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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/larry-steers/vinegar-given-to-the-lord/
The Gospel of John, chapter 19, verse 28. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled the sponge with vinegar, and put it upon Hyssop, and put it to his mouth.
When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, or he cried, it is finished. And he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. Matthew, chapter 27. Matthew, chapter 27, and we'll read verse 33. Matthew, chapter 27, verse 33.
And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall. And when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink, and they crucified him.
That is recorded in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 15, and verse 23. Gospel of Luke, chapter 23. Luke, chapter 23, and we'll read verse 33. When they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiments, and cast lots. Verse 36. After he has been crucified, he is on the cross, and the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, as an act of mockery.
And saying, if thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. Just down to verse 44. And it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth, until the ninth hour. That's all that we're going to read.
If you have noticed carefully what we have read, you would notice that the Lord was offered vinegar on three occasions. He was offered the vinegar once, before he was crucified. An act of mockery, after he had been crucified, he's on the cross, when the soldier came with the vinegar.
Then it is offered again, after the work has been completed. And that he received. So twice, he refused the vinegar, but on the third occasion, he received it. The word for vinegar, of course, is the word for sour wine.
I'm not an expert in wine, but I would take it that there was some intoxicating influence in the wine. We notice that there are other ingredients that were sometimes mixed with it. You'll find that the word appears seven times in your Bible.
All seven references to the sour wine, referred to as vinegar, are all given to us relative to the cross. I read some of them, I did not read all of them. The sour wine was the drink of the common laborer in the harvest field.
When it was hot in the harvest field, they would eat parched corn and dip bread into the sour wine. You have that described in the little book of Ruth in chapter two, and verse 14 of the book of Ruth.
And so the sour wine had that particular use. And one would gather from what is said about it, it was a thirst quenching portion. At the cross, it would seem evident that the sour wine had been provided for the Roman soldiers as a reward to them for the act of crucifying men.
That would make reference to Psalm 69 in verse 12, when it is said that the Lord was the song of the drunkard. So after they had carried out that act of crucifixion, those soldiers would sit at the foot of the cross, somewhat intoxicated by the wine that they would drink.
So as we have said, it was offered three times to the Lord Jesus Christ. Once again, twice he refused it, once he accepted it. We have read in Matthew chapter 27 that when they were come to the place called Golgotha, and the preparations for the act of crucifixion were in progress, whatever that that would entail.
That awful act of crucifying three men was pending. One can picture in their mind, the Savior standing there waiting for that moment when they are going to lay him on the cross and they're going to crucify him.
He has experienced the brutality of sinful men. We sometimes sing every mark of dark dishonor that was placed upon the brow of the Lord Jesus Christ. He would stand there with his back that had been scourged by the Roman scourge, and all that men had done to him.
The prophet says concerning him, I gave my back to the smiters, my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, I hid not my face from shame and spitting. I'm certain that if any one of us here this morning knew that there was someone waiting outside this building, intending, purposing to spit in our face, we would do all that we could to protect our face.
But the prophet would remind us that the Savior stood silently before those Roman soldiers, probably 200 of them, if that compliment was at its full strength, for Pilate delivered him to the whole band of soldiers.
And one can see those men, one after another, stepping up to the Savior and spitting in the face of Christ hid not his face, didn't try to protect his face with his hands. He didn't move his face. He stood and allowed men.
It says, I gave my face to those that spit upon it. And now the moment has come, he has been led through the streets of Jerusalem. And the moment has come when he is going to be crucified. And they offered him the sour wine.
Why would they give that sour wine to him at this particular moment? If you have a copy of Albert Edersheim's book, he'll make the statement that the women of Jerusalem gave the wine to those who are going to be crucified to dull the pain.
Now, the Bible does not tell us that. That is not recorded in the Word of God. That's foreign to scripture. If you read all of the passage in the Gospel of Matthew that we have read, you will find that 18 times over, you have the pronoun they.
Pronouns in the Bible are tremendously significant. All 18 times that that pronoun is used, it is used of the Roman soldiers. And so it was a soldier who came to the Savior and offered him the vinegar, not to dull the pain.
That wasn't their purpose. The purpose of crucifixion was to inflict as much pain and suffering as could be inflicted upon one who was to be crucified. They never offered the wine to deaden the pain. The wine may well have been offered to make it easier to crucify struggling men.
Men would struggle. There would be the vile language of men who are being crucified. And the wine may well have made it a little easier for the Roman soldiers to handle men who are to be crucified. But the Savior refused that.
He never accepted that wine when it was offered. He would experience every throb of pain. There would be nothing that would lessen the sufferings of the cross. There were nothing that would alleviate the awful sufferings that he was about to suffer.
He made that statement in the garden. If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. There are expressions in the word of God that are almost unexplainable by us. We do know for certain that when he said, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, he wasn't seeking for a bypass of the cross.
But it may well suggest to us that he knew the terror of that cup. And yet he said, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. And the will of God for him was that he would experience that terrible death of crucifixion.
But not only the death of crucifixion, but in the hours of darkness, he would experience the wrath of God in all of its entirety. The floodgates would be open. Nothing would be held back. Nothing would be reserved.
All of the wrath would be poured upon him. And so the prophet would say, from above thou hast set fire into my bones and it prevails against them. He would experience that in all of its terror. Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.
So he refused that wine when it was offered to him that first time. But it was offered a second time. The second time was after he had been crucified. The second time was when he was hanging upon that cross.
We have read that very clearly here in the Gospel of Luke chapter 23. I read that it was before or previous to the hour of darkness, the sixth hour, when he's suffering the crucifixion of the cross. And as far as the soldiers were concerned, that was the moment when that suffering was at its deepest.
They knew nothing about what was to come. And in that moment when they determined that it was the moment of deepest suffering, they brought some wine. But we have read here in Luke chapter 23 that the soldiers mocked him.
And in an act of mockery, they offered the wine. Let me just give a little illustration to suggest what we would sense that they were doing. We had an old brother in the assembly who was in a home some would be aware of, Bethany Lodge, back our way.
I would often go to visit him. When I walked into the room one day, he was lying in bed, not able to get up. He was an Englishman and very determined. He wouldn't call the nurse to give him a glass of water.
His lips were parched. His name was Mr. Lucas. One or two would remember him here. As I walked into the room, he asked me to get him a glass of water. I got the glass of water. I put my hand underneath his head and raised his head and put the glass of water to his lips.
If I had withdrawn that glass of water before he could partake of it, that would have been a terrible act. I would suggest that's what the soldiers did. They brought that wine on that sponge to the Savior as an act of mockery.
They put it to his lips, never intending to give it to him. And so we have read that the soldiers mocked him, offering him the wine. That was a fulfillment of Psalm 69. Psalm 69 says, "'And I looked for some to take pity, "'but there was none.
"'And for comforters, and there was none. "'He was alone. "'They had all forsaken him and fled. "'And in that moment of suffering, "'as far as the act of crucifixion was concerned, "'they came to him with the wine "'and then withdrew it from his lips, "'never intending that he should take that portion.
"'He would have refused it at any rate.'". But we have read another statement in John chapter 19. This statement is related to one of the seven cries of the Lord from the cross. When he said, "'I thirst,' that would touch the coldness of heart, "'wouldn't it?
"'A man in terrible suffering, "'although the suffering has passed. "'The hours of darkness now are over. "'But in those hours of darkness, he was alone.'". I would think likely that we have a very graphic picture of those hours of darkness in Leviticus chapter 23.
When the scapegoat was taken by the hand of a fit man and led into the wilderness to a place uninhabited, place where no one else had been, place where no one else was, a place where the goat would be left alone.
That would remind us of those hours of darkness when the Savior suffered alone. None to take pity, none to draw near. None to comfort. And when that cry from the cross pierced the heavens, "'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
"'Why art thou so far from helping me "'from the words of my roaring? "'I cry in the daytime, thou hear'st not, "'and in the night season, and am not silent.'. And then we have the answer why he was forsaken.
"'Thou art holy, "'O thou that inhabiteth the praises of Israel, "'forsaken by a holy God in the hours of darkness, "'alone when he bore the wrath of God.'". Now when we come to the Gospel of John, the hours of darkness are over, they are past.
And the Savior is exiting from those hours of darkness. And we hear him cry from the cross, I thirst. You'll notice what John says, there was a vessel. And the vessel was sitting there, and it says, one of them.
And I would take it, we'll indicate why briefly in just a moment. One of them, I would gather, would be one of those soldiers. Ran to that vessel that was full of vinegar, full of sour wine, dipped a sponge into it, and put it to the lips of the Savior, which he received.
But notice, that would not alleviate the suffering. That was the reason perhaps why they gave it or offered it on that first occasion when they arrived at Golgotha. But now the sufferings are over. The work has been completed.
It has been finished. And when he cried, I thirst, and they brought the wine to him this time, we read that he received the wine on this occasion because all was finished. The sufferings were completed.
I want you to notice that it says that there was a vessel. And it says that that vessel was full of wine. If you look up the word full, you will notice that it means it was brimful. How they filled it, one wouldn't know, but they had a vessel sitting there that was brimful of wine.
How many times the soldiers walked past it. That was intended for them. They looked at it, they passed it. They may have walked over it, but no ungodly lip touched the rim of that vessel. It was full, brimful.
Then they dipped a sponge in that. And then they took it to the Savior and they put it to his lips and he received it on that particular occasion. Again, emphasizing that the work is finished. That would not alleviate the suffering.
Perhaps it was intended at the beginning, but not this time. It was all over. It was complete. He had finished the work that God had given him to do. I want you just to turn with me for a moment to the gospel of Matthew chapter 27.
Matthew chapter 27. And just notice one verse. Matthew chapter 27. And notice verse 54. When the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake and those things that were done, they, notice that pronoun, how vital it is.
It says they, that's a plural pronoun that goes beyond the centurion. It includes him. And they that were with him, it says they feared greatly saying, truly, this was the son of God. There was a man who ran to that vessel of vinegar.
Says he ran. He didn't waste time. He hurried. And he got to that vessel and he dipped the sponge in it and brought it back to the Lord Jesus Christ as an act of compassion. You remember that the savior prayed for the cross as he looked down at the cross.
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. I would suggest he was praying for the Roman soldiers, the Jewish people, the high priest. They ought to have known. But the Lord Jesus said, they know not what they do in their ignorance.
And under the command of the centurion, they crucified him. But strange things have happened. There's been an earthquake. The earth has shaken. The scene has been cloaked in darkness. The sun acknowledged its creator upon a cross.
And it was clothed in darkness. They have experienced the darkness. They have experienced the earthquake. They have stood upon the rending rock. And the savior had cried, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
And I would have to believe with all my soul that the savior was always in the mind of God. And when he prayed, he was prayed in the mind of God. And when he prayed, his prayers would be answered. And I would suggest that in verse 54, where we have read in the gospel of Matthew, the centurion and they that were with him, they saw what had taken place.
And they stood at the cross, they that were with him and the centurion. And they acknowledged this was the son of God. And on another occasion, this was a righteous man. Believe that that soldier that took that sponge to the lips of the savior had seen things that he had never seen before.
And the prayer of the Lord Jesus was answered. And I'm firmly persuaded that we'll see the centurion and some of those men in heaven, the savior prayed for them. And one of them responded by bringing that sponge as an act of compassion to the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So three times he was offered the vinegar, once before he was crucified, once as an act of mockery when he's on the cross. And now at the end, when it will not alleviate the pain because the work is all finished, he accepted the vinegar.
Could I suggest from someone who had trusted in him as an act of compassion when that soldier ran and got that vinegar and offered it to the Lord Jesus Christ.