The Why, The What, and The Result of The Cross | Tyrone P Jones | Full Service

We are currently accepting registrations Good morning CTC family! Happy Sunday it is a beautiful day to be in the house of the Lord this morning. Before we get started I do want to ask if you are on the end of your row if you could just go ahead and scoot in towards the middle if at all possible. We want to make sure that each and every person that comes in has a spot and a place to sit here. Now we do want to take a moment to welcome you if you're new we would love to get to know you and help you feel at home here at CTC so if you're in the house you can either text the word guest to the number on the screen or you can stop by the connect table on your way out of service. If you're joining us online and you're new we want to welcome you as well and you can click the link that your host has posted in the chat. Now before we get started we do want to take some time to get into the word of God and this morning we're going to be reading out of the book of Isaiah and as I was flipping through scripture after scripture this week to find the right verse for this morning I came across these two verses and I just felt like they were perfect so it's Isaiah 26 verses 3 through 4. It says you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you trust in the Lord forever for the Lord the Lord himself is the rock eternal. I love how it says he will keep us in perfect peace and the beautiful thing about the peace of God is that it's not dependent on us it's not dependent on our circumstances it's not dependent on what's going on in our world what's going on around us the perfect peace of God is based on our perfect God and so when it says he will keep us in perfect peace it's not because of who we are or what's going on his perfect peace is based on Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday today and forever and so as we're going into this time of worship and as we're going into this service I want to encourage each and every one of you to be open to receive that perfect peace from God because he will deliver that to you amen all right let's take a moment to go before the Lord God we thank you so much for this morning we thank you that we can come and be in your house and be surrounded by a community of believers God we thank you for your word we thank you for this time of worship and Lord we thank you for the perfect peace that is available to us in all circumstances we thank you that we can have that at any moment God and that it only comes from you Lord we lift up this time of worship to you we give you all the glory and honor and praise because you are worthy Lord God we pray that the message that is delivered today just speaks to us we come

to you with open minds open hearts open ears and we love you Lord we give you all the praise we pray this in Christ's name amen all right if you're not already standing go ahead and stand as we get ready to worship together still makes the broken whole i believe that the curse of sin was broken when they rolled away that stone i believe i believe i believe and as i bow before you Lord i will rise in confidence i will see your goodness come on shout hallelujah today bye Come on, lift your voice today. I will rise in confidence. I will see your goodness, we know. In the lake, we will go walking. I will rise in confidence. I will see your goodness, we know. In the lake, I will leave the lake. No matter where I go. No matter where I've been. I will see your goodness, we know. In the lake, I will leave the lake. Sing it to the daughters. Sing it to the sons. To every generation. Look at what the Lord has done. Sing it to the darkness. That the light has come. Sing it to the nations. Look at what the Lord has done. Sing it to the daughters. Sing it to the sons. To every generation.

Look at what the Lord has done. Sing it to the darkness. That the light has come. Sing it to the nations. Look at what the Lord has done. Look at what the Lord has done. As I bow before you, Lord. I will rise in confidence. I will see your goodness, we know. In the lake, I will leave the lake. No matter where I go. No matter where I go. I will see your goodness, we know. In the lake, I will leave the lake. As I bow before you, Lord. I will rise in confidence. I will see your goodness, we know. In the lake, I will leave the lake. No matter where I go. No matter where I go. I will see your goodness, we know. In the lake, I will leave the lake. Come on, we will see the goodness of the Lord. He's faithful to his promise. Hallelujah. Come on, church, let's continue to celebrate as we watch someone go public with their faith. My name is Isis. As a child of Christ, my life felt empty, like a leaf in the wind with no direction.

There were times I felt lonely and hopelessness for as long as I can remember. I couldn't ever understand why I didn't get the opportunity to grow up with a loving and caring father like the rest of my friends. Deep down, it made me very sad. I often found myself seeking validation from other people, constantly trying to fill the gap that was missing in my heart. But everything changed the moment that I found my heavenly father. One day, I shared with my college tutor about my sister being depressed and lonely. Immediately, he told me, please tell your sister that Jesus loves her, and he extended an invitation to the CTC. Unfortunately, my sister couldn't make it that Sunday, but it was heavy in my heart to attend anyways. That Sunday changed everything for me. It wasn't a specific sermon or prophetic word. It was the presence of God, unlike anything I have ever felt. It's hard for me to explain, but I knew in my heart I have found home. I gave my love to Jesus that day and started following him anywhere he led me from that point forward. My grandmother passed away a few years ago. I feared that choosing a different path meant betraying her beliefs and my upbringing, but I knew she would be proud of the women, the mother, the daughter, the sister, and the friend that I'm becoming in Christ. I have nothing to lose.

I have nothing to prove and nothing to hide. I'm free now. I was able to forgive my earthly father. Christ has filled my emptiness, and I no longer feel resentment. He has healed my heart. Thank you, God, for guiding me to CTC. You are always on time and make no mistakes. Today I'm going public with my faith. Thank you. Jesus said every disciple should be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And because of your compassion, Confession of faith today. I baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and according to Scripture You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit What a beautiful testimony amen Come on do you believe that God can do the impossible? Come on he can turn it around today God turn it around God turn it around God turn it around The changes everything God turn it around God turn it around God turn it around He's in the name The name of Jesus Breakthrough will come in the name the name of Jesus Now God turn it around God turn it around He made the change God turn it around God turn it around God turn it around

He's made... God turn it around God turn it around God turn it around Come on, let's declare it He is up to something He is up to something God is doing something Right now He is up to something He is up to something God is doing something Sing it out Right now He's doing something He's saying something God is doing something Right now He's doing something He's saying something God is doing something Right now He's moving mountains making a way for storm God is doing something Right now He's moving mountains making a way for storms God is doing something Right now

He's moving mountains making a way for storm God is doing something Right now He's moving mountains making a way for storms God is doing something All of my hope Is in the name The name of Jesus Breakthrough will come Come in the name The name of Jesus All of my hope Is in the name The name of Jesus Breakthrough will come Come in the name The name of Jesus God turn it around God turn it around God turn it around God turn it around God turn it around God turn it around morning come on can we just increase our faith and say god you can turn it around you can do it today we worship you jesus name above every name jesus you're worthy of our praises and time and time again we worship you come on see about

the God of gold My heart is found You're the father Oh There's no way to There's no The God We stand You're the way, the love, the way that God goes before You're a prince of peace and my heart is found You're the Father's son and the Holy Ghost There's no end to You and there's no limit to Your love Come on, just lift up a praise Come on, there's no limit to Your love Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh No one is higher than God our provider Prince of peace His good will measure, worthy forever Lord, You know me And no one is higher than God our provider Prince of peace His good will measure, worthy forever Lord, You know me And no one is higher than God our provider Prince of peace His good will measure, worthy forever Lord, You know me And no one is higher than God our provider Prince of peace His good will measure, worthy forever

You're welcome You're the God who comes before me Prince of peace My heart has found a home You're the Father's son And the Holy Ghost There's nowhere to go There's no limit to go There's no limit, there's no limit There's no limit to His throne Come on, why don't you just put those shattered wings Just begin to sing in your own words You're the God of creation And no one is harder, the God of provider Peace, oh peace It's good to Your measure, worthy forever Let it be, oh He And no one is harder, the God of provider Peace, oh peace It's good to Your measure, worthy forever And I know, You're the God who goes before Prince of peace For the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit There's no end to who You are And there's no limit to Your throne He goes into the temple, not that that was new to Him But for this particular time He walks into the temple, He's grieving the loss of the King He's grieving the loss, the King not only was the King But He was also a relative of His

He's grieving the loss of that He's concerned about the nation as a whole He walks into the temple though And the Scripture says He sees the Lord high and lifted up Sitting up on the throne And the robe fills the temple The presence of that was so overwhelming You hear the angels declaring one another Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy It reminds us That with all of the stuff that we're dealing with in the world and in life When you come into this house on a Sunday morning You ought to be able to look up And see the Lord sitting high up on the throne That is the resolution to it all It's seeing the Lord in that high and sovereign place The house of the Lord always should be a safe place But it ought to be a place where anything that you brought in You can leave somewhere in that parking lot And come in here and say I've been seeing this all week, I've been hearing this all week I've been fighting through this all week But I want to walk in here And I want to see my God Sitting up on the throne That can bring peace to my heart and peace to my mind And so thank you for joining with us And being part of what God is going to do And it's going to continue as we get ready to go into the Word

I want to give a shout out to the online campus And the prison campus, those in jail Thank you for watching and being here with us Take a minute now to mingle We call it Minute to Mingle If there's somebody by you don't know Introduce yourself and we'll get ready for the Word of God Thank you Alright, a few things to cover before we go into the Word of the Lord Thank you for being with us here at Church for the City Where we're going to teach the Word of God We're going to encounter the Word of God of the presence of the Lord as we just did. And we're going to spread the gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ. I want to just, first of all, just thank all of you ladies who came to the Women's Conference. It certainly was an absolute blessing and a gift and just extremely encouraging and uplifting. Amanda Mellon, of course, spoke very well. Pastor Kay Woodward, who was still with us in the first service this morning, done a great job. Over 314 women were registered, which I think is the highest registration we've had for a Women's Conference, which just gives us the insight to know how this thing can really turn out to be something fantastic here in the Southwest. I want to thank Rennell and her team. I know there was a tremendous amount of work that had to be done. But also, there was so much of support. Because we don't have facilities to hold these kind of things. Everything in here has to get torn down and broke down. All of the rooms almost have to get restructured to host. It takes a lot of volunteers to do that, to take everything down, put everything up. I want to thank Matt Ramos and his team, the hospitality team, the men that done the cooking. I just, I'm so grateful for everyone that was so part of that.

And I think what was imparted into the ladies will have an impact for years and years to come. So, we're so grateful. The men will be having a men's breakfast on October 11th at 8 a.m. That also will be another great time together. A church plan in Argentina will actually be here that morning with us also. The theme will be Blueprints, Building Men That Last. I know you can register through the tap disc in front of you, probably on the website, I'm sure, and at the Connect table. So, that's going to be a good time for us as men to get together, just have breakfast fellowship, and just enjoy the presence of the Lord in one another. I want to thank you for your generosity. Every time you come into the building, there's an opportunity to do so. And it helps us not, you know, here locally, of course, families in our community that we're able to serve, helps us with our church plans, our missions work, so many local agencies. You'll see some pictures on the screen. We redone the playground for the Kids Academy and that turned out just fantastic. And we're thankful for that. Again, that was part of your giving and generosity. And the Kids Academy actually is, there's only a few spaces from this thing being completely full this year. So, I just celebrate how this is taking off. And of course, our heart's desire is to try to expand every year so that, you know, we can just keep educating children all the way through until they know what's next in their life and get ready to enter into adulthood. So, thank you for being a part of that. I do want to share a story about a young man here in our church who sent his testimony in. He works in the financial industry, but he gave his life to the Lord maybe about a year or so ago, and been very faithful and active in the church. And of course, you know, the whole matter of tithing was something new to him. But he was giving, and then started giving a certain percentage of his income, which was 2%. But he came to the understanding that a tithe is a tenth, and even in

Yuma High education, that's 10%. So, he realized that he was at 2%, but he got convicted about the 10% of giving a tenth of his income to the house of the Lord. He shares about this particular day where that conviction came on him, and he made a commitment right then, I'm giving a tenth to the house of the Lord. Twenty minutes later, he had a potential client come into his office. After he finished wrapping that up, the client agreed to be part of his portfolio. He said when the client left, he'd done the math of what his bonus would be for that new client, and it worked out to the dollar, the other 8% that he had been committing to the house of the Lord. It just shows you how God is so faithful. There's so many things that God promises is in the Bible, and he proves it over and over again. But in that area, that's the only place where the Lord says, test me and see. You've seen I've done everything else I told you I would do, but you test me in that area and see. And so, I want to encourage you in your giving and tithing and know that God is so, so, so faithful. All right, I'm going to have to dive into the message. I told the first service that my message was short, and that turned out to be a lie. So, I'm not going to lie to you. You're going to be here pretty much till the other service gets in here, but hopefully, you'll learn something and embrace something. We're gonna pray and get right on into God's word. I'm gonna ask you to take off your caps. We're gonna pray and then we'll read the scriptures. Well, Father, I wanna thank you for this opportunity to be in your house. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness to us. Lord, it's good to be in a safe place. It's good to be in a place where your spirit is, where your presence is, Lord, where we can embrace you and what you're doing and be in community and fellowship with one another.

And so, Lord God, I pray that you help us, help me, I guess, also, as I deliver the word that I believe you've given to me. I pray, Lord, that I will decrease, that you might increase. May my tongue be used like a pen of a ready writer to speak the word of God clearly. More so, I pray that the Holy Spirit and the word of God is even louder than my voice. And when people hear the word, they embrace it and they accept it. And they allow it, Lord God, to be so much a part of their life. And that all of us, Lord, may be conformed to your image and come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray for every church in our county, that every church, Lord God, that whoever speaks will bring forth the gospel. Every church in this county will be a safe place. Every church in this county will be a place where people's lives can change. And so we ask for your help for that. And Lord, trust you to be glorified in all that we do. I do pray for the gathering for Charlie Kirk at the memorial, that it'll be not a place of violence, not a place of hostility, but a place of peace, a place that's reverent, that Christ can be acknowledged. We pray for the Kirk family, of course. And Lord, trust you, again, in all things, for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, if you don't mind taking up your Bible,

we're gonna go to Galatians chapter three. And we're in verses 10 through 14. Next week, we'll be in, we'll start with Galatians 3.15. This week, Galatians chapter three, verses 10 through 14. And here's the word of the Lord. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on the tree, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. Amen, so far the reading of the word, you may be seated. We're in Galatians, and the series is no other gospel. And this particular message, the theme is the why, the what, and the result of the cross. One of my most embarrassing moments as a pastor, it happened several years ago, but I was at the Guadalajara training base, and my week was up, I had taught all week, and was leaving early in the morning,

and there was a young man there that was a leader there at the base that said he would like to meet with me because there was something that he was struggling with in his life, and he wanted to know if I could meet with him and just give him some advice. And I told him, yeah, we'll have to do it tonight because I'm leaving early in the morning, and sure enough he comes, and the young man was, he's German, and he had a very strong German accent, very strong. Now he's talking to me in English, not that he couldn't talk to me in German, I probably can talk that too, but he's talking to me in English, and he's telling me that he needed help with his corrector, and so I know that he's a leader, and he's saying that he needs help with his corrector, but the things that he was telling me, it didn't quite line up with what he was saying he needed help with, but I just assumed, okay? He's a leader, he's having trouble with either correcting people, or how to bring correction. So I'm responding to him on that, and then he asked another question, and again he uses the word, the problem is my corrector, and so I said, okay, I listened to him,

and I think, well, your question is not lining up with that, but let me just give you. Another piece of advice, this goes on for about a half hour, and he finally just decides, okay, thank you, and he leaves. And so the next morning, the base leader picks me up to take me to the airport, and he said, his name is Andy, he said, Andy said that he met with you last night, and, but he said you really didn't help him. I said, okay, that, I mean, that happens, I guess. I'd done the best I could. He said, well, he kept trying to tell you that he needed help with his character. The whole time, I'm thinking the dude's saying corrector, so I'm teaching him how to lead people, and the dude is basically telling me I don't even know how to lead myself. That it's my character that's wrong, and I'm trying to tell the dude how to be a better corrector. I thought about that because I, through all of Galatians, Paul is talking about the law, and I thought, I just wonder if everyone understands what Paul is meaning when he talks about the law. And so I wanted to just give you just a brief understanding of what it is that the law, so that when I'm talking to you about the law, you ain't thinking about stop signs, red lights, and breaking the law of the land. You understand what is meant by the law in the scripture.

And when Paul speaks of the law, he's actually speaking of what we know as the Mosaic law that's in the Torah. It's what Moses received on Mount Sinai. When he went up to the mountain, of course he got the tablets, where you can identify with the 10 commandments that was on those tablets, but the Lord gave him all of the law. If people want to be in relationship with me, here's the law that they have to live by. All of that law is found in the first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. All of the law is found in those five books, which is what is called the Pentateuch. Those five books of the Bible, also known as the Torah, is the law of God. That's all of the moral commands like do not murder, do not steal, but also all the ceremonial law, like the sacrifices, the dietary restrictions, things that they could not eat, things that they could eat, things that they couldn't wear, all of the feasts. That's all in the Mosaic law, and when Paul refers to the law, he's referring to that that was given to Moses to teach the people. Now, Paul also uses the term law

to refer to those five books, those five books, sorry, that contain the law, as the whole covenant system, meaning if we're going to be in relationship with God, the covenant that we have with God and being in relationship with him is found in those five books. As a matter of fact, it's in there that it says if we don't keep this covenant of the law with God, that we won't live. It's Leviticus 18.5. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules. If a person does them, he shall live by them. I am the Lord. So if we're gonna be in relationship with God, then we are to keep the Mosaic law, the covenant of the law that God has made with man, if we're going to have a life with the Lord for eternity. And then there's also, when he speaks of the law, he's also saying that these laws that God gives us is the standard of righteousness. If we ever wanna believe and declare that we're righteous people, then that can only be judged by the law. If the law is kept by us to the T and in perfection, then we can say that we're righteous and holy people. If we cannot keep the law perfectly to perfection, then we are not in relationship with God. You do these and you live. If you don't, you don't live.

That's the law. That's what Paul is referring to. Now, that isn't bad. And hopefully, while I just explained that, you're sitting there thinking, then we're all doomed. You would be absolutely correct. Because God's standard doesn't change. His law doesn't change. It is what it is. And he's saying, you have to do this to live. Well, we should all be thinking that we're doomed. But that's what makes the law good, is that the law actually is diagnostic for us. When we line ourselves up against the law of God, we're able to see that we. We do sin and we do not have any human ability to be perfect We don't have the ability to do so So the law is diagnostic showing us This is what god's standard is But it also reveals to us that we fail We will fail We have failed and we will always fail But that brings in the other good news about the law Not only is it diagnostic to show me how I really am but it's also preparatory Because it prepares me for what I need most and that's jesus christ So the law reveals to me This is what you're supposed to be I see the law know the law respond to the law. I can't do that And the law says great

That's why you need jesus That's why you need the lord So the law tells us the problem And the law points us to the solution So verses 10 through 12 tells us the basically the impending result of it is that Humans have this instinctive desire all of us do To be in good relationship with our friends with our family Employers parents children we we all have an instinctive desire To want to be in good relationship with people That's one of the things that people struggle with the most every day Is who's what relationship is not going? Well, what friendship is not going well what the funkiness that they feel when something ain't going right between them and two people? That's that's an instinctive desire for us Similarly though We have this innate desire because we're made in the image of god To have a right relationship with him and yet we know constantly that we're the ones in revolt The problem that we have with our relationship with god is not because of god It's because of us Now you could have an innate desire to be in relationship with people friends family employers And you know some of that could be your fault as a matter of fact when you deal with you say no Maybe some of this is mine and i'll take responsibility for this if they'll take responsibility for that But when we when we're not in right relationship with god, you know, none of that is god's fault Because god's standard is the same God's law is the same Nothing changes. He's holy. He's righteous. He's pure and he's perfect if we're not in right relationship with god

It's because of us And what we find out what we know what we've learned Is that we cannot depend on keeping the law to have this life with god We already know that we've failed We already know that it'll lead to ruin And no matter how right we are about some things Which we have a tendency to determine how good we're doing by the things that we're doing, right But not by the things we're doing wrong Or not by the things that we're not doing at all we also have a tendency to determine think that we're better we're more right than others because They do that. I certainly at least don't do that That's your standard But that's not god's standard God's standard is that all of us would be holy righteous perfect and pure that standard hasn't lowered We can't judge ourselves on by how we think we're doing otherwise you'll be living your life According to your standard and I can tell you that don't work out that well And so when when we fail in one aspect of god's law one aspect It can it can be it can take you can take one Ink pen that doesn't belong to you. You failed in them all You can say one ill thing about a person that you shouldn't say you failed in them all You can omit to do one thing that you were supposed to do that was right According to god's word and the law and you failed in them all If you fail in one you failed in them all Besides pastoring My favorite job Passion is not not a job. So I probably shouldn't have said in that category, but my favorite job Was when I worked for pepsi cola, I loved it I loved being a pepsi cola sales salesman. I love Delivering pepsi. It's it's because I work for pepsi. That's why I didn't do coke, but I I love I loved

working for pepsi cola Loved it enjoyed it And we had a system, you know You deliver so many cases that there was a period of time you get bonuses and all of that kind of Stuff and and you certainly like to be able to finish your day. I felt Pepsi, man, I know Rick Phillips, I saw him somewhere earlier, I talked to him. You know, you wanna get in there, get your truck filled. The idea was to get to all your deliveries on time. Get in there, get the stuff delivered, get the stuff on the shelf, get at the end of the day and man, 2.30, be able to pull back in, check out and be done for the day, have a clean record. Well, the biggest struggle I had delivering Pepsi, it usually wasn't dealing with, I mean, people are people, but honestly, the biggest challenge I had is when we, and I'm dating myself and some of you won't even remember this, but when we had the 16 ounce glass bottles, I mean, they were the best. There was nothing like a fresh, ice cold diet Pepsi in a glass bottle, it was beautiful. But they were the hardest to deliver because the way the bottles were, the little plastic that they had on top, everything was kind of unstable. Even when you would put them on the shelves, they were a bit unstable. That's why you don't even have those. Then they went to the 16 ounce plastic bottles and I think they even done away with that nonsense. They were hard to market and deliver.

But man, I can think of days when my day would be going absolutely smooth. I'm in my last stop of the day, whether it was Walgreens, whether it was, at that time it was Apco and then became Alphabeta, whatever. It was the last stop of the day, the old Kmart that was on 32nd Street. And I would haul in there, sometimes those cases would be six or seven high on a two wheel dolly. You come in there and you stack it in the aisle and you go get the next one, stack it in the aisle, go get the next one, stack it, stack it, stack it. You get them all stacked, everything is checked in, then you lift them and turn toward where you gotta put them up. But the problem with those cases is you had to get that two wheel dolly underneath the stack of six and seven cases of these 16 ounce bottles. So you had to wobble the stack just a bit, enough for the stack to kind of lean forward so that the bottom was up just enough for you to get the thing in there and then you could pull the whole thing back. Where every now and then, you would lean that thing just a little bit too forward. You still got your hand on it but when you pull it back, the inertia of the other cases on the bottom would keep going forward. And that meant a domino effect down the aisle and you got, I got a problem on aisle four

because I got soda going everywhere. No matter how my day went, when I came in and report that I had dumped a stack of sodas, that whole day was a complete failure and the boss would make you feel like it was a complete failure. That's how it is with the law. No matter how good you do one failure and you've absolutely ruined it all. Here is what the scripture has said to us. Everyone who has sinned and failed is under the curse of the punishment. You're under the curse of the punishment. You cannot separate God's word and his law. You cannot separate it. His law is the word and what the law blesses, God blesses, what the law curses, God curses. And so if we fail in the law, then we fail to live up to the righteous standard of God and that equals death. You fail, you're under the curse. First John 3, four says sin is lawlessness and since we're all sinners, that means all of us are in lawlessness. And we know ourselves. We know when we haven't loved the Lord with all of our being, we know that we haven't been perfect in our love to him and our love to others and our love to fellow man and to our neighbors.

And when we break the law of God, whatever that law is that we've broken, then we bring ourselves under the curse of the law. The law could save us. If we'd done everything perfectly right, according to Leviticus 18, five, if we'd done everything perfectly right by the law, we can live in a right relationship with God for eternity. But we know that ain't possible, that ain't true, never has been and never will be. We all have sinned. First Kings 8, 46 says there's no one who does not sin. Isaiah 53, six says all have gone astray. Romans 3, 10 says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3, 23 says there is none righteous, no. law, not one. So Deuteronomy 27, 26 says, curse be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them. Every one of us is cursed. And that brings not only the shame and the humiliation and you being ruined, it has an eternal effect which is damnation. So when we are under that curse, that means we're cut off from the blessings of God. We don't have eternity. We don't have life in Him. We don't have hope in Him. The image of what it means to be under that curse is so clear with Jesus. When you look at the cross, when Jesus was crucified, it wasn't quiet. It was public. They dignified the death of Jesus. He was stripped. He was mocked. He was ridiculed. He was lifted up for all to see. Everyone saw this guy has done wrong. He's a criminal, what they proclaimed. He's being treated like any other person who's broken the law. To His enemies, He was a criminal cursed by God. But in reality, Jesus was hanging on the cross with our curse. It wasn't His. He hadn't sinned. Jesus hadn't done anything against the will of God. All of us have. He was hanging there in shame and humiliation and mocked under the curse of God, not because He earned it, but He carried it. He carried it for us. And because Jesus did, the Scriptures

is clear to us, now we can have life in Christ. Not because we could keep the law, because we couldn't, but Jesus in His perfect righteousness took upon our curse and hung upon that cross that we might have life. That's why Habakkuk 2.4 says, but the righteous will live by faith, by their faithfulness to God. It's not by our perfection that we have life in Christ. It's our faith in Jesus Christ for what He has done for us. That's where eternal life comes. It's our faith, by our faith in Christ. And so what verses 13 and 14 tells us is that we are redeemed from the curse, the curse that comes with breaking the law. Jesus Christ has done that for us, what we could not do for ourselves. The only way to escape from this curse is not for us to work a righteousness, which always turns into failed obedience, but rather the trust in the work of Jesus on the cross. Hear this, church. He redeemed us. He saved us. He rescued us. He ransomed us from an awful condition. The law has done exactly what it was designed to do. It showed me how bad I am. And yet, because I have an innate desire to be in right relationship with God, the law was a mirror to me to say, this is how bad you are. And when I'm looking at this mirror and seeing how bad I am, then what does the law do? The law says, now, if you want righteousness, you better go to him. You better go to Christ Jesus. It's because it's him hanging on that cross, nailed on that tree, that the curse was transferred from us to him. Hear me, folks. This is the gospel. This is the good news. The good news, when we rejoice about our salvation, we are rejoicing about nothing that we have accomplished. We are rejoicing because the curse that was on me was taken off me and placed on Jesus Christ. And the righteousness on Jesus was given to me. And now, we have life in Christ because he chose to take our place. That's the glory of the gospel. That is the greatness of what Christ has done for all of us. I read maybe last week, maybe it was two weeks ago, about a fellow by the name of Maximilian Colby. He was a priest during World War II. He grew up in a part of Poland that belonged to the Russian Empire at the time, but he had a real desire to serve the Lord and do the will of God. So when he was 16 years old, when there was a hay cart being

transferred from one city to another city in Austria, he hid himself in this hay cart so that he could arrive at the city where the seminary was, where he could go to school and learn the things of the Lord. Then he went on to Rome and got his doctorates in theology and philosophy, and he built quite an organization of evangelism and publishing writings concerning our walk in faith. But then when he went back to Poland, of course, the Nazis overran Poland and many of the Jews there was being persecuted and he himself rescued 3,000 Jews from the persecution of the Germans. In 1939, he was in his particular city and the Germans come in and they go through the houses. Of course, they're looking for Jewish people and going in the barns and the cellars and, you know, they're throwing hand grenades in the cellars and all that, either trying to draw the people out or just kill them. And as Jews come out, they're doing what they do to the women, men, women, children, it didn't matter. Mid-afternoon of this particular day, they had collected 900 Jews and they posted a notice that all the Jews will be shot. And all of the Polish people that was trying to help these Jews would be forced to go into labor and dig the graves for the Jews that they were killing. He was part of that. And even during that time, even though his illness was getting fragile, he was getting older, he was doing his best to help these people who were captured and persecuted. Somehow or another was able to manage to feed 2,000 Jews on his own and clothe as many of the refugees as possible.

They found out that he was doing this. Took him a couple of years, but in 1941, they came to get him. They found out what he was doing. They busted open a door, knowing that he was somewhere in that home. And they gave the shout-out that if nobody gives them up, they're going to seize all of the folks. And sure enough, after they started beating on these particular people, he comes out and identifies himself. So they take him captive. Along with Jews, they take him captive, but he noticed that with him, they gave him a tattoo with an ID number, the Jewish folks that they didn't. And he came to the conclusion, if you had an ID, they weren't going to kill you. They would just send you into some kind of forced labor, but they would kill the ones that didn't have the ID numbers. And so, sure enough, they send Colby to a place where, again, he's doing hard labor. He's an old man constantly being beat up on. They were shouting at him, calling him a Polish pig, and giving him things that he couldn't do. This particular day that his biographer writes about, they put a stone on him that they knew he couldn't carry. He got knocked over by the stone, and so they brutally almost beat him to death, left him for dead. But he survived. The biographer writes, even then, you could hear him whispering, bless him, oh, Lord, he doesn't understand what he was doing. As he was trying to survive after a period of time, he was taking the bread that they were giving him to eat, and he was using it to serve people communion, praying for them. One day while he's in this place, one of the Jewish people escaped because they

couldn't find him, the Nazis retaliated, and said, 10 of you are going to go to the starvation tank because of the act, the escape of this one. So they just randomly gather up 10 of them and send them to the starvation tank. Sorry, the Polish men gather up 10 of them and send them to the starvation tank. He hears one guy shouting about his wife and his children. And so he made a decision. He went up to the Nazi commander and said, I will die in place of that man if you let him free. To the surprise of everyone, the Nazi commander said, okay. He let the man go. And sure enough, Colby goes into the starvation tank. And of course, days later, he dies with the other nine. The biographer. writes the words of the ransom prisoner who said this, and I quote, I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. I, the condemned, am to live, and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me. That's exactly what Christ has done for us. There was no reason at all that he needed to die for us, but he voluntarily and willingly gave his life that we might live. That's what Paul is painting here in our text in Galatians 3. Jesus stepped into our place. Yeah, we weren't in a concentration camp, but we were certainly in a death camp. We were under the curse of God's judgment. And yet, Christ volunteered to stand in our place and take on what belonged to us. First Peter 2.24 says this, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. He bore the sins in his body on the tree. And even today, the cross is the most visible and

most recognizable symbol of all human history. Everybody that sees a cross, they know what that stands for, or they least know the symbol. It doesn't necessarily mean, and I'm thinking even sometimes as Christians, what it truly means. We know the symbol. We know what the cross is supposed to represent. Just a few weeks ago, I came home and told Lady V about a young man that I'd met, struck up a conversation with him. Of course, in the midst of that conversation, invited the young man to church. And I don't know if he's come with the crowds. I don't know. Hope he has and hope he will. But anyway, invited the young man to church. And I go home, I tell Lady V, man, I met this young man. I really liked the young man. We had great conversation. And I invited him to church. And she said, well, do you know if he's a Christian? I said, well, he had on a cross. And she said, oh, he had on a cross. I got the point. I knew what she was saying. Because he was wearing a cross doesn't mean that he knows what that means. It don't mean because people see a cross that they know. I mean, just think about Constantine. Some of you know Constantine declared all Western civilization under Christianity. And because of the Battle of Milvian, it was 314 AD, the Battle of Milvian right outside of Rome. Constantine was going to this battle, he was afraid, he was scared.

He had no relationship with Christ, but he believed that there was a Supreme God and he looks up to ask the Supreme God to help him. While he's looking up, he sees in the brightness of the sunlight, he sees what is a cross to him. And there was the words across that cross that says, in this sign, conquer. So, he went forth in battle and they won. And he thought, hey, man, I saw the cross. The cross is a sign that means victory. It means that we can conquer. And so, I'm a Christian. And all y'all are going to be Christians because I'm a Christian. Now, whether Constantine really was, I don't know who's to say I got my thoughts. But he used that to declare, I'm a Christian now because of what I've seen in the sign of the cross. And there's a symbol you'll see on the screen. He put this on all of their armaments, which comes from the Greek word for Christ, the first two letters, the chi, which is the X, and the rho, which is the P, because he wanted everyone to know that he was a Christian. But is that what the cross means? Does the cross mean that it's just something for victory and for conquer? No, I dare not. The cross is actually a sign of death. It's a sign of weakness. It's a sign of failure. It's a sign of obedience. It's a sign of the curse. The cross reminds us that every one of us are failures. It's not something that we boast about as if we're these conquering, victorious people. It's not us that's conquerors.

It's not us that's victorious. We're absolute failures. Christ is the one that's got victory over sin. Christ is the one that's got victory over weakness. Christ is the one that's got victory over death. And so, the cross does have meaning. It's absolutely necessary. Without the cross, we cannot have a relationship with God at all. Every covenant relationship has rules, whether it be in parenting, whether it be in marriage. Every relationship that you make, you make that relationship based on rules. Some of them might be unspoken. Some of them might be spoken. Some of them might be clear. Obviously, I hope in relationship, we won't have infidelity. You can put all the other things that you want. Some people not marrying anybody that smokes. Whatever the rules are, you set those rules up. But if those rules are broken, then so is the covenant relationship. Christ is holy. The Lord is holy. We're not. We can never be in relationship with him because we've broken every one of God's laws. The cross is necessary. If there was not a death on the cross by Jesus, none of us can ever be in relationship with God because that was the covenant law. How are you in relationship with God? If you do these laws, you shall live. I can't do those laws, Lord.

That's why I sent my son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for you so now you can be in relationship with him. It's absolutely necessary. And the cross then, indeed, it redeems us. Team, you can come. The cross redeems us. Not only did Jesus die on that cross for us, but he became the curse. He became a curse. He became sin. He was made to be sin. 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says, for God made Christ, who never sinned, listen, to be the offering for our sin so that we would be made right with God through Christ. Did he become selfish? No. Did he become angry? No. Did he become rebellious? No. Did he become wicked? No. Did he actually become evil on the cross? No. But on the cross, Christ was treated legally as sin. God responded to Christ on the cross as if he was sin. Instead of it being you and I, it was him. So hear this, we sometimes think that the cross just means we now have forgiveness. It's more than that. We're now treated wholly.

We were unholy because we could not keep the law. I know this is deep. You had 12 feet, but I'm getting ready to bring you up out of this pool in just a minute. Just stay down here for just a minute. You'll get this. You'll walk out of here. You'll be the smartest church in town, and you can tell everybody what Jesus done for him. But it's not just that he forgave us, but we became holy. Because think of the transfer. The sin was mine, and I'm unholy, and God was holy. He sends his son, Christ, who had never sinned, who was absolute holy. He takes the sin off of me and places it on him. But off of him, he takes the righteousness of God and places it on me. Now, God looks at me just like he's looking at Jesus. He doesn't look at me as a sinner, as a lawless person. He looks at me with the righteousness of son of God because Jesus died on that cross. That's why it happened. Here's the result of it. Jesus has this funny interaction with his disciples in Luke chapter 10, verse 17 and 20. He sends out his disciples. There's 70 of them now. He sends them out two by two. He's modeled healing and praying for the sick and equipped them. And he says, now, listen, I want you to go out and practice this. He sends them out two by two. And so, they return.

And the scripture says they return with joy, for good reason, for them. They said, Lord, even demons are subject to us in your name. He said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing shall by any means hurt you. That's a great statement. And hear that, believers. He's saying that to us. You got authority to cast out demons. You got authority to lay hands on people for them to be healed. You can trample over these evil things. None of those things will have power over you. All that is good. But then he says, but hold on a minute. Do you really think that's the most important thing that I accomplished for you in this life? Is giving you the power to go out and heal the sick and raise the dead and cast out demons? Jesus is basically saying, that's nothing. I saw the devil fall out of heaven like lightning. Of course you got the authority. And I want you to be happy about what you've done. But don't miss the point. The greatest thing for you to rejoice over is that your name is written in heaven, in the book of life. Because you can go out and heal the sick. You can raise the dead.

You can open up blind eyes. You can cast out demons. But I tell you what you can't do, you can't go to a cross and die for your sin. I had to do that for you. And that is what gets your name in heaven. Raise all the dead people you could raise. But the only thing that gets your name in heaven is Jesus dying on the cross for you. That's what we rejoice about, is that our name is written in heaven. Galatians 6 14 says, as for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified. And the world's interest has also died. The cross makes everything else secondary. What Jesus did for us on the cross is the meaning of it all. Everybody stand if you would. Prayer team, you can come. Just gonna say a prayer for you that you embrace this. The prayer team will be here. And again, you need Jesus. I didn't mean to do it, but I did it with emphatic. You all are failures. We all have fallen short. There's only one way to have life, and that's through Christ. And so if you're here today and you need Jesus, again, I'm not gonna ask you to close your eyes

or any of that stuff. You just come right up here and tell one of these folks that you need Jesus, you need life, you need life. One of my favorite lines is right out of Pilgrim's Progress, right at the beginning. When Pilgrim reads the word, he's reading the gospel, and he realizes that he's a sinner. He dropped everything and ran toward the cross shouting, life, life, I need life. Everybody in here that don't need Jesus, that ought to be your next step. I need life. And that life only comes through Christ alone. Today can be the day that you make that commitment to Jesus. Whatever other prayer you need, these dear folks are here to pray for you. They'll help you, they'll minister to you in whatever capacity that you need. Don't leave here without getting prayer if you need it. They want to minister to you, and we want you to receive ministry. If you need healing, you want to be filled with the Spirit, you need someone to come alongside and just be another voice of prayer to the Almighty God for whatever you're praying for. They're here for you, and if you need Jesus, this is the day for you to embrace the salvation that Christ has for you. Father, I want to thank you for this opportunity

to minister your word. Thank you, Lord God, for the truth of the cross, the power of it, and what you have done for us by giving your life on that cross. May every one of us want to embrace the life that's been provided for us through your death. In Christ's name we pray, amen. God bless you. Have a great day. Hello? Oh, there we go, okay. Church, if you have decided today that you want to say yes to Jesus, you want to go public with your faith by getting water baptized, or you just want to learn more about how you can take your next steps, we would love to help you with that and walk you through that. So if you're in the house, you can either tap the disc on the seat in front of you, you can stop by the connect table on your way out, or if you are online, you can click the links that your host has posted in the chat. Now, if you purchased a copy of Pastor's book and you have not yet received it, or you're interested in purchasing one, we will have a. set up for that in the lobby where you can get all of that information. Next Sunday we will be having another open house and that will be after the last service next week. So if you are curious about how you can join a life group, how you can join a serve team, or you just want to learn more about all of us here

at CTC, we would love to invite you to that. You can sign up online, you can sign up at the connect table. The altars will remain open so if you are in need of prayer, please do not hesitate. Our team is ready to pray for you. We're gonna go into one more song of worship and then we'll dismiss you, but we just thank you for joining us today. We pray you have a blessed week and we'll see you next Sunday. Praise Him, all creatures, here below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise God, the blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures, here below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Have a great church, a great Sunday church. You're dismissed.