The Death of Deaths

I'm speaking to you today on
the subject, the death of deaths, the death of deaths. And my text
is taken from Matthew 27, and I'll be reading a portion of
verse 33 through 36. And I want you to listen carefully
to this message on the death of deaths. In Matthew 27, 33,
it says, And when they were come to a place called Golgotha, That
is to say, a place of a skull, there they crucified him. And
sitting down, they watched him there. And sitting down, they
watched him there. What do you suppose these people
were thinking as they sat on the ground about the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ? as they sat there and watched
him suffer and bleed and die. What do you suppose they were
thinking? The Pharisees were there, the religious leaders
who had rejected their Messiah. They had hired false witnesses
against him. They had taken him before Pilate
to be tried. They inspired the people to cry
out for his blood. The people were there. led by
their religious leaders. They had cried out, crucify him. Pilate said, Whom shall I release
unto you? Barabbas or Jesus, which is called
the Christ. And they said, Give us Barabbas.
And he said to them, But what shall I do with Jesus? And they
said, Let him be crucified. These people were sitting about
the cross. And the Roman soldiers who had scourged him and mocked
him and harassed him and finally nailed him to a cross, they were
there. This was a religious holiday, and people were there from everywhere.
And it said, they took him out to the hill called Golgotha,
and there they nailed him to a cross, and sitting down, they
watched him die. Now, Jeremiah wrote of this moment
in Lamentation 1, verse 12. The Lord Jesus is speaking here
in this passage of Scripture, and He says, Is it nothing to
you? Is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by, behold, and see if there be any sorrow like my
sorrow, which is done unto me? Now listen, which the Lord, which
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger,
his death, is there any sorrow like my sorrow, his death, is
truly the death of deaths, no death quite like it. His sorrow,
there's no sorrow quite like it. He's called, literally called
the man of sorrows, the man of sorrows. And His afflictions,
His afflictions are of God. Did you hear what He said? What
is it to you? Is it nothing to you? All ye
that pass by and behold my sorrows, is there any sorrow like my sorrow
and my afflictions, wherewith the Lord," who afflicted him?
You say, the people nailed him to the tree. It pleased the Lord
to bruise him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He said, the Lord hath afflicted me. When? In the day of his fierce
anger, the anger of Almighty God against all the sins of all
his people, of all generations, met on Christ. Is it any wonder
that he said, there's no sorrow like my sorrow, there's no death
like my death, there's no anguish like my anguish, there's no suffering
quite like my suffering, wherewith the Lord himself has singled
me out and afflicted me. And not only just afflicted me,
but he's afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger, his
fierce anger and wrath against all sin. What is it to you? I
ask you today, what do you see in the death of Jesus Christ?
As you sit there, just put yourself in the place of these people
sitting around the cross, these Pharisees and Sadducees and Roman
soldiers and people and folks from everywhere, sitting about
that cruel tree, watching this man die, looking up there and
seeing him on that cross. And that sign above his head,
this is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. What are you
thinking? What goes through your mind?
As you sit there and watch him, what do you see? Is it the death
of a religious martyr? Is that what you see? Somebody
else has died for the peculiarities of his faith or his doctrine.
Is that what you see? Is it the death of one who has
tried and failed in his efforts to reform the world? There have
been a lot of those who've tried to change people's patterns and
lifestyle and government and so forth, reformers and revolutionaries. Is that what you see in the death
of Jesus Christ? Is that a Reformer who has failed
in his effort to change the world? Or is it the death of an example? Is that what you see, sitting
there and watching Him? Is He showing us how we ought
to be willing to die for what we believe? Is that what you
see? What do you see as you watch Him there? Is it really nothing
to you, He said? Is it nothing to you? Or is His
death of the greatest, most vital importance to you? Well, let
me tell you. Let me tell you what, by the
grace of God, I see as I watch Him there. I'll tell you what
I see as I sit and watch Jesus Christ die on the cross. I see something. Now, here's
the first thing I see. I understand, by the grace of
God, who it is that is on that tree. Now, that's the first issue
to be settled. This is no ordinary man. As I
look there on that cross, and I see him hanging there between
the two thieves, and I see him suffering, I know this. This is no ordinary man. when he presented him to that
raging, raving multitude, he said, Behold, the man, the man,
this is no ordinary man, this is the man. And that's what I
see as I sit down and watch him suffer on that tree. I know this,
he's the God-man. Now, you stop and walk around
a little bit. When I was preparing this message
to bring to you today, I wrote that down. On that cross between
two thieves outside the city of Jerusalem being treated like
an unclean leper, nailed to a cross is God in human flesh. And I
just had to lay my pen down and get up and walk around. I couldn't
sit there any longer. The centurion saw that. He said,
surely this man is the Son of God. Surely this man is the Son
of God." He said that. He said, I and my Father, one.
And Paul wrote, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.
God, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Word
who was in the beginning with God and was God and all things
were made by Him, that Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
And that's the flesh on that cross. It's God in human flesh. You say, but God can't die. No,
God can't die. But God in human flesh can die.
God in a body can die. And all that is done and accomplished
at Calvary in the death of this man, this God-man, must be considered
in the light of who it is that's dying on the cross. I said, that's
the first issue, is I sit and watch him there. This is no ordinary
man. If it's just an ordinary man,
then it's an ordinary death. But this is the death of deaths.
If it's just an ordinary man suffering, then it's just suffering
or sorrow. But if it's the God-man, if it's
the pure, holy God-man, then His sorrow, there's none like
it. His suffering, there's none like it. It's of the greatest
importance. It's the death of deaths. He
suffered the just for the unjust that He may bring us to God.
So what do I see in the cross and the man on the cross? First
thing I see, he's no ordinary man. This is no ordinary death. This is the man, Christ Jesus.
And this is the death of deaths. I'll tell you the second thing
I see. What do I see? As I sit and watch Him there,
I see in the death of this God-man the fulfillment of the very first
promise that Almighty God made, the very first promise, the first
time God spoke after man fell, and the first promise concerning
the redemption of fallen men. I see in that cross, hey, here's
the fulfillment of what God said immediately after Adam fell.
That's right. After Satan had tempted the woman, and after
the representative man had followed the prince of evil willingly,
deliberately, and sinned against God, and had fallen dead spiritually
under the curse, under the power of evil, this man in his posterity,
God spoke. The first time God spoke after
man fell in by way of a promise, the first time God spoke with
any hope in it, and He said, I'll put enmity between thy seed,
the seed of the serpent, and the woman's seed. The woman's
seed. You'll bruise his heel, and he'll bruise your head. He'll
crush your head. The seed of woman shall bruise
the serpent's head. What is his head? His government,
his power, his strength, and Christ is that seed of woman.
Behold, the Lord himself will give you a sign. A virgin shall
be with child, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel. God with
us. The angel said to Joseph, don't
be afraid to take Mary to be your wife. That holy thing conceived
in her is the Son of God, the seed of woman. Call His name
Jesus. Call His name Emmanuel, God with
us. Unto us a child is born, a son is given. Christ is that
seed of woman. And while His heel was bruised,
you say, what's that? That's His lower part. That's
His human flesh. His human flesh was bruised and
battered and beaten and bled and suffered and died. But I'll
tell you, what he bruised concerning Satan, he tore up his government,
his power, he crushed his head. When our Lord died, that's when
our Lord met the forces of evil, the power of evil, and that's
when he won the victory, when he crushed the power of Satan. He defeated him who had the power
of death, delivered all of his people. I see that. That's the
seed of woman. That's the only seed of woman
that's ever lived on this earth. And he's there to destroy the
power of evil and of Satan. All right, what do I see? Thirdly,
I see in the death of that man on the cross the fulfillment
of every Old Testament picture, every Old Testament pattern,
every Old Testament sacrifice, every Old Testament type of redemption? I do. I see it fulfilled in Christ
as I sit and watch Him on that cross. Start with Abel. There's the first sacrifice that
we read about. It wasn't the first sacrifice
at all, but it's the first one we read about in the Scripture.
In Genesis 4, when his brother Cain brought his fruits and vegetables,
which he had grown, works of his own hands, and Abel, being
a sinner, coming before God to worship God, seeking to approach
God, Abel brought the blood of the Lamb and put it on the altar. And I'll tell you this, Christ
is that Lamb. Christ is that Lamb. Christ is
Abel's Lamb. When Abel put the blood on that
altar, he was showing his faith in the coming Lamb of God who
would bear away our sins. See Abraham and Isaac walking
up that mountain, going there to worship God? And the boy turns
to his father and he said, here's the wood, here's the fire, where's
the lamp? This boy knew you can't approach
God without a lamp, without shedding of blood, there's no remission
of sins, without an atonement, there's no entrance into the
presence of God. And then when he put that boy
on the altar to sacrifice him before God, and the Lord told
Abraham, stay your hand, and Abraham looked over in the in
the bushes and saw a ram and God said, take the ram and put
him in the place of the boy. He took his son off that altar
and put that ram in the place of Isaac and the ram died and
shed his blood. That ram is Christ taking the
place of his people on the altar of sacrifice. See that Old Testament
priest? How many thousands and thousands
and thousands of times did those priests kill a lamb and take
that lamb's blood censer of incense, and go under the veil into the
Holy of Holies, into the awesome presence of God. There before
the Shekinah glory, between the cherubims, over the mercy seat,
that mercy seat which covered the broken law, the tables of
stone that God gave to Moses, how many thousands of times did
that priest sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat, making an
atonement for sin, and go out of that Holy of Holies every
year. every year for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
years. Well, that priest is Christ, and that blood is His own blood,
and that Holy of Holies is His presence, and that mercy seat
is Christ, and the blood offering is Christ. See that rock smitten
when the people were thirsty, and Moses smote the rock, and
water came out of the rock, and they drank to their fill? That's
the smitten rock hanging on that cross. There out of His side
came blood and water. Blood to cleanse, blood to justify,
water to cleanse. Sanctification and redemption
right out of the rock Christ Jesus. See that brazen serpent
lifted up when the people had been bitten and were dying. All
this is meaningless without the cross. There's no meaning to
Abel's lamb. There's no meaning to Abraham's
sacrifice on Mount Moriah. There's no meaning to the tabernacle
or the priesthood or the day of atonement or any of this,
these teachings. There's no meaning to it without
that cross. And that's what I see. As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life. What do I see in the cross? I see who's there. I see who's
there. I see that's the Son of God.
And I see the fulfillment of God's first promise. And every
promise and prophecy and picture and pattern in the Old Testament,
I see it fulfilled in Christ. Yes, I do. And then you know
what I see? Fourthly, I see in the death
of Jesus Christ as I sit and watch Him on that cross. It's
no ordinary death because He's an ordinary man. I see in his
death the character of God better than the character of God is
revealed anywhere else. Better, I say, than anywhere
else. Now, we all know this scripture, for God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life. My friends, where above
all places do you see the love of God demonstrated, manifested,
in a greater way than anywhere else. Come on now, where? At
Calvary. At Calvary. Greater love hath
no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Christ didn't lay down his life for friends. He laid down his
life for sinners, folks like you and me, enemies. Herein is
love. We didn't love Him. He loved
us and gave His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. That's love. That's
the love of God. It knows no bounds, the everlasting,
infinite, immutable, unchanging, the love of Almighty God. Oh,
love of God, how rich, how pure, how measureless, how strong.
It shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels' song. Could
we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made?
Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade,
to write the love of God above would drain that ocean dry. nor
could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from
sky to sky." He didn't have to save you. He didn't have to save
me. He didn't have to send His Son.
He could have left us alone. He could have passed us by. He
could have let us perish in our iniquities, but God loved, God
loved, God loved. And I see it in the cross. I
see love. There's nowhere else in all this
universe. And then I see God's holiness
and God's justice Did you ever stop to ask yourself this question?
Why did Christ have to die like this? Why the cross of shame? Why couldn't He just die of a
heart attack? Why couldn't He just been run through with a
sword? Why all this terrible harassment and suffering and
shame and this awful ignominious death? Why? Why? Why did He have
to be separated from the Father? Why did He have to suffer like
this? Because I'll tell you why. is holy. And God must punish
sin. And God Almighty must lay upon
Christ and pour upon Christ all the hell that's due for our sins. Separation from God, darkness,
wrath, fierce wrath, the sorrows, the afflictions wherewith He
hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger. You've never
met an angry God yet. Someday men will. But Christ
met an angry God at Calvary as a substitute, as a representative,
as a sin offering. He met the unbridled wrath of
God. He walked the winepress of God's
wrath. He drank the bitter dregs from
the very bottom of the cup of God Almighty's indignation against
sin. God will punish sin. God will
by no means clear the guilty. He that's filthy, let him be
filthy still. He's a just God in the Savior.
You see that at Calvary? God spared not his own son. That's
what you see at Calvary. God must be just and justifier. And I'll tell you this, my friend.
These two things must be seen to have an understanding of the
death of Christ. We must see two things, substitution
and satisfaction. He's not there for his own sins.
He had no sin. He knew no sin. He's there for
somebody else's sin. He's there for my sins and your
sins. He's there for the sins of all
His elect, of all His people, of all His sheep, of all generations,
Jew and Gentile, as the stars of the sky and the sands of the
seashore. He's our substitute. You see what I'm saying? He's
our representative. As in Adam we die and Christ
we're made alive. In Adam we perish and Christ
we're restored. And He not only is our substitute,
but He made full satisfaction. He met the law of God, and he
obeyed it. He met the requirements of God,
and he fulfilled them. He met the holiness of God, and
he measured up to it. He met the justice of God, and
he took all it could give. And there at Calvary, you see
mercy and truth meeting together, and righteousness and peace kissing
each other. That's what I see in the death
of Christ. Oh, I wish I could get hold of every preacher in
the United States and in the world and take them to, not to
the Holy Land. They don't need to go over there.
There's nothing holy about that place. They need in spirit and
heart and truth, like I've tried to do today, to go back to Calvary
and sit down and shut up and watch Him there and take the
open Word of God and find out what's taking place. I don't
wish to emphasize the mechanics of the cross. above the mercy
of the cross, but they're both there. As Moses lifted up that
serpent, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. I must go to Jerusalem,
He said. I must suffer and die. He suffered
the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. He
carried out what had to be done to redeem His people. But I sit
there and look, and I marvel at His love, and I marvel at
His grace, and I marvel at His mercy. And it's stamped indelibly
on my heart. And He changes my heart and my
life and brings me to adore Him and to love Him and have the
deepest, unchanging affection, I hope a growing affection, for
Him who loved me and gave Himself for me. And that's what I want
to emphasize. Christ also emphasizes a reason
why He died. There's a reason why He lived.
There's a reason why He had to suffer. God Almighty's got to
be God. And you can't be saved at the
expense of God's holiness and God's justice and God's righteousness
and without a full display of God's mercy. And that's all it
counts for. I hear people say, well, I don't
know anything. I just know Jesus died for me. Why did he die? What did he accomplish when he
died? Why must you suffer like that? Is it nothing to you, all
you that pass by and behold my sorrows? What I see faithfully,
I see in the death of Christ the putting away, the actual
putting away of all the sins of all believers. Now, my friends,
sin is real. And I'm not talking about just
matching for a Coca-Cola or stealing a watermelon. That's not your
problem. The issue between you and God is not you stole a watermelon
one time or you went to a picture show on Sunday. That's a pack
of foolishness. Sin is a principle. Sin is a
nature. Sin is an evil rebellion against
God and sin must be dealt with and sin must be punished. And
I ask you, how is your sins going to be put away? Your sins of
imagination and thought and rebellion and pride and lust and jealousy
and envy and covetousness and all these awful sins that rule
and reign in our hearts. What's going to put them away?
God can't walk with people like us. Well, the law can't put them
away. The law just reveals it. The
works of religion can't put it away. The works of religion just
aggravate and add to our sins. Spiritual sins are as bad as,
as, uh, or lies, or worse. Baptism is not going to put away
sin. Confession is not going to be
put away sin. How is sin going to be put away? Well, sit down
at Calvary and take a look. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. That's what this book says. He
put away sin, and no Catholic priest can't do it by putting
water on you, and a Baptist preacher can't do it by shaking your hand
or praying for you. Jesus Christ is the only one
who can put away sin, and He didn't do that by hocus-pocus.
He did it by dying under the wrath of God against our sins. He paid the price. This man,
after he offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down on
the right hand of God, and God said, because He died their sins,
I'll remember no more. No more. Oh, I see in the death
of Christ, I see a death that's sufficient. You don't have to
add anything to it. It's sufficient. What can wash
away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
There's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
Sinners plunge beneath that flood. Lose all their guilty stains.
His death's effectual. And his death is final. He said
it's finished. Don't you try to add anything
to it. Jesus paid it off. All the debt I owe. Sin left
a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Now,
this message is on a cassette tape. It's called, The Death
of Deaths. Send $2. We'll mail it to you.
You'll get the address right now. Until next week, may God
bless you, everyone.

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The Death of Deaths

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