There you go. Good morning, everybody. If you will turn with me to Matthew
chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27. You know, any time you go to
preach the gospel, you get nervous enough, and then the last minute
you're bringing another message. You know, I heard Don say once,
lean hard, lean hard on our Lord to give us the words, to give
us the grace to believe and to see our Savior. Let's read our
text together here in Matthew chapter 27, verses 42 and 43.
Here our Lord is hanging on the cross. And these words were spoken by
those who were crucifying Him. Verse 42 says, He saved others,
Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel,
let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God, let Him deliver
Him now, if He will have Him. For He said, I am the Son of
God. Now I've titled this message,
Wisdom at Calvary. Nothing is so foreign to fallen
man as wisdom. You know, we think we have it.
But this is especially true concerning spiritual things. Let me read
you a verse. 1 Corinthians 2.14 says, But the natural man, that's
us, every single one of us by nature, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them. Can't
even know them. because they're spiritually discerned.
Now I'm here to tell you today that God and the things of God
are a great mystery. And I'm here to declare unto
you this mystery of God and His gospel. I want to show you man's
wisdom and God's wisdom concerning three mysteries from Calvary. Okay, here are the three mysteries.
First is Jesus Christ's power to save. It's a mystery. Second
mystery is why Christ could not come down from the cross. And
the third mystery is that Jesus Christ is God. These are three
great mysteries from the cross of Calvary. And I pray God the
Holy Spirit would descend upon us and give us an understanding
and give us a heart to receive these mysteries concerning our
Lord's precious gospel. First, let us look at this, Jesus
Christ's power to save. Verse 42, these markers, they
said, He saved others. Himself, He cannot save. Now what sticks out to me in
reading that is, He cannot save. Now in saying this, they were
declaring the truth. Because He saved others. By His
death, He saved others. He could not save Himself. And
we'll look at that more in a minute. But what they were saying was,
He cannot save. He has no power to save. He can't save Himself.
He can't do it. And sadly, that is what the natural
man thinks. God has no power to save. The Lord Jesus Christ, He has
no power to save, not without my help. You've got to understand. I've got to put my part in this.
And God, He can't save me on His own. He needs my help. He
needs my will, right? I have to let Him save me. That's
ridiculous. These men thought that the Lord
Jesus Christ was in their hands. We put you on this cross. It
even says that He was delivered. Pilate delivered Him to the will
of the people. And they put Him on the cross. They thought that
He was in their hands. But they didn't know who He was.
They thought He can't do anything unless we let Him. They thought
that their will was superior. What did our Lord say in John
chapter 10? He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. I have the power to lay it down.
I have the power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father." That's who He is. You see, they thought that
He wanted to come down. They thought that He wanted to
be saved. They didn't need Him to save them. There's the difference. There's the difference. You know,
the problem in our day is that there's too many, everybody's
saved. You find me a lost person. Everybody's saved. No one's lost. If no one's lost, then what do
we need Christ for? He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. I love this. Zephaniah 3 verse
17. It says, The Lord thy God, this
is speaking of Jesus Christ, the Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. Can you just put yourself? Remember,
there was a thief to his left, a thief to his right. You think,
the Lord thy God in the midst of thee, he is mighty. He will
save, and he saved. You see, the fact of the matter
is, man by nature, we don't understand that Jesus Christ alone has power
to save, but that's the truth of the matter. He alone saves.
I mentioned those two thieves. Here in his dying moments on
the cross, there's a thief to his left, there's a thief to
his right. Matthew and Mark tell us that both these thieves were
mocking him, reviling, casting the same in his teeth. And yet
we know that the Lord saved one of those thieves. He cried, Lord,
remember me. Why? Who maketh thee to differ
from another? God made him to differ. He saved
him. Look and live. Look to the serpent and live
as the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
God, by His grace, caused that thief, one of the thieves, Sovereign
Mercy, He caused one of those thieves to behold Jesus Christ
crucified right before He died. And He cried for him to mercifully
remember Him. And He said, Today you'll be
with Me in Paradise. I love this, talking about His
power to save. Here He is, seemingly helpless,
being crucified, and yet while in that state, He saved a sinner.
Isn't that what that, the Lord thy God in the midst of these
mighty, He will save? Yes, He will. Praise God, He does. Isaiah 45, 22 says, look unto
me. There's just one place to look.
Look unto me and be ye saved. Well, what's that talk? Look
to Christ and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth for
I am the Lord and there is none else. I'm God, there is none
else. Now, I'm talking fast, by the
way, because I'm trying to hurry because I know this wasn't a
25-minute message. You know, while they said He
can't save others, They did say, well he can't save himself, they
acknowledged that he saved others. Now what they meant by that was
not that by his mercy and grace alone he saved their souls. They
did not mean that, it's obvious. But what they were saying was
that they knew he performed miracles. They saw him give sight to the
blind. You remember that blind man in
John chapter 9, the Pharisees come and say, well who did this?
They went and found his parents. Was this your son? Was he born
blind? It's ridiculous, but they saw
the miracles he performed. They even saw him raise the dead.
Is that not amazing? But here's the fact of the matter.
Here's how cold and dead our hearts are by nature. You can
see God raise the dead and still be cold in unbelief. Here's the difference. God didn't
perform the miracles for them. That's the difference. Lazarus
come forth. He didn't say that to anybody
else. He rolled away the stone. Lazarus!
Many people stood by and watched. In John chapter 6, it says many
of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Why?
Because he didn't do it for them. He took those fishes and loaves
and fed the multitude. And they were amazed and they
followed Him because He filled their belly. But when it came
down to it, when He told them, I am that bread come down from
heaven, except you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have
no life in you. This is a hard saying. They were offended. So
that the Lord turned to His twelve and He said, will you also go
away? You see, people can say all they want. He saved others.
Jesus saves. If He hasn't done it for you
individually, we're just lost. We can say, well, yeah, He performed
miracles, but unless He saved me, I really know nothing about
it. I know nothing about His power
to save. You know, someone can say, Jesus died, now it's up
to you. There's nothing more blasphemous. And I'm not sorry
to say it. He is mighty. He will save. Amen. He will save on His own. You
see, man's wisdom says He has no power to save. God's wisdom
says he alone saves man's wisdom says he did something he performed
miracles God's wisdom says that Christ did everything Jesus paid
it all I love to sing that him turn over with me to Hebrews
chapter 10. Let me show you this By his death he effectually successfully
saved all for whom he died Hebrews chapter 10 verse 11 Every priest standeth daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take
away sins. But this man, this man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice, one sacrifice
for sins forever, he sat down on the right hand of God from
henceforth expecting to his enemies be made his footstool for by
one offering he had perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now, does that sound like a finished
redemption and accomplished salvation to you? Does that sound like
by once there's one sacrifice for sin? Could it could it be
any clearer? Oh, we say God, he has no power
to save, not without my help. God says he did it all. by one-off,
and there's just one-off, and there is just one sacrifice for
sins, and that's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Scriptures
over here in Hebrews, it talks, look at this, in verse 29. Of
how much sore punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy
who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God? The blood, the only
blood that's put away anybody's sin is the blood of Christ. Look
what it says. And hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith
he was sanctified an unholy thing. People who say that Jesus died
for you, now it's up to you. You have to make effects of what
He did. You're counting that blood that put away sin, scriptures
say, as far as the East is from the West, put it away, so that
God's going to look for the sin of Jacob. And there's going to
be none, the iniquity of Israel, and there's none going to be
found. And you're going to say that that very blood that God
says finished the work, you're going to say that that's only
effectual if you make your decision. I pray God would not let us stay
in our natural foolishness. I truly do. The second point
is why Christ could not come down. Why He could not come down. Look at our text again, Matthew
27, 42. It says, He saved others, Himself
He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel,
let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him.
Now here's the second thing man's wisdom says. It says, I know
what will make me believe. I know, if he comes down, then
I'll believe. That's what man says. And again,
man thinks that he has a free will to believe God. If I just see that, then I'll
believe. If I go to church enough, if
I hear enough, then I'll believe. You know what? I mentioned when
the Lord said to his disciples, will you also go away? This is
what Peter said. He said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? You have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we
go? And I love what he said. If you don't look at John 6,
I think verse 67, if you don't believe me, he said, we believe
and are sure that thou art the Christ. Notice he didn't say
we're sure. I've got I've read my Bible enough.
I've heard enough messages. I'm convinced I believe. Now,
he said we believe and we're sure. You see, Men have it backwards. We don't figure it out, and then
we're sure, and then we believe. No, God, by His grace, quickens
us, just like He raised Lazarus from the dead. You who were dead
in trespassing sins, hath He quickened. God says, Believe. You believe, and you're sure.
You know, what a man teaches you, another man can teach you
something else. A man persuades you something
else, another man can persuade you out of it. But if God is
your teacher, they shall be all taught of God. If God's your
teacher, you know it. It's not up for debate. Now,
by nature we've seen, I believe, what's Gospels say concerning
this matter? You will not believe. John 5,
40, you will not come to me that you might have life. John 6,
44, no man can come to me, you won't come to me, and you can't
come to me. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. Like Jeremiah said,
with those cords of everlasting love he drew me to himself. That's
the only way. Over in Luke 16, there was a
rich man in Lazarus. Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom.
This rich man lift up his eyes in hell being in torments. And
he said, Father Abraham, would you send Lazarus that he might
dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for
I'm tormented in this land. Can't do it. And you received
your good things, and likewise Lazarus his evil things, but
now he is comforted and thou art tormented. And then he goes
on and he said, OK, well, I have five brothers. This is so serious. I've got five, but I have four
brothers and one sister. You send Lazarus back to testify
to my brothers, lest they also come to this place of torment. You know what he said? Abraham
said, they have Moses and the prophets. There are many people
in hell concerned for your soul and mine. That's just fact. That
is so scriptural. Let them hear them. It's the only hope for you. It's
the only hope for me. We have Moses and the prophets. We have
faithful men of God sent to declare Christ in the scriptures. Let
us hear them. And this is what Abraham told
Lazarus, because he said, no, no, no, no, no. You need to send Lazarus. This
is what Abraham told him. He said, neither will they be
persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Here's the sad fact
of the matter. This is how dead we are. Christ
rose from the dead. We still don't believe Him. It
takes a miracle. It takes a miracle of God for
any of us to believe Him. Only by divine revelation God
Himself, making Himself known to you, putting Christ in you,
the hope of glory. That's the only way we're going to believe.
That's the only way we're going to be saved. On another occasion,
the Lord said, Whom do men say that I am? Some say you're alive. Who do you say I am? Peter said,
Believe in thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
what did the Lord tell him? He said, Flesh and blood. Blessed
art thou, Simon Barger. You're blessed. Flesh and blood
hath not revealed this unto you, but my Father which is in heaven." Man's wisdom says, if I just
see that, if I just learn that, I'll believe. God says, you won't
believe. You won't believe. Man's wisdom says, Jesus is not
king. Look at verse 42 again. It says, if he be the king of
Israel. He is the king of Israel. Man
says, if he be king. What do they do? They mockingly
hail him as king. They stripped him of his clothes.
They put on him a scarlet robe. They put on him a crown of thorns.
They said, Hail, King of the Jews. And they didn't mean a
word they said. They mockingly, they smote him with their hands.
They stuck a spear inside. Some king you are. And you know,
it's no different when I hear somebody saying, and if anybody
here says this, please don't say this. It's the same thing. It's the same mockery when someone
says, make Jesus Lord of your life. Make Him King. Accept Him. God made Him King. God made Him
King. You don't make Him King. That
is despicable in God's sight. God made Him both Lord and Christ.
There's God's wisdom in this. Jesus Christ is King. He's God's
King. He is the King of spiritual Israel.
And I love this. You know, someone might say,
oh well, Well, how do you know this book wasn't just written
by some man? It's not really God's book. Well, first of all, there are
several verses that tell us all scripture is written in inspiration of
God. It's inspired by God. And holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. This is the Word of God. Well,
here's something else for you to consider. Man says he's not
king. He has no power. And we're not
really the servant. We're not down here and he's
up there. That's not really how, we're all kind of, you know,
we're all the same. No, no. In God's wisdom, not
only is he the king, the king became the servant. He became
what we are. Look over with me in Philippians
chapter 2. Philippians 2. Philippians 2 verse 5. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant. Well, I thought you
said he was king. That's exactly right. But he
made himself of no reputation. He took on him the form of a
servant, verse 7, and was made in the likeness of men and being
found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Well, why
on earth would he do that? He's God. He has everything.
He is everything. Why would he do that? Look at
verse 9. Wherefore, God also hath highly
exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Are we really going to boast
in our wisdom? Here we see God's wisdom. He took the Holy One,
the perfect One, in whom is no sin, nothing bad, every perfection. And He humbled Himself, became
like us, was made to be sin to make us the righteousness of
God in Him. And this said, every knee is going to bow, every knee
is going to bow. You know, that rich man in hell, he bowed. Abraham
told him, nope, can't do that, can't do that. No other choice
but to bow. Amen. So it shall be, we'll either
bow now or bow we shall. The next thing I see here is
that man's wisdom says that he wanted to come down. If he be
the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross. Look at verse 40, right before
that. Verse 39, And they that pass
by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that
destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself.
If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. They thought
he wanted to save himself. But they didn't know he could
not come down. What they just said about you
destroy the temple and build it in three days. When the Lord
said that, he was talking about his death that he should accomplish.
His body was the body that was going to be destroyed and on
the third day rise again. Why? Why could he not come down? Because by His death, He saved
His people. He saved all whom the Father
gave Him from eternity. All He came to save. After the
Lord arose, He met His disciples on the road to Emmaus. And here
they are walking and talking about the things that happened.
And the Lord appeared with them and He made Himself stranger
to them. They didn't know who He was. And they said, aren't
thou a stranger in Jerusalem? Do you not know what just took
place? They said, and then He made Himself known to them and
began expounding unto Himself throughout the Scriptures. And
here's what he told them. He said, Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things. They said, We thought it was
He that was going to redeem Israel. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things. This is the only way God can be both just and
justify the ungodly. If Christ came down, you remember
Pilate said it's the feast of the Passover. Someone's got to
be released. Well, it's either Christ or Barabbas.
I'm so thankful it was Barabbas. Because if Christ went down,
Barabbas would not have been set free. And Barabbas, picture
you and me. Our substitute died in our place.
Our blood can never put away sin. Over in Hebrews 10, the
blood of bulls and goats, the blood of fallen sinful man can
never put away a single sin. Only Christ's blood can and did
put away sin. If Christ came down, no sacrifice
for sin. If Christ came down, there'd
be no hope for you, no hope for me, no hope for anybody. No hope
for a guilty sinner. Now third, this great mystery that Jesus
Christ is God. You know, we just read that,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, because He is
God. He's one of the Trinity. He is
God. Look back at our text, verse
43. It says, He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him now, if He
will have Him, for He said, I'm the Son of God. Man's wisdom
again says Jesus is the one in need of deliverance. Look at
him. Look how helpless he is. Jews betrayed him. Sent him to
Pilate. Pilate delivered him to the will
of the people. Here he hangs on a cross. I'm here to tell
you, we weren't physically there, okay? But we're certainly pictured
there. We're the ones that crucified him. I'm ashamed to admit it,
but that's just the truth of the matter. You and me both,
the men that crucified him, they said his blood be on our hands
and on our children's. Well, we're their children. His
blood is on our hands, and that is not a thing to take lightly.
His blood is on your hands and mine. Today, men and women look
at the cross, and they look to Christ, and they see a failure,
an utter failure. I went to a funeral last year
of a family member of mine, and they said, first of all, they
thanked my family member, saying, thank you for what he made possible.
He didn't make anything possible. He was just a sinner like you
and me. Then he said, thank you for what Jesus made possible.
Jesus did not make anything possible. He obtained eternal redemption
for those he died. He saved all the fathers sent
him to save. Man's wisdom says he needs deliverance.
God's wisdom says he died to deliver his people. Big difference.
He wasn't the one who needed to be delivered. We are. You
remember Joseph when his brothers did what they did to him and
sold him as a slave into Egypt. Oh, poor Joseph. Look what took
hold of Joseph. We read the Lord was with Joseph. Joseph told his brothers in Genesis
50, he said, You meant it unto evil, but God meant it unto good.
And I love this. In Genesis 45 verse 7, Joseph
told his brothers this, this matter of deliverance. He said,
God sent me. Well, God sent? I thought we
sent. God sent me. God did this. God
sent me before you to preserve you of posterity in the earth
and to save your lives by a great deliverance. That's exactly what
Christ did. He came and we, by wicked hands,
crucified and slayed Him, and yet God sent Him, according to
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, to save us. Man sinned,
man must die. Only God can satisfy God. Christ
did both. Christ did both. 100% man, 100%
God. There's one God and one mediator between God and men,
the man, Christ Jesus. Man is separated from God. We
need to be reconciled to God. Well, how's that going to happen?
By the blood of His cross through Christ alone. I promise I'll
hurry. I'm almost done. Man's wisdom mocked Him, the
Lord Jesus Christ, for trusting in God. Look at it again. He
trusted in God. Let Him deliver him now if He
will have Oh, they laugh because they look
and they see someone hanging on a cross who trusted in God.
God ain't trusting in you. You trusting in God? God clearly
doesn't know you. You clearly don't know God. That's
what they thought. And that's exactly what we think
by nature. But here's God's wisdom. This is so glorious. Not only
was Christ trusting in God, God the Father was trusting in him. to redeem His people from their
sins. Over in Ephesians 1, who first trusted in Christ God the
Father? In the everlasting covenant, He's going to come save His people.
I will be surety for them. And He was, and He is. Trusted
in Him from eternity to deliver His people from so great a death.
I pray that we would look to the cross, look to Christ, and
see the successful Savior. Lastly, man's wisdom says that
he's not the son of God. What did he say? Well, he said,
I'm the son of God. There's no way this man is of God. There's
just no way. He's utterly weak and helpless. Here's what God
says. Acts 2.36, Let all the house of Israel know assuredly,
know this assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom
you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Oh, the perfect God,
man, the Savior of sinners, the Redeemer of His people. What
a mystery. I told you this is a mystery
to the natural man, to the carnal mind. He was God the Father's
only begotten Son. He said, I and my Father are
one. He fulfilled all the pictures,
all the types in the Old Testament Scriptures. You remember Abraham.
He took Isaac, his only son. God said, kill him. He'd already committed the act
in his heart. It was done. God said, whoa, whoa, whoa. Turn around there. See that ram
in the thickets? Abraham sacrificed his only son.
God sacrificed his only son. He said, God will provide himself
a lamb. And God provided himself a lamb.
God did the providing and God himself was the lamb. He is the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The only sacrifice for sin. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And only by God's grace will
we, like Paul, say, of whom I am chief. And what that means is
there's no reason God should save me. Not a reason. Only by sovereign
mercy, sovereign grace. That's the only reason why. Now,
again, man has no wisdom. If we think we have any wisdom
concerning this other than what God has taught us through His
Word, through the preaching of the Gospel, we're lost. We can
never understand what happened, what took place at Calvary or
in the Garden until God reveals to us that we are fools. But
like Paul said, fools for Christ's sake. You know, hath not God
made foolish the wisdom of this world? Please God, by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe that our wisdom ain't
going to save us. It's not. Well, I pray God will
give us His wisdom. The Scriptures say He's given
His people the mind of Christ. And if God ever gives us this
wisdom, His wisdom, we will look to the cross and we'll see what
happened at Calvary as the most beautiful thing that ever took
place in this world. The Lord Jesus Christ died the
shameful death of the cross, died as the substitute for sinners,
and I love this, He did it for the joy that was set before Him. And he's our blessed king forever
and ever. Amen.