What The Cross Tells Us

Introduction

The love of God is greater far and some more hand can ever tell because we are the highest star and we just give the hope and the guilty care fell down with care. God saves his son to me. His every time we circumfied and part and front his day. But love of God, how rich and true, how many strong It’s so forever the saint and a song for the glory time shall pass away and earthly thrown and kingdom fall when they hear we fear to pray on rocks and hills and mountains fall. God’s hopes of joy shall still ensure of mansion grave to land pray the saints and love how rich and grow, how many strong itself for love the more include the saints and hate angels could we withe ocean fills and were in the sky apart from me where every thought of earth was well and every man tried my day to write the love of our love with great the crazy home shall drive nor stroll to take the hole post traps from sky to sky full of cross will make the good it shall fall in stays and hating song.

Welcome back to our young people. We missed you last Lord’s Day. Some of you were away in various places. Some were nursing injuries.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Perhaps fifty years ago. The news of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A little over a decade ago. September eleventh. The day the Twin Towers fell. Probably the three most notable historical events in our lifetime.

But the most significant historical events of all time involved the death of Jesus of Nazareth on Golgotha’s brow. And three days later, his resurrection from the dead. And of all the historical dates of significance since the beginning of time and records and annals were kept. All of the events and situations that our young people study in history classes, American history, world history, of all the significant events of history to which our minds are enlightened, I want you to know that there is not an historical event of any kind, any battle, any death, any moment that rivals the significance of those events that we read about in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John pertaining to the death of Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the dead.

This morning I want to talk to you about what that cross tells us. We sang some songs this morning about the cross. The cross tells us so much. What does it tell you? What does it say to you?

Jesus refers to the significance of those events in John 17 and verse 1 in his prayer shortly before they go out into the garden and he is betrayed when he says, Father, the hour has come. And I would stop and say, the most significant hour ever. Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy Son. That the Son may glorify thee. He said earlier in John’s account in chapter 12, just as the serpent that Moses lifted in the wilderness, a serpent that was lifted for the healing of the people. He said, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And he says, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. And so I want to speak to you this morning about what the cross tells us.

1. The Cross Tells Us About the Justice of God

And I want to look specifically at the five things that we see about God himself in the cross that we need to understand and appreciate about this most significant event in all of human history. And I want to share these things with you briefly so that you can appreciate these five things. Number one the cross tells us about the justice of God. If you could choose one word to summarize God’s plan to save man through the cross, what word would you choose? I might choose a word like amazing, incredible, awesome. All of those magnificent. Just roll out the saesaurus. Anything that you can choose that is a synonym of those words would work. But there’s another word that I would choose as I thought about the cross this week and what it tells us.

It is the word elaborate. Elaborate. Complex. And that’s an understatement. The length of time, the preparation of the circumstances, everything that went into Jesus dying on the cross for our sin and the necessity of it points to something very important about God’s character. God is both just and the justifier. What do you know about Romans chapters 1 through 3? I mention them a lot. Romans chapter 1 through chapter 3 begin turning to chapter 3. The point that Paul is making is the need that we all have for a new system, the justification by faith that comes through the gospel. How the law was inadequate to deal with the problem of our sin. And what he says in chapter 1 is that the Gentiles are all sinners.

What he says in chapter 2, Jews don’t get on your high horse. You’re all sinners too. And when he comes to chapter 3, he says, everybody’s a sinner. There is none who does good, no, not one. All are charged under sin. Every person who has reached the age of accountability has sinned and transgressed against God. All have concluded under sin. Verse 23. You might know this verse. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But that’s not the end of the story. Begin reading with me in verse 24. Being justified, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. That’s our joy, and that’s our hope.

And that’s our salvation. That being justified as a gift by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. Come back to that thought in a minute, propitiation. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, remember the cross tells us so much about God. Because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed. He had not to this point dealt adequately with the problem of sin. He passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So if we are an individual today who has faith in Jesus, who have been brought to a right relationship with him on the basis of what was done for us at Calvary and this message of salvation, it has only been so because God is both just and the justifier.

I want you to think about the problem and the solution for sin could not have been dealt with by the river of blood that flowed from all of those animal sacrifices in the Old Testament. Every year, every person, everyone who brought an animal to be slain by the high priest, and all of the blood that flowed in Jerusalem year after year and generation after generation for the sins of the people did not adequately deal with the problem of sin. The justice of God, the fact that God is just, demanded more. It demanded the perfect Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John’s dramatic and awesome announcement. In John chapter 1 and verse 29 and in verse 36. I want to tell you that’s jaw-dropping verses right there.

The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, the perfect sacrifice. That’s what it’s going to require. So all of this elaborateness to meet the demands of God’s justice. Deuteronomy chapter 32, I’ve loved these verses for a long time. Moses speaks of the character of God. And he says in Deuteronomy chapter 32, verses 3 and 4, for I proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God, the rock. His work is perfect, and all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is he. God could not overlook the problem of sin. The marring of perfection, the marring of holiness. He could not offer some simplistic solution for the problem. A just God demanded justice.

2. The Horror of Sin

From the time sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden. This elaborate plan had to do with his justice. Well, I’ll tell you, it says something else. When we consider what the animal sacrifices could not do, that only the sacrifice of Jesus did. I want to tell you, young people, this tells us very powerfully about the horror of sin. The cross of Christ, the ghastly means of execution that it was, that this would be the means that provided salvation and allowed God to be the justifier and to deal adequately with the problem of sin. Look, this tells us something. The death of Jesus on the cross ought forever to speak in our minds to the horrific nature of sin. And it must never ever be minimized in our lives.

Jesus is the propitiation, we read in Romans 3. He’s the propitiation not for our sins only, John would say in 1 John chapter 2, but for the sins of the whole world. Propitiation. You all know what it means. I emphasize it a lot because it’s an incredible word in the New Testament. It’s the satisfying of God’s anger. Going back to our point about the justice of God. God satisfied his own anger. God dying at the cross satisfied the penalty that was due for our sin. He paid in his body. Our penalty. Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 2. Our sins and his body upon the cross. He is the propitiation. That again speaks to the horror of sin. I want to make one brief point about this.

Even in our lives now, as we are the recipients of grace, sin is not. It is never, ever. I’m stuck, I know.

It is never a small thing. Sin often blinds us to its true character. Its horrific nature. We commonly categorize sins. We talked about this on Wednesday night a little bit. We think of some sins that are the worst form of sin. I don’t know about you, but the Jerry Sandusky trial turns my stomach. That man should be removed from the face of this earth. That’s how I feel about it. Paul talked about crimes worthy of death. Those are them. Or we look at the murderous rampage of Desmonte Linter in Auburn, Alabama. Just okay, you’re upset, just go kill people. And we look at the worst kinds of crimes. That’s the truly bad people, but I want to tell you. When it comes to what happened at the cross, just a simple act of jealousy.

A simple occasion of lust.

A simple outburst of anger. The requirement to fix even those was the death of Jesus at Calvary. And just one of them.

I’ll tell you what the cross says to us as it speaks to the horror of sin, and that is that as believers, as those who have been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, that we need to cultivate a sense of horror where all sin is concerned. How many passages could I look at that you’re familiar with, probably about hating every false way? Several of those in the Psalms. We need to cultivate the same kind of horror about all sin, all of it. Because no matter what it is, the little the little white lie, or all the other little things that we tend to rationalize not as bad as other things, every sin, every transgression, the cross was necessary to fix the problem. And we must not, we are not ignorant of the devil as we studied in our class in 2 Corinthians.

We are not ignorant of his devices and his schemes, that he would take an advantage of us. 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 11. I won’t tell you how he does that to us today.

3. The Incredible Wisdom of God

Point number three.

In fact, if you flip over to Romans chapter 5, if you’re still in the book of Romans, in verse 6, an amazing thing is said here, for while we were still helpless, and I have the word helpless underlined in my Bible, and I’m going to come back to that in the last point. For while we were still helpless at the right time, and I want you to emphasize that, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. It was the absolute perfect moment in history. All of this waiting, all of this anticipation, everything that was written in the Old Testament, everything that happened with the patriarchs, the blessing of the sons of Jacob, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, Genesis 49, everything that transpires, all that’s worked out, all the God schemes in the Old Testament, everything that God prepares through the nation of Israel, David, the king who is told he shall not lack a man to sit upon the throne, 2 Samuel chapter 7, all of the prophecies, all of that is fulfilled in Christ.

Again, all of this elaborate planning that was done, and then the perfect environment. The Roman Empire with its roads, the Greek culture, and the Greek language, the perfect political and social environment in Judea, the fact that the common people would embrace Jesus’ message, that the Pharisees would reject him and put him to death. Let’s get to point number four in a minute in regard to that. The fact that the climate among the Jews was such that it was the fact that he provided, and there’s another sermon here cooking in my mind. I’ve not gotten there yet with it in regard to Joseph, but the perfect home in Nazareth of all places. The perfect parents, Joseph and Mary, in which to place Emmanuel God with us. God arranges perfectly the climate that would be necessary for Jesus to be put to death as the sin sacrifice and the climate necessary for the gospel to spread throughout the entire world, giving all men the opportunity to either embrace or reject the message of salvation.

And all that points to the incredible wisdom of God. Flip over a little bit later in Romans to chapter 11. I’m glad I get to read these verses again, because in the context of what we looked at this morning in the book of Romans, when he comes to the end of that theological discussion about being justified by faith and what God has brought about in Christ, Paul just sums that up before he gets to the practical considerations about being a living sacrifice that might mention in our Bible class and everything that flows out of that, he says in verse 32 of Romans 11, God has shut up all in disobedience, that he might show mercy to all.

Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments, and how unfathomable are his ways. Who has not known the mind of the Lord? Who has known what God was planning to do? Who has become his counselor? Hey, God, let me tell you how to work this out. God has needed nothing from anyone to work out this marvelous plan. And who has first given to him that it should be given back in return? God owes no man anything, owes no being anything from him and through him, and to him are all things. This plan shouts the perfection and wisdom of God. When you see the cross, you need to see the wisdom of God, the surpassing wisdom of our creator.

4. The Power of God

And along with that, the power of God. If the rulers of this age had known, and this testifies also to the wisdom of God, if the rulers of this age had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 8. Isn’t it amazing all the evil that God used to accomplish his plan? He demonstrates that even way back in the Old Testament when Joseph is sold into slavery by his scoundrel brothers. And they were so concerned later on when the tables had been turned and they go to Egypt. I love that story. I don’t ever get tired of it. I love it. Especially the part where they puts the cup in Benjamin’s sack, and they have a chance to do the same thing to him that they’ve done to Joseph, and then they’ve grown a little bit, and they go back, oh, we’ve got to go back with him.

They go back to Egypt, and then finally Joseph reveals himself. And then they get all concerned after Jacob dies. Now he’s going to extract his pound of flesh. He’s going to hurt us. And they would have deserved it. But we remember what Joseph said, right? Am I in the place of God? You meant it for evil. But God meant it for good. To preserve us alive. See how things have worked out? God can trump the evil of men to his ultimate good, and he can take the most heinous act. Putting to death the innocent Son of God. And turn that into the salvation of the human race. Has he ever declared it more poignantly than at the cross? His awesome power. And as great as the first four points are in regard to what the cross tells us, the greatest point of all is what it says about the love of God.

5. The Love of God

In Romans chapter 5, if you’re still there.

For hardly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man. You would struggle to die even for someone that you knew was righteous. If you were the most noble of men, you might do that. Though perhaps for the good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, there was nothing particularly lovable about us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only this, we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Without him, I am helpless. He did not want me to remain helpless. To such unfathomable lengths would God go. God himself would suffer rejection and pain and death. For the unlovable object of me, caught in the foolishness of my sins.

We sing that song that we sang earlier. The love of God is greater far than tongues or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell. Powerful words in Psalm. Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man ascribed by trade to right, the love of God above would drain the ocean, not rain, would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole. Though stretched from sky to sky.

Oh, love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong. It shall forevermore endure. The saints and angels. Don’t ever question if God loves you. The cross forever concludes. He loves you. He loved us all. Every person. That’s what the cross says. But that’s not the end of the story either. To be alive spiritually, you must also die and rise again. In likeness of his death and resurrection. Again, the way of the cross leads home. As we’re about to say.

Conclusion

That’s what Paul says in Romans chapter 6. That we are buried with him in baptism. That we might die to sin and live to righteousness, and that we might rise in likeness of his resurrection. And the power of God can again be displayed as we are made alive. Through faith in the working of him who raised Jesus from the dead. Colossians says chapter 2 and verse 12, buried with him in baptism. Made alive. Though we were once dead in our transgressions. Let God’s power be displayed again today. There’s someone in this audience who has not yet responded appropriately to the magnificent offer of Jesus’ blood the precious blood of a lamb without spot and blemish.

What a great opportunity to die and yet rise unto life.

It is me to know as our heart were go of the crossing farewell to the way of the world to walk in every for my horse has come and I see my home where he laid happy home and know the way of the cross seems all the way of the cross seats all it is free to know as thy hard work go of the cross seat home