"A Word About the Cross"

I know each and every sermon I preach, every lesson I teach, somewhere I bring in the cross and the Christ of the cross for our forgiveness and justification. Perhaps by being in Jefferson City so long, people have grown to know that taking it for granted. Our lives are to be built around the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Those are not just repeated words, they are words of freedom, power and newness!

Some time back, a preacher came and visited me asking me by being here so long, how did I find lessons/sermons to preach. I shared with him that "The Book" is full of sermons/lessons and one can never exhaust them but one thing for certain is I never move away from the cross. He looked puzzled, then said, "I guess I better start preaching more on the cross. About two months later, this preacher contacted me and said, "Well, I have finished all the lessons I could find on the cross! Where do I go from there?" I listened with a sadness because I realized he had no clue that the cross, the resurrection of our Lord and Savior was the center of our lives, not just a simple lesson preached. Jesus is the beginning, the middle and the end! Jesus is our life!!

We need to allow the cross to have it full implications. God knew us to be sinners from the beginning. The death, burial and resurrection was not something thought of on the fly. It was formed in the mind of God before there was a world. I have a difficult time of understanding that and one day I will be able to ask Him but it shows us the great insight, wisdom and power of God. Here is what I want you to hear: the cross of our Lord did not create the love of God for us. The love of God for us has been from the beginning. The cross only manifested, made the love of God known to us in a way so we could see that love! Whatever we see in ourselves, our failures or even in the sin of others, we cannot make sin to say more than the cross!!! The cross speaks louder than any sin we have or will ever commit. Please get that! Let me shout it: THE CROSS SPEAKS LOUDER THAN ANY SIN WE HAVE OR WILL EVER COMMIT! Our sin might shout out, but the cross thunders! We stumble badly at times, but the grace of God through the cross increases even greater. Our sin might whisper, lying and confusing us but the cross speaks out the truth and drives away all darkness. Only the sincere, penitent, forgiven sinner can understand this.

Go ahead...rest assured that God is for you! He didn't send His Son on our death mission, to speak of His love He always has had for us, to watch us walk into an eternity of fire and worms! He came to save us through His Son and for those who believe and accept that salvation, pure and undefiled, they find the full assurance of forgiveness and willingly please God, running to Christ for refuge. There we can rest, fully assured that we stand clean and justified in the presence of the God Almighty, our Creator, Father and Judge!