The person really seeks and wants
to know and have divine wisdom. If a person is serious and committed
and not playing church and wants to know the living God, the living
God, and wants to partake of eternal life, I advise him to
go to this Scripture that we read tonight and just camp there. In other words, go to Calvary. In Matthew, don't turn there,
but in Matthew 27, it says concerning the people who were there when
this took place, it said they, sitting down, watched Him. Sitting down, they watched Him
there on that cross. And then I noticed while Ronnie
was reading the last thing that Ronnie read in verse 49 of Luke
23. And all His acquaintance and
the women that followed Him from Galilee stood afar off. Doing
what? Beholding these things. beholding all these things. I don't mean run in here tonight
and hear me preach a sermon on the cross, but I mean go to Calvary
and camp there. Not briefly, but stay there and
we'll learn something about ourselves and about God and about redemption
and about the cost of discipleship and walking with God. Now some
of you, many of you here tonight are familiar with these promises
and these prophecies of God. And you can see things that the
world has not been able to see. I'll just give you four or five
things that the Spirit of God through the years has impressed
upon my heart At Calvary, number one, I see as I watch Him there,
as I behold all these things, I see the full accomplishment
of that everlasting covenant of grace. The everlasting covenant
of grace. I see it at Calvary fulfilled. I see it accomplished in its
entirety. Let me read you a couple of Scriptures.
Over here in Hebrews 13, Paul talks about that everlasting
covenant of grace. That covenant David spoke of
when he was a dying. And he said, God's made with
me an everlasting covenant. Here in Hebrews 13, it says in
verse 20, Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good
work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing
in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and
ever." Back here in Hebrews 10, our Lord said, When he came to
this earth, he said in verse 7 of Hebrews 10, Then said our
Lord, I come in the volume of the book. And I feel that that's
talking about, in a sense, this book that we have because certainly
in the volume of this book it's written of him. But I believe he's referring
to that book that John saw in the hand of
Him who sat on the throne, written within and without. And nobody
was found worthy to open that book. That book of the decrees
of God, of the purpose of God, that book of the kingdom, that
book of the covenant, that book of the elect, that book of life. But there was one found worthy,
our Lord. And this is where He opened it,
at Calvary. because there stood one in the
midst of the throne as a lamb that had been slain." And he
came and took that book and opened it. And this is what he's talking
about here. "'Lo, I come, and the volume
of the book is written of me to do thy will, O God.' Above,
when he said, all of these sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings
and offering for sin, Thou wouldest not. You didn't have any pleasure
therein. They never satisfied God's justice
and righteousness and holiness. Then said I, Lo, I come to do
Thy will, O God. And He takes away that old covenant,
that covenant of works, that Levitical covenant, and establishes
the everlasting covenant. And then I'll tell you another
Scripture. Corinthians 15. I love this passage here. I just
long for the day when we shall see all things under His feet.
God's put everything under His feet. We don't see yet everything
under His feet, but it will be. And here in 1 Corinthians 15,
verse 24, then comes the end. When He shall have delivered
up the kingdom, the covenant, the kingdom, the church, to God,
even the Father, when He shall have put down all opposition,
all rule and authority and power, everything contrary to Christ,
going to be destroyed. If that's you and me, we're going.
Every thought, every will, everything that writhes and wriggles, God,
Barnabas said, against Him, going to be destroyed. All rule and
authority. He must rangely put all His enemies
under His feet. That's what I see in Calvary.
I see Him accomplishing that which the Father put in His hands,
the covenant. Back yonder before the angels
were created, before the morning stars sang together, before the
sons of God shouted for joy, the Father laid in His hands
a kingdom, a covenant, a work, a people, a church, and made
Him their surety. And He said, now you go bring
them home. And that's what he did on that cross. That's the
battlefield. That's where he bruised the head
of Satan and destroyed his power and redeemed his people. I see
that. And secondly, at that cross,
as I sit down and behold these things, I see a fulfillment of
all these Old Testament Scriptures. Oh, I see Abel's lamb. That's
Abel's lamb. I don't need a lamb. There's
my lamb. He's my lamb. I don't need a blood sacrifice. I have one. I see the Passover
lamb's flame at the cross. I see it. I see blood on the
door. When God passes through, I see
my blood on the door. I see the smitten rock. I see
the great high priest. I see, as I watch him dying on
that cross, I see the great high priest. who went not into the
holy place made with hands, which is but a figure of the truth,
but he went into heaven itself. Not with the blood of bulls and
goats, but with his own blood. And he accomplished eternal redemption. I see him. He's my priest. He's
my sacrifice. He's my mercy seat. He's my altar. He's my forerunner. He's my redeemer. He's my atonement. Everything. I said, all fulfilled in Christ.
All fulfilled. Then thirdly, I see at the cross,
and this is something the modern preacher doesn't know anything
about, I see at Calvary the full character
and attributes of God, who Himself smote Christ. I see Him, and I know men with
wicked hands, by wicked wills, took Him out there and harassed
Him, and mocked Him, and wounded Him, and smote Him, and spit
upon Him, and laughed at Him, and nailed Him to a tree, and
lifted Him up to die, and ridiculed Him while He suffered. But every
one of them did what God determined before to be done. They did what
God, He was smitten of God and afflicted. Almighty God laid
my sins on Jesus Christ and exacted out of Him full payment for all
those sins. God smote Him. God smote Him. God wounded Him. God Almighty
put Him through that awful, awful, ignominious suffering and death. And I see there at the cross,
I see the holiness of God. Why? Well, He spared not His
own Son because His Son was made sin for us. God will punish sin
wherever it's found. If it's found in us, He'll deal
with us. But our sins are found on Him.
He was wounded for our transgressions. for our iniquities. I see God's
holiness. I see God's righteousness. I
see God's love. I see God's love. For God so
loved, He gave His Son. But God committed His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
I see His sovereignty. I see all that at Calvary. I
see God. If you want to study the character
of God, go to the cross. That's where the character of
God is revealed at Calvary. His holiness, His righteousness,
His justice. He is a just God and a Savior. He died the just for the unjust
that He might bring us to God. His grace. Turn to Ephesians
2. His grace. Listen to Ephesians
2. It talks about what we were by
nature. You read all that. First three
verses of Ephesians 2. Look at verse 4. But God, but God who is rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ by grace. Grace, you say,
hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. He showed it at the cross, and
He'll show it in glory. His grace. Ah, but I must move
on. The fourth thing I see as I sit
down and watch Him there, and this is a This is a shocking
revelation. I see the true nature and character
of this human race. Did you listen while Ronnie was
reading there? Pilate tried three times to turn
Christ loose. Listen to it. Look down here
in verse 15. He said, No, nor yet, Herod,
I sent you to him, and lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto
him. I will therefore chastise him
and release him, for of necessity he must release one unto them
at the feast. And they cried out all at once, No! Away with
this, this! You notice, man's in italics,
I don't know what to call him. It's hard to tell what to call
him. Away with this. One time they called him this fellow.
this fellow. Away with him. Give us Barabbas. You know who Barabbas was. He
was guilty of murder. Secondly, verse 20, Pilate therefore
willing to release his spake again to them. Now, people listen. Listen to me. I must let him
go. I don't find any fault in him,
he said. But they cried saying, Crucify him. And he said to them
the third time. Why? Why do you want to crucify
this man? I'll tell you why. He's truth, and human nature
hates truth. All men are liars. You know what
Scripture says? They love and believe a lie. He's truth embodied. He said, I am the truth. Secondly,
He's holiness. Perfect holiness. Perfect righteousness. Do you know what mankind would
do if perfect righteousness came to this earth and dwelt among
them, they do what they did here. Spit on Him. Crucify Him. Because He condemns us. Hate
holiness. Hate holiness. Hate righteousness. Hate purity. They love a lie. They hate the truth. They hate
holiness. Thirdly, He's the Son of God. And they said, we'll not have
Him reign over us. God can be our provider and God
can sit in the almshouse and He can furnish us with food,
clothing, and shelter, but He's not going to reign. He's not
going to tell me what to do. That's just it. Not going to
have it. Not going to have Him reign over
me. And another thing, did you notice verse 25? And he released
unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into the
prison, whom they had desired, and delivered Jesus to their
will." Now all the free willers and all the folks who want to
talk about your will, I will, I will, I will. There's our will
right there. Pilate turned Jesus Christ over
to their will. All right, do what you will.
And man, they did. Do what you will. And that's
what this nature wants. It wants its will. It wants its
way, I'm telling you. It's like I told somebody recently,
I'm just getting weary of talking to people because they're not
going to do what I say. They didn't come to see me intending
to do what I say. They're going to do what they
want to do. Their will. Here it is right here. Alright,
do what you will. And you talk about doing what
you will. You ungodly, good for nothing,
low down. That's what they did. Spit on
Him. We're not going to have Him reign over us. Not going
to have it. That's not going to have it. And they hated him because of
his truth and his righteousness and his God and his will. His
will is what holiness wants, not my will. Thy will be done.
Lord, thy will. Show me your will and I'll do
it. Show me your will. Now, I'm going to do what I want
to do. So they did that. I see man's
will. There it is. Isn't that awful? But he had his way and he had
his will. And he spit on God. And these were religious folks.
These were the Pharisees. These were the chief priests.
These were the folks that were counting on going to heaven.
But you can't go to heaven by your will. There's a way that
seems right to us that takes us to hell. Only His will will
redeem a man. His will. There's their will. Alright, here's the fifth thing
I see and I want to dwell on this a minute. One thing more,
as I sit and watch him now, I watch him and listen. I learn once and for all, once
and for all, clearly, plainly, positively, without question,
how God saves sinners. There it is right there. I learned
how God saves sinners, reading this Scripture right here and
watching Him beholding these things. At Calvary, I learned
how God saves sinners. Let's read it over here in verses
39 through 43. In one of the male factors, verse
39, which was hanging, railed on Him, saying, If you be Christ,
save yourself and us. Oh boy, I want to be but the
other, don't you? I want to be but the other. But
the other. Lord, let me be but the other. Let me be but the other. Answering
rebuked him saying, don't you fear God? Seeing you in the same condemnation,
and we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our
deeds, but this man done nothing amiss, then he said to Jesus,
Lord, Lord, remember me when Thou comest
into Thy kingdom, when this covenant is complete and Your kingdom
is brought together, think on me. And Jesus said unto him,
Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise."
Now, let me ask three questions. Who was this man? Who was this man? And secondly,
what did he say? And thirdly, what did he experience?
Alright, who was this man? Well, first of all, he was a
sinner. A bona fide, genuine sinner. A corrupt, defiled, depraved,
and worthless sinner. Even this crowd didn't want him
hanging around. Even that crowd at the cross.
Somebody said, this guy is the outcast, the outcast cast out. That's what he was. But I tell you this, he's just
an outward manifestation of what we are inwardly. That's all. You say, boy, that
ungodly, depraved, vile, filthy, wicked, liar, murderer, yeah,
thief, keep on, whatever, thief, liar, murderer, but he's just
an outward manifestation of what we are by nature and birth. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity, altogether vanity. Christ is altogether lovely.
We are altogether wicked by nature. You see, the only difference
in this man and us, at this particular time, is he
allowed the inward nature to express itself outwardly in deeds,
and we have suppressed it. by God's grace. If our thoughts and imaginations
and wills were to be expressed in deeds, we'd be where He is,
dying on the cross. Isn't that right? That's right
now. That's so. The hardest lesson,
I believe, for us to learn Clearly and plainly is that Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners. And that's what he's demonstrating.
It's like I told you, maybe it was when I was up at Scott's
Sunday, I preached on the grace of God illustrated. You can teach
the grace of God in doctrine, you can teach the grace of God
In type, you can teach the grace of God in a lot of ways, but
the grace of God is illustrated. And here Christ is illustrating
how He saves sinners. He's going to save a sinner right
here in front of our eyes. If we sit down and watch it carefully,
we're going to see a whole lot of things. But we're going to
see God save a sinner once and for all. And this man was a sinner. And the hardest thing for us
to learn, clearly and plainly, is that God does save this kind
of folks, sinners. I know we believe it. I know
we profess it. I know we preach it. I know we
pray it. But deep down in the human heart, that old human righteousness
and human pride and human reasoning just asserts itself and kind
of impresses us Somehow in this salvation business, we've got
to do something. We've got to be something. We've
got to give something. We've got to say something to
gain the favor of God. But I'll tell you, we've got
an example here. Here's a man. Here's an example
of a hopeless, helpless, worthless, unprofitable, sinful soul, and
yet he's the object. of the Lord's mercy. And that's so clear. His mercy
is to sinners. His grace is for sinners. And
our Lord is demonstrating this as He did throughout His ministry
when He went to the Samaritan woman, Zacchaeus, the land of
the Gadarenes, the harlot at His feet. You know, there was
a songwriter years ago who wrote this. Listen to it. I'll go to Jesus, though my sin
hath like a mountain rose. But I know His courts I'll enter
in, whatever may oppose. And prostrate I'll lie before
His throne, and there my guilt confess. I'll tell Him I'm a
worthless undone. without His sovereign grace.
Perhaps He will admit my plea. Perhaps He'll hear my prayer. But if I perish, I'll go, and
I'll perish only then. But listen, if I die with mercy
sought, when I the King have tried, or that were to die, What
a thought, as a sinner never died. A sinner has never died
seeking mercy. Not a sinner. Not a genuine,
bona fide sinner has never died seeking mercy. He's always found
it. Because Christ delights to show
mercy to sinners. Alright, the second question.
What did this man say? Let's see what he said. What
did he say? We know what he was. Somebody
said one time he was so helpless he couldn't walk, he couldn't
work, he couldn't witness, he couldn't win souls, and he couldn't
wash. But more importantly, he couldn't
wait. He couldn't wait. So what did
he do? Alright, first of all, he said he feared God. In verse
39, one of the malefactors said, if you be the Christ, if you're
the Christ, now this is what all these old fellows said around
here, if you're the Christ, come down, we'll believe you, if you're
the Christ, save yourself and us. But the other, answering,
rebuked him and said, don't you fear God? Do you? I do, honestly. I fear God. Fear of the Lord
is the beginning. I fear God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. One of the charges against unbelievers
is there's no fear of God before their eyes. He said, don't you
fear God? Don't you fear God? If you want
to say that to folks, don't you fear God? And then secondly, He said that
Jesus of Nazareth was God. Listen, see, I'm not reading
this in. This is what he said. He said
to the other thief, don't you fear God seeing you in the same
condemnation? The same condemnation with whom?
With God. That's what he's saying. Seeing
you're in the same place, under the same judgment, suffering
the same death, with God. Now, I don't know how. Now, don't
ask me how he knew that Jesus Christ is God, but he did. Don't
ask me how the blind Bartimaeus knew that he was the son of David,
but he did. This man knew that Jesus Christ
was God. Maybe he had heard that Scripture,
Isaiah 9, verse 6, where it says, and unto us a son is given and
a child is born, wonderful counselor of the mighty God? I don't know,
but he believed Jesus Christ was God. And then thirdly, he
confessed his sins. He said, we're in the same condemnation
and we indeed justly. He doesn't deserve to be on this
cross, but we do. This is one of the things that
I missed today In these letters I get from these prisoners, some of you see these letters
from these prisoners that listen to our television, and they may
get this tape, I don't know, but I'll say it to them again.
In all the years, in all the years that I've had contact with
men in jail, only one, to my knowledge, that's
Tom DiGiorno, has ever I frankly, candidly said, I'm guilty. I did what I did. I killed this
man. I'm in jail for life. I deserve
it. This is what this fellow said. This is how God saves sinners.
But I tell you, when He saves a sinner, that fellow knows he's
a sinner, and he confesses it. And he says we're in the same
condemnation, and listen, and we're getting the due reward
of our deeds. We're getting flat out just what
we ought to get. Isn't there something? But everybody I run into, it
wasn't their fault. Somebody else's fault. Somebody
else is responsible. Somebody else is the problem. Somebody else, you know. David
said, Oh God, my sins are before me. You know, when you're talking
to folks that are out of difference, it depends on who you talk to.
You get too different, you don't even know you're talking about
the same problem, because it's not his fault, it's not his fault,
it's not this or that. I rarely ever hear anybody say,
I'm the one that's messed up. And that's what this man is saying.
That's the reason he's an object of grace. Because he messed up
and he knew it. And he's getting just exactly
what he deserves. That's what David said, My sins are ever
before me against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this
evil in thy sight that thou might be just when you damn me and
true when you condemn me. You better justify God or He'll
never justify you. I'm telling you, for the last
time maybe, if you don't justify God, He'll never justify you.
That's right. He that hideth his sins will
never prosper. Whoso confesseth his sins and
forsaketh them will find mercy. Can't do it. Just can't do it.
You can't lie to God. Old Ananias came there to Peter,
and Peter said, you didn't lie to me, son. You lied to God.
God's going to kill you. You didn't lie to me, you lied
to God. Would you lie to God? This man wouldn't. He said, I'm
getting exactly what I deserve. Just exactly what I deserve.
Now God's going to show mercy. And then he called Jesus Christ
Lord. He said to him, Lord! He's already
called Him God, now he calls Him Lord. Same thing Thomas said,
my Lord, my God. My Lord, my God. Same thing. Lord, if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord and believe in thine
heart, God raised him from the dead. He said, Lord, remember me when you come into
your kingdom. In other words, you're not going to stay dead.
You're going to rise from the dead. If thou shalt confess with
thy mouth Jesus to be Lord and believe in thine heart, God raised
him from the dead. Isn't that what he said? You're my Lord. I'm a great sinner. You're not going to stay dead.
You're coming into a kingdom. I sure would love to be remembered.
I sure would. You're looking at a man here.
Let me tell you something. You're looking at a fellow here.
If we sit at Calvary, you're listening to a man who has had a divine revelation.
This man has had a divine revelation. Now listen to me. If there was ever a time when
a person had a right, or would have been perfectly
reasonable to have said, this man on the cross is not the Messiah,
this was the time. Now, when He is out there raising
the dead, you might say, this is the Messiah. When He is out
there speaking in the blind sea, hey, the Messiah is coming. When
He was out there healing a leper, speaking with authority, but
now He has been arrested, delivered to the soldiers, and harassed. Disciples all run away. nailed to a cross. His face and visage marred like
no other human being. You couldn't even tell He was
a human being. He just beeped up. Hanging helplessly and weak
and frail and lonely and deserted even by God. All human reason would say He
can't be the Messiah. All human reason would say, He
can't be in the delivery, He can't even save Himself. But
this fellow saw something. God let him see the Messiah. God rolled back the curtains.
Human reason says, Save Yourself of us! Divine revelation said,
You're coming into a kingdom. I see it! I see it! Would you please remember me? Boy, every time you subject divine
revelation to human reason, you get in trouble. Old Abraham left
home by divine revelation, but then his eyes saw King Abimelech,
and he succumbed to reason. This guy is going to kill me." So he said, she's my sister.
Old Saviour, divine revelation, said, you have a son. She got
to looking at Abraham, old and weak and herself. She succumbed
to reason. She said, better get some help.
Old Peter stepped out of the boat and started walking on the
water looking to Christ. And then human reason says, hey
son, this wave's a rough, that wind's strong. You're going to
fall. And he did. But this man, by divine revelation,
he saw. He saw the Christ. Well, what
did he receive? Oh my goodness, listen. And the Lord Jesus said to him,
truly, verily, it means truly, I say unto you, I say unto you
of all people, you, you, I say unto you, today, this very
day, this very day, shalt thou, no
doubt about it, Shalt thou love the shalls of God, where my sheep
shall hear my voice, and they shall follow me, and they shall
never perish, shall be with me." That's all Paul wanted. He said,
I have a desire to depart and be with Christ. That's all David
wanted. He said, I'll be satisfied when
I awake with our likeness. That's all John wanted. He said,
when we see Him, we're going to be like Him. And this bone,
this no-count sinner, is going to have right now everything
that these great pillars of the church wanted. Because it's by
grace. It's by grace. Oh, you're going to be with me.
You're going to be with me. These light afflictions aren't worthy
to be compared with that glory when we're with Him. In paradise,
in paradise, you're going to be with me. That's the way God
saves sinners. Is there a sinner? who needs
saving. Somebody asked James Proctor
the question, what must I do to be saved? And he went home
and wrote a poem, a song, entitled, What Must I Do to be Saved? What must I do to be saved? Either great or small. Nothing
centered. No. Jesus did it. He did it all
a long, long time ago. When He from His lofty throne
stooped to do. What must I do? Nothing. He stooped
to do and die. And everything was fully done.
Because it is finished, was His cry. It is finished. Yes, indeed. Finished. Every
job. Sinner? That's all you need,
tell me. Is it not? Until to the Lord you cling by
that simple faith, doing is a deadly thing. Doing always ends in death. So cast your deadly doing down,
down at Jesus' feet, and stand in Him. in Him alone, gloriously
complete. I tell you, if the Lord God in
mercy and love can save that sinner, He can save any sinner.
But He saves them all the same way, by grace, through the blood
of the Lamb. That's how a man's a saint. He's
a saint because the blood of Christ The water and the blood
has sanctified him. That's why he's a saint.