If you would open your Bibles
with me to Matthew chapter 27. Sarah and I are also excited
to be here and we're looking forward to spending time with
your pastor and Hannah and getting to know some of y'all. So, Matthew
27. Our text tonight's gonna be verse
38, but I wanna read from 31 to 51 and just have a few comments
before we get to our main text. And after that, they had mocked
him. They took the robe off from him
and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This has always
been the purpose and providence of God that this take place. This is the most important time
in all of time, right now. Right now what we're reading
about, it's now going to take place. And so many things we're
gonna see here, These men took him, and with cruel hatred, they
beat him, they mocked him, and they crucified our Lord. And
every time I read this, it strikes me, and yet I know that that
is what is in all of us by nature. So when we read this and we see
this, just the hatred here, we must recognize that this is what
is in all of us by nature. And we too would have done the
same thing. As I said, we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is
a lamb slain from the foundation of the world and he was delivered
by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, but these
men by wicked hands took him. And as they came out, they found
a man of Cyrene Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his
cross. And when they were coming to
a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,
they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gout, and when he
had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified
him and parted his garments, casting lots, that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments
among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots." We're not
going to look at the four Gospels and see this tonight, but how
many times do we read that it might be fulfilled that which
was spoken of by the prophets in all of these Gospels when
we read through this? It's almost as if the Roman soldiers
had a copy of Psalm 22 And they were reading and said, okay,
now we gotta go do this. And then they'd read and now
we gotta go do this. And why? Because this was all
happening according to God's will and God's purpose. Verse 36, and sitting down, they
watched him. They just sat there and watched
him. not knowing what was taking place. And that's a terrifying
thing to think of. There's people that read this
text and just like they were sitting there watching, not knowing
what was taking place. There's people that read this
chapter and don't know what took place. I pray that the Lord,
that that not be the case for anybody here tonight, that we
know what was taking place, but they just sat there and just
watch this, just the hatred, and set up over his head his
accusation written, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. Then there
were two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and
another on the left. And they that passed by reviled
him, wagging their heads and saying, thou that destroyest
the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the son of God, come
down from the cross. Likewise, also the chief priests
mocking him with the scribes and elders said, he saved others,
himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel,
let him now come down from the cross and we'll believe him.
He trusted in God, let him deliver him now. If he will have him,
for he said, I am the son of God. Now these men were mocking him,
but think about some of the statements that they made. He saved others,
himself he cannot save. He could have come down from
that cross. He could have. But if he saved himself, he couldn't
save his people. If he saved himself, he couldn't
do and fulfill the Father's will. Right, he told Peter, put up
thy sword into thy sheaf, the cup which my father hath given
me, shall I not drink it? He couldn't save himself. He
was determined to do the father's will. He was determined to save
you. If you're here tonight and you know him or are known of
him, he couldn't save himself because he had to save you. He trusted in God. They didn't
know the half of what they were saying. He trusted in God. He perfectly trusted the Father
at all times. Even there on the cross, amid
all the suffering and the mocking, He said, my flesh also shall
rest in hope, for thou will not leave my soul in hell, neither
wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Psalm 16,
always trusted God. Now from the sixth hour, there
was darkness over the land into the ninth hour. And about the
ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, my God, my God,
Why hast thou forsaken me? I thought about that hymn we
sing, well might the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in
when Christ the mighty maker died for man, creatures, sin. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Yes, the Lord suffered great
physical pain endured the mocking and all of that, but truly the
soul of his suffering was his soul suffering. The soul, S-O-L-E,
the soul of his suffering was his soul suffering. And straightway one of them ran
and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on
a reed and gave him to drink. The rest said, let it be, let
us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had
cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghosts. And behold,
the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to bottom
and the earth did quake and the rocks rent. Don't you love that
this veil was rent from top to bottom and everything that that
teaches us. We're told, there's so much,
there's a whole message there, but we're told in Hebrews that
having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus. We're told to enter into the
holiest with boldness with the blood of Jesus. Now, if you remember
in the tabernacle how the high priest was supposed to go in
on the day of atonement, I don't believe anyone ever went in with
boldness. Do you? I don't. You know, the
Lord gave Aaron instruction how he was exactly supposed to do
it, that he die not. how he was supposed to come in.
I don't believe they ever came in with boldness, yet we are
told to come in with boldness with the blood of Jesus. And to come before the throne
of grace. It says, you may come with boldness to the throne of
grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. When is that? At all times. at
all times and to find what? Mercy and grace in time of need. So tonight I want us to look
in particular at verse 38. If you want to go back and read
there. Verse 38, then where there are two thieves crucified with
him, one on the right hand and another on the left. Now, Here
we have three crosses, and we have three men who are dying. One man died in their sins. One man died for sin, and one
man died free from sin. And that's gonna be our outline
tonight. So first of all, let's consider
the man that died in their sins. Now, all men are born sinners.
We come into this world with a sinful nature. And because
it's our nature, we sin. It's just as natural as breathing
is because it's our nature. It's our nature to sin. It's
who we are. And we continue in sin for the rest of our lives. Now, in scripture, sin is presented
to us in the scriptures as a debt. It's presented as an offense
and as a crime. So we're gonna think about them
in those three ways. First of all, sin as a debt.
If you read in Matthew's gospel, when the Lord gave his model
prayer, it says, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And then in Luke's gospel, we
read, forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone that
is indebted to us. Sin is a debt to God. And being in debt is such an
uncomfortable feeling. It's uncomfortable to be in debt,
especially if it's a large number and you start to get worried
about not being able to pay. It's a very uncomfortable feeling.
Well, every day man sins and continues to add to their debt,
every day. And there's not one thing that
they can do to pay that debt. Me and you, there's not a single
thing that we can do to pay the debt that we owe to God's justice. And most people have the idea
that God has a balance, and on one side, he stacks up your good
works, and on the other side, he stacks up your sin. and that
if the good outweighs the bad, then you'll be accepted. But
that's not what the scriptures teach, right? Everything that
we do just continues to add to our debt. For as long as you
live, you'll continue to add to that. The scriptures also
talk about sin as an offense. In Romans 5 verse 18, we read,
therefore by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation. The offense, the offense of Adam. Adam, of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Everything here is
yours, Adam, minus that one tree. Not only that, all the animals,
I'm gonna bring all these animals before you, and you're gonna
name them. You're above all these animals, and I've made you a
helpmeet. And under those perfect conditions,
having nothing lacking, and Adam knowing full well what he was
doing, rebelled and disobeyed God. Sin is an offense to God. It's an offense. And sin is,
of course, a crime committed against God. We read, whosoever
committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is transgression
of the law. So to die in your sins, I say
all this to get to this point. What is it to die in your sins?
To die in your sins is to die owing God a debt. It's to die
having committed offenses against God. It's to die a lawbreaker
having committed crimes against God. What an awful, awful way
to die, to die in your sins. People talk about how they would
like to die. I'd like to die in my sleep or
I'd like to die playing golf, or whatever it
is that people like to do, and something quick. And I understand
that. I definitely don't want to go
through a long, drawn out process. But however it is that you die,
all you really don't want to do is die in your sins. However
it is. Because if you die in your sins,
If I die in my sins, we will be separated from God for all
eternity. That's what the scriptures teach.
One of these men died in their sins. Now, one person died for sin. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. There's the problem. Here's the
gospel. First Corinthians chapter 15,
verse one. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which also you have
received and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved,
if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our
sins." One man died for sins. Christ died for sins. Let's break
this down. First of all, Christ. Who are
we talking about here? The God-man. We're talking about
the God-man, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And of course, when
we say that he is Christ, we are confessing that he is God's
appointed prophet, priest, and king, the anointed one. God had anointed him for the
work of redemption. He is the one appointed person
for the work of mediation. If you're going to come to God,
if you're going to have access to God, it's going to be through
Christ. There is no other coming to God. I think about in the Old Testament,
you all remember Aaron's rod that budded? right? The children of Israel, you know,
they got upset like they always did. And they told Aaron and
Moses, you know, you guys, y'all just think y'all are something
special. And you just, you take too much to yourself. We're all
God's children. We, we can be priests as well. And God killed many, many people
over this. But y'all remember, he had them
each bring in, each family bring in a rod and laid it before the
tabernacle. And the rod that budded, that's
who God had chosen. And of course it was Aaron. And
what is that teaching us? It was teaching us that God has
appointed the Lord Jesus Christ. He's his anointed. He is the
Christ. His work was to mediate between
God and his people. And there is no coming to God
apart from Christ. So first of all, that's who we're
talking about. And Christ died for our sins. He didn't die for
his sins. He knew no sin. He never committed
one sin, not in thought or in deed. He was perfect. He had
to be perfect, right? Because he had to offer himself
without spot to God, as we read in Hebrews 9. And he died for
our sins. Who is he talking about? Whose
sins did Christ die for? We'll look back in verse one,
He says, moreover, brethren, he's talking to his brethren. They're brethren because they
have the same father. They're brethren to have the
same father, those who are chosen of God, called by the Holy Spirit,
his elect people. That's who he died for. He didn't
die for every single person. Right? If he did, there would
be no hell. It's just as simple as that.
If Christ died for every single person, then there would be no
hell. But he didn't. He didn't die for every single
person. He died for his sheep. He died for his people. Substitution,
right? It's at the heart of the gospel.
The Lord Jesus Christ died for a specific group of people, We
read that God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now, we see here
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
According to the scriptures, this is so important. It's according
to the Old Testament, right? That's what that means. He died
according to what was written in the Old Testament. That means
everything that was prophesied and everything that was typified
in the Old Testament. We just read one of the many
chapters we could have read, right? That speak about the death
of our Lord Jesus Christ. To die according to the scriptures,
like what was typified at the Passover lamb. or what is taught
on the Day of Atonement. Like what we read in the garden
when the Lord slew those animals to cover up the nakedness of
Adam and Eve, right? What did they do immediately
after they fell? They went together and they sowed
some fig leaves, right? That's man's religion. And God
right then and there showed them, that's not gonna cut it. That's
not going to do it. There has to be blood. That's
not going to cover up your sin. This is not something that you
can do. To die according to the Scriptures, it had to be like
the types that we read in, for instance, Genesis 22 with Abraham
and Isaac. Or as we read in Psalm 22, the
Psalm of the Cross, or Isaiah 53. I had a hard time picking
one of these examples to go back to. So I thought about three
things that we see in all of these types. There's more, but
three things that are always there. The first one is this,
his blood had to be shed. When we read that Christ died
for our sins, he couldn't die of what you would call natural
causes, right? He couldn't come and live a perfect
life and then die of something else, his blood had to be shed. Why? Because without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission. For the life of the flesh is
in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make
an atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that maketh
an atonement for the soul. His blood had to be shed. Number
two, his death had to be a sacrificial one, an offering to God. This was to God. That's what
is what this first and foremost, this was to God. As we read in
Hebrews eight, it says that every high priest is ordained to offer
gifts and sacrifice. This is where it was of necessity
that this man have somewhat also to offer For someone to offer
a sacrifice, there had to be an altar, there had to be a priest,
a suitable sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ is all
of these. And one other thing we see is we always see fire. Fire, right? Remember the Passover
lamb? That Passover lamb couldn't be
boiled and it couldn't be eaten raw. Why? Because fire pictures
judgment, wrath and judgment of God. And so the Lord Jesus
Christ suffered the full wrath, judgment, punishment for the
sins of his people right there on the cross. You know, unlike you remember
what happened on Mount Carmel, When Elisha had those false prophets,
they were all sacrificing to their gods. And Elisha built
an altar as the Lord had commanded him and instructed him. And fire
came down from heaven and it burnt the sacrifice and the stones
and the water and soaked it all up. Well, at the cross, the Lord
Jesus Christ consumed that fire. It was the other way around,
wasn't it? He consumed the fire, the wrath. God is satisfied with
the Lord Jesus Christ, with his sacrifice. Verse number four, and that he
was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the
scriptures. Not only did he die according
to the scriptures, He also had to be buried and rose again the
third day according to the scriptures. This is also just as important
because everything had to be fulfilled in the Old Testament,
right? Every jot and every tittle, everything
that was spoken of him had to be fulfilled. And so he died,
he was buried, and he rose again according to the scriptures.
Now, one man died free from sin. Turn over to Luke chapter 23.
Luke 23 verse 37. And saying, if thou be king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription
also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and
Hebrew, this is the king of the Jews. And one of the malefactors,
which were hanged, railed on him saying, if thou be Christ,
save thyself and us. But the other answering, rebuked
him saying, does not thou fear God? seeing thou art in the same
condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward
of our deeds. But this man had done nothing
amiss. And he said unto the Lord, and
he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily
I say unto thee, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Both of these malefactors were
mocking him. We saw that. Didn't we? Both of these malefactors were
mocking him. But all of a sudden, one of them
went from mocking to looking on Christ and asking him, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Someone says,
what a miracle. What a miracle. Absolutely. Absolutely. Anytime a person
is given life is birth from above. It's a miracle. It was no more
miraculous for the Lord to save that man at that time in that
condition than for God to save someone here tonight. Do you believe that is it about
the circumstances that were him or is it about God who does the
saving? I mean, Yes, this man was at
a point of death, but he couldn't do anything to just start believing
or give himself life. No more than if somebody's here
tonight and doesn't believe, can just give themselves life
and start believing. God does the saving. It was a
miracle. And we thank God every time that
someone is given life, don't we? But the point I'm trying
to make is, God can save a person there on the cross, he can save
a person here in this pew tonight. And that's why we come. And we
ask for his blessing. God has to give a person life
and faith. And I don't know what all understanding
this man was given. I don't know what all he knew. I knew that he knew that the
Lord is God, right? There's four things. He knew
that the person next to him was not simply a man. He knew that
he is God. And he knew something about the
righteousness of Christ because he said, this man had done nothing
amiss. He knew something about his own
sin. But he said, we indeed justly receive the due of our reward.
You see, man always tries to find an excuse for their sin.
We do. It's the environment that we
grew up in. It's the parents that we had.
It's the school that we're in. No, we're the problem. We're
the problem. When God convinces you of sin,
you recognize that. And that's what he's saying here.
We're getting what we deserve. And he knew the only way he could
be accepted into the Lord's kingdom is if he did something for them.
And what a simple prayer. Lord, remember. Remember me. Have you ever prayed
that? Remember me? I do. Remember me, Lord. That's all it takes for him to
think on us. This man died free from sin. This man died free from sin because
the Lord Jesus Christ died in his stead. You remember what
we looked at and what we said about sin earlier, how sin is
presented as a debt, as an offense, and as a crime? Let's turn to
a few verses in closing. Let's look at this. Ephesians
chapter one. This is. Verse seven. In whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace. We've been redeemed, you see?
That debt that we couldn't pay, He paid. He redeemed us. Look over in Romans chapter four, verse 25. We have offended God, Romans
4 verse 25, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised
again for our justification. And turn over to Hebrews chapter
nine. The crimes, the sins that we
had committed, the guilt, Ephesians 9 verse 26, he's doing a comparison between
the Old Testament sacrifices that were offered year over year,
and then he says verse 26, For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world, but now, once in the end of the
world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself." Put it away. Put it away. Expiation, right? That's what that means. our sin,
he took our guilt, and he put it away. It's gone. You know, the scriptures that
you, there's language in the scriptures to try to help us
grasp these realities, right? One of my favorites is that he's
removed our sin as far as the East is from the West. I love
thinking about that. Because if you start going East,
when do you run into the West? Never. Right? You never run into
the, you just, you keep going East, you'll never run into the
West. That's how far our sins have been removed, taken away,
gone, annihilated. I pray the Lord would cause all
of us to look to Him and to trust Him. And if you've never looked,
that He would give you faith to do that. that we all would
die free from sin.