Personal dilemma, discovery, disturbance

We're going to look in the Gospel of Matthew, please, for a verse. Matthew in chapter 27. Thanks to all who have stayed.

It's mostly full yet. That's wonderful. Matthew chapter 27.

We're going to read it verse number 22. Matthew 27 verse number 22. Pilate saith unto them, what shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, let him be crucified.

The Gospel of Luke please, chapter 23. Luke 23. We'll read together verse number 33.

And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him. And the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Drop down to verse number 47 please.

Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God saying, certainly this was a righteous man. And all the people that came together to that site, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts and returned. And the Lord will bless to us the reading of his precious word.

I just want to keep it very simple at the end of a long weekend. I would like to look at this man Pilate and he was a man with a personal dilemma. A personal dilemma.

A Pilate who was in a very privileged position to be a governor of that region. And now he is faced with this dilemma of what to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. And what his dilemma was then, it is really applicable and it is really just as real tonight.

That as you consider the Lord Jesus Christ and who he is and what he has done, you will be faced with the very same dilemma as Pilate. What shall I then do with Jesus, which is called Christ? A man with a personal dilemma. We come to Luke chapter 23 and we've got there, they came to the place which is called Calvary.

Calvary is a marvelous place. And as you meditate on what kind of a place this is, your mind, the Spirit of God will take your mind in a lot of different avenues and a lot of different, a lot of different angles of Calvary. What kind of a place was it? What were the, what were the sounds? What were the smells? What was it that took place? But I would like to look at Calvary tonight just simply as this.

It is a place of personal discovery. A man who had a personal dilemma. And Calvary is a place of personal discovery.

And as we visit Calvary tonight, by faith, spiritually speaking, and we consider that, that it would be a place of personal discovery for you. It's been a place of personal discovery for everyone here that has been saved. They've discovered something special about that place.

Yea, something special about that man. And they discovered this, that there on the cross of Calvary, he died for my sin. A place of personal discovery.

And lastly, we've got a place, it says when they came to that site, that site, they, those that saw that site, and they're going their way, and they all smite upon their breast, and they all go home. It touched me this afternoon thinking about this. Those people were personally disturbed with what they saw.

Can you imagine what take place? I would guess in this audience here, I missed a handful of people. Maybe a couple handfuls of people. That were there when someone passed out into eternity.

Even less that watched someone suffer. And there's no one here that has ever watched one die like the Lord Jesus Christ. To be there to see that site, and to be disturbed, but to go away, to go away.

It says that they all departed and went their way. The man with the personal dilemma. The pilot is there, you remember this story, as the Lord Jesus is in the garden, and Judas comes, and he betrays him with the kiss.

They had sought to take Jesus many times over, over the days and months, and even maybe back a couple years. They hated him without a cause. And Judas now, he makes a promise, he covenants with them for 30 pieces of silver, and that he would get them their man.

That he would betray the Christ for 30 pieces of silver, and so the time has come, and Judas comes into the garden, and he kisses the Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus says, friend wherefore art thou come? Never forget this, that when the Lord Jesus called him his friend, he meant it. The Lord Jesus wasn't speaking with sarcasm.

The Lord Jesus was speaking to him as a friend. Why have you come? Judas came to betray him, and the Lord's teaching of that man was this, it would have been good for that man if he had never been born, a man who he called his friend. The mob takes him now.

They take the Lord Jesus, and they end up finally here where we read, there's multiple events, but we won't take the time, and they bring him to Pilate. Pilate knows that he's an innocent man. Pilate knows there's no fault in him.

Pilate also knows that it was for envy that they delivered the Lord Jesus into his hand, into his jurisdiction, and now he has the dilemma, and now he has to deal with it. He didn't want to deal with it. Pilate also knew what the right thing to do was.

He knew it was the right thing to release him. He knew there was no cause of death in him, and Pilate knew all these things, and yet now he has to make a decision. He's in a dilemma.

What is he going to do with Christ? Jesus, which is called Christ. Do you realize every time you've heard the gospel, every time you've read your Bible, every time you've read a gospel tract, every time the Spirit of God in the quietness of your own home, wherever you might be, brings the thought into your mind of your sin and of the Savior that you are just like Pilate. That question rang home to every single heart here.

For those of us that have been saved, you remember it well, don't you? When you thought about salvation, and you thought about your sin, and you thought about the man, and yet the question is this, what shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ? Likely there's no one in this audience that have blatantly said, or maybe there is, I don't know. I hope no one here has said with your own lips, crucify him. That's how the people answered.

Pilate poses the question, what shall I then do with Jesus, which is called Christ? And the mob erupts. Sometimes I think they did it in a chant. Crucify! Crucify! Can you not see the mob going in a chant? And as they start, as one man starts it, and the energy builds, and the whole mob is there, and it's just full of energy.

You've been in places like that. Some of you have been in places where the energy from the mob is so strong that it just takes over, doesn't it? And here it takes over, and Pilate is faced now. Is he going to listen to the people, or is he going to do what is right? Is he going to listen to the mob? And the mob is a real thing in the day and age in which we live, by the way.

The gospel is still contending with the mobs of the world, and those that are calling out for the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. And this man, Pilate, says, let him be crucified. I use the same word they were using for an innocent man.

And can I lovingly say tonight, dear friend, I'm speaking to those who know the gospel well. You've heard it time and time and time again. And without ever saying the word crucify him from your lips, you reject him another time.

What a dilemma. The only one that can save, the only one that can deliver from sin, the only one that can give eternal life. And from that rebellious, maybe quiet heart of yours, comes the same answer as Pilate's.

Crucify him. Pilate was in a terrible dilemma. And dear sinner, tonight in your sins you are too.

Pilate is absolutely accountable to God for his actions, and so are you. And there's no one going to answer for your sin other than you. If you die without the Savior, friend, if you die rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ, you alone will bear the brunt and the blow of your sin.

A man with a personal dilemma. Is there any here tonight? And God has spoken to you throughout this conference weekend about your need of salvation. Has he convicted you of your sin and you've been reminded afresh throughout the ministry and throughout the Word of God that sin is personal, and sin is real, and Christ has come.

Through the hymns that you have sung, and the gospel you heard last night, and the testimony of our good brother, what will you do with Jesus, which is called Christ. The place, the place, the place called Calvary is a very special place. We've been reminded in the ministry today that Jerusalem was God's place.

God had his eye on that city. God had his eye on that mountain throughout the scriptures, and so Calvary is not a place of surprise. It is a place of expectation.

It's a place of expected conflict. For God had prophesied in Genesis that the seed of the woman would bruise a serpent's head, and what took place at Calvary as Satan's head was crushed, and the Savior's heel was bruised. The devil was defeated.

The place called Calvary was in the heart of God before the world was created, before sin had entered into this world. The place called Calvary was expected. It was expected.

It was looked forward to, not in dread, for it was with the joy that was set before him. The Lord Jesus endured the cross. He despised the shame, and now is set down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

The cross was expected, and while there was chaos in Jerusalem, and while there was confusion, heaven was at peace. Never think that in heaven there's a scramble to put out emergencies. This is a problem here, and that's a problem there, and heaven is not in any hurry, and there's no panic to put out the emergencies.

God is in entire control, and this world might be in chaos, but heaven is smooth as glass. Jerusalem was a mess, but the cross was expected. It was expected.

It was a place of expected conflict. The cross was a place of extreme contrast, because you have the sinful heart of man being revealed, don't you? And you see that in how they falsely accused him, and they hated him without a cause, and the rottenness of our hearts, and our sin is exposed. Oh, they spit in his face, and they blindfolded him, and they buffeted him, and they say, prophesy who smote thee.

The Lord should have said, I know who you are. I created you. I created you.

But you see, it's a place of extreme contrast, because you see the awful darkness in the heart of man, but you see the light of the love of God on display at that place, because it's for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God commended his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, there's the contrast, the love of God, the sin of man. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Where did he die? At the place called Calvary. It's a place of extreme contrast, and Calvary tonight is a place of eternal consequence. Eternal consequence at that place.

You see, because at that place, God has dealt with sin once and for all, and the Lord Jesus, in his once-for-all sacrifice for sin, has entirely satisfied God. Entirely satisfied God. And God has dealt with the sin question, and the Lord Jesus had suffered for our sin in his own body on the tree, and God has dealt with sin, the place of eternal consequences.

But as sinners look at that place, there is eternal life to be found at the cross, and there's eternal death to be realized in rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. I have been wondering in recent weeks about different individuals in the Bible, and when they were saved, and when they really realized what that place was all about. I was thinking of Mary, the Lord's mother, as she would be there to see him nailed upon the cross.

And Simeon said that a sword would pierce through her own soul also, and I wondered, when did Mary realize what was taking place on the cross? Oh, she would see that her perfect son was nailed upon the cross wrongfully, and how they treated him, and how they disrespected him, and how they reproached him and reviled him. She would enter into that. But when did she see that what took place there was caused by her sin? Have you ever wondered, when did Mary know that it was there for my sin that he died? I can't tell you when exactly it took place, but I know this it did.

And there would be a mother, and likely after the fact, Calvary would be burned in her memory. And she would see the sun crowned with thorns upon the tree, dying in his agony, and some point in her life it would come to her like this, it was my sin that caused that. My friend, have you ever come to that realization? Some here are nodding their head yes.

It was my sin that caused his suffering. Yea, it was my sin that caused his death. I myself am responsible for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Can you imagine when a mother who raised a son like that would realize it? That's what it was all about. That's why he had to be sinless. That's why his birth was supernatural.

And that's why he was from God. That's why he is God's son. Because God himself must die for my sin.

She saw it. Have you seen it? Did your sin cause that? I thought about Joseph of Arimathea, and there's that man who is a believer on the Lord Jesus, that he is the Messiah, that he is the Christ, and that he is the Son of God. And at some point in his life, you see him there and he begs the body of the Lord Jesus.

He comes in after the Savior is dead, and he's going to give him an honorable burial. And he and Nicodemus, members of the Sanhedrin, they go, and what they're going to do by doing this, they're going to lose everything. They're going to lose their position.

They're going to lose their prestige. They're going to lose their whatever power they might have had. But they say, this is enough.

And they come. And Joseph and Nicodemus, they take him down. And we mentioned it at Heightsville.

I wonder how they took him down. I see in my mind them picking the cross out of the hole and laying that cross down upon its back. Was it then when they wiggled those nails out of that rugged cross and freed his hands and his feet that they realized it was my sin that nailed him there? It was my sin that caused the death of Christ.

Maybe it wasn't there. Maybe it was when he took him into that tomb and he anointed him, and he's so tender and careful with the body of the Savior in his handling of the precious Son of God. And he lays him there in his own new tomb, and maybe it dawned on him then that as I'm laying this one in my tomb, certainly he died for me.

Certainly it was for me that this man died, that I might know the forgiveness of sins, that I might know eternal life sometime in his life. He realized that the very man that died upon the cross died for him. He died for him.

What about you in the meeting tonight? Calvary is a place of personal discovery. What it's all about, what it's all for, what it all means that the Son of God died upon the cross. I thought of John, John the Apostle.

He took Mary to his own home that day. John was the one that laid upon the breast of the Lord Jesus, the disciple whom Jesus loved. And as my mind traced through the scriptures that John wrote, one scripture come to my mind.

He writes in 1st John chapter 1 verse number 7, these words, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son. Did you get that? Oh, John would have been there to see him there on the cross. John would have been there to see the life of the Lord Jesus, and John loved him, but it wasn't the life of the Savior that could save him.

No, as perfect and pure and holy as it was. Let me get that fly. He understood this, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleansed him from all of his sin.

What about you dear sinner? Any personal discovery for you at the cross? Any personal discovery of what the Lord Jesus has accomplished there? Is anything to do with you? Oh, that place is a place of personal discovery, and time has already gone. It's a place of personal disturbance. They came there to that site.

They watched it. Sitting down, they watched him there. And they watched one whose visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men, and they listened to the cries from the cross, and they listened to the cursings and mockery of the other malefactors, and they would have walked by the scene, and they saw the sight, and when it was done, it moved them.

The sight moved them. It disturbed them, and no doubt they beat upon their breasts for different reasons. Some might have thought, what a tragic waste of a good man, and they smite upon their breasts, and they go away.

Some would have thought, and we've got this from the Word of God, as they esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Certainly they thought, that poor fool, he died for claiming to be the Son of God, but he had everything he had coming. Oh, what did that man suffer? Some tender stomach souls that might have been there, they would have saw that gore and that sight, and they would have say, I wish I never see it again, and they were disturbed, but made no discovery.

They made no discovery. And friend, tonight you can think of Calvary, and it can move you in your emotion, but my question tonight is this, have you seen the conviction of your sin, and what it has done? Are you disturbed at what took place there to the Son of God, as he offered himself without spot, as he suffered the judgment of God for sin, as he himself was made sin for us who knew no sin, and you're disturbed, but you'll go your way, and never come to know, he died for my sin. A man with a personal dilemma, and that's you tonight, a man, a personal discovery, come to know whom to know, his life eternal tonight, and a place of a personal disturbance, but they went away.

What will you do with Jesus, which is called Christ? We'll pray.