Our Father, we pray tonight that the Spirit of God may confirm the testimony You have given in Your Book as to why the Lord Jesus came down here and died, and God raised Him from the dead, He went back to glory and You exalted Him. We pray that You will press the claims of Christ upon our hearts afresh tonight. In Christ's Name, Amen.
I hope I am led by the Spirit of God tonight to have a Bible study on "Why Christ Died." It looks like American men and women are determined to miss out on what God's purpose is for a people in the death of His Son. I hope I can give a clear testimony as to what this business of salvation is all about. I think we need a lot of preaching today on what it is to be saved. I want to preach tonight and give a few Scriptures that are the testimony of the Holy Spirit as to the purpose that God had in hanging His own Son on a cross. We will present some Scriptures to show the purpose of God in dying for sinners in Christ. It is not that we might be saved from hell, but that we might be made holy and live lives to the praise and glory of God under the rule and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
I believe that a profession that does not bring forth a holy life is a false profession. I believe that a Christian lives as the main purpose of his life a holy life of obedience and love to Him, Whom he loves because he found out that God loved him first. I believe that Christianity is rotting at the home base in America because we have separated Christ from His way of living, and we have people who are anxious to call Him Saviour, but who are not concerned about bringing forth the good works that God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
It is certainly true that Ephesians 2:8-10 teaches not only that "We are saved by grace through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship; created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. "We are His product. A Christian is not somebody who has done something himself, but a Christian is somebody who God has done something to and for. If you find a man who is not walking in the path that God outlined for him before the foundation of the world, you have found a man who has missed Christ. That is solemn, but it is true.
Everywhere I go I get in trouble because I deny the popular doctrine of backsliding and that just ruins their teaching; because they are determined to have a nice little salvation that doesn't affect the way they live. They get saved, but pretty soon they backslide and just before they die the Lord brings them back. But in the New Testament we are forced to face the fact that the people that God called backsliders were never saved in the first place; they were merely people who were members of the covenant and had access to the blood, but never by faith availed themselves of the blood of Christ.
We have also built a philosophy of revival on 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If My people, which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
We have said that we could have a revival in America if God's people would humble themselves, so God has got a bunch of proud people. We could have a revival in America if Christian people would pray, so Christians don't pray. We would have revival in America if Christians would seek God's face, as if they do anything else, and we could have revival in America if Christians would turn from their wicked ways; as if God owns men who are proud as His; but that is an insult to God. To say that God Almighty went to the trouble of hanging His Son on a cross and then planting Christ Jesus in us as the hope of glory, so we could be proud people, not humble, so we could be prayerless people, not a praying people. So we could be a people who seek every-thing else except His face and so we could be a people living knee deep in sin; I don't believe a word of it. I believe if an old hell-bound sinner is ever brought to the place where he knows that he is lost; because the Holy Ghost has pricked him in the heart by the Word of God and revealed to him his sinful lost condition, he will beg God to have mercy on him. And when God is pleased to make him a new creature in Christ, he will be in love with the lover of his soul and he will delight to do the will of God and walk in loving obedience to Him.
We've got a stuff called salvation now that makes the death of the Lord Jesus Christ a joke and makes God a minister of sin and speaks peace to men where there is no peace. It is filling hell full of church members who believed these lies that are being preached. The only people who will bring praise and glory to Christ are those who are under the guiding hand and the rule of Him Whom God hath appointed and decreed to be Lord over all mankind. I say that the Gospel is a holy making Gospel and that we do not live a holy life in order to be saved, but we live a holy life because we are saved. And when a man is justified by feasting on the blood of Christ, that is the beginning of a holy life. That's where holy living starts and that person who is not on the road to the time when he will be like Christ is traveling on the wrong road and Christ is not his Lord. In the churches today Christ is offered to men and women as One Who will keep you out of hell and let you do as you please, but the Lord Jesus Christ demands holy living.
If sin is damning its thousands, religion today is damning its tens of thousands.
I judge people by their attitude toward the Word of God. A lost man doesn't believe the Bible, a saved man does. You know God has to work a miracle in a man to get him to listen to something he doesn't believe. The Lord said to the Jews of His day, "If you believed Moses, you would believe Me." People don't believe the Bible is God's Word and yet the only way a man can get saved is by listening to that which he doesn't believe. What a miracle it will be if God ever fixes you so you'll not just attend services, but where you begin to listen to God's Word. I think I have been preaching all these years to a generation of people who seem to wish to trust in the work of Christ, but not fall in love with Him. And thus hell is full of people who believed a fact, but never have been joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. I cannot understand that type of salvation or what a sinner expects when he doesn't desire to be under the rule of Christ, but only rebels against His rule. I cannot understand a salvation that turns out men and women who do not intend in the deep recesses of their soul to become willing bondslaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. I say to you, my friend, that church members who live in known sin, who do not pant after holiness, who have no love for Christ; I say to you, they are in mortal danger and they are on the road to hell and know it not.
With that introduction I ask you to turn with me to about seven Scriptures that give us the purpose of God as to why the Lord Jesus died and was raised from the dead and is now at the Father's right hand where He must reign until everything is brought into subjection to Him. In these Scriptures God tells us what His purpose in the death of Christ is. Please turn to Romans 14:9: "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living."
Now here is a verse of Scripture that from one angle encompasses the whole purpose of God; for the only way on earth that you will ever be made like Christ is to be brought under His rule and Him take you by the hand and lead you in His way from glory to glory in His image world without end. That person who hasn't found in Christ a new Master; that person who hasn't found in Christ a rule from above that he rejoices in, and that doesn't make him mad; that man has missed Christ. I believe that this Scripture means that for this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the spiritually dead and the spiritually living. In dying on a cross Jesus Christ purchased every human being that ever lived. In that sense He is the only Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe. 1 Timothy 4:10: " For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, Who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe."
But Jesus Christ in one sense of the Bible teaching, redeemed this world by His precious blood. Now redemption is not salvation, it is a part of it. But one thing my Lord Jesus Christ did, when He died on the cross, God Almighty turned every human being from Adam down to the last man over into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the biggest question any human being ever faced is: What is your Lord going to do with you? He bought the field that He might gain the treasure, and all authority has been given to Him, and all flesh has been given to Him, that He might give eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him.
When the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth, He offered Himself with all the credentials to the Jewish nation as King; and had the nation received Him as King, they would have found salvation in His Kingship. But when the nation through its leaders rejected Him; He turned to individuals and now He has been ordained and declared to be Lord of every human being. And the man or woman who receives Him as his Lord, as his Master, as his Dictator, as his Ruler, will find salvation under His Lordship and nowhere else. That conception of salvation that conceives a Jesus as somebody to keep you from going to hell when you die never was in the Bible.
The only way on earth a man can be saved is to be translated by the Spirit of God from the power of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. The word kingdom in the New Testament means rule. The only way that God has of making you like His Son is to redeem you by His blood and lead you by His rule until you meet Him, and when you see Him you shall be like Him, and that is salvation. There is no way on earth that a man can be saved who doesn't come under the rule and the reign of Jesus Christ here on this earth. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.
That blasphemous thought that Jesus Christ becomes your Lord by something you do was born in hell. Jesus Christ became your Lord by God Almighty's eternal decree and He earned the right to you and to do with you as seemeth good in His sight by purchasing you with His own precious blood on Calvary's tree. That is right. The most solemn thing that I face today is when I see crowds, it just pierces my old heart. God help us! American men and women are absolutely living like they have never heard of a Bible, and they refuse to believe that judgment is coming and God must punish sin. And the one issue that God has today is the issue of His Son and He says: "Mister, He is your Lord. I have appointed Jesus as your Lord, you bow to Him." The only difference between a saved person and the person who is not saved, it is not a question of whether they are going to surrender to Jesus as Lord, it is a question of when. Every human being is going to confess Jesus as Lord, every human being is going to bow to the rule and reign of Jesus Christ, even the devil is going to do it; for everything is going to be brought into subjection to Jesus Christ. Thank God, brother, all hell can't defeat God's purposes. Salvation by grace simply means that ahead of time, by persuasion, men and women are made willing to gladly receive Him as Lord, by the work of the Holy Spirit.
And later God will force the wicked people to bow down to Jesus and confess that He is Lord. But this will not keep them out of hell. That is a solemn thought.
Everyone that God was pleased to choose in Christ before the foundation of the world will be made willing in the day of His power to bow to the Lordship of Christ unto salvation. Those who continue in their rebellion will be forced to bow down to Jesus Christ to the glory of God, and will be sent to hell. He is Lord by God's immutable decree, whether you like it or not, He has been appointed to be your Lord. Man was made to be governed and man is governed. There are two sovereigns that are mentioned in the Scriptures. One is sin.
Romans 5:21 says: "That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."
A man who talks about salvation by grace apart from God setting up the rule of His Son in that man's heart is preaching disgrace and not grace at all. God never plants the flag of peace in a man's soul until He sets up the rule of righteousness in his life. God's people are not running around here with rebellion against the Lordship of Christ. God's people can rejoice in the gracious rule of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:28 says: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
In this verse we see that those who are the called of God according to His purpose are people who love God. God has a people who love Him. Any salvation that doesn't cause you to love God and want to obey Him is not worth having. The heart of the law is love. Jesus said: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." And if you don't love the Lord thy God with all of your heart, and your soul, and your mind, you are silly to talk about being a Christian. Romans 8:29 says: "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."
This is God's eternal purpose; this is why Christ died. God wants a family of people in the image of His beloved Son. We were ruined by the fall and we are not over it yet and won't be until we are conformed to the image of His Son, and that's what it means to be saved.
A person who is saved is a fellow who had a crisis experience when Jesus Christ was placed in here, the hope of glory; and he walked under the Lordship, under the kingdom rule of Jesus Christ until one day when he has another crisis and he sees Jesus Christ as He really is, with undimmed view, and that look, brother, will make you just like Jesus. This whole business of being saved is in a look. It has three stages. A man is never saved except by a look at the Lord Jesus Christ. There is life in a look. Isaiah 45:22 says: "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else."
It is the real seeing with eyes of faith of One hanging on a cross and Paul said we look as in a glass. Look where? We look at the face of Jesus Christ, and there we see the glory of God and thus we are changed more and more into His image. And one day with undimmed eyes, Him Who we first saw on Calvary and Whose face we looked into as we fed on Him in life's Christian journey. Then we shall see Him as He really is, and when we do that, we will be really saved. The Christian life cannot be lived by anybody apart from a look at Christ to start with and a daily look to go with. There is no eternal life anywhere else except in Christ; He is the only One Who has got life. There is no hope anywhere else except in the face of Christ. The glory of God doesn't shine anywhere else. Listen to the truth. Multitudes are deceived concerning salvation, and they have to convince themselves over and over that they are saved; because we don't pay any attention to the fact that salvation starts with Christ being placed in you, and God has to do that. And salvation continues as we serve God and look in the face of Jesus Christ, and salvation will be complete when we see Him as He really is. Then we will be saved.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says: "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again."
Here the Holy Spirit talks in a little different language, but it is all saying the same thing about why Christ died. In this day of confusion it is awful. We have had to plead and pray and agonize to come to some truth. I am telling you the truth, God loved sinners enough that He hung His Son on a cross. The Son of God actually died for sinners. God pity you if you go through this life and don't get interested in why did He love sinners. Why did He die on a cross? What a purpose God has. It says in verse 15 that he for who the death of Christ is accomplishing that for which it was intended; more and more he lives less for self and more for Him. That will set you to praying, unless you are willing to go to hell.
Ephesians 1:3-4 says: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love."
Every blessing that we receive is in Christ, and all of it together makes up that great word salvation. Whatever election is, it's in Christ, it is God working in Christ, and it is glorious. It is the act of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according as He has chosen us in Him, and He works according to His purpose. If you know about it; unto God become a seeker to have the Holy Spirit take you out of darkness and put you into the sphere of Christ, then you have eternal life.
Everything that God has got for men and women is in Jesus Christ, and this is something that He did in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
Galatians 1:3-4 says: "Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father."
Here was God's purpose, this means that somebody for whom the death of Christ has availed, it means that somebody who has coveted an interest in the blessed work of Christ, may obtain mercy in Christ, Who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. Heart separation from the anti-Christian spirit of this world, is what Christ died for.
Titus 2:10-14 says: "Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world: Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."
They will be a peculiar people in a godless age because they are zealous of good works. Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. He is going to have a pure people.
Romans 6:17-18 says: "But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness."
Those in Christ are not the servants of sin. 1 John 3:3 says: "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure."
We are all eternity-hound men and women, and unless God Almighty is pleased to perform a miracle in you, and reveal Christ in you, you are doomed for hell.
"Blessed Almighty God, we thank Thee for telling us in Thy Word that Christ died that we might be made holy, and live lives to the praise and glory of God under the rule and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And all men have been given to Him that He might give eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him. To Whom be glory both now and forever. Amen!"