Last Monday, several of us were
in the hospital visiting with Mark and his family, wanted to
know something with regard to Regina's condition. And Mark
and I were talking. It was the first time I'd had
a chance to see them. And Mark and I were talking.
And he told me something that took me by surprise, trying to
determine what Regina's illness was, what caused her heart problem. One of the doctors asked Mark,
has your wife had a great loss recently? No. Has she had any kind of acute
emotional stress, something that would break her heart? Kind of
strange question to ask somebody I thought for a doctor to ask
somebody with regard to a medical condition. As it turned out,
this doctor told Mark about a medical condition, a heart ailment that
was first diagnosed in Japan. I came home and did a little
research. The earliest thing I could find written about it
was in 2002. I don't have any idea what time
it was diagnosed or finally diagnosed. It was in Japan by a medical
doctor there. And since then, it's been confirmed
by numerous doctors. I read one of the studies from
Johns Hopkins. I want to just read the whole
thing, just parts of it. But this is the thing I found
surprising. It's called, commonly called,
it's not a medical term, it's commonly called broken heart
syndrome. And it is often fatal. an acute emotional stress, brokenness
of heart that is often fatal. I'm not surprised that there
is such a condition. I'm not surprised that it's often
fatal. I'm surprised that modern medicine
acknowledges it. In fact, 275 years ago, For you
fellows who have Spurgeon's Treasury of David, you can look it up
in Psalm 69 we just read. 275 years ago, a medical doctor
by the name of James Young Simpson wrote this, mental emotions and
passions are well known by all to affect the actions of the
heart in a way of palpitation and fainting. that these emotions
and passions, when in overwhelming excess, occasionally, though
rarely, produce laceration or rupture of the walls of the heart,
is stated by most medical authorities who've written on the affections
of that organ. This medical doctor, 275 years
ago, wrote about this muscle in your chest. This organ that's
the very seat of life, which the scriptures speak of as the
seat of emotion, as well as the seat of reason. This muscle has
something to do with your feelings and your emotions and your affections. That, of course, is the common
language of scripture. It was prior to Charles Darwin's
nonsense that Mr. Simpson, Dr. Simpson wrote as
he did. And prior to Darwin's nonsense,
this was accepted as a matter of medical and scientific fact. And then men got smart and decided
that it was as ridiculous to think in those terms as it is
for doctors to think that slitting your wrist and bleeding you will
help your health. And now? They're beginning to
catch up to divine revelation. Broken heart syndrome. The fact
is 3,000 years ago, there was a man who
wrote about the same syndrome. Psalm 69 verse 20. As soon as Mark told me about
Regina's doctor, what he called broken heart syndrome. Psalm
6920 came to my mind, and it's been on my mind incessantly this
past week. I believe I've got something
for you. Mark and the others probably didn't notice it. Celeste
and Diane and others were there, Pam and Shelby was with me, and
we sat down, and folks were all just visiting. I, for a little
while, just sat back by myself and rolled this over in my mind.
Here in Psalm 69, our Savior speaks. He's crying out to his
Father and our Father, to his God and our God. He speaks as
our substitute, as the God-man, our mediator, who bears our sins,
suffering the judgment of God for our sins. Five times in this
psalm, he speaks of the reproach he endured. Five times. Did you
catch these as we read it? Look at verse seven. Because
for thy sake I have borne reproach. Now look how it identifies the
reproach. Shame hath covered my face. Shame. Shame. Shame. Covered my face. Because for your sake I've borne
reproach. Verse nine. For the zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up. That is, the result of my devotion
to you has consumed me. And the reproaches of them that
reproach thee are fallen upon me. The reproaches of Don Fortner
have fallen on me. The reproaches of your people
have fallen on me. All the shame, all the shame, horrible, sinful,
vile, guilt, and shame that all your people have. That's fallen
on me. Verse ten. When I wept and chastened my
soul with fasting, it was my reproach. All the days of my life and my
chastening of my soul and my weeping and my crying to you
as your servant, that now, is to my reproach. Verse 19, thou
hast known my reproach and my shame and my dishonor. My adversaries are before thee. Then in our text, verse 20, our
Savior cries, reproach hath broken my heart. and I am full of heaviness. Turn back to Psalm 22. Psalm
22. Here, our Lord Jesus again is
speaking. Psalm 22 is the psalm of the
crucified one. Our Lord throughout this psalm
is speaking and I'm convinced that David wrote this psalm by
inspiration of God, the Holy Spirit, speaking prophetically
the very words that the son of God would speak as he hung in
our stand upon the cursed tree. Here he cries in verse 14. I
am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart. is like wax. It is melted in the midst of
my bowels. Now, in the light of these statements
by our Redeemer, I have been reflecting on, I hope by God's
Spirit, three places where our Lord bore our reproach. Gethsemane, Gabbatha, and Golgotha. We will look at each one briefly.
Title of my message today is Gethsemane, Gabbatha, and Golgotha. Turn to Matthew chapter 26. In
Gethsemane, our Lord Jesus is assaulted by
the prince of darkness, assaulted by Satan. His holy soul is assaulted. Satan,
who is in a rage, who knows he has but a short time, here assaults
our Savior horribly. At Gabbatha, he is assaulted
by men. At Golgotha, He is assaulted
by God himself. Our Lord Jesus goes to Gethsemane
the night before he laid down his life for us on Calvary's
cursed hill. Gethsemane is one of those spots
on earth that ought to be to you and me in our thoughts, in
our memories, a sacred spot, hallowed ground, where we often
resort as our Savior did. In fact, our Lord Jesus appears. He appears to have gone to Gethsemane
more often than to any other place while he walked on this
earth, especially during the last three years of his life,
during his earthly ministry. Matthew 26, verse 36. Then cometh
Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane. and saith
unto the disciples, sit ye here while I go yonder and pray. And
he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began
to be sorrowful and very heavy. John 12, he said, now is my soul
exceeding sorrowful even unto death. Then saith he to them,
My soul, I'm sorry, it says right here, Matthew as well. My soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, tarry ye here and
watch with me. And he went on a little farther
and fell on his face. Strong words, not just he kneeled
down and laid down on the ground, but he fell on his face. Fell
on his face is one who suddenly seized with great sorrow, suddenly
seized with anguish. He fell on his face and prayed,
saying, Oh, my father. If it be possible, let this cup
pass for me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples
and findeth them asleep and saith unto Peter, What, could you not
watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second
time and prayed, saying, Oh, my father, if this cup may not
pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. And he
came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy and
he left them. And went away again and prayed the third time, saying
the same thing. Then cometh he to the disciples,
and saith unto them, Sleep all now, take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand,
and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise,
let us be going. Behold, he is at hand, that doth
betray man. Here in dark Gethsemane, the
Lord Jesus came on purpose, and he brought with him James and
Peter and John, and he left them about a stone's throw behind
him. He walked away from them a ways. He walked away from them a ways
because he must now be alone. He bids them pray with him, but
he walks away from them so they could not be aware really of
what transpires. They're alone in prayer with
his father, Satan. and hell, and all the powers
of darkness assaulted. His holy soul is furiously assaulted
even more than it had been assaulted before. Gethsemane is called
Gehenna or hell. He comes to this garden, the
olive press called Gehenna called hell. And there, he's assaulted
by hell. Here in Gethsemane, the Lord
of glory encountered the powers of darkness for us. It was in
the garden that Adam, the first Adam, and his posterity were
lost. So to the garden of Gethsemane,
the Lord Jesus comes, the last Adam, to recover all the forfeited
inheritance. The devil in the garden began
to ruin man with sin. And so the Lord Jesus comes to
the garden and he recovers that which was ruined. The devil in
the garden bound Adam and carried him captive. And it was from
the garden as well that our Lord Jesus, the last Adam, was bound. and carried away to the cross,
that he by death might destroy him that had power over death,
that is the devil, and deliver us who through fear of death
were all our lifetime subject to bondage. But what was the
cause of his anguish? What was the cause of his grief?
I have no question at all about what I'm about to tell you. Our
Lord Jesus was not here asking that he might be relieved from
going to the cross. He set his face like a flint
from before the world was to go up to Jerusalem. And he told
his disciples again and again and again that he must suffer
many things at the hands of the Jews and rise and die and rise
again the third day. Over and over again he told them
that. He never turned and never gave it a second thought as to
what he was about to do. He was going to Jerusalem to
suffer and die. It was not that he feared physical
pain. It was not that he feared going
through the physical agony of dying upon the cross. It wasn't
even the fear of dying at the cross. That which crushed his
heart, was the anticipation of being
made sin. This Holy One, the Holy Lamb of God, the Son
of God, who never knew sin. I quote that, you read it, how
many times? How many times? And there's not
a man in this room, not a woman in this room, who has a clue
what that means. He never knew sin. He never, by experience, had
anything evil about him. No sinful nature, no evil heart,
no evil thoughts, no corruption, no deeds of evil, no coldness
of heart, no hot passions of heart, no loss of temper, no
cold, callous, meanness, no weakness of heart, no sin. He never knew
sin. But this is the only man who
ever lived on this earth who really knew sin. For he knew
exactly how God sees sin. You see, this man is God. You and I are so callous to see
it. We can see it and talk about
it in the most base terms and be little affected by it because
sin's what we are. Our Lord Jesus is God in the
flesh. And he looks upon all sin as
his heavenly father looks upon all sin. As that which is utterly
repulsive, ignominious, that which is totally contrary to
his being. And here he anticipates being
made sin. Made sin. And his soul He didn't just anticipate having
to pay for sin. He didn't just anticipate having
sin imputed to him. being made sin. And he says,
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Turn over
to Luke's gospel. I want you to see this. He began to be sore amazed and
great consternation, astonishment at the sight of all the sins
of his people coming on him. at the black cloud of God's wrath
gathering thick overhead the sword of justice glittering to
destroy him because of the curse that he would be made. And Luke
tells us something no one else tells us. Luke is inspired to
write something none of the other gospel writers wrote. All of
them write these things concerning Gethsemane only by divine inspiration. Peter, James, and John, who were
with him in Gethsemane, were asleep the whole time. They didn't
have a clue what was going on. Nobody was there to record what
was written here. These men write these things
not from a remembrance of history, but they write them by divine
inspiration as God, the Holy Spirit, told them what happened
in Gethsemane. And Luke records something that
neither Matthew, Mark, nor John record. Remember Luke. was the physician. Luke was the
doctor in the house. Luke was the fellow who practiced
medicine before God called him. Listen to what Luke says in verse
44. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat
was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Oh, my soul, what acute stress
the Lord Jesus experienced when he anticipated being made sin
for me. Stress enough to break his holy
heart. Stress enough to rupture the
blood vessels around the pores of his skin and the sweat glands
causing his body to be drenched with his own blood. And that which crushed his very
heart was the very thing for which he came into this world.
The prospect at being made sin for us. Turn to John chapter 13, chapter
19. In Gethsemane, Satan assaults
the Son of God. And he is reproached in his soul. So reproached that his heart
breaks within him. Reproached so that he being shocked,
sweats blood all over his body. In John chapter 19, we see the
Lord Jesus at Gabbatha, where he endures the assaults of sinners
upon his body and the reproaches that men heaped upon him. Verse
one, then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him. Beat
him. Beat him. Beat him cruelly. Make him furrows in his back
like ten or nine tails. Beat him. Beat him. And the soldiers
plaited a crown of thorns, a ground that was cursed and brings forth
thorns. God in his providence and purpose
ordained should be that from which these soldiers would make
a mock crown for the Son of God. And they put it on his head.
Not they laid it there, they shoved it into his scalp. And
they put on him a purple robe. They took a piece of purple cloth
and threw it over him. And mockingly, they reproach
him. They come and kneel down before
him, said with the laughter of a drunk who could hardly talk,
hail, king of the Jews, and smote him, smote him with her hands. Pilate,
therefore, went forth again and saith unto him, behold, I bring
him forth unto you that you may know that I find no fault in
him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing
the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate saith unto them. Brings him out and parades him
in humiliation before this hellish mob of religious folks. Says,
behold the man. The man. One of us. The man. The epitome of manhood. The man. What man really ought
to be. The man. Perfectly representing
God. The man who is himself God. He who is the Word. and made
flesh, stands here now in utter, abject humiliation. Behold, the
man! When the chief priest, therefore,
and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take
him then, and crucify him. For I find no fault in him."
The Jews answered him and said, we have a law. And by our law,
he ought to die. What law? What law? The Mosaic law. They're standing there. Now,
I'm exaggerating on purpose. You do understand I know why
I'm saying not exactly so. They're standing there with a
leather-bound $150 Bible in their hand with gilded edges and three
or four ribbons in it. A big one so everybody can see
it. And they turn right back here to the Bible and say, the
Bible says we got to put him to death. They went back to the
law and justify before men and justified themselves in their
venomous, godless, hellish, proud, self-righteous hatred, crucifying
the Son of God by God's Word. Well, men wouldn't do that, would
they? We don't. We have a law. And
our law says you ought to die. And they understood what the
master taught. Pilate said, behold the man and
they said, this one you call the man, he ought to die because
he made himself the son of God. This man said he was God. Now,
according to the law, if he said he was God and he was not, he
ought to die. He ought to die. Did he say he
was God? He said, I told you plainly and
you believe not. He said, I came down from my father, I and the
father are one. He said, I'm going back to my
father where I was before. He spoke plainly, declaring himself
God. He spoke and said, I am the son
of God. When Pilate therefore heard that
saying, he was the more afraid, I reckon. Even this pagan, this
godless, reprobate politician, He was the more afraid. And he
went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence
art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest
thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have
power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? And the
Lord finally spoke to him. I expect this comforted him pretty
good. He's talking to a man now, and he's beginning to think just
maybe he's a god. Just maybe he's a god. And the
Lord Jesus answered, thou couldest have no power at all against
me, except it were given thee from above. Therefore, he that
delivered me unto thee hath the greater power. And from thenceforth
Pilate sought to release him. He tried his best to figure out
a way to release him. Offered them Barabbas, but they
chose Christ instead of Barabbas. And the Jews cried out, saying,
if thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. That'll get a politician. If you let this man go, we'll
see to it Caesar throws you out of office. You'll actually have
to go to work for a living. Whosoever maketh himself a king
speaketh against Caesar. When Pilate therefore heard that
saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment
seat in a place that's called the pavement, but in the Hebrew,
Gabbatha, an exalted place, a high place. And it was the preparation of
the Passover at about the sixth hour. And he saith unto the Jews,
Behold, your king. And they cried out away with
him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, shall
I crucify your king? And the chief priest answered,
we have no king but Caesar. Then delivered he him therefore
unto them to be crucified. And they took him away. They
led him away. But this sorrow is not over yet. Not nearly over. Let's follow
him on to Golgotha, verse 17. Here, God assaults his son. And he bearing his cross went
forth unto the place called the place of the skull, which is
called in the Hebrew Golgotha. where they crucified Him and
two others with Him on either side and Jesus in the midst. Here our Savior is at the climax
of His obedience, at the climax of His sorrow, at the height
of His suffering, and at the height of His obedience to His
Father's will as Jehovah's righteous servant. He's now been betrayed
by Judas, denied by Peter, forsaken by all his disciples. He's brought
out to this place called Golgotha and stripped naked and nailed
on a tree and hung up between two thieves. To die that death
which alone is described in the book of God as a cursed death. And he suffers as it's impossible
for us to describe his suffering in his heart, in his heart, in
his soul, in his mind with every emotion. that's imaginable to
rush through a man's soul, to rush through a man's heart, to
rush through a man's mind and to crush him. The Savior suffers
because the Father forsakes him. Psalm 22, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime,
but Thou hearest not in the night season, and am not silent. But
Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Here he is, forsaken of God,
his heart crushed within him, his soul full of heaviness, And
he said, but God, you're doing right. You're doing right. Thou art holy. You see, our Savior,
even in the midst of his great agony, never lost sight of the
fact that the reason he came here was to die. And the reason
was because God Almighty is a just God and a Savior. And he says,
here I am forsaken. Thou art holy. Verse six, Psalm
22 says, our Lord speaks and says, but I, you're holy. Oh,
you're holy and you inhabit the praises of Israel. But I'm a
worm. A worm. Let me see if I can give you
the detail. Not an earthworm. Not a grub worm. Not even one of the worms you
find in your garden cutting your cord. A maggot. A maggot. A maggot. What could be more repulsive?
a maggot, a stinking, dirty, filthy, repulsive maggot, and
no man, and a reproach of men, and despised of the people. I'm
poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint, my heart
like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels. He says in
Isaiah, in Psalm 40 verse 12, for innumerable evils, here's
why my heart's melted. Innumerable evils have compassed
me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
on me so that I'm not able to look up. They're more than the
hairs of mine head. Therefore, my heart faileth me.
Now, turn to Lamentations chapter one. Right between the book of Jeremiah
and the book of Ezekiel, Lamentations chapter one. We're still at Golgotha's Hill. Verse 12, hear the Savior speak
to you. Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by? Behold and see, if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow. The reproach hath broken my heart. Can you imagine the sorrows of
those Jewish women in Egypt when they would give birth and a cruel
barbarian would come and take their baby boy and smash his
head against the rocks and throw him in the open field? Can you
imagine the sorrow, the sorrow of those women who have been
so severely persecuted because they are named the children of
God? Can you imagine the sorrows of
those multitudes who have suffered such anguish at the hands of
tormentors over the ages because they followed the master? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me. Where did it all come from? What caused it all? Wherewith
Jehovah hath afflicted me in the day of his fearsake. Why? Because he had borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows. Because all we like sheep have
gone astray and we've turned everyone to his own way and the
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Because he hath made
him sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. Our blessed Savior died with
a broken heart. But unlike anyone else who ever
died with a broken heart, he didn't die of a broken heart. Oh, no. Oh, no. This one who
is all man is also all God and he being God is sustained in
strength in the midst of all this weakness and all this sorrow
until at last he cries, it is finished. And he who's assaulted
of Satan and assaulted of men and assaulted of God's own justice. has finally put an end to all
assault for himself and his people. For he, blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. Having spoiled principalities
and powers. He made a show of them openly,
triumphing over them. When he cried, it is finished,
and reverently bows his head as Jehovah's servant. He says
it's done, and gives up the ghost. Gethsemane, Gabbatha, and Golgotha. Our Savior's assaulted, but our
Savior triumphs, and he brings in everlasting salvation for
you and me, for whom he suffered all this. Amen.