A lot of you from CCM and I have good friends also here attending this church. So it's really great that I'm able to minister the Word of God to you. Let me begin with the word of prayer and we'll get right into it. God, we come here this morning because we love you.

We come together this morning as a church, as a group of believers, as a people who have been redeemed by your blood and brought into your body, adopted into the family. We come here to recognize your goodness, to worship you for your grace and for your mercy and just to sit at your feet as you teach us your Word.

And so I pray that as the truth goes forth that Lord, Holy Spirit, would you work in each of our hearts, take that truth, convict us with it. And Lord, this week and the week after and our entire life, may we just live worshipfully unto you. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Alright so this past weekend what we've been doing is talking about the Great Commission and for you Collegians, you guys should remember, we set our eyes on the glory of God. We set our eyes on the glory of God and why we evangelize. We evangelize ultimately for the glory of God and then Saturday morning we kind of brought things to ourselves.

In order for us to go forward and to proclaim the Gospel effectively, unashamedly, we have to be dead men. Because the world can't do anything to dead people and the world hates God, the world hates Christianity, the world hates the Gospel. And so they're going to come after you.

In order for you to go into the world effectively, unashamedly, willing to endure the pain, you have to be dead men. And then last night we talked about the peril of hell. We brought the focus from the Lord and we kind of understood the Gospel with respect to ourselves.

Then we try to understand it with regards to other people. The peril of hell, people are going to be damned because they don't hear the Gospel. So Collegians, we are believers who believe in the reality of heaven and hell so that people who do not hear the Gospel will be damned.

We all believe that. And if we fervently believe in that truth, then we will go out and proclaim the truth that will deliver them from that hell. Today what I want to do is to bring the focus back to God. And to talk about the very motivation that pushes us and compels us to share the Gospel.

I want to read to you from Isaiah chapter 6. So take your Bibles and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6. It reads this from verse 1 through 7. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.

And the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings. With two He covered His face and with two He covered His feet. And with two He flew. And one called to another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of His glory." The foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of Him who called and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, "Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt has taken away your sins atoned for." I mean, this is an amazing vision that the prophet Isaiah goes through.

He, I don't know how it happened, just opens his eyes and he's before the throne of God. He's before the throne of God, before the presence of God and he is watching and he is beholding the outpouring of the very essence of God's fearsome glory. And he hears the seraphim praising the Lord for His holiness with their angelic voices.

They're filling the chambers of God with the melody of worship. He sees them veiling their faces because even the angels cannot directly look upon the glory of their King. All the while he hears a divine voice thunder through the hall of God's holy throne and he feels the foundations of the threshold shake.

When you're in the presence of God, you're not nonchalant. Undoubtedly, he fell down and he worshiped and he says, "Woe is me. Woe is me. For I'm a man of unclean lips who live among men of unclean lips and I have beheld God almighty but God, when He looks upon this man, this sinful, depraved man, He doesn't crush him.

He doesn't destroy him but He commissions an angel and the angel goes and takes the coal, takes it and presses it upon the mouth of Isaiah and the lips of this prophet is cleansed." And then it says in verse 8, "I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send and who will go for us?' Then I said, 'Here I am.

Send me. I will go. I will go and do what you want me to do. I will go and say what you want me to say. I will go wherever you want me to go. I will go for you who has atoned for my sins.'" And Isaiah is commissioned and he goes, "Do you know why we go out and evangelize?

It's to magnify and to proclaim the glory of the one who has cleansed us of our sins. As our Lord God has taken the hot coal of the gospel of Jesus Christ and touched our mouth and He has forgiven us, He has cleansed our soul. And with the authority of heaven and earth, the Lord Jesus Christ commissioned everybody who has been redeemed." Hence everybody here.

"He has commissioned every single person who has been redeemed from their sins and delivered from the damnation of hell. He has commissioned you as the Lord of the heavens and the earth, go and make disciples of all the nations. At this point you either defy that command or you submit in worship." But unlike Isaiah who was commissioned to proclaim judgment, we are commissioned to proclaim salvation.

If you tell people of the very love that has saved us, we are a people who have been forgiven by the grace of God. We are the people whose lips have been cleansed by the coal of the gospel. And because we have been redeemed, the love that you have for God, the joy of forgiveness, the relationship you have with the Lord should be what propels you to move forward to proclaim the message that He has given to you.

And that message is the message of the joy of salvation in Christ. And today what I basically want to do is to kind of, I just want to bring us back to the gospel. Bring us back to what Jesus Christ went through. And that we would be affected and impressed by it.

So that we too, like Isaiah would say, "Here I am, send me." Turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 27 and we'll get into the text. Matthew chapter 27. As we go through this text, this is Jesus. It's about Jesus. It's about the one we love. It's about the one whom we worship.

And this is very personal to every single one of you. Matthew chapter 27 verse 27. "And the soldiers of the governors took Jesus into the governor's headquarters." Soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters. You have to remember our Lord, before He was taken by the Roman soldiers, He was abused.

He was beaten by the temple police. He had lacerations across His back because of the discouraging He received by the Romans. He was in a condition where He was bleeding and He was hurt. And it was in that condition that the Roman soldiers took the Lord Jesus Christ and just threw Him into the praetorium, into the governor's household.

And it says here, "And they gathered the whole battalion before Him." Sometimes we think just a few soldiers came around Jesus Christ to kind of have fun with Him. But it says here, an entire battalion, the whole battalion came before Him. A battalion consisted of approximately 600 Roman soldiers.

That's what a cohort was. Approximately 600 Roman soldiers heard about this man, the King of the Jews, Jesus the Christ, and they come and they surround Him. 600 soldiers. And it says in verse 28 to 30, "And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. And twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and put a reed in His right hand.

And kneeling before Him, they mocked Him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' They spit on Him and took the reed and struck Him on the head. They took the Lord Jesus Christ, they took off His clothes, and they exposed Himself in shame. And they put upon Him a scarlet robe." Probably something, one of the robes that the soldiers were wearing, because that's what they had at the time.

"They put it upon Him to make Him look like a king. The soldiers twisted thorns together to give the King a crown that is worthy of His title. They took a reed, something that they used to flog their victim. They took a reed and put it in His right hand, His glorious scepter." What you see is a pathetic, pitiful picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, bruised, beaten, and He's bleeding.

There's a fake crown on His head. There's a robe across Him and a stupid stick in His hand. This is the picture of your King. "They looked upon this man and they bowed down. They bowed down and they gave Him the same praise that they will give Caesar. 'Hail, hail, King of the Jews!

Hail, hail, King of the Jews!' They noticed that they spat on them." That's what the text says, "They, they spat on them." Multiple people. Everyone who was within the proximity of Jesus Christ, oh, they showered Him, but not with praise but with their saliva. And they took the reed and it says, "The reed," referring to the reed in Jesus' hand, and they took that to beat Him with it.

You know, these guys could have taken anything to beat the Lord Jesus Christ. They could beat Him with their hands. They could have beat Him with some other weapon. They could have taken another reed and started beating the Lord Jesus, but they took the reed in His right hand, the scepter, and started beating Him across the head.

The scepter of a king represented his regal power and authority. For them to take the scepter to beat Christ was to beat Him with his own authority. It's kind of like a bully who grabs the wrist of a little child and starts slapping him across the face with it.

Not only makes him look weak, but also makes him look like an incompetent fool, unable to control himself. It's not just a hurt, it was a shame. That's exactly what these soldiers did. They took the wrist of Jesus' power and authority and began slapping Him across the face. Here's the king of the Jews, unable to control his very own authority and power.

And that verb "struck," in the Greek, it's, we say, in the imperfect tense meaning. And the reason why I bring that out is because that imperfect tense portrays an ongoing action in the past. They constantly beat Him over and over again. "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they beat Him, and they beat Him, and they beat Him.

They drove the thorns that were on His head deeper and deeper into a skull. Six, approximately 600 grown men, just mocking this man. Verse 31. Or verse 20, uh, 31. When they had mocked Him, when they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the robe and put His own clothes on Him and led Him away to crucify Him.

Almost everybody had their fill of fun. They took the robe off and put His own clothes back on Him. And they made Jesus carry the cross. Approximately 200 pounds, carry the cross. And took the cross upon His shoulders and He began to walk. But when He made it to the outside of the gates, He could not hold it anymore.

And it says in verse 32, "And they went out and they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled the man to carry his cross. The Lord unable to carry the cross upon which he will die, the soldiers got a man to carry it for Him. So together they went.

It was a Roman soldiers, Simon of Cyrene, and Lord Jesus Christ. They came to a place called Golgotha. Verse 33, 34 it says, "And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull, they offered Him wine to drink mixed with gall. But when He tasted it, He would not drink it." Now the word Calvary is where we get the word Calvary from the reference here.

Golgotha is a place of a skull. And we don't know exactly why it's referred to in this way, but a traditional site is called Gordon's Calvary, which is north of the city walls of Jerusalem, which kind of looks like a skull. And the word Calvary is taken from the Latin word for skull, it's calvaria, which is where we get the word cranium from.

So Calvary is in reference to the hill, Golgotha, the place of the skull. So when Jesus came to Calvary, the soldiers gave Him a drink. They gave Him a drink. A drink of wine mixed with gall. Now gall is just a general term referring to something that is bitter.

The book of Mark tells us that this gall is myrrh. And what myrrh does is heightens the strength of a drink so as to deaden the pain. So they gave this to Jesus Christ, but they didn't give it to the Lord because they wanted to be merciful. They felt bad about Him.

I mean, look at what they did to Him before. The reason why they gave Him this drink is because they didn't want Him to squirm when they were going to nail Him to the cross. They wanted to stupefy Him. So after tasting it, Jesus spat it out. He spat it out because He wanted to, He didn't want any of the senses to be dulled.

He wanted to make sure that He felt the fullness of God's wrath when it came upon Him. That He will feel every ounce of damnation. That He will feel every ounce of pain and torment. He made sure He was sober so that He will understand the horrors of hell.

Verse 35 and 36. When they had crucified Him, they divided His garment among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over Him there. It's very interesting. This is the only place where Matthew really talks about the crucifixion. He just says that He was crucified. He doesn't get into the details of the pain.

He doesn't talk about how victims die by suffocating to death. He just says He was crucified. The word crucify is not even the main verb of the sentence. He's crucified. Matthew's focus is not so much on the pain that Jesus Christ had to endure, but the shame that He had to endure.

The book of Mark tells us that He was crucified at the third hour, which is nine o'clock in the morning. The first hour is at six o'clock. When the soldiers crucified Jesus at that time, they divided up His garment among themselves and they began to gamble it away. Now what does that imply?

It implies they stripped Jesus of His clothes. It implies that they stripped Jesus of His clothes. The Romans, when they crucified the criminals, they crucified them naked. Now it's possible for Jews they left loincloth so that they wouldn't violate some kind of Jewish stipulation that we find later on in the Mishnah.

But when you think about Jesus, when you think about Jesus' condemnation, the religious leaders were willing to make an exception to their traditions and to their rules and to their regulations. When it came to Jesus, when it came to mocking Him, condemning Him, they were willing to make an exception.

So it's very possible when our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified upon that cross, He was crucified completely naked. He was lifted up for the entire world to see His glory. And above His head was His crime and over His head they put the charge against Him which read, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.

And what king would exercise His royal power without His right and left hand man, right? And so what does it say in verse 38? "Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left." You see the King in all His glory. See the King with His majestic crown.

See the King with His splendid garments. See the King with His right and left hand man. See the King upon His glorious throne. This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Our Lord was lifted up on the cross and shamed and mocked for everyone, by everyone, for being someone who He really was.

Verse 39 and 40. And those who passed by derided Him, wagging their heads and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." He was lifted up on the cross and people began to pass by and they looked upon this man and they began mocking him.

It was time of the Passover so there were a lot of Jewish pilgrims going into Jerusalem. But because the city could not hold every guest, they had to station themselves outside of the city. There was a lot of foot traffic going in and outside of Jerusalem. And as they were going by, as they were walking by, they look and here's the man.

He was the man, the guy who claimed to be the King of the Jews. The one who said he would destroy the temple, rebuild it in three days. The one who deceived the masses into thinking that he was the Son of God. They look upon this man, "Here, this was the King of the Jews." And they said, they began to mock him.

"You who are going to destroy the temple, rebuild it in three days, why don't you save yourself? Save yourself, the Son of God, why don't you come down from that cross?" They didn't just say it once, but that word saying again in perfect tense, saying that they kept on saying this, "You who are about to, you who can destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." Man, they mercilessly mocked Jesus Christ.

They knew nothing of what happened to him. They didn't know about the betrayal, they didn't know about the abandonment, they didn't know about the kangaroo trial, they didn't know about the unjust condemnation, they didn't know about the ridicule and the beating. They were just walking by, passing by, passerby.

And they just felt like mocking him. Merciless. But they weren't the only ones. Verse 41. So also the chief priests and the scribes and the elders mocked him, saying, "See, he saved others, he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel, let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him.

He trusts in God, let God deliver him now if he desires him, for he says, 'I am the Son of God.'" Unlike those who were passing by, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders, man, they didn't talk to Jesus to his face. They wouldn't talk to a criminal directly.

They were above that. They were religious, they were holy, they were righteous. They would not dare desecrate themselves by talking with a criminal hanging upon a cross. Cursed is the man who hangs upon a tree. So they talked amongst each other. But ensuring the fact that Jesus Christ heard every word of it.

He saved others, he saved others, he cannot save himself. He fed the hungry, he healed the crippled, he healed the sick, he made the blind see, he made the deaf hear, he made the mute speak, he healed the leper, he resurrected men from the dead. Others he saved, but himself he cannot.

And this is the king, that's what it says, right? The king, not a king. And this is the king, the king of Israel. The one we have been waiting for since the days of the exile. The one who was going to usher in the kingdom of God. The one who was going to eradicate the Romans.

The one who was going to usher in glory and power. The one who was going to rule with a rod of iron. This is the king, the son of David. Let him come down, then we will believe in him. If you want to seriously hurt somebody, you never attack the individual alone.

You go after the relationship that they cherish, right? You want to hurt somebody. You don't just go after the man, you just don't go after the woman. You go after the relationship that they treasure. You want to mess with the mind of a husband, you convince him that his wife committed adultery.

You want to mess with the mind of a parent, you tell them that the kid got into an accident. You want to mess with the mind of a kid, you tell them that the parents abandoned him. If you want to hurt somebody, you don't just simply go after the person, you go after the relationship that they cherish.

And that is exactly what they did. It was Jesus Christ, the one who spoke the words of God, the one who always did the work of the Father, the one who said that he was one with God. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now. If he delights in him, for he says, "I am the son of God." This man truly had a relationship with God.

Then let God rescue him, let God deliver him, lest God does not want to, lest God's favor is not upon him, lest God has abandoned him. The moment you think that everyone possible could have mocked Jesus Christ and shamed him, two robbers join in on the fun, verse 44.

The robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. The two criminals were mocking Jesus in the same way as those passing by and the religious leaders, but their insults and abuse were more shameful, simply because they were criminals. The degree of an insult doesn't depend upon the content of the insult, but also on the individual who gives it.

For example, my professor can insult me, and I would be offended. And he can insult my intelligence, and I'd be offended. But a high school student can insult my intelligence, and I'd be even more offended, because he's a high school kid. Brings my intellect below his high school education.

Here are these criminals next to Jesus Christ, rejects, moral delinquents, socially unacceptable, basically a menace. They're men deserving of death. Men who do not deserve to live. And they took Jesus Christ, the glorious God of the heavens and the earth, and brought him below to make him the object of their insults.

They brought the status and the prominence of the great king below their death-deserving lives. In Luke chapter 27, verse 44, Luke tells us that one of the criminals said this, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. This fool makes a demand upon the king of kings as if he's in a position to make such a demand." And they continually did it.

They continually reviled him. In perfect tense, they continually hurled insults at him. You who are the king, you who are the Messiah, you who are the anointed one, the Christ, prove it. Save yourself and save us. All throughout the account of the crucifixion, Matthew records and takes note of the shame of Christ.

He was despised by the Roman soldiers. He was despised by those passing by. He was despised by the religious leaders. He was despised by the criminals on his right and his left. But up until now, none of those things really mattered compared to what was going to happen. As terrible and shameful as that was, it didn't matter compared to what was going to happen.

Verse 45 and 46. "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'" The first hour of the day begins at six o'clock in the morning.

And so, as we remember, Mark tells us that he was crucified at the third hour, that is nine o'clock. Twelve o'clock in the afternoon, a supernatural darkness falls upon the land. A darkness that lasts until the ninth hour, that is three o'clock. Between twelve to three o'clock, there is a supernatural darkness upon the earth.

And this darkness is no other than the manifestation of the fierce presence of God Almighty. It is the manifestation of the presence of God Almighty. Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 22 to 23. It says, "These words of the Lord spoke to all the assembly at the mountain out of the mist of the fire.

The cloud and the thick darkness with a loud voice and he added, 'No more.' And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. And as soon as you heard the voice out of the mist of the darkness, while the mountains was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders." Second Samuel chapter 22, verse 8 to 14 says, "Then the earth reeled and rocked the foundations of heaven and trembled and quaked because he was angry.

Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth, glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed the heavens and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a chair then flew. He was seen on the wings of the wind. He made darkness around him, his canopy.

Thick clouds, a gathering of water out of the brightness before him, coals of fire flamed forth. The Lord thundered from heaven and the Most High uttered his voice. Upon the land, God Almighty made his presence manifest and darkness encompassed the sacred and yet the forsaken hill. The earth was enveloped in fierce and terrible canopy of God's judgment.

And at the ninth hour, out from that darkness, out from that horrific blackness, a terrifying voice pierced the air, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" In the words of Sproul, it was the cry of the damned. Implications of the question along with the answer is obvious.

God the Father forsook the Son. That's why Jesus Christ didn't say, "My Father, my Father," but he said, "My God, my God." He said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The reason why the Father forsook the Son is because God cannot look upon sin. Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 13 says, "You who are pure eyes and to see evil and cannot look at wrong." God can't approve sin.

He can't look upon sin. He can't tolerate sin. He can't excuse sin. And upon that cross, Jesus, who knew no sin, was being made sin on our behalf. Upon this cross, he was being made a curse because curse is one who hangs upon a tree. Upon that cross, he was bearing upon himself that which God hated with the deepest hate.

Every shameful sin, every sin that you have committed, the sins you have entertained in your mind, the sins that you are too afraid to share with others, the sin that you harbor and keep secret, the sin that weighs you down with guilt and burdens you, that shameful sin was placed upon the body of the Lord Jesus Christ and fully exposed in his nakedness before the presence of God.

He bore your shame. And for the first time ever, the Father looked upon his beloved Son. He looked upon the Son whom he has loved for all of eternity and he turned away in disgust. He was repulsed by all that was upon him. So by this time, nothing mattered to Christ.

The insults of the soldiers didn't matter. The insults of those passing by didn't matter. The insults of those of the religious leaders didn't matter. The insults of the criminals on the right and the left didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was the intimacy with the Father. The only thing that mattered was the relationship that they had for all of eternity.

The only thing that mattered was the Father's affection for him. The only thing that mattered was that relationship. And so when sin was poured out upon Jesus Christ, he looked to the heavens and he said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" But Jesus Christ knew the answer.

It's so that God would not have to forsake you. And so that he would not have to forsake you. And you, and you, and you, and all of us here. You see everything that you read just now? It was for you. For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son to experience the shame of this world, to bear our sins, and to go to the cross and to die on our behalf.

And to resurrect from the dead so that he may take the coal of the gospel and touch your lips and cleanse you from all your sins. Our God, our Lord Jesus Christ died a shameful death so that you can live. This is the coal that has touched your lips.

Now will you go and proclaim the gospel to bring him glory? Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Let all those who have tasted the goodness of God's grace, who have tasted his mercy, who have tasted his love and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, with one voice say, "Here I am.

Send me." Let's pray. Lord, the gospel can never get old. It can never become boring. Because we know that everything that Jesus Christ went through, Matthew chapter 27, it was done for the sake of our salvation, ultimately for your glory. Lord, we did not deserve it. We could not have earned it.

And yet you did it, Lord. And I pray for us as Christians, I pray for Berean. I pray for this church that, God, this truth of the gospel would impact our hearts day to day, that we would be moved by it, that we would be gripped by it. I know there are so many things that we're busy with, so many things that distract us, so many things that get in the way.

And we know that they're not necessarily bad things. But Lord, I pray that these things would not blind us from what we are ultimately called to do. And that is to glorify you through the gospel. Impress this truth upon their hearts. And Lord, with their life, be one that gives you great pleasure.

God, you have redeemed us by the blood of the Son. We pray for the grace, pray for the mercy and strength that we would be able to go out and make known to the world of the one who has lifted us up from damnation. We love you, would you increase our love.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for watching! <3