Brother Gary Sunday Morning 4/6/14

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 4/6/14

Joh 19:17  And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:

I want to preach upon an old subject that has been preached on many times before: the message of the cross. 

I don’t remember when I first heard of the cross but I am sure it was before I was able to spell the word.  I heard of it many times throughout my life. 

However much I have known about the cross I am thankful for.  I am a long ways from having mastered the truth of the cross.  That doesn’t mean that I am not saved or sanctified or do not feel the effects of the cross, I do.  If we can grasp the cross it will have a strong effect in our life.

The cross was affective on the day that Jesus bore the cross.  It was affective upon those that saw Him bearing the cross.  It was beyond affective when he was crucified on the cross.  There were effects of the crucifixion and of the cross, of the blood on the cross and all it stands for.

About four years later Paul was converted.  He was converted because of the affects of the cross. 

From AD37 to about AD60, the apostle Paul began writing the epistles.  I have notes today of some correspondence that I need to do.  It is important that our correspondence is on time.  Paul wrote His epistle to the Colossians.  He wrote in AD 62; then in AD 65 the whole city was destroyed by an earthquake.

There are times in our life, we feel, “I am so small and insignificant, I could never be used of God.”  We should not feel that way.  When we are inspired from God we will not decide what the effects will be. 

The message we have will bring deliverance to any man.  It does not depend on how good someone is.  The majority of the good people that we would look upon as too good to be lost, when you take the message of the cross to them there is a strong offense and you realize, “I thought they were such a good person, they do all these good things.” 

The cross brings liberty to the humble.  The cross brings offense and anger to the proud.  The cross brings glory to the soul of the humble.  It brings blindness to the rebellious.  It brings godly sorrow to the repentant.  It brings the sorrow of the world to the lovers of self.  The cross brings rejoicing in heaven.

The epistle written to the Colossians was written to the saints in Colosse.  Someone had taken the message of the cross to them; it may have been Paul.  I am unable to find out.  After they were converted then Paul had a burden.  He wrote to them about AD62 then about three years later an earthquake ushered all those saints into eternity.

Never think that what you do is a small thing and doesn’t matter.  It really matters in the light of eternity.

For the hope laid up for you in heaven:

Col 1:23  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

The hope of the gospel is in eternity and in the time world as well.  Paul exhorted these saints concerning hope. 

Col 1:9  For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

The first knowledge that precious souls need is the reality, “I need a savior.”  They need to recognize that they need a savior and that they cannot of their own merits, righteousness, joining church, or outward customs of wearing a bonnet, or belonging to a colony have salvation.  All the good deeds save no one. 

If men and women can come to realization that they need a savoir and that they need a sanctifier, then they can have hope.  God has a plan for every life. 

If the children will realize how much they need a savior, God has a plan for their life.  For everyone that is here, I want you to know that there is hope and God has a plan for you in the time world, a job to do, glory for you, anointing and a thrill of thrills for you because of the cross.

The cross brings hope. 

Col 1:10  That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Let me be worthy of the blood you shed for me.  I think of the cross and of the lost estate, the confusion of souls, of individuals that hitchhike one way and then the other.  “I’m not going anywhere anyway.  It doesn’t matter whether I get a ride that way or this.” 

The cross brings hope.  It matters what way you are going, it matters how you are living.  The cross brings hope.

The hope of the Gospel will produce fruit in our lives and produce more hope.

Col 1:11  Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

The cross brings hope of strength.  If you have uncertainty, it is not wrong to feel uncertain of what is next.  For some of you we openly know that you are in a big decision making process.  You will naturally feel uncertain about what is going to happen. 

We as parents and grandparents would have uncertainty about, “What will happen out there?”  The cross brings hope and strength.  It produces within our soul a reality that Jesus went to the cross for a specific purpose:  to give hope in eternity and in the time world.

There is hope because of the cross for you and everything that you would represent in the time world.  There is hope because of the cross.  The reason we have a message is because of the cross.  If not for the cross we would not have a message better than that of Babylon.  There is hope in the gospel to be free from sin.

Strengthened unto patience:  may God help you and I to have patience when praying for that precious soul that needs deliverance.

Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

If it were not for the cross, there would be no deliverance from darkness.  All of us experienced the dark night of sin, of realizing that we have sinned, failed God and need a savior.  Because of the cross and Jesus bearing the cross, because He allowed himself to endure the cross, the work of the cross brings hope to every soul.

Because of the cross, we can experience being transformed.  You can magnify your inabilities until they are bigger than the mirror.  Because of the cross and the power of the cross and the work that was done on the cross, it gives men and women opportunity to be transformed from what they are. 

You may have this hindrance because of what you are and how incapable you are, that will become your tomb and your vault, and your mold.  When you look at the cross and see that Jesus went to the cross so that you and I could have the hope of the gospel, your life can be totally transformed.  You don’t have to be that individual.  You can have hope.

You can always find someone that will feel sorry for you but there is no healing there.  Transformed and translated because of the hope of the Gospel.

Col 1:14  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Being transformed by the hope of His blood; the hope of the gospel gives us redemption and freedom from the past.  Isn’t it wonderful that you can be forgiven of the past and you can have the liberty in that you are no longer governed by the sins, failures of the past?

Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Col 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

For every one of us, no matter what is designed to bring ruin to your life, if you will allow the hope of the Gospel and the cross to have the preeminence in your life, this is where the enemy really wages a war.  There is something in people where they want to be in control of their own life.  It doesn’t work that way.  We either sell out and yield to the power of God, or we can go through all the powers that are mentioned in verse 16 and realize that those spirits are everywhere. 

When we allow Christ and have the attitude, “I am not going to learn this by experience or have to take offense at the cross.  I need the power of the blood to hold at bay those things that would make me warped and twisted.”  The blood of Christ, the cross, brings an equality to every man, woman, boy, and girl, to every nationality.

There is only one way to heaven and that is through Christ. 

Col 1:19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

Whenever our peace is attacked, whether by sickness, finances, rumor, report, circumstances, joys, or disappointments, I see something here this morning.  Peace though the blood of the cross.

I ask myself in your presence, “Gary what is most important?”  When you are faced with that question, you don’t go to the tangibles.  The most important is that which is of a spiritual bearing.  There is not anyone in this audience that doesn’t have the identity of, “I want to be saved, but I don’t want to be saved alone.”  We are all a part.  No man lives or dies to himself.

I thought this morning of an invitation we received from a younger Brother Neely to the young people for a get together that want to do in July.  I know that there are those in their area that have grandchildren.  I began to think, I wonder if that would be an open door for Brother Bob and Sister Brenda that have a granddaughter that is a teenager.  We are never an island are we? 

I can assure you there is probably not a day that goes by that they don’t pray.  I’m sad in my heart because of some of our family that refuses to respond.  God spoke to me, “You may not be able to reach to them, but reach to those that you can.” 

You go to the cross and tell God, “I want to make it.  I want others to make it too.”  We reach to the young; we reach to the middle aged.  I’d like to see the banker here.  I’d like to see that man that kills grizzlies here.  I’d like to see the grandchildren of the saints here.  I want them free.

The Gospel is to all.  We can have peace through the blood.  I don’t need to tell you of wars that people fight.  You already know about people that for whatever reason when they see you the offense of the cross comes up.  All you have to be is alive and yourself and an American using your liberties and you are called pushy.

We live in a world where people can say anything and you are supposed to chuckle.  Yet you are supposed to be quiet and not say anything.  If you let people get by with that then you are a pushover.

Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

It is marvelous that at one time the cross and you were at odds and then you repented.  The cross changes those that have issues with everyone that is saved to being friends.

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

This took place on the cross.  We live in a world that doesn’t want to hear about holiness.  The cross brings holiness.  The affects of the cross puts it within us to be unblameable.  “I want to be right with God.  I want to be right with man.”

Going to the cross and spending time there, being changed at the cross, unreproveable.  I prayed however much last week, “Lord, help me to have the mind of Christ.”  I want to be unreproveable.

Col 1:23  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

Continue in faith, grounded and settled unmovable in the hope of the gospel.  The cross is offensive according to Galatians 5:11.  The cross is offensive to the proud.  If you are dealing with someone that is offended in the message of the cross then they have chosen to be hopeless. 

The proud choose to trust in themselves or in some scheme of man or religion.  They choose to neglect their soul and be offended at the cross, “I am so good that I don’t need the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

The cross is effective to the humble, Galatians 6:14, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross.

The cross brings hope of a new creature, the hope of victory over sin, self and the world.  It brings washing from sin, washed in the blood of the Lamb.  It brings life to the soul.  It brings rejoicing to the forgiven sinner. 

I remember the peace and the joy that flooded my soul when I got saved.  There is rejoicing to the church on earth and the great joy of the angels in heaven over one sinner that repents.

The cross makes the difference.

You may say, “There is a struggle in my life.  I am having a difficult time.”  Perhaps you feel the world pulling this way and something pulling another way. 

Frequent the cross, study the cross, find yourself kneeling at the foot of the Old Rugged Cross.  When you look up and see that cross, when you realize, He did it all for me, then you say, “I love Him too much, his power will enable me to have victory over everything.”