All right, turn with me, if you
would, back to Matthew 28. Matthew 28. And let's read the first eight
verses again. In the end of the Sabbath, as
it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. And behold, there
was a great earthquake. For the angel of the Lord descended
from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door
and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning
and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers
did shake and became as dead men. And the angel answered and
said unto the women, fear not ye, for I know that you seek
Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here. For he is risen,
as he said, come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly
and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and behold,
he goeth before you into Galilee, there shall you see him, lo,
I have told you. And they departed quickly from
the sepulcher with fear and great joy, and did run to bring his
disciples word." Now, today is Easter. Today is Easter. This is a day
that the entire Christian religious world is celebrating. The entire Christian religious
world, they're celebrating this day. As I was thinking on today and
as I was studying for the message this week, it occurred to me
that many people many people who will celebrate today, of
all days, this day specifically, many of them, and I might even
go so far as to say most of them, have no idea what or why they
are celebrating. They have no idea what or why
They are celebrating. They are definitely celebrating
a day. There's a day on the calendar.
You can count certain days after another event that creates today. They're celebrating a day and they're celebrating an event.
Something happened. This is a remembrance of something
that happened on this day. So they're celebrating a day
and they're celebrating an event, but if we don't know why the
event happened, and if we don't know what truly
happened in the event, then there's no way we can truly
celebrate it. Not in truth, not in the heart,
not in sincerity. And if we're not careful, If
we're not very careful, our celebration will turn to error. We'll do
it all in the name of the Lord. But all of this celebrating that
goes on, if we're not careful, it will all turn to error and
even blasphemy. That's what happened one time
to the children of Israel when Aaron made a golden calf. You may remember that story.
They were worshiping in the name of the Lord, in the name of God.
But it was absolute blasphemy. The children of Israel, they
became absolute blasphemous fools in the name of worshiping God.
And God was not happy with it. And they suffered for it. And
I don't want that to happen to us. I'm telling you all of this
because I don't want that to happen to us. So for that reason,
I want us this morning to find out the answer to two questions.
Two questions. If we can get to the heart of
the answer of these two questions, then we'll get to the heart of
the good news of Easter. We'll get to the heart of true
worship. That's what we'll get to the
heart of. True, true worship. We will get to the heart of what
will make a sinner celebrate? I mean truly celebrate. Here
are the two questions. Number one, why did Christ die? Everybody knows that he died. Everybody knows that. Everybody
knows that we're celebrating Easter because Christ died and
rose again. Everybody knows that. Why did Christ die, really? That's the first question. Why
did Christ die? The second question is, why has
Christ risen? Everybody knows that He has risen. Why did He die? And why has He
risen? All right, that is the heart
of Easter. If you wanna talk about Easter,
that word is in the scripture one time, Easter. That's the
heart of it. That's the heart of Easter. That's
the heart of salvation. Why did he die? And why has he
risen? Many people don't know. I'm going
to go ahead and tell us that many people don't know. And I'm
talking about religious people who think they know. And I don't say this arrogantly.
I don't. I do not say this judgmentally. Not at all. I say this with a
broken heart. I truly do. I feel led to preach
because my heart is broken for the fact that the majority of
the people who think they know why don't know why. And they're
in for a great surprise when they go stand before this God
that they're celebrating. But for the grace of God, none
of us would know. That's just the truth. But for
God's mercy and but for God's kindness, none of us would know. God has to reveal that to us
in his word, his spirit, his doing. He must reveal it to a
person. So that's what I pray God might
do today. I am personally praying to Him. I am personally begging
Him to reveal this through His Word today. I'm begging Him to
reveal it to us who He has revealed it to before, and I'm begging
Him to reveal it to someone who's never seen it. He's never revealed
it. I pray the Lord might open eyes
today to truly see why Christ died. and why he rose again. Now let's go ahead and eliminate
some of the reasons why people think he died. If you ask people
that question, everybody kind of has an opinion on it. But
if they're not in agreement with the word, that's just an opinion
and it's a wrong opinion. So let's eliminate some of these
reasons why people think he died and think he rose again. Turn
with me over to Matthew 19. Matthew chapter 19. Verse 23, it says, Then said
Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you that a rich man
shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again, I say unto
you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When
his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying,
and what a question this is. I hope the Lord will cause us
to really pay attention to this. They said, who then can be saved? Who then can be saved? Now watch
verse 26. But Jesus beheld them. That word beheld is a strong
word. That means He earnestly looked
at them. He looked them right in the eye.
Jesus beheld them and said unto them, With men, this is impossible. With men, This is impossible. With men, this is impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. Many people believe that Christ
died to make salvation possible. That's the reason why many, many
people think He died, to make salvation possible. That is not
so. That is not so. With man, it
is impossible. It's impossible. If Christ did
not save a man or a woman, that man or woman is not going to
be saved. If Christ didn't do it, it's
not going to be done. Not one time does the scripture
even insinuate, it does not say, it doesn't even insinuate that
Christ died to make salvation possible for man to attain it
on his own by something that he does to make it happen. With man, it's impossible. If man is involved, if the flesh
of man is involved, it's impossible. Soon as the flesh gets involved,
write it off. It's impossible. It's not going
to happen. Christ did not die to make salvation possible. We
need to get that out of our thoughts. We need to get that out of our
vocabulary. That's not the reason he died.
All right, let's eliminate another reason why people think he died. Turn with me to John 10. John chapter 10, verse 17. Our Lord said, Therefore
doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may
take it again. No man taketh it from me, but
I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father." Many people believe that Christ died because He was
done wrong. Many people believe that. They'll
make statements like this. You may have heard someone make
a statement just like this. They'll say, if I had been there
during that time, had I been alive back then 2,000 years ago,
if I was alive when all that happened, I would have stopped
it. I would have done everything I could have done to stop His
crucifixion and stop His death. I would have never let that happen. They believe that He became the
victim of a wicked people and a wicked government. They believe
that He was overpowered and He was defeated and He was martyred
for His cause. That is not so. That is not so. He said, I lay down my life. That's the beauty of the gospel.
I lay down my life. That I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power
to lay it down. And I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my father." In John 19, verse
11, the Lord told Pilate as he was on trial, Pilate was interrogating
him and threatening him. And he said, this is what our
Lord said to Pilate. He said, you could have no power
at all against me, except it were given you from above. None
whatsoever. Pilate thought he was having
his way with the Lord. The Lord said, you're not having
your way at all. God is having his way. That's
what's happening. God is having his way. Acts chapter
four says that the men who apprehended him and tried him and tortured
him and hung him on that cross. Those men only did what the hand
and counsel of God had determined before to be done. That's all
they did. what the hand and counsel, wisdom,
purpose of God had before determined to be done. Before what? Before
the foundation of the world. Revelation 13 verse 8 says that
Christ was the Lamb slain in the will and the purpose of God
before the foundation of this world was ever laid. The Lamb
slain. Christ said, for this cause came
I into the world. Why was Christ born? One reason
only, to lay down His life. He said, for this cause, I came
for one reason, one reason. I was born for one reason, to
die. That's it. So He was not a victim. He was the victor. He was the
victoriously accomplishing Christ of the cross. He accomplished
His death on the cross. That's what Luke 9 31 says. The
death He would accomplish on the cross victoriously. Our question
this morning is why? Why? Why did Christ on purpose
victoriously die? Why? Well, look with me at John
11. John chapter 11, verse 49. It says, And one of them named
Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them,
You know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient
for us that one man should die for the people, and that the
whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself,
but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should
die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that
also he should gather in one the children of God that were
scattered abroad." Christ died on purpose to save, to redeem,
to gather back together to himself all of the chosen children of
God that are scattered abroad. all over this world, all over
time, all through the generations. Christ died to save a particular
people. He died on purpose to save a
purposed people, an on purpose people. He came on purpose for
a purpose And that purpose was an exact number of chosen souls
that He would redeem. Let me show you that back in
John 10, where we just came from. Look back again at John 10, verse
11. It says, I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. for the sheep." You
know that our Lord spoke many times of the sheep and the goats. And He said, I came to give my
life for the sheep. Verse 14, He said, I am the good
shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. As the Father
knoweth me, even so I know the Father and I lay down my life
for the sheep. and other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Verse 24, then came the Jews
round about him and said unto him, How long dost thou make
us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you
and you believed not. The works that I do in my father's
name, they bear witness of me. Watch verse 26. He said, but
you believe not because. You believe not because you are
not of my sheep. As I said unto you, he did not
say. You are not my sheep because
you believe not. That's what many people believe. Many people will say, now if
you don't believe, you can't be a sheep. That's not what our
Lord said. Not at all. He did not say, now
I died for everybody. I made salvation possible. But
you won't take it. That's not what He said to those
Jews, those Pharisees that came to him, he did not say, I'm begging
you to take it, but you're just being so stubborn on this. He
didn't say that. He didn't say that at all. This
is what he said, verse 26. You believe not because you are
not of my sheep, as I said unto you, my sheep hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow
Me. What does He say to them? Come,
bow, look, believe, trust, rest. They hear My voice. They follow
Me. Verse 28, He said, And I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of My hand. Amen. All of God's sheep
will receive faith to believe on Him, to hear His voice, and
to follow Him. In John 17 verse 9, the Lord
said to the Father, I'm praying for our sheep. I'm praying for
our sheep. I'm praying for the ones that
You purposefully gave to me. The ones that I shepherd in our
fold. That's who I'm praying for. He
said, I'm not praying for the world. I'm praying for the sheep
that you've given to me. So here's what we know so far.
All right, here's what we know so far. Based on the word, Christ
died on purpose. And he died for a particular
people, an exact people. Now let's get to the heart of
the question right here, the heart of this first question.
Why exactly did he die? He died on purpose. He died for
a particular people, but why exactly did he die? What exactly was the reason for
him having to give up his own life? Why couldn't He just gather
His chosen people? Why couldn't He do that? Why
couldn't He just scoop them up and take them to be with Him
where He was? Why couldn't He do that? What
warranted Him having to, on purpose, come and lay down His life for
His sheep? Here it is. This is the reason. May the Lord open our eyes to
this right now. I pray God will. I pray His Spirit
might move right now and reveal this to us. Turn with me to 2
Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. It says four. He, God the Father, hath made
Him, Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin. Christ never
committed one sin. But God the Father made Him to
be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Why did Christ die? It's because
God the Father took all of the sin that His people had committed.
If we are His people, if you and I are His people, if we're
all His people, God the Father took every single sin that you
have ever committed and ever will commit Past, present, future. All of your sin. And God the
Father took every sin that I have ever committed and ever will
commit, and He laid all of it on Christ His Son. All of it. In the Garden of Gethsemane,
when Christ became so heavy, I'm sure you've read that, and
our Lord spoke of how heavy he was with sorrow. He said, I'm
so sorrowful I could almost just die right here. That's because at that moment,
God the Father was pressing our sin into him. At that moment,
he was feeling the burden, the infirmity of our sin. Everything we've done, everything
we've thought, everything we've said, all of it, all of it was
pressed into him. As he stood before Pilate, they
were hurling accusation after accusation at him. just accusing
him and accusing him and accusing him. The reason he answered them
not a word and he did not one time defend himself. Here's the
reason. It's because he was standing there in the sin of his people. He was standing there holding
all of the sin of his people. They called him a liar. They
said, you're a liar. And the reason he answered them
not a word is because he was standing there in my lies, the
lies I have told, standing there bearing every single one of them.
They called him a blasphemer. They called him a blasphemer
against God. He answered them not a word.
And the reason is because he was standing there in our blasphemy. Acts chapter 8 says he stood
there in humiliation. I can't even imagine. I can't
even imagine him having to answer for all of my sin, just mine. I don't want my sin brought up.
I don't want anyone announcing it out loud for all to hear.
This is what you did. This is what you thought. This
is what you said. How horrible would that be? Can
you imagine all the sin of all the people that God the Father
chose to save? He mercifully, generously, lovingly
has chosen a number no man can number. Oh, the humiliation. Acts chapter
8 says, in His humiliation, His absolute humiliation for our
sin. the suffering, the pain, the
torment. Our Lord described it to us in
Lamentations 3. Read that sometime. Lamentations
3 is Him describing the judgment of God on Him for our sin. The reason that He committed
Himself to the cross was because the wages of our sin was death. God had to pour out punishment
and wrath on me, on you. And as the bearer of our sin,
that's what he was owed. He had to go. He had to go. That's why Christ died. It's
because he willingly took all the sin of his people upon himself
and he bore the judgment of God in their place, in their stead. All right now, Why has He risen? Why has He risen? If we ever
come to know why He has risen, we will no longer preach a works
message. We will no longer believe in
salvation by works. If we ever truly understand why
Christ has risen, we'll put a period after it. Nothing more, nothing
less. Why has Christ risen? If our
sin being laid on him is what put him in the grave, then why
has he risen? Why has he risen? Here's the
reason why. It's because our sin is gone. It is gone. It's gone. Now listen to this. If you are a sinner who God has
called or is in the process of calling right now. If for the
first time you're hearing His voice and His word. If for the
first time He's saying to you, I am. If for the first time He's revealing
yourself to you. If for the first time you're
opening up, He's opening up the word to you and you're seeing
the work of Christ in here, not your own works, but His. If you are a sheep, He will reveal
to your heart exactly what He did for you. He'll speak this
to your heart. He'll tell you, I did all this
because of your sin. Your sin. Why did Christ die? Why did He die? One of His sheep
will say, because of my sin. That's why. It's because of me.
It's all because of me. He'll reveal to you not just
what you've done, but what you are. So if you're a sinner who is
worried about your sin, and I know some people are, I know there
are some people who are worried about their sin. If you are a
sinner who's worried about God's judgment on your sin, if you're
a sinner that God is calling to be His sheep by revealing
all this to you, God will give you ears to hear this right now.
If he's calling you to be one of his sheep, he will give you
ears to hear this right now. In Christ. In Christ, the blessed
word of the gospel is Christ. Thank God for Christ, all because
of Christ, because of what Christ did. Your sin is gone. Best news a sinner's ever heard.
your sin is gone. It's a dogmatic message. There's
no maybe about it. If you are a sheep, God will
give you ears to hear this. He'll give you a heart to believe
it. In your heart, you'll believe it. You'll be settled on it in
Christ, not in yourself, not because of any work you've done,
no good deed you've ever done. only because of what Christ came
and did and bore. Because of him, for Christ's
sake, your judgment's over. People talk about the judgment.
I'm just worried about standing before God in the judgment. In
Christ, you already did. It's over. On the cross of Calvary,
your sin was judged, punished. In the grave, it was paid for
and put away. And it's gone. If God gives you
faith to believe what Christ has done, what I just told you,
with man, it's impossible for a man to believe it. So if you
believe it, be amazed. God gave you that faith. You'd
think, well, that sounds so simple for a man to believe. No, it's
impossible. It's impossible. But if God has given you faith
to cast all your hope, cast your all, your everything on Christ,
On His accomplishment in His death through the cross, your
eternity is secure. Glory is secure. Heaven is secure. It's done. Your judgment is over. Your sin is gone. You say that's
a pretty bold dogmatic statement for you to make, Gabe. I'm not
making it. God is. This is what he said. He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and everything that means. And thou shalt be saved. Believe on him, if God gives
you faith to truly believe on Christ, believe that he has finished
the work, then you're one of his sheep. I say that on the
authority of the word of God. Turn with me to John 19. John 19, from the cross of Calvary,
as our Lord hung there bearing the judgment of the sin of His
people. Verse 30, John 19, verse 30, when Jesus therefore had
received the vinegar, He said, it is finished. It is finished. He did not die
to make salvation possible. I'm so thankful for this. He
did not cry in that moment, it is possible. What if He cried
that? What if from the cross of Calvary
He cried, it is possible. It is finished. It is finished. The salvation of God's people
is finished. They are all saved. not will be, they are. They are. They will all be notified of
it as time goes on. Through the preaching of the
gospel, God will in time notify all of his saved people of what
Christ has already done for them. If Christ died for one soul who
ends up not being saved, then that makes Christ a failure.
And it truly isn't finished after all. But Christ was not a failure. Isaiah 42 said, He shall not
fail. And He didn't. It is finished. It's finished. How do we know
that for certain? Absolute certain. How can we
be so certain about this? He arose from the dead. That's
how. He arose from the dead. That's
why Christ has risen. That's the reason is because
he accomplished the work that his father gave him to do. He
successfully saved all of his people from their sins. He died
because he was the Savior and he arose because he was the successful
Savior. Now, if God has given you faith
in him, us faith in him, faith in his accomplishment for his
people, then here's the command. Cast your all on him. Cast your
all on him. Don't add one work to his. Don't
add one work to his. Don't believe in your heart that
you have to help him with the work of your salvation. That's
to believe it's not finished. If God has given you faith, then
trust in your soul that Christ has by Himself purged our sins. Trust that it's not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy,
He saved us. Trust that if salvation comes
by my works before God, then Christ died in vain. What all
that means is, trust that it's Christ or nothing. Christ or
nothing. Either He paid all my debt before
God, or my debt before God is not gonna get paid. If there's
any part of it left for me to make it, to finish the payment,
the payment will never be finished. I'll never be able to make it.
A sinner whose only hope is in the work of Christ on the cross. If a sinner's only hope is in
the work of Christ on the cross, that's where all of it lies.
That sinner has all the hope he needs. All he needs. Here's the reason why. Go one
more time to Matthew 28. If a sinner needs hope, this
is all he has to do. He just has to look right here.
Matthew 28, verse 5. The angel answered and said unto
the women, fear not ye. For I know that you seek Jesus,
which was crucified. He is not here. For he is risen,
as he said, come see the place where the Lord lay. If you need
hope, this is what the messenger said. God sent a messenger and
this is what the messenger said. If you need hope, just look right
here. If you need the comfort of knowing
that your sins have been dealt with and your judgment has been
paid, then you just come see the place where the Lord lay.
You just behold that right there. See the tomb where your own sins
laid. See the place where they were
paid in Him and now are gone. You cling to the glorious news
of the gospel. And here it is. He's not here
anymore. He's not there anymore. The work
is done. It's over. He's risen. Verse
seven, and go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen
from the dead. And behold, he goeth before you
into Galilee. There shall you see him. Lo,
I have told you. And they departed quickly from
the sepulcher with fear and great joy. You know what that great
joy was? Celebration. They were happy. They were celebrating something.
Oh, they were sinners with a reason to celebrate. Verse eight says, and they did
run to bring all of his disciples the glorious word. They ran to tell everybody they
could tell this glorious word. May God cause us to truly understand,
truly understand why Christ died and why he has risen. And I pray
not just today, but every day. This is the day called Easter.
I pray not just this Sunday, but every Sunday, not just Sunday,
but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, every
day, may He give us a heart to celebrate Him, Him, Him, the
person, what He's done for His people, not just today and not
just an event, but Him, for all that He's done for sinners like
us. I pray He will. May the Lord bless that word.
All right, let's have a closing hymn. It's going to be 216. This is
Look to the Lamb of God.