What Is It to You?

All ye that pass by, is it nothing
to you? Behold, and see if there is any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. Is it
nothing to you?" Now, this scripture, without doubt, is a pathetical
scripture referring to our Lord Jesus Christ, talking about his
sacrifice on Calvary. Now, when you take a careful
look at that awful scene on Golgotha's hill, on Calvary's mountain,
that's what he's talking about here. Is it nothing to you? They
passed by and wagged their heads, and they said, if you be the
Christ, come down from the cross and we'll believe on you. He
trusted in God, now let's see if God will have it. He saved
others, himself he cannot save. That's what Christ is saying.
Is there any sorrow like my sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted
me in the day of his fierce anger? And I'm asking you today, what
is it to you? As you stand before that awful
scene on Galgos's Hill, what do you see? What do you see? What is it to you? Who is this
man called Jesus Christ? Who is he? Born in poverty, reared
in obscurity. His foster father was a carpenter. Well, we know his father, Joseph.
He's a carpenter. We know his mother, Mary. We
know his brothers and his sisters. Inconspicuous family, uninfluential
family. He had no formal education. He
never traveled over 90 miles from his hometown. His friends
were poor, unknown, fishermen, shepherds. He never owned a piece
of property. The only thing he ever owned
was the robe upon his back. He never held public office.
And when he was only 33 years of age, he was accused of heresy. And false witnesses testified
against him at his trial, and the people chose a common thief,
a robber called Barabbas. and delivered Jesus Christ of
Nazareth to be crucified. Everybody who was anybody turned
thumbs down on this Jesus of Nazareth who's hanging on that
cross. Who is he? He had twelve disciples, and
one of them denied him, and one of them sold him for just eighteen
dollars, and the rest of them forsook him and fled. Just who
is this Jesus of Nazareth? Why did he suffer? Why did he
die on a cross? If he is the Son of God, why
didn't he come down from the cross? If it's true that he saved
others, and healed others, and miraculously delivered others,
and even sterile the sea, why couldn't he step down from that
cross? Why did the Father turn his back on him? He cried, My
God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's the only time he ever
cried aloud, and he screamed out, My God, why hast thou forsaken
me?" Well, why did he forsake him? Have you often wondered?
What did his death mean to the world? Why was it necessary for
him to die on that cross? What does his death mean to you? What does his death mean to me?
Now, I'm going to make this statement, and I want you to listen to it
very carefully. No man, no woman, can dismiss
this man Jesus Christ. You cannot dismiss him. You've
got to make up your mind about this man Jesus Christ. For he
said, he that is not with me is against me. You cannot be
neutral. You cannot be indifferent. He
that gathers not with me scatters abroad. He that's not with me
is against me. No man can just dismiss this
scene from his mind and say, well, I'll have nothing to do
with it. I'll make no decision about it, I'll not waste my time
thinking about it, I'll give it no concern whatsoever." Oh
yes you will. Because Paul wrote in Hebrews
4.13, all things are open and naked to the eyes of him, talking
about Christ, with whom we have to do. With whom we have to do. Now Pilate tried what some of
you are trying. When this crowd rejected Christ
and cried for Barabbas and said, crucify Jesus Christ, there was
an old custom, and this is what Pilate tried to do. He had them
bring him a basin of water. And he took the basin of water
right out in front of all these people, and he washed his hands.
He washed them very carefully. And as he washed them, he said
to the people, I want you to be witnesses that I'm washing
my hands of this man Jesus Christ. I want nothing to do with him,
I'm washing my hands of the whole affair, and I'm turning my back
and walking away." Do you believe that's possible? Do you think
that Pilate really, this man who delivered Christ to be crucified,
this man who said himself, I have the power to crucify you and
let you go, do you think by washing his hands he ridded his hands
of the guilt and the blood of Jesus Christ? Do you think it's
that easy to dismiss this man, Jesus Christ, of whom the scripture
says all things were made by him, and for him, and through
him, and God hath exalted him, and given him a name above every
name, that that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and
every tongue shall confess that he's Lord in heaven, earth, and
hell? Do you think by washing your
hands, or closing your eyes, or putting your finger in your
ears, that you can dismiss this man? Do you think by just turning
your back and walking away from Golgotha's hill that you can
have nothing to do with this man? Do you think by just not
listening to this and not reading the Bible that you can put it
all away and have no responsibility? No, sir. All things are open
and naked unto him with whom we have to do. And that's what
I'm asking you today. When you stand and look at Calvary's
mountain, Golgotha's cross, what do you see? What does it mean
to you? Up Calvary's hill one day the
Savior trod. I saw Him hanging there, the
Son of God. With tear-dimmed eyes I knelt
and prayed, Savior, hear my plea. O praise the Lord, I'm glad I've
been to Calvary. I have been there through the
witness of his word, and I'm sure and I know that God's taught
me some things about what transpired at Calvary, and I want to pass
them on to you. Will you listen for a little
while? What do I see at Calvary? And sitting down, they watched
him there. This crowd sat down and they
watched him. And the things went through their
mind, and I sat down one day and took a good look at Calvary,
and this is what I saw. First of all, I saw the hand
of God Almighty, I saw the hand of the Father. Now, my friends,
everything starts with the Father. He is the first cause of all
things, that's true. Eli said that so effectively,
he said, Well, it's the Lord, let him do what he will. And
David said, Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is your
God? And David replied, Our God is in the heavens. He hath done
whatsoever he pleased in heaven, in earth, in the seas, and all
deep places. Isaiah said, I am the Lord, there
is none else, I am the Lord, I create light, I create darkness,
I create peace, I create evil, I the Lord do these things. When
I stop and look at Calvary, this I know, this whole scene, this
whole deed, what transpired at Calvary is in the will and purpose
of the Heavenly Father. Isaiah 53.10 said, It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. His death was no accident. His
death didn't take God the Father by surprise. It pleased the Lord
to bruise him. Romans 8.32 says, God spared
not his own son. but delivered him up." Delivered
him into the hands of wicked men to be crucified and slain.
That's what Peter declared in his first sermon after the ascension
of Christ, in his first sermon. What I'm talking about today,
these are the ABCs. This is where Peter started.
He said in Acts 2.23, Christ being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you with wicked hands have
crucified and slain. He said in Acts 4.26, the kings
of this earth stood up and the rulers of this earth were gathered
together against the Lord and against his Christ to do what
God's hand determined before to be done. God was in Christ,
reconciling the world to himself. What do I see at Calvary? The
first thing I see at Calvary is that God in grace gave his
son. for God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son. As my Father sent me into the
world, even so send I you." Christ said, "'A body thou hast prepared
for me.' I come to do the will of him that sent me. The works
that I do are not my works, but the works of him that sent me."
The first thing I see at Calvary, the primary, the beginning point,
is that All of this is in the ordained will and purpose of
the Heavenly Father. What Christ did, God sent him
to do. What Christ accomplished, God
sent him to accomplish. When he announced his birth,
he said, Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save
his people from their sin. Now, the second thing I see,
as I sit there and behold him on that tree, I see the Savior's
own will, not just the will of the Father, but the Savior's
will also fulfilled and accomplished. Our Lord came to this earth for
the very purpose to die on that cross. That's why he came. The
angel that announced his birth said, Well, I shall call his
name Jesus, he shall save. He said, The Son of Man is come
to seek and to save. And then he said this. He often
referred to this hour. One time he said, Woman, what
have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. What
hour is he talking about? The hour of Calvary, the hour
of suffering, sacrifice. John 7.30 says, No man laid hands
on him. They tried to kill him, several
times they tried to kill him, but the scripture says no man
laid hands on him because his hour was not yet come. John 12,
27, speaking to the disciples, they tried to discourage him
from going to Calvary, from going to the cross, and he said, what
shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
for this cause came out of this hour. And John 17, 1, when he
prayed that great priestly prayer, he said, when he opened the prayer,
just before going to the cross, he said, Father, the hour has
come. The hour has I glorify thy son,
that thy son may glorify thee. This is the hour for which I've
come." In John 10, he said, I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep. In John 10, 18, he says, no man
taketh my life from me. I lay it down. Pilate didn't
take his life. The Roman soldiers didn't take
his life. That's the objection that I have
to many of these crucifixion scenes. They give the appearance
that Jesus Christ was helpless and powerless through all of
this. Now, you wait a minute. Jesus
Christ submitted to the cross. He submitted to the ill treatment.
He submitted to these things, but he said, no man takes my
life from me. I lay it down. I have the power
to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again. I have
received this from my Father. And as he dragged that cross
to Golgotha's hill, these women followed him weeping and lamenting,
and he turned, and they don't give this in any of these scenes,
but he turned to these women and this is what he said, don't
weep for me. Most of these pictures have him
just enjoying all of this lamenting and weeping and attention, but
he turned to them, don't weep for me, weep for yourselves and
for your children. If they do these things in the
green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" Isaiah 53, 4-6,
he was wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquities, by
his stripes we are healed. So when I stand and look at the
cross, I see first of all the Father's will, Christ doing what
God sent him to do, dying for sinners. I see, secondly, the
will of the Son fulfilled. He came to die. No man takes
my life. I lay it down. He didn't die
as a helpless martyr, helpless reformer. He died as a substitute,
a sacrifice. He went to the cross. He told
Pilate, he said, you have no power over me at all, except
what we're giving you from above. You ever hear this in the crucifixion
scene? That's what he said to Pilate. Pilate said, Don't you
answer me? I have the power to crucify you
and let you go." He said, you don't have any power over me,
except it be given you from above. Something else I see at the cross,
I see the Old Testament scriptures fulfilled. If you read 1 Corinthians
15, Paul says this, I preach the gospel to you which you have
received and wherein you stand and by which you are saved. how
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
Now, what scriptures is he talking about? The New Testament? No,
sir. The New Testament wasn't then written. He's talking about
the Old Testament. He died for our sins according
to the Old Testament scriptures. He died for our sins just like
it was prophesied and typified and exemplified in the Old Testament
scriptures. That's what he said. And he was
buried and rose again according to the scriptures, fulfilling
the scriptures. That's what he's saying there. In Matthew 26, verse 51, when
the soldiers came to the garden to arrest the master, Peter drew
his sword, and he was going to defend the Lord. And he took
a swipe at the high-praised servant to cut his throat, and he missed
his throat and cut his ear off. And our Lord turned to Peter,
and this is what he said. Put up your sword. Don't you know that I could call
my father and he would send twelve legions of angels? Don't you
know that? Don't you know that, Peter? Don't
you know that I'm not the helpless one, that I could call my father
and he would send me twelve legions of angels? But now listen carefully
to the next sentence. shall the scriptures be fulfilled."
What are the Old Testament scriptures all about, do you know? They're
about Christ. He is that rock. He is the Passover. He is the tabernacle. He is the
priest. He is the atonement. He is the
sacrifice. He is the virgin's seed. Christ
is. And he says, if I don't go to
the cross and if I don't die, how are the scriptures going
to be fulfilled? Take a note of that, will you?
Write that down, look it up later, Matthew 26, 51 through 54. Peter wanted to defend him, he
wanted to get him out of this mess, and Christ said, put your
sword up. Now, I could get out of this if I wanted to. All I'd
have to do is call from heaven, call upon heaven. God has sent
me twelve legions of angels, but if he did, how then shall
the scriptures be fulfilled? Abel's lamb was but a type of
Christ. God's lamb must die, or Abel's
lamb means nothing. The ark is a type of Christ,
Noah's ark, but if Christ be not our refuge from the flood
of judgment, the ark means nothing. The Passover lamb, sure it was
slain and the blood on the doorpost and the lintel, but if Christ
die not, it means nothing. just throw the Old Testament
away. The Old Testament priests who took the atonement under
the veil into the Holy of Holies, it doesn't mean anything if Christ
doesn't die. Hebrews 9.12 says, "...by his
own blood he entered in once into the holy place, and obtained
eternal redemption for us, and fulfilled all that was prophesied,
and all that was typified, and all that was exemplified." He
fulfilled the scripture. What do I see, Calvary? Well,
in the fourth place, I see the eternal covenant fulfilled. Now,
if you read your Bible accurately, you'll always find that God is
a covenant God. When he deals with men, he deals
with men through a covenant. Now, read that. Take your concordance
and look up the word covenant. He made a covenant with Noah.
He made a covenant with Abraham. He made a covenant with David.
He keeps his covenant promises. God never breaks his covenant.
And the Bible talks about an eternal covenant. That's not
made with a man, because man's not eternal. That's not made
with an angel, because angels are not eternal. It talks about
Christ's blood being the blood of an eternal covenant. Then
the only one with whom that eternal covenant could have been made
is with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The ones who said,
Let us make man in our image, to whom was God speaking? God
made a covenant. This covenant was made with Christ,
and in it he gave his Son a people. That's what Christ said, All
that my Father giveth me shall come to me. Other sheep I have
which are not of this folk. I pray not for the world, I pray
for them which thou hast given me. Thine they were, thou gavest
them me. In it, Christ assumed full responsibility
for these people. Full responsibility, full suretyship. Hebrews 7.22 says Jesus was made
a surety of this better eternal covenant. Christ was the surety.
He stood for something. What is a surety? You go down
to the bank and somebody signs a note for you, he is your surety
or guarantor. He is your surety. He signs as
a surety and you don't pay, he has to. Well, we couldn't pay
him. Christ did. He was our surety
from the foundation of the world. At Calvary, he fulfilled those
covenant responsibilities and redeemed his sheep. That's what
I see in Calvary. I see our blessed surety of the
eternal covenant, shedding his blood, the blood of the eternal
covenant, to ransom a people of the eternal covenant and to
fulfill every promise of that eternal covenant, the promise
of pardon, justification, an eternal life. The next thing
I see in Calvary is this. I see the utter depravity of
man. Someone once said, listen to
this, if an absolutely holy man, perfectly, immaculately holy,
ever came to this earth, men would kill him. His holiness
would condemn them His very presence would make them uncomfortable. His immaculate purity would enrage
them, and they'd kill him. But he came, and they killed
him. Jesus Christ did no sin, neither
was any guile found in his mouth. Jesus Christ was the very holiness
of God defined. He said, he that has seen me
has seen God. I and my Father were. This is
the condemnation. This is what it's all about.
Light came into this world. Light, holiness. God is light,
and light came into this world. But men loved darkness rather
than light, and they began to cry, We will not have this man
reign over us. We have no king but Caesar. Give
us a murderer, give us a thief, give us a robber, give us anything,
but don't give us Jesus Christ. We don't want will nail him to
a cross. And you don't have to go to the
stews of Sodom to find depravity, go to Calvary. And that's what
men think of perfect holiness, crucified. That's what men think
of immaculate purity. We won't have it. We will not
reside under this kind of government We will not submit to this kind
of rule, the rule of holiness and the rule of righteousness
and the rule of perfection. We will not submit to it. Crucify. There is where you see real depravity. There is where you see real sin,
rottenness, is at Calvary's cross. Last of all, at Calvary's cross,
I see the wages of sin fully paid. Now, there was a very sad
incident appeared on television many months ago. I watched it. The story was about a soldier,
a young man, who during World War II, I believe it was, deserted
under fire. He was found guilty, he was put
in prison, and he was later sentenced to be executed. They went through
the whole program, and finally they brought this young man out
and tied him to a post. And there they shot him. They
executed him. And I watched this television
story, this program, and as they pictured the story, as the young
man was tied to the post, and the guns were fired, and his
head slumped over and dead, I thought to myself, he paid the price. the price that the law demanded.
Because he had broken a certain law, that law demanded, required,
his death. All right, he's paid it now.
It's all over. The law is satisfied. The law
is fulfilled. The law has no more claim on
that land. His lifeless body is still tied
to that post and his head is drooped down in death His soul
has departed from his body, he's paid the price. The law has no
claim. Now, if he could rise from the
grave, if he could come back to life just like that, and walk
away from that post, they couldn't put him back in jail. They couldn't
tie him back to the post, they couldn't shoot him again. Because
the debt was paid, and you could not execute him again for he
paid the price. Now that's what I see at Calvary. who knew no sin, took my sin
in his body on the tree." That's what it says. He bore our sins
in his body on the tree. And as I see him there under
the wrath of Satan, under the wrath of men, under the wrath
of heaven, under the wrath of God, I see him being punished. I see him suffering under the
broken law, the law which I broke, but he took my place. And I see
him suffering the penalty of that broken law. And after a
while on that cross, I hear him cry, it's finished. Not just
the pipes of the Old Testament. Not just his life here on earth. It was finished, too. Not just
the persecution and the agony and the shame. But he's saying
this, the debt is paid, free from the law. O happy condition,
Jesus has died and there is remission. You see what I'm saying? When
that young man tied to the post died, the law had no claim on
him anymore. The debt was paid. It was over.
And when Christ died on that cross, the people for whom he
died, whose place he took, whose transgressions he bore, whose
iniquity he endured, by his stripes they were healed. Jesus paid
it all, all the debt I owed. Sin left a crimson stain. He
washed it white as snow. There's a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath
that flood lose all their guilty stains, because now the law has
no more claim on them. The debt's paid. Christ has died. That's what Paul says in Romans
8.34. He says, who is he that condemned him? He charges heaven,
earth, and hell to bring any condemnation against him. His
debt's paid. His hell has already been suffered.
His transgressions have already been put away. The law has already
been satisfied as far as he's concerned. It's over. Payment
God's justice cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding shirt, his
hand, and then again at mine. You see what I'm saying? You
see that? Christ paid it all. Now if you'd
like to have this message, it's on cassette tape. Two messages
on each tape. And the price of them is three
dollars for two messages. Write to me, I'd be glad to send
it to you. Till next week at the same time, I bid you a very
pleasant good day.

What Is It to You?

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