Alright, grab your Bibles if you would. Let's stand. We're going to go to John, not Job, John chapter 19. John chapter 19 this morning. John 19 verse 23, it says, Then the soldiers, when they had 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 the top throughout. From the top down, not from the bottom up. Verse 24, then said therefore among themselves, I'll get it. Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, they parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister Mary the wife of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Now don't forget that's the same title that he spoke to the woman taken in adultery with. And I'm not saying that because to tell you Jesus Christ disrespected his mother. I'm saying that to point out to you that when religion overdoes Mary the mother of God thing, she wasn't the mother of God. She was the human mother of the Lord Jesus Christ who needed a savior just like the woman taking an adultery and all the rest of them. And the Lord made that point from the cross. He never exalted her above any other woman as far as into a religious realm like religion does. And while I'm at it, The perpetual virginity is a joke, according to the Bible, because Jesus Christ had brothers and sisters, the younger of which, at this point, would have been about 13, because Jesus Christ was the oldest, based on how many brothers and sisters he had, if you spaced them out appropriately, a couple years or whatever apart, a year apart, his youngest would have been about 13 or something like that, at this point. And he's pointing to the disciple whom he loved, John, who he was the closest to, and saying, take care of my mom. And obviously that tells you that her husband Joseph had already passed away. So when we say the Lord Jesus Christ was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, he understood what it was like to be at the graveside of Lazarus, not just Lazarus, but the man who raised him as an earthly father. He knew what it was like to watch his mother grieve over the man that she loved being gone early. Little stuff like that, if you're not careful, you'll miss when you read your Bible. Well, you gotta meditate on these things, give thyself wholly to them, pay attention, it's amazing stuff. Verse 27, Then said he to the disciple, Behold thy mother, and from that hour that disciple took her into his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. And there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon Hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. He bowed his head and gave up the ghost. The Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was a high day, besought Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers and break the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified with him. When they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true. And he knoweth that he saith true, that he might believe. For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, they shall look upon him whom they pierced. After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes about a hundred pound weight. So best we could tell Jesus Christ is about 200 pounds because I think the tradition of that day would be to take 50% of the weight of the body. And that was what they'd anoint the body with. So if he brought a hundred pound weight, good chance the Lord Jesus Christ is about 200 pounds. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. Oh, I'm sorry, verse 40. They took the body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes with the spices as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulcher, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus. Therefore, because of the Jews' preparation day, for the sepulcher was nigh at hand." Brother Doug Beamer, would you ask God to bless the preaching force? Thank you. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Picking up here in John 19 where we left off last week, we're getting Real close look at some of the details of what was taking place during the crucifixion and around the crucifixion. And if you're not careful, you'll read through this as though you already know the story. And what you'll miss is some amazing things that will help us grab a hold of who Jesus Christ really is. Help us understand what He is. Help us grasp a little bit better today what He did for us. I want to say this publicly, and I planned this in the introduction, but it's not planned out word for word. I want to say publicly that one of my desires in my life is to give Jesus Christ the proper place in my life. I got asking myself that question. What place does he have in my life? I want you to ask yourself that right now. I want you to think a little bit and examine yourself and ask the Holy Spirit of God. You can do that while you're sitting there. You can ask the Holy Spirit of God to show you where Jesus Christ ranks in your life priorities. What place does He have? You know the Christmas story and so many messages are preached with almost cliche titles, titles that become so commonplace. It's like Christmas time of the year, we go to church and we know what we're gonna expect, something like wise men still seek him. You know? Something like, no room in the inn, and is there no room in your heart for Jesus? And we're always talking about that little baby in a manger, but we showed you last week, that baby was born as a sacrifice, as a lamb, like a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so opened he not his mouth. You gotta realize that that means when they were beating him and scourging him to the point where the prophecies of the Old Testament said, I can tell, which means count, all my bones, right? You go to the bank and there's a teller. What do they do when you hand them the cash to deposit? Or when they hand you the cash, you're withdrawing? They count it. He said, I can tell all my bones. They beat him in such a way that many men would die from the beating. They put a crown of thorns on his head and struck it in. They set it on his head. When I say set, I mean, I'm talking like set it. You know what I'm saying? Those thorns would be about yea long on what they were making it from. They weave that thing in a round circle and braid it. And there's thorns coming out every direction. And when they set that thing on his head and smack it down with a reed, that means the thorns would run under the skin, hit the skull, and ricochet back out through the skin. Covered in blood. Covered. And the Bible says, As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so opened he not his mouth. There's none of this, I don't care what the TV shows you about your Savior, that ain't the Savior you got. He took it, he gritted his teeth and took that beating and didn't even make a noise. Think about that. While they're criticizing him, while they've got him in this kangaroo court that isn't even just, he doesn't say one thing about him. He says to Pilate, he that delivered me to thee has a greater sin. He's compassionate towards Pilate, and Pilate's lack of understanding of what he's doing. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. That thief hanging over next to him, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise. Your sin is killing me, but guess what? I forgive you now. I forgive you in the middle of my pain. I mean, to try to grasp the Lord Jesus Christ is more than my human mind can truly comprehend. That was my crown of thorns on His head. He didn't deserve that. So since He took my crown of thorns on His head, He deserves the throne room of my heart. That's His proper place. Those were my nails in his wrists. Silly little shallow-minded men who think they know more than God and the Bible will mock the nail prints in his hands because these religious people that are brainwashing you all the time, trying to get you in their building, trying to present the Jesus that you want to see, the Jesus that appeals to your feminine side, the long red hair and the clammy JFETH skin, He's a Jew. He had black hair. He had dark skin. He had black eyes. He was probably about 200 pounds. He was a carpenter. You understand that? Old school carpenter. Old school. That kind of like really hard work where they cut that stuff down after they cut down the logs and they trim that thing down by themselves by hand. No power saws. His hands would have been like leather. His feet would have been like leather, walking everywhere he goes, sleeping out under the stars with a rock for his pillow. I said it last week, I remind you again this week, if Jesus Christ walked in here this morning, there is not a person in this room that would go, there's the lovely Lord Jesus. He was not desired. He was despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Nothing about your human nature would go, wow, he's a good looking guy. Wow, he's so charismatic. Would you just look at him? If Paul walked in here, everybody would go, who is that crippled up, gnarly, nasty looking old man? If Elijah walked in here, you'd go, man, somebody needs to tell that joker to shower. Have you read your Bible and seen where he was living? The Jesus that's always being presented to us by religion is a false Jesus. It's not a biblically accurate picture of who Jesus Christ was. I want the biblically accurate picture. Hey, listen, I am born again. If I wasn't saved, I would want to know what that book says about my eternal soul, and I would judge my eternal soul only on one thing. What did God say? You can take your religion, put it in your pipe, and smoke it. There's all kinds of religion out there. All kinds of the dogmas of men. Give me what God said. But since I'm already saved and I know what God said, man, I'm telling you, I know Jesus Christ. Now, you know what I want? I want to get to know Him better. I want one day of my life each and every day. I want God Almighty to help me know his son and be less of me and more of him. I want less of Mike Reagan and more of Jesus Christ. I want to understand what that book says about the Lord. And that even boils down to the best I can tell what he looked like. What he weighed. The crown of thorns and what the scars must have looked like that he did for me. The nail prints in his hands. You want to know where those nails went? Well, that's the wrist. Not in the Bible. In the Bible, the hand starts with the bones of the hand, which is right here above the forearm bones. So biblically speaking, when it says his hands, that's part of the hand. You know where they put his nails through? Right there. And they put them through his feet. And he didn't say a word. You don't have time this morning, and I'd have to go back and look at it again and memorize it again. I purposefully didn't to explain to you the amount of excruciating pain a normal Roman crucifixion would put a man in. Excruciating. the nerve endings that run through the body and what they did and how they did it. The way hanging in the position the arms would be was putting strain and stress on the lungs and the diaphragm and making it very, very difficult, if almost impossible to breathe, feeling as though he's drowning. So almost like you're in water drowning while you're hanging with pain. You'd have to push up on your feet, catch a breath, and pull up. And the second you pushed up and pull up, where the nails were placed would send, pain all through the body to the spinal cord to the brain and shock the whole nervous system and just like getting stabbed again. Bam! Through the whole body. Just a drop again. Forget your television and read your Bible. Not a word. Being in agony. Pulling up with your back ripped open against rough wood and dropping again with splinters going into your back. He did that because he loves me. When I didn't love him, I didn't care about him. I think, I think, I think, I think a guy like that deserves a place in my life. What place does he deserve? I mean his nails. I think he deserves my hands. His crown, I think he deserves my mind. His feet, I think he deserves my way, the way that I go. His piercing in the side, I think he deserves my heart. I think he deserves to be my very best friend. I think he deserves to be my king. I think he deserves to be my life. There's a thing out there, especially years ago, which still exists to some extent. It's Lord of all or not Lord at all. That's garbage. What they're saying is if the Lord isn't Lord of your life, you're not saved. He's either the Lord of all or he's not Lord at all. Hogwash. According to that Bible, when you rightly divide it, You can be born again on your way to heaven with Jesus Christ living in your heart and you give him absolutely no place in your life Take my soul Jesus and start out right after you're saved because when you're genuinely saved most people experience some kind of a change and Then without too much time passing the world the flesh the devil the cares the concerns of life your own temptations drag you away from the one who really is He deserves everything. I'm not going to guilt trip you this morning. I don't want to try to pressure you into serving Jesus. I don't believe that's doctrinally sound. I don't believe that it's doctrinally accurate for me to say, listen, the Lord deserves everything and you better give it to Him because you owe Him. I'm not living in a debt. You understand that? Paul said, I'm a debtor both to the wise and the unwise. He's talking about preaching the gospel. I owe other men something. owe no man anything but to love one another. I'm not serving the Lord out of debt. I'm serving the Lord and I want you to serve the Lord out of a love for your Savior. Out of a reasonable service. I think we ought to want to serve Jesus Christ. I think we ought to want to walk with Him. I think we ought to want to give Him our heart. We ought to want to be more like Him. And God help me with my waner. What's a waner, preacher? I don't know. It's something in us. We all got it. Don't know where it is. I don't even think Doc over there can find it, but it's in you. I don't want to serve him. My goal this morning is to encourage you to give him his place in your life. A couple things that'll help us, I think, in wrapping our minds around this and recognizing, I think in a peaceful way, that's what I'm hoping, the blessing is to give him his place. I start preaching about giving him his place in your life. Your first reaction because of your flesh is sort of a negative thing. It's sort of like a, oh no, what's that gonna mean? Am I gonna have to sell my house and move to Haiti as a missionary? What's that gonna mean? Oh no, my money, my career, my, wait, wait, wait, wait, stop a second. Breathe in, in your nose deep, out your mouth. Giving the Lord his place in your life is not a bad thing. But for some reason, we always fight against it. I think there's a couple things here that will help you, I hope. In giving him his place, the first thing you gotta do is you gotta recognize his power. You gotta recognize his power. You know what the Lord has? He has power to clothe himself. Look at verse 23. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments. He allowed them to take his garments. He said, no man taketh my life from me. I lay it down to myself. You don't have power. Don't you know, we saw it last week, I believe. Don't you know that I have power to release thee? You have no power at all but that which is given you on high. And the only reason I'm here right now is because I chose to submit to the Father's will because I could call 12 legions of angels. I showed you last week how many billions of people that equates to that they could kill in 24 hours Based on one angel killing people for 24 hours in the Old Testament How many billions of people the whole world would have been? Obliterated by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ if he did just said all right father. I'm out another way You have no power you have no power at all we're gonna strip you naked and Humiliate you in front of the world only if I let you And you know what? Go ahead and cheer me, boy. Because I love you that much. Go ahead and cheer me. Now, ain't that something? Man, you know, you and I have a hard enough time loving people we actually love. Let alone an enemy. And he's got the power to control and restrain himself like that. Now, that's power. He's got power to clothe himself, not just physically, but clothe himself in purity. Look down at verse number 29. It says, Now there was a set vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and they put it upon hyssop 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. Now wait a second. When you look at the parallel passages, that's the second offering they gave him because first they gave him one mingled with gall. What they would do in that day is they would mingle it with alcohol. And what it was was just a little bit of a painkiller. They put it to their mouth. What they're doing is not having any mercy at all. What they're doing is trying to extend the life so that they can keep him alive so they can torture him longer. They had this thing perfected down to an absolute science of torturing them before they kill them. Stringing it out and enjoying the show, man. Soldier sitting there hammering some beers, gambling at his feet, laughing and mocking. Hey, hey, hey, hey, look, look, look, he's passing out. Give him something. Give him something to... You know what the Lord didn't do? He didn't touch that alcohol. Jesus Christ was a teetotaler boy. I don't care what the TV shows You're what some biblical midget tries to open his Bible and say see he turned the water into wine. You ain't studied enough That was not fermented wine. That was grape juice You got to study that that's a tricky Bible that Bible is tricky you want to lie you'll get it When you look at the Bible with a certain heart and a certain preconceived notion of certain mindset you can get anything out of that book and I said, you can get anything out of that book. Boy, men can make excuses for a wicked, adulterous lifestyle by grabbing a Bible and going back to the Old Testament and justifying it through polygamy. You better be careful when you approach the Bible. It's a two-edged sword. That book will save your life, save your soul from hell, change you, clean you up, and that book also will be used of the devil to deceive you into falsehood. You better be careful when it comes to this Bible. There's one that teaches you, and I'm gonna show you that tonight. You better make sure you're being taught by the right source when you open up this book. It's a holy book. Jesus Christ has the power to maintain His purity. You know what He did on the cross? He died, right? For the wages of sin is... Jesus Christ never sinned. Never. The reason, for as in Adam, all die. The reason everybody dies is because God is showing you, me, our kids, our grandkids, and everybody else looking that we're sinners. The wages of sin is death, for as in Adam, all die. You're born as a ticking time bomb, a date with death. It is appointed on the man wants to die. Why? Because you're a sinner, that's why. You've got a date with death. Jesus Christ died in your place. How did He die if He never sinned? And He didn't sin. He died with your sin on Him, with my sin on Him. but without any sin at all in Him. So now, you know what you live with? Once you're saved, you live with sin in you, but no sin on you. Do you follow that? And you know what the lost man, without Jesus Christ, who's never trusted that sacrifice as their Savior, you know what the lost man lives with? Sin in him and sin on him. He died in His purity. He died with his heart 100% right with Almighty God, while the sin of the whole world was put upon him at the exact same time. What a powerful Savior, the one that created the universe! Conquered sin, death, hell, and the grave. We'll see that soon. Because there was no sin in him, he was the spotless Lamb of God, the sacrifice for all of us. He's powerful, man. Here they are, they're watching Him heal the sick and raise the dead and quote Bible and be able at 12 years old to debate down the greatest minds of the day. All of them against one. Debate them down. That'd be like walking into a bunch of PhDs and sitting down with them while they got education in multiple languages and manuscript evidence and all the rest is garbage and at 12 being able to sit there and twist their minds all up so bad and smoke them so bad that you walk out of there and they're like, what in the world? The child prodigy, man. At 12, that's what he could do. And at the exact same time, he's got nowhere in his adult ministry to lay his head. A genius. Humanly speaking, a literal genius. And they're watching him. They're seeing him raise the dead. They're seeing him feed 5,000. They're seeing him work miracle, after miracle, after miracle. Walk on the water. Throw demons out of the demonic cadera that no man could tame. And he created the universe. And he's hanging on a cross, beaten, bloodied, abused, tortured, and letting them do it. Talking about the power of the universe. All he'd have to do is go, disband! And the whole thing, molecularly speaking, would explode like a nuclear explosion. Boom! It's all gone. I'm not just talking about the planet, I'm talking about the universe. Because the Bible says in Hebrews, he holds all things together by the word of his power. And the thing tells you in Revelation over at the end, which we don't have time to dive into this morning, but all the way at the end, after the tribulation, after the millennium, he's gonna blow it up. The third time he destroys it, it's not gonna be by water. He's destroyed it twice already. You don't have time this morning. This is an amazing book in your lap. He destroyed it once. He destroyed it a second time in Noah's flood. Both times were by water. The first time, Lucifer was ruling it before man was created, and he destroyed it. The second time was Noah's flood, Genesis chapter six. He does everything in threes. The third time, fire. The whole thing is gonna explode. You understand the power of the man hanging on that cross? You can't wrap your mind, I try, but I can't put it into words. I feel frustrated, I feel desperate sometimes. I'm like, God, you gotta just click this in people's minds and hearts by the power of your spirit because there's no way for me, a frail little human being, to even put this stuff into words. God, help him grasp it. The power of Jesus Christ. Hey, and there he is hanging on the cross because he loves you. Taking every shameful, disgusting, vile thing you've ever did, said, or thought. on himself, to appease the wrath of God against you. I'm going to show you tonight, my third point, or my second point, excuse me, tonight in the message is madness. I'm going to show you in the Bible that it's alright to get mad about the right things. New Bibles mess that thing up. It's not alright to lose your temper, it's not alright to act out wrong, but it's alright to be mad. You know what, you got a holy God in heaven that's angry with the wicked every day. He don't like sin. And that means he didn't like you and me, but he loved you enough to send his son to die for you. Do you get the balance? Do you understand that power? I mean, to have all that power and then have the character, have the piety to control it. Hey man, don't ever vote me in as King Jesus. Because I got a list. Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone. Evaporated, evaporated, evaporated. He never existed. He never existed. He never existed. I'm just kidding. But you get the point, right? To have all that power and be able to never use it for his own benefit, but to take care of yours. That's a God I think that I can give the proper place to. I think I can trust him with The number one place in my life. The piety of Jesus Christ. He says, I thirst on the cross in verse 28. But when you go and you look at all the Gospels and you line them up, He had seven sayings from the cross. The first one is forgiveness, a saying of forgiveness. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. The second one is a saying of salvation. The third one is a saying of affection. Right here, for his mom and the disciple that he loved, a saying of anguish in Matthew 27, a saying of suffering, a saying of victory, a saying of contentment. His heart, in his most horrifying moment, is pouring out nothing but genuine, real, tender love. good things coming out of him at a bad time. Have you guys seen what's coming out of the world in the coronavirus pandemic? Have you guys seen what's coming out of politics? Have you guys seen what's coming out of the news media? Again, I repeat myself like a broken record. I could care less if you're liberal or conservative. Get a heavenly perspective. You know what I am. Ain't a person that sits there for 45 minutes or an hour and listens to me preach one time that doesn't walk away going, I know where that guy would fall on all the issues. And if you ever do, I'm sorry, I need to sharpen my sword a little bit. You ain't going to misjudge me. And at the exact same time, you want to know something? I don't care. Because when you look at this world, when you look at the best this world has to offer, all you've got spewing out is anger and hatred and violence and all the garbage that just dirties your mind and frustrates your soul. It's going to get you nowhere. Hey, there's something greater to live for. Give him his place. Hey, it ought to be above the media and above stinking politics, God help us. I don't care if the greatest. Pence is our hope for 2024. Whatever. You know why? Whatever. I read my Bible, man. I know how this thing wraps up. I know the direction it's going. I've watched the direction. You could do the research on your own. It is so easy to see where we're going as a nation, where we're going as a culture. It doesn't matter who gets in the White House, man. I'm not worried about the White House. I'm worried about the new Jerusalem. I'm not living for the here and now. I'm living for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords when Jesus Christ reigns. And hey, God helped me to reach everybody I can. to encourage him, give him his place. Because he's your only hope. Boy, he deserves it. There will never be an abuse of power with a man that can live the perfect life with the ability to incinerate every enemy he's got and then lay down his life. Hey, listen, that's one thing for my wife or my little girls. I know they're getting older. Excuse me, young ladies. They're my little girls. That's one thing. That's one thing for you. You're a pretty good crew, man. That didn't come out right. You're a huge blessing. I love my church, man. I'm happy. You know, people say, how's the ministry, brother? I know it's rough being a pastor. Well, not for me. I got a good bunch of people that have been a blessing, man. But that's one thing. Boy, there's some guys the Lord say, hey, would you lay your life down for him? Lord, I've had thoughts of killing him, but never laying my life down for him. Boy, I got a lot of work to do, don't I? Boy, I got a lot of conforming to do, don't I? I got a lot of dying to myself to do, don't I? But man, I'll tell you this much, given Jesus Christ, His place in your life, and trying to spend your life aligning with His character and with His heart, man, you'll never, ever, ever go wrong. You can trust Him. He don't run around making campaign promises. I'm going to rule it with a rod of iron, and we're going to straighten the whole mess up. What are you going to do for us, Lord? Don't worry about it, I got it, okay? You know what he had the power to do? He had the power to clothe himself in purity. He had the power to clothe himself in piety. He had the power to clothe himself in parallel worlds. Excuse me preacher, what are you talking about? He was down here on this earth with clothes on, right? Clothing himself in purity and in piety. You know where he was at at the exact same time? Somewhere. You can't see above outer space, above that sea of glass that the Bible says is at the top of outer space. Pure, 100% zero, frozen water. You know what he's done? He closed himself. The Bible tells you, I wish we had time this morning, man, we just don't. The Bible tells you that God has himself clothed. God Almighty has himself clothed. You can't see him. He says, I dwell in thick darkness. You know what he did when sin came into this world? Originally, God had himself set up right here with the world. In the beginning, God created the heaven, Genesis 1.1. New Bibles change that to heavens. They mess it up, and they destroy doctrine all the way through your Bible. All the way through your Bible, you lose track of where Satan was. People think he's over there in Revelation 12, swiping his tail. They think that was the original fall. It's Milton's paradise lost, but that ain't Bible. They lose track of the whole book, it starts disintegrating, and you don't even get one verse into your Bible, and the devil starts attacking it. Yea, hath God said, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. God was dwelling in one with his creation. But when the devil tried to go up there and take God's throne, God smashed it, destroyed it, wiped it out, blocked it. We're gonna see it in Job on Wednesday night. Hitherto shall thy proud ways be stayed. He blocked it off with darkness. No man has seen God at any time. He's sitting up there above that thing Satan's coming up to his feet at the bottom of that sea of glass Satan has the outer outer space the principalities and powers rulers of the darkness of this world Satan's up there devils are up there. That's why man is so obsessed with getting out there Man always wants to go places. God said don't go You legalize marriage between a man and a woman and that will not be enough and because they always want to push the boundary, push the boundary, push, push the boundary, push, between a man and a woman, between a man and a man and a woman and a woman. They won't stop there. Man will always push every boundary God sets. It's in your nature to be a lawbreaker. So God said, all right, we're stopping it here. And now Lucifer's out there, wandering back and forth. Are aliens out there? I'm not a conspiracy guy. I don't preach all that stuff. I'm just telling you there's a reason people are obsessed with what's out there in the darkness. And there's more going on. They found life in outer space. So what? Pass the steak, honey. What do you think about UFOs? What do you think about devil possession? Go get me some of that keto ice cream out of the fridge. That stuff's been in the Bible. That stuff's ancient. Listen, man, God's got all that stuff under control. I'm not supposed to think on that stuff. I'm supposed to think on whatsoever. Things are pure and just and lovely like my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, with that power and that pure heart after he spoke and he made the stars also. That's how God explained to you what Jesus did with outer space. Are you joking? The less it pertains to you, the less He discussed it for you. Have you not noticed that in the Bible? Have you ever noticed that? The less it pertains to you, the less He tells you about it. How did God create the universe, the outer space, the galaxies? You understand the, it's insane. How'd He do it? He made the stars also. Their stars are still being created and the galaxies are expanding. Well, I mean, if that's true, I mean, really, I mean, I don't know how we even know. I mean, really. But if that's true, he said of the increase of his kingdom, of his peace, there'll be no end. Eternity future, you're floating around on a cloud with a harp. Are you kidding me, man? You want to be obsessed with outer space? You'll get there when God says you can go. He's got plans for you in eternity future. It's gonna be a riot folks. It's gonna be a blast But Christians nowadays don't ever think about heaven. They don't ever think about the future They don't ever think about the Lord Jesus Christ in the here and now they don't think nothing of after this little life You know you blink and it's over you're dead But a vapor vanishes away peers for a little time a little time your life's important to you because that's all you got Billions and billions and billions of people will have no idea that you lived and died and But there's one that knows all about you, knows every hair on your head, and cares about you, and loves you, and has goals for you, not only in the millennial kingdom, but on off into eternity future. He's got plans for you of pleasure, and the fullness of joy, and power, and excitement. It's not gonna be boring sitting around in heaven. It says death, that's what you are. If you don't think you're dying, watch the clock. That thing never goes backward. Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't it be great to get up and look in the mirror and go, wow, I look younger today. This is awesome. Never goes backward, does it? Your death. It says death shall be swallowed up of life. That's why you had to shower before you came to church, because you stink. And if you let it go too long, you stink real bad. And your clothes start stinking. And you got toe jam. And you sweat like a pig no matter what you do. You know what I'm saying? That's death. That's what that is. Your body's trying to get rid of toxins. I must be a very toxic person. I don't know. That wasn't said right. Whatever. Anyways. Eternity future. You see how real this is? If death is swallowed up of life, and he came that we might have life and have it more abundantly, Does that apply to here and now? Yes. It also applies to eternity. In other words, I think when we get to heaven and look back at this life, this life is going to appear to us like a bad dream. With one good memory, I trusted Jesus. That's how real it's going to be over there. You ever have a vivid dream? Real vivid and you wake up in the morning and you're like, I'm glad that wasn't true. That's what, that's how, How do I wrap my mind around that? I don't know. I'm just telling you what's in the book, and I'm letting the Holy Spirit click it for you. Because if He don't click it, it ain't gonna get done. We owe Him a place in our life. You know what they're doing as they sit at the cross and gamble over His garment? They parted my raiment among them, that was His clothing, and for my vesture, they did cast lots. You know what that vesture is? Well, in Hebrews 1 and in Psalm 102, that vesture is the universe. Was woven from the top throughout like the veil of a temple that was rain Was rent as though hands it was rent where from the top to the bottom. I Remember I'm telling me in Bible college that those the way they wove those things were so strong that you could put you could hook oxen Up on either side and pull and it wouldn't tear Like a rope, like a thick, heavy rope, the way they would weave that. I don't know how. That's just what they said, you know. That's Bible college. Grain of salt. But God rent that thing from the top to the bottom so that they would know that wasn't a trick of the disciples of Jesus Christ to rend the veil. He wanted you to know you can now walk right into the holy of holies and you can go straight to God Almighty as a priest yourself once Jesus Christ died for you You don't need me as your Pope interceding between you and God go to him yourself with your sin Go to him yourself for your relationship go to him yourself and get in that book go to him yourself and grow in him Follow him get a relationship with Jesus Christ. Give him his place Because he took your place Boy, you can trust him because of his power while they're sitting at his Feet cast in lots for his raiment. Not dividing it, not cutting it up in little pieces so that each of us can have our own part. He's fulfilling Psalm chapter 22. Hang on a second. Those guys aren't Jews that are gambling over his raiment. He says in the end, at the end of the millennium, he's gonna fold up the universe like a vesture. He's gonna flip the thing inside out. Take it off, fold it up, done with it. The whole universe. That's what the Bible prophesies about. Talks about it in the Old Testament, talks about it in the New Testament, what God's gonna do when He allows Himself to be exposed to the whole world, the great white throne judgment at the very end, and they're all standing there beholding God Almighty. What? That's Him! Boom, the universe, the heavens and earth, fled away and there he is, the whole world looking at him. Oh no. Unless you've given him his place now. Then you'll see him, he'll see him before the world sees him because you'll go be with him. It's a vesture. And they're sitting there and they're gambling at his feet for his vesture. But he's got so much power that while he's hanging on that cross, completely out of control of the situation, he's in full control of the situation. He said, the bulls of Bashan compassed me about. The dogs gnashed on them with their teeth. That's the Gentiles, the bulls of Bashan. You ever notice in all that occult stuff how they're obsessed with the goat head and bulls and all the rest of that junk? Their compass as the devil's every self-respecting demon or devil on the planet would have been right there at the foot of the cross at that moment They'd have been nothing else going on in the world for those guys. That would have been all that mattered And he's hanging on that cross and at the exact same time the Roman soldiers are fulfilling Psalm chapter 22 and Greek, Roman soldiers, you get it? The Greek culture and all that was going on in that day, what those guys were, we're not talking about Jews going, let's fulfill that Old Testament prophecy. You remember that Old Testament prophecy? It was the soldiers sitting there. Complete heathens. Nothing to do with the Old Testament Jewish religion. They owned the Jews, they conquered the Jews. Hey, carry my pack! Jesus said, if he tells you to do it for one mile, go with him two. Now he's the enemy, go with him too. I'm showing you a different spirit than what you're used to. I'm showing him something besides you, I'm showing you me. Go with him too. I hate him! If he asks you to carry it one mile, carry it two. You see why this stuff isn't preached much in your churches nowadays? This ain't palatable, this ain't gonna really blow the doors off the church. I don't like that message. That means I gotta be nice to my wife. It means I gotta be nicer to that old man. I'm sick of that with my husband. It means I gotta treat people at work that I can't stand better. Yeah, if you're gonna be like Jesus Christ, he did, that's power. That's power. Power to control yourself, power to control your urges, power to fulfill the word of God because God said it. So He's sitting here on the cross in verse 24, He's fulfilling prophecy. In verse number 36, it says, for these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, that's Psalm 34, He's fulfilling prophecy. You notice in verse number 30, He gave up the ghost. He didn't swoon. What are you talking about, swoon? You know they say Jesus swooned and then came back to life? The ones that are trying to write off the reality of what happened here? Oh, He swooned and came back to life. He gave up the ghost. When He was ready, nobody killed Him because He had never sinned. He laid it down as a sacrifice. Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. And He gave up the ghost. He chose to let it go so that He could die in Your place with Your sin on Him but no sin in Him. Nobody killed Jesus Christ. He laid it down of Himself. He laid himself on that altar like Isaac did for Abraham. You remember? You do the work on that thing, that old man was probably not young and strong enough to get that kid on the altar. That boy got on the altar on his own. If the math I've done is right, he was at an age where he could have resisted that thing. He laid down his life as a testimony, as a prophecy of what Jesus would do. Hey, I'm telling you, he's got the power to wipe the thing out. He laid it down. No one took it from him. They say, oh, you know, he swooned on the cross, and it was all a setup, and they were all, you're a stinking fool, man, you can't think clear. Them Roman soldiers would walk by that cross with about a two-foot rod, steel rod, and it was about an inch in diameter. And their job was to make sure those guys were dead. So they said, hey, you know, it's about time for the feast to come. We got to get them off the cross by a certain time. The Jews are making all these demands. And so the Roman soldier said, can we go break their legs? Yeah. So what they would do is they'd walk by that cross with that steel rod, a trained Roman soldier, a trained killer. And they'd take that rod and they'd smack that kneecap and they'd smack that shinbone. Now look, if you break your femur there's a lot of muscle around that right to help and that's a pretty bad deal. Some of you guys that have broken leg you know what I'm talking about. You know what they do? They shatter the shin bone. I've seen an MMA fighter swing one of those Muay Thai kicks and the guy blocked it and it snapped his shin bone, his foot flopped around the guy's leg like that and when he went back to put his foot down it just folded in half and he hit the mat. Can't even stand on it. So there was no more push. I'm not trying to just gross everybody out. I'm sorry, but I want you to grasp what they were doing to the Lord. And we do live in a modern day. This isn't way out there, stuff we see on our TV all the time, right? Our kids play the video games, blowing people's heads up and stuff. I hope your kids don't, but whatever. That's your business. They're going through there, and they're smashing the shin bones. So he can't push himself up anymore. If he tried to push himself up, his legs would just fold below the knee. He swooned. Oldsboy's job was to make sure you weren't playing possum. They'd pull him down off that cross, they'd lay him there. Now he didn't in this setting, but they would typically pull him down off the cross and lay him on the ground there and just sit over him and just wait for him to die and let him suffer it out. Tortured, beaten, just they made sure they were dead. You're a trained killer. You do this for fun. You're sitting there gambling with the boys while he's dying. Blood all over you, man. It means nothing to you. You're showing the boys how hardcore you are. And this is what you do for a living. You're trained. So when they got to Jesus Christ, they're like, he's already dead. And the one boy says, yeah, let's make sure. Whack! That spear right in there, runs that thing right up in, and blood and water comes out. 1 John 5, these three bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. These three bear witness in earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood. You know what God's done? His power, why you should give Him His place? Because He has a way of prodding your heart through His power. That's why I've said it multiple times already this service, I want God to click some things in your mind and your heart between you and Him, because He has a way of prodding your heart by His Holy Spirit that has nothing to do with me learning to be smooth and sales pitchy and close the deal and, you know, motivator, be the motivator, I gotta motivate, I'm like, whatever man. If I gotta play those kind of games, I serve an impotent God. I don't have to play those kind of games with you. I don't have to market you. God can speak to your heart through the power of His Spirit. While he's hanging on that cross, you remember they get him off the cross and they're gonna go bury him and you saw it in the story, Joseph of Arimathea comes and he wants to offer him his place. But do you remember the story when you compare the other passages that they came to Pilate and they said, hey, you remember that deceiver said that in three days he's gonna come up? His disciples are gonna come and try to deceive us further and they're gonna steal him out of that tomb. Which is a story that was propagated back then and spread and still is propagated today. But wait a minute. You know what Pilate said? Go make it as sure as you can. So they went over there to counter a lie, and they made it as sure as they could, and they posted Roman soldiers outside to make sure the Jews didn't come steal that body. So the swooning stuff doesn't make any sense, and the stealing the body out of the tomb doesn't make any sense at all, because they ensured that it wouldn't happen. You know why people don't believe? They just don't want to believe. Look. Zero faith. You ready? John James is here this morning. That took no faith at all. You know why? I'm looking at him. But if I'm on vacation and I call Rob and say, who is there? Or if I'm out of town preaching and I call my wife or my girls and say, who was there? And they say, John James was there. And I hear three or four more of you say, John James was there. Guess what? Now I have a reason and a good reason to put my faith in the fact that John James was there. You know why? Because there's multiple witnesses that said John James was there. You follow me? You know what you've done? You put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You've decided to do that. But you know, the Bible says he was seen of above 500 after his resurrection, which we'll get to at another time. I got faith in it. Sure, I wasn't there. But boy, when you look at the story and you run, boy, you run Islam, I gotta stop, it's already noon. You would not believe the argumentation, logically speaking, that shows you what you got your faith in is real. Do you know that they believe the Gospels? And they believe the Pentateuch. Come on, man. You mean God Almighty loves the world enough to have given him a witness that spreads the world? A Buddhist believes Jesus Christ was a good man. One of the main teachers. Every false religion out there confesses the name of Jesus Christ, just not by faith. But they know that this thing was real. And the whole thing was set up in such a way to prove the authenticity of what was going on, they said, make it sure as you can. But the more powerful thing than any of it, check this out. They went to Pilate and said, that deceiver said that in three days he was gonna, but you know what happened? In John chapter two, when Jesus Christ said, destroy this temple, which is the passage they're referring to, are you following me? You know what they did in John chapter two? They pretended they didn't understand what he was saying. Nowhere in the text does it ever show you that they did know the whole context shows you they played a mental game with him And they tried to pretend like they didn't get it and they know he just he just speaks so confusing We just don't get it hogwash You little liar after he was dead. You said remember what he said. He was talking about his resurrection. They knew it And can I say this? I maybe have spent too much time trying to intellectually persuade people of the solid argument that we have for our faith. I want to equip you with the ammunition and I want you to be persuaded here, but I maybe have spent too much time over the years with that. Because you want to know something? He's so powerful, you know when he's prodding your heart. So did the Jews and so did the Roman soldier that when you study the parallel passages at this point says surely this was the son of God So did pilot I wash my hands I'll not be guilty of the blood of this just man so did pilots wife who wasn't even there But her heart was being prodded. Hey, I suffered a dream because of him don't have nothing to do with him, honey You're gonna wreck us get out of there and get yourself into a mess, honey. I The prodding of his spirit. You ought to give him his place in your life because you know what his place is. And you know how much he loves you. And you know what he showed you. And you know what he wants to do for you. Which brings me to the conclusion. Look at the place Joseph of Arimathea chose. In the place where he was crucified, the place was near the cross. There was a garden. And in the garden, a new sepulcher. wherein was never man yet laid." You know where the place was that He chose? It was a place near the cross. Did you ever notice that the death, that where He was crucified, there was a garden? You know what people are still trying to do? They're trying to turn cemeteries into gardens. You ever notice that? And I'm not saying you shouldn't. I was driving this week, and I looked over, and I saw probably a late middle-aged or early elderly couple get out of the car, and they were over there at the tomb, and they were putting flowers on it. And I saw them together, and man, I felt sick to my stomach. And I have no idea how they do or don't feel, but they cared enough to go out there with fresh flowers, and right around the Christmas season, and they're visiting a gravesite. And I just thought, man, that's... And my mind started wondering, I wonder if it was their kid, I wonder if it was their parent, I wonder if it was... I don't know. But you know where your Savior died? A place where there was a garden. You know where a man fell into sin? In a garden. You know why? They didn't give him his proper place. That's why. It was a place near the cross, but it was also a place near the heart of Joseph. Joseph of Arimathea because when you look at Matthew 27 it says he went into Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. When you look at Mark 15 it says he went into Pilate and craved the body of Jesus. When you look at Luke 23 and John 19 it says he went into Pilate and he begged and then he besought the body of Jesus. You know what I like about this? Joseph of Arimathea a lot of us can relate to. because he was a secret disciple. In other words, he was a rich man, it says, and he was a little bit nervous about giving the Lord his proper place. He struggled a little bit with being as bold as he should be. He struggled a little bit with being the witness that he should be. He had a lot going on in this world and a lot going for him in this world, and so for him, it was kind of hard to be Peter, Does that encourage you? You know why? Because in spite of the fact that he wasn't all that he should be like you and me, he still gave the Lord his place and it was actually his place, it was his tomb that he gave. that the body of Jesus Christ could be laid in and the stone rolled away and Easter Sunday all around the world for centuries now, we've talked about that tomb. You know whose tomb that was? It was Joseph of Arimathea's tomb. The disciple that wasn't quite what he should be. So you know what the Lord does? He takes away all of our excuses. Well, I'm not that bold. Well, I'm not that much of a Christian. Well, I wish I was better. You know what Joseph of Arimathea did? He did what he could. He did it the best way he could do it. And he made it into the inspired word of God forever as the man who gave Jesus Christ his personal place. You know what the Lord wants from you and me this morning? He ain't after your money. He ain't after all the rest of the stuff that you get all panicked about. You know what he wants? His place in your heart. You know what he deserves? His place in your heart. Let's stand to our feet, if you would, please, with your heads bowed and your eyes closed.