The story of Christ before Pilate. Verse 24, When Pilate saw that he couldn't appeal nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, washed his hands before the multitudes, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to it. Then answered all the people and said his blood be on us and on our children. They released him, but that was unto them. And it scourged Jesus. He delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers, and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe, when they had plaited a crown of thorns. So they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand. They bowed the knee before him, mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. They spit upon him, and smote him on the head. And after they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him. And God shall stamp with his own divine approval this from the infallible book, for his name's sake. Amen. Gracious Father, we thank thee for thy blessed Word, the Word of the living God. We bless thee that it liveth and abideth forever. And we pray that tonight, as the Word of God is preached, that there shall be indeed signs following the preaching of the Word. O God, we pray that Thou wouldst visit us with Thy salvation and give us perfect liberty. May souls tonight close in with Thyself, kneel at the cross, be washed in the blood of the Lamb, and be saved for all eternity. Help the Lord in the preaching of the Word. And to this end I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost, to throw me to the uttermost. I take, thank God He undertakes. And the people of God say, I want to speak this evening upon a very solemn and upon a very heart-searching subject. I'm speaking upon the crown of Verse 29 of the 27th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew. And when they had planted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head. And when they had planted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head. Just before we step over the threshold of Pilate's judgment hall, and we step into the common hall where the centurion band of soldiers are gathered, I would like you to remember the person who has been sat about, crying with arms, lashed with a scourge, stripped of his garments, and made a battle by the soldiers. I'd like you to remember that this is none other than the Son of God. And God bless them. Oh, let us remember that the one who was put to shame on that dark night of man's deepest sin, in that dark night of man's most diabolical cruelty, was none other than God's dear son. Then I want you to remember, secondly, the power of that person who was put to shame on that day. He was the one who knew all things by the word of his power. He was the one who stretched out the heavens above us and the depths beneath us to make the world feel nothing. By his word all things were made, and without him was not anything made that was made. And by him do all things consist, are all together. That one had omnipotent power in his arm. He could have split the pavement of that judgment hall and damned every one of those men who attacked Him, who scourged Him, who spat upon Him, and who mocked Him. Never forget the power of the One that was crowned with thorns. And yet although He was God incarnate in the flesh, the muscle of his human arm, the rest of all the omnipotence and might of the Godhead. Yet for your sake, being reviled, he reviled not them, and being persecuted, he suffered it. Now there are some things about the crown of thorns that I want to draw your attention I want to talk about seven things that are related and are characteristic of the crown of thorns. I want to talk first of all of the material of the crown. It was a crown of thorns. If I just want to talk with Saviour, I've planted some straw and knit it into a crown and placed it upon His brow. But no, it's not a crown of straw. It is a crown of heart. We're going to talk upon the material of the crown. And then I want to talk secondly upon the making of the crown. Lay pleasant a crown of thorns. And I want to consider with you for a moment or two the making of that chaplet of sorrow that was placed upon the pleasant, sensitive brow of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And then I want to speak about the misery of the crown. The agony that that crown inflicted upon the body of Jesus Christ. But the greater agony that that crown inflicted upon the human soul of God's incarnate in the flesh. We want to consider the misery of that cross. Then I want you to look with me at the mockery of the cross and how those cruel soldiers mocked our Lord as they crowned Him with thorns. And I want you to understand just exactly what crowning Jesus with thorns really meant, and what was the black, diabolical purpose of those men as they crowned my figure with thorns. We want to consider the mockery of the cross. And then, of course, that crown has a meaning, a deep meaning, a biblical meaning, a gospel meaning. And we want to discover the meaning of the crown. And you know, when we start looking into the Bible to find the meaning of that crown of thorns, we'll be led from meaning to mystery. and will be standing in the holiest of all and will be considering something, my friend, about the mystery of the sufferings of Jesus Christ upon the cross. And then finally, I want, by a will of application, to bring what I believe is the message of that crown of thorns to you and to me this evening. So we're going to look then first at the material of the crown. It is a crown of fire. I'd like to remind you that when God created this world, it was a far north world and it was a world without a fire. The seed of the farm was not created by God but the creation. Thorns and pittles resulted from the fall. They were the direct result of man's sin and the curse of God resting upon creation because of man's sin. If you turn over with me to Genesis chapter 3 and verse 17, you will find that this is so. When God created this world, technical world without a fire, without a thistle, and without a flood, but the man fell God said to him, Thorns also, verse 18 of Genesis 3, Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. Thou shalt eat the herb of the field. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." You know, people come to me and they say to me, Mr. Gibley, why does God do this? Why does God do that? I want to tell you, friend, God doesn't do it. It's the result of man's sin that brings these sorrows and these heartaches and these headaches. that some people would like to blame God for what's the result of their own sinning and of their own depravity. The harms of this world are the result of sin. The tragedies of this world are the result of sin. The catastrophes and calamities that this old world is shaken with are the result of sin. Every war originates with sin. All death originates with sin. All sickness is related to sin. If there had been no sin, there would have been no death. If there had been no sin, there would have been no sickness. If there had been no sin, there would have been no wars, bloodshed, or calamity. These things are the result of sin. You know, in Palestine, there are twenty-five kinds of thorns. It speaks to us of the universality of the curse. It's not very hard to find a thorn. You don't need to go far to find sin. It's in every heart. And this chaplet is pressed upon the brow of my loving Savior in pious judgment hall on that dark night was the insignia of all. Spoke of sin! It reminds me that he who know no sin was buried sin for me! And they crowned him with the insignia of the fall for he must wear the chief of sinners in substitution for my sin and for my guilt. The material of the crown, it is the crown of thorns. Secondly, we have the making of the crown. I want you to notice that it says they acted. This was not the work of an individual. This was the united work of the whole centurion band. They planted a crown of thorns. Every one of them is equally guilty. They all partook of this sin and of this crime. And my friend, there's not a man or woman in this meeting that's not guilty of the same sin of crowning Jesus Christ with thorns and refusing Him as their own and personal Savior. Everyone here is guilty because you're my sins, my cruel sins, as chief tormentors were. Each of my hands became an eel, and unbelief disappeared. Ah yes, my friend, they plaited a crown of thorns. You could not possibly plait a crown of thorns without drawing blood from your own fingers. It would be impossible to take that long eastern thorn branch and plant it until it stayed together to be placed upon the Saviour's mouth as a crown to crown Christ in the matter of cruel coronation. It would be impossible to do that without drawing blood from your own finger. And therefore the blood of Jesus Christ touched the Lord's thighs. The blood of man already stained them. It was a bloodstained crown, stained with man's corrupt, sinful blood that was laid upon the head of Jesus. This is the most suggestive thing for us. What does it mean? It means, my friend, that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is mingled with the blood of sinners. It means this, that Christ's blood, praise God, covers the blood of sinners. The blood is the life. Man's life was first of all upon that crown. It was on that crown in condemnation, but over man's blood there now flows the blood of Jesus. And the life of Jesus is stronger and more powerful than all the sin that flows in the veins of sinners. And praise God, there's life in the Savior's blood. Just perfect in me because of sin, taking away my guilt, pardoning my evil past, and making me fit to stand in God's presence forevermore. They put a crown upon me. Is that what you've been doing? Plotting a crown of thorns for Jesus in time. Well, let me tell you, you know what you're doing? You're making a bed of bars for your soul to lie down in for all eternity. The person that's plotting a crown of thorns and putting it on the head of Jesus in time is weaving a bed of bars, a forest of thorns. in which he'll dwell in agony for all eternity, the making of the crown. I want you to notice something. I want you to notice the misery of the crown. And I see that rough, cruel, hard-mouthed, hard-hearted soldier, and he takes that crown in his hand, And they have placed Jesus upon an old chair, representative of a throne. And they have put around his shoulder a royal robe as it were. And then he goes up and he takes that crown of thorns and he puts it upon the brows of Jesus. And all along the eastern thorns pierce down into Christ's temple. And that's not sufficient to satisfy the cruelty of the corrupt, depraved hearts of those men. So they take a reed in their hand and they beat that crown of thorns onto his head. I see that reed, look at it. I see it all upon the crown of Jesus. And those thorns are gripping him to the very hilt. And from every thorn there flows a crimson river of the Savior's blood. He's looking at man through a veil of his own precious blood. The most sensitive part of the human body is the temple. And Jesus Christ bled on that day. The agony of torture that no human lips could describe as they drew the thorns into his brow. Here we have human suffering unparalleled. Here we have human suffering indescribable. Here we have the depths of torture into which the human body can replenish all the agony, all the pains, all the misery of Jesus Christ, crowned with thorns. But that misery, friend, is something that we can at least understand and picture to you. But there's a misery that no human heart can understand. Jesus Christ was God. He was born to be King. As He sat in Pilate's judgment hall, He looked upon those men and He admitted them. They were His creatures. He was the blessed Creator. and in Pilate's judgment hall for the spectacle, the creature crowning the Creator was born. They should have crowned Him with diadems of brilliant beauty. They should have placed upon His brow the sparkling arrow of honor and of glory. but instead they crowned him with thorns. How did God feel that day? God the Son, as he saw his creatures, he should have been crowning him with bad ends of honor, instead crowning him with thorns. His heart was broken. His heart was overwhelmed with them. His heart was plunged into agony's unmentionable and unmovable fission mind, fission measurement. God's dear Son, enduring in Israel, of the crown of thorns, outmade to unstended. Help me, dear Lord, to take at Him, for none for Thee, all alone, to bear away my sin, the misery of the crown. And then, of course, that crown was put upon Him to mock Him. That chair was in my body all alone. That robe was a mockery of the coronation robe. That proud crown was a mockery of a crown of diamonds or of rubies. What did the do it for that did it? To mock Him. To pile the knee below Him. And to rise up and to spit upon Him. To spill the blood. making all the blood of God incorrect, running down its face, and there he is, crowned with thorns. Oh, that you could see him, my lovely Lord, crowned with thorns. You know, they crowned him with thorns because they were pitying at his claim. You see, Jesus claimed to be king, and they said, we'll show them what we think of his claims to kingly dignity and kingly power. We'll crown him not with pyredams, but with thorns. We'll not put a chaplet of glory around his brow, but we'll put a chaplet of shame and dishonor upon his temple. And when they crowned him with thorns, they repudiated his claims to be king. Have you thus mocked my Savior too? Have you repudiated his claims to be king of your life? Thank God for every soul who can say of Jesus, King of my life, I crown thee now. shall the glory be, lest I forget thy form compound. Lead me to Calvary." But I know there's man and woman in this meeting, and have crowned Christ with thorns by repudiating His clemency. They have said, No, I'll not let Jesus rule over me. I'll not have Him as my Savior. And of course, this was not only a repudiation of his claims, but this was a ridiculing of his character. They were there to ridicule the Christ. What ridicule of Jesus is he, you see? In the stripping, he vastly stripped him of his garments. He despised the shame. And then having bared his back, they took his wrists and tied them together. And then they laid him over the scourging pool until his back lay bare to the scourge. Then they took up flesh, that flesh that was interplanted in the lumps of lead, so that every time it fell, it just ripped the flesh and laid on a stream of blood. And I see that scourge come down! I'm unsensitive! tender, pure body of my Lord. No one could suffer like Jesus Christ. Our bodies are coarsened and hardened by sin, but his was a sinless body. No one could suffer like Jesus. And they laid open his back, And we have, friends, this stripping, and we have this scourging, and then we have this spitting. When they had him crowned with thorns, they went up and spat upon him. A hundred spittles, a hundred licks, and a hundred soldiers making up the centurion band. and saliva of evil men filled with the blood of God incarnate on the face of Jesus. And not content to strip him, and not content to scourge him, and not content to spit upon him, they take their hands and pull the hairs from off his cheeks. and plucked off his beard until his whole face was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of man. I want you to see him as they ridiculed his character. My friend, you've done the same. You've ridiculed him, blessed Lord, by refusing his offer of mercy. He has stretched out his nail-pierced hand to you, and you have pushed it aside. You have taken the brazen hand of the world, and the brazen hand of your sin, and the brazen hand of the lusts of the flesh, instead of the tender, sweet, nail-printed hand of Jesus. Oh, you have ridiculed his character. How can you do it, see, ridiculing the character of my blessed Lord? and then rejected his compassion. You know, as they looked into the face of Jesus, and they had to look him in the face as they spat upon him, his eye was tender and it was filled with love. There wasn't a flash in the eye of judgment. There wasn't a flash in that eye of resentment. There wasn't a flash in that eye of justice. It was all tender love. As they spat upon him, he was weeping for them. As they really killed him, he was praying for them. As they said about God, his heart was overflowing. with pining love and grace. And I brought them to the cross and laid them down on the old tree. And I hear the hammers swung low. They are nailing my Lord to the tree. The first prayer that he offered was not for his own suffering, was not for his own shame. was not for his own agony, but he was praying for those that crucified him. Father, forgive them. They know now what they did in Pilate's judgment hall. They mocked him, for they rejected his compassion. Are you a mocker of Jesus? O mocker of Christ in this meeting, praise God my Saviour loves you too. You have mocked Him for years. You have chosen the world in its sin, instead of God's path to heaven. You have taken the blessed breath that He has given to you, and instead of praising God with the breath He has given you, you have cursed Him to His feet. O mocker of Jesus, let me tell you that he loves you still. Though you have sinned, there is mercy and pardon, pardon for you and for me. And last of all in that mocking, there was the refusing of his commandments, the repudiating of his claims, the recurring of his character. the rejecting of his compassion and the refusing of his commandments. They knew that he was a king. They knew his teachings. The prophet of Nazareth was well known in Palestine. His teachings were recorded from mouth to mouth and gossiped and talked about through the land. And they knew who he was. The miracles he did, the quillings he made, and the commandments he got. Yet yonder, in spite of judgment on him, they were refusing his commandments. Jesus says to you tonight, sinner, you must be born again. Are you refusing his commandments? You trampling under feet the Son of God and putting Him to anointing shame. What's the meaning of the cross? You know those thorns, they speak to me of three things. The Bible tells me of the good seed that fell among thorns. And afterwards we read the thorns speak of the world. So those thorns speak of the world. And then over in the book of Numbers, I read that the nations that Israel refused to drive out at God's commandment, God said, I'll leave them quickly with you to be thorns in your side. And all during the history of Israel to the present day, these nations have been formed in the sight of Israel. We've had a five-day war in the Middle East, and the same nations, the Ishmaelites, have still been formed in the sight of Israel, and they will be until Jesus comes. Those nations were described as thorns, they're a type of the flesh. The Spirit lusted against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit, and these two are contrary, the one to the other. And then, of course, those thorns speak to me of the devil. It was the devil tempted Eve that seduced our first parents, that brought in the curse. And from the curse, what did there come? There came the thorns and the thistles. that grows so abundantly in every land on the face of the earth. There's not a plant that doesn't produce thorns. There are thorns everywhere. It's a universal curse. The world, the flesh, and the devil. And Jesus Christ is Christ. What does it mean? In the old days in the arena, the victor always wore a crown. And as he wrestled in the arena, he wore the crown. When the victor was overthrown, the man who won the victory took the crown up his head, and he put it in his own hand. And he walked out of the arena as a champion. And for years the world, the flesh and the dead, all were great champions. They were champions over mankind! people in hell with their temptations and fascinations and strangulations. But blessed be God, Jesus Christ came, and he defeated the world, he defeated the flesh, and he defeated the devil. And praise God, they crowned him immaculate. But little did they know they were crowning him as a victor over the world, the flesh, and the devil. That's the meaning of the cross. And of course, as we consider that meeting, we see its great mystery. You know, that crown of thorns is the fulfillment of one of the most precious prophecies in the word of God. If you turn over with me to Genesis chapter 22 in your Bibles, in this chapter we have the last altar that Abraham ever built. If you want to read the life story of Abraham, you can mark the milestones in his pilgrimage with altars. But the last altar old Abraham ever built was in Mount Moriah. That's the Mount Calvary, the very same place where Jesus died. I believe in the very spot where Jesus was offered. One day, Abraham and Isaac climbed that hill, the Mount Moriah. That's where Calvary is. And you will remember that Abraham put Isaac upon an altar. And you will remember that God said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here am I, chapter 22, 11. And he said, lay not thy hand upon the lad. neither do thou anything upon him. For now I know that thy fear is God, seeing thou hast 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 by his horn. That word thicket in the original Hebrew is a thicket of thorn. And here was a ram, and it was caught by the horn in a thicket. It was crowned with thorns. And Abraham took that ram with the thorn still sticking in its brow. And he took Isaac off the altar, and he put the ram on the altar. And because the ram was there, Isaac lived, and the ram died. Blissful, glorious type of substitution. I was upon the altar. The knife was lifted to slay me forever. Thank God there came one wearing a crown of thorns and I was taken off the altar. And he took my place! He bore my punishment! He paid my debt! And praise God I live forevermore! Received into the home of beloved Abraham for all time. That, my friend, is a mystery, my friend. You don't know but Jesus. Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad. He saw the crown of thorns and he was glad with the happiness of heaven. That crown of thorns, friend, is the chaplet of victory. Jesus Christ is the conqueror. But not only, friend, do we see the beauty of Calvary in the crown of thorns, but we have the beauty of the Savior in the crown of thorns as well. To you who couldn't produce on this earth a rose without a thorn. The rose and the thorn are all together. None to tell you but for the thorns there will be no sweet loaves of sherry blooming for you and for me tonight. And thank God there is a sweet rose of Sharon, and praise God it's blooming for you and for me, and it's shedding its perfume of pardon and grace down upon the hearts of men. Thank God we have tasted it, and we have seen the beauty of the one who is the fair Rose of Sharon. When I was in prison, Brother Riley and Brother Foster and myself, we used to sing a hymn, What Bold Clouds Shall Overshadow And We Seem To Walk Alone. And there's a verse in that hymn, and what a lovely verse it is. Give me Jesus, Jesus only, I possess a cluster there. He's the fairest of 10,000, and most of Sharon Fair. And because of the crown, there's a sweet rose that's blooming for you and for me. And that rose is Jesus Christ. Have you ever noticed the little hedge sparrow at the nesting time? And that little bird goes away in to a prickly hedge of thorns. And right in the center of that hedge of thorns, it builds its little nest. And those thorns are all around it. What are they there for? Why does it build its nest there? In order to be protected. by the thorns. It goes through the thorns and in the center it builds its nest. And those thorns speak to me of the security that I have in Jesus Christ. Praise God, I'm building my nest of Calvary. Thank God I'm surrounded with the thorns that the devil cannot penetrate. I'm like, Oh Job, God's planted a hedge around me, and I'm safe in time, and praise God, I'm safe for all eternity. This is the mystery of the crowd. And what's its message, friend? Its message is twofold. It's one of pardon, or it's one of perdition. This afternoon I stood at the grave site. A young man just 46 years of age, a member of my congregation, a dear man of God, in perfect health this time last week. He took a headache on Sunday afternoon, last Sunday afternoon, and on Monday afternoon he was returned. sunk into unconsciousness, never spoke, but passed on to eternity. And as I stood at that grave surrounded by a great mass of men this afternoon, I said to those men, what of your body was in this casket? What of this was your grave? What if you had passed away on the afternoon? Where would you have been now? Where will you be in eternity? If you crown him with thorns tonight, you'll be in hell. If you crown him with thorns then you'll be damned forevermore. Speaks of perdition. But praise God that also speaks with power, and I can kiss the Son of God tonight. I can kneel at his feet. I can say, Lord Jesus, by sin, crown me with thorns, but I crown thee now as my King and my Lord. Crown him with many crowns, the Lamb upon this throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own. May God help you to crown him King tonight, and Savior for Jesus' sake.