Bloom, John: The Cross of the Lord Jesus ~ Hutchinson G.Chpl Ministry

Wow, it's so good to be here. Um... see familiar faces and some new faces. Uh, I am John Bloom, John Wayne Bloom, um, and my wife is Ruth, and uh, we were married in nineteen seventy one, moved here. Um, uh, I actually moved here in nineteen sixty three. uh, so this has been my home for many, many years, uh, but went to Emmaus and met Ruth and brought her back to, uh, minister at Kansas Bible Camp. We were the director there for fifteen years till nineteen eighty eight when the Lord called us to Emmanuel Mission. We've been there now. This is our twentieth year at Emmanuel Mission. Um, it's in northeast Arizona, right in the Four Corners area on the Navajo Indian Reservation. So we're missionaries to the Navajo people there. Of course, the reservation is huge, so we're just in one very, very small part of the reservation, but we are one of the few Christian schools, uh, one of the few missions actually left on the reservation, the only Christian high school. I'm the administrator of the high school, of the school, K through twelve school with about eighty students. Uh, also, because Jerry left, I'm the basketball coach and um, bus driver and a lot of other things. Uh, Darryl and Barbara are there. Darryl's teaching science and driving the bus. Barbara teaches English and does the library, and we're very, very glad to have them there. And, um, Eric's been there teaching, uh, for a couple years. Uh, Patty was there for a number of years, um, back in the nineties. So there's been a strong connection between, uh, Manual Mission and, um, Gospel Chapel. Um, a lot of times people ask me how I ever got there, and and I remember as a young person on Wednesday night reading letters from Emmanuel Mission and being for Emmanuel Mission, and, um, you know, forty-some some years ago. And I assume that's still going on, right? Uh, when you have prayer, uh, that you remember us, and we so appreciate, um, your prayer for us and your support of us as missionaries from, uh, sent out from this church. My wife is the bookkeeper, uh, the treasurer or the accountant or however you want to call it for the mission, as well as, um, the lady who opens all the boxes and distributes, uh, clothes and gifts and things that come, uh, to the mission. So she's a very busy lady. Um, we're doing, doing well. A lot of people, you know, like to ask, how's things at Emmanuel Mission? Uh, God is good. Things are well there. We have a, a good staff this year, enough teachers. Uh, although second and third grade are combined, and fifth and sixth grade are combined. So, um, we're praying at least for next year, uh, to have an, uh, one more elementary teacher. Uh, probably a second grade or a third grade teacher so we can separate those, uh, classes out. The second and third grade is taught by a Navajo teacher, which is, uh, first we've had. She's taught there three years now. Her name is Esther Yazzie. She's actually retired after teaching thirty five years in the public schools, so she's older and will not probably be there a whole lot longer, but we're so glad to have a Nava teacher. Actually, we have now eight Navajos on staff. Um, when I went there twenty years ago, I don't think there was any Navajos, uh, on staff, maybe one. Um, so we're trying to, uh, use more and more of the local believers. Uh, you're familiar, I know, because you support Ranson and Lula Tom. Uh, he is the bus mechanic, and she is the school cook. Uh, they live on the mission, served there now about seven years. Um, we don't know how much longer he can be the bus mechanic. His back is very, um, uh, very much in pain, and he needs surgery. Um, so we've just, uh, been praying and asking the Lord to provide a mechanic's helper and maybe a replacement. And just this week, a former student, uh, Running Feather Hossein, whose brother is in our school and parents are in our church, moved back from Idaho, and we have, um, we've asked him to come on as the bus mechanic's helper. So, um, please pray that that would work out, uh, profitably, both for Ranson and for Running Feather. Uh, he would be another one who would need support. Um, the Navajo workers don't have a commending assembly as such, a church backing them because they're there on the reservation, and of course the church at the mission there is rather poor. So again, we need, uh, believers to, to support our, uh, workers. Uh, Running Feather has come on faith. We don't promise him a salary or any wage. We just say, you know, as God provides, and he says, I'm willing to work in those circumstances. So, um, we trust that God would provide for him, and he may be the answer. I don't know if he wants to be the bus mechanic he really wants to be the auto mechanics class teacher. As most of you know, we've built a, a, a new building there. Um, been a burden on my heart to start a vocational technical program, an auto shop and a wood shop program for students who aren't necessarily college bound. And so we have a forty by eighty building picture of it on the bulletin board downstairs. Um, the building is up, the doors are on, but the interior is not finished. So in the next year, in next summer, we'll probably try to finish the interior. Uh, this week I'm picking up a car lift in, um, Wichita that Russ Yost is donating to us. So we're beginning to get tools and that kind of thing for our auto shop class, which we hope maybe will start next September or maybe, uh, January two thousand and nine. And Running Feather would like to be the teacher of that auto shop class. Uh, whether he can combine that with keeping the buses running or not, we'll just have to see. Uh, maybe God will continue to let Ranson heal, or maybe he'll get surgery. Anyway, that's an item for prayer. Bus mechanic, auto mechanics teacher, running Feather support, ra- support for Ranson and Lula as they minister there. Um... We also are still, uh, praying for a full-time maintenance man. Um, we've been, since Duane Bailey left, uh, two years ago, this is the third year now without a full-time maintenance man. We have eight acres of land, um, a big school complex, about a dozen houses, um, so there's a lot of maintenance that needs to be done. Um, fortunately, this fall, God provided a lot of visitors to come in, uh, so we're kind of caught up a little bit, but um, there's always ongoing maintenance, and a key position really is maintenance man or couple, and um, so far God has seen fit not to provide that, but if you'd keep praying, um, and uh, if you want to come and visit with, gets us some work to do. Uh, we don't know why that hasn't been filled. We have a house, we have uh, the need. Um, actually a man visited this fall. His name is Charles Roughton. Uh, he's from North Carolina, and he's very seriously praying about coming. Uh, he's married, uh, has two children still at home, um, but the church there just doesn't feel they're quite ready. So, um, when that will happen or if that will actually happen, we don't know, but you might pray about that situation, whether the Routins from North Carolina, uh, would, would, God would provide, um, them as the, to meet that need. We just had our community Christmas celebration, uh, last, uh, Saturday. Uh, not yesterday, but the day, the week before, with about one hundred and seventy five come. We used to have about a thousand come when we gave out a bag of gifts to everyone, but when we stopped giving out a free bag of gifts, it went from about a thousand down to about two hundred. Uh, so many were coming just for the gifts. I don't, it wasn't, it wasn't that great a bag of gifts, but um, um... But now the group that comes seems to be more interested in, um, in the gospel, in, in really coming to hear, uh, what God has to say to them rather than what we can give them. So we had a nice group, and we did a live nativity play, um, and a lot of special music, um, and that was, uh, that was very enjoyable. We feed them a big meal, um, and have a good, a good time. Um, and the gospel goes out in a, in a really powerful way in the community. And then we did something different this year. Anne Denny is, um, there, and she's a music teacher, and she's also a high school math teacher. And she, uh, decided to put on a, um, a little musical or a little, uh, Christmas program. So she got the whole school involved, nearly everybody in the school involved in, uh, playing instruments and singing and doing a little play on angels. And so we put that on on the Wednesday night, and, uh, every, uh, every child but two were there, and every family was represented, had a big crowd, and, uh, really was a nice, uh, nice thing for our school to do. Uh, some of the high school students sang solos and played guitar and piano and, um, really, really fun things. So, um, yeah. Um, Ranson, uh, and Lula are married, of course, but he said when they got married, he was drunk, and they weren't believers, and so he wanted to remarry her. It was a Christian wedding. So he proposed to her at the, um, Community Christmas program, uh, and asked her to remarry him on May tenth. So we're going to have a wedding as a mission where he, he remarries her in a Christian, uh, commitment sort of way. So that was just really special. She just, you know, you could tell she was really touched by his... I mean, he proposed in front of two hundred people, uh, to her. Yeah, she didn't, she had no idea what was coming. None of us knew what was coming. Um, so they're just really, I mean, really strong in the Lord. She had a brother die suddenly just recently, and then last week another brother was almost beat to death with a baseball bat in a kind of a drunken brawl. So they've had a lot of, um, you know, a few years ago his brother was murdered, and so that, you know, they've just... This is a, this is life on the reservation for Navajo people. I mean, it's just one thing after another, um, and but they have stayed strong with the Lord and, um, appreciate your prayers for them. Um... Often people ask us, how long are we going to there? You know, when, when you first come as a missionary to Emmanuel Mission, the Navajo people say, well, how long are you going to be here? Uh, because they've seen a lot of missionaries come and go, some for short periods of time, some for long periods of time. And um, but now that we've been there twenty years, they're saying, now how long are you going to be here? Um, and and people back here ask us that too. I'm fifty nine years old, going to turn sixty. uh this next year. Um, uh, well, I don't know how long we're going to be there until God leads us somewhere else. Um, we love it there. Um, uh, we have, uh, confidence that God has us there and that God is using Emmanuel Mission in the lives of the Navajo people. Um, I, I don't think it's a mistake or an accident that Emmanuel Mission is right where it is. It's, it's in a very dark place, very spiritually dark place on the reservation. Um, um, Sweetwater is, is a center of occultic, uh, activity, and, and, and God put a, a light there because it's a, it's a very dark place. And I, I believe we need to be there. And, um, a kindergartner got saved this year. My niece, uh, Mel Meinzinger is a kindergarten teacher, and she's just preaching to those kids, and one d- one day she asked if, if anybody wants to pray, just pray along with me, uh, in your, in your heart. And, um, afterwards, one of the little boys says, I prayed up here. Um, and so we believe Tyrell, uh, Yellowhair came to know the Lord this year in kindergarten. So there's that, um, that need to share the gospel with the young children every day and in the community. Uh, Ranson and Luva were saved through the ministry of Emmanuel Mission. I believe Running Feather Hossein, who's come, was saved through the ministry of Emmanuel Mission and his parents and his brothers. Uh, one brother is a believer, the other's not, and his sisters. Um, so thank you for your prayers and um, um, support of us. Uh, it's a very needed ministry, I believe, and God is using it in a, in a mighty way. Uh, are there any questions? Just some of you I know are familiar, maybe some aren't. What's been going on? I always like to just see if there's any... big concerns or questions. All right. Uh, sorry, I don't have exactly a Christmas message, um, all c- b- because I want to talk about the cross of the Lord Jesus, which is really more like an Easter message or a Good Friday message, but, um, but really it is a Christmas message as well, because why did Jesus come? Uh, Jesus came to the earth, but he didn't come to be a babe in a manger. Uh, we sing a song out there, and we did a puppet show a number of years ago about, um, if, if you worship the babe in the manger but ignore the Christ of the cross, then to you he is only a stranger. And something that rhymes with cross. But I don't remember the rest of it, but, but the idea is, is that, is that Jesus did come to Bethlehem. Um, Jesus did take on flesh. Uh, Jesus was worshipped by the shepherd, the wise men. But that's only the beginning of the story. And so, um, I'm just going to use that as a tie-in because I want to, I want to share with you about three lies that we hear often on the reservation, and I'm sure you hear here as well. And how the cross of the Lord Jesus is the truth to counteract those lies, or the answer to those lies. And the first lie is that we can be made acceptable to God through our own effort. That is a lie of the evil one. That is a lie of Satan. That is a lie that you hear a lot. If I'm just good enough, and and maybe even a lot around Christmas. Have you been good this year? If you're good, you're going to get rewarded with presents. And we get this idea that God is sort of like Santa Claus, that he's expecting us to be good, and then he's going to reward us with heaven. That at some point, God is going to put all our good deeds on one side of the scale and all our bad deeds on the other side of the scale, and if our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds, then we get to go to heaven. That is a lie. It is not the truth. It's not what the scripture teaches. The scripture teaches that all have sinned. There's no difference. All have sinned. All have fallen short of God's glory, and there is none that are righteous, no, not one. There is nothing we can do, nothing we have done or could do to gain favor with God. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? God is not looking to see how good we are or how bad we are. We're all bad. We're all sinful. We've all fallen short of God's glory. The only way that we can be made acceptable to God is through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians chapter one verse seven says, in him we have redemption through his blood. Ephesians chapter one verse seven. uh, look at it. I've got this short amount of time, so I'm trying to... In him we have redemption, in Christ we have redemption, through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. How can we be made acceptable to God? It's only through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's only through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. For by grace are you saved through faith, and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. It's not by what we can do, it's not by what we have done, it's by what Jesus has done. Amen? Jesus died on the cross in order that we might be made acceptable to God. And so, it's not that God is going to put our good deeds in a balance and our bad deeds in a balance. What God is going to do is ask us, what have you done with Jesus? Have you trusted in the death of my son? And if we have by faith believed and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for us, in him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. Now, you know, sometimes we as Christians kind of fall into this same lie. Yes, we've trusted Christ as our Savior. Yes, we believed on him for the forgiveness of our sin, but somehow we think that, well, now that we're Christians, God will love me more if I'm a good person. God will accept me or love me more if I have my daily devotions. God will accept me or love me more if I do this or that, put money in the offering or go to church or whatever. May I say to you, and again, uh, God's acceptance of us, God's love for us is not conditional upon our obedience. Now, we do want to obey God as his children, and God does bless us when we obey, but God does not love us any less if we disobey. God has everlasting love, God has infinite love, and it's not conditional. Uh, it's a parental love that, um, is unconditional. Um, so get the idea, it's a lie that God's love for you or God's acceptance of you, even as a believer, is conditional upon your performance. Uh, Christianity isn't, isn't a performance thing. It's not, it's not really focused on us. It's focused on Christ and what he has done for us. And God sees us even as believers through Christ and what Christ has done for us. All of our sins are forgiven, past, present, and future. Doesn't mean we can just go out and do anything, or we should go out and do anything, or I don't want to just go out and sin. I want to please God, my Father, because he loves me. Um, and that love constrains me, Paul says. I'm controlled or constrained by the love of Christ to be his, uh, obedient children and ambassadors to the world. The second lie that we hear often on the reservation is that salvation or Christianity or this truth that we've just been talking about is only for a certain group of people. That there's really many ways to God, there's many religions, and they all sort of lead to the same place. That Allah is just another name for the God of the Bible, and if you believe in Allah, pray to Allah, then you're going to end up in heaven, just like Christians who pray to Jehovah end up in Chri- in heaven, and Jews who pray to Jehovah. That, that we just need to be tolerant. We just need to be accepting that there's many ways to heaven. The Navajo people believe, by and large, the traditional Navajo people believe that God gave them their religion, and that Christianity is a white man's religion, and that the Navajo people have their own religion. Doesn't it make sense? We have our own culture, we have our own language, we have our own land, therefore we should have our own. You have your people, you have your language, you have your culture, you have your religion, we have ours, but it all comes from the same God, and we're all going to get there, but by different ways. Uh, that's very common in the world today, isn't it? Sort of tolerance. Um, don't be exclusive. Uh, well, Christianity is a very exclusive religion or very exclusive teaching. There cannot be more than one truth. Truth, by very definition, is exclusive. Zach- Ravi Zacharias, who's, you know, these, these great guys, talks about the law of non-contradiction. There cannot be two opposite things that are both true. Um... If something is true, then the opposite of it is not true. And Christianity is an exclusive teaching. Um... And, and Christ died for all people. Um, that's what points to the cross. The cross is a means of salvation, not our own works. And the cross, the death of Christ was not just for white people. The death of Christ was not just for the Jews. The death of Christ was not for any select group of people. That's what the angel said when he, when they announced to the shepherds, right? Which shall be for all people. Uh, Jerry read us what, uh, Simeon said, or one of us, maybe somebody did, what Simeon said, uh, a light to the Gentiles. Jesus came, for God so loved the world, the whole world, that he gave his only begotten son. And I know you believe this, but, but don't get caught up in the lie, the idea that, well, kind of there's many paths to God. There is one cross, and that cross is for all people. Jesus' death was for the whole world. Uh, I think that's in First John chapter two. We could look at that. Um, I think somebody read this as well, or at least Duane mentioned it, because there's the big word propitiation there. Verse 2, John, 1 John two two. He himself is the propitiation for our sins, and, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. Jesus' death was for everyone. And Christianity is a missionary religion. We should be, um, aggressive because we know what the result is if you don't believe that Jesus died for your sins. There's eternal judgment, eternal punishment. So we are compelled by, by our belief that, that we have the truth. We understand that Jesus died for everyone. And so that's why Jesus tells us, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Tell everyone about me, and what, what better time than at Christmas, perhaps, to share that good news of why Jesus came, and that he came for everyone, and there are not many paths, uh, to God, but one true path, the way of the cross leads home. We had a Navajo preacher come for, uh, special meetings, and, and he says, well, most Navajos now don't believe that Christianity is a white man's religion because they see that most white men don't believe in the cross in Christianity. Uh, and, and how sad that is. Um, Jesus was not a white man. You ever think about that? Uh, Jesus had dark skin, I believe. He was a Middle Easterner, a Shemite, um, from from the nation of Israel. If you look at most Middle Easterners, um, they have brown skin, dark skin. Uh, Apostle Paul had brown skin. It was only when he took the gospel to Greece, uh, to Lydia, that white people heard the gospel, the Japethites who lived in Europe. And so what I tell the Navajo people, my students, is brown-skinned people brought me the gospel, and I'm just returning the favor. Um... The gospel is for everyone. Which shall be good news for all people. Um... Don't believe the lie that there are many religions and many to God. Um, I- just, just to look at one more verse at Acts seventeen, because this just nails it on the head. Acts seventeen, Paul was preaching to the Athenians. Verse twenty six. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation. God put everybody on the earth, and he puts them in a certain time. You know, there is no accident you're living here in this time and age. God puts you here exactly this time, and exactly the family you're in, and exactly the race you're in, and exactly the country you're in. I mean, God, all that's planned. The Navajo people, God put in a certain place in a certain time. That's what it says there. Determine their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation so that they might have their own religion. No, verse twenty seven, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and exist. God has placed us in the country, the family, the time we are, so that we might seek him. Are you seeking God today? You must come to him through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. In him we have redemption through his blood. The third lie that we often hear on the reservation is, well, I'm not a Christian anymore. I used to be a Christian, but I'm not a Christian anymore. I got drunk, or I did some other sin, and so now I'm not a Christian. I used to be a Christian, but I'm not a Christian anymore. That somehow we can lose our salvation is a lie of the devil. Turn to Hebrews chapter nine. I just really into this. Um... Nine and ten here. Verse twenty four of Hebrews nine. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor was it that he would often offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood not his own. Otherwise, he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Verse twenty eight: So Christ also, having offered once, bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation. Chapter ten, verse, um... Um, one. For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifice which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Um, for it's impossible, verse four, for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Verse, uh... twelve, But he, Jesus, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. Think about this. What, what I think Hebrews is teaching here is that if, if, if you could get saved, lose your salvation, get saved again, lose your salvation, get saved again, that would be like crucifying Jesus over and over and over again. But Jesus only died once. Jesus only died once. He only sacrificed himself once, meaning that for all sin, for all time, it's settled. So if we come to the cross, if we come to understand that it's not by our own works, but by the work of Jesus, where he said, it is finished. It is not many ways to God, but one way to God through the cross. It is not Jesus dying over and over and over again, like in the Old Testament, those sacrifices being made over and over and over again because they kept sinning. But one sacrifice for all time. Because when we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, all of our sins are forgiven, past, present, and future. And we don't crucify again the Lord Jesus. I believe that's a, that's a powerful teaching for us, the security that we have in Christ, that we don't lose our salvation when we sin. We don't get saved again, lose our salvation, get saved again. If we truly come to Christ, if we're truly his children, we're in God's family forever. Now, some people do sin. Uh, all Christians sin, but I mean, some people do fall away, um, maybe for many years. Perhaps they were never saved in the first place, or perhaps at some point God is going to bring them back, or maybe take them home to glory. But the teaching of the cross is that Jesus died to put away our sin. Jesus died for all people. That, that whoever believes in him will be saved. And Jesus died only once, because that death was sufficient to cover all my sin. And so I don't lose my salvation. I like Pilgrim's Progress because it has a great emphasis on the cross. And an evangelist points Pilgrim to the wicked gate, to the place that leads to the cross. And as Pilgrim comes up to the cross, his burden rolls away. He has this big burden of sin, it rolls away down into a, a big hole in the ground. And Pilgrim sings a song there, and I don't, I don't have it all memorized, but the last part of it goes, blessed cross, blessed sepulcher, blessed rather be the man that was there, but to shame for me. And I really like that. Um, have you been to the cross? Jesus came as a babe in Bethlehem, but he came to die upon a cross because that's the only way we could be made right with God, and what a wonderful way it is. Let's pray. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you that that that little finger was meant to heal, and that little brow was meant for thorn, and that blood, that tiny heart, was blood that would be shed for us. That as you were born as a baby, it was so that you could, um, grow up to, to be the savior of the world. God come in flesh to die for his creatures. And so, God, we praise you this morning, and we thank you that, that the sacrifice of Jesus is enough, that it is finished at the cross. There's nothing more for us to, but to rest in your love and in your, uh, finished work. And that, God, we have the message for the whole world that is the good news of the gospel, and that we are secure in Christ because he died once for all and is seated at the right hand of God, and it's in his name we pray and thank you. Amen. God bless you. Merry Christmas. Or as the Navajos say, Keshmish. Christmas. Hojon Fozon Keshmish. Christmas.