Thank you. Greetings, friends. In John's Gospel, in chapter nineteen and verse one and two, we read some very astounding, astonishing words. The Lord had been apprehended and brought before Pilate, and the choice had been made by the people. when they cried out all again, the whole multitude, composed of representatives likely of every nation under the heavens. They all cried out, they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas, and now Barabbas was a robber. Then we read in the beginning of John's Gospel chapter nineteen, Then, then, when they'd all cried out against them, the whole multitude was against pilot releasing the Lord Jesus. They were in unison. Once there was a consensus among them, a unanimity of opinion and decision, not this man but Barabbas. This is indicative, friends, of what the Lord Jesus suffered physically on the cross. His suffering was twofold at least. It was physical suffering, and it was also spiritual. moral suffering, because man heaped all his hatred and ignominy upon the Lord Jesus, and at the same time God took our sins, yours and mine, and laid them on the Lord Jesus. And Peter could then write in his epistle, Who, His own self, bear our sins in His own body on the tree? that we being dead to sin should live under righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed. Oh, my friends, this is salvation. But the bodily suffering of the Lord was a natural physical suffering. The fact that he became our sin-bearer had no sins of his own, but bear the sins of all the world from Adam down to the last man or woman to be born into the world. That was God's side of the cross. The Lord Jesus himself became a willing, an obedient sacrifice, a living sacrifice. The sacrifices on Jewish altars in the past were animals, clean animals, animals that were perfect, without blemish, without spot, and they were killed, they were slain, and then put on the fire. They weren't put on the fire of the altar alive. Their blood was shed, and their blood was sprinkled. But the Lord Jesus was put on the cross alive. And we read in the first verse of the Nineteenth chapter, Then, Pilate, after all of this, the rejection of the Savior, then, at that time, in that verb of time, then, Pilate, therefore, took Jesus and scourged him. Scourged him. He had him beaten with the Roman lash. He had his body, his bare back, to be lashed with the Roman lash, with its bits of bone and metal in the tails of that lash. and some record that there were nine lashes to it, so there would be nine bits of bone or metal at the tips of those lashes, to take away the flesh of the bare back that was stretched top, so that there was no wrinkles in it at all, and so that the metal and the lashes would be sure to take away the flesh. And here, Pilate, consigns the Lord Jesus, orders him to be scourged. This was most outrageous. And in the Psalms, the hundred and twenty-fifth Psalm, and the third verse of the hundred and twenty-fifth Psalm, we read what the Psalmist wrote in connection with this suffering of the Lord Jesus. He had sufferings of his own, undoubtedly, the psalmist, whoever wrote that psalm. But they were prophetic of the Lord Jesus himself. The hundred and twenty-ninth Psalm, and verse three says, Well, it's all about the afflictions of the Lord Jesus. Verses one, two, and three. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say. This is two of Israel, but it is also two of their Messiah, the one who came and died on the cross. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me. Yes. Israel still exists today, and the world has tried to exterminate them, but they are still here with us, and they always will be, and they will soon be the top and not the bottom. Yet they have not prevailed against me. No. Now, verse three, the plowers plowed upon my back. They made long their furrows. They plowed upon my back. So that the Lord Jesus' back was made like a plowed field. The lashes had taken their flesh from up his back. They plowed upon my back. They've made long their furrows. just like a plowed field. My friend, this is some of the physical sufferings of the Lord Jesus when he undertook your cause and mine to make a way of redemption for us, to give his own body a living sacrifice, and to shed his own precious blood. It was precious because it was not tainted with sin, because he was born of the Virgin. He was without sin, the only one on this earth that was ever without sin. He was born without sin, and he gave his life a ransom on the cross for you and for me. But it's some of the physical sufferings that we're looking at in these special broadcasts now continuing. plowed upon my back, they made long their pharaohs. And then they had taken the Palestinian thorn, and they had woven it into the shape of a crown, and they had placed it upon his head, and then with their rods and their reeds, they had smitten them on the head to drive those thorns bound down into his blessed brow. My friends, the sufferings of the Lord Jesus on the cross just for you and me. They platted in verse two of nineteenth chapter John and the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, notice, and put it on his head and they put on him a purple robe. Yeah? This is a robe of mockery. It has understood that this is an old discarded robe. It is a kingly robe, but it worn out one. One that was soiled, one that was discarded, no longer used. But he said, He's a king, therefore we'll put a crown on him. But oh, my friends, they didn't know that that's what that crown of thorns signified. Way back in the Garden of Eden when Adam sinned. And it was expelled from the garden in Eden. Then we read that God cursed not Adam, nor his posterity, but he cursed the ground for Adam's sake. And he said, Henceforth, it shall bring forth thorns and thistles, those that hurt the individual who comes in contact with them. Thorns and thistles. They are indicia of the curse. that sin brought into this world. And here they take the thorns in Disha of the Curse, and they platt them together, and make a crown of thorns, and they put it upon his head. Oh, my friends, undoubtedly in ignorance, they didn't know that this crown was in Disha of the very curse that was upon... the ground for the sake of Adam and all his posterity born in sin, and the individuals who put the crown upon him of thorns undoubtedly did not understand the true significance of the thorns. But friends, we know now that put a purple robe on him because he said he was a king, we'll give him a robe. But it is a robe of mockery. Oh, my friends, The awful heart of man is here exposed. The heart that God says is deceitful above everything, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Jeremiah says this. Who can know it? I, the Lord, I search the heart. I try the reins. Back when the Samuel the prophet wrote in First Samuel, it said that man looketh on the outward appearance. God looketh on the heart. My friends, he looks in your heart today. He looks in mine. What does he find? You know what he finds, and I know what he finds, because we can't hide ourselves from ourselves. We have a conscience. God has given us something that we call a conscience, and it will not let us rest. It will condemn us. It will condemn us in our own souls. when we've done wrong. My friends, the Lord Jesus suffered and bled and died. Endured, cruel, mocking, hatred, scorn. Endured it for you and me. This is some of his physical suffering, not to mention his moral spiritual suffering when your sins and mine were laid upon him. Oh, friend, have you ever thanked him that he suffered and bled and died? for your sins, for your sake, for you, that you might be cleansed and redeemed by precious blood and in heaven for all eternity. Father, thank me for thy precious work. The Lord Jesus suffered agonies untold, but he suffered it that we, guilty sinners, might not suffer throughout a lost eternity. O our Father, grant that many will turn and trust us, Savior, today, knowing that he died for them upon Calvary's rugged, sinful, cruel tree. Bless our President and all of our country, our nation, our government. Help it to be stable. Help it to be righteous, Lord. And grant that the nation will be a blessing to other nations. We pray in the precious name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.