Valley Gospel
A Pentecostal church experience.
Valley Gospel
Paid in Full
The mystery of the cross holds a profound truth that transforms our understanding of salvation. When Jesus died on that Good Friday, He didn't merely cover our sins as Old Testament sacrifices did—He completely removed them, casting them into the sea of forgetfulness. This powerful message explores why an innocent man had to suffer and what was truly accomplished at Calvary.
From Adam and Eve's inadequate fig leaf coverings to the temple curtain torn from top to bottom, we trace God's perfect plan of redemption. The Old Testament sacrificial system provided only temporary covering for sin, a mere shadow of what was to come. But Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God, changed everything when He declared "tetelestai"—paid in full.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus faced a cup filled with the sin of humanity. His agony was so intense that He literally sweat blood. What made this sacrifice so devastating wasn't just the physical torture of crucifixion, but the spiritual reality of separation from His Father—something He had never experienced throughout eternity. For the first time, Jesus who had always been one with the Father would know what it meant to be forsaken.
This message illuminates the revolutionary impact of Christ's sacrifice. Now when Satan accuses us before God, Jesus opens our record and declares, "There's no record of it here." Our sins are not merely covered but completely erased. The resurrection serves as the time stamp, the validation of this finished work. Because of what Jesus accomplished, we can now boldly approach God's throne with any concern, any issue, any time—our debt is paid in full.
How will understanding the true meaning of Christ's sacrifice change how you receive His love? Will you live in the freedom purchased by His blood? Join us for this transformative exploration of grace that reconciles God's perfect justice with His boundless mercy.
Not because of you, but because he is good and you will not have room to receive Him. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, woo.
Speaker 2:Hello, welcome to Valley Gospel Church. We are a non-denominational Pentecostal church located in Springdale, Pennsylvania. Our sole mission is to present the living truth of a risen Lord Jesus Christ to a remnant church and a lost world. So let's go into the service recorded live at Valley Gospel Church the sovereign Lord has opened my ears.
Speaker 3:I have not been rebellious, I have not pulled away. I offered my back to those that beat me, my cheeks, to those that pulled my beard. I hid not my face from the mocking and the spitting. He had no beauty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. A man of sorrow, familiar with grief and suffering, like one from whom men turned their heads. He was despised, smitten, stricken of God. He was pierced for our sin, crushed for our iniquity, and that punishment purchased our peace and by his wounds we were healed. His gift on that cross makes all the difference in our lives. We're going to receive communion at the end of service and you say well, that's not how you usually do it. I know, know, I know. And if you want to know why I don't know, you'll have to ask him.
Speaker 3:I want to talk a little bit about the mystery of the cross, why God, the Father, sent his only son to die, sent his only son to die, knowing full well, you know, when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, jesus' death warrant was signed. Why did an innocent man have to endure such suffering? And what actually was accomplished at the cross. Our desire as Christians is to receive his expression of love, to receive what he's given us, what he's allowed us to receive, the wealth of favor, of mercy, of power that he's lavished on every one of us. That's just, that's amazing. All a result of what was accomplished at the cross, understanding the ramifications of the cross of Christ.
Speaker 3:It isn't just fundamental to our Christian walk. The cross is more important than any doctrine within Christianity. Just about any biblical doctrine, no matter how important, is superseded by Jesus Christ and him crucified, by Jesus Christ and him crucified. Yet Satan, the enemy of our souls and if you think, oh, there he goes with that devil stuff, you believe me, he's real, he is absolutely real, he knows our hope, he knows our salvation Rest exclusively in Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's why you see so many quasi-churches and false institutions removing the cross from their places of worship.
Speaker 3:Places of worship, the truth that's found in this book, that's found in what we call the Bible, are kept under wraps for so many, only because we don't understand the ramifications of the cross, Things that we go. Well, I don't know what that I can't tell you, the number of preachers that have told me yeah, I don't get the book of Revelation, so I just leave it alone. And yet the Bible tells us we're super blessed if we preach from the book of Revelation. So obviously God wants you to know what the book of Revelation has. And it doesn't stop there. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians I believe it's the fourth chapter, don't remember the verse but it says that without the help of the Holy Ghost, the truths contained in this book will remain hidden. Wow, the truths that are recorded in this book will remain hidden.
Speaker 3:My this Good Friday. I pray that the knowledge that he has given me to share with you will change your life. Amen, christy. Let's go to work. Two readings tonight Leviticus the first, leviticus 17 to begin, and then we're going to turn to 1 John, leviticus way in the Old Testament, 1 John way in the New Testament. So this worked today. Leviticus 17 and 11. Whenever you get there, please stand for the reading of God's word.
Speaker 2:Whenever you get there, please stand for the reading of God's word, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul.
Speaker 3:Hallelujah, hallelujah, 1 John. 1 John 1 John 4, 9 and 10.
Speaker 2:In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propane appropriation for our sins Beloved. If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
Speaker 3:Here is love. Here is love I'll use for a subject this Good Friday, paid in full. Let's pray, heavenly Father. Thank you, lord. Thank you for this amalgam of Old Testament and New Lord, that we might understand what you're speaking to us this Good Friday, lord, and I thank you that you allowed your son to die to pay for our sin. Lord, let tonight's word be a lamp unto our feet, a lamp to our path. It is in the name of your precious, beloved august son. We pray. Amen and amen. Please be seated. Seated, if I could.
Speaker 3:I'd just like to set a bit of a groundwork for the message tonight, and we'll start back with Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were created by God for fellowship, that he could have fellowship with Adam and Eve. Just as we are, them and us were created in God's image. Adam and Eve had free will, just as you and I do. Free will is the ability to choose good or evil. It's up to you.
Speaker 3:Believe whatever you want to believe or don't, but there are some things that are different between Adam and Eve and others, since who were born of a woman Number one, and this is kind of cute, but Adam and Eve probably didn't have belly buttons, unless God put it in there for aesthetics, just so they wouldn't feel out of place with their children. I don't know, but there was no need. And secondly, Adam and Eve were without sin. They didn't possess the sin nature. Every human born since Adam and Eve, including Adam and Eve's children, were born into sin. They were born with a sin nature. So what is sin? Missing the mark, not a list of things, not oh, and if you do this, that's a sin and that's a sin. And that Missing the mark it's not missing what God has planned for you, missing what he wants in your life, not hitting the target.
Speaker 3:Back in the garden, adam and Eve believed a lie and fell into sin. And it's interesting Eve was deceived by the devil. Adam was deceived by the devil. Adam was deceived by his wife. Wow, they realized their sin. They hid from God and they lost their sinlessness, meaning their spiritual covering was taken and they tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves that they fashioned together into clothes.
Speaker 3:Now, these coverings that they made listen closely were a human effort. A human effort. Adam and Eve fashioned these clothes, this covering, out of their own ingenuity, out of their own intellect. Let's put this together and this will work. Human effort Therefore. It couldn't hide their sin, couldn't atone, it wasn't acceptable to God. He couldn't accept it.
Speaker 3:This religious effort, their sin, could only be covered by an act of God, just as our sin can only be remitted by an act of God. Yet the act of sin demands God's judgment. You live by the sword, you die by the sword. An act of sin missing the mark requires God's judgment. A holy God who loves the sinner but hates the sin we hear that all the time, right and like when a preacher says it's like yeah, I don't get that. A holy God who loves the sinner but hates the sin. What would a loving God do? Would a loving God do? What could a loving God do In justice and in mercy? God had a plan. That plan was called atonement, atonement. Atonement would meet the requirement of God's justice and his character, yet show mercy and enable Adam and Eve to be saved and the entire human race to be saved from eternal destruction.
Speaker 3:In the Old Testament there was a system in place, a sacrificial system, an atonement. The Hebrew word was kafar and it literally means to cover up Kafar. Cover up the sacrificial system would cover sin from God's eyes. In other words, he wouldn't see it. That's why they had to go into the temple once a year, on the Day of Atonement, to atone for the sin, whether God had accepted their sacrifice or not. And if he did, their sins were covered up for a year. It was like God wore rose-colored glasses. This was instituted in the garden. You can go all the way back to the garden when God himself shed animals or killed animals, shed their blood and made garments for Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness. A covering that was the first step and it was the precursor to the ultimate bloodshedding of Jesus on the cross. That's what it all pointed to.
Speaker 3:Isn't it interesting? We talked about this this week. It's so interesting that all of God's creation, mankind, is the only ones that require clothing, none others. You don't see a deer or a raccoon that needs clothes. Right, everything's taken care of, except for man. Except for man, we need flannels and jackets and socks and shoes. Maybe it's a symbolic reminder of our nakedness before God that we are in need of a covering.
Speaker 3:Old Testament sacrifices didn't remove sin, they only covered it. Greasy smoke that spiraled toward heaven didn't remove sin, it just covered it up Glory. So maybe many of you don't know this, maybe many of you don't know this, but Old Testament believers died in their sin because there was no remission of sin at the time. Turn with me, please, to Hebrews, hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, 1. This is so important and so revealing and so worthy of understanding, for the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect, for then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshipers, once purged, should have had no more conscience of sin. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sin every year. For it is not possible, not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Just jump up to verse 11. And every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sin.
Speaker 3:Powerful stuff, a temporary cover, a foreshadow, a line of credit, is what the sacrificial system was about. Waiting for true atonement when it could be proclaimed, paid in full. My, that would be delivered by Jesus Christ and him crucified, and only by Jesus and him crucified. Jesus, the Lamb of God, takes away the sins of his people. Thank you indeed, not just covered and I just want to be emphatic in this point not just covered, but removed, cast into the sea of forgetfulness, never to be remembered again, only by the shedding of his blood on the cross.
Speaker 3:Throughout the Bible, the Father cries out to the world to restore them to fellowship During the entirety of the church age which we live now and where we will live until Jesus' return. The church age, dispensation of grace. God cries out to the world to return to the fellowship that was broken in the garden, that was lost in the garden Luke 22., luke 22, 19. Hmm, and gave unto them saying this is my body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. Likewise, also, the cup after supper, saying the cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.
Speaker 3:The principle of the sacrifice, its substitution, exchange, a life for a life, that's what sacrifice is. The wages of sin is death, and either the sinner or the substitute must die, or the substitute must die. Either the sinner or the substitute must die. You know, we may not fully understand that, we may not even approve of the way God chose to remove sin. Maybe we don't like the terror of the cross and the agony of what Jesus went through, or the crudeness of the blood shed at Calvary. But God is sovereign, he can do whatever he wants. He can do what he wishes and there is no other way. No other way. Jesus, innocent, knew no sin, loved us so much that he volunteered to be our substitute Wow Even though it's us who should suffer and die for our own sin.
Speaker 3:Now Luke goes a bit deeper, but I want to read from Matthew 26. Don't worry, the message is still pretty short Matthew 26 and 36. As I said, luke goes a little deeper in this explanation, but I'll read this just. Then cometh Jesus with them into the place called Gethsemane and saith unto the disciples Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter, the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tear ye here and watch with me. And he went a little farther and fell on his faith and prayed, saying O, my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as I will.
Speaker 3:Luke says that Jesus was in such agony at this particular time that he began to sweat blood. I think I looked up the term. The medical term is hematidrosis and it's when blood vessels break into the sweat glands and you literally sweat blood. And I kept thinking what caused such a drastic reaction Physical, mental, emotional, I mean. Jesus knew from the time he came on the scene what his outcome would be. He knew from before the foundation of the earth what his outcome would be. But what would cause such a reaction? And the Bible says that? Because he had to drink from the cup that his father gave him. So what was in the cup? He knew the physical pain that lay ahead. He knew the physical pain that lay ahead, but that cup contained something the Lord of glory dreaded even more. Jesus and his Father were always one for eternity, perfect fellowship, forever. He never knew a moment without his dad by his side, never knew it.
Speaker 3:Jesus hates sin, just like his father, and now he's being asked to take upon himself the very thing he hated most. I don't know if you're familiar. There's an author named Dan Betzer. He's the author of Pentecostal Gold and he wrote this At Gethsemane, when Jesus looked into the cup. Gethsemane, when Jesus looked into the cup, an innocent college student out for a jog was brutally raped and beaten to death, and violence splashed in the cup. Two men committed unspeakable acts and perversion fell in the cup. Unspeakable acts and perversion fell in the cup. A lustful wretch used his little child in unspeakable ways and incest fell in the cup. Is it any wonder that Jesus agonized and drew back in horror at the prospect of drinking from this cup?
Speaker 3:His oneness with his Father would be broken by bearing sin, by bearing the sin of all of us, jesus would be separated from his father like any other sinner. He was our substitute because he was sinless. Every person born inherited Adam's sin, except one, only one. Through an earthly mother and a Holy Ghost Father, he provides His righteousness to us. Glory, glory. Glory, because in spite of our best efforts, no matter how hard we try, we all miss the mark. We all miss the mark. We all miss the mark and sin demands God's justice. Our sin is a debt we owe but can never pay, and you know so many religions think up ways or put forth ways that you can pay for your sin, through mitzvahs or good work or candles or donations, that you can pay for your sin. We can never pay for our sin. In fact, the Bible says there can be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood, without the shedding of blood and on that cross, blood streaming down that timber, our debt was paid in full. Hallelujah. Hallelujah In Jesus' life.
Speaker 3:As a boy, as a man, it's safe to assume that, walking everywhere he went you know it wasn't, you didn't jump in the chariot, they walked everywhere. I think it's safe to assume that he was in fairly great physical condition, condition During the 12 hours prior to the crucifixion. This is a replica of what they used when Jesus was scourged. It employed, I believe it was 13 leather thongs with bits of sheep bone and irregular iron balls attached to the end, and the sheep bone would literally tear out chunks of flesh. Jesus received 39 lashes with that. It was agreed and supposed that 40 would kill you. So 39 was the point just prior to death, and that was the point just prior to death and that was the intention that it would weaken the condemned to the point of death. The blood loss that Jesus suffered was great.
Speaker 3:The pain was agonizing, and when you and I repent and ask the Lord to forgive us, not only does he forgive us, but he throws it away. He throws it away. What kind of God do we serve? What kind of wonderful God do you serve who not only says, okay, all right, I'll let it go, he doesn't even remember it. Hallelujah, hallelujah. He erases our sin debt, he expunges our record, even though we deserved it. You know, when Satan you've heard one of the titles that Satan has is accuser of the brethren right that Satan goes before God and said look, I know what, I know what he did. I know what he did. I caused him to do it. I've watched him do it. Jesus opens the book, looks up your name and says there's no record of it here. No record of it here. When he tells the Father that we're unacceptable, that we're a loser, a lost sinner bound for hell, no record of it here.
Speaker 3:Glory, painfully lacerated from the scourging, carrying the cross, one-third of a mile from the praetorium to Calvary Of course it wasn't known as Calvary then, it was Golgotha, the place of the skull. This one strong physical specimen was already in critical condition Already At the site of the execution. He was pushed to the ground. On the ground was the cross beam and he was spiked to it through his wrists with six to eight inch iron spikes. He and the nailed crossbar were then hoisted up on the upright called the stipes. Both feet were then nailed to the face of the upright. Survival on the cross ranged from a few hours to a couple of days. Soldiers could hasten the death and often did by breaking the legs of the crucified person so that he couldn't push up and get air.
Speaker 3:Exhaling or speaking from the cross was painful and difficult. Our Lord spoke seven times. He once said to his father why have you forsaken me? Could God the Father? Why have you forsaken me? Could God the Father, could he have deserted his son at his most critical hour, a time of anguish, a time of pain, a time of suffering? Could a loving God we hear all the time that God is love Could a loving God do that? Not just to someone, his son. In our Isaiah opening tonight it says he was stricken, he was smitten of God and afflicted. Since Jesus stood in our place, he was treated as a lost sinner and God the Father poured on his Son all his wrath and fury. Jesus was forsaken by God the Father on the cross.
Speaker 3:In the Old Testament we're told of the temple in Jerusalem, the temple that was designed by God between the holy place and the holy of holies, there was a curtain, the Bible says that was 30 feet high and 3 feet thick. 30 feet high, 3 feet thick To show, designed by God to show the separation between a thrice holy, god and fallen man, and as Jesus died, when he hung his head in death, when he cried out. It is finished. The curtain of the separation was torn top to bottom, three feet thick, 30 feet high, torn in half, because the way of God was now open. The presence of God was now open and accessible for all times to every person.
Speaker 3:God could be approached directly, but only by one means. Only by one means that being through his beloved son. His son would be the only means by which the Lord could be reached. No man comes to the Father but by him. Not my words, his words. That's who we honor tonight, that's who we lift up. That's who we'll praise on Sunday morning. It's who we'll praise on Sunday morning. It's who we worship continually. That we now can boldly approach the throne of God any time, any day, with any concern, with any issue, in the name of Jesus, when Jesus cried out.
Speaker 3:It is finished, paid in full. Tetelestai, that's exactly what it means Paid in full. His great work of salvation, brothers and sisters, is complete. The perfect plan is finished, paid in full. The resurrection is to be the time stamp. What we will celebrate on Sunday morning is the time stamp. It's the registration card, it's the absolute, it's the title deed to what happened earlier in that week when it was paid in full. And, brothers and sisters, the resurrection. You can have the title. It's only hours away. Only hours away, amen.
Speaker 3:As I said, I've been led To serve the Lord's Supper tonight and Resurrection Sunday as well, and, as I've already said, you might ask why. I don't know. I don't know. I'm just being obedient Reading the Lord's Supper scripture. I don't usually read this one that Chrissy read. I heard the one that I read in Matthew or at 26, or mark 14 or Luke 22. But I want to look at a different one and I'm gonna ask Chrissy to come back and read this, if she would. First, corinthians 11. 24 through 30. 1 Corinthians 11. 24 through 30. And I'll try to help you make sense out of why the Lord would have me go to this one in a particular phrase that he wanted me to zero in on Whenever you're ready, chrissy.
Speaker 2:And when he had given thanks he broke it and said take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner, he also took the cup when he had supped, saying this cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do you as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me.
Speaker 2:For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come, wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup, for he so eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks. Damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body For this cause. Many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. Thank you for listening to this week's podcast. We pray it was an encouragement and a blessing to you. You can contact us at Valley Gospel Church, 1069 Butler Logan Road, springdale, pennsylvania, 15144. We invite you to listen to this week's worship service that follows and tune in for next week's podcast.
Speaker 4:Church. Here is love. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, exceedingly sorrowful unto death. Wow, Feeling the weight of all the sins of humanity pressing down on him. Here is love. Jesus willing to face the cup of God's wrath for us. Here is love. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he Wow.
Speaker 4:He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. Hallelujah, here is love.
Speaker 1:Here is love, vast as the ocean, loving kindness as the flood. When the prince, loving kindness as the flood, when the Prince of life, our ransom, shed for us His precious blood, who His love will not remember? Who can cease to sing His praise? He can never be forgotten Throughout heaven's eternal days. On the mount of crucifixion, fountains open and wide, through the flood Gates of God's mercy Float a vast and gracious tide, grace and love, like mighty rivers poured in sex and from above, heaven's peace and perfect justice Kissed a guilty world in love. Here is love. Here is love, vast as the ocean, loving kindness as the flood. When the prints of life, our ransom shed for us His precious blood will not remember who can cease to sing his praise, oh, he can never be forgotten throughout his eternal days, eternal days. On the mount Of crucifixion, fountains open, deep and wide. Through the flood Gates of God's mercy flow the vast and gracious tide. Rivers poured in from above. Heaven's peace and perfect justice. Heaven's peace. Heaven's peace and perfect justice Kissed a guilty world in love.
Speaker 1:We will remember, we will remember. We will remember, we will remember, we will remember the works of your hands. We will stop and we will stop and give you praise, for great is your faithfulness. So I come to tell you he's alive, to tell you that he dries every tear that falls. So I come to tell you that he saves, to shout and to proclaim that he's coming back for you. So I come to tell you he's alive, to tell you that he tries Every tear that falls. So I come To tell you that he saves, to shout and to proclaim that he's coming back for you.
Speaker 1:We will remember, we will remember, we will remember, we will remember the works of your hands and we will stop. And we will stop and give you praise, for great is your faithfulness. Let us give him all the praise. We will remember, we will remember, we will remember the works of your hands and we will stop and give you praise, for great is your faithfulness. With signs and wonders, you've shown your power. With precious blood, you've shown us your grace. You've been our helper, our liberator, the giver of life with no end. Let us give him all the praise. We will remember, we will remember, we will remember the works of your hands and we will stop and give you praise, for great is your faithfulness.
Speaker 1:Let's sing it one more time. We will remember, we will remember, we will remember the works of your hands and we will stop and we will stop and we will stop and give you praise For great is your faithfulness. So let's sing it another time. We will remember, we will remember, we will remember, we will remember, we will remember the works of your hands and we will stop and give you praise for great is your faithfulness, for great is your faithfulness. We will stop and we will stop and give you praise For great is your faithfulness. We will stop and we will stop and give you praise For great is your faithfulness. Hallelujah, jesus is Lord.