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Well, thank you very much Glen. Glen was with me down in Melbourne and in all the time I've known him, I've never known him to tell anything quite as close to his untruth as he just did. I think what he meant was it was an enormous refreshment to the spirit to think that we might be here tonight and talking about the death of our dear Lord Jesus.

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I think that's what he really meant when he said we came refreshed from a commission meeting in Melbourne. We have three nights on this particular topic and the fact that you're here tonight and wanting to study this is a sign of the seriousness with which you take these great spiritual and theological and biblical matters and I trust that you will be consistent

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in attending and perhaps ask others to come as well because after all what could be talking about more important than this. My method of procedure will be to try to combine doctrine and Bible study in the one and that's not too hard because after all our true doctrine comes from the Bible and is tested by the Bible. Tonight I'm going to particularly talk

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about one John and I'll be getting to that if you look at the outline they are beginning to that under the heading number three the cross of God and that's what I'll turn especially to the letter of one John. My plan at the moment although they don't hold me to it I might think differently in a week's time. My plan at the moment is to talk about one Peter

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and also one of the gospels perhaps Matthew to get three sort of witnesses to the death of Jesus. John, Peter and Matthew, Mark or Luke perhaps to talk to us about the death of Jesus. So that's the present plan but it will also proceed doctrineally as well as by a straight exposition. So let's get out of the way at the introduction the crucial

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cross. Oh and by the way I plan to talk till about nine o'clock and then have time for questions after that we'll be out of here no later than 9.30. The crucial cross. Now of all things in this world I guess death is one of the most common and although it grieves us often to see a dead person or to have someone close to us die yet no unless

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we know as well as anything that all over this city people are dying all the time and not just people but all animals insects plants of the field death is just simply around us all the time it's enormously common human or other death. And of these deaths many of them have a personal significance to us of course that's true but most of them don't

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have a personal significance to us and most of them don't have a significance to others in the community or have an ongoing significance. Indeed that only be really a handful of deaths in the history of the world which would be really significant I suppose most of us know the story of the death of Alexander the great for example others I suppose most of us

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are aware of the story of the death of Adolf Hitler and you could think about the deaths as well John F. Kennedy and so on are deaths of persons because of their inherent importance their significant deaths that's true but mostly even those deaths remain significant for a relatively short time when I was growing up my mother very carefully taught me about

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the death of Lord Nelson and how he said kiss me hardy she'd always say kiss me hardy hardy kissed him and he died I could never understand what Nerf she was talking about then she'd say oh was it kismat hardy, kismat hardy and then hardy kissed him and he died it was a sort of puzzle my mother was like that we weren't going to all that but the death

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of Lord Nelson was certainly well known to many in my generation I guess but as time got on fewer and fewer people know about the death of Nelson and fewer people will know or care about the death of Nelson and some of you heal will be saying who already but here is a death in thinking about the death of Jesus Christ which continues you could rightly

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say I think to dominate the history of the world it is I think I would have no chance of anyone contradicting this if I said it is the most important death in the history of the world even if you don't believe in God even if you think it's just a mere matter of history you'd still have to say that here was the death which is the most important

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death in the history of the world if you're asked the question why that is the case and look to the New Testament for an answer to it you'll see that from the very beginning of the writings that now go up to form up the New Testament that that death occupied central place if for example and you've got your Bible there why don't you do a bit

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of Bible work as we begin Galatians chapter 6 and this great word here at the end of chapter 6 verse 14 may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world well the person who wrote that the apostle Paul for him the cross was the single most important thing in the

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whole of his life the world has been crucified to him and he to the world may I never boast in anything except the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ or to stick with the same author for a moment if you looked at one Corinthians chapter 1 where he talks about that the message which he gave his life to proclaim in the world the message is of course that Jesus Christ

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is Lord we know that but when he more specifically says what his message is one Corinthians 1 verse 20 23 but we preach he says Christ crucified so in preaching the Lordship of Christ if you want to put it down to its most fine point you'd say he's preaching Christ crucified not even notice please Christ resurrected or Christ coming into the world at Christmas

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time or not even Christ the incarnate God of course all these things would be included in his message but as he sums it up and says what is the sharp end the most important point he just summarizes it with those words I we preach Christ crucified well look at it another way if you think of the four gospels and how they unfold you'll have to agree

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I think that in each of the gospels the death of Jesus is predominant someone as one said that they seem to be more or less stories of his death with a few things beforehand that's exaggeration of course but the death of Jesus has given a prominence in the four gospels which indicates how important each of these four authors regarded that death to be and

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it's exactly the same as what Paul says we preach Christ crucified or I think of it another way down through history and this goes as far as written records allow all the way back into the New Testament yes but also in all the documents that came in the next decades after the New Testament and in every little bit of history we can survive there is the

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story of Christians gathering together to eat a meal a special symbolic meal and it's a meal in memory of Jesus no it's a meal in memory of the death of Jesus do this in remembrance of me said Jesus and as you receive the Holy Communion as you attend the Lord Sapa just remember that this is just the latest in a whole chain of meals which can be traced

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back all the way all the way through every century agony decade of every century back for two thousand years right back to the last Sapa now there's only one other meal which I know of which even matches that one and that of course is the Passover which the Jews have been keeping now for at least three thousand years and more now the idea of having

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a feast in memory of someone who's died is relatively common one in the ancient world or is Sam anniversary for example to have a feast on the anniversary and people do that and they go on perhaps sometimes for decades or hundreds of years even but to think that we have been eating a meal in honor of a man who died for two thousand years in memory

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of me is an indication and please notice not just in memory of me but in memory of my death can you see how extraordinary that is it is one of the most amazing facts of history in itself and then we also observe of course that in the New Testament very often the saving work of the Lord Jesus referred to and often there's a reference to the resurrection but

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more frequently there's a mention of the cross and only the cross that is to say obviously the resurrection the ascension the coming into the world of Jesus all these things are indispensable for our salvation but if you want to know what the pivot was if you want to know what the most important moment of the whole schema of salvation is then without doubt it's the

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cross you just keep reading a New Testament and you'll see it the cross by which the world is dead to me and I to the world and again and again in the New Testament where opportunity was there had the had the right I wanted to mention the cross and resurrection you'll see that the cross is singled out as the pivot of it all not surprisingly therefore the

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cross has become the sign of Christianity down through the years and a building with a cross is the most easily recognizable building as a Christian building it has it has come down with people making the sign of the cross it has come down with Christian buildings being adorned by the cross right there wrongly it has come down through Christian buildings

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being shaped by the cross right there wrongly and then if you expand it out you think of some of the greatest music ever written has been inspired by the death of Jesus some of the greatest hymns that we sing have been inspired by the death of Jesus and I meant to sort of organize us for a bit of singing tonight and forgot to do so so Terry and Glenn

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and I have thought for next week we must sing some hymns about the death of Jesus so we'll incorporate that next next time we meet so that our hearts can spring up and well up in the praise of Jesus as we hear about his death and so some of the greatest music some of the greatest hymns ever written some great poetry of course and then Christian spirituality is founded on the cross

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listen again go back to Galatians this time Galatians to 20 where the apostle Paul is speaking there of the the very ground of Christian spirituality which is all linked up to justification by faith alone and he says in Galatians to 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me the life I live in the body he says I live by faith in the Son of God

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who loved me and gave himself for me by the way have you noticed there that I always loved to point this out he doesn't write what you and I would have written you and I might have written there I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me well that's true of course but the apostle is so fixated if you like in a right way with the cross of Christ that when he thinks of

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the love of Jesus it is exemplified it is demonstrated in a particular event in which Christ loved him and gave himself for him he does it again in Romans 8 by the way where again he doesn't just refer to the that Christ loves me he says Christ loved me because he the cross is something from which he can never escape it's not as though you begin the Christian life by being transformed

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by the cross and then you move on to other exciting things the Christian life is a cross-centered life after all as the Lord Jesus himself said take up your cross daily he said and follow me and so true biblical spirituality if there is such a word of spirituality but true biblical pattern of godly living is a cross-shaped pattern of godly living and we can never escape or graduate

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beyond we can never graduate beyond the cross as far as godly living is concerned and so on these Wednesday nights I want to lead us in a meditation if you like an extended meditation on the death of Jesus reminding us that it is an inexhaustible subject we could not possibly we could not possibly think or say anything except a minute portion of what could be thought and said about this I want

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to lead us in this meditation and I trust that as we do so our hearts and lives will be transformed even more that our lives will be all the more securely based on the son of on the faith in the son of god who loved me not just the me by the way not not just loved us but the apostle says loved me and gave himself for me and that very very precious verse there loved me and gave

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himself for me I'm trusting that we together will sing the praises of god father son and holy spirit all the more enthusiastically as we think about this greatest of all human events the death of Jesus now I've said that we'll be proceeding by Bible study and we will but it's but it will be Bible study set within doctrinal study and don't be alarmed by the word doctrine it simply means

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teaching and it really means here the teaching of the Bible so there's nothing to be alarmed about by that but one of the things that doctrine helps us with is to is to learn and then to use some great words great words that will help us to understand things better and as we go on we'll be touching on some great words like reconciliation because god in Christ reconciled the

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world to himself through the death of Jesus we're going to speak about atonement which is allied to reconciliation the atonement of reconciliation of sacrifice of course because the death of Jesus is described in biblical terms as a great sacrifice and what does that mean we're going to use words like substitution words like satisfaction words like wrath words like blood words like

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propitiation great great Christian words which we as Christians are heir to and we can use them and use them in a way which will enlarge our horizons and help us to understand something more of the death of Jesus don't be frightened by the words but learn the words they're yours they're our vocabulary as Christians and we should use them use them well

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and allow them to speak to us what the gospel is about that's the end of the introduction I promised Christine that I would be brief in the introduction and I think I've kept my promise it's the last one she always says to me other way out not a long introduction she knows me too well and I come now therefore to contradictions of the cross because this whole picture I painted to you

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of the death of Jesus being so important there's a black side to that as well for there would be many who would deny this and say no the death of Jesus is not important now many of those who are denied do not do so on purpose so to speak but by adopting adopting particular views and theories and teachings they rob the cross of Jesus sometimes unintentionally of its power and its significance

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and I'm going to mention four tonight well five actually I've added another one in but we'll get to that in a minute first of all what I'm calling universalism by universalism it's a technical word but it really means that all will be saved there is no one lost that hell if it exists is uninhabited that all people will be saved and I suppose the beating heart of universalism

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is the great doctrine of the love of God for people will say if God is a God of love and truly is that is the greatest thing one can say about him and if God so loves us that he gave us his son then how is it possible that he should allow any to perish we know that that's God's great mind and heart is that all should come to him the scriptures themselves tell us that and therefore

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God will draw all people to himself and none will be lost comes out of the love of God it means that God would not condemn anyone that all will be saved then there's moralism let me call moralism and moralism is really the belief that human beings are inherently good I suppose if I put to you human beings inherently evil or inherently good my guess is that even an audience like

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this we may have some division on that matter that many of us would want to say no no human beings are inherently good but in so doing of course we're running contrary to the whole teaching of the Bible is interesting many Christians believe it but it's because they have not been reading the Bible very satisfactorily you remember the Lord Jesus at one point said said as sort of casual

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throwaway line if you being evil know how to treat your the assumption that human beings are evil is right there inherent there and how could it be otherwise because he read his Bible and he recognized that at the beginning of the story of the human race there was of course that catastrophic rejection of the will of God by Adam standing in our place and how in Adam we rejected the will

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and the kingdom of God for our lives and in rejecting the will and kingdom of God we suffered the expulsion of our race from Eden and then the consistent evil of the race so that in the days of Noah the race was almost thoroughly destroyed and so the Bible testifies again and again of the sinfulness of the human race not I beg your pardon not that we are sinful all the way through

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with no good in us you're all watching what I'm doing aren't you yes I did spill a bit but we'll deal with it can't let adversely suffer at that point where the Bible testifies again and again say the epistle of the Romans for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and all without exception and in Adam says the Bible all die

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those pithy words as pithy and condemnatory words is perfectly clear that our association with Adam both as our representative and as modern that our our forebeer has meant that we are afflicted by evil not as bad as we could be not thoroughly deprived but we are totally deprived that is to say we're not all evil all the way through but there is evil all the way through if I can put it like that

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the evil is not just that you were brought up badly it's not just that you have a problem in one area it's not just that you can't help yourself doing this it is that in your heart the heart is corrupt and from the heart come evil thoughts and the breaking of God's law last year's subject that we were talking about now moralism starts from the premise that human beings are actually good

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not totally good but fundamentally good because in moralism there lies the belief that God will reward those who are good enough to be rewarded that God is just and as a just God if you do enough that's good he will reward you and give you a place in his kingdom you can please him by effort that's moralism it's a very very popular religion indeed extremely popular and it suggests that

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human beings are good enough to please God our third one is unitarianism unitarianism now by unitarianism I mean that belief that there is only one God that's good for a start there is only one God but then that one God is not three in one but simply a unit an undifferentiated unit and the best way to think about Jesus is to say that he was an exalted man or perhaps a lesser God

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but not really the one true God and so a distinction is made between God and Jesus usually by saying that Jesus was a hero Jesus was one of the great prophets Jesus is a exalted man but not truly God unitarianism has had a history within the Christian movement I don't believe it is Christian but nonetheless it has had a history within the Christian movement very popular for

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example in the northeast of America and the United States of America at one stage popular in the north of England Manchester was a great unitarian town at one point for example it stemmed often from the English Presbyterianism for various reasons we won't go into now English Presbyterianism I'm not attacking all Presbyterians but it did historically come from that area but

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it can be broader than that can be the belief of people in the churches who don't even know that they are unitarian who simply regard they've been one God and Jesus is a great man whom they will follow there may well be many Christians or so called who think really that's the best way of describing it or you could go to another point and say that Islam is unitarian for although in

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Islam Muhammad is a great prophet Jesus is honored as a prophet and the great the great doctrine of Islam is that there is only one God and there could not possibly be a trinity in this one God so from that point of view I guess Islam would be a species of unitarianism and then finally I well not finally yet I've spoken here of mysticism I don't mean quite

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mysticism in a classical sense if you know much about mysticism but rather the idea that God is mystery that we don't know very much at all about God and what we do know is somewhat murky and uncertain that yes Jesus is the Son of God and Jesus did die on the cross but we can't really explain it and we can say certain rather vague things about it we certainly see how important it

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was but all our explanations of the cross really are just sort of approximations to the truth we can't really explain what happened on the cross or why Jesus died on the cross and in mysticism in particular the way to God becomes exalted experience, exalted human experience perhaps the cross is a pattern of that exalted human experience in some way but certainly you

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can't say much about it the last one I want to mention in addition here is what I'd call pluralism that is to say the belief that is so prevalent around us that there are there are many gods many gods and many lords that you can't exalt one above the other that the death of Jesus is therefore the death of Jesus within one religion but there are many religions in the world and there

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must be many saviors and you can't give Jesus an exalted place. Now just think of what each of these does to the cross what use has a universalist for the cross for after all it is the business of God to forgive as one French sage once said it is the business of God to forgive that is business well then why the cross if you're a universalist all will be saved by the decision of God then why

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the cross why did Jesus die or if you're a moralist and you believe that people are saved by achievement by moral achievement because human beings are essentially good then why the cross and then if you're a unitarian and you believe that there is only one God and that Jesus is simply human being then why the cross or put it this way what difference would the cross make

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it's interesting to observe that in many in many strands of Islam it is believed that Jesus did not die on the cross as one of the chief differences isn't it between Islam and Christianity we believe the Son of God laid down his life on the cross in Islam he is a prophet but he didn't die on the cross someone else died on the cross that's a key difference between the two

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or if you're into mysticism and of the sort I have described that God is a mystery and it's very hard to understand what the cross was all about then when why the cross all I'm not prepared to say no explanation of the cross can really be entered into or if you're a pluralist then again the death of Jesus is hardly significant because he is only one of many Saviours why the cross

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now in attempt to answer some of these questions Christians have come up with different versions of why the cross and many have put a great deal of emphasis on the example of the cross that in dying as he did we'll just pause a moment I've been asking what difference does it make and what explanations for the cross are given if

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you take any of these what I call contradictions and I'm saying that one of the explanations given is that the cross is a great example that Jesus dies as an example of how to live and die for the rest of us and Jesus the exemplar is a frequent way of explaining the cross not an atoning death but an example death if I can put it like that or other explanation is that at the cross Jesus

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is demonstrating for us that God understands suffering that Jesus is in fact the Son of God but that his death is not an atonement for sin but it's really a demonstration that God understands suffering from within a great deal particularly in the latter part of the 20th century was made of that explanation of the cross especially in the light of the terrific sufferings of

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the world wars where people said no the God who doesn't understand suffering is not the God of Christianity Jesus has come into our world and indeed one of the apologetic moves that we often make and with some justice is to say to people who suffer look God has suffered in his son Jesus and that has has become center stage as an explanation of the death of Jesus a message that God

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loves that God understands suffering now a number of these things are of course correct a number of those explanations of the death of Jesus the correct but they fail to do justice to the whole teaching of the Bible they fail to really come to terms with what the Bible itself says is the reason for the death of Jesus the answer to the question why the cross and we need I think to turn

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to the Bible itself to understand what it has to say as the word of God about the meaning of the death of Jesus otherwise we'll be led astray simply by the mood of the age the sort of swirl of things like universalism and moralism which are so endemic in the human mind and heart and we'll be led into saying things that aren't true that aren't a real explanation of the death

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of the Lord Jesus so let's now turn to away from the negative to the positive and you'll see that there are two sections left the first is entitled the God of the Cross and secondly the cross of God into under the heading of the God of the cross I now want to think about what God is like for if we're going to think about the meaning of the cross why the cross

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why did Jesus die we have to understand it not so much from just looking at the event itself but understanding the background to the event understanding the God who brought about such an event understanding God's purposes and the sort of God he is so let's turn there first and having set that scene we'll then look more closely at one John and see from the specific teaching of

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Scripture what explanation is given of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ so let me take us through a brisk journey of some of the things that we know about God and I suspect for all of us these things will not be new but then in Christian teaching very little is new I hope something new would be very strange indeed I should think what we need is not so much new things but to be

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reminded of the things that we ought to know the old things so let me let me turn here then to some very important points about God if we don't understand the cross these four in particular first and you'll notice by the way that that they contradict and conflict with the preceding points about the contradictions of the cross first of all of course we believe and confess that God

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is the creator he is the creator of all things pluralism is frankly completely wrong we don't live in a world in which there are gods many and lords many well we do but they're not true gods we live in a world in which there is one God and one God only and that everything that there is everything in this world everything in this universe bears the imprints of his hand so to speak

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everything has come from him he is the source of all things he is the end of all things he has planned all things he owns all things there is no need for us to enter into separate negotiations with 150 different gods there is only one God and there's no need to think that different objects in this world have different sources no so you are ce yeses but rather

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no there is only one source one rational one rationality behind all the bible puts it this way that all things are made through the word of God the logos the reason of God everything has the same structure because it all comes from the hands of the one God who has made all things the creator of all now he is not only the source he is the goal and object of all things and the meaning and

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purpose of all things as well he is therefore the one with whom we have to do whoever else you have to negotiate within this life whether it's your 17 year old son who wants the car or whether it's the boss or whoever it is in the end the only negotiation that really matters is the negotiation you do with this one creator God with whom we have to do now the sheer oneness of God

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means the universality of God so universalism is right to this extent that this one God of whom we speak is the maker and owner of all people and is the one who wishes that all should be saved let's turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2 for a strong bible exposition of this very point 1 Timothy chapter 2 the apostle says I urge then first of all that requests prayers intercessions and thanksgivings

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me made for everyone for kings and all in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness with all ministers present please notice that when we lead intercessions in church one of the few things the bible does say about our intercessions in church is that we should intercede for all in authority I just put that in as a technical remark to clergy present

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and when I visit I'd like to hear it please okay for the rest but he's ignored what I'm saying okay this is good now here is a universal he's he's talking about all for kings at all in authority as the whole world in mind this is good and it pleases God our savior who is universal that is who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth so our savior God the God

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with whom we deal as Christians is not just interested in white people or people of any particular color or brand or nation he is a god who is concerned for all and universalism is absolutely true at that point for there is one god and now here's the thing that begins to contradict the contradictions there is one mediator between god and man the man Christ Jesus who gave himself

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as a ransom for all the testimony for which was given in its proper time for this purpose I was appointed a herald and apostle a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles as well as the Jews in other words to the whole world so the very universality of the gospel indicates its uniqueness as well the uniqueness of Christ is a necessary consequence of the universality of God and the gospel

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pluralism is an impossible heresy for Christians to fall into no we believe in the absolute uniqueness of Jesus Christ excuse me pressing this rather hard because I have to tell you that the uniqueness of Jesus Christ our capacity to say what the apostle says here there is one god and one mediator within God and man the man Jesus Christ that is under threat and will become

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increasingly under threat in the society in which we live in which there is so much fear about religion for a start and so much fear about religion being sharp edged with some justice in some courtes if you can say it but the idea that any religion puts itself forward as unique a religion which suggests that no here is the truth and therefore nowhere else is a religion which causes

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deep affront in the world in which we live and this will increasingly be the case so it will no longer will you I was going to say no longer be comfortable to be Christian what I was going to say you can adopt a comfortable Christianity if you like by adopting a pluralistic version of Christianity which says well that's our religion that's our tribal religion we happen to be that

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sort of people living in this sort of place if I was born in India I would be a Hindu or something like that you can simply say well all religions are the same I you can be a comfortable Christian that's going to be an easy way or easy option but believe me if you wish to be a biblical Christian in the future it's going to be increasingly hard to be so very hard indeed to read this out

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over the ABC News imagine what that might bring don't ask me I have no wish to be a martyr there is one God and one mediator between God and man the man Jesus Christ who gave himself as a ransom for all the uniqueness of Jesus is already under threat and it's going to become increasingly so as time goes on our God is therefore unique and with the unique son of unique

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mediator our God is triune not like the God of Islam our God is triune we say there's one God and using inadequate human language one God in three persons we don't mean there's three people in God didn't say people we said persons which is a sort of technical word because we can't find a better one to indicate this triunity of God if you like one in three and three in one we know

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the father the son and the Holy Spirit not that there are three names for God or three aspects of God that's not Christian not three aspects of God or three names for God no no we say three persons not three personalities but three persons we say one essence one substance if you like the God the father is totally God God the son is totally God God the Holy Spirit is totally God

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one person at one careful one God three persons is the best we can do to explain it or to speak of it and three equal persons fully God equal in being God there is an order in the God head we do speak of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit there is an order in the God head and there is a way in which each one has a role to fulfill if you like but nonetheless if we

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speak of the role that they fulfill it's not as though the son takes off in his own and if I may speak in that way and does his own thing there's no sense of that the father the son of that we're not talking about three people here we're talking about one God and therefore any action of the one God is the action any action of the one one person is an action of the one of the whole God if I

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may put it like that of God himself it's not as though the son can sort of take off and do his thing and the Holy Spirit take off and do his thing independent of the will of the one God it's not like that now it's essential that we see that that is the teaching of scripture if we to understand the death of Jesus if we don't understand a God to be Trinity triune then we will land ourselves

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into all sorts of difficulties one of the most important elements of teaching about the death of Jesus is to say that Jesus died as our substitute bearing our sins on the cross if you don't believe in the Trinity you'll think that this is an awful travesty that an angry God the father has punished a loving God the son as though the two are sort of you know one is

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angry one is loving and there's a sort of terrible disjunction between the two recently a Christian writer has even gone so far in criticism of such a thought to speak about cosmic child abuse a horrible image indeed but one that he was provoked to presumably by some careless teaching by some Christians who don't who have forgotten that we're dealing here with one God in three persons

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and there is no sense at all in the scriptures of an angry father and a loving son in some sort of conflict with each other so this idea this teaching of scripture of the of God the father son and Holy Spirit one God three persons is essential if we don't understand the death of Jesus properly here's a righteous judge that is all of history is moving towards a destiny of

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judgment every one of us is on that train moving towards judgment inexorably and that judgment is will be a righteous judgment by righteous judge this fact is attested to so many times in scripture act 1731 for example act 1731 where Paul speaking to the Athenians says in past God overlooked such ignorance but now he commands all people everywhere to repent for he has set

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a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed and he's given proof of this but to all men by raising him from the dead and it's perfectly clear clear testimony of scripture from start to finish is that we live in a world in which there will be a day of judgment and as a consequence of the day of judgment there will be the sheep and the goats

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universalism is a nice idea but it's not a scriptural idea it's an idea which we find comforting because it makes us comfortable Christians and easier to get on with it's easier to think that all our neighbors are saved and and that really becoming a Christian is only the discovery that you're already saved that's a that's a comfortable idea

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it's not a scriptural idea and again as Christians we're being called to a hard edge to difficult position but one that if we're going to be true to Christ we need to hold for it was after all the Lord Jesus himself who said that their will on the day of judgment be the goats and the sheep and that they will be separated and the goats will be sent into into hell and it was the Lord

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Jesus who spoke of hell more frequently than any other person as far as I can see in the pages of the New Testament moralism the belief that people are inherently good is not a scriptural teaching and of course the idea that we will be good enough to be saved on the day of judgment is as poisonous a heresy as you can possibly imagine it it the idea that somehow we are

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respectable enough or good enough to be saved in our own right makes nonsense of the cross it it it really says to God why did you bother we'll do it ourselves it assumes we are good which we're not it assumes that we're good enough which we're not and it it it destroys the gospel but it is if anything is the universal religion of the Australian people it is that I'll do it my way

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is our is the greatest hymn that was ever written well it is sent more people to hell I guess than any other hymn that was ever written and there have been some pretty bad hymns if we can think about it oh dear don't start me um we also think then of God the covenant maker that is to say that God yes we are all moving towards the judgment date that is perfectly true

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but God is the righteous God the righteous king who is determined to triumph through his son and he has reestablished his kingdom by making a covenant with his people by bringing them into a relationship a covenant relationship with them by speaking to them so to speak and his speech is found in the Bible and when you study the Bible the death of Jesus is not as mysterious as

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people say it is but God has explained to us what he did and why he did it in the Bible and far from drawing back from this and saying oh we don't understand it nobody could possibly understand it of course there are depths and mysteries to the death of Jesus that no one could possibly articulate but there are things about the death of Jesus in the scriptures which we do

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know and which we need to articulate and need to be clear about because God himself the covenant making God is clear about well now let's turn to the cross of God I've called it here in one John and see what one John says and we'll see many of the themes that I've just taken up are repeated for us in one John so to that we turn as we come to this final section

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first of all what does John tell us about God well famously he tells us in four verse eight God is love one of the most luminous wonderful words of scripture whoever does not love does not know God because God is love and again and again we see those words repeated and treasured and loved by people because they really come to the heart again of what we believe about God

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God is love of course if those words are the only description of God we have then you may be pushed in a universalist direction and indeed strangely one of the things that that man I referred to referred to cosmic child abuse he said at one point I believe well you know God is love is about the only scriptural affirmation about God but he must have forgotten earlier in one John

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one verse five sorry one I've got one 15 here that couldn't be right is it no it's one five one verse five this is the message we have heard from him and declared to you God is light and in him there is no darkness at all now this is a moral claim this is to do with the righteousness the holiness of God here's absolute purity the fact that there is no darkness in God

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there's not even a matter of God being inherently good it is a matter of these is inherently only good and only righteous and only pure and only holy he is light and light and darkness do not mix so in him there is no darkness at all and furthermore look on verse six if we claim to have fellowship with him but walk in the darkness we lie and do not live according to the truth

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so this God who is absolute purity and light does not mix with people who walk in darkness he cannot do so so if you say God is love that's all very well but it must be tempered by and held in held held I was going to say intention whether it's not a tension of course there's no tension in God but it must be also complemented by the truth that God is light and in him there is

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no darkness at all have a look to it 2 verse 17 for another word about God here the world and its desires pass away but the man who does the will of God lives forever you know see what the will of God is in due course the man who does the will of God lives forever because again God is Lord eternal life is found by obedience to the Lord the Lord God who rules all things so God is light

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God is Lord God is love now who are our our our enemies who are the enemies of the human race one John tells us this have a look at one John chapter one verse 10 if we claimed we have not sinned if we claim we have not sinned we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our life there are tons of people who claim not to sin

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or not to have sinned or not very badly anyway and this verse is a constant reminder to us all if we claim we have not sinned we make him out to be a liar we commit the great sin of contradicting God if we claim not to be not to have committed sin so sin is our enemy because sin brings us under judgment the wages of sin the Bible attests the wages of sin is death also

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John classically turns to what he calls the world chapter two verses 13 to 17 we might call this culture culture has become a big word in English language only for the last couple a hundred years I don't know what they used before that but here it speaks of the world it's human culture in other words anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother am I reading the right

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thing no what did I say to I said 17 have I got it right yes it is sorry no two verse 15 to 17 it is thank you someone said that if I just take notice of what people tell me do not love the world or anything in the world if anyone loves the world that's the world of human beings that he's talking about here not talking about your garden although some of us might ever do that too but

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do not love the world or anything in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for everything in the world the cravings of sinful man the lust of the eyes and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the father but from the world and the world with its desires is passing away but whoever does the will of God lives forever so we who a carry round

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within ourselves sin are encouraged in our sin by a sort of a complicity of the world now you know that it's what I do we observe the way in which fashion and the fashions of this world encourage us in ungodly and sinful ways the world joins in with sin to bring us down and then the third of our enemies of course is the evil one and John refers to the

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evil one in three verses eight and ten three verses eight and ten where he reminds us he who does what is sinful is of the devil belongs to the devil belongs to the evil one because the devil has been sinning from the beginning he says in verse 10 this is how we know who the children of God are the children of the devil are anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God

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nor is anyone who does not love his brother the picture we have here as well as elsewhere in the scriptures is really of the human race being lorded over by the world sin and the devil we belong to a lord all of us belong to a lord we were created to belong to a lord we were not created to be lords we're not created to be lords of the universe we were we were created to

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belong to a lord and the big thing for us is not whether we are a lord ourselves the question we'll never be that the question is which lord do we belong to a cruel master who will bring us down and bring us to hell or a kind good gentle and loving master who will bring us to heaven all of us here belong to a lord which lord is the question here he speaks of belonging to the evil one

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well who Jesus is is one of the key themes of one John because it's no good thinking that the death of Jesus accomplishes anything unless we know who Jesus is if he's merely man for example then his death is of interest to him but not to us and throughout this throughout this book the importance of identifying the truth about Jesus is one of its key features I'm not going to spend long on this

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now but if we look for example at 2 verse 22 who is the liar it is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ a lot of people do don't they deny that Jesus is the Christ well they're under the influence of the evil one who gets them to tell lies it is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ that is the promised one of God in other words such a man is the Antichrist he denies

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the Father and the Son no one who denies the Son has the Father whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also now here again we see that unity between Father and Son which is fundamental to our understanding of what Jesus did so we don't see that he acted as the Son of God not independent of the Father but as triune with the Father we will misunderstand what he

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did then what Jesus did well again let's have a look at what John tells us about this 1 verse 7 he cleansed us if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin a wonderful image it's a strange image isn't it the blood might cleanse we normally think of water cleansing but

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here is a blood that cleanses us when the scripture speak of the word blood here's one of our doctrinal words by the way blood when the scripture speak of blood they mean death the death of Jesus you could read it that way the death of Jesus his Son the blood shed of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin now that about you I'd like to be cleansed of sin I don't have much hope

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otherwise now the more I get to know God in his word the less hope I have the more I realize that moralism is not going to do me much good I think my only hope is to be cleansed if I want to walk in the light because God is light if I'm going to have fellowship with the God who is light then somehow I've got to be light myself but how am I going to do that what what will bring me what

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will make me able to have fellowship with God now the answer of the Bible here and everywhere is only through the blood of Jesus who cleanses us from sin that is the only human hope according to the scriptures that's explained further in one verse nine with the word forgiveness if we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness

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cleansing is a metaphor it's a picture of what happens to us if you want the reality it's forgiveness how is it we can walk in the light with Jesus with God it is through forgiveness again and again let me say the scriptures testify to the it gives a number of effects of the death of Jesus but the one that's most popular in the scripture is forgiveness what does the cross achieve forgiveness

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now how that happens is another question but that is what the cross achieves forgiveness we're told in four verse eight that the destruction of the enemies is achieved by Jesus through the cross the reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work in other words the reason the son of God appeared was to shake free from the devil's grip

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those who were his slaves remember I said that we only got two lords well in order for for Jesus to become your Lord he had to shake the devil so hard he gave you up yielded you to him and you know how did he go about shaking the devil sort of vivid picture isn't it how did he go about shaking the devil well have a look at two chapter two

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if anybody I'm writing to you so you don't sin verse one but if anyone does sin we have one who speaks to the father and out of fence Jesus Christ the righteous he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins not for our only but also for the sins of the whole world atoning sacrifice in the Greek it's a little words he lazmos and it really is the word profissiation

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it's a word to do with sacrifice and I want you to own this word I want you to have it it's a great word profissiation if I if I'm playing cricket on the backyard and I break my neighbor's window you must think that would did happen once I guess it might have I can ex I can expiate my offense by repairing the window but I can only propitiate my neighbor

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by saying sorry and repairing the window you expiate an offense and you propitiate a person you turn their anger to forgiveness that's how you propiti you do something you offer something you make a sacrifice which turns anger to forgiveness and what this says here is that Jesus is the propitiation is by his death on the cross the propitiation for our sins

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now you see how careful we have to be to understand this in a trinity way not that there's an angry father and a loving son but that father and son together are offended by our sin and father and son together love us so much so that the father the dear father gives his dear son that you a sinful person may be forgiven

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and the best way the Bible has to speak of that is to say that it was a sacrifice of propitiation wouldn't have worked if he was just a man wouldn't unitarianism is hopeless there's no grace in unitarianism in the end there's no love in unitarianism because how can the one God love himself it's the trinity in which God is love the father

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loves the son the son loves the father and both love the Holy Spirit and are loved by the Holy Spirit in return from all eternity there is love in the trinity and light and purity and righteousness and there's one undivided trinity provides us through the death of Jesus with that sacrifice for our sins so that your sins may be forgiven your life clenched because of what God in Christ did for you

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I've never heard anything like it well there we are was you an example yes of course he was was it a victory yes of course it was does it move our emotions you better does John tells us in this we know love not that we loved him but that he loved us and he tells us that this is how we know what love is 3 verse 16 that Jesus Christ laid down his life for us that's how we measure love

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that's how we know what love is and that is what stimulates us to love others as well for the death of Jesus leads to an outpouring of love from us love for others as God in Christ has loved us well there we are that teaching offers a massive contradiction to the contradictions of universalism moralism unitarianism and mysticism it is the Christian gospel it is the one gospel

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we have it is the gospel of the grace and mercy of God towards undeserving people it's the gospel in which you are shaken loose from your bad and evil Lord and brought into union and submission to the Lord who laid down his life for you and I can't think of better news than that