I've entitled the message for
this evening, Three Crosses. Three Crosses. On Golgotha's Hill, there were
three crosses. How many times when you are driving
on the highway do you find places where you see three crosses up?
Happens quite frequently. And it's supposed to refer to
the three crosses that were on Golgotha's Hill. Nailed to the
center cross was the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. What an appropriate name, the
Lord of Glory. On his right hand and on his
left hand were two thieves, malfactors. That means evil doers. And if all we had was Matthew
and Mark's account, we would conclude that upon death, both
of these men woke up in hell. They were both wicked men, they
were both criminals, and they were both reviling Christ. Look
down in verse 32 of Mark chapter 15. Let Christ, the King of Israel,
descend now from the cross that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified
with him, both of them, reviled him. They spewed out their hatred
of Him. If you're the Christ, what blasphemy? If you're the Christ, come down
and save yourself and save us. Now, these two men, and we know
from Luke's account that I just read that the Lord saved one
of these men. He went up unsaved in his experience. When he was nailed to a cross,
he was not a saved individual at that time, but he would be. And so in these two men, the
thieves, we have the two representative men. And me and you are one of
these two men. This is how God sees me. This is how God sees you at this
time as one of these two representative men. And I think that we can
easily call these two representative men, one, the righteous, the
other, the wicked. That's the only kind of two people
there are, righteous or wicked, in God's sight. Righteous or
wicked. God either sees me as altogether
righteous, without fault, without sin. perfect in his sight, or
sees me as altogether wicked, and nothing else. Now those are
the two kinds of men, the righteous and the wicked. And every time
I mention the righteous and wicked, I feel the need to say this.
All the righteous, without exception, believe themselves to be wicked.
And all of the wicked, with that exception, believe themselves
to at least have some ability to be righteous, even if they're
not righteous. I mean, there are men who are obviously wicked
criminals, perpetrators of great crimes, but they think, I have
the potential to be righteous if I turn things around. That's
the same thing, the righteous and the wicked, the saved and
the lost, the sheep and the goats. Look, I'm gonna read this from
Matthew 25. Two men, one on his right hand
and one on his left. Verse 31, and when the son of
man shall come in his glory and all his holy angels with him,
then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him
shall be gathered all nations. Everybody to ever live is going
to be at this great gathering. That's a solemn thing to think
of. I mean, you're gonna be there.
I mean, you're gonna be there. And he shall separate them one
from another, as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats, and
he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on
his left. Now here are the two representative
men, these two thieves. One is a sheep. The other is
a goat. A goat will never become a sheep. And a sheep will never become
a goat. Now all three of these men die.
while hanging on the cross they were nailed to. Their heart quit beating. Their
lungs stopped heaving. Graveyard dead. Death is the permanent, irreversible
cessation of all biological function that sustain an organism. Dead. Dead. You've seen a dead person. You've
seen the lifelessness. You've seen the gray skin. There's no life there. What once was a life, what once
was a personality, now you look at that body and it is dead. There is no life in it. On these three crosses, there
were three dead men. And this reminds me and reminds
us that you and I will die. That body you're in right now,
your body that you feel, it will one day be cold and lifeless. a dead corpse. It's appointed
to men once to die. And after this, the judgment
that we already just read of in Matthew chapter 25, when Christ
will separate the sheep and the goats, and he'll say to those
on his right hand, come, you blessed of my father, Inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
And to the other group, he'll say, depart ye cursed into everlasting
fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Now, why do men die? They all three died. both the
thieves and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. They all three
died. Why is there death? There's only one reason, sin. Every time you see a dead man,
you know there was a sinner. There's only one reason men die,
because of sin. Romans 5, 12 says, by one man,
sin entered the world and death by sin, so that death passed
upon all men and that all have sinned. The wages of sin, Romans
6, 23, the wages of sin is death. Now you remember when God said
to Adam, he warned him of the two trees, One was the tree of
life. The other was the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. He said, when you eat that tree,
you're not to do it. It's forbidden in the day you
do. He didn't say if you do. That's
very important. He didn't say if you end up eating.
No. He said, in the day you do, you
shall surely die. And that very day, I heard A
preacher saying God demonstrated His grace by not letting him
die on that day. He extended it. No, he did die
that day. He died spiritually. Spiritual
death. And he would one day die physically. Now, the only reason for death For
all three persons who died on that cross is sin. And when you and I die, you know,
they'll have some cause of death, cancer, heart disease, COVID,
omicron, whatever. Here's the accurate cause of
your death and my death, sin. Sin. The reason we will die is
because of sin. Now, would you turn with me?
I'd like you to read this with me. Revelation 22, verse 11. This is these two men and me
and you are here as well. Verse 11, he that's unjust, if
I die in this state, this is how I will spend eternity. He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still throughout eternity. And he which is filthy, let him
be filthy still. And he that's righteous, let
him be righteous still throughout all eternity. And he that's holy,
let him be holy still. Now, I'm either right now, righteous
and holy, or unjust and filthy, And the state that I die in is
the state I will spend eternity in. Now, these men, the way they
died is the way they will spend eternity. Three crosses, three
deaths, and all three of these deaths are because of sin. That's the only reason for death,
sin. Now, on the left cross, We have
a man dying in his sin. On the middle cross, we have
a man dying for sin. And on the right cross, we have
a man dying unto sin. This explains everything. We
have a man dying in his sins, and we have a man dying for sin,
and we have a man dying unto sin. Now, I'm gonna give you
an illustration that is not perfect, but no human illustration is.
You can find things about this, you can say, well, what about
that? I realize that, but please listen to the illustration. On
the left cross, the man on the left side of Christ, We have
a man dying with sin in him and on him. In the middle cross,
we have a man dying with no sin in him, but sin on him. And on the cross to the right
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have a man dying with sin in
him, but no sin on him. Now follow this illustration. One man died with his sin in
him and all of it charged to him. And he's going to stand
before God in judgment guilty. The other man who has no sin
in him, and by that I mean that he never sinned. The sins of
the elect came in him. Because it says you bear our
sins in his own body, in his own body. Don't miss that. The sins that I've committed,
if he died for me, actually came into his body and he became guilty
of them and he owned them as his. So I wouldn't in any way
take away from the mystery and the glory of that. But still
this man died having never sinned. He's the spotless lamb of God.
IN HIS PERSON, HE NEVER SINNED. WHEN HE WAS MADE SIN, HE PERSONALLY
NEVER SINNED. NOW, THAT SIN BECAME HIS. MYSTERY,
THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL. BUT HE NEVER SINNED. HE'S THE HOLY HARMLESS LAMB OF
GOD. HE HAD NO SIN IN HIM, BUT HE
HAD ALL THE WEIGHT OF ALL THE SINS OF ALL OF GOD'S ELECT. HE WAS BEARING TO THE CROSS. And then on that third cross
we have a man while he's dying, was the thief while he was dying
still a sinner? Now was he? Well you know he was. He was
still a sinner. He said we're only receiving
the due reward of our deeds. He made that confession. We deserve
what we're getting. He understood that. He died with
his SIN IN HIM, BUT WHEN HE DIED, HE DIED WITHOUT SIN ON HIM. HE DIED NOT GUILTY BEFORE GOD
BECAUSE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST HAD REMOVED HIS SIN. I JOHN CHAPTER
3, VERSES 5 AND 6 SAYS HE WAS MANIFESTED TO TAKE AWAY OUR SIN,
AND IN HIM IS NO SIN. IF I'M IN HIM, NOW LISTEN TO
ME. If I'm in Him, I have no sin. You know, when we were singing, when peace like a river is well
with my soul, and I caught myself singing my sin of the bliss of
this glorious thought, and I was just mouthing the words, I thought,
if I realized that, I'd be jumping for joy. My sin, my sin, oh,
the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part, but the
whole, has been nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord,
oh, my soul. Now, let's consider these three
crosses. On the cross on the left, We
have a man dying in his sin. As he reviled Christ, we find out what was in his heart.
He did not believe that Jesus was the Christ. If thou art the
Son of God, He did not believe that Jesus was the Christ. He
was dying in resentment, hatred. He hated that one, looked down
upon that one in the middle. He had no love for him, no faith,
no esteem for his person. This man certainly did not believe
that Christ was the eternal I am. And Christ said, if you believe
not that I am, what else? you'll die in your sins. That's
what the Lord said. If you believe not that I am,
that I am eternal God, that I am that I am, you will die in your
sins. And this man died in his sins.
And after that, the judgment. And here's what this scene looks
like after the judgment. We read in Luke 16, verse 23,
of the rich man, and in hell, he lift up his eyes. Can you imagine how horrible
that would be? In hell, he lift up his eyes,
and he knows who Christ is now. And he knows he's going to spend
eternity there. In hell, he lift up his eyes
being in torment. And that's what will happen to
me if I die in my sins. Now, I need to say this, preaching
this is not trying to scare people into believing. Nobody has been,
the fear of hell has never caused one person to believe. You know
that? That's why I hate hearing what they call hellfire and brimstone
preachers. I just can't stand that kind
of stuff because they think they're going to scare somebody into believing
the gospel. Nobody's ever scared. Now, I'm afraid of hell. I don't
want to go to hell. I'm not being indifferent or brazen about it,
but nobody comes to Christ simply out of a fear of hell. Doesn't
happen. So I don't want to use this simply
in that manner, but there is a place called hell and hell
is eternal because it's impossible for any man to bring satisfaction
to God for the sins they've committed against him in murdering his
son. Hell is eternal because there is no satisfaction. God could never say, I'm satisfied,
he's been punished enough. Not gonna happen. And hell is
eternal. And this is a very horrible thing
to think of, because in hell, that person who's in hell is
never reformed. If you let them out, they try
to murder Christ again. And if you let them out, they
still hate Christ, even when they're being tormented, inflamed,
whatever that means. It's not gonna take away their
hatred for the Lord Jesus Christ. They're gonna hate Him just as
much. Actually, maybe more. They're gonna see more of who
He is. This man died in his sins. And the moment he woke up from
that death, that very second, he woke up in hell. What a horrible
thing to think of. The man dying on the middle cross,
was dying for sin. He wasn't dying in his sins.
He was dying for sin. He had no sins of his own to
die for, did he? That's why he could take somebody
else's sins to himself. Now, what if I, what if your
sin was given to me? What good would it do to you?
Well, for one thing, it can't be done because I'm a sinner. If
I die for you, Might be a nice gesture. Many people have died
for other people, you know, to save their lives. It's a nice,
it's a good gesture. And I would, I'd want to die
for my country. I'd want to die for you. I'd
want to die for my family. But what eternal good would that
do anybody? Nothing. But this man is the
God man. And he never sinned. Don't forget who he is. He's
Jesus, the son of God. He's God's Christ. He's the eternal
THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL. DO YOU KNOW THAT HE DIDN'T EVEN
HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO SIN? THAT'S HOW HOLY HE IS. HE DIDN'T
EVEN HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO SIN. AND SOMEBODY SAYS, WELL, YEAH,
HE COULD'VE. NOT IF HE'S GOD HE COULDN'T.
GOD'S IMMUTABLE. GOD CAN'T CHANGE. JESUS CHRIST
COULD NOT SIN. WELL, WHERE IS THE TEMPTATION?
Well, it says he was tempted in all points like as we are.
You know what that means? All the horror of sin he experienced
on the cross, though he never committed sin, but he experienced
all the filthiness and vileness of it. Somebody says, what are
you talking about? I have no idea. I just know it's so. I know it's so. He experienced that in the sense,
so he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin,
he himself never committed sin. HE'S THE HOLY, HARMLESS, UNDEFILED
LAMB OF GOD, WITHOUT SPOT, BLEMISH, OR ANY SUCH THING. YET, HE'S
ON THE CROSS, DYING, AND LIKE I SAID, AND HE DIED, AND THERE'S
ONLY ONE REASON FOR DEATH. SIN. WELL, HOW'D THAT HAPPEN? WELL,
HERE'S A SCRIPTURE I SUPPOSE I QUOTE ALMOST EVERY TIME I PREACH. hath made him, the Lord Jesus
Christ, sin. You want to know the hideous
reality of sin? Look at Christ dying on the cross.
This wasn't figurative. He was made sin. All the sins
of all of God's elect became his sin. He was dying for sin
as the sinners substitute. He was dying for sin. When Paul gives the great declaration
of the gospel, he says in 1 Corinthians 15, three, the gospel is how
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And he's talking about the Old
Testament scriptures. And we have so many beautiful,
glorious examples and illustrations of what all that means. But the
first thing I thought of was Cain and Abel. Cain brings to
God a bloodless sacrifice. Abel brings the blood of the
lamb. And he knew it wasn't the blood
of that physical lamb, that it was what that blood pointed to,
of the coming son of God. And you know what the scripture
says? God had respect to Abel and his offering. Now you know
what it means to feel disrespected. It's a bad feeling. And somebody
that respects you, that feels good, doesn't it? Well, God had
no respect to Cain's offering. To Abel and his offering, he
had no respect, no regard. It was a bloodless sacrifice.
It was an affront, an offense to God. He had no respect. But
when Abel brought that blood, God had respect to Abel. You see, that blood made him
respectful to God where the God of glory could actually respect
him. Do you know if you're a believer, the God of glory, of infinite
glory, has respect for you? That's the power of the blood
of Jesus Christ. By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by the which he obtained
witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. And he, by it being dead yet,
speaketh. Second thing I thought about
was the Day of Atonement. The great high priest went into
the Holy of Holies one time a year. Not without blood. Only one time
a year, not without blood. There were two goats, two lambs. One, a sin offering. Blood was shed. The other called
the scapegoat. And the high priest would put
his hands on the head of that goat and symbolically transfer
the sins of Israel Who's He representing? The whole world? No, Israel.
He had the names of the 12 tribes on His breastplate, on His shoulders. He was representing Israel. Christ
Jesus was representing the elect. And in that scapegoat, we have
the... Here's how Christ was made sin.
God the Father transferred it to Him. It became His. That's
the transfer of guilt. That's why there's death. Now, the third thing, and this
is, gosh, I love this. The Passover. The Passover. That lamb without blemish and
without spot was slain. The blood put over the door of
the homes they were in. And God said, when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. What was God looking for? The
blood. Not your works, not your sincerity,
not your efforts, not your knowledge. The blood, that's all he was
looking for. Who had to see it? God said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Now, let me ask you two more
questions about that. Let's say the finest person in Egypt the
most moral upstanding person in Egypt that wasn't in a house
with the blood over the door. Did God kill him if he was the
firstborn? Sure did. Sure did. If you weren't in the
house with the blood over the door, there was no hope. Let's say somebody in the house
with the blood over the door. What if that very day they had
committed a murder? Some vile, perverted, twisted
sin. And they were in the house with
the blood over the door. Did God say, well, I'm gonna
get them anyway? No, they were perfectly safe
with the blood over the door. Now that is how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures. Not just that he
died for our sins, that's not the gospel, it's how that he
died for our sins according to the scriptures. Now the man In the middle cross, the Lord
Jesus cried, died with no sin in him. He never sinned, but
all the sins of his people on him. He bore in his own body
on the tree. And the third man nailed to a
cross on the right hand dies unto sin. Now he was still a sinner while
he was still alive. He really was. He didn't go through
any improving of character. Now, he was given a new nature.
He was given a new heart. He was a holy man of God because
of what Christ had done for him. But as far as his old nature,
he was still a sinner. He knew that. We're getting treated
justly for we receive the due reward for our deeds. He knew
that. But let me give you this scripture. Romans chapter six,
verse 11. And this is a command. This is
God's command to you. This is God's command to me.
This is God's command to every believer. It's written in the
imperative. This is not good advice. This is a command. Reckon
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. And as I said, that's
spoken in the imperative. This is not advice. This is a
command to every believer. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin. Now the only reason God would
ever say reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin is because
you are in fact dead indeed to sin. Sin has nothing to say to
you. Sin cannot be laid to your charge.
Sin cannot say he did this or he did that because you didn't.
Sin has nothing to say to you. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed. Believe that what Christ did is so complete that you yourself
really are dead in sin. And that's what God commands
you to do. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed to sin. Because you are. The moment that
man died, what did Christ say of him? Today,
you'll be with me in paradise. Perfectly conformed to his image
without even the consciousness of sin. Now he was holy and unblameable
and unapprovable before he died, but he still had that old nature,
but now that old nature's dead. Good riddance. And he's now experiencing
the glory of being holy and unblameable and unreprovable in the very
sight of God. What, now here's the question
I want to leave you with. What was the difference between
the man on the left hand and the man on the right? It's really very simple. Jesus
Christ died for the man on the right hand, and he did not die
for the man on the left. Bottom line. Let me repeat that. The difference
between these two men was that Jesus Christ the Lord died for
the man on the right. He died for sin, and it was the
sin of that man on the right and every other one of his elect. And that man who died in his
sin, Jesus Christ did not die for that man. Romans 8, 34 says, listen to
this, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. Now somebody that preaches that
Jesus Christ died for all men without exception doesn't know
God, doesn't know the gospel, doesn't know the first thing
about what faith is in the first place. It's a false gospel, it's
a false message, it's a false refuge. No truth to it. None
at all. Well, he means well. No, he doesn't.
No, he doesn't. He doesn't mean well. He doesn't
know God. He hates God. He wouldn't preach
like that if he Now, the difference is the death of Christ. Now, who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather it's risen again, who's even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. Now, here's the second question. We know Christ died for the one,
and he didn't die for the other. What is the evidence that he
died for the one? One of them, the one he died
for, here's the evidence, he knew who Christ was. It really is that simple. The other fella didn't know who
Christ was. He had no idea that he was the
Christ. He said, if you be the Christ,
come now. He was clueless. He had no idea
who the Christ really was. But that other one said, Don't
you fear God? This is God. This is God. How in the world did he know
that? Same way you know it. He had the gospel revealed to
him. He heard the seven sayings of
the Savior from the cross. He had Christ revealed to him
the same way Peter did. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to thee, but my Father which is in heaven. He knew he was a sinner. We're getting exactly what we
have coming. He knew Christ was sinless. He said, this man hath
done nothing amiss. How'd he know that? He'd only
known him since he's been on the cross. He didn't know about
his first 33 years. Well, he was revealed to him
who he was. You know, if you have him revealed to you, you
know he himself never sinned, can't sin. And I love what Calvin said about
this man. Here's the greatest instance
of faith in all the word of God, Lord. Lord. He knew he was the Lord,
the Lord of creation, the Lord of providence, the Lord of salvation. And he said, remember me when
you come into your kingdom, you're going to come back as a mighty
reigning ruling king. You're not going to stay dead.
He knew that. He knew who he was. Death could not hold him
down. He knew that. When you come,
remember me. That's the plea of every believer. And that man died unto sin. Sin had nothing to
say to him. He was of that number, blessed
are the dead that die in the Lord. And he woke up in perfect
likeness to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know who Christ is? I'm not asking you to answer
that out loud, but do you know who he is? The Christ, the Son
of the living God? Blessed art thou. Flesh and blood
didn't reveal that to thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.
Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, that one who died for sin. And
Lord, we confess that all of our hope is in him. We look to him only to make us
accepted before thee. holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in your sight, dead to sin, but alive unto you through the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless this message for our good
and your glory. In Christ's name we pray, amen.