Open your Bibles, please, to
Lamentations. Book of Lamentations, chapter
1. Just hold your place there and listen
to it for a minute. The Son of God Having lived in this world for
33 years, as our righteous representative before God, humbled himself, became obedient
unto death. And he who is God, God over all, blessed forever. who upholds all things by the
word of his power, God in whom we all live and move and have
our being, God sovereign, glorious, majestic,
was made a spectacle, a joke, objects of scorn, The Jews cried and they were crucified. And the soldiers delighted in
their work of crucifying him. They not only crucified him,
but they had a party before him. They took him and set him down,
put a purple robe on him, and put a bamboo shoot in his hand. Made a crown of thorns, stuck
it on his head. Walked by and kneeled down before
him and said, well, hey, you can't. They beat him. Beat him till his visage was
so large it was as big as a man. So that he looked not like a
man, but like a beast, small. And that's God. That's our God,
man. That's God. And then they took him out to
the place of execution. They stretched his hands out
across. And with pleasure, delight, They took those files and drove
them to his hands, to his feet. Picked them up and shoved his
crops into that hole in the ground. and laughed while his body was
in falsehood. There he was. There he was. God. God Almighty
in human flesh. There he came. And the religious folks, and
the harlots, the preachers, and the drunkards, the priests and
the thieves, the Pharisees and the public, the Jewish people
in slavery, and the Roman soldiers who kept them enslaved. All got
together. And they had a big party. They
had a big party. The drunk came by. True sin, you're the son of God.
And the Pharisee patted him on the back and he said, that's
it. He said he was a son of God. And the harlot came by, slapped
him in the face. One of the religious women who
came by, she gave him a belt. The preacher came by and pulled
out his beard. The drunk came by and pulled
out his beard. They said, well, let's
see. You said you would destroy the temple in three days. In
three days, you'd build it again. Let's see you do it. Let's see
you do it. You said, uh, you said you're
the son of God. He said, he's God. If he was
God, he wouldn't be hanging in there. And that's what men, Lindsay Campbell and Don Portman,
that's what men, these men, did to God when they got into the
family. That's what you did to God. And I did to God when we got
him in our hands. Now listen to him. Listen to
what he says. He's hanging on that tree, looking
down at you, you, and me, while we are clearing our throats to
spit in his face He said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. They don't know what they're doing. They're hung on one side again. A sinner like you and me. A thief. A murderer. And he saw what nobody in that
crowd saw. He saw that that man came on
that tree to prove his God. He said, Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. Son of God looked over at him
and he said, today, shalt thou be with me in paradise. Our Lord looked down at his mother, that woman who carried his human
body in her womb for nine months. That woman who nursed him in
her breast. That woman who taught him to breathe and to lie. And with affection and tenderness,
he said, woman, behold thy son. Then, as the darkness covered the earth, cries out to God. Here is the man who came to do
the will of the Father. Here is the one who came to fulfill
the covenant. Here is the one who came to establish
righteousness in the earth. Here is the one who went about
all the good in his Father's will. But now he's made to be
sinful for us. He cries to my God, my God, why
has that forsaken me? After a while, his body was burning
with fever. His throat swollen, and his tongue
swollen, and his lips parched and cracked. He cried out in
thirst. Suffering and anguish. I've never
seen a man suffer like that, but I've seen some men suffering,
dying. I knew they were dying. About
all they'd say is, curse, curse. He hanged later. God Almighty. Suffering death as a man, he
said, curse. And then, at last, This great God, our Savior, cried
out with that dreadful cry. He had suffered the Father's
wrath, he said this before. He had established righteousness
in the earth. He had borne our sins in his
own body on the tree. And now his hell was over. He
said, He is. He is finished. Then last, he said, Father, it's
all over now. It's all over. A holy God and
his sinful people are baptized. Father, it's all over now. A
righteous, just, and true God can be just, and yet just as
I am God. He said, Father, the work is
all done, the covenant is fulfilled. Into thy hands, God, and into
my spirit. And he bowed his head, and he
breathed out his life. Those seven things our Savior
cried as they hung on the tree. I want to show you one more thing
he cried. Look here in Lamentations 1 and
verse 12. The Son of God our substitute, as he sees us passing by him, he cries, is it nothing to you? all ye that pass about, behold and see if there be any
sorrow likened to my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger."
Now I know those are the words of the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah,
the weakened prophet, was a faithful pastor. His heart ached. His heart was broken because
of the terrible condition of God's church. The sorrows of
Jerusalem were truly his sorrows. And though his beloved people
had rejected his counsel, despised him, and brought upon themselves
God's judgment by their sin, their rebellion, and their unbelief,
yet they were Jeremiah's people. And as he beheld the ruins of
the city and the judgment of God upon the people whom he loved,
his soul was in bitterness, and he cried, Is it nothing to you? But if we interpret these words
to be only the words of Jeremiah, then we'd have to conclude that
Jeremiah was the Savior. He said, Behold, and see if there
is any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Now if we say that's just Jeremiah
speaking, then we must conclude that in the anguish of his circumstances
the prophet exaggerated his grief, and his language was not strictly
accurate. I have no question at all in
saying that in this passage Jeremiah the weeping prophet was a typical
representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, the man of solace. And
as we take these words out of the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah,
and put them in the mouth, of the Son of God who hangs on the
tree. Then we see them exactly in their
full glory. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, hung upon the
tree of Calvary. He hangs there, suffering the
agonies of his Father's righteous wrath and strict justice. He
hangs upon that cursed tree as the sinner not for his own sins,
but for the sins of his people. The just for the unjust that
he might bring us to God. We've passed by this place a
lot of times. But how often have you passed
by, taken a glance, heard a cry, those words of grace and mercy
and triumph, and went on your way, unaffected,
unmoved. You came and you looked with
a heart of stone, and you left with a heart of stone. You came
and you listened, and you heard, and you passed by as that One
who is God suffers the wrath of God in his body as a man.
Can you just point to a merry wedding? You've heard the story, some
of you have heard the story thousands of times. But your heart remains
hard and unbroken. And I want, if God will allow
me, to speak with plainness, and oh, if you'll let me speak
with power, I want you to come one more time, and behold the
crucified Christ, and hear Him as He speaks to you. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Look at me, look close. See if there is any sorrow like
unto my sorrow. The sorrow which is done unto
me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of this dear Savior. I call your attention to three
things. To begin, here is a vision. of tremendous sorrow, agony,
and worry. No mind can conceive, no tongue
can ever declare the sorrow, the pain, the agony which our
Lord Jesus Christ endured on the cross when he bore my sin
and died in my place. He said, Behold and see, behold
me and see if there is any sorrow like this in all the world. Behold and see if there is any
sorrow like this that I am enduring. Indeed there is no sorrow, not
in all the earth, not even in the deepest dark pit of hell
is there any sorrow like the sorrow of Christ. And here is
the terrible fact and the justice of God that might substitute
it. Consider, if you can, if you will, think for a
little while about the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I am not one to play on
men's emotions. And I try to avoid all emotional, religious decisions,
that type of thing. I don't want that. I don't want
you to feel sorry for the son of God, and he doesn't want you
to feel sorry for him. He's God. He doesn't need your
pity. He doesn't need your pity. But I do want you to understand,
as best your frail, fickle, sinful heart can understand that it
cost Jesus Christ to redeem you. It cost Him. It cost Him. It cost Him not only His life,
but it cost Him the terrible, shameful agony of the ignominious
death of crucifixion. It cost Him. Don't ever forget
that. The sorrows of his life were more than any of us could
bear. We get to feel sorry for ourselves. We act like, talk like, and think
like nobody's ever had to suffer like that. Nobody's ever said,
oh, boy, me, I had such a terrible, terrible life. I had such terrible
sorrows, such terrible suffering. How could God do this to me?
Let me tell you something. not one of us and not all of
us put together has ever tasted sorrow. Merle, you've never tasted
sorrow. I've never tasted sorrow, not
compared to this song. I'm not talking now about the
sorrow he suffers on the tree. I'm talking about the sorrow
he suffered in life. You go to Gethsemane and hear him cry,
his sorrow is such that his heart is bursting. and he sweats blood
and foot, died in his garments and he falls to the ground. His
sorrows are beyond the scope of our mind. But when he hung
upon the tree, he suffered all the foes of the
sorrow that infinite justice could inflict upon his infinite
soul. He suffered all the sorrow that
infinite justice could inflict upon his infinite soul. Much we talk of Jesus' blood,
but old Hal Littles understood it. His sorrow, we can begin to at least picture,
maybe a little bit, when we consider who he is. It's the dignity of
his person, his infinite being, that makes his sorrow much what
it is. You see, that one who died at
Calvary is God. He's God. Now that's beyond human
learning, that's beyond human description, that's beyond human
wisdom. That one that I described before, that one hanging on that
tree, that one whose face covered with human skin, the filth that
men get from their throats, that face beaten, that face that the
hair is pulled out of, that name. He's all that's there. He's just
as much God hanging there on that tree with his face so marred
that it looks like a monster. That's God, just as much so,
hanging right there on that tree as he was when he said, let there
be light. And there was light. He was just
as much in control of the world, just as fully in control of the
world. when he was hanging from that tree, as he was when there
was no one in the world except him, and there was no world where
he lived, is God. The very God hangs upon the tree,
the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of His
person, that man who hangs in that place is God, my friend. Now, But he's the name of a real
man. Oh, there's never been, never
been a man like that man. That man is Jesus. For he's God. As I was studying and reading
this over last night, The thought came to me, hear
me well, he's more than God. He's more
than God. For God, in his great infinite
spirit, could never suffer anything. He could never endure any lack.
He could never be touched by anything. But this one who is
God in human form is a God capable of suffering. He's a God capable
of dying. He's a God. And in his body, oh what sorrow
is put upon him. Never did a single man suffer
so many terrible griefs at one time as our Lord suffered in
Calvary. Every form of grief and agony
was let loose upon the Son of God in that darkly dreadful day
all at once. His soul was heavy and exceedingly
sorrowful. We can't enter into his sufferings
really. We can't understand them. Because
we don't see things as he sees them. We can't know what he did. But as our Lord knelt in Gethsemane,
his heart was crushed. He said, Father, be powerful. Let this cup pass. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done." I'm sure, I don't have any question
about it, our Savior was not asking that God would keep him
from suffering for his people. He willingly, voluntarily went
to the cross to die as our substitute. But as our Savior knelt in the
garden, I believe Satan, and with his last mighty tentation,
As our Savior knelt there with the apprehension of what must
soon take place, his soul was crushed right there. For you see, that innocent man,
that holy man, that righteous man who never knew sin, that
one who from all eternity has been one that one who has
never known anything but perfect communion and fellowship with
the Father. As he kneels in the garden, he kneels in anticipation
of the fact that soon he must become and that soon he must cry out,
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And his body convulsed with shock. He was to be deserted by his
friends when he knew it, betrayed by his own companions, He was to be cursed by one of
his disciples, slandered by all false witnesses. He was to be
forsaken by every companion he had. Forsaken. Forsaken by God. Forsaken by
his family. Forsaken by his friend. The agony of his body was beyond
description. His whole being was a center
of pain, a furnace of fever, a chamber
of torment. Everything about his being as
he hung on that tree was pitiless. There was not a single drop of
comfort for him. Heaven and earth and hell were
arrayed like common He was beaten beyond recognition.
He was stripped naked, humiliated. He was nailed to the cursed tree,
mocked, spit upon, cheered at, derided. But those bodily sufferings,
let us never be beholden, let us never look upon them as being
insignificant, but those bodily sufferings were nothing to compare
with the soul's suffering. The soul of his suffering were
his soul's suffering. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, was made to be suffering. The greatest torment of his soul
was that he had to become for us, in the sight of his Father,
single. He must be made to suffer the
full penalty due unto sin. Let me tell you something. Children of God, you who believe
in me, the Son of God, As he hung on that tree, he went through
hell for you. He went through hell for you.
I know he went through hell for you. There is nothing, nothing
that you could possibly suffer in the eternal torments of the
dam that he didn't endure to his full satisfaction as he hung
on that tree. All, all of heaven was in him. And I'll tell you why. He was made worthy. Prabhup캐da did the wrong things
with his justice. At one time he gathered all the
sinners of his life. All the sinners. He got all the
sinners of his life. All of them. From way back to Yaj침캐y캐, he
got all of them. All the sinners, all the killed,
all the deprived. all your evil thoughts, all the
corruptions of your heart, all the thieves that you wouldn't
want anybody in the world to know about, he got it all. He
got our sin. And he, he didn't just lay it
upon himself. He made his son to be And Martin Luther said, I don't
hesitate to say, that man who is God, hanging
upon that person's tree, is the worst sinner who ever lived. Worst sinner who ever lived.
For he is made saint for us. Can you comprehend that? He is made to sin for us. But Pastor, you ought to talk
about that. I have to. I have to. You ought to understand that. For me, I'm on that trip,
and I'm made to be sinned for us. As a result of Him being made
sin, in exactly the very same way, we have been made the righteousness
of God. God took my sin and made it His
sin. God took his life and made it
mine. That's called salvation. As he was made to be sin for
us, God in heaven wouldn't look at us. turned his back on us. As he was made to be seen for
us, his soul was crushed with the weight of it. As he was made
to be seen for us, the Son of God took the cup of God's wrath
and God's justice, God's anger, God's vengeance. He took it.
And he turned his back on us. And he drank drank until he had taken the
last bitter threads of holy justice and he swallowed the Daniel with
his own soul and now lifted up and turned bottom side up and
with no wrath left in God's holy heart no anger in God's holy
heart against his people no vengeance in God's heart against his elect
because Christ took it all, took it all, and he died. All the agony and
sorrow was heaped upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord said, I just thought,
Behold and see if there be any sorrow, like unto my sorrows, which is
none other than thee, wherewith the Lord hath uplifted me in
the day of his dear Saviour." This is the day of the vengeance
of our God the prophet spoke of. This is the day of God's
judgment. This is the day of God's anger. This is the day of the outpouring
of God's wrath. His Father afflicted Him in the
day of His fierce anger. And there'll never be another
time when His Father will afflict any individual for He has afflicted
us in Christ Jesus with His justice and His wrath. What does that say? but they were dead. God is dead. He's alive. God commended His love for us
and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Here is love. Here is love. Not that we love God. We didn't. But if we love God, to be the propitiation for our
sins. And all of this, our Lord Jesus
Christ, voluntarily doing our substitute. There can be no explanation except
this. The Son of God loves us. I read a story last week that
was a little strange. It was reputed to be a true story.
I don't know whether it was or not, but it suffices for what
I want to use it for. A story of American history. The story goes like this. There was an Indian village. A problem arose. someone was stealing chickens.
Of course, in those poor Indian villages, the chickens had become
precious. It was like life to them. And
the chief sent out word that the person who had stolen these
chickens from his family was to be whipped with 20 lashes. And the chickens continued to
disappear. And the chief sent out word again, and he increased
it to 30 laxatives. He wants to find the thief. And
the chickens continued to disappear. At last, the chief had sent out
word that whoever it is was going to be beaten with 100 laxatives,
and that meant sure death. And they caught the thief. They brought the thief before
the chief. And he looked up. And that one standing before
him was his own mother. And everyone listened to see
what he was going to say. The chief said, the penalty is
$100,000. And he took his mother out, tied
her to the stable. He was unbraved. ready to execute justice upon
the chief's mother. And the chief stepped in, wrapped
his arms around his mother. He turned to look at the grave,
and he said, now lay your watch. And he died holding his mother
that way. The son of God stepped in and
embraced the child. He said, Father, pour out your
life. And he died in this church. That's what he did, John. Now then, here's a question. I can't tell you the importance
of it. It's a question of infinite importance. I've done the best I can to strive
for what Christ did for sinners. Is it nothing to you? For some of you it is. It's nothing. Nothing. It's meaningless. It's a fact of history. You've
heard it all your life. So what? Son of God died. Not just as well, reader. Abraham Lincoln being shot in
Ford Theater. I just as well read of Stonewall
Jackson being shot by one of his own men. I just as well read of any figure
in history dying. Well, he was a good man, died
for a good cause. So what's that? In the margin, if you care to
read it, It's translated, it is nothing
to you. It's nothing to you. You don't have any interest
in the death of Christ. You see, the reason you don't
have any interest in his death is because you don't see indeed I speak to you of suffering that no one has
ever known, that no tongue can describe. And your heart is without emotion,
without feeling. And I'll tell you why. Because
your heart is stone cold, baby. She seemed determined to perish.
She made a legal test. The crucified son of God lifted
up for you. And you stood in his face. Stood
in his face. The Tosca would do that. You'd
do it every time he did it also. Every time. The word of the gospel
goes to you and the power of God speaks every time you hear
the gospel. When you say to hell with him,
I don't want him. I don't want him. But I'm going to tell you something.
It will not always be that way. Not always. The time may come. When you feel
your gift of mercy, when you feel hell in your heart, and
your soul is seized with death, and you cry, God, have mercy! God will say, I don't know what
to do. What to do? You say, Christian, you make
God do that to me? I make God do that to you. I make Jesus do that to me. He
said, if you laugh, And you mocked. And you despised. And you wouldn't
let him out of your group. Therefore, when your fear comes,
I'm going to laugh, and I'm going to mock, and I'll despise, and
I'm not with you. I'm not with you. So let's talk about another
time. Yeah. Let's talk about tomorrow. On
that tomorrow. When God shut the door for the
ark, It hadn't even begun to rain,
but there were neighbors shut out because they were not in
it. And I'm telling you that the
day will come, men who spurn God's grace, men who trifle with
God's gospel, men who despise God's son, I'm telling you, my
friend, the day will come when you will blow on your wall for
mercy, and there'll be no mercy. There will be no mercy. God will
not forgive you. God will not forgive you. And then, the death of Christ will be nothing
to you. Soon, you're going to come
to the end of your days and you, who face the reality
of leaving this world and dropping all sinfully on
your face, you'll wish you had stopped the
world in the first place. And you will. But then, there'll be nothing
in the world that can anybody do, except him, And when you stand before God
in such a way, God Almighty looks through
your soul, God looks through your eyes unto God, and sees
you in your naked wickedness. Oh, don't be so rude. If you would just look, if you would just look to the
crucified Son of God, Oh, dead, perishing, guilty sinner, if
you would just look, just look, he would be everything to you. I predict you will misrealize
it. The soul, the body burning in
flames. It's an indelible fire circle. Somebody said it. Brother Joe,
Moses is over the surf of the prairie. He's got to sing a little
miracle. He said, well, I'm not interested in the surf of the
prairie. But Brother Joe, I looked at that surf. And when I looked
at it, my body was healed. Where's that surf? And he looked. And that surf came back to me.
Because he needed it. If you would but look to the
crucified Son of God, if you would but trust the Savior, He
would be everything to you. Would you look? Would you look? Now here's the last thing. I'll give you an answer to this
question. I believe it to be a true sincere
act of faith. Standing here, my heart is prostrated before
the crucified Christ. He looks down at me and he says,
is nothing to you. And I look up in the face of him who suffered
and died in my self-pity, and I say, O Lord God, and I say,
it's everything. It's everything. There was a time when I was just
like you all. I passed by. I tipped my hat
and said, well, I'm glad to know that the son of God died. In
case I ever meet him, I'll know he's there. And I went on my
way. There was a time when, like you,
I passed by and had nobody going for the crucified God's man. One day, I passed out. And on
that restful day, everything changed. Everything changed. John Newton expressed it better
than I can. In evil long, I took delight, unawed by shame or fear, till
a new object struck my sight and stopped my wild career. I
saw one hanging on a tree in agonies and blood, who fixed
his languid eyes on me as near his cross I stood. Sure never
to my latest breath can I forget that look. It seemed to charge
me with his death, though not a word is spoken. My conscience
fell in old guilt and plunged me in despair. I saw my sins
in blood and silk. My sins had nailed him there. Alas, I knew not what I did.
But now my tears are vain. Where shall my trembling soul
be hid? For I, the Lord, am slain. For the second look he gave was
sick. I freely all forgive. This blood
is for thy ransom paid. I die that thou mayst be saved. Thus, while his death my sin
displays in all its blackish hue, such as the mystery of his
grace, it seals my pardon to me. And with pleasing grief and
mournful joy, my spirit now is healed, that I should such a
life destroy, yet live by him my fear. Everything I have, everything
I desire, everything I love, everything I hope for, everything
is wrapped up in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. How about you? I'll tell you a story, if it's
necessary. This is my nursery poem. A friend
of mine was visiting home with some friends in New Orleans,
in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And as he sat at the dinner table, the wife and her daughter, always
a mother and a daughter, the lady was a widow. But this young
girl, she was 16, 17 years old, she spoke of her dad. for such
love, esteem, and reverence. He didn't date the children of
girls. Finally, he asked her, he said,
I've listened to you for several days and I've talked about your
daddy, your memory of your daddy, and how much he loved your daddy.
He said, what was that? He said, it must have been something
special about him. It must have been something very unique about
him too. for all these years due to have such high love and
esteem for her. And she's doing well in the office.
She does a lot of things about it, and I'm talking about it,
but there's one thing in particular. She's, my daddy was a doctor
in town. But he was a heavy man, and had
a terrible heart condition, weak heart. And the doctors told him
he had to retire and completely do away with all physical labor
or exercise or any overexertion. One day we were out on the beach
and I was out on the water and my dad was just laying out on
the beach watching me and I got too far out. I couldn't get back
to him. I was beginning to drown my daddy's
heart out and he ran and built him the water, and he swam out
to where I was, and he brought me safely back to the shore. And he laid me in safely, and
he fell down beside me dead. And I love him like I do, because
you see, my daddy died for me. Now, as I look to Christ, and
as you look to God, Oh, Lord, our Lord. He's not fit for anything. Not worthy of any consideration.
Not worthy of any esteem. But oh, we love Him because He
loves us and gave Hisself for us. Were the whole veil of nature
gone, that would have blessed us all too soon. The love so amazing and so divine
within my heart, my soul, my life, I have. And I'm calling for you to come
this day and bow to the King of glory, who died for and so
never draw all together. Amen.