A Cruz de Cristo - Paul Washer

[Music] so far this morning two passages have been read from the Old Testament one for The Book of Psalms the other from the book of Isaiah on the cross of Christ we have also sung some beautiful beautiful works written in honor of the cross of Christ but I want to submit to you that one of the reasons if not the primary reasons for the weakness the error of the modern evangelical church is because it does not understand the cross and so often we have taken the gospel of Jesus Christ reduced it down to a five-minute

conversation and then supposedly go on to more profound things regarding Christianity but what I'm going to do this week and next week and the next week by the grace of God is to talk about the cross now if you've ever heard me preach any more than once or twice you've heard me preach many of the same things it's not because I do not study all of the scriptures or do not desire to know the full counsel of God it's just that there's one thing that burns on my heart above everything else I would feel safe

in saying that I could spend 10 hours a day of my entire life doing nothing but studying the cross of Jesus Christ and it is in that cross that I find everything everything everything with regard to the knowledge of God the attributes of God manifested in such a way as in no other place in that cross I find my motivation what causes me to get up in the morning or work late into the night it is not guilt it is not slavery but imprisonment from the knowledge of one thing even though it is a brief

knowledge that is what God has done for this sinner in the person of his son I suppose that if a man had to be a slave to something this immense love would be our pious choice I'm going to begin talking about the gospel not with man where most people usually begin because although we say man is the problem there is a sense in which man is not the problem who man is is not the problem the greatest problem is who God is and that's where we must start I want you to go just for a

moment to the book of Exodus now many times you've probably heard us speak about the inerrancy of Scripture the absolute trustworthiness of Scripture that is something that you must hold on to to be a biblical Christian but what I want you to understand is that that is not enough you must believe in the sufficiency of Scripture that not only is it inerrant it is sufficient for everything and not only is it sufficient but there is there is a degree into which you must interpret the Scriptures severely now what do I mean by that I'm trying

to communicate the idea is that you must believe what it says you must take it for what it is actually saying and then you must think about that and ponder it and ask how does this truth actually relate to everything else in the scriptures and in reality itself it's as though I could tell you the building is burning and you could say oh yes the building is burning I say no you're not understanding me how do I know you're not understanding me you're not moving you're not trembling that's what I mean when interpret what I'm

saying interpret the Bible with the type of severity actually think about what it's saying one of the things that you will see because we do not put much today on the attributes of God is that people will pick portions of Scripture and make that the reality God is love God is merciful God has a plan and neglect all the weightier matters it must be understood in order to understand those individual things in their context so I want us to look and begin to form a biblical reality of God and of our situation circumstance before him

Exodus 34 verse 5 here we have what is known as a self revelation of God God comes down at the request of Moses God comes down and reveals himself in another word God speaks about himself you can see the importance of this captured how it differs from every other way of presenting the knowledge of God I mean if you were to ask someone about me if it would be one thing but if you were to ask me about me and I answered your questions that would be another thing so here we have the self revelation

of God since the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord God compassionate and gracious slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness and truth who keeps loving kindness for thousands who forgives iniquity transgression and sin yes he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished visiting the iniquity of father's on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations okay you see the problem this is where

I want to apply this idea of interpreting the Bible severely or actually listening and thinking about what it's saying here before us this morning we have the greatest problem in all of Scripture most people will read this and delight in different things they hear about God but not look at it holistically and realize there is a tremendous contradiction here there's a tremendous problem I'm going to point that problem out to you and when I do you're going to come to a greater understanding of the gospel first of all God explains himself in verse six the

Lord the Lord God speaking of his sovereignty compassionate and gracious we revel in the fact that God is compassionate and gracious we have hope only because God is compassionate and gracious and slow to anger that he would endure thousands of years before the redeeming work of Christ that he would put up with men and that even after we are converted we marvel in the fact that God is slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth we wouldn't want a God who would be any other way as a matter as a matter of fact

a thinking man would be terrified if God were any other way there would be no hope for broken and sinful mankind just recently a few days ago or yesterday I suppose a prominent football player killed someone and then turned the gun on himself and today they're going to play a football game I believe his football team and they're going to have a moment a minute of silence for domestic violence and that's appropriate but I think it ought to be taken deeper we ought to have a moment of silence for the universal sinfulness of man that

causes these things it's sin and if God were not compassionate if he were not slow to anger we would have no place to go and so we marble in this he goes on verse seven who keeps loving-kindness for thousands he's a covenant-keeping god he never breaks his word he is faithful in everything he is and everything he declares himself to be in every promise that he makes who forgives iniquity transgression and sin when you see something like this in the Hebrew Bible or you see something similar repeated in the New Testament for example you should

love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength he's not dividing up necessarily different kinds of sins here just like Jesus when he says you're to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength he's not necessarily dividing up the human psyche into different categories what he is saying is in the case of Jesus you should love the Lord your God with all your being with every fiber of your being with the full fabric of who you are here he's saying simply this God forgives all kinds and

types of sin this is wonderful again a wonderful piece of news for you and for me he doesn't just forgive certain kinds of sin but he forgives every kind of sin so there's hope but now we go on who forgives iniquity transgression and sin yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished well I've isolated it for you have you now found the contradiction he forgives all kinds of sin but he will not leave the guilty unpunished this is one of the great problems with evangelism today is the second part this problem this contradiction

is not explained you see in one place he is saying he forgives all have sinned but there will be no guilty person who commits sin who will not be punished now because we are not our culture in our society we're not necessarily a thinking people and we have been taught in our high schools and universities that words only mean what you think they mean and not necessarily the intention of the author because of that we can read through this and just be a glow or a teacher can teach this and say this is wonderful not

recognizing that there is the greatest of contradiction here how can God forgive all kinds and types of sins and yet not one sinner will go without being fully punished how can that happen how can it happen let's go on let's go for a moment to Psalms 32 verse 1 which is later quoted by Paul in Romans 4 verses 7 and 8 but let's look at it with David here in Psalms 32 how blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered how blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity

and in whose spirit there is no deceit now we read through this and we marvel in the grace of God but I want you just to look at what it's saying listen to the words meditate ponder how blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven that doesn't seem too awful contradictory but let's go on whose sin is covered so blessed is the man whose sins have been forgiven by God and then blessed is the man whose sins God has covered up why don't you think about that what do we call an official of any type or

kind ruler judge anyone with authority who covers up sin which we call them we call them corrupt vile we blame all the maladies of society on them because of their lack of justice a text like this to a thinking man makes him proclaim shall not the judge of all the earth do right well you mean God like covers up sin he hides it how can he do that and still be righteous now let's go on for a moment to the book of Proverbs the text I use frequently and it's mainly an illustration or a but

proverbs 17:15 as Christians we marvel in the fact that God justifies wicked men I'm standing here today with the hope that God has justified this wicked man as a matter of fact the book of Romans chapter 4 tells me that one of the results of the resurrection is that I can now know God justifies wicked men he who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous both of them alive for an abomination to the Lord he who justifies the wicked is an abomination to the Lord and yet we have just sung songs and sang

songs quite frequently about how the Lord justifies wicked people and yet here anyone who justifies the wicked is condemned as an abomination before God Almighty this is the basis and the foundation of the gospel this is the reason for the gospel this is why you know when when our pastors begin to speak about the importance of the knowledge of God and go beyond our pastors when Jeremiah says that rich men shouldn't boast and well that wise men even in wisdom and strong men and strength but the ones who boast should boast in this that they

know God you see when you have a Christianity void of the knowledge of God you will never see even the foundation or reason for the gospel except the man's a sinner we see the great reason for the gospel God is righteous now one thing about God's attributes that you must understand is this when we say that God is perfect we're not just meaning that in a in a moral context that he's a perfect God without sin even though it is perfect and without sin when we talk about his perfection it's sometimes it's best to talk

about it in plural his perfections meaning that all the attributes of God exist in absolute and perfect harmony he does not exercise one to the loss of another he does not make void one attribute by exercising another he does not put aside his justice in order to show you love if he did so he would no longer be perfect he would no longer be consistent there would be no harmony within God God must be just do you realize he he does not have to exercise mercy that's his prerogative but he must be just we have

today in evangelicalism a gospel without adjust God and therefore gospel that cannot be understood cannot be lived out most importantly cannot be appreciated now let's go over for a moment to the book of Romans and I want to show you how Paul deals with this problem we're just going to stop here for a moment in Romans 3:23 of course he says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and then in 24 he comes back and explains that these people who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God have been

justified the wicked have been justified this immediately brings a problem this immediately brings the problem how can this be how can God be just and justify wicked people now we go on verse 25 speaking of Jesus Christ whom God displayed publicly Martin UA lloyd-jones put it this way whom God placarded probably a term more familiar those in England but the idea is the placard if you were to drive south and go to Gatlinburg Tennessee you would immediately notice one thing all the billboards everywhere you can't see the forest you can't see the mountains for all

the billboards there placarded in front of us there you cannot avoid them you see them now he says that God displayed our placarded Christ publicly now why did he do and I want you to think about this in the bearing center of the religious universe the Son of God was crucified and he wasn't put away in the secret of a room or a closet he was publicly crucified at the crossroads of the religious universe a religious center of the universe now why is that that he was displayed publicly as a propitiation now that is of

course a sacrifice that satisfies the demands of God's justice and therefore having justice satisfied appeases God's wrath extinguishes it so Christ is displayed publicly as this sacrifice that satisfies all the demands of God's justice against the sinner and in satisfying appease as God's wrath against the center now why verse 25 this was to demonstrate why did he publicly do this it was to demonstrate his righteousness to demonstrate God's righteousness now we need to ask ourselves a question why does God have to demonstrate or prove that he is righteous that's the sad thing he doesn't have

to do that anymore to most people in our culture because we do not read and think enough to even see a problem but there has been a problem throughout all of human history and pride and Paul is going to go on and explain that to us this was to demonstrate his righteousness to prove that God is righteous why does God need to do that because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed what does that mean means this Adam should have died right there on the spot without a promise without a

protoevangelium without a first promise of the gospel that someone would come born of woman and crush the head of the circle should have died right there on start when God put away the entire world except one family Noah in his own there's a problem there a big problem not that God put away the entire world the problem is he did not put away Noah Noah should have died Abraham should not have been a friend of God he was a sinner and at times a doubter and at times wayward but his own wife in jeopardy God

tolerated Israel's idolatry over and over and over and even more God allowed the pagan nations outside of Israel that scattered throughout the entire world to live and not only did he allow them to live he sent them reigns you see if you look out here and you're a thinking person you look out this window you automatically see a theological philosophical problem there should not be anything green or flowering there should not be clean water there should not be blue skies there should be nothing of blessing or beauty children should not be born with joy to

young people should not be married with celebration there should be nothing but wrath on this planet that is what justice demands it should be something like Beckett's Waiting for Godot it should just be nothing here nothing but sorrow and gray and death and grass and the fact that there's not means God's got some explaining to do see that's the amazing thing when something supposedly goes wrong in the world today like a hurricane or something happens we automatically call God to task that was wrong no no that's not the problem the problem is when it doesn't

happen the problem is when it doesn't happen the question is not why do bad things happen to good people it's light as anything good ever happen at all because God is just he's just and that justice must have its full hand and the great question is this how does justice coincide coincide and coexist with mercy when you have a people as we are now see there's another problem is that especially for many of you youngsters you've been raised in evangelical churches where people really aren't that bad and we've somehow been able to take it so

that if someone does commit some sort of unusual crime or unusual sin we can blame it on society without realizing that's a logical fallacy of circular reasoning because if society is created by the individual by man the problem is man that Hitler is not an anomaly here's what every one of us is capable of being apart from the restraining grace of God until here we have this thing Paul is setting forth this argument no I want to if you do not agree with what I'm saying here then I then I challenge you take Romans three

seriously and come back with another interpretation next week because you won't be able to do that if you take the text seriously what you'll have to do is what is often done skim over the text entirely and only touch on the parts the most favors man but if you take Paul seriously you're realizing here he's portraying one of the greatest logical arguments one of the greatest arguments in all of Scripture and he is solving finally the greatest question that has existed throughout the ages how can God be just and then this type of people into

fellowship with him how can he do that without denying his justice and he says simply this for the demonstration I say verse 26 of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just in the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus so let's set up something of a drama here at this moment let's say that Satan is standing before the throne of God and doing what he does and that is accusing and and God shows mercy to our fallen parents Adam and Eve and Satan cries out shall not the judge

of all the earth to do right did we not fall and justice came upon us perfectly and all at once without one promise of mercy for those of you who think that man is better than he is I challenge you to answer this question do you realize that Satan and the angels were far superior a far more worth beauty glory everything than us and yet when they fell God sent them no promise of salvation God did not have to send us one be very very careful he did not have to send us one so Satan

accuses God shall not the judge of all the earth do right Adam must die oh no what no what you you see even after you saved him in a drunken stupor he ruined his family it brings a curse upon the lot of them Oh an Abraham your friend he lied and put his wife in jeopardy he should die I'm David David a man after your own heart what has happened to your justice God how can you call David his son how can you bring him into fellowship with you an Israel Israel that apostate nation that's

done nothing but build idols it's out done even the pagan nations and it's someone said how can call them your people 2,000 years ago God answered that question you want to know how I could give a promise to Adam you want to know how I can save Noah you want to know how I can call Abraham my friend you want to know how I can call David my son then go now to Jerusalem look on that tree where my son is dying for the full lot of them you see he loved Abraham based upon what

Christ was going to do he forgave David's just David falling from that throne in saying you're right I'm responsible for the death of Uriah just him saying that is not enough to purge him of his sin the law says he should have died God did not kill him how can God do that pass over sins in his forbearance because Christ was going to the tree before the foundation of the world that's how he is not some upstart Christ this idea of crucifixion and cross is not just some new thing appearing on the same when plan

B fails our plan a fails go to another plan know for the very foundation of the world Christ and his cross the tree center in all of divine history and yet for the evangelical church in America today Christianity 101 now that we've got to in simple stuff let's go long no my friends know it's reason why in order to keep a church somewhat appearing to be alive we must invent one surface and when the glory of that surface is gone create another surface much larger and larger new music new things all sorts of stuff why

because the foundation is not there the thing that brings true fire true spiritual strength true endurance it is the cross of Christ and it's cool aureus thing that God has done in his son you go down through history you show me the men and women that have been used of God and I'll show you they have one common scarlet thread among them the cross and the revelation of God and Jesus Christ was primary for them they would have considered everything else is little little you come to me with the book of Revelation and I honor

that book as Holy Scripture and would desire to know what it says but the most glorious things of the book of Revelation is not what's going to happen in some later date it is what appears in that book about Jesus Christ and about his cross and about his glory talk to me about creation and the way the universe was formed in the power and majesty of God displayed therein and I will worship with you but it is a small thing compared to the cross of Jesus Christ talk to me about all the wonderful blessings that

I can have in the Savior and although I cherish each and every one of them compared to the cross I count them as nothing I would rather hear a conference on all the glories of God revealed in the person of Christ on the cross of Calvary than a thousand sermons about how I could get my best life now tell me about Jesus tell me about Bryce over and over again you say the same message over and over my dear friend you know not what you say you could spend a thousand eternities examining the glories of

God in the person and work of Jesus Christ and at the end of all those eternities you will not have reached the foothills of Everest the cross the cross let's go up 2nd Corinthians is where we will start our sermon and be part of our introduction chapter 5 verse 21 he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him he God the Father made him that is the son who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf there's enough here to

propel a human heart the thousands of years of piety there's enough here to drive you to serve Christ all the days of your life just in these simple words what more do you need I see so many people in this nation running to and fro looking for a word from God when they're not hearing they're not hearing God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf God made him who knew no sin he knew no sin if you were to ask me brother Paul in the life of Christ in the Ministry

of Christ what do you consider the most spectacular thing that was accomplished by the person of Jesus of Nazareth was the resurrection from the dead the calling forth of Lazarus and others was that the casting out of demons the calming the Seas what was it I hear it is he knew no sin he was born without the taint of sin he was born without the corrupt vile radically depraved nature that was mine and yours and every other man since Adam he was born without sin and he committed no sin not only did they not commit

sin he knew no sin he didn't experience sin in a sense of willing participation in the sense of grabbing a hold of it and it grabbing a hold of him all the things that you and I understand very very well he knew no sin that's amazing he kept the law perfectly no no no you're not you're not grabbing this yes he kept the law perfectly but it goes so much farther than that so much deeper so much greater they give you an example a man asked me one time what is the greatest sin you can

commit well I've never thought about that before because in a sense they're all great sins Adam and Eve ate of fruit the entire universe was condemned so how can you say what that one sins greater than the other but as I was thinking about it kind of with a twinkle in my eye I said well I suppose the greatest sin would be breaking the greatest commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength I suppose that not doing that would be the greatest sin think about this there has never

been one moment there has never been one fraction of a moment in your life that you have loved God with all your heart soul mind and strength there has never been one millisecond in your life that you have loved God as God ought to be loved don't you think about that that's why when a legalist with most in his legalism or a man believes that he's justified by works that ought to be enough right there to shoot him down for eternity there think about this there has never been one moment in your life that what

you did you did fully and completely for the glory of God not one time and not not just not one time not one millisecond in that event never and yet Jesus of Nazareth there was not one moment in his life that he did not love God as God ought to be loved there was never one moment in his life that he did not love the Lord his God with all his heart soul mind and strength think about that what you and I the combined humanity in all of us we can not do for even a

millisecond he did his entire life with absolute perfect continuity that's enough for me to think high thoughts about him and let me give you an example you know that for example in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15 were told that he was tempted like us in every way and yet without sin all right but there again don't just say okay I read that I understand it now let's go on note here you're not getting this because you would just mean marveling about it look at this it doesn't mean that in the way I've been tempted he's

been tempted and he didn't fall it means much more than that and I'm going to show you and give you an illustration from from weightlifting okay now here I am an old man with very weak legs you put an Olympic bar on my back and then over here you have a power lifter who just won the national championship and you put an Olympic bar on his back the bars weigh 45 pounds now you take two Olympic plates and you put it on my rag okay if 45 pounds each so we got about 135 pounds all

right I'm standing there I'm okay I'm old but I can still stand you put those on him he's still standing you get two more plates and boost it up to 225 and you put it on me and as long as I don't have to go down I can still hold it you put it on him no problem he's with me you come back and you put on two more plates now you've got 315 I'm standing because I don't have to bend my knees but if my knees Bend just a little bit I'm going down I'm

starting to really hurt in my back and I'm sweating you put those plates on him he has 315 he's standing there you go on out to 405 you put the plates on each side I'm trembling I lean a little over and I crash you put 405 on him he's still stand-in there he put two more plates on him he's still standing there you put two more plates on him he's still standing there you put two more plates on him he's still standing you put the whole world on him and he's not trembling or sweating that's

what it means when Christ was tempted and everything that you were tempted but take that exponentially and make it larger and he's still standing this is a broad-shouldered Christ deep chested and strong without sin always doing the will of his father perfectly and completely the wise man can point to one thing in his own life he can't point to one thing in human history that would say that that was done perfectly unto God sometimes here young man read a biography about a George Mueller or Hudson Taylor or Charles Spurgeon and say all sorts of things

about the man while you're scholars do the same thing say all sorts of things about the man that I know is not true Spurgeon was a man he sinned Muller was a man he doubted Hudson Taylor was a man he feared Christ stands alone our only brother our elder brother the only one to look to we heard a sermon from Anthony about in the year that King Uzziah died I saw so the lord high and lifted up and his train filled the temple and above him stood the Seraphim each one having six wings with two

they covered their face which they covered their feet to they did fly and one cried unto the other this majestic scene and the year the King Uzziah died Uzziah was one of the best kings in Israel yet he died a leopard because of his sin you need more than a king uzziah Sampson this mighty man who goes to the gates of the city rips them up from their roots carries them on the back up a mount and cast them down in destruction he fell in sin under the weight of a woman's words the Christ grabs

the gates of Hell throws them on his back carries them up a mountain and throws them down and remains unpickable impeccable without sin you see renewing your mind in the Word of God will bring you to the point that you live in a state of Marvel who is this like in the Song of Solomon who is this one coming across this field banners on the fear bird what a god what a Christ what a savior and that is the only thing that will protect you from all the mesmerizing that goes on in the world is

more of Christ not making the church more like the world in order to compete with the world but giving you Christ so that the world is forgotten that is if you're converted if your heart has truly changed because if Christ does not marvel you Christ does not mesmerize you if Christ is just a number maybe even number one among other numbers then you ought to fear you ought to feel he knew no sin and yet it says that he who knew no sin God made him to be sin on our behalf now you've read that

you've told other people that now here's the question what does it mean ah you know some of the greatest commentary writers in history have said I'm just not going to go there I I don't I don't want to touch this it's it's - I don't know what it is because we don't want to say too little and not go far enough we don't want to say too much in blasting I mean what does this mean Christ born impeccable without sin the spotless Lamb of God and yet here we find out that God made him who

knew no sin to be sin on our behalf what is this you see if you just read it and you don't think we don't compare it or you don't actually hear the words you know I'm reminded of a great illustration of this is CS Lewis's voyage of the Dawn Treader in which they come into this cloud of blackness and they meet a man that is insane with fear swimming in the water as the boat makes its way into this dark pitch black cloud they hear the voice of a man they shine a lantern upon him

he's pale with fear he's just full of terror he's violent he's cell afraid and he says flee flee flee turn the boat turn the boat in the rescue they're all brave soldiers they're all brave sailors I'm like we turn from nothing why should we run why should we fear he said this is a place where all your dreams come true and they're like even more so why should we turn and he basically said you fools hear my words this is a place where all your dreams come true and the men become as terrorized as the

man in the water they quickly haul him out and look for a way of escape though they run from no other thing they look for a way of escape now what's the point the point is this they weren't hearing what he was saying and so they didn't see this is severe this is amazing this must be dealt with what can it mean it's the noble task of kings to look at these things and search them out we're more than animals driven by instinct this is our call as what does this mean he was made sin

how did God make him stand here the word here it he goes on and he says he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf what does this mean does it mean that somehow on that tree Christ became polluted did somehow his his nature devolve into a sinful thing did he become vile himself polluted dark full of spot what happened what does it mean the second half of the verse tells us what it means since he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might

become the righteousness of God in him ah there's the clue the moment the sinner believes in Christ does he become a perfectly righteous be in now listen to my language absolutely not even though you have believed in Christ and you've been regenerated by the Holy Spirit you are not a perfectly righteous being because you still sin then what does it mean the word justified means that the moment the sinner believes in Jesus true God forensically are legally declares that person to be righteous to be right with hell you see what I'm saying to see the

difference the moment you believe in Jesus you do not become a perfect righteous being who never sins again the moment you believe in Jesus God legally or forensic ly declares you to be right with hell it is a legal position before the throne of God now most of you know that when the word I want to throw in that is commonly not thrown in and should be thrown in every time this is preached what is it the moment a person believes in Jesus God legally from his throne declares that person to be right with him

and treats that person as right with him how does he do that of course we're going to get to that later but it's based upon the work of Christ but what I want you to see is that when a man is justified it means God legally declares this sinner who will continue to sin he declares him legally right with God and then treats him as someone legally right with God you see Saints you need to understand this if it's not that God how can I put this if there was one tiny sin upon which your

relationship with God depended it would be over you see so many Christians will believe in God under justification but they'll spend a great part of their lives still thinking that somehow their favor and standing with God is based upon their performance and that's not true and I can tell you why because if that was the case your performance would have to be absolutely perfect because one sin is enough not only to throw you into chaos but the entire universe into hell and so the moment you believe you are legally declared by God to be right

with him and he treats you as right with him now let's go back to Christ on the cross our sins were imputed puts upon Jesus he was legally from the throne of God legally declared guilty and God treated him as guilty you see that do you see this that's what it means God treated him as guilty that's why we can say this do you want to know how much God hates sin you want to know how much God hates your sin when the Son of God bore your sin upon the tree God killed him God

crushed him do you think God doesn't hate sin I don't have to preach about Hell to show you the God hates sin I just have to preach about the cross you want know much he hates sin when his son bore Stan God crushed him you see that he hates sin and that's why the believers for he lysing if I had one speck one drop of the mighty ocean of sin that I've committed if I had one drop splash upon me it would condemn my soul to hell and the only reason I have a right relationship

with God and the only reason why he treats me as a son is because Christ bore at all once and for all past present future sin all of it gone when he died on that tree now I want us to we're going to close here I I haven't really even gotten this is kind of the introduction we'll take it up next week but there's one thing that I do want to say simply though it was imputed guilt though it was imputed guilt that means our sin was imputed to him it was real guilt he really

suffered the bearing of guilt before a holy God you see you and I have so much trouble with this that's why in modern day consider contemporary evangelical preaching whenever they talk about the cross what are they primarily talk about crown of thorns whips nails what because our culture does not see sin as that big a deal if some said the pain of the crosses that Christ bore our sin we're thinking no it's got to be crowns of thorns it's got to be nails it's got to be all of this no you see I want you

to imagine for a moment some of you young ladies try to put this in perspective let's say that you've been you've just been raised and cared for bore you by your father your your foot has never touched the earth you've been watched over a year your heart has been kept pure you have no idea of all the evil that's out there in the world that one day you decide you're going to go out and witness to a group of prostitutes and as you're sitting there witnessing to them the police come by and gather all of

you up and throw you in with them well those prostitutes they've done this a million times they're sitting in the back of the patrol car or whatever it is they're laughing telling jokes you know maybe I don't know get to the precinct office and there they're calling their lawyers they're sitting there in the pen that they're waiting and they're laughing and painting their nails or whatever that's no big deal for them this is custom do this every day you're sitting there over in a corner and you can't even breathe now that is a pathetic illustration

I don't know what to do here how can you use illustrations to describe what Christ suffered you see he knew no sin you and I drink down iniquity like it was water how can we know what it was like for someone who knew no sin to bear our sin on that tree you see now if what I've said thus far warms your heart and if what I say next week warms your heart you go wow I love this I love him I want you to know that there are great many so called out evangelicals today

in America who actually hate the things I have just told you and they would not preach it in their churches or they consider it a small thing let's go on to more important things I want you to see that although when it began term evangelical it was an appropriate term it is still a beautiful term the only problem is it is now a meaningless term you can be called evangelical and yet believe in almost anything what we want to be not out on our own but within the Scriptures and not only making the boastful claim

of being in the scriptures alone because that can demonstrate great pride but being in the scriptures and aligned with Christian history the old paths the men and women who walk them the first century Church the Reformers Puritans Baptist early Presbyterians men who knew God Wesley who would have delighted in this today no we don't want to say we know the Bible everyone else is wrong we know how wrong we can be and that is why we not only want to study the scripture but compare our interpretation to the men and women of God down through

history and ask ourselves are we with that great line of people who loved God who loved Christ who needed nothing in a church but the word of God and prayer and worship no entertainment Christ is our desire Christ is our desire Christ hopefully next week we'll be able to get beyond our introduction into the actual cross event I was hoping to do the cross today and then do regeneration next week and then to go on to how do you know if you're Christian but it looks like we're going to stay here for a while if

you're here today you're here today and you don't know Christ oh come on now your heart do you want Christ and do you lament when you don't want him as you should do you know Christ not did you pray a prayer not did you ask Jesus to come into your heart have you repented of your sins and have you believed the gospel and the evidence of that is that you are still repenting today still believing today and growing not only under his teaching but under his blessing and not only under teaching and blessing but you

are growing under discipline you belong to him now and he jealously lovingly washes over your heart do you know him if you do not know him the please come talk to me come talk to one of the the elders or one of the ministers or one of the Deacons here about any man in our church can lead you to the scriptures to show you what it means to be converted do not leave here today not being converted not knowing Christ realize that the religious just lukewarmness of our culture and the amount of worldliness that has

entered in what is it that draws you to church is it Christ is it is it Christ or is it friends and fellowship moral activities a soothed conscience what is it let it be Christ let it be Christ let's pray [Music] you [Music]