3ABN On the Road

The Word Saving Offers Unique Peace

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Ron Halvorsen

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Series Code: OTR

Program Code: OTR000426


01:01 So good to be with you every night.
01:02 I've been here since Wednesday night and drove a long way
01:06 all the way from Florida to get here and let me
01:08 tell you, it's a long way across the country.
01:11 But we're to be here and believe God
01:13 has a special message for us tonight.
01:15 And I want to look at the Cross
01:16 and I'm gonna ask you to reverently seek His face.
01:19 And so if you bow your heads right now, let's seek Christ,
01:21 seek His face, right now.
01:25 "Our Father which ought in heaven,
01:26 we humbly bow in your presence and pray
01:28 for the Holy Spirit to guide us and direct us tonight.
01:32 There's so much that needs
01:33 to be said and so little time to say it.
01:37 Everyone that here tonight is conscious
01:39 of the fact that time is short.
01:42 Jesus Christ is soon to come in power.
01:46 And I pray tonight what said and done
01:48 might be done and said to the honor
01:49 and glory of the kingdom of God.
01:52 Lead and direct us as we pray
01:56 in Christ name. Amen."
02:02 The message I'm gonna speak about tonight
02:03 is especially meaningful to me today.
02:07 Yesterday, I got news that a very lovely family
02:09 that had led to Christ in Carolina from South Africa.
02:13 They came all the way from South Africa and God
02:16 brought them out through a series of meetings
02:17 and in that series of meetings
02:18 they received Christ into their life.
02:21 But I found the man had a tumor on his brain.
02:23 They just discovered it last week
02:24 and he has two weeks to live.
02:29 Tomorrow morning he is going to fly all the way back
02:31 to South Africa and his dear wife
02:33 with three little lovely children.
02:36 I want to remember them in prayer.
02:37 But it was this message that touched their heart.
02:42 It was this message that changed their lives.
02:46 And that's why it's not going be
02:47 an ordinary meeting tonight.
02:48 It's not just gonna be another sermon tonight.
02:50 It's not just gonna be another 40, 30-40 minutes
02:54 space between good singing
02:57 because I'm dedicating for that couple.
03:01 I'm giving the sermon over to that couple.
03:04 For this was the message that turned their life around,
03:07 here in America, the Cross of Christ.
03:12 The cross has always been, above every other,
03:14 reckoned the death of shame.
03:17 The axe, the hemlock, the sword
03:24 has been used as execution, but execution with honor.
03:29 But the hemlock, the sword, the axe
03:31 have been used by executioners to kill.
03:36 And those men and women have died with honor.
03:41 Men who've died because of unmerciful men,
03:43 here are those who live on in the minds of millions,
03:45 but not so with the Cross of Christ.
03:49 You see, the Cross, its victim was nailed in agony
03:53 to the rough wood, suspended to the torn and gaze
03:57 for the multitudes, has always been a specimen of disgrace
04:01 and dishonor and degraded humanity.
04:04 More to be mocked he who hangs upon
04:06 the Cross as criminal than to be pitied.
04:12 Now Christ had allowed that idea
04:14 to find His way in the mind of men that Christ might be loved
04:17 not for His martyrdom, but He might be loved for His miracle.
04:22 The Cross of Christ stands and still meant glory,
04:25 and still meant glory in that Cross, the Cross of Christ.
04:29 Tonight, we must go back to the Cross of Christ
04:31 because there can be no meeting that refreshes the soul.
04:34 There can be no meeting like this to uphold the Bible.
04:36 There can be no meeting like
04:38 this to bring you closer to God
04:39 than to bring you to the Cross.
04:41 We can't go anywhere but through the Cross.
04:43 You can't go to heaven but through the Cross.
04:45 You can't see the glories of faith but through the Cross.
04:48 You can't understand your destiny but through the Cross.
04:51 And so I want to bring you to the Cross.
04:53 And I want to bring you through the Cross.
04:55 We need to go back over 1900 years ago
04:57 to the place called Calvary.
05:00 And the magic carpet that will take us back
05:02 in time and place and space...will be the Bible.
05:08 And there are two passages of scripture
05:10 that I want to read to you tonight that will force
05:12 upon your mind the meaning of this contemporary message
05:15 in a contemporary age that the importance
05:18 of the Cross of Christ.
05:19 One is taken from the Book of Galatians.
05:22 And if you have your Bibles turn
05:23 with me to the Book of Galatians
05:25 and I want you to notice in the Book of Galatians
05:28 the word here, in the Book of Galatians,
05:31 the six chapter and I want you to notice verse 14.
05:36 The Bible says, "But God forbid that I should glory,
05:40 save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
05:43 by whom the world is crucified
05:45 unto me, and I unto the world."
05:48 And another passage taken from the Book of Corinthians,
05:51 the First Epistle of Corinthians
05:54 and I'm looking at the second chapter of the First Epistle,
05:57 and I'm reading from the second verse.
05:58 Notice what Paul, the Apostle says about the Cross.
06:02 He says, "I'm determined not to know anything
06:04 among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
06:11 On the south shore of China
06:14 over looking the Harbor Macau,
06:16 the Portuguese sailors once build
06:17 the massive cathedral to their God.
06:21 It was a fortress of their faith.
06:22 It was place where they brought their babies to be dedicated.
06:25 It was a place where they brought to be baptized
06:28 and to be married and ye even to be buried.
06:32 That Great Stone Edifice was built to the glory of God.
06:37 That Great Stone Edifice was built to the glory of Christ.
06:41 And through the years, it was a great fortress of faith.
06:45 But a typhoon came and swept through Macau
06:49 and it brought to ruins that great cathedral.
06:53 And the great cathedral crumbled into ruins
06:56 and all that was left was the front
06:57 wall of that great cathedral.
06:59 And on the front wall was a great bronze Cross.
07:02 And when Sir John Bowring went there in 1860,
07:06 he was moved by the spirit or 1825, he was moved to write
07:11 these words as he looked at the great cathedral and ruins
07:14 and the great bronze Cross.
07:16 He said, "In the Cross of Christ I glory,
07:19 Towering o'er the wrecks of time,
07:21 All the light of sacred story
07:24 Gathers round its head sublime."
07:30 But years come, friend, and the years go,
07:32 but the Cross of Christ still stands
07:34 and men glory in the Cross of Christ.
07:37 When Paul came to the intellectual City of Corinth,
07:40 when he came to that pagan City of Corinth, he said,
07:43 "I'm determined not to know anything among you,
07:45 save Jesus Christ and whom crucified."
07:50 Now to the pagan world, the Cross was foolishness.
07:54 How would God ever die upon a Cross?
07:57 Why would ever God die upon the Cross?
07:59 That's foolishness.
08:01 To the Greeks, it was a stumbling block
08:03 to their philosophy of God dying
08:06 for the salvation of the world and to the Jews.
08:09 It was a stumbling block to think the messiah
08:13 would be wrapped in blood and would die upon the Cross
08:17 and so it was foolishness, it was foolishness to the pagans.
08:20 It was a stumbling block to the Greeks.
08:23 It was--it was a hindrance to the Jewish
08:25 belief to experience the Cross.
08:29 But you and I who know the Cross,
08:30 you and I who've come in contact with the Cross
08:33 even in this 2000, let me tell you, even today
08:36 we who've come in contact
08:38 with the Cross know something better.
08:40 We know something more glorious because it's in the Cross
08:43 that we've found meaning to life.
08:45 It's in the Cross that our loneliness was met with someone.
08:49 It is in Christ that we found deliverance
08:52 at the Cross of Jesus and so we glory in the Cross tonight.
08:55 Can you say Amen here?
08:57 We glory in the Cross of Jesus Christ.
09:00 He says, "I glory saving the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
09:04 because the Cross makes God real."
09:08 God is not some absentee landlord.
09:12 He did not create the universe and then step back and say,
09:16 "Play it out."
09:18 He did not form man from the dust of the earth
09:21 and form him in a very image of God
09:23 and breathe into his nostrils breath of life
09:25 and give him life without leaving him alone.
09:28 He is with us always even unto the end of the world.
09:30 You see, it's a Calvary at the Cross
09:32 that God's love became real to us.
09:36 And the condition of salvation became real to us.
09:39 At Calvary, the Lord wrapped the world in light.
09:42 At Calvary, the Lord wrapped the world in love.
09:46 At Calvary, the Lord wrapped
09:48 the world in life, the Cross of Jesus.
09:54 When Haynes wrote his "Life of Abraham Lincoln",
09:58 he spent 5,000 pages
10:02 writing about Abraham Lincoln.
10:03 Can you imagine a book 5,000 pages?
10:08 Of the 5,000 pages about Abraham Lincoln,
10:11 only 25 pages were given over the life
10:17 and the events of the death of this great man.
10:20 The death there at booth Theatre.
10:23 given over to the events
10:27 that surround the death of Abraham Lincoln,
10:29 but not so with the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
10:32 Not so with the death of Jesus on the Cross.
10:35 In fact one third of the Gospel of Matthew,
10:38 one-third of the Gospel of Mark,
10:41 one-third of the Gospel of St. Luke
10:43 are given over to the events that surrounded
10:45 death of Jesus on the Cross.
10:47 And one half of the Gospel of St. John
10:49 is given over to the death of Christ, why?
10:52 Because it's a centrality of Christianity.
10:55 It's the very crux of Christianity.
10:57 It is the very hub upon which all other truth circles Jesus
11:01 and His death on the Cross.
11:05 Tonight friend, I don't know
11:06 where you want your spiritual journey.
11:09 I don't know if you even know God.
11:11 I don't even know if you claim God,
11:13 but if you do or don't, I need to take you to the Cross.
11:16 We must go back to the Cross.
11:18 It could be the most important evening in your whole life.
11:23 We must walk Villa Dolorosa again in spirit.
11:28 We must climb the hill called Golgotha.
11:31 We must recall the pain and the suffering and the buffering
11:35 and the sorrow and the spitting and the nails
11:38 and here again the Christ of Calvary
11:40 if we are to understand why He died.
11:45 The Cross of Christ must be the centrality of our living.
11:51 I talk to young preachers all the time about preaching.
11:55 I had the privilege of teaching
11:56 homiletics in three universities.
11:57 And they come to me and they talk
11:59 about preaches say, "You know, I run out
12:00 of ideas about preaching."
12:01 How can you run out of ideas?
12:03 You run to the Cross.
12:04 When you don't think you have an idea, run to the Cross.
12:07 When you don't think you have something
12:08 to feed your congregation, run to the Cross.
12:10 And my dear brother in your witnesses
12:12 you say, "I don't know what to witness about?"
12:14 Run to the Cross because there is the power
12:16 of God unto salvation.
12:18 They are the great power of God from heaven.
12:20 Beat down upon that place and there comes
12:23 that power even into our lives today.
12:26 We must preach the Cross.
12:28 We must live the Cross as long,
12:31 I mean, it must be centrality of our preaching as long
12:33 as sin can those of blush of shame to the cheeks of men
12:37 and women, as long as tears glisten
12:39 in our eyes for repentance,
12:41 we must preach the Cross.
12:44 Now if we want to go back to that day,
12:48 we would arrive in Jerusalem.
12:50 We would arrive in Jerusalem and upon viewing
12:52 the City of Jerusalem,
12:54 I mean, it was a magnificent city Jerusalem.
12:57 It was called the pearl of the Middle East.
13:01 Upon viewing the city from the height,
13:03 you would see the golden temple gleaming in the sun.
13:08 You would notice the palace.
13:09 You would notice the streets, the crooked streets.
13:13 It truly was a fortress of faith in that day
13:16 and it's become a fortress of war today.
13:19 I mean the faith of three great religions
13:22 Judaism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity.
13:25 And when we enter the City of Jerusalem,
13:27 we find you to stir that morning.
13:28 I mean it was an exciting morning.
13:30 It was an exciting time.
13:34 The sun had been up for sometime over the City of Jerusalem.
13:37 And the whole city was in a festive mood.
13:39 I mean it was Passover.
13:40 Now I don't know if you can understand
13:42 and comprehend Passover.
13:44 We're living in a modern time.
13:45 We think of thanksgiving, but Passover.
13:50 Passover to the Jewish people
13:53 was the greatest event in a history.
13:57 How that being in Egyptian bondage in changing Egypt
14:03 and then God delivered them from that bondage.
14:06 God brought them out of that bondage
14:07 and God set them free.
14:09 And God took another them out of slavery
14:10 to bring them across the river
14:12 and bring them into the wilderness
14:13 and then to bring them to the promise
14:15 that was made to Abraham.
14:17 I mean it was the Passover
14:19 that was when they took the blood of the lamb
14:21 and pasted on the doorpost.
14:23 And when the death angel flew over the land,
14:25 it could not hurt those under the blood of the lamb.
14:29 So significant was it to the Jewish people,
14:32 it was the highest and holiest
14:34 of all their temple worship, of all their worship.
14:39 And pilgrims had come
14:40 to the City of Jerusalemon that Passover.
14:44 And they were in a festive mood.
14:45 They were there for the seriousness of bringing a lamb
14:48 or bringing an offering to the temple
14:50 and that offering to cover their sins
14:52 and to bring them into a relationship with their God.
14:56 Tens of thousands there, even a million
14:58 some say or two were coming to Jerusalem for the Passover.
15:04 They had come far away as Caesarea.
15:07 They had come far away as Cyrene.
15:10 They had come as far away as Rome itself.
15:12 Pilgrims and visitors poured into the gates of the city
15:15 moving towards the temple.
15:16 But as they moved, the long blind men
15:18 drooping along on their wooden cane
15:22 and on their white cane drooping away in darkness.
15:27 Merchants were shouting in their ways
15:29 and Roman soldiers standing on every corner.
15:31 And the people are moving towards the temple.
15:34 I mean lame man hobbled on crooked crutches
15:38 and blind man stag it to the streets.
15:40 It was a difficult procession making towards the temple,
15:43 but that was making outside
15:44 going towards the exit of the city.
15:46 There were three men staggering on the way to three Crosses
15:49 and everyone knew that it's a significance of it.
15:52 Everybody knew the symbolism of it.
15:54 They knew what was going to happen.
15:56 Those three men were condemned to die.
16:00 It would be like standing in the very code of death row.
16:04 Seeing a prison to going down
16:05 through death raw knowing the end was an inevitable.
16:08 They knew that those three men would hang upon the Cross.
16:11 And they would die because crucifixion was a Roman
16:16 way and penalty for death, of death.
16:20 Pilate washed these hands of Jesus.
16:23 Herod condemned.
16:25 The Jews have rejected Him.
16:27 And the Romans would now crucify Him.
16:30 When I look at the Cross, I see plainly the sin.
16:32 Can you imagine the sin?
16:34 I mean the angry mob ripping the clothes,
16:36 the robe off the back of the son of God.
16:38 I mean taking long leather thongs
16:40 with lead imbedded in the ends of those leather
16:43 thongs and beating the back of the son of God
16:46 who bore the burden of the whole world.
16:48 Amazing to see the crown of thorns
16:51 crushed upon his brow, blood dripping in His eyes.
16:57 All night long, they had reviled Him.
16:59 All night long, they had mocked Him.
17:00 All night long, they had bitten Him.
17:03 And he staggers onto the way to this Cross.
17:10 He is alone to suffer, Jesus.
17:14 He is alone to bleed, Jesus.
17:17 He is alone to die, Jesus.
17:20 My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
17:26 Godforsaken of God.
17:30 The cry of Calvary.
17:33 Godforsaken of God.
17:39 That was the cry, the cry of Calvary.
17:44 I mean listen to me.
17:46 In that very moment,
17:47 the sins of the world will lead upon Jesus.
17:51 The world's lies burnt into the lips of Jesus
17:53 as if He had spoken them.
17:55 I mean at that moment, my God why have thou forsaken me.
17:58 At that moment, the world lustful desires burnt
18:01 into the mind of Jesus as if He had fought
18:04 them and spoken them and the world's
18:06 unpleasing language burned
18:07 into the tongue of Jesus as if He had spoken them.
18:10 He was made sin for us.
18:15 The spotless lamb of God, the spotless woman,
18:18 one of heaven who came down
18:20 to the womb of a virgin into this world,
18:21 he is now hanging on the Cross and the sins
18:24 of the whole world like standstill.
18:28 He pulls down upon Himself
18:32 the sins of the whole world,
18:35 to die with His enemies.
18:39 I see three things at the Cross.
18:43 I see sin at a trifle place.
18:47 I see the love of God and at the Cross
18:51 I see the only way of salvation.
18:53 Now at the Cross I see sin in its rightful place.
18:58 Sin made the Cross a necessity.
19:01 Sin made the death of Christ that necessity.
19:05 You see, it was sin and you know, man calls sin an accident,
19:08 God calls it an abomination.
19:12 Man calls sin a blunder.
19:13 God calls it blindness.
19:17 Man calls sin a chance and God calls it a choice.
19:21 And man calls it liberty and God calls it lawlessness.
19:25 And man calls it luxury and God calls it leprosy.
19:32 The Cross we understand sin.
19:35 When we've been to the Cross, we see sin as a new light.
19:40 At the Cross, we recognized sin in a different way.
19:45 At the Cross,
19:48 we see people in a different way.
19:53 That's why everyone must go to the Cross.
19:57 That's why whenever I'm discouraged
19:59 I like a belying to the Cross.
20:01 That's why when I fall and sin against God,
20:03 I make a belying to the Cross.
20:05 That's why moments of--in moments of this prayer,
20:08 in moments of sorrow, in moments of pain,
20:11 I make a belying right to the Cross.
20:15 Because I see it and I see sin in this rightful place.
20:21 You see sin is the one world that scribes all human tragedy.
20:25 You can call it by any psychological name,
20:27 any sociological name, any long name, but it's the same.
20:30 Sin is a tragedy.
20:33 The crowns were made of thorns.
20:37 The day of it is horrible night.
20:40 Sin put Christ on the rugged Cross.
20:42 Your sin and my sin put Him there and you know something,
20:46 I discovered from the realm of Bible that if it was one sin,
20:49 Christ would have died.
20:50 If one person had sin against God,
20:52 if one person had broken the law of God,
20:54 if one person rebutted the character of God,
20:57 he would have come and blood and suffered
21:00 and died that is unconditional love.
21:08 I hear people all the time say why love unconditionally?
21:10 Give me a break. Impossible.
21:15 There're only two times, you love unconditional.
21:17 One is at your birth because you know nothing.
21:22 And the other is at your death,
21:24 or you have nothing,
21:26 or you have a lot of things but nothing.
21:33 But He unconditionally loved me.
21:37 An amazing thing I found out as a gang leader Brooklyn,
21:39 New York, he loved me even while I was a sinner.
21:43 And by the way when I confess my sin,
21:45 he wouldn't love me anymore.
21:48 I just learned to love Him more.
21:50 He didn't change His mind.
21:53 He changed my mind.
21:55 He didn't change his character.
21:57 He changed my character at the Cross of Jesus.
22:03 I tell you sin put them on the rugged Cross.
22:05 Your sin and mine wouldn't say, "Look at this sin.
22:08 I want so big--I mean those people were involved
22:11 that day terrible tragic day."
22:15 look at Caiaphas, I mean he was surrounding the Cross.
22:19 He was there in the shadow of the Cross. Caiaphas,
22:21 what was his sin?
22:22 Was it adultery?
22:23 Was it murder? Was it stealing?
22:25 Was it--all those things
22:26 that we and all that Christians know?
22:29 And yet it was all of them because the Bible says
22:31 to break one of the least of these commandments
22:34 as to break the law.
22:36 But it wasn't that those sins of the flesh.
22:42 It was sin of the spirit.
22:45 The sin of self-seeking,
22:48 the sin itself righteousness,
22:51 the sin of pride, it was the sin of a church
22:53 that brought Caiaphas to condemn Christ.
22:59 Pride is a dangerous sin.
23:03 Don't believe it?
23:05 My Bible says, "It was pride
23:07 that caused satan to fall from heaven."
23:11 My Bible tells me that he was cast out from heaven
23:14 because he had pride.
23:17 Pride for Satan to fall down.
23:18 I mean pride brought Caiaphas to say he is guilty.
23:21 Pride caused Caiaphas to fall into sin.
23:24 He thought his religion.
23:26 He thought his religion was good enough for him.
23:28 He didn't need a savior.
23:33 There are so many people,
23:34 who don't think need a savior.
23:37 You can get by all right.
23:42 That was Caiaphas.
23:47 Pride. How many people
23:49 I've met ministry around the world
23:51 preaching on the continence of the world?
23:53 Have I met who thought that was too proud
23:57 to come humbly to Christ?
24:00 Too proud, to kneel humbly at the Cross,
24:03 too proud to put the hands out and put the hands
24:06 and humble Him that made the world, too proud.
24:11 And what's your sin, is it pride?
24:17 Then you need to bring it to the Cross.
24:19 I mean one of the sins that Pilate.
24:21 Have you ever thought about that?
24:22 I mean Pilate then it actually put the nails
24:24 in the hands of Jesus.
24:25 I mean He wasn't dead pound with a hammer,
24:28 the nails and the hands of Jesus to lift up the Cross.
24:30 He washed his hands of Jesus.
24:36 And you know why?
24:38 The biggest reason I find that people don't come to Christ.
24:43 The biggest reason people don't come to the Cross.
24:46 The biggest reason is they were afraid.
24:50 He was afraid to the crowd.
24:55 I mean He was afraid of his position.
25:01 He was afraid what the government would think of Him.
25:03 He was afraid what the crowd would think of Him.
25:05 He was afraid with the Pharisees
25:07 and Sadducees would think of Him.
25:08 And so afraid of the people.
25:11 I find now fault in him.
25:15 Can you imagine one who finds no fault in Christ
25:20 would wash his hands
25:24 of Christ?
25:29 Listen to me--all the waters of the seven seas
25:36 cannot wash away the deed of that night.
25:40 He washed his hands,
25:43 but only God could wash His heart.
25:48 I see sin in its rightful place.
25:56 Afraid of the Cross, afraid of position and family.
26:01 In other words, you don't want to identify
26:04 yourself for the Christ as a Pilate.
26:07 He don't want to identify
26:08 yourself with Christ in the Bible teaching.
26:10 He don't want to associate yourself with the Bible truth.
26:14 You just afraid of it.
26:16 You may be ashamed even of it.
26:21 But it means the world hated Christ then it will hate you.
26:25 And some of us can't stand that.
26:28 The think of what the crowd would think of us.
26:30 What would they think down town where I work?
26:33 What would they think in my family if I go home and say,
26:35 I gave my heart to Jesus tonight?
26:37 I turned myself over the God.
26:40 I've returned to the God of my childhood.
26:47 Look at Herod.
26:49 What was the sin of Herod?
26:50 Have you ever thought? It was adultery.
26:53 I don't know we like to talk about those things today.
26:56 Now-a-days in society if you think alike that's enough.
27:00 I mean if you have two red cars
27:02 have something incoming you know, let's live together.
27:04 I mean that's the philosophy of a pagan world.
27:06 I mean that's the philosophy today.
27:08 Oh, you smile, I like your smile, let's live together.
27:14 Hey, but I've learned something.
27:18 The grass always looks green in someone else's yard
27:22 till you have to cut the grass.
27:25 Just threw that out.
27:26 That wasn't even my notes.
27:29 For what was his sin?
27:32 It was adultery.
27:34 Now I want to talk candidate to you tonight.
27:36 I know you like little sermons
27:37 with bubbling books and sparkling--
27:41 you know like chilled out talks.
27:46 But I want to talk quite frankly to you.
27:49 Adultery solidifies your heart.
27:55 It's a light to your own conscience.
27:59 And it's a deception to the one loves you most.
28:03 Herod was an adulterer.
28:06 And God knew it.
28:10 And Herod didn't like it.
28:12 And so he said, "I can get rid of Him.
28:14 I put Him on a Cross."
28:18 Look at Judas and it was of the so called big sins of Calvary
28:22 I mean those things I think--I mean look at Judas,
28:26 Judas followed Christ.
28:28 In fact the Bible tells us three times.
28:31 Judas was a man whom Jesus called.
28:34 Judas was a man whom Jesus loved.
28:37 And Judas was a man whom Jesus want.
28:42 Judas was a disciple.
28:44 He went to church every Sabbath with Christ.
28:50 He walked with Him at night.
28:51 He sat with Him in a day.
28:53 I mean he saw the miracles of layman standing
28:55 and praising God and blind man seeing light of day
28:58 and dead man being raised to life.
29:02 He saw all of that.
29:05 He saw the power of God working through the life of Christ.
29:11 And yet He betrays Lord.
29:17 Thirty pieces of silver.
29:20 Modern coinages today,
29:21 that would probably about 400 dollars American.
29:28 In Nigeria, I don't know what that would be.
29:35 400 dollars, they crucified Christ.
29:40 Can you imagine for what cheap things do we crucified him?
29:43 What cheap things do we bargain with Satan helpful?
29:45 I mean he was one, look at him Judas and then the crowd.
29:50 That crowd is interesting as study the crowd,
29:52 I discovered something about the crowd.
29:54 They sat there as if it were a picnic.
30:00 They came to listen, they came to be entertained.
30:06 The crowd came just a look upon that sin.
30:09 And study the sin and enjoy it. It was a picnic.
30:11 They had a picnic lunch sitting
30:13 on the side of hill called Golgotha.
30:16 They watched Him there.
30:19 They weren't against Christ nor were they for him.
30:25 They were just there to celebrate death.
30:31 And they watched Him.
30:34 And they didn't do a thing.
30:37 They watched Him, quite interesting.
30:40 How many do I have known who come
30:43 and watch from a safe distance?
30:48 They watched him there, dying sin.
30:52 You see, sitting down they watched Him there.
30:54 What's your sin that hold you back
30:56 from following totally Jesus Christ?
30:59 What is the sin that brings you
31:00 to a relationship with Jesus Christ?
31:04 What is that sin?
31:07 Secondly, I can't go to the Cross
31:09 and not see the love of God.
31:12 I want to tell you my friend,
31:13 God loves you.
31:16 He loves you with such infinite love.
31:18 You can love like God loves.
31:22 You're incapable of loving like God loves.
31:25 You love for a corrupt nature.
31:27 You love for a sinful nature.
31:29 You love for a world 7,000 years of sin.
31:32 You love from getting the nature.
31:38 But He loves with the giving nature.
31:41 And as I said the other evening,
31:44 the value of the gift
31:47 is in the love of the giver.
31:52 And His love tells you there's no sin that He cannot forgive.
31:58 Someone said to me that evening
31:59 met me, they said, "How did you live
32:01 with yourself after became a Christian
32:03 I mean stabbing people and gripping people off
32:05 and I mean how did you live with yourself?" I didn't.
32:08 I said, "I live with Christ."
32:14 I could never live with myself.
32:18 But I was free to live with Christ and His righteousness
32:25 and His love and all that was placed upon my life.
32:32 And I was made righteous at the moment
32:35 through Jesus Christ, amen.
32:37 Can you say amen here?
32:38 Amen. I don't know.
32:39 You don't like preacher a lot down in the south.
32:41 I get little more amen.
32:42 Like I would give you a southern draw here,
32:44 I mean do something you people.
32:46 You are clapping even when they were singing.
32:51 Yes you know he's preaching like this.
32:58 I mean love--I mean look at it, every drop of blood
33:00 on His that was shred on Calvary, every whip that blasted
33:03 at his back, every sharp point of spear
33:06 that pierced Him in the side.
33:08 Listen, the first Adam was pierced in His side
33:12 and they came forth Eve, the bride of the first Adam.
33:19 And Calvary, the second Adam was wounded in the side
33:23 and then came forth blood and water and that forth a new Eve,
33:27 the Church of Jesus Christ,
33:29 Halleluiah! I'll do a dance on that.
33:35 Forgive me for that.
33:41 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son
33:45 to who so we believe in him should not perish,
33:50 but have a everlasting life.
33:53 You see here at Calvary love was pierced.
33:57 A Calvary love was bitten upon.
34:00 Calvary blood was shred.
34:03 Father forgive them for they know not
34:06 what they do.
34:12 Your faith forgiven.
34:15 You're forgiven.
34:17 Why do you carry around after you've been forgiven?
34:22 Why do you keep digging of the old man?
34:27 It's buried. You're forgiven. But I love you,
34:35 I've been doing the same thing
34:36 for 40 years.
34:44 Bury it, I'm crucified in Christ.
34:48 Neither less I will deviate
34:49 not I but Christ lives within me.
34:52 Christ in me, the hope of glory. Amen.
35:00 Finished. Wow, finished my salvation full and free.
35:07 Jesus paid the death for sinners
35:10 when He died on Calvary shed tears,
35:17 shed blood, shed life crucified with Christ.
35:25 I was in Hawaii preaching.
35:28 By the way I--the brethren always sent me to hot places.
35:33 You know they won't send to Philippine islands,
35:35 you know, where tens of thousand--
35:36 I mean they send me to Holland, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles,
35:40 and I mean, so one night I was praying to God.
35:44 I said, "God, this is unfair."
35:48 I mean they got some conference president
35:50 send them over there.
35:51 I worked all my life hard.
35:53 Who's over there comes back with his trophies.
35:57 I said what--I said, "I'd like to go to exact place."
36:01 The next morning I got a telephone from Hawaii.
36:07 Man on the line says, "Well, hello Senior Ron."
36:10 He knew me said Ron, would you like to come to Hawaii?
36:13 Hold evangels to crusade seminar on revelation.
36:17 I said, "Oh, let me pray about it, thank you Lord.
36:19 Yes, I would love to go to Hawaii."
36:22 Then those quick answers.
36:27 And so I packed my things and i went to Hawaii.
36:29 By the way I wrote a book on prayer,
36:30 it's called "Prayer Warriors"
36:31 if you don't have it, you should get it.
36:34 And if you've ready, let me see your hands
36:36 with awesome intelligent people in North West
36:38 I could see that.
36:41 But it was out of that book "Prayer Warfare",
36:44 it's out of that book that I began to pray walk.
36:47 And so wherever I go now,
36:48 I pray walk and I do it-- Joshua was--
36:52 He said the Joshua, whoever saw your feet touch,
36:54 I'll give you back to land.
36:57 He said to Jeremiah, "You want a take a city back for God."
36:59 He says, "First of all weep, let's get a burden."
37:02 Secondly he says, "Walk."
37:05 And then he says, "Weakness."
37:06 I can probably drive by a house sold a book.
37:10 Keep on going. Give me a break.
37:17 So I got to Hawaii, I started walking.
37:18 And whenever I get to a city I pray for the meanest,
37:20 toughest, honorest, curse, fighting, snottiest,
37:24 shoot men in town, women in town.
37:31 So I was preaching the first night.
37:33 The second night, and in walk to speak Samoan, boom.
37:40 I mean I'm big, but Samoan--
37:45 This guy walks lumbering down, scars.
37:51 That look, don't mess with me man.
37:56 And right away I said, "Oh, Lord,
37:57 you're answering my prayer."
37:59 So I preached twice as good that night.
38:05 And so the next night, the next night, the next night,
38:07 finally I started shaking hands with them.
38:10 And then you know, I'm from Brooklyn,
38:11 I am a hugger, sorry I am a hugger.
38:15 So I finally get up there and I hug him.
38:19 This is hugging a Samoan.
38:24 I wish you'd been there when Jesus took over his heart.
38:27 I wish you would been here
38:28 when I preached on the Cross of Christ.
38:29 I wish you'd been here
38:30 when that man stood to his feet, walk forward.
38:33 And I wish you'd been there when I knowing to him
38:35 with the Lord to take away his drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
38:37 I don't need five day plan, eight day plan,
38:40 I need a five minute plan
38:42 the power of the Holy Spirit.
38:49 But I have some fighting habit.
38:51 I'm gonna--when I get over this you been fighting
38:53 till 12 years, Let Jesus fight it. Amen.
38:56 I wish you'd been here when he brought his crack
38:58 and his alcohol and his hashish and his-- big bags.
39:05 I put it in my trunk.
39:06 I was afraid to get arrested that night.
39:10 God took hold of his life.
39:12 Finished by the way sins
39:17 were so transformed by the power of God.
39:20 The first year as Christian, He let a hundred people
39:26 to the Lord Jesus Christ through baptism.
39:33 He's already baptized more than 400 people
39:36 in their kingdom of God.
39:37 Let me tell you one thing.
39:39 When Jesus Christ says finished.
39:41 It's finished in your life and there is a new life.
39:45 And don't try to reform yourself to get good enough.
39:49 Come to Christ and He has the power
39:54 to do what you don't have to do.
39:55 Finish shed tear, shed blood, shed lives.
39:58 At the Cross, by the way, I see the only way of salvation.
40:00 There is no other way.
40:03 It's not 27 fundamental believes though they're wonderful.
40:07 It's not because they're going to accept
40:09 the church, that's wonderful.
40:11 By the way, one person said to me,
40:12 "I want to follow the Lord, give my heart to Christ.
40:14 But I don't want to join the churches."
40:15 It like I want to get married and going to honeymoon.
40:21 But that's not what it's about.
40:25 It's about the way of salvation, the Cross.
40:32 I know no other way.
40:33 You see the Cross is the bridge back to God.
40:37 The Cross is the highway to heaven.
40:40 The Cross being estrangement heal.
40:41 At the Cross the enmity has taken away.
40:43 The price is paid fully at the Cross.
40:48 Little boy was standing in a hallway
40:53 near Wall Street, New York.
40:54 If you ever go to New York, go down the Wall Street
40:56 at 3 o'clock, it's interesting.
40:58 Limousines half the length of street
41:01 and they're running you know stock brokers
41:03 and stock people and some of them made a million that day,
41:06 some lost a million and half to the Cadillac,
41:11 get home, get to the suburbs to the cocktail, chill 'em out.
41:16 The man with the cashmere coat running towards the car.
41:20 He notices the boy standing in a hallway.
41:23 Boy tided clothes and he's crying.
41:28 The man puts his hand on the door--
41:32 I should say the driver is opening the door.
41:35 And the man turns around, sees the boy, he stops.
41:37 He remembers whey he was a boy.
41:39 Let's you forget.
41:42 And so he walks over to the boy.
41:43 The boy gets to the boy swiping away his tears.
41:46 The man comes up says, "Young man, may I help you?"
41:49 Boy looks him and he says, "Bug off Mister."
41:52 Something's wrong. No, nothing's wrong, nothing.
41:57 Someone said, "Why don't your Brooklyn accent?"
42:00 I said, "Why? When I get to heaven,
42:01 again I have to learn it again."
42:05 So nothing mister, nothing's wrong.
42:10 And he says, "I know there's something wrong.
42:11 I can--I can help you." Nothing.
42:17 He says look and he has turned around
42:18 and started but he couldn't I mean the kid
42:22 and then the boy, he turned back, he says,
42:24 "Listen, I can help you. What happened?"
42:26 He says, "I was going to the stall with a dollar in my hand.
42:29 My daddy told me to go to the store and get something.
42:31 And when I was running to try to keep warm,
42:34 the dollar flew away.
42:36 Down the drain. It's gone."
42:40 A dollar, I mean here's a man with cashmere coat.
42:43 I mean here's a man, millions he's talking.
42:46 And here's a boy, a dollar.
42:50 So he says, "Why don't you go back
42:51 and tell your daddy you lost it?"
42:53 That's only logical. He will forgive you.
42:56 He said, "You don't know my father.
42:59 He's home half drunk right now.
43:02 And I'm never gonna go home."
43:04 So the man said, "Well, we're going?"
43:05 he said to said, "To the store."
43:06 He took the boy by the hand took him around the corner,
43:08 put him in the store, walked in the store and then said,
43:11 "Go, get what your father wanted to get."
43:14 He brought it back, leaving on the counter, 95 cents.
43:20 The man took out his wallet.
43:23 I can't take out money left at home.
43:26 With not anything.
43:27 There's no money in it but anywhere.
43:30 Took out the wallet and looking
43:33 for the hundreds to find a dollar.
43:36 Later on the counter when he puts the things in a little bag,
43:41 gives him back a nickel.
43:44 He hands the package to the boy
43:46 and he puts the nickel in his other hand.
43:48 He says, "Now go home to your father."
43:50 The boy turned around ran as far as the front door.
43:54 He stopped, turned around, put the package down,
43:58 ran back, through his arms as far around the man as he could.
44:01 He looked up in his face and he said,
44:06 "I wish you're my father."
44:09 And then he ran back, took his package and out into the lane.
44:13 The man later go on his club, he said,
44:15 "You know what I did the rest of that evening.
44:18 I walked around the street
44:20 hoping that I might find another boy that lost a dollar."
44:26 I mean let's face it, we all blew it.
44:28 I may not all sin alike but alike we all sin.
44:34 And Jesus says, "I love you, come on home through the Cross."
44:42 You see, it's a narrow way the way of the Cross.
44:45 I mean it doesn't make you a narrow person,
44:46 it just a narrow way because
44:52 it's rough and rugged.
44:57 I mean the moral law, yes, it is narrow.
45:02 I mean all these things that you've heard it's now.
45:05 But there is a way that seems right onto man
45:07 but the ways of our death, way of the Cross is life.
45:10 God can offer you life tonight.
45:13 You say how do you know?
45:15 Because for 41 years, I've seen
45:16 him offering life to men and women.
45:20 I've seen tens of thousands literally
45:22 who've coming for newness of life of Jesus Christ.
45:27 You need to climb by the way
45:28 the Cross, it's a narrow way.
45:30 You know, why is it when we come to religion,
45:32 everybody wants a broadminded.
45:33 Have you ever noticed that?
45:35 I had one person tell me this get this come on.
45:38 We are all doing different ways, Brother Ron.
45:40 But we're all gonna get there.
45:41 Can you imagine?
45:44 You gotta go east.
45:49 No, you don't have to go east,
45:51 but if you're going to Chicago, you better go east.
45:56 The weather seem with right onto man but the ways,
45:58 there are no ways of-- I like narrow minded pilots.
46:03 Don't you? my wife, she's definitely afraid of flying.
46:08 In fact, the first time I got on a plane it was a miracle.
46:12 I mean I wrote it down, drawn it drown as a miracle.
46:16 I talked to her three months.
46:17 I was going to Boston.
46:18 We are going flying up from Atlanta Georgia to Boston.
46:21 I said, "Honey, it's safe to fly in a plane."
46:23 I said it safe, more people die
46:27 in the tub then on a plane.
46:31 Yeah, she said, "at least it's a foot off the ground."
46:38 So I kept persuading and profaning,
46:40 I talked her in to it.
46:42 It's wonderful to fly with my wife.
46:43 I mean this is spiritual event
46:46 because she prays from the moment
46:48 she gets on to when she gets off.
46:51 So I get along this plane in Atlanta, Georgia.
46:53 I'd like narrow minded pilots.
46:57 Going to Boston.
46:59 Atlanta, Boston, North East, so many degrees.
47:06 I got on-- she was strapped in by the way
47:08 before the announcement I never get.
47:10 I mean she was so tight on that.
47:11 If the plane--I mean the chair would go with her.
47:17 And then she held my hand.
47:18 I mean it was a beautiful experience.
47:19 Her nails right through.
47:20 I mean I was stuck.
47:23 I was going nowhere.
47:25 Narrow is the way to go and they are faster than Fords.
47:31 Got out--got over Boston.
47:33 I love narrow minded pilot.
47:34 I'm sure if he said, "will coming on runway number 17."
47:37 Pilot doesn't say, "Well, I don't like that,
47:39 I think I'll come in on number whatever."
47:43 And straight is the way, narrow is the way.
47:44 Calvary is a narrow way.
47:45 I mean that was so narrow, Christ had to go alone.
47:49 And that's why every one of us has to go alone.
47:51 I can't go on my wife or my husband or my children
47:54 or my preacher or my--I gotta go alone
47:58 because one at a time, we walk to Cross.
48:01 One at a time, we climb the hill.
48:03 One at a time, we follow the foot of the Cross.
48:05 One at a time, we open our heart God.
48:07 He saves us one at a time.
48:18 Look at Calvary, and you'll see love.
48:23 You'll see sin in it's rightful place.
48:26 And you'll see the only way of salvation.
48:30 It happened a well, long years ago.
48:34 The Hansen's house was on fire.
48:39 Well that quite little college town
48:43 had the local volunteer fire department,
48:48 they rushed out to the Hansen's house.
48:52 Ernest Hansen, 17 years old was taking care
48:54 of his brothers and sister.
48:57 Wow, I hope they're listening from Nigeria.
49:01 They are some big families.
49:04 And mom and dad had gone to the store.
49:05 And he was in charge, a 17 years old Ernest Hansen,
49:08 seven brothers and sisters.
49:11 When the fire broke out in the house,
49:12 he ran around collecting them through the smoke
49:16 and getting then to safety.
49:19 And as he was standing there were his brothers and sisters,
49:22 the fire engines came up and put water,
49:26 but it was unquenchable fire.
49:30 And just then Ernest looked around,
49:32 he realized that baby sister wasn't there.
49:37 He had gotten his other brothers and sisters out.
49:39 But baby sister was upstairs in the bed room in the crib
49:43 and he ran over the fire and he said, mister.
49:46 He says, "I got my brothers and sisters.
49:47 But baby sister is--" and said there is nothing we can do son.
49:52 But you don't understand,
49:55 with that he ran towards the burning building.
49:58 But you don't understand mister.
50:02 And he ran to that burning building.
50:03 Ernest Hansen, 17 years old.
50:09 The fire is-- he's beating out the fire in his hands,
50:13 crawling up to stairs through the smoke filled house.
50:17 Down the hallway to the room,
50:18 the bed room he pushed opened the door
50:21 and heard baby sister crying.
50:22 Could you imagine?
50:23 It was like the cry of angels.
50:28 Ran over quickly picked and up and wrapped it in a blanket.
50:34 He started out the building.
50:36 I mean the fire and the flames
50:37 and beating out the fire with his hand.
50:39 Fire caught his ear on fire, try to put it out.
50:42 But he was protecting the little baby in a soft like blanket
50:48 and everybody was watching the house, the door, and flames.
50:54 And all of a sudden, a little white bundle
50:56 was thrown out off the flame.
50:59 Fireman quickly took it and put out
51:00 the little tiny fire on blanket
51:02 in there was a little baby crying alive.
51:07 And then Ernest Hansen tumbled out
51:09 of burning building and burst into flames.
51:14 They rolled him the dirt and dust.
51:17 They rushed him to the hospital
51:24 and I mean one ear had been burned often, his hands
51:26 had been so mauled, he never used them again and His face
51:29 was terribly disfigured and his body.
51:32 Sometimes they thought he would die and sometimes
51:34 they prayed he would die.
51:37 Earnest, you don't understand mister.
51:41 But you know, we see a very strange scene
51:42 at the campus of Wala-Wala.
51:45 A beautiful, beautiful co-ed, lovely girl
51:50 walking along with her hand and her arm
51:54 in the arm of a terribly disfigured.
51:57 People turned away from his face, scar.
52:02 People say, "What is this beautiful girl
52:04 doing with that terribly scared disfigured man?"
52:08 And they'd say that's Ernest Hansen.
52:11 And that's baby sister grow into woman.
52:15 And he got his scars to save her life.
52:20 And she's is not ashamed of his scars.
52:26 Are you ashamed of his scars?
52:32 When he reaches out to you,
52:35 do you push his hands away?
52:40 When he looks at you, without eternal look
52:46 do you push him away?
52:48 For God so loved the world
52:53 that he gave his only son.
52:57 Scared, disfigured,
53:06 father which already in heaven,
53:10 may the people here tonight look into the scars of Christ.
53:13 Wounded in their head and hands and the feet and the sides.
53:19 Oh, we pray this people look into the face of Jesus.
53:25 And they will be changed.
53:29 Oh, God I don't know who this people are here
53:30 I wish I knew them but You know them by name.
53:34 I wish I could personally go to them and tell them
53:37 how much Jesus means to me and what a glorious day
53:40 when I put my hand on this God hands of Christ.
53:42 Everything I owe, I owe to you Lord.
53:47 The very cloths on my back oh God,
53:48 the very education that I have,
53:50 the very privilege it is to come here
53:53 to this place and speak for you.
53:57 Pray God now You'll go to the hearts of the people
53:59 here through your Holy Spirit.
54:02 Whisper to them and tell them
54:06 what You want to tell them.


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Revised 2014-12-17