I want to spend a few moments of our time this morning. I'm not going to keep this long, at least I'm not planning to. Mark chapter 15, there was an old preacher, and I don't know, I don't remember his name, but he says, if you ever want to know whether you're backslid or not, or whether you're getting cold on God, when you read the account of the crucifixion, if it no longer moves you to tears as you read through that account, you can rest assured you're cold on God. And so anytime that we read about the crucifixion accounts, it should move us to an emotional state where Christ paid it all for us. God, He loved this world so much that He sent His Son. God does not want any person to perish. and I've been searching for the good out of some of these situations of loss this week, and I believe I found one. I was able to sit on a couch of a home this week while there was a loved one, a church member, passing away in the other room, and this man wanted to know about Jesus. He was lost and he told me he was lost. I want you to pray for him. His name is Melvin. I don't remember his last name, but his first name was Melvin. I talked with him for about an hour, hour and a half, and he had some good questions about Christ. He was a lot like Nicodemus when he come to the Lord there. He had some questions. And of course, I explained to him that he was going to have some trouble with the answers because he must be born again first. but I did point him to the cross. And I thank the Lord above that I was able to take that time and that opportunity to share the gospel with that man. While one was going into eternity, another, the Lord was using that situation for the good to bring another one into the fold. And I pray and I want your prayer to be for that man to get saved. Mark chapter 15, verse 1, he says, And straightway in the morning the chief priests, they held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and they bound Jesus and carried him away and delivered him to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, Art thou the king of the Jews? And he answering, said unto him, Thou sayest it. And the chief priest accused him of many things, but he answered nothing. And Pilate asked him again, saying, Now answerest thou nothing? Behold, how many things they witness against thee? But Jesus yet answered nothing. So that Pilate marveled. Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. And the multitude, crying aloud, began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them. But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews? Or he knew that the chief priest had delivered him for envy. I want you to kind of mark that word, envy, there. The chief priest, the religious crowd, the pious crowd, they offered Jesus up for envy. But the chief priest moved the people that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify him! And then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him! And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away into the hall. He called praetorium, and they called together the whole band. And they clothed him with purple, and plaited a crown of thorns, and put it upon about his head, and began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews. And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him. And when they had mocked him, They took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him. And they compel one Simon of Cyrene, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. And they bring him unto the place Galgotha, which is being interpreted the place of a skull. And they gave him to drink wine, mingled with myrrh, But he received it not. And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them. Now here's my phrase I want to preach from. What every man should take. And it was the third hour and they crucified him. Let us pray. And then I want us to ponder that phrase. What every man should take. from the cross. Our gracious Father, we come, we thank you now. Lord, we love you. Oh Lord, help us today. Lord, let the message speak to somebody's heart, maybe somebody that's lost. Help them to see their need, that they need you as their Savior. You are the only way to heaven. The only way to the Father is through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Be with those that are going through a time of loss and grief. Be with those that are sick and down. We ask that you raise them back up and heal them in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. As I begin to ponder this phrase, it has haunted me for years. I've even preached on it before. But it is a gospel message and it is a way to get people to see that a cross is a memorial, that time changed at the cross. One of the central themes of the Bible is the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him being the sacrifice for the sins of the world. You can't get around it. I believe that every man gets a chance when faced with the gospel, and I believe that every man walks away from having been presented with a gospel message, they're gonna take something from it. They might not take what they should, they might not take what they ought to, but they take something from the cross. Every person takes something from the cross. By way of introduction, I want to explain to you what God wants you to take from the cross. When the gospel is preached, and that is that Jesus came, was born of a virgin, He lived a perfect life, a sinless life. He never done any wrong. He was busied about God's business and ministry. He healed the lame, raised the dead, fed the 5,000, fed the 4,000. And according to John's gospel, if they took the time to write every little thing down that Jesus did in his three and a half years of ministry, he said the world itself could not contain that book. He busied himself much about the Father's business. And what God wants us to take from the cross is that Jesus is the Son of God. That's what Jesus was telling Nicodemus. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The Bible is very clear that God does not want any man to perish. He does not want any person to die and go to a devil's hell. Do you understand this morning that hell was prepared for the devil and his angels? God never intended for mankind to spend eternity in hell. You say, well, why does man go there? Because man rejects Jesus Christ as God's sacrifice and propitiation for mankind's sin. When man will not admit that he is a sinner, when man will not admit that he needs God before he can go to heaven, he chooses to side with the side of rebellion, he chooses to pick the devil as his God, and because Satan is going to the devil's hell, that's where his children go. But it is not God's wish and it was not in the thought of God that man should ever go to that place called hell. So God, what He wants us to take from the cross is that Jesus is God's Son. And that Jesus was sent by God. And that Jesus is God manifested in the flesh. Emmanuel, God with us. The mighty God. The Prince of Peace. God cares about sinful man. God cares about man's future. And that there is life after death. God also wants us to understand that Jesus is the Savior of the world. There is no other way to heaven. There is no other way to God. I don't care what the Muslims say. I don't care what Buddhists say. I don't care what religion says. Religion says, well, we know Jesus, we acknowledge Jesus, but we think you've got to be baptized to be saved. That is hogwash. That is not in the Bible. That's something that somebody has made up. You will not find that in the Bible. You find baptism, but not before salvation. Idol worship. People want to bypass Jesus. They'll recognize that he was a teacher. They'll recognize that he was a good man. But when you put the rubber on the road that Jesus is God manifested in the flesh, all of a sudden it separates the sheep from the goats. There's no other way to heaven, and there's no other way to God, but through Jesus Christ our Lord, and through the blood of the cross. That's why Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. Not only did He make that claim, He died, laid His life down, but He rose again proving That He is who He says He is. And I used is because He's still alive today and He's seated on the right hand of the Father. Having made the sacrifice and paid the price for our sins and for my sins and for your sins and the sins of the whole world. Even paid for the sins of the people that will reject Him and refuse what He has done for them. Jesus even died for the false prophets that run around today. They want to take the emphasis off of God. They want you to think that you can go another way but through Christ. And God even died for them. But they'll die and go to hell because they will reject the one way. But God wants us to take from the cross that Jesus is the Savior of the world, that Jesus paid the sin debt of the world, and that mankind needs saving. We are sinners. And also, God wants us to take from the cross that Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith. Now that's important. Author means the beginning. And finisher means the ending. Notice he didn't say baptism was the author of it. He said Jesus is the author of it. He didn't say church membership is the author of it. He said Jesus is the author of our salvation. It starts with Jesus and it'll end with Jesus. The Bible says this in Hebrews, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Jesus counted it joy to die on the cross. I spent some time thinking about this this week. And sometimes we say, well, why is God let those wicked people get away with so much? I'll tell you why. Hell is just that bad. And God is long suffering in good. He doesn't want anybody to go there. And I think sometimes. We're more cold hearted. We're like, well, we think we just they just need to drop off into hell. I'm going to tell you, it's because we don't understand how bad hell is. But God does. We need Jesus. God wants us to take from the cross that we can have peace with God. In Colossians he says, "...and have He made peace through the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself by Him. I say, whether they be things on earth or things in heaven, but I submit unto you this morning, Not everybody takes what they should from the cross. Now, I told you what God wants us to take from the cross. And I believe everybody in here this morning has probably taken salvation from the cross. But not everybody takes that. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1, it says, For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. This lost world thinks preaching about Jesus and the cross is a foolish thing. He said, but unto us which are saved is the power of God. Amen. That's where the power's at. Philippians 3.18 says, for many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross. Not everybody takes what God wants them to take from the cross. Think with me now. Judas, remember Judas? He betrayed God. You know what Judas took from the cross? Betrayal. Judas took betrayal from the cross. Pilate, Pilate is in this story. Pilate took guilt from the cross. Pilate said no less than three times that Jesus was innocent and he could find no fault in him. Pilate took guilt from the cross. The Pharisees, I pointed out to you, they took envy and mocking and disbelief from the cross. Boy, it's terrible, ain't it? The thief. There was two thieves. One on either side of Christ. The story goes both of them started mocking Jesus and railing, but that one thief repented. I'm going to end the sermon with him and what he took from the cross. The one thief took railing. How about the centurion? I didn't read this whole chapter, but the centurion took acknowledgement. He said, surely this is the son of God. He took acknowledgement. I believe a lot of people are right there. They take acknowledgement. Yes, I believe in Jesus. Yes, I believe that Jesus is God. Yes, I believe he died on the cross, but that's all they take. because they're not willing to repent and to give their life to the Lord Jesus Christ. But they take acknowledgement from the cross like this centurion did. The devils, I got news for you, take acknowledgement from the cross, but yet they're devils still. The devils believe and tremble, but yet they're devils still. The devil, Satan himself, is the best theologian of us all, but yet a devil still. But he'll take acknowledgement from the cross. The soldiers took materialism from the cross. They begin to cast lots for his garments. So they only was interested in the gospel for what was in it for them? Materialism. The old other soldiers wanted to have a good time in mocking Jesus. We read that where they mocked him and they falsely bowed down to him. They did obeisance to him. They were doing it to mocking. Not everybody that bends the knee is a true worshiper. Some people do it to mock. Yeah, I don't know if you've ever been in a church service, but there's been, I've been in a few where there's been people there and they were actually mocking. They were actually mocking what others doing. They weren't talking out loud, but they were mocking. Somebody be trying to praise the Lord. Somebody be at the altar and they'd be back there mocking people. They take mocking from the cross. But there was a few people that day that took the right thing from the cross. If we was to read in the book of John and the book of Luke and Matthew, there's a few more people around the cross. you would find Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. They took service from the cross. It was Joseph of Arimathea that come in and begged the body of Jesus. And him and Nicodemus took him and wrapped him and laid him in a grave where no man had ever laid before. They took service from the cross. Mary, the mother of Jesus, she was there. She took comfort from the cross because Jesus on the cross, while he was dying for your sins and my sins, while he had been beat to a pulp, was concerned about his mother and he looked at the Apostle John and said, behold thy mother. Well, it wasn't his physical mother. Jesus was taking care of his mother and told the Apostle John, you take care of her. She's your mother now. What a wonderful savior. What about dying on the cross for the sins of the world? And he's concerned for his mother. And he says, John, behold thy mother. Mary took comfort from the cross. The apostle John, he took responsibility from the cross. Mary Magdalene, the one that Jesus had cast seven devils out, she took faithfulness from the cross. The other thief, remember the one that said, Lord, remember me? Let's go read it, Luke. Let's go read Luke chapter 23 real quick and then I'll close. Luke 23, about verse 40. this thief now I believe this to be important because one of the problems I've seen in Christianity these last few years is lost people they look at Christianity what's going on and they're thinking I can't reach that level there's nothing I just not ever going to get there and I want to show you a man who deserved to die the way he died because he was a thief. So he was a sinner. He's a sinner like you or me. But the Lord thought enough to even save this man while he was on the cross paying the sin debt of the world. And I believe what it says is that God doesn't care about your past, how much sin you've sinned, how deep you've went, how much fire you've been into of sin. If you want to trust Jesus, God will save you and he doesn't hold it against you. It's whosoever will may come. I believe that we need to get back to that and we need to let people understand, because they come from different walks of life, that Jesus wants to save everybody. You don't have to wear a three-piece suit, be living in a perfect home and do everything right before you can be a candidate for salvation. God saves the uttermost to the guttermost. He'll reach down where sin has abounded. I don't care how far down you go. Grace did much more abound. He can reach down there and get you. You say, well, I just can't live perfect after I get saved. God never expected you to. Church should be viewed like a hospital. It's for sick people. Churches for sinners. Churches for people that don't have it figured out. Churches for people that need help. Churches for people that have struggles and trials, and they fail, and they fail, and they fail, but there's something in them that says, I must get up and go again. You say, what is that? That's grace. That's God. And this thief, after he had been railing on Jesus, He'd come under conviction, and look with me in verse 40. But the other answering, he rebuked him, he rebuked his buddy now, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, he's acknowledging his sin, and he deserves to die. Before you can get saved, you're gonna have to understand you're a sinner and you deserve to die and go to hell. All of us have to face that. Even your preacher, as a six-year-old boy, I had to understand that I deserve hell. And even today, that's where I deserve to go, to hell. But God loves me and God loves you and God loves everybody that is listening to my voice this morning. I don't care where you've been, what you've been through. God loves you and he wants to save you. And there ain't no sin too big for God to forgive you from. He said, We indeed justly for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done nothing amiss and watch what he does. And he said unto Jesus, he looks to Jesus and confesses. It says, Lord, that's a title. That's a title. That means one possessing supreme power and authority. Well, man, he was looking with Jesus with more than just the natural eyes, because there's Jesus dying on a cross. He knew that Jesus was dying there. He had done nothing wrong, but he had a purpose in his death. And it was sure coming clear. God allowed the light of the glorious gospel to shine to him. And he says, Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Say, what was he doing? Number one, he says, I'm a sinner. Two, I deserve hell. He said, I deserve this. He understood that Jesus was innocent. He said he didn't do nothing wrong. And then he acknowledged that Jesus is Lord and that he needed Jesus. You know what he took from the cross? Paradise. He took heaven. There's a lost, undone sinner. You know something else? You know what that middle cross was for? It was for Barabbas. That murderer. That man who was guilty of insurrection and murder and God took his place on the cross. I got news for you. We don't understand the depth and the level of God's love. We do not understand it. There is nothing in me that would have willingly laid my life down for Barabbas that day. There is nothing in me that would have done that. There is nothing in me that would have looked at that other thief and says, you know what, today you'll be with me in paradise. There is nothing in me that would have done that. There is our Savior dying on the cross, paying the sin debt of the world. God turns His back on Him and there He is saving people, reaching out, taking their place, doing what God had told Him to do. God wants you to take Jesus from the cross. He wants you to take salvation. He wants you to take paradise. Don't be like Pilate. and take guilt. Don't be like the centurion and take acknowledgement like, yeah, whatever. Surely, yeah, he was God. Don't be Judas and take betrayal. Be like this thief. Admit you're a sinner. God come for you and he come for me. He come for sinners. We don't deserve it, folks. I don't deserve it. You don't deserve it, but God thought enough. And I want to help you put it in perspective. If you would have been the only person on this planet, Jesus would have still come and died for you. That's how good our Savior is. It's how good our God is. We don't love him enough. We don't appreciate it enough. But I'm going to tell you, we serve a good God. We serve a gracious God, a long-suffering God. And I got news for you. We just don't understand how bad hell really is, but God does. I want us to continue to go forward, to be engaged with the gospel, because time is short. And I want people to take paradise from the cross. But my question is, what will you take from the cross? Will you take paradise Or will you take betrayal? Will you take mocking? Will you take just acknowledgment? But everybody, listen to the sound of my voice. Every person that hears the gospel message, whether I'm preaching or any other gospel preacher preaches it, will take something from the cross. God wants you to take salvation from the cross. He wants you to take service from the cross. He wants you to take faithfulness from the cross. He wants you to take the ministry of reconciliation from the cross, because hell is just that bad. It doesn't matter how bad of a sinner you are, how you've been living. What matters is what you do with Jesus. Acknowledging that Jesus is Lord. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, there's the important, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." God wants us to take salvation from the cross. Let's stand this morning.