保罗·华许的《十字架》抄录

罗马书三章二十三节说，“因为世人都犯了罪，亏缺了神的荣耀；如今却蒙神的恩典，因基督耶稣的救赎，就白白地称义。神设立耶稣作挽回祭，是凭着耶稣的血，藉着人的信，要显明神的义。因为他用忍耐的心，宽容人先时所犯的罪。我现在说，为要显明他的义，使人知道他自己为义，也称信耶稣的人为义。这样，哪里能夸口呢？凭什么律法，夸口呢？不是的，乃是凭信的律法。”让我们祷告吧

（祷告）

有……正如我说过，我经常说，讲道是一件相当可悲的事情。这是一种失败，当你走上讲台时，你​​知道你注定会失败。人怎么能以应该被谈论的方式说出上帝的事情呢？我记得有一次在宣讲耶稣基督的福音之前，我非常心烦意乱，向上帝呼喊——“哦，我渴望那一天，当我站在你面前时，纯洁、神圣、完全神圣、荣耀，哦，上帝，如果那一刻你能给我一次机会，让我按照应该的方式宣讲基督。”我心中的印象是一种责备，“即使那样，你也不会按照应该的方式宣讲我的儿子，你永远不会足够了解他，你的舌头永远不会如此优雅，以至于唯一能给予真正的赞美和真正的荣耀并正确地谈论儿子的人是圣父、圣灵和圣子本人。”我们将用整个永恒，在基督的面前追寻上帝的荣耀。我们被告知，暴力者将用武力夺取王国。我要告诉你们，暴力将继续下去，这将是一场欢乐的暴力，但暴力的激情将贯穿整个永恒，当我们完成了他一千个永恒之后，你们仍然会气喘吁吁，甚至还没有开始在神荣耀的山脚下。这就是为什么永生始于认识他，因为永生就是认识他。这不是黄金街道，不是珍珠门，甚至不是逃离地狱，而是​​关于他。当传教士走上讲台时，我相信 G. Campbell Morgan 曾经说过，“就像一只被牵到屠宰场的羔羊，就像一只被剪羊毛的绵羊。”人能对这些事情说些什么呢？ “因为世人都犯了罪，亏缺了神的荣耀”，你不明白这段经文，我知道这可能是你小时候在约翰福音 3:16 之后记住的第一段经文，但我可以向你保证，你甚至现在都不明白这是什么意思，我也不明白，因为如果你明白的话，你一听到这句话，就会俯伏在地，撕破衣服，埋在尘土中。清教徒演说家经常会这样说，“你得罪的不是一个小省份的小总督或小王子，而是荣耀之主、万王之王、万主之主。”但你怎么能认真对待这句话呢？你把罪孽当水喝。你的嘴唇不洁，又住在嘴唇不洁的民中，你怎么能明白罪的卑鄙呢？因为世人都犯了罪。我想，描述这件事的可怕本质的最佳态度是，在你的不服从中，你已经向上帝宣战，你宣称你唯一想要的就是冲进宝座，把他从宝座上推下来，屠杀他，然后走出宝座，你堕落的心里没有一丝悔意。罪是一件罪恶的事，这是一件可怕的事情，清教徒称之为“罪恶的疯狂”，因为它就是如此！这就像砍掉你脚下休息的树枝。这就像拔掉墙上的生命维持系统的插头以自杀。这是绝对的疯狂，是卑鄙的，不仅在上帝面前卑鄙，而且在服从上帝的所有造物面前卑鄙。我经常用这个例子，它是这样的：想象一下上帝在创造的第一天，以及整天，他命令一切，一切都服从他！他看着那些可以吞噬成千上万颗我们称之为太阳的恒星的星星！他看着它们，命令它们，他说“你把自己放在太空中的这些地方，你待在那里，直到我给你另一个命令”，然后他们都鞠躬说“是的，先生”，“你的旨意得以实现”。他告诉行星们把自己分成几条轨道，绕着轨道运行，他们都鞠躬说，“你的旨意得以实现”。他命令高山耸立，他命令低谷崩塌，而它们则说：“主啊，愿祢的旨意成就。”他看着大海说：“你到了这里，就不要再往前走了。”大海听从了，然后他看着你说：“来吧。”你却说：“不！”我们怎么能看到我们罪孽的可悲？我们应该祈祷上帝赐予我们眼睛去看！这样我们就会像上帝憎恨罪孽一样憎恨罪孽。所有人都犯了罪，所有人都违反了他的律法，所有人都未能遵守上帝在他的话语中为我们设定的、放在我们心中的正义标准。每个人，每个人，每个人……你，你，你，你，你！如果我有时间指着每个人走上讲台，指着你的眼睛大喊：“你！犯了罪！”你的罪孽如此卑鄙，以至于最后……如果你拒绝耶稣基督作为你的主和救世主，当你迈出第一步进入地狱时，你听到的最后一句话就是所有的造物都站起来，为上帝鼓掌，因为他把你从地球上赶走了。你的罪孽就是这么卑鄙！因为所有人都犯了罪，亏缺了上帝的荣耀。现代人对这段经文的解释是，上帝对你的人生有一个奇妙的计划，而你却没有做到。上下文告诉我们一些完全不同的东西，“虽然他们知道上帝，但他们不把他当作上帝来尊敬。”我们今天在看待经文时，无论从哪个角度看，都是如此人性化。我们亏缺或亏缺了上帝的荣耀是什么意思？这意味着上帝为他创造了你！为了他的荣耀，为了他的美意，你违背了这个目的而反叛。正是因为这个原因，你才疲惫不堪、饥饿难耐、肮脏不堪、精疲力竭。即使在信仰之家中也是如此。这难道不奇怪吗？我们是基督教历史上最安全、最繁荣的基督徒，然而当我们走进这些所谓的基督教书店时，超过一半的书都在写我们是多么空虚。为什么我们空虚？因为他从来就不是空虚的。他有我们不知道的食物可吃。他的食物就是遵行他父亲的意愿，因为他来是为了荣耀他的父亲，而今天美国的基督徒大体上都是为自己而活。一切都是为了自己！我的好，甚至救赎也是为了自己。哦，让我们再往前追溯一下，上帝是为了自己！或者是为了人！但圣经里说了其他事情。他不是。我们如此空虚的原因是，我们是为了自己而活。我们不是放下生命，意识到我们是为了一个目的而生，就是为了侍奉他，崇拜他，崇拜他，而是被赋予呼吸，以赞美来回报它，你的心脏跳动是为了一个目的，为了上帝的荣耀！除非你与你被造的神圣目的保持一致，否则你将焦躁不安，你的生活将毫无用处，愚蠢至极。这就像试图用吉他射箭。或者试图用弓箭演奏音乐。一个有一个目的，另一个有另一个目的，你是为了一个特定的目的而生，它不是为了你，不是为了现在过上最好的生活。你们是为了他而生，由他而生，你们是为他而生。人文主义就是最大的问题，不是吗？我们又回到这个问题上来了，不是吗？一切都是为了我们。一位伟大的传教士曾经说过，他说，自由主义者，自由主义者，通过他的人文主义，自由主义不知道是否有天堂，所以他的宗教的基本核心是，让人们尽可能地快乐！而原教旨主义者也做了同样的事情，他们只是推迟了时间。让人们尽可能地再次快乐。为什么人们应该得救？你不想去那个肮脏的地狱，对吧？我之前在布道中说过，我再说一遍，亲爱的朋友们，你应该忏悔你的罪过，即使，即使上帝把你送进地狱，因为他值得。你应该相信耶稣基督，无论他是否拯救你，因为他值得你相信；你应该把你的一生都花在祈祷、敬拜和侍奉上帝上，无论他是否拯救你，因为他值得你相信！但是不！今天的传道人告诉你要为自己而做！为自己而做。不，你要为他而做。你要为他而做，为他的荣耀而做，为他的荣耀而做。现在，在向我们展示这些之后，他说：“因为世人都犯了罪，亏缺了神的荣耀。”现在，在我继续之前，让我对在座的各位年轻传道人说一些关于传道的事情。今天我们被告知，我们不应该传讲谴责的信息；如果你相信这一点，那么为了相信这一点，你必须否认罗马书的前三章。因为保罗在圣灵的启发下，运用了他所拥有的每一种智力和思想，他在三章中什么也没做，只是试图做一件事：谴责整个世界。堵住每个人的嘴，将他们埋在泥土里，切断一切可能的人文希望，因为只有这样，只有这样，人们才会寻求上帝。只有这样。我想告诉你们，如果我们不宣扬罪恶，我们就对福音、对上帝、对人类犯下了极大的不公。让我举个例子，我总是用这个例子，听着。钥匙的声音不会让你高兴，为什么？因为你没有被锁在地牢里。如果你被锁在地牢里，钥匙的声音会激发你的希望，并可能让你欢欣鼓舞。但是因为你不知道，因为你没有被告知你实际上有多么卑鄙，距离死亡、谴责和地狱有多近，所以你不会从福音中获得快乐。你宁愿看着时钟，希望它的指针快速移动，也不愿聆听救赎的话语。哦，我亲爱的朋友们，如果，如果，如果，如果，如果，如果，你们愿意，我们这些年轻的传教士，学习描绘基督的画面，他的荣耀，他完美的死亡，他强大的复活，他在天堂的威严统治，也描绘罪恶的漆黑画面！这样人们才能看到两者之间的区别，并被基督吸引。因为世人都犯了罪，保罗说这话是为了结束一个伟大的论点。有句话说，没有义人，连一个也没有！没有行善的。我们所有的义行，所有的善行都不过是肮脏的破布。人心中的每一个想象都是邪恶的。我说，有一次讲道时，一个记者走到我面前，他对我非常生气，他说，“那是错的，那是错的，那是错的，你对那段文字的解释”因为那是一所基督教大学，他说“那是错的”，我说，“年轻人，我没有解释那段文字，我读了它，你解释了它，我可以补充说，你解释得对。”他说“但这不是真的！我们没有那么邪恶！”我说：“年轻人，如果我现在能把你的心掏出来，把你从婴儿时期到现在的所有想法都拿出来，把你所有的想法都拍成电影，今晚在这个体育场放映这部电影，你会逃离这个大学校园，再也不会在这里露面，因为你认为的事情太卑鄙、太变态了，你不能和你最亲密的朋友分享，因为即使对你最亲密的朋友，你也会想一些邪恶的事情。”他能做什么？如果你是诚实的，你也必须做同样的事情，羞愧地低下头，呼求救世主。这是真的。这是真的。因为世人都犯了罪，亏缺了神的荣耀。现在说到基督徒，在第 24 节，当我再次说基督徒时，我必须非常非常小心，因为这个国家至少有 70% 的人认为自己是基督徒。我想告诉你们的是，在浸信会中，我很高兴知道我们当中哪怕只有 15% 的人真正皈依了。为什么呢？我要说这个，因为这是我的最后一晚。我会一遍又一遍地说。我们把福音简化为几个福音圈，如果有人跳过，我们就会宣布他们重生。它来自愚蠢的讲道、不符合圣经的讲道、可怕的讲道。再说一遍，问一个人他们是不是罪人，如果他们说是，转到下一个问题，你想上天堂吗？如果他们说是，就问他是否愿意重复祈祷。迷信，完全是迷信。毫无价值的行话，愚蠢的言论！一个人是否认识到自己是罪人并不重要，问题是上帝是否在他心中做了这样的工作，使他现在憎恨他曾经爱过的罪恶。一个人是否想上天堂并不重要，因为每个人都想上天堂，问题是，他现在是否渴望他曾经拒绝和憎恨的上帝。问题不在于他是否想接受耶稣进入他的内心，而在于他是否愿意忏悔他的罪过，相信福音并跟随耶稣基督。所有信仰的证据都是上帝亲自创造的圣洁生活方式，这将产生实际的明显证据，即使是最不虔诚的人也能看到，从一个人生活方式的差异中可以看出，这是上帝对我们声称信仰的救赎保证的印记。现在，但谈到真正的基督徒时，他说，被称义，被称义。现在我听到传教士说被称义的意思是“就好像我从来没有犯罪过一样”，不，这根本不是它的意思。被称义，有些人，一些主权恩典的人现在又回到了这一点，这是天主教的异端；被称义的意思是，当上帝拯救一个人时，当那个人相信他时，上帝使他们成为义人，这样他们就可以过上正义的生活！这不是它的意思！当上帝称一个人为义时，他并没有使那个人成为义人，因为如果那个人真的成为义人，他就永远不会再犯罪了！​​被称义并不意味着上帝使信徒成为义人。它是一个法医学术语，一个法律术语，意思是：当一个人真正相信得救的那一刻，上帝宣布他们在他面前是合法的。他俯视着说，这个人是对的。现在，我想继续说一些非常非常重要的事情。我总是告诉人们，你得救不仅仅是因为耶稣基督为你而死，你得救是因为耶稣基督为你而活。人们说，“哦，是的，我知道复活很重要！”是的，复活非常重要，但这不是我要说的！我要说的是：要得救，你必须得到比赦免更多的罪孽。要上天堂，你必须绝对正直！这不仅仅是你没有任何消极的东西，而是如果你打算站在他面前，你就拥有上帝的正义！谁可以登上那座圣山，他手洁心清，是正义的人，我们中没有人有资格，但上帝的儿子耶稣基督走出天堂，披上人类的长袍，作为一个人行走在这片土地上，他过着完美的生活，当一个人相信耶稣基督的那一刻，他们不仅因十字架而得到赦免，但是基督在父神面前完美地成长起来的生命被赐予了他们。我们这里有一个比约瑟更伟大的人。约瑟有一件彩衣，他不会和他的兄弟们分享，但耶稣基督，一件公义的外衣，他给他的每一个兄弟穿上了那件外衣。比约瑟更伟大的人，比约瑟更伟大的人。称义！在上帝面前被宣告为合法的权利！现在，让我们继续。因他的恩典而白白称义。现在这绝对是多余的。因他的恩典而白白称义？为什么保罗不直接说，白白称义？为什么他如此强调恩典？为什么他似乎要重复自己？我来告诉你为什么，因为人们讨厌恩典。什么？人们讨厌免费的礼物？是的。为什么有人会讨厌免费的礼物？因为它要求他谦卑自己并说“我不能，我不是”。人们宁愿挺胸下地狱，也不愿跪下上天堂。但这里令人惊奇的是，这里说白白称义，你知道圣经里说他们无缘无故地恨基督，他们无缘无故地恨基督。耶稣基督给过任何人恨他的理由吗？没有。这里用的是同一个词。上帝白白称你为义意味着上帝称你为义，宣布你在他面前合法，但他绝对没有理由这样做。他称你为义，而你没有给他任何理由，事实上，你给他的唯一东西就是一个做相反事情的理由，让你永远下地狱！这就是你给上帝的理由！上帝宣布你与他同在，不是因为你自己的原因，而是因为恩典，经文说，因他的恩典白白称义，因他的恩典。为什么有必要宣扬人类的彻底堕落？否则恩典怎么会是恩典？在完美的世界中，恩典是不可知的。恩典是不可知的，不配得的恩惠是不可知的，因为每个人都配得恩惠！噢，我亲爱的朋友们，你们不可能同时赞美上帝的恩典和赞美人性，这绝对不可能。因为这样，上帝的恩典就只不过是陈词滥调；人们为自己感到高兴，对上帝感到满意。不。人们厌恶自己，只仰望上帝的恩典。现在，通过某种方式，通过救赎，被上帝的恩典白白称义。真是个词。有很多音乐我受不了。有很多歌曲我受不了，不仅仅是当代的，还有南方福音歌曲和许多类似的歌曲。尖叫和呼喊着话语，却一点也不理解它们的含义。圣经中有些词几乎必须用耳语说出，这就是其中之一，救赎，解放，通过付出代价从监禁、从奴役中解放出来。我认为有什么让我不知所措的就是这个，再问一下做过这件事的自由派，带走鲜血，你就失去了所有的虔诚，你就失去了所有的救赎。我们被救赎了，但不是用我们异教祖先的愚蠢硬币。不是用愚蠢的宗教仪式。我们是被羔羊的血救赎的，他的血是宝贵的血。救赎。我多么喜欢宣扬救赎。救赎。我对当代布道的一个不满是，救赎似乎已不足以使人们虔诚。他们必须得到好生活的许诺。他们必须得到健康，他们必须得到财富，他们必须得到所有愿望都会得到满足的承诺。从什么时候起，来自地狱的救赎不足以让我们快乐？如果他把我压碎，把我卷成一个球，把我扔到遥远的地方，如果除了一根手指可以举向天堂赞美之外什么都没有了，那么我应该举起一根手指向天堂赞美。如果一切都被夺走了，为什么？我已经被羔羊的血救赎了，我还能向他要求什么呢？一位传道人说：“来到基督面前，神为你提供了两样东西，永生和十字架上的死亡，来到耶稣面前，来到耶稣面前。” Leonard Ravenhill 曾经开玩笑说：“十字架上有地方，十字架上有地方给你吗？十字架上没有地方给你，十字架上有地方给你。”你已经得到救赎，还能有什么呢？即使明天我的舌头被割掉，我的腿被打断，即使我过去二十多年所做的所有事工看起来只不过是尘土和饲料，一切都将被烧毁，我仍然有无限的理由崇拜他！我已经被羔羊的血救赎了。他继续说，通过基督耶稣的救赎。在基督耶稣里。除了基督耶稣，神与你无分。在我讲道之后，一个年轻人走到我面前，他说：“保罗弟兄，你说得对，耶稣就是我们所需要的一切！”我说：“耶稣就是我们拥有的一切”。除了他，什么都没有，什么都没有。除了亚当，什么都没有，除了谴责，什么都没有，除了死亡，什么都没有，除了罪孽。这就是为什么保罗在以弗所书第一章中发狂的原因。整本圣经中最长的句子，它到底讲了什么？在基督里，在基督里，在他里，在基督里，在基督里，上帝与你有关的一切都在基督里！如果不是，那么上帝与你有关的唯一事情就是愤怒。只有在基督里，他是那块永恒的磐石，为我开裂，他是那座避难所！我们必须奔向那里才能得救，他是那座坚固的塔楼，是我们的避难所的正义终点！那就是耶稣，只有他，只有他。你看，有些事情你需要明白。基督徒，真正的基督徒，是唯一一个可以宣称进入天堂而不自夸的宗教人士。你和正统的犹太人交谈，问他是否会去天堂，他说会，你问他为什么？他说，“我行走，我爱上帝的律法，我走在正义的道路上，我是一个正义的人。”好吧，有道理。你问一个穆斯林，如果你死了你会去哪里，他会说去天堂，问为什么？“我热爱《古兰经》，我去朝觐，我谨守祈祷，我施舍穷人，我是一个正直的人。”然后记者走到真正的基督徒面前说：“先生？您怎么样了，如果您现在死了，您会去哪里？”基督徒说：“天堂”，记者问：“那为什么？”基督徒说：“我是在罪孽中受孕的，我是在罪孽中出生的，我违反了上帝的每一条律法，我应该受到他对所有邪恶的一切愤怒和义愤。”记者打断了基督徒的话，说：“基督徒，我不明白你的意思！现在我明白了另外两个人！他们会去天堂，因为他们是做了正义之事的正直人，你满脸喜悦地告诉我你会去天堂，但为什么你却应该去天堂呢？”基督徒呼喊道：“我要靠着另一位的美德和功绩，我的主和救主耶稣基督，去天堂！”靠着他！他是我们的骄傲，他是我们的骄傲，他是我们的骄傲！除了他，一切都是粪土。尘土和粪便。在患难的日子，它会让你失望。只有基督才是那座坚固的塔。只有基督是那座永恒的磐石。只有在他里面才能找到救赎。现在我们继续。上帝已经设立了赎罪祭，上帝已经设立了赎罪祭。我听到一位非常受欢迎的传教士在广播中说，这是几年前的事了，我没有迹象表明他已经改变了。他说，我的意思是，这是一位在广播中的基本传教士，他说，如果两千年前的那些犹太人接受耶稣，并把他加冕为弥赛亚，那么现在他们都会活在千禧年里。我亲爱的朋友们，如果耶稣基督没有上十字架，就没有任何希望。这不是上帝留给人类去决定的事情，而是上帝在世界建立之前就注定了的！有人曾经问过我，现在我正在挑战这个极限，有人曾经问我，“因为堕落，十字架是必要的”，我说“不，堕落是必要的，所以才有十字架”。永远不要认为十字架是计划 B。亚当堕落了，上帝有备用计划。我亲爱的朋友们，如果没有耶稣基督的十字架，你们永远不会像现在这样认识上帝。十字架是必要的，不仅人们可以以一种没有它就永远无法做到的方式认识上帝，而且所有的造物、天使和所有人都可以认识他。因为没有这个十字架，没有人会像现在这样认识他。这就是天使渴望了解这些事情的原因。没有堕落，请听我说，没有堕落，那么你将如何在一个完美的世界中表现出怜悯？你将如何在一个完美的世界中表现出恩典？虽然堕落完全是人类的过错，但这完全在神所命定的旨意中，为要使他自己得荣耀，这是一个深奥的奥秘，我们不应该害怕进入。但同时，要小心，不要把十字架当成某种必要的备用方案，因为事实并非如此。现在，我们继续。神设立谁作为赎罪祭。现在“设立”这个词，马丁·劳埃德·琼斯在这里喜欢用“标语牌”这个词，这在英国比在这里更有意义。标语牌是广告牌或张贴某物，用作动词。神张贴标语牌，神公开展示他的儿子，这是有目的的。你知道神本可以把罪放在一个隐蔽的地方，一个洞穴里，但出于某种原因，在宇宙的主要宗教城市，他的儿子被公开展示并被钉在十字架上，这是有原因的，因为救赎和十字架的工作主要不是为了你，而是为了神，你会看到这一点。现在，我们继续。神设立谁作为赎罪祭。大约两年前，我在底特律讲道，当我到达教堂时，他们告诉我，你将是第二位演讲者，我问：“现在谁在讲？”他们说：“进去看看吧。”我走进去，看到老弗农·海厄姆正在讲道，他曾为马丁·劳埃德·琼斯的葬礼布道。我站起来，我的演讲主题是赎罪，讲完之后，我有点害怕，我一直坐在那里，在这个与上帝同行多年的人面前讲道，讲马丁·劳埃德·琼斯所说的基督教信仰的卫城，这是整本圣经中最重要的章节。我讲的是赎罪，当我下来的时候，那个老人走到我面前，像这样打开圣经，脸上流着泪，他说：“我们把这个词带回到了书中！”我说“你是什么意思？”他说：“英国的年轻传教士和其他人的思想正在发生转变，他们抛弃了所有这些愚蠢的自由主义思想，许多人都回归到基督作为赎罪祭而死的事实！”我的朋友，这可能是整本圣经中最重要的一个词，你明白吗？可能，不，不是，是的！它的含义，它解释了这本圣书中所写的所有内容，赎罪这个词。现在，他说，上帝设立耶稣作赎罪祭，是要用耶稣的血来宣告他的义，因为上帝用忍耐的心赦免人过去所犯的罪。那是什么意思呢？它意味着绝对惊人的事情。基督被公开钉在十字架上，其主要目的不是使人称义，而是使上帝称义。你是什么意思？那么，当“称义”这个词应用到上帝身上时，这个词可能是，为上帝辩护。那是什么？它的意思就是这样。我不想太过分，让我们先回顾一下赎罪，然后我们再来处理这个问题。赎罪。在古卡斯特拉诺语中，拉丁语中有这个词 propitiatio，西班牙语中有 propitio，它在古拉雷纳·瓦莱拉和其他古老的语言中被频繁使用，西班牙语圣经的旧译本。Propitio。你会治愈它，它曾经像这样：A mose，propitio a mi。主啊，请对我好。意思是，主啊，请对我仁慈。这个词的基本意思是怜悯。那么什么是赎罪？一种牺牲，它使公义的上帝能够对恶人表现出怜悯。我想给你看一些非常非常重要的东西，我希望你去读箴言书。第17章第15节。在这里，我们将看到整本圣经中为我们阐述的最大问题。我们在旧约中找到的一切的原因，祭祀制度的原因，你所看到的绝对一切的原因都在箴言17:15中找到。现在听着，“称恶人为义的，定义人为有罪的，这两样都为耶和华所憎恶。”现在让我们使用第一部分并将其与第二部分联系起来。称恶人为义的，为耶和华所憎恶。现在，听我说，听着，这很重要，如果你理解了这一点，你就会更接近理解十字架。称恶人为义的，为上帝所憎恶。现在你看到问题了吗？问题是，我们一直在学习的罗马书第 3 章，我们谈到了人的邪恶，然后我们说，上帝称恶人为义。圣经是不会违背的，没有矛盾，它说称恶人为义的，为上帝所憎恶，然而在罗马书第 3 章中却说上帝称恶人为义！这就是为什么上帝必须通过耶稣基督的十字架来证明自己无罪，归根结底，整本圣经中最大的问题和圣经中的一切都围绕着这一点，如果上帝是公正的，他就不会原谅你。如果你今晚回家发现有人屠杀了你的全家，你看到凶手站在你最小的孩子面前，手里抱着毫无生气的尸体，他把孩子扔在地上，跑出门，你也跑出门，把他打倒在地，你把他带到警察局，警察把他带到法官那里，法官看着他说：“我是一个仁慈的法官，我原谅你，回家吧。”会发生什么？你脱口而出的第一句话就是：“我要求正义！”你会打电话给报纸记者、国会议员，你会说这个镇上的法官比他释放的罪犯更邪恶。你明白了吗？现在，全地的法官难道不应该是正确的吗？如果上帝是公正的上帝，而你却邪恶，那么上帝就不能原谅你，这就是圣经中最大的问题，保罗在罗马书第 3 章中阐述了这一点，他说，上帝怎么能公正地为不敬虔和不义的人辩护呢？这是圣经中最大的问题。让我再举一个例子，假设我们在五百年前的西班牙。呃，Via Dolira Espania，不，十六世纪，我是一个奴隶，法律是这样的，如果一个奴隶被抓到偷窃，他会死在加洛斯。如果一个奴隶被抓到偷东西，他也会死在加洛斯。所以我是一个奴隶，我在那里偷我主人的东西，我的主人进来了，他当场抓住了我，他抓住了我的衣领，把我拖到加洛斯，准备把我的脖子吊起来。但是当他拖着我的时候，我扑倒在地上，我大喊：“a mose propitio a mi！”“主人！可怜我吧！”现在，因为我们的社会，我们的文化对正义一无所知，我必须解释一下。你看到底是怎么回事，大多数人说，“好吧，他在请求宽恕，现在主人必须决定，他会宽恕还是不宽恕？”不，这不是发生的事情！我刚刚违反了法律！法律要求全社会都让我死！我要求主人做的就是违法！我说的是，不要做法律要求的事！背弃正义，放我走！你开始明白问题所在了吗？如果上帝是全地的公正审判者，他就不会原谅你，因为你违反了他的每一条法律。现在，在上帝的劝告中，没有人进入那里，在上帝的劝告中，有人来是正确的，上帝的正义应该通过一个人代替许多人的死亡来满足。公义和圣洁的上帝原谅恶人的唯一方法就是有人来把自己置于“恶人的法律地位”，就像约翰·吉尔曾经说过的那样，并在他们的谴责下死去。现在，谁有资格完成这样的任务，首先，这个死去的人必须是人。是犯了罪的人。必须死的是人。公牛和山羊的血不行，人必须死。永远不要忘记这一点，浸信会。我们的许多神学都是反动的，我们反对邪教和错误的教导，但有时它并没有把我们拉回正轨，反而把我们带到了另一个极端。我们太过捍卫耶稣基督的神性，以至于我们常常忘记他的人性。他是人，只有一位神，在神与人之间只有一位中保，那就是人耶稣。他是人。他是神！他是人。他不是半神，他不是介于两者之间的某种东西。他真的是人，他是真正的神。他是人，他以人的身份行走在这片土地上，但正如我所说，他行走在这片土地上，总是仰望天父，听到“做得好，这是我心爱的儿子，我很满意。”那么，他是人就够了吗？不，他必须是神，为什么呢？首先，让我们看几件事。救恩来自主。救恩是属于主的，而救恩的工作，上帝不会与人或天使分享，这就是为什么耶和华见证人的教义是如此令人憎恶，因为根据他们的说法，上帝不是我们的救世主，而是上帝创造了一个无辜的生物，然后派那个生物下来解决问题。我亲爱的朋友们，一定是上帝去了那棵树，一定是！因为只有在他身上才能找到救赎。正是他举起右臂，以自己的名义发誓，他将完成这项工作！没有人陪伴他。没有人能够。正如启示录中所说，“没有人能打开书卷，没有人能走到那棵树下。”有一首老歌唱道，“如果没有人愿意”，意愿不是问题，即使天堂里的每个天使都愿意，也没有人有资格，因为我们的救赎不是在天使身上，不是在体面的人身上，我们的救赎是在上帝身上！我们必须意识到的另一件事是：除了上帝，谁能承受上帝的愤怒？因为全能上帝的愤怒降临在那棵树上。正是这种愤怒让山脉融化，海洋卷起干涸。这种愤怒将降临在那天死去的受害者身上。除了上帝，谁能承受这种愤怒并再次复活？另一件我们需要问自己的事是，死去的人必须舍弃生命。让我问你们一个问题：谁拥有这样的生命，以至于舍弃它。今天我在教孩子们获得的东西和固有的东西之间的区别。天使的生命是固有的还是获得的？它是获得的。它来自别人。它不是他的，而是借来的。所有的生命都来自谁？它来自上帝！就像我看到你没有车，所以我给你我哥哥借给我的车。我什么也没做。耶稣说：“我有权柄舍弃我的生命，也有权柄再次取回它。”那天舍弃的是真正的生命，而不是借来的东西。拥有的东西和放弃的东西。还有一件事，有一次，这是几年前在一所大学，我讲道基督为众人而死，一些自作聪明的大学生站起来说：“我有一个问题！我有一个你无法回答的问题！”我说：“好吧，也许我无法回答，但这不会改变福音的真相，年轻人，你的问题是什么？”他说：“一个人在木头上受苦几个小时，怎么能拯救一大群人免于永远在地狱里？”我说：“年轻人，我很高兴你问了这个问题，你想知道答案吗？”他说“是的”，我说：“一个人可以受苦几个小时，拯救一大群人免于永远在地狱里，因为这个人的价值加起来是他们所有人的价值！”当神学家们谈到基督的完美牺牲时，你常常会被哄骗，以为他们只是在谈论基督的无罪，他在道德上是完美的，不！他们在谈论十字架的价值！记得前几天我说过，如果我能写一篇博士论文，那将是上帝的美丽，如果不是这样，那将是十字架上那个人的珍贵价值！死在十字架上的人的价值。他承担了我们的罪孽。谁担当了我们的罪孽。那是什么意思？加尔文甚至不愿接近它。他只是举起双手，扔下笔，说“我放弃了！”我不知道“三圣颂”，三位一体的圣者会变成罪恶。我不知道。但我希望你思考一下。这里发生的事情有一种主观的关系感，可以理解他的死亡的价值。让我们以我们当中最优秀、最珍贵、最受保护、最天真、最孩子气的女人为例，温柔的经文说她不会把脚跟放在地上。教堂里最优秀、最正直、最有教养的女人。让我用她来举例。今晚在亚特兰大，无数妓女将被逮捕。这将成为街头的丑闻。照片会被拍照，女人们会大笑，她们已经做过一百万次了，她们并不为此感到羞耻，她们甚至可能会回到报纸上，她们并不感到羞耻，几天后她们会回到街头。现在，假设你们这些美丽的女士中，有一位恰好在人行道上行走，这时他们逮捕了你，并把你抓了起来。难道你不知道，这次逮捕对你来说意义完全不同吗？它会把你打成碎片，给你带来一生的耻辱，你甚至不知道该怎么做，你会如此失控。当其他人都在笑、在开玩笑时，你会挖穿水泥，羞愧地把自己埋起来！当我们想到耶稣基督承担我们的罪时，我们不知道我们在说什么！如果你用你更新的心、你再生的心，现在是一个基督徒，承担全世界的罪，这会是一件可怕的事情吗？哦，那将是一件可怕的事情，但你仍然在罪中成长，你知道的。但对于圣者来说，将所有的罪都归到自己身上意味着比你所知道或承受的任何惩罚都要深刻得多。凡不守律法书上所记一切之事，不去遵行的人，就被咒诅。这是什么意思呢？在皈依之前，在心灵重生之前，在认识耶稣基督为你的救主之前，你就在咒诅之下，这就是它的意思！在咒诅之下是什么意思呢？我在讲道的前面已经稍微讲过了。在你的罪中，你拒绝上帝，你反抗他的命令，你变得如此卑鄙、恶心和令人厌恶，不仅在圣洁的上帝面前，而且在圣洁的天堂面前，以至于当你第一次踏入地狱时，你听到的最后一件事就是所有造物都在欢呼歌唱，因为上帝已经把你从地球上赶走了。如果你继续读同一章，加拉太书第 3 章，读到第 13 节，基督救赎我们脱离了律法的咒诅，怎么做到的？他成了咒诅。旷野中被举起来的蛇，是神无法看见的。现在，我想谈一下十字架。我几乎不能去那些宣扬十字架的教堂，尤其是在所谓的“复活节”期间。我简直无法忍受，因为十字架已经变成了一种浪漫的糖浆，人们甚至不明白树的痛苦从何而来。当电影《耶稣受难记》上映时，人们告诉我他们要去传讲十字架。我不断收到来自全国各地不同兄弟的电子邮件，说：“你知道他们对电影《耶稣受难记》感到困扰”，“我也对这部电影感到困扰”，我没有去看，但他们都在写信，所有这些传教士都写信给我，南方浸信会的传教士，各种各样的传教士都写信给我，告诉我《耶稣受难记》有多么可怕，我给他们回信说：“我对梅尔·吉布森和他的《耶稣受难记》并不像你的布道那样感到困扰！因为我们更了解！”今天你听到了关于十字架的布道，我不想剥夺基督身体上的苦难。我不想剥夺流血。我不想拿走他头上的冠冕、他肋旁的矛和他手上的钉子，我不想拿走这些，但我们现在必须退后一步，看看一些东西！当众多浸信会传教士在十字架上宣讲基督时，他们甚至不明白自己在说什么！因为他们会花整整一个小时，甚至用验尸官的话来解释一切，耶稣基督在犹太人和罗马人手中受难，我的朋友们，如果你今晚在这里得救了，你得救并不是因为犹太人和罗马人对耶稣所做的事！你得救是因为当他被挂在那棵树上时，他承担了我们的罪，父神在他的​​愤怒下将他压垮了！我曾经在东欧，在牧师大会上讲课，那是一所德国弟兄会神学院，我去了那里，当然一切都是用德语讲的，我在找一本可以读的书，最后我找到了这本书《基督的十字架》，我成功了。如果你读的书足够多，你就会发现，好吧，让我快速翻阅一下，找到主要观点，看看这个人相信什么。我花了大约两三分钟就找到了。他说，天父从天上俯视着罗马人和犹太人对耶稣施加的苦难，他认为这是对我们罪孽的偿还。我要向你们保证，如果我去大多数神学院说这句话，在大多数教堂里宣讲这句话，每个人都会鼓掌。我听到所有这些传教士说，他们会看一看，然后说，“父亲转身离开了被钉在木头上的儿子，因为他不忍心看到他受苦”？这不是它说的！以罗伊，以罗伊，拉玛撒巴各大尼，我的神，我的神，你为什么离弃我，为什么离弃我！他为什么离弃他？因为他承担了罪孽，这就是原因，而我们的神太圣洁了，不会看这样的事情。如果你去读诗篇 22，我会很快读出来，听着，诗篇22开头是这样的：“我的神，我的神，你为什么离弃我？为什么远离不帮助我，不听我吼叫的话？”这就是他的抱怨。第2节：“我的神啊，我白日呼求，你不应允；夜间我也不住声。”他的抱怨还在继续，并且他给出了反驳这个抱怨的论据，他说第4节：“我们的祖宗倚靠你，你便搭救他们。他们哀求你，便蒙搭救；他们倚靠你，就不羞愧。”“我的神啊，在你的约民以色列的历史上，从来没有义人哀求你，你却离弃他。但是我，你的独生子，基督，我挂在这木头上，恶人围绕着我！我的神，我的神，你为什么离弃我？”他在第 3 节回答了自己的问题，“你是圣洁的”，第 6 节回答，“我是虫，不是人”。在十字架上，他承担了人民的罪孽，成为耻辱，成为旷野中被举起的蛇，成为替罪羊，以色列的长老们会出来把手放在那只山羊身上，象征性地把他们的罪转移到山羊身上，山羊会被带到城门外，在旷野中流浪，被上帝抛弃，被上帝的子民抛弃，直到死去！所以基督在城门外受难。现在我们来谈谈另一个观点，福音的激烈观点就是这样。当你到达花园时，基督三次大喊“让这杯离开我”，我听到各种传教士说，他害怕魔鬼，我听到传教士说，不，他害怕罗马人，不，他害怕长矛，他害怕这个，他知道十字架将是如此可怕，等等。不！只要在旧约中查找“杯”这个词，你就会得到一个详尽的索引。让我为你总结所有的先知，我会做出调整，我会把它们都收集起来，并用这句话来总结。“因为邪恶和罪恶，以及列国的叛逆，我必将我愤怒的杯递给他们，我必强迫他们喝下，他们喝了就会摇摇晃晃地死去。”我亲爱的朋友们，我希望你们能想一想，耶稣基督在花园里痛苦地蜷缩着，他的皮肤上流着血，他非常痛苦，现在，请看那幅画，几十年后，一直到英国，到所有不同的时代，甚至早期的美洲，到世界各地，甚至今天，什么？我们看到基督徒，耶稣基督的门徒，他们唱着歌走向十字架。他们将被烧死在火刑柱上，但他们走出去，像云雀一样快乐，认为这是一种特权。奥利金的母亲不得不藏起他的衣服，因为她知道，当罗马人那天进城时，他会跑到街上去传教，这样他就可以殉道了。所以，我们看到了所有这些基督徒，你知道，今天，一千名基督徒将作为殉道者而死。你们意识到了吗？现在每天有一千人像烈士一样死去。他们走向十字架，走向行刑队，登上新闻，走进监狱，他们把敬拜上帝视为一种特权，他们充满勇气，充满喜悦，因为上帝的恩典，而我们的救世主却躲藏在这里！哦，我亲爱的朋友们，不，不是十字架，不是长矛，不是荆棘冠冕，不是钉子，才使我们的救世主，我们救世主的大能领袖在花园里大哭，血滴如珠。正是这样，圣者三次走向一棵树，承受着他人民的污秽，然后，那个一直在父怀里，一直仰望并听到“这是我的爱子，我所喜悦的”的人，将被他自己的上帝抛弃，在上帝对我们的罪的神圣仇恨下被压垮！这就是十字架真正的痛苦。亚伯拉罕站在山上，手里拿着刀，可能是割礼刀，我怎么知道呢，火石刀。他把手放在他心爱的独生子以撒的额头上，他拿起刀，把它拿回来，下来屠杀他自己的儿子，他的手被抓住了，你以为故事就此结束。他的手被抓住了，天父拿起刀，把手放在他独生子耶稣基督的额头上，把刀直接刺进他的心脏！他的儿子为了你们被他亲手屠杀，是为了召唤一群人！那就是十字架！那就是十字架。那就是十字架。正义必须得到满足。它必须得到满足。现在让我说点什么，在改革派的教学中，虽然他们没有这么说，他们没有犯下这种异端邪说，但有时他们说话的方式会让我们误解某些事情，我们会澄清它们。当我说上帝必须先满足上帝的律法或上帝的正义，上帝才能宽恕时，我并不是说上帝必须先服从某些比上帝更高的律法，才能拯救。上帝的律法只不过是上帝性格的一种表达。上帝的正义，他的公正性格必须得到满足。你听过这些传教士说，上帝本来可以对你公正，但他却不公正，而是充满爱心吗？你知道他们在说什么吗？上帝的爱是不公正的，上帝是邪恶的。不，我的朋友，上帝通过他独生子的死满足了他的正义。他死了。他死了。他死了。我并不吹嘘我对《启示录》一无所知，但我确实不了解，我已经传教 23 年了，还没有真正开始研究它。大约 12 年前，我决定要寻求了解我的主死去的十字架。十二年，一千二百页的笔记。我什么都不懂，我什么都不懂。万岁耶稣之名的力量！哦耶稣！我敬拜你主，我敬拜你。哦上帝我敬拜你！万岁耶稣之名的力量让天使匍匐，拿出王冠，为他加冕为万物之主！ 上帝啊，这只是你我之间的事，哦，我可以认识他！我可以认识他！我可以传讲他的十字架。我很难过，我不能像应该的那样传讲耶稣。我的话语是如此愚蠢，它们是如此卑鄙，毫无意义。 哦，上帝，我敬拜你。哦，千言万语歌颂我伟大的救赎主！我的上帝和君王的荣耀！ 哦，上帝，主，我只想停一分钟。我只想停下来！ 哦，上帝，非常感谢你，我很抱歉我没有看到更多，我不明白，我很抱歉我的心如此空虚。 主啊。十字架对我来说是真实的，哦，上帝，哦，上帝。我敬拜你，主，我赞美你，哦，上帝。哦，上帝。谢谢你。我希望我们看，因为我想教导这一点。第 25 节说：“神设立耶稣作挽回祭，是凭着耶稣的血，藉着人的信，要显明神的义。因为神用忍耐的心，宽容人因信耶稣所犯的罪，赦免人的罪。我说，这一次要显明神的义，使人知道他自己为义，也称信耶稣的人为义。”有时我在大学讲道，当我讲到地狱时，人们总是感到震惊。当我讲到人类的诅咒时，他们感到震惊，感到愤怒。他们说他们无法理解，我必须进行长篇大论或解释来解释我的意思，证明我的话是正确的，上帝怎么会把人送入地狱呢？你知道天堂的问题恰恰相反吗？如果上帝要把地球上的每个人都送入地狱，他不需要向任何人做出任何解释。天堂里的每个人，每个天使都会站起来说，全地的上帝做得对。上帝只需要解释自己，不是在谴责时，而是在宽恕时，因为公正的上帝怎么会宽恕如此邪恶的人？想象一下，想象一下诽谤者的所有指控。想象一下。魔鬼，我们对他的堕落知之甚少，我们真的不知道，但他确实堕落了，我们知道这一点，而且他似乎带走了一些东西，但他堕落了。当他堕落时发生了什么？完美的正义，没有解释，完美的正义，每个人都很满足，他得罪了上帝，他被定罪，所有的造物都站起来说哈利路亚，没问题。请注意，当天使堕落时，上帝并没有派他们来救世主，你凭什么认为他必须派一个救世主给你？托泽说，如果地球上所有的人都是盲人，这不会减少太阳、月亮和星星的荣耀。如果每个人都被投入地狱，天堂里没有人，这不会减少上帝的荣耀和幸福。但他们堕落了，唯一可见的是正义，完美的正义，无需解释，但亚当却堕落了。这才是解释的开始。这是什么？他会派一个女人所生的人来？他会派一个来打碎蛇头的人来？这是什么？你能想象撒旦的责骂吗？“哦，上帝，这里发生了什么？当我堕落的时候，这一切都是关于正义的？你的正义在哪里？全地的上帝是否已经决定翻开新的一页，改变他的身份？你看过这个亚当了吗，他堕落了，他没有死！救赎的承诺是什么？你救不了他！哦，亚伯拉罕？诺亚！对！你把他从洪水中救了出来，他应该和其他人一起死！哦，亚伯拉罕，你的朋友？他撒谎了。他不相信你，甚至将他的妻子置于危险之中。以色列，你的盟约之民？你所爱的人？一群偶像崇拜者，而你却没有杀死他们！哦，大卫，合你心意的人，他是个通奸者和杀人犯，更不用说你对他所违反的关于国王的所有规定。你的正义在哪里？”天堂沉默不语，没有给出答案，两千年前，撒旦大声说“你怎么能原谅？”然后上帝来到那棵树下说：“我可以原谅他们，因为我的儿子为他们所有人而死！”看哪，这是上帝的辩护！当耶稣基督死在树上时，他证明了上帝的品格，即上帝既是公正的，又是信者的辩护者。他满足了正义，为宽恕开辟了道路。在基督里，在基督里，在基督里，在基督里，他死了，用他的死，他证明了上帝，当上帝使基督从死里复活时，他证明了他。公开宣布他是上帝的儿子。他一直是上帝的儿子，他不是通过复活成为上帝的儿子，而是当他从死里复活时，被天父公开宣布为上帝的儿子。他复活是因为他的死带来了正义。他死了，他付出了代价。他复活是为了证明上帝的子民是自由的，是自由的。现在，他从死里复活，行走在地上，他升天了，他自己升天是一件令人惊奇的事情。我希望你们考虑一下，我知道今晚这比任何事情都更有教益，但只是，如果你能抓住这一点。你知道你听到人们谈论楼上的耶稣。那是一句卑鄙的话，那是一句卑鄙的话。但耶稣是我们的天堂之人，这是真的。他是对约伯呼喊的回应，“哦，但愿有个人，一个调解人，一个裁判，一个能站在我们中间的人，一只手按在上帝身上，一只手按在我们身上，把我们俩带到一起。”为了让一个人能按在人身上，他必须是人；为了让一个人能按在上帝身上，他必须是上帝，而耶稣基督是神人。司布真说过，“梯子不能到达顶端，梯子不能到达底部，梯子也不能到达底部。”基督是神，他能够到达顶端；作为人，他能够到达底部。但最令人惊奇的是，他被送上了天堂，如果你记下来，你会发现从来没有人从那些门进来过，从来没有人从那些门进来过。你能想象，基督站在天堂的门口，大喊道，有一首歌是族长们一直使用的，这是一件令人惊奇的事情，它是这样说的：根据前五个世纪的族长们的说法，他们说基督来到了荣耀之门，他在诗篇 24 中喊道：“抬起头来，你们的大门！你们的永久之门！你们被举起！荣耀的王将要进来。” 而回应从里面传来的是一声叹息，然后是一片喧闹声，然后是一片喧闹的声音，天使在光明中说：“谁敢向这扇门喊叫？” 地球上有什么人敢伸手去碰这扇门的门闩？这扇门不为任何人打开，这位荣耀之王是谁？基督回答说：“耶和华大有能力，耶和华在战场上有大能。抬起头来，你们的大门！你们的永久之门！你们被举起！荣耀的王将要进来。”这是有史以来第一次，那些大门敞开，耶稣站在我们面前，数不清的天使都俯伏在地，敬拜羔羊。羔羊走近神的宝座，那里是人无法站立的地方，六翼天使必须遮住脸和脚，坐在高处的威严的右边。会不会是这样的，父亲看着儿子说：“完成了？”儿子对父亲说：“真的完成了，我已经把他们都买回来了，我把他们都买回来了！”这位被钉在十字架上的耶稣将再次降临。他被赋予了一个超越一切名字的名字。他是万王之王，万主之主，他将降临，万国都将站在他面前，人类所作所为的所有书籍都将被打开，所有未曾利用羔羊之血的人都将根据这些书籍所写的内容受到审判，所有被审判的人都将被定罪。但是一个接一个，最渺小、最可怜的圣徒将来到他面前，基督将用手指着他说：“这个人，这个人出生在锡安，这个人是我的！”这个人是我的！圣徒，最令人惊奇的是，虽然你从未见过他，但我向你保证，当你第一次抬头看他的脸时，你会看到一张熟悉的面孔。我可以向这位圣徒保证，尽管上帝的圣徒会受到审判，但这可能是所有经文中最难理解的，因为我也想向你保证。你们中的许多人几乎没有快乐，因为你们一直生活在谴责之下。你们当中许多人确实被羔羊的血赎买，但却没有多少喜乐，因为你们确信，由于你们经常失败，你们首先看到的是对你失望的人的怒容和皱眉。那是来自地狱深渊的谎言。他用他的血救赎你，并不是为了让你第一眼看到他时看到他那可怕的皱眉，他为那些恨他的人保留了那张脸。我不知道你们会受到怎样的审判，但我知道那将是爱。我有时想知道会不会是这样的：你出现在他面前，他散发出如此多的爱，如此多的圣洁，你所做的一切都浮现在脑海中，让你碎成一百万片，但同时，你知道他知道，你知道他爱你胜过生命本身，他让这一切永远消失了。对于你们这些小圣徒来说，你们不是查尔斯·司布真，你们不是传教士，你们不是伟大的福音传教士。你们只是从未做过任何事来载入史册的小羔羊，你们相信上帝有一个核心圈子的谎言。他有那些人。你一生都被排除在外，不是吗，一生都是！你从来都不是大人物，你从来都不是核心圈子里的人，你从来都不是被选中的人。所以根据大多数传教士的说法，你们将以相同的等级进入天堂，并且这种等级制度将一直延续到永远。哦，你们进去了，但你们不会和怀特菲尔德和司布真坐在一起。哦，你们进去了，但你们不会成为宠儿。这是邪恶的，因为耶稣说，在前的将是最后的，在后的将是第一，而通过说在前的将是最后的，在后的将是第一，他是在说没有第一或最后。这是一个循环。你在那里是因为他，你是个孩子，等级制度不再存在，因为每个人都在那里，在那里只是因为耶稣，其他的都不重要，你终于摆脱了这种夺走你快乐的邪恶混乱。伙计们，我不必向左或向右移动四分之一英寸来得到上帝的更多爱。他不能更爱我，他也不会减少对我的爱。如果我走出这个讲台，这是我最后一次讲道，我成为一个彻头彻尾的失败者，失去我所有的勇气、大胆、信仰和一切，我只是一个小小的人，鼓起所有的勇气，只能忍受坐在教堂的后排座位上，他不会，这不会减少他对我的爱。我知道的一件事是，上帝的爱和我们的不一样。我太开心了！当我了解到这一点时，年轻的传教士，如果我给你一份礼物，那就是这个，当我了解到这个真理时，我太开心了。我变得如此快乐。这没关系，除了他为我的灵魂流出自己的血之外，什么都不重要。你们中的许多人，我了解你们。你认为你会去那里，你认为你不会像那些真正做对的人那样被爱，这不是真的。你穿着他们中最好的衣服去那里，穿着你哥哥穿过的公义长袍。我听过传教士布道来操纵和激励人们，他们讲的都是些愚蠢的东西，你只是被爱着，你终于走进了一扇门，在那里你只是被爱着，仅此而已，这真是太好了，如果你能理解我所说的，那就太好了，这一切都是因为那只羔羊。谢谢你，我很荣幸。

(google 翻译自：https://reformedevangelist.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-transcription-of-paul-washers-cross.html）

Romans chapter three verse twenty three, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood - to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. To declare I say it at this time - His righteousness that He might be just and the justifier of Him who believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then, it is excluded, by what law? Of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.” Let’s pray

(Prayer)

There are...as I have said and I say quite frequently preaching is a rather pathetic thing. It is a failure, as you walk up to the pulpit and you know you are bound to fail. How can man speak forth the things of God in a way that they ought to be spoken of? I can remember one time being so distraught before preaching on the gospel of Jesus Christ and crying out to God - “oh I long for that day, when I stand before you pure, sanctified, completely holy, glorified and oh God that if that moment you would grant me, just once, to preach Christ as He ought to be preached.” An impression upon my heart was, a rebuke, “even then, you shall not preach my son as He ought to be preached, you will never know Him well enough, your tongue will never be so refined that the only one who can give true praise and true glory and speak rightly about the Son is the Father, the Holy Spirit and the Son Himself.” We will spend all of eternity, tracking down the glories of God in the face of Christ. Ever pressing in, we are told that the violent shall take the kingdom by force. I will submit to you that that violence will continue on, it will be a joyful violence, but a violent passion throughout all of eternity and when we have finished Him thousand eternities, you will still be panting and still not even begun at the foothills of the glory of God. That’s why eternal life begins with knowing Him because eternal life is all about knowing Him. It’s not streets of gold, it’s not about gates of pearl, it’s not even about escaping hell, it’s about Him. And when the preacher comes to the pulpit like I believe it was G. Campbell Morgan used say, “like a lamb lead to the slaughter and sheep before shears.” What can man say about these things? “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”, you do not understand that text, I know it’s probably the first you’ve memorized after John 3:16 as a little child but I can assure you, you do not understand even this present moment what this means and neither do I because if you did, the moment you heard it, you will fall down on your face and rend your garments and bury yourself in the dust. The Puritan speaker will often say this, “it is not against a small governor, or meager prince of a small province against whom you have sinned but you have sinned against the Lord of Glory, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.” But how can you take that seriously, you drink down iniquity like it was water. And you are of unclean lips and you dwell among a people of unclean lips, how can you understand the vileness of sin? For all sinned. I guess the best attitude to try to even describe the grotesque nature of that thing would be that in your disobedience, you have declared war on God and you have proclaimed that the only thing you desire is to rush into the throne room, knock Him from the throne and slaughter Him and then walk out of the throne room without one ounce of remorse in your fallen heart. Sin is a sinful thing, it is a horrifying thing, the Puritan called “sin insanity” because it is! It’s like cutting the branch out from under you that your resting upon. It’s like pulling the life support system plug from the wall in order to kill yourself. It’s absolute insanity and it is vile and not only vile before God but vile before all of God’s creatures that obey Him. I use this illustration often, it would be this: imagine that God at the first day of creation, and on throughout the day, He commands everything and everything obeys Him! He looks at stars that could swallow up, thousands of the star we call the Sun! He looks at them and He commands them, He says “you put yourself in these places in space and you stay there until I give you another command” and then they all bow down and say “yes sir”, “Thy will be done”. He tell planets to put themselves in tracts and trace around in orbit and they all bow and say, “Thy will be done”. He tell mountains to be lift up, He tells valleys to be cast down and they say, “Thy will be done, master”. He looks at the sea and he says, “you come to this point and you come no further” and the sea obeys and then He looks at you and says “come” and you go, “no!”. The wretchedness of our sin, how can we see it? We ought to pray that God would give us eyes to see! So that we would hate sin as God hates sin. All have sinned, all have broken His laws, all have failed to conform to the righteous standard that God has set before us in His word and place within us in our hearts. Everyone, everyone, everyone...you, you, you, you, you! If I had time to point my finger at everyone to come down at this pulpit and point you right between the eyes and cry out, “You! Have sinned!” And your sin is so vile that the last...if you reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the last thing you will hear when you take your first step into hell is all of creation standing to it’s feet and applauding God because He’s rid the Earth of you. That’s how vile your sin is! For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Modern day interpretation of that passage is that God has a marvelous plan for your life and you’ve fallen short of it. The context tells us something quite different, “although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God.” We are so humanistic in every way we look at scripture today. What does it mean that we’ve come short or fallen short of the glory of God? It means that God made you for Him! For His glory, for His good pleasure, and against that purpose, you have rebelled. And it is for that reason that you are broken and tired and hungry and dirty and worn. Even among those of the household of faith. Isn’t it amazing, we are the most secure, the most prosperous Christian in the history of Christianity and yet we go into these so called Christian book stores and more than half the books are written about how empty we are. And why are we empty? For the reason He never was. He had food to eat that we know not of. His food was to do the will of His Father because He came to glorify His Father and Christian by and large in America today live for self. Everything is for self! My good, even salvation is for self. Oh let’s take it back further, God is for self! Or man! But scripture says in other things. He is not. The reason why we are so empty is that we live for self. Instead of laying down our lives and realizing, we were made for one purpose, to serve Him, to worship Him, to adore Him, you are given breath in order to return it in praise, your heart beats for one purpose, for the glory of God! Until you align yourself with the very divine purpose for which you were made, you will be restless and your life will be useless and stupid. It’s like trying to shoot arrows out of a guitar. Or trying to play music with an archery bow. One has one purpose, the other has another purpose, you were made for a specific purpose and it is not for you, it is not to have your best life now. It was for Him, by Him, for Him you were made, you were made. This is the great problem isn’t it, humanism. We come back to it again don’t we? Everything for us. A great preacher once said this, he said, the liberal, the liberal, through his humanism, liberalism doesn’t know anything about whether or not there's a heaven or not so his basic core of his religion is this, make man as happy as he can be now! And fundamentalist has done exactly the same thing, they’ve just moved the time. Make man as happy as he can be again. Why should men get saved? You don’t want to go to that dirty old hell do you? I said it earlier in my preaching and I’ll say it again, it is this, my dear friends, you should repent of your sins, even, EVEN if God sends you to hell because He is worthy. You should believe in Jesus Christ whether He saves you or not because He is worthy, you should spend all of your life in prayer and worship and service to God whether He saves you or not because He is worthy!  But no! The preachers today tell you to do it for you! Do it for you. No you do it for Him. You do it for Him, for His glory, for His glory. Now he says, after setting before us, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Now before I go on let me say something about preaching, for those of you young preachers here. We are told today we should not preach a condemning message; well if you believe that, in order to believe that, you must deny the first three chapters of book of Romans. Because Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit but using every power of intellect and thought that the man had, he does nothing for three chapters but seek to do one thing: condemn the entire world. To shut up every man’s mouth and lay them in the dirt, to cut off every possible humanistic hope because only in that manner, only in that manner will men seek God. Only in that manner. I want to tell you that by not preaching on sin, we have done a great injustice to the gospel and to God and unto humanity. Let me give you an example, I always use this example, listen. The sound of keys doesn’t make you happy, why? Because you’re not locked away in a dungeon. If you were locked away in a dungeon, the sound of keys would spark a hope in you and would possibly burst into joy. But since you do not know because you have not been told how vile and how close to death and condemnation and hell you actually are, you take no joy in the gospel. You would rather look at a clock and hope that it’s arm move quickly rather than listen to the very words of salvation. Oh my dear friends, if only, if only, if only, if only, you would our lives young preachers to learn to paint a picture of Christ, of His glory, of His perfect death, of His powerful resurrection, of His majestic reigning in heaven and also paint the pitch black picture of sin! That men might see the difference between the two and be drawn to Christ. For all have sinned, Paul says this as a conclusion to a great argument. A saying that there’s none righteous, no not one! There’s none that doeth good. All our works of righteous, all our good works are nothing more than filthy rags. That every imagination of man’s heart is evil. I said that once preaching and a reporter came up to me and he was so furious with me, he said, “that is wrong, that is wrong, that is wrong, your interpretation of that text” because it was a Christian University, he said “that’s wrong”, I said, “young man, I did not interpret the text, I read it, you interpreted it, and correctly I might add.” He said “but it’s not true! We’re not that evil!” I said “young man if I can take your heart out right now and put every thought you ever had from the first moments of infancy to even right now, take every thought you ever had, put on a film strip and show that film in this coliseum here this evening, you would run off this University campus and you would never show your face here again because you have thought things so vile, so perverted, you cannot share them with your closest friend, because even against your closest friend, you have thought wicked things.” What could he do? The same thing you must do if you were honest, bow your head in shame and cry out for a savior. It’s true. It’s true. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now speaking about the Christian, in verse 24, now again, when I say Christian, I have to be very, very careful in a country that at least probably seventy percent of it believe itself to be Christian. When I would submit to you is that amongst Baptist, I would be joyful to know that even fifteen percent of us were actually converted. And why is that? Let me say this because it’s my last night. I’ll say it over and over and over again. We have reduced the gospel down into a few evangelical hoops that if someone jumps through, we declare them to be born again. It comes from stupid preaching, unbiblical preaching, terrible preaching. Again, ask someone if they are a sinner, if they say yes, go to the next question, do you want to go to heaven, if they say yes, ask him if they want to repeat a prayer. Superstition, every bit of it. Worthless jargon, talk of fools! Does not matter if a man recognizes if he’s a sinner, the question is has God done such a work in his heart that he now hates the sin he once loved. Does not matter if a man wants to go to heaven because everyone wants to go to heaven, the question is now, does he now desire the God that he has spurned and hated. And it is not the question of whether he wants to receive Jesus into his heart, it is a question of whether he desires to repent of his sins, believe the gospel and follow Jesus Christ. And the evidence of all profession is a lifestyle of sanctification authored by God Himself which will produce practical evident evidence that can be seen by even smallest of spirituality, it can be seen in the difference of one’s lifestyle is the seal of God’s upon the assurance of salvation that we claim to profess. Now, but speaking about the true Christian he says, being justified, being justified. Now I heard preachers say being justified means “just as if I never sinned”, no that’s not what it means at all. Being justified, some people, and some sovereign grace people now are going back to this and it’s a Catholic heresy; that justified means that God when he saves a person, when that person believes in Him, that God makes them righteous so that they can live a righteous life! That’s not what that means! When God justifies a man, he does not make that man righteous because if that man were truly made righteous he would never sin again! To be justified does not mean that God makes the believer righteous. It is a forensic, a legal term and it means this; the moment someone truly believes unto salvation, God declares them to be legally right before him. He looks down and says, this person is right. Now, I want to go on to say something that is quite very, very important. I always tell people, you are saved not only because Jesus Christ died for you, you are saved because Jesus Christ lived for you. People say, “oh yes, I know the resurrection is important!” Well yes the resurrection is very important but that’s not what I’m talking about! What I’m talking about is this: to be saved, you must be more than pardoned from your sins. To go to heaven, you must be absolutely righteous! It’s not just that you don’t have any negative, it is that you have the very righteousness of God if you plan on standing in his presence! And who may ascend that holy hill, he who have clean hands and a pure heart, someone who is righteous and none of us qualify but Jesus Christ the son of God stepped out of heaven, took on the robe of humanity and walked on this earth as a man and he lived a perfect life, and the moment someone believes in Jesus Christ, they are not only pardoned of their transgressions by virtue of the Cross, but that life that Christ lived perfectly brought up before the Father is granted unto them. We have one here that is greater than Joseph. Joseph had a coat of many colors that he would not share with his brothers but Jesus Christ, a coat of righteous and he clothed everyone of his brothers within that coat. The greater than Joseph, a greater than Joseph. Justified! Declared legally right with God! Now, let’s go on. Being justified freely by His grace. Now this is by all means, redundant. Freely by His grace? Why didn’t Paul just say, freely? Why did he emphasize grace so much? Why did he repeat himself it seems? I’ll tell you why, because men hate grace. What? Men hate a free gift? Yes. And why would anyone hate a free gift? Because it requires him to humble himself and say “I cannot, I am not”. Men will rather go to hell with his chest out then to heaven on his knees. But it’s amazing this word here, where it says being justified freely, you know it says in scripture that they hated Christ without a cause, they hated Christ without a cause. Did Jesus Christ give anyone a cause to hate him? No. That’s the same word that’s used here. God justified you freely means that God justified you, declared you legally right with Him but he found absolutely no reason in you to do it. He justified you, without you giving Him any cause to do it, as a matter of fact, the only thing you ever gave Him was a cause to do just the opposite, condemn you in hell throughout all of eternity! That’s the cause you gave God! That God declares you right with Him, through no cause of your own but because of grace, it says whom, being justified freely by his grace, by his grace. Why is it so necessary to preach on the radical depravity of men? How else will grace be grace? Grace cannot be known in a perfect world. Grace cannot be known, unmerited favor cannot be known where everyone merits the favor! Oh my dear friends you cannot magnify the grace of God and magnify humanity at the same time, it is absolutely impossible. Because it then it turns to grace of God into nothing more than a trite cliche; men happy about themselves and pleased with God. No. Men who loathe themselves and look only unto the grace of God. Now, being justified freely by His grace through something. Through the redemption. What a word. There’s a lot of music I can’t stand. There’s a lot of songs I can’t stand and not just contemporary ones, southern gospel ones and many of such things as that. Screaming and hollering out words without the even the smallest understanding of what they mean. There are certain words in scripture that almost have to be spoken with a whisper, this is one of them, redemption, liberation, liberation from imprisonment, from slavery by the paying of a price. I think that there’s anything that overwhelms me it is this and again, ask the liberal denomination that’s done it, take away the blood, and you’ve lost all devotion, you’ve lost all piety, you’ve lost all salvation. That we were redeemed but not by the stupid coins of our heathen fathers. Not with silly religious rituals. We were redeemed by the blood of the lamb and his blood was precious blood. Redeemed. Redeemed how I love to proclaim it. Redeemed. One of the bones that I have to pick with contemporary preaching is that it seems that salvation is no longer enough to move men to piety. They have to be promised a good life. They have to be promised health, they have to be promised wealth, they have to be promised that their desires will all going to be met. Since when did salvation from hell not enough to make us happy? If he were to crush me and roll me up in a ball, and throw me into a distant, if there was nothing left but a finger to lift up to heaven and praise then a finger should I lift to heaven and praise. If everything is taken away, why? I have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb, what more shall I ask of Him? And one preacher he says, “come to Christ, God offers you two things, eternal life and death on a cross, come to Jesus, come to Jesus.” Leonard Ravenhill used to joke, “room at the cross, room at the cross for you? There’s no room at the cross for you, there’s room on the cross for you.” You have been redeemed, what more? If tomorrow my tongue is cut out, if my legs were broken, if all the ministry that I’ve ever done in these last twenty some years it appears that it is nothing more than dust and fodder and it will all be burnt, I still have infinite cause to worship Him! I’ve been redeemed by the blood of the lamb. He goes on to say, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. Apart from Christ Jesus, God has no part with thee. Some young man came up to me after I preached and he said “brother Paul, you’re right, Jesus is all we need!” and I said, “Jesus is all we have”. Apart from Him there’s nothing, there’s nothing. There’s nothing but Adam, there’s nothing but condemnation, there’s nothing but death, there’s nothing but transgression. That’s why Paul literally goes wild in chapter 1 of the book of Ephesians. The longest run-on sentence in the entire bible and what is it all about? In Christ, in Christ, in Him, in Christ, in Christ, everything God has to do with you is in Christ! If not, then the only thing God has to do with you is wrath. Only in Christ, He is that rock of ages, cleft for me, He is that city of refuge! Where we must run to be saved, He is that strong tower and the righteous run end of our safe! That is Jesus, it is only Him, only Him. You see, there’s something you need to understand. The Christian, true Christian, is the only religious man who can claim heaven and not be boastful. You speak with the orthodox Jew and ask him if he’s going to heaven, he says yes, you ask him why? He says, “well I walk, I love the law of God, I walk in the way of the righteous, I am a righteous man.” Ok, makes sense. You ask a muslim, if you die where are you going, he’ll say to paradise, ask why?, “I love Quran, I’ve made the pilgrimages, I’ve been obedient to the praying, I’ve given alms to the poor, I am a righteous man.” Then the reporter comes to the true Christian and says, “sir? How is it with you, if you’d die right now, where would you go?” And the Christian says, “heaven”, and the reporter asks, “well why?” and the Christian says, “in sin I was conceived and in sin I was born, I have broken every law of my God, I deserve the fullness of His wrath and righteous indignation against all that is wicked” and the report stops the Christians and says, “Christian, I don’t understand you! Now the other two men I understand! They are going to heaven because they are righteous men who’ve done righteous things, you tell me with joy on your face that you’re going to heaven but how is it so when you deserve just the opposite?” And the Christian cries, “I’m going to heaven upon the virtue and the merit of another, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!” Upon him! He’s our boast, He’s our boast, He is our boast! And apart from Him every is dung. Dust and excrement. It will fail you in the day of trouble. Only Christ is that strong tower. Only Christ is that rock of ages. Only in Him is salvation found. Now we go on. Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, whom God has set forth. I heard a very popular preacher on the radio say a while back, this is several years ago, I have no indication to believe that he’s changed. He said, I mean this is a fundamental preacher on the radio and he said if those Jews, two thousand years ago would’ve taken Jesus in and crowned Him as the messiah, who would all now be walking around in the millenial. My dear friends, if Jesus Christ had not gone to that cross, there would be no hope whatsoever. It was not something that God left up to men to decide but it was foreordained by God before the foundation of the world! Someone asked me one time, now I’m pushing the envelope on this, someone asked me one time, “well the cross was necessary because of the fall”, I said “no, the fall was necessary so that there could be a cross”. Don’t ever think that the cross was plan b. That Adam fell and God had a backup plan. My dear friends without the cross of Jesus Christ, you would never know God as you can know Him now. The cross was necessary not only a people might know God in a way they never could without it but all of creation, angels and all might know Him. Because apart from this cross, no one would know Him as He was known now. That is why angels long to look into these things. Without a fall, just listen for a moment, without a fall, well how are you going to demonstrate mercy in a perfect world? How are you going to show grace in a perfect world? Although the fall was squarely the fault of man, it was squarely within the ordained councils of God that he might get glory for Himself and it is a mystery so deep that we should be very afraid to enter in. But in the same time, be careful that you do not make the cross into some necessary plan b because it was not. Now, we go on. Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. Now the word “set forth”, Martyn Lloyd Jones here likes to use the word “placard”, which makes a lot more sense in the United Kingdom than here. Placard is a billboard or to placard something, to use it as a verb. That God placard Him, God displayed His son publicly and there was a purpose in it. You realize God could’ve put away sin in a hidden place, a cave but for some reason, in the major religious city of the universe, His Son is publicly made a spectacle and crucified, there’s a reason is because salvation and the work of the cross is not primarily for you but it is primarily for God and you’re going to see that. Now, let’s go on. Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. About two years ago I was preaching up in detroit and when I got to the church they told me well you’ll be the second speaker and I said, “who speaking right now?” And they said, “well go in and see” and I went in there and there was Old Vernon Higham preaching, man who preached Martyn Lloyd Jones’ funeral. And I got up and my topic was propitiation and after I got through preaching, I was kind of intimidated, I’ve been there sitting there preaching in front of this man, walked with God for so many years and to preach on what Martyn Lloyd Jones called, the acropolis of the Christian faith that this is the most important passage of the entire bible. I’m preaching on propitiation and when I came down, that old man, he walked up to me with bible open like this and just tears running down his face and he said, “we’ve got the word back in the book!” And I said “what do you mean?” He said “there’s a turning of the tide in England among the young preachers and others, they’ve left off all these foolish liberal ideas and many of them are coming back to fact that Christ died as the propitiation!” My friend this is possibly the most important word in the entire bible, do you understand it? Probably, no not , it is! It’s the meaning, it’s the explanation of everything that is written in this Holy Book, the word propitiation. Now, he says, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through fail in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. Now what does that mean? It means something absolutely amazing. That Christ was crucified publicly and that the primary purpose was not the justification of men but the justification of God. What do you mean? Well that word justification when applied to God, the word could be, the vindication of God. What is that? It means this. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, let’s back up a little and look at propitiation and we’ll deal with that question. Propitiation. In ancient Castellano, in Latin, we have this word propitiatio, in spanish propitio and it’s used quite frequently through the ancient Larena Vallera and other old, old translations of scriptures in Spanish language. Propitio. You’ll heal it used something like this: A mose, propitio a mi. Master be propitious to me. Which means, master be merciful to me. The word basically means mercy. Now what is a propitiation? A sacrifice that enables, makes it possible for a just God to show mercy to the wicked. I want to show you something that’s very, very important and I want you to go to the book of Proverbs. Chapter 17 verse 15. Here we are going to see the greatest problem in the entire bible set forth for us. The reason for everything we find in the Old Testament, the reason for the sacrificial system, the reason for absolutely everything you see is found here in Proverbs 17:15. Now listen, “he that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.” Now let’s use the first part and connect it to the second part. He that justifieth the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. Now, listen to what I’m saying, listen, this is important, if you understand this, you’ll come closer to understanding the cross. He that justifieth the wicked is an abomination to God. Now you see the problem? The problem is this, Romans chapter 3 that we’ve been studying, we talked about the wickedness of man and then we say, that God justified the wicked. Scripture cannot be broken, there is no contradiction, it says the one who justifies the wicked is an abomination before God and yet in Romans 3 it says God justified the wicked! And that’s why God must vindicated through the cross of Jesus Christ and it comes down to this, the greatest problem in all the bible and everything in the bible centers around this one thing, if God is just, He cannot forgive you. If you went home to house tonight and find that someone slaughtered your entire family and you see the murderer standing over your smallest child, the lifeless body in his hands, he drops the child on the ground, he runs out the door, you run out the door, you knock him to the ground, you take him to the police, the police take him to the judge and the judge looks at him and says, “I’m a loving judge, I forgive you, go home.” What’s going to happen? The first thing out of your mouth is going to be, “I demand justice!” You’re going to call the newspapers writers, the congressman, you’re going to say there’s a judge on the bench in this town that is more wicked than the criminals he sets free. You see? Now, shall not the judge of all the earth be right? If God is a just God, and you are wicked, then God cannot forgive you and that is the greatest problem in the bible and Paul sets it forth in Romans chapter 3 saying, how can God be just and the justifier of the ungodly and the unrighteous. That is greatest problem in the bible. Let me give you another illustration, let’s say we are in Spain five hundred years ago. Uh, Via Dolira Espania, nope, sixteenth century and I’m a slave, and the law is this, if a slave is caught stealing, he dies at the galos. If a slave is caught stealing he dies at the galos. So I’m a slave and I’m in there and I’m stealing from my master and my master comes in and he catches me red handed, he grabs me around the collar and he’s dragging me to the galos where I’m going to swing by the neck. But as he’s dragging me, I throw myself down on the ground and I cry out, “a mose propitio a mi!” “Master! Be merciful to me!” Now, since our society, our culture knows nothing of justice, I’ll have to explain this. You see what’s really going on, most people say, “well, he’s asking for mercy, now the master just has to decide, is he going to be merciful or not?” No, that’s not what going on here! I have just broken the law! The law demands all of society that I die! What I’m asking the master to do is break the law! I’m saying, do not do what the law demands! Turn your back on righteousness and let me go! Are you beginning to see the problem? If God is just judge of all the earth, he cannot forgive you because you have broken every one of his laws. Now, in the counsel of God, and no one enters in there, in the counsel of God, it is right that someone comes and that justice, God’s justice be satisfied by the death of one in the place of a multitude. That the only way a just and Holy God can forgive the wicked is if someone comes and places themselves, as John Gill used to say, “in the law place of the wicked” and die under their condemnation. Now, who qualifies for such a task, well first of all this person who dies must be man. It is man who had sinned. It is man who must die. The blood of bulls and goats will not do, a man must die. Never forget this, baptist. A Lot of our theology is reactionary, we react against cults and false teaching but sometimes it does not pull us to center, it takes us to the other extreme. We are so much about defending the deity of Jesus Christ that often times we forget His humanity. He was the man, there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus. He was man. He was God! He was man. He wasn’t a demi-god, He wasn’t something in between the two. He was really, verily man, he was really verily God. He was man, and He walked on this earth as a man but He walked on this earth as I said, a man who always looked up to the Father and heard, “well done, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” Now, is it enough that He be a man? No, He must be God, why is that? Well first of all, let’s look at a few things. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord and the work of salvation, God does not share with a man, or an angel, that is why the doctrine of the Jehovah Witness is such a abomination because according to them, God is not our savior, but God created an innocent creature and then sent that creature down to take care of the problem. My dear friends, it had to be God who went to that tree, it had to be! Because salvation alone is found in Him. It is He who raises His right arm and swears by His own name that He will do the work! No one accompanied Him. No one is able. As in the same way in the book of Revelation, “no one was found who could open the book, no one was found who could go to that tree.” There’s that old song that says, you know “if no one had been willing”, willingness is not the issue, wouldn’t matter if every angel in heaven had been willing, none of them would’ve qualified because our salvation is not found in an angel, it’s not found in a fine man in good form, our salvation is found in God! Another thing that we have to realize is this: who but God, could withstand the wrath of God? Because it was on that tree that the wrath of almighty God fell. The very wrath that makes mountains melt and seas curl up and go dry. That wrath was to fall on the victim who would die that day. And who but God could withstand that wrath and rise again? Another thing we need to ask ourselves, the one who died had to lay down a life. And let me ask you a question: who possesses such a life so as to lay it down. I was teaching the children today the difference between something derived and something inherent. An angel, is his life inherent or is it derived? It’s derived. It comes from someone else. It’s not his, it’s borrowed. All life comes from whom? It comes from God! It’s like I see you without a car so I give you the car that my elder brother has loaned me. I’ve done nothing. Jesus said “I have authority to lay down my life and I have authority to take it up again.” It was true life that was laid down that day not a borrowed thing. A thing possessed and a thing let go of. Another thing, so one time, this was few years ago in an University and I preaching on Christ dying for multitude of men and some smart aleck university student kind of stood up and he said, “I got a problem all that! I got something you can’t answer!” and I said “well, possibly I can’t answer it but it won’t change the truth of the gospel, what’s your question young man?” He said, “how can one suffer a few short hours on a tree and save a multitude of men from an eternity in hell?” And I said, “young man I’m so glad you’ve asked that question, do you want the answer?”, he said “yes”, I said “that one man could suffer a few short hours and save a multitude of men from an eternity in hell because that one man was worth all of them put together!” When theologians talk about the perfect sacrifice of Christ often you are lulled into believing they’re only talking about the sinless of Christ, that he was morally perfect, no! They’re talking about the value of the cross! Remember the other day I said if I can write on something for a P.H.D. it would be on the beauty of God if not that, the precious value of the one on the tree! The value of the one who died on the tree. Who bore our sins. Who bore our sin. What does that mean? Calvin wouldn’t even get near it. He just threw up his hands and threw his pen down and said “I give up!” That the ‘trisagion’, the thrice Holy One would become sin I don’t know. I don’t know. But I want you to think about something for a moment. There is a subjective relational sense to what’s going on here to understand the value of his death. Let’s take the finest, the most precious, most protected, most naive, most child-like woman among us, so tender scripture says she would not put her heel on the ground. The finest most upstanding cultured woman at the church. Let me just use her as an illustration. Tonight at Atlanta countless prostitutes will be arrested. It will be a scandal out in the streets. Pictures will be taken, the women will laugh, they’ve done this a million times, they’re not ashamed of it, they might even come back in the newspaper, they’re not ashamed, they’ll be right back out on the street in a few days. Now, let’s say that one of you fine ladies just happen to be walking on the sidewalk when that arrest is made and your captured and brought in with them. Don’t you know that that arrest will have an entirely different meaning for you. It will break you into million pieces, it will bring shame that will endure throughout your lifetime, you won’t even know what to do, you’d be so beside yourself. When everyone else is laughing and kackling and telling jokes, you will literally be digging through the cement to bury yourself in shame! When we think about Jesus Christ bearing our sin, we know not of what we speak! Would it be a horrifying thing for you to bear the sins of all the world with your renewed heart, your regenerated heart, now a christian, would it be a terrifying thing, oh it would be a terrifying thing but you are still cultured in sin, you know it. But for the Holy One to take all that sin upon Himself meant a punishment much deeper than anything that you could ever know or endure. Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law so as to perform them, to do them. What does it mean? Prior to being converted, prior to having your heart regenerated, prior to coming to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you’re under a curse is what it means! What does it mean to be under a curse? I gave you a little bit of taste of what it means earlier in the sermon. That in your sin and your rejection of God and your rebellion against his command, you have become so vile, disgusting and loathsome not only before a Holy God but before a Holy heaven that the last thing you will hear when you take your first step into hell is all of creation rejoicing and singing because God has rid the earth of you. If you go on in the same chapter, Galatians 3, get down to verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, how? He became a curse. The serpent lifted up in the wilderness, the one upon whom God cannot look. Now, I want to talk about the cross for a moment. I almost cannot go to churches that preach on the cross, especially during what’s called ‘Easter’. I simply can’t endure it because the cross has been turned into a romantic syrup and men do not even understand from where cometh the pain of the tree. Men tell me they’re going to preach on the cross when the movie “The Passion” came out. I kept getting all these e-mails from different brothers from all over the country saying, “you know they’re troubled with the movie Passion”, “I have trouble with the movie too”, I didn’t go see it but they were all writing, all these preachers writing me, Southern Baptists preachers, all kinds of preachers writing me about how terrible the Passion was and I wrote them back, “I don’t have near as much trouble with Mel Gibson and his Passion as I do with your preaching! Because we are to know better!” You hear preaching on the cross today and I do not want to take away the physical sufferings of Christ. I do not want to take away from the blood shed. I do not want to take away the crown on His head and the spear on His side and the nails in his hands, I do not want to take away from that but for a moment we have to stand back and look at something! When Christ is preached on that tree by the great multitude of Baptist preachers, they don’t even understand what they are saying! Because they will spend an entire hour even with the words of a medical examiner, going through everything, Jesus Christ suffered at the hands of the Jews and the Romans and my friends if you are saved here tonight, you are not saved because of what the Jews and the Romans did to Jesus! You are saved because when he was on that tree, he bore our sin and God the Father crushed Him under the full force of His wrath! I was over in Eastern Europe and I was teaching a conference among pastors and it was German brethren seminary and I went in there and everything of course in German and I was looking for a book I could read and finally I found this book, “The Cross of Christ” and I pulled it off and if you read enough books, you’d get to the point where you just go ok, let me thumb through this really quick and find the major point and see what this man believes. I found it after about two or three minutes. This is what he said, God the Father looked down from heaven and the suffering that was inflicted upon Jesus by the hands of Romans and Jews and he considered that payment for our sin. I want to submit to you that if I went to most seminaries and said that and in most churches and preach that, everyone will applaud. And I hear all these preachers that they’ll look and go, “and the Father turned away from the Son on the tree because he couldn’t bear to look at His suffering”? That’s not what it says! Eloi, eloi lama sabachthani, my God, my God why have you forsaken, why have you abandoned me! Why had He abandoned Him? Because He took upon Himself sin that’s why and the guilt of it and our God is too Holy to look upon such things. If you go to Psalms 22, just quickly I’ll read just listen, Psalms 22 begins with “My God, my God why art thou forsaken me, why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roar”, that’s His complaint. Verse 2, “oh my God, I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and at night season and I’m not silent.” His complaint continues, and He gives and argument against this complaint, he says verse 4, “our fathers trusted in thee, trust in thee and thou didst deliver them, they cried unto thee and were delivered, they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.” “Oh my God there’s never been a time in the history of your covenant people Israel that a righteous man has cried out to you and you have forsaken him but I your only Son the Messiah, I hang on this tree and wicked men surround me! My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” and he answers His own question in verse 3, “but thou art Holy” and verse 6, “but I am a worm and no man”. On that cross He bore the sins of His people and became a reproach, the serpent lifted up in the wilderness, the scapegoat the elders of Israel would come out and lay their hand upon that goat, symbolically transferring their sins to the goat and the goat would be led outside the gates of the city, left to wander in the wilderness, forsaken of God, forsaken of God’s people to die! So Christ suffered outside the gates of the city. And now we get to this other point, the fierce point of the gospel is this. When you get to the garden and Christ cries out three times, “let this cup pass from me”, I have heard preachers of all manner say that the, He was afraid of the devil, I have heard preachers say, no He was afraid of the Romans, no he was afraid of the spears, He was afraid of this, He knew that the cross was going to be so terrible, on and on. No! Just look up the word cup in the Old Testament, get you an exhaustive concordance. Let me sum up all the prophets for you, I’ll make shift, I’ll gather them all together and summarize them with this. “Because of the wickedness and the sin, the rebellion of the nations, I will hand them the cup of my wrath and I will force them to drink it and they will drink it and stagger and they will die.” My dear friends, I want you to think about this, here is Jesus Christ in such anguish cowering in a garden and He is literally bleeding through His skin, He has such anguish, now, hold that picture, now later on, a few decades later and on up to England, to all the different times, even the early Americas, all throughout the world, even today, what? We see Christians, disciples of Jesus Christ, they’re going to the cross singing. They’re are going to be burned at the stake and they walk out there, they’re happy as larks, counting it a privilege. Origen’s mother had to hid his clothes because she knew when the Romans came into town that day, he would run out the streets and start preaching just so that he can be martyred. So here we got all these Christians, you realize that today, one thousand Christians will die as martyrs. You realize that? One thousand a day now are dying as martyrs. And they go to the cross and go to the firing squad and go to the news, they go to prison counting it a privilege in worshiping God full of courage, full of joy because of the grace of God and here’s the captain of our salvation hiding! Oh my dear friends, no, it was not a cross, it was not a spear, it was not a crown of thorns, it was not nails that caused our savior the mighty captain of our salvation to be there on a garden crying out with great drops of blood. It was this, the three times Holy One would go to a tree and bear the filth of His people and then the one who was always in the bosom of the Father and had always looked up and heard, “this is my beloved son whom I am well pleased”, He would be abandoned by His own God and crushed under the full force of God’s Holy hatred against our sin! It is that thing that is the true pain of the cross. Abraham is standing there on the mountain, with the knife, probably the circumcision knife what do I know, knife of flint. He’s got his hand on the brow of his dearly beloved, only begotten son Isaac, he takes the knife and wares it back and comes down to slaughter his own son and his hand is stayed and you think the story ends there. His hand is stayed and God the Father takes the knife, puts His hand on the brow of His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, and thrust the knife straight into His heart! His son was slaughtered by His own hand on your behalf, to call forth a people! That’s the cross! That’s the cross. That’s the cross. Justice had to be satisfied. It had to be satisfied. Now let me say something, in reformed teaching, although they do not say this, they do not commit this heresy, sometimes the way they say things makes us misunderstand certain things and we’d clear them up. When I say that the law of God or the justice of God must be satisfied before God can forgive, I am not saying that there is some great law higher than God that God must submit to before He can save. The law of God is nothing but an expression of God’s character. God’s justice, His just character had to be satisfied. Have you ever heard these preachers say, God could’ve been just with you but instead of being just, he was loving? Do you realize what they are saying? God’s love is unjust, God is wicked. No my friend, God satisfied His justice through the death of His only begotten Son. He died. He died. He died. I don’t boast about the fact that I don’t understand anything about the book of Revelation but I don’t and I’ve been preaching for 23 years and haven’t really started to study on it. I decided about 12 years ago, that I would seek to know something about the Cross where my Lord died. Twelve years, twelve hundred pages of notes. I don’t understand nothing, I don’t understand anything. All hail the power of Jesus’ name! Oh Jesus! I worship you Lord, I worship you. Oh God I worship you! All hail the power of Jesus’ name let angel’s prostrate fall, bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all! God, this is just between you and me, oh that I might know Him! That I might know Him! That I might preach His cross. I’m so sad that I can’t preach Jesus like He ought to be preached. My words are so dumb, they’re just so vile, they mean nothing. Oh God I worship you. Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer's praise! The glory of my God and King! Oh God, Lord I just want to stop for a minute. I just want to stop! Oh Lord, thank you so much and I’m so sorry I don’t see more, I don’t understand, I’m so sorry that my heart is so null. Lord. That the cross can become real to me, oh God, oh God. I worship you Lord, I praise thee, Oh God. Oh God. Thank you. I want us to look because I want to teach this. Verse 25, “whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare I saith this time, His righteousness that He might be just and justifier of Him that believeth in Jesus.” Sometimes when I preach at universities, people are always appalled when I speak about Hell. When I speak about the damnation of men, they are appalled, they are angry. They say they can’t understand, that I have to go into some diatribe or explanation to explain what I mean, to justify my words, how could it be that God would send men to hell. Do you know that it’s exactly the opposite problem in heaven? If God were to sent every man on the face of the earth to hell, he would not have to have given one explanation to anyone. Everyone in heaven, every angel would’ve stood and said that God of all the earth has done right. God only has to explain himself not when he condemns but when he forgives because how can a just God forgiven such wicked people? And imagine, imagine all the accusation of the slanderer. Just imagine. The devil, we don’t know much about his fall, we really don’t but he did fall, we do know that and he took some with him it seems but he fell. And what happened when he fell? Perfect justice, no explanation, perfect justice, everyone was content, he sinned against God, he was condemned and all of creation stands up and says hallelujah, no problem. Notice this, when the angels fell, God did not send them a savior, what makes you think he has to send you one? Tozer said if all the men in the face of the earth were blind, it would not diminish the glory of the sun and the moon and stars. If everyone man were cast into hell and heaven were all void of all men, it would not diminish the glory nor the happiness of God. But they fell and the only thing that is seen is justice, perfect justice, no need of explanation but then Adam falls. There’s where the explanation must begin. What is this? He’ll send forth one born of woman? He’ll send forth one that will crush the serpent’s head? What is this? Can you imagine the railings of Satan, “oh God what has happened here? When I fell there was all this about justice? Where’s your justice? Has the God of all the earth decided to turn a page on who He is? Have you looked at this Adam, he fell, he’s not dead! And what is this promise of salvation? You can’t save him! Oh, Abraham? Noah! Right! You saved him from the flood, he should’ve died with the rest of them! Oh and Abraham, your friend? He lied. He did not believe you, he even put his wife in jeopardy. Israel, your covenant people? Your beloved? Bunch of idol-worshippers and you didn’t kill them! Oh and David, man after your own heart, he’s an adulterer and a murderer, not to mention all the rule you gave in regards to a King he broke. Where’s your justice?” And heaven is silent, no answers is given, two thousand years ago, Satan lifts up his voice and says “how can you forgive?” And God comes down to that tree, “I can forgive them because my son died for them all!” Behold the vindication of God! When Jesus Christ died on that tree, He vindicated the character of God that God is both just and the justifier of the one who believes. That he satisfied justice and made a way for pardoning. In Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, He died and with His death, He vindicated God and when God resurrected Christ from the dead, he vindicated Him. Declared to be the Son of God, publicly. He was always the Son of God, He was not made the Son of God by the resurrection but He was publicly declared by the Father to be the son of God when he rose again from the dead. Raised because His death brought justification. He died, he paid. He was raised as proof that the people of God are free, are free. Now, He rose again from the dead, walked on the earth, He ascended up into heaven, this is an amazing thing that he would ascend Himself. I want you to think about this, I know this is more teaching tonight than anything but just, if you can grab a hold of this. You know you hear people say about Jesus the man upstairs. That is a vile remark, that is a vile remark. But there is a real sense that Jesus is the man in heaven for us. He is answer to Job’s cry, “oh that there would be someone, a mediator, an umpire, someone who could stand between us both and lay one hand on God and lay one hand on us and bring the two together.” In order for some man to lay one hand on man he must be man and in order for someone to lay one hand on God He must be God and Jesus Christ was the God-man. Spurgeon said this, “a ladder that does not reach to the top does not any good and a ladder that does not reach to the bottom does not any good.” Christ is able, being God to reach the top and being man to reach the bottom. But here’s the thing, the most amazing thing, and it is this, He is sent up into heaven and if you take notes, no man has ever entered through those doors, no man has entered in through those gates. Can you imagine, there stands the Christ at the gates of heaven and it cries, there’s a song that was used throughout by the patriarchs and everything, it’s an amazing thing and it says this: Christ according to the patriarchs of the first five centuries, they said that Christ came to the doors of glory and He cried out, in Psalms 24, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” And the answer back from in was a sigh and then a rabble and then a rumble of voices saying, angels in the light saying, “who would dare cry out to this door?” What man on earth would dare lay hands to the latch of this gate? This gate opens for no man, who is this King of Glory? And Christ answers back and says, “The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” And for the first time for in all of history, that is history that those gates were open wide and there stood Jesus the Man before us and all the angels that cannot be counted fall upon their face and worshipped the lamb. And the lamb approaches the throne of God, where a man cannot stand, where seraphs must cover their faces and cover their feet and sits down at the right hand of majesty on high. Could it have been something like this, the father looking to the son and saying, “it is finished?” and the son saying to the Father, “it is finished indeed, I have bought them all, I bought them all!” And this same Jesus who was crucified is coming again. He had been given a name who is above every name. He is King of Kings, Lord of Lords and He will come and all the nations will stand before Him and all the books of all the deeds ever done by men will be opened up and all men that have not availed themselves of the blood of the lamb will be judged out of the things written in those books and everyone who is judged shall be condemned. But one by one the tiniest most pitiful Saints will come before Him and Christ will point His finger towards Him and say, “this one, this one was born in Zion, this one’s mine!” This one’s mine! And the most amazing thing, saint, is though you have never seen Him, I assure you, that when you look up for the first time into His face you will see a familiar face. And I can assure this saint, that although there is judgement for the saints of God, it is probably the most difficult thing of all scripture to understand because I also want to assure you this saint. Many of you have very little joy because you constantly walk under condemnation. Many of you who have been truly bought by the blood of the lamb have little joy because you are sure, that because of your frequent failures that the first thing you will see is scowl and a frown from the face of the one disappointed in thee. That is a lie straight out of the pit of Hell. He did not redeem you with His blood so that the first glance you ever catch of Him would be a frightful frown, He preserved that for those who hate Him. I do not know how you will be judged but I know it will be in love. I have sometimes wondered if it would be something like this: you appear before Him and there’s so much love coming out of Him, there’s so much holiness, everything you’ve ever done is brought to mind and it crumbles you into a million pieces but at the same time, you know that He knows and you know that He loves you more than life itself and He’s made it go away forever. And for you smaller saints, you’re not Charles Spurgeon, you’re not missionaries, you’re not great evangelists. You’re just little lambs that have never done anything to get in the record books and you have bought into the lie that somehow God has an inner circle. That He has them men. All your life you’ve been left out haven’t you, all your life! You’ve never been the big shot, you’ve never been in the inner circle, you’ve never been the chosen one. So according to most preachers, you’re going to go into heaven in the same pecking order and it’s going to remain throughout all of eternity. Oh you’re getting in but you won’t be sitting with Whitefield and Spurgeon. Oh you’re getting in but you will not be a favorite son. That’s demonic because Jesus said the first will be last and the last will be first and by saying first will be last and the last will be first he’s saying there is no first or last. It’s a circle. You’re there because of Him and you’re a child and pecking order no longer exists because everyone is there, there just because of Jesus and nothing else matter, you’re finally free from this demonic chaos that steals your joy. Folks, I don’t have to move a quarter of an inch to the left or a quarter of an inch to the right to be more loved of God. He cannot love me more, He will not love me less. If I walk out of this pulpit and this is the last time I preach and I become an abject failure, lose all my courage, boldness, faith and everything else and I’m just a tiny man with all the courage he can muster he can only bear sit in the back seat of a pew, He will not, it will not diminish His love for me. The one thing that I know is that God’s love is not like ours. I am so happy! When I learned this, and young preacher, if I give you a gift it would be this, I am so happy when I learned this truth. I became so happy. It doesn’t matter, nothing matters except He shed His own blood for my soul. You many of you, I know you. You think you’re going there and you think you’re not going to loved as much as the ones who really did it right, that’s not true. You’re going there with full dressed out with the best of them, a robe of righteousness that was worn by your elder brother. To hell with all this silly stuff I hear preachers preach to manipulate and motivate people, you’re just loved, you’ve finally came through a door, where you’re just loved and that’s all and that’s wonderful, that is so wonderful if you can just grasp what I’m saying and it’s all because of the lamb. Thank you it’s been pleasure.

link:https://reformedevangelist.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-transcription-of-paul-washers-cross.html