I had a favorite relative growing up, Uncle Bill. Uncle Bill, well, he was really my mother's uncle, so I guess that made him my great uncle. This man, he was a little man, a lifelong bachelor, a welder by trade, but an inventor by practice. And on his rare occasional visits to our home, Uncle Bill would often come up with these funny sayings and weird poems and silly jokes. And these things would always grab my attention. I want to tell you one that Uncle Bill told me many, many years ago. I quote Uncle Bill. It was a dark, dark night. The sun was shining bright. An empty wheelbarrow full of bricks ran over a dead cat and killed it. I'm going to let that sink in for a minute because when I was six or seven years old, I needed it to sink in as well. I remember musing over these words as a child until finally, much like you, realizing the irony and the contradiction of terms in these words. But I never forgot those words. Over a half century later, I still remember. It was a dark, dark night. The sun was shining bright. An empty wheelbarrow full of bricks ran over a dead cat and killed it. Well, the Apostle Paul said something almost equally perplexing in his first letter to the Corinthians. So I'd ask you to turn with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians 1. I want you to note the two words that Paul strings together in verse 23, where he says, we preach Christ crucified. To Jews, a stumbling block, and to Gentiles, foolishness. These two words that he strings together, Christ crucified, to many of the people back in Paul's day made about as much sense as an empty wheelbarrow full of bricks. The context of Paul's words here have to do with the wisdom and the power of the living God. If you go back just a few verses, he had told the Corinthians that he didn't come to Corinth on a baptizing mission. And he says, and I didn't come either in cleverness of speech. I didn't come like a fast talking used car salesman. He says, I came with a message, a very simple, straightforward message, a message that pointed to the profound wisdom and the absolute power of the living God. And yet to the eyes of men had the appearance of utter foolishness. like an empty wheelbarrow full of bricks. Verse 18, he said, for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Verse 21, for since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. And in all of its glory and simplicity, this is the message. We preach Christ crucified. Now, here's why the message seems so foolish. Christ means Messiah, the Anointed One. And many of the people to whom Paul was preaching in the first century, they would have understood that this was referring to God's chosen Savior, King. Yeah, the Savior King that the Old Testament prophets spoke of, the long expected one, the one who would come with great power and glory, the one who would come with unconquerable, irresistible power, the power of God himself. According to prophecy, this Messiah would come as the seed of a woman. We see that all the way back in Genesis chapter three. This Messiah would come as God's anointed one, Psalm 2, as a descendant of Abraham, Genesis 12, as a prophet, much like Moses, Deuteronomy 18. He would come as a descendant of David, 2 Samuel 7, as one greater than David, Psalm 110, as one to whom the scepter belongs, Genesis 49, as one who was highly acclaimed, Psalm 118, and as one who would come performing signs and wonders, Isaiah 35. God's anointed one, God's chosen messiah king would come and he would save his people. Now those first century Jews believed that that this messiah was going to come as an earthly king. as a political ruler and one who would likely be the one who would free them from their oppression to the Roman government. Israel would be an independent nation under their new messiah king. Well, make no mistake, Jesus Christ is the messiah. He is the savior of his people. But even his own disciples, who knew this about him, who knew that he was the Messiah, even his own disciples, at least for a time, were also expecting this kind of saving, an earthly political salvation, if you will. Turn with me to Mark 8, Mark's Gospel, chapter 8. In Mark 8 and in verse 27, we see Jesus asks his disciples, who do people say that I am? And they tell him, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, others say you're one of the prophets. And then, of course, the reason Jesus had asked this question was so that he would follow up with this next question, but who do you say that I am? And Peter, who often spoke up right away for the 12, rightly answered, You are the Christ. You are the Messiah. Verse 31, and Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. Verse 32, and he was stating the matter plainly and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Why did Peter do this? Why did he rebuke Jesus for saying these things? Well, because what Jesus was saying made no sense to Peter. How is it that the Messiah, God's chosen Messiah, would finally come to liberate Israel? He would come in power and glory and rule and be rejected and killed? It simply didn't make sense to him. Turn up two chapters to Mark 10. Mark chapter 10. In verse 37, two other of his disciples, James and John, make a request of Jesus. They say to him, grant that we may sit, one on your right and one on your left, in your glory. And this request was almost certainly based on the notion of an earthly kingdom, an earthly glory that Jesus would have. No doubt these guys were thinking back maybe to Joseph in the court of Pharaoh in Egypt, or maybe they were thinking of Daniel in the royal court of King Darius. These guys wanted to be princes in an earthly Jewish kingdom. Then, of course, we remember Mark 6. You don't need to turn there. All of you are familiar with the miraculous feeding of thousands of people with just a few loaves and fish. Well, immediately following that feeding, immediately upon the people eating and being satisfied and many baskets of fragments being taken up, Jesus tells his disciples to do what? He says, get in the boat. We're leaving. Why? What was the hurry? Why would Jesus tell his disciples immediately upon this miraculous feeding to just get in the boat to go to another place? Well, John's Gospel informs us. John's Gospel tells us that the crowd of thousands who just ate all of that miracle food were about to attempt to take Jesus by force to make him king. And how easy it would have been for his disciples to get caught up in the hysteria, to get caught up in the moment, and say, well, yes, these are signs and wonders, this is the Messiah, yes, let's make him king, let's do it. So whereas his disciples knew full well that Jesus was truly the anointed one, the promised Messiah, even they didn't yet fully understand what this meant. And you see, this is why that second word, crucified, Christ crucified, made no sense. Crucifixion was designed by the Romans to be the most cruel and humiliating death a human being could possibly undergo. You know, men in torture. Men have never fallen short of coming up with new and creative ways to hurt and to torture other men. I'm sure that most of you know the cruel science of crucifixion. while hanging there, nailed through the wrists and the feet, while helplessly hanging there, the weight of the body is pulling down on the diaphragm. And so that the air that moves into your lungs has to stay there until you lift up on those nailed feet to exhale. which meant that every exhale would have been excruciatingly painful. No doubt excruciatingly painful and completely exhausting. The nails that were in the hands actually probably went into the base of the hands at the wrists between the two bones that you have there, the ulna and the radius bones. And you see, that would have either pierced or at least impinged the median nerve that runs directly between those bones. So that means that there would have been absolutely no rest from pain while you're helplessly hanging there. It would have been extremely painful to inhale, and it would have been extremely painful to exhale. Really, what crucifixion was, it was a spectacle of inability. while helplessly hanging there. You're a picture of absolute helplessness, like a frog pinned to a biology table awaiting dissection. And this is why the taunts were coming from below. This is why the taunting cries were coming from below. You know, if you are the Christ, come down from the cross. You saved others. Can't you even save yourself? You see, it showed salute utter weakness and humiliation at the hands of the persecutors. So the words Christ crucified is seen as a contradiction of terms. It's seen as an oxymoron of sorts, an empty wheelbarrow full of bricks. I mean, how is it? that the Savior, the Savior of the world, the one sent by God, the seed of the woman, the descendant of Abraham, the prophet like Moses, the one greater than David, greater than Solomon, the anointed one, the Messiah, the King of Israel, the King of the Jews, how is it that this one could be so utterly weak and helpless that he ends up being nailed to a cross, executed like the worst of criminals by a pagan Roman regime? This is why Paul said Christ crucified was a stumbling block to the Jews. You don't begin an earthly kingdom with a dead king. It doesn't make any sense. But not only that, Paul said Christ crucified was foolishness to the Greeks. Paul is writing to the Corinthian church the city of Corinth was on an isthmus that was connected to mainland Greece. So it was a Grecian city. It was a Greek metropolis. Now, who were the men of renown to the Greeks? Who were the great men to the Greeks? Who did they esteem? Who did they hold up on a pedestal? Well, they held up their philosophers. right, the Socrates of the world, the Homers, the great orators, the statesmen, the men of wealth and renown, the men of power in the world. Who was this Jesus of Nazareth? He was basically a Jewish itinerant preacher, homeless, going around with this small ragtag group of followers, declared guilty by the Roman Empire, found worthy of execution, and crucified. Well, that's not very wise, right? Not even smart enough to preserve his own life. How foolish is that? People are supposed to follow a crucified rabbi? How foolish, the height of folly, not even worth considering philosophically. And yet Paul goes on to say the word, but. Go back to 1 Corinthians 1, if you would. 1 Corinthians 1 in verse 24. That little word, but. In 1 Corinthians 1.24, Paul says, but to those who are the call, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. See, Paul is quick to point out that there's this other group of people whom he says are the called, and this group of people sees something in Christ crucified that many other people can't see. You see, to these people, the term Christ crucified isn't nonsense. It's not foolishness. In fact, to them, it's a very demonstration of the power and the wisdom of the eternal creator God. Now, how is it that the same event, the crucifixion of Jesus, Christ crucified, how is it that the same event can be a stumbling block and foolishness to some? and yet the power and wisdom of God to others. And how is it that some 2,000 years later, nothing's changed? Nothing's changed. To some people, the cross of Christ means absolutely nothing. It's nothing more than a religious ornament. you know, religious icon, something that people wear around their neck, something that you have on the wall above your bed, something that you only see on a church steeple. Now, ironically, the Jews, to whom Paul refers to as those who stumble over the cross, ironically, these were people who were very religious. These were people who reveled in a very impressive religion. They had all the bells and whistles of religion. The Jews had the feasts and the festivals. They wore the sanctimonious garments. They had the extravagant temple surroundings. They were the good deed doers, the ones who fasted, the ones who prayed long prayers in public, the ones who claimed to be the children of Abraham. They were very religious people. And just like the Jews back in the first century, Well, we too tend to love our religion, don't we? We love being religious. Trouble is, we tend to want to have religion our way, don't we? Some of you older folks might remember many years ago, Burger King had a slogan. It was a very smart slogan, have it your way, right? This appealed to people's desire to have things the way they want them, right? What was it? Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders, don't upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way. This appealed to people. It was a great marketing slogan because we like to have things our way. Many people, even very religious people, no matter what they might say, often want to hold to a crossless religion, a religion that does not have the cross involved. I mean, it's okay if the cross will point us to some moral example. It's okay if the cross wants to teach us lessons about sacrificing for others. And it's even okay if the cross has some little part in some greater salvation formula. That's okay. But they still want to believe that God's favor can be sought and found and had through religion, through their own human efforts. People still want to believe that God's favor can be found through their religious observance. through observing certain religious codes, or through their obedience. They want to believe that God's favor can be had by their high standard of morality because they are very moral people, or by their prayers, or by their baptism. Some believe that their church attendance earns them favor with God, or their honesty, or their integrity, or their generosity, or their charity, or whatever it might be. People really desire to hold fast to something, even if it's this big, something that earns them acceptance with God in themselves, something that will earn God's favor and God's smile, while completely and totally unaccepting and stumbling over the true meaning of the cross. the true meaning of Christ crucified. It's been said, religion is man's attempt to reach God, but the cross is God reaching down to man. And just like many of the Greeks in the first century, there are, of course, many in our day who would consider the message of the cross to be nothing but foolishness, nothing but stupidity. Many in our day, of course, are very impressed by the status of celebrity. Do we not even often find ourselves tempted to be awestruck by the celebrities around us, right? Our culture is awestruck by the celebrities of sports. We have our favorite teams and we have our favorite players and we'll dress up in team colors and go to a game and shout and scream for our team. We're fans, right? We're awestruck by the celebrities of entertainment. The actors and actresses and singers and performers were all struck by the celebrities of politics. We're all struck by the British royalty. Sometimes we're even all struck by our favorite preachers and religious figures. My wife took me to see Fernando Ortega last night over in Lancaster. I admit, I wanted to meet him after the show. I really had a desire to meet this man. And it reminded me, you know, there's always that temptation to be awestruck by celebrities, by people that touch you and people that are famous. And yet, like those first century Greeks, were awestruck by celebrity. And yet, the thought of having any kind of a devotion to some guy who lived 2,000 years ago, who thought he had to die in agony on a cross for man's sin, well, that's just ridiculous. That's foolishness. The famous atheist Richard Dawkins, he actually wrote this about the cross in one of his books. How often do you hear Richard Dawkins quoted in a sermon? This is what he wrote in one of his books about the cross, quote, I have described atonement, the central doctrine of Christianity, as vicious, sadomasochistic, and repellent. We should also dismiss it as barking mad, unquote. Well, he definitely got something right in that statement, didn't he? Did you catch it? He got something right. The cross, where atonement for sin takes place, that truly is the central doctrine of Christianity. The only problem is to him, to Mr. Dawkins, and to many other people in the world, it's foolishness. It's nothing less than a cruel, vindictive God crucifying his weak, pathetic, helpless son. You see, my point is, Mr. Dawkins doesn't get it. With all of this man's Oxford learning, with all of his high education, with all of his worldly wisdom, he doesn't understand the very simple concept of Christ crucified. The cross of Christ, a stumbling block to some, foolish, barking madness to others. Jesus said in Matthew 11 and in Luke 10, I thank you, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants, to babies. And you see, when Paul talks about the called, that's exactly who he's referring to. The called are these infants, these babies to whom the gospel has been revealed. And you see, to this group of people, to the called, Paul says the cross of Christ means everything. It means absolutely everything, and it makes perfect sense. We live through one who died. We're blessed through the one who was actually made a curse. We're considered not guilty through the one who was condemned. Makes perfect sense. And yet this is really not the way the world thinks, but it is not an empty wheelbarrow full of bricks, is it? This truly is the wisdom and power of God, Christ crucified. So having said this, I feel at this point I need to ask anyone who's within the sound of my voice, do you get it? Do you get it? Do you understand Christ crucified? Does it make sense to you? This is the central message of the gospel, Christ crucified. The message of the gospel is not, and I repeat, the message of the gospel is not God rewards good people with heaven and punishes bad people in hell. That is not the message of the gospel. Now, to many people, that is the gospel. That's what they've come to know as the gospel. Although many people who would hold to this gospel often have themselves on the reward side of the equation, don't they? I mean, wouldn't it be so much easier to just say, God rewards good people, you know, like you and me, with heaven? but he punishes the bad people like Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin in hell. It'd be so much easier to say that, but it wouldn't be true. That's not the gospel. That's not the truth. How do we know that? Because the Bible is crystal clear on this, crystal clear. There are no good people. There is no one who is good. I mean, horizontally, amongst us, we can pick out good people, can't we? I mean, horizontally, as we look out on the sea of humanity, we're able to say, oh, that guy over there, he's a good guy. I love that guy. He's a good guy. Those people, they're good people. We can say that, right? But here's the question. Is that the standard? Is that the standard of judging who is good and who is not good? It's not. That's not the standard of judging. The issue is what does God say when God looks down upon this earth from heaven? What does God say as he looks upon man? What does God say and what does God see? Well, let's find out. Turn with me to Psalm 14. The 14th Psalm. Now this is a Holy Spirit-inspired Psalm of David. David writes these words as he is inspired by God's Holy Spirit. Psalm 14, verse two. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand who seek after God. All right, this is very plain language so far, right? What we have here is the creator of the universe looking down upon his creation, specifically upon man, who was created in his image. And here's the diagnosis, verse 3. They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. You say, well, that's the Old Testament. Well, let's turn to the New Testament, Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter three. Please look with me at the latter half of verse nine. The latter half of verse nine, where the Apostle Paul says, both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. Now just stop there for a moment. What does it mean to be under something? What does it mean when you are under something or someone? Well, it means that you are subservient to it. It means that it's your head. It's your master. And when Paul says Jews and Greeks, That's a reference to all people, Jews and those who are not Jews. This just means everyone. We're all under sin. And then he quotes the Old Testament in verse 10. He says, as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. There's none who understands. There's none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good, not even one. You see, it's stated in the Old Testament, and then it's reiterated in the New Testament. So make no mistakes. We are all considered by God to be under sin. Everyone. All of us have come into this world with bad records. All of us have come into this world breaking the law of God. You who are parents who have raised children. Did anybody have to teach their children how to be selfish? Did anybody have to teach their children how to disregard authority or how to tell a lie? Of course not. None of us had to teach our children these things because they all came naturally. Because we all come into this world with sin clinging to us, right? All of us have participated in anti-God activity. That's what sin is. That's the breaking of God's law. It's a natural rebellion to God that we're all born with. We all come into the world with a natural rebellion toward God. God's law says you shall not bear false witness, right? You've told lies, and so have I. God's law says you shall not steal. You've stolen. God's law says you shall not commit murder. You say, oh, I've got you there. I got you on that one. I've never murdered anyone. But you see, Jesus said in Matthew 5.22, he said that anger, Hatred, simply cursing another human being at the level of your heart. Leaves you with having a guilty murderous heart. Now these are Jesus words. These are not my words. And this you have done. And so about. The Lord Jesus took the law of God. He took God's 10 commandments and he summed him up in this way. This is what he said. He said the law is fulfilled. When you love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And when you love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. Now, you know what this means, right? This means that every waking moment of your life. With every fiber of your being, you have devoted yourself to the love, service, and worship of God, while at the same time, you have loved and cared for every single person you've ever come in contact with with the same love, care, and nurture that you have for yourself. None of us have done this. You have not done this, and I have not done this. And that's because by God's standard of righteousness, By God's standard of righteousness, which is his holy law, none of us are good. None of us. We're sinners. And this is precisely why Christ crucified is the central message and truth about salvation. And this is why you and I need Christ crucified. So what is it that's actually taking place at the crucifixion of Jesus? What's going on there? What's happening there? Well, many things are happening there. And my friend, the importance of understanding this cannot be stressed enough. It simply can't be stressed enough. So I want to make it very, very simple. At the cross, Our inability to keep God's law is being dealt with. That's very simple, right? When Paul said both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, he meant that all are under the power of sin, the penalty of sin, and the guilt of sin. Our lawbreaking, our anti-God activity, our anti-God hearts not only have us condemned, but we're also prisoners. We are actually, literally, spiritual death row prisoners. We're not free. Oh, we like to think we're free, but we're not free. We're not free to love God, and we're not free to love others as he commands us to love others because sin owns us. We come into this world under the headship of sin, and Christ crucified is the only thing that can give us both pardon and freedom from the power and the penalty and the guilt of sin. Now this is not an overstatement. The cross is the, it's the apex, the cross is the pinnacle of hope for man in human history. No other day in the world, no other day in world history matches this day. Because what was happening at the crucifixion of Jesus was God, the eternal God, was pouring His anger for sin, pouring His wrath out upon His Son in order to settle a huge account of sin. But it wasn't His sin. Because Jesus had no sin. It was the account of God's people from every generation from the creation of the world. You see, it was on the account of the people who lived before the cross, who looked ahead by faith to the redemption that God would provide. And it's for we who live today who look back upon Christ crucified in faith. Christ crucified was a monumental event. Monumental. And it was planned in eternity past by the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and carried out in a matter of hours. One incredible momentous event. Well, here's what took place at the cross. First of all, death. A very real death occurred, but it was a sacrificial death. The sinless Son of God, came into this world for the purpose of dying. That was his mission. He came into this world in order to die willingly and purposefully. Listen to what John MacArthur said. Quote, here's a side to the Christmas story that isn't often told. Those soft little hands fashioned by the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb were made so that nails might be driven through them. Those baby feet, pink and unable to walk, would one day stagger up a dusty hill to be nailed to a cross. That sweet infant's head, with sparkling eyes and eager mouth, was framed, formed, so that someday men might force a crown of thorns onto it. That tender body, warm and soft, wrapped in swaddling clothes, would one day be ripped open by a spear." Jesus came to die. The Son of God came into this world in order to live a sinless life of obedience to God's law. He did love his Father with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and he loved every single person he came in contact with with the same love, care, and nurture that he had for himself. And then he took that perfect, sinless life, and he laid it down as a sacrifice. God in human flesh came and died. But that death, that very real death that occurred, it was followed by a very real resurrection from the dead. And you see, that broke the power of death. Sin is what brought death into this world. And Jesus had no sin, therefore death had no power over Him. Death couldn't keep Him dead. And that resurrection was God's seal of approval, saying, sacrifice accepted. absolute perfect sacrifice I Accepted that was that was God's seal of approval the resurrection Death could not hold him Now we face death don't we? Every single one of us are facing an imminent death Romans 623 tells us that the wages of sin is death and See, the Bible says that the payment that you receive for your sin, the wage that you actually earn for your sin, is death. Because sin ushered death into this world. But it's a three-fold death. Your sin, my sin, has earned us a three-fold death. Physical death, spiritual death, and eternal death, also known as the second death, the lake of fire, hell. That's the wage for our sin. Your sin has earned you death. My sin has earned me death. The wages of sin is death. But that verse goes on to say this, but the free gift of God, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ, in Jesus Christ. You see, sin is going to cost you something. It's really gonna cost you everything. But eternal life in Christ is a free gift, free gift of God. You can't earn it. You can't buy it. All you need to do is accept it as a free gift. Peter says that Jesus died for sins, that just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God. Without the substitution of Jesus Christ, without Christ crucified, We have to face God and judgment with our sins clinging to us. But because of the substitution of Jesus Christ, we can partake of something wonderful, because this is something else that took place at the cross, a great exchange. You see, there was an incredible monumental exchange that took place. 2 Corinthians 5, 21, he, God, made him Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Because Jesus is willing to take on the penalty for our sin, we are freely given his perfect record of righteousness put to our account in the courtroom of heaven. Did you get that? Jesus takes the wages for our sin, what we have earned for our sin, for our disobedience to God, he takes that upon himself. And in return, in exchange, we get his perfect record of righteousness put to our account in the courtroom of heaven. Now, let me ask, does that sound fair? I've heard people say it's not fair that God should send people to hell. But does it seem fair to you that Jesus would suffer for our sins upon the cross and we get his righteousness? It's really not fair. What it is is it's grace. It's grace. The message of the gospel, the gracious message of the gospel of God is grace. Christ crucified. And here's the message of the gospel. if you are willing to turn from your sin, to turn away from your sin and turn to Christ. That's repentance. That's what repentance is. Repentance is not the same as what people think of as penance. Repentance means to turn. And if you will turn from your disobedience to God, if you'll turn from your sin and turn to God in faith, embracing his son, embracing the perfect righteousness and sacrificial death of his son, you too will be a partaker of this great grace. It's a very simple gospel. It's an amazing gospel. The cross will purchase you freedom. Freedom that you have never known in this life. Freedom from sin's power. You see, sin will no longer be master over you. Jesus will be master over you. So it will purchase you from sin's power. It will purchase you from sin's penalty, because you'll have eternal life instead of eternal death. And it will purchase for you freedom from sin's guilt. No guilt, because you will have a substitute. You'll have someone who took that guilt upon himself, someone who is willing to take your place, so you can be guilt-free. All you need, my friend, is Christ crucified. You need nothing more and nothing less. Christ crucified means the work's been done. It's all been done. So that means you can't improve upon it. You can't add to it. You can't take from it. You can't make it any better. What you need to do is simply believe. Just wrap your arms around this crucified Savior and believe. That is the message of the gospel. Now, after hearing this, how could you put your trust in anything else? Right, I mean, how could you go on trusting in yourself to save you? Your deeds, your charity, your generosity, your baptism, your church attendance. How could you go on simply trusting in religion to save you? Religion does not save, Christ himself saves. How could you go on trusting in anything but in Jesus Christ and in Christ alone? Dear Christian, I hope you see afresh what you've been given this morning. I hope this just rekindles that fire in your heart as you just think on this and you understand, you love, you embrace Christ crucified, right? I mean, you look at Christ as the way and the truth and the life. You understand this. Tell me if I'm wrong. I mean, if I'm wrong in this statement, feel free to put your hand up, all right? But the worst possible thing that you could ever imagine happening to you, the worst case scenario, would be to be separated from Jesus Christ. Am I wrong? Can you think of anything worse than being separated from Christ? Your worst nightmare is not cancer. Your worst nightmare is not dying. It's not death. Your worst nightmare is not financial ruin. It's not losing your 401k. Your worst nightmare is not America becoming a communist country. Your worst nightmare, the very worst thing that you can imagine happening to you would be to be a severed branch from that life-giving vine that is Jesus, right? You know, people, Especially today, people are fearful of so many things. COVID has ushered like a new era into our culture. People are afraid, people are fearful of so many things. And there's so many people around us that cannot understand and cannot love and will not embrace Christ crucified. Every day we traffic in a world of people, family, friends, co-workers, and total strangers, who would view Christ crucified as a stumbling block that doesn't fit their get-to-God-on-my-own-terms philosophy. Either that, or they would just simply view Christ crucified as foolishness, just ridiculous religious mythology. And they refuse to look to Christ. They refuse. And yet how you view Christ crucified, Paul says, is the very difference between those who are perishing and those who are being saved. You might be sitting next to someone right now who is perishing. You might be sitting next to someone who refuses to embrace Christ crucified. Christian, bless God for what you've been given. You are not smarter. You are not holier. You are not better. God gave you a free gift. What a gift to actually love and understand and trust, really trust in Christ crucified. It's all of your hope for this life and for the next. in Christ crucified? If not, if you're within the sound of my voice and you know that you have not yet been saved, if Christ crucified doesn't mean absolutely everything to you, everything, and if you are not yet joined savingly to Christ crucified, I'm here with good news. Jesus has a disposition towards you. And even though some might think it's this kind of a disposition, it's not. This, this is his disposition towards you. Jesus says, come to me. His arms are open. He says, come, all who are weary and heavy laden. Do you feel a burden? Do you feel the burden of sin? Do you feel the burden of hopelessness? Do you feel the burden of just going through the motions of religion and getting nowhere, just spinning your wheels on religion? Jesus says, just come to me. Just come. He says, I'll give you rest. And the kind of rest he's talking about is not an earthly rest. I mean, it's a rest that begins now in this life, but it's a rest that goes on into eternity. That's the rest that Jesus promises. And all you need to do is run to him. Turn from sin, run to Jesus. You say, how can I run to someone who I can't see? Well, you can because he knows your heart. He knows. He knows whether you're willing to actually trade in your sin for his salvation. And if you feel that, well, I don't have the faith to do this, I don't have the faith that I see in other people, I don't have the faith to go to Jesus Christ, then ask him for it. Because this is his disposition towards you. Come, come on. Just ask him, Lord Jesus, I don't have the kind of faith that I want to really embrace you. I don't have the faith to trust you. Just ask him. Just go to him. Say, give me the faith that I need to embrace you and so that I can trust in that sacrificial substitutionary death for me so that you can bring me to God. God's promise. written in scripture is sure. He says, whoever looks to Christ by faith will not perish, but have eternal life. And this is not an empty wheelbarrow full of bricks. This means that you, this very day, you can be made a new creature in Christ. You can live through Christ crucified. Oh, may God use his word and his gospel to both save and sanctify. Let's pray. Lord God, it is your word. It's not the word of men. We only take the things of your word and seek to explain them as simply as we can. It's your word and it's your saving. We pray, Holy Spirit of God, that you would come and that you would accomplish many good things through your word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. We pray that you would use it to both save and sanctify even this day. And we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.