In this sermon, the speaker discusses various trilogies in the life of Jesus. He mentions the times when Jesus gave thanks, heard an audible voice from heaven, and wept, highlighting their significance for further study. The speaker then focuses on the trilogy of judges that Jesus stood before on the last night of his life. He describes how Pilate found no fault in Jesus three times, but the crowd demanded his crucifixion, leading to a conflict between Roman law and the crowd's accusation.

Twelve percent. Good evening, everyone. Good evening to all you non-raptured folks who are here with us tonight. Glad to see you. When my brother was talking about Phil Morgan and his accident, it reminded me that I had never met him, although he had been several times in our son's place in Tampa, so I knew sufficiently about him to think that he and I should get along quite well together. And I heard he'd been swept off the roof and fell and injured his arm and so on. So I wrote him a letter. I'd never had any communication with him before, and I told him what I thought the least he could do if he's going to fall, to fall out of a window and make a scriptural and not off a roof. So it wasn't too long after that that I rolled off the back porch at our, at our place and broke my shoulder. So I had a letter from Phil. And Phil says, well, I've heard about the shoulder before. In fact, it was a heave offering in the Old Testament and Levitical, but I don't know what happens when preachers our day start throwing it down off the steps. So that was my introduction to Phil Morgan, and that was his introduction to me. And ever since then, you may imagine we've got along very well together. I don't know about who's peas in a pod, but at any rate, you're going to enjoy him very much this week, I'm sure. Will you turn with me, please, tonight? I, I'm like the Apostle Paul, except in a more aggravated situation, I think, because you remember he said he was in a strait betwixt two. Well, I've been in a strait today betwixt four times two, if more than that. That's what I was going to do with the last of our trilogy studies, as I was this morning when I thought of the Iams that we had never even considered yet. There are still a number of them, you'll understand. The trilogies perhaps outnumber the Iams, but there are still Iams, some Iams that stand alone, just the statement I am, that our Lord made, and we did not cover them. And this evening, I just have one more little study with you regarding another trilogy, but I counted at least five or six more, and some of them would interest you because, for instance, there were the times that only three times the Lord gave thanks. There's only three times the Lord heard an audible voice from heaven, three times that the Lord said that the Lord wept, and situations like that in the trilogy class that can be very interesting for a study somewhere along during the next millennium. Now, after you recover from this visit, let's turn to Acts chapter four, if you will, please, and I have chosen this passage merely as an introduction to what's on my mind this evening regarding another of the trilogies in the life of the Lord Jesus. Acts chapter four, reading from verse 24. When they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God which hast made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is, who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did a heathen rage, and the people imagined vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ, for of a truth against thy holy child, or servant Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. Now, that's all I wish to read, but you may see the trilogy in this right away. I wish to mention to you a few details tonight regarding the trilogy of the judges whom our Lord stood before in the last night and morning of his life, and I want to notice some of these details with you, looking particularly for the motivation behind the action of the individuals. There are three judges in whose presence our Lord stood the last night and the last morning of his life, and each of these took a very decided stand against the Lord, one ultimately, though he did not wish to do so at the beginning, and the other two were set against him right from the start. I want to realize with you, if I may, that behind the actions of these three judges there were motives that activated them to perform the service that they did and to do the things that they did and the things that they said. You will know right away of whom I am speaking. You will know that there were three judges before whom our Lord stood when he was here, and the first, of course, was Caiaphas, and the second was Herod, and the third was Pilate. I just want to briefly go over some of the details of these things with you for my closing remarks. Caiaphas was the high priest of Israel in the days of the Master, in the days of his flesh as Hebrews 5 speaks of it, and in the days of his flesh there were nominations made in these official positions by the Roman governor. Some of you will wonder, perhaps, when our Lord was taken prisoner, of which we have already been speaking, out of the Garden of Gethsemane that last night, they took him first to the house of Annas, and he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, and Annas was appointed evidently the high priest by Valerius in the year of A.D. 26, but he had given his position over, and by another appointment, Caiaphas, his son-in-law, had taken over the position of high priest. Now, you'll understand immediately there's an aberration here. There's something that does not line up with the Levitical order. You can see that man has put his hand into this system already, and has changed it. Herod himself is just a satrap in the whole development of the political history of the days of our Lord, and Pilate, you will know, of course, was a Roman governor. So we come back to Caiaphas. Caiaphas, the high priest of Israel, the one upon whose shoulders will ever rest the unique burden of having brought our Lord into trial that night, and the consequences of it. Caiaphas was the one who really jumps out to us in chapter 11 of the Gospel by John, when there was quite a stir in Judea because of the resurrection of Lazarus. You remember how they were dreadfully upset, the Pharisees and the chief priests were dreadfully upset because of what our Lord was doing, and how they said that they didn't know how they were going to solve this difficult problem. People were all going after him. Do you not realize they said one to the other, the whole world has gone after him, we must do something about this. Caiaphas spoke up and he said, you know nothing at all, nor have you even considered that it is necessary that one man should die for the nation, that the whole nation perish not. We have got to kill him. This is a rather interesting comment or statement that Caiaphas made, and in retrospect the Apostle John gives us a sidelight to it which you would never have noticed had you not had that later on. Caiaphas says, look, there's only one thing we can do. Now look for the motivation in everything that Caiaphas did from this point onward. There's only one thing we can do. He said the whole world's gone after him, and if we leave him like this then the Romans are going to come, they'll think it's an insurrection, they'll come and take away our place and our nation. So we must do something. It is necessary that one man should die for the nation. That was a very direct political statement. Caiaphas the high priest has something else behind it when he says it, which we'll see later, but at the time on the surface of it the comment was made politically. The Lord was having a very large following at this time in his life ministry, and the people were talking about him anywhere and everywhere, and hundreds now had benefited from his grace and his power, his healing, his forgiveness, and now of course they've come to this point where he has raised two before, and now Lazarus is the third from amongst the dead, and that's a very interesting trilogy. We looked at one of them a little bit, didn't we? Not very far, not very deep, and the other one we didn't look at was the widow of Nain, and then finally the third one was Lazarus, and it was only the fact, the spreading of the news of the resurrection of Lazarus that Caiaphas made that statement. We have got no other remedy. It is expedient for us, it is necessary for us that one man should die, that the whole nation perish not. That was political, distinctly political. When John looks back on it after 60 years of retrospect, he looks back on it and he says, as he writes in chapter 11, Caiaphas didn't say this for himself, it didn't actually originate with himself. He is political, but there's something very personal here, and in addition to it being personal, there's something very spiritual here. John said this, he said not from himself, but being a high priest that year by appointment, remember this is one of the mysteries of God's ways for the nation of Israel. I've already suggested some of that in connection with the temple. That year, being the high priest, he prophesied. I don't think he realized that he was prophesying. In fact, I'm sure he didn't. At any rate, there's another spring of emotion behind all this, the reason by and for which he prophesied. But, says John, he prophesied not only that Christ should die for that nation politically, but also that he should die for the nation spiritually. And not only would he die for the nation spiritually, but he was going to die that he might gather together in one all those children of God that would be scattered abroad in the face of the earth. So you have, again, one of the mysteries of divine interposition into something that takes place seemingly from a man's own impotence, his own need, his own request, and he makes this statement, you don't know anything, you don't understand, you've got to, can't you see that politically we must get rid of him? The whole world's gone after him, we're going to lose our nation, we're going to lose our temple, we're going to lose everything. So he said they would have to do away with him. So they all met, consequent upon that statement, they all met in the high priest's house one night, and they took counsel together, and they reasoned between themselves. How will we do it? There's only one thing, there's only one issue, he's got to go, and he's got to go by death. The multitudes are increasing constantly, and we're going to lose everything. But what we must be sure we don't do is, we will not kill him on the feast day. The Passover is coming up, and when the Passover comes up, then they said, the Sanhedrin said, if they got together, we must not do this on the Passover, lest there be an uproar amongst the people. Well, you know what they did, don't you? They did it on the Passover. Our Lord was crucified on the feast day. Was there, or were their fears justified? No. Was there an uprising of the people? No. Was there a great disturbance of protest? Did they march down the streets behind the master as he's going out to Calvary? No. But that's what they said. They said, we can't do it on the feast day because there'll be an uproar amongst the people. There was no uproar, except the uproar of those who were thirsting for his blood. So they were wrong. Nevertheless, they plotted and they planned that they had to do away with him. Now, behind all this, there's something else. There's another spring of action. There's another reason for Caiaphas coming into this picture the way he does. So when our Lord was apprehended, as we've already considered, on the edge of the Garden of Gethsemane, he's carried away to the house of Annas. That seems to be a courtesy visit, more or less. Nothing very much came out of that. There might have been some words exchanged. I suggest there was. But at any rate, he goes from the house of Annas to the house of Caiaphas, the high priest. And this is the man, you will remember, upon whom the Lord laid the charge of the severity of the treachery and the giving of him over to the Romans. When they're in the house of Caiaphas, what happens? They finally have him. They have him because the I Am surrendered himself to them, because he allowed himself to be bound and carried away as a lamb for the slaughter. And they're gathering together, and the Lord is set in the midst. And they begin to speak. They begin to talk. And they bring out witnesses in order to lay a charge, a death charge, against him. And the witnesses don't agree. Some say one thing and some say another. And they go on like this for a considerable length of time. And finally there are two witnesses come along, and they say, well now, we know really what the charge is, because he said that he would destroy this temple, and that everything was centered in the temple. You'll hear that again when they accuse Stephen and finally murder him. The charge was against the temple. He has said he was going to destroy this temple and rebuild it in three days. Don't be surprised if the Jews do that in the maybe not distant future. I don't know if they're going to do it in three days, but it won't surprise me if they do. And he said that he would destroy this temple. He did not. And he said that he would raise the temple again in three days. He did not. And yet they were false witnesses because they misunderstood and misapplied and twisted what the Lord had said in John chapter 2. And he was referring, as we read, to the temple of his body. If they destroyed that, he would raise it again in three days. But they couldn't agree. And finally the witnesses came, and the witnesses wanged, and they laid these charges. Nothing came out of it in the meantime. The Lord is standing bound and sometimes beaten. And finally the high priest says, answerest thou nothing? What are these things that they witness against thee? The Lord answered them nothing. And totally frustrated because he was determined that he was going to get him into the hands of the governor and out to the cross, the high priest rises up in indignation and he says, I put you under oath to the living God that you tell us whether you are the Christ or not. Mark says in his account, Jesus answered, I am. Another one of the I am's. And the high priest then, his face turns with glee, with satisfaction, and in a gesture which he felt to be very impressive, he tears his robe and says, you've all heard him. What do you say? Well, what they heard the master say was, thou sayest it, for I am the Son of the Blessed. I am the Christ. And I say unto you that hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. And immediately they knew that he was referring to Daniel chapter 7. He was taking the place of being the Messiah, the promised Messiah to Israel, and that he as the Son of Man is going to be seen in the glory, coming upon the clouds of heaven, sitting on the right hand of power. Now, you remember Stephen saw him that way, didn't he? Stephen saw him standing at the right hand of God. And Stephen, as I suggested to you the other night, or the other day, that Stephen is the only one that actually spoke of the Lord directly as the Son of Man, for nobody else did. But the Lord himself uses that, and he quotes from Daniel chapter 7, and the high priest knows this, and he is now in a position to pass sentence. What do you say, he says? The all-answered is worthy of death. Why? Because he had claimed to be the I Am, and at the same time he claimed to have been the Son of Man who was going to come in great power and glory, as he himself had said, though they hadn't heard it, in that Olivet discourse regarding the coming days. He was going to come in the glory of his Father. He was going to come in the glory of his holy angels. He was going to come in his own glory, and he was going to rule from the river to the ends of the earth. So now what do they say? He has said it. He has said he is the Son of Man, the Messiah. He has claimed to be just exactly what they wanted to hear him say he was, because with this they would charge him the violation of the law and blasphemy. From that moment on, everything changes. And they begin to smite him, to beat him and strike him in the face, struck him with rods and spat in his face, and the high priest is standing there. Now they're waiting, going on through the early hours of morning, because the Sanhedrin was all together at that time. There was another hearing before Caiaphas late in the night, but this hearing was before the Sanhedrin in the morning. Having said that, they took him bound and they led him away to Pilate. Now, as I've said to you before, and you know, that when our Lord is standing in the presence of Pilate, he charges the high priest with the responsibility of having delivered him into the hands of the Romans. Remember, he wouldn't answer Pilate, and Pilate said, Answers thou me nothing, knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and I have power to release thee? And the Lord said, Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except to forgive me from above. Therefore, he that delivered me unto thee has the greater sin. And he's referring unquestionably to the high priest. It was the high priest of Israel who tore his garments and ceased to be the high priest. He was only there by appointment anyway, but God had recognized some of these things that were being done in that time, as I've suggested to you before, in connection with the offerings in the temple. So he ceased to be the high priest at any rate, but he is motivated by one thing, and that Pilate knew. Pilate knew that for envy they had delivered him. Now, the motivation behind what the high priest did which brought about the delivery of our Lord into the hands of the Romans for crucifixion was personal envy. Jealousy is as cruel as the grave, and if it is true that many waters cannot quench love, it is also true that jealousy will drive through the waters of opposition. This is the spring. This is the motivation. This is what's driven the high priest to this, to deliver him who said he was the Messiah into the hands of the Romans, and it remains written for all time that our Lord said he had the greater sin. That was the greater sin of our Lord being found in the hands of Pilate. Now, Pilate has a little conversation with the people, with the elders and the chief priests and scribes, and he says, What charge do you bring against this man? And they said, if he were not a malefactor, we wouldn't have brought him to you. Why, he stirred up all the people from Judea right through up to Galilee, and Pilate latched on the word Galilean. He said, Is he Galilean? Yes, he's a Galilean. And he doesn't belong to Jewry? No, he's a Galilean, not a Jew. So, Pilate immediately looked for a way out of this because Pilate knew what was behind this. He knew there was no truth behind this. Do you remember what he said to the Lord? What is truth? Do you remember what the Lord answered him? Another one of those marvellous I Am's. Pilate knew that behind it all, there was no truth. There was just jealousy and envy, but he wanted to get out of this because he could see the storm was brewing around him, and there was going to be no way out of it. So, he sends the Lord off to Herod. Now, you've got to know who Herod was. Herod was in Jerusalem at that time, not because he belonged to Jerusalem particularly, because his jurisdiction was from the north. Herod's jurisdiction was up in Galilee, and so Pilate said, Well, I'll send him off to Herod, and let Herod do with him as he pleases, for he is a Galilean. And our Lord comes into the presence of the King, the King Herod. Herod was just a satrap, that's all he was. He was just a political appointee, but the Lord is brought into the presence of King Herod. And Herod was thrilled to see him. He had been anxious for a long time to see him. He had heard much about him, but he had never come in contact with him, and he'd longed to see him. Now, there's some morbid curiosity in this. There's some very personal reasons for Herod wanting to see Jesus. When the Lord is there, Herod begins to ask him questions. Along came the chief priest and the scribes, and it says, they vehemently accused him in the presence of Herod. The Lord has said nothing, and Herod is frustrated. Herod wants to see him for various reasons, but one of the reasons why Herod wants to see him is, he wants to see a miracle done, but we'll sweep that aside. That's not nearly as important as it might appear. Another one of the reasons why Herod wanted to see him was because Herod heard of his fame, and he said, This is John the Baptist, whom I beheaded. Now, if you go back to Luke's gospel, chapter 3, you'll remember that when John the Baptist was preaching in the area, and he had come for some way or another in contact with Herod, and he had accused Herod, and above all the things that Herod did, and it says many ills, many evil things Herod had done, and he also had taken his brother Philip's wife, but of all the things that he did, he added this above all. What was that? He put John in prison. He was an adulterer. He was licentious. He was bloodthirsty, but of all the things that Herod did, the worst thing he ever did was when he incarcerated John the Baptist, and as you know, consequent upon the birthday party and so on, John the Baptist was beheaded. That specter, as Shakespeare brings it up in Macbeth, that specter is haunting Herod. He knew he was a holy man, it says. He knew he was a just and righteous man, and he listened to him frequently. He wanted to hear him because there's something in Herod that responds to John. And yet, for all that, Herodias, his brother Philip's wife with whom he was living at the time, finally pushed Herod to the brink, and you know the circumstances, and finally Herod sent and had John beheaded in prison, and that has haunted him ever since. It's haunted him. And in a desperation to find a way of release from the accusation of murdering the prophet, he hears that Jesus was moving around the country as another prophet has arisen, and he's healing the sick, and all the poor people are coming to him, and he's feeding the multitudes, and some he has risen from the dead, and Herod is so desperately anxious to see him. He wants the possibility that he's dreamt about to come to reality, that this is John the Baptist, and if this really is John the Baptist, then he will be freed from the accusation of murder because he's risen again from the dead after Herod murdered him, and that's why Herod wants to see him. So Herod asked him any questions. You know what it says? He answered him nothing. Our Lord stood there with all the accusations going on, knowing what's in Herod's evil mind, knowing what the past was, knowing what Herod is thinking. Herod wants liberation from the specter of that bloody head that was brought to him on the platter. Herod wants liberation from the figures of the night that haunt him because he knew he was a holy man, and he knew he was a just man, and yet he's beheaded him. He's murdered him. Herod wants liberty from this, and the Lord knows that, and he responds with the sovereignty of silence. There's nothing to say, and that frustrated Herod terribly. It insulted him. It shattered all his dreams. It destroyed all his hopes that he was going to get free from the specter of John the Baptist's head, and then they began to mock him, revile him, and set him at naught, and raid him in a royal robe, and so forth, and they ridiculed him, and they reviled him, and they couldn't get a word out of him who, in the sovereignty of silence, stands and says nothing. He sends him away to Pilate. He's gone back to Pilate. Now it's Pilate's turn. What's Pilate going to do? Pilate's in a tremendous dilemma. Pilate doesn't know what to do. Pilate tried to get out of it several ways, as you know, but upon Pilate has the responsibility now fallen, and it's inescapable, and it's inevitable. He has to make the decision. The chief priests and Jews are demanding the crucifixion of the prophet for Nazareth, and Pilate says, why? What evil has he done? I sent him to Herod. You can see nothing worthy of death has been done to him. He has been beaten. He has been spit on, but that happened in the high priest's palace too the night before. He says, what am I going to do with it? They said crucify. Pilate says, why would I crucify? Should I crucify your king? They said, we have no king but Caesar, and Pilate's sitting on the judgment seat and doesn't know what to do. Vain. Three times over he says, I find no fault in this man. He is innocent. Roman law demands that he be released. My conscience demands that I release him, but listen to the crowd, listen to the roar, listen to the accusation. They won't let me go, and so he tries to get out of it with one maneuver and another, and then finally he sits on the judgment seat because he heard them say this. He made himself the son of God, and Pilate's terrified now with Roman suspicion and the accusation of his own conscience because he knows that the man is innocent. Then they come up with this, and they said, if thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend, and Pilate heard that saying. He went in and sat on the judgment seat, and then he gets a message from his wife. Have thou nothing to do with this just man? I've suffered many things to stay in the dream because of him. Don't touch it, Pilate, don't touch it. And now here's another, another restraint has been imposed upon him. His wife is troubled about the matter that he should have anything to do with him. What's he going to do? He tries to release him. Peter said later on in Acts chapter 3, he was determined to let him go. Well, why didn't he let him go? Why did Caiaphas take him to Pilate? Because he was jealous. Why did Herod want to see him and send him back? Because he had that morbid curiosity, and he had that ambition that he would be freed from the accusation of the beheading of John the Baptist. And he was frustrated and defeated. And now it's Pilate's turn. What's Pilate going to do? Pilate said three times, I find no fault in this man. I will chastise him upon what justification? I will scourge him, and then I will release him. And they said, he made himself a king, and whosoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. And if thou let us this man go, thou art not a friend of Caesar. Pilate knew very well that the high priests were capable of going to Rome to accuse him of Caesar, of treachery and treason. Pilate knew that. They knew that. And they knew how to use this weapon against him, because Pilate was determined to let him go. And they knew that he was determined to let him go. Solved for what? For political preservation. For political preservation. Pilate made his decision, and he delivered him to their will to be crucified. Before they go out, or after they're gone, I'm not sure when, Pilate writes a sentence, the accusation, the crime of the criminal for which cause he was to be crucified. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. And our Lord goes out to Calvary under the direction of these three judges, this trilogy of judges who, for three various reasons, had had their active part in the condemnation and the crucifixion of our Lord. And they stand today accused of the reasons why they did what they did in the presence of our Lord and condemned him to death. We know, of course, he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, don't we? But we also know that they by wicked hands took him and slew him, as the scripture says. And so we have these two things put together. They're brought into harmony, one with the other. What's that? God's determined counsel and the manipulation and the cruelty and the act of infamous men. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. That's the divine choice, wasn't it? Or as we read in Acts 4, what God had purposed should be done. But they took him by wicked hands and they crucified and they murdered him. And do these things work together? They are complementary. The divine decree, he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all, is met with the action of those who perform the deed and for which they stand accused and will be judged eternally. Our Lord is taken out because of these three men, these three judges, and he is crucified. And now you've got another trilogy, three crosses standing side by side. The enemies come, not at all satisfied with the fact that he's been nailed to the cross. They see the sign over his head. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And the chief priests hurry back to Pilate and they say to Pilate, don't write, here's the King of the Jews. Pilate had it written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, another trilogy. And in those three languages you have represented everything that the world is in its relationship and in its enmity against God and his son. Hebrew, the language of divine revelation. Greek, the language of human wisdom. Latin, the language of political power. And in these three languages, the accusation is written, this is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And they hurried to Pilate and they said, don't write he's the King of the Jews. Write that he said he was the King of the Jews. And Pilate said in the bitterness of his soul, what I've written, I've written. As far as I'm concerned, he is the King of the Jews. You made me do it. I didn't want to do it. You forced me into it. You wouldn't let me out of it. I wanted to let him go. You wouldn't let me let him go. What I've written, it stands. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Doesn't it somehow or another touch our hearts to see exactly when our Lord stood in the presence of these three judges, how it all worked out into the divine counsels of God and left these men with the accusation upon their souls forever. He was crucified because of envy, jealousy. He was crucified because of someone trying to get out from under the guilt of his actions. And he was crucified because the man who could have released him didn't cause a political favor. There it stands. And the day is yet to come when they will look on him whom they pierced. And I was reading that not too long ago, and it suddenly occurred to me, who pierced Jesus of Nazareth? Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate. Who was it designed crucifixion? The Romans. Who nailed him to the cross? The Romans. Whose spear was it opened to side? It was the Romans' spear. They shall look on him whom they pierced, and all nations of the earth shall wail because of him. If you go back to Zechariah 12 and 10, that's charged to Israel. If you come to Revelation chapter 1 and then go to the cross and the gospels, it's charged to Rome. They, it suddenly appeared to me, they are going to be those who at that time, when our Lord displays himself, the marks of Calvary still upon his body, when he comes again, they are going to look on him whom they pierced. Who is they? Who is in the land today? The nation of Israel. Who is coming into the land shortly? The revived Roman Empire. And when it comes back, and these two are together again in the land, that's when he's coming. And we can see those days approaching, can't we? And we can see the time now is not in the distant future, but shortly at hand, when they're going to look at him whom they pierced. And the head of that revived Roman Empire, that world government which will be then, he will be sitting there in the city of Jerusalem in the temple of God, saying that he is God. He's the one that's going to see the one whom they, the Romans, pierced. And the Jewish nation also are going to have to face the one whom they've pierced. And the Lord himself shall come again. Brethren, this is our Savior. This is our friend. This is our Lord. This is our sovereign I Am. He's coming back again. And when he comes, we will be with great joy, thrilled into ecstasy, when we see him whom they pierced. Because by their piercing of him, we have found salvation, haven't we? We found fellowship and a relationship with God. And we stand tonight in his presence, cleansed by that wondrous fountain that flowed from Emmanuel's side. Yes, they were there, Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate. We thank God that God himself was there. He spared not his own son. He delivered him up for us all. By the eternal Spirit, he offered himself without spot to God. And the triune God that we've been speaking of, the trilogy, the triune God, were there at that great work of the cross by which the world was reconciled unto himself. And thank God he's coming again. Shall we pray? Our Father, we acknowledge that some of these things are too great for us. The mystery and the majesty of the cross, and yet at times the magnificence of that cross, it baffles us and it blinds us. We rejoice tonight that we've found a place in the Savior's side. We thank thee that he was set forth as the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the whole world. We thank thee that our Lord shall again stand on the Mount of Olives to the east of Jerusalem, his feet shall stand where he stood before. They shall look on him whom they have pierced. We rejoice to know that the day of his vindication is coming. The day of his glory shall break upon a startled world and upon all those who have risen up again against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, We will break their bands from us. We'll cast off their cords. But he that sits in the heavens shall laugh. He will say, Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. We bless thee that Jesus shall reign from the mount to the ends of the earth, and every eye shall see him, and we shall delight and rejoice in his coming. Let thy blessing be with thy people, we pray, as we commend us tonight to thee in his name. Amen.