What is the Gospel - Paul Washer

I'm here tonight to talk about the gospel how many of you know what the gospel is anybody okay a few of you do you realize that on the day that Jesus Christ returns you will understand everything there is to understand about eschatology about the second coming you will understand it all at that moment the blink of an eye everything you've ever wondered about will be answered yet at the same time you will spend an eternity of eternities in heaven and you will still not begin to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ you live in America a country that is inundated with the reductionistic gospel we've taken the glorious gospel of our Blessed God and reduced it down to four spiritual laws or five things God wants you to know if you read through it and you agree and you say the little prayer at the end congratulations you're in that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ there's so much activity that goes on in America in American Christianity so much noise but do we even begin to understand the beginning of Christianity according to the scriptures the greatest knowledge that a man can possess is knowledge of God if I handed out a sheet of paper right now and I asked you to write down a paragraph definition of each of the attributes of God would you know that in all your Christianity are you learning the important things when you no longer have the substance of Christianity the power of Christianity the truth of Christianity you have to prop it up with all kinds of artificial things you have to turn the Church of Jesus Christ into a Six Flags over Jesus just to get people to come there are two things that are going to happen in this country a revival our judgment but no this judgment does not begin with liberal politicians or immoral Hollywood it begins with the church and therein lies another very important subject just where is the church what is the church I can tell you today that so much of what is called the church is not the church the true Church of Jesus Christ is believing in him is repenting of sin is growing in holiness and love it is not self-absorbed or seeking self fulfillment but it demonstrates a disinterest in itself in pouring itself out upon others in the name of God you see I have great fear for you because so much of what you are and so much of what I am is not based on Scripture but based on culture it must stop we must relearn not truths that no one's ever discovered we must learn the truths that have been the basic truths throughout historical Christianity you must as Christians if you are Christian return to the rock from which you were cut seek out the Prophet said the old paths and learn to walk in them and where can we begin we begin with the gospel of Jesus Christ tonight we're going to look at what most theologians have considered the most important passage of Scripture in the entire Bible as a matter of fact I would say that if I had to lose all scripture except one this would be the one that I keep many have referred to it as the Acropolis of the Christian faith that strong fortified city of God so let's turn in our Bibles if you have them to the book of Romans now while I am speaking Romans chapter 3 I want you to understand I don't look relevant to a modern culture and the things that I will say tonight will not be appealing to my culture as a matter of fact most of what I say tonight will be scandalous to my culture you see Christianity does not have impact in the world because it's like the world because it's given out a questionnaire to find out what the world wants and then it conforms itself to what the world wants know Christianity is true and it comes to men and confronts them with truth and with that truth men have to deal because I can assure you you will deal with the truth now or you will deal with the truth later before the judgment throne of God you see when it comes to God there is a doctrine it says he is eternal he will not be voted out there will not be another regime to take his place there will be no changing of the gaurd the God that I speak about tonight will be the God with whom you will always have to deal and you will not be able to avoid him no matter how hard you try Romans chapter 3 verse 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith this was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration I say of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus where then is boasting it is excluded by what kind of law of works no by law faith let's pray father you know me I stand before you in the name of your son Jesus Christ and I fear you because you are one to be feared and I love you because you loved me first father by your name for the sake of your son honour your gospel father you know that I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among the people of unclean lips you know this culture how repulsive how against you it truly is do you know your people how they've been so influenced by all that is wrong I pray that you would turn the heart of your people back to you they would honor you fear you love you but everything would be like done to them compared to the knowledge of You Father do not send me on a fool's errand work here tonight or dismiss us now in Jesus name Amen for all have sinned that doesn't terrify you it should you see because we are people who really don't know God he looks something like Santa Claus to us today because we have this tame domesticated harmless God that you can stick in your pocket and whenever you need to make a wish you pull them out because we have so little knowledge of Scripture we do not know God and because we do not know God we do not know us and we do not know what sin truly is let me give you some words disgusting vile abomination some of the very things that you watch tonight on television before you came here and you laughed at were a vile abhorrent thing before God the very God you claim to worship when you walked into this building this God he is not a part of your life he is not something you add to an already successful career he is everything or he is nothing he does not have clubs and he does not play games he is God and the Bible says that all of us have sinned against him the Puritans used to say it this way you have not sinned against the mayor of some small village you have not trespassed against your own kind but you have sinned against the creator of the universe one who is so good that he is deserving of absolutely every good thing you could render to him and yet you have not you have sinned I want you to think for a moment in the creation of the world God stands there on that day and he commands stars so much larger than our Sun to put themselves in different places in space and they all bow down and obey Him he tells planets to set themselves in an order and not to remove themselves from that order and heal till he gives him another command and they bow down and worship he tells the mountains to be lifted up and he tells the valleys to be cast down and they obey he tells the sea yes the Great Sea you will come to this place and you will come no further and the sea cries out amen and he tells you come and you go no no I will not or I'll come but I'll come my way in my form of religion just enough to make my conscience quiet but not conform to what you desire sin all have sinned to trespass the commands of God to either go past them or not to come toward them you have sinned all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God today in a modern contemporary interpretation of that text is that God made you for a glorious purpose and because of sin you've not achieved that glorious purpose that's just a tiny tiny fraction of what this text really means this text is not about you and your purpose it's not about you and self fulfillment it's about God what the text really means is this you were made for him not for you for him and being made for him you will never have peace until you are for him not just part way not just yes he's in my life not just me and Jesus got our own thing going no till you give yourself to him you will be wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked no matter how much wealth and fame you amass on this planet you will be a wretch you were made for him as a matter of fact every malady on this planet is because men have turned away from their purpose they have dislocated themselves you have probably heard because of the moral crisis in America today that we better be careful because we will be judged that's not true let me tell you what's true according to the book of Romans chapter one the fact that we have a moral crisis is evidence we have already been measured found wanting and judged you see all the horrible violent and moral things you hear about they are not going to bring the judgment of God they are the judgment of God because of a greater sin that was committed and this is the sin although they knew God they did not honor him as God nor give thanks to him and so what did God do he turned them over to themselves you want autonomy you want sovereignty over your own life God said here it is but that autonomy he gave you is enslaved to a corrupt heart in a corrupt society and you take your freedom to destroy yourself that's a judgment of God know that it is already fallen it has this is a reality why did you come here tonight dear a Christian pep talk or to hear truth this is truth you can go to a thousand churches a thousand Sundays and hear nothing but ring around Jesus let's all get together and have a group hug and sing Kumbaya but the fact of the matter is there really is a God in this book really is true really is true all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God I don't care if you amass the whole world it's not big enough you were made for eternity you were made for him for him I have been a Christian longer than most of you have been alive I've been in the ministry longer than most of you have been alive I regret nothing I have lost for the sake of Christ I regret absolutely everything I've kept for my own all have sinned fall short of the glory of God and then he turns to verse 24 and he says speaking of Christians have to be careful here why 65% of America thinks the Christian if you were to take simply classical theology classical definition of Christianity that's written in all our Christian confessions you would have to come to the realization that probably less than 15% of all the people profess Christ in America are even converted or even Christian there are some of you here tonight they believe yourself Christian when in fact you bear no fruit of it no real genuine inward fruit of it and the problem is you sit under preaching where no one makes you think no one makes you afraid let me tell you there are some things of which you should be afraid but speaking of a true Christian he says being justified do you know what that means again one of the most important words in christianity do you know what it means being justified I've heard people say justified means just as if I'd never sinned no that's not what it means justified is a legal term a forensic term and this is what it means the moment a person places their faith genuine faith in Jesus Christ they are justified God legally declares them to be right with him now understand the terminology because truth is important you must discern this when a person trusts in Christ it does not mean they become righteous become is the word doesn't mean they become righteous because if that was the case you would never sin again it would be a perfectly moral being you're not recreated at that moment as a completely perfectly righteous being you're still susceptible to sin even as a Christian but to be justified means that God from his throne declares you to be right with him and he treats you as right with him justified now here's where something that all the religions of the world have in common well the major religions anyways it's this how can a man be right with God how can a man be right with God most religions actually you can take all religions and reduce them down to two religion of works and a religion of grace all the religions of the world are saying do this do that and make yourself worthy before God make God your debtor live in such a way that God must save you because he owes you that's what works is actually saying and then there's a salvation by grace it's a gift we go to to a a Muslim man and we ask him if you died right now where would you go and let's say he says I will go to paradise why well because I've read the Quran I've made the pilgrimages I've made the prayers I'm a righteous man I'm a good man okay go to the Orthodox Jew and you say if you died right now where would you go I'd go to paradise why well I love the law of God I am a righteous man I fast I pray then you go to the Christian the real Christian and you say if you died right now where would you go to heaven why and the Christian says this in sin did my mother conceive me and in sin was I born going astray from God from the womb I have broken every law let's say the reporter looks at this person and says well I don't understand I mean I understand the other two gentlemen they're going to heaven they're right with God because they deserve it because they're good because they've worked for it because God owes them but you're telling me you go you're going to heaven and yet there's no reason why you should be going to heaven what is the foundation of your hope and the Christian goes I'm going to heaven based upon the virtue and the merit of another Jesus Christ my lord and that is why Paul ends up this text saying there is no boasting no boasting whatsoever because all our hope is found not in our own righteousness not in our own deeds not what we have accomplished not what we can wrangle out of the hands of God because he owes us because we've been so good before him our hope is built on nothing less then Jesus blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name that's why the Christian is the only person who can claim to be going to heaven and not be boasting because he is not going there because of his own works or his own deeds but because of Christ now the argument would be thrown back at me well that's what we all know the Christians just take it as a gift they receive it and then they live like a demon no they don't unconverted church members do that and unconverted University students who claim to know Christ do that they say salvation is a gift and then they live just like the world but the true Christian the more he understands that salvation is a gift but it is not based upon his own works the more broken he is over his own sin and the more he desires to live for Christ it's not a duty to be accomplished it's promoted by love it's motivated by grace you see he says we are justified now look at this as a gift by His grace now you don't have to be a literature major or a Greek scholar to know there's something of redundancy here what do you mean where were justified as a gift by His grace isn't grace a gift isn't he sort of saying were we're made right with God as a gift as a gift not as something we earned yes that's exactly what he's trying to teach us now there's something very interesting about this word he says being justified as a gift this word gift in the Greek is found in another place in the book of John where it says this speaking of Jesus it says they hated him without a cause without a cause that phrase without a cause is translated from the very same word that gift is translated from here and so what it is saying is this no one ever had a reason for hating Jesus no one ever had a reason for hating him and in the same way God had no reason to justify you when God looks down at man he can find no reason in man for justifying him or declaring him right when God looks at a man the only thing he can see his sin and laws demand that this man die so if God has declared you to be right with him he did it not because of you or me but in spite of you and me do you remember the the woman who loved Christ so much she was something of an evil woman and she came and she threw herself down at his feet and Jesus said to all the righteous Pharisees he said this woman loves much because she's been forgiven much I once had a reporter come up to me just so angry and he said why are you always talking about sin and I said because I want you to love God he said I don't understand I said listen to me the woman loved much because she had been forgiven much because she knew how sinful she was we today you and your culture and the preachers of your day they coddle you and protect you and don't want to offend you because they want to keep you and use you they never tell you about the genuine wickedness that is inside your heart and because you think you are better than you truly are you don't appreciate what's been given to you that is why I have seen drug addicts and prostitutes come to know Christ and afterwards with such a passion because they knew the filth they had been saved from the more I know about the nature of man according to scripture and the more I apply it to my own heart the more it leads me to worship to worship I work in many third-world countries where people starve to death if I were to walk up to you was just a ham sandwich with a with two pieces of old bread and one piece of cheese and one tiny piece of meat and hand it to you and say here you would probably despise it and turn away if there are some countries where if I did that they they have they would kiss my hands for giving them such a meal their poverty leads to appreciation that is one of the reasons why Jesus said blessed are the poor in spirit those who know what they are because then they can appreciate the love of God and that love will move them to service nice as being justified as a gift by His grace unmerited favor you think that when a preacher gets up and says look salvation is a gift it's favor that is not merited that men would just jump at the chance to have such a thing but they don't you know why men are proud I don't need anything from anybody I don't need anything from your God I can do everything on my own sir you cannot breathe apart from the grace of God and even the hardened atheist who clenches his fist and shakes it in the face of God cursing his name can only do so by the power of God everything is Grace everything is God's unmerited favor one time there was something of a move of God and some people came forward and I went down and I was praying and this young man had come up and he was praying beside me and this is what he prayed he said God I just want you to give me what I deserve I've never stopped a person praying before but I stopped him I hit him on the shoulder he looked he kept pray I hit him again he looked at me I said don't don't don't you ever pray that again because young man the only thing you deserve is an eternity in hell you need to cry out that God would give you what you do not deserve grace unmerited favor eternal life in the person of Jesus Christ now goes on we have been justified we have been declared right as a gift by His grace through the redemption do you know what that means there are some words the old Puritan said but after we speak them we should be silent and stand still with a trembling lip because they're almost too sacred to speak this is one of them it means to buy the freedom of a slave or a prisoner or a captive for price to be paid so it means that this unmerited favor of God this right standing before God that it cost something and what did it cost the blood of bulls and goats no it's gold and silver from our former manner of living no the blood of God's own son we had to be purchased we had to be bought now good question is this from whom from whom did we have to be bought down through the ages there's been all kinds of unbiblical theories the Greek fathers were often in error saying that the price had to be paid to Satan man had fall fallen and because of that he was under the Dominion of Satan and the price had to be paid to Satan to set him free that's not true do you want to know to whom the price was paid the price was paid to go God made the demand you have sinned you have died but God also paid the price the blood of his own son now we're going to talk about that a little more extensively in just a moment but I want us to go on being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus one time a young man came up to me and he goes brother Paul he says you're right Jesus is all we need and I said young man Jesus is all we have outside of Jesus you have nothing you have nothing you see the Scriptures the New Testament always works in two opposing spheres you are either in the flesh and lost or you are in the spirit and saved you are either in Adam and condemned or you are in Christ and justified there's only two possibilities if you are in Christ you have salvation outside of Christ you have nothing and that is why the genuine believer who knows these truths clings on to Christ you've all heard the story of iron workers who work thousand feet above the city and they walk confidently along the beams and the piers and then one day one of them slips on some ice and before he falls he grabs a hold of a beam and he grabs so tightly to that beam was such fear that they have to break his arms to loosen him because he will not let go that is the way we hold on to Christ because we know that outside of him we have nothing nothing nothing and he says in Christ now look at this whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation propitiation now don't answer but do you know the meaning of that word most theologians would tell you that apart from the name of God this is the most important word in the Bible and yet in all your going to church as anyone even told you what it meant do you see how churchy you can be and so far away from Christianity you can fall what is propitiation well let's look it says whom God displayed publicly now this word could also be given in a sense of whom God placarded if you go through Tennessee in different states that have no laws against billboards you go down through there and you see billboards everywhere placards signs that have been placard it messages that are put before the public eye and it says that God purposely displayed Christ publicly on that tree he placard him there for all to see do you understand that he wanted every one to see what was going on now I submit to you that God could have put away sin hidden somewhere in a closet but for some reason the putting away of sin was done publicly in the center of the religious universe in the religious City of Jerusalem there in the crossroads Christ was lifted up and God purposely did it publicly now why is that because God wanted to show something okay what did God want to show okay let's go on whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation now we even use something of this word in in Spanish and in older ancient Castilla no pro PCO if you say for example in old old Spanish said pro-peace you are me it means be merciful to me don't give me what I deserve be something like this a thief is caught by his master and for stealing and the crime is punishable by death and the master grabs the thief by the back of the neck and is hauling him off to the gallows and the thief gets loose and falls to the ground and gets on his knees and what does he do he begs for mercy don't do to me what I deserve don't do to me what the law demands what is a propitiation it's a sacrifice that makes it possible for God to be merciful to the guilty now what's the problem now I'm going to put before you the greatest problem in Christianity this is what the gospel is all about it's it it's the core it's the heart of the gospel I want you to hold your place and I want you to go to proverbs for just a moment proverbs 17:15 now listen to what it says now here students you're in a place of higher learning supposedly you've done well on your entrance exams you got into this place now think think Christianity is not about checking your brain at the door it's about starting the thing it's about using it now think look what it says in proverbs 17:15 he who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous both of them are an abomination to the Lord now let's just look at one side of that he who justifies the wicked is an abomination to the Lord an abomination is probably the strongest word in all the scriptures it's detestable disgusting vile accursed anathema so whoever justifies a wicked man is vile and loathsome and abomination before God now that presents us with a great problem do you see it I have spent the last 20 minutes telling you that God has justified the wicked that when a person believes in Jesus Christ God legally declares that person right you still not get the problem let me put it before you this way let's say that you go home tonight you live off campus with your family and you go home tonight and when you walk through the door you see your entire family slaughtered and you see the murderer standing over your family with blood on his hands ringing life out of your youngest sibling drops them on the floor a dead corpse in a rage you run across the room and you grab the man and you throw him to the ground but just you come to your senses and you realize that vengeance isn't the answer and you tie him up and then you go to the phone you dine dial nine-one-one the police come and carry him away with all the evidence and then months go by and the man is brought before the judge and this man who is guilty of murdering your entire family stay before the judge and the judge says this I am a very loving judge and I am very compassionate therefore I justify you you're pardoned you're free you can go what would be your response I'll tell you what your response would be you would write the newspapers you would call the media you would be writing congressmen you would even try to write the president you would do whatever you could do to say that there is a judge on the bench who is more vile and more wicked than the criminals he sets free judges are supposed to do righteousness it's what you demand isn't it our great complaint that one of the things wrong in the country is that the judges are corrupt well just think about that the universal judge god almighty the wicked stand before him and he says you're justified and I will treat you as that that's the greatest problem in the scripture how can God be just and yet pardon the wicked I bet in all your gospel hearing and in all your gospel preaching you've never even heard of such a thing do you understand why I now say we know so little about the gospel I'm just teaching you the basic historic truths of the gospel that many preachers do not know that the problem in all the scripture is this if God is righteous he cannot forgive you the law demands your death if God is righteous he cannot simply pass over sin he must deal with it now let me share with you some things about God that are totally not politically correct and they will be scandalous to you when was the last time you heard a sermon on the hatred of God when was the last time you heard a sermon on how much God hates the wicked when was the last time you heard something like this God loves the sinner but he hates the sin I'm here to tell you although that looks good on the back of a Christian t-shirt it's not biblical and it's not historical Christianity just look for a moment holds your place and turn to Psalms 5 Psalms 5:5 the boastful shall not stand before your eyes you hate all who do iniquity one translation you hate all those who do wrong anybody qualify have you done iniquity yes have you done wrong yes what does this text say does it say that God just hates the sin and loves the sinner no it says he hates all those who do iniquity and you say this but what about John 3:16 john 3:16 says for God so loved the world it's in the Bible yes it is in the Bible and it's true but Psalms 5:5 is in the Bible and it's just as true and you've got to deal with it that's the problem in American Christianity you only take one side of the coin and I don't know if you've studied logic but that's impossible coins always come with two sides you'll hear sermon after sermon after sermon about the love of God and yet the Bible speaks explicitly about the hatred of God and most of you've never heard one sermon about it you're only getting one side of the story that's very dangerous you say God doesn't hate because God is love and I tell you know God does hate because God is love what do you mean brother Paul let me ask you a question do you love Jews hope so if you love Jews can you be neutral about the Holocaust you're going to hate the Holocaust if I come up and talk to you about a african-american slavery and segregation and you go well you know it wasn't really that big a deal I'm just kind of neutral on it then do you love African Americans no do you love babies you must hate abortion you see if I came up to you with a piece of newspaper that said a little boy had been captured by a pedophile and kept in in his basement for ten years being abused and I read that to you and you went well you know everybody has a you know alternative lifestyle if you did that I would think you were just as much a monster as the guy who abducted the little boy you see even you when you hear stories about horrible things that have happened and in Justices you get mad don't you you get angry so you have the right to do that and God doesn't you who have broken all the laws of God you have a right to stand up and be angry because someone did something worse than you but God is love so he just has to sit there and be neutral did you ever hear preachers say now the first thing I want to tell you is God is not an angry God if you ever heard someone say that well I Got News for You God isn't angry God as a matter of fact the Bible says he's angry every day that's what the Bible says and I'm not going to play around with this just to protect God's reputation or to turn him into somebody that you're gonna like I'm going to tell you who he really is Sibella Paul what about love it's only in this context that you can understand love you see God is righteous and holy he loves everything beautiful and good and because of that he hates that which is twisted and defiled and wicked and harmful you see that do you realize you have broken every law I could go down just through the Decalogue the Ten Commandments and show you how you and I have broken every one of them God should be angry and he is but here's the amazing thing the love of God is of such a nature that he can even demonstrate love towards the objects of his wrath and work for their salvation but now here's the problem we have broken God's law and God's justice demands that we die now here's what you need to understand you live in a world today where there's no justice you live in a world today where everything everybody does that's wrong can be explained it's some kind of sickness or it really wasn't their fault but that's not true there is evil and we have participated in it my dear friend if I pulled out your heart right now and I took every thought you've ever had and I put it on a DVD and I showed it here tonight you would run off of this University campus and you would never show your face here again because you have thought things so vile you cannot even share them with your closest friends you would be ashamed even before us even though you know we've done the same thing then how will you stand before a holy God do you see you see but here's the question if God is holy and he is righteous and therefore he must act upon the wicked how can the wicked be saved there's only one way someone stands in the place of the wicked takes upon himself the guilt of the wicked and is judged and condemned in the Wicked's place and that is exactly what Jesus Christ has done and in this is the demonstration of the love of God you see I painted this pitch-black picture why well I'll tell you why this afternoon let me ask you a question where did all the stars go did some big cosmic giant come by and put them all in a basket and carry them to the other side of the world where did they all go they didn't go anywhere then why couldn't we see them because there was so much light from the Sun but in the darkness of the night those lights shine so bright it's the same way with the love of God if someone comes in here and paints it a picture of you that's just okay and everything's fine and you're okay and I'm okay and God loves us because we're really nice people you don't see grace you don't see love you don't see anything to worship but when you see in the pitch blackness of your sin it is on that background that the glory of God's love comes a love that you do not deserve that you cannot discern but here's the wonderful thing especially when you're an older Christian like I am if I didn't deserve it to begin with I don't have to deserve it now that my life is not under law but it's under grace that because of Jesus Christ God loves me and all my failure and all my frailty and all my brokenness and all my sin God loves me because it's never been about me or what I have done it's been about Jesus and what he has done for me so I don't have to live my life before God like some performance trying to gain his favor he loves me it's finished it was finished 2000 years ago on that tree a perfect God a perfect man paying a perfect price now I want us to look at something that's very important now this is the most important part so bear with me I know we've gone long but just listen when people talk about the cross they're always talking about the nails in his hands in his feet the spear in his side the crown of thorns on his head the mockings the beatings the whippings all about the physical sufferings of Christ and I don't want to take anything away from that but if that's all you know about the cross you know nothing about the cross you don't understand the cross we are not saved simply because the Romans and the Jews rejected Jesus and they nailed him to a tree or they speared him in the side or they beat him with a whip we are saved because on that tree he bore our sin was forsaken by his father and God Almighty crushed his only begotten Son under the full force of his hatred against our sin you say I've never heard of such a thing it's just historic Christianity you see when you hear about the cross all you hear about is that what men did to him we're not saved merely because of what men did to him were saved because of what happened between him and his father you see those tracks of yours you know that God is holy and man is a sinner and there's a big gulf in between the two and man can't come over to God and well that's true man is separated from God but the only way to close that breach was for someone to die in man's place separated from God when Jesus was on that tree he cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me do you see that do you know how much God hates sin and what he'll do to sin on that final day what you've got to realize is that when Jesus was on that tree he bore the sin the guilt of his people and he was treated by God the Father in the way that we should have been treated he was crushed under the wrath of God he was abandoned of God just look in Psalms 22 for just a moment you know when Jesus was on the cross he cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me listen to Psalms 22 verse 1 my God my God why have you forsaken me far from my deliverance of the words of my groaning my god I cry by day but you do not answer and by night but have no rest yet you are holy o you who are enthroned above the praises of Israel and you our fathers trusted they trusted and you delivered them to you they cried and were delivered in you they trusted and were not disappointed but I am a worm and not a man a reproach of men and despised by the people what is he saying he gives his complaint his question my God why have you forsaken me and then he gives his argument there's never been a time in the history of your covenant people that a righteous man cried out to you and you did not answer but Here I am on this cross your only begotten Son and I cry out to you and you do not answer me why and then he answers his own question you are holy and I am aware a reproach you see someone had to bear your guilt someone had to bear your sin I've heard people say well you know God looked all through heaven and there was no angel willing he looked all through earth and there was no man able that's absolutely preposterous if all the angels in heaven had been willing it would not have paid the price you see the one who died there had to be a man it is man who sinned it is man who must die God became man he became our brother our elder brother is what Hebrews is about he became one of us he identified with us and was able to go to that tree on our behalf one time I was preaching in a university and his student stood up and he said I had a question for you he goes how is it that one man can suffer for a few hours on that tree and yet pay the price for a multitude of men and save them from an eternity in hell I said young man there's only one way because that one man who was on that cross was worth more than all the men put together you take everything that there is mountains and mole hills crickets and clowns stars and angels and Suns and planets and moons and mountains and streams everything beautiful and you put it on this side of the scale and you put Jesus on the other and he outweighs them all he could do that because of His infinite worth one theologian put it this way the Sun looked up into heaven bearing our sin and cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me and God the Father slammed heaven's door in his face and said the Lord your God damns you someone had to die under the fury of God's hatred against our sin do you want to know how much God hates sin when his own son bore sin God crushed him what do you think he'll do to you on the day of judgment if you appear before him uncovered if you appear before him without Christ you say this is horrible it's biblical this is scandalous it's true and I can tell you there are a whole lot more verses in the Bible that back up what I'm saying than what contemporary Christianity is saying today in America now he's in the garden in three times he cries out let this cup pass from me let this cup pass from me let this cup pass from me the question is what was so terrible in that cup what was the cop if you look in the scriptures especially in the Book of Psalms the Book of Jeremiah talks about the cup let me summarize just kind of a will give you a summary of the truths about this cup you summed up the Psalms and the prophets together they would say something like this because of the iniquity the rebellion of the nation's I will hand them the cup of my wrath and I will force them to drink it and they will drink it and they will stagger and they will die but on that tree God gave that cup to his son and his son drank down the punishment of a holy righteous loving God against the sins of his people and when he cried out it is finished he turned that Cup over and not one drop was left he drank it all imagine a dam ten thousand miles high and ten thousand miles wide filled to the brim with water and down below it is your village an eighth of a mile away a tiny village made of straw and all of a sudden you wake up one morning and you go outside and you hear a massive crack and before you know it the dam is broken and all that water is rushing down upon you you are never to be seen again and before the water reaches the village the ground opens up and swallows it down so that not one drop of that water touches the pant leg of your clothing that's what Christ did on that train imagine a millstone a thousand pounds and another on top of equal weight grinding counterclockwise one against the other and you put in a tiny grain of wheat at first the pressure builds upon the whole it explodes and it's pulverized unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit that's the cross and it says here look verse 26 for a demonstration I say of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just in the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus in verse 25 this was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed what does that mean this is what it means Adam and Eve sinned against God they should have died that day there shouldn't have been mercy this should have been destroyed the great flood that took away all the nations except for Noah there's only one problem Noah was a sinner he should have died - God calls forth Abraham out of the nations and calls him a friend there's only one problem Abraham disbelieved God and also sinned God called David his son and David basically committed murder and most certainly committed adultery and because of his pride caused the death of many of his countrymen can you imagine the accuser you see up until this time only justice was known Satan rebelled in heaven and justice perfect justice swept him away you see that no mercy justice can you imagine on the day that he gave a gracious prophecy to Adam can you imagine Satan standing there going God what's wrong you're no longer just he must die how can you pardon him you imagine Noah in the ark God what's wrong have you come down off of your throne this man should have died - David you call him a son how can you do all this and be a just God how can you pardon his sin he must die 2,000 years God answered the question do you want to know how I can give a favourable prophecy to Adam do you want to know how I can save Noah a sinful man from the certainty of death in a raging flood you want to know how I can call a man named Abraham from the city of Ur and call him my friend you want to know how I can call David a son here's your answer my son has died for them all so once and for all 2,000 years ago God demonstrated how he can now be both just and the justifier of wicked men because his son the price for them and yes you need to understand something Abraham and Noah and David were saved the same way you are they looked to the promise of God they believed God but what you need to understand is believing God is not enough to save you unless God has paid for the price your faith doesn't pay the price your faith must be in the one who paid it and that's Jesus Christ so God is just and the justifier of the wicked Jesus died and three days later he rose again from the dead and God says this is the sign I'll give you and if this sign is not enough for you there will not be another this is the demonstration of God that this Jesus the carpenter from Nazareth was the son of God this is God's sign that that death that he died on that tree satisfied the judgment and the Justice of God appease the wrath of God and now all men can be saved how not by praying a prayer and asking Jesus into your heart I'm sorry I can't find that anywhere in Scripture and I can't find it anywhere in church history until modern American evangelicalism jump through the four little hoops say yes to all the right questions pray this prayer and if nothing happens the evangelists will still tell you he came in because he said he would that is worthless when Jesus came to Israel he did not say the time is fulfilled in the kingdom of God is at hand now who would like to raise their hand and then ask me into their heart that's not what he said he said the time is fulfilled in the kingdom of God the kingdom of heaven is at hand now repent and believe the gospel turn from your sin and throw yourself on Christ not Christ cross the church not Christ plus bad throw yourself on Christ and Christ alone my hope is built on nothing less than Christ the believing man says something like this Jesus I will trust in you and if you by yourself are not strong enough to save me I will be in hell because I will not trust any other thing I trust in you alone in Christ alone you say brother Paul what is repentance it literally means to change your mind I say well that doesn't okay I changed my mind now see there's your problem there's two words that you've got really confused mind and heart you think changing of the mind is superficial it's not yeah your mind in Scripture or your heart is the very control center of your being it is who you really are it's the essence of you as a person when the Bible says your heart when the Bible says your mind it's saying the very essence the very control center of everything you are and everything you do is going to change and if that changes my dear friend everything else is going to change change your mind about what Paul the Apostle is the greatest demonstration of that he was going on the road to Damascus and this is what his mind thought that Jesus Christ is the greatest blasphemer that the Christians deserve to die and that he's going to kill them all or at least put them all in prison all of a sudden Christ appears and do you realize that for three three days that man sat blind neither eating or drinking do you know what it's demonstrating Christ totally and completely demolished his reality disintegrated his world it's like all of a sudden you wake up one morning and you find it really is a matrix everything's fake I mean imagine is his whole worldview was completely demolished and now he believes that the one he thought was the greatest blasphemer and that he himself blasphemes he now realizes he is God the Son and I must serve him with my entire life he now realizes that the people he just went out to imprison to kill to maim are the people of God and he must do everything in his power for the rest of his life to bless them that's repentance it's when a college student many many years ago who thinks that money and muscles and good looks and fine clothes and being mr. all about campus realizes that he's a dead filthy wretch a hollow self-centered horrible thing of a person and that the god that had blessed his family with wealth and intelligence and all the things that go with the American Dream that the God who had done all that he had done nothing but blaspheme ignored and fought against and to go from being all about the world to standing on a street corner on campus and preaching and having all your friends think you've lost your mind you can pray that little prayer until the cows come home and you still be lost you can ask Jesus Christ into your heart all day long and it means nothing I can tell you that you are saved not by repeating a ritualistic prayer you are saved by calling upon the name of the Lord by faith by trusting him and don't think that your life is really good you just lack one thing to make it all perfect and that's Jesus I'm here to tell you I don't care who you are what you have if you don't have Jesus your life is rubbish and everything you gain at this university will just add to your punishment on the day of judgment but the only thing that matters is Jesus Christ and if you do not have him you have nothing nothing you say the world scorns your message and I say and I scorn the world Paul said the world is dead to me and I'm dead to the world but alived Christ and preaching the good news that this is not about a bunch of Americans just getting a hold of something that will make their life better so that they can have their best life now this is about dying too every one of your dreams dying to your own will dying to your own self your own autonomy and self-government and throwing yourself upon Christ and believing that what he did on that tree was sufficient what should you do tonight some of you ought to just go home and cry out to God until you know he saved you some of you maybe are true believers but the world has gotten a hold of you a bit you need to hate yourself for what you've done and you need to throw yourself upon God you do some of you probably think you're Christian but you have no fruit jesus said not everyone who comes before me on that day and says Lord Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven you will know them by their fruits you are not saved by works that is blasphemous but if you are saved you have been born again you have become a new creature who is going to live a different way a way that will cut against the world and offend the worldly Jesus Christ offers you two promises tonight eternal life and a cross that's the gospel come to him and be saved now I will not give an invitation and I will not ask people to raise their hands and bow their head I'll ask you to go to God and cry out to him in faith until God tells you he has saved you until you have an assurance not given by man but given by the Holy Spirit that God has wrought a supernatural work in you and changed you brother Paul how will I know I've been saved there will be some immediate confirmation there'll be a sense of your guilt having been taken away there may even be a sense of joy a sense of peace but that won't be all you'll begin to live a different life will I be without sin no you will still have sin you will struggle with sin but that'll just be it you will struggle against it you will no longer walk as a friend with it and little by little you will be changed evidence that you are converted the evidence that one time long ago you really repented and you really believed is that you're still repenting and still believing today and you're growing in Christ all dear students listen to me this world has nothing for you it has nothing don't come here and chase some American dream everything you do you do for the glory of God and you think well what do you want us to go all in the ministry know what I'm telling you is that if you're Christian nothing is secular if you're a carpenter if you're an engineer if you're a ditch-digger if you're a doctor everything is sacred if you believe in Christ everything you do is for him and for his glory all right let's pray father to wake up Lord to wake up for these students to know you not to be coddled but to be ravished by God to know you to know your son to follow you a real sort of thing real Christianity father I pray that students here will surrender their lives to you but some of them will go to the ends of the earth to preach the gospel but a real gospel not an Americanized gospel not an easy believe ISM not five or six steps to you but a gospel that they will calm into repentance in faith but you will use them that you'll put your spirit upon them and dwell them and power them and fill them in a mighty way give them mighty intellects give them great hearts give them Lord strong strong strong conviction that in their weakness you are strong in Jesus name Amen you please visit our website at heart cry missionary calm there you will find information about the ministry our purpose beliefs and methodologies and extensive information about the missionaries we are privileged to serve

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Views: 287,828

Rating: 4.8496599 out of 5

Keywords: paul, washer, gospel, jesus, christ, preaching, powerful, cross, sin, god, Evanghelia

Id: 9mMQ12nmDow

Length: 72min 44sec (4364 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 07 2011