(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - And welcome to our Good Friday service.

I hope you're able to follow along and reflect on the events of this week, leading up to the crucifixion of Christ, the greatest display of God's love towards sinners. And I was reminded this week of just how unworthy I am of Christ. And yet I have great worth because of Christ.

Christ died for me and you, not because we are worthy, but because we are unworthy, and there was no other way to make us worthy. And it's not a fair trade. The Son of God died. Rebels, sinners like me live. And that's not fair. But that's grace, that's kindness, that's mercy.

So let us praise the Lord together for His mercy is more. (gentle music) ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ His mercy is more ♪ ♪ Stronger than darkness ♪ ♪ No, evermore ♪ ♪ Sins they are many ♪ ♪ His mercy is great ♪ One more. ♪ No one could remember ♪ ♪ No wrongs we are done ♪ ♪ Conditions are growing ♪ ♪ He cleansed not this son ♪ ♪ Thrown into the sea ♪ ♪ Without bottom or shore ♪ ♪ Sins they are many ♪ ♪ His mercy is more ♪ (gentle music) One patience.

♪ One patience we're with as we constantly live ♪ ♪ Without Him so tender is falling asleep ♪ ♪ He welcomes the witness, the violence, the cold ♪ ♪ And sins they are many ♪ ♪ His mercy is great ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ His mercy is more ♪ ♪ Stronger than darkness ♪ ♪ No, evermore ♪ ♪ Sins they are many ♪ ♪ His mercy is great ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ His mercy is more ♪ ♪ Stronger than darkness ♪ ♪ No, evermore ♪ ♪ Sins they are many ♪ ♪ His mercy is great ♪ (gentle music) ♪ What riches of grace ♪ ♪ What riches of kindness ♪ ♪ He lavished on us ♪ ♪ His blood was the payment ♪ ♪ His life was the cost ♪ ♪ We're still need the debt we could never afford ♪ ♪ Sins they are many ♪ ♪ His mercy is great ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ His mercy is more ♪ ♪ Stronger than darkness ♪ ♪ No, evermore ♪ ♪ Sins they are many ♪ ♪ His mercy is great ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ His mercy is more ♪ ♪ Stronger than darkness ♪ ♪ No, evermore ♪ ♪ Sins they are many ♪ ♪ His mercy is great ♪ ♪ Sins they are many ♪ ♪ His mercy is great ♪ (gentle music) (gentle music) - Good evening, everyone.

I wanna again welcome everybody to this evening service. What an absolute privilege for us to worship and give thanks to our Lord. As we continue on reflecting this evening, we're gonna be hearing a message concerning the sacrificial death of Christ from Pastor Nate, and afterwards, we're going to be participating in the communion together.

Just as a quick reminder that this Sunday, we're gonna have our 6 a.m. early rise service, but I wanna make mention that that's going to be only in the outside courtyard. And because it is early, it's gonna be cold. Please make sure that you come kind of ready, whether with blankets and being dressed warm.

But again, with everything that's been taking place, we do ask just come a little bit early so that we can get situated and start service promptly. As we enter into worship tonight, let's take a moment to pray together. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful to you.

What an absolute blessing to us that God, we can join together and give to you this thanks for your incredible sacrifice. Father, as I think about the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, Lord, we recognize we want to just take a long look and dwell upon what that means for us.

For we know, Father God, that in the death of Christ, that to us is freedom. That means, Father God, for us forgiveness and so much more. And to think, Lord, just as Peter mentioned, God, what an exchange, what incredible paradox that the death of Christ would mean for us life.

And so, God, I pray that we would reflect, that that would turn into worship and praise, and to think, Lord God, in some sense, for us just to simply lift up our songs, lift up our words, it's no sacrifice to us, it's nothing. But, Father, we recognize what you've given us is so beyond anything we can pay back.

It's so incredibly weighty that we can do none other than to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And so we pray, Father, that as we worship you, may it reflect our heart's desire to offer up everything to you, and God, may you be pleased. We thank you and love you for all that you are and all that you've done for us.

It's in Christ that we pray, amen. Would you please stand with us as we continue our worship? When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of Glory died He enriches me, I am the lost Therefore content of all my pride From His hand, His hands, His feet Sorrow and love flow before me, pour down Death, as such, love and sorrow meet O Lord's comfort, so rich a crown O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross Leads me from end to end, and from that end to be free O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross All who gather here, I pray strongly Bless your name Let the whole realm of nature bow That we're an offering far too small Love so amazing So divine Deep as my soul, my God, my all O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross Leads me from end to end, and from that end to be free O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross All who gather here, I pray strongly Bless your name Wonderful cross O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross Leads me from end to end, and from that end to be free O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross All who gather here, I pray strongly Bless your name Should nothing of our efforts stand No legacy survive Unless the Lord has raised the house in fire It's filled with strife Tomorrow's tomorrow's can tell me What is your life A mass that vanishes and doth All glory be to Christ All glory be to Christ our King All glory be to Christ His rule and reign will never cease All glory be to Christ His rule, His rule, His eye, His kingdom come All glory, His is above Who is He so far Steady by the grace of heaven In the world of our hearts Living water, satisfied The thirsty red-mouthed fowls Will take the cup of Thy will All glory be to Christ All glory, all glory be to Christ our King All glory be to Christ His rule and reign will never cease All glory be to Christ On the day the plague died I am the faithful and the true The Lamb who was spoken Sinners slain is made And all things found Old and young, old and young Shall live with us And in our steadfast house And we shall ever, Jesus people be All glory be to Christ All glory be to Christ our King All glory be to Christ His rule and reign will never cease All glory be to Christ All glory be to Christ our King All glory be to Christ His rule and reign will never cease All glory be to Christ All glory be to Christ our King All glory be to Christ His rule and reign will never cease All glory be to Christ Amen, may it be so.

Okay, well, welcome to our Good Friday service once again. My name is Nathan, and this is actually more and more as I've been walking with Christ. Growing up, Easter and Passion Week wasn't that big of a deal. It wasn't something that we especially celebrated. And what's been interesting is, man, I've grown to appreciate Easter so much where I think it's slowly becoming one of my favorite holidays.

Which is very strange, you know, because how do you displace Christmas? But what I realized is, especially walking through the Passion Week over the last few years here at Berean and together with all of you, is that we are able to walk the steps of Christ all the way to the cross and eventually celebrate the resurrection of Christ on Sunday.

I think it's a holiday that is possibly one of the, like, maybe the freer of distractions from all the other holidays. I think we have an opportunity every year at this time to celebrate something that is so strange for the world if we tell them what we're celebrating, the death of the one that we proclaim to be our king.

And tonight, Good Friday, and we've said this many, many times in the past before, man, why would we call it good? Why would we call something like this something to be celebrated? What are we doing here, gathering together, taking time to think about his death? Shouldn't we be people who think about the resurrection?

Shouldn't we be people who consider that to be the pinnacle of everything? Like, what is it about the death that is so important that we would gather here on some random Friday night to take a whole week to lead up to this time when Jesus finally is killed? All week we've been doing this.

We've been going down this path that Jesus walked to crucifixion. We've been saying day after day that every step was intentional, that everything he was doing was volitional, that he was making choices and decisions. No one had a gun to his head to force him down this path. Jesus was doing it because he wanted to.

And we know that Jesus was innocent. He was the only one in history to have never sinned. Consider that. Take a moment to really think about that. He was the only person in history to have never sinned. We're talking about a flawless person. He never lusted. He was never slothful.

He was perfect in righteous anger. He loved everyone he came across. Again, take a moment to think about that. He loved every person. This wasn't just a restraint of sin in his life. This was who he was. If out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks, then the taming of the tongue isn't going to be the thing that changes whether we're sinning or not.

It's from where it flows. It's the heart. And Jesus' heart was sinless. When we visit that age-old question, and I think it's healthy to think about that every once in a while, which is if you're to die tonight, if you came face to face with the creator, with the God who made you, regardless of who you are right now, right?

All of us, one day, if we were to die tonight, and we came face to face with the God who created me, who made me, and he judged you upon a good standard, a righteous standard, what would be the only way for you to be allowed entrance into the kingdom of God?

It's perfection. It's zero sin. You have to be flawless. It's not just the controlling of the tongue. It's the heart. It's not just a restraint of sinful activity. It's who you are. You have to be perfect. Meaning this, Jesus alone would be able to fulfill the standard to enter into the kingdom of God.

Right? That's a logical conclusion. There was only one person in all of history ever to be sinless, flawless, and without any blame, wholly righteous, and that's Jesus. And he is then the only one who should be able to enter into the kingdom of God, which leaves us at a conundrum, a very fascinating place.

Who is in heaven now? Who will be in heaven in the times to come? The answer is, besides Christ, no one else should be in heaven. Right? If that is the standard, and Jesus is the only one, then no one should be allowed entrance into the kingdom of God ever.

Heaven ought to be empty. That's the logical thing. The only way that God could remain a good God, a just God, perfect in his standards, and upholding his righteousness, would be an empty heaven. And hell should house every single one of us. Every single one. Every single human. The Bible is clear.

It says this in Romans chapter 3 verse 10, "There is none righteous, not even one." I love that. Not even one. Not a single person who is pure. Good intentions are not enough. Morally doing more good than evil is not enough. Because it's not only what you do, but it's who you are.

We are sinners. We are objects of God's wrath. We are born rebelling against God. We hate God. We are insolent. We're arrogant. Altogether filthy. Which leads us to the next obvious conclusion, which comes in Romans 3 verse 23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We fall short of his glory.

We fall short of his standard. We fall short of the person of who he is. And we fall short of heaven's door. In fact, it's not only that we are denied entrance into heaven, but in Romans 6 verse 23, it goes further to say, "For the wages of sin is death." So it's not only that we are not allowed entrance into the kingdom of God, but what that means is that this is certain death for us.

And it's not death. Death would be nice if I was annihilated, but this is eternal death. There's a problem we're left with here. You see, there should have been a sure, swift, and immediate death for all of us. There should be no hope of heaven for any of us.

The problem is there shouldn't be eventual death. There shouldn't be a delayed death. As soon as we exist, we should be eternally dead. We should fall under his eternal wrath. This is weird because I'm breathing. There are 7.5 billion people breathing in this world. 7.5 billion hearts that are beating right now.

This is a problem because if God is good and just, how can we exist? There should be no space or opportunity for life because every breath I take as a sinner should be an outrage for God. This is the only fair thing, but people continue to walk. Our very existence ought to cause us to question God's goodness and justice.

The fact that any sinner walks around should not make any sense to us. Just as if you were to see a raping, murderous, hateful, walking person free for even a single day, that should be like, "No, that should not be allowed to happen." That any of us are existing, are breathing, are living, should be an outrage.

But God, He keeps saving. He keeps preserving. And the fingerprints of God's grace is found all over history from day one. Some people see the God of the Old Testament as someone who is judging and wrathful and awful. And to you, and sometimes, honestly, sometimes my heart questions. So to my own heart, I ask this question like, "Really?" Because the more I read Scripture, the more I come to know who God is.

Did you know the Old Testament God, I find Him to be absurdly gracious, incredibly, incredibly kind and patient? Because again, every breath taken by a single human is God's sustaining, intentional gift of grace and mercy and love and kindness to us. In the Old Testament, I'm going to take us through a few Bible passages here just to paint a picture.

In the Old Testament, we see that death, though it should have come immediately, doesn't come. Look at Genesis 2, verse 16. "The Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die.'" Again, this should leave us with the problem, because it says, "In the day that you eat from that fruit," what will happen?

"You will surely die." It even says, "Surely." It doesn't just say, "You will die." It is certain to happen. "You will surely die." But the problem is chapter 3 happens. That's a big problem to God's goodness and justice and to His Word. Look what happens. Genesis 3, verse 6.

"When the women saw that the tree was good for food," and here it is. She's walking up to this tree and to this fruit and says, "And it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise. She took from its fruit, ate it, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate it." They should be dead.

But it says, "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings." You know what this is called? This is called grace. In Genesis 4, verse 8, Cain. Here's what it says. "Cain told Abel his brother," I'm sure we all know this story, "and it came about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him." Talk about sin spiral.

This is literally the next generation. These are Adam and Eve's kids. And murder happens. It isn't a slow devolution. It's immediately just murder. Can you imagine that? And you would think as soon as God sees Cain kill Abel, it's like, "Oh, that's it." Kaput, right? That's it. But it says in verse 15, "And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain so that no one finding him would slay him." I have no other explanation other than this is grace.

In Genesis 6, verse 5, it says, "And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth." It's huge. This word "great," you have to use your exaggerated mind. There's just rampant wickedness in the world. "And that every intent of the thoughts of his heart"--can you go any deeper?

"Every intent of the thoughts of his heart"--there's so much. You see that? Intent, thoughts, heart. It's going deeper and deeper, and it says that that was only evil continually. That means without end, innumerable, and abundant. "And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart.

Then the Lord said, 'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals, to creeping things, and to birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I have made them.'" Now look at the intentional God at work here to preserve and be gracious to people.

In chapter 8, verse 1, "But God remembered." Man, I would love for us not to have Noah here as the main thing. I would like to say, like, let's focus on those first three words. "But God remembered." God remembered Noah and all the beasts and the cattle. Noah is counted with the beasts and the cattle.

God, the point is God remembered. And God, he caught, it's not a wind came to pass. God caused the wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. It was intentional. Also, the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed. There's an active person in this, and that's God.

He closed it, and the rain from the sky was restrained. Who restrained it? God restrained it. And the water receded steadily from the earth. And at the end of 150 days, the water decreased. In the seventh month, on the 17th day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.

The water decreased steadily until the 10th month. In the 10th month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible. I have no other explanation than this is called grace. You see the Tower of Babel? God could have smote, I forgot the past tense, smited, you know, whatever.

God could have done that to everyone, right? And he should have. He just scatters them. It's grace. He keeps saving. He keeps preserving mankind. In the patriarchs, when you read the stories of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, when you look at the story of Israel in the wilderness, with Moses and Joshua, when you see the story of Israel during the time of judges, these are all the different stories that Pastor Peter has been taking us through, through the book of Hebrews and the hall of faith.

When we see all these people, you can't help, when you read the Old Testament, to see the sinfulness and the wickedness, even in what we would consider the best of us. In the best king, in the best judge, in the best patriarch. It is just rampant evil in these people.

And what you see is God's grace over and over and over and over again. It does not stop. It's not stopping. It's continual. And his patience just keeps going. You get through a certain part of the Old Testament, you want to tear your hair out. What are you doing?

How could anyone be this kind? How can you let these people breathe? Their very existence is an affront to you. How can this be? When you look at the kings that are supposed to be the type of Christ, even one we would consider perhaps the best, Hezekiah. You see at the end of his life, in the final 15 years of his life, which by the way, Hezekiah, when he gets diseased, and then he cries out to God and he's in turmoil because he doesn't want to die.

And so God extends his life 15 years. And in that last 15 years that he was extended, he goes on to sin. And he is the one who opens up Judah to Babylon. And during those last 15 years of God's extended grace in his life, he fathers Manasseh, who is perhaps one of the worst kings.

God is the one just saving and preserving and saving and preserving. Every page of the Old Testament is grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. The prophets come about and there's just warnings all over, right? What is God going to do? What God is going to do to you if you do not turn?

You look at it and you can see like, man, God is grumpy. Come on, parents out there. Why do you warn your kids? Why do you warn your kids that if you continue down the path you're going, you are going to get a little spanking? Because you want them to stop and you want them to be good, right?

And so that warning, how many of you parents have said like, "I don't want to do this"? I feel that almost every time when I spank my kids. I don't want to. It hurts me, actually. I get really sad. Why? Because I love them. And so my warnings is love.

God, he cares. He loves so much. See, the wrath stuff should make complete sense. The grace stuff makes no sense. In the Old Testament, the wrath stuff should be like, "Yeah!" And the grace stuff should be like, "What? What is God doing?" It should honestly make you question his goodness.

It should honestly make you question his justice. Did you know that every breath you and I take is a demonstration of God's grace? We ought to be wiped out, but God stays true in his loving kindness and his steadfast love. Because we were born into the world as sinners and rebellious, there is no way the Holy Creator God should be able to coexist with sinners.

And so the question is still, "How does this work? How does God remain good and just?" You and I, we are entitled people. We are selfish people. At heart, we are adulterers and we are murderers. We break every command of God. Our very existence is sin. There is no best of us.

There is none righteous, not even one. We are all susceptible to the evils that we see around us. And it should invoke an immediate eternal death sentence in our lives. If you pause to look around this room, if you pause to go outside and look around at this world, even with all the chaos going on, if you're looking at reality, all you see, all over the place, God's fingerprints of grace.

Everywhere. Everywhere. Seven and a half billion examples of God's grace. This is who God is. In Exodus 34, 6, we'll go through just a number of passages here that describes who He is. Then the Lord, this is when He goes in front of Moses and He goes past. And I always thought this was really funny.

It's like this voice comes out as the presence of God, the very sight of God passes by Moses. And the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed. It's so funny. The Lord, the Lord God. He could have chosen so many different ways to describe who He was.

But in this specific time, as He's passing by Moses, He chooses to describe a very particular portion or a particular attribute of who He is. Because He could have easily have said the thrice holy thing. He could have easily have said, "I am a wrathful and good unjust God." He could have said a lot of things, but instead He chooses to say, as He passes by this creature, "compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth." That is what is proclaimed.

Because Moses should have died in His presence. But God shields him. And this is how He's described. Psalm 86 5, "For you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive and abundant in loving kindness to all who call upon you." All who call upon you. And it's proven in Jonah 4 2.

And Jonah knows this of God. He prayed to the Lord and said, "Please, Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country?" Because Assyria turns, all of Nineveh turns. It says, "Therefore, in order to forestall this, I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity." Nehemiah 9 31, "Nevertheless, in your great compassion, you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and compassionate God." To conclude, Numbers 14 18 says, "The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression." This is who He is.

But -- we could stop there. And, oh, man, so happy, right? But He will by no means clear the guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and the fourth generations. Have we become so entitled that we live our lives, and we complain, and we question God's goodness and grace?

Don't we understand that our comprehension of His love for us, it can't happen. It will just continue. God is altogether gracious and kind, and it should actually cause us to want to say, "This isn't fair, that you would let me live." This is the biblical worldview. With all this talk of God's grace and compassion, as we saw at the end of Numbers there, God's justice must be met.

He is still good. He is still just. He is still perfect in His standard. So it says this in Romans 2, verse 5. "But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath in revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to --" can I highlight this?

"Each person." That means it includes every single person that has ever been born. Every person in this room I'm talking to, to you and to me, he will render to each person according to his deeds. To those who by perseverance and doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality and eternal life, but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath, and indignation, there will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also of the Greek." What that means is there's nothing that a single person will ever get away with.

Talk about all the evil that we see in the world right now. Right now we have some man-made righteousness going everywhere, right? But talk about all the evil going on in the world. We see there is no single person that will get away with a single thing. This is guaranteed.

That's why one day we die, come before our Maker, our Creator, and we will have to give an account. See, our standard of human justice pales in comparison to what is being stored for unbelieving people. But this is not just for them because we are no better. Every human is going to have to account for this.

In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10, it says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds." That means you will get what you deserve. "In the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." So what is that supposed to look like?

What does it look like if I get just recompense? I think the closest that we can get to a picture of it is found in the book of Revelation. A picture of God's wrath made clear if you look at Revelation. There are seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, and I'm just going to describe these things to you.

In the seals, you see war and bloodshed, famine, plagues, which wipe out a quarter of the world's population, martyrdom, huge earthquakes, blackened sun, red moons, stars that fall to earth. Many cry out in the middle of this wrath that they want to die. And then the trumpets come. Hail, this is like hail on steroids, just hail and fire and death, darkening of the sun.

Can you imagine if the sun just blotted out? There are torturing demonic locust plagues, all which kill a third. I mean, all of this stuff together kills a third of plant life, a majority of the earth's aquatic life, ultimately a third of humanity. And that's not even done yet.

The bowls come, painful sores, blisters on all humanity, every person blisters, death of every living thing in the sea, every single living thing in the sea, death. Rivers turn to blood, the sun's heat intensifying, darkness that falls upon the earth, an army that marches across the world, and another massive earthquake that precedes a hail storm, giant blocks of ice.

That's not a bedtime story I'm giving to my kids. I think that this is the closest I can imagine God's wrath. It's pretty intense. But what we see in Revelation is not even a speck on the tip of an iceberg of what God's wrath looks like. Just recompense, like all this stuff, it doesn't even scratch the surface of how deep this goes, of what we deserve in God's wrath, and how furious he is against sin.

We have such a skewed view of sin, and the Bible paints it accurately. See, when we think of hell, what you see in Revelation is like people will dream of that. Like how great that would be compared to the fury of hell. See, the fact that we're walking around the way we are, and the fact that not every single one of us are in hell right now, experiencing that, is God's grace.

It's God's grace. The wrath of God is coming, but what that means is today I can't help but see my life and your life, and the fact that we exist here in this world as it is now, as God's grace. And when His wrath comes, when the day of judgment comes, there will be no hiding.

There will be no more continued patience. There will be no more kindness. There won't be any more desiring, or having this opportunity to come to the Lord. There will be no running from this wrath. It is a guarantee that every sin will be repaid in full, without a single drop overlooked.

Why? Because God is good, and He is just. There will be no hiding on that day, and it says that in Amos chapter 9, verse 1-4, "I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said, 'Smite the capitals so that the thresholds will shake, and break them on the heads of them all.

Then I will slay the rest of them with a sword. They will not have a fugitive who will flee, or a refugee who will escape. Though they dig into Sheol, from there will My hand take them. Though they ascend to heaven, from there will I bring them down. Though they hide on the summit of Carmel, I will search them out and take them from there.

And though they conceal themselves from My sight on the floor of the sea, and from there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them. And though they go into captivity before the enemies, from there I will command the sword that it slay them. And I will set My eyes against them for evil and not for good.

And this is going to be a reality for all humanity that encounters God's wrath in full. That they will want to hide, but there will be no hiding, and this will be for eternity. This is depressing. But again, we are not there yet. And just like in the Old Testament where we're wondering why the next chapters keep going, what we have to do is question why, if I encounter an unbeliever here in this world, why his chapters keep going?

And then in the Old Testament, if it was because of God's grace, then I can't help but look at his life and realize that this is God's grace in his life. And then when I ask the question of God, why do you let him continue? It's because he desires none to perish and for all to come to repentance.

Then when I see this unbelieving person, then I need to understand and know that God desires for this person not to perish and to come to repentance. It is His grace. And so as we sit here on Good Friday, a week where Jesus intentionally marches to the cross, where we see this great intersection of God's grace and His wrath, of His fury and His love for us, when we see the great intersection of it, that we understand that God is not just partly gracious, partly just.

It's not like He has 50% this, He has 50% that. It's not that. He is fully gracious. He is fully just. And what we see at the cross is where we see it, where we marvel, where we stand dumbstruck and awestruck at the God that He is. What we see at the cross brings us to a place where it's hard to make sense of any of it.

Literally, the cross leaves us at a place where the only possible thing is worship. It leaves us in awe and wonder and amazement because all of this stored judgment that all humanity is meant to pay for, all humanity will one day meet as God pours out judgment on the earth.

This is a crazy thing because the possibility of people continuing in God's grace is because of tonight. Because God's judgment and wrath for anyone who would place their faith in Him would in full, not a single drop unaccounted for, be pressed onto Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus was every day this week, every day of His life, walking towards intentionally.

Wrath. Jesus knew this. And we're going to just end this time. It's going to be a little bit lengthy, so don't take that cue to say we're almost done. But let's look at Jesus. And this is where you need to do some work for me in imagining this. What Jesus is walking towards.

Wrath. Matthew 26, 38. "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. "Remain here and keep watch with me. "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, "yet not as I will, but as you will. "My Father, if this cannot pass away until I drink it, "unless I drink it, your will be done." Jesus is grieved deeply.

He is going to take hell. And so what we see this night is Judas completing his betrayal of Jesus on this Friday, kissing Jesus on the cheek as a sign to the mob of people wielding swords and clubs, directly sent from the chief priests who have been trying to trap him, and elders who had sent them.

And Peter tries to stop them, and he pulls out his sword, and he strikes the ear of the slave. Now, how brave of Peter to go after the slave, you know? He chooses to pip-squeak. But Jesus didn't need Peter to rescue him because he was walking this path. Jesus says, in a single word, snap of the fingers, 12 legions of angels.

And if you do the math, at least 72,000 angels would be at his beckoning to descend and to rescue, and it would be a wrathful massacre, giving people just recompense. We see back in history, one angel wipes out 185,000 of Sennacherib's army in a single night. You have 72,000 angels on a snap of his fingers to do what is right.

He says, "Peter, what you doing?" And then Jesus walks before this human, Caiaphas, and this human council. And Peter keeps his distance. This human keeps his distance and denies Jesus three times. And these humans, chief priests, and the whole council, they attempt to find false testimony on Jesus Christ.

But there's none available because he lived his life perfectly. Even though many false witnesses come forward, they are not believed because he lived unbelievably above reproach. But they find a way to get at Jesus and cry, "Blasphemy!" And then Matthew 26, 67, these humans. Imagine Jesus here. What he's doing to take the sins of the world.

Where he's marching towards so that I might not experience that. These humans come, and they spat in his face, and beat him with their fists, and others slapped him and said, "Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is the one who hit you?" The answer is all of us. Peter again spends his time denying Jesus.

What we see here, you know, these days we see a popular thing where people say, "Don't look away from the atrocities that you see in this world. Don't look away, don't look away." You know, I agree with this sentiment. We shouldn't. We should grieve, we should hurt. But I'd like to apply it here, asking us all this Good Friday to look at the reality.

Because all mankind deserves is God's wrath. We can't look away at the fact that what Jesus is doing here and walking towards this, it's absurd. Don't ever look away at what Jesus was doing here. Jesus is continuing to willingly, intentionally walk to the very point which he would absorb the wrath.

And everything that's happening to Jesus up to this point is still nothing compared to the wrath to come. So what they do is they bind Jesus. Humans bind Jesus' hands. And they deliver him to Pilate, another human. And he asked Jesus, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Upon which Jesus responds, "It is as you say." And they enter into the custom of allowing one prisoner to be freed by popular consent.

And so a notorious prisoner by the name of Barabbas is the one they scream for, to free him. The noted killer, the insurrectionist, to free him. And the innocent Christ, the Son of God, to be brutally tortured and murdered on the cross. And so they take Jesus into the praetorium and gather the whole Roman cohort now.

And they strip Jesus. And they put a scarlet robe on him. And they twist together a crown of thorns. And they place it on his head. And they jam it down into his skull. And then they mock him. And then they spit on him some more. And then they beat him on the head.

And they crucify Jesus on that cross. Next to two robbers. And even there Jesus takes time to speak words of comfort to one of them. Now let me read the rest of the account in Matthew. Verse 45. As we see the final breath of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" That is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of those who were standing there when they heard it began saying, "This man is calling for Elijah." Immediately one of them ran and taking a sponge he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave him a drink.

But the rest of them said, "Let us see whether Elijah will come to save him." And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. He dies. He dies and at this point he is absorbing. You know what is going on at this point? The wrath of God.

This is not like a little hiatus in his existence. He is absorbing it. I don't know exactly how that looks. Maybe it will be explained to us. But that is what is happening. And so in verse 51 it says, "And behold the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth shook and the rocks were split.

The tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many. And now the centurion and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening became very frightened and said, 'Truly this was the Son of God.'" What we are witnessing here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

In 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21 it says, "God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him." What we see on this way to the cross is Jesus in Isaiah 53 verse 4-7. "Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, afflicted." "He was pierced through for our transgression.

He was crushed for our iniquity. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him and by his scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers so he did not open his mouth." So, on Good Friday when we think of Jesus walking to the cross, we have to remember what was happening.

That the only innocent one to walk the earth was marching with his crucifix to hang on a tree but she would not just die for her sins and just do whatever for like, "Oh, he forgives." He was taking upon himself the very sin of every person who had placed their faith in him.

Every single one of us will die in the flesh but we will, every single one of us, awaken to a spiritual reality before the judgment of God. And regardless of the opinions of every individual, this truthful and certain reality waits every single one of us that we will indeed kneel before the Creator and wrath is what each of us deserves.

And if you have not placed your faith in the only one who is able to take upon the full brunt of the wrath of God which is found on this Good Friday, you stand naked and exposed before God. You have nothing to hide behind, no more place of grace, and it's coming.

You have to mark my words here, it's coming for you. But, if you place your faith in Him, at that place when you come before judgment and you're kneeling before the Creator and He is about to explode on you, if you place your faith in Christ, you will find a Savior who stands before you and God.

You will be literally staring up at the back of your Savior. The one who took the full brunt of it. The one who stood as a propitiation for your sin, to appease the fury and goodness and justice of God. He will stand between you and God and He has taken every blow.

Jesus willingly takes that for you if you place your faith in Him. That's it. To conclude, let me read from Hebrews 2, verse 9. "But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone." Wow.

"For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren." Would you take a moment here to bow your heads with me?

And on this Good Friday, make this personal. If you're a believer, we need to again remember what He did on that cross. And experienced again the fullness of what happened there. We need to stand in awe and gratitude. If our hearts have been far, if our hearts have been cold, if the gospel has become stale, let's take this time tonight again to consider our Savior.

This is also going to be a time where we partake in communion together. And we can meditate and concentrate and think upon the blood that was shed for us, upon the body that was broken for us. That we can now partake in Jesus Christ Himself. Would you use this time to examine yourself and to meditate on the body of Christ broken for you and the blood of Christ shed for you.

And this communion is a time for baptized believers, if you are to participate. So please refrain from participating in it if you are not a baptized believer. And simply observe. But all of us now for the next few minutes, we will give you this opportunity to pray and to meditate and come before the Lord.

Think about what He's done. After praying, I'll come back up and I'm going to read for us from 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And we'll take up the communion together so you can wait for further instruction there. But for now, would you join me in prayer? (gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) It says in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23, "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.'" Can we take this together? (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) Let's pray. (gentle music continues) Heavenly Father, this is for every believer because your sacrifice on that cross makes it so that we are now covered by your blood and made into the body of Christ.

And we thank you, Lord, that we are given ability to come now before you to your throne of grace, that we are allowed entrance into the kingdom of God, God, that we are called sons and daughters of the one true King, because you, Lord, the great, majestic, powerful creator God, would send your only son to come into the world to die on the cross for our sins.

We are only but grateful to you tonight, Lord, on a night where there was not just a murder, but the full brunt of God's wrath poured out upon Jesus Christ, that we can celebrate because he took my place on that cross. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Would you please stand with us again?

(gentle music) I wanna read from Isaiah 53, 46. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, that we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted, that he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, everyone, to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (gentle music) (gentle music) ♪ Oh, to see the dawn of the darkest day ♪ ♪ Christ on the road to Calvary ♪ ♪ Tried by sinful men, torn and beaten ♪ ♪ Then nailed to a cross of wood ♪ ♪ Is the power of the cross ♪ ♪ Christ became sin for all ♪ ♪ Sin for us ♪ ♪ Took the blame for the wrath ♪ ♪ We stand forgiven at the cross ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Oh, to see the pain written on your face ♪ ♪ Bearing the awesome weight of sin ♪ ♪ And every bitter thought, every evil deed ♪ ♪ Crowning your blood-stained brow ♪ ♪ Is the power of the cross ♪ ♪ Of the cross ♪ ♪ Christ became sin for us ♪ ♪ Took the blame for the wrath ♪ ♪ We stand forgiven at the cross ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Now the daylight clears ♪ ♪ Now the ground beneath ♪ ♪ Quakes as its maker bows his head ♪ ♪ Burnt and torn in two ♪ ♪ Dead are raised to life ♪ ♪ Finished the victory cry ♪ ♪ Is the power of the cross ♪ ♪ Christ became sin for us ♪ ♪ Took the blame for the wrath ♪ ♪ We stand forgiven at the cross ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Oh, to see my name ♪ ♪ Oh, to see my name written in the woods ♪ ♪ For through your sovereign I am free ♪ ♪ Death is crushed to death ♪ ♪ Life is mine to live ♪ ♪ Won through yourself, will is mine ♪ ♪ Is the power of the cross ♪ ♪ Son of God, slain for us ♪ ♪ What a love, what a touch ♪ ♪ We stand forgiven at the cross ♪ (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (faint speaking) (faint speaking) (faint speaking) (faint speaking) (faint speaking) (faint speaking) (faint speaking) That you have revealed that much to us in your word.

And so Lord, as we go home tonight, each one of us to their own way, Father, we pray that as we think about and meditate just deeply Lord, about what it cost the Son of God, who Lord was rich, but for our sake became poor. The one who knew no sin was not only accursed, but became sin that we might have life.

Thank you Lord, for saving us, for foreknowing us, for calling us, for justifying us, for glorifying us. We give you praise and pray all these things in the name of your Son. Amen. - So that concludes our service tonight. Remember on Sunday, 6 a.m., we have early rise service here, and then nine o'clock and 11 o'clock services as always.

Good night everyone. (crowd chattering) (gentle music) ♪ Through the night ♪