We're turning to John's gospel, chapter 19, and commencing to read at verse 1. The gospel according to John, chapter 19, and starting at the first verse. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head. And they put on him a purple robe, and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote him with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again, and said unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man. When the chief priests, therefore, and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, take ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered him, we have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid. and went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. Therefore, he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him. But the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. And Pilate therefore heard that, saying, He brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the Passover and about the sixth hour, and he saith unto the Jews, behold your king. But they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him, Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led him away. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha, where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst." We end there at verse 18, and we know that God will once again follow with his own blessing the public reading of. We're turning again in our Bibles to John chapter 19, and as we open up, scriptures, we turn to God again in prayer and ask him for help as we minister the gospel this evening. Our Father, we thank thee for that voice of love and mercy. We bless thee that it sounds aloud from Calvary. And oh God, we thank thee for that cry which went up, it is finished. And Lord, we bless thee that there is no more sacrifice for sin. Because this man, after he'd offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. and we bless thee for a complete salvation. We thank thee for the work which is done already. And oh God, we bless thee that by faith we simply lay hold on eternal life and we rejoice that tonight sinners can reach out and be gloriously saved. Lord, we ask of thee to bless thy word. Give us an appetite for it. Warmer hearts. and set us, Lord, with a thrill on fire for Christ. And grant, O God, that thou make us missionaries of the cross, reaching out to others and bringing them under the sound of thy word and praying that they might be converted to Jesus Christ. Lord, hear our prayer. Answer prayer and do us good, we ask it in our savior's name. Amen. This passage of scripture displays before our eyes a wonderful picture, a picture which ought to be very deeply interesting to all those who profess to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ and who call themselves Christians. many of us tonight would call ourselves Christians. We go by that name, having put our trust in the Lord Jesus and become followers of him. And like every great historical picture, this passage here contains several aspects on which we ought to be able to fix our attention. and to look and to see what God has to say to us. There are three life-like portraits here, and I trust as we look at them, we will find them helpful, even for our souls, and be encouraged from the word of God. The first portrait in the picture here is that of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, the man of Calvary, the Lord from heaven. In the opening verses of this chapter, we see the savior of the world being scourged. We see him being crowned with a crown of thorns. We view him mocked by the mob. We see him smitten and rejected by his own people. We see him unjustly condemned by a judge who saw no fault in him. And three times over, this judge declared, I find no fault in him. And yet, delivers him to be crucified. You look at verse thirty-eight of the previous chapter and the last words of that verse, Pilate says, I find in him no fault at all. Look at verse four of chapter nineteen and again the last And again, the last words of the verse, I find no fault in him. So here we have the son of God, the righteous one, the sinless one, in whom there is no blame, being condemned to death, to be crucified, and to suffer yet here we have the one who is the eternal son of god we find in him innocence we find in him purity we find in him righteousness and holiness personified and in spite of the judge's pronouncement He is condemned, sentenced, and put to death. What an injustice. What a travesty of the courts. What a travesty of law. Surely, it has all come about in spite of Pilate's strenuous efforts to free the Lord Jesus. He did his best to set the Savior free. He didn't want to crucify him, but because of the pressure of the Jews, the priests and the scribes and the Pharisees, adding all their pressure, going against his better judgment, Pilate delivers him to be scourged, to be beaten, to have the crowns plaited upon his brow, and to be crucified, and to suffer excruciating pain." My, what a scene, what a picture we have of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the one who came into the world to save sinners, This is the one who after living a blameless life for 30 years. 30 years in the secrecy as it were of Nazareth. Away there in the backwoods of Israel. And then for three and a half further years, coming out into public ministry. Going about doing good. healing all manner of diseases, helping the poor, doing to what he could for men and women who came to him, healing them of all kinds of diseases. Surely the sun in the sky from the day it was created never set itself upon a more glorious sight than that of the Son of God, the holy, righteous, spotless Lamb of God as he walked this scene of time. And in spite of all that, he was sentenced to die. We admire the love of Christ. We fix our gaze on his love this evening, that love which Paul declares that passeth knowledge and we can see the very depths of that love in all its shining golden letters on the cross. For there it is displayed, God is love. For the Lord Jesus Christ in love laid down his life. For sinners like you and me, that we might be set free from the bondage of sin and that we might not perish but have everlasting life. There is no earthly love which can be compared to the love of Christ. And no standard on earth by which this love can be measured. It is a love that stands alone. It is a love that is beyond all humankind. Never let us forget when we ponder this scene of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was suffering for our sins. He was suffering for me. He was suffering for you. And let us never forget when we read these verses, when we read the Bible, when our gaze is turned to Calvary, that the Lord Jesus was enduring the cross for sinners. He was enduring the pain and the suffering for men and women, boys and girls, that they might be saved from sin, that the chains and the habits of sin might be broken, that men might be set free, that they might enter into the liberty of the children of God, that they might become children of God, not just for time, but for all eternity. He suffered the just one for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. He was wounded, as Isaiah tells us, for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities, and it's by his stripes that we are healed. We thank God for so great a savior, providing so great a salvation. Let us follow the example of his patience through this trial, through these sufferings and afflictions, and especially, let us see him on the cross, bearing shame and scoffing rude, In our place condemned he stood, sealed our pardon with his blood. Hallelujah. What a Savior. And you will learn by reading the story of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ that no one in this world has ever inflicted such pain and such agony on men and on the Lord Jesus Christ than religious leaders. It has been the same since the beginning of time that men who've become leaders of false religion, leaders of man-made religions, have always turned out to be the most prolific persecutors. to be the most cruel and the most hating of people because they can't tolerate truth and they can't tolerate righteousness and they cannot tolerate anything belonging to God Almighty. And my dear friends, it happened in the case of Christ. The high priests of the Jewish religion religion which had long since departed from God. Just like the New Testament religion. When the New Testament early church started off on fire for God. With the fires of evangelism burning in the hearts of everyone who came to know Christ. The churches ablaze with zeal for The church's love began to wax cold. Then at the event of Constantine in the early part of the fourth century, the church truly apostatized and began to develop into what we now know as the Church of Rome. And there grew gradually this great apostate system which today dominates a great part of the world and controls the thinking and the minds and the beliefs of so many. My dear friends, we know that how down through the years in our own beloved nation, even our own beloved province, and throughout the world, how this great religious regime has persecuted and put to death the martyrs for Christ. My dear friend, we see it in John's Gospel chapter 19, when the religious leaders of the day bade and cried and yelled for the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's only Son. What a scene, what a picture, what a portrait we have here of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We're told that when he was reviled, and that's what we find out in this chapter, he reviled not again, When he suffered, he threatened not, but he committed himself to him who judgeth righteously. And so, knowing that he was in the hand of his Father in heaven, and that Father in heaven judgeth righteously. And praise God, he's our judge tonight. and the judge of all the earth always judges righteously. He does right. Let us, therefore, arm ourselves, as it were, with the same mind of Christ. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. The one who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Let us therefore humble ourselves tonight under God's mighty hand, taking the sinner's place, acknowledging our need, crying out to God for mercy, asking him to come and redeem and save and deliver these lives and souls of ours to break the power of sin, to set us free from those chains which have bound us over the years, habits which we have formed in sin, which we could never break. Thank God, the Lord Jesus Christ breaks the power of canceled sin, and he sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood avails for you. my dear friend tonight, lay hold upon it by faith. Trust the Redeemer. Take him as your savior. Thank God he is able to save unto the uttermost. You read in verse five of this chapter, then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe and Pilate saith unto him, behold, the man. When Pilate uttered these words in verse five, little did he know how often these words would be used as a text for gospel preaching, for gospel sermonizing, in which the glorious message of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ would be presented to lost sinners. and the invitation given for those same lost sinners to come to Christ. Little did Pilate know that when he was uttering these words. You'll notice the one that we are to behold, the man. Notice it says, behold the man. Who was this man? This man was the savior of the world. This man was the redeemer of souls. This man was the man of Calvary. It can never be emphasized enough that salvation is found only in this man, only in Christ. Man kind has a spirit of self-sufficiency and believes that he's all right. and that in the end, everything will work out for him. And his own sense of self-sufficiency is deceiving him. And that's why he puts off salvation. That's why he declines the offer. That's why he says no continuously to the Lamb of God. because of his own spirit of self-sufficiency. My friend, I tell you tonight that there is no savior outside of this man. Behold the man. There is no salvation outside of him. There is no heaven apart from him. There is no other way. Jesus declared to Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And my dear friend, if you want to get to heaven, then Jesus is the only way. Will you acknowledge that tonight? Be honest. Oh, come out of the worldly woodwork this evening. Step out into the daylight of God's presence. Stand beneath the cross of Calvary. Look upon the crucified Savior bearing your sin there. Smite your breast as a guilty sinner and cry, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. And thank God he'll hear that cry, and you will be gloriously converted and saved from sin through him. Thank God for the man mentioned here. Many foolishly think that getting to heaven is a simple matter in the end of the day. And while the way is simple, yet men, and I'm thinking in this terms of simplicity in which they trifle with it, man is encouraged to have that notion by the influence of Satan and by the influence of the world. Satan is a deceiver of men. He is the blinder of men's eyes. He is the hardener of men's hearts. He is the one who puts up the barricades in the way. and everything that prevents you from coming, my friend, my the old devil will do his best to see that these preventatives continue to be successful. But I'm glad our Lord Jesus Christ has scattered every argument, has pulled down every barricade, and praise God tonight for seeking souls and anxious sinners. There's a clear way to the cross. And if you come, the Savior promises he'll not cast you out. Will you not come tonight and confess your sin? And if you want to get to heaven, remember all the debt of sin that's against you must be canceled out. It must be washed away. And your debt must be paid. Thank God Jesus paid it. He paid it all, and all to him I owe. My sin left its guilty stain, but his blood washes whiter than snow. We must, my dear friend, seek the Lord, else we'll never get past the all-consuming fire of the wrath of God. will never escape that. And my friend, if you miss Christ and God's salvation, then you will have to endure the wrath of God forevermore. As Christ stood before the crowd on this occasion here in verse five, he wore the purple robe that the soldiers had mockingly draped around his shoulders. and his head was adorned with a crown of thorns. The sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ at the hands of rough soldiers, these sufferings were but a prelude to his sufferings under the wrath of God on the cross. when God laid on him the iniquity of us all. When the earth became darkness, and the father in heaven turned his back upon his son, and when the son cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And in that hour of deepest agony, an agony which no man could ever plumb its depths, or we may guess at it, we may talk about it, we may try to describe it, but there is no language and no words adequate enough to describe the depths of the sufferings of the master. for none of the ransomed shall ever know how deep were those waters crossed, or how dark was the night that the Lord passed through, ere he found the sheep that was lost. My friends, tonight, the Lord Jesus Christ on that cruel cross suffered as the Father laid on him. the iniquity of his own. At the cross, Christ bore the sins of his people, and there he obtained eternal redemption for all who put their trust in him. Behold, it says here, behold the man. You see, salvation is obtained by faith. For by grace are ye saved through faith, the Bible tells us, not of works, lest any man should boast. Faith simply looks to Christ. Faith simply lays hold of Christ. That is what the thief on the cross did. Oh, he could have looked around him. He could have looked at the soldiers. He could have looked at the other thief. He could have looked at everything around him, but at that moment, as he was dying on that cross, he looked to Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ promised him paradise, instant heaven at his death. And before very long, that dying thief had passed this scene of time, and he was carried to heaven into the paradise of God. What happened to the other thief? The other thief didn't acknowledge his sin, and he died as he lived, in sin, in hardness, in wickedness, and he is lost. While one thief is in heaven, enjoying the presence of God, another is in hell, enduring the wrath of God. Tell me, my friend, where will your destiny be? Where are you headed? Is it to the mansions of glory, or is it to the caverns of the deep, where you'll be a lost soul forever and forever? Behold the man Now, we're not sure, we can just speculate, but it may be that Pilate spoke these words in jest, maybe in ridicule, maybe they were spoken as he despised the man, behold the man. And while I believe that all of those things could be true, is not Jesus Christ the despised Galilean? Is he not despised by the world? Despised by Pilate, knowing in his own heart that he was innocent and righteous and he found no fault in him. And yet because he despised the man before him and out of a despicable action, he handed him over to be crucified. And my dear friend, maybe that's what you're doing. in effect tonight by your rejection of the Lord Jesus. Are you despising him? And as such, like Pilate, handing him over afresh to be crucified, treading under your feet his precious blood, that great work of atonement which he wrought on the cross, despising all of his atoning, complete, and finished work of Calvary. My dear friend, you'll not despise that without a cost. Because if you keep on despising and rejecting such a redemptive work, be assured of this, you'll pay the consequences of your sin. That's why tonight we have the authority of God's Word in the gospel to invite you to come to Christ. Just as you are where you are, a poor, guilty, lost, and hell-deserving sinner, look to him. Faith looks to Christ. That is what, as I said, the thief and the cross did. And Peter told The crowd to whom he preached on the day of Pentecost, he said, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. So if you look and call upon the Lord, thank God you'll be saved. David's experience is the experience of all who look to Christ for salvation. Because in Psalm 34 he said, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him. and saved him out of all his troubles. Poor sinner, cry to God tonight. He'll hear you, and he'll lift you up out of that horrible pit. He'll save you from all your sin, and he'll give you his everlasting salvation. And my friend, thank God there is immediate and complete and everlasting salvation to be had right now through looking to Jesus Christ. Will you call upon him? Will you look to him? For there is life for Luke at the crucified one. There is life at this moment for you. Then Luke's sinner, look unto him who was nailed to the tree. Let us bow together in prayer. O God, our gracious heavenly Father, we thank thee for thy word once again, for the gospel of redeeming grace, for the Lord Jesus Christ who purchased that redemption for us on the cross, for all his sufferings and agonies there. Lord, we bless thee that he endured it all for us. O God, save sinners tonight. Bring them to Christ. O God, our Father, deal with their hearts. Make them uncomfortable in their sin. Bring conviction, Lord, that it be like a two-edged sword going through the body, the marrow, and the soul. and grant, O God, that they'll find no peace or relief until they have found Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.