Your Bibles are my test. Again, Matthew 27. And at the same time, I want
you to turn to Lamentation chapter 1. I want you to hold these two
passages of Scripture together. Matthew 27 and Lamentation 1. Now to refresh our memory, let
me read verse 35 and 36 again, Matthew 27. And they crucified
our Lord Jesus Christ, nailed him to the cross, parted his
garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the pocket in the book of Psalms. They parted my garments
among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting
down, they watched him there. Sitting down, they watched him.
Turned to lamentation. This was not done in a corner,
this crucifixion of our Lord. Our Lord was crucified during
the Passover week. in Jerusalem. It's hard to estimate the number
of people that must have been there in Jerusalem on this highest
of all days, Passover. Like the Ethiopian eunuch came
to Jerusalem. And like the Queen of Sheba came
to Jerusalem. And people all over the known
civilized world at that time came to Jerusalem. Because Jerusalem
was the capital of religion. Jerusalem was the city of God.
Jerusalem was the city of David and Solomon. And anybody that
was, anybody in religion dwelt in Jerusalem. And at this particular
time, the Passover week, they came from everywhere. Everywhere. Multitudes. Tens of thousands
of people were in Jerusalem. And this crucifixion took place,
the trial in Jerusalem, the crucifixion outside the wall. The hills must
have been completely covered with people witnessing this horrible,
ignominious death of a man called Jesus whose fame had reached
all over the world. And over in lamentation, hundreds
of years before this day, Before this day, hundreds of years before
this day, the prophet Jeremiah had spoken the words of Christ. Christ spoke through Jeremiah
and wrote these words. Is it nothing to you? What is
this event to you? All ye that pass by, all ye that
pass this way, ye multitudes, Jews and Gentiles from all over
the world, you pass this way, you're passing through, you're
visiting this city, you're observing this crucifixion. Is it nothing to you? Behold,
look and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, is
there any death like this man's death? Forsaken of all men, even
his disciples, The enemy of the Romans, and the Jews, and the
Gentiles, and Israel, Herod, Pontius Pilate, and Caesar, the
enemy of all men, deserted, forsaken, despised, and rejected by everybody. Everybody who was anybody rejected
him. And even God turned His back
on him. He walked the winepress of God's
wrath more alone than any creature on this earth has ever been.
Is there any death like my death? All ye that pass by, sitting
down and watching him back, standing on the hillsides, under the trees,
sitting on the ground, watching this take place, is any sorrow
like my sorrow? Man of sorrows, a man of solid
acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were, our faces
from him. His visage was so marred, the
Scripture said, he didn't look like a man hanging on that cross. Those soldiers had beaten him,
plucked out his beard, stuck him with their fists, lacerated
his back, his wounds were swollen, his tongue cleaved to his jaws,
he said, You could tell all his bones as he hung on that cross.
Naked. No sight like that. Is any death
like my death? Is any sorrow like my sorrow?
And is it nothing to you? No, it wasn't the most time. As you pass by now, listen. Lamentation. One prayer. Behold and see if
there be any sorrow like my sorrow, any death like my death, which
is done unto me." The Jews did it. Well, they called for his
death, crucified. The Roman government, well, yes,
they permitted it. Pilate washed his hands, but
that's foolishness. The Roman soldiers Yes, they
mocked him and ridiculed him and spit in his face and mistreated him as no man's ever
been mistreated. But all these are second causes.
All these are foolish men doing what foolish men do. Ignorant,
blind, children of darkness. But the first cause, the one
who ordained it, and purposed it, and willed it, and carried
it out. Is any sorrow which is done unto
me like my sorrow done unto me wherewith the Lord, God my Father,
hath afflicted me? It pleased the Lord to bruise
him." Now listen to me. Don't misunderstand what I'm
saying. These men did what God determined before to be done. Every one of them, highly responsible,
completely responsible, for every drop of spirit they cast on his
face, for every blow they struck with their fists, God will strike
them. For every word of hatred, for
every mocking tone, he trusted God, let's see if God will You be the Christ, come down,
we'll believe on you. Why don't you come down? You
saved others, yourself you can't save. Every word will be brought
into judgment. But God ordained this for the
salvation of his people. Now listen, is there any sorrow
like my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath
afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger? Now all the folks that are running
up and down the country talking about God loves everybody and
everything, there's no wrath with God, there's no anger with
God. You listen to the words of the
Master here. I'm afflicted by my father in the day of his fierce
anger. Think of it now. That same anger
and judgment that destroyed every creature on this earth by water
in the days of Noah, ground them in the muddy waters of the flood
in His anger. The same anger and wrath that
fell upon the homosexuals of Sodom and Gomorrah, that wicked
city in which God couldn't find ten righteous men. Not ten. He said if you, Abraham could
find ten men in that perverse, vile, filthy land. I'll preserve it just for the
sake of ten. But they didn't find ten. They
didn't find but one. And God took him out before he
poured out his judgment and wrath. And let me tell you,
America, they don't believe it. But the same God is angry today
with the filthiness and the perversion of this nation. And don't, you deliver yourself
from this perverse generation, Peter said at Pentecost. You
come out from among them. You let your voice be heard and
your opposition stated, because God's angry. God's angry with
the wicked. God's angry with the wicked.
Scripture says that. You can talk about how much He
loves them if you want to, but we'll find out someday that God's
angry with the wicked. It's the same anger with which
He judged Egypt and destroyed the firstborn. At midnight, God
walked through Egypt, and the firstborn son, and I'm telling
you, the firstborn daughter, From the pharaoh to the maid
behind the mill, God killed him in his fierce anger. 400 years, they had downtrodden
his people, 400 years. They had put Israel in slavery,
400 years they had mocked God. And in one night, God took vengeance. And there wasn't a home in that
whole country that didn't have a broken heart. and a crushed
spirit, and a wail went up from that city and that country, such
as never has been heard in this world since or before sin. The wrath of God. And this is
what is taking place on that cross. He afflicted me. He afflicted me in the day of
his fierce anger, when all the All the sins of all his people,
every sin of thought, imagination, of word, of deed, of past, present,
and future was laid on him. All the sins of all the elect,
of all generations were laid on Christ. He bore our sins in
his body. He made his soul an offering
of sins. And there on that cross, Almighty
God's fierce anger against us, his people, against our sins,
his sheep, against our iniquities, his church, against our transgressions,
all of his people given him in Christ before the world in a
covenant of mercy. All our filth and guilt and sin
were laid on him and Almighty God. in his fierce anger poured out
his wrath on his son. And he screamed, My God, my God,
why dost thou forsake me? He said, Nothing do you. And
those multitudes watched him. And multitudes today. This wasn't
done in a corner. This was done before the largest
congregation ever assembled to that day on this earth, and before
the largest congregation assembled since then by the words of those
who witnessed it, and by the word of the God in the Holy Spirit.
Well, it was nothing to those Pharisees and religious leaders
who hired false witnesses and cried for his death. It was nothing
to the people. Inspired by their leaders and
how often men and women are misled by covetous false pictures It was nothing to the soldiers
who scourged him and spat upon him and walked about the cross
laughing Casting lots for his garment They just sat there in
their ignorance in their darkness and watched him Well, what is it to you and me? All of us, let's sit down with
them and take a good look at the cross of Christ, at the person.
What do you see at Calvary? Is it just the death of another
religious martyr? Is it just the death of a reformer
who had some good principles and good words and good teachings
but who failed in his effort to get men to follow him. Is it
the death of an example of self-sacrifice that we are to imitate, take
up our cross and follow him? Is that just an example of how
men ought to live and how they ought to die? Is it nothing? Or is it everything? I can say this morning that as
I sit here and watch him in my mind on that cross, I can say
it is everything to me. I can say it is everything to
the living God. I can say it is everything to
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything. My just when
I surveyed the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory
died, my richest gain I count but loss. I pour contempt on
all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should
boast, save in the death of Christ my God, that all the vain things
that charm me most I sacrifice them to his I see from his hands,
his head, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingle down. Did there
such love and sorrow meet, for thorns compose so rich a crown? Were the whole realm of nature
mine, that were present far too small, love so amazing, so divine,
demands my life, my soul, by all, everything. And I tell you
why. As I sit here and observe him
and you, I speak for you. The first thing settled in my
mind when I observed Christ on the cross, I know who that is. They thought he was an imposter. The crowd said, if you're a king,
Tell us. If you're the Christ, tell us.
If God will have you, let him show it. You saved others, you
can't save yourself. You're an imposter. But to me,
I know who it is. That's the Son of God. That's
the Son of God. I say with the centurion, after
he crucified the Lord Jesus down here in verse 54, of this text,
Matthew 27. Now the centurion and David were
with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake and those things
that were done, and they feared greatly, saying, Truly, this
was the Son of God. That's who he is, the Son of
God. Now listen to me. The angels told Joseph that Mary
was expecting a man-child. And the angel said, when that
child's born, Joseph, you call his name Jesus, Joshua, Savior,
Jehovah, God my Savior, which is the prophecy of Isaiah. Call his name Immanuel, God with
us. That's God. And thus a child
is born, a son is given, his name is called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
The government's on his shoulders. That's the Son of God. That's
God, equal with God. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, and yet made himself of no reputation, took
upon himself the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men
for a while, for a time, lower than the angels. But that's God. God was in Christ. He said, I
and my Father are one. The Father said, Thou throne,
O God, is forever. God was manifest in the flesh. Understand? Now if the person
on that cross is just a man, no matter how moral, no matter
how truthful, no matter how loving, if he's just a man, it's a sad
event. But it's just another son of
Adam getting what he deserves. That's right. Because he lied. He said he's the Son of God.
If he's just a man, he's an imposter, he's a liar. And his bones are
still over there somewhere in Jerusalem, and his soul's in
hell, if he's just a man. But if that person on the cross
is who the Scripture says he is, and who the Father said he
is, and who the angels said he is, and whom he said he is, then
this is the greatest single event, greater than all events put together
that ever has occurred in this universe. See what I'm saying? It's the greatest single event
that to which all that happened previously appointed. and the
greatest single event to which everything that's happened since
then looks back. There's nothing with which it
can be compared. It's the death of death. It's
the glory of glories. It's the happening and event
of all happenings. It's that on which the whole
purpose and plan of God stands and depends. Why don't we hear more about
it? I don't know. We should. Paul said, God forbid
that I should go receiving the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I've determined to
know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That
moment is the moment to which all history has pointed before
and after. It's the greatest single event
ever to occur, and nothing that'll ever happen can match it, because
everything that went before and after depends upon it, who he
is. Secondly, I sit there and I see
in his death the fulfillment of the very first promise Almighty
God made on this earth after Adam fell. Let's turn to Genesis
3.15. Genesis 3.15, the very first
after Adam fell in sin, after Adam disobeyed and died spiritually. Darkness, death, cast out of
the garden. And God spoke, and He said, I
will. One day, I will. I'll put enmity between thee,
talking of the serpent, Satan, and the woman. Enmity between
your seed and her seed. Your seed, the seed of evil,
rebellion, wickedness and sin, and her seed. Her seed, woman's
seed. Any woman in here got a seed?
Nope. Any woman ever lived got a seed? Nope. Any woman who ever
will live have a seed. No. Man's got a seed. Woman doesn't. But this woman does. She's a
virgin. She's going to have a son. It's
not going to be the seed of a man. It's going to be all of her. The Holy Ghost is going to come
upon her, and the power of God is going to overshadow her, and
it's going to be born in her womb, a body prepared and made
by the hand of God, because it's the Son of God. God's saying
this back yonder when Adam and Eve was trying to hide their
nakedness with fig leaves and darkness is everywhere and sin
is coming. Death possessed the whole race
and the whole human race is plunged into darkness and disease and
death and judgment. God said, the day is coming. A woman is going to have a seed. Are you going to bruise his heel?
That's the lowest part of my nature, my heel. My head's where
the government is. My head's where the computer
system is. My head's where everything takes
place. My hand never moves till my head tells it to. My eyes
don't blink till my head tells it to. Everything is governed
right here. Head. My heel doesn't govern
anything but the way I walk, you know. That's all. And you're
going to bruise his heel. You're going to do to him what
they did to him. He's going to lacerate his back and spit upon
him and slap his face and pluck out his beard, wound and hurt
his body, his flesh. But he will bruise your head,
Satan. He's going to get you where the
government is, where the power is, where the mind is, where
everything's done. He's going to destroy you. Every enemy he's going to destroy,
all his enemies shall be under his feet. Satan met me, Christ
said, and found nothing in me, and I cast him out. That's right. Christ is the seed of woman.
His heel was bruised, his body suffered, and something people
say very little about his soul. human soul was made an offspring
for sin. My soul is sorrowful even unto
death. Fear him who is able to cast
your body and soul into hell." That's where he suffered. But
his spirit never died. Spirit of the living God. Satan
was defeated. I see that. I don't see yet everything
put under Him, but it's under Him. I don't see yet the fulfillment
of His victory everywhere, but it's the victory. Thanks be unto
God who gives us the victory in our Lord Jesus Christ. I don't
see the trees ever blooming. I don't see everything living,
no death. There's still death out there,
but it's under Him. And this day of the cross, that
day of sin came, and God made that promise. And that day of
the cross came and God fulfilled it, and that day of reckoning
is coming when God will close the books. That day is coming. I see that. And thirdly, I see in him the
fulfillment of every Old Testament type and picture, every type
of prediction. I read the Old Testament scriptures.
To some people, they don't read the Old Testament. And others
don't understand the Old Testament. And others think it's all just
a bunch of love stories and military victories and ceremonies of the
Jews. But the Old Testament all the
way through says someone's coming. Someone's coming. It's going
to be a priest like Melchizedek. It's going to be a prophet like
Moses. It's going to be a king like
David. There's going to be a Passover lamb. There's going to be a city
of refuge. There's going to be the desire of all nations, a
Messiah's coming. And when Abel, back yonder, shortly
after the garden, a few years, he'd grown up to be a young man,
when he built that altar to worship God, he brought a lamb and slew
that lamb and roasted its body and poured out its blood. And
that lamb is Christ-typified. And when Abraham was leading
Isaac up the mountain to worship God, and the boy said, Father,
here's wood and here's fire, where's the lamb? Abraham said,
My son, God will provide himself a lamb. He'll provide a lamb,
he'll provide himself the lamb, and he'll provide a lamb for
himself. And Christ is that lamb prophesied. See Moses and Abram,
as they get a lamb, one for every house, and the Jews in Egypt
kill that lamb, roast its body, eat its body, and put the blood
on the devil. Because God's coming through. God's coming through in a fierce
anger to destroy the firstborn. And they put the blood. There's
the blood applied. That's Christ's blood. You don't
think the blood of the lamb held back the judgment of God, do
you? That animal? It's the blood of God's lamb
that holds back the judgment of God. You don't think the blood
of a goat could keep God from punishing a sinner, do you? No. But the blood of Christ can.
And that's the blood applied. And then when Isaiah said, He'll
grow up as a tender plant. He'll grow up as a root out of
dry ground. He'll have no form, no comeliness,
no beauty that we should desire Him. He's a man of solace, acquainted
with greed. We hear as it were our faces
from Him. He's despised and rejected, but He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
He, not an animal, He, a man. That's the Lamb personified,
typified, prophesied, blood applied, personified. And then one day,
when Jesus of Nazareth walked by, John the Baptist said, Behold
the Lamb of God. The Lamb identified. And on that
cross is our Lamb crucified. And one day, we're going to see
the Lamb in the midst of the throng, glorified. That's what I feel. I see in
his death also the character of God. I see the love of God. Show me the love of God. Herein
is love. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us and gave his Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. I see the love of God in that
cross. And I see, secondly, the holiness of God. God will punish
sin. God must punish sin. God cannot
clear the guilty. God cannot overlook sin. He's
got to punish sin. The judge of the earth will do
right. What would you do if we elected judges that wouldn't
punish criminals? Our streets would be overrun
with criminals. What will we do with a God who's
all love and no judgment and no holiness and no wrath? He
must punish sin. He must put evil where it can
do no more harm. He must put the rebels where
they can do no more harm. If God does not change a man
and redeem a man and restore a man, He's got to put him out
of the way somehow so he can't mess up the next kingdom. Satan,
God will put him in the bottomless pit, and with him all rebellion. I see the holiness of God as
he spared not his own son. I see the justice of God. I see
the wisdom of God. How can God be just and justify?
How can he be clean that's born of woman? Tell me. My sins are
many, yours are. We don't want to even talk about
them. We don't want them brought to life. We hope nobody will
ever find out. But God knows. And how's God
going to put them away? Just one way. Punish us or punish
somebody in our state. That's right. Back in Civil War, I'm not sure
I agree with this, this practice, but there were men who paid other
men to go to the war for them. Kept them out of the war. In
fact, there was a president, was it Cleveland? One of the
presidents. You could pay $750, isn't that
right, to somebody and he'd go to war for you. Have you looked
it up? One of the presidents, John D.
Rockefeller paid somebody to take his place in Civil War.
That's right. And the rules. That's right.
It was a stat. Mr. Lincoln, in fact, to fulfill that rule and law
paid a man to take his place. That's what the book said. He
paid a man. He paid also. But he, of course,
was our president. Wasn't supposed to. But these
other men paid a substitute to take their place. And some of
the substitutes died. Well, I didn't pay my substitutions. But God gave him. God provided
my substitutions. And he took all the conflict
and the war and my captain of salvation paid the price. And
I'm free. I'm free. That's God's wisdom. Christ, the just, died for the
unjust to bring us to God. He purged our sins with his own
blood. That paid for us. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin left a crimson stain. He
washed it white as snow. I see God's wisdom in the cross.
I say the cross is the only way that God can be just and justify
us. Do you see that? It's not an
effort on the part of God. It's an act on the part of God.
God didn't crucify Christ to make salvation available. He
literally, actually bore our sin. He was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was
upon Him. By stripes I am healed. He went,
I don't have to go. He died, I don't have to die.
He took the sin, paid for it, and I don't have to pay it. That's right. I see God's faithfulness. He's faithful. That's what Abraham
based his faith upon, God's faithfulness. He said, Sarah believed he was
faithful who promised. Abraham believed God would do
all that he promised. And that was imputed to him for
righteousness. He believed God, the cross hadn't
even happened. But Abraham knew it would because
God said it would. And when I see it actually happening
and Christ actually dying, I rest in God's faithfulness. He spared
not His own Son. How should He not with Him freely
give us all things? And the last thing I see is this.
I see His death actually putting away, once for all, our sins,
our condemnation, and our judgment, once for all. His death turned
to Hebrews 1. Let's read this, and then I want
Brother Kevin to sing a song for us. Hebrews 1, verse 3. For being the brightness of his
glory, the express image of his person, upholding all things
by the word of his power, when he had by himself by himself
alone and by the sacrifice of himself purged our sins, sat down the right hand of the
majesty on high." What am I saying? One sacrifice of one man was
sufficient by himself. What am I saying? It was effectual. He purged our sins. My sins have
been put away ever since he died. past, present, and future, because
when Christ died, they were all future. And every believer, our
sins were put away, purged. And one final thing, and after
he purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. He fulfilled everything required. He sat down. A man does not sit
down who has not finished his work. And our Lord said, it's
finished, and sat down. Now then, we sit down and watch
him on the cross. That's our death. He died. He gave up the ghost. They took
him down. I followed him to the grave. They put him in the grave.
My death, my burial. My flesh, my dust. My bones. My sins. My mortality. Put in the grave. I stay there. One day, two days, on the third
day, he walks out. And when he walked out, I walked
out. His death is my death. His burial is my burial. His
resurrection is my resurrection. He hath raised us together with
Christ. And I walk out there forty days
later, and on the mountain, he ascends up to heaven, and his
ascension is mine. He raised us with Christ and
seated us in Christ on the right hand of the Father. That's what
I see in the cross. It's finished.