My dad (Bro. Rutledge) was an amazing speaker/preacher . The following is a sermon that was published in a monthly newsletter for the Apostolic Church, April 1978.
THOU SAYEST
After the Lord had faced the Jewish Council, they took him to Pilate, where he was asked, “ Art thou the King of the Jews?” Jesus then replied, “Thou sayest it.”
I can hear someone standing about, saying under his breath, “How have we said that he was the King of the Jews? We’ve said no such thing!” But what these men who crucified him didn’t know was that the Psalmist’s prophecy (28 generations before) of the Messiah which was to come had already condemned them:
Psalms 22
Verse 1 - My God, My God why has thou forsaken me?
Verse 6 - I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people
Verse 7 - All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head
Verse 12 - Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round
Verse 13 - They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion
Verse 14 - I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels
Verse 15 - My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death
Verse 16 - For dogs (Gentiles) have compassed me; the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me; they pierced my hands and feet
Verse 17 - I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me
Verse 18 - They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture (garments)
What a picture of the crucifixion of Christ the Psalmist painted. By his crucifixion, these men who judged him proved to the world this prophecy of David’s (which was given to him by God). They proclaimed (they said) to the world that he was the Messiah. By the same token (through David’s prophecy), the sinner today, by scorn and doubt, says to the world that he is actually the Messiah. Thou sayest, sinner, by shooting out the lip (spitting) at the mention of his name, that he is the Christ. Those men who cast lots for his garments spoke as clearly by their actions as if by those men who cast lots for his garments spoke as clearly by their actions as if by mouth that he was the God of Heaven. These men were the instruments which fulfilled prophecy.
Mankind is without excuse to God for its sinful actions. The children of God are mixed all among the world and are proclaiming by their lives that “he is the way.” They are speaking to the world by their lives. So, no matter what you do, sinner, his children are all around you and, if you turn against him in any way, “thou sayest” to the rest of the world, “He is the way.” You fall in the category of these men who actually took part in the crucifixion and become guilty by the prophecy of the Psalmist David.
All the meaning of his life, though, would have been nothing to us had he not resurrected himself and conquered death. “He came unto his own and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. “ (John 1:11,12)
Friend, in these words, you have the riches of Heaven at your fingertips. The Lord loved you so much that he came himself to redeem you from sin. Don’t cast him away, for in so doing, you show that you do not even love your own soul. Give yourself to him.
Bro. Rutledge
+001.jpg)