Luke 23, 33. And when they were come to the
place which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him, speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the male factors, one on
the right hand and the other on the left. The account of Christ's
crucifixion is found in all four of the gospel narratives. In
Matthew chapter 27, verse 33, we're told that when they were
coming to a place called Golgotha, that is to say a place of a skull,
and they crucified him. Pretty much the same words are
found in Mark's account of the Lord's crucifixion. And then
John chapter 19, verses 17 and 18, we're told, and he bearing
his cross went forth into the place of a skull, which is in
the Hebrew called Golgotha, where they crucified him and two other
with him on either side one and Jesus in the midst. Now, the
name Golgotha in Latin means Calvary. This is talking about
Mount Calvary. And you had to notice that Golgotha
is called the place of the skull. All the research that I could
find on this hill called Golgotha or Mount Calvary said that this
cliff, that this hill, had a bald rock surface that bare resemblance
to the cranium of a skull. But this is what I want us to
consider this morning. with physical eyes and with physical
sight, many on this day of our Lord's crucifixion saw many things. They saw three crosses. They
saw three men who were to be put to death on those crosses. They saw Roman soldiers and Jewish
officials. They saw priests and Jewish leaders. They saw a large number of people
that had come to witness the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus
Christ, including women that was said to have wept for Christ. Mary Magdalene was there. The
mother of Zebedee's sons was there, just to name a few. And
had you been present, you would have seen John the Beloved standing
next to Mary, the mother of Jesus. But there were many things that
with the natural physical eye could not be seen. The crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus, God the Son, revealed a lot of things that
our natural blind eyes could never see. It couldn't see, first
of all, the true nature and character of the heart of men and women.
It couldn't see that. Men and women by nature, according
to this book, hate God. I know that's not a popular message,
but nevertheless, it's a true one. If you want to see a true
and an accurate picture of man's heart, your heart and my heart,
it is seen in the way that fallen men and women dealt with God
in the flesh. They nailed him to a cross. Every
fallen man and woman in their natural born state and heart
hates God. I say that again on purpose.
Why? Because we're told that the carnal
mind is enmity against God for it's not subject to the law of
God and neither indeed can be. By nature, fallen men and women
will not have a God to reign over them and to rule over them.
The high priest and the chief priest, they hated him. You can
read it all through the gospels. always looking for some reason,
some way to put him to death. The scribes and the Pharisees,
they hated him. The Roman soldiers hated him.
The religious Jews hated him. He was hated in Pilate's hall
of judgment, and he was hated in Herod's mock courtroom. He was arrested, he was mocked,
he was scourged. His face was spit upon. I'm talking
about God in the flesh here. A crown of thorns was pressed
down so violently upon his head that it just ripped into his
forehead and bled down into his eyes. They should have been crying,
holy, holy, holy, but instead they cried, crucify him, crucify
him. to make their hatred even more
wicked and blasphemous is the fact that they hated the Lord
Jesus without a cause. We saw that in the first hour
in John chapter 15. They hated Him freely. They hated
Him without a reason. The only man that ever lived
on earth without sin was hated, despised and rejected and killed,
crucified without a cause. And it said, Calvary, that the
hearts of every man and woman are exposed by God. Christ came
in a body that the Lord prepared for him and his sole purpose
in coming was to do the will of God. And men with their wicked
hands and their wicked hearts took the Lord of glory and put
Him to death on a Roman tree. Crucifixion on a cross was considered
to be the worst of all deaths. It was a cruel execution. But
it was the most graphic and the visual way for God to show mankind's
contempt for Him. And our Lord's death on the cross
clearly exhibits what's in every single heart by nature. And I
know there'll always be some that say, well, I've never hated
God. I've heard men, more than one,
say, I would have never crucified the Son of God had I been there. I would have tried to prevent
it, is what they say. But what is willful unbelief
but crucifying Christ? What is willful rebellion against
the Word of God but a fresh attempt to crucify the Savior? What is
men and women's lack of interest in God and His Christ as the
only means that their sin can be put away? There is no other
way. The Lord said, I am the way, the truth, and the life,
and no man cometh to the Father but by Me. Only what? What is
man's hatred at the thought of bowing to God who sent his son
to die the just for the unjust? I'm telling you, it's nothing
less than a modern day crucifixion of the son of the living God.
I'll give you the second thing that men and women with natural
eyes could not see on this day, this day that the Lord was crucified.
And that is the holy character of God. They didn't see it. How evil a thing sin must be
if it took the blood of God Himself to put it away. How righteous
and just is the God of the Bible? By the standard of His holiness
is set so high that God can by no means clear the guilty. The
soul that sins, it shall die. God's justice requires it. God's standard of justice is
so high that the soul that sins, it must die. And it shall surely
die. with those sacrifices that they
offered year after year and continually, the Scriptures say. They could
never make those that brought them perfect. And that's the
issue. It has to be perfect to be accepted. It has to be perfect. And perfection
is something we can't bring or do. Any sacrifice we bring must
be perfect to be accepted. But in those sacrifices, there
was a remembrance again made of sin every year. No work of
man can put away sin. No amount of repentance can erase
our sin. And God Himself is too holy just
to excuse it, just to sweep it under a rug. So how then can
our sin be put away? Do you have an interest? Oh,
I hope you do, because one day you're gonna go out to meet God,
and what are you gonna plead? Your righteousness, your goodness,
your keeping of the law? It's gotta be perfect. Only by
the sin-atoning death of Christ on Calvary's cross, and no dead
sinner will ever see it with their natural sight. God has
to reveal it to a sinner if they're ever to see it. Has God revealed
it to you? Thank God if you see it, and
blessed you are if you do, because flesh and blood didn't reveal
it to you. But God the Father, which is in heaven, did. Matthew
16, 17. The third thing, the third thing that those who were
at the crucifixion of Christ didn't see was the love that
God had for His elect. Didn't see it. But God commended
his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Are you a sinner? I've got good
news for you. That's who the Lord came to save.
He came to seek and to save that which was lost. Hereby perceive
we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and
we ought to lay down our life for the brethren. And this was
manifested, the love of God toward us, because that God sent His
only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.
Herein is love, not that we love God. Boy, I wish I could shout
that from the top of the courthouse down here to this religious world
in which we live. It's not that we love God. It's
because He first loved us. here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us. And he sent his son to be a propitiation
for our sins. That's what's going on on that
cross. And they didn't see it. Fourthly,
what with the natural sight could not be seen on that day that
the most perfect man that ever lived was put to death. It was
the purpose of God. They didn't see that. They, with
their wicked hands, took and crucified the Lord of glory,
but it was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God that it happened. It was the purpose of God. God
was behind it 100%. The purpose of God, according
to election, might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.
This was God's doing. No man or woman will ever see
the purpose of God in Christ's death, but those whom God chose
to see it before the foundation of the world. Our Savior came
to do a work that we ourselves could not do. Christ Jesus came
into the world to save His people from their sin, and this is the
work of God. And it's the work that God gave
Him to do, and it's a work that He Himself was determined to
accomplish before time ever was. His first words recorded in the
scriptures were, didn't you know that I must be about my father's
business? And the last words he ever spoke
was, it's finished. What was? What he came to do. The work that his father sent
him to do. How is it written of the son
of man that he must suffer many things and be set at nought?
Mark 9, 12. The son of man must suffer many
things and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and
scribes and be slain and be raised the third day. Acts chapter two,
verse 23, lets us know that which we could not have seen with our
own physical eyes. Yes, as I said a moment ago,
the Lord was taken and by wicked hands was crucified and slain,
but God was behind it. It was by His determined counsel. God determined this. It was by
His sovereign purpose that it came to pass. God was behind
it all. He had purchased it before time
ever was. And when our Lord cried, it was
finished. Trust me, it was. It was finished. The work was
done. Redemption was finished and accomplished
and God's people had their sin put away. And it's the only way
that it could be. That's why Christ died on the
cross. Fifthly, none present on the
most significant day, the most important day in the history
of mankind, the day that this religious world endeavored to
kill God. Another thing that men could
not see with the natural eyes or understand in their natural
hearts is how anxious and how joyful Christ was to save poor,
lost, wretched sinners. That's why we, the sinners that
we are, are encouraged to look unto Jesus, the author and the
finisher of our faith. Now listen, who for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame of
it. And he sat down now at the right
hand of the throne of God. Why did he sit down? Because
his work's finished. What a picture of God's elect
was the dying thief that was saved. You ever thought about
it? He appears to have done nothing but evil all of his life. He
was a thief who had undoubtedly executed crimes with violence.
Many of the commentators say that they were probably both
murderers, both thieves. Even on the cross, they both
blasphemed God. And they're being executed. I
would say that if there was any time for sorrow, that would have
been it, but no. But that one thief, he was a
man loved and chosen of God. And God had mercy on him. And
that day he was with the Lord in paradise. There was not an
eye there that day that saw that. Child of God, blessed are your
eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. Sixthly, there
is something else that no one saw that day that the Lord Jesus
laid down his life. And it concerned these two men,
these two thieves that I'm talking about that hung on each side
of the Lord Jesus. And the first thing is this,
how near a person may be to hell and yet be saved. The thief that
was saved had one foot in hell and the other on a banana peel,
as they say. Yet in sovereign love and in
sovereign mercy and grace, he was plucked from the very fire
of hell by the almighty hand of God, by divine intervention
to ever be with the Lord in glory. And something else men and women
never saw that day, and that is how near you can be to Christ
and yet be forever lost. How alarming is that thought?
The lost thief was as near as the saved one. He was as near
to Christ as the other, yet he perished. On the cross we have
two men, both thieves, both condemned, both damned, both lost, both
without Christ, both who seem to be without hope. both in the
presence of the crucified Christ, and one is saved and one is lost. What made the difference? No,
wrong question. Who made the difference? Who
made the difference? Who maketh thee to differ from
another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? And if
you received it, why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received
it? So just for a few minutes longer,
I want to answer from the scriptures the best I can this most vital
and important question. Why did Christ die on the cross? Why? Why did he? Many claim to
know the answer and yet they perish. Could it be that most
don't really know the answer to that question at all? That's
what I would say. Why did Christ die on the cross?
Why did God subject Himself to such a horrible, horrific death? Even the death of the cross,
Scripture calls it. Well, the first answer is found
in Romans 14. I won't turn you to all these,
but turn to this one. Romans chapter 14. Why did Christ die on the cross? Romans 14, verse 9. Paul writes here, for to this
end, and that simply means for this reason, for this reason,
this is why. Christ both died and rose and
revived. Look at these words, that He
might be Lord. That He might be Lord both of
the dead and the living. Christ died on the cross, friends,
that He might be Lord of all. Jesus Christ is Lord by divine
decree. The Father loveth the Son, and
have given all things into His hand." That's by divine decree
from God Almighty. By divine decree, all things
are in Christ's hands. Our Lord said in Matthew 28,
verse 18, all power, all authority is given unto me in heaven and
in earth. It all belongs to Him. In John
chapter 17, our Lord praying to His heavenly Father said,
Thou hast given me power over all flesh. In Acts chapter 2,
Peter on the day of Pentecost preached, God hath made this
same Jesus whom you crucified. both Lord and Christ. God made him Lord. Listen, you
don't make Jesus Lord. People say, make Jesus Lord. You don't make Jesus Lord. God
made him Lord long before you ever made a so-called decision. On Calvary's cross, he earned
the right of the crown. Listen to what Paul said in Philippians
2, verses 5 through 8. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, listen, but made himself
of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, God
did, even the death of the cross. And friends, because of our Lord's
obedience in death to the cross and His subjection to His Father's
will in all things, wherefore God hath highly exalted Him and
given Him a name which is above every name. And it's at that
name that you must bow. The question is not if you'll
recognize His Lordship, The question is, when will you? When will
you recognize that He's Lord? Why did Christ die on Calvary's
cross? The second reason is found in
Romans 3. Turn back a few pages. Romans
chapter 3, verse 24. Paul again writes, being justified
freely, how? By His grace. How? Through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say at this time,
His righteousness. that he might be just, and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Now listen to me carefully.
The Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross to enable a holy and
a righteous God to be holy, righteous, and just, and yet forgive sinners
without compromising his justice in the least. Our Lord declared
in Isaiah chapter 45, He said, I am a just God and a Savior. He must be both to be God. Has
God shown you that? God can't compromise His justice
and His law in order to save sinners from their sin. It's
got to be paid. It's got to be satisfied. His
justice does. Someone had to die because the
wages of sin is death. And someone's blood had to be
shed because without the shedding of blood, there is no remission
for sin. But here's the gospel. The person,
the substitute needed to die in the chosen sinner's stead,
the person whose blood must be shed for the remission of sin,
had to be as perfect as God. He had to himself be as perfect
as God to fulfill and keep the law and satisfy God's justice. I declare to you this morning,
without any reservation whatsoever, Jesus Christ was that person.
And that's what he's doing on Calvary's cross. He's dying the
just for the unjust. That he might bring his people
to God. That's the best news I ever heard.
God will not only punish sin, God must punish sin. It's not
a question if he will punish sin. In order to remain just,
God must punish sin. God by no means cleared the guilty.
Why? Because he's a just God. Preacher,
you're always talking about God being holy and God being just
and righteous. What about God being love? I
thank God for that too. I do. You better believe I do. But God cannot manifest his love
to a sinner at the expense of his justice. Can't do it. Not a remain God. He cannot execute
mercy to a sinner and violate his law. He can't do it. He's too just and holy. That
would make him an unjust judge if he did. And that's why Christ
died on the cross, to satisfy justice and justify me. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Does that mean that the righteous
justice of God can kiss and give peace to guilty sinners? It can
only if Christ has borne their sins. It can only if Christ has
paid their debt. It is if Christ died in their
place. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other in Christ. Two words on which the glorious
gospel hangs are those two words, substitution and satisfaction. Why did the Lord Jesus die on
Calvary's cross? Look with me to Isaiah chapter
53. Why did Christ die on the cross?
Isaiah 53 verses four and five give us the third reason. I'll
give you the answer before we read it. He was stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted for his people, that's why. Verse four,
surely he hath borne our griefs. I like the way that starts out.
This is a sure thing. This is something you can count
on, something you can believe wholeheartedly. Surely he, the
Lord Jesus Christ, hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions."
Who? The whole world? No. Those that
God gave him before the foundation of the world. He was wounded
for their transgressions. He was bruised for their iniquities. And the chastisement of our peace,
the peace of God upon believing sinners. was upon Him, and with
His stripes we are healed." Why is the Lord hanging on the cross?
He's being smitten of God for His people. That's what I deserved. He's carrying the griefs and
the sorrows of His elect. He's being bruised for His people's
iniquities. Those that hated Him without
a cause. He's being wounded for their
transgressions. Why, after all, he is the lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. And as the God-man,
he's doing in time what he'd already purposed to do in eternity. From the blood of the lamb that
was shed for Adam and his wife in the garden to cover them with
the skins, along with the lamb killed in Egypt, whose blood
was put on the door and the lintel. God has said this, when I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. And that's what God did on this
day on Calvary's cross. He shed His blood that it might
be applied to the hearts of His people. And when God sees that,
He passes over them in mercy and in grace and in love. It
sure wasn't because you was a good boy or girl, I'll tell you that.
Our Lord died as a sin offering, as a substitute, and a sacrifice,
and a surety. That's what He is, Chris. He's
a surety. And He put away His people's
sin. And that's the only way it could be put away. No other
way. Absolutely none. God helped you
to do as John the Baptist said. He said, Behold the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. Speaking of His people
in the world. Why did Christ die on the cross?
Fourth reason. And it's found in 2 Corinthians
5, verse 19. You don't have to turn there.
It says, God was in Christ reconciling the world, speaking of His people
in the world, to Himself. That's why. God, because of Adam's
sin and our own sin, we can't blame it all on Adam, God is
angry with the wicked every day. not just unhappy or displeased,
angry, that's a strong word. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Where's
that kind of preaching and that kind of warning of God's wrath
and judgment today? The reason multitudes in religion
today are compromising the death of Christ is because religion
has made God to be all about love and nothing about judgment,
nothing about righteousness, nothing about wrath. Let's just
call a spade a spade. That's the truth. Men and women
don't think that they need a substitute. Why? Because men and women don't
believe that they have a need. They don't think they need a
sin offering or a blood atonement. Why did Christ die? Why did he
suffer in shame on that cross? Are you interested? Revelation
chapter five, verses nine and 10 tells us the fifth reason
God died was to make his people kings and priests. Let me read
it to you. Revelation five, verse nine. And they sung a new song saying,
thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and has made
us unto God." Who's the us there? His people. Those that God gave
him before time ever was. And He's made us unto our God,
kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. Now, we're
not kings and priests before God because of something we've
done or something that we've earned or something that we deserve.
The only reason we're made kings and priests unto God is that
Christ died and shed his blood. Child of God, you were bought
with a price. I don't think we can truly enter
in or fathom that price. God himself, died for you. Christ died that you might live.
Christ died so that out of every kindred, every tongue, every
nation, every kingdom, every tribe, people, all over this
globe, through all generations, that He might have a blood bought
people. Not the whole world, He didn't
die to save the whole world, but men and women out of every
kingdom, tribe, people. He redeemed that which was lost.
He restored all that His people lost in Adam. He translated us
into the kingdom of God. He did it all and He did it all
for His own glory. So let me ask you that most important
question that we've talked about this morning. What think you
of Christ? What think you of Christ? Not what, Mama thinks, not what
Daddy thinks. What do you think? Do you see
what Nun saw on Calvary's mountain that day? Do you see why Christ
died on Calvary's cross? If you do, then I'm telling you,
profess to the world what Christ has done for you. Be baptized
and identified with His death, His burial, and His resurrection.
Be like that Ethiopian eunuch and ask, what hinders me from
being baptized? What hinders me? Are you ashamed
of claiming Him to be your all-in-all after all that He's done for
you? You know, I want the whole world to know that Jesus Christ
is my Lord and Savior. He could have, and He should
have, I might add, passed me by. That's what I deserved. But
that's what mercy and grace is, isn't it? Not giving me what
I deserve and giving me what I don't deserve. God still has
mercy on whom He will. He's willing to have mercy on
you. Did you hear me? He's willing
to have mercy on you. He's willing to have compassion
on you. How do I know? He had it on me. I think about that leper. One
of my favorite passages in all of Scripture, that leper came
to him and listen, leprosy, we just can't enter into how bad
it was. I mean, it was bad. Body parts
just falling off, rotten, decaying. And that poor leper came to the
Lord Jesus and he said, Lord, see, he knew who he was. He said,
Lord, If you will, if you will, I know you can. I've heard, I
heard what you've done. I know what you can do, but if
you will, you can make me clean. You know what his answer was?
I will, I will. Be thou clean. And the scripture
says immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Dear sinner, if
you leave here today unclean, it's only because you don't want
to be clean. Did you hear me? If you leave
here today unclean, it's only because you want to be unclean.
God is able and God is willing to make you clean.