Okay, we're looking back now
at Matthew 27. Matthew 27, and the title of
the message is going to be in form of a question. What do you
see? What do you see in Christ crucified? It says down here in verse 36,
and sitting down, they nailed his precious hand to the tree. They nailed his feet to a wooden
stake and sitting down, they watched him there. They watched him there as he
slowly bleeding out his life's blood. Now I know what these
religious self-righteous Jews saw. They saw a defeated, humiliated,
beaten, battered, and bruised man. That's all they saw. They
saw him whose visage was so marred, more than any man. He didn't
even look like a man. All they saw is the beating,
the mocking, and the terrible condition the Lord Jesus Christ
was in as a man. Most people, even most religious
people, only know the historical facts, the physical facts, the
historical event surrounding the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They talk about the wickedness of men, And boy, we do see that,
don't we? We see our own depravity on display
in what they did to the Lord Jesus Christ. But some people,
that's all they see. And then religious people talk
about the cruel treatment that he did receive, and it was barbaric
to say the least. But if that's all you see, Come
back and sit down and take another look at the Lord Jesus Christ. Our hope of salvation and redemption
from all our sin does not rely upon what wicked men did to our
Lord that day. They did some horrible things.
But our hope of salvation does not depend upon what wicked men
did. It's what God was doing at the
cross. That's our hope. It's what God
was doing. The transaction between the Father
and the Son. And God the Father making Him
to be sin for us. And the Lord Jesus Christ putting
away our sin. Obtaining for us eternal redemption
with His own blood. We know it pleased the Jews to
put Him to death, didn't it? They were glad to get rid of
this man. It probably even pleased, even though Pilate said, I find
no fault in Him. Herod said the same, I find no
fault. It pleased them to get rid of
this troublemaker. It pleased the Jews. It pleased
the Romans. But more importantly, it pleased
God to bruise him in our room and in our stead. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him, to wound him, to punish him for our sin. Now we read this recently from
the book of Acts, and this can't be more emphasized where it says,
that the kings of the earth in Acts chapter 4 verse 26 to verse
29, I'll try to quote it for you. If I mess it up, I might
have to go and read it. But it says, the kings of the
earth were gathered together for to do. Herod and Pontius
Pilate, the Jews and the Gentiles were all gathered together for
to do. What? Well, they did what they
wanted to do. Their wicked hand, their wicked
heart, wanted to do, but Scripture said they did what God determined
before to be done. This is God's lamb. This is God's
sacrifice for me, for his people. Who am I? As David said, Lord,
who am I? What is my house that you have
showed mercy to me? This is God's appointed lamb. This is God's anointed sacrificial
lamb that's ordained of God. We read in scripture that he's
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. John the Baptist,
the last Old Testament prophet, when the Lord Jesus Christ came,
To the age of his public ministry, John identified him as a Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of a whole lot of people in this
world. The sin of all his people that are in this world. The angel
from heaven said, call his name Jesus. For He shall save His
people from their sin. And my friend, He did. He didn't
fail. It wasn't an attempt to put away
sin. We don't say He made an attempt
for sin, do we? What do we say? He made atonement
for sin. Reconciliation. You see, the
Lord Jesus Christ was worthy to take the book to open the
seals thereof. For thou was slain and has redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, tongue, nation,
People under heaven. God has an elect all over this
world. And He's going to call them out
because He bought them with His own blood. We read in the book
of Acts, chapter 20, verse 28, where it says, God bought the
church with His own blood. Now, you ladies, when you go
to Walmart and you pay for your groceries, what do you do with
them? You take them home, don't you?
Why do you take them home? You bought them. You paid for
them. The Lord Jesus Christ, that's a homely illustration
for this. The Lord Jesus Christ bought His church and He's not
going to leave us. He's going to take us home to
glory and enjoy us forever and ever and ever. We read in Ephesians
5, I think we read this last week, that Christ loved the church.
Ephesians 5.20. He loved the church and gave
Himself for it. And then Paul writes in 1 Corinthians
6.20 that he said, you no more your own, you're bought with
a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your soul. Now let's take a brief look at
some of the things that took place this day before our Lord
died for our sins according to the Scriptures and how they mistreated
Him and what they did to Him, but in all this doing, they were
fulfilling the Word of God, the truth of God. Again, we see in
verse 26 that they released Barabbas unto them, and when he had scourged
the Lord Jesus Christ, he delivered him to be crucified. Notice again,
Barabbas was released and the Lord Jesus Christ was delivered
to be crucified. We read in the book of Acts,
Peter on Pentecost said in Acts 2.23, him being delivered by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and you
have by wicked hand crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. But him
being delivered by the determinate counsel, foreknowledge of God.
In the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, made of a
woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law. Barabbas was the guilty one.
He's guilty of murder, robbery, and rebellion. He is the one
that deserved to be on that center cross. He should have been crucified
for his crimes. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the
innocent one, took his place. The Lord Jesus Christ was holy,
harmless, undefiled, had no sin, knew no sin, did no sin. And
yet in this we see a marvelous picture of God's sovereign providence. He pictures sovereign mercy and
sovereign grace for us. But Rabbis, the guilty one, is
set free, and the Lord Jesus Christ dies in his stead. That's
substitution. And that's what happened at Calvary.
He died as our substitute, satisfying God's holy law and justice. We are by nature, like Barabbas,
guilty. I told a preacher friend of mine
the other day, I was talking about Barabbas and how they He
was released and the Lord Jesus Christ was set free. And I told
my preacher friend, I said, we like Barabbas, we're guilty. I said, we're not like Barbie.
We're guilty. We're Barabbas. We deserve to
die. Guilty before the holy law of
God. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We
deserve to die because of our guilt. Let every mouth be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God. Do you ever see yourself
that way before God? Guilty as charged. Guilty. Guilty. You say, well,
how am I guilty? Well, in Adam, all sinned. You say, well, I don't like that
arrangement. How have you done it on your own? Hey, you're still
a sinner, aren't you? You've sinned and come short
of the glory of God. In Adam, all sinned. In Adam, all died.
But you're a sinner too, born that way, shaped in iniquity.
Come forth from the womb speaking what? What do babies speak? Did you know this? Babies lie
before they even can speak. Say, what are you talking about? They cry a lot, don't they? We
are sinners through and through, and we deserve the wages of sin
as death, isn't it? We've all sinned against God. But the Lord Jesus willingly
takes our place, bears our sin, our judgment, and sets us free. He fulfilled the scripture there
in Isaiah 61 when he came to Nazareth. And he said there that
the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. He said, I came to heal
the brokenhearted and to set the captives free. And that's
what he's done. He set us free. Stand fast. Therefore,
in the liberty with Christ has set us free. Christ suffered
once for our sins and just for the unjust that he might bring
us unto God. I told you a week or two ago,
learn these two words and learn the gospel. Substitution. Christ died as our substitute.
Satisfaction. He satisfied God's offended justice
on our behalf. But I'm going to add a third
word. Is that okay? Substitution. Satisfaction. How about salvation? He accomplished
that for us. We have a Savior who actually
saves. In verse 27 down through verse
31, we see the vile wickedness of men. Not only the religious
Jews mistreated him, but also these Roman soldiers. We see
in the treatment of these men, they did their worst. But now
listen to me. While they were doing the worst,
God was doing his best. This is God's. Sacrificial lamb. God was doing His best. We see
several things that these wicked men did to our blessed Lord before
they crucified Him. And even what they did pictures
the Gospel and described for us the Gospel. In verse 26, it
says there that they scourged the Lord Jesus Christ. This was
a brutal whipping of the back. Now under the Jewish law, you
weren't allowed to lash someone on the back. more than 40 stripes,
so they always did that 39 stripes. But the scourging of the back
was a whip that had many different leather strings coming out of
that whip and in those strings were tied pieces of bone or pieces
of stone, sharp, and they would start at the top of your back
and they'd whip you all the way down, all the way down to the
base of your spine. Many men who were whipped and
scourged, when they'd pull that back, they'd rip their flesh
and they'd die because of that, having their hands up like this.
The Jews did that 39 stripes. But many say that the Lord Jesus
Christ wasn't punished under Jewish law, but Roman law of
which there was no limit. So I don't know how many times
they whipped his back. He was scourged many times. This was an emblem of the strokes
of God's divine justice against our sin. He was stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. But scourging alone could not
put away our sin. The Lord must lay down his life
for us. The Lord Jesus Christ must be
lifted up to die. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
He was lifted up on a cursed tree. You remember that scripture? Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. That's why he was hung up. on
that tree to show he was cursed, not only of men, but cursed of
God because of our sin being made his. Second thing we see,
they stripped him of his garment, verse 28. The soldiers took him
into the common hall and gathered unto him a whole band of soldiers,
several hundred soldiers, some said maybe five hundred soldiers,
and they stripped him. They stripped him of his garments,
and they put on him this scarlet robe. They stripped him naked before
God, like Adam in the garden, guilty and naked before God. The Lord Jesus Christ was stripped
and put to public shame. that we might be clothed with
his righteousness. He was stripped that we might
be clothed. Blessed is that man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness without works. We read in Revelation
3, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou
mayest be rich, white raiment that thou mayest be clothed,
that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. We are clothed
with His righteousness because He was stripped naked for us. That's why Paul said, I count
everything else lost, dung, and ruined, that I may win Christ
and be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
and obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. The third thing we see
in verse 28, they put a scarlet robe on Him. They stripped him
naked first and mocked him. And then they put this scarlet
robe on him. They did this to mock him as
the king, didn't they? That by the will of God, this
too is a picture of Christ being robed with the redness of our
sins and our Lord being made sin for us and bearing our sin
in his own body on the tree. God made Him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. Our sins are described as being
scarlet and crimson, and He was clothed with our sin. Listen
to Scripture, Isaiah 118. Come now, let us reason together,
saith the Lord, though your sin be as scarlet They shall be as
white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. He's wearing our sin as God made
Him to be our sacrifice for sin. You see, it's the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, that cleanses us from all our sin. And then in verse 29, the fourth
thing we see is that they planted a crown of thorns. and they put
it on his sacred brow, crushed it down on his head to inflict
as much pain as possible. They mocked him as the king.
Verse 29, and when they had planted a crown of thorns. Now these
thorns, I've seen pictures of the thorn bushes in that area. They were long thorns. They were
just not little, like a rose bush thorn. They were long thorns. And they took this thorn bush
They plaited a crown of thorns and they mashed it down on his
head, mocking him, well, a king needs a crown to inflict this
much pain. They mocked him as a king. And
again, all this happens according to the eternal purpose of God.
Remember in the garden after Adam fell, what happened when
God said there was a curse? Sin brought the curse of thorns
into this world, didn't it? Death and sorrow as a result
of sin. Listen to this scripture, Genesis
3.18. Cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow shalt thou
eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and also thistles
shall it bring forth. Christ was made accursed for
us to remove the curse of sin from us. Every time I weed my
garden, I think of that verse. Thorns and thistles because of
sin. Next time you run your weed eater
and try to weed out those weeds, think of his verse. Sin brought
in these thorns that we might be crowned. Here's the thing
though. He was crowned with the crown of thorns that we might
be crowned with the crown of glory the salvation in Christ. He suffered once for our sin,
the just for the unjust, that he may bring us unto God. Remember
Abraham's sacrifice on Mount Moriah? when God told Abraham
to take his son there and offer him up as a sacrifice for sin. And Abraham laid out his son,
tied him up, laid him out on that altar, getting ready to
take the knife and to plunge it into his throat to sacrifice
his son. And God showed Abraham there
was a ram caught over here and a thicket. Take him and offer
him up in the stead of your son. And he did. And we see again
a picture of substitution, don't we? I tell you one man who believed
in substitution, that was Isaac. That ram took his place. Thank
God for the lamb. Thank God for the one caught
in the thicket. And that's our Lord Jesus Christ.
The fifth thing we see in verse 29, that place to read in his
right hand, you see that? They said a king ought to have
a crown and a king ought to have a scepter, a reed, in his right
hand. They bowed the knee before him
and mocked him saying, Hail, hail, king of the Jews. Again, they mocked his lordship,
didn't they? They mocked his kingship. They mocked him and
his kingdom. They said, your kingdom like
a reed, unstable, shaking in the wind. We know his scepter
is not. His reign is not weak and feeble,
is it? We read in Psalm 45, thy throne,
O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of thy kingdom is a
right scepter. His kingdom is certainly not
weak, flimsy, but rather, eternal and everlasting. From everlasting
to everlasting, thou art God. The scepter is in His right hand,
and what does He do with it? As the King, He rules sovereignly
over all things. He does according to His will
in the army of heaven, among the habitants of this earth,
and none can stay His hand or say to Him, Lord God Almighty,
what are you doing? In the revelation Chapter 19,
verse 6, we read, and I heard, as it were, a voice of great
multitude, a voice of many waters, the voice of mighty thundering,
saying, hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion over all things, over all creatures. To the uttermost,
he does reign. And one day very soon, those
men bowed the knee, mocking him as king, but we read in Paul's
letter to the Philippians that God hath highly exalted him and
given him a name which is above every name. Does that that name?
Uh-oh. Every knee's gonna bow. Every
tongue's gonna confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. Everybody's gonna bow. They bow
to that day, mocking him, but in that last great judgment,
they'll bow and confess that he is Lord. Did you know those
men who perish in hell, every one of them believe that God
is absolutely sovereign now, don't they? It says in verse 30, they spit
in his face. They spit upon him. They plucked
out his beard, we read in Isaiah 50. He didn't hide his face from
shame and spitting. They spit upon him. They took
a reed. They took the reed. I don't know
if it was the one in his hand or they grabbed another reed
and smote him back to head. I can't think of anything more
disgusting for someone to walk up to you and spit in your face.
I mean, how disgusting is that? You would want to punch him back,
wouldn't you? The Lord didn't hide his face
from spitting and shame. That's one of the highest insults
someone could do to another. Our Lord was considered the lowest,
most despised, A person in his day, we read in Isaiah 53, despised
and rejected of men. They hated this man. And the carnal minded enmity
against God. He was made poor. Listen to Scripture.
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 8
and 9. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake
He became poor. Poor, despised and rejected,
that you through His poverty might be rich. Did you know that
you're looking at the richest man in the world? Right here. I'm the richest man in this world. Not with silver and gold, but
with grace, love, and mercy. That's true riches. That's true
riches. We've been made heirs of God
and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. What's better than
that? We have in the Lord Jesus Christ, according to his abundant
mercy, we have a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead to an inheritance that's incorruptible, that's
undefiled, that fades not away. Oh, it's reserved for you in
heaven. We are rich in all spiritual
blessings in our Lord Jesus Christ. They took the reed from his hand
and used it to beat him on the head, smashing down the crown
of thorns. Wow, this abuse. Wow, this torture. Wow, this shame. His vision so
marred more than any man. Wow, this abuse, shame and torture,
pain, agony. Our blessed Lord, that He would
give us everlasting life, joy, peace, all grace now and forever
with His stripes we are healed. He suffers pain and agony. He gives us peace, joy, and everlasting
life. What a Savior we have. We do
worship Him. Verse 31, they led Him away as
a lamb to the slaughter. He went willingly. He set his
face like a flint. No one could turn him from it.
He purposed in his heart to go to Jerusalem to be betrayed,
to be crucified for us. It says in verse 32, after they
mocked him, verse 31, they took off the rope from him, put on
his own raiment, and led him away to crucify him. And as they
came out, they found a man of Cyrene, or Cyrene, Simon by name,
and him they compelled to bear the cross. And when they would
come unto the place called Golgotha, that is to say the place of the
school, they crucified him there. They compelled this man by the
name of Simon. Another to bear his cross to
the place of the skull. Calvary means the same thing
as Golgotha. It was a hill outside of the
city gate. It says in Mark 15, they compelled
one Simon who passed by, coming out of the country, the father
of Alexander and Rufus, or Rufus, to bear his cross. We read in
Romans 16 that Rufus is mentioned as a believer. This man was a
disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Simon was compelled to bear the
cross. of Christ. He didn't volunteer
to do it. He was made willing in the day
of God's power. We see the Lord Jesus Christ
even today compels his people to serve him with love and gratitude
and to bear the message of the cross, salvation by his blood
and righteousness alone. He constrains us to bear the
message of Christ in him crucified. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel. But you know, it also says in John 19, 17, it
says, he bearing his cross went forth to the place of a skull.
Now, is there a contradiction here? I don't think so. I think
from what I kind of can put together, John mentioned that the Lord
bear his cross. I think from Pilate's judgment
hall to the gate of the city, the Lord bear his cross. And
from that city wall to Golgotha, they said it was about 800 yards
that the Lord was so weakened in his physical body that he
could not bear. And so they compelled this man,
Simon, constrained him to bear the cross. Here's what I see
in this. Again, we see the fulfillment
of scripture. In Hebrews 13, it says, for the
bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary
by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. That
is, those Old Testament sacrifices, when the blood was shed, put
in a basin, and they sprinkled the blood, they took the body
and took it outside of the city wall and burned it. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, the rest of that scripture says, wherefore Jesus
also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered
without the gate outside the city. Again, the Lord Jesus Christ
is fulfilling all scripture. He dies for our sin according
to the scripture. It says in verse 34, they tried
to give the Lord Jesus a mixture of wine and gold to lessen the
pain, but he refused. He was not afraid of suffering.
or dying for us, this was the purpose and cause of God from
all eternity. For to this end, to this purpose,
Romans 14, 9, Christ both died and rose revived that He might
be Lord, both of the dead and of the living. What we see in
verse 35, down through verse 38, we see these people surround
Him like a pack of wild dogs, and they sat down to watch Him
there, And that is the fulfillment of Psalm 22. Let me read it for
you. Many bulls have encompassed me,
strong bulls of Bashan, have beset me around. They gaped upon
me with their mouths as a ravening and roaring lion. I'm poured
out like water. All my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax. It's melted in the midst of my
bowel. My strength is dried up as a pasture. My tongue cleaveth
to my jaws. Thou hast brought me into the
dust of death. For dogs have compassed me. The
assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierce my hands and
my feet. I may count all my bones. They look and they stare upon
me. they part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture."
What they did here, verse 34, they gave him vinegar to drink
with gall, and when he tasted, he would not drink. They crucified
him, parted his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled.
Psalm 22, we just read, which was spoken by the prophet David.
They parted my garments among them, And upon my vesture did
they cast lots, and sitting down they watched him there. I said
all that to get to here. sitting down, they watched Him
there. Now what do you see? In closing,
let me give you this. I'm almost done. What do you
see in Christ crucified? We see, first of all, the fulfilling
of all Scripture. The fulfilling of all types,
pictures, and shadows. The Lord Jesus Christ dies for
our sins, but He dies for our sins according to the Scripture. How He was Buried, how He rose
again the third day according to the Scripture. How that Christ
died for our sin according to the Word of God. He fulfills
all the types and pictures of that Passover lamb, the smitten
rock. He was smitten. Christ is our
Passover, the sacrifice for us. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
He fulfilled all things for us according to the Scripture. But
we know at least three things. He dies voluntarily, doesn't
he? He said, no man takes my life from me. I have power to
lay it down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received in my father. He dies voluntarily. The good shepherd lays down his
life for the sheep. He dies as a surety, as a substitute
for our sin, the just for the unjust. So he dies voluntarily. He dies vicariously as the substitute. And then thirdly, he dies victoriously. He dies victoriously. His death
on Calvary Tree is not a defeat. Don't feel sorry for him. He
told those women, don't weep for me. Weep for yourselves. His death upon Calvary's tree
is not a defeat. It's victory. He said, I am he
that liveth and was dead. Behold, I'm alive forevermore.
I have the keys of hell and death. He reconciled us to God by his
blood. He was deliberate for our offenses
and raised again because he justified us. What is Christ crucified to you? What is the Lord Jesus crucified? What is that to you? Is it nothing to you? Is it something
to you? Or is it everything to you? It's
everything to the believer. I hope you can say, it's everything
to me. It's just not something. It's everything to me. He's all
my salvation. In Him was all the fullness of
a Godhead bodily, in Him we stand complete. There's a verse that
I love to preach from found in the book of Jeremiah's weeping
in Lamentation 1 verse 12. And you can take the words there
of Jeremiah and put them on the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ
as he dies on Calvary's tree. And Jeremiah said, is it nothing
to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger." Is
it nothing to you? It's everything to the believer.
Everything to the believer. God planned the cross from all
eternity, didn't he? God presided over the cross.
You remember Pilate said to the Lord Jesus, don't you know I
have power over you to crucify you or let you go? And the Lord
corrected him, said, you don't have any power over me, except
my Father gives it to you. God planned the cross from all
eternity. God presided over the cross. Who was in charge that day? It
wasn't Pilate. The Lord God Almighty was in charge. And God participated
in afflicting his dear son. I say again, it wasn't what men
did that day. That's not our hope. It's what
God was doing. They did their worst, He did
His best. It was the work of God that accomplished our salvation,
not the work of men. And sitting down, they watched
Him there. What do you see? I see everything. I see all my salvation, my redemption. I see all my righteousness in
Christ and Him alone.