Get that little blue tape struck in there. Luke chapter twenty three. Luke chapter twenty, twenty-two and twenty, I think it's twenty-three. Well, I can give you the text. There stood by the cross of Jesus, His mother, and His mother, Sister Mary, and the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. I want to notice those words. There stood by the cross of Jesus. What a remarkable thing to think of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. and looking down and seeing his mother before that cross. Last week we were speaking to you on the third cry of the cross, and this morning I want to speak on the fourth cry of the cross. Last week we were speaking on the dying thief who was saved when... The thief cried out to him, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And the Lord replied, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. I mentioned about twenty-three or four points last week relative to that remarkable conversion. But there are some things I didn't mention that I want to mention this morning. In other words, some of the things I didn't mention is this. There's no evidence in our Bible that this dying thief saw the Lord Jesus before the scene of the crucifixion. He was a criminal. There were two of them, and they were locked up in prison. So they never saw the Lord Jesus Christ performing miracles. He was a perfect stranger to them. And so we see these thieves. And when they were nailed on their cross, they knew absolutely nothing about this man who was being crucified with them. It goes to show, too, that this salvation was absolutely direct from Christ. There were only a matter of feet apart. And the Lord didn't send a messenger to this thief. It was a direct message from Christ's mouth to that thief, direct. And Christ said, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Wonderful thing to get a direct message. Sometimes we get a message through a track, sometimes we're reading the Bible, or sometimes somebody speaks to us personally, sometimes It's like we're doing this morning, you're listening to the service. Salvation is absolutely apart from works, the Ten Commandments. Now the Lord didn't tell this thief to keep the Ten Commandments. He didn't even know what the Ten Commandments were. And so the conversion of this thief was absolutely apart from the Ten Commandments or from the law. And also the conversion of this thief was apart from ordinances. He was not baptized. He wasn't received into fellowship to break bread. He just got saved. And he knew nothing about ordinances prior to that. And he wasn't baptized afterward because he died only a few hours from this moment. And so we see that salvation, this wonderful salvation, is apart from ordinances and apart from... from living a good life before or after. This man certainly didn't live a good life before, and he only had a couple of hours. He didn't have a good life to live afterwards, and yet he went to heaven. That's remarkable, isn't it? When I think of my own salvation, the age of nineteen saved up in Stratford, Ontario on May the third, nineteen twenty-five. I was like most young men, I wanted to enjoy life. I can say some things. I never got drunk. And I didn't take the Lord's name in vain. I had a fear of God. But I went through a few dances. My main thing was sports. And I was always getting into a fight. And that's about all I can say. Aspire truth to my salvation. But after my salvation. with nothing before my salvation, had anything to do with it, when my father led me to Christ in the kitchen of our home in Stratford, Ontario. I was saved. A change took place. The very next morning, when I had breakfast, I had my Bible standing up before the sugar bowl, and there's what I did every morning. That went on and has gone on for sixty-some years. After my conversion, all I wanted to do was preach the Word of God, study the Word, to get to know the Word of God, and win others to Christ. And for sixty-some years we've been nothing else but preaching the Bible. Preaching the Word of God, Canada, the United States, England, Ireland, France, and so on. And so my life, since my salvation, I suppose you would say very clean, but no man can boast of his life. The employer I'm trying to get across is this. My sixty years of studying the Word of God, sixty years of pleasing God in my life, sixty years in preaching the Gospel and seeing people saved, did not add one I oath to my salvation. I am no more saved tonight. than I or today than I was that night so many years ago. Showing the salvation doesn't determine on what you were before you're saved or what you're after you're saved. Salvation is something that takes place. You can be the most wicked sinner on earth. And you don't like this thief. He didn't have any future. And the Lord knew that. He wouldn't have a new future. The Lord saved us because of the value and the preciousness of his soul. The Lord saved that thief regardless of his life before and afterwards. And that's wonderful to think of that. And also, you start to think that salvation here in this case is absolutely free. There was no collection taken when this thief got saved before or after. absolutely free. God's salvation is a free gift. And also salvation is apart from joining anything. This dying thief did not enjoy, he did not join anything. And friend, I was saved. I didn't join a church. I didn't join a lodge. I didn't join any organization. Salvation is apart from those things. Salvation stands out in splendid isolation as the one and only thing that saves a soul and takes them to heaven. It's nothing what you do before you're saved or after that takes you to heaven. It's Christ and Christ only, and He's enough. And yet I believe this man turned out to be a soul man. I would be surprised there are thousands of souls in heaven because of the conversion of this thief. Because of how he condemned himself. We indeed, justly, we receive the true rewards of our deeds. And he rebuked his friend on the other cross. But he says, This man, referring to Christ, he's done nothing amiss. He condemned himself. He justified Christ. And when he said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom, the Lord Jesus said, Today, that's how quick a person will be saved. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Now to our text. What text? Well, I read it through your. I didn't get through to it. John, but he can also find it in Luke. What do you have here? Who can measure the height, the depth, the length and breadth of the cross of Jesus? There he should. Mary was at the cross, and he was on that cross. There stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother. John was there. The cross of Jesus, I underline those verses, those words, the cross of Jesus. Who can measure the height, the depth, the length, and breadth of that remark? Because Jesus Christ was on that cross out of blood for you. And if he could love and save an ungodly criminal, he could do the same for you. the cost of crisis, the actual or the solution to all the problems of men and women. I have a habit every day at noon of listening to a program. I've been doing it for years. And this program is dedicated to helping people who have problems. They have doctors, very capable doctors. or they have the head of some organization that's out to try and help people with their problems. All kinds of problems. Dope, crime, liquor, suicides, adultery, delinquencies, family problems, even war. I've listened week after week and day after day to their supposed solutions. People are allowed to phone in and ask these people for help. Do you know in the many months and years that I've listened to that program, I've never heard the Bible or salvation or Jesus Christ or God mention. And that's the only answer. All these other ideas and solutions supposedly. People do this and it'll help you. Then they'll say, I'm not sure. But friend, I know one thing that can help you. I don't know what your problem is. I don't want to know unless I can help you. But I know one thing, the one and only solution to the needs and the problems of men and women is the cross of Jesus. You can enjoy... the power of that cross this morning if you want to be saved. So I want to think of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. You think of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ that day. You remember how they, when they went to the cross, Mary must have been having thoughts. She can't help it. she begins to think of what she had been told by the angel. What had the angel told her? He told her this, And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the son of the highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob, whatever, and of his kingdom there shall be. no end. As Mary was at the cross, and had gone to what had happened in those dark two or three days, did her mind go back to what the angel said? Is there an autumn escape? The angel told me what the future of my son was. Has something happened to change all this? She would recall when she went into the temple, they were there for three days, and they left, and the Lord Jesus stayed behind, and they went three days' journey, and they missed them, because there was such a crowd. They went back to the temple. They found him in the temple, and he was confounding the experts at the age of twelve. He went down with them. And he said this, wish she not, I must be about my father's business. Mary thought that over. He had the authority of his parents, and he obeyed it, for he went down. But then he had a higher authority. Wish she not, I must be about my father's business. He knew what his... journey into life meant, and where it would end, and how it would end. He was going to do his father's business. What went on, is it, I think, over this scene? Then that day, when her son and she loved him, the young carpenter put away his tools. He was a carpenter. and he bid farewell to Mary, his mother. And he went down into the valley, and then out into the big world. It wasn't long till good news began floating back. Mary began hearing in other members of the family, because there were six other members in that family. Mary had six other children forced sons and two daughters after the birth of christ after the birth of christ mary was just a woman of like passions with you so after she began hearing the news hearing of the power he was exercising casting out demons she heard of the crowds that were gathering and following him All this was wonderful as he heard the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. The nation was aroused. Like the Mary thought, like every Jew in those days, they didn't think about the church, they thought about the kingdom being set up on earth. Mary thinks to herself, it's coming. The crowds are following. The performing miracles. The kingdom must be near. Then she began hearing other news, news that was hard to take, the reaction to his preaching, the opposition, the persecution. Her heart sinks. Was the angel wrong when he told me what the future of my son was? And so she thinks to herself. Is it all a dream? And then guess what? She got communication, no doubt, from the other disciples. They like the thought of Mary very highly. But I want to say this. Never put Mary on a throne. Mary was just a woman of like passions as you. she thought of Gethsemane. The next news she gets that Judas had betrayed him. The next thing she hears that Peter has denied him. Heavy news. What is Mary thinking? Then she hears about Pilate Judgment Hall, where he was taken, and where he was beaten. Yes, he was beaten. They spat in his face. They tore the hair from his cheeks with flesh on the end of those handfuls of hair. She heard not only that, but she heard that they were putting a crown of thorns upon his head. Those long Jerusalem thorns that when They were on the head. The very weight of the thorns was enough to cause blood, but with a rod they smote them, driving those thorns deeper into his flesh. Yes, she hears something else. That his groves have been taken from him. And the Roman soldier with that lash that the Romans used. In fact, how they... treated a criminal before a crucifixion was almost enough to kill a criminal. And they took that Roman rash with pieces of steel in it, and brought it down over his bleeding back, tearing flesh from the bones from his back was like an island of ivory in a sea of blood. They bowed the knee. They mocked him. Now they scoffed him. Yes, all this. Then Pilate's Judgment Hall ends because he got wind that he was from Pharaoh's realm. And so he went over to Herod's realm, all across the town that night. When he got there, Herod and his men of war, set him at naught. And they too took their share of persecuting and wounding the Son of God. Now they're coming back. Herod has gone back to Pilate. The Lord Jesus has to go back. And early morning he reaches Pilate's hall again. see Pilate when he sent them to her and he thought, I'm off, that's off my hands. He was a politician. He didn't want Rome to get the news that he wasn't able to control the Jews. And so he was glad when the crowd went to heaven. But he was just about to fall asleep when he heard some crowds hollering and shouting again. Could it be? Jesus coming back, yes. And as the crowds got louder and louder and louder, Pilate had to face it. He's back. Yes, Pilate, you tried to get rid of them. You couldn't, and you won't. You've got to face this man, and you've got to make a decision. Once again, the Lord Jesus Christ is of you. Finally the verdict is made. Take this man and crucify him, for I find no fault of death in him. No reason why I should crucify him. He knew but for envy they had delivered him. So we find that he's back before Pilate. When you think of Mary as she stood there, she was wondering, why all this? I don't understand it. Her mind is somewhat confused. Things are not what she thought they would be. And I want to say this, that Mary, as I mentioned, I don't believe in calling Mary blessed above people. The Bible says... And the Lord Jesus has blessed out thou among women. Mary didn't wear a halo. Mary had sinned, and Rome will tell you she didn't. Rome will tell you she's sinless, and now in heaven they will have a vestige of truth from the Bible to verify that statement. But here is Mary. And this week I was just spending hours thinking over this. Paul was a chosen vessel to take the Gospel of the Gentiles, and Mary was a chosen vessel to bring the Savior into this world. She was not the mother of God. That would make her older than God. But in the beginning was God. She was only the vessel to bring the Savior into this world. She was not the mother of God, but that which she gave birth to was God. Who here you find, Mary, and he starts her way with the throng, and Pilate said, Take this man and crucify him. Must have jarred her poor heart to know that they chose a criminal instead of her son that she knew. was a holy man. He never sinned. He was a son of God. His credentials were evident. He had to think that the mob would clamor for that man to be released in order to crucify the Lord Jesus Christ. And they did. As they went up that mountain, Christ had a cross placed upon his shoulder. As he staggered up the gardens that mountain, because Simeon was chosen to help bear the cross after the Lord Jesus. You can see as they reached the cross, the holes have already been dug. Now they lay Christ on the cross, and they drive spikes to his hands and feet. And they lift that cross, and as they push it up, the bottom of the cross drops into that socket in the ground, a distance of about four or five feet. Charring his whole body, enlarging the wounds in his hands and in his feet. And as the hymn writer says, Mark, I hear the dull blow. As the hammer swings low, there lay nailing my Lord to the trees, and the cross they upraise as the multitude gaze on the blessed land of dark Calvary. Yes, they crucified Jesus. I wonder this morning if you realize what it means. see yourself a lost guilty sinner on the way to heaven that Jesus Christ was going through all this in order to reach and save you I thank God that my shepherd him I was on up in the Christian home I tried the world but it didn't last but the moment I took the Savior I was happy. I had what I wanted, peace, joy, satisfaction, and I still marveled at the glories of the person of Christ, of what it meant to him to go to the cross. And take my sins and bear the penalty of my sins in his own body on the tree. Here you find the Lord Jesus at Calvary. Now, as he's on the cross, what happens? It was then that he cried out, Father, forgive them. They know not what to do. When that body hanging, anguish, suffering, agony, pain, Could you think of anyone other than himself? Yes. He thought of those men around there who had done that. Father, forgive them. They know not what to do. Then the thief gets saved. And then you read these words. He looked down. He saw Mary. and I meets I. And he said, Mary, the woman, behold thy son, and John, behold thy mother. From that moment John took her to his own home. And the Lord Jesus Christ remained upon the cross, enduring that awful suffering, and death. The other cries will speak of in the future God will. But when you stop to think of what he said, he committed John to his mother and the mother to John. It was not a physical relationship. It was a spiritual oneness. That's a remarkable thing. And I want you to notice a verse, and I'll read it to you, our passage over in Matthew twelve. While he had talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him, That told him, Who is thy mother, and who are my brethren? and he stretched forth his hand toward the disciples and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren, for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven the same is my brother, sister, and mother. He introduces a new relationship, a wonderful relationship. It's relationship belonging to those who do the will of God. And every person, regardless of nationality, if they do the will of God, they're in his family. That's what you teach there. See there. Even the Apostle Paul said, if I knew Christ before the cross, a man in the flesh, henceforth know I him no more. strange remark, but precious. In other words, Paul said, even though if I knew Christ before the cross, a man, a sinless man on earth, I know him now as a living glorified man in heaven. He said, if I had met Christ on earth, henceforth no no more. I focus my thoughts are upon a glorified man in heaven. And that's the truth of the unity of the body of Christ, all one in him doing his will. There was a little group on this occasion. As you read over it, it seems hard to understand. He had manifested his love in saving so many, and I believe that prayer was answered when he prayed, Father, forgive me. For only days and weeks after that, thousands of people were saved. Likely many who stood at that cost. Three thousand Peter led to Christ two days after five thousand. And if you only knew all the people that were led to Christ, then the answer for that prayer. But someone else got his attention. It's a group of women and children. And if you want to read it, I'll read it to you. It's book twenty-three, twenty-seven. And there followed him a great company of people and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus, turning unto them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming, and the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the womb that never gave sight. and the paths which never they gave. Father, I'll reread that. Blessed are they from the barn, the womb that never bear, and the paths which never gave such. Then shall they begin to say to him, The mountains fall on us, and to the hills come on us. For if they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? Let's go on this. I thought this is amazing. All the people that were going there, of course, there was a little band of the faithful ones, but then there were also those men like bulls trying to devour the sheep, the few that trusted Christ. But here's a group, and they're in that crowd moving up to the place of execution. And the Lord notices them. And he doesn't say anything kind to them. He said, don't be weeping about me. You better weep for yourselves. For the days are going to come when you're going to cry for the rocks and the mountains to hide upon you, hide from you, and you'll suffer. For you'll cry to the mountains, but those granite monsters won't be quiet. He was talking about something that was going to happen fifty years from the time he said it. And that's when Titus, the Roman general, led his Roman army into Jerusalem and sacked it. And millions of Jews died. And the famine, on what the people suffered. And many of these women in this group, no doubt some of the children, lived to experience it. He said, don't you, women, Weep for me. Weep for yourselves, after your children, after those things that are coming on the earth. And fifty years later, that prophecy was fulfilled exactly. In other words, she's about to say, I don't want your settlement. You better weep for yourself for dark days ahead. Now, this is a remarkable thing. Blessed Jewish women wanted to have children. They felt it as disgrace as they didn't. Here, he said, the times are coming. Well, you'd better not have any children. You'd better be barren. That's the war. Because times are going to be so torrented, so fearful, so awesome. Many of them in that siege. boiled their own children to survive. It's strange, isn't it? The Lord Jesus who manifested so much love at the beginning, praying for his enemies, and also saving the thief. Now he turns, and he warns those women. You wouldn't think anything like that would be in his mind. Yes. There are two sides to God's character. And although we thank God for His mercy and His grace for His mercy floweth as a river, God does love. Don't forget, God is a just God. The cloud when the children of Israel went from Egypt and on the way in the wilderness to the promised land. The cloud was light to the children of Israel. It was darkness to the Egyptians. There you have God balanced. The Lord Jesus manifested the light on the cross when he prayed for his enemies. He manifested the light when he sang the feet. He manifested the darkness when he warned their women of the judgment that was going to come. Weep for yourselves. I don't want yourselves. I don't want your sympathy. I don't want your emotional thoughts of me. All I want through you, ladies, is to trust me, to believe on me, and love me. And that's what he wants from you today. We don't know what's into this world. We know not the future. Dark days are coming. But here's the Lord Jesus. And if they had seen the sunshine, now he sees the thunder. The peering of the wrath of God has yet sinned. Mary is a wonderful thing to talk about, Mary. She says, my spirit have rejoiced. in God my Savior. Mary needed a Savior, showing that she was a sinner, and she was. Rome would like us to believe that Mary was taken to heaven. Well, if she was secretly into heaven, it took them two thousand years to say that, to find out that. But like Moses, and God buried Moses, no other person, knew where his tomb was. Why not, God said, that children of Israel would set up a shrine. And God saw to it that no one knew where Mary was buried, or they'd set up a shrine and worship her. No, the Lord Jesus Christ makes it plain, and Mary herself said, My Spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior. Not thee, Savior. not a savior not our savior she says my savior you say that this morning my spirit has rejoiced in god my savior that's a wonderful thing now for all mary went through and if the lord jesus was the man of sorrows mary was the woman of sorrow No other woman has gone through what she did. Yet she rejoices. My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. Can you say that this morning? Not he is a Savior or he's our Savior. That's elusive. Can you say this morning he's my Savior? He's mine. I know. I know He's my Savior. He's put away all my sins. Christ is the only one for the hopeless. His rest for the weary. His balm for the bruised and bleeding. He is light for those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He is light. He is light. you can have light and light this morning the light of the glorious gospel of christ and you can have the life of jesus christ christ in you the hope of glory christ is in everyone who's born again that's the source of his power i trust you'll listen to the gospel this morning realize there's such a savior present one who loves you or he wouldn't have gone to that cross he loves you you say no one loves me yes i read the paper not too long ago a man who committed suicide and they found in his room no one loves me i suppose some of these students and young people who are committing suicide suicide That possibly is the reason why they committed suicide. They weren't sure someone really loved them. If they knew the Lord Jesus loved them, they would never deny it. The Lord Jesus loves you, and he longs to save you. I thought you'll come while the Spirit is called. Come to the Savior today. This may be your last invitation, so come, and no longer delay. Our Heavenly Father, we ask thy blessing upon thy holy word. We thank thee for it. Precious are the truths we derive from thy blessed holy word. telling us the things that are true, solid, satisfying. We do trust that those this morning who do not know Christ, who are not born again, will think about the coming days. The opportunity is now for them to be saved. They know not them all. So we trust that the views of the future They will accept the Savior and pass from death unto life in our Lord Jesus' precious name. Amen. Shall we sing in closing? Three hundred and sixty-five. Three hundred and sixty-five. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me. See on the portals he's waiting and watching. watching for you and for me, watching to see if you'll make a move, and come to Christ this morning, shall we say? I sing the last verse. Oh, for the wonderful love he has promised. Promise for you and for me. You're not a Christian or you're not sure you are and you need help. I'm glad have you come. One man phoned me this week, Friday morning, an engineer, and a fellow of us, and I got saved. I hope, friend, you have made me that simple. Lord, ye, I will trust thee, trust thee with my soul, guilty, lost, and helpless, thou canst make me whole. You have trusted him, or you have liked as he saved, come as we sing last.