By the way, I want to, I want
to greet all of you there in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who loved us and gave himself for us. Now, what, what did you say? I didn't
hear it. Okay. I will continue now. Everyone
would like to hear from God. That is, they would like to have
some revelation from God. At least many people look for
that. But what they're normally asking
for is something like a vision or a dream. But we're not going to hear from
God that way. That time has passed. There are several ways that God
has revealed himself. He has revealed himself in the
creation. In Psalm 19, verse one, it says,
the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim
the work of his hands. And in Romans chapter one, Paul
says that the creation reveals enough about God that everyone
is without excuse for not believing him. Another way that God reveals
himself to us is the conscience. Paul wrote in Romans 2 that God
has put his law in everyone's heart. And you can see that because
everywhere you go, people understand that there are certain things
that are wrong. Everyone knows that murder is
wrong. Everyone knows that lying is
wrong and stealing is wrong. Now that doesn't mean everyone
obeys God's law, but they know it. But the fullest revelation of
God is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In Hebrews chapter 1, it says
that God spoke to the fathers through the prophets in times
past. But it goes on to say that in
these last days, he has spoken to us in his son. Now, what that means is, when
it says in these last days, is in these last days of God speaking. So long ago, he spoke in dreams
and visions. But once the Lord Jesus Christ
came, he revealed God because he is God. And God quit speaking to man
in visions and dreams. He quit speaking because there
was nothing more to say. Jesus Christ is the full revelation
of God to us. In fact, one of the disciples
asks the Lord Jesus, show us the Father, and that will be
enough for us. And Jesus' answer to him was,
don't you know me, Philip, even after I've been among you such
a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen
the Father. And of all the ways and by word
and action that Christ revealed God, of all those ways, none
does so fully and dramatically as his work on the cross. If God were to appear to you
in a dream or a vision like he did to maybe Ezekiel, that would not tell you as much
about God as what can be learned at the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. All of God's attributes or characteristics
are in powerful display at the cross. Anything that we can know about
God can be learned at the cross of Christ. So when we consider the cross
of Jesus Christ, we are able to learn all we need to know
for life and godliness. Now, I'm going to read a portion
of Acts chapter 2, and I will begin in verse 22, and then go,
I believe it's through verse 25, then I'm going to skip down
to verse 36. Should I go ahead and read now, brother? Okay, this is Peter on the day
of Pentecost. He is preaching the gospel for
the first time. And here is what Peter told the
people that day. Men of Israel, listen to this.
Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders,
and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves
know. This man was handed over to you
by God's set purpose and foreknowledge. And you, with the help of wicked
men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of
death, because it was impossible for
death to keep its hold on him. And then in Acts 2, verse 36,
Peter says this. Therefore, let all Israel be
assured of this. God has made this Jesus, whom
you crucified, both Lord and Christ. There are some things at Calvary
that the natural eye can see. We can, excuse me, we can see
the simple historical facts about the crucifixion. For example, Peter says that
Jesus Christ is a man accredited by God. As far as the natural eye can
see, Jesus Christ was just like any other man. In fact, he looked so much like
everyone else that they had to hire Judas to point out who he
is. He had a body like you and I
have. He was born like you and I are. He grew up and went through all
of the natural stages of life. like we do. He got hungry and thirsty and
grew weak. But Even though he experienced
all those things natural to being a human being, God made it clear that there
was something special about the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter said that God gave him
the power to do miraculous works. Now Jesus is not just a man,
he's God. But when he was here living as
a man, he didn't use his own divine powers. He lived just
like you and I have to live. So God gave him the Holy Spirit,
and by the power of the Holy Spirit, he worked many astounding
miracles. In the book of Luke, he quoted
from the book of Isaiah that says, the spirit of the Lord
is on me. And then he mentions some miraculous
things. And then he said that he was
the fulfillment of that scripture in Isaiah. So anyone who saw the Lord Jesus
Christ when he was preaching and teaching and doing the miracles
that he did, Anyone like that would know that
there was something special about the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, when the Lord Jesus
raised Lazarus from the dead after Lazarus had been dead four
days, that proved that he was not just a man with special powers,
he was God. So at the cross, we learn who
Jesus Christ really is, a man approved by God. At the cross, we also learn what
man or humans are like. We like to think that we're pretty
good. We like to think that there's
something good in us that God will like. But at the cross of the Lord
Jesus, we find out what man is really like. Man is so wicked that he would
crucify the best man that ever lived. Man is so wicked that when God
came here in the form of a man, man utterly rejected him and
killed him. So we have our own nature on
display at the cross. You might say, well, I never
would have crucified Jesus. But if you had been there on
that day and God had left you to do what you want to do, then
you would have cheerfully joined in with the crucifixion. You see, the only reason that
we don't act as bad as some people do is because God holds us back
from acting that way. So we see Jesus Christ revealed
at the cross and we see ourselves revealed at the cross. But that's what we can see with
the natural eye. There are things that happened
at the cross that can only be understood spiritually. There were many people on that
day that watched everything that was going on. but they didn't understand what
God was doing at the cross. They could only see what man
was doing. So what was going on behind the
scenes when Jesus was crucified? What was God doing? In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21,
it says that God made Christ to be sin. Now that sounds real strange,
but what it means is that he put our sins on Jesus Christ. Isaiah says it this way, the
Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. And in the same chapter of Isaiah,
and that's Isaiah 53, it says that God made the soul of our
Lord Jesus Christ to be an offering for sin. And then it says this, it pleased
Jehovah to crush him. God punished the Lord Jesus Christ
for the sins of his people. Again, in Isaiah 53, it is written,
for the transgressions of my people was he stricken. This is an astonishing thing
to think of, but whatever hell is, Christ experienced it that
day. Whatever it is that God does
to sinners in order to vindicate his law and his righteousness,
he did that to Jesus Christ on that day. Jesus Christ did not merely endure
a Roman whip, a crown of thorns, And across that day, he bore
the sword of God's justice. I would like to recite a poem,
and I know that that's not always easy to translate, but it describes
what happened so well. Jehovah lifted up his rod. Oh Christ, it fell on thee. You were sorely stricken by your
God. There's not one stroke for me. All for my sake, my peace to
make, now sleeps that sword for me. You know, you and I cannot begin
to understand really what Jesus Christ suffered that day. The cry of the Lord Jesus Christ
that pierces our hearts so much and gives us a little understanding
of his sufferings is this, my God, my God, why have you forsaken
me? In the book of Lamentations,
the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking through the prophet Jeremiah,
and he says this, Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see, is any suffering
like my suffering that was inflicted on me? Any suffering like that that
the Lord brought on me in the day of his fierce anger? From on high, he sent fire, sent
it down into my bones. He spread a net for my feet and
turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all
day long. My sins have been bound into
a yoke. You know, that is an amazing
thing for Jesus to say. Jesus never sinned. How could he say, my sins have
been bound into a yoke? Here is one of the wonderful
mysteries of God's grace. When God laid our sins on Christ,
Jesus owned those sins as though he himself did them. We would say, like the Apostle
Peter did, he bore our sins in his body on the tree. But when Jesus was bearing our
sins, he said that they were his sins. No wonder in heaven they sing,
you are worthy. They say, worthy is the lamb
that was slain for he has redeemed us from our sins. Who can look at the cross of
Calvary and not be moved to glorify, love, and honor Christ? If seeing Christ on the cross
in your heart does not move you to love and praise and believe
him, then you are spiritually blind. Now, what do all these things
tell us about God? They tell us something about
the mystery of his person. There is only one God, but he
is revealed in three persons. There's God the Son, excuse me,
there's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father punished God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit raised the Son from the dead. Now, we can't really understand
that, but that's the way things are. There's another thing that the
cross tells us about God. It tells us that he's in absolute
control of everything. Who put Jesus Christ on the cross? You might think it was the Jews
because they hated him. You might think it was the Romans
because they were the ones who actually nailed his hands and
feet. But when Peter preached on the
day of Pentecost, he said that all of this was done by God's
set purpose and foreknowledge. This could not have happened
if God had not willed it to happen. When Jesus thought about his
crucifixion, he said, Now my heart is troubled, and what shall
I say? Father, save me from this hour?
No, it was for this very hour I came into the world. It was God who laid our sins
on Christ. It is God who made his soul an
offering for sin. It is God that put Christ to
grief. It is God who punished him for
the transgression of God's people. Here's something else that, very
important, that is revealed about God at the cross. It revealed God's absolutely
strict justice. When we think that When we consider
that Jesus Christ is God's only begotten son. And when we consider how much
God the Father loved him. We can see how strictly just
God is because when our sins were laid on Christ, God punished
him to the full extent for those sins. What can demonstrate justice
any more than this, that a father would put his own son to death
in order to satisfy justice? Jesus Christ did not die in order
to motivate God to save us. Jesus Christ died so that it
would be just or righteous for God to save us who are sinners. In Isaiah 45, God said that there
was no God like him because he is a just God and a savior. Everyone for whom Christ suffered
is free from condemnation. Paul said that there is no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, notice that Paul did not
say that there's no condemnation for people who never sinned. He didn't say there's no condemnation
for those who did the best they can. He says there's no condemnation
for those who are in Christ. Now, when is a person put in
Christ? In the book of Ephesians chapter
one, it says we were in Christ before the foundation of the
world. So it's obvious that we're not
in Christ because of something we do. Every one of God's chosen people
was put in Christ before God created the world. And when Jesus Christ came into
the world, they were in Him. When He lived a perfect life,
they were in Him. When He died under the wrath
of God, they were in Him. When he was raised from the dead,
they were in him. And when he ascended to the right
hand of his father, they were in him. That's why Paul could say that
we died in him, rose in him, and are seated with him in the
heavenly places right now. And then we find at the cross
that God's unexplainable love is revealed. God said that he loved his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and I can understand that. But God loves me and I can't
understand why he would love me. But behold how great his love
is. In Romans chapter 5, Paul said,
rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though maybe for a good
person someone might die. But God demonstrated his love
for us in this while we were still sinners. That is, we're
not righteous, we're not good. While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us. While we were still enemies of
God, Jesus Christ died for us. when we were still rebelling
against God and our hearts were just like the people who crucified
him, Christ died for us. And then we learned something
about God's grace. In Ephesians chapter one, And
Paul describes all the wonderful things God has done for us. And then he says that all of
these things were done to the praise of God's glorious grace. God's grace is, well, it's amazing,
just like the hymn, Amazing Grace. I can't think of any reason why
God would do anything good for me. I've never done anything good. Even though I am a preacher,
I have not done anything good enough that God would love me
because I did it. And yet he loved me anyway. Though by nature I hated him,
He loved me. And though all of my actions
have deserved his wrath, instead he gave me grace. Every good thing I have ever
received has been given to me because of God's grace. That is true before God saved
me. That has been true ever since
God saved me. And it's true right now, today,
at this moment. Now, what does that mean for
any of you who might not yet believe? It means this, if you do not
trust the Lord Jesus Christ with your soul, the same thing that
God did to Christ, he will someday do to you. Oh, we lost our connection. We'll wait a minute and see if
he tries to contact us again. Hey, brother. Okay. The phone must have thought that
I preached too long. I'll wrap it up real quick here. For those who do not believe,
I urge you with all that is in me today, trust the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Bible says that all who believe
will be saved, but those who do not believe, the wrath of
God rests on them. And then just a quick word to
any of you who do trust the Lord Jesus Christ. you may worry that your sin,
your continued sin, is going to separate you from God. You might think to yourself,
God has been so good to me, to save me, the fact that I keep
sinning, well, he's going to get angry at me again and cast
me out. But that will never happen. When he saved you, it wasn't
because of any good he saw in you. He loved you when you were yet
in unbelief. and he's not going to stop loving
you because you still sin. The fact that God saved you in
the first place is all because of his grace. And he will keep you by his grace. And someday he will take you
to be with himself. And he will remove from you everything
about sin. And you will be perfect. You will be like the Lord Jesus
Christ. And at that time, you will know
for certain that everything God did for you, he did by his grace. Whenever your sins make you afraid
that God is now going to reject you, look to the cross. Because it is there at the cross
that God's love and mercy and grace toward you are revealed. Well, I pray that God will bless
this message for your good. And I thank you for this opportunity
to speak to you. May God be praised forever. Amen. Yes, I can see you. You're right
on the edge of the picture, but I can see you. Okay. Hey, good to see you. I'm doing
fine. I can't understand you. It's not
coming through real clear. Can you say it again? Oh. Well, I'm glad. I pray that the
Lord will bless you all. And I'm happy to do this for
you. I love preaching the gospel.
And I came to love you people there when Miles and I were there
a year and a half ago. So I love preaching the gospel
to you. We believe that we shall still be
listening from you. It has been so wonderful about
the cross. You have taught us something. Amen. Amen. Thank you. And may God bless you as well.
Thank you. Yes, I can see her. Hey, hello. Good. Well, good. I'm, I'm, I'm
thankful to God. He enables me to preach and I
look forward to preaching to you again. So may God bless you so much. We really appreciate that. Okay, I couldn't understand everything
you said, but I'm sure we'll be in touch with each other again
before June the 6th. Yes, yes. Okay. All right. Well, the Lord bless you all
then. Okay, thank you. God bless you. Bye-bye.