The Glory of the Cross

 

 

“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”

Galatians 6:14

Introduction:

1. Today we consider nothing new. But we remember the old, old story of Jesus and His loving death.
2. He told us that the communion was to remember His death until He comes (I Corinthians 11:24-26).
3. The simplicity that is in Christ Jesus is something we are to protect and promote (II Cor 11:3; Col 2:8).
4. As we learned in Proverbs 28:5, we have understanding of all things. Let us be grounded in them.
5. There is nothing to comfort your soul and provoke your zeal as much as the simple gospel of Christ.
6. If we were reading by candlelight in the catacombs, with some of our number being held for Roman sport in the Coliseum, you would hear and rejoice at these glad tidings and details with great pleasure!
7. If we were reading a list of prizes given to you by lottery, you would rejoice! You better rejoice now!
8. Since the New Testament does not set the order for an assembly, we shall intersperse some singing.
9. What are you? A creature of a great Creator! Who are you? A rational rebel against that Creator! What have you done? Sinned against the Most High! What do you deserve? Everlasting punishment!

The PREDICAMENT

1. Our first parents sinned and damned our race to an eternity of just suffering (Gen 2:17).
2. God is holy, just, jealous, and furious; He will not acquit the guilty (Ex 34:7; Nah 1:3).

The PENALTY

1. The soul that sins shall die (Ezek 18:4). We were warned, but we chose sin (Rom 6:23).
2. We are born dead spiritually, die physically in a few years, and will be cast at the last day into the Lake of Fire, which is the second death (Rev 20:14-15).
3. It is appointed unto men to die, but after this the judgment, which is worse (Heb 9:27).

The PURPOSE

1. God was not surprised in Eden whatsoever (Acts 15:18). He had planned sin all along.
2. He could have kept Satan out of the Garden as easily as He later kept Adam out of it.
3. He could have kept Adam from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as easily as He later kept him from the tree of life (Gen 3:24).
4. Man did not force His hand and require a remedy. The LORD had created for Himself.
5. The Lord made all things for Himself and His own pleasure (Proverbs 16:4; Rev 4:11).
6. He intends to display to rational creatures the infinite glory of divine love and wrath!
7. The entire history of the world is just a small stage on which the LORD plays out a drama of His glory and power in the wise government of creatures for His own glory.
8. Scripture says before the world was created, He had chosen His elect, promised eternal life, ordained Jesus Christ, put our names in the Book of Life, given us grace, etc., etc.

The PROPHECY

1. The LORD God told Satan in Eden that Eve’s Seed would bruise his head (Gen 3:15).
2. Before we leave Genesis, Jacob blessed Judah with the coming Shiloh (Genesis 49:10).
3. David by inspiration wrote in graphic detail of our Lord’s crucifixion agony (Psalm 22).
4. David by inspiration wrote in detail of our Lord’s crucifixion sufferings (Psalm 69).
5. Isaiah by inspiration wrote of some of His sufferings as the sacrifice for sin (Is 50:4-9).
6. Isaiah by inspiration wrote of God’s servant’s substitutionary death (Is 52:13 – 53:12).
7. Caiaphas by inspiration spoke ignorantly of His substitutionary death (John 11:47-53).

The PERSON

1. A human descendant of David (both Mary and Joseph) was raised up to die on a cross.
2. He was of the tribe of Judah, and in David’s royal lineage, as had been prophesied.
3. He was born of a virgin to escape the legal connection and vital connection to Adam.
4. He was the Word of God made flesh, Emmanuel, God Himself, the Everlasting Father, and the Mighty God (Is 7:14; 9:6). The zeal of the LORD of hosts would bring it about.
5. He was holy, separate from sinners, and absolutely immaculate from sin (Heb 7:26).

The PLAN

1. Our Lord’s crucifixion was not a remedial plan after Adam sinned in Eden, for God had purposed the grand scheme of redemption long before He created (Ac 15:18; Ps 115:3).
2. Redemption and the climactic Day of Judgment are according to the determinate counsel of the eternal God (Acts 2:23; 4:28; Rom 8:29-30; Eph 1:3-12; Titus 1:2).
3. Jesus was foreordained before the world began to die the death of deaths (I Peter 1:20).
4. His blood is not only a precious matter of time, but of eternity (Heb 13:20; I Peter 1:2).
5. Moses had established long before the curse of hanging on a tree (Deu 21:23; Gal 3:13).

The PERIOD

1. All events of time and providence moved toward this grand event (Daniel 9:24-27).
2. It was the fullness of time when the Son of God came to die (Gal 4 4-5; Eph 1:10).
3. It was said, “The time is at hand,” and, “The time is fulfilled” (Mark 1:15; Matt 26:18).

The PEOPLE

1. Jesus laid down His life for His sheep (John 10:11,26-29; Heb 13:20; Matt 25:31-33).
2. Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it (Ep 5:25). Should men love all women?
3. The Father’s will was for Him to save those He had given Him without a loss (Jn 6:39).
4. He will profess to many that He never knew them, for He never loved them (Matt 7:23).
5. The love of God and His redemptive sacrifice is sure to all His people (Rom 8:29-39).

The PRAYERS

1. He prayed before His death a glorious prayer of salvation and fellowship (John 17).
2. He prayed in Gethsemane with great fervency (Luke 22:44) and was heard (Heb 5:7-8).
3. And He prayed on the cross several times we are told (Matt 27:46; Luke 23:34; 23:46).

The PRICE

1. Judas betrayed Him for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave (Zechariah 11:12-13).
2. See Exodus 21:32 to understand that thirty pieces of silver was the price of a slave.
3. Judas returned the money, for He knew Jesus was an innocent Man (Matthew 27:1-10).
4. Was it by Jeremiah or Zechariah? It was spoken by Jeremiah, written by Zechariah.

The PLACE

1. Luke writes Theophilus that the crucifixion took place at Calvary (Luke 23:33).
2. In Hebrew the place was Golgotha, the place of the skull (Mark 15:22; John 19:17).
3. Jesus was crucified outside the city of Jerusalem, outside the camp (Hebrews 13:11-13).
4. He was both the bullock and goats of the figurative Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16).
5. And the call is made for us to forsake this world and go to Him outside the camp.

The PAIN

1. There were the physical aspects of His crucifixion that we often read and consider.
2. But there are also the nonphysical elements of His sufferings that we often neglect.
3. And there was the spiritual conflict He had extensively with the devil and his angels.
4. And He became sin for us, enduring guilt and shame, and was forsaken of His Father.
5. See the sermon outline entitled, “The Cross of Christ,” dated November 28, 1999.

The PARTICIPATION

1. There was no participation, for our Lord Jesus purged our sins by himself (Heb 1:3).
2. The disciples all forsook Him and ran, so there was no assistance by the apostles.
3. It is by the obedience of One we are made righteous and just before God (Ro 5:12-19).
4. God chose One out of the people and laid help upon Him alone (Psalm 89:19).

The PASSIVITY

1. Our Lord Jesus went to His crucifixion death as a meek Lamb to the slaughter (Is 53:7).
2. Though he knocked them down with His “I am He,” He went submissively (John 18:6).
3. “He could have called ten thousand angels to destroy the world and set Him free, but He died alone for you and me” (Matthew 26:53).
4. They blindfolded Him and smote Him, daring Him to tell whom had hit Him (Luke 22:64). He could have told them their ancestors or their future in hell, but He did not.

The PASSION

1. Jesus had tender compassion for the thief who asked for mercy (Luke 23:40-43).
2. Jesus had tender regard for the ignorant Roman soldiers at the cross (Luke 23:34).
3. Jesus had tender regard for his mother, even at the hour of His death (John 19:25-27).

The POWER

1. Pilate’s wife suffered many things because of Jesus in a dream that day (Matt 27:19).
2. For three hours he hung on the cross, there was darkness over all the land (Matt 27:45).
3. A great earthquake tore rocks and opened graves for many saints to rise (Mat 27:50-54).
4. The temple veil, where God had dwelt, was torn in two from top to bottom (Mat 27:51).
5. These events were powerful enough to cause the centurion to confess (Matthew 27:54).

The PRIEST

1. Jesus forgave the thief and promised him eternal life in Paradise (Luke 23:40-43).
2. Jesus forgave the Roman soldiers parting his garments and casting lots (Luke 23:34).
3. Jesus took His blood through the eternal Spirit and entered heaven for us (Heb 9:11-14).
4. Jesus opened up a new and living way directly to God our Father (Hebrews 10:19-22).
5. See the sermon or outline entitled, “Our Great High Priest,” dated August 4, 2002.

The PROPERTIES

1. It was a substitutionary death of the just for sinners (Is 53:5-6; I Pet 2:24; II Cor 5:21).
2. It was a representative death of the representative for his constituents (Rom 5:12-19).
3. It was not a mere martyr’s death for faith in God or a good example of brotherly love.

The POVERTY

1. Our Lord Jesus was rich, but He became poor that we might be made rich (II Cor 8:9).
2. He was born to poor parents in a stable; His mother paid the poor woman’s offering for her purification; He had no permanent dwelling place; His last Passover was in a borrowed room; and He was buried in another man’s tomb. Women supported him.

The PLEASURE

1. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus took pleasure in His glorious death (Is 53:10).
2. And the pleasure of the Lord, salvation of His elect, prospered in His hand (Is 53:10).

The PEACE

1. The prophecy had been of coming peace in the rebuilt house at Jerusalem (Haggai 2:7).
2. He was the Prince of Peace (Is 9:6), and He brought peace by His blood (Col 1:20).

The PARDON

1. The comforting message of the gospel is the pardon we have in Christ Jesus (Is 40:1-2).
2. We are not barely pardoned, for God punished double for our sins in Christ Jesus.
3. And we are not pardoned against justice by clearing guilty parties, but by Justice!
4. Our presidents may pardon criminals, but God cannot do this (Ex 34:7; Nahum 1:3).

The PROFIT

1. We were justified – made legally righteous before God – by His blood (Romans 5:9).
2. We were reconciled – restored to friendly terms with God – by His death (Rom 5:10).
3. We were accepted – received as favorable objects by God – by His death (Eph 1:6).
4. We were adopted – purchased as sons from hell’s orphanage – by His death (Gal 4:5).
5. We were redeemed – bought back from just condemnation – by His death (I Pet 1:18).
6. We were washed – our sins purged away in God’s sight – by His blood (Rev 1:5).
7. We were sanctified – made formally holy before God – by His death (Hebrews 10:10).
8. He became our atonement – sacrificial gift of appeasement – by His death (Rom 5:11).
9. He became our propitiation – sacrificial gift of appeasement – by death (Romans 3:25).
10. Some places have several aspects of His death’s profit (Rom 8:29-30; I Cor 1:30; 6:11).

The PROBATE

1. Probate is that legal process of verifying the authenticity and integrity of a will and the proper assignment of assets to the beneficiaries.
2. Jesus died a covenant death with benefits promised to heirs upon His death as Testator.
3. This glorious aspect of His death and our salvation should be considered (Heb 9:15-28).
4. We believe in unconditional salvation by means – by means of His death. Glory!
5. Our salvation is through the blood of the everlasting covenant (Hebrews 13:20).

The PROSPERITY

1. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand, for Jesus was successful (Is 53:10).
2. His resurrection confirmed His great success (Rom 1:4; 4:25; Rev 1:18; I Cor 15:17).
3. His giving of gifts showed the Father’s reward (Isaiah 53:12; 52:13; Acts 2:36).

The PROMISES

1. He promised His perpetual Presence by the Holy Spirit (John 14:21-23; Acts 2:33).
2. He promised eternal life, which is sure to His people (Titus 1:2; II Timothy 1:9-10).
3. He promised an eternal inheritance (John 14:1-6; I Peter 1:3-9; Eph 1:11-12).

The PERVERSION

1. Some pervert His death by saying it was a general ransom for all the sins of all men.
2. Some pervert His death by saying it was merely a martyr’s death for a good example.
3. Some pervert His death by saying it merely made salvation possible by sacraments.

The PRAISE

1. Heaven’s Throne Room is a place of glorious praise to the Lord Jesus Christ (Rev 5).
2. Paul would say that the gift of salvation is God’s unspeakable gift (II Corinthians 9:15).

The PROCLAMATION

1. The Book of Life contains the names of the elect for whom Jesus died (Rev 20:11-15).
2. And those names were written there before the foundation of the world (Re 13:8; 17:8).
3. Jesus told His disciples to rejoice in this blessing more than other things (Lu 10:19-20).
4. See the sermon or outline entitled, “The Book of Life,” dated September 1, 2001.

The PERPETUITY

1. He ever lives to make intercession for us and will save to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25).
2. He has perfected forever those He sanctified by His one offering (Hebrews 10:10-14).
3. He reconciled us to God by His death, and His life guarantees our salvation (Rom 5:10).
4. He is alive forever more, and He has the keys of hell and of death (Rev 1:18). Amen!

Conclusion:

1. John exhorts us by the Spirit to believe on the name of the Son of God for eternal life (I John 5:6-13).
2. We should glory in Christ Jesus our Lord for His great salvation (Romans 5:1-11; I Cor 1:29-31).
3. Let us come to the Lord’s table with thankful and joyful hearts and remember His death until He comes.