Well, good morning, everyone. Glad you could be with us on what we hope will actually be our last sermon from my living room, at least for months to come. It looks as if we will be able to meet next week on the 31st, which is providential because it will be Pastor Wingfield's last week with us, and he will be preaching his farewell sermon. He'll be preaching it on one of the very most important parts of the scriptures, which is the death of Christ. And so we pray that we'll all be able to get together. Please be praying for the elders and deacons as we make our preparations, as we work on getting things together, on making the plans that we need to. And let's be patient with each other because there are things that we're going to be doing that are not going to work out as smoothly as we'd like them to. There are going to be things that are inherently a hassle that we're going to have to live with for a little while. But we do think that there's wisdom in being cautious, and we also think that there's wisdom in righteousness, in cooperating with and following the guidance of those who are in authority over us, those that God has appointed as authorities over us. So let's be praying for each other. Please do be praying for your leaders in the church, and be praying for our country and the world as we face this pandemic together. I greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus. As we begin our worship service, I want to read Psalm 92. Psalm 92 is appropriately titled, and I think it's the only psalm that actually has a title along these lines, A Song for the Sabbath, or A Song for the Sabbath. It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night. to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work. At the works of your hands I sing for joy. How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep. The stupid man cannot know, the fool cannot understand this, that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever. But you, O Lord, are on high forever. For behold, your enemies, O Lord, for behold, your enemies shall perish. All evildoers shall be scattered. But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox. You have poured over me fresh oil. My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies. My ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants. The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord. They flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age. they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. We are looking at one of the most intense passages of the whole Bible today, which is the crucifixion of Jesus. And we're looking at the taunts of the onlookers. And in some ways, we can look at that as kind of a downer of a passage. It is a horrible thing to behold what the world did to the Son of God when he came and walked among us, and when he preached righteousness, and when he served as a prophet to his people of Israel. And yet, at the same time, it is an occasion for gladness, because without what Jesus willingly did on the cross, none of us would have life, none of us would have hope, and we would still remain the nations, the Gentiles, that are in the darkness without God and without his word. So we rejoice as we come into the presence of God. Before we do anything else, I want to spend some time in prayer. And I'm going to remind you, we're going to be looking today at the ninth commandment as we come in prayer before the Lord. And the ninth commandment is, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the blessing of coming to you in worship. Even though we are scattered right now, Lord, we are together in spirit. We thank you that we have your word and that your word speaks to us wherever we are. We thank you that we not only can hear it from pulpits and from living room desks, but we can hide it in our hearts so that even when we are in prison or in the hospital or any other place that we don't want to be, your word is there with us to comfort us and to help us. So Lord, we thank you for your word, and we praise you for it, and we thank you that it is not just good advice and wise counsel, but it is life-giving good news. We thank you that Jesus Christ is crucified and is risen, and we thank you that you have made one nation out of all tribes and nations, one people, one kingdom, and priests to our God. So we come before you as that kingdom of priests. And we pray, Lord, that as we come into your presence that you would please forgive us of our sins. We recognize, Lord, your law is holy and that we have not kept it. You've commanded us not to bear false witness against our neighbors. You've commanded us in so saying to preserve and promote truth, to protect the good names of ourselves and others, and not to slander them or speak ill of them. You've commanded us to even think the best of others in our hearts, to readily receive a good report of them, and to unwillingly hear an evil report, even of our enemies. You've commanded us to keep our commitments and promises, to study and practice whatever is true, honest, lovely, and of good report. But we have not done those things, Lord. So often we have failed in those duties, and we have, on the contrary, committed sins of falsehood and slander, often and casually, whether at work or within our own families, even in our churches. On the internet, too many to count. Too many sins, Lord. You see these things. You recognize them. You see the ways in which we have not studied to promote the good reputation of others, but we have spoken against them. You've seen the times when we have lied in order to get out of trouble. You've seen the times when we have joined with others, not in the pursuit of truth, but in the pursuit of victory for our side, whatever that is. And we pray now for forgiveness of that, and we come before you and take time to silently confess these and other sins against you. So Lord, so confessing, we also rely on the grace of Jesus Christ. who made the good confession before Pontius Pilate, although it cost him his life, and so procured victory for himself and salvation and joy for us forever. And we pray that you would forgive us, that you would fill us with faith in Jesus's finished work, in hope in your blessing and help in this world and in the world to come, and in the perfect love that casts out fear. So Lord, at the same time as we confess our sins to you and receive your forgiveness, we also give you thanks for your ongoing care and provision for each one of us, that you have met our needs. We thank you for the healing of many who have been sick, that we have known, but countless others that we have not known. We thank you, Lord, for the blessings that you've shown to this particular church, that you have given us a unity and a peace, that you have provided for our needs, We thank you that you have given us protection from the worst of the plague, and at the same time, Lord, we lift up to you our needs. We pray for those who are sick, that you would heal them. We pray for those who are mourning and bereft of those they love, that you would comfort them. We pray for a genuine humility for our nation before you, that we would not simply think of this as yet another problem that American ingenuity can solve, because we have shown ourselves incapable of that already. We pray, Lord, that we would lift up our hands and pray to you, not only as individual churches and Christians, but as a nation, for your forgiveness and for your healing. We pray, Father, for states and countries where infections and deaths are on the rise, that you would show them mercy. We pray for your blessing in every way, and we pray for encouragement for those who are lonely or those who are anxious about the future. Lord, we are not in our own hands, but we are in yours, and that is good news. So Lord, hear us and answer us, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Please open your Bibles up to Matthew chapter 27. And before we go any further, probably very few of you noticed this, but on the outlines that I emailed out, the date is wrong. It says March 24th, 2020, not May 24th, 2020. And I realized that might be some sort of a Phrygian slip, just because it feels like March has gone on. for months now, but it hasn't. It's almost, it's almost June. Please turn to Matthew chapter 27. I'm going to start reading it verse 27 and read through verse 44. Hear God's word, Matthew 27, 27 through 44. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters and they gathered the whole battalion beforehand. And they stripped him, and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit on him, and took the reed, and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe, and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him. As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull, they offered him wine to drink mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head, they put the charge against him, which read, This is Jesus, the king of the Jews. Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you are the son of God, come down from the cross. So also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him, saying he saved others. He cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now if he desires him. For he said, I am the son of God. And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word. Again, we find this one of the most intense and painful passages of scripture. because we find the Son of God being treated horribly, even tortured, at the hands of people who are not worthy to come near him. We find, first of all, in verses 27 through 31, his abuse at the hands of Pilate's soldiers. We remember that Pilate had washed his hands, literally washed his hands of the whole affair, and yet he was willing to let his, to have his soldiers do the bidding of the Jewish authorities who wanted Jesus dead. He's handed over to the soldiers of the Roman governor Pilate. So these are Roman soldiers. He's already been scourged. We read about that in verse 26. Scourging is itself a life-threatening torment. It's more than just a whipping. It's using a multi-tailed whip that has usually pieces of, sharp pieces of lead or bone or other kinds of metal at the ends of each thong. literally tear stripes in the back of the person who was scourged. He's already been scourged, and then they bring the whole battalion together. And Matthew uses the term battalion a little bit loosely. But they're bringing together many, many soldiers from the cohort that work for Pilate. And of course, these are tough men. These are soldiers at a time when soldiers were really untempered in their brutality. These are brutal men who are always happy to beat or mock a local, but especially somebody who is accused of being, and they have no reason to disbelieve this, an insurgent. This is really what Jesus is accused of being, an insurgent who has attempted to lead a rising against the Romans, and that would really mean a rising against them. This is their enemy, as far as they're concerned, and they treat him as their enemy. But then they start to do things that seem a little strange and seem a little ironic when we look at them. They wrap him, first of all, in a robe or in a cape. It's really a soldier's cape that they put around him after stripping him of his clothing. They take thorns and they weave them into a crown and they shove it on his head. And of course, this is all intended as humiliation and mocking. Then they kneel before him and say, hail, king of the Jews. They salute him, but then they turn from that to spitting him, striking him, stripping him again of his clothing and putting his own clothing back on him and leading him away to crucifixion. So they lead him out of the city from the governor's palace to the place of crucifixion, which is most likely on the west side of Jerusalem. They have a rough idea of where it is. There's some controversy over where this Golgotha place is. of the city. It's placed by roads so that people can pass by and anybody who's passing by on that side of the city is forced to see the crucifixion. This is very intentional on the part of the Romans. And crucifixion is itself a terrible, terrible way to die. It's death by a combination probably of suffocation and shock. Basically it's hanging a person by their arms and and when you hang them by their arms, they're forced to push themselves up in order to get a breath and eventually they will fatigue and will be unable to get a breath. Their lungs will fill with fluid and they will suffocate while hanging on the cross. Their arms are tied or sometimes nailed to the cross piece. Their legs are then tied or nailed in order to prolong life so that this lasts not a few minutes, which is really what it would take if they were just hanging by their arms, but sometimes hours. And when the time came that the Romans wanted to hasten a death, if they said, well, this is taking too long, we gotta hurry this guy killing, they would break his legs so that he would no longer be able to lift himself up on them. So as horrible as it would be to be to have your feet nailed to a piece of wood and have to raise yourself up against that nail that pierced your feet and be hanging from your hands, the death itself of suffocation was even worse. This is a shameful, shameful torture. Those who were crucified were crucified naked. We always see in the pictures of Jesus, in the artistic renderings, a little chased piece of cloth around his loins, and that would not have been there. He was crucified naked. This was a public, efficient torture by an empire that took no chances at all when it came to rebellion. And their answer to many of the problems in Judea in that era was crucifixion, either by ones or twos, or in huge groups, as Pilate would do a few years later when there was a small rising of Samaritans. He crucified hundreds of Samaritans in this way. And as they're on their way, the Romans realize that Jesus is too weakened of a condition to actually carry his cross out to the place of crucifixion. There's a little bit of debate, I don't think it's terribly important debate, about whether this is the whole cross, both pieces of wood, or whether it's just the cross piece, which would then be hung on the upright. I don't think it's an important debate, but so you're aware it's there. So they grab a passerby, this man named Simon, who is from Cyrene. Now he's likely a pilgrim to Jerusalem there for Passover, and he happens to be outside of the city. He has some sort of business outside, and he's coming back toward the city. from outside. And again, he's from Cyrene. This is a place called Cyrenaica, and it's now part of Libya. So this is a Jewish man who has traveled from North Africa in order to participate in the Feast of Passover with his brothers in Jerusalem. And then, this isn't in Matthew's Gospel, but it's in the Gospel of Mark. It's one of my favorite little details in all of the Bible. We read in Mark 15, 21, that they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who's coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. Now, that might not strike you, but there's some significance to that. That Mark mentions that Simon is the father of Alexander and Rufus means that Alexander and Rufus were known to his original readers, who were most likely Christians in the city of Rome. In other words, Alexander and Rufus were Christians. And they were Christians, no doubt, in large part because of the witness of their father, Simon, who had borne the cross of Jesus. And I always take this as an incredible reminder that we do not save our children by refusing to bear the cross. We do not save our children by refusing to do hard things for the sake of Christ. I just came across in my devotions this morning, I came across Deuteronomy chapter one, verse 39, We remember that the generation of Israelites that came out of Egypt were unwilling to follow Moses into the promised land. They were worried about what would happen to them when they had to fight the Canaanites. And Moses, as a result of this, has to tell them, God has decided, because of your cowards, you are not going into the promised land. Instead, he says, As for your little ones who you said would become a prey and your children who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there." In other words, Simon of Cyrene does the opposite of what the Israelites did in the desert after they left Egypt. The Israelites were afraid for the sake of their children to do something hard in obedience to God. Simon did one of the most obvious illustrations of doing things hard for the name of Christ. He literally bore the cross of Christ. And we know who his children are because they were believers in Christ in the years to come. The very best thing that we can do for our children is follow Christ as closely as we can. Then we get in verse 33 through 38 to the scene of the crucifixion itself. And when Jesus gets there, he is offered wine mixed with gall. We're not 100% sure what that gall is. Mark says that it was myrrh, but wine and possibly myrrh both have anesthetic effects. In other words, they will help dull his pain that he has already endured and that he's going to be enduring. And when he tastes it, he realizes what it is and he says, no thank you. And I don't think it's because he doesn't like the taste of wine or because he doesn't like the taste of the bitter gall, I think it's that he wants to bear the pain that he's going through without any help. He's crucified at this time, and Matthew puts it very simply in a participial phrase, when they had crucified him. We know that this was done in his case, not with ropes, but with nails, because we read about it in John chapter 20. Unless I see in his hand, Thomas says, the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails. And then a few verses later, Jesus comes to him and says to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side. Again, the intended death is one of suffocation combined with shock and blood loss. And Jesus is well on his way to that death. The charge that they put over his head, the placard that lists what he did wrong, that deserved crucifixion, simply says, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. In the Gospel of John, we read that the chief priest subjected to that and wanted it to read, this man said, I am the king of the Jews. And Pilate gave one of his famous one-liners. He's really a good guy for one-liners, although not one for justice. He said, what I have written, I have written. What I have written, I have written. And the placard stayed the way it was. So then surrounding him are the people who mock him. First of all, robbers are crucified at his sides. This is itself a mockery. Remember the sons of Zebedee, James and John, asking Jesus, or rather asking their mom to ask Jesus, that they be allowed to sit on thrones at his right hand and his left hand. Well, now the sons of Zebedee are nowhere to be seen. The Thunderboys have cut and run, just like everybody else. And Jesus' kingdom has shrunk down, it seems, to skull place. And his nobles are naked criminals hanging on either side of him. And then the jeering crowds and the passersby, The Romans, again, didn't crucify privately. This was a public spectacle, something that they wanted people to weep at, mock at, cower before. And some of the passersby shake their heads and mock him. And they repeat the charges that are made against him in the presence of the chief priests and council. You can see that word has spread throughout Jerusalem over the past six or eight hours, however long it is. This man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. And they also echoed the chief priest's question to Jesus, where he says, I injure you by the living God. Tell us if you are the Christ, the son of God. Yes, Jesus is able to destroy and rebuild the temple, in answer to their questions. Yes, he is the son of God, but their mockery recalls another question, asked about three years before, way back in Matthew chapter four. We read, and the tempter came to him and said, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. The tempter asks, the passersby taunt, if you are the Son of God. If you are the Son of God, then do what we say, perform on command, jump through our hoops, work the wonders and the miracles that we want you to. How many times throughout the Gospel of Matthew had miracles been demanded of the Lord in order to prove his authenticity? Now, there are two ironies here. First, if he were to do what they said, whether that was doing what Satan said, or the pastors by said, or any number of times when miracles were demanded of him throughout his ministry, if he were to do what these people said, he would not be obedient to God at all. And as God's son, that is what he has to care about, not impressing the people that he's talking to. Not what the devil, or the world, or even his own disciples want, but what God wants him to do. The second irony is that even if he did the miracles that they called for, and certainly if he climbed down from the cross at this moment, they would not believe anyway. Jesus said in Matthew 16, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. We'll see what that is later. Now, I want to point out a couple of things. I've kind of run through the story, and I want to point out some things that affect us. One is this, and that is Jesus is the true prophet and calls us to live as prophets in our world. Jesus is the true prophet, as well as priest and king. And that's really the basic role that he fulfills throughout his ministry, is a role of prophetic ministry. He will become the great high priest. That is happening as he hangs on the cross, as he offers up a sacrifice for the sake of his people. And of course, he's done priestly things lifting up prayers for them, especially the beautiful one in John chapter 13. He will be seated as king on God's right hand. That is happening at this point, but it's certainly not out front. He doesn't look like much of a king. But right now and forever, he is prophet. He speaks God's truth to God's people and to the world. What is a prophet? Well, a prophet is not mainly someone who tells the future, although they do that sometimes. And as you read the books of prophecy, very often they are foretelling the future, but certainly not always. A prophet is also not simply a preacher. Many preachers are more therapeutic than they are challenging. They're mainly in the business of comforting and healing their hearers, and certainly that is a part of pastoral care, and it's even sometimes a part of prophetic work. But the work of a prophet is mainly Remembering out loud. The work of a prophet is mainly remembering out loud. He remembers the values of the community when the community has forgotten them, when the community has turned their backs on the things that they once professed to know and believe and do. And that means that prophets are always on the wrong side of history. They're always on the wrong side of people's expectations for the future. and they never conform to the expectations of any political group or political party, at least not perfectly. Prophets always stand on the outskirts, sometimes at the risk of their lives, sometimes to the loss of their lives, because a prophet has to live out his prophecy, and so must a prophetic people. Christians are a prophetic people. Because we are citizens of heaven, citizens of earthly nations. That's something that, a point that Augustine made many years ago, and I actually would say that the book of Acts makes. That to be a citizen of heaven does not mean you're a rebel against earthly authority, far from it. But that doesn't also mean that we are going to be completely at home here. Our faith makes us foreigners in our own lands, and it makes us at home in every land. It also makes us foreigners in our political parties. If we ever find ourselves totally comfortable, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Socialists, whatever, we are definitely failing to remember something. We are failing in our prophetic task. Now I have my preferences on that list, and you probably do too, but if we are honest, all of them, all of those different groups and ideologies and parties, get at least something, a little something right, and get a lot wrong. We always need to resist the temptation to downplay truth for the sake of political gain. We have to be careful when we're reaching out for consensus with other people in order to go forward and accomplish this or that goal, that we don't put truth on the back burner. And above all, we need to keep our identity as Christians first, and our political identities have to follow at a respectful distance. We are prophetic because Christ is prophetic. He remembered Israel's own story. He remembered the story of exile and return. He remembered the story of punishment and triumph. He preached Israel's law back to them at a deeper level than they were comfortable hearing. He preached not just an outward obedience, but a heart obedience. He preached against hypocrisy. He preached that even the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was inadequate, and he called us not to give up on righteousness, but to a righteousness that exceeded that of the scribes and Pharisees. And he lived out the rejection of the godly by the wicked, something you find through many prophetic ministries, talking about how the godly people, even within Israel, are going to be rejected and attacked by the wicked, but they're going to do this and they're going to go through it for the sake of saving the repentant. And very often that is exactly what happens to the prophets. Where in a greater way does that happen in all of the Bible except for the life and the ministry of Jesus? And we have to be ready to experience the same rejection for the sake of Jesus. Second thing is I want us to see, I want us to listen to the things that people say and the things that they do in this passage. Just realize how many true things are said and done by people who don't mean them at all. How many true things are said and done by people who don't mean them at all. Think about the scarlet robe, the royal robe as it were, the soldier's robe that is put on him in verse 28. Think about the crown that is set on his head and the scepter that is put in his hand in verse 29. Think about soldiers kneeling and hailing him as King of the Jews, in verse 29. Think about the inscription, King of the Jews, in verse 37. People repeating that he would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, in verse 40. People saying, if you are the Son of God, verse 40. He is the King of Israel, verse 42. He trusts in God, verse 43. He said, I am the Son of God, verse 43. And furthermore, this passage is full of quotations and echoes of scripture. Think about these passages from Psalm 22. All who see me mock me, they make mouths at me, they wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord, let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him. Verses 17 and 18, I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Psalm 69, verse 21, they gave me poison for food and for my thirst. They gave me sour wine to drink. Lamentations, chapter three, verse 19, remember my afflictions and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall. They were saying these things, but they didn't know what they were saying. they had forgotten their own stories. The Roman soldiers, the mocking onlookers, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people say things that they do not realize are true. Like Judas, they are playing a role, a satanic role, twisting truth and the word of God in order to insult the son of God. Remember again, the words of Satan in Matthew 4, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. If you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone. The devil has a Bible, and he knows how to quote it very powerfully. One reason they can do this is that they have forgotten what is in the scriptures, but worse, they know the words, but they've forgotten the meaning. For those who are saying these things, whether they know that they're quoting from Psalm 22, Psalm 69, or not, they're not the life-giving, challenging words given by the living God. They are tools, they are weapons to be used for their own gain. Now, if we read the Bible humbly and seriously, it will not always feel good to us. It will challenge us, it will undermine and ruin our plans, it will convict us of sin, It will drive us to repentance. Woe to us when we use the Bible as a tool for our own plans or as a weapon against our enemies. Only later would anyone see the staggering irony of the things that were said there on that day. So I hope then that you see that this gives us words, or this gives us ways to talk back to the devil. It gives us things to learn in facing temptation. First of all, understand that at any time, the Lord Jesus had the option of getting out. Remember that in the desert, angels ministered to him after his temptation, and he could have called on the same help at the cross. He had no food and drink, he did not drink even the sour wine that was given to him at the cross, but he could have called on the angels, and they would have brought him food and drink, just as they had in the desert years before. He could have called for an army of angels to rescue him from his captors, and come down off the cross. He could have done exactly what the onlookers taunted him with, but he didn't. He knew what was right, and he knew the joy set before him, as it says in Hebrews 12, and he knew what he had to do. And further, just like in the wilderness, he knew the Bible better than the devil did. He knew the rest of Psalm 22, not just the the bits that the mockers shouted and the soldiers acted out without realizing it. Let me read to you verses 24 and following of Psalm 22. For he that is God has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard when he cried to him. From you comes my praise in the great congregation. My vows I will perform before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. And all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship. Before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve him. It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn that he has done it. In other words, the psalm goes on from recounting and crying out for help from the torments of enemies and the mocking of onlookers to rejoice that God will hear, God has heard. And the psalmist will go on to sing praise before the Lord in the great congregation. The devil and those who are filled with the spirit of the devil throw the love of God in the face of his people. If God were real, this wouldn't be happening to you. If God loved you, this wouldn't be happening to you. But Jesus understands, and through him we understand, that everything will be used for salvation and victory and joy for the people of God. is so dreadful. Boy, these are hard words to say. Nothing is so dreadful and horrible that God cannot make it good. Nothing. Now, I understand that saying this can ring hollow for us, and I don't have good enough reason to say it based on my own experience, because I haven't experienced everything horrible that human beings ever experience. I've gone through some hard things, and I can testify that God has used them for good, at least in part. But I can't convince you that this is true based on my experience. That's inadequate for you. What you go through will be different. But what happens on the cross is that we taste the experience of Christ. So it's not just something nice that your pastor says or your friend who's a Christian says. Jesus is the most intensely human of all humans. His suffering is unmixed with guilt. He bears, He's crushed for the iniquities of mankind without having perpetrated any of them. And at the same time, He is true and eternal God. So then the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ pry the lid off the mystery of reality, the mystery of suffering and the goodness of God, and how those things can relate to each other. Because if there's anything people struggle with, it's how can a good God also allow me and allow the world to suffer the way it does? The things that bad people do and say will be used by God ultimately for the victory of his son and the redemption of his people. So the first thing to do when the devil is talking to you is remember that big picture. The second, when we see Jesus mocked, beaten, spit on, and crucified, we are not seeing a passive victim. Every moment of it is something he chooses to undergo, a moment he chooses not to pick up the red phone and call in the angels. So do not mistake Jesus's inaction and silence for helplessness. He knows what to do and he continues to do it. And so simply, I tell you, the second thing to do when the devil is talking to you is do what you know is right. That may be allowing yourself to be mocked, It may be working hard on something when you don't want to. It may be having a conversation you would rather avoid. It may be keeping your mouth shut when you really want to say something. It may be breaking a relationship or it may be building a relationship. I don't know what that is. But the picture is clear. When faced with temptation, we are to remember what is true and do what is right. That is the path to victory and to life. So let me end by pointing back to the king again, just for a minute. Rightly did the Romans bow before him and hail him as king. Rightly did they clothe him with a soldier's cloak. They did not know it, but they were ahead of their time by about 280 years, for a time would come when Rome would bow before the risen Christ. Rightly did the libellus, The sign above him on the cross, the inscription with his accusation, say, King of the Jews. Rightly did the mockers say, he trusts in God. He is the King of Israel. He is the Son of God. He did trust in God, and God did deliver him, for he did delight in him. He was and is the King of Israel. He remains the eternal Son of God. reigning now, not over Israel, but over every nation and tribe. In one day, the mocking and bowing will disappear forever, and true praise and worship will remain. There's that wonderful passage in Philippians chapter two, where Paul says of Jesus that he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." You know, it strikes me, when you look at early Christian iconography, not only do they not give us pictures and label them, say, that's a picture of Jesus, or even pictures of many of the saints who lived in the days of Jesus, but they won't even give a picture of the cross. Now, I don't think it's because they thought the cross was such a holy object that they shouldn't picture it. I think it's because they knew that the cross was such a disgusting object that if you could avoid it, you didn't put a picture of it up anywhere near where people would be worshiping. But that is what Jesus embraced. And for it, God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name. And one day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that this is who Jesus is to the glory of God the Father. This is the destiny of the whole earth. Not unbelief and secularism, not Christian witness destroyed by our sins and our schisms and our infighting, but worship. Therefore, live in confidence. You do not have to do everything. You have to do what God has given you to do, and do it with all your might, but do it to the glory of God. Sometimes we will pour ourselves out for years and see no fruit. This is true in life and work and church and family. It is also true in our witness to the lost. Sometimes, in contrast, we will blunder into, Deuteronomy 6 puts it, houses full of good things that we did not fill, cisterns we did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that we did not plant. It all belongs to God, the dry spells and the fruitful seasons. Our task is to farm the fields that God has given us, whatever those are. And I want to end by reminding you that the only path to doing real good in the world and the only path to true greatness is through danger and suffering and ultimately death. Noah knew it. So did Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Gideon, Samson, Samuel, David the King, Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Stephen the Martyr, Paul, Peter, James, Mark the Evangelist, Andrew, Jude and Simon the Zealot martyred together, Polycarp of Smyrna, Perpetua, Felicity, Cyprian of Carthage, Thomas Beckett, Thomas Moore, William Tyndall, George Wishart, Latimer and Ridley, the martyrs of Japan and China and Korea and Vietnam, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Nate Saint, Oscar Romero, and an untold number of men, women, and children over the last few years in Nigeria, Baghdad, Alexandria, Cairo, Nag Hammadi, and Libya. Our King becomes King through the cross. Our King is King even when he is on the cross. Our King calls us to follow him to the cross. Our King welcomes us to victory and rest on the other side of the cross. Let's pray. Lord, we praise you that we see with joy the path that Christ chose the path that you set out for him that he willingly accepted. We see him persevering through the cross. We see him persevering through the sorrow and the misery. And so, Lord, we know that there is a point to the path that you choose each one of us to walk. We know that there is a point, that even when things don't seem to be going as they should, and we don't understand why, you do. And you have set our path before us so that we can persevere and gain strength from Christ, and so that we can enter into the rest that he has already achieved. We thank you, Lord, that Jesus Christ is crucified. More than that, he is risen. And we pray that we would live every day in light of that truth. Lord, yours is the darkness, yours also the light. Yours are the dry seasons, yours also the fruitful times. We pray that dry season and fruitful time we would keep our eyes fixed on you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I wanna thank you again for being with us, and I wanna encourage you to sing. I wanna remind you that there's some great resources out there online, Psalter.org, P-S-A-L-T-E-R.org. Spotify, if you search for Book of Psalms for Worship, the Book of Psalms for Worship app, You can buy a psalter from crownandcovenant.com. And today I want to encourage you to sing Psalms 22A, 22C, 22D, and 22E. So Psalm 22 selections A, C, D, and E. You can find those tunes in some of those places that I mentioned. Tithes and offerings. If you're a member of our church, I encourage you to continue sending tithes to our P.O. box. in the middle of setting up online giving, if that's something you prefer to do. You can find our PO Box on our website, christrpc.com, and also buried somewhere on our Facebook page. And let me encourage you to join us again tonight at 6.30 p.m. Elder Jonathan Trexler is going to be preaching on encouragement in Christ, so please come back for that, 6.30 p.m., facebook.com slash christrpc. Thank you for joining us. Go with God's blessing. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you now and forever. Amen.