Message 3

Well good evening.

Everyone doing well?

We are actually what I'd like to do just to kick things off, Ben in the back back there.

What I'm gonna do on the PowerPoint, I just kind of give a if we could get a visual of just kind of or actually uh Tabitha's on the screen there.

Just kind of push us through that there because I want to give folks a visual of the various, and we'll just stop there at the overview here.

Uh of course we talked last night about the the walls and the gate in the front.

Only, oh by the way, the gate is facing what direction?

What?

Sure it is.

It's an eastern gate.

You ever sing the old song, I'll meet you in the morning, just inside the eastern gate?

When Jesus comes back, what gate is he coming into Jerusalem?

He's coming by way of the eastern gate.

And every place that Israel put the tabernacle, they made sure God instructed them, make sure the door's to the east, because I'm coming through the eastern gate.

So you want to enter in by the eastern gate.

So that's the walls.

It spills exclusivity.

It says that not anyone can go into the tabernacle.

You have to come by the prescribed way that God has established to enter there.

So you couldn't go over the walls or under the walls or through the walls.

You go by the prescribed way.

When you step inside, the first thing that we encounter as you get into the tabernacle is what's called the outer court.

Can anyone remember what the outer court represents?

What part of the Godhead is the outer court?

Anyone remember?

I heard it back there.

Jesus.

He came incarnate.

The word became flesh and tabernacled among us.

So he is the outer court.

And in that outer court, what represents Jesus is this thing that we have right here, which is the brazen altar.

And you'll see the big old flames flying up there.

And the brazen altar.

And when we have this thing set on the tabernacle prayer, when you come in, the first thing you're going to see is this brazen altar.

And as I said, if if God willing, there'll be some smoke and some fire.

Now don't get concerned, I got a plan, so I'm not going to burn anything down here.

But that's what this altar represents.

It's fire.

It represents the burning sacrifice.

And by the way, every one of the pieces of furniture was on poles, and the reason for the poles was to make it portable, to transport it.

As Israel was going through the wilderness, God said, My uh articles, my uh furnishings, my tabernacle will be carried on the shoulders of the priest.

You know what that reminds me of?

It reminds me of the command to the church.

We it's up to us to be able to carry the prayer.

It's up, you know, we can't count on anybody else to transport and move the work of God outside the Holy Spirit empowering us to pray and to commit that.

So we there were there were times when they tried to put it on a new cart.

Anyone remember what happened when that it started tipping over and uh Ohio or Ohio or whatever tried to stay stable at man and he he he got zapped.

Because you well, first of all, number one, you'd got to do it God's way.

That's right.

God has a plan.

If we get that through our minds, we we also think we've got a better way.

You know, we always got a better plan.

And God says, if you just do it according to the book.

And then when God spoke to uh to uh Moses in the in the detailed instruction, he kept saying to Moses over and over, you read it.

Matter of fact, that's your assignment.

Exodus chapter 24, 25, 26, when he when God gives him instructions, he keeps saying over and over, build it according to the plan.

Exodus 24 · chapter mention

Why?

Why was he so concerned?

Every pin, every hoop, every color, every every little measurement, every size, what was he doing?

He was he was making a scale model of what already eternally exists in heaven.

So what what that that's in Hebrews, and it can remember I shared those scriptures in Hebrews chapter 8, Hebrews chapter 9, Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews 8 · chapter mention Hebrews 9 · chapter mention Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

It keeps using words like this is a copy of the true tabernacle.

This is symbolic of the true tabernacle.

This is a representation, a replica is what it is.

So when Moses was building it, he was building a scale model of what heaven looked like.

Now he didn't know it at the time, but God says, make sure you get the right colors in the right place at the right time and put it together according to the patterns and do it my way.

So don't try to do God's work any other way than the way God prescribed it to be done.

And God says, everything is carried by the priest.

Don't fix up your little cart and think, oh, we can do it another way.

We can master and accomplish God's work, some other new new cart.

Put it on the shoulders of God's people.

And I might say something here real quickly.

Each one of you, and we're gonna talk about this tomorrow night, are called to be priests.

Yeah.

So you know what that means?

That means the work of the Lord is on your shoulders.

Yes.

Don't try to push it off on someone else.

God says, My work will be carried by my people.

And we're not called as spectators, we're not called to say the pastor's gotta do it all, the deacon's gotta do it all, Sunday school teachers do it all.

We are all called as priests and we're called to minister and pick up the things of God.

And that's what we're gonna do on that prayer meeting night when we come through the back gates in there.

Now we're not gonna pick them up and carry them around, but but basically what we're gonna be doing is carrying on.

Can you turn this down just a little bit?

It's kind of ringing and it's irritating me.

There we go.

That's much yes, thank you, Ben.

That's that's it.

Can everyone hear me there?

Good deal.

Okay.

Uh I don't mind the trumpet sound, but I hate those ringing sounds.

All right.

Uh what was I saying?

Oh, yeah, when we come in, when we come in, we're not gonna be carrying the furniture around, but we're gonna be carrying the work of the Lord.

And that's on our shoulders.

If the church isn't going forward and what and we're not seeing God do what he's called us to do, and the church isn't reaching its community, maybe someone's letting it down, and we're not picking up, getting our shoulders.

How many was here and seen the guys carrying this in?

You know, what we did at our church at uh at uh Calvary is I did this series on a on a six-week or eight-week series, and each week we had the guys dress up in the priest outfit, four guys dressed up as priest, and when we uh announced it, we had the songs singing about entering his gates and so on, or or uh uh what about the heaven the heaven song about uh let the let the gates of open up the heavens.

We sang those celebration songs, and all of a sudden the trumpet would blast, and those priests would come through carrying these great big old things from the from the labor to the altar of incense to to the brazen altar to the lampstand.

The priest each Sunday carried another piece down and we left it on the stage, and the next Sunday we brought another piece, and the next Sunday we brought another piece, and each piece we celebrated what it meant, and then we ended up after six weeks of discovering the furnishings, we had the all-night prayer meeting.

And uh, like I said, 360 some people.

We couldn't, we didn't close it down until 7 o'clock in the morning.

And people just kept coming and coming, even ones that didn't sign up.

Our whole youth department came through it, and uh, they were uh out on some kind of retreat and got in at 2 o'clock in the morning from their retreat, and when they came in, they saw all the lights on in the church and came in and found out we were having an all-night prayer meeting, they just jumped in and spent the rest of the night going through the tabernacle praying uh as teenagers.

So we had a glorious time.

And as I said on Sunday morning, after that encounter that we had, Sunday after Sunday for several weeks, on Sunday mornings, someone stood up or several stood up and gave testimony about how God touched their life because it's just it's a visual.

We can't do this every time we pray, but when we see the visual, what I'm gonna challenge you to do is then begin to have your devotional time and mentally walk through these steps.

Because it's hard to keep focused for an hour of prayer without having a visual and just walk through, and it gives you a system.

And even these elements that we are gonna talk about, Jesus, when he taught the disciples in his in his model high uh prayer, each of these elements are already in there.

You can you can look at them and break them down, and you can see how this pattern Jesus taught to his disciples uh through his through their prayer.

So that's exactly what takes place.

This altar, we'll talk about that, and then we also, you probably can't see it, but there's a brazen altar up here.

And I looked everywhere for a plastic one.

I'm telling you what, all I could find is solid cement, and it is heavy.

Uh but it the obviously the labor was probably much bigger than that.

But what we're gonna do, let me just give you kind of an idea.

When we get when we gather in here and we come around the altar, we may get we may gather on on our knees, we may stand with our hands raised, but that prayer time, that prayer station, is gonna be all about the cross, about Jesus, the Lamb of God that was placed on an altar some 2,000 years ago, that in one mighty sweeping act paid the price of our sin.

And that's the main focus.

We don't go any further toward God until we stop at the cross and recognize and acknowledge what Jesus, the Lamb of God, did.

And then we start thinking while we're there of all the system and everything that happened in the in children with the children of Israel and the Israelites and everything the high priest had to go through, all the meticulous order of events and everything they had to do to approach God, and we just say, God, thank you, that it was all paid by Jesus.

It's a time to celebrate the cross, it's a time to worship Jesus and thank God for your salvation and praise him for the wonderful gift, the Lamb of God.

And then when we when we acknowledge Jesus, the next thing in the outer court, you'll see that there was a that there was a labor.

And uh when you go from there, the priests would go to the labor, and they would we'll have water in the labor, and we'll ask folks, and there'll be some tiles there.

We'll ask folks as they gather around the labor to each of you take some of the water, put it on your hands, and uh and and ask God for a fresh cleansing to wash you.

And it's not just the what washing of the water by the word, it actually represents the blood of Jesus that he gave at Calvary, the blood that cleanses and makes us whiter than snow, and we stop at that place there.

You see, can can you see the progression?

Can you see the steps?

As we're not we're not rushing into the Holiest of Holies, we're not blasting into God's presence.

We are going by way that God has prescribed for us.

And we stop there and we get everything out of the out of the way.

All right.

Uh there's the there's the labor, and they've brought the water in and the priests are washed.

Well, let's stop at the that's let's stop it at that point, Tabitha.

And let me just uh let me focus on the outer court.

This this is Jesus.

He's represented, he's he's God the God in the flesh.

But let me pray first.

God, as we I don't know, Lord, there's nothing that excites me more than than this series of message, God.

I there's just sometimes when I when I think and I and I study and I pray, God, that I I just can come unglued at times, Lord.

I I'm not an emotional man, Lord.

I I don't get excited at football games and baseball games, and I don't get excited about a whole lot of uh material and worldly things and gatherings.

But Father, when it comes to this stuff, when I realize the eternal value and the lessons that you taught, going all the way back into the Old Testament and the incredible symbolism, the incredible representation, the incredible copy, just this small speck of what heaven, when you brought heaven to earth so that you could, in all your presence and glory, that Shekinah glory, could dwell with us.

God, I thank you for that.

Praise you for that, Lord.

I thank you, Lord God, that we don't have to go through all this sacrifice and all these laws and regulations and rules and stipulations, Lord, to come into your presence.

Jesus made a way for us.

And God, I just worship you tonight and I thank you.

I pray as we talk about the cross tonight, Lord, that you just remind us of what Jesus did for all of us, Lord, that we might, on that Friday night when we come in here to pray, just say, Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you for what you have done in Christ's name.

Amen.

Well, when you get into the gate, go through the gate, the first thing you're gonna see is this an altar.

What is an altar?

An altar is a place.

Altars are all the way through the Bible, and altars are made for death.

You don't have a picnic on an altar, you don't find life on an altar.

Altars were made for death.

Sacrifice.

Go back to Abraham.

God called him to take Isaac, his only son, and go up to the mountain and sacrifice his son on an altar.

Remember how he built the altar?

And uh, well, you know the story, how God provided the ram and got in our picture of Jesus, our our sacrificial lamb that was given.

But it's a it's a sign, it's a symbol that when we come to this altar, there has to be a death.

But praise God, instead of the lambs, thousands of them being slain and put on this altar, what we rejoice in is that one person died.

One person made the sacrifice.

It's the death of the Lord Jesus Christ that paid it all.

And we can come and celebrate that one glorious step that Jesus made for us to atone for our sins.

We're aware that the Bible says that the wages of sin is death.

And if we're all sinners, then we all have to die.

So if we come into the gates and we find the first thing is an altar, you have a choice to make.

The choice is this: what are you going to put on the altar?

What is going to save you?

What is going to be offered for your sin?

You can try to get salvation through putting your good works on there, you can try to put your offerings on there, try to put your money on there, put your family on there, you can even put your own life on there to get burned.

But outside of Jesus, every other status every other sacrifice is not sufficient.

It does not meet the holy demands of the righteous and just God.

Only Jesus' death on the cross could do that.

So you have a choice to make.

Are you gonna atone for your own sin with your own sacrifices for the wages of sin, or are you gonna offer?

Here's the choice.

Are you gonna are you gonna look at this altar and thank God for the Lamb of God, or are you gonna put your own lamb on it?

What lamb goes on your altar?

Everybody, listen to me, everybody has altars in their life.

Everybody worships something in their life.

God has placed within us when we were when we were created a spirit that makes us different than any other creation.

And that spirit within us gives us an awareness that there is a God.

There's a spirit within us that we have to worship.

I don't see animals worshiping anything.

They don't have a spirit within them.

The Bible tells us we were created with a spirit, with an innate spirit within us that draws us towards something to worship.

And everybody's gonna worship something.

Even an atheist.

They're gonna worship something.

They may say they have no God, but I guarantee they're gonna have something that they worship.

Atheist or no atheist.

It's either going to be visible or invisible.

It's either gonna be holy or profane.

It's either gonna be elaborate or it's gonna be ordinary, but they're gonna worship something.

The world is full of altars.

There's no shortage of altars in our world today.

And you have a choice.

When everybody stands at that altar, we have a choice.

Is it gonna be Jesus or something else?

I choose Jesus myself.

Everyone is drawn to a cause.

Everyone, whether they uh give themselves to ideologies, whether they give themselves over to dreams, whether they give themselves over to simple pleasures, they're giving themselves over to something.

Ecclesiastes says God puts eternity in their hearts.

So all of creation, everybody's gonna sacrifice and offer something.

Uh I saw the well, just by way of illustration.

Please, I hope this doesn't offend anybody.

I I like to watch football.

I like to watch the Super Bowl.

But I was kind of shocked.

Patriots won how many?

Five?

Tom Brady, great guy.

But I want to tell you what, and and it being as it is, there's nothing wrong with loving football and loving sports.

But this is just Randy speaking, okay?

This is not the word of the Lord.

This is Randy speaking.

But when I saw the Super Bowl and I watched it, and uh disappointed a little bit because I was going for the Falcons, and uh and all and all of a sudden it turned around and uh New England Patriots won again.

But the thing that shocked me, not that they won, but the thing that shocked me is at the end when they all lined up across the field in a row, and uh Michael Strahan, I think it was, took that great big old trophy with a big football on top of it.

Did you see it?

You you probably all went to bed.

He walked down, and every one of those players were street stretching out to touch it, to put a finger on it.

And many of them reached, many of them, probably half of them, reached out and grabbed it and kissed it.

I'm thinking to myself, is that their God?

I mean, it's like falling down and worshiping this idol.

And they get it and they hold it up and everybody cheers and celebrate.

And please believe me, this is just me speaking.

But I just say to myself, how much in our world today have we taken the Lord Jesus Christ, the very Lamb of God, and sacrificed him and pushed him, taken that sacrifice, pushed him away and put something in its place?

And then Tom Brady, did you did you read that uh someone stole his jersey out of his locker room?

And here's what the news broadcaster said in our area.

Someone snuck in uh and stole his jersey, uh, and uh they took the holy grail.

They took the holy grail.

I want to tell you what, they said it was worth half a million dollars.

Oh my goodness.

I'm gonna tell you, I wouldn't give you half a cent to a stinking smelly old sweaty t-shirt or jersey shirt with a number on it.

I'm gonna tell you, that's what our world is, I'm just saying, that's what our world is worshiping.

This is what's our what uh what our country has come to.

And like I said, please please don't get me wrong.

You go away offended thinking I'm against sports.

No, everything has its place, but I'm gonna tell you, for me, for me, I'm not gonna be kissing on some trophy someplace.

I'm not gonna be worshiping some idol that's uh run a football down a field.

As great as that is and wonderful as that is, I don't know, it's just me, but my passion and my focus for 45 years of ministry is I want Jesus to be paramount in my life.

I want him to be supreme.

I want to be able to worship him.

I want to be able to kiss on him and bow before him and say, God, I give you all.

You laid your life on the sacrifice, you gave your blood, and God, I want to crawl up on that altar.

And that's what Romans says.

When you see Jesus on the altar, you begin to associate with him, identify with him, and recognize what he's done for you.

You crawl up on the altar, Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2.

Romans 12:1

I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, you present your bodies a living sacrifice.

Crawl on that altar and say, God, I want to die with you.

Because altar means death.

The question this mor or this evening is: Have you died on the altar that Jesus died on to pay the price for your sin?

Because he's demanding that of you.

There's a sacrifice on his part, but there's a sacrifice on your part as well.

The cross.

Is it your holy grail?

You're gonna love and you're gonna serve and you're gonna believe in something or somebody.

I choose Jesus.

What do you put on your altar?

Determines whether you're gonna go any further in your relationship with God.

So do that when you come in for prayer.

When you hit there, don't go any further until you've made that decision.

I can't get any closer to God until I settle with Jesus.

He said, I'm the way, I'm the truth, and I'm the life.

So don't, I'm crucified with him.

Exactly.

It determines life and death.

Go no further until you've determined who's on the altar.

The Lamb of God or your Lamb.

The thing that blows my mind is I well, I'm gonna when I look at the when I look at boy, I've got so much to do here, and I'm I'm I need to I need to hurry.

Here's I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna talk tonight about Paul's statement concerning this cross, because what a here's the choice.

Here's the choice.

Your sacrifice of your lamb or that lamb.

It's either this altar or that altar.

And I choose the cross.

See, when we had this at our church, we had a we had a big old wooden cross, and when we had the smoke coming out of it and so on, we we laid that great big old wooden cross over top of it.

It said, That's what it used to be, but here's what it is today.

It's all about Jesus.

Paul the Apostle in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 2 says, For I resolve to know nothing.

2 Corinthians 2:2

Could you imagine this?

I resolved to know nothing.

An intelligent man, a learned man, a scholarly man, that he said, I determined or I resolve or I commit myself to know nothing while I was with you except Christ, Jesus crucified.

That's all that really mattered.

Until we settle that question.

And then he goes on in Galatians and says this God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, Galatians 6, 14.

I don't want to glory in anything.

Nothing, again, football, doesn't matter what it is.

I don't care if it's a knitting club, uh, cooking club, golfing.

I mean, we could go on and on.

We we just have our gods stacked up everywhere.

God is saying to us, when are we going to be willing to just glory in that cross and live that life of glory?

What got what Paul was writing to the Galatians was that there was a group of leaders in the Galatian church that after they were introduced to the cross and start celebrating what Jesus did on the cross, there was a group of leaders that were trying to pull the believers back into Judaism.

They were trying to say, come on, we don't need this cross.

Let's let's go back to the old law.

Let's go back to the old way that we used to.

And I'm thinking to myself, what kind of idiot, what kind of idiot and fool would say, leave the cross and go back to this old style right there.

I mean, in the day of Passover, there were 120,000 lambs that had to be slain.

Could you imagine the blood and the guts and the gore in that place in Passover?

You could see the activity that was going on.

I mean, the smoke that was rising up there filled the valley full of smell of smoke and burning flesh.

Thousands and thousands of lambs were slain.

22,000 oxen were killed and their blood taken in and meat burned on this altar.

And these people were saying, instead of this one dynamic sacrifice, instead of the one mighty divine act where sin was paid for by one righteous sacrificial lamb of God, where he gave his life on the cross of Calvary, we'll give up all that sin debt paid for once and for all, forever, never have to slaughter another sheep, never have to bring in another turtle dove, never have to walk through all this uh commotion of going through the altars and washing our hands in water, going in and going through the labors and going to the lampstand and crawling into the holiest of holies, never again have to do that because of one righteous, holy act that settled the righteous judgment of God forever and ever when it was put on him.

All the sins of the world, not just one or two, all the sins of the world was piled on Jesus because his blood is sufficient to cover every sin of every person.

Give up that to go back to this.

No wonder Paul said, Hey, you go do what you want to do, but as for me, my life was going to be filled with giving God glory and praise.

Save the cross of Christ, I'll preach nothing else.

That is most important.

Galatians chapter 1, verse 6 and 7.

Galatians 1:6

Paul says, if any preach any other gospel, let them be accursed.

And then he said, and I repeat.

Let me give that to you again.

Anybody wants to preach any other gospel, let them be accursed.

And I want to tell you what today, preaching of the cross is being diminished in many churches.

Resorting to everything where our platforms are becoming political platforms, our preaching health and wealth seminars, preaching of the cross.

Instead of preaching the cross, we can do workshops and seminars and theological classrooms.

There's nothing wrong with any of those things.

But listen to me, folks, the main preaching of this church, which I don't even have to ask what goes on here.

I I know what's preached from this right there behind that uh curtain there is that cross, and and your pastor stands behind that every Sunday morning, and he has for years and years, and you don't drive him from the cross.

That's right.

It's the cross, the message that builds God's church.

But sadly enough, many churches are resorting to talent shows and performances and anything else other than just getting up and flat out preaching Jesus.

The cross.

I read this story, and I I don't know how true it is.

You know, you read things, but anyway, it could be true.

Uh but there was a church up in the New England states that started off preaching the blood of Jesus, great things, built a great church.

And and when they built this great uh stone church, etched over the door was we preach Christ crucified.

That's awesome.

And they did for years and years.

The place was flooded.

They they they swept through their community and and great revival came.

But in the process of building their church, they also planted in the front ivy bushes that grow up the side.

And as the years began to come and go, the ivy bush began to crawl up the side of the church, and pretty soon at the ivy bush grew up as it came up on the left side, it covered uh the the the word uh crucified.

As the ivy begins to continue to grow, it soon came across the word crucified, where it was just I we preach Christ.

As it began to grow, it started moving over a little bit further, and pretty soon the ivy covered Christ.

And it just said, then we preach.

And then pretty soon after years, no one even noticed what was taking place.

It continued to grow up the side of the church until all it said was we.

I'm gonna tell you what, there's many, that may be just a story, I don't know.

But I'm gonna tell you what is true in many churches today, and it's sad because churches dying today because they don't want to hear the message of the cross.

It's too bloody for them.

They don't want to hear it.

They'd rather read some stories or have some poetry or have some guy stand up for 15 minutes and come off with some kind of little light little uh scripture reading.

And uh uh man, the preaching of the cross, it cannot be.

Preaching of the cross, why that why the cross?

It's the most brilliant strategy known to man.

Yes, the plan of God.

It and it solves the most difficult part, a difficult problem that ever was faced by man.

Scholars have tried to study it, skeptics have tried to dismiss it, tyrants have tried to eradicate it, uh, armies have marched against it, but I want to tell you what, once you've experienced it, you'll never forget it.

That's right.

It is still there.

They could try to abolish it, you could try to burn the Bible and destroy it and not talk about the preaching, but the preaching of the cross is still just as much alive today and real today.

And uh one day, what do you do with the cross?

That one day in history will determine where you're gonna spend eternity.

One day, six hours, what you do with that, what you do with this altar will determine that.

And we uh oh, the cross is everywhere, it's still in churches.

It's it's an ornate figure.

We see it on walls and see it uh and on ornaments around our neck, and we have those little wooden crosses here and there, and and our architecture in our church is built around a cross.

But uh it goes much deeper than that.

It was a Roman cross, uh the cruel, most vile death that anyone could ever face, and Jesus took the grotesque brutality of the cross and died on that.

And we glory in that.

Why?

Because that is our salvation, that's what God did to secure our eternal redemption.

So when we come in in our prayer time and we look at this cross, when we look at the altar, we say, Thank God we didn't have to bring a lamb tonight.

Thank God we didn't have to bring an animal in here tonight.

Thank God we don't have to come and put some blood on this altar because the blood's already been shed.

It's been shed by Jesus, and just thank him.

The cross itself is filled with wonder and mystery and magnificence.

It's profound truth.

And I never get tired preaching it, brother.

Never get tired.

And I pray that I prayed and said, God, I don't care what I'm teaching or what direction I go in my preaching, always come back to the cross.

Because people need to hear about the cross.

The cross still has its power, still full of glory, uh, because it was that one person that died.

You see, there were thousands of crosses in the Roman uh crucifixion, and um thousands of people died, but it's not the cross itself that's so magnificent, it's the one that's on the cross.

It's the Savior that died, he's the magnificent one.

And the cross is only an emblem of what he went through to suffer for our sins.

The cross of the age, the the cross of the ages crucified the sovereign God.

How can you, how can you digest that?

I mean, how can you contemplate the creator of the universe was mauled by his creation?

How do you, how do you, how do you contain that?

How do you figure that?

It's things that we'll never quite understand.

How do you how do you how do you explain to anyone that God died?

And you say, well, God didn't die on a cross.

Well, if the Bible says that God was in Jesus and He was God, if He's really God, then God had to die on the cross.

I was talking, I have a converted uh Muslim friend, uh Karim Selah, that was recently over in Egypt persecuted for his faith and turning to Christ, came to the United States as a member of our church, and uh uh and I was sharing with him in a message that God died on the cross.

And he came up to me, and you know he said, he said, I I'm a Christian and I believe that Jesus died on the cross, but God didn't die there.

And I said, if God is in Jesus, then God had to die on the cross.

It was God's death.

And he said, Well, who run the universe?

If God died for three days and three nights, why did things just blow up?

And I said, I don't know.

Ask God when you get there.

I can't explain it all, but I do know that the Bible tells us that Acts chapter 20, verse 2028 says, the church of God which he God purchased with his own blood.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

It was God's blood.

I don't, I can't explain that either.

Divine blood flowed from the cross of Calvary, it wasn't human blood.

It wasn't just a human body, it was not just another criminal dying on a cross of cruel, grotesque death, beaten by brutal mankind.

No, it was God there paying the price, giving his life for us.

2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 19.

2 Corinthians 5:19

God, God in Christ, according or reconciling the world to himself.

How does Jehovah suffer?

How does eternal God die?

How can man kill God?

How can God shed blood?

How can a holy God become sin for us?

I don't know, but I believe it.

I don't know, but I love it anyway.

If the Bible says it, I believe it.

And I just stand on the word, and I know that that's the price that had to be paid at that altar for me to be set free.

And you know something?

I don't understand it, but I'll glory in it.

Forever I will glory in the cross.

Well, uh let me let a few minutes here, we'll we'll wrap this up.

Let me deal with the centrality of the cross.

What is this cross?

The centrality of the cross.

It's a central to everything.

That's why it's the first thing we need.

It's a central number one.

It's a central into the graphical.

Uh Europe.

Well anyway, Europe Europe is west of it.

And then it stands between there, and over here's the Orient, which is uh uh uh China and Korea and Japan, and here's this little chunk of land that's situated right between these massive places, massive land, and that's where the cross went down.

And I I I I just am foolish enough to believe that where Galgotha is, where the cross was in the ground, that that's a center point.

God just pointed down and said, This cross is gonna cover everybody from all generations.

I'm gonna put it right in the middle of everything, and it's gonna be planted right there.

Central location.

Everyone can find it, everyone can see it.

It's the origin there also of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

All the three major world religions have their Orion right there.

Central and location.

It also remains as this uh strategically, economically, politically, culturally, and religiously the center of everything that's going on today.

You can't turn the television on without being directed to the Middle East.

That little place over there, that little that little speck of the world map is the center geographically.

Number two, the cross, the centrality of the cross is also it was central in time.

People can say they don't believe in a historical Jesus all they want, but something split time wide open here.

Everything is before Christ and everything is after Christ.

The uh Gregorian calendar started from the time of Christ.

And we and we look at ACE, AD, and BC and all the calendars, and all the time is set, and someone says, Was there a real Jesus?

Well, something had to be world-shaking in order to change all of time and for us still today to set our clocks and set our time and set our calendars according to one event that took place that changed everything.

Galatians 4, 4, in the fullness of time.

God knew what he was doing.

He split historical time between two things with the cross.

The cross where Jesus was crucified is so pivotal that it determines our Western calendars even today.

It changed the course of time.

Number three, its centrality of the cross is also center in its structure.

There was the high ta and the low ta cross.

The high ta cross was this cross that went across here and down, but they believe with studying history that the Roman cross was the low ta cross, which is basically the cross.

It what you know what the cross reminds me of is cross arrows.

It's a cross arrow.

In other words, God just uh if y'all you're hunters, if you look through your scope, you'll see the cross arrows.

And if you want to shoot something, you want to hit it right in the middle, you put the cross arrows right in the middle.

And that's the structure of the cross.

And what it says to us is God put that, planted that cross right in the center of the earth to reach down with its direction into humanity and point up vertically into the heavens, and it connected God with man.

And then the cross goes out horizontally, which reaches out to every direction.

Acts chapter 10, verse 13 says that all the prophets witnessed and spoke about this incredible cross, this structure that brought together all things of the scripture.

Acts 10:13

Jesus spoke to the disciples on the road to Emmaus and said, I want to point out how I was in the Old Testament.

Jesus is from Genesis to Revelation.

He's all through the Bible, he's the center of the book, he's the center structure of the cross.

And then besides that, he was also in the middle, uh, crucified in the middle.

Here's the thief on one side, uh, and here's the man that uh uh says, Remember me when you enter into your kingdom.

He divides, everything is divided by the cross.

It's either saved or lost.

It's either a child of God or child of the devil.

I mean, we don't have the Jews and the Gentiles and the males and the females and the black and the white and the rich and the poor, the slaves and the masters, and the Democrats and Republicans.

Man, we have we have one thing that divides us.

It all comes to the centrality of what side of the cross are you on?

Are you on Remember Me when you enter into your kingdom?

Or are you on this side over here where you're a thief and you die in your sin and spend eternity in hell?

The effect of this centrality of the cross says, Come to me.

Acts chapter 4, verse 12 says, No other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

Acts 4:12

It's the cross, praise God.

No, nor is there salvation in any other.

It's that that divides.

It's the cross centrality of mankind, the effect upon mankind.

It divides and it comforts, it turns people away, it draws people together.

It's a stumbling block of offense, and yet it's the anchor for healing and wholeness.

It's righteousness that runs on one direction, and the unsaved and the unrighteous run the other direction.

Wickedness flee away from it, and the righteous flee toward it.

It's the cross members.

One is offended by it, one is saved by it.

Praise God for the wonderful centrality of the cross.

And and then finally, the cross is central in its message.

As I said, well, I have all kinds of scripture here that talks about this cross.

That's what I love about the Old Testament.

I I just love to go in and find Jesus everywhere.

He's just everywhere.

I preach a lot of the Old Testament.

Why?

Because I just love finding Jesus in this book.

Everywhere.

Martin Luther said this.

Listen very carefully.

Martin Luther wrote, No man understands the scripture unless he be acquainted with the cross.

The cross alone is our theology.

Needless to say, the cross is not some elo listen.

Needless to say, the cross is not some elementary doctrine that we learn early in our Christian lives so that we can be moved on to meatier things.

The cross is to remain front and center and guarding and shaping every other doctrine that we learn.

Do not let a day go by in which the cross is not pondered and reflected upon.

That's why when you step inside, you see the cross.

It's center to everything.

I'm gonna stop with uh could I have do I have time for one more little quick story?

Then we're done.

It just came to mind here, but it's kind of humorous.

Uh, you'll appreciate this, Danny.

I was I was 27 years old, pastoring the first church that I planted uh in uh in Du Bois, Pennsylvania, and I was in the office one day and a knock came to the door, and I opened up the door, and this this young couple uh stepped in my office.

And uh he was he they it was obvious he were bikers because they had leathers all over them and and their hair, you know what, you know what bikers look like.

Uh tattoos.

Here's a here's a biker right here.

He had more tattoos than you have, man.

I mean, they were decked out.

She had earrings in and things, and you know, and I brought him in.

We joked around a little bit, I gave him a cup of coffee, and and I said, How could I help you?

And um they said, We're bikers.

I said, I I think that I think that's obvious.

You look like bikes.

We're bikers, and um, we we want to get married.

And we were downtown on our bikes, and someone told us down there that there was a church out here in Smithtown that had a pastor that rides a bike.

And I said, Yeah, I have a motorcycle.

And he said, We want a pastor that rides a motorcycle to do our wedding.

And I said, uh, okay, that sounds fun.

What do you want to do?

And he said, Well, there's a there's a group up in uh Allegheny Forest that are meeting up there.

It's called A-Bait, and the A-Bait Club goes up there every year and they have this spot picked out, and all the bikers come in and we party up there and have a good time.

We ride, go to trips and stuff.

And what we want you to do is ride your motorcycle up there on Saturday and uh ride uh into the center of the camp, and then we want to ride our motorcycles down in the middle of the bikers that are lined up on both sides, and we want to get married there.

And I said, Man, that sounds fun.

And I I said uh I said uh what time you want me to be there?

And they said, Oh, come on in about two o'clock.

I said, No, wait, wait a minute.

Uh you you'd mentioned Harley's.

They said, Yeah, we it's a Harley Club.

I said, I don't drive, I don't have a Harley.

I have a Honda.

And he said, Oh, man, no problem with that.

You're our guest.

Anybody can drive anything that they want if they're our guests.

Everybody in the whole camp will know that our preacher's coming to do our wedding, and you'll come in on, and we'll have someone meet you out at the end and escort you in.

I had a Honda 500 dirt bike, and I and I come cruising in with my with my with my preacher clothes on, you know, to do this wedding.

I come cruising down in there.

And uh when I hit this dirt road, it was in Allegheny National Forest, I hit this dirt road, and all of a sudden there were just bikers everywhere.

I mean, from the time I turned in there, it was lined up with tents and campers and bikers, and and I still have a visual of this one guy.

He was a huge, big hawk of a guy.

He he he he he had his shirt off, his belly was this big around.

I mean, he was huge, he was sitting on the bank, and his belly was sticking out like this, and he had tattooed on his belly, this big around, a bullseye with his belly button as the middle.

And I thought I'm I'm riding in this guy's escort.

Will you just follow me?

Come on down.

And I'm riding down there, and I'm looking around, and I'm thinking, man, I'm I'm in wrong company here.

And I drove into the middle, and then then I saw when I got down there this tanker full of uh uh Budweiser beer.

I mean, it was a whole, it was a tractor trailer truck.

It was a tanker full of beer, and they had beer kegs scattered everywhere, and there were people.

Laying half naked on the banks and strung out over trees and hanging out looking like bikers look, you know, just they were strung out on drugs, they were drunk on alcohol, and I come up and I stopped the bike and I said, Am I supposed to be here?

And the guy said, You are our guest, we've been waiting for you.

We're gonna have a wedding today.

Come on with me.

And we pulled me off the side and we went over, and he blew a whistle or give a shout or something, or blew his horn or something, and all the bikers started up and they come and lined up as long as far as I could see.

And they said, We want you to get on your bike and ride down the middle.

And when you get to the bottom, get to the end down there, stop and turn your bike off, and then the bride and groom will come down on their motorcycles.

They drove down to the middle and we had a wedding.

I was their guest of honor.

I'll say this one little thing in case I forget.

I was so honored when they left.

They said, We want to make you an official member of the A-bait uh club.

And they pulled out this t-shirt with a naked lady holding a beer can up and said, You take this with us, an A-bait written on the back of it.

And I stuck it in my motorcycle and took it home.

And I told my wife, look what I got for my first wedding.

And she said, she said, Get rid of that thing, throw it out now.

And um, it was hilarious, it was hilarious.

But I was her guest of honor.

They treated me like a king there.

You say, What does this have to do with the cross?

Listen to me very carefully.

I didn't know what I what all I said that day, what I was incorporating in that wedding, but I guarantee it was something about the cross and Jesus being a savior.

Five years later, at that same church, I heard that there was a traveling evangelist and his wife was singing, and he was going around sharing his testimony.

I invited him on a Sunday morning to come to our church to share his testimony.

Into his testimony.

His wife sang beautifully.

She sang Christian songs and it was just wonderful.

And then he got up and he was covered with tattoos.

He was a big old guy.

I mean, a hulk of a guy.

Big old muscles' arms are like this.

Got up behind that pulpit and said, My testimony is this.

He said, It wasn't too far from here, up into Allegheny National Forest five years ago.

I was stoned out of my mind laying on the bank with my uh girlfriend, who was his wife, Angela uh Ramsey, with my girlfriend.

We were laying there, we slept in a tent, and we were both stoned out of our heads.

But we didn't, we there was a wedding going on that day.

And as he's talking about this, I'm thinking, there was a wedding going on?

This is up in Allegheny Forest.

There was a wedding going on, and it was this preacher who drove in on this on a Honda in a Harley Davison club.

He drove in on a Honda and he drove down in the middle and got out, got his Bible out.

And we my wife and I sat there, stoned out of our minds, not even knowing, but we heard that Jesus died for our sins.

And we heard that we were sinners and we were going to hell.

And he said, As sure as God is my witness, when I looked out over that preacher, there was a big old huge cross that I saw.

And I turned to Angela and I said, Do you see the cross?

Do you see that cross up in the sky right there?

That's God calling us to salvation.

That's God calling us.

And I'm gonna tell you what, that man tried to put it off, and he said, I didn't make a decision.

I just saw that preacher with that great big old cross in the sky behind him.

And then the next day we got on our bikes and drove down through Brookville, and he said, When we hit the interstate, trying to get it out of my mind, all of a sudden when I hit the interstate, I looked up ahead, and there's that great big old cross in the sky.

And he said, God gave me two chances.

He said, I pulled my bike over, and Angela and I got on our knees and we asked Jesus to be our Savior.

And we gave our heart to Christ, and we've been serving God ever since going around tearing our testament.

And while he's giving his story, I'm down in the front seat.

I'm about coming unglued.

And when he and when he finished, I didn't want to interrupt him.

When he finished, I went up and put my arm around him and I said, That preacher, that preacher that you saw the crossover, that was me.

I'm the one with I'm the one with the Honda dirt bike that rode down the middle of that and gave that wedding that day.

I want to tell you what.

God is able to save the drunkard in the gutter, God is able to save the prostitute that lies in a ditch.

When they see the cross and they understand it's all about Jesus, that Lamb of God, and God's Holy Spirit speaks to them, they'll be saved.

Radically, dramatically saved.

That day after church service that morning, we had a hallelujah glory fit at uh Zion Baptist Church.

What a time to see that, or excuse me, it was Smithtown Community Church.

What a glorious time to see how God's cross makes a difference.