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00:01 Good morning again. Okay. Uh by the way, aside from the
00:08 Filipino um gathering downstairs, we have also started uh the Filipino
00:13 worship service at KL. Uh it is in Pacific Express at the back of uh the
00:20 central market. So I just encourage everyone to those who have Filipino
00:26 helpers or maids in your house, you can bring them here or bring them at KL. You
00:32 know, uh it's really a wonderful uh thing you to do to bring them in a sense
00:37 that we are teaching them the word of God and we are trying to motivate encourage them to be able to bring good
00:44 relationship with the employer. Right? So if you have your Filipina maid or
00:50 helpers uh I encourage you to uh bring them there.
00:56 Now we are in a journey of studying the gospel of John. Okay. It's in a s series
01:02 and we have the opportunity I have the opportunity to preach John chapter 12
01:07 with the title the glory of the cross. You see from the title itself we
01:15 probably feel confused of understanding the statement right the glory of the
01:21 cross it seems there is a conflicting between uh conflict between the major
01:28 terms it's used in the title it is quite unusual right when we talk about the
01:33 glory of the cross is there such glory in suffering in
01:40 dying on the cross. You see in human perspective, this is
01:46 not the glory that we know. We know that the meaning of glory is something like uh highly known or honor
01:54 won by notable achievements. People glory in their wealth, social status,
02:00 right? Fame, knowledge and often times Christians glory in their g gifts,
02:06 talents and even the position in the church.
02:11 The glory that we know is from our human achievement.
02:17 Now, how can we get glory from dying on the cross? How can it be?
02:23 The more it will be difficult to understand if you're going to realize
02:29 how people died by means of crucifixion. Crucifixion is likely the most painful
02:36 death ever invented. a most cruel and disgusting and
02:42 disgusting punishment. It was reserved primarily for those most
02:47 vicious of male criminals. Right? Crucifixion was devised
02:55 and designed by the Romans with more than one thing in mind. It was designed as a capital punishment to put a
03:00 criminal to death. It was designed to humiliate the person. The person was
03:06 stripped naked before being hung on the cross so that he would be publicly exposed his public his body publicly
03:13 humiliated. So how can we achieve glory on the kind of simple way of death?
03:21 It is something an enigma, right? It's something like apostle. It is hard to think how could how it could happen.
03:30 But that is what happened to the death of our lord Jesus Christ. His crucifixion give glory to the father.
03:38 But how can the father be glorified with the simple way of death of his son?
03:44 So there is an enigma. There is a puzzlement on that glory of the cross
03:50 and that is what we are going to find out in this message. Let us bow our head
03:55 and close our eyes and let us pray. Most gracious God and loving father, we praise you. We give you thanks, Lord
04:00 God, for giving us such a wonderful day today. Thank you for starting our week
04:05 right, Lord God. And we pray as we listen to your word that's our hearts
04:11 that's our lives Lord God that your word be our foundation in order to live this
04:16 life in this word Lord God especially if we are facing problems rise in our life
04:21 let your word give us peace and a true joy in our life
04:26 us today Lord God in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
04:32 Now if we are going to look at John chapter 12,
04:37 there are a lot of things that happened in this chapter in the life and in the ministry of Jesus Christ. I would like
04:45 to give you some rundown, a little rundown of these events before focusing
04:50 on our main topic of the message. You see, this was the last week in the life
04:57 and ministry of our Jesus. And he was heading for the cross at the end of the
05:03 week. It could be Friday. You can look at your Bible starting from verse one in Bethany, a little village 2
05:11 miles east of eastern gate of Jerusalem. Jesus had been with his friends Martha,
05:16 Mary, and Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. Together with his
05:21 disciples, they were having dinner. Now, in the midst of their supper, Mary gave
05:29 a remarkable gift to Jesus. So, Mary took a pound of very costly oil of
05:35 spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus. And it was not unusual to wash the feet
05:42 of a guest, but it is unusual to use a very costly oil of a spikenard to do it.
05:50 and remarkable to wipe the feet with their hair. Then one of the disciples, Judas the
05:57 Scariot, who would betray Jesus, objected to what Mary had done, and he
06:03 said, "Why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 dinari and given to the
06:08 poor?" You see, Judas had a sharp sense of financial value, right? Yes. He had a a
06:16 sharp sense of financial value. He knew that the financial value of the perfume
06:22 but no appreciation of the value of God. He thought this was too much love and
06:27 devotion to to Jesus. But the real reason
06:32 why he said this is not that he cared for the poor because he was a thief.
06:38 He had a he had the money box and he used to take what was put in it as the
06:44 verse describe him. Then Jesus said to him, "Leave her
06:50 alone." It was intended that he should save this perfume for the day of my burial. Now, if you're going to
06:57 understand deeply what Jesus replied, it showed that Mary was the only person who
07:04 understood how Jesus was going to die and to be resurrected, which the disciples cannot understand.
07:12 This verse states very plainly that Mary intended to save this perfume for the day of his burial. But since Jesus was
07:20 going to be resurrected, why waste the perfume on the burial day if he can
07:26 glorify God now? Do you know what I mean? We do not worship dead God, dead
07:32 God, but the risen Lord. Then on the following day Jesus left
07:40 Bethany going to the city of Jerusalem. There was already a great crowd when he
07:45 was at Bethany for curious people. Not only do they want to see him but also to
07:51 see Lazarus who was raised from the dead. You know the Jew they want to have
07:56 an evidence before they believe. And they followed Jesus. On the next day, he went to Jerusalem. And there was
08:04 a massive crowd of hundreds of thousands in the city of Jerusalem
08:10 ready for the week events leading up to the Passover.
08:15 You see, Jesus has sort of put the exclamation point of his three years of
08:20 miracle power by raising Lazarus from the dead. Everybody knew it. It was in a
08:26 very public place. It was his last great public miracle.
08:33 The word was everywhere that he was raised. This man who had been dead for 4 days.
08:40 Again, this was just the peak, the pinnacle of the conversations that has been going on for three years about the
08:47 amazing power of Jesus. power over demons, power over death,
08:53 power over disease, power over nature. And people think that this can be the
08:59 Messiah, the king they are waiting for. So the people took palm branches and
09:05 went out to meet him shouting, "Hosana, hosana, blessed is he who comes in the
09:10 name of the Lord. Blessed is the King of Israel." Then Jesus found the donkey and sat on
09:17 it. The people were thrilled. They wanted to proclaim him king.
09:23 I'm sorry. Can I have the water, please? And then from here and the next verses
09:30 and beyond chapter 12. Thank you.
09:41 And beyond chapter 12, you will notice that there was a big transition in the
09:46 life of Jesus. There was a big transition from Hana
09:52 to crucify him. They were ready to crown him king, but
09:57 they ended up crowning him with thorns. That was a pretty big transition. They
10:02 were ready to put a royal robe on him, but ended up with a paded robe. They
10:08 were ready to lift him up on the throne, ended up lifting him on the cross.
10:16 Why? You see, when Jesus began his ministry,
10:22 he says, "Many believe on him, but he did not commit himself to them because
10:28 he knew what was in their hearts." He knew it was superficial.
10:35 A man who raised dead people, a man who heals diseased people, controls nature,
10:40 controls the system of darkness, the demonic world. There was never a person like this. And he did it for three years
10:47 on a daily basis over the land of Israel in public.
10:52 And this is the most attractive human being that ever drew a crowd on the planet.
10:58 But their interest was superficial. It was not genuine. That's why we can see in John 666-68
11:07 sorry that there were disciples who followed him
11:13 but turned their back on him and left him permanently and only the two disciples stayed.
11:21 So there were thrill seekers all throughout his life and ministry will
11:27 leave him. These are those who turn back. They were led by chip priest who arranged the
11:33 whole thing but their faith was superficial and they just joined the shouts crucify him as it says
11:41 take him away take him away is there any glory on the cross
11:49 is there any glory of the cross and now let us go to the verses that we
11:55 have just read a while ago and let us expose let us expound every reward every
12:01 praise to understand this spiritual meaning of these verses. You see in
12:06 these verses our Lord Jesus Christ was facing the cross. That's why he says and 32-33 when he said he would be lifted
12:15 up. He would be lifted up he was saying this to indicate the kind of death by
12:21 which he was to die. So you see when the Jews historic historically executed
12:27 someone what they do is they they they threw them down and they stoned them to
12:32 death. But when someone was treated at, everybody knew that was a crucifixion.
12:40 Jesus then was speaking of his crucifixion. Can you still follow me? Say amen.
12:48 Amen. Say louder, amen. Amen. Okay. So, starting from verse 27,
12:55 John began to tell us the things that Jesus said as he looked down as he
13:00 looked at his own coming death. He opened up some mystery to us. But
13:07 because these mysteries are quite puzzling and seems to convey contradicting ideas,
13:14 enigma or enigmas would be a more appropriate term to use. Enigmas, there's a puzzle, there's some mystery,
13:21 there's an confusion on the glory of the cross. And from these verses, let us see
13:27 the enigmas of the glory of the cross. Let us see point number one. The enigma
13:35 of the son's anguish. You see in this verse as Jesus looked at
13:40 his own coming death he said my soul is troubled. My soul is troubled.
13:47 Maybe we can ask ourselves how can this how can his soul be troubled? He is God.
13:56 Or we will say well he is also human. really
14:01 that is his humanness and you're telling me his deity cannot suppress that
14:08 is he more man than God how can he be troubled as he looks at
14:14 his coming death maybe you know or you read some martiers
14:20 who went calmly to their death you see they were born to that some peed to to
14:26 the beast others were put into the boiling oil until they died and yet during the course of their sufferings
14:32 they were praying to God. They are proclaiming the gospel. They they are singing h songs of praise.
14:40 Is he less than the martyrs? How is it that the son of God the
14:47 incarnate God is troubled? Has a troubled soul.
14:53 Well, we already know that it was possible because if we are going to look back in John 11:33
15:00 when he arrived at the tomb of Lazarus, it says he was there watching Martha and
15:06 Mary and all the weeping and he was deeply moved
15:14 in his spirit and was troubled. So he could be troubled in his spirit.
15:19 He was troubled when he faced the consequences of sin and the death of Lazarus and the
15:25 shattering of the family and the breaking of that unity. So we know he could be troubled.
15:32 Now what does the troubled mean? You see if you are going to look the
15:37 word troubled in Greek word it is called it is it is word terazzo.
15:42 It literally mean to shake or to stir up. That is the word you use when you're doing something in the kitchen to shake
15:50 or stir up. But in a figurative sense, it could be translated as anguish. He
15:57 was anguish. He was agitated. He was deeply disturbed.
16:03 How can he be troubled? Was this weakness on him? Was this sin?
16:11 No. No. Church, listen carefully. This is not
16:17 the anguish of anticipated physical suffering. This is not that. This is not
16:23 being horrified at the thought that he would be nailed, that they will be crucified. Not that. Yes, he felt all
16:32 that. He felt he really died and really felt the nails and the piercing in his
16:37 head. The spear in his side came after his death. He felt all that in
16:43 anticipation. Yes, he must he must have felt it thousand times before he ever actually
16:49 felt it. How did he know? Yeah, because he knew everything that was that was to come. He
16:57 knew exactly what was going on to happen to him. He even detailed it out.
17:04 He said, "They are going to arrest me. They're going to spit on me. They are going to beat me. They're going to crucify me." He knew all of that.
17:12 And if you know all of that, you live on that before it ever happens.
17:20 Who are the mothers here? Mothers with the with the with the children. Please raise your hand. Mothers. Okay.
17:29 When you were pregnant with your second baby, you should have experienced the anticipation of that kind of pain,
17:35 right? when you give birth to your baby. Just like if you're going to the dentist
17:41 for the second time or third time, even before you see the doctor, you already felt the pain and you want to go out of
17:49 the clinic. You see, he had felt every pain, every
17:55 aching muscle, every torn piece of flesh, every torn pursing his head, the
18:00 gasping of death, the dripping blood that he could not wipe away, the naked shame, the dried mouth, the crack lips.
18:07 He had felt that in anticipation because he knew he knew it was coming.
18:15 But that is not the real suffering. That is not what troubles his soul. His
18:23 death has been the focal point of his whole life. He must have thought it over and over thousand times in his mind
18:28 before he ever got there through the years of his life. Was he afraid of the
18:33 cross? No. This is not an evidence that his humanity was more powerful than his
18:40 deity. No. But the truth is this is an evidence that his deity is more powerful
18:46 than his humanity. Now why
18:52 church? Listen to this. His trouble came not
18:57 from anticipating physical suffering but anticipating the divine wrath, the
19:04 spiritual suffering and that was terrifying reality.
19:10 Though the nails must have gone through his hands and feet thousands of time as he thought about it, the agony of the
19:16 sinless son of God was not that he would be nailed, but that he would be judged by the wrath of God.
19:25 Not that he would be stained with blood, but that he would be condemned with the sins he did not commit.
19:32 The sins of all who would believe him.
19:38 If he did not become troubled by that, he would not be God.
19:43 God should be troubled with the prospect of bearing sin. The son of God should be troubled with
19:49 the prospect of divine wrath and alienation from his eternal father.
19:54 Yes, he's troubled, but it's not the physical part that troubles him. It is
19:60 the spiritual reality. So in this verse Jesus asked in his trouble, what shall I say?
20:08 Father saved me from this hour. No, it was this better reason I came to this
20:14 hour. You see, if you will read uh the previous chapter of of gospel of John,
20:20 we can see even in John 7:30 when he said my hour has not come. Even in John
20:26 8:20, he said my hour has not come. Now in this verse, Jesus said, "My hour has
20:32 come." In fact, in the next chapter in John 13:1, Jesus knew that the hour has
20:38 come. And he said, "I'm now at the hour." What
20:44 shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.
20:49 You see, if Jesus wanted to be saved from this trouble, he can do that. He can do that. He can call 12 legions of
20:56 angels as mentioned in Matthew 26:53. He can call 72 thousands of angels just
21:03 like that. And that kind of prayer would deliver him,
21:09 but it will put everyone to eternal punishment.
21:15 And so Jesus said, "No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. This is
21:20 the purpose why I came for this hour. This is why I'm here.
21:25 Jesus said, "I lay down my life. No one has taken it away from me. I lay it down
21:31 in my own initiative. I will not say, "Father, save me from this hour." This is the reason I came. I came willingly.
21:40 This is completely voluntary. You see, does that mean there is no
21:46 anguish? Does that mean that there is no anguish? No. The anguish is intense and beyond
21:53 comprehension. Now if you going to read Luke 22, he
21:59 says, he says in verse 22, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from
22:06 me." If you are willing, take this cup from me.
22:12 What is this cup? What the cup? What is this cup? This is the cup of divine
22:17 wrath. Th this is a concept that comes from the Old Testament, the cup of God's wrath.
22:25 He was not talking about nails. He was not talking about physical pain and suffering. He was saying, "Father, what
22:31 troubles me is the cup of wrath. Yet not my will, but yours be done."
22:39 You see, the battle was so fierce. Listen to how it pierced. An angel of
22:46 heaven appeared to him strengthening him. An angel in strengthening the son of
22:53 God. Yes, an angel came to strengthen him because he was in agony.
23:01 He was such in agony that in verse 44 it says he was praying very fervently and
23:07 his sweat become like drops of blood falling on the ground. So this was an intense struggle.
23:14 Yes, he was born to die. Yes, he came to die. Yes, he will to die. Yes, he was
23:20 not forced into this. But that does does not mean that to listen the overwhelming trouble of the reality of a sinless one
23:29 becoming sin for us. Now in verse 28, Jesus said, "Father,
23:37 glorify your name." Glorify your name. Excuse me.
23:48 The purpose Jesus said he came for was to glorify the father. I can only do
23:56 what the father tells me to do. The father's wills me to do. I only do what glorifies the father. We did that in all
24:03 through the gospel of John. He knows will glorify the father.
24:09 You see his love for the father is divine. It is perfect. It's righteous love. He will do what his love demands.
24:19 Love for the father demands that he glorify the father. Love for the father demands that he
24:25 glorify the father. This will glorify the father. Now we may we can ask this
24:32 question. How does the cross how does the cross glorify the father?
24:40 The cross glorifies the father in several ways. First of all, the cross
24:45 puts on display all God's attributes. God is glorified when we are made aware
24:51 of who he is. On the cross, you will see God's love in action.
24:57 You will see his grace in action. At the cross, you will see his mercy in action,
25:03 his justice, his wrath, his judgment. In the cross, you will see his wisdom. You
25:09 see prophecy being fulfilled. You see righteousness declared. You will see in the cross power declared. All of that is
25:16 on the cross. God is putting on display more of his
25:23 attributes in a cons concentrated form at the cross than any other event in
25:30 redemptive history. The fact is it is by the death of Christ
25:36 that God is able to redeem humans from all human history, bring them to heaven
25:41 to forever glorify him. So that was the enigma of the son's
25:47 anguish. The enigma of the son's anguish. Now let
25:52 us go to the second point. The enigma of the father's answer.
26:02 This two has a kind of a mysterious real reality to be unveiled. Jesus prays this
26:07 prayer. Father glorify your name and gets an
26:12 immediate answer. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it and will
26:19 glorify it again. You see the father speaks from heaven. The voice out of
26:25 heaven is the father. And Jesus explained the mystery, the enigma
26:30 of the father's answer. You see, the father did speak from
26:35 heaven in a couple of very, very significant times in the life of our
26:41 lord. At his baptism in Matthew 3:17,
26:47 in a voice from heaven, this is he said, "This is my my son whom I love.
26:54 With him I am well pleased. Christ was affirmed at the beginning of
27:01 his ministry at his baptism. In Matthew 17:5
27:07 at his transfiguration, the father spoke again. He was again affirmed in that marvelous scene of his exaltation
27:15 where he was seen with Moses and Elijah which means he is the living fulfillment
27:21 of the old testament. So the father has validated him on these
27:27 two occasions and this is the third. On that day God speaks out of heaven to
27:34 validate and affirm the cross.
27:41 Going back in verse 28 and the boy said I have glorified it. What does that
27:47 mean? I have glorified it. What do you mean? You have glorified it.
27:55 What he means is that I have already glorified myself. My name through you.
28:01 He did it through all the ministry of Jesus. He validated him by the by his miracles. Power or power over demons,
28:08 power over disease, power to create food. He did it through the resurrection of Lazarus.
28:14 The capstone miracle. If you will see in John 11:40, Jesus is at the tomb.
28:21 She tells them to remove the stone and then says to Martha, "Did not I tell you, if you believe, you
28:28 will see the glory of God?" Which is to say, the glory of God is on
28:34 display through the miraculous power of Jesus. That marks his entire life and
28:40 ministry. So when Jes when when when the father says in verse 23, I have glorified it.
28:47 He means throughout the whole ministry of Jesus, the father has put his power
28:53 and glory on display through Christ. And then he continued to say and will
29:00 glorify it again. Meaning I will glorify my name through your death. I did it
29:07 through your life. I will do it in your death.
29:13 There was affirmation of his ministry at his baptism. There was an affirmation of his deity at the transfiguration.
29:21 And here is affirmation from God verbally at his death. Which is to say the union of the father and son is
29:28 unbroken. The union of the father and son is intact. There is no separation.
29:34 He did not die because he displeases God. He did not die because something went wrong. He died to glorify God and
29:42 God will glorify himself through his death. This is the most important affirmation
29:48 of the death of Jesus Christ.
29:53 And in verse 29, there were crowd of people we stood by
29:60 and heard it and were saying that it had thundered. Others had a different idea.
30:05 said it was a supernatural event and they were saying an angel has spoken to
30:11 him. So some naturally inclined said it's a natural event. It's a weather. There's a
30:17 thunder somewhere. Others said it's a supernatural event. It's an angel.
30:27 But then we would not expect them to recognize the voice of God, would we?
30:34 This is the mixed crowd of some Jews, some Greeks who came to Jesus. Maybe of course including leaders in the temple.
30:41 They were trying to figure out what just happened. They had no capacity to know the voice of God or hear the voice of
30:48 God. And they were not about to acknowledge the voice of God as he did speak.
30:57 You can still follow me. Say amen. Amen. Okay. Now in verse 30, Jesus said, "The
31:05 voice was for your benefit, not mine. I knew this. I know all this, but for your
31:12 sakes, this is for your benefit." And who is talking to?
31:19 Most likely the disciples. They are having a such a hard time understanding the fact that Jesus is going to die. The
31:26 people who are maybe in a dilemma of whether to believe or not.
31:32 But the bottom line is that God the father had spoken and God had validated,
31:38 authenticated in affirm the death of his son. So we see the enigma of the son's
31:45 anguish. We see the enigma of the father's answer. And then the final one,
31:50 I think we are going to finish this sermon earlier.
31:56 the enigma of the cross as accomplishment.
32:04 Now rather than viewing the suffering of a sin bearing on the cross, now Jesus
32:09 focuses on the salvation. Through that suffering, he turns from
32:15 being troubled in verse 27 towards that are triumphant in verse 31.
32:23 So in this verse there are three anticipated accomplishment in the cross.
32:29 Number one the world was judged. The Jewish people thought they had
32:35 judged him. They thought that he had judged him. In reality Jesus Christ had
32:41 not only judged them but he judged the entire world. They thought that they had brought him
32:47 into the court and then their verdict on him. But in reality, Jesus had brought
32:53 them into his court and rendered his verdict condemned.
32:58 The cross would condemn and judge the world. Meaning the Jewish people who rejected him, the leaders who condemned
33:04 him, Judas who betrayed him, the Roman soldiers who executed him, the whole
33:10 society of evil men alienated from God who crucified him.
33:16 In the condemnation is extended beyond that. All the world of the people who are caught up as a children of Satan,
33:23 all people who rejected Christ, judged by the cross of Christ. You see the
33:29 verdict is in the sentence is waiting. Every time a person dies, the sentence
33:34 is executed. But for the whole world, the sentence will be fully executed in the day that
33:41 he appears a second time to judge. As it says in 1731, can we read alto together?
33:48 17 chapter 1. Please read. Ready? Read.
33:57 He has given fruit of this to everyone bering him. The world the world said we tried Christ
34:06 and judge him. How wrong they were. He condemned the world. the world, every
34:12 man in it condemned to death unless they repent and embrace Christ. Number number
34:19 two, the ruler of this world will be cast out. Who is the ruler? Ruler of this world.
34:27 Satan, the prince of the power of the air, the rul ruler of this world. Satan
34:33 was the was the thro dethroned at Calvary. He was dethroned at Calvary.
34:38 Again, this is a reversal of what he might think. It looked like Satan won at the cross
34:45 when Jesus Christ died. It looked like Satan won. It looked like Satan triumphed. And the devils of hell
34:52 thought there was a triumph. But in reality, Christ had crossed his
34:58 head, dealt him the death blow. Now, Satan fights from the death row. He
35:04 had nothing on Christ. He has nothing on us. He is a conquered, defeated foe.
35:10 Jesus already crossed his head at the cross. Took away his power. He is cast
35:16 out. And if you will read Revelation chapter 20, he will cast out into the lake of
35:21 fire with burns forever and ever. Satan is totally defeated by Christ at the
35:27 cross. Finally, number three, it says in verse 32,
35:32 "And when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself if I am
35:38 crucified." He's not talking about preachers lifting
35:45 lifting him up, which we should do. He is not talking about people who should
35:50 point to the cross and lift up Christ, which we should do. But that is not what
35:56 this all about. He's saying, "If I am crucified, I will draw all men to myself."
36:04 All men meaning all Jews, all Gentiles, people from every tongue, every tribe,
36:09 every nation of the planet. I will draw them all to myself.
36:15 He at the cross provides the work by which all can be saved.
36:21 You see, yes, everything is an enigma. Everything is reversed. The world thinks it judged him. He
36:29 judged the world. Satan thinks it condemned him. He was condemned. We look
36:36 at the Christ at the cross and we assume he is completely defeated. The truth is
36:42 he is triumphant at the cross and has done a work by which we can gather the elect throughout all history.
36:52 What can we learn from this truth? If we do not still have that personal
36:57 relationship with our our Lord Jesus Christ and we have not accepted him as our Lord and Savior, then look at the
37:05 cross. Look at the cross. The cross tells the
37:10 truth about us. The glory of human achievement is always concerned about how you look on the
37:17 outside. Cannot do anything from the inside. And the world is full of these
37:23 self-righteous people who are self-righteous out of pride. Self-righteous because they will not pay
37:29 the cost involved in confronting their own sin. The cross destroys pride. And the very
37:36 essence of the cross is that we are hopeless, lost and fallen and doomed to eternal hell. And the fact is we cannot
37:42 do anything about it. We cannot do anything to save ourselves.
37:48 We cannot achieve anything through human accomplishment that will ultimately cause God to change
37:54 his mind about destroying us. We will never glory in the flesh. We
38:01 will have we will never glory in anything we have achieved, anything we have accomplished.
38:06 We cannot reconcile to God by human achievement. And so God's son has to die to reconcile
38:14 man to God. And the only way to have your sin atoned
38:19 for on the cross is to believe by faith that Christ paid
38:25 the penalty for your sins. We have to repent for our sins and accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior.
38:32 That and that alone opens the way to God. Then we glory in the cross because
38:38 it is the act of divine accomplishment that brings salvation.
38:43 On the cross, the purpose of God was summed up. On the cross, the purpose of God was worked out. On the cross, the
38:51 purpose of God was finished. Now to those believers who have accepted
38:57 the Lord Jesus Christ as our your Lord, our Lord and Savior, you see, our old lives were
39:04 put to death by the way of the cross. Christ died the death we deserve on the
39:10 cross. Therefore, our lives are counted as dead before God. And as Christ now lives, our
39:17 new lives are sin before God as though Christ was living through us living a
39:23 new life. And let us change our perspective in
39:28 obtaining glory not by human achievement, but through faithful service to God.
39:36 a faithful service and not a sacrificial service to God. It has to be a faithful
39:44 service. What do I mean? What do I mean by that? I just want to
39:50 quote Dr. Willer looking at how we serving the Lord. Christians frequently talk about making
39:58 sacrifices to serve God. A church school teachers remarks,
40:03 "Government school salaries are twice as much, but I am sacrificing to serve."
40:09 A minister commends that if he were in the business world, he will be earning a six a high six-digit salary, but God
40:18 called me to this ministry, so I'm happy to make the sacrifice. Right? A
40:23 missionary home in Porlo, my report to the churches. Even though we are sacrificing a lot, we are in the center
40:30 of God's will. There is a long tradition behind these remarks by Peter in Mark 10:28 when he
40:37 said when he says, "Then Peter spoke up, we have left everything to follow you."
40:44 We have left everything to follow you. You see, listen to this. All of these
40:50 statements concerning service to God missed the mark. It missed the mark. I urge you to think
40:56 of service to God not as a sacrifice as nothing but pure gain.
41:03 You see what qualifies as sacrifice? What qualifies a sacrifice? Sacrifice
41:10 requires surrendering something of true value to you. Right? Sacrifice requires
41:16 surrendering something of true value to you. You see, value exists in anything
41:21 that you will take action to keep or gain.
41:26 A sacrificial act occurs when you turn away from something of value to embrace
41:32 something of lesser value. That's a sacrifice. But turning away from something from
41:39 something of lesser value to receive something of higher value, it is a gain.
41:45 Consider it in this light. It ought to be obvious why the
41:51 statements above represent a wrong view of service to God. Saying I am sacrificing to serve God. I am
41:59 sacrificing to serve God. It is saying I'm turning away from something I value
42:04 more than God. To serve God. I imagine that everyone reading this
42:11 statement would insist that's not what I mean. That's not what I mean.
42:17 That is exactly my point. We truly never sacrifice to serve God.
42:23 We truly never sacrifice to serve God. You see, if you're going to look at Mark
42:28 10:29-30, can we read all together? Mark 10 29-30.
42:36 Let us read. Ready? Read. [Music]
43:03 You see the point? No one has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children
43:09 or fields for me. And the gospel will repel to receive a hundred times as much
43:15 as this present age. It will give you more. It's not a
43:20 sacrifice we gain in serving the Lord and preaching the word of God
43:27 and sharing the gospel of salvation to other people. So I urge you to stop thinking about
43:33 serving God as a sacrifice. All the sacrifices had been done by Jesus on the cross.
43:39 He has done that on the cross. Rather think in terms of you gain flowing out
43:46 of the same service is more blessing. So let us serve him faithfully and
43:52 blessing will overflow 100fold. To recap
43:58 our message what we have done today. There are three enigmas to the glory of the glory of the cross. The enigma of
44:05 the son's anguish. the enigma of the father's answer, the enigma of the cross
44:12 as accomplishment. And I want you to leave this particular verse. We can take
44:17 this home and retain it in our heart. Let us read all together. Ready? Read
44:26 and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live
44:32 with in the son of God who love me. Let's pray. Let's bow our head in
44:39 prayer. Father, we thank you for our time in your word this morning. We thank you
44:45 Lord that your word is life and light. We thank you for your living, abiding
44:50 word. Father, we thank you for the greatness of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
44:56 We thank you that the results of the cross have been going on ever since the event. how the cross reaches back in
45:02 history and forward in history to gather all who believe. We thank you for the
45:07 majesty of the cross. We thank you that in his dying and death, bearing all our sins, you have given us eternal life
45:15 through faith in Christ in hope of seeing you face to face. Oh, what a glorious cross. I pray Lord that you
45:23 will save those who are lost. Help us to be able to share the good news of salvation by faith through Christ to our
45:29 loved ones and friends to other people to come to him with repentance and seek
45:34 forgiveness for sin knowing that you will grant forgiveness and to put their lives in his hand. Thank you Lord for
45:42 this day. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
