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  • This is for everyone here today.

  • I was going to preach on one thing and when I walked in, I kind of just

  • realized I needed to preach on something else, something that's very dear to me.

  • We may be here for a while,

  • but this is so necessary.

  • If you want to know what this congregation is about,

  • this is what you're going to learn today.

  • It's about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and you say:

  • ?Oh, I know that!?

  • No, you don't and neither do I.

  • I know something about it; you know something about it,

  • but you do not know all that is to know.

  • Today in America, we're basically told that the Gospel is kind of the first thing you

  • learn and then you go on to something much greater. No.

  • As I said the other night,

  • the moment Jesus returns, you'll know all about the second coming

  • but you'll be an eternity of eternities in heaven and you still will not comprehend

  • all the glory of God revealed in His Gospel.

  • I'm going to talk about the Gospel and I'm going to share some things that maybe

  • you have never heard before.

  • I want us to begin actually in 2nd Corinthians.

  • Let's go there, 2nd Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 20 and 21.

  • "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us;

  • we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."

  • That's my plea to you today, to be reconciled to God,

  • to be Christian, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

  • Now, here's the problem: there's so many people who say that today but then they begin

  • to lead you maybe through a little program,

  • a few questions, and if you say yes to every one of those questions, in the end they'll ask you

  • if you want to repeat a prayer after them. And if you do that, they'll say:

  • "You're saved! Welcome to the family of God!" And, I'm sorry, I'm not going to do that.

  • I will tell you about the Gospel

  • and I will plead with you to turn from your sin and to believe in Jesus Christ.

  • I will tell you how a person may have assurance; how they may know that they are saved,

  • but I cannot tell you: "you are saved", it is the work of the Holy Spirit.

  • And I will warn you with many Gospel warnings that no matter how often you cry out to God

  • to be saved or how much faith you think you have, if your life does not begin to change,

  • there is little evidence that you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ unto salvation.

  • This is the old way and as an ambassador I have to make that clear.

  • But also I have to make clear to you what is the Gospel and we're going to do that today.

  • Now, in verse 21 Paul is writing, speaking of God in Christ, it says that "He made Him,"

  • God made Jesus, "who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,

  • so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

  • I know that you've heard this verse before, but do you understand it?

  • Let's look at the first part: He, God, made Him, Jesus, who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.

  • You know, there are many things that Jesus did, that were quite amazing, weren?t they?

  • I mean absolutely astounding: He cast out demons, He walked across the water,

  • He calmed the seas, He the raised the dead.

  • He did so many things, but, you know, what I believe is the most astounding thing about Christ:

  • He was without sin.

  • I want you to think about that. You say, oh yes, He never violated the law of God.

  • That is true, but let's go deeper than that, I want you to think.

  • In all your life, in all your entire life and mind,

  • there has never been one moment, one moment

  • that you loved God as God deserves to be loved.

  • Do you realize that?

  • There's not one moment in your entire life that you have loved God as God deserves to be loved.

  • And yet, Christ loved the Father every moment of every day of His life exactly as the Father deserved to be loved.

  • There's never been one moment in your life or mine, when we have done what we've done

  • perfectly for the glory of God.

  • Not one time, but every action, every word, every thought that Christ ever did, that He ever

  • had, every one of those, He did them perfectly for the glory of God.

  • Do you want to be saved by your own good works? Then this is what you have to do:

  • you have to replicate, imitate

  • Jesus Christ in every way from the moment of birth to the moment of death.

  • I think you can see: you failed.

  • Think about that.

  • Someone asked me one time: "brother Paul, what's the greatest sin?"

  • and just kind of joking around with them, I said: "well, I suppose the greatest sin would be to

  • break the greatest command."

  • The greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

  • You've never done that, and neither have I. But Christ always did that, think about that.

  • What a person He was, what a magnificent person that walked upon this earth.

  • But it says here: "He made Him, who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf."

  • Now, what does that mean?

  • If you know anything about

  • theology, you know this: we're getting into a very dangerous place right now.

  • What does it mean that the Father made Him to be sin on our behalf?

  • Some of the greatest theologians in the world have said: "be very, very careful

  • what you say now, don't say too much, don't say too little.

  • This is a very difficult text." See, you've read it many times but have you ever sat down and said:

  • "what is He saying?"

  • Does it mean that when Jesus Christ was on the cross, somehow

  • His perfect nature became defiled and corrupted, became sinful? That He somehow devolved from this magnificent being

  • that He was into something morally grotesque and defiled, like sin? Is that what it means?

  • Absolutely not!

  • There was never a moment on that cross when He was anything other than the spotless Lamb of God.

  • Absolutely perfect.

  • Then what does it mean that He was made sin?

  • Well, the answer is in the second part of this verse.

  • It says: "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,

  • that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

  • Now, all we have to do is ask ourselves: How does a believer become righteous?

  • What does it mean that a believer becomes righteous? Well, this is what it means: the moment

  • that a person believes in Jesus Christ, it does not mean that at that moment they become

  • perfectly righteous and never sin again,

  • it doesn't mean they become a perfectly righteous creature incapable of sinning.

  • The term is a legal term, a forensic term. It means this:

  • that the moment you believe in Jesus Christ, before the Throne of God

  • you are legally declared to be right with Him.

  • And not only are you legally declared to be right with God now,

  • but God treats you as one who is right with Him. Isn't that a magnificent truth?

  • He's declared you right with Him legally, because of what Christ did for you.

  • And then He treats you as someone right with Him not based on how you lived

  • that particular day, but based upon the perfect finished work of Christ.

  • Let's take that over to what it means that God "made Him who knew no sin to be sin

  • on our behalf."

  • It does not mean that on the cross Christ became corrupted

  • or defiled in any way as to His person or His nature. It means this:

  • that the sin of God's people was imputed to Christ.

  • Our sin was put on Him.

  • When a believer believes in Jesus, not only are they pardoned,

  • but the righteousness of Christ is given to them. It's as though they're dressed in Christ?s righteousness.

  • On that tree our sin was put upon Christ. Do you see that?

  • It was imputed to Him, considered to be His. Even though He was the spotless,

  • undefiled, impeccable Lamb of God,

  • our sin was placed upon Him,

  • our guilt was placed upon Him and the Father treated Him as He should have treated us.

  • Do you see that? How should He have treated us?

  • The wrath of God,

  • the righteous anger of God should have been poured out on all humanity because of our

  • crimes, but our guilt was placed upon Christ and what we deserved was placed upon Him.

  • The guilt He bore was our guilt, it was an imputed guilt, but that does not lessen the pain of it.

  • It was real guilt.

  • Imagine a man who is born in sin, who lives in sin all of his life.

  • He is a man of unclean lips and he dwells among the people of unclean lips. He's accustomed

  • to sin and he's accustomed to judgment. He's accustomed to God's frown and yet the

  • bible says: when he dies and stands before God, it will be horrifying

  • for that sinful creature to stand before a holy God. The shame!

  • Even though this man's heart is as heart as stone, he will bear an unbelievable shame

  • because of his sin. Now imagine this:

  • the holy undefiled Son of God who knew nothing of sin, had never offended His Father, only

  • knew His Father smile and that is all. On that tree in one moment

  • He bore all your sin and all your guilt and He felt the Father's frown.

  • There's no way to describe what that is like.

  • Imagine for a moment that some of you ladies, who have never, never even hardly touched your toe to the pavement,

  • you've lived a sheltered life of all cleanliness and goodness.

  • And you go up, let's say to Chicago and you're witnessing on the streets

  • and you come amongst a group of prostitutes, hardened and defiled, corrupted.

  • And you begin to witness to them and all of a sudden the police show up and grab all

  • of you and throw you in the paddy wagon.

  • Now, the prostitutes have been through this a million times haven't they?

  • They're laughing, joking and cussing at the policemen

  • but you, you can hardly breath. Your shame is so great, you feel so soiled.

  • You've never experienced anything like that in your life. And then they take you down to

  • the precinct and they handle you roughly

  • and they fingerprint you and they make fun of you and they take your picture and then throw

  • you in jail. And while you're sitting there in that cell, all the other prostitutes are

  • just talking about who's going to come and bail them out and they're

  • filing their nails and telling jokes and having a good time and it doesn't bother them at all.

  • But you, you are eaten up inside, the shame of it...

  • Do you see? You're not accustomed to such things and you feel soiled.

  • Now, imagine the Christ, who knew no sin and yet on that tree

  • your guilt, your sin was imputed to Him and the Father treated the Son

  • as He should have treated you. Now that's an amazing, an amazing thing.

  • There's a text of Scripture, in the book of Galatians, chapter 3, that says this,

  • verse 10: "cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in

  • the book of the law, to perform them."

  • Now I want to talk about you and I prior to Christ and I'm going to say some very

  • very hard things but the reason I'm going to say them

  • is, so that in the end you get an idea of what Jesus did for you.

  • "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law, so as to perform them."

  • That's you and I under a curse. One who has broken one commandment of the Law is guilty as though he has broken all of them.

  • And indeed we have broken all of the Law.

  • There isn't a commandment you can find that you and I have not violated in some way.

  • And the Bible says that because of that we are under a curse. Prior to Christ we are under a curse.

  • Now, to be under a curse is to be under the band, it's to be cut off from God and cut off from His people.

  • But I like to? I feel most effective when I describe it in this way:

  • to be under a curse means that before all of the holy heavens,

  • all those blessed creatures that dwell in the presence of God,

  • you and I, were so defiled, so dark, so disgusting,

  • so twisted, so loathsome before all of them,

  • that the last thing we would have heard when we took our first step into hell,

  • would have been all of Creation standing to its feet

  • and applauding and praising God because He has rid the earth of us.

  • That's how bad man is.

  • And if you don't like that then you can't like the Gospel.

  • This is the reality of our sin.

  • You say: "brother Paul, why do you say this?"

  • Because I want you to love God, I want you to appreciate the Gospel.

  • You see, a rich man would care nothing if I offered him a baloney sandwich.

  • A starving man would kiss my hand if I gave him such a meal.

  • You see, the more we realize how truly dark and twisted and bent and dislocated

  • and defiled and loathsome that we were prior to coming to Christ,

  • then we can rejoice in what Jesus has done for us,

  • especially because we know that He had to bear that in our place.

  • Christ bore the curse, He bore the curse.

  • He suffered the curse that was mine, He suffered the curse that was yours, do you see that?

  • What a price He paid! Once you understand that, then you never question again whether or not

  • He loves you.

  • If you'll do that, He'll do anything.

  • Now, in order to give you an idea of what it's like, what it was like for Christ to suffer under our curse,

  • I want us just to turn for a moment to Matthew 5 and the Beatitudes.

  • Let's take the Beatitudes and turn them around. Because the Beatitudes are all about God's blessings.

  • Let's turn them around a bit and see what we can learn about the cross from the Beatitudes.

  • It says the blessed are granted the kingdom of heaven.

  • "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

  • The blessed are granted the kingdom of heaven, but the cursed are refused entrance.

  • You see, yours is the kingdom of heaven because Christ bore the curse and was refused entrance

  • when He cried out: "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?"

  • You see, every time someone asks you: "How are you doing?" and you go: "I'm blessed",

  • just realize this: the only reason you're blessed is because He was cursed.

  • It adds all new meaning to it, doesn't it? It cuts out all the superficiality.

  • The blessed are recipients of divine comfort; the cursed are objects of divine wrath.

  • Paul talks about the comfort that is given to him and with that comfort he can comfort others.

  • The book of Psalms chapter 103 tells us about God's comfort to the believer.

  • The only reason there is that comfort to the believer is because Christ was cursed on that tree.

  • The blessed are satisfied, the cursed are miserable and wretched.

  • The blessed receive mercy, the cursed are condemned without pity.

  • Just today, between getting up and coming to the church, I sinned enough to die.

  • The mercy that I received! And it's only because He was cut off on that tree.

  • The blessed shall see God; the cursed are cut off from His presence.

  • The blessed are sons and daughters of God; the cursed are disowned in disgrace.

  • "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"

  • Because on that tree the holy Son of God bore our sin and bore our curse. He was treated

  • by his Father as you and I should be treated before God. Now, let's go on.

  • I want to give you a little bit of just a kind of Old Testament lesson, just a history

  • lesson for just a moment. In the twenty-seventh

  • and twenty-eighth chapters of the book of Deuteronomy God divided the nation of Israel into two groups.

  • One group was on Mount Gerizim and the other was on Mount Ebal.

  • Now, the ones that were on Mount Ebal had the obligation to pronounce the curses, to vocalize the curses

  • that were to be placed upon anyone who broke God's commandments and violated His covenant.

  • And then on Gerizim all the blessings were to be pronounced, vocalized. From that mountain screamed forth

  • in a loud voice, all the blessings that were to fall upon the head of the one who kept God's covenant

  • and obeyed all His commands. Just so you see what we have here: two mountains,

  • Mount Ebal and the proclamation of curses falling on anyone who's disobedient to the Law

  • and Mount Gerizim and the proclamation of blessing pronounced upon anyone who was obedient, who was a covenant keeper.

  • Here's what I want you to see: your mountain, my mountain is Mount Ebal.

  • We have broken God's covenant, we have disobeyed every command, all of us, everyone of us.

  • There's only one group of men, there's only one race of men, there aren't many races of men.

  • We all come from Adam, we are all sons of our father Adam and everyone of us, like our father,

  • has been disobedient, has broken God's commandment. Do you see that?

  • We've broken His covenant, everyone of us. We are united in rebellion against God, we are family.

  • So Mount Ebal is ours, Mount Gerizim belonged to Christ, the only One who was the covenant keeper.

  • He kept every commandment of His Father.

  • He honored the covenant every second of His life, He did, He did, He did.

  • But on the cross it was switched: the Christ who was the only covenant keeper

  • who ever walked on this planet, is placed on the tree

  • and all the curses of Mount Ebal are placed upon His head. And I want to read those curses

  • but I want you to think about them as they fall upon Christ.

  • Quoting here something that R.C. Sproul said a few years ago:

  • "When Christ, bearing the guilt of His people looked up into heaven and cried out

  • 'My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?', the Father looked back at the Son

  • with a frown full of wrath and said ?your God damns you?.

  • Now think about that.

  • You should be damned, I should be damned forever.

  • In order for us to be saved someone had to be damned, to be cursed, to be punished in our place.

  • Here are the covenant curses from the Law,

  • I'm just going to read them and will apply them to Christ. It's though

  • when the Son looked up at the Father, the Father said this back to Him: "The Lord sends upon

  • you curses, confusion and rebuke ... until you are destroyed and until you parish quickly." (Dt 28:20)

  • "The Lord smite you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart; and

  • you will grope at noon, as the blind man gropes in darkness ... with none to save you." (Dt 28:28-29)

  • "The Lord delights over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land." (Dt 28:63)

  • ?The Lord curses you in the city and cursed shall you be in the field.? (Dt 28:16) "Cursed shall you be when

  • you come in and coursed shall you be when you go out." (Dt 28:19)

  • "The heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron." (Dt 28:23)

  • "You shall be... a proverb, and a taunt of terror among all the people." (Dt 28:37)

  • "Let all these curses come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed,

  • because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which

  • He commanded you." (Dt 28:45)

  • He was cursed on that tree as a man who makes an idol and sets it up in secret.

  • He was cursed as one who dishonors his father or mother, who moves his neighbors' boundary mark

  • or misleads a blind person on the road.

  • He was cursed as one who distorts the justice to an alien, orphan and widow. He was cursed

  • as one who is guilty of every manner of immorality and perversion,

  • who wounds his neighbor in secret or accepts a bribe to strike down the innocent.

  • He was cursed as one who does not conform or confirm the words of the Law by doing them.

  • All of the curses that should have fallen upon your head, and fallen upon mine,

  • fell upon Christ, the holy, precious Son of God.

  • God is holy and He is just. He cannot simply ignore your sin, He can't pass over it.

  • He cannot just forgive you;

  • payment must be made. The righteousness of God must be satisfied before there can be peace.

  • The only way to satisfy that justice is for wrath to be poured out on the head of

  • the sinner. But Christ took the place of the sinner and suffered what the sinner deserves.

  • There's an amazing passage in Proverbs that says this:

  • "Like a sparrow in its flitting,

  • like a sparrow in its flying, so a curse without cause does not alight." (Prov 26:2)

  • No curse could alight upon Christ. He was holy, He was blameless.

  • Then how did the curse alight upon One, the only covenant keeper? How did it happen?

  • Because on that tree that Covenant Keeper bore your sin. He bore every violation

  • that you have committed against the righteousness of God.

  • The Psalmist, David, cried out this: "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!

  • How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there

  • is no deceit." (Ps 32:1-2) Now, look at this:

  • "blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered"

  • God can not cover sin, He can't just cover it as though it never happened.

  • That would make Him just as unjust as us. He can?t cover it, He has to take it away, it has to be paid for.

  • That's what happened on that tree. Do You see? Maybe you really never have understood the Gospel.

  • You see, you can't contain this in four spiritual laws or a tract that's about five things God wants you to know.

  • This is the Gospel!

  • You think there's no power in the Gospel? It's because no one is preaching it.

  • There is power in the Gospel, but this Gospel is scandalous.

  • Men hate it, they're offended by it, they grit their teeth.

  • They've refused to hear because it tells man what he is and

  • he doesn't want to hear it. But he must hear it in order to be saved.

  • Now, "how blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man

  • to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity." Now I've written here:

  • yet on the cross the sin imputed to Christ was exposed before God and the Host of Heaven.

  • He was placarded before men and made a spectacle to angels and devils alike.

  • The transgressions He bore were not forgiven Him and the sins He carried were not covered.

  • If a man is counted blessed because iniquity is not imputed to him,

  • then Christ was cursed beyond measure because the iniquity of us all fell upon Him.

  • Christ was treated as the covenant breaker in the description in the renewal of the covenant in Moab.

  • Now, listen very carefully! In the renewal of the covenant in Moab God says something very important

  • about the one who breaks His covenant. And listen to the language because in this language

  • I hear something that's telling me to look farther on down the line in history

  • to someone who would come and put an end to this matter. This is what it says

  • against the covenant breaker: "the anger of the Lord and His jealousy will burn against that man,

  • and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him." (Dt 29:20) You see, He's talking about you! And me!

  • "and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven." Your name should be blotted out and so should mine.

  • "Then the Lord will single him out for adversity" (Dt 29:21)

  • He should call you and me out of the group for one purpose, to punish us.

  • "from all the tribes of Israel, according to all of the curses of the covenant which are

  • written in the book of the law.? Don?t you see? You and I are that man.

  • But Christ became that man who was singled out from all the tribes of Israel.

  • The one covenant keeper, who obeyed everything God ever said

  • is singled out, is sent to the tree, goes willingly and on that

  • cross He bore our sin, He bore our guilt, He carried our curse

  • and He was treated as such before a holy God.

  • Do you know? Let's just go there for a moment, go to Numbers chapter 6.

  • Look at verse 24: we have what is called Aaron's benediction.

  • This was the blessing that was to be spoken to the people of God.

  • Verse 24: "The Lord bless you, and keep you;

  • the Lord make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance

  • on you, and give you peace." That's the heritage of God's people,

  • that's what has been given to you. But now you ask the very important question:

  • "How could such a blessing be given to such a sinner as I??

  • It is because this blessing was turned on its head and poured out on Christ:

  • "The Lord curse you, the Lord give you over to destruction;

  • the Lord take His light of His presence from you and condemn you; the Lord turn his face from

  • you and fill you with misery so that you cry out 'My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me??

  • I want us to think about something for a moment.

  • When you hear preaching, especially at Easter, about the cross of Christ, you hear about

  • nails in His hands and whips and what the Romans did to him.

  • And that's very important to proclaim, but if that's all you hear about the cross, that He was beaten, that He was nailed to a

  • tree, that a crown of thorns was on His head, that a spear went into His side,

  • then you have not heard the cross preached; you have not heard the cross preached.

  • I remember when Mel Gibson came out with the movie "The Passion", which I've never seen,

  • but I remember getting so many emails from pastors all around the country saying: "What do you think about that movie?

  • Do you accept it? Do you have problems with it?" and I wrote every one of them back: "I have

  • more problems with the way pastors preach the gospel than I do with Mel Gibson's movie."

  • Mel Gibson's movie apparently, from what I'm told, attempted to show

  • the grotesque physical torture that Christ underwent on behalf of man.

  • And I assure you, it was far worse than what anybody could portray, because

  • it says that He was so disfigured as a human being that you could no longer tell He was a man.

  • So that is important, but that is not even the beginning of what happened.

  • Do you remember when Jesus was in the garden and he cried out "Let this cup pass from me, let this cup pass from me, let

  • this cup pass from me"? Everyone always asks the question "What was in the cup?

  • What was in the cup? What is it that Christ agonized over in the cup?"

  • And I heard people say "Well you know, Christ could foresee the cat of nine tails coming

  • across His back and Christ could foresee the crown of thorns and

  • Christ could foresee the nails in His hands and what the Romans would do to Him.

  • No!

  • Do you think Christ was afraid of a Roman cross?

  • Let me prove you wrong here just by history: after Christ died, at least for the next 300 years

  • thousands upon tens of thousands possibly of Christians were crucified

  • and we have the testimony that most of them, many of them went to the cross singing hymns,

  • counting it a joy to die for their Master. Now, are you going to tell me that the

  • followers of Jesus Christ joyfully accepted the cross,

  • being nailed to a tree, while the Captain of their Salvation was terrorized in the garden?

  • Do you honestly think the Captain of our Salvation, the Mighty Christ,

  • the One True Israel was trembling over what the Romans could do to Him?

  • The cup, although it contained a Roman cross, was not filled with a Roman cross.

  • That cup was filled with the wrath of Almighty God.

  • The judgment, the fierce, holy hatred of God against our sin!

  • That is what Christ wished to detour, but being obedient to His Father, He said "Not my will, but Yours."

  • Let me share with you first of all from Psalm 75 and then Jeremiah 25.

  • Psalms 75:8 "For a cup is in the hand of the Lord and the wine foams; it is well mixed

  • and He pours out of this; surely all of the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs.?

  • It's a cup for the wicked of the earth, it is the judgment of God for the wicked of the earth. And then Jeremiah 25

  • says this: (from verse 15)

  • "For thus the Lord, the God of Israel says to me 'Take this cup of the wine of wrath

  • from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.

  • They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them." Can?t you see?

  • The cup that was dreaded by Christ was the wrath of God that you and I should suffer, but that He suffered in our place.

  • This is the Gospel, this is what happened on that tree. Let's go on.

  • Just two illustrations quickly: imagine a dam filled to the brim,

  • a thousand miles high and a thousand miles wide.

  • And at the bottom of that dam is your tiny village, an eighth of a mile away, in the ravine.

  • And all of a sudden, you wake up one morning and you hear one mighty crack. And the wall of

  • that dam has totally disintegrated

  • and within a matter of a second or two you will perish to be disintegrated, to never be seen

  • again on the face of the earth.

  • And as you look in horror as that mighty deluge comes towards you, you recognize

  • that there is no one swift enough on foot to escape,

  • no one strong enough to swim against the torrent, everyone will perish.

  • And right before the water strikes your village, the ground opens up and swallows the mass of it down.

  • And not one drop, not one drop of that wave touches even the pant of your leg.

  • That's what Christ did on that tree for you.

  • Imagine one millstone weighing ten thousand pounds, sat upon another of the same weight.

  • You take a tiny piece of grain, tiny grain of wheat and you shove it in between the two.

  • In a fraction of a second the pressure against the hole explodes the thing and it's ground to nothing.

  • You see, it gives meaning to when Christ says,

  • "unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it abideth alone,

  • but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit."

  • Someone had to die. Someone.

  • I want to read you one of my favorite authors and one of the

  • most favorite things that's ever been written outside of Scripture.

  • It's from John Flavel, the old Puritan.

  • If you have a chance to read his first volume of his works, I would recommend you to do so.

  • He is describing here what I call the 'dialogue between the Father and the Son'

  • or 'The Father's Bargain', as Flavel calls it.

  • It's a discussion that could have happened in eternity about the sacrifice that Christ would give for His people.

  • Here's what Flavel says: Here you may suppose the Father to say, when driving His bargain with Christ for you.

  • The Father is talking to the Son about 'how will this wicked people be saved?'

  • And the Father speaks: "My Son, here is a company of poor, miserable souls

  • that have utterly undone themselves and now lie open to my justice.

  • Justice demands satisfaction for them or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them."

  • Don't you see? It's not that there's some principle of justice hanging over the head of God that He has to

  • submit to, and therefore He cannot simply pardon, but a payment must be made. No, God is just.

  • He is consistent and perfect in all His attributes. He cannot love and save at the expense of His justice.

  • I've heard preachers say this before: "instead of being just with you, God was loving."

  • Well, if you study logic, you realize that means that God's love is unjust.

  • No, my friend. God has to be just and loving at the same time.

  • In His justice He condemned you, in His love He became a man and stood in your place and paid

  • the crime, your crime.

  • And then the Father asked the Son "What shall be done for these souls?" and thus Christ returns,

  • this is the Son speaking: "Oh, my Father! Such is my love to

  • and pity for them." Now think about this. I don't want you as a group,

  • but as individuals to think about this.

  • He looks at you. And he says this: Father, such is my love to this one person and my pity for them."

  • After they've broken every command, He still says "Such is my love, and such is my pity."

  • Proud men say "I don't want your pity."

  • You need his pity. You need his pity. We are pitiful.

  • He says "Such is my love to and pity for them that rather than they shall perish eternally

  • I will be responsible for them as their guarantee. Bring in all Thy bills, Father, that I may see what they owe Thee."

  • Sometimes a young man will get married. And after he gets married,

  • he'll start getting a little shaky on his commitment. He said "I had no idea that marriage was this tough."

  • "I don't know if this is really what I'm made to do." You see, he was

  • boasting about how much he would love this girl. He had no idea the commitment he was

  • going to have to make, but that is not true with Christ. Here He says to the Father "Father,

  • bring in everything they owe Thee, let me see it."

  • Imagine this: He sees everything that you owe justice.

  • He doesn't go to that cross blindly; He doesn't get on the cross and say "No Father, I don't

  • want to do this, I didn't know it would cost so much."

  • He knew from eternity how much it would cost Him and yet He still did it.

  • But listen to this: "Bring in all Thy bills that I may see what they owe Thee."

  • "Lord, bring them all in." Now listen. Believers,

  • if this doesn't make you so happy you weep or cry out for joy, you're not understanding

  • what I'm saying. "He says bring in all the bills.

  • Bring them all in that there may be no after reckonings with them."

  • Do you see what He's saying?

  • Bring in every one of their bills from the time they were born till the time they die, everything

  • they owe Thee, Father bring them all in."

  • I want to see them all, and on that tree I want to pay for them all there so that You

  • never have to deal with them again with regard to their sin. Do you see that believer?

  • He never has to deal with you again! It's over!

  • All your crimes are paid for! Your crimes in the past, your crimes in the present,

  • your crimes you're going to commit in the future. All of them paid for.

  • And some people say "Well if you tell that to people they'll just sin."

  • No, they won't, not true believers.

  • Carnal, wicked, lost church members will hear that and go on sinning. But believers will say

  • "If His love is like that, if He has set me free completely, I'm His! I don't want to sin anymore!"

  • "I don't want to sin anymore!"

  • You see, brothers, that's what leads to holiness, that's why the Gospel is called "The Mystery of Godliness". (1Timothy 3:16)

  • You see that? It's the thing that produces godliness in the believer.

  • Yes, there are commands and there are rules, but that's not what makes us godly.

  • What makes us godly is knowing that Jesus died and that He died for me.

  • And when He died, He paid for every sin, past, present and future. And God will never again,

  • never call me into His judgment hall to judge me. Never again!

  • I'm free! I'm free! Oh, thank God, I'm free!

  • And you say "But brother Paul, it says that there's going to be a judgment for a believer." (2Cor 5:10) Ya, but listen to this.

  • In that judgment, when you look up into the judge's face... it will be your Father. It will be your brother.

  • The One who judges you is the One who died for you. Don't you see that?

  • You're free. You're free!

  • No guilt! Always come to Him! Always go back to Him! Always run to Him! You're free! You finally

  • walked through a door that no one in this world knows anything about, it's unconditional love.

  • You're just loved and it can't be changed now! Because of that perfect work of Christ on that tree, on your behalf.

  • He says "At my hand shall Thou require it, Father. I will rather choose to suffer the wrath they deserve,

  • then they should suffer it. Upon me, my Father, upon me place all their debt." This is amazing!

  • Now listen to what the Father says: "But my Son, if Thou undertake for them," if you stand in their place, Son,

  • "Thou must reckon to pay the last mite." You must pay every penny. Now listen to this:

  • "Expect no abatements." He's saying "Son, don't expect the punishment

  • to fall on you to be anything less then what would fall upon them." And this is what the Father says:

  • "If I spare them, I will not spare you." Imagine that.

  • And then the Son says "Content, Father, let it be so. Charge it all upon me, I am able to discharge it."

  • That right there, that's a deity. No one can say that.

  • Angels can't say that, no one can say that, only the Mighty Christ, only the Son of God can discharge it,

  • He alone and no one else.

  • "And though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverished all my riches, empty all my treasures,

  • yet I am content to undertake it. Father, I am content, I'll do it. I want this."

  • Do you know, in Philippians, where it talks about "He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped.

  • He set that aside and He became a man. And not only a man, but a servant." (Phil 2:6-7)

  • Under the law of Israel, if a man was a servant to another man and yet,

  • in that house that he served, he gained for himself a wife and children,

  • when it came time for that man to be set free, if he passionately loved

  • the woman that was his and the children that belonged to him,

  • he would go to his master and say "I do not want to be set free, I'm content to stay here

  • with my wife and my children." And the master would take him over to a doorway

  • and take a sharp object like an ore or a knife or a nail and would pierce his ear.

  • Christ so loved you, so loved His bride, that He, who was ruler of all things,

  • the Heir of the Universe and beyond, He became a servant.

  • Because of His love for His bride, because of His love for you as individuals.

  • Now I want to end by just giving you another story from the Old Testament that's very important.

  • It's one of the most epic narratives in all the Bible.

  • This is what God says to an old man: ?Abraham,

  • take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac,

  • and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, of which I will tell you."

  • Guys, listen to the language here.

  • The Bible is inspired, it is the Word of God and there are little things left here and there,

  • they tell us more than what you would think at first.

  • God could have said this in a different way, but listen to how He speaks to Abraham: "Now take your son, your only son, whom you love."

  • Do you think that He's talking about something greater than the sacrifice of a boy named Isaac?

  • And He says "And go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering.?

  • We all know the story, the old man gathers up what he needs and he goes, makes the journey.

  • He leaves his servants behind at the foot of the mountain and he goes up,

  • and he is going to offer his son in obedience to God.

  • The old man grabs possibly even the old flint knife he used to circumcise,

  • and he rears back his hand and his will gives in to the will of God.

  • And right before he comes down with the blade upon the breast of his son,

  • his only son whom he loved, he hears this:

  • "Abraham, Abraham, do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him for now I know that

  • you fear God since you have not withheld, not withheld your son, your only son from me.?

  • And at that, Abraham raised his head and looked over and there was a ram in the thicket caught by its horns.

  • And he called the place Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide.

  • Now let me just stop here for second.

  • The prosperity preachers and such on television, that use this name, Jehovah Jireh,

  • and say "because of this He will give you a Mercedes", they have blasphemed,

  • and they have shown the real intention of their heart, that they are unconverted and they know not God.

  • Because they would rather have the things of this world than what God is really promising here:

  • His Son, His only Son, whom He loves.

  • Now, He will provide for His people, but, oh my dear friend, if you have the Christ,

  • what else do you need, what else do you need?

  • We hear this story come to an end and we think "wow, thank the Lord, the boy was spared,

  • what a great ending to the story." The only problem is, it wasn't the ending.

  • It was the intermission.

  • And when the curtain opens back up, there you see Him, a dark stage, a dim light, a cruel cross

  • and God's Son, His only Son, whom he loved, hanging on a cross.

  • And in order for God to be able to say to Abraham "Abraham, Abraham, stay your hand from the boy",

  • well, when Christ was on the tree, it's as though the Father took the knife out of Abraham's hand

  • and when Christ cried out "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?",

  • He drove the knife straight into the heart of His own Child.

  • You see, someone had to die under having suffered the wrath of God.

  • And you know we... Have you never read in Isaiah 53:10 "it pleased the Lord, it pleased Yahweh to crush Him"?

  • To crush Him, what do you think that means, to crush Him?

  • You see, to be honest with you, I really don't care whether you're self-fulfilled

  • or you experience self-realization, I really don't care if your checkbook is balanced.

  • This church is not designed for you to get your best life in this world,

  • this church and the preaching in this pulpit has one purpose,

  • that you will be reconciled to God and that you will love Him enough to throw away this world as though it were dung, 544 00:56:09,939 --> 00:56:17,229 and to follow Christ with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

  • And the motivation for it, for such a following, is not a preacher throwing guilt upon you

  • or manipulating you with the text. No, the motivation is here: He shared His own blood for your soul.

  • You are completely and perfectly loved in the state you are in right now. If you know

  • Christ, you do not have to move a quarter of an inch to the left or the right to be loved

  • any more then you will be loved in eternity. You are loved, it is that motivation.

  • You are free now from guilt, it is that motivation. Christ has paid it all, now walk in that, walk in that freedom.

  • No longer be afraid, rejoice! Be empowered by that, that He would pay such a price.

  • I am sure that none of you, even all of you combined, I am sure that you were not, in your unconverted state,

  • half as vile and wicked as me. But if knowledge that you were such a filthy man will drive you to want only Christ, then so be it.

  • Christ, Christ, Jesus Christ!

  • He's all, He?s everything, there?s nothing else! No, no!

  • ?What will we get here, brother Paul, if we come to this church?? You will get Christ.

  • If that is not enough, well, there are many other groups who will offer you all sorts of things.

  • It's Christ, Christ that you need!

  • And if you have Him, you have everything, absolutely everything. Turn to Christ.

  • I tell the young children: some of you?ve heard more Gospel than you could ever... then nations have heard.

  • Children, repent, turn from your sin and believe in Christ.

  • Adults, you may be sitting there saying "I've never, never had the love of God shed abroad

  • in my heart, my religion is in my head, it means nothing. Repent and turn to Christ.

  • What shall I do? Seek Him. And He will let Himself be found by you.

  • Seek Him. But I don't know how! We will stay here all day and all night opening up the Scriptures to you.

  • But we will not treat you with five minutes and then turn you away,

  • making you think you're saved and claiming you as one of our own.

  • Trust in Christ. I plead with you, trust in Christ.

  • And those of you students and others, who have all kinds of plans for your life,

  • it may be that God wants you to do exactly what you're doing, I do not know, but I know this:

  • you are to do it for His glory. For what He has done on that tree.

  • Everything you do, realize this, students.

  • If you have a passion for Christ, it does not mean that you're to go into some

  • ministry. What you need to understand is that if you truly believe in Christ,

  • there is nothing secular in your life that no matter what you become, it is holy unto

  • the Lord and it's to be used for Him. Only for Him, everything for Him.

  • If you need to talk about the condition of your soul today, then know this, I will be here, other men will be here.

  • Just talk to us, we would love to just share with you anything. If you're

  • saying "I don't even know if I'm saved", we'll open up the Scriptures and help you.

  • Help you to know what the Scriptures say about salvation.

  • And if you say "well, I'd just... my heart is growing dull. I know everything I need to know but my heart's just growing dull.

  • Then seek Him. Seek Him. Seek Him.

  • You don't need the council of men, you need to seek Him alone. Seek Him alone.

  • Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

  • Father, I come before you today and I pray, oh God.

  • Lord, we thank you for Jesus Christ.

  • We thank you, Lord, that the greatest poet, the greatest mind in the world could not even begin

  • to comprehend or express the greatness of Christ or the beauty therein.

  • Father, I pray for your people.

  • I pray for those who are here today that you would strengthen them in a love for Christ.

  • And that that love for Christ would drive them on.

  • But Lord, not so much that we love You but that You love us.

  • Lord, our love is not constant, but Your love is constant and a constant motivation.

  • Oh, God, work in our lives and in our hearts.

  • Change us, transform us to simply love and walk with Your Son.

  • In Jesus' name. Amen.

  • Please visit our website at heartcrymissionary.com

  • There you will find information about the ministry, our purpose, beliefs and methodologies

  • and extensive information about the missionaries we are privileged to serve.

This is for everyone here today.

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