Ernest Wakefield 1973

Might we open our Bibles to the 18th of John, John's Gospel, Chapter 18, just a few verses. The third verse of John's Gospel, Chapter 18. Judas then, having received a band of men and officers, from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh hither with lanterns and torches and weapons.

Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.

As soon then as he had said unto them, I am, they went backwards and fell to the ground. Tonight, dear friends, with the help of God, I want to present to you one person. And that person is the Son of God himself, the Lord Jesus.

And I want to turn just to a few passages in connection with this glorious person. O friends, the best friend that you could ever have, you need this Savior tonight. If you're here without him, this is the person that you need, this blessed one, the Son of God.

And here I want to call this first scripture the eternal one. Here he was as he came forth. These words say, Jesus went forth.

Here they came to arrest the Son of God. And he showed his mighty power. As they said, Jesus of Nazareth, he answered and said, I am.

This is the blessed eternal one, the Jehovah of the Old Testament. God himself was in this world, and he spoke those words, I am. And at the very sight of that glory, they fell backwards to the ground.

O the majesty of this eternal one, the Son of God. Beloved, he made the universe, the creator of all things, by the word of his power. And God became a man in the person of Christ.

God bless us. And I will bring before you, before I turn to the next scripture, the fact that today or tomorrow this world is going to celebrate, they say, the birthday of the man they cast out. They're going to celebrate the birthday of the man they don't want, the man they rejected.

And I say by the grace of God tonight that I believe that this book is the word of God and that it presents to us the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. That child was born without a human father, the virgin birth of Christ, attacked and denied by the modernists and liberals of this ungodly age. And we stand here tonight by the grace of God and we preach to you the eternal one, the one who was born of a virgin.

Many of us tonight are aware of the fact that the modern translations are attacking the virgin birth of Christ. A man is daring to insert the words, a young woman shall be with child. But we emphatically deny that translation which we believe has been inspired by Satan to take away that truth of the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal one, the man Christ Jesus, the one who ever dwells in the bosom of the Father who became a man and the virgin Mary picked up that child, held her in his arms.

There was the eternal one who came into this world to save sinners. The 19th chapter of John's Gospel and the 5th verse. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robes, and Pilate said unto them, Behold the man.

When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Our second point we present to you tonight, the crucified, the rejected one, this blessed one who was rejected by this world. I want to say that you know as well as I do, the scriptures, that God has declared plainly in this blessed book, we hardly need to say it but I'm going to say it, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

I believe this company tonight may be divided into two kinds of sinners. The first class, those who are saved, cleansed from their sins by the precious blood of Christ and on the way to heaven. And the second class, those who are still in their sins, lost and ruined and on their way to hell.

Now friends, I know that this is not very popular. People don't like to hear about hell. But you know, this book tells us about that place.

And this book tells us that that place was prepared for the devil and his angels. That God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. And my friends, if you choose to spend eternity with the devil and his angels, it's your fault.

For God has provided a savior. Yes, the rejected savior. And I stand here tonight by the grace of God and present to you the rejected savior.

Behold the man. Oh, behold the man, my friends. Think of it.

And there we see so plainly before our eyes that blessed man came forth. And Pilate said, behold the man and the very sight of him, the very sight of him led them to cry out, crucify him. Crucify him.

And I must say here, there's a day coming when that blessed man is going to come forth again. And all the redeemed of the Lord are going to behold the man. And with one grand and glorious voice, every redeemed child of God will with one voice sing their praises to that man for whom we're going to soon behold face to face.

My friend, now, you have come into this room tonight. Maybe somebody invited you. Maybe somebody brought you here.

We live in very, very strange days when man attacks the Bible, when man pour worms of the dust. Say, why we don't believe the Bible anymore? We don't believe in heaven or hell. We just don't believe these things anymore.

We're educated. We're clever people. And I want to warn you solemnly tonight, my friends, that many of us in this room have come to know the rejected Savior.

You know something? So very, very slightly, something of what it means to follow a rejected Savior. Not a popular Savior. Not a Savior the world applauds, but a rejected Savior who came forth here wearing the crown of thorns, the very symbol of the fall of man placed upon the holy head of the Son of God.

Friends, you've heard this before. We've all heard this story before. We've become accustomed to it.

But think of it. Here was the mighty God Himself standing there crowned with a crown of thorns, a wicked, ungodly, wretched man that was represented and Pilate said, Behold a man! Now dare I say this world has cast out of this world the only good man who ever lived, the only man in this world who was really a man, the Son of God Himself, cast out of the very world He Himself had made. Behold the man! Friends, tonight, what does that man mean to you? Maybe there's somebody in this room tonight that uses the name of that man on their lips in cursing and blasphemy.

Maybe that's all that Jesus means to you. Maybe the only time you mention His name is when you lose your temper and in a rage use His name in blasphemy and cursing and swearing. But I want to say tonight, my friends, that once again it is my joy and privilege to say, Behold the man, the rejected man.

John 19, verse 17, And he, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the Place of the Skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha, where they crucified him and two others with him, and either side won, and he was in the midst. This is a very solemn thing, beloved. Here we present the man who was crucified.

The crucified man. Notice now what happens upstairs. He, bearing his cross, went forth.

Picture the scene. Try to picture the scene, my friends, with a cross upon his shoulder this glorious person, this blessed man, went forth bearing his cross. Where did he go? Into a place called the Place of the Skull.

Is this what man's brain led him to? The intelligence of man, the highest creature that God made on earth, is this what man has done? The Place of the Skull. And I want to say, my friends, when I was a young man, it was a great depression swept this country in the United States and Canada. People were in want.

They really, some of them, came to the point where they had nothing to eat. They had to be fed by charity and other people who took compassion on them. And man said this, and I remember this very clearly, If only you'll educate us, we'll show you what we'll do.

And you know, God heard those words, and God opened a way whereby man would receive the best education in the history of this world. And today, you know the story, my friends, when you apply for a job, you're asked right away what degrees you have in university. But I ask you tonight, has man's education turned him to God? No, it has not.

It has not. Man is a sinner from the very bottom of his feet to the very top of his head. He's a sinner.

And his rebellion against God and his hatred against Christ is leading him down the broad road to hell. And maybe there's somebody in this room tonight that says, Sir, that's true. That's true.

I'm lost. I'm guilty. What will I do? What can I do? How can I escape from the mess this world is in? Oh, my friends, I present now the crucified one, the one who died on Calvary's cross, the one who alone in those hours of solemn darkness was made sin for us, and who in his precious holy body bear our sins in his own body on the tree.

I say tonight, my friends, the modernist preachers deny this. The liberal preachers deny this. My friends, God is going to punish sin.

Don't let the devil deceive you. Don't let the modernist preachers try to blind your eyes. God is going to judge sin.

Either he has judged it at the cross, or he's going to judge it in man who rejects the crucified Savior, the man Christ Jesus. There's only one way to heaven. Only one.

Not two, not three. Only one way. And the way of the cross leads home.

Without the shedding of the blood of Christ, there is no salvation for any child of Adam's race. We've often said, and say it again tonight, it's Christ or hell for every man and woman and boy and girl in the whole world. It's either Christ or hell.

It's Solomon. Now, my friends, I ask you reverently, I ask you reverently for this one hour to let me bring you into the presence of God as I take you to the cross. And we see that blessed one hanging there with his hands stretched out, nailed to the cross, his feet nailed to the cross, his hands that were stretched forth as our brother told us last night, stretched forth in blessing nailed to the cross as if man said, those hands that have blessed man, we'll stop their blessing.

We'll nail them to the cross. Those feet that walk through this world to the glory of God his Father, man said, we'll stop them walking. We'll nail their feet to the cross.

And there Jesus hung between heaven and earth, a sight for God and for angels, for man, for demons and for the devil, to gaze upon the man on the cross. And I say tonight, my friends, behold the man of Calvary. Behold the man on the cross.

There he hangs. And he hung there for me, a poor hell-deserving sinner, my hope of salvation. Be to your Savior tonight, my friends.

What does Christ mean to you, the poor drunken world tonight, as they celebrate the birth of Christ and lines and lines of people hang outside the liquor stores to celebrate the birth, they say, of Christ that means nothing to them at all. The Christ of Calvary they reject. The Christ of Calvary they turn away from.

The whole thing's a mockery. And it must be a grieving feeling to the heart of God the Father to gaze down on this Christ-rejecting world at this time of the year. My friends, what does Jesus mean to you? Do you love him? Is he precious to your heart? Does his name touch your heart with joy and peace? Have you found in this helpless, lost, cruel, cold world of sin and shame and death a living hope and a living Savior? This is the hope of the world, Jesus.

Jesus, the one who hung on the cross of Calvary, the Savior of sinners. Jesus. No other Savior.

Not Mary, not Gabriel, not Michael, not one of the heavenly angels, but Jesus. For there's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved than that precious name that was nailed over the cross. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

Friends, he died for sinners. Isn't that blessed? Isn't that wonderful news? Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Christ died for the ungodly.

Oh, what a wonderful verse for a poor sinner to get hold of. Christ died for the ungodly. What a sad book this would be if this book said that Christ died for good people.

If this book said that Christ died for godly people, many of us in this room tonight would have to go up with our heads hanging down and tears in our eyes. We have to say, it doesn't mean me. But thank God for that word.

He died for sinners, the vilest, those in the gutter, the drunkards, those are criminals in the prison houses, those who could do nothing to save themselves, the self-righteous hypocrites, those who hate Christ. He died for you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

And Jesus showed a greater love. He died for his enemies. He died for sinners.

The 20th chapter, in the 19th verse, John chapter 20, verse 19, Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them, Peace be unto you. When he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his thighs. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.

Now I present the man who was dead, but who was raised from the dead, the risen man. How glorious is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. For the Spirit of God, written by the Apostle Paul, said in 1 Corinthians 15, If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, you are yet in your sins.

Thank God for the resurrection of the man Christ Jesus. Just before I speak a little bit on this verse, I would like to turn back to the 19th chapter in connection with the precious blood of Christ. I want to read these verses to you from the word of God, the final verse of John 19.

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the cross, on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was an high day, besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, that they might be taken away.

Then came the soldiers and broke the legs of the first, and the other which was crucified with them. Now, notice this first. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead, notice those words, He was dead already.

They broke not his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water. This is what the word of God says.

Man had no respect for a dead Christ any more than they had for a living Christ. They would crucify a living Christ, and they would put into the side of a dead Christ a spear, as much as to say, and I speak reverently, dead or alive, we hate you. We hate you.

Dead or alive, we hate you. God brought forth from that pierced side that precious blood that cleanses from all sin, despised by the world, referred to, you'll pardon me for saying it, by the modernist preachers as the butcher of gospel. May God forgive them.

But I say there is no salvation apart from the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. There is power in the blood tonight that cleanses you from all your sins.

I remember a story, maybe I told this before, but it bears repeating. I think it was Billy Sunday, the evangelist, who was preaching one night, and as he told of that verse about the blood of Jesus Christ, he noticed a man in the audience put his hand in the front chair and started to squeeze him until he noticed his hands turning white. And after the service was over he went down and said, my friend, why did you do that? And he said, sir, is that verse true? Is it really true that the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse from all sin? And he said, that's exactly what God says.

And he said, sir, I'm a murderer. I murdered a man and I never got caught yet. But he said, I came in here tonight to see what you'd say.

And I heard you say those words, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. And he said, sir, it seems too good to be true. Is it possible that the blood of Christ will cleanse me from the sin of murder And the preacher said, I don't say anything about it.

But God says, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from all sin. You may be here tonight discouraged. You may say, sir, if you only knew what kind of a sinner I was, you wouldn't preach that way.

I say to you, tonight there's power in the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, to cleanse from every and all sin. One look of faith to the cross, one look of faith to Christ, will save your precious soul for eternal ages. There's life in a look at the crucified one.

There's a savior tonight for you. In our 20th chapter, we have the risen Christ. And he appeared to his disciples.

He didn't appear after his resurrection to any man in the world that was an unbeliever. I don't believe so. But he did appear to over 500.

Now God tells us in our courts today, two or three witnesses to fight. But God says, no, I'm going to produce more than 500 witnesses that saw with their eyes the risen Christ. Is that sufficient? Is that sufficient? I counted up, I think it was 514 witnesses, 514 who actually with their eyes saw Jesus Christ the Lord after his resurrection.

I think that's enough witnesses, isn't it? Yes, my friends, I present tonight the risen man, the risen savior, risen, the risen Christ of God. He burst the bonds of death. Death could not hold the Holy One.

Death had no power over that blessed One. He laid down his life, but he had power to lay it down. And he had power to take it again.

He said that in John 10, 17. This commandment have I received of my Father. Oh, he's not only a Christ that died on the cross, a Christ that was buried, but he's a Christ that's risen, a risen Christ.

Now if you'll turn over to the first of that, you'll find something else about this blessed One. And friends, I want to present this person to you tonight. I want to present to you the most wonderful person, the most wonderful person in all the universe.

There's nobody like him. There's nobody like this person. You can't find anybody like this person.

Oh, he's a friend of sinners. The sinner's friend. What a friend to have.

Acts chapter 1, verse 9. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a crowd received him out of their sight. Ah, now we have another step, my friends. The One who left heaven and came down to be born of a virgin and laid in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn, now he's gone back to heaven.

And notice, he's gone back to heaven as a man. What a wonderful thing. What a marvelous thing, my friends, that tonight, as we stand here, as you sit there, if the heavens were opened by God and we could look into the immediate presence of God, what would we see? We would see a man.

A man sitting at the right hand of God. And as we look upon that man, the Exalted One in chapter 3 of Acts, the Exalted One, we see in his hands, his feet and his sides, the marks of the nails and the mark of the spear. Oh, he's marked for eternity.

Somebody has said, one night a teacher said these words, There will be nothing in heaven that man has done. And he was corrected after the meeting by another Christian who said, There is one thing in heaven that man has done that will be there for eternity. And that is the marks and the hands and the feet and the side of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's what man has done. Oh, look at that man, beloved, tonight he's risen. The holy, eternal Son of God has gone back into heaven as a man to remain a man for eternal ages, the Savior of sinners, the Son of God, the Risen and the Glorified One.

There he is in the heavens tonight. Not an angel, not a spirit, but a real man. And I want you tonight to see that man.

That man died for me. I can't speak for you, but thank God I can speak for myself. My hope on nothing less is built for eternal ages than that one man.

He died for me. That's the man, I point you tonight, the man of the glory now, the man who's gone back into the glory, the Christ, the Son of God. The world doesn't care.

The world says, let him stay there. We don't want him back here again. Let him stay there.

I think you've heard before the story of the lawyer in Chicago some years ago who said that Jesus Christ comes back to Chicago, we'll crucify him again. Well, to read those words, you know, it startles one. But my friends, that lawyer told the truth.

This world thinks they've got rid of Jesus Christ the Lord. They feel that he's gone forever. He's gone, but he hasn't.

He hasn't, my friends. And tonight he loves you. He looks down upon you who were here last night and left this room without Christ and he says, young man, I love you.

I love you. You turned away from me last night. You've come back tonight.

I love you. Young lady, you're wasting your life. You know, there's no real happiness in this world.

We step up to the man who's a drunkard and say, where is your happiness? He says, I have no happiness, sir. My heart's broken. I wish I was dead.

I have nothing to live for in this poor world. Step up to the great businessman with all his money and say, sir, where is your happiness? He says, sir, when I die, the firm will give me a wreath and that will be the end of me. I'll go into eternity to meet God.

I have no happiness. Step up to the young girl. The woman takes her actress and actresses and say, where is your happiness? She says, I have no happiness, sir.

I'm taking dope. I'm taking all kinds of drugs. I'm trying to find happiness and I can't find it.

I tell you there's happiness tonight and there's the happiness. Oh, friends, it's Christ. Christ is the answer to every problem that this poor world has to face.

Yea, indeed, Christ is God's one and only answer to all your troubles and all your sorrows and all your tears and heartaches. Christ can bring joy and peace and happiness into your life. Tomorrow morning, men and women will be receiving gifts by the cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Each gift, they'll say, thank you, thank you. But God's gift, they say, I don't want it. God's gift is Christ and the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Could ever a gift cost more? No. Never before was man offered a gift that cost the price that this gift cost.

And yet poor man, blinded by the devil, lured on in chains of sin to hell. He says to God, I don't want your gift. I don't want it.

I reject the given. I reject the gift. Always there's somebody in this room tonight that says, sir, I've got no happiness.

I've got no peace. I've tried to find peace. I've tried to find happiness and I can't find it.

I'm telling you tonight, you can have that peace and that joy, that satisfaction. It will make your heart so happy. You'll rejoice in the Lord.

A few months ago, my wife and I were on the train and after we had our breakfast, we placed the gospel tract on the table. And after about 20 minutes, a young man, a colored gentleman, I suppose he was 28 years of age probably, he came down to the car looking for us and he said, sir, that was a pretty nice paper you put on the table. And I read it all.

He said it was really good. And I said, young man, are you a Christian? This is what this young man said. He said, by the grace of God I am.

He said, three years ago, God saved me. Three years ago, he said, I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a young man, rather a husky, well-built young man.

This is what he said to me. He said, sir, I didn't know it was possible to be as happy in this poor, sad world as I am now since I have received Christ as my Savior. That, my dear unsaved friend, lost soul, under the power of the devil is the testimony of several hundred people in this room tonight.

We all can say amen. We don't know how happy you can be in this world, this sad, broken, sin-cursed earth with death stalking you, disease and sorrow and pain, hospitals, old folks homes, all faith men and women. How can you find happiness here? You can't.

Without Christ. Christ is the answer. The risen, glorified man at God's right hand.

Is the world going to see this man again? Yes, they are. They're going to see him. Let us look, in closing, at the nineteenth revelation just to read about this man, the connection with his coming again and judgment and all in the Western world or Christendom.

Notice now, the nineteenth chapter of Revelation. I'm not going to read the whole thing. I just want to read a couple of verses.

The eleventh verse of Revelation 19, And I saw, the beloved apostle John says, I saw heaven open and behold a white horse and he that sat on him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns or diadems. Not a crown of thorns here.

And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God. And it goes on to say the armies in heaven which we know are the saints of God. We're going to come back with this glorious man.

He's coming back again. Oh America, you in Los Angeles, awake I say, awake. The man of Calvary, the man of God's right hand, he's coming back again.

And all the fury of his wrath, to pour his wrath upon North America, upon Christendom, upon the West. And also on the East he's going to judge the world. The man of Calvary, the man the world spit upon and crowned with a crown of thorns.

The man they insulted and taxed out and murdered, he's coming back again. The glorified one and all his majesty and all the power of America and all the power of Russia and all the power of the world and the power of hell can't stop him. He's coming forth.

He's coming my friends to judge the world. The Christ, the Christ of Calvary, the risen one, the glorified one is coming back in his wrath and his anger to judge this world. Will you be here? I mentioned that in this birth the armies that follow him, we believe, are the saints of God.

How did they get there? How can they come forth to this glorified one? Because at any moment now the shout will be heard and the grave of those in Christ who belong to Christ will open and they'll be taken out of their graves. And we who are alive and remain chained and together caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And my friends, that may happen tonight.

This very night may be the last time you'll ever hear the gospel, your last invocation. If you reject tonight Christ, you may perish in the flames of hell for all eternity where Jesus said, where Jesus said there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Oh, you say, who said that, Paul? No, no more.

Paul didn't say that. Jesus said it. The son of God said it.

The only man who never told a lie said it. Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. We do not dare to cry to give a word picture of hell.

God has told us about it in his words. Oh, the awfulness of an eternity without Christ. My friend, the night of Jesus comes this night that the Lord Jesus Christ descends from heaven with a shout and you're not saved.

You'll be left here in Los Angeles, the Spirit of God returning to heaven with his people. What a mess this world's going to be in. I've talked to men and women lately and they've said, sir, what's going to happen? Something's got to happen.

Something has to happen. The whole world is collapsing. What's going to happen? The Lord is coming.

The Lord is coming. He may come tonight even before you get up out of that chair. The shouts may be heard.

And my friend, without Christ, you suddenly found this room empty. Maybe one left, two left, three left, four left, the room empty, all gone. So fast you couldn't see them go and you realize your doom was sealed.

You had played the devil's game too long. You had played with the devil too long. You had gambled your soul in the hands of the devil too long.

You're lost. And you'll go out of this auditorium saying, I'm lost. I'm lost.

I rejected Christ once too often. My mother prayed for me. My father prayed for me.

But I'm going to hell. I'm lost with no second chance, no salvation. Heaven's door closed.

No more room. And you left behind for judgment. God loves you.

As our dear brethren said last night, you may go to hell unsaved, but you'll never go to hell unloved, for God loves you. And I say reverently, when God has blocked the road to hell with the cross, if you will go to hell, you must jump over the cross. You must jump over the cross, for God loves you.

God loves you. And the Lord Jesus said, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And so before I pray, let us see now he brought before you the one from eternity, the great I Am of eternity, God himself, Jehovah, on earth, the man.

He brought before you the rejected one crowned with thorns. Behold the man, said ungodly pallet, that wicked man, that cheap politician. He sold his soul for popularity, to be popular in this poor world.

And then we saw the crucified one hang in between two robbers, numbered with the transgressors, rejected, despised, and yet finishing that mighty work of redemption, the precious blood flowing from his pierced side. It is power to cleanse from all sin on the authority of the Word of God. And then we saw the glorious resurrected, risen Christ showing his hands and his side and his feet to the disciples who were glad to see the risen Christ.

And then we saw the Christ in glory, the glorified man at God's right hand, highly exalted. Every knee must bow to him. The devil and the demons and the angels and mankind must bow their knee before that one, heaven's beloved one.

We saw him coming out of the glory with the armies of heaven behind him to judge the world. And we saw that he's coming at any moment, maybe tonight, as the hearts of millions of people East and West and North and South tonight cry out from their hearts, Amen. And even so, come Lord Jesus.

And maybe tonight, tonight, my friend, when you receive Christ, I can't save you. Nothing I've said of any use unless the Spirit of God speaks to your heart. We don't believe in getting people in corners.

We don't like to force men or try to force them to confess Christ. That happened to me many, many years ago. My friends, we don't believe in that.

But if the Spirit of God is speaking to you, if God is speaking to you, and I pray He is, I just pray that God will speak to you, that the God who loves you will speak to you tonight and lead you to own yourself as guilty sinners and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. And you will start tonight for glory.