Embrace the Cross — Al Whittinghill

There was a little sign on my father's mirror in his bathroom. They live in Chapel Hill still. He's 87 and I was cleaning his sink on a trip home, and I was looking on his mirror. He loves little sage sayings and this particular saying Really grabbed me and it was this it says it's what you learn After you know it all that counts.

Well, it was a cold and a clammy and a dark night and the condemned prisoner sat over in the corner of his dungeon and He had a terrible night you see he knew it was his last night to be alive on the earth his last crime had been Actually had been committed, and he had been condemned and now he was waiting execution.

And it was a night of doom and fear and so he crouched over in the corner. He rehearsed what would happen the next morning. He knew what would happen the next morning. He would hear those footsteps coming down the hall down that long hall and outside his door.

He'd hear the keys come out Clanking and he'd hear that big key slap in that big lock the big bolt would slide back and the door would open there'd be a burst of air coming in and he would then be bound with the rope and Drug out to a dreaded spot like an animal and then he'd be nailed to a cross.

There's hours of agony for him as he spent that night. He could he could just anticipate the jeers and the crowd little boys would get flints and try to put the eyes out of the men hanging on the cross to see who could hit the eye.

They did that and He dreaded that and he was doomed. He had to pay for his crimes. Well the morning did come and he did hear those footsteps and the keys Rattling in the bolt and as the door opened and that air came in hit the blood was Hammering in his head and there was this silence and then in terror as he crouched over in the corner drawing back.

Barabbas and the Substitute on the Middle Cross

He heard these words Barabbas. Have you heard the good news? What good news? You've come to execute me. No Barabbas. You haven't heard. Have you someone? Is dying for you. Someone's taking your place.

What do you mean? Come I'll show you and so out the door by the arm. Not by the neck by a rope. But by the arm this warden took Barabbas out through this dreaded corridor out Through the prison gates out into the busy Passover streets of Jerusalem out beyond the city gate and there they stopped and Barabbas had dungeon eyes, you know, and he wasn't used to this kind of light.

And so is that warden pointed his arm toward this slope? He said do you see that hill and those three crosses and Barabbas blinked because his eyes weren't used to light like this. Nobody's are and as he looked they said yes, there are three but Barabbas.

Do you see that middle cross the one in the middle? Yes. Yes. I see. Well that man there is Taking your place that cross was custom made just for you. You were supposed to have been there. He's taking your penalty and your crimes that you mean that man there is actually taking my place.

He's dying for me in my place. Yes. Yes. That's what I told you Barabbas. That's what I but Barabbas didn't hear a word. You see cause his mind was lost in amazement as he looked at that man. He thought can it be possible?

I don't understand that he could be being executed for my crimes and he didn't really understand it. But somehow he knew it was true and the warden said yes Barabbas. You're free to start a whole new life.

You can start all over but Barabbas didn't even hear because his mind was so caught up in that deep inward. Identification as he looked at that man something hard melted on the inside. He didn't know what happened.

But he was drawn to him in some strange way and he knew he would never be the same again. Because that man on the middle cross. Well, let me tell you some of you in this room are in a dungeon and You dread every single day you like conferences like this.

But when you go back to work you dread every day your you get up and you say oh no, here's another day. It's a prison. It's not brick. It's not bars it but it's invisible prison and you know it if nobody else does you're captured in there and you rest.

You're haunted by your past. You're intimidated by your future and you're troubled by your present and every day is a is a prison and and you dread. What you don't know is going to happen to you. And so if you listen tonight.

You can hear the footsteps of the warden because you see he has the key to your door and he'll pause there and when he opens That door you'll feel a burst of air like you've never felt before and you may be afraid.

But he will take you out beyond the camp of man out beyond the Passover streets. And he will point his arm down through the ages down toward a hill called Calvary and you won't be used to this kind of light.

Your eyes will blink and you'll say I've never seen anything like this before and he will say to you. Do you see that man on that middle cross? I think I see you see not everybody that looks sees. The blind man can look through a telescope and he sees nothing.

Do you see that man on the middle cross? Yes, I do see. Well that cross was meant to be your cross. It wasn't just the cross of all humanity. It was custom-made just for you and your crimes are paid for there and he's getting what you deserve.

And as you look and meditate on that man on the middle cross. Something hard will melt on the inside and walls will fall down and chains will be Disappearing and and you will never be the same again. You will be free to start over a whole new life of the cross.

It's the blessed work of the cross the word of the cross the way of the cross the wonder of the cross. And it's the place of true blessing. Look at first Corinthians chapter 1. I want to look there with you.

The Word and Power of the Cross

At the word of the cross not just a revelation of the cross. But we need a realization of the cross in our life. We need to experience what God had in mind when he called us to take up the cross his cross a Specific purpose in our Christian life.

Without the cross all that we've heard will not be operative in your life. You will not have the ability to lay aside the past and all the rest without the cross in your life. First Corinthians Chapter 1.

Paul is writing to a church Surrounded by commerce and materialism just like our church in America. And he says to this church in verse 17. Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words.

Lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. But the preaching for the preaching of the word of the cross is to those that are perishing foolishness. But unto us which are saved it is the power the dynamite the dunamis of God.

To those who don't understand the heart of God who do not fear the Lord. The cross seems like a foolish thing like some of the things in the previous Talk by Raleigh how he said this seems weird to the world.

It always will but to us which are saved by the power of God. It is the very blessed word of the cross to us over in chapter 2. You see Paul again saying verse 1. I brothers when I came to you. I didn't come with excellency of speech homiletics hermeneutics gesticulation all the rest although he could have Declaring this testimony of God to you.

I determined I fixed it not to know. Anything among you saved Jesus Christ and him? Crucified and I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my Preaching was not with the enticing words of man's wisdom, but rather in a demonstration Of the spirit and of power.

Why so that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man. But in the power of God. We need to see the gospel proclaimed in such a way in our day. That it gets beyond just the desire to hear the speaker on an enticing way.

But it has an impact on our life that gives us the credibility and the power to stand and pledge allegiance. No matter what lions? Guillotines jobs. We hate marriages that are difficult. Situations that happen that we don't anticipate.

Breakdowns in communication no matter what we can walk through it. Victoriously because we've been to the cross and something hard has melted. You see His word to a church pressured by the world. The place of Liberty.

The answer for the problems in the church in America. The racial melting point. The starting point of all revival. The place of Continuous revival. The place God takes you and leaves you after revival is the old rugged cross.

You say well brother you need to get beyond the cross to the upper room. You're right about that. But after the upper room, where does he take you back to the cross back to the cross? We'll lay this cross down one day.

But it will be in your open grave and the cross that you carried on earth will carry you into the sky. Right to the very bosom of the Lord Jesus. It is no wonder that Paul exclaimed in a Amazement. He said in Galatians 6 14 God forbid that I should boast have confidence in Anything save the cross of Jesus Christ by whom I am crucified to the world and the world to me.

There's a bridge that once I used to try to go back and forth across back to safety. But God burned that bridge and now I can't get back to the world. God forbid that I should place confidence in anything now tonight.

I want to ask you this if you ask your best friend. What is so-and-so's confidence about you your confidence? What would he say or if you ask your enemy? What is this man's confidence? I wonder what he would say.

Well, the real important thing though is what you would say. You see my attitude toward the cross of the Lord. Jesus is either my greatest blessing or either my greatest sin as long as the church when the when the cross of Christ is Discarded then the message of the church will be discredited.

We've got to get back to the old rugged cross now. Perhaps you've been saved for some time now. You've been a believer in Jesus you've prayed and you've given your heart and life to him. You know that he's forgiven your sins.

You're under the blood. You're sincere. You love the Lord in your heart you pray you study you give you try to obey God with all your heart. But deep down inside you feel like a muzzle dog. Any kind of dog Doberman whatever else but you feel like a muzzle dog and you feel like you're you're just Not living that victorious life that the Lord Jesus died.

You know He died to give to you not just to escape from judgment but to be brought into victory and you're frustrated down deep and you know That you're not experiencing that. Despite all the wonderful teaching of your pastor and the men around you that are walking in dedication and you plan carefully.

There's a lack of power in your life, and you know it. You can't forgive and you can't have faith and you can't walk. Multitudes in our country want to know how to live a victorious life and they seem to be locked outside the door.

And they don't know how the word promises perfect grace and faith that overcomes the world and joy. Unspeakable, but we don't know how to obtain it. Well tonight. We're gonna lay it out. It's a doorway that God wants you to go through it's a narrow door.

Because only that which is the Lord Jesus can go through it. But the Holy Spirit tonight wants to point us with his long arm back to that cross where Jesus died. The fixed point of all the ages where we said Friday night.

This cross was in the heart of God. Before sin was ever in the heart of man. This was an eternal purpose. This was what he was after. I wonder if you've ever faced and really encountered the crisis of a personal cross.

Where the cross has become your cross. It must be more than what you see and understand. It must be embraced and Realized. In fact the cross for a Christian is only come to be known on God's anvil. He has to put you on his anvil and teach you about the cross like that.

The Blood for Sins and the Cross for the Self-Life

So here's what happens to a lot of people it happens to me happens to you. It has happened. I become a Christian and I trust the power of Jesus and the blood to save me to cover my sins. All that I've done and all that I'll ever do under the blood of Jesus Christ.

But soon I discover as a Christian that I've got a bigger problem than what I've done wrong. And the things that I do wrong I have a greater need because I need more than just mercy for my crimes. I need a remedy for who I am.

I Of this production of sin my life away. You see there seems to be something wrong inside the fortress of my soul. What is this enemy this traitor that is in me that keeps having me? Fight against the very things.

I love the most something is needed to free me from this selfishness. That makes me treat my children a certain way and my wife a certain way this grip of the visible this prisoner of time. This this power of the distant noise around me.

Well, you see sell the self-life is the great hindrance to experiencing the Savior's life. The glorious presence of Jesus Christ the big eye crowds out the great I am you see only when the big eye in the middle of pride Becomes a zero.

Can you really experience freedom only when the big eye in the middle of S? I in becomes a zero. Is there really the s o n only when the big eye in L I V E becomes a zero. Can you really be free to L O V E like we've been hearing from dear brother?

Raleigh only then you can't if you're waiting to measure the love for your. For your neighbor as you love yourself, you you'll never get anywhere. You got to forget yourself. Because you see it's not self-love that's the measure it's forgetting yourself.

That's the measure like Jesus didn't mark his own self. So The wonderful good news is that when the Lord Jesus took my sins to the cross. He just didn't take this my sins. He took the sinner, too. He took the sinner, too.

And this is the glorious thing you see that it's that there's two things we need to grip and lay hold of it's great. If you've never read that book the normal Christian life by watch many of those first two chapters.

The first chapter is on the blood. The second chapter is on the cross and these two things are what every Christian man needs to understand. We talk about the blood and I'm not the least bit minimizing the power of the blood.

My favorite preaching is on the blood almost but we need more than the blood of Jesus Christ. That's shed for what we've done. See the blood of Jesus Christ is shed for my sins. Plural what I have done and my conduct.

The cross of Jesus Christ is God's answer for my sin. My principle that's operating in me and this is who I am. This is my condition. I need the blood for my Conduct what I've done wrong and I need the cross to settle and change my condition.

You see one deals with the penalty of sin. That's the blood and the cross deals with the power of sin the sin factory that keeps on making us Weep and cry over the same old thing. I need more than mercy for my crimes.

I need a remedy for who I am. You see the blood does not deal with the flesh. The blood deals with my sins. The flesh is Satan's workshop. Even in the Christian and the flesh cannot be cleansed. The flesh must be crucified.

God's remedy for my flesh is not correction. It's crucifixion. No flesh can ever glory in his presence now. I'm going to tell you some humanism hates this truth. They always hope there's a little spark a divine spark.

God the father of all fan it enough and Divinity and men will awaken. This is the whole New Age idea. But I'm gonna tell you what you can look a long time before you ever find a spark in Adam. Unless it's fool's fire.

Only God can bring a man to life. Thank God He will free me from the penalty of my sin and the power of sin. It says be from sin the double cure and the old him. When they used to understand theology and write great hymns and sing about it.

You see no man is free who still drags a chain around. Doesn't matter whether you change your gold or whether they're iron. There's still a chain. They're still holding you just the same. They can be rich change or poor change.

There's still chains. Have you ever wondered why you have to deal with the same thing over and over again? Whether it's lust or whatever it is and and you fail and fall maybe in some area you thought you said Lord I thought this was settled.

You see it's not just a matter of doing it's a matter of being. It's a matter of being and God wants to settle that in us tonight. Let me give you an illustration about the power of the blood and the power of the cross.

Let's suppose that I moved out in the suburbs of Chicago. Raleigh found me a nice house out there and kind of the farm area and I'm out there and. And all these houses have nice farm a barn out behind them and I'm sitting out there.

My wife and I are enjoying breakfast one morning and out in back of our house as we're there. We see this crazy neighbor. That his name is Barney Burns and he's out there in our backyard with the blowtorch and he is setting my barn on fire.

With his blowtorch and my wife says honey, honey. Look, look look Barney Burns is burning down our barn and I say ooh ooh and I run over to the Phone and I and I know if my I see flames begin to erupt and I say who who do I call?

So I call the fire department and out they come with their red coats and their sirens and they push and they put out the Barn, but in the meantime Barney Burns has gone to my neighbor's barn barn, Raleigh.

I don't know where he lives but let's suppose he has a barn and he's setting Raleigh's barn on fire and the firemen look over and say ooh another fire and They run and whoosh. They're putting it out in the meantime Barney's gone down to the next house and he's putting that barn on fire, too.

See, who do you call? Do you call the fire department or the police department? You need both. You need the fire department to put out the results of Barney Burns's crime. Which is arson and you need the police department to take the blowtorch from Barney Burns hand you see it's an amazing thing because we need the blood of Jesus Christ to take away the power of what we've done and The results of it, but we need the power of the cross to take the blowtorch out of Adams hand.

Mortifying the Self Rather Than Mopping Up Sin

Let's give another illustration, let's suppose in my laundry room. There's a nice faucet there a spigot that my wife used to fill up a bucket one day I come home and there's water all over the floor and I say oh no.

My spigot is leaking and so I go in and I get a mop and I mop it up. Perfectly and it's dry as a bone and I said that should take care of that. I come back the next day and lo and behold there's water there again.

And I say oh no, and so I go to the store. I say I must not have been careful enough. I buy a manual on mopping and and I come home and I use a more clever technique and better form and mopping. I keep my back straight and move out just right and I make it perfect and that takes care of that.

Well, I come back the next day and there's still water there and I say well, this just is not working. I'm going to I'm gonna go to Bill Muppard and I go to Bill Muppard moppings class and I learn all about mopping.

Skillfully and big red manual about mopping it should work and I come home and it's still it's still wet the next day. So I call an Acme mopping company bring in specialists and they mop and do all these things in the next day.

There's still water on the floor. Finally, you know women can do this and I just hate this about women. I got to be honest, you know, your wife walks by she says honey. Have you ever thought about putting a new washer in there?

You know, it's so simple and I'm sitting there doing all these busy things, you know. And I go out and buy a 25 cent washer put it in that faucet and it stops the drip. You see I've been so busy mopping up sins that I haven't been stopping the drip.

And you see a lot of Christians are like that. They're so busy. They're so busy mopping up Sin that they haven't ever stopped the leak and they're still dripping and there's a sound of drip drip drip in their life.

We need to deal with the source of the problem. Not just the result. I Go from counselor to counselor and they tell us all these God loves you and comfort you and the drip is still there. We leave a slow drip and this is big puddle there.

See too many people are just mopping up sins instead of mortifying self. And quitting mopping up sin to start getting to the cause of the of the problem that's causing the symptoms. You see God's way of salvaging me as a sinner is not to just improve me.

It's not to mend me it's to end me. We don't like to hear that his remedy for a sinner is to liquidate him. Liquid to get rid of him. You say well, how how do you find that? Well, it says no more I but Christ.

I am crucified with Christ to get beyond simple rededication and rededication to what it says Renunciation of self and you can never get to Reconciliation in the body of Christ until the members of the body of Christ get to renunciation of self.

Before you can ever melt together. You've got to renounce the things and renounce self that keeps men apart. It's not just an improved life. It's a totally new one that God wants to give to me and not just a new leaf that I turn over in this whole matter.

But a new life that God gives to me the very nature and mind of Christ. So the cross you see was God saying to Adam and all of man. I am through with the old Adam Improvement Society. I am tired of men trying to be better than he could ever be.

There's none righteous. No, not one. They're all together become as an unclean thing. There's no hope for improvement. Jesus said it this way the flesh profits nothing. It's the spirit that gives life that which is flesh is flesh.

What is flesh will flesh if you if you spell it backwards and knock off the H you'll find out what it is itself. That's exactly what it is. It's the self life. It's everything good and bad that I was born with when I was born.

It's not just a sin. It's the whole self life the whole me. It's a it's it's what God wants to deal with and it's the enmity of a carnal mind now. Romans 6 Takes the blowtorch from Adam's hand and I want to go there to Romans 6 and I want to just look at that tonight because I believe that God wants to take some blowtorches from some people's hearts and hands tonight and In some fire starters that have been going on for a long time.

You see here's what we think brother. Each of us believe this kind of deceptive thought. We say I'm going to another Bible conference. If I could just discover the key to being holy. I'm sure if I could discover it I would do it immediately.

And so we think that our problem is a lack of information or a lack of some hidden key. And so we're trying to find more and more key we quickly do it. But you see I'm gonna tell you something brother.

The Bible says our problem is not ignorance. Our problem is depravity. You can't put a tuxedo on a pig and take him to the prom. He's still a pig and the flesh life the self-life. God says I want to knock Adam off his pedestal his ivory pedestal and I put him in the dirt.

Before he belongs that's where he came from and that's where he'll find his truest meaning. Worshipping me in the beauty of holiness. Romans chapter 6 in those first 18 verses God gives two things. He gives a fact that is done which is the work of the cross.

It's complete and then he gives starting in verse 11. Something to take by faith. So the first eight verses deal the first ten verses deal with the fact. The revelation of the cross that I am crucified with Christ.

And then after that it shows how to realize that fact to walk by faith. It says what shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid? God's norm you see is he shall save his people out of their sins.

How shall we that are dead or died to sin live any longer therein? No Ye not in other words. It says are you ignorant that as many of us that were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death.

This is a fact. It's a fact. Therefore we are entombed Buried with him by baptism into death that in the same way as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father. Even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Resurrection life it means for since or if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death. Which we just heard we were we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Here it is again.

Knowing this it's something you've got to know that that our old man is crucified with him. That the body of sin might be destroyed. We might be released from it. It means that from henceforth we would not be serving.

Yielded to it says sin for he that is dead he that's been buried meaning with Christ is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him. Here's something else knowing you got to know this Christ being raised in the dead dies.

No more death has no more dominion over him. He died. He died to sin once but in that he lives he lives under God all that's a fact. It is an absolute work of the cross. It's past tense. It's complete.

You'll never have to add anything to it. It's done forever. If you're a Christian tonight you were crucified with Christ the self-life was taken to the cross and God sees you as dead. Verse 11 though deals with realizing that fact something you have to appropriate.

The first part all you have to do is acknowledge. But the second part you have to appropriate by faith and in verse 11. It says likewise in the same way as Christ reckon yourselves. Also to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord do not let sin.

Keep on lording it over your mortal body or reigning taking control of your mortal body so that you should keep on obeying it in. The lusts thereof do not be yielding your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.

But yield at one point in time forever always it says yield at one point in time an heiress imperative. Do it now forever? Yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive now from the dead on the other side of the grave.

Your your face has taken you your members are instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you say that for sin shall not have dominion over you. Do you believe that? You got to appropriate that you see there are three key words in this passage and the first key word if you're really going to Know if you're really going to experience the victory of the cross is knowing three key words.

The first one is knowing and that's in verse six. We read that and in verse nine. We got to know this and this then says it's a present participle. It says this that you must know this is a fact. Colossians says you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Just as real as if tonight there was a firing squad out here. For every one of us as we left this room and they lined us up and shot us all right between the eyes. With a submachine gun you'd be dead.

How much trouble would you have with lust tomorrow? How much trouble would you have with smoking as my little boy says smoking? How much trouble would you have with that? You wouldn't have any trouble with that smoking like that because you'd be dead, but you've got to know this.

You see most of us don't believe we're dead, but we must continually know that I am Dead. Death is a past tense fact for Christians. Now see, but you got to take that by faith if you're going to experience it, but you got to know this.

It is a fact, but you see after you know, this the second word is you must reckon. That's the second word verse 11. It says likewise Reckon you also Yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. So reckon here is a second person.

Present imperative it actually means this it means that you must count it. So you must take up your cross. You must say yes to the cross and you must own it. There was a man at a men's conference here one time who we were talking about how this one fellow really had victory and he Gave his wife an imaginary gun.

He gave her the gun and he says every time you see me walk in what you consider to be flesh. I want you to take out this imaginary gun and go Bang you're dead. You don't have to say it. But just bang you're dead and he the next conference came back and he said he said that was a great thing for me.

Because when I start getting in my flesh and start letting my own self take over and don't let the Lord Jesus love my wife. All she has to do is get this little twinkle in her. I this is suicide brother and this little smile on her face and she just kind of goes.

Like this like bang you're dead because see I have to keep reminding myself I must know that it is so that I am dead and I must then agree with God and And and trust him that this is so this is a willing on my part in accordance with facts.

It's what it means over in Romans 8 when it says in verse 13. It says for if you live after the flesh you will die. But if you through the Holy Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body you will live. Let me tell you something a mortician doesn't kill anybody.

If he did he'd go to jail. A mortician only makes more perfect in a death. That's already there the person that's there and that's the sense of there you are dead. And if you mortify the behavior by the Holy Spirit you yield your will to the Holy Spirit and you say I Reckon that what God says about me is true.

I am dead. I don't have to defend myself. I don't have to run to my rescue. I don't have to try to save anything stand up for my rights in the name of Jesus. I am dead. I'm identified with him. I count it.

So I reckon it's so I'm dead to sin. Let me tell you something. You'll never overcome sin. The Bible says die to sin. See we get it backwards. We try to overcome sin and die to the world. The Bible says we're to overcome the world but die to sin you keep trying to I.

Like the illustration where you know, when sin comes to the door you send Jesus to answer. And you'll find nobody's there. But if you answer the door, oh God here comes that temptation again and you come and say you hear this Sin out there and you open the door.

He'll reach in there and grab you out of the car and Just grab you and pull you right to the door and just smash your face and boy. You'll wish you hadn't answered the door, but I'll tell you what he just beats you to a pulp, but you send Jesus.

I remember in seminary I was a single man and I was struggling with it all single men struggle with. I was I was trying to keep myself pure but I was struggling before. This all the barrage of the visible and I would I would I would fall and I would with private immorality.

I'm just being blunt with you. I'd struggle and I would fall and I would cry and I think I think my sorrow for that was enough to offer God. So the next time I was tempted, but I knew in my spirit I was quenching the Holy Ghost in my life and I began to seek a Drift in the anointing on the street ministry.

We had I wasn't the same. I wasn't having those divine appointments. God was trying to get my attention and I remember I I would say Oh God here comes that temptation again. I can just feel it because you know when the devil said in the table, don't you?

Don't you. I'm don't you? You don't want to admit it, but you do. You know when the devil's met if the Lord prepares a banqueting table. Let me tell you the devil does too and you know. You can hear the silverware tinkling when he's what getting out of the dishwasher what he's planning to have you sit down at you.

Know, you know. Don't play dumb. You want to be dumb, you know, I just don't know what the Bible says about this. Oh, yes, you do you do and I remember I was praying. I said God here comes that temptation again.

Oh God, give me the power and the Lord says Al are you tired of trying to overcome sin? I Said I'm so tired. I failed so many times. He said I'm glad you're tired trying to overcome sin because you can't overcome sin.