Yesterday my #1 daughter was asking me about the order of Jesus’ sayings from the cross.  I gave her Erwin Lutzer’s book Cries from the Cross and let her figure it out on her own, but as she read I went back to the sermon I preached on Easter Sunday a few years ago.  As I read over the sermon I realized that a section really supported what I’ve been preaching in 2 Corinthians 5.  Over the last three weeks I’ve talked about the doctrine of reconciliation, the doctrine of imputation, and of God’s call upon our lives to be ambassadors. 

Ryken said that the day Jesus was crucified there were three things that were nailed to the cross.  First, Jesus, the Son of God, was nailed.  He willingly went to the cross to accomplish the plan of redemption that was set in stone before the foundation of the world.  Jesus was nailed to the cross, but we also find (2) an inscription nailed to the cross.   Pilate wrote, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”  The Romans would read the crime for which a person was being crucified and then nail that statement to the cross for all to see.  Jesus was nailed to the cross, the inscription was nailed to the cross, but there was something else nailed to the cross—the naked eye couldn’t see it—it was being nailed in the Spirit Realm.  The Word of God tells us what it was.

Colossians 2:13-14 says, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision 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.”  (3) There was a record of debt for each of us that was nailed to the cross.  God took our sin I.O.U. and nailed it to the cross and when Jesus shouted, “It is finished!” He was shouting, “Paid in full.”

I sat out on my front porch yesterday afternoon reading and came across Paul’s great statement in Galatians 6:14, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”  The word “boast” means to exult in, to rejoice in,  glory in, or to have joy.  Have we lost the radical nature of being called upon to glory in the cross?

We rejoice, boast, glory, and take joy in many things.  We glory in our favorite team’s success, we rejoice in the birth of a child or grandchild, and we boast of the accomplishments of those we love, but do we boast in the cross?  When is the last time it came up in a conversation outside of church? 

As I sat there thinking about boasting in the cross I wondered what life would be like if we stopped boasting in the things of the world and learned to treasure the Lord and what He did for us on the cross.  Piper said, “Ever legitimate pleasure in the world becomes a blood-bought evidence of Christ’s love, and an occasion of boasting in the cross.”  It isn’t that we don’t enjoy the things of this world—God put them here for His glory!  We enjoy them, but we treasure the One who gave them to us. 

We boast in those things in which we treasure—our great ambition should be to boast only in the cross because there is not one shared moment of grace that isn’t centered in the cross of Jesus Christ.  I spent some time repenting of the things that have captured my heart and praying for God to consume me with the cross.  Do you need to join me?

Several years ago I went to a pastor’s conference where I heard John Piper preach on the life of Judson.  I can say without a doubt it was one of the most powerful sermons I have ever heard and one of the most moving times in my life.  Piper’s sermon was “How few there are who die so hard” and throughout the sermon he talked about how much Judson suffered to get the Gospel to a lost people.  I thought of a quote from that sermon as I was writing my blog from yesterday.  Judson was not only a man who preached Christ crucified—he was a man who lived the crucified life.

“The great importance this has for my purpose here is to stress that this deep confidence in God’s overarching providence through all calamity and misery sustained him to the end. He (Judson) said, “If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings.”

This was the unshakable confidence of all three of his wives, Ann (or Nancy), Sarah, and Emily. For example, Ann, who married Judson on February 5, 1812 and left with him on the boat on February 19 at age 23, bore three children to Adoniram. All of them died. The first baby, nameless, was born dead just as they sailed from India to Burma. The second child, Roger Williams Judson, lived 17 months and died. The third, Maria Elizabeth Butterworth Judson, lived to be two, and outlived her mother by six months and then died.

When her second child died, Ann Judson wrote, “Our hearts were bound up with this child; we felt he was our earthly all, our only source of innocent recreation in this heathen land. But God saw it was necessary to remind us of our error, and to strip us of our only little all. O, may it not be vain that he has done it. May we so improve it that he will stay his hand and say ‘It is enough.’” In other words, what sustained this man and his three wives was a rock-solid confidence that God is sovereign and God is good. And all things come from his hand for the good – the incredibly painful good – of his children.”

Judson wrote the following words to Ann’s father to ask for her hand in marriage,

“I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left is heavily home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteous, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?”

Her father said she could make up her own mind and Ann wrote to her friend Lydia Kimball,

“I feel willing, and expect, if nothing in Providence prevents, to spend my days in this world in heathen lands. Yes, Lydia, I have about, come to the determination to give up all my comforts and enjoyments here, sacrifice my affection to relatives and friends, and go where God, in his Providence, shall see fit to place me.”

 Does your faith in God resemble theirs?  That’s why we must continue to preach, teach, and live the crucified life.

On Sunday morning I intend to preach a message on the incarnation of God from Hebrews 9:23-28.  As I studied this week I came across a sermon by Stephen J Cole and he reminded me of a great illustration of why we should keep preaching Christ crucified.  (See yesterday’s blog!)

He was writing about the truth that God has ordained our day of death and how that should lead us to understand that our lives are in the hands of God.  Then he gave a great illustration of how that is fleshed out.

 “At age 54, Jonathan Edwards, the godly revivalist preacher, received a vaccination for smallpox when that treatment was in its earliest practice. No doubt he thought that it was a wise precaution that could extend his life. Instead, the doctor gave him too much vaccine, and he contracted the deadly disease. On his deathbed, he spoke to his younger daughter, who was there with him. He did not question the sovereign will of God. He said (Iain Murray, Jonathan Edwards, a New Biography [Banner of Truth], p. 441),

Dear Lucy, it seems to me to be the will of God, that I must shortly leave you; therefore, give my kindest love to my dear wife, and tell her, that the uncommon union, which has so long subsisted between us, has been of such a nature, as I trust is spiritual, and therefore will continue forever. And I hope she will be supported under so great a trial and submit cheerfully to the will of God.

He went on to commend his children “to seek a Father who will never fail you.” “Then, when those at his bedside believed he was unconscious and expressed grief at what his absence would mean… they were surprised when he suddenly uttered a final sentence, ‘Trust in God, and you need not fear.’”

 For her part, when the news reached Edwards’ wife Sarah, she was suffering so much from rheumatism in her neck that she could scarcely hold a pen. But she wrote to her daughter Esther, who had lost her husband, Aaron Burr, just months before: What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hands on our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me adore his goodness, that we had him [Jonathan] so long. But my God lives; and he has my heart. O what a legacy my husband, and your father, has left us! We are all given to God; and there I am, and love to be (ibid., p. 442).”

There’s a story told of a small English village that had a tiny chapel whose stonewalls were covered by ivy. Over an arch was originally inscribed the words of St. Paul: “WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED”. There had been generations of godly men who did just that: they preached Christ crucified. And many souls had been baptized and given the kingdom of God. But times changed. The ivy grew thick and soon it covered the last word. The inscription then read: WE PREACH CHRIST. Other men came and they preached Christ: Christ the example, Christ the humanitarian, and Christ the ideal teacher. The people were made to feel as though they needed to do something to earn their own salvation. As a result many souls heard a saving message based in works righteousness. As the years passed, the ivy continued to grow until finally the inscription read: WE PREACH. That generation did just that: they preached. They preached philosophy, the new morality, social activism, self-esteem psychology, and the innate goodness of all humanity. They preached just about everything but Christ crucified. The result was that many people felt themselves to be without the need of the Savior and, thus, many died in their sins.

I pray FBC will never have a pastor who just preaches, who just preaches Christ, but always preaches Christ crucified!  Chuck Colson recently wrote about a battle between the Cayman Islands and the British Foreign Office.  The constitution of the Cayman Islands declares that it is a “God-fearing country based on traditional Christian values…”  The British Foreign Office said they should consider removing that statement because “the UK was now multi-faith.”  The territorial leaders responded that “while the UK may be multi-faith, Christianity is still the dominant religion on the island.”  So they kept the statement…a committee in Parliament is now giving careful consideration to ordering the territories to remove references to Christianity.

Colson then wrote that a Foreign Office official recently called upon the Red Cross to replace the red cross with an alternate symbol.  The cross has always been offensive, but I intend to keep the ivy of the world trimmed back and I intend to keep the cross central in my life.

Let me close with a great song. I would rather hear my wife sing it, but Steve Green will do! Besides, I don’t have a video of her…

The Gettys were at the Alabama State Convention this week…Wow!  What a powerful time of worship.  Let me share a song with you and let me encourage you to get their music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUv0RP8sctg