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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/norman-crawford/why-did-christ-die-for-me/
I'd like to read in Psalm 22, please. I'm going to try to tell you what it cost the Lord Jesus to be able to save you. Psalm 22, verse 1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring?
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not. And in the night season. And I'm not silent, but. And these four words are all important. But thou art holy. The last verse of this wonderful psalm.
Verse 31 of Psalm 22. They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born. That he hath done this. Can I read that verse for you again, please? They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born.
That it is finished. So this psalm begins with the cry of the Savior in the darkness of the cross. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And it closes with that wondrous cry of victory. Tetelestai.
It is finished. The work is done. Tom and Dee Zhang are not here tonight. But they would be if they could. They are visiting family. Quite a distance off. But when I first met Tom Zhang, he told me he did not believe that there is a God.
One day, with a Bible that we had given him, he came to our home. I think I can see him at this moment. He had the Bible in his left hand. He took his right hand and put his finger on the Bible. And he said, I believe this is the Word of God.
I must confess that it was not what I expected him to say. I said to him, Tom, why do you believe it is the Word of God? And he said, only God would be able to know a thousand years, 700 years before it happened, just exactly how Christ would suffer and how he would die on the cross.
Only God can know that. This is an amazing miracle. You know, sometimes people have said to us, we do not see miracles today. I do. I see a miracle, perhaps greater than any other miracle that ever has been known, right here, that God would give us in words so clear, so plain, so powerful, exactly what would happen to the Lord Jesus a thousand years in the future.
Do you understand that we do not even know what will happen tomorrow? What if I were to ask you, what is going to happen 17 years from now? You would say, do not be ridiculous. We do not know that. No, but God knows what will happen centuries in the future, and he tells us exactly how it will happen.
You know, Psalm 22 is the sufferings of Christ. And it actually tells us that he suffered from God, because God is holy. And he suffered from man because man is full of hatred against him. And he suffered from Satan because Satan is God's hostile enemy.
So the Lord Jesus suffered. He suffered in ways that we can never enter into, far beyond our comprehension. Oh, he suffered so much. Why? Why did he suffer? The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost, you just heard.
He came to save the guilty. He came to save the lost. There are seven distinct descriptions of crucifixion in Psalm 22. They are vivid and graphic. They only can be fulfilled by a crucifixion. Now let me tell you, David never knew anything about crucifixion, because it had not even been invented in David's day.
No one had ever been crucified. It was the Romans who invented crucifixion, or the Phoenicians actually did just a few years before them. But David never saw a crucified Savior. David never saw a cross.
He never saw nails in hands and feet. Never did. How did he know it then? I wonder if you could meet David in heaven and you'd say to David, how did you know all that was going to happen? There are actually 14 distinct descriptions of the sufferings of Christ in Psalm 22, and they are perfect.
And they were all perfectly fulfilled. How did he know it? This is not David's thoughts. This is not David's words. This is the Word of God. Oh, I would have thought you were convinced of that. This is God's Word from heaven.
It has to be true, because God cannot lie. So let me go over this with you if I possibly can. You've heard that he didn't come to save the righteous. He didn't come to call the righteous. He came to save sinners.
So what did it cost him? Let me give you 14 distinct statements that tell us what it cost him. First of all, he was despised. Have you ever been despised? Well, you say, maybe I have. The Lord Jesus was not only hated, but he was despised.
They laughed him to scorn. How difficult that would be if you were laughed to scorn. He was surrounded by his enemies. They were like wild bulls trying to destroy him. He said, all my bones are out of joint.
You see, nailed to a cross, when the cross is uplifted, there's a hole in the ground to hold it upright. And the Savior was nailed to the cross while it lay on the ground. And then they lifted the cross and they dropped it into its socket.
He said, all my bones are out of joint. What pain. What physical suffering from the hands of men. He said, I am poured out like water. He said, my heart is like wax that is melted in the midst of me. My tongue cleaves to my jaws.
I have been brought into the dust of death. Dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I've often thought of this. If I could have seen David and knew what he wrote, and if I were to ask David, let me see your hands, David.
There's no nail print in his hands. What does he mean then when he said they pierced my hands and my feet? The Lord Jesus tells us what he meant. The Lord Jesus said David was not speaking of himself.
David was not speaking of his own experience. He was speaking of the Savior who would come all those many years in the future. It all happened exactly as it was written. They pierced my hands and my feet.
I may count all my bones. What does that mean? When the weight of his body hung on those bleeding wounds in his hands and feet, his bones out of joint were seen through the body, through the skin, through the flesh.
He said, they part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. I've often thought of this. I would have to say this is a little bit of imagination, but I hope it's spiritual imagination. What if you could have gone up to those four soldiers?
There were four of them, a quaternion of soldiers, four. What if you could have gone up to those soldiers and said, do you see what you're doing right here, gambling for the garments of Christ? They part my garments among them and cast lots.
That is, they gambled for my vesture, that one piece garment that could not be divided without being destroyed. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. What if you had said to those soldiers, did you know that what you were doing here was written in the Scriptures a thousand years ago, 750 years ago?
They would have said, that cannot be. Tom and Dee sang. As I said, they're not here tonight. But the first time I met Tom and spoke to him about the Savior, he said, I don't believe there is a God. And then that day I was telling you about, he brought the Bible we had given him, and he put his finger on the Bible, and he said, I believe this is the Word of God.
And I said, Tom, how come? Why do you believe it? And then he referred to Isaiah 53. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our inequities. The chastisement, the punishment of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
He said, how could Isaiah ever know that 750 years before it happened? Unless it's God's Word. It is God's Word. I hope you understand that tonight. This is God's Word. This is the Word of God that tells you you're a sinner.
The Word of God that tells you your sins must be punished. God cannot pass over sins. He cannot overlook them. He must punish sin. He is absolutely holy. That's one of the greatest truths I know from Psalm 22.
Thou art holy. What does it mean to be holy? Have you ever thought of that? What is holiness? You know, we can hardly grasp it. Perhaps to me, the greatest understanding I have of God's holiness is that he is uncreated light, a light that had no beginning, that will never dim, eternal.
God's light and God's holiness cannot be separated. His light reveals what I am. His light shows me I'm a sinner, vile in his sight. And yet he loved me. What a great wonder that is. You know, I can't hardly believe this, but well over 70 years have passed by since first I understood the meaning of the cross.
I was impressed with the opening prayer tonight because that's really what salvation is, to understand why Christ died, to understand why he suffered. Why did he hang on that tree in agony and blood? Why did the darkness descend at noonday?
And why did the Savior cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Did he deserve to be forsaken? Surely not. There is an answer. The Lord Jesus gives us the answer. Why did God forsake him? Because God is holy.
Now stop for a moment. God is holy. What does that mean? It means he hates sin. It means he must punish sin. And if he punished you for your sins, you would never pay the debt forever and ever and ever and ever.
You would go on suffering to pay the awful price of sin. But the Lord Jesus on the cross, he paid the mighty debt I owe. He died because he loved me so. Oh, my dear friend, he cried, My God, my God, why?
Stop for a moment. Why did God forsake him? Because God is holy. Because God must punish sin. Because God punished his own son for my sins. Well, over 70 years ago, for the first time I understood why Christ suffered.
I didn't see a vision. I didn't have a feeling to tell me it was true. It was the reality. Christ had died in my place. He took my punishment. He bore my sins in his own body on the tree. I couldn't help but trust him.
I tell this all the time, so forgive me, but I never will forget that dark park that night as I went home from that meeting. I stood in the middle of a large park. There were no lights in it. It was pitch dark.
But I looked up and through the branches of the trees, I saw the stars in the sky. And I stood there with wonder. The God who made all that gave his only Son to die for me. I would have to tell you that I sensed at that moment something that has been a great reality to me through the years and even more so in recent times.
I couldn't help but love him. I could not help but love him. He loved me. And he gave himself for me. I think those words of Galatians 2 and 20 are some of the sweetest words I know. The Son of God. The Creator of heaven and earth.
The Lord of life. The Lord of all transcendent. The life-creating Son to worlds on Him dependent. And yet there on that cross, he suffered in my place. Have you trusted him? When? If you've trusted him, you'll know when it happened.
You'll be able to tell how it happened. You'll be able to express your appreciation, your love in return for his love to you. The Son of God, Paul wrote, loved me. And he gave himself for me. Now, Satan caused Christ to suffer.
I've been actually telling you what men did to cause the sufferings of the Savior. But Satan was there. The Lord Jesus tried to deliver my soul from the sword. My darling, from the power of the dog, save me from the lion's mouth.
Did you know that at the cross there was a war? A battle? Such as no battle men have ever known. The hosts of darkness assembled. Satan and his demons gathered together against the Lord Jesus, against that sinless Christ on Calvary.
He faced Satan with all his power. Oh, thank God he defeated him. The Lord Jesus is the victor over sin and death and hell and over Satan and all his hosts. And so, he suffered from Satan, but he defeated Satan in his suffering.
Deliver my soul, he cried. Deliver my soul. But you know, I've been thinking about this today. And it touches my heart. The Savior who cried, deliver my soul. By giving himself, he saved my soul. He saved my soul because he gave his all.
He suffered from men. He suffered from Satan. He suffered from God. This is something that is beyond me. So, I can only use the language of Scripture. And it is sufficient. Thou hast brought me, he said of God, of his Father.
Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. You ever think of that? It was God who brought him there. That was God's will. He came from heaven, as you've heard, for that very purpose. That he could save lost souls.
And God brought him to that place called Calvary. Thou art holy is the reason he suffered. My God, my God, listen to the question. Why hast thou forsaken me? In the darkness of Calvary, he cried, why hast thou forsaken me?
He gives us the answer right here in Psalm 22. Thou art holy. A holy God must punish sin. He punished his own son. He punished the Lord Jesus in the guilty sinner's place. There are five statements of the Lord in these verses that have touched my heart many times.
He said in verse 1, there is no help for me. Is there no help for you? Oh, there is. There's help tonight. There's a Savior for you if you'll have Him. If you reject Him, there's no other Savior. There is no other hope of heaven if you reject Him.
But, he said there was no help for me. In verse 2, he said there was no rest for me. On that cross, he suffered infinitely, conscious every moment of the pain, the agony, the torment of his holy soul.
The Lord Jesus just did not suffer nails and wounds and bruises. Men bruised Him. Satan bruised Him. But, oh, listen. Listen. God bruised Him. God bruised Him. Crushed Him. The word bruise actually that is used in Isaiah 53 and 5 means to crush.
He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. So, actually, God bruised the blessed Savior. And He said there was no rest for me. And then He said there was no deliverance for me.
Why? So you can be delivered. So you can be saved. There was no deliverance for Him. And then He said there is no sympathy for me. Isn't that amazing? Have you ever known what it is to be utterly, totally, completely rejected?
I don't think so. I have not. But He did. There is no sympathy for me. And then finally He said there is no escape for me. Can I say this very gently to you tonight? There is escape for you. Escape from what?
Escape from the punishment of your sins. Escape from the flames of hell. Escape from eternal torment. There is escape. There was none for Him. There is escape for you. What a wondrous thing it is to be sure that what Christ suffered on the cross was enough.
That's why I love the last verse of Psalm 22. They shall come and shall declare His righteousness. Now, this is being fulfilled tonight. Did you think the Bible is true? Well, this is being fulfilled right now.
They shall come and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born. Our English Bible says He had done this. Actually, the Greek translation of Psalm 22 and verse 31 uses the word tetelestai.
I don't expect you to be following the Greek, but tetelestai is what the Savior cried on the cross. We have it in our Bible as three words. It is finished. There's actually only one word from the lips of the Savior.
Finished. Completed. What's done? The sufferings for sin. The way of escape for you. The salvation you so desperately need. The Lord Jesus did it all. He didn't leave anything for you to do. He did it all.
Well do I remember that moment when first I understood that. He did it all for me. I need nothing else. He's my Savior. He suffered in my place. Can I go back with you just for a few moments because I would like you to see that what the Lord Jesus suffered was from a holy God.
Did you notice what we read? O my God, I cry in the daytime, and Thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent, but Thou art holy. What does holiness mean? It means sinlessness. It means perfect light.
It means God's very character and nature. Thou art holy. And God has found a holy way to save you and to save me. Not at the expense of His holiness, but in perfect keeping with His absolute holiness, God has found a way to save.
He punished His Son in the sinner's place bearing shame and scoffing rude. In our place condemned He stood, sealed our pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! And this Savior tonight, He cried, My God, I cry, Thou hearest not.
Does God hear you tonight? Oh, He surely does. If there was a sinner here who knew his need, who knew her need, if there was a sinner here willing to admit, I'm just a sinner, I have no goodness, I'm just sinful, O my friend, you could trust that Savior at this very moment.
He would hear. He would save. He is ready. He is willing. He is able. It cost Him all He had to save you. I know there are many people who have strange ideas about why the Lord Jesus suffered and why God allowed it to be so.
But the answer comes from the lips of the Savior. Thou art holy. I've been thinking if there's a good bit. This is the Holy Lord God, the God who dwells in light. He sits upon a holy throne. He dwells in a holy heaven.
He has given us a holy law. This is His holy word. The Lamb of Calvary is the Holy One who suffered in the sinner's place. And the sufferings of Christ were holy sufferings. Holy sufferings. Can you understand that?
No. Neither do I understand it, but I believe it. What He suffered was enough. He cried at the end of this psalm, tells us, It is finished. I don't think any unsaved person understands that simple statement.
Because if they did, they'd be saved. It is finished. There's nothing else. There's nothing more. This is it. You can have it tonight. It is finished. Yes, indeed. Finished every job. Sinner, this is all you need.
Tell me, is it not? So, if you were to go through this psalm, this is what you'd find. And this is what I want to close with. The Lord Jesus was like a young deer, a hind of the morning in His gentleness.
He was like a worm in His loneliness. He was like a babe in His restfulness. He was a darling in His uniqueness. He was a sufferer in His loneliness. He was a singer in His worship. And He is a Savior for all who trust Him.
God grant you may trust Him tonight. Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, we bow before Thee now and thank Thee that He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He came that He might bleed and suffer and die on Calvary's cross.
He came for guilty sinners such as us. Oh, we thank Thee that He ever came. We thank Thee that He suffered. We thank Thee He died. We thank Thee He rose from the dead and He lives. And He bears in His own body the marks of His suffering.
And when we see Him in the glory, our blessed Savior, we'll fall at His feet that were pierced with nails. And we'll look upon that blessed one who was once crowned with thorns. And then we'll see Him crowned with glory and honor.
And eternal dominion is His. We thank Thee He's the governor among the nations. We thank Thee, Lord, that He is the Savior of lost souls. And so we pray that there might be some soul who will trust Him even tonight.
We give our thanks for Him. Thank Thee for the Gospel. Thank Thee for those who have come to hear it. Lord, give journeying mercies to each one home safely. But we humbly pray there might be some precious souls in this very meeting tonight who will for the first time take it in for themselves Jesus died for me.
As we ask in His worthy and precious name, Amen.