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In chapter number 27, the Bible reads in Matthew 27, When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death. And when they had bound Him, they led Him away, and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor. Then Judas, which had betrayed Him when he saw that He was condemned, repented Himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, and that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? Seed out of that. And He cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged Himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for us to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in. Wherefore the field was called the field of blood until this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did brow you, and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me. And Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered, Nothing. Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him, To never a word, insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly. Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would, and they had then a notable prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife said unto him, Saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to it. Then answered all the people and said, His blood be on us and on our children. Then released he Barabbas unto them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers, and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe. We're going to read the rest in the sermon, but let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity to be here tonight, dear God. And it's good to be in your house with your people, and I just pray that you would please just bless the service now, and bless the sermon that I'm about to preach. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now, of course, this is a well-known story. It's the story about Jesus Christ being led away to be crucified. He just stood before the governor, and basically he's being examined by the Roman governor. And the governor's asked him all kinds of questions, and he's just not answering them. He's saying, Are you the king of the Jews? Tell me. And finally he just said, Well, thou sayest. You said it. And then finally the governor sends him back to King Herod. And King Herod and his men, and King Herod, of course, was the king of Israel, but he was really just a puppet king. He didn't really have any power. He was just put there by the Romans just to kind of make their people feel good, like they had a leader and that they had a king over them. And so he's standing before Herod, and Herod asked him all kinds of questions. Jesus doesn't answer the questions. He didn't even answer them one word. So they begin to get angry, and Herod brings in his soldiers, and they begin to mock Jesus. And they basically stripped him of his clothes, put on him a purple robe, and they shoved a crown of thorns under his head, and put a wreath in his hand. They begin to bow down to him and mock him and make fun of him, saying, Oh, hail, king of the Jews, and pretend and worship him. Then, of course, they spit in his face. They slap him in the face with the palms of their hands. They take the wreath out of his hand, hit him in the head with it. Send him back to the governor, Pontius Pilate, and let's pick up the story here. Basically, well, Pilate basically stands before the people and says, Well, you know, the law says I can release to you one prisoner per year, sort of like a presidential pardon that this governor could give. He says, Whom will you that I release unto you? Should I release Barabbas or Jesus? And really, Pilate wanted to release Jesus because he kept saying, I find no fault in it. He couldn't find what Jesus had done wrong. And so he's saying, Should I release Jesus? And they say, No, give us Barabbas. And he says, Okay, what should I do with Jesus then? And they, of course, are screaming, Crucify him! Crucify him! And he keeps trying to argue with them and tell them he hasn't done anything wrong and so forth. But they finally persuade him to crucify him. Now, let's pick up the story here. It says in verse 26, Then released he Barabbas unto them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Now, it's easy to just read over that quickly. But if we understand what happened here, according to the Bible, when they would scourge someone, when they would beat someone, they would basically beat them 39 times. And the reason why they did that is because it was against the law to beat somebody more than 40 times. And so they would do it 39 just to be sure that they didn't break the law, because if someone went above that, then they would be punished. And so they beat him, and the Bible talks about how Jesus, by his stripes, we are healed, the Bible says. Now, the stripes were stripes of blood, basically from being beaten with a whip. And each time the last of the whip hit Jesus' back, it basically caused him to draw blood and create a stripe of blood. And when it says by his stripes we're healed, basically what it's saying is that it's the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin. That's what those stripes were. And so he's beaten here, 39 times he's beaten with this whip. Look what it says in verse number 28, They stripped him, put on him a scarlet robe. When they plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his hand. Right here, this is what we were just talking about. They bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. So basically, you know, he's been beaten and bleeding. He's got one piece of clothing put on him. Then that clothing is ripped off and another put on, just reopening these wounds. So he's beaten very badly on his back, and then it says in verse 32, And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his cross. Probably because Jesus was not even able physically to bear that cross, just because of the beating that he had just endured. And so they have to have this other man do it. It says, And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say a place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall, and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. It was a very bitter, disgusting drink that they gave. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down, they watched him there, and set up over his head his accusation. This is Jesus, the king of the Jews, then, or that there are two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself, if thou be the son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God, let him deliver him now, he will have him, for he said, I am the son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land, under the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama, sabachthani? That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there when they heard that said, this man calleth for Elias. Now these people spoke in different languages, they didn't speak Hebrew as their normal native language. And so when they heard him saying Eli, which means my God, as it's translated right there for us in the Bible, they thought he's saying Elijah, which was called Elias. And they think he's calling out for Elijah. And they said that they ran and got vinegar in a sponge, it says in verse 48, and put it on a reed and gave him to drink. The rest said, let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost, and behold, the veil of the temple was rent and twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake and the rocks rent. Now look, this is the part that I want to preach about, written in verse number 51, where it says, and behold, the veil of the temple was rent and twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake and the rocks rent. Flip over, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 10, toward the end of the New Testament. Hebrews chapter number 10. Hebrews chapter number 10. Hebrews chapter number 10. And we're going to begin reading in verse number 16. Actually, let's look at verse 17, it says, And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. And having the high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful, that promise. Look, this is what salvation is. Salvation is through the blood of Jesus Christ. It's through the broken body of Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus Christ, when he sat at the Last Supper, before he was going to endure this pain, before he was going to be beaten and spat upon and mocked, and really tortured in every way that a human being would be tortured. I mean, he's tortured physically, he's tortured psychologically, he's mocked, he's spat on, he's hated, really by a whole nation. The nation where he said he came unto his own and his own received him not. The nation of the Jews should have been the first to receive him. They had the Old Testament Scriptures, they should have known he was coming, they should have expected him as their Messiah, but he came unto his own, his own received him not, and those very people that should have loved him, those people that were his nation, hated him and screamed out at the top of their arms, crucify, crucify! He's beaten, he's spat upon, he's mocked, he's ridiculed, he's physically tormented, and the Bible says that when he died on the cross, the veil in the temple was ringed. Now, a lot of people wondered what that meant, but this is what it was. There was a temple in the Old Testament, before that was the tabernacle, but you remember there was the holy place and the most holy place, and there was basically a veil or a curtain that separated the most holy place from the rest of the tabernacle. And that veil was a picture, it was basically a symbol of the fact that man did not have a way in that time, you know, basically to go into the holiest of all, it was basically a symbol of the rift and the separation between God and man. You know, of course, it's said in the book of Isaiah how, you know, your sins are separated between you and God. You know, there's a rift that is there, a chasm between the holiness of God and the unrighteousness of man. And that's why if man were going to go through that veil in the Old Testament, you remember they had to go through a process, they'd have to go through all this cleansing, it was only a certain guy that could do it, the high priest, and they had to do all these offerings and go through all this ritual, just so that one guy could go in there once a year and make an atonement and so forth. It was all symbolic, it was just a figure for the time and present. But it was a picture of the fact that there's a wall and a rift and a separation between God's holiness, God's righteousness, and man's uncleanness. Because let's face it, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You know, so many people today, they might think that they're righteous and that they're good and that they're godly and holy, but really, none of us is righteous. The Bible says there's none righteous, no, not one. I'm not righteous, you're not righteous. Jesus Christ himself said, there is none that doeth good, but one, and that's God. None of us is righteous, none of us is perfect. And there's a huge separation between what God considers right and what man considers right. I mean, there's a big difference between what I might accept or you might accept and what God accepts. You know, we are permissive because we are sinful ourselves and so we can look at other people and say, oh yeah, it's no big deal. But you know, God is so holy, God is so righteous, that to him, you know, sin looks a lot uglier and worse than it does to us. And that separation was pictured by this veil. And when Jesus Christ was beaten and died on the cross, and remember the hours of darkness that came, where he said, my God, my God, why has God forsaken me? When literally God the Father even had to turn his back upon his own son on the cross, Jesus Christ. Some kind of separation occurred there that we can't even understand, where basically Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we should be made the righteousness of God in him. And so Jesus Christ is hanging on that cross, upon him he bore the sins of the entire world. Every sin I've ever done, every sin you've ever done, it was as if Jesus had done it. And he's being punished on the cross for our sins. His body literally broken, bleeding, dying, destroyed. I mean, his flesh was destroyed. And then his soul went down into hell, according to Acts 2 31, Psalm 16, Jonah chapter 2, many other places. His soul went down to hell for three days and three nights to suffer the wrath of God and the punishment of our sin. I mean, to take the punishment that any of us deserve for all the thousands and thousands of sins that we've committed in our life, he took that punishment and rose again three days later. But the Bible says here in Hebrews 10, where I have you reading, look at verse number 17, he said, There's sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Go back up to chapter 9, if you would, and look at verse number 22. It says, And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves have better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the truth, but in the heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us, nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear, the second time without sin unto salvation. Look down at chapter 10, verse number 19, he says, Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. Now look, the bottom line is this, no one is going to heaven, no one's going to enter that holy place except through the blood of Jesus. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Let me tell you something, salvation is through the blood of Jesus Christ, and the blood of Jesus Christ alone. The Bible says in him we have redemption, through his blood the forgiveness of sins. You see, the problem with all the other religions that are out there that claim to be Christianity, that call themselves Christianity, and even many other religions that may not call themselves Christianity, but they'll say, oh Jesus Christ was a prophet like Judaism, or Jesus Christ was a good prophet like Islam, is that they do not believe that salvation is through the blood of Jesus Christ alone. They're trying to go their own way. They're trying to get there by their own good works, and the Bible says there's only one way into that holy place, and that is through the blood of Jesus Christ. Let me give you an example. It would be out of the soul way, knock on the door of a Muslim. You know, we knocked on the door of a Muslim today. But you'll knock on the door of a Muslim, and you'll ask them, you know, would you like to know how you can go to heaven? I'll show you from the Bible how you can know for sure you can go to heaven. You know what they'll tell you? They'll say, oh we're going to heaven. I'll say, well how do you know you're going to heaven? And they'll say, well we keep the commandments. You know, and they'll say, if we keep all the commandments, we're going to heaven. If we sin and do wrong, then we're going to hell. I say to them, I say, do you keep all the commandments perfectly? None of them can tell me that they keep all their Islamic commandments perfectly. I say to them, you know, have you ever lied? Oh yeah. You know, have you ever done this, have you ever done that? Oh yeah, oh yeah. And I say, well, I thought you just told me that if you commit these sins, you know, you're going to go to hell. And they say, well I just have to be sorry, and I promise I'm never going to do it again. And then I'll go to heaven. I said, if you promise you're never going to do it again, you're a liar. And I explain to them, I say, look, and I show them what the Bible says, how to be safe through Jesus Christ. And I say to them this, I say, you know what? According to this book, the Bible, and according to yourself, you're both going to hell. Even according to Islam, you're going to hell. Because Islam has no savior. They have no savior, they just have a religion that just says, you know, follow these rules, and hopefully if you're good enough, and don't sin, and follow all these rules, you know, you might make it in if you're good enough. But the problem is, nobody's good enough. They have no savior. Same thing with Judaism. You know, they claim to believe parts of the Bible. They claim to believe in the God of the Bible. And yet they have no savior. Again, it's just a religion of works. But today, many forms of Christianity are the same thing. It's just a religion of works. It's just a religion of getting there yourself. It's just a religion of following the commandments, and if you're good enough, you might make it. I got used to it, you're not good enough. I'm not good enough. None of us is good enough to be saved. And really, it's this simple. It's either through Jesus, it's either through His flesh, it's either through His broken body, and the blood that's spilled out of His body, it's either through His sacrifice, His debt, His burial, or His resurrection, or you're not going. And today, even Baptists will always try to add works to this. And they try to disguise it, and they bring it in in so many different ways. They're trying to go in a different way. You know, the biggest example that we talk about all the time is they say, well, you have to repent of your sins to be saved. I mean, this is something that's really become prevalent. And when I was a child, I'd never even heard of this. I'd never really understood it this way. But now, even churches that are claiming to be a Bible-believing Baptist church, that claim to be preaching the Bible and believing it by faith alone, they'll say, oh, you have to repent of your sins to be saved. You have to be willing to turn from sin. When in reality, all that is is just you trying to earn your own way to Heaven in a different way. By giving up some sin, or turning away from a certain sin. The other big thing, of course, is that you can lose your salvation. You know, they'll say, well, it's free, salvation's free, and salvation's a gift, and it's all through Jesus. But, you know, you have to do this. You have to follow this, and you have to go to church, and you have to get baptized. You know, or else if you don't, you'll lose it. You know, you have to do these things to stay saved. So either you have to do something to get saved, or you have to not do something to get saved, or you have to do something to stay saved, other than just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Okay, but what's the application for us Christians here when we read this story? And I think it's good that from time to time we revisit this story. You know, and keep the emphasis of who we are and what we believe on Jesus Christ on the cross. Because, you know, Jesus Christ will go to the cross. Why did he do it? Stop and think about that. Why did he do it? When the day before he's in the Garden of Gethsemane, you remember how he sweat as it were, drops of blood, and begged the Father and said, if there's any way that this cup could pass from me, he said, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. What was it that motivated Jesus Christ to go through the cross? He even said at the time, if you remember, while they were beating him and mocking him and making fun of him, he said that at any time he could call in just tens of thousands of angels at any time to release him and to free him. I mean, he was God in the flesh. I mean, he had the power at any time to basically stop what he was doing. And yet he endured all the way to the end. The Bible says he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. What motivated him? What was the purpose? Why did he allow his body to be broken and destroyed? Why did he go through physical torture and then the tortures of hell for three days and three nights? Why did he do it? He did it in order to get us saved. He did it in order to provide salvation. And he even said in the Garden of Gethsemane that if there were any other way, he said, let this cup pass from me. You know what that means? That there is no other way. That was the only way that he could satisfy his holiness and his justice and yet provide us with a way to go to heaven. Because God loves us and wants us to go to heaven. But at the same time, he can't allow sin into heaven. He can't allow sin to go unpunished. Then he would no longer be a holy and just God. I mean, think about it. What if there were a judge and just somebody were brought to that judge and somebody were a rapist and brought to that judge and the judge just said, okay, I'm just going to give you a warning. You know, no punishment this time. Would you think that that's a righteous judge? I mean, think about it. What if someone you love were the victim? I mean, think about that. Or what if someone were a murderer and they murdered an innocent person they're brought before the judge and the judge just says, you know, I find him, you know, not guilty. You know, even though it was clear that he had done it, everybody knew that he had done it. Would that be a righteous judge? You say, oh, that's a really loving judge. That's a really gracious judge. And that's what people expect God to be. Think about that. They expect God to just say, oh, all the rapists and pedophiles and murderers and whoremongers of this world. Don't worry about it, guys. Come on, spend eternity in heaven in a perfect place. That's what he expects to do. And God is incapable of doing that. It's against God's nature. God is a holy and righteous and just God. Yes, the Bible says God is love, but the Bible also says holy is the Lord. And so God's holiness will not allow him to let sin and wickedness into heaven. And yet his love is crying out to man saying that he wants man to be saved and he created man in his own image and for his own fellowship. And so in order to satisfy both of these requirements, he had to go through that pain and suffering and humiliation and torture of hell. He had to pay the punishment for man that he might extend his grace to man and still satisfy his justice. And that's why salvation is available to all because he died for all, the Bible says. But hold on a second. Now let's apply this to us. What are you willing to do to get somebody saved? Think about that. If Jesus Christ, who was 100% God and 100% man because he was God in the flesh, if Jesus Christ were willing to be mocked and made fun of, will you be mocked and made fun of in order to get someone saved? Or are you too cool? You're too worried about your image or how people are going to perceive you. Let me tell you something. Those who preach God's word, those who live for God, will never be loved and accepted by the world. He said, yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But let me ask you something. Have you gone through more persecution than what Jesus went through on the cross? You know, if Jesus can be spat at and made fun of and hated by his whole nation, are you willing to endure some of that shame or reproach? Maybe on the job? Maybe among your friends or maybe among your family? What are you willing to go through to get somebody saved? What are you willing to do that people might be saved? The world is lost by and large. People are dying and going to hell and if somebody would preach in the gospel they'd be saved, but we're not willing to pay the price many times to get people saved. You know, if Jesus Christ could go through the fires of hell for three days and three nights, can we go soul winning when it's hot outside? I mean, think about it. You know, and look, it's not easy to go soul winning when it's hot outside. You know, obviously you should bring plenty of water and put on a hat, you know, if you start feeling dizzy or something, you know, you need to take a break. And obviously you have to be careful and safe about being out in the heat. But you know what, thank God that somebody is willing to go out in the heat and not just say, you know what, we're just going to skip soul winning for the next four months because it's like an inferno outside. What are you willing to go through to get somebody? Do you really care and love people? Because if you really love people and care, you'd go out and do what it takes. You'd go through the pain. You know, I'd be about to other people and say, well I'm not going to go soul winning because I don't like it when people are rude to me. You know, but yet if Jesus Christ could endure such contradiction of sinners against himself, as it says in Hebrews chapter 12, are we willing to endure the criticism? Are we willing to be criticized and reproached for Christ? Are we willing to go through physical pain of being out in the heat, of working hard, of knocking the doors, of putting in the toilet and the work? Look, if it were easy, everybody would be doing it. I mean if it were easy, then everybody would be doing it. Why do you think 99% of Christianity is content to just sit there in their watered down church and just let everybody else go to hell and they don't care? I'll tell you why, because it's hard. Because it's work. The Bible says, wherefore we labor, that whether absent or present, we may be accepted of him. And it says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. I mean we know that heaven is real. We know that hell is real. And we know that in many cases people are hanging in the balance between heaven and hell. And if we don't go tell them, nobody's going to tell them. What are you willing to endure to get somebody safe? What are you willing to endure to preach the gospel to every creature? What are you willing to endure to someday pastor a church? What are you willing to endure to preach? What are you willing to endure to be a light shining in the darkness of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world? Jesus Christ, when he's hanging on the cross, said what? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He even loved those who were nailing him to the cross. And I believe one of them even got saved. The centurion who said, you know, truly this was the Son of God. And he basically believed upon him right there. Even one of the ones that was, you know, hammering the nails into his hand. You know, he was just following orders. And hammered the nails into his hands. We need to read this story and read it often. In Matthew, in Mark, in Luke, in John. And understand and realize the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us to be saved. And think about this. Did Jesus Christ die for every single person? I believe he did. The Bible says he died not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Did it not say that he is the savior of all men, especially of those that believe? That means he's the savior of the world. Okay? But yet, not everyone is saved. Yet, he said that broad is the way which leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in their act. Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. So let me ask you this. If he died for every single person, and yet every person's not saved, don't you think that that's kind of a shame? That he would have gone through the torment and the punishment of a person who didn't even get saved? And you know, these Calvinists who don't believe the Bible, who twist and rest the scriptures, they'll just say, oh, that doesn't make any sense, you know, that he'd pay for it and then other people still have to pay for it. Their little logic has got it all mixed up and messed up to where they're just denying what the scripture says when it says he died for all. He died for all of our sins. But wait a minute. What a waste. What a waste for him to die for somebody who then goes to hell and pays for it himself. Now look, if you really appreciate and understand what Jesus went through on the cross, if you understand and comprehend what it was for his soul to go to hell for three days and three nights, if you really comprehend what it was for him, the God of the universe, in the flesh, to be mocked and ridiculed and spat upon and humiliated, if you really understood and comprehended the sacrifice of the cross, of him shedding his blood, if you understand what he meant at the Last Supper, the day before this happened, when he broke the bread and gave it unto them and said, this is my body which is broken for you, which is broken for you, he said, this do in remembrance of me. Or as when he took the cup and after he'd given thanks, he gave them the cup and said, this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you. This do is oft as you drink it in remembrance of me. If you comprehended and understood what that meant, you wouldn't want that sacrifice to go to waste. You wouldn't just sit back and just live your life and just not really care and just maybe come to church, go through the motions, show up, look good, tie your tie, meet and greet everyone. You wouldn't just play around with it. You wouldn't just be fooling around and playing church. You'd say, you know what, if this is what Jesus Christ went through, if this is the awesome sacrifice that he gave, you'd think about what Paul said to Timothy. He said, hey, if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. He said, you know what, just as Jesus Christ said, this is my body which is broken for you, Paul was willing to have his body broken and then others might be saved. I mean, look what he went through. He said he was beaten with rods five times. You know, or five times he received 39 stripes. The same beating that Jesus received, Paul received it 500 times. Beaten with rods three times. Spent a night in the day in the deep, constantly in jail, constantly arrested, constantly suffering. Can you literally say, you know, this is my life. My name, I'm Steven Anderson and I say to the unsaved, I say to those who would mock Jesus Christ and mock Christianity or even mock our church, I say to those that are not yet saved in Tempe and Phoenix, hey, this is my body which I'm willing to lay down on the altar as a living sacrifice to God. Holy, acceptable unto God, which is my reasonable service. This is my body which I'm willing to allow to be broken for you. You know, and basically to say as Paul did, I'm going to offer myself a living sacrifice to God. If Jesus Christ laid down his life, then we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren. That's what it says in 1 John 3.16. He said, hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren. And we ought to take this and read this and let it be a sobering thought and say, you know what? What I'm doing just isn't enough, you know, when I read what Jesus Christ went through. It's not enough for me to just be casual about Christianity, casual about church, casual about soul winning. It's time for us to pay the price. It's time for us to understand the sacrifice. And this is what he said, hereby perceive we the love of God. What does it mean to perceive? You know, it's one thing just to see something or to hear something, but when we perceive it is when we understand it in the same sense. He said, hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren. You know, it's not about, life's not about your job, your business. You know, my business has its ups and downs. You know, I work in the fire alarm business. You know, I have a full time job and I work in the fire alarm business. And you know, my business has its ups and downs. Sometimes my business is doing great. You know, other times my business is doing terrible. But you know what? It's not about my business. Because a hundred years from now, my business will not matter. You know, it's not about your sports that you're into. It's not about just how much fun you can have. It's not about just, you know, your little issues and your little day to day. You know what? All of that stuff is just things that we have to go through. I mean, we have to work. We have to live our life. But you know what? The Bible says, No man that warth entanglement himself with the affairs of this life, but he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for mastery, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. We have to be careful not to just get so caught up in the cares of this world that we become unfruitful. That we get so choked out by the thorns of life, that we don't bring forth any fruit to perfection. Because we get so busy and so worried. I mean, we sit and worry about our finances because the economy is bad. You know, everybody's finances are messed up right now. I mean, is there anybody who can raise your hands and say, My finances are doing great. You know? Oh man, I'm doing great. You know? You know what? Everybody is struggling financially right now. Everybody's going through hard times right now. Everybody has those problems. But you know what? That's not what we ought to lay and toss and turn about at night. You know, we ought to just all day. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? What am I going to do? You know what? What we ought to be worrying about is, How are we going to get the gospel to the people of this world? I mean, shouldn't that cause more stress and worry than just our job? When God already promised to provide our needs? He'll give us our daily bread. I mean, we might not have the fridge and cupboard stocked for the next three months. You know, we may not have enough wages laid up. You know, I like to put away about six months of salary. You know, just have it in savings. Is there anybody here who has six months of their salary saved up? You know what I mean? And everybody's so worried about, What are we going to do financially? What are we going to eat? What are we going to put on? You know, what are we going to do? What we ought to be worrying about is, Man, how are we going to get the gospel out? How is our church going to grow to the point where we have more people knocking doors so that we can get the gospel to every single person that lives in the valley? Because, you know, we may not be able to reach the whole world, but we can get the gospel to the people in Phoenix. We can get the gospel to the people in this area. You know, that's what really matters. That's what we really ought to worry about. That's what we ought to be emphasizing as our focus in our life. And instead of being stressed and worried about all the things in this world, God says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. I mean, if we'll really just focus upon getting the gospel out, if we'll just focus upon reading our Bible and knowing our Bible like we should, if we were just focused on cleaning up our lives and doing right, and being a godly and righteous Christian that God wants us to be and do the best we can, God will take care of our physical needs. But instead, we just want to fixate and worry about all our physical needs, and what we need, and what we have to have, and what we can do, and our fun, and our comfort. You know, we ought to be like Jesus Christ who didn't come to be ministered to. He said, I came not to be ministered to. I didn't come for you to serve me. He said, I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give my life a ransom for many. So I didn't come to be served. Jesus Christ Himself, God in the flesh, stripped Himself, and wrapped Himself in a towel and washed His own disciples' feet. Because He said, I didn't come to be served. I came to give my life a ransom for many. I came to suffer. I came for you. I came to fulfill God's plan of salvation. That's why I'm here. Why are you here? You know, why are you in church tonight? Why do you even come to church? Why do you even care? I mean, isn't there something else to be doing tonight? You know, why be here if it's not to say, you know what, I want to hear God's Word preached. So as Brother Stuffy said, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I want to get stirred up. I want my faith to be increased. I want to be edified and equipped and sent out to go do something for God. You go preach the gospel of every creature. And we ought to be here for the same reason that Jesus Christ was on this earth, when He said, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. That's my mission in life, and that ought to be your mission too. If His mission was to seek and to save that which was lost, not wait for them to show up at church, not to sit around and wait for them to come to us, but to seek out and to save that which was lost, and to suffer and to go through hardship and to endure hardness. As the Bible says, a good soldier of Jesus Christ. I was talking to Brother Roger Jimenez. He's in the Air Force. He just got back from being deployed, and he's in his final year with the Air Force. And he was talking about how they made him put on some crazy gear, like just all kinds of gear, on some really hot day, and he had to stand out on some field or something all day. And he literally just was hoping that he wasn't going to die, because it was just so hot, and he was just bogged down with all this gear, and it was really stunning. He was starting to worry, just, am I going to die? Because it was just so extreme what they were making him do. And he came home, and you know what he said to his wife when he came home that day after they made him just endure this torture? You know, some kind of training or something? You know what he said when he got home? He just said, you know what? I'm never going to complain about soloing again. That's what he said. I mean, he's just like, man. He's like, if I'm willing to do this for my job, I should be willing to do it for God. You know? I mean, what really matters the most to you in life? You know, I mean, what is your main focus in life? What is your main mission? Is it just to make money? Is it just to lift yourself up and have fame and popularity and to be loved? Is it about you? Is it about living the perfect life that you want to live? Is it about people liking you? Or is it about people getting saved? You know, what was it about with Jesus? Was he just going around trying to make the most people like him? No. I mean, people were constantly hearing him preach. They'd come thronging because of the miracles, but then they'd hear him preach and then they'd start leaving. You know, they didn't like what he had to say in any case. They didn't want to hear the word of God preached. They just wanted the miracles. You know, they wanted to see the 5,000 fed. They wanted to see him healed and sick and so forth. But when it came to what he had to preach to, because he wasn't trying to be popular. He was telling people not what they wanted to hear, what they needed to hear. And, you know, you ought to ask yourself tonight, what is my focus in my life? What do I spend the most time at? Is it playing on the computer? Is that what I spend the most time on? Is it just building a business, building my job, making money? What do I think about in my spare time? Do I just think about recreation and fun or do I think about something that really matters? Do I really think about the things of God and what I can do to get somebody saved? You know, we need to let this story sink down to our ears. And sometimes we've heard it so many times. I mean, I don't think there's anybody who's been in church who hasn't heard this chapter that we read through, you know, Matthew 27. Or whether, you know, we could have turned to Mark. We could have turned to Luke, to John, seeing the same thing. But you know what, we ought to ask ourself, how much are we like Jesus Christ? How Christian are we? You know, is our mission the same mission that he had? To win souls, to get people saved? Are we willing to suffer like he was willing to suffer? Are we willing to go through the pain and endure the suffering? Because let's face it, it's not hard to be popular if you want to be popular. You know, it's not that hard to make money if you want to go out and just make money with your life. But you know what? We as Christians ought to decide that our life is about something bigger than that. It's about something more than that. You know, and this church is a soul-willing church. It's always going to be a soul-willing church. Because as soon as it stops being a soul-willing church, it becomes a social club. You know what I mean, where we all just get together and just look at each other and then hang out. It's like a little preaching club, and we get together and talk. And you know, we have a little Bible study. You know, no, we study the Bible. Because we eat, breathe, and sleep the Bible. Because we want to preach the Bible filled with the Spirit and get people saved. Because we want to use the Bible to do something. And you know, while other churches are going contemporary and liberal, while other churches are just becoming a big rock concert. I sent a buddy of mine to visit a church in his area. I was trying to recommend him a church. And I recommended him a church. He said, oh, yeah. I said, how'd it go? He said, I just got back from Entertainment Baptist. You know, he said he went there. And it was just all a big show. And he said, I walked out feeling empty, like I had been taught nothing. I had learned nothing. I had been preached nothing. And we've got just nothing after nothing after nothing. But you know what? The church that wins souls is something. This is something Baptist church, not pastor nobody. Nothing. And you know, that's what he said. He said, I just came out with an empty feeling because I learned nothing. And this church needs to be a church that stays focused and keep our first love and remember the first works. And that is the love of Jesus Christ that constrains us to preach the gospel and woe unto us if we don't preach the gospel. We have got to be keeping this on the front burner all the time. Let's not get apathetic about it or lazy about it. And you know, we've got the lazy dog days of summer. And there's all kinds of fun places we can go. And you know, go out and have some fun. Go out and blow off a little steam. But let me tell you something. We have got to keep the mission focused here of going out and winning souls to Christ and then getting them baptized and then teaching them to observe all things whatsoever Jesus Christ commanded us. That's the mission right there. Get them saved. Get them baptized. Get them to church so we can train them to go out and win other people to Christ. That's what we ought to keep the focus here. We're not here just putting on a show. That's why you don't pay to get in. You know, you just show up and come to be built up in the faith. It's not a show. It's not a turnstile at the front where you come in and you pay for the show. You know, and you throw in your money and the plague goes by to pay for the entertainment. There's nothing entertaining about it, my friend. It's about the souls of men that are at stake. And as Brother Stuckey priests, hell is a real place. You know, people can believe it or not believe it or make jokes about it or write stupid books trying to explain what it's not. But you know what? It is a real place. And if you believe that, you'll go. And if you believe and understand and perceive Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross, it'll motivate you to go. And you'll say, you know what? If Jesus Christ could endure, we ought to keep focused on it. We ought to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame that was set down at the right hand in front of God. He endured because he could see the souls that were going to be saved. That's what it says in Isaiah 53, that he could look forward and see by faith those who will be saved. And that's the vision that we ought to have in this church. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your sacrifice on the cross, dear God. None of us deserve to have all of our sins forgiven and forgotten. As we read in Hebrews 10, 17, you said there's sins and iniquities. Well, I remember no more. None of us deserve to have everything we've ever done wrong just totally forgiven and forgotten. But thank God if we're saved, every sin that we've ever done is forgiven and forgotten. Every sin that we ever will do is forgiven and forgotten. God, we thank you so much for the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Help us never to forget that gift. And when the hardships come and when the suffering comes in our life, dear God, help us to endure to the end and help us to keep Jesus Christ always before our eyes as an example of suffering, affliction, and impatience, dear God. Please help us to be willing to suffer, to be willing to fight, to be willing to endure the criticism, dear God, and to do whatever it takes that people might be saved. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.