Let's go back this morning to
Pilate's judgment hall in Luke, the 19th chapter. Our Lord Jesus was arrested in
the Garden of Gethsemane, hauled off to the high priest's
palace, and then brought to Pilate's judgment hall early in the morning.
And the Jews urging Pilate, the Roman authority, the cowardly,
self-serving political man, the governor of Judea, they urged
Pilate to crucify the Lord of glory. And Pilate knew he had
done nothing amiss. Pilate knew there was no fault
in him. And he tried to find ways to
appease the Jews and let the master go. At last, he delivered
Jesus, our Lord, into the hands of the Roman soldiers and they
took him aside and stripped him naked and scourged him. We hardly can grasp the meaning
of what they did. Many men died under severe scourging
of the Roman whip. They stripped him naked and scourged
him. And then they put a rag of purple
on his back and a reed scepter in his hand, plaited a crown
of thorns and shoved it in his head, and they danced around
him and mocked him. and beat him, and spit on him,
and cussed him, and said, Hail, King of the Jews, and laughed. And then they brought him back
to Pilate. And Pilate brought the Lord Jesus out before the
bloodthirsty mob of religious infidels, these Pharisees and
the chief priests and their leaders, And he said, behold, I bring
him forth to you that you may know that I find no fault in
him. Now let's look at verse five. Then came Jesus forth. Wearing the crown of thorns.
And the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, behold,
the man. Behold the man. Now that's my subject this morning.
But I want to call your attention again to the fact that I mentioned
to you a couple of weeks ago. Here in verse five, you will
notice that there is one word in italics. That word in italics
was put there by our translators because they thought it best
to put it there, though there was no corresponding word in
the original text. And by them putting it in italics,
they make clear that there is no corresponding word in the
original text. Our King James Bibles, I would
have you understand again, are the best translation there is.
There's no question in my mind concerning that. I have no intention
of using one of these modern translations. The King James
translation is the best there is. Remember, however, it is
a translation. The translators were themselves
remarkable men. They stuck to the received text,
but it is a translation. Now read this text without the
word pilot being in there. Then came forth, came Jesus forth,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe and saith unto
them, Behold the man. The one speaking here is not
Pilate, but the Lord Jesus himself. Pilate had finished speaking
in verse four when he brought him forth and said, I bring him
forth to you that you may know that I find no fault in him.
But then it's our blessed savior who speaks. He who would not
speak a word to defend himself before Pilate or before the high
priest. He who would not speak a word
because he stands before his shearers dumb and open as a sheep
before his shearers dumb and opens not his mouth. He who would
not speak a word to defend himself because he came into this world
to suffer and die at the hands of the Romans just as he is about
to. But he comes forth before this
bloodthirsty mob who cried, give us Barabbas and crucify him. Let his blood be on us and on
our children. And he stands before this mob
of poor, ignorant, guilty sinners whose hands dripped with his
blood. And there he stands, a spectacle
so marred that he's hardly recognizable. One who's covered with the spit
of a man. The one whose head is pierced
with thorns and bleeding because blood runs down and covers his
naked body. It's lacerated and bruised and
beaten and mangled. And he stands forth and says,
look here now, here's the man you said you've been looking
for. Here's the man of whom Isaiah and the prophet spoke. Here's
the man of whom all the Old Testament scriptures spoke. The man that
God promised. Behold the man. And our Lord
Jesus declares himself with just those words. Understand this,
the Lord Jesus Christ is the man. He is the man of whom the scriptures
speak throughout the Old Testament and in the New. He is the man
who is what man was created to be. He is the man to whom God
has given all things in subjection. He is the man who stood before
God as our representative before the world was, even before he
assumed our nature and took on himself our humanity. Behold
the man. I want you to understand first,
that's the message of this book. Turn back to the book of Ezekiel. Behold the man. Throughout the
book of God, God speaks continually of one man and calls for us to
behold that man. To behold that man. I told you
to turn to Ezekiel. You turn to Zechariah. Zechariah.
In Judges chapter 13, you remember the story of Manoah and his wife. Manoah's wife went out and the
Lord Jesus, the angel of the Lord, appeared to her. And she
came back and told Manoah, her husband, and then she said, she
said to Manoah the next day, behold, the man I told you about,
he's here again, come see him. And they went out and made a
sacrifice. And the Lord Jesus accepted the sacrifice and did
wondrously, did wondrously dance before them in the smoke of the
sacrifice ascending up into heaven. And she said to her husband,
behold, the man. Our Lord Jesus is that one of
whom Ezekiel spoke in Ezekiel chapter 9 of a man With an ink
corn in his hand who said I have done as thou has commanded I
have accomplished everything you sent me to do and then here
in Zechariah chapter 6 verse 12 Speak unto him saying Thus
speaketh the Lord of hosts saying Behold the man whose name is
the branch, and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall
build the temple of the Lord, even he shall build the temple
of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and he shall sit and
rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne,
and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. Christ
Jesus, then, is that man of whom the scripture speaks. God the
Father points to his son and says to sinners, behold the man,
behold my servant, whom I have chosen, mine elect, whom I uphold. Behold him, he shall not fail
nor be discouraged. Behold my servant. You look to
me and see the one who serves me, the one I appointed, the
one I accept, the one by whom righteousness is brought in,
the one in whom I am well pleased and whom my soul delights. The
Lord Jesus speaks concerning himself in Isaiah 45 and says,
look unto me, all you that labor heavy laden and be converted,
be saved. I am God beside me. There is none else. He says,
behold, the man. Behold me, salvation is to be
had looking to Him. Salvation is to be had believing
on the Son of God, not by something you do, not by works of your
hands, but by beholding Him. So this is a call to faith in
Christ. The Holy Spirit of God throughout
the Word of God calls us to believe on the Son, to look on Him, to
behold Him. This is a call for you who are
yet without Christ to believe Him. Look unto me, he says. Behold my servant, the father
says. Behold the man whose name is
the branch. This one who sits on his throne,
who is a priest upon his throne. The only one of that kind there's
ever been. He is a king and he's a priest, a priest upon his throne. A king to rule you, a priest
to make intercession for you. Behold the man. Believe on the
Lord Jesus as this is a call to faith in Christ. This is a
call to commitment for you and I who are his. Oh God give me
grace ever to behold your son. ever to live in this world with
my heart and my mind fixed upon your son. Behold the man who
by his obedience under death has accomplished all that he
was commanded to accomplish as Jehovah's righteous servant.
Behold the man. All right, now let me show you
how this man is presented to us in the book. Turn to Ephesians
chapter one, that very, very familiar passage of scripture.
First, behold the Lord Jesus, the man, the covenant man. Now, understand what I'm saying
here. Before the world was, Jesus Christ
stood forth as our covenant surety, as the God-man, our mediator. His manhood is not eternal. His manhood was created in time. His human body and human soul
created by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin. But before
that happened, he stood forth in the covenant of grace as the
God-man mediator to whom the father said in Psalm 2, ask of
me and I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance. And in
that covenant, all the stipulations and requirements of God for the
salvation of our souls were found in that man who agreed to fulfill
them all. And with that, the father and
the son struck hands and the work was done so that we were
blessed of God, accepted of God forever in Christ this man, our
covenant surety. The Lord Jesus here is described
in Ephesians chapter one as that one in whom we are blessed from
eternity. Verse three, blessed be the God
and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. All spiritual
blessings. What does that include? All spiritual
blessings. That means, Bob, we were redeemed
and justified and sanctified and glorified. We were forgiven,
we were pardoned, we were accepted, we were in Christ, accepted with
God, not in an unjustified state, but a justified state. Not in
an unrighteous state, but a righteous state, because we are one with
Him. Both he that sanctify and they
who are sanctified are all of one we read in Hebrews chapter
2 We're all one in Christ Jesus the Lord now watch this. He's
blessed us with all these spiritual blessings According as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world That we should be
holy and without blame before him. I Always Paul's here because
I want you to understand The commentators, even the good ones,
say this is the Lord's object in election was that we should
live a holy life. Well, that'd be pretty good if
you could do it. That'd be pretty good if you
could do it. Anybody here qualify? Holy? Holy? You? Me? No, no, that we should be holy
and without blame before God. His object clause is to make
you perfect in Christ. Holy and without blame before
him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.
We were adopted before the world began, but he's predestined us
to receive the adoption, the glorious liberty of the sons
of God. Read on. To the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein, that is in his grace, in Christ Jesus, he
hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. So Christ is the covenant man
on whom the Father, the triune God, Jehovah, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit looked and said, behold, I have found a ransom. I've laid help upon one that
is mighty. I've exalted one chosen out of the people. All right,
second, turn back to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. The first gospel sermon is preached
here by God Almighty himself. I want you to behold the Lord
Jesus, our divine savior, as he set before us here in Genesis
315 as the promised man, the man promised in the Old Testament
scriptures. The Lord speaks to Eve, our mother,
and he says, or speaks concerning Eve, our mother, speaking to
Satan. He says, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed. It, the woman's seed, shall bruise
thy head, and thou, the seed of the serpent, shall bruise
his heel. Christ shall bruise the serpent's
head, crush the serpent's head, Do you know what happens when
you get your head crushed? You're dead. You're destroyed. The serpent shall bruise the
Savior's heel. The bruising of the heel is horribly
painful, but it's not life threatening. Our Lord Jesus, having his heel
bruised, crushes the serpent's head. That's the promise of Genesis
chapter three. In the first chapter of Genesis,
The Lord God called the earth out of darkness and chaos and
judgment. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. And the earth was, that is, the
earth became without form and void. And darkness was upon the
face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. God said that there'd be light
and there was light. What a picture that is of the
conversion of our souls, regeneration by God's spirit. We were created
upright, like the earth created perfect. And then something happened,
a cataclysmic judgment falls. We fell in our father, Adam,
and there's nothing but darkness and emptiness and chaos and vanity,
our vain conversation. But God, the spirit broods over
the chosen, redeemed sinners and speaks and says, let there
be light and light is born in the soul. And we're made children
of light rather than children of darkness. Then at God's command,
the earth brought forth vegetation and the whole animal creation.
And you get to the end of those days of creation at Genesis chapter
two. On the sixth day, God said, let
us make man in our image and after our likeness. And God gathered
together some dust and formed it in the shape of a man. and
breathed into his nostrils. And Adam became a living soul. God made man in the image of
Christ Jesus, that covenant man we saw just a little bit ago.
And God set man in the garden to worship and serve him, to
till the garden, not in the sweat of his brow, but in communion
with his God. And he gave him a help meat for
him. And there's Adam and Eve in the garden. In the perfection
of humanity, in the perfection of humanity, you young people,
and some of the older ones still, you get the notion that what
the atheist and the skeptics and the pretend scientists declare
is so, and you think that Adam was a caveman, something between
an ape and a man, or a man and an ape. Sort of half man, half
ape, half ape, half man. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Adam was created with knowledge such as no man has
ever possessed since the fall of Adam except the God man. When God brought the whole of
the animal creation to Adam, you remember what he did, Don?
He named every one of them and didn't have to think about it. I mean, without hesitation, he
names everyone ever. You gather me a room full of
100,000 scientists today with all of their learning, and I'll
guarantee you all of them together can't name all the animals on
the earth. Adam did. Well, you don't really believe
that, do you? You got two choices. You can believe this book or
don't. You can believe God or don't.
You can believe God or believe a fool. It's those two choices. It's those two choices. God made
Adam in the perfection of manhood and brought Eve to Adam. And
he took one look at Eve and he didn't say, whoa, man, he said,
woman, wow. She was something else. She was
something else. and Adam and Eve standing there
in the perfection of humanity until the fall. Oh, how things
changed. How things changed. God had put
the whole creation in subjection to Adam, the man. And now Adam's
driven from the garden in fear and dread. Driven from the garden
as a sinner, driven from the garden under the curse of God,
driven from the garden under the broken law of God, driven
from the garden with a sense of guilt and shame, clothing
himself. He and Eve had had no shame before. Now they're full of shame, driven
from the garden. to till the ground from now on
under the sweat of his brow, bringing forth nothing but thorns
and thistles and briars by nature, and the woman to give birth to
children in horrible pain. But before God drove her from
the garden, he said, I won't leave you in this shape. He said,
there's a man coming. A man coming who shall be born
of a virgin, a woman's seed. A man coming who comes as God
himself to crush the serpent's head. And he will undo everything
that you have messed up. He'll restore that which you
took not away. Now, Adam and Eve, before you
leave, let me show you how it's going to be done. And he found
innocent victims. and slaughtered them right in
front of Adam and Eve. And he took the clothes, the
skins of those innocent victims, and from them made robes for
Adam and Eve. This man who's coming, he's the
Lamb of God. And he shall obey all my will. And this man who deserves nothing
but life and glory will bear your sin and be made to die under
your sin. And I will take his righteousness
and make it yours as I made your sin his. And Satan's work shall
be destroyed. And the God of peace will brew
Satan under your feet shortly. Behold the man Third, look briefly,
John 1, 14. Behold the man again. Here we
see our Lord Jesus as the God-man. John chapter 1, verse 14. In the beginning, John says,
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The Word was with God, and God
was the Word. And then it says here in verse
14, and the word was made flesh. The word was made flesh. I deal frequently with the fact
that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy One, who knew no sin was
made sin for us. And folks get all bent out of
shape and upset as if somehow that corrupts the Lord Jesus. The word was made flesh that
didn't corrupt him. The word was made flesh. It wasn't
that he just looked like flesh. It wasn't that he just had our
flesh pasted on him. It wasn't that he just was treated
as though he were flesh. The Word was made flesh. At the appointed time, Alan Kibbe,
God the Son, stepped into the womb of the Virgin and there
was created in the Virgin's womb a holy thing that did not exist
before called Jesus Christ Emmanuel, God with us. A whole thing capable
because he's God and man with no sin. Capable now of fulfilling
all righteousness and capable now of suffering all the consequences
of sin to the full satisfaction of justice because this man is
the God man. The word was made flesh. He took on himself our humanity. That he, by the grace of God,
might taste death for us. He took on himself our humanity.
It behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
suffer all that we deserve to suffer. Not only that, but by
the suffering of death, accomplished reconciliation for us. Not only
that, but now, That one who's God who made flesh, sitting on
the throne, the king who's a priest on his throne, because he took
on himself our humanity, is able to succor them that are tempted. He's a sympathizing high priest,
for he is a man just exactly as we are, yet without sin. Though
he knew no sin and did no sin, this man, the God-man, being
made sin, has a greater understanding, a more felt understanding, a
more sensible understanding of what it is to be sin before God
than any man. Oh yes, he's a sympathizing high
priest. The Lord Jesus, the word was
made flesh, not by changing what he was, but by taking what he
was not. And this union of God and man
in one person is an everlasting union that cannot be dissolved
or in any way weakened. Now fourth, behold the man the
representative man. Jesus Christ is the man who is
our representative. Turn to Romans chapter 5. In
all things our representative before God. In his life of obedience as our
representative The Lord Jesus worked out a perfect righteousness,
bringing in everlasting righteousness, obeying God as our representative. Somebody said, well, you shouldn't
emphasize his obedience apart from his death. I'm not. Believe
me, I'm not. His obedience was not full until
he died. But he, as a man, fully obeyed
God's law and God's will. But he didn't do that for himself.
Will you hear me now? He didn't do that for himself.
Skip Gladfelter, God demands that you obey his law. God demands
it. He said, walk before me and be
perfect. He said, be holy for I'm holy. God demands that you
obey his law, that you obey his will in every detail. What does
that mean? Love God with all your heart,
soul, mind and being and love your neighbor as yourself. And
you can't do that. You can't do that. But if you're
his, you have. If you're his, you have. For
in Christ Jesus, we walked on this earth in complete obedience
to God, perfectly obeying his will, the full age of a man with
no infraction of law, in perfect obedience. And then God demands
that you die, that you suffer his wrath until justice is satisfied. And if all the world should suffer
the wrath of God forever in hell, justice would never be satisfied.
God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but it pleased
the Lord to bruise this man. The death of this one man who
is God Almighty in the flesh, His death completely satisfies
the justice of God. Now watch what the scripture
says. Romans chapter 5 verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for all have sinned. Verse 18. Therefore, as by the
offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
Even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
all men under justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. As Adam represented all his race
and we all died in Adam and were made sinners in Adam. So Christ
represents all God's elect and all who are in Christ given to
him before the world began. Obey God in him and live in him. By God, by him, God is fully
satisfied, both with his righteous obedience and with his death.
All right. Look again at our Lord Jesus,
the man. Behold, the man, this representative
man. We see him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Sweating blood we see him at
Gabbatha's judgment hall Marked and beaten and we see him on
Golgotha's tree Suffering as our substitute in all these things. He is our substitute He acts
as an absolute sovereign He does his obedience to the full satisfaction
of divine justice and he's completely successful in all his work But
he didn't stay in the grave Turn back to Isaiah chapter 53 Behold the man, the risen man,
our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Isaiah 53, we'll begin in verse
9. He made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich in his death. Because he had done no violence,
neither was deceit found in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. It pleased the Lord. The word
is satisfied. It satisfied the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed and he shall prolong
his days. He's going to see his seed so
that as he endures all the wrath of God for us, suffering is our
substitute. His heart is fixed on his seed. He'll see his seed regenerated,
redeemed, sanctified, justified, even glorified with him. He'll
see his seed and he shall prolong his days. That is, he's going
to live again. He will rise from the dead and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his
knowledge. Shall my righteous servant justify
many for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I
divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the
spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto
death and he was numbered with the transgressors and bear the
sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. He was
delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. And now by him, we receive the
atonement. What does Paul mean when he says
he was raised again for our justification? Romans chapter three, or chapter
four rather, verse 25 is where you find this. Our Lord Jesus
was delivered to death for our offenses. That is because of
our offenses made his. When our offenses were made his,
he was put to death, justly sacrificed, because he was made sin for us. And then he was raised again
for our justification. But his resurrection is not what
accomplished our justification. You know better than that. We
were justified by his blood when he died. When he said, it's finished,
we were justified. What's it mean that he was raised
again for our justification? He was raised again because of
justification accomplished. He went into the tomb, buried
as a man, cursed of God, under the wrath of God, bearing our
sins in his body on the tree. He goes to the tomb and there
he lays for three days. But he comes forth the third
day without sin justified. And we justified in him. Behold, the man risen. Behold
him again, this man who's risen is ascended on high, seated on
the right hand of the majesty on high. This man who was made
sin, this man who died in our stead, this man who was buried
in the earth, this man who rose from the grave is ascended to
heaven. A man went from here to there. A man accepted of God, a man
blessed of God, a man rewarded of God, a man on whom God, the
triune God, smiles forever, that man is Christ Jesus the Lord,
the God-man, our Savior, in whom alone sinners find acceptance
with God. In whom alone sinners are accepted
with God. Accepted with God forever in
that man. How long shall he sit there accepted? When will the triune Jehovah
find in him a reason to frown? When will God cast him from the
lofty throne of heaven to the pit of the damned? Never! And until God cast him down,
he won't cast me down. I'm in him. We're in him. Accepted in the beloved. One more look at this man. Behold
the man the coming man. Behold, he cometh, and every
eye shall see him. Behold, he cometh, and every
eye shall see him. There's lots of talk these days
about the second coming. And folks are terrified, scared
to death that Christ is coming again. Mark, that's what I live for. He is coming again. He's coming
again. When He comes, He will call our
brethren who have preceded us in death out of their graves,
and they will meet the Lord in the air. And we which are alive
and remain shall be translated and caught up with them to meet
the Lord in the air, and He will destroy the world with the brightness
of His coming. Let's labor then in patience,
in hope, and in joy, for our Lord Jesus shall indeed come
and avenge his own elect, and he will raise the dead, and he'll
set you before him in judgment. And we'll be judged out of the
books, every man, judged by the record that God has of us in
heaven. Every man exactly according as
he hath done. Every man. You and I shall be
judged of God exactly according to what we've done. And we shall
receive reward exactly as justice demands. Exactly. You who are without Christ shall suffer the wrath of God
forever and ever in hell because that's
what you've earned. And you who are made gods by his amazing grace shall inherit
the glory of Christ himself. Because Merle, that's what you
fully deserve in Him. His name is Jehovah's Atenu,
the Lord our righteousness. Our name Jehovah said, can you
the Lord our righteousness? And then we shall spend eternity showing forth the praises of
him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. But
the Stephen Carpenter and I were chatting at lunch. Sunday afternoon
before we left Kansas City, Saturday afternoon, I'm sorry. We hardly know what heaven will
be. We just have a little, just a
little glimpse of an idea, really just a little glimpse of an idea
of the glory that awaits us. Stephen said, he said, I think
maybe, I think maybe we'll spend eternity studying with wonder all that
was involved in bringing us from the ruins of the fall into the
glorious liberty of the sons of God. I was talking to Brother
Don Ranieri the other day, a little bit about what God brought him
through in eternity. God gonna show me
all the secret things he did for you and show you too. All the secret things. Oh God, you've done wonderful
things for me. And I don't even know about most
of it. I don't even know about most of it. Behold the man! Everything done by him, in him,
and for him. And to him shall be all praise
forever. Amen.