"BEHOLDING THAT SIGHT"
“BEHOLDING THAT SIGHT”
John 19: 17,18; Luke 23: 48, 49; Hebrews 13: 12, 13
The gospel is about Christ and is, therefore, a very wide subject. It includes His Person, His service on earth, His work on the cross, His resurrection, His ascension into heaven, and His return from heaven, also the gift of the Spirit. You can see, therefore, how extensive and inexhaustible a theme it is, so that it can only be presented in part in one short book. The part I have in my mind to speak to you about is seen in the Lord’s movements as recorded in John 19: 17 “He went out, bearing his cross, to the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha”.
In this world there is much made of learning, human wisdom and natural ability, and every facility to promote all this is afforded, whereas we find from the chapter before us that the Son of God, the Creator and Upholder of all things, went forth bearing His cross to a place called the place of a skull. This refers to the emptiness of man’s mind as to the true knowledge of God. No university can make anything out of a skull; it cannot be taught anything. That was what came into evidence as the Lord Jesus went forth bearing His cross to that place. It was a testimony to man’s utter inability, as in his natural sinful state, to take in knowledge according to God. Not only had man decided to do without God’s help, but he had long resolved to eliminate the knowledge of God from his curriculum; Romans 1: 28.
The Creator came into this world in a most humble and obscure way and spoke to men in that obscurity. John does not present a mere passing visit. It says, “He was in the world”, and again, “He dwelt among us”. It is one thing to come into a city, but it is quite another thing to come to the people in it.
[p. 153] The Lord not only came into the world but He came unto His own. They were His object. There was nothing to encourage monkishness about the Lord; Matthew tells us that Jesus “dwelt in Capernaum”. Think of living next door to the Lord Jesus! Somebody did. That was how matters stood. How sorrowful it must have been to Him that the world did not know Him and that His own did not receive Him! Now, how is it with you, for the Lord comes near to us now? Though on high, the Holy Spirit is here and He has thus a way of drawing near to us in grace, as a beautiful verse says: — Sinner, see thy God beside thee,
In a servant’s form come near,
Sitting, walking, talking with thee!
Sinai’s mount no longer fear.
He knows how to come near to whisper to you in the still hours of the night, or in sickness or while ordinarily engaged. He has marvellous means and ways of drawing nigh! Have you received Him? What have you done with all your opportunities? They will all come up before you by-and-by, for with God there is accurate notation. Who can tell how many books are to be opened? “Books were opened” Revelation 20: 12. What records! What notations were made during the life of Jesus upon earth as regards the treatment He received! We have just a few samples of how heaven took account of the treatment Jesus received, and there are many, many more. Take, for instance, the treatment accorded Him in the house of Simon the Pharisee as seen in Luke 7. Heaven noted what happened there. Even the very thoughts of Simon were taken account of! How solemn! Heaven takes account of what your very thoughts and feelings are in regard to Jesus. How have you received Him? The Lord comes near. If there be a tear or two, how delightful they are to [p. 154] heaven! There are different kinds of tears. There are tears of natural sentimentality that are of no value, but those tears shed by that woman in Simon’s house were treasured by Jesus. If there be a pang of sorrow, of repentance in the presence of Jesus, that is noted in heaven, but more than noted, it affords an occasion of joy in the presence of the angels of God; Luke 15: 10.
Well, I refer to all that to show you the position the Lord had come into, but now He is going out bearing His cross, and He is going definitely to a place called the place of a skull. “Where they crucified him”. Luke tells us that crowds came there. You can understand how a capital execution would attract the natural mind. It was known that three men were to be gibbeted that day. John says: “And Jesus in the middle”. Now picture, beloved friend, that scene. Were such an event to take place in the open in or outside of London tomorrow, what crowds would come! Jerusalem went out in their crowds. They followed Him out, and the crowds came together. Oh! you say, ‘There will be a large number of converts, for they are in the presence of the death of the Son of God’. In saying that we only indicate the ignorance of our natural hearts. We are told that they came together and they saw that sight (and what a sight!) but they returned. There is not a word said about a convert, save of the thief, and he did not return. It says that they beat upon their breasts. We are capable of going a long way in the presence of such a scene and yet return to our ordinary affairs and associations in this world. Is that how it is to be with you? I do not suppose that you are an infidel. Probably you may have seen something in the gospel, and have even beaten upon your breast, so to speak, and yet remain unrepentant in the world. You were affected by the preaching for a moment, and that is the end of it.
[p. 155] These people returned to Jerusalem. You can picture them wending their way back that dusty road from Golgotha, for it was outside the city. The farther they got from that scene the less its influence would have been until they got back to their ordinary associations and occupations; and they might have seen the account the next day that these three persons were crucified as malefactors, and have talked about it, and have remain unsaved, died unsaved. Are there not many in a similar position today, that is to say, capable of being affected so as to beat upon their breasts as Christ on the cross is presented and yet to return? I plead with you not to do that. If the word affects you do not stop at the mere external effect! Let it go deeper, and do not return. It is most solemn to see a person beating upon his breast in the presence of the truth and returning to the world!
During the Lord’s life here — as He was going on the way to the cross — a young man ran into the way, and kneeled down before Him and said, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10: 17). You say, ‘That man can be reckoned as a convert’. Can he? He ran into the way, and kneeled down before Jesus, but, alas! presently he went out of the way sorrowful. We have no record that he ever came into the way again. I would also note that one of the most remarkable things is said of him — the Lord loved him. He turned away not only from the light of the gospel but from the active love of Christ. Why? He had great possessions, which he preferred to the love of Christ. What will his material things be to him in eternity? They will be far away from him and he far away from them. But how different it is with those who have embraced Christ! We would not give up the love of Christ for a universe! Are you prepared to give up the love of Christ? “The love of Christ constrains us”. That is what [p. 156] marks every true preacher of the gospel. Under the influence of it we desire the blessing of your soul.
You may have been brought up in a Christian home, taught how to pray, taught how to revere the Lord, have come within the range of His love. Will you also go away; John 6: 67? Others were doing it. Yes! Souls like that young man who ran into the way, kneeled down, and went out of it. Will you do that? I grant you, you will have a goodly company if you do, but you will have a goodly company if you do not. There are a large number who appreciate the love of Christ, and who are constrained by it. We read of a multitude whom no man could number who washed their robes in the blood of Christ; Revelation 7: 14. We wish to have you with us, that is, if you are ostensibly in the way you may never leave it. The Lord Jesus went out bearing His cross to the place of a skull. You may have all the honours the universities can confer upon you, but that is what the world is — the place of a skull. The Lord died there. Paul says that the princes of this world did not know the wisdom of God, for they crucified the Lord of glory; 1 Corinthians 2. From the divine point of view there is nothing there but a skull, although there may be much to cover it over. That is what the world is. I beg of you not to go back into it. The Lord went out of it. The city refers to the world as an organisation. He went outside of that to die, as the writer of the Hebrews says: “Jesus, that he might sanctify the people by his own blood, suffered without the gate” (Hebrews 13: 12). Does not that touch your heart?
Now, I have remarked that the world is an organisation — that is the great feature that has marked it since Babel. It appears in a great variety of forms. I grant you the believer gets help from God in it, but organisation is stamped on everything. But the Lord deliberately went outside. He suffered without the gate. You say, ‘It was an accident’. There are no accidents in the things of God. So a true believer in Christ — one who appropriates the blood of Christ — leaves the world behind him. There is no idea in Scripture of a person being converted to remain in the world. No! That He might sanctify the people with His own blood, Christ suffered without the gate.
“Therefore let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Hebrews 13: 13). That is the result of the gospel. I would speak to you young people who have professed to believe on the Lord, who have availed yourselves of the blood of Christ, and it is available, as we read in Revelation 7: 14. A great redeemed company are seen there. They have palms in their hands, and the elder says “These are they who ... have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb”. They have done it. Now, you may be one who has believed on the Lord Jesus, but you cling to the world, whereas the Lord went out of it bearing His cross, and He went to a definite place. No one could stop Him. It was definite, and there He shed His own blood. So if you are a believer in Christ and are sheltered by His blood, your conscience thus cleared, what about your associations? What about correspondence with Him? Take a look at Him going forth bearing His cross and dying there! What for? That He might sanctify you and me by His own blood. Is He to see you going back with that crowd that Luke tells you about? May God forbid it!
Luke 23: 49 speaks about the acquaintances of Jesus and those that came with Him from Galilee. They stood afar off “beholding these things”. They could have gone back like the rest, but they were detained by the cross, by the Person who was on that cross. Were they near enough at that solemn moment they would have heard Him speak to one of the malefactors by His side. He said to him “To-day [p. 158] shalt thou be with me in paradise”. Had I been there and heard Him say that I would like to have said: ‘Lord, I should like to be with Thee in paradise too’, and in saying this I should resolve not to return with the crowd.
We urge upon you to stand there — and, as acquaintances of Jesus, not to go back with that crowd. “Let us go forth to him without the camp”. That is the word! Let us go there and not return. Hebrews 11: 15, 16 reads, “And if they had called to mind that from whence they went out, they had had opportunity to have returned; but now they seek a better, that is, a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he has prepared for them a city”.
May God bless the word!