Welcome to the Grace Surrounding broadcast brought to you by the congregation of the Shreveport Grace Church that meets at 2970 Baird Road in Shreveport, Louisiana. My name is Ken Wymer, and it is my privilege to bring to you today a message that seeks to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and His glorious person and finished work of salvation accomplished for sinners at the cross. Please stay tuned. There's not a subject that is more vital or more important than the one that I have to bring to you today. And that has to do with the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. I take my text from Acts chapter 2 and verse 23, a message that the Apostle Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. And he said him, speaking of Christ, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." In this text we have an account of the kind of death that Christ died. As it's described here it has to be described as a violent death. It says, ye have slain him. More particularly, when you think about the type of death that it was, ye have crucified him. That was a very dishonorable death. We also have here the causes of Christ's death. The principal cause is according to the ordering and disposing of all things by God Himself. Now that may come as a surprise to you, but it was God Himself that put His Son on the cross. It says Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. The determinate counsel is what God has purposed and His foreknowledge It's not a matter of God just looking down through time and seeing what would happen, but God ordaining all things that would happen and knowing beforehand what he has ordained. That's what foreknowledge is. And so you can see the principal cause of Christ's death was God himself. but also the instrumental cause. In other words, how it was carried out. The scripture text tells us very clearly, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. So you can see the instrumental cause, even though the principal cause was God's eternal counsel and foreknowledge Yet it was through the hands of wicked men that he was taken and crucified and slain. The biggest difference in that is that God's counsel and will was pure and holy. Man's was malicious and wicked. And yet God used it all. In respect to Christ's death, we can see justice being exercised because God is just. And the reason why he caused his son to be slain this way was in order that he might be merciful. There's a people that God loved from eternity. In order to show them mercy, justice had to be satisfied. He could not just look the other way. So God's purpose and God's ordaining is nothing but pure and holy. But with respect to men, we can say very plainly, it was nothing short of murder and cruelty. And yet they, in doing what they desired, their will, they were accomplishing all along the will of God. So we see that our Lord Jesus Christ was not only put to death, but put to the worst of deaths, even the death of the cross. In Philippians chapter 2, In verse 8, the Apostle Paul gives this very plain testimony. It says, He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So we can see that He not only humbled Himself to the death of the cross, but He was humbled to death by God Himself. And that because of who He represented. Christ did not die for Himself. But he came to be the substitute and the sacrifice for sin, for those that got his love from eternity. And so it was necessary that he not only should die, but that he should be hanged on a tree in Acts chapter 5 and verse 30. That's how the death of the Lord Jesus is described. Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. So it wasn't enough that he should just be put to a violent death, but also be put to death in the most base and shameful way. You hanged him on a tree. So I want us to consider, first of all, the kind of death that Christ died and why it was necessary, but also what he accomplished by his death. And may the Lord grant us ears to hear and wisdom to know and understand the purpose for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. But first of all, as I said, it was a violent death. Violent in itself, even though voluntary. Sometimes when you hear that Christ was nailed to the tree, the image that some have is that somehow he went against his will. In Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 8, it says he was cut off out of the land of the living. And yet in John chapter 10 and verse 17, we read he laid down his life of himself. No man took it from him. So you might say, well, which is it? Well, it's both. He was cut off. That term is used of an execution. He was cut off out of the land of the living. And yet it's just as true that he laid down his life of himself and no man took it from him. So I call his death violent because he didn't die a natural death. He lived out his life up to this point and yet he was cut off in the prime of his life. But it wasn't a natural death. It's not like one of us that dies suddenly and unexpectedly. No, he was put to death. And that because God ordained him to that. There was no sin in the Lord Jesus Christ even to open a door to what we know as natural death as it is with the rest of us. And also, his death was a sacrifice. That's what's important here. A sacrifice, just like they took the lambs in the Old Testament and slew them and offered them unto God. Christ is the Lamb of God. And his death was a sacrifice acceptable and satisfactory to God on behalf of his people. And so the death in and of itself was necessarily a violent death. He was to be slain in the full strength and health of his earthly body. The temple, which was a type of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to John chapter 2 and verse 19. It didn't just drop down like some old decayed structure might, but it was pulled down in violence when it was standing in its full strength. There in 70 AD, the Lord caused it to be completely removed. But it was a type and picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in His death. He came to this earth, and in the full strength of His life, it is said that He suffered death, or He was put to death for us in the flesh. We see that in 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 18. So, His death was a violent death, an execution. But secondly, His death was a most painful death. Now, there are many ways that men can die. And there are ways that men have contrived to torture people to death. And the cross was just that, an instrument of torture. The pains which Christ suffered on the cross are described by the Apostle here in Acts chapter 2 and verse 24, the very next verse, whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. But I don't want to just emphasize the physical pain. There are some who have been tortured to death in similar and most violent ways. And yet the pain of this death was the fact of who was dying. Here we have the God-man. We have the Just One dying for unjust sinners. So in that, His death is distinguished even from those thieves that hung on either side of Him. They were there because of their own sin. And yet, this One suffered the cross. He suffered the shame of the cross unto death, not for His own sin, but for the sin of a people. that God had purposed to save on whom God has set his love from eternity. And so it was a painful death. But thirdly, the death of the cross was a shameful death. One reason is because the crucified were naked and they were exposed to spectacles of shame, but also it was a kind of death that was appointed for the worst of men. Even freemen in that society, when they committed capital crimes, were not condemned to the cross. This was not a death that was reserved for citizens of Rome, even the worst, but it was a death that had been appointed actually for slaves. One of the writers back in the day called the death of the cross the punishment of a slave. And another writer spoke of putting the cross on the back of a slave. Well, when you look at how Christ fulfilled the type, He was God's servant for the salvation of His people. Even though He was God's Son, yet learned He obedience and suffered the death of the cross. He did this in complete and voluntary submission to the will of His Father. And it says of our Lord Jesus that He not only endured the cross in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2, but it says despised the shame. Not even the shame of it caused Him to turn back because He knew that The Father had laid upon Him this charge to put away the sin of His people. So obedience to His Father's will in zeal for the salvation of His people made Him disregard His reproach. You can see how there's no salvation apart from Christ and His death because none of us in our flesh could ever go to that extent for anybody, not even ourselves. But fourthly, the death of the cross is called a cursed death. It says in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 13, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And the scriptures say that he was made a curse for us. What does that mean? Well, to be made a curse wasn't just ceremonially. This wasn't just some theoretical way of dying. No, to be made a curse means to take upon oneself the guilt that really belonged to another. In Adam, all fell and all came under the curse, even those that God has purposed to save from eternity. And so for that curse to be removed, it required of God to be just and justify that Christ be made a curse. It doesn't mean that there was anything in Him that was worthy of the curse, but as the sin bearer, He bore that curse in his body on the tree. So it was necessary then that he die this particular death. And we can see that crucifying or hanging on a tree, even though it was a Roman punishment and not in use among The Jews, when this was first foretold back in the Old Testament, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. That wasn't even a type of execution when that was written. And yet it was written foreseeing this day when Christ would come and lay down His life. So the Scriptures cannot be broken. The fifth thing that I know about the death of the cross is that it was a very slow and lingering death. one did not just die immediately. And so, even today, you can see where in public executions, whether it's a hanging or a lopping off of the head, a lethal injection, these are all ways of making guilty people die in somewhat of a humane and quick manner. But with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, He was not guilty Himself. And yet, he was to bear the guilt of the sin of his people. And the death that Christ died was a slow and lingering death. The men who put him on the cross desired it to be so. And yet, we find that our Lord Jesus Christ stood under the pains of death in His full strength. He was not at all weakened as far as His divine nature was concerned. There was no weakening. There was no weak Savior hanging upon the cross. In fact, in John 19, when it says that He cried with a loud voice and said, It is finished. This was after men had done everything to Him that they could have. And any other man would have succumbed. And yet, we find our Lord in full strength crying out, It is finished. And then, commending His Spirit to His Father. But that's what made this such a painful death because In any other case, you can torture a man to a certain point to where he passes out and then does not feel the pain anymore. But our Lord's life was whole in Him, full. And this was evident by His crying out when He gave up the Spirit. It showed Him to be of full strength, contrary to the experience of men. In fact, that's what caused that centurion, you remember, to say when he saw how Christ had died in Mark chapter 15 verses 37-39, he said, surely this was the Son of God. But it was also a death that was unaided by men. Christ had to tread this winepress alone. And sometimes they would give these malefactors who were under torment, they would give them vinegar and myrrh somehow to blunt or to dull or stupefy their senses. And if they hung there too long, they would break their bones and not allow them to push themselves up and eventually suffocate. But Christ had none of these things done to him. It says that they gave him vinegar and gall to drink, but that was only to increase his torments. And he died before they came to break his legs. And that again, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled because it was said that not a bone of him shall be broken. Even in that, we see him fulfilling the type of the lamb in the Old Testament that had to be perfect and without spot, without blemish. Not even a bone of our Lord was broken. So you can see the kind of death that he died. a violent, painful, shameful death on the cross. And yet, as I read in the beginning in Acts chapter 2 and verse 23, he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Now, in the time that remains, let me speak with you, dear friend, about the reasons why Christ died this way. It's not enough for me just to talk with you about how he died, but why he died. That's what's important in understanding the gospel. So let me give you a few answers from Scripture. And the first reason we find in the Bible why the Lord Jesus Christ died was that God might be just to justify sinners. I know this is not a message that you may be used to hearing, especially from preachers in our generation. They all talk about God being love and willing to forgive sins. But the question, dear friend, is how can God be loving to sinners who is holy and pure and just? And how can he forgive their sins in a just manner? Well, the answer is simply in Christ being made the curse on behalf of the sinner. There is a curse by the law that required none other than death and execution in this way. And so Christ came to take away the curse from those that the Father gave Him from eternity. And so, He was made a curse. He wasn't cursed of God Himself. God ever loved His Son. In fact, because of that love of God the Father for His Son, Christ laid down His life willingly because of His love for the Father. So to be made a curse is talking in a legal sense that on the Lord Jesus Christ was put all of the curses of God's law. And to make it a full curse, Christ not only had to obey the precepts of the law, but he had to pay its penalty. And in that we see the curse because Christ did obey every jot and tittle of the law during his lifetime. And yet he still willingly submitted himself to the penalty of the law, which was death. The very death that he died had as its purpose to take away that curse of the law, which was upon the Lord's children because of Adam's sin and fault. But the second reason why the Lord Jesus Christ died is that He had to fulfill all of the types and prefigurations from the Old Testament that had to do with Him. You see, all of the sacrifices of the Old Testament, hundreds of thousands, millions of sacrifices that were offered up all the way from the fall in the garden. Remember when God took away the fig leaves from Adam and Eve and clothed them with the skins of those animals? All of those sacrifices up to this one. typified the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a solemn offering or shedding of blood unto God because God required it. In fact, in Numbers chapter 21 in verse 9, it says, Moses made a serpent of brass and put it on a pull. And when you get over to John chapter 3 in verse 14, our Lord Jesus Christ identified with that serpent, that brazen serpent, in saying, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And so you can see that the Lord Jesus Christ showed Himself to be in His death the fulfillment of all of those types and prefigurations in the Old Testament. But thirdly, he died this death because it was ordained of him and all of the types he had to fully accomplish. The psalmist spoke in the person of Christ of this death plainly as if he had been writing the history rather than a prophecy of what was done. There in Psalm chapter 22, In verses 16 and 17 we read, "...for dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierce my hands and my feet, I may tell all my bones, they look and stare upon me." That was written by the psalmist. hundreds of years before the death of Christ. And yet, it was a prophecy concerning His death. Even in Zechariah chapter 12, in verse 10, we read, They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced. And so, even our Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 3 and verse 14, told of the death that he should die, even before he died, that he must be lifted up. In other words, hanged between heaven and earth. Let me just have you think about a few more questions here before I close. Did he die that violent, painful, shameful, cursed death on the cross? The answer is yes. He accomplished it just as God the Father had ordained it. Well, here then is the good news, dear friend, that there is then forgiveness with God and there's plenteous redemption for the greatest of sinners. You see, that's who I'm addressing here, and I know that there are very few. I'm not one of those that imagines that very many people might be listening to me at this time. But, oh, if there is a sinner there that God has so taught, and you know yourself to be guilty before a holy God, can you hear these words, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins? You say, well, where is that in the Bible? That's in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 14. But listen, there's more good news in 1 John 1, verse 7. It says, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. That's found in 1 John 1, verse 7. Now, there's two things that I will close with here about what I've just said to you. First is, dear friend, there is a sufficient efficacy in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That word efficacy simply means it gets the job done. What was the purpose of Christ dying? Was it not to put away sin, even the greatest of sins? And that's why it's called the precious blood of the Son of God. In 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 18, the Apostle Peter reminds us you were not redeemed with corruptible things. We're not talking about paying off a physical debt, but a debt that I could not pay. that I owed unto God because of my sin, it says here, with the precious blood of the Son of God, you were redeemed. You see the preciousness of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? That is what this account is all about. That's what this Word is all about. In Colossians chapter 1 and verse 20, We read, "...and having made peace through the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things to Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven." You say, what's in heaven that needed reconciling? Well, there were the souls of those that God had chosen throughout that Old Testament period. that when they lived on this earth, God revealed to them that Christ should come and lay down His life for them. But they died without seeing the promise. And yet, God was faithful in what He had promised. And when the Lord Jesus Christ came and laid down His life, He reconciled all things to Himself. Those things which were in earth, that is, sinners like ourselves, who in time the Lord is pleased to call to himself that things in heaven, there's not one person in heaven that's there for any other reason than this shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not by our works, but by His that we are saved. So it's that same blood which is redemption to those that dwell on earth, that is also the redemption of those who dwell in heaven. So you can see the sufficient efficacy of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the one reason that any can say that they're saved. In fact, the Apostle said in Acts chapter 13 and verse 39, And by Him all that believe are justified from all things. That's an important statement. It's not your believing that justifies you, but all that do believe already have been justified and continue in that state of justification from all things for which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. So that's one thing demonstrated in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the efficacy of his blood, but also the full forgiveness of sins. That's what we see. That the remission of sins is the great thing that God purposed in pouring out the blood of His precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I know there's a song, a hymn, that talks about His blood being spilled. But dear friend, it didn't spill like you spill milk. It was shed. And the shedding of that blood had one purpose, the pardon of sin. And so, just as in the Old Testament, the putting on of the hands of the priest on the head of the sacrifice was a way of taking by imputation the sin of the people and putting it to the account of the Lamb. Even so, the Lord Jesus Christ had the sin of His people put to His account. It didn't make Him a sinner. But that transfer of sin to Christ is all the pardon of those sinners for whom He died. And in return, what remains but the righteousness of God. And that's because of pardon, full and free by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord God cause our eyes to be turned upon Christ, the Lamb of God, and to trust Him alone and rest in His finished work alone. You have been listening to the Grace Abounding broadcast brought to you by the congregation of the Shreveport Grace Church in Shreveport, Louisiana. We meet at 2970 Baird Road and invite you to join us each Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. For more information, please visit our website at www.shrevegrace.org or call 318-687-4943. Please plan to join us again next week.