03-17-2024 – What Jesus Christ Did for You

Speaker: Pastor Mike Hale | Above is the link to YouTube.
(audio recording will be provided Sunday afternoon)

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March 17, 2024
“What Jesus Christ Did for You ”
    

Last week we studied the Person of Jesus Christ: Jesus is His human name [meaning Savior], Christ is His title [meaning the Anointed/Holy One of God].  Jesus Christ is God’s Son, Lord over all, Savior to all who believe in Him, Creator, Sustainer, Sovereign Ruler and King over all of Creation.

Today we are going to study what Jesus did for us.

1Corinthians 15:3-5, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”

That says it concisely: we are all sinners, deserving death, and yet Christ died for our sins, just like the Scriptures say He would.  He was buried, and on the third day He came out of the grave alive, just like the Scriptures say He would.

Why we need what only Jesus Christ can provide.

Romans 3:10-12, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.”

Romans 5:6, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” 12, “Through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men.”  15, “But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, [how] much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.” 17, For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, [how] much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”

God’s marvelous grace has come through Jesus to everyone who has sincerely confessed their sins to God and believed in God’s Son as Lord and Savior.

Before you accept the work of Christ in salvation, you are dead to God because of sin (Ephesians 2:1-3), “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world… Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest”

But thanks to God, even though (Romans 6:23a) says we deserve death, (6:23b) “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 5:8), “Christ died for us,” (Romans 5:10), “reconciled us to God through His own death,” and therefore (Romans 8:1), “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

 

Remember (Romans 3:10-12), 7x’s it states that no one, according to their human nature, is acceptable to the Holy God of Creation (Romans 3:23-24), “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”

If it were not for Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, there would be no hope for anyone; for we would all remain guilty of our sins, and we would be condemned to an eternity apart from God in a place called hell.

God’s Son, Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:6-8), “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

This is hard to fathom, God put on human flesh, only to become (Isaiah 53:3), “despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.”

Christ’s major Work was to pay the divine price required by God for our sins (1Peter 1:19), “the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

Hebrews 9:22 says, “the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”  And yet (Hebrews 10:4-6), “When He [Christ] comes into the world, He says [speaking to the Father], ‘Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me; in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.” 9-10, “Then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will.’ He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” 14, “For by one offering [God] has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”

By the one sacrifice of God’s own Son, in the flesh of Jesus, we have been offered forgiveness for sin and eternal life.  God says, concerning those who believe in His Son for salvation (Hebrews 10:17-18) “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”  God grants total and eternal forgiveness through Christ.

Hebrews 9:12 says Christ has, “once for all by His own blood,” obtained eternal redemption for those who believe in Him (1Peter 3:18), “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”

Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Lord and Savior, has provided forgiveness for all of your sins (past, present, and future) and He has granted to you, eternal life with God.

The Work of Christ forced the Son to be separated from the Father, for the one and only time in all of eternity.  That is why Jesus, while on the cross, cried out (Matthew 27:46), “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”

God is holy and righteous and perfect, and sin can not coexist in the same space as God (Habakkuk 1:13), “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You can not look on wickedness with favor.”  God must judge and punish sin!

While Jesus was on the cross He became sin for us (Isaiah 53:6), “the LORD [Yahweh] has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him [Christ, Messiah],” i.e., the penalty for all our sins was poured out on Jesus (Isaiah 53:10), “[God] was pleased to crush Him, if He would render Himself as a guilt offering” [the only acceptable payment for our sin].

Sin must be punished, and the punishment for sin is death [not physical death but separation from all things God: God is Light, Love, Life]; if you don’t accept Christ’s punishment for your sin, then you are personally guilty of your sin and you will be punished in hell, for all of eternity.

Ephesians 1:7, “In Him [Jesus Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

John 16:8 says the Holy Spirit will convict the world of its guilt concerning sin, and John 16:9 makes it clear the sin that brings eternal judgement is not believing in God’s Son for salvation.

John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him”

The Work of Christ is to make us acceptable to God by the sacrifice of Himself, to redeem us from this corrupt world, in order that we might serve and worship God honorably, bringing praise and glory to Him, while telling others about Him.

Galatians 1:3-4, “Jesus Christ, …gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”

1Timothy 2:3-4, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

2Peter 3:9, “The Lord is… patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

In Christ alone we are made acceptable to God, being justified in Him (John 1:29), “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

2Corinthians 5:21, “He [God the Father] made Him [God the Son] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf [i.e., He took our punishment, paid our sin debt in full], so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

2Corinthians 5:17), Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come,” (Ephesians 2:10), “For we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

 

God sent His Son to save us because He loves us, and there was no other way for us to receive His love (Acts 4:12), “there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved,” (Acts 2:21), “And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord [for the forgiveness of sins] will be saved.”

The Son of God willfully set aside His own majesty, put on flesh, lived among us, allowed Himself to be rejected, arrested, mocked, unjustifiably sentenced, severely beaten, and then hung on a cross until He died?  He did this because He loves us, and there was no other sacrifice acceptable to God, no other payment that could be made to God for our sin debt (Hebrews 9:26-28), “but now [Jesus Christ] once at the consummation [completion, finalization] of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”

The last night Jesus spent with the Twelve, He forever changed the Passover meal to the Lord’s Supper, as we studied two weeks ago, when Jesus explained to them that it was His own body that would be given, and His own blood that would be shed, in order to save them from sin and provide for them, now and forever.

John 14:1-3, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” 6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Why did God’s Son come to earth?  He came to earth to save us!

Why do we need to be saved?  Because we are all sinners and sin separates us from, and makes us unacceptable to, the holy God of Creation.

What did Jesus do to save us?  He died in our place, taking upon Himself our punishment for sin; providing forgiveness, He rescued us from sin’s penalty [an eternity in hell separated from God’s love and God’s presence].

What do you have to do to receive forgiveness?  Repent of your sinfulness, believing in Jesus Christ alone to save you..

 

Jesus, through His death and resurrection, has provided a way for you to have a personal, intimate, and eternal relationship with God the Father, as a dearly loved child of God (1John 3:1), “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are,” (John. 1:13), “born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God,” (John 3:7-8), “‘You must be born again’ [from above] ‘of the Spirit [of God].’”

If you have never asked God to forgive your sins, confessing Jesus Christ as Lord, believing in Him as Savior, I urge you (2Corinthians 5:20), “on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2Corinthians 6:2), “Behold, now is ‘the acceptable time,’ now is ‘the day of salvation’” (See Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8;; 8:1).

 

Please don’t leave here today, without confessing your need for God’s forgiveness, repenting of your sin, and believing in God’s Son for salvation.

 

1John 5:11-13, “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

 

 

 
Pastor Mike Hale
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