It pleased the Lord to crush him, to put him to grief.

It was the will of God that he be treated in this manner and that he be killed, that he might

be a sacrifice for sin, that he might bear the curse for us, that he might bear the punishment

for our sins.

Welcome to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

It's a tragic scene, the King of the universe hanging on a cross,

his enemies rejoicing at his death, and yet as John MacArthur will show you today,

even in that dark hour, God was at work in the lives of his people, and many people who once

despised Jesus came to believe he was the son of God. So why the sudden transformation?

Consider that as we continue John MacArthur's study called the Divine Drama of Redemption.

But before today's lesson, I want to take a moment to mention the purpose behind the lesson

you're about to hear. In fact, there is a common goal, a common purpose that

weaves its way through every message you ever hear on our broadcast. Here's John to explain

what that goal is. Well, the goal is obviously instruction in the Word of God so that we can become mature, so that we can be shaped into

Christ-likeness, so that we have discernment back in 1984.

Grace to you put a purpose statement in writing.

It's been guiding us ever since.

It's the fountain from which all this water of teaching flows. We look to our purpose

statement very often, written, permanent. It's why we exist. It's why we do what we do. In fact,

every member of the Grace Dew staff is asked to affirm that purpose statement in writing every

year. Because of time constraints, we'll only share a couple of portions of it,

but I think you'd like to know what is behind what we're doing today. Here are a couple of

...