The Grace of The Cross

The Grace of The Cross

(They Have Done Away With The Cross)

David Wilkerson

Jesus said,

“If I be lifted up from the earth,

I will draw all men unto me.”

John 12:32

That lifting up was the very moment they nailed Him to cross and they lifted that cross. He was lifted up before the whole world.

That’s His crucifixion. That’s the lifting of the cross. That’s Christ dying for sin.

God looked down one day on the sin sick world. He saw a society's all people lost bound, prison houses, a society and a generation about to self destruct, full of doubt unbelief, without hope.

God sent His own son.And Jesus came and took on the frailty of human flesh.

He died as a living sacrifice for sin. And God said,

“This is the only door to eternal life.”

There’s no other way but through the cross of Jesus Christ. There’s no deliverance from sin and its power.

He died not only to forgive us of our sins. Jesus died to break the power of our sins.

It’s possible to preach masterful sermons about the cross and absolutely bypass it and climb up some other way.

The cross is man’s confrontation with his sins. It’s man’s confrontation with his lifestyle.

The cross is offensive to every man or woman who’s made peace with their sins. It’s offensive.

Preaching the cross is offense to those who are comfortable and cozy with their sins. And they want Jesus and their sins. They want to believe they are justified, even though they have no intention laying down their iniquities as is.

“Jesus paid it all

I can enjoy myself.”

They’re not ready to lay down their pit, lust, sensuality.

When Jesus said,

“I am the way. I am the door.”

He speaks of His cross.

You can not be saved, You can not enter heaven except you come by way of the cross.

He that enters if not by the door of the sheepfold

but climbs some other way same as the thief and a robber

John 10:1

The ministers who thieve, the ministers who rob, who have climbed up some other way and made a bridge in some place and saying

“Come with me.

You don’t need to repent.

You don’t have to have godly sorrow for your sin.”

“The big thing is that you fulfill the law of

you just love one another. Just love God!”

“There’s no repentance, no tears needed.

Just love.”

Jesus said,

“If any man will come after me,

let him deny himself. And take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Luke 9:23

“And who’s so ever does not bear his cross and come after me

can not be my disciple.”

Luke 14:27

I don’t care what your theology may be, sir.

I don’t care what you think of the power of love.

Jesus said, “Unless you deny yourself and come by way of the cross,

you embrace my cross, you can not be my disciple.”

Self denial

That’s not some heartache you have to bear.

That’s not some infirmity of your flesh.

Not at all!

I’ll prove to you this morning that His cross is our cross, His death is our death, His resurrection is our resurrection through identification and union with Christ.

That’s confrontation.

It said, “Sin ends today! Now! At this point!”

He said,

“You deny your right to live in sin.

You deny any dispensation that you are special.”

Then you deny that you have any power to ‘deliver yourself.’ That’s where many people can not come. That’s self denial that many people have never been able to make.

Because you see, you hear with Paul.

“I die daily.

I am crucified with Christ.

And all my lust has been crucified with Him.”

And you say,

“That’s what I want.”

Here we are at the cross sin sick, weary of it. But we have been confronted. We know it can’t go on.

Then you read,

He that’s dead is free from sin

(Roman 6)

You read Roman 6, you see a man who’s planted into the death of Jesus. And he is dead. Sin has no more dominion over me.

You say,

“That’s what I want!”

“But how do I get his victory into my life?

How do I get the victory of the cross into my life?

So that I’m not sinning and confessing…

That merely go around. I want off.”

How do you get victory over sin?

How does the resurrection power, the newness of life come out in you

other than believing what God says in His word?

When you come to Him and confess and you repent and you agree with His word

and you confront the demands of the cross, then you say Jesus will take you by the hand. That’s why you go into union with Christ.

And say “Lord, from this moment on I’m trusting my life in Your hands.

I’m trusting You to convict me to hold me and lead me and guild me by Your Spirit.”

It’s absolutely giving yourself to the power of the cross.

You embrace it.

Take up the cross.

Embrace it.

Embrace this as the only way to victory ‘by faith in the overcoming power of Jesus through His shed blood.’

What does the Bible say when you brace the cross?

It says,

“I am dead now with Christ to sin.

I am crucified with Christ.”

I am resurrected in the newness of life.

Now, there’s no dominion of sin over me.

I can now do all things through Christ to strengthen me.

I am a free man.

I can now yield my body into the service of the Lord.

And my members are instruments of righteousness.”

He says all of that in Roman 6

He says all through the word of God

How am I struggles?

By my struggles?

No!

By my just saying

“Lord, I accept by faith my salvation.

I accept by faith that when I need it

the power will be there.

That is Your word!”

“I may stumble a few times by my unbelief.

But I am going to hold on that ultimately victory is mine.

Because I’m gonna believe you until it comes. I’m gonna trust You.”

“I die by faith. I died two thousand years ago at the cross of Jesus.

I was resurrected back then. God saw me in His eye, in His historical eye.”

“He saw me down the stream of time.”

He saw you.

He took all of us by the death of one man.

We have all been reconciled to God.

Thank God for the cross.

Thank God for its crisis.

How Jesus love me!

It’s enough to take me into His death,

into His burial, into His resurrection and bring me up into newness of life.

That’s His love.

That’s His grace.

The greatest grace preaching in the world

is to preach the confrontation of the cross.

That’s grace.

All He ask you right now

“Are you really ready to lay down your sin?”

Jesus is not a hard task master.

He is a loving savior.

He’s gonna tell you now

“It has to go. It’s enough.”

Is there godly sorrow in your heart?

“Oh God I don’t want to wound you any more.”

You know why our sins wound the Lord because they cut off our communion with Him. That’s what grieves Him about your sin, because of the tendency to hide from Him, take away the intimacy.

“Jesus, I want that intimacy again.”

Do you know the Holy Ghost is with you right now?

Do you know Jesus is here right now?

He is here.

He is in you.

I will bless the Lord at all times.

I’m going to bless Your name all times through everything.

I will bless the Lord at all times.

Thank you Jesus for my union with you now.