you may be seated, to the glory of God. Now, everything that we've gone through since we began this journey through Dr. Luke's Gospel back in October of 2008 has led us to this moment. This passage in Luke, however brief it may be, is the reason that Jesus was born. It is the reason He said everything that He said and did everything that He did over the last 22 chapters, and the reason that he lived a sinless life on earth for 33 and a half years. God took on flesh and became man so that Jesus could die. Jesus came to this earth to die in this horrific fashion. That is the reason that he was born. Jesus did not come the first time to be accepted or loved or received or worshipped except by the very small group of Jews that He chose. Jesus came to absorb the wrath of God against our sins. And that makes this section of Luke to be of utmost importance to us. I pondered how to go about this. There are lots of different ways we could handle the crucifixion. But I think God would be pleased and that you all would be helped if I go through this passage in two different ways. Number one, I want to illustrate to you the reason why Jesus had to die. I believe that as you study the Bible, You see things and you read things and you begin to have questions. You ponder. Why did He say that? Why did He do that? What's that all about? How does that affect this? What about this? If that's true, what about this? And that's how my mind works and I go through sections of the Bible and I say, okay, God is good, God is sovereign, God is love. Why didn't He just issue an edict of forgiveness to all of mankind? He created everybody. He made the world. He spoke the world into existence. Why didn't He just speak forgiveness? Why didn't He just decree that all humanity would be forgiven? Why didn't He just forcefully change our hearts of everybody? Why didn't He eliminate evil? Why didn't He destroy Satan and just make everybody love Him and serve Him and transform this earth to be heaven? Why did Jesus have to die? And those of you that have read the crucifixion, you've been taught about the crucifixion, you've sung about the crucifixion, I've got an opposite question for you. If the only reason that Jesus came to this earth was to die, then why did he live for 33 and a half years before he died? What was that all about? Why didn't God bring him down here as a full grown man on Friday morning, crucify him on Friday afternoon and raise him up from the dead on Sunday and then take him home? Why be born of a virgin? Why live a sinless life? Why be tempted in all points as we are yet without sin? Why confront Satan in the wilderness? Why confront religious hypocrites for years knowing they weren't going to be saved? Why go through all of that? Why didn't He just die? Why didn't He just come and die and leave? So, what the Bible says is that Jesus was born of a virgin. It says He was sinless. It says He had a perfect ministry. Then it says He died. Then it says He rose from the dead, He ascended into heaven, and is very busy right now at the right hand of the Majesty on high, interceding for us day and night. All of that is the atonement. Not just His death. I hear people all the time, His atonement is the death on the cross. That's not true. That's part of the atonement. That's only part. His sinless life is part of the atonement. His virgin birth is part of the atonement. His perfect ministry is part of the atonement. Him sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high is just as important for my salvation right now as Him dying on the cross was. So we're going to spend the next, and the second way I want to look at this is I'm going to go through the complete narrative of the crucifixion, every verse from all four of the Gospel records, verse by verse, and put them all together in their chronological order so we can see this unbelievable, unspeakable act of God Almighty hanging between earth and heaven on a tree, screaming in agony, and dying. So we're going to spend the next couple of weeks going over these two things. And today I want to begin by illustrating why Jesus had to die and what His death means to us today. And when you ask people why Jesus died, many will say something like this, Jesus died on the cross for my sins. And what they mean to say is that Jesus died on the cross because of my sins. So the reason that Jesus died was because we are sinners. But that brings up another question. Why is my sin a cause for Jesus to die? On the surface, it would seem that my sin should be my problem. If I have sin in my life, then that's something that I should have to deal with. And that is exactly what every other religion and human philosophy And the history of mankind teaches that we human beings have to do something. We have to become something in order to make ourselves appealing to God. But we believe and teach that all of those religions are wrong. All of them are wrong. So why does Jesus have to die because I'm a sinner? And when you ask that question, you get an answer that sounds something like this. Jesus died for me because He loves me and wanted to save me. Now we're getting a little deeper. Jesus absorbed the wrath of God because He loved me. Jesus wanted to save me. So that answer tells me that it was His great love for me that was the reason why Jesus suffered such a terrible death. and it was that same love that compelled Him to save me. And I think that is true. Thank God Jesus loves us. I praise God every day of my life because of the knowledge that an infinitely sinless Savior loved me enough to die in my place and save my wretched soul. We sing about that amazing love, and we marvel at that amazing love, and we should. So there is nothing that I'm about to say to you that you should take as me minimizing that love that Jesus has for us. That's called a preface statement. Because I'm fixing to say something. So buckle up. Here's the problem with that statement. As much as I agree with the statement that Jesus died on the cross because He loved me and wanted to save me, I will also say that this understanding is woefully incomplete. It doesn't tell the whole story. In fact, left to itself, the statement that Jesus died for me only because He loved me, not only doesn't give the complete picture, it creates a completely different purpose in our minds than what the Bible actually says. And please allow me to explain myself. If the only reason Jesus died was because He loved me and wanted to save me, then that makes me to be the object of His love. And that means that I, a wicked, rebellious sinner, that I am the focus of all that Jesus said and all that He did, including die a horrific death on the cross. And if that is true, then that makes me to be infinitely more important than even Jesus Himself. You see, most people are self-centered. I don't know if you've noticed this. And they would not sacrifice their time or their money, much less their life for somebody else. Huh? Do you notice that? But among the very small minority of people who actually would risk their lives, these people do that because they deem that what they die for is the greater cause. the more important cause. For example, a soldier who sacrifices his life in combat is willing to do so because he sees his nation and what his nation stands for to be more important than his own life. And that's why he's willing to do that. A person who sacrifices his life on behalf of someone else sees the other person as more important, more valuable than himself. A mother will gladly risk her life for her children, but only because she sees her children to be more dear, more precious, and more valuable than her own life. And when human beings do this, when human beings so value something or someone else, more than they value their own lives, we call that heroism. And we correctly admire these people, and we honor them, and we uphold them, and we remember their sacrifice, and we pay tribute to the noblest of deeds. We've got a day of the year that we remember soldiers who died for us so we could go to Food Giant and have 85 different kinds of green beans to choose from. and so that we can protest against our own government, we can write a letter to our own leader and tell him to go fly a kite, and they can't put you in jail because of that. Because of the soldier that died for you. But we've got to remember something, dear friends. Jesus is not a hero. Jesus is infinitely better than a hero. Jesus is God. And as God, Jesus is the One who is more precious and more valuable and more important. We are not better. We are not more important than Jesus. We are not more valuable than Jesus. Look at how the Apostle Paul talked about this from Romans 5. I want you to go there. I want your eyes to see this. Romans 5, beginning with verse 6. Romans 5. It's in the Bible. It's in the book of Romans 5. Verse 6, For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. What is he saying there? Christ died for someone less valuable than Himself. The ungodly. Huh? Look what he says in 7. For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Though perhaps for the good man, someone would dare even to die. But God, but means it's not like that, it's different. But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So the motivation of the soldier, the motivation of the mother, the motivation for the hero is not the motivation of God. Because God does not look at you to be more valuable than Himself. He doesn't look at you to be more dear, more precious than Himself. That's not why He died. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. It calls you enemies, it calls you ungodly, and it calls you sinners. Huh? That's not being more valuable. That's being less valuable. So this makes no sense at all on a human level. Most people will not give their lives for someone who is more valuable. Jesus gave His life for someone who is not as valuable as Himself. For if while 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, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now receive the reconciliation. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, for until the law..." So what does that tell you? Verse 12 tells you the reason you die is because of sin. Huh? Death spread to all men because of all sin. Death comes because of sin. Okay. Then why do babies die? Why do unborn babies die? If original sin is not true, why do unborn babies die? Unborn babies, they didn't commit any sins themselves. And that's why we believe, this verse is why we believe in original sin. Even though it doesn't say anything about original sin. It tells you why people die. Huh? Okay. Verse 13, For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness and the offense of Adam, who was the type of him who was to come. We didn't eat the fruit, and yet we still die. Right? But the free gift, look, the free gift is not like the transgression. The free gift is different from the transgression. So if you're using the logic of the transgression to understand the free gift, you're off base. Because he said, the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For on the one hand, the judgment arose from the one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand, the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. The free gift arose out of our sin, not out of our righteousness. For if by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. So then, as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. Hallelujah. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous. The law came in so that the transgression would... What? What? God gave the law so we would be worse? Yep. That's what it says. The law came in so that the transgression would increase. But where sin and grace abounded all the more, so that just like sin, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now you read this and people nod their head like they understand it, and there's hardly ever been any teaching about this in most of our lives, and we just bypass it like we didn't say anything. Like everybody, oh yeah, yeah, there it is, right there. And I'm telling you, most people don't understand what we just read. So Jesus is the treasure. Jesus is the prize. Jesus is the object of not only our admiration and honor, Jesus is the object of our worship and our adoration and our obedience. Jesus is the object. We're not the object. Huh? Okay. But if we're not the object, why did Jesus die for us? Brother Blair, come on. So yes, Jesus absolutely does love us. But Jesus cannot love you more than He loves Himself because that would be idolatry. 1,450 years ago before Jesus was born, God the Holy Spirit moved upon Moses to write this. In Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Radical theology. We read this and we go, Ooh, this is boring. This changed the world. This is the first time a religion had one God. First time. This is called the Shema. And it is the foundational doctrine of the entire Bible. Over against the pagan religions of the world who worship a plurality of man-made false gods, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who is revealed in Scripture, the Father of Jesus Christ is one. He is single. He stands alone in His one essence, our nature, our substance. If you notice, that first hymn we sang this morning talked about the three of the Trinity, didn't it? Yeah, it did. John Stott, he's dead now. I asked him what would you think would be the main thing that people would notice if the people of the early church came and saw the people of the modern church what's the first thing they would notice it would stand out he said that they're not willing to die over the doctrine of the Trinity because people died over the doctrine of the Trinity and we hardly ever mention it in our day that's a sin And this one God is also at the same time, He is one in His essence, nature, or substance. He is eternally manifested in three distinct persons of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And that makes God the Son, Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit to be equal in deity to God the Father. That's the only reason why you can worship Jesus Christ. Other than that, you're in idolatry. And so the reason that Hinduism and Buddhism and Taoism and all the other polytheistic religions of the world are all wrong is because of what God demands and expects from us as a result of God being one. You see, after God revealed Himself to be one, in the very next verse, God said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. Now in His great wisdom and power, God created the human vessel in such a way that we can only set our affections on one thing at a time. Human beings can only have one object of their love at a time. When you try to live your life by loving God and loving the world, you're going to become schizophrenic. You cannot divide your loves. But as we love one thing, we cannot love something else at the same time and to the same degree. Something will always triumph in our loves, our desires, our wants, our affections. Something is the chief recipient of your affections. And if it's not God, you're in idolatry. And God says here that the one single object of all of our affections should be Himself. Right? And then he went on into what extent we are to love Him. With all your heart, all your soul, all your might. Huh? So to love God to some extent, not enough. That doesn't obey this command. Even to love God a lot does not obey this command. And so to tip our hat at God and throw Him a quarter once a week is not at all what God expects and demands from us. We are to love God totally. We are to love God continuously. And we are to love God exclusively, solely, only. We are not to divide our affections. We are not to divide our love between God and anyone or anything else. Now, for right now, you're arguing your mind with me, but you're just too polite to scream out at me right now. Hang on, just give me a chance. Because I'm going to tell you, your wife, your children, they're not going to be in heaven. I don't mean they're not going to heaven. You're not going to be married in heaven. There's no children in heaven. We're all the same. Everything you know down here that you set your love on is only going to be down here. And so up there, all there is is God. That's why heaven's called heaven. I'm going to show you something. Now watch that. God is the one who demands and expects absolute and continual love with all that is in our hearts and all that is in our soul and with every ounce of strength that we have. And later on, Jesus raised the bar even further and added that we are to love God with all of our minds as well. So in the beginning, God created human beings so that we would love God totally. We would love Him continuously. And we would love Him exclusively. Now, some would object by saying, wait a minute, Brother Blair. What about my wife? What about my children? What about my country? God told me to love those things too. And I would remind you that all of that came after the fall. And none of that will be in heaven. Your understanding of what it will be like to love God totally and continuously and exclusively is not anything that you can see here on this earth. Marriage and children and nations are things that came forth after man fell, after he was cursed, and do not represent how things will be in heaven. There is no reference on earth as to what heaven is going to be like. And that is why the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9, things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him. In heaven there will be no division among nations. In heaven there will be no marriages. And there will be no children. Everything that we know and see and experience and love here on earth now as human beings is the result of rebellion and it is all cursed. And that means it is all temporary. What is in heaven is God. And what we will do in heaven is we will worship and adore and magnify God forever. And we won't do that out of duty or obligation. We will do it because we will see God in His unfiltered brilliance and magnificence. We will behold the one true and living God as He is, not hidden, not in types, not in shadows, not in symbols. And we're not going to see God in words either like we do now. There's not going to be any Bibles in heaven. We will behold God in His fullness and we will marvel at what we see. He's better than the streets of gold. God is better than the pearly gates. God is better than all those angels. God is better. Huh? We will admire what we see. We will be in awe of what we see. We will love and we will adore what we see. So God commanded us to love Him totally, continuously, and exclusively. And so another way of understanding sin is to say that sin is to set our affections on something or someone other than God. It is to love what is fallen and passing away more or even to the same extent as God. It is to divide our love between what is temporary and what is the result of the fall, and God. So sin is to rob God of our total love, our continuous love, our exclusive love, and set that love on something else. Sin is to love God partially, to love Him by times and on occasion, while loving something else that God made. So sin is not loving God totally, continuously, and exclusively. But we need to understand that not all of God's commandments are eternal. For example, the dietary laws and the ceremonial laws and the prescriptive laws of worship are not eternal. They aren't eternal because they pertain only to the Jew and the nation of Israel as they lived under the partial and inferior revelation of the Old Covenant. But some of God's commandments are eternal because these commandments reflect the infinite worth and value of God's own personal character and nature. And so the eternal commandments of the Old Covenant were repeated under the New. In fact, many of them were elevated to actually be higher and better under the final full and completed revelation of God under the New Covenant. And loving God totally and continuously. and exclusively is one of the commandments that is repeated in the New Covenant and is eternal because it reflects God's personal value and worth. So the problem with people, the problem with me, the problem with you is that we do not love God enough. So we have to understand that the reason God tells us not to have any other gods before us is because God doesn't have any other gods before Himself. And the reason that God told us to love God totally and continuously and exclusively is because God loves God totally and continuously and exclusively and will not divide His love. And that means that God did not become flesh and then die on the cross simply because He loved us. And if that statement offends you, it is only because you were fallen and you like the notion that God puts you first. You enjoy being made much of, especially by God. Now there's some terms that people throw around a lot. There's a term called man-centered and there's a term called God-centered. You've heard them? Man-centered is you put man first. God-centered is you put God first. And many people in the modern church are perfectly willing to be God-centered. But only because they think God is man-centered. And the minute they don't think God is man-centered, they'll quit being God-centered real fast. But God is God-centered. God is radically God-centered. And salvation is God changing us by what He alone does for us so that we will be God-centered. Because we're not. And so when you read verses like John 15, 13 that says, greater love has no one than this that one lay down his life for his friends, you rejoice that Jesus loved you so much that He laid down His life for you and called you His friend. And your understanding of what Jesus actually accomplished by dying on the cross begins and ends with yourself. So I will tell you, there is much more as to why Jesus died that doesn't make us to be more important than God. God took on flesh. and lived a completely sinless life here on the earth for 33 and a half years, died a horrific death on the cross, and then rose three days later so that wicked, fallen rebels could be so radically changed by this amazing act that we would love God totally, continuously, and exclusively. In other words, Jesus died because He loved us and wanted to save us so that by saving us, we would love God. So yes, Jesus loves us. We are loved by Jesus, but no, He does not love us like a man loves his wife. Jesus does not love us like a parent loves his children, or like a soldier loves his nation. God's love for us has no earthly equals, no fallen comparisons. God loves us so that we will love Him. God sets His love upon us so that He may radically transform us from our fallen condition where our loves are divided so that we will find the fullness of joy in loving Him totally and continuously and exclusively. God loves us so much that He rescues us from the penalty of our sin and changes us so thoroughly that we will delight in knowing and loving and enjoying God forever. And so I'm trying to say this morning that this grace, the grace of God in saving sinners, this power that boldly steals fallen rebels from Satan's dominion and radically and eternally transforms them by what He alone does for them by taking on flesh and dying in their place, is magnified. This grace is displayed. It is seen. It is marveled at. The best. and the most and the highest when we are so changed that we love God totally and continuously and exclusively. So I am absolutely convinced from everything I read in the 66 books of the Holy Bible that God does what He does for one single reason, so that He will be glorified. That is God's purpose in all that He does, from creating a mountain, to managing the universe, to taking on flesh and dying by crucifixion. This is what makes God tick. God's overriding passion in all that He does is that He will be known and loved and magnified and celebrated and enjoyed and worshipped and treasured by His creatures. That is the single catalyst as to why God does everything that He does. And in the Bible, this one single cause is expressed in several different ways. So when people inquire, why did God do that? God responds by saying that He did it for my glory. Or He says it this way, for my namesake. Or He says it this way, so they will know there is none like Me in all the earth. Now, one thought that ought to be in your head right now is Brother Blair telling us that God is egotistical. Is God self-centered? And I'm not going to answer that in this sermon. I want you to chew on that. Now back at the beginning of this century, by God's grace, I stumbled into seeing this concept for the first time as I was struggling to read Jonathan Edwards. I don't know if any of y'all have ever tried to read Jonathan Edwards. I struggle to read Jonathan Edwards because he used something else. I forget much more of what Edwards wrote than I remember. But here's what I do remember. Edwards was smitten by this truth. It dominated his thinking. It consumed him. And this truth radically changed him. And as I dove deeply into this truth myself, I wasn't sure if I was on the right track. So I said, well, let me read somebody else. So let me read Spurgeon. Let me read the Puritans. Let me read Augustine. Let me read Tertullian. Let me read some of the early church fathers. And you know what? They all talk like this. All of them did. All of them did. It was what the early church fathers talked about more than anything else. And yet it is almost non-existent in the modern church. And I think this is the seminal problem of our day. We no longer know who God is. And the more I studied this, it began to consume me as well. And so from the very beginning of this century, the single theme of God's passion for His own glory has dominated much of what I have written and preached. And as I stand before you this morning, I am more convinced than I have ever been of three things. Number one, God knows God infinitely. I'm still learning about God. Are you learning about God? Okay. I'm in the right church. We're learning about God. And I can't My firstborn was Joseph. Joseph was born on May the 2nd, 1981, and I'd never seen that before. And I went, golly! And I walked up and down the hospital corridors and I stopped people and I said, I just saw a miracle! I can't believe it! A human being was born right in front of me! And they tried to get me some Valium and they tried to calm me down and everything. And the nurses were patting me on my shoulder. They just thought I was some crazy little young father. Can you believe that? A live human being? Yeah! And when I find out God is immutable, that's just a three dollar word meaning God never changes. Okay, okay, fine. Yesterday the same forever, okay. No, that means He never changes His mind. Okay, wait a minute. That means that the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ was always the plan. It isn't that God made Adam and tried to see how that worked, and when that didn't work out, He created the law, and when that didn't work out, then He brought in Jesus. That's not how it worked. Jesus was always the way. That before God made the world, He planned for wicked sinners to be saved through Jesus Christ. Okay, wait a minute. That means that the only reason there's an earth is to house the people who are going to be saved. But keep going, keep going. The only reason there is bread is to help you understand who Jesus is. The only reason God let men create doors is to let you understand who Jesus is. The only reason there are sheep and shepherds is to let you understand who Jesus is. The only reason there is marriage is to let you understand who Jesus and the church is. The only reason there are children is to let you understand what it means to follow. That's what immutable means. And you can live there for a month. And then you go to omnipotent. And then you go to omniscient. And then you go to effectual. He never loses. Ever! He doesn't know defeat. And that means He controls the wicked decisions of evil men. That will curl your hair. If you've got any. and I learn about this stuff, and it floors me, and I can't get over it, and I can't sleep, and I study, and I talk about it. My goodness! Our God is immutable! Why is the sun held? Why is there not a section called God? The heavens are shouting the glory of God. And then some brain-dead pinhead says, I don't know nothing about God. He's all around you. And you're blind to Him? How blind is that? But God knows God infinitely. The best it will ever get for me before I go to heaven is that I will understand everything the Bible teaches. That's the best it will ever be. I don't think I'll get there, but I'm trying. Give me another 45 years and I'll get smarter. There's stuff that God is that he hadn't revealed in the Bible. He knows that too. I'll never know that till I get there. So God knows God infinitely. And look, therefore, because that's true, God loves God fully. You can't even comprehend the love that God has in the intra-unity of the Trinity. Perfect harmony, perfect love, perfect joy, without measure, without any hindrance, without any division. And that means that God values God completely. And that means that nothing means more to God than that He is known and loved and magnified and celebrated and enjoyed and worshipped and treasured. What better thing would God give to us? But I'm not telling you this simply because I believe this, which I absolutely believe this. I am telling you this because this truth is inextricably woven into the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. So my goal in this series on the crucifixion will be to prove to you from Scripture that Jesus died so that wicked rebels could be so radically transformed by what God did for them, all by Himself, at great cost to Himself, the death of His Son, that they would be able to know God in the same way that God knows Himself, that they would be able to love God the way that God loves Himself, so that they could enjoy God forever the way that God enjoys Himself. What did Jesus pray in John 17? The love that I had with you before the world was may be in them, and I in them, and they will know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sinned. Wow! And the first proof is found in Ephesians 1, v. 4b-6. So please go there with me. Ephesians 1, v. 4b-6. These two words in v. 4 should have been in v. 5. The verse divisions are not inspired. In love He predestined us. Look what it says. In love, God predestined us to what? Adoption is signed through who? To who? according to what? To what end? To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the below. Huh? Is that what your Bible says? Okay, here the Apostle Paul teaches that God predestined us to adoption as sons. And that's just another way of saying what he said back in verse 4, where He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him. So being holy and blameless before Him is the same thing as being adopted as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself. It's just two different ways of understanding the same thing. So, before the foundation of the world, God chose to set His love upon us to save us so that we would be holy and blameless before Him and be adopted into His family as sons. And verse 5 says, the Apostle said that God did this through Jesus Christ. So us becoming holy and without blame and us being adopted into His family as sons could not be accomplished by or through anything that we could do or become ourselves. The one way, the only way that God could take fallen rebels and make them holy and adopt them was through Jesus. And the way that this is written in the original Greek tells us that the fact that it was through Jesus means that it was through Jesus personally and through what Jesus did. So who Jesus is and what Jesus did all by Himself with no help or cooperation from us in any way is what allows sinners to be made holy and adopted sons. And so all of the particularities of Jesus' own personal character and nature, like His full deity in concert with His full humanity, and what Jesus did like His virgin birth, His sinless life, His perfect teaching, His vicarious death, His bodily resurrection, His ascension, is the means or the way or the catalyst that allows lost sinners to become holy and adopted. Now why in the world Would a God who needs nothing do this for us? Many in the modern church would respond by saying, because He loves us so. But if you really think about that answer, you come to the conclusion that you are so valuable, you are so important to God, that you are the primary focus of God. And I don't just think that's a wrong answer, I think that's blasphemy. So look at what the Apostle Paul says is the reason that God did this. Let's let the Bible tell us the reason, okay? according to the kind intention of His will. This is just another expression of who God is. He is kind, but not like a grandfather is kind to help a grandchild get a leg up on life by doing something for him. I was raised with people it wasn't my fault I was born into this I didn't have any choice in this in Dallas where all the kids that I went to school with they never had debt they never had debt for automobiles they never had debt for college they never had debt for houses they never had debt for anything their pappy paid everything and they they got a leg up on life because the grandpappy on Neiman Marcus or whatever and they had life handed to them Okay, that's not the way God does this. It is not like a grandfather does for his grandchild to help the grandchild get a leg up on life by doing something for him. God is kind to us in giving us the greatest gift of all, Himself. The single most important thing that God can do for anyone is not to heal their sick body, or help them become financially well off, or get them a new home, or a bigger car, or even a better wife. The single best gift that God can give to anyone is Himself. Because God is the best, and the most beautiful, and the most valuable, and the most important commodity in the universe. Right? And who knows that better than anybody else? God does. That's right. So for God to give you himself is the height of divine kindness. There isn't anything God could do for us that would be better. But there is a terrible problem that keeps God from giving you the gift of himself. It's called sin. You see, we are fallen creatures. We are sinners. We are lost and corrupt. We have been radically and negatively ruined by the fall. And in various places, the Bible describes what it means to be fallen and lost. Romans 3 says, There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. Listen to this. There is none who seeks for God. in their lost condition, huh? All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. That phrase, together they have become useless, means the sum total value of all of humanity is a goose egg. Right. There is none who does good, there's not even one. But perhaps the best summary statement in the entire Bible that illustrates what it means to be a normal, everyday human being after the fall is found in Genesis 6 verse 5 that says, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. This is not mass murderers. These are nice people who love their children and mow their grass and work hard and pay their mortgage off early and help you with the Red Cross. This is what it means to be a human being after the fall, this. Okay, now look closely at that middle phrase. God said that after the fall, the wickedness of man was great on the earth. The word great means all-pervasive. Mankind's wickedness was all-pervasive, meaning it touched every area of human existence, including all of his choices, all of his thoughts, all of his actions, his state of being. Then the Holy Spirit moved upon Moses to say this at the end of verse 5. Every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Look at the two exclusive words here. Every and only. This means that after our first parents rebelled against God, human beings have no capacity for any good at all. None. Now, there's one big problem about preaching this. If you preach this and stop, everybody commits suicide. Because there's no hope. Okay, so if all you get out of being fallen is that you're a dirty dog, and you don't see the majesty of grace in you being a dirty dog, you're not here in the fall correctly. Okay, so we don't stop with it. We're bad. We're not worth the bullet it would take to kill us. Okay, it means we're all evil all the time. That's what it means to be lost. That's just an average lost person. So what does God have to do, listen, to cause people who are in that dreadful condition to suddenly love God? What does God have to do to allow for fallen rebels to want to know and delight themselves in God? Not, what does God have to do to make you want a new Cadillac? Because who doesn't want a nicer car? I want a show of hands. Who wants to make less money than you're making now? Who wants to make half what you make now? So you can be humble. Right. So that's ridiculous. Who doesn't want more money? Who doesn't want a good body? Who doesn't want these things? Anybody, sign me up, Jesus. You're going to give me a new Cadillac and a new wife and maybe three or four wives and anything I want. All I got to do is name it and claim it. Yeah, I'll sign up for that religion. That's why Africa is being deceived right now. Because those people living on dirt floors would love to have a fine home. And preachers from the United States are going over to Africa right now and telling them if they'll name it and claim it, they can have a brick house. And it's spreading all over the continent. But thanks be to God, the Gospel is also being preached there. So what does God have to do to make us want to know and delight ourselves in God? What does God have to do to bring about the radical transformation that is necessary for lost people to find the highest and the best and the fullest expression of joy in God and not in things that are passing away? Or in the words of the Apostle Paul, what does God have to do to cause people who are utterly separated from God because of their sins to become holy and without blame and to be adopted into His family? This is what salvation really is. God choosing to radically transform fallen sinners so they can be made holy and be adopted into His family. But to what end does God do all this? What is the purpose and the reason why God went through so much trouble to redeem fallen humanity? We went over this when we were going over Luke. Jesus knew how fast He walked. He timed His steps so that He would get to the city of Nain exactly at the moment that a funeral procession was going to go by the gate of the city so He could see the widow woman and He could raise her son from the dead. He timed His steps from Galilee to Jerusalem so He could get to Jerusalem at the Passover. That's the detail to which Jesus walked on this earth. Why did God do all that? Why did Isaiah say, but the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief? This is the verse that transformed my life. It doesn't say God crushed Him. This verse does not say that it was God's will to crush Him. This said it was God's delight, His joy, His pleasure to crush His own Son. And if your answer is, well, God gets us and He gets the family, and that's a lot when He gets me. Then once again, you are saying that you are the focus of God, and that you are so valuable and so important to God that He did all of this. And that puts you and your welfare ahead of God in His glory. And that is not just wrong, it is idolatry. So what does the Bible say is the reason? Look at the beginning of Ephesians 1, 6. To the praise of the glory of His grace. I know I've said this before. Just bear with me. You need to see this. Rhonda and I was in a car. We're driving around. We're trying to find, I don't know what we're looking for. We're trying to find out how other people did something else in the yard. And we turned this corner and this guy had a garden that was just out of this world. It was breathtaking. It was perfect. Not a blade of grass in it. It was beautiful, colorful, everything. And it was like, golly! Now, that right there, golly! You know what that is? That's praise. Those colors. That beauty is the glory of that garden. And me responding, me celebrating, because Rhonda don't say that. Opposites attract. Me responding, celebrating, admiring, marveling at that beauty. is me praising the glory of it. So why did He save you? To the praise of the glory of His grace. So, God's grace has a glory to it. God's grace has a beauty and a value. God's grace shines forth in its brilliance. And because God's grace is valuable, because it is beautiful, because it is important, it must be admired and celebrated and praised. God's grace must be valued and treasured and exalted in esteem very highly. How do we do that? But in order for God's grace to be marveled at and celebrated, it must be seen and understood. And God's grace cannot be seen or understood unless it is manifested, unless it is shown. So the manifestation, the display, the showing of God's grace reveals the glory of it. And seeing and understanding the glory of God's grace produces a praise for it. You with me? So when we see God's grace displayed, it elicits a wondering, and a marveling, and a celebration of it. And that marveling and celebration is the praise. Lindsay's a young, single woman. And she loves Jesus. And she's serving Jesus. I had the honor of baptizing her a couple of weeks ago. She wants to serve Jesus. What had to happen to her to get her, well, my daddy told me, no, no, no, she don't live under his roof anymore. What makes this young woman who could do anything she wanted to do, what makes her faithful to God? Grace. And I told her this morning, when I see you, not perfectly, struggling to be faithful to Jesus, I marvel. Look what the Lord has done. That is to the praise of the glory of His grace. That's why God saves you. So for God's grace to be praised and valued and celebrated, it must be understood. And if God's grace is to be understood, it must be seen. And if God's grace is going to be seen, it must be manifested or displayed. And for God's grace to be displayed or revealed means that somebody needed it. So the reason that God revealed His grace to fallen rebels, the reason that God manifested His love to unworthy sinners, the reason that God displayed His mercy to evil people is not you. The reason is that by demonstrating unmerited love to those who did not deserve it, God's grace would be seen. And by seeing God's grace redeem the offspring of Adam, the beauty and the wisdom of God's grace would be understood. And through understanding the unparalleled majesty of God's grace, it would be marveled at, it would be celebrated, it would be praised. And that is why God created salvation. So the first thing you have to come up with in your head is this, the best and the highest and the most important display of God's glory throughout His created universe is the display of His grace. Nothing comes close to magnifying the infinite worth and value of God's glory like the display of His grace to patently unworthy recipients. Not the creating of a supernova, not the creating of a galaxy, not the creating of a subatomic particle, but the glory of God's grace. So grace is the end point in the revelation of God's glory. It's the apex. It's the pinnacle of the glory of God. And this is seen in the way that God's wrath serves to make God more glorious for the vessels of mercy. You say, huh? Look at Romans 9, 22-24. Very important passage. What if God, although willing, to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. What if God, although He is willing to burn people up who don't love Him, what if He didn't burn them up? Look at verse 23. And He did so for what reason? to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy which He prepared beforehand for glory." Huh? The reason God does not judge wicked men instantly all the time is for my benefit? That's what that says. Even us whom he also called not from among you only but also from among Gentiles. So Paul's asking a question in verse 22. What if God endured with much patience the vessel of wrath prepared for destruction even though he desired to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known. In other words Paul is asking what if God didn't always immediately destroy the evil people as soon as they did evil things. Now this is an historic question. Millions of people have asked this question. It is the foundation of all atheism. If God is sovereign and if God is good, then why doesn't He destroy all the evil in the world? Why does a good and powerful God allow evil to continue? And when you're talking about a famine, it's a little easier to explain. When you're sitting in front of a 14-year-old boy that's been raped by his stepfather every day of his life for 10 years, it's harder to explain. That's a hard sell. But it's the same answer. It's the same answer. And if you tell that boy that God is not sovereign, you have done him a disservice. And if you tell him God is sovereign, he's probably going to get up and walk out. You must tell the truth. God is absolutely sovereign over everything all the time, even the evil decisions of wicked men. Now, manifestly, evil is in the world. We see evil manifested every day in 10,000 different ways. The reality of war and disease and poverty and crime and injustice proves to us that evil is everywhere. So we cannot deny evil. And so some people answer this by saying that God is not sovereign. Michael W. Smith, the Amish girls that got killed in Pennsylvania. Went up there to play songs for them. I think Michael W. Smith loves the Lord. I think he's trying. Went up there and played songs. They interviewed him. Did God do this? Kill those little girls? He said, no, God didn't do this. Then God's not sovereign. Brother Blair, God did that? God allowed it. That's a hard sell when you're talking to grieving parents. Huh? This gets us out of the theological realm and gets into real life. And they elevate human self-determinism and human free will, and this is done every day, all day long. Somebody sent me a video of that blast femur that's on HBO, and they had Mike Huckabee on there. What a chance. National TV. Thank God. Ask Him this question. If God is good and God is sovereign, why is there evil in the world? Come on, Mike! Hit Him with the Word! I'm yelling at the computer screen. And what does He say? Well, God gave free will and God gave choice. Say what? Come on, Mike. And you know what the blasphemer said? That ain't what the Bible says. The Bible don't teach that. I don't believe the Bible, but Bible don't teach that. Bible says God's sovereign. Others will answer God is not good. And they become bitter and angry and merciless. Still others answer God is not. And they become atheists. But the same apostle that asked the question answers it in verse 23 and 24. He did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy which he prepared beforehand for glory even us whom he also called not from among Jews only but also from among Gentiles. So when we examine the passage on the crucifixion in Luke 23 that Brother Andy just read to us, we need to incorporate this single cause into our understanding and say that the main reason, the most important reason, the overriding reason why Jesus died by crucifixion was not to illustrate how much He loved us, even though it is true that Jesus loves us. It was not to give an example of selfless sacrifice, even though Jesus' example is the perfect example of selfless sacrifice. It was not to illustrate the historic tension between people in positions of power and the poor, even though there is that tension. Jesus was murdered by crucifixion for the very same reason that God made the universe out of nothing in six distinct 24-hour divisions of time called days. for God's glory. So Jesus died for God's glory. Jesus died a horrifically painful and agonizing death so that God would be known and loved and magnified and celebrated and enjoyed and worshipped and treasured above all that has been made. And that leads us to this. Number two, the glorification of God's grace was planned before creation. Ephesians 1, 5 and 6 says, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace. The Apostle writes here under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ in salvation is what brings praise to the glory of God's grace. And the fact that verse 5 says that God predestined this to occur tells us that not only were we as individuals predestined to be saved, but that the magnification of God's grace in saving unworthy sinners was also predestined. And that also means that the way by which sinners would be redeemed was also predestined. Number three, the glorification of God's grace and salvation was predestined to happen only through the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1, 5, and 6 says He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself. Before God created the universe, He determined in Himself to glorify His grace by Jesus Christ personally, and through what Jesus did by living sinlessly, dying on the cross in the place of sinners, and rising from the dead on the third day. 2 Timothy 1, verses 8-10 says this, Do not be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord or of me, His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus, when? From all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Number four, God predestined that the pinnacle of God's glorification of His grace was designed to be Christ's crucifixion for sinners. The Revelation 13 verse 8 said, All who dwell on the earth will worship Him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. Way before there was any human sin to die for, God planned that His Son would be slain for sinners. And we know this because of the name given to the Book of Life before creation. That book is called the Book of Life of the Lamb who has been slain. And that's the name of the book. Number five, God's glorification of His grace in the crucifixion of His Son for sinners was the ultimate purpose for creating the entire universe. Colossians 1, 15-20 says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through Him and for Him. Huh? He is the instrument by which all things were made and they were made for Him. Huh? So He looks out at His created universe and He said, that's Mine. It's not Satan's. It's not yours. It's Jesus's. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body of the church, and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was, or because it was, the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross. Through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. The book of the Revelation 15 verse 3 says, And they sang the song of Moses, the bondservant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty, righteous and true are your ways, King of nations. And the Revelation 5, 8 through 10 says, When He had taken the book, The four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth. Hallelujah. Number six, therefore, because all I just said is true, God planned from eternity that the revelation of His glory would be the ultimate reason for creating the universe. this glory would be supremely displayed in God's grace. This grace would be supremely glorified in Jesus. And so the best, the highest, and the most important way that this glorification in Jesus would be reached was when the sinless Lamb of God was slain to save a people who would spend eternity magnifying the greatness of that grace by loving God totally and continuously and exclusively. In other words, the universe was created for the glorification of God's grace at Calvary, echoing through eternity in the Christ-exalting joys of the redeemed. And that is why Jesus died on the cross. God took all of the sins of all of God's elect and laid them on Jesus through the miracle of imputation. And the terrible insult that our sin made against the pristine righteousness of God was adjudicated as Jesus screamed in agony as the fury of God's wrath was poured out without measure on Him. So God's righteousness was defended. Our sins were judged and damned. But we were spared. And now with that new nature that God gave us through the miracle of the new birth, We are now blessed to be among those who love God totally and continuously and exclusively in heaven forever. Amen. Let's pray.