Pastor Rev. Steven Wagner Telephone: 573-437-5190

Rt 3, Owensville MO. 65066

TWO SIDES OF THE CROSS

July 2, 1996

Open Door Fellowship

Rev. Steven Wagner

Scripture: Matthew 16:24-Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

* This week the world is celebrating their independence when America became a nation, but they are loosing their independence rapidly and have already lost most of it even now.

* America founded upon God is Word, America was a land of the free because the people could worship God the way they wanted, America was a new start a chance for utopia in God.

* America is loosing its independence because it is going back into slavery the same way Israel cried out let us go back to Egypt we at least had meat to eat America is crying out to go back into sin at its lowest point.

* But where is the Church in all this, What are we doing in all this turmoil of sin?

* I believe the Church is a lot like Lot and his family, We have looked for the green valleys at any cost. We have compromised our beliefs to partake in a foreign land, to eat and drink of all its bounty. We have changed sides of the cross.

* All unannounced and mostly undetected there has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles.

* It is like the old cross, but different. The likenesses are superficial but the differences are fundamental.

I. The Church has built a new Cross, lets Consider the differences in the old and the new cross.

A. The new side of the cross has all the same language as the old but its content is not the same and its emphasis has been changed.

B. The old cross would have no compatibility or pleasure with the world.

C. The new cross is not opposed to the human race, sin and pleasure. In fact the new cross allows for such sins as homosexuality, adultery, gambling, drinking, partying etc.

1. The new cross preaches fun and enjoyment and a higher plane of morality if not intellectuality. "We should be good people"

2. The new cross lets you live without any interference or change.

3. The new cross does not demand that you become a new creature and break with the old life before a new life can be received.

4. The new cross seeks to attract public interest by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands; but rather it offers the same thing the world does, only on a higher level.

5. The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him.

6. The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the latest style and trend to make it acceptable to the public.

7. This philosophy misses completely the whole meaning behind the old cross on Golgathas hill.

* The bottom line is they want to satisfy there religious needs, without change without bowing, without obedience.

* These people that have built this new cross want the Pastor, Church and God to say its ok.

* They want a cross that does not demand sacrifice, blood or death to self.

II. Let us review the distinctive of the old cross.

A. The old cross is a symbol of death.

1. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being.

2. The old cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing.

3. When its work was finished the old man was no more. He was a new creature in Christ.

4. The race of Adam is under a death sentence (born in sin, conceived in iniquity) it must die. You must be born again.

B. The old cross cannot approve or endorse any of the fruits of sin, however innocent or beautiful they may be in the eyes of man.

C. Evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is false to the Bible and eternally cruel to the souls of its hearers.

1. The faith of Christ does not parallel the world. It intersects it.

2. When we come to Christ we do not bring our 'old life' up onto a higher plane. We leave it at the cross.

D. We who preach the Gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world.

1. We have not been commissioned by God to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education or our friends and family.

2. We are not diplomats but prophets and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum. We are not to make it acceptable but available.

3. Wiggleworth said, "A minister should not preach what he thinks, he should preach what he knows and let the congregation do the thinking."

4. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1John 2:1).

III. The old cross demands not an improved old life but :

1. The life He offers is life out of death.

2. It demands repentance and belief on Jesus Christ and the Bible.

3. He must forsake his sins and then go on to forsake himself.

4. He must not try to bring God down on his terms but to bow before God and die to self.

5. Having done this he can then gaze with simple trust upon the risen Savior and from Him will come life, rebirth, cleansing and power to conquer this world.

A. The old Cross

1. Ended the earthly life of Jesus and now puts an end to the repentant sinner.

2. The power that raised Christ from the dead now raises him to a new life along with Christ.

Conclusion: There is two sides of the Cross today the old cross of calvarys hill and the new cross of the secular, humanistic, modern day religion that is simply stated in

Timothy-2 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

Timothy-2 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

Timothy-2 3:3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

Timothy-2 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

Timothy-2 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Timothy-2 3:6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,