The Scripture Provides a Historical Account of the Crucifixion of Christ. The Cross Represents Where Jesus Christ Died For Our Sins 2000 Years Ago, and it is the Only Place Where God and Man Meet. There is No Gospel of Christ Without the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Had to Lay His Life Down and Once He Did -- It Was Finished. All We Have to Do is Meet Jesus There.
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00:00That's the good stuff, folks. Amen, amen, amen.
00:05All right, well, if you have your Bible, turn the book of Matthew chapter 27 with me this morning, please.
00:20Verse number 26.
00:24Matthew chapter number 27 and verse number 26.
00:30Then released Tiberias unto them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
00:36Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus to the common hall, gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.
00:43And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.
00:47When they plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand.
00:52They bowed the knee before him, mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews.
00:57They spit upon him, took the reed, and smote him on the head.
01:01And after that, they mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.
01:09And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his cross.
01:18And when they were coming to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,
01:24they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall, and when he tasted thereof, he would not drink.
01:30And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet.
01:39They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.
01:46And sitting down, they watched him there.
01:51Father, bless your holy word, Lord, as it goes forth now.
01:54Bless this messenger, in Jesus' name. Amen.
01:58You can be seated.
02:01Now, folks, that is as historical an account as when Columbus came over here in 1492 and went down to the Caribbean.
02:11This is a fact. It happened 2,000 years ago.
02:15He was crucified.
02:17The man Christ Jesus is attested to by a number of secular historians, a number of them.
02:24We won't get into all that this morning, but I'm not going to try to prove to you that Christ was here.
02:28He was, no question.
02:30And he's coming again.
02:32They put an inscription over his head, and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
02:37These, of course, are languages that represent separate cultures.
02:42Hebrew is the ancient of all of them, the most ancient.
02:45Bullinger says probably the most ancient of all languages, and I tend to agree with him.
02:49It has no fountainhead. It has no source.
02:52It's a source unto itself.
02:54Hebrew is a pure language that the Lord said in Zephaniah that I'll restore unto you.
02:59Latin, of course, is the language of the Romans, the Roman Empire.
03:02And Greek was the language of culture and commerce of that day.
03:06And the New Testament that you're reading was written in what's called Koine Greek,
03:10which is the common Greek of the people 2,000 years ago.
03:15The crucifixion was something that took place publicly.
03:18The reason for this is because it was an act of terror by the state.
03:23The idea was to bring the people into submission by literally scaring them to death,
03:29allowing them to watch someone as they hung upon a tree, a cross, and suffered an unspeakable suffering and then die.
03:38We get the word excruciating pain.
03:41It literally means pain coming forth from the cross.
03:45That's what it means, excruciating.
03:48And then, my friend, in 132 A.D., a man by the name of Bar Kokhba,
03:53he led a Jewish revolt against Rome.
03:57It was so well known and so organized that they struck coins in his name that you can find to this day.
04:05Bar Kokhba was the shining star.
04:07Here's what it says.
04:09During the revolt, the Jewish sage Rabbi Akiba regarded Simon, this is Bar Kokhba, as the Jewish Messiah.
04:17Even though they had rejected the true Messiah, they have followed more than one false Messiah.
04:24Talmud records his statement that the star prophecy, and this prophecy is from Numbers, chapter 24, verse 17.
04:32And that scripture says this,
04:34I shall see him, but not now.
04:37I shall behold him, but not nigh.
04:39There shall come a star out of Jacob.
04:42A scepter shall rise out of Israel.
04:44And shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth.
04:49Israel was constantly looking for someone to throw off the yoke of oppression from an empire for whoever,
04:55to throw it off, to get rid of it, so they could once again rule themselves.
05:01And so, Bar Kokhba attempted to do this.
05:04It referred to him, Rabbi Akiba said, based on identification of the Hebrew word for star, Kokhba, or Bar Kosiva.
05:13The name Bar Kokhba, which references this statement of Akiva, does not appear in the Talmud,
05:18but only in ecclesiastical sources until the 16th century.
05:22The Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud mention him by the name of Bar Kosiva.
05:28You'll hear a lot out of me about the Talmud,
05:31because a Jew does not reject Christ based on the word of God, the Tanakh.
05:35He rejects Christ based on the Talmud.
05:38And the Talmud, in many places, is one of the most wicked things ever written by a human being.
05:44Some of the things that you'll find in the Talmud will blow your mind.
05:48And the Talmud is what they use today to reject the Son of God, not the Bible.
05:53The killing of Bar Kokhba and the subsequent defeat of his rebels yielded disastrous consequences for Judea's Jewish population.
06:01Even more so, the crackdown that had taken place during and after the first Jewish-Roman war.
06:06Based on archaeological evidence, ancient sources, and contemporary analysis,
06:11between five and six hundred thousand Jews are estimated to have been killed in the conflict.
06:19This is one of many times the Jews have literally been practically wiped out from their own country.
06:25Now, this is important, what I'm about to give you, because this brings you to contemporary times.
06:30It brings you to what's happening right now in Israel, a place they call Palestine.
06:35Hadrian was the Roman ruler at this time, was the emperor, Hadrian.
06:39He built a wall that separated the northern part of England from the southern part,
06:44from the Picts in the north and those in the south.
06:47It's called Hadrian's Wall. It's still standing.
06:50You can go over there today and see it. That thing's 2,000 years old.
06:54He crucified thousands of Jews all over the place.
06:58He changed the name of Israel to Palestine.
07:01He changed the name of Jerusalem to Alea Capitolina.
07:04He greatly depopulated Judea.
07:06He forbade Jews from entering into Jerusalem.
07:10He built a cardomaximus through the center of town,
07:13and he sacrificed a swine on an altar in Jerusalem.
07:18Anything he could do to deface, demean, and destroy Jewish identity.
07:23Hadrian took it upon himself to eliminate the Jew from the face of the earth and drive them from their land.
07:30There's where the word Palestine had its origin in the land.
07:34God called it the Holy Land.
07:36He called it the land of Israel.
07:38He does not call it Palestine.
07:40You know that now. This is an historical thing that I'm giving you this morning.
07:45This doctrine that I'm preaching to you this morning is about the cross.
07:48The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
07:50The Bible said, cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree.
07:54Separated from God, separated from the earth,
07:57hung in the middle between the two.
07:59My friend, the doctrine of the cross is the power of its message.
08:03First Corinthians 117.
08:05Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.
08:08Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
08:13For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
08:16but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
08:20When you think about that cross, think about the creator of the universe.
08:24Think about the one who spoke worlds into existence.
08:27Simply breathed into clay and he became a living man.
08:31A man from the very soul of Almighty God.
08:34Think about one with that power and yet here he manifests himself in a different and entirely different way.
08:40He dies on a cross.
08:43Can you imagine the angel, the seraphim, the cherubim, the watchers and all the powers that could be observing this?
08:49I wonder what they thought.
08:51God does not take counsel with his creatures when he decides to do something.
08:55When he gets ready, he does it.
08:57I want you to know something today.
08:59You'll learn more about God Almighty through Christ until he makes him known to us,
09:04than you will anywhere else.
09:06The son reveals the father.
09:08Galatians chapter 6 and verse 12 said,
09:11As many as desire to make a fair show of you in the flesh,
09:14they constrain you to be circumcised,
09:17only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
09:22The cross has never, ever, ever been accepted.
09:26All relics of the cross.
09:28Pieces of the cross.
09:29And I wear a cross.
09:30And we have a cross here.
09:32There's nothing wrong with that.
09:33But my dear friend, when I preach the cross of Christ,
09:36I'm not preaching this or I'm not preaching this.
09:38I'm preaching the cross of 2,000 years ago.
09:41That he died on and shed his blood so that we could be saved.
09:46Galatians 6, 14.
09:48The apostle said, God forbid that I should glory,
09:51save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
09:54by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
09:58So the cross itself becomes an instrument that separates.
10:01And it does separate.
10:02And the cross becomes an instrument that identifies.
10:05And it does identify.
10:06And the cross becomes a place where God meets with man.
10:09And he does meet with man.
10:11First Corinthians 15 says,
10:13Brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached.
10:16Excuse me.
10:19Unto you which also you've received and wherein you stand,
10:22but which also you're saved,
10:24if you keep in memory what I preached to you,
10:26lest you believed in vain.
10:28For I deliver unto you first of all that which I received,
10:31how that Christ died for our sins,
10:34according to the scriptures,
10:36and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day,
10:39according to the scriptures.
10:41The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is not money.
10:44The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is not health, wealth.
10:48The gospel of Christ is not church buildings.
10:51The gospel of Christ is not people.
10:53The gospel of Christ is not works.
10:55My friend, it is not catechisms.
10:57The gospel of Christ is not a religion.
11:00The gospel of Christ is separate completely and totally.
11:03It's all about a man, Christ Jesus, amen.
11:06If there is no cross, there is no gospel.
11:09If there is no blood, there is no gospel.
11:11If there is no sin bearer, there is no gospel.
11:14If there is no burial, there is no gospel.
11:17And if there be no resurrection, then there be no gospel, amen.
11:21So if it's not the death and the burial and the resurrection of the sinless one,
11:25my friend, you're preaching another gospel.
11:28And you can get plenty of it in this country.
11:30You can go from one church to the next.
11:32You'll find it everywhere.
11:34Walk through the door and they'll make you feel good about yourself
11:38before you leave that place.
11:40And my friend, the gospel is not about making you feel good about yourself.
11:45The gospel is the power of God and the salvation
11:48to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also the Greek.
11:52The gospel of Christ is what you need.
11:55The gospel of Christ is what your marriage needs.
11:58The gospel of Christ is what your children need.
12:00It's what your family needs.
12:02It's what you need.
12:03The gospel of Christ is the only thing that can handle that sin problem
12:08that's eating you alive today.
12:10The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
12:13My friend, it's the power of that place.
12:15Look at Ephesians 2.16.
12:17That he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
12:21having slain the enmity thereby.
12:24God reconciles himself unto man.
12:27Nowhere in that Bible from Genesis to Revelation
12:29will you ever read where God reconciles himself to angels
12:33or cherubim or seraphim or any spiritual creature,
12:36only to the man.
12:38What is man that thou art mindful of him?
12:41Colossians 1.20 says,
12:44And having made peace through the blood of his cross,
12:47by him to reconcile all things unto himself.
12:50By him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven,
12:54to be brought back to God.
12:56Where?
12:57At the cross.
12:58Not the church.
12:59Not religion.
13:00Not good works.
13:01Not mean well.
13:03At the cross.
13:04That's the only place a man can meet God.
13:07And you meet him at the cross.
13:09At the cross.
13:10At the cross where I first saw the light.
13:12How does that go?
13:14Amen.
13:162 Corinthians 5.19.
13:18To wit that God was in Christ,
13:20reconciling the world unto himself,
13:22not imputing their trespasses unto them,
13:25and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
13:29Now I preach deep things sometimes.
13:31Sometimes I'll skim around on the surface.
13:34Sometimes I'll give you what little bit that's been revealed to me about these things.
13:38And I thank God for what little he has showed me.
13:41But some of the stuff that I'll preach to you this morning is much, much, much deeper
13:45than it appears on the surface.
13:47This, for example, the reconciliation.
13:49We've been reconciled unto God.
13:51Man and God were brought together at the cross.
13:54What does that mean?
13:55That's powerful.
13:56That's a deep thing.
13:58To wit God was in Christ, reconciling the world.
14:01It was at the cross that the power of Satan is destroyed.
14:04It is at the cross that the power of sin is destroyed.
14:07It is at the cross that the vast gulf between God and man is breached.
14:12At the cross.
14:13Amen.
14:14Yes, sir.
14:15At the cross.
14:17Oh, yeah.
14:18And the power of his person is seen at the cross.
14:21Philippians chapter number two and verse number eight.
14:23Being found in fashion as a man.
14:26He humbled himself and became obedient unto death.
14:29Even the death of the cross.
14:32That cursed death.
14:34Cursed is everyone.
14:35He could have died many different ways.
14:38Or maybe he could not have.
14:40But I know one thing for certain.
14:41He had to lay his life down.
14:44No man took it from him.
14:46If he had pleased, he could still be on that cross 2,000 years later.
14:52Amen.
14:53But he gave up the ghost after six hours.
14:56And said, Father, into thy hands I come in, my spirit.
14:59Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 says, looking unto Jesus.
15:02The author and finisher of our faith.
15:04Who for the joy that was set before him.
15:07What joy.
15:08Can you imagine?
15:10Born into a wicked world.
15:12Born in sins and trespasses.
15:14Lost without God.
15:16Blind as a bat, my dear friend.
15:18And yet, he came to me.
15:20And there, he redeemed me.
15:23And he bought me.
15:24He saved me.
15:25He wrote my name in the Lamb's book of life.
15:27And one day, I'll glorify him in glory.
15:30Hallelujah to God.
15:32That will bring joy to him.
15:33It ought to bring joy to us tonight.
15:35Yes, it does.
15:37So the Bible said in Hebrews 12, looking to Jesus.
15:40The author and finisher of our faith.
15:42Who for the joy that was set before him.
15:45Endured the cross.
15:47Despising the shame.
15:49It is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
15:53The reason he sat down is because it's finished.
15:55It's finished.
15:56It's finished.
15:57I would that all religions would get a good dose of that.
16:00He doesn't need your good works.
16:02Your good works are fine.
16:04But that has nothing to do with your salvation.
16:06You're not going to work your way to glory.
16:08You say, well, I'm a good person.
16:10That's still not going to do the job.
16:11You're not good enough?
16:13If your righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of the Pharisee.
16:16How do you think you're going to make it?
16:18And he said, when he came to this world, I came not to call the righteous to repentance.
16:22But sinners.
16:23Well, preacher, you mean there is some?
16:25No, my friend.
16:26Look carefully at it.
16:27The text is very clear.
16:29He plays on words.
16:30He puts them out there to you.
16:32To make you think.
16:33There is none righteous.
16:35No, not one.
16:37That Bible says.
16:39Playing on words.
16:40He said, you see the righteous stand on the corner.
16:42You see the Pharisee.
16:43You see him pray his big long prayers.
16:45Look at his robes.
16:46He's manifesting his righteousness to you.
16:48Look at that.
16:49That appears to be righteous.
16:51He said, but no, my friend, it is nothing in the world more than dead men's bones.
16:56It's a white as sepulcher.
16:58Empty inside and dead.
17:00The power of his person can be seen in Luke chapter 23, verse 34.
17:05Then said Jesus father, forgive them.
17:09For they know not what they do.
17:12And they parted his raiment and cast lots.
17:15Forgive them.
17:16They didn't appreciate that.
17:18But here on the cross at Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ had no hatred.
17:21And no condemnation.
17:23He was giving himself for us.
17:25Dying for our sins.
17:26No.
17:27What's coming forth from him?
17:28Love.
17:29Love.
17:30Love.
17:31Love.
17:32He laid down his life.
17:34Luke chapter number 13.
17:35If you go read it, study it, pray over it, you'll get the Bible definition of love.
17:39What the Bible says about love.
17:41Love, my dear friend, will bring a marriage together that can never be broken.
17:45Love will join husbands and wives and sons and daughters.
17:48It'll join family members together that cannot be broken.
17:51Nothing can sever it.
17:52The real love of God is the strongest thing on the face of this earth.
17:55People can, a lot of people live for doctrine.
17:58They live for the fight.
17:59They live for the road, for the run.
18:02But my friend, let me tell you something.
18:03There's something greater than that.
18:05That's the love of God.
18:07Love.
18:08Real love.
18:09You say, well now preacher, I love myself.
18:11Don't you think that's good enough?
18:13That's a problem right now.
18:14You have been pampered to death.
18:17Let me be honest with you.
18:19There's nothing about you that should be loved.
18:21You're not lovable.
18:22According to the Bible, none of us are lovable.
18:24But he still loves us.
18:26Why?
18:27Because he loves us with the love of God.
18:28The love of God.
18:30The love of God.
18:32He made this creature.
18:33He made this creature to have fellowship with him.
18:35He made this creature to talk to him.
18:37He made this creature to pray to him.
18:39He made this creature that could respond to him in a way that no angel, cherubim, seraphim could ever do.
18:44God can speak to you on a level that he cannot speak to any other creature.
18:49Have you ever heard that?
18:50Think about that.
18:51He can speak to you.
18:52And you can hear it.
18:53You can know it.
18:55You can know God in a way that nothing else can know him.
18:58If you've been born again, he's already given you the earnest of the inheritance.
19:01That Holy Spirit of God.
19:03He's written your name in the Lamb's Book of Life.
19:05He sealed you with the Holy Ghost.
19:07If you really know him today, he's put something inside you that you cannot deny.
19:12How many of you know what I'm talking about?
19:14You know the Holy Ghost is in you.
19:16He changed you.
19:17He put joy in you.
19:19He gave you power over sin.
19:21Amen.
19:22Glory to God.
19:23The power of his person.
19:25Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
19:29How did it have been to be standing there that day?
19:32Notice what it says in the Bible.
19:34They sat down and they watched him there.
19:37My, the morbid curiosity.
19:39Can you imagine?
19:40Can you imagine watching a man suffering on a cross of crucifixion, dying on that cross, writhing in pain and sorrow?
19:49My, can you imagine?
19:50Oh, boy.
19:51Imagine where I've been today.
19:53I've been down to the crucifixion.
19:55Boy, it was a sight to see.
19:57Yeah, I see.
19:58A sight to see.
19:59But you don't have a clue what it was about, do you?
20:02They sat down and they watched him there.
20:05I want you to notice something about this cross, the power of its identity.
20:08Philippians chapter number 3 and verse 18.
20:10From any walk of whom I've told you often, and I'll tell you even with weeping, that they're the enemies of the cross of Christ.
20:19Now, think about this for a moment.
20:21They don't come out publicly, state they're the enemy of Christ or his cross.
20:25Well, how do they do it?
20:26They do it through their preaching.
20:28If you leave Christ out, the apostle says, I came not unto you, to church at Corinth, knowing anything among you, but Christ and him crucified.
20:37He said, I didn't come to baptize.
20:39I came to preach the gospel.
20:42Hallelujah.
20:43Forever separating the gospel of Christ from water baptism.
20:47Water won't save you, folks.
20:49He said, I'll preach Christ and him crucified.
20:51And the church at Corinth needed it because the church at Corinth had some big time problems.
20:56If you've ever read 1st and 2nd Corinthians, you'll know they had a lot going on at the church at Corinth.
21:03But then don't you look at the victory of the cross.
21:06He didn't die in vain.
21:08He didn't die to establish another religion.
21:11Oh, no, my friend.
21:13He died to join man and God together in a way that only he could do.
21:18Colossians 2.14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.
21:31How graphic.
21:33Can you get more graphic?
21:35You see, notice, this is a figure of speech.
21:40Because literally, there was no, the law wasn't hanging there on that title.
21:45No, it wasn't there.
21:47What had, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews.
21:49This is Jesus Christ, the king of the Jews.
21:52This is what was over his head.
21:54But not the law.
21:56Yet everything the law demanded, we failed.
21:59And he nailed it to the tree.
22:01All your sins, every one of them, nailed it to the tree.
22:05You couldn't see it with the natural eye, but it was there for sure.
22:08Took it out of the way.
22:10Nailing it to his cross.
22:12The idea is, I nailed it there, dare you try to take it down.
22:16That's the idea.
22:18It's nailed, nailed to his cross.
22:22Yes, they didn't tie him to the tree, they nailed him to the tree.
22:26So, he says in 2 Corinthians 5.19,
22:31To it God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,
22:36not imputing the trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
22:42Colossians 2.13,
22:44And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
22:48hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
22:53blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,
22:57which was contrary to us,
22:59and took it out of the way,
23:01nailing it to his cross.
23:03Having spoiled principalities and powers,
23:06he made assure them openly,
23:08triumphing over them in it.
23:10And let no man therefore judge you in meat,
23:13or in drink,
23:15or in respect of unholy day,
23:17or of the new moon, or the Sabbath days.
23:20Don't you think if the Apostle Paul, who wrote Colossians 2,
23:25said that there is an exception with the weekly Sabbath,
23:29that he would have made note of it. Don't you think so?
23:32He made it very clear, as far as God is concerned,
23:35the Sabbath has been satisfied.
23:38For Christ is our Sabbath.
23:41He is our rest, according to the book of Hebrews.
23:44Notice carefully.
23:46Don't let a man judge you in meat,
23:48drink, respect of unholy day, or a new moon, any of that.
23:51Whatever it may be.
23:53Hebrew roots movement.
23:55We need to learn about the Hebrew sacrifices,
23:57this and that, and this and that.
23:59If you want to learn about it in historical context, fine.
24:02Don't drag it into the gospel.
24:06It's garbage.
24:10I want to say it as clear as I know how to be.
24:13Anything, I don't care how well meaning you are,
24:16I don't care how dedicated you are to it.
24:18Anything that competes
24:22with the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross,
24:25my dear friend, I got no use for.
24:28It's garbage.
24:30However holy, however pious,
24:33however great it might have been,
24:35Christ satisfied every demand of the law.
24:40He is the end of the law.
24:44In him is the fulfillment of all
24:47that the law could never give,
24:49nor anything else give,
24:51the best life ever lived could never satisfy this.
24:54Christ is the end of it.
24:57And I won't accept anything less than that.
24:59The Lord Jesus Christ is everything or he's nothing.
25:03So, Exodus 25, verse 22.
25:09This is the victory.
25:11He said, there I'll meet with thee.
25:14I'll commune with thee from above the mercy seat,
25:17from between the two cherubims,
25:19which are upon the ark of the testimony
25:22of all things which I will give thee in commandment
25:25unto the children of Israel.
25:28Now let's just look at it for a moment.
25:30The Lord Jesus is the holy of holies.
25:33The Lord Jesus is the high priest
25:35that stands before the holy of holies.
25:37The Lord Jesus is that ark of the testimony
25:40because he's the only one who could ever hold
25:42the law of God, fulfillment,
25:45the manna and that rod that butted.
25:48All of these things could never be placed
25:50in any kind of a temporal thing and satisfy.
25:53But in Christ, they're finished.
25:55They're satisfied.
25:57He is everything that God ever demanded
26:00or ever wanted or ever needed from man.
26:02Christ is the end of it.
26:04He satisfies it.
26:06That itself is a different message entirely.
26:08And it's a wonderful thing to think about it
26:10when he says he is made unto us.
26:12He is made unto us.
26:14Isn't that a wonderful thing?
26:16I want you to think about that for a moment.
26:18The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
26:21You may tell me, preacher, are you trying to say to me
26:24that all I need is to come to the cross
26:29and I don't have to have my church?
26:32I don't have to have my priesthood?
26:35I don't have to have any, you know, Sanhedrin,
26:38some group of men, some this, some that?
26:40No.
26:42It's finished at the cross.
26:45It's finished there.
26:47And all you have to do is come to Christ there,
26:51meet God, and he'll do it.
26:54He'll meet you.
26:56He'll meet you at the cross.
26:59At the cross.
27:01Father, bless your word.
27:04Thank you for the time we have together
27:06and the time you gave this preacher
27:08to get that word out.
27:11Thank you for this time you've allowed me to stand
27:13one more time and proclaim your word.
27:16Lord, I live for that and I'm satisfied in that
27:18and I have great joy in it.
27:20I take great joy, Lord, in being in your house
27:23and standing before you.
27:25I love this.
27:26You've been good to me.
27:28You've blessed me.
27:30May someone this morning,
27:32they've heard the message of the cross.
27:34I've preached Christ to them.
27:36He died, he was buried, and he rose again
27:38the third day for them.
27:40They've heard the gospel.
27:42May they come this morning if they don't know you.
27:45May they come today and they accept Christ as their Savior.
27:48If they're born again and they've slipped away,
27:52they've faded off,
27:55maybe they'll want to come back today
27:57and get a good look at what you did on that tree,
28:00how you suffered and how you died.
28:03What a horrible, horrible death.
28:06But you did it all because you love us
28:08and you want that for us.
28:11In Jesus' name I pray.
28:14I don't want anybody looking,
28:15but would you raise your hand this morning
28:17and say, Preacher Lawson,
28:20God about gave me a vision of the cross.
28:23He just about did.
28:25It's a horrible thing.
28:26Yes, it is.
28:28But that was God manifesting his love for us.
28:31And it was God showing you how horrible,
28:34horrible sin is.
28:36God bless you back there.
28:38It's God showing you through the death of his son,
28:40the Lord Jesus,
28:41how seriously he takes this.
28:45It's not a joke with him.
28:46God bless you there.
28:48Not a joke.
28:49God bless you back there.
28:51Anybody else raise your hand and say,
28:52I want you to pray for me this morning, Preacher.
28:54God bless you here.
28:56Anybody else?
28:57God bless you here.
28:58God bless you there.
28:59Amen.
29:00Got hands going up all over the place.
29:01God bless you there.
29:02Now let's pray.
29:03Let's pray.
29:04Father,
29:05your word, Lord, has gone out.
29:07It's not my word.
29:08It's your word.
29:09I have no power in my word.
29:10My word's nothing.
29:12But it's your word,
29:13and your word is power.
29:14It's life.
29:16And I pray for those who heard it this morning.
29:18Let them move.
29:19Let them come.
29:20Let them do something.
29:21Let them do what they need to be doing.
29:23Father,
29:24to set aside whatever may be hindering their walk with thee,
29:27and come,
29:28and be,
29:30at this day,
29:31be drawn nigh to thee,
29:33and you'll draw nigh to them.
29:36In your holy name I pray.
29:38For Jesus' sake I ask it.
29:40Amen.
29:41Amen.
29:42Let's stand up here this morning.