Why the Cross | Bible Study

[Music] friends there is a great question that is asked and the question concerns the cross of our lord and savior jesus christ here is the question why did jesus die what is the purpose of his passion god is god if he wanted to forgive sin couldn't he just say i forgive you why did jesus have to die in agony and blood why the cross there's a verse of scripture one verse that puts it so well that i think explains the entire thing one precious verse among many in the bible first peter chapter 3 and verse 18. i want you to listen to it there is enough gospel dynamite in this one verse to blow all of the sin and hatred out of any heart to give a hope that is steadfast and sure but that dynamite has to be ignited by the spark of faith i want you to listen to this verse it is a glorious verse listen to it first peter chapter 3 and verse 18 for christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to god christ suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to god the greatest tragedy this world ever knew took place on an ugly hill outside jerusalem where the son of god hung in agony and blood upon a cruel cross and the sun the glowing the glowing face of the sun was dimmed and demons doubtless shrieked in joy and the earth shook and rocked and reeled when god the mighty maker died for us for man the creature sinned now it was the greatest tragedy but now listen not only was it the greatest tragedy it was the greatest triumph when hell did its worst god did his best and your destiny and my destiny is determined by the cross of our lord and savior jesus christ now i want us to think about the reason for the cross because if you don't understand this you're not going to understand anything else in the bible why the cross of jesus christ let me give you several thoughts you ready here's the first one now listen carefully the substitutionary purpose of the cross have you got it listen the substitutionary purpose of the cross listen to this verse for christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that's talking about us it's talking about the lord jesus christ jesus did not die as a martyr he did not die as an example he died as a substitutionary sacrifice the just for the unjust he jesus died in our place now god is just that is god is perfectly holy there is no sin in god if you were to go through all of the dictionaries of the world look for one word that would describe almighty god it would not be love although he is infinite love wonderful love matchless love but you would have to say the one word that would describe almighty god is god is holy he is just holy holy holy and god listen god as a just god and a holy god cannot overlook sin he can't do it if god would overlook sin god would no longer be just he would no longer be holy do you know what they say in the court of law when a guilty man is acquitted the judge is condemned if god would let sin go unpunished god himself would sin god would no longer be holy he would no longer be just and so god is just but not only is god just we are unjust the bible says that he died for us the just for the unjust we a sinners you're a sinner i'm a sinner all have sinned and come short of the glory of god we're sinners by birth we're sinners by choice we're sinners by nature we're sinners by practice and there's not one of you that would say i've not sinned there's not one of you that would say i am just so jesus died the just for the unjust now god has a problem if we can speak of god having a problem how can he being infinite love love us and receive us and the same time be a just god the answer is a substitute must take our place and bear the punishment for that sin so god can be both just and the justifier of those that believe in the lord jesus christ now we get the idea that sin is not really all that bad the world mocks the idea of sin i mean you read in the paper about rape and murder and arson and pillage and thievery and all of that but you never read the word sin you never read the word sin the world believes that somehow we're just all weak but not we're not wicked we're all sick but we're not sinful but the bible teaches that all have sinned and come short of the glory of god and god's righteousness burns his holy hatred for sin burns his his need for justice burns against sin but oh god is love and he loves us and he wants to save us and so the lord jesus christ the very son of god the just died for us the unjust he is our substitute now remember this the cross of jesus christ is not incidental it was not accidental jesus did not die as a martyr he said no man takes my life from me i lay it down of myself the the cross was in the heart and mind of god before he swung this planet into space if you're making notes i want you to jot down revelation chapter 13 and verse 8 and there that that verse says that jesus the lamb of god was slain before the foundation of the world before god scooped out the seas and heaped up the mountains flung out the sun moon and stars calvary was in his mind jesus was slain before the foundation of the world now if you take this bible and you open it any place and read long enough you're going to read about calvary you're going to read about the blood even in the old testament uh you cut the bible anywhere and it will bleed there is a red river of blood that runs all the way through the bible think of it after the very first sin in the garden of eden what did god do for adam and eve before they'd sinned they were naked but they had no guilt but now they're covered with shame and they try to hide themselves with fig leaves adam might have said to eve eve green looks good on you you're stunning but i want to tell you when god came in the garden uh they hid they ran from a righteous and a holy god and tried to hide uh from god there uh in the in the forest or the trees of the garden but what did god do the bible says that god made them coats of skin coats of skin that is the blood of an innocent animal was shed for them god right here in the very dawn of world history is showing that without shedding of blood is no remission of sin hebrews 9 22 and then adam and eve had two sons cain and abel and you remember that they came to worship god abel uh kept the flocks he had sheep and he offered a spotless lamb to god cain offered what the fruit of the ground he was a tiller of the ground he was a farmer and so he was growing things by the sweat of his brow and he made an offering of vegetables and fruits and flowers to god it might have been beautiful it may have looked like a country fair but the bible says that god accepted abel's offering of a slain lamb but god did not accept cain's offering why without shedding of blood is no remission of sins and then the flood came what was the first thing what was the first thing that noah did after he got off that ark he offered a blood sacrifice again the red river of blood continues to flow through the bible and then we come to abraham who was abraham abraham was the father of the jewish nation abraham the brightest star in the hebrew heaven and god gave abraham a son that he loved so much a son of promise now the bible calls him abraham's only begotten he loved this son a son of miracle birth but god said to him one day abraham you take your son take him to a place that i will show you a very specific place it was mount moriah you take him to this place and offer him up there a burnt sacrifice abraham trusting god so much knew that if god commanded him to do this that god would raise him from the dead and abraham and isaac go up mount moriah the wood is in place isaac is stretched out there on the altar abraham has the knife ready to plunge it into the quivering bosom of isaac god speaks from heaven he says abraham don't harm the lad i know now that you love me you know it really wasn't isaac that god wanted it was abraham and he said i i know now that you love me and then abraham looked up and there was a ram you remember the story caught in the thicket that is his horns in a bramble a ram crown with thorns does that remind you of anything jesus was crowned with thorns and god said abraham offer that ram in isaac's stead that is as a substitute and he offered him as a substitute then the jewish nation came along and they were slaves down in egypt and god says i'm going to deliver you from egypt and the night i deliver you something horrific is going to happen a death angel is going to come through the land and god said to the hebrews you take a lamb kill that lamb take the blood of that lamb and put the blood upon the doorpost of your house and when the death angel comes through when he sees the blood he will pass over that house that's why they call it passover when i see the blood he says i will pass over you and a spotless lamb was killed and the blood was put on the doorpost it became a substitute for the firstborn in that family and every house that had the blood upon the doorpost the death angel passed over hence we get the name passover now listen had those people those early jews but gold and silver and rubies and diamonds on the doorpost it would not have been enough had they put beautiful poetry on the doorpost it would not have been enough we're not saved by sentiment we're saved by sacrifice i'm going to tell you something even if they had taken a live lamb and tied a live lamb there in front of the door it would not have been enough people talk about the example of the great savior jesus and his life friend listen salvation does not come by learning lessons from the life of christ but by receiving life from the death of christ without the shedding of blood is no remission of sins and then god gave the levitical law to the jews and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of animals were sacrificed upon smoking jewish altars all for one purpose without shedding of blood is no remission of sin that red river blood continues to flow through the old testament until he comes to a place called calvary and there the lamb of god the son of god hung upon that cross why did he do that because john the baptist saw him when john was down there by the river jordan baptizing and john said behold the lamb of god that taketh away the sin of the world now listen folks all of these other sacrifices from abel's little lamb to the shed blood for the coats for adam and eve to noah's sacrifice the passover lamb all of those were only shadows let me give you a verse of scripture that talks about these things being shadows hebrews 9 verse 22 and it says and almost all things are by the law purged with blood and without shedding of blood is no remission well we thank god for that and they had all of these old testament sacrifices but then he says in hebrews 10 verse 1 for the law having a shadow of things to come and not the very image of those things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers there and too perfect now what does that mean in plain english he's saying these old testament sacrifices all of these were only shadows what is a shadow a shadow is an outline but it has no detail and has no color isn't that right all of these old testament sacrifices were only shadows getting the people ready for the lamb of god that takes away the sin of the world there was a russian psychologist his name was pavlov if you studied psychology you studied about pavlov he had he did experience experiments called conditioned response for example one thing that he did he had some dogs and he conditioned these dogs to give a certain response he would ring a bell and feed the dogs the next day ring the bell and feed the dogs the next day ring the bell and feed the dogs do you know what happened after a while when he would ring the bell the dogs would begin to drool and to salivate why because they knew that the bell meant food that's what pavlov called a conditioned response now what god was doing in the bible was conditioning his people what was you see to the dog the bell meant food what god was showing is that sin means death sin means death the wages of sin is death but no animal could pay our sin debt all that was was a conditioned response until jesus the very son of god died upon that cross all of these old testament sacrifices pointed to the lord jesus christ for the bible says without shedding of blood there's no remission god says that sin must be paid for thank god jesus was willing to do that and do you know where jesus was crucified on the same mountain where abraham was willing to offer isaac mount moriah that's where jesus died and that's where the temple mount is and on the day that jesus died the jews were keeping passover and the levitical priests were sharpening their knives getting ready to cut the throats of little lambs little lambs by the way that had been raised in bethlehem just like the son of god jesus was born in bethlehem and when those lambs were being sacrificed there on the temple mount on that same limestone ridge mount moriah jesus the lamb of god was dying at at 9 00 am jesus was on his way to the cross and then he hung his head and died upon that cross and i want to say to all of the levitical priests now you can go home it's done it's finished there's no more there's no more sacrifices for sin jesus himself died for us now the first reason therefore for the cross is it is a substitutionary sacrifice the just for the unjust one of the greatest christians ever lived was a man named charles hadden spurgeon most preachers looked to him as the prince of preachers and spurgeon died like we almost do and they asked virgin when he was dying mr spurgeon now that you're dying give us your words your view of your faith can you sum it up for us spurgeon just smiled and said jesus died for me jesus died for me now here's the second reason or the second thing i want you to see not only the sacrificial purpose of the cross but i want you to see and it moves my heart when i say this the suffering passion of the cross our verse that i gave to you says this christ also hath once suffered the just for the unjust sin brings suffering i want you to think of the sufferings of our lord and savior jesus christ not just not just the suffering on the cross think of the emotional suffering of the lord jesus christ my heart is moved when i think of gethsemane have you ever heard of gethsemane the word gethsemane means olive press it was a place that jesus would go to to pray now the night of his arrest he had gone to gethsemane to pray he had come down from mount zion where he had the last supper with his disciples down through a valley across a little brook called kidron and up the slopes of the mount of olives that lies just east of jerusalem he had a little prayer garden there where he loved to pray there were olive trees there because it was an olive press and jesus asked his disciples to watch and pray especially peter james and john watch and pray because his heart was broken he was being crushed he knew that he is facing a dark calvary but when jesus goes to pray his disciples go to sleep his disciples sleep the city sleeps but jesus eyes will not close and sleep until they close in death and jesus there is an agony and he's saying father father if it be possible let this cup pass from me now he's not talking about a literal cup it's a metaphor the cup was something that he had to partake of what was in that cup the pollution of sin was in that cup the bible says of the lord jesus god hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us jesus if he becomes my substitute has to bear my sin and so he not he never sinned but he was made to be sin for us and so jesus took upon himself the sin of all of the world the bible says all we like sheep have gone astray we've turned everyone to his own way and the lord hath laid on him on jesus the iniquity of us all and that's symbolized by that cup what was in that cup blasphemy was in that cup what was in that cup rape and murder and sexual perversion was in that cup what was in that cup child abuse wife beating was in that cup hitler's gas ovens were in that cup drug abuse was in that cup satanic worship and murder in that cup pride and lust and envy and i'll tell you something else self-righteousness was in that cup you say well all those wicked people yes and your sin self-righteousness my sin do you know the worst form of badness is human goodness when human goodness becomes a substitute for the new birth we reek with pride and we think that the gospel is for the down and out but not for the up and out i want to remind you it was a religious crowd that crucified the lord jesus christ people who were self-righteous but all of the sin of all of the world was in that cup suppose we just took this little group and i was to pass a cup along and each one of you would put your sin in that cup and then multiply that by all six and a half billion people on the face of the earth and then multiply that by all of the people who have ever lived before and who will ever live all of that sin was in that cup and jesus the infinite holy son of god who was the complete antithesis of sin was made to be sin for us the pollution of sin was in that cup and the punishment of sin was in that cup now listen if jesus christ is a substitute then he is going to take the suffering that my sins deserve and jesus therefore suffered for sin the just for the unjust he suffered it was not a mock suffering he suffered so much that he cried in agony said father if it be possible please god let this cup pass the bible says he was in agony and the word agony comes from the greek word aegon which is a wrestling a lord was wrestling he was in such he was in such anguish that his perspiration was like drops of blood there as he puts his face on the ground you see red blood and black dirt mingle together as the son of god is praying and he's saying god please if there's some other way he wasn't wrestling with satan nor was he wrestling with god i'll tell you who he's wrestling with himself his humanity don't get the idea that he just waltz to the cross don't get the idea that he says well i'm god this won't hurt me he was a man as much as god there's no sorrow like his sorrow no suffering like his suffering father if there be some other way let this cup pass from me but the silence from heaven said there is no other way and jesus christ and i thank god he did said nevertheless not my will thine be done because of that heaven is your home because of that you can go to heaven jesus suffered as no man ever suffered there upon that cross there was the there was the psychological the emotional suffering of the lord jesus christ as i say dark gethsemane was the vestibule to calvary and i don't mind telling you that that gethsemane moves me to tears i was in a hotel room one night late about one in the morning reading about gethsemane and when i saw jesus struggling there realizing that he who had been in the bosom of the father perfectly holy would become sin and actually the object of the father's loathing because god the father would have to treat him as god the father would treat me i was so moved i shouted just shouted and i thought oh the policemen are going to come and arrest me they're going to they've been a murderer in this room here in this hotel but i just got to thinking of the great great love but not only the emotional suffering of our lord and savior jesus christ think of the physical suffering they scourged him john 19 1 then pilate therefore took jesus and scourged him when a person was scourged his wrists were tied to a column and there were two persons who would do the scourging probably psychopathic volunteers who delighted in causing pain one would start at the nape of the neck and beat downward the other would start at the ankles and beat upward they took something called a flag room which is a a sturdy handle with leather thongs nine of them with bits of bone and and lead and glass uh in those thongs they were meant to tear the flesh from the body these men were experts they knew how to flay a person how to rip away the skin how to expose the nerves without yet disemboweling that person uh so that he would be whipped within an inch of death to lay bare all of the nerves but yet not kill him no man walked away from a scourging nun some could crawl most were dragged away jesus was scourged he was whipped he was abused then they took him into a courtyard the the soldiers loved to play a game called the game of the kings as a matter of fact if you go to israel you can still find the courtyards they're scratched in the floor are the markings where they played the game of the kings they would take a king some man some prisoner and they would mock him as a king and beat him and abuse him they had the perfect person when they had jesus because he was reputed and reported to be the king of the jews and so that's the reason they put a a crown of thorns on him and they put a a robe to mock him they put a wilt in his hand and and then they blindfolded him and then they struck him and said if if you are the son of god tell us who hit you friend not only did he know who hit them he would have known their great-great-grandfather tell us who hit you but they mocked him they loosened his teeth the blood ran down his nostrils they took his beard and with their hands they snatched the beard from his face and they bowed down in front of him and said hail king of the jews and they spit in the face of the son of god and they mocked him then they let him out made him carry his cross along what we call the via dolorosa the way of sorrows and he fell beneath that cross they dragged him up they dragged him up calvary's hill and stretched him out upon that hellish machine that cross and they drove searing nails through his quivering palms and his feet and they nailed the son of god to that cross i want to remind you again he did not die as a martyr he said no man taketh my life from me i lay it down of myself greater love hath no man than this that a man died for his friends but god commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet enemies christ died for us when they took that nail and would put that nail through the hand they would search for the median nerve and there as they would spread the metacarpals and they would try to find that median nerve because that would send excruciating pain through the body they were experienced they knew exactly what they were doing the hands were nailed the feet were nailed the body is nailed there to the cross at a the hands out this way at a right angle but when the body goes up the hands go up like this at 65 degrees and the body sags and the weight comes down upon the chest and the victim is not able to breathe but his feet are nailed and so he can push with his feet in order to breathe but when he does that excruciating pain comes from the legs up through the body and so there's suffocation there is nausea every nerve is a tract for the feet of pain uh there is dizziness there is shock there's loss of blood there is humiliation it is all compounded the romans knew how to do this they knew how to put a man on the cross and extend the death as long as they could they wanted the man to flirt with death and death to flirt with the man what they were doing was making an example what they were doing was this to say to those who watched you don't ever want this to happen to you don't ever buy one of these stay in line because you don't want this to happen to you a crucifixion you know the word excruciating that that's a latin word escudiatus it means out of the cross out of the cross excruciation means out of the cross of our lord and savior jesus christ there was the emotional suffering there was the physical suffering and then friend there was the spiritual suffering on that cross listen matthew 27 verse 46 and about the ninth hour jesus cried with a loud voice saying eli eli lamas the bothany that is to say my god my god why hast thou forsaken me now those are words from the psalms the psalm of david jesus was not looking back however quoting david david was looking forward quoting jesus it was a prophecy of what jesus would say upon the cross you know jesus called upon god as father but now he calls him not father but god my god my god why hast thou forsaken me mystery of mysteries jesus is god in human flesh and yet he is forsaken of god his father can god forsake god when god becomes a man and takes the sinner's place on that cross jesus was treated as you and i would be treated forsaken of god sin separates from god sin separates from god the bible says in the book of habakkuk that god is of pure purer eyes than to behold iniquity not only did the sun hide his face but god himself i'm talking about the sun in heaven was darkened but god himself turned his face from god the son and jesus suspended between heaven and earth jesus died on that cross alone men mocking him god having forsaken him he is a derelict upon the cross forsaken when david was dying he could say yea though i walked through the valley of the shadow of death i'll fear no evil why for thou art with me jesus walked that lonesome valley by himself alone on that cross abused crucified by men forsaken by god alone on the cross can you imagine what it was like for jesus who for all eternity had been in the bosom of the father before he was ever born in bethlehem now not only is forsaken of the father but he has become the object of the father's wrath the fires of god's wrath burn themselves out on the lord jesus christ the fires of god's wrath the bible says that god spared not his only son it hath pleased the lord to bruise him that's an amazing thing the emotional suffering the physical suffering the spiritual suffering of the lord jesus christ upon that cross ought to cause you to love him that he took your place he suffered your separation they say pastor he was there for a short time if i die and go to hell i'll be separated for all eternity won't i how was it therefore that jesus suffered only a short period of time let me tell you how jesus being infinite suffered in a finite period of time what you being finite would suffer in an infinite period of time all of the sins of the world were distilled upon jesus and the eternities were compressed upon jesus no one ever suffered like christ upon that cross now that's the suffering of the cross we've talked about the substitutionary purpose we've talked about the the suffering passion i want you to think about the subtle provision of the cross the settled provision of the cross listen again to our text first peter 3 18 for christ also hath once suffered the just for the unjust friend it is settled it is done he will never no never no never suffer that way again he hath once suffered the just for the unjust it is finished when it says he hath once suffered it doesn't mean once upon a time it means once and for ever never ever ever to suffer that way again when he died he hung his head and he said it is finished teta lest i is the word he bowed his head on the cross they cried can the last die that means paid in full that's what it means in roman times if a man had done a crime and adjudicated guilty they would put him in prison and on the prison door they would write something called a certificate of debt it told the crime it told the time it told what he would do and how much he would have to pay after he had done his time in prison they would take the certificate of debt from the prison door and bring it to the judge and say this man is paid in full and he would write across it tetelestai the same word finished paid paid in full the man would take that certificate of debt and he could never be brought into jeopardy again because he would say i have paid my debt to the government you cannot bring me into double jeopardy it's the same word that jesus christ used on the cross when he said paid it is finished paid in full and he took the bible says the handwriting of ordinances that was against us and nailed it to his cross paid in full with the crimson blood of the son of god is that not wonderful you see he hath once suffered you will never ever be brought into jeopardy again when you give your heart to jesus christ because it is paid in full hebrews 10 12 but this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever set down at the right hand of god now last of all i want you to think not only of the settled provision but i want you to think of the saving power of the cross now listen to the text christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust now listen that he might bring us to god that's what it's all about on the cross the lord jesus took sinful man with one hand and holy god with the other hand and the bible says by the blood of his cross he hath reconciled god and man the greek word bring prosego means to bring a person into a royal courtroom among other things i don't want to drop names but i've had the privilege of being in the oval office several times but i tell you one thing you don't just saunter into the oval office somebody gets you and brings you in to the oval office you don't just walk in there has to be somebody who will bring you into that office you're not going to just saunter into the presence of almighty god but thank god he the just for the unjust that he might bring us to god that he might present us to god and that that it's not god that needs to be reconciled we are the ones that need to be reconciled he has brought us to himself and now thank god hallelujah because of the blood of the cross i can come into the throne room i can have intimate fellowship with god the father and that that sin debt that has separated me from god has been obliterated it has been done away and the blood of jesus christ god's son cleanses from all sin isn't that wonderful praise god for that i'll tell you a story and i'll be finished this story moved me when i heard it a businessman in his office got a phone call he wasn't prepared for what he was about to hear his son his only son had been hit by an automobile and was now in the morgue at the hospital this businessman in utter shock jumped up from his desk got in his automobile to drive to the hospital to be there to meet his wife and as he drove he realized he was driving past the place where his son had been hit he stopped and looked and still on the pavement was a pool of blood it dawned on him this is the blood of my son and he noticed now that the barriers had been taken away and the automobiles were just driving through that blood it so moved him he stopped got out of his car took off his coat and began to wave it and say stop stop stop don't drive your car through my son's blood i wonder how god the father must feel when we trample beneath our feet the precious blood of the son of god i must needs go home by the way the cross there's no other way but this i shall never catch sight of the gates of light if the way of the cross i miss christ also hath once suffered for sin the just for the unjust that he might bring us to god and he is both holy and righteous and just and still he can let people like us into heaven hallelujah amen you

Channel: Love Worth Finding Ministries

Views: 8,326

Rating: 4.951952 out of 5

Keywords: love worth finding, Adrian Rogers, Memphis, salvation, ways to salvation, Christ Jesus

Id: O_SyA3mQvaw

Length: 43min 14sec (2594 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 02 2021