, it's different,
and put it on a reed, gave it to him to drink, And when he
did so, verse 37, he cried with a loud voice and gave up the
ghost. So this is two different instances. Very important. It's just two things. Why did
Christ not take this mixture? Well, first of all, that word
myrrh, it's a tincture. Which means, it's pharmaceutical,
it's a mixture. It's a mixture. for anesthetic
purposes. It's actually, in the concordance,
a narcotic. To ease the suffering, to cut
the edge off the Savior's pain and agony. That's what that would
have done. But what does the text say? He
did not take it. Now, I just see two things. Enoch knows something about anesthesia,
and Ron. It's a good thing for us. Because if you have a low threshold
for pain, I remember I went and visited a
guy in the hospital. He had major back surgery. when I was working
for the city, and went to visit him, and he had that plunger,
morphine, and he's gone. He's hitting that thing until
he just passed out. It's like, somebody come and
take this thing away from him. That's what we do. That's what
we do. But I want to go back to our
text again and emphasize They gave him to drink wine mingled
with myrrh, but he did not receive it. The first reason why he did
not take this mixture, to fulfill all scripture. He must fulfill and accomplish
everything that the Old Testament said he would to the letter. Someone, not us, must satisfy
God's law. Now, I don't care what these
people in this community, they put out on their front yard the
Ten Commandments, and they say they're going to live by them.
Well, they don't understand what they're doing. Because the Scripture
says, do you not hear the law? If you're going to live by, you're
going to live by every, every one of them, every law. And really
that's just the quote moral law. We kind of broken it up, but
really it's the whole, you better live by this everything perfectly,
perfectly. Can it be done? Can it be done? We're born in sin. We're not
even in the playing field. We don't even have one foot in
the batter's box. We're out. were born in trespasses
and sins. He first did this. He did not
take that mixture to fulfill and satisfy all Scriptures. There's
your obedience. It's done. And people, they say,
well, okay, I want this outline to be a certain way and I want
to hear certain things. If you like the law, if you're
a lawmonger, if you enjoy that, There it is. He fulfilled everything. Jot and tittle that we couldn't. There you go. So that's important. Absolutely. He didn't bypass
the law to gain our righteousness. No. He fulfilled the law. Satisfied the law. There's your
obedience. There's your dead letter, error-free
substitute hanging and dying on the cross, offered a little
anesthesia, just take the edge off, I will not do it. That's how wicked, vile and corrupt
sin is. Sin is a reproach to any people. It's like you said, they don't
have a clue who God is, they don't have a clue what sin is.
Sin is you get your hand caught in a cookie jar. That's what
it is. And I like sports, so I've been
keeping up on this Ryan Braun thing. The more he talks, the
more ignorant he sounds. Just admit. But that's too late
for that. Oh, how we need such a one as
Christ to do all this for us. But there's more. There's something
more. He did not take, secondly, this
mixture, because He must meet head-on, square-on, full-face,
full-force, eye-to-eye, He must take all of God's wrath for sin. And He said, I will not take
the edge off one ounce. Just take a little. He was tempted in some points
like this, all points, yet did not sin. Spiritually, the sole agony that
he underwent in the garden until he said it's finished and gave
up the ghost, he's not going to shave one small corner. of what He must suffer for His
elect. That's why the God you believe,
the God you trust, He better be the God. You better have a
perfect righteousness or you won't be able to stand. It's
not 99.99, it's not so close. You've got to have Christ. He would not back off, but fully
and completely and totally endure all the shame and all the pure
justice of God required upon our hands, then He could
give up the ghost. Yet if He takes a shortcut in
His sufferings, both physical, mental or spiritual, then He
has failed. And we are yet in our sins. They're
not covered. And as old Jonathan Edwards said
years ago, we do not want to fall in the hands of an angry
God. We don't want to do it. They gave him to drink wine mingled
with myrrh, but he refused it. He absolutely refused it. Let us never, ever think sin
is an easy thing to put away. Let us never trivialize or justify
or excuse our sin. If we do, it will surely be our
undoing. It takes the death of a pure,
a holy and immaculate sacrifice to put away sin. Hebrews 9, verse
12. I like how this is worded. It
says it this way. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained Hebrews 9, chapter 12. Having obtained. It's past tense. The work has
been done. It's accomplished. Having obtained
eternal redemption for us. Not by the blood of bulls and
goats. You say, well, why was that done in the Old Testament?
Well, we could discuss that, but it wasn't by the blood of
bulls and goats. It was never intended to take away sin. But by His own blood. as he's
hanging on that cross. He hadn't fully suffered, fully
completely suffered because they offered him, just take this narcotic.
It'll take the edge off. Wasn't going to do it. Because
God's exacting, God's law's exacting, God's righteousness, God's justice. He who knew no sin became sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. That's why He didn't take it. That's why He would not. It takes
the shedding of blood to put away sin. It takes the Son of
God, God's own Son, Emmanuel, to place His blood on the mercy
seat of God's justice to purge our filthy hearts. Hebrews 7,
verses 22 to the end. By so much was Jesus made assured
of a better testament, and they truly were many priests, because
they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. But this
man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood,
wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost, that
come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession
for them. For such a high priest became
us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher
than the heavens, who needs not daily as those high priests to
offer up sacrifices, first for their own sins, and then for
the sins of the people. For this He did once." Now that,
the Roman Catholic Church, When they do the sacraments, so they
call it, that's what they're saying. They're crucifying Him
over and over and over. Once. Once. What a Savior we worship. To put away millions and millions
of sins of all of His people throughout all time. He didn't have to do that for
his own sins. This he did once when he offered
up himself. For the law makes men high priests which have infirmities,
but the word of the oath which was since the law make it the
Son who is consecrated or perfected forever. That's what we need. We need someone who is perfect. Having obtained that message
that was I told you about seven stubborn questions Tim preached. Seven stubborn questions. Did Christ put away sin or not? It is only two things. Either
He did or He didn't. Did He obtain redemption for
His people? Or He did. Either He did or He
didn't. Or He's trying to. Either He died for everybody,
and everybody's going to be saved, or He didn't, and those for whom
He died for, He affectionately saved. It's just one. rules and governs, or He doesn't
rule and He is governed. And waiting on our little, weak,
mealy-mouthed, spineless will to decide for
Jesus. And you know the thing is, is
when we go through sufferings and pains and difficulties, This Christ is the only one who
you can find comfort in. Because He's always there. He's
always on His throne. He's seated. He's comfortable. The work's done. The work's accomplished. And you know another beautiful
thing about this message? One day, He will bring someone
who knows this truth. understands this gospel, the
only gospel, the everlasting gospel. They gave him to drink wine mingled
with myrrh. He didn't receive it. They're
going to come and preach because of the light that they've been
given and understand the truth. They're going to cross your path
and tell you or verbalize or preach the good news of Christ
and Him crucified. and the what and the who and the how of the fear of all that what,
who and how can we fear any longer if He's for us? Who can be against
us? Therefore, we can boldly say,
the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. what man can
do unto me. Because the fear of man, we all
have it. Bruce talked about it in Bible class, or Christ said,
I'm not going to be with you, I'm sending the Comforter. They
were sad because obviously, you know, it would be a sad situation. And he said, their hate was pinpointed
on me because I'm here. He said, now it's going to be
pinpointed on you because of me. And it's a difficult time,
and this world is as religious as it was back then. There's
a church on every corner. Everybody has an opinion. But let me say this, which you
alluded to, who hath believed our report? This book is done.
It's finished. I mean, there's no more. You
don't add any more chapters. You don't take anything of it.
It's finished. It's a report. That's what I
do. I stand up here and I read the report and I tell you what
the report says. And that's it. We have no opinions. Man's opinion means nothing.
It doesn't alter. It won't change, this book. Whether
we believe it or don't believe it, it doesn't matter. God will
be glorified regardless. Illustration, when he came in
riding that donkey, and the Pharisees said, shut the people up. What
did he say? He said, go ahead and shut them
up. But these rocks and these stones, it's prophesied that
when I come walking in, there's going to be a lot of hosannas
in the highest. It's going to happen. So whether
you shut these folks up, the elements will come alive and
give me glory. I'm thankful that he's allowed
us one more Sunday. We don't know if we got tomorrow.
one more Sunday to gather together and to preach Him. That's the
only thing that will do you any good, whether you're a believer
or unbeliever. The truth of Christ and Him crucified
is the only thing that will do us any good. And then when we
get together, we talk about fellowship. It's fellowship about around
Him. So the what, the who, the how, We don't fear that. Christ hath died, yea, he is
risen, and we are saved. We have been redeemed. This verse
is just like, it's just a little. It's just stuck in here almost. And they gave him to drink wine,
mingle with myrrh. What's it going to hurt? One drink. were undone in our sins. So exacting
is this book. So without error is our Redeemer. We must have... I'm glad somebody paid attention
to detail. You hear that? Paid attention
to detail? And I close with this, and I didn't have this in here,
but I will say this. What about you and I? Would we, if we knew our decision, whatever
it may be, would cost us the glory of God? Would we still
want our life of ease, as it were? Would we still want our
way if we knew that that decision would have ramifications and
down the line, etc., etc., if we knew that God would be dishonored? No. Chuck it. That's what he did. He's
satisfied. He would not take a shortcut,
as it were. And I've told you this, and I've
told the children this, and it's going to happen. Experience. That's going to be your best
teacher. That's how you're going to learn.
And we wish we could take a lot of things away. Take it. for
you, but if everything is working together for good, everything,
everything together for your spiritual and eternal good, we
would have it no other way. Blessed be the Lord Jesus Christ
who would not refuse to even take that drink. For He did it
for us. He was that selfless. He did
it for us. May God be with you.