Uniqueness of Christs Sacrifice

The Urgency and Nature of Saving Faith

0:01 We come this morning to the seventh message in a series dealing with the general theme of saving faith, its nature, and its object or objects. Now the Word of God emphatically declares, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him. John 3 and verse 36. Therefore, this matter of faith in Jesus Christ is not a matter of academic interest.

0:39 It's not a matter of simply having some religious knowledge. It's a matter of life and death. And I don't know how to state it any more plainly than to quote a verse like John 3, 36. The issues that are before us as we consider in these Sunday morning messages the nature and object and fruits of saving faith are the issues of eternal life and eternal death.

1:02 The issues of heaven and of hell. And it's a frightful thing to hear these things so often that our ears become deaf to the issues at stake. I know of churches where you could go for six years or sixty years and never once be even soberly warned or asked to consider whether or not you're going to spend eternity in the presence of the eternal God and the holy angels and the redeemed. Or spend it in the presence of the devil and demons and the host of the damned.

1:36 And so it's only right that a man who believes the truth of the scripture often and earnestly exhorts men to consider that these are the issues but that earnestness and that exhortation can become like the drone of an airplane in our ears that after we've been in flight for a few hours we no longer hear it. May God keep us and deliver us. From such a terrible curse. The issues before us are eternal life and eternal death.

2:07 We have seen that the definition of saving faith, the most complete one, at least that I've been able to come up with, is that which we've given week after week. Saving faith is self-commitment to Christ in all the glory of his person and the perfection of his work as he is offered to us in the gospel. The object of saving faith, then, is a person, our Lord Jesus Christ. The focus of saving faith is not back to the cross or to the cradle or to the tomb, but it's upward to the throne.

2:41 It's faith in a person. Its focus is upward to the throne where he sits at the right hand of the majesty on high. Therefore, if we would have true faith, if we would know whether our faith is that faith which is unto life, then we must examine, examine it in terms of this definition. Who is the person that I have believed in or do believe in at present?

3:08 What do I know of him and of his work? If faith is commitment to him in the glory of his person and the perfection of his work, then there can be no true faith without knowledge. There must be some content to our faith. There must be some knowledge of who he is and what he has done and is doing.

Christ's Prophetic and Priestly Offices

3:29 For sinners, therefore, all true proclamation of the gospel is not trying to seize hold of men's will and get in the hammerlock until they say, all right, I quit, I'll believe. No, no, true evangelism is the declaration of the glories of Christ's person, the explication of his blessed work for sinners, and then the warm entreaty and exhortation that men would flee to Christ in the glory of his person, and the perfection of his work as he is offered to us in the gospel. So with this, this is our general sphere of reference. We've been considering the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ as most wonderfully summarized under his threefold office of the prophet, of a priest, and of a king. As the larger catechism says in answer to the question, why was our mediator called Christ? Our mediator was called Christ because he was anointed with the Holy Ghost above measure, and so set apart and fully furnished with all authority and ability to execute the office of a prophet, priest, and a king, both in the estate of his humiliation and in the state of his exaltation. In our studies thus far, we've covered at least the basic teaching of the word of God concerning Christ as our prophet, and we have seen that no man is a Christian

4:56 unless he has been brought to commit himself to Jesus Christ to be taught of him. And after coming away from conferences with students and people who are supposed to be the budding intellectuals, I'm more convinced than ever that this is one of the crucial issues in our day. You can't have Christ without his word. You can't have him without his word.

5:20 To believe on Christ means to have the mind and heart bowed to his words as given to us in Holy Scripture to receive him as our prophet. And now for the past two Sundays, we've been looking at Christ as our priest. We've seen the fact of his priesthood established in the Scripture, his unique qualification for the priesthood, God appointed him to it, and because he was God and man joined in one person, he alone was qualified to be a priest for sinners. And then we have begun to look at his function as a priest.

5:53 And you remember that we said the function of the priest is twofold. The priest offers sacrifice and he makes intercession. And we'll see later on in our studies, not today, but to the Lord willing in subsequent studies, that these two things are inseparable. The oblation of Christ, his sacrifice, and the intercession of Christ are inseparable, that both are needed to secure the salvation of sinners and both are joined in all those whom God savingly brings to himself.

6:26 Why do we need a sacrifice? This was the focus of our study last week. Because God is holy and we are sinful. And God is true and he said that the wages of sin is death.

6:38 God is just. He will by no means clear the guilty. Therefore, sinful men can approach God on no other basis but the basis of sacrifice, the basis of blood being shed as the giving out of one life on behalf of another. Now we come this morning to actually consider the sacrifice of our high priest.

The Core of the Gospel: Christ's Sacrifice

6:59 We've seen, and I trust, we're convinced of the necessity of sacrifice. Because God is holy and man is sinful, there can be no approach to him but on the basis of sacrifice. Now let us look at our Lord Jesus Christ as the one who offered the perfect sacrifice for sinners and we will study this morning the sacrifice of our high priest. This matter of his sacrifice could be called the very core of the gospel.

7:29 Just picking verses, verses at random. I didn't use my concordance at all. Just sitting here in the study down below and thinking of this. Verses began to just come one after another.

7:39 Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1.18 the preaching of the what? The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. It's the cross that is the core of the gospel.

7:50 Galatians 6.14 God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. When our Lord commissioned the disciples to preach he said in Luke, 24.45 that they were to bear witness to these things and the first one is this that Christ must suffer.

8:09 In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul said for the gospel I delivered unto you is this how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. When our Lord instituted the ordinances of his church he gave us one that was to bring back a continual remembrance of what? As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show forth the Lord's what? The Lord's what?

8:30 The Lord's death till he come. And so from the standpoint of the preaching of the gospel the reception of the gospel the ordinances of the gospel the sacrifice of the high priest the Lord Jesus is the very core of gospel truth. In the light of this then let us think through together this morning the uniqueness of the sacrifice of Christ secondly the time and place of his sacrifice and then we'll have time I'm sure only to begin to consider the nature of that sacrifice.

The Uniqueness of Christ's Sacrifice: Contrasted with Old Testament Sacrifices

9:05 What was unique about the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ? And I'm using the word unique in its technical sense. We see someone who looks a little different or has something a little different we say well that's kind of unique we mean it's kind of different, distinctive but the word unique means literally one of a kind. One of a kind.

9:24 And our Lord's sacrifice in that sense is truly unique. It's one of a kind. Now what makes it one of a kind? Well I think the best way we can see this is by contrasting it with all the Old Testament sacrifices.

9:38 Three things were characteristic of the Old Testament sacrifices. First of all there had to be a priest who would offer sacrifice and then he had to actually bring a gift some kind of sacrifice that he brought either animal or meal or whatever else God had ordered according to the ceremonial law. This is brought out in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 1 through 3 very clearly. The second thing was this that the sacrifice always had a two-fold reference.

10:09 And I want you to look at this because this is very crucial in our study of the sacrifice of Christ. Hebrews 5 tells us in verse 3 by reason hereof speaking of the fact that the priest was a man with weakness and human infirmity as for the people so also for himself to offer for sin. The priest was the one who was the actor in the Old Testament economy then he brought his offering. The offering and the offerer were separate.

10:49 Two different things. Secondly it had a two-fold reference. When he gave up that offering it was first of all for his own sin and then also for the sins of the people who were there outside in the outer court or outside of the temple or the tabernacle and the third thing about the Old Testament sacrifice is that it had to be continually repeated. Hebrews chapter 10 states this in very clear terms.

11:18 Hebrews 10 verses 1 to 3 For the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of these things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect for then would they not have ceased to be offered because the worshippers once purged should have had no more. For conscience of sins but in those sacrifices there's a remembrance again made of sins every year. Can you try to picture what it was like to a Jew? It's so hard for us to think in these terms because we can just slip into church and slip out and put a nickel on the plate or a dime or a quarter or a ten dollar bill and it all can become so meaningless and heartless to us but think what it was like to a Jew to know that every single morning those who lived closest to the tabernacle to the tabernacle whose tents were pitched closest to hear the bleeding of that lamb when the knife was plunged into its throat every morning every evening every morning every evening every morning every evening every morning every evening every morning every evening in the general cycle of human existence when a woman was to be purified according to the ceremonial law she had to come with sacrifice after she'd had a child if it was a male child thirty three days later she'd come to the temple if it was a woman if it was a female sixty six days later and had to bring the sacrifice continually this consciousness that blood must be offered up

12:46 fresh blood you'd see perhaps some of the dried blood on the accoutrements of the tabernacle of the temple but it had to be fresh blood fresh sacrifice fresh offering why? continually reminding men sin is not yet put away sin is not yet put away sin is not yet put away sin is not yet put away sin is not yet put away offering sacrifice blood fresh blood you had those three things that characterized the old testament sacrifices the offering and the offerer were two distinct things there was a two-fold reference the offerer needed to be purged and the people needed to be purged there was a repetition of those sacrifices but all the uniqueness of the sacrifice of Christ is seen precisely at these three points for he is the only one who was both offerer and offering notice in Hebrews chapter 10 verses 10 to 12 and we'll be spending most of our time in Hebrews this morning because this is the richest section on the sacrifice of Christ Hebrews chapter 10 notice verses 10 to 12 by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all here Christ's body is likened unto the body of that beast that was offered up as a sacrifice upon the altar as a burnt offering as a sin offering and every priest

Three Unique Aspects of Christ's Sacrifice

14:15 standeth daily ministering and offering sometimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but this man after he offered one sacrifice for sins here in verse 10 he is the offering here in verse 12 he is the offerer he is both offering and offerer and we find the same thing in chapter 9 verse 24 for Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands which are the figure of the true but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us nor yet that he should offer himself often there's the key phrase nor yet that he should offer himself often verse 28 so Christ was once offered he is the offerer he is the offering this is the uniqueness of Christ's sacrifice every priest who came with an offering had something in his hands that was outside of himself that he gave as the sacrifice but it was our Lord himself who as the high priest came into the presence of the Father to make atonement for sin was both the priest and the offering this is the uniqueness of his sacrifice and then secondly it's unique in that it has only a one-fold reference every time the priest came and he would offer up that sacrifice

15:44 and take of its blood and place it where God had ordered him to place it he was acknowledging that blood is needed for myself as well as for these outside but not so with our Lord his sacrifice is unique not only in that both offering and offerer join in him but his sin offering was only for those that were without for the sacrifice for the scripture tells us in this connection in Hebrews chapter 7 verses 26 and 27 that such an high priest became us Hebrews 7 26 who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the people's for this he did once when he offered up his own sins he offered up himself here's the uniqueness of our Lord's sacrifice that it had only one sphere of reference that was an interposing of that sacrifice between the wrath of God and the sin of men though he himself was the holy harmless and undefiled one and then the third aspect of the uniqueness of our Lord's sacrifice as compared with the Old Testament sacrifice it never needs repetition and oh if words mean anything

17:12 words convey to us this truth that there is a once for allness an absolute finality in the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ we read in verse 27 of Hebrews 7 the text we looked at in another connection for this he did once literally this he did once for all when he offered up himself chapter 9 in verse 12 of Hebrews neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood he entered in once literally once for all having obtained eternal redemption for us verses 24 and 26 of the same chapter nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with the blood of others for then must he have often suffered since the foundation of the world but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself verse 28 so Christ was once offered and then chapter 10 and verse 10 by the which will we're sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all you say pastor why are you laboring this point for the simple reason that your salvation depends on this and so does mine for the once for allness of the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ

The Sufficiency of Christ's Sacrifice and a Warning Against Romanism

18:40 is God's eternal witness to its absolute sufficiency the reason the old testament sacrifice had to be repeated was that God had to declare to men the blood of that bull and goat and calf and heifer cannot blot out your sin it's a type and a figure in the shadow of how sin is blotted out namely by sacrifice of an innocent victim on behalf of the guilty but God wanted to declare to all of humanity through the blood of Jesus Christ the revelation given to Israel that the blood of bulls and goats cannot purge away sin and how do we know that the blood of his son has the fact that he gave him up to die once never to die again and God is declaring to the world I'm satisfied it's complete it's full there is no repetition and so as we consider the uniqueness of the sacrifice of Christ I would say to you here this morning who've never seen yourself lost and undone and have never been brought to commit yourself to Jesus Christ in the glory of his person in the perfection of his work as a prophet and as a priest oh listen this morning if you're ever to be forgiven it's going to be only through the sacrifice of this high priest if you're ever to be forgiven if you're to ever have approach to God it'll be through Christ sacrifice alone

20:07 through Christ priesthood alone this is the curse that lies in you lies at the very foundation of that system taught by the Roman church beloved don't be deceived the core the whole system of Romanism rests squarely down upon this abominable teaching that upon her altars every mass Christ is offered up afresh he's being put to death right down there on Bloomfield Avenue this morning he's being put to death beloved he's being offered up by the magic hocus pocus of the priest they've got my Lord offered up afresh this is why Ridley Latimer the great English reformers this is why the great movements that followed John Huss and John Knox men were willing to seal their testimony with their blood rather than stand in the camp of Romanism it wasn't for any other reason than this they felt to adopt and identify themselves with that system was to blaspheme the sacrifice of Christ which was once for all accomplished upon the cross this is not to throw stones at Roman Catholics I love them there are some who are in that system

21:35 here this morning who could bear witness to the fact that as a church we don't throw stones at them we love them willing to talk and pray but I'm deeply concerned at the flirting with Rome that's going on not only amongst liberal churches but in our evangelical circles we've got people who want to sit down and have a dialogue with Romanists I get invitations to go down and sit down on the local ministerial council to talk about our common heritages as Roman Catholics as Jews and as Protestants if you ever see me there give me my walking papers beloved this is the issue that it's staying saving faith is commitment to Christ as he's offered in the gospel well he's offered not only as a prophet but as a priest what kind of a priest a priest who had a unique sacrifice he was offering an offerer it had reference only to sinners for he was sinless and it was once and for all once and for all so I say to you outside of Christ rest not till you know you have an interest in that sacrifice I say to us as his people beware of any system of doctrine that would undercut the truth concerning the sufficiency of that sacrifice but we must hurry on to consider in the second place not only the uniqueness of his sacrifice but the time of his sacrifice when and where was this sacrifice accomplished now again

The Time of Christ's Sacrifice: From Eternity to His Whole Life

23:05 you'll have to trust me that you may not see that this is too much of an issue but as a shepherd may know certain dangers down the road that the sheep aren't aware of and even though they don't understand why he's steering them away from that path they have to trust him I trust that at least if four and a half years have done anything they've engendered a little bit of mutual confidence and trust there are movements abroad in our day again even filtering into our evangelical circles which make this next point very vital when was Jesus Christ offered up at what place in time and space was the sacrifice given well from God's perspective the sacrifice was from eternity then we're going to look at it in the general sense and we'll see that it applied to his whole life but in a peculiar and strict sense it applied to a few limited hours from Golgotha to Calvary but now let's look at it from God's perspective from God's perspective the sacrifice of Christ was from eternity for God dwells in an eternal now we can't think in terms of anything but yesterday now and tomorrow everything we think of is in terms of time but God says I am the great I am he dwells in an eternal now and the scripture says of our Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation 13 8 this very illuminating thing and all that dwell upon the earth

24:33 shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of the life book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world he's called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world now the little phrase foundation of the world is simply a figure of speech it's the best thing I could use the technical term and say it's a hebraism to indicate before time began back before man came on the scene back before the world as it now is as we know it was here he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world 1 Peter 1 20 speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world to be a sacrifice for sinners now what does this tell us well this tells us something tremendously important it's that it tells us that the sacrifice of Christ was no helter skelter afterthought in the mind of God who found himself in a dilemma here he made the world and he hoped to have a perfect world but oh man messed it all up and poor God didn't know what to do so God had to sit around and say well let me see now how am I going to get out of this oh I think I've got a plan maybe I'll send no what a terrible terrible caricature the sin of man didn't catch God by surprise before the foundation

26:01 of the world the lamb was slain for sinners in the mind of God as God spread out his plan of the ages before him for reasons that I shall never know maybe even the other side of eternity but certainly not this side God saw that he could heap more glory to himself by allowing sin to enter the human race and for the devil to draw humanity into that terrible abyss of corruption and depravity God before the foundation of the world had a lamb slain a lamb slain he had purposes which would focus upon the sacrifice of his son it'll deliver us from that concept of God that is degrading to him as God it'll deliver us from that system of Bible study that splits up the scripture into hard fast vertical categories and says our Lord actually came offering a literal physical kingdom to the Jews up to Matthew 13 then when they rejected he changed his mind and said he'd go to the cross what kind of nonsense is that beloved he's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world that's who he is so in the mind of God the sacrifice was eternal that's why in Revelation 5-6 when John has a vision he says I saw in the midst of the throne a lamb as it had just been slain oh wait a minute he was already

27:30 slain and raised yes but we're God jumping out of time into eternity and so in the mind of God from eternity to eternity he's the slain lamb and it's on that basis that God could forgive sinners even before the Son of God came in time in history and actually shed his blood God viewed him as the lamb slain now not only from God's perspective was it from eternity but secondly in a general sense his whole life was a life of sacrifice have you ever stopped to pause what it must have meant for God to become a man the incarnation Philippians 2 says who though he was in the form of God thought not this being on an equality with God a thing to be selfishly retained or grasped at but emptied himself have you paused and meditated on what those two little words mean he emptied himself what did it mean when I try to meditate on this it's more than I can take in for what one who knew all the unlimited praise of the angelic host and the occupants of heaven whoever and whatever they are that great multitude myriads of those who've never known the stain of sin to know nothing of the confines of human existence

28:58 and to know nothing by personal contact terrible defiling polluting influences of sin for him to become a man this was suffering this temptation Philippians Hebrews 2 tells us in that he hath suffered being tempted what could it mean for the pure holy soul the spotless soul of our Lord to actually be confronted with an inducement to evil you and I who drink iniquity like water who are sin from our conception even we see certain forms of sin that disgust us and cause our whole inner being to rise up in rebellion and we say that thing is disgusting I can't stand it now if that can be true when one poor depraved sinner like you or me looks at another expression of what is really in our own hearts we're simply looking at an expression objectively of something that's in us what must it have been like for the pure holy spotless soul of our Lord to confront evil and sin in that he hath suffered being tempted I believe this is what the writer's talking about there was a suffering when our Lord the spotless one confronted sin in temptation there was a suffering in his identification

30:27 with men he was baptized and John said Lord you shouldn't be baptized I'm the one who needs to be baptized of you this is a baptism of repentance you have nothing to repent of he said no but thus it becomes to fulfill all righteousness he's going to identify himself with sinful men and so he does so even in this external ordinance in his privation foxes have holes I made them and I saw to it that I put in them what the naturalist calls instinct and they know how to dig a little hole and I've made enough earth so there's some holes for foxes and they can go and put a sign out and say that's little Jimmy Fox's hole and the birds have nests but the son of man is nowhere to be seen you think he enjoyed that if he enjoyed it then he was less than a true man you know what it's like to be out driving on a trip somewhere at night and be tired and weary and you can't find a motel you enjoy that do you you don't enjoy that the son of man hath nowhere to lay his head doesn't mean he didn't have homes open to him at time he did the house at Bethany Mark's house but there was no place over which he could hang a shingle and say this belongs to Jesus Christ he who made the world its creator its sustainer its upholder doesn't possess even a three by five room over which hangs his name

The Time of Christ's Sacrifice: Gethsemane to Calvary

31:56 and to which he had a lock and key you think he enjoyed it it's an inner suffering that comes with this privation with this temptation with this incarnation with this sorrow this was one of the qualifications of a priest that he could sympathetically identify with men in their need that's why the scripture says we have not in high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like his we so in a general sense Jesus Christ as a high priest was suffering during his entire life in the mind of God he was the lamb slain from eternity but in a peculiar and strict sense his sacrifice is limited to those hours between Gethsemane and Calvary when he bowed his head and said it is finished and I bound it by Gethsemane because something peculiar happens at Gethsemane we read in Mark chapter 14 these very strange words and they're even more forceful in the original Mark chapter 14 and verse 33 and he taketh with him Peter and James and John and began to be sore amazed and to be exceeding heavy and he said

33:25 unto them my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death tarry ye here and watch and he went forward a little and he fell on the ground now see we see that picture may God help us to be delivered from these artists who butcher Christian truth and you see the picture of the man with a nice countenance and a saintly flush on his cheeks and looking up undisturbed to heaven in the light of the dim moonlight filtering through the olive trees that's not the picture of the scripture here's a man exceedingly amazed so shocked and horrified and over and falls to his face let some artists draw that if you will that's the picture the picture of a man who's overpowered and throws himself down upon his face and prayed if it were possible that the hour might pass from him and he said Abba Father all things are possible unto thee take away this cup from me nevertheless not what I will but what thou wilt and then Luke says and as he prayed being in agony he sweat as it were gray drops of blood he sweat as it were he cried with strong cryings and tears beloved I believe if you and I were somehow

34:55 transported back through time to where we could just sit up in a tree in that garden that night I don't think we could take it to come upon a grown man who is so absolutely overpowered with something that he encounters that he literally staggers like a drunken man falls upon the ground and it says strong cryings and tears and tears as a pastor I've learned to perhaps get a little bit accustomed to women crying being the more sensitive emotionally of the sexes I've just sort of gotten a hard heart to a woman's tears I've had to learn to it because the minute you begin to identify with someone's tears when they're counseling you can't help them you just sit there and slobber together but you know I've never gotten used to a strong man crying can't take it to hear a grown man sobbing his heart out that's what the scripture tells us I'm not reading in between the lines Hebrews Hebrews 5 8 says who in the days of his flesh when he offered up prayers with strong cryings and tears and his tears and his crying and his agonizing become so intense that blood is actually forced from his pores and mingled with his perspiration and stands and beads upon his brow

36:16 he was entering into his baptism of suffering he was beginning in a strict and in a theological sense to place himself upon the brazen altar as a sacrifice for sin beginning as it were to place his own hand upon his head as the high priest would place his hand upon the head of the scapegoat and pronounce over it the sins of the people our Lord as it were was beginning to place his hand upon his own head and pronounce the sins of his people upon himself and the Father was beginning to deal with him in wrath and judgment and out from that garden down to his place of judgment where they bruised him and the scripture was beginning to be fulfilled where it says that we are healed by his stripes they placed the lashes upon his back they drove him out to a place called Calvary and there they crucified him and in those terrible hours in which our Lord hung upon the cross experienced the terrible sufferings of his body and we don't want to minimize them the burning sun beating down upon him the dehydration that comes with crucifixion the alternate pain of being hung

37:46 upon those nails and the bones out of joint and the suffocation pushing up upon the feet to try to get air until the pain was so intense he hung down again and the scripture tells us that all his bones were out of joint but then the terrible sufferings of his soul in those dark hours when God shrouded the heavens in absolute blackness and toward the end of those hours our Lord cried my God my God why hast thou forsaken me it's then that in a peculiar and strict sense his sacrifice was being offered for the scripture tells us he bore our sins in his own body to the tree verse Peter 2 24 Galatians 3 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us where when for it is written cursed is everyone that hangeth on a what on a tree cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree and in those dark hours our Lord is our high priest both offering and offerer was giving himself up was bringing his own blood as it were into the sanctuary of God on behalf of guilty hell deserving sinners like you and like me on those three hours in time hang the destiny and the blessing of God of redeemed men

Application: Embrace and Remember the Cross

39:14 from all ages for all eternity let me repeat that on those three hours in time hang all the blessings and the destiny of all the redeemed of all ages for all eternity when he was offering himself up without spot unto God on behalf of sinners and I say to you here this morning who are not savingly joined to Christ oh labor to know the meaning of this act of sacrifice you can't understand that cross unless God is pleased to open your eyes for the scripture says the God of this world has what blinded the minds of them that believe not less the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ should dawn unto them and you go on thinking I'm not so bad to need that kind of sacrifice or God's not so holy that he would punish sin with wrath or you'll go on saying well God is holy and he may punish sin but I'll make atonement by my works by my efforts by my prayers by my decisions by my vows oh friend outside of Christ labor to know how deep you've been stained with the stain of sin how holy is the God with whom you must deal in judgment

40:42 until you come to that conclusion oh God nothing short of such a sacrifice of infinite dignity and majesty and worth will ever suit my need then the preaching of the cross will no longer be foolishness but it will be the power of God unto salvation to you and I say to you dear children of God is it no wonder that our Lord has given us an ordinance in which he says as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show the Lord's death till he come is it no wonder that he said this do in remembrance of me I think the hymn writer caught it perfectly when he said Jesus keep me near the cross there a precious fountain free to all a healing stream flows from Calvary's mountain and then in that stanza that I believe is God's word to our hearts this morning we say bring its scenes before me help me walk from day to day with its beams around me something like that where does sin show itself in all its ugliness but at the cross beholding the offerer and the offering the shrouded heavens the darkened skies the piercing cry my God my God

42:10 and then you put that in the light of 1 Peter 2 24 he bore our sins my sin caused that my sin opened his wounds my sin blackened the heavens my sin opened his wounds my sin caused Jehovah to lift up his rod oh Christ it fell on thee thou was sore stricken of thy God thy bruising healeth me death and the curse were in my cup oh Christ was full for thee but thou hast drained the last dark drop tis empty now for me that bitter cup love drank it up now blessings draft for me dear child of God you're dallying with that sin in God's name bring the scenes of the cross before you there's nothing like the cross to strip sin of all of its sweetness and cause us to see it in its ugliness what am I talking about sin talking about that sin of a cold heart that sin of pride that sin of indifference to the commands and precepts of God and where dear child of God is our affection for our Lord deepened where is the heart more inflamed with love to him than bringing the scenes of the cross before us if you can't have your love for Christ deepened or at least have a cry utter from your heart oh God

43:39 in the light of what he's done for me help me to love him more purely more intensely more fervently I question that you've ever ever savingly embraced him if you can gaze at the cross and sniff and go your way I doubt you've ever seen him well we didn't get to consider the nature of the sacrifice we'll let that go until next week the Lord willing but I trust as we've looked at the uniqueness of his sacrifice as we have looked at the time of his sacrifice that those of you that are here outside of Christ will be convinced that you must have an interest in that sacrifice or you're doomed for eternity for what does it mean to believe it means to commit yourself to Christ as he's offered in the gospel well how is he offered not as a big brother to help you not as a buddy to comfort you not as a psychologist to get you oriented to yourself he's offered as a priest to forgive on the basis of his sacrifice and you'll never commit yourself to him as a priest to forgive you until you see there's no hope for forgiveness anywhere else and dear child of God this is the one who has called you out of darkness into light oh may we bless him for his sacrifice may we love him with a pure love and may we delight to proclaim to men such a savior

45:08 as our Lord Jesus Christ let us pray