In our text that we read a few
minutes ago, we have something stated three
times. In verse 35 of Luke 23, the Spirit of God tells us, and the
people stood beholden. Verse 48, and all the people
that came together to that site beholding the things which were
done, smote their breast, and returned. Verse 49, And all his
acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood
afar off, beholding these things. What a sight that must have been.
Particularly for those believing men and women who now for the
first time understood the Lord's doctrine. Particularly for Mary
Magdalene who now saw the Savior fulfilling that which she had
come to anoint Him for as her substitute. I recognize that there are reasons
why Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as they record the events
that took place at Calvary, record different details and state different
things. I would encourage you to sit
down when you're wide awake and read Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23 and John 19 together,
carefully comparing each aspect of that which is revealed in
these four gospel narratives, and try, by God's grace, to behold
the things here set before us. These verses that we have read
describe the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ when he was
hanged upon the cursed tree, when he bare our sins in his
own body on the tree, when he was made sin for us and thus
made a curse for us. Tonight I want us to take our
place with these people gathered around Calvary particularly with
our Lord's acquaintance and the women who stood beholding these
things. We have before us an amazing,
marvelous record of God's wondrous work, an amazing, marvelous display
of God's matchless free grace. There are several things that
make this that we've read utterly astonishing. The one who suffered is himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ, God's darling son, the only truly holy
man who ever walked upon the earth, the only truly good man
who ever lived in this world, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. He walked on this earth in perfect
righteousness. He lived in absolute holiness. He had no sin. He did no sin. And this man who walked before
men always full of mercy, always performing kindness, always doing
good, always benefiting the bodies of men, the minds of men, and
the souls of men, is taken by the hands of men and nailed to
the curse tree. He is taken by the hands of God
and nailed to the curse tree. Not only is it amazing when we
consider who the sufferer is, But the scene before us is amazing
when we remember for whom he suffered. Listen to this. When we were
yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. I sure would like to meet some
ungodly folks, wouldn't you? Some ungodly folks. Find me a
man or a woman anywhere in the world who knows himself ungodly,
and I'll tell him, point blank on the authority of Holy Scripture,
Jesus Christ redeemed you. Pastor, everybody's ungodly.
Oh, no. Ask them. Just ask them. Just ask them. Not the prostitute,
not the drink, not the child rapist, not ungodly. No, no,
this bad things. Him rather said a sinner is a
sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And I want to tell
you something else. Until God convinces you that
you are ungodly, You've got no reason to suspect that Christ
died for you. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners. That's the kind of folks
he died for. Can you take your place there?
Ungodly. Nothing but sin. Nothing but
sin in your thoughts. Nothing but sin in your heart.
Nothing but sin in your deeds. Nothing but sin in you. Nothing
but sin performed by you. Ungodly sinners. There's very little in this world
for which I qualify. But I thank God that he's taught
me I qualify here. Ungodly sinner. I'm redeemed by him who suffered
at Calvary. Why'd he do it? Why'd he suffer
these things? This holy man, this righteous
man, the only good man who ever lived, the cause of his great
sorrow, the agony of his body, the agony of his soul, the agony
of his spirit, the agony of his heart, was the fact that the
Son of God suffered for sin as the sin bearer when he was made
sin for us. Justice drew forth its dreadful
sword and cried awake against the man that is my fellow, smite
and slay the shepherd. And so Christ died for our sins. Died for our sins to satisfy
the justice of God. Died for our sins that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. He died for our sins
that we might live forever. He became all that we are by
nature and suffered all that we deserve because He was made
sin for us that we might be made all that He is. in His glorious
manhood, and be rewarded with all that He is rewarded with
for His obedience unto God in perfect righteousness. We sing
our Savior's sorrow in Gethsemane. It's recorded throughout the
Gospels. He prayed three times, My Father, O my Father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me, Nevertheless, not my
will, not as I will, but as thou wilt." Our Lord Jesus was not
in Gethsemane shirking what He had come to do. He was not attempting
to escape His mission for which He had come into the world. He
set His face like a flint to go to Calvary to die for us from
old eternity and never wavering. What do those words mean? I can't
begin to enter into that which is beyond me, but this much I'm
certain of. Such was the shock of His Holy
Soul as He began to anticipate being made sin, that our Holy Redeemer broke
into a sweat of blood It's falling to the ground. Brother Darwin, you and I don't
have a clue what sin is. We don't have a clue. We don't
just live with it and among it. That's what we are. And because
that's what we are, we can't begin to look upon sin as God
does. Not possible. But this man is
himself God. and he's about to be made sin
as he bows in Gethsemane and his soul crushed within him in the anticipation
of that awful, awful weight of guilt that soon must press him
down, press him down to death. Luke describes it back in chapter
22, being in agony What a word. In agony. Somehow, I have difficulty ever thinking
about agony in terms of what I experience in any circumstance. Or in terms of what you experience.
He was in That's pain filled with grief,
torment filled with depression of soul, physical pain that affects the
heart. Being in agony, he prayed the
more earnestly, and his sweat was, as it were, great drops
of blood falling down to the ground. Our Lord was arrested
in Gethsemane and taken to Pilate's judgment hall called Gabbatha. And we've seen the scourging
of Gabbatha. Our Lord was condemned in a mockery
of justice in Pilate's judgment hall. And there he was delivered
into the hands of cruel, barbaric Roman soldiers who scourged him. Now, when we read that, it sounds
awfully polite, doesn't it? who scourged him. Those soldiers
took him to the common judgment hall where they gathered together
an entire band of Roman soldiers. It's difficult to say how many
there were, but it was somewhere between five and twelve hundred
soldiers gathered against one man just to torment him, to scourge
the Son of God. They stripped him naked, mercilessly
beat him, whipped him until he tore the flesh from his back,
exposing the bones beneath the flesh. And they mocked him. Took an old purple rag, threw
it over him, a scarlet robe. shoved a crown of thorns into
his head, put a piece of a bamboo shoot, a reed scepter in his
head and said, now hail king. You call yourself king, the king,
the king who is God. And he spit in his face and beat
him and beat him and beat him. Then they led him away to crucify
him. We've read Luke's inspired narrative
again of what took place at Mount Calvary. May God the Holy Spirit
who gave the record fill our hearts with reverence and gratitude
as we seek to understand something of that which is here revealed
and worship the Lamb who was sacrificed for our sins. What
we've read in Luke describes the slaughter at Golgotha. Matthew wrote, when they were
come into the place called Golgotha, the place of the skull. Verse
33 of Luke 23 says, when they were come to the place which
is called Calvary, there they crucified him. Golgotha was just
another name for Calvary. The word means place of a skull. It was given that name, Golgotha,
Because in this place of slaughter, people who were stoned to death
are crucified. Once they were taken down from
the cross on which they were crucified, or once they had ceased
to breathe after being stoned, they'd be drug off and just a
little dirt thrown over them. So that in the process of time,
everywhere you looked on that bleak, filthy mound of death,
You see bones sticking out, skulls laying here and there, so much
for the pretty scenery of those idolatrous pictures that men
see of Calvary. This was no peaceful, serene
scene. This is a place of death, of
torture, and of filth. I see here at Golgotha a marvelous
display of God's great sovereignty. Let me show you a few things. First, we see here the fulfillment
of Scriptures. The precise fulfillment of Scripture
by men who have absolutely no regard for God. I find that amazing,
don't you? I find it amazing. Turn to Acts
chapter 4. It is written in the Psalms,
Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder
of wrath wilt thou restrain. I want you to understand and
never forget, when our Lord Jesus Christ died at Calvary, this
was not something that somehow got out of control. These men
and these women acted like people who were out of control, but
they were under the absolute control of God Almighty. Absolute control. Angry mob gets
together and the more they talk things up, the more uncontrollable
they become. And it looks like there's just
utter chaos. And as far as they're concerned, it's just chaos. But
God Almighty is ruling the scene here as much as when he said
let there be light and there was light Acts chapter 4 verse
27 for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast
anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and
the people of Israel that takes in everybody at Calvary were
gathered together now watch this for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done." Well, what did they
do? They gave him vinegar to drink. Verse 36 of Luke 23, the soldiers
also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar and
saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. Matthew
tells us they gave him vinegar mingled with gall. Now this mixture
of vinegar, flat wine that had gone sour and gotten bitter.
Vinegar mixed with gall was thought by the people of the time to
be a mixture that would prolong life. And it was given by the
soldiers. They took a sponge and dipped
it in this bitter mixture and shoved it up to him when he cried,
I thirst. Why'd they do that? Why'd they? It looks like they
looked over here in the Psalms and said, what did God say we're
supposed to do? Psalm 69 verse 21. They gave
me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar
to drink. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee. When they took that sponge, dipped it in that filthy,
bitter mixture and shoved it up to the Son of God, they became
witnesses that He is indeed. who he said he was. Witnesses
by God's sovereign hand, this is the Christ. Watch here, this
is what we're doing. John Gill wrote, this portion
of vinegar with gall was an aggravating circumstance in our Lord's sufferings. It was given to him when he had
a violent thirst upon him. And it was an emblem of the bitter
cup of God's wrath he had already tasted in the garden and was
about now to drink dry. And then the scripture tells
us when he tasted thereof, he would not drink. Why? Why did he refuse this mixture?
Because he was determined to suffer the wrath of God without
any distraction, without any intoxication of mind, he refused
to drink it. Because he would have all men
know that he would do nothing to prolong his life, but that
he'd come here to suffer God's wrath willingly to lay down his
life. Then Matthew tells us that they
parted his raiments, casting lots for his vesture. Why? Because in Psalm 22, the psalmist
said, they part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. Again, testifying, this is the
Christ. This is He of whom the law and
the prophets all spoke. This is He whom God promised
He would send, His own Son who dies here upon the cursed tree. And then, like the women and
His acquaintances who followed Him, Matthew tells us, sitting
down, they watched Him. They looked at this and beheld
these things. When I was a boy, like most boys,
I used to do things that were so cruel. It's amazing how cruel
children can be. I'd take worms and burn them
just to watch them squirm. and wiggle and curl up and die. That's the scene here. Our Lord
Jesus said, I am a worm and no man. And these cruel, barbaric
human beings, religious folks, soldiers, folks who had children,
women who had children nursing at their breast, fathers holding
their sons on their shoulders. Take him and torment him just
to watch him wiggle and squirm and die but to their astonishment
there's not a wiggle and there's not a squirm and there's no call
for help and no call for mercy and there's no death until at
last he accomplished death crying, it is finished, and gave up the
ghost, saying, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And
there our Lord Jesus was crucified between two murderous thieves,
just as Isaiah said he would be, numbered with the transgressors,
reckoned among the malefactors. Luke tells us there were two
other malefactors led with him to be put to death. And that
demonstrates for us again, portrayal of God's sovereignty, His free,
sovereign, distinguishing grace. Here are two men, a thief, a murderous thief, worthy
by Roman law to be executed on this cursed place just as he
is. Here's another. murderous thief,
worthy by Roman law to be executed upon this cursed place. This
thief rails and mocks the Son of God. Imagine that. Here he
is, hanging side by side with the Son of God, and as the Jews
and the soldiers and the people mocked him and spat on him and
smoked him and plucked off the beard, he wagged his head and
made fun of him too. Wait a minute, the second one
did the same thing. They both railed on him, they
both reviled him, they both cursed him, they both mocked him. But this thief is with Christ in glory. This
thief is in hell as he deserves. How come? What made the difference? They both saw the same thing.
They both heard the same thing. They both experienced the same
thing physically. But here's the difference. God
had mercy on the one. He chose him before the world
was. Loved him with an everlasting
love. And this man, he's left to himself
to eat the fruit of his own way. Now hear me, if you go to hell,
you'll go to hell and for eternity eat the fruit of your own way. You will have exactly what you
deserve. But if you go to glory, if you
find yourself at last gathered with the redeemed around the
throne of the Lamb, singing His praise, crying, Thou art worthy
to receive glory and honor, O Lord. It will be because of God's distinguishing
grace. Nothing else. Nothing else. When I was a boy, I spent my
life running the streets of Winston-Salem from the time I was six years
old I was almost 17 years old with a fellow named Tommy Bailiff
who lived right behind me. We went to school together, walked
to school every day together, played football together, wrestled
together, walked home every day together, spent Saturdays together,
got in trouble together all the time. When I decided to start
going to church because I was dating a girl at church, Tommy
Bailiff got up and went to church with me. Sat through the same
classes, heard the same lessons. sat in the same worship services,
heard the same messages. And unless he's in hell, as far
as I know, he's still running the same paths. And here I am. How come? Who maketh thee to
differ from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
quietest thou glory, as if thou hast not received it. So then
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. By the grace of God I am what
I am. Here's another display of God's glorious sovereignty. Here he causes reprobate, unbelieving
men to declare the very essence of gospel truth, though they
never knew what they were saying. Never knew it. I don't know. I'll just give
you a little speculation. I don't often do that. It may
be, it may be, that it was the testimony that is recorded for
us at Calvary are things spoken by ungodly men and women, reprobate
men and women, men and women who had no clue what they were
saying. You remember in John 11, Caiaphas the high priest
said, it's expedient that one man should suffer for the people
that the whole nation perish not. And he spoke like a prophet.
And he didn't know God from a gourd. But he spoke like a prophet,
and the Spirit of God says he did. Well, here are prophets
who are full of hail, who speak the truth, though they don't
know the truth. And I know that this dying thief,
who is converted by God's grace at our Savior's side, was a man
who was called to hear the gospel, and called to hear the gospel
by God's grace and the power of the Spirit in his heart, somehow
or another. Well, how do you know that? Because
faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. There's no
other way by which men and women can have faith. It may be. That that which this man heard
this day is the means by which God wrought faith in him. Let
me show you what he heard. Pilate declared, verse 37, this
is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Now, if you compare Matthew and
Luke, you'll find these additions. This is Jesus of Nazareth. the king of the Jews. Pilate
put a superscription over the sages head and it's written in
Hebrew the language of religion, Latin the language of science,
and Greek the language of philosophy. And it says in bold capital letters,
not this is what he said he was, but rather he said this Is Jesus
of Nazareth the King of the Jews? And they said, oh no, no, don't
put that there. No, no, put, he said he's the King of the
Jews. Pilate, this cowardly, spineless
politician, acted like a man for once in his life. He said,
what I've written, I've written. How come? Because the King's
heart. is in the hands of the Lord,
and like rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will."
And so Pilate declares to everybody there, everybody gathered around
that cross, no matter who they were, everybody there who saw
this superscription over his head, Pilate said, this is Jehovah
who saves. This is Jehovah who saves the
only Nazarites by whom the blessing of God and deliverance can come.
The King of the Jews spoken of through all the scriptures. And
that dying thief as he turns to rail and revile the Son of
God. Read those words. The priests, the scribes, the
elders, and the people danced around the cross in a drunken,
hellish party as Immanuel suffers and dies, and in their blasphemy
they spoke the truth of God as distinctly as ever an inspired
prophet or apostle did. Matthew 27, listen to this, you
don't need to turn there. They said, Thou that destroyest
the temple and buildest it in three days. Now they didn't know
what they said, but I'll tell you what they declared. They
declared plainly what our Lord Jesus declared He would do right
here at Calvary. That is, He would take His body,
portrayed in the temple, and destroy it in death. And then,
three days later, that same body he would raise from the grave.
Mockingly, they cried, he saved others, himself he cannot save. There had never been a better
gospel sermon preached. He saved others, not himself
he will not save. Oh no, no, no. He saved others,
himself he cannot save. If he saves you, Bobby Hester,
he's got to die. No other way. Justice must be
satisfied. Sin must be put away. God cannot
justify, except he be just in justifying the ungodly. And then
they jeered, he trusted in God. Oh wow, listen to this. He might
have tried not to listen, but he did. I remember those days, don't
you? Listening to a fellow preacher just like I am, and I tried my
best, without actually sticking my fingers in my ears like this,
to keep my fingers in my ears, because I didn't want to hear
what he was saying. But God has a way of taking your fingers
out of your ears. He heard this. He trusted in God. This man, Jesus of Nazareth,
the King of the Jews, the Christ of God, he trusted in God, and
he did. We're told repeatedly in the
New Testament that this man, the Lord Jesus, lived by faith,
perfect faith. In his suffering and death, he
left us an example, for he committed himself to God who judges righteously
and doesn't revile again those who revile him. And so we ought
to live by faith, committing ourselves to our God, never protecting
and defending ourselves, but rather protecting and defending
His honor, trusting Him to protect and defend us. But it's more
than that. We're told through the Scriptures
that we are saved, justified by the faith of Jesus Christ,
who trusted in God. And then that thief heard these
folks jeering again. He said, I am the Son of God. Now modern infidels, I'm talking
about the religious kind, I'm talking about the kind who teach
in seminaries and Bible colleges and colleges, universities, religious
especially. They'll go through and read the
scriptures and they'll write historic programs to be seen
on the History Channel and the Discovery Channel and they'll
try to discover the real Jesus. He never just came out and said
he was God. These folks understood that's
exactly what he said. They understood. The Jews took
up stones to stone him because they said, Thou being a man,
makest thyself God. They said, He said, I am the
Son of God that saved. And this man, this man here,
Jesus, the Nazarite, the King of the Jews, who saving others,
cannot save himself. This man, who trusted in God,
this man, this man here, this man who is being reviled as a
common malefactor, he said he's God. This man hanging right here beside
me, he said he's God? Yes, he's God. And the hellish
crowd declared In Luke 23, 35, that he who saved others but
could not save himself is the Christ, the chosen of God. The Christ, the chosen of God. The Christ, there's only one.
The chosen of God. Then spakest thou in vision to
thy Holy One, and sensed, I have laid help upon one that is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people." Here is a scene of indescribable
guilt. Three malefactors. Oh, but wait
a minute. No. Christ is not one of them. He was reckoned with the transgressors. He was numbered with the transgressors. And he stands in the midst of
the two, as if to be placed there in place of prominence as the
most vile of the three. And in an indescribably, incomprehensibly
real sense, he was. Because he was made sin for us. All the sins of all his people
gathered together with the law of arms of God's omnipotent justice. Gathered together in one mass
of iniquity and all made his. So that he cries, I'm not able
to look up. My iniquities are more than the
hairs of my head. O Lord, thou knowest my foolishness,
my perversity, and my sins, my guiltiness is not hid from thee. And when he was made sin for
us, he was made a curse. Not just made to bear the curse. But the Spirit of God says, He
was made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. But here is a place of infinite, everlasting, eternal, immutable,
indescribable, glorious, self-denying, saving, divine love. The Lord Jesus, in verse 34,
with his heart breaking, he wells up with love and cries, Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do. And this fellow, we don't know
the sign. He heard him. And the Father heard him. and
that which he sought on the basis of his blood atonement he obtained
instantly, and this thief that day obtained as well." Oh, beholding
these things, we see abounding grace toward a guilty sinner. The Savior hears him cry, Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. And the master turned and looked
at him and said, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Now let me give you three or four things, and I'll send you
home worshiping, I hope. The whole of salvation, the whole
of grace, the whole of glory is summed up in two words. That thief heard the Savior say,
with me. That's all I need, with me. is salvation. With me is eternal
life. With me is paradise. With me is everything. With me. Learn this too. None on the top side of God's earth
are beyond the reach of God's omnipotent mercy. Look up here
at the men talking to you and understand Jesus Christ is able
to save unto the uttermost every sinner who comes to God by Him. Not only is He able, He's willing. Oh, as willing to save as a thirsty
man is to drink water, as willing to save as a hungry man is to
eat food, as willing to save as a weary man is to lay down
and rest, Willing! Willing! Oh, willing won't begin
to describe it. He delighteth in mercy. Imagine that. He delights to
forgive sin. He delights to save sinners.
He delights to do for you what nobody else would and nobody
else could. Learn this too. Brother Mark
Henson mentioned this to me two or three weeks ago going out
the door. I read this passage in Luke 23. He said that dying
thief, he had nothing else to declare. He declares his salvation
by grace alone. He didn't do anything. You got
it. You got it. By grace alone. Without works of any kind. To
get it, to keep it, to improve it, or to get rewarded for it.
With one sweet stroke of omnipotent mercy, at one time, this man,
taken as a brand from the burning, from the gaping jaws of hell
itself, is justified, sanctified, and glorified. The Lord just
seems to, with one great arm of mercy, just reaches down and
takes him right up to glory. But what did he do? He got shook,
that's all. That's all. That's how God saves
sinners. Without you doing anything. Learn
this too. Forgiven sinners. Those saints of God. Who are nearest death. Are nearest
life. Those who are nearest death are
nearest glory. There was a day I was listening
to some folks talking about a man nearly 90 years old having some
difficulty going to the doctor and said, let's pray for him.
And I said, well, that'd be all right. But let me tell you something. If I should live to be 80, 85
years old, and I get something wrong with me, I'm fixing to
go to the doctor, pray that God will give my doctor ignorance. That's
long enough. The believer nearest death is
nearest heaven, nearest glory, nearest Christ. To be absent
from the body is to be present with the Lord. Amen. Let's try, Hail Thou Which Despised
Jesus. Hell thou once despised, Jesus
thou cannot leave.