I do welcome again to our club with the Reverend Reggie Thompson. I have personally enjoyed his fellowship again, and we've had times of fellowship down through the years, and we thank God for him. And we thank God for his help to his servant this week, as he has ministered the Word to us. And we're going to ask him to come again and bring the message that the Lord has laid on We're turning again in God's Word. This time we're turning to Mark's Gospel, chapter 15. Once again, I would like to thank the Reverend Patterson, the session of the church here, for the invitation to come and be part of this special time when we celebrate the 35th anniversary of the commencement of the work of God here in Garba. I'd like to say it's been a joy and a privilege for me to be here in this past week. I've thoroughly enjoyed the fellowship with your minister, thoroughly enjoyed the fellowship with the people of God here. It has been a tonic to my own soul. I, like Mr. Patterson, would like to thank the ladies for the work that they put into the catering each night. I think they were trying to do something that others have failed to do, and that is to fatten me up. I'd like to thank you ladies, and thank you for your fellowship also, and the little time we had after the meeting. And I pray the Lord will continue to bless the work here in Garba. I'd like to thank those who have come every night, and others who came when they could. It's been a real encouragement to my own heart. As I said to Mr. Patterson tonight, before we came into the pulpit, he would know the people here in Garba had been praying for this little That's what we put it all down to. God's people pray. Do remember us in Port Hope. We don't want to take away anything from the meeting tonight by directing your attention away to work in Port Hope, but we would appreciate your prayers. God will come and visit us this year and give us those six families that we are earnestly Thank you again. Thank you for the invitation to come. We commenced last Monday, December. Tonight, our bleeds go down. And I trust that what we have seen this week, albeit just on the surface of what really happened. Nevertheless, I trust we've seen enough. It's another horse. Just to cause us to stand back and wonder more. Wonder why Jesus could love me. Tonight we want to consider the hope of the cross. And there is hope. For sinners in the meeting tonight who are not saved, there's hope. The crosswork of Christ for you. Mark chapter fifteen. We'll commence reading at verse twenty-two. And they bring him unto the place called Gotha, which is being interpreted, place of a skull. And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh, but he received it not. And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them. What every man should take. It was the third hour and they crucified him. The superscription of his accusation was written over the king of the Jews. With him they crucified two thieves, one in his right hand and the other on his left. The scripture was fulfilled which says, And He was numbered with the transgressors. They that pass by reeled on Him, wagging their heads and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself and come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, he saved others. Himself he cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel descent now from the cross that we may see and believe. They that were crucified with him reviled him. When the sixth hour was come, there was darkness. That darkness, remember, we consider during the week. This is the darkness of hell. Christ went through this darkness to rescue our souls. There was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which is being interpreted, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth One ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone, let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost. You know the Lord, well that is blessing to the reading, public reading of this His own holy and infallible Word. Let us now, for the last time, in this week of meetings, unite in prayer. Let us seek the Lord. Let us pray tonight that the cold in heart will be revived. Let us pray tonight that backsliders will be restored. Let us pray tonight that sinners will be saved. And in everything, let's pray to Christ. Our God and our loving Father, We come to Thee, Lord, and Thou knowest our hearts. O Lord, I come to Thee and thank Thee, thank Thee for Thy presence in this past week. I thank Thee, Lord, for answering prayer and coming amongst us. I thank Thee, Lord, for coming and standing with us. I thank Thee for walking amongst us. I thank Thee, Lord, for sitting beside us. I thank thee, Lord, that thou hast been in garb of free Presbyterian church. And now, Lord, I ask, as thy known people have asked, Lord, be with us tonight again. Tary with us tonight. Lord, on this Sabbath evening, the day is far spent. It is toward evening. Lord, abide with us. And cause tonight, Lord, our eyes to be opened. And oh, may we see the Lord Jesus afresh. We'll never tire of seeing Him. We'll never weary of looking upon Him. We bless Thee, Lord. That when we see the Lord, like the disciples of old, when they saw the Lord, then they rejoiced. Then they were glad. Lord, glad in our hearts tonight. May we go out of this meeting house with glad hearts. Lord, may we commune one with the other after the meeting tonight and say, we saw the Lord this evening. Oh, may we see thee. Lord, may we say with Solomon, yea, he is, he really is altogether loved. Bless this church as thou hast blessed it in the past. Bless the minister. We thank thee for the Reverend Patterson. We ask thee, O God, that thou will Bless His ministry in the days and years to come. May this house, Lord, be the birthplace of many souls, even tonight. Grant us now, Lord, the power of the Holy Ghost, for we need the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We need a fresh anointing tonight. Lord, grant it to us. We might again Lord, once more I want to speak well of the Savior. Help me to do it. I pray in the Savior's thrice holy and precious Name. Amen. We will be considering primarily the words of verse 31. Likewise also the chief priests, mocking said among themselves with the scribes. And here is our text. He saved others. Himself he cannot save. speaking as though he was an eyewitness to all which took place there upon Golgotha's hill. Isaiah the prophet wrote these words, referring of course to Jesus Christ, he said, he is despised and rejected of men. Isaiah with the eye of faith and with the eye of vision could see the happenings of Golgotha. He saw the crowd passing by. He saw the chief priests and the elders milling around the foot of the cross. He saw the soldiers. He saw the healers of Christ. And he wrote it down and he said, he is the spice. He is rejected of man. Then, as though to emphasize the treatment meted out to God's Son, Isaiah was so struck with what he saw, he had to write it down again. And he wrote again, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Twice over, He wrote here was despised. The Son of God was despised. The Lord Jesus was despised. The man of Calvary, the man of Galilee was despised. The word despised means to be treated contemptuously. The Lord Jesus was treated with contempt. There was hatred on that hill that day, that hill called Golgotha. There was hate. There was malice. They despised Him. They hated Him. And so they treated Him contemptuously. And out of hearts which flowed with nothing but contempt for the Son of God, they spewed out their venom. like the things of the underworld. They congregated at Calvary there to mock Him, to laugh at Him, to ridicule Him and to pour scorn upon Him. And even in their treatment of the Lord Jesus, we once again feel Helpless, helpless to describe fully the hatred that was poured out on Christ that day. As Matthew Henry, the great Bible commentator, put it, the barbarous and abusive treatment they gave him in which their wit and malice vied which should excel As if death, so great a death, were not bad enough, they contrived to add to the bitterness and the terror of it. That puts it very well. And in the way that Christ was treated on that hill that day, consider the features how they treated Christ. We see in verse 23, they gave him something to drink. They gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh, but he received it not. Or as Matthew the Evangelist records it, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall, and when he tasted thereof, he would not drink. You see, it was usual to give to a man who was dying in this case, one who was being crucified, it was usual to give him strong drink in an attempt to dull the pain and the suffering that he would have to endure in his crucifixion. Proverbs 31 verse 6 tells us that. Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish or ready to die. And wine unto those that be of the heavy heart. Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more. Give him strong drink. And so they thought they would have a little more sport with him. And so they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with God. When he tasted it, he refused to drink. And you know, dear Christians, The reason why the Lord Jesus only tasted that drink and refused to drink it, do you know why? Because if the Lord Jesus had of taken that cup and drank that wine that was spiked with gall, then he would not have suffered everything that we would have suffered as a result of our sin. It would have removed some of the suffering, it would have dulled some of the pain, and he refused to drink it because he must suffer everything. He refused to drink this cup But the cup that the father gave him to drink, that cup of separation, bless his name, he drank it up right to the last drop. But to drink this cup, no, he would not concentrate. He would not take anything that would dull the feelings. What else did they do there in verse 24? We're told, they divided his garments. And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. It's despicable, isn't it? Absolutely despicable. Oh, they all wanted a part of his clothing. And they had a gamble. They gambled, casting lots upon what every man should take. After stripping him and putting him to an open shame, they gambled for his upper garments that they had taken from him, that indeed the Scripture might be fulfilled. In Psalm 22, verse 18, they parted my garments among them, And upon my vesture did they cast lots, that vesture, that outer garment, the hem of which had been touched by the woman with the issue of blood. His virtue had gone out of him and through that garment and she was made whole. Many touched the hem of that garment. Mark 6 verse 56 tells us a multitude of people during his ministry touched the hem of his garment. It was the hem of that vesture that these soldiers, these hounds from hell were gambling over. That garments through which hope and healing had been brought to so many was being gambled for. Before its owner, before he had expired. But the hounds of hell were not finished with their insulting of Christ. The two thieves crucified there. One on either side of him. Two thieves. Same place, same time, under the same guard. That in itself was a reproach to him, that he should be crucified with him. or that he should be crucified with them. He who was holy and harmless and separate from sinners was made to die with evildoers, because that's how they regarded him. He's an evildoer. He's a blasphemer. He's a winebibber. He ought to die with these malefactors. Notice also The unholy fellowship that was found there on Golgotha. For when you read those verses, you read about those that pass by. No, we've never seen a sword like that because David was only comparing that sword with the swords that he'd seen in the hands of men. But here is a sword that is held in the hand of God. Here's Jehovah's sword. It's not held in the hand of a mere man, it's held in the hand of God Almighty. We must say tonight there is none like it, for it is the Almighty's soul. The sword that was raised against the shepherd belongs to the Lord of Hosts. The Lord of Hosts. This title for Jehovah is used extensively in the Minor Prophets. Indeed, Zechariah himself mentions the Lord of Hosts some thirty-seven times. We must look at the one who holds this sword. who bids this sword awake. Turn with me, please, to Jeremiah. Jeremiah 32. The Lord of Hosts. We read in Jeremiah 32, verse 17, Ah, Lord God, Behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee. Thou showest loving kindness. You read about the chief priests, they mocked them. You read about the scribes, you read about the elders, and you read about the thieves, they all cast the same in his teeth. Look at that unholy alliance. And at other times they couldn't stand the sight of one another, but they all united in an unholy alliance, an unholy fellowship. And they all joined in the mocking of the Saviour. Notice how they focused their attention on Jesus Christ. Remember, there were two malefactors, one on each side of him, but not a word is spoken about them. There's no mocking of the two malefactors. No, they focus all their attention on Jesus Christ. Not a word of abuse is hurled at the malefactors, but all is poured on Christ. All is poured on Him. And not a man to defend Him. Not a man to stand up for Him. He's there and He's alone. And with the poison of asps under their tongues, they cried against Him then, saying, look, look, He saved others. But look at Him! Look at Him! Himself He cannot save. These words will form our text for tonight. These words we have set forth as far as the great ministry of Christ, We know that the Lord is able to make even His enemies present. And He did that day at Calvary. Poor fools that didn't know it. They preached a mighty sermon that day at Calvary when they said He saved others because so He did. When they said he saved others, they declared a great truth about the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Just as on another occasion, the critics said of him that he was the friend of sinners and publicans, and glory to God, that's what he is. But they said it to mock him. And on another occasion, what did they say? They said, this man received us sinners. And bless the Lord, that's true as well. And when they said of the Lord Jesus that day on Golgotha's hill, he saved others. Glory to God, that was true. He did. He saved others. There's the ministry of the Lord Jesus. In these words, the person of Christ. What did they say? They said, he sees the promise. They were speaking about the person of the Lord Jesus. They recognized that the one who was hanging on the tree was the only Savior of men because they said He saved others. They didn't include Peter or James or John or Andrew or Thomas. They only spoke of one person. They spoke of Jesus Christ and they said He saved others. They recognized that whatever was done to save souls, Jesus Christ did it. They recognized that the great work of saving souls was His work and His work alone because they said He saved others. And dear believer tonight, and dear hearer to the word of God tonight, the words they spoke that day at Calvary are true. He saved us. The angels did not assist him in his saving work. He did it alone. Man did not assist him in his saving work. He did it alone. The saints in glory had no part in the redemption of the lost. Jesus Christ did it alone. He did it himself. Whatever it took to save He did it all. And that is why we adore him tonight. That is why we love him tonight. Because he did it all. He did it all. He saved. Not only did he save others. He is the one who is saved. Oh, the crowd were mocking him, and they said he saved others. They said that in derision, but we say it tonight to the delight of our souls. They said he saved others. They spoke those words to mock Him. We say those words tonight to magnify Him. They spoke the words to persecute Him. We speak those words to praise Him. They spoke those words to revile Him. We speak those words to rejoice in Him. He saved. He saved. Jesus Christ did the saving. We praise him because he not only saved others, but I, with many in this meeting tonight, spoke about the person of Christ, and they spoke about the purpose of Christ. Unwittingly speaking about the purpose of Christ, they used that good old-fashioned evangelical term, saved. I like that word. I'd rather have that word than the word commitment. I would rather have that word than the word decision. I like this word, I like this word, saved. Man can make a decision, but he'll never be, it may not be in heaven. He can make a commitment, it may not be in heaven, but the man who's saved will be in heaven. Saved. He saved. That was their way of describing what the Lord Jesus had done. This is ungodly man. And they said about the Lord Jesus, He saved others. That's how they described the work of Christ. He saved others. That, of course, was the reason for His coming into the world. Why? To seek and to save that which was lost. That is why he was given that sweetest of all names. The sweetest name, the most wonderful name, the most glorious of all names. They shall call his name Jesus. For he shall save his people from their sins. That's what he told his disciples. For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. How glad the blind beggar was that Jesus Christ had come to save. For one day he heard the words of mercy and grace, as the Lord spoke to him and said, Receive thy sight, thy faith hath saved thee. And just before he celebrated the Passover with his disciples, he said, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. Go, dear hearer, tonight. That is why Christ came. He left heaven. and came to this earth that he might see him. He humbled himself and became a man that he might see him. He left the splendors of glory and descended that long ladder of humiliation. Why? That he might see him. He left heaven where he was the song of angels. He came into this world where he became the song of the drunkard. Why? That he might see in me. He who was rich became poor. Why? That he might see in me. He went to the cross of Calvary. And there he suffered, and there he bled, and there he died. Why? Thought he might see it. He was despised and rejected of man. Why? Because he came to see it. My own convertive friend in the meeting tonight, that's why it raises me. We need to be saved. That's the hope of Christ. We need to be saved. Don't talk about church membership. Don't talk about baptism. Don't, whatever you do, talk about good works saving you. Don't talk about doing the best you can. Whatever you do, don't fiddle about with silly things like that. Come tonight to Jesus Christ and say, Lord, save me. And my, when the Lord saves you, you'll be in heaven. Well, that's why Christ came. Oh, they arrested Him, they charged Him, they tried Him, they sentenced Him, they scourged Him, they crucified Him. And he went through it all. This is what we've been emphasizing in this past week, what Christ went through for us. The arrest, the mock trial, the scourging, the beating, the batterings, the torments, the tortures, the loneliness, the desertion, the mockings. So they were right. He saved dollars. These words also speak to us of the power of Christ. He saved dollars. What great acts of saving grace had they witnessed? You know, when you think of it, those who cried out, he saved others, they must have seen something. They must have seen him do something, must have seen him save souls. That's why they said he saved others. They had witnessed what the Lord Jesus had done in the lives of others and what He had done for individuals. They had seen His power, His saving power in the lives of those whose bodies were wracked with disease. Had they seen Him make that man perfectly whole who before lived in a body that was full of leprosy? Had they seen Him make perfectly straight that poor woman who was bent to double? Had they seen Him touch the eyes of the blind and make them see? Had they seen Him place His fingers in the ears of the deaf and make them hear? Had they seen Him touch the lips and the tongue of the dumb and make them speak? Have they seen Him work miracles of grace in multitudes? He came to Him with diverse diseases and He healed every one of them. And they look at Him now hanging there as would appear helplessly on the cross. And they say, He saved others. But look at Him! He can't save Himself. Yes, He saved that dumb man. He saved that deaf man. He saved that leper. But look at Him now. They have seen all this. They have seen him work in the lives of those who were diseased. He saved the lepers from a life of loneliness, isolation. He saved the blind from a life of darkness. saved the deaf from a life of silence. He saved the dumb from a life of loneliness and embarrassment. Yes, that's true. Wonderful, glorious, true. My, if we were to stand there on that hill, if we could go back to that hill, if we could address the pastors by, we would say, ye pastors, by, it is true, he saved others. And we would say to the soldiers, and we would say to the chief priests, and we would say to the elders, would say to every one of them, that is true, that is, you get to see the Christ. A man would like to tell them, you passers-by, you chief priests, you elders, you soldiers, Have they saved others? Have they seen Him save others from the power of the devil? Have they watched Him as He cast out the evil spirit from the man's lunatic son? Have they seen Him transform the life of Mary Magdalene who was once possessed of seven devils? Have they seen Him do that? Had they been told about what he had done for Legion, the man of Gadara, the madman? Had they heard about that? Had the word got out? My, you want to see what he did with Legion? You know that madman of Gadara, he met Jesus Christ, knew what Christ did for him. And they say that when people came to see him, they found himself clothed and in his right mind. Is that what they were thinking about when they saw him? Did they hear about what he had done with those who were saved from death? Had they known what he had done in the house of Jairus? He had raised up Jairus' 12-year-old daughter, his only daughter, the daughter that he loved. Raised her up from her deathbed. Or perhaps they were part of the multitude that followed that procession to the edge of the gates of the city of Nain. And they saw him touch the mire, touch the coffin, and saw that dear and poor, sorrowing widow woman's son raised up from the dead. And maybe they'd been standing there outside the tomb of Lazarus and heard him cry, Lazarus come forth. He'd been saved from death, one on her deathbed. one in the coffin and the other in the grave. See, it doesn't matter where Christ meets death, Christ is always the conqueror. You know, that's why Christ had to die first at Calvary. He had to die first. He had to give up the ghost first and remember that his life wasn't taken from him. He let it down. He gave up the ghost. He had to die first. The two thieves couldn't die while Christ was still alive. Death couldn't claim any victim while Christ was alive. Because Christ was always Whenever he meets death, he's always victorious. And whether it was the diseased or those that were demon possessed or those who were dying or even dead, they said he saved others. He saved them from disease. He saved them from the devil. He saved them from death. And so they say, oh, look at him, he saved others. But what can he do for himself? Himself he cannot. And maybe they saw what he did, and the lives of those who were deprived. See, man and woman, lives changed, saved from sin, transformed by the power of God. If the great ministry of Christ, then you have a great mistake about Christ. What did they say? They said he saved others. But himself, he cannot save. That was a mistake. They could see him hanging there and that Roman gibbon taunted him saying, save thyself and come down from the cross. And when he didn't do so, they said he saved others himself. He cannot save. They were mistaken, first of all, about the ability of Christ. They thought that Christ, who had saved so many others, couldn't save himself. They thought that Christ was no different from the thieves who were hanging one on each side of him. They thought he was powerless to come down from the cross. They thought he was no different. Remember, they treated him contemptuously. Remember, we know that during the week they sat him at naught. They counted him as nothing. Nothing. They didn't even consider him a man. They didn't even consider him to be a man. As far as they were concerned, he was no different from the men and they were saying, they said to themselves, he cannot see they were mistaken. Because Christ is God and there's nothing he cannot. Had he wanted to come down from that cross, he could have done so. Did he not say to his disciples who tried to prevent his arrest in the garden, remember what he said? Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? He said the other night a legion was six thousand. Christ had command of twelve legions. And the one who hung upon the cross, he's the Lord of hosts. He was the Lord of all the hosts of heaven. And he had every angel waiting on his back and call. He had only to speak the word. They were ready to obey his commands. He had only to speak the word and every angel would have descended from glory upon that saint and rescued him in a moment. You cannot see it, they said. They were mistaken. I'll tell you better than that. The Lord Jesus didn't even need twelve legions of angels. If it had a been as well in his mind he could have come down from that cross without the assistance of one angel. Didn't need any assistance. Because the one who hung upon that tree was the one who created the tree. What do you think of that, ye passers-by? What do you think of that, ye priests and elders? What do you think of that, ye soldiers? Why, the one who hangs on the tree, nailed the tree. The one whom you nailed to the tree is the one who made the iron that made the nails. He's the Creator. He created the very man who had nailed him there. He made the very tongues that were used to mock him. What foolishness. What ignorance. Because the great I Am, veiled in flesh, was not fixed of that tree by iron. Something else fixed Christ. Notice the attitude of Christ himself. He cannot see that they were mistaken, because while he hung on that cross, He wasn't thinking of himself. They said, himself, he cannot see it. But he wasn't thinking about himself. That's the best part of it. That's the wonderful part of it. That's the glorious part of it. The Lord Jesus wasn't thinking about himself when he was nailed to that cross. He wasn't on that cross because of himself, neither would he serve himself by coming down from the cross. No. While the crowd scorned him, passers-by wagged their heads at him. The chief priests and the scribes and the elders knocked him, and the thieves cast the same wanted to consider this. Christ wasn't thinking about himself. Even when the bulls of Bashan compassed him about, he wasn't thinking about himself. Even with all his bones out of joint and his heart melting like wax, he wasn't thinking about himself. Even when his strength dried up like a potsherd and his tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth, our blessed Lord wasn't thinking about himself. He wasn't thinking about escaping from all this agony and all this, this torture and all this torment. He wasn't thinking about himself. And even while the blood flowed from his head and the blood flowed from his back, and the blood flowed from his hands, and the blood flowed from his face, and as dry had his feet, he wasn't thinking about himself. It wasn't self that was uppermost in his mind. He was there on the cross, not for himself. That's whom he had upon his heart. That's who he was thinking about. That's who was uppermost in his mind. His own people. For you see, believer, it was for you and me he came. It was for you and me he prayed. It was for you and me he agonized in the garden. It was for you and me he went to the cross. It was for you and me he stared on the cross. That's it. That's it. That's why He stayed on the cross. And He stayed there, even though they mocked Him and laughed at Him and said, oh, He cannot save Himself. He cannot come down from the cross. O believer, Think about it tonight. Meditate upon it tonight. Dwell upon it tonight. Don't let this truth escape you tonight. He stand on the cross for you. When he hung there, it was you he hugged. You think of the arguments they used against Christ. They taunted him with arguments in an attempt to get him to come down from the cross. Those who passed by thought if he could destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, he could then easily come down from the cross. Others said, himself, he cannot see it. He could have come down and proved them wrong. You think of the temptation there. They said himself he cannot see it. Christ could have come down from the cross and proved them wrong. What else did they say? They said there in verse 32 that if he came down from the cross they would believe in him. All right, I'll put that." He stared there. For all those reasons, he could have come down from the cross to prove them all wrong. But it doesn't matter what argument there is, Christ will stay on the cross. Finally, the great mystery to Christ. The mystery is, why did Christ stay fixed to that cross? Why was He not persuaded by their arguments? Why did He not come down to prove them wrong? Why did He not prove to them His ability? Oh, why did He remain on the cross? One, because of His loyalty. He stayed on the cross because of His loyalty to His Father. He had come to do His Father's will. And He was going to see it through. I must do the will of Him that sent me. And the will of the One who had sent Him was Jesus Christ, God's Son, must die on the cross. That was the will of the Father. Just like the Lamb, that saved Israel in Egypt, the poor lamb, the innocent lamb, had to be slain for Israel to be saved. And Jesus Christ is the Lamb. And the Father said to the Son, Thou must die. Loyalty to his Father. Jesus Christ stood there. He could not abandon the work that he had been given to do. Had he come down from the cross, he could never, never have cried, it is finished. Those words could never have come from his lips. For he had a purchase to make. He had a price to pay. He had a people to save. And to save that people, he must, he must stay there. And glory to his name. Stead there he did. And before he expired, He was able to cry from that sandal tree, it is finished, it's finished now. It's finished now. It's all finished. How to be? You must die. that we might live. Without a dying Christ, there never would be a living sinner. He was loyal to his Father's will and he was faithful to the Word. Time and time again we read the words that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. Therefore, not one prophetic word was left unfulfilled. Every word that was written in all the prophets, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, every word that they wrote about Jesus Christ and His atoning death in Calvary, do you know this? Christ fulfilled every promise. Thank you, Lord. Remember in his agonies, as the psalmist in Psalm 22 has said, his tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth as all his bones were out of joint. The bulls of Bashan had gathered around him, the roaring lion, the mad dogs, he'd been deserted, he'd been forsaken. And he says, that the scriptures might be fulfilled. He says, I appreciate it. And down to that point, he had to fulfill all the promises. And all that had been written about him through Moses' right-handed promise. Oh, away with you, high priest! Ye passers-by, well, pass on by! ye mockers of Christ, ye cheap priests, ye elders. You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what you're talking about when you say he saved others and himself he cannot save. Of course he could save himself, but he had to do his Father's will and he had to fulfil the Word of God. Next, some Luke Rowler. Silly now, doesn't it? Ouch. Didn't know the first thing about why Christ was there. Why did he stay on the cross? One, because of loyalty. Two, because of love. We are compelled to laugh. Why did he not save himself from the agony of Gethsemane's garden? Why did he not save himself from that agony? And those crying, those bitter hot tears, why did he not save himself from sweating great drops of blood? I'll tell you why. It was because of love. It was because of his love for us. Why did he not save himself from the cruel treatment of the Roman guard, those hounds from hell? I'll tell you why. It was because of love, because he loved me. Why did he not save himself from the scourging that opened his back into furrows of blood? I'll tell you why. Because he loved me. Why did he not save himself from the crucifixion? Because he loved me. Why did he not save himself from the cruel markings and the revilings? Because he loved me. That's why. That's why he did it. Why did he not save himself from pouring out his precious life's blood? Because he loved me. Why did he not save himself from death? It's hard to get a hold of all this, isn't it? should gain an interest in the Savior. Died He for me? Who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! And can it be that thou, my God, should die for me? mystery of the appointed time. Jesus loved us. You can say Jesus loved me, and gave his son. Long ago, I saw myself, bearing shame on a tree, and my heart was touched with sorrow. For I saw, he bled. It is finished, lied, he cried. For what love? For me, he died. In my stead, he bled on Calvary, once for all." Christ has died. There's hope in the cross. Sinner, there's hope in the blood of Christ. There's hope in the death of Christ. you about Christ and something of his sufferings as best as we know them. Surely, surely you can't get up out of your seat tonight and walk out that door and say, of Savior Christ.