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Amen. Amen. The part of the chapter that I want to preach on is starting there in verse number one where the Bible reads, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you. And the title of the sermon tonight is crucified among you. Crucified among you. Now, if you actually stop and think about what this verse is saying, it's very startling what is being said here because he's not speaking to people in Jerusalem or Judea or something like that. If you understand even just the basics of Bible geography, you know that the Galatians are living somewhere far away, right? They're living somewhere in Asia Minor, in the Greek speaking world at that time. And he's saying to the Galatians, the people who live in Galatia, he says, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth. Look at these next words, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth or presented or shown, demonstrated, had been evidently set forth, crucified among you. How can this be? What does he mean by that? These people were not physically there when Jesus was crucified. They live somewhere hundreds of miles away. What the Bible is talking about here is that Paul's preaching about the cross of Christ, Paul's preaching of the crucifixion of Christ was so vivid that they saw it in their mind's eye. Basically, the preaching of the cross caused Jesus Christ to be, quote, unquote, crucified among them because of the fact that they were seeing it with the eyes of faith. You know, the Bible, when it talks about faith, it often uses terms like seeing the invisible, or faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith is the evidence of things not seen, and how by faith, the prophets and the Old Testament patriarchs, they saw the promises afar off. They did not receive the promises, but they saw them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them. So we see here that Paul, because he had so vividly preached the cross of Christ, was able to say to the Galatians, how can you be so foolish? How can you be so stupid that you would not obey the truth when Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you in front of your own eyes? Not their physical eyes, but in front of their eyes, spiritually, metaphorically speaking. Now, preaching on the cross is the most important preaching that there is, okay? Go to Galatians Chapter 6, Galatians Chapter 6, and while you're turning there, I'll quote the familiar verse in 1 Corinthians Chapter 1, Verse 18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. So to us which are saved, the preaching of the cross is the power of God. So that's why the Apostle Paul could say, hey, you Galatians, Jesus Christ has been set forth, right? Like I set forth the cross before you. I showed you the cross. I showed you Jesus dying on the cross. Not in a video or acting it out as a play or something like that, but actually by preaching the Gospel, by preaching the Word of God, they saw it in their mind's eye and God's Word being preached. That's the power of God, the Bible says. Look at Galatians Chapter 6, Verse 14, but God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. So we see that the central theme of the New Testament, yea, the central theme of the whole Bible is the cross. This is the focal point, right? The cross of Christ, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It's interesting if you get the context here, what he's saying in Galatians Chapter 6, because right before this in Verse 12, he says, as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised, only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh, but God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he's saying, I glory in the cross. What do the Jews glory in? Your flesh themselves, circumcision, the law that they don't keep, that no one can keep, right? That you have to be perfect to keep and only Jesus Christ could ultimately perfectly fulfill the law. So if you think about it, they are glorying in that which is vain and foolish. We glory in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what we glory in, right? If we're going to brag about something or boast about something or glory in something, it's not in ourselves, it's not in our flesh, it's not in our law, it's not in our culture, it's not in our language. We glory in the cross of Jesus Christ. The Christian life is taking up the cross daily and following Jesus, right? This is the focal point of human history, the cross of Christ. It's the focal point of the Bible. It's the focal point of the entire universe and everything that has happened before that was leading up to it. Everything that has happened after that has reflected on that. This is the core of Christianity, the cross of Jesus Christ. And so Paul preached the cross and he set forth Jesus crucified among them that they beheld through the eyes of faith. Now go to Matthew chapter 27. Let's look at the cross of Jesus Christ. And let me tell you something. In my personal experience, growing up in a Christian home and going to church my whole life, listening to sermons in the Christian school, listening to sermons in church, listening to sermons at summer camp, I can't remember a lot of the sermons that I heard growing up. Now obviously those sermons still made an impact on me. They helped me grow. They taught me the Bible. And I'm sure that a lot of the things that I know now I learned in those sermons growing up, but I don't really remember a whole lot of sermons, but there are certain sermons that you remember. They stand out to you just because of how transformative they were. They were just kind of milestones in your life or they really just made an impact on you and they really stuck with you. And I'll tell you, the sermons that I remember the most from my childhood that made me really want to live for God and that really just touched my heart and changed me were the sermons on the cross, the sermons on the crucifixion of Christ. I remember sermons that just went through the step-by-step process of Jesus being crucified. And I remember hearing those sermons and just being so moved and wanting to live for God, wanting to serve Jesus Christ, loving Christ more as a result of hearing those sermons. Jesus Christ crucified among us, not because he's being re-crucified. He died once. He died one time. But when we retell that story, when we reopen those scriptures and preach the cross, we get a glimpse of the ultimate event in the history of mankind, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Do you notice how much scripture is devoted to the cross? If you look in all four gospels, there's a huge chunk, at least one full chapter, sometimes spilling a little bit into another chapter, but there's a full chapter in all four gospels vividly describing this critical event. Not to mention chapters like Isaiah 53, looking forward to this great event and giving such detail or Psalm 22 or other places. So let's dig into this most important preaching and most important scripture that we can look at. Look at Matthew 27, verse 26. And of course, we don't have time to go into everything leading up to this. We're just going to kind of jump in at this point where Pontius Pilate releases Barabbas. It says in verse 26, then released him Barabbas unto them. And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted, that means braided, a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And they spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head. Now, stop and think about this, okay? Jesus Christ is first scourged, okay? And this scourging, this isn't just like getting a spanking or just some kind of a... Even maybe you've seen videos of people being caned in other countries where they cane people as punishment. This is something that is lacerating the skin, all right? This is a beating that could kill you, okay? And this is why there's a law that they can only do 40 stripes in the Word of God because if they do more than that, you know what? It's overboard and someone could be killed or severely permanently maimed from this. Okay, you say, well, how do you know that it was that severe? Because the Bible says by his stripes we are healed. And the reason they call it stripes is because it's a bloody stripe where the skin is lacerated. So you can imagine Jesus Christ being beaten, being whipped, being scourged. That's the first thing. And that's just one verse where it says there that when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. So get the picture here. Jesus Christ is beaten with a whip probably 39 times, right? He's whipped. He's got 39 lacerations on his back. You can imagine just the blood and the injury and the flesh that's torn all over his back, probably wrapping around to the front of his body. And then in spite of that, what do they do? What do the soldiers do? They're gonna have a little fun with him. Now what kind of a sick person thinks this is fun, thinks this is a joke, thinks this is a game where Jesus has already been scourged. He's already been beaten. He's already bleeding profusely. He's already severely injured and they take this as an opportunity to have fun with him. Now I don't even know what these soldiers knew about Jesus. How much of his preaching have they even heard? Do they even have a personal grudge against Jesus or are they just that evil and sick that they would just do this to anyone? Or how much worse if they actually knew who Jesus was and they've actually heard the preaching and heard the word of God and they actually hate him so much that they want to mock him and ridicule him as of course we're gonna see that the Jews later will do and they definitely knew who he was, the high priest and the priests and the people. They make fun of him later. It's hard to even imagine how evil these people are. I mean just imagine the picture of someone who's just beaten and bloody and lacerated and you're like, hey, I got an idea. Since he's the king of the Jews, since he's the king of kings according to him, why don't we braid a crown of thorns and stick it on his head and then let's beat him up some more. Folks, these are horrible, violent people. The Bible says then when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. Look at verse 29. And a reed in his right hand, so they put a stick in his hand as a scepter and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him. I mean he's bloody, he's beaten and they're bowing to him and say, hell, king of the Jews. And they spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head. So he's got the crown of thorns and they hit him in the head with a stick just to drive those thorns in deeper into Christ's brow as they mock him, spit on him and ridicule him. Go over to John chapter 19. We're gonna come back here to Matthew 27 but go over to John chapter 19. This is a pretty amazing picture that the Bible's painting here of a man being beaten and whipped and do they know that he's the son of God? Do they know that he claimed to be the son of God? Look, either way, they're horrible people for what they're doing because either they know, hey, this is Jesus Christ or they just think, oh, this is a guy who's in trouble. Let's just be sadistic. Let's just be monsters and torture him. Okay, look at John chapter 19. This shows you what's in the heart of man. This shows you what human beings are capable of. And things like this are going on all over the world as far as cruelty and evil but obviously this is toward someone who's innocent. I mean, this is the perfect man here totally without sin and he's submitting himself to this. At any time, he could call the legions of angels to come and free him from this. He's allowing this to happen. He's obedient unto death even the death of the cross. This is a horrible death and this is all leading up to the crucifixion. This is part of the punishment. Look at John chapter 19 verse 1, then Pilate, therefore, took Jesus and scourged him and the soldiers platted a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They put on him a purple robe and said, hail, king of the Jews. And they smote him with their hands. So they're punching him in the face. They're smiting him with their hands. Pilate, therefore, went forth again and saith unto them, behold. So get the picture. I don't want you to miss this. Okay? Imagine this. Right? Crucified among you. Okay? Picture this. Okay? Pilate is doing this to please the Jews. Over and over again, we see Pilate saying, I find no fault in him. You take him and crucify him. I don't find any fault in him. I don't find, you know, and he keeps trying. How about this? How about we let him go? No, no, no. Give us Brabus. He's definitely trying to go to bat for Jesus here, and they want him crucified. So here's what Pilate wants to do, one last attempt to get Jesus off the hook here. So here's what he does. I mean, keep in mind, Jesus has been beaten, whipped. Now he's got the crown of thorns. Now he's been punched in the face, hit in the head, blood everywhere, totally mutilated. Okay? And then if we go to Isaiah, we'll go there in a moment, it talks about how his visage was more marred than any man. He doesn't even look human. He's so beaten. And so get the picture here, Pilate therefore went forth again and saith unto them. So he gives a little preamble here of what he's going to do. So imagine, you know, all the Jews are gathered, the angry mob, the priests, the Sadducees, the Pharisees. Pilate comes out to them, and he's going to make another attempt here. He says, behold, I bring him forth to you that you may know that I find no fault in him. He said, look, I'm going to bring him to you, and I want you to know that I find no fault in him, and now Jesus is going to come out. Can you imagine what he looks like? I mean, can you imagine the horrible sight that he must make? And Pilate thinks to himself, hey, if I can bring Jesus out and show them what he looks like, they're going to be satisfied. Like they're going to have had enough. They're not going to want him to be crucified. They're going to say, okay, he's been humiliated. He's been mocked. He's been spat upon. He's just so bloody and beaten and bruised and marred. Surely this will be enough for them. Then came Jesus forth. So verse 5, now Jesus steps forward, right, in that condition. He steps forward. And what does the Bible say? He came forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate saith unto them, behold the man, look at him, look at him, look at him. And you'd think that if they had one ounce of decency or human compassion, they'd say like, okay, it's enough. It's enough. Right? I mean, look at him. That's what behold means. Behold means to look at. Behold the man. Look at him. And the chief priest, therefore, an officer saw him. They cried out saying, crucify him, crucify him. How wicked, how evil. Pilate saith unto them, take he him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. The Jews answer him, we have a law, and by our law, he ought to die, because he made himself. No, they don't say, God has a law, it's God's law, it's our law, we have a law, we're God. We have a law, and by our law, he ought to die, because he made himself the son of God. When Pilate, therefore, heard that saying, he was the more afraid. Go back, if you would, to Isaiah chapter 53. Actually, we'll start at the end of chapter 52. Go back to Isaiah chapter 52. Isaiah chapter number 52. Isaiah chapter number 52, starting in verse number 13. The Bible says, behold my servant, and this is Jesus Christ. This passage is often called the suffering servant passage, because it calls Jesus God's servant. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. As many were astonished at thee, his visage, visage means face or countenance, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of man, saying, it's beyond, sons of man just means human beings, it's beyond the point of looking human. I mean, his face is just so bruised and swollen and cut and bloody that if you look in his face, you don't even recognize him. You don't even recognize him as a human being, the Bible's saying. His visage was so marred. Look at verse 1 of chapter 53, who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men. And keep in mind, this is being written approximately 700 years before Jesus Christ died on the cross. So this is like 700 and some BC, this is being written about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It says, he's despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. Folks, that's what any normal, decent person would do at such a sight. They would want to look away from such a thing. That's why Pilate has to get up and say, hey, look at him. Because normal people are probably looking away in horror because it's just so graphic. And it says, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened out his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb. So he openeth not his mouth. Go to Matthew 27. And you know, we could go to all the gospels. I'm just showing you some of the scripture on this because it would take too long to go to all of the scriptures. But whether you read this in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, you get different details in each. They all bring unique material to the table when it comes to the story of the crucifixion of Christ. So we're just looking at some of the highlights here, predominantly in the book of Matthew. But go back to Matthew 27 and look at verse 32. It says, and as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear his cross. Now why are they compelling him to bear his cross? Because Jesus Christ is probably unable to physically humanly carry this cross up the hill. Okay. After this beating, it's amazing that he could do anything, right? So carrying the cross is going to be too hard. So they get this other guy to carry the cross. What this pictures is how we are to take up the cross. Somebody else basically comes and takes up the cross of Christ and that's a picture of us taking up the cross and denying self and following Jesus. This is where the song come from, must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free. No, there's a cross for everyone and there's a cross for me. Verse 33, and when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say a place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall and when he tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him and parted his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, they parted my garments among them and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And so we see here more of the evil of man that they're basically just, oh, who gets his stuff? Who gets his clothes? Right? I mean, here's this guy just beaten beyond recognition. They're fighting over his clothes. They're gambling to see who gets the coat. And it says in verse 36, and sitting down, they watched him there. This is like a show to them. Look how short that verse is. Sitting down, they watched him there. It's a spectacle. It's a show. Sitting down and watching with just a morbid, sick desire to watch Jesus die on the cross and to just delight in it, right? And not like Paul glorying in the love of Christ saving the world, but actually making a mockery or making sport of this event. It says, sitting down, they watched him there and set up his accusation, over his head his accusation written, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. One where there are two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and another on the left. And this is basically to increase the humiliation by basically lumping in Jesus Christ with common criminals. Like, this is what Jesus is like. He's like a thief. He's like one of these common criminals, these losers that are up here being punished. Jesus is like one of them. So he's being numbered with the transgressors as was prophesied. And it says, and they that pass by reviled him, wagging their heads and saying, oh, thou that destroy is the temple and build us in three days, save thyself if thou be the son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise, also the chief priests, these are supposed to be men of God. These are supposed to be people who worship the Lord. These people are supposedly devoting their whole lives to studying and teaching and preaching the Bible in addition to carrying out the work of the temple. If anybody should recognize Jesus Christ, it's them. How wicked to reject him when they had so much exposure to the word of God. But they, the chief priests mocking him with the scribes and elders. So who's guilty here of this horrible mockery? The chief priests, the scribes, the elders, right? The leaders of the Jews. He saved others himself. He cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe in him. You know what the truth is? Even if he came down from the cross, those people wouldn't have believed in him. They were so, they'd already seen him raise Lazarus from the dead. When Jesus raised from the dead three days later, they don't believe in him. When the stones rolled away and the tombs empty and the soldiers come back and say, Hey, he's gone. You know, there was an earthquake and we don't know what happened. He's got, do they believe in him then? No, they're never going to believe in him no matter what, because they, they despise him. They hate him. That's talking about the, the, the chief priests, the scribes and the elders. The Roman soldiers are not as malicious as the scribes and the elders, the high priests and the people of Israel because of the fact that Jesus even said to Pilate, Hey, he that delivered me unto you has the greater sin. That's what Jesus said to Pilate. You want to know who's more guilty here? Hey, he that delivered me unto you has the greater sin. That's what Jesus said. The soldiers are probably just wicked, evil, violent people that are used to committing atrocities, but not necessarily reprobates like these that are screaming, crucify him and his blood be on us and on our children. And we know that at least one of these Roman soldiers is going to believe in him when all said and done. But it says in verse number 43, he trusted in God, let him deliver him now. If he will have him for, he said, I'm the son of God. These people don't even realize they, they claim to be men of God. They don't realize that they're basically paraphrasing Psalm 22 there, right? He trusts on the Lord that he would deliver him, let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him, right? They're pretty much saying that exact saying, and they don't even realize it for he said, I'm the son of God. 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. Now this must have been unsettling. Can you imagine this? I mean, here they've beaten and tormented and abused Jesus Christ. He's nailed to the cross, right? He's got a nail through each hand. He's got a nail through his feet. And he's up there, hang on the cross, beaten, bloody, marred, you know, you said you're the son of God. If you're the king of Israel, why don't you come down for the cross? You know, what a time to have an eclipse, right? I mean, what a time at noon, the sixth hour, starting with 6 a.m., what a time to have darkness come. You know, I don't know if this is an eclipse or is this just, you know, cloud cover that comes in, you know, thick, dark clouds that block out the light of the sun. We don't know what this is, but whatever it is, it must have been pretty unsettling to be there. And you're kind of like, what are we doing here? Imagine. And it says, about the ninth hour, so after three hours of this darkness, Jesus cried with a loud voice, he screams out, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And you know, the people that are around him, they're looking at it as, yeah, I mean, he's forsaken by God. Now, at this moment, he truly was forsaken by God, of course. But we know he's not going to be ultimately forsaken because three days later, he's going to rise again. He's going to be resurrected. But the people that are there, they don't realize that part. They think this is an ultimate forsaking, right? They think he's done. Now, some people will say, well, you know, Jesus just said that, but look, Jesus Christ is the truth. And when he's hanging on the cross, screaming at the top of his lungs, bloody and dying, you better take seriously what he said and believe what he said is accurate. Oh, he's just quoting Psalm 22. What a time to quote scripture. He's not quoting Psalm 22. He's crying out from his heart to God and screaming out saying, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Now, some people will say, well, he wasn't really forsaken by God. Yes, he was forsaken by God. He didn't say, my God, my God, did you forsake me? He said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He's accurate there. Why is that? Because the Bible says that God is of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on iniquity. You see, Jesus Christ and God the father had enjoyed sweet fellowship since literally the world began. In John chapter 17, he said, thou loved me before the world began. And all throughout, you know, eternity past up to this point, there's been that loving father son relationship between Jesus and God the father. And that for the first time is broken here. Why? Because he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Jesus Christ became sin for us. The Bible says he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. So here's Jesus Christ hanging on the cross. It's not just a physical beating as horrific as that was and the mockery and the spitting and the shame and the blood, but also he took upon him the sins of the world. So at that moment, Jesus Christ was guilty of every sin that you've ever done. Right? I mean, that's how God was looking at it. He laid on him the iniquity of us all. He who knew no sin became sin for us. The sinless son of God was taking the punishment and became guilty of your sins and my sins. The sins of the whole world are born in his own body. So here he is just for that moment basically with all the sins of the world placed upon him, as if he is just the worst sinner ever, just the whole sins of the whole world on his account. And God can't have fellowship with that. God the father has to turn his back on the Lord Jesus Christ here. He can't have fellowship with that. God's justice, God's wrath kicks in at that point and Jesus experiences what it is to be forsaken. He experiences what it is to have the sins of the world placed upon him. He experiences what it is to be guilty and punished by God for the sins that everyone has done. And the proof that he's not just quoting Psalm 22, folks, Psalm 22 is quoting him. Psalm 22 is looking into the future, looking to the cross of Christ and quoting the son of God. Isaiah 53 is looking into the future. Isaiah is getting this vision and saying, you know, he's so beaten, he's so marred. Here he is carrying our sins and people are mocking him. Psalm 22 says, you know, he trusts on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted him. Folks, Psalm 22 is quoting Jesus, not vice versa. The proof is because Psalm 22 is written in Hebrew and Jesus here is not speaking Hebrew, he gives us his exact words and it's not Hebrew, it's Aramaic. Aramaic was the language that the Jews spoke at the time of Christ. They didn't speak Hebrew anymore. Hebrew was already dying as an everyday language. When they went into the Babylonian captivity and all the things that have happened since, culturally they had switched to using Aramaic as their everyday language. And at this time when people would go to the synagogue and hear the Hebrew scriptures read, they often needed translations of portions where the Hebrew was not understandable to them anymore and they needed someone to give it in Aramaic and tell them, hey, here's what it is in Aramaic because that was their everyday language. That's why when Jesus is quoted verbatim in the New Testament, it's always Aramaic that he's speaking, okay? And obviously when you're dying and you're going through these horrible things, you're going to speak in your heart language, you know, you're going to speak in the language that's your native language, that's nearest and dearest to your heart. I mean, think about it. If you're injured severely and you're crying out to God in your last moments, are you going to cry out in a foreign language that you've been studying or something that you speak as a second language? No. He's crying out in his heart language, which is Aramaic. That was his native everyday language. And history tells us that that was the native everyday language in that time at that period. Greek was kind of the universal second language that they all spoke as a second language, but their main at home language was probably Aramaic. And we know Jesus spoke Aramaic because here it is, Aramaic and lots of other examples. So if Jesus would have been quoting the Bible, then he would have just called it out in Hebrew. It would read exactly like Psalm 22, right? He was just quoting the Bible. But no, no, no. He's saying it in Aramaic. And the reason Psalm 22 records it in Hebrew is because it's written at a period when God's people spoke Hebrew. It's back when Hebrew was their main language. So that's why it's written in Hebrew. So it's looking forward and getting that Aramaic quote and putting it in the language of that time. Whereas Jesus is crying out from his heart something meaningful to him. That's why this is important. Not just this cop out of, oh, he just quoted scripture. You say, why would people not like the scripture? Well, for example, people who deny the Trinity. People who reject the teaching of the Trinity and believe in the stupid oneness doctrine or Jesus only doctrine, how can God forsake him if basically they're saying that he and God the Father are the same person. He's like, why? Myself, myself, why are you forsaking me? It'd be stupid. It doesn't make any sense, right? But guess what? Oneness is that stupid. It's like the flat earth of theology. It's that dumb. It's that ridiculous. You have to be a complete idiot or just evil and wicked and reprobate to just reject the clear teaching of the Trinity and want to believe in this Jesus only doctrine is so dumb. Okay. Look. And they say, oh, well, that's the man Jesus being forsaken by God. So who's this Jesus that's not divine that the oneness people have hanging on the cross? Because if it was, it's the man being first, it's the man Christ Jesus being forsaken. Okay. Well then, so there's this man that's not divine or something that's being forsaken. That doesn't even matter. That's the humanity of Christ. No, no, no. The Jesus that died on the cross for me was God from start to finish. He was deity. He had full divinity in him, dwelled all the fullness of the Godhead bodily from start to finish. Godhead means godhood, godness, right? God has just an old word. There's an old word for virginity called maidenhead. Look it up in the dictionary. Maidenhead means maidenhood. Maidenhead means godhood. This is an old word. And so in him dwells all the fullness of deity, all the fullness of divinity, all the fullness of godness, all the fullness of godhood, all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Folks, it's not something that comes and goes like, oh, when he got baptized, then he became divine. And then when he's on the cross, you know, it departs. Wrong. Jesus Christ is intrinsically God. He was in the beginning with God and he was God. Why? Because God is comprised of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Three persons, one God. Okay. So the Trinity is biblical and matches up with what the scripture teaches here. So yes, the Son was forsaken by God the Father. And this was something that is unparalleled in history where these two that had been so united in love even before the world began, they were the ones that were the ones that had been so united in love even before the world began have now been ripped apart, right? And there's this separation between God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when Jesus cries out and screams out, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, it says that some of them which stood there, verse 47, when they heard that said this man called for Elias. So they're mixing up here when they hear that Eli, instead of hearing my God, what they're hearing is Eli, like Elia, oh, Elijah. That's what they heard. Now this could be just because it's loud. Maybe there's thunder and lightning if it's all dark, you know, if that's what it's like. We don't know if this is like a storm and eclipse or what's going on. But maybe with all the jeering and the noise and just being outside or maybe Jesus is crying out and it's hard to understand him because he's so beaten that maybe he's not articulating that clearly. But really it just shows the complete cluelessness of these people that they don't understand what he's saying when he's saying something that was prophesied he would say in Psalm 22, okay? They don't get it, right? It just goes right over their head, oh, he's calling for Elias, Elias is Elijah. Verse 48, 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 Elias will come to save him. Like he's praying to the saints or something, right? Which is totally unbiblical and never happens in scripture. These are Catholics that are there, you know, they think he's praying to a saint or something. Jesus when he had cried again with a loud voice yielded up the ghost. So this is him dying. I mean, he yields up the ghost, he breathes his last breath, into thy hands I commend my spirit and Jesus is dead. He's there lifeless, dead, hanging on the cross completely. What happens when he dies? Behold, the veil of the temple was rent and twain from the top to the bottom and the earth did quake and the rocks rent. Well, I wonder if the priest noticed that when they show up at the temple to do their work in the temple and the veil is torn in half and the Holy of Holies is just exposed, right? So you had the holy place and then you have the most holy place and you have the veil in between. And the Bible tells us that veil represents the body of Christ in the book of Hebrews. And just as Jesus Christ said, this is my body, which is broken for you. When Jesus died, what happened? The veil broke as a picture of Jesus Christ breaking and dying, right? Now his bones were not broken, but his body was broken, right? Being just ripped apart. The Bible talks about how all of his bones were out of joint, you know, cause when you're hanging on the cross, it pulls your bones out of their sockets. And so the veil of the temple's rent and twain, you think they noticed that? Hmm. That's interesting. There's an earthquake and the veil has ripped into two pieces. All that, you know, I can explain that, right? But these people, they're so hard hearted and evil that are these people are going to turn to Christ now? No, they're reprobates because you know what happens right after this? They're going to be persecuting James and Peter and John, and we're going to see this in the book of Acts. These people are just as hard hearted as ever thereafter, the Sadducees who are running the temple. And it says that the temple was rent and twain from the top to the bottom. The earth did quake, the rocks rent and the graves were open and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the Holy City and appeared unto many. Now what this is, this is similar to like when Elisha died and was thrown in a tomb and then somebody threw a dead body on the bones of Elijah, or excuse me, Elisha, and that body came back to life, right? So basically this is just a miracle where there's an earthquake, rocks are breaking in pieces, the veil runs in half, and again the rock pictures Jesus and it's being broken, a picture of the body of Christ being broken. And then we see that there are some people, it doesn't say all the saints or everybody, you know, a lot of people try to teach, oh yeah, this is when every Old Testament saint resurrected. That's easy to disprove and I'll do it in a moment. What actually happened here is just that many people, not all of them, many people, and these are obviously people that are freshly dead, okay? Many people who are freshly dead, this is like a Lazarus, they come out of the tomb and they come into the Holy City, they come in Jerusalem and say, hey, I'm alive, I'm back from the dead. So people are seeing certain loved ones coming back from the dead as part of the signs that are going on surrounding the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. You say, well, no, no, no, this is when all the Old Testament saints were carried off into the third heaven or whatever. Well, no, because guess what? In Acts chapter 2 when Peter preaches, he says that David is not ascended into the heavens. He said David is not ascended into the heavens. He's in his sepulcher, we know where his sepulcher is, and he's there to this day. So why didn't Peter say, yeah, David just went up, you know, a few weeks ago? He didn't. He said, no, no, no, he's in the sepulcher. He's not ascended into the heavens. His tomb remaineth with us unto this day. Case closed, okay? That's not what it's, don't add to the text here. It just says that many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and they went and appeared to many. So many people are like, I saw somebody come back from the dead surrounding these events. You know, after the resurrection, other people rose as well and came into the city and so forth. Now, when the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake, I mean, they see it get dark, they hear what he screams out, and they see what was done, they see the earthquake, they feared greatly saying, truly, this was the Son of God. Now these are the people for whom it's not too late, but there are some people here that you can see their heart is so hardened no matter what they see, and the Bible tells in John chapter 12 that though he did so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. That the scripture of Isaiah might be fulfilled, Lord, who hath believed our report, right? And then he said, therefore, they could not believe because God blinded their minds and darkened their hearts and so forth in John 12 verses 39 and 40 there. So what we see is that people can cross a line with God where it's too late, and they get hardened and darkened and reprobate, okay, to where no matter what they see, it's just not happening. But the Roman soldier here, the centurion, and we don't know how guilty he was in those other things, but he probably had some part in some of that, or at least he's supervising, at least it happened under his watch. When he sees these things happen, he realizes his error, and he says, truly, this was the Son of God. Truly, this was the Son of God. Now what's going to happen to the Jews here who screamed out, crucify him and his blood be on us and our children? What's the punishment for that? What's going to happen? Did you know history tells us that when the Romans, and here's the thing, first of all, we don't even need a history book to tell us because Jesus predicted in advance that, of course, and also the book of Daniel predicts it. Daniel chapter 9 predicts that the Roman Empire is going to come in and destroy Jerusalem. That was predicted literally, let's see, it's in Daniel chapter 9, so a couple hundred years before Christ, that's predicted that, hey, the Roman Empire is going to come in and destroy the city. The reason I differentiate there is because part of the book of Daniel was written in Daniel's time, and then part of it he told him, seal this up, and it came later. Daniel 9 is part of that later portion. The point is that the city being destroyed is predicted by Daniel. It's one of the most amazing predictions in Daniel, just how detailed and accurate that is. And then Jesus tells parables where he talks about people rejecting the Messiah and rejecting the Son of God, and then he said that he came and burned up their city, and that's a picture of Jerusalem's going to be burned, so he predicts all that in Matthew chapter 21, and in his parables and teachings, he talks about what's going to happen. But if we go into history and see exactly how this played out when the Romans came and invaded and destroyed Jerusalem and burned Jerusalem, the history books tell us that thousands of Jews were crucified, literally crucified. They said that the roads were just lined and there were just, somebody said that the hillside was just like, as far as they could see, was just crucified Jews. They crucified tons of Jews, because the Jews were trying to rebel against Rome and fighting, and a lot of them fought unto the death, and many of them, even when they saw they couldn't win, even killed themselves. They even committed suicide rather than surrender to the Romans, and part of the reason why a lot of the Jews committed suicide rather than being given over to the Romans is because they don't want to get crucified. Now listen to me. What's over a man's toe if that's what he also reaped? We see these wicked people screaming, crucify him, and you know what, they themselves and their sons and daughters are going to be crucified less than 40 years later, to the tune of hundreds or even thousands. You know, we don't know if the historical accounts could be exaggerating, but they said, hey, it's just a sea, as far as we could see, of Jews being crucified by the Romans. Do you think Jesus is the only person that ever got crucified? No, I mean, there's two guys getting crucified the same day, and let me tell you something. These people are punished beyond belief. The Jews were totally kicked out of Jerusalem after 135 AD. It was illegal for a Jew to come anywhere within a certain amount of miles of the city limits of Jerusalem. They cannot even visit, except one day a year they were allowed to visit on the 9th of Av. They were allowed to go and visit so that they could remember what happened, and they go there and cry about it and whatever, instead of realizing why it happened and receiving Jesus Christ as Savior. But they were only allowed to go there once a year. No Jew was allowed to live in Jerusalem, because when God wipes you out, when God says, I'm going to scatter you, I'm going to destroy your city, I'm going to burn it down, that's what's going to happen. And you know, you want to crucify the Son of God, well, you know what, you don't want to take up his cross, well, take up your own cross, and you know what, they got massacred by the Romans. They got massacred, I mean, man, woman, boy, girl were massacred by the Romans, if you read the historical accounts, not to mention all the crucifixions of Jews, which is a poetic justice for those that would massacre the Son of God himself. So what do we take from this powerful narrative in the Bible, where God gives us so much detail, and again, we're just looking at Matthew, I mean, we could have been in Mark, we could have been in Luke, we could have been in John. And we would see a lot of the same things, and we would also see different things brought out in this most powerful of stories. The preaching of the cross is to them the parish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it's the power of God. What's the lesson that we take away from the cross? Let me just give you a few lessons in closing. First of all, the most important lesson is the salvation lesson. Here's the salvation lesson. If you can stand there and look at Jesus Christ dying on the cross, the way that I've described him, the way the Bible described him, and here's Jesus hanging on the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? If you can look at that image of Jesus on the cross and think that you're going to heaven because you're a good person, it's bizarre, folks. Just sit there and think, well, in order to be saved, you've got to stop sinning. You've got to turn from your sins. You've got to repent of all your sins and turn over a new leaf, and you've got to be a good person. You've got to have works, buddy. Really? Because if we were to put Jesus on the cross up against you, your works are as filthy rags. Your righteousnesses are as filthy rags. If you fully grasp what we just saw tonight in the scripture, you would be a complete fool to think that your good works, your good deeds, your turning over a new leaf, your living a good life, your church attendance, your baptism, and your whatever almsgiving, hey, if you think that has anything to do with your salvation, you're crazy, because how could you even put it next to that? How could you even put it with that? Think about it. This is what it would be like. Just let me paint a little picture for you. Let me give you some illustrations. It'd be like laying the table with filet mignon, and you've got the asparagus, and you've got the au gratin potatoes, and everything's just healthy and perfect and nice, and it's all like a perfect presentation with everything drizzled on and the parsley and everything. So just get in your mind this picture, this fancy tablecloth, the candles, the food. Everything's perfect, right? And then just imagine just like a Big Mac in the wrapper. And now, sir, may I present the next course? You'd be like, get that out of here. Am I right? Right. Or can you imagine putting out a buffet and saying, all right, here we've got all these nice things. Here's the caviar. Here's this salmon, and here's this. And then right here, we've got Little Caesars, because it was on sale or whatever. You know, you'd say like, or how about this? How about this? You got that whole fancy meal back in the restaurant. You got the fancy meal on the tablecloth, right? And then to drink, here's a glass of Tang. Nobody even knows what that is. Who knows what Tang is? Oh, everybody. All right. Never mind. Is it still around? It exists? Okay. Here's some Kool-Aid to go on the side. Folks, wouldn't it be an insult? And you know what? You thinking that your works have anything to do with your salvation are a thousand times more out of place, a thousand times more of an insult, when Jesus Christ is offering you and saying, hey, this is my body, which is broken for you. And you're like, well, I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person. And then you wonder why God's wrath is on those who reject the gospel. It's the ultimate insult. And look, when we go soul winning, how many times do we ask somebody, so what do you think a person has to do to get to heaven? They don't even mention Jesus. Why? Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, and guess what's not in their heart? Jesus is not in their heart. That's why Jesus doesn't come out of their mouth. You say, hey, what do you think a person has to do to heaven? Oh, just live a good life, be good to other people. You just got to treat people the way that you want to be treated. Really? You know what? You're going to split hell wide open with that stupidity. Look at him. Behold the man. This is your ticket into heaven. Not your stupid, worthless, filthy rag. So the first lesson we learned from the cross is the salvation lesson. Another lesson that we learned from the cross, though, is that, look, Jesus Christ loves us. Jesus Christ loves us, because look what he did. I mean, if Jesus didn't love you, he wouldn't have done that. This is showing the ultimate love right here. Greater love hath no man than this, and the man lay down his life for his friends. But not only that, he's actually going through a horrible death, right? He was obedient to death, even the death of the cross. So this show, I mean, the love of Christ is on display. Who would do that? Would you do that for anybody? Be honest. You know, it's easier. Yeah, I would do that, you know. I mean, look, scarcely for a righteous man, some would even dare to die. Okay, would you do this for people that are spitting in your face? You say, well, I'd do it for my spouse. I'd do it for my kids. I'd do it for... Okay, would you do it for people who don't even care? Would you do it for people who are spitting in your face? Would you do it for people that are making fun of you while you're going through the beating? That's why the Bible says, look, scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commanded his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Father, forgive them, thus did he pray, even while his life's blood flowed fast away, praying for sinners while in such woe, no one but Jesus ever loved so. Hey, that's something to think about right there. Jesus Christ loves you. Jesus loves us. And then number three, we need to realize that presenting our body a living sacrifice is our reasonable service. This is what it took to save us. If this is what it took for us to be redeemed, if this is what it took for us to be pardoned, if this is what it took to purchase our ticket to heaven, is it too much to ask for you to show up to church? Is it too much to ask for you to go out soul winning and maybe some people aren't friendly to you out there or don't want to see you? Is it too much to ask for you to clean up your life and get some of the sin out of your life so that you could be used by God? Is it too much to ask for you to read your Bible every day when that's what Jesus did for us? This is my body which is broken for you. Can you open your Bible and read it? Can you get on your knees and pray? Can you open your mouth and preach the gospel to the lost? It's your reasonable service. That's what the Bible says. What? Know ye not that you're bought with a price? Therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit which are God. And you know what? When I was a child and I heard this kind of preaching, you know what I decided? I'm going to live for God. That's why I decided. And you know what? If you don't feel that way, you know what? Something's wrong with you. You know, if you can be taken on a tour of the cross, if you can be there and in your mind's eye see Jesus dying on the cross for you and fully grasp and understand that, why don't you want to live for God? Why don't you care? Why don't you want to please him with your life? What else are you doing with your life? Just eating and drinking and being merry? Hey, do something for God with your life. Live for God. Live for the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't live unto yourself. He died for us. He died for all because all were dead, the Bible says. And now that we live, we need to live by the faith of the Son of God and we should live unto him that saved us and unto him that died for us. And you know what? If Jesus Christ was crucified for us, according to Galatians 6, hey, we should be crucified to this world and this world should be crucified unto us. And we should be ready to pick up the cross and follow Jesus. And you know what? Jesus isn't asking us to do what he did. He's not asking us to go through this particular scenario of this kind of just extreme scourging and beating and mockery and spitting and literal crucifixion and then three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, three days and three nights in hell and then raising from the dead. We're not being asked to go through that. You know, he just wants us to take up our cross. And you know what he said? He said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart and you shall find rest unto your souls. He said, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. What Christ is asking us to do in our lives is easy compared to what he did. Now, I'm not saying your life's easy. I'm not saying being a Christian's easy. I'm not saying that serving God and keeping the commandments and going to church and going soul winning is easy. And look, we're going to fail. We're going to make mistakes. Nobody's perfect. There's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sin is not the only one without sin is Christ. But what I am saying is that compared to what he did, anything that he asked us to do is easy in comparison. I'm not saying it's easy to be in church all the time, but I'm saying it's easy compared to dying on the cross. I'm not saying it's easy to go out soul winning with 110 or whatever outside, but it's easier than dying on the cross. I'm not saying it's easy to open your mouth and preach the gospel to your friends and loved ones and family. I'm not saying it's easy to read your Bible every single day and pray and love God. I'm not saying it's necessarily easy to abstain from drunkenness, to abstain from fornication, to abstain from the love of money and the pursuits of this world, but I'm saying it's easy compared to what Jesus Christ did for you. And so these are some of the lessons that, look, we could go all night because the cross is central to every aspect of Christianity. All the lessons that we could draw from it are literally innumerable, but those are three powerful lessons about salvation, about the love of Christ, and about our reasonable service for him. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your unspeakable gift. Lord, words can't even describe the debt that we owe. Words can't even describe the love that you showed when you gave yourself, Lord, and we just stand in awe tonight of the cross. We're just moved by this, and Lord, help this movement in our hearts to result in changes in our life and changes in our walk with you. And Lord, if there's anybody here that's not saved, I pray that they would get saved before it's eternally too late. And I pray that they would not hesitate to just let go of whatever it is that they're trusting it in, let go of whatever the reservations they have about believing in you, Lord. I just pray that they would just let go of that and just come running to the cross tonight, Lord, and just let go of whatever they're trusting they think.