It's that important.( Philippians 1 v 29 )

Martin Luther said,' We will suffer our goods to be taken away, our name, our life,and all we have;  but the Gospel, our faith, Jesus Christ, we will never suffer to be wrested from us'. Many of the epistles were written in defence of the Gospel, written by men like Paul, and Peter,who not only proclaimed the Gospel but also were prepared to lay down their lives for the gospel,Paul was beheaded Peter was crucified.I am remined of Polycarp who was a disciple of the apostle John, he became a bishop in the church of Smyrna( (Izmir  in modern Turkey). In his 80s he was arrested,because he would not swear that Caesar was lord , if he did, he would be set free,this was what he said,''Eighty six years have I served Jesus,and he never did me an injury, how can I blaspheme my king and Saviour'' .He was pressed on this, being threatened to be devoured by wild beasts,or to be consumed by the fire,he refused.and said,'' Hear me declare with boldness,'I am a Christian'.So they gathered the wood, the Jews especially joining in ,and they burnt him to death. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,is more precious than worldly riches,world fame, may our dear God grant us grace to live for Christ ,and if necessary to die for Christ.

The reason. ( Psalm 51 )

 Yesterday we asked why mankind is so violent?,we mentioned one aspect of our violence,war,but we never mentioned murders,robberies,rapes,abuse of all sorts,and so on,plus our evil thoughts.It is in the book of Jeremiah we read,'The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it it is (17 v 9) One may say I know a lot of nice people,but I also know that everyone is a sinner,the fact is we are all in it together ,and we all manifest  to some extent our sinful nature.Remember when we say that,we are not judging our being by other people.That is not the answer,we may say that we are good citizens,we are honest as the next person we pay our taxes.That is not the answer ,it is how we stand before a holy God,that's what makes us sinners,we come short of His glory .When David sinned  he confessed,'Against you, You only have I sinned,and done this evil in your sight' Psalm 51 v 4,he said that because it was God's law he had broken'.The words in Romans 3 makes it clear the way we are toward God.and that has an affect as to how we are with other people.The cross reminds us of the awful condition of humanity,a condition that will not change, because we cannot change,we do not want to change, because we love darkness rather than light.People will continue on their sinful way refusing to respond to God's offer of salvation,apart from Jesus there is no hope,and let me say again ,things will not get any better.

                                                 ' I heard the voice of Jesus say,

                                                  I am this dark worlds light,

                                                  Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise

                                                  And all thy day be bright.

                                                  I looked to Jesus and I found

                                                  In Him my Star, my Sun;

                                                  And in that light of life I'll walk,

                                                  Till travelling days are done.

                                                          Horatius Bonar.

The reason ( Romans 3 v 23 )

 The English poet Julian Grenfell wrote,' I adore war', His poem,'Into Battle', anticipates the 'joy; of combat. He was killed in May 1915.During the 20th century we have had two world wars,but there have been hundreds of minor wars and conflicts.Think of how many people have perished in those conflicts,it is impossible to say,possible 150 million, could be more.The fact is we live in a very,very violent world,and its not getting any better,the question is why,the Bible tells us the reason,in that great chapter in Romans 3 we are told this ,'all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.'the writer highlights or describes aspects of that sinful nature ,most of what he describes ,is to be found in passages in the OT.  I want to write them all out, so here goes,

                                      ''No one is righteous,not even one,

                                       No one is truly wise; no one is seeking after God.

                                       All have turned away; all have become useless.

                                       No one does good not a single one. 

                                       Their talk is foul,like,like a stench from an open grave.

                                       Their tongues are filled with lies.

                                       Snake venom drips from their lips.

                                       Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.

                                        They rush to commit murder.

                                        Destruction always follow them.

                                        The don't know where to find peace.

                                        They have no fear of God at all.''

The suffering Servant. ( Galatians 6 v 14 )

 The Lord during His lifetime manifested great power, He had power over nature Mark 4 v 35 -41,He raised the dead Luke 7 v 11- 16/ 8 v 53-56/ /John 11/. He healed countless number of people,He turned water into wine John 2,and fed on two occasions thousands of people with just a few small loaves and fishes John 6 /Mark 8. If He did all that surely he could have saved Himself from all that suffering?,but He didn't,surely He failed?,no ,when He told the disciples he would die , they couldn't take it in,and Peter reprimanded Him, for saying such things Matthew 16 v22  ,and Jesus rebuked him.To those disciples His death appeared a failure ,the Messiah they had in mind was not meant to die,but one who would rule by His great power,He would put down all who opposed Him, by force, they the Jews would reign and rule with Him.. But no, Jesus did not come to set up an earthly kingdom, John 18 v 36, His kingdom would be a spiritual kingdom,ruling in peoples hearts, it would be an eternal kingdom Daniel 2 v44. As to His death no one could take his life from Him,in John 10 v18 ,Jesus declares,'No one can take my life from me,I sacrifice it voluntarily.For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again  John 10 v 18. In John 10 v27 Jesus says,'Now is my soul deeply troubled.Should I pray,',  Father save me from this hour?But this is the reason I came!. He did not fail, His suffering on the cross was a victory for us sinners,our sins could be forgiven ,Satan and death would be defeated

                                                 Thanks be to God who give His only

                                                 begotten Son,that we could be saved 

                                                 eternally.

The suffering Servant. ( Romans 5 v 1 )

 Now we have touched on the physical suffering of Christ, but there is more to it than that,let us remember every sinner has the wrath of God upon them,John 3 v 36.While sin remains unforgiven wrath remains on them for ever,no entrance into heaven,but there will be an entrance into hell and all that it means, unless that wrath is removed no one can be saved.So it is that Jesus suffering on the cross involved Him taking the punishment of sinners,paying the full price for our transgressions.William Hendriksen ,writes the following,'by the shedding of his blood, a wrath -removing or propitiatory' sacrifice took place.Our Saviour told the story of a man who cried out to God ,'Be merciful to me a sinner',Luke 18 v13 .one has put it this way,'God be propitiated for me a sinner'. Compare Romans 3 v25 ' Whom God hath sent forth to be a propitiation', WH  writes ,'that the Greek word he chose is the English equivalent meaning,;Wrath removing ( or propitiatory)sacrifice'.He goes unto write,'Christ's propitiatory sacrifice does not go into effect automatically. If a person wishes to obtain this great blessing- the turning away of God's wrath,forgiveness, acceptance with God-they must exercise genuine faith in Christ,in and through whom God Triune reveals himself'.

                                                    'Simple faith in Jesus saves'

The suffering Servant. ( Isaiah 53 )

 The supreme purpose of Christ coming into the world was to die on the cross ,so our sins could be forgiven,His death accomplished everything that was necessary for our salvation. It meant that He would leave heaven,there he was equal with God,as part of the divine Trinity,it was truly one giant step,he entered this world,fully human and fully divine.And his role was that of a servant,and to become obedient unto death ,even death on the cross.The suffering He experienced when he was arrested,and his death on the cross was horrendous,this does not appear in the many pictures painted of His crucifixion.Well Mel Gibson made the movie ,'The passion of Christ', many complained that it was to graphic,it wasn't, it wasn't graphic enough.Let us bear in mind,that the Messiahs suffering was clearly  foretold by the prophets,In Isaiah 52 v 14 we read,'But many were amazed when they saw him,His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human,and from his appearance one would scarcely know he was a man'. In 53 v 7 we read,'That he was led as  a lamb to the slaughter',we often  talk about  animals going to the slaughter house.In modern abattoirs they try to make the killing of animals as painless as possible,but Christs death was anything like painless,it was slow and agonising, it was death on a cross, But it didn't stop there as we will see next time.

                                                      Man of sorrows what a name,

                                                      For the Son of God who came,

                                                      Ruined sinners to reclaim,

                                                      Hallelujah what a Saviour

                                                              Philip P. Bliss.

Brokenness. ( Luke 9 v 46- 48)

 As I am retired, and my wife is not, I look after the home,and one of the things I do is the washing,I have a clothes line where I  hang the wet clothes out to dry.I use clothes pegs.I have one clothes peg and its partly broken,I have thought about throwing it away,but no I have decided to keep it ,it is still useful It reminds in a way of how God uses broken people,most of us are broken in some way. It could be when you consider your brokenness, you think that God could never use you,you are wrong,very wrong,does not God say he uses the weak and the foolish things.Take Jacob his name means supplanter, a schemer, and He made him an Israel,Peter  failed his Lord  miserably but he became an apostle Whatever your brokenness God can use you,lets consider those lovely words in 1 Corinthians 1 v 26ff ,'God chose things the things the world one would consider foolish,He chose those whom one would consider unsuitable' ,not just unsuitable but people of  brokenness,and raises them up to positions of distinction.

                                                  The Lord doesn't see things the way you see

                                                  them. People judge by outward appearance,

                                                  but the Lord looks at the heart,

                                                                 1 Samuel 16 v 7.