1 00:00:00,922 --> 00:00:05,372 Now we don't observe days, 2 00:00:05,372 --> 00:00:07,316 but we can take advantage of them. 3 00:00:07,316 --> 00:00:09,641 Today is Good Friday and we're thinking 4 00:00:09,641 --> 00:00:12,584 about the cross of Christ all over the world. 5 00:00:12,584 --> 00:00:16,068 And I want to speak to you about the cross. 6 00:00:16,068 --> 00:00:20,207 1 Corinthians 1:18. 7 00:00:20,207 --> 00:00:21,473 Those great words: 8 00:00:21,473 --> 00:00:23,902 "For the message of the cross 9 00:00:23,902 --> 00:00:27,372 is foolishness to those who are perishing, 10 00:00:27,372 --> 00:00:30,674 but unto us who are being saved, 11 00:00:30,674 --> 00:00:36,141 it is the power of God." 12 00:00:36,141 --> 00:00:40,003 You know how the cross of Christ 13 00:00:40,003 --> 00:00:43,611 is emphasized in the Scriptures. 14 00:00:43,611 --> 00:00:45,683 The great verses - we know when Paul 15 00:00:45,683 --> 00:00:49,175 reminds the Corinthians about the Gospel 16 00:00:49,175 --> 00:00:51,464 that he brought to them. 17 00:00:51,464 --> 00:00:56,685 He says first of all, 18 00:00:56,685 --> 00:01:01,902 I spoke to you about Jesus Christ 19 00:01:01,902 --> 00:01:04,492 and Him crucified, 20 00:01:04,492 --> 00:01:07,079 that Jesus died for our sins 21 00:01:07,079 --> 00:01:08,672 according to the Scriptures 22 00:01:08,672 --> 00:01:10,014 and that He was buried 23 00:01:10,014 --> 00:01:11,784 and He rose again the third day. 24 00:01:11,784 --> 00:01:16,993 That's my priority when I came to call you. 25 00:01:16,993 --> 00:01:19,524 I was determined not to know anything among you 26 00:01:19,524 --> 00:01:23,573 save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 27 00:01:23,573 --> 00:01:26,992 He says God forbid that I should glory 28 00:01:26,992 --> 00:01:31,061 save in the cross of Christ my Lord. 29 00:01:31,061 --> 00:01:34,903 He loved me and gave Himself for me. 30 00:01:34,903 --> 00:01:37,849 It's a strange aspect of the Gospel 31 00:01:37,849 --> 00:01:42,063 that a third of them deal with one week 32 00:01:42,063 --> 00:01:46,462 in the life of our Lord - the last week. 33 00:01:46,462 --> 00:01:54,623 Well, let's say now that there are 520 weeks in 10 years 34 00:01:54,623 --> 00:01:58,144 and that would be 1560 weeks 35 00:01:58,144 --> 00:02:00,203 in thirty years. 36 00:02:00,203 --> 00:02:04,621 And then you add another, say, 115 weeks. 37 00:02:04,621 --> 00:02:07,132 If we do the sums, 38 00:02:07,132 --> 00:02:10,062 all those years of Jesus in His 20's - 39 00:02:10,062 --> 00:02:12,323 we know nothing about those weeks, 40 00:02:12,323 --> 00:02:16,342 what He did. 41 00:02:16,342 --> 00:02:18,422 But we know a third of Matthew 42 00:02:18,422 --> 00:02:20,462 and Mark and Luke and John tell us 43 00:02:20,462 --> 00:02:24,794 about one week, and it's the last week - 44 00:02:24,794 --> 00:02:28,534 the last week in the life of our Lord Jesus. 45 00:02:28,534 --> 00:02:30,574 And then there are the ordinances. 46 00:02:30,574 --> 00:02:32,391 There are two. 47 00:02:32,391 --> 00:02:35,223 There's the Lord's Supper. 48 00:02:35,223 --> 00:02:39,463 The bread representing the broken body of our Lord, 49 00:02:39,463 --> 00:02:41,131 and the wine His shed blood. 50 00:02:41,131 --> 00:02:42,867 There's baptism. 51 00:02:42,867 --> 00:02:46,782 That we are baptized in union with Him 52 00:02:46,782 --> 00:02:49,900 into His death and into His resurrection 53 00:02:49,900 --> 00:02:51,633 from the grave. 54 00:02:51,633 --> 00:02:53,197 And there are the great hymns. 55 00:02:53,197 --> 00:02:54,464 We've sung some of them. 56 00:02:54,464 --> 00:02:57,663 When I survey the wondrous cross... 57 00:02:57,663 --> 00:02:59,881 In the cross of Christ I glory... 58 00:02:59,881 --> 00:03:02,544 There's a fountain filled with blood... 59 00:03:02,544 --> 00:03:05,113 Alas, and did my Savior bleed... 60 00:03:05,113 --> 00:03:07,764 O, Sacred Head now wounded... 61 00:03:07,764 --> 00:03:10,412 There's a green hill far away 62 00:03:10,412 --> 00:03:12,615 where the dear Lord was crucified 63 00:03:12,615 --> 00:03:14,980 and died to save us all... 64 00:03:14,980 --> 00:03:18,541 That's the power of the cross. 65 00:03:18,541 --> 00:03:21,370 And then there are the wonderful books 66 00:03:21,370 --> 00:03:25,293 by Stott and (unintelligible) and Krummacher 67 00:03:25,293 --> 00:03:28,677 and Martyn and Murray. 68 00:03:28,677 --> 00:03:32,673 One that's a favorite of mine by Donald McCloud - 69 00:03:32,673 --> 00:03:34,333 "Christ Crucified." 70 00:03:34,333 --> 00:03:35,833 And I owe him so much 71 00:03:35,833 --> 00:03:37,529 and what I'm to say to you tonight 72 00:03:37,529 --> 00:03:39,704 is what he's taught me. 73 00:03:39,704 --> 00:03:42,802 So here are the great emphases 74 00:03:42,802 --> 00:03:52,152 on what Paul calls the folly of the cross. 75 00:03:52,152 --> 00:03:56,072 It seems to me that it's so easy for us 76 00:03:56,072 --> 00:04:00,490 to talk of the cross in passing; 77 00:04:00,490 --> 00:04:03,879 to take Calvary in our stride; 78 00:04:03,879 --> 00:04:06,293 to live very close to the doctrine 79 00:04:06,293 --> 00:04:08,913 and the Gospel records of the cross, 80 00:04:08,913 --> 00:04:11,052 and yet feel so little 81 00:04:11,052 --> 00:04:17,613 of the overwhelming emotional power. 82 00:04:17,613 --> 00:04:24,116 When I survey the wondrous cross. 83 00:04:24,116 --> 00:04:26,803 Amazing love! How can it be 84 00:04:26,803 --> 00:04:32,683 that Thou my God shouldst die for me? 85 00:04:32,683 --> 00:04:35,833 And the problem is for us the cross seems so logical. 86 00:04:35,833 --> 00:04:38,233 It seems so reasonable. 87 00:04:38,233 --> 00:04:41,353 It seems that we've lived from our childhood 88 00:04:41,353 --> 00:04:44,111 until this moment 89 00:04:44,111 --> 00:04:48,164 with the reality of the green hill far away. 90 00:04:48,164 --> 00:04:50,469 And we've never stumbled across it 91 00:04:50,469 --> 00:04:56,504 with just a breathtaking sense of discovery. 92 00:04:56,504 --> 00:04:58,638 And that is one of the keys 93 00:04:58,638 --> 00:05:02,423 to experiencing anew the glory 94 00:05:02,423 --> 00:05:07,833 of what our brave young Savior did for us. 95 00:05:07,833 --> 00:05:10,192 The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man 96 00:05:10,192 --> 00:05:12,060 who digs a hole in the field 97 00:05:12,060 --> 00:05:14,475 and he's burying something. 98 00:05:14,475 --> 00:05:16,623 His blade strikes something 99 00:05:16,623 --> 00:05:18,524 and he clears it away. 100 00:05:18,524 --> 00:05:20,513 There's a chest and he opens it 101 00:05:20,513 --> 00:05:23,353 and gold and silver and pearls 102 00:05:23,353 --> 00:05:24,802 and diamonds and rubies 103 00:05:24,802 --> 00:05:27,512 and tiaras and crowns - 104 00:05:27,512 --> 00:05:32,361 he's found treasure. 105 00:05:32,361 --> 00:05:36,233 The problem is we've never seen the paradox. 106 00:05:36,233 --> 00:05:38,131 We've never seen the ugliness. 107 00:05:38,131 --> 00:05:40,262 We've never seen the absurdity. 108 00:05:40,262 --> 00:05:46,231 What Paul calls the sheer folly of the cross. 109 00:05:46,231 --> 00:05:49,293 And in what does that folly reside? 110 00:05:49,293 --> 00:05:51,663 Where is the paradox? 111 00:05:51,663 --> 00:05:53,654 Where is the absurdity? 112 00:05:53,654 --> 00:05:57,263 Well, it's very plain isn't it? 113 00:05:57,263 --> 00:06:01,247 It's the marvelous bringing together 114 00:06:01,247 --> 00:06:06,292 of this Person with this cross. 115 00:06:06,292 --> 00:06:10,262 This Person is the brightness of God's glory. 116 00:06:10,262 --> 00:06:14,083 He is the express image of His Person. 117 00:06:14,083 --> 00:06:17,542 He is holy, harmless, undefiled, 118 00:06:17,542 --> 00:06:19,194 separate from sinners 119 00:06:19,194 --> 00:06:22,163 and higher than the heavens. 120 00:06:22,163 --> 00:06:25,263 He is the express image of God. 121 00:06:25,263 --> 00:06:30,014 He says, "I and My Father are one." 122 00:06:30,014 --> 00:06:34,042 He is the one by whom God made the worlds. 123 00:06:34,042 --> 00:06:39,732 That He should be crucified; 124 00:06:39,732 --> 00:06:42,494 that He who sits at God's right hand 125 00:06:42,494 --> 00:06:44,383 should be crucified; 126 00:06:44,383 --> 00:06:49,894 that God should crucify His own Son; 127 00:06:49,894 --> 00:06:53,832 that He should crucify the one who knew no sin; 128 00:06:53,832 --> 00:06:58,043 the one who is Lord and God of all; 129 00:06:58,043 --> 00:07:01,662 that He should crucify Immanuel, 130 00:07:01,662 --> 00:07:04,291 God with us. 131 00:07:04,291 --> 00:07:06,853 And in many ways this is the question 132 00:07:06,853 --> 00:07:09,042 to which the New Testament 133 00:07:09,042 --> 00:07:11,970 is providing the answer. 134 00:07:11,970 --> 00:07:18,512 What right did God have to crucify His Son? 135 00:07:18,512 --> 00:07:21,313 What did God hope to achieve 136 00:07:21,313 --> 00:07:23,344 by enacting this absurdity? 137 00:07:23,344 --> 00:07:28,942 This crucifixion of His sinless Boy. 138 00:07:28,942 --> 00:07:32,644 Why was Christ made a curse? 139 00:07:32,644 --> 00:07:35,637 Why did the anathema of God 140 00:07:35,637 --> 00:07:39,879 lie on His beloved Son? 141 00:07:39,879 --> 00:07:42,704 And the way into this then to find the answer 142 00:07:42,704 --> 00:07:45,273 is to plumb some of the depths 143 00:07:45,273 --> 00:07:49,532 of this curse, this anathema, 144 00:07:49,532 --> 00:07:52,043 that Christ bore. 145 00:07:52,043 --> 00:07:55,461 And the answer to our query is 146 00:07:55,461 --> 00:07:59,413 that Christ was made to bear 147 00:07:59,413 --> 00:08:04,802 all that our sin deserves - 148 00:08:04,802 --> 00:08:08,193 the whole wrath of God against our sin, 149 00:08:08,193 --> 00:08:11,949 the whole recoil of God 150 00:08:11,949 --> 00:08:15,914 against all that contradicts His nature 151 00:08:15,914 --> 00:08:21,244 and His being and His attributes. 152 00:08:21,244 --> 00:08:26,642 Christ received the wages of sin. 153 00:08:26,642 --> 00:08:30,174 And this involved in a fourfold suffering 154 00:08:30,174 --> 00:08:32,673 on Christ's part. 155 00:08:32,673 --> 00:08:40,122 Firstly, the curse involved the Lord's physical suffering. 156 00:08:40,122 --> 00:08:42,773 There was a body prepared for the Savior. 157 00:08:42,773 --> 00:08:44,882 It was a body prepared for Him 158 00:08:44,882 --> 00:08:46,013 by God the Father 159 00:08:46,013 --> 00:08:48,637 through the power of the Holy Spirit. 160 00:08:48,637 --> 00:08:52,213 It was a body identical in every aspect 161 00:08:52,213 --> 00:08:53,513 with our bodies. 162 00:08:53,513 --> 00:08:56,545 It had the same kind of nervous system. 163 00:08:56,545 --> 00:09:01,334 It had the same kind of exquisite sensitivity to pain. 164 00:09:01,334 --> 00:09:05,923 There was no built-in analgesic or pain killer 165 00:09:05,923 --> 00:09:09,693 that God provided for His Son. 166 00:09:09,693 --> 00:09:13,413 It was a body that was dependent on nutrients 167 00:09:13,413 --> 00:09:16,674 and on sleep and on exercise. 168 00:09:16,674 --> 00:09:19,514 It was a body that had physical limitations 169 00:09:19,514 --> 00:09:21,951 as to energy and so on. 170 00:09:21,951 --> 00:09:26,183 It was vulnerable to exhaustion and weariness. 171 00:09:26,183 --> 00:09:30,130 And in that body, Christ suffered. 172 00:09:30,130 --> 00:09:34,913 His body was a part of the holocaust. 173 00:09:34,913 --> 00:09:37,638 Now we are called upon to present our bodies 174 00:09:37,638 --> 00:09:40,367 as living sacrifices to God. 175 00:09:40,367 --> 00:09:42,334 That's our spiritual worship, 176 00:09:42,334 --> 00:09:44,638 our reasonable service. 177 00:09:44,638 --> 00:09:49,642 And so Christ suffered carrying our sins 178 00:09:49,642 --> 00:09:54,043 in His own body on the cross. 179 00:09:54,043 --> 00:09:56,014 And in that body He knew hunger 180 00:09:56,014 --> 00:09:57,724 and He knew thirst. 181 00:09:57,724 --> 00:09:59,253 He had to ask someone, 182 00:09:59,253 --> 00:10:01,294 "Can you give me a drink?" 183 00:10:01,294 --> 00:10:04,638 In that body, He knew physical exhaustion. 184 00:10:04,638 --> 00:10:10,403 In that body, He experienced extreme pain on Golgotha. 185 00:10:10,403 --> 00:10:12,567 All that was involved in being beaten up 186 00:10:12,567 --> 00:10:18,113 by the squad of soldiers, the scourging. 187 00:10:18,113 --> 00:10:21,023 All that was involved in the attachment 188 00:10:21,023 --> 00:10:23,975 with the sledgehammer and great nails 189 00:10:23,975 --> 00:10:27,414 in His hands and feet to the cross. 190 00:10:27,414 --> 00:10:29,842 All that it meant - the suspension 191 00:10:29,842 --> 00:10:33,060 of His body on the cross hour after hour. 192 00:10:33,060 --> 00:10:36,064 The dehydration by the effects of the sun 193 00:10:36,064 --> 00:10:37,910 beating down on Him. 194 00:10:37,910 --> 00:10:41,375 And last, the humiliation of the body 195 00:10:41,375 --> 00:10:43,818 and the ultimate experience of death 196 00:10:43,818 --> 00:10:47,674 and dissolution. 197 00:10:47,674 --> 00:10:52,637 It's often said that there is no description 198 00:10:52,637 --> 00:10:59,080 of crucifixion in the New Testament. 199 00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:00,819 But it wasn't necessary, you see, 200 00:11:00,819 --> 00:11:03,767 because it was such a common sight 201 00:11:03,767 --> 00:11:05,724 outside the walls of Jerusalem 202 00:11:05,724 --> 00:11:08,917 in every major city, on the crossroads, 203 00:11:08,917 --> 00:11:10,343 wherever Rome was. 204 00:11:10,343 --> 00:11:12,936 The warning to criminals that this 205 00:11:12,936 --> 00:11:21,207 will be your fate if you defy us. 206 00:11:21,207 --> 00:11:24,005 It seems to me that one of the great comforts then 207 00:11:24,005 --> 00:11:27,957 that we have as we ourselves face the reality 208 00:11:27,957 --> 00:11:32,207 of physical pain in our own lives 209 00:11:32,207 --> 00:11:37,043 is to know that the Lord knows 210 00:11:37,043 --> 00:11:39,814 and the Lord understands. 211 00:11:39,814 --> 00:11:44,004 So whatever the extreme of our own agony may be, 212 00:11:44,004 --> 00:11:47,286 we could never scream to the heavens 213 00:11:47,286 --> 00:11:50,566 that we're going into places 214 00:11:50,566 --> 00:11:53,624 where He's never been; 215 00:11:53,624 --> 00:12:00,867 or we are taking a journey that He's never traversed. 216 00:12:00,867 --> 00:12:02,819 Because He has. 217 00:12:02,819 --> 00:12:05,207 He's been there. 218 00:12:05,207 --> 00:12:11,836 He's known the pain and far worse. 219 00:12:11,836 --> 00:12:15,103 So we sin. 220 00:12:15,103 --> 00:12:17,117 We sin in our bodies. 221 00:12:17,117 --> 00:12:19,171 Our fingers sin. 222 00:12:19,171 --> 00:12:23,816 Our eyes sin. Our lips, our tongues. 223 00:12:23,816 --> 00:12:27,257 Our emotions. 224 00:12:27,257 --> 00:12:34,255 And He suffered in His body 225 00:12:34,255 --> 00:12:38,818 because He loved us. 226 00:12:38,818 --> 00:12:40,897 That's what kept Him there. 227 00:12:40,897 --> 00:12:44,037 He wouldn't undo the enfleshment. 228 00:12:44,037 --> 00:12:46,147 And He wouldn't come down. 229 00:12:46,147 --> 00:12:49,420 So there was our Lord's physical sufferings. 230 00:12:49,420 --> 00:12:54,524 Secondly, our Lord experienced emotional pain. 231 00:12:54,524 --> 00:12:57,815 He had a human soul and a human spirit. 232 00:12:57,815 --> 00:13:01,622 He had true human psychology. 233 00:13:01,622 --> 00:13:04,656 And in that psychology as a man, 234 00:13:04,656 --> 00:13:06,867 He suffered emotionally. 235 00:13:06,867 --> 00:13:09,777 I know it's possible to present this 236 00:13:09,777 --> 00:13:13,587 in an utterly unbalanced way. 237 00:13:13,587 --> 00:13:18,157 I think too much is made of the claim 238 00:13:18,157 --> 00:13:20,788 that Christ is said to have wept 239 00:13:20,788 --> 00:13:22,748 but never said to have smiled 240 00:13:22,748 --> 00:13:24,928 or to have laughed. 241 00:13:24,928 --> 00:13:29,396 You bear in mind that the fruit of the Spirit is joy. 242 00:13:29,396 --> 00:13:32,058 You bear in mind that the constant emphasis 243 00:13:32,058 --> 00:13:33,557 in the New Testament 244 00:13:33,557 --> 00:13:38,258 is that rejoicing is the common emotion 245 00:13:38,258 --> 00:13:42,486 of everyone who is born from above. 246 00:13:42,486 --> 00:13:44,727 It's an indispensible mark then 247 00:13:44,727 --> 00:13:46,816 of our Lord's authentic humanness 248 00:13:46,816 --> 00:13:50,298 that He was a profoundly contented person; 249 00:13:50,298 --> 00:13:53,747 that He rejoiced in the Spirit we are told; 250 00:13:53,747 --> 00:13:56,087 that He was happy because He could say 251 00:13:56,087 --> 00:14:00,209 "I delight to do Thy will, O Lord." 252 00:14:00,209 --> 00:14:02,427 Notwithstanding all the deprivation 253 00:14:02,427 --> 00:14:05,696 of His earthly existence and sin-bearing. 254 00:14:05,696 --> 00:14:07,397 He was a man, I believe, who knew 255 00:14:07,397 --> 00:14:12,689 great heights of joy and delight 256 00:14:12,689 --> 00:14:14,587 in the will of God. 257 00:14:14,587 --> 00:14:17,653 There was in His heart melody every day 258 00:14:17,653 --> 00:14:19,875 to the Lord. 259 00:14:19,875 --> 00:14:21,854 And we can emphasize that more firmly 260 00:14:21,854 --> 00:14:26,600 because despondency and depression 261 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:29,397 are normally violations 262 00:14:29,397 --> 00:14:31,815 of God's will for His people. 263 00:14:31,815 --> 00:14:34,429 They're often sinful manifestations 264 00:14:34,429 --> 00:14:38,417 of our own human egocentricity. 265 00:14:38,417 --> 00:14:42,468 Christ therefore I say rejoiced. 266 00:14:42,468 --> 00:14:44,605 Christ knew contentment. 267 00:14:44,605 --> 00:14:46,938 He knew the most elevated 268 00:14:46,938 --> 00:14:49,354 and pure and profound happiness 269 00:14:49,354 --> 00:14:52,606 in the depths of His heart. 270 00:14:52,606 --> 00:14:54,437 And yet having said that, 271 00:14:54,437 --> 00:14:55,967 it's most wondrously evident 272 00:14:55,967 --> 00:14:57,517 in the New Testament 273 00:14:57,517 --> 00:14:59,957 that Christ also knew the depths 274 00:14:59,957 --> 00:15:02,694 of disconsolateness and despondency 275 00:15:02,694 --> 00:15:04,428 and human sorrow. 276 00:15:04,428 --> 00:15:07,566 We find Him at the grave of Lazarus 277 00:15:07,566 --> 00:15:09,195 and this family that He loved - 278 00:15:09,195 --> 00:15:11,034 the brother and the two sisters - 279 00:15:11,034 --> 00:15:12,877 He'd go stay with them. 280 00:15:12,877 --> 00:15:15,246 He's there and He sees them brokenhearted 281 00:15:15,246 --> 00:15:17,384 and He weeps too. 282 00:15:17,384 --> 00:15:18,815 And I think it's marvelous! 283 00:15:18,815 --> 00:15:20,575 It's marvelous because today 284 00:15:20,575 --> 00:15:23,785 we are told by some strange people 285 00:15:23,785 --> 00:15:27,925 that it's a weakness of faith to sorrow. 286 00:15:27,925 --> 00:15:30,565 And I'm saying that sorrowing in bereavement 287 00:15:30,565 --> 00:15:33,874 has a great mandate in the Word of God, 288 00:15:33,874 --> 00:15:35,694 in the suffering of the Savior, 289 00:15:35,694 --> 00:15:38,718 and in His sorrow at the grave of Lazarus. 290 00:15:38,718 --> 00:15:43,444 And when death separates us from loved ones - 291 00:15:43,444 --> 00:15:45,587 separates us temporarily, 292 00:15:45,587 --> 00:15:47,404 but devastatingly - 293 00:15:47,404 --> 00:15:50,956 then we have the right from our Lord's own example, 294 00:15:50,956 --> 00:15:53,479 we have the right then to weep. 295 00:15:53,479 --> 00:15:56,604 We are told by Paul that we're not to sorrow 296 00:15:56,604 --> 00:15:59,135 as those who have no hope, 297 00:15:59,135 --> 00:16:01,926 but we're not told not to sorrow. 298 00:16:01,926 --> 00:16:03,746 In fact, we find in the New Testament 299 00:16:03,746 --> 00:16:06,677 that after Stephen had been 300 00:16:06,677 --> 00:16:10,694 viciously stoned to death, 301 00:16:10,694 --> 00:16:13,274 that righteous men came 302 00:16:13,274 --> 00:16:17,176 and carried him to clean him and bury him 303 00:16:17,176 --> 00:16:21,394 with great lamentation we are told. 304 00:16:21,394 --> 00:16:25,346 It's a divine accommodation to our frailty. 305 00:16:25,346 --> 00:16:27,115 It's the right to sorrow, 306 00:16:27,115 --> 00:16:29,105 the right to weep. 307 00:16:29,105 --> 00:16:33,475 And it's imperative in every experience of bereavement 308 00:16:33,475 --> 00:16:36,566 that when we pastors and church leaders 309 00:16:36,566 --> 00:16:40,252 and women friends go into the home 310 00:16:40,252 --> 00:16:42,264 where there's been a bereavement, 311 00:16:42,264 --> 00:16:44,915 that we encourage in every way 312 00:16:44,915 --> 00:16:47,097 the sorrow and the tears 313 00:16:47,097 --> 00:16:50,575 and pass the box of Kleenex around 314 00:16:50,575 --> 00:16:53,244 and weep with them. 315 00:16:53,244 --> 00:16:54,786 We weren't intended to go 316 00:16:54,786 --> 00:16:56,634 through the valley of the shadow 317 00:16:56,634 --> 00:16:58,586 as if we were stones; 318 00:16:58,586 --> 00:17:00,455 as if we were stoics. 319 00:17:00,455 --> 00:17:04,492 Jesus Christ the Son of God wept. 320 00:17:04,492 --> 00:17:06,586 He looked at the city of Jerusalem 321 00:17:06,586 --> 00:17:09,316 (unintelligible). 322 00:17:09,316 --> 00:17:10,785 And we're told when He looked 323 00:17:10,785 --> 00:17:12,697 that He just cried. 324 00:17:12,697 --> 00:17:15,243 We're told that He wailed over it 325 00:17:15,243 --> 00:17:18,447 because the sorrow was so desolating 326 00:17:18,447 --> 00:17:20,786 when the Lord saw the hardness of their hearts 327 00:17:20,786 --> 00:17:22,386 and their refusal to come to Him. 328 00:17:22,386 --> 00:17:25,025 He would have spread His wings over them 329 00:17:25,025 --> 00:17:29,067 and protected them from the hawk of Satan. 330 00:17:29,067 --> 00:17:31,253 And they wouldn't come. They didn't want to. 331 00:17:31,253 --> 00:17:33,420 They were spiritually obstinate. 332 00:17:33,420 --> 00:17:37,135 And He just cried aloud. 333 00:17:37,135 --> 00:17:40,136 And we have the same mandate there 334 00:17:40,136 --> 00:17:42,137 when we pray. 335 00:17:42,137 --> 00:17:45,896 Some will weep as they pray with us 336 00:17:45,896 --> 00:17:48,076 because of the desolation 337 00:17:48,076 --> 00:17:49,995 of their own providence 338 00:17:49,995 --> 00:17:53,796 and our own society. 339 00:17:53,796 --> 00:17:55,502 But then there's a deeper way 340 00:17:55,502 --> 00:17:58,317 in which our Lord wept, isn't there? 341 00:17:58,317 --> 00:18:00,567 And we go with Him, 342 00:18:00,567 --> 00:18:02,347 we're invited with Him 343 00:18:02,347 --> 00:18:05,387 to go into Gethsemane. 344 00:18:05,387 --> 00:18:06,806 And there He confesses 345 00:18:06,806 --> 00:18:10,774 that His soul is exceeding sorrowful 346 00:18:10,774 --> 00:18:13,317 even unto death. 347 00:18:13,317 --> 00:18:17,095 We hear Him say He is sore amazed 348 00:18:17,095 --> 00:18:18,748 and very heavy, 349 00:18:18,748 --> 00:18:22,494 that He is very despondent. 350 00:18:22,494 --> 00:18:25,977 And I feel that as Christ contemplated 351 00:18:25,977 --> 00:18:28,254 the reality of Calvary 352 00:18:28,254 --> 00:18:31,866 that He was amazed 353 00:18:31,866 --> 00:18:34,493 as He contemplated the next day, 354 00:18:34,493 --> 00:18:35,695 what was going to happen, 355 00:18:35,695 --> 00:18:38,785 He was emotionally overboard. 356 00:18:38,785 --> 00:18:43,826 He couldn't just take it in His stride. 357 00:18:43,826 --> 00:18:45,740 There was an evilness for Him. 358 00:18:45,740 --> 00:18:47,850 The Father gave Him the cup 359 00:18:47,850 --> 00:18:50,425 and He looked into that cup. 360 00:18:50,425 --> 00:18:56,589 And there are times when the cup God gives us 361 00:18:56,589 --> 00:19:00,487 fills us with amazement. 362 00:19:00,487 --> 00:19:02,566 How faithless I would be to the Lord 363 00:19:02,566 --> 00:19:05,736 who called me to be a preacher of His Word 364 00:19:05,736 --> 00:19:08,735 if I were to pretend that the life of the believer 365 00:19:08,735 --> 00:19:10,444 was always easy, 366 00:19:10,444 --> 00:19:12,386 always manageable, 367 00:19:12,386 --> 00:19:15,015 always one in which we have triumphant victories, 368 00:19:15,015 --> 00:19:18,226 one after another, they all fall down before us. 369 00:19:18,226 --> 00:19:22,736 Because we know that our road is eventful 370 00:19:22,736 --> 00:19:25,915 and our road can be difficult. 371 00:19:25,915 --> 00:19:27,976 And our road can be full of things 372 00:19:27,976 --> 00:19:31,011 that just take our breath away. 373 00:19:31,011 --> 00:19:33,079 The Psalmist says to God, 374 00:19:33,079 --> 00:19:38,765 "Thou hast given us the wine of astonishment to drink." 375 00:19:38,765 --> 00:19:41,655 It's almost: You made us drunk. 376 00:19:41,655 --> 00:19:45,296 I'm just reeling at what I've heard. 377 00:19:45,296 --> 00:19:47,575 Just what's happened - I'm staggering. 378 00:19:47,575 --> 00:19:49,986 I'm at my wit's end. 379 00:19:49,986 --> 00:19:53,764 And there are some of you here who would know 380 00:19:53,764 --> 00:19:55,576 moments of that kind, 381 00:19:55,576 --> 00:19:58,827 moments that seem to distance us 382 00:19:58,827 --> 00:20:01,516 from all that we believe about a loving God 383 00:20:01,516 --> 00:20:03,495 that we can trust with all our hearts 384 00:20:03,495 --> 00:20:07,026 and He will give us all the delight of our hearts 385 00:20:07,026 --> 00:20:11,467 as we trust in Him. 386 00:20:11,467 --> 00:20:12,916 I am saying to you 387 00:20:12,916 --> 00:20:16,206 your Savior knew the kind of amazement 388 00:20:16,206 --> 00:20:20,824 that you as one who trusts in the same God 389 00:20:20,824 --> 00:20:22,395 that He trusted in, 390 00:20:22,395 --> 00:20:24,055 the sort of wonder: 391 00:20:24,055 --> 00:20:27,896 I can't manage this. 392 00:20:27,896 --> 00:20:29,782 I can't handle this. 393 00:20:29,782 --> 00:20:31,226 It's just too much for me. 394 00:20:31,226 --> 00:20:32,866 I can't cope 395 00:20:32,866 --> 00:20:35,157 in the weakness of my humanness. 396 00:20:35,157 --> 00:20:36,558 Christ full of sorrow, 397 00:20:36,558 --> 00:20:38,119 Christ full of amazement, 398 00:20:38,119 --> 00:20:40,365 Christ full of fear as He contemplates 399 00:20:40,365 --> 00:20:42,276 the reality of Golgotha. 400 00:20:42,276 --> 00:20:44,895 He was sore amazed and very heavy. 401 00:20:44,895 --> 00:20:47,686 My soul is exceeding sorrowful 402 00:20:47,686 --> 00:20:50,847 even unto death. 403 00:20:50,847 --> 00:20:54,265 I don't believe that the cup was given to Him 404 00:20:54,265 --> 00:20:56,637 simply for the Lord to take it in His stride 405 00:20:56,637 --> 00:21:00,616 and quaff it down and carry on. 406 00:21:00,616 --> 00:21:04,042 I believe our Lord was totally reconciled 407 00:21:04,042 --> 00:21:07,075 to the will of God for Him. 408 00:21:07,075 --> 00:21:10,772 I believe He went to Calvary willingly. 409 00:21:10,772 --> 00:21:15,014 But behind that contentment 410 00:21:15,014 --> 00:21:17,586 and behind that receiving and submission 411 00:21:17,586 --> 00:21:19,296 to God's will 412 00:21:19,296 --> 00:21:23,026 there was a mighty struggle. 413 00:21:23,026 --> 00:21:25,446 He had to struggle to bring 414 00:21:25,446 --> 00:21:27,577 His created humanness 415 00:21:27,577 --> 00:21:32,936 into submission to the will of God. 416 00:21:32,936 --> 00:21:36,465 And I see nothing unworthy. 417 00:21:36,465 --> 00:21:39,046 I see nothing sinful 418 00:21:39,046 --> 00:21:43,982 in the way some of you have lost children 419 00:21:43,982 --> 00:21:46,741 and husbands and wives 420 00:21:46,741 --> 00:21:50,751 and have known great, great heartache 421 00:21:50,751 --> 00:21:55,144 and have felt the pain and the anguish. 422 00:21:55,144 --> 00:21:56,817 Could you cope with it? 423 00:21:56,817 --> 00:21:59,583 It's perfectly natural. 424 00:21:59,583 --> 00:22:03,854 It was for our Lord 425 00:22:03,854 --> 00:22:09,127 only a tribute to the accuracy 426 00:22:09,127 --> 00:22:14,747 of His own insight into the awesomeness 427 00:22:14,747 --> 00:22:18,196 of the righteousness and justice 428 00:22:18,196 --> 00:22:21,456 of Almighty God. 429 00:22:21,456 --> 00:22:23,976 And so the Lord went through all these emotions - 430 00:22:23,976 --> 00:22:27,176 emotions of sorrow and amazement and fear. 431 00:22:27,176 --> 00:22:28,537 That emotional pain. 432 00:22:28,537 --> 00:22:31,177 All that was part of the anathema, 433 00:22:31,177 --> 00:22:33,106 of the curse that came upon Him. 434 00:22:33,106 --> 00:22:35,475 He was sorrowful even unto death. 435 00:22:35,475 --> 00:22:37,314 So we have physical pain, 436 00:22:37,314 --> 00:22:39,145 and we have emotional pain. 437 00:22:39,145 --> 00:22:43,426 Thirdly, we have social pain. 438 00:22:43,426 --> 00:22:46,305 I mean by that that Christ suffered 439 00:22:46,305 --> 00:22:50,226 in His relationships. 440 00:22:50,226 --> 00:22:54,177 Alright, we go back and we see 441 00:22:54,177 --> 00:22:57,357 that man is made in the image of God. 442 00:22:57,357 --> 00:23:01,385 And that the God in whose image we are made 443 00:23:01,385 --> 00:23:03,071 is a triune God. 444 00:23:03,071 --> 00:23:06,176 He doesn't simply exist as one, 445 00:23:06,176 --> 00:23:10,867 but He exists as three Persons in one God - 446 00:23:10,867 --> 00:23:15,456 a God who always exists in relationships. 447 00:23:15,456 --> 00:23:19,176 That vision we are given by John 448 00:23:19,176 --> 00:23:21,746 in the opening words of the first chapter 449 00:23:21,746 --> 00:23:23,277 of his Gospel: 450 00:23:23,277 --> 00:23:25,556 "In the beginning was the Word, 451 00:23:25,556 --> 00:23:28,616 and the Word was with God, 452 00:23:28,616 --> 00:23:31,966 and the Word was God." 453 00:23:31,966 --> 00:23:36,966 So in the beginning there was God with God. 454 00:23:36,966 --> 00:23:39,825 That marvelous reality 455 00:23:39,825 --> 00:23:42,527 in the glory of His unity. 456 00:23:42,527 --> 00:23:46,652 So in God there is always with-ness. 457 00:23:46,652 --> 00:23:49,808 In the real God, the only God, there is. 458 00:23:49,808 --> 00:23:51,897 There is always togetherness. 459 00:23:51,897 --> 00:23:54,495 There's never loneliness with God. 460 00:23:54,495 --> 00:23:59,396 He didn't need to create because He was lonely. 461 00:23:59,396 --> 00:24:02,686 He was never in isolation. 462 00:24:02,686 --> 00:24:04,966 There is always love in God. 463 00:24:04,966 --> 00:24:07,996 There is an object of His love, 464 00:24:07,996 --> 00:24:09,524 a recipient of His love, 465 00:24:09,524 --> 00:24:11,643 and He receives love in return. 466 00:24:11,643 --> 00:24:14,090 There was never a more loving Father. 467 00:24:14,090 --> 00:24:15,997 There was never a more loved Son 468 00:24:15,997 --> 00:24:19,455 or loving Son. 469 00:24:19,455 --> 00:24:23,864 It's impossible for a monad like Allah - 470 00:24:23,864 --> 00:24:27,082 for one being - 471 00:24:27,082 --> 00:24:30,387 someone who lives in undifferentiated isolation, 472 00:24:30,387 --> 00:24:32,277 it's impossible for him to love. 473 00:24:32,277 --> 00:24:34,526 There's nothing to love. 474 00:24:34,526 --> 00:24:37,082 But in God, there's always with-ness. 475 00:24:37,082 --> 00:24:38,867 There's dynamism. 476 00:24:38,867 --> 00:24:41,035 There is fellowship. 477 00:24:41,035 --> 00:24:43,967 There is communion in God. 478 00:24:43,967 --> 00:24:45,559 And when God made man, 479 00:24:45,559 --> 00:24:47,692 He made man in His own image. 480 00:24:47,692 --> 00:24:50,301 He made him for community. 481 00:24:50,301 --> 00:24:53,350 The Word was made flesh. 482 00:24:53,350 --> 00:24:55,577 He made him for fellowship, 483 00:24:55,577 --> 00:24:57,789 for with-ness. 484 00:24:57,789 --> 00:25:02,036 And a man must find that need fulfilled 485 00:25:02,036 --> 00:25:04,399 in his fellowship with God 486 00:25:04,399 --> 00:25:06,489 at one great level. 487 00:25:06,489 --> 00:25:07,887 God walked in the garden. 488 00:25:07,887 --> 00:25:10,708 God came and Adam came to Him. 489 00:25:10,708 --> 00:25:12,747 He walked with me and He talked with me 490 00:25:12,747 --> 00:25:14,967 and He told me I was His own. 491 00:25:14,967 --> 00:25:17,679 And the joys we shared as we tarried there 492 00:25:17,679 --> 00:25:18,908 no one will ever know. 493 00:25:18,908 --> 00:25:22,819 Adam and Eve could have sung that together. 494 00:25:22,819 --> 00:25:24,857 God spoke to man. 495 00:25:24,857 --> 00:25:26,969 He spoke familiarly. 496 00:25:26,969 --> 00:25:29,857 How are things today, Adam? 497 00:25:29,857 --> 00:25:33,317 What have you seen? What have you done today? 498 00:25:33,317 --> 00:25:40,018 And in that vertical relationship, 499 00:25:40,018 --> 00:25:42,160 man has fellowship with God. 500 00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:45,770 Man has with-ness with God. 501 00:25:45,770 --> 00:25:50,018 And yet, this, God says, it's not good 502 00:25:50,018 --> 00:25:52,318 for man to be alone. 503 00:25:52,318 --> 00:25:55,639 I will give him a helpmeet for him. 504 00:25:55,639 --> 00:26:00,657 And so God provided therefore 505 00:26:00,657 --> 00:26:03,179 for man's social needs. 506 00:26:03,179 --> 00:26:05,589 He provided a wife. 507 00:26:05,589 --> 00:26:08,229 He provided a family 508 00:26:08,229 --> 00:26:13,177 to meet man's needs for togetherness. 509 00:26:13,177 --> 00:26:15,432 With his own kind, it's a glorious thing. 510 00:26:15,432 --> 00:26:18,705 That when Jesus Christ became a man, 511 00:26:18,705 --> 00:26:21,435 He became a man in the image of God. 512 00:26:21,435 --> 00:26:24,332 And in the image of God's togetherness, 513 00:26:24,332 --> 00:26:27,080 in the image of God's with-ness. 514 00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:30,257 And Christ's need for fellowship 515 00:26:30,257 --> 00:26:32,767 found marvelous fulfillment 516 00:26:32,767 --> 00:26:36,109 of course in His relationship with God, 517 00:26:36,109 --> 00:26:39,638 in those wonderful conversations - 518 00:26:39,638 --> 00:26:43,389 getting up early and having a time 519 00:26:43,389 --> 00:26:46,890 of delight and communion with His Father, 520 00:26:46,890 --> 00:26:50,038 prayers that He offered to His Father. 521 00:26:50,038 --> 00:26:52,697 He went as the only begotten Son 522 00:26:52,697 --> 00:26:55,067 through the veil into the most holy place 523 00:26:55,067 --> 00:26:57,068 and He went with boldness. 524 00:26:57,068 --> 00:26:58,628 He spoke with God 525 00:26:58,628 --> 00:27:02,068 and He found delight. 526 00:27:02,068 --> 00:27:05,227 "Who would not rise early to meet such company?" 527 00:27:05,227 --> 00:27:08,179 He could say as McCheyne said. 528 00:27:08,179 --> 00:27:11,488 But there is something more glorious still. 529 00:27:11,488 --> 00:27:15,079 That even in Christ 530 00:27:15,079 --> 00:27:18,189 there was a social instinct. 531 00:27:18,189 --> 00:27:19,665 There was a need for fellowship 532 00:27:19,665 --> 00:27:23,728 that could not find its exhausted fulfillment 533 00:27:23,728 --> 00:27:26,009 in His fellowship with God. 534 00:27:26,009 --> 00:27:29,379 I read He chose twelve. 535 00:27:29,379 --> 00:27:31,596 And I might say yes, He chose twelve 536 00:27:31,596 --> 00:27:32,909 to instruct them. 537 00:27:32,909 --> 00:27:35,660 And He chose twelve to commission them 538 00:27:35,660 --> 00:27:41,149 and send them forth as (unintelligible) His ambassadors. 539 00:27:41,149 --> 00:27:43,219 But I don't find that in Scripture. 540 00:27:43,219 --> 00:27:48,360 I find that He chose twelve to be with Him. 541 00:27:48,360 --> 00:27:51,850 And there are few things in the New Testament 542 00:27:51,850 --> 00:27:54,450 that are more glorious than that. 543 00:27:54,450 --> 00:27:56,041 That the Word who became flesh 544 00:27:56,041 --> 00:27:59,310 who was with God and was God 545 00:27:59,310 --> 00:28:04,058 chose men to be His companions 546 00:28:04,058 --> 00:28:05,609 and His friends. 547 00:28:05,609 --> 00:28:09,783 It speaks eloquently of the reality of His incarnation, 548 00:28:09,783 --> 00:28:12,600 the reality of His humanness. 549 00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:14,211 That He was no loner. 550 00:28:14,211 --> 00:28:16,058 The contrast with John the Baptist 551 00:28:16,058 --> 00:28:19,251 is so pervasive in those opening chapters. 552 00:28:19,251 --> 00:28:22,212 John there dressed in camel's hair 553 00:28:22,212 --> 00:28:23,962 and a robe he's roughly made 554 00:28:23,962 --> 00:28:26,881 and cut a strip of a carcass as a belt. 555 00:28:26,881 --> 00:28:32,490 He's living on honey and locusts. 556 00:28:32,490 --> 00:28:36,681 And Jesus goes to weddings. 557 00:28:36,681 --> 00:28:39,936 He goes to parties and feasts. 558 00:28:39,936 --> 00:28:41,981 He goes into people's homes 559 00:28:41,981 --> 00:28:43,440 and He speaks to them. 560 00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:47,830 He talks with them. 561 00:28:47,830 --> 00:28:50,943 There was a need. 562 00:28:50,943 --> 00:28:52,839 There was an isolation that could only 563 00:28:52,839 --> 00:28:55,925 be met in togetherness 564 00:28:55,925 --> 00:28:57,890 with bone of His bone 565 00:28:57,890 --> 00:28:59,882 and flesh of His flesh. 566 00:28:59,882 --> 00:29:03,219 He had laid hold of the seed of Abraham. 567 00:29:03,219 --> 00:29:06,439 He had assumed flesh and blood. 568 00:29:06,439 --> 00:29:10,291 And He took the reality of being flesh and blood 569 00:29:10,291 --> 00:29:13,439 and He chose twelve to be with Him. 570 00:29:13,439 --> 00:29:17,069 And then as the end is near, 571 00:29:17,069 --> 00:29:18,970 as He sets His face steadfastly 572 00:29:18,970 --> 00:29:21,121 to Jerusalem, 573 00:29:21,121 --> 00:29:23,901 He is more conscious of them. 574 00:29:23,901 --> 00:29:26,590 And He withdraws from Galilee 575 00:29:26,590 --> 00:29:28,861 and He withdraws from preaching 576 00:29:28,861 --> 00:29:33,943 in the open air, in the temple. 577 00:29:33,943 --> 00:29:36,589 He sees less and less of the world and the public, 578 00:29:36,589 --> 00:29:39,390 and He says oh, I'm so looking forward 579 00:29:39,390 --> 00:29:41,781 to our meal together. 580 00:29:41,781 --> 00:29:45,471 He spends that last night in the upper room 581 00:29:45,471 --> 00:29:47,180 and He speaks to them. 582 00:29:47,180 --> 00:29:48,943 They have their head on His bosom 583 00:29:48,943 --> 00:29:52,141 because they love Him so much. 584 00:29:52,141 --> 00:29:54,395 He goes from that upper room 585 00:29:54,395 --> 00:29:56,774 into His final experience at Gethsemane 586 00:29:56,774 --> 00:29:58,572 and He says "oh, you'll come, Peter. 587 00:29:58,572 --> 00:30:02,374 And John, James, you'll come with Me." 588 00:30:02,374 --> 00:30:05,134 And do you think it was only to observe? 589 00:30:05,134 --> 00:30:08,025 Do you think it was only to report? 590 00:30:08,025 --> 00:30:10,475 Do you think it was only that they might learn 591 00:30:10,475 --> 00:30:13,164 some great spiritual lesson? 592 00:30:13,164 --> 00:30:17,834 He says come and watch with Me. 593 00:30:17,834 --> 00:30:20,336 Come and watch with Me. 594 00:30:20,336 --> 00:30:23,454 You say to someone, 595 00:30:23,454 --> 00:30:25,736 pray for me, pastor. 596 00:30:25,736 --> 00:30:28,867 Pray for me now, will you? 597 00:30:28,867 --> 00:30:31,607 And the Son of God sought 598 00:30:31,607 --> 00:30:34,974 someone to bear His burdens 599 00:30:34,974 --> 00:30:36,871 and share His oppression 600 00:30:36,871 --> 00:30:39,045 and watch with Him 601 00:30:39,045 --> 00:30:41,622 so that at this desperate time 602 00:30:41,622 --> 00:30:46,182 of deep darkness, 603 00:30:46,182 --> 00:30:48,584 there would be somebody there 604 00:30:48,584 --> 00:30:52,294 walking with Him. 605 00:30:52,294 --> 00:30:56,053 And it's at that point then that the curse comes - 606 00:30:56,053 --> 00:30:59,485 the curse of social deprivation. 607 00:30:59,485 --> 00:31:02,264 Because He comes across the meadow 608 00:31:02,264 --> 00:31:05,586 and there they are snoring. 609 00:31:05,586 --> 00:31:10,405 Couldn't you watch with Me for an hour? 610 00:31:10,405 --> 00:31:13,055 You said though I should die with You, 611 00:31:13,055 --> 00:31:16,921 you should never forsake Me at all. 612 00:31:16,921 --> 00:31:20,807 Never that marvelous word of the orator, 613 00:31:20,807 --> 00:31:23,236 of the rhetorician - 614 00:31:23,236 --> 00:31:28,027 the marvelous word of the tool of human oratory. 615 00:31:28,027 --> 00:31:31,680 "Never." I'll never let you down. 616 00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:35,056 You let Me down, didn't you? 617 00:31:35,056 --> 00:31:37,804 Then they all run off 618 00:31:37,804 --> 00:31:41,116 as they see the torches 619 00:31:41,116 --> 00:31:42,912 and the breaking of the branches 620 00:31:42,912 --> 00:31:44,353 as they come through the trees 621 00:31:44,353 --> 00:31:46,056 with their swords and staves 622 00:31:46,056 --> 00:31:50,266 and they run for their lives. 623 00:31:50,266 --> 00:31:51,760 All their protestations - 624 00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:52,976 they agreed with Peter, 625 00:31:52,976 --> 00:31:57,992 "You can count on us." 626 00:31:57,992 --> 00:31:59,956 And then as He's being led away, 627 00:31:59,956 --> 00:32:03,359 He hears Peter and a girl saying, 628 00:32:03,359 --> 00:32:06,185 "Aren't you with Him?" 629 00:32:06,185 --> 00:32:10,906 "Don't you have a Galilean accent?" 630 00:32:10,906 --> 00:32:16,485 And this heroic, steadfast believer says, 631 00:32:16,485 --> 00:32:18,836 "I never knew that blasted Man. 632 00:32:18,836 --> 00:32:21,867 Never knew. No, not me." 633 00:32:21,867 --> 00:32:26,354 And He's alone. 634 00:32:26,354 --> 00:32:29,873 Absolutely alone. 635 00:32:29,873 --> 00:32:32,794 The time when He most needed sympathy. 636 00:32:32,794 --> 00:32:37,585 When He most needed someone to listen, 637 00:32:37,585 --> 00:32:41,164 a flicker, a catching of His eye, 638 00:32:41,164 --> 00:32:44,594 and saying in a glance, 639 00:32:44,594 --> 00:32:46,795 "I know why You're there." 640 00:32:46,795 --> 00:32:50,291 "I know why You're dying for me." 641 00:32:50,291 --> 00:32:53,056 "I know why You won't come down from the cross." 642 00:32:53,056 --> 00:32:56,245 "I know it." 643 00:32:56,245 --> 00:33:00,945 "We appreciate so much what You're doing." 644 00:33:00,945 --> 00:33:02,779 No one. 645 00:33:02,779 --> 00:33:04,916 He treads the winespress. 646 00:33:04,916 --> 00:33:07,572 And all the people, there is none with Him. 647 00:33:07,572 --> 00:33:09,714 He's just by Himself. 648 00:33:09,714 --> 00:33:12,645 He's an object of contempt to the soldiers. 649 00:33:12,645 --> 00:33:15,735 He's an object of contempt to the Pharisees. 650 00:33:15,735 --> 00:33:18,905 The chief priests come down and they mock Him. 651 00:33:18,905 --> 00:33:21,615 He's an object of heartbroken sorrow 652 00:33:21,615 --> 00:33:24,736 to His mother and the women there. 653 00:33:24,736 --> 00:33:27,743 And He's a disappointment. 654 00:33:27,743 --> 00:33:31,895 He's a failure - another failed prophet 655 00:33:31,895 --> 00:33:34,426 to His disciples. 656 00:33:34,426 --> 00:33:38,456 They all left Him. 657 00:33:38,456 --> 00:33:40,986 Do you know there are Christians 658 00:33:40,986 --> 00:33:44,496 and they've borne a brave testimony 659 00:33:44,496 --> 00:33:47,915 to the Word of God, 660 00:33:47,915 --> 00:33:51,654 and because they've had a prophetic ministry, 661 00:33:51,654 --> 00:33:54,165 then they've known what it is to be 662 00:33:54,165 --> 00:33:56,036 misunderstood and maligned 663 00:33:56,036 --> 00:33:58,225 and their words twisted. 664 00:33:58,225 --> 00:34:00,325 And they've been forsaken by people 665 00:34:00,325 --> 00:34:04,075 that they thought were standing with them. 666 00:34:04,075 --> 00:34:07,264 They've had false accusations made 667 00:34:07,264 --> 00:34:11,910 and their motives have been twisted. 668 00:34:11,910 --> 00:34:14,146 Come to Calvary, 669 00:34:14,146 --> 00:34:15,766 come with me. 670 00:34:15,766 --> 00:34:18,015 Come to your blessed Savior 671 00:34:18,015 --> 00:34:19,586 and see Him there 672 00:34:19,586 --> 00:34:24,266 and the comfort that He offers to you. 673 00:34:24,266 --> 00:34:28,805 Because He's been there where you are. 674 00:34:28,805 --> 00:34:35,175 (unintelligible) 675 00:34:35,175 --> 00:34:38,657 You've never been totally rejected, have you? 676 00:34:38,657 --> 00:34:42,225 You've had a concerned wife who's come in 677 00:34:42,225 --> 00:34:44,227 and hugged you. 678 00:34:44,227 --> 00:34:46,649 You've had your mother on the phone. 679 00:34:46,649 --> 00:34:48,115 "Are you alright?" 680 00:34:48,115 --> 00:34:50,054 She's filled with concern. 681 00:34:50,054 --> 00:34:52,245 You've had brethren come. 682 00:34:52,245 --> 00:34:55,586 "We'll be praying for you all the time, pastor." 683 00:34:55,586 --> 00:34:57,425 There's been some faint voice - 684 00:34:57,425 --> 00:34:59,895 there's been a voice of your own integrity. 685 00:34:59,895 --> 00:35:00,964 You look through it, 686 00:35:00,964 --> 00:35:07,407 and everything we do, we could do better. 687 00:35:07,407 --> 00:35:10,836 But you knew you had to take that stand. 688 00:35:10,836 --> 00:35:14,094 You knew that had to be said. 689 00:35:14,094 --> 00:35:18,120 Jesus - utterly alone. 690 00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:20,678 And if you feel that yours has been 691 00:35:20,678 --> 00:35:26,536 a lonely ministry, 692 00:35:26,536 --> 00:35:28,857 that your universe is empty, 693 00:35:28,857 --> 00:35:31,515 that your world has collapsed, 694 00:35:31,515 --> 00:35:36,467 stand close by the Man of Calvary 695 00:35:36,467 --> 00:35:38,086 because there is ultimate 696 00:35:38,086 --> 00:35:41,869 and there is total and unqualified repudiation. 697 00:35:41,869 --> 00:35:45,347 There is no one who knows. 698 00:35:45,347 --> 00:35:47,426 Every other martyr had his supporters. 699 00:35:47,426 --> 00:35:52,063 They waited there as the cart came along 700 00:35:52,063 --> 00:35:56,745 and their beloved teacher was taken off 701 00:35:56,745 --> 00:35:59,625 and was bound in chain to the stake. 702 00:35:59,625 --> 00:36:01,036 And they cried to him 703 00:36:01,036 --> 00:36:03,406 and they shouted verses out. 704 00:36:03,406 --> 00:36:06,406 They sang together that they could hear. 705 00:36:06,406 --> 00:36:09,376 And he had the comfort of preaching perhaps 706 00:36:09,376 --> 00:36:11,540 and hurling defiance 707 00:36:11,540 --> 00:36:17,005 at those that were accusing him. 708 00:36:17,005 --> 00:36:20,515 And then the Lord in His compassion 709 00:36:20,515 --> 00:36:25,182 has a man - a criminal - 710 00:36:25,182 --> 00:36:30,250 and he's there and he's nailed alongside Jesus. 711 00:36:30,250 --> 00:36:32,535 And he speaks to Him. 712 00:36:32,535 --> 00:36:35,161 "Jesus, remember me 713 00:36:35,161 --> 00:36:38,631 when You come in Your kingdom." 714 00:36:38,631 --> 00:36:42,608 I expect that long before our Lord 715 00:36:42,608 --> 00:36:45,379 entered His final agony, 716 00:36:45,379 --> 00:36:49,276 that this man had lost any capacity 717 00:36:49,276 --> 00:36:53,096 of speaking, of giving a verse, 718 00:36:53,096 --> 00:36:57,888 of praying, of helping Jesus in any way. 719 00:36:57,888 --> 00:36:59,387 So, I am saying to you, 720 00:36:59,387 --> 00:37:02,207 we are looking at the cross 721 00:37:02,207 --> 00:37:03,786 and the curse, 722 00:37:03,786 --> 00:37:06,326 the anathema that He bore. 723 00:37:06,326 --> 00:37:08,459 And I'm saying firstly, 724 00:37:08,459 --> 00:37:11,481 it was physical pain. 725 00:37:11,481 --> 00:37:13,878 Secondly, it was emotional pain. 726 00:37:13,878 --> 00:37:16,379 And thirdly, it was social pain. 727 00:37:16,379 --> 00:37:18,541 And then last of all, 728 00:37:18,541 --> 00:37:22,430 our Lord experienced spiritual pain. 729 00:37:22,430 --> 00:37:28,909 Now, we can look at that two ways. 730 00:37:28,909 --> 00:37:31,480 Firstly, how He was exposed 731 00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:35,286 to Satanic onslaught. 732 00:37:35,286 --> 00:37:39,480 It was the hour of the power of darkness. 733 00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:43,328 And the devil threw his own blazing arrows, 734 00:37:43,328 --> 00:37:47,878 his incendiaries into the heart of the Savior - 735 00:37:47,878 --> 00:37:49,497 the incendiaries of doubt, 736 00:37:49,497 --> 00:37:51,540 the incendiaries of blasphemy, 737 00:37:51,540 --> 00:37:55,099 the incendiaries of despair. 738 00:37:55,099 --> 00:37:58,410 I do not say, I would not allow 739 00:37:58,410 --> 00:38:01,210 that they caused any conflagration, 740 00:38:01,210 --> 00:38:04,028 that they found in Christ then 741 00:38:04,028 --> 00:38:08,380 no moral or spiritually combustible material 742 00:38:08,380 --> 00:38:11,090 that they could set fire to. 743 00:38:11,090 --> 00:38:14,319 He was from His heart 744 00:38:14,319 --> 00:38:18,219 loving God with all the atoms 745 00:38:18,219 --> 00:38:24,630 and subatomic particles of His soul. 746 00:38:24,630 --> 00:38:26,280 But the pain was there 747 00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:27,648 and the darkness was there. 748 00:38:27,648 --> 00:38:29,757 It was the valley of the shadow of death. 749 00:38:29,757 --> 00:38:32,937 It was the hour of the authority of darkness. 750 00:38:32,937 --> 00:38:35,736 There's that marvelous picture in Colossians 2. 751 00:38:35,736 --> 00:38:38,660 We're told that Christ has delivered us 752 00:38:38,660 --> 00:38:40,869 from the power of darkness, 753 00:38:40,869 --> 00:38:44,397 and God's translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. 754 00:38:44,397 --> 00:38:47,839 He disarmed the principalities and powers. 755 00:38:47,839 --> 00:38:50,188 He made a public spectacle of them 756 00:38:50,188 --> 00:38:55,029 triumphing over them by the cross. 757 00:38:55,029 --> 00:38:57,721 So He made an incursion 758 00:38:57,721 --> 00:39:00,660 into the kingdom of darkness, 759 00:39:00,660 --> 00:39:03,627 into the authority of the darkness of Satan 760 00:39:03,627 --> 00:39:07,902 and Christ went into that kingdom. 761 00:39:07,902 --> 00:39:12,258 It was almost to use today's picture, 762 00:39:12,258 --> 00:39:17,851 (unintelligible). 763 00:39:17,851 --> 00:39:20,449 A commando raid. 764 00:39:20,449 --> 00:39:21,981 And Christ rescued us 765 00:39:21,981 --> 00:39:24,218 and Christ was used 766 00:39:24,218 --> 00:39:27,549 by this tremendous rescue operation 767 00:39:27,549 --> 00:39:29,869 that God had planned in eternity 768 00:39:29,869 --> 00:39:34,469 and set up and now orchestrates. 769 00:39:34,469 --> 00:39:36,789 He comes into the kingdom of darkness, 770 00:39:36,789 --> 00:39:38,732 into the authority of darkness. 771 00:39:38,732 --> 00:39:41,541 He is made vulnerable to its power 772 00:39:41,541 --> 00:39:43,791 and He is attacked and He is assaulted 773 00:39:43,791 --> 00:39:47,970 by Satan's doubts and Satan's blasphemous thoughts 774 00:39:47,970 --> 00:39:51,030 and Satan's attempts to bring our Lord 775 00:39:51,030 --> 00:39:53,999 not only to despondency, but to despair. 776 00:39:53,999 --> 00:39:55,438 And end the enfleshment 777 00:39:55,438 --> 00:39:57,179 and call for the legion of angels 778 00:39:57,179 --> 00:39:59,861 before His redemptive work is over 779 00:39:59,861 --> 00:40:02,001 and whisk Him away 780 00:40:02,001 --> 00:40:04,710 from our salvation. 781 00:40:04,710 --> 00:40:06,179 An onslaught. 782 00:40:06,179 --> 00:40:09,429 So Satan lifts the lid of the bottomless pit 783 00:40:09,429 --> 00:40:11,979 and he summons every demon out. 784 00:40:11,979 --> 00:40:14,700 And his command then to them all 785 00:40:14,700 --> 00:40:18,880 is that they go to Golgotha 786 00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:30,008 and they descend like a huge swarm of hornets. 787 00:40:30,008 --> 00:40:33,308 And they descend on our Lord 788 00:40:33,308 --> 00:40:36,528 and they attack Him 789 00:40:36,528 --> 00:40:37,780 and He is vulnerable 790 00:40:37,780 --> 00:40:41,248 and He is in terrible spiritual anguish 791 00:40:41,248 --> 00:40:44,089 because of the power of darkness. 792 00:40:44,089 --> 00:40:46,750 And that is one cause of the spiritual pain 793 00:40:46,750 --> 00:40:50,118 that our Lord endured on the cross. 794 00:40:50,118 --> 00:40:51,899 And then secondly, 795 00:40:51,899 --> 00:40:54,350 the terrible thing was the dereliction: 796 00:40:54,350 --> 00:40:58,802 "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" 797 00:40:58,802 --> 00:41:02,681 And that was the final manifestation of God's anathema. 798 00:41:02,681 --> 00:41:11,239 God putting a gulf between Himself and His Son. 799 00:41:11,239 --> 00:41:18,268 It meant on one level the loss of assurance of God's love, 800 00:41:18,268 --> 00:41:21,719 the loss of a sense of God's assistance. 801 00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:26,860 I don't believe that God ever stopped loving Him 802 00:41:26,860 --> 00:41:32,821 or ever ceased to help Him. 803 00:41:32,821 --> 00:41:34,470 The great prophecy was: 804 00:41:34,470 --> 00:41:38,090 "Behold, My Servant whom I uphold." 805 00:41:38,090 --> 00:41:41,399 And I believe that God was upholding Him in the garden, 806 00:41:41,399 --> 00:41:44,378 and upholding Him under the lash, 807 00:41:44,378 --> 00:41:46,420 and upholding Him when He stumbled 808 00:41:46,420 --> 00:41:47,790 carrying the cross, 809 00:41:47,790 --> 00:41:50,230 and upholding Him when the nails 810 00:41:50,230 --> 00:41:52,552 were driven through His hands and feet, 811 00:41:52,552 --> 00:41:53,930 and He was there. 812 00:41:53,930 --> 00:41:58,511 It was through the eternal Spirit 813 00:41:58,511 --> 00:42:03,060 that He offered Himself without spot to God. 814 00:42:03,060 --> 00:42:06,798 But I do believe that our beloved Savior 815 00:42:06,798 --> 00:42:13,161 wasn't conscious of the Father upholding Him 816 00:42:13,161 --> 00:42:17,300 or the Spirit ministering to Him. 817 00:42:17,300 --> 00:42:20,908 And that can be a parable 818 00:42:20,908 --> 00:42:23,810 for some of the anguish 819 00:42:23,810 --> 00:42:26,860 that some of you have suffered. 820 00:42:26,860 --> 00:42:34,155 There are times when God is there, 821 00:42:34,155 --> 00:42:37,408 God is your refuge, 822 00:42:37,408 --> 00:42:40,569 God is your strength, 823 00:42:40,569 --> 00:42:42,570 God is a very real help 824 00:42:42,570 --> 00:42:48,159 in a day of great trouble, 825 00:42:48,159 --> 00:42:53,699 but you're not conscious that He's there. 826 00:42:53,699 --> 00:42:56,779 You don't appreciate 827 00:42:56,779 --> 00:42:59,810 that God is with you 828 00:42:59,810 --> 00:43:02,059 when you feel absolutely alone 829 00:43:02,059 --> 00:43:05,351 and the heavens seem as brass above you. 830 00:43:05,351 --> 00:43:07,610 And you lack the comfort of His presence 831 00:43:07,610 --> 00:43:10,950 and the sense of it. 832 00:43:10,950 --> 00:43:15,080 I don't believe He ever lost the Father's love, 833 00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:18,460 the love of God for Him. 834 00:43:18,460 --> 00:43:21,538 God's delight in Him as His servant. 835 00:43:21,538 --> 00:43:24,665 My elect, in whom My soul delights. 836 00:43:24,665 --> 00:43:27,948 He had been lovely and pleasant in His life, 837 00:43:27,948 --> 00:43:32,710 but in His death, He was more lovely 838 00:43:32,710 --> 00:43:35,699 and more pleasant still. 839 00:43:35,699 --> 00:43:39,041 It was a sacrifice which was a sweet aroma 840 00:43:39,041 --> 00:43:40,440 to Almighty God. 841 00:43:40,440 --> 00:43:43,448 What a fragrance there was going up, 842 00:43:43,448 --> 00:43:46,440 filling heaven from Golgotha. 843 00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:48,644 All that obedience, 844 00:43:48,644 --> 00:43:50,257 all that willingness to take 845 00:43:50,257 --> 00:43:54,262 what the Father had given to Him - 846 00:43:54,262 --> 00:43:56,270 the redemption of a company of people 847 00:43:56,270 --> 00:43:57,939 more than anyone can number 848 00:43:57,939 --> 00:44:00,960 being redeemed, each one, 849 00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:04,011 and the fragrance as their names 850 00:44:04,011 --> 00:44:07,771 and their eternities were brought there 851 00:44:07,771 --> 00:44:11,580 and settled in heaven forevermore. 852 00:44:11,580 --> 00:44:14,300 God loved Him for what He was doing. 853 00:44:14,300 --> 00:44:19,112 God loved Him very specially, 854 00:44:19,112 --> 00:44:22,970 but He couldn't tell Him. 855 00:44:22,970 --> 00:44:24,709 The love was a reality, 856 00:44:24,709 --> 00:44:28,578 but the sense of it was withheld. 857 00:44:28,578 --> 00:44:31,559 The sense of sonship. 858 00:44:31,559 --> 00:44:33,512 You say to me, well now, pastor, 859 00:44:33,512 --> 00:44:35,471 that sounds fine, but can you bring me 860 00:44:35,471 --> 00:44:37,192 any objective proof 861 00:44:37,192 --> 00:44:40,521 for what you've just told us? 862 00:44:40,521 --> 00:44:45,039 Well, I take you simply to the great words: 863 00:44:45,039 --> 00:44:55,050 "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" 864 00:44:55,050 --> 00:45:01,394 Whenever we are told of Christ praying 865 00:45:01,394 --> 00:45:05,359 in the Gospel, until this juncture, 866 00:45:05,359 --> 00:45:08,912 whenever His praying is described for us, 867 00:45:08,912 --> 00:45:12,320 He always says, "Abba" - 868 00:45:12,320 --> 00:45:15,351 the Aramaic for "father." 869 00:45:15,351 --> 00:45:21,191 It's fashionable to translate that as "daddy." 870 00:45:21,191 --> 00:45:23,915 He was never that to Christ. 871 00:45:23,915 --> 00:45:25,761 Holy Father. 872 00:45:25,761 --> 00:45:28,145 Righteous Father. 873 00:45:28,145 --> 00:45:31,040 We don't in adulthood commonly refer 874 00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:36,570 to our aged fathers as "daddy." 875 00:45:36,570 --> 00:45:41,201 Father, dad, we say. 876 00:45:41,201 --> 00:45:44,392 And so Christ with all His reverance 877 00:45:44,392 --> 00:45:47,340 for His Father's righteousness, 878 00:45:47,340 --> 00:45:52,191 for His insight into His Father's holiness, 879 00:45:52,191 --> 00:45:58,111 yet He can't say "Father" on Calvary - 880 00:45:58,111 --> 00:46:01,440 not at the last. 881 00:46:01,440 --> 00:46:08,762 "My God." 882 00:46:08,762 --> 00:46:16,321 It's wonderful that it's "My God," isn't it? 883 00:46:16,321 --> 00:46:20,010 There's no despair on Calvary. 884 00:46:20,010 --> 00:46:23,124 There's in many ways faith there in our Lord 885 00:46:23,124 --> 00:46:26,741 in every of the utterances that He makes. 886 00:46:26,741 --> 00:46:31,541 He's triumphing over unspeakable deprivation. 887 00:46:31,541 --> 00:46:34,513 That's the glory that (unintelligible). 888 00:46:34,513 --> 00:46:38,936 "My God" - not "My Father." 889 00:46:38,936 --> 00:46:42,621 He is conscious that He is face-to-face 890 00:46:42,621 --> 00:46:51,140 with infinite, uncreated holiness. 891 00:46:51,140 --> 00:46:52,950 He is full of the consciousness 892 00:46:52,950 --> 00:46:55,940 of the wrath of God. 893 00:46:55,940 --> 00:46:57,571 His Sonship is obscured. 894 00:46:57,571 --> 00:46:59,664 I don't say He doubted it, 895 00:46:59,664 --> 00:47:02,358 but He wasn't conscious of it. 896 00:47:02,358 --> 00:47:08,810 And He is desolate in a sense of help, 897 00:47:08,810 --> 00:47:12,148 in a sense of love, in a sense of Sonship. 898 00:47:12,148 --> 00:47:14,811 And He cries and there's no one to answer Him. 899 00:47:14,811 --> 00:47:18,700 I called, but there is none to hear. 900 00:47:18,700 --> 00:47:22,140 And you see the glory of that - 901 00:47:22,140 --> 00:47:25,221 that He had no experience of that. 902 00:47:25,221 --> 00:47:27,969 Not in eternity. 903 00:47:27,969 --> 00:47:29,231 The Word was with God 904 00:47:29,231 --> 00:47:30,360 and the Word was God 905 00:47:30,360 --> 00:47:31,800 and they were there together. 906 00:47:31,800 --> 00:47:35,078 They were eternally delighting in one another, 907 00:47:35,078 --> 00:47:37,799 in the Father and the Son's love. 908 00:47:37,799 --> 00:47:39,829 And then He becomes incarnate 909 00:47:39,829 --> 00:47:43,280 and He adds a human body and mind 910 00:47:43,280 --> 00:47:49,869 to His heavenly, eternal, divine nature. 911 00:47:49,869 --> 00:47:53,241 Every day: "Father..." 912 00:47:53,241 --> 00:47:56,279 He'd begun the day giving Himself anew to His Father. 913 00:47:56,279 --> 00:47:57,665 At the end of every day, 914 00:47:57,665 --> 00:48:01,180 thanked God for His presence and help 915 00:48:01,180 --> 00:48:02,861 and always they were together - 916 00:48:02,861 --> 00:48:07,701 the Father and the Son - always together. 917 00:48:07,701 --> 00:48:09,031 Then in the Upper Room, 918 00:48:09,031 --> 00:48:12,028 He tells God the Father exactly what He wants. 919 00:48:12,028 --> 00:48:14,339 He says, "Father, I will 920 00:48:14,339 --> 00:48:16,661 that they whom Thou hast given Me 921 00:48:16,661 --> 00:48:20,629 shall be with Me where I am." 922 00:48:20,629 --> 00:48:23,528 And He prays with confidence in the garden. 923 00:48:23,528 --> 00:48:28,000 "Father, let this cup pass from Me. 924 00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:32,030 Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done." 925 00:48:32,030 --> 00:48:36,059 And He cries now on Golgotha 926 00:48:36,059 --> 00:48:38,664 to a God who has always been there, 927 00:48:38,664 --> 00:48:40,681 but a God who doesn't seem to Him 928 00:48:40,681 --> 00:48:42,579 to be there any longer. 929 00:48:42,579 --> 00:48:45,780 And there's no response. 930 00:48:45,780 --> 00:48:48,059 There's no angel coming. 931 00:48:48,059 --> 00:48:50,000 At His baptism, there was an angel, 932 00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:52,141 and at His transfiguration. 933 00:48:52,141 --> 00:48:58,348 In the garden, an angel comes and comforts Him. 934 00:48:58,348 --> 00:49:00,820 Robert Duncan said 935 00:49:00,820 --> 00:49:02,913 after He'd seen Jesus in Heaven, 936 00:49:02,913 --> 00:49:07,480 he wanted to see the angel that comforted His Lord. 937 00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:11,558 But there was no voice and no angel 938 00:49:11,558 --> 00:49:15,278 there on the cross. 939 00:49:15,278 --> 00:49:18,907 No one saying, 940 00:49:18,907 --> 00:49:21,510 "You're My lovely Son." 941 00:49:21,510 --> 00:49:24,692 "I'm so pleased with everything You've done." 942 00:49:24,692 --> 00:49:27,530 "Well done, good and faithful Servant." 943 00:49:27,530 --> 00:49:32,081 Just the intolerable eloquent silence 944 00:49:32,081 --> 00:49:33,819 from Heaven. 945 00:49:33,819 --> 00:49:35,165 He's in the far country. 946 00:49:35,165 --> 00:49:36,499 He's in the strange country. 947 00:49:36,499 --> 00:49:38,349 He's the scapegoat. 948 00:49:38,349 --> 00:49:40,129 He's bearing the sins of the world. 949 00:49:40,129 --> 00:49:42,662 He's in the wilderness. 950 00:49:42,662 --> 00:49:45,630 He's falling through the bottomless pit. 951 00:49:45,630 --> 00:49:48,879 He's swimming through the lake of fire. 952 00:49:48,879 --> 00:49:51,540 He's in hell. He's crying to God. 953 00:49:51,540 --> 00:49:54,592 All He gets is the echo of His own voice 954 00:49:54,592 --> 00:49:56,159 and the chant of the crowd, 955 00:49:56,159 --> 00:50:01,659 "Crucify! Crucify! Crucify!" And that's all. 956 00:50:01,659 --> 00:50:07,790 And then in the Father as He looks, 957 00:50:07,790 --> 00:50:11,101 what's there in the Father at that time? 958 00:50:11,101 --> 00:50:12,530 As He looks at His Son, 959 00:50:12,530 --> 00:50:17,140 as Abram ties Isaac - 960 00:50:17,140 --> 00:50:20,361 the promised one, 961 00:50:20,361 --> 00:50:22,988 his lovely boy, 962 00:50:22,988 --> 00:50:27,861 and he ties him. 963 00:50:27,861 --> 00:50:31,228 But Jesus was a lovelier Son. 964 00:50:31,228 --> 00:50:34,301 And God was a more loving Father. 965 00:50:34,301 --> 00:50:35,881 And all the love was there. 966 00:50:35,881 --> 00:50:38,255 The Father's pain and the Father's care. 967 00:50:38,255 --> 00:50:41,880 And the Father's longing to spare 968 00:50:41,880 --> 00:50:44,870 and the longing to hold His Son's hand 969 00:50:44,870 --> 00:50:47,051 and whisper in His Son's ear, 970 00:50:47,051 --> 00:50:50,580 but He was anathema 971 00:50:50,580 --> 00:50:53,790 because He was made sin. 972 00:50:53,790 --> 00:50:55,350 He bore our sins 973 00:50:55,350 --> 00:50:57,700 in His own body on the tree. 974 00:50:57,700 --> 00:51:00,038 He was accursed. 975 00:51:00,038 --> 00:51:02,360 God couldn't condone. 976 00:51:02,360 --> 00:51:05,229 He was the holocaust. 977 00:51:05,229 --> 00:51:07,511 And the holocaust must burn and burn 978 00:51:07,511 --> 00:51:10,871 until He is consumed. 979 00:51:10,871 --> 00:51:14,152 And so the apostle tells us, 980 00:51:14,152 --> 00:51:20,430 "He did not spare His own Son." 981 00:51:20,430 --> 00:51:22,389 He must have longed to 982 00:51:22,389 --> 00:51:26,211 as a Christian mother is longing 983 00:51:26,211 --> 00:51:29,259 knowing something of the pain 984 00:51:29,259 --> 00:51:30,691 her daughter's going through. 985 00:51:30,691 --> 00:51:33,248 And she went through pain. 986 00:51:33,248 --> 00:51:38,431 Let me take that pain, but she can't. 987 00:51:38,431 --> 00:51:40,510 Christian mothers have bled in their hearts 988 00:51:40,510 --> 00:51:42,110 when the world and the church 989 00:51:42,110 --> 00:51:43,579 has turned on men of God 990 00:51:43,579 --> 00:51:45,010 and scorned them 991 00:51:45,010 --> 00:51:47,740 and longed to relieve their son's pain. 992 00:51:47,740 --> 00:51:51,621 And God the Father is there, 993 00:51:51,621 --> 00:51:59,498 oh, His wings over Golgotha. 994 00:51:59,498 --> 00:52:04,128 His wings over us tonight. 995 00:52:04,128 --> 00:52:07,982 His wings over you and your family 996 00:52:07,982 --> 00:52:12,611 and your congregation. 997 00:52:12,611 --> 00:52:15,000 Sitting down we're told 998 00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:17,860 the soldiers watched Him there. 999 00:52:17,860 --> 00:52:20,411 They watched Him. 1000 00:52:20,411 --> 00:52:24,260 They watched Him holy, harmless, undefiled, 1001 00:52:24,260 --> 00:52:25,659 separate from sinners 1002 00:52:25,659 --> 00:52:27,529 higher than the heavens, 1003 00:52:27,529 --> 00:52:32,152 there on that cross. 1004 00:52:32,152 --> 00:52:35,490 The desolate, derelict, forsaken 1005 00:52:35,490 --> 00:52:37,551 by the God who loved Him 1006 00:52:37,551 --> 00:52:40,849 and cared for Him. 1007 00:52:40,849 --> 00:52:44,326 But the covenant was this: 1008 00:52:44,326 --> 00:52:48,717 the cup shall not pass. 1009 00:52:48,717 --> 00:52:52,063 It couldn't pass. 1010 00:52:52,063 --> 00:52:55,298 And He says to them again and again, 1011 00:52:55,298 --> 00:53:00,448 the Son of God must suffer many things. 1012 00:53:00,448 --> 00:53:03,840 He must suffer. 1013 00:53:03,840 --> 00:53:06,510 And that "must" isn't rooted 1014 00:53:06,510 --> 00:53:08,552 in human convention. 1015 00:53:08,552 --> 00:53:13,710 It's not rooted in theological contrivance 1016 00:53:13,710 --> 00:53:18,090 but in the great realities of who God is. 1017 00:53:18,090 --> 00:53:19,272 And He is light, 1018 00:53:19,272 --> 00:53:24,008 and in Him there is no darkness at all. 1019 00:53:24,008 --> 00:53:30,580 And we may say God can forgive sin. 1020 00:53:30,580 --> 00:53:35,680 And we can say God loves to forgive sin. 1021 00:53:35,680 --> 00:53:39,930 We can say God multiplies pardon. 1022 00:53:39,930 --> 00:53:42,879 The vilest offender who truly believes, 1023 00:53:42,879 --> 00:53:45,931 that moment from Jesus a pardon receives. 1024 00:53:45,931 --> 00:53:48,638 We can say that. 1025 00:53:48,638 --> 00:53:54,706 But God condones nothing 1026 00:53:54,706 --> 00:53:58,110 and Christ must bear the sin 1027 00:53:58,110 --> 00:54:01,609 that God forgives. 1028 00:54:01,609 --> 00:54:06,430 The one who bears is the one who exacts. 1029 00:54:06,430 --> 00:54:09,111 God demands the atonement. 1030 00:54:09,111 --> 00:54:11,808 God provides the atonement. 1031 00:54:11,808 --> 00:54:14,582 God becomes the atonement. 1032 00:54:14,582 --> 00:54:17,330 God demands a lamb. 1033 00:54:17,330 --> 00:54:19,399 God finds a lamb. 1034 00:54:19,399 --> 00:54:22,200 He finds it in His own bosom. 1035 00:54:22,200 --> 00:54:27,041 And God becomes the Lamb. 1036 00:54:27,041 --> 00:54:32,204 And that truly is the greatest single reality of the Christian faith. 1037 00:54:32,204 --> 00:54:34,470 He became a curse for us. 1038 00:54:34,470 --> 00:54:37,292 He became the Lamb for us. 1039 00:54:37,292 --> 00:54:39,321 He became the scapegoat. 1040 00:54:39,321 --> 00:54:43,849 He became the holocaust. 1041 00:54:43,849 --> 00:54:45,872 (unintelligible) 1042 00:54:45,872 --> 00:54:48,811 And that's why the paradox is so important 1043 00:54:48,811 --> 00:54:53,051 because if you are taking what I'm saying in your stride, 1044 00:54:53,051 --> 00:54:55,449 you'll never see the glory of it. 1045 00:54:55,449 --> 00:54:57,230 Unless you see the immorality 1046 00:54:57,230 --> 00:54:58,810 (unintelligible) 1047 00:54:58,810 --> 00:55:00,931 and the illegality and the ugliness 1048 00:55:00,931 --> 00:55:05,361 and the utterly indefensible, horrendousness 1049 00:55:05,361 --> 00:55:07,800 of what is happening on the cross, 1050 00:55:07,800 --> 00:55:09,851 you'll never see the glory 1051 00:55:09,851 --> 00:55:12,953 because Calvary is the ugliest deed 1052 00:55:12,953 --> 00:55:15,449 in the history of the cosmos. 1053 00:55:15,449 --> 00:55:18,370 It has been and it always will be. 1054 00:55:18,370 --> 00:55:22,707 It is ugly as human rejection of God. 1055 00:55:22,707 --> 00:55:26,793 It is ugly as I look on the paradox 1056 00:55:26,793 --> 00:55:29,081 of God crucifying His own Son. 1057 00:55:29,081 --> 00:55:31,151 And I need light there 1058 00:55:31,151 --> 00:55:33,582 because if I can't find light 1059 00:55:33,582 --> 00:55:37,741 that will illuminate Calvary, 1060 00:55:37,741 --> 00:55:40,621 then my whole universe is a black hole. 1061 00:55:40,621 --> 00:55:44,131 There's no reason. There's no logic. 1062 00:55:44,131 --> 00:55:48,912 There is something here that is more horrific than Belsen. 1063 00:55:48,912 --> 00:55:56,041 Why did God crucify His own Son? 1064 00:55:56,041 --> 00:55:58,891 And the extraordinary answer is: 1065 00:55:58,891 --> 00:56:06,861 because He loved sinners like me and you. 1066 00:56:06,861 --> 00:56:14,532 Because He loved us. 1067 00:56:14,532 --> 00:56:20,397 He was made a curse for us. 1068 00:56:20,397 --> 00:56:25,919 He had no personal connection with sin, 1069 00:56:25,919 --> 00:56:30,125 but He became connected to it 1070 00:56:30,125 --> 00:56:33,138 because He loved us. 1071 00:56:33,138 --> 00:56:36,460 That made Him a debtor. That made Him a sinner. 1072 00:56:36,460 --> 00:56:39,147 Paul says it with a boldness. 1073 00:56:39,147 --> 00:56:42,309 "He made Him sin." 1074 00:56:42,309 --> 00:56:44,590 That's why God recoiled. 1075 00:56:44,590 --> 00:56:47,280 That's why He sent Him into the far country. 1076 00:56:47,280 --> 00:56:49,961 That's why He wouldn't listen to Him when He cried. 1077 00:56:49,961 --> 00:56:51,569 That's why He wouldn't look 1078 00:56:51,569 --> 00:56:54,430 when the Savior bled and died. 1079 00:56:54,430 --> 00:56:59,751 It's a glorious thing, that little word "for." 1080 00:56:59,751 --> 00:57:04,312 It is the "for" of substitution. 1081 00:57:04,312 --> 00:57:06,241 For us. 1082 00:57:06,241 --> 00:57:08,121 My Substitute. 1083 00:57:08,121 --> 00:57:10,920 My sin there. 1084 00:57:10,920 --> 00:57:14,637 In Christ on the cross. 1085 00:57:14,637 --> 00:57:18,160 And God not spared. 1086 00:57:18,160 --> 00:57:22,342 We are redeemed from the curse of the law. 1087 00:57:22,342 --> 00:57:24,359 Yea, wash Thou me 1088 00:57:24,359 --> 00:57:26,961 and I shall be whiter than snow. 1089 00:57:26,961 --> 00:57:28,832 There is a fountian filled with blood 1090 00:57:28,832 --> 00:57:30,531 drawn from Immanuel's veins, 1091 00:57:30,531 --> 00:57:33,593 and sinners plunged beneath that flood 1092 00:57:33,593 --> 00:57:39,621 lose all their guilty stains. 1093 00:57:39,621 --> 00:57:42,090 He casts our sins into the depths 1094 00:57:42,090 --> 00:57:44,462 of the sea of His own forgetfulness. 1095 00:57:44,462 --> 00:57:47,311 All my mean little sins, 1096 00:57:47,311 --> 00:57:49,531 all my sins against those 1097 00:57:49,531 --> 00:57:54,280 who love me the most. 1098 00:57:54,280 --> 00:57:58,950 All my trespasses. 1099 00:57:58,950 --> 00:58:01,740 At the great mercy seat, 1100 00:58:01,740 --> 00:58:05,762 I live under the cover 1101 00:58:05,762 --> 00:58:08,200 of that sacrifice. 1102 00:58:08,200 --> 00:58:10,131 Once and for all, 1103 00:58:10,131 --> 00:58:15,440 it is finished. 1104 00:58:15,440 --> 00:58:17,761 Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. 1105 00:58:17,761 --> 00:58:19,951 Give me a covering. 1106 00:58:19,951 --> 00:58:21,960 My sin needs to be covered. 1107 00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:23,229 (unintelligible) 1108 00:58:23,229 --> 00:58:24,571 We have a great High Priest. 1109 00:58:24,571 --> 00:58:25,798 Well, let's draw near. 1110 00:58:25,798 --> 00:58:27,534 Let's come with boldness. 1111 00:58:27,534 --> 00:58:29,640 Let's find mercy. 1112 00:58:29,640 --> 00:58:32,640 All of us, everybody here tonight. 1113 00:58:32,640 --> 00:58:36,510 Come now. Come now to Christ for mercy. 1114 00:58:36,510 --> 00:58:38,163 Come for a covering. 1115 00:58:38,163 --> 00:58:40,380 There's a covering here. 1116 00:58:40,382 --> 00:58:43,081 It's available for you tonight - 1117 00:58:43,081 --> 00:58:47,361 this covering for your sin is here. 1118 00:58:47,361 --> 00:58:50,580 Don't leave without a covering. 1119 00:58:50,580 --> 00:58:52,800 It's been woven by the agony 1120 00:58:52,800 --> 00:58:56,258 and bloody sweat of a Savior 1121 00:58:56,258 --> 00:58:59,801 who because of His love 1122 00:58:59,801 --> 00:59:01,757 wouldn't come down 1123 00:59:01,757 --> 00:59:04,580 till He redeemed you 1124 00:59:04,580 --> 00:59:06,271 until He paid the price, 1125 00:59:06,271 --> 00:59:10,054 until He cleared the slate clean. 1126 00:59:10,054 --> 00:59:11,921 You'll go to Him tonight 1127 00:59:11,921 --> 00:59:14,642 and say, "Lord, I need a covering." 1128 00:59:14,642 --> 00:59:17,382 I need forgiveness. 1129 00:59:17,382 --> 00:59:22,621 I need my sin to be forgotten. 1130 00:59:22,621 --> 00:59:24,931 Put a veil over it. 1131 00:59:24,931 --> 00:59:28,411 And the veil is the obedience of Jesus Christ 1132 00:59:28,411 --> 00:59:35,022 to death - even the death of the cross. 1133 00:59:35,022 --> 00:59:38,772 I don't believe God ever brings our sins back to haunt us. 1134 00:59:38,772 --> 00:59:41,101 I believe the devil does. 1135 00:59:41,101 --> 00:59:43,061 And in our folly, we will go 1136 00:59:43,061 --> 00:59:48,421 and we will dive in and seek for them 1137 00:59:48,421 --> 00:59:51,041 and find them again in our folly. 1138 00:59:51,041 --> 00:59:54,061 The devil will bring them back. 1139 00:59:54,061 --> 00:59:57,691 We can often say, yes, God forgives our sins, 1140 00:59:57,691 --> 00:59:59,852 but we don't forgive our own sins. 1141 00:59:59,852 --> 01:00:03,441 You must. You must. 1142 01:00:03,441 --> 01:00:08,822 If the blood of Christ 1143 01:00:08,822 --> 01:00:12,430 has satisfied God's righteousness, 1144 01:00:12,430 --> 01:00:17,400 it can satisfy your conscience. 1145 01:00:17,400 --> 01:00:18,900 I must put my past - 1146 01:00:18,900 --> 01:00:20,456 my indefensible past 1147 01:00:20,456 --> 01:00:24,020 that I am most ashamed of in my life - 1148 01:00:24,020 --> 01:00:26,250 I must put it behind me. 1149 01:00:26,250 --> 01:00:29,946 I must leave it there. 1150 01:00:29,946 --> 01:00:34,061 Sometimes perhaps when you give your testimony, 1151 01:00:34,061 --> 01:00:37,383 you needn't even hint 1152 01:00:37,383 --> 01:00:40,725 at what you once were 1153 01:00:40,725 --> 01:00:44,530 because grace has changed you 1154 01:00:44,530 --> 01:00:46,862 and the blood has cleansed you 1155 01:00:46,862 --> 01:00:49,542 and the righteousness clothes you 1156 01:00:49,542 --> 01:00:53,502 and the forgetfulness of God has cast it from you, 1157 01:00:53,502 --> 01:00:57,892 and He will never bring it before you again. 1158 01:00:57,892 --> 01:01:02,772 And the Judge when you stand in that great day 1159 01:01:02,772 --> 01:01:07,805 and give an account of your life. 1160 01:01:07,805 --> 01:01:10,943 that Judge will be the Savior 1161 01:01:10,943 --> 01:01:15,882 who gave His life and shed His blood 1162 01:01:15,882 --> 01:01:18,531 that you might be ransomed, 1163 01:01:18,531 --> 01:01:26,312 healed, restored, forgiven. 1164 01:01:26,312 --> 01:01:33,632 There is therefore now no condemnation 1165 01:01:33,632 --> 01:01:38,512 to those are in Christ Jesus. 1166 01:01:38,512 --> 01:01:41,355 You take Him tonight. 1167 01:01:41,355 --> 01:01:43,553 Taking Him is a movement 1168 01:01:43,553 --> 01:01:45,101 of your heart and soul 1169 01:01:45,101 --> 01:01:48,210 as the Holy Spirit works by the Word 1170 01:01:48,210 --> 01:01:51,707 and applies that Word to you 1171 01:01:51,707 --> 01:01:56,318 and enables to you to say I'm sorry. 1172 01:01:56,318 --> 01:02:00,382 I'm so wrong 1173 01:02:00,382 --> 01:02:04,382 keeping You on the outside, 1174 01:02:04,382 --> 01:02:06,724 and I'm opening my life to You now. 1175 01:02:06,724 --> 01:02:09,173 Come. Come into me. 1176 01:02:09,173 --> 01:02:12,459 You say it. There's no formalism. 1177 01:02:12,459 --> 01:02:16,504 You say it. You start talking to Him. 1178 01:02:16,504 --> 01:02:19,521 You talk to Him in wonder 1179 01:02:19,521 --> 01:02:22,867 and thankfulness 1180 01:02:22,867 --> 01:02:27,311 that you've heard the Gospel of redeeming grace 1181 01:02:27,311 --> 01:02:30,172 and of comprehensive, complete forgiveness 1182 01:02:30,172 --> 01:02:32,211 for all our sins 1183 01:02:32,211 --> 01:02:36,393 through what the Savior has done. 1184 01:02:36,393 --> 01:02:41,152 And when you stand before Him, 1185 01:02:41,152 --> 01:02:43,021 and He says, 1186 01:02:43,021 --> 01:02:46,712 "Why should I let you into My Heaven?" 1187 01:02:46,712 --> 01:02:52,473 You'll say, "because of Jesus." 1188 01:02:52,473 --> 01:02:54,493 That's all. 1189 01:02:54,493 --> 01:02:56,012 Because of Him. 1190 01:02:56,012 --> 01:02:57,782 Let us pray. 1191 01:02:57,782 --> 01:03:01,133 We ask Thee, loving God, to work now. 1192 01:03:01,133 --> 01:03:03,963 We've spoken on such holy matters. 1193 01:03:03,963 --> 01:03:06,562 Oh Lord, do bless it. 1194 01:03:06,562 --> 01:03:09,292 Don't let the devil take away the seed, 1195 01:03:09,292 --> 01:03:10,992 but oh, may it produce fruit 1196 01:03:10,992 --> 01:03:14,593 in the lives of many here. 1197 01:03:14,593 --> 01:03:18,602 May they tonight run from their good works 1198 01:03:18,602 --> 01:03:21,092 and church attendance and their baptism, 1199 01:03:21,092 --> 01:03:22,604 the Lord's Supper, 1200 01:03:22,604 --> 01:03:24,783 all the wonderful things, 1201 01:03:24,783 --> 01:03:28,194 and earlier common graces 1202 01:03:28,194 --> 01:03:31,823 You've allowed them to do. 1203 01:03:31,823 --> 01:03:35,923 May they lodge in the wounded side. 1204 01:03:35,923 --> 01:03:38,707 May they know with wonder 1205 01:03:38,707 --> 01:03:40,660 their names are written 1206 01:03:40,660 --> 01:03:43,040 in the palms of Jesus' hands 1207 01:03:43,040 --> 01:03:45,586 in marks of indelible grace. 1208 01:03:45,586 --> 01:03:47,655 May they plead: 1209 01:03:47,655 --> 01:03:51,226 Father, forgive me for Jesus' sake. 1210 01:03:51,226 --> 01:03:53,954 And may they believe 1211 01:03:53,954 --> 01:03:56,676 that there is mercy with Him 1212 01:03:56,676 --> 01:03:59,717 for the chief of sinners 1213 01:03:59,717 --> 01:04:01,847 that glory may be given 1214 01:04:01,847 --> 01:04:04,646 to our blessed Savior 1215 01:04:04,646 --> 01:04:08,026 who stayed there until He saved us - 1216 01:04:08,026 --> 01:04:10,037 everybody. 1217 01:04:10,037 --> 01:04:14,235 Accept our doxology of praise and thanks. 1218 01:04:14,235 --> 01:04:19,835 In Jesus' name, Amen. 1219 01:04:19,835 --> 01:04:23,394 Now I've asked that we could sing 1220 01:04:23,394 --> 01:04:25,387 "The Power of the Cross" 1221 01:04:25,387 --> 01:04:28,997 as our last hymn tonight.