The Revelation Of The Cross 10
Jno. 3:16
No matter how loudly man ridicules Gods requirements for
moral and ethical conduct and the religious standards of personal
of righteousness taught in the Bible, the Cross of Calvary still
stands. Man can not altar that fact.
(2) The cross still stands as the only hope for a confused, fear-ridden
world. The only reconciliation with God comes through His only
begotten son. The cross sets before the world only one ultimatum.
Its Christ or nothing at all.
a. Christ is the greatest revelation ever given to man. That revelation
is stated in four, one
syllable words, God loved the world.
(1) You would not know that unless God stated that fact in His
Word and then demonstrated it in the person of His Son, Jesus
Christ.
That revelation say, God Is Love. A new kind of love.
Not the kind of love were familiar with. This is a NEW kind
of love. It is unselfish, unconditional and sacrificial. The kind
of love that is totally given to the one who is loved.
(a) This love is not focused on itself and the cravings of self.
It is focused on
you and me and our needs.
(b) Can you guess what is our greatest need? Thats not hard
to understand.
Our greatest need is the removal of the one thing that separates
us from God. That obstacle is Sin. As long as we are in sin we
are separated from God who is life.
Sin separates us from God and life which is in God. We are the
ones who turned away from God. We chose sin over God.
But, God still loves us and wants to save us from penalty of sin.
Rom. 5:8, God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Would you
consider dying for Ted Bundy or Osuma Ben Lauden? Would you do
that? God did.
1 Cor. 15:3, Christ died for our sins as stated in the Scriptures.
The Bible is Gods revelation to you and me. It reveals to
us how much God loves us and what God has done to save us. This
is the revelation of the cross.
1 Jno. 4:9?10, This is how the love of God was demonstrated
to us, God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that
we might live through Him. What is the revelation of the
Cross? To God, you are the most important and precious thing in
the world.
(3) Rom. 8:31?35, 37-39. God loves you and there is no limit to
that love. Doesnt that excite you? This is personal to you.
A love that has no limit and is so great that humans words just
cannot adequately describe it. You just have to experience it
in you own life.
(1) How did God make known this revelation of love? How was the
revelation given so we could hear it, understand it and grab hold
of it?
(1) Matt. 28:18?20.
(2) What is the Gospel they are to preach? 1 Cor. 15:1?4, I
declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also
you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved,
if you hold fast that word which I preached to you??unless you
believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which
I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the
third day according to the Scriptures. What is the Gospel
Paul Preached?
(3) The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus as an act of love
for your salvation.
(2) But those are historical facts. I cannot obey historical facts.
Thats true but you can obey a form of those facts. Rom.
6:17?18, But God be thanked that though you were slaves
of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart the form of that doctrine
to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin,
you became slaves of righteousness.
(1) The Gospel is the story of the historical fact of the death,
burial and resurrection of Jesus for your sins. I become a Christian
by obeying a form of the Gospel. A form of the death, burial and
resurrection of Jesus.
(2) When did I do that? Paul tells us when in Rom. 6:3?7, Do
you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him
through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk
in newness of life. (When I am baptized into Christ I receive
His dying for my sin and now that my sin is washed away I am raised
to walk in New Life, sinless life) For if we have been united
together in the likeness of His death, (Where am I united in the
likeness of His death? In baptism and Paul says thats when
I become like Christ) certainly we also shall be in the likeness
of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified
with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we
should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been
freed from sin.
(3) Thats the same revelation of the cross given by the
apostle Peter in 1 Pet. 3:20?21, The longsuffering of God
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared,
in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
There is also an antitype which now saves us??baptism (not the
removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience
toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
(1) What is the revelation of the cross that leads to salvation?
Preach the Word, hear the Word, obey the Word. Gods revelation
says in Rom. 10:17, Faith comes by hearing and hearing by
the Word of God. The Word is the revelation of the cross
and that Word says, Mk. 16:15?17, Go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is
baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
(2) Hear the revelation of the cross. Believe it, obey it and
you will be saved.
(3) Acts 20:32.
Spur - 01/27/2002 am
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