Shelby and I got into Kansas
City Wednesday, and I went out shortly after we got there to
go get the car cleaned up. I don't like folks to see me
driving around in dirty cars. I went to get the car cleaned
up, and I drove by a church building. And I guess when you get close
to being 60, you get real nostalgic. Lots of things came flooding
through my mind. It was Canton, I'm sorry, the
Kansas City Baptist Temple. The fellow who was pastor there
when I was there in 1969 was Truman Dollar. He was the upcoming
star of the Baptist Bible Fellowship. Unlike most of the fellows in
the fellowship, he was a genuinely brilliant man, Arminian, but
brilliant. And everybody's eye was on him. I found out this week he went
on to succeed G. Beacham Vick as pastor at Temple
Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, and then committed suicide. Another rising star in the Baptist
Bible Fellowship in those days, Brother Holmes Moore, he also
pastored in Missouri. He was pastor of Bible Baptist
Church in St. Louis, Missouri, and I met Both
Truman Dollar and Brother Moore, when I was in school in Springfield
in 69, met them there early in the year of 1969. And Brother
Holmes Moore, God taught the gospel. He's still at Bible Baptist
Church preaching the gospel of God's free grace. Faithful man
all these years, an old man now. And I was the young pup. Nobody
knew me except a few folks on campus there. I was known for
being the fellow who they called a hyper-Calvinist. That was what they called me.
But anyway, I was asked to go out to Kansas City and preach
with a fellow who was my roommate. He was a much older student,
a man named Marshall Warren Kim. He's from somewhere in Texas. And the reason he asked me to
go, because he thought I wouldn't. It was, after all, a tent meeting
and just out on the edge of town in Kansas City. And while we
were listening to Brother Steve Carpenter give a summary of Mark's
gospel yesterday, he came to a text of scripture. And I hadn't
thought about that particular thing in Kansas City in years.
Mark chapter 15 and verse 31. I hadn't been to Kansas City
in 40 years until last week, only once before, and this is
what I preached. Likewise, also the chief priest
mocking among themselves with the scribes, the chief priest
of Israel, the scribes of Israel, the learned, brilliant, academic
theological leaders of the nation. The chief priest and the scribes
mocking. Isn't that a sad picture? That's
a sad picture. Here are fellas that you just
expect better things of them than to be sitting around in
a crowd of drunks and barbaric ruffians and soldiers delighting
to throw a party while men are being put to death in the most
horrible way imaginable. Can you imagine, just imagine
these great religious leaders standing around mocking as one
of the men suffers and dies. And this is what they said. He
saved others. Himself, he cannot save. He saved others. Himself, he
cannot save. Because the Lord Jesus came here
to save his people from their sins, because he came to save
us from the wrath of God, he could not save himself. Bob Pontcher, if he'd save you,
he couldn't save himself. If he'd save you from sin, he
couldn't save himself from sin. If he'd save you from hell, he
couldn't save himself from hell. If he'd save you from the wrath
of God, he could not save himself from the wrath of God. This is
the very essence of the gospel. See that you understand it. The
Holy Spirit could not have given us a clearer picture of the fact
that the Holy Lord God could not save sinners apart from the
satisfaction of his law and his justice by the obedience and
death of his own dear son as our substitute. I never cease
to marvel at how God graciously and wisely uses and overrules
the vile base behavior of men for his glory to accomplish his
purpose of grace. You read this chapter and you
will find men who had no idea what they were saying.
Men who seemed to have not had a clue what was going on, speaking
the truth of God like Balaam of old, as plainly as the most
faithful prophet could ever proclaim it. In fact, I suspect, though
I don't know, I suspect that the only gospel preachers the
dying thief ever heard were those like these chief priests and
scribes, or perhaps the centurion who, in verse 39, said, truly,
this man was the son of God. He'd watched it all. He probably
was one of the ones who drove the nails in his hands. And he
heard all that was being said and heard the speaking of the
Son of God. And as they heard these things,
both the centurion and the dying thief, hearing these things and
hearing the master himself speak, came to know him as Savior and
Lord. He saved others. Himself, he
could not save. Now, understand this. God Almighty
does not and did not have to save anyone. People sometimes
talk foolishly as though there's some kind of a vacuum in the
being of God, a vacuum in the love of God because God is love.
He must have somebody to love. He loved himself. They're speaking,
well, God is love, therefore, he must save somebody. God is
merciful, therefore, he must be merciful to somebody. Oh,
no, there's no vacuum in God to be made up by you and me.
There was no reason, nothing that was lacking in God and nothing
to be found in us that would cause God to have to save anyone. But having chose to save some,
he cannot save any. except in a manner that honors
his law and his justice. He calls himself a just God and
the Savior. If righteousness could come in
any other way, if you and I could be made righteous before God
in some other way, as Paul put it, if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. There wasn't any reason
for him to die. Christ Jesus did not have to
come into this world. But when he lifted his hand and
came into this world as Jehovah's righteous servant, fulfilling
the law of the bond slave given in the book of Exodus, he comes
here because he loves his master and loves his wife and loves
his children. And he has his ear bored through
with it all, not because he had to. He could have gone out free
at any time. At any time. Even as he comes
to this point here where he hangs upon the cursed tree He said
to his disciples when they came to arrest him. Don't you know
I could now call? 10,000 legions of angels He didn't
have to die. He didn't have to die. He came
here and died voluntarily Because he would because he loved his
master and loved his wife and loved his children Therefore
he would not go out free Thank God, our surety stood to his
bond, and he saved others. Therefore himself, he could not
save. Bless God forever. He is that
one the father looked upon in old eternity and says concerning
his elect, deliver him from going down to the pit, for I have found
a ransom. Now, before we look at the things
I want to show you this evening in this 15th chapter, Mark, Turn
to Romans chapter 3 and let me show you one more time. Show
you one more time why it was necessary for our Savior to die. The sufferings described by Mark,
Matthew, John, and Luke as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit
to write out the record God gave them of the life and death of
our Redeemer are sufferings Indescribable. You look at the things suffered
by our Redeemer when he hung upon the cursed tree, and you
would be shocked to see any man suffer those things. But when
you realize that the man who suffered those things is God
Almighty, it's even more shocking. Standing at the foot of the cross,
as I behold my Savior suffering the horrid wrath of God in my
stead, Forsaken and cursed of God because he'd suffers for
me. I'm lost in astonishment And
I'm filled with reference. I never I Never have and God
helped me never to get over the wonder of that which transpired
at Calvary The hymn writer put it as I can't yonder amazing
sight I see The incarnate son of God expiring on the tree and
weltering in blood. Behold, a purple torrent run
down from his hands and head. The crimson tide puts out the
sun. The groans awake the dead. The trembling earth, the darkened
sky proclaim the truth aloud. And with the amazed centurion
cry, this was the son of God. And then understand something
else. All that he suffered, he suffered
willingly. Willingly. Willingly. Nobody forced him. His father
didn't force it on him. We didn't force it on him. Hell
didn't force it on him. He willingly came here and took
our nature into union with himself. He willingly endured all that
he endured the full life of a man while he walks in obedience to
his father continually was subjected to opposition and scandalous
lies and persecution by men. Willingly he was tempted of the
devil whom he made. Willingly he went to Gethsemane
and willingly he went to Calvary. Willingly. He took the cup of wrath. And with one tremendous draft
of love, he drank damnation dry, willingly. Do you ask why? Two answers can and must be given.
The first is obvious. He loved us. here in his love, not that we
love God, but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. He loved us. Therefore, he laid
down his life for us. He hereby causes us to perceive
the love of God. The love of God is set forth
in him and commended in him. But there's something else. He
suffered these things as our substitute because justice must
be satisfied. God's law must be honored. We live in a society that's more
and more lawless every day because the laws of the land had become
meaningless. You're more familiar than I am
probably with the yik-yak now on about the news and this gal
who's up for Supreme Court nomination and interpreting the law with
empathy. That sounds wonderful, doesn't
it? That sounds wonderful. I want the judge on the bench
to feel sorry for the person who's committed the crime so
that the law is bent a little because of the circumstances
of the crime. That's not justice and that's not law. That's chaos. Justice must be blind. Justice
must be blind. God's justice is blind. It gives no consideration to
your age, your circumstances, your sex, how you were raised,
how you were taught. It gives no consideration to
any weakness, any infirmity, any ignorance you may have. God's
justice is blind. He demands either righteousness
or satisfaction. Indeed, he demands both. Let's
look here in Romans chapter 3, verse 23. For all has sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Being justified, that is,
we who believe are being justified freely by His grace. Free to
us, but not free. Freely given, but not free. Freely
obtained, but not free. It is redemption and justification
by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. whom
God set forth to be a propitiation. A propitiation. That's a strong
word. It means a satisfaction. Someone is propitiated. They're
angry and you do something to stop their anger and you propitiate
them. It's a much, much less strong
word, much weaker word, much more obvious word would be Pacification. You give your baby, rather than
making him behave, you give him a pacifier. Just pacify him a
little bit. Because he's angry about something,
so you stick a pacifier in his mouth. God requires propitiation. Satisfaction for his justice. His just anger. Satisfaction
for his law. Satisfaction for every requirement
of the law. He is set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. That is, this propitiation is
revealed to faith. God-given faith. Faith in Christ's
blood. What a tremendous statement.
Through faith in His blood. Faith in Him, yes, faith in His
blood. Faith in His obedience, yes,
faith in His blood. Through faith in that which Christ
obtained by His blood. Read on now. To declare His righteousness. I'll give you an assignment.
I don't think any of you have ever heard me recommend that
you listen to preachers on radio or television. This week, every
time you get a chance, turn on a religious radio station. Every
time you get a chance, every time you get a chance, flick
the channel over to one of those nets on television, talk about
preaching. And you mark down for me every preacher you hear
mention anything about the righteousness of God being satisfied by the
death of his son. Mark it down for me. Every time
you hear any of them say anything about justice being satisfied
by the death of his son. Christ died because he loved
you. My wife loves me too, and I know
it. She had died for me. You love me, and I know it, and
you haven't died for me. It wasn't to show us his love.
He died that his righteousness might be declared. righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness, now watch this, that he might be just and
the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. God sacrificed his son and punished
his son to the full satisfaction of divine justice in our room
instead so that God might in complete justice justify you
from all your guilt and all your sin. So that His law stands unviolated. The universe is still ruled by
His absolute righteousness and justice. And He deals with us
in absolute mercy on the basis of justice satisfied. so that
every sinner, oh, if you can get hold of this, I promise you
it'll help you in your understanding of the gospel. It'll help you
in your understanding of everything revealed in this book. Every
sinner saved by God's free grace, every sinner who is brought by
God into heavenly glory, every sinner who is received and embraced
by God like that prodigal son running home to his father, is
received and embraced and kissed by God Almighty because that's
what that sinner in point of law and justice fully deserves. He can't do it any other way.
He can't do it any other way. He hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. God doesn't bend his
law. He doesn't violate his justice.
He doesn't overturn his righteousness in saving sinners. Rather, he
declares by the saving of our souls through Jesus Christ, the
Lord. Righteousness is declared. Justice
is set forth. Holiness is maintained in all
its perfection. All right. Back in Mark, chapter
15. Our Lord Jesus shed his blood
and died as a sin offering, as our surety and our substitute.
For he hath made him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. He, his own self,
bear our sins in his own body on the tree. that we being dead
to sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed
Christ has suffered once for sins the just for the unjust
that he might bring us to God and here we see several things
our Lord Jesus endured because he must endure them for the satisfying
of divine justice as our substitute because he saved others. He must endure these things and
he could not save himself. Number one, our Lord Jesus is
delivered by pilot into the hands of Roman soldiers, condemned
to death and crucified as a common criminal. Look at verse 15. So Pilate, willing to content
the people, released Barabbas unto them and delivered Jesus
when he had scourged him to be crucified. Pilate willing to
content the people. Luke tells us, Rex, that Pilate
delivered Jesus to their will. You Every time you hear anyone
speak about man's mighty free will, every time you have a thought
about the will of man, try to picture in your mind the horrid
ignominy heaped upon the son of God, covered with excrement
men heaped from their bellies and spit upon him. And there
you behold man's will. That's what you would do with
God if God left you to yourself. And what I would do with God
if God left me to myself, if we could. Here is that one before
whom one day the whole world must soon stand in judgment.
The great judge who shall summons all men before his great white
throne has been judged of men and sentenced to death and delivered
up to be executed by the hands of wicked men. Do you ask why? It is that he might deliver us
from judgment. The pit of destruction and the
sentence of eternal death in hell. He was made sin for us
judged guilty and put to death in our stead so that we might
never be judged for sin. And he might present all the
host of God's elect before the presence of his glory with exceeding
joy, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight. Look at verse 60. The Lord Jesus, the righteous,
is here mocked and jeered insulted, made a laughing stock before
all the world. The soldiers led him away to
the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the whole
band. And they clothed him with purple. They found a purple blanket or
a purple piece of carpet, something that had a simulants of royalty
because of its color. They clothed him with this purple
rag and plaited a crown of thorns and shoved it on his head. And they began to salute him. Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote him on the head
with a reed. put a reed scepter in his hand
and then jerked it out of his head and beat him with it. They
spit on him, bowing their knees as they walked by and worshipped
him. Worshipped him. And when they had mocked him,
they took off the purple from him put his own clothes on him
and led him away to crucify him. Verse 29, and they that passed by railed
on him. These are grown men. These are
grown men. These are scribes and chief priests
and Pharisees and doctors and lawyers. wagging their heads
and saying, ah, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in
three days, save thyself and come down from the cross. Likewise,
the chief priest mocking said, among themselves with the scribes,
he saved others himself he cannot save. Let Christ, the King of
Israel, descend now from the cross. that we may see and believe
and they that were crucified with him reviled him. Here's a thief dying by the hands
of these same wicked men and another dying by the hands of
these same wicked men hanging upon a cursed tree What they
hope to gain, there's nothing to gain. No advantage to be had. They're nailed to a cross. They're
dying. All they do is join in the hellish
rivalry, mocking the Son of God because that's the only pleasure
they got, venting their hatred to God Almighty. Do you ask why? Why did He endure such? Why? Was he made to be treated as
the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things? Why
does he make himself the song of drunkards? Why is it that
he subjected himself to being spit upon and mocked by harlots
and holy men and pimps and priests and sons and scribes all joined
together in hellish reverie? Why? It was that we who are indeed
the filth of the world and the offscouring of all things, we
who really are vile and contemptible might have glory and honor and
eternal life forever with God. He wore a crown of thorns. that we might wear a crown of
glory. He wore the spirit of man, that
we might wear the kiss and the smile of God forever. Verse 24,
here's the third thing. The Lord Jesus was stripped naked
before men, exposed in open shame before
his enemies. When they crucified him, they
stripped his garments off of him and they parted his garments,
casting lots upon them, what every man should take. Do you ask why? It was that we might be robed in
his garments of salvation. that we might wear the white
robes of his righteousness that we might wear the linen garments
of his perfect humanity and perfect priesthood and perfect deity
forever standing before him accepted and glorious in his side sitting
side by side with the angels of God unashamed unashamed I I take great care not to let
you know some things, because I'm ashamed for you to
know what I know about me. My daughter will never know even
the things my wife knows, and my wife won't ever know it all,
because I'm ashamed. But before God's done with me,
I'm going to sit in his presence with no shame. No reason ever to be ashamed. Side by side with angels because
he bore my naked shame in his body on the tree. Look at verse
27. the Holy One of God, is reckoned
a transgressor and a sinner. With him they crucified two thieves,
the one on his right hand, the other on his left, and the scripture
was fulfilled, which saith, and he was numbered with the transgressors. He who did no sin, in whose mouth
was no guile, was numbered with the transgressors. Do you ask
why? Why was he numbered with the
transgressors? It was because he was made sin for us that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. The Holy Lamb
of God was made sin for us. And he was numbered with the
transgressors, reckoned with the transgressors, because God
made him to be one of the transgressors. No, no, no, no. God made him the greatest of
all transgressors. When he heaped upon him and made
him to be all our sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. He was pronounced guilty, that
we might be pronounced righteous. He was pronounced altogether
sinful, unholy, that we might be pronounced altogether without
sin and perfectly holy. Verse 34, here's the fifth thing. The son of God was forsaken by
his father at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice
saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which is being interpreted, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? At the height of his obedience,
when he was performing the crowning act of his obedience as Jehovah's
righteous servant, when he was doing that which was the very
apex of the service he had come to render, he's forsaken by his
father. God Almighty turns his back on
his son and forsakes him. He cries to his father and his
father speaks not a word. Why, do you ask? It was because
he was made sin and the Holy Lord God cannot look upon sin. And there's more to it than that. He was forsaken of his father that we might never be forsaken
of our father. He cried to the father in the
morning and in the daytime he was not silent and the father
answered him not a word. He was forsaken by God himself
so that you and I might hear God speak to us continually. I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. Because he was forsaken when
he was made sin for us. We can never be forsaken, for
he's taken away all our sins. Number six, verse 20, or verse
22. The Lord of glory was crucified
upon the cursed tree. They bring him unto the place
Golgotha, which is being interpreted the place of the skull, and they
gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh, but he received it
not. And when they had crucified him,
they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man
should take. And it was the third hour, and
they crucified him. And the superscription over his
accusation was written over the king of the Jews. Death by crucifixion
was reserved even among the most barbaric of nations, this nation
of Rome. It was reserved for the most
base felons in society. The shamefully horrid, torturous,
ignominious form of death was designed to show utter contempt
for the one who is crucified, to show the the utter contempt
of the nation for this one. The man hanging on this tree
is counted cursed by God's law. It's written in the law. Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The Lord Jesus died this death. Why? Turn to Galatians chapter
3. Hold your hands here, Mark. Turn
to Galatians chapter 3. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now look at verse
14. That we might receive the blessing
of Abraham, the promise of the Spirit. Why did he die this painful,
shameful, ignominious death of the cross, it was that we might
never be cursed of God. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Back in Mark's gospel, verse
37. The Lord Jesus, our substitute,
freely, voluntarily laid down his life He gave up the ghost
for his people. Jesus cried with a loud voice
and gave up the ghost. You remember he said, I am the
good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Why? That we might live through him. He died for me to live. Just a little bit, we're gonna
eat this bread and drink this wine again. And when you do,
remember him. He died for our life. He endured these things that
we might never endure any wrath. He suffered all the fury of divine
punishment that we might have no punishment. He died because saving us. He could not save himself. Verse
38, one more thing. By his blood atonement, by his
death under the curse of God's holy law, And the reason that
God arranged for him to be nailed to the cursed tree was to show
not only that the Jews had him crucified by the Romans who were
the ones holding them captive at the time, but because God
in his law would make it identified that he is the object of God's
curse when he dies for us. He died under the curse of God's
holy law. And when he did, the son of God,
ripped open the veil in the temple. And the veil of the temple was
rent in vain from top to bottom. When justice was satisfied, he cried with a loud voice and
gave up the ghost. He breathed out his spirit and
said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. He cried,
it's finished. And he takes his hands and lays
hold at the top of the veil and rips it in two. Rips it in two. Opened up the veil that separated
man and God. Opened up that veil that leads
into the holy of holies where God and his kind of glory symbolically
dwelt. What did he do? James, he ripped
open a door of access to God Almighty for you and said, come
in. Come in. No, that ain't quite
it. He ripped open the veil of access
and with his own blood entered in himself once into the holy
place having obtained eternal redemption for us and brought
us in with himself and now bids us ever come boldly to the throne
of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need bids us ever come boldly in the full assurance of faith
God on his throne as the children of God accepted in the beloved. Amen.