Heart goes out to Bill Joyner,
who lost his mother on Friday evening. Bill, we're praying
for you and the rest of the family. To the 34 dead who died early
this morning in the bombings in Egypt and the Christian churches
at the hands of Muslim extremists. We pray for our brothers and
sisters in Egypt and those churches there. Luke 23, and when they were come to the place
which is called Calvary, there they crucified him and
the male factors, one on the right hand and the other on the
left. Many, many years ago, on what
we now call Palm Sunday. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on
the colt of an ass that had never been ridden on before. You know,
I just have a, I don't know, maybe
a sickly sense of humor, but I think if I had saw a man riding
on the coat of an ass that had never been ridden before, I would
be suspicious of this guy. Anyway, the crowd suspected that
he was going to set up his kingship, that he was going to be a revolutionary. And so they threw palm branches
in front of him as he rode down the street and cried, Hosanna,
Hosanna, King of the Jews. Their thoughts were not right.
They were not worshiping him as King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. They were looking for a temporal
king who would run the Romans out of town and take over for
the Jewish people. It only took four days, let's
see, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
only six days for this fickle bunch to decide he wasn't Hosanna,
king of the Jews, he ought to be crucified because he was a
blasphemer. How fickle religion is. Today, I want to speak to you
on this subject. What means this cross? Today,
we will visit the holiest spot on earth. So holy that it calls for us
to take off our shoes because we are on holy ground like Moses
at the burning bush. The seven wonders of the world
cannot match this place. the place of the skull, the hill
Mount Calvary, Golgotha. Think of it, where God in human
flesh was crucified. No greater transaction would
ever take place. No greater accomplishment would
ever take place than what would be accomplished this day. A place where an event happened
that would never be repeated again. A happening so monumentous, so
sacred that the sun refused to shine for three hours on Good
Friday. When I was a boy, I worked at
Van Dyke Clothiers, nine mile in Van Dyke. It was owned by
Jewish people, the Ross family. And on Good Friday at 12 o'clock, we closed Van Dyke Clothiers
until three. And I, being a Christian, even
wondered somewhat, what was that all about? I look forward to
getting off for three hours with pay. There's a lot of confusion,
really, and lack of understanding about this business of the cross,
about the crucifixion of Christ. On Good Friday, that day when
he was nailed to the cross, the sun refused to shine. There was
a noon day, midnight blackness that fell over the whole earth
for three hours. In my mind, I can see the cattle
all herded up as if a storm was about to take place. This was
a mystery. Three hours of darkness from
12 to three. History records the heathen philosophers
saying, deity suffers today or the world is coming to an end. Within three days, the earth
would be shaken like a baby's toy and the veil of the temple
rent from top to bottom. Strange things. Actually, I hope
when you leave here today, you'll have a greater understanding
of the cross and crucifixion. Because right here, right here
in the cross is the purpose of God. Here is the sum and substance
of the gospel. You miss the cross, you miss
heaven. Here, death would be put to death
in the death of Christ. Our spiritual death would be
put to death in his doing and dying. I know I'm talking now
in deep stuff. You who were dead in sins and
trespasses, dead to God, inactive toward God, totally depraved
and without hope, In order for you to be put to life and me
to be put to life and given life and given abundant life and have
our sins removed, he must, in his doing and dying, take our
place. And that's the heart of the message.
Hopefully today, after the service, you will leave here saying, God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross. So you give up
your Catholicism, you give up your Bapticism and all of your
glory in your religion. You give it up, you lay it down
and say, I counted all dung that I may win Christ and be found
in Christ. And that you're able to say today,
on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. I hope you leave here saying
today, I'm determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and
him crucified for the salvation of my soul. Hopefully today you'll
be able to sing. In the cross, in the cross be
my glory. Till my raptured soul rest beyond the river. That was so beautiful. And spontaneous. And what brings
me tremendous joy, tears of joy today is that you could sing
it. I didn't have to prompt you. Crucifixion. I don't know how
much you know about crucifixion, but crucifixion is a historical
method of capital punishment. And the Romans were noted for
that. in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden
beam and left to hang for several days until eventually death from
exhaustion and asphyxiation occurs. Expiration due to the inability
to continue to breathe properly. It's from the word crucifixion
that we get the word excruciating. Excruciating. Never in the eons
of time will any one man suffer the excruciating pain of the
man Christ Jesus, because he alone can suffer hell and triumph,
and that he did. So very briefly, Let's look at
the cross today. First of all, from the human
perspectives, what was going on 2000 years ago? How did all
of this come to pass from the human perspective? What means
this cross? Well, first of all, to the Jews
who hated the Romans and hated Roman rule, Christ was a blasphemer. He claimed to be God. Do you
realize that your Savior is God? Salvation is of the Lord. And
Jesus really made no bones about it. He said to Philip, Philip,
if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. I and my Father are
one, Jesus said. John 10, 33. The Jews said this
to Christ, for a good work we stone thee not. They were going
to stone him. But you'll find out they did
not stone him and it was never going to happen. He wasn't going
to die from stoning. But because that thou being a
man, make us thyself God. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe he was God in human
flesh. I believe that he is my savior, my redeemer, my propitiation. And it's well with my soul because
of him. They were always, these Jewish
religious folks, always remember that, that it was religious folks
that killed Jesus. You addicts who are here today
and You're without Christ today. I don't want to give you too
much sympathy, but I want to tell you, it wasn't the whores,
the harlots, and the drug addicts that killed Jesus. It was a bunch
of religious folks. And they're still trying to do
away with Jesus. They'll put anything in front
of Jesus. They add to Jesus. But I tell
you today, it is Jesus alone. It is Christ alone that we're
saved. Always trying to downgrade him.
Oh, yes. Oh, yes, you have to believe
in Jesus But you have to be baptized you have to join the Catholic
Church the Baptist Church the Presbyterian Church I got in
so much trouble as a young preacher because I just eliminated all
denominations Isn't it the height of haughtiness
how our churches name ourselves we're Church of God Really? Well, you ought to be but don't be boasting in your
name. We're the church of God in Christ. You should be, but
don't be boasting in your name. Amen. The church saves nobody. I mean, you won't have any trouble.
We are Grace Gospel Fellowship, but if you look around, what
a motley crew we are here. We could not save ourselves.
We were helpless and hopeless. So, now the plot thickens. They've
been plotting for months, and you read Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John, and you will find these Pharisees and Sadducees who hated
one another, but they go together to kill Jesus. And they're constantly
plotting, we'll get him when he comes to Jerusalem. We'll
set a trap for him. He's a heretic. But the fact
is, that the Jewish Pharisees and Sadducees, they were ruled
by Rome, by the Romans. And they could not kill anybody. They could not stone anybody
without permission from the Roman government. So what had to happen
back then is these Jews had to find a way to get the Romans
to okay the killing of Jesus. So they plotted and planned and
schemed, and they used this argument. He says he's a king. Oh, then
let's tell the Roman leaders he's a political guy. He's coming
to overthrow Rome. And that way we can get Romans
on our side and we'll bring a charge against him. Not simply he blasphemes,
calling himself God, because the Romans were such heathens,
they didn't care whether he said he was God or not. They thought
he was wacko. And kind of we have the two kinds
of people today who think God come to earth, born of a virgin.
We're smarter than that. And so we have that whole political
thing that denies and does its best to keep Jesus out of government. I want Jesus brought into government.
I'm not a separation of church and state guy. Amen. And so they began to talk this
way to the Roman leaders. He says he's king. And you remember,
even over his cross, they put he's king of the Jews. They put
he's king of the Jews. They didn't put, he says he's
king of the Jews, but you know, he was king of the Jews and the
Gentiles. He's king of kings and lord of
lords. He's sovereign. Religion must always find a way
to murder Jesus. Get rid of Jesus. You say, well,
pastor, I just don't see that. Well, just look. Wherever you
go to church, if you don't come here, wherever you go to church,
give your church the acid test. Is it Christ? Is it Christ alone? Is it plain? Is it clear that
He's the propitiation for sin, that He died on the cross for
sinners, that He shed His blood, that He's the substitute, that
He's the Lamb of God, that salvation is in Him and Him alone. So they bring Jesus up before
Pilate and they start making this claim. And you know, Pilate
was a much nicer guy than the Pharisees. Pilate said, I'll
tell you what I'm gonna do for you guys. I'm gonna give him
a good beating, but I need to talk to him first. Okay, I'll
talk to him. Are you a king then? Whatever you say. Jesus said,
you say I'm a king. He didn't say he wasn't a king.
Pilate goes, what is truth? And the Bible says that Pilate
was troubled about this whole thing. Troubled about this. He didn't want to put him to
death. And Pilate's wife, you remember, said to Pilate, don't
have anything to do with this. And you remember the story of
Pilate after he finally gave in, The Bible says he went and began
to wash his hands. Do you know today, over 2,000
years later, Pilate's still washing his hands in hell? Get it off. Get it off. The blood of an innocent
man. Take it away. Take it away. Say,
I didn't find that in Scripture. Well, I might have added a little
bit there. Pilate knew there was something
different about this man. And so to satisfy these Jewish
religious people, he said, okay, we're going to give him a good
beating. And they did. And many of you have seen the
film. You saw the beating, right? You've seen it. What an awful
beating it was. At the end of those whips, they
had pieces of bone that cut the flesh. And Jesus, God in human flesh,
humanly speaking, had little strength to carry his own cross
because of that beating. It was horrible. It was horrible. Pilate said, I find no fault
in him. Oh, how true that is. No fault in Jesus. You do know
this, that the one they put on the middle cross had no sin,
thought no sin, did no sin. He was the sinless one. He must be sinless, born of a
virgin. You see, you had to have someone
to take your place who was without sin. I find no fault in him. So they beat him, and then Pilate
said, let's let him go. And then the Pharisees began
to do this to the people. Pieces of silver, cry crucify. Read the gospels, they paid people,
cry crucify, say crucify, crucify him. And so when Pilate would
have let him go, they began to cry out, crucify him. Pilate said, you know what? You
know, it's my custom to release to you anybody you want released.
So I could release him according to your own customs. No, release
Barabbas, the crook. the murderer, release him and
crucify Jesus. You know, this whole thing makes
no sense, humanly speaking. How can people be so vile, so
depraved, one who has no fault in him, one who is without spot
or blemish, one who is pure and holy and good and just, and yet
religion cries out, crucify him. What means the cross in all of
this? And then, now here we are, the
Easter bunny comes along and lays eggs, which adds to the
whole confusion of children not understanding anything about
Easter except candy, chocolate, rabbits that lay eggs. How many
of you understand rabbits don't lay eggs? And so somehow or another, our
children move on past. By the way, have you noticed?
Have you noticed how the world comes up with something like
Easter eggs? And how about Christmas? And Santa Claus? What happened
to the birth of Christ in the stable of Bethlehem where Emmanuel,
God, tabernacled among us? deemphasizing this great gospel
truth that God has come to earth, not to spy out our sins, but
to deliver us from our sins. Amen. This is going to be so simple.
Let me just go back a ways and read a passage of scripture to
you. We've seen the human side of it, Pilate, the Jews, the
thing about him proclaiming himself to be God, blaspheming, we've
seen that, and how the Jewish got the Roman leaders to condemn
him to death by crucifixion. Let's look at God at work. That's
what, this is what we need to see. We need to get past this
thing of the Jews and the Romans and what all was taking place.
And here's a passage of scripture, it's Acts 2.23. Him. There they crucified Him, Luke
says. There they crucified Him. Him who? Him being delivered
by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. Oh! You mean this crucifixion was
not an accident? You mean that God actually ordained
everything that happened on Good Friday and Saturday and Sunday. You mean this was the plan of
God. You mean he couldn't be stoned because God had predetermined
for him to be crucified on a cross. That's right. That's right. I don't know what happened when
I was a kid. In church, we used to hear a lot about blood, about
without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin.
We used to sing, there's power in the blood, wonder-working
power. Pow-pow power in the blood of
the Lamb. We used to sing it, wonder-working
power in the blood of the Lamb. Him being delivered by the determinant
counsel. You have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. You meant it for evil, but God
meant it for good. This was all planned and purposed
and ordained by the Lord God of heaven. And His purpose shall
not fail, and his purpose shall not falter. God designed this. Jesus Christ didn't come into
the world to give everybody a chance. He came into the world to save
somebody. And if you are here today and
can say, I know him, I am saved, it's because over 2,000 years
ago, he paid your debt. He paid your debt. Those of you with guns, don't
get your guns out. Guillory's just throwing shoes
up here. This purpose of God shall not
fail nor falter. He said, well, pastor, you mean
all of this was planned? Yeah. All you have to do is go
back to the garden. And God began to say things like
this, I'm gonna send somebody that's going to give the snake's
head a stomping. And the Bible says that Cain
brought to God the works of his own hands and God rejected it,
but Abel killed a lamb and brought a bloody sacrifice. What was
God saying? There is a Lamb coming who is
the Lamb of God who's going to shed His blood on the tree of
the cross. Oh, go back to the two turtle
doves. In the book of Leviticus, the
priest got two turtle doves, both of them were white. One
of them, he wringed the neck of the turtle dove and let the
blood go in the basin. He took the other white dove
and he dipped it in the blood of the sacrificial dove and then
turned that white dove away, signifying that Jesus Christ
would come and by His blood, take our sins away and put sin
away. Go back to the two scapegoats
in the book of Numbers and Leviticus. Two goats, one was to be killed
on the head of the other and they confessed the sins. The
blood of the one goat taken into the holies of holies and there
sprinkled on the mercy seat. The mercy seat was that golden
box where inside was the broken law of God that cried out for
justice. Up on top of that box was the
mercy seat. And the high priest would go
into the holies of holy and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat. Between the crying out of the
law in the box for justice, there was a mercy seat. They call it
the propitiation, the appeasing factor. Jesus Christ is our mercy
seat. Between us and the broken law
of God, there is a mercy seat and the sprinkling of his blood. On the other goat, the high priest
would confess all the sins of the people, and then with a rope
around his neck, they would find a fit man who would take that
live goat, with all the sins confessed on the live goat, and
lead him out into the wilderness. There he goes. I can plainly
see him, but now he's getting further. and further and further
away until finally He will remove our sins, hallelujah, as far
as the east is from the west, never to be remembered against
us anymore. How about Abraham and Isaac?
Abraham, take your son, your only son up on Mount Moriah,
and there offer him on the altar as a sacrifice. Isaac and Abraham
got up there on Mount Moriah, and Isaac's having a little problem
here. He sees the altar, he sees the
wood, he sees the fire, his hands are tied behind his back, and
he goes, Father, I see all of this, but where's
the sacrifice?" And Abraham said, God will provide Himself the
sacrifice. God Himself the sacrifice. Isaac and Abraham looked and
there was a ram caught in the thicket, a substitute, and Isaac
didn't have to die because there was a substitute. That's the
message of the Bible. How about when the children of
Israel were bit by snakes, and God said, take a brazen serpent,
put it up on a pole, and everybody who looks will live. Look and
live, that's the message of the Bible. Look to Jesus Christ,
trust Jesus Christ, and you will live and have life and have it
more abundantly. Let me read something to you
from Isaiah 53. These thoughts just come to mind.
Isaiah 53, 4. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. Oh, we saw him smitten, stricken.
We saw him crucified. He must have done something bad.
I had a deacon tell me once when Pam had the car wreck, He was
telling the other people in the church, pastor must have done
something bad. Pam had the car wreck and his
little boy was killed. He must have done something bad.
The next week his house burnt down. Don't look at me that way. I didn't set his house on fire. When something bad happens, people
are prone to say, ah, you must have been doing something. And
they said that of Christ. Oh, he's crucified. Must have
been something wrong there. God would never have permitted
that. So we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. We thought God was smiting him
for something he did. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities
and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes
we are healed. Isaiah 53 he shall see of the
travail of his soul. He shall see of the sufferings
of his soul soul Sufferings never has a soul ever died and lived
Except one time he shall see the sufferings of his soul our
death was put to death at Calvary by Jesus Christ God made him
to be sin for us. Don't you understand, honey,
that all of your screwing up mess ups, don't you understand
that God sent his only begotten son into the world to die in
your room instead and place for everyone who will believe on
him and trust him. No wonder we clap here. No wonder
we raise our hands. No wonder we are a happy people
because Jesus has taken our sins away. 2,000 years ago, God invaded history,
came down to this earth. There was no way for you to go
to heaven. There was no way for you to get forgiveness of sins.
There is nothing that you could do. And then Jesus came. God, oh, the wonder of it. The great planning of this God. Somebody say, I don't like that
predestinating God. Oh, thank God for predestination. Thank God that he's right in
the middle of all of this, that he planned and plotted and schemed
to save me, a Detroit alley rat or cat. Just doing my own thing. Some of you lived in the hood
and the crack house and have been shooting up for years. And
then Jesus came. I'm about to burst with joy on
the inside. What an awesome gospel this is. What a glorious truth. You ever
thought about this? You know, it's not like God to
forsake His own. God didn't forsake Daniel in
the lion's den. God didn't forsake Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. But on that dark
and dreary day, and Friday afternoon God turned His back on His own
Son. God took out His black snake
whip of justice and began to punish Him not for His sins but
for yours... for mine. And God beat Him. and beat him until justice was
satisfied. God is a God of justice. When
you get to heaven, you will be there justly because somebody
paid your debt. Somebody rendered satisfaction. And he cried, it's finished.
It's accomplished. It's done. It is well with my
soul. My sin, all the bless of this
glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole is nailed
to his cross and I bear it no more. It is well, it is well
with my soul. He is just. God is just and justifier
of the ungodly. Say, but pastor, I did it. God
knows you did it. God knows you did it. and God
took your sins and transferred them to Jesus Christ. God imputed
your sin on Jesus. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Here was a sinless God-man and
God began to impute your sins. Just take your own sin, not everybody
in here, just take your own. Individually, just take your
sins from the time you were born up until today. and watch God
take them. That's supposed to be imputation.
God is imputing them to Jesus Christ on Calvary. They're being
imputed. They're all there. They're being
from your birthday to your death day and even your depraved nature. It's all there. Imputation. And now God takes his righteousness
and begins to impute His righteousness to you, until finally you are
without fault or blemish or any such thing. When you stand before
God, you stand there without spot or wrinkle. Amen. You know, when Miss Pam had the
heart attack, And I was trying to explain to her, she said,
what happened to me? In the hospital, I was trying
to tell her when she finally came to, you had a heart attack. You had a heart attack. And she'd
take that hospital gown, she'd look at her chest and she'd go,
I didn't have a heart attack. She was looking, you know, for
evidence that she'd been cut open, right? When you get to
heaven, you're not going to see spot or wrinkle. There's not
going to be any evidence that you were ever a sinner. Only
complete righteousness. Say, but pastor, I fornicated,
I've used, I've cheated, I've lied, I've stolen. I know, I
know. And those of you who say different
are liars. I know we're all sinners. I know. But Jesus paid it all. All the
debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. This
is the message of the Bible. What means this cross? It means
salvation. It means justification. It means
imputed righteousness. It means not guilty. Hallelujah. It means no condemnation. None. Zero. To those that are
in Christ Jesus. Let's stand and praise them.