The Response of the Mixed Multitude

Introduction: The Right Use of Truth and Prayer for Response

0:05 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, May 20th, 1990, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. A treasure by Haywood, Mr. Haywood said that the right use of truth involves its apprehension by the mind, its being deposited and retained in the memory, and its reproduction in the life. Apprehension by the mind, deposited in the memory, and reproduced in the life. Let us pray that the exposition of the word of God will find such a response in us this morning. Let us again seek the face of God in prayer.

1:06 Our Father, we bow again in your holy and blessed presence, thanking you. We thank you that we have known your presence in our midst this morning. We thank you that you have received the sacrifices of praise we have offered unto you. We thank you that you have heard us in our corporate crying unto you, in supplication and intercession, as well as in our giving of thanks.

1:37 And our Father, we now come again with the earnest petition, that we may indeed rightly read and mark and receive and live by the precepts of your holy word. Give us illumination in our mental faculties. Give us faith then to apprehend what is perceived. Give us the ability to retain what is thus apprehended.

2:10 And then give us power. To give an appropriate response in life, that we may not be hearers only of your word, receiving greater condemnation. Come then and help us by the Spirit. We plead in Jesus' name.

2:32 Amen.

Three Responses to the Cross: Centurion, Multitude, Devout Women

2:38 Those of you who have been following the expositions will remember, I trust, that after the horrible abuses and indignities, of the night-time and early-dawn trials of our Lord before the Jewish and the Roman authorities, Jesus had been led outside the city walls of Jerusalem to a place called Golgotha, and there crucified at approximately 9 a.m. And for the next six hours he endured the heightened taunts of men, the most excruciating, tortures of body and the unfathomable terrors of the wrath of God poured into his soul then when all that his death was intended to accomplish had been brought to completion he cried in those blissful and blessed words it is finished then the scripture tells us he yielded up his spirit with the words father into your hands I commit my spirit but no sooner had his head dropped to one side of the wreath that he died but that God

4:06 makes the silence of the death of his son with his own powerful voice speaking eloquently and convincingly in the language of miracle and we have examined together that voice of God speaking in the miracles recorded in Mark's gospel and also in the sheared rock miracle of the open raised saints as they are recorded in Matthew 27 then in response to all of this God has been pleased to give us the record of three differing reactions to these epical events events on which the world's redemption rests in our last exposition we studied the first of these recorded responses that of the Roman centurion and as we examined the record of his words given to us in Luke 23 and here in Mark 50 noted that he asserted essentially two things first of all indication concerning the character of Jesus he said truly this was a

5:33 righteous man having beheld amidst all the dignities of crucifixion the mockery and perhaps and most likely all of the preceding events of his night time this one thing he knew whatever the reason for his execution it was not due to any committed by him or any evils found in him truly this was a righteous man a vindication concerning the character of Jesus and then secondly he made a declaration concerning the identity of Jesus when he spoke his last words and bowed his head in death the centurion then cries out this was God's son and based on the things that we considered from the word of God we have reason to believe that this Roman centurion this Gentile soldier became the very first fruits of the death of Christ from among the Gentiles as he came to that conviction relative to the Lord Jesus but according to the passages read in your hearing this morning two other responses

7:00 are recorded in the gospel narratives or more accurately we have the record of the response of two other major groups who witnessed these events in Luke 23 48 and 49a we have the mixed multitude of curious onlookers and then in Mark 15 40 and 41 we have the response of the combined group of the devout including the women from Galilee and this morning I want us to focus our attention upon the first of those two responses recorded in the word of God that of the mixed multitude of the curious onlookers as their response is depicted in Luke 23 and verse 48 verse 47 finds the first of the two the first strand of the centurion's confession recorded certainly this was a righteous man now Luke tells us and all multitudes that came together to this site when they beheld the things that were done

The Identity of the Mixed Multitude

8:29 smiting their breasts and so we focus this morning upon the response of what I am the mixed multitude of curious onlookers and in opening up the text we must ask three questions of that text first of all what was the precise identity of these multitudes well in the language of the original there is a very strong adversative particle you students will know whereof I speak indicating that when Luke begins to speak begins to describe in verse 49 all his acquaintance and the women that followed with him he is separating his acquaintances and these devout women from this mixed multitude they are isolated as a distinct group whose response was peculiar to them now who were they the text simply says all the multitudes plural that came together to literally

9:56 to this spectacle the only place that word is found in the New Testament it is found here together they came together to this spectacle now who was this multitude of whom was the multitude comprised well we receive at least two hints here in Luke's gospel verse 27 of the same chapter and there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who bewailed and lamented him then Jesus turns and speaks distinctly to these women and so they are described in verse 27 simply as a great multitude of the people and obviously from the start of the setting just as our Lord has his crown in of Cyrene this would be part of the multitude that was at Jerusalem at Passover time perhaps devout Jews from every nation under heaven and it was from the vast throngs of the thousands gathered at Jerusalem that a crowd large enough to be called in verse 27

11:22 a great multitude and in our text all multitudes plural as it were in behind the Lord Jesus when they saw him being led out execution as the procession made its way out of Jerusalem and it became evident that an execution was about to take place the same spirit that causes rubbernecking delays in a metropolitan area that same spirit that a crowd mingling by a special event particularly gory events create the greatest rubbernecking delays if it's just a fender bender things slow down a little if it's a real sure enough wreck that involves the demobilizing of several cars the rubbernecking delays are greater and if word gets out over the radio that two or three people have died traffic comes to a standstill human nature has not changed this was the rubbernecking crowd somebody's going out to be impaled a mixed multitude of curious perhaps had seen and heard

What the Mixed Multitude Witnessed

12:50 of this public ministry perhaps others who had never seen him but had heard of him and so we must not seek to be more precise than the scriptures are in regarding this as a mixed multitude a cross section of the kind of people that would have been found in Jerusalem at that feast day now the second question we ask of our text is what had they witnessed having asked who were they we now ask what had they witnessed for notice what our text says and all the multitudes that came together to this site or this spectacle when they that were done so the emphasis falls upon their beholding the things that were done and in answer to the question what had they witnessed I have two parts to the answer the certain and the possible or the probable for certain it is clear from verses thirty three to thirty five that they had witnessed those things that happened immediately

14:17 in conjunction with the actual crucifixion of Christ and all followed right up to his death the voice of God's miraculous power immediately following his death verse thirty three and when they came unto the place which is called the skull there they crucified him and the malefactors one on the right hand and the other on the left and Jesus said Father forgive them for they know not what they do and parting his garments among them they cast lots and the people stood beholding here is a description of that mixed multitude now called the people now notice they are set off from the religious leaders from the members of the Sanhedrin who take up and intensify haunting of Jesus and the people and the rulers also scoffed verse thirty six and the elders all stopped him saying so once again this of those who were in Jerusalem at that time great multitude was comprised we know for certain

15:46 from verse thirty five we are told they beheld they actually beheld our Lord being stretched out upon the part of the cross on which his hand were impaled they saw that lifted up and set upon the vertical piece of the cross they had seen the mockery and the taunting of the religious leaders they had seen the same from the lips of the soldiers they had heard utter the so-called seven words from the cross in those hours from nine a.m. to noon they had heard him say father forgive them for they know not what they do they had been heard him when he said to one of the malefactors today you will be with me in paradise they had seen him in passion for his own mother handing over to the beloved disciple John that mother with the words behold mother behold thy son they had witnessed that unusual idea Egyptian-like darkness that came down at noonday and shrugged and plunged the country into utter

17:15 blackness of midnight from high noon until three p.m. they had heard his cry of dereliction my God my God why have you forsaken me his cry physical anguish I thirst tetelestai it has accomplished his words they're into thy hands I commend my spirit they had seen his head drop to one side they had then felt beneath their feet they saw rocks of rock as though they were gossamer as though they were worn silk they had seen tombstones rolling away and dead saints coming to life and walking out of the they had heard witnessed the whole this was a righteous man surely this was God's son now we know from the context that they had heard and seen at least that much so when our text says in verse

18:43 forty-eight when they that were done included in that statement are the things done by our Lord upon the cross haunting and mocking him while he is upon the cross and the things that were done by the Father throughout the entire and then the miraculous intervention two of those miracles they beheld the third of course took place back in the city at the front of the Holy of Holies when God's fingers split the veil from top to bottom now it is certain that they beheld those things but it's possible that they have that they had witnessed much more now they had witnessed they could have been part of that the trial before the civil and the ecclesiastical authorities in which case at least some of this multitude may have beheld the mockery may have listened to the false accusations may have witnessed the buffeting and the beating with the fist of men upon the raw flesh of the face of the Son of God they may have well beheld the scourging the tearing

20:13 off his robe the placing upon him of a rough old Roman soldier's faded purple garment and then his mock coronation when they put a reed in his hand and a crown upon his head and say prophesy unto us if indeed you are a king it may well be that some of them beheld more than the events bounded by the actual impaling of the Son of God and the subsequent miracles but whether they beheld more than we can say for certain our text says it was the beholdens that precipitated their specific reaction to all that transpired so we've asked two questions of the text who were these people and I've sought to demonstrate from the script that they were rather nondescript mixed multitude who were at Jerusalem at that holy day at that holy feast time of the Passover we've asked the second question what had they witnessed and have answered what they witnessed with certainty what it is possible they may have

The Reaction of the Mixed Multitude: Smiting Their Breasts

21:39 witnessed now our third question that we ask of the text is this what was their reaction to the to all of this what was their reaction to all of this and the text tells us that when they beheld things that were done they returned smiting their breasts you see they had come to see a show they had come out to behold a spectacle the only place I've intimated where this word is used in the text in the New Testament but when everything transpires ears heard climbing in the mighty arresting voice of God in miracles they were convinced that something tragic something fearful something in what is an overworked word in our day but we must not yield up its legitimate use something awesome had transpired so that Luke records that by little segments using an imperfect verb speaking of action in the past that was continuous they were returning that is going back

23:08 to Jerusalem and all away those who were returning who came out with all those who are involved the kind of activity I described earlier the eagerness of those simply curious seekers those very people returned to Jerusalem smiting all the upon their breasts the significance of that smiting upon the breast you know it is sign language that speaks of grief that speaks of tragedy it is sign language of spirit for Luke it all used in the description in the 18th chapter when describing the publican who stands in the spirit awareness or the spirit given awareness of his utter wretchedness and sinfulness before God and will not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven but he beats on his breast crying be vicious to me the sinner such an inward

24:37 content is grief in the beating upon his breast this is what Luke says happened to that multitude and all that came together to this site when things that were done returned now that does not mean that every single last individual know but it does mean that the that mixed multitude left deeply burdened with woe they came for the show as one writer has said and they left with woe they came as curiosity curiosity seekers let's watch it the more but now curiosity has turned into self reflection what they have been actions and the words of the one upon the central cross strung them and unhinge them has broken the world of let's go play church it's passover time again and what

26:06 they've seen has rocked them and shaken them and so absorbed them that they could not simply say we still and take up playing church again oh no when they leave to go back to Jerusalem what they've seen of that one upon the central cross what they've heard coming from his lips what they've seen of the father's voice in miracle the shaking of the ground beneath their feet they saw the swaying of the crosses in their sockets they saw the bearing of the rocks they saw the things being open they didn't go tripping back into Jerusalem to take up playing church again they went back so overcome so filled with awe so filled with dread no doubt it's self flexion at least bordering on self loathing that they had somehow walked into Jerusalem you can imagine the stir this created when one group after another from what is called a great multitude in one part of the text and is called

27:31 multitudes in another group by group return and people are in a festive mood in Jerusalem Passover day and one by one through the city gate come these beating upon their breasts perhaps some of them white as a ghost maybe their beards wet with tears and women wringing their hands while they intermittently weigh and beat upon their breasts I imagine it caused quite a stir for it says the multitude returned beating their breasts could it be could it be that for not a few of these this was the first step in that work which led to its culmination on the day of Pentecost could it be for on that day you'll remember when Peter is preaching he says God has made this Jesus who in Christ and it says they were cut to the heart and they said men and brethren what shall we do and Peter

29:00 gave them biblical directions and before the day was out three thousand of them had been brought into the kingdom as the fruit of the sufferings and the death of Jesus and we often read that and say isn't that an amazing thing that God would just break in upon that many careless indifferent sinners let's not be too quick to assume that God had not been doing a powerful work from the very time they began to beat upon their breasts and throughout that period of the next forty days forty plus days many of them maybe had many a sleepless night and a disturbed meal while those scenes kept flashing before their minds and while they relived in memories chambers the shaking of the earth beneath their feet and the shearing of the rocks the look upon the face of the son of God when he said father forgive them the compassion when he turned to the malefactor and said today you shall be with me in paradise who knows what torments of mind and soul many of these may have had and then on the day of Pentecost it all comes into focus when Peter stands and explains the rationale for the death of Jesus and then they enter

Principle: Grief at Golgotha is the Hope for Salvation

30:29 into life now what I want to do at this point is to turn from this relatively brief exposition of the passage in which we've asked three simple questions who was the multitude of what had they witnessed what was their reaction now I want to turn to making some what I trust will be helpful observations considering what is here revealed of this mixed multitude of curious onlookers a vital principle emerges and I ask you to bend all of your mental powers to try to grasp the principle it is this it is only when careless sinners begin to be gripped arrested and grieved by the realities of Golgotha that there is any hope for their salvation it is only begin to be gripped arrested and grieved for the realities that there is any hope for their salvation now while we cannot dogmatize with reference to the grief that these people felt and I we cannot dogmatize that this was the beginning of a deep and genuine work of grace that

31:58 perhaps issued in their conversion on the day of Pentecost it's interesting that this is not a novel idea of mine it first occurred to me in my study but I'm scared to death of anything I've seen and nobody else has seen and there are a number of the commentators who take the same tentative position and why is anyone who knows his Bible inclined that this may have been the beginning of a work dated in true Christian conversion on the day of Pentecost because they all recognize that as long as that crowd was just a crowd of people slowing down for a fender bender as long as it was just a there was no hope for their salvation but when the issues surrounding the cross of Christ begin to become so all absorbing that going back and playing church in Jerusalem has lost all its luster when keeping up a good front and people are so turned inward with their thoughts concerning the reality that it produces a spirit of dread and woe and fear and grief and self loathing

33:27 that one is prepared to beat his breast in public as a symbol of the inward pain one thing is for sure the events of Golgotha have begun to be taken with seriousness there's hope for the salvation of such people that's the great principle and I want to repeat it and then begin to expand upon it it is only when careless sinners at any age in any place in any congregation it is only when careless sinners begin to be gripped arrested and grieved by the realities of Golgotha that there's any hope for their salvation what are the great issues of your highest interests which are brought into the most heightened consciousness at Golgotha and at the cross human sin in all of its is ugliness you want to know how ugly human sin is don't watch the soaps to find out don't read people magazine and the beautiful and the famous people to find out stand where this crowd stood behold

34:51 get crucified ha ha ha it isn't long before there's no ha ha there's no ho hum the great realities of human sin being dealt with there upon Golgotha the darkened heaven the cry my God my God have you forsaken me coming forth to speak with earthquake rending human sin in all of its ugliness and wrath deserving this is highlighted at the cross divine wrath in all its frightening fury when unleashed on the son of God that is highlighted at the cross divine wrath in all it's upon the son of God until he cries his cry of dereliction infinite love that would not spare the son he that spared not his own son a text quoted in our corporate prayer

36:20 this morning it is that great truth that is highlighted the divine vindication of the innocence and identity of Jesus from the lips of a pagan Roman soldier truly this was a right truly this was God's son you see these great issues of your highest interest in mine are all highlighted at the cross human sin deserving this in fury infinite love that would give the son to die for sinners divine vindication of the innocence and the identity of Jesus so in a real sense you know what's happened over the past months in the expositions of the gospel of Mark in this place a mixed multitude has been milling around Golgotha that's right we have and with the imagination we have gone to Pilate to Herod we have heard the words we have beheld him

Application: Has Golgotha Changed Your Disposition?

37:50 as he has been taken outside the city of war crucified we have beheld these things we've been a mixed multitude milling around the cross we've been a mixed multitude behold that surround Golgotha and I have one very serious but simple question to press upon your conscience and it is this has it changed your disposition from ho-hum to where if you could with propriety and not be thought a fool or attract attention to yourself you have felt again and again that you wanted to bend over in the pew in which you sat and beat your breast and cry your eyeballs out what has your visit to Golgotha done mixed multitude you children who've been brought by the decision of your parents you older men and women who have been brought by the pressure of custom and habit or simply to spend an extra hour or two with wife or husband whatever it's brought to constitute a mixed

39:19 multitude and my question to you is this as you and I have beheld realities of Golgotha what have they done to us have they brought us to the place where if it were appropriate to we would beat upon our breasts or has it left of the uglinessness of our sin no sense of awe and dread at the thought of the fury of the wrath of almighty God that is so fierce and yet pure that it consumes the son of God until he cries out in his consciousness of being forsaken and that is has there been any sense of wonderment before divine love that would give the son and not spare him has there been any sense of wonder and gratitude that he who hung there with his own the spittle of his foul enemies with his crown of thorns with his marred and contused

40:48 visage has there been anything that makes you want to cry out blessed be God he was vindicated anxious identified son of God oh how I love and trust such a glorious savior my friend listen to me as long as you are indifferent to the issues highlighted at Golgotha there is no hope for your salvation do you hear me you dear children listen to your pastor this morning as long as you can learn your Sunday school lessons and sit through family worship and say yes Christ died Christ was buried Christ was but when you hear of his death your sins of selfishness with your sisters and your brothers your sins of disobeying mom and dad your sins of cheating on your test your sins of mumbling dirty words under your breath your sins of being dishonest to your teacher trouble you don't cause you any grief any fear oh yes Christ died for sins but sins is something out there not something in here

42:17 dear children listen to me until this sin issue begins to trouble you in the light of the cross there's no hope for your salvation until the wrath of God against your sins begins to trouble you there's no hope for your salvation until God's love so great God and Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish until that begins to be an amazing and wonderful thing your young heart there's no hope for your salvation and that's also true of you teenagers young adults older men and women gray haired men and women but I want to go on to say something else the mere beating or smiting of your breast in grief woe or self-loathing is not enough perhaps some or many of these in this mixed multitude were present on the day of Pentecost with serious concerns they could not forget the things they had seen and heard caused them to beat their breasts some days before but I want you to turn to Acts chapter 2 this morning and see that mere grief and inward pain

Grief is Not Enough: The Call to Repentance and Faith

43:45 and self-loathing the ovations that you're on the way to being safely nested in Jesus Christ in his salvation concern alone is not enough Peter is preaching and his sermon comes to a climactic statement in verse 36 he says let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified now notice when they heard this they were pricked in their heart and the verb warrants a stronger translation you prick your finger with the end of a needle this was not a mere pricking of the heart they were stabbed in the heart as with a dagger it went through to the citadel of their being when they heard this they were stabbed in their hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles brethren what shall we do and what did Peter say well since you are obviously disturbed and agitated and full of grief and have a sense of deserved wrath for your part in the death of Christ that's good enough a concerned and an awakened sinner will ultimately be a safe sinner that's enough no when they cried out

45:15 what shall we do Peter did not say do not that concern is an indication of the regenerating work of God just wait for him to carry on that was not Peter , Peter's answer Peter's answer was repent every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for to you is the promise and to your children even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him and many other works he testified and exhorted them saying save yourselves from this crooked generation what did Peter tell them to do he said your concern is good your concern is noble your concern indicates you are in touch with reality now you see the condition that wasn't there before sinfulness was just as real before they were stabbed in the heart in the felt consciousness of that reality they were just coming out of the never never land of spiritual blindness into the real world of reality and in a

46:44 particular as sinners of that generation were consenting in the death of the Lord of glory sin is not God making our case known to us and it is it's God just pulling back the veil of our spiritual blindness and letting us see the one thousandth part of our sin so that we get out of the never never land of indifference and carelessness and ho-humism and begin to beat our breasts and cry what must we do and Peter said this is what you must do you must repent you must experience a deep and thorough change of mind and heart and will with the whole led you into the path of cruising the son of God of empty playing oceans and all your sacrifices and all of your anti-religion repent repent of your natural assessment of Jesus of Nazareth regarding him as a root out of a dry ground seeing nothing beautiful in him who is the incarnate Lord and now altered Lord at the right hand of the Father repent from the disposition of running your own life doing your own thing entertaining your own

48:13 ideas about Jesus and reality and truth repent and implicit in the command in the name of Jesus his faith that is be baptized reference to all of the truth God has revealed about his salvation being offered to sinners in the person and work of Jesus Christ repent and believe unto the remission of your sins and if that repentance and faith are real they will not be silent or inactive they will bring you forward to be identified with his people and then he gives this wonderful promise that what they have experienced would now be the experience of the whole new repentant believing community you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit you will be given in conjunction with your conversion not some subsequent work of grace some coat of many colors experience no it is fundamental norm repentance repent implicit believe be open to the Son of God and in the complex of that conversion you will receive the gift of the Spirit because God's promise is that he will be given to the whole believing community but he didn't stop there verse 40 with many other words he testified and exhorted them saying

49:42 save yourselves from this crooked generation he said look if you mean business it's going to cost you some to use modern terminology he preached an extended appendix on separation before he closed the deal verse 41 then they that received his word what word the whole word the whole message a message that not only into the way of repentance and faith explaining of that repentance and faith in the specifics of that generation my friend listen to me you may have been part of the mixed multitude that has come week after week to Golgotha and perhaps where before the series of sermons that have brought us near to and right up and into the events of the cross you may have been like some of this crowd just came to church that's the thing to do you came with the whole hum at it the who cares at it but as you stood week by week at Golgotha as you beheld the Lord Jesus in his sufferings the issues of sin and its wrath deservingness the issues of the frightening nature

51:11 of the fury of God's wrath consuming his son when he stands as sin bearer the wonder of God's infinite love and the overtures of his mercy these things have caused sobriety and self reflection and there are times when you have inwardly gone out of your breast saying oh God I'm beginning to understand it I'm a sinner my sins put him to death my sins opened his wounds my sins were the shroud that blackened heaven and my sins caused his cry of dereliction my sins caused his wounds his death and you've been beating your breast but my friend you can go to hell beating your breast you could beat your breast until you broke every rib until you pounded every drop of blood as much as those who perish who cares though there's no hope for you if you are not serious before the issues of the cross being serious is not enough you must become a penitent believer and

The Purpose of Preaching the Cross: Run to Jesus

52:37 not safe until you're in Christ and there's no way to be incorporated into Christ but by the way of repentance and faith have you been sobered bless God but that's not enough have you been made serious about your sin bless God but that's not enough serious about his sin weeping gnashing of teeth there's plenty of breast beating in hell but thank God there's no penitent believing sinner in hell oh my unconverted man woman boy or girl why have we spent all of these weeks seeking to follow the track of scripture in opening up the sufferings of our savior has it been that we might simply sit and pity him no it has been that seen the great sin bearer the last sin of the world we might see the ugliness of our

54:06 sin the frightening nature of the round deserves the wonder of God's love the freeness of his grace and then run to Jesus and in repentance and faith embrace him as our own and my closing word is to those of you who can say yes by the grace of God I've not only been sobered by the events of Golgotha but I by God's grace have taken the place of that other man who beat his breast in Luke 18 that publican who went down to his house justified who looked out of himself to the mercy of God in providing a way of salvation when he cried be propitious to me a sinner turn away your and he went down to his house justified I want to ask those of you who can say yes by the grace of God that's the posture of my soul I want no shred of what I am ever have done or hope to be even a thread in the fabric of the robe in which I hope to stand acquitted in the last day every last thread I want to come from the loom of the perfect obedience

55:36 of Jesus and his death upon the cross I want every button in that garment every stitch to be made holy of the stuff of Christ and him crucified well I have a question to ask you why did you change from a curious onlooker to a serious breast beater and then become a believing penitent confessing rejoicing child of God I want you to think of that question why did you change from a mere curious onlooker to a serious breast beater you began at some point to take your sins seriously of the wrath of God and the love of God and the way of salvation until you became a penitent believing rejoicing child I ask you why did you change from the one to the other was there some little switch in your psyche that you found and you said oh there's the switch that will change and you flipped it and from ho-hum observation you changed yourself into a breast beating broken hearted sinner I want you to turn with me to first Corinthians one for our closing portion of the word this morning first Corinthians one

The Power of God's Effectual Call

57:06 verses twenty-three and twenty-four first Corinthians one twenty-three but we preach Christ crucified unto Jews a stumbling block and unto Gentiles foolishness but unto them that are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God what's the difference between all of this being ho-hum foolish this or a stumbling block and all of this becoming the power the difference is this unto them that are called that is those who are not merely summoned I can summon you and I attempt to summon you every time I preach to repent and to believe the gospel and I summon you in the name of the but there is no and when Paul says unto them that are called he does not mean merely those that are summoned but those who having been summoned are by the same God who summons them mysteriously but powerfully wrought upon by the Holy Spirit in which in the imagery of the prophet Ezekiel God takes out that heart of stone

58:35 that is not responsive that can stand before Golgoth with a home disposition forever and God takes out the and often the very first indication that he's given a heart of flesh is we turn from whole curiosity observers into deeply pained breast beaters we see our sin we see God in his holiness we see God in his justice we see God in his and we see Christ upon the cross the heart of stone and often the first indication that the heart of stone is gone is that the tear duct is open to weep over something that we jested about before our sins for fools make a mock at sin and if we do not outwardly weep we inwardly feel the pain like these did on the day of Pentecost cut to the heart personal might was

59:59 might there upon the cross and what makes the difference unto them that are called God's free sovereign effectual call of grace and when you ask why are some called and not others we answer from scripture that his calling takes the pattern of his sovereign electing choice and his electing choice takes the pattern of his sovereign electing love and the Bible doesn't let us press it back any further so my friends if you've sat here through these weeks and months and to you sitting before the cross has not been an exercise of idle curiosity but one of the deepest attachment of heart as we shall see with reference to these acquaintances and give out women who are the third group whose response is highlighted by the Holy Spirit there is but one fundamental reason and that is because God in love marked you out and gave you to the land before the world began and in due time God said time to get that sinner

61:28 change him from a curiosity seeker into a breast beater and from a breast beater into a penitent believing sinner and if we are here today in that posture we must say grace grace all of grace ah but someone says that excuses those who are indifferent for that God who has called us has not given one verse in the Bible that says he won't call you not one not one and the pattern of his election is hidden from our eyes but the promises and the invitations and the entreaties to come to Christ are not hidden from our eyes they are scattered like sparkling jewels from Genesis to Revelation oh my sinner friend quibble not about calling and election beat your breast about your sin and then run to the Savior he says come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest come to him even with that heart that is so hard that you've sat through all positions

Exhortation to the Unconverted and Prayer

62:52 as God give me a heart of flesh I could sit and behold the depicting of your sufferings and agonies my head put you there but I have no heart or to turn from them that's the very thing you need to go to Christ for don't try to work those things up and then present them as tickets to Christ that will give you entrance now you go with all your impenitent cold unresponsive heart and tell the Lord Jesus that's part of the sin for which you need forgiveness and that's why you go to him little did I know when I first looked at this text I never questioned God's wisdom in putting it there but I couldn't escape this haunting question of all the things that could have been written about the responses of people to the cross of Christ why does God the Holy Ghost through the pen of Luke say and the multitudes that beheld these things returned smiting their breasts could it be that the Lord Jesus

64:21 in dying had some of those sheep that he knew this morning would be reached by the very exposition of those words oh may God grant it to be so and you have known the captivating power of Christ crucified you give all the praise to the God who made the preaching of Christ crucified the power of God unto your salvation let us pray our Father how we thank you for your precious word we thank you for every line of it for every word of it we thank you for this record of this mixed multitude that came as curiosity seekers and left with hearts that were moved many of them broken and oh God we ask this morning that you will do that work by the Holy Spirit which alone can shake us from our indifference and carelessness and blindness and bring us to true conviction and then to rest in your beloved Son oh God bless the preaching of your word to the conversion of many this morning and to the and bless it to the refreshing of each one of your

65:49 dear people that we may find ourselves again overwhelmed with gratitude held captive by the love of Christ to serve you as we've never served you before to hate and flee the sins that put your son to death to be determined with renewed determination to be what he died to make us even a people who delivered from ungodliness seek to serve you in righteousness and holiness all the days of our life bless your word may your presence abide with us and attend us in all of the remaining hours of this day bring us together again tonight in your courts in your special presence to know your nearness and the ministry of your truth to our hearts hear us oh God we plead through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen