The hill on which Christ was
crucified was called Golgotha. And it means the place of the
skull. And most people believe that
the reason it was called the place of the skull was because
there were literally skulls scattered throughout that area. The people
who were crucified were not deemed fit of a proper burial, and they
would just be thrown off to the side, and vultures would eat
their bodies, and there were bones in that hill. The Lord is nailed to that cross
He's died. He's dead. How is he going to
be brought down from that cross? Where were the disciples at this
time? You know, none of them were there
to take care of this. When King Saul died, And he was
nailed to a wall in a Philistine temple and men risked their lives
to protect his body and bring it back to Israel. And when our
Lord is hanging on a cross, none of his disciples were there to
take care of his body. However, there is a man by the
name of Joseph of Arimathea. He is the man who took the Lord
down from the cross. He was assisted by Nicodemus. Now what both of these men have
in common, they were not what we would call impressive men. Nicodemus came to Christ by night. Now I realize that means he came
in utter darkness, but he came at night because he didn't want
anyone to know that he had any identification with the Christ.
It could have cost him his position. And he was very afraid because
of that. And John tells us that Joseph
of Arimathea was a disciple of Christ, but secretly. because of the fear of the Jews. He was dominated by the fear
of man and he may have lost very much if anybody found out of
his thoughts with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I am sure
that if the other disciples, the 12, knew of these two men,
they probably would have treated them with a measure of disdain.
not courageous as no doubt they were. Now here comes Joseph boldly, boldly. He's gone from being
a secret disciple to a bold disciple and he comes boldly The scripture
says, craving the body, the dead body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he was in the Sanhedrin and
would have known Pilate personally. And he came and asked Pilate
if he could have the body, the dead body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Pilate, the scripture says,
was amazed by this. He was amazed by Joseph's desire. Now these two very fearful men,
Nicodemus, who came to Christ by night, and Joseph, the secret
disciple, who feared the Jews, out of what he would lose, these
are the two men that God used to take care of the body of His
Son. Now, right off the bat, these two men being used by God
who are cowardly men, while the supposedly courageous apostles
are hiding in fear, what do we learn from these two men? Number one, and I wish I'd learned
this, do not judge anybody who professes to believe no matter
how inconsistent they may appear. Let me repeat that. Do not judge
anybody who professes to believe no matter how inconsistent and
contradictory they may appear. Now, let me give you some reasons
for it. Number one, Anytime I judge somebody, it's an act of hypocrisy. Every time I judge somebody,
it's an act of hypocrisy. Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art, the judgest. For you the judgest,
doest. Present tense. active voice. You that judgest, doest the same
thing. Whatever it is you're judging
that person for, you're guilty of doing actively, present tense,
the same thing. Somebody says, no, I'm not. You
want me to believe God's word or you? I believe God's word.
And he says that you are doing the same thing. Secondly, we are completely incapable
of making a proper judgment with regard to anybody. We don't have
the facts. We don't have the facts. We do
not know what that person is going through. We don't know
what has led up to this. We're incapable of making a proper
judgment. And remember, every one of us
are a work in progress. Now, what do I mean by that?
Well, Colossians 2.10 says we're completing Christ. There's nothing
progressive about that. I can't get any more complete,
I can't get any more saved, I can't get any more accepted, I can't
get any more loved, I can't get any more justified, I can't get
any more holy, I can't get any more sanctified than I am. I'm complete in Christ. You know, the very notion of
becoming progressively better and I guess less sinful, you
can't support that with scripture. Can't be done. It's wrong. It's
anti-gospel. It's anti-Christ. Whenever we
take some kind of view of progressive sanctification like that, we're
putting it in the place of Christ. That's what it is. And it becomes
an anti-Christ. That being said, there is such
a thing as a growth in grace, isn't there? Grow in grace. and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. And the apostles did say increase
our faith. You know, Joseph of Arimathea
went from a secret disciple to boldly craving the body of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the Son of God had yielded
up the ghost and died on the cross. And every time I think
of that, I'm more mystified by it. The Son of God died. And
we know why he died. There's only one reason for death.
The wages of sin is death. He was made sin. He took the
sins of his people on his own body on the tree. He was made
sin. He died because he was guilty. He died. He quit breathing. His heart quit pumping. And as I've already stated, usually people who were crucified
were not given a proper burial. They just weren't. Who's going
to take the time to do that? And I guess Joseph of Arimathea
didn't want that to happen to the Lord. You see, he had some
understanding of who he is. He waited for the kingdom of
God. I don't know how much understanding he had at this time, but the
moment Christ died, old Joseph of Arimathea and everybody else
Christ died for was justified. Now, how much understanding did
he have of that? I don't know. But he knew who the Lord was.
And God had purposed that his son was going to have the burial
of a rich man. This was all foretold in scripture. God took great care for the burying
of his son. First Corinthians 15 And four
says, the gospel is how the Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures and was buried and rose again the third day
according to the scriptures. And do you remember how in Isaiah
chapter 53, verse nine, it says he was buried with the rich in
his death, speaking of Joseph of Arimathea, and he was given
a rich man's burial. a very costly fine linen that
he was wrapped up in. Only a rich man could afford
the way the Lord was buried. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea
were both men of means. And he came to Pilate to ask
if he could have the body of Christ. And Pilate agreed after
he found out Christ was already dead. And I want you to think
about how carefully he removed Christ's body from the cross. What care he used. He and Nicodemus gave him this
rich man's burial. God took great care in the burial
of his son. And Joseph of Arimathea was raised
up for this purpose, this purpose of grace, this blessing. to be privileged to participate
in the burial of Christ. And Christ is buried in the rich
man, Joseph's own tomb. He'd ewed out this place for
his family. No one had ever been buried there
before. And this was very near Calvary. And he brought him to
this burial place with the women looking on. Now, how did he go
from being a secret disciple to bold? That's an easy question
to answer, Grace. Grace. I'm not going to say anything
else. Grace. Oh, the grace of God that
bringeth salvation. Now, without question, this man
was a disciple of Christ. The scripture says he waited
for the kingdom of God. This is while he was still a
secret disciple. And no one else knew he was a
disciple but the Lord himself. You see, the Lord had made him
a disciple. The Lord knew who was a disciple. He had not come
out and confessed Christ boldly as of yet, but he was a secret
disciple. I've heard people say, well,
there's no such thing as a secret disciple. Joseph of Arimathea
was. He certainly was. And I'm sure there are others
who by grace came out later on, but God had done something for
this man. And he is described by Luke as
a just and good man. Now, what a description of a
believer. Just. Do you know I'm looking
at some people that are absolutely just? Without fault before God. Right now, when God looks upon
you, He looks upon you as one without sin. One who has never
sinned. That's what justification is.
You say, but I have sinned. Yeah, you're right about that,
me too. But that sin was put away by the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was blotted out, it was made not to be. And you really do,
if you're a believer, you really do stand before God without guilt,
justified. Just like that publican that
went to his home, the Lord says, justified. Not merely forgiven,
not merely shown mercy, but justified. This man was a just man, and
the reason is because God justified him. Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's like? God justified him. What else
can be said? If God justified me, I'm justified. And the scripture says he's a
good man. Now, we know that no man by nature is good. There's
none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understands.
There's none that seeketh after God. There's none that doeth
good, no, not one. We know no man by nature is good. All have sinned. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. There's no difference. I
love the way he says there's no difference. You take, with
regard to every man, the most moral and the most immoral. Before
God, there's no difference. Oh, there's difference with us,
but not before God. There's no difference. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. So we know that
this man Joseph was not good by nature, but oh, when the Lord
saved him and gave him a new heart, he now has a pure heart. Blessed are the pure in heart.
He now has a heart that loves Christ. He now has a heart that
desires the glory of Christ. When he took down the Lord so
carefully from the cross, it was a good work. He did this out of love for the
Son of God. How much did he understand? I
don't know, it didn't matter. He knew who Christ was, I know
that. He knew who Christ was. He loved him and how carefully
he took down his body. Let me say this. He was a good
man and a just man justified by God's grace, given a new heart
when he was a secret disciple. And only God could see, and when
He boldly craved the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see,
His goodness and His justification didn't have anything to do with
His works. He was justified because God justified him. Christ put
away his sin and gave him Christ's righteousness. He was given a
new heart, a believing heart, a heart that was not there before.
God did this. And this man was this way while
he was still this secret disciple. And he was this way when he came
and boldly craved the Lord's body. Now Luke's account tells
us he didn't give consent to the counsel of the Pharisees.
He didn't agree. He didn't agree. How can two
walk together except they'd be agreed? They can't. He had no
agreement with this. And Nicodemus, remember when
he said, how can you judge this man according to the law in a
way that's contrary to the law? Nicodemus didn't agree with what
was going on. They disagreed with the Pharisees.
Both of them were bold at this time. This could cost both of
them their place in society. It could cost them both all their
money. It could cost them everything. These were some bodies in the
Sanhedrin. And now all of a sudden, they're
doing what all the Sanhedrin hated. They are taking care of
the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they were doing this in boldness
while courageous Peter was in hiding. And these were both men of faith.
Amen. They were both men of faith. They believe that Jesus was the
Christ, the son of God. They would grow to a greater
understanding of this, but let me remind you, faith is what
you believe concerning him. It's not what you believe about
yourself. It's not what you believe about somebody else. It's what
you believe concerning Him. And these men believed that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Now remember when, I love that
scripture that Eric read, this is Jesus, the Son of God. At
the end, we're talking about the God of the Bible. We're talking
about the sovereign God, the holy God, the omnipotent God,
the immutable God, the independent God, All that God is, Jesus Christ
is. These men believed that. Now, where there is faith, and these
men both had faith, where there's faith, there's
two things that always accompany real saving faith. Number one, there is commitment. I know whom I have believed and
am persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed
to him against that day. And number two, there is confession. Now, what do I mean, or what
does the Bible mean by those things? Commitment and confession. Now, you know as well as I do,
when somebody thinks of committed, they think about how dedicated
you are. How dedicated, how committed you are. And that's really not
the point behind the commitment we're talking about when we talk
about the commitment of faith. Now I'm all for every one of
us ought to be more dedicated than we are. Amen? Don't you
believe that? We ought to give ourselves more completely to
the Lord Jesus Christ in every respect. You can't be dedicated
enough in any way. So I would not in any way diminish
the importance of commitment and dedication to the Lord Jesus
Christ. But what is this commitment that
Paul's talking about when he says, I know whom I've believed
and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed
to him against that day? It begins here. I know whom I
have believed. Faith is knowing who He is. Do you know who Jesus Christ
is? Do you know that He is the eternal
God, God the Son? Do you know who He is? Do you
believe that? Faith is knowing who He is. Everything else is
predicated upon that. There will not be a commitment
to Him apart from knowing who He is. I know whom I have believed. This is so important. He didn't
say I know what I believe. Somebody says I know what I believe.
I don't care what you believe. That's not the issue. Whom. Whom. I know whom I have believed. And you know what that knowledge
brings about? I'm persuaded he is able. Now, if you know him, what you
know more than anything else is that he is able. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? He is able. I think of what Jude said in
Jude 24. Now unto him that's able to keep you from falling. Now, he could keep you from falling,
period. He could make it to where you're
never sinning again, but that's really not what that's talking
about because he's not, he hasn't done that. We've been left with
a sinful nature that we still have. We will commit sin. He's
talking about falling away from the gospel. He's able to keep
you from falling away from the gospel. And the only reason you
and I will not fall away from the gospel is He is able to keep
us from falling away from the gospel. But not only is He able
to keep us from falling and to preserve us all the way to the
end, He's able to present you, do you know the rest of that
verse? Faultless. Faultless. When I am presented
before God on judgment day, I'm going to be presented faultless. Well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Everything you've done is good.
Everything you've done is faithful. You know why? Because everything
Christ did is good. And everything Christ did is
faithful. And what Christ did is what I did in him. As he is
good and faithful, so are we in this world. Now this is, if
you know who he is, you are persuaded that he is able. He is able. What the Lord said to those blind
men, he said, do you believe that I'm able to do this? They
said, yea, Lord. Do you believe he's able to present
you faultless right now, the way you are? Do you believe he
is able to present you faultless before his throne with exceeding
glory, exceeding joy? I do. I do. I am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed to him. Now there's the commitment.
This is what commitment means. You know, this is the only time
this word is used in the New Testament. And it means deposit. When you go to the bank, you
deposit your money. Now let me tell you something
I don't do. I don't deposit my money through the phone. Auburn
says I ought to do it. It's so easy, you don't have
to go to the bank. I'm not doing that. What if it gets lost out there
in cyberspace or gets lost in the cloud or whatever it is?
And somebody says, you're stupid. Well, I know. I know. You say, that couldn't happen.
I know. But I know the only way I feel safe is going in the bank
and giving them the money, writing out the deposit ticket, getting
that piece of paper back that says it's there. And once that
money is deposited, you know what? I'm out of the picture. I'm not worried about it. Because I don't have any power
to watch over that money. It's up to the bank. in this
thing of salvation, when I have committed my salvation to him,
from that point on, it's completely hands off. I don't have anything
to do with this. If he is not enough by himself,
without me, I don't have a plan B. I don't have some other way. If what he did, if who he is
and what he did is not enough to save me, I won't be saved. I've committed all my salvation
to him. Hands off, it's up to him. I'm out of the picture. I'm completely
dependent upon what he does for me. If I don't look to Christ
alone, I don't look to Christ at all. And looking to Christ,
I got a letter from a dear man just this week, and I don't know
him. He wrote a letter, and he said,
I believed grace, believed the gospel, and I've gone back to
the world. And now the Lord's made me see
that I shouldn't do that. I'm wanting to come back, and
I'm confused as to what to do. And I said, you don't need to
be confused. You look to Christ right now the way you looked
to him the very first time. And you know what? You do that
every day. You look to Christ the way you looked to him the
very first time, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord. Had you received it, as an empty
handed sinner with nothing to bring and your only hope was
who he is and his ability to save you. You never graduate
past that. You never get past that. If you
have, you're in trouble. You're in trouble. That's leaving
the gospel. Commitment, I've committed the
complete salvation of my soul to Him. And not only is there
commitment, there is confession. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth. You see, you confess what you
really believe in your heart, don't you? If you really believe in
your heart, you confess it. if thou will confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead. You see, what you believe in
your heart is what you're gonna confess with your mouth. Do you
believe he is absolute Lord? You confess that. Do you believe
that God raised him from the dead and all your salvation is
in his resurrection? You confess that. You identify
with that message with the heart man believeth in the righteousness
or with the mouth confession is made unto salvation i confess
with my mouth what i believe in my heart that he is able to
keep that which i've committed to him against that day he is
all that god requires he's all that i have He's all that I need. And he's all that I want. That's
what Joseph confesses when he boldly asks for the body of Christ.
His life before God was only found in the death of the body
of that one he took down from the tree. Now, we don't read
of anything in the scripture as to what happened to Joseph
of Arimathea after this. No record. He's raised up for
this one blessed privilege of being able to take the Lord down
from the cross. What a blessing, but I know this.
When he did die, we don't know when it was. Perhaps he died
soon after this, perhaps 30 years later, perhaps he was known in
all the churches. I don't know, but I know this.
When he closed his eyes in death, he opened his eyes being perfectly
conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ and spending
the eternity beholding his glory. How blessed, how privileged this
naturally timid man was. Now, let me give you four things
in closing that we learn from this man, Joseph of Arimathea. Number one, God reigns. You see, God had determined that
his son was going to be buried in the tomb of a rich man. He
said that in Isaiah 53, nine, all of this was determined by
God. Everything God determines comes
to pass. Don't you love that statement?
It came to pass. How many times is that in Scripture?
Hundreds, it came to pass. God purposed it, it came to pass. And this is a reminder to us,
God reigns. His purpose will be done. The second comment I would like
to make about Joseph of Arimathea, salvation is by grace. altogether. Ask Joseph of Arimathea
how much of his salvation is by grace. Well, let me ask you
how much of your salvation is by grace. If you're saved, you
say it's all of grace. Every bit from the beginning
to the end, from the foundation of the world to eternity future,
every part of my salvation is by the grace of God. I, like
Joseph of Arimathea, am a trophy of his grace. Thirdly, because Christ died,
listen to this, because Christ died, There is no reason for
me and you to fear death. No reason at all. The only thing
that would cause somebody to be afraid to die is sin. Sin
has been put away by what he did. There's no reason for any child
of God to fear death. Now I realize that if you're
young, if you have kids, You don't want to die just to make
sure you can raise your kids or do whatever, all the kind
of stuff you think of when you're a young person. But I'd also
know this. I'm looking forward to dying.
I don't want to leave anybody in a bad place, but if it happens
tonight, praise the Lord. I'm so thankful. I have no reason
to die. And I'm not, you know, people
talk, worry about leaving. I was listening to a preacher.
He was talking about what kind of legacy you're going to leave. I could care less. I can't tell
you how little I care about that. I'll be dead. What do you think
I'm going to care about how people think of me? No, every believer
has every reason to earnestly anticipate death without fear. Fourth, don't ever look at anybody that
is struggling like Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea, secret
disciples. And you think, well, what's wrong
with them? They belong to the Lord. Don't judge them. Be thankful for them. The same
grace that saves you saves them. Wouldn't it be a blessing to
never judge anybody again? Thank Christ for the grace that
saved Joseph and me and you. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
bounty, the freeness, the greatness, the savingness, the completeness,
the power of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, deliver us from being such
judgmental people, because that's what we are, and we confess it,
and we pray for forgiveness and cleansing. And Lord, how we thank
you for the grace that takes a secret disciple and makes him
bold. And we ask that that might be
performed by your spirit in each one of us, according to your
will. Bless this word for Christ's
sake. In his name we pray. Amen.