Ron Dunn Podcast - The Sufficiency of The Cross

Episode Date: September 30, 2020

Ron Dunn continues in Galatians

series of messages from one of the most important books in the New Testament. It is the book of Galatians, and I'd like you to open your Bibles to the first chapter of the book of the Galatians. Galatians has been called the magna carta of the church. It is the emancipation proclamation of the Christian faith. And there is, I repeat, no other Christian document, no other book in the New Testament that can exceed Galatians in its importance because its thrust and its theme is salvation by grace through faith. And it is a theme and a thrust that was being attacked in the early days of Christianity. It is a theme that is constantly being attacked

because if the enemy of our souls can ever get us to take our eyes off of Jesus only and His cross and put them on anything else, then He has us right where He wants us. And in this book of Galatians, the apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sets forth in dramatic and logical form the fact that you and I are justified by faith, that it is the sacrifice of Christ's cross, the manifestation of God's grace by which you and I come into a right relation with God. So I want us to read this morning just the first five verses. Galatians chapter 1, verses 1 through 5. Paul, an apostle, not of men,

neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. And all the brethren which are with me under the churches of Galatia, grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now I want to read again the fourth verse and the fifth verse because they are the heart of the message this morning. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, the apostle says, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now there is one supreme question

that every man sooner or later must face. You may try not to face it, but it is inevitable that you must face it, if not now, then at the judgment when you meet God and give an account. And of all the questions that a man must ever face, the answer to this is most important. It is a question that involves and relates to every person here this morning. The question is simply this. How can a man or a woman or boy or girl who are sinners, not only by nature but by deliberate choice, how can they win the favor of a holy and righteous God? That's the question that this passage deals with. As a matter of fact, it's the question that this whole book deals with and answers. And I repeat,

it is a question that is highly relevant to each one of us. it is a question that evaded as you may try, you cannot. It is inevitable. How can you and I, who are sinners not only by nature, but are sinners by deliberate choice, how can we win the favor of a holy and righteous God? The answer is simple. We cannot. We cannot. And right here is where you get the dividing of the ways between true religion and false religion. False religion always endeavors to win the favor of a holy and righteous God. The religion which is salvation in Jesus Christ says, there is no possible way that you and I can do it.

Because that favor has already been won for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. And all you and I can do is simply cast ourselves on the mercy of God and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, for He has already done it. And you can divide every religious person into those two categories. There are those who seem to think that salvation is achieved. And there are those who according to the scripture see that salvation is to be received. There are those who think in terms of it being, of having to do it. There are those who know in terms of it having already been done.

It's amazing how in the nature of man, man seems to pervert every good thing that God gives him. Have you ever considered the fact that most of the evil in this world today is caused by the abuse of that which is good, by the perversion of that which God has given to bless us. For instance, the home of all the institutions that God has ever created, the home ought to be the sweetest and the greatest and the most glorious. And yet, most of the misery in our lives today in this country have been caused by the perversion of the home situation. It seems that every good thing God gives us, it is in our nature in cohort with the enemy to pervert that. The same thing is true with God's way of salvation. The apostle Paul is writing to some churches that he himself founded, and he says later on in this epistle, he says, when I came to you, you looked upon me as an angel

from the Lord. He said, as a matter of fact, you so believed what I preached that you were willing to pluck out your eyes for my sake. And he said, I came and I preached to you the Lord Jesus Christ, and as though I placed it on a large billboard, I pictured Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I pointed to the crucified one as the way of salvation and deliverance. And you believed it. But after Paul had left the scene, there crept in some who began to say, well, Jesus is great and necessary and good, but is not alone sufficient. It is not simply grace. It is grace plus law. It is not

simply faith. It is faith plus works. It is not simply regeneration. It is regeneration plus ritual. And they were called Judaizers, which may not mean much to you, but they were people who believed that a man could be saved through Jesus Christ, but he had to keep on keeping the ceremonial law of Moses, and that was a part of his salvation. And so what they did was they made salvation outward and mechanical and said, it's not enough simply to trust in Jesus. You have to go through this rite and through this ritual. It is saved by grace, but we're kept by works, and you have to do something. It is that through faith we receive Christ, but also faith through your own effort. You know, it's an interesting thing about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's very hard to figure him out mathematically. Because Jesus Christ plus anything else equals nothing.

If you add anything to Jesus Christ, you end up with absolutely nothing. You see, unless Jesus Christ is alone, all by himself, the sufficient Savior, if anything else is required for our initial salvation and for our continuing salvation, then you have no Jesus whatsoever. And so the Apostle Paul is writing, and one man has said the book of Galatians is like a sword in the Apostle's hand. As a matter of fact, he's angry. And if you'll read this carefully, you'll notice there's no normal greeting as he writes

the other churches. He thanks God for what they've done and for what God has done, and he says some complimentary things. But Paul has nothing complimentary to say about this bunch. He's angry because the gospel of Jesus Christ has been threatened. His own apostleship has been denied, and so immediately Paul launches into the attack. And right at the outset, he says, grace and peace be to you from the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he and he alone might deliver us from

this present evil world. And this was all according to the will of God and our Father. And what the Apostle Paul was saying then, what he's saying now, is that you and I must come to understand that Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone is sufficient for our salvation, both initially and continuingly, and all the way until we stand before Him and see Him face to face. And so the message this morning is very simple. It is the sufficiency of the cross of Christ. And as I sat here and listened to all the songs, and especially the two specials,

I thought how wonderfully the Lord just put it all together. And the message is of a song that exalted the Lord Jesus Christ and his death and his cross. And that's what it's really all about. That's the heart of salvation. That's the heart of the gospel, is Jesus Christ, the sufficiency of his cross. Let me share with you in these verses four and five, four reasons why the cross alone is sufficient. Who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

First of all, the Apostle Paul says to you and to me, Jesus Christ, His cross is sufficient because of the death of that cross. Because of the death of that cross, he opens this letter almost immediately by saying, Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins. Did you know that that is the central theme of the Word of God? In Matthew chapter 20 and verse 28, as Jesus Christ is speaking for the last time, one of the last times to his disciples, he says, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto,

but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. In Ephesians 5, 25, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. In 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 6, speaking again of the Lord Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. One more verse, Titus chapter 2 verse 14, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity. And so you have it all the way through. This emphasis that Jesus Christ gave himself, his death, his sacrifice, this is the heart and the essence of salvation. Now this is a voluntary sacrifice. Have you noticed the word? He gave himself. He gave himself. It wasn't that

God the Father coerced him. It was that God the Father and God the Son were in perfect agreement that this was the only way the world could be redeemed. This was the only way out of the mess that we had gotten ourselves into. And so the Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily gave himself. The choice of words is beautiful. He gave himself, voluntary on his part, voluntary on the Father's part. John 3, 16, you all know it, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. He didn't have to do it. God could have been absolutely justified and righteous in letting the whole bunch of us go to hell. But He voluntarily gave His Son.

Jesus gave Himself. I love to read John chapter 10. You know, Jesus, as He walked on this earth, appeared to His enemies as a meek and lowly man, and He was. But they mistook meekness for weakness. And I love to see those glimpses where Jesus stands among them and displays his power. And in John chapter 10, he says, no man takes my life from me. I lay it down. And if I lay it down, I will take it up again. And when Jesus died on the cross, it's interesting to read those accounts of the crucifixion. Jesus stayed alive until he finished all the business that he had to do. And then it says he, what? Gave up the ghost. He gave

up the spirit. Now, you never do that. One day, you're going to get sick, and you're going to lay on a deathbed, and you're going to fight and struggle, and your spirit will be taken from you. You won't give it up. Jesus could still be hanging there alive if he had chosen to do so. That's why Pilate was surprised when Joseph of Arimathea came and said, let me have the body of Jesus. Pilate said, well, is he dead already? Sometimes those men would hang on that cross for three days before they would die. And so in order to speed up the death, they would go and break the legs of those men as they hung on the cross. But when they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead.

And so the scripture was fulfilled that said not a bone of his should be broken. He gave up the ghost. He voluntarily gave it up. He said, I lay down my life. I lay down my life. Jesus Christ voluntarily laid down his life for you and for me. But it's also a vicarious sacrifice, a vicarious sacrifice. Now, for the third graders that I spoke to this morning, vicarious means substitution. It means doing something for somebody else. Jesus, it says that Jesus gave himself for our sins. He gave himself for our sins. He died in our place. He died in our stead. Now, that's extremely important, and I'll tell you why. If you're not careful, you'll hear and read things like this. Jesus was the first Christian martyr. That's not true. And there are those who picture Jesus Christ as a martyr,

who died for a cause, or as a victim of the political and religious structure of his day. Jesus was neither victim nor was he martyr. Don't you ever call Jesus Christ a Christian martyr. He was not. He was the Redeemer. He did not die simply because he was advocating a cause and that cause got him into trouble and they crucified him for it. No, sir. That was the purpose of his life.

He was born to bleed. He was not a martyr nor was he a victim. He died for our sins. He purposely gave himself for our sins. That means he died in our place. He died instead of me. I should have been there. You should have been there, but he died for our sins. It was a vicarious sacrifice. Something else about it, and I like this, it was also a victorious sacrifice, a victorious death. Notice the way Paul the apostle opens this letter. Now when you and I write a letter today, we always sign it at the end. Really, they had a better idea. They signed it at the beginning. It really just makes good sense the minute you open the letter to know who it's from. And so Paul begins his letter, but he signs it in a very strange way.

Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father. And then he adds this, who raised him from the dead. Who raised him from the dead. Who raised him from the dead. He wants those folks to know right at the very beginning that he's talking about a victorious Lord. He's talking about a living and reigning Lord. He gave himself and Christ alone is sufficient because of the death of the sacrifice of the cross. You see, the Bible says that all life is in the blood.

The life of all flesh is in the blood. And God is a just and holy God and cannot excuse sin. He cannot wink at sin. He cannot overlook sin. And when people tell you, and this song that was popular a few years ago, by the name of He, you know, you've heard that. It's a beautiful melody. And the last words of that song just always do something to me.

It says, though it makes him sad to see the way we live, he'll always say, I forgive. Hogwash. That's not true. And I resent that song picturing good old God. Though it makes him sad to see the way we live, he'll always say, I forgive. No, sir. I heard George Beverly Shea sing that song, and he saved it. He redeemed that song, made it a Christian song, and he ended it like this. He said, though it makes him sad to see the way we live, if we repent, he'll forgive. Now, that's it. If we repent, he'll forgive. Every sin must be dealt with, and every sin must be judged, and God cannot overlook nor excuse one sin. And there are two options you have in life and eternity. Number one is to pay for

your sins yourself, which will mean an eternity in hell, or you can allow the Lord Jesus Christ to pay for them. And so the apostle Paul says, Christ alone is sufficient. Nothing else added to him because of the death of his cross, a voluntary death. He gave himself a vicarious death for my sins. It wasn't his sins. He had none. But every sin that God had to judge in my life, he judged in the person of Jesus Christ. That's why I'm free. I'm set free this morning.

And I say it reverently, but when God looks at me and looks at the record of my life, he sees one 100% righteous and holy. Now, I may not look that way to you, but I look that way to God because God looks at me through the Lord Jesus Christ. He looks at me through the Lord Jesus Christ. He paid it all. All to Him I owe. Send it left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. And when before His throne I stand in Him complete, my lips shall still repeat, Jesus Christ paid it all. He paid my sin debt. The death of the cross makes Jesus alone sufficient. But not only the death of the

cross, also the deliverance of the cross makes Jesus alone sufficient, that He might deliver us, that He might deliver us from this present evil world. Why did Jesus die? Why did God send Jesus into the world for that sacrifice of the cross? In order that He might deliver us from this present evil world. Now, would you notice something? The word present, this present evil world. Now, it is true that because Jesus Christ is my Savior, I will be delivered from this world someday at the end when God says it's enough and when He writes the last page of human history, and Jesus Christ shall spit the heavens with the shout, and He'll come and take us to Himself. We will be delivered from this world in the future. That's not what he's talking about here. He's not talking about the sweet by and by.

He's talking about the sweet here and now. He's talking about this present evil world. Now, the word world is a mistranslation. It ought to be age, this present evil age. Let me give you just a little Bible study. The Word of God teaches there are two ages. There is that golden, glorious age which is to come. And you know, every man, whether he's Christian or heathen,

seems to have inborn, inbred in his heart that looking forward to a utopia, a golden age, a millennial age when everything will be made right. The age to come, then there is this present evil age, this age in which we live bound by sin and under the oppression of demonic powers, under the curse of God, under the wrath of God. Now, when Jesus Christ broke into human history, His death and His resurrection broke the power and the authority of this present evil world. When He gave to us the Holy Spirit, He made it possible for us. Now, listen carefully. When He gave to us the Holy Spirit as a result of our salvation, He made it

possible for us to experience ahead of time the world that is to come. Because the Bible says the Holy Spirit is the first installment. And do you know what's happening today? Do you know what's happening today? I want you to picture a railroad track. On one track is this present evil world. On the other track is the age to come. Did you know that it's possible to live in the future right now? Because Jesus Christ has broken into human history

and he's brought to him that golden, glorious age. He says, here it is. You can have a foretaste of it. Hebrews 6 says that we have tasted of the powers of the world to come. You see, it's possible for a man in this present life right now to be delivered, to be rescued from the ties of this sinful world. There's no reason a man ought to feel shackled and bound and under the pressure of this world system.

Every man is running on one of two tracks. Either living in this present evil world, you're tied to it, you're bound by it, it dictates to you your fashions and your philosophies, you're a slave to it. Or you can be delivered from that, set free from that, and you can live in the age to come in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, there's no reason for a Christian to have to succumb to what everybody else succumbs to.

I think if we go into a depression, that it'll be one of the greatest opportunities that God has ever given us to taste the powers of the world to come. To demonstrate it'll be the greatest opportunity the Christian has ever had, to demonstrate to the world that he is not bound and chained and a slave to this present evil world. He can live in rejoicing and live in victory and live with peace and contentment in his heart. Say, listen, stop being bitter and angry and mad and complaining bitterly about rising

costs. You sound like you belong to this present evil age. You belong to the world to come. You have been delivered from it. And God has promised to meet your every need. And the psalmist said, I have been young and now I am old. Yet have I never seen his seed begging bread. God will take care of you. Why? Because you have been delivered from this present evil world. Another thing about this deliverance, it makes us God's own possession. The word deliver

literally means to rescue for oneself, to rescue for oneself. I'll tell you, to know that God in Jesus Christ has not only rescued me from this evil age, and has not only given me the ability to live above the transiency and the problems of this evil world, but He's also made me His own personal and private possession. I belong to Him, and He belongs to me, and He is responsible for me, and He is obligated to take care of me. And there's nothing else that will do that. The Apostle Paul says the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient because of the deliverance of the cross. Then one other thing, He alone is sufficient because of the design of the cross. Look at that last phrase in verse 4. All of this was according to the will of God

and our Father. Now, that may appear to you as a casual reader unimportant, but it is extremely important. He gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world. Why? It was all according to the will of God and our Father. This means it originated with the will of God. I want you to know something this morning. God did not simply permit Jesus to die on the cross. He purposed it. He planned it. He willed it. And when you stand at the foot of the cross and you behold the Son of God dying in shame and agony,

I want you to see the hand of God in it all. The prophet Isaiah in chapter 53 says that it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. And I tell you something, you'll never, never understand the gospel of Christ until you understand this. It wasn't the Jews that crucified him. It wasn't the Roman soldiers. They were simply the instruments. It was God the Father who crucified His own Son. And Peter in his Pentecostal sermon in the second chapter of Acts says that he was delivered up by the predetermined counsel of God. Nothing could have stopped the cross.

Nothing could have stopped the cross. I love to think about this, how the devil just always plays into the hand of God. He just always plays into the hand of God. God the Father not simply permitted the cross. He planned it. He willed it. It was God's will. Now, you know, that tells us something about the will of God. Jesus, as He prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, He says, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Because you see, as He looked into that cup, He saw all the sins of the world. He saw every murder, every crime, every hatred, every bitterness, every angry word, every impurity. That was all in the cup. World past, world present, world future.

I want you just for a moment to think about the blackness of your own heart. Think about the sins that you've committed, are committing, that nobody knows about. The hideousness of them, the filthiness of them. They were all in that cup. They were all in that cup. And Jesus Christ realized that he was going to have to take that cup and drink it, take into himself and upon himself your filthiness, my sinfulness. No wonder he shrunk from it. Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. And then he says, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. You know what Jesus was saying? He was saying, Father, I'd rather die than disobey.

I'd rather die than disobey. You see, the design of the cross, it was designed by the Father. He was the author of Calvary. It's according to the will of God that you be saved by the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other way. There's no other will. It is God's will that you be saved. It is God's will that you be delivered by the sacrifice of the cross. Now, there's one final thing, and I just saw this as I was sitting up here on the platform a while ago. I guess I was preparing right up to the last minute. Verse 5, Jesus is sufficient because of the doxology of the cross. Look at that verse 5, To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I'll tell you something. There's only one thing that will make men rise up and give God the glory

and sing a doxology to Him, and that's when they recognize that they are saved solely by grace. If you were saved by being baptized or joining a church or turning over a new leaf or by your own marriage, I tell you, you could take part of the glory. You could take part of the glory, but there'll be no strutters in heaven. There'll be nobody in heaven saying, well, I knew if I held out and just did my best, I'd make it. No, sir. You know what they sing in heaven? They sing, worthy is the lamb for thou was slain and hast redeemed us

unto God by our blood. And when a man meets the cross, when he recognizes that it's simply by the cross of Christ, God doing it all for him, and his favor has already been won by the sacrifice of Jesus, there's nothing else he can say but to him be the glory forever and ever and ever. There's a great old hymn that I love, and we never sing it, but I don't think it's in our hymn book. It says, And can it be that I should gain an entrance in my Savior's blood? Died He for me who caused His pain for me, who to Him to death pursued. Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Tis mercy all, immense and free, for, O my God, it found out me. Long my spirit in prison lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke my dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose and went forth and followed thee. No condemnation now I dread Jesus, and all in Him

is mine. Alive in Him, my living head, and dressed in righteousness divine. Boldly I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own. Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Doxology. Doxology. When a man confronts the cross and he beholds in that gory spectacle of the Son of God dying,

and he dies for me. He dies for me. There's no way but that he can help lift up his heart and voice in doxology. I don't know if we'll be singing God's choir in heaven, but I do know what we will be singing. Whatever we sing in heaven, it'll be a doxology to Him. And God says, this is my will. This, only Jesus is sufficient. Only Jesus is sufficient, because this is the only way that He can bring glory and praise to the Father. God is a jealous God. He'll share His glory with no other. It is not Christ plus Moses

or Christ plus the church. It isn't grace plus keeping the law. It isn't faith plus doing the best you can. It is Christ plus nothing equals everything. Christ plus nothing equals everything. Do you know him? Have you met him? Have you embraced him by faith this morning? There may be those present. Maybe you're a religious person. Maybe you belong to some church. Maybe not. But you know one thing, you need to be delivered from this present evil world. You need to be saved from your sins. There's only one way. No man comes to God on his own terms. He comes to God on God's terms or he doesn't come at all. God's terms is this, come and trust the bleeding love of my Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus says, He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. If as you sit in this place this morning, you realize your lostness, your need to be saved and delivered,

then when we stand to sing in a moment, Jesus said, He that will confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father, which is in heaven. You just slip out from where you'll be standing. Come right here to the front. I'll meet you as you come. There'll be someone to pray with you. You know, you can meet Jesus today. You can be saved today. Know this living Lord. There may be other decisions. It may be that God is speaking to Christians who are out of fellowship. You know you're saved, but you know your life is completely wrong, and you need to come back in repentance to Him today, renewing that fellowship. It may be that God would move

you to join this church. If that's God's will for you, then that's what we want. But simply let this time of invitation be God's time of speaking and dealing with each one of us. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from

a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.