SECRET CHURCH 6 The Cross of Christ Dr.

David Platt Father, we pray that by your spirit you would help us tonight to realize the glory of the truths we have just signed, that we would walk out of here six hours from now with a greater understanding of the depth of love and the magnitude of your glory that is displayed on the cross, that we would walk out of here tonight loving Christ more and looking more like Christ as a result. We praise you. Lord Jesus, we pray that tonight, by your spirit you would help us to see you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Good evening. You hold in your hand tonight the longest Secret Church we've had ever. This one this one is going to break the record tonight. It's the longest one we've had. Notice the spiral bounding. This is a first for us because of necessity. You would think you would think that in light of past experiences, things would get shorter, smaller. But here's what I'm thinking you dont need to turn here, but I just want to read you a text from Acts 20:7. Just listen to this picture. "On the first day of the week, we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people, and because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight." (Laughter) I just want to lay the biblical foundation for what we're doing tonight. It continues on, "There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting, seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on." (Laughter) "When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. Dont be alarmed, he said, he's alive. Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate and after talking until daylight, he left." Paul didnt get it, like even when people were falling asleep and dying as a result, he still doesnt get the hint. So, here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking if we stayed around here 'til daylight, some really interesting things could happen. You dont get that in a 20-minute Bible study. That doesnt happen. So, we're going to dive in tonight, and in all seriousness, we do have a lot of ground to cover. That's nothing new. How many of you, just out of curiosity, how many this is your first time to Secret Church? All right, the rookies around the room. Welcome for the first time to Secret Church. Feel free, rookies, first timers, to copy off the guy or the lady next to you. You will need them throughout the night, even though you may be coming in late and you're kind of scattered next to somebody you dont even know. You're going to be best friends by the end of the night because you will constantly be looking at each other. Here's what I want to start tonight by doing. I want to share something. It's something actually I shared with a faith family here at Brook Hills. A couple of months ago at the end of a series we walked through in Galatians, and it's actually a quote. It's a quote that I heard a preacher say at a very pivotal point in my life as a college student, and I know there's a lot of college students around this room tonight. But the preacher's name was John Piper, and he said these words, and I just dont think I can improve on them. It's kind of a long quote, but follow with me. He said, "You dont have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world, but you do have to know a few great things that matter and to be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but have been mastered by a few great things. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on for centuries into eternity, you dont have to have a high IQ. You dont have to have good looks or riches. You dont have to come from a fine family or fine school. You have to know a few great, majestic,

unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things and to be set on fire by them." He continued. He said, "But I know that not all of you want your life to make a difference. There are many of you, you dont care if you make a lasting difference for something great. You just want people to like you, or if you could just grow up and have a good job with a good wife and a couple of good kids and a nice car and long weekends and a few good friends, a fun retirement and quick and easy death and no hell, if you could have that, d be satisfied." And he said, "That's a tragedy in the making." Then he used two illustrations. He's a pastor, and he said, "Three weeks ago we got word at our church that Ruby Elias and Laura Edwards had both been killed in Cameroon. Ruby was over 80. Single all her life, she poured it out for one great thing, to make Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor and the sick. Laura was a widow, a medical doctor, pushing 80 years old and serving at Ruby's side in Cameroon. The brakes failed, the car went off the cliff and they were both killed instantly, and I asked my people, 'Was that a tragedy, two lives driven by one great vision, spent in unheralded service to the perishing poor for the glory of Jesus Christ, two decades after almost all their American counterparts have retired to throw their lives away on trifles in Florida or New Mexico?' No, that is not a tragedy. That is a glory. I'll tell you what a tragedy is," he said. "I'll read to you from Reader's Digest what a tragedy is. Bob and Penny took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida where they cruise on their 30-foot troller, play softball and collect shells. The American dream. Come to the end of your life, your one and only life and let the last great work before you give an account to your creator be, 'I collected shells. See my shells, God?' that is a tragedy, and people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream, and I want to plead with you dont buy it," and he pleaded with us not to buy it. And so tonight I want to speak to you, yes, to teach from the Bible, but to speak to every teenager and every college student and every man and every woman, every senior adult in this room, and I want to plead with you to make your life count for one thing. To be consumed by one thing, to be obsessed with one thing, and that one thing is the cross of Christ. And I want to submit to you tonight that if your life is not consumed with the cross of Christ, you will waste your life in this world. It will be wasted. That's how important I'm convinced what we are talking about tonight is. So, we're going to dive in, and we're going to look at the truth behind the cross of Christ on this Good Friday. You open up your notes, and you see the first page. It says "the cruciality of the cross." I want to set the stage here for where we are going. Kind of a play on words there, the crux of the crucifixion. Cruciality of the cross. 1 Corinthians 1:18, "The message of the cross is foolish to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." It's why Paul would say in 2:2, 1 Corinthians 2:2, "I resolve to know nothing among you except for Christ and him crucified." Christ and Him crucified was everything. So, here's why we are here tonight. First, to commemorate the historical reality of the cross, to commemorate the historical reality of the cross. This is Good Friday, and we are thinking tonight about real, historical events that happened approximately 2000 years ago. Some interesting quotes tried to litter throughout the beginning here just to give you a picture of Christ and history. Napoleon himself said, "Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me. His will confounds me. Between him and whoever else in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. I search in vain to find the similar to Jesus Christ or anything which can approach the gospel, neither history nor humanity nor the ages nor nature offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or explain it. Here everything is extraordinary." It was the person of Christ, and we all know, secular, Christian scholars alike would attribute great significance to the person of Christ;, but to the meaning of the cross, cross of the centerpiece of all history. Robert Leighton, "The whole world in comparison with the cross of

Christ is one great impertinence." Everything in history revolves around the cross, which is what we're going to look at tonight, but not just to look at the historical reality. Second, to explore the theological mystery of the cross. We're going to find tonight, historical facts about the cross, but even deeper theological mysteries behind the cross, and this is where we have to really tune in because I'm guessing most, if not all of us, are at least in some sense familiar with historical facts about the cross, and most, if not all of us, have probably even seen The Passion of the Christ. And many have even asked, "Are we going to have different clips tonight?" And we are not. The reason is because these images that we have fixed on our mind, if that is all we understand about the cross, we have a very shallow understanding of the cross. There are truths here that are far deeper. This is where all of Christian theology converges together. The doctrine of man, the doctrine of salvation, all of these doctrines come together right here, and if our doctrines are faulty about god and man and Christ and salvation, then we'll never understand the cross, and if our understanding of the cross is weak, so will our understanding of God we weak, and our understanding of ourselves will be weak, and our understanding of what it means to be saves will drift into, well, what we've created it to be today. It's from a lack of understanding about the theological mystery behind the cross, the doctrine of the death is the substance of the gospel, and it is the determinant of our eternity. I love this quote from Thomas Brooks, "Christ's blood is heaven's key." I am convinced that we are part of a church culture today that has manufactured a cross-less Christianity, and the result is we're going to talk about this in just a minute, but the result is I'm convinced there are scores of people who've embraced a Christianity that is minus the cross, and as a result, their eternity and their perception of where they're going for eternity is deceived because they bought into a gospel that's not a biblical gospel. So, my challenge really, more important than anything we do tonight, is to ask every one of you in this room, "Have you truly trusted the Christ of the cross?" And as we look at these truths tonight, ask yourself this is what your eternity is dependent on. Have you trusted the Christ of the cross? So, how do we come? We must come with deep humility. This is obviously an extremely humbling thing to dive into and study. Facts of the cross. Got this quote from _________, and we're going to talk about theological mystery, but at the same time, we need to remember the fact of what we're thinking about tonight "He stripped off first one robe of honor and then another, until naked He was fastened to the cross. The He emptied his inmost self, pouring out His lifeblood, giving Himself for all of us. "Finally, they laid Him in a borrowed grave. How love was our Redeemer brought? How then can we be proud? Stand at the foot of the cross and count the scarlet drops by which you have been cleansed; see the thorny crowns and His scourged shoulders, still gushing with the crimson flow of blood. See His hands and feet given up to the rough iron and His whole self mocked and scorned. See the bitterness, the pangs, the throes of inward grief, show themselves in His outward frame. Hear the chilling shriek, "'My God, my God, why hast though forsaken me?' If you are not humbled in the presence of Jesus, you do not know Him. You were so lost that nothing could save you but the sacrifice of God's only begotten son as Jesus stooped for you, bow in humility at His feet. A realization of Christ's amazing love has a greater tendency to humble us than even the consciousness of our own guilt. Pride cannot live beneath the cross. Let us sit there and learn our lesson, then let us rise and carry it into practice and spurge it." So, we come with deep humility, and we come to the cross with desperate urgency, and if you can let me go off on a bit of a tangent here for just a second because we need to move on, but this is key. We have reduced the gospel today to a shrink-wrapped presentation that if you can get someone to say the right things back to you or pray the right things back to you, then we

pronounce them saved from their sins from eternity and move on. We have taken the very lifeblood of the gospel out, and we put Kool-Aid in its place. We have said pray this prayer, sign this card, do this deal and you're saved. We have used phrases to describe conversion that are nowhere found in scripture. And it's because we have minimized the cross. We have talked about God as a friend who needs us instead of us as sinners who desperately need him. So, tonight, as we look at these things, this is serious stuff, 'cause the very core of the gospel is found in what we're looking at tonight. Live in a day where we talk about Jesus, "Well, He is my savior, but He's not my Lord, or I came to know Jesus the Savior, but He wasn't Lord." And people even say preachers even say today, "Trust in Jesus as your Savior, but you dont have to submit to Him as your Lord." That is blasphemy. If He is not Lord of All, he cannot be our Savior. It's impossible. You see these quotes here from Pink, "The nature of Christ's salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present day evangelist. He announces a Savior from hell rather than a Savior from sin, and that is why men are why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the lake of fire and who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness." Scores who say, "Well, I prayed a prayer and I know I'm going to heave," but their lives are so far from God and they want nothing to do with God. This is not biblical Christianity. And it undercuts the power of the cross. What we have said to the world is, "Trust in Christ, but He really doesnt make that big a difference in your lives and your battles with sin and your struggles with this and that," and it does. The cross is powerful enough for those things. So, we come tonight with great urgency. Packer said, "To recover the old, authentic, biblical gospel, and to bring our preaching and practice back into line with it is perhaps our most pressing present need." This is the foolishness of the cross. We've catered a message to a mancentered, me-centered culture and in the process, diluted it of its power. There is power in the foolishness of the cross. What is this bizarre message, for which believers in the first century gave their lives and believers around the world together in Secret Churches are giving their lives? Urgency, what can we expect. We'll be confronted with the severity of our sin. We need to see ourselves tonight in light of the cross. I want you to think with me about the passion narrative, the scene leading up to the cross. Who do you most identify with in this whole narrative? Maybe Peter, weeping as you realize the magnitude of your denial of Christ, maybe Simon of Syrene, you picture yourself carrying Jesus' cross with Him, for Him. Maybe the women who stood at a distance, maybe Mary, who stood there at the cross, looking up at her son. Maybe John, whom Jesus spoke to at the cross. Maybe you picture yourself as the thief on one side or the other, maybe the Centurion who shouted, "Surely this was the Son of God," after He saw Jesus die. You know who I most identify with? I most identify with the angry mobs yelling, "Crucify him!" And I'm convinced if we were honest with ourselves, were it not for the grace of God, we would all be right there. See, Jim Haney says we're only flattering ourselves to think otherwise. The old Negro spiritual asks, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord," and the answer is yes, we were there. Not a spectators, though, but as participants, guilty participants. Until you see the cross as that which is done by you, you will never appreciate that it is done for you. So, see yourself in this story tonight, the great Scottish hymn writer, Horatius Bonar wrote, "Was I that shed the sacred blood. I nailed him to the tree. I crucified the Christ of God, I joined the mockery. Of all that shouting multitude, I feel that I am one, and in that den of voices rude, I recognize my own. Around the cross the throng I see, mocking the sufferer's groan, yet still my voice it seems to be, as if I mocked alone." Tonight we will be confronted with the severity of our sin, and at the same time, we will be struck with the glory of our God. The glory of our God. ____ said, "The wounds of Christ were the greatest outlets of His glory that ever were." Calvin said, "There's no tribunal so magnificent, no

throne so stately, no triumph so distinguished, no chariot so elevated as is the gibbet on which Christ hath subdued death and the devil." And here's the goal, when we leave tonight? Two things. When we leave tonight, we will go to our homes boasting in the cross. We will see tonight that the only ground for our boasting and anything in this world is the cross of Christ, and we will see that Christianity is not about coming to Christ and leaving the cross behind and moving on to greater truths, Christianity is crosscentered from start to end into all of eternity, for all of eternity the cross will be central. It's not just central. It's nothing that happened then or even that we realize in our lives. The cross is the basis by which we live on a day by day-by-day basis. You see that. I won't read through it, but Celtic tradition that basically said Christ over everything. Christ in everything. His cross. We will go to our homes boasting in the cross, and second, we will go to the nations carrying our cross. This is my prayer. My prayer is that God would take our time together tonight and He will fix in each of us a consuming desire to take the cross to the nations, and if I could just get your attention right up here for just a minute. I want to share with you that I have been praying tonight God would call individuals from this room and families from this room to abandon their lives to go to other nations to make this cross known, praying the spirit of God will dot hat work in hearts tonight. I would simply ask that you open your heart up and say, "Christ, I want to see you in all of your glory, and as I do, I will do whatever you ask me to do, to put a blank check on the table, so to speak." And whether that means he does lead you somewhere or leads you in Birmingham or wherever you live to live so radically different than the world around us because the cross has changed us, I'm praying that the result of tonight will be a people who are passionately running after the nations proclaiming the good news of the cross of Christ. Isaac Watts, you know him as a hymn writer. He said, "Am I soldier of the cross? A follower of the lamb, and shall I fear to own His cause or blush to speak His name?" I love this phrase. "Must I be carried to the skies on beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas? Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vow world a friend to grace to help me on to God? Since I might fight, if I would rain, increase my courage, Lord. I'll bear the toil, endure the pain supported by thy word." This is where I want to remind us tonight that the purpose of our gathering tonight is not just for what's going on in this room. The purpose is not for us to gather tonight and certainly not to be entertained. There are a lot of more fun things we could have chosen on a Friday night to be entertained by in this world. The goal is not to entertain. It's to equip. The goal is not even for us to walk out of here having a knowledge of the cross of Christ. The goal is for every single follower of Christ in this room to walk out of this place tonight equipped with the Word of God to teach others in the nation about the cross of Christ, that you would walk away from here equipped to in your home, in your workplace, in your neighborhood, on your college campus, on your high school campus and in other nations among unreached people groups or persecuted peoples that you would be equipped to teach others the glory of Christ in the cross. So, that's why the study guide is as extensive as it is, and there's even stuff that we won't even have time to get into that just make notes on the side. Take copious notes so that you will be equipped to teach others the Word of Christ about the cross of Christ, and so, for the sake of the nations, stay awake. Stay awake for the sake of the nations. If you need to, get up and walk around and do jumping jacks on the side. We're all in this thing together. Okay? It's been a long week for many of us and a long day, so there we go. We'll help each other. Here's where we're going. These sections, what we're going to dive into just give you a little outline of where we're going. The reality of the cross, the history of the cross and the meaning of the cross okay, if you had to sum up the cross in one central meaning, what would it be, and from that, we're going to spring into a journey of the cross. We're going to look at four scenes

from Maundy Thursday and Good Friday that sum up four scenes along the Passion narrative that give us different angels on understanding the cross. That's the journey of the cross. Then we'll get to the intent of the cross, round about 11:00 this evening, we'll look at probably the most hotly contested component of the debate over Calvinism, which is the intent the extent or the intent of the atonement. Calvinism, the whole five points of Calvinism, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints, right in the middle, probably the one that is most debated is limited atonement. So, that's what we're going to dive into tonight around 11:00, solve that thing and then move on to the effects of the cross. It's going to be a good night, all right. (Laughter) [Applause] Here we go. It's good. Keep the men and women going. Here we go. Reality of the cross. We're going to fly through this, but basically, what I wanted to give you in your notes here was in scripture, and it predominantly comes from Mark. There's some scriptures especially intertwined here from John, but basically from Mark. Basically a timeline of the cross that just gives you a picture of what happened over this last week couple thousand years ago. The timeline. On Saturday you had the anointing of Jesus. We're not going to read through these scriptures. We're going to go through this pretty quick. The anointing of Jesus, Jesus arrived at Bethany, and he is anointed by Mary, who takes this expensive perfume and pours it on Jesus' feet. Sunday, the arrival of Jesus. This is the Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem, and then on Monday, comes back to Jerusalem, goes to the temple. The anger of Jesus. This is when Jesus' holy anger, when he comes into the temple and begins turning over tables and teaches us much about worship and the purposes of God and really is a foretelling of what's about to happen when it comes to the whole temple picture the people of Israel had operated under. Tuesday, we have Jesus teaching, and there's a lot going on with his teaching and conversations during that time. Sum it up here, the authority of Jesus, His authority is challenged, and we see, particularly the chief priests and teachers of the law challenging Jesus' authority and Him asserting his authority in response to him. So, the stage is being set here, and there's obviously a real tension between religious leaders and Jesus that has obviously coming to a head here. Tuesday, Wednesday, not sure exactly, the betrayal of Jesus. This is when Judas goes to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them and then begins looking for an opportunity to hand him over. That was Tuesday/Wednesday. Thursday, Maundy Thursday, we see Jesus gather around with his disciples at the last supper and so, Passover time. We'll talk about this. Obviously just the incredible picture here of the humility of Christ as He washes His disciples' feet, the humility of Christ, He washes His disciples feet. Last night I was reading over that narrative with our boys at home and just talking about the picture of God in the flesh, washing dirty feet as a servant. The prophesy of Christ, He predicts Peter's denial, and then the comfort of Christ. This is particularly in John 14, 15, 16. He promises the Holy Spirit. He's encouraging them. He's building them up because of what is about to happen, and then the prayer of Christ in John 17 as he intercedes for His disciples. Then we move into the Garden of Gethsemane, late Thursday evening. We see three agonizing prayers, three times He goes aside, and we're going to look at the garden tonight. It's one of those scenes in the journey to the cross we're going to dive into. Three agonizing prayers, and meanwhile, three tired disciples. Every time He comes back and they're sleeping and resting. All of that leads late Thursday evening from the garden to the arrest of Jesus. The arrest of Jesus. Judas comes and kisses Christ on the cheek and he is arrested there. That leads to a very long evening Thursday night into Friday morning. The trails of Jesus really split up into two categories: (1) before the Jewish authorities. We see six different pictures here: three before the Jewish authorities, preliminary hearing before Annas and a hearing before Caiaphas, which we'll

talk about a little bit later on, and then the trial before the council. So, then at the end of that, Mark 15:1, "They bound Jesus, led Him away and handed Him over to Pilate." That leads to Jesus before the roman authorities. So, Jesus is handed over to the roman authorities, and He has a first hearing before Pilate and a hearing before Herod and then a last hearing before Pilate, and from the end of that last hearing before Pilate we see, Mark 15, "What shall I do then with the one you call the King of the Jews?" Pilate asks them. "Crucify them," They shouted. We shouted. "'Why? What crime has He committed?' asked Pilate, but they shouted all the louder, 'Crucify Him.' Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged and handed him over to be crucified. This led to the torture of Jesus. They put a purple robe on Him and twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him, and they began to call out to him, 'Hail, King of the Jews.' Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on Him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him, and when they had mocked him, they put off the purple robe and put His clothes on Him. Then they led Him out to crucify Him." Crucifixion of Jesus, we have the first three hours, the third hour when they crucified Him, put the notice above Him, "King of the Jews." What we see is Jesus begin to speak from the cross a few different times. First, in Luke 23, the prayer for His persecutors, Jesus prays, "Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Next, the promise to the criminal, "Today you will be with me in paradise." Next, the provision for His mother, "Jesus saw His mother there and the disciple whom He loved, John, presumably standing nearby, and He said to His mother, 'From that time on," John took her into his home" and then the last three hours, where we see at the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land and to the ninth hour, and what we see is the cry of dereliction, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Another one of the facets of the journey we're going to look at, acknowledgment of thirst, "I'm thirsty," and then the declaration cry of triumph. When he received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished," and then the cry of resignation, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When He had said this, He breathed His last. So, that's the historical journey in a nutshell to the cross. That's the timeline, the tragedy. Some deny the fact of the cross. Some deny no serious historians really deny the existence of Jesus Christ, but many deny the fact of the cross, notably Muslims. You see this quote from the Koran. "I deny that Jesus died on the cross, that they sat and boast, 'We killed Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary, the Apostle of God,' but they killed Him not, or crucified Him. But so it was made to appear to them and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no certain knowledge, but only conjecture to follow for of assuredly they killed Him now. Nay, God raised Him up onto Himself and got exalted and power-wise." Muslims see the crucifixion as a preposterous idea. One Sunni Muslim scholar even wrote, "We honor Jesus more than you Christians do. We refuse to believe that God would permit Him to suffer death on the cross." Muslims would say that what we were talking about tonight is a low view of Jesus. So, at this point, when we realize, especially in our pluralistic day when there are all kinds of religions and religion is looked at as a matter of preference and people all across our culture and all across the church today say things like all religions are fundamentally the same, just superficially different. They're all fundamentally the same, just superficially different. This is where we need to realize this is a core truth at which Islam and Christianity are really Christianity and Judaism for that matter, divide. It's not a matter of preference, it's a matter of truth, not even asking you to determine which one is true necessarily, but the reality is either Jesus died on a cross or he did not. If he did not, then we are wasting our time tonight, and we're fools to be following Christianity. The Bible says that. 1 Corinthians 15, "If he didnt die on the cross" if he did, this has huge ramifications for all of our lives for all of eternity, and so, we need to know whether or not he died on the cross. It's not superficial difference. This is radical difference. Some deny the fact of the cross. Despite what Mohammed said, it was much closer to the historical situation. Christians and non-Christians

alike reported that it was, indeed, Jesus who died on the cross. Some deny the fact of the cross, but even for those who might accept the fact of the cross, most missed the meaning of the cross. I got a quote here from Gandhi, "I cold accept Jesus as a martyr, an embodiment of sacrifice and a divine teacher, but not as the most perfect man ever born. His death on the cross was a great example to the world that if there was anything like a mysterious or miraculous virtue in it, my heart could not accept. The reality is, whether it's Gandhi or other religious teachers or the countless millions of religious Americans who watched The Passion of Christ, there's a great lack of understanding about what's happening on the cross, because it's so much easier. An example, most missed the meaning of the cross, which leads us to the reality we're diving into tonight. We all need the truth of the cross. E Stanley Jones said, "The cross is the key. If I lose this key, I fumble. The universe will not open to me, but with the key in my hand, I know I hold its secret." The cross is not just an event to be discussed. The cross is not just an event to be discussed, and the cross is not just an image to be viewed. The cross is not just an event to be discussed or an image to be viewed. The cross represents truth to be believed. Truth to be believed, trusted in, to bank your life on. So, what is that truth? Talking about the history of the cross here. What I want to do is just give a brief synopsis of church history and how Christians in the church have viewed the cross. One term, and the key theological term here is atonement. Atonement. Look on your brother or sister's page to figure out how to spell atonement, and this is a word, theological word that sums up to be at one that's how you spell it, "at one ment." Did you get that? Still early in the night, you got that. At one ment. But the picture is how are holy God and sinful man brought to be one to one another, united together, atoned? What is the condition or the price that is paid? What has to happen in order for that to take place, in order for them to be at one? How does the cross provide salvation for man? The answer to that question is multifaceted, as we're going to see tonight, but there have been all kinds of different theories as church has said, "What's so significant about the cross?" All kinds of theories. One theory we're going to run through these quick the ransom theory. Church fathers, like origin all the way to 20th century theologians like Gustav Aulen, who basically said, "In the cross Jesus delivers us from the powers of evil by paying a ransom price for the devil." So, the picture is we are held captive by the devil and God pays a ransom to the devil in the form of His Son's death in order to buy us out of our captivity. If you've seen C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia, read that or seen the movies, this is kind of the picture. If evil witch okay, if you haven't watched the movie, you're totally out of this, but if you have, the evil witch says, "Yes, a price has to be paid to me in order for Edmund to be let go." So, Aslan has to pay me a price, okay. That's kind of the picture that's being expressed here, and the main picture is Christ as victor. He's the one who conquered Satan, paid the price and to Satan in order to buy us out. Now, there's grains of truth here, but what we have to be really careful with when we look at that theory or think about that theory is the idea that Satan has the prerogative to make demands of God. That Satan is owed something by God. This goes against much of what we see in scripture, so there's grains of truth here. We move on to the second theory, the moral influence theory. Main proponents: Abelard is a 12 century theologian, Bushnell some say is the father of modern liberalism, American liberalism. The main point they said is there's no necessary payment for sin that needs to be made. The cross simply shows us how much God loves us in order to persuade us to love God. God loves us so much, there's no price that has to be paid for our sins. He loves us, and so, when we look at Christ on the cross, we see that God loves us, and he cares for us. This is very strikingly
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familiar to modern day gospel, love, love, love care for, no picture of justice and the seriousness of sin. No. Sin is a sickness that you just need to be healed from, and God loves you enough to heal you. That's the picture: God is love, moral influence theory. Next, the example theory. The Syssinians follow in the 16 century theologian who said, "There's no necessary payment for sin." Again, that's kind of like the moral influence theory, but the difference here is the cross simply demonstrates Christ in order to teach us how to live. He's showing us an example for how we should love others. So, Christ is teaching us so we can love th other people like He loves us. Next, the governmental theory, Hugo Grotius, 17 century theologian, said, "There's no necessary payment for sin. The cross demonstrates God's justice when the law is broken in order to persuade us to turn from our sin." Instead of focusing on the love of God, Grotius, governmental theory focuses on the justice of God and says, not that this is a price that has to be paid for people's sin, for specific people's sin, instead, this is God saying, "I am serious about sin as the judge of the universe, and I'm going to show it in the way Christ dies on the cross," governmental theory, God is judge. Next, the satisfaction theory, some Latin church leaders, this was a reaction in many ways to the ransom theory and basically saying, "No, Satan doesnt demand anything from God. God is the ruler of the universe and the cross satisfies the honor of God through the sacrifice to the Son of God," and basically, Ansom talked about how God is restoring His glory and showing His greatness in the cross. That's the point. Showing his rulership, His governorship over all creation, and the good thing about Ansom here is he begins to focus on a God-centered understanding of the cross. That leads us to the last one I want to put in front of you, the penile substitution theory, and basically, this was reformers during the reformation who took what Ansom had done and said, "Yes, there's a God-centered perspective here. The focus, though, of what's going on on the cross is Jesus is paying the real penalty of sinners in their place, as their substitute so that his righteous might be credited to them." So, Jesus is dying as a substitute for sinners. Now, we take all those together, and we've got many different theories reflecting dimensions of the atonement, and I think we'd be on safe ground saying there's grains of truth in each one of those theories. I've listed some there. The cross is no question a triumph over the forces of evil, sin and death. No question. The cross communicates the extent of God's love for us, no question we see God's love for us. The cross shows us how to love like Christ. He knows how to love. That's what 1 Peter 3 is all about: The cross illustrates the significance of God's justice. We definitely see the justice of God expressed in the cross. The cross honors the character of God as Ansom shows us, demonstrates the glory of God, and the cross demonstrates our need for a substitute. But if you had to boil it down, and tonight what we're going to boil it down to, one central truth expressing the meaning of the atonement, and I want to show it to you in scripture, but if we had to sum it up, the cross is about two main words: satisfaction through substitution. Satisfaction through substitution. What I want to propose tonight is that this is the heart of the atonement, the heart of what's going on at the cross are these two words: satisfaction through substitution. So, let's dive right into that: meaning of the cross. Satisfaction through substitution and what you see at the top of the next page is 1 Timothy 2: - it's actually verses 5 and 6. I only put verse 5 on there, but it's actually Verse 5 and 6 that are listed there. These are going to be a guide for us throughout the night. You see, Packer said, "These words are the key, not merely to the New Testament, but to the whole Bible. They crystallize into a phrase, the sum and substance of its message." So, here's the two verses that are really going to guide the rest of our time together tonight. There is one God and one mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. So, what we're going
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to do is we're going to unpack those two verses just phrase by phrase by phrase. We'll start with the divine satisfaction. There is one God. This is key. When we come to the cross, our natural inclination is to say, "What does the cross mean for me?" We are me-centered. What's sinful nature all about? Centered on me. Centered on ourselves, concerned about our rights, what does this do for me? The cross, no question, does thing to us, for us, but it's not the ultimate question. Likewise, the ultimate question is not, "What does the cross do to Satan or how does the cross affect Satan?" It's a part of this whole picture. But the ultimate question is, "How does the cross affect God?" What I want to begin to get our minds and our hearts focused on is a God-centered understanding of the cross. A God-centered understanding of the cross that is in some ways different of the than the way the cross is oftentimes represented to us or perceived by us. So, let's start with this picture: one God. What do we mean by divine satisfaction? You've got one sentence there that sums up, "God must act." When I'm talking about divine satisfaction, God must act at all times in absolute consistency with the perfection of His character. God, by His very nature, must act according to His nature at all times. One theologian said this is not in your notes there but he said, "It's all together an error to suppose that if God acts at one time according to one of His attributes and another time according to another attribute. He acts in conformity with all of them at all times." So, everything God does is an absolute consistency with the perfection of His entire character. By its very nature, He must act in this way, not by something imposed on Him from outside, but according to His very nature. When you look at Exodus 3:14, He says, "I am who I am." Malachi 6 telling us "He does not change," in James 1:17 saying, "He does not change like shifting shadows." Now, this is where we need to think about the character of God. Again, I mention this real briefly earlier, but if we have a low view of God, than we will have a low understanding of the cross, a very shallow understanding of the cross. If God is just a friend who we did a couple wrong things to, then salvation is easy and the cross is not that big a deal. However, if God is a majestic king, who is infinitely offended by sin, infinitely set against sin. Then the cross has to be something great. So, the character of God, overview: Who is God? He is sovereign over all. God is sovereign over all. We're going to bring in some of the truths that we studied a year ago, if you were here at Secret Church, on the greatness of God. He is sovereign over all. He created all things. He made the heavens, even the highest heavens, all the starry earths, all the earth and all that's on it. He made it all. He knows all things. Job 37 says, "He's perfect in knowledge." 1 John 3, "He knows everything." He created all things. He knows all things. He sustains all things. Psalm 36 says, "You preserve both man and beast." You look in the middle of Psalm 104: 24-30, it's talking about all the creatures God has made. He says, "These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up. When you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified. When you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust." Everything we have, everything we receive comes from God. Our whole sustenance comes from God. He owns all things. "For the Lord your God belong the heavens. The earth and everything in it belongs to Him." He is the author of creation, which means he has authority over all creation. He owns it all. Everything belongs to God, so He is sovereign over all. Second, He is holy above all. God is unique. He is set apart. He is completely other, completely pure. "No one holy like the Lord, " 1 Samuel 2. Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, both give us this picture, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. He is holy above all." So, he's sovereign over all. He is holy above all. Third, He is righteous in all His ways. What that means is He is right in everything He does. Genesis 18 there, "Will not the judge over all the earth do right?" Deuteronomy 32, "All His ways are just, a faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He." Psalm 145, "The Lord is righteous in all His ways."

A lot of people sometimes begin to get angry with God because they dont feel like he's given them a fair deal, but we can never say that to God because everything God does is right. Everything God does is just. He's righteous in all His ways. Floating from that, He's just in all His wrath because He is holy and righteous. He cannot stand sin. His justice flows from His righteousness. His wrath flows from His holiness, and we have to be careful here because if we dilute the wrath of God, which is what we often do today, we dont want to talk about the wrath of God, but when we dilute the wrath of God, we diminish the holiness of God. If we dilute the wrath of God, we diminish the holiness of God, and so what I've got here is a few scriptures to make sure we got a picture of the fact that God is just in all His wrath. Romans 3, 5 and 6 talks about how God is just in bringing His wrath on us. That's following Romans 2 when Paul talked about your "stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you're storing up wrath against yourself, for the day of God's wrath when His righteous judgment will be revealed." God will reveal His righteous judgment, and He is storing up wrath. 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10, in the middle talks about Jesus punishing those who do not know God and who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. We will get punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power. This is a frightening reality. Ladies and gentlemen, God will judge you, and He will be just. This is a frightening reality. What scripture teaches is God is indignant towards sin. Holiness cannot exist with sin. You hate wickedness, Psalm 45, "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrong." He is indignant towards sin, and God is intolerant of sinners. He's intolerant of sinners. That's where we come back to that clich, and we talked about this when we talked about the character of God. What about God what happened that God hates the sin, loves the sinner? The Bible happened to that. Psalm 5:5 and 6, "The arrogant cannot stand in Your presence; You hate all who do wrong." Fourteen times in the first 50 Psalms alone we see the Bible talk about God's hatred of sinners, God's wrath towards liars and such language. This is what we see in scripture, and it's not just Old Testament. New Testament, Romans 1:18, "God's wrath rests of sin." John 3:36-38, "God's wrath rests on sinners." This is the picture, and this brings us to our faces. You can see now why in the Old Testament worship you've got, in Nehemiah, the people on their faces before God. You've got Ezra on his face, the people in Ezra 10 weeping before the Lord, things that we dont see in contemporary worship today because it's never struck us the thought that we might not be accepted in God's presence just because we have great music. They came weeping before God. There's a holy fear that is there, and a seriousness in approaching God because He's indignant towards sin and intolerant of sinners. This is where we are baffled. When you look in scripture you think about the passages in the Old Testament and New Testament that we wrestle with. I've got 'em listed there. Genesis 19, remember God' wrath on Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot and his wife are fleeing. He says, "Don't look back." Lot's wife looks back, and immediately she is gone, pillar of salt. Death penalty for a glance. How about Leviticus 10, Aaron's sons, faulty worship, capital punishment. You do things your own way in worship, you die in the Old Testament. Numbers 15, "While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, and they kept him in custody because it was not clear what should be done to him. Then the Lord aid to Moses, 'The man must die.'" God said, "The man must die." The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp, so the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death as the Lord commanded Moses. Death by stoning for picking up sticks. It's just picking up sticks. Numbers 20, Moses himself does this one thing wrong and disobeys God, and he's disqualified from entering into the Promised Land. Joshua 7, Achan's sin, "The Lord will bring trouble on you

today. All Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them," for hiding something in his tent. 2 Samuel 6, Uzzah reaches out to catch the ark when it's about to fall and immediately dies. It's not just Old Testament. New Testament. You know when Anninias and Sapphira, he comes in and she comes in and they both lie and deceive and immediately are struck down. How about that for church growth? I mean, that happens at your church. People are not coming next week. Now, let's be honest. We look at these passages in the Old Testament and New Testament. Dont we think in our minds and our hearts, dont we think, "Isn't this a little bit severe?" Isn't God overdoing it here? Stoned for picking up sticks? Fall over dead for deception in the church? This is where we realize that we think these things are severe because we have a very mancentered perspective of sin. You see, if someone lies to me or someone lies to you, you dont think, "Stone him." If someone does this or that wrong, well, because the reality is it's not a matter of how big or small a sin is. What is supremely the matter is the one who is sinned against. If you sin against a rock, you're to very guilty. If you sin against God, you are infinitely guilty. One sin is an infinite offense in the sight of a god who is holy above all and righteous in all His ways and just in all His wrath. One sin. Think about it. It is one sin in Genesis 3, one sin in Genesis 3 that brought about the entire picture of sin and suffering we see in the world today. Moral and natural evil, whether it is Holocaust and shooting sprees or tsunamis and earthquakes and tornadoes, all of it goes back to one sin. Romans 5, "One sin brought condemnation to all men." That's from one sin and you and I in this room have committed thousands of them. This is a serious picture. God just in all His wrath. One more attribute of God, He is loving towards all His creation. "God is love," 1 John 4. Now, what do you mean? Just in all His wrath and love? You feel a tension there? Hold that tension. Feel that tension and hold onto it. That's the character of God, the sinfulness of man. The sinfulness of man. Sin is not a psychological problem. Sin is not a great inhibitor to self-improvement. Sin is an infinite offense before God. We have announced his sovereignty. That's what Genesis 3 is all about. Doesnt matter what God has said not to eat. If I want to eat it, I'm going to eat it. I'm going to denounce His authority over me. You think about one sin, just one sin. God says to everything in all creation, he says to the oceans, "You stop right here." He says to the mountains, "You go there." He says to the rain, every drop of it, "You fall here. You fall here." He says to everything in all creation, "Do this" and immediately it is done. He looks at man, and he says, "Do this," and we look at him in the face and say no. No, I'm doing things my own way. We have denounced His sovereignty. Our wickedness and rebellion Leviticus 16 says, "We have dishonored His holiness." Ezekiel 36, "You have profaned my holy name." Romans 1, "You have exchanged my glory for stuff." We have dishonored His holiness. We have despised His righteousness. There's no one righteous, not even one. We have fled righteousness into unrighteousness, Romans talks about. We have disregarded His wrath. We have dumbed it down or ignored it all together. "Objects of His wrath," Ephesians 2:4, "ignoring His wrath," not talking about His wrath, doesnt sell in our marketplace today. We dont sell books talking about the wrath of God, and we have denied His love. We've shown contempt, Romans 2:4, "for the riches of His kindness, tolerance and patience." Ladies and gentlemen, our problem is not that we've messed up before God. Our problem is that we have denounced the sovereignty of God, disregarded the holiness of God, despised the righteousness of God. We deserve the wrath of God, and yet, we have dumbed it down, and we have denied His love. This is the problem of sin, and it leads to the divine dilemma. Now, follow with me here. This is where these two come together. The problem is how can a just God be kind to rebellious sinners who are due His wrath? How can a just God be kind to rebellious sinners who are due His wrath? Look at Proverbs 17:15. This is the ultimate question of the Bible right here. Look at Proverbs 17:15, just one example, "Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent, the Lord detests them both." God detests those who acquit the guilty.

You condemn the innocent, that's detestable before God. You acquit the guilty, that's detestable before God. Did you catch that? So, for God to overlook our sin, guilty we are all guilty before Him. For God to overlook our sin, to acquit us in our sin would be detestable to Himself. Did you catch that? This is the question the Bible is asking us here. How can God love guilty sinners and not be an abomination to himself? How can God satisfy all of these characteristics, attributes that are summed up in who He is with guilty sinners before Him? This is not the question we wrestle with. There's nobody in our culture losing sleep tonight over how God can be so kind to sinners. How can He be so kind to us? No. We point the finger at God, "How can you do this or this or this to us?" The question in the Bible is, "How can you, God, let rebels into heaven into your holy presence?" That's the divine dilemma. You feel the tension here. How can God express His holiness without consuming us within our sin? How can He show His holiness without consuming us in our sin? How can He express His love without condoning us in our sin? This is what the Bible's asking us. How can God judge sin and justify the sinner at the same time? How can God satisfy Himself and save us at the same time? You feel the tension here in Hosea 11, "How can I give you up, oh Ephraim? How can I give you over, Israel? How can I treat you four times? How can I make you like Zeboiin? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim, for I am God and not man, the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath." Do you feel the tension here between the compassion of God and the anger and the wrath of God? How can God satisfy Himself and save us at the same time? Where we left things, where we left things was talking about the character of God, sinfulness of man and the tension specifically identifying the tension, the love, holiness, wrath of God. How can God be holy in His love and holy in His wrath? When we talk about God satisfying himself, it's probably not better terminology, but the picture is, how can God be true to His nature, to His attributes, how can He express His holiness without consuming us in our sin? How can He express His love without condoning us in our sin? How can He be the judge of sin and the justifier of sinners at the same time? How can He satisfy Himself and save us at the same time? This is the dilemma that we're looking at. Scripture gives us, and it needs to be fixed in our minds. This is a God-centered picture of where we're going here, looking at the cross, how can God be just and gracious towards sinners at the same time? That's the dilemma, the problem, the tension, all that leads to the reality. Dont miss this, 'cause this leads us now we're getting into the reality that's expressed on the cross. The reality is first and foremost, the cross is a demonstration of the character of God. First and foremost, the cross is a demonstration of the character of God. Listen to Romans 3:25 and 26, "God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood." He did this why? Why did he do this, Paul? To demonstrate His justice. Because in His forbearance, He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. What do you mean demonstrate His justice? Well, see the problem that's being expressed here in these words, Romans 3, God had left the wins committed beforehand unpunished. So, there's unpunished sin. The guilty acquitted, which is detestable to God, so how can there be unpunished sin and God be righteous in all His ways? His righteousness is at stake here. This is where we realize God's forgiveness of our sin is a threat to His character. Illustration, 2 Samuel 12, David in the Old Testament is guilty of adultery, lying and murder. Nathan the prophet confronts him and says, "David said to Nathan" confronts him on that. This is how David responds. "David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the Lord.' Nathan replied, 'The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.'" Did you hear that? Adultery, murder, lying just passed over. Is that justice?

If there was a judge today in a courtroom who looked at an adulterer, liar and murderer and said, "Forgiven, passed over." We would have that judge off the bench in a heartbeat. That's not just. That's not right. This is where we come face to face with a common question. People ask, "Why can't God just forgive sins? Why is the cross even necessary? Why can't God just I mean, we forgive one another. Why can't God just forgive us?" This is what Ansom was addressing. He said if anybody imagines that God can simply forgive us as we forgive others, that person has not yet considered the seriousness of sin or literally what a heavy weight sin is. It's not realized the greatness of the one we have sinned against. And how His character is at stake here in His response to sin. John ____ said, "Forgiveness is for God the profoundest of problems." Bishop Westcott said nothing love this quote, "Nothing superficially seems simpler than forgiveness, but nothing, if we look deeply, is more mysterious or more difficult." How can God be just and righteous and yet forgive sins, pass over sins? That's where we see before the cross is before anyone else's sake, what God is doing on the cross is for God's sake. God is displaying His justice. He is demonstrating His righteousness. Why did Jesus die on the cross? Who did Jesus die for? He died for me? Certainly. Died for you? Certainly. But not ultimately. Ultimately, Christ died for God. The cross is ultimately centered around a demonstration of the character of God. Watchman Nee said, "If I would appreciate the blood of Christ, I must accept God's valuation of it, for the blood is not primarily for me, but for God." We need to hear this. We have heard the gospel presented as God's answer to human problems, and it is that in many ways. It is that, but ultimately, the cross is God's answer to a divine problem, and this is what drove Jesus to the cross. The glory of God drove Jesus to the cross. Look at John 12. "What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No. It was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name." We say things like "YOU were on this mind when you went to the cross. I was on His mind when He went to the cross." Ladies and gentlemen, the Father God was on His mind when Jesus went to the cross. The glory of God drove Him there, and we're going to see how this affects us, but see the cross as it relates to the character of God. What God is doing at the cross is He's showing us that sin is infinitely offensive. The severity of sin is put on display here. There's no room for self-exaltation of the cross. We say things today like I wonder what Jesus saw in me that would cause him to go to the cross for me?" Jesus saw nothing in you, nothing good in you. Nothing. There's nothing in here and nothing in the cross that speaks to something we deserve or we earn or we should have. Nothing here about selfexaltation. This is not the the cross is not about displaying our value. The cross is all about displaying the value of God. Everything at the cross is God-exaltation. The cross is the end of self-exaltation. It's why it makes sense when we see Jesus saying things like, "Deny yourself. Take up your" what? Cross. Deny yourself. Deny yourself. The cross is completely, totally, radically about God exaltation. He shows us that sin is infinitely offensive and that God is infinitely glorious. The cross is not a display of the finite worth of man. The cross is not a picture of how valuable we are. The cross is a picture of how valuable God is. The cross is a display, not of the finite worth of man, but of the infinite worth of God. Now, here's the deal. As soon as we begin to see the cross, first and foremost as good news for God, and for the first time we begin to realize how good this news is for us, because the cross is not about exalting us and our value. The cross is about exalting God and showing the value of the God that we will supremely enjoy for all of eternity, and get this. Your salvation at the cross is now grounded in a God who is radically committed to His glory, and he will for all of eternity, enable His people by the cross to enjoy that glory, guaranteed. The cross is about showing us, not our value, but the value that God that we will eternally be with. God centered. Because he will be true to His character, guaranteed. So, how does He do that? How does He satisfy Himself and save us? How does divine satisfaction happen second part through divine substitution? One god, starting point of 1 Timothy 2, 5 and 6, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave

Himself. One mediator. This is where we begin to see the cross is not just one of about 10 options God had for how to save sinners. I'm going to choose this one. This is the only way. The only way. Why? What was so significant about Christ? These words, divine substitution, what do we mean by them? God satisfies Himself by substituting Himself in the place of sinners. God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us. Instead of us. Now, in order to get the substitution idea, we've got to consider some facets of Christ. First, consider who He is, the person of Christ. We need to see the humanity and deity of Christ, and both of these are extremely important. I think it's to our detriment today that you will search most evangelistic tracks and even a lot of evangelistic preaching and teaching, and you will find very few that talk about the full humanity and full deity of Christ. It's like we dont think it's that important, but it is that important. This is what separates Christianity, the Christian gospel, New Testament gospel from the multitude of cults that are out there today. It's what separates New Testament gospel Christianity from Islam or Judaism. This is the picture here, humanity and deity. Stott said, "The possibility of substitution rests of the identity of the substitute," and by the way, I'm quoting Stott numerous times, and there's a part of the back of your notebook that has recommended reading, probably top book on there is The Cross of Christ by John Stott, incredible book. "The possibility of substitution rests in the identity of the substitute." Who is Jesus? First, he's fully man. Hebrews 2:17 says, He had to be made like His brothers in every way. How is He like us? He was born. Obviously somewhat difference from us that He was born of a virgin. Here's the picture of the spirit conception of Christ. He was born. He possessed the full range of human characteristics. He had a human body. "He was wrapped in cloths at His birth. He grew and became strong," Luke 10. John 4, "He had a body that got tired." I mean, he'd get a little weary at the end of a long night. Matthew 4, "He was hungry." He would get hungry. Had a stomach that would growl like ours. This is the picture. He is fully human, human body. A human mind, it grew in wisdom. Human mind, human soul, my heart is troubled. Jesus was troubled in spirit, John 13. Matthew 26, "Soul overwhelmed to the point of sorrow to the point of death." A human soul. Human emotions, Matthew 8:10 talks about how Jesus was astonished when he heard something. John 11:35, "He wept." Hebrews 5: 7 and 8, "He offered up prayers and petitions with loud dries and tears." He had human emotions and human observation. Pointing out there, this is a commentary, where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers, in Mathew 13, isn't this the carpenter's son? Where did this man get all these things? People looked at him as a man. They saw Him as a man. They identified Him as fully man. That means He is fully able to identify with us. He is not unlike us trying to do something for us. He is a representative of us. If He is not fully human, if He is not like us, He cannot represent us. It's about Hebrews 4:14 through 16, let these words soak in. "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone to the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet is without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Jesus is familiar with our struggles. He's familiar with our struggles. He's familiar with our sorrow. Hurting brother or sister tonight, he's familiar with your sorrow. He's familiar with our suffering. Longer I walk with Christ, it's the humanity of Jesus that brings more and more comfort to my soul. There's a term in music called sympathetic resonance. If you had two pianos on stage up here and you were to hit middle C on one of the pianos, that note would resound just ever so slightly in the other piano, same note would respond to it. It reminds you when you go through difficult times in this life, and when your heart is broke and you're weeping and you hurt, know that there is a man in heaven whose instrument is like yours, and when you feel that hurt, there is a

resonance that comes from Him. He's our sympathetic resonance, what an incredible picture. Fully human. Second, He is fully God. Fully God. C.S. Lewis said, "The doctrine of Christ's divinity seems to me, not something stuck on which you can unstick, but something that peeps out at every point, so you'd have to unravel the whole web to get rid of it." There's a lot of people who believe Jesus is fully man. Not a lot of people. A lot less people who believe He is fully God. His identity, John 1:1-4, "Beginning was the word. The word was with God. He is eternal." Hebrews 1:8, "About the son he says your throne, oh God, will last forever and ever." Jesus is eternal. He's our creator. We've seen God as creator. "By Him," talking about Christ, Colossians 1:15 and 16, "By Him all things were created," things on heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by Him and for Him. He's creator. He's sustainer. You see Him being equated with God here. "In Him all things hold together." "Christ holds all things together." Colossians 1:17. He's omnipotent. "He stands up and the wind and the waves obey Him." Matthew 8. Matthew 14, "He multiplies the food." He's omniscient. Jesus knew in His spirit this is what they were thinking in their hearts. He knew what was in a man. People said we can see that you know all things. This makes us believe that you came from God. He is sovereign. I put Mark 2 there where Jesus claims to have authority to forgive sins. For C.S. Lewis, this is what convinced him of the divinity of Christ. To claim to have the authority, to be the one sinned against and then have authority to forgive sins. Then I've got Matthew 11 there, "All things have been committed to me by my Father in the middle." His testimony. Jesus claimed identification with his Father. "'I tell you the truth,' Jesus answered. 'Before Abraham was born, I am.'" He uses this picture of "I am" in the Old Testament to identify Himself. "I am the father of one," John 10:30. Man's testimony of Him, Thomas said to Him, "My Lord and my God," after he'd risen from the grave. Colossians 2:9, Paul writes, "All the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form." Then you've got the author of Hebrews telling us that Jesus is the exact representation of the being of God. Then you've got John in Revelation showing us this picture, "I'm the Alpha Omega, says the Lord God who was is and who was and is to come, the Almighty." The quintilemma. In other words, five options. Number 1: - aren't you glad I didn't leave that a blank right there? Quintilemma. Yeah. Sure. (Laughter) I was just talking about quintilemmas today. Yeah, anyway. It's one of those moments I know you're like, "Man, you preachers got two much time on your hands. You're making up words. That's not a word." The quintilemma, Number 1 is Jesus a legend? Are all these writings about him phony? He's a myth that's evolved over time. We dont have time to dive into this, but there was more historical reliability in the New Testament than in any other ancient book in history. Not just a legend. Is Jesus a lama, a picture here, being an Eastern pantheistic sense, like the Dalai Lama, picture of a guru, eastern guru? So, when Jesus was claiming to be God, was He just saying, "I'm one with God like everything is?" The only problem was is He was a Jew. That didnt fit at all with the entire worldview He was living in and representing. Third, is Jesus a liar? He said He was God. If He wasn't and He knew He wasnt, then He was a liar. Even secular scholars would claim Jesus was a great man. Was He really a great man if He walked around saying identifying Himself with the creator of the world, deceiving others in the process? Does that make one great? Does that make one humble and meek, as he is described? Is Jesus a lunatic? Maybe He said He was God and really thought He was when He wasn't. Or if He's not a legend, Eastern guru, lama, liar, lunatic, then this is C.S. Lewis' conclusion, He is Lord. You can shut Him up for a fool. You can spit on Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us, and he did not intend to. Jesus is able to fully identify with God.

Jesus is God in the same sense and the same degree as the Father. He is not any less God than the Father is God. He is fully able to identify with God. John 1 said, "He suffered not as God, but He who suffered was God." Now, that doesnt make this picture simple, fully human, fully God, the person of Christ is a mysterious unit y of two natures. Got a quote there from the Athenacian Creed, a mysterious unity, not a contradiction, but a mystery. How does this come together? I was looking back and reading some about these natures of Christ together, and I came across Arthur Pink and what he wrote, and this I think this clears it up. "This important distinction calls for careful consideration by a person as meant an intelligent being, subsisting by himself. The second person of the trinity assumed a human nature and gave it subsistence by union with His divine personality. It would have been a human person if it had not been united the Son of God, but being united to Him, it cannot be called a person because it never subsisted by itself, as other men do, hence the force of that holy thing which shall be born to thee. It was not possible for a divine person to assume another person subsisting of itself and to union with himself, for two persons remaining two to become one person is a contradiction." Ahh, like that's it. Thanks for clearing that up, Arthur, like it all makes sense now. Okay. So, we got a mysterious unity here. How does this fit together? Think about it this way. First, His human and divine nature are different. There are things He does that reveal give us a picture of human nature and things He does that reveal divine nature. There's a distinction here, in a sense. We're going to get to how they're unified, but we've got examples here. He returned to heaven in human nature and he's present with us, divine nature. He was 30 years old and he eternally existed. Human nature, divine nature. My goal is to give you a headache in this process right here. He was third. This is a great thing. Matthew 8 sets a picture. He's tired. He's worn out, sleeping on a boat, and then he wakes up and tells the wind and the waves to obey him. Tired and omnipotent, right there together. He was born a baby, and he sustains the universe. He lost His human life, and He possesses divine authority. How does this happen? This is the picture of the human nature and the divine nature together, yet different. Human nature and divine nature are different, at the same time, it's human nature and divine nature are unified, and what I mean by that is anything that Jesus does that shows the picture of His human nature is truly the person of Christ, in the same way, anything He does that shows His picture of the divine nature is truly the person of Christ. When he says in John 8:58, "I tell you the truth. Jesus answered, 'Before Abraham was born, I am.'" He doesnt say, "Before Abraham was born my divine nature existed." Not what he says. It's like if I were to write you a letter and I were to say, "I wrote you this letter," I would not say, "My fingers wrote you this letter, but my toes had nothing to do with it." I would not say that. Anything my fingers are doing are representative of me doing it. So, that's the picture, and when we look at a picture Paul writes, "What I received I passed on to you, of first important, that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture." Did God die? Did God die on a cross? The picture is certainly in His human nature, Jesus died. His divine nature, though, sustaining the entire universe, cannot die. Divine nature, it's dead, then how can things continue to exist? The divine nature's not there, we're not there. So, the picture is would it be right to say, did God die on the cross? Yes and no in the sense that Jesus in His person died? Yes, but his divine nature did not die. Different but unified. When He says, "I come from the father and enter the world. Now I'm leaving the world and going back to the Father," and then He says, "I'm going to be with you always." So, when it comes to the person of Christ on the cross, this is not Jesus alone as if He had no divine nature. It's not God alone as if He had no human nature, but the one on the cross is God and Christ. Not God alone, not man alone, but God in Christ, fully God, fully man, displayed wonderfully in Colossians 1:1920, "God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether the things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His

blood shed on the cross." That's the person of Christ, fully able to identify with us, fully able to identify with God, fully human, fully God. That's His person. What about his purpose? He came with a purpose to seek and save what was lost. Jesus came, divide that up into two pictures. He came to live a sinless life, to live a sinless life. He came to live the life that we could not live. See it listed there, John 18:38, I find no basis for charge against him. Hebrews 4:5, "He was without sin." 1 Peter 1, "A lamb without blemish or defect." 1 John 3, "In Him is no sin." He was obedient, perfectly obedient to God. This is important. It's important because, obviously Jesus didnt come and give His life for us on a cross as a child. He was obedient. He demonstrated obedience to the law of God, fulfillment of the law of God in His obedience. John 15:10, "I have obeyed my Father's commands." He was obedient, and his obedience is necessary for our salvation, and He was righteous, is righteous. We need, in order to be reconciled to God, we dont need to just be rid of sin. We need to be clothed in righteousness. So, it's necessary for Christ to be righteous, and you see these verses that show us that picture. So, we came to live a sinless life, obedient and righteous, and He came to die a substitutionary death. This was the purpose of Him coming. You look at every one of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and you will see in different ways this picture that the fact of the cross was not an accident. This is why Jesus came. Mark 8, 9, 10 back to back to back, Jesus is giving us pictures of where he is going. Luke is showing us how this is going to Jerusalem. John constantly talks about the hour that is to come. It's not time. There were times when they wanted to stone Jesus or wanted to throw Jesus of a cliff, and the picture is walk right through them. It was not time. He came to die a very purposeful death at an exact time. Substitutionary death, what does that mean? It means that He assumed our identity. Think about this with me. What is the payment for sin? Death. Well, if Jesus is obedient and righteous, then he has no payment to pay. He does not deserve death. So, if He were to die, it would not be because of Himself, it would be because He is dying on another's behalf. He is assuming our identity, that he might make, Hebrews 2 says, "Atonement for the sins of the people," and the picture is He died and the keywords here in the place of the disobedient. He died in the place of the unrighteous. You've got verses listed there, John 11, Romans 5 and on in to 2 Corinthians and Galatians, and what you see is this little, three-letter word, for, mentioned over and over and over again. One man would die for the people, Caiaphas said, in Romans 5 you see it over and over again. "Just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died." circle it there. "For the ungodly rarely will anyone die; for righteous man, though, for a good man someone might possibly dare to die, but God demonstrates His own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Now, this word it's two prepositions in the New Testament that are used in these passages, can mean on behalf of, instead of. The picture is, and it's really summed up well in 2 Corinthians 5 here, "Christ compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and, therefore, all died. In one dying, all died." That's a representative. It's a substitute. He is doing something not just on behalf of, but instead of, in the place of, as a representative for all these others. You look at Galatians 3, "Christ redeemed us" look at this passage later "from the curse of a law becoming a curse for us. Instead of us, He took the curse." He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree so that we might die to sins, by his wounds, you have been healed. So, he assumed our identity, and as a result, he accomplished our salvation so that Paul would say, "I have been crucified with Christ." There's a unity here, and in His assuming our identity, He is accomplishing our salvation. He loved me and gave Himself for me on my behalf, instead of me, as my representative. That's how God is reconciling us to himself. Colossians 1, so here we come back to the divine dilemma, and here is how it is solved. Divine satisfaction, now look at the cross. Bring everything we talked about when it comes to satisfaction through substitution, bring it all together. Divine satisfaction, the totality of God's

character is expressed at the cross. We see the full picture of His justice and His wrath and His holiness and His love and His mercy. Here I put Psalm 85 in the back of 3, we've got this picture of love and faithfulness meeting together and wrath remembering mercy. They're all converging, all of the attributes of God converging right here at the cross, the totality of God's character is expressed at the cross, divine substitution, salvation through God's son is achieved. The unique son, fully god and fully human. Think about it, the essence of sin, man substitutes himself for God. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be. That's the essence of sin. What is salvation? The essence of salvation, God substitutes himself for man. God in Christ sacrifices Himself for man and puts Himself where only man deserves to be. This is what 2 Corinthians 5:21 is all about. God made Him who had no sin, to be sin for us. Instead of us, on our behalf so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God. There is nothing greater than this. He lived the life we could not live. He died the death we did not want to die. In our place. He substituted Himself, and at he cross, God does these things. He expresses his judgment on sin. See the beauty of the cross here. At the cross, God expresses His judgment on sin. At the same time, god endures His judgment against sin. He expresses judgment on sin and endures judgment against sin. That can only happen through substitution and at the cross, God enables salvation for sinners. Christ, the god man, is the only possible substitute that brings satisfaction to the glory of God and salvation to the sons of man. That's the picture that's being displayed here. Let me show it to you. Isaiah 53, if you've got a Bible, go with me to Isaiah Chapter 53, Isaiah Chapter 53. This is the prophecy, written 700 years, spoken 700 years before Christ went to the cross. Listen to what it says. I want to show you here, satisfaction through substitution. Chapter 53, Verse 1, "Who is believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground, He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Surely, he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace, was upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who can speak of his decedents, for He was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgression of my people, He was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence nor any deceit in His mouth, yet it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer. As the Lord makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand. After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied by his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong because He poured out His life into death and was numbered with the transgressors, for He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors." That is one beautiful chapter of scripture. What we see here, same truths we see, and this is an important passage, eight of these 12 verses are attributed directly to Jesus in the New Testament, 8 of those 12 verses. Verse 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 twice and verse 11. Eight out of those 12 verses. It's quoted seven times in the New Testament. Seven different times, and you can see the parallels I just listed them for you there. Quoted seven different times, but here's the picture. Kind of go past all those verses, and I want you to think about all that we've seen in this point displayed in this one chapter of scripture, insightful passage.

Number one, see the person of Christ. This passage shows us that in his humanity, He is familiar with suffering. Verse 3: He was despised and rejected by man, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Jesus is not a savior with flowing hair and impeccable features who is always clean and everything looks nice and he's got a little crown around his head at any moment. He had nothing in His appearance to attract us to Him. Familiar with sorry, familiar with suffering, like us His humanity, His deity free from sin. He had no done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Sinless and righteous, just like we just saw, the person of Christ. The sinfulness of man, what we've looked at. Verses 4 through 6, 8 and 12, we see our sins all over this passage, and that leads us to the substitution of God. Verses 4 through 6, you can circle every time we see the picture, surely He took up our infirmities. Whose infirmities were put on Him? Ours were. Whose sorrows put on Him? Ours. Pierces for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. By His wounds we are healed. The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. It's all put on Him as our substitute. Over and over and over again we see this, substitution of God. Satisfaction of God, who sent Jesus to the cross? Whose will was it to crush Jesus on the cross? It was the Father's will. It was the Lord's will to crush Him, verse 10. Jews, nor the Romans, were ultimately responsible for the death of Christ. God the Father was ultimately responsible for the death of Christ. It was the Lord's will to crush Him. God, substitution of God, satisfaction of God leading to the salvation of men in Verse 11, after the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. The way we are justified is because of the satisfaction and substitution of God that leads to our salvation, so this is the picture. If we were to imagine that the cross as an infinitely precious diamond, at the core of that diamond, I want to invite you to see, look into it and see satisfaction through substitution. God glorifying Himself by substituting Himself on a cross. And based on that picture, here's what I want us to do. I want us to go to the passion narrative, four scenes, and tilt this diamond a little this wy and see the light just shine from it. Then we'll tilt it a little another way in the Garden of Gethsemane and see the light shine, and then we'll go to the cross and see Jesus crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and we'll see it shine, and then we'll look at that declaration of triumph, "It is finished," and from these four angels, to see this glorious picture of satisfaction through substitution just come alive. Journey to the cross. That's where we're going. Those four different scenes. What does it mean, 1 Timothy 2:5, this is where we're focusing here, as a ransom? last Supper, Garden of Gethsemane, cry of dereliction, declaration of triumph. Let's dive right into the last Supper. We're going to do our best to fly through this. We're not going to dive into all of these passages in depth because there's a lot, especially in this section right here, but you know Jesus having the Passover meal, was the time of the Passover, there in Matthew 26. What I want to do in each of these scenes that we're going to look at sorry, just had a flashback to me waving this thing around, and it's not pretty. Three components of each of these scenes that I want us to think about. I want us to think about a theme, the key text to help us understand that and the key truth. So, the key theme here in the Last Supper is sacrifice. Basically we're going to look at four key themes based on these four events, sacrifice, and the key truth here is that Jesus died our death. Again, feel the substitution there. He died our death as a representative for us, instead of us dying, He died. The key text that we're going to run through as best as we CA, Exodus 12, Exodus 24, Leviticus 16, and then in 1 Corinthians 11 is Paul's description of the Lord's Supper and the New Testament epistles. Sacrifice, Jesus died our death. Here's the reality the scripture teachers: We deserve to die for our sin. God made this very clear in Genesis 2, "When you eat of the tree, fruit from the tree, you will surely die." Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death." We deserve to die

for our sin. On the cross, Jesus sacrificed himself and died in our place. He gave Himself up for us. He sacrificed Himself. Hebrews 9:26, now you know the picture of sacrifice goes all the way back to the Old Testament and all the way back to even I mentioned Exodus 12 there, but even go back to Genesis 22, patriarchs, ever since before that you've got a picture of Cain and Abel sacrifice being offered to God and man's sin. Even in Genesis 3 you've got Adam and Eve, as soon as they sin, an animal is sacrificed to provide covering for them. So, what you've got is sacrifice from the very beginning of scripture, a dominant theme, and you've got substitutionary sacrifice in Genesis 22, remember. Abraham and his son, participation part of our program, Abraham's son, Isaac. Isaac God says, "Abraham, take Isaac up on Mount Moriah and sacrifice your son." What's the point here? Why does God tell Abraham to do that? Abraham in obedience takes his son up and raises the knife above him. At that moment, God intervenes and He says, "No, do not kill your son. Instead, I provide a ram in the thicket. You take the ram, and you sacrifice the ram instead of your son." Substitution. Sacrifice. Genesis 22, from the very beginning. If you were an Israelite listening to that story as it's passed down, you identify yourself with Isaac. Isaac is the lineage of Abraham. The son of Abraham, the promised line of Abraham. If Isaac is gone, the line of Abraham is gone. That's tension. The climax there in the story as the knife is raised over, the lineage of the people of God, and God says, "I will preserve my people by providing a sacrifice for them." That's the picture in Genesis 22, and then go to Exodus 12, and go and turn actually, I've got most of he scriptures mentioned here, so you dont have to turn there. The picture of the Passover, and I put Matthew 26 and John 19 very intentionally here because the week of Jesus' crucifixion was the week of the Passover. John there's a little bit of discrepancy when you compare the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, with John, but John's intention will show us, in John 19:14 it was the day of preparation of Passover, about the sixth hour. So, John is intent to show us that time Jesus is being sacrificed at the cross is the time of the sacrifice of the Passover. Old Testament and what we've got in Exodus Chapter 12, you remember God's people were slaves in Egypt, nine different plagues demonstrating His glory to the people of Egypt and Pharaoh and the Egyptians not getting it. So, the tenth plague comes, and what happens is God says I'm going to go throughout Egypt, and I'm going to go to every home, Egyptian home and Israelite home, and I am going to strike down the firstborn son in every home. I will pass over your home if you take a lamb without blemish, you bring it into your home for a few days, and then you sacrifice it, and you take the blood of that lamb, and you put it over the door post of your home, and when I see the blood over the door post of your home, I will pass over. That's the picture in Exodus 12. It's a picture that is celebrated every single year after that in the Passover. So, what are we seeing about God in this picture? Three pictures of God. He is the almighty judge. He says in Exodus 12:12, "I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord." He's the judge. He's the gracious savior. He will save these homes, and he's the faithful provider. I will provide a way out. I will provide you with a lamb, and you will take the blood of the lamb and put it over your doorpost, and you will commemorate my faithfulness to you because I will do what I've promised and deliver you out of slavery in Egypt. There's two acts of deliverance that are going on here. Number 1 is deliverance from the rulers of Egypt. They've been slaves there for hundreds of years. They're being delivered out of that. God has heard their cries, seen their suffering, is delivering them out from the rulers of Egypt, but not just out of slavery. Their deliverance from the judgment of God. This is what's interesting. When you look at the other plagues, they were those plagues that God just brought on these Egyptians. He's bringing this judgment on Egyptian and Israelite alike. It doesnt matter who you are, if you dont have blood over your doorpost, then the firstborn son is being struck down, and so they're being delivered from the rulers of Egypt and the judgment of God here in Exodus

Chapter 12, and the decisive element if the blood of a substitute sacrifice, a spotless lamb. Take this lamb and put the blood of the lamb over your doorpost. That's the picture in the Old Testament, and it sets the stage for this Passover celebration in the New Testament as Jesus sits down and has the Last Supper with his disciples in the New Testament, on the cross, God is going to reveal Himself in the same way, as the almighty judge. We've talked about this. He's going to demonstrate his justice as the gracious savior, as the one who sent the son to be the savior of the world. He is going to provide a way out, faithful provider. Same picture we see of God in the Old Testament, a pre-representation of what is to come in the New Testament. On the cross, God delivers us from the power of sin. No longer slaves to sin, Romans 6, and our slavery to sin, what happens at the cross is we're delivered out of that slavery and not just he power of sin, but the penalty of sin. We're delivered from the wrathful judgment of God due sin, and all of that happens because of one element: the blood of a substitute sacrifice, the Lamb of God. This is where it's really interesting. Your see in Exodus 12 that in the Passover, the food must be eaten in one house, take none of the meat outside of the house. Do not break any of the bones of the lamb. That is why John is intentional to show us these things happen so the scripture would be fulfilled, not one of His bones will be broken. That's why when we take the Lord's Supper we dont say this is my Jesus said this is my body broken for you. It's my body given for you; it's an intentional picture here. John is identifying Christ with the Passover lamb and the introduction to Christ in the book of John with John the Baptist's words, "Look, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." 1 Corinthians 5:7, "Christ is our Passover lamb." Move forward to Mount Sinai, Exodus Chapter 19, and what happens in Exodus 19 through 24 and 25 is God enters into covenant with His people. When Jesus says in Matthew 26, "The last supper drink from it, this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins," what he's doing is he's harkening back to this picture in the old covenant, mosaic covenant. What happened? Overview, Exodus 19, God brings his people to Mount Sinai, and he says to them at Mount Sinai I don't think I have I do have this verse in here, in Exodus 19:12 he gives them this command, He says, "Stay back in fear. Stay back in fear. You put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them be careful. You dont go up to the mountain and touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death." God is going to reveal His glory, and the picture is in Exodus 19, God reveals his glory on that mountain, the whole mountain starts shaking. There's smoke going up everywhere. It's an intense scene, and everybody's sitting back afraid to go anywhere near it because God has said dont go near it. What happens in Exodus 20, He gives His people the Ten Commandments. In the chapters to come, he gives some other laws, rules, regulations. He's entering into covenant with them, until you get to Exodus 24, and what we see is God it's like a marriage relationship. You can almost picture it, entering into covenant like a wedding, but God is entering into covenant with his people, the Mosaic Covenant, and he's promising to bless them and to be faithful to them and be with them. It's inaugurated with blood. Old covenant people, in need of the blood of a sacrifice. Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant the Lord has made with you, in accordance with all these words." Those people were in need of a blood of a sacrifice, but because they had sin and because they were unable to obey the law. What happens when the covenant takes place, it is the people respond and say, "We'll do everything the Lord has said. We'll obey." Exodus 24:7, but then I've listed all throughout the Old Testament we see the people of God turning their backs on God, turning from the covenant with God. So, we come in Jeremiah 31 to the old Covenant promise, "Time is coming, declares the Lord," that's what Jeremiah tells us. "When I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers, when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, for they broke my covenant, though I was husband to them. This is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel after that time. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their god, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother saying, 'know the Lord,' because they will all know me. From the least of me to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their wickedness and

will remember their sins no more." That's what was promised. This is a new covenant that is coming, and what we see in Christ is that new covenant inaugurated, new covenant fulfillment. Spirit testifies about this. "This is a covenant I will make with him after that time, says the Lord." This is Hebrews 10, giving us a picture. "I will put my laws in their hearts, write them on their minds." It's exactly what Jeremiah had said. "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." How? New covenant people. Old covenant people in need of the blood of sacrifice. New covenant people, forgiven by the blood of a sacrifice, forgiven by the blood of a sacrifice. Old covenant people, unable to obey the law. New covenant people, enabled to obey the law. Christ is covered over their sins, and he dwells in them, and he changes them from the inside out. The new covenant invitation, remember old covenant, stay away from the presence of God. Sty back in fear. New covenant invitation, draw near in faith. Brothers and sisters, we have this confidence to enter the throne of the most holy place, most holy God and we can go there any time we want because the blood of a new covenant. That's what Hebrews 10 is all about. Now, Exodus sets up the picture of Leviticus. We're just running through Old Testament history here. Exodus sets up the picture of Leviticus because in a covenant, God said I'm going to dwell with you and I'm going to live with you, but how can a holy god dwell with a sinful people, and Leviticus answers that question by saying via sacrifice. There must be sacrifices to atone for sins. Part of Leviticus, Leviticus 16, once a day, the Day of Atonement, the Day of Atonement in Leviticus Chapter 16. What we have is a lasting ordinance, on the tenth day of the seventh month, you must deny yourselves, not do any work, whether native born or an alien living among you because on this day, atonement will be made for you to cleanse you. Before the Lord, you will then be clean from all your sins. So, here's what happened. In the Old Testament what we have is an old covenant provision, an annual sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Once a year what would happen is a priest would go into what you had was God dwelling among his people and through in the Tabernacle, and the way this whole picture worked was you had an outer chord and inner chord, and basically, the very core center was the Holy of Holies, and the Holy of Holies you had the law, and this was spelled out in Exodus 25. You had the law of the covenant God had made with his people, and over it you had the atonement cover or the mercy seat. You had this picture of God dwelling among his people. Obviously, God is everywhere, he's omnipresent, but in a special way, His glory is dwelling among His people. Center ultimate picture among His people is in that Holy of Holies. So, once a year on the Day of Atonement a priest goes into the Holy of Holies, the priest entering an earthly sanctuary. The priest would wash himself. This is where we remember. If the priest treated this lightly like Aaron's sons earlier in Leviticus, you get struck down. So, a priest enters that place, and it's intense. History tells us, scripture tells us the priest would have bells sewn into the hem of his garment so that when he went into the most holy place, you could hear him moving around, and if the bells stopped singing, you knew he had stopped moving. They history tells us they'd put a rope around his leg that would reach to outside so that if he went into the Holy of Holies and was struck down, they would be able to pull him out. Can you imagine the intensity of that scene, sitting outside the presence of the dwelling of God with His people, and you're listening intently in silence for these little bells because a man is going to meet with God? He comes out and everybody breathes a sigh of relief. Priest entering an earthly sanctuary. What he would do is the priest would go in, and he would take the blood of an animal and he would do this twice. He'd do it once to atone for his own sins, and then he'd do it to atone for the people's sins, and he would sprinkle blood over the atonement cover so that when the presence of God looked down and saw His law that had been broken, instead of seeing a broken law that resulted in condemnation of his people, He would see that that had been satisfied in the blood of another, and the blood of the sacrifice sprinkled over was a substitute for the people's sin, would atone for their sins. Blood of a spotless animal, and it was a sacrifice that

would need repeating. It was a sacrifice that would need repeating because they would do it every year, year after year after year. They would do it over and over and over and over again. The effect was old covenant effect, a reminder of all our sin. Hebrews 10 tells us, "This is a reminder over and over again for the people of God that they needed the blood of another to atone for their sins." So, you come into the New Testament. We dont have an annual sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. Instead, New Testament provision, we have an abiding sacrifice in the death of Christ. We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the boy of Jesus Christ once for all. Here's the new covenant elements. A priest entering, not an earthly sanctuary, but a heavenly sanctuary. Jesus did not enter into some place that symbolized the glory of God dwelling with his people. He entered into the very throne room of God in the presence of God, heavenly sanctuary, not a copy of the true one, Hebrews 9 says, "He appeared for us in God's presence, the blood not of an animal, but he blood of a sinless man. He didnt offer the blood of another." Dont miss this. Jesus offered his own blood on the atonement cover so that when God the Father looks at your life and my life, and he sees his love broken and your life and my life, instead of pouring out His judgment on us, He sees the blood of another. He sees the blood has been offered on our behalf, and that's why Hebrews 10 says, "Our hearts have been sprinkled with his blood, and we are free from a guilty conscience, purified. We are able to enter into the throne room of God, and that's a sacrifice that will last forever." New covenant effect: the removal of all our sin and what Jeremiah prophesied is true. Brothers and sisters, when you trust in the blood of Christ, he remembers your sins no more. You say I don't know what I did last week; you dont know how awful that was that I did. You are not condemned for that. You are not guilty. By the blood of Christ you are not guilty. Sacrifice. This is the picture in the Last Supper, Jesus died our death. So, when we see in Matthew chapter 26 Him saying, "Take and eat, this is my body, drink from this cup; this is my blood," the picture is of a sacrifice. Remember the Passover. We are delivered by His blood. Remember the covenant. We are sealed by His blood; His relationship with us sealed by the blood of Christ, and remember the Day of Atonement. We are covered by His blood. If you got a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 26. Matthew 26. What were going to do is were going to take three more steps in the passion narrative. Weve started with the last supper and now were going to go to the garden. And then well go to the cross and see two glimpses of the cross. The cry of dereliction, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me. And the cry, or declaration of triumph, It is finished. So Matthew chapter 26, verse 36. I want us to read this one together. Sinclair Ferguson said, The Garden of Gethsemane is one of the most sacred and solemn scenes in the entire bible. One of the most sacred and solemn scenes in the entire Bible. Matthew 26:36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to them, Sit here while I go over there and pray. He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him and he began to be sorrowful and troubled and then he said to them, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow, to the point of death, stay here and keep watch with me. Going a little farther, He fell with his face to the ground and prayed, My father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. And then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. Could you not keep watch with me for one hour, he asked Peter. Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh, body is weak. He went away a second time and prayed, My father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away, unless I drink it may your will be done. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time saying this same thing. And then he returned to the disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the

hour is near and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go. Here comes my betrayer. The theme I want us to see tonight in the Garden of Gethsemane is a two dollar theological word called propitiation. And if you look a little father down in your notes you can see how to spell propitiation. Propitiation. This is a word every follower of Christ needs to know. Not many of us know it, we need to know propitiation. The truth here is that Jesus endured our condemnation and what I have listed as the key text are four texts in the New Testament where we see the New Testament here that pictures propitiation. And were going to show, I want to show you how the Garden of Gethsemane sums up this truth that Jesus endured condemnation for us and what propitiation means. Propitiations, Jesus endured our condemnation. You remember, remember Romans 3:25 when it says, when the Bible says, when Paul writes, God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement. In fact, just go there real quick. Go in your Bible to Romans 3, Romans 3 and look with me at verse 25. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement. Now, Im guessing amidst the many translations that there probably are across the room that theres different translations in this verse. And if youve got an NIV translation, the words are, God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement and you probably have a note that takes you to the bottom and gives you an additional description of what this term is in the New Testament. Note at the bottom in my Bible says, sacrifice of atonement, Or as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away sin. And thats the phrase here that I want you to lock into your mind. God presented him as the one who would turn aside wrath, taking away sin. Heres the truth, and this is in your notes, sin arouses the fury, anger, and wrath of God. Sin arouses the fury, anger, and wrath of God. Pauls been talking about it, ever since chapter 1 verse 18 all the way to chapter 3 verse 19, the sinfulness of man and the wrath of God do sin. Sin arouses the fury, anger, and wrath of God. As sinners, that means that we deserve to bear Gods wrath against sin. Sin evokes fury, anger, wrath in God. We are sinners so we deserve to bear that wrath. So, Jesus as our substitute. Again, were taking this diamond, satisfaction through substitution. Were just kind of turning a little bit more as our substitute Jesus became the object of Gods fury anger and wrath so that we might not experience it. And this is whats going on, in the cross and specifically in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus on the cross is turning away Gods wrath, taking away our sin. Now, there is actually two theological terms here. One is expiation, which means, our sin is removed, taking away our sin, the second part of that phrase. Jesus takes away our sin. To have sin expiated means its taken away, its removed. Propitiation means Gods wrath is satisfied. When we sang earlier, we sang in Christ alone, on that cross is Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. We were singing about propitiation there. It just doesnt fit well into contemporary worship songs. You cant, what do you rhyme with propitiation. It just doesnt work. So, instead well go with this, Gods wrath is satisfied. So what does this mean and how does it related to the garden? When we see Jesus going to the garden and three times praying, father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me, it begs the question, what is this cup that Jesus is talking of? When the answer may surprise us a little bit. The cup of the cross is not primarily physical suffering. When we see Jesus sweating blood from his pores in intense agony, its not because he is thinking about the physical pain associated with Crucifixion. The cup of the cross is predominately spiritual suffering. There is a spiritual reality expressed in the prayer, Father, if it is possible, let this cup be taken from me. And this is important. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus is not a coward about to face Roman soldiers. If he is, if what he is cowering in the garden about is about what the Roman soldiers are about to to do him, then what are we to say of the countless martyrs since that day who have gone to their deaths singing? The man in India who was skinned alive, who looked at his tormentor and said, Take my outer garment out today, today I cloth myself in a new garment.

Christopher Love as he is being lead to the gallows and his wife is applauding him saying, Today they will severe you from your physical head, but they cannot severe you from your spiritual head. And he goes singing to the cross, were they more brave than Jesus their savior himself? Absolutely not. What is causing this anguish is not the fact that Jesus is a coward about to face Roman soldiers. Its the fact that Jesus is the savior about to endure divine wrath. I want you to hear with me the Old Testament description of the cup. Psalm 75:8, In the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs. Listen to the intensity in Isaiah 51, Awake, awake, arise up oh Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord, the cup of his. What? His wrath. You who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger. Of all the sons she bore, there was no to guide her. Of all the sons she reared, there was none to take her by the hand. These double calamities have come on you. Who can comfort? You ruin and destruction? Famine and sword, who can console you? Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of every street like antelope caught in a net. They are filled with the wrath of the Lord and the rebuke of your God. Therefore, here this, you afflicted one, made drunk, but not with wine, this is what your sovereign Lord says, your God who defends his people. See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger. From that cup, the goblet of my wrath you will never drink again. Its the goblet of wrath. Jeremiah 25, Take from my hand this cup, field with the wine of my wrath, God speaking here. And make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. And when they drink it they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them. These are uncomfortable words when we think about God. Ezekiel 23, You will drink your sisters cup, a cup large and deep. It will bring scorn and derision because it holds so much. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow. The cup of ruin and desolation. Habakkuk 2, You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn. Drink and be exposed, the cup from the Lords right hand is coming around to you and disgrace will cover your glory. Revelation 14, some of the most humbling distinctions of the wrath of God, Revelation 14. He too will drink of the wine of Gods fury which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. Revelation 18, Give back to her as she has given. Pay her back double for what she had done. Mix her a double portion from her own cup. This is the picture over and over and over again, Old Testament, New Testament, a cup filled with the wine of the wrath of God. Old Testament. This is where were just going to fly through, but get a picture of seriousness of the wrath of God. Remember, we diminish the wrath, we dilute the wrath of God, we diminish the holiness of God. We dont want to diminish his holiness. In the Old Testament, Gods wrath is real. There are more than 20 different words that describe Gods wrath in the Old Testament. More than 20 different words. More than over 580 different references to Gods wrath. Over 580 different references to the wrath of God. And Ive listed some of the pictures there and they are staggering. Let his own side see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. See the name of the Lord comes from afar with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke. His lips are full of wrath and his tongue is a consuming fire. His breath is like a rushing torrent rising up to the neck. Ezekiel 7. Im about to pour our, my wrath on you and spend my anger against you. Ezekiel 22. Get to the middle, I will gather you into Jerusalem as men gather silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into a furnace to melt it with a fiery blast so I will gather you in my anger and my wrath and will put you inside the city and melt you. I will gather you and I will blow on you with my fiery wrath and you will be melted inside her. As sliver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted inside her and you will know that I the Lord have poured out my wrath upon you.

This is real. Gods wrath is personal, is personal. Its God speaking to his people. Exodus 32, end, Leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and I may destroy them. Deuteronomy 6. The Lord your God who is among you is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, he will destroy you from the face of the land. This is God amongst people. Gods wrath is personal. Its intense. Its intense as if what weve seen is not intense enough, listen to this picture in Isaiah 13. The Lord Almighty is mustering an army for war. They come from far away lands, from the ends of the heavens, the Lord and the weapons of his wrath to destroy the whole country, wail, for the day of the Lord is near. It will come like destruction from the Almighty. Because of this, all hands will go limp. Every mans heart will melt. Terror will seize them. Pain and anguish will grip them. They will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other, their face is aflame. See the day of the Lord is coming. A cruel day with wrath and fierce anger to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. Ezekiel 5 the same, Gods wrath is intense. God intensely hates sin. Do not do this detestable thing I hate, God says. He intensely hates sin and as weve talked about, God in his holly wrath, intensely hates sinners. Its what the Bible says. We cannot soften this. Do not soften this. You hate all who do wrong. The Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence, his soul hates. His wrath is intense, its sovereign. Its authoritative. When disaster comes to the city, has not the Lord caused it. Gods wrath is steady. Gods wrath is not irrational, ladies and gentlemen. It is steady. It is consistent. It is predictable. Evil always provokes the wrath of God. God is a righteous judge who expresses his wrath every day. Gods wrath is steady, its pure. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrong. His wrath flows from his purity. Gods wrath is loving. What do you mean a loving wrath? Think about those whom you love. Think about your children or your wife or your husband or your mom or dad, or whoever, think about someone you love, anything that would threaten them threaten to harm them is going to be met by you with major resistance. I love my wife. I love my boys. And as a result, that which threatens to harm them evokes a response from me, that which is not good for them. There are so many things in this culture that there is a holy, I hope in my heart, a holy anger for. I do not want them to be pulled away by. This is a picture of Gods wrath, its loving, so thats Old Testament. New Testament, Gods wrath is continual. Whoever believes on the son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the son will not see live, for Gods wrath remains on him. The wrath of God is being revealed, continually revealed. Gods wrath is coming. Jesus said, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee fro the coming wrath? Romans Paul says you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of Gods wrath. Its coming. Gods wrath is deserved. It talks about condemnation in Romans 3, is deserved, we deserve condemnation from God. Its deserved, Gods wrath is eternal. Why does he say such serious things about sin? Jesus. If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and thrown into eternal fire. Pluck out your eyes, throw them away if they are causing you to sin because theres a place called Hell where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Its eternal. Gods wrath is final. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and the majesty of his power. Gods wrath is dreadful. Revelation 6, they will call out to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of the wrath has come and who can stand? And Gods wrath, ladies and gentlemen, is irreversible. Irreversible. The middle of Revelation 14:9-11 it talks about the smoke of their torment rising forever and ever. Its the New Testament language, you can't get any longer than that, forever and ever.

Revelation 20 talks about judgment, if anyones name was not found in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire. Irreversible. So this is the picture we have in the Old Testament and New Testament. A real, intense, personal, coming, continual, dreadful, irreversible, eternal, wrath, on the cross we discover the one who turns aside the wrath of God. Propitiation, dependent on the initiative of God, this is key right here. That God presented him as one would turn away his wrath. There are pagan religions where there is a concept of propitiation where a god, the gods are angry and so we need to do these things in order to placate, in order to satisfy the wrath of the gods. Thats not whats being taught here in the New Testament. Because the reality is, we are the objects of wrath and there is nothing we can do to satisfy it. No matter if religious works. Not matter of good deeds can cover over the sin which provokes the wrath and fury and anger of a holy God toward our sin and us in our sin and so its God who is initiation proportion. Not us trying to figure out, what can we do to propitiate and angry God? It is God himself saying, Im going to initiate propitiation. Propitiation is dependent on the initiative of God. It is accomplished by the son of God. It is one of those words that we see in Romans 3, Jesus Christ the righteous one, he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Thats the picture, the atoning sacrifice. We dont have time to look at John 3 and Numbers 21. But its a picture of a sinful people who deserver the wrath of God. Were just going to fly over that. We just dont have time to do it. Im sorry. Propitiation is a demonstration. So its accomplished by the son of God, initiated by the Father, and its a demonstration of the love of God. Now, this is where we really see this whole picture come together. I John 4:9, This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. What we need to see is you got God, trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three distance persons, all God, one God, three persons. What we need to see in the Father and the Son is the Father and Son working in unison here. The picture in propitiation is not a loving son who is trying to placate an angry father. Weve got a loving father in this picture. We dont have the son and the Father at odds in anyway. They are in unison in this picture. Gods son was sent, Jesus was sent by the Fathers love. The Father sent his son, by his love. So, its the Fathers love that make propitiation possible. Forty times in the gospel of John youve got John mentioning that the Father sent the Son. Jesus talked about how the Father sent him. Its obviously summed up in John 3:16. He gave his one and only son. And what weve got is God is sent by the Fathers love, not just for us, but the Son, or the Father loved the Son. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. So what weve got is the love of the Father who sends the son and then Gods wrath is endured by the Sons love. Gods Son is sent by the Fathers love. Gods wrath is endured by the Sons love. You dont have the Son unwilling, an unwilling participant in this thing saying, Well, if I have to. Its just not an accident, brothers and sisters. Its not the picture, the story is told so often of the train operator, bridge operator and the train is coming, some of you may have heard this story, the father and his son, theyre there at the bridge and the train is coming and the son has wandered off to play, hes with his dad at work for the day. And hes caught and the train is coming and the father has to release the lever so the bridge is put down so that the people on the train dont die. And hes faced with this decision. Do I save my son and let all these other people die, or do I kill my son by letting this lever down and let all the people on the train live. And this is whats usually, a story, and illustration thats used to describe the cross. That is absolutely not what is going on at the cross. This is not a Son whos wandered off from the Father and gotten into something he shouldnt have and now hes in a

predicament and the father has to figure out something to do. Absolutely not. The Father sent the Son and the Son is being obedient to the father. Thats why hes going to the cross. And Gods wrath is being endured by the Sons love because Christ is being obedient to the father. This is where we need to realize, if we think on this Good Friday, we need to remember that we are not saved from our sins because a bunch of Roman soldiers arrested Jesus and beat him and mocked him nailed him to a cross. We are not saved from our sins because of what these Roman persecutors did to Jesus. We are saved from out sins because the Father and the Son in complete unison willingly went to the cross and Christ took the cup filled with the fury of the wrath of God. One preacher said, it is like you and I are standing in front of a dam 10,000 miles high and 10,000 miles wide filled to the brim with water. And in one instant, that dam is let loose and all of that water comes rushing towards us. In the same way, the torrent of the wrath of God came rushing towards us. Now, imagine as that water comes towards you, the ground in front of you, right before that water hits you the ground in front of you opens up and swallows every single drop. In the same way, Christ went to the cross. He took the full cup of a wrathful God and he drank down every single drop, turned it over and cried out, It is finished. Thats what happened at the cross. He endured our condemnation. He experience the wrath that was due of us. Man of Sorrows, what a name, for the Son of God who came. Ruined sinners to reclaim, Hallelujah! What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place, condemned he stood. Sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we. Spotless Lamb of God was he, full atonement can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! Lifted up was he to die. It is finished, was his cry. Now in Heaven exalted high. Hallelujah! What a Savior! And when he comes our glorious king all his ransomed home to bring. Then a new this song well sing, Hallelujah! What a Savior! All right. Let me move on. So when we picture the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is not a coward. Hes a savior, about to endure divine wrath. Third scene, turn with diamond, the cry of dereliction. From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Can you imagine that scene, in the middle of the day, darkness sweeps over the entire land. And for three hours its dark. Even to borrow from the picture we just saw, Jesus is not enduring wrath for a movement, for hours. And darkeness comes over and Jesus cries out, My God, my God why have you forsaken me? What does that mean? Key thing, reconciliation. Reconciliation and the truth here is that Jesus suffered our separation. Heres the substitute he suffered separation for us instead of us. Reconciliation, in our sin, we are separated from God as his enemies. Enmity toward God, friends of the world, James 4 says. So whose side is the enmity on? Is it on our side of on Gods side? And the answer seems to be in scripture, both. Man is hostile to God. Romans 1, at the end, says we are God haters. Sinful mind, sinful mand is hostile to God, Romans 8. AT the same time, God is hostile to man. As weve seen in the sense that his wrath rests on sinners. And so, in our sin, were separated from God as enemies, through our substitute, because of our substituted we are reconciled to God as his friends. Two key texts, II Corinthians 5 and Romans 5. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, all the old is gone. All the new is come. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting mens sins against them. Later it says, Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us in order that we might become the righteousness of God. And then Romans 5 really all the way through verse 11. God demonstrates his love to us in this, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And so since we have been justified by his

blood, how much more will we be saved through Gods wrath through him. For, if when we were enemies of God, God sent his son, how much more having been saved, will be saved through his life. Thats Romans 5:9-11. So, the picture here is a substitute who reconciles us to God as friends of God, once enemies, now friends, the difference being a substitute. How does that work and how does this related to this cry, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Well, think about whats going on on the cross there, when he says that, what is the meaning of those words. First what its not. When Jesus cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It is not a cry of unbelief. Some have said, much like we saw Jesus pictured almost as a coward in the Garden of Gethsemane, somehow in this moment of supreme self sacrifice, Jesus lacks faith or trust in the father and thats not at all whats going on here. Jesus has said, he knows where he is going. Im going away and Im coming back to you. Hes confident, its not a cry of unbelief. Its also not a cry of confusion. Jesus is not wondering, why am I dying, why is this happening? He had said this was going to happen. Not a cry of confusion. Not a cry of despair either. What does Hebrews 12:2 say? Fix our eyes on Jesus, author and perfector of our faith, who for the, what set before him? Joy set before him, endured the cross. He said to his disciples where hes going, what hes doing. In Matthew 27 there, My God, my God why have you forsaken me, see hes quoting from Psalms 22:1. And we see, and were going to look at that Psalm, the psalmist who has cried out, My God, my God why have you forsaken me, comes to conclusion that God has not despised or disdained him. Not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help. So its not a cry of unbelief, confusion, despair. What is it a cry of then? I would encourage us to look at this cry from the cross through three different lenses. One, a cry of spiritual anguish. He quotes from the Old Testament, Psalm 22:1, you see it listed there. In light of what we just saw, Christ is experiencing the depth of Gods wrath. If you think about it, he was sweating blood at the anticipation of it. What must it have been like for the holy God of the universe, in the flesh to experience the full weight of wrath, infinite wrath towards sin. So there is spiritual anguish overwhelmed by the judgment of sin poured out on him in that moment. Second, a cry of relational alienation. There was a real separation from the Father in a sense, which we are going to talk about in a second. We are going to come back to that. And its depicted in the darkness, this three hours of darkness and dont miss understand this picture. Some preachers have said, well, God looked down and could not bear to see what the soldiers were doing to his son, so he turned away. Absolutely not. God looked down and could not bear to see your sin and my sin on his son and because of our sin he turned away. Our sin thrust on his son, cry of relational alienation. Alienated by the father and alienated by men. There is parallels here between Psalm 22 and the gospel account of Jesus death. You look in Psalm 22:6, I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him. And then you see the picture in Matthew 27, Those who passed by him hurled insults at him shaking their heads and saying, you who were going to destroy the temple and build it, save yourself. Come down if youre the son of God. You see these parallels, you can go back through and look at them. What weve got is the gospel accounts of Jesus dying in the cross reflecting cries of the Psalmist in Psalm 22. Alienated by those he loved. Peter, disciples, picture of alienation, from father and men in a very real way. Spiritual anguish, relational alienation, and third, physical agony. Were talking about the theological mysteries and the truths, but we cannot overlook the physical picture. I think we have a tendency, a dangerous tendency, to glamorize the physical picture. Thats what we talk about all the time when we talk about the cross. We talk about all the physical facets of suffering, and I think we can over glamorize some of those things, but they are

still realities. He was nailed, his feet, his hands, to a cross, with a crown of thrones thrust through his head. Death by crucifixion was basically death by brutal suffocation. Because in order to breathe you would have to press up on feet that had nails run into them. And press out on arms that had nails thrust, on hands that had nails thrust into them and you would lift up to try to gasp for breath and in the process, your back scourged by what had been done before, would scrape along that cross, that was to breathe. And thats what our Savior was experiencing. And so it was all spiritual anguish, an ultimate spiritual anguish, but relational alienation and physical agony, that was the separation on the cross. Now, how does that provide salvation? Salvation from the curse? Heres the picture of reconciliation. God is the author or reconciliation. God is the author of reconciliation. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ. I love what William Temple said. He said, All is of God. The only thing of my very own which I contribute to my redemption is the sin from which I need to be redeemed. God is the giver of the gospel. Hes the one doing the reconciling. Whenever you see this word reconciled in the New Testament, its either talking about God as the subject, God as reconciling, or if its talking about us, its used in the passive form. We are being reconciled, we have been reconciled. God is the subject. Were not reconciling ourselves to God. We dont see that in scripture. You see God reconciling himself to us. You see us being reconciled by God. He is the giver of the gospel. Second, hes the gift of the gospel. He is reconciling us to himself. This is why we cant and we talk about evangelism of the gospel, talk about well, believe in Christ and you get forgiveness of your sins and you get eternal life and you get your best life and you get all of these things. No, you come to Christ and you get God and all of these things flow from God, but we have taken God himself out of how we preach the cross and the gospel and offer his gifts instead. Hes reconciling us to himself and hes the supreme treasure. Not his gift. God is the treasure that is bought for us. We are being reconciled to a person to God. Hes the gift of the gospel and hes the goal of the gospel. Gods designed it this whole way so that the one who gives the grace gets the glory. And if add anything to this picture than that, its credit to us and that is not the design of the cross and its not the design of the gospel. God is the author of reconciliation. Christ is the agent of reconciliation. Hes the one who makes it possible. Who reconciles man to God. And this is where Galatians 3 comes in. Key text. Galatians 3:10 tells us, we were under the curse of Gods law, Galatians 3:10, Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. Thats a quotation directly from Deuteronomy 27 verse 26. And the picture is, all who do not obey the law of God fully are under a curse, fully. Gods law is not a religious cafeteria where you pick this and this and this and this and you leave out this and this and this. And you decide what works best for you. Its not the way Gods law works. You disobey at one point, you disobey the whole deal and you are under a curse because of that. Thats, when you go back to Deuteronomy 27 and 28 you see blessings and curses, cursed is the man who does this, cursed is the man who does this. Cursed is the man who does that. Blessed is the man who does this or that. Thats what Deuteronomy 27 and 28 is all about. Now when you think about this picture of blessing and curse, follow with me here. Blessing and curse, blessing, to be blessed is to experience the favorable presence of God. To be blessed is to experience the favorable presence of God. Numbers 6:24-26, great picture of that, The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you. The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace to have the face of God turn toward you. This is blessing. This is the beautiful vision of the face of God, thats the picture, blessing. What great imagery there. And blessing all throughout the Old Testament was the reward for obedience. Deuteronomy 28, If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will

come upon you and accompany you if, key word, If you obey the Lord your God. Blessing, to experience the favorable presence of God, this is the reward of obedience because youre walking with God. On the other hand, a curse, curse is to be cut off from the favorable presence of God. The curse is the opposite of blessing. So what it means to be cursed, instead of God turning his face towards you, its God turning his back toward you and his face away from you. Cut off from the light of his favorable presence. This is what God said in Exodus 33. He said, to a people in sin he said, If I go with you, I will destroy you on the way. You will have not my favorable presence with you. Its the picture we see in II Kings 23 and 24. Now the reason Im saying favorable presence of God here is because I think sometimes we have a misunderstanding there. The reality is most of the time when we see in scripture the presence of God, it is a picture of the blessing of God. It is the picture of the favor of his presence. And so when we talk about the presence of God, we talk about it in a favorable sense. We just associate the two together. However, we need to realize, God is omnipresent, right? And so when we talk about being cast out of his presence, how is that really possible? Its not, hes present everywhere. And so when we say were somebodys cast out of his presence, then what were talking about is how they are experiencing the, not favorable presence of God, but its a picture of curse, unfavorable presence. And thats the picture God said to his people in Exodus 33. If my presence is with you, I will destroy you on the way. God with us is not always a good thing. Now, see this because God, think about eternal damnation, think about Hell, is God present? If we answer no, then he is not omnipresent. Hell is a demonstration of the divine wrath of God and judgment of God. There is a very real sense of his presence. Now, its being cast out of his presence in the sense that its been cursed, but not completely, thats why were talking about favorable presence. The picture here is to be cursed. Is to mean, not that Gods presence is completely gone, but that his back is turned from you and his curse is upon you. His curse is upon you and thats the recompense for disobedience. If you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees Im giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. In other words, you will see his presence revealed in darkness and now we are getting to the heart of whats going on at the cross. We are under the curse of Gods law. We deserve the darkness of his presence, his curse towards us, cast out from the favor of his presence and what happened at the cross is Christ came under the cross of Gods judgment. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. Quoting there from the Old Testament Deuteronomy 21. Catch this, it just so happened, Christ died at a time when the Jewish people were under Roman authority. Romans who had devised crucifixion. Jesus was not stoned to death, he died on a tree for a reason. To give us a picture of the curse of God. Ive got Hebrews 13 scriptures listed through there because Jesus was cut off from Gods favorable presence. Hebrews 13 talks about how he died outside the camp. And you look in Leviticus and you see outside the camp represents the sins of the people and the uncleanness of the people. If you had an infectious disease you went outside the camp. If you were going to be stoned for blaspheming, Leviticus 24, you went outside the camp and this is where Jesus went. And its a picture of him experiencing the curse, cut off from Gods favorable presence and Jesus being given the full recompense of our disobedience. Now feel the weight of II Corinthians 5, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. The curse, do our sin put on his son. I love what Luther said, Our most merciful Father, seeing us to be oppressed and overwhelmed with the curse of the law so that we could never be delivered from it by our own power, listen to this, sent his only son in the world and laid upon him the sins of all men, saying, be though Peter, that denier. Paul that persecutor, blasphemer, and cruel oppressor. David that adulterer that sinner which did eat the apple in paradise. That thief which hanged on the cross

and briefly be those, the person that hath committed the sins of all men. See therefore that those pay and satisfy for them all. This is the picture. He took the curse completely for us so that we would become, now be careful, because this is where we have to guard in our thinking about salvation. Of thinking of what we do in order to be saved. Because the reality is it is based, salvation is based completely on what Christ has done and we are simply the acceptors of reconciliation. He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the spirit. Heres the reality, we cannot remove the curse. We cannot remove the curse. There is not box we can check, no aisle we can walk, no things we can do, no routine we can keep in order to remove the curse from us. We can only receive the cross. Weve got three options here, every single one of us in this room, three options. Number one, we could ignore the curse. We can pretend like its not there. We can pretend that we are not cursed before God and we can live in a fantasy world that denies the penalty due our sin. Second, and this is where so many of us fall. And Im convinced that there are many around this room probably that find themselves here, second we can work to overcome the curse. We can go to church. And we can do our best and we can pray and we can read the Bible. And we can try to check off all the boxes we know we are supposed to check off and we can find ourselves falling over and over and over again, but trying harder the next time and trying harder the next time and feeling condemned and feeling like we just cant get it done, but trying harder and harder and harder. And we can work to overcome the curse, if you find yourself there or the first one, my exhortation to you is to take the third option. The third option is not to ignore the curse or to work to overcome the curse, the third option, embrace the curse. Embrace it. Say yes, I stand condemned before God and there is nothing I can do. Embrace the curse and run to the cross. And find that he has taken the curse for you. And therefore you dont need to try harder next time because he is already taken, there is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ because the law of the spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death. He suffered separation so that you can simply receive the cross. Be reconciled to God. Be reconciled to God. Thats the picture. God turns darkness, curse, recompense for disobedience put on him instead of us in order that we might be reconciled to God, we who were once enemies, now friends. Last picture of the cross. When he had received the drink Jesus said, It is finished. It is finished. One word in the Gospel text to tell us, It is finished. Heres the question. Jesus had died, he hadnt even risen from the grave. Was it really finished? Absolutely, it was finished. Well see the significance, particularly on Sunday here at Brookhills and resurrection. The key thing here is redemption, redemption. Redemption. Jesus paid our debt. When Jesus shouted it is finished, he was declaring that he had paid the full penalty for sin. No debt, no penalty left to be paid. The payment for sin was fully rendered. I love what ____ said, he said, The debt was so great that while man alone owed it, only God could pay it. So what do we mean when we talk about redemption? What does that word mean? Ive got sacrifice propitiation, reconciliation, redemption. What does this word mean? It means, Jesus paid our debt, because of our sin, we live in a state of bondage. Because of our sin, we live in a state of bondage. We are slaves to sin. We are slaves to ourselves. Slaves to sin, slaves to ourselves, to the sinful nature, to the flesh, we are slaves to Satan. We have to be careful here, well talk about this, not to go that whole ransom theory where Satan is able to make demands of God, but the reality is were blinded by Satan. Following the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the earth. Slave to the law, held prisoner by the law, Paul says in Galatians 3 and slaves to death. All those whose lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. So we were in a state of bondage in our sin. Because of the price that our

substitute has paid, we are liberated from bondage to live in freedom from slavery to freedom. From bondage to liberty. This is what Mark 10:45 is all about. Its about the fact that we are slaves and we need a savior. A divine rescue is necessary. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many, the same word thats used in I Timothy 2:5 and 6, a ransom for many. This is a great word here, leutron, ransom. When you take intro Greek class, the first word you learn is leuo, to loose, to loosen something and this is the picture, to set free, to unbind. This is what the cross is about. Its about being loosed. Its about being set free. Because of the cross we are free from sin. Anyone who has died has been free from sin. You have been set free from sin. We are free from ourselves. Christ has conquered flesh, the sinful nature. We are free from Satan. Again, not in the sense, the picture is when the ransom price paid, there is not a price paid to say, now Satan was making demands of God. This is where the imagery here breaks down some. So dont go there, but the reality if, in salvation, we are set from slavery to spiritual forces of evil. Set free from Satan. We are free from the law. Even here we have to be careful. Because when we talk about being free from the curse of the law, the law is holy, righteous and good, Romans 7. And especially when it comes to the law of Christ. Were free for the first time to obey the law of Christ. Thats what theyve prophesied in Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 10 says its been fulfilled and so were free from the law in the sense of the curse of the law. Were free from death. Ladies and gentlemen, death is a defeated enemy and we do not fear it anymore. Free from death. Now, in order to see this picture in the cross, we got to get the set up of redemptive history. Old Testament redemption anticipated. Isaiah 43, fear not, I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. Weve got all kinds of patterns in the Old Testament. Men, men paid a price in order to buy property. You see, Im just going to give you some pictures of redemption in the Old Testament, to buy property, to free a relative. You could free a relative from some sort of bondage that they were in, by paying a redemption price. To free a slave, you could free a slave by paying a redemption price. You could free exiles, this was the picture, God freeing his people from exile. Notice in all of these cases of redemption, there was a decisive, there was a costly price that was paid. So redemption involves paying a price, redeeming is paying a price. God paid a price in order to deliver his people from slavery in Egypt when he talks about brining them out of slavery which we looked at in the Passover. Exodus 6 talks about how God redeemed them with an outstretched arm. He paid a price to deliver his people, free his people from Babylonian captivity. To rescue his people from the consequences of their sin. And the dominate image that we have of God in the Old Testament when it comes to redemption, God as redeemer, its really his power and his grace wrapped up together here in this picture. God demonstrates his power as redeemer, you look at these verses, go through and look at II Samuel 7, Psalm 77 and so on, and you will see God displaying his power in redeeming his people. Its about God splitting the Red Sea in Exodus 14, redeeming his people and they will know that I am the Lord when I show my power in this way. And then Gods people illustrate his grace as the ones who are redeemed. So, we got power and grace in this picture of redemption. God has power to redeem and grace that causes him to redeem. Two Old Testament stories run through for those of you who have done, looking at secret churches date night tonight, these two stories are for you. Okay, this is the romantic part of our evening together, so cuddle up next to the person next to you, only if you are on that kind of yeah, anyway, so. Two stories, Old Testament, Boaz, the Kinsman redeemer. This is Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite, Moabites hated by Israelites. Ruth is brought to Israel after her husband dies. She is a barren woman for 10 years, has not had a child. No heir to carry on her husbands line. Shes barren, an outcast in the land of Israel,

Bethlehem. So what happens is Ruth 2, she goes and just happens to find herself working in the field of Boaz and Boaz is a kinsman redeemer. You go back to Leviticus 25 and you see the provision that God has made for someone, if something happens like this kind of situation, that someone who is close, a kinsman redeemer can buy that, purchase that person, pay redemption price to bring that person into his family. And so she finds herself in Boazs field. And heres the portrait we have of the kinsman redeemer, this is where it gets romantic. What does he do? Well, first, he seeks the outcast as his family. He seeks the outcast. Boaz said to Ruth, My daughter, listen to me. Dont go and glean in another field and dont go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting. And follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have field. Boaz is taking initiative here. Hes using a term of endearment. Assuring her that she can stay in his field. He saves the outcast from harm. As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, Even as she gathers among the sheaves, dont embarrass her. Pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up and dont rebuke her. Women in Ruths position were often insulted or treated harshly in that kind of condition. And Boaz is making sure thats not happening to Ruth. And finally, he serves the outcast at his table. He gives her the right to take water with his men whenever she needs it. And then she gets invited to the meal table. At meal time Boaz said to her, Come over here and have some break and dip it in the wine vinegar. Now its getting real romantic. When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some leftover. So this is the picture, Boaz inviting her to his table. And then we get to chapter 3 in Ruth and find out that there is someone closer in line, kinsman line, to Ruths family and as a result, Boaz is going to have a conversation with this dude. And so thats what happens in chapter 4 and you get to this price of the kinsman redeemer. And basically, in order to redeem someone, you have to have a few different things, number one, you have to have the right to redeem. And thats why Boaz had to address this other person. Second, he must have the resources to redeem. You have to have a price to pay to purchase the forfeited inheritance and then you have to have a resolve to redeem. And thats exactly, exactly what we see in Boaz. And this is the picture in the Old Testament of a kinsman redeemer paying the price to bring this woman into his line and the whole picture in Ruth 4, gives us a picture of how this would all lead to Christ in Matthew 1. Thats the first picture. Second, Hosea, the faithful husband. Im gonna run through this real quick. Hosea, this story is told on two lines. Its an individual story and a national story. The faithful husband, God tells Hosea, go and marry Gomarh. Now, theres two problems with that, number one, her name is Gomarh, thats problem number one, right? David go and marry, Heather, ah, yes. David go and marry Gomarh, hmm. Okay, so we got Gomarh, and the second problem was that Gomarh was a prostitute. We dont know if Gomarh was a prostitute, before, after for sure. There is some debate amongst scholars on that, but the reality is the picture thats being set up here is a picture of an unfaithful wife. And thats what Gods people are displayed as is an unfaithful bride. And as the story is told, what we see is two elements. The story of an unfaithful people, rebuke your mother, rebuke her. She is not my wife and I am not her husband. Were going to fly through this. She was adulterous. She, the bible talks about sin in terms of spiritual adultery. When you and I go and find our satisfaction from the stuff of this world, instead of the greatness of our God, then we are committing spiritual adultery. So the seriousness of sin. Adulterous, idolatrous, worshiping the Canaanite god, Baal. Hypocritical because she was still participating in religious feasts, Israel was. This is a picture, individual story Hosea and Gomarh thats representing the national story. Hypocritical and she was forgetful. I will punish her. This is for the climax here, Hosea 2:13. I

will punish her for the day she burned incense to the day at Baals. She decked herself with rings and jewelry and went after her lovers, but me she forgot, declares the Lord. Now look up here after you read Hosea 2:13, look up here, dont look back down yet. Okay, everybody looking here. The indictment here is God says about his people, adulterous, idolatrous, hypocritical, and forgetful. Turned back on me completely. Now, Ill go and let you know, dont look down, but the very next word, Hosea 2:14, the very next word is therefore. I want you to think about whats about to come. My bride has been adulterous, idolatrous, hypocritical. And she has turned his back and willfully forgot me. Run after other men instead of me. This is God talking about his people. Therefore, what do we expect? In light of all weve seen, therefore, judgment, therefore wrath, therefore judgment. Instead Hosea 2:14, some of the most beautiful words in all the Old Testament, Therefore, I am now going to allure her. Wow. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. Unfaithful people and a story of an unreasonable God. He said, I will lurer her. The word is intentional romantic. Its a word how we would use to describe how a middle schooler wants a girl to look at him. This is a picture of God saying, Im going to allure her to myself. I will lead her. I will speak tenderly to her. I will give to her. I will restore her. You will not just call me Lord. You will call me husband. I will protect or betroth or respond to her. And I will establish her and then you get to one of the most beautiful chapters in Old Testament, Hosea 3, I will pay the price for her. When God says to Hosea, you go, you go and pay the price to bring Gomarh back to yourself. You go pay a slaves price to bring her back to yourself. So thats the Old Testament, redemption anticipated. New Testament, redemption achieved. Heres the deal, Christ is our redeemer. Christ is our redeemer. Hes the one that pays the price. His payment was celebrated. You see Zechariah here, the prophetess Anna, the picture of when Christ came on the scene. This is the redemption of God, what we have waited for. His payment was costly. The word that is used over and over again in the New Testament to describe the payment of Christ is not he gave his life, he gave himself. But he gave his blood. Blood is the price that was paid. His payment was costly and his payment was complete. Jesus doesnt have to keep making payments. Payment is complete and its paid for. Christ is our redeemer and Christ is our victor. Yes, he is the conqueror. It is victory promised. Genesis 3, the very beginning, entrance of sin into the world. God said, Im going to send one, Devil, who is going to crush your head. Victory promised to the very beginning. Victory begun. Victory begun. Matthew 12. As Jesus comes on the scene we se his power over demons. We see his power over nature. His authority over all things. Victory accomplished, listen to this, Colossians 2, When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code with its regulations that was against us. Listen to this, he took it away nailing it to the cross and having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them, by the cross. Check this out, sinful people are forgiven at the cross and spiritual powers are overthrown. Sinful people forgiven, spiritual powers overthrown. Christ has disarmed them. He has embarrassed them. He had defeated them. Sinful people forgiven. Spiritual powers overthrown and spiritual powers defeated. He has defeated them. Our redeemer, Christ, owns us forever. Victory accomplished, victory announced. This is where the resurrection comes in. The resurrection is the stamp, the vindication, yes, the payment is complete. Well dive into that on Sunday here, but the picture is, Jesus on the cross saying, It is finished. And what he means is, it is finished. Its finished, the price has been paid. The debt has been covered, completely covered. And the resurrection is Gods announcement that yes, yes, the payment has been, you have nothing to pay, dont work, you have nothing to pay. Victory awaited. Victory awaited. This is not to say that redemption it complete.

Were not home yet. Were not home yet. But its guaranteed. Were going home. And the redemption of our bodies is going to happen. We got two main sections to go. The first is the intent of the cross. The intent of the cross. There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom, two words, for all. For all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. And the question is for whom did Christ die? And I mentioned at the very beginning when it comes to what has been classically defined at the five points of Calvinism, what you have is total depravity, unconditional election, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints and in the middle you have limited atonement. And probably the one where there is most disagreement. And so, this is the question, for whom did Christ die? Areas of agreement on this. The sufficiency of Christs death, and I say agreement, evangelical Christians. Bible believing, gospel following Christians. Sufficiency of Christs death, Christs payment for sin on the cross is sufficient for the whole world and so theres no question about the fact that Christs death is enough for us. Sufficient for the sins of however many people, unlimited number of people. The efficacy of Christs death. Only those, efficacy, thats a challenge for 11:30, only those that trust in Christ for salvation, which we are going to refer to in one of two ways, the elect of the church. By the elect, and this is a term, its a scriptural term. Often times when we think of election, theres a lot of thoughts and its a part of Calvinism discussion, but the elect is how the church is sometimes described in the New Testament. So, only those that trust in Christ for salvation experience the effects of the cross. And so its only when you trust in Christ that the cross and realities of the cross, redemption, reconciliation, become effective in your life by faith in Christ. Its not just automatic. Its not a universalism, for example, because Christ did that, everybody is saved automatically. Well, you have to trust in Christ and then third the proclamation of Christs death. The gospel is to be preached to all people. I think we can safely say that people on both sides of this discussion would agree on those three things. Areas of disagreement, really, the area of disagreement, does God, in Christ, intend to possibly save all people? Does God in Christ intend to possibly save all people? Or, does God in Christ intend to definitely save some people? Meaning the elect, the church. Does God in Christ intend to possibly save everybody? Did Christ die to make salvation possible for everybody, or did Christ die to make salvation definite for some people? Did Jesus pay for the sins of all people or did Jesus pay for the sins of the elect only. Now, the word thats been used in the debate about Calvinism is limited atonement. Im not going to use that word tonight. Instead Im going to talk about, instead of unlimited and limited, Im going to talk about general atonement and definite atonement. That word limited, I dont think, its not a good word. Even for those that believe that, that on that side of the thing, or those who dont, because who wants to limit the beauty of what weve been talking about with the cross? Nobody wants to limit that. And in the sense, everybody, by nature of the effect that only those who believe in Christ will be saved by the effects of the cross, that we are all limiting atonement in some sense. As long as not everybody is saved, then there is a limit here to who is saved, and its based on faith. So, general and definite atonement. And so, I want us to dive into those two sides. General atonement. General atonement is first. General atonement. Those who would say that Christ died to pay the penalty for the sins of all people, thus making it possible for any and all people to be saved. Thats what we mean by general atonement. Some truths in scriptures that inform that. God loves all people and wants all people to be saved. You look at all the passages that talk about Christ dying for sin and the universal language there. John 3:16, obviously the quintessential example, God so loved the world, that he gave us one and only son. I Peter 3:9,

Hes not wanting anyone to perish, Hes atoning sacrifice for our sins, I John 2. And not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world. I John 4:14, we see and testify the Father sent the Son to be the savior of the world. World, that word occurs 28 times in I John, most often to refer to the universal picture, Christ died to be the savior of the world. And even the text that were looking at, I Timothy 2:5 and 6, its kind of been our foundational text, for all. So, general atonement says, God loves all people and wants all people to be saved. Christ died for the sins of all people. If God loves everyone and truly wants everyone to be saved, then it would be inconceivable, those who are, Im going to kind of step into these shoes for a minute. It would be inconceivable that he would offer Christ to pay for the sin of only some people. The universal love of God requires a universal payment of sin. The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the whole world. John 1:29. We put our hope in the living God who is the Savior of all men and especially those who believe. And thats where you see all men, thats a universal picture and especially those who believe, so hes the savior of everybody, not just the believers. The believers are added onto this picture but hes the savor of all men. Hebrews 2:9. The same thing, by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. II Peter 2:1, says, There were also false prophets among the people just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even, listen to this language, denying the sovereign Lord who bought them. This is false prophets, false teachers and God bought them. Christ bought them. So Christ bought, in some sense here, clearly, all men, even false prophets and false teachers. Next truth, faith in Christ is necessary for the benefits of Christs death to be applied to our lives. Weve talked about that already, those who believe in him will have eternal live. Confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heard that God raised him from the dead, thats when youre saved. And finally, the gospel then must be preached to all people. Because, any person may possibly come to salvation. The gospel must be preached to all people because any person may possibly come to salvation. Obviously, go make disciples of all nations. The Spirit is in you to go to the ends of the earth. How can we really preach, authentically preach the gospel to all people if its not actually available to all people. If Christ only died for some people, then how can we go to all people and say Christ died for you. And this is what Jesus said, he said, come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. He said, all you who are weary. He didnt say some of you. And so the picture here in general atonement is that God designed Salvation to make, designed the cross to make salvation possible for all people. Thats general atonement. Definite atonement, let me step into these shoes. Christ died to pay the penalty for the sins of the elect. Thus making it certain that his people will be saved. He paid for the penalty of the sins of the elect, thus making it certain that this people would be saved. And heres the picture that those in the definite atonement picture would drive us to. God loves the elect and designs their salvation in the cross. He loves the elect and designs their salvation in the cross. Ephesians 1. In a long passage listed here, but what we seen in Ephesians 1:3-14, is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Listen to this language. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, well start with the Father, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, So the Father chose us, predestined us, adopted us before the creation of the world, to belong to him. Then he talks about Christ, In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and

understanding. And you get a couple more sentences down and it says, In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in accordance with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And then you got the Spirit., Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possessionto the praise of his glory. So what youve got is, speaking from definite atonement here, is youve got the Father, who before the creation of the world has chosen, set his affections on, adopted, predestined, people to be adopted as his own. Youve got the spirit who is making that a reality, sealing them for all of eternity. If the Father and the Spirit are focused on a definite people then why would the Son die for all people? The Father has chosen, predestined this certain people. What Ephesians 1 is saying so the son, why would the son die for people that the Father has not predestined to be adopted as his son. That would put the Son and the Father at odds. The Son trying to make it available to all people, but the Father, really only predestining, calling, adopting, a few people, a certain people. So, a picture of definite atonement says, God loves the elect and designs their salvation on the cross. Christ died to definitively save his people. Definitively save his people. Matthew 1:21 says you were given the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins, not might save, not make possible, he will save his people, John 6:37, Jesus himself says, All that the Father gives me, will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. My fathers will is everyone that looks at the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. I will lose none of all that hes given me. I will lose none of them. So everybody the father is drawing to me, I will not lose. There is a definitive people here. Acts 20:28, be shepherds of the church of God, which Christ bought with his blood. He bought the church. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her. For the church. Titus 2, Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. Now, this is where those who would advocate definite atonement would say, obviously not all people are saved, not all people are saved. II Thessalonians 1;7-9 makes that clear, not all people are saved, so. Lets think about this. Think about this with me. Not all people are saved. So, if Christ died to pay for the sins of all people, then that means that he has paid for the sins of all people. So, why do some still go to hell? If he has paid for the sins of all people then how would they go to hell? Well, you say, well, they havent trusted. But, unbelief is sin, keep in mind, their sins include the sin of unbelief and thats been paid for. So, if their sin of unbelief has been paid for, then how can people be in hell of their sins have been paid for, even the sin of unbelief? Thats why Hebrews 2;17 says, For this reason, he remained like his brothers in everyway, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Thats the propitiation picture. Hebrews 2, make atonement for. Gods wrath has been satisfied. Sins have been paid for. How will they still go to hell if their sins have been paid for and Gods wrath has been turned away? Thats what those who would advocate definite atonement would say. And so they basically would say, we have three options. Three options. Number one, either Christ endured the wrath of God for all sins of all men, if thats the case, then all people go to heaven, because hes endured the wrath. There is no more wrath, hes taken it all. So there is no more wrath to be experienced. And so all men go to heaven. Well, thats universalism, we know thats not true. Lets skip down to the third option, come back to the second one, Christ endured the wrath of God for all sins of all men or Christ endured the wrath of God for some sins of some men. If thats the case, then nobody goes to heaven. So we know thats not true.

So that leaves on option. Christ endured the wrath of God for all sins of some men. All sins of some men. Lets take it a step deeper, does God always accomplish his purposes? If God always accomplishes his purposes and Christ died for the purpose of saving all people, then why are not all people saved? So does he accomplish his purposes or not? Not plan of yours can be thwarted, Job says. My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please. What I have said, I will bring about. What I have planned, that will I do, Isaiah 46. John Owen said, If Christ died for all and not all are saved, then Christ died ineffectively, which cannot be. If Christ died for all and not all are saved, then his purpose was not accomplished. Are you going to say that the cross of Christ is ineffective to save? That he died to make it possible and now hes just sitting back just hoping that somebody is going to take this offer? Does that weaken the picture of God in Christ. Christ therefore died for the purpose of saving a certain people, the elect. He said, Im the good Shepherd who lays his life down for the sheep. I lay my life down for the sheep. When you get to John 17, he says, Im not praying for the world, but for those you have given me. My prayer is not for them. I pray for them who will believe in me to their message. Hes praying for Christians there. Jesus is not praying for everyone. Did Jesus die for people whom he refused to pray for? He was not praying for before he went to the cross? Hes praying for certain people. You get to Romans 8 and this picture of He would not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? He talks about Christ Jesus who died. More than that, who was raised to life at the right hand is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from him? When you get to the end of this picture, nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, it says that God gave his son up for us all. But the whole picture there is who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen. It is God who justifies, who is he that condemns? Do you see that right in the middle of that passage right there? And so its talking about the people of God are those whom God has chosen and who have Christ for a savior, who is interceding at the right hand of the Father for us. Now, those who advocate definite atonement would say faith in Christ is the God ordained means and Christ bought gift for the elect to be saved. This is where things get a big interesting, even a big heated. Look at Acts 18. When Apollos wanted to go Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. They believed by grace. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him. Its granted to you to believe in him, that faith is the gift. Faith is something we have by grace. Its not God has done all these things in Christ to come to this part of the table and now we have to add faith. The reality is, what definite atonement advocates are saying here is scripture is saying here that faith itself is a gift. You can't even believe if grace isnt on you to believe. You dont have it in you. Youre dead in your sin. How can you come to life, if you are dead? You need grace as a gift to even believe. Packer, G.I. Packers says, One makes salvation, hes talking about comparison general and definite atonement, he says, One makes salvation dependent on the work of God. The other on the work of man. One regards faith as a part of Gods gift of salvation. The other regards faith as mans contribution to salvation. One gives all the glory of saving believers to God. The other divides the praise between God and man. Who, so to speak, God so to speak, built the machinery of salvation and now man has to, by believing operate it. Talking about general atonement, he said, we want to proclaim Christ as savior, we want, yet we end up saying Christ, having made salvation possible has left us to become our own saviors. It comes about in this way, we want to magnify the saving grace of God, and the saving power of

Christ, so we declare that Gods redeeming love extends to every man and that Christ has died to save every man. And then in order to avoid universalism, we have to depreciate all that we were previously saying and to explain that after all, nothing that God and Christ have done can save us unless we add something to it. And now Packer says, the decisive factor which actually saves us is our own believing. What we say comes to this, Christ saves us with our help. And what that means, when one thinks it out, is that we save ourselves with Christs help. Faith is the God ordained means in Christs bought gift, for the elect to be saved, its not our contribution. Everything is Gods contribution to us. And so, coming to the end here, the Gospel must be preached to all people because some people are definitely going to be saved. Now there are people who would take limited atonement or definite atonement to the end that we dont need to go preach and we dont need to do this, but there are many throughout history, there are many evangelistic preachers, Charles Spurgeon, George Whitefield who have preached the gospel passionately and faithfully for people to come to Christ that were advocates of definite atonement. And so, they would say, yes, we preach the gospel to all people because we dont know who the elect are. Who those who are going to respond by the grace of God. And so we preach the gospel to all and we know that somebody, somebodys going to be saved, but we dont know who they are, so we preach the gospel to all people. Bring those two together. And its interesting when you look at church history. I mentioned George Whitfield, George Whitfield was an evangelist, John Wesley an evangelist at the same time. Both of them had divergent views on this, really interesting debates that they would have with one another. So, which is it? It is 11:45 at night and we are going to solve this thing right now, you ready? Okay? Clear it up, all church history coming down to this moment right here. If only they could all be here, you know this is good. Okay, and the danger is were going to dive into this and tomorrow morning were going to have all kinds of ideas about whatever we just concluded, because we are all getting tired. So conclusions, here we go. And its not a yes or no answer. And this is obviously, this is obviously, and I want to, in all seriousness, want to approach this whole picture with as much humility as is in me because we are in a long line of brothers and sisters who have gone before us and have had a lot of discussions about these things and obviously, God has used great men of God, great women of God, who have believed divergent things on some of these deals. But here is how, as a pastor, I look at this picture, as best as I can based on the truth of Gods word. There are multiple perceptions of the will of God. Multiple perceptions of the will of God. Now this is going to go back to a year ago when we looked at who is God. And I want you to follow with me. It was the Lords will to crush Jesus and cause him to suffer. Weve talked about that. Acts 2:23, just think about the cross. Jesus was handed over to his persecutors, tormentors and by God set purpose and foreknowledge and you, with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross. So, it was the will of God for Christ to be crucified. Does that mean that its the will of God for people to murder? Multiple perceptions here of the will of God. Think about it in two ways, in scripture, first, Gods revealed will, what he declares. Its his word. His word. He says, this is what I command you to do, call you to do. My word, this is what I declare. I Timothy 3:4, his revealed will, 2:3,4 He wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Thats his reveled will, but do all men come to salvation and knowledge of the truth? No, does that mean that the will of God is not accomplished? No, it means that his revealed will, what he declares is different from second, Gods secret will, what he decrees. His revealed will is what he says, what he declares in his word, his decreed will is what happens, what actually happens on the earth. He doesnt say, he doesnt command us to sin. Is there sin on the earth? Yes. Revealed will, do not sin. Decreed will, there is sin and God

is in control of it all. Psalm 139, all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. You see the picture thats together in Genesis 50:20. It says, Joseph when he was sold into slavery by his brothers, he says, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Did God declare to Josephs brothers, sale him into slavery, but he decreed it so that in the end, Josephs entire family would be saved from the famine because he would be in Egypt, so revealed will and declared will and decreed will both there. Two sense of the will of God here. Now, how does that come together? This is where we talked about mystery last year. The sovereignty of God. He is in control. God is absolutely sovereign. He is absolutely sovereign over all things. Here is nothing we can do, nothing you or I can say in order to catch God off guard. Sovereignty of God. He is in control. At the same time, there is responsibility in man. Responsibility of man, we are making choices. Now, you see the sovereignty of God in passages like Romans 9, John 15, this, and Ephesians 1 which we looked at earlier, I chose you, predestined you, this is the sovereignty of God. Hes in control of everything. At the same time, it is not a picture, scripture does not give us a picture of us as robots responding to a mechanical God. This is not a deterministic fatalism, where we are just doing everything that he, theres a picture here of the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. We are making choices, so that when we come to Acts 2:23, Jesus was saying, this man was handed over to you by Gods set purpose and foreknowledge and you, with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross. This was sovereignty of God. This was not God sitting in heaven hoping that they were going to crucify his son. He ordained that his son would be crucified at the same time, this is not robots who are doing this. This is men who put him to death making choices that are responsible for what they have done. Now, heres the deal about our choices. Our choices are certain, not necessary. What I mean by that is, necessary choices must happen. Thats robotic deterministic fatalism. We cannot act in a way contrary to Gods plan. Certain choices, differences, they will happen. We will not act in a way contrary to Gods plan. And thats where conclusion, I think scripture teaches us here that our choices are completely real. We make real choices, but not completely free. Were not free in the sense of we can do stuff that can catch God of guard and he never saw it coming. At the same time, our choices are real. We make real choices every day, can blame someone else for the choices we make. We make choices. Cant blame God for the choices we make, yes, he is sovereign, but we are responsible. Our choices have real consequences with real responsibility. Now, how God brings this together, his sovereignty and mans responsibility, thats where the mystery comes in. But we are naturally responsible to God. The people who nailed Jesus to the cross were responsible for what they had done. You and I are responsible for God for our sin, even though we sin underneath the umbrella over all the sovereignty of God. We are naturally, morally responsible to God, intellectually responsible to God. And we are ultimately responsible to God. And I listed some scriptures there, where you see, we wont dive into them, but in every single one of those scriptures you can see sovereignty of God, responsibility of man, right together. You see sovereignty of God and responsibility of man right together in each of these pictures. Acts 13:48, just Ill point that one out, When the gentiles hear this, the gospel, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord and all who were appointed for enteral live believed. Sovereignty of God, they were appointed for eternal life. Responsibility of man, they believed. Its both together, its just assumed, they go together. And so, we see multiple perceptions of the will of God, keep that in mind. Second, there are multiple dimensions of the love of God. Multiple dimensions of the love of God. God is love, what does that mean? Well, think about Gods love expressed in five different ways in scripture.

First of all, his love within the trinity. We see a picture of the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father, Gods love within the trinity. Thats sometimes used to describe Gods love. Second, Gods love for all creation. The bible talks about how God loves all of his creation. Even the birds of the air are loved by God, provided for, sustained by God, Gods love for all creation, third, sometimes scripture talks about Gods general love for all people, his love for the whole world. Scripture definitely talks about the fact that God loves the entire world, all people in the world. At the same time, fourth, God has a particular love for chosen people, in scripture, undeniably. Listen to this description of God and his people in Deuteronomy. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other people, for you were the fewest of all people. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers and he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh, kind of Egypt. Its an affection that he said, Im putting my affection on Israel. You see the same in Deuteronomy 10, Malachi 1. Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. This is a picture of Gods love for a particular people. And then you get to the New Testament. Ephesians 5:25, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her and so scripture talks about God having a particular love for a particular people. Fifth way we see Gods love described is God's conditional love. Is Gods love unconditional? Before you answer that question, think about these scriptures. He shows love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. John 15:9 and 10, Jesus says, if you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. Keep yourselves in Gods love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, by obedience. Now, this is where our clichs today, we have to be very careful, Gods love is unconditional, true or false? Youre like dude, its midnight, we dont know. Well, heres the deal, in one sense, yes, in the sense of his love for all creation, in the sense of his love for all people, yes, but not in the sense of his conditional love. Often in scripture, the love of God is talked about as conditional. What about this statement, well, God loves everybody the same. True or false? Both, both. Yes, he loves the whole world in the sense of his universal love for all people, yes, he loves everyone the same, does he love everyone the same as he loves Israel in the Old Testament? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. So we have to be careful with these clichs that we use. Multiple perceptions of the will of God. Multiple dimensions of the love of God lead to and this is where you are like, okay, I dont see where this is connecting. Okay, this is where it connects there are multiple intentions in the cross of Christ. Multiple intentions in the cross of Christ. And this is where I just bring it all together, will of God, love of God, cross of Christ. I would say, based on what weve seen in scripture, Jesus died for all. He died for all, in the sense that his death is sufficient to cover the sins of the whole world, referring here to Gods general love for all people. He desires all to come to repentance. Thats what the scripture teaches. He has a general love for all people. Through the cross God desires and demands that all people trust in him. That is his revealed will, what he declares. So, in the sense of his general love for all people, Gods reveled will, what he declares, Jesus died for all. But, at the same time, to stop there would be incomplete. Jesus died for the elect, for the church, in the sense that, his death is indeed efficient only for them. God has a particular love for a chose people. That is what scripture teaches. From Old Testament to New Testament. Its the way scripture talks about his love sometimes. So through the cross, God enables and empowers his people to trust in him and this is Gods secret will what he decrees. Its what happens, not everybody trusts in him. Hes declared all turn to me. Not everybody trusts in him. Thats the decreed will of God, the secret will, what he decrees. And through the cross, God is enabling and empowering his people to trust in him. So where does that bring us? Multiple intentions, multiple implications. Three implications. Number one, we boldly confess the supreme sufficiency of Christs death on the cross for the sins of the whole world. We boldly

confess that. Supreme sufficiency in Christs death on the cross for the sins of the whole world. We in no way minimize that. At the same time, second, we humbly acknowledge the gracious efficacy of Christs death which secures the salvation of the elect. And heres where I believe this whole picture brings everybody here in this room to our knees because there is not contribution from man to make salvation possible. It is all of grace and it is all for his glory and even our ability to believe is blood bought from Christ and it is unfathomable, unexplainable, but the reality is, I have contributed nothing to my salvation, he has saved me. He has bought me. I have been saved. Not active, passive, he has done a work of grace in my heart and there is no other way to explain it than the grace of God. That is humbling. And it should be humbling. At the same time, what does that mean for evangelism in mission then? We fearlessly proclaim the cross of Christ to the nations. We fearlessly proclaim the cross of Christ to the nations. We go to all peoples with a clear message. Our message is God loves you and desires your salvation. Some who claim definite atonement would say, well, you cant say God loves you or God desires your salvation. Are you willing to say that? Absolutely, Scripture demands that we say, God loves you and desires your salvation. That is his revealed will, declared will. He wants people to come to repentance. Does God love everyone? Yes. Does God want all people to come to salvation? Yes, absolutely. So we preach that boldly, clear message. At the same time, we go to all peoples with a confident guarantee. And the guarantee is, as we proclaim the gospel, ladies and gentlemen, people will believe and be saved. Its not a might. Theres something a day to take us to the end in Revelation 7 when every nation, tribe, people and language will be represented around the throne of God singing his praises. Do you know what that means? That means that you can go to the deepest, darkest, most entrenched in the world unreached people group on this planet, you can preach the gospel and you can rest confident somebodys coming out. Somebodys going to be around that throne that day. Christ has made sure that every tribe and people and language will gather around singing his praises. And so thats great confidence. So, we preach the gospel fearlessly in our work places, in our homes, in our neighborhoods and were confident this gospel has power to save. Not maybe, it will save people from their sins. So, there we go. Solved. Next. All right, you got more questions than answers, thats good, so do I, so last here is where were going to close out. The effects of the cross, Galatians 6:14, may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. I hope, I hope that that verse makes more sense to you now than it did at 6:00 this evening. Its a weird statement, my only boast in a cross. A cross. In the first century, my boast is an instrument of torture. Its like coming on the scene today and saying, my only boast is in an electric chair. What is it about the cross that would cause us to say, I glory in this one thing. I boast and Im obsessed and Im passionate about this one thing in my life, its consumed with this one thing, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why, why do we boast in the cross? Seven reasons. One, because the cross confronts us with who we once were. The cross confronts us with who we once were. Do you see Ephesians 2 mentioned there. You were dead in your transgressions and sins which you used to live, gratifying the cravings of your sinful nature. Objects of wrath. The cross reminds us how horrible sin is. We need to see this. The cross gives us a picture of inexpressible horror in sin. And as a result, this is where the cross protects us. Brothers and sisters the cross protects us from falling into the self deceiving optimism that grips our culture today. This is why the cross does not work on Oprah and its why the cross doesnt work in so many settings in our culture today that say, self improvement, improve yourself, and the cross says, impossible. No self exaltation at the cross.

The cross reminds us and heres the deal. This is why, this is why we cant embrace the cross and then move on from our Christian life to other things. This is why the cross, CJ. Mahaney said the cross is not one class in the Christian life, its the building in which all the other classes are contained. Everything is penetrated by the cross. This is why we cant leave it behind. Because the more we know, the truth of the cross, the more we hate sin. The more we see ourselves going back to sin that we have been saved from that put Christ on the cross, no, I dont want it. They key to our growing in holiness is a firm understanding of the cross. And we need this. We have become so desensitized to sin in our culture. We sit in front of the TV and movies and we hear Gods name in vain and we dont even recognized it. We look at images, men on the internet looking at images, followers of Christ looking at things and think, well, other men do this. Saying things, think thoughts. Corneales Planning wrote a great book, called, Not the Way Its Supposed to Be. He said, The awareness of sin, a deep awareness of disobedience and painful confession of sin used to be our shadow. Christians hated sin. They feared it. They fled it. They grieved over it. Some of our forefathers agonized over their sins. A man who lost his temper might wonder if he could still go to Holy Communion. A woman, who for years, envied her more attractive and intelligent sister might wonder if this sin threatened her very salvation. That shadow has dimmed. Nowadays, the accusation, you have sinned is often said with a grin and with a tone that singles an inside joke. At one time this accusation still had the power to jolt people. We need to look at the cross and remember how infinitely horrible ones sin is. We need to see that every single day. And, a cross reminds us how humbling grace is because we realize what one puritan said, even our tears of repentance need to be washed in the blood of Jesus. There is nothing we bring to the table. We need his grace at ever single moment. The cross reminds us who we once were. I love I Peter 1:17-21, please pay attention closely to these words. You call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were 19 redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. You catch that? Live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear because you know what you were bought with. God, help us to be done with praying a prayer and going on and living our lives however we want. Help us live every day in fear. Fear living in such a way that you show this cross is not precious to you brother or sister. Fear being casual with sin in a way to show that the cross is not your treasure, where you have found life. The cross reminds us who we once were. Second, the cross, why do we boast in the cross, because the cross comforts us with who we now are. If we were to take a survey of the four pictures we saw, the four scenes, Last supper, Garden of Gethsemane, cry of dereliction, and the declaration of triumph, we see these truths. The cross comforts us with who we now are. We are a live to God. Ladies and gentlemen, he has died out death, we were dead, now we live. We live. We live. Were not dead to sin. And were not dead in sin, were dead to sin. Not slaves to ourselves. We live, we have, not only are we alive to God, but we have an advocate before God, he work is not done. We have a high priest who is at the right hand of God at this very moment interceding on our behalf. He is entered into the presence of God, his sacrifice is complete. He is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God and he is interceding for us. He endured our condemnation we were afraid, now we are friends. Were friends. Friends of God. Ha. You and I hell deserving sinners, friends of God. We have an advocate before God. We have access to God. Let us draw near to God. He suffered our separation. We were cast out now, ladies and gentlemen, now we are invited in. Think of that, hell deserving sinners safely in the presence of God. Not just safely in his presence welcomed into his presence, invited into

his presence, cherished in the presence of God. We were adopted by God. Redemption, he paid our debt. Ladies and gentlemen, we were, we were slaves, now we are sons. Sons, spirit testifies with our spirit that we are Gods children and if we are children then we are heirs, heirs with God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we may share in his sufferings in order that one day, one day, were going to share in his glory as sons of God, adopted into the family of God. We do not relate to God, dont miss this. As we walk in Christianity, we do not relate to God as one who is standing ready to condemn us in our sin at every moment. As we walk in relationship to God as a father and a son. Sons and daughters of God. Christ has taken our condemnation. Hes paid our debt and were sons. We dont carry the weight of our sin anymore. You dont carry the weight of your sin, Christian, anymore. Dont carry the weight of your sin anymore. You are a son, daughter of God. And this is good reasons to boast in the cross. Third because the cross teaches us what it means to be saved. The cross teaches us what it means to be saved. What do I mean by that? I mean, the cross makes clear our justification. Galatians 2:15-20 talks about how we believe in Christ and get to the end there. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Were not justified by observing the law, he says in the very beginning there, that by the faith in Jesus Christ. This is what justification is all about. Christ died for us. There is not basis for justification in us. Christ died for us. Made him to be sin for us in order that we might be made the righteousness of God. Listen to this, Heidelberg Catechism, question number 60, just let this soak in. How are you righteous before God? Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. In spite of the fact that my conscious accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God and have not kept anyone of them and that I am still ever prone to all that is evil. Nevertheless, God, without any merit of my own, out of pure grace grants me the benefits of the perfect sacrifice of Christ, imputing to me his righteousness and holiness, as if I had never committed a single sin or had ever been sinful, having fulfilled myself all the obedience which Christ has carried out for me, if only I accept such favor with a trusting heart. Wow. As if I had never committed a single sin. We talked about this in Galatians a couple months ago. Years ago a wealthy English man purchased a Rolls Royce. He took his new car to France. It had been advertised as the car of all cars. No problems could be had with this car. When the man got his car to France, it broke down. So, he called the Rolls Royce folks in England and they flew a mechanic to France to fix this car. Of course the man expected to get a heavy bill from Rolls Royce for sending somebody out and fixing his car in a whole other country. Months passed by and he never heard from them. So finally he wrote to them and said, I can pay the bill, just send it to me. And the Rolls Royce company sent him a note back and said, Im sorry, sir, but we have absolutely no record of anything ever having gone wrong with your car. Ha. The God of the universe has no record of anything ever having gone wrong in your life. He looks upon you and he sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ and it is not that he has just swept it under the rug and pretends its not there. Thats the point of the cross, he has taken it all. He has taken it all. Thats justification. And as a result, dont miss this. We are not working for righteousness, we are working from righteousness. Thats good. That changes everything. How? ___ Ferguson says, How easily we fall into the trap of assuming that we remain justified only so long as there is grounds in our character for justification. Dont work to be made right before God, Believe, by faith in Christ, you are right before God. The cross makes possible our sanctification. Christ now lives in us. Were in Christ. Christ in us. Its the whole picture and promise of the Holy Spirit and God working out our salvation, Philippians 2. And heres the beauty of it, heres the beauty of it. We are, pay attention

close, we are not in debt to Christ. Do not walk out of here tonight, at looking at the cross of Christ saying, I owe Christ so much. Because the reality is, that is not true. Its not true because if we owed him something then we begin to look real quickly at our life as a Christian as paying him back and we even say things like Christ did all of this for you, its the least you could do for him is to do this or this or this or this. But as soon as we begin one moment of trying to pay Christ back, we undercut the whole point of grace. Its grace because it cant be paid back. Were not in debt to Christ, were indwelt by Christ. And this is the reality. When we talk about the cross, often times we talk about what Christ did for us. The reality is, anything good that I do now is still based on Christ. Anything good that I do in the future is still based on Christ. My entire is based on his indwelling presence in me. Its what Colossians 1 is all about, Christ in you the hope of glory. The cross clears up our justification, makes possible our sanctification, and the cross makes certain our glorification. Those he predestined he also called. Those he called he also justified. Those he justified, he also glorified. Christ is coming back for us and we are not living for this world. We are living for the world to come. He sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people, and he will appear the second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Fourth reason why we boast in the cross because the cross, and this goes back to one of those theories, its incomplete but its evident here. Because the cross shows us what it means to love. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. This is how they know we are disciples when we love one another. What it means to love in the church. We talked about this in the last supper, the Lords Supper, we unite around the cross. Conversion to Christ means conversion to community. Were a body. We belong together, among the lost we proclaim the cross. You cannot embrace this truth and not proclaim this truth. If we do not proclaim this truth, its because we dont realized the wonders of the truth. And toward the poor, we embody the cross, Christ, though he was right, became poor for our sake. Brothers and sisters, real quickly, our influent indulgence in the things of this world does not add up with the cross of Jesus Christ. And it does not display the cross of Jesus Christ to a world where 30,000 children today have died of starvation or preventable diseases. It doesnt add up. We embody the cross toward the poor. Fifth, because the cross reminds us, we boast in it because the cross reminds us that our safety is not in this world. What a great word from our brother earlier, safest place to be is right where God wants you to be, even in the darkest most difficult place in the world. Cross isnt about playing it safe. We do not fear suffering. We do not fear suffering. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can kill both body and soul in hell. Jesus is telling his disciples there, when you go out, you will be persecuted. You will be hated, thats what he says in Matthew 10. It will be difficult, but heres the good news, the worst thing they can do is kill you. Good news. All right, lets go get them. But thats what hes saying, thats the glory of this picture, the worst that can happen is we die and that is gain. Because of the cross, so dont be afraid of anything. Dont be afraid of what any man can do to you because I would rather, I mean, who wants to be shot and killed, it is experiencing the fruit of his salvation and our salvation and will, for all of eternity, this is the picture. We dont need to be afraid of anything. We are now free to suffer. Free to suffer. It has been granted to you to suffer, Philippians 1. Come to Christ and get a gift, suffering. Gods strategy for making his glory and his love known in the world centers around a suffering servant and the self sacrifice of his only son. How are we to think today that Gods strategy for making his love in the world now is gonna be through us having easy lives? How will

we show the Christ of the cross if everything goes well for us? And everything is easy for us? Its in suffering that Christ is most clearly displayed in his people. Were free to suffer. Six, because the cross keeps us from wasting our lives in this world. The cross keeps us from wasting our lives in this world. Philippians 3. Whatever is to my profit, I consider loss for this cross of Christ. Everything in this world is rubbish compared to one thing, the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. Paul is saying here very clearly, this world has nothing for us. Paul is dead to the world. Dead to the world. This world is not the source of his life and satisfaction and joy. And its not ours either. All of it together, even the best things, together combined, are dung compared to one thing, knowing Christ. The world has nothing for us because Christ has everything to us. Everything to us. God, help us to show that our lives are totally and wholly surrendered to Christ and not the pursuit of money and bigger houses and nicer cars and better jobs and better salaries and more comfortable family relationships. God, help us to show that this world has nothing for us, if Christ is everything to us You say, well, is everything in the world bad? Is it, boast only in the cross. Does that mean you cant be boasting when your own son starts walking? Two almost three year old son does this or that or your wife does this, cant you boast in that? Yes, but heres the deal, we realized that every single good thing we experience in this world is only there because Christ has bought it for us at the cross. And now, we look at our sons and daughters and wives and husbands and moms and dads and successes and everything is now grounded in the fact that Christ bought this at the cross because we deserve none of it. Finally, the cross grips us with the vision of the world to come. The cross grips us with the vision of the world to come. Go with me to Revelation 5. This is where well close. Revelation 5. Incredible picture. Revelation 5. You got some of the verses that are listed in here. The cross grips us with the vision of the world to come. Heres the deal, we got a picture of Jesus in Revelation 5. Jesus, you got this in your notes, Jesus has identified the ultimate problem. 5:1 says, I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. The picture here is a scroll and we see this mentioned at different points in Revelation. Its a picture of a scroll that uncovers the fullness of redemptive history. And the end to sin and suffering to the picture of a new creation that unfolds in Revelation 21 and 22. The picture is a scroll and the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll? Who is worthy to go into the very presence of God, take the scroll of how human history is going to unfold. The end of sin and full redemption and unfold it. Who is worth to do that? And John says, No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Why was he weeping? Put yourself in the context of even of first century believes who were reading this book, most likely facing persecution. Is there no one who can bring an end to this? Is there no one who can bring an end to suffering and sin and cancer and disease and persecution and John is weeping because no one was found. This is the ultimate problem of the universe, weve talked about it tonight. Who, who is able to handle the sin problem and take care of it. And we stand before a holy God in this situation hopeless and helpless. Hopeless and helpless. Its like when you go to Chuck E. Cheese, you ever been to that place? That will give you a headache like instantly. And as a kid you go to Chuck E. Cheese, right? And you get these tokens and you go play games. You play skeet ball for like an hour. And then you play these other games. And as you play the games, what comes out of there? Little tickets come out. And these tickets are being turned out and you are trying to collect them all. And then it hits you as you are leaving what the

tickets are all for because as you walk out, theres a place called a redemption counter thats right there. And you know how this whole deal works. You walk up to the redemption counter, and youre a little kid and your mom or dad there with you and you have your tickets in your hand and you look up at the very top, top shelf. And theres like this huge stuffed animal, big bear, like 80,000 tickets and you look at your mom and dad and you dont know any better, you say, I think I want the bear. And your mom and dad say, Uh, son, I dont think you have enough tickets for the bear. So, your eyes come down a little bit and you see like a lava lamp. Like, most useless thing in the world, but a lava lamp, and youre like, okay, I want the lava lamp. Sorry, 60,0000 tickets and you don't have it. You come down, you come down, you come down till you get to this little dinky little display right in front of you and over here you see like an eraser. And if you put it together with your other friends, you can get a pencil with it. And you say, all right, Ill take that. Its one of the most depressing moments a child has. Spend hours playing skeet ball and hes got an eraser to show for it as he walks out, looking at the bear on the top shelf. Keep that picture in mind. When you come to Revelation 5, the reality is the stakes are much higher, top shelf, redemption of man. End to sin, full redemption, ushered into human history. And the role call in heaven, who is able to open that scroll? Who has got enough tickets? And you imagine roll call, Abraham, youre the father of the people of God in the Old Testament, Abraham and looks, doesnt have enough. Moses, Mosaic Covenant, surely you do, Moses looks down, doesnt have enough. Prophet after prophet after prophet not enough. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul you wrote most of the New Testament, do you have enough tickets Paul looks, he doesnt have enough tickets. He continues on down the line, Billy Graham, you preached to more people than anybody else in the history of the world, surely youve got, Billy Grahams got nothing. And Johns weeping, who will go? Who will go? Mohamed go? No. The Buddha? Absolutely not. Oprah, no. Then you and me. We look down and we got nothing. And our conclusion is I dont have enough tickets and the picture is uncontrollable sorrow. I wept and wept because no one was worthy and then we find you got it in your price, Jesus paid the ultimate price. Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals." He is a conquering lion. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David. Take it all the way back to Genesis 49, but not just a conquering lion, but then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, What a picture, suffering lamb, did you catch that? A lamb slain, a lamb that looks like its been butchered, but its standing in the center of the throne. What a shock. Lamb Lion, lion like lamb. And we find that Jesus can fulfill the ultimate purpose Revelation 5:7, He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. Can you imagine that? We are standing there with our dinky tickets in our hands and we cannot do it. We see, we want, we long for full redemption and we have nothing to bring to the table and all of a sudden one steps up and says, I have enough tickets. Hes got enough tickets and he says, I pay for it all. He pays for it all. He pays for it all. And he ushers in redemptive history. This is where all of eternity is headed. And what happens is, there is a son of praise, Jesus deserves the ultimate praise. They sang a new song, in verse 9. "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. Our song, ladies and gentlemen will be new and our song will be never ending. Never ending from every tribe, tongue, people and language all the ransomed church of God will sing his praises forever.

All this leads to the very end of scripture Revelation 22:1-5 and you can read that scripture later, but basically because of the satisfactory substitute on the cross, heres the reality. Those once dead in sin, will one day live with God. Those once under Gods wrath will experience his blessing. Those once separated from God now see his face. And those once captive to sin and death not reign with God in life forever. Hallelujah! What a Savior!