In this sermon, the preacher reflects on the suffering and humiliation that Jesus endured on the way to the cross. He compares the stripping of Jesus by the soldiers to the stripping of Adam and Eve in the garden after they sinned. The preacher emphasizes the contrast between Jesus, who had no place to lay his head, and the animals that have their own homes. He also acknowledges the impact that the message of Jesus has had on the hearts of the listeners, giving praise and glory to Christ. The sermon draws connections between the events of Jesus' trial and the consequences of sin, highlighting the sacrifice and grace of Jesus.

Shall we turn, please, in our Bible to the book of Exodus, chapter 28. Exodus, chapter 28, please. Exodus, chapter 28, beginning at verse 31, referring, of course, to the priesthood in the Old Testament and the high priest and his garments in order that he might represent the Lord Jesus Christ and enter into the tabernacle. Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and brave upon it like the engraving of a signet, Holiness to the Lord. Thou shalt put on, be it a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre, upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. It shall be upon Aaron's forehead, and that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hollow in all their holy gifts. It shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord. And chapter 29, and verse 6, And thou shalt put the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre. Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him. Just briefly shall we look once more to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank thee that thou didst never weary of our coming to thee. We praise thee for the Lord Jesus Christ, for thy desire that he might be exalted, and we thank thee for the word of God that presents him to us, and for the Holy Spirit to convict and to take of the things of Christ and reveal them. And in these few moments together, may we be conscious of our Savior, his presence, and may our hearts be drawn unto him. Each one, Father, gathered here this morning have a special need, perhaps comfort, perhaps encouragement, correction, conviction. Perhaps some here without Christ, and they need him. And so we pray thy direction and blessing as we commit ourselves to thee and our Savior's precious and worthy name. Amen. Now, we've been looking at some of the portraits of Christ, and of course, as you're well aware, we have just been scratching the surface along the way. Last Sunday we were noticing those blessed hands. Later on we were considering his feet and his face, his touch, his eyes, and we thought this morning we would consider his hand. Actually, in thinking about the meeting this morning before the Lord, I was thinking of combining together the Lord's hands and shoulders. However, as we were meditating along this particular line, we found that his head seemed to occupy our time to the point where, while those blessed shoulders are wonderful, we were unable to fit it in. So you remember that lovely little verse over in 1 Samuel concerning Saul, and it speaks about him as he stood among the people, that from his shoulders upwards he was higher than any of the people. Whenever he came into the midst of a crowd, they could see from his shoulders upwards he was head and shoulders above everyone else, and they all had to look up to him. And how much more was our Lord Jesus Christ when he was brought into our midst as we're occupied with him, indeed head and shoulders above all else. He's fair far from the children of men, and grace has poured into his lips. We've appreciated the fact that so many as we've walked around the grounds and met different ones expressed that the Lord has in some measure at least touched hearts and stirred your hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to that measure that Christ has been exalted, we do give him the praise and the glory, and we trust that might be so this morning. It's been said concerning a great artist among within to visit him on one occasion, and they were watching him as he was painting, and there on his easel each time he looked down to get his paint and mix his paint a bit along beside the paint were these various bright brilliant gems. And someone asked him on one occasion why he had those gems sitting there, and his answer was something like this, that he found that color in painting after a while began to fade, and the brilliance began to pass away, and as he sought to put the colors together he couldn't trust his eyes after a while, and he had to go back to those original brilliant colors, and with his eyes on those colors he could get a better, a truer color for his painting. Well, isn't that not true of us concerning the Lord Jesus? We look at God's people, and we know many of God's people do we not, but we look up to very highly, and we see Christ in them, and so to such a great extent. But no matter how we look at others, we eventually become disappointed. We're eventually hurt or feel that we have been disappointed in some way or another. We have to constantly keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the delights, and one of the main reasons it seems to me why we gather together around the Lord's table on Sunday morning, as we did here just prior to this meeting, to remember him. Isn't it wonderful that we are constantly before his presence? He never forgets us. He knows our hearts. He knows how we soon get our eyes from him, and so Lord's day by Lord's day we were drawn back to himself again, and we meditate upon him as it was this morning. Our hearts are drawn out to him, and we go forth refreshed longing to glorify that one who gave his life for us, and now lives to make intercession for us. So let's consider, shall we, that blessed one and his head this morning. Someone has penned these words, we adore thee sinless one, for the battle-fontaned one, for the torn crown on my brow, for the crown thou wear'st now, for the hands nailed to the tree, and the hands that opened heaven for me, sacred feet pierced through for sin, and thigh that let the red sphere in. We adore thee for the blood sprinkled by the throne of God, blood that bathed the crimson tide, brow and hand and feet and thigh. Blood that o'er my sins doth flow, making me as white as snow, shed for me when Jesus died. We adore thee crucified. Our wonderful Lord. I wonder if I were to ask you this morning the first time in the New Testament his head was mentioned, and the last time in the New Testament his head was mentioned, how many would be very quick to point those two verses out to us? A brother reminded us this morning concerning the first and last concerning the Lord's words when he was here, and when we think of the Lord's head, the first time his head is referred to is in Matthew's gospel chapter 8. I will not bother to turn to at the moment, but in Matthew chapter 8 and verse 20 it says he had nowhere to lay his head, and the last time his head is mentioned in the scriptures is in Revelation chapter 19 and verse 12, and it's rather a tremendous contrast because there we find on his head are many crowns. Things have passed considerably from the time that he was here with nowhere to lay that blessed head, so that time when he comes back and on his head will be many crowns. As we have the time, I want to consider with you this morning as we look at that blessed head, I want to notice these five little points. I want to notice first of all that that head reminds us that he is pure, he is perfect. As we think upon that head, we see something about how poor he was when he was here on earth. As we continue to meditate upon that head, we think of the punishment that that head suggests, and then as we meditate upon that head, we think of how precious it is to his people, and finally that head is preeminent. He is the head indeed above all, and if you were to consider that in more detail as we hope to do, you will find that we just go from one step to another thinking of his person as the perfect one, the one who was pure, and yet how he stooped and became poorer for us, and went to the cross and was punished for us, and now as we gaze upon him as the resurrected Savior, he becomes precious to us, and one of these days is coming back King of Kings and Lord of Lords, preeminent over all. That wonderful head has so many lessons for us. Notice, please, in Exodus chapter 28, we find that Aaron, who is a picture of the great high priest, our Savior, he is clothed, as you recall, and most of you, and we don't want to get involved in the types here in any detail because that would occupy our whole morning, but as you remember, Aaron, representing our Savior, is here taking the garments upon him, the garments that God ordained through Moses should be worn. They had to be carefully arranged, repaired, because they all represented in picture things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and as he went into the holy place, he must go in, and into the most holy place on the day of atonement, he must go in with the linen garments. Those linen garments that represent or picture to us the perfections of the Lord Jesus Christ as the perfect man down here, but as he went in as a high priest representing the people, we find that he had to have a special miter, a special turban for his head, and it's described for us here in verse 36, "...and thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it like the engravings of a signet, holiness to the Lord." Now, even Josephus, the historian, claimed when he was writing that this particular plate, holiness unto the Lord made back here in the days of Moses, was in existence in his time. Be that as it may, this particular turban that was upon the head of Aaron had this brilliant pure gold engraved on the turban, holiness unto the Lord. As our Savior is holy, thoughtless, undefined, separate from sinners, so Aaron must, on his head, must represent that on his forehead before the Lord as he came into the presence of God. Now, notice again it tells us that in verse 37, "...and thou shalt put on it a blue lace." Here was this fine linen bonnet or turban or miter with the holiness engraved on it in gold, holiness unto the Lord, the linen representing the perfect life of our Savior, the gold representing his bringing constant glory to the Father, and the blue reminding us that he indeed was the Heavenly One that came. Then you'll notice that it tells us in verse 38, "...and it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy thing which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts. It shall be always upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord." And they were accepted in their head. They were accepted in the head represented in Aaron at this particular time. We are accepted in our balloon, in our head. Our head is in glory, and as our head is pure and holy, so we are holy in him. And you notice how their gifts that they presented to God in connection with the tabernacle, frequently they were tainted by iniquity in one form or another. But we find that inasmuch as Aaron, representing the holiness of God, taking the iniquities of the people, he took in a sense their prayers and praises, adding his sweet perfume. As our Savior takes our feeble thanksgiving, our feeble worship, our feeble praise as we gather at the Lord's table, or as we get alone in our closet and pour out our heart to him, he takes in the midst of our own weakness and our feebleness, he takes these and he makes them accepted before our God. What a delight to know that we have such a head in the glory. Turn in connection with this, please, also to Song of Solomon, chapter 5. We have turned to this passage, I think, on one or two occasions during the week, and just picked out a verse or two, but notice again in chapter 5 and verse 10 and 11, My beloved is white and ruddy, he's the cheapest among ten thousand. His head, there's that blessed head again, and we're still thinking of that head as being the perfect one, that head in all its purity. His head is as the most fine gold. When we think of his head, we think of his wisdom, we think of his work, we think of those blessed thoughts. He knew those things. There was purity there. It was of the most fine gold, that is the gold of gold. It could not be of any greater, of any more purity than that. In Ottawa, we have the mint and the government mint. In fact, often, believe it or not, even from the state, they send up gold there to be purified in the mint in Ottawa and various other parts of the world. They have quite an area there where they, I remember going in one time, and they take the gold that comes from various parts of the world, and they gave us a large bar just to look at, of course, and we put it in our hand, and they said, now look at that. I suppose you would assume that was pure gold. And we said, well, it looks like pure gold does, although we're not experts along this line. Well, they said the person who sent this bar of gold along kind of considered it that way, too. Well, let's see what's going to happen. They took this bar of gold and put it into the fire, and they threw the instruments they had, and eventually, after it was melted down, and then came out, and so on, to our amazement, we found so much impurity in that bar of gold, and then they marked on it just how much of pure gold there was, and how much of impurity there was there. And no matter how we look at people, there's impurity. They're saviors. That is the stamp upon mankind, but the moment we look upon our savior, it's gold of gold. It is the most fine gold. It is the purity of gold, and we cannot exalt him enough and own that he indeed is altogether lovely. There is no spot in him whatsoever, and he is the one who's representing us as believers in the glory of the Lord, and how wonderful to be accepted in him. Now, notice what it says in verse 11. His head is as the most fine gold, and his locks, be still reminded of his head, his locks are bushy and black as a raven. And so, we have the thought that his hair is described, head, first of all, as a gold, but his hair is bushy and black. Brother Woodhouse was reminding us last night of his hair, or what there is left of it, and while I haven't got quite that far yet, it's going very rapidly, and I'll soon catch up to him, I believe, but I'm sure most of us can look back, as men particularly, and think of the time when our hair was bushy. In other words, it was thick, and there was that prime of life, but somehow or other age comes in, and the bushiness begins to thin out, and it becomes thinner and thinner until, in many cases, there's very little left at all. But our Savior, it says, his head, his hair is bushy. In other words, the whole point here is he never changes. He never changes. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, and it's black as a raven. A few weeks ago, I was in a meeting in Ottawa, and we had two or three meetings there, and I went one to the other meeting, and I had not been there for a year or so, and a woman leaned over right after the meeting, after the Lord's Supper, and she leaned over, and she said, I wondered who that gray-haired man was sitting in front of me. She said, I don't remember you with all those gray hairs. Well, you see, at one time, believe it or not, this head of hair, what's left is black as a raven, but not anymore. Chains decay in all around, I see, but not in the Savior. There's perfection in him. His head is bushy and black as a raven. Well, then, let's look on, shall we? Go on to the New Testament, to Matthew chapter 8, please. Matthew chapter 8, and the Lord is speaking here, and he says this. Verse 20, Matthew chapter 8, and Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holed, the birds of the air have nested, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. Now, beloved, when you stop and just think of that, in the light of what we've been talking about, I don't know how it affects you, but it just touches my heart, because when I first think of the Lord Jesus Christ, I think of him in all his glory. I think of him in all his worth. I think of that head as a pure gold. I think of him in all his perfection, in all his purity, and yet that blessed one, in all his perfection, though he was rich, yet for hours they became poor. And this is the same one now manifesting the flesh, walking the scene in the world that his own hands had created, and there was no way to lay his head. Truly he was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. When he came into this world there was no room for him in the inn. As he walked the streets and the roads and the paths up and down the country of Israel, he had no home, nowhere to lay his head. There were times when the disciples would lead him and go off to their home, but he had no home. The Lord of glory in a world that was his, oh how he had humbled himself. Poor, poor. But for us, do you remember how he would spend all night on the mountainside in prayer, this lonely man that we say of Calvary? And then when he came to the cross, again there was no room for him in the hearts of the people, and they said, away with him. We'll not have this man to reign over us. No room for him. And beloved, perhaps there are some in this gathering this morning, the Lord alone knows your heart, but no doubt there are some in this gathering that still have absolutely no room for him in their life. The Lord has been seeking to gain an entrance into your life again and again. Perhaps you're here and you've heard the gospel, and you can explain that gospel to me better than I can explain it, because you've heard it so often, and yet somehow or other you've just pulled that heart toward the Savior, and the Lord is saying there's still no room for me in your life, in your heart. You've never said, Lord Jesus, come into my life. Never. Could there be such a person here this morning? And even when he died on the cross of Calvary, it was a borrowed suit that he was placing. How cool. But go on, please, to Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27, please. This chapter is a tremendous chapter. Here we see the humility of our Savior as he is approaching the cross and going through the trial. Verse 26, Then released he Barabbas unto them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. And if you've never noticed it before, and I know many of you have, but if you've never noticed it before, I suggest you, beloved, take this passage and notice how that in each thing that transpired concerning the Lord, there is a comparable lesson spiritually for us today. For example, here is Barabbas, and the word Barabbas means the son of his father. But here is the Savior, and he was the son of his father. Barabbas was the son of his father Adam, born in sin. Christ is the son of his father. So, perfect and pure. Now, one is scourged, the Savior, Barabbas is released. But notice as we go on, verse 27, And the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, gathering to him the whole band of soldiers, and they stripped him. The things that happen to Christ as he goes through the trial are the things that are associated with what sin does. When Adam and Eve sing in the garden, you remember, they realize that they were naked. Sin strips, and here's our blessed Savior about to be punished for us taking our place, and he goes through these processes that remind us of various things that happen as a result of sin. He was stripped, and they put on him a scarlet robe. It wasn't his. It belonged to somebody else, but they put it upon him. And you remember the Bible says, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. It reminds us that all our sins were laid upon him, and Jesus bore them on three. And then notice, please, in verse 29, And when they had planted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head. His head. There's that head again. That head, it was pure and perfect. That head that was poor in that he had nowhere to lay it, that head now is about to be punished. And what is placed upon that blessed head? A crown of thorns. And where did those thorns come from? It came as a result of sin. It was the symbol of sin. Cursed is the ground for thy sake, the Lord said to Adam. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee. And from the cursed earth, the marks of the curse for thorns are taken. And our blessed Savior symbolically here is bearing the curse for us. What a wonderful Savior. They planted a crown of thorns, and they put it upon his head. You remember in John chapter 19, it tells us that they brought him forth wearing the crown of thorns, and he said, Behold the man, behold him, O beloved, get your eyes upon him, and what he went through for you when he bowed his head so low. We were singing a few moments ago about that blessed head, about the sufferings that he went through when all our load of sin was laid upon him. Here it is pictured before us, but notice again his head is mentioned in verse 29, and on farther in it tells us when they had planted the crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and they put a reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail king of the Jews, and they spit upon him. They took a reed, and they smote him on the head. So they not only crowned him upon the head with a crown of thorns, they smote him on the head with a reed. Now even though the reed was perhaps weak and flimsy, just the smiting of that reed upon the blessed head of the Savior would drive those thorns deeper into his blessed brow. And then notice, please, as you go farther down in the story in verse 27, and they set up over his head his accusation written, This is Jesus the king of the Jews. So they crowned that head, they smote the head, and then they set a sign up over the head. This is Jesus the king of the Jews, perhaps in mockery, but it reminds us that indeed he is the king of the Jews. He is indeed, and that blessed one that bore our sins on the cross, beloved, is none other than the Lord of Glory. And that brings us to the fourth point, and that is his precious head. That's why that head becomes so precious to us as his people. You remember in Luke's gospel chapter 4, we won't bother to turn to it, in Luke chapter 4 in verse 46, in that story that we looked at the other night concerning the woman at the feet of the Savior, you remember that he spoke to Simon. He said, I entered your house, Simon, and he said, My head with oil thou didst not anoint. You did not anoint my head with oil, you didn't, but there was one dear woman who did, and notice what it says in Matthew chapter 26. Matthew 26, please, verse 6. Now when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he sat at meat. When his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much more, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you, but me ye have not always, for in that she hath poured the ointment on my body she did it for my burial. Verily, verily, I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the world, the whole world, there shall also this woman have done betrothal for the Lord. Now, beloved, may I just say very briefly, because of that blessed head, it should be the desire of every believer, symbolically, in a spiritual way, to anoint that blessed head. To anoint is to set the Savior apart. To anoint is to honor, is to set one out above others, and truly he is one to be set apart in our lives. You see, in the word of God, and time forbid looking at it, but in the word of God there was the anointing. Whenever there was the high priest, we notice that back in chapter 29 of Exodus, the high priest Aaron was anointed on the head. We know that the kings were anointed. When David came on the scene, the Lord pointing him out to Samuel and said, That is the man. Anoint him, anoint him, and we know that the prophets were anointed. We know that back in the Old Testament, in 1 Samuel, that it says, Anoint Saul as captain over your life. Anoint him as captain. I might say this, beloved, that our Savior needs to be, there needs to be, I think in our life, a desire born of the Holy Spirit to come before the Lord and say, Lord, I want to anoint thee. I want to mark thee out as the king of my life. I want to mark thee out as the captain, the Lord, the guide, the commander of my life. Is he that to you this morning? Is he that precious to you that you look upon him and anoint him and mark him out and say, Lord, you're my Lord. You're my Lord. That blessed head, that blessed Savior, he's worthy of the divine anointing, and then finally his preeminence. You remember, and again we'll not turn to it, but remember over in Revelation chapter 19 and verse 12 when he comes back, it says he has on his head many crowns, many crowns. Now, let's not think in our mind, at least it doesn't come to my mind, that we think of Christ trying to balance a number of crowns upon his head, but it's a reminder to us that when he comes back, he's coming back as king of kings in that passage, as Lord of lords. Every knee shall bow to him. There are many kings and many authorities on the earth, but when Christ comes back, there'll be one king, one authority. He has many crowns, and this blessed one who became poor and had nowhere to lay his head, now has many crowns. He is preeminent overall, and you remember in the scriptures, for example, in Colossians, he's the head of the church. We're told he's head over all. We're told he's the head of every man. He is the divinest. Is he your head, beloved, in reality? Has he got the authority? Has he got control of your life? O beloved, may we as we come to a close to this meeting, may we love not only to think upon him as our head, but to bow the knee and before him say, Lord, control my life. Take my life. Let it be consecrated. Holy Christ. Shall we pray? Gracious Father, we thank thee for the Lord Jesus. We praise thee for that blessed head, the perfections of our Savior, the depths to which he went for us, the sufferings of Calvary, truly unto us who believe he is precious. May that be so of each one here this morning, for we ask it in his precious and worthy name. Amen. Could we sing just two verses of number 124? One, two, four, please. Jesus, my head once crowned with thorns, is crowned with glory now. Heaven's royal diadem adorns the mighty victor's brow. The last verse to us the cross is life and health, for shame and death to thee. Our present glory, joy and wealth, our everlasting stay. Amen. 124, please.