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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a

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moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an issue of life and faith.

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Today, I invite you to think through the issue of the crucifixion and resurrection

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of Jesus Christ, in keeping with the Lenten season. Now, I have a lot more to say

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concerning a variety of issues, things like the war in Ukraine. We've dealt with that a little bit

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or the economy, the collapsing economy. What do you think about that? But especially the

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gender corruption recruitment that's underway right now. Yes, the gender corruption recruitment

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that has a lot to do with how we are created. It goes to the very essence of who we are as people,

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as men and women, as the human race. So I have a lot more to say about those things. But we must now

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return to those seminal events during Lenten season, those seminal events upon which the entire Christian

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religion rests. After all, where would any of us be without the crucifixion and the resurrection,

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the cross and the crown, the shroud and the cloud, as one commentator puts it? Not only would there be

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no hope for eternity and the afterlife, but really, when you think about it, no hope for this world either.

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There would only be the dark pagan religions of the world, the satanic system. We would have no

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science, no justice and mercy, no safety, no security, no prosperity as we have known it without the

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crucifixion and the resurrection. Well, how can we say this? I hope to unfold for you in the next few

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weeks the profound earth-shattering transformations that have occurred in the very bones of creation,

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precisely because of our good shepherds' obedient work in dying, being buried, and rising again from the dead.

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Jesus himself predicts three times, and I quote from the Apostle Mark right now. He said,

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the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests

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and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. Mark records our Lord saying these

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things. Jesus went willingly, premeditatively, as an obedient son, executing the will of his Father.

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Why? Was this some cosmic drama played out for the masochistic entertainment of a God and his court,

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or was it absolutely necessary and an act of supreme incalculable sacrifice, the price and benefits of

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which we, his children, will spend an eternity unfolding? Oh, dear listener, of course it is the

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latter. What do you tell people when they ask you, why did Jesus die upon the cross? The usual answer,

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of course, is that Jesus died for my sins. Of course, this is true insofar as it goes, but

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involves so much more. There were only really two turning points in history, we must say.

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When we look at the broad sweep of history, there are only two true turning points. The rest of

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history is like Solomon's, there's nothing new under the sun. Well, those two turning points are

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the creation and fall of man and the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's when history

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really changed. So, the proposition from the Bible I would like to put forward for your consideration

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is this. The cross is the altar of covenant curse. First, I would like to deal with this proposition

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with you. The cross is the altar of covenant curse. The cross is the altar of covenant curse. And I'd

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like to take these one word at a time. First of all, the cross. The Bible tells us that they took Jesus

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and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of the skull, which in Aramaic is

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called Golgotha. There they crucified him. So, the apostle John tells us in chapter 19 of his gospel,

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after a mock trial, which is a travesty of Jewish and Roman law, Jesus was executed in the fashion of

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Rome. He was taken to a highly visible public place, nailed at the wrist to a cross beam of olive

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wood, and then hoisted to a vertical cross or tree, even, in which a notch had been carved for the

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cross beam. Few methods of execution have been or will be invented more monstrous or hellish than

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crucifixion. Crucifixion was begun in the mists of antiquity by the Persians and Indians and Assyrians,

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used by them as a means of death and torture for the worst of their enemies. Well, leave it to the

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thorough and practical Romans, however, to adopt and exquisitely refine crucifixion and use it as a means

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of political terror and repression for its subjugated peoples. Crucifixion was against the law. It was

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against the law in Rome to crucify a Roman citizen. So horrible was it to witness and to endure. Ah,

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the great statesman Cicero says it was the most barbarous of abominations, unquote. Well, stunned

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into submission and shock with a thorough beating such that Jesus' appearance was so marred beyond human

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semblance and is formed beyond that of the children of mankind, as Isaiah puts it, positioned such that,

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with hands and feet nailed to the cross, if he attempted to lean forward to relieve the excruciating

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pain to his feet caused by the weight of his body on them, well, his wrist and his entire rib cage

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would throb with pain and also would be collecting fluid and he would begin to choke. The only way to

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relieve this condition would be to attempt to stand on the small piece of wood to which his feet had been

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nailed, but which then would induce another round of racking pain to every muscle in his body as he

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attempted to straighten his posture and thus would begin the cycle of endless torture and pain, which

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would last for hours, maybe days before mercifully death would come. Also, under a broiling Middle

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Eastern desert sun, he would cry for water and soon become delirious. Birds of prey haunted Golgotha

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and would pick at the victims before they even died. Adding to the madness and shame of a slow,

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painful death was the final shame of being crucified naked in public, exposed to the cynical, mocking

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commentary of soldiers who relished your death and, of course, in Jesus' case, the mocking insults

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of his own people. Such was the hell Jesus of Nazareth endured for his people, the church.

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Oh, Christian, the whole point of this is not a divine masochism, a desire on God's behalf to suffer

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for suffering's sake. No, rather, this is exactly what is due each and every human being born of Adam's

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race. Revelation 20 verse 15 says, if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life,

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he was thrown into the lake of fire. We see in the cross a vignette, a preview of what is in store

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for all of us throughout eternity unless someone intervenes on our behalf. In fact, no one spoke more

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of hell than did Jesus. He says, for instance, that there men will be thrown into hell where the worm

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dies not, which means unending death, as in Adam and Eve, right, when God said, in dying you shall die,

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and where Jesus said, the fire is not quenched, which indicates endless suffering. Hell is a place of

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darkness and not light. It is a place of separation and alienation. Oh, it's not partying. You won't be

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with your friends. No, no man is more alone than the hellion. Hell will be a place of shame and grief.

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As Isaiah says, those in hell will be an abhorrence to all flesh. The Bible is full of this death by

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cross, this cross death as an anticipation of hell. For example, the shame and alienation and

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separation from God. First experienced by Adam and Eve in the garden, the blood and the sweat and

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the curse and the thorns and the pain, all which came crashing into creation as an anticipation of

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that ultimate death. That is hell. Oh, the example for instance of the 10 plagues in Egypt, those 10

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plagues rotted flesh. They brought darkness and suffering and blood and fire and disease and

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ultimately the angel of death at Passover or the sinking of the Egyptians at the Red Sea in the abyss.

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That's a picture of hell. All through the Bible, lepers and those stoned to death, madmen, the deaf,

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the blind, the crippled, those cut down in war by the sword or consumed by fire, all such things are

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but tokens and emblems of hell and the cross. Oh, yet ultimately we as Christians are to glory in the

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cross, dear listener. As Paul says in Galatians chapter 6, far be it from me to boast except in the

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cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. The

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apostle Paul glorying in the cross. He also says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, we preach Christ crucified,

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a stumbling block to Jews and a folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks,

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Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Ah, dear listener, such is the cross. Christians take

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this instrument of shame and torture, the cross, and we brandish it as a symbol of our deliverance

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because it was there that the God-man Jesus of Nazareth, Yeshua the Christ, had heaped upon him

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the very hell that we so richly deserve. He stood in our stead. The cross becomes that place where God

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meets man again, that place between heaven and earth which had been lost at the fall. Dear listener,

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the tree, the picture of the tree, has long symbolized the vertical connection between heaven

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and earth. The roots sink into the underworld. The trunk dwells on earth and the branches reach to

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heaven. Ah, so we have the underworld, the earth, and heaven all broached by the tree. And the two trees

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in the garden connected vertically man with God, heaven with earth. The pillars of fire and cloud connected

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vertically man with God, heaven with earth. The pillar of fire and smoke in the temple,

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the holy of holies connected vertically man with God, heaven with earth. The snake lifted up upon the

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cross by Moses in the desert by which Israel was healed connected vertically man with God, heaven with

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earth. Even Jesus said, and I, when I be lifted up, will draw all men unto myself. Even Jacob's ladder

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seen by Jacob at Bethel connected vertically man with God, heaven with earth. And our Lord said,

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truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending

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on the son of man. Ah, Jesus' cross is the tree. Jesus' cross is the tree which reconnects vertically

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man with God, heaven with earth. Even as Peter puts it, he says, he himself bore our sins in his body,

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on the tree that we might die to sin and live unto righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed.

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Oh, dear listener. Well, the cross is the altar of covenant curse, isn't it? The cross is the altar

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of covenant curse. Next we have the altar. If the cross is the altar of covenant curse, we have next the

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altar. An altar is a place where sacrifice is made, where blood is shed, where life is taken. The mere fact

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of an altar is testimony to tragedy. Something is so wrong in the fabric of creation, in the order

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of the universe, in our life with God, that sacrifice must be made, that blood must be shed,

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that life must be taken. The fact of an altar is mute testimony to the fall. As Genesis 2 puts it,

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in the day you eat of it, that is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die.

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Well, ever since then, man has sought desperately for a substitute for his own life, which has gone

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forfeit ever since the garden. Ever since then, our own lives have been inadequate, our own righteousness

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unacceptable, our own goodness and utter abomination and stench in God's nostrils. What you are and what

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you have will not do any longer, dear listener. In fact, God has demanded a substitute for your life,

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for my life, and my righteousness, your righteousness and goodness ever since. And man has vainly tried to

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find one on his own. The life of the fruit of the earth, the life of an animal, even the life of his

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own children. It is here at the altar where mankind has attempted to reconnect vertically heaven and earth

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man to God. What happened when men did this in an acceptable fashion to God, when they did it in his

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prescribed way as he gave Israel? Well, Leviticus tells us that the sinner shall lay his hand on the head of

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the burnt offering, and that shall be accepted for him, that is in his place, to make atonement for him.

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Ah, the result, when we do it in God's acceptable way, the result is that God reconnects heaven and

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earth, God and man, and he does it at the altar. Ah, in 1 Chronicles chapter 7, at the dedication of

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the temple, we see that as soon as Solomon finished his prayer, the text tells us, fire came down from

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heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the

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temple. So it is, when we do acceptable sacrifice, any other way than that prescribed by God is an

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abomination, and it's idolatry. Instead of those sacrifices of the worshipers being accepted and

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consumed, false worshipers find themselves being rejected and consumed themselves. Cain and Abel,

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example, or the Tower of Babel, or the multiple altars of human sacrifice to Moloch, or Baal, or Ashtoreth,

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or even the strange fire of Nadab and Abihu, who were consumed by fire for their false worship. Dear

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listener, all other religions other than biblical religion are attempts to reconnect heaven and

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earth, God and man, by some other way, at some other altar. No, the cross is the only altar at which

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a perfect sacrifice was made, where a perfect substitute was found for your sin in Adam and

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my sin in Adam, and for your very nature, my very nature. As Hebrews puts it, Christ has appeared once

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for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Having been offered once

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to bear the sins of many, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ

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once for all. Oh, yes, on the altar. Even as Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, for Christ,

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our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Dear listener, the cross is the altar of covenant curse.

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The cross is the altar of covenant curse. Well, we've covered the cross. We've covered the altar.

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How about covenant now? The cross is the altar of covenant curse. The covenant. How does God work?

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Let me ask you, dear listener, within what kind of system? Dispensationalism? No,

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there's not a word of that in the Bible. Does he have a method to his madness? Or is God whimsical

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and capricious? Does he manifest himself willy-nilly here and there, now one way, now another? No.

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He is the God who works in an ordered method and economy, a covenant economy. And the Bible is clear.

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God deals in mercy and wrath, justice and grace, damnation and salvation in a covenant economy.

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Oh, we talk of financial economies all the time, the feudal system by which goods and services were

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distributed, or socialism, or capitalism. Well, God has an economy as well, by which he dispenses

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mercy and wrath, justice and grace, damnation and salvation, and he does it in a covenant economy.

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What is a covenant? A brief definition I love is a bond in blood, sovereignly administered.

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Covenant is a bond. That is, you are bound in a covenant, and you're bound in blood.

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That is with your very life, and it is sovereignly administered by God. God bound himself, for example,

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to Adam in the covenant structure of creation, a covenant that Adam promptly proceeded to violate.

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Hosea puts it this way. He says that when he was talking about the Israelites of his day, he said,

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they, like Adam, transgressed the covenant. There they dealt faithlessly with me. Yes, Adam was in a covenant

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as well. Adam was our first covenant father, the one who represented us all at creation.

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By the one man's disobedience, as Paul says, the many were made sinners. Adam was our federal head,

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and we not only inherit his nature as his children, but also his unrighteous record as a sinner.

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As Paul says, the judgment following the one trespass brought condemnation.

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Adam's sin is credited that is imputed to every one of us. We start out at birth guilty and polluted

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from having Adam's unrighteous credited to our moral account. Yes. Well, this economy God set up with

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Israel through Moses as well, the covenant mediator at Sinai. Exodus 24 tells us, Moses took the blood and

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threw it on the people and said, behold, the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in

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accordance with all these words. Oh, that covenant called the old covenant or the old Testament was

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the very economy by which God dealt in mercy and wrath, justice and grace, damnation and salvation

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dealt in these things for centuries as he taught and disciplined his people in preparation for another

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final covenant. And this new covenant, God set up with the church through Christ. Oh, at the last

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supper, our Lord said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. Oh, dear

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listener, Christ was our second covenant father, the second Adam, the one who represented us all at the

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cross. By the one man's obedience, as Paul says, the many will be made righteous. That one man and his

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obedience, Christ, Christ was our federal head. And we not only inherit his reward as his children now,

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but also his righteous record as an obedient servant. As Paul says again, God made Christ to be

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sin who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. Oh, dear Christian, you are

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now the righteousness of God. His righteousness is credited, imputed to you, to every one of us in the

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church. We start out at our new birth. We start out righteous and holy from having Christ's righteousness

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credited to our moral account. Oh, dear listener, do you see the dark transaction that took place on Good

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Friday at the cross of Christ? He not only died for your sins, but he also took upon himself all of the

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filthy rags of your unrighteousness and all of the debt loaded to your account by your first father,

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Adam, and he erased it and he replaced it with all of the positive righteousness you owe to God

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in his covenant economy, not dispensationalism. God expects to be paid in full in the currency

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of complete and perfect obedience to all of his covenant laws. This is a thing you cannot do

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yourself in your dead and fallen state. Only Christ can do this. Well, the cross is the altar of covenant

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curse. The cross is the altar of covenant curse. Finally, we come to curse. The first words from God's

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mouth after discovering Adam's sin, cursed are you. Well, ever since the fall, man and all creation have

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been laboring under a curse, which can be briefly defined as a curse, a series of binding conditions

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of sin and misery. He can never rise above. All the sinner is under a series of binding conditions of

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sin and misery, to which that sinner can never rise above the curse. Enmity and hatred, pain and

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suffering, unfulfilled desire, sweat and fruitless labor, thorns and weeds, and finally then death.

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Did you ever wonder why the best that you can do, the best that you can be, is never quite good enough?

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The most fastidious, meticulous regime of diet and exercise may extend your life a few years,

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but you still die. You may spend a fortune on Botox treatments, facelifts and creams and

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makeups, but wrinkles, spots and gray will all betray the march of death. You may live a good

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life, never murder or rob a bank, pay your taxes, love your wife and kids, be a hail fellow well met,

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but never meet God's standards of utter perfection. None is righteous, Paul says. No one understands,

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no one seeks for God, no one does good, not even one. Oh, there are dire consequences for this

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failure of perfection, too. Paul says in Galatians, all who rely on the works of the law are under a

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curse, for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book

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of the law to do them. All of our merely human efforts, our pride, our science, our wars,

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our superhuman efforts, our sacrifices on one another's behalf, our art, our culture, our civilization,

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all other world religions, none of them will ever bring us back to the garden and our original state

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of bliss and union with God. This is utterly guaranteed by the curse, dear listener, and this is

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clearly seen in the failure of every human effort. Since the beginning, we are under a curse. We saw it

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at the Tower of Babel. We saw it in Babylon, who rose to the heights. We saw it in Rome as well,

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even in the fall of Rome, even as Isaiah says, the earth lies defiled under its inhabitants,

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for they have transgressed the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth

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and its inhabitants suffer their guilt. That's indeed the human condition, is it not? We are under a

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curse. The curse devours the earth and its inhabitants suffer their guilt. Oh, and there is only one place

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where the curse is lifted, dear listener, and that is at the cross. The cross is the altar of covenant

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curse. Only there is it taken away. Even as Paul says in Galatians chapter 3, Christ redeemed us from

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the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a

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tree. Indeed, the cross is the altar of covenant curse. And by bearing your curse, by bearing mine,

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O Christian, and suffering all the consequences of the curse on that cross, Christ has delivered you.

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He has delivered me from the curse so that all of the benefits of the resurrection might come to us,

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might come to you, might come to me. That's the promise of the resurrection of Easter. Oh,

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what are those benefits, dear listener? What are the benefits of Christ suffering the curse of the

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law? Oh, the meaning and the significance of the resurrection is next. Oh, the resurrection is coming,

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but let us not go there too quickly. Let us ponder, indeed, that the cross is the altar of covenant

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curse. The cross is the altar of covenant curse. Ponder these things over Good Friday and anticipate,

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indeed, the resurrection. We will be having a Good Friday service as well. This is Pastor David Bass

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at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth. We challenge you to think through

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these things, and we will have a Good Friday service at which you may ponder these things,

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a Good Friday service on April 7 at 6 p.m. at our sanctuary. New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday

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at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and you can call us for more

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information at area code 208-523-0196. Join us for a Good Friday service April 7 at 6 p.m. at our church,

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101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and call us at 208-523-0196.

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Good Friday service April 7 at 6 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m. at 11 p.m.