Bearing the Greatest Burden - Part 2

Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. The greatest load anyone carries is guilt from sin. But the good news is you can give that weight over to God. Learn more in part two of Bearing the Greatest Burden. What is the most important truth in this whole Bible? Here's what it is.

Listen carefully. Through the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, the virginborn sinless Son of God who went to the cross of Calvary, laid down His life, paid our sin debt in absolute fullness so that every single one who places their faith in Him will receive forgiveness of sin and the gift of eternal life. Most important truth man will ever know. Because there's no hope for a single one of us apart from Christ. Now, people don't like that. They can't stand the fact that you tell them that Jesus is the only way.

Here's what He said. I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.

Listen carefully. This is the most important truth in the Word of God. There's nothing second to it as far as God's relationship to mankind and even beyond that, the most important truth of all. Let's go back to this passage of Scripture now in Hebrews chapter nine.

Look at this. Verse twenty-four, for Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, that is, when He ascended a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. When He ascended in the presence of God, listen, presenting Himself the ultimate final sacrifice for sin. Nor was it that He would offer Himself often like the high priest did.

Once a year, the high priest went into the temple to offer sacrifice. Otherwise, verse twenty-six, He would have needed to suffer often, many times since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the consummation of the ages, He has been manifested or revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once. And after this comes the judgment. So Christ also, having been offered once, one judgment, once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await Him.

Now, what do we mean by His substitutionary death? And these verses are very important. Here's what that means.

Listen carefully. That because of God's love for sinful mankind, He sent Jesus sinless. He had to be sinless. Only one sinless person ever walked the face of this earth, and that's Jesus Christ. Because a sinner could not bear the sin of another sinner.

It had to be the perfect sacrifice. He sent Jesus Christ into this world for the purpose of, the ultimate purpose of doing what? Of giving Himself as a substitute for your sin and mine, for you and for me. Because at the cross, what He did, He placed all of your sin and mine upon Jesus Christ. Look, if you will, in First Peter chapter two, and I want you to notice very, very specifically what He says. Verse twenty-four, He says, He Himself, Jesus, bore our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sin, that is, turn away from that sinful life and live to righteousness, for by His wounds you were healed.

He's not talking about physical suffering. He's talking about His wounds that you and I may be healed of the awesome disease of sinfulness in our life. Now, go back, if you will, to Hebrews chapter nine for a moment and look again at this passage now.

Here's what He says. He says in verse twenty-six, He would have needed to suffer often, but of course, He does not. Once at the consummation of the ages, He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. That word, put away, means what? He lifts this burden off of us. Because when you and I agree that His death is real, that He came as a substitute, God, the Father, listen, removes the burden of sin and its guilt and its consequences from us. He takes it away. That's what that's all about. He says He lifts it off of us. And verse twenty-eight, so that Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation.

Listen, without reference to sin to those who eagerly wait for Him. Now also, go back to that word put away for a moment. That word to put away means to cancel, to annul. That is, if there were a legal contract, to cancel it means it's no longer in effect. To annul it means it's no longer in effect. When a person has their marriage annulled, it means they're no longer married.

It's no longer in effect. And here's what He's saying, that when Jesus Christ came into this world and He bore your sin and My sin upon Himself, then listen, here's what happens. The judgment against us because of our sin was canceled.

It was annulled. In the mind of God, the eyes of God, for the simple reason, you and I accepted the truth that the Father placed on Jesus all of our sin. We accepted that is true, that He suffered, that He died, and He paid that penalty Himself. Jesus is our sin-bearer. There is no other way to find forgiveness of sin. The sin-bearer is the one whom God has chosen to assume full responsibility for our guilt and our sins. He's the one whom God has chosen to assume full responsibility for our guilt and our sin, and to offer His life as a substitute. Listen, to offer His life as a substitute payment for our sin, therefore freeing us, liberating us from all sin and all guilt.

And so, if you think what a sin-bearer is, that Jesus came in obedience to the Father to assume full responsibility for all the sin of all mankind. And in the process of doing so, He relieved us of the guilt and the punishment that was due us. Upon one person, God the Father laid all of your sin, all of your guilt, all the penalty, all the judgment, and made it possible for us to live freed of all of that.

Now, here's the issue. That takes care of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. Holy God took all of your sin, He knew all you were going to do before you were ever born. And two thousand years ago or thereabouts, knowing you, He placed all of your sin, all of the judgment, all the punishment of all mankind back to Adam.

He bore it, placed it on him. And you see, the Jews didn't practice crucifixion. They practiced stoning to death. And then if a person had committed some real evil, they'd hang Him on a tree, but they'd bury Him by the nighttime. Why did the Jews scream out, Crucify Him, crucify Him, crucify Him for this reason? Because they knew they would hang Him on a tree. And the Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter twenty-one, cursed is the one who hangs upon the tree. For them it was a double thing.

They got rid of Him. They crucified Him. Hanging Him on a cross meant that in the eyes of those around them, He was a cursed criminal.

That's who He was. This cursed criminal was bearing the sin, your sin and my sin every single sin we've ever committed and ever will commit. Somebody says, How can you still be saved and commit sin?

Because, listen, watch this carefully. He took it. That's why we ought to be bowing down and worshiping Him and praising Him all the days of our life because listen, no matter what you and I do, He has atoned for our sin. Does that mean we're going to get away with it?

No, indeed. You know why God doesn't let you get away with sin? The same reason you as a godly parent didn't let your kids disobey you and you just ignored it. And parents who ignore the sins of this and the wicked acts of their children pay the consequences. Their kids pay the consequences.

They pay the consequences. Why is God a God of justice? Because He loves us too much to let us get by with sin. And the fact that He laid down His life, He took it all. And all of this separation, this bondage, this wrath, this eternal death that faces the life of every single person out there without Christ, is God just going to ignore that?

No. He's the sin bearer. He took it all. And when He went to the cross, He knew why He was going. He said, I lay down my life. Why did He come? He came as the sin bearer.

Remember what John said down there? He said, Behold the Son of God who takes away the sin, not just of Jews, Gentiles, of the world. How else can a person be made acceptable in the eyes of God? Well, here's the dilemma.

Think about it. If Jesus Christ doesn't bear your sin and you don't turn to Him for the forgiveness of your sin, well, let me ask you this. Then how do you deal with sin in your life?

You've got to have an answer. How do you deal with sin in your life if you refuse to come to Christ and accept the fact that He paid for it? How do you deal with it? Somebody says, Well, I, mm-mm-mm, don't tell me that. You know why you say that? Because you're trying to ignore it. Because you're trying to rationalize it. Because you try to explain it away.

Because you want to blame it on somebody else. And the real truth is you're trying to escape reality. Reality is there's life, death, and judgment. That's reality. We believe a truth that sets people on edge, makes them grind their teeth against us. They don't like it, they don't like the truth, they don't want the truth because they want sin without consequences.

That's what the whole issue is. But resting upon mankind is the bondage to sin. Separation from God in this life, the wrath of God abiding upon them, and the eternal judgment of God are waiting out there. Is God just waiting to judge people? No. Does it break His heart?

Yes. If somebody says, Well, I don't believe in a Jesus who's so narrow-minded. Think, a God who is so narrow-minded that because He loves every single person.

Isn't He narrow-minded about that? No, that He sent the only person who ever lived a sinless life to take upon Himself. He said He placed it upon Jesus, your sins and my sins, the sins of the whole world. He didn't say this nation, that nation, this color, that color, this culture, that culture.

The nations of everybody on the face of this earth. All of our sin on Him, and then God the Father crucified Him, God killed Him as a sacrifice for your sins and mine. He made the payment. Now, how can you judge that kind of God? That's how much He loves us. You and I have a responsibility to get the truth out. And I'm here to tell you people are listening to the truth by the millions, because there is a hunger. And the worse condition this world gets in, the more people who are going to begin to turn to God, the more people who are going to begin to turn to Christ.

If you were in a religion, for example, that taught fear and you could be wiped out any day because of what you believe and you kill all the folks who don't believe what you believe. And then you hear about a God of love and goodness and mercy who loved you so much He sent His only begotten Son to take your sin upon Himself so that He could suffer your sin as your substitute. The most important word in the whole Word of God about salvation is the word substitute.

He took your place. You won't have to suffer. You won't have to go to eternal death because He took your place, suffered in your place so that you and I could be free. The God who sent His only begotten Son to the cross nailed Him there and took all of my sin and my guilt and placed it on Him and He suffered in my place because this God loves me enough to have already died and taken my place. There must be something about this God that must be true.

That, listen, love and kindness and gentleness and peace and forgiveness and eternal life sounds like what everybody on the face of this earth desires. But millions are afraid to believe it. It's our responsibility to tell them. We can't make them believe what we want them to believe, but we can offer it. And here's the big question. If you do not allow Jesus to take your sin debt, who's going to pay it?

There is only one condition. It's simple. It's clear. God did not make it complex. He made it simple so that a child can understand this, that you have sinned against God. Your sin separates you from the Father. But if you will ask Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and to come into your life and receive Him as your personal Savior, you can have the gift of eternal life forever and ever and ever.

And I want to challenge you this morning. If you have never received Jesus as your Savior, now watch this, wait a minute, watch this. You cannot bear your sin without being lost eternally. Nobody can bear your sin for you.

They've got their own problem. Jesus is the only sin-bearer. He came to assume full responsibility for your sins in mind and our judgment. And to give of Himself on the cross to pay that penalty in full so that you and I can say, debt paid in full. Judgment canceled.

Judgment annulled. Now you're free to live a godly life. There are only two choices.

Jesus or eternal death. And I pray you'll be wise enough to make the right choice. Father, how grateful we are that you make it so simple and so plain. You didn't mean for it to be difficult to understand what's so awesome about it is that you love us that much. And I pray today that whoever may be seated here without Christ will understand they've just heard the truth.

Not somebody's opinion, just the truth. And it's a love truth of your love for us to give of yourself to us and pay our sin debt in full so that when you look on our account, applied to our account is the death of Jesus. And on our account it says, sin debt canceled. We love you for that in Jesus' name.

Amen. Thank you for listening to part two of Bearing the Greatest Burden. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.