Notes from the sermon, The Significance of the Cross (audio) -

The cross is only as significant as it is necessary – we need to accurately see our sin and the holy God’s response to our sin. We have retitled sin, using terms like disorder, dysfunction, acting out, alternative lifestyle instead of sin, selfishness, rebellion, promiscuity and homosexuality. We also try to lessen the weight of our sin by comparing it to worse sinners. These things lessen the significance of the cross in our day to day lives.

The soul that sins, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him.
(Eze 18:20 MKJV)

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God, and keep His commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it is good, or whether evil.
(Ecc 12:13-14 MKJV)

on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
(Rom 2:16 ESV)

Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor abusers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
(1Co 6:9-10 MKJV)

But I will tell you what will happen to cowards and to everyone who is unfaithful or dirty-minded or who murders or is sexually immoral or uses witchcraft or worships idols or tells lies. They will be thrown into that lake of fire and burning sulfur. This is the second death.
(Rev 21:8 CEV)

Looking at how inclusive God’s list of sin is, the cross becomes very significant. And time does not erase it. C.S. Lewis said, “We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. I have heard others and I have heard myself recounting cruelties and falsehoods committed in my boyhood as if they were no concern of the present speaker, and even with laughter. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or the guilt of sin.”

What is God’s response to sin? WRATH. Dictionary: Intense anger, rage, fury, any action carried out in great anger, especially punishment.

God is jealous, and Jehovah revenges; Jehovah revenges and is a possessor of wrath. Jehovah takes vengeance against His foes, and He keeps wrath against His enemies. Jehovah is slow to anger, and great in power. And He does not by any means acquit the guilty. Jehovah has His way in the tempest and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither, and the flower of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake from Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is lifted up from before Him; even the world and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before His fury? And who can stand up in the heat of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken down because of Him.
(Nah 1:2-6 MKJV

Imagine the Son of God nailed to the cross – in light of his power and his holiness, his wrath for sin, how merciful is God? The physical part of the crucifixion is the easy part. The hard part is that while he was on the cross it was the wrath of God being poured out on Him.

And if you will not for all of this listen to Me, but will walk contrary to Me, then I will walk contrary to you also in fury. And I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.
(Lev 26:27-28 MKJV)

And I will also deal with fury; My eye shall not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.
(Eze 8:18 MKJV)

But according to your hardness and your impenitent heart, do you treasure up wrath for yourself in a day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works;
(Rom 2:5-6 MKJV)

The bible says more about the wrath of God than it does about the love of God. – A.W. Pink

Hell is the wrath of God poured out over time. It is eternal fury poured on finite beings for eternity. Consider the cross – the wrath of God poured out in an instant, the eternal wrath poured out on an eternal being. If what the bible says about sin and God’s response to sin is accurate, how significant was the cross in human history? Resurrection is only good news after you’ve embraced the bad news of death.

The bad news, not of Jesus’ death, but of my own. By realistically seeing that my own death (not the physical death, but the eternal death, damnation, separation from God) will and must happen except for the cross.

Yesterday’s sermon was more on Matt’s topic last week. Listen to it here. It’s called Powerless in Ai, and is on Joshua 7. It is an example of how the unseen affects the seen, and the unexpected consequences of secret sin. There are many examples of this throughout the bible, from David and Bathsheba to Ananias and his wife. Sin will out, as the saying goes. And even though it is painful, as in the operation that removes the cancer, it is necessary and good to go through the process.

Achan took some things he should not have taken, and the consequences were that the Israelites lost a battle they should have easily won. They had just miraculously taken Jericho, in comparison to that, defeating Ai should have been pretty easy. But they were defeated and left fearful, confused, and suffering. All because of Achan’s sin? Not exactly… the failure was on more than one level. Achan sinned, but Joshua had not sought wisdom from God before the battle; if he had, things might have been very different. But the combination of Achan’s sin of commission, and Joshua’s sin of omission, cost 36 men their lives, not to mention Achan and his family. There was no direct, worldly link between Joshua and Achan’s sin and the defeat; this is an example of God’s refusal to bless people who are in sin. God is holy, He cannot and will not tolerate sin. The result of sin is death, hence Jesus’ death on the cross. If there had been an easier or more logical way, God would have done that.

This unseen world, as it plays out all around us, is fueled and moved by our actions. Obey God, and you get Jericho. Move yourself out from under God’s protection and you get Ai. Joshua and Achan’s sins had the effect of giving a great victory to the enemy on more than one level. The men of Ai had the victory on the battlefield, and Satan had one inside the Israelite camp. The Israelites were fearful:

And about three thousand men of the people went up there. And they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them, for they chased them from before the gate to Shebarim, and struck them in the road going down. Therefore the hearts of the people melted and became as water.
(Jos 7:4-5 MKJV)

They were confused:

And Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of Jehovah until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, why have You at all brought this people over Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? And, oh that we had been content and lived on the other side Jordan!
(Jos 7:6-7 MKJV)

They worried:

O, Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear, and shall surround us, and shall cut off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?
(Jos 7:8-9 MKJV)

Secret sin is not secret from God. And as a father He disciplines and corrects us to our benefit. When that happens, we have the opportunity to come back (repent) and fight for His side, instead of aiding and abetting the enemy. Every day we get to choose; and the consequences ripple out in all directions. My prayer today is that I make the right choice.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
(Heb 10:31 MKJV)

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons, “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons, for what son is he whom the father does not chasten? But if you are without chastisement, of which all are partakers, then you are bastards and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For truly they chastened us for a few days according to their own pleasure, but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now chastening for the present does not seem to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised by it.
(Heb 12:5-11 MKJV)

Tuesday was the last time I posted. Since then I have been to church Wednesday for the youth service, and last night for a special prayer service, which was completely awesome. God was there, and I was changed. But I did not do bible studies on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, rationalizing on Wed. and Fri. that hey, I’m going to be at church later anyway, that counts, right? I know better… if the Man Of The House said to himself, I don’t really need to talk to Laura, after all, I’ll be sleeping beside her in bed tonight – I’d be pretty mad. And truth to tell, I have rarely had days as unproductive as Wed-Fri of this week. It’s been a mess. No coincidence there.

When I opened E-sword this morning, George Morrison’s devotional sermon on fidelity was front and center. The verse was

His lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful over a few things; I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.
(Mat 25:21 MKJV)

The parable of the servants who were given portions of their master’s money to invest, 2 out of 3 invested wisely, the third, who must have been a Democrat, buried it in the backyard. The lesson is to use what God gives you wisely, be faithful in the small things, and He will trust you with more. Morrison goes on to explain fidelity in more detail, and it’s certainly clear why the Marines, God bless them, have practically trademarked the phrase Semper Fi. Following are quotes from Morrison, emphasis mine:

Fidelity Can Be Anybody’s Virtue
There is nothing dazzling in fidelity. It is not at all a rare and splendid gift. It has no power to arrest the eyes, nor get itself chronicled in any newspaper. And it is singularly like the Lord, with His passion for undistinguished people, that He should crown a virtue such as that. Some of my readers never can be brilliant. They serve in the great army of the commonplace. But there is one thing within the compass of them all, and that is the steady practice of fidelity. And the inspiring thought is that our Lord should take a thing within the reach of everybody, and make it the criterion of character.

Fidelity Demands Courage
There is one man there who was not faithful. He got his talent and he buried it. And it is a master-touch of a profound psychology that in the end of the day, when the reckoning was taken, that man is made to say I was afraid. His infidelity was fear, and the Lord delights to hint at truth by negatives. There is a courage of the battle-field, which is often a very splendid thing. There is courage needed for every high adventure, whether it be in Africa or Everest. But perhaps the finest courage in the world (in the eyes of God, if not of men) is the quiet and steady courage of fidelity. To do things when you don’t feel like them, to keep on keeping on, to get to duty through headache and through heartache, to ply the drudgery when birds are calling—there are few things finer in the world. That is not a thing of the rare moment—it is carrying victory into the common day. It does not flash in the country of our dreams—it illuminates the dreary levels. And life is never a victorious business unless our common days are full of victories of which no one ever hears anything at all.

Christ Demonstrated the Courage of Fidelity
Did it take no courage to come down from heaven and become the tenant of a cottage? Did it take no courage to remain at Nazareth when His heart was burning in His breast? Did it take no courage to resist the devil, offering Him the kingdoms of the world, when the winning of these kingdoms was His passion? To scorn delights and live laborious days, to take the long, long trail that led to Calvary, to set His face steadfastly towards Jerusalem, where the Cross was waiting and the crown of thorns—never was finer courage in the world.

Fidelity Is Rewarded by Capacity
Another profound suggestion of our Lord is that fidelity is rewarded by capacity. “Thou has been faithful over few things, I will make thee ruler over many things.” The real reward is not the bigger task. It is the capacity to do the bigger task. Your will shall be strengthened by those daily victories which, after all, are the victories that count. True wealth is augmented personality, with corresponding increase of capacity, and the avenue of God to that is faithfulness.

Fidelity Is Associated with Joy
We shall not forget how our Lord associates fidelity with joy. “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Unfaithfulness moves towards the dark. Fidelity pitches its tent towards the sunrise. Be thou faithful, and when the task is over, and the morning breaks upon the farther shore, thou shalt enter into the joy of thy Lord.

I love, I absolutely love, how God has made faithfulness the criteria of true Christianity. Rich, poor, from Stephen Hawking to Down’s Syndrome kids, everyone has the capacity to be faithful. No excuses. And the more we practice it, the more we faithful we can be. I think of the verse, of the father who wanted his son to be delivered from demonic oppression:

Jesus said to him, If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. And immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
(Mar 9:23-24 MKJV)

Just taking that baby step forward increases your capacity for the next step. There’s hope for me yet.

Jehovah is well pleased for His righteousness sake; He will magnify the Law and make it honorable. But this is a people robbed and spoiled; all of them snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison-houses; they have been taken, and none delivers them; a prize, and none says, Give back. Who among you will hear this? He will listen and hear for the time to come? Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to robbers? Did not Jehovah, against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in His ways, nor did they obey His Law. So He has poured on him the fury of His anger, and the strength of battle. And it has set him on fire all around, yet he did not know; and it burned him, yet he did not lay it to heart.
(Isa 42:21-25 MKJV)

Israel had this pattern, even before they entered the Promised Land, of turning against God, then when God allowed times to get rough, turning back to God. The book of Judges is one continuous illustration of this. I’m not going to assert, as Job’s friends did, that all misfortune is a punishment from God, because it is illustrated many times in the bible that God allows bad events to occur for a number of reasons, sometimes consequences of sin, other times because adversity strengthens people. I’ve certainly seen both those reasons played out in my own life. Here’s Matthew Henry’s take on this:

Isa 42:18-25 -
Observe the call given to this people, and the character given of them. Multitudes are ruined for want of observing that which they cannot but see; they perish, not through ignorance, but carelessness. The Lord is well-pleased in the making known his own righteousness. For their sins they were spoiled of all their possessions. This fully came to pass in the destruction of the Jewish nation. There is no resisting, nor escaping God’s anger. See the mischief sin makes; it provokes God to anger. And those not humbled by lesser judgments, must expect greater. Alas! how many professed Christians are blind as the benighted heathen! While the Lord is well-pleased in saving sinners through the righteousness of Christ he will also glorify his justice, by punishing all proud despisers. Seeing God has poured out his wrath on his once-favoured people, because of their sins, let us fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of us should be found to come short of it.

I like Barnes comment, “Alas! how many professed Christians are blind as the benighted heathen! While the Lord is well-pleased in saving sinners through the righteousness of Christ he will also glorify his justice, by punishing all proud despisers.” You know who I mean, the holier-than-thou types who cause parodies like the Betty Bowers website to exist. They are modern-day Pharisees. Sure, I admit, those people just cry out to be mocked. And the site is pretty funny. But I resent being lumped in with the Betty Bowers-types – just like my notoriously liberal brother hates being grouped with certain leftist wingnuts. It’s a Crossfire kind of world these days I guess. But I digress….

But in the midst of all this Godly, righteous wrath being poured out on unrepentant sinners, here’s the beginning of the next chapter.

But now so says Jehovah who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel; Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; nor shall the flame kindle on you. For I am Jehovah your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for you. Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life. Fear not; for I am with you. I will bring your seed from the east, and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Do not keep back; bring My sons from far and My daughters from the ends of the earth; everyone who is called by My name; for I have created him for My glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
(Isa 43:1-7 MKJV)

So how to reconcile the end of chapter 42 with the beginning of 43? The God of the bible (as opposed to the warm fuzzy bearded old man people often think of) is both pure and holy, and the creator and father. His purity and holiness does not permit the stain of sin to go unpunished. Yet his fatherly love for his creation does not permit him to abandon us to the fate we deserve.