BACK TO THE CROSS!
INTRODUCTION: - Imagine a city under siege... The enemy that surrounds they city will not let anyone or anything leave. Supplies are running low, and the citizens are fearful. But in the dark of the night, a spy sneaks through the enemy lines. He has rushed to the city to tell the people that in another place the main enemy force has been defeated; the leaders have already surrendered. The people do not need to be afraid. It is only a matter of time until the besieging troops receive the news and lay down their weapons. Similarly, we may seem now to be surrounded by the forces of evil—disease, injustice, oppression, death. But the enemy has actually been defeated at Calvary. Things are not the way they seem to be. It is only a matter of time until it becomes clear to all that the battle is really over. - - - - TRANSITIONAL STATEMENT: It truly is a matter of time, for our victory is past, our salvation is future and we are present! Time. For us this is set, for the Eternal God it is not, for if it was, we would be dead! - - - - 1. Forgiveness Source.- - - Eph 1:7"In Him we have..the forgiveness of sins" Beware of the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God: God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That thought, based solely on emotion, cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament. The only basis on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ. To base our forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is through the Cross of Christ. There is no other way! Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary. We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our sanctification in simple faith, and forget the enormous cost to God that made all of this ours. Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ. To forgive sin, while remaining a holy God, this price had to be paid. Never accept a view of the fatherhood of God if it blots out the atonement. The revealed truth of God is that without the atonement He cannot forgive -- He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God through the atonement of the Cross. - - - - God's forgiveness is possible only through the supernatural realm - Eternity. - - - Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is small. Sanctification is simply the wonderful expression or evidence of the forgiveness of sins in a human life. But the thing that awakens the deepest fountain of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven his sin. Paul never got away from this. Once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God. When a person is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every bit of his conscience that a holy God would not dare to forgive him. If God did forgive him, then this person would have a stronger sense of justice than God.?. God does forgive, but it cost the breaking of His heart with grief in the death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. Once we have been convicted of sin, we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary -- nothing less! The love of God is spelled out on the Cross and nowhere else. The only basis for which God can forgive us is the Cross of Christ. It is there that His conscience is satisfied. - - --Isa 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him (?!); he hath put [him] to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.!... - - - Forgivness doesn't merely mean that I am saved from hell and have been made ready for heaven. Forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a newly created relationship which identifies me with God in Christ. The miracle of redemption is that God transforms unholy me into the standard of His Holy self. He does this by putting into me a new nature, the nature of Jesus Christ. Are you being transformed into holy? Does conviction affect as much as it should? Take it BACK to the cross! - - - 2. Matter Of Time. - - - 1Pe 1:19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Like our text, this verse gives hint to Christ's death as something earlier than 2000 years ago... This idea has been known of before but what does it mean, and why was it neccesary? For one thing, It means the only way of our continued exsistance as God's fallen creation...For without the plan of salvation or the sacrifice set before the foundation, God would have to destroy the unholy...! - - - - God is not only Omnipresent.. everywhere at one time, but He is Omnichronic - every time, all at once!! ...Everywhere in all times! Thus Eternity!.. - - -Rev 5:6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. - - - This means that at our future, Christ is still seen as the sacrifice, just as He was 2000 years ago, and before the foundation of the World!?.. Here, it is in reference to God seeing both the judgement and mercy of this sacrifice! Here, He is about to begin the punishment for His Son’s death, as well as fulfill the salvation of those who accepted His Son's sacrifice!!..- - - - Heres how forgiveness works with our Holy God...Every time you sin, and repent, the Cross process is revisited! He has to go back to that point in eternity and see His Son suffering on the cross, both the anguish of Jesus dying and the satisfaction of sins payment! In essence The Cross happens repeatedly with every repentance! Take it back to the cross! This is why God's forgiveness is possible only through the supernatural realm - Eternity. But their is a good side, with God's matter of time - eternity, He can deal with us in whatever our need is, also by returning to the Cross!... Whatever mercy, peace, authority, healing etc you need as His Son's child, He goes to that event of Christ's Cross and see's what was accomplished on your behalf and see's it paid and gives it to you!! Whatever your need!! - - - Isa 9:6...his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. - - - Whats your need? Need His counsel? His Might? His Fatherly Love? His Peace? - - - Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. - - - Whats your need? Need your griefs lifted? Need Mercy over all sins? Need His healing? According to God's Matter of Time, It is ALL paid, charged to Christ's account on your behalf!! So He gives ALL we need because the price is paid yesterday, today, and forever!!!- - - -Revelation 13:8 "...the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." - - - Do you realize your repentance is charged to the cross each time? Do you fully understand that the cross freshly pays for all your needs? Do you need to charge something to Christ’s account today? Whats your need? Like God, Take it back to the cross!
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