I want to introduce this message
by asking you a question. See, this sermon, this message
this morning, it's not some kind of a presentation that I'm making.
I'm talking to you. It's me. I'm talking to you.
And I've got a question for you. Are you in earnest about the
things of God? Anybody play in church here this
morning? Anybody just here because it's time to be at church? It's
what we do? Or are you in earnest? You want
to know who God is? Do you love the Lord Jesus and
you've come here to worship Him, to hear Him, to hear somebody
say good things about Christ and to think good things in your
heart about Him and to exalt Him and worship Him? Are you
a student of the Scripture? Somebody said, well, I'm no theologian.
Well, why not? Why not? Theology is the study
of God. You're not a theologian? You're
not interested in studying God? I know what some mean by that,
that we're not big shots. We don't know anything as we
ought to know. And that's right. We're not, in that sense, theologians. We don't go around talking about
how much we know about God. But are you a student of the
Word of God? earnestly, seriously? I ask myself that. In Luke chapter
23, we'll begin reading at verse
32. Luke 23, 32. And I want us to
look into these things earnestly with prayerful hearts that God
would show us something about what took place here. The title
of the message is Beholding These Things. Or another look at Calvary. Another look. Look at verse 32. And there were
also two other malefactors led with him, with the Lord Jesus,
to be put to death. When they were come to the place
which is called Calvary, or the place of a skull, there they
crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the
other on the left. This is the place of a skull.
You know, you see those paintings where the Lord's on this beautiful
hill, you know, and the sun's behind him. And of course, they
have to put him on a cross. But it's kind of a pretty scene. There was nothing pretty about
this. This was a horrible place, and he was treated horribly.
The Scripture said he was beaten so much that he didn't even resemble
a human being anymore. And they led him there to kill
him. That's why they were going there, to kill the Son of God.
And they nailed those malefactors, one on his right hand, one on
his left. And then Jesus said, Father, forgive them. Forgive
who? I don't know their names, but
I know this. They were forgiven. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
said, Thou hearest me always. Father, forgive them. And whoever
they are, they have the forgiveness of God in Christ. He says that
with authority. He says that as the one that
sheds the blood that gets the job done. So when he says, forgive
them, it's not a wishful, hope-so thing. They know not what they
do. And they parted his raiment and
cast lots. And the people stood beholding.
And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved
others. Let him save himself, if he be
Christ, the chosen of God. If, if he be Christ. And the soldiers also mocked
him, coming to him and offering him vinegar and saying, If thou
be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription
also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and
Hebrew. This is the king of the Jews.
They said, If you're the king of the Jews, there was a sign
over his head that God put there. Saying this is the king of the
Jews. His enemies didn't put it there. They didn't want it
there. They said take that sign down. Or here's what you do.
Just put he said he was king of the Jews. No. God hung him
up between heaven and earth and put a sign that everybody in
three different languages. So everybody could read it. This
is my king. This is the king of my people. And one of the malefactors which
were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself
and us. But the other rebuked him, saying,
Don't you fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds. There's a guilty man right
there. Have you ever met one of those?
Guilty. I'm getting what I deserve. I told you Milton never met a
guilty man down at that prison, and then he came up here and
told you that, didn't he? And I'm telling you again, there's
very few guilty people in this world. I'm getting the due reward. I'm a guilty, condemned man,
and that's how it ought to be because I'm guilty. I ought to
be condemned. I ought to be judged. I ought
to be punished, because I deserve it. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me. He said, verse 41, that we receive
the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing
amiss. How did he know that? Same way you know that. How did
he know he was a king? He said, you're coming into a
kingdom. Remember me. Same way you know that. Because
He revealed Himself to you. He said unto Jesus, Lord. He didn't say Jesus, although
that's His name. And we don't use His name flippantly,
do we, those who know Him? We don't say, thank you, Jesus,
every time something good happens, you know, something that we wanted
to happen. Thank you, Jesus. He said, Lord. You know, it would have been
easy to call him Lord when he stood at the grave of Lazarus
that was four days stinking dead and said, Lazarus, come forth.
And he came forth at the power of that voice. You might have
said, man, he's the he's the Christ. Whether you knew him
or not, whether you loved him or not, you might have said that.
Centurion here said that, that he know him. believe you did,
but I don't know that. But you might have said that
when that little damsel, the parents said, she's dead. She's
dead. Why are you even, Bob? She's
gone. And they were mourning and crying. You know, they're
putting on the big show of mourning and professional. They had professional
mourners, you know, to set the tone. And the Lord told them
to get out. And he brought just a few of
his choice apostles in there with him. And he said unto her,
Damsel, I say unto you, Arise. And she did. She opened up, she
sat up, and he said, Bring something for her to eat. You might have
seen that and said, Oh, he's the Christ. He's the Messiah. Nicodemus, almost certainly before
he knew who the Lord was, He said, we know you come from God
because nobody can do the things you do except God be with him.
But here's a thief on a cross, a rough, sinful, wretched man. And he's looking at a broken,
bloody man that people are taunting
him and saying, if you're the cross, come down. And he's just
hanging there silent. not even answering him, not even,
not moving. And he hears that and he looks
at him and he joins in the mocking and the deriding, laughing at
him, scorning him. But then, by God's grace, as
we said, no man knoweth the Father save the Son, neither knoweth
any man the Son save the Father, and Those know the Father and
the Son who the Lord reveals them to. And he looked at that
broken, bloody man hanging next to him and said, Lord, when you
come into your kingdom, think about me. Think about this poor,
sinful wretch hanging next to you. Remember me when you come
in. And Jesus said unto him, Verily
I say unto you, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. And it
was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all
the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and
the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus
had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. And having said thus, He gave
up the ghost. No man takes it from me. He said,
I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it up again. Now, when the centurion
saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was
a righteous man. And all the people that came
together to that side, beholding the things which were done, beholding." Notice that word. It said in verse 35 there, the
people stood beholding. Can you picture them there? They're
looking at that scene. And there in verse 48, they came
together to that site, beholding the things which were done. They
saw him offer the vinegar to him. They saw that thief talking
with him. They heard the words that the
Lord did say. He didn't answer the scoffers,
but he did have some things to say from the cross. They heard
those things. And look at verse 49. And all
his acquaintance and the women that followed him from Galilee
stood afar off doing what? Beholding these things. Behold
Him. In Matthew 27, 36, in the account
of the crucifixion there, it says of those who surrounded
His cross and sitting down, they watched Him there. Over and over
we find these words. We see this scene being watched. Everybody has a view of the cross,
don't they? Everyone has beheld this scene. and the things that happened
there on that day. What do you see when you behold
these things? Why are you here? Let's go back
to that question for just a second. What are you here for this morning,
and what do you see in this when you behold these things? Christ
asked that question in Lamentation 112. You recall, it's very familiar. He said, Is it nothing unto you,
all you that pass by? And he says that from the cross
in the prophetic language. And he says, Behold and see.
There's that word again. Behold. And see if there be any
sorrow like my sorrow. The prophecy quoted in John 19,
37 at the account of the crucifixion there in the book of John. There's
a prophecy quoted in verse 37 of John 19. It says, They shall
look on him. whom they have pierced, they'll
look on Him. I believe the cross will bear,
will warrant, will deserve our beholding it, and that we
just keep on beholding it, that we often come back. All of Scripture
has to do with Christ and Him crucified. And the crucifixion
itself, the recording of the very act and the circumstances
of it, and the words of Him that hung there, God's Word in all
of the four Gospels, it's worthy of our careful, diligent, earnest,
and frequent study. We behold some things when we
look at the cross. And this is another look this
morning at Calvary. What do we see? When we look
at these words, when we see these events that unfolded there, that
so many, it says over and over and over, they beheld, they looked,
they watched. And so do we. And first of all,
I thought about this, we behold there the deep depravity and
wickedness of man, don't we? Give us Barabbas and crucify
this man. His blood be on us and on our
children. We'll take responsibility for
it before God. His blood be on us and our children. Now, you talk about depravity. In John 19, 23, you can turn
over there if you'd like, but I'm going to read it to you.
John 19, verse 23. I want you to listen to this.
This is you and I now. This is our nature. It says,
then the soldiers and don't don't miss these were these power when
they had crucified Jesus think about what they had just done
now they had taken big iron spikes and nailed the Prince of Life
to a cross that's what Peter said they did you kill the Prince
of Life they nailed him to a cross and mocked him and just abused
him in every way that they knew how to do. And when they had
done that, they took his garments and made four parts to every
soldier apart, and also his coat. Now, the coat was without seam.
They divided him up among themselves, his clothing. But the coat, it
was without seam. It was pretty good quality now.
It was worth something. Woven from the top throughout.
And they said, therefore, among themselves, let's not rend it.
After they divided it all up, they had that left over, and
they're like, well, who's going to get that? If you get it, you'll have
more than me. That can't happen. I'll take
it. No, you won't. Then you'll have
more than me. You see that? They nailed the Son of God to
a tree, and they're bickering over who's going to get his coat
when he's dead. Is that a mirror to you? Is that
like looking in the mirror? Let's don't tear it up and divide
it among ourselves. We'd each get a little piece
of cloth if we did that. And that might, we could do something
with that. But, you know, let's do a winner-take-all. Let's roll
the dice and we'll see who gets it. And his blood is dripping
down while they're saying that. And they did that because they
were wicked, vile, wretched, depraved, horrible creatures. And they also did it because
God said they would. They cast lots for it, whose
it shall be that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith,
They parted my raiment among them, and from my vesture did
they cast lots. Specific now, God said not only
will they gamble over my clothes, but they're going to divide what
they can, and then they're going to roll the dice for that Last
thing, that coat that's woven throughout. Specific detail. God said it would be that way. And these things, therefore,
last part of verse 24, because God said they'd do it, these
things, therefore, the soldiers did. They did. That's what we
talked about in Sunday school this morning. You're in God's hand. And you
can rail and fight and do, you can vent your free will all you
want to. A man purposeth in his heart,
but the Lord deviseth. A man deviseth in his heart,
but the Lord determines his steps. I see the great wickedness of
man, don't you? Not only kill the Son of God,
but it didn't mean anything to them. Let's divide up his clothes. What can we get out of this? When he asked that question,
is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Surely these men
would have had to say, yeah, it's nothing to us. How about
you? And then looking at Calvary,
beholding this scene, these things, I see the Father's will. As we just said, that the scripture
might be fulfilled. I see the Father's will obeyed
by Christ and fulfilled in every detail of everything that happened
that day in that place. Everything. Turn to Hebrews chapter
10. This is according to the will
of the Father. These events that took place
at Calvary. He said in Hebrews 10, 7, this
is the Lord Jesus speaking in prophecy, then said, I, lo, I
come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy
will, O God. What is he speaking in reference
to? Above when he said, verse 8, sacrifice and offering and
burnt offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldest not Neither
has pleasure therein which are offered by the law, those bulls
and goats and the pigeons and all the blood that was offered
before. God doesn't have any pleasure in that blood. Verse
9, Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. I'm going
to shed that blood that is worth something, that's worth everything.
But he take it the way the first those offerings and sacrifices
those bird offerings he take it the way the first that he
may establish the second the first just pictured in foreshadowed
and prophesied and instructed regarding the second his offering
for sinners the Lamb of God it takes away sin John said the
bull but the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin
Paul said in Hebrews But John said, there's the Lamb of God
that takes sin away, right there. And by the witch will, verse
10, what will? The will of God. Christ said,
I'm coming to do His will. Everything He did while He was
here, including submitting Himself to the hands of wicked men and
being nailed to that cross, especially that, was by the witch will. We are sanctified. through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. I behold
the things that these women from Galilee and these men that were
accompanying Him and all the soldiers and everybody that were
beholding. When I behold those things, I see the will of God
done. I see the will and purpose of God in saving sinners carried
out and fulfilled. Don't you? Do you see that there? And when they came to arrest
the Lord, In John 18, 11, Jesus said to Peter, Peter, you know,
he ripped his sword out of the scabbard and cut that servant
of the high priest's ear off, defending the Lord. He said, Peter, put your sword
away. The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? I see God's
will. Obeyed and bowed to and submitted
to and fulfilled in what happened there at Calvary, don't you? He prayed in the garden not my
will Lord I will Be done. What is the Father's will in
this? Isaiah answered that question it pleased the Lord and To do
what? It was the Lord's will. It pleased
Him. It made God happy. To do what?
To bruise Him. I'm not sure why they put that
word bruise there. The original word there means
crushed. It pleased the Father to crush
His Son. Why? The Lord Jesus broke that
bread and said, this is my body that is broken. Why, Lord? For
you. Do you see that when you behold
these things? The will of the Father done. Why did He do that? Why did He
send His only begotten Son? He did it to save sinners like
you. That's why He did it. And then
I see, by God's grace, with eyes that see, which are of the Lord. I see the love of God, don't
you? We can talk all morning about that, but we won't. We'll
just pray God will give us a little beam, just a little sunbeam,
just a little bit of light on this, so that we won't be like these soldiers
that admit nothing to. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. This is
my blood which is shed for you." Herein is love, John said in
1 John 14. You want to know what love is? It's not that we love God. That's
not love. It is because it can't... We
don't brag on the effect, do we? We brag on the cause. The
cause. We love Him because... He first
loved us. But here's love, that He loved
us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. We behold these things. We see
that God loved us and sent His Son to be the sin offering. for
my sins. He loved me. God so loved. And then when I behold these
things by God's grace, I see the work of redemption accomplished,
finished. He came to be the propitiation
for my sin, the sin offering, and He was the sin offering for
my sin. And He said from that cross where
He hung there bleeding for me, He said, It is finished. His first words that are recorded
on this earth, where I must be about my Father's business, and
the last are its finished." You see that when you look at the
cross? Upon what business did the Father
send the Son to this earth? Galatians 4.4, but when the fullness
of time was come, when it was time, God does everything when
it's time to do it. God sent forth His Son. made
of a woman made under the law a man he was submitted himself
to his own law now why did he do that to redeem them that were
under the law that we might receive the adoption of so he came down
here to redeem somebody and he said it's finished it's done and then by God's grace I see
the faithfulness of God to his covenant When I look at the cross,
try to see this now. May God reveal this to us as
we behold these things, the faithfulness of God to that everlasting covenant
of grace. God is a covenant of God, and
he's faithful to his covenant. He said in Exodus 6, 4, I have
established my covenant with my people to give them the land
of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage wherein they were
strangers. I'm going to give men for them and people for their
life. They're going to drive out the
ones that are living there now, and I'm going to give it to them,
because they're my people. And I have also heard the groaning
of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage. I promised them that that land
would be theirs. They're under the bondage of
the Egyptians, and they're crying out, and I can hear their cry.
And I have remembered my covenant. when God makes a promise. Wherefore,
say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring
you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will
rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a
stretched-out arm and with great judgments, and I will take you
to me for a people, and I will be to you a God, and ye shall
know that I am the Lord your God. I'm not going to try to
get you to know. You're going to know that I'm the Lord your
God which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. How did God deliver him from
the bondage of the Egyptians? By blood. By blood. That's how he did it at the Passover,
which pictured the Lord Jesus hanging on that cross. The Passover
was a picture of the covenant that God made with his spiritual
Israel. He remembers that covenant, too.
You better count on that. He promised. In Hebrews 13, 20,
he speaks of that covenant. He said, Now the God of peace
that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great
shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through
Christ Jesus to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. This
blood that was dripping to the ground and on that cross and
no doubt got on some of the people that blood that was shed at Calvary. God said there in that passage
in Hebrews it was covenant blood. Do you know anything about that?
Do you see that when you see the cross? The blood of the everlasting
covenant, that word everlasting there, it doesn't just mean without
end. It means without beginning or
end. Look it up. This covenant, it never had a
beginning and it never has an end. It's an eternal covenant. And God remembered that covenant.
And when I look at Calvary, I see that. I see God being true to
his promise that he'll redeem a people. Boy, you talk about
rejoicing now. His covenant. I look at Calvary
and I say, God remembered His covenant. He said, I'll have
mercy. And sure enough, He had mercy.
And then I see every type and picture and ceremony and prophecy
and promise in the Word of God fulfilled. I'll be brief. Read
the four accounts of Christ's crucifixion in the Gospels and
see how many times it says that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
For that matter, read all of the Old Testament, and you tell
me what part of God's Word is not fulfilled in what happened
on that cross for sinners. Every chapter of it. Every verse. And then I see something about
the justice of God, don't you? I see both the severity of it,
but I see also the satisfaction of it. God must and shall punish sin
wherever it's found, wherever it's found. And when my sin was
found upon my Savior, Paul said in Romans 8, he spared not his
own son. That's severe justice now. But
in that justice poured out upon my Savior, God received full
satisfaction. for the sins of his people. The
sword of justice is put away. I see the answer when I look
at Calvary to the ancient question, the question of all questions.
How can man be just with God? Being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, at
this time his righteousness, that God might be just, and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Do you see that when
you look at Calvary? The age-old question, Darius's
dilemma that we talked about it from the book of Daniel. How
could I spare Daniel? He walked and paced the floor
all night trying to figure out how could I spare Daniel and
still be true to my law? I can't just say, well, I didn't
mean that when I made that law. I can't be king anymore if I
say that. I've got to honor my own law somehow if I could just
spare Daniel. Well, by the miracle of God's
grace, the law was honored. Daniel was put in the lion's
den. But because of what my Lord did on the cross, the law has
got to be honored now. It will be honored. The lines
of justice, they're going to devour the one that broke the
law. We're going to put him in the
lines then, and they're going to eat him up. He's a lawbreaker. He's guilty. He deserves it according
to the law of the king, which cannot be altered. But what is
this? The lines. They don't come after
me. They gape upon and crush my substitute,
my Savior, my Redeemer. And when they look at me, they're
satisfied. They don't even open their mouths.
The lion's mouths are stopped. Christ satisfied the justice
of God. He was crushed in my stead. He
was devoured in my stead. He made His soul an offering
for sin in my stead. And me and the lions get along
pretty good now. They're not after me. Are they
you? By God's grace. When I behold these things, I
see this finally. I see how God saves a sinner.
Don't you? When you've seen that now, you've
seen something. When you see how God saves a
sinner, you've seen something. I've seen some things in this
world now. I know most people believe that
preachers are out of touch, and they don't live in the real world.
Well, that's funny, because that's how I think of people that play
with God and with his gospel. They're out of touch. They don't
know anything that's worth knowing. And I pity them. But I've seen
some things in this world, and I'm telling you, I've never seen
anything like When I found out, by God's grace, how God saves
a sinner, there's nothing like that. You've seen something when
you see that. And the only way you're going to see that is looking
at Calvary, beholding those things that took place when my Lord
was lifted up between heaven and earth on a cross. He said,
when I'm lifted up, I'll draw all manner of men unto myself. Let me close with this. God has mercy on sinners now.
His mercy is for sinners. Are you a sinner? He delights
to show mercy. He delights to show mercy to
sinners, to beggars, to guilty folks. Does that describe you? He took this worthless, wicked
thief to glory with Him that very day. Because he delights
in mercy. He's going to show mercy. He's
going to show mercy to thousands, millions, multiplied millions
of sinners. And if he doesn't have mercy
on you, if you perish, it's because you have no desire for mercy.
It's because you ought to perish. It's your own fault. The poet wrote this and described
that this way, Trembling sinner in whose breast a thousand thoughts
revolve come with your guilt and fear oppressed and make this
last resolve I'll go to Jesus though my sin hath like a mountain
rose. I Know his courts. I'll enter
in whatever may oppose Christ said the kingdom of heaven suffered
violence Lord, I won't let you go unless you bless me Whatever's
in my way, I'm getting to Christ. How about you, that woman with
the issue of blood? That crowd wasn't nothing to her. She was
feeble and sick. She was getting to Christ. Whatever
may oppose, and prostrate lie before His throne, and there
my guilt confess. I'll tell Him I'm a wretch undone
without His sovereign grace. I'll to the gracious King approach,
whose scepter mercy gives, Perhaps he may receive my touch, and
then the sinner lives. Perhaps he will admit my plea.
Perhaps he will hear my prayer. But if I perish, I will go and
perish only there. Is that your attitude? I can
but perish if I go. I am resolved to try. For if
I stay away, I know I must forever die. If I'm going to be blessed,
it's going to be at the feet of Christ. It's going to be clinging
to Christ. But if I die with mercy sought,
when I the King have tried, this were to die a delightful thought,
as sinner never died. That's on the authority of this
book. Nobody ever perished at the feet of Christ begging for
mercy. You ought to perish. You deserve to perish. And you
may very well perish. But you won't perish there. I
promise you that. Let's bow in prayer. Lord, thank You again for free
grace. We look into Your Word and by
Your grace we see on every hand the precious blood of Christ
shed freely shed effectually. He came to redeem, and He did.
Thank you for a Redeemer who redeems, who has redeemed His
people from their sins. Lord, make it so that we may
worship Him. Give us grace to worship Him. Give us eyes to see, to behold
these things, that these ones who were actually there at that
cross We could have been there physically at that time in history
and seen the actual cross and the one that hung there and still
not see these things. But Lord, if you reveal them
to us now who have never seen them physically, we will see
so clearly and so gloriously the things that transpired there. We'll see the blood of God shed
for a people. We'll see the justice of God
satisfied. We'll see the character and attributes
of God on display. We'll see the very glory of God
in the face of a beaten, broken, bloody person who now sits on
the throne. Lord, give us a sight. Give us
a revelation of Him that sits on the throne, who said, Behold,
I am he that am alive and was dead, and behold, I live forevermore. Help us to see him, Lord, and
to worship at his feet. Thank you for this church and
for your grace, for your gospel. We know that wisdom and strength
are in your hands to give, and you've been gracious to give.
Bless us. Continue to bless us in Christ.
And may he be exalted in all that we do and say and think.
In his precious name we ask it. Amen.