"The Power of the Cross" - 06/05/2022

First Baptist Church Leominster

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:29

then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way, to begin with, the

00:37

Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

00:46

By no means. Let God be true, though everyone a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged.

00:56

But if our unrighteousness served to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say?

01:02

That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath upon us? I speak in a human way.

01:07

By no means. For then how could God judge the world? But if through my lie

01:14

God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come, as some people slanderously charge us, saying their condemnation is just?

01:28

What then, are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both

01:35

Jew and Greek, are under sin, as it is written, none is righteous, no, not one.

01:41

No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned to stride. Together they have become worthless.

01:49

No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive.

01:56

The venom of asps is on their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and their path are ruin and misery.

02:07

And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

02:24

For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

02:32

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

02:40

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

02:57

God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show

03:03

God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.

03:10

It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

03:19

Then what has become of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law?

03:25

By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

03:34

Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

03:48

Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law.

03:56

Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for your word.

04:03

We thank you for the goodness and the mercy that's been shown to us, we who are sinners, yet redeemed by you.

04:10

Father, bless us and help us as we sit under the word. May we be sanctified. We pray,

04:16

Father, as the word goes forth that you would move in our hearts, Lord, that we would truly hear the word and commit it to our memory and do it, that we may walk with you.

04:27

Bless our brother Bruce as he brings the word. We pray that you'll anoint him and help him. May your spirit be upon him.

04:34

Grant him clarity as he proclaims your word. And we thank you, Lord, for the preaching of the word.

04:40

Bless us and help us to be sanctified. And may you be glorified in all things.

04:46

Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name, amen. Bruce. Good morning.

05:07

It's wonderful to be in the house of the Lord. It's wonderful to be able to be a partaker of the

05:15

Lord's table, isn't it? To be able to partake of the body and blood of Jesus Christ through the elements, understand his great redemption and the power of the cross.

05:30

Today, that's what I'm going to be speaking about is the power of the cross.

05:36

I'd like to pray. Lord, I just thank you for this time. I thank you that you are our savior, our gracious God and redeemer, the one we can trust, the one we can look to, the one who's proven faithful to us time and again throughout our lives.

05:56

Lord, we look to you because you are our maker, our creator. You're the one who's chosen us and brought us to yourself.

06:06

Thank you, Lord. Open our hearts, open our minds. Lord, may the cross be what drives us to you time and again.

06:16

Lord, we thank you in Jesus' name, amen. If you could open your

06:22

Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter one. I want to start off by asking you, what is the driving force in your life?

06:38

For many in the world, it's money. For others, it's prestige and power.

06:46

Many would answer that the driving force in their lives are their children, that's what they live for, their home or their spouse.

06:57

But we as Christians have a higher calling. The Lord has called us to bring glory to himself, that our lives would reflect

07:10

Christ and that we would shine as lights in this darkened world.

07:18

And so the Christian has an eternal perspective, one that drives and motivates him or her to good works for the glory of God.

07:30

But at the base of the Christian walk, right at the base of the

07:37

Christian walk and deep in the heart of every believer, there is a spark that ignites the follower of Jesus Christ to love and good works.

07:51

The Christian does not serve their Lord out of servile fear with a deep, dark cloud of judgment hanging over their heads or out of the mere sense of duty and drudgery that they have to do something to gain

08:08

God's favor, never, never. The driving force needs to be out of a deep sense of love and gratitude for what

08:21

Jesus Christ has done for us. Without this perspective, we are missing the mark and being motivated wrongly in our quest for pleasing

08:33

God, in our quest for eternal life. We need the gospel in our lives daily.

08:41

We need to be reminded of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the power of his death on the cross.

08:51

Paul Washer said, so many people think that the gospel is for lost people.

08:58

The gospel is for lost people, but it is even more for converted people.

09:05

The more you and I understand about what truly happened on that cross, the more you and I will be driven to serve

09:15

Christ, not out of legalism, not out of some fear or dread, but simply out of a joyful appreciation.

09:26

Look what he has done for me. Today, I wanna take us to the cross of Jesus Christ so that we as believers called and loved by our

09:38

God will be encouraged and exhorted to run the race, fight the good fight of faith and to deny ourselves and to take up our cross and follow him.

09:50

I want to talk about the power of the cross in a Christian's life.

09:56

Spurgeon said this, to tell of pardon with the blood of the son of God is to carry an omnipotent message.

10:06

The cross lifts up the fallen and delivers the despairing. Today, my brethren, the world's one and only remedy is the cross.

10:20

There are many aspects of the power of the cross that I could look into. There's the power of the cross to justify the sinner in the sight of a holy

10:30

God. There is the power of the cross to sanctify the believer throughout his walk.

10:36

There's the power of the cross to separate the believer from the world. And there's the power of the cross to unite both

10:44

Jew and Gentile in the church. I will touch on some of these during the sermon, but I want to focus in and really zero in on these three.

10:55

First, the power of the cross to purge our conscience. Second, the power of the cross to destroy the works of Satan and third, the power of the cross over the grave.

11:15

In 1 Corinthians chapter one, we're going to start reading at verse 18.

11:22

And go through 25. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

11:36

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

11:44

Where's the wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the disputer of this age? Has not

11:50

God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know

11:59

God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

12:07

For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach

12:15

Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block and to the

12:20

Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

12:31

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

12:40

It is interesting to know in viewing this scripture from 1 Corinthians, that the apostle

12:48

Paul is speaking of the cross in the very first chapter of his letter to them.

12:54

There were many problems with the Corinthian church. Right before this section,

13:00

Paul started off his epistle by addressing the Corinthian and their sectarianism.

13:09

The fact that they were divided in the body. One says, I am a Paul, another says,

13:15

I am of Apollos. And there was division in the body. Paul then goes to the cross and launches into what really unites us together, the cross of Jesus Christ.

13:32

From chapter five to near the end of the letter, Paul goes on to straighten out their sexual immorality, allowing adulterous relationships in the church, taking each other to court, their wrong use of the gifts, their need to get their offerings straightened out for collection, their use of head coverings and also the way they distorted the

13:59

Lord's table. The Corinthian church needed to have a right foundation before they could be corrected of their error.

14:08

Paul shows them right off the bat, that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

14:21

And then in chapter two, verse two, he says, for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

14:36

At the center of Paul's message was the cross. We need to see the importance of that.

14:45

We need to understand that ourselves so that it would be the driving force in our life.

14:52

We too in our day and age are battling for the crown of life. We are waging war against a formidable foe who desires to bring us down to destruction, if not eternally, then in our walks so that we would bring shame on the worthy name of Christ whom we profess.

15:16

We have to beware of our own sinfulness and the allurements of the world.

15:24

Brothers and sisters, there is nothing, and I mean nothing, we need more than the cross of Jesus Christ to be our focus.

15:38

First, I'd like to start off with the power of the cross to purge our conscience.

15:45

Back in 1981, way back in 1981, 41 years ago now,

15:53

I came to the faith by the grace of God. I was 21 years old.

15:59

It was a Thursday night when I went to church for the first time in many years. As I sat in the church that night, a timid and fearful lost soul, the pastor exposited the following verses from the book of Hebrews.

16:15

Could you open to the book of Hebrews chapter nine? I was terrified sitting in that church.

16:25

I was fearful because I was a sinner. I knew I was a sinner. I knew I was on my way to hell.

16:31

I knew I was bound by sin. And I came into that church looking for hope.

16:38

In chapter nine, verses 12 through 14, the pastor went through these verses and exposited them.

16:47

Not with the blood of bulls and calves or goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place once for all having obtained eternal redemption.

17:01

For if the blood of bulls and goats in the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living

17:28

God? That gave me great hope. He looked at the

17:34

Old Testament and he said, you know, those sacrifices cannot cleanse the conscience.

17:41

We needed something greater for our conscience. They purified the flesh, but it was only for a moment.

17:48

What we needed was Christ's death. We needed the cross. We needed the blood of the everlasting covenant.

17:57

And he went into it and he opened up the scriptures. But what really opened up my mind to the mercy of God and how he redeems and changes it and transforms our souls, illuminates our minds and brings that soul from life to death is found right in verse 14.

18:20

How much more, how much more than the Old Testament sacrifices shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living

18:37

God? That's where I first cast my hope. That's where my heart was able to understand the grace of God, that God could do it.

18:50

God could take my conscience and cleanse it. It's an amazing, amazing grace.

18:57

To have your conscience cleansed is only a move that God can do.

19:04

This means a radical transformation from a conscience that is polluted by sin, loves its sin, is blinded by that sin and engulfed in it to a conscience that has been freed from that sin to serve the true and living

19:25

God. The conscience of man can be a horrible tool in the hand of the devil.

19:32

I ministered for years back in the 1990s down at a homeless shelter in Worcester.

19:38

And there were a lot of people who could not handle what had happened to them in their lives, so they turned to alcohol and drugs.

19:47

One man was a lawyer who actually made a lot of money. He held down a great paying job, had a family, yet his sin had so ravaged his life that he could not handle life except through the bottle.

20:04

It's hard to watch people destroy themselves because of their sin. And knowing that there's hope in Christ gives us hope that we can bring a message to them of mercy and grace that can reach into the deepest pit here on the earth and lift them out.

20:24

And there's the average person who goes through life, grows up in a decent home, goes to college, begins a family, and seemingly goes through life unscathed by their sin.

20:38

They may even be members in a church. Many people throughout the ages have drifted through life, their sins not having been as bad as the drunk in the gutter, the drug addict, or the prostitute.

20:52

Yet their sins, as small as they may think that they are, have separated them from God.

21:01

There is a hardening of the heart that can be very deceptive and destructive to the human soul where we become numb to our own sin before God and fail to see our need for the

21:18

Savior. There are societal sins that are acceptable in our world, yet are abominations in the eyes of God.

21:29

We see this played out time and again with our courts making decisions that are acceptable to the majority, whether it's abortion, killing babies in their own mother's womb, or the homosexual movement and the desecration of marriage.

21:47

And over the past 10 years, it's been transgenderism and the mutilation of bodies.

21:54

What was once shameful and disgraceful in the general masses is now not only acceptable, but celebrated, sadly celebrated.

22:07

Just because society says it's OK and legalizes wickedness does not make it right in the eyes of God.

22:18

In the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 32, Jesus said this, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

22:29

When we commit sin, it hardens our heart, it dulls our conscience, and eventually leads us into slavery.

22:40

We become bound by that sin. Yet two verses later after Jesus said that about being a slave of sin, he said, if the

22:51

Son makes you free, you are free indeed. Horatius Bonar said this, we preach the purging and cleansing blood.

23:03

It has lost none of its efficacy. The lamb slain is the same as ever, and the high priest is the same as ever, and the blood is the same as ever, able to purge and purify.

23:20

That gives us great hope. The Christian conscience is cleansed before God.

23:26

When the blood was applied to our hearts and our minds, our total disposition towards sin itself was radically changed.

23:36

We've become freed from our bondage to sin. We no longer love the sins that we once loved.

23:44

We no longer cling to our old life, but surrender it to the giver of life willingly, and eternal life is in our

23:54

Lord Jesus Christ. There are people who have given hearty approval to wickedness in their lives.

24:01

And when they've been saved by the precious blood of Jesus, were so transformed that they gave up their old life.

24:10

You can look back at your life, at the sins you once committed that you now hate, that you once clung to, that you now want to be free from.

24:21

How destructive can sin be, and how their sin and selfish desires could hurt others and have hurt others?

24:32

We can be freed from that and have a pure conscience before our God. So we look to the cross of Jesus, and we see the power of God to cleanse our souls and to purge our conscience so that we can live for him.

24:47

Our whole disposition has been changed. We were once in darkness, but now we are in light.

24:54

We were once bound, but now we're freed. We were once held captive, but now we're beloved children of the living

25:03

God. This is great joy to our hearts and should ignite us to follow him in a closer way.

25:14

Next, I want to show you that the power of the cross in destroying the works of Satan.

25:23

Our Lord Jesus, when he died upon the cross, paid the penalty for our sin and freed our souls to follow him.

25:30

Yet in doing this, he destroyed the works of the devil. Why did

25:36

Jesus have to destroy the works of Satan? Couldn't Jesus have just delivered his people, saving them from their sins?

25:46

Since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, mankind has been under a delusion, bound by their sin and captivated to do evil and wicked works.

25:58

Jesus, in delivering the souls of his people and in freeing them from their sin, had to destroy, had to destroy the works of the devil who had taken them captive to do his will.

26:13

The Bible declares in 1 John chapter 3, verse 8, for this purpose the

26:23

Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

26:29

Our Lord Jesus' whole ministry was built on the foundation of the destruction of the enemy of our souls.

26:37

The whole purpose of the Son of God being manifested and coming into this world was so that he would destroy the works of the devil.

26:47

You see it in Jesus confronting and subduing the religious system of the Jews. Jesus, in confronting the

26:55

Pharisees and religious hypocrites of his day, in standing against the false religious system of the

27:02

Jewish nation, he was standing against Satan and his demons.

27:08

When you read the Gospels and find him aggressively progressing, find

27:15

Jesus progressively destroying or progressing the kingdom of God for the glory of God, he is doing it against the works of darkness, against the devil and the false religious system.

27:32

In John chapter 8, we read of Jesus confronting the religious hypocrites, point blank, and attributing their work to the works of the devil.

27:41

They were seeking to kill Jesus because he had declared himself to be God in the flesh.

27:49

However, the religious hypocrites could not understand this. They were blinded.

27:56

And not discerning the fact that he was actually God in the flesh, they wanted to kill him as they were blinded by their sin and lost in their religious malaise.

28:09

In John chapter 8, verse 44, we read that Jesus said to them, to the religious hypocrites, you are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.

28:25

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

28:32

When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

28:41

Jesus delineated and showed that the religious system was under a satanic influence and that these people who wanted to kill him because they thought that Jesus was just a man were being demonically influenced.

29:04

In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus over and over, eight times to be precise, pronounces condemnation on the

29:15

Pharisees and the scribes who had rejected him. And by their false system of hypocrisy, brought this sentence upon themselves.

29:25

Listen to this. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel land and sea to win proselyte, one proselyte.

29:36

And when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

29:43

Matthew Henry, in commenting on this, says hypocrites, while they fancy themselves heirs of heaven, are, in the judgment of Christ, children of hell.

29:54

The rise of their hypocrisy is from hell, for the devil is the father of lies and the tendency of their hypocrisy is toward hell.

30:06

That is the country they belong to, the inheritance they are heirs to.

30:12

They are called children of hell because of their rooted enmity against the kingdom of heaven, which was the principle and genius of Phariseeism.

30:25

You see Jesus destroying the kingdom of Satan as far as opposing the religious hypocrites in his ministry, but you also see him in his ministry in delivering people from evil spirits and subduing and unraveling the kingdom of darkness with his miraculous healing power.

30:51

Jesus, in confronting the evil spirits that had bound the souls and bodies of man, was not only advancing the kingdom of God, but he was directly tearing down the kingdom of Satan.

31:04

In Luke chapter 13, we read of a woman who had come into a synagogue.

31:12

She was bent over, and she was in that way for 18 years.

31:20

Our Lord, out of his infinite compassion and care for people, which you see over and over again in the

31:30

Gospels, in how he healed the sick and gave sight to the blind and raised the dead, looks at this poor woman being hunched over and has compassion on her to heal her.

31:44

But since it was the Sabbath, the religious hypocrite of the day, the Pharisee, who was in charge of the synagogue, opposed

31:53

Jesus and rebuked him for healing on the Sabbath. The Lord answered him and said, hypocrite, does not each one of you on the

32:04

Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it?

32:11

So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom

32:17

Satan has bound, think of it, for 18 years, be loosed from this bond on the

32:24

Sabbath? This woman had no clue that her malady was from a

32:31

Satanic influence. Yet Jesus knew. Jesus knew just what she needed.

32:37

And Jesus rebuked that spirit and healed her. And then again, there's the time that the disciples came back after going through the towns before Jesus, healing the sick and casting out demons.

32:52

And Jesus declared about that time, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

32:59

How about the madman of the Gadarenes, filled with a legion of demons? He cried out when the

33:06

Son of God came to deliver that man. The legion cried out, what have

33:12

I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.

33:18

The Lord Jesus delivered that man from his tormenting spirits. This is the

33:25

Jesus we serve. We serve the one who has conquered

33:31

Satan, the one who came to redeem us, the one who lived perfectly on the earth and did the will of his father, destroying the works of the devil.

33:44

Jesus destroyed the works of the devil in confronting the religious system.

33:50

He destroyed the works of Satan in healing throughout the land of Israel. And now

33:56

I want to turn to the cross. Let's open our Bibles to John chapter 12.

34:05

This is a great portion of scripture. God, the

34:12

Father, actually speaks from heaven in John chapter 12. First, earlier in John chapter 12, we see that the

34:26

Gentiles came to the disciples. They went to Philip and said, we would see

34:33

Jesus. Philip and Andrew take that message to Jesus.

34:40

And Jesus said, now is the time. Let's open and we're gonna look at verse,

34:50

I'm sorry, chapter 11, won't help me. Chapter 12 will. We're gonna look at verse 27.

35:05

Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose

35:12

I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven saying,

35:21

I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. That must have been an awesome sight.

35:27

Think about it. Jesus standing there with his disciples, and all of a sudden a booming voice comes from heaven.

35:35

I have glorified it and will glorify it again. Therefore, the people who stood by and heard it said, it had thundered.

35:45

Others said an angel had spoken to him. Jesus answered and said, this voice did not come because of me, but for your sake.

35:54

Now is the judgment of the world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

36:10

And this he said, signifying by what death he would die. Jesus said that through his death, the devil would be cast out.

36:20

He would be bound. He would be put away. Judgment.

36:27

The word judgment here. Now, now is the judgment of the world as a declarative statement, saying that now the judgment, the hammer, the gavel is coming down and rendering the world guilty.

36:47

It renders the world guilty. It renders Israel guilty for rejecting Christ as the

36:54

Messiah that all the blood from righteous

36:59

Abel to the blood of Zachariah, all the blood of the martyrs of the Old Testament would be required of that generation.

37:09

Satan would be cast out, and Jesus Christ would have his way in the world, saving sinners.

37:18

In Colossians chapter three, verse 15, Paul puts it this way, that Jesus, having disarmed principalities and powers, made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.

37:34

The conquering Son of God, who destroyed the works of the devil through the cross, is the one that we serve.

37:42

When Jesus was upon that cross, the legal declaration of our sin was taken away, justifying us in the eyes of God, breaking the chains that Satan had held upon God's people, freeing us from the bondage to sin and our evil desires.

38:02

Our Lord came on a mission and accomplished it perfectly. Are you struggling with sin in your life?

38:10

As you sit here before me and before God, is there some sin that has you bound?

38:17

I've got news to tell you. Since our Lord Jesus Christ conquered the devil and his minions, we too conquer in our union with Christ.

38:28

We too have the victory. We too are crucified to this world that we should live to God.

38:35

Being freed from our sin, we become children of God, heirs and joint heirs with Christ.

38:43

That is great hope. We can sing with the hymnus. Jesus paid it all, all to him

38:50

I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.

38:59

Lastly, I wanna come to the point where Jesus's power of the cross is over the grave.

39:08

Now, the first point was that Jesus's, that the power of the cross can cleanse our conscience.

39:17

The second one was that the power of the cross destroyed the works of Satan. And the third point is the power of the cross is over the grave.

39:28

We all are going to face death. Jesus, in conquering Satan's kingdom and freeing

39:34

God's people from an evil conscience and a wayward life, has prepared

39:39

God's people for the kingdom of heaven. The greatest enemy of man throughout the ages is death itself.

39:47

There are many who are held in great fear, contemplating their final end. But for the

39:53

Christian, death is but a gateway to glory. It is the method that God uses to bring his loved ones home.

40:05

In Hebrews chapter two, verses 14 and 15, it says, inasmuch then, as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself,

40:16

Jesus Christ, shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

40:29

The devil had the power of death in that he was the one who tempted man to sin.

40:36

He made his art in seducing souls to sin throughout the ages.

40:42

And we all know that the wages of sin is death. Satan is the one who torments souls with the very thoughts of death and haunts us throughout our days on the earth.

40:55

Yet as we saw, the devil has been destroyed by Christ on the cross.

41:01

Here we see that the victory is carried out, that through death he would destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

41:18

Do you contemplate the day of your death? The agony? I do. I think about it.

41:24

I think about the time when I'm going to breathe my last as I'm lying there gasping for my last breath, thinking about the pain and agony, physical agony that I'm going through.

41:39

And personally, I don't wanna go through that time. We all wanna die in our sleep.

41:45

Yet nonetheless, many of us are going to go down to agonizing deaths.

41:52

We need to think about how God will use this time in our lives in purifying us and sanctifying us for the kingdom of God, giving us a final hatred for this world of pain and sin and agony.

42:09

And at that time, when I'm breathing my last, I wanna have the hope of glory before me.

42:16

I wanna know, as Christian knew, that as he was swimming through the

42:21

Jordan on his way to the celestial city in the book of Pilgrim's Progress, that on the other side of that Jordan and being engulfed in the waves, that there's an eternal rest that I'm going to in my eternal reward with our

42:39

Lord Jesus. That will give me great hope in that day. The fear of death is truly bondage.

42:47

The world fears death. The world doesn't know what awaits them.

42:53

We know, as Christians, what awaits us. Heaven, heaven, let it be the song of our hearts.

43:02

We are going to heaven. The fear of death is a crippling fear. It is a fear that cripples us in ministering to others as we're afraid to go out on a limb and put ourselves out for others.

43:18

Even as believers, we can be held in this fear and we need to break out and understand that God has numbered our days before we were born.

43:28

Psalm 139 says, and in your book they all were written. The days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them.

43:37

Over the past year or two, the fear of death has crippled many people, even believers.

43:45

People were afraid throughout the pandemic to go to the grocery store.

43:51

They were afraid to go to their jobs. They were fearful to be in crowds and stores.

43:59

And sadly, they were afraid to go to church. I'm not speaking this to judge anyone concerning their lives before God and their conscience before him.

44:11

What I want to get across and show plainly is that our lives are ultimately in God's hands because God has ordained the day of our death.

44:23

We can live confidently in this world that we are safe in his almighty hands.

44:29

Stonewall Jackson on the battlefield fighting for the

44:34

Confederate army with men falling all around him right in the middle of the battle was asked, why are you so fearless?

44:42

He replied, my religious beliefs teach me to feel as safe in battle as in bed.

44:52

God has fixed the time of my death and I do not concern myself with that but to be always ready whenever it may overtake me.

45:03

That is the way all men should live and all men would be equally brave.

45:09

That's a great statement. Charles Spurgeon faced a plague in his days.

45:14

I don't know if you knew this. In 1855, the cholera broke out and he made this statement.

45:22

Who is the man that does not fear to die? I will tell you, that man is a believer.

45:30

Fear to die? Thank God, I do not. The cholera may come again next summer.

45:37

I pray God that it may not but if it does, it matters not to me.

45:43

I will toil and visit the sick by night and by day until I drop and if it takes me suddenly, sudden death is sudden glory.

45:56

I love that statement. Think about the fearlessness that we can have before God.

46:04

There's nothing that's gonna shorten our days here on the earth. It's already prefixed. We are here by the grace of God to do

46:12

God's work and we need to move on and move away from our fears and trust him.

46:19

We too may face another plague in this world and the world will be terrified by it.

46:27

It may be coming, it may be the coming of monkeypox, it may be another

46:32

COVID breakout but whatever it is, brothers and sisters, let us stand strong in the face of man and before our

46:41

God and may we serve him unwaveringly without fear, knowing that he holds our future.

46:51

Remember that famous verse from 1 Corinthians 15. Oh death, where is your sting?

46:58

Oh Hades, where is your victory? For the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our

47:11

Lord Jesus Christ. May that be our chant, our pledge, the things that set before our eyes that we do not have to fear death.

47:28

The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law and Christ has conquered,

47:35

Christ lived that law perfectly. We are safe in God's almighty hands, let us not fear death.

47:43

Finally, my brothers, I wanna come back to you and ask you, are you struggling with sin in your life?

47:52

I truly believe that the one place that the Christian needs to go and go repeatedly is down to the cross of Jesus Christ.

48:04

There are many Christian self -help books out there that try to deal with sin.

48:10

There are many 12 -step programs that have been Christianized with scripture to try to free man from their bondage to alcohol and drugs.

48:19

There are even sermons that have been preached by well -meaning pastors that fail to mention the one remedy for the soul trapped in sin, the cross of Jesus Christ.

48:33

All these are useless and unless they point you to Christ in his finished work on the cross, they are useless.

48:46

I get very concerned when I speak to believers, people who profess the name of Jesus and ask them if they've been reading

48:54

God's word and I get that blank stare back with a mumbled confession.

49:01

I haven't really read much this week. So let me ask you while you're sitting here, while the word is being opened before you, where are you in your walk with God?

49:13

How is your Bible reading? How is your prayer life? Is your heart cold toward God?

49:22

Fannie Crosby, the great hymnist of the 1800s said this,

49:28

Jesus, keep me near the cross, there a precious fountain, free to all a healing stream, flows from Calvary's mountain.

49:39

Near the cross, O Lamb of God, bring its scenes before me. Help me walk from day to day with its shadow over me.

49:51

If I could take you by your lapel, if I could take you by your coat and drag you down with your heavy burden on your back of sin, no matter what it is that ails you, no matter how bad you think you are in the eyes of God, no matter how much sin you've committed, bruised and broken by your own rebellion against God and if I could take you down to the cross of Jesus Christ, you would see a crucified

50:22

Savior. As we go to that horrid scene and as we see the three crosses, look at the one in the middle.

50:33

The first thing we notice is that the written accusation over Jesus' head is that this is the

50:42

King of the Jews. Over the one on the left, it said thief. Over the one to the right, it said thief.

50:50

But over Jesus, the only accusation was a true accusation, that he is the

50:58

King of the Jews. We hear the mockings of the crowd as they taunt him.

51:04

We see him hanging naked from the tree, alone, destitute, forsaken by man and by God himself.

51:15

As he looks down from the cross, viewing his executioners with his arms spread out, he looks down on those who had just driven the nails in his hands and in his feet and he looks out and he looks down on that crowd and he cries, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

51:45

There, there it is, fellow Christian. This is the place that we need to be to understand, first, the wickedness of our sin and second, the forgiveness of Christ our savior and to give us hope in this world of sin.

52:01

But let us even go a bit further. Let us go a bit longer into the cross.

52:08

Grasp the great transaction of the cross. Our sin placed on the lamb of God.

52:15

Look, look brother, look sister. Look and see the world becoming dark as the deep clouds of wrath cover the sun and you see

52:30

Christ crucified, being mocked and ridiculed. Hear the words of the cross.

52:38

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This is our savior going all the way and bearing the hell that we deserve for our sin, for our rebellion upon himself so that we could have eternal life.

53:05

We need to visit the cross. We need to go to that place of crucifixion. We need to read the gospels over and over again and let it move us.

53:16

Let it compel us to fall in love with our savior again.

53:23

Charles Spurgeon said this in closing. Are you content to follow

53:30

Jesus afar off? Oh, it is a grievous thing when we can contentedly live without the present enjoyment of the savior's face.

53:42

Let us labor to feel what an evil thing this is. Little love to our own dying savior.

53:51

Little joy in our precious Jesus. Little fellowship with the beloved.

53:58

Remember where you first received salvation. Go at once to the cross.

54:06

There and there alone can you get your heart quickened no matter how hard, how insensible, how dead you may have become.

54:15

Go again in all the rags, poverty, and defilement of your present condition.

54:22

Clasp that cross. Look into those languid eyes.

54:28

Bathe yourself in that fountain filled with blood. This alone will bring you back to your first love.

54:38

This alone will restore the simplicity of your faith and the tenderness of your heart.

54:46

In summary, we see that the power of the cross needs to be the driving force in our lives.

54:55

Throughout our Christian walk in this world, we see the power of the cross in that Jesus has cleansed the

55:02

Christian's conscience. And we see the power of the cross in that Jesus' death destroyed the power of Satan.

55:15

And we also see the power of the cross in giving us hope for eternal life in destroying the power of the grave.

55:25

Let us pray. Father God, we thank you.

55:31

We thank you for giving us such a savior as our Lord Jesus. Oh Lord, we are grateful that we came into this house this morning looking for you, that we have partaken of your wonderful, wonderful remembrance of the

55:52

Lord's table, thinking of our great savior and hearing the message of the cross.

55:59

Lord, help us, help us to walk with its shadow over us. Help us,

56:05

Lord, to humbly be viewing ourselves in the light of the cross, that our sins and our wicked deeds have been crucified with our savior, that we have been given an eternal hope.

56:21

Lord, may it be the driving force in our life so that we would live for you and not for this world or for ourselves.