Friday, November 19, 2010

THE FATHER'S BARGAIN


So I'm in California for two weeks. Got here on Tuesday. Two days prior to my coming here, I found out that on Monday and Wednesday brother Paul Washer would be preaching in the chapel services at the Master's College, which is not too far away from where I am staying. A friend and I drove down there to see him on Wednesday...and I'm so glad we did. The service was short; he only preached for about 30 minutes. He read an excerpt from the Puritan John Flavel, called "The Father's Bargain". It's a conversation between the Father and the Son that takes place in eternity past. Here it is below, please read it carefully.

“Here you may suppose the Father to say when driving His bargain with Christ for you:
The Father speaks. My Son, here is a company of poor, miserable souls that have utterly undone themselves and now lay open to my justice. Justice demands satisfaction for them, or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them.
The Son responds. O my Father. Such is my love to and pity for them, that rather then they shall perish eternally I will be responsible for them as their guarantee. Bring in all thy bills, that I may see what they owe thee. Bring them all in, that there be no after-reckonings with them. At my hands shall thou require it. I would rather choose to suffer the wrath that is theirs than they should suffer it. Upon me, my Father, upon me be all their debt.
The Father responds. But my Son, if thou undertake for them, thou must reckon to pay the last mite. Expect no abatement. Son, if I spare them… I will not spare you.
The Son responds. Content Father. Let it be so. Charge it all upon me. I am able to discharge it. And though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures… I am content to take it.”

Brother Paul rightfully told us that we have no idea what those words mean--for if we did, we would not have still been in our seats. We would have gone wild.

It's true. It deeply grieves me how little I really understand the Gospel. If only I had a greater glimpse of Christ crucified for me, my life would be SO DIFFERENT. If only I had a greater understanding of everything that took place that terrible day on Calvary, IT WOULD CHANGE EVERYTHING. My Lord, my Savior--the KING OF GLORY--crucified for ME! Bearing upon Himself my own SINS and the very WRATH that I deserved!

How can I be anything other than a SLAVE OF CHRIST??? The Gospel ends my rights, my self-esteem, my desires...my LIFE!

Oh, the Gospel is truly enough! It is truly sufficient to transform us, to encourage us, to empower us, to keep us from sin for the rest of our lives!  Look to Christ and be saved, all the ends of the earth! Brothers and sisters, turn your eyes upon Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith!

Brother Paul shed many tears as he describe the Cross, and all Christ did to save us. A great solemnity fell upon the entire auditorium. I'll never forget the last words that came out of his mouth, before he unexpectedly turned around and headed for the back door:

"And He slaughters Him there."

As he was about to leave, several people in the audience started to clap. He quickly turned around, held out his hand to point at them and warned, "DON'T".

Having said that, he walked out the door.

There was dead silence in the auditorium. You could hear a pin drop. We all just sat there for several minutes until, one by one, people began to leave. 

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Here are the two sermons he preached at the Master's College:

The Depth of the Gospel, Part 1
The Depth of the Gospel, Part 2



2 comments:

James said...

May God indeed open our eyes to see the wonder of the Cross.

Eugene said...

Thanks for sharing! I'd heard of him preaching out there in Cali, but hadn't found the links anywhere. We're gonna listen to the first message here in just a few minutes at our small missionary home group here in western China.

We have a lot of Latino connections (my wife is Peruvian, we have Mexicans on our missions team here in China, etc...)... how can I contact you directly? My e-mail address is eugene@cotse.net