I want you to open your Bibles
with me to the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter 3, verse 18. Now, my subject today is, why
did Jesus Christ have to die on the cross? Now, we read in the Bible, we
hear preachers preach about it, people talk about it, Jesus Christ
died on the cross. He suffered an ignominious, painful,
terrible death on that cross. And my question today is, why
did Jesus Christ have to die on the cross? And here in 1 Peter
3, 18, it says, For Christ also hath once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." Now,
that's a key. He suffered the just for the
unjust, that he might bring us to God. Being put to death in
the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Now, in introducing this
message, I want us to look at some things clearly revealed
in God's Word, very positively, and clearly reveal, the first
of which is this. Now, if you want to jot these
down, you may do so. I'll give them to you very slowly
and clearly. Here's the first thing that we
know beyond a shadow of a doubt. This is clearly revealed in God's
Word. That is, our God is eternal,
and our God is almighty. The Scripture says, from everlasting
to everlasting Thou art God. And the Lord God said in Isaiah
46, now, there are two chapters in Isaiah that you need to read
in reference to God's eternality and God's sovereignty. And that's
Isaiah 45 and 46. And he says in Isaiah 45, first
of all, he says, I am the Lord, and there's none else. There's
no God beside me. I form the light, I create darkness,
I make peace, I create evil, I, the Lord, do all these things. God is almighty. By Him, in Him,
all things exist. And then in Isaiah 46, he says,
my counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. I
have spoken it, I will bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will do it. Now, it won't help
our situation any to compromise the character of God. The Scripture
says, let God be God, and every man a liar. Whatever your thoughts
or opinion concerning God may be, let it be a lie. If it compromises
the character of God, it's not going to help us. It's not going
to improve our situation to compromise the character of God. So let
this be established from the Scriptures. It's like Nebuchadnezzar
the king said when he came to his senses. He said, The Most
High ruleth in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. God is eternal,
from everlasting to everlasting, and God is almighty. All right. Secondly, our God is not only
eternal and almighty, but our God is holy. God is holy. Holy and reverend is His name. The chief attribute of the living
God is His holiness. The Scripture says God is in
His holy temple. He commands His holy angels. He dwelleth in the holy of holies. between the cherubims on the
mercy seat. And when Isaiah saw the Lord,
he said, the seraphims around the throne of God cried, Holy,
Holy, Holy Lord, God of hosts. And the chief priest of Israel,
who came into the presence of the Lord on the day of atonement
with a blood sacrifice, came in with this inscription across
his forehead, Holiness, to the Lord. Our God is holy and He
dwells in a light to which no man can approach. Do you see
that? Now, these are things that we
know. These are things that are clearly revealed and established
in the Word of God. Our God is eternal. Our God is
almighty. And secondly, our God is holy. Holy and reverent is His name.
The holiness of God is indescribable. The holiness of God is incomprehensible. The holiness of God by man is
unapproachable. Who can stand in His holy presence? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who has never lifted up his soul to vanity, and never
spoken deceitfully. God is holy. All right. Thirdly, these things we know.
We are sinners. Do you have any doubt about that?
If you have any doubt about that, look into the Word of God. If
you have any doubt about your sinnerhood, look into your own
heart. If you have any doubt about this truth, look at the
character of God. When Isaiah saw the character
of God, the holiness of God, he cried, I'm undone, I'm cut
off. When Daniel saw the holiness
of God, he said, my comeliness melted into corruption. When
Job saw the holiness of God, he said, I abhor myself. I repent in sackcloth and ashes. We are sinners. We're sinners
in Adam. In Adam all died. By one man,
sin entered this world, and death by sin. So death passed upon
all men. We're sinners not only in Adam,
but we're sinners by birth. David cried, in sin my mother
conceived me. I was shapen in iniquity. I was
brought forth from the womb, speaking lies. We're sinners
by birth, and we're sinners, all of us, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. God said in Psalm 14 that
He looked down from heaven to see if there were any that did
understand. He said they're all gone out
of the way. They're all together become filthy,
and the Word is stinking. There's none good, no, not one.
There's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. In fact, the Lord God said, every imagination of man's heart
is only evil continually. And this sinfulness is a nature. It's not just a deed, it's not
just an action, it's a nature. And it's a nature from which
all our actions flow. We do what we do because we are
what we are. We aren't what we are because
we do what we do. We do what we do because we are
what we are. We're sinners. And in the flesh,
no man can please a holy God. In the flesh, well, it's no good
thing. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Now, that's the truth. That's
what the Word of God declares. If you're still with me, let's
go to the fourth thing. Now, this is clearly revealed
in the Word of God. Our God is holy, our God is eternal,
our God is almighty, and we're sinners. Now, here's the fourth
thing. This nature of sin with which we are born, this nature
of sin with which we are plagued, this nature of sin that dwells
within us, a principle of evil, that makes it much easier to
do evil than to do good, to think evil than to think good, this
nature of sin, listen to me, is impossible to change. I care
not what any man may say. It's impossible to change." Jeremiah
the prophet said that. He said, can the black man change
his skin? Can the leopard change his spots? Neither can you do good who are
accustomed to doing evil. Paul said that. He said, the
carnal mind, the natural mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law
of God. Neither, indeed, can it be."
Neither, indeed, can it be. John 5, 40, our Lord said that,
"...you will not come to me, that you might have life. Let
another come in his own name, he said, and him you will receive.
I have come in my Father's name, and you receive me not." It's
cannot and will not. The carnal mind, the principle
of sin, This body of sin, this nature of sin is impossible to
change. It cannot change and it will
not change. This is the condemnation, that
light is coming to this world. And men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds are evil. And the prophet said,
your sins have separated you and your God. It's your sins
that have separated you and God. And that sinful nature is impossible
to change. One day the disciples asked the
Lord, they said, well, who then can be saved? He said, with men,
it's impossible. With men, it's impossible. All right, here's the fifth thing.
Now, here's the good news. Here's the good news. Almighty
God is not only holy, just, and righteous, but God is love. God is love. That's what the
scripture says. It doesn't say God is a God of
love. It says God is love. Just as
God is holy, just as God is righteous, God is love and God is merciful. One day Moses said to the Lord,
Lord, show me your glory. Show me your glory, your chief
glory, your greatest glory. Show me your glory. Now Moses
had seen a lot of things. He'd seen the plague in Egypt.
He'd seen the divided sea. He'd seen the manna on the ground
in the morning. He'd seen the smitten rock. He'd seen all these things. But
he knew in his heart he had not seen the chief glory of God.
And this is what he asked, Lord, show me your chief glory. This
is found in Exodus 33, 18 and 19. And the Lord replied, I will cause my goodness to pass
before thee." God's goodness is his glory. He said, I will
be merciful to whom I will be merciful. I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. That's my glory. In Exodus 34,
in the very next chapter, he said, the Lord God, proclaiming
the name of the Lord God, merciful and gracious, Yes, holy and righteous,
but merciful and gracious. The Lord God, long-suffering
and abundant in goodness, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, forgiving transgression
and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. What are you
saying, preacher? I'm saying God is love. God is
merciful. God is gracious. You know, David
said in Psalm 130, If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquity, who
shall stand? Will you? Will I? If God should
charge and mark and hold accountable every sin, every stain, every
transgression, who's gonna stand? Who shall stand? But David didn't
stop there. He said, but, but there is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. In other words, God is
merciful. God is love. And God's love,
like God's holiness, must be expressed. God's love and mercy,
like His truth and justice, must be expressed. It must be revealed. God must, must be merciful. And God will be. He has determined
and decreed and designed to have a people, populate heaven in
happiness and glory, a people like his dear son. Now then,
but, he said, did you notice that last line? He said, I proclaim
the name of the Lord God, the Lord God merciful and gracious,
longsuffering and abundant in goodness, the Lord God keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and sin, who will by
no means clear the guilty." But you say, I'm guilty. So am I.
And so is every other son of Adam. Every human being is guilty. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. What the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God. God will by no means
clear the guilty. All right. If God will forgive
sin, and God will pardon the guilty, then this pardon and
this mercy must be done, it must be accomplished in a way consistent
with His holiness. And that's the sixth thing that
we know beyond a shadow of a doubt. If God shows His love, it will
be a holy love. If God reveals mercy, it will
be mercy in agreement with holiness. If God is gracious, It will be
grace revealed consistent with his righteousness. It must be. This is what gave birth to the
gospel. This is not complicated. It's
just so. This is what gave birth to the
gospel. This is the good news of the gospel. This is what Moses
wrote about. Our Lord said, Moses wrote of
me. And this is what Moses wrote about. This gospel of redemption. This gospel of salvation. according to the righteousness
and holiness of God. This is what Abraham saw. This
is what made him glad. This is what the angels sang
about at Bethlehem when they said, We bring you good tidings
of great joy, which shall be to all people under you as born
this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this is what the Bible's
all about, how God can be just and yet justify the ungodly. How God can be righteous and
true and yet show His mercy and love and forgiveness to sinners.
He sent His Son into the world. Now stay with me and listen carefully.
In the fullness of time, in God's own time, in the fullness of
God's grand design, which was purposed from all eternity, God
doesn't change. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. What God does today, He's always done. What God decrees
today, He's always decreed. He does not change. He never
learns anything or forgets anything. Almighty God, in the fullness
of time, when it pleased God, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ,
His eternal Son, into the world, born of a virgin. He said, I'll
give you a sign, Isaiah 7, 14. The Lord Himself will give you
a sign. A virgin shall be with child. And she shall bring forth
a son, and call his name Immanuel, God with us. He said in Isaiah
9, 6, Under us a child is born, a son is given. That child is
born, but that son, eternal, only begotten, well-beloved Son
of God, who inhabited that body of the virgin's child, is given. And his name shall be called
Wonderful. The government shall be upon his shoulders. His name
shall be called Counselor. The mighty God, the everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace, He came into this world to save
sinners, Paul said, of whom I'm chief. And that's a faithful
saying, and it's worthy of acceptation by all men. And He was made flesh,
John said, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. And
He perfectly obeyed God's law. He was tempted in all points
as we are, yet never did He sin. And He died. This is the thing
we're talking about. He died on a cruel cross, and
it wasn't an accident. It said it pleased God to bruise
him. It wasn't an accident. It pleased
God to bruise him. He was smitten of God and afflicted. And when Peter talked about his
death on the cross on the Pentecost during that great sermon, He
said, you with wicked hands crucified the Lord of glory, but you did
what God determined before to be done. God is the first cause
of all things. He was smitten of God. He said,
no man takes my life from me. I lay it down. I have the power
to lay it down or take it up. But he died. God not only permitted
his death, he decreed it. God not only permitted men to
crucify his Son, but he was smitten of God and afflicted, carrying
out the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, and he
died. And he was taken down from that
cross and buried in a tomb, and he arose and ascended to glory,
where he is seated at the right hand of God. And that's the message
of the Gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth on the Son
hath life, He that believeth not the Son of God shall never
see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." This is the
record that God has given us eternal life, and this life is
in His Son. And he that hath the Son of God
hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God shall never see
life. And there's none other name unto
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. So this is
a fact, this is true, this is according to the Word of God.
Christ the Lord, Christ the Son of God, came to this earth and
became a man. Now the question rises, why was
it necessary for Him to become a man? Why was it necessary for
Him to live a perfect life on this earth? Why was it necessary
for Him to die on a cross? Why is Jesus Christ and His death
on that cross the only way for sinners to come to God? There's
no question that's what the Word of God says. I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. None other name unto heaven given
among men. Other foundation can no man lay
that is laid. I'm the door, by me if any man
enter in. Why is all of this necessary?
Well, I'll answer it. in a twofold manner. Number one,
the answer is set forth clearly in the Word of God. The Word
of God says this in Isaiah 45, God declares, before he said,
look unto me and be ye saved, we're all familiar with that
scripture. Before he said that, he declared, I am a just God
and a Savior. I am both. I am just and I am
a Savior. I am holy and I am merciful. I am righteous and I am loved,
both. How can he be both? He said in
Romans chapter 3, he sent forth Christ, Jesus, to be a propitiation,
a mercy seat, a sin offering, a covering for sin, that God
may be just and the justifier of those who believe on Christ.
In our text, He suffered the just for the unjust that He might
bring us to God. And II Corinthians 5.21 says
this, Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin for us in order
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Galatians 3.13
says this, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law
being made a curse for us. In other words, all of these
verses of Scripture saying this, in order for God to be just,
holy, and righteous, and yet show His mercy, grace, and love,
our debt had to be paid. His law had to be honored. His
justice had to be satisfied. And a sinner, a man, had to die. And that law being honored and
satisfied, And that man died, honored the law, and satisfied
the justice of God. In other words, learn two words.
Substitution, Christ took our place. Satisfaction, he honored
the law, satisfied God's justice. Now here's an illustration. The
second way I want to deal with it. In the days of Daniel, you know
most people think about Daniel in the lion's den, that's all
they know about it. But there was a great king named
Darius, and he had three presidents over his kingdom, of which Daniel
was one, and 120 princes. And these other men were jealous
of Daniel, because he was the favorite of the king. And so
they came to the king one day, they came up with this plan.
They said, let's go to the king, and let's make this proposal,
that if any man pray to any god, or ask a petition of any man
other than the king for 30 days, throw him in the lion's den.
And so they went to the king and they said, we want to honor
you, O king. They said, here's what we want you to do. We want
you to sign a decree, sign a law that if any man or woman prays
to any god or ask a petition of any man except you for 30
days, we'll throw him in the lion's den. The king said, that's
a good petition. That's a good way to honor me.
So he signed the law, the law of the Medes and Persians, which
could not be changed. Well, they knew that Daniel would
pray. They went down to his house, and he was praying. So they brought
him before the king, and they said, oh, King Daniel's already
violated the decree, and he can't be changed. It's a law, and he
can't be changed. You got to throw him in the lion's
den. Well, the king was angry with himself, upset with himself,
and he walked the floor all night, but he couldn't figure out a
way to deliver Daniel. So he came to him, and he said, Daniel,
That's the law. I signed it. Can't be changed.
You'll have to be thrown in the lion's den. And I hope your God
will deliver you. So he took Daniel and threw him
in the lion's den. And you know God did deliver
him. But here's the point I'm making. King Darius' law could
not be changed. It was an unalterable, unchangeable
law signed by the king. And when a man violated it, he
had to suffer the just punishment. Let me tell you this. The laws
of the God of heaven because of His holiness and justice and
righteousness cannot be changed. They cannot be altered. They're
eternal. And the soul that sinneth, it'll
die. The wages of sin is death. And so you and I have sinned.
We've broken God's law. We're guilty. We've got to die.
The law says we're guilty. And the curse of the law is upon
us and the judgment of God is upon us. What are we going to
do? Be cast into hell, into the lion's den of eternity? Oh, no. Christ came down here, the innocent
for the guilty, the just for the unjust. Our Lord Jesus Christ
became a man, and He did what we couldn't do. He honored God's
law. He obeyed God's law. He kept
God's law. He did what we couldn't do. The
law said we must die. He went to the cross and died.
He paid the debt. He satisfied God's justice and
satisfied God's law. He didn't die as a reformer.
He didn't die as a martyr. He didn't die as an example.
He died as a substitute and helped others free. If King Darius had
found a substitute, he could have set Daniel free. But no
substitute was found. The guilty had to die. And the
reason Christ could die for us is He was numbered with the transgressors. He actually bore our guilt and
bore our sin and paid for them. And now God can forgive us, pardon
us, and set us free because Christ paid the debt. honored justice,
satisfied the law, and God can be just and justify you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he had to die on the
cross, in order that God may be just and justify you and me. We have this message on a cassette
tape. If you'd like to have it, send
two dollars. We have two messages on one tape.
We'll send you both messages on the one tape. Until next week,
may God bless you, everyone.