Alright look back with me in
Romans chapter 5 again if you will Romans chapter 5 Once you look at two verses of
scripture with me and I hope that the Lord will enable me
to preach today It says in verse 10 and 11 For if when we were enemies we
were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being
reconciled shall we be saved by His life. And not only so,
but we also join God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
we have now received the atonement. I want to talk about Christ,
the blessed atonement. The blessed atonement, our atonement. The word atonement appears 77
times in the Old Testament. And the only time it's mentioned
in the New Testament is right here. And if you look in your
margin, it says that word atonement is the same word as reconciliation.
And it talked about being reconciled in verse 10 twice. In reconciliation
we understand in the New Testament it's like people being enemies
with one another and someone brings them together and makes
them friends again, reconciles them, takes all the intimacy
away, takes all the arguments away, takes all the bad feelings
away. And this word was very, very,
atonement was really, really prominent in the Old Testament.
but not in the noon in Leviticus 16 alone on the Day of Atonement
the word Atonement is mentioned 16 times in Leviticus 16 about
the Day of Atonement and the Day of Atonement was a special
day for Israel happened one day every year they got two goats
one goat they slew shed its blood offered it on the altar the second
goat The priest prayed over it, put his hands on his head and
confessed the sins of Israel on it. And a fit man carried
it off into the wilderness. And they see the blood shedding
over here that without the shedding of blood there's no remission
of sin. And then that fit man carried
their sins away on the head of that goat out into the wilderness.
And he came back without it, showing that their sins are gone.
That they're gone. But now the Old Testament stands
for one experience only. That day. One experience only. But today, in the Bible, in the
New Testament, when we talk about the word atonement or reconciliation,
it covers the whole, whole sacrificial, redemptive work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The work which our Lord Jesus
wrought out for his people. And I mean he brought it out
for his people. He didn't work it out for the
world. He didn't work it out for every
soul that's on this earth. He didn't do that. But he did
it for his people. And it was so great and so glorious. But yet it had so many different
aspects to it. Here he's called the atonement.
And just using the word aid. He's called our ark. He's called
our altar. He's called our advocate. You know just in the A's. You
talk about the L's, lamb, lion, leader. So you know, it's just, so when
you talk about Christ, you have to use so many different things
and so many different words and so many different things in the
scriptures to describe what His Word does. This is just one word. This Word of Tovah, this Word
of Reconciliation. And I hope that God, you know,
in our Lord Jesus Christ, the purpose of His, the main purpose
of His work, as I said last week, I believe it was, that His work,
first and foremost, was for God. Was for God. For God. And the second thing is, is that
it was for me. But God's got to do something
for Himself before He can ever do anything for us. But I hope
God will enable us to learn something about this word and the truth
that's in this word, atonement. You know the reason there had
to be an atonement? Look down here in verse 12. It
tells us why we had to have an atonement. Why we must have an
atonement. Why we have to have reconciliation.
Here's the reason why. Verse 12. Wherefore as by one
man sin entered into the world and by that one man that one
sin that that one man committed our father Adam in the Garden
of Eden by that one sin God said the day that you eat of the fruit
of the tree of knowledge and good and evil you shall die Well,
he ate of it and when he did that sin entered into the world
by that one act and By that one man, by that one offense, death
entered into this world. Death would not have been in
this world up until that time. And so then death passed upon
everybody, all the human race. By that one man's sin. And here's the reason death passes
upon all men, for that all have sinned. That's the reason, that's
the reason why we have sin atonement. Now, beloved, there's no time,
no time in history, no time in history you can find it. And
even now, no place on this planet where men don't and didn't offer
sacrifices when they approach their gods. Everybody, everybody,
even now, you know, men offer sacrifices to the gods when they
approach their gods. They offered human sacrifices.
We went to the Mayan temples down in Mexico. They had big
altars there that they offered people on. And they offered virgins.
They'd offer virgins. They'd offer their firstborn.
They'd offer animals. that offer food. You go into
a Chinese restaurant, they have an altar there with Buddha sitting
on it. Most of the time with, now listen to me, I'm telling
you the truth, you're a loser, you ain't going in there next
time. And they got an altar in there somewhere with some Buddha
there and they've got some apples, some oranges or something that
they're offering to their gods. Animals. And oh my, man by nature, man
by nature knows something's wrong with him. And when he needs the
help of God, he always brings a sacrifice. They always have,
they always do, and they always will. If it's nothing else but
the sense of their own goodness, they'll bring that. They'll bring
their own goodness. They'll bring their own morality.
They'll bring their works. They'll bring their worth. They'll
bring something they've said, something they've done, something
good that they've done. If it's nothing else but to love
mommy. And this is Mother's Day, and
happy Mother's Day to you. But if you do nothing but love
mommy, you know, that's good. That's enough. That's enough.
But oh my. And let me tell you something.
People who always have to have a sacrifice. The way their God
is approached is on the basis of two things. Two things. Now listen to me. The first way
they approach God is their concept of God. If your concept of God
is wrong, then you ain't got no autonomy. And secondly, the
concept of themselves. If the concept of how they see
themselves is wrong, then they have no atonement. Ain't that right? How do you
see God? How do you understand God? And how you approach him will
declare or show whether or not you have an atonement, a reconciliation. And the concept that you have
of yourselves show you whether you have an atonement or reconciliation. And if either one of these is
wrong, then you have no atonement. Ain't that right? And I tell
you, people say all the time, I promise I'll serve you. I promise
I'll go to church. I promise I'll do better. I promise
I'll start praying. I promise I'll read my Bible.
I promise I'll start treating people better. If you just save
me out of this situation that I'm in. But all Romans 3.23 says that
all have said and come short of the glory, that there's none
righteous, no, not one. There's none that understandeth,
there's none that seeketh God. None. Look what it says there
in verse 10. Here in Romans 5. Now listen
to this. For if when we were enemies.
Enemies. Enemies. I've heard people say,
I don't know that I ever was an enemy of God. I don't know
that I ever hated God. Not your concept of the one you
didn't. But I tell you what, it says
enemies of God, enemies of His sovereignty. Keep your hands
off of me. Keep your hands off my free will. Keep your hands off of my works. Keep your hands off of my ability
to do something for myself. Enemies of His grace. Enemies
of His electing. Enemies of his son, enemies of
his righteousness, enemies of his will. We were enemies. If you've never been an enemy
of God, then you've never been reconciled to God. I was an enemy when I was preaching
for years. I was an enemy of God because
I wasn't telling the truth on Him. I'm telling you, people say,
I'm not yet, listen. Do you love God's sovereignty?
Do you love the fact that He reigns in this world? Do you
love the fact and bless His holy name that He does according to
His will on this earth and in the armies of heaven? Do you
rejoice in that, love that blessed truth? Do you love it that God
chose a people in this world? And chose whom He would choose?
Do you love the fact that He can pass by one and save another? That He can make one a vessel
of mercy, another a vessel of dishonor? Vessel of wrath? Do you love the fact that the
Lord Jesus Christ, when He died, He was successful in His death?
That everyone for whom He died for will actually be saved? Love it! Oh! What about a righteous? Do you love the righteousness
of Christ? There ain't no other. You want to have a righteousness?
You got to have His. Where do you get it at? You get
it through Him. His death, His blood, His work,
His obedience. That's where you get it at. Oh
my! And I tell you what, and there's
people's enemy of every will, but oh Lord, not my will, oh
Lord, not my will, not my will, but Thy will be done. So the reason we have to have
an atonement is because of sin, because we're enemies. And you
know what, then back over here again in our text, of course,
it says here, the meaning of the word atonement We're assessed
by the Christ by whom we now receive the atonement the atonement
means to cover up Means to cover up David said in psalm 32. He said blessed is the man whose
sins are covered covered covered And the first time covers used
I want you to keep Romans 5 and look over here in Genesis 6 with
me and First time the word cover is using or atonement is used
look what it says here in Genesis 6 14 The first time the word atonement
used or to cover up the first time it's used here in Genesis
6 14 God told Noah how to make the
ark and he said make thee an ark of gopher wood and Roof shalt
thou make in the ark, and listen to this, this is the word atonement,
the word to cover, and pitch it within and without, with pitch. Cover it on the inside, cover
it on the outside. That's the same word here as
reconciliation, atonement, cover it. Cover it on the inside, cover
it on the outside. Why did he do that? That made
it judgment proof. That's made it judgment proof.
You know water's not going to get in? And water's not going
to get in from the inside? It's not going to get in from
the outside. But the wrath of God's going to come down. And
that ark is pitched in such a way that everything in it is covered.
Inside and out. So when God's judgment comes,
there's no way in the world that it's going to fall on Noah because
it's covered. inside and out and so God when
he sees that he don't see Noah's sin he don't see judgment the
judgment falls on the ark not on Noah and when the high priest
went into the holiest of holies and he went in there on that
day of atonement and he took blood and he went stood before
that altar stood before that mercy seat And he took that blood
out of a basin. And that mercy seat's gold, standing
there cold. And there's an ark underneath
it. That ark has got a lid on it. The mercy seat's on top of
the ark. And it's covered in gold. And that high priest goes
behind that veil. And he takes that blood. And
he sprinkles it. Seven times. Seven times. He has to sprinkle it on the
ground first. Or he can't even approach that mercy seat. He's
got to have blood before he can approach it. Then he puts it
on that mercy seat. And you know why he puts it on that mercy
seat? To show that sin is covered. What does it cover? It covers
that broken law that's inside that ark. Those two tablets of
stone. And I tell you, it shows that
satisfaction has been made to God Himself. And in the death
of our Lord Jesus Christ, there was a satisfaction. And this
is one of the best words in the Gospel. Oh, this is one of the
most wondrous words in the gospel, that word satisfaction. The death
of Christ was such a satisfaction given to the righteous, righteous
anger of God Almighty. And God was angry over me in
sin. You know, you hear men say, God
loves the sinner but hates the sin. How do you separate the
two? How do you separate the two?
How do you separate man and his sin? Sin is what he is. Sin is what he does. So if God's
angry with the wicked every day, and the scripture says that there's
none righteous, no, not one, then how in the world is God
in his righteous anger, justly so, angry at men for their sin? And he's got a right to be angry
with men. A preacher was talking recently
and he said, he was talking about men having two natures. And he
says, you know, he said, as far as I know there's only one nature
that a man has that sins. And he said, well what about
having two natures? The nature that we have of Christ
that cannot sin and then the nature that we have in Adam that
can do nothing but sin, our own nature. And he said, well if
I believe that, that would give people an excuse to sin. Do any
of y'all need an excuse? I don't need an excuse. That's one of the silliest things
I've ever heard. But oh my goodness, listen to
me now. But the work of our Lord Jesus
Christ was more thorough at the cross, and there was no temporary
or partial dealing with sin when our Lord was on the cross. You
know, that's what it was under the Old Testament. I mean, under
the Old Testament, they had that day, and then the sin was put
off until the next year. And then they have another day
of atonement. Why do they have another day of atonement? Because
their sins weren't put away. But when our Lord Jesus Christ
came, He saw at the cross, He's thoroughly, completely put away
sin once and for all by the sacrifice of Himself. You see, our Lord
doesn't pass over or just overlook sin. He takes it away. He takes
it away. Ain't that what he said here
in Romans? Look here in verse 9 of chapter 5. Look what he
says here now. Oh, bless his name. Much more than being now. Now I love that word now. Every
time you read that, being now. Right now. Being now justified. by His blood. That word justified
means that you God looks at you and says I see no sin, I see
no guilt, I see nothing that I can hold against you. How was
He justified? By His blood. And listen to this
now. Since He's justified by His blood
much more then we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies We
were reconciled to God by the death, the blood, the dying of
His Son. Much more, much more than now. Being reconciled, saved from
wrath through Him, we shall be saved by His life. If His death
put away our sin, what will His living do for us? What will His
living do for us? Keep this and look in Hebrews
10 with me. Keep chapter 5 and look in Hebrews
10 with me. Let's look at this together for
a moment. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ, John said, you
know that He was manifested to take away our sin. Manifested to take away sin. And look what it says here. For the law Now he's talking
about all the word of God and all the things in the tabernacle
and all the pictures and things for the law having a shadow of
good things to come. You know that Passover lamb that
was a shadow of a lamb that was to come. The high priest when
he went to the holiest of holies was a shadow of our great high
priest who was to come. This is a shadow but they weren't
the image of the thing. can never, those sacrifices that
were just shatters, can never with those sacrifices they offered
year by year by year continually make the comers there unto perfect.
They didn't. They kept offering them and offering
them, offering, couldn't make the comers there unto perfect.
If they'd have made them perfect then wouldn't they not have ceased
to be offered? Wouldn't they not have offered
them again? Because, listen to this now, because that the worshipers
once purged, if they had their sins purged, should have no more
conscience of sin. Sin would not be on their conscience
anymore. If your sins are purged, He by Himself purged our sins. Now watch this, we'll have no
more of them. But here's what happens every
time they brought those sacrifices. But in those sacrifices there
is remembrance, again, made of sins. when they come up there
and you know that's why that's why works in armenianism and
free willism and people trying to be saved by works they never
have a conscience that's satisfied you know why it's not because
they're trying to satisfy it by their works but if you have
a perfect sacrifice you have a perfect sacrifice the Lord
Jesus Christ then your conscience will never ask for anything else
again it'll be satisfied because we worship God and who
Christ is our atonement who put away our sin once and for all
and what's this and it's not possible in verse 4 that the
blood of bulls and goats should take away sins well the offerings
under the law all they did was cover but they never did take
away sins God passed over their sins but our Lord Jesus Christ
when he came By His death He put away sin completely and entirely
and forever and once and for all. Now I tell you what, He
put them away so completely and so perfectly and so gloriously
that God Himself don't remember them and can't find them. That's like that scapegoat, you
know, he went off into the wilderness And they watched him, just stood
and watched and watched and watched and he went off in the horizon
and he just finally disappeared. He was a dot and then he disappeared.
They watched for him to come back. They seen that little dot
and he come back and said, boy, you don't have that goat with
him anymore. Why not? All the sins were on him. He
took him way off out yonder and he left our sins out there. Well,
now our Lord Jesus Christ didn't leave him anywhere. He put him
away. He didn't take them somewhere
and put them and cover them up. He took them absolutely, there's
none, there is no sin left for God to judge us for, no way,
no how, in any time. I'm telling you now, we don't
have no sin. Christ put it away once and for
all in the end of the world. Even Abraham sinned. Now this
is the thing I want you to see here in Romans 3.25. I want you
to see this if I hope I can explain this. You know, talking about our Lord Jesus
Christ, whom God sent forth. God sent him forth. And in the
margin said he foreordained him. God foreordained Christ to be
a propitiation. And a propitiation is a sacrifice
that takes away the sin, the offense of the one who's being
propitiated. And here's him setting him forth,
setting forth in his birth, setting forth in his life, setting forth
his word, his works, his will, his purpose, setting forth, setting
forth on the cross, setting forth in the grave, setting forth when
he raised him from the grave, setting forth when he set him
on his throne. through faith in His blood. Listen to me now.
That word faith in His blood means to have faith in His sacrificial
death. That's what it means. And God
through this declares how righteous He is for the payment of sins
that are past. Whose sins that were past? Abraham's,
Isaac's, Jacob's, Adam's, every Old Testament saint. Christ,
they said Christ is coming. He came. And He put away all the sins
of His people once and for all. And then it says He's coming
again. And this time, He's coming without sin unto salvation. He's not coming to put away sin
anymore. He's coming to get His people. Well, the sacrifice of our Lord
Jesus Christ, not only just pardon sins, but cleanses sin. Look over here at Colossians
chapter 2 verse 13 with me. John says his blood, his blood
cleanses us. Now how many sins do you reckon
it cleanses from? You know, these ignorant, ignorant,
and I was as ignorant as they was. I'm not trying to But the fact is, you know, that
people say, well, you better quit your sinning. You know,
if God comes and catches you with any sin in your life, you
don't get to go. You better make sure there ain't
no sin in your life. You better make sure you're under the blood.
Well, when it says the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from
what? A-L-L. I wonder how much that
means. I wonder what that word all means. All sin. Now when he said all
sin, that included my sins before I was ever born. Is that not right? If Christ
was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world and God
chose me in Christ before this world ever began, was I not in
Christ before the foundation of the world and chosen in Him?
And if Christ was my Lamb slain, as far as God was concerned,
my sins were gone. My sin wasn't put away when I
believed. My sin wasn't put away when I
became a preacher. My sin wasn't put away whenever
I started believing about it. My sins were put away 2,000 years
ago when Christ died on a cross. And the gospel come and told
me what Christ did. And then I found out they're
all wrong. Look what it says here in verse
13. And you being dead in your sins. Why was we dead in our sins?
Because of our transgressions. Because we were in Adam. But
watch this now. And the uncircumcision, the filthiness
of your flesh. Now listen to this. Hath quickened
together. Gave you life together with Him,
with Christ. Listen to this. having forgiven
you all trespasses. Every time you stepped over the
line, God said it's took care of. And I'll tell you something,
when He said all sin, I mean He means all sin. I'm getting older, let's put
it that way. I'm getting older and I ain't got much time left
in this world. Even if I've got 20 years, that
ain't going to be nothing. That's going to be a blink of
an eye. But here's the thing about it. Everything that I'm
going to do between here and the time I leave this world,
Christ already died for me. Already put it away. Well, that'll make people go
out here and sin. It'll make an idiot do that.
But I tell you, when you understand what Christ did for you, You
understand what it took to put your sin away? You understand
that the blood and death and righteousness of Christ is the
only way we can be accepted of God? You know what that'll make
you do? That'll make you bow down before Him and worship Him
and love Him and adore Him and need Him and desire Him above
everything in this world. Oh, I'm gonna get up tomorrow
and live like, I'm gonna live like the devil tomorrow because
my sin's taken care of. You do that, but I'm not. I'm
going to get up in the morning, I'm going to call on the Lord.
And I'm going to trust Christ all day. And I'm going to look
to Christ all day. That's what I'm going to do.
And when I sin, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to
say, Oh Lord, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. If I get ill
and contrary with Shirley, I'm going to my wife, I'm going to
say, Oh Lord, please forgive me. And I'll ask her to forgive
me. What else can we do? What else
can we do? Huh? You know why? He's forgiven
us of everything. How could you sin against this
love? Huh? Oh my. Well, let me go back over
here again. You know what the source of the
atonement is? The reason of atonement is that our Lord puts sin away
once and for all. Gone. Done. We had to have a
because of sin and the meaning of atonement is that death is
covering and our Lord put sin away once and for all. But you
know the source of the atonement is God himself. God did. God is the source of this. God
caused this to happen. God caused this to happen. You
keep Romans 5. Look in Isaiah 53. I want you to see this. Isaiah
53. You know men, I know men took
Him with wicked hands and crucified Him and slew Him. And God's going
to hold men accountable. They did what they willed to
do, but at the same time they were doing the atonement of our
Lord Jesus Christ. They were doing the will and
purpose of God before the foundation of the world. But look what it
says, God Himself is the source of this atonement. Look in verse
6. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray. We have turned every one to his
own way. Now watch this now. And the Lord,
God himself, laid on him the iniquity of us all. Who did that? I didn't lay my sins on Christ.
God did. God made him to be sinned. Who
knew no sin? Look down in verse 10. Look at
this, talking about God is the one responsible for this. Yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. God to bruise him. God put him to an open grief. And when God made his soul an
offering for sin. Huh? Oh my. And listen in verse 11. He, God,
shall see the travail of his soul. So God did this. God sent him forth. Man didn't
do this. Look what Cain offered. You know
what the best man Cain... I love to raise a garden, and
I know you do too. Bigger tomatoes and big old...
Your daddy used to raise, you know, James, Ed used to raise
these great old big potatoes. He'd bring them and show it to
you. He'd say, well, look at that thing. That thing's way too fat. Big old
potatoes. I love good fresh stuff out of
garden. But I'm not going to take it
to God and offer it to Him. Say, Lord, look at this big old
tomato I've raised. Here, I'm going to give it to
you. God don't eat tomatoes. He don't eat corn. He don't eat
beans. He said, if I was hungry, well,
I wouldn't ask you. The cattle on a thousand hills
is mine. The silver and the gold is mine. that old Cain, he worked, and
he worked, and he worked, and he worked, and he worked, and
he put all of his stuff in a big old basket. Abel standing there
with blood on his hands, blood on the altar, and God accepted
him, testified that his gifts were accepted. Cain was of that
wicked one. He'd come and brought, he brought,
he put all of his, all of his fruit and all of his apples and
all of his oranges and all of his squash and all of his beans
and all of his everything that he had. He brought it. And he
said it before God. He said, here it is. That's,
that's, boy, that's the sweat of my brow. That's the best I've
got to offer. You know what God did to him?
Put a mark on Cain. said you'll never come in my
presence ever again and I tell you the only way in
the world anybody is going to come in the presence of God is
through the blood righteousness and sacrifice and death of our
Lord Jesus Christ God will not speak to nor be spoken to by
any member of the human race except through His Son I'm so thankful God taught me
that Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. It's time
I didn't know that. But now I know it. I know it. That's why we're coming here.
We're going to worship. We're going to go to hear the
gospel. We're going to go hear about our Lord Jesus Christ.
We're going to go to honor Him and glorify Him. Worship with
people of like mind and like faith. And look what the Pharisees offered.
You know what the Pharisees offered? They said, we paid tithes of
mint. Well, I've got 10 plants of mint
here. I'm going to get one, take it over here and give it to God.
I've got all this anise here. I'm going to take 10% of that
and I'm going to go over here and put it over here. And then they stood, that old
Pharisee stood and prayed with himself and he said, I thank
you. Oh Lord, that I'm not an extortioner,
I'm not an adulterer. I'm not like this old publican
over there. I'm not like that sinner. Oh my. I thank Thee that I'm
not. I thank Thee that I'm not. But
oh my. God, it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Look back over here in Romans
5 with me. There's two things here in this
Romans 5 that shows us why God gave us an atonement. The first
one being up in verse 6, here's the reason God gave us an atonement.
For when we were yet without strength, without strength, no
strength, no ability, We couldn't approach God you had no strength
to put away our sin had no strength to make ourselves righteous Had
no strength to to come before God No strength but in the according
to the time Christ died for those that were ungodly without God
now watch this Then down in verse 8. Here's the second reason we
were without strength. Here's the second reason but
God commendeth his love toward us and in that while we were
yet sinners. What happened? Christ died for
us. You mean while we were sinners?
Yes. When I was born on February the
9th, 1950, Christ had already died for me. I was 10 years old, February
the 9th, 1960. Christ died for me. 22, 1972. Christ died for
me. 1982, 30. Christ died for me. 1992, 40. Christ died for me, for my sins. you take any day in your life
any day you want to God commendeth his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners Christ died for us and you know what the method
of atonement was? it was blood down there in verse
9 much more than being justified by his blood God said, when I see the blood,
without the shedding of blood, no remission of sins. And by
His own blood, He entered once into the holy place. And you
know what He did when He went in there? Come back out with
eternal redemption. Not just redemption from one
year to the next. Not just redemption until we
sin again. Eternal. Eternal you know when you talk
about eternal that means it has no beginning and no end Oh my our Lord said this is the
cup of the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you when
God when Moses said Lord show me your glory God said you can't
see me you can't do it so I'll tell you what I'll do There's
a hole here. There's a cover here. There's
a hole in this rock. There's a cleft in this rock.
He said, I'm going to put you, he said, don't crawl in there.
He didn't say, now Moses, you crawl in there. Get in there
the best way you know how. And then once you get in there,
I'm going to cover you. God said, God put him, that's what God
said, put him in the cleft of that rock. And when he put him
in there, he had his hand over He said, now I'm going to cause
my glory to pass my time. And you know, they took that
spear and punctured our Savior's side. And there's that cleft
that God puts us in Christ. That blood and water command
God puts us in Christ and recovers us with his blessed hand. Huh? Oh my. No wonder we sang,
rock of ages, cleft for me. Oh Lord, I want to be here to
you. Well, let me tell you this and
I'm going to wind it up. The essence, the very essence
and nature of the atonement is Jesus Christ our Lord Himself. Yep, they said there in verse
11, not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ by whom we have now. receive the atonement. You know,
our Lord is the atonement. But now listen, I'm going to
tell you something here. I want you to listen to this. It's not the sufferings of Christ
that saved us. It's not the death of Christ,
but the person, the person of the Son of God in the sufferings
and in the death. Now I say that another way. It's
not how much suffering our Lord did, but it was who suffered. It's not how much blood that
was shed, it was whose blood that was shed. So when we talk
about Jesus Christ, we're talking about a person. And it was a
person that made an atonement for us. So it's who died and
it's who suffered. And it's not how much blood,
it was whose blood. And beloved, that makes all the
difference. People say, I'm trusting in the
cross of Christ. I'm not. I'm not trusting in
Christ's cross at all. I'm not. I'm not trusting in
the cross of Christ. I'm trusting in Christ who's
on that cross. See the difference? There was two other people crucified
with Christ that day. Their blood didn't amount to
anything. Their suffering didn't amount to anything. But when
Christ was on that cross, God saw that travail, that suffering
and said, I'm satisfied. God took that blood. When our
Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood, he said, smelled it and said,
Oh, what a sweet savor that is to me. And to show that God himself
was satisfied with him, he raised him from the dead and set him
at his own right hand. Oh my. And I tell you what, the
result of the atonement is salvation. Look what it says here. Verse 10, for if we were enemies
to God, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
being much more reconciled, being reconciled, we should be saved.
That's salvation. Salvation. Salvation. That's what it means. That's
what happens. We're saved. Saved. Saved. Saved. Saved forever. Saved from sin. Saved from self. And I tell you what, He put away
sin. And then look what it says there
in verse 11, and I'm done. It says here, not only so, but
watch this now. Not only so were we saved by
His life. Saved by, reconciled by His death
and saved by His life. Saved from wrath through Him.
But now we joy in God. You know what that word joy means?
To boast in, to glory in. And you know what that tells
us? That we only glory in, only boast in what Jesus Christ did. Huh? We rejoice and glory in
God who gave us the atonement through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Huh? He did it all. All to Him I owe. Amen. Amen. Well, I hope that's
a blessing. I hope that was a blessing. You
know, I'll tell you, there's some other, you know, and just
talking about, hey, I told him in art, author of our faith,
advocate. But let's stand together. I think
it's what, 20? What's the rock of ages? 126? Stand together
and sing 126. Then you'll be at liberty to
go. left for me. Let me hide myself in Thee. Let the water and the blood from
Thy wounded side which flows be of sin the double cure save
from breath and make me pure could forever flow could my zeal
no longer know these four sins could not atone. Thou must say, in my hand, O Christ, I bring,
simply See the night six o'clock God
willed it