One time we were having some visits and reads with a couple each week and they were very warm to us and we were studying about forgiveness one visit. The lady told us that they could never forgive their neighbours as they had done something to them in the past and for years they had not been speaking and they did not want to change that. We told them that we would have to stop coming to see them, as this is a full stop we have come to. We explained that we had been sawing some wood over a long period of time and were getting along well, but now we had come to a nail in the wood and could go no further till the nail was removed. So we did not see them for a little while and then one day the lady phoned and just said, “we have removed the nail”, so we were so happy to see them again. They told us that they went to their neighbours and they also wanted to put things right and now both couples put their arms around each other and were friends. We cannot expect the forgiveness of God unless we are willing to forgive all those who have trespassed against us, no other way.
This is Sunday morning and we are thinking of the emblems, thinking of all that our Lord Jesus Christ has suffered for us, nailed to the wooden cross. These days there are a lot of sceptics who don’t believe and they say that a loving father would not allow his son to be tortured and so, what do you answer them? Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Before Jesus was crucified he instituted the bread and the wine and said, “For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” It is only blood that can redeem the soul and this is our answer to those who would want to argue about these things, we cannot argue with God. His ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and God has planned from the beginning that there would be one price to be paid for the redemption of the soul and it is blood.
Hebrews 10:4. “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin.” There would have been no hope of salvation for Abraham, Moses and others if Christ had not died, because the blood of bulls and goats was only a figure to take away sin. Jesus on that night said, “this is my blood of the New Testament given for the remission of the sins of the whole world. In eternity we see a picture of Christ being the centerpiece, on the one side we see the faithful of the Old Testament and on the other side, the faithful of the New Testament. All saying to Jesus, we are so glad that you did not go back, that you gave your all and often we don’t think enough about that.
The bread and the wine are two natural things, two things that were on the table when they had a meal together and sat around the table. These two things we are so familiar with and Jesus knew that we would forget, so he gave us two things that would remind us of the great debt that we owe to Christ. As we partake in sincerity, we remember the body of Christ lived for us, all his deeds, his doctrine, and his true witness. Then the climax of it all, being nailed to the cross, his blood dripping to the ground. The emblems are this tangible thing to remind us of this great sacrifice, the blood which is for the redemption of our souls. My companion and I had some gospel meetings in a church room and there was a big wooden cross hanging up so I unhooked it and took it down and then some men came in and asked who took the cross down? So they told everyone in the village that we did not believe in the cross and so a lady who was coming asked us why we don’t believe in the cross. We told her we do believe in the cross but have you ever thought of the cross, what it is; it is a diabolic instrument of cruelty. Jesus did not once mention the cross on which he was nailed. My mum was a nervous lady and she had a brother murdered by a gun and this left a mark on mother and she could not face a gun, could not walk past a person who held a rifle or gun. This was a diabolic instrument that had killed her brother and it is with the cross, it was this diabolic instrument that people hang around their necks, hang in the best rooms. God allowed his son to be tortured for you and for me.
Hebrews 11:35, “Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance.” Others were tortured including the Lord Jesus, who did not accept deliverance so that he might obtain a better resurrection; this is a picture of Christ, in torture and agony, accepting no deliverance. Some said to him, come down from the cross and we will believe in you, Jesus could have delivered himself, but how thankful he was on the resurrection morning when all the suffering was over. He had fulfilled all God’s will, all that God prophesied of him and he would come out of the grave full of gratitude to God for the grace given unto him. In Africa, there was a robbery at the convention ground, all personal things were stolen and the friend’s children found some clues which led to the people who had committed the robbery. When the police caught the men, they would not speak so they said they would torture them to make them speak, then they heard the screaming. They returned and said that they would speak and told where they had buried the treasure. Jesus was tortured for you and for me, nails in his hands and his feet, did all that was written in the book of him.
Then he rose on the resurrection morning, having overcome and paid the price for every soul. Jesus was weak after the trial and so they compelled Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross, he could carry it a certain distance but at the end Jesus had to carry it himself to the place of the crucifixion. There were four soldiers but one could have crucified Jesus because he did not move, he just placed his hand to receive the nail. Normally others would fight and resist so they needed four soldiers to crucify a person.
Jesus spoke of another cross, that, one of the conditions for discipleship is to take up our cross. Luke 14:26, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Some people say how can a loving God teach you to hate people and it is good to look into it so that we have the right answers, as there will be more critics in the future. It just means to love less than Jesus those whom he has mentioned.
Deuteronomy 21:15, “If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the firstborn son be her’s that was hated, then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn.” We have worked in places where the man has 6 wives for the law permits it, but this picture explains what Jesus meant about the loved and the hated one. If the man come to the point where he hates his wife he can send her home with 2 cows and 3 sheep, sending home with a dowry for he cannot keep a wife that is hated. It means here that this man has two wives, one is loved more than the other and perhaps the loved one is the younger one and the older one is relegated to the back to just care for him.
Jesus was thinking of these verses when he spoke of these things and Jack Forbes always said that if you have a problem to understand a part of the bible there will be another part of the bible that will explain your problem. This problem of loving some more than others and if we are honest, we will admit that we all do this, some fit in with us more than others and we do not hate the others but we just love them less. A mother told us that she loved all the workers but she loves some more who tell her what they need, if some have a stomach ache and cannot eat certain food, she likes them to tell her and she loves them more for that. Yes unless a man or woman loves Jesus more than their father, mother, brother or sister they cannot be his disciple, Jesus requires our first love completely. It is a hard question to ask ourselves, do I love Jesus more than my husband, my wife, my children, that’s what it means, the hearts first affection must be for our Lord and Saviour who was tortured for us so that our soul could dwell forevermore and this is so reasonable. This is something that we should examine ourselves with, do we love the Lord with all our heart, mind, strength, soul, and this is a vital question. It is so easy to have our minds so full of other things, the cares of life etc as we live in a busy age and we need to be careful.
We come to convention and we hear some testimonies and they are sad, they say they have had a terrible hard year, they have had to suffer and it is true, some of you do and workers also do but Philippians 1:29 is a treasure to me. “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.” This matter of living for God is far more than having faith in Christ, it is being willing to suffer for his sake, this is the cross we must carry, loving Jesus more than our nearest and dearest and if this is not so there is something wrong.
There are other crosses; the rich young man who came to Jesus to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus loved him and gave him an opportunity to enter the work, he had to give what he had to the poor but the young man went away very sad. He was not willing to take up the cross, and Jesus said that if a person is not willing to take up this cross, he cannot be his disciple. That is for those who leave home for the gospel’s sake, it is a cross we glory in, we do not lament about it. You cannot be my disciple in the work if you are attending to the things of home, you have to let it go, then be my disciple.
Then there is another cross, the time that Peter reproached Jesus, he had just received a wonderful revelation on the mountaintop that Jesus was the Son of God. Now Jesus asked the question, whom do men say that I am and Peter answered, thou art the Christ, Jesus said that flesh and blood had not revealed this to Jesus. Immediately Jesus spoke of going back to where he was badly treated and Peter said, no Lord, don’t do that and Jesus said to Peter, get behind me Satan, it was because the same spirit that is in Satan was in Peter. For whosoever will not take up his cross, that is facing the suffering, the tribulation with Jesus cannot be his disciples; this is a part of the cross.
They compelled Simon to carry this cross of Jesus but no one will compel you and I to carry this other cross. There are two things that we will take upon our shoulders, one is his yoke and the second is his cross. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for my yoke is easy, this is something we must take, we must put it on us. The cross he will not put on us but taking his yoke will help us to take up the cross. It is our joy and privilege to suffer for his sake, not only to believe but also to suffer, being willing for all that the suffering means.
Truth Archive 