Back to sermon search
RW

Willey, RobertStudies In The Gospel Of John 47 ~ Golgotha's Brow

Download audio

Full transcript

Now shall we open our Bibles please to the nineteenth chapter of John and we'll try and pick up the story in John where we left it last Sunday morning. We have been speaking on John for quite a long time here. That's whenever I've been speaking here on Sunday morning. We're going to read from John nineteen and verse seventeen. John nineteen and verse seventeen. Our subject this morning is Gal-Gatha. And he, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Gal-Gatha, where they crucified him, and two other with him on either side, one and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross, and the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This title then read many of the Jews, for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city, and it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin. Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write, write not the King of the Jews. but that he said, I am king of the Jews. Pilate answered, what I have written. I have written. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garment and made four parts to every soldier apart, and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. The Scripture which says, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture did they cast lots. These things, therefore, the soldiers did. Now they stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then said he to the disciple, Behold thy mother, and from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. After this Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now therefore, now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled the sponge with vinegar, and put it upon his hip, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished, and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. May God bless the reading of that sacred portion. from his holy word. Shall we pray? Blessed God our Father, we bow in holy reverence before thee this morning as we contemplate this scripture we have read, the story of the crucifixion of thy beloved Son. We pray, Lord, that as we approach this subject, we might approach it in reverence with subdued heart, to listen to thy words. We ask thee, Lord, that the Holy Spirit of God may work in every heart here this morning, speaker and hearer, to pray, Lord, that we might learn lessons this morning, and we might see things this morning we have never seen before as we gaze upon the sufferings of thy beloved Son on our account. So we seek thy blessings. and ask that they might come to thee and to thy name eternal glory from this morning meeting. We ask it in his precious and worthy name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Golgotha. It says in verse seventeen, and he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull. which is called in the Hebrew Gal-Gotha. The place of a skull. This term the place is used right through the crucifixion story. In Luke chapter twenty-seven and verse thirty-three it says, And when they were come to the place, there they crucified it. When they were come to the place, there they crucified it. If we turn back in our minds and turn back in our Bibles, if you will, way, way back to the first book in the Bible, Genesis chapter twenty-two, you'll find this term, this word mentioned several times, the place. God had called Abraham to take his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loved, and to offer him up in a sacrifice, as a sacrifice to God. He told him to take the... Well, he told him to go to a place. He said, Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah. Now, this is nearly two thousand years before the Lord Jesus was crucified at the place called Golgotha. But it is an amazing type of what took place on that occasion. And it says Abraham rose up early in the morning. And he took his two young men, two of his young men, and Isaac his son, and he claved the wood for the burnt offering. And he rose up and went, and here you get the term, he went to the place, unto the place which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham looked it up his eyes and he saw the place of Pharaoh. I remember when I was in traveling once from Bethlehem to Jerusalem in the land of Israel. We were about halfway between Bethlehem and Jerusalem and you come up a kind of a hill on the main road there and you go over the brow of the hill and you see Jerusalem in the distance. And right up there on the left-hand side on a little hillside, there is a marble seat put there, long marble seat. And it was put there by the wife of Homan Hunt, the man who painted that wonderful picture, the light of the world. And on this, written along the front of the seat are these words, and they saw the place of Pharaoh. And they saw the place of Pharaoh. And truly, coming up from the south, towards Jerusalem, that's when you get the first glimpse of the city of Jerusalem. They saw the place of Pharaoh, and it says, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place of Pharaoh. And I would say this, get down through the countless ages of eternity. God, the Father in heaven, looked on, and he saw the place of Pharaoh. He saw God, a way, way back. in the countless ages of eternity, he saw the place of Pharaoh. And when in Psalm forty it says, Of God, Son, lo, I come to do thy will, he saw the place of Pharaoh. So that's what he came for. He came from heaven to go to that place. Verse nine of chapter twenty-two of Genesis says, Well, let's read a little more before that. On the way, he left the two young men behind. He said, I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again. And this is the first time we get the word worship in the Bible. You know what worship means? It means giving all to God. That's what it means. He called it worship when he was going to sacrifice his son. I and the lad will go and worship and will come again. And on the way, Isaac said to his father, my father, he said, Here am I, my son. He said, Behold, the fire and the wood. But where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb. Now, there are two ways of reading this. You can read it that God himself will provide a lamb. But I like to read it this way. God will provide himself as the lamb. For it was God himself, God the Son, who became the Lamb of God. God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And they went both of them together. Verse nine, And they came to the place. They came to the place, which God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, he said, Here am I. He said, Lay not thy hand upon the lad. Neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place, he called that place Jehovah Jarrah, as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. And it was nearly two thousand years that it was seen. Abraham looked. The Lord Jesus said of Abraham, he saw my day. He rejoiced to see my day. Abraham looked on by faith and he saw the day of the Son of God. Did he see Calvary? I don't know. He saw that place afar off. And here he says, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. And he said, Jehovah Jireh, that's what he called that day. Years passed by. David is on the throne. And David had reigned five years over Judah. And then Israel, that's the ten kingdoms, ten tribes. There were two tribes, Judah and two tribes in the south and the ten tribes in the north. And they had rebelled. But they came to David and they said, now we want you to reign over us. They were following Saul. Saul was killed. And they came to David and it tells us in II Samuel chapter five, if I could put my finger on that, II Samuel chapter five, that they came to David and said, now you, they are king. He says in verse four, David was thirty years old when he began to reign. He reigned forty years. He reigned in He reigned over Judah seven years and six months. I said five. Seven years and six months. And in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-seven years over all Israel and Judah. Thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah. And the king and his men went to Jerusalem. That's the place. That's the place that we're talking about. They saw the place afar off. And the key in his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusite, the inhabitants of the land which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither, thinking David cannot come in hither. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, the same as the city of David. Now, the Jebusite... They played tricks on Joshua, and Joshua never conquered them, and down through all the years they were in the fortress there, the fortress of the Jebusite, and no one could get into them. Now there was a secret entrance into that fort, and I have seen it with my own eyes. There was a secret entrance into that fort. And David said in verse eight, it said, David said on that day, because he longed to get this fortress that he might have that city to build his own palace there and build his, make that the center of his kingdom, Jerusalem, the Mount Zion, the place we're talking about. David said on that day, whosoever get it up to the gutter and smite it to Jebusite and the lame and the blind that are hated of David's soul, he should be chief and captain. Therefore they said the blind and the lame shall not come into the house. These Jebusites were so sure that their fortress was so strong, they said, David, he's a great captain, but even the blind and the lame can keep him up. You never get in. Even a blind man can keep him up. Now the only way in was through a subterranean stairway. And the only way to get to this stairway was through a huge gray, big, pool, water. And David found out this secret passage into Jerusalem, into the fort of the Jebusite. And he said, now whoever can climb that gutter, calls it a gutter, who can climb that stairway, I'll make him the captain of my host, I'll make him my commander-in-chief. And it was Joab that did it. Now I tell you what he had to do, because I've been there and I've seen it. Later on, years after, King Hezekiel built... of conjured, he built a tunnel from this great pool down through to bring water into the city. It came out of the Pool of Salaam. From the Virgin's Pool up there to the Pool of Siloam, he built a tunnel. And they built this way, this way, this way, until they met in the middle. And I'd been through this tunnel, and you can see the space where they had to make a little jarvel. They didn't quite hit it there to make a little jarvel. And as you go through, you You juggle a bit to get through. You can only go in there by night because the women washed their clothes in the pool of Siloam, and we stir up mud by going through, and we were not allowed, but nighttime we went down. Oh, I think I don't know how many of us, twenty, thirty of us went at night, about nine o'clock at night, each with a candle in our hand because there's no light, no electricity, with the water up to our waist. We waded through this tunnel. From the pool of Salon, we went through, came to this juggle halfway, and went on and on until we get to the Virgin's Pool at the other end. And then on our left side, there was a stairway, steps up. And that was the way into the fortress of the Jebusay. But by this time, we'd reached the pool. And the pool was deep. And sometimes when they have floods and rains, the whole thing is flooded. And Joab had to dive down into that pool and find the stairway and climb up, and he's the one that got in and took the fortress of the Jebusite. That was the place. Let me read you a little more about it. In the first book of Kings, first book of Kings, and chapter eight, Solomon built a temple, and he built it there in Jerusalem. And this is what Solomon said. Verse twenty-nine of chapter eight of first Kings. That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, and towards this place, the place of which thou hadst stayed, my name should be there. That thou mayest hearten unto the prayer which thy servant should make toward this place. And so this term the place went right through. Now, the Lord Jesus was not crucified actually in the city of Jerusalem. It was outside. But it was on the same spur, the same ridge there, the place which God had talked about all down through these centuries. God's eye had been looking to that one place, which we sometimes call the center of two eternity, which looked with raptor-doring eyes, backward and on to be. The place. How can you find that place today? The Roman Catholic Church. There are three great religions that dictate. I know how much they dictate today. Now the Jews are back. But there are three great religions out there in Jerusalem. Of course there is the Jewish religion. And there is the Roman Catholic religion. And there is the Coptic Church. Eastern Coptic Church. They all have their feast days. They have them on different days so they don't quarrel with one another. And they all claim the sacred sites. But the Roman Catholics have found a spot which they say is the place where the Lord was crucified. I could prove you from the scripture it cannot be the place. I've been there. I could prove to you it cannot be the place. But they build a church over it. They call it the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. And they show you in there the spot where they say the Lord was crucified. But it had to be outside the city, and this is not outside the city. However, there is a hill outside the city of Jerusalem, a hill which answers in every detail to the description in the scripture of the place where the Lord Jesus was crucified.A way back in General Gordon, a British general, often called Chinese Gordon, because he spent some fourteen years in China, a Christian gentleman, he was spending a vacation in the city of Jerusalem, and he walked around the city wall. Now, I have done this. I've walked around the city wall of Jerusalem. And on the northern side, as the sun was shining down there in the midday, and he looked across, there was a little hill across the other side, not far away, And as he looked at it, it took the shape of a human skull. The two eye sockets and the nose and the mouth. There it was, a gray human skull. The formation of the rocks on this hill was, it looked like a human skull. And Gordon looked at it in amazement because it says, Now the place he then bearing this cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull, the place of a skull. General Gordon was so amazed about this that he went over and examined the site and he found nearby a house in which a Greek was living. And he went to the Greek and he said to him, if I paid you enough money, would you let me excavate the back of your house down in your garden? This house was down underneath this hill. If I give you a money, could I, and he wanted two thousand English pounds, and General Gordon sent home to his Christian friends, they sent the money, and he excavated in the garden of this Greek. He was looking for the tomb. He was looking for the tomb, because it says, nigh to the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in it there was a new sepulchre in which the Lord was made. And Gordon went down about twenty feet. and he found a flat pavement there, and he excavated and excavated, he found an entrance into a cave, and he found a tomb. I have been in that tomb. I've sang up from the grave he arose in that tomb, and I had the great honor and privilege. On Easter Sunday morning, of preaching the sunrise, the Easter sunrise service, right outside the entrance to that tomb with seven hundred people in the garden. And what a thrill it was. Now, who can say, is that the exact place where Christ was crucified? I can't say, but I can say this. It answers to the description of the Bible in every detail. In every detail. No one is allowed to go up onto the top of that mountain. It's not a mountain. We talk about Mount Calvary. Calvary is not a mountain. It's just a little hill, you know. But the amazing thing to me is that if this is the thing, the amazing thing to me is how God has preserved it for two thousand years. Nobody ever thought of it being, Calvary. But you know, on the top of that hill is a Muslim cemetery. and no Christian can go into a Muslim cemetery. If the Roman Catholic Church thought that was the place, they'd want to build a great big church over it. They can't get in. It's a Muslim cemetery, and they can't get in. And God left it just like that. Now, I had a wonderful friend in Jerusalem. He's in heaven now, but he was a wonderful man, and he knew everybody in Jerusalem. And when he led us and took us on a guided tour He was our guide. He knew the caretaker in this Malkin's cemetery. And we did what few of you visitors to Palestine had ever done. You've been there, and you've seen Golgotha, and you've seen the place of Golgotha, but you've never been on the top that I had. And I remember, and I have a picture in my house here now of us walking up this hill. And I can see the picture. He bearing his cross as he went up that hillside. I remember kneeling on the top of that hill, a lot of us, a number of us, all Christians. And with the tears running down our cheeks, we knelt down on the ground and thanked the Lord for allowing us the privilege of kneeling there on the ground that was once stained by his precious blood, a place called Calvin, the place of a skull. He, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is in the Hebrew Golgotha, where they crucified. He went forth. The Lord was not crucified in the city of Jerusalem. He was crucified outside. I'll prove it to you from the Bible. Hebrews chapter thirteen. Hebrews chapter thirteen and verse twelve. Wherefore, well let's read back verse eleven. For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. The bodies of those beasts that are brought into the sanctuary for sacrifice are burned without the camp. And I remember so well when our brother Brown from South Africa was here and had his tabernacle here, how much he emphasized the fact and he had the fire burning away outside the tabernacle. Outside of the tabernacle. Because the sacrifice was burned outside the camp. And it says this. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered where? He suffered without the gate, without the gate. I'll never forget going through Damascus gate and crossing away across the road. And someone said, there's Calvary, and the amazing thing to me, how near it was. And the British trucks at wartime, and the army trucks were going to and fro, and I thought to myself, Is it nothing to you or ye that pass by? To me it was amazing to look upon Skull Hill. Nobody took any notice. And today they built a bus station right under the bottom of it. When I was there, there was a field. I took a picture of it at the end of a field. Today is a bus station and industry and commerce going on all the time. And there's Skull Hill, which the Lord has still preserved. I think when the Lord comes back, it will be a monument. I don't know, but I think He then, bearing his cross, went forth, went forth out through the city gate, outside the city, where they crucified him and two other with him on either side, one in Jesus in the midst. Isaiah said he was numbered with a transgressor. Oh, we can't really linger over the awful, painful, terrible, tragic moments, and yet we must think about it. As we were saying last year, the Son of God, all that night had been dragged about from one judgment to the other. They'd scourged his back until it was a bleeding pulp. They'd put a crown of thorns with thorns two inches long and beat him on the head with a raid and bang them into his brow. And they'd punched his face. It says they hit him with their hand. Not only the people at Caiaphas Judgment Hall, but the Roman soldiers, those love fellows, they hit him with their hands. And Isaiah fifty-two tells us that his face was, his visage was more marred than any man. That's how they treated the Son of God. After all his kindness, after all he'd done, after coming down here to show them and tell people about God, they rejected him. And their whole purpose and their reason for their ejection was that he said, I'm the Son of God. And the Jews wouldn't have that. They said, oh no. Anybody that says he's the Son of God must be put to death. And he said he was a king and they mocked him and they put a crown of thorns upon his brow. And then they walked around in front of him, grimaces before him and mocked him. And what do you think? They spat in his face. The son of God, the Roman soldier, spat in his face. We went over this last week, and then Pilate brought him out, and he said, Behold, your king. There's your king. Look at him. Bleeding, scourged, crowned with thorns, the filthy spittle from the mouth of man running down his face. Behold your king. It didn't look like a king then. but he was the eternal Son of God, the King of Glory, who's going to reign throughout the universe in a quickly coming day. And they took him to the place called Calvary. He bore his cross. Now, in the other Gospels, it says they forced a man called Simon of Sardinia. They forced him to carry his cross for him. The obvious thing is, we would say, the obvious thing was that the weight of the cross was, after all that terrible night, was too much for the Lord, and he fell beneath it. But here it says he bore his cross. How far he bore it, I don't know. A cross was a hairy thing. You think of a piece of wood some nine feet long, and the cross arm about six feet or more long. What that weight? and they put that awful load upon his bleeding sore wounded back and he went forth to the place called Calvary. When they got there they threw the cross on the ground and then they threw him on top of it with that sore, awful painful back and they nailed him. They gave him vinegar to drink to deaden and dullify the pain but he refused it because he went there To bear that pain, that's why he came from heaven to bear the sin of the world. And they nailed his precious hands and his feet to the cross. Then they lifted that cross and dropped it into the ground and all the weight of his bodies hanging on these terrible sores in his hands and his feet. And the Son of God was crucified. Pilot had written a title. It says they must have written that title before. It seems as if Pilate wrote it with his own hand. But, of course, he didn't nail it to the cross, so perhaps he didn't write it. It says Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. Maybe that Pilate nailed it to the cross before they put the cross on the Lord's back, I don't know. But Pilot wrote a title and put it on the cross, but the very fact he gave the orders, of course he'd be putting it on the cross. And the title was, the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This title then read many of the Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city, and it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin. When I was in Israel, you can call it, we just call it Palestine in those days. When I was there thirty years ago, I was always impressed with the fact that every notice, if you ever, the name of a street, it was written in English and Hebrew and Arabic, three languages. Every notice, every sign board, if there's a sign telling you what to do and instruction, always written in three languages. And when the Lord Jesus hung upon the cross, They wrote his title in three languages, Hebrew and Greek and Latin. Hebrew, the Jewish religious language, Latin, the Roman, the language of the Roman armies and of Rome, and Greek, the language of the intellectuals and the people of learning. So they all could read, and there's no mistake, Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews. Now all the writers of the Gospel don't put all this title. Let me read you a wonderful note in, if you've got your Schofield Bible and look at chapter twenty seven about this title they put on the cross, there's a very good note. yes at the bottom of page ten hundred and forty two and it says these accounts that's mark fifteen Luke twenty three and John nineteen these accounts supplement but do not contradict each other no one of the evangelists quotes the quotes the entire inscription All have King of the Jews. Luke adds to this the further words, This is the King of the Jews. Matthew quotes the name Jesus. This is Jesus, King of the Jews. Whilst John gives the additional word Nazareth. So they all wrote, and really what they wrote, bore, agreed with the theme of their gospel. Each one wrote, of course, Matthew wrote about the king, and Mark wrote about the servant, and Luke wrote about the servant, about the man, and John wrote about the son of God. And John said, this was the title, Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews. Of course, there was some argument. They went back to Pilate and said, don't put that up there. Put down that he said, not that he was king of the Jews. but that he said he was king of the Jews. And Pilate said, I'd like to read the Greek, O.T. Agrappa, agrappa, what I have written, I have written. It's written there, and he wouldn't change it. And there's the title, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. Then the soldiers, when they crucified Jesus, took his garments. Here's another remarkable thing. S Psalm twenty-two, which is a wonderful description of what happened that terrible day. Psalm twenty-two, the Lord's speaking there, a thousand years before it took place. How wonderful, how true, how accurate is the Word of God, the Bible is perfect. A thousand years before, he says the very words which he used on the cross, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And down in the verse, say verse fifteen, my strength is dried up like a potcher, my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. Here is the Here we get the feelings of the Lord Jesus as he suffered. The feelings of the Lord Jesus. I heard a man say once, in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, we get the types of the sufferings of Christ. In the prophets, we get the prophecies concerning the sufferings of Christ. In the Gospels, we get the glorious story of the sufferings of Christ. In the Acts of the Apostle, we get the fruit of the sufferings of Christ. In the Revelation, we get the eternal results of the sufferings of Christ. But in the Psalms, we get the feelings of Christ as he suffers. The feeling, he says, My strength is dried up like a potchered. My tongue cleavage to my jaws. Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. Dogs have compassed me. You think of these Roman soldiers. Dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. What an accurate description of crucifixion, which hadn't been invented when this was written. Thousand years before Christ died, it wasn't invented this awful method of execution. But it's written, how accurate is the Bible? How perfectly accurate and correct is the Bible. I may tell all my bones. They look and stare at me. Because his body was hanging on his hands and his bones protruded. I may tell all my bones. Now look at this. Verse eighteen. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. And it says, The soldiers, when they crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts to every soldier apart, and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from top throughout. They said, therefore, among themselves, let us not lend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Everything that was written about him was fulfilled to the very last detail. Let's go a step further down. Of course, he was on the cross six hours, and it tells us in the other Gospels it doesn't hear. It says that they mocked him. The soldiers that had so cruelly nailed into the cross. They mocked him. And they said, now, King of the Jews, save yourself and come down. The Jews passing by. You saved others. Save yourself. And they made fun of him as he hung in agonies untold upon the bat cross. I had a wonderful thought came yesterday, I was reading about this, and Pilate, he wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, and the two malefactors dying by his side. One mocked at him and laughed, and he said, save yourself and save us, if you're the King of the Jews. But the other malefactor, he saw King of the Jews, and he struck him. A king has got a kingdom. He said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And the Lord said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. And who can tell the wonders of God's grace and mercy? Who can tell that the very words that Pilate wrote were the means of bringing a man to Christ. Can he make it up? I can. How God works for his glory. The very words that Pilate wrote, the King of the Jews, made him appeal to him as a king, and he got to heaven, the dying thief. Then there's the story, of course, of the mother. He saw his mother suffering there. When he was a little tiny baby, and they took him up to the temple, the old Simeon, he said, are swords of pierced thy side also. Little did she know what it meant, but here she's suffering and realizing that as she saw her son suffer, the sword pierced her side also. And the Lord gave his mother to John and John to his mother and he says from that hour he took it to his own home. I suppose he took her home then and came back later because later on he says I saw and bear record I know what took place. I was there. He saw it all the way through. Now one more thing, two more things that we must say. Jesus knowing verse twenty eight that all things were now accomplished that the scripture might be fulfilled said I thirst everything that was written about the Son of God and his suffering had been fulfilled but one item and that one item was that in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink that hadn't been fulfilled and so the Lord whose tongue was cleaving to his mouth because of the thirst. He said, I thirst. And it says, the soldier came. There was a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon his hip, and put it to his mouth. So all the scripture was fulfilled, everything. What does he say now? It's all fulfilled, it's all complete. When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, It is him. Everything that was written of him was finished. And he bowed his head, and he gave up the goats. Golgotha. Golgotha, the place of a skull. It's in the skull we have the human brain. And here we see what the human brain or the intellect... can do the intellect of man with all his intelligence, with all his universities, and all his wisdom and knowledge, what can he do? Crucify the Son of God. He will not have this man to reign over us and cast him out. And that's what the world's doing today. They have no room for him. Christ is outside of all the learning and the universities and all the wisdom of this world today. He's outside of our governments, He's outside, can I say? He's outside of your heart, friend, today I wonder. Is he outside? The Lord Jesus died upon the cross with you, and when he said, it is finished, salvation's work was done. Everything that the throne of God demanded on account of your sin and mine was borne by the Lord Jesus. In those three long hours of darkness he was made sinned, and the wrath of God that should fall on me in the lake of fire for all eternity because I'm a sinner. It fell upon God's beloved Son as he hung upon the cross. And he became my substitute and bore my sin in his own body on the tree. And I'm free and I'm saved because he died for me. And I'll spend eternity in heaven, not in hell. But in order to be sure of going to heaven, I have to make a choice. I have to choose. The dying thief turned, one laughed at him and he went to hell. The other one said, Lord, remember me and he went to hell. And this morning as we close our meeting, some of you can say, Lord, I don't believe all this stuff. I don't believe it. I've got no room for it. I've no room for thee, Son of God. Others can say, Lord, Jesus, I bow at the foot of that cross. And I believe that when you endured all that agony and pain, you endured it for me. I bore my sins in thine own body on the tree, and I accept thee as my Savior. Now, ought we to sing just two verses of when I survey the wondrous cross. It'll be number one hundred and twenty-two, I believe. One hundred and twenty-one, when I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Lord of glory died. My riches gain I count with loss, and poor contempt on all my pride. We'll sing just the first and last verses. Oh, though we must sing the third verse, see from his head, one, three, and four. When I survey the Lord Oh, glory God, my wages came, I am the Lord. and for conscience out of my mouth. Third verse, see from his head his hands. from his head, his heart with me. Sorrow and love from his mouth. There is such love and a strong longing, I comes come close to me. As we sing the last verse, may I suggest we make a little change there. It says, We're the whole realm of nature, mine, that we're an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my heart, my life, my all. Should we change the word demand and say, Shall have? Love so amazing, so divine, shall have. My heart, my life, my all. These are the closing moments of our meeting. As you say these words, you can give your life to the Lord Jesus. Whether you've been a Christian many years or whether you've never known Christ as Savior, now as we close our meeting, you can yield to him. The last verse. For the whole earth of nature. That was an offering of juice more. Love so amazing should give us Shall have my heart, my life, my love. Blessed God, our Father as we close this meeting, we thank you for bringing before the vision of our souls the picture of the sufferings of my beloved Son. We say with the Apostle Paul, Jesus Christ who loved me and gave himself for me. We say again with Paul, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We vow at thy feet, Lord Jesus, and we thank thee. We thank thee thy sufferings are over, and thou in the glory of heaven now. and are soon to come back as King of Kings and Lord of Lords to rule and reign supreme. But, O Lord, this is still the hour of our rejection, and we want to go outside the camp with thee. Give us the grace and the courage this morning to say, Love so amazing, so divine, shall have my heart, my life, my all. We pray there might be eternal fruit as a result of our meditation this morning. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you. so so Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. And then I will give out a page of the book of the book of the book of the day. And I had a lot of hope that the people that came for us to receive money from God. Because so, if you have my father in your heart, this is what he meant for us, then I am in the hands of the Lord. We shall have faith. There's a lot of people who are in the middle of the middle of the middle of the world. Well, if you're going to look at the picture, you're going to look at the picture with everybody, you're going to look at the picture. You're going to look at the picture. You're going to look at the picture. That is right now. I think you're going to have a good time. You're going to have a good time. You're going to have a good time. You're going to have a good time. You're going to have a good time. You're going to have a good time. They're definitely at the table, right? Now, they don't mind a very, very well-represented group of people. So they think you can't run into the state. They're going to run into the state. They're going to run into the state. They're going to run through the state. They're going to run through the state. Oh, is it in your heart? Who is your heart? Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.