By Gipsy Smith
Matthew 27:22 -- "Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified."
These words are the record of one of the most diabolical crimes ever committed in the history of the world.
The soldiers took Him into the common barrack room, the meeting place of the vulgar, and there they stripped Him, took His clothes off and let Him stand there naked. Think of His standing there, the object to be gazed upon and insulted by their cruel jests and vulgar remarks, and could men or devils or both, ever offer Him, the divine Son of God, a greater or more devilish insult? That refined, sensitive, tender, innocent, gracious, loving friend and brother, Saviour of the world, standing there naked and alone, and all because you and I have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and a reed in His right hand; and they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews" -they had heard Him say He was a king. They gave Him a stick, a reed for a scepter. Then they bowed their knees. If you are sensitive, if you have any delicacy, any tenderness, any refinement, you must shudder, as you read these words and think of the indignity, the humiliation, the insult to His divine, holy and sensitive nature. And He suffered all this at the hands of cruel, wicked, vulgar and sensual men. And how much He must have recoiled from it, He, the Son of God, who had the worship of angels and the adoration of archangels.
They mocked Him and made fun of Him -- the Son of God. When they couldn't think of anything else they walked up to Him and spat in His face. This was the climax. After that they took the red tunic off Him and put His own raiment on Him and made Him bear His cross to Calvary and there they crucified Him. The murderous soldiers were only the puppets in the hands of more diabolical perpetrators. You know who they were, the High Priests, the religious officials of the day, surrounded by a bloodthirsty, angry, sensual mob.
Listen! Have you ever said thank you? If you were to fall down the steps as you go out of this building and some one should help you, if you had a bit of strength left, you would say "Thank you." If he were a stranger you would thank him.
But have you ever stopped to say "Thank you, to Jesus? Have you ever shed one tear of gratitude? Have you ever shed one tear of penitence? Have you ever bowed your knee at the feet of the Lord, at the feet of Him who was wounded for your transgressions, and bruised for your iniquities? Have you ever said to Him, "Oh, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!"
Those soldiers gave your reproaches and mine; and they were doing for you and for me what our sin made possible. Your sin and my sin rejected Jesus and said, "Away with Him. Let Him be crucified." The soldiers who stripped and insulted Him in the barrack room and spat in His face, and then led Him away to Calvary, and nailed Him to the cross between two thieves, the man who pierced His side, the man who gave Him the vinegar to drink when He cried, "I thirst," the rabble mob that cried, "Not this man, but Barabbas," -- were all representative of the world's worst, its cruel hatred against right, its love of wrong, and its rejection of God's Christ.
It seemed as though all Hell boiled over that day and as though the devils had triumphed. Oh, man! Oh, woman! Will you please close your eyes and remember it was your sin and mine which helped to make possible that awful day, the darkest the world ever knew.
What they did at the cross -- the crime they committed in their depravity -- was yours and mine. I claim before God, and before the minds of all who understand equity, before God and angels until we say, "I protest," "I object," "I declare it is wrong," you are held before God as guilty of what the soldiers did that day.
It was for your sins and mine that He submitted to this indignity. Have you ever claimed Jesus publicly as your Saviour? Until you do, you are guilty, as guilty as the High Priests that condemned Him. You are guilty before God until you take sides with those who love and serve Him. If you want my text for that, Christ Himself said, "He that is not with me is against me."
Now if you are for Him, live for Him. If you are for Him, show it. Let the world see it every day, show it in your conduct with one another, show it in the management of your affairs.
Prove you are with Him. Prove you are for Him, and against the workers of iniquity. You must leave and discard and turn your back on all that is in opposition to His glorious and eternal will.
This morning you stand among the group of soldiers who spat in His face, or you stand with Martin Luther, Wesley, Moody, and your saintly mother. You are standing with the men who nailed Him to the cross or you are standing with the faithful who hold His trust. You are for Him or against Him -- which is it?
You say, "I think I am for Him." Be perfectly sincere now. Would you say and do as you did yesterday and are doing today and did the day before if you were for Him? If you were with Him and for Him would you be living in that atmosphere you are living in? Would you be planning what you are planning at this moment? You must answer this question.
You must answer it before you leave this building. God says answer it now. Now, this moment. And you must give Him an answer. You will go out of those doors for Christ or against Him. You will take away with you Christ or the Devil. You will let Jesus conquer your heart or you will go away arm in arm with Satan.
You make that choice. Nobody else can do it for you. Pilate cannot answer this question for you. The crowd cannot. I cannot. These preachers cannot. You are answering it, you must answer it for yourself.
What will you do? Once more you have been compelled to think about Jesus. You are being compelled every day in many ways. Your city is being compelled to think about Him.
What is the cause of these great crowds which assemble here twice each day? They are thinking of the Saviour, Jesus Christ. You face your newspapers at your breakfast table in the morning and the first thing that takes your eye is "Jesus" and what He is doing in your city. People all around you are talking about Him.
Have you got to thinking of Him? You can't get rid of Him. He is the unavoidable Christ.
Oh, my brother, my sister, mind you don't miss your Jesus, your chance is now. And some of you are doing it. What will Jesus do with me? You know that depends on what you do with Jesus. You look in your own heart if you want to know what He will do with you some day and ask yourself, "What am I doing with Him?" What do you expect Christ to do?
Why, I have talked to men whose home held Christian wives and children and they have said to me, "'If I could go to Heaven just as I am, without a change of nature, Heaven would be impossible." Heaven would be Hell to any man or woman without a change of heart. Some of you are miserable in the presence of a good man or woman now. You do not like to go to Church. Why? Because in the presence of goodness you are out of your setting. To enjoy Heaven, your heart, your mind, your nature, must be changed by grace, and made ready for the company of a holy God and the people who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
You have got to be in spirit and in thought and in feeling, in harmony with the Lamb if you are going to enjoy Heaven. You would be in Hell when you got there without a new birth. And He can give you this new nature for He is still the wonder-working Christ.
I know He died for me. I know that they mocked Him, spurned Him, crowned His brow with thorns, cast a soldier's tunic about Him; I know that they struck Him, smote Him in the face, and spat upon Him, and insulted Him in every vile manner -- and I know He never protested a word.
"Like a sheep before his shearers, He was dumb, and there was no guile in His mouth." I know He was God's lamb to take away the sin of the world.
And I also know that He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah and can break every chain that binds the human heart and can give victory over the world, the flesh and the Devil.
You may walk out of this house a friend of Jesus if you bow at His feet. You may become reconciled to Him if you will. You may go out a saved man and a saved woman if you will. The choice and the responsibility of the choice is yours.
