It would not be hyperbole for
me to say that if I confine myself to this subject, the reason for
the death of Christ, and never preached on anything else again,
I would be preaching the whole counsel of God. I've entitled
this message, The Reason for His Death. Our text reads, for to this end
Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord
both of the dead and the living. That's going to be my final point. And to me, of all the mysteries
of the scripture, there is no greater mystery than the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He died. He who is life died. He who is the eternal, uncreated
Son of God, whose goings have been from everlasting, died. I can't get a hold of that one.
He's the Creator. And they took him down from the
cross, a lifeless corpse, dead. Jesus Christ died. The God-man died. I remember one time getting a
letter from somebody and they said, the God part didn't die,
the man part did. Oh, you've got that figured out,
huh? I don't understand this, how the God-man could die. But he did die. And he rose and
revived to never die again, but he died. This is our message. We preach Christ crucified, Christ
buried, Christ risen. Now, why did he die? That's what I want us all that
the Holy Spirit would teach us. Why did he die? In that answer
to that question lies the whole counsel of God. And the only
way we can adequately answer this is from the scriptures.
Why did Jesus Christ die? It's a great mystery that he
died. To think of them putting him in that tomb dead, them rolling
the stone over it, and there he lays dead, the God-man, the
creator. Acts 20, 28 says, feed the church
of God which he purchased with his own blood. That's speaking
of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God. The God-man
died. Now that's mystery. That's mystery. How did he? How'd it happen? I'm just... There's two mysteries
about the death of Christ that I struggle with more than anything
else. First, that He died. And second,
that He died for me. For me. I have such a hard time
getting hold of that, that my name was on His heart. That He died for me. He knew
me and He died for me. He loved me. You know, this whole
idea of God's universal love, God loving everybody in Christ
and dying for everybody, but some of those people that He
loved and died can wind up in hell anyway, that takes all the
power and meaning away from His love. If He loved me, He died
for me. And if He died for me, I must
be saved. Now why did he die? I want to
answer that from the scripture. First of all, he died because
it was the eternal purpose of God for him to die. Revelation chapter 13 verse 8,
he's called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It was God's purpose for the
Lord Jesus Christ to die. Him being delivered, Peter said
on the day of Pentecost, Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and with
wicked hands have crucified and slain. Now, that's what men did,
but they didn't do anything more or anything less than what God
purposed for them to do before time began. When the soldiers
lifted up the hammer to drive the nails in his hands, God strengthened
them and caused them to do this. Acts chapter 4 verses 27 and
28 says, For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou
hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles
with the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. when they fulfilled all that
was written of him, they took him down from the tree. He died because it was the decree,
the purpose, and the will of God Almighty. He did in time
what he did in eternity. Why did he die? Well, because
God willed it before time began. And he died for this reason. He said, Father, in John chapter
17, Father, the hour has come, that hour for which he came in
the first place, the hour of his death. Father, the hour has
come glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. I have glorified thee on the
earth, speaking of his death, his life and his death, I've
glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work thou
gavest me to do. The reason for the death of Christ
was the glory of God. The death of Christ, the cross
of Christ, is the most God-like thing God ever did. You know, I like saying that.
It scares me to say that, but I like saying it. I want to say
that with reverence. I want to say that with fear.
But the cross of Christ, Christ dying on the cross, was the most
God-like thing God ever did. You see, He glorified God, and
I think of the glory that He gave His Father when He died
on that cross. Oh, how He glorified God's holiness,
God's hatred of sin. He wouldn't let it go unpunished
even on His Son. How He glorified God's purpose.
What God purposed always comes to pass. How He glorified God's
wisdom. How God is so wise that He's
made a way to be absolutely just and yet justify somebody like
me. What wisdom! How He glorified the love of God. That He would
love sinners so much that He would give His Son to die for
them. How He glorified every attribute
of God in the cross. The death of Christ was given
for this purpose. To glorify God. and how he glorified God. And
when I was looking over my nose thinking about this, I thought,
what glory I'm going to bring to him when I'm saved. I'm an
example. I'm a living example of how much
he is all in salvation. I believe that from the depth
of my heart. Oh, how He'll be glorified in my salvation. There
won't be any glory going to me on any level. It'll all go to
Him. And I like it that way. He died
to glorify His Father. Why did He die? He died to perform
the ultimate act of obedience. There is no obedience like Him
going to the cross. Philippians 2 says, He became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Now, I love
to think of the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, His submission
to His Father's will, His obedience. When Christ was nailed to that
cross, when Christ was made sin, whatever that means, He never
ceased to obey His Father. He never ceased to believe when
He was in utter darkness and He felt nothing but the frown
and the awful wrath of His Father. Oh, who can tell what that was
when God forsook Him and He had no light, He had no semblance
of any favor from God at all, nothing but his awful wrath.
Even then, he never ceased to believe. He said, though he slay me, yet
will I trust him. Now that's faith. That's faith. Me and you don't have faith like
that. I mean, we're so prone to doubt and But he never ceased
to believe his Father. And I'm saved by his faithfulness. It's his faith that saves me.
You know, my faith. Here's what my faith is. It's
his faith saves me. His faithfulness. And I rely
and rest in him. He died as the ultimate act of
obedience, someone who believed God, someone who obeyed God all
the way to the end. Isn't that beautiful? The ultimate
act of obedience. Fourthly, 1 Peter 3, verse 18,
for Christ also hath suffered for sin. Now here's why he died, for sin. Christ also has suffered for
sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Now, me and you could not be
brought to God with sin. He's of two pure eyes to behold
iniquity. He can't embrace me. He can't
love me. He can't accept me. He can't
have fellowship with me. He can't have communion with
me if I have any sin. Now here's the glory of the gospel. Christ took my sin and it became
His sin. Now, I can't take your sin. And
you know the reason I can't take your sin? Because I've got so
much sin of my own. If I did die for you, what good
would it do for you? It wouldn't do you any good at
all. You might live a little longer, but it wouldn't have
any saving benefit for you because I'm a sinner like you are. I
can't take your sin because of my sin, but because of who he
is. He's the God-Man, the Eternal
Son of God. He can take your sin to Himself,
to where it becomes His sin, and put it away and bring you
to God. Now remember, the only reason
for death is sin. Christ suffered for my sins. He bore my sins in his own body
on the tree. I tell you, that's such strong
language. You think about what that says. In his own body, the
body of the Son of God, my sins became his sins. He bore them. And beloved, if Christ bore my
sins, I'll never bear them. I'll never bear them. They're
gone. They're put away. They're separated
from me as far as the east is from the west. That's a long
way. They are no more. He suffered. He died for this
reason. Because of sin. God's just. God's
holy. He will not let sin go unpunished. Doesn't that make you respect
the Lord? You respect Him for that. You couldn't really respect
Him if He just sweeps in under the carpet. But He's not going
to do it. But Christ suffered for sin. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26 says,
Now once, you only had to do this once. It was such a complete
act. But now once in the end of the
world had he appeared to put away sin. bore those sins and in bearing
those sins he put them away. Did he do it? You know the answer to that question,
did he do it? First John Chapter 3, verse 5
says He was manifested to take away our sins. And in Him is
no sin. That means if you're in Him,
He bore your sins, He put them away, He took them away, and
now you have no sin. Right now, as aware as I am of
my sin and my sins, I have no sin. What a glorious thing the death
of Christ does. When Moses and Elijah appeared
to speak with him on the Mount of Transfiguration, they spake
with him Luke 9, 31, about the deceased, the death. Remember,
we're talking about why did Christ die. They spoke to him about
the death which he should accomplish. Now, I love that language. His
death was an accomplishment. My death simply proves what I
am, a sinful, weak man. My death is not an accomplishment. My death is a failure. So is
the death of everybody else. It just shows what failures we
are. But when the Lord Jesus Christ died, he accomplished
something. And what did he accomplish by
his death? Turn to Colossians 1 for a moment. While you're turning there, Romans
5.10 says, if when we were enemies we were
reconciled to God by His death. That's what His death accomplished
when we were enemies. Not when we believed. Not when we repented. Not when we were given life. When we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son. In Colossians chapter
1, remember His death was an accomplishment Here is what his
death accomplished, and having made peace through the blood
of his cross. Have you made your peace with
God? No, I haven't. He made my peace with God. I'm never going to ask somebody,
have you made your peace with God? What did you do to make
peace with God? That's ridiculous. He made my
peace with God. Having made peace through the
blood of his cross by him, to reconcile all things unto himself. By him I say, whether they be
things on earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometimes
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to
present you holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight." In his sight. How ready are you
to die? Well, you're going to have to
fit this description, holy and unblameable and unreprovable. And that is what Christ accomplished
by his death. He took poor, old, sinful, helpless,
dead Todd Norbert and he made me holy and unblameable. unapprovable in the very sight
of God. Now another way of saying this
is he made satisfaction. God is satisfied. God is satisfied
with me. God says I'm not looking for
anything else. There isn't anything he needs to do. There isn't anything
he needs to add to this. I'm satisfied by what my son
did. Satisfaction. Substitution. Satisfaction. That's what he
did. He satisfied God. The moment he died, he didn't
go through the process of decay. Why? Because God was satisfied
with what he did. And beloved, if you're a believer,
God is completely satisfied with you. All together. We are relying on Him being completely
satisfied. That's what we're relying on.
You know what? I'm satisfied too. I'm just flat
out satisfied with God being satisfied with Christ and nothing
else. I rest in that. Titus chapter 2 verse 14. Let's
turn to this one. Titus chapter 2. Why did He die? What was His purpose? What was
His end? Verse 13, looking for that blessed
hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ. Now, the great God and the Savior,
Jesus Christ, are not different people. This is the great God,
our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might
redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar
people. Now that word means purchased.
When we think of peculiar we think of weird or strange and
indeed many of the Lord's people are peculiar. I'm one of them.
But that's not what that means. A purchased people. And you know what every one of
them are? zealous of good works. Everyone without exception who
has been saved without works is zealous of good works. They
want to have good works that adorn the doctrine of God their
Savior in all things. They want to honor the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the only way you can be zealous
of good works is if you believe that your salvation has absolutely
nothing to do with your works. You believe that? Well, if you
believe that, I guarantee you, you're one of these people who
are zealous of good works. And that is why Christ died.
purifying to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. Now Galatians chapter 4 verses
4 and 5 says when the fullness of time was come God sent forth
his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them
that are under the law that we might receive the adoption of
sons. The reason Christ died is that
everybody He died for might actually receive their sonship. I'm a son of God. Behold what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should
be called the sons of God. I'm His child. You know what
that means? He's my Father. He's my Father. You know what that means? He loves me. You know what that
means? Everything is working together
for my good. You know what that means? He
protects me. You know what that means? He's
for me and no one can be against me. That's what it means if you're
a child of God. We're adopted children, we're
children by birth too. As many as received him, to them
gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them which
believe on his name, which were born, birthed, not of blood,
not of the will of man, not of the will of the flesh, but of
God. He died that I might receive."
Now, receive this. Child of God, receive this. You're
his child. He's your father. And you can
really sing, this is my father's world. It all belongs to him. Romans 5.8 says, God commendeth His love
toward us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. Now, Christ died to commend,
to magnify, to make glorious the love of God. That God could
love me so much that He'd send His Son to die in my place. Galatians 1.4 says he gave himself
for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world. Christ died so I would no longer
be a citizen of the world, but I'm a citizen of another country.
heavenly. And you know I'm just a stranger
here. This world's not my home. I'm just passing through. I'm
a stranger waiting to get to that better world. I'm not of
this world. I'm of Him. And He died for us
that we might not be citizens of this world any longer. We've
been delivered from this present evil world. It is an evil world.
You know that and I know that. But thank God I'm not a citizen
of this world. Now, I've already touched on
this, but this is another great mystery. I'm going to give one
more before I get to our text in Romans 14, 9, and then I won't
be long on, so don't worry. You're just not getting to the
text? No, no. But this is a great mystery. All these things are
mysterious, but this is what I find so amazing. Paul said
in Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, I live yet not I but Christ
liveth in me and the life that I now live in the flesh I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me. Now I can see him loving you. I can see it. I know me. Nobody knows me, but me. I don't know myself all that
well, but what I know, I know enough to know that I have such
a hard time with laying hold of this. He loved me and gave
himself for me. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me, a sinner
condemned, unclean. He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them his very own. He bore that burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. When with the ransomed in glory
his face I at last shall see, it will be my joy through the
ages to sing of his love for me. He loved me. And in our text, Romans 14, 9,
to this end, Christ both died and rose and
revived. That rose and revived is not
being redundant. He rose from the dead and he
lives evermore. He's never going to die again. Hebrews 7 25 says, Wherefore
he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God
by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Now there are people who have
died and they had wills that they wanted to take place and
didn't ever take place. Lawyers were hired and things
were done to where their will wasn't done. And there's nothing
they can do about it because they were dead. But this one
who died is alive forever and he makes sure his will is always
done. To this end, Christ both died,
arose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and
the living. He achieved glories he would
not have had had he not died. But, the scripture says, because
he became obedient to death, even the death of the cross Wherefore
God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Of things
in heaven, things on the earth, things under the earth, that's
in hell. And every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord. to the glory of God the Father. Now to say that Jesus is Lord
is to say that Jesus is sovereign. It's to say His will is the one
that's done all the time. To say Jesus is Lord is to say
that He created the heavens and the earth. To say that Jesus
is Lord is to say that everything that happens in time, He's in
control of. To say Jesus is Lord is to say
salvation is in His sovereign hands. You're salvation. You have no control. It's completely
up to Him. That's what the Lordship of Christ
means. is Lord. And notice how it says,
I'd never really thought much about this, but it says He's
the Lord of the dead and He's the Lord of the living. He's
the Lord of those who are dead in sins. You know that person
that gives you the most grief? That person who seems to be such
a trial to you? Do you know Jesus Christ is his
or her Lord? They may not know it, but he
controls them. He controls every event for your
good and his glory. He's Lord. He's Lord of every
man dead in sins. He's in control of that man who's
dead in sins. You know, he's Lord of America. He's Lord of the United States.
He's the Lord of our president. He's in control of it. He's the
Lord of Isis. They don't know it, but He's
the Lord of Isis. That bunch that scares us so
bad, He's their Lord. He controls them. I think of
Iran and all the nuclear threats. He's Iran's Lord. I would love
for somebody living in Iran under the Muslim religion to hear this
statement, Jesus is your Lord. You may not know it. You may
get mad when I say that, but Jesus is your Lord because He's
the Lord of the dead. He's in absolute control of the
dead. He's in control of everybody.
Listen to this. He's Lord over your old and full
nature. He's in control of that evil, wicked nature of yours.
That doesn't excuse your sin in any way, but He even uses
your wicked nature for His glory. Your sin drives you to Him. He's the Lord of your evil nature.
You see, He's Lord of the dead. Don't you love it that way? You
see, there isn't anything that escapes His Lordship. He's the
Lord of the dead. He's the Lord of Russia. He's
the Lord of Israel. He's the Lord of everybody, everywhere. He is Lord. He's the Lord of the living.
Oh, He's the Lord of the living. Oh, how the living love His Lordship. Hearken, O daughter, and consider
and incline thine ear, and forget also thine own people in thy
father's house, So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty,
for he is thy Lord. Worship thou him. Now this is why Christ died,
that he might be Lord, both of the dead and the living. Your heart, that person's heart
sitting beside you, And the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord,
as the rivers of water he turneth it whithersoever he will. Turn with me for the last verse
of Scripture I want to look at, John chapter 21. After these things, John chapter
21 verse 1, After these things Jesus showed himself again to
the disciples at the sea of Tiberias, and on this why show he himself.
There were together Simon, Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and
Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and
two others of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them,
I go fishing. Now there's been a lot of debate
over what he meant by that. Did he mean I'm just going fishing
like one of you mens? I think I'm going fishing this
weekend. I don't believe so. He is saying I've had it with
this disciple stuff. I'm going back to my old way
of life. I'm going fishing. You say, how can he say something
like that? How could you think something like that? I go fishing. They say unto him, we also go
with thee. They went forth and entered into
a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. But when the Jesus stood on the shore. But the disciples knew not that
it was Jesus. And Jesus saith unto them, Children,
have you any meat? Has this expedition got you anywhere? They answered him, No. And he said unto them, cast the
net on the right side of the ship and you shall find they
cast therefore now they were not able to draw it to the multitude
of fishes therefore that disciple whom Jesus loves saith unto Peter it's the Lord now this is what
every disciple recognizes it's the Lord Now when Simon Peter heard there
was the Lord, he girded his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked,
and did cast himself into the sea." Somebody's saying, well,
why would you put something on to get in the water? I don't
know, but I think it represents him once again putting his garment
on, his covering on. You know, we're always drawn
back to look to Christ's righteousness only, aren't we? So he put his
fisher's coat on and cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples
came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as
it were, 200 cubits. dragging the net with fishes. And as soon
as they were come to the land, they saw a fire of coals there,
and fish lay there on in bread. And Jesus saith unto them, Bring
of the fishes which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up,
and drew the net to land full of great fishes, and a hundred
and fifty-three. And for all these were so many,
yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and
dine. What kind of meal would that
have been? And none of the disciples darest ask him, Who art thou?
knowing that it was the Lord. Knowing that it was the Lord. 1 Corinthians 12, 3 says, no man
can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now you can
say it verbally and it doesn't mean anything. I guess we could
add it, say it, mean it. But still, that's the way Paul
said it. No man can say Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
Now, when he was saying that, there were people being put to
death if they said Jesus is Lord, because they were saying Caesar
is Lord. When Polycarp was 86 years old,
the first pastor at the Church of Smyrna in the first century,
They didn't want to put him to death because he was such an
old man. They thought this is going to be kind of severe. And
they said to him, all you have to do is say Caesar is Lord and
you'll save yourself and your ministry can go on. And his reply, Jesus is Lord. He was set on fire. Jesus is Lord. We're getting ready to observe
the Lord's table. And 1 Corinthians 11, 26 says
that every time we do this, we do show forth the Lord's death
until He comes. So while we're observing the
Lord's table right now, we're doing this to show forth the
Lord's death. What He accomplished by His glorious
death. I love the simplicity of this.
May the Lord truly enable us to do this in remembrance of
Him. Pass out the red wine.