that you would read the entire
18th chapter and 19th chapter together. I'm going to have a
few comments to make from chapter 18, but I'd like for you just
to sit down and read it carefully sometime today while you're alone. But chapter 18 begins, Our Lord
Jesus Christ took his disciples and went into the garden. And
there he spent time praying. Evidently, it was very, very,
very early in the morning, after midnight. And while the Master
was there in the garden praying, the Scripture says that a band
of men, I don't think these were Roman soldiers. I get the idea
that they were a band of men, servants, and officers from the
high priest, from Caiaphas, and from his father-in-law, Annas.
They came into the garden, that's when Judas planted the kiss on
the master's cheek and betrayed him. And the officers and the
men arrested him. And first they took him to this
man whose name was Annas, A-N-N-A-S. And he questioned him and he
bound him. He bound him with ropes. And
then he sent him to the high priest. And the high priest asked
the master about his doctrine. He said, tell me about your doctrine.
And the Lord Jesus said to him, I speak openly in the world.
I speak openly in the synagogue, in the temple. I've done nothing
in secret. If you want to know what I preached,
if you want to know my doctrine, ask these that heard me. They'll
tell you. And when he said that, one of the servants raised over
and slapped him on the face and said, do you answer the high
priest in such a fashion? Our master said, if I've spoken
evil, You bear witness of the evil. Tell me what the evil is.
But if I've spoken well, why do you smite me?" And that infuriated
the high priest, and he sent him bound to the judgment hall.
And all these people followed him, these servants and these
officers, very early in the morning, before the break of day. And
they led the master down to the judgment hall, like a police
station. It was called Pilate's house.
That was where the judgments of men were issued forth, and
they woke Pilate up. And Pilate came outside to them,
and they handed Jesus over to them. Now, they wouldn't go inside
the judgment hall, but lest they defile themselves. See, the Passover
was coming up. And it says in verse 28, they
didn't want to defile themselves. These men were very religious.
They were very precise, and very particular, and very religious,
and very orthodox, and very evil, and very cruel. And they protected
their ceremonies and went through the motions and they protected
their profession. And they wouldn't go into a police
station, they wouldn't go into a judgment hall unless they defiled
themselves. Because the Passover was coming
up, but they would send Christ into the judgment hall. And so
Pilate came out to them and he said, why have you delivered
this man to me? Why have you brought this man
to me this time of morning? What do you want me to do?" And
they said in verse 30, they said, if he were not a thief, a male
factor, if he were not a criminal, we wouldn't have brought him
to you. We brought him here because he's a male factor. And Pilate
said in verse 31 of chapter 18, well, you take him and judge
him. You take him and judge him according to your law. I don't
want anything to do with him. You take him and judge him. Now
watch him. Here they are again. Religious people. Religious people
are so exact and precise in their rituals and ceremonies, but they're
so cruel in their dealings with men. They said, listen, it's
not lawful for us to put him to death. We can't do it. We
can't soil or stain our hands with the blood of a man. You
do it. You do it. We deliver him to you. We're
not going to do it, but we'll let you do it and pilot Pilate
went in, took Christ into the judgment hall, and sat him down.
In verse 33, he said, Are you the King of the Jews? Are you
the King of the Jews? And our Master said unto him,
Do you say that of yourself, or does somebody tell you that?
He said, I'm no Jew. I'm no Jew. Your own nations
delivered you into my hands. I'm not a Jew. Your own nations
turned me over to you. He said, My kingdom, Christ said,
My kingdom is not of this world, or my servants who put up a fight.
My servants would fight, but my kingdom is not of this world.
Pilate said, Well, are you a king? Are you a king? He said, To this
end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world.
And every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. And that's when Pilate said,
What is truth? What is truth? So he went back outside. In verse
38, he went back outside to the people. He said to them, he said,
I find no fault in this man. I find no fault in this man."
And he thought he had an ace in the hole. He said, but it's
your custom in the Passover, it has to do with the Passover,
that I release unto you a prisoner. Shall I release unto you the
King of the Jews? Now, can I turn him loose? And they said, not
this man. Give us Barabbas. As for Jesus
Christ, crucify him. And that's when Pilate went back
in. and turned him over to the soldiers to be scourged. And
they took the Lord Jesus Christ down to the soldiers' hall, and
they tied him to a post. Now scourging, a Roman scourging,
was 40 lashes save one. They never gave 40, they always
gave 39, because it was unlawful to give a man over 40 lashes.
So they kept one out just in the event they accidentally went
over in their anger and in their thirst for blood, and in their
enjoyment of watching a man's back being torn to shreds. And
they tied him to a post, and then they took his robe off,
and they lashed him from his neck to the base of his spine
with a whip. And they tell me that those whips
had several leather streamers, and in the end of each one was
a bone or a piece of metal. And when the soldier who was
doing the scourging would come down across the victim's back,
he would jerk it this way and throw flesh over against the
wall, blood and flesh. And Paul was scourged three times. Three times, received out forty
stripes, save one. But they tore his back open,
just lacerated his back, and then they began to make fun of
him and mock him. And the soldiers sat him down
in a chair and they put a They said he's the king of the Jews,
and they hated the Jews, and the Jews hated them. And they
sat him down in a chair, and one of the soldiers went out
and plaited a crown of thorns. A king ought to have a crown.
So he came up to the master and pressed that crown of thorns
into his brow. And then they put that scarlet
robe on his shoulders, and then they put a reed in his hand,
just an old, hollow, empty reed. And as our master sat there bleeding,
And in pain and suffering, with that crown of thorns on his brow,
they began to kneel before him and to mock him and say, Hail,
King of the Jews. Hail, King of the Jews. And somebody
said he said he was a prophet, so they blindfolded him and they
began to slap him. And they say, if you're a prophet,
who slapped you? Who slapped you? The Scripture
says they took his beard and ripped it out, tore out the hair
from his face. And then they're spat in his
face. They ridiculed and made fun of him. And then in chapter
19, Pilate came out again after the soldiers had finished with
their mocking and their scourging and their ridicule and inflicting
upon him all this pain. Pilate came out in verse 4 and
he said, I bring him forth to you now. He thought this would
satisfy their craving for Christ's blood. He thought, surely this
See, Pilate's scared, and he's troubled, and he doesn't want
to crucify this man. He's going to avoid it if he
can. He offered him Barabbas and offered him to release him,
and then he scourged him, and he said, I'll bring him forth.
And I want you to understand, verse 4, I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, that pitiful-looking
mass of flesh, standing there before the people, and Pilate
said, Behold, the man. And when the chief priests and
officers saw him, they saw him, and evidently they saw a weakness. They were encouraged by his weakness.
Now, we know our Master submitted to all this voluntarily. He could
have called 10,000 angels and wiped them out. He could have,
with a word, spoken, destroyed every one of them. And I'm sure
they were a little apprehensive. They'd heard how he raised the
dead and healed the sick. The devils were subject to him.
And they turned him over to Pilate. You're kidding. You do this.
You do this. You do it. Pilate said, I find no fault
with him. I wash my hands of him. I want nothing to do with
him. But when they saw these soldiers, our Lord had just like
a weak, frail, powerless man, had allowed them to spit in his
face and lacerate his back and do all these things. And here
he stood with that blood streaming. gaping holes in his beard, his
face swollen almost beyond recognition, his eyes just slit, blood streaming
down his face, his hands tied in that mocking, ragged robe.
They got some encouragement. They got some encouragement.
And they said, crucify him. And Pilate said, you crucify
him. You take him and crucify him.
I don't find any fault in him. And the Jews said, we have a
law, we have religion, and by our law, he's got to die, because
he made himself the son of God. And brother, there was a silence
when that was said. And Pilate turned and looked
at him, and he went back into the judgment hall, and he took
Christ back with him. He's scared. It says when Pilate
heard that saying, he was afraid. And he went in there, And he
said to the Lord Jesus Christ, where did you come from? Who
are you? Who are you? And our Lord gave
him no answer, and that made him angry. He said, don't you
answer me? Don't you answer me? I've got the power to crucify
you or let you go. Our Lord said, you don't have
any authority over me at all, except it be given you from above. And from thenceforth Pilate sought
to release him, but the Jews cried out, and he took him back
out there, and I guess that's when he just washed his hands. He said, I find no fault in him.
And they said, listen, they hit him at his tender spot. All this other disturbed him,
but this got him. They said, if you let this man
go, You'll lose your job. You're not Caesar's friend. And
you're going to have a conflict with Caesar. And you're going
to lose all your ambition and all your glory and all your security. If you side with this fellow
and let him go, you're not Caesar's friend. For whosoever maketh
himself a king speaketh against Caesar. You can't have two kings.
You can't have two lords. When Pilate heard that, he brought
him forth. He brought him forth. And he
said, Behold, your king! Your king. And that's when they
said, and I read this slowly a while ago, but this is the
voice of the world. We have no king but Caesar. That's our king. That's our Lord.
Brother Barnard used to say, well, I know who you claim as
your Savior, but who's your Lord? Who's your Lord? We have a Savior. We'll take any Savior, but we
have no king but Caesar. And then delivered he them therefore
unto them to be crucified. And they took him and led him
away. And he bearing his cross, they put it on his shoulder,
and he bore it out there to that place outside the city wall called
Golgotha. And there they stretched forth
his hands and nailed him to the cross and his feet. And then
they lifted that cross in the air and dropped it down in the
hole prepared for it. And they stood back and laughed
and mocked and shot out their lips. And they said, if you trusted
in God, let's see if God will have you. Let's see if God will
have you. He saved himself, others, he
saved others, himself he can't save. The hymn writer wrote about that
scene, I saw one hanging on a tree in agony and blood. He fixed
his languid eyes on me as near his cross I stood. Sure never
to my latest breath can I forget that look. It seemed to charge
me with his death, though not a word he spoke. My conscience
felt and owned my guilt and it plunged me in despair. For I,
my wicked sins, his blood had spilled, and helped to nail him
there. But a second look he gave, which said, I freely all forgive. This blood is for your ransom
paid. I die that you might live. Oh, can it be? Upon a tree the
Savior died for me. My soul is filled, my heart is
thrilled to think he died for me. And I ask you this morning,
I ask myself and I ask you a very candid question. What do you
think of the cross of Christ? As I told that story, as I spoke
about our Lord's death, what were your thoughts about his
death? What were your feelings? I don't
ask you if you're religious. That's not my question. I know
everybody here is religious. Everybody I know is religious.
I don't ask you if you attend a place of worship on Sunday.
You do, I see you every Sunday. I don't ask you if you believe
the Bible. Most people believe the Bible, have some respect
for the Bible. I don't ask you if you've been baptized or a
member of the church. I don't even ask you if you profess
to be a Christian. What I'm asking this morning
of everybody in this building, what do you think? What do you feel? about the cross
and the death and the suffering of this man, Jesus Christ. Now, everybody's got an opinion.
Over here in 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul says there's really
but two opinions. A man's got to go one way or
the other. There's really just two. Paul, this is what Paul
said. He says in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 23. He said, we preach Christ crucified,
unto the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness,
but to them which are called is the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Back in verse 18 he repeated
the same thing. He said, the preaching of the
cross, the preaching of the cross is to them who are perishing
foolishness, sheer nonsense, but unto us who are being saved.
It's the power of God. Now brethren, this is an important
question. What do you think of the cross? What do I think of the cross?
The cross is not a mere religious tradition. It's not a mere religious
ceremony. I'm saying according to the scripture,
the cross of Christ, the cross of Christ spells the difference
between heaven and hell. This event, this happening, spells
the difference between forgiveness and condemnation. It spells the
difference between blessing and cursing. It spells the difference
between eternal life and eternal damnation. That's what the Bible
says, for it says without the shedding of His blood, there's
no forgiveness. It says we're not redeemed with
corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ. It says, "...in whom we have
forgiveness, redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sin. By his cross he has opened for us into the presence of God
a new and living one." So this is an important question. And
I ask you, you may be 75 years old here today, you may be 8
or 10 years old, or 12 or 16 or 18, but I ask you personally,
frankly, earnestly, sincerely, What do you think of the cross? I'll tell you what Paul said.
He said, God forbid, God deliver me. God forbid that I should
glory, that I should find any joy or boasting in anything but
the cross. In anything. In anything. When we say, what do you think
of the cross? Preacher, what are you talking about? Narrow
this thing down a little bit. When you say, what does the cross
mean to you? What do you think of the cross?
When you talk about the preaching of the cross, and the death of
the cross, and the agony of the cross, what do you mean by it?
What did Paul mean when he said, God forbid that I should glow
or save in the cross of Jesus Christ? Well, sometimes in the
Scripture the word cross signifies the wooden cross on which he
died. Sometimes. Sometimes. Not here, but sometimes. Now right here when it says,
he bearing his cross went forth into a place called Golgotha,
that's talking about that piece of wood. That's what it's talking
about. And when it says in Philippians
2 that he became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross, that's talking about that cross. That's what it's talking
about. That's what many people worship
today. But when I say, what do you think of the cross, I'm not
asking you what you think of that cross on which he died.
To be perfectly honest with you, it slips in. It slips in in places
it ought not. I want you to listen to a hymn
here now. I want you to listen carefully. I'm saying that many
people today, they have crosses on their churches. They have
crosses on their pulpits. They have crosses around their
necks. When they visualize the cross, they visualize that piece
of wood, and we sing it. Listen. On a hill far away stood
an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame, and I
loved that old cross. I loved that old piece of wood
where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain.
So I'll cherish that old rugged cross till my trophies at last
I'll lay down. I'll cling to the old rugged
cross. This is what we sing. and exchange
it someday for a crown. That's the reason we've got those
idols on our churches. That's the reason we wear those
idols around our neck. That's the reason we've got them
hanging from our Bible, is we've transferred the worship from
a person to a place. That's the reason people take
trips to what they call Holy Land. They want to get over there
where the ground is sacred, over there where that old rugged cross
stood, so they can worship it. They want to kneel in the garden
where Christ knelt, That land, let me tell you something, is
no more holy than this land under this church right here. And if
you want to pick, and they go to the River of Jordan and get
them a vial of water out of the River of Jordan, that old contaminated
river is no more precious or pure or holy than this river
right down here that separates Arlington and Nashville. You
say, Preacher, you're being too hard. I'm trying to keep people
from going to hell worshiping idols. That's what I'm trying
to do. And the only way in the world
that you can turn a man's face to Christ is to turn his face
away from his idol. You've got to go in and bust
up his idol and bust up his false impression of God and kill his
false God before he'll ever worship Christ. And that's what makes
people so angry when you go to killing their gods. Now, the
cross is not that piece of wood. I'm telling you it's not. Now,
sometimes the cross in the Bible means the afflictions and trials
of believers. Our Lord said, you deny yourself
and take up your cross. You cross, that's trials and
that's afflictions, not always sickness, not always a physical
handicap. It could be most anything. Paul
had a thorn in the flesh that God Almighty allowed Satan to
bring upon him for one purpose, that he might remember that he
was nothing but a man. God wants us to remember that,
we're nothing but men. Paul had been taken to the third
heaven, he'd seen things that wasn't possible for a man to
utter. And there was a possibility of his being proud and lifted
up and arrogant. And so God just gave him a thorn
in the flesh. I don't know what it was. People
say poor eyesight. That's doubtful. It was a messenger
of Satan sent to buffet him, to bring him down, to humble
him, to let him know he's still a human being, he's still flesh.
And this is something he had to carry to the grave. And he
bore that cross. Whatever the cross is, it may
be sorrow, it may be sickness, it may be trials, it may be a
weakness, it may be many things that God permits you to carry
to keep you down, to teach you, to chastise us. But when I say
the cross here, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross,
I'm not talking about that piece of wood, and I'm not talking
about afflictions. Somebody said recently to me
that An individual had been taking care of their mother all their
lives. Their mother, you know, was sick and weak and frail,
and this dear lady had been taking care of her mother all of her
life, and that was her special cross that she bore to have to
take care of her afflicted mother. And they said there must be a
special place reserved in heaven for her because she took care
of her mother. Now, I know what people mean
by that, and I take my hat off to a person that takes care of
their parents or takes care of anybody else. I take my hat off
to you, I just praise you, I thank God for you, I think it's wonderful.
But brethren, the way of the cross leads home. And if you
go to heaven having taken care of your mother, you'll have to
have a special place because there ain't room in Christ's
kingdom for you. Now, they'll have to put you off in a special
place. I don't know where that special place will be or what
it will be called, but it won't be his kingdom. That's just so.
I don't care how kind a person is to his mother or her mother.
We're still sinners. We're still rebels. We still
have violated God's law. And God doesn't say, except a
man take care of his mother, he came into the kingdom of heaven.
He says, except he's born again. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. It's Christ that saves. Well,
Paul speaks of the preaching of the cross here, and I ask
you what you think of the cross. Here's what I'm asking. I mean
the atonement which Christ accomplished for sinners on that cross. What
do you think of that? We studied in our Sunday school
lesson this morning when the high priest brought the blood,
which was typical, symbolic, and went under the veil and put
it on the mercy seat. That was the atonement. They
call that the atonement. And Christ, by one sacrifice,
hath perfected forever them who believe, who are sanctified.
And he went not into the holy place made with hands, but into
heaven itself with his own blood, not the blood of an animal, but
his own blood. And there he appeared in the presence of God for us
with the atonement. I ask you, what do you think
of that? That's what I'm asking. That's the cross. When I say
the cross, when Paul says the cross, the preaching of the atonement. Not the preaching of a block
of wood, the old rugged cross, but the preaching of an atonement
by a person who died on a tree. We mean the complete sacrifice,
the complete sin offering which Christ accomplished on that cross
for our sinners. I mean the all-sufficient, satisfying,
redeeming work that he performed and he perfected by his perfect
life and by his suffering, his submission to the wrath of God
on that cross. That's the cross. That's what
I mean. What do you think of that? I
say this, I need no other argument, I need no other plea before God's
law or God's justice. It is enough for me that Jesus
died. And he died for me. That's what
I think. Now I want to sound a warning.
I want you to listen to me briefly. I've jotted down some things.
I want to sound a warning. A warning note that ought to
be heard all over this land among religion and among churches. Let me say this, three or four
things. Number one, beware of any religion,
any religion in which the central theme is not Christ crucified. See, beware of any religion,
I don't care how beautiful the form, I don't care how charming
the officials, I don't care how intriguing and mysterious are
the doctrines, you beware of any religion if the central theme
is not Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Because I'm telling you, my friends,
I'm telling myself, you can read the Bible, You can study theology,
you can approve of the law, you can do great and mighty works,
you can talk of peace, peace, peace and love. You can talk
of all these things, but unless we by faith, know by experience,
the power of his redeeming work on Calvary's cross, unless we
can confess by mouth and believe in our hearts that he died for
sin, was buried and rose again by the power of God, and ascended
to the right hand of God, whereas our great high priest, he ever
lives to make intercession for us, unless we can enter into
that by faith and by experience and confidence, our religion
will profit us nothing. Our religion is dead bones. That's all. Beware of any religion, any works,
no matter how humanitarian, no matter how appealing, if the
central theme is not Christ crucified. Now, I tell you, we advertise
the friendly church on the friendly corner with the friendly people
and the friendly pastor. I get so tired of hearing things
like that. Don't you? That's so empty. Looks like somebody advertised
the church where Christ is preached in his suffering, death, and
risen glory. That's what ought to attract
people. That ought to be our theme, Christ in Him crucified.
Paul said to that church at Carlin, those people at Carlin, those
philosophers and all, he said, I'm determined, I'm determined.
I'm not going to be swayed by the city. I'm not going to be
swayed by the socialites. I'm not going to be swayed by
the rich or by the poor. I'm not going to be swayed by
the Christmas season. I'm not going to be swayed by
welfare. I'm not going to be swayed by the abortionists. I'm
not going to be swayed by the prophets. I'm not going to be
swayed by anything. I am determined, I am absolutely
determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Let everybody who will put the
pornographers out of business, let them put the abortioners
out of business, I guarantee you they'll be back in one year.
And put all the drug traffic out of business, I wish it could
be so. I wish it could be so. But our calling and our anointing
and our ordination is to tell this world about Christ who died
on the cross. And I'll tell you this, if they
hear it and God does something in here, They'll put themselves
out of that business. They'll walk with Christ. They'll
walk with Christ. I tell you this, another warning.
Beware of the error of the Galatians. You say, what was their error?
They made a little of Christ and a whole lot of something
else. Now that's what we're doing in this day. That's what the
TV fellows are doing. I know what they're doing. I
listen to them. They got just enough Christ in there so you'll
take the medicine. My mother, back when I was a
kid, gave us, I don't know why they got this idea, but every
Saturday you got a bath and a dose of medicine. I don't know why
that was. So help me, every Saturday we
got a dose of castor oil. Honestly, every Saturday. And
mother always gave us an orange, a half an orange. I used to wouldn't
eat oranges because every time I saw one I thought of castor
oil. Did your mother do that? Every Saturday we got a spoon
of that devilish liquid. and an orange to make it where
we could swallow it. You know, you put that orange
in your mouth, you know. Well, that's what the preachers
are doing. They got a whole lot of junk
and just enough of Christ so you'll swallow it. Well, he said
Jesus. Yeah, how long did he preach?
Forty-five minutes, he said Jesus. Well, he mentioned the cross.
I know. How long did he preach? Forty-five minutes. Mentioned
it. Well, isn't that wonderful? What else did he talk about?
Well, he wants us to send our dollars and send our tithe He
wants us to do this, that, and the other. That's the Galatians.
A little bit of Christ, and a whole lot of something else. There
are thousands of religious books. They're all over the shelves,
and there's everything in them but Christ crucified. There are
thousands of churches, and they've got crosses on their steeples,
but no cross in the pulpit. There are thousands of sermons
being preached every day in which men are exalted to duties, they're
threatened by laws, they're bribed by offers of reward, they're
warned of judgment in hell, but no Christ crucified. And I say
unto you, without Christ crucified, our religion is nothing more
than pagan ritualism. All religions have their laws
and moral precepts. You never ran upon a religion,
Buddhism, Mohammedism, Confuciusism, all these other isms. They all
have laws. They all have moral precepts
and codes. All of them do. All religions
have forms and ceremonies. They all wear certain uniforms
and burn candles and pray to gods. All religions have their
forms and ceremonies. All of them have rewards and
punishments. But there's just one, it has a crucified, risen,
ascended, reigning, redeemer. That's the gospel. That's the
unique character of the gospel. That's the crown and the glory
of the gospel. And here we're doing just what those religions
are doing, we're ignoring that which is our central theme, that
which is our total whole, that which is our justifying precept,
that's Christ crucified. And we're leaning to all these
other things. Somebody said, without Christ
crucified, the church is no better than a well without water. Here
a dry and thirsty and starving man comes through the desert,
and he sees a well, and there's a rope, and there's a bucket,
and there's the pulley, and he goes over there and crawls up,
and he grabs that bucket and drops it down. He hears it going
through there, and then, no water. No water. Without Christ crucified, the
Church is a well without water. It's a barn without hay. It's
a stove without a fire. You might as well take it and
throw it out. It's a lighthouse with no light. The ship comes
through the waves and right on to the rocks. He saw the lighthouse,
but there was no light. It's nothing but a universe without
a sun. A religion without Christ crucified
is a comfort to the devil and an offense to God Almighty. That's
exactly right. And I don't care how many folks
they feed this Christmas. I don't care how many children
they fix up toys for. I'm glad of that. I'll give some
money to it, and I know you will. I'm for it. I've got no reservations
at all about it. I'm for it a hundred percent.
But I tell you, if we don't push Christ crucified, We've got no
message for them. They've got no hope. Without
Christ crucified, you call on a God who won't hear. You're
under a law that's been broken and defiled. You face an angry
judge. You have a building with no foundation.
You talk of a heaven that does not exist, and you hide in a
refuge of lies. There's a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that
blood, lose all their guilty state. Alas, and did my Savior
bleed, and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away,
it was there by faith I received my sight. And there I'm happy,
and there I'll rest secure, and there I'll wait for that coming
day. Christ crucified. What do you
think about it? What's your opinion? Turn to
the book of Lamentations. Old Jeremiah and then the Lamentations
of Jeremiah. And here's the question. Here's
the question. Lamentation 112. Listen to it.
What is it to you? Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by, and see
If there be any sorrow like my sorrow, which is done unto me."
The sorrow of his soul, made his soul an offering for sin.
The sorrow in that judgment hall under the persecution of those
soldiers, under the ridicule of Pilate, under the false witnesses. The sufferings of that cause
is any sorrow like 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?" I tell you this, it's something to me. It's something to me. As I pass
by, I see, and I give you this briefly, something for you to
go by in your own thoughts. There's a scripture I preached
on years ago. It says they put him on that
cross and sitting down, they watched him there. They watched
him. They watched him. But I'll tell you, Mike sings
a song, I've been to Calvary. I've been to Calvary. I'm not
talking about over yonder, that place over there across the ocean.
I'm talking about in spirit, in heart, in the Word, in a revelation
of God's purpose and promise, I've been to Calvary. I can say
I've seen the Lord. Well, what did you see, Preacher?
Well, the first thing I see is this. I see all the promises,
prophecies, and pictures of the Old Testament fulfilled in that
one on the cross. Everything in the Old Testament.
I don't discard the Old Testament. I don't throw it away. I read
it, preach it, believe it. And I see in Christ the fulfillment
of it. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. The theme of the whole Bible
is Christ's crucifixion. Christ's crucifixion. He's the fulfillment
of all of it. There's that rock. There's our
Passover. There's the blazing serpent. There he is. There's
the atonement. There's the high priest. There's the sacrifice.
There it is! Secondly, I see God's eternal purpose in the
redemption of sinners fulfilled in the Lamb slain. He was the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This is no new
thought. This is no new idea. This is
no catastrophe. This is no tragedy. This is no
sudden impulse. This is God's eternal plan and
purpose from the world, from the beginning. From the beginning. Before there was a sinner, there
was a Savior. That's what Peter said on Pentecost. He said, yeah,
you crucified him, but you did what God determined before to
be done. Yeah, Herod and Pontius Pilate and all these old enemies
became friends and nailed Christ to the cross, but they fulfilled
the determinate counsel and purpose of God. I see God's eternal purpose
fulfilled in Christ. It's all up there at the cross.
Everything God has for the sinners in Christ, always has been, always
will be. I see love, indescribable, immutable, infinite, everlasting
love. I see love such as no man has
ever experienced, no man has ever known, but someday we're
going to know. I see the Father's love for sinners.
I see Christ's love for sinners. Oh, how He loved. I'm not talking
about this little silly love they talk about on the bumper
sticker, smile, God loves you. I see the depths of love that
no one can fathom. I see the heights of love to
which no one can climb. I see the outreach of love that
no one can imagine. I see God's love in Christ. God's soul love He gave. I don't know anything about that.
I'd like to, but I don't know anything about that kind of love.
You don't either. It's the perfect love of God, it's God Himself,
He is love. Could we with ink the oceans
fill, all the oceans filled with ink, and were the sky of parchment
made, all the skies of the universe that reaches out light years
way out yonder, if they were of parchment made, and every
stalk on earth a quill, a pen, and every man a scribe by trade,
to write God's love above would drain those oceans dry. Nor could
the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky and
star to star." Here's love. I see love. Fourthly, I see God's wrath. I see God hates sin. You don't
have to go to the Garden of Eden to see God hates sin. You don't
have to go to the stews of Sodom and the brimstone of the plains
to see God hates sin. You don't even have to go to
the flood. Go to the cross. That's His Son on that cross.
You say, you mean God will send a man to hell? He sent his son
to hell. You say you believe Christ went
to hell? Separation from God's hell. He separated from God. No, I don't believe he went to
the fiery pit. No, I do not. But I believe he
bore our hell on that tree. And I see the judgment and wrath
of God. But I'll tell you something else
I see. I see the fullness of redemption. I see Christ paid
my debt, he provided a ransom, that debt was fully discharged,
and I am free! Paul said, who can lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? I challenge heaven, earth, and
hell. Who can condemn me? Christ died. He's risen from the dead. He's
ascended. He ever lives to make intercession
for me. I'll tell you something else
I see. If I stay there long enough, I see a pattern for all believers. Would you learn how to love?
You're not going to learn how to love. I'm saying this with
all my heart. You're not going to learn how
to love by somebody beating you on the head and saying you ought
to love people. If you go to Calvary and see
how he loved, you can learn how to love. You want to learn how
to forgive? You're not going to learn how
to forgive by some fellow telling you, you'll lose your reward
in heaven if you don't forgive. Now you'll get there, but you
just won't be far up as other people. You know where you learn
how to forgive? When you go to the Calvary and you hear him
say, Father, forgive them. Who's he talking about? Me. He
forgave me. He's talking about me. Forgive
me. Me. I nailed him there. Forgive him.
Well, I sure ought to be able to forgive somebody for a very
simplest thing. You want to learn how to give?
You'll never teach people to give by telling them if they'll
give a tent that God will prosper their business. That's nothing
but driving a Jew bargain with God. That's all that is. That's
all that is. You're never going to teach people
to give by telling them that you'll put their name in the
bulletin if they'll give. Or maybe you'll put their name
on a pew. This is in honor of so-and-so.
Or you'll put their name on a window. You know how you teach people
to give? Take them by the Spirit of God and the Word of God to
Calvary and say, He gave himself. He gave himself. That's where
we learn how to give. Humility. He who thought it not
robbery to be equal with God made himself of no reputation.
and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
You want something to slay your pride, that's where it'll take
place, at Calvary. Calvary. Want to teach people
to serve God? Serve one another? There's no
place like Calvary. That's where it all is. And I'll
tell you this. I'll tell you, what do I think
of the cross? What do I think of the cross? This is what I
say, and this is what I think of the cross. I believe it's
all that God has for me from eternity to eternity. I believe
it's my foundation, it's my hope. It's my refuge, it's my life,
it's my holiness, it's my sanctification, it's my righteousness, it's my
redemption, it's everything from eternity to eternity, from now
throughout eternity, my hope before God, my entrance into
the presence of God, my right to call God Father, and I confess
that publicly before this congregation and to the whole world, if anybody
will listen. That's what I think of the cross. And when I went
into the baptismal pool and was baptized, I said to this world,
I'm crucified with Christ, I'm buried, and I'm risen with Christ
to walk in newness of life. I'm identified with Christ. That's
baptism. Now, I know people want me to
stand down here and invite people to come down here and get saved.
Salvation is not down here. It's in the cross. It's in Christ. That's where salvation is. It's
in Christ. You better look to Christ. Now, God Almighty, that's
where God does business with sinners, at Calvary. That's where
Calvary covers it all, my past with its sin and shame and my
future with all the problems.