 The title of our sermon this morning is, Render Your Verdict. Render Your Verdict. And we come this morning to John chapter 19 verses one through 16. We've been working through the gospel of John verse by verse, I've been in the gospel of John now for over three years. And we're coming to the end of the gospel of John here, John chapter 19 verses one through 16. And it's Friday now during Passion Week. It's mid-morning on the day that the Lord Jesus Christ will be crucified. Having been wickedly betrayed by Judas in the garden in the middle of the night under the shroud of darkness for fear of the people and with an entire Roman cohort accompanying the Jewish leaders and the temple police, Jesus is arrested. He's bound and led away to face trial. And what we now clearly know from scripture to be a complete mockery of justice. The Jews hate Jesus. They despise him. We know from the Roman governor's testimony that this hate is fueled by envy. The Jews essentially saying, who does he think he is? Why is the whole world seemingly going after him? Romans are gonna come and they're gonna take away our place and take away our nation. Jesus had consistently and persistently rebuked their hypocrisy. He's rebuked to their false apostate religion. He has called them out repeatedly. He's done it publicly in front of the crowds. And with every miracle that he does, every time that he teaches the people, he seems to garner a larger following. And all of that culminates with the raising of Lazarus from the dead in John chapter 11 and his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, praised by the masses at the beginning of the week in John chapter 12. The Jewish leaders have had enough. They've had enough and they want him dead. There are no charges. He has committed no crime, but they are threatened by him. They're so full of envy, so full of hate that they take him in the garden. He's led away first to Anas, the real authority behind the high priests of Israel. After Anas to Caiaphas, the son-in-law of Anas and the appointed high priests that year and the absurd and illegal so-called ecclesiastical trial of Jesus is wrapped up before the Sanhedrin at dawn where he is accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death. Having sentenced him to death, having beaten him, they lead him away next to the Roman governor, the prefect over Judea who is Pontius Pilate. If they're gonna kill him, they wanna put a veneer of respectability on the whole ordeal before the people and they're gonna need Rome's help to do that. So Pilate then hears the case in the Praetorium as he questions Jesus in John chapter 18. A pilot after questioning the Lord finds no fault in him. He sends him to Herod, the governor over Galilee in Luke 23 and Herod finds no fault in him. Herod sends him back to Pilate who labors with the Jews back and forth to have Jesus released and Pilate knows that he is innocent of the charges that are brought against him but he's fearful of an uprising. He's fearful of a revolt in the city and so wanting to appease the crowd, he offers them the infamous choice of Jesus or Barabbas and the bloodthirsty crowd cries out for the release of Barabbas and the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. As all this is going on, the crowd outside the Praetorium is growing. The Jewish leaders are working the crowd and inciting them to violence against Jesus and Pilate goes before the mob time and time again to announce to them he finds no fault in Jesus and finally Matthew records in Matthew chapter 27 verse 22. Pilate said to them, what then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? And they all said to him, let him be crucified. The governor said, why? What evil has he done? But they cried out all the more saying, let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water, he washed his hands before the multitude saying I'm innocent of the blood of this just person, you see to it. And all the people answered and said, his blood be on us and on our children. Then he released Barabbas to them. When he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? Well Pilate, if you're a man of integrity, you'd release him, you'd set him loose, you'd put an end to the injustice, you'd call off the mob. But Pilate is an unprincipled, selfish, compromising coward. With that question ringing in his ears, what then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? Pilate makes his choice. Pilate has Jesus brutally scourged and finally delivered to a savage death. So as we come this morning to John chapter 19 verses one through 16, we're faced with the same question. We're faced with the same question. What are we to do with Jesus who is called Christ? Pilate is finally forced here in this text to render a verdict and every person, every person, every person here is forced to render a verdict. What will be your verdict? Is your heart and mind this morning joined together at one in unity with the heart and mind of the mob? Shouting, crucify him. I want nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth. Give me my life. I want my own way. Are you in bread with those wicked soldiers? In John chapter 19 verses one through three, who mock him and spit upon him and shame him in his suffering? Or, or, do you acknowledge before the Lord and to yourself, I felt in my own chest the beating heart of that mob? I've been weak. I've been vacillating. There are times when I've been cowardly like Pilate. Would you acknowledge that this morning? Would you acknowledge I, apart from the grace of God in Christ, I am Barabbas. God be merciful to me. Don't give me my life. Give me Christ. I gladly give my life up for him. See, there's no middle ground. There's no middle ground. There are no appeals here to a higher court. There are no abstentions. Like Pilate, you must render your verdict. John's purpose for writing is recorded in John chapter 20 verse 31. He writes that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. That you may see in this text, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that you, in your heart before the Lord, may render a verdict that leads to life in his name. So in John chapter 19 verses one through 16, point one on your notes. We're gonna behold the King. Behold the King in verses one through three. We're gonna behold the Son of God in verses four through seven. We are to behold the righteous judge in verses eight through 11. And we are to behold the verdict of this world in verses 12 through 16. We're to conclude by rendering our own verdict. What will you do with this Jesus who is called the Christ? What will you do? First, let's begin in verses one through three and behold the King. Behold the King. John records in verse one. So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe. Then they said, hail King of the Jews. And they struck him with their hands. As we consider verses one through three, let's remember, all of this is taking place exactly as Jesus Christ, the sovereign King, has said that it would. Mark chapter 10, verse 33, Mark records, Jesus' words, behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and scourge him and spit on him and kill him. And the third day he will rise again. And that prophecy, Mark chapter 10, is now being fulfilled with exacting precision in John chapter 19 and mocking it in the brutality that we see in verses one through three. Jesus knew that this would happen and that it would happen exactly this way and he willingly submits himself to this treatment. So as he submits himself to this treatment, I want you to see first in verses one through three, our King in his suffering and secondly, we'll look at our King put to an open shame. Our King in his suffering and our King put to an open shame. First, behold, our King in his suffering. After the crowd insists in John chapter 18, verse 40, that Pilate released to them Barabbas, Pilate in John chapter 19, verse one, takes Jesus and has him scourged. Now having found Jesus to be innocent of the charges made against him, Pilate makes multiple attempts to release him. But lest we think too highly of Pilate's efforts here, it's Pilate in verse one, who has an innocent man scourged. There's no excuse for his actions here. There's no excuse. Pilate's hoping here that is brutal treatment, right? The severe scourging will appease the bloodlust of the crowd and get him off the hook. This is not a noble act on the part of Pilate. Pilate has an innocent man scourged. Now Pilate's the one who orders the scourging in verse one, but it's the soldiers here who actually carry out the order and the soldiers come into emphasis here in verses one through three. These soldiers are described in Matthew chapter 27 as the soldiers of the governor. They would have been standing nearby during the whole trial. They would have heard everything that was going on, everything that was said. They would have shared Pilate's own contempt and disdain for the Jews. And they would have been hardened men, hardened and calloused by many tortures, by many executions. So before any official verdict has been announced, do you get that? Before any verdict has been announced, before any sentence even takes place, Pilate, knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ is without fault, the Jews having handed him over due to envy, he turns Jesus over to the soldiers. The soldiers take Jesus. They strip him down naked. They tie him, hunched over to a short post and they scourge him. And they do all this publicly to increase the humiliation and the shame associated with it. In Rome at the time, there were three forms, there were three levels of Roman physical punishment. One is fustigatio, two is flagello show and three is verbaratio, verbaratio. The first fustigatio was just a simple beating. It was a beating that was used to warn an offender. Someone who had committed a misdemeanor might be beaten this way. It was for petty offenses, more a warning. The second was more severe. The second was doled out for criminal acts, for acts of violence. It would leave a person scarred for life, scarred for life. The third verbaratio was extremely violent. It was the most brutal form of a Roman scourge, the most brutal extent to which they would go with the scourging. It was associated with capital cases and associated primarily with crucifixion. So verbaratio here is the scourge that's referred to by the Greek word in verse one. Pilate took Jesus and he scourged him, this third level of scourging. This would have been almost unimaginable torture. Many nicknamed this the half-death. It was so degrading, so gory, and frankly it was just, it was so abhorrent to any sensible person that Roman citizens were exempt from ever being scourged. You couldn't scourge a Roman citizen. It was only for slaves and defeated foreigners. If you remember in Acts chapter 22, Paul appeals to his Roman citizenship when they're about to scourge Paul. The instrument used to carry out the scourge was called a flagrum or flagellum. It was a short wooden rod, short wooden post that had leather whips attached to the end. And in those leather whips they would sew in pieces of iron, bone, hooks, spikes. Jewish law limited beatings with a simple rod to 40 lashes, that's Deuteronomy chapter 25 verse three. It was common considering that law for the Jews to only give someone 39 lashes to avoid going over the limit. So Paul, if you remember that text in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 24, Paul testifies that five times he had received from the Jews 40 stripes minus one. Right? No such mercy was extended by the Romans. Jesus would have been subjected to unmitigated cruelty at the hands of these Roman soldiers. Usually there were two. There were two soldiers who performed the scourging. They were called lictors. They would stand opposite the post and they would take turns swinging until they were exhausted. And either the scourging ended because they were exhausted or because the commanding officer stopped the scourge or because the victim died at the post. Now history records and we can imagine, right? That the flagram simply shredded human skin just shredded a person's back. At the end of a typical scourging the skin of a man's back would have been hanging off his back, hanging off in strips. It was not uncommon for bone to be revealed for veins to be torn open for inner organs to be exposed. Eusebius, a historian recounts a scourging and he says the bystanders were struck with amazement when they saw them lacerated with scourges even to the innermost veins and arteries. So that the hidden inward parts of the body both their bowels and their members were exposed to view. If you can imagine the blood loss, right? It would have been severe. Victims were often in shock. By the time the scourging was over near death, critical. Jesus in this case was left two weeks to carry the wooden cross beam of his cross to the place of execution. The pain would have been indescribable, right? Indescribable. So we behold our King in his suffering. But if that weren't enough, it's not just enough to inflict physical pain, we behold our King put to an open shame in verse two. Put to an open shame. And the soldiers, verse two, twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head. And they put on him a purple robe and they said, hail King of the Jews. And they struck him with their hands. So Pilate's order, Pilate's specific order was to take him and scourge him. However, these soldiers took great joy, great satisfaction in utterly humiliating him to boot. So interesting here, the emphasis in John, even the emphasis in Mark and Matthew, not on the physical pain, the emphasis here appears to be on the shame that's heaped upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew chapter 27, verse 27 says this, the soldiers of the governor then took Jesus into the Praetorium and they gathered together the whole garrison around him, not a small number of troops, right? Hundreds here, hundreds of troops. They stripped him and they put a scarlet robe on him. Now, if you imagine Lord Jesus Christ, they stripped him down, tie him to the post, scourge him. The scourging is over, open wounds bleeding on his back and they put his old clothes back on him to lead him into the Praetorium. As they come into the Praetorium, the soldiers of the governor, take Jesus into the Praetorium, gather together the entire garrison of troops around him and they stripped those clothes back off of him. So you've ever had that done to a wound, right? You have the garment stuck to bleeding flesh, the blood beginning to coagulate and dry around that garment, and then you rip that garment back off again, taking skin and flesh with it, just would have been excruciating. It says in verse 28 that they stripped him, put a scarlet robe on him. When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, put a reed in his right hand and they bowed the knee before him and they mocked him saying, Hail, king of the Jews. Then they spat on him. They took the reed and they struck him on the head and when they had mocked him, they took the robe off him again, put his own clothes on him again and they led him away to be crucified. The gospel writers here, the gospel writers make much of the shame. They make much of the humiliation, abusing not only his physical body, but abusing essentially who he is, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this shame is seen in two essential forms here in verses two and three. First, there's a mock coronation. Secondly, there's a scornful dishonor. First, there's a mock coronation. Their intent is to make a complete mockery of the Lord's claim to be king, to be a king. So John 19, verse two says, that soldiers then twisted a crown of thorns and they put it on his head. You know, kings, caesars, victors, victors, often wore a laurel wreath. It's called a Stephanos. Laurel wreath on their heads or a crown. So a crown of twisted thorns was certainly a mocking corruption of that laurel wreath. And we're not told what kind of thorn bush this was, but date palms were common in that area at the time. And have you ever seen a picture of a date palm? Date palm thorns grow six, eight, 10 inches long. If you run into one of those, you're gonna hurt yourself, right? Of course, the thorns would have bore into his scalp as they pressed the crown, the wreath onto his head. And it's interesting here to consider that as the Lord left his enthroned glory in heaven, he left to wear upon his head the effects of the curse of man's sin. Where do thorns come from? Thorns come as a result of the fall. The curse, after the fall of the first Adam into sin, God cursed the earth and thorns were the result. In Genesis chapter three, verse 17, God said to Adam, because you've heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you saying you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. So both here, spiritually and symbolically, in John chapter 19, verse two, Jesus bears the curse for sinful man. This is the curse of our sin. We're to see in this the curse of our sin, do you see? Next in John chapter 19, verse two, they put on him a purple robe. Purple was a color that signified royalty. So a purple robe was a robe of royalty. Now the word here is not the same word used to describe the robe that Herod put on him. In Luke chapter 23, verse 11, that was described as a gorgeous robe. It's a different word here. It means a military cloak. It's a word that means military cloak. It was something one of the soldiers just tossed into the corner. Something that they wouldn't have minded, bloodying up. Wasn't valuable to anyone. It was discarded. Matthew said the robe was scarlet. Mark and John said that it was purple, which means that it was likely faded badly. You could already tell what color it was, right? It was old and worn. Was faded, coarse tunic. Closest thing they could come to to a humiliating purple robe on short notice. So Matthew records again, they took off his own clothes to put the robe on him, meaning that after the scourging, again, they put his old clothes back on him, the blood begins to calgagulate, dry around the garment, and then they peel those clothes off of him again, likely taking flesh in the process, and they put on this tattered, old, faded, humiliating, discarded cloak. To make the mockery here complete, Matthew adds, they put a reed in his hand, a scepter, a mock scepter. A scepter was the symbol of the king's authority. It doesn't say, it doesn't say in the Bible that the scepter of his kingdom is a scepter of righteousness, right? And you can't find anything more unrighteous than what's going on right here right now in John chapter 19. This is a horrid scene. This is the Lord Jesus Christ, king of kings, Lord of lords. And they are treating him this way. First, a mock coronation. Secondly, there's a scornful dishonor. Look at John chapter 19, verse three, the scornful dishonor. Then they said to him, hail king of the Jews. And you can hear, can't you, the tone of contempt and sarcasm in that title? And he adds in verse three, they struck him with their hands. Matthew adds this, that they bowed the knee before him and they mocked him saying, hail king of the Jews. Then they spat on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And we consider those verses, both John chapter 19, verse three and then what Matthew adds there in Matthew chapter 27, the verbs there are all in the imperfect tense, which means that they kept on doing this. It wasn't once they keep on bowing the knee. They keep on saying that. They keep on striking him. So if you can imagine the use of those verbs and the scene there in the Praetorium, you could envision the entire garrison of troops, yelling, taunting, jeering, right? As each one, one by one goes before the Lord Jesus Christ and bows the knee before him like they would bow before Caesar, mock him saying, hail king of the Jews. Rather than offering a customary kiss of loyalty or a kiss of devotion like they would to Caesar, they spit in his face already bloody, already swollen. They then strike him in the face with their open hand take the reed out of his hand, strike him on the head and this happens over and over and over again. It's disturbing to put yourself in the heart and mind of these soldiers as they do this, right? If you think about it, Roman soldiers, Roman soldiers at this time were well aware of messianic expectations of the Jews. They knew the Jews were waiting on what they perceived to be a promised deliverer who would conquer the Romans and drive them out and there was deep seated resentment, deep seated hostility between the Jews and between these Roman soldiers. If you can imagine the Roman soldiers in Jerusalem constantly putting down riots, constantly going after zealots, constantly as an occupying army having to deal with these pesky Jews. So they're mocking here, their treatment of the Lord Jesus Christ fueled by resentment fueled by a bitter rivalry and they took great joy in demeaning him and calling him the king of the Jews. So confident of their right cause, right? So confident that what they're doing is just. This was justice to them. All of this for what? All of this for what? If you think about it, Lord Jesus Christ is blameless. Lord Jesus Christ is innocent. There's not been a single charge that sticks. Pilate knows he's innocent. So what is he being charged for? What is he being scourged for? What is he being mocked for, right? Because of the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. He taught them as one having authority not as one of their scribes. They marveled at his words. Was it because he healed thousands of people? Healed diseases, all manner of diseases, all manner of trauma, restoring withered hands, healing lepers, causing the blind to see, raising the dead. Was it because he fed them, right? Fed them by the thousands in Galilee? Twice recorded in scripture. The Lord Jesus Christ here is wholly harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, higher than the heavens. And if you think about it, at this point, right, the apex of recorded history, at the very cusp of the cross, the pinnacle of all of redemptive history from the beginning until now, the apex of history and here is what this wicked world does to Christ when they take deity into their hands, right? All men have treated him shamefully. And this is the way the world treats him. Matthew chapter 21, verse 34, Jesus tells the parable of the wicked vine dressers. The parable goes like this in verse 34, when vintage chime drew near, certain landowner sent his servants to the vine dressers that they might receive its fruit. The vine dressers took his servants, they beat one, they killed one, stoned another. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. Then last of all, he sent his son to them, saying they will respect my son, certainly, certainly they will respect my son. But when the vine dressers saw the son, they said amongst themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance. And so they took him, they cast him out of the vineyard and they killed him. This is the way that the Lord has treated, right? This is the way that the Lord has treated in the heart and mind of every single person that denies him, every single person like these soldiers that refuses to bow in submission in repentant faith to his will. Every single person is just like these soldiers, the one who does not refuses to give up their life to turn from their sin, to entrust themselves to him, to trust him alone. Every one is a hard-hearted, self-willed rebel. And this is the way in your heart, in your mind, in light of what the Lord Jesus Christ here endures for sinners, this is the rebellion that is bound up in the heart of every single rebel, every single lost person. So incidentally, as we consider the Lord in this, what was his response? What was the Lord's response to all this? Lord's response here was silence. We don't hear anything out of the Lord Jesus Christ right here, right? He could have called for 12 legions of angels, called down fire from heaven, but the Lord here is silent. Isaiah chapter 53, verse seven, he was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before it shears, is silent, so he opened not his mouth. What was the Lord's response? Hebrews chapter 12, verse two. We are to look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. Despising the shame means there, that it's a worthless thing. It's nothing to be considered. It's worthless. The shame is, it doesn't touch him. He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, turning me to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 50. Let's consider the response of our Lord. Isaiah chapter 50, what's going on in his heart and mind as he endures this? Isaiah chapter 50, again written 600 years before the time of Christ. The Bible's not a book written by man, amen? God used the human author, but the ultimate author is God, who not only knows the future, God has written history, written the future. God has determined all things whatsoever that come to pass, and we see this in the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 50, beginning in verse four. This is one of the servant songs of Isaiah, the suffering servant. The Jews had this passage of scripture in their Bibles. They could have referred to the suffering servant songs of Isaiah if they wanted to. They could have seen what was going on. But Isaiah records in verse four, the Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. Verse six, I gave my back to those who struck me. I gave my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. Why? Why? Verse seven, for the Lord God will help me. Listen, the Lord Jesus Christ may have been put to an open shame for a moment, but he will be glorified for all of eternity. You, as a follower of Christ, if we follow the Lord Jesus Christ, there may come a point where in this life, before the scornful faces of this wicked world, where you may be put to an open shame for a moment, but there is glory in eternity with Christ forever. Endure the shame, despise the shame as a worthless thing, follow Christ. He says, verse seven, in immovable, unwavering trust in God the Father, the Lord God will help me. Therefore I will not be disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. If you turn from your sin to trust Christ, can you say amen to that? You will not be put to shame. The Lord God is our strength. The Lord God will help us. Therefore we will not be disgraced. Set your face like a flint. Consider him who endured such hostility at the hands of sinners against himself. Let's you become weary and discouraged in your soul and press on in the race that he's called us to run. The Lord is our help. Verse eight, God is near who justifies me. Who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who is my adversary? If God is for us, who can possibly be against us? Amen. Let him come near me. Verse nine, surely the Lord God will help me. Who is he who will condemn me? Indeed they will all grow old like a garment. The moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of his servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and let him rely upon his God. Look all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with sparks. Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that you have kindled and this you shall have from my hand. You shall lie down in torment. Behold our king, right? Behold our king. Back in John chapter 19, what are we to think of these things, right? So we think of this text. How are we to apply this? First thing I want you to consider as we think of these things is that Jesus Christ is actually a king, right? What they mock him for and revile him for, he actually is. He is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. And yet they mock him as a king and they revile him as a king. This is how contemptuously the world reviles the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ. This shows the part of the world a contempt for his right to rule, a contempt for his right to reign. Those that refuse and reject and rebel against his rightful reign and rule over your life. You are not your own. You are created. If you've turned to Christ, you're not your own. You've been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God. And this contempt for his rule, this contempt for his right to reign is bound up in your heart apart from the grace of God in Christ. Secondly though, the very humility, right? The very shame that he suffers here becomes his triumph, becomes his victory. The very treatment that he endures here is a cause for his exaltation by the Father. It's a cause for his glory, being obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. He receives the name which is above every name. He is highly exalted. So they can mock him, they can scorn him and dishonor him, but he has the name which is above every name. He has been highly exalted and everyone who has knelt in mocking honor of him will bow the knee to him one day as the Lord of all, as Lord of lords, to the glory of God the Father. They will bow the knee. They will confess with their tongues that Jesus Christ is Lord. You think about that now too. As the Lord obeys here in John chapter 19 verses one through three, his very obedience here is part of that obedience which is part and parcel of that righteousness which is credited to us. In justification, right? When you are saved by God, you are declared righteous. Your sin placed upon Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ bears the punishment, bears the penalty for your sin that you rightly deserve. He bears that in his body on the tree, bears it here in his scourging, bears it here in his suffering. He bears that in perfect obedience to the Father, that obedience, that perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ then credited to you, imputed to you as the righteousness that you need to stand before God. And you can be seen by God as righteous. But lastly this morning, as we consider verses one through three, we can't simply look on these verses in those in the synoptic gospels and see them for their gore, right? Or see them for their brutality. You know, the movies that have been made of this, the scenes that have been portrayed of this miss the point of this. They miss the point. We're not just to see the cruel brutality or barbarism of this world, not merely the irrational hatred of the Jews or the cowardice of Pilate. But do you see the beauty in it? Do you see the beauty in it? We're to see the beauty in it. We shouldn't be merely provoked to anger. We shouldn't merely be provoked to grief or astonishment. We should be provoked to worship, right? Provoked to worship. We should be provoked to glory in the person and work of our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, our prophet, priest and king, right? We should be provoked to obedience, provoked to devotion, provoked to love, provoked to a humble following. We should be provoked to give our all as a hymn. As we think about these things, I think about the words of this hymn. Oh, make me understand it. Help me to take it in. What it meant to thee, the holy one, to bear away my sin. Then melt my heart, oh savior, bend me, yes, break me down until I own thee, conqueror and Lord and sovereign crown. We're to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in this. Faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ in this, the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, the lengths to which the Lord Jesus Christ goes for sinners like you and sinners like me. Having loved his own who are in the world, he loved them to the end, right? Not just to the end in a temporal sense, but to the fullest extent, right? He gave all, all for his own, all to redeem his people. He bears your name. If you're in Christ, if you've turned from your sin and put your faith and trust in him, then he bears your name, graven on his hand, so to speak, as he grips the post. He bears in his divine omniscience, he bears the thought of your need as he stands condemned. He's here in John chapter 19 for you. He's here in John chapter 19 for me. He bears this for me. Some look at what the Lord Jesus Christ goes through here in John chapter 19 and they pity him. They pity him and this is worthy of pity. He doesn't need your pity. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't need pity here. The Lord Jesus Christ is full and overflowing with pity for lost sinners. You're the one who needs pitying and the Lord Jesus Christ goes here to pity you in mercy and grace to you. He's the innocent one and he's treated here like a common criminal so that you might be set free from the blood guilt of your crimes. If you think about yourself here in the place of Barabbas and the place of the mob and the place of Pilate, we deserve to be scourged. Right? We deserve to be scourged. We deserve to be spat upon. We deserve to be shamed and humiliated for our rebellion. What foolish rebellion. We deserve to be mocked in all our absurd pride. We deserve to endure torment for our disgusting and exceedingly sinful sin. So you can't be neutral. You see? You can't be neutral. That's why when you consider what the Lord Jesus Christ endures, what the Lord Jesus Christ goes through to redeem lost sinners to himself, to purchase the redemption of his own people. When you consider what Jesus Christ endures, you can't be neutral. There is no middle ground. You can't be indifferent. That's why every single person who has not found the need to Christ, who has not confessed him as Lord, is a God hater, despises the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Looking what the Lord Jesus Christ has endured for sinners and you would be indifferent to that, you would turn your back, give your back to him after he's gone through that for sinners, after he has extended the doors of mercy, the doors of grace flung wide open for sinners. And you're gonna stand there in your rebellion? Who do you think you are? You rebellious self-willed fool. You can't be neutral to this scene. Will you be moved by it? Or will you sit there stone-hearted? Listen to me, you young people, you kids, are you gonna sit there week in and week out, faced with the awful price of your sin and fail to turn to Christ? Rebellion in your heart against the Lord Jesus Christ? Will you continue in your sin? You absurd fool. What's your verdict? What is your verdict? Will you worship him? Or will you shout with the mob away with him? Crucify him, give me my life? What are you going to do? What will you do with this one called Jesus who is the Christ? What will you do? Listen, if one of those soldiers, if one of those soldiers upped that filthy instrument and turned to Christ and said, I'm a sinner, I have sinned against the Lord, my God, please forgive me. What would Jesus Christ have done? The promise stands, the promise stands for that wicked sinner, that wicked soldier, one who just flayed open the back of the Lord of glory. The promise stands for him. If you will come to me, I will by no means cast you out. If you're here today and you've never turned to him, the promise, the promise stands for you. If you will turn from your sin and put your trust in Christ, if you will give yourself, heart, soul, mind and strength to him, the Lord Jesus Christ promises, he will by no means cast you out. And he went to the post for you. That promise remains this morning, right? Repent and believe in the gospel. For the joy set before him, the Lord Jesus Christ gave up his life, bore the shame, suffered the wrath. For the joy, brothers and sisters, it lays before us. For the joy of knowing him, we give up any claim to this life, amen. All glory be to the one who has been such an amazing substitute for us. Amen, let's pray. Father in heaven, what we praise you and we worship you and we thank you Lord for this sacrifice, for this submissive act, obedient act on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ to suffer shame, to bear the sins of his people, to redeem his own. And we see Lord the glory in this, the beauty of it, having loved his own who are in the world, he loves them to the very end. We praise you and we thank you. Thank you for the sacrifice of Christ. Thank you Lord that although we in our often so dull hearted with respect to our sin are so cool or sometimes indifferent for the things of God. We praise you Lord for your grace and your mercy. And pray Lord that there'd be no one here who would leave unmoved by what Christ has done for sinners. And Lord you would with cords of love draw them to yourself and cause them to be born again, grant them repentance and faith and save them for your glory. And all the saints in heaven forever praise his holy name. We love you and we thank you Lord in Jesus' name, amen.