The Depth of the Gospel - Part 1 — Paul Washer

Well, it's a it's a tremendous privilege for me to be here with you today. A Tremendous privilege. I Am much older than most of you and have probably walked with Christ. Longer than some of you have been alive.

When I look out over a group of young people like yourself. There's great joy at the same time. There is tremendous burden as you walk with Christ. And become a minister of Christ. You begin to see the great dangers that exist in the world.

Holiness, Sanctification, and the Danger of Cultural Conformity

How this is not a game. You also grow in your passion. To see the church presented to Jesus Christ as a spotless Stainless Pure virgin. Your great desire is For the holiness of God's people. To see salvation worked out properly and it's three tenses.

That you have been saved Justified. And that if you have been saved Justified you are being sanctified. That God is working in you To perfect that which he has begun and then to ultimately see you glorify.

But I look out over you today and I can tell you this you are Wrong you are so wrong. About so many things. Yes, you are wrong about So many things you are now. Do I say that as a legalistic judgmental preacher?

No in the almost 30 years that I've walked with Christ I am amazed. How even today more so now than in my younger years. I realize that I am wrong. That I am so much a product of my culture Rather than scripture and I'm here to tell you It's not that I walked in this room here today and I saw things that were wrong or flagrant violations of the word no.

Wasn't that I didn't approve of the worship. I enjoyed the worship. I'm just here to tell you that the beginning of Walking with God is to know that you have come forth from a twisted dislocated people.

That in order to truly walk with God you must be changed in your thinking. You must be renewed in your mind. You must begin to conform your life to the scripture. Rather than the culture which has so much great a hold on you far greater than what you could ever imagine.

I would that you would be holy. But for you to be holy You must know what that means. And the only way to know what that means is through the scriptures. I Would that you be holy but it takes more than just a man's wish there has to be a proper motivation to that holiness.

And I'll tell you what that is. Is Jesus Christ? I sometimes feel like a prisoner a prisoner. Chained in every place around wrist shackles around feet a prisoner of Christ. That the more I come to know him the more that the love of Christ constrains and Pushes and demands and inflames the heart.

You see thus far. I have told you that there's so much about you. That is wrong conformed your culture instead of being conformed to the word. Now I've changed the theme and I've told you this but in order to break free from that you need motivation.

You need something more than a pep rally and a pep talk. You need something more than a conference or a conference speaker. You must grow in your knowledge of who God is and what God has done for you in the person of Jesus Christ.

And the more if Your heart has truly been regenerate if your heart has truly been renewed by the Spirit of God if you have truly been Converted the more you will know about Christ the more Christ will captivate you and most of the problems resolve.

I would Pray that the Spirit of God Would show you Christ In such a way. That you would become a captive. Not to the lusts of your own flesh. Not to the Prince of the power of the air. Not to this wretched vile world in which you live.

But that you would become a captive of Jesus Christ no longer belonging to yourself. But belonging to him. Now let's go in our Bibles to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21. He made him who knew no sin To be sin on our behalf.

Christ’s Perfect Righteousness and the Gospel’s Central Exchange

So that we might become the righteousness of God in him. How many times have you read this text and yet there is enough glory in these few words? To propel a heart into an eternity of godliness. Look at what the text says.

2nd Corinthians 5 21. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Your mind is filled up with so many things. You waste your mind on so many things.

But you would not waste your mind if you shut off everything else in your life and you dedicated every waking moment of every day of the rest of your life to understanding what this passage means and I would assure you that the more you understood it the more you would be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ and The more you would be propelled to want to serve him with all your heart soul mind and strength.

Many of you have come here to learn to preach. Many of you have come here to know what it looks like to be in the arena of the corporate world as lawyers and Engineers and this and that and you want to go out and have an impact for Christ.

You do not know the monster that's laying at your door. You don't know how many people just like you this world has eaten to pieces men of best intention with greater moral fiber than you now possess.

It's going to take more than just intention for you to be used of God when you leave this school. It's going to take a heavenly vision. It's going to take a magnificent view of what God has done for you in Jesus Christ, that's what you need.

Then all the vain things That charm you most. You will gladly sacrifice them. All the things of youth that now hold you captivated. They would dissolve into nothing. So let's look for a moment at Christ.

Let's see this person. Pray that God would change us. By him through him because of him for him it says here. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. He knew no sin. Isn't that astounding?

Isn't that absolute. He knew no sin. Do you realize this there has never been one Moment in your life. Moment in your life that wasn't tainted by sin and yet there never was a moment in his life that was tainted by sin.

Someone asked me a long time ago What is the greatest sin you can commit and now all of a sudden it just popped in my head. So I said it. I said well I suppose the greatest sin you could commit is to break the greatest commandment that's ever been given.

To love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength. Do you realize there's never been one moment in your life that you have loved God as God ought to be loved. To even suggest that you have is paramount to blasphemy.

You have never loved God in a way that God deserves to be loved. But there was never one moment in the life of the man Jesus Christ that he did not love God as God deserves to be loved. You think Jesus is great.

He's greater than you know. There has never been one time in your life or my life that we have done what we have done Fully and completely for the glory of God not one time. There was not one time in the life of Jesus Christ.

Not one time not one fraction of a moment that he failed to give glory to God. The very glory that is due him. This is absolutely Absolutely amazing. Just to look at this one truth a thousand PhDs throughout all of eternity could be one just Searching out this one truth, but therein is the problem student.

There's your problem. You live in the age of busyness. We do not think we do not meditate we do not wake up at 2 in the morning and Carry on any sort of night watch calling upon the name of the Lord. We're so busy and there's so much noise that we no longer have time to think great things about Christ to discover this infinite well of the treasure of the wisdom of God.

Christ was without sin. Fullness of deity yes, but understand he was without sin as man. This man Christ Jesus Walked in perfect obedience to God and yet Paul tells us that he who knew no sin was made sin on our behalf.

How can we understand this passage. We are people of unclean lips and we dwell among the people of unclean lips our stock our family. We drink down iniquity like it was water. We cannot understand the grievous nature of sin.

The hellishness of sin the vile degrading Disgusting mark of sin. We do not know it and therefore we cannot appreciate The fact that this one holy son of God Became sin was made sin on our behalf. Now you've read this passage before but what does it mean?

You ever thought about that? You tell people all the time that Jesus bore our sin. Can you explain what that means. Have you considered it enough so that it breaks your heart with sorrow and joy? What does it mean that Christ was made sin for you for you on your behalf.

Does it mean that somehow on that tree that Christ's nature? Devolved into something corrupt did Christ himself become some Defiled being when he was on that tree. Is that what it means? Absolutely not.

While even on that tree he was the spotless lamb of God the perfect beautiful Impeccable son of God then what does it mean that he was made sin? Well, the text tells us he made him sin who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that We might become the righteousness of God in him.

Justification as a Legal Declaration and Imputed Righteousness

What does it mean for us to be justified? Does it mean the moment we believe in Jesus Christ? We are made into a perfectly righteous being. Absolutely, not if that was the case, we'd never sin again. What does it mean to be justified does it mean we're infused with grace so that we live in a new power and Therefore justify ourselves by our own deeds.

Absolutely not. Then what does it mean that we were justified? Justification is a legal or forensic doctrine. It means this that the moment a man or a woman believes in Jesus Christ. They are declared Legally to be right with God.

It is a legal term that God Declared you before his throne of judgment to be right with him, but that's not all. When you are justified by believing in Jesus Christ, you are declared right with God. And here's the important word you are treated.

To never forget this word you are treated as right with God. God's disposition toward you has changed his works toward you have changed your Relationship with him has changed this legal declaration brings about a different treatment from the throne of God.

You are treated as perfect before him as having all your sins forgiven and forgotten before him. This is a magnificent thing. One of the reasons why in modern contemporary evangelicalism if you can even use that terminology anymore One of the reasons that there is no rejoicing in Christ speak is because there's not much preaching about sin.

If you knew and If I knew the extent of Scripture's attitude with regard to sin How hateful it is before God you and I would rejoice at every mention of the fact that Christ died for our sins. We would be broken.

We would be weeping. We would be full of joy. We would be propelled to godliness. We would need no other motivation. Someone asked me one time. Why do you preach about sin so much and I said it's because I want you to love God.

Because the one who has been forgiven much Loves much. So what does it mean that Christ was made sin? Here our sin the sin of his people Was imputed to him. It was imputed to him. It was placed upon him.

Now. Here's the big word again and He was treated as the one guilty Before the judgment bar of God now there again is a life worth of preaching that the eternal Son of God lived in this magnificent indescribable incomprehensible Relationship with the Father throughout all of eternity now at this moment this impeccable spotless Lamb all your filth.

Oh your hatred of God. Everything that would cause all of creation to rise up and condemn you and joyfully applaud when you take your first step into hell. All of it is placed upon Christ it's placed upon Christ and the father Treats him as the full mass of us ought to be treated.

Again, how can we understand that we were born going astray from the womb the psalmist says? How can we understand that we have been so long estranged from God? How can we understand that when even as Christians we could we could choose we over the study of the scriptures?

But you see Christ This man hanging on this tree the eternal Son of God he always beheld the face of the father. He was his father's joy and his father was his and in that moment to bear our sin goes beyond any tongue of human or angel to tell I Once was walking around in a field and I was crying out to God and I was praying.

I said Oh God. Every time I've ever preached the gospel I have failed. How can a man get his mind around this thing? And if he could how could he proclaim it even if he was Spurgeon or Jones or whoever it still would be an impossibility.

Oh God grant me on that day when I pass over into glory that you will give me one time an opportunity to stand up On a box and preach Christ as he ought to be preached. I Supernatural revelation, but this thought came into my mind even then you shall not preach him As he ought to be preached.

Only God can preach that way. You see you see the Christian life. Eternal life begins at the moment of conversion because eternal life is basically that you may know him. That you may track him down. To turn away from all the trinkets and trite things of children and run to Christ.

There are men who go to greatest lengths to a risk their life going miles and miles into the earth. Job tells us just to find something that shines. We should be men and women. Who do the same with regard to this person of Christ.

Is it after all these years that your zeal? consumes you because of Christ. This glorious pursuit that everything. You know everything you learn every day as you go along and you increase in knowledge.

You realize that for everything learned there's an infinite number of more things discovered that you do not know. This is what you need To know him. To know him it was an imputed guilt. But it was real.

It was a real guilt that the Son of God bore on your behalf for you. Doesn't that make you hate sin? You say you do not have a love for God as you ought or you do not hate sin as you should you're right.

But the more you know the price that was paid in order to take that sin far from you To pay for it the more you know that the more you will hate sin. Until one day you're sitting at a table early in the morning like an old man I knew.

And he looks up with tears in his eyes after serving the Lord for decade after decade and he clenches his fist and he says I Hate to be a part of me. Because of Christ because of Christ because of Christ I Could heap upon you all sorts of things that you should not do and they would all be true but a vision of Christ is what will purify you and Bring you forth from your culture pull you out of that mess.

Christ Bearing the Curse of the Law

Now I want you to think about this that Christ Not only bore our sin bore the guilt of it, but he became the curse. You are familiar with the text. I know you are That we were under a curse cursed. It is every man who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law to perform them.

What does it mean to be under curse? Again, as the glories of God are too incomprehensible to understand or tell. To properly communicate to a student body what it means to be outside of Christ and under a curse.

It's an impossibility. But let me put it this way That outside of Christ and apart from the grace of God That comes through his death you would be so vile and So loathsome before all the holy hosts of heaven.

That the last thing you would hear when you took your first step into hell on Judgment Day would be all of creation. Standing to its feet and applauding God because he has rid the earth of you and yet Christ Redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Taking that curse in our place and bearing it. How can you not be a prisoner of his love? How can you not willingly throw yourself to him and say if it be so? If he has redeemed me from such an extraordinary mess How can I not think of him?

Serve him and lament when I do not. I want you to Just think about something for a moment. I'm gonna have to skip through some things because of time. I Want you to think I want us to go for just a moment to the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy’s Covenant Curses Fulfilled in Christ

Just just hold in your mind what we're talking about. You know that when Israel was brought forth from Egypt after a while, they had two things placed before them. There was Mount Gerasim in Mount Ebal on Mount Gerasim.

Some of the Israelites were to stand and as they stood there, what were they to do? They were to pronounce the blessings that were to be heaped upon the head of the covenant keeper. You remember that?

Then there was Mount Ebal and on Mount Ebal another group of his rights were to stand forth and shout forth all the Curses that were to fall upon the head of the covenant breaker. Now Every one of those curses in the book of Deuteronomy are yours.

You are the covenant breaker. It's you. It's me. Every one of those curses is yours. But on that tree every one of those curses fell upon Christ. Do you understand that that he redeemed us from the curse of the law.

By becoming by bearing a curse in our place the curse your curse. One of the things that most hurt men today. It's not preached supposedly for the benefit of man. We are told that men's psyches modern man is far too weak now to bear with hearing anything wrong about himself but because of that.

Because we do not realize what we are apart from Christ. We cannot appreciate what Christ has done and That is a great disservice if you do that in your preaching. You see I can ask you right now a question.

Where did all the stars go this morning? Did some giant come by and just pick them all up in a basket? Carry them to the other side of the world. Where did they go this morning when the Sun came up? They went absolutely nowhere.

Then why can we not see them because of the light of the Sun? We cannot see the stars so we lose their glory. We no longer see their beauty and That's the price evangelical preaching has paid. Because you see it is only against the pitch blackness of the night That we see the glory of the stars and it is only against the pitch blackness of man's radical Depravity that we can begin to see the glories of the gospel to understand what we were to understand the greatness the Tragedy the terrifying nature of the curse that was upon us all and that Christ had to suffer.

What I've done is I've arranged all these curses Taking them right out of the text in Deuteronomy 27 and 28, and I'm going to read them to you, but in a different way no longer Applied generally to a covenant breaker, but applied specifically to Jesus Christ on that tree.

And I'm going to say something that that I once something was mentioned by it by RC Sproul. And I call his name in on this so that you realize when you are shocked That this is Orthodox. What is it Christ on that tree?

Bore your sin. He bore your guilt and when he looked up into heaven and he cried out my God my God. Why have you forsaken me? It's as though God from heaven slammed the door in the face of his only begotten Son and cried out The Lord your God Dams you the Lord send upon you curses confusion and rebuke until you are destroyed and perish quickly.

The Lord smite you with madness and with blindness and with Bewilderment of heart and you will grope at noon as the blind man gropes in darkness with none to save you. This was your lot and Christ bore it on that tree.

The Lord delights over you to make you perish and destroy you and you will be torn from the land curse. Shall you be in the city and curse? Shall you be in the field. Curse shall you be when you come in and curse shall you be when you go out the heaven?

Which is over your head shall be bronze in the earth. Which is under you shall be iron. You shall be a proverb in a taunt among the people. Let all these curses come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed.

Because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you. This was yours. And this is was mine. And this is what Jesus Christ bore for us on that tree the wrath of Almighty God against our evil.

He was cursed as a man who makes an idol and sets it up in secret. He was cursed as one who dishonors his father or mother who moves his neighbor's boundary mark or misleads a blind person on the road.

He was cursed as one who distorts the justice do an alien orphan and widow. He was cursed as one who is guilty of every manner of immorality and Perversion who wounds his neighbor in secret or accepts a bride to strike down the innocent.

He was cursed as one who does not confirm All the words of the law by doing them. This was Christ. You see Student listen to me. This is the way to holiness. The gospel of Jesus Christ is that great mystery of godliness and the more you understand the greatness of what Jesus Christ has done for you the holier you will become.

And As I can quote again the songwriter in all these vain things. That even now as you sit there in your seat charm you so much. They will be gone. You'll have nothing but Christ. Listen to what the psalmist says.

How blessed is he whose transgressions is forgiven whose sin is covered? How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Now listen. Yet on the cross Our sin was imputed to Christ was exposed before God and the host of heaven.

He was placarded as Martin Lloyd-jones used to say before men and made a spectacle to angels and devils. Alike the transgressions he bore were not forgiven him and the sins he carried were not covered.

If a man is counted blessed because iniquity is not imputed to him. Then Christ was cursed beyond measure because the iniquity of us all was imputed to him. There is a there is a passage in the scripture about it during the renewal of the covenant at Moab and it talks about a covenant Breaker about what would happen to Israel if they broke God's law as all of us have broken God's law.

But it's unusual that when he talks about the judgment that would fall down upon the covenant breaker. He singles him out as an individual man. Listen to what it says. The anger of the Lord and his jealousy will burn against that man.

That'll be you. Young man one time said on the day of judgment. I'll stand before God and I'll reckoned with him. I said young man, you will melt before God like a tiny wax figurine before a blast furnace.

When the seas dry up before the wrath of God and the mountains melt before him. Archaic preaching. Yes, very old as old as the scripture this is the judgment that was upon you but it fell upon Christ.

He says the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will burn against that man and every curse which is written in this book will rest Upon him and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. Then the Lord will single him out for adversity.

From all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant which are written in the book of the law. You should be singled out. When I was in seminary in preaching class. They told me that I should never use the word you when I was talking about sin that I should say we.

I Don't believe that. I think that's wrong. Yes, I am a sinner. Yes, I do sin, but I do not want to give you comfort in a multitude of other sinners sitting around you. I want to single you out. You are guilty.

But Christ was singled out in your place. The only covenant keeper of Israel was called from the flock and Singled out for adversity. I want you Just quickly to turn with me to numbers chapter 6 the blessing of Aaron.

The Priestly Blessing and the Curse Christ Bore

Chapter 6 24 the book of Numbers. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious To you the Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace. Those of you who study theology, do you find a problem here a problem.

The greatest problem in all of Scripture is here. This is not right. It's not right. How can a holy and just God bless a wicked people. How can he pronounce blessing upon you? Is he not the judge of all the earth?

Will he not do right the only way? That this blessing can fall upon the head of God's people is because the curse fell upon the head of God's Son. It's as though God looked down from heaven and turned this police Priestly blessing around and said this the Lord curse you.

The Lord give you over to destruction. The Lord take the light of his presence from you and condemn you. The Lord turn his face from you and fill you with misery. My god. My god. Why have you forsaken me?

Does that truth not move your heart? Then be afraid. Be very afraid. Wonder to yourself whether you even know him. Examine yourself test yourself to see if you are in the faith. With all diligence make your calling and election.

Sure. He bore your curse and Mine, I want to go over something quickly. I'm running out of time here. There's so much to say about this. Let me put it to you this way. I believe I I do not. I Cannot put the whole thing in a basket and throw it all away because I do not know all of it.

Critique of Church Growth and the Loss of Gospel Power

But I believe that much of what is called church growth and strategies and relevancy and contextualization and everything else is a bunch of bunk. I Don't follow it at all. I think they are carnal tools used by little boys who no longer have the power of God upon their life because they're not preaching the gospel.

You can take that for what it's worth, but I assure you it's worth a lot. We preach the gospel today and we say but it has no power to change the culture. Do you want to know why because we're not preaching the gospel.

For spiritual laws are five things. God wants you to know is not the gospel. Saying you were you sin now, are you ready to jump to the next question is not the gospel. Asking people if they want to go to heaven is not the gospel.

Even telling people Jesus died is not the gospel. Can you explain what it means that he died? If you're going to go out there and you're going to proclaim the gospel, you must be a scribe. You must be a theologian.

You must be someone who can open up their mouth and it tell them what it means. Most people think that somehow Jesus was martyred on a tree by the hands of Roman soldiers and because of that our sins are Pardoned and nothing could be further from the truth.

If you're saved here today. You are not saved merely because of what the Romans did to Jesus on that tree. You are saved because of what God did to his only begotten Son on that tree. Let this cup pass from me.

Gethsemane, Divine Justice, and the Meaning of the Cross

I have preached this one thing a million times. Let this cup pass from me. Let this cup pass from me. What was in the cup? So many people say well, it was the Roman cross that Christ in his his omniscience at this moment.

He looked looked forward into time and he saw the the cat of nine tails coming down on his back. He saw the bindings around his wrist and feet. He saw the cane being beat across his head and face. He saw the long nails going into his hands.

I tell you if you stop there you have not preached the cross you have done nothing but write a romantic poem. Do you honestly believe that Christ was so disturbed in the garden over a Roman cross? That he he was sweating drops of blood.

That's absurd and I'll prove it to you. Is it not true that for the next three centuries in Christian history? Countless Christians were nailed to trees. Yes, they were they were nailed to crosses and some of them were covered with Brea or pitch and they were set on fire.

And yet history tells us that many of them went to the Roman cross After the cat of nine tails and they went to that tree. Singing and rejoicing and counting it a privilege to die for Christ. Now are you going to tell me the disciples of Jesus Christ?

Followed him to the same cross singing and counting it joy while Christ the captain of their salvation is in a garden crying out Let this cup pass from me and sweating so intensely that vessels are breaking and blood is falling.

That's absurd. What made the cross of Christ so terrible. The fact that on that tree the holy Impeccable Son of God would bear our guilt and he would be treated as the one guilty before his father and That he would experience the wrath of Almighty God in our place.

You see the absurdity of this thing. I've heard evangelists say so often well instead of being just with you God was loving with you. Oh, well, maybe you ought to take a class in logic because that presents a tremendous problem.

If instead of being just with me God was loving with me therefore God's love is unjust God will do no such thing. God is just and he is loving and not one of his attributes will diminish for the sake of another.

He is perfect in all his ways. His love is just and there is the greatest problem in all of Christianity if God is just he cannot forgive you if God is good. He cannot forgive you so how can he then? Only if justice is satisfied, but it is not as some suppose.

Some suppose that there's this universal principle even hanging over the head of God that God must submit to a universal principle of Justice and God must satisfy that justice before he can show love to the guilty.

That's not true. The justice that God satisfies is his own his own justice and Christ died Crushed under the wrath of God in your place. Imagine for a moment a dam a thousand miles high to a thousand miles wide filled to the brim with water.

Your tiny village is an eighth of a mile from the base of that dam and All of a sudden you wake up one morning and you hear a crack like nothing you've ever heard before in your life and you look out the door and the wall.

Crumbles before that massive body of water. You have seconds to remain before you are going to perish it. The fleet of foot will not escape the strongest swimmer. Has no hope you are to be crushed. And right before that mass falls upon your head and breaks you into an infinite number of pieces.

The ground opens up and swallows it all down so that not one drop not one drop Touches the heel of your shoe. Imagine a millstone 10 ,000 pound millstone. With another just like it on top of it and a kernel of grain of corn or wheat Is put through the funnel finds itself between the two fraction of a second the hull is Bursted and it's ground into nothing.

The Servant Crushed Under Divine Wrath

You see as the Isaiah the Prophet said and it pleased the Lord. It pleased Yahweh to crush him. Makes us captives. Son. You're going into the ministry. I'll ask you What an old man asked me many many years ago boy.

Can you be alone? Well, all your other friends are running around in bachelor packs and playing video games and running to and fro to conferences. Will you belong to God? Will you be his man? Will you tarry before him in the long watches of the night?

In the Word of God and prayer. Until you are consumed. Until you become a prisoner. Until you become his Christ becomes so magnificent to your weary eyes if you just know the rules of Expository preaching and you pride yourself in obeying them.

You'll still be worthless to the cause of Christ. You must be a Christ Centered expository preacher. You must be a man of prayer. You must be a man who calls himself away from the noise of this present evil age and Spends time alone with God upon this strength That is found in what we know about the gospel young lady.

Your piety your innocence is Dependent upon your knowledge of what God has done for you in Christ. And one day when you train your children It will all be about Communicating Christ to them. Everything Christ.

Everything falls away, but Christ Everything did not even make it halfway through. I pray that Wednesday will continue this. Pray that pray that God will do something supernatural pray that God Will show himself to you Through Christ and the preaching of the gospel.