Christ - Our Profession

Our subject today is Christ,
Our Profession. And our text will be taken from
the book of Matthew, chapter 27, verse 36. Very short text,
but very meaningful. And sitting down, they watched
him there. And sitting down, they watched
him there. Now God the Father delivered
his Son over into the hands of wicked men. And this religious
crowd, crying for his death, crying for his blood, turned
him over to Herod. And Herod turned him over to
Pilate, and Pilate turned him over to the soldiers. And the
soldiers took him into the common hall, and there they scourged
him. And there they slapped him with their open palm, and hit
him with their fists, and plucked out his beard. And finally they
began to mock him in the character of King, Jesus of Nazareth, the
King of the Jews. They took a crown of thorns and
placed it upon his head. They took an old red rug and
threw it over his shoulders so that he could have a robe for
the king. And then they took a hollow reed
and put it in his hand and they began to bow out there before
him and they began to taunt and ridicule and mock him and say,
Hail, King of the Jews! Hail, King of the Jews! And then
after they had exhausted their mockery, They took him outside
the city walls of Jerusalem, and there they nailed him to
a cross, lifting him up in humiliation and nakedness and shame, and
crucified him between two thieves. And all the time they'd walk
around this cross and they were shouting obscenities and wicked
things up to him. They'd look up there and say,
if you are the Christ, come down from the cross and we'll believe
on you. He trusted in God, let's see
if God will have him now. And down there around the foot
of the cross they cast lots for his only possession, his robe.
And he cried, I thirst, and they put vinegar mingled with gall
on hyssop and stuck it up in his mouth and just kept up this
thing. They shot out their lips and
they laughed and jeered and mocked and ridiculed him and rounded
around the cross for a long time. Finally, I believe they got tired
of all of it. They got weary. Christ was on
that cross for about six hours. And finally, the scripture says,
and they sat down, and they sat down, and they watched him, and
they watched him. I challenge you today, you listening
to this program, I challenge you, with this preacher, I challenge
you to sit down before the cross of Christ, I know we can't actually
see his cross or see him die. He's already died once and for
all. He's already made one atonement,
one sacrifice, and he's at the right hand of the Father. But
in his word, we can reconstruct this scene. And in our imagination,
we can sit down before that awful cross and we can watch him. And
I challenge you to sit down and watch him and consider this man
Jesus Christ. Have you ever done that? Who
is this man? Who is this person, Jesus Christ?
Well, he said, I and my Father are one. That's what he said.
I and the Father are one. If you'd known me, you'd known
my Father also. You neither know my Father nor
me. He said again, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
Philip said, show us the Father. He said, you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. On another occasion, they said,
well, you're not even fifty years old. What do you mean by knowing
Abraham? He said, before Abraham was,
I am. Again, he said, I came down from
heaven. I came down from heaven. Who is this man? Well, the centurion,
after Christ had died on that cross, looked up after gazing
into his face as he died and said, surely this man was the
Son of God. the Son of God. Paul wrote, God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. The God-man,
that's who he is. Why'd he come into this world?
If you sit there on the ground and you watch him there, who
is this man? Jesus Christ. Why'd he come into
this world? What's he doing here in the first
place? The Scripture says he made the world, and he was in
the world, and the world knew him not. He came in his own,
and his own received him not. Why did he come into this world?
Well, he said, the Son of Man is come into this world to seek
and to save that which was lost. That's why he said he came. He
said, I am come to do the will of him that sent me. And this
is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he hath
given me I'll lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day.
He that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, hath everlasting life.
Listen to this. I am come that you might have
life, and have it more abundantly." Well, if he came to save, if
he came to give life, if he came to do a work, why did he die
on a cross? Well, he said that's why he came,
was to die. He said this, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. that whosoever believeth on him
should not perish, but have everlasting life." He said he came to die.
Over and over again he made this statement, My hour is not yet
come. My hour is not yet come. And
finally in Gethsemane's garden in John 17, he prayed, Father,
the hour is come. And his disciples tried to get
him not to go to Jerusalem, Because they knew he was going to be
killed. And they said, well, just don't go. And this is what
he said in John 12, 27. What shall I say? Father, save
me from this hour, this hour of humiliation, this hour of
suffering, this hour of death. For this cause came I to this
hour. And then he said, he sat around
the table with his disciples before the cross. He broke bread. He took bread and broke it right
in their presence. And he handed it to them. And
he said, now eat it. This is my body broken for you." And
then he took wine and blessed the glass and gave it to them
and he said, Now this is my blood which is shed for you. This is
why I came. I came that you might have life, life in my death. I died that you may live. I suffered
that you might have life. I bore your guilt and your sins
that you might not bear them. The prophet Jeremiah wrote in
Lamentations talking about our Lord, Is it nothing to you? Is
it nothing to you, all ye that pass by," they pass by and shoot
out their lips and say, if you be the Christ, come down, we'll
believe on you. He trusted in God, let's see
if God will help. 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," watch it now, "...wherewith the Lord hath afflicted
me in the day of his anger." Who afflicted him? The Lord afflicted
him. What is it to you? Is it nothing
to you? Well, I'll tell you this, you
can't wash your hands of this man, Jesus Christ. Now, you can
wash your hands of me, you can wash your hands of any denomination,
because salvation is not in a preaching, it's not in a denomination, and
you can wash your hands of a lot of other things, but you can't
wash your hands of this man, Jesus Christ. That's right. You'd better sit down and watch
him. And you'd better come to some conclusion about who this
man is and what your relationship with him is. You know what Paul
wrote in Hebrews 4.13? Listen to this. All things are
naked and open to him with whom we have to do. With whom we have
to do. I say this to everybody listening
to this program today. Jesus Christ is on your hands. I didn't say in your hands. I
said, on your hands. Pilate said, what shall I do
with Jesus, which is called Christ? And Christ said, you couldn't
have any power over me at all, except it were given you from
above. But in another sense, Pilate was responsible for delivering
Christ into the hands of those people. Christ was on his hands. And he got a basin of water,
and he tried to wash his hand, and he said to all the people,
and I imagine in hell he's trying to still get the stain off his
hand, but he said, now you see to it, I've got nothing to do
with this just man. You think that that means you
have nothing to do with him because you washed your hands of him? Paul said, all things are open
to him with whom we have to do. We have to do. We've got to do
something about Jesus Christ. You must determine what you think
of Christ. You must determine where you
stand in relation to this man. You must determine what your
interest will be in him. You must determine whether or
not you believe or reject, whether or not you receive or turn away
from. Christ said, he that's not with
me is against me. Now that's right. He that gathers
not with me scattereth abroad. He that bringeth not glory to
my name brings shame to my kingdom. So you sit down. Now you just
take a few minutes, as the old preacher used to say, if you're
not in too big a hurry to get to the judgment, if you're not
in too big a hurry to hear God say, cast him into outer darkness,
if you're not in too big a hurry to get into everlasting condemnation,
sit down and watch him, and watch him. Everything in this Bible,
everything in this Bible before Calvary points to the cross,
to that man on the cross. everything in this Bible before
Calvary points to that man on the cross. From Genesis 3.15,
when God said to the serpent, I'll put enmity between thee
and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, that's the virgin-born
Son of God, her seed, the seed of woman. From that very all
the way to Calvary. Everything, Abel's sacrifice,
the Passover lamb, the high priest, the tabernacle, the rock, the
brazen serpent, the smitten rock, all these things point to that
man on the cross, every one of them. And from Calvary to this
present day, everything points back to the cross, and everything
in the New Testament points to the cross. Who is he? Who is
he? Why did he come into this world?
Why did he die on that cross? Where is he now? What interest,
if any, do I have in him? Now, this is too important for
you to put it in the hands of a preacher. I know a lot of people
who are preacher followers. They just worship at the shrine
of some preacher. Now, you'd better stop that.
This is too important for you to commit your eternal destiny
and your eternal soul and your relationship with the Son of
God into the hands of a man. or into the hands of a denomination,
or to trust your soul to a doctrine, or to a feeling, or to an experience,
or to a moral standard. The thing to do is gaze upon
Him, turn your eyes on Christ, look full into His wonderful
face, and ask the Spirit of God to reveal to your heart who He
is and why He died on that cross. You know what Paul said? God
forbid that I should glory faith in the cross of Jesus Christ.
by which the world is crucified to me and I unto the world. I
am determined, he said, to that great city of Corinth. I am determined to that great
city with its philosophers and orators and intellectuals. He
said, I am determined to that great city of political power
and art and everything else. I am determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him on a cross and him crucified. Old Bishop J.C. Ryle, one of
England's greatest preachers, said this, I venture the whole
of my salvation on Christ crucified. I cast loose entirely and completely
from all of the hope. I do not rest on what I'm doing
or what I've done or what I shall do. In the matter of my soul's
salvation, Christ is all from beginning to end, from Alpha
to Omega. He's the author and finisher
of my faith. My hope is in Him. Heaven is before me and Christ
is the door. Hell is beneath me and only Christ
can deliver. The law is against me and only
Christ can honor it. Justice has a claim on me and
only Christ can satisfy it. Death awaits me and only Christ
can remove the stain. The grave is my destiny. Christ
is my victory. My friends, this is where it's
all decided. It's not decided at an altar. It's not decided
in a pool of water. It's not decided at a mass. It's
not decided by a few words being said over you, it's all decided
at the cross. That's where God saves sinners,
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 now I'm happy all the day. There's a fountain filled
with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath
that flood. lose all their guilty stains.
That's where it's all decided. God, somebody said God's put
all his eggs in one basket. Jesus Christ the Lord. This is
where it's decided. A man's attitude towards the
Christ of the cross, a man's attitude towards the Christ of
the cross determines his eternal destiny, whether to eternal wrath
or eternal life. And I insist, I insist that you
sit down and watch him there. I insist that you consider, I
insist that you determine in your heart something about this
man, Jesus Christ. Who is he? Who is he? Something
about your interest in him. I have already considered that,
and let me tell you what I see at Calvary. I sat down one day
and I took a look at the cross of Christ. I took a look at the
cross of Christ, and you know what I saw? First thing I saw,
I saw the Father's hand in it all. His death was no accident. It pleased the Father to bruise
Him. I saw Him on that cross and I knew He was there because
the Father put Him there. The Father sent Him there. That's
right. The Scripture says that all that this man did was in
the eternal purpose and plan of God. That's right. He was
the Lamb slain before God ever created the world. Before God
ever laid the first footer for this world's creation, Christ
was the Lamb slain in the purpose and plan of God. That's right.
Look at Acts 2.23, Peter preaching to that bunch of folks who had
crucified the Lord, he said, ìHim being delivered by the determinate
counsel and the foreknowledge or foreordination of God, ye
have taken, and with wicked hands have crucified and slain, but
you did what God determined before to be done.î You did what you
wanted to do, but in doing what you wanted to do, you did what
God decreed to be done. ìThe wrath of man shall praise
the Lord.î God said, Pharaoh, for this same purpose I raised
you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name
might be declared throughout all the world. That's right.
And then in Acts 4, verse 27 and 28, of a truth, the Apostle
said, Against the Holy Child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed,
both Herod, Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people
of Israel, were gathered together to do. what they wanted to do,
right. What their wicked hearts purposed
to do, right. What their wicked hearts desired
to do, right. Crucify Jesus Christ, that's
what they set out to do, that's what they determined to do, that's
what they planned to do, and that's what they did. But that's
not what the scripture says here. It says, Herod and Pontius Pilate
and the Gentiles and the people of Israel gathered together to
do what thy hand and thy determined before to be done. That's what
it says. Acts 4, 27, 28. The Father sent
him into the world. The Father sent him to the cross.
He was the appointed Redeemer, dying the appointed death for
the appointed people in the fullness of God's appointed time. That's
what I see at the cross. I see the hand of the Father
in all that. The one who betrayed him, was prophesied in the book
of Psalms, was prophesied in the Old Testament, hundreds of
years before it took place, how much they sold him for, thirty
pieces of silver, casting lots for his garment, read Psalm 22,
my God why hast thou forsaken me, that's the way it starts,
and all the way through it talks about the cross, David wrote
that hundreds of years before Christ died, it's all right there,
and he pierced his hands and feet and gave his cheek to those
that pluck out the hair, cast garments for his raiment, it's
all that. God prophesied it. Tell you what else I see as I
sit there and watch him on that cross. I see the hand of the
Father, and I see the scripture fulfilled. Now, if you read 1
Corinthians 15, 1 through 5, you'll find this occurring three
times. He died, he arose again according to the scriptures. He died according to the scriptures. He arose according to the scriptures. What The New Testament wasn't
then written. The Old Testament. That's right.
The Old Testament. The Old Testament is Christ in
picture. The New Testament is Christ in
person. Do you understand Abel's offering? When Abel came and
brought the lamb and offered its blood on the altar, his brother
Cain over here brought some fruit of the field or vegetables or
something he'd grown, and God resisted Cain's offering. And
God accepted Abel's offering. Do you know what Abel's offering
was? It was Christ. It was the blood of Christ. Do
you see Abraham taking his son Isaac up to the top of Mount
Moriah and raising the knife to slay that boy? And God said,
Touch not thy son. I know you love me now, Abraham.
And Abraham turned, and right behind him in the thicket was
a ram caught by his horn. And Abraham took that ram and
put it on the altar in the place of his son. He removed Isaac
and put the ram in the place of his son and slew the lamb.
What was that? Christ Jesus the Lord came down
here. God spared not his own son. He
spared Abraham's son, but he spared not his son. And Christ
is that Lamb who took my place on the altar of sacrifice and
died. You know, when Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness and all the people looked and
were healed, that's Christ. That's Christ. You know, when
Moses smoked the rock in the wilderness and the water came
forth, the refreshing, life-giving water, that rock is Christ. You know when Israel slew a lamb
in Egypt and put the blood on the doorpost and on the lintel?
And God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you? That's
Christ. You know when the Old Testament
priest would slip under the veil once a year and take that basin
of blood and go yonder to the ark, just a small but sacred
box holding the Ten Commandments, the broken commandments, covered
over with a mercy seat and the cherubims facing one another.
And once a year put that blood on that mercy seat, mercy, propitiation
that covers the broken law. You know what that is? Do you
understand that? That's Christ. And when you sit and look at
him down on that cross, you see all these promises and all these
prophecies and all these scriptures fulfilled in him. That's what
the Old Testament's all about. You cut into God's word anywhere
and you'll find Christ. This book, if you want one word
that sums up the whole Bible, Genesis through Revelation, that
one word is Jesus Christ. And only blindness keeps us from
seeing it. All right, sit down. Watch him. You know what else I see? I see
in him the eternal covenant fulfilled. Now, my friends, God is a covenant
God. He made a covenant with Adam.
Adam, do this and live. That's what it was. That was
a covenant, a covenant of works, a covenant under which every
son of Adam is born to this day to be obedient to God's law.
But it's a broken covenant. It's broken. And cursed is every
one that continueth not in all the things that are written in
the law to do them. But God made a covenant with Noah. He made
a covenant with Abraham. He made a covenant with Moses.
He made a covenant with David. But this covenant I'm talking
about, that I see fulfilled in the cross, is called in the Bible
an everlasting covenant. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20 says
this, His blood is the blood of an eternal covenant. Now that
covenant made with Adam was not eternal, it's already broken.
That covenant with Noah is not an eternal covenant, it's fulfilled.
The covenant with Abraham, all the rest of It started with Abraham. It started with Noah. It started
with Moses. But this everlasting covenant is a covenant he made
with his son. And if you read John 17, you'll
find Christ six times talks about those that the Father gave me. In John 6.37, he says, All that
the Father hath given to me will come to me. Back in the council
halls of eternity, God gave his son a people. And Christ became
their surety. Hebrews chapter 7, verse 22.
He's the surety of that eternal covenant. And he became the mediator. In Hebrews 8, verse 6, he's the
mediator of that everlasting covenant. Christ took those people
into himself. God chose them in Christ, and
loved them in Christ, and redeemed them in Christ, and accepted
them in Christ. And the Holy Spirit came in time
and called them to Christ. No man can come to me, Christ
said, except my Father which sent me drawing. I see all the
promises of that covenant fulfilled when Christ said it's finished.
I see every provision fulfilled. Nothing needs to be added. That
covenant is fulfilled. All of the promises, all the
provisions, the holy law is honored, the righteous justice of God
is satisfied. Every provision is met. in Christ. Now let me show you something
else. As we sit there and watch him, I see the Savior's great
love for sinners. Love sent my Savior to die in
my stead. Why should he love me so? Meekly
to Calvary's cross he was led. Why should he love me so? Nails
pierced his hands and his feet in my place. Why should he love
me so? Nothing withholding my sins to
erase. Why? Should he love me so? I don't know. But our Lord was
a willing sacrifice. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I lay it down. I have the power to lay it down.
I have the power to take it up. This commandment have I received
of my Father. Having loved his own, he loved
them to the end. He said, I'm the good shepherd.
I know my sheep. And I lay down my life for my
sheep. I lay down my life for my sheep. There I see the love
of Christ for sinners. And then let me show you something
else. As I sit and watch him on that cross, I see God's wrath
against sin. Now, my friends, if you take
a good look at the cross, a good look, I'm not talking about a
fleeting glance, but I said a good look at the cross, and you see
the humiliation and the agony and the desertion by God. Christ was forsaken, separated
from God. If you take a look at the cross,
you'll see what sin deserves and what sin is going to The
wages of sin is death, not just physical death. He made his soul
an offering for sin. But separation of the soul from
God, that's hell. Now you can go around talking
about fire in hell and all these things, the length of hell and
all, but do you know what the essence of hell is? To be separated
from God. God does not dwell in hell. And
no light is there, and no love is there, and no beauty is there,
and no truth is there, because God's not there. And Christ was
separate from God on that cross. deserted by the Father. Will
God punish sin? You want to answer that question?
Come to the cross and sit down and watch Him there. God spared
not His own Son, and His Son didn't have any sin. He was there
for my sins and your sins. He was there dying for somebody
else's sins. He wasn't dying for His sins,
and yet God spared Him not. Do you think God will spare us
if He spared not His Son? And last of all, as I sit and
watch Him there, I see my ransom fully paid." Jesus paid it all. All the debt I owed, sin left
a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Paul
said, who is he that condemns? Christ has died. Paul, do you
find any confidence in your preaching, in the books you've written,
in the churches you've founded, in the work you've done? No,
sir. Here is my hope, here is my security, here is my assurance.
Who is he that condemns? I challenge heaven, earth, and
hell. Who can condemn me? Who can lay
anything to my charge? How can you boast that way, Paul?
Because Christ has died. And if he died, I don't have
to die. If he suffered, I don't have to suffer. If he took my
sins, I don't bear them. He paid it all. Join us next
week at this same time for the telecast. If you'd like to have
this message on cassette tape, you write to me. I'll see that
you get it. Until next week at this same
time, God bless you, everyone.

Christ - Our Profession

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