Matthew 27:35-50

[0:00] Matthew 27, if you found your place. A lot has gone on up to this point. We have the entire gospel of Matthew up to this point.

[0:12] Jesus Christ has been born. He has went on through his childhood years. He's gone on through adolescence and through his teenage years, on up into his 20s.

[0:25] His ministry has begun and really and truly at this point, his ministry as far as the teaching goes, has about come to an end at this point in the scripture.

[0:39] Folks, this is kind of, this is hollow ground that we're reading about here this morning in Matthew 27 to do with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

[0:51] This is what the entire Bible points toward is the crucifixion of Jesus. Yes, I'm thankful for the birth of Jesus Christ.

[1:03] For without the birth there would have been no death of Jesus Christ. And without the death of Jesus Christ and the shedding of his blood, I would still be a lost sinner on my way to hell.

[1:14] But the entirety of scripture points to the cross of Jesus Christ. The New Testament or the Old Testament points toward the cross of Jesus Christ.

[1:26] And we as New Testament Christians, and as far as the New Testament scripture goes, points back toward the cross of Jesus Christ. Paul even said from the preaching of the crosses to them that perish foolishness.

[1:40] But unto us that believe it's the power of God, or to us that are saved, it is the power of God. The cross of Jesus Christ is the reason that you and I can have redemption.

[1:51] It's the reason that we can be saved. It's the reason that we can stand here today and refer to ourselves as daughters and sons of the Most High God.

[2:04] If not for the cross, had Jesus Christ lived to be a rock old age instead of the 33 years that he did. If he had lived to be 80 or 90 and killed over dead of a heart attack, his death would have done you or me any good.

[2:19] If he had died of old age, if he had lived on into his hundreds and just died over, killed over, and his body just give out, it would have done us no good. For the Bible says, for without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.

[2:33] So his death on the cross was paramount, and it was necessary for you and I to obtain salvation, for us to have salvation.

[2:43] And the scripture that we'll be reading this morning talks a bit about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. As I've already said, his ministry has done come and has almost gone. His ministry continued after he resurrected from the ground.

[2:57] For did he not teach the disciples, continue teaching the disciples, even after his resurrection from the grave? But essentially, he has almost come to an end at this point.

[3:10] He's already been from where we'll pick up reading here. He's already been tried. He's already been brought before Pilate. He's been through two different trials, illegal trials at that, that should have never taken place as per Jewish custom, and as per the law.

[3:29] All kinds of things have happened coming up to this point. He's already been scourged from where we'll pick up reading here. He's already been beat by the Roman guards. He's already been beat by his own people, by the Pharisees, and by the chief priests that brought him to be tried.

[3:45] He's already been beat by them and spit upon by them. All these things have happened to our Lord and Savior, and something I'd like you to keep in mind as we read through this, is that he did this and he took that beating and he took that humiliation and he took that shame and he took the scourge and he took the whips and he took them buffeting his head and he took them smiting him and then mocking him saying, telling him to tell them who had struck him, prophesying to us who has done this to you, who smites you, Jesus.

[4:23] You remember he'd done every bit of that for you and he'd done it for me. He'd done it for every lost sinner that's out there. He'd done it for every saved sinner that's out there.

[4:35] He'd done it for the entire world, for the Bible says, we all know it by heart that God so loved the world that he gave his own begotten Son. And you remember that as well while you were reading this Scripture.

[4:46] God gave his Son knowing what would happen to him. God gave his Son and Jesus came knowing what would happen to him, knowing the suffering that he would have to endure.

[4:58] So with all that being said, Matthew chapter 27, verse 35, it says, and they crucified him and parted his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet.

[5:14] They parted my garments among them and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down they watched him there and set up over his head the accusation written, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews.

[5:27] Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and another on the left, and they that passed by rebelled him, wagging their heads and saying, Thou that destroys the temple and build us to it in three days save thyself.

[5:41] If Thou be the Son of God come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him with the scrubs and elders said, he saved others himself he cannot save.

[5:53] If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God.

[6:07] The thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land under the ninth hour.

[6:17] And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, Lullan, Sabachthani, which is to say, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there when they heard that said, this man calleth for a lives.

[6:32] And straightway one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink. The rest said, let be, let us see whether a lives will come to save him.

[6:45] Jesus when he had cried again with a loud voice yielded up the ghost. And we'll stop by reading there in verse number 50. If you go back to verse 35 with me, it says, and they crucified him, parted as garments casting lots that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet.

[7:03] They parted my garments among them and upon my viscur did they cast lots and sitting down, they watched him there. And folks, this is a sad line that we read here.

[7:14] Not in verse 30, verse 35 is sad, yes, but verse 36 is particularly sad. It's talking about these Roman soldiers here that crucified our Lord Jesus Christ.

[7:26] They had, as I've already stated, they'd already scourged him, Pilate had already given him over to be scourged. Pilate had already in his own mind washed his hands of the matter.

[7:37] He said, I find no guilt in this man my hands are washed of this matter. You are the ones that are wanting him crucified. You're the ones that are wanting him killed. You're the ones that are wanting his blood.

[7:49] And I don't want his blood on my hands. And these Jews had already said, let his blood be upon us. And upon our children as well. This is exactly what was going on here.

[7:59] But these Roman soldiers, unbeknownst to them, folks, these were heathens. These were pagans that were unfamiliar with the scriptures. They were unfamiliar with the Old Testament.

[8:11] They didn't know anything about the law that was given in Exodus chapter 20. They didn't know anything about the prophets or the Psalms or the Proverbs that Solomon wrote.

[8:22] They didn't know about any of these things. But yet, unbeknownst to them, they took the very maker of the universe. They took the very maker of themselves.

[8:32] They took the very maker of the one that created the tree that he hung on. They took him and they nailed him to a cross to be there and to suffer and to bleed and to die.

[8:47] And to ultimately gain everlasting life for his people. Yes, but they didn't know any of these things. They just knew they were told they needed to crucify this gentleman and crucify him.

[9:01] They did. But why were they doing this? They were doing this because of the not only the Jews, but everyone that was in the crowd in Jerusalem when they were screaming, crucify him, crucify him.

[9:16] And Paul had even said, I find no fault in this man. But they were crucifying him. The Gospel pilot said that he found no fault, but he didn't want an insurrection.

[9:29] He didn't want to ride. He didn't want turmoil on his hand. So he said, let him be, let him be crucified. Hallelujah. Jesus Christ gave himself over to be crucified before any of this happened before where we picked up reading from.

[9:46] One of the things that happened, there was a man named Barabbas. And those of you that are Bible readers should be familiar with Barabbas. They're in the same chapter, Matthew chapter 27.

[9:57] And this man Barabbas, he was an insurrectionist and he was a murderer and he was in prison as well. And Paul had given the option. He said, I can release unto you Jesus or I can release unto you Barabbas.

[10:10] And the crowd screamed for Barabbas. This man that was a known murderer, this man that was a known lawbreaker, and Jesus Christ himself, the prince and the master of the universe, the very maker of the world.

[10:25] The one that the Bible says, the God was ever found in his mouth. The one that the Bible describes as perfect and as sinless as the blameless and holy lamb of God.

[10:37] They would prefer a murderous insurrectionist over top of the lower Jesus Christ, over top of the one that many of these people had seen work the miracles.

[10:48] They had seen him open the blind eyes. They had seen him unstop the deaf ears. They had seen him touch the lepers and the lepers were healed. They had seen him raise people from the dead, such as in the case of Lazarus, in the case of the widow, that name, in the case of so many others that we that we don't have time to talk about at this point.

[11:13] But they had seen all the miracles work by Jesus Christ and yet they were screaming crucified. Folks, this is the same situation that the world is in right now.

[11:25] This is the same attitude that the lost world has right now. They don't care about the miracles. Then maybe you've got some of them in your family. Maybe they look at you and they say they might call you a goody two shoes.

[11:39] They might call you this or that or a holy roller or a Bible thunker or whatever the case is. But the fact remains, it's not you that they are angry at.

[11:49] It is Jesus Christ that they are angry at. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ that they will nothing to do with. This gospel points out their sin.

[11:59] But hallelujah, the gospel of Jesus Christ also points toward the Savior. These men, they crucified our Lord and it says they sat.

[12:11] They sat down and sitting down, they watched Him there. They just watched Him hang there. And I'm sure this is commonplace. Folks, Jesus Christ wasn't the first person ever crucified.

[12:23] And He wasn't the last person ever crucified. But no one that had ever been crucified up to that point, nobody's been crucified since, was crucified for the reason that Jesus Christ was.

[12:34] This was, in its day and time, this was the most abusive and the way of torture that anyone could be taken out of this world.

[12:47] To be crucified on the cross meant that you would have your hands and your feet either tied or nailed. More often than not, they were nailed to the cross and then they were tied to the cross.

[12:59] But you would be upon the cross. They would lay you down, nail you to the cross, tie you there, raise you up. And when they raised you up, you had so much pain in your feet and so much pain in your hands.

[13:11] And your hands were outstretched, such as we know our Savior's was. But it was a constant battle to stay alive, folks. We were never created to die.

[13:21] Adam and Eve were created in the garden as immortal beings. They were created in the very image of Almighty God and God, His eternal. But when sin came and the curse came, the curse of death came on Adam and Eve.

[13:37] We were never created to die. And this is why we do our best to survive this world. This is why we will struggle and we will fight tooth and nail to our very last breath in this body to stay alive.

[13:52] It is because we were never designed to die. These men just sat there and watched Jesus and they watched Him suffer. The world that's out there now, they may or may not have heard of the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

[14:09] But they sit and they watch you. They just sit and they watch. Like I said, maybe some of them are in your family. They could be spouses, they could be children, they could be parents, they could be grandparents.

[14:19] They could be any number of people. But they sit and they watch you and they watch your actions. And they watch how you do and how you react to certain situations.

[14:33] But they just sit and watch and they never act on it. They never inquire about it. These Roman soldiers here, sitting down, they watched Him there and set up over his head this accusation written.

[14:44] This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. It wasn't a false accusation that they hung there. It was a completely true accusation. But not only is Jesus the King of the Jews here.

[14:55] Jesus is King of this earth. He is King of the universe. He is King of everything in existence. There has not been one atom or one molecule that has ever been made, that was not made to glorify Jesus Christ.

[15:09] That was not made to magnify Jesus Christ. Somehow everything in this world was made by Him and it was made for Him. It was made for Jesus Christ.

[15:20] But this statement here, this is Jesus the King of the Jews. It was not a false statement. Then were there two thieves crucified with Him, one on the right hand and another on the left.

[15:32] And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads. So we have these Roman soldiers that it says in sitting, they watched Him. Now we have those that passed by.

[15:43] It says that they wagged their heads and they reviled Him. They spoke against Him and it tells us what they said. It says in saying, thou that destroys the temple and build us to in three days save thyself.

[15:55] If thou be the Son of God, come down for the cross. These people, they were mocking Jesus Christ. But hey, some of them, they may or may not have been legitimate in their questioning of the Savior.

[16:09] They were saying, hey, you're claiming to be the cross. You claim to be the Son of God. You claim to be Messiah. You claim to be God Himself. If this is the case, come down from that cross.

[16:21] I praise God that my Jesus did not come down from the cross to which He was nailed. He could have had He wanted to. He could have come down from the cross.

[16:32] He could have brought legions of angels against those that had nailed Him there. And they were mocking Him and cursing Him and spitting on Him. But instead, He said they stayed there on the cross and He suffered and bled and died in my stead.

[16:50] Hallelujah. But they're telling Him, come down from the cross. Come down from the cross if you be. See, there's a question there. If you are who you say you are, come down from the cross.

[17:03] The world does this now. The world does this now. When I was under conviction, right before I got saved, the morning I got saved.

[17:14] But in the hours before that, God was dealing with me heavy. And I tried this same approach. If you're really real, this is really you, God. And this ain't just me or my conscience or my heart.

[17:26] If this is really you, then do this or do that. And I'll believe you. I'll believe you. It didn't work, folks. And that's not the gospel account of being redeemed, of being saved.

[17:40] But the world is full of people like that now. Do we not have the people that say, why is there so much hunger in the world? Why is there so much death in the world? Why do we have storms?

[17:51] Why do we have earthquakes? Why do we have this and why do we have that? And folks, the very simple and basic and biblical answer to that is because of sin that is in the world.

[18:03] Sin is the reason that we have all of these things. Not your particular sin or my particular sin, but the sin that began in the garden when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

[18:17] That sin cursed and God cursed an entire world because of that one sin. And sin has just multiplied since then and multiplied and multiplied.

[18:31] And there's a world out there right now, millions upon millions, billions of people out there that have the same attitude as these other people. They have the same attitude as these that walk by Christ, hanging there on the cross and wagging their heads and saying, if you be who you say you are, then do this.

[18:47] Do that. Folks, it don't work like that. You repent of your ways and you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the way and the only way unto salvation Jesus Christ in Mark chapter 1 said, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent she and believe the gospel.

[19:07] Repent and believe the gospel has always been by way of faith and believing the word of God. It was by faith for Abraham. It was by faith for David. It was by faith for anybody else that you can think of in the Old Testament.

[19:22] It had nothing to do with their works, nothing to do with what they were doing or could do. It was their faith in the word of God that God would keep it. And this book says that if I confess Jesus Christ with my mouth and I believe in my heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Romans chapter 10, if I believe and I confess, and of course we must repent of our ways, God won't save you and let you continue in your way.

[19:50] But if you're truly saved, you won't go the other direction. God puts a new heart in you. He puts new ways in you. You'll be drawn to the ways of God. You'll be drawn in the direction of Almighty God if you were truly saved.

[20:03] And this is repentance. And when sin comes in your direction, when you're enticed by the little demons of this world, that might whisper in your ear, when you're enticed by them, and when you're tempted by them, you can go into God. You can go to the one that saved you to begin with.

[20:19] The one that said, I will be with you all the way, even to the very end. You can go back unto him. If you sin, you can repent of that sin. And if you haven't sinned yet but you're being enticed, you can say, God, I need your strength. God, I need your grace. God, I need your way to get me through this.

[20:38] Hallelujah. But this world, they look at Jesus. Some of them sit and watch Him. And some of them pass by Him. Some of them pass by Him.

[20:50] And they say, well, if you'll do this, then I'll believe. And likewise also the chief priest mocking Him with the scribes and elders says, Now, first of all, before we continue reading, here in verse 41, likewise also the chief priest, along with the scribes and the elders, these men had fought for three years.

[21:14] And tried for three years to have Jesus killed. They had tried and tried and tried and failed and failed and failed. But their hour was now come according to what Luke's Gospel says. Jesus said that himself in Luke's Gospel.

[21:31] Their hour had now come. This is what they were waiting on. You would think He's there on that cross. We've got Him right where we wanted Him from the very get-go. You'd think they'd just go home and be happy with what they had accomplished.

[21:46] But no, they wanted to hang out. They wanted to see what was going on. They wanted to continue their ridicule. Folks, these priests and these Pharisees, they knew that they were in the wrong.

[22:01] They knew that they were in the wrong. Jesus had proved over and over whom He was. Jesus had proved over and over His deity to them. And He had talked with some of them. He had talked with Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee.

[22:18] We talked about that in Sunday school a little bit this morning and a couple of weeks ago. He had talked with more than one of the Pharisees on different occasions. That he had called them out in their sin. These Pharisees are the very same ones.

[22:31] He was basically pronouncing shame on you. He said, you'll chase somebody around the body of water? Just to make one disciple of your own, to make one cross a lot, one convert of your own.

[22:45] And when you do so, they're twice full more the child of hell than you are. This is what he said to a Pharisee in the Scriptures. But you'd think that once they had them where they wanted them all alone, they would just went home.

[22:59] But they didn't. They hung around. They liked the world now. They liked the world. The Christians in their midst. You'd think that they could just leave it alone, but they won't.

[23:14] Likewise, also the chief priest mocking him with the scribes and elders said, He saved others. Himself He cannot save. If He be the king of Israel, let Him now come from the cross, and we will believe Him.

[23:26] Folks, I got news for you that they hadn't believed after the miracles that they had heard of that Jesus had performed. And the miracles that some of them had seen Jesus perform. And these miracles, they were specified in the Old Testament.

[23:41] Some of these miracles were specified that the Messiah would be the one to work these very miracles. If they didn't believe those miracles had Jesus Christ come down from the cross at that very point in time.

[23:54] These Pharisees and these scribes and these elders would not have believed then either. This goes right along with the people that say if God would have just given so and so another day, they might have repented if they lived 90 years and they never repented and never would be received in the gospel and receive the blessing of God through Jesus Christ.

[24:18] Chances are if they lived another day, they would not have received it then either. But people want to shake their fist at God. They say, you took Him out of here too early.

[24:30] Uncle Charlie only lived to be 103 if you just give him one more day. They shake their fist at God over these things. And folks, it ain't God's fault.

[24:41] Charlie at some point or whoever had a chance to hear the gospel. He had a chance to repent and to believe. He had a chance to view nature. Romans chapter one speaks about it.

[24:54] It says that nature testifies that there is a God. This is what's told in Romans one. It testifies and because of that testimony of nature, we are all left without excuse.

[25:06] There is a Creator. If there is a creation, there must be a Creator, period. But you got people to say, if God had just let the world go over one more day before He started, before He let loose in the rains and before the fountains of the deep broke up, before the days of Noah's flood.

[25:24] If He had just let it go one more day, maybe there would have been nine people on that ark instead of eight. If He had just let one more day go, maybe somebody in Sodom and Gomorrah in the other cities of the plain would have repented.

[25:38] Well, Tabor was asking that himself. He said, hey, if there would be 50 Riteshes, if there would be 20 Riteshes, there would be 10 Riteshes. There was none Riteshes in that city or in those cities.

[25:51] There was none. God said He would spare the cities if there was none Riteshes. And the Bible continues on to say in the book of Psalms, and it's quoted in the New Testament, in the book of Romans, there is none Riteshes, there's none that seeketh.

[26:05] After Riteshes, there's none that seeketh after God. No, not one that includes you, and that includes me and praise God. Because of this death here that we're reading about this morning, because Jesus Christ bled, and before this ever happened, He told the disciples, He said, I must go away, but when I go away, I will pray the Father, and He will send you another comfort of praise.

[26:29] God, He sent the Holy Spirit in His place. Jesus Christ may not be here in this world right now. Physically, but He is here in the means and the manner of the Holy Spirit of all mighty God.

[26:41] Hallelujah. Amen. This is the comfort that we have. But these folks here had these scribes and elders and the Pharisees. Even if Christ would have come down from the cross, I don't believe they would have believed in Him at that point.

[26:59] He said, He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him now. If He will have Him, for He said, I am the Son of God. He trusted in God, let God deliver Him.

[27:12] Folks, again, I've already said it. Thank God that Christ didn't come down from the cross. Now, could Jesus have come down from the cross?

[27:24] This goes back on the age old question. Is there anything that God can't do? If you look in the Scriptures, there are some things that God cannot do.

[27:37] God cannot save an unrefined soul. That would go against His holiness and His justice and His righteousness if He done so.

[27:48] God cannot save someone who doesn't believe the gospel. It won't happen because that goes against the plan of salvation. Folks could crossed have come down from the tree.

[28:02] Physically, yes, He could have. I mean, He was God, right? He's God now, He was God then. He can do what He wants to. Spiritually speaking, though, could Christ have come down from the tree?

[28:15] No. Why is that? Because He came to fulfill the Father's will. And the Father's will was that redemption for all of mankind be accomplished on this cross.

[28:28] At this time, at this time that we're reading, 2000 or so years ago is when this was taking place. And this was the time foreordained of Almighty God that this would all take place.

[28:42] No cross could not have come down from that cross because that cross was the culmination of the plan that Almighty God had put in place. That the blood would be shed, that the veil in the temple, which we didn't even read about.

[28:57] It's in the verse 51 of Matthew 27. But the veil in the temple, it was written from top to bottom, it was written in twain. And folks, that was significant because that showed that the way of the God was not hidden anymore.

[29:11] The way of the God was open to everyone. It opened the veil is what separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of everything that was in the temple. It separated from the Jews.

[29:22] It separated God from the Gentiles, from the court of the Gentiles, and from the court of everyone else. Folks, when the veil was written in twain, hallelujah, that opened up the way for everyone, Jew and Gentile, alive to be saved by God.

[29:40] But that veil didn't rip until Jesus Christ died. You're reading verse 50. He drew in his last breath. You're reading verse 50. He gave up the ghost. He yielded up the ghost.

[29:52] The very next verse, the veil was written in twain. But we're not there as far as the scripture goes. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.

[30:04] Now, it seems odd to us that Matthew doesn't record like Luke does here. We all know Luke's account, and I love Luke's account of this very same scene in the gospels of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the two thieves.

[30:21] And yes, they both began to rail on Jesus Christ. But on the one hand, he actually believed in whom Jesus Christ was before. All was said and done, but Matthew does not record that account here.

[30:34] It just says they cast the same in his teeth. In other words, they were doing just what the rest of the world was doing. And folks, the world does that now. They have bad situations arising in their life, and they blame God.

[30:47] They had bad circumstances come up in their life, and they blame God. Never once looking at what they wear there at, and maybe possibly pointing a finger at themselves. Hey folks, there's people like this all over the world right now.

[31:01] Hey, I've talked to people, maybe you've talked to people too, that say, oh, well, little Suzie, I know she saved. She said a prayer when she was four years old, and asked the Lord Jesus Christ into her heart, and you say, where's little Suzie now?

[31:15] They say, well, she's down. She's got a part-time job. She goes out to the bars on the weekends. She goes out. She knows, huh, she's shacking up with her husband, her boyfriend, or whatever the case is, but I know that she saved.

[31:28] These stories make me sick, because it's not the case. That's not how a child of God acts. That's not how a child, but the parents, they were the folks. I preached the funeral one time. Let me back off the pulpit for just a minute.

[31:41] I preached the funeral one time. A young man 19 years old had OD'd on meth. His mama calls me and asked me to preach this funeral. As soon as I showed up to the church, she bombards me, and she says, oh, when he was about 19 or 10 years old, he went to a Bible day camp, and he got saved then.

[31:58] He actually talked about becoming a preacher, but about the time he turned 16, things started going south. He started hanging out with the wrong crowd, pointing the finger at everyone except for her son. I'm not the ultimate judge whether he was saved or not.

[32:11] But the boy was found in the basement of a friend's house, a supposed friend's house. He had been there for three days and nobody knew he was dead. He had OD'd on meth, and his mama comes to me saying, I know he was saved. He had to be saved.

[32:28] In other words, please tell me that you agree with me. I've never preached anybody into heaven, and I've never preached anybody into hell. But I do know that if you're a born again child of God, you'll bear some fruit that shows that you are.

[32:42] The spirit will bear fruit from you and from your life. Like I said, I'm not the ultimate judge, and I get that. But the child of God will have fruit. These thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.

[32:57] In other words, they were agreeing with everything that was being said. Those that walked by on wagged their heads that were reviling against him. Those Roman soldiers that had crucified him, they were just sitting there watching him.

[33:08] These thieves, they were in agreeance with everything that was going on around them. These others that said, if he is truly the Son of God, let him come down from the cross. And these thieves were saying, yeah, Jesus, if you're truly who you say that you are, save yourselves and us.

[33:23] That's the way Luke's account goes. Folks, that ain't the way salvation works. God chose your sinner, and God chose that he's a savior.

[33:34] That's how salvation works. And when God shows that you're a sinner, you must believe that you are a sinner. You must believe that you don't deserve heaven. You must believe that you are on your way to a sinner's hell for all of eternity to burn and to be in torment forever and ever.

[33:52] Where the worm doth not, where there is weeping and wailing, but gnashing of teeth. We must realize this is where we were, or this is where we are headed. And then God can do something with us.

[34:04] We got to realize that we're lost before we can be saved. Got to realize that we're lost before we can be saved. These thieves, like I said, Luke's account, the one thief he realized that. We're not going to get into that.

[34:16] Verse 45, now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land under the ninth hour. About the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, There is so much debate surrounding this line that Jesus quotes from Psalms chapter 22.

[34:37] He says, my God, my God, why stout forsake of me. Folks, it's obvious. That's exactly what happened. It's exactly what happened. Now listen, I understand that God is omnipresent, meaning that he is everywhere all the time.

[34:50] And there ain't nothing you or I, either one can do about it. I get that. But, the spiritual side of things, God, God the Father, forsook his son here on the cross.

[35:04] You want to prove for it? Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land. The Bible says God is light and in him is no darkness at all. We find this in 1 John.

[35:16] You find over in the Old Testament, when the Jews, when God's chosen people, the Israelites, they had all gone down into Egypt because there was bread there. And when God was bringing the plagues upon the people, and there was the plague of darkness that hit the land, the only place that there was light was this little land of Goshen, where the Jews were.

[35:39] Why was there light there? Because God was with his people. People say, well, God just, he struck up a lantern in our tomb for these people. No, you don't read anything about that in the Scripture.

[35:50] There was light because God is light and in him is no darkness at all. God was with his people. He was not with those people spiritually out there in the land of Egypt. And folkship is no different right now.

[36:02] We are called to be salt. We are called to be light. On the world we should have the light of God reflecting over us. Every deep and dark crevice in our households, in this world, in our job, in our school, and everywhere else that we go.

[36:17] The reflection of the glory of God should shine out to this world. This land, this three hours here, it says in the sixth hour, darkness came over all the land.

[36:30] Darkness. Most of this is, no, there was physical suffering from, from, for the first three hours, yes. But here, here in this three hours, basically from 12 to 3, from noon to 3 p.m.

[36:46] In this three hours there was darkness over all the land. How many of you are familiar with the prayer and guess 70 that Jesus Christ preached? You know, when the night before all this happens that we're reading about now, Jesus went to the Garden of the Guess 70 and he prayed a prayer.

[37:03] And in that prayer he said, he said, Father, if there's any other way that this can be done, let this cup pass from me. But nevertheless, not my will but thy will be done.

[37:14] What cup was he talking about? Folks, Jesus was worried about a bunch of Roman soldiers. I got news for you. Yes, Jesus, Jesus I'm sure dreaded the physical, the physical pain that he was going to suffer.

[37:28] But he wasn't a coward afraid of a few Roman soldiers going to nail him to a treat. But what he was about to experience was the divine wrath of Almighty God.

[37:39] And this was the cup that he was asking about. This is the cup that he said, if there be any other way, he wasn't afraid of what man could do to him. He actually told men, he said, not to be afraid of what man could do to you, but fear God who can destroy both body and soul and hell.

[37:56] Jesus Christ was not a bit worried about what these soldiers could do, about what the Pharisees were saying, or about anything else that was going on. But when he prayed that prayer in Gethsemane, and he said, if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me.

[38:11] He was talking about the cup of the divine wrath of Almighty God. This is what he dreaded because he knew what that entailed. Now, just take my word for it.

[38:23] You read about that cup over in the Old Testament. You read about it in Isaiah. You read about it in Ezekiel. You read about it in Jeremiah. You read about the cup of the fury over and over in the Bible.

[38:34] And even in the New Testament, the book of Revelation, it brings up the why that these people were drinking. And it's the wrath of Almighty God that's going to be drinking up.

[38:48] This is what Christ dreaded, the wrath of God. And that's why he suffered. That's why he suffered for the first three hours. And it is especially why he suffered for the next three hours.

[39:00] When that cross from darkness had come. And it had to have been such a worse suffering because God was not there. God foresook his own son.

[39:12] Jesus had to die completely and utterly alone. And completely and utterly alone he did. Hey, we're talking about these different people here. We talked about the Roman soldiers that they just set. And they watched. We talked about the people coming by waving their heads and reviling.

[39:26] And we talked about the chief priests and the elders and the scribes and what they had to say. Folks, there were people before this. You remember Peter as well? Peter denied the Lord three times after Jesus Christ told him himself that he would deny him three times.

[39:40] There's all kinds of situations that we could think of right now. But folks, Jesus Christ never wants to give commandment to the disciples to scatter and to hide and to go some other way.

[39:53] But at this point in the life of Jesus Christ in the last hours of his life, you would think that there would have been one there that would have been there for support. I understand that John was there standing with his mama.

[40:06] But folks that isn't brought up in this particular scripture that we're reading right now. He was standing with Mary, mother of Jesus. Yes, but folks, all and all the disciples had scattered.

[40:18] Every one of Jesus Christ's companions had scattered. They have left him to die completely and utterly alone. And how are we as Christians?

[40:29] I don't know. I was a Christian. If somebody turns up the heat on me, do I stick with it? I like to think that I do. I like to think that I do and I like to think that I will.

[40:42] It's a question all those could stand to ask. Some of them that stood there when they heard that said, this man called for a lie straight away when we were in Ransack, a sponge filled with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink. The rest said, let me, let us see whether a lie will come to save him.

[40:57] These are the people. Once again, we talk about several different groups of people here. These are the people that were curious. And there's people like that in the world right now.

[41:09] There's people like that I know that knew me in high school, knew me on up into my twenties, my early thirties before I got saved. And they're curious about me because they know there's been a change made, but that's all they are curious.

[41:21] They don't want to go any deeper. They don't want me to talk about it with them. They don't want to talk about the change and who calls that change? Why there was such a change? They don't want to talk about Christ.

[41:32] They don't want to talk about the Holy Ghost. They're just curious. That's all they are. These people here said, let me, let us see whether a lie will come to save him. When Jesus Christ said, Eli, Lama Sabachtini, and spoke to him that some of them thought that he was calling for a lie to come save him, for a lie to profit to come save him, which is something that many of the Jews thought would happen when certain prophets and certain rabbis and things along, people with some clout, when they would die, they thought that the lives of the prophet would actually come and take them on into heaven, take them on into glory into Abrahamic bosom, per se.

[42:16] So this is why this line is here in the Scripture. The rest said, let me, let us see whether a lie will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. When he cried again with a loud voice and then recorded in the Gospel of John what Jesus Christ said here, when he said the three words, it is finished.

[42:35] Jesus Christ uttered these words, it is finished. What was finished at that point? Not his life. He wasn't talking about that. He wasn't talking anything along those lines.

[42:46] It is finished. The work for salvation was accomplished at that point. The work that God had sent him to do. The work that he had come to fulfill for each of his disciples in the Bible over there in the Gospel of John in chapter 4.

[43:03] He said, my meat is to do the Father's will. And this was the will of the Father, that the Son come and suffer and bleed and die for your sin, for my sin, for the sin of everybody.

[43:15] Folks, this gives a current for the age-old question of how can a holy God cause man to be holy? How can he save a man?

[43:26] How can he bring an unholy man out of an unholy condition, a sinful man out of a sinful world, and make him righteous, and make him holy, and make him pure?

[43:37] And this scripture that we have read here this morning is the very reason and the very way that was made that sinful man could be made into a righteous creature.

[43:48] The Bible says that he who knew no sin became sin for us. And the Bible says, cursed is he that hanging upon a tree. And the Bible says all kinds of things, referring to Jesus Christ, being the propitiation for our sin, being the substitute sacrifice, suffering a vicarious death on your behalf, and for mine, these scriptures as well as Mark's account, and Luke's account, and John's account.

[44:15] These are the very reasons why we can be made holy and righteous in the eyes of a thrust holy God. It is all because of Jesus and his death.

[44:28] All that being said, though, all that being said, without the resurrection, where would we be? The death is great. The death works salvation.

[44:40] But without the resurrection, Christ wouldn't have been who he said he was. Without the resurrection, he would not have been Messiah. For the entirety of the Old Testament prophecy would not have been fulfilled.

[44:54] Jesus would have been in a caster without the resurrection. Without the ascension, after the resurrection, where would we be? I'll tell you where we'd be. We'd be in trouble.

[45:07] I appreciate the blood of Jesus Christ. I appreciate him dying in my stead. And I appreciate that he raised from the dead, vindicating himself, indicating me, showing that he was indeed whom he said that he was.

[45:20] But I appreciate the ascension of Jesus Christ, where he sits forever at the right hand of glory, making intercession and being mediator on my behalf. When I stumble and when I fall across this is one of mine, he is my mediator and he is my intercessor.

[45:39] Without the ascension of Christ folks, we would still be in trouble. All of these things are intertwined and all of them were part of the perfect and glorious plan of God for salvation.

[45:50] So yes, I appreciate that salvation was worked out on the tree on a place called Golgotha in Calvary. And I appreciate the burial of Christ. I appreciate his resurrection and praise God.

[46:02] I appreciate his ascension, where he forever makes intercession for the saints of God. My question this morning, if there's anybody here lost, and even if there's anybody here saved, but mainly for anybody here who might be lost, which one of these folks might you be?

[46:23] Are you a beader that we briefly talked about? That one just popped in my mind while I was up here. Are you the Roman soldier who just sort of watches Jesus die?

[46:35] Are you one of those that wags their head and reviles and just speaks against Jesus? Moxing? Are you one of the scruples? Are you religious?

[46:47] Are you a Pharisee? Are you caught up in your own works, your own deeds, trying to create your own salvation out of that? It'll never work. It'll never work.

[47:00] Are you one of the thieves? Are you the thief that didn't believe, or are you the thief that did believe? Folks, I've actually used that scripture in Luke's Gospel to preach a funeral.

[47:16] And I've actually used it a couple of times in the funerals. You know what kings do when they go off to battle? They war, they win, they bring back their prize, they bring back their spool.

[47:32] And if the other king of whatever city or land it is wasn't killed, they'll bring back that king to their own city or their own land. And they'll parade him through the streets, and they'll say, look what I brought back. I brought back the king of such and such land or such and such city.

[47:49] And that's their spool. That's their prize. And that's why they had the adoration of all the people. Jesus Christ. Now I realized that he was killed, buried, resurrected.

[48:05] A few weeks went by and he finally ascended. I understand all that. But ultimately, when Christ went back home, what did he take with him?

[48:16] A sinful thief. That's who Christ took. It wasn't a Pharisee. It wasn't a religious zealot. It wasn't somebody that was rich.

[48:29] It wasn't somebody that had any kind of pool or cloud. It wasn't a mayor or a president. It was a thief that was hanging there on the cross with him.

[48:40] That was his prize that he brought back with him. A thief. Praise God for our Jesus. Praise God that that's the Jesus that I serve. Because if he was looking for any of those other people that I listed for, I'd be in trouble.

[48:55] He says he came to seek and to say that which was lost. That was me. That was you. Paul said this is a worthy sin. This is a faithful sin worthy of all that acceptation.

[49:07] That cross Jesus came into the world of safe centers. Of whom I am chief. He came into the world of safe centers. That was me. He came to save me. Praise God. You're here lost. He came to save you.

[49:20] You're here saved. He came to save you.