Christ Died for Our Sins

Now, 1 Corinthians 15, verse
3. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also receive, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. Christ died. Christ died for
our sins. Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. This is our ground of hope. This
is our plea for mercy. This is the eternal song of the
redeemed. This is the gospel of God's glory. This is our gospel. Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures. Years I spent in
vanity and pride, caring not. My Lord was crucified, knowing
not it was for me he died on Calvary. By God's grace at last
my sin I learned, and then I trembled at the law I'd spurned till my
guilty soul imploring turned to Calvary where Christ died. where Christ died for my sins,
where Christ died for my sins according to the scriptures.
I wish I had the power, how I covet the power, how I covet the eloquence,
how I covet the dedication, how I covet the ability to take people,
men and women, boys and girls, to Calvary. I think about old
Mount Sinai, robed in its clouds, covered with smoke, flashing
lightning, the glory of God. That's where God gave his law.
That's where the finger of God himself wrote the holy law, thou
shalt have no other God before thee. Thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven image. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. Honor thy father and thy mother.
Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Thou shalt not covet. Oh, the glory of that holy mountain
as Moses received from the hand of God the holy law of God. When
I think of the glory of Mount Horeb, there Moses, the shepherd,
oh, he graduated from the schools of Egypt. He was schooled in
all of the sciences of man. But God put him for forty years
on the backside of a desert, and one day when he was eighty
years of age, he walked up that mountain. He saw a strange and
unusual sight. He saw a bush that burned that
was not consumed. And he heard a voice speak from
that bush, saying, Moses, take off your shoes. You're on holy
ground. Go down to Egypt and tell old
Pharaoh, let my people go. When I think of the glory of
Mount Pisgah, what does the song say? And from Mount Pisgah's
lofty heights I view my home and take my flight. What happened
on Mount Pisgah? After forty years of wandering
and forty years of faithfulness and forty years of disappointment,
Moses stood on top of that mountain and got a look at the promised
land. God said, This is the land that I swear under Abraham's
seed it would be theirs forever. Take a good look, Moses, but
you'll never enter it. Moses, you can't take the people
over Jordan. You can't lead them into promised
rest because, Moses, you represent the law and the law can't save. Joshua, Jesus, Jehovah, Savior,
he'll take them over. But Moses, you look, isn't it
beautiful? And Moses died. When I think
of Mount Carmel, that was a scene of victory for Elijah. Elijah
stood after all of the prophets of Baal, had exhausted every
effort to bring fire from their God who had no ears and could
not hear, and no eyes and could not see, and no hands and could
not move. Elijah stood and prayed that
sixty-three word prayer. Lord God, let the world know
that you're God. Lord God of Abraham and Isaac
and Israel, let the world know that you're God and I'm your
servant. Let the world know that I've
done these things at your command. Let them know you're And the
fire of God fell, and not only consumed the offering, but it
consumed the altar. Not only consumed the water in
the ditch, but licked up the dust. Oh, the glory of those
mountains. And then I think of Mount Moriah. I don't know whether I could
even imagine an experience like that. Abraham had one son whom
he loved dearly. He'd sent the other one away,
God told him to. And he had one son, and in that
son were all his hopes and dreams and visions. He's an old man
now, nearing death, and that son was all he had. And God came to him one day and
said, Abraham, take that boy whom thou lovest up to Mount
Moriah, and there you offer him on the altar as a burnt offering
for me. And Abraham traveled that three days and three nights
journey, suffering, agonizing, and finally he came to that mountain
where he tied his son to the altar and raised the knife to
take his life, and God spoke again. And he said, Abraham,
now I know you love me. I know you love me more than
you love your possessions and more than you love your son and
more than you love your family. Touch not your son Abraham, look
behind you, and there caught in the thicket by its horn was
a ram, and he took that ram and put it on that altar in the place
of his son, and oh, he said, he called that place the visitation
of God, the power of God, the blessings of God, the mercy of
God, the salvation of God, Mount Moriah, but Calvary. Take all these mountains and
all their glories, Sinai, Horeb, Pisgah, Moriah, all of them,
Carmel, sum of up in one, and you don't have the glory of Calvary.
Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan, oh, the grace that brought
it down to man, oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary. Where God, with the power to
destroy his enemies with one thunderbolt from his hand, permitted
them to nail him to a cross. Calvary. Where God, who delights
to show mercy, poured out his wrath on his only begotten Son. Calvary. Their God who closed
the lily of the field left his son naked under the burning sky. Calvary. Their God who hears
the raven's call answered not the agonizing cry of his own
son. Calvary. Their God who formed
the cruel springs of earth and sends rain even on the unjust. heard Christ cry, I thirst, O,
I thirst, and move not to his side. Calvary. Their God, who never leaves us
alone, who said, Lo, I'm with you always, left Christ to die,
to walk that winepress of his wrath all alone. The holy fingers of God formed
a bow that grew the thorns that crowned his brow. The nails that
pierced his hands were mined in secret places that God designed. He made the forest whence there
sprung the tree on which his son's body hung. He died upon
a cross of wood his father made the hill on which it stood. The
sun which hid from him its face by his own hand was hung in space. The sky that darkened over his
head by him above this earth was spread. That spear that pierced
his precious blood was tempered in the fires of his father God. The grave in which his form was
laid was hewn in rocks his father made." Calvary. Calvary. Christ died. Christ
died. Christ died for my sins. Christ died for my sins at Calvary,
according to the Scriptures. Nothing greater has ever happened
or ever will happen. And my business is to preach
that gospel. The gospel is not seen as a reward
for the righteous. The gospel is not seen as a comfort
for the consecrated. The gospel is not seen as a divine
favor for the faithful. Oh, this grand and glorious gospel
of the death of God's dear Son is meant for sinners. Christ
died. Christ died for the ungodly.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I'm
the chief. God commended his love for us
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It's good news for the guilty. If you take a careful look at
God's eternal counsel, if you take a careful look at
God Almighty's covenant will show you that every act
of Christ in redemption, in his redemptive work, was for sinners. Turn with me to two or three
scriptures. Let's look at it in the word of God. Acts chapter
2. Now, my friends, you would never
have seen a Savior if there had not been a covenant of grace.
Now, you remember God declares the end from the beginning and
from ancient times the things that are not yet done. You would
never have seen a Savior if there had not been a covenant of grace,
of counsel, of mercy. The covenant of mercy gave birth
to the cross. Christ died in the purpose of
God. Listen. Christ died in the purpose
of God before man died in the Garden of Eden. That's right. The death of Calvary was no afterthought. The only way that Adam, after
the fall, could have existed, could have remained annihilated,
is because there was a cross in the purpose of God. Acts 2,
verse 23, "...him being delivered by the determinate counsel of
God, and for knowledge of God, you
have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Turn
to Acts 4, verse 26. Listen to this. The kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ for all the truth, against thy holy child
Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together
in one force to do, yes, to do what their wicked hearts wanted
to do. But that's not what it says. Yes, to do what their diabolical
mind schemed to do. They hated Christ. They hated
his holiness. They hated his gospel. They hated
the fact that he told them they were sinners. They hated substitution. They hated his sovereignty. And
they gathered together to do what they wanted to do, to destroy
him, to put him out of their sight. Away with him! But they were gathered together,
every one of them, the whole world, the forces of this world,
Herod representing Rome, Pilate, Gentiles, people of Israel, to
do whatsoever God's hand and God's counsel determined before
to be done. That gathering over yonder at
the foot of Calvary's mountain, that man bearing that cross up
that hill. as they drove those spikes in
his hand and lifted him up between two thieves, and spat upon him
and cursed him. That transaction was what man
wanted to do, what man desired to do. That humiliation to which
they subjected him was born in their own hearts. But all of
it was decreed, all of it was ordained of the Father from the
foundation of this world. Turn to 1 Peter 1, verse 18.
This is important here now. Look at it. 1 Peter 1, verse
18. For as much as you know, you were
not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers.
How were you redeemed? With the precious blood of Christ
as a lamb without blemish, without sin, without spot. Who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, what was manifested
in these last times for you who by him do believe in God, that
raised him from the dead? If there had been no sin, there
would have been no need for a covenant of grace. Grace is for the guilty. The innocent need no grace. Mercy
implies sinfulness. There can be no mercy extended
to the just. You remember these four things
if you want to jot them down in the back of your Bible, but
these are foundational truths. This is heart truth. This is
where it is. You listen to this. Christ died.
Christ died the initial death. He was the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He died before Adam died in sin. He died before Cain died physically. Christ died the initial death. And secondly, he died the official
death. It pleased God to bruise him. He was verily foreordained before
the foundation of the world. It was official! Some things have to be official
or they're not worth the paper they're written on. When a young couple comes to
me to get married, they bring a license. And I look at that
license. It's got to have the seal of
the state of Kentucky on it. It's got to be official. It's
got to have the signature of the county court clerk. It's
got to be official. And I'll tell you, he died not
only the initial death, But he died the official death. He was
the anointed one. He was the appointed one. He
died the official death. For he's got to prove him. And
then he died the judicial death. The just for the unjust. God
was satisfying his justice. God was honoring his law. God
was sitting on the throne, God was meeting out righteous judgment,
and Christ was numbered with the transgressors, and He died
the judicial death, and then last of all, He died the sacrificial
death. For all of those Old Testament
sacrifices, all of those atoning sacrifices, all of those representative
sacrifices, He made His soul an offering, a sacrifice, Without
the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness! All the blood
of bulls and goats on Jewish altars slain cannot take away
my sin, cannot remove the stain, but Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
has come! And by one sacrifice He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified." One look back yonder in that
covenant of mercy reveals to me that his sacrifice, his death,
was for sinners. Sinners. And then one look at
his incarnation reveals to me that he died for sinners. When
the angel came, he said, Joseph, don't be afraid to take Mary
to be your wife. That holy thing which is in her
is of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sin. That's why he's
coming. That's why he's coming. the Son of Man is come to seek
and to save that which was lost, that's why he came. This is a
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, not to try to save them, not
to enable them to save themselves, not to take the edge off the
law so they can keep it, not to lessen the requirements
of God's holiness so they can meet He came to save, effectually,
sufficiently, totally. Our Lord was born in that manger
where the shadow of the cross upon Him. He came to die. That's why He came. As electricity
existed before it was discovered, right? It was there. One day
man found it. It was there all the time. America,
this continent. It was here all the time. One
day Columbus found it. Gold lay in the ground before
man dug it. So the cross was no incident
in the life of our Lord, but an eternal transaction in the
purpose and mind and plan of the Heavenly Father. And one
day Christ came and perfected it. See what I'm saying? The cross, the shadow of the
cross, stood over Eden's garden. The shadow of the cross stood
over that Passover lamb that was slain in Egypt. The shadow
of the cross stretched its way across that tabernacle in the
wilderness. The shadow of the cross came
down upon that manger in Bethlehem. The shadow of the cross reached
all the way across that garden of Gethsemane, till one day that
cross became a reality. And the earth heard, as God had
planned all these centuries, the earth heard the pounding
of the nails as they were driven in His hand. that blood of which
every Jewish sacrifice was a tithe, finally streamed forth from his
veins, and his arteries indripped upon the ground. That was real,
but it was real in God's purpose before it ever shank. It was
real. His name means And then his greatest trophies. He always found his greatest
trophies among sinners. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous. They have no need. They have
no need of repentance. Ask them as the whale has no
need of a physician. I came to call sinners. And our
Lord went up into that land of the Gadarenes, a strange place
full of strange people. Where will he get his trophy
of grace in that land? Well, there are the doctors and
the lawyers and the rabbis and the Sadducees and the Pharisees
and all these folks up there. Who will he call? To whom will
he reveal himself? You know, the talk of the town
was about an old boy that lost his mind. He was up there in
the tombs. They bound him. He had the mark
of chains on his arms and his legs. They bound him, but they
couldn't contain him. He'd break the chains. He roamed
among the tombs in the cemetery. He screamed and hollered. He
was possessed of evil spirits. And our Master came to that town,
and our Master called him out. and made him a trophy of his
grace. Huh? That's right. The rest of
those people told him to leave their shores and not come back.
But I'll tell you, when he left those shores, he left a trophy
of his grace, clothing in his right mind and praising God. He went down there in a land
called Samaria. There were a lot of fine folks down there, Lot of fine folks, you know,
never tasted a drop of liquor, never went to a picture show,
never done this, never done that. But our Lord found a woman out
there by the well. Everybody who was anybody turned
thumbs down on her. She'd been married five, six
times. She was living with a man that wasn't her husband. She
came to the well at noon because she knew it was so hot nobody'd
be there. But he was there. He was there. And he saved her
soul, and he revealed himself to her, and he made her whole.
And he left that place, he left a trophy of his grace. It wasn't
who you thought he'd leave, but that's who he left. That way
he gets all the glory. See, the preacher doesn't get
it, and mama doesn't get it, and the church doesn't get it,
and the denomination, the Holy Spirit doesn't get the glory,
Christ does. He went to Simon's house one
day. A lot of folks had gathered there. It was quite an important
gathering. They were going to hear this young prophet that
had come to town named Jesus. They had everybody that was anybody
there at Simon's house that day. Simon, of course, was the host,
and he was the most religious, and so he got the uppermost seat,
and all his cohorts were around him. And they were sitting around
the table, and they were all watching this man, Jesus. And
there was a harlot who came into that place and wept and bathed
his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair over her head.
And when our Lord left there, he left a trophy of his grace.
You know who it was? It wasn't Simon. And it wasn't
any of the preachers. It was that harlot. He saved
her. He said, Woman, thy faith hath
made thee whole. Thy sins be forgiven. He went
to the cross. And everybody in Jerusalem was
out there for that hanging. They were bloodthirsty people.
They liked to watch this sort of thing. And they were out there.
And our Lord, when he died, took a trophy of grace for paradise. Where did he get it? On a cross. That's where he got it. He picked
out the most unlikely, the most unlikely sinner there. He picked out the one you wouldn't
have He picked out the one the religious folks wasn't a witness
to. He picked out the one that'd
gone too far. He picked out the dying thief.
Let the rest of them go to hell. And he said, today thou shalt
be with me in paradise. Pardon's for the guilty. Don't
need pardon if you're not guilty. Forgiveness is for the sinful. You don't need forgiveness if
you're not sinful. Justification is for those who
are lost. You don't need it if you're not
lost. Righteousness is for the unrighteous. Every invitation
our Lord ever gave was to somebody in need. Oh, He charged us in
the book of Revelation. He said, You're rich and increased
with goods. You don't need anything. You
don't need God. You're good enough to make it alone. You're strong
enough to stand alone. You're rich enough to exist alone. You don't know you're naked and
miserable and poor and blind and have need of all things.
But somebody does. Somebody knows that. And God's
going to find him. And by his word and by his Spirit,
he's going to deliver the good news to him. Christ died for
you. He came to clothe the naked.
He came to give sight to the blind. He came to set the captive
free. He came to lift the heavy burden.
Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Can't do
anything about that load of guilt and that load of depression.
You can't do anything about that load. You come to me, I'll do
something about it. I'll do something about it. Come
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you
rest. A careful look at that cause
itself will reveal that it was for sinners. Why the agony of
the cause? Why the brutal suffering of the
cause? Why the thirst and the pain?
Why the desertion of the Father? I'll tell you why. He was wounded for our transgression,
that's why. He was bruised for our iniquities,
that's why. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. That's why he bore our griefs
and sorrows, our sicknesses and diseases of sin. That's why. That's why. God will punish sin. God must punish sin. And God
will either punish sin in you or in your substitute, Jesus
Christ. Somebody's got to pay for sin. Thank God he paid for
mine. All the debt I owed, sin left
to crimson stain, but he washed it as white as snow. A careful
look at his heavenly ministry right now will reveal to you
that he died, his work, his redemptive work was for sinners. Sinners. It says, he ever liveth to make
intercession for us, seeing that we have a high priest over the
house of God, let us come with boldness before the throne of
grace, that we may find mercy, mercy, mercy, that we may find
what? Mercy. O God, be merciful to
me, the sinner. Christ died. Christ died for
my sins. You think about that. You think
about that. Christ died for my sins according
to the scriptures. Oh, Dr. A. J. Gordon pastored
a church up in Boston, oh, I don't know how many years, a long,
long time. He was a compassionate man. One day he was walking down the
street, this was years and years and years ago, he'd been dead
long and I'd been living, walking down the street one day and he
met one of his Sunday school boys and the little boy was coming
down the street carrying a cage and in that cage were two little
frightened, trembling, scared field birds. And Dr. Gordon said he saw him and he
felt so sorry for him, and that little old boy was smiling, you
know, carrying those birds in that little homemade cage, and
he stopped him and said, son, where'd you get the birds? He
said, I caught them. He said, what you gonna do with
them? He said, well, I'm gonna play with them. I get tired of
playing with them if I give them to the cat. Dr. Gordon said, wouldn't you want
to sell them, would you? Nah, he said, but you don't want
these old birds they can't sing, and they're not pretty. They're
just old field birds, they're no good. And besides that, you
can get you all you want, they're all over the place. Nah, Dr. Gordon said, I'd sure like to
have those two birds right there. Would you sell them to me? Yeah,
I'll sell them to you. Two dollars, cage and all. Now
he said, I'll take them. Had a lot of money back then.
He reached in his pocket and he pulled out two one-dollar
bills and gave them to that little boy and he said, now they're
mine. That's right, preacher, cage and all. They're yours.
You bought them. You paid for them. They belong to you. Dr. Gordon just stood there and held
them. The little boy told him goodbye and he walked off down the street
and Gordon stood there and watched him walk. Every once in a while
he'd turn back and shake his head. extravagant preacher, wasting
good money on field birds. Well, his money let him throw
away if he wants to, and he went on turning the corner, and when
he did, Dr. Gorham held that cage up in there,
and he twisted the wire off the door and opened it up and patted
the back of it, and he said, All right, little bird, I bought
you. You belong to me. I'm setting
you free. And he said those little birds,
both of them almost at the same time, caught sight of that open
door, and they twisted around a little bit and shivered and
looked around, and then out the door one of them went right behind
him, out the other one went. He said as they soared through
the sky up yonder, he could almost hear them say, Redeemed, redeemed,
redeemed. One day our Lord Jesus Christ,
back yonder in God's eternal counsel, met the holy law and justice
of a righteous God, which legally had me in bondage. And you? Captured captives, bound,
enslaved. What are you going to do with
those birds? Going to destroy them. broken the law, they're
guilty, they're under condemnation, they're going to be destroyed. I'd like to buy them. Lord, they're
no good. I know it, I made them. Lord, they can't sing, they got
no talent, they Lord, you could make the rocks cry out, you don't
need these, old bird. There's plenty more, Lord. You
can raise up of the stones, children of Abraham. What do you want
with these? I want those. I want those. I love them. I pity them. I want them. What'll it cost?
Justice said it'll cost the gold of your blood and the silver
of your sweat. He said, I'll pay it. He went
to the cross and there He paid the price, all that the holy
law of God demanded, all that the justice of God required.
He paid it in full, all of it, not a down payment, all of it. And he said to me one day by
his spirit, I bought you, you're bought with a price, you're not
your own, you belong to me, and I choose to set you free. Free
from the law, oh happy condition, Jesus has died and there is remission. Cursed by the law, slain by the
fall, but Christ hath redeemed me once for all. And that's the
reason I'm saying redeem, redeem, set free. There is no condemnation
to them who are in Christ. Who can condemn me? Who can owe
anything to the charge of God's elect? You go on building your
little tower of Baal to heaven, it'll crumble before you get
there. You go on climbing up your ladder of profession, baptism,
second work of grace, consecration, sinless perfection, all these
degrees to glory, and I guarantee you that letter won't be long
enough. You go right on. That's your privilege. You go
on striving for acceptance, laying the foundation by your own righteousness. You go on. I'm going to Calvary. I'm going to stay there. I'm
going to stay there. I've been to Calvary. I can say
I've seen the Lord. I've been to Calvary through
the witness of his words. Each day at Calvary, what a thrill
of love divine, just to think Christ died for my sins. Just to know Christ died for
my sins. Just to feel Christ died for
my sins. I don't I don't need anything else. Our
Father in heaven, praise thy matchless name for thy matchless
grace. Praise thy name for Christ and
his precious blood that cleanseth us from all sins, washes us from
every stain. Thank you, Lord, for saving our
souls. Thank you, Lord, for making us
whole. Thank you, Lord, for setting us free. Thank you, Lord. Take us to Calvary. Let everybody
here this morning, everybody, especially those who don't know
the Savior, get a glimpse of Calvary. In his name we pray,
amen.

Christ Died for Our Sins

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