Good Friday 2010
Vern Peterman · Apr 2, 2010
Holidays
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926159101316

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good evening and welcome to our Good Friday service. It was indeed a good Friday. It was a part of the good news. And so as we gather together, let's keep that in mind. And why don't we open our time with prayer, okay? Lord, as we begin Here this evening, we thank you for the wonderful, marvelous thing that you have done. What took place on the cross is something that will mark your identity, the lamb that was slain on into eternity. We thank you for your most amazing grace. And as we gather here this evening to behold you, as You were slain for us and all the other meanings that were found there.

We just ask that our hearts and minds would be drawn to You and we would continue to gaze with wonder at what You've accomplished. We just pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, let's stand beneath the cross of Jesus. It's 440 in the hymnal if you prefer to use that.

Beneath the cross of Jesus My fame would take my stand The shadow of a mighty rock Within a weary land A home within the wilderness A rest upon the way From the burning of the noontide heat And the burden of the day O safe and happy shelter, O refuge bright and sweet, A trysting place where heaven's love and heaven's justice meet. As to the holy patriarch that wondrous dream was given, So seems my Savior's cross to me, a letter unto Him. O take, O cross Thy shadow for my abiding place, I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face. Content to let the world go by to none, nor gain, nor loss. My sinful self, my only shame, my glory, all the cross.

Remain standing for the Lamb of God. Your only son, your sin to hide, but you have saved him from your side to walk upon this guilty sword and to be called the Lamb of God. Your gift of love they crucified, They laughed and scorned Him as He died. The humble King they named to fraud, And sacrificed the Lamb of God. Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God, I love the holy Lamb of God. You've washed me in His precious blood, My Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. I was so lost, I should have died, But you have brought me to your side, To be led by your staff and rod, And to be called the Lamb of God. Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God, I love the holy Lamb of God. You've washed me in His precious blood. So I am now a Lamb of God.

Please be seated. Well, good evening. This evening, we're going to talk about the Lord Jesus, obviously, and his death on the cross. But I think we would like to maybe have you think about what types of death occurred on the cross. And you might say, well, wait a minute. The Lord Jesus died. Isn't that really the main story? And that is.

But I think if you look carefully in scripture, you'll see there's a distinction between his death as a substitute for us, his death and condemnation, and his death and identification. So that's going to become our focal point. We're divided into three sections, and I get to do the first section on substitution. And then Mike's going to talk about condemnation, and Vern's going to finish it with identification. If you think about substitutionary death, you'll see that in Scripture, many times it has a phraseology, the Lord died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And then for condemnation, you're going to see that Christ who knew no sin, was made sin on our behalf, and he bore it unto his death. For identification, you're going to see that we were identified positionally with the Lord Jesus, and we share in his death. Christ's death was our death. And all those are wonderful facts. And that's the totality of what happened at Calvary. So we don't want to leave anything out.

So to start off with, in substitution we see, the question comes up, and we're talking at home about, well, why substitution? Why did it have to be substitution? And I think scripture answers that question very clearly because of man's estate. Man's estate was not very pretty. And there are places in scripture, like in Ephesians, that says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins. And death in scripture means separation.

We were separated from a holy God, unable to really do anything about it. We may think we could do something about it, but in reality we cannot. Only God can act on our behalf. Then like in Romans, it talks about for while we were still helpless, or actually it's literally without strength or without power, we were powerless to do anything to change our state.

And then it talks about how we were yet sinners. We were sinners before a holy God. Then in Galatians it talks about, this is a passage we've been looking at recently in Sunday School, it talks about that any man is not justified by the works of the law.

Some men think, well, I'll just obey God's laws and that will be okay and God will be pleased with that. But that won't save you. And then lastly, man outside of Christ is desperately in need of a mediator, someone, a go-between. And other than Christ, there is no other go-between. There's this wonderful verse in 1 Timothy that says, For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. So Christ Jesus, he's our substitute. He's the one to go between. So then there's a whole bunch of verses, and I was just amazed when I started looking through this, that talk about Christ is our substitute.

Not exactly phrased that way. And many times it uses this little preposition, and in the Greek it's huper, and it's the idea that it's on our behalf or for our sake. So many of these verses you can insert, when you see the word of, you can insert on behalf of or for the sake of. So I'm going to do that as I read through several verses here. I'm going to insert that, expand the definition of that preposition. So the first one is the one on the overhead.

For I delivered to you, as of first importance, what I also received, that Christ died on behalf of, or for the sake of our sins, according to the Scriptures." Scripture is replete. Just so many times it talks about that wonderful fact. Then in Galatians, another passage, it says that who gave himself on behalf of our sins, for the sake of our sins, so that we might be rescued. Man was desperately in need of being rescued. And that goes on. In fact, this is a short list. In John it talks about, this is kind of a little bit different approach to it.

The Lord Jesus talks himself and he says, I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. Even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. or for the sake of the sheep. Then in Romans 5.8 it talks about we were yet sinners and Christ died for us. You know, some people think, well, I'll just get my act together. I'll just be a really good person and then God will look at that and be pleased with me. Well, God says, no. You were a sinner and I took the first initiative. I saw your need and I met it. And he died for us.

Then in Titus it talks about who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed. And then in Hebrews, it talks about that he might taste death for everyone, none excluded. There are none that Christ hasn't paid the penalty for. And then in Peter, there's two places in Peter. In chapter 2, it says, Christ also suffered for you, or on behalf of you. And then in chapter 3, it says, Christ also died for our sins. And then it goes on, Christ also died for our sins, the just for the unjust. Substitution, right? The just took the place of the unjust.

So it would be acceptable to God. So kind of summarizing those kind of key words, you'll see Christ died, he gave himself, he rescued us, he laid down his life, he redeemed us, he tasted death, he suffered. All with a little preposition, on behalf of or for the sake of us. And then kind of putting this all together, kind of a summary thing here. If you think about this, this is God's wonderful love for us. And in 1 John 3, it talks about, we know love. How do we know love? We know love that he laid down his life for the sake of us.

I'd like to kind of share a little story that involves Vani. And she's a substitute, an earthly substitute. And she teaches substitutes in Cherry Creek school systems. It's around where we live, so we'll see some of these children. She'll recognize them. I never recognize them, because she sees them in the classroom. She'll recognize certain kids, and they might say hi to her. We'll see them in restaurants. There's one occasion in King Soopers, close to our house, that this little girl was with her parents, and she was so excited about seeing her substitute, that she kept telling her parents about that fact. She said these words. She says, there's my substitute. There's my substitute. There's my substitute.

And actually, well, it got kind of embarrassing. I'm not sure she ever really got the attention of her parents, but when Bonnie said, wow, they recognized me. So that's kind of cool. And that made me think about this wonderful passage in the Gospel of John, where John the Baptist says, and I'll just read it. It's better than me trying to remember it exactly. He says, the next day, he, John the Baptist, saw Jesus coming. What was the rest of it?

Behold, the Lamb of God. who takes away the sin of the world. Incredible. He is our substitute. He is the one that has taken away the sins of the world. And we have a song to sing here, I think. It's Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed. And it's 115 in the hymnal. I'm going to attempt to lead it, which I'm not really good at that, but bear with me. Oh, would you like to stand? Alas, and did my savior bleed, and did For crimes that I have done, He quoted upon the tree. Amazing deed, decrease unknown, And help me in your decree.

How might the sun in darkness fight, And shut its glories in, When come night? The weaker died, for his own creature's sin. Thus might I hide my blushing face, Of his dear awesome bliss, Dissolve my heart in thankfulness, And melt through mine eyes to tears. So the second aspect of the death of Christ on the cross is what we've termed the condemnatory death in which the Lord Jesus has made sin itself. Now, we're not talking about, like Roger talked about, being a substitute for the sins I've committed. We're now talking about the thing sin itself, the principle of sin, the principle of sin that dwells in every one of us. And what did God do about that?

It would seem that if you look at some of the verses that we're talking about, Romans 8.3 says that what the law couldn't do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. So we want to talk a little bit about God did not forgive the principle of sin. He did not forgive the thing, sin itself, as a principle.

It was condemned and has been judicially consigned to judgment and death. He sent his own son to do that. It's essential, I think, for us to know definitively how thoroughly God has dealt with this principle of sin, especially since its presence is within us and it's so burdensome to us.

Thus condemned, there can be no condemnation for us. In Romans 8, 1 and 2 it says, therefore there is no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus. How come? For the law, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.

So God's purpose, as revealed I think in this passage, was to get at sin as connected with the flesh and to deal with it at the cross in a righteous condemnation way. So that sin would no longer have any rights over us in our human body. The question here regards the thing sin itself rather than the guilt. So God tells us that sin as connected with the flesh has been condemned. And that gives God, speaking reverently, the opportunity to have the risen Christ live and walk in our bodies while we're still here on the earth. and walk thus as we live by faith and dependence on the Spirit of God. The only condition we have for a victorious life then is the fact that we depend on the Spirit of God and we believe Him when He talks about the condemnatory aspect of sin. So God so condemns sin, the thing sin, He so dealt with it that we could say it's a convict as regards to the flesh.

Okay, please stand. We're going to sing another hymn. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Man of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Alleluia! What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place contempt he stood, Sealed my pardon with his blood, Alleluia, for her Saviour. Guilty, vile, and helpless we. Spotless Lamb of God was He. Full atonement can it be. Alleluia! What a Savior! Lifted up was He to die, It is finished was His cry. Now in heaven exalted high, Alleluia, what a Savior!

Another aspect of this condemnatory death that we want to talk about, and it has to do with God did not forgive sin as a principle. Sometimes people get a little nervous when you say that because he was our substitute and our sins have been forgiven, but the thing sin itself was not forgiven because you can't forgive an absolute enemy.

He can't be reconciled and neither No matter what you do, he won't conform. Romans 8, 7 says, because the mindset of the flesh is hostile or an enmity towards God. Enmity means irreconcilable enemies. For it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do it. It isn't a matter of whether sin would want to reconcile to God. It won't because of its very principle. So the principle of sin has not been forgiven. It has not been cleansed. Neither has it been improved, nor has it been removed.

But thanks be to God, it has been condemned by the crucifixion of the cross. In his flesh, our Lord Jesus condemned sin in the flesh. God did not forgive the principle of sin just like he didn't forgive Satan. That dealt a death blow, his crucifixion dealt a death blow, I'm sorry, Satan's infection of sin in the human race dealt a death blow to the human race. So he doesn't forgive it any more than he forgives Satan. On the cross and in the person of his son, our Father once and forever dealt with the principle of sin, thereby canceling our position of sin.

To sum up, I found a really good quote from John Darby. Usually he's difficult to understand, but I think this one's pretty clear. God condemned, as you might say, executed sin in the flesh for us by the death of Christ. He did not die only for my sins, though that's true, but for my sin. the root of sin that was in my nature, and that which worries and distresses the heart of the sincere believer every day, is put away for faith by death, and we are dead to it.

God has settled the question. Condemn the sin in you which you condemn. But where has he done it? Outside of yourself altogether. He takes away the condemnation of sin in the nature by God's judgment being executed on the sinless flesh of his own son. Thus, sin in my flesh is judged as well as my condemned sins.

Let's have you stand once again here. You have purchased us. It's a brief praise song, but the words are rich. You are worthy to receive all the honor. You are worthy to receive all the glory. You are worthy to receive all the power. You have purchased us. You have purchased us. You have purchased us. Your blood. Be seated. Roger talked about Christ having taken our sins upon Himself. He died instead of me. And Micah's talked about the condemnation of the sin principle itself, completely unreconcilable to God.

But that's not all that was accomplished that day. And what's amazing to ponder is the various people that were gathered around to watch this spectacle. Some taunted. There was even a rather remarkable realization by the centurion. This truly is the Son of God.

But what nobody there, nobody knew, was that that cross where everybody saw just one person, Christ, That cross was very, very crowded. That cross was crowded with believers like you and me. Because the third thing that happened there that day was that we who believe, everyone who believes, was identified with Christ in His death. Now as we have up on the overhead, it's clear from Scripture, Romans 6, 1-11, Ephesians 2, 4-7, that we were identified with Christ in His death, in His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, and His seeding.

And the sequence of that is not accidental. Death was a must. It was an absolute must. We had to die with Him there that day. And that's why we say the cross was crowded. Crowded, we know, not because anybody saw it, nobody did, but crowded based on what we know by faith. Scripture plainly and clearly spells that out. When we were crucified with him there, a death occurred. Not just Christ's death, but our death with him, having been identified with him. And God had good purpose in it. God had, in fact, eternal purpose in it because death is the great separator. Death is what divides one from another. What separation took place that day? Well, there are several.

One is that we were eternally and completely separated. from who we were in Adam, who we were before we believed. That death that day put a chasm, a death of separation, a death of relationship between ourselves and who we were in Adam. It's also another death consequence that took place that day. And that is specifically from Adam, that sin nature, Yes, we as believers, we still are in a place to contend with that sin nature as long as we have these bodies, as long as these bodies are here and the sin nature is connected with them. There will be a day when that will be done. But nonetheless, what had to take place is for us to be separated, a death of separation from that sin nature. But that's not all that happened that day.

There was also a death unto the world. You see, the world is still there, isn't it? This is a death of positional separation. The world is still around us, this world that is controlled by the God of this world. This world with this world system is something that we died in relationship to.

So that's the next thing that was a consequence. But that's not all. The other consequence of this death that took place that day is we died to the law. Romans 7, Galatians 2, both spell that out. We died in relationship to the law of Moses. We died in relationship to any part of that law. We died in relationship to any law principle. And here's one of the most important reasons why that's true. You see, the law was never, as Mike pointed out, never going to save anybody. Matter of fact, it never was intended to do that. It never could. Salvation was always by faith, so the law was never going to save anybody.

But the law determines blessings and curses. The fact that we died in relationship to that law means that our blessings are not determined by what we do or our failure to do it. Isn't that great? That's why Paul could write to the church at Ephesus and say, you have been, done deal, completed, no question about it, you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Why? The law is no longer the determiner of any blessings. No longer the determiner of any blessings. The things that we do are done not in order to gain blessing, But only because we've been blessed. Only because we've been blessed. Blessed.

How did that happen? It had to happen through this death. This death on the cross. This death that Christ died. This death that took place that day when the cross was crowded with you and I. What an amazing thing God did. What a phenomenal thing. That day was a day of huge accomplishment. Although nobody there knew it that day, except our Lord himself. A day of phenomenal accomplishment. A day in which he could end it with, it is finished. It's done. It's completed.

The death that Roger talked about, a death of substitution. He died instead of me. The death of condemnation that Mike presented to us. The death of identification where we died to the old man. We died to the sin nature. We died to the world. We died to the law. That death of separation took place that day.

It was a day of great accomplishment. It was also a day of amazing grace. A day of amazing grace. Just think about all the things that were accomplished that day. This is why Christ volunteered. Because as scripture repeatedly says, he loved and he gave. He loved and he gave to accomplish all those things that very day, that very special day, that day that we look back on and remember today. Stand with me.

When I surveyed the wondrous cross On which the Prince of Glory died My riches gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast Saving the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm me most I sacrifice them to his blood. See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flowing cold down. Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, More thorns compose so rich a crown?

Please be seated. We'll be partaking and sharing together in the Lord's table here. And so as we do that, just consider Christ said, do this in remembrance of me. What are we remembering? Remembering him and what he did that day when he took our place, when sin was condemned, when we were identified with him. Let's remember those things here. Let's pray first here.

Roger, could I ask you to give thanks for the bread? Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord. We thank you for this bread that represents your body. We thank you that your body was broken and was marred more than any man. We're thankful that you willingly gave it. And we thank you that we can remember it as we pass this bread.

In Christ's name, amen. Music Music Music Bye! so so For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. I ask you to give thanks for the cup.

Father as we tonight we reviewed. all of the things that were accomplished and more on the cross. What a price you paid. And then you in grace offered it to us. And as we contemplate these things, our only reaction can be that we thank you. We thank you so much for just shedding your blood on our behalf. We thank you. We pray in your Son's precious name. Amen.

In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Let's stand, and this will be our final song. So stand, let's sing this, I'll pray, and then you're dismissed.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost But now am found, was blind, but now I see. Was grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved? How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come His grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

We've been there ten thousand years Bright shining as the sun We've no less days to sing God's praise Than when we first begun Sing that fourth verse this last time acapella, okay? When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun. Lord, we do thank you. The thanks will never end. The grace will never end. Thank you for your most amazing, awesome, astounding grace shown to us on the cross, shown to us every day since. We just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.