The Place Called Calvary
The Place Called Calvary Luke 23: 33
The meaning of the Cross?
I. The Place of Penitence
A. God Reveals the Extreme to which Sin Went
1. The Corruption of the Body
2. The Carnality of the Mind
3. The Curse of Condemnation upon the human race
B. God Reveals the Extreme to which God went to save us
II. The Place of Provision
A. Because The Believer Is Related to the Death of Jesus
B. Because The Believer Has Received the Life of Christ
C. Because The Believer Is Received in Christ
1. Jesus Is Our Perfection
2. Jesus Is Our Propitiation
III. The Place of Protection
Introduction
"And when they were come to the place called Calvary, there they
crucified him....". Many of us have many false impressions of some of the places, especially Calvary. We have gained some false impressions from some of the old hymns we like to sing. For example, "There Is A Green Hill Far Away." Well, Calvary is not a green hill. Then the hymn, "Up Calvary's Mountain." Calvary is not a mountain like the mountains I think of when mountains are mentioned. There are mountains there in the Jerusalem area, such as Mount Olivet, Mount Moriah and Mount Calvary. But they are not high towering peaks. Calvary is more like a plateau. In fact it is very near a Bus station. Bro . Jim has described this Bus Station to me. You know many people must go through that Bus Station in the course of a day, and I wonder: Are most of those people going and coming oblivious to the place just up above them. Do they realize what kind of place is just up above them? Do they know what took place here nearly 2000 years ago?
I have to conclude in my own mind that most of them do not, nor do they understand what kind of place Calvary is. I also have to conclude that most of the people in our churches do not have a clear biblical understanding of the truth about Calvary. Let us look into the Scriptures and refresh our memories of The Place Called Calvary.
I. Calvary is The Place of Penitence
Penitence, regret or sorrow for having committed sins or misdeeds, Paul tells us that, "For godly sorrow worketh repentance." Godly sorrow in itself is not repentance, but it leads to repentance and it is necessary for it. We explain Godly sorrow as penitence or conviction of sin, without which no one will turn to Christ. The Holy Spirit uses the message of Calvary, that Jesus died for our sin, to bring the sinner to Conviction. He does this in two ways:
1 He Reveals the Extreme to which Sin Went
It caused - The Corruption of the Body, all Disease, Sickness, Pain, Suffering, Death.
(Everything wrong with our bodies is the direct result of Sin)
It caused- The Carnality of the Mind, all Impurity, Immorality, Deception, Murder, War, Heartache, Tears, Sorrow, Disappointment, Fear, Stress, Perplexity, Pressure, Worry and all other forms of mental anguish.
(Everything wrong with our minds is the result of Sin)
It caused- The Curse of Condemnation upon the human race
(everything bad in this worl, especially death is the result of Sin)
2 He Reveals the Extreme to which God went to save us from all this
In the death of Jesus, God Satisfied the Demands of His Justice toward Sin. Jesus said, "The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men." Who delivered Him? God the Father did. "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son ...." Paul said, "For God made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus Became our Sin. He was made to become what God had to judge in order to become the justifier of the sinner and maintain His justice. Jesus died in your place, bearing the judgment of God upon our sin in His own body. Because we Aren’t worthy!
<<<<<<Calvary is where we see God's hatred for sin “and” His love for sinners. The message of Calvary is necessary to bring the sinner face to face with the two. But <<we must admit what we are before we can be made the righteous of God in Christ.
<<corrupted in Body, corrupted in mind, cursed to death!
II. Calvary is the Place of Provision
There are many men who preach and teach - and many who believe that you can't know for certain you are saved before you stand before God in judgment. Why??? Before I answer this, let me emphasize that judgment “is not” for the purpose of determining who is saved and who is lost. There is no judgment at which you will stand when it will be decided whether or not you are saved. That is determined before you meet God in judgment.
Jesus said, "He who hears my word and believes on Him who sent me has (present tense) everlasting life, and shall not (present tense) come into condemnation, but is passed (perfect tense) from death unto life" HOW!(John 5:24). "He who believes on the Son has everlasting life..." (John 3:36). John said, "He who has the Son has life, and he who has not the Son has not life" (1 John 5:12) You can at the present moment be Alive or sitting here dead!
Now the answer to the question: "Why do people preach and teach and many believe they cannot know for sure they are saved before they reach the judgment." It is because <<Calvary Is Not Their Place of Faith.
Or, let me put it this way, They have no faith in the cross!
They are trusting in something other than the Provision God Made in the Substitutionary Death of Jesus on the Cross.
Let's look the testimony of Paul, a man of faith, a man of assurance: Paul said I am crucified in Christ It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20).
There are Three Great Truths in Paul's Personal Testimony:
1-The Believer Is Related to the Death of Jesus
"Crucified with Christ."
I have read During the Civil War in America, men were drafted for service. That had large families and had they gone there would have been no one to provide for them. Young men who had no one to care for but themselves, volunteered to go in the place of these men, bearing the name and number of the man drafted. In many cases these men were killed in action, bearing the name and number of the man drafted.( IM thinking) Later, the authorities sometimes attempted again to draft these same men, but they protested saying, "You can't draft me." "Why not?" they replied." "Because I'm dead," " "What are you talking about?" the authorities inquired. They were told to look in the record." They did and the record read: So and so died in identification with his substitute and is therefore exempt beyond the claims of the law from further service."
In the mind and plan of God, when Jesus died we died. His death was God's provision which He made for our salvation. God's just demands toward sin were met. Therefore, we who have put faith in Jesus can say with Paul, "I am crucified with Christ."
2-The Believer Has Received the Life of Christ
"Christ lives in me" The very instant we believed on Jesus as our Savior, there was born within us the very presence of God in the person of Jesus. Therefore, we can say with Paul, "Christ lives in me."
3-The Believer Is Received in Christ
"by Faith in Christ" Paul tells us, "...He (God) has made us accepted in the beloved (Jesus)" (Ephesians 1:6). Now the supreme question is, in view of our sin and wretchedness, "How Can God Accept Us In Christ?" Two great Bible truths give us the answer:
1. Jesus Is Our Perfection
(Hebrews 10:14) For by a single offering <He has perfected <for all time those who are being sanctified. God demands absolute perfection, but we could never attain it. Therefore, Jesus had to die to provide it. We are not accepted by God in our religious affiliation, imagined goodness, etc. Nothing of our own commends us to God. God accepts us in Christ because we are clothed with the perfection of Jesus - and that because of our faith in the Divine provision made at Calvary.
2. Jesus Is Our Propitiation
(1 John 2:2; He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world the word, "propitiation" means mercy seat. Old Testament law demanded death for sin. Blood of sacrificial animals was sprinkled on the mercy seat in the Tabernacle in the wilderness and later in the Temple to show that death had taken place. God, seeing the blood, was Satisfied. According to Hebrews 9:24, after His death Jesus entered into Heaven itself with His own blood to "appear in the presence of God for us." This is propitiation-the satisfaction of Divine justice at Calvary - the reason God can accept us in Christ.
III. Calvary is the Place of Protection / It is for us a safe place
Paul tells us, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." Years ago, during the westward rush, a wagon train of people were making their way across the great plains. Often they saw smoke on the horizon and they knew what it meant - a prairie fire sweeping their way. They were gripped with horrible fear as they watched it get closer and closer. But the wise Wagon Master who had been in that situation many times calmly would say "Bring me some fire." Someone did and the people watched him as he set fire to the sagebrush close by. When a large area of the sagebrush had burned off, the Wagon Master, would cry out “Pull your wagons into the middle of the burned area and we will be safe from the fire." I’m sure on many occasions people would ask the Wagon Master, "How do you know the fire can't reach us." The Wagon Master could confidently answer, "The fire can't get to us because we are standing where the fire has already burned."
Friends<<<<At Calvary the fire of God's judgment of our sin burned in the death of Jesus.
Now<<<<"In Jesus" we find the Place of Protection from judgment. The Question today is; are we standing where the fire of judgment has burned?
<<<<<Have we placed our faith in the Provision God made for us at Calvary? Close