Gospel Message - The Death of Christ

This Person has divided the sons of Adam's race, they are either saints or they are sinners. This Person has made a division in eternity, we are either going to heaven or we are going to hell.

So it is well for us to consider such a tremendous event as happened there at Calvary. Many people just look at Calvary and see a man die, hanging upon a cross between two thieves at the place called Calvary. We read such words, that 'He was the Lamb foreordained from before the foundation of the world, but now manifested in these last times for you.' Here is the plan of God, and not the triumph of men, for God's plan was that the Lord Jesus should die as the sacrifice for sinners.

God commanded Moses that every family take a lamb of the first year on the tenth day of the first month and hold it up in ward for four days, that it may be scanned and searched to see whether there was any blemish in it. On the fourteenth day that lamb was killed, its blood was poured in a basin, and that blood was sprinkled on the doorposts and on the lintel. Those that sheltered in the house, relied upon the blood of the lamb that was slain. But those who despised it suffered loss. The apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians could say, 'Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.' The blood has been shed, my dear friend.

If they had only shed the blood that would not be enough, they had to personally apply the blood that was shed and sprinkle it upon the doorposts.

The blood of Christ was shed almost two thousand years ago, but the value of that sacrifice and of that precious blood must be personally appropriated to your own need, and only then will you know what it is to have peace with God, and the assurance of a home in heaven.

Will you read with me from John 127

You will notice, my dear friend, whoever you may be, that Calvary was not an easy thing for the Lord Jesus Christ. Here we find Him asking the question, 'What shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour.' A little later on in the garden of Gethsemane He is going to be prostrate on the ground, and His sweat as great drops of blood falling to the ground. He is going to say, 'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless not my will but thine be done.' My friend, tonight I want us to understand this fact, that Jesus of Nazareth is the eternal Son of God, but it cost that Person all that Me had to die upon Golgotha's tree to save a sinner like you, and a sinner like me. It is the hardest work that God has ever undertaken, it's the hardest work that God will ever undertake, there will never be anything again like Calvary, when God sent His Son into this world to save sinners.

(Refer to chart) You will notice, first of all, my dear friend, those of you who have been following, that here we have four tremendous crises that have happened among the children of men, and everyone of them instigated by this person, going back to that old serpent, the devil, and Satan. God in His power intervening in every one of these crises deals with them according to His glory. But when we come to Calvary God creates the crises, and after that God will still create the crises, for in Calvary we discover three things, the Lord Jesus mentions them. He says: 'Now is the judgement of this world.' So the world faces a crisis, a world is being judged. The He says: 'Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out,' and the Prince of the world is the devil and Satan, and Satan faces a crisis, and there he must face it at Calvary. Then the Lord Jesus says, ' I, if I be ¯ lifted up will draw all men unto me,' and,the crisis of the ages lies in the hands of the Son of God. Now that's what happened at Calvary, my friend, so even if it is Good Friday next Friday as a world calls it, don't be bothered by shedding an emotional and sentimental tear, the Lord Jesus has already passed His verdict on that, He said 'Weep not for me, weep for yourselves, for if they have done this in a green tree what shall they do in a dry?' My friend, tonight the Lord Jesus is not asking for your sympathy, He's not asking for any emotional reaction, the Lord Jesus came with the intention of dying there upon that cross. 'To this end was I born,' He could say, 'and for this cause came I into the world.' So Peter, put up your sword, for how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled which indeed it must? So tonight what happened at Calvary was calculated away back before the world was, and the result will be to the praise of the glory of God and His Son for all eternity to come.

Let me put it like this, the same person that died upon that cross, the eternal Son of God never stirred from His throne when He brought the heavens and the earth into being. He spake and it was done, that is all that was necessary. We are told in the scriptures that no matter what people think or do, no matter what designs people have got, He upholds all things by the word of His power, and there is a day coming, and the Bible tells us again, 'He shall yet speak from heaven that the things that can be shaken will be shaken.'

I tell you this, my dear friend, He couldn't take a sinner to heaven by just sitting on His throne. He couldn't offer salvation to a sinner until He had first of all become the kinsman redeemer. Left heaven's glory, veiled Himself in a garment of holy flesh, there to go out to that cross and be put to death, and offer Himself as a sacrifice for sinners. Now that's the difference, my friend, between creation and redemption. In creation He never left His throne, but in redemption He had to come to where we were and pay the price with His own precious blood. Bless God, He came and He did it, and salvation is offered to the sinner.

Will you please notice, that the Lord Jesus has been speaking to God, 'Father, glorify thy name.' then came there a voice from heaven saying, ' I have glorified it and will glorify it again.' Some said it thundered, others said an angel spoke to Him. While the thunder of God's voice is ringing through the heavens the Lord Jesus said, 'This voice came not because of me but for your sakes. Now is the judgement of this world.' There, with the very voice of God ringing in the ears of men, the Lord Jesus is interpreting it, that these tremendous things were ready to happen.

My friend, despise that one that died upon that cross, despise _ that one that shed His precious blood, (for without the shedding of blood there is no remission) despise that sacrifice and you will do it to your own eternal loss. For without Christ you are without hope.

'Now is the judgement of this world.' What a statement to make! Almost two thousand years ago God judged the world. My dear friend, it is too late to do the best we can. If the sentence has already been passed it is too late to turn over a new leaf. The sentence that is passed still stands. 'Shall not the God of all the earth judge right?' No, He can't be accused of unrighteous judgement. Away back there in the garden of Eden Adam had nothing to say about the judgement of God, neither has anybody else down through the years. Oh, they'd love to do it, they've tried to do it, they've argued to do it, but they can't bring any criticism against the righteous judgement of God.

God has taken the human heart and He has tried it at every angle, and from every point of view. He has looked at its facets, and whichever way He looks and tries the human heart it's just as He says, 'deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.' 'The thoughts of the imaginations of his heart are only evil continually.' God tried the heart in innocence, in a condition that we know nothing about and cannot even conceive or grasp its significance. Two human beings at the height of intelligence, with the possibility of continuing to live, when God tried them in innocence, and they failed and sin came into the world, and judgement was passed.

Then He tries them with conscience, and with their conscience they fail. God speaks of a seared, wicked conscience, and we find a man murdered by his own brother because God had accepted the right sacrifice and despised the wrong one.

Then we come to self judgement, and here in this period God tried the heart with the ability to judge for themselves. Noah brought the curse upon his youngest grandson, who became Satan's vehicle to bring in wickedness.

Then God tried chosen men in wondrous grace, and this people failed Him, and went into the land of EgyPt, where they were bondmen for so many years.

Further He tried them with the law. 'All that thou sayest we will do.' They would keep the law, but they broke it long before they had heard it read. The law condemned them, it could never save them.

The Lord Jesus gives a parable, of wicked husbandmen who have rented the vineyard, and the owner sends his servants. Some they slew, some they stoned, and sent them all empty away. Then, he says, 'Last of all I will send my son, they will reverence him.' If one spark of reverence could have been provoked God-ward, it would have been when the Lord Jesus was here. They marvelled at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth, he spoke as one with authority and not as the scribes. 'Surely this is he of whom Moses and the prophets spake?' Concerning His works, 'We have never seen it in this fashion, it was never known from the beginning of creation that a man received his sight.' He showed Himself with many wonders and mighty works. But they said, 'This is the heir, rise, let us kill him and seize upon the inheritance.' They led him out to Golgotha's tree, and murdered Him.

As God sums up all the evidence down through the years, this is the last strip of evidence that is required, God has nothing more to offer the world without Christ, without hope. There at the cross the world was judged and found guilty. As the Apostle Paul says, 'Every mouth is stopped and the world is guilty before Him.'

Ah but, if the world was judged nearly two thousand years ago, that is not giving much of a chance, is it? We were not even thought of, much less alive, then how could God judge the world then and it's still going on? You can try yourself in every way that God tried the human heart and everybody has failed in the same way that the world has failed before, and will fail again.

But you say, 'Granted I'm not innocent, I have offended my conscience, I have done the things I know have not been right, I have broken the law - but I would never have done what they did

to Jesus of Nazareth.' Wouldn't you? What did they do? I'll tell you what they did, they rejected Him. If you have not accepted Him as your saviour you are doing the same as they did. Calvary becomes the place of your judgement as it has become the place of the judgement of the world.

But a thought! I thought the judgement was still to come, I thought it was in heaven. I'm going to tell you this, my dear friend, if you are looking for mercy and hope in heaven you won't get it. Everyone that stands up there at the judgement of the Great White Throne are all going to find themselves in the lake of fire, without exception. What's the Great White Throne for?

There was a time, before the death sentence had been repealed, the man stood in the dock, all the evidence was read out against him and the witnesses were called, and if the man was guilty the judge put on the black hat and pronounced guilty, to be hanged by his neck until he is dead. That's the judgement of the court, that's Calvary, it's the judgement of the court. All the evidence is brought, and a world was pronounced guilty.

But from the court sentence to the time of execution may take an uncertain number of days. My friend, the verdict that was passed at Calvary is going to be executed at the Great White Throne. So will you please get it right, you are too late to do the best you can. The condemned prisoner in the cell could break his heart and try and plea, but the sentence had been passed, and at a later day the sentence would be executed. If you want to escape the sentence that has been passed, and the judgement that is to come, there is only one way, and that is a Royal pardon. Unless you get pardon from God, from the judgement of Calvary's cross, the wicked dead are going to be cast into the lake of fire.

How do you get a Royal pardon? 'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,' so the Lord Jesus is our only approach to God. I can come as a sinner, self-confessed before God, deserving of the sentence passed at Calvary, and I can trust in God's Son as my saviour, who shed His blood for me, that I might escape the judgement. God is ready to forgive, and ready to pardon the sinner. That is what happened at Calvary, so don't think too lightly of it.

Let's go a step further. The prisoner cannot please himself when he is brought to the dock, or argue how. Whether he likes it or not he has got to go and stand in the dock, and there he has got to be judged. The world hasn't got a word to say in the matter.

When God's time is reached the the world was brought to the dock and judged in the righteousness of God, and there with the evidence of the murder of Christ the world was pronounced guilty.

Here is a person that has been the enemy of God, away back before the beginning of time. This one, too great for men, too great even for the angelic hosts, is I believe the fallen Lucifer.

Wherever God has trodden, Satan has trodden to upset the work of God and God has always had to deal in judgement upon the things that Satan has done. But when we come to Calvary, Satan is faced with a crisis. They tried to murder the Lord Jesus before He was two years of age. They tried to throw Him over the brow of the hill after His first public sermon, they tried to stone Him because He made Himself equal with God. Satan did his best to murder Jesus of Nazareth, he did not want the Lord Jesus to go on to Calvary. Demons confronted Christ and they fled, whether they were one or thousands. The Lord Jesus did not come to deal with demons, He came to deal with Satan, the Prince of Demons. When we come to Calvary, then Satan had to arrange all his powers, for there was the man that stood between him and all his goals. It was in the heart and pride of Satan to sit as God, to be as the Most High. Remember, God said to Satan, 'the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head'. When He caused the flood to come because of men's sin, the whole of the human race was destroyed with the exception of one family.

Then God said to Abraham 'thy seed', and Satan could let a world go by, and just concentrate on that man's seed, and there in two generations the nation of Israel could have become extinct, but God brought them out. During this period there was a woman by the name of Athaliah who murdered all the seed of David, because God has said 'thy seed'. With the exception of one baby, who kept alive God's promise that He had made to Satan.

When we come to Christ Satan can let the world go by, Satan can let the nation of Israel go by, he can let the seed of David go by, and concentrate all his efforts upon one man. Destroy that man, and the purpose of God has fallen down to the ground, and Satan has conquered. So Satan can gather his forces, he can muster all his strength to deal with the Lord Jesus.

Will you please remember, that in the wilderness Satan comes three times to the Lord Jesus, and my, what he offers. But Satan recoils from the Sword of the Spirit, and left conquered. At Calvary, three times, 'come down, save thyself and us', He answers not a word. To all intents and purposes the man on the cross is beaten. But Satan was just waiting, as God replies within His heaven, he heard a cry, 'It is finished'. He saw that one bow His head and give up the ghost. The Lord Jesus never intended to fight Satan on His own ground; He never asked even for mutual ground; He would deal with Satan on Satan's own ground. Through death He destroyed him that had the power of death, and delivered us who, through fear of death, were all our lifetime subject to bondage.

He is the only man that could voluntarily go into death. The only one who did not have to wait until the fingers of death touched him. The Lord Jesus gave up His spirit, the work was done. There was nothing that could keep Him there. "Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph over His foes, He arose the victor from the dark domain and He lives forever with His saints to reign." There upon that cross the Lord Jesus dealt with Satan, and as the seed of the woman He crushed the serpent's head. Have - a look at Romans 16, and the promise is given to you and to me, that we shall bruise the serpent's head under our heel shortly.

The victory of Calvary is going to be ours as well.

God will never have to deal with Satan again after Calvary. The apostle Paul, writing to Christians says, "resist the devil and he will flee from you". There is a time coming when Michael the archangel, who dare not bring a railing accusation against him, but said 'the Lord rebuke thee', will contend with Satan and defeat him, and cast him out into the earth. He will triumph, and then before the great millennial age begins, when the Lord Jesus is going to reign, an angel is coming with a chain and will bind that old serpent the devil, and cast him into the bottomless pit for a thousand years. When the thousand years are ended he will be let loose, and there will be one abortive effort to reverse the decision, and he will be cast into the lake of fire, and that will be forever.

If the judgement of the world is final, and the only hope of heaven is a pardon from the throne of God, then to get there you must trust Christ as your saviour, then the victory over Satan is also final, and will never be reversed.

There is only one reason why the Lord Jesus went to the cross, it's because He loved the world of sinners lost. He is not willing that any should perish, and He was the only one that could make the way of escape. He said "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." Will you take that One? He fashioned the man out of the dust of the earth, they nailed those hands to a Roman gibbet. The feet that trod the pathway, that brought glory to God and blessing to men, they nailed them to a cross of wood, and let them bleed. After they had done it, He said, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'

There upon that cross He bore our sins in His own body, suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, died for our sins according to the scriptures. Every one of us will meet Him, and there is not a man born of Adam's race that will not see that One face to face.

Are you ready? He's calling with the call of a man with the bands of love today, He's drawing with all the love of His heart, the Saviour that died, the Saviour that shed His blood, the Saviour that was raised again from the dead, that one is drawing upon the hearts of men, 'Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' Today it is in grace that He draws men and women to Himself, to trust Him for salvation.

Those that have trusted Him will be caught up to meet Him, and to go on to enjoy the glory of eternal bliss. When the work of grace is finished He will draw a world in judgement. It does not matter what they try to do, or how they try to avoid it. The last thing they will see before they go down to the lake of fire will be the face of the man that died for them sitting upon the Great White Throne. What a condemnation to live with, one that they will never forget.

There is not a person in hell tonight, that does not believe that Christ could have saved them, but for them it is too late. The opportunity is ours up to the point of death, that is why God says, 'Behold now is the accepted time'. After death, the judgement.

Consider it, this is the greatest event in world history, in all eternity, past or future. At the cross God brought a world to judgement, pronounced it guilty, and it is awaiting the time of the execution of the sentence, to pass into the lake of fire.