Our lesson this morning is found
in Matthew chapter 17. I want to spend the whole of
our time this morning on just two verses of Scripture. Matthew 17 beginning with verse
22. Now this is after that the disciples
had been on the Mount of Transfiguration and after They came down and
found that they could not cast out that demon, and the Lord
cast it out. And now we pick up the story. And while they abode at Galilee,
Jesus said unto them, The Son of Man shall be betrayed into
the hands of men, and they shall kill Him. And the third day he
shall be raised again." And they were exceeding sorry. I titled the lesson this morning,
Are You Sorry Christ Died? They were when they first heard
it. They were sorry. Because it went
against everything they believed. His death. His death. How do you feel about the death
of Christ? When you read about it in the
Scriptures, or when you hear His death proclaimed, how do
you feel about that? How do you feel about the death
of Christ? What does it mean to you? How does it affect your faith?
How do we view the death of Christ? Now, what he had just told them
is the very heart of the gospel. The very heart of the gospel.
And it's so important for us to understand this. Turn with
me to I Corinthians chapter 15. The gospel is a person. It's
not about an earthly kingdom. It's not about our lives on this earth. It may
be in some respect, but not altogether. It's about a person. The gospel,
the good news of God to sinful men is concerning his son. The gospel is a person. It's
not an invitation or a decision. I've been told that since I was
this high. Not in so many words, but just
in how they preached and what they did. It's not trying to reform society. I thought that's what gospel
preaching was all about, trying to reform society, trying to
clean up the dregs, trying to clean up the drunks and the adulterers
and the thieves and murderers and that type of thing. I thought
that's what the gospel ministry was all about. It's not trying
to change national policy. It's not the church's place in
this world to change national policy by their influence. and so on. It's not trying to
get somebody to do something for Jesus, which is what's being
preached in nearly every pulpit in this country. It's the person
and work of Jesus Christ. Now listen here, as I read these
Scriptures to you, as Paul defines the Gospel. I Corinthians 15,
verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the Gospel. I'm going to declare to you the
gospel. This is the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand,
by which also you shall be saved, if you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain." Folks get the idea that the gospel
is some kind of universal personal interpretation, that it means
something different to everybody. He could not make the statements
that he just made here if that were so. These were definite
statements. He said, I preached something
to you, I declared it to you, you received it, and you'll be
saved if you keep in memory what I said. That don't sound General
to me. That sounds specific. Now listen
to what he says. Verse 3, For I delivered unto
you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the Scriptures. The death of Christ
is according to the Scriptures. It's not what you think. Not
what you feel. It may not even be what you've
experienced, but it's according to the Scriptures. And that he
was buried, and that he rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures. Now, when he said this, there
was no New Testament. Have you ever thought about that?
What he's telling them here is that the death of Christ is according
to the Old Testament Scriptures. And his burial and his resurrection
is according to the Old Testament Scriptures. The appearance of
the promised Redeemer, his life, his death, and his resurrection,
as I said before, is the very heart of the Gospel. But these
men were so set in their traditional understanding about the Kingdom
of God and the coming Messiah that they could not enter into
what he was telling them. John, in their mind, the kingdom
of God was Israel. The kingdom of God was a national
thing. The kingdom of God was a king
like David, a natural king that was going to appear in this world,
and they were going to deliver Israel out from underneath this
Roman bondage, and establish again Israel in this world, and
raise them up in power and glory. Do you know the religion today
is still saying the same thing? They sure are. They're talking,
before the end of time, God's going to take the nation of Israel
and they're going to raise them up. That's what these men thought. And they missed it. They missed
it. They were so set in their traditional
understanding about the Kingdom of God and the coming Messiah
that they just couldn't enter in to what He plainly declared
to them. He declared this three times
to them. Three times! And yet, on the road to Emmaus,
after the death of Christ and His resurrection, they were still
confused and still couldn't enter into that understanding. The
gospel of our Lord's person and work is entirely based on the
writings of the Old Testament Scriptures. If He did not fulfill
everything concerning the promised Messiah as it was set forth in
the Old Testament, then He is not the Christ. He's a pretender. He's an imposter, which is exactly
what Israel said he was. In Psalm 16, verses 9-11, you
don't have to turn over there, but this is a prophecy of the
resurrection of Christ. How do I know that? Because in
Acts 2, verses 29-32, that's how the Holy Spirit interpreted
the verse. in Peter's message at Pentecost. He said, David said this, but
he didn't say it concerning himself. He said it according to the resurrection
of Christ. And I don't know of any clearer
text than Isaiah 53 that can be found anywhere concerning
the death of the Son of God. Can you? All the way through
there, he tells you exactly what the Son of God would suffer.
But Paul's meaning here in 1 Corinthians 15 goes a little further than
a few choice passages. He's not just talking about a
passage here and there applying to the death of Christ. He's
talking about the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures that
concern the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The whole
of the Old Testament. Turn with me to Acts chapter
10. Acts chapter 10. From the book of Genesis to the
book of Malachi, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is
the message of God's book. Now watch this here in Acts 10
beginning with verse 38. Now he's talking here about the
gospel of Christ that began to be published by John the Baptist. He came on the scene broke tradition
altogether, began to take these Old Testament scriptures concerning
the priesthood and the sacrifices and all these things, and began
to make straight the way, began to show them how Christ was going
to come and fulfill all these things. How God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth, He says here, with the Holy Ghost and with power,
who went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the
devil, for God was with him." Verse 39, and we are witnesses
of all these things which he did both in the land of the Jews
and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him, God
raised the third day and showed him openly. Not to all people,
but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat
and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded
us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he
which was ordained of God to be judge of quick and dead. To
him, now listen, give all the prophets witness. that through
His name, whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission
of sin." This is what the Old Testament prophets, this is what
the law, the whole of the ceremonial law, all of these things in the
Old Testament was a setting forth of the death of Christ. And by
His coming into the flesh and His perfect obedience, His suffering
and death, and His resurrection, God has established the only
foundation upon which ungodly men can be saved. And it was
so in that day, and it's so in this day. That's what he's telling
you. Neither, he said, is there salvation
in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. I want to give you three
things this morning, if time will allow me. that constitute
some understanding about the death of Christ. Now, we could
go on and on and on for weeks because everything, everything
has to do with his death. But I want to give you three
things this morning, three fundamental facts about the gospel that all
believers need to know in their hearts. And the first thing is
that the death of Christ is absolutely necessary. Absolutely necessary. You're not going to be saved
apart from the blood of Christ. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous
to think that the living God, as He has declared Himself in
the Scriptures, and sinful man, as He describes him in the Scriptures,
can be reconciled together apart from the death of Christ. Sin
is what separates us from God. That's the problem, our sins. And sin is not so much what we
do, although we do things every day, but sin is what we are. We're in such a sorry state that
we can't do anything but sin. We sin when we pray. We sin when
we shave. We sin when we sit and eat. We
sin all the time. Out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts. Anybody here can control that?
What about a temper? Huh? Go off like a stick of dynamite,
usually over nothing. There can be no reconciliation,
no favor, no blessings apart from the death of Christ. Now
turn with me to Romans chapter 3. There's a term we need to get
to know. It's a biblical term. And this
is a term which I remained ignorant of most of my life. As far as
I can remember, I never heard it read from the pulpit the whole
time. And it's the key word, the very
key word to the gospel of Christ. But I was totally ignorant of
it. I never heard the word. I had
to look it up in the dictionary to see what it meant. And that
word is propitiation. It's a biblical term. And it's
used three times in the New Testament, once in Romans chapter 3, and
twice in the book of 1 John. I want to read all three places
to you this morning. And here in Romans, the word
slightly varies from the word in 1 John. It's the same subject. It's talking about the same thing.
But here in Romans, it's talking specifically about the person.
And in 1 John, it's talking about that person and what he accomplished. Here in Romans, it has directly
to do with the expiator. Anybody here know what it means
to expiate? What that word means? It means
to accomplish atonement. atonement by an expiator. To expiate means to appease or
satisfy. Now here in Romans 3 verse 24,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus, that is the price demanded for our
sins. whom God has set forth to be
an expiator to appease and satisfy God, a propitiation. Through
faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission
of sins. God is not going to compromise
His righteousness to save anybody. He can't save anybody. by compromising his character. He can't do it. Just like he
can't lie, contrary to his nature. And he says here that he did
these things to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past. through the forbearance of God.
Now, he's not talking about your past sins. He's talking about
when God set forth this propitiation was in the Old Testament. And
all through there, men of faith looked at this expiator, this
substitute that was set forth, this propitiation. They looked
forward to that, to the coming Redeemer. When they saw that
lamb, and his throat slit, and his flesh on the fire, and his
blood carried in by the high priest, they looked forward to
that coming redeeming. All who believed did. Now, there
was a ton of them. It was just a ceremony. But those
who believed, God set him forth. And that's what Paul's saying
here. And he goes on to say, I say it this time, the same
thing, at this time. his righteousness, that he might
be just and justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Now,
turn with me to I John, chapter 1. Our sins cannot be put away by
our good intentions, or pledges, or sacrifices of any kind. Our conscience tells us we're
guilty. That's why every nation throughout
history, I don't care how remote it is, they all worship some
kind of a God and they all offer some kind of a sacrifice. They're
trying to appease that guilty conscience. But no sacrifice
can appease that conscience until God be appeased, because God
is the one who gave you that conscience. When he's appeased,
he will appease that conscience. Now watch this here in 1 John
1, verse 7. If we walk in the light as He
is the light, we have fellowship one with another. We are all
fellers in the same ship. That is what fellowship means.
Fellers in the same ship. We are all in the same mess.
We are all saved the same way by the same grace before the
same God. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. If we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word's not in us. My little children,
these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any
man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous, that is, pleading for us, His righteous obedience. And He is the propitiation, the
way established to appease God for our sins, and not for ours
only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Now if you look
in your Bible, you'll notice the words, the sins of, is kind
of written a little funny in there. Is it that way in your
Bible? It's written different. It's in a different text. You
know why? Because the translators inserted
those words to make it read smoother. And sometimes it makes it read
smoother and sometimes it changes the whole meaning. If you lift
those words out and see what that says. He is the propitiation
for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the whole world. Now what's He saying there? He's
saying that there is no other propitiation. This propitiation
not only is set up for the Jews, they were the only ones who sacrificed
the Lamb, were the Jews. Other people offer different
sacrifices. What John is saying to these
Gentile people is that this propitiation, this Lamb of which God set forth,
He is the propitiation not just for sins of the Jews, but for
the sins of all God's people, wherever they are, throughout
the world. And then in 1 John 4, verse 10,
he said, herein is love, not that we love God, but that He
loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. In Hebrews 9, verse 22, talking
about the patterns and types of Christ set forth under the
ceremonial priesthood, Paul said, and almost all things are by
the law purged, made clean, washed, made white, with the blood, and
without the shedding of blood is no remission. The death of
Jesus Christ was absolutely, positively necessary to the saving
of their souls, but they didn't understand that. They thought
this death was senseless. Now, just a few short verses
before this there in Matthew, you remember Peter told the Lord,
he said, not so, not so, when the Lord said he had to go and
he had to die and he had, oh, no, no, no, no, no. What did
the Lord tell him? Get behind me, Satan. You don't understand the things
of God. That's what he told him. And
he still didn't. He still didn't. They were totally ignorant of
the death of Christ and its necessity to appease God. And then secondly,
the death of Christ, as it's set forth in the Old Testament
Scriptures, is substitutionary. No sooner had Adam fell in the
garden than the Lord came to him and slayed a lamb. I'm talking
about right after the fall, the same day that evening. Before
darkness fell upon him, the Lord came to him and He slayed a lamb. And He took from that lamb a
covering and covered their nakedness. Covered what they couldn't cover
up. Covered what the fig leaves couldn't cover up. The Lord covered
them. Covered them with a covering
taken from that slain lamb. Substitutionary. In the offering
of Abel and Cain, Abel brought a substitutionary sacrifice,
one to die in his stead. And Cain brought the works of
his hands and the pride of his life, and he offered it up to
God. And God had respect under Abel, under his sacrifice. But under Cain, he had no respect. God spit on it. You remember
our study in Genesis when I told you? God spit on it. had no respect
to it. When God established His ways
in Israel and laid the foundation for the coming Redeemer, He set
forth the Lamb as a substitutionary sacrifice. That is, their sins
by the decree of God were laid upon His Son of whom this Lamb
was typical. Read about it in Hebrews 9. And
this Lamb was then treated as the sinner. He was slain before
God and His flesh burned with fire and His blood poured out
on the mercy seat. And listen to me, that priest
that offered him up, that offered that sacrifice, he took that
sacrifice into where the common priest could not go. He went
into that holy of holies, which was but a picture of the holiest
of all. You can read all this whole thing
in Hebrews chapter 9. I don't have to expound on it.
It tells you exactly what it means. Tells you exactly what
that old priesthood stood for and that lamb and how Christ
fulfilled it. And that priest stood there and
you know what? He had the names of those whom
this sacrifice was to be offered on his shoulders and written
over his heart. And the Lord told him to do that
and to put that on his dress. when he went in under that veil
to bear them up before God. To bear who up? Those whose names
were on his shoulder and on his heart. You cannot have a substitutionary
sacrifice that is universal. That's an impossibility. By the
bare nature of it being a substitute declares that this sacrifice
was particular. This whole world this morning
is trying to preach a substitute who died for all men, and yet
all men are not benefited by the sacrifice. It's ridiculous. The very nature of a substitute
is to stand in someone's stead. Is that not right? Now you read
2 Corinthians chapter 5, and you try to apply that to a universal
atonement, and it won't fit. It won't fit. The Lamb was not
just a general offering for the world and for the unbelieving
heathen, but for the Israel of God. And if His death is the
death of a substitute, then His death by its nature alone makes
it particular. Our Lord said this over in John
chapter 10, I think it's verse 11. He said, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth His
life for the sheep. And then he goes on talking to
them, and they get upset with him, and they said, if thou be
the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you. He said,
but you believe not because you're not of my sheep. You're not of my sheep. My sheep
hear my voice. I already told you that. Hebrews chapter 9 tells us in
verse 7 that into the second, that is the holy of holies, went
the high priest once every year, not without blood, which he offered
for himself and for the heirs of the people. The Holy Ghost
thus signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not
yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was yet standing.
It was a figure for the time then present in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the
service perfect as pertaining to the conscience. It stood in
meats and drinks and divers' washings and carnal ordinances
imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ being
come a high priest of good things to come by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not
of this building, Neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place."
Now listen, having obtained eternal redemption for us. He obtained what God had purposed
before the world was. So the death of Christ, 100%
necessary. The death of Christ is substitutionary,
which makes it particular. And then the third thing is that
the death of Christ was sacrificial. It's sacrificial. God told Abraham
to take his son up on the mountain. This is the promised son. This
is the heir. This is the covenant son in whom
all the blessings of God rested. You take him up there and you
carve him up and throw him on a pile of wood and offer him
up a burnt offering unto God. Why on earth would God tell a
man to do such a thing? For us to know that this lamb
was not just a lamb. This lamb was the darling son
of God. This sacrifice is exactly that,
sacrificial. Sacrificial. This is not just
a legal transfer of righteousness and sin. This is the giving of
the Son of God. It's sacrificial. It costs. It costs. What is its cost? Eternity won't exhaust our understanding
of what expiation of sin costs God. In a wrong view, I'm telling
you this, these disciples were confused and troubled until the
resurrected Christ came and showed them by the Old Testament Scriptures
that He must suffer these things and enter into His glory. And
a wrong view of the death of Christ leads to confusion about
everything. If you don't have a right view
of the death of Christ, you can forget a right view of the Kingdom
of God. You see what I'm saying? Here's
where man has went amiss. He don't understand the death
of Christ. My brother-in-law came to me
one day and he said, so you all believe that just certain men
are going to be saved and the rest of them can't be saved? And I said, well, before we get
into that, I said, let's get into this. Why did Christ die? Let's go there first. What did
he accomplish in his death? Let's get back to the death of
Christ and see. Let's get a right understanding
here, and then we'll come over here and talk about election.
And election won't bother you one bit. It'll straighten itself
out when your view on the death of Christ gets straight. That's
what caused all their confusion. That's what caused Peter to say
to the Lord, no, not so. That's what caused all the confusion. That's what caused the sorrow
that filled their heart. A right understanding of the
death of Christ won't make you sorry. Huh? It'll make you glad. I'm glad He died. I'm glad He
died. And I'm glad the Lord raised
Him from the dead and raised me with Him.