In this sermon, the speaker begins by reading a passage from John's Gospel, chapter 3, about the Son of man being lifted up for eternal life. He then shares personal anecdotes about growing up in Prince Edward Island and his initial move to British Columbia. He describes his lifestyle of partying and emptiness until he receives a phone call inviting him to a gospel meeting in Ladner. The speaker emphasizes the transformation he experienced when he turned to Christianity and found fulfillment in his faith.

Good morning, it's a privilege to be here. Thank you. Is that Coca-Cola? I'd like to read in John's Gospel, chapter 3. John's Gospel, chapter 3, and reading in verse 14. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Again, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The Lord will bless to us the reading of this word. It's a privilege for us to be here this morning. We spent ten years in El Salvador preaching the Gospel. My wife is from Guatemala, and up in the northern part where the Mayan ruins are, where a part called Tikal, and I grew up in Prince Edward Island. Does anybody know where Prince Edward Island is? Lift your hand if you know Prince Edward Island. Who is the most famous person in Prince Edward Island? Who is the most, who? Anne of Green Gables, that's right. She's a little girl that doesn't even exist, and she's more famous than all the people that do exist. Anyway, I brought a friend from Richmond over there a few years ago, and he said he couldn't believe it, that all the shrines set up to Anne of Green Gables. Everywhere you go, people are buying dolls of her, and bringing them home to Japan, and bringing them home to British Columbia, and all this kind of stuff. But it's a very touching story, and that's where I grew up, in that beautiful little place called Prince Edward Island. But I left Prince Edward Island when I was about 20 years old, and I came out to British Columbia, because I came out here, and I wanted to have a good time, and I wanted to go to British Columbia, where everybody is rich, and everybody drives nice cars, and everybody wears nice clothes, and they have nice jobs. So I left there, and I came out here, and I was out here for about three months, and then I went back to Prince Edward Island, because I didn't have a good job, and I was working on the railroad, banging railway ties, you know, like the old, I've been working on the railroad with a big hammer, and the rain was coming down, and snow was coming down, and I'm thinking, this is not a very good job. So I got homesick, and I went back home to Prince Edward Island. But then a couple of years later, I said, I think I'll go back out there. A friend invited me out, so we come back out here. And the next time I came out, it was a different story, because I come out, and back in those days, I was not a Christian, and I was going out with my friends, and we used to go drinking, and we used to go smoking marijuana, and things like that, the bad kind of things that we used to be doing. And I had this emptiness in my heart, and I remember I was sitting at home one night, and I got a telephone call, and a man phoned me, and he says, listen, he says, I'm here from Prince Edward Island, and I'm having some meetings in Ladner Gospel Hall, over in Ladner, just through the tunnel there, and he said, I'd like to know if you'd like to come out to hear me. Well, I didn't want to hear anybody preach, but I wanted to go to see someone from back home, from where Anne of Green Gables lives. And I went over to see this old white-haired guy, and he was standing up front, and he was preaching away, and he was telling, he said, every one of us are sinners, and he said, there's a hell up there, there's a hell down there, pardon me, there's a hell down there, and you don't want to go there, and there's a heaven up there, and if you can get up there, that's the place where you want to go. And he talked about the flames of hell, and he talked about the glory of heaven, and you know, after that meeting, I'm thinking, wow, this is the famous, the Catholic Church. That's how deaf I was, because I grew up in the Catholic Church, and we would go there, and the priest, he would be standing like this, with his back to the people, and he'd be talking in another language, and we're supposed to be understanding what he was saying, and when I was a little boy, I was learning that, you know, God's up in heaven, and he has all your good deeds on one side, and all your bad deeds on the other side, and God looks at the two sides, and he says, okay, Wayne, you have a few more good ones than bad ones, okay, come on in. But that's not what it's like. That's not what it's like, is it? You know that. You have them coming here week after week after week, and you think you're going to get to heaven because you're a good person. Well, that's why I came here this morning, and my burden is to speak about the cross. And somebody says, well, it's Father's Day. Couldn't you give us a Father's Day message? I'm going to speak a lot about the Father this morning, too, because the Bible says the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Isn't that wonderful news? The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Is He your Savior this morning? Is He yours? Thirty-three years ago, on the 19th of March, 1976, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. On that very night, I had eternal life, and I knew that I would never go down to hell. I would never see the flames down there. I would never hear the people screaming down there. I knew I was going to be in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ who shed His precious blood. This is what this verse says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must, the Son of Man, must Jesus be lifted up. So, what we're going to talk about this morning is the necessity of the cross, because we have that word must. Why was it necessary that Jesus was crucified if you think you can get into heaven because you're a good boy? If you think you can get into heaven because you're a good girl, or you're a good woman, or you're a good man? If you think you can get into heaven because you've been doing the best you can, then God made a mistake sending His Son, Jesus. Why couldn't God have just said, okay, I forgive you. Just don't do it again. You have parents that say that, don't you? They said, that's okay, this time I forgive you, just don't do it again. And what happens? Tomorrow you're doing it again. Next week you're doing it again. Next week you say, I'm sorry, Mommy. Next week after, you're doing it again. Your teacher says, be quiet. He just goes out of the room. As soon as he leaves the room, everybody is talking and throwing pencils and erasers and all kinds of things like that. Things are no different than when I was a little kid. I know there's different jokes and there's different words and all that kind of stuff, but the human heart is evil. And that's what we're going to talk about. Because first of all, sin necessitated the cross. What is sin? This is a little bit like a Sunday school class this morning. We're going to give you a bunch of definitions. It's not a multiple choice. You know, when God used this word sin, He just didn't say, okay, this is sin, one thing. No, He used the word sin and He used it in various means. He talked about sin as missing the mark. He's talking about a target. A man standing up here and he has a big target up there, you know, like those dark boards, those big circles. And he draws back the arrow and the bow and he lets it go. And the arrow goes and goes and goes and goes. And before it gets the target, it falls on the ground. It doesn't even hit the target. Missing the mark. When I was a little boy, we used to watch Robin Hood. We used to watch William Tell. William Tell was the man that had to shoot the apple off his father's head. What do you think of that? How would you like to have your dad put an apple on top of your head? And you'd have to stand really still and your dad's at the back there with an arrow. All of a sudden you're sort of, I want to put my hands up over my eyes. At least he doesn't get me in the eye. That would be terrible. Missing the mark. And then sin is transgression. That's another Bible word. It means overstepping the boundary. Banks, in the banks, they have a line. Don't go past the line. Why? Because sometimes you're in the bank and there's somebody over the top of you and they say, Look at your number on your machine, your PIN number. Another one is error. We all make mistakes, don't we? Who here gets 100% in all of their exams? I was happy when I got 70 on my exams. If I got a pass, I was happy. Sometimes I got an 80 and sometimes 90 and then I was, wow. And I think my mom should be making a special cake. Well, you're supposed to be getting 90. You're supposed to be getting half of the answers wrong. You're supposed to be studying. Okay. Another one is trespass. That's a strange word. But what it means is my will over God's. See, your dad says, do this. And you say, no, I'm doing this. Another word is lawlessness. Disregard for the law. There's this, when I was coming down here, I don't know where the, I guess the road's out that way, right? The five road. And there was a sign there, slow down, slow down, slow down. And as I get up there, I was looking. There's a little camera inside there. I hope they don't mail me an envelope in the mail and saying, listen, mister, you have to pay. I hope it was the guy in front of me that was going too fast. So that's what overstepping, lawlessness, a complete disregard for the law. And then there's something like unbelief. You talk to your friends. Our brother here talked about sharing your faith with your friends in school. Caleb was sharing his faith this week, and he was saying, you know, he heard some, they were talking, the kids in school were talking, and they said that in three years, there's going to be a giant meteorite hit planet Earth and blow Earth up. Now, I don't know if he was watching a cartoon on TV or what he was watching, but that's what the kids were talking about in school. And one of his friends was really concerned. And Caleb said, when that happens, I'm not going to be here because the Lord Jesus is coming before and he's taken us home. And I don't have to worry about being burned up because I am saved. I know my sins are forgiven. And his friend says, you know, I'd like to be a Christian too. I'd like to not have to worry about any danger. I'd like to be saved. I'd like to have my sins forgiven. I'd like to know that I'm going to heaven for sure. So let's talk about some examples of sin. I talked already about falling short of a given standard. You know, I remember when I was about 24 years old, I wanted to be in the RCMP. Back then, the RCMP had very strict standards, and you had to be five feet, nine inches tall. So I walked in there, and the officer, he's standing there, and I said, I want to be a RCMP officer. And he looked at me and he said, you're pretty short, aren't you? I said, I'm taller than you are. And I was there like this here, and I was tall enough. But some people, they come in, and no matter how much they stretch, they can't reach the mark. And that's what it's like. We're trying to stretch up to heaven. We're trying to reach God's perfection. And none of us can meet God's perfection because every one of us, we have all these blemishes called sin. And then there's other examples of sin. Deliberate acts against someone. You go up on somebody and hit them on the face. When I was in school, do you know what we used to do? We used to have those big orange erasers. Do you have those orange erasers, you know, for rubbing out the wrong answers, you know, for your corrections when you're doing math? We used to take those erasers, and we'd go like this here, rip it up the back of the guy's head that was sitting in front of us, and that really hurt. It didn't look like it hurt, and nobody even saw you doing it. You went like this here, and the kid was screaming, and the teacher got mad at him. That's a deliberate act. Now don't be trying this tomorrow, okay? And then there's deception. It's like you see a little kid, and you say, who took that? Mom and Dad. Deceiving your teacher. I'm a dad. I've learned all these tricks about it that I used to do when I was a kid, so I know my kids can't get away from them. And then there's moral perversity. Kids that are watching things on the Internet that they shouldn't be watching. And then there's drunkenness. And then there's blasphemy. What is that? Saying bad words, swearing. Stealing. And then there's telling lies that everybody does. And then there's physical or sexual abuse. Taking advantage of girls that you shouldn't be doing. Cheating on exams. You know, last week, we were sitting in the living room, and all of a sudden we heard this. It sounded worse than that. Boom! And all of a sudden we went running to the window, and we looked out, and we saw two cars that were in an accident. And I'm thinking, this is strange. How are two cars going to... We don't live on a corner. We live on a main street. And all of a sudden, one car ran into the back. How is it possible on a main street with nothing else that one car would run into the back of the other one? Well, my son Caleb, he ran out very fast because he's very nosy. And he was listening to what everybody was saying. And do you know what he found out? Some kids were hiding in the bushes, and they were throwing water balloons at cars. That's really fun! And all of a sudden, they kept on missing, and they kept on missing, and finally they hit a car, and that lady, she was so scared, she slams on her brakes, and the car behind ran into the back of her, and it was a big accident. Do you think that was sin, what those boys were doing, throwing water balloons? But, you know, they would probably say, well, I didn't really... A water balloon is not going to damage a car. I'll tell you a true story now. When I was about 12 years old, or maybe 10 years old, I don't remember how old I was. I lived in the city, and then we had to move way out to the country, 10 miles out in the middle of nowhere, and you'd got a car coming down the road every now and 15 minutes, and it was apple season, and a friend of mine and me, we went into the apple orchard, and there was all these apples on the ground, and then there was cars zooming by every now and 15 minutes, and he said, you think we can hit one of those cars? I said, I'd like to try. So we got our apples up, and we saw it coming, and we started throwing apples. Never hit any. And then all of a sudden, bang! The car slammed on the brakes, and we went running down. Why do we run away? We felt guilty. Why do we feel guilty? It's called sin. 6,000 years ago, in the Garden of Eden, it all started with an apple. My sin started with an apple. That big sin of mine, that sin, that remembering, doing that bad thing, that has stuck with me for years and years and years. One time I was working, when I was about 18 years old, we were working at Kmart Food in the grocery department, and my friend and I, we were two of the best workers that the boss had, and he asked us to go into the milk cooler, and we walked past the milk cooler, and we know in the milk cooler there was chocolate milk, and I was a poor kid, and I didn't have any chocolate milk when I was growing up. He said, come on in here, there's chocolate milk. And he went in, he opened up a quart of chocolate milk, and he said, you keep guard on the door, and you look up and see the boss is coming. So he opened up, he was drink, drink, drink. He said, okay, now it's your turn, and I'll keep a watch. So I'm there drinking, drinking, drinking. We were guilty. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ had to die on the cross. You know what leprosy is? I remember seeing a movie about leprosy once, and these were people who were stuck in the leper colony, and they were all there, and some of them were missing noses, and some of them were missing ears, and some of them were missing fingers, and these prisoners, the inmates there in the lepers, they took them in. And the leper, he said, would you like a drink of coffee? And the guy said, no, no, no, no. He said, no, our type of leprosy, it's not contagious. So he passed the cup of coffee to the man, and when he passed it, the man's finger was stuck to the cup. The man's finger fell off. And I said, wow, that is so disgusting. But the Bible talked about the Lord Jesus Christ. He was healing lepers. The other lepers, they went on the other side of the street, but the Lord Jesus Christ, he went over and touched them. You know, leprosy brings sure death. And sin brings sure death. Leprosy makes a separation between the lepers and everybody else. Sin makes a separation between the sinner, which is you, and God. And there's all kinds of things. There's comparisons. Leprosy is ugly. And sin is ugly. But you know, there's a big difference between leprosy and sin. Not one leper makes fun of his leprosy. Lots of sinners, they make fun about their sin. Oh, yeah, we're doing this, and we're doing this, and they do all kinds of terrible things. Terrible things that they do. In John 3, in verse 3 and verse 7, he repeats it twice. He says, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You must be born again. So, the first verse we read in John 3, in verse 14, it says, The Son of Man, Jesus, must be lifted up. And then, the Lord turns it around to you. He talks of Himself, but He always includes us. You know, last night, what night do we have the Guatemalans over? Tuesday. We had a bunch of Guatemalans. They're here from Guatemala, and they're working in the greenhouses. You see all those greenhouses over in Delta? Well, they're importing people from Mexico and people from Guatemala and from different countries in the world, and they're working over there. So, we had these here Guatemalans over working over to our house. I was going to tell you a reason for that, but anyway, it's gone out of my mind. Pardon me. Anyway, in this version here, it says, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You must be born again. And in that verse, there's no mention of prayers. There's no mention of being a good boy or a good girl. There's no mention of going to church. There's no mention of turning over a new leaf, or there's no mention of giving money. How can a person get to heaven? Remember the Lord Jesus Christ? He says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. I want to ask you a question now. You've read that verse a lot of times, haven't you? You've heard a lot of people preach on that verse. Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. Do you think the Roman soldiers, when they were punching Jesus on the face, do you think they knew what they were doing? How about Judas? When he betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ, do you think he knew what he was doing? Of course he did. He went into the council, and he says, I have betrayed innocent bloods. And he threw the money down in the temple floor. He was guilty. How about Pilate? He says, I find no fault in this man. And then he washed his hands in the basin. What were they doing? They were saying, it's not my fault, it's yours. The responsibility is on you. But listen, you have to say, I have sinned. Remember the prodigal son? He says, Father, I have sinned. You remember the man in the temple? He says, God have mercy on me, a sinner. Do you ever see in front of the courthouse, there's a statue called Lady Justice? Everybody's seen her. She's up there, and she has a set of scales in one hand. She has a sword in the other hand. And she is blindfolded. What does that mean? That every one of us, if we have to go to court, maybe you'd be falsely accused of doing something one day. So all of a sudden, you're in the court. What does that mean? It means the judge is not looking at you to see if you're Chinese, or to see if you're Mexican, or Guatemalan, or Russian. He is not looking at what you look like. He is hearing only the evidence. That's what the idea, the blindfolded. So he's hearing all the evidence. And then the lady is there, and she has the scale. So she's weighing up the evidence. Do you think if you were to die tonight, that you would go to heaven? Because all the evidence is there against you. It's not as if there's 50 sins on this side, and 50 sins on this side. In God's scale, there only has to be one sin here, and you won't get into heaven. So that's why the Lord Jesus Christ had to be lifted up. Now if we think about this, this image of this lady with the scales. Translate that into the Bible, and over in chapter 20 of Revelation. And there was a great white throne. John said, he says, I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat upon it. Not her. Not her. God is not a lady. Sometimes, do you know why people make God a lady? Because they remember their mom. She didn't punish them, and their dad, he was really strict and he gave them the belt. So they like to have a God that makes them, oh, she's more compassionate. She's not going to give us a spanking. She's not going to send us down to hell. But dad, oh, he's the one that takes off the belt, or I remember having to run away from my father's boot. I wasn't a bad kid. I was a good kid. You should have seen my brothers and my sister. They were something else. But that's what he says, I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books according to their works. So God has a record of everything that you have. You know, nowadays, we're living in almost a paperless society. You know, I don't think anybody here has a bank book. But you know, when I was a kid, I had a bank book. My wife came here to Canada. She went to bank and she says, I want to open up a bank book, a bank account. And after, I asked her, where's your bank book? They didn't give me one. Well, how do you know you have money? You have no proof that you have money. You have to trust these guys. But the bank book, you know what's in the bank book, it says, deposit $100, withdrawal $50, deposit $50, withdrawal, deposit. So, everything that you put in the bank or took out of the bank, there was a record. But up in heaven, God has a secretary and he's writing down all the things. Could you imagine that? It's not just that God knows everything. God is omniscient. He knows everything that you do. The Bible says, men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. It's very strange that you see something evil during the day. Most of the evil activities happen when the lights go out. Why? Because they like to go into the shadows. Yes, there's robberies during the day, but what do the robbers do? They put these masks on and all you can see is their eyes. Men love darkness rather than light. So, the necessity of the cross was necessary because sin necessitated it, but the holiness of God necessitated it too. Up in heaven, in Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah had a vision of God. He says, in the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. Do you know who King Uzziah was? He was a king in Israel and he walked into the temple one day where he wasn't supposed to walk and he said, I am going to offer to God my offering. And as soon as he walked into the temple, he was covered in leprosy from the head to the toe. He had all these white blotches all over him and he ran out of there as fast as he could because he knew that God had smitten him. God had punished him for his sin. The Bible says in Revelation 21, 27, there shall in no wise enter anything into heaven that defiles. Why? Because in Isaiah chapter 6, the angels were around the throne and they cried, holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty. And then it says in 2 Corinthians 5, it says, he has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God. And then the justice of God demanded it. Romans chapter 6 in verse 23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here is a verse that people never, never, never, never hear in the year 2009. It's a verse in Ezekiel chapter 18 and verse 4. I want you to pay attention at this point. Behold, all souls are mine. All souls are mine. You know, when I was 18 years old, I said, it doesn't matter about God. I don't believe in God. Do you know what Isaiah 59 says? He says, your sins and your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. But I don't have a God. The Bible says He's your God. And this verse here says, behold, all souls It says, the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it unto you to make an atonement for your souls. It is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 22 says, and almost all things by the law purge with blood, and without the shedding of blood is no remission of sins. So there's no way that you nor your friends in school, neither your mom nor your dad, nor your cousins can get into heaven without having the blood shed of the Lord Jesus Christ. And finally, the salvation of God demanded Jesus Christ dying on the cross of Calvary. And Matthew chapter 1 and verse 21, thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Luke chapter 19 and verse 10 says, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. Acts chapter 4 and verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be slain and raised on the third day. Mark gospel chapter 14 and verse 9 says, the Scripture must be fulfilled. The gospel must be published among all nations, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. I remember an old man, he started coming out to gospel meetings. Back in Prince of Rhode Island they have gospel tents and this month in the gospel in outside of Charlottetown, about ten miles outside of Charlottetown, the brothers there, they have built, it looks like a big circus tent. They take it out and they plant it outside the town, excuse me, and they get up and they put chairs in there and they have even electricity and fans nowadays and they have preaching every night and the people come from miles around because this is quite a strange thing to see a tent out in the middle. It's like a circus and everybody thinks well this is something good, let's go out to hear this and so they get out there preaching. There was this old farmer, he was going out to these tent meetings and he was getting worried about his soul. He was so concerned because the brethren, they were preaching and they were talking about eternal life in heaven with the Lord Jesus. They were talking about eternal damnation in the lake of fire and he kept on thinking, ah no, that's for old ladies, that's for kids, that's not for men. But he was back in the field, he was a farmer and he used to smoke a pipe. Not too many people smoke pipes anymore. When I was a little kid, I thought that was pretty cool. I wanted to smoke one of those corn cob pipes like Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer used to smoke. Anyway, he was going back to the field and they had barbed wire and do you ever go through barbed wire fences? They have three strands of wire and you have to really push down on the wire up above. Anyway, he was pushing down on there and he was smoking his pipe and he didn't want the tobacco to fall out of his pipe. He couldn't pack it in really tight, it had to be loose so it could burn. So he's holding onto the wire and he's holding his other finger on top of the wire and it burned his thumb. And he screamed and he thought, if that little amount of tobacco that's on fire in my pipe hurt that much, I can't ever imagine what it would be like to spend eternity in the lake of fire. That night he was the first one at the Gospel meeting. He listened with both ears and when the invitation was given, he said, Lord Jesus Christ, I accept you as my personal Savior. That's our desire this morning, that you might trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and know Him. But it's not only that. What do you want to do after that? You want to see your best friend in heaven, don't you? You know, maybe some of the people you're sitting here with today, these are your friends in church, but you have friends in school, different friends. And your friends in school, they're not Christians like you are. And you know, they say bad words and they do bad things and you sort of live your life and they sort of live their life. And where are you going on Sunday? Why don't you come out with me? No, no, I have to go someplace. Where are you going? I just have to go with my family. You don't want to even say I'm going to church. Don't be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to anyone that believes. This morning, if you would like to trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, just say, Lord Jesus, I confess that I have sinned. I know I don't deserve to go to heaven. I believe that you shed your precious blood on Calvary's cross. I open up my heart this morning and receive you as my personal Savior, because verse 15 says that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful that we have a real God that we love and we serve, and we know that no matter what happens to us, no matter what happens to the world economy, or whatever happens to wars, if there's invasions from other countries, if there's chemical bombs, we know that if we die, that we will be absent from the body and we will be present with the Lord. And in his presence there's joy forevermore. There's fullness of joy. We're going to be with Jesus, the one who loved us and gave himself for us. We give you thanks for each one that has come out this morning. We ask your blessing upon them, upon their friends, upon their mom and their dad, their grandparents. Sometimes grandparents are stubborn in their ways and they have their own traditions. But Father, your love reaches people at every age. We're thankful we heard about a man. He was over 90 years old and he just got baptized a couple of weeks ago. He accepted the Lord Jesus Christ along with his son that was 60 and his grandson. Father, you are the great God. You are the Savior of the world and we thank you for all of these young people, especially who are here this morning. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we give you thanks. Amen.