Before before I begin. I just want to read something,
how many pastors are here tonight, would you raise your hand? I'd
just like to read a text for you before I go to my text for
preaching. Just have a deep sense that I
need to do this. Oh, afflicted one, storm tossed
and not comforted. Behold, I will set your stones
and to me and your foundations, I will lay in sapphires. Moreover,
I will make your battlements of rubies and your gates of crystal
and your entire wall of precious stones. All your sons will be
taught of the Lord and the well-being of your sons will be great in
righteousness. You will be established. Maybe
I'm reading that a bit more for me than I am for you, or maybe
there's something that we both have in common. This week so
far, I have been with some of the men that I most admire in
the ministry, and it is so wonderful to hear all the things that they've
told us and they've taught us. It's just such a blessing for
me. But at the same time, it's a
little intimidating. You hear these men preach their
grasp of Scripture and their knowledge and devotion and so
many other things that seem to come forth in their preaching.
And sometimes we think, well, where am I to go? Pastor, you need, as I hope you
know, and as the speakers here definitely would affirm, Christianity
is not about conferences and the men who've ministered here
thus far, even though they love to minister to God's men, this
is not their life either. This is not reality. Pastor,
if you are faithful, you are worth Your weight in gold. I sometimes am afraid of notoriety,
you know, because the Pharisees wanted notoriety and Jesus gave
that to them and then they went to hell. Also, there are passages
that warn us about being exalted in one life in order to lose
that exaltation in the next. And our American Christianity
is so twisted about what it means to be a success in ministry. You know, someone asked J.I.
Packer one time, who's the greatest preacher alive? And he said,
you don't know him. As I've around the world in villages
and faraway places, I know men who can barely read in their
own language. And if planted more churches
than all of us put together, And what I want you to know is
be encouraged. Yeah, if you're like me, you
heard some things about preaching so far and you went that thing
he's saying that's wrong, I do that. You know, and I don't let's not
take that lightly, but what I want to say is I want you to be encouraged
and I want I want you to go home like me and I want you to take
what you've learned, like the things that I've learned. I got
up this morning at five o'clock to meet with Dr. Lawson. I my the thing I asked him is,
could you teach me how to preach? You know, but don't be discouraged. Realize, go back, study. Preach, do the work of the ministry,
but most importantly. Rest. In Christ. And what he's doing in your life,
one of the greatest ways the Puritan said in which we might
glorify God. Is to rest in the providence
of God. And be faithful in that. Pastor. He will come one day. And you
will see your labor's not in vain. And if like me, you've
seen some areas where, boy, you really need to work harder. Well,
praise the Lord. Let's go back and work harder,
but not desperate. Not as though someone were chasing
us. Let's rest in Christ. Go back, be encouraged, be strengthened. Be strengthened. I just wanted
to share that with you. I'm going to talk about Jesus Christ. In that statement is revealed
truly how weak preaching is. But we're not for the grace of
God, if it were not that we were commanded to say things like
that, it sounds like near blasphemy. Like you're going to put the
entire ocean in a cup of water. All the sand in the sea, you're
going to put it in a little sand pen where you might play. And
that's that's the thing with preaching, that's the anguish
of preaching and prayer. Is that we have yet to even begin
to comprehend him and what we have comprehended. We cannot
speak, we cannot explain. I have said before that sometimes
I stay up at night and I I hate my brain. I'm angry with my heart. I just sit there and call my
lips dumb. Because when you talk about Christ,
when you talk about him. It's impossible, preaching is
futile. Like I said before, where where
are we to go? Where are we to go? And that's why, especially
you young reformers, I want you to know something. So many of
you have grasped a certain truth here and there about reformation,
but I can tell you by looking at you, you don't understand.
Because you can talk about all the glories of Jesus, but then
you need all kinds of other things to make this work. All kinds
of other things to draw people. all kinds of other things to
be relevant to people. Christ is all in all, but we
must do this and this and have this plan and this scheme, and
we must be clever, clever here and there in order to make an
impact. I want to tell you something
that is rot. Give me a preacher who will cut
off the arm of the flesh. and preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ. I believe that I have weapons
that are mighty unto God. And if I were to summarize those
weapons, it would be the proclamation of the word. It would be intercessory
prayer and sacrificial love. I don't want to grow up a group
of reformers that take my place one day. that speak all the right
things and have all the right books in their library, but they
spend more time scheming and planning and learning than they
do on their knees. Give me a man who will wrestle
with men with only the word of God in his hand and give me men
who will wrestle with God in the night watch. Now, we need to do a lot of pruning. When I preach. In my mind, in
my heart, I am always, always Ezekiel. And I am always in a
valley. of dry bones, and behold, they
are very dry. And not any scheme or plan or
cleverness of clothing or church growth or anything else is going
to cause the dead to rise. Only God saying, prophesy to
the wind. And if you will prophesy, if
you will speak forth the gospel, Not the gospel plus, but stand
out there barren of all hope except the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Then you will see the wind and you will see the dead rise. So much clutter today, so much
clutter, so many boys playing marbles with the diamonds of
God. Cut yourself from all of that. And stand and preach. And kneel before him and wrestle
with God for men and live sacrificially. Do you want to see the power
of men? Do you want to see the power of God? If you can grow
a church and then write a book about it, it wasn't God. Wasn't God. Well, that was another
thing I wanted to say. Let's go to our text. I want to talk about the gospel,
but before I get there, I need to lay down some very important
truths. I want us to go to the book of
Exodus. While you're turning there, young
men, young men. Do you know him? His presence. His power. His anointing. Has he ever come into you in
the wee hours of the morning after a night of prayer and grabbed
you by the nape of the neck and thrown you on the ground and
tossed you around in his violent love? He has ever filled you
with the Holy Spirit. So that you're not talking about
some third person, you're talking about a living reality that's
more real to you than anyone in this congregation right now. Young men, we are not going to
change this world just because we've got a few good books in
our library, we're going to be able to change this world only
because we come to this people and we tell them the God before
whom I stand. The God I live with more than
men. You've got more than a book.
You've got a God. And he has to be called upon
and known. Trusted in supremely. Exclusively. Exodus, chapter
34, on with the gospel now, verse five. The Lord descended in the
cloud and stood there with him, with Moses, 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 in loving kindness and truth,
who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity,
transgression and sin. He will by no means leave the
guilty unpunished. Now, let's take a look at this
just quickly. This is a self-revelation of God in the Bible. There are
times when God comes down and speaks for himself. And this
is one of those cases, it says in verse six, then the Lord passed
in front of him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God. Now,
let's look at these these characteristics. Compassionate, gracious, slow
to anger and abounding and loving kindness and truth. Who keeps
loving kindness for thousands. This is absolutely wonderful. This is good news for man. This
is extraordinary news in light of who man is, who forgives iniquity,
transgression and sin. He's not giving us a lecture
on necessarily the different types and kinds of sin. What
he's doing in the Hebrew way is heaping one term upon another
in order to tell us that he forgives all types and kinds of sin. There is no sin that this Yahweh
cannot forgive. So far, so good, but now he says
yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. I have just read to you. What
the Bible is all about. I have just read to you. what
the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. I have just expounded
to you the greatest problem in all of scripture so that we could
actually say it is the divine dilemma and it is found throughout
all of scripture. And what is this? On one hand,
we have a God who forgives all types and kinds of sin. Yet, on the other hand, we have
a God Who will punish every sin. Committed by every sinner on
planet Earth. Now, before I go on to the next
foundation stone, I want you to think about something. I want
you to think about the importance of the attributes of God. A young
kid goes to Sunday school. Does he does he get lesson after
lesson in most places? He's not catechized. Does he
get lesson after lesson on who is God? Absolutely not. He will
go all through, usually in most evangelical churches, all through
Sunday school. He will go all through youth
group and he will not hear one sermon in Sunday school. Youth
group are from the pulpit about the attributes of God. And then
he may feel the call to ministry. Go on to Bible college. I interview
Bible college students all the time with this one question.
How many years at your Bible college did you study the attributes
of God? I always say how many years?
Because the response is puzzling. Years. Well, I had a systematic
course for a semester. And in there we studied the attributes
of God. How long? Well, I don't know.
It's like a week or. OK, go on to seminary in many
seminary students will come out of seminary and I'll say in seminary,
how many years did you study the attributes of God? Well,
I had two semesters and in the second in the first semester
we dealt with God. OK, as a pastor now, how many
years have you studied the attributes of God and how many years have
you preached the attributes of God to your people? And they
go, well, I haven't. This is Christianity. This is
a religion. It is about God. And no one knows
who God is, so that in one breath, a person can say in a typical
evangelical church, God is righteous and God forgives all sin and
not realize that that is a gigantic, insurmountable contradiction. How can he be righteous? How
can he be that way and forgive sin? Let's go on and just look at
another text quickly. Let's go to Psalms. Psalms 32. One of the most beautiful texts
in all of scripture, it's also repeated in Romans chapter four,
verse one, how blessed is he whose transgressions is forgiven.
Whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom
the Lord does not impute iniquity. This is is this the language
of a righteous God? Now, think about what's being
said, this God covers sin. This is not the language of a
righteous judge. This is the language that we
use with regard to a corrupt one. Hold it, you tell me God
is righteous and yet you tell me God covers sin. God forgives all types and kinds
of sin. And yet the guilty will not go
unpunished. How can this be? It's an absolute
impossibility. My dear friend, if you do not
understand this, you do not understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet I rarely hear this preached. I rarely hear anyone when they
are testifying on the street speak of this. I was with a bunch
of preaching at a university in Europe a few years ago, and
I walked out on stage, everyone, the secular audience just loaded
for bear. They going to eat Puritan that
night is what they thought they were going to do. And so I walked
out there and I'm praying, Lord, you know, what should I say to
this people? And so I said this, I said, now you listen. Tonight,
I'm going to share you share with you the most terrifying
truth revealed in the Christian scriptures. Some of you may want
to leave. Because it is terrible, terrifying. Brace yourself, they were already
and I said, are you ready? Yes, we're ready. OK, this is
it. God. Is good. And they were like. And one student
finally said, and what's the problem with that? I said, you're
not now, what does a good God do with someone like you? You
want God to be righteous, you want him to judge corrupt political
regimes and take care of corporate lust, you want him to come down
with a hammer on every man, do you not realize you just called
for the executioner's axe to be laid across your neck? How
can God be righteous? And yet forgive unrighteous men
just quickly go to Romans. I just want you to see that this
is a major argument with regard to Christ dying as the sin bearer. Romans chapter three. Having spoken about sin for three
chapters. Paul, the apostle, picks up in
verse twenty three, 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, whom God displayed publicly
as a propitiation in his blood through faith that Christ, as
Martin Lloyd-Jones would always say, was placarded. upon the
cross, crucified in the in the religious center of the universe,
Jerusalem for the whole world to see. It was not just a redemptive
work. It was a revelatory work. God
was revealing something. What was he revealing? Paul tells
us this was to demonstrate his righteousness. Why was it necessary
to demonstrate the righteousness of God? Says here, because in
the forbearance of God, he passed over sins previously committed.
You see, here's the problem now, like I've said so many times,
we understand so little about Satan, but we do know there is
a personal being named Satan. He is powerful. He is evil. But
we also know that when he rebelled against God, he was justly condemned. And when he was condemned, there
was not a philosophical theological problem in heaven. It was justice. There were no theological, philosophical
problems in heaven until the fall of Adam. Adam, eat from
this fruit, you will die. He ate. Where was perfect justice? You say, well, the world was
cast into misery. All should have been annulled,
all should have been destroyed. Mercy was given to a fallen race. Can you imagine the accuser on
that day? God, your justice. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? He is to die. Oh, and Noah. Righteous Noah. Sure, your judgment fell upon
the whole world. Noah should have died, too. And Abraham,
your friend. Your friend, he lied, put his
wife in jeopardy. Oh, and David, man, after your
own heart, you call him a son. He's a murderer. And so throughout
all of redemptive history, how can you be just? And pardon the likes of these. Two thousand years ago, God gave
his answer. You want to know how I can provide mercy for a
fallen family? Do you want to know how I can
show mercy to Noah? Do you want to know how I can
call Abraham my friend? Do you want to know how I can
call David my son? Look now to Calvary, to my son,
for there he dies for them all. You see, we cannot understand
the gospel in the evangelical church, in the Southern Baptist
Church. You can't understand the gospel unless you understand
something about the attributes of God. And then understand something
about the radical depravity of man. How can this truth and mercy
Righteousness and pardon. How can they meet? How can they
kiss? Only in the person of Jesus Christ.
You see, Christ dies on that tree and you revel in the fact
that he reconciles you to God and rightly so. But there is
some way in which the entire cosmos is reconciled in the person
of Christ. And not only that, I believe
that in the person of God, only in Christ do we find reconciliation,
because here is his justice perfectly maintained. And yet mercy pouring
out on the chiefest of sinners. Having annihilated every accusation
against his justice through the cross of Calvary. My friend. This is not some. Well, at least
this was not rare news 150 years ago, it was the common stock
of gospel preaching. That's why I tell you this country
is not so much gospel hardened as it is gospel ignorant and
it's ignorant of the gospel because its preachers are ignorant of
the gospel. Now, we need to talk about the
cross event, so let's do that in one I don't know how really to describe
this text. Let's go to Second Corinthians,
chapter five. Paul has told us so many times
about the atonement and the sufferings of Christ. He takes us down a
steep ladder into many dark holes with regard to the the indescribable
sufferings of Jesus Christ and what he endured on that tree.
But just when you think he can go no further, he lights a torch. And takes us down further. To
Second Corinthians 521. He that is God. made him, that is, Jesus, who
knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become
the righteousness of God in him. Now, there's a problem when you
read this text or memorize this text over and over and over and
over is that it becomes something of a cliche. But I want you to
know there is something in this text that made John Calvin tremble.
There is something in this text that would make any exegete almost
say, I will go here and I will go no further. Christ was made sin. Before we
can understand that, let's look at the initial statement, he
made him who knew no sin. He knew no sin in our attempt
throughout history to keep defending the deity of Christ, many times
we miss the idea that this deity was also humanity, the fullness
of God. He was man and he walked on this
planet as a man empowered and filled with the Holy Spirit of
God and as a man, he knew no sin. Now, you say, yes, Brother
Paul, that is so true, he perfectly conformed to the Decalogue. Yes,
he did perfectly conform to the Decalogue. Let's take this further. There has never been one moment.
Not one moment. In your life or my life or in
the life of all humanity, there has never been one moment. When we loved the Lord, our God,
with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, not one moment,
do you realize that there's never been one moment. That any of
us have loved God as God deserves. Or loved God as God ought to
be loved. Now, think about this. What's
the greatest command, what's the greatest sin? Maybe you could
say breaking the greatest command. To love the Lord your God with
all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And we have never done
it, not for one moment. Now, look at the man, Christ
Jesus. There was never one moment when he did not love the Lord,
his God, with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. There
was never one moment when he did not love God as God ought
to be loved. That puts a whole new idea on
the impeccability or sinlessness of Christ. Also, we understand
from the writer of Hebrews that he was tempted, tempted in all
things. All our temptations he knew he
experienced, and yet he did not sin. Well, let's put that in
perspective. Let's use a weightlifting analogy
here. An Olympic bar weighs 45 pounds,
so let's say you put a 45 pound bar on me and you've got a world
class power lifter over here and you put a 45 pound bar on
him and then you come over here and you put two plates on my
bar. Now we're up to 135 pounds. I'm doing OK. You put two plates
on his bar. He's got 135 pounds. Then you
come over and you put two more plates on my bar. So you got
225 now. I'm still OK. You put 225 on him. He's doing just fine. Now you come back and you put
two more plates, six plates. Now we got 315. I'm starting
to tremble. I know if I let my knees go forward
just a little bit, a little bit, I'm going down. You put 315 on
him. He's fine. You come over and
put another set of plates on me. Now I've got 405. And I go down. You put two more
plates on him. He's as solid as a rock at 405,
you put two more plates on there, you put it up there until you
get in the eight hundreds, nine hundreds, he's still standing
there. Now, why did I give you that illustration? You and I. The greatest temptation that
man ever experienced. was like a feather to Christ. It's not just that he was tempted
just like us to the very same measure, and he stood and we
did not. He kept standing and kept standing
and kept standing and kept standing and kept standing and went through
things you and I could not even begin to understand if we had
a millennia to learn it. This is Christ. Now, again, young
preachers, let me tell you something. We have talked a lot about expository
preaching, but I want to make something very, very clear. If
people come and they are amazed at your expository preaching,
then let your expository preaching be damned. The purpose of expository
preaching is that they may hear great things about Christ and
they might delight in Christ and they might forget about you
and your technique and your ability and your thought patterns and
your reasoning that they will be lost in Jesus. You know, I
know you have very little confidence in Jesus when you have to add
so many other things to your church to make it work. What
about a people raised up on one thing? Christ. All we want to
do is hear about Christ from the pulpit. All we want to do
is sing about Christ. All we want to do is pray to
Christ. And all we want to do is serve
Christ. See, this Christ just keeps going and going and unfolding
and unfolding. And that's that's actually the
task of eternity. Spend eternity after eternity
after eternity just tracking down the glories of God in the
face of Christ. This is Christ. This is the one
who died for you now, let's go on, because we're just running
out of time, it says he made him who knew no sin to be sin
on our behalf. What does this mean? Does this
mean that? Somehow on the cross that Christ
devolved into a corrupt being or became somehow something other
than spotless and despicable. I mean, after all, what does
it mean? Well, it doesn't mean that. But
what does it mean? Let's look at the second part
of the text says he made him who knew no sin to be sin on
our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
When a person believes God. He is declared to be righteous
now, that does not mean that the moment you believe God, you
become a righteous being who never sins. What does it mean? It means the moment that you
believe God. God grants to you or speaks forth
a legal or forensic declaration, you are right with him. You are
right with God, you say, yes, justification. There's one more
word you've got to include if you're going to understand the
cross. Justification means not only that God declares you to
be right with him. but that He treats you as right
with Him. Never forget that word. So now, how does that apply to
the cross? On the cross, our sins, the sins
of God's people, were imputed to the Son. And He was legally declared guilty
before God. And he was treated. As guilty. In the place. Of his people. Now, it was an
imputed guilt, but it was a real guilt does not diminish the suffering. He was declared before the very
bar of his father. To be guilty. And from that moment
treated as guilty. Now, for the sinner in his corruption
to stand before God is indescribable. I hear young men that will often
say in their boldness, if I'm street preaching or something,
they'll say, I'm not afraid to stand before God. I remember
Charles Leiter taught me, he said, young men will speak that
way. But when they stand before God, they'll melt before him
like a tiny wax figurine before a blast furnace. Even in our
corruption. We will wrench away from his
holiness. We will suffer before his righteousness. How much more when Christ, his
son, takes our guilt upon himself throughout all of eternity, this
relationship in the trinity of the father and the son and the
Holy Spirit. But now on that tree. It is broken. And Christ from the very throne
is declared to be guilty. And treated as guilty. Now, let's
go on. In the book of Galatians, we
read this. In chapter three, verse verse 10, cursed is everyone
who does not abide by all the things written in the book of
the law to perform them. When preaching. Is precise. Men tremble at words
like sin. Men tremble at words like curse. You see, we hear curse, we think,
oh, under a curse. But it is the labor of the preacher
to expound, to try to explain what does this mean? You can go throughout the scriptures,
Old Testament and new. It's talking about separation.
It's talk about condemnation, hopelessness, alienation from
God. Let me put it to you this way.
The sinner. Outside of Christ is so. Vile. So heinous, so so despicable
and loathsome, not only before God. But before every righteous
being in heaven. That the last thing that sinner
will hear when he takes his first step into hell is all of creation
standing to its feet and applauding God because God has rid the earth
of him. Cursed. Cursed. When the trees clap their hands. And the sea and the waves dance
across the sea. Rejoicing that you have been
removed from creation. With no one, not even a closest
kin to pity you, but all raising their hands and saying the God
of all the earth has done right. Under a curse. But what does
the scripture say? If we turn to Galatians just
for a moment. Chapter three, verse 13, Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse
for us, for it is written curse, it is everyone who hangs on a
tree. This statement by Paul is so amazing that he's pulling
in Old Testament scripture to validate what he is saying. That
when Jesus Christ was on the cross, he bore the guilt of his
people and he became a curse in their place. Now, I want you
to think just about a few things, you know, the Beatitudes, blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Well,
I've taken the Beatitudes, I've turned them around. Instead of a blessing, now a
curse. Giving the opposite results. And let's apply that to Christ.
The blessed are granted the kingdom of heaven. But the cursed are
refused entrance, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law
having become a curse for us, the blessed are recipients of
divine comfort. The cursed are objects of divine
wrath. The blessed are satisfied. The
cursed are miserable, miserable and wretched. The blessed receive
mercy. The cursed are condemned without
pity. The blessed shall see God. The
cursed are cut off from his presence. The blessed are sons and daughters
of God. And the cursed are disowned in disgrace. You see, in order for you to
come in under this promise of blessing, it was necessary that
one come under the curse. In the book of Deuteronomy, there
is something that is very, very important. We won't turn there,
but it's found in chapter 27 and 28. We have two mountains.
We have Mount Gerizim from which one camp of Israel was to stand. They were to stand there and
get a seam and they were to pronounce all the blessings that were to
fall upon the head of the covenant keeper. Another camp in Israel
was to stand up on Mount Ebal and to pronounce all the curses
that were to fall upon the covenant breaker. Well, you know what
camp in which you belong, don't you? Mount Ebal is your mountain. You are a covenant breaker. You
have violated the laws of your God. By your own thoughts and
your own words and your own deeds, you are guilty. And the only
thing that you could ever hope to hear is the mountain. Even Sinai screaming at you,
condemned, condemned. Mount Gerizim is as far from
you as a mountain could possibly be. But on Calvary, Christ interposed
on your behalf and all the curses written in the book of the law
that should fall upon you throughout all of eternity fell upon him. On Calvary. So what I've done
is I've taken these curses. And let's take them. And relate
them to what happened to Jesus Christ on Calvary. When he looks
up into heaven as he is hanging on that cross, he cries out,
my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And as R.C. Sproul once said, God responded,
the Lord, the Lord, your God damns you. The Lord send upon you curses,
confusion and rebuke until you are destroyed and until you perish
quickly. The Lord smites you with madness
and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart. And you will grope
at noon as one blind man gropes in darkness with none to save
you. The Lord delights over you to make you perish and destroy
you, and you will be torn from the land. Cursed shall you be
in the city. Cursed shall you be in the field.
Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you
be when you go out. The heaven which is over your
head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you iron.
You shall be a horror. You shall be a proverb and a
taunt among all the people. Let all these curses come upon
you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed,
because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his
commandments and his statutes, which he commanded you. Let me
read on from my notes. As Christ bore our sin upon Calvary,
he was cursed as a man who makes an idol and sets it up in secret.
He was cursed as one who disowns his father or mother, who moves
his neighbor's boundary mark or misleads a blind person on
the road. He was cursed as one who distorts
the justice due an alien orphan and widow. He was cursed as one
who is guilty of every manner of immorality and perversion,
who wounds his neighbor in secret or accepts a bribe to strike
down the innocent. He was cursed as one who does
not confirm the words of the law by doing them. There's a passage in Proverbs
that says, like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow
in its flying, so a curse without cause does not alight. But how
did it alight upon that spotless land? Because he interposed. Because he stood in the place
of his people, David cried out in Psalm 32, which we read, 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. Yet again, I'll read
from my notes yet on the cross. On the cross, the sin imputed
to Christ was exposed before God. and the host of heaven,
he was placarded before men and made a spectacle to angels and
devils alike. The transgressions he bore were
not forgiven him and the sins he carried were not covered.
If man is counted blessed because iniquity is not imputed to him,
then Christ was cursed beyond measure because the iniquity
of us all was thrown down on his head. When the gospel is preached.
We don't hear these things. I remember one time when the
movie The Passion came out and all kinds of pastors were writing
me all angry about so many things about in that movie, and I have
no bones to pick with Mel Gibson or those who did the movie, as
a matter of fact, it provided me an opportunity to write those
pastors back and say, I have more problems with your preaching
the gospel than I do Mel Gibson's film. Because one of the most foremost
evangelicals in the United States came on a radio program and he
says, we've heard a lot about this movie. I am going to share
the gospel. I'm pulling out all the stops.
I'm going to tell you people what the gospel is. I pulled
off side of the road, I was working there on my mom's farm. Shut
off the truck, turn the key back on, turn the radio up. Wonderful. Finally, he talked about the
nails. He talked about the crown of
thorns. He talked about what the Romans did to him. He talked
about everything that was in that film. But never once did
he mention the righteousness of God. And how can a righteous
God pardon wicked men? Never once did he mention that
the true pain of the cross was not a Roman whip, but the wrath
of Almighty God falling down upon the head of his son. Let
me ask you, are we ignorant of these things or do we not delight
in them? Congregations do not delight
in this cross because possibly the preachers don't delight in
this cross. You get one glimpse of this thing. And there is a real sense that
it will ruin you. You become a prisoner of it.
You can't think about other things. Wake up in the night. The same
thing over and over, year after year. How can it be? And can
it be that I should gain an interest in this? He would do this. It's absolutely astounding. In
the renewal of the covenant in Moab. There's a really unique
passage there that that I think tends to to push us past it. to Christ, it talks about what
would happen to the covenant breaker under the Mosaic covenant. And it says the anger of the
Lord and his jealousy will burn against that man and every curse
which is written in this book will rest on him and the Lord
will blot out his name from under heaven. Then the Lord will single
him out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according
to all the curses of the covenant which are written in this book
of the law. Can you imagine? Have you ever
been praying and God show up? My little boy, Ian, we were praying,
he said, Dad, what's it like when God comes down? I said,
son, well, the best thing I can tell you to describe it would
be this. You know that in homeschooling, you know that F5 tornado that
you were studying about? He said, yes, I said it'd be
like praying three feet away from an F5 tornado. that picks
you up and ravishes you with his love. But oh, how different
it will be to be lost on Judgment Day and to be singled out, all
those friends of yours that mocked God with you and somehow soothed
your conscience. They're now hiding under the
mountains and in caves and holes, and you're singled out to stand
before God Almighty. Can you imagine? That as you're
coming through the tunnel out into judgment area, you see all
these gigantic hordes of angels and beasts, creation itself running
the other way, screaming, flee from the wrath to come. And as
you march in there, you're singled out before him. But on that tree,
Christ was singled out. The only covenant keeper, the
only son of Yahweh, the only servant Yahweh has ever had. He was singled out, and I love
this language that in modern times, I want to admonish all
you preachers to use this kind of language much more, to speak
of Christ as the writer of Hebrews speaks of him. It's my favorite
way to talk of Christ. My elder brother. The one greater than Joseph.
All of us. Puny, wicked. Siblings. All of us, vile covenant breakers
with no hope. Nothing of good among us, but
there was one. An elder brother. Who became
of our stock. And though he was free from guilt
and sin. He pushed us back. He took our
place. He bore our curse. In the book of of of numbers,
there is a beautiful passage. You'll turn with me just quickly.
Numbers chapter six. Verse twenty four, it's Aaron's
benediction, the Lord bless you. And keep you. The Lord make his face shine
on you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance
on you and give you peace when you've read that before. Did
you ever as soon as you read that say red flag? Big red flag. Hold it. I mean, there's enough here to
make shake you up with regard to the inerrancy of scripture.
You ought to be thinking to yourself, hold it. He's blessing wicked
nation. He's shining his countenance
on people that, as we can see, before and after are rebelling
against him. How can a righteous God pardon
this people? How can a holy God bless this
people? There's only one way. Everything. Everything. Everything in the
Bible points to the lamb. And I will dare say, if you read
the Bible correctly, you will find it hard to make sense out
of any of it apart from the lamb. Why is this blessing? Why does
it belong to the people of God? Well, let's turn it around and
apply it to Christ. The Lord curse you. The Lord
give you over to destruction. The Lord take the light of his
presence from you and condemn you. The Lord turn his face from
you and fill you with misery. Have you ever said this? I'm
blessed. Well, I praise God, you should
say that it's all throughout the book of Psalms. You should
cry out to the whole world, I'm blessed, I have a dear friend
of mine, a dear, dear friend and colleague. It goes without
exception. If you say, Dr. Berry, how are
you doing? The answer is going to be I'm blessed. But now I
want you to learn something that will not take that blessing away
from you. But cause you to esteem it more. You're blessed, yes,
you are. And Ephesians tells us, chapter
one, Paul, the apostle, laboring with all the might of spirit
and intellect, you and I cannot even begin to understand how
blessed we are. But how are we blessed? He was
cursed. You see, the Christian who knows
God is something of a paradox. Because he cries out with the
greatest of joy, I am blessed. But behind that joy is a trembling
heart that never forgets. I'm blessed because he's cursed.
I'm blessed because he was cursed. I'm blessed because he was cursed.
It's all about him. It's all about him. Sometimes I look at church websites
and probably after this, many of you will change your church
websites, and I don't mean you to do that, but. There's a real
danger when I go to your website and what you promote there is
your beautiful community on the front page. And I don't read anything about
the beauty of Christ. Are you trying to hide the scandal?
Are you trying to make beautiful young people your drawing card
in your church? I was with Conrad and Bewe several
years ago and we were both preaching in Eastern Europe and he had
had enough. of American church growth techniques
brought over to Western Europe. And with that voice and the power
that he had, he said, you young men, I can't copy him very well. You young men, you want to know
how the apostle Paul evangelized pagan nations? You want to know
how he went through the greatest cities of antiquity? Get you
a sign and write on it. Christ crucified and walked through
the city. I'm so tired of seeing all your
fancy haircuts and clothing and beautiful people and this and
that, but I have to go back to page 10 to find anything about
Christ. If people do come, you're leading
them into idolatry. It should be Christ. are only
drawing cards. If you use carnal means to attract
carnal men, you will have to continue using carnal man means
to keep those carnal men. And I just described American
evangelicalism and the reason why it is a six flags over Jesus. And sometimes pastors, I weep. Because I think this. Do the
pastors think so little of Christ? That they feel like they've got
to put something else out there as a drawing card. Pastors, this is a little departure,
but I'm known for that and everyone knows I don't have a Ph.D. so
I can do this. Pastors, listen to me, if my
wife was in Walmart and she went out to the car at about 11, had
to go there late because my daughter's sick and three men or four men
grab her and I cost my wife and you walk by. And because of fear,
you do nothing. I'm going to hunt those men down.
And then afterwards, I'm coming for you. Another thing, Pastor,
I have a little girl, her name's Rowan, she's five. She's the
light of my heart. My little Rowan. And let's say
that I have to go on a long journey and I bring her to you dressed
in a simple white gown because she's just like her mother. She
doesn't need anything. She's so beautiful. Big eyes. Little white slippers. And I
take her and I give her to you. And then I go away on a long
journey. And when I come back. I found out. that you have prostituted
my little girl, you have dressed her up in the garb of the world,
you've painted her eyes and fixed her hair with one sole purpose,
pastor, to make her attractive to carnal men who hate me. That's
what a lot of pastors in America have done, and it's the reason
when the lamb comes back, they are going to crawl in holes with
the rest of them. I see huge churches and I see in those huge
churches many times 20, 30, 40, sometimes in a bigger church,
a hundred people. All they want is Jesus. All they want is to
hear the word of God preached. All they want is to worship. And they don't need the worship
propped up by something. They don't need smoke. They don't
need fire. They don't need drama. They just
want to sing to Christ and pray. But they're over there starving
in the corner. As the pastor caters to all the
carnal, wicked people who never want Christ. All pastors. Don't do that. Don't do that,
young man, don't start your ministry that way. Don't. Don't. Let's get back to our
text. In the Garden of Gethsemane,
and I bring these out because these are points of things I've
heard preached in sermons often enough to make it bother me.
That we hear about Christ in Gethsemane and he's saying, let
this cut pass for me three times, he cries this out to the father.
This is extremely unusual. Again, we're getting this view
of humanity. And when we walk through this
corridor, we need to be very, very careful because this is
this things are going on here that is beyond us. Christ is
confronted with the reality of the cross. I hear many people
say, yes, Christ in his omniscience, he looked forward and he you
know, he saw the cat of nine tails coming down on his back.
He saw the nails being nailed in his hand. He saw the spear
put in his side and he he he wept there in anguish and cried
out to the father and sweated drops of blood. No. No. And I can prove it. Christ wasn't
weeping in that garden because he had fear of a Roman whip. I can prove it because after
he died and rose again from the dead and ascended up into heaven,
we have a long history of Christians being crucified in Rome. And
we are told in studies of martyrdom that many of them went to Roman
crosses with their chest sticking out, with their head held high,
singing hymns joyfully, counting it a privilege to suffer for
the Messiah. Are you going to tell me that
the followers of Jesus Christ died joyfully on crosses? Some
of them set a fire while the captain of their salvation cowered
in a garden. I remember one time preaching
in a reformed school, that means a school that was really reformed.
And it was a spectacular school and these students and I'll never
forget, I go in there and I say, I told the professor, he said,
what are you going to preach on? I said, propitiation. And
I said, how old are the students? He goes, well, they'll be in
there from first grade to 12th grade. I said, well, that makes
it kind of difficult. And he said, not here. And so I started preaching. And
finally, I got this question, I said, what was in the cup?
What was in the cup? And this little girl, she could
have been more than nine years old and truly reformed fashion. She raised her hand. I said,
yes, dear. She stood up, stood beside her
desk and she said, sir, the wrath of almighty God was in the cup. Out of the mouth of babes. Out
of the mouth of babes. Now, I want to read to you. Listen
to the words of the psalmist, for a cup is in the hand of the
Lord and wine foams. It is well mixed and he pours
out of this. Surely all the wicked of the
earth must drain and drink down its dregs. Jeremiah, for thus
the Lord, the Lord God of Israel, says to me, take this cup of
the wine of wrath from my hand and cause all the nations to
whom I send you to drink it. They will drink and stagger and
go mad because of the sword I will send among them. What was in
the cup? The wrath of God was in the cup. Now, I've read this
in a few places, just something I want to point out to you again,
I said we have to be very, very careful. But I have read a few of the
older, older, older writers that they took from actually from
from Luke chapter one, where it says that Christ grew in in
stature and wisdom, and then from the passage in Hebrews 5,
8, where it says he learned obedience. And some have suggested this.
That as Christ grew and this is so amazing that as Christ
grew as a young man came to understand more and more what it meant for
him to be the Messiah and the redeemer of his people, he grew
in wisdom. I know this is astounding. And
what if, as he grew, the cost. Of redeeming his people, a glimpse
of it was given to him and it hit him in the chest. Like a
truck, like a charging bull. And he was stained and he said,
not my will, but yours be done. And then as time goes on, a greater
revelation of what it would cost. And it hit him in the chest like
a charging bull. And he said, not my will, but
yours be done. And finally, on that last night
in Gethsemane, all the fullness of what would be poured out upon
him, the wrath of almighty God, abandonment, everything for his
people. And he cries out, let this cup
pass from me. And then doing battle. He stands victorious and he stamps
his feet and throws back his shoulders and says, not my will,
but yours. And he goes to the tree. I'm
amazed at the passage in Zechariah, a wake sword against my shepherd
and against the man, my associate, strike the shepherd. Now, I want you to think for
a moment, just for a moment. You try to find an illustration to
fit this, it just doesn't work. But imagine a dam a thousand
miles high and a thousand miles wide and filled to the rim with
water. And your little village, eighth of a mile away at the
very bottom of the dam, and one morning you awake to an explosion,
it seems that literally the earth is being cracked into. You run
to the window only to see a thousand mile high wave coming straight
for your village. Fleet of foot cannot escape.
The strongest swimmer, there is no stroke. And in that terror,
paralyzing terror. In a moment, the ground opens
up, swallows down the wave and not even one drop is splattered. On the leg of your pants. So
the wrath of God should be poured out on you. And upon me and upon
the world. And Christ opened himself up
to it and drank it down. He extinguished it. He put it
away. He exhausted it. Imagine this, two great millstones,
one 10,000 pounds and another on top, and they're moving in
opposite directions and you take a grain of wheat and you put
it in there and for just a fraction of a second, the whole compresses
and then explodes and is ground to powder to nothing. So Christ
is crushed under the wrath of God. You see, God is just, that
justice must be satisfied. If that justice is not satisfied,
wrath cannot be appeased. And it is not like so many have
said, even in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the film version
of it, it is portrayed all wrong. When Edmund has betrayed everyone
there in Narnia. And Aslan tells Peter, Peter
says, just go down and get him, he says, I can't. Why? And basically the idea is that
there is some principle for our case, let's say principle of
justice over Aslan that even he has to obey and cannot violate. And I've heard people say there
is a rule of justice that God himself cannot violate, violate
as though there were some external law outside of God to which he
had to submit. That's absolutely preposterous.
Then what was it? God had to satisfy his own justice. And in satisfying that justice,
he appeased his wrath. He appeased his wrath. Now, I
want to read from you my favorite, if you want to know my favorite
author or at least one of them, his favorite book is John Flavel
and the Meditorial Glories of Christ, volume one. And he says things like. If I gain glory, it is only a
paper glory because I write as one who writes by moonlight,
he says, even in the glorious things he's writing in that volume,
he says, I'm writing as a man who's not standing in full sun,
but only one that is in the writing in the in the dim light of the
moon. Brothers, read men who loved
Christ, were enamored with Christ, needed nothing but Christ, and
you'll throw away all this other stuff. Throw it away. I can tell you this, and I'll
tell you this tomorrow about prayer, the more you cut yourself
off from the arm of the flesh, the more you will see the power
of God. The more you cut yourself off from the trinkets of modern
day evangelicalism. And you focus on Christ and turn
your people's eyes toward Jesus, the more you will see the power
of God. But Flavel, he writes what I've
called the father's bargain. It's a it's a story in which
he has the father and the son speaking to one another in eternity
past. And the father speaks. He says,
my son, here is a company of poor, miserable souls. That's
you and me. that have utterly undone themselves. And now lie open to my justice,
justice demands satisfaction for them or will satisfy itself
in the eternal ruin of them. What shall be done for these
souls? And then Christ speaks, oh, my father, such is my love
and pity for them. That rather they shall perish
eternally, I will be responsible for them as their guarantee.
Now, I want to point out something. I'm not exegeting scripture,
but I want you to think of something here. Much has been made of Christ
dying for God. And Christ dying for the glory
of God. Now, you cannot overemphasize
that truth, but be very careful when it becomes a cliche and
a fad. Because I want you to know when I stand out on the
street preaching or anywhere else, I raise my voice to men. And I say Christ died. For love. And Christian, I want
you to know something. It's not some cold covenantal
transaction agreement that he made for some cold purpose to
honor himself. It was within the context of
undiminished love. Listen to me, Christian. He really
died because he really, really did love you. And that's amazing. And in all our reformed language,
that is very true. Make sure you do not get distorted. Because he wants people are truly
converted. If you would just preach the
gospel and the people in your church get converted, then it
is love telling them much about the love of Christ for them that
will lead them to piety. That will lead them to piety.
And sometimes I think that preachers, especially doing evangelism,
are almost balking at talking about the love of God for sinners. Don't try to make your theology
so perfect that it becomes cold steel. I do not understand many of the
things that have to do with the gospel or prayer or so many other
things. So I've taken the route of Spurgeon
instead of trying to make a perfect system. I just want to proclaim
what Scripture says. And if over here it says something
about the glory of God, I will preach the glory of God. But
if Christ died for sinners because he loved sinners, then I scream
to sinners, Christ died for love. Don't be afraid of that. He says
here, oh, my father, such is my love to and pity for them
that rather they shall perish eternally. I will be responsible
for them as their guarantee. Now, listen to this. Bring in
all thy bills that I may see what they owe thee. Bring them
all in. So many times a young man will
get married full of poetry and come back six weeks later saying,
what have I done? I didn't know what I was getting
into. Not with Christ. Bring in thy
bills, father. Bring them all in. See what they
owe thee. Now, here is one of my most favorite
things ever written by the hand of man outside of inspired scripture. And if you can get a hold of
this, you will have great joy. He says. Bring in thy bills,
Father, that I may see what they owe thee. Lord, bring them all
in that there may be no after reckonings with them. Do you
hear that? Bring in every bill, all of them. And when I pay all of them, there
is no after reckonings. There is nothing left for Paul
Washer to pay. I'm free, I'm free, I'm free. And you say you tell people that
they won't live in piety. No, you tell carnal churchmen
that and they won't live in piety. You tell regenerated souls this
truth and with their freedom, they will worship and serve.
And the issue here, folks, another sermon, but I'm going to put
it in here. The issue is not lordship salvation. The issue
is regeneration. The same God who justifies regenerates
the soul so that it wants to submit as Lord. It is not taking
on a new rule or some work. It is a new creation. The power
of God. He goes on that there be no after
reckonings with them at my hand, thou shalt require it. And I
would rather choose to suffer their their wrath than they should
suffer it upon me, my father, upon me be all their debt. And
then the father responds. But my son, if thou undertake
for them, thou must reckon to pay the last might. Expect no
abatements. On the Amazon, we would be going
down through there and my boat just most of the time never had
a roof on it and going down through there and all of a sudden you
see a storm come up on that Amazon and you know you have no time
to get to the side. That storm hits you. Your boat's
going under. I mean, fill up a boat in a matter
of five minutes. And you're praying that the storm might abate, let
it abate, let it go to one side or the other. Let it stop. If
this storm hits me, I'm gone. He says, son, if you're going
to undertake for this people, expect no abatements. If I spare them. I will not spare you. Content, father, let it be so
charge it all upon me, and I love this statement because it shows
Christ, he says, charge it all upon me, father. I am able to
discharge it. Isn't that wonderful? I mean,
look at him. I am able for no angel, no seraphim,
no cherubim, nothing. No one can say that except deity. I'm able to discharge it. He
is able. He is able. And though it prove a kind of
undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures,
yet I am content to undertake it. Now, let's close. We have,
you know, the story, God comes to an old man named Abraham.
And he says this now, take your now listen to this, I'm more
Puritanist kind of well, I don't want to blame what I do on the
Puritans, but I see Jesus everywhere. You'll just have to forgive me.
He says, now take your son. Your only son, whom you love. Isaac. And go to the land of
Moriah and offer him there is a burnt offering on one of the
mountains of which I will tell you, and that old man takes his
son. Now, I have two sons. I can't even begin like Dr. Begley
was talking about, you know, he would never give you his son.
I could not give you my son. He's commanded by God to go offer
his son. And so he goes to the Mount of
Moriah. He pulls out a knife after laying the boy upon the
sacrificial bed. He draws back possibly the same
Flint knife he used to circumcise the boy with hope. Pulls back the knife and right
when the old man's will gives into the will of God, God stops
him and says this, Abraham, Abraham, do not stretch out your hand
against the lad and do nothing to him. For I know that you fear
God since you have not withheld your son, your only son from
me. We read that. We realize that
he turns around and there's a ram in the thicket caught by its
horns. The ram is slaughtered in the place of the sun and we
all breathe a sigh of relief. The story's over, what a beautiful
ending. It's only one problem. It wasn't
the ending. It was the intermission. You
see, the blood of bulls and goats. Will not take away sin. Generation
after generation passes. And now the curtain in the theater
is pulled back once more. And there's no longer Isaac.
There's one greater than Isaac. The son of God, his son, his
only son, whom he loves, is hanging on a tree. And God takes the
knife from Abraham's hand. And slaughters his only begotten
son. Calvary. Our sins weren't paid
for because a bunch of Romans beat up Jesus. They weren't merely paid for
because he was nailed to a tree or a spear was put in his side,
which is the theme of every Easter weekend. How many Easter sermons
have I heard? Only. Of what the Romans did
to Jesus. And hardly have I ever heard
that he was crushed under the wrath of God. And he died. And in dying, he
paid for our sins. And on the third day. He rose
again from the dead. Romans 1 tells us it was the
public declaration that he was the son of God, a public declaration
of his deity, a public declaration, many miss this, of his kingship.
Romans 4 tells us that it was a public declaration that his
death truly satisfied justice and appease God's wrath. The
Book of Acts tells us that the resurrection proves that there
is a Christ, there is a Lord, there is a king and there is
a judge. And as Joseph was in a moment
taken out of the prison. And was made to stand before
Pharaoh and Pharaoh said to him, without your permission, not
one person shall raise his hand or foot in all of Egypt. So Jesus
Christ. Was presented the son of man
before the father, and he sat down at his right hand and the
father said to him. Not one foot, not one finger
will lift in all the universe except at your hand, my son. The gospel. Now, what are you
to do? You are to repent of your sins
and believe the gospel. How dare we cheapen such a message
with now? Raise your hand, close your eyes
with tricks and gimmicks to get people to pass forward. And when
they pass forward to counsel them for two or three minutes.
Two or three minutes, because it's really easy to get them
to pray the prayer. No, we call men to repent of
their sins and to believe the gospel. And then as not only
proclaimers, but as scribes, we sit with them and we show
them what the Bible says about repentance. And we ask them,
has this become a reality in your life? We show them faith
and we ask them, has this become a reality in their life? We tell
them to call upon the name of the Lord, but we have the authority
only to tell them the gospel and tell them the principles
of biblical assurance. No pastor has the authority to
pronounce someone saved, as is done all the time in almost every
evangelical church in America. When you preach, know this young
person, especially if you're going to be an evangelist, your
work begins when you come out of this pulpit. It is not uncommon
for me to stay in a church till three in the morning. Doing what? Dealing with souls. Dealing with
souls. Until they're brought to an assurance
and then after they come to an assurance to give them gospel
warnings, telling them, young man, tonight, if you have believed,
then you are truly saved. And there seems to be some evidence
of God's work in you. But know this, if you do not
continue on, if you depart from this, if you go back into the
world, if there is no discipline, if there is no going on with
the Lord, if there is no sanctification, then know this. You got nothing
here tonight under the preaching of this preacher. Make your calling
and election, sure. The gospel. Must not only be
preached correctly, but men must be called correctly, must be
dealt with correctly, and it is costly for the preacher to
labor until Christ is formed in them. If you're here tonight
and you're troubled about your soul, you don't know if you're
Christian. Then I, as well as others, will
stay here if necessary, as long as necessary. To show you in
the scriptures. God's salvation. God have mercy
on you and bless you.