THE CROSS FROM EVERY ANGLE / NEIL HOPPER / 4.5.26

HE IS RISEN! Happy Easter from the Cedar Lake Podcast. We hope you are inspired and fulfilled by this week's message from Pastor Neil Hopper. If you would like to know more about us, visit our website at CLCC.church. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the Cedar Lake Podcast. We're a community in Cedartown, Georgia learning to follow Jesus with scripture, prayer, love, and generosity. We're glad you're here, and we believe today's message will encourage you. And to learn more about all things Cedar Lake, visit CLCC.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Today I want to take a few minutes this morning and talk to you about uh I'm gonna modify something. I preached this many years ago. Um I called it the cross in 3D, called it 4D. I don't know how many Ds they are, but uh you got to see the cross from every side. If you don't understand why Jesus had to go to the cross, and listen, just for record, there's some people say, oh my gosh. And their explanation of the gospel is so hideous and so misunderstood that they believe that somehow God had to, excuse the language, he had to beat the hell out of his son so I could be okay. And that is indeed not the case. Did Jesus he suffer, he bled, he died? Yes, but you got to understand what he did for you at the cross. And so a number of years ago, I began to meditate on why someone would write a song and say, When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my riches gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride. So I began to think about surveying the cross. What does it look like if we were to survey, like surveying land? You bring the surveyor out and you know every line, you understand what portion is yours and what is not yours. But the writer of the old song said, When I survey the wondrous cross, so I began to look at this and understand that the cross is where justice said hello to mercy. For approximately six hours, Jesus hung on that cross and justice meant mercy and grace. The cross satisfied God's justice. The wrath of God was completely satisfied for all ages. Since God is infinitely holy, to sin against him would be a crime. It would deserve punishment. Thus, God is just in punishing sinners with eternal punishment. But punishment for sin was taken by Jesus and it was nailed to the cross. It was all nailed. So I told everybody Friday night at communion, I said, you have to understand. Was you have to ask yourself this question Was the wrath of God satisfied once and for all at the cross of Calvary? Or is he still mad as hell at you and he wants to pour out his wrath on you? Is there a holy God? Is there a God that should be respected and reverenced, what we would call a holy reverence or a reverential fear? Yes. But I believe the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus. That's the reason when Isaiah prophesied, he said his visage, his person was marred. Listen, he said more than any man. Do you understand? You see beatdowns and on videos and movies and such, you said, man, that poor guy was just beaten to death. The Bible says Jesus, his visage was marred more than any man. It was marred more than any man. He took a beating. He took a beating in if you ever watch one of the Passion of the Christ movies or such, you will understand the beating that he took. So here's here so I'll push the forward button because I want you to see this. So if you were to if you were to look from above, if if God is looking down, looking at the cross from above, if he's looking down and he sees Jesus on the cross, here's what you need to know justice has been satisfied. The debt has been paid. And what's going to happen is in the Old Testament, uh it was still same God, different covenant. Same God, different covenant. And so in the in the uh in the first part of this, I want to talk about what happened from God's perspective. It was no longer about rituals, it was no longer about people trying to observe a law where they were trying to uh please God by rituals and law, and I don't do this and I do this, I go to this, and I go to the synagogue and I do this. So now it's just ritual and routine. And so what happens is he takes us from an old system, from what we would call an antiquated system, an outdated system, to a new covenant system, to a brand new way of looking. And so what happens is under the New Testament, the sacrificing of animals has stopped. Because here's what you need to understand about the cross. What you need to understand about the cross is this some things stopped at the cross. Some things stopped at the cross, right? Some things came through the cross, right? So what stopped at the cross was God judging you based on these laws that you had to keep that were impossible for you to keep anyway. Right? They were impossible. By the way, there weren't just people know the Ten Commandments, there were over 600 laws, and I can't even remember all of them, nor could you, nor could they. They were breaking laws that they didn't even know they broke. There were laws that you never even dreamed of, like you couldn't have two kinds of fabric on your body at the same time. There were laws that you couldn't understand. For example, there were certain foods you couldn't eat this food with this food. There were certain things that you couldn't do. And so, how are you supposed to remember? For those of you who've got a little age on you, it's hard enough for you to remember where you're supposed to go in the next hour or so, much less 600 and something laws. So you understand you can't keep those. You cannot keep those. And so he took them from that, and what they would do is every year they would, the priests would draw near and they would sacrifice animals, and it was symbolic of the Lord eventually, the Lamb of God being sacrificed for us all. So the animal sacrifice stopped. That's what the cross did. There's there was one final sacrifice for all time, who was a spotless lamb named Jesus, by which we will, by which we are sanctified through the offering of the blood of Jesus, the Bible says in Hebrews 10 and 10, once and for all. Now that's the the deal is can you believe that? It's not about us being good enough. Then there were things like uh dietary laws and ritual purity and all of these things. There were civil laws, there was all of these laws. There's some things that stopped at the cross. And some things, if you're looking from above, God looks on his son and says, I'm satisfied with that sacrifice. He is a spotless lamb that taketh away, the Bible says, taketh away the sin of the world. He's the spotless lamb. But if you also know about the cross, if you were to look from behind, if the cross is here and we're standing behind the cross and we're looking from behind, the first thing we see is the fact that by his stripes, we can see the stripes on his back. And we see by his stripes you're healed. 1 Peter 2 24, we see by his stripes we're healed. But also what was behind the cross, it was the law. The law and the Ten Commandments, I know it's a little hard for some of you to believe, you don't live by the Ten Commandments. You know why? You can't keep them. That's the reason the Bible says, for what the law could not do in that it was weak through your flesh. What the law could not do because it was weak through your flesh, God sent his own son to do that. So from behind, what we see is we see not only the stripes on his back, but we see the death of a Savior, and we know what's backed here is ritual and law and form that has no power. And they come and occasionally God visits. But what happens is when we come to the cross of Jesus Christ, from the backside, what we see is the law has been satisfied, and we've been cut off from the law. And now we live by a new law. It's called the law of the spirit of life in Christ that we find in Romans chapter 8 and verse 1. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ has freed us from what? From the law of sin and death. From the law of sin and death. So what's so you have complete, total justice. The wrath of God has been taken care of. So from above, he's looking down completely satisfied. Now, for you to understand that, you're gonna have to know that the reason you pray in Jesus' name isn't because it isn't because you're just, you know, you're you're praying in Jesus' name to tack that on the end of the prayer so that he feels, you feel good about it, and he feels good about it. What you're saying is, in the nature of Jesus, I'm praying in his nature, in his name. And so when he hears me praying, it's almost like the voice, in fact, I would say there is a that the tone of voice by which I pray when I say, in the name of Jesus, that's not in the name of Neil, that's in the name of Jesus. So now all of all of a sudden that's been taken care of. So then from behind, what we see is we see that sin has been forgiven because just for those of you who aren't understanding, uh, who don't come to church a whole lot, and I'm gonna break this down so hopefully, and maybe some of you have been to church your whole life, you didn't know this, but from the time of the beginning until the law showed up, how did they figure out what was sin? They didn't. They didn't. In fact, the Bible says there was sin in the world, but you couldn't call it sin because it hadn't been laid out. God is so just and so pure and so right. There was sin in the world, but until the law, in fact, there were the Bible says there was sin in the world, but until the law, when the law came, sin revived. You know why sin revived? It wasn't that sin was already dead, it's that they didn't know what it was. You couldn't define it. You have to to take care of a thing, and this is this is great for all of you. To take care of a thing, you have to define a thing. How can I take care of sin or any problem for that matter if I can't define what it is? Amen. Now we know what the problem is, there has to be an answer. And so the law comes and sin is revived. And now all of a sudden, what we have, listen, the Bible later calls this the law, a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Do you know why it's a schoolmaster? Because you needed to learn that you couldn't live by those commandments, nor can I, nor can anybody else in here. That's the reason we uh we have to have a savior. What you needed, and you can't be your own savior, by the way. You need something outside of you to save you because you're bad and all that, but you ain't that bad. You you you ain't that good. You need something outside of you. Do you know if man could save himself? Surely with all the technology and all the information that we have today, we would have already done it. You look at the chaos that's in the world today, if man could save himself, if we could just even learn to get along, we would have already done it. But we can't get along and we can't. Listen, we have there has to be a God who comes and sends a Savior who is his only begotten son. Why? Because you don't leave that job to just anybody. Mama used to say, if you're gonna do something right, you gotta do it yourself. So what did he do? He said, I'm gonna make sure this is done right. I'm gonna send my only begotten son. Because I gotta do this, this has to be done to perfection. So what do we see? We see from the back of the cross, the law stops. Now I'm living under a new order and a new understanding. I'm living by the power of the Holy Spirit who convicts me. Because, see, the first question is if there is no law, won't people be lawless? Well, Lord, if there is no law, what are we doing? Let's go party and have fun and kill people and do whatever we want to do. If we don't have Holy Spirit and we don't have God, then we treat people any old way we want to treat them. If there is nothing to answer to, but what happens is God gives us the Holy Spirit who brings conviction and helps us walk according to the word. So you understand what happens is there's a transaction that happens. We go from law to what we know as grace. There has to be grace. And grace is not just God winking at your sin and overlooking your sin. Grace is empowerment for you to overcome. So the Baptist church taught us that grace was God's riches at Christ's expense. Right? G-R-A-C-E. Anybody know that? Everybody's you you went to you went to Baptist Sunday school, didn't you, Brian? But what about this? What about God's riches and corresponding enablement? Grace is an empowerment, if you understand it. He gave us something that we needed because for what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God sent his own son to take care of that, and he gave us grace so that every time you fall down, every time you make a mistake, every time grace, if you will make a choice, he said, if you will confess your sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's what grace can do. The reason all of these people are here and in church and still enjoying God after 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years is because they found out about something that you may not be aware of called grace. Well, I thought grace would just let me do anything I want. No, grace, grace will lead you to the glory of God. Grace will lead you to the holiness of God, grace will cause you to walk in a path, you see, grace will lead you to a place where there's intimacy with the Father. Right? So, and here's where it's gonna get interesting. So, from behind the old covenant, there was an exchange. There's no more animal sacrifice. The Sabbath becomes, listen, the Sabbath, which is everybody says you remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Is that still a good idea? Yes, it's still a good idea, but you have to understand that now the Sabbath day becomes a person. The Sabbath day is something I stand in every day. I am resting in him every single day. I don't just, if I only rested in Christ and in the work that he did on the cross, if I only rested in that on Sunday, we'd all be on trouble because what if something happened to me on Monday? I'm resting in him and in his finished work every single day. Right? I'm resting in it every day. And lastly, there's some things that came through the cross. The way we worship. Now, there's some denominations that say we don't see instruments in the New Testament church. We could have those debates, talk about what they mean theologically. But for me, suffice it to say that I believe worship changed. It completely came through the cross. So you remember, some things stopped at the cross, some things came through the cross. And worship is one of those things that came through the cross. Tithing, we believe, came through the cross. Right? There's some things that didn't stop at the cross. And so if you understand what he's looking at from above, and you understand what it's cut us off from behind, then you may also want to take note that there were two thieves on both sides. And while the Bible doesn't name them, church history does. Church history names them. Now, I don't want to add to the Bible, but I'm just saying to you, we know there were two thieves there. They had to have some kind of name. And just so happened that there were people who kept notes and records back then, and they are those two men, those two thieves, I want you to hear this. If you ain't here been hearing anything else, if you haven't been listening, tune in right now because there are two thieves that will steal from your life. And if you let them, they will keep stealing from you. And if you will just understand the power. So these men, remember, one said, turns to Jesus and said, Um, if you really are who you say you are, I want to be in paradise with you. And the other one said, If you're really who you said you are, you'd take yourself down from here. But understand, these two guys, their names are very interesting. On the one side, history says that the guy's name is Dismas. D-I-S-M-A-S. So if you're looking at the cross from this side, you see Brother Dismas. And Brother Dismas, according to uh according to historians, his name, listen, his name means, get a load of this, his name means death or sunset. Fear of death, walking in a spirit of death, will rob from you all the days of your life. You can be as alive, your heart can be beaten, but you can be as dead on the inside. In fact, this is what Jesus said about them. He called them whitewashed, he called them whitewashed, he said, but inside you have dead men's bones. So it's a thief. So this thief living under depression and death and less than God's best, that that, you know, it it's always the sun's never coming up for these people, the sun's always going down. Because his name actually means death or sunset. Right? So on the day that he died, spiritual death died. Natural death is no longer a thief for us. This thief is symbolic of natural death. Death for the believer is no longer a thief that steals from us. We do not see death as a friend, I see it as an enemy. Because I want to stay here as long as I can. I always make the joke and say, if if you ask me if I want to go to heaven, I'll say yes. If you ask me, I'm getting up a load to go today, I'll decline. Why? Because something in me wants to be here with the people I love and enjoy what God gave me. And listen, I just laid to rest one of my best buddies from years ago, yesterday, and I'm convinced he is more alive today than he's ever been. I'm convinced he's more alive. Death couldn't steal from him anymore, right? So we we see death is not necessarily a friend. It ain't a friend, but it can't rob from me anymore. So from this side, we have Dismas. We have death and sunset. On the other side, you're gonna love me for this one or hate me one. On the other side is another guy, and if we're looking at the cross from this side, there's another guy. History records his name as Gestus, G-E-S-T-A-S.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

And Gestus means I just want to moan and complain because life ain't good to me.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Jesus suffered, bled, and died, but I'm just oh so you just moan and complaining about nonsense all the time. You don't realize what he's done for you, the life that you can walk in if you decide to, that his name means to moan or complain. Now, I know none of y'all. I might have had a few complaining days, but when I realized that the complainer died on the same day my Savior died, you should go on and let. Here's what you do: you resurrect in the moaner and the complainer. Just I mean, for those of y'all who grew up when I did, it was, you know, the gloom, despair, and agony on me. If it weren't for bad luck, just have no luck at all. I have just moan, you're going on with a bunch of nonsense. You moaning and groaning and complaining. Get up off of yourself and stop that. Now listen, I say that to you lovingly because I might have moaned and complained a few days in my life. Let's be honest. I don't want you to raise your hand because I don't want you to um condemn your own self. But there's some moaners and complainers among us. There's people, some people, you know, the moaners and complainers are also with another category of people, and they kind of flow flow together, and that's those people who they catastrophize. Everything is, oh my God, it's the end of the world again. Oh Lord. Boy, I tell you what, we just have the best. I mean, we have the worst luck you've ever seen. It's just, uh, you know what I'm saying? Y'all, y'all ain't never been that way. I know you. I know some of you have. I know some of you. I've been around here long enough to know. You want me to start telling stories, I'll start calling folk out. I've been here long enough, and you probably could get up and grab the mic and tell a few of mine. But when you start understanding what he did for you at the cross, you will leave your moaning and complaining behind. When you start understanding what Jesus did for you, there is a victory that we walk in every single day. You say, but my life is hell on earth. It may be, I understand it, but you do understand that the Bible says, this light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for you. I make I ain't making this up. This is actually in the Bible. Your light affliction, he even called it a light affliction. Mine's not light, Brother Neil. It's not light. Mine's not. You just don't know. Listen, we walk in life, we acknowledge that there are terrible things that happen on this earth. We acknowledge that there is suffering and pain and all of those things. But when Jesus died and rose again on the third day, he gave you victory over death, hell, and the grave. We walk in that victory, we walk in that life, we make a decision. You say, Well, what am I supposed to do? Flip your faith on and start walking by faith and not by your moan. The Bible doesn't say we walk by faith and by moan and complain. See, in fact, there's a scripture in Philippians that says this. Philippians 2.14, you're going to love me or hate me for this one. Oh, put this one on the fridge. Do all things without murmuring and disputing. Do all things without grumbling and fault-finding and complaining against God and questioning and doubting among yourselves. Do all things. I don't want to do that. I know you don't. I don't either. I uh bunch of you, not today. I was excited to be here today, but a number of years ago, this buddy of mine, his mother kept coming in and saying, Honey, it's almost time to go to church. You've got to get up. You got to get up. And five or ten minutes, she'd come back and she'd say, It is time for you to get up. We're gonna be late for church. And after the third time she came, she said, Look here now, you've got to get up. And he said, I don't want to get up. She said, Sweetheart, you're the pastor of the church. You've got to get up. You're the pastor of the church. You've got to wake up. They're expecting you to preach today. Has it every pastor's felt that way at some point? Every instrument, every person who works, everybody here who's worked in any form in church, there have been plenty of days that you just said, Oh, I don't want to do it today. But you know what you do? You you if if I can't, if if the gospel and the power of the gospel isn't good enough for me to come on my worst day, it probably is not good enough for me on my best day. A number of years ago, I had a friend of mine who was in the financial industry, and because of some stuff that happened at the bank where he was working at, he was accused of taking a large sum of money, which he did not take, but he could not prove that he did not take that money. And of course, you got to pin that on somebody. His dad wasn't saved, and that all transpired in a week, and he lost his job, and they were even seeking to prosecute this guy. Started getting ready, and his unsaved dad said, After all that happened to you today, you going to church? He said, Dad, if Jesus isn't good on my best day, then he's not good on my worst day. He said, Man, he's good on my best and my worst day. And he listen, you you put a smile on your face. Everything don't have to be perfect, but you can still put a smile on, you can get a praise in your mouth. You can you can put a put a smile on and get a praise in your mouth and give God glory. He deserves glory on my worst day and on my best day. Right? He says, Do everything without murmuring and disputing, without grumbling and fault-finding, the amplified version says. And so we see the cross, we see the cross from every side. And then, of course, there's from the front of the cross. And if you remember the story, in the front of the cross, there's Jesus' mother and the instructions that are given. If you remember these verses, I think it's in John chapter 19. Um the Bible says, let me go to John chapter 19. I'm just gonna read it for you. Do you you guys read your Bible if you don't, man, it's really super cool book. Uh we highly recommend it. So if you remember what he says in John chapter 19, verses 25 through 29. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Cleppus, and Mary Magdalene. Now, just so we're clear, there's there's a mom, there's an aunt, there's Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and there's Mary Magdalene, who is very much so an outcast in the culture. She's an outcast. And when Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciples standing by who loved him, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold your son. He's not talking about himself. He's pointing to the other disciples that are there, and he says, Woman, behold your son. Oh, at the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light. And I find out that every person who names the name of Jesus is my brother. He says, Woman, this is your son. Now all of a sudden we begin to see the body of Christ come together. And immediately, before he actually takes his last breath, he says, Something's changing here at this cross. And he says, Woman, behold your son. He says, Son, behold your mother. He says to the disciples in verse 27, Behold thy mother. And from that hour the disciples took her unto his own home. That's not just spiritual, that's natural. Right? That's not just spiritual, that's natural. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. I think if you could look for it and you would understand, there's some things that he's thirsty for, and there's some things that he would like to drink of on this day. He says, I'm thirsty because of all the loss of blood and everything he had gone through that day. Verse 29 says, Now there was set a vessel of vinegar, and they filled the sponge with vinegar, put it upon Hyss, and put it to his mouth. So what you see here is him bringing the body of Christ together. He's beginning to say these are mothers and brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles. He says this, I'll give you the Neil Hopper version. We're family. We're family. He begins to say, look at the people around you through a different lens. Now let's be honest, you don't like everything your uncle did and your pop-pop did. You don't you don't get along with everybody in your family the way you get along with some, but they still your crazy family. Right? I see some of y'all don't have any crazy family. Congratulations. I'm proud for you. We we thank God for y'all. Y'all didn't have no crazy uncle that claim he was saved anyway. He was saved. He said he was saved. Right? Understand what's happening at the foot of the cross. He's saying there's a different kind of family that I'm bringing. Understand? And I'll finish with this because we're we're gonna run out of time here in a minute, but I'll finish with this. If you don't understand that everything he did for you cannot be bought, it cannot be earned, but it has to be inherited. Tell you a quick story because I don't have time to go through it all. It has to be inherited. So in in Matthew chapter 19, there's a rich young ruler that comes to Jesus. First of all, I want to know how some young, rich dude, how did he get to be a place of authority? He's young, he had enough time to make no money. And he's already in charge. What was somebody thinking? Because all you need to do to mess up a good man is put about a 17-year-old, give him a lot of money, and put him in charge. We're headed, we're headed, the bridge is out. But in this story, he's a rich young ruler. And listen, here's the way a rich young ruler will think, and here's the way you will think if you're not careful. The rich young ruler comes to Jesus and he says, What can I do that I may have eternal life? And Jesus says to him, Well, here's what you have to do. You have to keep the law. He said, You have to, you know, keep the commandments. Okay, keep the commandments. And you know what the rich young ruler says? Done them all. I've got them all. And he says, All these have I kept. And not only does he say he's kept them, he says he's kept them from his youth up. Since I was a kid, I've been doing this. I've been doing right since I was a boy. Maybe that's why he's rich. I don't know. But I speculate that, you know, he says he's doing right. Who knows? I think we've all broken a few laws across the way and along the way that you forget you've broken. But he tells Jesus, I haven't, I haven't, uh I've kept all these uh from my youth. What lack I yet, he says in verse 20. In verse 21, Jesus saith unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, if you want to be perfect, if you want to be perfect, that is completely forgiven. The word there, the actual Greek word there means completely wanting nothing. If you want to be perfect, go and sell everything you have and give to the poor. And you're gonna have treasure in heaven and come and follow me. He says, You've got to give away what you have in order to get what I have. And he says, I want you to go and give it to the poor. And the young man that heard it said that saying, He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus said unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. I don't have time to deal with this. Leandro, skip down to verse 29, and I want you to see this differently because it does make a huge difference. Remember, the man is saying, How can I get eternal life? How can I obtain it? What do I have to do to get this? Can I buy it? He's used to buying what he wants. He's used to buying or doing or earning what he wants and what he needs. And in this case, he sees that he's lacking something that Jesus is offering, and he says, How can I get what you're talking about? And look what he says to him. And everyone that's forsaken houses and brothers and sister, mother, wife, or children, lands, for my namesake, they shall receive a hundredfold and shall, look at the term, he said, shall inherit everlasting life. You don't earn it, you inherit it. Now, let me make this clear. If if if you left me an inheritance, Bill, if you leave me in inheritance, don't forget me in the will. Don't forget me in the will. But if you leave me in inheritance, when do I get my inheritance? When I die or when you die. You get you get your inheritance, I get my inheritance when you die. So remember, he's asking him the question. He's saying to him, How am I gonna get this eternal life? How am I gonna do that? And he says, gives him all these things, and then he gets down and says, Well, you've got to forsake some things, and you've got to uh inherit everlasting life. Now, some of you have never heard it preached this way because you thought you just got to decide, you know, and you can whatever. But the Bible says, he says to this rich young ruler, you've got to inherit it. We receive our inheritance when we by faith receive what Jesus did for us at the cross. You don't, you don't obtain it. You cannot earn it. It is a free gift that you inherit when you when you accept and embrace the cross of Calvary and what Jesus did for you. So he starts out saying, How can I have it? How can I have eternal life? And he ends up by saying, You got to inherit it. Now here's my theory. First of all, I think he got that money through inheritance. I can't figure out, I've tried to think about this scripture in a lot of different ways. You know how he got that money, how I think he got that money? He's too young to earn it. He's a rich young ruler. He probably inherited that money. And you know what he understood more than anything? Probably more than some of us, he understood inheritance. You have an inheritance in Christ. If you would just stand up and receive it by faith, there is an inheritance that we have that doesn't, listen, that doesn't just include one day I'm gonna get to go to the sweet buy and buy in heaven. No, I am living in my inheritance right now. And here's the second thing: when I die to myself, he has an inheritance in me. So there's an inheritance. You do not receive an inheritance when you die. If I could just die to myself, Brother Neil, there's so much of me left. There's some truth to that. You do have to die to some things, but you can't die enough to get what he's already died for. Let me say it another way. You you can't die enough to get what he's already died for. In fact, that'd be you paying double jeopardy. You know what double jeopardy is? Well, you you don't have to pay for the same crime twice. That isn't gonna happen in the gospel. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

Sin had left a crimson stain. But Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

See, what I owe him is my life. What I owe him is my worship. He's already paid it all. I just wish you would look at the cross and understand all that he did. I don't even have time. This is like weeks and weeks of a series of understanding all that he did for you at the cross. It's the reason, those of you who don't understand, you don't know why these fool Christians have been singing about the cross for over 2,000 years. Seem like to me they'd get something else to sing about. I will glory in the cross. I will glory in the cross. Because without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. I will glory in the cross of Calvary. I'll be singing at the cross at the cross where I first saw the light. And the burden of my heart rolled away. I'll be singing it. If you hear me in eternity, I'll probably be walking around heaven singing about the cross. There's another thing you need to know. When you sing about the cross and the blood, all of hell begins to shudder. I mean, the the demons flee when you start talking about the cross and the blood. Love grew where the blood fell. Flowers of hope sprang up where the blood fell. And it changed and transformed my life. That life I talked about earlier, newness of life, that abundant life, eternal life. I already have it all. I already have it all. I'll know the fullness of it when I get there one day. But I'm gonna walk in all the life He's got for me to have right down here, in my physical body, in my own strength, in healing. It's all provided in the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Stand on your feet. Thank you for coming and being with us. Thank you for enjoying Sunday worship with us. Here's how I'm gonna conclude. Maybe you've never really given any of this any thought at all. Mama always talked about the cross, and you know, I know they're still singing about it down there at the church house. But I'm telling you, when you begin to look at what he did for you, it's the reason when people watch The Passion of the Christ. Remember when the movie first came out? I don't know if y'all watched The Passion of the Christ, but you can watch it and you just, oh my gosh, you just want to say, How did he do that all for me? He did it all for me, and he did it all for you. And if you'd have been the only person on the planet, he'd have still did it just for you. I ask you to take a real good look and ask yourself one question: Has anybody ever loved you like that? No, nobody's ever loved me like that. Nobody's ever loved you like that. Let me pray for you. Father, in the name of Jesus, pray over your people. Thank you, Lord God, for the power of the resurrection. Thank you for taking those stripes that we might be healed. Healed in our mind, healed in our physical bodies, healed in our hearts, cancer leaving bodies because of the stripes on Jesus, sugar diabetes coming into perfect alignment, arthritis leaving bodies because of the cross of Calvary, healing flowing to Mr. Frank Smith in the hospital today, healing. To Miss Della, healing flowing. If you need a physical touch, just slip your hand up right now. Let healing flow. Because there's healing for sin, but there's healing for bodies. Thank you for it, Lord Jesus. Open the eyes of your people, oh God. Cause there to be an awakening in their hearts. An awakening in their hearts, I pray. Let them see Jesus for who he really is. Every scale removed, every scale that blinds us to the truth, let it be removed. Because when they know the truth, when they see it and understand it, when they know the truth, the truth will make us free. Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Will you clap your hands and give Jesus some praise?