All right, let's turn to John 18. Read a few verses there and a few verses from John 19, and then one verse from Matthew 27. John 18, this is where Jesus goes into the Garden of Gethsemane. And you recall that the last three places where he was, are the intense places of suffering. So when we talk about the suffering lamb, we think of the three Gs, Gethsemane, the garden, Gabbatha, Pilate's judgment hall, and Golgotha, more commonly called Calvary. So that's where we're going this morning, Gethsemane, Gabbatha, Golgotha. That's where Jesus, those three places, poured out his soul for sinners like you and me to be our suffering lamb. So I just want to read a few verses from each place and Look at verse 1, John 18. When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where was a garden, the garden of Gethsemane, into the which he entered and his disciples. And then, of course, Judas comes, and when they come before him, he says, verse 7, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he. If therefore ye seek these, seek me, let these go their way. And verse 12, then the band, and the captain, and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him, and led him away. And then John 19, read verses 13 through 18. This is from Gabbatha. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought forth Jesus and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the Passover in about the sixth hour. And he saith unto the Jews, Behold your king! But they cried out, Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him! Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led him away. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha, where they crucified him and two other with him on either side, one and Jesus in the midst. And then just turn to Matthew 27, just one verse, which is the apex, or you could say the nadir, the low point of his suffering on Golgotha. Verse 46, in about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is to say, my God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me? Let's pray. Glorious and incomprehensible God, who didst give thy own Son to the horrors of Gethsemane and Gabbatha and Golgotha, please bless us in this hour as we contemplate this subject that is far, far too big for us to get our arms around it. As the Apostle said, the love of God to us is beyond height, beyond breadth, and beyond depth. Who can fathom that thou, Father, was willing to give thy Son to such agonies For rebels and hell-worthy sinners, enemies such as we are by nature, may the wonder of the gospel overflow every one of our hearts this morning, and that we may cry out, My cup runneth over, because he took the cup of suffering I deserved and drank it to its bottom, bitter dregs. We pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. When we approach the suffering lamb, we must take our shoes from off our feet. The place whereon we stand is holy ground. When Jesus, in John 18, entered into the garden. This was the greatest day the world had ever seen. The final 24 hours of Jesus' life, prior to his crucifixion and death, is the apex of all human history, combined with the resurrection soon to follow. But here, our Savior is going to pour out His life in real time, in real pain, in real agony. And we can be so used to, even when you're young, you can be so used to hearing passion sermons, so used to hearing 33-year-old Savior coming face to face with the wandering Gethsemane already. If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. And the father says, by his silence, no, no, I'll turn a deaf ear to my own son in order to turn a hearing ear to hell deserving people. It's amazing. It's just all amazing. You can't understand it. It's pure love, it's pure gospel, it's pure father, pure son, pure spirit, It's pure life, the way, the truth, the life. And so John 18 says that Jesus went forth. He went forth knowing everything that would come upon Him, knowing He'd be the suffering Lamb. He went forth knowing His disciples would abandon Him, knowing the bitter suffering that Judas, His own hand-picked disciple, was about to betray Him. He went forth knowing he'd be whipped and beaten, spat upon, knowing the hairs of his beard would be plucked out, knowing great nails would be driven through his hands and feet. He went forth knowing what would come upon him, knowing he'd have to carry the cross, knowing he'd bleed and die on Calvary. He went forth having loved his own. He loved them to the end. He never gave up. He never turned back. He never flinched. He did the work His Father gave Him to do. Now, in Gethsemane, you see two beautiful things. You see Him as the King, and you see Him as the Lamb. I like to think of it this way. You see the threefold act of this king's sovereignty, and then a threefold act of this king, Islam. He falls to the ground. He goes beyond his disciples, and then he goes beyond even his three closest friends, and he's all alone now. He's in the Holy of Holies. He's crawling on the ground. The cup of suffering, as he trods the winepress of God's righteous wrath alone, is too strong for human words. All four gospel writers are vying for words to describe the horror of it. Mark says, he was sore amazed. Luke says, he was in agony. Matthew says, his soul is exceed, he said, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. And all those words mean, he was overwhelmed, he was immersed, he was over his head. He was burdened down with grief. And why? Your sin. My sin. What a price. And without His Godhead sustaining, miraculously upholding His humanity, He wouldn't have made it through Gethsemane, much less Gabbatha and Golgotha. Three times he's in so much agony. Three times he comes back out to his disciples looking for a little comfort. And three times they're sleeping. What, he says, couldn't even my best friends watch with me for one hour? No, he's alone, he's alone. And then comes Judas, one of the 12, one of the handpicked ones. Oh, that's difficult. David said, my own familiar friend has lifted up his heel against me. One of the greatest trials of a minister of the gospel, I assure you, is when one of the elders turns full-fledged against you. It's awful. Judas is coming. with a band, 200, 300 men, the chief priests, the scribes, all the religious authorities, the secular authorities, the Roman cohort. We'd say, you know, the Green Beret of the day, the number one leading military power. And they're coming to find him. coming to find him in his tears, in his agony. Hebrews 5 verse 7 says, He wept strong, crying in tears to him that was able to save him from death. He's on the ground. He's bleeding. He's sweating great drops of blood. Somehow his agony is so great that he engages in a rare medical condition that physicians call hematobrosis. which under the most intense agony your blood vessels erupt and blood seeps into the sweat glands and breaks the surface of the skin. That's what Jesus was going through as Judas is coming. Wow. For you? For me? how incredibly awful sin is. But when they arrive, they're expecting, as they surround the garden, as they tighten the noose around his neck and come in tighter and tighter, knowing he can escape, knowing he's got tremendous powers, They're hoping to find him somehow, like Saddam Hussein in some cowering pit somewhere, helpless and hopeless. These 300 men have their lanterns, their torches, their weapons, but suddenly, There's a figure standing in front of them. He walks out into the moonlight, and he says, Whom seek ye with authority and power? The lamb, the sweating, bloody lamb, suddenly becomes an authoritative king. And he asks a sovereign question, Whom seek ye? They're astonished. They had this plan laid that Judas would go and kiss Jesus because they wanted to be sure that they got the right man, not one of the other 11. And Judas comes up then and kisses him as if it's necessary. Obviously, this is he. And Jesus looks at him and says, friend, imagine that, friend, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? I don't know if you've ever thought about it before, but do you know that every sin is a betrayal kiss of Jesus? Every sin. Oh God, show me how bad sin is. Keep me from sinning. Keep me from hypocrisy. Preserve me. That should be our cry every day, every hour, because we can be so much like Judas. We can be so two-faced, one moment appearing so godly and the next, slipping, falling, kissing Jesus with our sin. Humsikki. Question comes to you, young people. This morning, comes to me, what are you seeking in life? Whom are you seeking? Are you seeking Jesus? There are a lot of people seeking Jesus today. But what kind of Jesus are you seeking? That's the question. Millions of people say they've received Christ, yet have given little evidence in their lives that they know Him. And so we need to ask ourselves this question seriously. What kind of Jesus are we seeking? And John Piper says something so helpful here and so searching. Let me just read it to you. When these people say they receive Christ, they do not receive him as supremely valuable. They receive him simply as sin forgiver. because they love being guilt-free, and as rescuer from hell, because they love being pain-free, and as healer, because they love being disease-free, and as protector, because they love being safe, and as prosperity-giver, because they love being wealthy, and as creator, because they want a personal universe, and as Lord of history, because they want order and purpose, but they don't receive Him as supremely and personally valuable for who He is. They don't receive Him as He really is, more glorious, more beautiful, more wonderful, more satisfying than everything else in the universe. They don't prize Him, or treasure Him, or cherish Him, or delight in Him. Or to say it another way, they receive Christ in a way that requires no change in their own human nature. You see, you don't have to be born again to love being guilt-free and pain-free and disease-free and safe and wealthy. All natural men without any spiritual life love these things, but to embrace Jesus as your supreme treasure, your Savior, your Lord, requires a new nature. So whom seek ye? Have you been born again? Do you have a new nature, that you long for Jesus as Savior not only, but as Lord, to rule your life, to put the reins of your life to his hands? But then, secondly, we don't only see the King's sovereign question here, but also the King's sovereign self-identification. He says, I am. You notice in the King James it says, I am he. The he is in italic print, which means it's not in the original. Just there to fill it out in terms of English. But basically he just said, Ego ai me, I am. Do you remember what that means? Moses at the bush, remember? Whom shall I say is sending me to the people of Israel? What is your name, Lord? Tell them, I Am has sent you. It's the Yahweh name. The Jehovah name. It's the covenant-keeping name of God. The faithful name of God. Jesus is declaring with kingly self-identification to this motley group of 300 Roman cohort band people, I am the living God of heaven and earth. I am Jehovah. I am the King of glory. You can't do one thing to me without my permission. You come to me with staves and torches and weapons, but you have nothing unless I give it to you. I am." And as soon as he says, I am, they all fall backward to the ground. It's amazing. What good are their torches, their weapons, their lanterns now? They're helpless before the king. And if Jesus can do that, friends, if He can do that in the midst of His humiliation, and when He's just getting off the ground, bloodied with sweat, suffering, weakened, what's He going to be like when He comes on the clouds as the great I AM to judge the living and the dead, as the King of kings forever? How are you going to stand before Him on that day? I am. And they're helpless. And then you know the story. You know the history. He lets them get back up on their feet. So you can imagine, they're getting their swords and their lanterns, and they get back up on their feet. They get themselves adjusted again. They stand before him again. And he says, Whom seek ye? He gives them a second chance. And you want to say, don't you? Repent! You're standing before the King of Kings. Repent! Bow on your faces and say, Lord, we've got it all wrong. You're not a traitor. You don't deserve to be crucified. And then look Jesus straight in the face. And they say, we seek Jesus of Nazareth. Again! Nazareth, that despised place, that self-proclaimed prophet. Again! You say, how is it possible? Are you so blind? Don't you know you're just laying on the ground a moment before by His power? How do you dare to say the same thing again? How do we dare to go to two sermons in a row every Sunday, getting our second chances, our third chances, our 1,000th chances, our 5,000th chances, and walk out of church after every sermon and never say we seek Jesus as our supreme Lord and our treasure? Every time we walk out of church without a Savior, without seeking Him in truth for who He really is, every time we're saying, at best, I seek Jesus of Nazareth, the despised Savior. And then there's the King's sovereign substitution. Isn't that amazing? If ye seek me, let these go their way. Verse 8. Now picture this. Picture this. Here's Jesus. He doesn't have a weapon on him. He's got 11 untrained disciples around him, physically untrained. They've got 300 of the best men of the country, or the best men of the world, the Roman world, and he's commanding them, you let these 11 around me. If you want me, I'll give myself to you. I'll be the lamb, but you let these all go their way. This is the gospel. Jesus says, I'm willing to be the sufferer in their place so they can go free. And he doesn't just suggest it to these men. He doesn't say, will you let these go their way? He's the King. And where there's the word of a King, there's authority. Not a single one of them dares to touch any of the 11. Even when Peter, stupid Peter, picks out his sword and goes to kill one of them. And the guy ducks or something, and he picks off his ear, and the ear's laying on the ground. Can you imagine 300 Green Berets just standing there and not doing anything? That's exactly what happened. Jesus calmly reaches down, picks up the ear, puts it on Malchus, and the ear sticks with no crazy glue. This is a miracle. The 300 see again, he's the king of kings, the almighty Lord, and they go right on and proceed to arrest him. That is how blind your and my heart is by nature. You know, I was converted when I was 14. And people would say to me, and God just brought me through some very strong, strong convictions of sin and strong personal deliverance, so it was just no doubt in my mind, and my mouth was unloosened. I was a very shy person, but my mouth was unloosed. I could not but talk to him, so it was a radical, sudden change for me. But people would say to me when I was 14, Wow, especially adults, wow, you're so young. I go, young? For 14 years I lived for myself. For 14 years I was blinded. I threw away 14 years of my life. I felt like I was old to be saved. How can you throw away 14 years of a short life without having Jesus as your Lord and Savior? It's tragic. If you're without Jesus still now, please don't go another week. Please don't go another day without him. You could die today. You could die tomorrow. But beyond that, he's the only way to live. He's the only way to have purpose and meaning and joy and fulfillment in life when he is your substitute. He says, let these go their way. He'll take care of them all the way. He's a wonderful Savior. And then Jesus turns himself over. The threefold sovereign king becomes a threefold submissive lamb. And you look at that in verses 12 and 13. They arrest him, the word taken, that was the formal word for arrest. They bind him and they lead him away. taken, arrested, led away. Powerful image of the Lamb who was led away to the slaughter without uttering one word. So they used the formal word for arrest. They arrest him, and Jesus realizes this is Satan's hour, yet he knows it's God's hour. God's hour to fulfill the gospel. And so he gives himself, as it were, into the hands of the evil powers. Judas, Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate, the Roman soldiers, the Jerusalem multitude are so in the hand of Jesus and of his father that without his will, they cannot so much as move. Jesus knows nothing happens by chance. Jesus knows this is his father's plan. Jesus knows that this is ultimately his hour, though it seems to be Satan's hour. And so he gives himself up. He doesn't need to be bound. He will go with him. He's the lamb now. The submissive, suffering lamb. But they bind him anyway. And in those days, if you bound someone really strong so that the blood would come out of the end of his fingers and then bring him to a judge, the judge would take notice and say, this must be a great criminal because he's bound so tightly. That's probably what they did to Jesus. He was bound. He was bound that we might be set free from the bands of sin. He was bound that He might bind us to Himself by obedience and love through His love. He was bound that He might restore to us as the second Adam in the Garden of Gethsemane what we lost by the first Adam in the Garden of Eden. and what parallels there are here, it's unbelievable. The first Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, the second Adam bore sin in the Garden of Gethsemane. First Adam is surrounded with glory and beauty and harmony and refused to obey. The second Adam is surrounded with bitterness and sorrow and was obedient to death. First Adam was tempted by Satan and fell. The second Adam was tempted by all the forces of hell and did not fall. First Adam was guilty, arrested by God during the cool of the day. The second Adam was innocent and arrested by men in the middle of the night. First Adam hid himself after fleeing. The second Adam revealed himself after walking into moonlight. The first Adam took fruit from Eve's hand. The second Adam took the cup, the cup of wrath from his father's hand. First Adam was conquered by the devil. The second conquered the devil. And on and on it goes. He's bound. He's bound. Adam reaches out to grasp sin. Jesus gives out his hands to be bound for the sin of the children of Adam. He's bound by the will of his father. He's bound because God is bound to God from all eternity to fulfill the gospel promises. to bring salvation through the seed of the woman, the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then thirdly, he shows he's the lamb that only by being arrested and being bound, by being led away, led away. What an expression, the leader being led away. And he's led for seven miles. He's led through the very fields of Kidron, through the so-called sheep gate into Jerusalem. The very field, the very gates where the sheep were raised to go to be animal sacrifices in the temple. Now the shepherd of the sheep, the Lamb of God. goes through the sheep gate. No more sheep need to go through. He's going to shed his blood. He's going to shed his blood once for all. He's led from place to place like a wandering sheep. He goes first to Annas, then to Caiaphas, then to Pilate, then to Herod, then back to Pilate, then to the cross for 24 hours having nothing to drink, nothing to eat, except a little sour soldier's wine, vinegar on the cross. What a Lamb. A three-fold Lamb arrested so that He could arrest you. A Lamb bound so that He could free you from the burden of sin. A Lamb led away so that He can lead you in the paths of His righteousness. This is the suffering Lamb of Gethsemane. But that seven miles led him, ultimately, to Gabbatha. To Gabbatha, the judgment hall of Pilate. Things happened to him again, as he's pouring out himself, bit by bit, unto death for sinners. Pilate, therefore, took Jesus, John 19, 1, and scourged him. You know what scourging means? Scourging is when they tear off your clothes, they bind your hands behind your back, they press someone up against a broad pillar, they tie you to the pillar so you can't move, and they bring out a scourging whip, sort of like a mop with oxtail bones mixed in, and they flick it down on your back with their wrists, and the stones catch hold in your skin, and they give little rivulets of blood as it goes down. The Romans said, you can't, and they were the most cruel of all nations, you can't scourge someone more than 40 lashes, 40 scourgings, because it will kill them. Lots of people died under scourging. We don't know if Jesus got all 40, probably he did. But he was bleeding now, everywhere. His back was a messy, bloody pulp. Bones would scrape down his back, pouring blood from the sacred body of Immanuel. He's in mental agony. He's in physical agony. They mock him then in his royal dignity. After they use the material rods physically on him, they then give him mental abuse. They take all the external symbols and tokens of His glory, of His royalty, and they mock Him. They take a worn-out, faded purple robe. which was no doubt once the garment of a leader of the Roman band, but now old and fit for being cast away. And they cast it around him, and they joyfully mock him as king. They throw it over his bleeding back mercilessly, and they break twigs from a long-spiked thorn bush. They twist the twigs in circle. They press the twigs and thorns down upon his head to form a mock crown. And then they take a... A flimsy reed into his hand, instead of a strong scepter. And they mock him, and they laugh at him, and they spit him in the face, and they blindfold him, and they deride him on all sides, and they say, Hail! Hail! Thou King of the Jews! They hit him. They take the reed out of his hand and they beat him on the head, causing the thorns, the sharp thorns, to sink deeper into his skull, the blood flowing down his face, the face of the gracious friend of sinners, the face of the king of kings who appears to have lost all his glory, and yet there is majesty in his misery. He appears to be kingless. He appears to be no longer God's Son, no longer to be heaven's heaven, no longer to be earth's royal prince. He appears defeated, but in the midst of it all, Pilate steps out and says, Behold your king, prophetically. You see, the mystery that brings this awful picture and Pilate's wonderful confession together is our own condemnableness. He had to suffer that way, friends, because of the enormity the condemnability of your sin and my sin. He's king all the while, but he's our substitute priest. He's our royal sufferer, the suffering lamb. And you see, part of that suffering he has to go through because we are so wicked, we will not have him to be king over us, and he wants to win us and woo us. And so he has to make satisfaction for our every sin. And actually, everything he went through is our sin. Our sins robed him. Our sins are the thorn in his crown. Our sins are the reed in his hand. Our sins have killed the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold your King. Behold your only possible substitute. Behold majesty in misery. Behold the bloodied Savior pouring Himself out in Golgotha, His blood-red satisfaction for your sin-blackened heart, in order to bring you a white robe of righteousness. Behold your King by the pillar, suffering in agony, mocked, sped upon by your sin. Oh, the suffering Lamb, the eternal King, the glorious Redeemer. Behold Him in His agony, bleeding from head to foot, and saying, I'm willing to be your Savior, willing to be your Savior. This blood is willing to be shed for you, Gabbatha's sufferer, Gabbatha's royal priest. Will you reject that blood, dear friend? Will you say once more, I won't have this man to rule over me. Don't reject this king, this suffering king. You won't escape him. You won't escape him. He'll come back one day. And one day, every knee shall bow. every knee, also those shall bow in rebellion against him. And finally, we go to Golgotha. There's no way I can begin to probe the depths of it all, but let me just say this to you. There's seven words that come from the cross. I want to focus just on one of them with you. There's the word of forgiveness. You know about that word, don't you? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they're doing. He's praying for enemies. He's praying for Jerusalem sinners. He's praying for people that have sent him to the cross. He's praying for the worst of sinners. There's no one in this room that is beyond that prayer. He's available. This first word from the cross says he's available right now for the worst of sinners. And then there's the word of promise, the second word, which he speaks to who? To some righteous person? No, to a thief, to a despicable, treasonous, murderous thief being crucified with him. Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. What a Savior! Then there's the word of compassion. He's willing to be compassionate to his mother. He brings a son to his mother to take over, He will be no more on earth so that John can meet her earthly needs. A word of compassion. But then comes the great word, the great word. The unspeakable apex of all his suffering. It's 12 o'clock noon now. For three hours, Jesus has been hanging on the cross. He's spoken three times, always focusing on others, the well-being of others, praying for his enemies, promising salvation to a thief, making arrangements for his mother's care, and then suddenly, Good Friday at noon, it becomes strangely dark. Gethsemane and Gabbatha are just preludes to what's going to happen now. This is hell. Jesus is entering into the essence of hell. At midday, it becomes midnight. And the great high priest, in the holy of holies, feeling the weight of all the sins that all his people deserve for an eternal hell coming upon him, being compressed down on him, overwhelming him, He cries out in the midst of darkness. Now it goes beyond his crying out for others, but now he cries out out of his own need, pressed sore into the very agonies of agonizing death and horror over the sin that we've sinned against him. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And there's no answer. There's no answer. You know, I was once all by myself in Banff National Park in Alberta, in the middle of the winter, going to Chilliwack. I went up a side road. It was beautiful. It had snowed 30-some inches. Just one lane road's open. There was a side road. I went up a little bit to see Lake Pato, a beautiful lake shaped like a wolf's head. I'd been there before. It's one of the most beautiful places on earth. I couldn't make it all the way up the road because of the snow. I stopped the car. I got out. I stood there all by myself. All I could see was white, beautiful white everywhere, the beauty, the power of God. And all of a sudden, I heard a noise in the midst of deafening silence. It was a crow coming over one of the mountains. One crow. Every stroke of his wings sent a loud noise throughout that valley. and that long crow just flew all the way across. No one responded to him. Nothing happened. And at that moment, I thought of Jesus. The multitude all around him, making so much noise, so much confusion, but in that midnight darkness, there was no noise. There was absolute silence. People were terrified. And then the cry in the midst of Golgotha, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And no response. He forsaken, that you, our Lord said, never would have to be forsaken. See, in our trials, when we think God is forsaking us, He's pushing us away with one hand, perhaps, in His providence, but He's drawing us with the other hand, as we saw with Abraham yesterday. But now God is pushing away His Son with both hands. My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Imagine! The Son of God crying out to God and getting no answer from the Father who loves Him. Because He's bearing the sin of His people. He's taking their hell. He's entering the agony of unbearable stress. He says in Psalm 22 when He cried out, My God, My God, that He was roaring, roaring with agony. His cry pierces the darkness like a perpetual shriek of those who are cast away forever. It's the cry that is uttered in hell when the wrath of God overwhelms the damned. It's a heart-piercing cry, a heaven-piercing cry, a hell-piercing cry. It's the cry of the agony of unmitigated sin. All the sin that you've ever committed, my friend, if you're a believer, it's all put on Jesus at this moment. It's all in this cry. It's all compressed down upon Him. You know, I once saw in a U.S. News & World Report a picture of a man standing with a Sears tower building behind him, and he had two boulders in his hand about this size. And the caption beneath the picture said that there are certain stars in our galaxy that are so dense in weight a boulder this size, two boulders this size, from that star would equal in weight an entire Sears Tower building. So compressed. That's a fraction of what happened to Jesus in that moment. all the weight of all the sins of all the hell that all his people deserve for all eternity it's all coming down upon him and in his agony his agony pure undiluted agony of his father's wrath he cries out my god my god why hast thou forsaken me That's a cry of unassisted solitariness, like that crow. There is no one there, no one there to help him. No voice cries out and breaks open the heavens, this is my beloved Son. No angel comes to strengthen him. No dove descends from heaven to symbolize peace. No one says, well done, thou good and faithful servant. He's in a strange country, a far country. He's hanging in the naked flame of His Father's wrath. The women who have supported Him so often are silent. The disciples, cowardly and terrified, are far away. Jesus is disowned by all, rejected by heaven, rejected by earth, rejected by hell. He's walking alone in pitch black darkness. Even the sun won't shine upon Him. And in the midst of it all is this cry of dereliction. forsaken us, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And that cry is what God thinks of your sin and my sin. every detail of Jesus' sufferings, but particularly the apex of it all, the fourth word from the cross, declares the irrationality, the heinousness, the dread character, the stupidity, the awfulness of sin. But it also declares the beauty of the gospel, because Jesus bore all this sin, in order to bring a judicial satisfaction to his father so that his father could look upon a sinner who believes in the Son of God and be just and a justifier of him that believes for Jesus' sake. So here's how it happens. Here's how it happens. You remember David. He brought in Mephibosheth from the bloodline of Saul. Of course, he's going to kill Mephibosheth. That's what they all did. When you get a new bloodline, you kill all the descendants, right? Mephibosheth comes in front of him. He expects to die. He says, behold thy servant. He's sitting before David. David looks down from his throne, and he says, Mephibosheth, for Jonathan's sake, I'm going to have mercy upon you. See, God looks down from His throne room in heaven. He sees who you are. He sees what you've done. He knows your sin. He knows your original sin. He knows your actual sin. He knows your sin of omission, your sin of commission, your sin in thought, your sin in word, your sin in deed. He knows that you've never given Him love above all one moment. He knows you've sinned against the law every moment of your life. He knows you have millions and millions and millions of sins, and you expect to die when you come before Him, when He brings you experientially before Him. He's the judge, he hates sin. And he looks from his throne and he says, sinner, I offer you the Lord Jesus Christ, believe in him. And for the greater Jonathan's sake, I have a covenant with him, for the greater Jonathan's sake, when you repent and believe in the son, you will not die. but you'll have a place at my table always. I will feed you, I will nourish you, I will be your God, I'll be your Savior, I'll be everything to you. You see, this is the gospel. Jesus underwent all this so you could have the joy of fellowship with God. And then once Jesus went through this great, great cry, once He undertook the essence of hell in that fourth crossword, you see, Then immediately, the next three words came very quickly. He was thirsty. Why was he thirsty? Because there was one more prophecy not fulfilled. Psalm 69 verse 21, they had to bring him vinegar to drink. That's fulfilled. Now everything is fulfilled. And he says, it is finished to tell us I, all my salvation is finished. I've done everything, now I can die. Father, seventh word, into thy hands I commend my spirit. So fifth word, a word of longing, he's thirsting. Sixth word, the word of completion. Seventh word, the word of surrender, he surrenders himself to God. Conclusion, he's a full Savior who dies, who's buried, and then who arises from the dead, and when he dies, When the seventh word is uttered, what happens? There's something beautiful. The moment he dies, and the Bible says his flesh is like a veil. He rends the flesh of his own body. He dies voluntarily, doesn't he? See, I've seen a lot of people die. What happens is they die and then their head falls. But the Bible says Jesus laid down his head and then gave up the ghost. It's voluntary. for your sins, for my sins, he dies. And then what happens? Well, he's buried and he arises from the dead. But before that happens, As he rends the veil of his flesh, at the same moment, the Father rends the veil of the temple, the holy of holies, the holy place. The temple veils are rent open. No one could ever see inside. But you see, the Father is confirming, it is finished. My justice is satisfied. Sinners now have an open way. You don't have to stand outside. You can go into a church building today and you can worship him face to face. And then another veil was rent. There's a man named a centurion standing right there, and what happened to him? Truly, this man is the Son of God. Who told him that? The Holy Spirit rent the veil of his heart. So it's a triple veil rending. The moment Jesus died, his own fleshly veil was rent, the veil of the temple is rent, and the centurion's heart is rent. And you see, that's what happened when God shows us his son. Not only is everything rent open and the way open to us to God through Jesus, but the veil of our heart is also rent. So our heart is open up to Jesus, and then we have no secrets from Jesus. We tell him how bad we are. We pour all our sins upon him, and there's nothing we hold back. And dear young friend, I want to tell you something. There is nothing better in an earthly relationship than to have a husband or a wife with whom you can have no secrets and you can share everything in a beautiful openness. But there is one thing better than that in the heavenly life, and that is to have that kind of relationship with God. where you trust God with everything, and you give him everything, and he knows everything, and he still loves you. He still loves you. He still loves you in this glorious suffering land. It's a miracle. Oh, the love of God, says Paul. It passes all knowledge, height, all height, all depth, all breadth. So there you have it. There you have the gospel. and he resurrects from the dead. For our justification, says Paul, to confirm for us that he's the living Savior. He's alive now at the right hand of God, and you'll hear the whisper of your faintest cry. Just go to him. Just go to him. That Savior who lives in the midst of sinners. You know, there's a beautiful text. I read it to you, John 19.18. Two thieves were crucified with him, Jesus in the midst. Literally, he was in the midst of sinners. We're all sinners today. He's in the midst of us. Physically, horizontally, he was in the midst of thieves. Savingly, vertically, he stands in the midst between God and an offended sinner. Experientially, he will come into the midst of your heart to indwell you by his spirit. And practically, he will come. In every area of your life, He will stand in the midst in your relationship to the world and give you strength to be crucified to the world and the world to you. He will come into the midst of your marriage when it's in the Lord and He will bless your marriage in the midst. He will help you one day in child rearing so that you can raise your children in the fear of God. He'll be in the midst. He'll help you in your education. He's the center of every subject. He's in the midst. He will help you in your relationship with fellow believers. I believe in the communion of saints. He's in the midst. He helps us when we get together in church to worship Him. Practically, He's in the midst. Walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks. And one day in heaven, He will be in the midst. He's the center of everything. He's the center of history. He's the center of the past, the present, the future. He's the center of everything from eternity to eternity. And He must be the center of your life if you're going to live in comfort and die in peace. And He can be. You can have Him. You can have Him today. Paul said, for me to live is what? Is Christ. This is my life. He's the center of everything, said Paul. I'm linked to him. I love him. He's my life. I long for him. I yearn to be more like him. He's the center of everything. The Lamb, the Lamb, says Revelation, is in the midst of the throne, the suffering Lamb, now exalted. is in the midst of the throne lifted up, and all the eyes are around him, gazing upon him, worshiping him. Oh, my friend, give up the battle of trying to live to God by yourself, trying to please God by your works or whatever, or trying to live without God. That's a hopeless case. Just give up the battle, lay down your weapons, and receive. Some people have a hard time receiving. They want to be the Savior of everybody. But you have to learn to receive the gospel as a poor, hell-worthy sinner, trusting in Christ, and then you can go out and help others and share the joy of what you have known with others about this Savior. Behold your King. Behold. Your Lamb, He's everything. Just trust Him, surrender to Him, live unto Him, live by Him, live for Him, live in Him, live through Him, live to Him, and don't be content until you can say, for me to live, Christ. That's it. Let's pray. Great God of heaven, we thank Thee so much for the gospel. We thank Thee so much for Jesus, so much for the suffering Lamb. Oh God, we marvel, we are overwhelmed, we are amazed at the enormity of our sin and at the enormity of Thy grace. And we thank Thee that the Lord Jesus' righteousness is greater than our unrighteousness, that the gospel is greater than our sinfulness. and that through Jesus, all our sin is paid for. Oh Lord, help us to believe that, help us to live that, help us to trust that, help us to surrender to that. Help every young person here to know Thee, for to know Thee and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent is life eternal. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.