If you want, turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, that's
where we'll find our text. Before we read our text, I want
to share something with you I've been thinking about. Due to the current and the seemingly
negative circumstances that have gripped this world and largely
this country, I personally, right now, find it very easy to be
distracted. And I suspect, since there's
not much difference between men, I am not alone in this. Even
when I very intently Try to pay attention when I'm at work, when
I'm with my family, when I'm reading the scriptures. I want
to pay attention. I want to focus on what I'm doing. I feel this
urge, this compulsion to pick up my phone and to read the news
because I want to know what's happening now. Right? And if
we're honest, if I'm honest with myself, you're honest with yourself,
those circumstances that cause the distraction, they cause us
stress, worry, fear, all those things. And all that is completely
and utterly unfounded. That worry, that stress, that
fear. It's all unfounded. It's all unnecessary. Why? You
know why. Because our Lord sits on His
throne. He rules over the affairs of men. He has done all things
well. And everything that is currently happening right now
concerning every man during every second of every day is simply
His will and His purpose. You're going to hear that word
a couple times tonight. His purpose coming about. That's it. And it's not as if
He hasn't told us what this is all leading up to. It'd be one
thing if He didn't, but He has. He's told us that everything
that is going to happen from the day you are born to the day
you die is going to be for His glory, that's what it's leading
up to, and for your eternal good. Whether you can see that or not. So if all that worry, all that
stress, if that is completely unfounded, if it should be of
no concern, these circumstances, is there anything to be concerned
about at all? Yeah, I say there is. we should be concerned that
we are distracted in the first place. And the concern, the fear,
is that those distractions could work its way into our worship.
And worse yet, those distractions could work their way into our
preaching. So I ask you this morning, this
evening rather, what's the message? What is the message that you
and I need to hear every single time from every sermon? What
is the message that God commands to be preached? What is that
message that is the power of God unto salvation? Now, verse
18. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18. Paul
says, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness. But unto us which are saved it
is the power of God. What's the message? What's the
message that must be preached every single time through every
sermon? What's the message that you and I desperately need to
hear tonight? It's the cross. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What is that? What does it mean to preach the
cross? Look down at verse 23. Paul goes into more detail. Paul says, but we preach Christ
crucified. That's the cross. Unto the Jews,
that's the religious folk, a stumbling block. Unto the Greeks, the intellectuals'
foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God." What does
it mean to preach the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ? It means
to preach Him, Christ, and Him crucified. And I trust that just
about everyone in this room right now has a Bible in front of them.
And we take this for granted. I know I do. You know exactly
what this is. This is the inspired Word of God. I recognize it was
penned by a man. but is under the inspiration of God Himself.
And this is the manifestation of the mind of God to us, His
people, while we're in this world. Whatever the Lord is willing
to reveal to us about Himself, what's in His mind, while we're
here in this world, it is found right here in this book. What's
interesting about this book is that it only says one thing.
It's a big book. It's got a lot of words into
it, and it only has one thing to say. Jesus Christ and Him
crucified is the only way of salvation. Every word, every
chapter, every verse, it all points to this one thing. Folks,
I'm not proclaiming to understand everything in this book. I don't
understand the majority of it. Plenty of this I read and I scratch
my head and I say, I don't know what that means. But I do. I do. I may not know the road to travel,
but I know where that road ends. The cross. Christ and Him crucified. Let me show you what I mean.
Turn over to Matthew chapter 25. I'm sorry, Matthew chapter
6. Matthew chapter 6 and look at
verse 25. This scripture is very near and
dear to me. I get a lot of temporal peace and a lot of temporal hope
from reading this. The Lord says, therefore I say unto you, take
no thought for your life, what you shall eat, what you shall
drink, nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not
the life more than meat and the body than raiment? Behold, the
fowls of the air, they sow not, neither do they reap. nor gather
in the barns, and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not
much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought,
can add one cubit unto his stature? You know what that's talking
about? That's talking about worrying and stressing out. Which of you,
by worrying, by stressing out, by pacing the floors and wringing
your hands and saying what's going to happen, can add one
second to his life? None of us. Worry is the most
useless thing anyone has ever done. Verse 28, and why take
ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. And yet
I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed
the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast
in the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little
faith? Therefore take no thought, saying,
what shall we eat? What shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall
we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles
seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of
all these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take no, therefore, no thought for tomorrow, for the moral shall
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof." Now, I love that. That gives me so much temporal
peace and temporal hope. It gives me a reason to wake
up in the morning, go out and go out and face this world without
fear. It's written right there. If the Lord is concerned, with
things so seemingly insignificant as a random bird up in the air
or a random lily, some flower in the middle of the field, if
He is concerned with them that He knows their very need and
He is willing to provide for their needs while they are in
this world, how much more willing, how much more does He know the
very needs of us and how much more willing is He to provide
for us while we walk on this earth? Infinitely more. Infinitely more. This is a good
scripture. I like this. This is Romans 8.32.
It says, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us
all things? This great God was willing to
give up what was most precious to him, his son. Why? For us. He could have us. If
he is willing to do that, if he is willing to give up what
is most precious to him, to have us, why would we ever doubt that
he would deny us a piece of bread? Because we have little faith.
That's why. But here's my point. My point
is that's not the point. That's great. That's an excellent
sidebar. I love that. It gives me so much hope and
so much confidence. But that's not the point. The point is the
cross. Christ and Him crucified. The
Lord said, consider the lily. So let's consider the lily for
a minute. What does the lily do? It exists. It simply exists. and it cannot
provide for itself. There's nothing it can do. And
it is completely and utterly dependent on the Lord to provide
everything it needs to live. Completely and utterly. And we're
just like the lily. We simply exist. We exist in this sinful,
wicked state. And there is absolutely nothing
we can do to save ourselves. We can't contribute to our salvation
in any way. The only contribution we can make to that salvation
is the sin that made the salvation necessary. That's it. And we
are completely and utterly dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ to have
accomplished everything in our salvation. And you know what? If that's where your hope lies,
He did. God was born a man. He lived
a perfect life. He went to a cross. He bore your
sins in His body and He bled and died and when He said, it
is finished, your salvation was accomplished, completed. Nothing
left undone, nothing left for you to do. It is Finished. And now, he says, look at the
lily. Solomon, all his glory, wasn't arrayed like one of these.
And now, how much more better arrayed are we? With the fine
linen, clean and white, the very righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Now, what's the message of the lily? Is it everything's going
to be okay? Yeah. What's the message of the lily?
Christ and him crucified, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I may not know how to get there with all the scriptures, but
I know where the road ends. It ends at the cross. Now here's my question about
all this. What does it mean to preach the
cross? What does it mean to preach Christ and Him crucified? I have
three things for you. Here's what it means to preach
the cross first. It means to preach the God of eternal purpose. Secondly, it means to preach
God's revelation of Himself. Thirdly, it means to preach the
accomplished Christ. Three things. the God of eternal
purpose. Turn over to Revelation chapter
13. Revelation chapter 13, look at verse 8. You guys are familiar
with this. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship
him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb
slain from, or before, the foundation of the world." Now we must begin
here. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
is undoubtedly, without doubt, an event that occurred in time.
There was a time when God was born into human flesh. There
was a time in history that that happened. There was a time when
God was nailed to a cross. There was a time when God died.
These are events that occurred in history, undoubtedly. But
first and foremost, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, His
crucifixion, is an eternal event that has always been according
to the purpose of God. It means exactly what it says,
that Jesus Christ has always been the crucified Christ for
His people. And make no mistake, I want to
be as emphatic about this as I can possibly be, the death
of Jesus Christ is the accomplishment of salvation for everyone he
died for. The singular accomplishment.
Here's my thought on this. What's the implications? Here's
the first one. If Jesus Christ is the eternally
crucified Christ, according to the purpose of God, then there
must be, according to the purpose of God, a particular people for
whom he was eternally slain. I'll take the text from Romans
8, verse 29. It says, "...for whom He did foreknow, then He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He, Christ, might be the firstborn among many brethren." Now what
does that mean? Foreknowledge. What does that
mean? It simply means to have loved before. Before when? Before the foundations of the
world were ever built. Before the foundations of the
world were ever built, God, as He always has and always will,
loved His Son, Jesus Christ. And there are people that have
been eternally united to His Son, Jesus Christ. And when He
loved His Son, He loved everybody that was united to Him. And He
said to those, I'm going to predestinate you. He predetermined them to
a known end. You know what that final end
was? To the perfect conformity to the image of His Son. He said,
I love Him. All my favor is found in Him.
He can't get any more perfect. I couldn't ask for anything more
than this one right here. And you know what? I'm going to have
a whole bunch more just like Him. And He predetermined that we would
be made just like His Son, Jesus Christ. Make no mistake, those
are the people for whom He is eternally slain. Now the question,
I don't like talking about election without giving a man a marker.
How could I possibly know if I'm one of these people? Because
that's the question. Because if I'm one of these people, everything
is going to be just fine. Well, how about this? 1 Timothy
1, 15. This is a faithful saying. and worthy of all acceptation,
which means you can believe this, you can hang your hat on this,
you can accept this, that Christ Jesus came into this world to
save who? Sinners. He said, of whom I am
the chief. Now, if you want to know if you're
one of these people, it is very simple. Are you a sinner? What does that
mean? That means there is nothing about
me that recommends itself to God. It de-recommends itself. That's it. There is no one I
can look to and say, I'm better than him. You take the worst
act that has ever been outwardly committed. And I was thinking
about this earlier today. What is that act? It had to be
that soldier that drove the nails through his hands and his feet.
The worst outward act that has ever been committed. That's it
right there. The murder of God himself. Right?
You look at the worst act that has ever been committed. You
can't look down on that man because you know the only reason you
have not done that outwardly is the restraining grace of God.
And whatever he has done outwardly, you've done it a million times
over in your heart. You know this, you sit in the hands of
a sovereign God, and you say with Him, if He is to pass me
by, if He says, no, not you, I'm passing you by, you say He's
right, and He's just, and He's fair. This is the hallmark of
the sinner right here. There's never been a man who's
been revealed to himself that he is nothing, that he has nothing
before God. It wasn't also revealed to him
that Christ is everything. The Lord brings you down to the bottom,
He's going to show you what's on top. That's His Son. He believes
solely in Jesus Christ, his work, and his merits. That's his only
hope. That's a sinner. And if that's you, you put your
name in that bunch, you've been predestinated, predetermined
to a known end to be just like Jesus Christ. That's the first
implication of this. If he's the eternally crucified
Christ, according to the purpose of God, there must be a particular
people for whom he's eternally slain. Here's the second implication.
If He is the eternally fully crucified Christ according to
the purpose of God, that means everybody who is united to Him
must be eternally secure. I give you this scripture, Hebrews
10.14, for by one offering, just one, one singular offering, for
by one offering He hath perfected, means completed, perfected forever
them that are sanctified. What does that mean? That means
there was never a time when our souls hung in the balance. There
was never a time when the angels looked down and said, is Christ
going to win? Is the devil going to win? We just don't know. There
was never a time that that happened. There was never a time our souls
hung in the balance. There was never a time, and I understand
this, there was never a time that God's wrath was kindled
towards me. Before we were ever born in this world and we took
on this sinful flesh, before we committed the very first sin,
there was a slain lamb, a slain savior who had already put away
that sin. That means we must be eternally
secure. Think about that. Are you going
to fall away? No, you're not. You've been bought
with a price by the blood of the slain lamb from the foundation
of the world. Now that's the first thing to
preach the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, to preach the God
of eternal purpose in glorifying himself through single-handedly
saving a people. Second thing, to preach the cross
is to preach God's revelation Now, I understand that we all
have different experiences. The Lord takes us down different roads
to save us in our experience. But at some point down that road,
He leads man to this understanding, I don't know who God is, and
I need to find out. Somewhere along that road, you
come to this knowledge, I don't know who God is. I know He exists,
I know He is, but I do not know who He is, and I do not know
what He expects of me, and I need to find out. Well, if you need
to find out who God is, I invite you tonight to look to the cross.
At the cross is where all God's beautiful and wonderful attributes
are magnified and they are showcased for everybody to see. Now, I'm
going to give you a couple of them. We couldn't possibly go through
all of them tonight. I want you to listen to a couple of them. The
first one is His sovereignty. And here's some examples of that.
Now, you remember this. Todd talks about it all the time,
but I love it. I love thinking about this in your mind. See if you can
enter into this. Right before our Lord picked up His cross
to drag it up that hill, He's interrogated by a man named Pilate.
And Pilate's mad. Pilate goes to him and he says,
Where art thou? You know what the Lord did? He didn't say a
word. Didn't answer him a word. The
man didn't deserve an answer, right? Then he says, speakest thou not
to me? Don't you know I have the power to crucify you or I
have the power to let you go? Now the Lord's going to say something.
He's got something to say. And he looks over at him and he says,
thou couldest have had no power over me except to be given you
from above. He was telling Pilate, I know
you think you're a big shot. I know you think you're running this
right now. You have absolutely no power. Whatever power you've
been given temporarily right now, it came from my father.
He's the one who's controlling everything today, just like every
other day. And one day, that power is going
to be taken from you, and you're going to see exactly who you are. Unfortunately
for you, it's going to be too late. You could have no power. My father's in control of everything
that's going to happen today, and it was. Everything that happened
that day was under his father's control and his father's power,
and everything was done according to the scriptures. Now, think
about this. During those times, They had these men hanging on
these crosses, and to speed up the process of death, the soldiers
would go along and they'd break the legs, right? They'd break the
legs. The idea was they couldn't support themselves. They would
suffocate. They'd die faster. And so as the soldiers go along,
they go, they break the legs of the first man, first thief. They
go down the line, and they come to our Lord, and he's dead. He's
already dead. And so they didn't break his legs. And you know
why they didn't do that? It says very plainly in the scriptures. They did that, or they didn't
do that, that the scriptures might be fulfilled, a bone of
him shall not be broken. You know where it says that?
It says that in Psalm 3420. A bone of him shall not be broken.
But you know what they did do? They shoved a spear in his side.
Shoved a spear in the side of that Lord, and a fountain was
opened of blood and water, complete atonement, complete cleansing.
It all flowed from the cross. And they did that, as the Scripture
said, because the Scripture said, they shall look upon him whom
they pierced. That's Zechariah 1210. I looked
it up today. Everything that happened that day happened according
to the scriptures. But don't miss the beauty of
that. Don't miss what that actually means. Not a bone of his body
was broken. Why was that so important? Why
did the scripture say that? Why did God preordain that? Why
was that so important? Because we're the bones. We're
his body. And that's the hallmark of the
gospel. He was bruised. He was crushed. He suffered the
punishment. But not a bone of his body was broken. You're whole.
If the Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life for you, you're
whole, you're not broken. He's your wisdom, your righteousness,
your sanctification, and your redemption. You're a whole, you're
a whole bone. That's why it's so important that the bones weren't
broken, because we're not broken. In Christ, we're complete. We
lack absolutely nothing. And those people, those bones
are easy to spot. You know what they do? They look upon Him who
they pierced. They pierced Him. What did we
do? What's my crime, Matt? What did I do? I killed God. That's my crime. But you know
what? I look upon Him whom I pierced. All my hope is right there on
that cross. His shed blood, His suffering in my stead. Those
bones, those unbroken bones, those that are whole are very
easy to spot. They look upon Him whom they
pierced. I'll show you another thing of
sovereignty from the cross. The Lord had two malefactors. He
was crucified between one on the right and one on the left.
Those men railed against the Lord. In his last hours, here's
what he did. He sovereignly chose to reveal
himself to one of those men. And he sovereignly chose to pass
by another. He calls one of those men to say, Lord, remember me
when you come into your kingdom. He said, don't you worry. I'll
see you in paradise. We're going to be there together.
Don't you worry. And another man, the other one, he died railing
against God. He chose one. He said, I'm going
to reveal myself to this man. I'm going to do a work of grace
in this man's heart. I'm going to have this man cry out for mercy.
Right here, I chose him. And he sovereignly passed by
the other man, he just left that man to do what he wanted to do,
and it was to rail against God. You want to see the sovereignty
of God, folks, go to the cross, it's all over it. You can go to the
cross, you can see the love of God. In both respects, think
of this from the respect of the Father's love for the elect and
also Christ's love for the elect. There the Father is willing to
give up his only begotten son because he loves the elect so
much. He's willing to put him in our stead and punish him.
because he loves the elect so much. But in the same hand, the
son being equal with the father, the son had to be the willing
sacrifice. He could not be unwilling in this thing, he had to be willing,
which is he was there on his own accord, and he was suffering
in our stead because he loved us that much. But it's the love
of the father and the love of the son seen together at the
cross, both willing to give up Christ so he could have us. You
know this, you see the justice of God, the holiness of God at
the cross. When he sees sin on Christ, Now if there's anyone
he would have made an exception for, it would have been his son.
When he sees sin on his only begotten son, he will not pass
over him, he simply punishes him with the full wrath of God.
You see it all at the cross if you want to see these attributes.
But in our text, two are mentioned, only two. And so if in our text
two are mentioned, we need to go back and look at that. Go
back to 1 Corinthians 1. Look at verse 23 again. Paul says, but we preach Christ
crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Two are mentioned, the
wisdom of God, and the power of God. Now this is the wisdom
of God, and it's seen at the cross. This is the plan, that
God will be just, and be able to justify someone as sinful
and wicked as you and me. That's the plan. Now think about
this for a second. No human wisdom could come up with this. And
you see, you hear that a lot, but I want you to enter into this example I'm
going to give you. Let's say a man is brought in front of
a judge in a courtroom. He's charged with a crime. And
the prosecutor gets up and there's a tape. This man is caught red-handed.
He's got him on surveillance. And the prosecutor plays the
tape and he shows the judge compelling evidence, overwhelming compelling
evidence that this man is guilty. Right? He's got him red-handed.
That judge cannot say not guilty and remain a just judge. It is
humanly impossible. If that judge says not guilty,
he is an unjust judge. There is no human wisdom that
can change that scenario. That man is guilty. He committed
a crime and that is not going to change and he has to be punished.
And no human wisdom can change that. But this is the wisdom
of God at the cross. He marches us in and He just
isn't able to just proclaim us not guilty. He marches us in
and actually makes us not guilty. So that he can say he's not guilty
and he's telling the truth and he honors his just and holy character. This is the wisdom of God and
it's seen at the cross. But a plan is not enough. The best laid plan, you can come
up with the best plan known to man. If you hand that off to
an incapable man, that plan falls apart immediately. This had to
be executed by somebody. He took that plan and he handed
it off to his son, the only true strong and capable one. Somebody
had to procure a righteousness. Somebody had to be able to be
made sin. Somebody had to be able to actually
withstand the wrath of God. You've heard this before, but
the sacrifice actually had to swallow the fire. Somebody had
to be able to do this. There is no man that could do
this, but the God-man could do this. He is the wisdom of God. How can God be just and justify
somebody like me? Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
But who is the power of God? Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
He's the one who could actually do it. What does it mean to preach the
cross? It means to preach the God of eternal purpose. It means
to preach God's revelation of Himself. And it means to preach
the accomplished Christ. Now I'm going to give you a ton
of scriptures here. You don't have to turn to them.
I'm going to read them to you, unless you want to. But I'm going to bombard you with
scriptures for a minute. We're going to talk about what did he accomplish. Because that's everything, right?
If he didn't accomplish it, there's something I have to do. And I
can't do. You remember the Mount of Transfiguration. The Lord brings Peter, James,
and John up there. And in front of them, they see
him. The Lord's clothes became glistering white. His face shone
like the sun. And there he is. He's standing
with Elijah and Moses. And I can't imagine when Peter, James, and
John are watching this like Is this happening? Is this real?
This really happened. You know what they talked about?
They spake of the decease he would accomplish at Jerusalem. Elijah and Moses got one opportunity
to talk to the Lord while he was in this world. You know what
they wanted to talk about? They wanted to talk about the decease he
would accomplish. That's what I want to hear about.
That's what I want to talk about. What did he accomplish? Philippians
2.8, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
This first and foremost was the accomplishment of obedience.
In what way? Number one, this is obedience
to the work his father gave him to do. John 6.39 says, and this
is the father's will which is sent me, that of all which he
hath given me, I should lose nothing, not a one, but should
raise it up again at the last day. The covenant of grace, the
father went to the son, He said, these people, they're mine, they're
yours. And I'm holding you 100% responsible for them. Look at
me. I am not going to look for anything
out of them. They can't do anything. I am holding you 100% responsible. It is all on you. You're going
to bring them back to me without a scratch on them. That is what
I am commanding you to do. And he made good on it. He didn't
lose one. When he went to the cross, and
he shed his precious blood bearing our sins, and he said, it is
finished, is exactly what he did. He brought us back, and
he said, look, they're all here. Count them. Count every once
in a while, count them twice, because they're all here. I guarantee
you, I didn't lose one. This was perfect obedience, the
accomplishment of obedience. But also this, this was the perfect
obedience of faith. This was faith accomplished.
Listen to this, Luke 23, 46. This is the Lord's last words
from the cross. And when Jesus had cried with
a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
And having said thus, he gave up the ghost. Now, consider the
context under which he said that. This was no ordinary time. Any
other time this would have been easy for him to say. He had always
had been with his father in full communion. He had always had
his father's favor in every single way. He always saw his father's
smile, but not now, not in these last moments. In these last moments
he had nothing but the wrath of God being poured down upon
him. And you know what he said to him in all this, in the midst
of all this terror? I trust you. I trust you. All I have right
now is your wrath being poured down upon me, but you told me
that I'm going to bear this burden, that you're going to kill me,
and you said you're going to raise me up in three days. And you know what? I trust you.
Into your hands I commend my spirit. Now, none of us have
ever believed God like that. We'd like to. We'd like to. The
new man does. The old man drags us down. We'd
like to. But this man believed God perfectly. This was the accomplishment
of the obedience of faith. John 17 verse 4 says, this is
the Lord speaking, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. This is the accomplishment
of glory. Now, I don't understand this.
I don't get this. But it was at the cross that the pinnacle
of glory was achieved for God. And it was in this, when he single-handedly,
and I want to say that a lot, single-handedly, with absolutely
no help whatsoever, saved us, his people. And he brought them
before his Father. He then gets to say, look, you
want to see my glory? You want to see how great I am?
You want to see how great my father is? It's very simple.
You see him right there. Remember how filthy and vile
and disgusting he was? Remember how many times he trespassed
against God's holy law? Do you remember him? Look at
him now. He's like fine linen, clean and white. Look at my glory,
my power, my ability. I was able to save even him right
there. This was the pinnacle of God's
glory. It was achieved at the cross. This is the accomplishment
of peace. Colossians 1.20 says this, and
having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to
reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven. What happened at the
cross? What was accomplished? Peace. The Lord Jesus Christ
made our peace with God. Now there's a word here that
I really like. It's called reconcile. I like
that word, but I want everybody here to be very clear on what
that word means. Now, when we think of human reconciliation,
here's what we think of. You think of two parties, and they're
at odds, but they're both kind of wrong, right? There's wrongdoing
on both sides, but they come together, and both sides make
compromises, and having made compromises and concessions,
they come together, and they settle the difference, and they're
reconciled, right? That's human reconciliation. Let me be very
clear. That is not what this is talking
about. In this relationship between God the Father and us, there
is only one offended party. And there is only one offending
party. We are that offending party. We are the ones who sinned
against Him. And make no mistake, God is absolutely
non-compromising. He is going to make absolutely
no compromises in this thing. If He sees sin on a man, there
is only one thing He is going to do. He is going to kill that man.
That's it. He is completely non-compromising.
But the Lord Jesus Christ came in. And having been made our
sin, He removed the reason for the enmity, our sin. He bore
it in His body, He put it away on the cross, and now He reconciled
every member of the elect back to His Father. We're reconciled.
I in Him, He in me, all of us in the Father, all together reconciled,
all together. He made peace. It means God's
not mad at you. He's not mad at me. He's not
angry with us in any way, shape, and form. And every day we live
with that thinking, He's going to get me today. He's angry at
me today. He's not. Whatever it is you've
done, whatever it is you've thought, the Lord Jesus Christ bore that
in His body and He put it away. And complete reconciliation has
been made. You lack nothing. This one I want you to turn to.
Turn to Colossians 2. Colossians 2, and look at verse
13. And you, being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it." Now there's a lot going on there, so I want to
talk about it for a second. This handwriting of ordinances, what
is that talking about? That's God's holy law. These principalities
and powers that are being talked about here, what is that? Talking
about Satan and his army of demons. How is Satan referred to in the
scriptures? What is he? He is the accuser of the brethren. Revelation tells us he stands
day and night before God, accusing the brethren. What does he use
to accuse us with? The handwriting of ordinances,
God's holy law. He waltzes in front of God, and he stands next
to his holy law, and he points to a member of the elect, he
points to me, and he says, I've watched him, I've watched him
since he was born. And I've all gotten all written right here.
He offended in this point on this day. He offended in this
point on that day. I got it all written down. Look how thick
that binder is. And I haven't even gotten to
His heart yet. This is just what He's done outwardly. Right? He's offended
in this point, in this point, in this point. I've got them
all handwritten out right here. Now tell me how you can be merciful
to Him and still be a just God. So the Father looks. He says,
let me look at it. He says, I see nothing. I see absolute perfection. I love Him. I see righteousness
in Him. I see absolute perfection in
Him. All those handwriting of ordinances you have right there,
everything you've written down, I nailed that to the cross. I
put them in my Son. He became their sin. And I nailed
Him to that cross and He bled and died and He put that away.
And now I see nothing but perfection. This was the accomplishment of
God's holy law. Now, God's law demands two things. If a man
break God's holy law, that man must die. He must be punished.
And that's what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross.
We offended against the law, but he became our offense, our
trespass. And he bled and died, and he put it away so it is no
more. But the law also says this. I can't just be neutral. I can't
just have not broken the law. I have to have kept the law.
I have. The Lord Jesus Christ took care
of that, too. When He came to this earth and He lived that
perfect life, and He honored God's holy law completely, I
honored it too in Him. The law has been 100% completely
accomplished in every way, shape, and form. I demand a punishment.
He was punished. I demand to be kept. You're kept.
What are we lacking in the law? Nothing. The law has absolutely
nothing to say to us. Don't try to keep the law. You
kept it. You kept it in the person of Christ. Hebrews 12.2 says this. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. This was an accomplishment
of joy. The Lord Jesus Christ actually
did this with joy. Now, when it says here, despising
the shame, that gives us some understanding of his true suffering. I wouldn't take anything away
from the physical suffering of crucifixion. It sounds absolutely
terrible. But remember who we're talking about here. This is the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is the strong one. This
is the warrior of warriors. A little physical pain, even
a lot, this man could take it. The pain he suffered was being
made our sin. It was a holy man being made
sin and the shame he experienced. But so much more, it was who
he experienced it from and in front of. I saw this scripture
earlier today and I want to show it to you. Go to Psalm 55. Psalm 55. And what
we're about to read, the Lord's going to describe, this is Messianic,
what he felt when his father turned his wrath against him.
And this is interesting. Look at this. Psalm 55, look
at verse 12. He says, for it was not an enemy
that reproached me. Then I could have borne it. Neither
was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me.
Then I would have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a
man mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance. We took sweet
counsel together and we walked unto the house of God in company.
Here's what he's talking about right here. It's who laid his
wrath upon him. It's who he was made to an open
shame in front of. It's his father. It's his father. He experienced all this from
and in front of his father. This was the suffering that he
suffered. But keep in mind, as terrible
as that is, he did that all with joy. And here was his joy, that
he could claim you. You. Now, the example I'm going
to give you has to do with giving birth. And so I've only seen
one woman give birth, and that's my wife, so I have to use her
as the example. But I remember both our kids being born, but
I remember Macy, our first one, more than anybody else. I remember
Jamie becoming pregnant. I remember the whole time she
was ready to deliver. She was ready to meet that baby. She
was excited about it. And finally, she went into labor.
We went to the hospital, and she knew what she was getting
herself into. She knew it was going to be a whole lot of pain. It was going
to be a whole lot of suffering, a whole lot of travail. And she went,
and I watched her, and she did. She travailed. It was suffering.
It was pain. It was crying. It was a bloody mess. But at
the end, when she delivered, they took Macy out, and they
did that aftercare stuff and cleaned her up, and they took
her and they laid her on Jamie's chest. And I looked in those
eyes, those eyes that had been crying and so suffering, and
there was nothing but complete joy. The suffering meant nothing
to her, absolutely nothing. She'd do it all over again. She
did. We had another one. It was all worth it to have that
baby, to hold that baby, to have her. That's a bad example because
it doesn't even begin to express the joy that the Lord Jesus Christ
experienced. He went through all that suffering, all that
travail, but He was all worth it to claim Him right there. He's mine. Do it all over again.
It was worth it just to have Him. This was an act of pure
joy. What do you say about that? It's amazing. The love of God
for us. To close, I want to close with
Galatians 5.11. Turn there if you would. It's the last thing I want to
say about His cross. And I, brethren, this is Paul
speaking, if I yet preach circumcision Why do I yet suffer persecution?
Then is the offense of the cross ceased. Now, what is it to preach
circumcision? What does it mean? It means to
preach salvation by works. It means to preach the law. And
here's how it gets displayed in our day. It's taken on many
forms in many generations, but this is it in our day. You must
have Christ and. I make the shed blood of Jesus
Christ a universal thing. He shed his blood for everybody,
which completely takes away my hope. Because it means there's
a bunch of people in hell that he shed his blood for. They say
he shed his blood for everybody and there's something you must
do, something you have to come up with all by yourself to make
his work effectual for you. That's what it is to preach circumcision.
Right there. But here's what the cross says.
The cross says there's nothing you can do. There's nothing God
will accept from you. There's absolutely nothing you
can do. You are in the hands of a sovereign God, and He can
save you or He can pass you by. And your only hope is that Jesus
Christ, before the foundation of the world were ever built,
shed His precious blood for you. That is your only hope. And there
are going to be two people that will listen to that. The first
person is going to get offended. They will be offended by the
cross. It's gonna offend their sense of self-righteousness?
Say, I'm not that bad? What do you mean God won't accept
something from me? I can come up with something. Nothing. He
will accept absolutely nothing from you. Nothing. It offends a man's sense of free
will. What do you mean God chooses? It's up to me, right? I gotta
make a decision anytime I want. No, it's up to Him. Man's offended
by the cross. And he walks away and he says,
I won't have that man to rule over me. Suit yourself. There's another
man here. There's a man who knows that's
exactly where he sits. He sits in the hands of a sovereign God
and his only hope is that the shed blood of Jesus Christ was
shed for him. That's his only hope. And you
know what? If that's you, you have something.
You know what it's called? It's called faith. A simple reliance
in the shed blood of Jesus Christ alone. That's it. And if you
have that, Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It is the
evidence of things not seen. You couldn't see that your name
was on his heart when he was nailed to that cross. You couldn't
see that it was wrath that was stowed up for you that was being
poured down upon him. You couldn't see that it was
for the joy of having you that he did all this. You couldn't
see that, but this faith is the evidence that yes, it was in
fact you. and you are complete in Him. You lack absolutely nothing. What is the message of this scripture,
every other scripture? What is the message of the gospel?
It's the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ and Him crucified. Gathering will leave you there.