The Cross

Adrian Rogers was a motivator, an encourager, and a leader of the faith. He was also passionate about presenting scriptural application to everyday life circumstances, and you'll hear that in today's message.

Now, let's join Adrian Rogers. We have of the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But here is the question, what was the reason for the cross?

What was the necessity of the cross? I can give it to you in one word, and that word is sin. You pick up the newspapers this morning and you read of arson, you read of rape, pillage, war, pornography, disaster, and when you read all of that, you never read the word sin.

Life is short. Death is sure. Sin, the curse. Christ, the cure.

And how does he cure? Through the cross of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Listen to this scripture. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins.

Why the cross? Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Say, isn't that a great verse? Is that not a great verse?

There's enough gospel dynamite in that one verse to blow the sin, the hatred, the sorrow, the sickness out of anybody's life, but that dynamite must be ignited by the spark of faith. I want us to learn today exactly how God forgives sin, how God deals with sin. Suppose someone were to come up and with their big fist, punch you in the nose. And suppose in an act of compassion, you were to say to that person who punched you in the nose, I forgive you. And suppose they said to you, oh, there's no need for you to forgive me. I've already forgiven myself.

And then suppose the person standing by said, oh, well, neither one of you need to worry about it. I have forgiven both of you. And you are the one who got punched in the nose.

Friend, listen to me. Only the punch E can forgive the punch-er. Now understand that sin is a clenched fist in the face of God. And only God can forgive sin.

In a way with all of this psychological psycho babble that says we need to forgive ourselves and we need to affirm one another and we need to forgive one another. There is a holy God. God is a holy God. And sin is an affront, a reproach to sin. A reproach, a rebellion against a holy God. And that sin must be dealt with.

We've said that over and over again. Our text today points out three wonderful, wonderful truths about how God forgives sin and how God deals with sin. The very first thing I want you to see as we look in our text, that again, 1 Peter 3 verse 18, is the vicarious suffering of the cross.

Do you have that down? The vicarious suffering of the cross. The word vicarious means in the place of another. The word vicarious means substitutionary.

Look at it. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust. That is Jesus who is just, who never sinned, the virgin-born, sinless, spotless, stainless Son of God. The just died for the unjust.

The unjust, that's me, you. We're the ones. He became our substitute. All through the Bible, God has been teaching the lesson of substitution. Back in the Old Testament, God wanted to give a prophecy and a picture of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he instituted the ritual of the Passover lamb.

There was judgment upon the land because of sin. But God told his people to take a lamb and a cross. They would take a lamb, a spotless lamb without spot, without blemish. They were to kill that lamb and put the blood of that lamb upon the doorpost of their house. Not on the inside, on the outside, openly, publicly, unashamedly the blood of the lamb.

And have you ever thought about it? It was to be upon the lentil and upon the side post. Now just think of a person with a sop with blood and he goes to put that blood here and here and here.

What has he done? He's made the sign of the cross. And there so long ago, God is picturing and God is prophesying that it is the blood. And God said to those Israelites so long ago, when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

And that's how we get the name, the word, Passover. God will pass over you when the blood is applied. But if you put the blood beneath your feet and you pass over the blood, God will not pass over you. But when you put yourself under the blood, the death angel, the judgment of almighty God will pass over you. When you pass over lamb, it's all a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You and 1 Peter, go back to 1 Peter chapter 1 and look with me if you will in verse 18, 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 18. So, that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by the tradition from your fathers, but now watch it, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. Jesus is the Passover lamb. He is the lamb without blemish and without spot. By the time of Christ, the priests and the Levites had instructed a special rank of shepherds to grow very special lambs, Passover lambs.

These were the finest, the best. They were grown in Bethlehem. On Passover week, those lambs would be coming from the fields of Boaz from Bethlehem up to the temple mount and they would be going in through the sheep gate, up there to be examined by the high priest and the other priest and the Levites. Coming down from the Mount of Olives, the same day riding upon a donkey is the Lord Jesus Christ, God's lamb going up to Mount Moriah. On the same day, the lambs and God's lamb entering into the city.

Palm Sunday, Passover, the same day. When those lambs came, those priests began to look at those lambs and examine those lambs. They would look inside the mouth. They would go through the fleece, the little hooves, the eyes.

Even the eyelids were examined. If there were any flaw, that lamb was not worthy. He had to be a special lamb, a lamb without spot or blemish. But the same time those lambs were coming, God's lamb was coming. You see, there was another lamb born in Bethlehem. Mary had a little lamb.

His fleece was white as snow. He never knew sin. He was the virgin born son of God, God's sinless lamb. The lamb that Abraham talked about on Mount Moriah when he said, God will provide himself a lamb, not a lamb for himself. He himself will be the lamb. God will provide himself a lamb. See now how it comes to place. See how it's all coming together. Have you ever wondered why so much of the gospels is given over, are given over to the last week of Jesus' life? Have you ever thought about that? I mean so much that Jesus did, but it is the last week.

Why? Because this is the climax of it all and it is there in that last week that Jesus is being examined. He is being examined by the Pharisees. He is being examined by the Sadducees. He is being examined by the Herodians. He is being examined by the civil leaders. And they all have to say, I find no fault in Him.

Never, never a man spake like this man. Oh, Jesus could look at all of them in God's perfect lamb and Jesus Christ could look them in the eye and say, which of you convinces me of sin? Why has He convinced me of sin? He was the sinless, spotless lamb and He was being examined. Then came that day, that day when the Passover lamb was to be slain. At one o'clock in the afternoon, the priest would tilt the head of that little spotless lamb and take their sharp and lethal knives and slit the throat of that little lamb. At the time that was happening on cruel Golgotha, God's lamb was pouring out His precious, precious ruby red royal blood for the sin of mankind and Jesus said from that cross, it is done. It is finished.

It is paid in full. And priest, I want to tell you, you can go home now. Levites, put away your knives. Shepherds, your job is finished because it's done. Amen? It is done. Hallelujah.

It is finished. Jesus, God's lamb died upon that cross. The purpose of the cross is substitution.

Passover has shown us very clearly and very plainly. Again when the Lord Jesus Christ died, He fulfilled another Old Testament symbolism. The high priest would take a goat called the scapegoat. He would lay his hands upon the head of that goat and confess the sins of the people upon the head of that goat. Then that goat would be led outside the city. And there outside the city wall that goat would be killed, its blood would be shed. And that's the reason the Bible tells us that Jesus died outside the city walls because Jesus was our scapegoat. Our sins were laid upon Him and He carried those sins to the cross and in agony and blood He died.

Another illustration. Pilate was there in his judgment hall. Pilate did not want to crucify the Lord Jesus. Pilate was a fit, straddling politician and whatever buttered his bread determined his conduct. And so he's trying to get out of this situation and the people are clamoring for the blood of Jesus.

Pilate thinks he has an ingenious scheme. Well, he says, we've got another man here. That man's name is Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a thief. Barabbas was a murderer. Barabbas was an insurrectionist and they thought surely if there's ever a man that needs to be put to death, it's Barabbas. So here's what Pilate says. Pilate says, according to tradition, we always release a prisoner to the people. We let them choose whom they will pardon. And so we have here Barabbas. And we have here Jesus.

Which of these two do you wish that I will release to you? Do you know what they said? Barabbas. What he said, what then shall I do with Jesus who's called the Christ? They said, let him be crucified. That's the same crowd, the same fickle crowd, when he was coming in on Palm Sunday who were saying, hail him, hail him. And now they're saying, nail him, nail him.

Oh, the wickedness of human hearts. And they're saying, let Jesus be crucified. And so they carry Jesus, God's Passover lamb, Jesus, God's scapegoat. They carry him out there, the just for the unjust. And he is hung up on a cruel Roman cross to die.

But I want you to picture another scene. I want you to see a Roman soldier. He has a torch. He walks down in our corridor in a Roman prison. He comes to a door that has iron bars on it.

He holds the torch up back in the shadows on a mat of straw is a man. That man is trembling like a bird caught in a cage, caught in a trap. That man's face is the mirror of evil.

And yet fear is written all over him. The guard with his key opens the door and says, Barabbas, get up and come with me. See Barabbas as he begins to plead and say, no, no, wait, wait, don't, don't take me. Please have mercy. The Roman soldier says, Barabbas, quit sniveling.

I've never seen a man with the fortune and the luck that you have. Barabbas, you rascal. You're not going to die.

There's somebody else who's going to die in your place. Come here, Barabbas. Look over on that hill. Do you see the middle cross? Barabbas, that's the cross we had made for you. But there's someone else on that cross.

He has taken your place. I don't mean to say or infer that Barabbas was saved or he ever got saved, but I am saying that God has arranged a perfect picture of substitution, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. And so the very first thing I want you to see in how God forgives sin is what I want to call the vicarious suffering of the cross. But look at our text.

Look at it. It says, Christ also hath suffered for sin. He hath suffered for sin. Tongue cannot tell. Throat cannot sing.

Hand cannot paint. The tragedy that was called Calvary and the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ, there was the emotional suffering of Christ. We talked about that when we talked about the cup, when the Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 26 and verse 38, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.

Oh, the emotional agony. Luke chapter 22 and verse 44, and being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly. And his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood. Some years ago, somebody handed me an article from the Journal of the American Medical Association. Physicians were talking about the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they talked about this bloody sweat. It's called hematidrosis.

And this is what the article said, a very rare phenomenon. It may occur during highly emotional states or in persons with bleeding disorders. As a result of hemorrhage into the sweat glands, the person's skin becomes fragile and tender. This is what happened to the Lord Jesus.

He is in such agony that the minute capillaries are rupturing and breaking down. There was the emotional suffering. It is an agony. Not only was there the emotional suffering, there was the bodily suffering of the Lord Jesus. They scourged the Lord Jesus. The Romans knew how to scourge. They would tie the hands of the victim and hoist him until he's on the balls of his feet.

This is to increase the pain. The back would become smooth as silk. The scourging instrument was a whip with a sturdy handle and then leather thongs. And in the ends of those leather thongs, there would be little bits of bone and metal and glass ingeniously tied.

There would be two scourgers, two lictors. And as the body is stretched out, one would start at the nape of the neck and work downward. The other would start at the ankles and work upward. And as a team, they would flay that person standing on the balls of his feet stretched out there.

As the whip would reach around the body, each time it's pulled back, it pulls away a piece of flesh. These were experienced men. They knew how to do that. They knew how to pull away the flesh so as to expose the nerves and the muscles without yet disemboweling the individual. And after a man is cut down from being scourged and he falls to the ground, men did not walk away from a scourging.

They crawled away. That's the reason the Bible says they brought him to the judgment hall. They brought him.

Why? He's too weak to walk. You understand why later Jesus stumbled and fell beneath the cross. The physical abuse of the Lord Jesus Christ. They battered him with their fists.

They beat him with clubs. And then they took him out for the actual crucifixion. Do you know why the Romans used crucifixion?

Do you know why they used the cross? You talk about cruel and unusual punishment. Crucifixion was meant to be cruel. Crucifixion was meant to be unusual. Crucifixion was meant to inspire stark terror. Anybody who saw crucifixion said, Whatever caused that, I will not do that.

Romans, whatever you tell me to do, I'll do it. But don't crucify me. That's what crucifixion was all about.

Have you ever heard the word excruciating? That comes from a Latin word, excrutiatus. It literally means out of the cross. Out of the cross.

Our word excruciating comes from crucifixion. It was out of the cross kind of pain, excruciating pain. They would nail the victim's hands to that cross. They would separate the metacarpals, put the nail right there, not really in the palm of the hand, but there in the wrist so the body would not fall from that cross. They would try, if they could, to hit the median nerve to send pain up the body and into the torso.

They would drive those nails through those nerves. He would be crucified with his hands at a 90-degree angle, but when the body falls, it goes down to a 65-degree angle as the hands are out like this and the feet are nailed to the cross. The weight of the body comes down on the chest and the person who is crucified is gasping for breath and so in order to breathe, he has to lift himself. But in order to lift himself, he has to push down on those nails that are there on his feet and so he is between gasping for breath and searing with pain.

He is there and there's nausea and there's shock and there is a searing pain as every nerve in that body becomes a pathway for the feet of pain and the individual stays there agonizingly long and dies an excruciating death. There was the physical agony of the cross. There was the emotional agony, the emotional suffering of the cross. Not only did Jesus Christ drink the cup, that is the pollution of sin, but Jesus Christ wore the crown, that is the penalty of sin and so the cup and the crown tell us of the cross and Jesus there having the pollution, bearing the penalty, not that He ever sinned, He was the just for the unjust, but He paid that price and what was that price? Separation from Almighty God. Not only would God the Father be separated from Him, but He for that moment would become the object of the Father's loathing and God the Father must look upon Him as God the Father would look upon a sinner and deal with Him as He would deal with a sinner.

Now do you understand Peter's text? Christ also hath once suffered for sin the just for the unjust. That's the vicarious suffering of the cross.

Do you have it? The vicarious suffering of the cross. Now here's the second thing I want you to see. The vital satisfaction of the cross. Look at the text and there's a word there I don't want you to miss.

Look at it. For Christ also hath... What's that next word? Once. Christ also hath once suffered for sin.

Now friend, that does not mean once upon a time. That means once for all. That means once for all when Jesus said it is finished, He meant that the debt had been paid absolutely. Now remember that I told you before in Rome when a man would be adjudicated guilty for a crime and they would put that man in prison, they would write out a certificate of debt. This was his debt to the state. This was his debt to society. This is what his sin, his crime had incurred. It was called a certificate of debt and it would be placed on his prison door. And then after he had done his time, after he had paid the penalty, whatever it was, after he had satisfied the demands of the law, then they would write across that certificate of debt paid in full and give it to him. And do you know the word that they would write on there?

Tetelestai. Do you know what that is? It is finished. It is finished. It is paid in full. That man won't have to go back to prison again. He'll never come into double jeopardy. If they ever arrest him for that crime again and say, this is what you've done, he may say, yes, but I have paid. It is paid.

It is done. You can't bring me in twice for the same crime. And this is what it says Jesus has once suffered for sin. And what blasphemy to say that again there needs to be another sacrifice for sin. Listen to Hebrews chapter 10 verses 12 through 14. This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

Now listen to this. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Hallelujah. That's why I believe in eternal security. Did you know if you were to ever get lost after you get saved, which you never could do, but let's suppose you could get lost after you got saved, for you to be saved again, Jesus would have to die again. You see, when Jesus died, it was good for one salvation only. Good for one salvation only. He by one sacrifice hath perfected forever. Jesus said it's finished. It's done.

It's paid in full. There's nothing you can do, nothing you need do. Now here's the third thing I want you to see. Not only the vicarious suffering of the cross, not only the vital satisfaction of the cross, he hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust. But I want you to see the vicarious salvation of the cross, the vicarious salvation. He hath suffered for sin, the just for the unjust.

Why? That he might bring us to God. Do you see it?

Look at it. That he might bring us to God. What does sin do? Sin separates us from a holy God. What does the cross do? On that cross Jesus took holy God with one hand, sinful man with the other hand, and by the blood of His cross He hath reconciled God and man. He's made peace by the blood of His cross with His cross that He might bring us to God.

Listen to Romans 5 verse 10. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life that He might bring us to God. The word bring, prosago, is the Greek word. It means to take an individual and present him to a king, our dignitary. And that's what Jesus has done. Jesus has taken us by the hand to present us to God the Father. He's bringing us to God. He's saying, Father, these are mine. I purchase them with my blood on that cross. Does that excite you?

Oh, it excites me. King David in the Old Testament had a son. His name was Absalom. And Absalom rebelled against his father, and there was a woman in the kingdom who said, David, you need to do something to reconcile your son, to get him back, to bring your son back. But David did not do it. And the woman said, David, you're not acting like God acts. And then I want you to jot this verse down in the margin of your Bible. It's a precious verse. 2 Samuel 14, verse 14. Here's what that woman said to David, for we must needs die. And as our water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, neither doth God respect any person, yet doth He devise means that His banished be not expelled from Him. Isn't that a great Gospel text in the Old Testament?

We are like water spilt on the ground, and God doesn't respect persons, and yet, yet God has devised means that His banished be not expelled from Him. God has a way of bringing us back. I want to tell you a story, a true story. The Reader's Digest recounted this story.

I heard it recently from a preacher named Ravi Zacharias. There was a man in Long Island, New York. That man was a commuter. He would ride the commuter train that would stop in Long Island, the subway. He would get on at 902 every morning, and he would ride in.

He was of a Hungarian background, a businessman in New York. Upon a day, this man had a friend who was sick, and so this businessman whose name was Marcel Sternberger said, I'm going to stay with my friend today and go in later. So Marcel Sternberger stayed with his sick friend, and then rather than riding the 902 commuter, he got on the noonday commuter to ride to Long Island.

He wasn't used to riding that train. And the train was filled with people, and when Marcel Sternberger got on that train, a great host of people got off, a great host of people got on, and Sternberger is looking for a seat. One man gets up, and Sternberger says, I'll get that seat, and he goes over and plunges into that seat and sits down. Next to Marcel Sternberger is a man reading a newspaper, and he spread it out, and it is an Hungarian newspaper. Sternberger looks over, can read Hungarian, sees the man is reading the classified ads, and he says to the man just conversationally, are you looking for a job?

And the man said, no. He said, I am looking for my wife's name. He said, well, tell me about it. Well, he said, in the war, we lived in Debrechen. Said the Nazis were there, and they began to oppress us. And the Nazis came and took me away from my home. I was happily married. And the Nazis took me to the Ukraine to bury the German dead.

I had to do that. I was afraid to leave my wife because I was afraid that the Nazis would come and put my wife in a concentration camp. But he said, I went, and when I came back home after the war, I couldn't find my wife. I asked around, and they said, well, the Nazis came, and they took a number of people off to Auschwitz.

Maybe your wife was taken there. He said, I began to read and study to find out what happened to the people who were taken to Auschwitz. Many of them, you know, ended up in the crematoriums where they were seared and burned in the Holocaust. But he said, I also read that when the Allies came, they came into that prison camp, and they freed some people. And he said, I'm just thinking that perhaps my wife might not have been killed.

She might have been freed. And then I got to thinking, maybe the Allies took those people to America. And then he said, I was thinking, if they took those people to America, where would be the point of entry?

It would be New York. And then he said, I was thinking, if my wife would be in New York, she would know where I am. But I know my wife.

She's a thinker. She would put an ad in the Hungarian newspaper, and I'm just reading the newspaper, if by chance I might find my wife. Marcel Sternberger remembered that he had been a few days before this at a party. He had met a Hungarian woman, and she had given her name. She had said that she had lived in Debrecken. She had said that her husband was taken away to the Ukraine.

Marcel Sternberger's mind began to run just like this. He said, what is your wife's name? The man said, my wife's name is Maria Baskin. Sternberger, without saying a word, got out his wallet, pulled out a slip of paper that he'd folded and looked at it, and there was the name Maria Baskin. He said, sir, it's very important.

Will you get off this train at the next stop with me? He didn't yet tell him why, but the man trusted him they got off. Sternberger had Maria's telephone number. He went to a pay phone, put in a coin, dialed the number and said, hello, who's speaking? She said, this is Maria. He said, Maria, do you remember me?

We met at a party about three days ago. Yes, I remember you. I'm Marcel Sternberger.

Yes, I remember you, Marcel. Maria, did you have a husband? Do you have a husband? She said, I don't know whether I have a husband or not.

I did have one, but I've not seen him since the war. Maria, what is your husband's name? My husband's name is Bello. Bello Baskin.

He said, wait just a moment. Sir, what is your first name? Oh, he said, my name is Bello.

Bello Baskin. He said, sir, take this receiver. You are about to witness a miracle. He picked up the phone and said, hello? Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria.

Maria said she'd been praying that she could find her husband. The Reader's Digest told that story, and then they said, some will say if they're skeptical, that was a chance. But the Digest asked this question, was it a chance that this man who normally rode the 902 rode the 12 o'clock train? Was it by chance that he sat in the one seat in that entire train that was unoccupied? Was it by chance that this man was reading a Hungarian newspaper? Was it by chance that three days later he had met this woman, Maria, and written her name down?

And then the Digest said, no, it wasn't by chance. God rode the subway that morning. God devised means to bring these two together, but I want to tell you, friend, there's a greater miracle than that. A greater miracle than that, God devised means that His banish be not separated from Him, and Jesus on that cross died for you. Oh, the love that thought it. Oh, the grace that brought it. Wonderful, wonderful salvation. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with Him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org, or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.