Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyvert. In Psalm 76, verse 10, the psalm
writer made this glorious statement. The wrath of man shall praise
thee, and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. Nowhere
is the wrath of man seen more clearly than in the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There the wrath of man was given
its full vent. And what I want us to do is look
at the statements of the wrath of man around the cross where
he was derided and made fun of and mocked, and I want us to
see how each one of those statements ends up being a very poignant
gospel message that actually praises God. The wrath of man
shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."
Now, I'm going to begin reading in Luke chapter 23, verse 35,
and the rulers also with him derided him, saying, he saved
others. Let him save himself, if he be
Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked
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. And when Pilate had that written,
he was doing that to make fun of the Jews who he despised so
much. Here's your king. This is the
King of the Jews. And you know from John's account,
they say, take that down and say, he says he's the King of
the Jews. And Pilate said, what I have written stays written. Now in these derisions and mockings
and scoffings of Christ, we have the wrath of man, their bitter
hatred. Now somebody says, why did they
hate Jesus Christ? Why did they crucify him? Well,
if you remember, the accusation written over him was this is
the king of the Jews. Everybody was okay with him being
a provider and performing miracles to help people. Everybody's fine
with that. Everybody was fine with him healing the sick. Everybody's
fine even with him raising the dead. Everybody was fine with
him as a prophet or a teacher or a healer. But here's what
they didn't want. Him being king. Now remember,
a king is somebody whose will is done. If He's the king, that
means He's absolutely in control. That means you're in His hands,
and your eternal destiny is up to Him. That's what the kingship
of Jesus Christ is. That means you don't have any
control in this. Your eternal destiny is up to
him. And they said, we will not have
this man reign over us. And the accusation written over
his head was Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. This was
why they crucified him. He said he's a king. Well, he
was a king. He was a king. He is king. He's
always been king, always will be king. And what he did, remember,
he was not a martyr. He was not a victim. He was in
complete control of everything that was going on. And even these
statements made against Him He was in control of, using them
for His glory. Now these men were responsible
for what they said, and what they said was terrible and wicked
and evil, but we have such powerful statements regarding the gospel
in this. Now I want to look at the statements
surrounding the betrayal and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And see how these are powerful
statements regarding the truth of the gospel. And the first
act of deceit was in Judas, where he came up and kissed Christ
on the cheek and said, Whosoever I kiss, he's the one. Come and take him and arrest
him. And the Lord said, Betrayest
thou the Son of man with a kiss? Oh, this kiss of deceit, pretending
like he was in tight with Christ and loved Christ. He kissed him,
a kiss of affection, underneath it all, the heart of a devil. What a wicked man, Judas Iscariot. And when I say that, I know that
by nature I'm as bad as him, and I'll do the same thing, apart
from the grace of God. But still, what deceit that he
would betray the son of a man with a kiss. And yet I think
of the words of Psalm 212, kiss the son lest he be angry. And you perish from the way when
his wrath is kindled but little. Blessed are they that put their
trust in him. Interesting, Judas kissed him
on the cheek. The woman that was a sinner kissed
his feet. Which one are you? And we read
in John chapter 18 verses 29 and 30 when the Pharisees were
delivering him up to Pilate to be tried, they made this statement,
if he were not a malfactor, a criminal, a man guilty of great crimes,
if he were not a malfactor, we wouldn't have delivered him up
to thee. Now, Truly, he never sinned. He's the only holy man to ever
live. He kept God's law perfectly. He never thought of sin. He never
performed a sin. In him is no sin. He never sinned. But when he was made sin for
his people. He was the malfactor. What they were saying was true.
Now, I don't understand how God does this. Don't need to understand
it. I just need to believe it. Somehow,
God has lifted my sin from me, and Christ bore my sin in His
own body on the tree. And the reason God forsook him
is because he was guilty and he was getting exactly what he
deserved. The justice of God struck him. He was getting what He deserved
as the sin-bearing substitute. When they said He was a malfactor,
indeed, the sins of all of His people became His, and He became
guilty of them, and that is why He died on the cross. God's never
going to let sin go unpunished. Your sin is either going to have
to be punished in you, or in the substitute. And Christ bore
the sins of many in His own body on the tree. And then in Luke
23, verse 5, we read of this accusation, He stirreth up the
people. He stirreth up the people. And indeed, He did stir up the
people to anger and wrath. They wanted to kill Him. They
said he stirs up the people for law breaking and so on, saying
you don't have to pay taxes and making up all kinds of lies about
him, but he stirs up the people. He causes rebellion and insurrection. He stirs up the people. Truer words were never said.
How he stirs up the love of his people. to where they see Him
as so glorious, they would count it a privilege of divine grace
that they don't deserve if they got to die for His namesake.
how he stirs up the love of his people where they willingly deny
themselves, take up their cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
Truly, he stirs up the people. And then we read in Matthew chapter
26, verses 67 and 68, then did they spit in his face and buffeted
him and smote him with the palms of their hands saying, prophesy
unto us thou Christ, Who is it that hit thee? You say you're
a prophet. You know, they blindfolded him,
hit him. Tell us which one of us hit you. Prophesy, tell us
which one hit you, which one smote you. And I couldn't help
but think of that passage in Zechariah. Awake, O sword, smite
the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. Isaiah said in
Isaiah 53, 10, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. You see these men were just being
used by God for his purposes. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. It was the Lord that was smiting
him as an act of his justice. The songwriter said many hands
were raised against him, none did interpose to save, but the
greatest stroke that pierced him was the stroke that justice
gave. It was God bruising him as an
act of his justice to make a way for him to justify somebody like
me or you. And then in Matthew chapter 27,
verse 25, when Pilate said, I find no fault in this man. I'm innocent
of the blood of this just person." And you know what they replied?
Let his blood be upon us and on our children. We're glad to
take responsibility for this. We want to get rid of him. Why?
We're glad for that responsibility to be on our children because
of what he is. We want him dead. We'll take
full responsibility for that. Let his blood be upon us and
let his blood be upon our children. In this we find the true confession
of sin of a believer. His blood is on us. We're guilty of his death. That's how evil we are. And our
children are just like it. They were born that way. And
here is the prayer of my heart. Let his blood be upon me. Let his blood cover me so that
all God sees is Jesus Christ. Let his blood be upon my children. May his blood cover them. I love
that passage of scripture in Exodus chapter 12. when God is
passing through the land of Egypt to destroy the firstborn, but
he says in verse 13, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Notice what he didn't say. He
didn't say when I see your faith, or when I see your repentance
or your reformation?" He said, when I see the blood. That's the one thing he was looking
for, the blood. And he said, when I see the blood,
not when you see it, when I see it, I will pass over you. My greatest desire is that I
might be seen in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew
chapter 27, beginning in verse 27, then the soldiers of the
governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto
him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him and put
on him a scarlet robe. And when they plaited a crown
of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his hand.
And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him saying, hail,
king of the Jews. truer words as they jested, making
fun. Yeah, this man is king in his
weakness and his helplessness. We can do with him whatever we
want to do. Sure, yeah, hail, king of the
Jews, they said in contempt and derision and jest. They didn't
know that they were speaking to the one who truly is king
of kings and lord of lords. When they bowed their knees to
Him, they didn't know that an unseen hand was causing them
to do it. When Pilate had the accusation
written against Christ, this is Jesus of Nazareth, the King
of the Jews, he didn't know that God the Holy Spirit caused him
to write that in letters that all could see written in Greek
and Latin and Hebrew so that everybody might read the truth
that Jesus is the King. And when he hung upon the tree,
they wrote his name above him that all might see. the reason
we forevermore must love Him. We love to sing of Christ our
King and hail Him, blessed Jesus, for there's no word ear ever
heard so dear, so sweet as Jesus. When they mocked Him as King,
they were mocking Him who is King. And we say from the depths
of our heart, Hail, King of the Jews. Mark 15, 9 is similar. In their contempt and scoffing,
it says, bowing their knee, they worshiped him. Yeah, we're really
gonna worship you. You helpless man that can't even
save yourself, we're really worshiping you. You're really an object
of divine worship, look at you. So helpless, nailed to a cross,
you can't come down, look at you. You're really an object
of divine worship. They didn't know that he is the
object of divine worship, God the Son. You know, the leper
understood this. There came a leper unto him and
worshiped him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me
clean. Now understand this. You'll only
worship a sovereign. If you have any control of him,
if you can manipulate him, you won't worship him. If you can
get him to do this or respond to you that way, you won't worship
him. You'll only worship one who like that, that leper understood
this. He said, Lord, if you will, it's
all up to you. You're the sovereign Lord of
the universe, if you will. You can make me clean. I can't make myself clean. No
one else can make me clean. You're the only one who can do
it. He worshipped him. He worshipped him. Have you ever
worshipped Christ? Worshipped him for who he is,
not for what you think you can get out of him, but for who he
is as the sovereign king of kings and lord of lords and you're
in his hands and he can do with you whatever he's pleased to
do. Now that is worship. They bowed their knees in jest,
but they didn't know that they're going to one day be made to bow
in hell or bow willingly now and in heaven because the Lord
has determined that to him every knee is going to bow. in things
in heaven, in things in earth, and things under the earth, and
that every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father. When they bowed their
knees in contempt to worship Him, this is what the believer
does. He bows before Him and worships. We read in Luke chapter 23 verse
11, and Herod and his men of war
set him at naught and mocked him. They said he's nothing. He's a zero. He's Nothing. They set him at nought. Now this is the Son of God. They
had no idea who he was. They set him at nought. Now this answers to Philippians
chapter 3 verse 6. Who being in the form of God
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. all that God is, He is. He thought it not a thing to
be grasped for, to be equal with God. Thou being a man, makest
thyself equal with God, was what they accused Christ of. And I
think of his greatness, and Herod and his men setting him at naught.
But he who was in the form of God thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. He made himself of no reputation. and took upon himself the form
of a servant. And made in the likeness of men,
he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death
of the cross. And from the cross, you can read
this in Psalm 22, that great psalm of the cross that begins
by saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's
the psalm that lets us know they pierced him in his hands and
his feet. And that's the psalm that says they parted my garments
among them, and for my vesture they cast lots. It's all about
Christ on the cross. And in that psalm, he says in
verse 6, I am a worm, not even fit to be called a man. Now, why would he say something
like that? because that's how truly the guilt and the sins
of God's elect became his. So he cried out, I am a worm,
not even fit to be called a man. And when they set him a knot,
They didn't know that he really was going to be set at naught
and become the least and become the one who bore the greatest
guilt and to be forsaken by his father. And then in John chapter
nine, verse seven, they were speaking to Pontius Pilate. And they said in verse seven,
he ought to die because he made himself the son of God. And then Pilate was more afraid,
the scripture says. But they were saying this as
his ultimate crime. He made himself the Son of God.
Can you believe he would do something like this? This weak, helpless,
defeated man who's in our hands right now, he made himself the
Son of God. Can you believe he would say
something like that? Oh, my dear friends, he is the Son of God. He is the Second Person of the
Blessed Trinity. He is the Creator of the universe. He is the Controller of Providence. He is the Lord of Salvation. He is God the Son, equal with
God, the only Savior of sinners. Now, saving faith is believing
He's the Son of God. And I'm talking about the Son
of God the Bible reveals. the one who is holy, the one
who's completely and absolutely sovereign, the one whose will
must be done, the one who's absolutely just, the one who's merciful
and gracious and will receive the very chief of sinners. He
said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Believing he's the Son of God
is faith. You remember when the Philip said to the Ethiopian
eugenicist, what hinders me from being baptized? He said, well,
if you believe with all your heart, you may. And he said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's faith.
It's not believing you're saved. It's believing He's the Savior.
It's not believing Anything about yourself except you're a sinner
and your only hope is Him, because He is the Son of God. And in Matthew chapter 27, verse
42, they said, He saved others, Himself He cannot save. Making
fun of Him. He talked about being a Savior.
He saved others, Himself He cannot save. Look at Him, nailed there.
Nothing He can do to get out of this. He saved others, Himself
He cannot save. He can't come down from the cross.
Never have truer words ever been spoken for somebody like me or
you to be saved. He could not save himself. The only way I could be saved
is for him to willingly not save himself and take on all my sin
and die in my room instead, taking what I deserve and giving me
his perfect obedience. That's the only way I could be
saved is if he didn't save himself. And truer words had never been
spoken. He saved others. But himself,
he could not save. Not if I was going to be saved.
Now, if I wouldn't be saved, he could have saved himself.
He could have sent legions of angels and killed everybody there.
But for me or you to be saved, he had to go through what he
went through. In Mark chapter 15 verses 23,
29 and 30, all thou that destroyest the temple and build it in three
days. And he did say destroy this temple
and I'll raise it in three days. He wasn't talking about the physical
temple. He was talking about himself. He was destroyed under
the wrath of God, and he did raise himself from the dead in
three days, having completely satisfied all the claims of God's
justice. But hear what they say, all thou
that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save
thyself and come down from the cross. Do you know when he was
hanging on the cross, he did save himself? And here's how
that's true. His people are so united to Him,
both He that sanctifyeth and they who sanctified are all of
one. His people are so united to Him,
one with Him, His body, His flesh, that when He saved them, He saved
Himself. In Ephesians chapter 5, when
Paul is giving us the view of marriage as being a picture of
the gospel. He says, He that loveth his wife
loveth himself. And when Christ loved his wife,
he was loving himself. If we believe not, He abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. And for
him to deny me would be for him to deny himself. And that's not
going to happen. God's people are so one with
him that he saved himself when he saved his people. And then
in Matthew chapter 27, verse 43, he trusted in God, let him
deliver him now. If so be that he'll have him.
He trusted in God. Look, it isn't working for him.
But do you know there's never been an act of greater trust
than he, in his utter darkness, being forsaken by God, never
quit trusting his father. He said, though he slay me, Yet
will I trust Him." I can see why Paul said, knowing that a
man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. He loved
God perfectly. He never quit believing. Oh, no trust like this. As soon as something goes wrong,
I'm scared to death. I lose my faith. I believe, help
thou my unbelief. It's always there, but he trusted
God completely. Now, the last verse I want to
look at is when the, after his death, the Pharisees are speaking
to Pilate. And they say, Sir, we remember
that that deceiver said while he was yet alive after three
days I'll rise again. And that's when they asked for
a guard to make sure he's not raised from the dead. And they
called him a deceiver. That deceiver said, well, for
this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should
believe a lie, that they all might be damned. who believe
not, receive not the love of the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness. Yes, he was, as an act of his
irreprehensible justice, deceiving these people. God will give you
the rope to hang yourself if that's what you want. They called
him a deceiver. Indeed, he did deceive them. as an act of His justice. They
thought they were doing what was right, but they were putty
in His hand, accomplishing His purposes. Truly, the wrath of
man shall praise Him. This is Todd Niver praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you through the preaching
of Jesus Christ. To request a copy of the sermon
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