Father, I just want to thank you so much for the time that we have to be together as a church, Lord. And I don't want to take that for granted, that we can come and meet and worship you together freely. And we thank you for that. We thank you for that privilege. And Lord, we now want to worship you through this study, through the message that I've prepared. Lord, I just pray that you'd help me to impart the knowledge of your word to the hearers today. I pray that it would be a great help to our church family and to the lost especially. We love you, Lord, and we thank you for the time now. We ask for your blessing upon it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Luke chapter 23, we'll read verse 33. The Bible says, and when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Thank you. You may be seated. And so this afternoon, I want to take an analytical approach. It's not your typical Sunday morning message on the cross. It's more of an analytical approach to the circumstances about Calvary and Jesus' death on the cross. I want to look at the sacrificial of the Lord Jesus Christ back some 2,000 years ago. And so it is my hope that this message will help us to better understand Jesus' death and resurrection But I want to use a familiar method of teaching known as the six W's. Who, what, when, where, why, and how. And not quite in that order. We won't go through it. But those are the points I want to make today. Who, what, when, where, why, and how. And so what we're going to start off with this afternoon is we're going to look at why. Why did Jesus offer himself as the sacrificial lamb for all mankind? And so the first reason for that is because of man's sin. I think that goes without saying that man's sin put Jesus on the cross, it necessitated the sacrifice on Calvary. And so it was man's sin that made it necessary for Jesus to come and to die. And so let's go all the way back to the beginning. I want to take us to Genesis chapter three. And I want us to have an understanding of why this all happened, why are we here, how did we get here and why did Jesus have to die? And so we'll read Genesis chapter 3. We'll start at the first verse. The Bible says, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were open, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And so in this passage we see how man disobeys God and consequently sin enters into the world for the first time. We also see in verse 8 how man goes hiding from God because of the weight of his sin that he's brought upon himself and all his posterity. And so I want you to think with me for a moment. How Adam first responded, there was never any precedent for this. And for us as human beings, we have precedent when we feel guilt. We tend to go and hide and we don't want to address it. We don't want to deal with it. But that's exactly what happened. And it was all because of sin. from the very first time that sin entered into the world, man went running and hiding from God. And even then, though, God went looking for man. He went looking for man. He looked for Adam and Eve, even though they were undeserving of such grace and mercy. And God wanted reconciliation with man to redeem him. God wanted reconciliation with mankind. Why would he want that with sinners who had turned their back and then went running and hiding? And even today, we are all examples of this. We've all offended God. We've all gone against God through sin, and yet God is still looking for us today. He's still looking for men. and so realize today that God wants to save you. He doesn't want you to die without Christ. He's done all the preparation, and we'll get into that a little bit later in the message, but He does not want you to die without Christ today, lost person. And so this is a pattern we see repeated many times throughout the Bible of God looking for man and making a way of escape for man. Another thought worth mentioning is how after they had sinned, Adam and Eve, they went, they had a bright idea. They said, let's go make aprons, but it was a flawed attempt to cover up their nakedness. So they had understood that they were naked through the eyes of sin now. And their first thought was, let's cover this nakedness, but they didn't do it right. As we'll see in a second, they made aprons, but it wasn't, it was a flawed attempt. It wasn't as it should have been. So as we see in verse 21, God set the precedent by making them coats of animal skins as a proper covering for their nakedness. This was symbolic, as we know, of Jesus, the innocent lamb being sacrificed for the sins of man. So who had to die? An animal, a lamb, was slain to make proper covering for man's sin. And so it was a direct correlation to how Jesus would come. But Jesus wouldn't just cover our sins. Understand that. He wouldn't just cover our sins. He came to wash them away completely. Through his blood, he came to suffer and die for our sins, that our sins would no longer exist in the sight of God. And so the first reason we saw was man's sin, as to why. Second reason is because man is now separated from God. So sin and separation caused this. Let's turn in our Bibles to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. And we'll begin reading in verse 18. through the end of the chapter, Romans 5, 18. The Bible says, therefore, as by the offense of one, being Adam, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness of one, Jesus Christ, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Thank God for that today. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And so in this passage, we see the explanation of judgment coming upon all the world because of one man's sin. That was Adam. But we also see how the righteousness of one grants justification to many, to many. The dictionary defines the word justification. I thought this was a great definition. I wanted to share that with you today. Dictionary defines the word justification as the act of God whereby humankind is made or accounted just or free from the guilt or penalty of sin. And you see, only God can make us free from the guilt and penalty of our sin debt before him. Only God can allow that to happen. And one thing I wanted to mention is it's not just It's not just that we are accounted just before God, but we are made free from the guilt and the pouncy of sin. So our name, if we're saved, is written in the book of life. According to God's account, we are made righteous before him. but also in action, not just in word or accounting, but also in action, we have been made righteous through salvation. And so I want to read verses 20 and 21 one more time. It speaks of how only God can make us free from the guilt of sin. Verse 20 says, Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And so sin only has power unto death, but it's the marvelous grace of our loving Lord that reigns unto eternal life, well beyond the reaches of this world only. And so we see man's separation from God. The next thing I want to look at is as far as why God came to die for our sins, why Jesus had come, it's for man's salvation. And so Jesus, the sinless one, he had to be the propitiation for sinners. First John 4.10 says, herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation or the substitute, perfect substitute for our sins. And then if we turn back a couple of pages in our Bibles to Romans 3, Just a couple pages, if you're still in Romans, back to Romans 3, we'll look at verses 23 through 26. The Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified, there's that word again, justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. So again, that verse is telling us Jesus Christ is the only just one, but he can make us just through believing in him. And that was the plan of salvation. And so our guilt and need for salvation here in this text are established in verse 23. We saw the word justified again in verse 24, meaning we're set free from the penalty of sin by grace through redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And that's salvation right there, being set free from sin. This is the essence of why Jesus came to die a cruel death on the cross. This is why he came to justify us from our sins. And he came as a propitiation or an atonement for us. He died in our place. for our sins, he took our judgment upon himself. And it was through his death that we can have remission of sins, a pardon that can come no other way but through Jesus Christ. And we see people throughout the world trying to atone for their sins. Why are they doing that? Why do people bow down to Mecca? Why do people try to keep the sacraments? Why do they cross the Ganges River in the Hindu religion? Why do they do all that? Because they're trying to atone for their sins, their guilt before God, that guilt that's within us because of our sin nature. But the only way is through Jesus. And people need to understand that we have to tell them. How will they find out unless we tell them the truth about this? So we saw the why. I want to next look at who. So obviously we know that Jesus Christ God's son came to earth to die for our sin. But I want to focus on some important ways for us to truly view who it was that was sent in our place. So the first bullet point under that is that it was God's son. God's son, the son of God, came down to earth as a man, just like you and me, yet he was still the son of God. 100% God, while still 100% man, defying the laws of science, he came as the God-man, Christ Jesus. He was clothed in man's flesh, yet maintained the holiness and sinlessness of Almighty God. He maintained that even in his humanity. Only God himself could be an acceptable sacrifice to make payment for the iniquities of all men. Only God himself could have done that. No one other than the Son of God could satisfy the sin debt of all mankind simply because he was the only one without sin. You or I could not have stood in that place because we have sin inherent within us. We have the sin nature. And we practice sin. And for those of us that are saved, we don't want to do that, but it's still our sin nature. That sin nature is still in us until we go to heaven one day, amen? And so remember that it is sin that separates us from God. Before Adam sinned in the garden, he enjoyed perfect fellowship with his creator, before sin entered. But once sin entered, there needed to be a payment for that sin. Jesus had to come to earth as a sacrifice. First Timothy says, who gave himself a ransom for all. Hebrews 9, 27 through 28 says, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. And so we saw it was God's son who had to come. It was also God's choice. He came and lived a life as a sinless man here. God's choice, Jesus Christ. God chose the very best in the form of his son for the very worst of sinners, you and me. What kind of trade-off is that if you think about it? The transaction that was made, God's best in our place for our worst, is essentially what happened. We gave him our rags and he gave us a robe of righteousness. in that transaction of salvation. And God didn't hold back, but he gave his very best. Remember that. God did not hold back. And if you ever doubt whether God wants to save you, remember that. He gave his very son to make it all possible so that you can be saved. He was the sacrificial lamb offered up as God's choice, the only one who could bear the burden of man's sin. You see, there are some religions out there that are spreading a false message and saying that you can work your way to heaven or you can somehow earn heaven by keeping religious rites and rituals. But beloved, I'm here to tell you that the only way to be saved is through Jesus Christ. He was the only one who had the right and the ability to cleanse sinful man of all of his iniquity. Remember that no priest or religion has any power to save except Jesus Christ. That's why telling your sins, confessing them to a priest is of no use. It's of no good because it's not entering any higher than the ceiling of that room. It's not making its way to God, and God is the only one who has the ability to cleanse your sin. And so if you have any doubts about this, I urge you to search the scriptures high and low to see for yourself that only Jesus has the power to save. Go to God's word. What does God have to say about it? Don't talk to man, don't talk to religion. Go to God's word and find out for yourself if you have any doubts about that. The last point on this topic here is God not only sent his son, God not only sent his choice, but God himself came to die for our sins. God gave of himself as was first symbolized back in Genesis 22. I want us to turn back there. Genesis 22, it's a great picture for us for what God did in coming to die for our sins. Genesis 22, we'll begin reading in verse two. The Bible said, and he said, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed the wood for the burnt offering and rose up. And he went on to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, I want you to get this here in a second, abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. So he was saying there that he had the confidence that he would come back, not just he himself, but he would come back with his son, come back to those young men. So I noticed that, I wanted to mention that. We'll continue reading here, verse six. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son. And he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac speak unto Abraham, his father, and said, my father. And he said, here am I, my son. And he said, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went, both of them. together. So we see verse 8 says, God will provide himself a lamb. And that's exactly what he did when he himself shed his precious blood on the cross. He didn't send one of his angels, but rather he went to Calvary. And I want us to think about that today. I want us to realize that God not only realized the need, but he did it himself. He did it for you and for me. And remember that, beloved. So we saw who, right? We saw why. And now I want to look at what took place some 2,000 years ago when we see that Jesus was reviled. Matthew 27, 39 says, and they that pass by reviled him, wagging their heads. You see how Jesus was reviled by passersby. The very Son of God was subjected to the physical and verbal abuse of mankind that day. And yet Jesus came to save these very folks. You would think, you know, to realize the amount of punishment that Jesus had to endure, you would think that that type of punishment would only be reserved for the worst of criminals, the people who have done the worst in society, who have hurt many. Yet Jesus came to help, and not just help, but to save people's eternal souls. And yet that's what he endured for mankind. The best that we had to offer to the Son of God was the death on the cross. Consider that. Mark 15 tells us that Jesus was also reviled by the two thieves being crucified alongside him. Those that were guilty were there condemning the one without guilt. The sinless one were being reviled by the guilty. Just again, realizing how backwards it all is if you think about it. Can you understand the blindness and the depravity of man today, beloved? To think about what we did as a group, what we did collectively to the Son of God and putting him on the cross in place of our sins. So we see that he was reviled. We also see that Jesus was rejected. We know that he was rejected by the religious hypocrites of his day, those that were directly responsible for his execution. He was rejected by them. And yet he was also rejected by his own disciple Judas, who sold him out for 30 worthless pieces of silver. How Judas sold out the Lord Jesus Christ, his own disciple sold him out. And we also see that he was rejected by Peter, even though he had said he would never be offended because of the Lord. Peter denied the Lord three times, even though he had vowed prior that he would never be offended at his word. And so Jesus was rejected. He was reviled, but thank God he was also resurrected. And so our Lord resurrected three days after he was crucified. The resurrection was a necessary component in the plan of redemption for these reasons. And I found this and I wanted to share it with us today. Five reasons why it was important for Jesus to resurrect. And so without it, preaching would be empty. And so would anyone's faith because the object of our faith, Christ, would not be whom he said he was. He would not have fulfilled the promises he said he would come to fulfill. Secondly, the apostles would all be liars for testifying that a resurrection did not occur. And also, no forgiveness would have been granted for anybody's sin. So without the resurrection, there can be no forgiveness of sin. Those who had died believing in Christ would have no hope. So imagine that Jesus had died on the cross and never resurrected. There'd be no hope for you or for I. If hope in Christ is limited to this life only, Believers are to be pitied above all people because we have Christ who had not only died for our sins, paid the penalty, but he also resurrected again on that third day. And that's our redemption today for those of us who are saved. And so next I want to look at how. How did Jesus die? How did Calvary all transpire? How did it take place? And Jesus died sacrificially. So Jesus did not have to come, as I've been saying. He did not have to come to save wretched sinners like you and me. And yet He chose to come. He chose to suffer. And He chose to die. What a Savior, amen. What a Savior. He chose to do all these things. There was no force upon Him. He chose to leave heaven and to come and die a cruel death that He knew full well would be awaiting Him here on earth. And so had He not come, we'd still be in our sin with no hope of eternal life. So he died sacrificially. He also died a solitary death. Let's go to Mark chapter 15. Mark 15, we'll see some of that. And we'll begin reading in verse 33. Mark 15, 33. The Bible says, and when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? God the father had to turn his back on his own son. because of the vile sin of all mankind being outpoured on Jesus during the crucifixion. God himself had to turn away from Jesus during all of this. Jesus, the friend of sinners, hung there, forsaken of all men and forsaken by the Father as well. So he died a solitary death. He did it alone for you and for me so that we could be saved and have a right relationship with God. So we see he died sacrificially. He died a solitary death, but he also died sufficiently. He died sufficiently for us. John 19 30 tells us when Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said it is finished and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. He came to complete the work of salvation for us. Jesus's death was payment in full for our great debt of sin before God in full. It was a completed transaction. so that you and I can be freely saved by our own choice, not owing anything to God in return. This is not a barter or a trade. We're giving our rags of sin to God for His robe of salvation, of righteousness. And so this is not a trade. It was He came to complete the transaction in full and sufficiently for us. And we can be saved because of Christ's shed blood on Calvary. We all know the old song that says, what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. My friend, if you're not saved today, the only reason for that is because you've not repented of your sin and placed your faith in the all sufficient one, Jesus Christ. And it's because of our choice, your choice, if you're not saved today, that you wouldn't be saved. Jesus did all the work. He made it all. available to us for salvation. And if you've never been washed by the sin-cleansing blood of Jesus, today is the day of salvation, the Bible says. Now is the accepted time. Don't delay any longer. If the Lord is speaking to your heart, as the pastor said regarding conviction, if you're being spoken to today, don't put it off any longer. Do not delay. Don't say no to the free gift of eternal life, which has all been made possible through Calvary. It's all been made possible. So I also want to look at where. Where, what were the circumstances and where do we see the cross of Calvary? Well, we see it in prophecy. And so I want us to turn to Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. And we'll read through the end of the chapter, starting in verse five. The Bible says, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison, and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death. Because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great. and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." So we know that Isaiah lived centuries before Jesus was born, yet God inspired him to jot down this prophetic writing here in Isaiah 53, detailing with great detail. We saw it. I mean, it's as if it was telling the story of of the cross. And so he detailed with great accuracy the cross and the sacrifice that Christ would make for sinners. So we saw it in prophecy. The Bible, as we know, is a prophetic book. And it's an eternal book. And so I was doing some research, and it said that there are some 2,500 prophecies in the Bible. And about 2,000 of those have already been fulfilled. And I'm going to assume most of those are about the cross. The remaining ones are about what's to come as far as the end times. and the last days. And so about 500 are left unfulfilled and those will be fulfilled. You can believe that. The same way Jesus came and fulfilled all the prophecy from the Old Testament, you can believe that the end times are going to happen and they're very much in motion. The Bible is true and God had foretold of Jesus' sacrifice centuries before he died, and this is what we have in the Word of God in front of us. So we see that he was where, as far as where, we saw it in prophecy, and we also see it in the Gospel. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all tell the true account of Jesus's birth, his life and miracles, his death and his resurrection. This can all be found in the Gospels. We have all of this on our laps today. God knew that it'd be vitally important for us to have the written word of God by which man would have the ability to preach and teach the eternal message of salvation for centuries to follow. Think about how vitally important it is for us to have the scripture with which we can preach and teach and disciple people and lead others to Christ. If we didn't have that, where would our gospel be? We would not have the capability to reach people with the gospel. You see, without this book, we'd have no written proof. No clear-cut black and white truth that God sent his own beloved son to make the ultimate sacrifice for man's sin. We'd have nothing to prove that by. Thank God for that Bible you have on your lap today, for it contains the literal word of God. The literal word of God. It's not just some other book written by man. This book was written by God. And I want you to understand that today. Thank God for it. The word, as 2 Timothy says, is able to make thee wise unto salvation. Or as Hebrews 4.12 says, the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intent of the heart." So we see that the story is found in the gospel, we see that it was found in prophecy, but we also see that it's found today in preaching. And think to yourself today, when did I first hear of the true gospel? Where did you first hear about the truth? When did you first realize that you were a sinner in the sight of God? Where did that happen? But for most of us, I'd venture to say that it was while sitting under sound preaching from the Word of God. And thank God for that. Thank God for a good preacher like ours who will not be ashamed to preach the clear-cut truth from the Bible about the desperate condition of unsaved men. And it is a desperate condition. It's a condition that if left unattended to, will lead to an eternity in the devil's hell. And we don't want that for any of our fellow men. We don't want that for anyone. That's why we need to have preaching. That's why we need to reach people with the gospel. Had our pastor not shared the gospel message with me, I'd still be in my sins today and would still be on the road to hell. And I believe that to be the case for many of us here who've been saved. Had preaching not been done, had we not listened to preaching, good, biblical, sound preaching, we'd be, of all men, most miserable. And so I'm so grateful for the preaching of truth, and I pray that we would never waver from compelling sinners to come through the straight and narrow, to come to Christ, to receive his gift of salvation. And the message I have for you today is if you're not saved, to come to the Lord in salvation today, today. And so this takes us up to our last W that we're going through, which is when. When will you receive the Lord in salvation? This is for you. This now shifts to you. When will you receive salvation? Everything else has been done. It's all been finished. We've seen it all put together as the Lord did. Only he could do. So do not wait another day or even another moment to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Don't put it off, lost person. He's done everything possible to save you. to make you his child and to wash away every sin and stain if you'll just come to him in simple repentance and faith. He doesn't require much from us. He's done it all. He's done the full work of salvation. All we have to do is receive it to ourselves. through repentance and faith. It's a very simple formula, though I myself for many years struggled with it. But knowing now, having been saved for these last five plus years, I know that all I had to do was follow the Bible. I just had to do what God told me to do. And it works every time if we would just follow the Bible. And so again, as I said, this last question must be answered by all. When will you be saved? I pray if you lost that it would be today. Don't wait another moment. Let's all stand and let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the study on the cross and Lord again, we can't thank you enough for what you did to make poor lost sinners righteous with you through your sacrificial death on the cross. And I thank you for doing that for me today, and for many here, and for your work, your finished work on Calvary. We pray for the lost who are here today, that they'd be saved before it's too late, and that they would not wait another moment before coming to you. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness. We pray for this invitation now, and for your presence in it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.