How Do I Survey All the Deep Wonders of the Cross?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | We are back after a week-long break from the podcast

00:00:08.800 | and we have a full week ahead, Pastor John,

00:00:10.280 | so let's dive into the mountain of emails

00:00:11.800 | that never stop flowing in.

00:00:13.520 | Austin, a listener in Atlanta writes in,

00:00:15.720 | "Hello, Pastor John.

00:00:17.260 | "When asked about the significance of the cross,

00:00:19.480 | "most Christians can give the Sunday school answer

00:00:22.160 | "that Jesus died to save us from our sin.

00:00:24.920 | "While this is a beautiful, true, and profound truth,

00:00:27.360 | "it can sometimes appear simple and one-dimensional.

00:00:30.140 | "How would you encourage me

00:00:31.400 | "to have an enlarged view of the cross?

00:00:33.440 | "How can I approach God's Word and life in a way

00:00:36.240 | "that continually broadens my understanding and love

00:00:39.200 | "for that pivotal moment in history?"

00:00:42.260 | - Well, I love this question and I love it

00:00:45.480 | because right off my front burner,

00:00:47.120 | the answer to the question

00:00:49.600 | happened to me in worship yesterday,

00:00:51.320 | but let me say something else before I say that.

00:00:54.560 | Austin is clearly right.

00:00:58.040 | He's got his handle on the right way to live.

00:01:01.640 | He wants to go deeper and wider in the cross of Christ

00:01:06.640 | than he has ever gone before,

00:01:08.120 | and he wants that to be continually happening.

00:01:11.240 | So let me give three different kinds of answer

00:01:14.800 | to the question, how can we approach God's Word?

00:01:17.880 | How can we approach life so that this deepening,

00:01:21.640 | widening, heightening of our experience of,

00:01:25.480 | understanding of, love for the cross happens?

00:01:29.320 | Number one, linger over and meditate regularly

00:01:33.440 | on Galatians 6.14 or other texts like it.

00:01:38.200 | Goes like this, "Far be it from me to boast,

00:01:41.880 | "except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."

00:01:46.880 | Now that is an astonishing statement.

00:01:51.400 | Um,

00:01:52.240 | everything in the world has died to us,

00:01:58.120 | and we have died to it, it says at the end of the verse.

00:02:01.960 | But this statement, "Far be it from us to boast,

00:02:05.760 | "or glory, or rejoice, except in the cross,"

00:02:09.920 | is really wildly exaggerated, it seems,

00:02:14.640 | because the Bible talks about exalting and rejoicing in

00:02:20.560 | and boasting in other things,

00:02:22.720 | like exalt in the hope of the glory of God, Romans 5.2,

00:02:26.600 | exalt in your tribulations, Romans 5.3,

00:02:29.440 | exalt and boast in your weaknesses, 2 Corinthians 12.9,

00:02:33.320 | exalt in other believers, 1 Thessalonians 2.19.

00:02:37.240 | So what does he mean when he says,

00:02:39.760 | "Always boast in the cross."

00:02:42.920 | God forbid that I should boast except in the cross,

00:02:47.480 | which I take it means we should always boast in the cross.

00:02:52.480 | If there's any boasting, it should be in the cross.

00:02:56.800 | So what in the world, what in the world does that mean?

00:02:59.080 | And I think it means this,

00:03:01.000 | all other boasting, which is right,

00:03:03.480 | he's got other boastings that he commends

00:03:05.720 | in the New Testament,

00:03:06.920 | all other boasting should also be a boasting in the cross.

00:03:13.760 | All exaltation in anything

00:03:16.800 | should be an exaltation in the cross.

00:03:19.360 | If you exalt in the hope of glory,

00:03:21.760 | you should be exalting in the cross of Christ.

00:03:24.080 | If you exalt in tribulation,

00:03:25.880 | you should be exalting in the cross of Christ.

00:03:27.880 | If you exalt in your weaknesses or in the people of God,

00:03:31.920 | in that very exalting,

00:03:33.480 | you should be exalting in the cross of Christ.

00:03:36.960 | Well, what in the world does that mean?

00:03:39.160 | How do you do that?

00:03:40.800 | In other words, I'm saying,

00:03:42.080 | if you boast in anything at all,

00:03:44.960 | it should be a boasting in the cross also.

00:03:48.360 | Why, how, what in the world?

00:03:50.280 | It's true, this is true because, think of it this way,

00:03:55.440 | Christians, all Christians are sinners

00:03:59.160 | and do not deserve anything but judgment,

00:04:02.800 | which means that daily, hour by hour,

00:04:06.360 | we are receiving hundreds of good things

00:04:10.040 | that we don't deserve and bad things that happen to us,

00:04:13.880 | which are being turned for good.

00:04:16.520 | Why?

00:04:17.440 | Why do people who don't deserve anything good

00:04:21.080 | and they don't deserve to have the bad things

00:04:22.720 | turned for good, get so many good things

00:04:25.120 | and get all their bad things turned for good, why?

00:04:27.360 | And the answer is Christ died for us.

00:04:30.760 | The new covenant purchases the favor of God

00:04:35.680 | and poured out in all those acts of grace.

00:04:40.680 | Elect sinners only receive good things

00:04:45.800 | because they are bought by the blood of Jesus,

00:04:50.760 | which means that there isn't anything that happens to us.

00:04:55.040 | And I'm saying this so that Austin will feel amazed

00:05:00.040 | at the cross because the cross is never farther away

00:05:04.400 | than the happy things you're experiencing

00:05:06.360 | or the hard things you're experiencing

00:05:08.440 | getting turned for good.

00:05:10.160 | So that's my first response to Austin.

00:05:12.920 | The glory of the cross is ever present underneath

00:05:17.920 | as the foundation for every good you ever experience.

00:05:22.720 | Number two, second way of coming at this,

00:05:25.960 | and this is what I was talking about

00:05:27.240 | when I said that yesterday in worship this happened.

00:05:29.240 | I was singing and reading the texts

00:05:33.960 | that were being put up on the overhead,

00:05:36.560 | I mean on the screen for us,

00:05:38.120 | and a fresh, deep, sweet, moving,

00:05:42.800 | unusual for a long time, taste of the love of Christ

00:05:45.580 | in the cross came over me and I was so moved and thankful.

00:05:50.580 | And the reason that happened was largely

00:05:54.120 | because of the words of the hymns.

00:05:56.920 | So I'm gonna say to Austin,

00:05:59.920 | make it your habit to sing great old hymns

00:06:04.920 | and good modern worship songs that are cross-centered

00:06:10.140 | and Bible-saturated with the gospel of Christ.

00:06:15.600 | And the one we sang yesterday was,

00:06:18.920 | Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.

00:06:23.920 | Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side

00:06:26.820 | which flowed be of sin.

00:06:29.020 | And then this phrase, the double cure,

00:06:32.340 | save from wrath and make me pure.

00:06:36.740 | That's really good, really good.

00:06:39.400 | It's freshly good.

00:06:41.500 | Two cures happened in the cross,

00:06:44.660 | wrath removed and me made pure.

00:06:48.740 | What a great gift in singing.

00:06:51.300 | And then not the labors of my hands

00:06:53.680 | can fulfill the laws commands.

00:06:55.860 | Could my zeal, no, respite, no.

00:07:00.140 | In other words, if I could be as zealous

00:07:02.500 | as the apostle Paul 24/7, 80 years long,

00:07:06.740 | with tears flowing, not one bit of it could atone.

00:07:11.740 | Thou must save and thou alone.

00:07:16.060 | Oh, that's so powerful.

00:07:17.580 | Nothing in my hand I bring simply to the cross.

00:07:20.060 | I cling naked, come to thee for dress.

00:07:22.420 | Helpless, look to thee for grace.

00:07:24.220 | Foul, I to the fountain fly.

00:07:26.820 | Wash me, Savior, or I die.

00:07:29.500 | There's something about the plea of that verse.

00:07:32.300 | Savior, Savior, wash me.

00:07:34.700 | I'm foul, dress me, I'm naked.

00:07:37.620 | I could just feel how shameful that would be

00:07:40.980 | and how dirty I am.

00:07:42.740 | And so the hymn with the tune gives a fresh taste

00:07:47.620 | and experience of the love of Christ at the cross.

00:07:51.400 | While I draw this feeding,

00:07:52.780 | and this one may perhaps move me most of all

00:07:55.740 | because I'm 70 years old.

00:07:57.700 | While I draw this fleeting breath,

00:08:00.180 | when my eyes shall close in death,

00:08:03.020 | when I soar to worlds unknown,

00:08:04.660 | see thee on thy judgment throne,

00:08:07.100 | rock of ages cleft for me.

00:08:09.540 | Let me hide myself in thee.

00:08:11.540 | I know that at the last fleeting breath,

00:08:15.020 | I'm not gonna plead my good deeds.

00:08:17.940 | You know, like I worked hard for desiring God.

00:08:20.180 | I spoke in a lot of places, blah, blah, blah.

00:08:22.660 | No, what a paltry, I mean, wood, hay, and stubble

00:08:27.340 | is just not going to be sufficient

00:08:29.420 | to make me acceptable at the judgment.

00:08:32.060 | One thing will, the rock of ages was cleft on the cross

00:08:36.100 | and I'm gonna hide.

00:08:36.940 | So all that just to say to Austin,

00:08:39.100 | get a good hymn book, go online,

00:08:41.180 | find some hymns and sing them.

00:08:43.100 | And find a good church where they put together

00:08:46.180 | beautiful Christ exalting gospel saturated songs

00:08:50.060 | that heal you every Sunday.

00:08:53.380 | And I got one more thing to say.

00:08:55.300 | The third thing that I would mention

00:08:57.540 | is to meditate on the dozens and dozens of passages

00:09:02.220 | in the New Testament that talk about

00:09:04.420 | varied purposes for the death of Jesus.

00:09:07.460 | So I wrote a book about this.

00:09:08.940 | Some years ago in relationship to Mel Gibson's movie,

00:09:13.940 | The Passion of the Christ,

00:09:15.340 | I wrote a book, 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die.

00:09:19.380 | And that's the most concerted focus

00:09:21.900 | of anything I've ever written on the reasons for the cross

00:09:25.220 | to expand and deepen and intensify our love

00:09:28.540 | for what he accomplished.

00:09:29.780 | And so if I could be of any help,

00:09:32.300 | that book is free for the download at desiringgod.org

00:09:35.900 | or you can get it at Amazon.

00:09:38.080 | But whatever you do, Austin,

00:09:40.060 | keep on asking God to open your eyes

00:09:42.980 | to the glories of the cross.

00:09:44.900 | And then there's no substitute for setting your eyes,

00:09:49.900 | putting your eyes on the word

00:09:52.100 | where the cross is most central.

00:09:54.240 | - Thank you, Pastor John.

00:09:56.020 | That would be a great summer read, by the way,

00:09:58.420 | 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die.

00:10:01.020 | It's one of the best John Piper books I've read.

00:10:03.820 | And it's free online and you can download the PDF

00:10:05.980 | free of charge at our site at desiringgod.org.

00:10:09.660 | Well, what is the joy of the Lord?

00:10:12.820 | The Bible talks about this phrase in a few places.

00:10:15.700 | And of course, we wanna know what this joy is.

00:10:17.980 | We wanna possess it and we wanna share it with one another.

00:10:20.300 | So where can we find the joy of the Lord?

00:10:23.720 | John Piper will explain tomorrow when we return.

00:10:26.160 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:10:27.100 | I'll see you then.

00:10:28.000 | (upbeat music)

00:10:30.580 | (upbeat music)

00:10:33.160 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

How Do I Survey All the Deep Wonders of the Cross?

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