If you'll take your Bibles and
turn to John chapter 19, I want to read some verses, and
then I'll make some comments, and then we're just going to
kind of look at the verses one at a time as we go through this
chapter. Beginning in verse 17, And He bearing His cross, went
forth into a place called the Place of the Skull, which is
called in the Hebrew Golgotha, where they crucified Him and
two other with Him on either side, one, and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title and
put it on the cross. And the writing was, Jesus of
Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This title then read many of
the Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh
to the city. And it was written in Hebrew
and Greek and Latin. Now, if you'll remember, these
were the feast days. And during this time, they were
commanded to take a journey up to Jerusalem. And they kind of
went on a pilgrimage up there to keep these feasts, to keep
these ceremonies. And so there was a lot of people
there. Now, I've been emphasizing this as we go through this, that
Pilate was a very educated man. Pilate was a a man of authority,
a man of position. He was the governor over that
realm under Caesar. This was not an ignorant man.
This was a politician. And he was kind of a head and
shoulders above some of the other politicians because according
to the historians, most of the governors of that region were
only governors for about a year. The Jews were, these Jewish Priests and that whole economy
of the Jews in their religion were tough people to govern.
They were sly. They were deceitful. They used
intimidation. They used all kinds of things.
And those rulers would just be in office for a little while
and then out. And Caesar didn't want, you know,
he didn't want to have to occupy that place with armies to keep
his rule. He would rather have him conquer
them, he'd rather just rule them in peace if he could. But these
rulers, they used and intimidated and they'd hold their office
for about a year and then they were gone. And he'd put another
one in, he'd hold his office for about a year and then he's
gone. But Pilate stayed there about 13 years. So you see what
I'm saying? I'm just trying to read between
the lines here. And doing that, I know that this
is a very street-smart, people-wise politician. He was no ignorant
man. He understood how these Jews
operated. He knew them well. And he saw through their pretense
of religious hierarchy. And he made some effort to set
this man, Jesus, free. He didn't want to set him free
because of any high esteem that he had in particular for Jesus.
Jesus was just another Jew to him, just another person. He
didn't see no value in his claims to be Christ or any of those
things. He just saw through the facade. He saw what they were
doing to this man and they were trying to make him a part of
it and he didn't want to be. He didn't want to be. He didn't
want to be used by them. So he saw through that pretense
and he made some effort to set this man, Jesus, free, or at
least to be judged by them and not him. They wanted Jesus of
Nazareth to be judged by Pilate as a criminal. They didn't want
to make a martyr out of him. Then it would be worse than it
was with him here. They wanted him to be exposed as a criminal.
They wanted him to be looked on as a common thief, as a murderer,
as a criminal. as an imposter. And so they really
pushed this issue with Pilate. Pilate didn't want to be a pawn
in this man's death. And I believe to some degree
when he began to examine him and began to ask him questions
and saw how the Lord answered him, I believe to some degree
during that time Pilate actually admired him as a man. He actually
admired Christ. You couldn't help but admire
him. He was a perfect man. There was no sin in him. There
was no gall in him. There was no hypocrisy in him. He liked that. He appreciated
that. Truth. He answered in truth. But of this much I am sure. He
did believe the testimony of Christ and he did not believe
anything the Jews told him concerning Christ. Old Satan is a sly enemy. And he knows how to lay his snares
and set his traps. And he used these Jews to set
a snare for Pilate. And they caught him in it. They
caught him in it. When they saw him begin to move
toward clemency for Jesus of Nazareth, the Jews said this
to him, if thou let this man go, Thou
art not Caesar's friend. And that's what we're going to
tell Caesar. You do what you do. You're a pilot. You're the
governor. You do whatever you see fit to do. But if you do
it, we're going to tell Caesar that you're not his friend. They
said it without saying it. That's how this whole thing operates. They say things without saying
it. They say them in intimidation. They set their traps. Satan is
sly. He uses men. He manipulates men. Whosoever maketh himself a king
speaketh against Caesar. That's in verse 12, John 19. And they threatened to do to
Pilate basically what they were doing to Christ. They were going
to accuse him of something that he didn't know. And he saw that
they could get away with it. And he knew that they would.
He knew that they would. Pilate knew what these men were
about. He knew what they were capable
of. And he weighed what was at stake and then compromised his
decisions. Russell, he was convinced to
let him go. He wanted to let him go. He made
efforts to let him go. But each time, and you have to
go over there and read Luke 22 and Mark chapter 15 and go over
there to Matthew 26. You're going to have to read
those accounts to get the full picture. But they moved with envy towards
Christ. And he saw it. He realized it. And so he judges. They put the
thumb on him and began to twist. And there was no way out. He
had to do what they wanted him to do. So he judges Christ and
he delivers him into the soldiers' hands and into the people's will
to be crucified as a common criminal. This death that Christ was judged
to die was a death reserved for the worst of men. were the worst
of men. It wasn't a death like Stephen
died where they accused him of heresy and took him out and stoned
him. This was a death reserved to die by the worst of men. He
was going to be taken out with these thieves and with these
seditioners and with these common rebels and thieves and be nailed
to a cross and hung up naked for all the world to see with
a sign on his cross accusing him of a crime. In Mark chapter 15 and verse
27, it says, and with him was crucified two thieves, the one
on his right hand and the other on his left. And the scripture
was fulfilled, that is Isaiah 53.12, which says he was numbered
with the transgressors. He was numbered with them. When
they took their tally and recorded their history, they recorded
this first man He's a thief and a murderer, and they wrote it
down, and they wrote down the second man, and they wrote his
name down the same, except not under those charges. But he was
numbered with them. He was recorded as one of them,
hung up before the Word. He was numbered with them, hung
up in their midst, and recorded as one of them, and treated as
one of them. And he had to be, because he
bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He had to be. Now, in John 19, 19, it says
this. Pilate wrote a title, and he
put it on the cross, and the writing was Jesus of Nazareth,
King of the Jews. Now, if you'll go home and do
a little study into these other Gospels where the same thing
is recorded, I think you're going to find something interesting.
All four writers give a little different interpretation of this
writing. Not the writing necessarily in
itself, but what the writing was called. John calls it a title. Matthew calls it an accusation. Mark calls it a superscription
of his accusation. And Luke calls it a subscription.
A superscription, I'm sorry. Now all four of these things
are accurate and taken together, they tell us what this writing
was all about. His accusation was that he was
king. Pilate said, are you a king?
He said, who told you to ask me that? Did you come up with
that or somebody put you up to that? Christ knew what was going
on and so did Pilate. But here's how he answered him.
He said, to this end was I born. That's his accusation. The superscription
of his accusation was the crime of which he was accused. And
here's what Pilate said his crime is. He said, I want this written
in three languages. I want this understood by every
Jew that comes down this road and looks up at his cross. I
want this fully understood. Put it up there in three languages.
This Jesus of Nazareth is king of the Jews. That's his crime.
That's his crime. And then the superscription itself
was to be read and understood of the nature of his crime. And
here's the nature of his crime. He's king. He's king. That's what Pilate said. And
his title that Pilate put on there, and this is why John calls
it a title, was to shame these Jews. who set him up and came
in and threatened him. They said, we're going to go
to Caesar and tell Caesar there's a king. Oh, he said, OK. All
right. I'm going to turn him over to
you, and I'm going to crucify him. And I'm going to put up
above his head what you said. He'd kill him. And they said, oh, don't write
that. Don't write that. Right on there, he said. He said,
what I've written, I've written. And I've done been all I'm going
to been. That's what Pilate told him. In Mark 15, verse 9 it says,
But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you
the king of the Jews? Now watch this. For he knew that
the chief priests had delivered him for envy. He knew it. But
the chief priests moved the people. Now we all know the crowd stood
out there, and when they come out, Pilate said, Would you that
I release unto you Barabbas? Or Jesus of Nazareth. They said,
give us Barabbas. Or what do you want me to do
with this king? Crucify him. Well, why did they do that? They
did that because their rulers went out there in a crowd and
bore false witness against him. That's exactly it. They stirred.
The chief priest moved the people that he should rather release
Barabbas unto them than Christ. They went out in a crowd, Russell.
He said, now here's what you need to do. Here's what you need
to do. In Matthew's account, Pilate
was so disgusted with their treachery and envy that he ordered a bowl
of water to be brought out, right out into the judgment hall. And
he stood up before the people and went up and washed his hands.
And he said, I'm washing my hands in this whole affair. He said,
this man's blood is not going to be on my hands. It's going
to be on yours. And they said, let his blood be on us and on
our children. And it was. But that little bowl
of water didn't wash it off of Pilate's hands either. Neither Pilate nor Herod nor
the Jews nor the Gentiles could free themselves of the guilt
of this man's blood. And there's no man who can free
himself from the guilt of Christ's death. No man. And yet, ironically, it is his
death that frees the elect from their sins and from their guilt. To rule his kingdom, Christ must
redeem it. He must be, as the prophet said,
wounded for our transgressions. He must be bruised for our iniquities,
Because the chastisement of our peace is upon Him. He has to
be. There's no way around it. With His stripes we're healed.
All right, now look down at verse 21. John 19, 21. Then said the chief priest of
the Jews to Pilate, write not the king of the Jews, but that
he said, I'm king of the Jews. And Pilate said, what I've written,
I've written. Live with it. And what he wrote,
he wrote out of spite, knowing the hypocrisy of these men. Yet overall, he wrote what he
wrote because God ordained him to write it. That's why he did
it. Can you see that? Is that so
hard to see? With our little limited vision,
I think every one of us here, would agree that these men did
evil in the crucifixion of Christ. We can see that. But can you
see past that and see God's hand overruling? Without violating
anything in man's will, He overruled that whole thing and everybody
concerned. That's what He says over in Acts
chapter 4. He named everybody there, the Gentiles, the Jews,
Herod, Pontius Pilate, all these rulers, all these high priests,
all these people gathered themselves together to do what God's hand
and God's counsel determined before to be done. I see it not only in his death,
but I see it in our lives every day. We do exactly what we want
to do. Exactly. And yet God overrules
it and does exactly what He wants to do. John 19, 23. Then the soldiers, when they
crucified Jesus, took His garments and made four parts to every
soldier a part, and also His coat. Now the coat was without
seam, woven from the top throughout. Now the crucifixion of Christ
was at the request and at the political insistence of the Jews,
but it was ordered and carried out by Rome. The Jews were forbidden
to do this kind of thing without the okay of the Romans. And so
it was carried out by Rome. And it was the right of these
Roman executioners as I understand it. It was their right to the
clothing of those that they crucified. They didn't have any use for
them. They took those things from them.
They took those clothes and those things of any value and they
split it up between them and they sold it for whatever they
could get out of it. And so this is exactly what they were doing
with him. They took his clothes off from him and they took his
inner garments and his outer garment and they split those
poor garments among them, but they wound up with this coat.
And this coat wasn't something you could just tear up in pieces.
It was woven. It was one piece, woven top to
bottom. And they said, let's don't rip
it. Let's don't tear it. We'll roll the dice. We'll cast
lots and see who gets it. And one of us can have it. The coat. It was the right of
these guys to collect the clothing of those who were executed, but
the coat was one piece. Now turn with me to Isaiah 61. These clothes of which he was
stripped, I believe they represent something infinitely greater
than just a physical cover. Now, we all know that by His
righteous obedience, He clothes us spiritually with His righteousness. His righteousness is imputed
to us, and it's called in the Scriptures that robe of righteousness. And that righteousness is just
one garment. All of God's elect are all clothed
in that one robe. But there's another clothing
talked about in the Scriptures. Now, let's look first at what
Isaiah says. Isaiah 61, 10, he said, I will
greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God. For he hath clothed me in the
garments of salvation. See that, plural, garments. And
covered me with the robe, singular, of righteousness. That inward
work of salvation is an individual business, John. It's one-on-one. We're born again as individuals. We're brought to faith as individuals. That work of salvation in you
is an individual work. And it's likened unto being clothed. I can show you that over in 2
Corinthians chapter 5, I believe it is, where he talks about those
persecutions and talks about all those things, and yet he
calls them those light afflictions. Because he says, we look not
on those things which are seen, but on those things which are
not seen. And we know this, that if the earthly house of this
tabernacle be destroyed, he said, we've got another house not built
with hands, a heavenly home. And he said, and we're grown
to be clothed with our new house. Ain't that what he called it?
Huh? Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. Ain't that what he said? He says
it twice. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. Put on that new man, he said. Put him on. I don't want to make more of
this than what there is, but I just want you to see that those
garments, He was here to clothe us. To clothe us. And He clothes us with His person,
with His character. He clothes us with His suffering.
He clothes us with His righteousness. And I believe they're represented
there. And then here's another reason. Here's another reason
for this taking His clothing These guys sit around. I want
you to picture these soldiers. They were soldiers, Roman soldiers.
And these men don't have the intelligence and the intellect
of pilot. These are just common soldiers.
And they're out there, and any of you who's ever been in the
military know exactly what I'm talking about. These were just
soldiers. These were grunts. They were out there carrying
out pilots' wishes and they sit around and they said, well, what
do you think? What do you think? Do you think
we ought to take a knife and cut this garment up? Well, no.
No, let's don't do that. It'd be valuable by itself. Well,
let's just cast lots for it. We'll just roll the dice. They
sat over there and they did that. It was their idea. They conceived
that up, Winston. They sat there and thought that
up. among themselves. Nobody else was there telling
them to do that. It's just something they conjured up in their mind.
Now watch this. Psalm 22 verse 18. They part my garments among them
and cast lots for my vesture. How many hundreds of years before
them men come up with that Did the Lord say exactly what they
were going to do? John 19, 24. They
said, therefore, among themselves, let's not rend it, let's cast
lots for it, whose it shall be. Now watch this. That the scripture
might be fulfilled, which saith, they parted my raiment among
them, and for my vesture they did count lots. These things,
therefore, the soldiers did. They did exactly what God determined
before to be done. And exactly the way He said they
did. And yet it was all their idea. The Lord said by the mouth of
His prophet Isaiah, I am God. There's none like me. I know you've got your gods.
I know you've got that little fat Buddha sitting there on your
windowsill. I know you worship Baal. I know
that you have deities. I know that. I know that you
follow your imaginations. But he said, I'm God. And I'll
tell you what makes me different than the little Buddha. I declare
the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I'll
do all my pleasure. That's what makes God different
from our gods. He's God. His counsel stands
and He does all His pleasure. To be recognized as a prophet
of God. Everybody today stands up and
says, I'm a prophet. I'm a preacher. I'm God's witness. In the Old Testament, if you
were a prophet, if you came out before Israel and you said, I'm
a prophet of God, here's how you proved it. Everything that
you said is going to come to pass better come to pass, or
you'd be taken out and stoned as a false prophet. Why? Because that's the God who chose
them as a prophet, and that's the God they represent. This
God does according to His will and His will declares the end
from the beginning. Nothing is going to change. Nothing
is going to steer Him aside. Nothing is going to get in the
way. He is not going to react to anything because everything
is going according to His will. Paul in Ephesians chapter 1 talks
about God's purpose in Christ, His eternal purpose in Christ.
having stated election, and predestination, and justification, and sanctification,
and all those things, and your calling, and all those things.
And he talked about it, and he tells you that he revealed unto
us the very will of God, the eternal will of God, which was
altogether in this man, Christ Jesus. He said, in whom? Huh? In whom we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to him who does what?
worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." Now,
that's what's going on at the cross, the will of God being
accomplished. And all these events unfolded
exactly as God said they would. And the same can be said for
every man in this crowd here this morning, and myself included,
no matter who or why you're here. Doesn't make any difference.
He's doing exactly what he's determined to do. So, don't be discouraged when things
come along and you look at the things and they don't seem to
go exactly the way you think they ought to be going. I told
them over in Wichita Falls yesterday, I said, get one of those big
1,100, 1,200-piece puzzles out and dump it out here on your
table. and pick up one piece and look at it and tell me. I'm
going to take the rest of it and put it back in the box. You
take that one piece and look at it and tell me what the whole
picture is going to be. Do you know that's what we do
when we look at things? We look at the event of one day
and try to judge the whole picture. We try to arrange a whole picture
over that one little event. Only God sees the whole picture. So don't be discouraged when
things don't seem to be going just right. God uses as much
sovereign concern over your daily life, over our daily life, as
he did in the crucifixion of his son. Now you let that sink
in. As much sovereign concern and
detail over the daily events of your life as he did over the
death of his son. He said this. He told his disciples, he said,
you see them sparrows? Some of you folks live out on
the farm. How much attention do you pay to sparrows? You'd
shoot one in the heartbeat, wouldn't you? That ain't any good for
anything. He said, not one of them sparrows is going to fall
to the ground without your father. How many of you got up this morning
and counted all the hair on your head? Some of you don't want to tell
me. I don't. Not one hair goes unnumbered
with the father. He keeps an account of the hairs
of your head. Now, he said, did he say that
because he takes care for spirals or hair? Or did he say that so
you'd know his sovereign concern over everything that happens?
All things, he said, work together. for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. Now watch this, verse 25. Now
there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother and His mother's sister,
Mary the wife of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene. Three Marys. Now, Gil brings something up
I believe worthy of note here. Over in Luke 2, verse 34, Simeon
picked up the baby Jesus in his arms and he looked at Him. And
he said, Lord, now letteth Thy servant depart in peace, for
I have seen Thy salvation. And then he goes on to bless
the family and to bless those things and to say some things.
And he said, Behold, this child is sent for
the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign
which shall be spoken against. Yea, verse 35, a sword shall
pierce through thine own soul also. He's looking right at Mary.
A sword going to pierce through thine own soul also that the
thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. We're going to be able
to identify with Mary standing before the cross of her son. As Mary stood before that cross
with her sister and Mary Magdalene and stood and were identified
with him and his suffering, everybody there was spitting on him and
laughing at him and smacking him and throwing a spear at him
and taking the vinegar and the gall and putting it on a sponge
and sticking it up to his lips. They despised him and yet they
stood and identified with him and loved him because he first
loved them. And I'll tell you this, this
piercing of the soul is a spiritual work. You can't do it. I can't
do it. I can stand and tell you the
truth and I can stand and preach the gospel to you, but I can't
pierce your soul. God in his sovereign providence
and by his gospel and by his spirit is able to do it. And
when He does, He'll break your heart. He'll break your heart
just like He broke hers. When Jesus therefore saw His
mother and the disciples standing by whom He loved, verse 26, He
saith to His mother, Woman, behold thy son, pointing to John. Then
He said to His disciple, John, behold your mother. And He said
from that day, John took her home and she lived with him. Now, my friend, are you a believer? Are you a believer? If you are,
this is your family. That's hard to come to grips
with, isn't it? This is your family. They come and told Christ,
they said, your mother and your brothers and sisters, they're
all outside and they're calling for you. He said, who is my mother? Who are my brothers? And I tell
you this, I'll take it one more step past that. He said, he that
hateth not mother, father, sister, brother, yea, his own life cannot
be my disciple. And I tell you this, if you prefer
your natural relationship with your own blood kin over the people
of God and claim to be a believer, you don't know it. And you can't
be his disciple. That has to change. If you can't
see past that, if you've not been delivered from these natural
eyes and these natural senses, if you've not been delivered,
then you haven't been delivered. You don't see. That's what he
said. You can't follow me. You can't
follow me. He that loveth his own life,
he can't be my disciple. Because my mother and my father
and my sisters and my brethren, they're all fallen sons of Adam
just like everybody else's sons and daughters. God has a family. He has a people.
And we're born into his house. That's our brothers. That's our
fathers. That's our mothers. And we better treat them that
way. We better treat them that way.