forward. Well, I hope that God the Spirit
will enable me to deliver you a message today on this subject taken from verses
Actually, verse number 7, here's the subject, delivered, crucified,
and risen. The angel said to the women when
they came in search of the Lord's body, the angel said, look at the last
of verse number 5, the angel said, why seek ye the living
among the dead. He is not here, but is risen. Remember how He spake unto you
when He was yet in Galilee? And this is what He said. He
said, the Son of Man must be delivered. He must be delivered
in the hands of sinful men and be crucified, then the third
day rise again. So we'll consider delivered,
crucified, and risen. You know, God gave us the first
four books of the New Testament written by four different writers,
each led by the Spirit of God, inspired by the Holy Ghost as
to what to write, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They all set
forth the different features, different facts about the life
of our Lord Jesus, about His death on the cross, and about
His resurrection. They do give us some different
views of our Savior. A few weeks ago, I taught the
young people in our Bible school. And we talked about Matthew on
Monday, Mark on Tuesday, Luke on Wednesday, and John on Thursday. We noticed, and I hope that they
remember, that our Lord is given a fourfold picture by these writers,
the first four writers of the New Testament. Each of them pictured
the same glorious person, but they set forth some different
details about him. Matthew setting him forth as
the king. Mark setting him forth as the
servant of Jehovah. Luke setting him forth as the
son of man. Then John setting him forth as
the son of God. But they're all talking about
the same person. They're all talking about the
blessed Savior. So, they all tell the story of
Christ Jesus, His life, and His death, and His resurrection. Now there are some things all
four writers have in common. There are some things they all
speak of. Number one, that he really died. That he really died. It's interesting,
they don't each of them speak of his birth. Matthew does, and
Luke does. But not Mark, and not John. Mark is setting forth as that
faithful servant of Jehovah. And so, he doesn't go in any
kind of lineage or genealogy. And then, of course, John is
setting forth as God's own son, the divine one. And, of course,
God has no genealogy. God has no family tree. God is
full. John begins his book by saying,
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. The
Word was God. So they don't all set forth His
birth. Matthew does and Luke does. But
they all set forth His death. His death. Because everything,
everything regarding our salvation, our redemption, the removal of
all of our guilt, the bringing in of everlasting righteousness,
Our acceptance before God, everything is dependent upon His death.
If He doesn't die, nobody is going to live. If He doesn't
die, nobody is going to be saved. If He doesn't die, no sins will
be removed. If He doesn't die, everlasting
righteousness is not going to be established and brought in.
He's got to die. So Matthew emphasizes that. Mark
emphasizes that. Luke emphasizes that. And John
emphasizes that. The death of our Lord Jesus.
He really died. And he had to die because death
is the penalty for sin. God's prophet said, the soul
that sinneth, it shall die. The Lord said to Adam back in
the book of Genesis, He said, in the day ye eat thereof, the
eat of the forbidden fruit, or the fruit of the forbidden tree,
in the day ye eat thereof, thou shalt surely die. In dying thou
shalt die. And when Adam died, we all died,
because wherefore, as by one man we know this matter of sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned." That is all sin in Adam. Death
is the right, the just penalty for our guilt before God, for
our transgressions against God's law, for all of our trespasses,
for all of our sins. While all of the trespasses,
the iniquities, the guilt, all the sins of all of God's people
was made to meet on the Lord Jesus Christ, He had to die. He had to die to satisfy divine
justice. I'm going to be speaking this
evening and dealing with the subject of the reason for the
death of Christ. What did His death accomplish?
You know, it's good to say that He died. But just to say that He died,
that's not the gospel. The gospel is to answer this
great question, what was the reason for His death? That is,
why did He die? Why did he die? He died that
God might be just and justify the ungodly. You see, we haven't
announced any good news in just saying Jesus Christ died. It's
in saying that Jesus Christ died that God might be a just God,
a holy God, a righteous God, and justify folks like us. That's good news. It's good news
that He died to put our sins away. It's good news that He
died to answer all the requirements of the law of God we had broken
to pieces. He bore the penalty of us breaking
the law of God. He died for our sins. And so
Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, they all emphasize that
He died. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. He had to die. Listen, God is
going to get death. He is going to get death for
transgressions. Either the death of an absolutely
perfect substitute, or the death of the guilty sinner. And if
you die in your sins, the Savior said, where I am, you can't come. You can't come. You'll have to
die forever. God will get justice from you
and yet His justice won't be fully satisfied. You see, nobody is ever coming
out of hell. No, because you can't please
God. Your death won't please God.
Your death won't satisfy God. God hath no satisfaction in the
death of the wicked. Several things that never say
it's enough, and I'll tell you one of them is hell. That's fire. God's justice, God's fire. It
has only once said, it's enough. That's when Christ Jesus died.
If you die, God's wrath, God's justice will never say, that's
enough. He's had enough. He's suffered
enough. She spent or he spent all of
these decades, all of these centuries in hell's awful torments and
God says, it's enough. No, he'll never say that. The
death of the wicked will never satisfy the demands of the justice
of God. Only the death of the God-man. That's why that death is emphasized
so much in the Bible. His death. You go back into the council
chambers of God, back before He ever made the heavens and
the earth, and we find there He's talking about death. Christ
is the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.
And then you reach out into that eternity which is soon to dawn
for us. I think about those who've died
and gone on to glory. They've entered into eternity.
Dear Betty Shepard, she's in eternity. You know what the theme
is in eternity? You know what the subject is
in eternity? The death of the Lamb. The death
of the Lamb. Everything points to His death.
And so Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, they all say that this
One who was set forth in the Old Testament, He has come to
this world and He died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
They all have that in common. The Apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, he said, Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures. According to the Scriptures.
He is that spotless, sinless sacrifice offered to God. Not offered to you. He is not
offered to you. His blood is not offered to you.
His blood wasn't offered to the devil. His blood is the blood
before the Lord. It's offered to God. God's law,
God's justice demanded absolute satisfaction. The blood of the
Lord Jesus, that satisfied God. You go back in the book of Leviticus
1, 2, and 3. It talks about all those sacrifices. The blood before the Lord. The
blood before the Lord. Who's the blood for? It's for
God. It's for God. You go back over
into Exodus chapter 12. Passover lamb. I told Moses,
you tell the elders to tell all the heads of the households.
Get them a lamb, a male lamb without spot or blemish of the
first year. You kill that lamb, catch its
blood, you go outside your door, you take a bunch of hyssop, that
blood you caught in a basin, you take a bunch of hyssop and
you mark it over the door and mark it on the side. And I'll
tell you what, if I'd been living back there and my firstborn child,
his or her life's at stake, I wouldn't put that blood on sparingly,
would you? It's not like you're painting something and say, I
don't want to spill a drop over here. I want to be careful. Oh
man, I'd dip that in blood. I'd just smear that blood everywhere. Over the top and down the side.
But not down there at the threshold because you don't want the blood
of Christ to not be stepped on. And God said, then you go back
inside. And God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass off you. Who's the blood for? Well, I
know who reaped the benefits. I know who lived on account of
it. They were first born. They lived on account of it.
But those inside the house, those who are feasting on the roasted
lamb, roasted with bitter herbs, eaten with unliving bread, They
couldn't see the blood. The blood was for the eyes of
a holy God. God said, when I pass through,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Death. That's what
He got. He got death. And He got death
at every house. Didn't He? He got death at every
house. Either the death of a very suitable
substitute that was honoring to Him, pleasing to
Him, acceptable to Him, or the death of a victim. The death
of the firstborn. That's what all these four gospel
narratives set before us. They have this in common. Christ
died. Christ died. Listen, without
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, you've got no gospel. You've
got no gospel. Therefore, there's no salvation.
There's no life. There's no forgiveness. There's
no righteousness. It's no use talking about anything
else. No use talking about divine favor.
No use talking about the love of God. No use talking about
worship. where there is no blood, where
there is no death, the Holy Ghost is not going to be there. God
is not going to bless any service that isn't absolutely centered
around and fully saturated with the blood of His dear Son, who
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. All of these
gospel narratives have the death of Christ in common. They all
set forth before us that on Sunday morning, the third day after
He was placed in the grave, that the Savior came forth from the
tomb. He died for our sins. He is raised
again for our justification. That is, He was raised again
because we were justified by His death. We are justified by
His blood. They all have that in common. They all set forth His resurrection.
And they all set forth the fact that the eyewitnesses who first
arrived at the tomb were women. Women. And they all tell us that an
angelic creature informed the women what had happened. And they all tell us that the
men refused to believe the testimony of the women. And so while there are varying
details that come forth from the pen of each inspired writer,
these are the core truths. That he really died. That he really arose. That there were really witnesses
of an empty tomb. And that the angel, he told what
happened. And that the men didn't believe.
These are crucial features to the validity of our Lord's resurrection. But you know what isn't set forth?
It isn't set forth in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. You know what isn't set forth?
One glaring detail is left out, the actual resurrection. The actual resurrection is a
detail that's left out. Neither Matthew, Mark, Luke,
or John is led to write about the actual resurrection, the
moment that it happened. You can search the books. Search
all 66 books of the Bible, but you won't find a description
given of the resurrection. Now that He arose, it's a given
fact. But no details are set forth.
There's no explanation. No account is given. It's one
of those things that we know has happened, but the Bible doesn't
describe it. Actually, when you think about
it, and I was studying this this week, of the great events of our Lord's
life, three great events, no specifics are given as to His
actual birth. I'm talking about when He was
actually born. I know we have some details about
that event. The shepherds were there and
we know that. We know that an angel of God
appeared to the shepherds and then the skies were filled with
angels and they all praised God. They announced the arrival of
the Son of God and the angel said to the shepherds, you'll
find Him in Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling clothes, but no
actual description, no details are given of His actual birth. We are only told this. He was
born. Hallelujah. Bless the name of
God. He gave His Son. Unto us a child
is born. Unto us a Son is given. Oh, how miraculous. Oh, how wonderful. Oh, how mysterious. God with
us. Emmanuel. That's His name. And
without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God
manifests in the flesh. That's what we are told. Thank God He was given. Thank
God He came into this world. I'm thankful for His birth, but
we're not given any details of it. To the shepherds who watched
their flocks by night, the angels said to them, Fear not, for behold,
I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,
which is Christ the Lord. This shall be a sign unto you.
You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in
a manger. And suddenly there was with the
angels a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will
toward men. John said, And the Word was made
flesh, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. But as to the specific details,
we are not told. I know some at Christmas time
sing, away in a manger. There is in that song these words,
the cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus,
no crying he makes. The Bible doesn't say that. The
Bible doesn't say he didn't cry. Babies cry. I know there's a
selfish cry that babies make, but there's also the cry of,
I need something to eat. I'm hungry. They have no other
way of communicating. Let's don't read into this what
we're not told. Let's don't go beyond the Word
of God. We get in a lot of trouble when
we go beyond the Word of God. You see the manger scenes, there's
the shepherds and there's the three wise men. Wait a minute. We're not told there were three.
And they couldn't have been there. Read Matthew chapter 2. They
couldn't have been there. They came later. They came later. Don't read into the Scriptures
what's not in the Scriptures. Lest you be guilty of adding
to the Word of God. And God said, I'll add plagues
to you. Don't you take away from my Word, don't you add to my
Word either. Just take the Word of God as
it is. As it is. I'll tell you something else
that we don't know much about. The Bible doesn't go into the
description of this. It's the actual soul sufferings
of our Savior on the cross. I know the Bible goes into detail
about his physical sufferings, how he was crowned with thorns,
the spittle in his face, the plucking out of his beard, and
so forth and so on, the spikes in his hands. But you know, when
God dealt with His only begotten Son in righteous indignation,
We're not told what happened. Because God blotted out the son
and no eye saw it. There are no eyewitnesses to
that. Turn over to Luke, just a page back in my Bible. Luke
23, 44. 23, 44. This is after our Lord had spoken to the Believing thief, verse 44, it
was about the sixth hour. There was a great darkness over
all the earth until the ninth hour. The sun was darkened. The veil of the temple was rent
in the midst. There was a darkness at Calvary
for three hours. One heathen philosopher who lived
in Egypt wrote, Either the divine being now suffereth,
or he sympathizes with one that suffereth. And he lived in Egypt. There's no question but what
this darkness spoke of the spiritual darkness of Israel. The Apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the
hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory,
which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they
known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Our Lord Jesus,
He came unto His own, John chapter 1 says this, and because they
were in spiritual darkness, His own received Him not. And certainly
the Lord dying in darkness speaks of that spiritual darkness and
speaks of our spiritual darkness. Who was He dying for? He was
dying for people who are spiritually ignorant. People who are in darkness. That's us. People who are in
error. People who are in ignorance.
People who are mired in sin's filth and wretchedness. But this darkness also tells
us of the secrecy of that event. When God punished God, we are not allowed to see what
happened. I know men bruised His body,
men crucified Him, men humiliated Him. That's what men did to him. But the Bible says it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He put his soul to grief. We
can't see that. We're not privy to that. And
that great transaction took place. And it was a great transaction.
You know what Calvary was? It was a payment of a debt. Our
Lord paid a debt He did not owe. He had not accumulated. He paid
it because that debt had been charged to Him, imputed to Him. He voluntarily took the debt
upon Himself, but He didn't run up the debt. That's our debt. And when it came time to pay,
He paid in absolute darkness so that no human eye saw that
transaction. And I warn you, don't delve into
the darkness. If God wanted you to know more,
if He wanted me to know more, He would have given us more information. We've got enough to make our
souls rejoice that He paid it all. Isn't that sufficient? Why
would we venture to go where angels can't even go? Why would
we venture to enter into the darkness that God has not described
in His Holy Word? He blooded out the Son for three
hours, and God the Father dealt with God the Son in absolute
vengeance, and wrath, and in anger, and in righteous indignation. Stay out of the darkness. Just
rejoice that it happened. I fear for those who would venture
into the darkness. Once again, you're going where
you ought not go. You're going where you ought
not go. Just receive by faith the fact
of it. The fact of it. By faith receive this declaration. Oh, it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He's put him to grief. He shall
see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. In the darkness
of Calvary, God said, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd
and against the man that is my fellow, my associate, my relative,
my equal. Smite the shepherd. The sheep
shall be scattered and I will turn mine hand upon the little
ones. I say don't attempt to delve
into the darkness and seek to explain that which must be received
by faith. But he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. That's enough for me. That's
enough for me. Our Lord Jesus died the just
for the unjust to bring us to God. And that was successful. That was successful bringing
us to God as is evidenced by the fact The veil of the temple
was rent in twain from top to bottom. Not from bottom to top. Man didn't do it. From the very
top to the bottom. God rent that veil. The way to
God is open. Come on sinner! Come on! You know in the Old Testament
that veil hung there. That inner veil. That separated
the holy place from the most holy place. And that veil as
it were said, no entrance! Absolutely you! You're intended! Keep out! That's what it said.
Keep out. But that veil, when our Lord
Jesus Christ died, it rent from top to bottom. Now, come on to
the Father by Jesus Christ the Lord. I don't care who you are. I don't care what you've done.
You say, I'm mired up in guilt and sin. Aren't we all? I'm such
a wretched person, aren't we all? We're not going to say,
no, you're not that bad. We're going to say, listen, you
don't know the half of it. We're going to say like the Queen
of Sheba said to Solomon, the half has not been told. We'll
say of our own depravity, the half has not been told. But you
come on to the Savior because of His beauty and of His glory
and of His forgiveness and of His righteousness, the half has
not been told of that either. We're just scratching the surface
of the glories of our Lord in His forgiven grace. Come on.
The way to God is open. Oh, that transaction happened.
It happened. But you stay out of the darkness.
That's just for God. Isn't that right? That's just
for God. You read John's account of the
crucifixion of our Lord. And you know, John's account,
actually his entire book that bears his name, you know, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, they're called the Synoptic Gospels because they're
mostly alike. You take the book of Mark, 93%
of the material in the book of Mark is repeated from either
Matthew or Luke, or is found in either Matthew or Luke. Mark
doesn't give us much information. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are a
lot alike, but the book of John is unique. It kind of stands
alone. And you know what John doesn't
mention? He doesn't mention the darkness. You know what John says? You
know what John records? that the Savior said, it is finished,
and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost. I'll just rejoice
in that. That's as far as I'll go to.
I'll just rejoice. I'll say the secret things of
the Lord belong to Him. The revealed things belong to
us and our children. I'll rejoice in what He did.
And then His resurrection. I know He who died for us arose. He conquered death. That shows
He conquered sin. That shows He conquered Satan. That shows He conquered every
enemy of His children. He arose. Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John all tell us that He who laid down His life for us,
He took that life again. John records the Savior as saying
this, No man taketh my life from me. I have the power to lay it
down. I have the power to take it again
or receive it again. This commandment have I received
from my Father. The resurrection. The adoption of the resurrection
is a fundamental article of the gospel. Without the resurrection,
we have no gospel. It's like without the death of
Christ, we have no gospel. And without the resurrection
of Christ, we have no gospel. In fact, you study the book of
Acts, and you'll find that much of the wrath and the hatred and
the persecution that came upon the apostles in the early church,
was because they preached Jesus and the resurrection. And you listen again to Peter's
message there on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. He talks about
that Jesus that you killed with your wicked hand. God raised
Him up. That's what Peter emphasizes.
God raised Him up. God raised Him up. Exalted Him. Gave Him a name which is above
every name. God's made him both Lord and
Christ. Well, this one was delivered
and crucified and risen again. Drop down there again in chapter
24. This is some of the final words of brother
Luke to us, at least in this book, because we also know Luke
wrote the book of Acts as well. But he says, this Luke records
this messenger from the Lord, this angel, as saying, as repeating
the words of the Savior and reminding these women in verse 7, the Son
of Man must be delivered. Now first of all, who delivered
Him? Well, the Father delivered Him to die. He was delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. That's
what we read in Acts chapter 2 and verse 23. He was delivered. Our Lord said in Mark 10.33,
Behold we go up to Jerusalem. It's what He told His disciples.
And the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and unto
the scribes, and shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver
him to the Gentiles. But who delivered him first?
God did. God did. God delivered His own
Son up to die that He might justify poor sinners. And then He was
delivered by the Jews to the Roman governor Pilate. God delivered
Him to the Jews. The Jews delivered Him to Pilate,
then Pilate delivered Him over to die. He delivered Him to the
Gentiles to be crucified. He was delivered and He was crucified. He must die. Notice the language
of the angel in verse 7. The Son of Man must be delivered
into the hands of men and be crucified. He must. Our Lord
told Nicodemus there in John chapter 3, as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but
have eternal life. He must be delivered. He must
die. And He must be crucified. He
must be crucified. If we're to live, He's got to
be crucified. Who was it? I believe it was
Rex Humbard. When that was last named, Humbard,
years ago? I think he owned some kind of
factory over here in Ohio. Made women's undergarments or
something. He should have stuck with that.
But he went over to Jerusalem and he said, if I'd been here,
I'd have put a stop to all that. They wouldn't have crucified
my Lord. What a fool. What a fool. He must be crucified. Oh, the Old Testament says he's
going to die. God's eternal purpose said He's going to die. All of
the prophets said He's going to die. He's got to be lifted
up. He must be crucified to save
us, to satisfy God's justice. And then He must rise again the
third day. It was ordained that He be delivered,
that He be crucified, and that He rise again the third day.
He arose. What is that song we sometimes
sing? I serve a risen Savior. He is in the world today. I know
that He is living. Whatever men may say, let them
say what they will. I see His hand of mercy. I know
He is with us always. The end of that song says, You
ask me how I know He lives. You know what the rest of the
song is? He lives within my heart. You ask me how I know He lives.
Because He said He lives. Because His Word says He lives.
I thank God He does live within my heart. But I know He lives
because God says He lives. And the reason He lives is this. He finished the work that God
gave Him to do. That's why He lives. And now
He ever lives to make intercession for His people. He's delivered. He's crucified. He's risen again. He's at the right hand of God
making intercession for His people.