Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
Worship Call 1112 the words of the cross - 2024/07/17
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Lullbeck. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. And it wasn't that the Jews had put Jesus to death. It wasn't the Romans that put Jesus to death. Jesus had a mission. And when that mission was accomplished, he dismissed the spirit. And so no one killed him. And that was for a failure. That's what Jesus had said. That no one takes my life, but I give up my life. This is the fourth day of the week in God's created order, the 17th day of the seventh month, two thousand, 24th year of our Lord. And this is another fine day in our Lord. Father in heaven, thank you. There's opportunity once again to fellowship in your word. Open our hearts to the things that we continue studying these things. We pray in Christ name. Amen. We are in Matthew chapter, let's go this morning to Matthew chapter 26. Let me do this. There we go. All right. About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out and a loud voice saying, "Elai, Elai lemmas abashtani. My God, my God, wife hath thou forsaken me." One of the things that happened, several things happened upon the cross that took place. Think words that we need to, as Christians, I think there's a book out there someplace I think I saw one time in the title. So many words, maybe it's a hundred words, maybe it's ten words, whatever it is. But there are words that every Christian should know. And when Jesus was hanging up on the cross, several words that come to mind that we should know, first of all, there is justification. Can you say justification? Okay, justification is the fact that our sins have been adjudicated. See, we can't, as I've said throughout the week and last week, that sin incurs a debt that has to be paid. And we are all sinners, we've all come short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is eternal debt, separation of God forever. And because we are all, we all stand guilty before the Lord. We have broken His commandments, we have broken, we have come short of the righteousness of God which is sin. All sin, the punishment for sin is death. Not only are we, not only subject to the sins of Adam, or the sin of Adam, that one sin that passed on to us, but it was also our own personal sins. And what Jesus did upon the cross is, number one, He took, He adjudicated us, we were justified, the removal of Adam's sin to those who trust in Him. The removal of Adam's sin is no longer on the table, it's been removed. And then there is the sins that are, our personal sins, they are also judged upon the cross by Lord Jesus. He has taken Him on His own body. When we read in Hebrews chapter 10, a body, you have prepared for me to do your will. He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And what was accomplished with the, it is finished on the cross, it was that we have been justified. Those who are believing in the Lord Jesus Christ have been justified, they've adjudicated. The judge drops his gavel down and says, charges dismissed for those who trust in Him. Another thing that has been accomplished, so you have justification, then reconciliation. Another thing that has been accomplished. And sin creates a barrier between God and man, an unapproachable barrier. One that cannot be, one that cannot be, be crossed. See, our Lord God is righteous, and He's perfectly righteous. He infinitely righteous. And John 1 John 1 John 1 5 says, this is a message that we have received and communicated to you, that God is light. And darkness is in Him, no way, there is no darkness in Him, He's absolutely pure. So when man became a sinner, man was separated from God. And reconciliation is that the term reconciliation means to bring together two parties in dispute. And here at the, so here we have simple man on, let's say, the left side, we have God on the right side. And they don't, there is no, there, there is a chasm between that relationship. If you're going to live forever with God, you have to be as good as God is. You have to, you have to approach God on God's terms and not yours. And from the very beginning when we saw Cain, I was talking to some guy yesterday and he was asking about Cain. And why wasn't his, why wasn't his offering accepted? And there's so much we could talk about on that. But when we approach a God, we have to approach God on his terms. Our morality and our few good isms. Those things will never meet the righteousness of God, they will never meet it. And so there is that separation. You can say it's a barrier, you can say it's a chasm. But no matter how good we are, Isaiah tells us that all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. That means our best, when we put forth our best, our cold best, that is not enough to seal that relationship with God. There must be a mediator, there must, well there must be mediation there and that's another word by the way. So there must be reconciliation, there must be a way to bring these two parties together. So the party, the first part, God and the party of the second part, man. Man is universally condemned from birth. And so here is the reconciliation and this is throughout the Old Testament this is something that has been anticipated. It's something that that which is going to reconcile, something that's going to bring the two parties together. Jesus Christ is the mediator. And a mediator is the one who brings two parties in dispute together. That mediator, Jesus Christ and his hypostatic union. And his hypostatic union, Jesus is equal with both parties. Hypostatic union means the coming together of the two natures of Christ. He is as much human as he is divine, as much as he is God in one person together forever. So there is the two natures. And with the in that two natures there is equality with both God and with man. As man, Jesus can represent man to God. And as God, he can represent God to man. Let me give you another example. I know I'm going to give this in church when I talk about it. I'll take maybe one of my grandson's from the earliest agent. And he has, and let's say, let's just say Grady. And Grady has a father out with, say, his mother. And neither one of them are talking to each other. I guess this is the easy way to say. Neither one is talking to each other. They let's just say Grady's growing up. The son isn't talking to mother. Mother's not talking to the son. But if you're not talking together, if there's not a point of communication, there's no way to bring those parties together. But here I come. Okay, Grady, I'm his grandfather. I have communication with him. With his mother, I am, she is my daughter. And I have a connection with both of them. So I'm the in-between guy. And I can mediate whatever differences they have to bring that relationship together. That's what Jesus did in reconciliation. He is the mediator. So we've learned justification. Justification is being adjudicated from our sins, that took place upon the cross. We have propitiate the, or reconciliation, the bringing two parties together who are in dispute. And then we have mediator. He's the one who represents both parties in reconciliation. And upon the cross, he accomplished reconciliation by taking our sins upon his own body and being able to, here he is, he hangs between heaven and earth. And so he represents both. And even as a high priest after, he continues to represent those who believe in him. As in the priesthood, as he goes through, he goes into heaven, into that true holy of holies. So with reconciliation, when he says it is finished, that means the work of reconciliation, the bringing together those two parties in dispute has been accomplished. Another word as well that took place upon the cross is propitiation. And propitiation means to be satisfied. And it is God who has to be satisfied. We mentioned this yesterday, that when, you could say his honor, but his righteousness has been, God's righteousness has been violated by the sinner. And he demands satisfaction. And he will not be satisfied, and there is no peace. There's two words throughout Shalom and Ireni. And they mean peace. And the highest form of peace is harmony between God and man. And as long as there is sin, as long as there is a faction there, there can be no relation. There is no peace, as it were. Like in the family, like in the family, that as long as there's a rift, and we call it rift, as long as there's a problem within that family, there can be until things are squared away between the two relationships, there's going to be that rift. Well, justice, again, justice demand, or sin demand. The righteous of God demands the justice of God, where there is sin. And man has sin, and we've all sinned from the come short of the glory of God. And so when Jesus finished his work upon the cross, he was, God was satisfied with that work. So all that, so those are terms that you need to research, you need to know as Christians, justification, reconciliation, mediator, and propitiation, probably a few more words as well. Let's continue on verse 47, and some of those who were standing there when they heard it began saying this man is calling it Elijah, and immediately one of them, one ran and taken the sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on the wreathe and gave him a drink. He said this yesterday that the world has nothing to offer for Christ. He is the water, that living water, and it doesn't compare with the sour wine that this world has to give. 49, but the rest of them said, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him once again, they continue mocking. And Jesus cried out again in a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. Let's look at this and bring it back up to our verse here, it's not even up, is it? One moment, please. All right, we won't have that. And Jesus cried out in loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And let's turn to Mark 1537, Mark 1537. Yeah, close enough. And Jesus uttered out a loud voice and breathed his last. And we'll save that. Let's see. I'll bring this last Matthew 2750. All right. And I'm missing the passage there. It says, "Into your hands, I dismiss my spirit." The Jesus cried out in loud voice again and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the veil, several things happened at this point. First of all, the veil in the temple was ripped from top to bottom. This is the veil. And within the temple, there is the set up like the tent of the meeting in the Old Testament. You have the first part as the tent of the meeting. And then you have the second part. And that's the holy place. And then you have the most holy place beyond that. In the temple structure the same way, you have the first chamber that you've come into. And in Herod, it was very magnificent. It was the first place. And within there you have the lamp stand. And there was in Herod's temple. There was more lamp stands than just a one. But in the original structure and the design, you had one lamp stand to light the building. Herod's temple, obviously, you need more than that. There was the altar of incense. And you had the curtain. And the curtain separated the two sections. You had the holy place. And then beyond the veil would be the holy of holies. Now beyond the holy of holies, originally the ark of the covenant was in the holy of holies. This was an empty chamber where the ark was. And remember in Ezekiel the glory of the Lord had left the holy of holies. It had left. So there was an empty chamber. But nonetheless it still represented the place where the holiness of God was to the presence of holy God was. And it was symbolic for God to tear that curtain, the tear that curtain from top to bottom. The curtain was, Tim looked at this. It was about three. I think he said it about three or so inches thick. Which made it almost, I would say humanly impossible to rip. And the way it was woven, the way it was constructed, it was a barrier. It wasn't just no thin curtain that held between the two places. This curtain was magnificent. It was thick. J. Bernie McGee said that if we could take two glide-stales, powerful horses, you could strap them up again with a curtain and have them go opposite directions. They would not be able to tear that curtain. But nevertheless it was ripped from top to bottom. And we could go in and we could speculate. We could come up with a lot of doctrinal theories of why that curtain was ripped. And I would say that, first of all, it was the view that the presence of God was no longer in that chamber. Number one, number two, it was also a invitation. It says, "This is not the way." Remember that Jesus said that I am the way and the truth and the life. That way the word for Greek is Hadas, the road, the path, the trail. And Jesus Christ isn't. To approach the presence of God is no longer in that chamber. That bale represented an empty cold chamber. Nothing in it. And if we could find it today, if the temple was constructed today, it would be to those who constructed it, it would be a place, and I'm sure with the design of the temple, that's what they will want it to be. And that's probably the holy of holies is probably exactly where the priest, or not the priest, the antichrist would set up the abomination of desolation and desecrate it. And it would be a desecration to the Jews that their most holy place would be desecrated, but the fact is the holy of holies is not there. The holy of holies is in heaven. And the tearing of that veil is to tell the believer, "He's not here. This is not the place. And this is not the way the religious system has been, the curtain that separated. The curtain that separated man and God is ripped. Hebrews tells us that he has passed through the veil, that Jesus has passed through the veil. And because of the true holy of holies, now is in heaven. And it's always been, basically the holy of holies is a model of what is in heaven. And it was the most holy place prior to the glory of God departing it. That was where man would come meet God, as Moses and Aaron would meet God at the place. Once a year, the high priest was permitted to go beyond the curtain to blood upon the tabernacle. It was the most holy place on this earth, but it was still only a representation of that which was in heaven. So the tearing of the veil was the, I would also say it was exposing, exposing or revealing to man that this was not in it. It probably goes along with that revelation. It was, it was, first of all, there was a revealing that this is just an empty chamber. Nothing to see here, folks. But then the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we will, Lord, will, and spirit die and begin in September, the revelation of Lord Jesus Christ, the unveiling of him, that's the way. It's not through this curtain, but it's through Jesus Christ. He is the one that we go through, too. Again, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." No one goes to the follower, but through me. It's not through the veil, but it's through Jesus Christ. Now, here's an interesting. And, okay, where am I? And Jesus cried out again in loud voice, and yielded up his spirit, and behold, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom. It shows that God tore it. Not man, not from bottom to top, but from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs were open, and many bodies... Did anybody miss this? Look at this. We're concentrating on the cross, but look what happened right after. The tombs were open, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. So, Jesus is the first fruits. Who are these saints that had come up? Now, Lazarus was resuscitated. What does this constitute? I mean, it would take a little bit more study, but the way I read this, and clearly reading, you had those who died in faith. From again, you see, not only were the sins our sins paid for when Jesus said it's finished, but those sins of these people were also... They were in paradise waiting to be released from there until their sins were paid for. They died as believers, but yet they were not yet... Their sins were not yet ransomed. They were not... or they were not yet ransomed, because their sins were not yet paid for. Now, they were set free. These tombs were opened up. And I'm wondering who was raised. I wonder if it was saints of old, Elijah, David, whoever was there, number one, was it those who died recently? See, there was more than one raising than Lazarus after the cross. Was it relatives? Did some of these people see their own relatives come knocking on the door saying, "Hey, guess what?" There is life. So much is not said on this, and there still is a mystery, so tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. Many of them, not, you know, so a lot of them, so there wasn't just one or two. There were many of them. Up to that point it was only Lazarus. And coming out of tombs after his resurrection...