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Well, you can turn with me in 
your Bibles to John's Gospel, John chapter 19. John chapter 19. Our focus will be verses 1 to 
4, but I want to read the larger section beginning in verse 1 
and continuing to verse 16. So John 19, beginning in verse 
one. So then Pilate took Jesus and 
scourged him. And the soldiers twisted a crown 
of thorns and 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. Pilate then went out again and 
said to them, behold, I am bringing him out to you, that you may 
know that I find no fault in him. Then Jesus came out wearing 
the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, 
behold the man. Therefore, when the chief priests 
and officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucify him, crucify 
him. Pilate said to them, you take 
him and crucify him for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered 
him, we have a law and according to our law, he ought to die because 
he made himself the son of God. Therefore, when Pilate heard 
that saying, he was the more afraid, and went again into the 
praetorium and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus 
gave him no answer. Then Pilate said to him, Are 
you not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have power 
to crucify you and power to release you? Jesus answered, You could 
have no power at all against me unless it had been given you 
from above. Therefore, the one who delivered 
me to you has the greater sin. From then on, Pilate sought to 
release him. But the Jews cried out saying, 
if you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever 
makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. When Pilate therefore 
heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the 
judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement, but in 
Hebrew, Gabbatha. "'Now it was the preparation 
day of the Passover "'in about the sixth hour. "'And he said 
to the Jews, behold your king. "'But they cried out, away with 
him, away with him, crucify him. "'Pilate said to them, shall 
I crucify your king? "'The chief priests answered, 
we have no king but Caesar. "'Then he delivered him to them 
to be crucified. "'Then they took Jesus and led 
him away. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our 
Father, as we come now to consider our Lord's passion in more detail, 
we pray for the ministry of the Spirit that we would see once 
again with eyes of faith what our Savior went through on behalf 
of our salvation. We know that this covenant of 
grace that we find ourselves in is a covenant of works kept 
for us by our blessed Savior. We thank you for his righteousness. 
We thank you that he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin 
of the world, and answers to our need for forgiveness and 
for a righteousness that avails with you. Again, cleanse us now 
in the blood of Jesus Christ. Cause us to receive with thanksgiving 
your word. And we ask this through Christ 
our Lord. Amen. Well, dear Lord, Jesus Christ 
is before Pontius Pilate. Just to sketch the timeline as 
to what's going on, remember there was a preliminary hearing 
to begin with, Jesus before Annas in John 18. Annas then sends 
Jesus to Caiaphas, who is the leader of the Sanhedrin. So Jesus 
is tried before the Sanhedrin in the Synoptic Gospels. And 
then he is sent to Pontius Pilate. And that's what we find here 
specifically in John 18 and in John 19. At one point, Pilate 
sees that Herod has some jurisdiction. So he sends Jesus over to Herod. 
And of course, Herod doesn't do anything other than mock the 
Lord and sends him back to Pilate. And now he's before Pilate, as 
we read here in chapter 19, verses one to four. And I'm gonna argue 
that what he's doing here is seeking to appease the mob so 
that he can release Jesus. Now, when we consider what Pilate 
has been doing up until this point, he has seen the innocence 
of our Lord. He has seen that the Sanhedrin 
didn't offer up any charges whatsoever, no evidence, no witnesses, no 
nothing. and yet they want Pilate to sign off on a capital crime. 
So Pilate is in a bit of a crux here, and I think it comes out. 
In fact, in our reading, verse eight, when he finds out that 
Jesus calls himself the son of God, it says that he was the 
more afraid. So Pilate tried to engage in 
amnesty for our Lord. He wanted to release Jesus, or 
he thought that the crowd would ask for Jesus, but of course 
they asked for Barabbas. So now this is a bit of a last 
ditch attempt, a last attempt on the part of Pilate in verses 
one to four to appease the crowd and to release Jesus. We know 
that based on verse 12, from then on Pilate sought to release 
him. But the Jews cried out saying, if you let this man go, you are 
not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king 
speaks against Caesar. So I want to look first at the 
scourging of Jesus in verse one. And then secondly, the mockery 
of Jesus in verses two and three at the hands of the soldiers. 
And then thirdly, the innocence of Jesus in verse four. But first, 
with reference to the scourging there in verse one, the governor 
knows he's innocent. He's already made that declaration 
in 1838. He makes it here in 1904, he'll 
make it again in 1906, and then as I said in 12a, he is trying 
to release Jesus. So for whatever Pilate's faults 
are, and there are plenty, he's a coward, he is gutless, he is 
going along with this mob, At some level in his own heart of 
hearts, he knows that this is wrong. He knows that this is 
a sham. He knows that this is false. 
He functioned as a Roman governor in a particular province, and 
he was responsible to execute Roman law judiciously and according 
to what was written. And he knows that's not happening. 
The governor's attempt at amnesty has failed. Notice in verse 39 
of chapter 18, but you have a custom that I should release someone 
to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release 
to you the King of the Jews? He probably thought this was 
a slam dunk. Of course, they're gonna ask for Jesus and not Barabbas, 
but we see just the opposite according to verse 40. Then they 
all cried again saying, not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas 
was a robber. So then we see in terms of this 
particular situation, it says, then Pilate took Jesus and scourged 
him. Very beginning in verse one, 
beginning of chapter 19 in verse one. So then Pilate took Jesus 
and scourged him. We might ask the question, well, 
why would he do that? He's confessed his innocence. 
He knows he's innocent. He's trying to get him released. 
He tried to broker this amnesty deal. Why is he doing what he 
is doing? First, we ought to observe that 
it says Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. Probably not Pilate 
physically. Pilate didn't actually wield 
the whip. As Klink says, although the verbs imply that Pilate was 
the subject, certainly his soldiers performed the actual task. In 
this way, however, the narrator explicitly links Pilate to the 
treatment and condemnation of Jesus, in spite of Pilate's own 
attempt to remove himself from the conviction of Jesus. I think 
that's a good observation. Remember that whole deal that 
Pilate tries to broker in terms of amnesty, and then in Matthew's 
Gospel, Pilate's wife says, have nothing to do with this just 
man, and then Pilate's act of self-absolvement, when he washes 
his hands before all of the people, He couldn't release Jesus, he 
couldn't absolve Jesus, but he tried to engage in self-absolving 
and it didn't work. And the author reminds us, it 
was at the hands of Pontius Pilate that this scourging took place. 
So again, verse 1, then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. 
Now in the Roman Empire, at that particular time, there were three 
forms of scourging. One for minor crimes that wasn't 
too severe. Then there was another form that 
was a lot more severe for major crimes. And then one that always 
accompanied the other punishments for crimes. In fact, crucifixion 
was typically accompanied by scourging. Now, when we look 
at the four gospel records, we notice that Matthew and Mark 
indicate that scourging that is connected to the crucifixion. So in other words, Jesus is determined 
to die by Pontius Pilate. There's an actual judicial sentence 
rendered. We see it in verse 6 in our text. 
He delivers, or verse 16, he delivers him over to be crucified. 
So when a man was sentenced to death by crucifixion, it would 
always be accompanied by a scourging. That was just the way things 
were done. But in Luke and John, we see this Scourging take place 
prior to an actual judicial determination. So in Luke 23, 13 to 16, after 
an offer of amnesty, now what he's trying to do is give an 
offer of appeasement. So I think that what's going 
on is most likely, and commentators disagree, some disagree with 
this proposition, others agree, that Jesus was scourged twice. 
Once to appease the mob by Pontius Pilate, and then secondly, when 
he was officially sentenced to die, he would have been scourged 
alongside of that. So Luke and John record that 
first one. And then Matthew and Mark record 
the one that accompanied his actual crucifixion. I think Herman 
Ritterbosch makes a good observation in his commentary on John. He 
says, the New Testament has no trace of any passion mysticism 
oriented to the physical torture of Jesus. For any ex-Roman Catholics, 
you'll know what Passion Mysticism is. You were brought up in an 
environment where you had the stations of the cross, and they're 
basically little placards on the sides of the walls in the 
church building, and you stop at each one and you celebrate 
the various aspects of the crucifixion. There is this passion mysticism. 
Mel Gibson's The Passion is basically a big-budget, high-def screen 
sort of version of passion mysticism, where the physical torture and 
sufferings of Jesus are magnified. So I think Ritterbos gives a 
necessary caution there, and the brevity of our passage suggests 
that we take that caution as well. Again, in verse 18, now 
Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross, and the writing 
was, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Then many of the 
Jews read this title for the place where Jesus was crucified 
was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and 
Latin. And then it basically doesn't capitalize on the physical 
torture involved in our Lord Jesus. It just sort of reports 
the crucifixion, but it doesn't give us that detailed sort of 
outline of every jot and tittle. So I want to be cautious But 
at the same time, for the saint of Christ to understand what 
Christ went through, I think is helpful. We're not going to 
do a stations of the cross, but we ought to consider what happened 
relative to our Savior's suffering on our behalf. Carson mentions 
the last form, that form that always accompanied crucifixion. In this last form, the victim 
was stripped and tied to a post and then beaten by several torturers, 
soldiers in the Roman provinces, until they were exhausted or 
their commanding officer called them off. not till the victim 
was exhausted, not till the criminal was exhausted, but the soldiers. He goes on to say, for victims 
who like Jesus were neither Roman citizens nor soldiers, the favorite 
instrument was a whip whose leather thongs were fitted with pieces 
of bone or lead or other metal. The beatings were so savage that 
the victims died, sometimes died. Eyewitness records report that 
such brutal scourgings could leave victims with their bones 
and entrails exposed. Again, we're not going to do 
a Stations of the Cross, we're not going to magnify the physical 
torture of our Lord Jesus in some passion mysticism, but it 
does serve the saint well to see what it costs the Son of 
Man who came down from heaven for us men and for our salvation 
to save us from our sins. A good dose of this from time 
to time is a helpful corrective to the sorts of reckless Christianity 
we often engage in, the sorts of frivolity and surface levelness 
that characterizes much Christian profession, both in Canada and 
the United States of America. We ought to appreciate the magnitude 
of what the Savior went through on our behalf. And so Pilate 
here takes Jesus and scourges him to try to appease the crowd. 
Amnesty doesn't work. and now he tries appeasement 
to silence them, but it doesn't silence them. They cry out, away 
with him, away with him, crucify him. So then notice, secondly, 
the mockery of Jesus in verses two and three. He's already been 
mocked by everybody he's visited up to this point. In Matthew, 
before the Sanhedrin, according to Matthew chapter 26, 67 and 
68, the highest official sort of organization or council in 
all of Israel, charged with religious interpretation, charged with 
ethics, charged with politics. This is how they treated the 
son of man, a man they had no charges against. When they come 
to Pilate, there's nothing they can proffer in terms of a substantial 
charge. If he weren't guilty of evil 
doing, we wouldn't have brought him here. They based their whole 
argument on a begging of the conclusion. Of course he's guilty 
or we wouldn't have delivered him up. Listen to Matthew 26, 
67 and 68. Then they spat in his face and 
beat him and others struck him with the palms of their hands 
saying, prophesy to us Christ, who is the one who struck you? 
And then Jesus before Herod, according to Luke 23, 11. Then 
Herod with his men of war treated him with contempt and mocked 
him, arrayed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him back to Pilate. So this is what the Son of Man 
is going through on behalf of us men and our salvation. So 
he's mocked at the hands of the Sanhedrin, he's mocked by Herod, 
and now he's going to be mocked by these soldiers. And when we 
ask the question, why would these soldiers do what they're going 
to do? I think R.T. France, commenting on Matthew's 
gospel, makes a good observation. He says that to have a supposedly 
self-proclaimed king in their power offered unusually good 
sport. Unusually good sport for these 
soldiers. And for non-Jewish soldiers to have such an opportunity 
of abusing a Jewish dignitary with impunity was a chance not 
to be missed. In other words, they're going 
to take it on. They're going to engage. They're going to run 
with this. The parallel is Matthew 27, verses 27 to 31. So I'll 
reflect on that a bit as we move through the soldiers' mockery 
of our Lord Jesus. Note first their mock homage. 
They're mock homage. Don't mistake what they're doing. They're staging an enthronement 
scene. They're staging a mock enthronement 
scene. He claims to be the king of the 
Jews. Well, let's treat him like the 
king of the Jews. Notice first this crown of thorns. Verse two, and the soldiers twisted 
a crown of thorns and put it on his head, both as a reproach 
to him as a king and to hurt him or torture him as a man. This is mockery. It is sport. It is fun, as far as these men 
are concerned. Just like with the Sanhedrin 
before, just like with Herod before, now these Roman soldiers 
who have the chance to engage in this sort of mockery. So they 
twist this crown of thorns and they put it on his head. Notice 
then, they put a purple robe on him also. Purple is the royal 
color, makes sense. Probably an old officer's coat 
they had standing by. I doubt they went down to Walmart 
and purchased a brand new coat. They got whatever they had at 
hand and they put it on him to mock him. He says he's a king, 
well, let's put a crown on his head. He says he's a king, let's 
put a robe on his back. Notice, they put a purple robe, 
and then they put on him a purple robe. And then a reed was placed 
in his hand. This is in Matthew's Gospel, 
Matthew 27-29. They put a reed in his right hand, and that would 
be a symbol of royal authority. It's a mock enthronement scene. 
They're having sport. They're having fun at His expense. Again, we don't need stations 
of the cross, sort of placarded up on our walls, to see the significance 
of this and the gravity of it. We, for whom Jesus died, are 
the blessed recipients of what He went through here on our behalf. 
If this doesn't evoke from us worship and praise and adoration, 
we're missing the point. We're missing the point. If you're 
not a Christian this morning, you need to understand that this 
is the lengths to which the Savior went in order to save his people 
from their sins. John, in his gospel, tells us 
that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. 
And that's pretty innocuous. I mean, it's full of meaning 
to be sure, but when we read that statement, he gave his only 
begotten son, That doesn't just mean the second person of the 
Trinity took on our humanity, which he did, according to John 
1 14. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld 
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, 
full of grace and truth. But that gave his only begotten 
Son, gave him into this particular treatment. As we have seen, yes, 
Pilate is guilty. Yes, the Sanhedrin is guilty. 
Yes, the soldiers are guilty. And yes, Judas Iscariot is guilty. But who delivered him up? Romans 
8, 32. God, who did not spare his own 
son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he also not 
with him freely give us all things? Well, the prophet Isaiah, it 
pleased Yahweh to do what? To bruise Him, putting Him to 
grief. God the Father sent His Son to 
assume our humanity, to live a life of perfect obedience to 
the law, to be treated like this, to be executed as a common criminal 
by the civil state, and then to be raised again the third 
day. And we know from John 1.29 why 
Jesus was executed by the civil state, in a theological reason. Behold the Lamb of God who takes 
away the sin of the world. All those types, all those prefigurements, 
all those shadows in the Old Testament, every drop of blood 
spilt at the tabernacle in the temple had a reason. It had a 
message and it pointed forward to that Lamb of God who would 
take away the sin of the world. Jesus did what Jesus did, not 
because he's a criminal, not because he was an insurrectionist, 
not because he was a revolutionary, but because we are. This is substitutionary 
suffering, substitutionary wrath bearing, substitutionary curse 
bearing on behalf of the Savior. So they have this reed in His 
hand, this robe on His back, and this crown of thorns in His 
head, and then they mockingly worship Him. Notice in verse 
3, then they said, Hail, King of the Jews! Again, this isn't 
legit. They're not being serious. This 
is a sport. This is a game. They've got smiles 
on their faces. This is a time for them to vent 
their anger out on a particular who they see as a criminal. And 
again, as France points out, as non-Jewish men, to be able 
to treat with contempt a professor to Jewish kingship, Well, that's 
a chance that we don't want to miss and that we don't want to 
not capitalize on. Spurgeon says, surely the world 
never saw a more marvelous scene than the king of kings thus derided 
as a mimic monarch by the meanest of men. Mimic is fake, imitation. Imitation, R.T. France expands 
it a bit. The whole scene is a mock enthronement 
with improvised cheap substitutes doing duty for the royal robe, 
crown, and scepter, and physical abuse substituted for royal homage. 
After the brutal torture of the Roman flogging, Jesus would be 
in no state to resist, even if he had wished, and his already 
battered physical condition would only add to the pathetic appearance 
of the Jewish king. Can't separate verses 1 and 2. 
I mean, we do, because of numbers and that sort of thing. He was 
just beaten. He was just flogged. He was just 
scourged. Now, I've never gone through 
that, and by God's grace, I hope to never have to, depending how 
things turn in the Canadian state. I hope we're not subject to open 
flogging and scourgings and whatnot. But I doubt that the next best 
thing would be then to be mocked, add insult to injury. Add this 
kind of mock enthronement scene to this man that's already been 
beaten within inches of his life. Remember, true humanity. He didn't 
just assume what appeared to be humanity. We're not docetists, 
brethren. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. That's one 
of the articles of true religion, is the true humanity of our Lord 
Jesus. He suffered. He bled. He hurt. There was genuine pain inflicted 
upon him. Thorns in his head hurt. The 
stripes on his back hurt. The exhaustion took its toll. 
Remember, he's been up all night Thursday. He's seen the Thursday 
night into Friday. He was with the Sanhedrin in 
the wee hours of Friday morning, and then he shipped over to Pilate. 
Pilate has his trial with him, and now Pilate's trying to appease 
the crowd, and Pilate says, okay, we're gonna go ahead and scourge 
him, and hopefully this satiates your thirst for his blood. Of 
course it doesn't. So there's more that has to be 
heaped up upon the Son of Man at this point, and it's the soldiers 
engaging in this mock enthronement. So then they moved to violent 
abuse. Notice verse three. Then they said, hail King of 
the Jews, and they struck him with their hands. Again, comparing 
Matthew's gospel at Matthew 27 and verse 30, they spat on him 
first. They spat on him first and then 
buffeted him. This was similar to the Sanhedrin 
as well. Remember in Matthew 26, 67, and 
68, those dignified religious leaders, the sorts of fellows 
that would stand on the street corners to pray, thank you God 
that I'm not like other men, come to the level that is beyond 
and below beasts themselves by spitting on an innocent man. 
They spat on him. Now brethren, there's prophetic 
connection here or connection to the prophets in this that 
I hope to show in just a moment, but you need to understand that 
the protocol for a king is to kiss him. The protocol for a 
king is to kiss him. 1 Samuel 10, when Samuel sees 
Saul, he kisses him. We are bidden in Psalm 212 to 
kiss the son, to do homage to him, to bow before him, to worship 
him, to adore him. They don't do that. They spit 
on him. Listen to Calvin with reference 
to this spitting. He says, Our filth deserves that 
God should hold it in abhorrence, and that all the angels should 
spit upon us. But Christ, in order to present 
us pure and unspotted in the presence of the Father, resolved 
to be spit upon and to be dishonored by every kind of reproaches. 
Now, you can turn back to the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 53, the 
fourth servant song of Yahweh, indicates the nature of His suffering. Isaiah 53, specifically at verses 
four and five. Isaiah 53 at verse, well, we'll 
pick up at verse three. He is despised and rejected by 
man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it 
were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not 
esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs 
and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten, 
notice, by God, and afflicted." Again, I'm not here to exonerate 
Judas, the Sanhedrin, the Pontius Pilate, or the soldiers. They're 
all wretches. They're all horrible. They're monsters. Bad dudes, 
one and all. But brethren, this didn't happen 
outside of the decree of God to save. And this is what the 
prophet says, smitten by God and afflicted. Verse 5, but he 
was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. 
The chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes 
we are healed. Notice in verse 10, yet it pleased 
the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When 
you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. 
He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall 
prosper in his hand. This is the Genesis 22 call of 
God upon Abraham to take Isaac, your only son, the son whom you 
love, up to Mount Moriah and to bury a knife in him as a sacrifice 
before God. Of course, as Abraham's about 
to do that, the angel of the Lord comes and stays his hand. 
They turn around and they see a ram caught in a thicket. That 
ram preached Christ. That Ram preached the reality 
that the father would not stop and that the son would be delivered 
up and that he would do this not for his sins, not for his 
crimes, but for our sins and our crimes. And going back to 
the third servant song of Yahweh in Isaiah 50. Isaiah 50, notice 
in verse 4, the Lord God has given me the tongue of 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. I gave my back 
to those who struck me in my cheeks, to those who plucked 
out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. 
This is the son of man. This is the servant of Yahweh. 
This is what's happening here before Pontius Pilate in the 
presence of his soldiers. The Old Testament prophets spoke 
absolutely appropriately and accordingly in terms of the life 
and ministry of the Savior. He assumed our humanity to live 
for us, to die for us, and to be raised again for us on that 
third day. Going back to John 19, that brings 
us then to the innocence of Jesus again in verse four. Pilate then 
went out again and said to them, Behold, I am bringing him out 
to you that you may know I find no fault in him. This is his 
constant declaration. It's a recurring theme with the 
man. The fact that he's afraid when he finds out Jesus claims 
to be the Son of God in verse 8, the fact that he tries to 
prevail upon the Jews and release Jesus according to verse 12, 
based on the fact that his wife had this dream to have nothing 
to do with this just man, based on the fact that he himself is 
washing his own hands trying to separate himself from this 
whole debacle, He's in a difficult spot, and again, I'm not saying 
poor baby Pilate. He's a wretch, he's godless, 
full of cowardice, and he is engaged in a high crime, an act 
of treason, sending an innocent man to his death. So he says, 
I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find 
no fault in him. That's the declaration of Pilate. 
I want to change directions just a little bit to see the revelation 
of the mind of Christ in Psalm 109. Psalm 109, you can turn 
there. You ever wonder when somebody's 
in a very difficult situation, I wonder what they're thinking. 
I wonder what's going on in their minds. Sometimes we ask that. Somebody tells us a story about 
some event in their lives, and we ask them, well, what were 
you thinking? What were you thinking when the 
cop pulled you over? What were you thinking when you 
saw that bank robbery? What were you thinking when you 
got in that fight on the school ground? What were you thinking? 
Do you know that in the Psalms, we know what Jesus was thinking? 
We see it very evidently in Psalm 22, a psalm quoted by our Lord 
from the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So 
we can reasonably, rationally conclude that other things there 
in Psalm 22 were certainly prevalent in the mind of the Savior while 
he's on the cross. But Psalm 109, as I mentioned, 
in terms of imprecatory psalms, it's one of the more hardcore 
ones. I mean, Psalm 58 talks about the righteous dancing in 
the blood of the unrighteous, which I think would probably 
qualify as a pretty hardcore statement. But verses 6 to 20 
in Psalm 109, it's no joke. Of course, C.S. Lewis thought 
the imprecations that David prayed or wrote were not worthy for 
Christian praise. Spurgeon himself seems a bit, 
I don't want to say confused, but perplexed in terms of introducing 
this psalm and how it's supposed to be utilized in the life of 
the church. It is a bit of a vexation for 
those who don't see it as Jesus. It's Jesus and his church. In 
terms of the context, look at verse one. And verse one is not, do not 
keep silent, O God of my praise. Verse one is to the chief musician, 
a Psalm of David. That to the chief musician ascription 
means that it was supposed to be utilized in public worship. 
Not, you know, add this one, but don't sing it or chant it 
in corporate worship because it's just too hardcore. You can't 
do that. No, it's to the chief musician. 
That means it's to be used in singing and public worship. We 
believe in psalm singing in our church. We believe that the apostle 
demands it, singing to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual 
songs, making melody in your hearts to the Lord. And as a 
result, we sing the psalms. And this one's supposed to be 
song. Notice that the psalm begins and ends with praise. Verse one, 
do not keep silent, O God of my praise. Verse 30, I will greatly 
praise the Lord with my mouth. Notice then thirdly, the psalm 
seems to be concerned with a courtroom, because I know we're gonna go 
to that place. Didn't we just read Luke six, 
where Jesus says, love your enemies? Didn't we just read Luke 6 where 
Jesus says, be kind to those who treat you spitefully? Have 
I not tried to point out from time to time the Sermon on the 
Mount ethics or the Sermon on the Plain ethics have to do with 
our day in, day out lives. We're not supposed to be vindictive. 
We're not supposed to be nitpickers, fault finders. I'm gonna take 
you to court for everything. No, it's our personal daily ethics. has nothing to do, I mean, in 
a general way, perhaps, with a courtroom, with whether or 
not our child was raped. Oh, well, you know, that's just 
the way it goes, turn the other cheek. We've seen in our studies 
in John up to this point, when Jesus is buffeted or slapped, 
he doesn't turn the other cheek, he calls them out. When Paul 
the apostle is slapped, He rebukes the high priest, and 
then he slapped, and then he says, well, I didn't know he 
was the high priest. Some say it's because Paul was 
somewhat blind. No, he's not acting like the 
high priest. And there's only one high priest 
now in this new covenant, and it's not this man who's just 
had me slapped. There are times to turn the other 
cheek, and that's in your daily lives. Don't be a Pharisee. Don't be nitpicky. Don't be fault-finding. Don't be the one who strains 
out gnats and swallows camels. It's a very simple approach. 
It's our personal daily ethics. It doesn't neglect courtrooms. 
It doesn't neglect sentencing. It doesn't neglect or invalidate 
the death penalty. It doesn't neglect having locks, 
having big dogs, having guns, having whatever to protect yourself. 
You cannot argue that way from the Sermon on the Mount. Well, 
Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, so whatever victimization 
that is going to occur to us, we should just let it always 
happen. No! The Bible envisages the legitimacy 
of self-defense, which you couldn't do if you're always turning the 
other cheek. Brethren, it deals with the sorts of things that 
were indicative of the Pharisees and their fault-finding mentality. 
It's in that context. Love your enemies. Pray for those 
who spitefully use you. Absolutely, positively. But if 
somebody breaks into your house and mutilates your wife, no, 
you don't just say, well, Jesus would have me to save my daughters 
in the other room. No, no, no, no, no, no. When 
it comes to this, this is a courtroom. Notice specifically the reference 
to accuser, accuser, verses 20 and 31. Notice, let this be the 
Lord's reward to my accusers and to those who speak evil against 
my person. Verse 31, for he shall stand 
at the right hand of the poor to save him from those who condemn 
him. In a court of law, what's Jesus 
thinking when he's before Pontius Pilate? Again, we're going to 
argue that he's thinking this kind of stuff. The psalm is a 
prayer for divine justice. Notice in 4b. 4b, in return for 
my love, they are my accusers, but I give myself to prayer. And then in verse 31, for he 
shall stand at the right hand of the poor to save him from 
those who condemn him. Again, the argument isn't that 
Jesus isn't loving. He is, absolutely. The Jesus 
who is loving is also the Jesus who is just. Why do we forget 
that? Why do we struggle there? When 
those strong men in Revelation 6 are calling on the mountains 
and the rocks and the hills to fall upon them, to hide them 
from the wrath of the Lamb, we should take notice that the Lamb 
has wrath. Yeah, grace, mercy, joy, peace, 
love to the elect, but to the non-elect, to the Judah, Judah 
says, plural, to the Sanhedrin, to Pontius Pilate, to soldiers 
that make a mockery of our Lord, that spit upon our Lord? There's 
nothing according to true humanity that wants the judgment and justice 
of God to be meted out upon them? Of course there is. Psalm 109 
underscores the true humanity of our blessed Savior. He assumed 
our humanity with everything that is true of man, except of 
course, sin. It's not wrong to want justice. 
The souls of the saints in Revelation 6 cry out to the Lord, how long 
till you avenge our blood? God doesn't say, how dare you 
ask that? No, he says, until such and such 
takes place. The prayer as well is for God 
to do as God has promised to do. I know we like this Pollyannish 
world in Christianity where it's only ever love and rainbows and 
unicorns. There's wrath, there's fury, 
there's judgment. There is a God who is altogether 
holy. There is a God whose eye is too 
pure to look upon any evil with any approval whatsoever. That 
God has promised to send sinners to hell. lest they by grace believe 
the gospel and repent. And that's true of every sinner 
in this room right now. Unless you believe the gospel, 
unless you repent, hell is your future. The apostles celebrates 
this, might be a bit much, but 2 Thessalonians 1, it's right 
with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you. And when 
Jesus comes dealing out vengeance to those who know not God and 
those who do not obey the gospel, What we have here is a prayer 
of a man that is being wrongly accused, that is being falsely 
charged, that is being slandered and delivered up in a corrupt 
way. I wonder what he's thinking. 
He's thinking Psalm 109, or at least it's in the horizon. The 
prayer as well, when you read verses six to 20, you say, wow, 
you know, he's invoking God's wrath upon the family of this 
wretch. Family solidarity, the scripture 
does deal with that. It doesn't deal with it in some 
transgenerational curse-ish way, which is weird. Pagans sometimes 
have children that get converted, praise God. It's a good thing. 
There's a criminal principle or a principle that applies to 
criminal law in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 24. A child cannot 
be sentenced for the crime of his father. Ezekiel 18 deals 
at length with this whole idea, this whole question. The generation 
was saying, you know, our fathers ate grapes and our teeth are 
set on edge. So God comes to deal and says, 
no, within a godless family, there's a righteous man. The 
righteous man is in a good place. But oftentimes, children follow 
the example of their parents. I would suggest this is how you 
get at that statement in the Second Commandment as well to 
the third and fourth generation. It's usually by imitation. Remember 
when Achan is guilty for stealing the stuff which resulted in the 
failure of Israel, the best AI? What happened? They stoned Achan 
and his family. Well, that's not fair. It was 
hidden beneath his tent. Achan's family knew it was hidden 
beneath his tent, and Achan's family was complicit with him. 
So the psalmist is simply saying that for the godless and their 
family, if they're in solidarity, he's not saying if they're elect, 
I want these back. No. He's thinking clearly. He's thinking rationally. He's 
thinking biblically and theologically. Family solidarity is a reality. 
That's why he's saying, Let bad things come upon his family. 
Now, in terms of New Testament application, we know that this 
Psalm is legit. We know that it applies in a 
new covenant way. In Acts chapter one, at verses 
18 to 20, they're rehearsing the status of Judas Iscariot. 
And guess what they do? They take Psalm 69 and Psalm 
109, and they apply it to Judas Iscariot. Listen to Acts 1.20. For it is written in the book 
of Psalms, Let his dwelling place be desolate, and let no one live 
in it. Psalm 69.25. And let another take his office. Psalm 109.8. Now, with reference 
to the psalm, it breaks down into four parts. First, it's 
his experience of man's wickedness in verses 1-5. Second, it is 
his prayer for God's judgment in verses six to 20. Third, it's 
his submission to God's justice in verses 21 to 29. And then 
it's his praise for divine vindication in verses 30 and 31. I guess 
all that to say that while it pleased the Lord to bruise him, 
putting him to grief, These men, starting with Judas Iscariot, 
followed up by the Sanhedrin, then Pilate, then Herod, then 
Pilate, and now the soldiers, and again, by extension, all 
of us, in our rejection of the king, we're guilty. And what we find in a Psalm like 
Psalm 109, if we ask the question, what does this reveal about the 
person of our Lord Jesus? I think it reveals a lot. It 
reveals his trust ultimately in God in the midst of this trial, 
in the midst of this excruciating pain, in the midst of his suffering, 
he entrusts himself to God. He sees through this, he sees 
beyond this, and he sees the God who presides over it all. Probably why when Stephen, well, 
maybe not probably why, but there's something parallel going on when 
Stephen is about to be brutalized, when Stephen is about to be stoned 
to death. What happens to Stephen? Stephen is filled with the Holy 
Spirit. Stephen gazes up into the heavens and there he sees 
the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand. It's interesting 
because the book of Hebrews makes a strong theological point about 
Jesus sitting at the right hand of Yahweh. Why? Because he finished 
his work as priest. He's taking his lawful place 
as king. As I recall, Gil mentions that 
Jesus is standing in that scene with Stephen to show Stephen 
two things. One, his readiness to receive 
his faithful martyr. Isn't that beautiful? Jesus is 
standing there ready to receive Stephen after he is killed, murdered 
by these brutes. but as well that Jesus is the 
real judge and the jury presiding over that mock trial. I think 
that's right. This Jesus who assumed our humanity 
is the Jesus that isn't defined by modern Christian sentiment 
where you can't pray or sing the Psalms of David because they 
seem so ghastly. This is a universe governed by 
an altogether righteous God, justice. is a perfection. Righteousness is a perfection. Let me just dispense with those 
things. We don't just act like those 
things don't matter. We follow our blessed Savior. 
And again, we've got to be careful. Our own passage shows that, you 
know, different category, not even different category, but 
greater guilt involved in sin. I'm not suggesting, you know, 
Cite Psalm 109 verses 6 to 20 when you're cut off on Wellington 
as you're coming to church in the morning. May his son be a 
debtor and may the creditor... Don't do that. But in the face of the ghoulishness 
and the wretchedness and the abject evil that we do see, pointed 
this out recently as well. Proverbs 6, nobody despises a 
thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger. We don't condone 
it, we don't encourage it, we don't let him off. He has to 
pay sevenfold back. Everybody hates an adulterer. 
Everybody hates somebody that's gonna violate the covenant that 
a man and his wife have together. Wounds and dishonor he will get. Why? Because jealousy is a husband's 
fury. That's the reality of it. Jesus says that the Jews here 
have greater guilt than you, Pilate, but that doesn't mean 
no guilt for Pilate. The point I think I want to try 
and make here is that the Psalms of David, even the imprecatory 
ones, are a description of our Savior. If we had a problem singing 
some of those Psalms and some of those things, we think with 
Lewis are perhaps a bit unsavory for the Christian church. What's 
our view of Jesus then? If Christ in his humanity thought 
the thoughts of the Psalter, That legitimizes us praying those 
Psalms, singing those Psalms, and perhaps arriving, to some 
degree, a balance in the way that we process the world around 
us. Mentioned before, Psalm 119. 
Psalmist says in three places what happens when sinners sin. 
And I don't take it as the guy who steals to satisfy himself 
when he's hungry. You know, there's the sins that 
everybody commits. Again, don't go from here saying, 
Butler's okay if I sin today. Butler's even used garden variety 
sin before. The psalmist said, rivers of 
water run down from my eyes because men do not keep your law. That 
should happen to us sometimes. Our sister brought up what happened 
in England this past week. England, England. See, to some 
of the godliest men in the history of the Christian church just 
voted to abort babies up to the time of birth. Just voted to 
euthanize old people. This is not liberty. This is 
judgment. So rivers of water run down from 
my eyes because men don't keep your law. Another place he says, 
indignation has taken hold of me because men do not keep your 
law. So there's a righteous anger 
that a Christian can actually have? Yeah. Do I know how to 
get there? No. When you figure it out, tell 
me. You see, our response to wickedness, 
it's not easy. I guess that's the bigger point. 
There's times to weep. There's time to grieve. There's 
time as well to pray to God to smash their teeth, to pray to 
God to stop the wicked from continuing to engage in that form of lawlessness. Again, not at your grocery store. 
Somebody took the last sale item. God, get them. That's not what 
I'm saying. There is some genuine evil, genuine 
lawlessness, greater guilt, and the Savior, with reference to 
Judas, with reference to the Sanhedrin, with reference to 
Pontius Pilate and all of his goons. Psalm 109 is a description 
of our blessed Redeemer. In conclusion, brethren, we ought 
to appreciate the sufferings of Jesus, not stations of the 
cross-ish, what he went through for us men and for our salvation, 
the mockery and torture by men, but ultimately, being delivered 
up by the Father. And notice what evokes his cry 
is the latter. On the cross, he doesn't say, 
my God, my God, why are these sinners doing what these sinners 
are doing to me? No, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me? I think there's a lesson in terms 
of God's judgment in that particular instance as well. Those who end 
in hell, it's the deprivation of all that is good in God that 
sense of loss that's even more keenly felt than the sense of 
pain. Why hast thou forsaken me?" And 
there, according to his humanity, crying out in faith to the Father, 
expresses the reality that at least at that time, in God's 
judgment upon him for our sin, he didn't have that comfortable 
presence, that smile of the Father upon him. I would suggest, secondly, 
we see in a passage like this, the wretchedness of man. The 
prophetic description there in Psalm 109, verses two to five, 
the prophetic description in Psalm 22, how's everybody at 
the base of the cross described in Psalm 22? Well, you know, 
they just haven't fully arrived yet in the evolutionary scale. 
No, they're dogs, they're lions, which is actually an insult to 
the dogs and the lions, but that's not me to make that point. As well, the New Testament application 
of this to Jesus. Judas, the Sanhedrin, the multitudes, 
the Pilate. Yeah, multitudes, we forgot them. 
Away with him, away with him, crucify him, give us Barabbas. 
Really, you want Barabbas, an insurrectionist, a murderer, 
a terrorist, a thug? Sure, we'd much rather have him 
than Jesus. I would suggest thirdly, the 
glory of Jesus. His innocence, everybody saw 
it. Didn't they? We've seen everybody sees his 
innocence. Pilate sees it. The Sanhedrin 
had no charge against him. The Sanhedrin couldn't answer. 
When Pilate asked him, why have you brought him here? What's 
the accusation? Well, if he wasn't guilty, we wouldn't have brought 
him here. Pilate's wife knew it. Pilate himself knew it. Judas 
knew it. Judas the betrayer knew it. How 
does Judas end? throwing the money back and going 
out and hanging himself and falling on the ground and his entrails 
fell out. Why did he do that? Because he was so satisfied and 
wonderful with his opinion there or his action? No, he was guilty, 
vile and wretched. Everybody confessed Jesus' innocence. 
His knowledge. He studied scripture and he knew 
what was gonna be true for him according to his humanity. So 
again, we forget that. We try to navigate the hypostatic 
union and I think at times we divinize his humanity. No, Luke 
tells us He grew in favor and wisdom and stature with men. 
Luke 2, He grew? Divinity doesn't grow, humanity 
does. Jesus read the Bible. Jesus knew 
His fate. Jesus announced it in Matthew 
16, Matthew 17, Matthew 20, the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem. 
He must be tried at the hands of godless men. He must be delivered 
up and crucified. He knew what was waiting for 
Him. because of his reading of scripture. I gotta say, brethren, that would 
have, you know, argued me off the path. If I know something's 
gonna be tough on Thursday, I wouldn't, you know, God, if you wanna take 
me before then, that's fine. You wanna free me? We have this 
sort of, you know, escape hatch mentality. Jesus knew what was 
facing him. But instead, like, he set his 
face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. and his accomplishment. Listen 
to Pink. I think A.W. Pink summarizes this well. Here 
then, this scene, here then is the gospel of our salvation. 
The Savior was scourged that we might go free. He was crowned 
with thorns that we might be crowned with blessing and glory. 
He was clothed with a robe of content that we might receive 
the robe of righteousness. He was rejected as king that 
we might be made kings and priests unto God. That's beautiful. Cyril of Alexandria has a similar 
statement. I thought Pink's was even better. 
He's right on. This is our gospel. This is our 
good news. This is our foundation. This is our basis. This is the 
reason by which and for which we have been forgiven of our 
sins and we have received the righteousness of Jesus Christ 
such that we can now enter into the very presence of God most 
high. because what Jesus did on our behalf, because the Lamb 
of God who takes away the sin of the world, because the Lamb 
of God who suffered at the hands of men, this one who was mocked, 
this one who was held in contempt, this one who was tortured, this 
one who was brutalized and victimized, this one was crucified, placed 
in the tomb, but was raised again to third bay. And now he ever 
lives to make intercession for people like you and me because 
of God's grace. Doesn't deny, doesn't denounce, 
doesn't sort of mitigate what Jesus is described as in the 
book of Revelation. He is clothed with royal robes, 
which are dipped in blood. He wears a crown of glory. He 
wields the scepter of unbounded sovereignty. He is the King of 
kings and Lord of lords. He will be worshiped by Jews 
and Gentiles, and he will judge all mankind. We've been going 
through Philippians in our evening services, and we saw that text 
in Philippians 2, 10 and 11. that at the name of Jesus, every 
knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is 
Lord to the glory of God the Father. All of us will confess. These soldiers that held him 
in contempt, that mocked him, that engaged in this mock enthronement 
will confess the universal lordship of Jesus Christ and then be cast 
back into hell. So you're going to confess it. You're going to acknowledge it. 
Your knee is gonna bow. Your tongue is gonna confess. 
My encouragement is to do so now, to look to him in faith 
now, confess him as Lord now, and to know the joy of being 
found in him. Well, let us pray. Our Father 
in Heaven, we thank you for this section of Holy Scripture. It 
truly is holy ground. We should remove our shoes even 
looking and reading and discussing such things. Truly it magnifies 
the glory of God Most High. It magnifies the the mission 
of the Son of Man, the blessedness of our Redeemer, that Word who 
became flesh. We give all praise and glory 
to you for the gospel of our salvation and what Christ went 
through on our behalf. We pray that multitudes would 
hear these good things and by your grace and the power of the 
Spirit would believe them for salvation. And we ask this in 
Jesus' name, amen.