Calvary Chapel River Oaks

Guest (Male): That is a hope and a guarantee that is not wishful thinking. When we use the word hope in our culture, it's usually in the form of a question. "Well, I hope it happens," or, "I hope that's real," and, "I hope that's true."

But with Jesus, with the evidence, the historical evidence, the eyewitnesses, the Scriptures, everything we have known, it proclaims he lives. He wasn't just a good man, he wasn't just a good teacher. He rose from the grave and he's alive. Amen?

Guest (Male): Lord, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you that we praise a living Savior. It is not a religion, it is a relationship. We're so thankful and we're so grateful. And we love you in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.

Guest (Male): Good morning, church. He is risen. He is risen indeed. I am glad to be here with you this morning celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. He is our great cornerstone and his resurrection is the central pillar of our faith. Without his resurrection, what happened on the cross would mean nothing.

In a few moments, we're going to be celebrating by partaking in communion. But before we come to that, I would be remiss if I didn't remind each of us to examine our hearts and be mindful of the significance of partaking in the Lord's Supper.

About this, Paul writes in First Corinthians, "So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. This is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God's judgment upon yourself."

Today, I want to remind you of some of the great promises that the Lord made to us before his death, promises that his resurrection proves we can trust completely and take him at his word.

The promise of his resurrection. Our Lord was not murdered. He was not assassinated. His death was a very deliberate and willing act of sacrifice. Although it may not have appeared so to the world, he was in complete control of what was happening in the entire situation, allowing all that happened to him to occur.

Here is how we know this to be true. He told us in advance. He said, "No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father commanded." Promise made, promise kept.

The promise that he will never leave us or forsake us. How can we know this? Because his spirit lives in us. He said, "If you love me, obey my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth.

The world cannot receive him because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him. But you know him because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans. I will come to you."

His promise of peace. "I am leaving you with a gift: peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you. I am going away, but I will come back to you again." Promise made, promise kept.

His promise that he will return for us one day. The Lord says, "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you so that you will always be with me where I am."

Promise made, promise shall be kept. Whether this promise is fulfilled in a life fully lived or a supernatural twinkling of an eye snatching away harpazo event, because he rose victorious, you can trust his promise.

Finally, the promise of his finished work. How can we know for certain that his sacrifice settled our sin debt and ensured our eternal destiny once and for all? On the cross, shortly before he breathed his last, he said something extremely powerful, and it too was a promise. He said, "It is finished."

It took me a long time to realize the true power and significance of that phrase. English serves us poorly in conveying the deep meaning and power behind the statement. To find this deeper meaning, we have to switch over from English to Greek, the language in which it was originally written and recorded.

In Greek, the phrase that he spoke was tetelestai. This holds much greater significance and deeper meaning. As with any language, context is very important. There are three main contexts in which this phrase tetelestai applies: business and commerce, the military, and in a court of law.

However, in the case of our Lord, all of these contexts apply. When used in the context of commerce or business transaction, this phrase means paid in full. This is the one that we are most familiar with.

In a military context, for example, if a soldier ran in here, stood front and center before you, saluted, and shouted, "Tetelestai," he would be announcing mission accomplished. In a court of law, if a judge were to lift his gavel, point at the accused and announce, "Tetelestai," then slam his gavel down, he is saying sentence served.

Do you see the picture that's being painted here? Paid in full, mission accomplished, sentence served. But there's one more remarkable thing about this phrase, and that is it is given in the perfect tense.

The full effect of tetelestai in perfect tense is as follows: it was paid in full, it is paid in full, and shall remain paid in full forever. That is the power of those words that he spoke as he was nearing his final breath on the cross. That is how finished and complete his work is for you and me.

That is a beautiful and eternal promise that you can count on. And now we'll take a few moments and remember all that he accomplished for us. Church, please come forward and take the elements.

Guest (Male): I'll be reading the account from Matthew 26. "As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, 'Take this and eat it, for this is my body.' Take and eat."

"After that, he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, 'Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many. Mark my words, I will not drink from this cup again until the day I drink it with you new in my Father's Kingdom.' Take and drink."

Guest (Male): Lord, thank you for your many promises. Promises that you have kept, promises that you continue to keep, and promises that you will keep. Lord, be with Pastor Grady as he brings your word today. We celebrate your great victory today. In Jesus's name, amen.

Guest (Male): Our scripture verse today will be from John 10, verses 7 through 10. If you please stand and read with me. "Then Jesus said to them again, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.'" Amen.

Pastor Grady Clark: Thank you so much for that beautiful communion introduction. The gospel is so simple. Men have messed it up and over-complicated it, but the message is simple. We're sinners, we were separated from God, and there was no way back to God unless God intervened.

That is Jesus. He is the intervention and he is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. Usually on Resurrection Sunday, I tend to stay on track with our study wherever we are in the word rather than doing a traditional message.

For the most part, I don't know of anyone who's probably been to a church at some point who's not heard the gospel, what we just heard in the communion service, the introduction there. Jesus came, he was born of a virgin, he lived a life, a sinless life, then he died and rose again.

Most of that's what everybody hears every year and they celebrate that. I so appreciate the fact that we take the time to celebrate that. As believers, we don't celebrate a day out of tradition because it's a living relationship. And the living relationship doesn't just happen because we prayed a prayer.

It happens because we prayed that prayer believing and really putting our faith and trust and dependence upon Jesus as a whole, not just for that moment but for the whole rest of our lives. The resurrection for us is an everyday reality. It is every day. It's not just one day a year. It's not just on Sundays. It's not just on Wednesdays. It's every day of our lives.

With that said, I am going to break away this Sunday from our study in Mark. Our focus is not going to be really preaching what we know as far as what we've heard in a communion message as well as what everyone has heard. I have a question, and it's really the title of our message: "What does it all mean?"

What does it all mean? We've heard the story. We may have prayed a prayer. We may have become religious. We may practice certain things. We may do certain things. But we need to get beyond the surface and ask this question: "What does it all mean?"

Father, we ask this morning that you speak to our hearts, that you go deeper than this soft layer that has been said and taught on for so many years and continues to be taught on. The gospel should be taught. Lord, we need to understand what it really means for us.

Why did you do what you did? Why was it necessary? As we go through that study this morning, Lord, I pray that you would open our ears, open our hearts, that we may hear what you have to say, not what I have to say. For truly, anything that I bring to the table is not worth hearing.

What you bring, Lord, we need to be keen in our hearing and our listening that we understand what you're teaching us this morning. We pray for that. We ask that your spirit guide us. And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Why did he come? Why did he have to die? And why, without the resurrection, would it really be meaningless for us regarding the full concept of what the resurrection means? I hope to answer these questions as we go through our study. In order to do that, we have got to go back in history, biblical history, but our history.

In Genesis, we see that man and woman were created in God's image. They were perfectly made. They were sinless. They lived in the garden, a perfect place. Sin had not entered the world and they were at peace with God.

When you're at peace with God, you can have the peace of God. A lot of people want the peace of God. They want all the things that bring the love, the joy, the happiness, the fruits of the Spirit. People would love to have all the fruits of the Spirit. "Who wouldn't want to be joyful? Who wouldn't want to have love, the joy?" How can we achieve those things?

We can't achieve them. We can receive them, but it only comes through a relationship with God through Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit brings those to us. In the garden, they had it. They had it all. All of the fruits of the Spirit were there. There was no sin, there was no evil as far as on their part. Therefore, the relationship was in a perfect place in the beginning.

But when they were tempted and disobeyed a specific command from the Lord, the relationship was broken. It was no longer a perfect relationship. They still were breathing. They still were living. They still could eat, they could drink, they could taste. But the knowledge of good and evil was awakened.

This is the thing that you have to understand: Satan did not completely lie to them in the garden. He took God's word and twisted it to feed that soul, the mind of Eve. And then when Adam came along, or if he was even with her, that's a whole teaching within itself, he deliberately disobeyed the command that God had given him.

"You can eat of any tree, but don't eat of this one, because when you eat of this one, you will surely die." Well, Satan said, "You won't die." And in the physical sense, he wasn't lying. They ate the fruit, they were still breathing, they weren't dead physically. But spiritually, their spirit went to sleep or died. You can call it either one.

It basically completely disconnected with the soul and the body. Man was left to his own instinct. He began to act out what he desired, living for what he wanted, practicing and seeking to fulfill what he already had but lost because of the broken relationship.

From that time on, instead of dependency upon God, man became dependent upon himself. Every person born after Adam and Eve were born into this sinful nature of self-preservation, self-service, selfish desires, selfish motivations. "What can I do to make myself happy?"

There was no way that man himself could reconnect the relationship. He broke it, but he couldn't fix it. And that is where all of mankind finds itself today. Some will say they don't agree with that. Some will say, "Well, I think all people are basically good, they just—some people do bad things."

That is not what the Bible teaches. From a biblical teaching and perspective, if we don't accept the fact that we're born as a sinner and cannot reconnect with God, that we need a redeemer and need a mediator and someone to come and fix it for us, then we'll continue the cycles that we have.

I ask you to look at your lives today. We all have patterns. We all have cycles. We all do things a certain way. Every one of those things that we've practiced all of our lives, we've learned from childhood, from infant on, actually. Infants come into the world, first thing they want is all about me. "I want to be fed, I want to be changed, I want a nap, but I want it all on my terms."

Sometimes you remember as parents, you would have to put your baby in the car and drive them around to get them to go to sleep. They wouldn't sleep in the bed. They were tired, but they wouldn't sleep. Then they were hungry, but they didn't want to eat what you offered them.

Then you are trying to hold them and comfort them, and they just scream. And at 2:00 in the morning, you are up again. And 3:00 in the morning, you are up again. Parents remember this. And those who aren't parents, you were one of the kids that caused all that of your parents. You were the one doing it.

It is the human nature to be born into "what I want, when I want, how I want." Therefore, "I am going to find a way to get it." That is the sinful nature. Unless God intervened, there would be no hope. But God did intervene. He intervened with Jesus.

Before I go to the next point, I want to point this out again. Many people will say, "Well, if God is real, and he's perfect, and he's loving, why is the world in the shape it is in?" Well, I just gave you the answer. It is because man has tried to run it himself.

No matter what law is passed, it doesn't fix the problem. No matter what bill they put through Congress, "We've now got the hate law." Wonderful. I think these people who are with hate speech, they need to be dealt with. But a hate law doesn't change their heart.

You can't change the heart with a law. You can't change the heart by changing things around you. You can change your habits. You can change clothes. You can change the way you do certain things, schedules and patterns and getting up in the morning. All of those things you can change, which may be helpful to your daily lives, but it doesn't change the heart.

That is why Jesus came, because the heart was separated from God. Romans 5:12-17: "Therefore, just as one man, and through one man," speaking of Adam here, "sin entered the world, and then death through sin, and thus death spread to all men," not just selective ones, not just the ones who become mass murderers and serial killers, "to all men, because all sinned."

That is the truth. There is nowhere around that. You can skirt around it. You can say, "I'm a decent person, I haven't killed, I haven't murdered, I haven't done any of those bad things," that we put on a scale of one to ten as the worst to the best or the lightest to the heaviest, whatever it might be.

The truth is it doesn't matter what level it is, we are born into a sinful nature, therefore all have sinned, and therefore we're all broken. "For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who is to come.

But the free gift," this is coming from Jesus, "is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift of the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded to many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned.

For the judgment which came from the offense resulted in condemnation," and that condemnation was for all. "But the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ."

Jesus is the way. There is no other. He is the way. He is the one that brings us life. He is the one that brings us justification. There's a lot of big words in a lot of theology, and they are talking about justified, propitiation for your sins, and all of these things. Those are good words to learn if you really want to take the time to do it.

The simple fact is that he came, and because he came, we are now justified before the Father for those who believe in him. If you do not believe and receive him, you are not justified before the Father. And if you do not repent before you die, you will be separated from God forever. That's what the Bible teaches.

This point has to be grasped and it has to be understood, or else we miss the fact or deny the fact that each and every one of us in this room is born a sinner and that we can't fix that problem. The big lie among many today is that we get to God because we are basically good people.

But that is self-righteousness. That is proclaiming that I'm good enough because I haven't done this or I haven't done that, because I don't do this and I don't do that, I am now good enough. But Isaiah 64:6 tells us this: "We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away."

The truth is that no matter how good we think we are, no matter what measurement tool we use—and we have them—man has had a really good way of taking sins and categorizing them. Murder, adultery, lying, this, that, covetousness—it is all staggered in man's eyes as to which is the worst.

It is because man's judgment judges those things in accordance to what they feel is the worst. Murder, you either get life in imprisonment or the death penalty. Lying, you go into politics. Those are the differences of how man looks at it.

But God looks at it on the same level. God looks at it, "If you're in me, you have to come through Jesus. If you're not coming through Jesus, you are not in me." It doesn't matter what level or prioritize we have placed ourselves in the terms of what's right and what's wrong.

The ugly truth, this is the ugly truth of who we are before we come to know Jesus. Until we can see the condition of the heart the way God sees it, then we really don't recognize our need for redemption. "I don't need that. Why do I need it? I've got a good life, good job, married, happy, everything seems to be going along fine."

I want you to look at life as a whole. How many bad decisions have we made? How many choices have we made that didn't align with God's word? How many times have we seen the consequences of that? Over and over and over. The pain of divorce. The child that suffers, the children that suffer when angered parents take it out on them.

When you have abuse in the world today. We are all part of that world. Until Jesus calls us out of that world to be separated and become sanctified, meaning that we are in this world and we are living in it, but as a believer, our role is not to act the way we acted, to live the way we lived, to do the things according to our own plans any longer.

It's to come to him and submit to him and walk in obedience. Ultimately, we tell ourselves, "Oh, I can do it myself. We are okay, as long as we do our best." Our best is equal to our righteousness. It is filthy rags. It doesn't measure up and can never measure up.

To be as blatant as I can on this point, this is a lie from the pit of hell. It is from Satan himself who comes and tells you you're okay. You don't need redemption. That whole religious thing, look at how many problems it's caused. I'm not going to stand here and tell you that religion has not caused problems.

In this world today, many of our problems are because of religion. But that is why today I'm not celebrating here the resurrection of Jesus Christ because of my religion. I am celebrating because of my relationship.

When you have a relationship with Jesus, instead of practicing religion, which brings bondage, it brings anger, it brings false guilt and confusion over people because they are ordering you and telling you, "You got to do this or you got to do that. If you don't do this, you're going to hell. If you don't do that..." All these things.

There may be some truth in those statements, but that is not what we are supposed to be living our lives according to. It is not about what we do or don't do. It is about what Jesus has done. And that's where the truth lies. But Satan, he convinces and manipulates men to think more of themselves than they actually are. Pride.

He's also the father of pride. Self-reliance, self-determination, that is what keeps us separated from God. Now this lie has also penetrated through the front door of many churches. Many come to God as something that they want to add to their life. "Well, it can't hurt having God in my corner. He's my co-pilot."

The bumper stickers say it all. Even the "Coexist" makes a huge statement that if there's a God, we can all come to him through our own various ways just because it's all about us anyway. No, the "Coexist" is a lie.

We do coexist, and our role is not to condemn, but to love and show mercy. But we cannot agree and align ourselves with false teaching from other religions and other groups because they are going against the one thing that Jesus said. If they cannot claim that Jesus is the only way, they are calling Jesus a liar.

If they are calling Jesus a liar, and we believe Jesus, where do we stand in that if we then cross over and say, "Oh, okay, I don't want to offend and I don't want to say—who am I?" You're a believer if you're in Jesus Christ, and you need to stand bold and say what you believe.

I had a conversation in our running club here a couple of weeks ago. God opened up the opportunity to talk with a young guy. He's probably in his 20s, he's in college, and he's fast. I don't know why he came up running with me except that God called him to stop for some reason because I wasn't going real fast.

He came along and we just started talking and the conversation just—he wanted to know what my running goals were. "What are you trying to achieve in your running?" I said, "Well, right now I'm just trying to get up and keep going. If I can take another step, that's one of my main goals." I said, "No, I'm working on this and working on that."

He asked me about my diet and my eating habits. I kind of got away from that conversation real quick because what I do in that doesn't align with my running. We started talking and then I started asking him, "Well, what are your goals? What do you want to do when you graduate?" "Well, I'm not sure yet."

We started talking about life goals. As God does, he opened up the conversation and he said, "Well, how do you how do you reach your goals? How do you find what you're looking for?" Well, there we go. I said, "Well, let me tell you a story." I said, "I was broken," and I shared my testimony that I came to Jesus because he was calling me out of a dark place that I made for myself and I couldn't fix it.

I had wounded so many people and I was wounded in it. As we began to talk, I said it was at that point that I realized that the cycles that I had in my life and the circles that I had and everything that I was doing were based on my own choices and my own decisions. I can't blame the devil. The devil didn't make me do it. I did it myself.

I came to the place where I realized and Jesus spoke to my heart and said, "I love you," and told me that three times in the night that I needed it the most because I was so broken I didn't think I could even get up off the floor. But when I heard that and I received that, I said what happened was, it began to change. I became a new person.

This is what Jesus does for us. It wasn't an instant, "I'm automatically fixed." That is not what sanctification means. Justification, yes. At that moment that I received the fullness of who Jesus is, I am justified before the Father. I receive the Holy Spirit. But sanctification is an ongoing thing.

It is a continuation every day of looking into the mirror and saying, "God, I need you above what I think I want for myself because I look at my history, I look at the wake behind me, and I look at the pain and the suffering that I've caused." Yes, I can look in my past and see where other people have caused that pain and suffering on me.

God, I have got to let all that go because I'm in a new place, starting a new relationship, beginning something new. From that point on, it's a moment-by-moment, day-by-day, "take up your cross and follow me," is what Jesus said. Daily. Daily take up your cross.

The relationship begins at the prayer and the introduction, but the walking it out is a lifetime thing. As we continue to walk it out and the closer we get to him, the more our desires change. There's a scripture that says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."

This is one of the aspects that sometimes the church has taken a passage out of context. What a lot of churches will say and preachers will say, "He's going to give you what you want. Delight in him, and then whatever you ask for he's going to give you." No, that's not what that passage means.

When you delight yourself in the Lord, you're surrendering your desires to him and saying, "God, I recognize that I'm a sinner and that all these things I've been doing and living have brought pain and suffering. Therefore, I pray that you take all of this."

What the scripture says is, when I delight in you and in your word and in this relationship, you then will give me new desires. No longer the selfish desires that I've had and carried all of my life. It will be the desire for something new, fresh, and real.

We don't come to God and say, "I'm just going to add you to my life. You can be my co-pilot, but I'm in control." No. If Jesus is a co-pilot in your life, you're in the wrong seat. He is supposed to be driving.

Some want a life insurance policy. Some preacher may have preached hellfire and brimstone and fire and scared them a little bit. "I don't want to do that, so I'll go ahead and get saved." You can't manipulate people. You can't manipulate people to understand truth.

The prosperity movement does say if we want it, we can get it because God wants us to have it. "Pull up your bootstraps and show how resilient you are." That is not biblical. God helps those who help themselves, not a proverb. God helps those who cannot help themselves and come to him because they recognize it.

He will not be pleased with your hard work. You can do all the good things you want. You can go to the homeless shelter, you can feed them, you can set up tents, you can go out and do whatever you feel you need to do to help people. There is nothing wrong in helping people.

By doing those things you are helping in the moment, but it's not changing your heart and it is not changing the hearts of those you are doing it for because your works cannot save you. You can never please God with self-reliance or self-help.

Ephesians 2:4-9 says, "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)."

In other words, we didn't work our way to the place where we can knock on the door and say, "Hey, Jesus, look what I just did. Look at all this, look at what I've been doing. Oh good, come on in." No, it doesn't work that way at all. He says that he meets us while we're still sinners, he died for us. He died for us.

He didn't wait for us to clean ourselves up. He offered himself once and for all to atone for the sins for those who would believe. Therefore it is not about even whether we go to church or not. It is not about the services. It is not about the good things that we do. It is about the relationship that we have and recognizing that it's all him in all of his work that brings salvation to us.

He goes on and says, "And he raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

Another answer to a question that may arise is, "Well, why doesn't God intervene in all this pain and suffering?" And the answer is he already has. Jesus came as God and as man, took upon himself—the sinless one, himself being sinless—took upon our sin and then took that to the cross. He did that for everyone, but not everyone is going to receive it.

There are many that will say, "I don't need that. That's just a religious thing. It's a crutch. You've created that somewhere. Man created the need for God because of his own weaknesses." Think about what you're saying when you say that. You're admitting number one man has weaknesses, and we do. But we didn't create God. God created us. Therefore we can come back to him.

Coming into this relationship means surrender. It means humility. It means a broken heart and it means obedience. That's what he's pleased with. Not that you stopped and helped somebody on the side of the road. Good things to do. That doesn't change our status of being separated from God.

Psalm 51:17. Most of you have heard this whole psalm. I encourage you to read the whole psalm because it's a beautiful psalm. This is a psalm of David and he wrote this psalm after he had sinned against God. He had an affair with a woman as she was bathing on the roof. He called her and brought her in.

She became pregnant. Her husband was out fighting in war. He thought he would manipulate the situation and bring the husband home from war just to be with his wife so then when the baby came he would think it was his. But the husband had so much integrity he said, "How can I go and enjoy the comforts of my wife and in my home and sleep in my own bed when my fellow soldiers are fighting in war? I cannot do that."

So what did David do? He called his commander and said, "Here's what we got to do. Put him in the front line and when it intensifies everybody back up, let him die." That was David's sin. Not his only one, but that was his main—that was the thing that really defined the humanity of mankind knowing that he was appointed by God and anointed to be a leader of Israel.

But what do we know about David? David humbled himself. He repented from his actions. He confessed to God and he wrote this—this is just a brief part—Psalm 51:17. He says, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart—these, O God, you will not despise."

He knew the animal sacrifices that they were offering could not bring him closer to God. They could atone temporarily for sin, but all the things that Israel did through the law did not bring them closer to God because their hearts continued to be hardened. But when David repented and he was restored into relationship, what does the scripture say? David was a man after God's own heart.

His sin in man's eyes was elevated to the highest point, murder and adultery, God forgave. God used him. There is no sin except denying him in your last breath that cannot bring you back into relationship with God when we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that we are sinners and Jesus is the only way.

Why him? Couldn't God just wipe it all out and start all over? I mean God's God, right? "Okay, these people messed it up. Let's just do this. I'm just going to pretend it never happened." The answer to that question is why God wouldn't do that is a very hard and very loud no, he will not do that.

He gave Adam a command. When God speaks, he speaks truth. He speaks in perfection, he speaks in holiness, he speaks in righteousness. He speaks as in the full counsel of who he is. So when he speaks and he gives you a command, he cannot recant on what he says about that command. The command he gave was, "If you do not obey me and if you eat of this, you will surely die."

He couldn't just change his mind, otherwise he wouldn't be God. He wasn't surprised. He is not surprised at our actions. You can't surprise God. He knows all, he sees all. Well then why did he allow it? I can only answer that in man's terms because I cannot fully comprehend the full aspect of why God loves us the way he does.

That is a love that's beyond human real understanding. We can say we love our wives, we can say we love our children, we can say we love this and that. The love that we're describing is an affection, it's a bond, it's a commitment between people.

When God speaks it and he says he loves us, it's outside of anything. It's an agape love they call it, unconditional. It is a love that's beyond anything we can imagine, but that's how much he loved us. So rather than wiping us out in that moment in that garden and starting over with a fresh slate, he says, "No, I'm going to let sin remain because I want you to choose me."

"I want you to have an opportunity to give up your sinful nature rather than me trying to erase it or take it away from you." So he left sin. Today, you might say, "Well, why can't he just take out the bad people then? If he hates sin, why doesn't he just wipe them out?"

It is because of his mercy. While we were still yet sinners, he died for us. We receive him, we are walking in that grace, we are walking in that mercy, we are walking in that relationship. Many out there who are living their lives for themselves and they are causing pain and they are hurting people, God is showing them mercy and giving them the same opportunity he gave us because we are no better than the worst of the worst when it comes in God's eyes.

He gives us the choice. He says, "Okay, I'm giving you an answer. I'm giving you a redeemer." But he's not forcing him on you. "I'm not going to twist your arm to get him. I'm not going to manipulate him. Here is Jesus. He will do for you what you cannot do for yourself. What are you going to do with Jesus?"

When Adam sinned his mind was opened to good and evil but his spirit died and again, he could not fix himself. In time, God established a people for himself through Abraham. They are called those people, Israel. Then he gave them the law, the written Mosaic law.

We can read it in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, and Deuteronomy. All of those books particularly summarize and really give us what that law was. He laid it out in scrolls and then he gave the Ten Commandments written in stone and showed his holiness, his expectations, his righteousness of what he expected or wanted those people to live up to.

Even Israel, those that he called and set aside as his own people in the Old Testament that we read about, they were still sinners when they were called, separated out. They still had to do sacrifices in the law. He gave them temporary redemption of atonement through animal sacrifices.

It was all temporary. Why did they need it? Because they were sinning. They were rebellious. They didn't listen to his law. Therefore sin remained and the law could not save. It wasn't about the written law that could save anyone. The written law was given to expose their sin and to reveal to them and to us today that we can't measure up to God's standard. That was the purpose of the law.

Galatians 3:16-20 says, "Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say 'And to seeds,' as of many, but as of one, 'And to your Seed,' who is Jesus Christ." When Paul wrote this to Galatian church, he's solidifying the point. Listen, yes, there was Israel through Abraham. They are his descendants, bloodline if you will, the Jewish people, okay?

It says here that the seed—the promise was made to the seed. Now some will say that means all the people that came afterwards. In this case, what Paul is saying, he says, "No, it's not as of many, but is for one, and that's Jesus Christ. He is the seed that this word applies to."

Because he is the seed, he is the one that will fulfill everything that I've given Israel that they cannot do. And now he's saying to us, because the door's been opened to the Gentiles and to everyone else, he is still the same seed that Christ is the one that God came and gave and spoke. He's the promise fulfilled from Abraham and he's the one who is now available to all.

He goes on and says that the law, which was 430 years later—see God gave the promise to Abraham 400-some-odd years before the law was ever written—that law cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.

"For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer a promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. What purpose then does the law serve?" It was added because of transgressions. Because of sin, God gave the law to show his perfection and our sinful nature.

It says here it was added because of transgressions until the seed, which is Jesus, would come to whom the promise was made. And it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. A mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.

God's plan goes beyond and before creation ever began. God was not surprised at the fall. God was not surprised at sin. God had a way already set aside. Jesus was with God and was God. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word was God.

The Word became flesh and he came and dwelt among men. But his own, the Jewish people, would not receive him. But to us who believe, we can receive, to all who believe we can receive. God's plan through Abraham, the mediator, Jesus would come and it had to be him because he's the only perfect sacrifice that could permanently atone for us. The animals couldn't do it for Israel. There was no salvation in atonement of animals. There's salvation in one.

Hebrews 10:1-10. I know I'm reading a lot of scripture, just bear with me as I'm going through this. "For the law, having a shadow of good things to come"—in other words, it represented things coming but it wasn't the answer, it was pointing to the answer—"and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices which they offered continually year by year make those who approach perfect.

For then they would not have ceased to be offered? For the worshippers once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when he," Jesus, "came into the world, he said, 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,'" quoting here from Old Testament scripture, "'but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure.'"

Jesus came and when he fulfilled that law he took away the need for any further sacrifices, any further need to find atonement. "'Then I said, "Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book it is written of me—to do your will, O God."'" That was what Jesus did. He came to do the will of the Father.

He didn't come because he just had an idea. The Father said, "Go, redeem those who will have faith in you." He came and he did the will of the Father. Previously saying, "'Sacrifice and offering or burnt offerings for sin you did not desire, nor had pleasure in them,'" which are offered according to the law.

Then he said, "'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.'" He takes away the first covenant, the Old Testament covenant through the law, through all the written rules and regulations. He said, "I've taken that away, then I may establish a new covenant," a new relationship. "By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

What Jesus did once and for all is done. Does not have to be done again. There is no need for another sacrifice. There is no need for him to return to go through the sacrificial process. It is done once and it is over with. He lives to do God's will. He did God's will. He's now ascended into heaven and is sitting with the Father and he will come back at the appointed time.

He won't come back as our Savior. He is coming back as King and Lord and he will rule and reign with a rod of iron. God knew that man couldn't redeem himself. He knew the animal sacrifices couldn't redeem either. He gave of himself. He gave of himself because only God could fix what man broke.

He came to be our redeemer. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He led a sinless life. He went to the cross taking upon himself the sins of the world making him the only way back into relationship with God and there is no other way.

If you try to say you're a Christian but still think there's another door then you're not really a Christian because you're not believing the words of Jesus himself. You have to believe the words that Jesus spoke. No other man can claim to be God. There have been many prophets. Muhammad was a prophet. Muhammad died, Muhammad is dead. He did not rise again.

None of the Hindu prophets—and there are many—when they died they didn't get reincarnated as a cow. They died and they are dead. No other man conquered death once and for all. This is the gospel story and this is what it means for us today. It's all God. It is not us. It is not us clamoring, fixing, planning, scheming, doing this, doing that, getting that job, getting that education, going here, going there, going to fix everything in our own lives.

God says, "No." You can do all those things but they will not change your heart. It's only God who can do that. It is him, not ourselves, that bring redemption. Had Jesus died and not rose again it would be a tragic story of a good man who was a good teacher, a good prophet, and he died a horrible death at the hands of man.

But he did rise again. He did rise again and history proves it. All of the witnesses—there were over 500 by the way—that witnessed his resurrection and saw him living and breathing after he was crucified. Think about this: the 11 disciples who were living in fear all up into that realm of what was going on before he revealed himself to them after he was killed.

You tell me this: it's hard enough to get two people to agree on anything. That's why the scripture says when two or more are gathered he'll be right amongst you because probably going to argue so he's got to come in and be among you. But seriously, how can these men have this same story, threatened and murdered themselves—they were martyred for this belief that they had.

Why would they go through death for a lie? Would you? Would any of you who heard this story just say it's true, I'm going to believe it and then they come and threaten you and pull you out of your house and beat you and put you in prison, would you stick to your story? These men did, and many after have, because it is real. It's not made up. It's history.

Today he's reaching out to all. All who will believe will receive eternal life, but not all will believe. Many still remain in that lie from the devil that, "I'm self-reliant, I can fix it, I can do it, I don't need a Savior, that's bogus, it's all religion." My prayer today is that whoever hears this message won't just decide to pray a prayer.

I'm not going to do an altar call. I know a lot of people think Easter's the best time to do an altar call, it's the best marketing day of the year for Christians. Not what it's supposed to be. It's a celebration of truth. But I do pray that whoever hears this message, and if there's any emotional connection at all, don't pray a prayer so you can check something off, so you can just think you've accomplished something you need to do in a casual religious decision.

It is not a religious decision at all. True Christianity is not religion. Yes, we practice in religious ways. We meet at certain times, we come together, we sing songs, we teach the word. You can say, "Well isn't that religion?" That is practicing what we say we believe. We are in a relationship, not a religious thing. Many have missed that.

It is not a religious decision. It is an honest assessment of our own sinful heart. We have to come admitting to ourselves what God already knows: we are sinners. Every intent of our heart is wicked and evil in the eyes of the Lord. We can only come to Jesus, no other way. We can only come to him when we come to the end of ourselves.

This is a place of brokenness and humility. And this message can't be received on an emotional level. Now yes, if you come to Christ sometimes there is often emotion because you are recognizing the aspect of the realness of who I am in compared to who God wants me to be and the vast difference between my human nature and what God is and what he expects.

Yes, there can be emotion but it is not based on an emotional decision. I hear a lot in church circles, so-and-so made a decision for Christ, we had so many decisions for Christ. Decisions are great. But are you making a decision out of your mental consciousness—"I think this sounds good, looks good, yeah, maybe it's good to have, I'll go and do that"—or are you coming to a place of understanding and recognizing and submitting to God for who he is and who we're not?

If we can't come to that place, the emotional decision will fade. If I can talk you into it, somebody else can talk you out of it. If it's not a true heartfelt, deep, spiritual relationship that begins then it is not real. I'm not going to manipulate, I'm not going to generate things through the mood.

We could turn the lights down, we can play soft music, or I can start hellfire and brimstone and yell at you until you just come pray a prayer so I'll shut up. It's not generated. We don't have a passion play. I'm not saying that those are not nice things that people go see, but they're created as a drama. It's a drama. A passion play is a drama. It's not about that.

This is a plain simple gospel message that you can only receive when the Holy Spirit breaks through and brings true conviction and the reality of the sinful heart that we have. Jesus said this over and over as he was teaching: "Let them who have ears to hear, let them hear." I hope that this message today answered the question what does it mean because ultimately it means life or death.

It means that Jesus is the only way and it means that we have to self-examine ourselves not by our own standards but according to his. His word. There is no fanfare. Again, no loud music, no light show, no fire and brimstone. It's a simple gospel presented for those who have ears to hear.

In Deuteronomy I'll close with this one scripture, Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19. Moses was addressing Israel and it was in his last days, he was getting ready to die. This one passage speaks volumes. Verse 19, Deuteronomy 30: "I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live."

Simple message. Simple task. But it's not so simple if we're trying to process intelligently because I'm not that smart of a person so I can't figure it out in the mind. I can't answer all your questions. Those who have gone to school, those who have a natural ability of high IQ, you can't figure it out either because God is above all of that.

It is a spiritual thing. It is a spiritual knowledge and understanding and it only comes from him because it's all about him. He loves us that much that he would make a way when we couldn't do it ourselves.

Father, we come this morning and we just put that into our hearts and our minds and process it for those who will have ears, let them hear. For those who have questions, Lord, I would sit and talk, I will try to answer any question I can. Lord, I know I can't answer all the questions but I know I serve the one who can and that's you, Jesus, that we serve.

So we just ask, Lord, that you will use this message in whatever way you see fit. That those that would hear would come, would receive, would recognize the need. As I say that, Lord, I want to make sure I also mention that doesn't mean that all your problems will be solved the instant you pray a prayer.

For many the circumstances won't change at all of our lives, but the fact that you meet us in the midst of those circumstances makes all the difference in the world. Things may get harder because the world hated you, it will hate us. But again, you were right there with us.

Lord, I just pray that that revelation of the truth of who you are would touch every heart and every mind. We thank you so much and we praise you. We thank you for your resurrection. We do celebrate this, Lord. And we thank you, Lord, that you are who you say you are. Your truth, you cannot lie, and in everything we need is found in you. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.

Guest (Male): We have heard God's word, we have praised him in song, we have shared sweet fellowship a few moments long. As we leave this place in Jesus' tender care, we will share his love with people everywhere. May God keep us till we gather here, or we meet in the air.

Guest (Male): We have heard God's word, we have praised him in song, we have shared sweet fellowship a few moments long. As we leave this place in Jesus' tender care, we will share his love with people everywhere. May God keep us till we gather here, or we meet in the air. Amen and amen.