Every year, all around the world,
the people of God who treasure what Christ did on the cross
come together to reflect on just that significant day. Some people call it Good Friday.
I call it an awful Friday. because it was a day like no
other day in human history. And if you've been in church
long enough, you learn that church folk love to argue over things
that they can never verify or concur or confirm. And it ought never to have occurred
around such precious event as our Lord's crucifixion, but it
does exist today and people struggle with things like dates and times
and matters that are ancillary to the actual event. If you are
careful to read your Bible, what you will know is that very frequently
theologians and scholars and pastors speak into the text of
Scripture or with regards to the doctrine at hand things that
don't always have a biblical affirmation to them. Sometimes
they are the consequence of reasonable and appropriate assessment of
extra biblical information. And sometimes it's just mere
speculation, mere speculation. However, the objective on the
part of good theologians is simply to try to marshal together as
much biblical and extra biblical information as possible to satisfy
what are often in the scriptures apparent contradictions. Now
I've said it before and I'll say it again to you. When you
read your Bible and you come across an apparent contradiction,
it's two things. It's either a lack of sufficient
investigation on your part as to why we have what are called
differences. and differences are not contradictions. They're just differences. You
guys know that, right? A difference and a contradiction
are two different things. A person can say the same thing
or amount to the same thing, having said it in a different
way or spoken about it from a different perspective. It doesn't make
those two different views or perspectives irreconcilable. Contradictions are irreconcilable
opposites. And sometimes, even when they
seem to be irreconcilable to you and me, as one old scholar
puts it, it's simply a Charlie Hearse between your two ears
and mine as well. How arrogant we would be to assume
that God's Word is filled with contradictions and errors and
things of that nature. Nevertheless, I say that as I
am hoping now the Spirit of God will help you and I to settle
down and to consider a narration on the historical events and
then for us to ask several questions with regards to that momentous
event. Some argue that Jesus was crucified
on a Wednesday and they are very vociferous with it. They are
very aggressive and sometimes persuasive depending on where
they argue from. Others suggest that Jesus was
crucified on a Friday. Their arguments are also forceful
and persuasive. However, both views, both views
have their strengths and their weaknesses. Aren't you glad that
you have come to learn that what the Bible is about is a person
and not a date or time? Aren't you glad that Christ is
the fullness of the Godhead bodily? And your completion is not in
getting a date right, but getting a person right. It liberates
you from the arguments that in some cases will never be resolved,
never be resolved, because I think that's kind of divine humor,
to call some of us who think we know something to go down
rabbit trails, never to ever resolve it, until we come to
understand that our sufficiency and our satisfaction is in a
person. So having said that, having observed
the arguments and looked at the evidence for a long time, I myself
hold to a more traditional approach to the death of our Savior, the
events that transpired here in Mark's Gospel, Matthew's Luke,
and John's as well. When you put them all together,
I think it is safe based on both the biblical evidence as well
as the secular evidence to rest on what we call the death of
Christ on Friday morning. With that, I will actually now
begin to explain to you what happened. It's Thursday afternoon,
possibly around three o'clock, three, four, five o'clock, and
the master has instructed the disciples to go ahead of him
and prepare the Passover. Every gospel teaches this. Go
and you will meet a man with a pitcher of water. He will tell
you what to do. I have already prepared a place
for you to prepare the Passover. It was a special place that our
Lord had designated. It was called the upper room. Now everyone was doing this at
this time because This was the feast of Passover and pilgrims
have now been filling the city of Jerusalem from all nations
for this coveted feast in anticipation of this great day of Passover
of which in the Old Testament it is called the day of Nisan
14 or Abib. This is the Old Testament language
and the Feast of Passover would be a one-day feast that would
be joined to the Feast of Unleavened Bread which would take place
for seven days. So the Feast of Passover would
initiate a seven-day feast of celebration where the children
of Israel would make sure that there was no leavened bread in
their households. You guys remember the event in
Exodus chapter 12 when God had told Moses to tell the children
of Israel to make sure that there is no leaven in your households
because the bread that I want you to make tonight, I don't
want you to have to wait all night long for it to rise and
to mature before you bake it. It's flat bread, it's unleavened
bread because you are going to eat in haste and leave Egypt. And so it was called the Feast
of Unleavened Bread and for this reason he joined the two together.
And Israel from that day all the way to the days of our Lord
were observing this. By the way, I was thinking about
this as I was meditating on our message. This here is something
important for you. Do you think that there was any
feast day, any holy day, any service of God that was prescribed
in Scripture for which the people of God would gather together.
I don't care if it was a seven-day convocation, an every-month convocation,
every-week convocation. Do you think that there was one
day that the Lord opted not to be with the people of God? Isn't
it remarkable when you read the Scripture that virtually every
feast that you could read, Jesus was there? It appears to me that
the psalmist is right. He enjoyed being with the people
of God. He loved Holy Day. He loved communion
with the saints. I think our Lord was the one
that gave the underlying statement, come, let us go to the house
of the Lord together. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Just a remarkable thought
given the weakness and the sinfulness and the conflict and the trouble
going on in Jerusalem. The scripture says Jesus was
always with them, preaching in their streets, in their temples,
in their synagogues. And He was at every feast day
because every feast day pointed to Him. it pointed to him and
no less the day of Passover. This year Passover would also
fall on what is called a Sabbath. This is why John's gospel called
it a High Sabbath. In John chapter 19 verse 31 the
preparation of Passover was on a High Sabbath. Now some would
call this a mere feast Sabbath and not a Saturday. I would argue
otherwise. It was in the preparation time,
this window of time that God had given the children of Israel
instruction that you are to gather a lamb, And in the gathering
of your lamb, make sure you find an appropriate lamb. And that
lamb was to be preserved until the day before Passover, and
you are to slaughter that lamb. This is called the day of preparation. So right about this time, Mark
chapter 15, verse 1, or so 14, they are slaughtering lambs all
over Jerusalem. By the thousands are lambs being
slaughtered. Maybe even the tens of thousands
because there are thousands and thousands of people in Jerusalem
at this time. However, while the next day is
to be Passover day, while the next day is to be Passover day,
the Lord Jesus tells his disciples, we are going to partake of the
feast the day before Passover because
he knew that he wouldn't be alive on Passover day. In the upper
room, a number of very important events take place in John's Gospel,
chapter 13, verses 27 through 30, where the Lord is happy.
He says, With great joy have I desired to partake of this
table with you. He ate food and then he observed
the Passover with his disciples, upon which, as you and I know,
he turned that into the Lord's table. But it was that night
also wherein The Lord Jesus would find himself coming into the
reality of his suffering. You see, first of all, Judas
Iscariot, who sat at the table with him, ate the dinner, took
the sop, our Lord already telling the disciples, one of you will
betray me this night. And when you read John's gospel
carefully, you find in the gospel of John that it says, and Judas,
having taken the sop, Jesus says to him, what you have to do,
do quickly. And he gets up and he leaves
the room and the acquaintance of the disciples for the last
time. And the Bible says immediately it was night. immediately it
was night. Now John's narrative gives us
that piece of information not only to tell us what was taking
place chronologically, that their supper was somewhere between
3 and 6 p.m., but that once Judas left, all of hell began to break
open and make its way towards the object of its wrath, even
the Son of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, after
Judas leaves, then tells his disciples, it's time for us to
go, for that which is determined and written must be fulfilled.
And so he, with his disciples, started heading towards Jerusalem
by way of the Garden of Gethsemane. You guys remember that event,
don't you? And in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord Jesus
Christ, Peter, James, and John, He tells them, I need you to
watch with me. because I've got to pray. And
if you read Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel carefully enough,
what you realize, and John's Gospel by the way, that Jesus
is under great duress now. He ate his meal with his disciples. He enjoyed his fellowship with
them. But as soon as Judas left, his soul began to be exceedingly
burdened. Have you ever been burdened in
your soul? I mean, so burdened in your soul
that you know this is not right. This is not right. I'm being
pressed down with an issue so heavy. It was, according to the
text, Jesus had begun to be amazed. Now think about this for a moment.
The Son of God. Amazed. Amazed. There were things
happening in His mind. There were things happening in
His soul that had never occurred before until this hour. At this
time in Jesus' life, what He is experiencing, ladies and gentlemen,
is the darkness of hell. Thursday evening between 6 and
12 a.m. in the New Testament language
it talks about four watches. And those four watches correspond
with the Hebrew time of which that's one of the other contradictions
they work with. You know the Hebrew time is from
evening to morning. From evening to morning. This
is the Genesis account. From evening to morning and from
morning to evening so that for God the evening all the way to
the next evening is our day. So Sabbath days began approximately
six o'clock in the evening and went all the way to six o'clock
the subsequent evening. And this is where our Lord is
from 9 o'clock to about 12 o'clock. Our Lord Jesus Christ is in the
garden agonizing. Why is He agonizing in the garden?
Because He's about to engage in something He had never ever
engaged in ever. The trial that He's about to
go through is something He had never ever experienced. Never! And what he's feeling
now are several things of which what's so remarkable about it
is that I think you and I can identify with some of what he
went through. First of all, he went through betrayal. Do you
know he called Judas his friend? It's something when your friend
betrays you. I know what that's like. Have
you ever had a friend to betray you? And so our Lord, understanding
that He's about to enter into an experience that He had never
entered into before, and He still has to actually execute this
calling, this experience in faithfulness, and He teaches us that when you
and I are going through a trial where we are heavy burdened,
and we are duressed, and we are weighed down, and everyone has
betrayed us, At least he knows that is what will ultimately
occur. You pray. You pray. You can try to figure it out
if you want to. You can also try to marshal together
your friends if you want to. You can try to get people to
understand your plight. and you're paying if you want
to. But the reality is sometimes God puts you in a situation where
no one can understand what you're going through but God. And that's where real prayer
comes in at because real prayer is an abandonment to the invisible
God who runs the universe who alone can help you Our Lord would
not only experience the betrayal of his friend of which he said
in the psalmist and in his own parables friend Betrayers thou
the son of man with a kiss But he would also know that he is
about to in a few moments experience the treachery the treachery of
a monk of Judicial system set up by the religious rulers that
had no basis in truth whatsoever But was however rooted in the
sovereign purpose of God What a conflict the very judges that
are about to condemn you to death are guilty of a travesty of justice
and Yet, you know God is behind it You know God is behind it
Our Lord then heads to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, and he
asks his disciples to pray with him because, quite frankly, he
doesn't want to go through this. I remember years ago when I began
to do a synopsis of Matthew, Mark, and Luke on the agony of
Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, and I would read the language
very carefully in all three authors text and I would have to walk
away in all honesty with this conclusion that our master actually
asked God to remove this cup from him and working through
the mystery of the hypostatic union of the God-man Jesus Christ
trying to retain my respect for his divinity but also understanding
his humanity I'm in a conflict because God is asking God to
change the program. Right? But as I grew in Christ
and began to understand more of the beautiful, genuine, authentic
nature of Christ's humanity, what He was doing was demonstrating
authentically that He was a man, just like you and I. And there
are cuts that we all have to dream, that we wish we wouldn't. And our master cried out in deep,
profound agony, if it's possible. And right at that time, and he
does it three times, right at that time, here comes this band
of religious rulers. With Judas Iscariot, someone
called Judas a dog and called him a pointer. He pointed out
the master. There he is. The one whom I kiss.
It's the one. And they come rushing in, in
the fulfillment of dozens of passages of Scripture, more particularly
Psalm 22, to take our master. And that was a difficult time,
but our master had prayed through. You guys remember that? He prayed
through, didn't he? He prayed through. He prayed
through the angel strengthening Him. He prayed through and it
appears, it may not have been so, but it appears that when
our Lord finished praying, as soon as He finished praying,
here comes the attack. And doesn't it happen that way
sometimes? And yet the Lord had already been strengthened by
the angel. I don't know what that means. I know I want that
if I ever get in that kind of trouble. And the Spirit of God
had so settled him. I know that at this point he
was ready. He was ready. He was ready because
he was so calm, so collected, so prepared. When they came,
there was nothing about our master that was even remotely hinting
at avoiding or resisting arrest. Hell had broken in on him and
hell had grabbed him from 12 o'clock at night. 12 o'clock at night. It would
be Friday for us. 12 o'clock at night. And our Lord now is under the
control of this Jewish mob and they are accosting him and mocking
him and seeking to get him to accused himself for the crimes
that they laid on him. And you remember how he dealt
with Caiaphas and how he dealt with Ananias and how he dealt
with the rulers as they mocked him and tried to charge him with
the crime of blasphemy. And he simply held his peace. He didn't say anything. Now,
here you are in court from 12 o'clock at night. Not 12 noon,
12 o'clock at night. to about six o'clock in the morning,
being taken through the ringer, being examined, being just dismantled
emotionally and psychologically, being harassed, being accused
by all the rulers. And I know our Lord, He can see
them in the same biblical fashion in which Psalm 22 says, the bulls
of Bashan have encompassed me about. Dogs and lions have encompassed
me about. He knew that the fury and the
anger and the rage in the hearts of the rulers this night was
demonic and undetoured. And in the Gospel of Luke, he
says, this is your hour and the power of darkness. Darkness now
rules. That's what he said to them.
For a moment, you have me at your beckoning will. The rulers,
unsatisfied with Christ, not yielding to their propositions,
not bowing to their hostile assaults on Him, not giving in and saying,
yes, I agree with you, what you said is true about me. In their
frustration, it's now six o'clock in the morning, they rush Him
into the praetorium of Pilate's court. It's still early in the
morning. But they are determined to kill
this man. And they take him into the court of Pilate, the governor
of Rome, as you know. And he's there in the presence
of Pilate. In the midst of Pilate. And Pilate,
you guys recall, this despicable man, examines Jesus, examines
the accusations, and he knows, didn't you read it? They accuse
Jesus on no basis but envy. Now Rome touted itself for being
a wonderful judicial system, a right judiciary, a proper set
of legal authorities, a model for every country. You don't
condemn a man to death until you are able to prove it beyond
the shadow of a doubt. Pilate knew that the accusations
were suborned. He knew that the charges of the
Jews were fake. He knew that what the Jews wanted
was nothing more than bloody murder. Just an absolute hanging
of a man of whom they could not prove was guilty of anything. And what did Pilate do? You guys
remember, right? In the Gospel of Matthew, three
times Pilate says, I find no fault with him. Why would you
want to kill him? As far as I'm concerned, he's
innocent. Let's flog him and send him down the road. But the
text tells us that Pilate willing to make the people happy. Boy, isn't that politics today?
willing to make the people happy, gave Jesus over to their will. And the next thing that our Master
has to go through for about three hours from six o'clock in the
morning till nine o'clock in the morning. Nine o'clock in
the morning would be the ninth hour in Roman time. In Jewish
time it would be the third hour. From six in the evening to six
in the morning is twelve hours. Then another set starts from
six in the morning to six in the evening. This is why Mark's
gospel calls it the third hour. At the third hour, after the
rulers, the Roman rulers have began to whip Jesus and scourge
Jesus, as the text said, you guys see the picture, don't you?
the soldiers strip our master of his garments, his regular
clothing, and then they dress him in purple, beginning to mock
him as if he were a king as he alleged to be, and they placed
a crown of thorns on his head. Now, to understand the picture,
what this is really doing is seeking to humiliate the man.
You say you're a king? Here, let's dress you up in a
purple garment. Let's put some plaids on your
head. And they begin to ask Him to act like a king. They begin
to bow before Him and venerate Him in a mocking fashion all
while they are whipping Him to death. They are slashing Him
to death. They are beating Him to death. They are smoting Him and spitting
on Him and cursing Him. Let me ask you a question. How
much of that could you take just on a human level? Do you know
what the Bible says? As a lamb led to the slaughter,
so opened not he his mouth. Sometimes people think silence
is weakness and an admission of guilt. when
in many cases nothing could be further from the truth. Our Lord
endured all of that anger and hostility and rage on the part
of the rulers because He had a cup to drink. He had a cup
to drink. And I tell you, there are all
kinds of atrocities in the annals of human history of which we
can read and it will make you and I, our blood curl or us turn
over and want to just, you know, just throw up when we think about
how wicked man can be against his fellow man. But there was
none in all the world who went through what Christ went through.
For not only was He at the hands of wicked men, But he was at
the hands of demons and devils. Do you understand what kind of
terror that must have been on a human level? And what was taking
place from about 12 o'clock at night till 9 o'clock in the morning? You know you're tired. You know
you're weary. You might even be deluded. You
know you're ready to give in. And yet no such thing was true
of our Master. He endured their mockery. He
endured them lauding him as king. He endured their gestures of
prostration along with their words of veneration appropriate
for a king. He endured them hurling almost
sadomasochistic gestures at him that were probably on a narrative
level too bad for the authors to bring to the text of Scripture. and then after they beat him
like they did the scripture tells us in verse 20 and when they
had mocked him they took off the purple from him and put his
own clothes on him and led him to be crucified you see that
They whipped him. They went to the party. And again,
historians, both secular and theological, say that this was
a form of almost burlesque joy on the part of these pagan rulers.
They got off on this. It was dark. It was dark. It was dark. And finally, they
had to stop because it's time now to crucify him. And then they take, after they
put his clothes back on, they take a pole that was as large
as some of our telephone poles out there, a large enough pole that when they
lay it on his back, it would be designed for Jesus to be stuck
in the ground and lifted between heaven and earth so that many
people could see him on what was called the hill of Golgotha.
where his execution would be public and thousands of people
could be sitting out there to watch the public execution of
a man. It didn't matter whether he was
guilty or not. You've got morbid, twisted, wicked,
just vile people who like to see those kinds of things. Am
I telling the truth? That's what they love to watch
it on television. You notice how we've got more
and more of these weird, twisted programs that people like to
watch today. And every now and then when I
think about our Lord's crucifixion, I think about, and this is, this,
I only know because of my own ethnic culture, how often wicked,
depraved, vile human beings enjoy hanging human beings, even African
Americans, and just, they would actually have lunches around,
sit around eating food, watching a man hang to death. Do you believe
in the doctrine of absolute, total depravity? I do. I believe a man apart from the
grace of God will be as heinous, unspeakably heinous, as any animal
on planet Earth. And then will get up that morning
and go to church and sing hallelujah to the Lord. Am I telling the
truth? Our Lord at this time finds himself
moving towards that final apex for which he came, and the text
tells us in verses 21 to 22, and they compel one Simon of
Cyrenaean who passed by, coming out of the country, the father
of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. These are the rulers,
these are the centurion, they are on the Via Della Rosa, headed
to Golgotha, and apparently our Lord is so weighed down by this
beam that he tells this man to help him with his cross. And they bring him to the place
Golgotha, which is being interpreted the place of the skull. And they gave him to drink wine
mingled with myrrh, but he would not receive it. And when they
had crucified him, watch this, they parted his garments, casting
lots upon them, what every man should take. And it was the third
hour and they crucified the Lord of glory hanging between heaven
and earth completely naked." This is nine o'clock in the morning. He's hanging there. And you know
Luke's account with two thieves on either side. He's hanging
there. He's hanging there. And what's
remarkable about the account now, it would seem like everything
would settle down. He's crucified now, right? But
when you read the narrative, the Jews are going into more
of a fevered pitch. Crucify Him! Crucify Him! And
then they begin to talk about Him. Verse 29, and they that
pass by railed on him. Now why rail on a man who's hanging
between heaven and earth, hanging between hell and glory? Wagging their heads saying, ah,
thou that destroyest the temple. The temple. Aren't we still dealing with
that foolishness today? The temple. Do you know one human
soul is worth far more than a hundred Jerusalem temples? Are you hearing
me, children of God? One human soul is worth far more
than a hundred Jerusalem temples. Temples mean nothing. But when you're religious, you
see how you get your priorities all upside down? Ah, you deserve what you get.
You wanted to destroy our temple. Like them crucifying him was
going to stop the temple from being destroyed. Ah, but listen to the language
which will move us into our meditation now. having passed by and railed
on him, wagging their heads, saying, ah, you that destroyed
the temple in three days, save yourself. Do you see it? Come
down off the cross. Save yourself. Come down off
the cross. Watch this. Likewise, also the
chief priest mocking said among themselves with the scribes,
he saved others himself. He cannot say. Verse 32, let
Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross that we may
see and believe. Ah, what an interesting proposition.
If he comes down, they will believe? It sounds like the devil to me.
And if you read Luke's Gospel, Not
only did the people say it, and not only did the soldiers say
it, but the thieves also said it. Here's what they said, save
yourself and us too. And this is the title of our
message tonight. Seven reasons why he did not
come down off that cross. I want you to think about them
with me. seven reasons why the Son of God would not come down
off the cross. Their request, ladies and gentlemen,
was futile. They could ask until they were
purple, blue, and black in the face. Their request was futile. The one person who at that time
could not hear them was the Son of God. You see, ladies and gentlemen,
He was deaf to their pleas. He was deaf to their pleas. He
would not, he could not, he should not, he did not, he must not
hear them. For theirs was the crossless,
shameless, self-indulgent religion that hallmarks our present-day
Christianity and society. It's about us and not God. It's about us and not God. And
ladies and gentlemen, the cross is about God. The cross is about
God. The cross is about the glory
of God. We preach the cross, we glory
in the cross, we live in the cross, we suffer for the cross,
we triumph in the cross of Jesus Christ simply because He did
not come down from the cross. Now let me tell you why. And
seven reasons he did not hear them. The first is he would not
come down. He would not, even if he could
hear them, he would not. What do you mean, preacher? Well,
our master was resolved. Have you ever been resolved about
anything? Have you ever finally said this
is it? It doesn't matter what takes
place now. I'm resolved. See, and when you're resolved,
you cannot be dissuaded from your resolution. The Bible tells
me in Isaiah 50 verse 7, He set His face like a flint. In other
words, He didn't alter to the left or the right. He couldn't
hear anybody. It wouldn't matter what the obstacles
were. Barriers, blockades. Opposition is expected and anticipated
when you're resolved. Opposition is expected and anticipated
when you're resolved. One of the reasons you resolve
to do a thing is because you expect someone to try to dissuade
you or to oppose you or to set obstacles up, try to hinder you
throughout your purposes. But you are resolved. He would not come down. See, the word denotes, listen
to me, volition. Volition. Volition. You and I only do what we will
to do. I know you'll hear people say,
well, he made me do that against my will. No, he didn't. No, I'm
sorry, he didn't. Now, he may have made you do
that against what you had rather not do, but you found yourself
under the circumstances willing to do what that person told you
to do because you were not willing to pay another price to resist
what he will. See, we all ultimately do what
we will. If you don't do this, that or
the other thing, I'll kill you. Okay, didn't they do it? And
then when the police come, well, he made me do it against my will.
No, he didn't. All you had to do was take a bullet. It all depends on how principled
you are about what you're doing. It all depends on how principled
you are about what you are doing. See, I heard an argument today
on political talk radio because I engage in that type of stuff. And one of the arguments were,
well, if we don't do this, then the man won't get voted in again.
And even though I don't like the way he's going, I want him
to get voted in again. And the question by the author
of the program was, are you a principled person or a pragmatic person?
Do you know the world is filled with pragmatic people, but not
principled people? Do you understand that if my
master was pragmatic, I'd be headed to hell? Do you understand also that nothing
that is established in this world that's worth anything was established
on pragmatism but principle? Do you understand that when people
die, they die for principle, not pragmatism? Do you hear what
I'm saying? Our master was principled. He
was principled. Can I tell you why I say that?
Because he was infinite God. And in terms of, ladies and gentlemen,
power, he could have easily come down. In terms of power, he could
have easily obliterated all of his opposition. He could have
snapped his finger like he told that wicked high priest. Dude,
Pilate, he said, Pilate, don't you know I could just, and a legion of
angels would come down right now and encompass this whole
territory, wipe it out, and your history too. See, it wasn't about
power. And this is remarkable about
the Son of God. Where He is today, hanging on
the cross, is not about His power, but His will. His will, which left Him on the
cross, was His love for His Father's will. Are you with me? He would not come down because
after He agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane, Father, if You
will, if it's possible, remove this cup from Me. Three times.
You know what the Father said? No! And you know what the son
said? Okay, not my will, but yours
be done. And at that moment he sealed
his course. And he was ready for anything
that would come. Now I want you to hear this as
we move to our next point. You know what this is called?
Love. So I want to help you with this just as a sort of piece
of pastoral advice. Love is not primarily based on
how you feel. Our Lord's feelings at this moment
had nothing to do with the course that he took. In fact, I am certain
that everything he felt was going in the opposite direction. But
he was able to, by a principled resolve and the grace of God,
continue his course, which we call love. That's what love does. Doesn't love continue? Love endures. Love hopes. Love believes all
things in spite of the situation. This is why we must have a biblical
concept of love, because that's the only kind of love that can
endure. That's the only kind of love that can endure. And
it's on full display in our first point. He would not come down. He came not to do His own will,
but the will of Him that sent Him. And this, again, is a disclosure
of the distinction between the Father and the Son. Is that not
true? The Father had His will, the Son had His will, and the
Son brought His will up under the will of the Father. Now that's
love. It's also called obedience. I love the picture in Exodus
chapter 21. Brethren, take care of that.
I love the picture in Exodus 21 where it speaks of a slave
having been purchased by his master and he can earn his way
out of his slavery after six years a Hebrew master owning
a Hebrew slave and in Exodus 21 it says if a Hebrew slave
after six years wants to leave he may leave freely walk away
this is the that seventh year of liberty principle but If he
has a wife and children of which the master provided for him,
the master keeps the wife and the children. Now, if he loved
himself, but not his wife and his children or his master, he
would walk away. But if, as the text says, he loved his wife,
and loved his children, and loved his master, you know what the
text says? He would say to his master, I
will not go. I love you. Now watch this. I
will not go. You see how love and volition
is tied together? I love you and I will not go. And the master would take him
to the courts and bore his ear and make him a permanent slave
forever so that everyone will know this slave, he loves his
master. That's a picture of Jesus Christ. and His love for His Father,
and His love for His bride, and His love for His children. He
would not let us go. He would not abandon us, no matter
what the cost was. What a servant. What a slave. That's the idea of the volition. He was resolved. He would not
go. He would not go. He would not come down off that
cross. Secondly, He could not come down. He could not come
down. I don't know if you know this,
but Jesus Christ had no right to come down off the cross. He
had no warrant to come down because he wasn't up there for himself. See, this is the humanist interpretation
of scripture. This is why you must be careful
to understand the gospel and understand all of the implications
of the atonement, because otherwise you miss the mystery of God's
redeeming glory. The man that we are talking about
that's hanging on Calvary now is not hanging there for himself. Daniel chapter 9, verse 26 says,
"...and he was cut off, but not for himself." That's what Isaiah
53 says, "...and he was cut off from the land of the living.
By my righteous servant's knowledge shall he justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities." Jesus is hanging there because
he could not come down, because he was a substitute for me, because
he had chosen to take the place of an innumerable host of sinners.
How about you? If you know Christ, when you
look at Christ hanging on Calvary Street, you see yourself. More than that, he could not
come down, ladies and gentlemen, because he was snared. See, Christ
was He was a substitute for sinners, and he was also a surety for
sinners. You know what a surety is? A
surety, well, you do, particularly if you have enough money and
young children for whom you were foolish enough to buy their car
and make their payments. Or sign, co-sign for their apartment,
of which you are paying for now, even though they aren't there.
And you've got that car in the driveway, You are co-signer and
to be a surety is for you to take the full burden of the responsibility
of that property for which you co-signed your name wanting to
help that other person. Do you know what Proverbs chapter
6 verse 1 says? Solomon said, My son, if you
have made yourself a surety for your friend, well, You have just
been snared by the words of your mouth. And ladies and gentlemen, Jesus
could not come down because He was snared. He was snared. He was snared by the words of
His mouth. Somewhere in eternity, He became my surety for which
all of the obligations of my sin and liability and indemnity
fell on Him so that He had to pay it. Do you understand Christ
is hanging on that tree as surely as guilty as if it was me? Do you understand the love of
being a surety on that level? Do you know that Christ was bound?
This is what Psalm 118 says. Bind the sacrifice to the altar. Remember that? That poor little
goat or that poor little ram and I can see some of them wanting
to resist. They saw their buddies going
to the altar and they don't want, right? Right? And so they said,
bind him to the altar. Bind him. Do you know God bound
Jesus Christ in the covenant of grace before the world began
so that he was by necessity going to have to go to the cross, not
for himself, but for everyone who would believe on him? Do
you know that? Do you remember the story of Isaac and Jacob
in Genesis 22? going up Mount Moriah, the father
and the son. And as they head up, after probably
an hour or two of silence, the son says, now father, I see the wood, because I've
got it in my arms. His father had laid the wood
on him. He had laid it on him. He says, and I see the fire.
You got the fire. But now where's the lamb for
the burnt offering? And his daddy said, son, God
hath prepared himself a lamb. And the text tells us that Abraham
bound Isaac to the altar. And Isaac didn't make one peep. Do you understand what I'm getting
at here? Our master could not come down because he was bound. He could not come down because
he was principally bound. He would not come down because
He loved His Father, and He loved His people, and He loved His
church. He would not come down, nor could
He come down, because, see, when you believe the doctrine of substitution,
and you believe the doctrine of suretyship, what you understand
is there was a real sense of transaction of all my responsibilities
on Him who is my surety, so that it doesn't matter what He felt,
legally, He was responsible. for me." Isn't that remarkable? There was a man running around
that day who struggled with this glorious doctrine of substitution
and surety ship. Do you know who that man was?
Barabbas. Barabbas should have died. Do
you guys remember that? The high priest under unction
of the Holy Ghost said, you know that it is expedient for one
person to die so that the whole nation doesn't die. He's demonically
controlled, but the Spirit of God is moving His lips. As the
Scripture says, the preparation of the heart of man and the answer
of the tongue is from the Lord. God moved him to prophesy concerning
the substitutionary atoning work of Jesus. And Barabbas, Barabbas,
that murderer and that thief, that malefactor is running the
streets free. troubled in his conscience because
somebody took his place. You know who Barabbas is? Barabbas
is me and he's you. Still trying to figure out how
you got away by the mercy of God. He would not come down and he could
not come down, but he also should not come down.
No, the Master shouldn't come down. Even if He could come down,
even if He would come down, He shouldn't come down. And I'll
tell you why. This would be to your demise
and mine. If the Son of God would have come down, if He had come
down off that cross, you and I would have never learned anything
about the glory of God. We would have remained just as
blind and as religious folk today, Rankin believers who dare to
suggest now watch this if Jesus came down off that cross if he
would have come down You and I would be able to say well,
there's all kind of ways to get to God Am I making some sense
now See if there's only one way to the father Then there's only
one way to the father and no other way. I If Christ had, out
of an exercise and prerogative of his deity, therefore his wisdom
and omniscience, found a way out, watch this, you and I would
be remainers, we would remain in our sin, and God would be
called a liar. If Christ would have come down
off the cross, and we would still be telling people today, salvation
is possible to man, we would make God a liar, because God
made it very clear without the shedding of blood, there's no
remission of sin, that Christ is the only way to the Father.
And if Christ had come down, you and I would be just like
the rest of the world. Well, you know, all ways lead
to God. Now, when you hear these people
say this, what they are saying is God is a liar. Are you guys
hearing me? When they say when your way is
your way, my way is my way. And, you know, everybody has
their own way. And we already said, no, no, no. Did not share
with you John 14, six. There's only one way. Yeah, you
said that, but now once they said, but they've made God a
liar. It's the principle of the law
of non-contradiction. You cannot do that. He should not come down.
He should not come down for how do you come down? Not only would
he have made God a liar, he would have been a man pleaser. What do you mean, pastor? Everybody
said, come down. You remember that? Come down.
Come down. Come off that cross. If you be
Elijah, come down. If you be the Son of God, come
down. If you come down... Now watch this, I want you to
get this. This here is also an inference
to the nature of the true gospel. The true gospel cannot be provoked
by or motivated by the will and whim of men. You and I cannot
be moved by people's wills and desires. What if Christ would
have come down at the behest and request of the soldiers and
of the malefactors and of the people? Well, He would have been
a man pleaser. He would have pleased men. Am
I telling the truth? He would have been a man-pleaser.
And what sort of gospel is that? Do you know a few days earlier,
He rebuked one of His coveted disciples for the same thing? Remember Peter, as they're headed
to Gethsemane, and our Lord is pressing home the doctrine of
His suffering, the doctrine of His cross. And I guess the disciples
are just... they're losing their mind. They
can't understand. We've had two and a half years of great ministry.
Now our Master is telling us that He's going to be crucified? And Peter jumps up and says,
Master, no way. I'm not going to let it happen.
And the Son of God turns and looks Peter square in the face
and says, Satan, get thee behind me, for you do not savor the
things of God. You don't think about God's things.
They are not your highest priority. All you think about is yourself.
What a stinging rebuke to one of His most beloved disciples.
But oh, how necessary it is for us to understand that the goal
of the gospel is not to satisfy the will of men, but the will
of God. Had our Lord come down, He would
have made God a liar. Had He come down, He would have
been a man-pleaser. He would have been a man-pleaser.
Fourthly, not only Would he not come down? Could he not come
down? Should he not come down? But he must not come down. Master,
you must not come down. See, necessity is laid on Christ
to stay on that cross until the bitter end because of his qualifications. You know, some people condemn
us of preaching a bloody cross. these very civil bloodless religious
folk who think that they can hand God leeks and garlics and
vegetables as a sacrifice and get to heaven like Cain did.
But from Genesis to Revelation the Bible tells me that God looks
for blood. Do you understand what I'm getting
at? And so because people feel like, you know, I don't believe
in that horrid, gory stuff of death and bleeding. Well, you
better believe in this one. You better rearrange the paradigm
of your thinking and believe in this one. Because, ladies
and gentlemen, this is not about a cross. This is about the person
on the cross. The person on the cross is the
only one qualified to take away your sin. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? He must not come down, for if He comes down, who else
is qualified? Anybody among us tonight qualified? Do you think there is a nanosecond
in the span of your life where with God my look on you goes,
oh, oh, there's one? No. All of us together, right? All of us together, right? All
of us together. Not only from the time we were
born to this present hour, but if God were to look through the
eons of time in the future, because we are here forever now, God
would look at me, He would look at you, He would look at us collectively
forever and ever, and He would look. You know what He would
say? All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All
of you have sinned. There's not one among you that's
righteous. No, not one. There's not one
clean. There's not one good. Not one of you have had one good
thought one time in your life. Not one of you. Not one of you. Not one of you. God, listen to
me, and He's omniscient. Way back in eternity past, as
He contemplated this great scheme of redemption, guess what God
said? There ain't nobody in the human
race I can trust to get this done. None. None. None. Isaiah says He looked and
He couldn't find one man that would stand in the gap for lost
sinners like you and me. Not one. And so the Bible says,
by his own outstretched arm did he clothe himself with salvation. Take on a human nature, enter
into our world to be the only substitute for sinners. He must
not come down because Jesus Christ was the only sinless, spotless,
faultless Lamb of God. He is holy, harmless, undefiled. He is separate from sinners.
He's pure. He's pure. Christ was sinless
in His mother's womb. He was sinless in His youth.
He was sinless in His adult life. And He was sinless hanging on
Calvary's tree. We call Him the Lamb of God without
spot and without blemish, the only Lamb of God who's able to
bear the wrath of God because He's the only one qualified. When God looks on Christ, He
sees perfection. Perfection. And this is what
Isaiah says in Isaiah 53, because there was no fault in Him, Because
there was no guile in His mouth, He bore our sin. God looked and said, He's the
only one. You remember how God taught Israel through that tutorial
system of symbolism? You bring a lamb, you bring a
he-goat, but make sure there's not one spot on them. The Jewish
people today still looking for that red heifer, right? Listen,
listen, Christ is the red heifer. Christ is the red heifer. Am
I telling the truth? Christ is the red heifer. If
you go learn that doctrine, you'll learn that Christ is the red
heifer, and us in Christ, a spotless lamb. A spotless lamb. He was, by prophecy, faultless. He was, by conduct, faultless. And in fact, several times in
his ministry, you know what he would say? Which of you convinces
me of sin? Now, when was the last time you
said that to anybody? Now you know you either have
to be a lunatic or God to tell somebody, which of you convinced
me of sin? Right? How glorious he is to
stand in front of the rulers, the Sadhedrin and the Sadducees,
the Pharisees, and all of these folks who are fastidious about
religion, fastidious about works, fastidious about outward deeds.
And even they understood the aim of the law. And Jesus says,
which one of you? Which any one of you rulers?
You guys are the stewards of the law of God. Convince me of
sin. You know what the Bible says?
Every one of their mouths was shut every time. This man was
perfectly obedient to his father. He was perfectly obedient by
demonstration. by manifestation of life. He
was perfectly spotless by prophecy. He was spotless by his own declaration
of himself. And guess what else? The law
that allowed him to be crucified said he was faultless too. Pilate
said, I don't find any fault in this man whatsoever. Three
times. out of the mouth of two or three
witnesses, let every word be established. Pilate said, I'm
washing my hands of this matter. You bloodthirsty religious folk,
you can kill him if you want to, but I'm out of this. Because
I know, based upon my examination, that he cannot be guilty. Now
this is to teach the right doctrine of imputation. That Christ received
the legal judgment on God's part concerning my sin because of
my guilt on the basis of His perfect righteousness before
God in His demonstrative obedience according to the law of God,
according to the law of man. No one in the universe could
find Jesus at fault. Now He can bear the sins of His
people. Now He can bear the sins of His
people. He must not come down. But fifthly, He did not come
down. Aren't you thankful for that?
Aren't you thankful that the Son of God stayed on that cross
all the way to the end? Aren't you thankful for the last,
for the seven sayings of the Son of God? Aren't you thankful
that when he got to that seventh phrase, it is finished? That God honored that by slamming
down on the earth. shaking the heavens and the earth,
renting the veil from top to bottom, and said, I agree with
you, son, it's done. I agree with you. I agree. See, he terminated his
calling and purpose on Calvary at the right time. What happened? He was crucified at 9 a.m. in
the morning. From 9 to 12, he was agonizing. He's calling on
the Father at 12 o'clock noon. Guess what? The whole earth goes
black. This is one of the reasons why
I buy into an A.D. 33 account because in the extra-biblical
evidence there is in the archives an eclipse of the sun only in
A.D. 33. Moreover, the secular as well
as the sacred writers acknowledge that there was a peculiar darkness
that took place at that time. And Jesus on the cross is fulfilling
Amos chapter 8 verse 9 which says, In that day I will cause
the sun to go dark at noon. Our Savior is hanging between
heaven and hell bearing the wrath of God and what does God do?
Close the curtains so no one can see. From 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock
it's dark. And at three o'clock, the master of the Scripture says,
cried out with a loud voice. He cried out with a loud voice. My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? He was betrayed of his friend. He was accosted
by the wicked rulers. He was denied by all the disciples,
especially Peter. He was abandoned to that mock
mob of Jewish rulers. And he was given over to the
treacherous Romans. And then he was abandoned by
his father. That's what the Son of God experienced
that day. for which the scripture says
his soul, his soul, his soul was in agony. So much so, the
God-man cries out, why have you forsaken me? See, I don't think
any one of us in here knows what total abandonment is like. You might know what abandonment
is like. You might know what it means
to be denied and have people who say they love you forsake
you. This is what makes the gospel
so earthy and so real to us because it actually covers all of the
spectrum of human experience, doesn't it? We can identify with
a savior like that, can't we? But ladies and gentlemen, you
have never ever had everyone abandon you. And then God abandoned
you. You don't know what it's like
for God to abandon you like Christ went through it. You don't know
it. So you're still walking in your right mind. And even if
you went 5150 temporarily, God still had your back. I'm just trying to help you.
It might have got bad, but it wasn't that bad. He didn't come down because he
had to finish the work that his father gave him to do. In his love for his father who
said no, the quintessential act of obedience on the part of Christ
to his father was for his saint. And then sixthly, he only came
down. when he had given up the ghost
as we read in John chapter nineteen and his friends Joseph of Arimathea
and Nicodemus both Pharisees had requested a pilot the body
of Jesus. Do you guys remember that? This
is a remarkable account because, you know, as we are preaching
the gospel, we are saying that Christ saves sinners of every
kind, doesn't he? He saves poor sinners. He saves
rich sinners. He saves white sinners and black
sinners. He saves religious sinners, too.
He saves notorious sinners like me and you. And then he saves
Pharisees. And there were two Pharisees
on this day who were so moved by the atoning work of Jesus
Christ that they were willing to hazard their life, abandoning
their colleagues, the Sanhedrin, and go to Pilate. These two men. Do you understand Joseph of Arimathea
was a Pharisee. He was a wealthy man. He was
one of the highest ranking Sanhedrin. He was done. Do you know that
act put both him and Nicodemus out of the club? But I want to
share something with you. Because God had chosen Joseph
of Arimathea before the world began and wrote his name in Isaiah
chapter 53. Do you know what I'm talking
about? God moved Joseph of Arimathea to buy a tomb in order for our
master to be buried in so that the scripture might be fulfilled.
He made his grave with the rich and the wicked in his death.
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus goes to Pilate, and because of
their high position in the Sanhedrin, Pilate says, yes, you can take
him down. Pilate didn't care about that body being hung on
the cross. It could have stayed there for
weeks as far as he was concerned. The way Roman culture worked,
when you were crucified, you could stay up there forever,
while the vultures pluck your eyes out and eat your flesh right
down to the bone. Curse it is everyone that hangeth
on a tree But on this day the Spirit of God moved Pilate's
heart He moved Pilate's heart to agree to let them take our
master's body down So that he could continue fulfilling the
scriptures You see he had to be buried didn't he? He had to
be buried Because we've got to come to Sunday, don't we? Point
number seven, our master only came down because he had now
accomplished his father's glory. His Father's glory. I don't know
if you get this. The joy that was set before Jesus
Christ, for which He endured the cross, despised the same
shame, and sat down at the right hand of God, was all about His
Father's glory. Read the Gospel of John. The
Gospel of John is mysterious, but it has everything to do with
Jesus talking about His Father's glory. John chapter 12, as Jesus
now is moving towards Calvary, all He says was, Now is the Son
of Man glorified. And if I be glorified, my father
will be glorified. And if my father is glorified,
then I will be straightway glorified in my father. My goodness, do
you know what that means? He loved his father's glory so
much that he would do anything for his father to be glorified.
And he took such honor in the glory of his father that he found
his glory only in the glory of his father. Isn't that tremendous? The love and unity and purpose
and oneness of the Father and the Son. And this is the glory
of the Father. This is the glory of the Father.
Are you ready? That all that seeth the Son and
believeth on him should have everlasting life and should be
raised up at the last day. The reason why Jesus hung between
heaven and earth is that he might draw all men unto himself, that
his father might be glorified in the salvation of sinners through
his son, that when Jesus Christ hangs there in the gospel of
Calvary, men and women, by the work of the Spirit of God, through
the gospel, might see Jesus. Let me ask you the question in
closing. Do you see Christ? Do you see Him hanging there?
Do you see Christ, the Crucified One, hanging between heaven and
earth? Do you see Him there? Do you
see Him there? Do you see Him as your substitute?
Do you see Him as your only hope for glory? Have you come to see
that through His suffering that you are a sinner and that your
only hope for glory is the atoning work of Christ on Calvary Street? Do you see the beauty of the
Son of God there? Do you see Him there? Do you
see Him there? If you see Him there, you have
hope for glory. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that all that seeth the Son might have eternal life
and would be raised up at the last day. Do you see Him there? Well, we will talk about next
Sunday, this Sunday, what happens in the resurrection. Amen.