PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD
John Brown
Luke 23: 33,34,39-43, 46; Mark 15: 33-35; John 19: 28-30; 7: 37-39, 46
We spoke a little yesterday about divine speaking. I would like with the Holy Spirit's help, in this gospel meeting to speak to you about the words of the Lord Jesus as He hung on the cross. It seems to me that, especially to anyone who loves the Lord Jesus, these words of His as He actually hung on the cross must be very important and peculiarly affecting. I feel very weak in taking up such a holy subject, but I wish to point out, one at a time, the things which Jesus said while He hung on the cross. And I desire that the result in every one of our hearts here might be that God would be glorified as He was in the heart of that hard-bitten centurion who, with his band, had crucified Jesus. That man, I presume, had listened to each one of these words of Jesus as He hung there on the cross and as a result he glorified God and said, "Truly this man was Son of God". The words of Jesus, as He hung there, had affected him and if they can affect him, then they can affect anyone. I do not suppose you would get a more hard-bitten military man than a Roman centurion, responsible with his band for the crucifixion of these three men on Golgotha that day. But what Jesus said, and what He was as He hung there, got through the armour of that centurion, and in one account it says he glorified God. And in this account his words are "Truly this man was Son of God". I trust, dear fried, that as we listen to the words of Jesus as He hung there on the cross, there might be a similar effect in every heart here.
I began with Luke 23 because I would judge that that was the first thing that Jesus said, even as they were crucifying Him, "Father, forgive them". It says, "And when they came to the place which is called Skull" - that is Golgotha - "there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, the other on the left". "There they crucified him": I take it that means the band of soldiers. It was their job to do it. You know what they did, do you not? I am speaking of the cross and of the crucifixion of Jesus, a terrible death! You know what it was, do you not? The cross was laid out on the ground and the person was laid on it and the nails hammered through the hands and feet and then the cross was lifted up and placed in a socket in the ground. That is why the Lord spoke of Himself as being lifted up. He was literally lifted up on that awful means of death and He was left there to die with these other two men. That is what they did to Jesus. "There they crucified him". And what does He say? "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do". Just let these words sink in! As Jesus hung there, the first thing that he said was, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do". Oh, what a wonderful thing it is to be able to preaching forgiveness! Whoever you are, whatever you have done, this is God's attitude to you, forgiveness. I thank God for that. I could not stand here and speak of these things unless that was so. Jesus expressed it here, even to these men who had done this to Him, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. However bad you have been, dear friend, whatever you have done, you have not done anything as wicked as this. They crucified the Lord of glory, and God in His love and in His forgiveness, as expressed in these words of Jesus, was prepared as the scripture tells us elsewhere, to treat it as a sin of ignorance. And, indeed, these words imply that: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do". The Jews thought they knew what they were doing, getting rid of this so-called deceiver who claimed to be the king of the Jews. And the Romans thought they knew what they were doing, appeasing the Jewish rabble so that there would not be trouble in this outpost of the empire. But they did not know what they were doing: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do". All of God's love for man is contained in these words and these words come to us tonight with all the appeal that they had when they were uttered by Jesus on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do". And that forgiveness is available to you, whatever you have done. It may be that you have spurned the word until now. It may be that you have heard the gospel often and rejected it and said, this is not for me. Well, tonight God is willing to forgive you on the basis of the work of Jesus on that cross and He is willing to forgive you in the same spirit as Jesus expressed here, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".
Are you going to take advantage of the opportunity that you have tonight and you may never have again? This happened nearly two thousand years ago, a long, long time ago, and all the time since then God has been toward man in forgiveness. Hundreds of millions of persons throughout these nearly two millennia have come and found in God a forgiving and loving God, found in Christ a Saviour for sinners whose work on that cross was enough, more than enough to cover what they had done and what there were. I have found that. Have you? I can say that. I have found that what I have done and, even more terrible, what I am, Jesus dealt with it all in His precious work at Calvary. This forgiveness, dear friend, I commend to you. If you have never put your trust in Jesus, do it now while the opportunity is open to you! Nearly two thousand years have passed since these words were spoken and the opportunity is open tonight. I cannot say that it will be open next week. You often have heard the preacher say that, but sometimes it is true. There are some who have been at a preaching one week and then they have not been at a preaching the next week. I do not know what this coming week holds but I do know this, that God in His mercy towards us is offering us free forgiveness and pardon through believing in the precious Saviour. May you, if you have not done it before, come as this thief did and put your trust in Jesus and have this personal link with Him!
I have been speaking of these words of Jesus and they are wonderful words but then the thief gets the benefit for himself personally. The forgiveness of God is available to all men tonight. How many people there are in the world, thousands of millions, and the forgiveness of God is available to all of them. And so the Lord Jesus on the cross said, "Father, forgive them" and He really meant all men. The love of God was available, the forgiveness of God expressed in His beloved Son, was available to all men, "Father forgive them". He was referring to those who had crucified Him, but He was embracing all men and God had them all in His heart at that moment. But God deals with us as individuals. This man who had been beside Jesus got the gain of it as an individual. That is what you need to do and that is what I have to do. I can say I have. I know that most of us in this room tonight can say that, but I trust that everyone can say that.
"Now one of the malefactors who had been hanged spoke insultingly". Can you imagine this scene? There was Jesus in the middle and there was a malefactor on each side, and they were speaking about Him as the Lord hung there. Can you imagine what that meant? One of them began to insult the Lord as He was hanging there in the middle. I speak very reverently, but this is what happened. Jesus hung there and heard this man speak insultingly: "Art not thou the Christ? save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost thou too not fear God ... and we indeed justly, for we receive the just recompense of what we have done" And then this wonderful confession - how did this man know? - "but this man has done nothing amiss". Oh, what a wonderful confession that was, about the only One of whom that could be said: "but this man has done nothing amiss". "And he said to Jesus, Remember me, Lord, when thou comest in thy kingdom". First of all, he recognised his own guilt and you have to do that. Before you can come and know the blessedness of the saving grace of Jesus, you have to realise that you need it. You have to realise that you need a Saviour, that you need salvation. So before this thief said, "But this man has done nothing amiss", he said, "And we indeed justly, for we receive the just recompense of what we have done". Now what he was doing was acknowledging that he was a sinner and that he could not help himself. That was obvious; he was about to die. A few hours later this man would be dead on that cross, but before he died, he put his trust in the Saviour who hung beside him on that cross of shame. He says "Remember me, Lord, when thou comest in thy kingdom".
Then the second thing that Jesus said on the cross was in reply "Verily I say to thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise". Dear friend, put your trust in Christ, believe in what I am saying to you, that Jesus is the Son of God. I put it in the present tense: "Truly this man was Son of God”. The centurion put it in the past tense because the Lord had died. I would put it in the present tense: this Man is the Son of God. If you believe that and if you believe that He hung there for you, that He died for you, that He shed His precious blood for you, then this promise that Jesus made to that malefactor on the cross is made to you.
Well, the Lord Jesus went to paradise first. He died before this malefactor did. He was the first. He has the pre-eminence in all things. It must be. The malefactor did not go to paradise exactly at the same time. The Lord Jesus died first. Remember how, when the soldiers came to break their legs - another example of the cruelty of these military men - they discovered that the Lord Jesus had already died. They did not need to break His legs. They broke the legs of this poor thief and then he died, then he was in paradise with his Saviour. Oh, dear friend, I trust these things affect you. I trust these words of Jesus affect you: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do". And then, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise".
Then there came these three awful hours of darkness on the cross. We turn now to Mark's gospel, "And when the sixth hour was come, there came darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour". The hymn says,
None could follow there bless Saviour...
Darkness, wrath and curse were Thine (Hymn 298).
We will never know all that transpired in these three hours, but I can say and I hope you can say, that one of the things that happened in these three hours was that He bore my sins. He bore every one of my sins. All the waves and billows of God's anger against sin rolled against Him and who can say what He bore? The eternal age will not exhaust the response to the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. The psalm that we were reading this afternoon, Psalm 22, speaks typically in very beautiful and affecting language of these sufferings of Jesus, "Why art thou far from my salvation, from the words of my groaning? My God, I cry by day, and thou answerest not; and by night, and there is no rest for me". I trust that these sufferings of the Lord Jesus always affect you. Then at the end of these three hours, "Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" He said these words on the cross; it was a cry for forsaking. They are recorded as the very words that Jesus used, in the original language that He used; they are recorded here for us so that they might make a deep impression in our souls. I think these are among the most profound words in the Holy Scriptures, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" That is what Jesus actually said. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? " Oh, dear friend, He was forsaken for me. There were many other things that were accomplished there but I trust that you can say that He was forsaken for me. "Why hast thou forsaken me?" I trust you can answer that question yourself and say, He had to do that for me. He had to bear these things for me. And yet all these waves and billows rolled against Him during these three hours but He was not overwhelmed by them. We were reading on Wednesday evening in Psalm 102 and the heading of the Psalm is "A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed...” Jesus was never overwhelmed. He carried our sorrows. He bore our griefs. He bore my sins in His body on the tree. Oh, what a wonderful thing that is! Praise be His name! That Jesus hung there, He was forsaken of God, He bore the sins of all who have trusted in Him and He was not overwhelmed. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He was forsaken of His Father. Think of the awfulness of that. Think of the perfection of the complacency that there had been, of the relationships, and then that communion interrupted for these three awful hours of darkness: the relationship still there, of course, but the communion interrupted for these three hours when Jesus bore your sins. I trust it is so. I trust you can say that. I trust that if you have not been able to say that before, that you will say it now, He bore my sins in His body on that terrible, shameful cross.
The next thing that Jesus said on the cross is recorded in John 19. "After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now finished...". The crucifixion, these three hours of darkness, the awful forsaking of God, and now it is at an end. He has not been overwhelmed. "Knowing that all things were now finished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, says, I thirst ... When therefore Jesus had received the vinegar, he said It is finished". The work of Jesus was finished there. Of course, He had to go into the grave, that the scripture might fulfilled, three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. But His work as far as dealing with sin and sins was concerned, was finished there: "It is finished". Oh, what precious words these are to the believer in the Lord Jesus. He bore my sins. He exhausted the wrath of God. He bore it and He finished the work. What a wonderful thing that is! How our hearts would exult that Jesus bore all of these things and He finished the work. That work is a completed work and God is well pleased with it, "who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God", Heb 9: 14. Jesus did that and now He says, "It is finished". And He is in control. Men thought that they were crucifying this Man who they said claimed to be the king of the Jews, but He was in control: He delivered up His spirit. He went into death by delivering up His own spirit. I trust you will be affected by that and see the magnitude of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. I trust you have some sense too of the magnitude of your contribution to His hanging there. I trust that we might be increased in our apprehension of this; that all that I have done, the sins I have committed and what I am after nature, all contributed to Jesus hanging there. And may we all have a fresh impression of the magnitude of that work being finished and God being well pleased!
And now we go back to Mark 15 and we see there the result of this speaking on the cross. The centurion was affected as he saw these things and heard them. "And the centurion who stood by over against him, when he saw that he had expired having thus cried out, said, Truly this man was Son of God". He was affected by the death of Jesus. Are you affected by it? Are you affected by the way that your Lord and Saviour went into death? I am speaking to you now as a believer. I trust that everyone here has put their trust in the Lord Jesus. But are you affected freshly by the way that He went? This man was. Oh, that there might be more glory to God as a result of being affected by these words of Jesus on the cross. That is my own desire from this meeting, that I might be more deeply affected. Even the profundity of these words is well known to us. We read these verses often, we speak often about the sufferings of Jesus and it is good that we do so. But it is good to allow them to affect us deeply and inwardly, as this man was affected so that he "glorified God", Luke 23: 47. I think that it is a wonderful thing that this Roman centurion was able, having taken account of what was said and what happened at the cross, to glorify God and say, "Truly this man was Son of God". Dear friend, if you have not responded to these words of Jesus, respond now and put your trust and faith in Him!
Now in John 7 I read about another occasion when Jesus cried. These cries of Jesus on the cross, of course, stand by themselves. But here in John 7: 37 it says "Jesus stood and cried saying, If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink”. I would like to ask you, have you responded to this cry? You may know the preciousness of a link with Jesus as your Saviour. I trust you do, even the very youngest here who can understand my words. "He that believes on me", Jesus cried, "as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive". Have you believed on Him? Are you consciously the recipient of the Holy Spirit? What a wonderful thing that Jesus cried in this way. He stood in the last, the great day of the feast, and cried out to those around saying, "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink". We were speaking this afternoon of these living waters that spring up. If you have ever had an impression of Jesus, if you have ever felt a response to God welling up in your heart, then that is by the Spirit. But if you have never felt that living power in you, then ask the Father to give you the Spirit. He is available to all those who believe, "which they that believed on him were about to receive". The Holy Spirit came consequent on the exaltation of Christ. The work of Jesus on that cross was great and glorious and it stands alone and it will stand alone throughout eternity. But God in His mercy and His grace has also made provision for us that we might be maintained in the good of these things and so this offer of the Holy Spirit is being made tonight in the gospel. You can have salvation, yes, but you can also have the gift of the Holy Spirit in your life, making you live in relation to God and His things.
Well, may we all have an enhanced appreciation of the words of Jesus and may they affect us! I read verse 46 because I was affected by it, "Never man spoke thus, as this man speaks". The officers had gone back and the chief priests said, "Why have you not brought him?" And they said, 'We could not do anything. The crowds would not have allowed us to touch Him.' "Never man spoke thus, as this man speaks". Every word of Jesus is precious. I have spoken to you tonight about these words of Jesus as He hung on the cross. May they affect you! May they produce an effect in every heart here, a desire to be more committed to Him in the scene which characteristically is still crucifying Him. By that I mean, it is still casting Him out. It still rejects Him. The world that rejected Christ is characteristically the same as it is now. The whole system of things in general is still against the Lord Jesus, and those who desire to be true to Him have to make their way through that world and the Holy Spirit is the only power for that. "If any one thirst, let him some to me and drink. He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water''. That is the way to be sustained here until very soon we will hear the assembling shout that we were speaking of yesterday: "Come, Lord Jesus", Rev 22: 20. May there be an answer in every heart here to these words of the Lord Jesus as He hung suffering there on that cross of shame, and may there too be a realisation of how much we need the Holy Spirit! For His Name's sake.
DUNDEE
8 December 1996