Thank you, Chad and Chase and Rebecca, for leading us in worship. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. His mercy is more. Stronger than darkness and new everymore. Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more. More. Richard Sibbes, I think, is the one who wrote, there’s more mercy in Christ than sin in you. Isn’t that good news? I wake up some mornings with that verse in Lamentations. This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies, they never come to an end. They are new. New every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore I will hope in Him. He is our hope. Praise the Lord. Good afternoon. Thank you for allowing Kathy and I to be part of your worship. We want you to know here at Providence that the elders and pastors meet once a month. First Monday of each month, and we spend a good deal of time in prayer. I’ll never forget when they asked me to consider being an elder, and Brian Mayfield, the lead pastor at the Brooks, said, Hey Bill, come on, just join us some night and just, you know, hang out and see what you think. So I did, and we gathered together in a small area there, and I think Chad and Chase. We’re part of that team at the time, and Brian said, Hey guys, let’s pray. Let’s pray for a while. Okay. So I thought we’re going to give the old, you know, Well, thank you, Lord, for allowing us to be here tonight. Lead, guide, and direct us in our discussions. In Jesus’ name, amen. That was nothing how that went. We prayed and prayed, and I mean, after 30 minutes of praying, I’m like, Are we going to? Hey, we’re not going to be able to. We’re not going to be able to talk about anything if we just keep praying, you know. And we kept praying, and after 45 minutes, well, I peaked. Chase, I peaked. And Chase was on his knees with his face toward the ground, and just getting to know Chase. I’ve never shared this with anybody, but I call him our resident Puritan. This man. And if you pray with him, you’re going to be led to repentance. Amen. And forgiveness. And you’re going to understand the depth and depravity of your sin. It’s a good thing, you know. But Chase would be praying, and like I said, after 45 minutes of prayer, we concluded that time of meeting together. And I knew right then, this is where I want to be. And as a component of that prayer, we pray for gospel partners across the city. And I looked at my phone a little while ago, and just remembered that Providence Fellowship is number one on our prayer list when we pray for you guys in ministry. Again, just thank you for allowing Kathy and I to be a part of this gathering this afternoon. Amen. Amen. And I don’t know if it’s a good idea to make promises to God. I don’t think it is. But I remember years ago, I was praying, and I told the Lord, I said, if you give me opportunities, if this ever even happens, to share in front of people, to talk to people, I will tell them this, that their relationship with you through your son Jesus Christ is the most important thing in life. And profoundly affects and enriches every other relationship in life. That’s what I’ll tell them, Lord. And so I am going to walk in obedience to that and tell you right out of the gate here that your relationship with the Lord through his son Jesus Christ is the most important thing in your life. Now, in my 40s, I was pretty much convinced of that. I’m not going to tell you how old I was. How old I am, but I’m a lot older than that now. And now I’m totally convinced. Your relationship with God through his son Jesus is the most important thing in life. Profoundly affects and enriches everything else in life. And I hope that you are pursuing that relationship in any number of ways that we can. Also, as I get older, this journey with Jesus is getting more and more simple. And I find myself dwelling much these days on Christ’s finished work on the cross. And in this Easter season, I think it’s appropriate. And valuable to talk to you about what I think has become over a short period of time the most passionate thing in my journey. And that is the cross. It’s so simple. What happened at the cross? What happened on that day? What happened in that event that you and I can point back to? It’s not just a biblical event. It’s a historical event. It happened. But what really happened at the cross? And that has become my passion. We were forgiven of our sins at the cross. The power and authority of sin over our daily lives was broken. Our enmity was broken. With God, our hostility toward Him was forever abolished. And our enmity toward one another was forever abolished. That’s what happened at the cross. And in my quiet time in the morning, I love to pray that prayer. Thank you, Father, for the cross upon which Jesus bore all my sins. Upon which… The power of sin was broken. Upon which my enmity with you was abolished. We’re no longer enemies. We’re friends. And my enmity with all others has been abolished because of the cross. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. You know, if you ever doubt your love or whether God loves you, and everyone here has had… those times. Chad and I were talking last time we got together about the ebb and flow of our journey. And sometimes in those ebbs, we experience a little doubt. Do you really love me, Lord? Do you love me? And if you experience that, let me tell you what you can do. You can go back to the place where He demonstrated it the most. And that’s at the cross. Go back to that event. And you will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He loves you. That’s all I want to talk about these days. Calvary. And I can’t tell you a better story or make better use of my time with you than to bring for a little while to the forefront of your thinking this great… greatest story ever told about the greatest thing God has ever done that meets the greatest need you will ever have. And that’s the story of the gospel.

The first thing I want to declare to you is what I just said. At the cross, we’ll look at four things if that’s okay. I don’t know if this is predestined, preaching, or teaching. I mean, I don’t know what this is. So I’ll let you determine whether you just sat through like a Sunday school lesson or a sermon. I just don’t know. I’m not trained in that. But I think I can communicate some truth to you from the scriptures. And as Paul wrote to the Corinthian church in chapter 15, he said, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. Now, verse 3 is where I really wanted to go. For I delivered to you, as of first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scripture, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day. In accordance with the scriptures. Now, this message, you’re not going to learn or really hear anything new. I wish I had something profound and new to share with you, but I just don’t. But it’s a method that Peter and Paul both used. I mean, I think Peter said somewhere in his second letter, he said, I don’t, I don’t, it doesn’t bother me to repeat stuff to you. You guys, I want to stir your sincere hearts by way of reminder. And if we’re being reminded of something, it’s because we heard it one time before, but perhaps we need to be re-minded of it. And Peter said, I’m not ashamed of that at all. I’ll keep telling this over and over to stir your sincere minds by way of a reminder. And that first thing, first and foremost, of first importance, is that Jesus died for our sins. Turn, if you have your Bibles, to 1 Peter. 1 Peter. And we’re going to go to 1 Peter chapter 2.

And I’m going to read verse 24 to you.

1 Peter 2, 24. He himself

bore all of our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

For you were straying like sheep, but have now, now returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls. First and foremost, that we need to understand is that Jesus died for our sins. He bore all of our sins in his body on the tree. I was reminded the other day about all of the countless number of martyrs down through church history. I mean, we have a rich history. You and I, folks, we stand on the shoulders of giants that went before us. And some of those were martyred for their faith in horrible, violent deaths. But listen, none of them bore your sins in their body. There’s one who did, who suffered more than anyone else, and that is Jesus. Because he bore our sins in his body on the tree. At Calvary, a great transaction took place. I think Luther called it the great exchange. And if you’ll turn with me to Isaiah 53, let’s examine that exchange. Let’s examine that transaction out of the Old Testament book from the prophet Isaiah, chapter 5. Isaiah 53.

I wonder if Isaiah ever understood who he was writing about when he said this in verse 4. Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for us. Our transgressions. Exchange. You see it? He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement, the punishment that brings us peace. And by his wounds, we are healed. And Peter was echoing the words of the prophet when Isaiah said, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. At the cross. Christ died for our sins. Past sins. Present sins. Future sins. At the cross. He took care of us. Of it all.

But there’s more. As if that is not enough in and of itself. At the cross, the very power, authority, rule of sin over our daily lives was broken forever. Turn with me to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 verse 14.

Paul writes this. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness. And he has brought us into the kingdom of his beloved son. In whom we have redemption. The forgiveness of our sins. You see what’s happened there? And by the way, your deliverance is in its past tense. It happened. It’s done. And we have been rescued from the power, from the dominion, from the authority of darkness. And we have been placed under a different authority and ruler. His son in whom we have redemption. The forgiveness of sins. Look later on in chapter 2. I don’t even know where to start here. Let’s try this one. Let’s look at verse 13 in chapter 2. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of sin of your flesh God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside nailing it to the cross. Now listen to this. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. And some of your translations will say in him. But some also say in the cross. The enemy was defeated and his power over our daily lives which is where we live and move and have our being. Spurgeon called it the common affairs of life. Stuff you experience when you get up in the morning until you lay your head down at night. You go through what he described as the common affairs of life. And everybody’s got it different. But I can promise you one thing. You’re going to be subject to temptation. Either by the enemy himself, your own flesh, or the world. That power is broken. That is good news. I don’t have to sin anymore. If I sin, it’s because I want to.

But I don’t have to. No longer a slave to sin.

Later on in Romans 6 which is a chapter I think you should study and master. It’s all in the past tense. It talks about what happened. This mysterious union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. And in verse 11 Paul would write in light of all that consider yourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. A little trivia there. If you read the book of Romans Romans chapter 6 verse 11 is the first thing you’re told to do. Everything else prior to that in Romans 1 1 to 6 10 Paul is just giving some information making a case against sin and sinners. But finally in Romans 6 he says to do something. And to do something is this consider it. Done. Consider yourselves that we were once dead in our sin now we are dead to our sin. Our sin and we can walk through the common affairs of life in the newness of life. Resurrected life. I love what Pastor Brian said this morning. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is great but if your resurrection is not included in that it’s just a one time deal right? We serve a living Savior. That’s awesome but guess what? He’s going to raise you too. It’s like he was raised. So goodness. At the cross our sins were forgiven. At the cross the power of sin is broken. At the cross our enmity with God was abolished. Provision was made for peace with God. Romans 5 1 I’m going to take you there just to move over to Romans 5 1 and look therefore Paul says since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He’s not talking about the peace of God which we can experience in the common affairs of life that passes all human understanding. He’s talking about peace with our Creator. Once we were enemies of the cross. Once we were at odds with the Creator. And just to think of the fact that at one time I was His enemy and He was mine is a little frightening. We may have some enemies in the world but I’m pretty much convinced you don’t want God as your enemy. But what did God do? He provided the perfect sacrifice that would bring us to Him and reconcile that animosity and I’ll use a stronger word hatred toward God. He through His Son abolished that enmity and that we had with Him. Let me read in verse while we’re in Romans 5 we read verse 10 for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by His life. More than that we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation. At the cross our sins were forgiven. At the cross the power of sin was broken. At the cross our enmity with God was abolished. At the cross our enmity with one another our hostility toward others is and forever will be abolished. Turn with me over to Ephesians chapter chapter two Ephesians chapter two

and start reading at verse 11 in my notes here it says start reading Ephesians chapter 2 11 dash whatever and I don’t know what I’m going to stop reading we may finish the book here but starting in verse 11 Ephesians 2 therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands Paul takes a little jab at the law there doesn’t he remember that you were at one time separated from Christ alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace who has made us both one and listen has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two so making peace now in context I know we need to rightly divide the word of truth don’t we in context Paul is clearly speaking of the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile I get that and that’s true broken down through the cross but one of the effects of this is our ability as followers of Christ to see others who are outside of faith in Christ in a different way understanding this that they are ruled by their flesh by the enemy by the world and as Romans 8 reminds us it’s not a matter of their refusal to obey God’s law Paul said they cannot obey God’s law they can’t and this opens up in our minds understanding that we need to of those who may be right in your immediate family your kids grandkids those in your extended family those people with whom you work whom you associate with go to school with all the people who God has placed in your area whoever they may be if they’re outside of faith in Christ we need to be able to understand that one of the things that makes me laugh is when we’re watching TV and if you if you watch these cable news channels and I want to get into an area of you know where maybe I shouldn’t go we don’t have any of those news channels so I really don’t know what I’m talking about but I hear others and they look at they look at something going on and they’re going what is wrong with you what what is the matter with you why can’t you understand and you just fill in the blank and we get angry and we it’s it’s like now wait a minute let’s go back to Romans eight and understand that they cannot it’s not that they refuse I know a lot of people are saying you know we’re rejecting Christianity Christianity in the United States is getting more and more marginalized we know that we shouldn’t be surprised at that by the way the rejection rate of nations for God is 100% and we’re just we’re following right along with the rest of the nations in rejecting God we should not be surprised about that God tells us that and God tells us by the way he’s no big fan of nations he’s got one a holy nation you’re part of that but we get upset and we have to understand these folks do not cannot understand what’s going on

I’m going to tell you something

this is true but you and I in our actions often refute it and it’s taken from Ephesians 612 where Paul wrote our struggle is not against flesh and blood now I don’t know how clearer he needs to be but what he’s saying is your problem is not people your problem is the power that is that exists behind that the rulers and the authorities and the powers of this world he said we wrestle not against flesh and blood and what we say is oh yes we do but that political party over there what is wrong with them why can’t they understand what we believe don’t they understand the sanctity of life for crying out loud no it’s not that they won’t it’s they can’t and we need to understand that people are not our enemy they are the victims of our enemy turn with me to 2nd Timothy 224 this verse is going to change your life 2nd Timothy

224 I can’t find it you know people who do this you know will normally mark their Bibles placeholders stickies I found it it’s still there listen to this father

give us hearts right now Lord open to your word

and the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome well there goes a lot of us right there we’re done the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone

this this stings a little bit doesn’t able to teach patiently enduring evil correcting his opponents with gentleness God may listen to this this is amazing God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil listen now after being captured by him to do his will now if that doesn’t open up our understanding to an unbelieving world I don’t I don’t know if anything will Kathy and I have had so many conversations about well I’ll be honest with you you know certain people in our extended family and we will both part of our little testimony part of our story is that we didn’t grow up in real functional homes it was a train wreck for a lot of times as we grew up in our separate homes and we keep falling back on the truth that my dad didn’t sit me down and say Bill here’s how you love a woman here’s how you lead and minister to your wife here’s how you serve her well here’s how you love her well here’s how you do it I’m going to tell you never happened and we had to figure this out on our own praise God he saved us oh my goodness but what we go back and we say well dad wasn’t equipped I had an old friend in Decatur said you only know what you know what that meant was that hey if you don’t know any better how can you tell your son how to serve how to love his wife well how to lead his family well well well well you’ve got to know and somebody’s got to tell you just like Chase’s passage out of Romans 10 somebody’s got to tell me these things somebody’s got to teach me sit me down and teach me we have a world filled with people who just don’t know who are not equipped and it’s not that they act bad or act good they can’t they don’t they are not equipped to think the way the Lord has taught you to think

I don’t usually quote Mark Driscoll he’s kind of fallen out of grace a little bit but there is a lot of things I liked about that guy one of the things he said was um he said it just totally escaped my mind maybe it’ll come back but he talked about he talked about leading well and that you know this was not optional I can’t remember exactly what he said for a for a man in his in his home father I just want to talk to you for just a second your ministry you’ve got a ministry you’ve got a calling and if you want to talk about that at dinner over tacos we will you’re called there’s no doubt you are called to serve love and lead your family well and you are called to make sure your children know the gospel this is not Chad is here to reinforce that but your calling is to make sure your children know the gospel and your calling is to make sure you have time carved out for your wife to grow in her relationship with Jesus you had better make sure you can’t make her grow in Christ but you sure can supply the time that she needs make sure you do that okay I’m off my soapbox for your dads but here here’s the deal we must allow people who are not followers of Christ we must give them permission to act like they are not followers of Christ we are not called to criticize control or condemn people outside of faith in Christ oh they’re condemned already they’re that’s what Jesus taught we’re not called to do any of that we think we are but we’re not we are called to love them well and take the gospel to them like Sue Ann said like Chase said every opportunity you have look for those opportunities but especially with your kids and grandkids and husbands and wives

Chase I don’t know if you said this or not I think you did but one author said we should preach this good news to ourselves every day there’s nothing wrong with you looking in the mirror and saying you know Chris Jesus died for your sins Jesus broke the power of sin over your life your enmity with God has been abolished your enmity with others forever abolished you are deeply loved hey just preach that to yourself it’s so important it’s the most important thing in life profoundly affects and enriches you know everything else in life just pray father I thank you for this time to to share your word

father I pray that as

you led

the prophet to write in Deuteronomy may this teaching drop as the rain may this speech distill as the dew like gentle rain upon the tender grass like showers upon the earth as I proclaim the name of the Lord and ascribe greatness to you that you would confirm the word of your servant fulfill the counsel of your messenger and that in all of this Lord you would be glorified Lord we make much of you you are so worthy as we sang so worthy of our praise so worthy of glory oh Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth be magnified in the earth and in the hearts of your people I ask this in Jesus name Amen