What doth hinder me to be baptised?

 

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 19 JUNE 2022

ACTS 8 VERSES 26 – 40

Baptism through the experience of the Ethiopian eunuch.  In verse 27 we read that he had been down in Jerusalem to worship.  His goal, his ambition, his interest was worshipping God.  It took him to Jerusalem.  Here he found God beginning to deal with him.  He opened up his heart and showed the plans and purposes for his life.  God deals with us in various situations, manufactured situations.  Maybe God has been speaking to you about his plans and purposes for your life in this past week.  In verse 36 we hear him ask the question “what doth hinder me to be baptised?”  He was asking the evangelist in simple terms – look at my life, look at what I have been doing, what stops me from being baptised?

The conditions for baptism.  Believers’ baptism does not make you a member of this church – not all churches hold to that, but some do.  The conversion of this man was very important.  This baptism only came about with the eunuch after the conversion experience.  He was brought to the Lord in saving faith.  This is what we call believers baptism.  A decision a man or woman makes.  We are not baptised to be saved but baptised because we are saved.  Lydia went out to the riverside “where prayer was wont to be made.”  As she sat among the women folk her heart was opened.  God was dealing with her alone.  God opened up her heart and she believed what Paul was preaching.  She was baptised her and her household.  Baptism came after conversion.  When Paul and Silas were thrown into a prison cell and they lifted their voices in prayer and praise, at midnight a earthquake occurred.  The Philippian jailer quickly realised that all the prison cell doors had been flung open and the prisoners could escape.  He thought of the consequences for him the following morning.  As he was about to take his own life Paul said to him ”do thyself no harm.”  This man who had been beaten and cast into a cold dark cell spoke directly to the jailer.  The jailer realised he didn’t have the peace that Paul had.  He asked the question “what must I do to be saved?”  Paul told him “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house.”  The jailer was baptised that night after his conversion.  It was the work of the Holy Spirit and the word of God, working together.  This man, the Ethiopian eunuch had an important job.  We would class him today as prime minister or chancellor of the exchequer.  He was a very religious man, a devout man, well respected and revered.  People looked up to him.  In verse 27 we read he was coming up from Jerusalem, sitting in his chariot reading from the prophet Isaiah.  Something was beginning to happen in his heart.  The reading was from Isaiah 53 “led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so he opened not his mouth.”  No doubt in Jerusalem he had come into contact with some of the apostles.  Maybe this was the portion he had heard, and he was now pondering over it word by word.  Isn’t it wonderful how a religious person can get so interested in the word of God yet not be saved.  We can sit at the Lord’s table and not be saved.  We can have an interest in the word of God and not be saved. This man returned home but the Holy Spirit brings Philip to him.  He comes to a saving faith.  It is the word of God that brings that light to our souls.  Acts 2 verse 37 “and when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts.”  They heard the message Peter had preached to them about Jesus coming into the world, the many miracles he had done, about his death on Calvary and his resurrection power.  The Holy Spirit was taking the word of God and applying it to their hearts.  “As many as received the word of God were baptised.”  Baptism comes after conversion, and it is believers’ baptism.

The concerns this man had.  This man is saved now.  He has trusted the Lord as his own and personal Saviour.  Now he asks the question “what doth hinder me to be baptised?”  We see the concerns of both this man and Philip.  Philip had a concern for lost souls and the eunuch had a concern for his own soul.  God will bring them both together.  Lydia was in the meeting, but Paul was brought in to preach the word of God.  God brought both together.  Cornelius in Acts 10 was seeking God on his knees.  He knew that something had to happen in his heart.  The angel comes from the throne room of heaven and tells him “when Peter comes, he will tell you words whereby you might be saved.”  God brings them together and Cornelius was saved.  The concerns of Peter and Cornelius. In John 4 Jesus comes to the well where he met a woman who had come out to fill her waterpot.  Jesus “must needs go through Samaria” because he had compassion for one precious soul.  Jesus travelled all that distance for that one precious soul.  Think of the distance he travelled from his father’s throne in heaven.  He wasn’t worried about numbers.  The master has come and he calleth for thee.  Philip preached the word and the eunuch acted on the word preached.  Blessings come as we practice what God says.  The apostle Paul said we should not be hearers only but doers of the word.  James also backed that up.  We can read and study the word of God, but we need to be doers of the word.  Here’s a man now saved who is pressed in his spirit to do something for God.  He was only saved; he had only trusted the Lord, but he is hungry.  He wants to do something for the Lord after his conversion.  Now he is concerned about his witness for Christ.  Surely this is the next step.  Maybe he realised this was the next step for him – to glorify his master.  To go through the waters of baptism.  I see the boldness of Philip.  He left the place where God was using him in Samaria, where there were those getting saved, being healed of demon spirits and there was great joy everywhere in the city.  He left that city to go down the way of the desert.  He meets a train coming and God shows him the very person he should speak to in his chariot.  He is instructed to join himself to that chariot.  He asks the man in the chariot “do you understand what you are reading?”  Notice his boldness in speaking to him.  I am sure this man was well revered, respected and guarded.  He is reading the word of God aloud.  The man answered Philip “how can I understand unless someone explains it to me?”  Philip is welcomed into the chariot who shows him the need of his soul.  In Acts 4 all the believers came together to their own.  They talked among themselves of what had happened earlier in the day and then began to pray – verse 29.  They said, “now Lord behold their threatenings, you know all about them, Lord grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word.”  Philp explained the gospel.  When he came to the end of the message Philip told him how he could be saved and then told him about baptism.  The eunuch was concerned about the next step.  Acts 2 as Peter finished the people cried out “what shall we do?”  Peter replied, “repent and be baptised.”  He was telling them to turn from their sin, confess their sin, acknowledge Christ as Saviour and then be baptised.  We need that concern for souls, to taking the next step for the Lord, to glorify him.  Not to just be stuck in our ways – God wants more.

The conviction of the man.  He was concerned about the next step which worked into deep conviction.  He asks the question “what doth hinder me to be baptised.”  In other words – is there anything hindering me to go through the waters of baptism.

A confirmation of his faith.  Once he heard what Philip had to say he decided to follow in his heart.  Here was a very revered man who sat in the inner circle of Candice.  His advice and decisions were called upon.  He was a man of high ranking but now he was prepared to humble himself before all those people and go through the waters of baptism.  In Acts 8 we read he was a man of great authority, had charge of all Candice’s treasury.  It must have been a humbling step, an act of confirming his faith.  He took Christ as his Saviour and was now confirming his faith before everyone.  He was making his stand.  He told them to stop the chariot and he and Philip went down into the waters of baptism.

Elijah - the man who nearly gave up

 

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 12 JUNE 2022

1 KINGS 19 VERSES 1 TO 8

 

Elijah – the man who nearly gave up.  We see Elijah as a mighty prophet of God.  The circumstances in Elijah’s life brought change rapidly and quickly.  How that can happen to us too!  How many in our little province and across the nation are not in the same situation as Elijah was here?  There are many today trying to make ends meet.  Many are opening up envelopes and are scared to do so because it is the next electricity or gas bill.  They are sitting in a solitary place.  That is where Elijah was.  James tells us more about this man.  “He was a man of like passions as we are.” (James 5 verse 17)  He was prone to discouragement.  Just like you and me.  Maybe there have been things in the past week that have discouraged us.  Elijah was at the point where his prayer is that the Lord would allow him to die.  He had come to an end in himself.  He was sitting under a juniper tree, and he lifted his voice to God and said, “Lord let me die.”  He was a man ready to give up.  Do you ever get to that stage – where you think life is not worth living anymore?  Some times we don’t fully understand what God says when he says “no” but it is wonderful that God said “no” to Elijah on this occasion and it became a great blessing. Here was a man ready to give up and God says, “no I have so much more for you.”

 

Elijah comes to a lonely place.  We see him sitting alone with his thoughts and fears, taking his eyes off God, getting a handle on the circumstances that were coming in around his life.  He cannot go on another step.  He had taken his stand against one of the wickedest kings in Israel, Ahab.  Elijah was called out by God.  He goes into Ahab and tells him “I have a word from the Lord for you and this nation.  God will close the windows of heaven and there will be no rain.  As a result, there will be great poverty.”  Then we see him on Mount Carmel challenging the false prophets of Baal, 800 of them.  He was standing alone, and he brought the word of God to them.  “Why halt ye between 2 opinions.  I see that you have a longing for the God of Israel, yet you follow Baal.”  He was challenging them.  There is no fear in his heart.  Such a man or woman will be noticed by the enemy of our souls.  If you want to take your stand for the Lord in these days, then you will be attacked at some point.  The devil will do all in his power to bring you down.  There was a day when you saw Calvary, when the Holy Spirit lifted your eyes and showed you the perfect Lamb of God dying for your sin.  That day you bowed your knees and gave your life to Christ.  That is when the devil will follow your footsteps and try to bring you down.  Jezebel sent word to Elijah that she would take his life when she discovered that he had put 800 prophets of Baal to death.  Verse 3 “and when he saw that” - he took his eyes off the God of heaven.  They had been on God when he stood before Ahab, at the brook Cherith and on Mount Carmel, now his circumstances had changed so quickly.  His thoughts were on the threat to his life.  What does he do?  He flees, he runs away.  When I read Psalm 73, a psalm given over to the chief musician Asaph, I read in verse 2 “my feet were almost gone.”  His feet were slipping – why – verse 3 “I was envious at the foolish and saw the prosperity of the wicked.”  He got his eyes off the Lord and placed them on the circumstances of everyone else.  His feet were almost gone.  Nearly given up.  Sometimes we go through a time of serving the Lord just like Elijah, we enjoy the message of the gospel mission then comes the devil with a word of discouragement.  He reminds us of our failures.  Maybe Elijah felt the success of Carmel and thought Ahab and Jezebel would be stirred and follow after God.  In fact, it made Jezebel even harder.  In verse 3 we read “and left his servant there.”  Maybe he had shared with that man.  He had gone with Elijah as far as he could but came to a point where he couldn’t go any further.  Maybe he tried to convince him to go no further.  He stopped at that point.  Scripture says in verse 4 “he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness.”  For a full day he is plodding on.  He has aching limbs, there is a weariness in his body, he was walking in the heat of the day with all his negative thoughts in his mind. Have you ever been there?  Maybe it is a lonely place.  Verse 10 “and I even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it.”  He felt he had nobody, nothing.  Paul wrote to Timothy “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me; I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.” (2Timothy 4 verse 16)  Think of Jesus as he entered the Garden of Gethsemane.  He left his disciples and went a little further.  When he came back to them, he found them sleeping.  He prayed “Father if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.” (Luke 22 verse 42)

 

Elijah experienced a living presence.  We can feel that anywhere.  It tells us in verse 5 “an angel touched him.”  The last place where you would find an angel but that is where it was.  Elijah was sitting alone under the shade of a tree.  God knew exactly where he was, and he told the angel to touch him.  God has his messenger there for his servant.  God knew his situation and sent an angel.  A messenger of God.  Could God trust you and me to do that?  To bring his message to someone today.   You don’t know what they are feeling, know nothing about them but God is putting someone in your mind just to reach out to them even today.  God was speaking to his heavenly messenger.  Are we in that place today?  Is there someone like Elijah, all alone, sitting somewhere today waiting for you to stop and talk with them?  “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1 verse 14)  Take encouragement from this.  God knows where I am and knows what I am feeling and knows what I need.  Even when Elijah sat at the brook Cherith God knew all about him.  He spoke to the ravens and told them to carry him meat.  Think of Hagar, Sarah’s maid.  Sarah couldn’t have a child of her own to fulfil the promise of God.  She gave Hagar to her husband Abraham to bear him a child.  When Hagar gave birth, she was despised by Sarah and cast out of the home.  She was sent out into the wilderness with a cruise of water.  Hagar wandered in the wilderness until her water was finished.  She put her child under a bush and God heard the boy’s crying.  God spoke to Hagar through the gloom and darkness.  He helped her to see her future was brighter than she ever thought.  It is possible that God’s future for us is brighter than we can imagine because God has great things planned for us.

 

Elijah learned God’s plan.  He was in a very low spiritual condition, yet God hadn’t finished with him.  Perhaps he felt God was finished with him, but God knew better.  The devil brings us under attack, but God is not finished with us.  Elijah was exhausted and weak from his encounter on Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal.  The plan from God was simple – rest and eat, then more resting and more eating.  He needed to take care of his physical being.  There comes a time when we need to take rest.  The devil can burn us out very quickly, chasing our tails but God didn’t give up.  Think of it in the life of the Prodigal Son.  He took the inheritance from his father early.  He went off to a far country and had a riotous life.  He ended up as a pauper.  He had no friends.  He was in a lonely place and then he thought “if I go back to my father, I could be a servant which would be better than where I am now.  He never thought of what he would see that day – his father waiting for him.  A demonstration of love so clearly.  God told Elijah “I love you and I am not finished with you yet.”  He says the same to us today.

 

Elijah’s leading was provided.  This man of God has wanted to die.  He saw himself as a failure.  Life was of no more consequence to him.  In verse 7 we see he had a journey to take.  It was too great for the natural mind.  The act of obedience is seen – “and he arose and did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.”  The journey we are on is strenuous.  We are not able for it.  What God gives us will sustain for the task ahead whatever that task may be.  In verse 8 we see the obedience – God took him up and sent him out.  He had a king to anoint and a man to choose to fill his shoes.  So much work to do.  God takes him up and made him get on with the task.  God still takes us up today.  HeE never gives up – that is the message from this passage to us today.

Jubilee Sabbath

 

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 5 JUNE 2022

LEVITICUS 25 VERSES 1 – 14

This certainly has been a big and long weekend.  Many have been giving thanks as they remember the platinum jubilee in street parties.  Many have been out and about celebrating.  Remembering the Queen, 70 years as has reigned on the throne.  The biblical jubilee we have been reading about is a time of rest.  In conjunction with the jubilee today I want to think of the jubilee we read about in Leviticus.

Firstly the communication.  That was the first thing that jumped out as read these verses – verse 1 “and the Lord spoke”.  Isn’t it wonderful to know we have a God that speaks?  The God of heaven who speaks to us.  “God spoke to Moses in the mount Sinai saying ...”  This was a wonderful event that was going to take place in the lives of Israel.  Commentators over the jubilee weekend say that the queen never makes speeches unless there is an important issue to be spoken about.  Here we find God takes Moses to one side and spoke into this situation.  This great event of the jubilee that would be taken God’s word is so important.  As we listen to God’s word it is important we listen to it correctly but we also need to be careful of what we hear and how we hear.  “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Hebrews 2 verse 3)  We miss out on the greatest thing that God has ever done for this world.  Days and numbers are so important to the Lord.  Think of the number seven.  In creation God created the world in six days and on the seventh day he rested.  How important that day was in his calendar.  He had finished everything in those 6 days.  One day we set aside for a day of rest.  Genesis 2 verse 2, 3 “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.  And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”  How important that seventh day it but sadly it is being forgotten about today.  For many it is a day for sporting events, when most of the big cup finals are held.  The Jewish sabbath day was a Saturday but on the first day of the week Jesus rose from the dead.  A day set aside for the Lord according to the word of God.  It is a day for socialising according to the world.  God said “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work.  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” (Exodus 20 verses 8, 9 and 10)  This is the one who created everything around us, breathed into man and man became a living soul.  He looked down on man and said “it is not good for man to be alone.”  This is how God has spoken to us.  A day sanctified. He rested.  Then we read verse in  “Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof.  But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.”  How important it is to let the land rest.  All those important nutrients the ground has used in past years needs to be rested.  The Lord knows best in our life and in our land.  Then we see the multiples of 7 in verses 8 and 9 “And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.”  The fiftieth year important year in the Jewish calendar.  We see the communication – the jubilee was of God.

It was to be a celebration.  This has been the Queen’s jubilee celebration, what she has done for the nation and for her people and the witness and testimony she has had throughout the world.  It has been marked by street parties and festivities.  It would have been the crowing feature if she had had no parties on the Sunday but instead had a day of prayer.  Those holding these street parties have no thought of God.  THe Lord’s jubilee is a celebration for what he has done for his people.  People are celebrating what the Queen has done for her people.  Verse 2 “when ye come into the land … then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord.”  God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees.  God called and separated him.  God still looks down and separates people for his purpose.  Abraham was open to the call of God.  God told him he would give him a land of his own.  God allowed them to be carried down to Egypt and 400 years later he brought them out.  From a few souls to a million and a half people.  Then they were redeemed through the blood of a lamb.  God heard their cries of afflictions down in Egypt.  God said to Moses “I want you to go down and tell Pharaoh that he must let my people go.”  The blood of the lamb was poured into a basin and then applied to the lintels of the doors of their houses.  God redeemed them that night.  He brought them out of Egypt.  He opened the Red Sea and brought them out.  He kept them by his great power through the wilderness, then brought them across the Jordan River into Canaan.  Now God says I want you to keep the 50^th year of rest.  One day Christ will come to the air, will separate the clouds, the trumpet will sound and the archangel will come down.  We will be caught up in the air to meet God.  The jubilee start for we will rest from our labours.  Deuteronomy 6 verses 10 to 12 “And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not.  And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive tress, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full. Then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”  Is it possible as a Christian to forget what God has done for us?  The Christian can get very complacent, very careless, go thought the motions.  Attend the Sunday services, prayer meetings, read the bible.  Can forget what God has done.  When we see the reality of what God has lifted us from.  How he has opened our eyes to Calvary, shown us his son dying to redeem a lost mankind.  The Children of Israel were to keep the festivals for the good of the land and for the people themselves.

 

A time of consecration.  In the fiftieth year no work was to be done on the fields.  The farmer was not to use their implements.  There was to be no sowing or harvesting.  God wanted to bring them back to their grassroots, to trust him completely.   Remember when Elijah was at the brook Cherith.  God provided the ravens to give him meat each day.  Remember when the disciples questioned how God could provide for them.  Jesus pointed to the birds of the air.  This is the love and care your heavenly father has for you.  We hear about the financial crisis today and are starting to feel it now.  Like the people in this jubilee year we need to get our eyes off what we can do and place them on him who has done so much for us.  He will never let us down.  

 

A time of consideration.  If we read verses 11 to 15 it would mean we have to get our eyes off our business transactions and consider one another.  The land was to be unworked for that year.  That meant the rich were down at the same level as the poor.   Each had to look out for one another, to make sure everyone was ok.  We are to consider others, to make sure cared for.  Imagine 6 months into that year when there were no crops in the field.  Totally depending on God.  The widow woman in Elijah’s day had to make sure Elijah was cared for before she and her son could eat.  God has allowed us to have so many gifts and use them for him.  This was the time to consider others.  The bible says we are not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought.  Maybe God needs to bring us down.  Here is the opportunity to consider others.  There are so many ways of reaching people today.  Make sure it is uplifting and encouraging.  Looking out for one another.  That is what jubilee is all about.

 

The cross of Christ

 

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 5 JUNE 2022 PM

1 CORINTHIANS 1 VERSES 17 – 25

4 words from verse 17 – “the cross of Christ”.  What does the cross mean to you?  Is it something you wear around your neck as a symbol?  Is it something the preacher is always talking about?  Is it something you sing about in hymns?  The cross separates men and women.  What you think about the cross will determine what God will do with you at the end of your life’s journey.  “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.”  There are thousands of people out there who would tell me that I am crazy for preaching about the cross of Christ.  God who overcame the wisdom of God is greater than the wisdom of the world.  This cross of Christ is so important.  It is deeply distinguished from every other cross.  Hundreds if not thousands were crucified under the Roman jurisdiction as a punishment.  The person on the cross makes the cross stand out.  All of the other people crucified were guilty of something.  This man, the man Christ Jesus had done nothing amiss.  God made him to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God.  This would distinguish the cross of Christ.  It was planned by a holy God.  Acts 2 verse 23 “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”  It was no surprise to God that he would die on the cross.  No second thought that God should send his only son in to the world, that Christ should go to the cross even before the foundation of the world.  We can see many types presented in the Old Testament that all point to the cross.  From Genesis to Revelation we find something of the cross.  Psalm 22 “my God, my God why has thou forsaken me.”  That was written 1000 years before Christ came into the world.  Isaiah 53 “he was wounded for our transgressions.”  That takes us to the cross because of its importance, because it was planned by the God of heaven, because of the person on the cross.  He had never sinned, never done anything wrong.  Pilate examined him and said, “I can find no fault in this man.”  Jesus did only those things which pleased his father.  He is unique in every sense of the word.  He stands out as different.  Look back to Psalm 53 verse 2 “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.  Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”  This man is different.  You need to focus on this man.  Paul said, “we preach Christ and him crucified”.  You cannot separate the cross and Christ because they are nailed together.  We are preaching about the cross not the material made for the cross.  The cross can be made from all kinds of things - wood, silver, gold or ceramic or glass or diamonds.  Make it out of anything.  It has all to do with the person that was on the cross.  The cross of Christ is distinguished because of that person.  The one who was holy, undefiled, separated from sinners.  “There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin, he only could unlock the gates of heaven.”  Without the cross there is no salvation.  Nothing we could do or plan or think about to get us into heaven.  The way of the cross leads home.  Except a man comes to the foot of the cross, accepts Christ as Saviour there is no salvation.  Not coming to a church, not even speaking to the preacher, coming to the cross by faith.  The cross is distinctive because of the one who planned it but also because of the purpose.  He was there to die in my place.  What a substitute.  He suffered the just for the unjust.  1 Peter 3 verse 18 he suffered that he might bring us to God.  There is separation in that verse.  You and I are born far from God, turned our backs on God, without hope.  Living in a world of sin.  The just for the unjust.  Why?  That he might bring us to God.  Separation and salvation.  God raised him from the dead.  Why?  The Lord was on the cross to save sinners.  Jesus sent his son not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved.  “My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?”  To save people even today.  He is on the cross because he wants to save you and me.

 

Take the letters of the word CROSS – Christ redeemed our sinful souls.  The cross is central to the teaching of scripture.  Not only central from Genesis to Revelation.  Before Adam sinned in the Garden God knew all about it.  Even when they had sinned God produced a sacrifice.  A sacrifice was made available to cleanse him from all sin.  Central to the teaching of scripture.  Central to the heart of God.  It is the wisdom of God.  It is the power of God.  It hasn’t changed.  The preaching of the cross is foolishness but unto us that are saved it is the power of God.  Are you saved by the blood of Christ?  The cross is central to our calendar.  We are living in 2022 – two thousand years after Christ died.  We are counting up to the day of Christ’s coming again.  We have to make the cross something that is personal.  As you look at Calvary you see Christ hanging by his hands and feet – all for you.  He took your place, he died for you.  As well as a central revelation it is also a revelation of the love of God.  Sometimes it astounds me how God could love me.  God leaves you his word, demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, he died for us.  We can be saved if we believe in him.  What love it is.  More than I can explain yet you can see it.  What a revelation of the love that Jesus had for me.  It is a revelation of the depravity of man.  There is the awful wrath of God which was poured out on his son.  We are told Jesus’ face was more marred than any mans.  His back was like a ploughed field.  The suffering Christ went through on Calvary.  He demonstrated something of the depravity of the human race.  Demonstrated just how far man would go.  “He came unto his own and his own received him not”, yet he still loved them.  He still went to Calvary.  We are guilty in word, thought and deed.  You know what you have done.  We are sinners.  You don’t have to teach a child to have a tantrum because it is in them already.  It is all because of their sinful nature.  What a revelation.  You don’t need me to tell you that you are a sinner.  The scriptures are clear – “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  Without the cross of Christ there is no forgiveness of sin.  A revelation of God’s love and the depravity of man.  Why did Christ die?  Many tell me they go to church; they do this and that, give to many charities but when I ask them why did Christ die, they don’t know.  He died to take away your sin.  1 Corinthians 15 verse 1 “which also ye have received and wherein you stand … how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” That is a historical fact.  Without the bible you could read all about a man crucified outside Jerusalem.  That is historical.  Christ died for our sin – that is theological.  That is where we find it difficult to get our minds around.  He died for our sin according to the scriptures.  He rose again – that is supernatural.  He is alive tonight.  He has been seen by many including the apostle Paul.  Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.  If you want to know the way to heaven the cross is the entrance.  Christ is the access into the presence of God.  It is available to all.  There was no sacrifice like it.  The thousands of sacrifices in the Old Testament could only cover over sin.  After he had offered the one sacrifice for ever, he sat down at the right hand of God.  It was a sufficient sacrifice.  He alone could make it.  He gave himself for me.  The cross is sacrificial and substitutionary.  Someone who takes the place of another.  He was sinless and, in his love, and mercy he took my place and died for me.  What does the cross mean to you?  The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but to us who believe it is the power of God.  He is able to save through the cross.  Why not come to the cross, make him your focus.  Not on the cross of wood but on the person of the cross.  Believe on the Lord and you shall be saved.  It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me.  That is all we have for eternity.  Christ died; God is satisfied.  Is it enough for you?  Will you trust him tonight?